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2022-01-28T23:02:29Z

Hitakino Kage:

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2022-01-28T22:35:07Z

Hitakino Kage: Hitakino Kage moved page File:X 23 by gsd748-daui7oq.jpg to File:X23.jpg without leaving a redirect

== Summary ==
pic

2021-12-17 - Princess Shizuko and the Wild Woman

2021-12-27T00:48:50Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=Princess Shizuko and the Wild Woman |Summary=Someone new to Center City comes into the Usual Restaurant, and a people watching Shizuko is whom she sits nex..."

{{Logsummary|
Title=Princess Shizuko and the Wild Woman
|Summary=Someone new to Center City comes into the Usual Restaurant, and a people watching Shizuko is whom she sits next to
|Who=[[Shizuko]], [[X23]]
|Date=December 17th, 2021
|Where=The Usual Restaurant
|Log=

Early evening at the Usual Restaurant. Because of its location in the park, it's generally left alone by organized crime... but still, places like this manage to get reputations as being rough and tumble, possibly dangerous places to be, even if not necessarily deserved. Today, among the denizens here is a lone highschooler at the bar. She has a parfait she's nursing, but otherwise she is currently just peoplewatching. It can be quite the interesting place to do this!

Sometimes a place gets its reputation for well deserved reasons. Though there may be days where the Usual can serve as a 'normal' cafe/bar, the truth was that it very much tended to attract hooligan types, it was a place that was oddly family friendly despite being a hot spot for unsavory types, all were served in the Usual and that sometimes was a double edged sword. Case in point, the latest visitor to the Usual was one who was entirely new to the city itself. A young woman, probably in her early 20s, though she could pass for more younger due to her stature and slender figure that almost gave her a teenager appearance. Black hair and olive skin, and not to mention a.. peculiar.. choice of dress, as she left very little to the imagination wearing little more than a tank top that left her bare arms and midriff exposed, tight jeans pants, combat boots, fingerless gloves and a black choker- a goth/punk-rock style of clothing. Combined with her sullen eyes and the look on her face that resembled that of an animal being chased, this girl was certainly nothing but trouble. The dark haired young woman staggered her way inside and took seat at the bar, quickly leaning on the counter with her elbows and looking straight down as if she hadn't slept in days and was on the vergue of passing out right there and then.

Shizuko blinks and looks at the woman that takes a seat near her. Well, she WAS people watching. Sure, the newcomer looks like an ordinary human at first... it's more the body language that got her attention. "...You look like you walked here from..." She takes a moment, trying to determine a suitable place to compare to. "...Roshtaria," she settles on. With that thought in mind, she does a second look to see if there's trace of the desert sands surrounding that kingdom on the newcomer.

The woman's reaction was immediate. The moment that Shizuko began talking to her, she bolted up straight and turned her head violently towards the highschooler with a look that was part fear and part 'I'm going to jump you and bite your face off'. It was clear that she was in full fight of flight mode and even the lightest thing could set her off, though whether she'd run or attack was anyone's guess. Fortunately, the girl appeared either too tired, or had enough of her senses left on her that she didn't try to flee away from Shizuko, nor did she try to attack her. She settled instead with deflating just slightly seeing that it was just a girl talking to her and staggered slightly on her seat. "Hola.." She said in tired greetings and leaned her body on the counter again, only barely able to stay up right. "Something like that... you could say.." She struggled to say as Shizuko tried to guess where she hailed from. Wherever it was it must have been hell considering her current state of mind and body.

Shizuko winces quite hard at the reaction to her speaking. Perhaps flinching might be the better word to describe her action, really. "O... O...la." It seems she's not the most familiar with the language... or maybe she's just that intimidated by the reaction. She ''is'' a rather timid girl. Most of the time. "Oh, uh... sorry. Um... are you okay?" she manages to get out, at least.

The attempt was at leas amusing. Most people would have dismissed the greeting entirely and continued noting how weird the girl looked. At the very least one could say this about Shizuko; she was trying. An attempt at being friendly meant a lot for this troubled youth, who despite all her struggle began to smile ever so faintly. She knew she shouldn't lower her guard, but Shizuko's concerns felt too genuine and she just couldn't help herself. More importantly, she was just tired of being on edge all the time, it would do well for her to relax, even for just a moment.. maybe. "I'm fine.. now.." She said and exhaled, looking up to the other girl. Now that she got a good look at her it was a rather interesting sight, enough to make the girl think that it was Shizuko who was the odd one out here. With all her frills and bows and pretty face, it made the troubled one's head spin at how cute Shizuko was. "What's a pretty princess like you doing in a place like this, hm? Maybe I should be the one asking the questions here." She wasn't sure why she felt compelled to tease her, it was just coming out naturally.

Shizuko winces a bit less dramatically at being called a princess, but winces nonetheless. "Eeehhh... Just... people watching. And... yeah, not remotely a princess." This outfit is, in a way, her pride and joy... it took so many months of saving up and watching for bargains to fully put it together... so she does wear it prooobably too often for something this nice. "And there's not really much to ask of me, I'm just a student still."

The wince was somewhat unexpected but still amusing enough that it lightened the girl's heart. At least sufficiently so that she didn't look like she was ready to bolt or attack the nearest person. She gave a chuckle at the reaction, and she could somewhat sense that Shizuko was not keen on the teasing, unfortunately Shizuko appeared to be dealing with some sort of wild child and she made no attempt to try and ease off on it. "People watching while hanging out in your pretty dress? That seems very princess like to me." The girl chuckled again, though at that point even she got a feeling that her teasing was bordering on bullying and tried to reign herself in as best she could. Indeed, there was not much to say yet.. and so she settled with introductions. "I'm Laura.. what's your name? Unless you want me to keep calling you Princess, Bonita." She added something in that other language she was speaking not bothering to explain what it meant.

Shizuko sighs. Is that why she keeps getting the attention of people from Richside? She's putting out some sort of princess vibe despite the fact that she and her mother are barely scraping by on her mother's pay? "I don't come here to do that THAT often," she grumbles. But she straightens up slightly before saying, "Iwamatsu Shizuko. Please, just call me Shizuko. And I don't have anything to do with fish." Yeah, no clue about the other language's words from this one.

"I wouldn't know that- it's my first time here." Laura tried to defend herself. First impressions were kind of a thing and knowing absolutely nothing about Shizuko's backstory, all Laura could go off on was that she was a very pretty girl dressed in a very fancy dress hanging out at the bar to.. watch people? Yeah, def princess vibes. With that being said she could tell that Shizuko was getting irritated by all those assumptions and she decided to ease off on that, the last thing Laura wanted to do was make an enemy of the first people that had showed her kindness in quite a while. "Nice to meet'cha." Said Laura and rested her her chin on her palm, elbow on the bar counter. "Good, I'm not sure I could pronounce that first one." As Shizuko clearly didn't understand what Laura meant by calling her Bonita, she gave a cheeky grin and winked at the other girl. "Of course you don't, Chula." Yeah, what was she saying anyway?

Shizuko raises an eyebrow slightly before lowering it in a twitch. "I... yeah, fair point, I guess." She takes a deep breath in, then out. Clearly Laura knows how to survive, making her a tough individual in at least some sense. And Shizuko would rather not get ''another'' 'tough' person to think of her as an enemy, or worse a target like that other guy. And now that that particular individual comes to her mind again, she warily looks towards the door, as if he were going to step in and open fire on her at any moment... but no, just another random customer walking in. "Nice to... meet you too, Laura," she says somewhat distractedly at first. Her visual attention is back on Laura in full again, however, at the new unfamiliar word. "R...right. Well, I'm glad you can pronounce Shizuko, at least."

Laura is indeed quite the rough and tumble type, so much in fact that she recognized perfectly well the look of someone being chased. As soon as Shizuko's eyes darted for the door, Laura was on edge as well and looked to where Shizuko was looking. Her fist clenched and she once again looked ready to either bolt or attack. There was no threat however, but Shizuko's body movements had made it clear that she had some powerful enemies, that had not been the look of a teenager being worried about their parents showing up and busting them at the bar- oh no, that had been the look of someone who was worried about someone showing up at the door to gun them down. Interesting.. and troublesome, Shizuko had more than she was letting on, and maybe it made sense why she'd be at a bar like this, if she was here it had to be because she was tough as well. You had to be to hang around here, either that or you were suicidal. "Hm..." Laura pursed her lips as she relaxed once again looking a little less certain of herself. However, she had nowhere else to go and she didn't much feel like wandering off into the night just yet, so she pressed on. "So, you're a student? Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend yet?" Laura was fairly certain that was a normal question to ask a teenager like Shizuko.

Shizuko tries so very hard not to show that she noticed Laura also getting on edge when she looks back, but she's not quite able to keep the mild surprise off her face. "Uhh..." She then nods at first at the student question, but then freezes at the mention of having a boyfriend or girlfriend. "W-what? N-no!" she says in surprise at the question. Yeah, she kinda considered that to be a bit of a personal question to come from someone she just met... but maybe that's just because she's never had one. Do people in love take any opportunity to gush about their significant others? Hard to say... actually, she's fairly certain if Basil got a boyfriend or girlfriend, Shizuko would know far, far too much about them within minutes.

"Huh.." Laura looked -almost- dissapointed that Shizuko wasn't taken, seemingly not at all getting the sensation that it had been a very personal question. For some reason it had felt natural. Oh well, she wasn't completely certain why she had asked something like that and something told her that pressing the issue was just going to irritate Shizuka some more. Boy, she was really bad at this whole 'interacting' thing, but that was to be expected when you were a warlord's personal attack dog and you knew hardly anything outside killing people in numerous and creative ways. "Well, I'm sure you'll get one one day, one or the other depending of your preference of course." She decided to leave it at that, certain that it was a totally normal closer to a perfectly normal question. "Say, that thing you're drinking looks tasty. What is it?" Laura said pointing to Shizuko's parfait.

Shizuko blinks. "'Huh'?" She's not sure how she should take that response. Unfortunately, Shizuko isn't always the best at communicating, either... perhaps this has something to do with why she's never not been single. "U-uh, yeah. Maybe. Probably. We'll see." No mention on preference from her, though. "Drinking?" She blinks at the word choice and... looks down at her parfait. "Gah! It's melting! How long have I been here?! It's a mocha parfait, it USED to be more solid!" With that said, she quickly scoops up some of the still mostly solid ice cream with the long but tiny headed spoon that's also in the glass. At least it's not completely gone yet.

"Ah.. it's not supposed to look like that?" Laura asked in wonder and leaned ever so closely to sniff at it. "It smells delicious, I think I'll try one." She glanced over at the bartender to hail them. "Give me one of those." Laura said rather.. well, rudely, this girl had absolutely no manners and was pretty much navigating this whole interaction by pure instinct. Once the bartender brought her the parfait she stared strangely at it and scooped some of it with her finger licking at the tip. "Hm..hmm!!" The girl's eyes widened in surprise and then she went and did the daft thing everyone does when they first try ice cream. She began eating it way too fast and got a brain freeze. "Whahaaaa! FRIO!!" She exclaimed holding her head before shaking it off slightly. "You eat things like this all the time around here?" Laura turned to Shizuko looking rather incredulous.

Shizuko shakes her head enthusiastically at her parfait being in its intended state. She also leans back away from Laura slightly at the sniff, considering its proximity to her. The opposite of Shizuko, under normal circumstances. The student tries very hard to be polite in most situations (she doesn't always succeed). "Uhhh... yeah, it's pretty good," she says idly. "Uh, you're supposed to use the spoon," she then adds dryly when Laura uses her finger instead. She blinks at the response of the rapid eating and predictable reaction. She tries very, VERY hard not to laugh, requiring her to actually cover her mouth with a hand... but it's still obvious she's holding a laugh back by the sound of the snort. "No, I only stop by here like... once a month, tops. I can't afford to eat out that often."

Spoons, and cutlery for that matter, are for suckers, Laura clearly resembled more of a cavegirl from her mannerism and it was a wonder that she actually ordered a parfait for herself instead of trying to eat some from Shizuko. Which, let's be honest, judging by her sniffing and the way she had been looking at Shizuko's ice cream, she was really considering it, but her intuition told her that it was probably not a good idea- though she at a fundamental didn't know why, she just got the sensation that it was not going to go well if she went and tried to eat Shizuko's food. Laura, in general, seemed to have pretty good senses as she heard Shizuko laughing despite the schoolgirl's attempt to hide it. Fortunately, she didn't really take herself very seriously and laughed along with the other girl, still eating the parfait at a faster speed than normal.. with her mouth.. still not bothering to use the spoon. "Hm, yeah, it does seem expensive." She said and looked up to Shizuko, ice cream all over her mouth and on the tip of her nose, not bothering to clean herself outside of licking the side of her lips. "I probably just blew off all my money on this- but man, was it worth it."

Well, that's one way to not let it melt on her like Shizuko's did. And it didn't take heightened senses to tell Shizuko was trying (and almost failing) to hold in a laugh. Still, she is glad Laura didn't just... take hers. She can't say she didn't almost expect it. "Uh, I mean, it's not THAT expensive, but when you're on a tight budget and you have other things you're saving for..." and your mother won't let you get a part time job... But she's actually a little relieved to hear that Laura, in fact, actually does have money. She was starting to be afraid she would end up stuck with the bill. "You have to spoil yourself every once in a while," she finally says with a smile. Not a toothy grin, no. She tends to be careful to not show her teeth. Another reason she hid her mouth when she almost laughed, in case she failed and showed that one fang.

Laura knew better than try to mooch off on other people. In fact, she didn't like relying on anyone, people lied and cheated and betrayed her, it was always better to be off on her own. That she was talking to Shizuko now was rare form for her, but even then, it that perceived moment of weakness for her, she kept the 'Princess' at arms' length. She already suspected that Shizuko had some dark shadows of her own and it was better not to get too involved. Still.. goofing around like this felt good, it made her feel less like an animal, less like a machine made for killing, and more like a normal person. If she didn't know any better she'd almost believe she was hanging out with a friend like a normal girl her age. If only... "Hm.. maybe." Laura looked at her almost finished Parfait, it really meant that she had just spent all her meager savings on the ice cream, but Shizuko was probably right on spoiling herself once in a while. Once in a while she had to get ice cream. Once in a while she had to.. talk.. to people.. to remind herself that she wasn't just a thing made for killing. "It's been.. uh.. nice talking to you, Shizuko." She said awkwardly. "I don't get to.. hang out very often." Or ever, for that matter. "Would you mind...hanging out some more? With me I mean.. I'm kinna new to the city."

Something the two have in common, not that they're aware of it yet. Shizuko's best friend is... quite wealthy, but Shizuko is loathe to take advantage of that in any way, shape or form. Other than letting Basil pay when they're out somewhere eating together, of course. She... quietly just lets ''that'' happen. She nods once, enthusiastically at the 'maybe'. "Even if you have to save up for a while to do it," she says. She's at least finished her own while Laura was pigging out. "Oh, you're already leaving?" she asks, taking a hint (right or wrong) at the change of tone. She tilts her head slightly. "I... guess I wouldn't mind, no, but I've not been here more than a year, either." Well, that's nearly a year longer than Laura, though, isn't it? "Uhhh, do you have a cell phone?" Because she's not telling this newly met woman her address. She was reluctant to even let Lillia know where she lived.

Perhaps they do have more in common that they might realize. Laura did get the sensation that Shizuko was no regular soft Princess, despite her appearances, and perhaps that was the reason why she felt like she could ease her guard just a little bit. A normal, wealthy and haughty princess type would have been horrified with Laura's absolute lack of manners, but despite her looks Shizuko was actually not from a wealthy family and she sort of could understand Laura.. even though Laura was clearly on a completely different level of poverty. She was more than just homeless. She was actually on the run from someone. "Yeah.." She mused as Shizuko assured her that saving up to treat oneself was a worthy goal. She pondered that.. while being absolutely covered in ice cream, Laura licked her arms and the tip of her nose like a wild animal. Treat herself... sure, why not? Maybe that should be her goal. It wasn't as if she had any other than just surviving. "Eh.. well no.." She stuttered, realizing that what she said could be misinterpreted for her leaving. "I just didn't want to leave and never see you again... and uh.. I'm running out of things to say so I thought I'd bring up before it was too late." Something was really wrong with Laura, and that may become very evident when she stared at Shizuko and her question. "...What's a cell phone?"

Shizuko pauses a moment before saying, "You know, they don't charge for napkins. You can just take one. Or twelve." Yeah, she's a little offput by that. "Oh, uhhh... Yeah, sorry. I'm... not the best conversationalist, myself, sometimes..." She blinks at the question that followed the awkward silence and asks in turn, "Are you from Distant Oceans?" Or is there no coverage outside of Senta City? She actually never considered that, but she still thought phones would be ''heard'' of... "Uhhhh, it's like, um, a communication device. It connects to the network and... you can call or text people..." She's never had to explain what a cell phone was before, and she's struggling to figure out how much she should dumb down the explanation.

"Is that what these pieces of paper are?" Laura asked in wonder at the apparent napkins. She had noticed them laying around but hadn't figured their true purpose just by glancing at them. Now that she knew they were free she put some to use to clean off the ice cream off her hands and her mouth, that thing sure was sweet but it was really sticky and the smell kind of overwhelmed her senses, so it was best to try and clean herself after eating it as much as she could. For future reference... maybe she should use the spoon after all! Ah, so there was a practical use for it after all, learned something new today for sure. "Hm? No." Laura frowned at the question, her origins being questioned made her clearly uncomfortable but she didn't seem to know how to dodge the question entirely. "Look, I just... my keeper didn't let me get out much, or have.. things.." It was the best way she could explain that until recently she was essentially an attack dog slave. Once Shizuko explained what it was though, Laura frowned and looked a little crestfallen. "Well, I don't have one of those things, is there another way I can stay in contact with you?"

Shizuko manages to fight off the urge to facepalm. It sounded at first like it was a joke but... it wasn't. "Yeeeeessss..." She lets out a huff of air, then listens to the explanation... or rather lack thereof of where Laura is from. At first it's a look of confusion. Her parent wouldn't let her... no, she didn't say parent. She said keeper. The realization dawning on Shizuko is visible as her look of mild confusion evolves into one more of horror. Still, she can tell the question was dodged... and she knows not to pry further. "I... uhhhh... I'm not sure." With Lillia, it was through Basil, who has a phone. "I... guess... we can agree to meet somewhere later?" she sounds unsure of herself with that, unsure how well that will work. She's had plans get nixxed by her mother in the past, afterall.

Laura recognized that look of horror well enough. It was the sort of thing that she expected from anyone from the city that somehow understood her story. Fortunately, all her assumptions from Shizuko had pointed that the princess was actually of tougher stock and she didn't run away or turn away in disgust as most other city folk would have probably done. Yeah, this one was a keeper, and Laura allowed herself a ghost of a smile to appear on her lips when, against all odds, Shizuko still wanted to hang out with her. "Ok." Laura said at last, an actual smile now forming on her mouth. She looked better when she wasn't licking herself like a cat or was covered in ice cream after her sloppy eating. "Where do you want to meet? And when?" Laura's blue eyes widened with expectation, visibly thrilled. Shizuko may get the sensation that this was the first friend Laura had made, possibly in her entirely life.

Shizuko blinks a couple of times at the change of expression on Laura again. "Uhhhhh... I haven't given that thought yet. Definitely not some place we have to pay money for..." She sounds unsure of herself. On the other hand, if this is some sort of trap... well, she's made a kidnapper regret grabbing her in the past, even if she was just a side grab alongside the primary target. "I guess just... in the park? Um..." She pulls out her phone to look at her calendar, making sure she isn't going to interfere with anything else. "...Three days? Uh, midafternoon?"

Shizuko wasn't the only one thinking that this all could be a trap. For all Laura knew, Shizuko was yet another enforcer from her keeper masquerading as some student to slip under her guard and collar her to drag her back to her supposed 'Owner'. But trap or not, Shizuko's words rung true within Laura's heart. Sometimes you got to treat herself. She had to roll that dice, if this could be a real friendship it was worth risking it. Besides, Laura was fairly confident that she could fight off her attackers if it was indeed a trap. Either she made a friend, or she got to kill a whole lot of people. There was literally no downside to this interaction. "Alright! Let's do it then!" Laura said, sounding very excited. One might say she was giddy with enthusiasm all of the sudden. She paid for her ice cream with mostly coins and went to stand up. "Es una cita, nena." Laura leaned a bit closer to Shizuko and grinned, speaking in that foreign language of hers. For her mannerism and toothy grin, one could assume she had said something rather risque. "Ah, I think that's a good note to end it. I'll get out of your hair before you change your mind." Smirked the girl and began moving away, finger waving at Shizuko as she headed for the door. "Adios~." Laura said with a wink before making her exit, feeling rather revitalized and full of hope. Maybe being in this city won't be too bad after all.

Shizuko blinks and shifts back slightly at the enthusiasm, but nods. The unknown words get a predictably blank look from Shizuko, who was almost going to slowly nod but instead rears back again slightly at the getting so close. The heck did she say that she's grinning like that for? "Uhhhhh... sure!" she finally says, but tilts her head ever so slightly at the now actual declaration of intent to leave. "Yeah, and I should... probably get home before my mother calls me asking where I am again..." It's different for her, of course... her mother does genuinely care for her, even if she is a little overbearing at times. She does let it go unsaid that if she actually were to change her mind she'd just... not show up. "Um, bye, then, see you in a few days?" She still sounds just a little unsure of herself... but she does get up to head home herself after paying as well.

|}}

Link

2021-11-20T00:54:41Z

Hitakino Kage:

{{Profile|
Title=
|Image=Link.png
|Name={{PAGENAME}}
|Series=Legend of Zelda
|Occupation=Retired Adventurer
|Alignment=Neutral Good
|Gender=Male
|Species=Hylian
|Hangout=Distant Oceans Village: Magic Shop
|Continent=Distant Oceans
|Desc=The blonde elf in front of you is clearly a warrior of sorts, and one comfortable in his status as such. Despite a lack of trouble, he's still wearing armor: under the green tunic is a chain shirt, and on his left shoulder is a heavier plate of armor. Under the chain shirt he's wearing a cloth undershirt that is clearly of the same material as his trousers. He wears leather gauntlets and matching boots, and under the gauntlets are a pair of bright blue fingerless gloves made of a material that matches some of the trim of his boots. The gloves also match his long scarf, though that ends in an orangish red bar with a crest of some sort just above it. Finally on his head is a green cloth cap to match his tunic. A sturdy belt rests around his waist, complete with pouches as well as connecting with another pair of belts that cross his torso and go over his shoulders. His usual weaponry of choice, a sword and shield, are normally kept out of the way on his back.
|Background=One day, in Hyrule, dark armies marched on the castle. The Princess Zelda and Impa, the general over the Hylian Army, set even the trainees out to defend in an all out effort to keep the kingdom safe. On that day, in the field of battle, one young warrior made his presence known. A warrior known as Link. Over the course of the campaign, Link proved himself to be the reincarnation of the hero, up to and including pulling the Master Sword to help defeat this dark army threatening to destroy the kingdom, and instead releasing Ganondorf from his seal. He even found himself travelling to the far past to stop the Sorceress's armies. Eventually, however, the Sorceress Cia and even Ganondorf were defeated, leaving a tired and humbled soldier with no further direction to go. Now tired of the fame and reputation, yet still restless, he travelled on to the next kingdom... but one day found himself tumbling from a stone frame into the middle of the desert...

Today, Link enjoys being mostly an anonymous 'elf' in Distant Oceans Village, making his living by working in the town's Magic Shop. While he left the Master Sword in its place in Hyrule, he's still rarely without a sword and shield, even if they are mundane.

From an out of character standpoint, yes, this is specifically the Link from Hyrule Warriors. It is not the player's intent to preclude any version of Zelda characters from other games, or even in fact other versions of Link himself from being played!

|}}[[Category:Characters]]

File:Link-icon.gif

2021-11-20T00:51:51Z

Hitakino Kage:

File:Link.png

2021-11-20T00:44:36Z

Hitakino Kage:

Link

2021-11-20T00:42:24Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Profile| Title= |Image=Link.png |Name={{PAGENAME}} |Series=Legend of Zelda |Occupation=Retired Adventurer |Alignment=Neutral Good |Gender=Male |Species=Hylian |Hangout=Dista..."

{{Profile|
Title=
|Image=Link.png
|Name={{PAGENAME}}
|Series=Legend of Zelda
|Occupation=Retired Adventurer
|Alignment=Neutral Good
|Gender=Male
|Species=Hylian
|Hangout=Distant Oceans Village: Magic Shop
|Continent=Distant Oceans
|Desc=The blonde elf in front of you is clearly a warrior of sorts, and one comfortable in his status as such. Despite a lack of trouble, he's still wearing armor: under the green tunic is a chain shirt, and on his left shoulder is a heavier plate of armor. Under the chain shirt he's wearing a cloth undershirt that is clearly of the same material as his trousers. He wears leather gauntlets and matching boots, and under the gauntlets are a pair of bright blue fingerless gloves made of a material that matches some of the trim of his boots. The gloves also match his long scarf, though that ends in an orangish red bar with a crest of some sort just above it. Finally on his head is a green cloth cap to match his tunic. A sturdy belt rests around his waist, complete with pouches as well as connecting with another pair of belts that cross his torso and go over his shoulders. His usual weaponry of choice, a sword and shield, are normally kept out of the way on his back.
|Background=One day, in Hyrule, dark armies marched on the castle. The Princess Zelda and Impa, the general over the Hylian Army, set even the trainees out to defend in an all out effort to keep the kingdom safe. On that day, in the field of battle, one young warrior made his presence known. A warrior known as Link. Over the course of the campaign, Link proved himself to be the reincarnation of the hero, up to and including pulling the Master Sword to help defeat this dark army threatening to destroy the kingdom, and instead releasing Ganondorf from his seal. He even found himself travelling to the far past to stop the Sorceress's armies. Eventually, however, the Sorceress Cia and even Ganondorf were defeated, leaving a tired and humbled soldier with no further direction to go. Now tired of the fame and reputation, yet still restless, he travelled on to the next kingdom... but one day found himself tumbling from a stone frame into the middle of the desert...

From an out of character standpoint, yes, this is specifically the Link from Hyrule Warriors. It is not the player's intent to preclude any version of Zelda characters from other games, or even in fact other versions of Link himself from being played!

|}}[[Category:Characters]]

2021-08-22 - A God for Everything

2021-11-15T22:18:09Z

Hitakino Kage:

{{Logsummary|
Title=There's a God for Everything
|Summary=Continued from [[2021-08-14_-_Trouble_in_the_Mall|Trouble in the Mall]], Shizuko and Iridescence find themselves intended to be sacrificed to a god of wealth and debts. His minions really should have picked someone else to kidnap.
|Who=[[Iridescence]], [[Shizuko]]
|Date=August 22nd, 2021
|Where=Chaotic Expanse
|Log=

The Chaotic Expanse: Slaved Void

Here the stone blocks are commonly hundreds to thousands of yards long, though some have great gaps between them, making one have to perilously jump or fly between them. The colorful skies above and below fade here, giving way to a great red and black miasma that churns all about itself, forming constant portals, some small, others the size of planets.

Ancient monsters, gods, and creatures often manifest here, eager to make contracts with those who seek their powers, arriving through the portals in the sky, or the various ruins of buildings that litter the place. A few structures seem to be inhabited, with signs in other languages hanging above them.

Dark magic of all kinds reigns supreme here, making casting and learning that particular school far easier than it would be normally.

As the white of the teleport magic fades, it'll leave Iridescence and Shizuko in the Chaotic Expanse, particularly in a large castle courtyard. The castle itself is in a bit of ruin, walls caved in, a few of the towers toppled over, but there's enough of it intact that it could somewhat function as a place of safety. Looming on the ruined outer wall of the courtyard is a giant gargoyle like monster, with four arms rather than two, and six eyes. Its wings span at least forty feet, and its a good fifteen feet or so tall. One of its talons grips the side of the castle beneath it, the other resting across its bent knee. "Well," it says, voice gravely, rumbling, and loud, "Looks like he honored the contract. Pity."

Another gargoyle, or whatever the species is, is on the wall next to him, though he's literally half the others size, "Yeah, I thought we'd found one who'd fail and we could eat his soul." There's half a dozen thugs here as well, dressed and armed like the ones back in the mall, but they're down in the courtyard below, plasma gums aimed at the two teleported in girls.

Iridescence winces at the bright white light, dampening her magical energies so lightning doesn't discharge and mess with the spell. One thing she doesn't want is to end up teleported off in multiple places. You just can't ever be to careful with magic that moves your entire being from one place to another. As they arrive she looks around, frowning at all the peeps. "Fwuh..." That's...what is that thing on the castle wall? And where in TRI are they? She glances at Shizuko as she says something about stars and striking?

One white light fades, and another begins. This new light is far more localized, entirely around just the high schooler next to Iridescence. Energy field up around her, blocking all from view, her clothes are transported away for safe keeping at the same time as new clothes are transported in to replace them... or more accurately armor. The light fades just as fast as it came, though, and six devices fly from the new skirt has replaced the old on Shizuko, no, Strike Star. She's mad, a determined look on her face, as the bits fly out towards the goons with guns and open fire. Really, it's not until the last second that her guilt catches up and she sets them to stun... something she has to consciously do, to her mild annoyance, as opposed to their default more powerful setting. She reaches out her hand towards the two gargoyle-like creatures and the last two devices, the ones on her arms, detatch and spin rapidly in front of the outstretched arm, forming a shield-like barrier in front of her and Iridescence with their far more short-ranged beam projectors. "Why are we here?" she says bluntly. "I don't believe what that guy was saying in the mall for a second."

Iridescence is like, totally shocked that Shizuko just totes transformed into a new outfit, complete with attacking tech or everything! That is neatoz! She likes it. And she's shielded too, thankfully, since those bullets would certainly kill her if they managed to penetrate her skull or something nasty like that. Lightning crackles and ripples all around her body, thunder echoing across the courtyard. The sky above seems to resonate with her, crackling flashes of power rippling over the red and black miasma that makes up the view above. Yeah, battle time works for her! Course she needs ot charge up for a second. Hopefully Shizuko will keep em jabbering.

The thug men were not expecting a counter-attack, much less a bright flash of white light from Shizuko, er, Strike Star. There's multiple screams as the bits fire towards them! Four get hit right away, collapsing backwards to the ground, fingers holding down the trigger which spatters bullets into the castle walls, sky, and a few near the gargoyle-like creatures. The remaining two are a bit quicker to react, and managed to jump out of the way of the first stun shots, falling down behind some debris to try and get cover, but it's doubtful they'll avoid another barrage. The larger creature raises an ash colored eyebrow, "Oh, they're not defenseless. Hm." The smaller one frowns, pulling a large chunk of stone from the castle wall as if ready to throw it at them, despite the shield, "We should put in more than delivery next time I guess." The big one nods, then address' Shizuko, ignoring the gunfire and attacks, "Sacrifices to me, Qarazital. Found my way into this realm, thought I'd try some of the delicacies."

Strike Star looks back over her shoulder to better mentally direct the bits to change targets. Three on one for each of the two remaining now as the bits all fly about for better and more varied angles to fire again. "Well, forgive me for not exactly being a willing sacrifice." She wonders if 'rich and powerful' was a requirement for the sacrifices. "Sorry, but your delivery guy shouldn't have delivered you two pizzas." She gets a LOT more feisty when she's angry and can actually fight back...

Iridescence wrinkles her nose about sacrifice. Kidnapping for ransom money? Surez. Kidnapping to be part of some contract or whatevz? Pfft! No! That's totes unkewl. And hey, she's shielded, so she can go on full offense. Looooks like Strike Star has the thugs in hand, so she'll bring her left arm up, snapping her fingers towards the smaller gargoyle creature. The lightning around her body strikes up into the sky, connecting with the flashes already occurring above, which then lightning zaaaap towards the not really small but not as big as the big gargoyle monster. Needless to say that all happens in two quick lightning strikes and with massive thunderclaps!

The two thugs aren't sure what to do, so they both open fire at Strike Star, plasma energy from one of the thugs guns, ordinary bullets from the other, trying to straight up murder her, though the shields are probably going to stop the attacks, but they can pray! It's the last thing they do before the quick maneuvering bits stun them to land of unconsciousness! Doublethud. The larger creature says, "I'm not much of a forgiver, more of an atone for your actions type of god." He rumbles in displeasure as the thugs fall easily to the attacks. Weaklings. The smaller creature cracks his knuckles, as if stone is grinding against stone, "How about we just eat one of you? We'll let the other one g-" then lightning strikes him and he makes a horrific high pitched nearly ear drum shattering scream and collapses to the ground, crackling and smoking!

Strike Star's sword devices suddenly stop their spin and fly to specifically block the gunners attacks. "Well, I don't actually ''believe'' you're a god. I ''believe'' if you crossed the river to the west you'd not even be able to stand under your own onerous weight." Is it a good idea to taunt the giant monster that thinks it's a god? Probably not. But for some reason Strike Star has faith in the 'Magical Girl' that gave her her 'powers' that she can, at least with help, take this thing on.

Hopefully.

While Strike Star winces at the scream, she's a bit less... concerned that thing might be killed than she was of the humanoids. It ''did'' just threaten to eat her, after all. "How about we just take down ''one'' of you? Then we'll let the other one go? What do you think?" Strike Star looks over to Iridescence as her six bits return to her, all hovering around pointed at the remaining monster. "Honestly, I don't think it's a good idea." She lowers her voice down to a whisper and says, "He might actually call my bluff and fly to the west." Wait, she's bluffing at a whisper, counting on the monster to hear her to run off to a place where she thinks it won't be able to stand under its own weight, let alone actually stay aloft on those undersized(for it) wings? Shizuko can have some strange ideas. Well, it's not like she actually thinks the 'whispered bluff of saying what I said earlier was a bluff' plan is going to work, anyway.

Iridescence nods subtly at Strike Star whispering about the bluff. Yah, that's a great idea! Ha. Maybe this thing will just fly over the line between Senta and Synthatek and collapse. She manages to suppress her grin as she starts charging up for another lightning blast anyway, just in case. This place seems to enjoy destructive style magic, and while lightning is closer to a force of nature, seems like it qualifies.

The smaller creature quivers, looking like its in a rather bad state and not wanting to move, a lot of its rocky like flesh has been blackened. It makes a nasty hacking sound, black smoke coming from its mouth. The larger one looks up at the sky, then to the west, "Your belief in me doesn't change what I am." He stands up on the castle wall, looming. Well, looming even more than before anyway. "I'm disappointed in the delivery though. And if you kill my servant it'll cost me more than I want to pay." He scratches the side of his chin, the sound of rock grating against itself echoing amid the thunder cracks from above, "If you won't give up one for the other, then pay for both of your freedom in another way."

Strike Star is certainly not counting on her double-bluff doing... anything. Her two sword-devices snap back into place on her arms now that she has only two potential threats to deal with instead of eight. "Why would I give her up? She's been ''nice'' to me. ''You'' threatened to ''eat'' me." She points directly at the big guy, and the six floating devices shifting to start rotating around her arm like a Gatling style canon readying itself up to start firing. "Soooo, pay for it by beating you. Got it," she says with a one-fanged grin. When she gets into this level of bluster, she tends to forget about trying to hide that...

Iridescence smiles over at Shizuko's words. Ha! At least the kidnapping by thugs who are making deals with a so-called roc god gargoyle thing hasn't prevented a friendship from starting. Sparks of lightning ripple around her body, but she's happy to let a few wild strikes flash down from the sky and explode a few chunks of the castle here and there, you know, to emphasize Shizuko's point. "Fwuh, ya. Pretty sure if you're using thug boyz to kidnap your sacrifices you can't do that much by yourself."

Qarazital grunts at the shows of force, eyeing the floating devices and the lightning strikes. "I take many different kinds of payment, but attacking and attempting to damage me doesn't equate to any build up of spendable coin." He exhales, black smoky cloud coming out of his mouth, "But I think you'll find your attempts to harm me result in little effect." He folds two of his arms, and shrugs with the upper set, "Go on, attack me, and afterwards maybe you'll be more agreeable to my words." Nothing from the smaller creature, looks like it's either feigning being really hurt or...it really is really hurt.

Strike Star blinks a few times. "Wait, are you actually some kind of money lending god?" she says flatly. She then shakes her head. "Well, okay, then. Since you asked so nicely." Sooo much bluster. She wishes that's how she felt on the inside right now. The devices speed up their rotation around her arm, then, true to their movement, start blasting the rock-gargoyle-thing with rapid fire blasts. She's aiming low, at the thing's legs before working the rapid fired beams upwards on the body of the 'god'. She is, however, avoiding the black smoke coming out of his mouth because... yeah, don't know what that is.

Iridescence raises an eyebrow, "There's a god for that?" Well, if it really is a god. I mean, yah sure there's gods and all, she met someone who got reincarnated after dying and claimed some angel named Talenti or somesuch let her choose to return to life in a new body. She looked into it and there's a few other reports around TRI about it, so...is this thing from there? Hurm. Well, don't matter ya, because it's obvs time to stop jamming and start attacking itz. She'll go ahead and unload the lightning she's been building up at the same time Strike Star starts opening fire on it, multiple strikes crashing down at the gargoyle thing and all around its general area as well, which means one or two might actually hit the smaller guy as well.

Qarazital nods, "Something like that." In response to the money lending thing, "But I've been in the lower echelons and found this realm opening up to me." Then the attacks start. He was partially bluffing himself, having assumed that lesser creatures like these two wouldn't call such a claim. I mean, he's bigger than they are, and black smoke comes out of his mouth, normally that terrifies mortals. The blasts from Strike Star, despite his claims, blast into him, tearing off chunks of his rock flash, and the lightning...well, it's lightning, and it crackles onto him. A loud high pitched groan rumbles from him and he wobbles on the castle top, bringing up arms to try and shield from the damages. Above his head in the air, a large alien script forms in golden numbers, however it's obvious from a glance that the numbers are going down with each strike he takes, "Gaaaaaahhhhg!" He screams, leaping from the castle wall and coming down towards both of the girls, trying to use his larger form to just crush them underneath himself before he runs out of money! The black smoke he exhaled trails after him and doesn't seem affected by the lightning or the blasts. The smaller one gives another scream and doesn't so much as move from the hits it takes, either unconscious or dead.

Strike Star says, "I mean, there's supposedly a god for everything, isn't there? In some religions..." She shrugs.

But fighting! Strike Star winces slightly at the high pitched groaning, mumbling something about a mismatch at it, but choosing not to push it. Nope, firing now. And it seems to be working! Yeah, she's continuing to just do what she's doing for now. She's watching the numbers now, and... "Wait... do you actually get more powerful if someone rich is sacrificed to you? Ha! Joke's on you, I'm dirt poor!" Just with... access to one certain set of nice resources. And apparently a tendency to befriend rich people? Oops, time to dodge now! Well, her attack ceases for a moment as she does THAT, leaping out of the way and travelling farther than she should with just a leap... primarily because the devices she reset onto her arm bracers are pulling her further out of the way. Hey, it's how she can fly, though for now she's choosing to stay closer to the ground. She is, however, trying more to keep her distance for now, and doesn't turn back to face Qarazital until she's feeling comfortable with the distance.

Iridescence isn't about to get squashed! No wayz! She'll shift her mana focus over to the manipulation of time. Well, not time travel, but more just the time around herself to speed her up. It's not super blinking away disappearing speed, but it does let her run the goth OUT from underneath the bodysquishing attempt by the god thing dudeo. This does sadly make her lose her lightning magic, and strikes that were building in the sky just go wild, a lightning storm smashing about the castle, look out innocent bystanders, fwuh!

Qarazital crashes into the ground, growling as he misses BOTH of his targets. If he comes across those mortals he contracted with, he'll extract a heavy payment. "Poor?!" This agitates him greatly! They were supposed to be deliciously rich sacrifices! Ugh! Despite his size and the damage, he gets to his feet, two of his arms grabbing a chunk of castle and hurling it towards Strike Star! With the other arms he exhales, the black smoke that was following him growing from more smoke that comes out of his mouth, which then starts rushing towards Iridescence.

Strike Star strategically says nothing about the state of Iridescence's finances. "Yeah! I barely scraped enough money the past MONTH to buy myself some new clothes! I even had to skip lunch for two weeks!" Not mentioning Basil didn't let her go without eating, but... "My mother won't let me get a job, says I need to focus on my studies instead!" ...which, you know, isn't happening because of the amount of time Shizuko is out on 'patrol' as Strike Star. Oh, she really has no clue how much of her mother's paycheck is going into her education right now... Aaaand speaking of right now, incoming chunk of castle. She's able to dodge out of the way of that, but...

Strike Star really was focusing more on the threat ''actively'' targeting her. The lightning coming all around? She was sure from the earlier strike that they were Iridescence's doing. That's why she wasn't concerned about them... until, well, the problem with Iridescence's lightning is there wasn't any innocent ''bystanders'' around here to be hit... so instead it's Strike Star that's stuck. She's flying through the air when her path and the lightning intersect and... her flight just stops. In her Augmented Reality eyes, an ERROR flashes red in the center of her vision, a visual she's not seen before. This happens just long enough for her to careen into the ground and tumble for five or so meters before her armor repowers itself, once again actually blocking her from the damage of the scrapes and abrasions of the next five meters before she hits the block that Qarazital threw earlier where it was now resting. "....ow." She's still moving... technically, but she's clearly a little dazed from that.

Iridescence turns to look back once she's an okay distance away from the monster that tried to squish her. Casting two different types of magic at the same time isn't something she's capable of right now. Maybe someday she'll get good enough for it. Now there's black smoke coming for her! Normally, that'd be a kewl fashion statement, to have black smoke following you around, but she's pretty sure it's going to do something bad to her if she inhales it. She drops her speed upz magic and switch back to forces, though she winces as lightning strikes Shizuko. Ohgeez! She's...not dead though? That's great! Whatever summon armor abilities it has must be durable. Phew. Ohright, black smoke. She holds her hands out towards the smoke. A harsh wind blows from behind her, her hair, sleeves, bow, skirt, and side cape all whipping about her, but it should send the smoke back towards the dumb money god.

Quarazital emits a high pitched growling sound towards Strike Star. Even if she ends up killing her, with that low of currency rating, this will all be for a massive net loss. Assuming the bits are still shooting at him, he'll jump into the air, flapping his wings and staying aloft, despite his size, wingspan, and other things saying that shouldn't really be possible. This all causes the black smoke which he hadn't noticed coming back at him to blow right past. A bolt of random lightning hits him next, and he grunts, a chunk of his shoulder blasting off. He glances up at the other language numbers above his head decrease again. He should end this quick before he loses more money from damage. He'll angle his wings and dart down out of the sky, pulling back a big rocky fist to try and smash it into Strike Star.

Bits still shooting at him? No, actually, they completely stopped while Strike Star was tumbling around, their commands interrupted. When she looks up again at Qarazital, however, the bits fly into motion once more, zapping bolts all around the money god even though the 'Magical' girl only has one eye open, the other closed in pain. Thankfully the armor indeed took all the damage from the lightning, but being thrown around on the ground while the energy fields were down did NOT feel good. Oh. Great, he's focusing on her anyway. Well, net loss not withstanding, apparently she's just pissed the big guy off. She doesn't particularly feel like standing up again, and indeed doesn't really have the time to do so in time... Well, she lifts up her hands in front of her... then shifts them as the energy blade devices detach and come to life, spinning rapidly in front of her to make this hopefully feel like a suddenly much worse option to Quarazital. All the while, the gun bits stop firing and instead arrange themselves like the chain gun formation again... but then turn inward at a 45 degree angle towards their center point. There they fire, their beams intersecting to create a ball of energy, charging for her biggest attack... one she's not used in anger yet. . o O ( Just... FLINCH you big dumb hunk of rocks. )

Iridescence is relieved that she's not being targeted, but also worried for Shizuko. She took a lightning bolt and it looks like she's about to get smooshed. Oh, she's got some kind of blades and hm, she's charging up something. She likes to charge her own attacks as well, though the side effects of the lightning storm is problematic. But it's kewl, she just shifts forces back to lightning and stops the random raining of lightning, redirecting it towards Qarazital. Normally she'd need to charge the storm back up, but it seems whatever natural forces are working in this area have decided to just let a lightning storm rage away without her influence, so it's much easier to just redirect the now ?naturally? occurring storm! Zapzap!

Qarazital is ready to just smoosh Strike Star into human gravy, but then some whirling blade thing starts spinning around where he's going to compound her flesh. He flaps his wings, arcing and changing directions to instead land a safe distance away from the blades on the ground. "Surrender yourself, and I'll make your sacrifice painless!" He cries, as a lightning strike hits him. The trouble with lightning is it's as fast as...lightning, so dodging it is not really possible. The numbers floating above him decrease again. He gives a high pitched roar, clenching hands into fists. "Raise my servants back up!" The numbers drop a huge amount, losing an entire 0 to its sum as he pays for the universes services, but the stunned thugs from before suddenly jump to their feet, grappling for their weapons! Apparently he can exchange money for things to happen?

Strike Star drops her head slightly, her bangs hiding her eyes from view. But not her grin. That one fang is showing itself almost proudly. "Wrong move, Quad Zit-face." The sword bits stop spinning and fly back to her arms. Yeah, if he kept coming, the chunks of him would probably pulverized her. She just had to make it not worth it to him. The blaster devices continue feeding their beams into the sphere until the ball of energy nearly reaches to their emitters... and then they shift, changing their aim back to the god, moving as one and taking the energy ball with them... before they suddenly face out and at the money-god, directing the ball of energy down the path their now lower powered lasers guide it along. She'll have to deal with the servants later, she kind of has all her power going into this attack now. Hopefully she'll get her legs back under her after that attack, too.

Iridescence isn't super keen on lightning striking the thugos, since they'll probably get cooked and killed to death, but at the same time they did abduct her and her friend, and seriously even if she -can- be kidnapped when her security boyz fail her, that doesn't mean she isn't a threat without them. She's not big into sending messages by murder, but fwuh, this place is crazy and there's a weird money god thing here, so she'll just send the lightning storm towards the recently woken up thugies, especially since Shizuko is shooting a energy ball thingie so yaknow, prioritizing targetz and that.

Yeaahhhh, the thugs aren't ready to be struck by lightning, especially since most of them are holding metal weapons, the lightning arcs between them, the weapons, and each other. There's a lot of blood curdling screams among the lightning flashes and thunder crashes, before the lot of them fall to the ground, cooked, singed, unconscious, dead, or greatly wounded. One lightning blast won't always kill you, but a collective barrage isn't so merciful.

Qarazital screams that high pitched wail! "Ugh! This is costing me a fortune!" He doesn't want to keep paying for all of this. He never should have dealt with those humans. What's the point of getting sacrifices if you end up fighting them? Everything's gone backwards. At least lightning isn't hitting him. Then an energy ball is hurtling towards him. He jumps, trying to dodge it, but it still catches his lower half, blowing off most of his right leg and some of his lower torso. He flaps his wings HARD, arching to the side and not wanting to go to far up, because there's a lightning storm going on. This is...he's done! "ENOUGH!" He screams, and will actually arc his wings and turn to try and fly away from these accursed poor people rather than run out of money fighting them! Little does he know if he could score Iridescence he'd more than make up for all the losses.

Strike Star's gun devices quickly shift to snap off shots, yes, set to stun, at the underlings as well... okay, too late, but they then rearrange back into the cylinder formation. "Oh, running away, now?" They rapidly spin up again, opening fire with that rapidity from before. Yeah, the whole having them around her arm earlier to do that was just for show. She's just... tired, and in pain, and would rather just do it without the flashiness. Never mind that she doesn't actually need to spin them, or even arrange them in a cylinder to fire like that. They could just be lined up, or not arranged at all. At any rate, she's aiming roughly for the wings, looking more through their optics than through her own eyes to aim. She's angry. Shizuko is angry. All this. All this just so some idiot god can score some literal points. She just wanted to get a new outfit today. That was her one and only goal. And now she doesn't even know where she is, got struck by lightning, scraped herself up, and slammed into a wall. She's tired, too, affecting her aim... Well, even if she doesn't score any hits with that rapid fire, she'll at least send a message off with him. And no, she's still not gotten up yet from where she's slumped against that prior thrown chunk of castle.

Iridescence is more than happy that the fights ending. Not that she doesn't mind having one once in awhile, but she enjoys more information about her enemies before fighting them. Prep is key, ya. But Shizuko has proven to be more than capable of holding her own, something she totes didn't expect! She'll redirect the lightning storm to follow the stone money god thingie, because there's no reason not to keep attacking him just because he's running away.

Qarazital was actually hoping not to keep getting attacked as he left. This is already disgraceful for him, a god, to be running from mortals, but the price has been too high. He'll dodge and arc, but with half of his lower body missing, he's off balance, even if most of his flight isn't physics based, some of it is. Some of Strike Star's shots hit him, taking out chunks of numbers above his head, and a couple hit his right wing, sending him spinning in the air, which does let him dodge most of the lightning strikes by accident. There's a loud crashing of rock and stone as he hits one of the main stone walkways that let people traverse this area of existence on TRI, putting him out of sight from people inside of the ruinous castle.

Strike Star's gun devices rise up in the air, trying to get sight of the loan-shark deity, but no, he's too far gone now to see without going too far from the 'Magical' Girl. They fly back to her, reattaching to her skirt at the same time as her blade devices reattach to her arms. Finally, all eight devices actually lift her back up to her feet. No, the gun devices don't lift up the skirt, it appears to be designed with reinforcement so they can lift her without doing that. With Strike Star back on her feet, the devices all seem to power down, leaving her to walk towards Iridescence with only a slight limp, favoring the leg that did more scraping on the ground. "Watch your lightning," she says simply, and that's the end of her complaints. "You okay?" She certainly looked better before, her exposed legs and arms scraped up, though the actual materials of the armor seem to have held. There's also the welt across her face, apparently the tumble put that in contact with the ground at one point. It's because of that she still has one eye closed. Gone also is the nervous politeness from before. The almost scared Shizuko from before is replaced with a more tired and jaded Strike Star that's too done with this day to care if she makes a social faux paux. Seriously, this is a rarity with her.

Iridescence takes a little bit more time to direct the entire lightning storm away from the castle and over where she lost sight of the monster. With any luck it'll keep striking him from over there beyond the castle. Wisps of electricity spark off of her now and then even after she lowers her hands and Strike Star comes over to her. She nods, "Fwah, sorry, I'm not used to fighting in a duo." She smiles though, rubbing her forehead with a sleeve, nodding, "Yah, just drained a lot of mana, but I haven't fought like this since dealing with that kraken with Menma." She's pretty well off herself, having taken little to no damage in the fight. Her favorite way to go about them! "Shopping date could have gone better." She winks, letting out a regretful sigh. "You can summon armor and stuff though, yahey? Very kewl!" She'll look around, "Not completely sure where they teleported us, but it has to be on Senta somewhere." She gestures at Shizuko's tech, then fizz some lightning between her fingers.

Strike Star tilts her head. "Memna?" Sounds familiar. Was that the guy that teleported a clone behind her when she accidentally walked up on him and Iridescence? When she first met the super-rich woman? Then she blinks twice, finally opening her other eye at the second. "Date?" Well, Iridescence stops her next question before she asks it by... already stating she doesn't know where they are. "Yeah. Somewhere." One of the gun devices detaches again and flies up and out to attempt to get a view of just where they are. She frowns. "My mother's gonna kill me for not being home in time to get a night's sleep before school tomorrow..." She lets out a sigh as she hangs her head.

Iridescence nods at the Menma thing, "Summoned a giant tailed fox, was super kewl. I need to catch up with him and see how he's settled in." She'll not address the date part, obviously that's what it was! Even if it was just friends, date's a date. She'll tap her lips with a finger, looking around. "Ya can tell her you spent the night at my place." Hmmmrm. She reaches into her sleeve and pulls out her ear com, putting it in and tapping it, "Heya?" Silence. Either out of range, dead, or kidnapped themselves. She taps it some more, then pulls it out of her ear, looking at it. She's sure there's a way to switch channels or somesuch, but she usually has a tech boy deal with it for her.

Strike Star tilts her head. "Don't all foxes have tails, though? Or was it a fox with a giant tail?" Her gun device flies back and reattaches again to her skirt. "No idea where we are, though. I don't recognize anything out there." She raises an eyebrow at the suggestion of what to tell her mother. "...She'll just lecture me about staying over A: without asking first and B: on a school night." She starts walking towards the edge of the floating land to get a look with her own eyes. "...And probably about the fact that I fully am going to miss a school day because of it." She sighs. "I suppose being honest and saying I got kidnapped by some money-laundering god or something is the best route. Leaving out that I wasn't just rescued by someone else, of course." Because of course that's something that's actually believable in Senta. She tries to get telemetry on where she is through her AR implants. Where ever her 'Magical Girl' powers come from were able to tell where she was, right?

Iridescence grins, "Oh, yah, but it had nine of them." She adds, probz an important detail, but ya know, she's distracted with not knowing where they are or how to get back home. "I have backup security that'll start looking for me, but it takes a day for them to start the search." Wasn't there tracking in her ear com? Or was that something else? Wait, her cell phone? She checks the hidden pocket in her skirt. Nahp, forgot it at home or in the hovercar. Fwuh... "There'll be a report about the mall incident for sure, so you can use that as backupz to your story."

It takes a few moments, but Strike Star's AR will eventually pull up a map of TRI and its three continents. And after a bit of beeping and such, it'll show her position hiiiigh above Senta, somewhere in the sky above the Conglomeration, which probably accounts for some of the weird landscape up here. So....just fall down through one of the many large gaps amongst the stone pathways and it should take you back down to Senta proper.

Strike Star mumbles, "It's not 'backup to my story' when it's the actual truth of it." She hrrrms as she looks out over the landscape. "...We're higher up than I thought. I guess I've never really looked at Center City from this kind of angle before... It looks so small... But if I'm reading this right, we're over the Conglomeration." She pauses as she looks out over it, then looks back to Iridescence. "Do you have a flight spell or something?"

Iridescence blinks, then nods, "Fwuh, right." That's true, she was still in the making excuses mindset mode. She never had to make any herself, since her parents died when she was young. Oh, they're high up over the Conglomeration? She doesn't have a way of knowing. No wonder everything up here is off. "Flight? Nahp. But I can summon enough wind that it'll keep me safe as I fall." Until she runs out of mana, but wind likes to push things around so its not overly difficult or draining, just not a great way to travel to specific places.

Strike Star peers over the edge, then over at Iridescence. "...Do you need me to fly you down, or can you, eh, 'summon enough wind' to stay safe?" Don't make crass joke don't make crass joke don't make crass joke. Her devices lift her off the ground to emphasize her point of 'I can fly.'

Iridescence looks down towards the skyscape. It's weird seeing things from up here where the sky is above and below, but eventually Senta is down there, right? She nods at Strike Star as she floats up, "Ahyah. Totes ma gotes. I'll just freefall for awhile. I haven't done it in years." It'll let her get a great view of Senta too, although taking hovercars up lets her see it all the time, it's different when you're falling from the sky. She looks at Shizuko, "Hit you up later for an actual shopping date?" She winks.

Strike Star blinks again at the wink and mention of 'date' again. Is she being hit on or just teased. She honestly doesn't know, and decides the best course of action is to... pretend she didn't notice either. "Well then. I, uh, guess I'll see you around some point in the future for that, maybe. And it looks like I'll get home in time for my mother to only lecture me about getting out of the way of danger instead of being out too late..." There's a slight eyeroll, but then she just... hops off the floating landmass.

Iridescence nods! She'll have her boyz track Shizuko's location down next time she has free time. Now she has to get to her mansion and start finding replacement security, or pay the ransom on her kidnapped security, depending. She lets the flying girl get a good distance to avoid any sudden crashes, then checks her mana pool and jumps! Freefalling in a mass of multi-colored ponytails. o O ( Fwuh, I've had better dayz. )

|}}

2021-08-14 - Trouble in the Mall

2021-11-15T22:17:05Z

Hitakino Kage:

{{Logsummary|
Title=Trouble in the Mall
|Summary=Shizuko just wants to go clothing shopping with her meager allowance. The trip is... anything but normal
|Who=[[Iridescence]], [[Shizuko]]
|Date=August 14th, 2021
|Where=Shopping District, Mega Mall
|Log=

Shopping District

Center City's Shopping District is a massive collection of shops, malls, and entertainment shops! Holo commercials, ads, and people yelling at you to come shop at their place line the streets and skies. Just about anything you can buy can be found here. Watch out for pickpockets!

It's another day in Center City! Cars buzzing by, people walking, birds defacing the odd statue in their crude way. One of those walking people is the highschooler known as Iwamatsu Shizuko. She's been saving up her meager allowance, and now she finally has enough to go on a proper shopping trip! She's gone by herself, however, because her best friend is... not the kind that needs to save up, and would either depress Shizuko with how much she spends, or end up being too generous and making Shizuko feel like she was taking advantage of the relationship. At least this is something that she's used to at this point... even if it's been proven that walking through this area can be dangerous.

It's true! The Shopping District is definitely a place where one can lose their wallet, purse, credit chip, coin, or anything else people might consider currency. Granted, there's the exchangers that will swap money around for local currency because of the people arriving out dimension, despite how gouging they are. But none of that worries Iridescence! The richer than comprehendible mage is moving freely through the area, not worried about someone stealing her stuff, because she has a pair of pale skinned dudez in matrix style clothing shadowing her, occasionally putting a hand to their ear conspicuously. There's even a black hovercar floating over the area, keeping an eye out for anyone coming near her. What brings her here? Funnily enough, the same reason as Shizuko, shopping! And sadly, alone, which is why she's trying to find someone to shop WITH. She certainly won't do it alone, no fun there. And lo and behold the fates cast her eyes on Shizuko. Doesn't she know her? Back...yeah, the kraken incident! With that hawt blonde dude-o! Fwuh, perfect! o O ( Can't remember her name though, or much else! Time to fix that! ) She'll weave through a few people, making her shadowing security annoyed as they lose her for a moment and have to com the hovercar, putting herself near Shizuko, "Heyoz, heyoz! Long time! Fwuh, glad you're still alive!" She winks, a little spark of lightning rippling from the edge of her eye with a crackle.

She was expecting nothing. Sure, Shizuko was looking for trouble(to avoid it, duh), especially any sign of that guy with the horrid scar on his face. That she put there. But the sudden run up and 'hi!' from someone she... barely met? Oh, Shizuko remembers Iridescence, all right. It was her earliest run-in with anyone from Richside, and she was quite intimidated by the Mooks. But... Shizuko also managed to extract herself from that situation fairly quickly. "I, uh, yes. It has been a while, um..." There's a bit of a 'deer in headlights' look as Shizuko realizes she has no idea how to address this person. "I've... managed to survive, yes," she manages to say.

Iridescence smiles! "That's wonderfulz!" She cheerfully claps, the sound more akin to a light thundering than an actual clapping sound. A few people nearby start and back away, after all it's safer to stay away from dangerous people, even if they look harmless. She puts a hand over her chest, "Iridescence." Introducing herself. She'll gesture to the Shopping District in general, "What ya shopin' for? Want to do it together?" She cleared her schedule for today. No egg hunting, no investigating phenomena near the Clongomerate, no excursions out into the ocean. Nope! Just enjoying herself, and hopefully not drawing the attention of any mafia, thug, crime or magelords that might kidnap her for her sweet riches. Her dudeoz catch up to her, though they don't get RIGHT next to Shizuko and Iridescence, they are obviously looking at her behind their mirror sunglasses, and if Shizuko has any kind of technology detection, the hovercar up above is scanning her for explosives!

Shizuko scans as a completely normal teenager! "Uhh, Iwamatsu Shizuko," She says with a polite bow. And a nervous eye at the mooks. She's less afraid of Iridescence directly than she is of the mooks... How many times has she been shaken down on her way to Basil's house? It's possible some of this crew has even been among those that have grilled her. Shizuko has certainly not been able to keep track of the various rich families' mooks that have stopped her. She once again pauses with a look of a deer in headlights, though. "...Shopping together?" GAH. She specifically went on her own because she wanted to AVOID shopping with someone rich!

It's true! One never knows which mooks are working for who! Iridescence herself doesn't completely trust her own security, but she has to have it, otherwise...she'd have to do it all herself, and then why does she have all this money in the first place? The mage snaps her fingers at the name, "Got it, I'll remember now." That deer in headlights look is adorable, she'll smile, showing perfectly white teeth, "Mmyah! I haven't been over here in awhile, and we have to support the local economy. And shops." And maybe check in on one or two of her own, but she'll leave that for later when she's not with Shizuko because that's not going to be as fun and entertaining.

A hundred thoughts are going through Shizuko's head. Mostly about how she can get out of this. Unlike her friend Basil, Iridescence makes no attempt to not flaunt her wealth. Shizuko has never actually seen anything resembling security following her around. Okay, there was that one time she thought she saw one of the Hawthorne family's maids out of the corner of her eye, but she's fairly certain that was just her brain filling in wrong details. Still, Shizuko does NOT want to make someone from Richside mad. Well, someone ELSE from Richside, but Basil's mother still lets her come over. "Oh, uh, sure, the, uh, local economy." She pauses a moment, fidgeting uncomfortably before just outright saying it. "...W-why me, though?" She's already decided she can't outright refuse, it'd be too rude and she's heard too many rumors of rich people effectively being absolute authoritarian dictators. And there's hired mooks all around. Is that hover car also watching them?

Iridescence's smile grows larger as Shizuko agrees! Huzzah hooray! Shopping day! "Fwuh? I was looking for someone and remembered you! Plus, you're adorable and if you're still alive and well after all this time I bet ya know how to shop." She looks around the great Shopping District, casting her hands to gesture at everything, sparks of lightning dancing between her fingers, "Which place first? There's so many choices, yaknow?" She isn't sure what will grab her attention today either, but certainly there'll be something. And yes, that hovercar is definitely doing a holding pattern. Whatever mook driving it isn't too great at pretending to not be following the mage! But it's the dudeoz you can't see that you have to worry about!

Shizuko looks away awkwardly at being called 'adorable'. She has to choose her words carefully for a multitude of reasons. Some just merely for social reasons and not to get the wrong ideas across. "I... not as well as you may think," she admits. Ever since her parents divorced, she's not been in the best of financial situations. "I was, uh, going to go out looking for a new outfit today... that was my plan." She pauses, then looks towards the mall. "I was heading there to decide where to start looking."

The mage looks towards the mega mall. "Ohya? Let's go yah? I haven't been there since narrowly avoided becoming a mass-kidnapping victim when a thug group setup a big teleporting circle on the roof." Luckily one of her people spotted it and got her out just before it went off. Most of the victims were recovered alive. She brushes at her pleated skirt, "New outfit, heya? Let's do itz. I can see you in something more goth punky forsure." One of her matrix boyz puts a finger to his ear, nodding in the direction of the mall. The hovercar starts slowly moving its way through the air traffic towards it. They'll try to scout it out! Unless they're getting paid for a betrayal and setup.

Shizuko sighs and for a split second looks slightly dejected. She catches herself quickly enough, though. Have to stay polite, have to go along with it. The alternatives would be... possibly bad. Still, though, "Goth punky? Me? It's, uh, not really my style..." Yeah, she's now pretty sure the hovercar is with Iridescence's mooks. This is a very different experience for her... She almost feels like she's been low-key kidnapped, but she's technically still just doing what she came out here to do, so... well, she is worried she may end up spending her money on an outfit that will not really be.... 'her'. Still, she accepts her fate and begins making her way there, towards the mall!

Mega Mall

The Mega Mall is massive, stretching out for over a mile. Every store you could think of is here, along with a few you couldn't. There's even a giant movie theater! People move about, shopping and jabbering to each other.

Iridescence giggles at that and skip a couple steps towards the mall, her multi-colored hair, bow, and side-skirt swaying with the motion, "Everyone looks good in it though! You don't know unless you try it." She'll spin on a boot heel, facing Shizuko and walking backward, "Black is slimming too, not that we need it." She'll turn back around and slow so Shizuko can catch up and walk next to her, if she does though. "So Shizuko, what do ya do for non-fun?" Her heterochromia iridium eyes scanning over the crowd. She doesn't recognize anyone yet as they approach the mammoth mall, although occasionally someone will wave or bow towards her, and she'll return with a wave or nod.

Shizuko decides against comment... she ''hasn't'' tried it, after all. "Non-Fun? I'm... I'm still just a high school student," she says. "I don't have a side-job or anything. Mom says schooling ''is'' my job for now." Shizuko, for her part, doesn't recognize anyone, either... and she's slightly worried about the bows given Iridescence's way. She hopes the goth-punk look isn't too expensive... she just enough saved up for one ''normal'' outfit!

The mall is busy, as it usually is, people of various heights, species, and genders moving about. Her dudeoz know better than to try and direct traffic or something like that. There's too many people, so they spread out a bit further to cover more ground, trying to keep an eye on everything. Iridescence probably should have more security here than less, but there was a staff shortage today. Possibly a red sign, but she can't live in fear of getting abducted, that's not her way! "Ultra Mega Plus Ultra High Academy or Super Sentient Sister School?" Those are the two big schools on the planet. She keeps expecting some of those old skewl mages in DO to start a third one, but it still hasn't happened. Must be waiting for someone with the right vision. --- For the insanely super amazingly observant, in case Shizuko is, she'll have noticed an individual that has started to shadow from far, far behind the two girls, evading the notice of the security forces so far.

Shizuko walks along, looking at the stores and... honestly, at this point, expecting Iridescence to be the one to pick what store to enter. She's half expecting to end up just being some sort of life-sized fashion doll as the day goes on, but things could be worse. "Currently the former, formerly the latter," she says. Yes, they're huge rivals... which is just one of many of Shizuko's social problems. Honestly, if she were just... ''better'' at being social instead of being aloof, she'd probably be fine. Unfortunately for her, though, she is, if anything, ''less'' observant than the security.

Iridescence is totes eyeing stores as they pass them. But so far she hasn't chosen one, but then, they haven't passed any gothy punk clothing stores yet either. But since you can find virtually any kind of clothing store at the Mega Mall it's only a matter of time! "Hawhat? Noway!" She hops a step, her hair flowing and falling about her in a cascade of color, "They're huge rivals. I've heard all sorts of stories and rumors about the fights, brawls, and escalating bravadoz." She's never been to either in person, private tutors came to her mansion to teach her things, but she knows there's a whole high school scene thing, even if she missed out on it.

Shizuko takes a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh. "Yeah. They are. I had a bit of a rough patch when some people found out, but... Really it's mostly the jocks that are really like that. I, uh, try to keep my head low. I... usually succeed."

The duo pass a few more blocks of shops and stores. There really is a LOT of stuff at this mall, but it is over a mile long. "Ohya?" Iridescence says, eyeing a store they pass that has thumping bass music and dark fashions, but something about it doesn't catch her eye, so she keeps moving, "You probz have some trouble keeping out of sight though, with your looks." Where was that store anyway? Maybe it went out of business since she was last here. She puts a hand into one of her sleeves, messing with the com in there, considering radioing in for directions, but there's probably a giant map around too.

Shizuko looks along, expecting that overly loud place with the dark fashion to be where they end up in, but... no? Too goth, not enough punk? A hand comes up to cover her mouth momentarily when Iri makes her comment about Shizuko's looks. "W-what's wrong with how I look?" she asks. She's really too modest to think her looks being /good/ make her stand out... did Iridescence notice the tooth? It was the tooth, wasn't it... She tries so hard to not show that cursed thing! "Uhhh... are you looking for a particular place? Or... just one that... fits your expectation?"

Iridescence hops in front of Shizuko, her bow flowing with the movement as she spins to face her. "Fwuh? Wrong? Nothing, you're pretty and cute. I bet your locker is stuff with love letters every morning." She pauses in her walk, some lightning sparking around her choker and running up her cheek to her left ear. "I went to a place here once and bought a loooooot of their thingz. But I can't remember where it is or what it was called. I was about to send out my boyz to scout the area and report back. Unless -you- know of a more gothic punk clothing shop other than the one we just passed?" -- The person, entity, or whatever humanoid it is that's been following them seems to have stopped. Either that, or they've become so good at blending in the crowd not even abnormal senses can detect them.

Shizuko takes a step back as Iridescence hops into her way. "....Uhhhh.... no?" she says in response to the question about love letters. Really, you'd be surprised how many attractive girls go to UMPUHA... Most 'secret admirer' types go for the more popular ones rather than the ones that tend to be loners. And who Jocks and Cheerleaders have picked on because of having gone to the rival school. Social ladders and all that. And she's not counter-culture enough for most of the people that really don't care about that kind of stuff, instead trying so hard to just... be. "No, I don't know the place, I... wouldn't have put it to my memory, honestly."

Iridescence tilts her head to the side, her multi-colored tails spilling over her shoulder, "Really? I'm totes surprised." She'll shrug though, it's not like she knows how high school truly works, having never been. Granted, she might have flown over either one of them and spied from up on high, but it's just a bunch of people walking around or playing sports or sitting on their phones. Maybe she came at the wrong times. She'll pull the small ear com out of her sleeve, "Righto." She puts the com in her ear and taps it, "Heyo heyo?" She waits a moment, then hits it again, "Working now?" She ahs as her security dudeoz report in. "Yah hey, I went to a store here awhile back, track it down and let me know where it is." She dusts of her hands, lightning sparking between her fingers, "There, not that I mind walking around and learning about you."

"They'll know from just that short description?" Shizuko asks. She then looks to the side, sighing lightly. "What's to learn? Mom moved to Synthatec to be with my dad, they god divorced, Mom moved back here with me," she says slightly miserably. "I'm afraid I'm not a very interesting person." She knows that's not entirely true, but she's supposed to keep the whole 'Strike Star' thing secret, right? Which, to Shizuko, is the most interesting thing about her...

Iridescence nods with assurance, "Ya, last time I was here I went there, so they should be able to go back over the security logs. I think? Don't people save all that stuff on their tech?" Now she's not sure. But, they'll probably let her know if they can't find it right? She glances back behind them, yeah security boyz aren't there anymore, so they must be looking for the place. Perfectz. At Shizuko's history she frowns, "Ouch, that sounds difficult. My parents were killed when I was five by a wizard and his techno thugs." She shakes her head, but doesn't seem overly sad about it. Maybe it was long enough that it doesn't bother her anymore. "So is it true at SSSS if you're not a girl they turn ya into one?" She moves off to be next to a nearby candle shop so she's not in the way of the mall traffic.

The hovercar overhead has also disappeared, but its probably just scouting for the clothing shop as well, right?

Shizuko frowns. "I guess so. If they're that thorough. I don't save every detail like that myself, but... security is security?" She shrugs. She winces at Iri's past, then says quietly, "I'm sorry for your loss." Shizuko doesn't think she's had a particularly great life... but at least her parents are still around. The next part, however, gets her to stop and blink. "What? No! Where'd you hear THAT rumor from?" She then hurries to catch up to the rich electro-mage. Apparently she herself doesn't even notice the hovercar is nowhere to be seen now.

Iridescence leans against the wall, bending her knee and resting the heel of her boot on it as well, "No worries ya? Was long ago and I didn't know them very well." She waves her left hand somewhat dismissively, parents. Who needs them? Not her! As far as she knows. She tries not to think about it. "But its an all girls school, yahey? I swear I heard somebody tell me that. I rarely head over to Synthatek because my zappy doesn't zap." She snaps her fingers, sparks of lightning flittering from the snap and causing a light echoy sound from them.

Shizuko frowns. "I guess so. If they're that thorough. I don't save every detail like that myself, but... security is security?" She shrugs. She winces at Iri's past, then says quietly, "I'm sorry for your loss." Shizuko doesn't think she's had a particularly great life... but at least her parents are still around. The next part, however, gets her to stop and blink. "I mean, not permanently or anything." She hurries to catch up to the rich electro-mage. Apparently she herself doesn't even notice the hovercar is nowhere to be seen now. "It's only on school grounds... But... I can see how it puts a lot of people off. Honestly, I don't understand why myself. I don't think I'd have wanted to go if I weren't already a girl... On the other hand, my father is an alumni, so maybe I would have." She shrugs.

Iridescence leans against the wall, bending her knee and resting the heel of her boot on it as well, "No worries ya? Was long ago and I didn't know them very well." She waves her left hand somewhat dismissively, parents. Who needs them? Not her! As far as she knows. She tries not to think about it. She laughs, "That's crazy, aren't there protests about it or-" She huhs, "-I guess Big Sister doesn't let those happen though, yahey? I hear she's like, everywhere or somesuch? But that you have free room and board as long as you do a job of some kind?"

Shizuko nods slowly at the lack of worry over the past. Well, it WAS a while ago. "I said it's not permanent." She then scrunches up her face slightly. "People make too much of a big deal about that. You'd not need to have all the security you have here if you were over there." She motions out towards... well, no one. Shizuko blinks at the now lack of security. When did they make themselves so hard to spot?

Iridescence thinks about that for a moment, then nods. "I admit. I'm speaking from a point of ignorance about the place." At the security comment she looks around for her boyz. Yeah where are they? Its hasn't been that long but usually they get back to her with something, or at least make themselves somewhat apparent that they're watching her. "Just so..." she'll move off the wall and lean up on her tip-toes to look about. No sign.

It's true, security is completely missing at this point, having been dispatched or paid off. Then gunfire and blasters erupt into the air from the four corners of the area their in. People scream and scatter, many hitting the deck, or crashing into each other as they try to flee, though a few go down riddled with bullets or with plasma holes blown through them. There's four to each corner, all of them humans dressed in black tattered edged robes. There's emblems on a few of the sleeves, the logo of a stack of gold coins with a big 0 strikethrough over the top of it. There's another expulsion of plasma energy up above, where another robed figured floats in the sky, a giant mini-plasma gun mounted on his shoulder. "All right, all right, all right. Everyone stop moving and people can stop dying!"

Among those that scream and hitting the deck is Shizuko. No, this level of sudden excitement is not something she takes to very well. At least when thugs tailed her and Luna or her and Basil, she had that warning of 'someone's following us' far more easily noticed. When she's reasonably sure that the weapons fire has at least paused, she slowly looks up and out again at what's going on. Of course, she completely freezes at the terms their apparent leader has given. "...And this wouldn't have happened," she says very, very quietly.

Iridescence doesn't hit the deck, but totes drops to her knees and puts her hands above her head, not that it stops bullets but its an instinctive move. Fwuh. What is this? She looks over at Shizuko, running things through her mind on how to deal with this. "I guess no crime can be a bonus." She winks, though her face is pale. If her security dudeoz aren't around, that means they probably got killed, or bought off. And it's not like she's bullet proof herself or anything. "Let's just lay low and see what they want. I don't recognize the emblem, might be a new group? I don't know who's territory this is right now." Which gang, mafia, wizard, or dragon lord controlling each place changes often enough that it's not easy to keep track. Maybe she should have found out and paid them off ahead of time, if they were open to it. Fwuh, public places...

The few people who fled immediately either make it out of range or are shot down. The rest of the massive crowd stop moving, almost all of them getting down except for a few which are frozen in terror and staring slack jawed at the death. Some of the thugs move to these and knock them to the ground. "Good. Good. Perfect." The leader says, running a hand through his blonde mowhak, "You're all prisoners of the No Credit Clan, We're sick of the imbalance of currency in Senta, and we're about to balance the books!" His shoulder plasma gun rotates, aiming towards Iridescence and Shizuko, "You there! Rich girl with the tails! Up and 'atem! You're coming with us!"

Shizuko is much less calm than Iri right now. This is a big deal. A BIG deal. All these people are hostages. She can't transform right now, they'd start mowing everyone down right in front of her before she finished... No, no, Iridescence is right. Best to just find out what they want and... the plasma gun is pointed right at her now. All color fades from Shizuko's face as she stares down the plasma emitter, her mouth now agape, revealing that one fang she inherited from being the granddaughter of a cat-folk. She should act. She should do something now, right? But does she even /really/ know Iridescence? She barely met her, and all these people could be killed if she did something to stop them, right? It's really a moot point as she's indecisively frozen in place. Despite her mind rushing a thousand things at once, she's far too slow to come up with an actual /plan/ to do anything to actually stop them now.

Iridescence was really, truly, mega hoping against hope they weren't here for her. And what's with that name? No Credit Clan? She hasn't heard of them, so they must be new. But they're well armed. They either have a rich backer, obvs going against their little balance book claim, or they found some cache somewhere. Maybe in the mountains or something. It's impossible to predict where TRI might dump things from other dimensions, even if it's not super common to happen away from The Conglomeration, it still does. Fwuh... There's a lot of people here. Maybe if they take her away she can act, zap them all with lightning or slow them down. "Don't shoot. I'll come, no probz." She slowly gets up, not looking at Shizuko in the hopes they'll leave her alone.

"Yeah you will. Don't have your precious bodyguards here, do you?" The leader thumbs his nose and three of the thugs approach, the gesture at Iridescence to go with them. "Hold it." Mohawk says, gesturing his head towards Shizuko, "Take her to, they're together. Might need leverage over gothylocks here." One of the thugs gestures with an assault rifle at Shizuko to get up!

Okay, okay. It looks like Iridescence doesn't look too concerned with going with them. Maybe she has a plan for when there aren't so many hostages around? Or rather, when she's the only hostage? Shizuko just remains completely silent and attempting to look as unimportant as she can... which fails miserably. "W-what?" she manages to get out as she has that assault rifle pointed at her. Well, it's not a completely untenable situation... If they get away from all the OTHER hostages, she can then do something... as loathe as she is to transform under direct observation, she might have to this time. Again. Really, she's kinda bad at the whole 'secret identity' thing. She gets up, doing as she's told.

Iridescence grimaces as they point at Shizuko. She was hoping to spare her new shopping friend from a kidnapping. There's also a handful or more of dead people. A lot of the gangs know better than to kill the people randomly. It's bad for the local businesses that they extort for money. But, maybe if these guys are new enough they don't quite get it, or they just don't care. She sighs inwardly, not happy at all about any of this. She'll reach out to try and take Shizuko's hand to reassure her, if only a little, and to try and keep her close.

Mohawk gets a giant lop-sided grin, "Nice and compliant. See? This is how it goes when you know what you're doing guys." He floats himself over to one of the groups, reaching into his robes and pulling out a book, which he hands over, "Get the spell going." He then waves Iridescence, Shizuko, and the thugs next to them over. "Move it." One of the thugs next to the girls says, "No sudden moves."

Shizuko is still less calm about this all than Iri is. This much... death around her. It's actually almost overwhelming... she was right. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened... Her mother never should have brought them back over here! "Y-yes," she says. "I-I'm moving." Hopefully they'll be out of the mall soon... The sooner they're away from all these other people, the sooner she can do... something. Hopefully. If she doesn't get shot first.

Iridescence will hold Shizuko's hand tightly, moving through the cowering bodies of the masses to be closer to Mohawk. She's thankful behind Shizuko's pretty face is a smart brain that knows to go along with this kind of thing. "You'll get whatever you want, however much you want, ya?" Her voice only trembles a little bit. It's not that she's overly scared, but she's really worried about Shizuko or anyone else getting harmed at this point. Okay, its mostly Shizuko, a lot of people die in Senta everyday and she was raised here so it's hard to be overly worried. It's just a small touch of jadedness.

The thug who was handed the book opens it up as the other thugs form a circle, kicking or shoving people until they have a ten foot diameter circle, with them on the perimeter. Mohawk then will try to shove Shizuko and Iridescence from behind so they are pushed into the middle of the circle. Assuming there's no resistance, the thug with the book starts chanting, blue magical auras appearing around him and the other thugs in the circle, which channels down into the ground, drawing runes and magic circles underneath the two girls.

Shizuko is significantly less chatty than Iridescence. They're being taken into... a circle? Wait, is this going to... "Wh-what are you going to do with us?" she asks timidly. As the runes start forming, Shizuko is getting a sinking feeling... they're about to be teleported.

Iridescence looks down at the magic circles and runes appearing below them. Fwuh. These punkz are way better prepared she thought. She'd thought they were going to get taken to a car or hovership or something, but a magic circle? They could end up ANYWHERE. And that rune over there looks, "Heyhey, this isn't a dimensional teleport circle, right?" She'll turn to look at Mohawk, the grip on Shizuko's hand getting unconsciously tighter. A small streak of lightning plays in her hair. "You won't get any money if we end up in pieces. How about you pull out a cred chip and I'll top it off and we can go?"

Mohawk's plasma gun rotates, pointing at Shizuko then at Iridescence, back and forth, "Shadup. I know what I'm doing. You think I'd risk a payday doing magic I don't know?" One of the thugs outside the circle looks at Mohawk, "I thought we were doing this to bring a balance to everyone's bank accounts." Mohawk glances at the other thug, "We are. We are, course we are! But if we're going to continue on our path, we need a bit of scratch on the side." The other thug looks a bit wary, but doesn't protest further. The runes and circles in the circle start to interconnect, magical energy filling the ground and general area.

"D-dimensional?" Shizuko asks. She briefly considers forgetting all the hostages and transforming right then and there, but then that plasma canon swings around. No. No, Shizuko can wait until they get wherever they're going, and then she can fight her way out. She'll be fine. Everything will be fine. Nevermind the fact that she's squeezing Iridescence's hand with a trembling hand herself. If she could think faster, she probably could come up with some way to drive a wedge between the mohawk guy and his underling after that... but Shizuko's never been that fast at coming up with the right words to say. She closes her eyes, waiting for the now inevitable.

Iridescence watches all the runes and circles, committing as many as she can to memory. But it looks like it's a just a teleport and not a dimensional one. Maybe. Her study of space magic isn't...well, she's not good at it, so she doesn't mess with it, wanting to remain in one piece. She'll have to trust these thugos want their money and not her death. "I think he's telling the truth." She says softly to Shizuko, more to try and comfort her than anything else, since she's not completely sure. Fwuh. She just wanted to go shopping today, not get kidnapped.

"Course I am." Mohawk says to the whisper, then gestures around at the crowds, "Some of you died here today, but their sacrifice will lead you all to riches! Soon, no one person will hold the currency! We'll take down Richside, we'll take down everyone who stands in our way and spread the wealth to the common folk of Senta!" He timed his speech well, because as he finishes, the magical circle crackles and explodes with blue light into a giant pillar, teleporting Iridescence and Shizuko away! Well, if all goes to plan anyway, which it has so far!

'Take down Richside.' Before Basil, Shizuko would have been... neutral to that phrase. But now Richside includes Shizuko's best friend. She's already seen through all that talk... She doesn't think Mohawk there has any intention of sharing the wealth with anyone other than himself. Maybe his underlings. Shizuko, however, can put a stop to this. She's sure of it. She just needs to... wait a few more moments. She may not know where she is when the light fades, but that doesn't really matter in the end. Her eyes remain closed through the teleport, but when that light fades and the sounds of the mall are vanished, she opens them again to get her bearings before saying, quietly, "Strike Star Transformation."

Continued in [[2021-08-22_-_A_God_for_Everything|There's a God for Everything]]
|}}

2020-03-27 - Picking the Wrong Marks

2021-11-15T22:15:32Z

Hitakino Kage: Undo revision 251 by Hitakino Kage (talk)

{{Logsummary|
Title=Picking the Wrong Marks
|Summary=Some ruffians try to mug Luna and Shizuko. They couldn't have picked worse targets.
|Who=[[Luna]], [[Shizuko]]
|Date=March 27th, 2020
|Where=Shopping District
|Log=

Shopping District
Center City's Shopping District is a massive collection of shops, malls, and entertainment shops! Holo commercials, ads, and people yelling at you to come shop at their place line the streets and skies. Just about anything you can buy can be found here. Watch out for pickpockets!

Luna walks through the city, her blue hair wafting in the wind as she looks about at...well, everything. This whole place is huge, and she's started trying to explore it all and get a hold of everything, especially the odd properties of the world. o O ( You would probably be better suited for this. ) She thinks to her past self's life that lives inside her. o O { Yes well, you should take more of a lead since it's your lifetime. } She can't argue with that exactly, but they're almost kind of the same person. Really. She holds a paper grocery bag, balancing it contents by hugging it with both arms and moving around people as she heads down the sidewalk. She has just about everything she came for, so she should probably head back to the Tower soonish. Oh...there's a large pack of thug looking people up ahead. She stops and moves to cross the street to avoid them.

Another walking along the sidewalk is a teenaged girl that is trying so very hard to just meld in with the crowd, but there's just something... off. No, to the trained eye, it's clear she's never been here before. The darting eyes moving not towards people or threats... no, to the buildings. Everything seems so... backwards compared to what she's used to! It's clearly discomforting to her, but she has determined that she must get used to this place... like it or not, Center City is her new home. She doesn't like it, for the record. She's always heard this place was horribly dangerous...

The large pack crosses the street as Luna does. The blue haired girl sweatdrops and stops walking. o O ( I think they're hostile. ) o O { Indeed. } o O ( Want to take over and deal with them? ) o O { I fear such actions may lead both of us closer to the path of inevitable madness, yes? } That's true, as the black dragon of Lunar, she's fated to go mad eventually, and fusing with her past life's soul wasn't the best way to prolong that fate. Okay, then...she scans around the area, pairs are better than singles, right? She spots Shizuko, just a block behind her, reverses direction away from the thugs, and starts walking faster towards her, halfway there she'll bring a hand up in a wave, though she almost loses her grip on the grocery bag, and has to replace her hands before the insides all topple out. Whoops.

Shizuko continues along her way as if nothing was wrong. Some... elf girl is waving in her direction? She ignores her... Considering she's never seen the elf before in her life, it's simply a safe assumption that she's not the one being waved to. Just... fit in, don't make a scene of yourself. Even looking behind herself would be too attention grabbing... right? But someone could be back there... No! Just keep walking on! ...Towards the elf. Oh. And the pack of troublesome looking individuals behind her. Stay cool, just... keep walking.

Luna doesn't get a wave back from Shizuko. But she looks so friendly! o O ( Humans sometimes. ) She's sure it's an honest mistake, so she smiles as her left ear twitches and she waves again, "Greetings!" Right at Shizuko as she draws closer and closer. She'll then stop directly in Shizuko's path, glancing over her shoulder. The large group has slowed their pace some, assessing the situation. Other people wandering about the area have begun to move into shops, get into vehicles, or turn down into alleys.

Shizuko looks blankly at Luna as the elf blocks her path and makes it clear that she's the one being spoken to. Unless... yes, now she does look behind her. Of course no one is there. "Uh... hi?" she says as she looks back to Luna. "Um... can I... help you?"

Luna smiles as Shizuko finally says hi in return, one of her fangs gleaming a moment. She lowers her voice, "Hello, I'm Luna, it's wonderful to meet you!" She glances back again, shifts her footing, and adjusts her groceries, "I'm hoping that if we're together we'll be left alone by the large group of humans coming towards us." She steps in closer, to a conversational distance, "I recognize a few of them now, yes? They've been watching me shop throughout the day. I have no idea why they'd want what I've bought though." o O { Hmm hmm hmm, they want your money, not your goods. } Oh.

The group stops half a block away, conferring quietly with each other, eyeing and watching both Luna and Shizuko, greed written in their eyes.

Shizuko blinks, then says slowly, "I'm... Iwamatsu Shizuko?" Her heart drops a few centimeters, however, as Luna explains just why she's decided to greet Shizuko. "Oh..." she says. "Um..." She looks to the group and it's clear... They're not about to leave Luna alone just because Shizuko is nearby. "I, uh... don't think it's going to work... very well."

Luna nods at the name, tilting her head at her halting talk. Quick look back at the group, back to Shizuko. She frowns a moment and looks at her grocery bag. Will it survive a fight? If she's careful, maybe? She could just turn into a dragon maybe...what are the rules here? "Predator's often chase prey when they run." Although that's not always true for humans. She doesn't want to give her money to them either, then she'd be marked for the future. o O { Indeed. } Okay, past self agrees.

The group decides they've waited long enough, a few pull knives, a couple small laser pistols, while two more hang back, magic energy starting to swirl around their feet, as the knives and pistols move forward. One of them calls out in a squeaky snarl, "Cough up your money and we'll leave you two birds alone."

Shizuko brings a hand up to her mouth as the group approaches more openly. "I don't have any money on me," she says. It's actually the truth. She didn't bring any money... she's not used to carrying anything that ''could'' be stolen as money. It's kind of an old, out of date concept in Synthatec... But she's also pretty sure they'll not take that as an answer. Or worse, they'll just try to get something... ''else'' out of her. She shoots the elf a look of 'why did you drag me into this?' before looking back to the thugs. Oh. She's going to have to use THAT, isn't she?

Luna has a lot of money on her. The shops around here take all kinds of currency, so gold and gems were easy to get goods for. But she should have known better than to wander a new world without knowing the laws...are there laws here? She turns and steps to the side of Shizuko. She smiles at Shizuko's look, trying to be friendly, even though it's obvious the girl isn't happy with her. o O ( They're advancing. ) o O { Yes well, scan them first. } Oh yes, right. Her eyes take on a deeper green than normal, allowing her to view peoples magical makeup and their souls. She'll look at Shizuku, because... well, she's right there, and then towards the thuggos.

Knife and Laser Pistol dudes have no magic, and their souls are black messy things as they move in. The two mages in the back have flight magic in their feet, and are summoning something? Their souls are also black. "Yeah, sure. We saw that pointy eared blue haired bird throwing gems around, and obviously she knows you. Now pay or ''pay''." They stop close to them both, knives out and guns aimed.

Shizuko's soul looks like... an ordinary person's. Maybe a bit more innocent. Maybe a bit less magical than usual. As if magic itself were just... unfamiliar with her. "...Stay back. I-I'm warning you..." What was that phrase again? Oh, right... well, she'll give them one last chance... though she's pretty sure she failed horribly to intimidate them...

Luna's human form just isn't built for intimidation. She made it to go blend in with humans and try being a barmaid at a tavern in Meribia after all. "I'm also warning you." She'll say, glancing at Shizuko. She's going to have to protect the human she dragged into this. All she does is try to help repent and repay for the atrocities of her past life's self, and here she is getting someone in trouble. o O { It isn't your fault, yes? } Well, she can say that all she wants, but it feels like it is. A magic glow of blue flows up around her, forming an aura, and a general feeling of static electricity fills the air.

Knife 1 shakes his head, "That's it," and him and Knife 2 both move forward, each one grabbing for the bicep of each girl respectively, as the laser pistols keep their weapons trained, though they drop them to the side as the Knife men move in. The summoners are...still summoning, the magic around their feet spreading out into magic circles in front of them both.

Shizuko quickly thrusts her right hand forward, palm facing out and fingers spread, her left hand on her right bicep. "Strike Star Transformation!" she calls out! And that's when things get flashy. Sure, it's quite possible, probable, even, that her arm was grabbed by the man... But there's then that flash of light. A very bright one. It's suddenly as if she were sheathed in white energy, her form glowing as the shields first come up opaque to protect what comes next from unwanted eyes. Because there is that split second where first what she has on her is transported away, leaving her otherwise exposed if it weren't for that bright light. It is, however, clear that ''something'' happened to her clothes, as the obvious outline of her skirt is gone for that split second, as well. But it doesn't last, as a completely different outline of a skirt appears. Longer elements are on it, as well as something appearing on her arms. A hair accessory as well has clearly appeared, replacing the bow that had held the ponytail in place before. As soon as it appeared, the light vanishes, leaving her in white, black, and gold armor. Well, 'armor' might be an exaggeration. Whatever you call the outfit, part of it immediately moves, flying into place from her skirt to right in the face of the man that had just grabbed her. . o O ( okay, set for stun and- ) The part shifts and opens, firing its own laser at her assaulter.

Luna's bicep gets grabbed. She wasn't really ready for the thugs to move in right away. But, her combat experience isn't on the high side, especially not in a human body. Thankfully, she was channeling her magic, and it happens to be electricity based at the moment, and so the thug that grabs her gets lightning and electricity ripping at him, sparks and fizzes erupting off of Luna's body. She turns it off before it'll kill a normal human though, she's trying her best not to kill anyone in this life! She looks over as Shizuko transforms! That was pretty. Her ears twitch and she ohs as she fires lasers, and she visibly de-tenses. Knowing that Shizuko can fight is great news.

Knife 1, who grabbed Luna, screams and collapses in a heap of smoke, burned clothes, and some flesh. He'll roll away screaming. Knife 2 gets ahold of Shizuko as she transforms, and his eyes visibly widen and enjoy a nice eyeful of her body, even if it's obscured in light, but then she's got all this armor and whatnot and...laser fire to the face! He screams, face getting lasered, and if they are just set for stun, he'll collapse back unconscious, if they weren't, well, there's some plastic surgery shops around and maybe the brain damage isn't toooo fatal. Laser pistol 1 & 2 both scream and start to retrain their weapons, firing as soon as they can at both girls! Summoners be summoning, their circle growing to a ten foot radius and the light inside of it forming into some kind of four legged creature with a long tail, wings, and giant overlapping fangs.

Strike Star shouts, "I warned you!" with a far more confident and... somehow altered voice from before. Hey, at least the 'armor' still looks nice on her figure. It's just clearly very weaponized. The other five bits fly off of her skirt as she sweeps her left arm dramatically to the side. The weapons arrange themselves in front of her arm, each opening up to reveal their own weapons. Her eyes are flickering between the laser wielding men, and the weapons split themselves between the pair, three firing at one and three at the other... except she never set any but one to stun! ...uh-oh. That was ''not'' what she intended! Okay, she needs to remember to tell them ''all'' how to fire.

Luna is more than happy to not be grabbed by thug face, and it feels good to feel him sizzle a bit. o O { Careful, yes? } o O ( Yes. ) She IS a dragon, but...she's a good dragon! She steps back, the blue magic around her body flowing up again, lights and sparks fizzling off of her. Looks like Shizuko or...Strike Star she said? Is handling the laser pistol people, so she holds her hand out towards the two summoners, and lightning rips across the sidewalk and street, smashing into light poles and buildings, before making it to their target of the two summons, attempting to zap them out of commission.

Laser pistol guys both fire! But, really, their aims are a bit off, as they weren't expecting a sudden barrage of magic and lasers tossed around. Their shots go wide, and as they're attempting to re-aim and fire more, Strike Star's lasers rip into them, shredding clothes and cutting through flesh (if they're powerful enough anyway!) possibly going right through them! They drop to the ground amidst screams of agonizing pain. The summoners are focused on their spell, and lightning moves rather fast, so even as they start raising their hands to shield themselves, the lightning rips into them, bringing more screams and collapsing them to ground, sizzle sizzle smoke, from all of the thugs, rises into the air...looks like they're out of commission.

Strike Star lets out an audible "Eeep!" as she realizes just how much she hurt these guys, covering her mouth with both hands as the bits fly back to dock with her skirt. Magical girls aren't supposed to hurt people, even thugs that much! Just monsters! At least they were just on normal power and not ''high'' power... They... ''should'' survive? She thinks? She's new to all this! But what she can use heavy force against is monsters, like those last ones were trying to summon... She looks to see if they're still there, or if Luna's attack against the summoners themselves dealt with the monsters.

It looks like after the summoners got zapped, whatever they were summoning failed. The lights around the incomplete circle slowly fading. And whoever trained them gave them instructions on how to NOT let your summon continue if you stop in the middle, which is impressive for some thugs.

Luna lets out a gentle breath, "Well, that was unpleasant." She looks over at Strike Star and smiles, showing her fangs, "Thank you so much for helping me! I'm new to this world, so..." The magical light around her fades away, and she looks down at her groceries...which she dropped when she got grabbed and then cast at the summoners. Her stuff is spilled everywhere. There's breads, some brushes, diapers, some fabric, milk bottles, and formula. She sighs...a lot of it is now charred or straight up on fire. "Maybe I should have paid them off..." o O { Possibly, yes? }

Strike Star lets out a sigh of relief that it's over, then looks to Luna. "Oh! Uh, you're welcome!" She looks down at the groceries and winces. "Oh, uh, sorry." ...as if she was in any way responsible for that. Which she's not. "Oh, um... I'm new here, too... Uh, just to Senta, though." She looks over at the thugs again... all either unconscious or writhing in pain. "Um, we should... probably... go. In case they have more, um, friends."

Luna looks around at the thugs, and decides Strike Star is speaking wisdom worthy of a dragon. She grabs the few pieces of her shopping not completely toasted, sniffs them, and tosses them aside. They smell like burnt smoke and flesh. Shopping day RUINED. Maybe she'll send Morai next time...but she wants everyone to be safe. She smiles at Strike Star, "Yes, let's go elsewhere. It's possible they're part of an organization or group and not a random gang." She looks around...which way, which way... "It's unfortunate we're both new here, otherwise I would suggest a place. I only know of my tower, which is on the road in the sky. We could make our way there?"

Shizuko nods enthusiastically. "Yes, they're, uh, this place is known for widespread gangs and organized crime..." Sure, a lot of what she's been told has been horribly exaggerated... but it still isn't completely untrue. She looks around for a good exit, as well, then looks at Luna. "Tower? You have a tower? I thought you said you were new to the universe..."

Strike Star nods enthusiastically. "Yes, they're, uh, this place is known for widespread gangs and organized crime..." Sure, a lot of what she's been told has been horribly exaggerated... but it still isn't completely untrue. She looks around for a good exit, as well, then looks at Luna. "Tower? You have a tower? I thought you said you were new to the universe..."

Luna ohs, well, if it's known for it, that explains the sudden attack. They're likely in someone's territory. She'd chase humans out of her territory on Lunar if she still lived there and had her cave...she misses her homeworld sometimes, but she has a duty to fix the mistakes of her past life. Sort of. "It came with me..." This is a long story, but she can shorten it, maybe? "It's the second time it's moved, the first was during an error in a ritual to seal Oceia, one of my wives, my past life's wives, I mean, yes?" She starts walking...towards the city center at a hurried pace, looking back once to lament her spilled groceries! Sigh! "And this second time, I woke up and...it'd just reappeared. It might be that the spell is still having after effects." o O { Indeed. }

Shizuko hurriedly walks along as well. . o O ( stay cool, act like you normally wear gold armored bits on a sleeveless white and black minidress... ) At least she knows where the floating bridge is already. Her school is there! Tower, though? She pauses mid-step at the mention of wives, sealing, rituals... past lives? Who ''is'' this elf? Is this the kinds of things that happen when magic corrupts? Is this why it's so dangerous? "...Wives?" is all she manages to actually say, though.

Luna keeps in step with Shizuko, looking her up and down. o O { Pleasant, yes? } o O ( What? ) She rubs the back of her head, explaining this to strangers, it seems to happen every time she meets someone new. Maybe she shouldn't mention it, but it's a big part of her life now, and things just come out of her mouth sometimes. o O ( Can you explain it? ) { Yes, well, I suppose. } o O ( Thank you! ) She's more than content to sit on the back burner for this. She takes a step, her leg lengthening, then the next step the rest of her body lengthens, shifting and morphing, cat ears popping up out of her head and her blue dress' fabric changing to a black satin, until she's a completely different looking person. She takes in a deep breath as the bell around her neck jingles, "Yes well, greetings. I'm Luna, or well, I'm Luna's past life, yes? While it is complicated, she is currently working at atoning for the errors I made while I was insane and acquired a 1,000 wives." She smirks, showing her fangs.

Shizuko sees that Luna is still walking, so she catches back up quickly. It's actually not until the sound of the bell that she actually looks over and... different person entirely? Well, she's not really one to talk, now that she thinks about it. Still, it's... apparently ''actually'' a different person? Sort of? She does, however, stop in her tracks again. "A... thousand?" 'Acquired'? Danger! Danger!

Luna turns around, but continues walking backwards, even as Shizuko stops, her smirk widens, "Hmm hmm hmm, yes well, one thousand. Not all at once of course, yes?" o O ( I feel so less anxious now, thank you. ) o O { Mmhm. } "However, I was insane, mad, yes? It is a horrible fate that the black dragon of Lunar must face." Her left ear twitches, and she holds her hand out towards the girl, offering it as a hand to hold, "Fear not, yes? I am no longer taking souls and am in my right mind. It should be at least a few hundred to a few thousand years before the insanity begins to grip me once more."
Luna (OOC) says, "no longer taking"

Strike Star says nothing at the further explanation. She looks down at the hand. 'Don't be afraid of me! I'm totally not stealing people's souls any more! It will be several generations down the road before I'm that crazy again!' None of these things are acting as comfort to the 'magical' girl. "Um... You know what? I think I can... make my way home on my own now..."

Luna looks down at her extended hand as she walks further from Strike Star. She did say she was going to leave the area. Her bell jingles softly with each step. She closes the hand and lets it fall to her side, "Yes well, as you wish." She stops and curtseys, "Your assistance tonight was appreciated, yes? And your outfit is alluring, hmm hmm hmm... The tower is up the long stairwell along the sky bridge, yes? Should you ever wish to visit." She then will turn and walk away, though she looks back over her shoulder for a final peek. o O ( Maybe she's not used to shapeshifting? ) o O { Mmm, I think it is rather, the dialogue that was exchanged. }

Strike Star says, "I, uh, yeah. You're welcome? Um..." She doesn't know how to take the next part, and thus... just suddenly takes off flying. Likely for wherever her home is.

|}}

2020-03-27 - Picking the Wrong Marks

2021-11-15T22:13:44Z

Hitakino Kage:

2021-08-22 - A God for Everything

2021-11-15T22:11:57Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=There's a God for Everything |Summary=Shizuko and Iridescence find themselves intended to be sacrificed to a god of wealth and debts. His minions really sh..."

{{Logsummary|
Title=There's a God for Everything
|Summary=Shizuko and Iridescence find themselves intended to be sacrificed to a god of wealth and debts. His minions really should have picked someone else to kidnap.
|Who=[[Iridescence]], [[Shizuko]]
|Date=August 22nd, 2021
|Where=Chaotic Expanse
|Log=

The Chaotic Expanse: Slaved Void

Here the stone blocks are commonly hundreds to thousands of yards long, though some have great gaps between them, making one have to perilously jump or fly between them. The colorful skies above and below fade here, giving way to a great red and black miasma that churns all about itself, forming constant portals, some small, others the size of planets.

Ancient monsters, gods, and creatures often manifest here, eager to make contracts with those who seek their powers, arriving through the portals in the sky, or the various ruins of buildings that litter the place. A few structures seem to be inhabited, with signs in other languages hanging above them.

Dark magic of all kinds reigns supreme here, making casting and learning that particular school far easier than it would be normally.

As the white of the teleport magic fades, it'll leave Iridescence and Shizuko in the Chaotic Expanse, particularly in a large castle courtyard. The castle itself is in a bit of ruin, walls caved in, a few of the towers toppled over, but there's enough of it intact that it could somewhat function as a place of safety. Looming on the ruined outer wall of the courtyard is a giant gargoyle like monster, with four arms rather than two, and six eyes. Its wings span at least forty feet, and its a good fifteen feet or so tall. One of its talons grips the side of the castle beneath it, the other resting across its bent knee. "Well," it says, voice gravely, rumbling, and loud, "Looks like he honored the contract. Pity."

Another gargoyle, or whatever the species is, is on the wall next to him, though he's literally half the others size, "Yeah, I thought we'd found one who'd fail and we could eat his soul." There's half a dozen thugs here as well, dressed and armed like the ones back in the mall, but they're down in the courtyard below, plasma gums aimed at the two teleported in girls.

Iridescence winces at the bright white light, dampening her magical energies so lightning doesn't discharge and mess with the spell. One thing she doesn't want is to end up teleported off in multiple places. You just can't ever be to careful with magic that moves your entire being from one place to another. As they arrive she looks around, frowning at all the peeps. "Fwuh..." That's...what is that thing on the castle wall? And where in TRI are they? She glances at Shizuko as she says something about stars and striking?

One white light fades, and another begins. This new light is far more localized, entirely around just the high schooler next to Iridescence. Energy field up around her, blocking all from view, her clothes are transported away for safe keeping at the same time as new clothes are transported in to replace them... or more accurately armor. The light fades just as fast as it came, though, and six devices fly from the new skirt has replaced the old on Shizuko, no, Strike Star. She's mad, a determined look on her face, as the bits fly out towards the goons with guns and open fire. Really, it's not until the last second that her guilt catches up and she sets them to stun... something she has to consciously do, to her mild annoyance, as opposed to their default more powerful setting. She reaches out her hand towards the two gargoyle-like creatures and the last two devices, the ones on her arms, detatch and spin rapidly in front of the outstretched arm, forming a shield-like barrier in front of her and Iridescence with their far more short-ranged beam projectors. "Why are we here?" she says bluntly. "I don't believe what that guy was saying in the mall for a second."

Iridescence is like, totally shocked that Shizuko just totes transformed into a new outfit, complete with attacking tech or everything! That is neatoz! She likes it. And she's shielded too, thankfully, since those bullets would certainly kill her if they managed to penetrate her skull or something nasty like that. Lightning crackles and ripples all around her body, thunder echoing across the courtyard. The sky above seems to resonate with her, crackling flashes of power rippling over the red and black miasma that makes up the view above. Yeah, battle time works for her! Course she needs ot charge up for a second. Hopefully Shizuko will keep em jabbering.

The thug men were not expecting a counter-attack, much less a bright flash of white light from Shizuko, er, Strike Star. There's multiple screams as the bits fire towards them! Four get hit right away, collapsing backwards to the ground, fingers holding down the trigger which spatters bullets into the castle walls, sky, and a few near the gargoyle-like creatures. The remaining two are a bit quicker to react, and managed to jump out of the way of the first stun shots, falling down behind some debris to try and get cover, but it's doubtful they'll avoid another barrage. The larger creature raises an ash colored eyebrow, "Oh, they're not defenseless. Hm." The smaller one frowns, pulling a large chunk of stone from the castle wall as if ready to throw it at them, despite the shield, "We should put in more than delivery next time I guess." The big one nods, then address' Shizuko, ignoring the gunfire and attacks, "Sacrifices to me, Qarazital. Found my way into this realm, thought I'd try some of the delicacies."

Strike Star looks back over her shoulder to better mentally direct the bits to change targets. Three on one for each of the two remaining now as the bits all fly about for better and more varied angles to fire again. "Well, forgive me for not exactly being a willing sacrifice." She wonders if 'rich and powerful' was a requirement for the sacrifices. "Sorry, but your delivery guy shouldn't have delivered you two pizzas." She gets a LOT more feisty when she's angry and can actually fight back...

Iridescence wrinkles her nose about sacrifice. Kidnapping for ransom money? Surez. Kidnapping to be part of some contract or whatevz? Pfft! No! That's totes unkewl. And hey, she's shielded, so she can go on full offense. Looooks like Strike Star has the thugs in hand, so she'll bring her left arm up, snapping her fingers towards the smaller gargoyle creature. The lightning around her body strikes up into the sky, connecting with the flashes already occurring above, which then lightning zaaaap towards the not really small but not as big as the big gargoyle monster. Needless to say that all happens in two quick lightning strikes and with massive thunderclaps!

The two thugs aren't sure what to do, so they both open fire at Strike Star, plasma energy from one of the thugs guns, ordinary bullets from the other, trying to straight up murder her, though the shields are probably going to stop the attacks, but they can pray! It's the last thing they do before the quick maneuvering bits stun them to land of unconsciousness! Doublethud. The larger creature says, "I'm not much of a forgiver, more of an atone for your actions type of god." He rumbles in displeasure as the thugs fall easily to the attacks. Weaklings. The smaller creature cracks his knuckles, as if stone is grinding against stone, "How about we just eat one of you? We'll let the other one g-" then lightning strikes him and he makes a horrific high pitched nearly ear drum shattering scream and collapses to the ground, crackling and smoking!

Strike Star's sword devices suddenly stop their spin and fly to specifically block the gunners attacks. "Well, I don't actually ''believe'' you're a god. I ''believe'' if you crossed the river to the west you'd not even be able to stand under your own onerous weight." Is it a good idea to taunt the giant monster that thinks it's a god? Probably not. But for some reason Strike Star has faith in the 'Magical Girl' that gave her her 'powers' that she can, at least with help, take this thing on.

Hopefully.

While Strike Star winces at the scream, she's a bit less... concerned that thing might be killed than she was of the humanoids. It ''did'' just threaten to eat her, after all. "How about we just take down ''one'' of you? Then we'll let the other one go? What do you think?" Strike Star looks over to Iridescence as her six bits return to her, all hovering around pointed at the remaining monster. "Honestly, I don't think it's a good idea." She lowers her voice down to a whisper and says, "He might actually call my bluff and fly to the west." Wait, she's bluffing at a whisper, counting on the monster to hear her to run off to a place where she thinks it won't be able to stand under its own weight, let alone actually stay aloft on those undersized(for it) wings? Shizuko can have some strange ideas. Well, it's not like she actually thinks the 'whispered bluff of saying what I said earlier was a bluff' plan is going to work, anyway.

Iridescence nods subtly at Strike Star whispering about the bluff. Yah, that's a great idea! Ha. Maybe this thing will just fly over the line between Senta and Synthatek and collapse. She manages to suppress her grin as she starts charging up for another lightning blast anyway, just in case. This place seems to enjoy destructive style magic, and while lightning is closer to a force of nature, seems like it qualifies.

The smaller creature quivers, looking like its in a rather bad state and not wanting to move, a lot of its rocky like flesh has been blackened. It makes a nasty hacking sound, black smoke coming from its mouth. The larger one looks up at the sky, then to the west, "Your belief in me doesn't change what I am." He stands up on the castle wall, looming. Well, looming even more than before anyway. "I'm disappointed in the delivery though. And if you kill my servant it'll cost me more than I want to pay." He scratches the side of his chin, the sound of rock grating against itself echoing amid the thunder cracks from above, "If you won't give up one for the other, then pay for both of your freedom in another way."

Strike Star is certainly not counting on her double-bluff doing... anything. Her two sword-devices snap back into place on her arms now that she has only two potential threats to deal with instead of eight. "Why would I give her up? She's been ''nice'' to me. ''You'' threatened to ''eat'' me." She points directly at the big guy, and the six floating devices shifting to start rotating around her arm like a Gatling style canon readying itself up to start firing. "Soooo, pay for it by beating you. Got it," she says with a one-fanged grin. When she gets into this level of bluster, she tends to forget about trying to hide that...

Iridescence smiles over at Shizuko's words. Ha! At least the kidnapping by thugs who are making deals with a so-called roc god gargoyle thing hasn't prevented a friendship from starting. Sparks of lightning ripple around her body, but she's happy to let a few wild strikes flash down from the sky and explode a few chunks of the castle here and there, you know, to emphasize Shizuko's point. "Fwuh, ya. Pretty sure if you're using thug boyz to kidnap your sacrifices you can't do that much by yourself."

Qarazital grunts at the shows of force, eyeing the floating devices and the lightning strikes. "I take many different kinds of payment, but attacking and attempting to damage me doesn't equate to any build up of spendable coin." He exhales, black smoky cloud coming out of his mouth, "But I think you'll find your attempts to harm me result in little effect." He folds two of his arms, and shrugs with the upper set, "Go on, attack me, and afterwards maybe you'll be more agreeable to my words." Nothing from the smaller creature, looks like it's either feigning being really hurt or...it really is really hurt.

Strike Star blinks a few times. "Wait, are you actually some kind of money lending god?" she says flatly. She then shakes her head. "Well, okay, then. Since you asked so nicely." Sooo much bluster. She wishes that's how she felt on the inside right now. The devices speed up their rotation around her arm, then, true to their movement, start blasting the rock-gargoyle-thing with rapid fire blasts. She's aiming low, at the thing's legs before working the rapid fired beams upwards on the body of the 'god'. She is, however, avoiding the black smoke coming out of his mouth because... yeah, don't know what that is.

Iridescence raises an eyebrow, "There's a god for that?" Well, if it really is a god. I mean, yah sure there's gods and all, she met someone who got reincarnated after dying and claimed some angel named Talenti or somesuch let her choose to return to life in a new body. She looked into it and there's a few other reports around TRI about it, so...is this thing from there? Hurm. Well, don't matter ya, because it's obvs time to stop jamming and start attacking itz. She'll go ahead and unload the lightning she's been building up at the same time Strike Star starts opening fire on it, multiple strikes crashing down at the gargoyle thing and all around its general area as well, which means one or two might actually hit the smaller guy as well.

Qarazital nods, "Something like that." In response to the money lending thing, "But I've been in the lower echelons and found this realm opening up to me." Then the attacks start. He was partially bluffing himself, having assumed that lesser creatures like these two wouldn't call such a claim. I mean, he's bigger than they are, and black smoke comes out of his mouth, normally that terrifies mortals. The blasts from Strike Star, despite his claims, blast into him, tearing off chunks of his rock flash, and the lightning...well, it's lightning, and it crackles onto him. A loud high pitched groan rumbles from him and he wobbles on the castle top, bringing up arms to try and shield from the damages. Above his head in the air, a large alien script forms in golden numbers, however it's obvious from a glance that the numbers are going down with each strike he takes, "Gaaaaaahhhhg!" He screams, leaping from the castle wall and coming down towards both of the girls, trying to use his larger form to just crush them underneath himself before he runs out of money! The black smoke he exhaled trails after him and doesn't seem affected by the lightning or the blasts. The smaller one gives another scream and doesn't so much as move from the hits it takes, either unconscious or dead.

Strike Star says, "I mean, there's supposedly a god for everything, isn't there? In some religions..." She shrugs.

But fighting! Strike Star winces slightly at the high pitched groaning, mumbling something about a mismatch at it, but choosing not to push it. Nope, firing now. And it seems to be working! Yeah, she's continuing to just do what she's doing for now. She's watching the numbers now, and... "Wait... do you actually get more powerful if someone rich is sacrificed to you? Ha! Joke's on you, I'm dirt poor!" Just with... access to one certain set of nice resources. And apparently a tendency to befriend rich people? Oops, time to dodge now! Well, her attack ceases for a moment as she does THAT, leaping out of the way and travelling farther than she should with just a leap... primarily because the devices she reset onto her arm bracers are pulling her further out of the way. Hey, it's how she can fly, though for now she's choosing to stay closer to the ground. She is, however, trying more to keep her distance for now, and doesn't turn back to face Qarazital until she's feeling comfortable with the distance.

Iridescence isn't about to get squashed! No wayz! She'll shift her mana focus over to the manipulation of time. Well, not time travel, but more just the time around herself to speed her up. It's not super blinking away disappearing speed, but it does let her run the goth OUT from underneath the bodysquishing attempt by the god thing dudeo. This does sadly make her lose her lightning magic, and strikes that were building in the sky just go wild, a lightning storm smashing about the castle, look out innocent bystanders, fwuh!

Qarazital crashes into the ground, growling as he misses BOTH of his targets. If he comes across those mortals he contracted with, he'll extract a heavy payment. "Poor?!" This agitates him greatly! They were supposed to be deliciously rich sacrifices! Ugh! Despite his size and the damage, he gets to his feet, two of his arms grabbing a chunk of castle and hurling it towards Strike Star! With the other arms he exhales, the black smoke that was following him growing from more smoke that comes out of his mouth, which then starts rushing towards Iridescence.

Strike Star strategically says nothing about the state of Iridescence's finances. "Yeah! I barely scraped enough money the past MONTH to buy myself some new clothes! I even had to skip lunch for two weeks!" Not mentioning Basil didn't let her go without eating, but... "My mother won't let me get a job, says I need to focus on my studies instead!" ...which, you know, isn't happening because of the amount of time Shizuko is out on 'patrol' as Strike Star. Oh, she really has no clue how much of her mother's paycheck is going into her education right now... Aaaand speaking of right now, incoming chunk of castle. She's able to dodge out of the way of that, but...

Strike Star really was focusing more on the threat ''actively'' targeting her. The lightning coming all around? She was sure from the earlier strike that they were Iridescence's doing. That's why she wasn't concerned about them... until, well, the problem with Iridescence's lightning is there wasn't any innocent ''bystanders'' around here to be hit... so instead it's Strike Star that's stuck. She's flying through the air when her path and the lightning intersect and... her flight just stops. In her Augmented Reality eyes, an ERROR flashes red in the center of her vision, a visual she's not seen before. This happens just long enough for her to careen into the ground and tumble for five or so meters before her armor repowers itself, once again actually blocking her from the damage of the scrapes and abrasions of the next five meters before she hits the block that Qarazital threw earlier where it was now resting. "....ow." She's still moving... technically, but she's clearly a little dazed from that.

Iridescence turns to look back once she's an okay distance away from the monster that tried to squish her. Casting two different types of magic at the same time isn't something she's capable of right now. Maybe someday she'll get good enough for it. Now there's black smoke coming for her! Normally, that'd be a kewl fashion statement, to have black smoke following you around, but she's pretty sure it's going to do something bad to her if she inhales it. She drops her speed upz magic and switch back to forces, though she winces as lightning strikes Shizuko. Ohgeez! She's...not dead though? That's great! Whatever summon armor abilities it has must be durable. Phew. Ohright, black smoke. She holds her hands out towards the smoke. A harsh wind blows from behind her, her hair, sleeves, bow, skirt, and side cape all whipping about her, but it should send the smoke back towards the dumb money god.

Quarazital emits a high pitched growling sound towards Strike Star. Even if she ends up killing her, with that low of currency rating, this will all be for a massive net loss. Assuming the bits are still shooting at him, he'll jump into the air, flapping his wings and staying aloft, despite his size, wingspan, and other things saying that shouldn't really be possible. This all causes the black smoke which he hadn't noticed coming back at him to blow right past. A bolt of random lightning hits him next, and he grunts, a chunk of his shoulder blasting off. He glances up at the other language numbers above his head decrease again. He should end this quick before he loses more money from damage. He'll angle his wings and dart down out of the sky, pulling back a big rocky fist to try and smash it into Strike Star.

Bits still shooting at him? No, actually, they completely stopped while Strike Star was tumbling around, their commands interrupted. When she looks up again at Qarazital, however, the bits fly into motion once more, zapping bolts all around the money god even though the 'Magical' girl only has one eye open, the other closed in pain. Thankfully the armor indeed took all the damage from the lightning, but being thrown around on the ground while the energy fields were down did NOT feel good. Oh. Great, he's focusing on her anyway. Well, net loss not withstanding, apparently she's just pissed the big guy off. She doesn't particularly feel like standing up again, and indeed doesn't really have the time to do so in time... Well, she lifts up her hands in front of her... then shifts them as the energy blade devices detach and come to life, spinning rapidly in front of her to make this hopefully feel like a suddenly much worse option to Quarazital. All the while, the gun bits stop firing and instead arrange themselves like the chain gun formation again... but then turn inward at a 45 degree angle towards their center point. There they fire, their beams intersecting to create a ball of energy, charging for her biggest attack... one she's not used in anger yet. . o O ( Just... FLINCH you big dumb hunk of rocks. )

Iridescence is relieved that she's not being targeted, but also worried for Shizuko. She took a lightning bolt and it looks like she's about to get smooshed. Oh, she's got some kind of blades and hm, she's charging up something. She likes to charge her own attacks as well, though the side effects of the lightning storm is problematic. But it's kewl, she just shifts forces back to lightning and stops the random raining of lightning, redirecting it towards Qarazital. Normally she'd need to charge the storm back up, but it seems whatever natural forces are working in this area have decided to just let a lightning storm rage away without her influence, so it's much easier to just redirect the now ?naturally? occurring storm! Zapzap!

Qarazital is ready to just smoosh Strike Star into human gravy, but then some whirling blade thing starts spinning around where he's going to compound her flesh. He flaps his wings, arcing and changing directions to instead land a safe distance away from the blades on the ground. "Surrender yourself, and I'll make your sacrifice painless!" He cries, as a lightning strike hits him. The trouble with lightning is it's as fast as...lightning, so dodging it is not really possible. The numbers floating above him decrease again. He gives a high pitched roar, clenching hands into fists. "Raise my servants back up!" The numbers drop a huge amount, losing an entire 0 to its sum as he pays for the universes services, but the stunned thugs from before suddenly jump to their feet, grappling for their weapons! Apparently he can exchange money for things to happen?

Strike Star drops her head slightly, her bangs hiding her eyes from view. But not her grin. That one fang is showing itself almost proudly. "Wrong move, Quad Zit-face." The sword bits stop spinning and fly back to her arms. Yeah, if he kept coming, the chunks of him would probably pulverized her. She just had to make it not worth it to him. The blaster devices continue feeding their beams into the sphere until the ball of energy nearly reaches to their emitters... and then they shift, changing their aim back to the god, moving as one and taking the energy ball with them... before they suddenly face out and at the money-god, directing the ball of energy down the path their now lower powered lasers guide it along. She'll have to deal with the servants later, she kind of has all her power going into this attack now. Hopefully she'll get her legs back under her after that attack, too.

Iridescence isn't super keen on lightning striking the thugos, since they'll probably get cooked and killed to death, but at the same time they did abduct her and her friend, and seriously even if she -can- be kidnapped when her security boyz fail her, that doesn't mean she isn't a threat without them. She's not big into sending messages by murder, but fwuh, this place is crazy and there's a weird money god thing here, so she'll just send the lightning storm towards the recently woken up thugies, especially since Shizuko is shooting a energy ball thingie so yaknow, prioritizing targetz and that.

Yeaahhhh, the thugs aren't ready to be struck by lightning, especially since most of them are holding metal weapons, the lightning arcs between them, the weapons, and each other. There's a lot of blood curdling screams among the lightning flashes and thunder crashes, before the lot of them fall to the ground, cooked, singed, unconscious, dead, or greatly wounded. One lightning blast won't always kill you, but a collective barrage isn't so merciful.

Qarazital screams that high pitched wail! "Ugh! This is costing me a fortune!" He doesn't want to keep paying for all of this. He never should have dealt with those humans. What's the point of getting sacrifices if you end up fighting them? Everything's gone backwards. At least lightning isn't hitting him. Then an energy ball is hurtling towards him. He jumps, trying to dodge it, but it still catches his lower half, blowing off most of his right leg and some of his lower torso. He flaps his wings HARD, arching to the side and not wanting to go to far up, because there's a lightning storm going on. This is...he's done! "ENOUGH!" He screams, and will actually arc his wings and turn to try and fly away from these accursed poor people rather than run out of money fighting them! Little does he know if he could score Iridescence he'd more than make up for all the losses.

Strike Star's gun devices quickly shift to snap off shots, yes, set to stun, at the underlings as well... okay, too late, but they then rearrange back into the cylinder formation. "Oh, running away, now?" They rapidly spin up again, opening fire with that rapidity from before. Yeah, the whole having them around her arm earlier to do that was just for show. She's just... tired, and in pain, and would rather just do it without the flashiness. Never mind that she doesn't actually need to spin them, or even arrange them in a cylinder to fire like that. They could just be lined up, or not arranged at all. At any rate, she's aiming roughly for the wings, looking more through their optics than through her own eyes to aim. She's angry. Shizuko is angry. All this. All this just so some idiot god can score some literal points. She just wanted to get a new outfit today. That was her one and only goal. And now she doesn't even know where she is, got struck by lightning, scraped herself up, and slammed into a wall. She's tired, too, affecting her aim... Well, even if she doesn't score any hits with that rapid fire, she'll at least send a message off with him. And no, she's still not gotten up yet from where she's slumped against that prior thrown chunk of castle.

Iridescence is more than happy that the fights ending. Not that she doesn't mind having one once in awhile, but she enjoys more information about her enemies before fighting them. Prep is key, ya. But Shizuko has proven to be more than capable of holding her own, something she totes didn't expect! She'll redirect the lightning storm to follow the stone money god thingie, because there's no reason not to keep attacking him just because he's running away.

Qarazital was actually hoping not to keep getting attacked as he left. This is already disgraceful for him, a god, to be running from mortals, but the price has been too high. He'll dodge and arc, but with half of his lower body missing, he's off balance, even if most of his flight isn't physics based, some of it is. Some of Strike Star's shots hit him, taking out chunks of numbers above his head, and a couple hit his right wing, sending him spinning in the air, which does let him dodge most of the lightning strikes by accident. There's a loud crashing of rock and stone as he hits one of the main stone walkways that let people traverse this area of existence on TRI, putting him out of sight from people inside of the ruinous castle.

Strike Star's gun devices rise up in the air, trying to get sight of the loan-shark deity, but no, he's too far gone now to see without going too far from the 'Magical' Girl. They fly back to her, reattaching to her skirt at the same time as her blade devices reattach to her arms. Finally, all eight devices actually lift her back up to her feet. No, the gun devices don't lift up the skirt, it appears to be designed with reinforcement so they can lift her without doing that. With Strike Star back on her feet, the devices all seem to power down, leaving her to walk towards Iridescence with only a slight limp, favoring the leg that did more scraping on the ground. "Watch your lightning," she says simply, and that's the end of her complaints. "You okay?" She certainly looked better before, her exposed legs and arms scraped up, though the actual materials of the armor seem to have held. There's also the welt across her face, apparently the tumble put that in contact with the ground at one point. It's because of that she still has one eye closed. Gone also is the nervous politeness from before. The almost scared Shizuko from before is replaced with a more tired and jaded Strike Star that's too done with this day to care if she makes a social faux paux. Seriously, this is a rarity with her.

Iridescence takes a little bit more time to direct the entire lightning storm away from the castle and over where she lost sight of the monster. With any luck it'll keep striking him from over there beyond the castle. Wisps of electricity spark off of her now and then even after she lowers her hands and Strike Star comes over to her. She nods, "Fwah, sorry, I'm not used to fighting in a duo." She smiles though, rubbing her forehead with a sleeve, nodding, "Yah, just drained a lot of mana, but I haven't fought like this since dealing with that kraken with Menma." She's pretty well off herself, having taken little to no damage in the fight. Her favorite way to go about them! "Shopping date could have gone better." She winks, letting out a regretful sigh. "You can summon armor and stuff though, yahey? Very kewl!" She'll look around, "Not completely sure where they teleported us, but it has to be on Senta somewhere." She gestures at Shizuko's tech, then fizz some lightning between her fingers.

Strike Star tilts her head. "Memna?" Sounds familiar. Was that the guy that teleported a clone behind her when she accidentally walked up on him and Iridescence? When she first met the super-rich woman? Then she blinks twice, finally opening her other eye at the second. "Date?" Well, Iridescence stops her next question before she asks it by... already stating she doesn't know where they are. "Yeah. Somewhere." One of the gun devices detaches again and flies up and out to attempt to get a view of just where they are. She frowns. "My mother's gonna kill me for not being home in time to get a night's sleep before school tomorrow..." She lets out a sigh as she hangs her head.

Iridescence nods at the Menma thing, "Summoned a giant tailed fox, was super kewl. I need to catch up with him and see how he's settled in." She'll not address the date part, obviously that's what it was! Even if it was just friends, date's a date. She'll tap her lips with a finger, looking around. "Ya can tell her you spent the night at my place." Hmmmrm. She reaches into her sleeve and pulls out her ear com, putting it in and tapping it, "Heya?" Silence. Either out of range, dead, or kidnapped themselves. She taps it some more, then pulls it out of her ear, looking at it. She's sure there's a way to switch channels or somesuch, but she usually has a tech boy deal with it for her.

Strike Star tilts her head. "Don't all foxes have tails, though? Or was it a fox with a giant tail?" Her gun device flies back and reattaches again to her skirt. "No idea where we are, though. I don't recognize anything out there." She raises an eyebrow at the suggestion of what to tell her mother. "...She'll just lecture me about staying over A: without asking first and B: on a school night." She starts walking towards the edge of the floating land to get a look with her own eyes. "...And probably about the fact that I fully am going to miss a school day because of it." She sighs. "I suppose being honest and saying I got kidnapped by some money-laundering god or something is the best route. Leaving out that I wasn't just rescued by someone else, of course." Because of course that's something that's actually believable in Senta. She tries to get telemetry on where she is through her AR implants. Where ever her 'Magical Girl' powers come from were able to tell where she was, right?

Iridescence grins, "Oh, yah, but it had nine of them." She adds, probz an important detail, but ya know, she's distracted with not knowing where they are or how to get back home. "I have backup security that'll start looking for me, but it takes a day for them to start the search." Wasn't there tracking in her ear com? Or was that something else? Wait, her cell phone? She checks the hidden pocket in her skirt. Nahp, forgot it at home or in the hovercar. Fwuh... "There'll be a report about the mall incident for sure, so you can use that as backupz to your story."

It takes a few moments, but Strike Star's AR will eventually pull up a map of TRI and its three continents. And after a bit of beeping and such, it'll show her position hiiiigh above Senta, somewhere in the sky above the Conglomeration, which probably accounts for some of the weird landscape up here. So....just fall down through one of the many large gaps amongst the stone pathways and it should take you back down to Senta proper.

Strike Star mumbles, "It's not 'backup to my story' when it's the actual truth of it." She hrrrms as she looks out over the landscape. "...We're higher up than I thought. I guess I've never really looked at Center City from this kind of angle before... It looks so small... But if I'm reading this right, we're over the Conglomeration." She pauses as she looks out over it, then looks back to Iridescence. "Do you have a flight spell or something?"

Iridescence blinks, then nods, "Fwuh, right." That's true, she was still in the making excuses mindset mode. She never had to make any herself, since her parents died when she was young. Oh, they're high up over the Conglomeration? She doesn't have a way of knowing. No wonder everything up here is off. "Flight? Nahp. But I can summon enough wind that it'll keep me safe as I fall." Until she runs out of mana, but wind likes to push things around so its not overly difficult or draining, just not a great way to travel to specific places.

Strike Star peers over the edge, then over at Iridescence. "...Do you need me to fly you down, or can you, eh, 'summon enough wind' to stay safe?" Don't make crass joke don't make crass joke don't make crass joke. Her devices lift her off the ground to emphasize her point of 'I can fly.'

Iridescence looks down towards the skyscape. It's weird seeing things from up here where the sky is above and below, but eventually Senta is down there, right? She nods at Strike Star as she floats up, "Ahyah. Totes ma gotes. I'll just freefall for awhile. I haven't done it in years." It'll let her get a great view of Senta too, although taking hovercars up lets her see it all the time, it's different when you're falling from the sky. She looks at Shizuko, "Hit you up later for an actual shopping date?" She winks.

Strike Star blinks again at the wink and mention of 'date' again. Is she being hit on or just teased. She honestly doesn't know, and decides the best course of action is to... pretend she didn't notice either. "Well then. I, uh, guess I'll see you around some point in the future for that, maybe. And it looks like I'll get home in time for my mother to only lecture me about getting out of the way of danger instead of being out too late..." There's a slight eyeroll, but then she just... hops off the floating landmass.

Iridescence nods! She'll have her boyz track Shizuko's location down next time she has free time. Now she has to get to her mansion and start finding replacement security, or pay the ransom on her kidnapped security, depending. She lets the flying girl get a good distance to avoid any sudden crashes, then checks her mana pool and jumps! Freefalling in a mass of multi-colored ponytails. o O ( Fwuh, I've had better dayz. )

|}}

2021-08-14 - Trouble in the Mall

2021-11-15T22:00:08Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=Trouble in the Mall |Summary=Shizuko just wants to go clothing shopping with her meager allowance. The trip is... anything but normal |Who=Iridescence,..."

File:Iridescence-icon.gif

2021-11-15T21:48:18Z

Hitakino Kage: Hitakino Kage uploaded a new version of File:Iridescence-icon.gif

2020-04-12 - Egg Celebration Day Party!

2021-11-15T21:37:28Z

Hitakino Kage:

{{Logsummary|
Title=Egg Celebration Day Party!
|Summary=It's Egg Day! And someone over in Richside is hosting a massive party open to the public!
|Who=[[Iridescence]], [[Lillia]], [[Mirress]], [[Swift]]
|Date=April 12th, 2020
|Where=Iridescence's Mansion
|Log=
Iridescence’s mansion roof has been expanded for Egg Celebration Day! Multiple hover platforms link to the sides of the roof, some of them expanding out over the beach and even the ocean. A diving platform is placed for those willing to brave the long dive into the sea!

Music plays, varying between multiple genres, though all are happy and upbeat. A gigantic kitchen area is setup on one of the hover platforms, where bbq’s, grills, and other cooking utensils vary in shape and size, some large enough for even a dragon to use.

Another platform has eggs. EGGS EGGS EGGS, tons of eggs in various shapes, sizes, and colors! A sign reads, ‘Please take one!’. Who knows what the contents will be?! Hatch it, eat it, break it! It’s up to you! There's also a giant collection of different colored bunny ears for you to wear, should you wish!

Other utilities include a fully stocked bar, dance floor, dining area, lounge chairs complete with a fire pit. One hover platform has been placed upright, allowing for a large wall for the wallflowers, shy, or people who enjoy leaning against giant walls. A giant metal staircase leads from the roof down to the beach entrance, temporarily placed for party people coming and going.

Be sure to 'Grab An Egg!'

Swift very cautiously touches an egg. It cracks open at her touch...and absolutely drenches the poor girl in water! She shakes herself instinctively, droplets ''flying'' from her wings. Which are now blue. She laughs a bit. "So, apparently, some of the eggs are pranks." Harmless pranks, mind. Well, she hasn't noticed her wings yet.

Iridescence hops back as Swift touches one of the eggs and it cracks from her touch! She knows that a looot of these things have effects that she's keen to avoid, or at least, not experience if someone else is. Fwuh, water everywhere! She sniggers, putting a hand over her mouth and waving at a pair of servants with bunny ears, who head off to get some stuff to clean up the water. She claps, "I guess so! I purposefully didn't catalog what everything was or where they came from, part of the surprise fun, yahey?" She eyes the wings, "Blue looks good on you though." She shields her face as some of the droplets hit her. "Fwuh." That's fine, she'll grab a towel from a servant. She drops the deviled egg in her mouth, thumbing up at Mirress. "Delicioso!"

"I have had ''far'' worse," Swift says, amused, and turning to take a deviled egg...she might be part bird, but she apparently is ''not'' above eating eggs.

Mirress shakes her head, giggling a bit then turns to Iridescence "Thank you, I aim to please" she smiles a little and decides to be careful when selecting her eye, a blue firewind might confuse people

Iridescence nods at Swift, "I'm sure, there's some dangerous ones in there somewhere." She shrugs her bare shoulders, smiling, "But we have a dragon here, so I'm sure we'll be fine no matter what." She winks towards Mirress, snagging another deviled egg and slurping it down. The cleaning bunny crew shows up, throwing down towels and cleaning the floor around Swift, thought they pointedly don't touch or try to move her. She grabs a towel from one of them, wiping off the droplets.

Mirress shakes her head, her bunny ears twitching a bit as she looks over at the eggs "As long as nothing too strong comes out, I do have my limits, still young after all"

Swift pops the deviled egg in her mouth. "Well, if something happens." She's still oblivious to her, well, makeover. Well, it probably isn't permanent...

From one group of people walks a certain platinum haired catfolk woman. Apparently she's fully embraced the holiday... Bunny ears? No, Lillia's wearing the full getup, heels and fishnet stockings and everything. Really, it doesn't quite work as well on someone that already has animalistic ears and a tail, but she doesn't seem to care. She's all smiles as she waves goodbye to the group she's leaving... but as soon as she's faced away, her expression falls somewhat. "You'd think I could step away from business for just one night, but no..."

Iridescence pushes one of her ponytails off her shoulder, "Ohya?" She says to Mirress. She's not going to ask the dragon how old she is, plus, dragon years are likely different than humans, right? She eyes an egg herself, but then spots Lillia! Her precious egg gatherer! "Ohhoyo!" She waves, clicking a boot on the floor, a light thunderclap echoing from her heel, "Wowwwwww, yeeaaahh!" She claps and grabs the edges of her skirt, doing a curtsey, "I bow to your fashion choice!" She only wore a pair of bunny ears herself. Maybe she should have gone for the whole getup after all.

Mirress waves to the cat girl as she smiles "I like the outfit" she says as one of the wait staff brings a trey of oeuvres over.

Lillia offers Iri a somewhat tired look. Really, once she found that Iridescence wasn't part of any of the Mafia groups, she felt a lot easier about working with her. "Well, it is the season! I don't mind the excuse to show off just a little." Well, a lot. She has the figure for the outfit, even if the longer tail and second set of ears on top of her head detract from it a bit. Well, a lot. She grins lightly to the dragon, remembering her entrance. "Ah, all three of us again." Swift... gets a nod. She doesn't know the blue winged woman, and isn't in the mood to find out if she's a potential buyer or seller of something. She's already done too much work tonight.

A woman with rainbow hair who's clearly already hit the booze, wherever it is, runs through and hands bunny ears to anyone not wearing them; which includes Swift. She eyes them quizzically. (They are, of course, blue).

Iridescence nods at Lillia, "Well you're rockin' it, heya?" She looks over at Mirress and back at Lillia, "Oh, yeah, we did all meet at the same time, didn't we?" She hadn't thought of that before, was it just a chance encounter, or was there some Fate involved? She's never gone down that magic path. Maybe she'll consult another mage about it sometime and get a hint if it portents anything in their collective future. "Thanks for getting a lot of these eggs, by the by." She had a lot of people gathering, but Lillia was one of the better gatherers. At least that's what her collectors told her. She grins over at Swift, "They'll look good on you, good color coord."

Swift uhs. "I'm not wearing anything blue." Which she isn't. She actually clashes slightly.

Mirress smiles "Look at your wings dear" she giggles slightly, but as always, keeps an eye on the food

Lillia laughs once. "Eheh... Well, thanks," she says at the compliments, then nods to Iri's realization. She's not putting much into fate or anything of the like, herself. "Hey, it's what I do. Rosharia's marketplace was a minor gold mine for the actual eggs." She doesn't mind mentioning the source now that, well, the event she was effectively competing over is set. She looks back to Swift and nods. "Remember, this all started with someone that the ears were a natural part of." She reaches up and taps one of her actual ears. "I'm guessing rainbow there thought it'd be better to match the wings." No, she didn't see Swift get splattered.

"But..." And Swift twists and then she turns back to ''eye'' the pile of eggs. "Blue is not my color," she mock-grumbles. "I'll fix it...after the party."

Iridescence ohhhs at Lillia, "That's the kingdom somewhere to the Northeast, ya? Some princess rules it..." What was her name? Foria? Flirtora? Fat... Hm. Whatevz. She giggles lightly at Swift, "Hopefully it changes back or washes out or something. Not sure what's going to be permanent or not." A guest wanders over to the egg collection, grabbing a black square, cracking it open. A giant black blob swarms out of it, engulfing him completely. He rolls around for a moment before the black blob fizzles away, leaving the human in the shape of a giant mantis like creature with huge butterfly wings. He, or it...makes buzz fizz sounds and jumps into the air, flying towards the sea. "Fwuh," Iridescence says. Maybe she should have posted warning signs...ah well, it's all in fun.

Lillia nods absently to Iridescence. "Rune Venus, yes." She's about to reach for an egg herself when the man's black egg turns into something... not so good. She pauses for a moment before looking back to Iri again. "Where the hell did your other buyers FIND these? That crazy forest in Distant Oceans?!"

Swift finally gives in and puts on the bunny ears. Then looks at the food; what is there that's more...and then a giant insect hatches from one of the eggs and flies off. She ducks slightly, turning to watch it go.

Mirress blinks at that and shakes her head "Ok, maybe those eggs are more dangerous then I thought" She shakes her head, making a metal note to choose her egg carefully

Iridescence was way off. Rune Venus, right. She tries to remember the names of all the higher ups on Tri, but there's so many different groups and kingdoms, and sometimes they kill each other and new ones take their place. There's only so much she can keep up on. She grins at Lillia, "Ya, I sent a lot of people over there. I think some of them even tried to hop dimensions." She rubs the back of her head amidst her ponytail mass, "Not a lot came back though." What ya gonna do? It's why she paid everyone so highly! She waves in slight dismissal, "I wouldn't worry too much about it, ya?"

Lillia supplied some bugrom eggs, yes, but those don't do ''that'' to people! ...they'd just hatch a grub-looking creature that may or may not be raiseable to be a loyal soldier or bodyguard. Or maybe pet if you don't think of them as fully intelligent as individuals. Some people debate that fact. She gives a thumbs up to Swift for putting on the ears, now assuming her to have come through the conglomeration at most just over a year ago if she's that reluctant to wear the ears on today of all days. She sweatdrops about so many not coming back, and looks to Iridescence again with a raised eyebrow. "Dimension hopping. Yeah, no thanks. I like being able to find my way back home, thank you very much. I'll just keep going through my usual methods."

Mirress shrugs "Demention hoping can be fun, more so with an experienced shifter thou. That's what my would calls mages who specialize in dimensional rifts" she hmmms "But being lost can be fun too"

Swift purses her lips. "I have never ''intentionally'' dimension hopped." And she would rather like to get back home; but she knows that's a massive challenge.

Iridescence might have had one of her people secret a bugrom egg away for her. Maybe. Look, bodyguards are good to have, and she can never have enough! I mean, a kraken attacked the beach and mansion just a week or so ago! "Mmya, dimensional moving is just bonkers, but I won't stop people from doing it for my parties." She grins, nodding at a group of guests that come up the stairs, grabbing some bunny ears and passing them out. She then grabs a blue colored drink from a tray and takes a sip. Fwuh, some kind of alcoholic berry? "Ya, it's generally not safe to do it if you want to stay in one piece, or sane, or not bring some dimensional being along with you."

Swift claims one of the drinks herself, sips at it warily, then with a bit more enthusiasm. It'll do.

Lillia grabs a drink herself. No, in fact she hasn't grabbed an egg yet. No, after what she's now gathering happened to Swift and what happened to that poor man... she's not inclined to any more. "I think there's enough on this planet for me. Plus you never know what kinds of markets there will be on other worlds, so I'd rather stick with what I know how to play." She rolls her eyes at Iri suggesting that people dimensionally hop just to go to her parties. She sips her drink before looking at it to try to identify just what it was she picked up. "Hrm."

Iridescence takes another sip and nods at Lillia, "I've never shifted dimensions or worlds myself. Senta's the place to be, best continent in the universe, heya?"

Another guest goes up, eyeing the eggs over before selecting a plain white one. He cracks it on a table, and a golden ball the size of a yoke comes out. It bounces once, duplicates itself, then those two bounce and duplicate, and soon there's golden ball after ball bouncing and duplicating. It spills out across the dance floor, tripping people and causing them to crash into each other. That doesn't stop the suddenly rush for people grabbing free duplicating gold though, tons of people diving and grabbing for the moneymoney.

Swift sips at her drink and looks back at the food. It's meat heavy, as one would expect from a dragon, but there's a stir fry that doesn't seem quite so... "Hrm. What's the protein in that, Mirress?" she asks.

Lillia herself doesn't make a rush for the gold... no, either it's not real or the market's going to plummet on it. That and there's no real point. What's the point of striking it rich without the thrill of the hunt to go along with it. She takes another sip of her drink before swirling it in her glass. "Oh, I'd agree. From Distant Oceans, originally, myself, but I've found the most opportunity is really here. At least in my field."

Mirress blinks "Ummm" she watches the people make fools of themselves as she grabs a guest that tripped and was about to fall on the stove "A little chaotic up here all of a sudden" she then turns to swift "I kept the stir fry vegetarian, just in case, it does have chestnuts in it."

Iridescence drains the rest of her drink down and hops up to sit on a semi-empty table, crossing her legs and watching the people scatter for gold. Obvs she has no reason to go after it either, money isn't really something she ever has to worry about. Plus, it's her party, shouldn't take from the party goers! She nods at Lillia, "I make trips to Distant sometimes, there's some neato shops here and there in some of the kingdoms. And some of their magecraft gets pretty deet." The golden yokes stop duplicating as people stuff them in their pockets, bags, or just take handfuls of them. There's a lot of cheers and a few fights break out here and there over them, which starts a few more fights. And soon there's an entire platform that's become an all out brawl, people spilling over the edges and getting tossed into the ocean below. Iridescence doesn't move to stop any of it. Fights happen at her parties, and there's so much space it's not like you have to get involved if you don't want too. She grabs some kind of meat cheese combo thing and pops it in her mouth.

Swift nods. "I'll take that then." She will get herself a bowl and move off a bit to eat it.

Lillia sweatdrops at the building fight and looks at Iridescence to see her... lack of response. Huh. Maybe keeping interactions with Iridescence to business might be a good idea. "Uh, yeah. Very 'deet'. Work of course takes me all over the three continents, myself. And of course I stop by home when I get the excuse."

Mirress looks over at Lillia and Iridescence "I've been to Senta and Distant Ocean, Synthatek sounds interesting, sounds like it may have the technical level of my world, but the no magic thing is a problem, so IU haven't had the chance to visit there yet"

"Aiiieeee!" One of the guests screams as he plummets into the ocean, grabbing onto the clothes of another, a whole train of them spilling out of the party. Most of the people not being active physical fighters, they start to tire quickly, and many of the golden yoke people have fled with their greed anyway. Iridescence nods at Lillia and Mirress, "Ohya? I try to avoid Synthatek more or less. I have ID and all that, and since I have credits I'm fine, but without my magic, it's like something's not clicking inside me." Although if she ever wanted something high tech, she'd probably head over there since the shops specialize in it. And it's relatively safe with its law and order androids, unlike Senta.

Mirress nods "as for me, I feed off magic, so going there, I'd slowly starve"

Lillia leans back against a nearby table as she watches the goings on. She was hoping for a fun party, but now is, once again, worried about how the rich and powerful in Center City live. That all these people are effectively expendable in their eyes. "I know what you mean... I suppose to a lesser extent, though. I'm a little of a magic novice, at least by the standards of magic users in Distant Oceans." Mirress and Iri both saw her that day: she carried a longarm to defend herself in the conglomeration rather than rely on spellwork. "But I do have a sleeping pod permanently registered to me in Synthatek. I travel there often enough." Another long sip of her drink. She doesn't know what it is, but she does like it.

Swift finally looks up from her food; apparently she was thirsty. "I tend to prefer to stay here, so far." Because, well, no mutant abilities, means no wings.

Iridescence nods at Mirress, "Be real careful then, ya? I know there's a few tech dragons that live over there, but sounds like you're opposito." She turns her gaze on Lillia, uncrossing her legs and hopping off her table as an intoxicated bunny girl crashes into it. "Heya? Is it true there's barely enough room to move around with those?" She offers a hand to the bunny girl, getting her to her feet, though she stumbles off into another patron a second later. Fwuh. At least everyone's having fun?

Mirress smiles "It's not that I don't use tech, but I need magic to survive, wouldn't mind seeing it one day though. Like I said, my world does have a high level of tech."

Lillia watches the bunny girl stumble about, standing up properly to avoid being jostled by the crash as well. "Hey, don't knock it too much! Just... be very careful what you do there. There are ''always'' eyes on you there. Big sister really does see all." She looks over to Iridescence and nods. "Yeah, pretty much. But they're well kept and inexpensive. I don't really need much more there than a place to park my RV, truthfully, and the pod comes with that ''and'' a charge port for its batteries." She looks to Mirress with a light smirk. "So take a day trip sometime!"

Mirress nods "Maybe I will, do a bit of shopping while there too, see what type of goodies they have." The dragon smiles

Swift nods. "I investigated the place, and yes, it seems rather...totalitarian." Compared to where she is from. "It makes me nervous."

Iridescence nods at Lillia describing the sleeping accommodations. Sounds terrible! But then, she was raised with money, so the concept of not having comfort when you feel like is nigh impossible for her to grasp. She eyes the eggs over, wondering if she should open one or have one cooked up. She waves to a group that passes by and thanks her for the party, then looks back to Lillia, "I'll come along if I'm available. I've thought about buying one of those glowing light dresses that changes with your mood I heard they sell in one of the shops." They tried to open up a competitive branch here, but someone blew up their shop. Multiple times. Stupid mafia. Or was that the yakuza?

Lillia shrugs to Swift. It's not as big a deal to Lillia, really. Synthatek and Big Sister have existed since time immemorial. It'd be like saying Antarctica is too cold. Synthatek is just Synthatek, Big Sister is just Big Sister. "Eh. Just be really, really careful if you're considering breaking any laws. They're lenient if they think you honestly don't know about a law." She looks back to Iri again and says, "Yeah, I mentioned that to someone making magic imbued cloth in a minor kingdom on Distant Oceans. They think they can do something similar, so you might see some competition from the other end for that idea. Personally, I'd rather go with something I can control over something that reveals what my mood is." And as far as she's concerned, the mafias and yakuza might as well by the same thing.

Swift hrms. "I have to admit there are more useful things, but I know people who would definitely go for the mood-revealing dress."

Iridescence ohs at Lillia, "Reeeallly? That's exciting! If you can get me one I'll pay you whatever it costs plus half." She grins, scratching at her bunny ear headband, "Probably not good in your line of work if you're negotiating, heya?" She'd more want to wear it for kicks when out on the town, or just to see if it can read her moods better than she can herself. After all, sometimes you don't know what you're feeling. She nods at Swift, agreeing. She then laughs, "I could put some of my peeps in them to make sure they're sincere when they talk to me, but that might cause some employee fallout." She's pretty sure some of them just pretend to be nice to her for the paycheck, but what can ya do?

Lillia holds up two fingers. "Double." Yup, negotiating while wearing that outfit. It doesn't matter to her! "Though I'd suggest supplying me with a suitable mannequin double of you so they can properly fit everything for you, as well as a general idea of what style you would want. Or are you just wanting the raw fabric and will use your own tailors?" She looks to Swift and shrugs. "I'd say it could make a good party dress. Like I said, I'd prefer something less emotionally revealing and more flashy, mind you, but they already make those on both sides."

Swift nods. "And honestly, if I'm wearing a party dress..." It's because there's some massive advantage to it. Ahem.

Iridescence half lids her eyes at Lillia. What, really? She thought plus half was more than agreeable! But she's not a haggler, "Don't gouge me too deep, heyo, but agreed!" She taps her lips, "I'd rather they make me a few, def stick to the gothy look, ya? I'll have someone get you a mannequin." She has some on hand, but they're for modeling her outfits so she can pick from them, not for going out on the town. She grabs another drink, swirling its rainbow glowing contents and downing it. Oh. Good stuff.

Lillia is honestly surprised Iri caved that fast to her first demand. She didn't think that would actually fly. "All right, we can talk more details later. This is supposed to be a party, and I keep talking business!" She lets out a huff of a sigh before downing the last of her drink. An ear perks at Swift before she looks in her direction. "If statements are customarily followed by a 'then'." Curiosity of what Swift is thinking of is apparently killing this cat. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Swift sips a bit from her blue drink; seems to be the same one from earlier. Apparently she's a nurser. "If I'm wearing a party dress, most likely it's because I have to be somewhere pants aren't acceptable."

Iridescence nods to Lillia on that about business talks! That's true, this is a party! She went from talking fashion to buying products. "Fwuh." She sets her empty glass on the tray of a passing waitstaff bunnygirl, then gets closer to Lillia, "So, bunnygirl, I noticed ya haven't opened an egg yet." She'll try to reach out and turn Lillia towards the massive pile of eggs and lightly swat her bunny tail, "Come on, I want to see what you'll get! Or are you one of those eaters?" Cooking the eggs are never as fun as opening them up! Okay sometimes there's magical effects from cooking an egg and eating it.

Lillia blinks and looks at Swift like there's a joke in there somewhere. "A place where 'pants aren't acceptable', huh?" ...Yeah, she's thinking something completely different to Swift. At least the smirk suggests she's well aware of the fact that Swift's mind isn't where her own is. She takes another glass of a drink from another passing waitstaff, but it's quite the timing as Iri then brings attention to her not having opened an egg yet. So very, very close to doing a spit-take, there. If not for the hand going to her mouth just in time... Great, she was avoiding it. And she can't use one of the ones she herself supplied, that'd be just... rude. Using something you got paid for to bring here. At the bunny tail swat, she swats right back with her ''actual'' tail. Really, it's kind of a reflex. "Eheh... no thanks, the idea of eating something like with magical effects doesn't sound that appealing to me..." Well, she ''sort'' of agrees with Iridescence, at least. She sighs and steps over to the table and picks one up. A smaller one, though she knows that doesn't really mean much... unless something hatches from it. She grips the egg lightly and taps it against the edge of the table to initiate the crack so she can properly open it.

Swift elects not to be close to any opening eggs, after what happened earlier. She's...still blue.

Iridescence hops at the tailthwap, little sparks of lightning flickering between her fingers. Always be ready for retaliation! Except she wasn't, but that's okay. She smiles as Lillia goes for an egg, clapping her hands, "Good luck!" She'll step back, also wanting to keep distance because, well, you know things can happen. What if a void dragon comes out or something and wants to eat everyone?

Lillia looks back at the other two keeping their distance. Yes, a real boost in her confidence that this is a good idea, all right. She pulls the egg open and... a key falls out? She's quick to catch it before it hits the ground, but as she does there's what sounds like the pop of a spark and she cries out a quick, "Ow!" suggesting that that was indeed what happened. Static electricity much? Oh, and her hair turned green when it did that. No, not the fur of her ears and tail, just her hair. "Well, that could have been worse," she says. Right in time for the weather to suddenly change from clear skies into a torrential downpour.

"Never," Swift says wryly, "say it could have been worse." She kind of shelters under her own wings.

Iridescence double blinks! A key? Key to what? No chest appeared along with it. What's that mean? Could be a key to anything! Oh! "Green hair!" She smiles, "You know, multiple colors of hair -are- the way to go, heya?" Of course she's bias, being that all of her hair is so differentially colored. She starts walking over towards Lillia when FWOOSH! Downpour! "Fwuhhhhhh!" She holds a hand over her head, not that it matters, she's drenched! People start scattering, hiding under tables and raising coats above their heads as shields. Some people change genders or turn into animals, guess they spent too much time near those enchanted springs in Distant Oceans. She reaches into her sleeve, pulling out her com and sticking it in her ear. "Heya? Acti-...what? How is it broke?" She huffs and pulls the com out of her ear, looking at Swift and Lillia, "There's supposed to be a force field cover, but something broke it. Iiiiii'm gonna say the party's over, yahey?"

Lillia says, "I...I really should already know that," in response to Swift. She looks at her hair... it's easy, the rain has plastered it down into her face. She likes her hair color, she doesn't want it green! Okay, maybe some highlights of color wouldn't be so bad but not this. Really, though, it's the rain that's the worst. It's so bad, in fact, that it's apparently broken down the weather barrier this place has? It's so bad that it's actually killed the party. "Ugh," she manages to say. "Yeah. I'm gonna have to agree. Sorry."

Swift has been rained on before. She risks a glance up at the sky...

Iridescence smiles at Lillia, "Hey it's kewl ya! Party's aren't any fun if things go according to plan!" Most of them end in something going wrong anyway. That's what happens when you invite an entire world to your mansion. "Okay, see you two later!" She winks and throws a peace sign to Swift and the catgirl, rolling to her feet and then run skidding over to the bar. She taps a little keypad and the floor underneath her opens up, dumping her down into it with a flurry of skirt, bows, and hair! It snaps closed behind her. A loud monotone voice echoes over unseen speakers "THE EGG CELEBRATION PARTY IS NOW OVER. PLEASE EXIT THE PREMISES!" Thirty seconds later, the hover platforms all start shifting, turning into inclines, walls, and whatnot, until they form a long tunnel slide down to the beach below, dumping everyone who doesn't get a move on out. "THANK YOU FOR COMING!"

|}}

2020-04-12 - Egg Celebration Day Party!

2021-11-15T21:36:18Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=Egg Celebration Day Party! |Summary=It's Egg Day! And someone over in Richside is hosting a massive party open to the public! |Who=Iridescence, Lilli..."

{{Logsummary|
Title=Egg Celebration Day Party!
|Summary=It's Egg Day! And someone over in Richside is hosting a massive party open to the public!
|Who=[[Iridescence]], [[Lillia]], [[Mirress]], [[Swift]]
|Date=Month Day, Year.
|Where=Location or Room Name.
|Log=
Iridescence’s mansion roof has been expanded for Egg Celebration Day! Multiple hover platforms link to the sides of the roof, some of them expanding out over the beach and even the ocean. A diving platform is placed for those willing to brave the long dive into the sea!

Music plays, varying between multiple genres, though all are happy and upbeat. A gigantic kitchen area is setup on one of the hover platforms, where bbq’s, grills, and other cooking utensils vary in shape and size, some large enough for even a dragon to use.

Another platform has eggs. EGGS EGGS EGGS, tons of eggs in various shapes, sizes, and colors! A sign reads, ‘Please take one!’. Who knows what the contents will be?! Hatch it, eat it, break it! It’s up to you! There's also a giant collection of different colored bunny ears for you to wear, should you wish!

Other utilities include a fully stocked bar, dance floor, dining area, lounge chairs complete with a fire pit. One hover platform has been placed upright, allowing for a large wall for the wallflowers, shy, or people who enjoy leaning against giant walls. A giant metal staircase leads from the roof down to the beach entrance, temporarily placed for party people coming and going.

Be sure to 'Grab An Egg!'

Swift very cautiously touches an egg. It cracks open at her touch...and absolutely drenches the poor girl in water! She shakes herself instinctively, droplets ''flying'' from her wings. Which are now blue. She laughs a bit. "So, apparently, some of the eggs are pranks." Harmless pranks, mind. Well, she hasn't noticed her wings yet.

Iridescence hops back as Swift touches one of the eggs and it cracks from her touch! She knows that a looot of these things have effects that she's keen to avoid, or at least, not experience if someone else is. Fwuh, water everywhere! She sniggers, putting a hand over her mouth and waving at a pair of servants with bunny ears, who head off to get some stuff to clean up the water. She claps, "I guess so! I purposefully didn't catalog what everything was or where they came from, part of the surprise fun, yahey?" She eyes the wings, "Blue looks good on you though." She shields her face as some of the droplets hit her. "Fwuh." That's fine, she'll grab a towel from a servant. She drops the deviled egg in her mouth, thumbing up at Mirress. "Delicioso!"

"I have had ''far'' worse," Swift says, amused, and turning to take a deviled egg...she might be part bird, but she apparently is ''not'' above eating eggs.

Mirress shakes her head, giggling a bit then turns to Iridescence "Thank you, I aim to please" she smiles a little and decides to be careful when selecting her eye, a blue firewind might confuse people

Iridescence nods at Swift, "I'm sure, there's some dangerous ones in there somewhere." She shrugs her bare shoulders, smiling, "But we have a dragon here, so I'm sure we'll be fine no matter what." She winks towards Mirress, snagging another deviled egg and slurping it down. The cleaning bunny crew shows up, throwing down towels and cleaning the floor around Swift, thought they pointedly don't touch or try to move her. She grabs a towel from one of them, wiping off the droplets.

Mirress shakes her head, her bunny ears twitching a bit as she looks over at the eggs "As long as nothing too strong comes out, I do have my limits, still young after all"

Swift pops the deviled egg in her mouth. "Well, if something happens." She's still oblivious to her, well, makeover. Well, it probably isn't permanent...

From one group of people walks a certain platinum haired catfolk woman. Apparently she's fully embraced the holiday... Bunny ears? No, Lillia's wearing the full getup, heels and fishnet stockings and everything. Really, it doesn't quite work as well on someone that already has animalistic ears and a tail, but she doesn't seem to care. She's all smiles as she waves goodbye to the group she's leaving... but as soon as she's faced away, her expression falls somewhat. "You'd think I could step away from business for just one night, but no..."

Iridescence pushes one of her ponytails off her shoulder, "Ohya?" She says to Mirress. She's not going to ask the dragon how old she is, plus, dragon years are likely different than humans, right? She eyes an egg herself, but then spots Lillia! Her precious egg gatherer! "Ohhoyo!" She waves, clicking a boot on the floor, a light thunderclap echoing from her heel, "Wowwwwww, yeeaaahh!" She claps and grabs the edges of her skirt, doing a curtsey, "I bow to your fashion choice!" She only wore a pair of bunny ears herself. Maybe she should have gone for the whole getup after all.

Mirress waves to the cat girl as she smiles "I like the outfit" she says as one of the wait staff brings a trey of oeuvres over.

Lillia offers Iri a somewhat tired look. Really, once she found that Iridescence wasn't part of any of the Mafia groups, she felt a lot easier about working with her. "Well, it is the season! I don't mind the excuse to show off just a little." Well, a lot. She has the figure for the outfit, even if the longer tail and second set of ears on top of her head detract from it a bit. Well, a lot. She grins lightly to the dragon, remembering her entrance. "Ah, all three of us again." Swift... gets a nod. She doesn't know the blue winged woman, and isn't in the mood to find out if she's a potential buyer or seller of something. She's already done too much work tonight.

A woman with rainbow hair who's clearly already hit the booze, wherever it is, runs through and hands bunny ears to anyone not wearing them; which includes Swift. She eyes them quizzically. (They are, of course, blue).

Iridescence nods at Lillia, "Well you're rockin' it, heya?" She looks over at Mirress and back at Lillia, "Oh, yeah, we did all meet at the same time, didn't we?" She hadn't thought of that before, was it just a chance encounter, or was there some Fate involved? She's never gone down that magic path. Maybe she'll consult another mage about it sometime and get a hint if it portents anything in their collective future. "Thanks for getting a lot of these eggs, by the by." She had a lot of people gathering, but Lillia was one of the better gatherers. At least that's what her collectors told her. She grins over at Swift, "They'll look good on you, good color coord."

Swift uhs. "I'm not wearing anything blue." Which she isn't. She actually clashes slightly.

Mirress smiles "Look at your wings dear" she giggles slightly, but as always, keeps an eye on the food

Lillia laughs once. "Eheh... Well, thanks," she says at the compliments, then nods to Iri's realization. She's not putting much into fate or anything of the like, herself. "Hey, it's what I do. Rosharia's marketplace was a minor gold mine for the actual eggs." She doesn't mind mentioning the source now that, well, the event she was effectively competing over is set. She looks back to Swift and nods. "Remember, this all started with someone that the ears were a natural part of." She reaches up and taps one of her actual ears. "I'm guessing rainbow there thought it'd be better to match the wings." No, she didn't see Swift get splattered.

"But..." And Swift twists and then she turns back to ''eye'' the pile of eggs. "Blue is not my color," she mock-grumbles. "I'll fix it...after the party."

Iridescence ohhhs at Lillia, "That's the kingdom somewhere to the Northeast, ya? Some princess rules it..." What was her name? Foria? Flirtora? Fat... Hm. Whatevz. She giggles lightly at Swift, "Hopefully it changes back or washes out or something. Not sure what's going to be permanent or not." A guest wanders over to the egg collection, grabbing a black square, cracking it open. A giant black blob swarms out of it, engulfing him completely. He rolls around for a moment before the black blob fizzles away, leaving the human in the shape of a giant mantis like creature with huge butterfly wings. He, or it...makes buzz fizz sounds and jumps into the air, flying towards the sea. "Fwuh," Iridescence says. Maybe she should have posted warning signs...ah well, it's all in fun.

Lillia nods absently to Iridescence. "Rune Venus, yes." She's about to reach for an egg herself when the man's black egg turns into something... not so good. She pauses for a moment before looking back to Iri again. "Where the hell did your other buyers FIND these? That crazy forest in Distant Oceans?!"

Swift finally gives in and puts on the bunny ears. Then looks at the food; what is there that's more...and then a giant insect hatches from one of the eggs and flies off. She ducks slightly, turning to watch it go.

Mirress blinks at that and shakes her head "Ok, maybe those eggs are more dangerous then I thought" She shakes her head, making a metal note to choose her egg carefully

Iridescence was way off. Rune Venus, right. She tries to remember the names of all the higher ups on Tri, but there's so many different groups and kingdoms, and sometimes they kill each other and new ones take their place. There's only so much she can keep up on. She grins at Lillia, "Ya, I sent a lot of people over there. I think some of them even tried to hop dimensions." She rubs the back of her head amidst her ponytail mass, "Not a lot came back though." What ya gonna do? It's why she paid everyone so highly! She waves in slight dismissal, "I wouldn't worry too much about it, ya?"

Lillia supplied some bugrom eggs, yes, but those don't do ''that'' to people! ...they'd just hatch a grub-looking creature that may or may not be raiseable to be a loyal soldier or bodyguard. Or maybe pet if you don't think of them as fully intelligent as individuals. Some people debate that fact. She gives a thumbs up to Swift for putting on the ears, now assuming her to have come through the conglomeration at most just over a year ago if she's that reluctant to wear the ears on today of all days. She sweatdrops about so many not coming back, and looks to Iridescence again with a raised eyebrow. "Dimension hopping. Yeah, no thanks. I like being able to find my way back home, thank you very much. I'll just keep going through my usual methods."

Mirress shrugs "Demention hoping can be fun, more so with an experienced shifter thou. That's what my would calls mages who specialize in dimensional rifts" she hmmms "But being lost can be fun too"

Swift purses her lips. "I have never ''intentionally'' dimension hopped." And she would rather like to get back home; but she knows that's a massive challenge.

Iridescence might have had one of her people secret a bugrom egg away for her. Maybe. Look, bodyguards are good to have, and she can never have enough! I mean, a kraken attacked the beach and mansion just a week or so ago! "Mmya, dimensional moving is just bonkers, but I won't stop people from doing it for my parties." She grins, nodding at a group of guests that come up the stairs, grabbing some bunny ears and passing them out. She then grabs a blue colored drink from a tray and takes a sip. Fwuh, some kind of alcoholic berry? "Ya, it's generally not safe to do it if you want to stay in one piece, or sane, or not bring some dimensional being along with you."

Swift claims one of the drinks herself, sips at it warily, then with a bit more enthusiasm. It'll do.

Lillia grabs a drink herself. No, in fact she hasn't grabbed an egg yet. No, after what she's now gathering happened to Swift and what happened to that poor man... she's not inclined to any more. "I think there's enough on this planet for me. Plus you never know what kinds of markets there will be on other worlds, so I'd rather stick with what I know how to play." She rolls her eyes at Iri suggesting that people dimensionally hop just to go to her parties. She sips her drink before looking at it to try to identify just what it was she picked up. "Hrm."

Iridescence takes another sip and nods at Lillia, "I've never shifted dimensions or worlds myself. Senta's the place to be, best continent in the universe, heya?"

Another guest goes up, eyeing the eggs over before selecting a plain white one. He cracks it on a table, and a golden ball the size of a yoke comes out. It bounces once, duplicates itself, then those two bounce and duplicate, and soon there's golden ball after ball bouncing and duplicating. It spills out across the dance floor, tripping people and causing them to crash into each other. That doesn't stop the suddenly rush for people grabbing free duplicating gold though, tons of people diving and grabbing for the moneymoney.

Swift sips at her drink and looks back at the food. It's meat heavy, as one would expect from a dragon, but there's a stir fry that doesn't seem quite so... "Hrm. What's the protein in that, Mirress?" she asks.

Lillia herself doesn't make a rush for the gold... no, either it's not real or the market's going to plummet on it. That and there's no real point. What's the point of striking it rich without the thrill of the hunt to go along with it. She takes another sip of her drink before swirling it in her glass. "Oh, I'd agree. From Distant Oceans, originally, myself, but I've found the most opportunity is really here. At least in my field."

Mirress blinks "Ummm" she watches the people make fools of themselves as she grabs a guest that tripped and was about to fall on the stove "A little chaotic up here all of a sudden" she then turns to swift "I kept the stir fry vegetarian, just in case, it does have chestnuts in it."

Iridescence drains the rest of her drink down and hops up to sit on a semi-empty table, crossing her legs and watching the people scatter for gold. Obvs she has no reason to go after it either, money isn't really something she ever has to worry about. Plus, it's her party, shouldn't take from the party goers! She nods at Lillia, "I make trips to Distant sometimes, there's some neato shops here and there in some of the kingdoms. And some of their magecraft gets pretty deet." The golden yokes stop duplicating as people stuff them in their pockets, bags, or just take handfuls of them. There's a lot of cheers and a few fights break out here and there over them, which starts a few more fights. And soon there's an entire platform that's become an all out brawl, people spilling over the edges and getting tossed into the ocean below. Iridescence doesn't move to stop any of it. Fights happen at her parties, and there's so much space it's not like you have to get involved if you don't want too. She grabs some kind of meat cheese combo thing and pops it in her mouth.

Swift nods. "I'll take that then." She will get herself a bowl and move off a bit to eat it.

Lillia sweatdrops at the building fight and looks at Iridescence to see her... lack of response. Huh. Maybe keeping interactions with Iridescence to business might be a good idea. "Uh, yeah. Very 'deet'. Work of course takes me all over the three continents, myself. And of course I stop by home when I get the excuse."

Mirress looks over at Lillia and Iridescence "I've been to Senta and Distant Ocean, Synthatek sounds interesting, sounds like it may have the technical level of my world, but the no magic thing is a problem, so IU haven't had the chance to visit there yet"

"Aiiieeee!" One of the guests screams as he plummets into the ocean, grabbing onto the clothes of another, a whole train of them spilling out of the party. Most of the people not being active physical fighters, they start to tire quickly, and many of the golden yoke people have fled with their greed anyway. Iridescence nods at Lillia and Mirress, "Ohya? I try to avoid Synthatek more or less. I have ID and all that, and since I have credits I'm fine, but without my magic, it's like something's not clicking inside me." Although if she ever wanted something high tech, she'd probably head over there since the shops specialize in it. And it's relatively safe with its law and order androids, unlike Senta.

Mirress nods "as for me, I feed off magic, so going there, I'd slowly starve"

Lillia leans back against a nearby table as she watches the goings on. She was hoping for a fun party, but now is, once again, worried about how the rich and powerful in Center City live. That all these people are effectively expendable in their eyes. "I know what you mean... I suppose to a lesser extent, though. I'm a little of a magic novice, at least by the standards of magic users in Distant Oceans." Mirress and Iri both saw her that day: she carried a longarm to defend herself in the conglomeration rather than rely on spellwork. "But I do have a sleeping pod permanently registered to me in Synthatek. I travel there often enough." Another long sip of her drink. She doesn't know what it is, but she does like it.

Swift finally looks up from her food; apparently she was thirsty. "I tend to prefer to stay here, so far." Because, well, no mutant abilities, means no wings.

Iridescence nods at Mirress, "Be real careful then, ya? I know there's a few tech dragons that live over there, but sounds like you're opposito." She turns her gaze on Lillia, uncrossing her legs and hopping off her table as an intoxicated bunny girl crashes into it. "Heya? Is it true there's barely enough room to move around with those?" She offers a hand to the bunny girl, getting her to her feet, though she stumbles off into another patron a second later. Fwuh. At least everyone's having fun?

Mirress smiles "It's not that I don't use tech, but I need magic to survive, wouldn't mind seeing it one day though. Like I said, my world does have a high level of tech."

Lillia watches the bunny girl stumble about, standing up properly to avoid being jostled by the crash as well. "Hey, don't knock it too much! Just... be very careful what you do there. There are ''always'' eyes on you there. Big sister really does see all." She looks over to Iridescence and nods. "Yeah, pretty much. But they're well kept and inexpensive. I don't really need much more there than a place to park my RV, truthfully, and the pod comes with that ''and'' a charge port for its batteries." She looks to Mirress with a light smirk. "So take a day trip sometime!"

Mirress nods "Maybe I will, do a bit of shopping while there too, see what type of goodies they have." The dragon smiles

Swift nods. "I investigated the place, and yes, it seems rather...totalitarian." Compared to where she is from. "It makes me nervous."

Iridescence nods at Lillia describing the sleeping accommodations. Sounds terrible! But then, she was raised with money, so the concept of not having comfort when you feel like is nigh impossible for her to grasp. She eyes the eggs over, wondering if she should open one or have one cooked up. She waves to a group that passes by and thanks her for the party, then looks back to Lillia, "I'll come along if I'm available. I've thought about buying one of those glowing light dresses that changes with your mood I heard they sell in one of the shops." They tried to open up a competitive branch here, but someone blew up their shop. Multiple times. Stupid mafia. Or was that the yakuza?

Lillia shrugs to Swift. It's not as big a deal to Lillia, really. Synthatek and Big Sister have existed since time immemorial. It'd be like saying Antarctica is too cold. Synthatek is just Synthatek, Big Sister is just Big Sister. "Eh. Just be really, really careful if you're considering breaking any laws. They're lenient if they think you honestly don't know about a law." She looks back to Iri again and says, "Yeah, I mentioned that to someone making magic imbued cloth in a minor kingdom on Distant Oceans. They think they can do something similar, so you might see some competition from the other end for that idea. Personally, I'd rather go with something I can control over something that reveals what my mood is." And as far as she's concerned, the mafias and yakuza might as well by the same thing.

Swift hrms. "I have to admit there are more useful things, but I know people who would definitely go for the mood-revealing dress."

Iridescence ohs at Lillia, "Reeeallly? That's exciting! If you can get me one I'll pay you whatever it costs plus half." She grins, scratching at her bunny ear headband, "Probably not good in your line of work if you're negotiating, heya?" She'd more want to wear it for kicks when out on the town, or just to see if it can read her moods better than she can herself. After all, sometimes you don't know what you're feeling. She nods at Swift, agreeing. She then laughs, "I could put some of my peeps in them to make sure they're sincere when they talk to me, but that might cause some employee fallout." She's pretty sure some of them just pretend to be nice to her for the paycheck, but what can ya do?

Lillia holds up two fingers. "Double." Yup, negotiating while wearing that outfit. It doesn't matter to her! "Though I'd suggest supplying me with a suitable mannequin double of you so they can properly fit everything for you, as well as a general idea of what style you would want. Or are you just wanting the raw fabric and will use your own tailors?" She looks to Swift and shrugs. "I'd say it could make a good party dress. Like I said, I'd prefer something less emotionally revealing and more flashy, mind you, but they already make those on both sides."

Swift nods. "And honestly, if I'm wearing a party dress..." It's because there's some massive advantage to it. Ahem.

Iridescence half lids her eyes at Lillia. What, really? She thought plus half was more than agreeable! But she's not a haggler, "Don't gouge me too deep, heyo, but agreed!" She taps her lips, "I'd rather they make me a few, def stick to the gothy look, ya? I'll have someone get you a mannequin." She has some on hand, but they're for modeling her outfits so she can pick from them, not for going out on the town. She grabs another drink, swirling its rainbow glowing contents and downing it. Oh. Good stuff.

Lillia is honestly surprised Iri caved that fast to her first demand. She didn't think that would actually fly. "All right, we can talk more details later. This is supposed to be a party, and I keep talking business!" She lets out a huff of a sigh before downing the last of her drink. An ear perks at Swift before she looks in her direction. "If statements are customarily followed by a 'then'." Curiosity of what Swift is thinking of is apparently killing this cat. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Swift sips a bit from her blue drink; seems to be the same one from earlier. Apparently she's a nurser. "If I'm wearing a party dress, most likely it's because I have to be somewhere pants aren't acceptable."

Iridescence nods to Lillia on that about business talks! That's true, this is a party! She went from talking fashion to buying products. "Fwuh." She sets her empty glass on the tray of a passing waitstaff bunnygirl, then gets closer to Lillia, "So, bunnygirl, I noticed ya haven't opened an egg yet." She'll try to reach out and turn Lillia towards the massive pile of eggs and lightly swat her bunny tail, "Come on, I want to see what you'll get! Or are you one of those eaters?" Cooking the eggs are never as fun as opening them up! Okay sometimes there's magical effects from cooking an egg and eating it.

Lillia blinks and looks at Swift like there's a joke in there somewhere. "A place where 'pants aren't acceptable', huh?" ...Yeah, she's thinking something completely different to Swift. At least the smirk suggests she's well aware of the fact that Swift's mind isn't where her own is. She takes another glass of a drink from another passing waitstaff, but it's quite the timing as Iri then brings attention to her not having opened an egg yet. So very, very close to doing a spit-take, there. If not for the hand going to her mouth just in time... Great, she was avoiding it. And she can't use one of the ones she herself supplied, that'd be just... rude. Using something you got paid for to bring here. At the bunny tail swat, she swats right back with her ''actual'' tail. Really, it's kind of a reflex. "Eheh... no thanks, the idea of eating something like with magical effects doesn't sound that appealing to me..." Well, she ''sort'' of agrees with Iridescence, at least. She sighs and steps over to the table and picks one up. A smaller one, though she knows that doesn't really mean much... unless something hatches from it. She grips the egg lightly and taps it against the edge of the table to initiate the crack so she can properly open it.

Swift elects not to be close to any opening eggs, after what happened earlier. She's...still blue.

Iridescence hops at the tailthwap, little sparks of lightning flickering between her fingers. Always be ready for retaliation! Except she wasn't, but that's okay. She smiles as Lillia goes for an egg, clapping her hands, "Good luck!" She'll step back, also wanting to keep distance because, well, you know things can happen. What if a void dragon comes out or something and wants to eat everyone?

Lillia looks back at the other two keeping their distance. Yes, a real boost in her confidence that this is a good idea, all right. She pulls the egg open and... a key falls out? She's quick to catch it before it hits the ground, but as she does there's what sounds like the pop of a spark and she cries out a quick, "Ow!" suggesting that that was indeed what happened. Static electricity much? Oh, and her hair turned green when it did that. No, not the fur of her ears and tail, just her hair. "Well, that could have been worse," she says. Right in time for the weather to suddenly change from clear skies into a torrential downpour.

"Never," Swift says wryly, "say it could have been worse." She kind of shelters under her own wings.

Iridescence double blinks! A key? Key to what? No chest appeared along with it. What's that mean? Could be a key to anything! Oh! "Green hair!" She smiles, "You know, multiple colors of hair -are- the way to go, heya?" Of course she's bias, being that all of her hair is so differentially colored. She starts walking over towards Lillia when FWOOSH! Downpour! "Fwuhhhhhh!" She holds a hand over her head, not that it matters, she's drenched! People start scattering, hiding under tables and raising coats above their heads as shields. Some people change genders or turn into animals, guess they spent too much time near those enchanted springs in Distant Oceans. She reaches into her sleeve, pulling out her com and sticking it in her ear. "Heya? Acti-...what? How is it broke?" She huffs and pulls the com out of her ear, looking at Swift and Lillia, "There's supposed to be a force field cover, but something broke it. Iiiiii'm gonna say the party's over, yahey?"

Lillia says, "I...I really should already know that," in response to Swift. She looks at her hair... it's easy, the rain has plastered it down into her face. She likes her hair color, she doesn't want it green! Okay, maybe some highlights of color wouldn't be so bad but not this. Really, though, it's the rain that's the worst. It's so bad, in fact, that it's apparently broken down the weather barrier this place has? It's so bad that it's actually killed the party. "Ugh," she manages to say. "Yeah. I'm gonna have to agree. Sorry."

Swift has been rained on before. She risks a glance up at the sky...

Iridescence smiles at Lillia, "Hey it's kewl ya! Party's aren't any fun if things go according to plan!" Most of them end in something going wrong anyway. That's what happens when you invite an entire world to your mansion. "Okay, see you two later!" She winks and throws a peace sign to Swift and the catgirl, rolling to her feet and then run skidding over to the bar. She taps a little keypad and the floor underneath her opens up, dumping her down into it with a flurry of skirt, bows, and hair! It snaps closed behind her. A loud monotone voice echoes over unseen speakers "THE EGG CELEBRATION PARTY IS NOW OVER. PLEASE EXIT THE PREMISES!" Thirty seconds later, the hover platforms all start shifting, turning into inclines, walls, and whatnot, until they form a long tunnel slide down to the beach below, dumping everyone who doesn't get a move on out. "THANK YOU FOR COMING!"

|}}

2020-03-27 - Picking the Wrong Marks

2021-11-15T21:23:25Z

Hitakino Kage: forgot to fill in the title field

2020-03-27 - Picking the Wrong Marks

2021-11-15T21:22:35Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=The name of the scene |Summary=Some ruffians try to mug Luna and Shizuko. They couldn't have picked worse targets. |Who=Luna, Shizuko |Date=March 2..."

{{Logsummary|
Title=The name of the scene
|Summary=Some ruffians try to mug Luna and Shizuko. They couldn't have picked worse targets.
|Who=[[Luna]], [[Shizuko]]
|Date=March 27th, 2020
|Where=Shopping District
|Log=

Shopping District
Center City's Shopping District is a massive collection of shops, malls, and entertainment shops! Holo commercials, ads, and people yelling at you to come shop at their place line the streets and skies. Just about anything you can buy can be found here. Watch out for pickpockets!

Luna walks through the city, her blue hair wafting in the wind as she looks about at...well, everything. This whole place is huge, and she's started trying to explore it all and get a hold of everything, especially the odd properties of the world. o O ( You would probably be better suited for this. ) She thinks to her past self's life that lives inside her. o O { Yes well, you should take more of a lead since it's your lifetime. } She can't argue with that exactly, but they're almost kind of the same person. Really. She holds a paper grocery bag, balancing it contents by hugging it with both arms and moving around people as she heads down the sidewalk. She has just about everything she came for, so she should probably head back to the Tower soonish. Oh...there's a large pack of thug looking people up ahead. She stops and moves to cross the street to avoid them.

Another walking along the sidewalk is a teenaged girl that is trying so very hard to just meld in with the crowd, but there's just something... off. No, to the trained eye, it's clear she's never been here before. The darting eyes moving not towards people or threats... no, to the buildings. Everything seems so... backwards compared to what she's used to! It's clearly discomforting to her, but she has determined that she must get used to this place... like it or not, Center City is her new home. She doesn't like it, for the record. She's always heard this place was horribly dangerous...

The large pack crosses the street as Luna does. The blue haired girl sweatdrops and stops walking. o O ( I think they're hostile. ) o O { Indeed. } o O ( Want to take over and deal with them? ) o O { I fear such actions may lead both of us closer to the path of inevitable madness, yes? } That's true, as the black dragon of Lunar, she's fated to go mad eventually, and fusing with her past life's soul wasn't the best way to prolong that fate. Okay, then...she scans around the area, pairs are better than singles, right? She spots Shizuko, just a block behind her, reverses direction away from the thugs, and starts walking faster towards her, halfway there she'll bring a hand up in a wave, though she almost loses her grip on the grocery bag, and has to replace her hands before the insides all topple out. Whoops.

Shizuko continues along her way as if nothing was wrong. Some... elf girl is waving in her direction? She ignores her... Considering she's never seen the elf before in her life, it's simply a safe assumption that she's not the one being waved to. Just... fit in, don't make a scene of yourself. Even looking behind herself would be too attention grabbing... right? But someone could be back there... No! Just keep walking on! ...Towards the elf. Oh. And the pack of troublesome looking individuals behind her. Stay cool, just... keep walking.

Luna doesn't get a wave back from Shizuko. But she looks so friendly! o O ( Humans sometimes. ) She's sure it's an honest mistake, so she smiles as her left ear twitches and she waves again, "Greetings!" Right at Shizuko as she draws closer and closer. She'll then stop directly in Shizuko's path, glancing over her shoulder. The large group has slowed their pace some, assessing the situation. Other people wandering about the area have begun to move into shops, get into vehicles, or turn down into alleys.

Shizuko looks blankly at Luna as the elf blocks her path and makes it clear that she's the one being spoken to. Unless... yes, now she does look behind her. Of course no one is there. "Uh... hi?" she says as she looks back to Luna. "Um... can I... help you?"

Luna smiles as Shizuko finally says hi in return, one of her fangs gleaming a moment. She lowers her voice, "Hello, I'm Luna, it's wonderful to meet you!" She glances back again, shifts her footing, and adjusts her groceries, "I'm hoping that if we're together we'll be left alone by the large group of humans coming towards us." She steps in closer, to a conversational distance, "I recognize a few of them now, yes? They've been watching me shop throughout the day. I have no idea why they'd want what I've bought though." o O { Hmm hmm hmm, they want your money, not your goods. } Oh.

The group stops half a block away, conferring quietly with each other, eyeing and watching both Luna and Shizuko, greed written in their eyes.

Shizuko blinks, then says slowly, "I'm... Iwamatsu Shizuko?" Her heart drops a few centimeters, however, as Luna explains just why she's decided to greet Shizuko. "Oh..." she says. "Um..." She looks to the group and it's clear... They're not about to leave Luna alone just because Shizuko is nearby. "I, uh... don't think it's going to work... very well."

Luna nods at the name, tilting her head at her halting talk. Quick look back at the group, back to Shizuko. She frowns a moment and looks at her grocery bag. Will it survive a fight? If she's careful, maybe? She could just turn into a dragon maybe...what are the rules here? "Predator's often chase prey when they run." Although that's not always true for humans. She doesn't want to give her money to them either, then she'd be marked for the future. o O { Indeed. } Okay, past self agrees.

The group decides they've waited long enough, a few pull knives, a couple small laser pistols, while two more hang back, magic energy starting to swirl around their feet, as the knives and pistols move forward. One of them calls out in a squeaky snarl, "Cough up your money and we'll leave you two birds alone."

Shizuko brings a hand up to her mouth as the group approaches more openly. "I don't have any money on me," she says. It's actually the truth. She didn't bring any money... she's not used to carrying anything that ''could'' be stolen as money. It's kind of an old, out of date concept in Synthatec... But she's also pretty sure they'll not take that as an answer. Or worse, they'll just try to get something... ''else'' out of her. She shoots the elf a look of 'why did you drag me into this?' before looking back to the thugs. Oh. She's going to have to use THAT, isn't she?

Luna has a lot of money on her. The shops around here take all kinds of currency, so gold and gems were easy to get goods for. But she should have known better than to wander a new world without knowing the laws...are there laws here? She turns and steps to the side of Shizuko. She smiles at Shizuko's look, trying to be friendly, even though it's obvious the girl isn't happy with her. o O ( They're advancing. ) o O { Yes well, scan them first. } Oh yes, right. Her eyes take on a deeper green than normal, allowing her to view peoples magical makeup and their souls. She'll look at Shizuku, because... well, she's right there, and then towards the thuggos.

Knife and Laser Pistol dudes have no magic, and their souls are black messy things as they move in. The two mages in the back have flight magic in their feet, and are summoning something? Their souls are also black. "Yeah, sure. We saw that pointy eared blue haired bird throwing gems around, and obviously she knows you. Now pay or ''pay''." They stop close to them both, knives out and guns aimed.

Shizuko's soul looks like... an ordinary person's. Maybe a bit more innocent. Maybe a bit less magical than usual. As if magic itself were just... unfamiliar with her. "...Stay back. I-I'm warning you..." What was that phrase again? Oh, right... well, she'll give them one last chance... though she's pretty sure she failed horribly to intimidate them...

Luna's human form just isn't built for intimidation. She made it to go blend in with humans and try being a barmaid at a tavern in Meribia after all. "I'm also warning you." She'll say, glancing at Shizuko. She's going to have to protect the human she dragged into this. All she does is try to help repent and repay for the atrocities of her past life's self, and here she is getting someone in trouble. o O { It isn't your fault, yes? } Well, she can say that all she wants, but it feels like it is. A magic glow of blue flows up around her, forming an aura, and a general feeling of static electricity fills the air.

Knife 1 shakes his head, "That's it," and him and Knife 2 both move forward, each one grabbing for the bicep of each girl respectively, as the laser pistols keep their weapons trained, though they drop them to the side as the Knife men move in. The summoners are...still summoning, the magic around their feet spreading out into magic circles in front of them both.

Shizuko quickly thrusts her right hand forward, palm facing out and fingers spread, her left hand on her right bicep. "Strike Star Transformation!" she calls out! And that's when things get flashy. Sure, it's quite possible, probable, even, that her arm was grabbed by the man... But there's then that flash of light. A very bright one. It's suddenly as if she were sheathed in white energy, her form glowing as the shields first come up opaque to protect what comes next from unwanted eyes. Because there is that split second where first what she has on her is transported away, leaving her otherwise exposed if it weren't for that bright light. It is, however, clear that ''something'' happened to her clothes, as the obvious outline of her skirt is gone for that split second, as well. But it doesn't last, as a completely different outline of a skirt appears. Longer elements are on it, as well as something appearing on her arms. A hair accessory as well has clearly appeared, replacing the bow that had held the ponytail in place before. As soon as it appeared, the light vanishes, leaving her in white, black, and gold armor. Well, 'armor' might be an exaggeration. Whatever you call the outfit, part of it immediately moves, flying into place from her skirt to right in the face of the man that had just grabbed her. . o O ( okay, set for stun and- ) The part shifts and opens, firing its own laser at her assaulter.

Luna's bicep gets grabbed. She wasn't really ready for the thugs to move in right away. But, her combat experience isn't on the high side, especially not in a human body. Thankfully, she was channeling her magic, and it happens to be electricity based at the moment, and so the thug that grabs her gets lightning and electricity ripping at him, sparks and fizzes erupting off of Luna's body. She turns it off before it'll kill a normal human though, she's trying her best not to kill anyone in this life! She looks over as Shizuko transforms! That was pretty. Her ears twitch and she ohs as she fires lasers, and she visibly de-tenses. Knowing that Shizuko can fight is great news.

Knife 1, who grabbed Luna, screams and collapses in a heap of smoke, burned clothes, and some flesh. He'll roll away screaming. Knife 2 gets ahold of Shizuko as she transforms, and his eyes visibly widen and enjoy a nice eyeful of her body, even if it's obscured in light, but then she's got all this armor and whatnot and...laser fire to the face! He screams, face getting lasered, and if they are just set for stun, he'll collapse back unconscious, if they weren't, well, there's some plastic surgery shops around and maybe the brain damage isn't toooo fatal. Laser pistol 1 & 2 both scream and start to retrain their weapons, firing as soon as they can at both girls! Summoners be summoning, their circle growing to a ten foot radius and the light inside of it forming into some kind of four legged creature with a long tail, wings, and giant overlapping fangs.

Strike Star shouts, "I warned you!" with a far more confident and... somehow altered voice from before. Hey, at least the 'armor' still looks nice on her figure. It's just clearly very weaponized. The other five bits fly off of her skirt as she sweeps her left arm dramatically to the side. The weapons arrange themselves in front of her arm, each opening up to reveal their own weapons. Her eyes are flickering between the laser wielding men, and the weapons split themselves between the pair, three firing at one and three at the other... except she never set any but one to stun! ...uh-oh. That was ''not'' what she intended! Okay, she needs to remember to tell them ''all'' how to fire.

Luna is more than happy to not be grabbed by thug face, and it feels good to feel him sizzle a bit. o O { Careful, yes? } o O ( Yes. ) She IS a dragon, but...she's a good dragon! She steps back, the blue magic around her body flowing up again, lights and sparks fizzling off of her. Looks like Shizuko or...Strike Star she said? Is handling the laser pistol people, so she holds her hand out towards the two summoners, and lightning rips across the sidewalk and street, smashing into light poles and buildings, before making it to their target of the two summons, attempting to zap them out of commission.

Laser pistol guys both fire! But, really, their aims are a bit off, as they weren't expecting a sudden barrage of magic and lasers tossed around. Their shots go wide, and as they're attempting to re-aim and fire more, Strike Star's lasers rip into them, shredding clothes and cutting through flesh (if they're powerful enough anyway!) possibly going right through them! They drop to the ground amidst screams of agonizing pain. The summoners are focused on their spell, and lightning moves rather fast, so even as they start raising their hands to shield themselves, the lightning rips into them, bringing more screams and collapsing them to ground, sizzle sizzle smoke, from all of the thugs, rises into the air...looks like they're out of commission.

Strike Star lets out an audible "Eeep!" as she realizes just how much she hurt these guys, covering her mouth with both hands as the bits fly back to dock with her skirt. Magical girls aren't supposed to hurt people, even thugs that much! Just monsters! At least they were just on normal power and not ''high'' power... They... ''should'' survive? She thinks? She's new to all this! But what she can use heavy force against is monsters, like those last ones were trying to summon... She looks to see if they're still there, or if Luna's attack against the summoners themselves dealt with the monsters.

It looks like after the summoners got zapped, whatever they were summoning failed. The lights around the incomplete circle slowly fading. And whoever trained them gave them instructions on how to NOT let your summon continue if you stop in the middle, which is impressive for some thugs.

Luna lets out a gentle breath, "Well, that was unpleasant." She looks over at Strike Star and smiles, showing her fangs, "Thank you so much for helping me! I'm new to this world, so..." The magical light around her fades away, and she looks down at her groceries...which she dropped when she got grabbed and then cast at the summoners. Her stuff is spilled everywhere. There's breads, some brushes, diapers, some fabric, milk bottles, and formula. She sighs...a lot of it is now charred or straight up on fire. "Maybe I should have paid them off..." o O { Possibly, yes? }

Strike Star lets out a sigh of relief that it's over, then looks to Luna. "Oh! Uh, you're welcome!" She looks down at the groceries and winces. "Oh, uh, sorry." ...as if she was in any way responsible for that. Which she's not. "Oh, um... I'm new here, too... Uh, just to Senta, though." She looks over at the thugs again... all either unconscious or writhing in pain. "Um, we should... probably... go. In case they have more, um, friends."

Luna looks around at the thugs, and decides Strike Star is speaking wisdom worthy of a dragon. She grabs the few pieces of her shopping not completely toasted, sniffs them, and tosses them aside. They smell like burnt smoke and flesh. Shopping day RUINED. Maybe she'll send Morai next time...but she wants everyone to be safe. She smiles at Strike Star, "Yes, let's go elsewhere. It's possible they're part of an organization or group and not a random gang." She looks around...which way, which way... "It's unfortunate we're both new here, otherwise I would suggest a place. I only know of my tower, which is on the road in the sky. We could make our way there?"

Shizuko nods enthusiastically. "Yes, they're, uh, this place is known for widespread gangs and organized crime..." Sure, a lot of what she's been told has been horribly exaggerated... but it still isn't completely untrue. She looks around for a good exit, as well, then looks at Luna. "Tower? You have a tower? I thought you said you were new to the universe..."

Strike Star nods enthusiastically. "Yes, they're, uh, this place is known for widespread gangs and organized crime..." Sure, a lot of what she's been told has been horribly exaggerated... but it still isn't completely untrue. She looks around for a good exit, as well, then looks at Luna. "Tower? You have a tower? I thought you said you were new to the universe..."

Luna ohs, well, if it's known for it, that explains the sudden attack. They're likely in someone's territory. She'd chase humans out of her territory on Lunar if she still lived there and had her cave...she misses her homeworld sometimes, but she has a duty to fix the mistakes of her past life. Sort of. "It came with me..." This is a long story, but she can shorten it, maybe? "It's the second time it's moved, the first was during an error in a ritual to seal Oceia, one of my wives, my past life's wives, I mean, yes?" She starts walking...towards the city center at a hurried pace, looking back once to lament her spilled groceries! Sigh! "And this second time, I woke up and...it'd just reappeared. It might be that the spell is still having after effects." o O { Indeed. }

Shizuko hurriedly walks along as well. . o O ( stay cool, act like you normally wear gold armored bits on a sleeveless white and black minidress... ) At least she knows where the floating bridge is already. Her school is there! Tower, though? She pauses mid-step at the mention of wives, sealing, rituals... past lives? Who ''is'' this elf? Is this the kinds of things that happen when magic corrupts? Is this why it's so dangerous? "...Wives?" is all she manages to actually say, though.

Luna keeps in step with Shizuko, looking her up and down. o O { Pleasant, yes? } o O ( What? ) She rubs the back of her head, explaining this to strangers, it seems to happen every time she meets someone new. Maybe she shouldn't mention it, but it's a big part of her life now, and things just come out of her mouth sometimes. o O ( Can you explain it? ) { Yes, well, I suppose. } o O ( Thank you! ) She's more than content to sit on the back burner for this. She takes a step, her leg lengthening, then the next step the rest of her body lengthens, shifting and morphing, cat ears popping up out of her head and her blue dress' fabric changing to a black satin, until she's a completely different looking person. She takes in a deep breath as the bell around her neck jingles, "Yes well, greetings. I'm Luna, or well, I'm Luna's past life, yes? While it is complicated, she is currently working at atoning for the errors I made while I was insane and acquired a 1,000 wives." She smirks, showing her fangs.

Shizuko sees that Luna is still walking, so she catches back up quickly. It's actually not until the sound of the bell that she actually looks over and... different person entirely? Well, she's not really one to talk, now that she thinks about it. Still, it's... apparently ''actually'' a different person? Sort of? She does, however, stop in her tracks again. "A... thousand?" 'Acquired'? Danger! Danger!

Luna turns around, but continues walking backwards, even as Shizuko stops, her smirk widens, "Hmm hmm hmm, yes well, one thousand. Not all at once of course, yes?" o O ( I feel so less anxious now, thank you. ) o O { Mmhm. } "However, I was insane, mad, yes? It is a horrible fate that the black dragon of Lunar must face." Her left ear twitches, and she holds her hand out towards the girl, offering it as a hand to hold, "Fear not, yes? I am no longer taking souls and am in my right mind. It should be at least a few hundred to a few thousand years before the insanity begins to grip me once more."
Luna (OOC) says, "no longer taking"

Strike Star says nothing at the further explanation. She looks down at the hand. 'Don't be afraid of me! I'm totally not stealing people's souls any more! It will be several generations down the road before I'm that crazy again!' None of these things are acting as comfort to the 'magical' girl. "Um... You know what? I think I can... make my way home on my own now..."

Luna looks down at her extended hand as she walks further from Strike Star. She did say she was going to leave the area. Her bell jingles softly with each step. She closes the hand and lets it fall to her side, "Yes well, as you wish." She stops and curtseys, "Your assistance tonight was appreciated, yes? And your outfit is alluring, hmm hmm hmm... The tower is up the long stairwell along the sky bridge, yes? Should you ever wish to visit." She then will turn and walk away, though she looks back over her shoulder for a final peek. o O ( Maybe she's not used to shapeshifting? ) o O { Mmm, I think it is rather, the dialogue that was exchanged. }

Strike Star says, "I, uh, yeah. You're welcome? Um..." She doesn't know how to take the next part, and thus... just suddenly takes off flying. Likely for wherever her home is.

|}}

File:Viola and Rosa.png

2021-08-06T22:08:46Z

Hitakino Kage:

Stargazer Villagers

2021-08-06T22:08:21Z

Hitakino Kage: /* Rosa and Viola */

==Stargazer Villagers==
[[Stargazer Village]] is a small village with a population that has never exceeded three hundred. A majority of the villagers are catfolk, and most don't have last names.

===The Mayor===
The mayor of Stargazer Village, Verith is not a career politician. No, Stargazer's mayor is currently also a tailor and leatherworker, in essence the town's clothier. You go to him to have anything to deal with clothing done, or with any grievances about the town itself. He's also quick to introduce himself to any newcomers. Verith is a slightly overweight catfolk in his late forties.

[[File:Viola and Rosa.png|thumb|right|Viola and Rosa, Lillia's sisters]]
===Viola and Rosa===
A pair of pre-teen twin catgirls, they are not identical. Rosa, the one with blue hair and red eyes, is known for her sarcasm and dry humor. Viola is much more excitable and known to talk far too quickly. The two are the younger sisters of [[Lillia]], and both hope to one day leave Stargazer Village to travel the world like their sister.

Stargazer Village

2021-08-01T00:57:15Z

Hitakino Kage:

==Desert Wastelands: Stargazer Village(#1463RLA)==

In the wreckage of what was once a starship by the name of Stargazer there now thrives a small town, itself named after the long defunct starship. Visitors are greeted by a sign that once clearly was where the ship's name was painted on its hull, but has been repainted over the centuries so many times that none of the original paint is still there. Here is the center of large salvaging operations where people come home to after another expedition out in the wasteland for the valuable metals of the wrecked spaceships. Cobbled together buildings from various bits of spaceship dot the ground under the large section of intact hull that shades the town from the harsh sunlight. And at the center is the town's prize possession: A water mana node, stationary in its place, supplying the town with all the fresh water it should need. A large pool has been built around the node, holding the water that pours out of it so the townsfolk can gather water from it at their leisure.

''[Exits : (T)o the desert wastelands(#1465E) ]''

Stargazer Village is a town that has grown up from a community of people that made their living scavenging the various crashed starships out in the Desert Wastelands. The reason this starship's hull in particular was chosen to be the base of operations instead of being the target of scrappers like so many others is the water mana node that the starship had crashed down upon. The town itself is entirely in the shade of the hull itself, light coming from holes cut into the hull and a number of magically powered lanterns. Simple, hand driven pumps bring water up from the pool around the water node up to the top of the hull to irrigate the farms on the surface that feed the entire community.

The town itself is primarily residences. Businesses are usually run out of people's homes, though there is a central marketplace near the water node. The only place that truly caters to outsiders is the Rescue Inn, which is run by an elderly couple and was set up to cater to those newly arrived through the Stone Portals to await a trader that could give them safer passage to the rest of Distant Shores. Since the village is largely protected from the elements by the hull above, most residents cook and eat outdoors rather than inside homes.

While there are many races living in the village, the majority of the population is catfolk. [[Stargazer Villagers|Notable NPCs]] here include a pair of sisters, Rosa and Viola, who are the younger sisters of [[Lillia]]. Lillia herself is a native of the village that has since gone out to see the world. A notable local festival is the Starfall Festival.

[[Category:Locations]]

Stargazer Villagers

2021-08-01T00:56:21Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "==Stargazer Villagers== Stargazer Village is a small village with a population that has never exceeded three hundred. A majority of the villagers are catfolk, and most don..."

==Stargazer Villagers==
[[Stargazer Village]] is a small village with a population that has never exceeded three hundred. A majority of the villagers are catfolk, and most don't have last names.

===The Mayor===
The mayor of Stargazer Village, Verith is not a career politician. No, Stargazer's mayor is currently also a tailor and leatherworker, in essence the town's clothier. You go to him to have anything to deal with clothing done, or with any grievances about the town itself. He's also quick to introduce himself to any newcomers. Verith is a slightly overweight catfolk in his late forties.

===Rosa and Viola===
A pair of pre-teen twin catgirls, they are not identical. Rosa, the one with blue hair and red eyes, is known for her sarcasm and dry humor. Viola is much more excitable and known to talk far too quickly. The two are the younger sisters of [[Lillia]], and both hope to one day leave Stargazer Village to travel the world like their sister.

Noteworthy NPCS

2021-08-01T00:37:24Z

Hitakino Kage:

[[Gormore Bloodcrave]]

[[Stargazer Villagers]]

Noteworthy NPCS

2021-08-01T00:37:16Z

Hitakino Kage:

[[Gormore Bloodcrave]]
[[Stargazer Villagers]]

File:Shizuko-icon.gif

2021-07-31T23:08:00Z

Hitakino Kage:

File:StrikeStar.jpg

2021-07-31T23:07:29Z

Hitakino Kage:

Shizuko

2021-07-31T23:07:06Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Profile| Title= |Image=Shizuko.png |Name=Iwamatsu Shuzuko |Series=Original |Occupation=High School Student/'Magical' Girl |Alignment=Lawful Good |Gender=Female |Species=Huma..."

{{Profile|
Title=
|Image=Shizuko.png
|Name=Iwamatsu Shuzuko
|Series=Original
|Occupation=High School Student/'Magical' Girl
|Alignment=Lawful Good
|Gender=Female
|Species=Human(Mostly)
|Hangout=Center City
|Continent=Senta
|Desc=
As Shizuko: Before you is a teenaged girl, well entrenched in high school and all the drama found therein. Despite a pretty appearance, she seems to be a bit shy, and rarely, if ever, opening her mouth in a smile. Her black hair is mostly pulled back into a high ponytail, itself held into place by a band with a red tartan patterned bow on it to the right side. As for her clothing, she's wearing a black short sleeved blouse under a red vest that vaguely resembles a corset, though isn't actually remotely that tight. A bow of the same pattern as that in her hair is fastened at her collar. While her blouse is short sleeved, her arms are not bare: Instead, her arms are adorned with separate sleeves of the same material, but are clearly not attached, leaving a band of bare skin on her upper arms and frills at her wrists. Below, she wears a double ruffled short skirt, each layer the same tartan pattern as the bows, but each ending in a black lace frill. For shoes, she wears very long boots that reach a third of the way up her thigh. They match in color to her blouse, and are laced all the way up to the top in front with laces matching the color of her vest. They have inch and a half long heels on them, though they're quite thick.

[[File:StrikeStar.jpg|thumb|left|Super Magical Ultimate Strike Star]]
As Strike Star: Behold! The magical girl! This teenager is outfitted in white, gold, and black in an outfit that doesn't look as utilitarian as it should be, considering she's more likely than not in a combat situation. Her outfit is, at its base, a white minidress dress in a very low sweetheart cut combined with a black halter top, the skirt of which is pleated like a school skirt. The pleated skirt is accompanied by a wide, white bow across her back that has additional golden armor plating on its trailing edges and at the very tips. Across her chest is also thicker gold ornamentation that acts much like a low cut bikini top with additional armoring in the center just above and below. The gold trim also frames the top of her chest, framing her assets nicely while reaching up to her collarbone in a V shape, and with a trimmed red gem in the center. Her boots, too, are mostly black and white with gold trim: They reach nearly all the way up to her short skirt with a black band at top that dips in the front to nearly her knees. At her feet the boots are much thicker, all gold in what looks akin to a set of golden high heels, except in the front they climb up just past her ankles. Her arms are not bare, either. A set of white sleeves reach from her wrists only up to halfway up her upper arms. At the top is what looks like a cuff with black trim, then at her elbows the white material puffs out. A red gem matching the one on her chest adorns each of these sleeves just above her elbow, and across the back of her forearms is a set of golden bracers. Finally, a golden winged motif hairpiece holds back her ponytail, itself reaching nearly to the top of her skirt. Truly a lovely vision! This isn't everything, though. Perhaps they're floating around her, or perhaps they're attached to her, but there are eight floating devices that are always near her. The two that look attached to her arms when not in use look like a thick spike with flanking wings all set into a golden housing, the wings folded in when still on her arms. The other six are on her skirt when not in rest, and appear much simpler, each being a flattened oval shape with a golden ring about three-fourths the way back (or up when on her skirt).

|Background=
Born in Synthatek, Shizuko's mother, a native of Center City, had told her tales of Magical Girls when she was a child. Such things were, of course, forbidden in Synthatek... As are all things magical in nature. But young Shizuko lapped all of it up! She so wished to become one herself! One day a six year old Shizuko got lost in the city, only to come across what looked, to her eyes, like a real life magical girl! Shizuko gushed over this supposed magical girl, even going so far as to talk about how she wanted to be one even though talk of things like magic was a huge taboo... but the young child didn't care. The 'magical girl' was kind enough to help guide Shizuko back to an area she recognized.

Much later, her mother and father divorced, and Shizuko was about to move away to Center City with her mother... a prospect that absolutely terrified her. She ran away from home, and of course got lost, scared, and in trouble... only to run into that same 'Magical Girl' she had run into as a young child. The 'Magical Girl' announced that Shizuko now had access though her cranial implants to her own special 'magical' powers... in reality it's all equipment that would be transported onto her, all 100% technological in nature. By now, of course, Shizuko had grown out of that phase, but she was far too polite to decline such a gracious gift. She tested out these new 'powers' by flying up to get her bearings and make her own way home.

Now in Center City, Shizuko is truly getting the hang of her new abilities.

|}}[[Category:Characters]]

Stargazer Village

2021-07-31T22:34:28Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "==Desert Wastelands: Stargazer Village(#1463RLA)== In the wreckage of what was once a starship by the name of Stargazer there now thrives a small town, itself named after the..."

==Desert Wastelands: Stargazer Village(#1463RLA)==

In the wreckage of what was once a starship by the name of Stargazer there now thrives a small town, itself named after the long defunct starship. Visitors are greeted by a sign that once clearly was where the ship's name was painted on its hull, but has been repainted over the centuries so many times that none of the original paint is still there. Here is the center of large salvaging operations where people come home to after another expedition out in the wasteland for the valuable metals of the wrecked spaceships. Cobbled together buildings from various bits of spaceship dot the ground under the large section of intact hull that shades the town from the harsh sunlight. And at the center is the town's prize possession: A water mana node, stationary in its place, supplying the town with all the fresh water it should need. A large pool has been built around the node, holding the water that pours out of it so the townsfolk can gather water from it at their leisure.

''[Exits : (T)o the desert wastelands(#1465E) ]''

Stargazer Village is a town that has grown up from a community of people that made their living scavenging the various crashed starships out in the Desert Wastelands. The reason this starship's hull in particular was chosen to be the base of operations instead of being the target of scrappers like so many others is the water mana node that the starship had crashed down upon. The town itself is entirely in the shade of the hull itself, light coming from holes cut into the hull and a number of magically powered lanterns. Simple, hand driven pumps bring water up from the pool around the water node up to the top of the hull to irrigate the farms on the surface that feed the entire community.

The town itself is primarily residences. Businesses are usually run out of people's homes, though there is a central marketplace near the water node. The only place that truly caters to outsiders is the Rescue Inn, which is run by an elderly couple and was set up to cater to those newly arrived through the Stone Portals to await a trader that could give them safer passage to the rest of Distant Shores. Since the village is largely protected from the elements by the hull above, most residents cook and eat outdoors rather than inside homes.

While there are many races living in the village, the majority of the population is catfolk. Notable NPCs here include a pair of sisters, Rosa and Viola, who are the younger sisters of [[Lillia]]. Lillia herself is a native of the village that has since gone out to see the world. A notable local festival is the Starfall Festival.

[[Category:Locations]]

2020-05-11 - Desert Rescue

2021-07-31T21:27:40Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title=Desert Rescue |Summary=A man recently arrived through the Stone Portals is attacked by wolves. He's rescued by Lillia and taken to her home village hidden..."

{{Logsummary|
Title=Desert Rescue
|Summary=A man recently arrived through the Stone Portals is attacked by wolves. He's rescued by Lillia and taken to her home village hidden in the sands.
|Who=[[Lillia]], [[Sephiroth]]
|Date=May 11th, 2020
|Where=[[Desert Wastelands]], [[Stargazer Village]]
|Log=

There are rules to the desert.

The caravan traders know them, marking their sun-bleached tablets and carving their sign into ancient rock formations. The mercenaries know them, and if they do not they leave their tracks and their blood to be taken in by the relentless sands.

Of late, the rules have been shifting. This was supposed to be a quiet place. A dusty haven between larger encampments, it's stone ground smooth by sandstorms and the passage of traveling feet. Now it is only a haven for sandwolves. One howls from the top of an abandoned hut, roof already battered and half collapsed from the winds.

Four, then seven voices answer.

The howls turn to snarls and growling whimpers. There is a man in the blazing heat. He is stripped to the waist, black hair sodden against his back from the heat. The pants are ill fitting and he has no shoes, though no sign of pain shows from what must be an intense case of hotfoot.

The oversized wolf snarls as he skewers it through the neck with the ragged edge of a broken blade, jerking the handle free and retreating before heavy jaws click shut on his arm.

He retreats a few steps further, watching the wolves circle with chest heaving and obviously sunburned and exhausted, movements slow and heavy.

He's not likely to last long in this condition.

Out in the distance, a strange call is heard. It's an oddly resonant sound, rising up in pitch from low to high, and could possibly be mistaken for an unnatural sound. Except it's not. Over the sand dune rises a very large lizard. A lizard large enough to pull a wagon. It's easy to tell it's that large by the very wagon it happens to be pulling at this very moment. A robed, hooded, bandanaed, and goggled driver holds the reigns, a driver that doesn't slow down as the lizard and wagon approaches the pack of wolves. At first, it appears the driver doesn't even notice what's going on... but as the wagon gets close, one hand reaches down to their side and comes up with a crossbow in a one-handed grip. There's a bit of unsteady aim, and then a squeeze to release the bolt. With the unsteady base and the one handed aim, the bolt misses badly enough that one can't be entirely certain what was the driver's target: Man or beast. Instead, the bold embeds itself in the sand after having flown between the man and the nearest sandwolf. It can be determined, however, that the driver did in fact intend to hit a target from the curse she utters after the fact.

The failed shot turns out to be a timely intervention, for one of the six remaining stalkers sees the arrow flash by, startling as the bolt sinks with a soft 'twhap' to the burning sand. As a result, it's lunging swipe is rewarded with a sharp bit of steel across the nose. The sandwolf lets out a whimpering yelp, smacking their nose into the burning sand and slapping big paws to either side of it, comical if not for their deadly intent. The largest one snaps at their flank, prodding them into action again. The six wolves are the ones to back up now, smelling lizard and an end to an easy meal. Another grazing blow from the exhausted man decides them and the leader lets out another howl, the sand-colored pack fading back into the dunes rather than risk further death or injury. The man staggers on his feet, arm sagging as they retreat. He stares at the lizard and the wagon, a blank stare common to madmen and the completely displaced. He wrenches the bolt from the sand, fighting to suppress a limp as he extends it towards her.

The robed, goggled, hooded, and bandanaed woman brings the lizard to a halt as soon as the wolves start running. She looks down at the man as he reaches up to hand her the bolt and says, "Seriously? I've dozens of those. Get in the back before the sun bakes you even more." She sounds... annoyed for someone that just rescued a stranded man in the desert. Not even concerned that the man may rob her... except that, in the back, there's almost nothing. Just some jugs of water and some travel rations, and even the water looks to be mostly empty by now. If the guy shows any difficulty getting up the small steps built into the wagon, she will get out of her seat to help him up. "Help yourself to some water, but just to drink. No washing. I'm close to a village, but not close enough that I want the water just dumped out." The inside is also surprisingly cool... maybe related to the snowflake ornament hanging from the center rib of the colored wagon. It appears to be made of solid ice.

The man turns his attention back to the bolt. He examines it more closely, handling the tip carefully as he rubs a thumb along the shaft. He then turns his attention in stages to the lizard, the wagon, and finally the woman. He staggers, again putting a hand over his eyes to stave off a momentary vertigo. He draws in a breath and lets it out four times, centering himself before he gives a curt nod and climbs into the back of the wagon. He doesn't have difficulty so much as he stares at it for some time in the same way he did her and everything else. Puzzling. Sorting things out in his head as though execution single instructions one at a time. He brushes sand off his ill-fitting pants, a futile gesture as sand has a tendancy to get everywhere it's not wanted. "a village..how.. how far?" he clears his throat until he's able to speak louder than a cracked whisper, taking several small sips of water and then forcing the jug back into it's proper place after a coughing fit nearly robs him of most of it.

The woman says, "Easy now. And you can have more than that. There's plenty of water in Stargazer." She looks off into the distance, looks down at a compass, then off in the distance again. "We should be there just before nightfall," she determines. "Eduardo knows the way better than I do." The lizard makes some chirping noises, apparently in pride at his handler's words. "Name's Lillia, for the record." She herself steps into the wagon's interior space, taking a swift breath in before lowering her hood from her head, then her bandana from he face. "How'd you get out here? I thought there were signs to help people showing up at the Stone Portals to keep from getting lost," she says before pouring a bit of water for herself into a mug that was hanging from a hook.

At her urgings, he takes a little more but ends up coughing out most of it. He frowns at himself and succeeds to keep some down on a third try. "Lillia." he inclines his head slightly, as formal as a bow would be in another time and place. "Eduardo." his muscles twitch and jump as he attempts to make himself comfortable, pale skin flushed so red as to be radiating heat into the blissfully cool air of the interior. He eyes the snowflake with raised eyebrows, peering at it with guarded curiosity before looking out at the desert. "Yes. I.. must have missed the signs. Was there anyone else around, that you've seen? A blonde haired man, perhaps?" he searches the horizon for something other than rolling dunes. "..I came up the side of a mountain with my team. But.. things went out of control and we were separated. And I found myself here." He makes a low 'hmmgh' noise in the back of his throat, gesturing out into the desert. "..give or take a few miles."

Lillia frowns, then shakes her head. "I've not seen another soul since yesterday." She raises the bandana again now that she's done drinking, but doesn't lift the hood of her desert traveling robes this time, keeping her white hair and cat-ears quite visible as she steps back out to the front. "I'll keep an eye out for them," she says, "But a blind search will get us nowhere right now. We're not very close to any mountains, anyway..." Her voice trails off as she whips Eduardo lightly with the reigns (really, with his scales it doesn't look like that could possibly hurt), setting the lizard off and moving again. "...The mountain didn't seem to be made of metal, did it?" she ventures.

He is staring at her with the same guarded curiosity he gave the snowflake. He seems to realize that he is staring, combing more bits of sand from his skin and looking at the floor of the wagon as it bumps and jostles into action. The broken blade clatters where he put it down, his eyebrows raising as though he'd forgotten it's existence temporarily. The blade, even a fragment, is long enough to be a longsword all on it's own "No. I'm afraid not." He says after his examinations are over. "Tell me more about these Stone Portals." He pauses, then clears his throat. "If you wouldn't mind."

Lillia shrugs lightly. "There's not much to say, really. Stone frames floating above the ground, occasionally they link up extradimensionally to other worlds and people or things fall through, then pop, no more link, just as fast. I occasionally go out there in case something interesting has fallen through, but only if I happen to be in the area for other reasons." She pauses, then looks over her shoulder at the guy. "You got a name?" she asks. No, not going to question how long that sword looks like it might have used to be. Definitely not going to make an overcompensation joke in this situation.

"Hm." is all that he seems to react to 'not much to say' and does not meet her eyes when she asks for his name. He pauses to rub the bridge of his nose, a painful prospect as it is already starting to peel, muttering something in another language that has all the tone and inflection of 'Why not?' dressed in different pants. "Sephiroth." his eyes flinch at the corners as he says that. As though to hide his anxiety, he plies her with another question. "And what was it that drove Miss Lillia and her faithful companion out into these wastes? Not that I mind, overmuch. The rescue was quite timely."

Lillia laughs and looks forward again. "Eduardo is a rental. I usually rent him when I head out to Stargazer, but I'm not sure he qualifies as a 'faithful companion'. But several reasons, actually. Buying scrap, taking orders for the next trip I come in, and of course the Starfall Festival tomorrow." She looks back over her shoulder again and says, "Or you could just say I'm making an overdue visit to my old home town, with just a hint of business opportunities to be had."

"Hm." again. That seems to be the man's default response, even to mild embarrassment. It does show up on his face, but like a wandering charlatan, is turned away at the door and hidden by the same tired resolve that has been frozen on his face since the sandwolves. "I see. A visit with an escape clause attached and a bonus should everything go well. Good planning, that." He begins to cough mid-sentence, and continues to do so until he breaks down and has some more water, the reverse of his earlier problem. "Are situations like the one I found myself in common in your business?"

Lillia grins behind her bandana, not that he'd see anyway since she's not facing him. A series of very large, very old crashed starships are beginning to come into view over the dunes, their visage warped by mirages. "Well, it's far from unheard of. It's why I always carry more food and water than I actually need out here. But I don't think I've picked anyone up in... Nearly a year now?" She looks over her shoulder at the man for a moment again, then asks, "So... did you come through the portals? Or are you actually from this world?" She pauses, then takes a different approach. "Ever heard of Valis?" she asks. It's like asking if someone in medieval Europe if they've ever heard of Rome before, if he's actually from anywhere on this continent.

His eyes stray to her ears again as she talks until they are arrested by the huge, glimmering husks of metal thrust out of the sand like knobs of metallic coral. He reaches up by reflex and stops himself from touching his face again. Instead he folds his hands in his lap, the rough fabric at least a thin barrier against discomfort. "I must admit to not being familiar with the territory." Which answers and in fact doesn't answer the question. "What are those?" he points towards the distant husks, shifting just enough to get a better look at them.

Lillia is looking forward again, but raises an eyebrow out of sight. Typical. Probably a bigshot where he's from, too afraid to lose face by saying he's lost. "Eh? Crashed starships from... a ''long'' time ago. The old war, when Synthatek and Valis went at it with each other. And a few newer ones from idiot pilots getting off course too low." Her eyes, though hard to see in the thin slits of the desert goggles, are darting left and right as she mentally identifies the hulks. This is where she doesn't need Eduardo's instincts anymore, and could guide a wagon herself through from memory. "Huh. Sand's built up against Skyranger more than usual," she says idly. "Almost didn't recognize it. Wonder if someone plugged that hole up with something, or just..." She then shrugs, not finishing the sentence.

"Starships." he intones in an odd, lower register. It would be disbelief if he wasn't smart enough to see the distant hulking shapes for himself. There is a moment where he tunes out, his eyes glazing over with some memory before he slaps a hand against his leg. It doesn't make a very loud sound, but it certainly must have stung. "So.. there is a truce between Synthatek and Valis for now?"

Lillia chuckles in a low laugh. "Valis hasn't really been powerful enough to take on Synthatek in over a while now. Empire broke apart over a thousand years ago. It's not so much a truce as a moot point now." They're finally approaching a hull that looks, more alive, somehow. There are plants growing on it in places. Actual green ones. In fact, one patch in a fold of the hull looks intentionally put there, which is even more obvious when someone is seen walking out of it. This is what gives a sense of scale of this ship: it's truly humongous, over a kilometer long behemoth of metal, ceramics, composites, who knows what materials it's made of? But it's large enough to hold that small farm on top of just one small part of it. As the wagon approaches more closely, the ship's name can be seen boldly, its lettering repainted countless times to keep it legible: Stargazer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Desert Wastelands: Stargazer Village(#1463RLA)
In the wreckage of what was once a starship by the name of Stargazer there now thrives a small town, itself named after the long defunct starship. Visitors are greeted by a sign that once clearly was where the ship's name was painted on its hull, but has been repainted over the centuries so many times that none of the original paint is still there. Here is the center of large salvaging operations where people come home to after another expedition out in the wasteland for the valuable metals of the wrecked spaceships. Cobbled together buildings from various bits of spaceship dot the ground under the large section of intact hull that shades the town from the harsh sunlight. And at the center is the town's prize possession: A water mana node, stationary in its place, supplying the town with all the fresh water it should need. A large pool has been built around the node, holding the water that pours out of it so the townsfolk can gather water from it at their leisure.

"I see." He drinks in this information like everything else. In small, precise sips and silence. When Stargazer comes into view, this juxtaposition of metal and greenery is a familiar one, in a sense. But as his eyes roam the scenery, there is no quiet, desperate struggle between competing forces. Although not the largest metal structure he's seen, the town that grows out of the metal does so in a way that integrates the rusted hulk without resenting it. Neither is the greenery a hinderance, but in fact welcome shelter from the bleak surroundings. Sephiroth moves closer again, until he is nearly at the front with Lillia, eyes darting from place to place. The plants, the sign. The farm. The cobbled together buildings already under the cooling shade of the Stargazer's hull. "This is your home?" Again, that lower note of disbelief. It's not scorn, either. Just.. shock.

Lillia takes the wagon under the hulk, revealing it to mostly empty on the inside. That is, empty of things that were inside it when it was remotely functional. No, now inside it is a vibrant town lit from openings in the hull above and kept cool and surprisingly moist by a large fountain and pool in the center of town. Yes, there are also numerous dwellings built into the underside as well. "Ehhhh... it's where I grew up, where my family lives, but I travel enough that I don't really have a set 'home' anymore, if you ask me. Honestly, I find it a bit difficult to spend too much time on this continent these days." Now under the shelter, her goggles and bandana come off, and once Eduardo comes to a stop by some stables, she's quick to throw off the robe as well, glad to be rid of the sandy thing for now. This does, however, reveal that her cat-like features do not end with her ears, but include a tail as well. And she's not the only one. Almost half the people here have the same cat-like features that Lillia does. And many are approaching the wagon already.

Sephiroth makes a small sound of acknowledgement. "I'm.. very familiar with that, at least." He looks down a his hands, calculating. He clenches them several times before relaxing them and his shoulders. "I'd like to repay a tiny fraction of the debt I have for my rescuer." he makes another soft sound, a huff of embarrassed amusement. "I would offer to roll up my sleeves, but confess to having misplaced them." He looks out at the crowd. Uncertain. Checking body languages. Looking for escape routes. While his eyes shift back and forth, he asks in an otherwise calm voice. "What do you mean by 'this continent?" ) [Spoofed By: Sephiroth]

A pair of pre-teen cat-girls, one blue haired and the other green are among those that have approached. "Lillia! What'd ya bring?" asks the green-haired one.

The blue-haired one adds, "Besides the dried up wolf-bait," with a dry tone as she looks at Sephiroth.

Lillia sighs and shakes her head. "Viola, you'll see tomorrow at nightfall, it's the Starfall Festival, afterall!" She then shoots a more displeased look at the blue-haired one. "Rosa, don't be so rude. He nearly died out there." She looks back to Sephiroth with an apoligetic look. "Sorry about my sisters." When a more portly cat-man approaches, Lillia's ears flick back slightly in a wince before returning to normal. "Oh. Mayor. Get me a supply list and I'll try to fill it in a month. I think your last letter got lost, I don't have anything with me this time for the town."

Lillia tenses up a split second before looking back at Sephiroth with a tired look. "Hey. Don't worry about it. Kind of like... rules of the desert for decent folk. Someone's out there dying of thirst, help 'em. Now, if you want to earn your place in Stargazer..." she motions with her head towards the now retreating mayor. She blinks at the last question and says, "Oh. Well, we're on the continent of Distant Oceans right now. Most technology beyond springs and cogs doesn't work here. I'm kind of used to all that tech by now."

As he gets out of the wagon, a strange thing happens. The little signs of stress and pain are washed away once he's under the scrutiny of a crowd. He pulls back his hair, tugging his fingers loosely through the sandy mess without a hint of self-consciousness. As though wearing armor or a dress uniform rather than ragged and barely holding together pants, he lets out a long breath and fixes Lillia with an even stare. "We will continue this conversation at a later date, then." he says with finality. He locks eyes with Rosa as he grabs the broken blade, "Rosa." he inclines his head, though his eyes never leave her as you would an opponent across from you on a practice mat. "Pleasure to meet you." he nods to the other, with slightly less intensity. "Viola." He then walks across the cooling sand after the retreating mayor.

Viola offers a quick grin at Sephiroth, while Rosa looks down at the blade as the man grabs it, then right back to his eyes as if to say, 'Are you seriously attempting to frighten me?' Lillia, however, shoos the two pre-teens away. "Go tell mom and dad I'm here so they stop worrying." The pair run off, and Lillia looks to Sephiroth with a raised eyebrow. "If you say so."

The mayor stops and looks to the man as he catches up. "Ah, hello, young man. What can I do for you today in Stargazer?" This doesn't look like some career politician type... no, this town is too small to support someone like that. Instead, he looks like he probably is the sort that's actually good at keeping the town together, but still runs his own business on the side. "If you're looking for a place to stay, I can show you to the Rescue Inn. An older couple runs the place, catering to those that have just arrived on our world and other refugees looking to get their feet back under them."

Sephiroth maintains the eye contact, his expression neutral and allowing Rosa to think whatever she wished. It's often easier that way. When he catches up with the major, he salutes almost reflexively before burying the sharp edge in the sand to keep it close but keep his hands empty while he talked. "Thank you, sir. I would greatly appreciate it. I.. find myself at somewhat of a disadvantage, so anything I might do in the morning to repay such kindness." he clears his throat. "..sufficiently prepared, of course. If you'll excuse me, I believe I will go attend to that." And hopefully before his last reserves gave out and he flopped bonelessly to the sand like a beached fish.

|}}

File:Lillia-icon.gif

2021-07-31T21:12:20Z

Hitakino Kage:

Lillia

2021-07-31T21:12:03Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "{{Profile| Title= |Image=Lillia.png |Name={{PAGENAME}} |Series=Original |Occupation='Legitimate Trader' |Alignment= |Gender=Female |Species=Catfolk |Hangout=Where ever the pro..."

{{Profile|
Title=
|Image=Lillia.png
|Name={{PAGENAME}}
|Series=Original
|Occupation='Legitimate Trader'
|Alignment=
|Gender=Female
|Species=Catfolk
|Hangout=Where ever the profit is. Or a good drink.
|Continent=She regularly travels between all three.
|Desc=A platinum blonde catgirl stands proudly before you! Behind her glasses is a lovely face marred by two scars: one nearly vertical one across her right eye, the other diagonal across her cheek. If she's ever been ashamed or even overly self-conscious about these scars, that time has clearly passed. Her hair falls to either side of her face and down past her shoulders in the front, while falling to the middle of her back behind. The movement of her ears and tail reveal her to be the genuine article, not just a cosplayer, and they also match her hair perfectly in color. As for her clothing, she wears a mostly white jacket that, for some reason, is itself sleeveless, and usually fastened only in the middle section. On the top it's opened up low enough to show some severe cleavage, though that's not actually the case due to the also sleeveless black turtleneck that she's wearing underneath it. The turtleneck apparently is cut fairly high at it's lower end, however, as when her movements cause the jacket's lower side to open more widely her midriff can be seen. Her right shoulder is bare, but her left has a pauldren that glows with a yellow light. It's a neat gadget that has both fiber optics and magical glowing thread as separate devices, letting it glow regardless of where she is! Her arms are not completely bare, however, as she is wearing long, fingerless gloves of the same material as her turtleneck. Below, she's wearing a red pleated miniskirt that is probably /too/ short by a lot of people's standards, but that's the way she likes it! Her legs, like her arms, are also far from bare as she has a set of white stockings fastened by black ornaments. Finally at her feet is her most utilitarian of all her clothing, a pair of good, very sturdy looking boots.
|Background=Born in Stargazer Village, Lillia spent most of her early life watching newcomers through the stone gates stumble in and traders coming through to pick up scraps that the locals collected from the nearby ruins. Eventually she left with one of these traders to begin a new life out in the vast world, leaving behind her family, including her younger sisters Viola and Rosa. She has since set out on her own, and is adept at being able to get whatever people want... for a cost, of course.

|}}[[Category:Characters]]

Valis

2021-07-31T21:02:12Z

Hitakino Kage:

=Valis=

Valis was once the capital of the vast, continent spanning empire that was at war with Synthatek. Today, however, it's little more than a city seen as historically important and neutral ground by all the various nations of Distant Oceans. Geographically, it resides in the middle of a roughly circular mountain range known today as the Wild Mountains, where the main pass through is via the now booming Distant Oceans Village. While far more people have heard of Valis than [[Distant Oceans Village]], the reality is that the 'village' today has almost as large a population as the ancient capital itself.

Today the main reasons to go to the actual city of Valis are tourism, archaeology, diplomatic reasons, and, the most likely, if one has business with the Council of Mages. This is an international organization that most 'respectable' spell users pay homage to if not are outright members, even if low level. In day to day life it acts primarily as a guild, though rumors have it that it still is a power behind the scenes in many nations.

==City of Valis(#1567R)==
The former capital of a continent spanning empire, Valis is long past its prime. Everywhere you look, ruins are constantly in view to remind you of this fact. Ancient buildings still crumble, old arenas gather dust, and vines grow unchecked over much of the city. Still, along the old main thoroughfares, the city still lives. Here the buildings are either still maintained or have been replaced with new construction. The old Grand Forum still houses a thriving, but much smaller, marketplace among its columns. And in the center of the city still stands the ancient Tower of the Magi.

''[Exits : (C)olosseum(#1866E), (T)ower of the Magi(#1571E), and (F)armlands(#1569E) ]''

==Valis Colosseum(#1865R)==

There was a time when this building was the most popular place in the city. The region. Quite possibly the entire continent. A time when there would be a crowd of well over a hundred thousand up in the stands, roaring down at the spectacle below.

That time has passed.

Instead, nearly three quarters of those stands have collapsed, and half that remain are unsafe for anyone to ever relax on. On the other hand, that eighth of the stands that remains more or less safe is at least fairly close to the action... because action there still can be here. Even today there are spectacles of all sort that are put on here, from sporting events to plays to even the occasional concert. But mostly this is still used to the spectacle of the fight. Once a week there still is an event on a regular basis, be it a tournament of fighters, a planned staged hunting of wild beasts, and even a full on mock battle every now and then. But when there's nothing planned, the floor is open to any who may hold a grudge against each other and wish for their duel to be witnessed by any who would watch.

''[Exits : (O)ut(#1867E) ]''

==Tower of the Magi(#1570R)==

The Tower of the Magi, once merely the center of magical study in the old empire, now is the center focus of the entire city of Valis. Home to the Council of Mages, this is where the kingdoms of Distant Oceans come to settle disputes, form alliances, and make their declarations for all to know. Even here, the most important and well used building in all of Valis, it's clear that the tower is well past its glory days. While for the most part the walls have had their magical reinforcements renewed countless times, while the entire building is well lit with thousands of floating crystals, while every creature comfort imaginable is available here to those in power, it's always painfully obvious that what is now arguably the most important building in all of Distant Oceans is only a third of the height it once was. The building was never meant to be open to the sky in its center, but none have ever had the heart to repair that ceiling, nor rebuild the upper levels after the Arcane Nexus destroyed itself. The central chamber's openness to the sky remains as a memorial to that horrible day.

''[Exits : (O)ut(#1572E) ]''

==Valis Farmlands(#1326R)==

The lands around the old capital are filled largely with farmlands. Even here, though, it's clear that these lands are well past their prime. While along the road between Distant Oceans Village and the Capital the farms are well maintained and quite productive, going too far off that main road reveals too many field gone fallow, orchards long overgrown, and broken, barely discernable farmhouses.

''[Exits : (T)he Wild Mountains, (C)ity(#1568E), and (V)illage(#1339E) ]''

==The Wild Mountains==

The mountains in Distant Oceans are vast and dangerous. Patches of forests, deep valleys, and maze like caves with caverns are just a few of the attractions. Kobolds, Orcs, Trolls, Giants and Dragons live among the mountains that overlook the ruined landscape of Valis. Multiple paths and broken bridges stretch through the landscape, allowing passage for the brave, foolish, or those seeking hoarded treasure. Getting high enough allows you a view of most of the continent, the ocean, and the Raging.

''[Exits : (F)armlands ]''
[[Category:Locations]]

Distant Oceans Village

2021-07-31T21:01:52Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "=Distant Oceans Village= Long ago, this was a fortress entrance to the Capital District of the old continent spanning empire that once ruled all of Distant Oceans. In fact, a..."

=Distant Oceans Village=

Long ago, this was a fortress entrance to the Capital District of the old continent spanning empire that once ruled all of Distant Oceans. In fact, at the entrance to town, ruins of the old guard towers can still be visited. Today, however, Distant Oceans Village is a thriving town that sees much business due to its neutral status as part of said capital district and convenient location as the entrance to said neutral territory. While the main road of the village still goes straight through on its way to [[Valis]], the ancient capitol itself, today many travelling traders and caravans stop here, not bothering to go any further to sell their wares. As a result, Distant Oceans Village has grown to have almost as large a population as the inner city of Valis.

==Distant Oceans Village(#652R)==

A long dirt road stretches through Distant Oceans Village. Along the road, a combination of small homes and shops come into view. The quaint, irregular sized buildings line the road on either side, greeting travelers with their whimsical, colored doors and roofs in red, or orange, or blue. Villagers come and go about their business, shopping in the little street market and catch up on the latest gossip or news from those passing through. It's a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere here and the vast forest of tall ancient trees standing as sentinels all around the village only adds to that sense of security Distant Oceans Village inspires.

Strangely, despite there being no ocean nearby, a salt-sea breeze occasionally wafts through the the little streets, and fills the town with its pleasant aroma.

''[Exits : The (Dr)agon's Rest(#1956E), The Fanciful (U)nicorn Inn(#1595E), Griswold's (Ta)vern(#1592E), (Ma)gic Shop(#1574E), (F)armlands(#1334E), and (C)rossroads ]''

[[Category:Locations]]

Valis

2021-07-31T20:54:16Z

Hitakino Kage: Created page with "=Valis= Valis was once the capital of the vast, continent spanning empire that was at war with Synthatek. Today, however, it's little more than a city seen as historically im..."

Category:Locations

2021-07-31T20:29:35Z

Hitakino Kage: Created blank page

File:Lillia.png

2021-07-31T19:59:07Z

Hitakino Kage:

File:Shizuko.png

2021-07-31T19:57:45Z

Hitakino Kage: