Lucina - Fort Hraggstad

Lucina gave Ragna a small, grateful smile, nodding. Yes, they could do this. If they were to face a dragon, it was nothing she hadn't seen or defeated before. If it was hidden so completely by the small fort... why, it was nothing compared to the beast in the desert world, surely, and that great beast had been naught to compare against Grima.

"Ah, well said, Ragna. Forward, then!"

As the party slipped into the fort, Lucina held Falchion in a double-handed grip, ears raised and swiveling to catch even the slightest sound. The holy sword itself seemed to be tense with anticipation, motes of yellow light flowing up and down the blade as she rounded a corner and to confront - what?

"It's... a horse?" Lucina lowered her sword a fraction, a look of sheer confusion crossing her face. It was like a child's drawing of a horse had sprung from the page - all exaggerated proportions, more a suggestion of equine qualities than anything else.

She had to remind herself that this thing had, apparently, defeated a fort full of bandits. "Is it dangerous?" She asked, glancing towards Gwen as well, raising her blade again.

Edited by LittleMako on Nov 27th 2018 at 7:57:04 AM

Ragna, Fort Hraggstad

Ragna had followed alongside Lucina as she had promised, gripping Bloodscythe's handle, ready to give whatever was beyond that door a free sample of her latest recipe: Dead Spike to the face.

Her reaction to the apparent culprit was not dissimilar to Lucina's. A brief bout of confusion, followed by a dose of caution. She too, turned to Gwen for advice, as was the norm in this place.

"Like... I don't play video games, I'd be perfectly willing to buy that rainbow ponies are dangerous in Skyrim. My question is, Gwen: is this normal? There's like an... irreconcilable clash of art-styles going on here."

("I thought we were fighting for our freedom!")

I remember my rage quite clearly.

("Humans aim to suppress us, humans aim to control us. That was why I was fighting for you, and now I discover that you've been employing the same tactics?")

It was all I could feel at the time.

("Just what do you want from this world?")

Father had smoldering embers for eyes, and he stared down at me with them. It was nearly enough to reawaken my fear of him, and I had actually stepped back in hesitation as he approached me.

("Are you aware of what your heritage means?")

I blinked. I vowed to stand firm on this hill I'd made for myself, but he was like a towering, living inferno. Flame danced atop his shoulders, shoulders that stood more than a few heads above mine. His nearly featureless, crimson body was a frighteningly alien appearance even amongst us Gears. And as he continued to question me in the same voice that commanded me so many times before, fear kept welling up inside me.

("You belong to the bloodline of the purest Gear Cell, the undistilled essence of the Gear Project that created me. And with it, you've inherited my Command Gear protocol. The very same thing you now admonish me for using.")

("W-what? Th-that can't...")

("Gears are superior to humans. And we are superior to Gears. It is your birthright to command. If you don't have any more complaints, I suggest you take your seat at the top of the food chain and maybe try to enjoy it.")

He shook his head in disappointment and turned to leave. He exuded nothing if not irritation and dismissal. It was as if he actually believed I was going to allow the conversation to end there.

("I... am not like you!")

Necro had found an opportunity, and I did nothing to stop him from taking over. We pounced, eager to strike.

And in response, Father indulged me a single glance.

Before I could even see him move any more than that, I was blown back by a great force. I had been sent flying, the wind cutting my skin, my body splintering what I could only guess were trees and rocks as I crashed through them. The final crash resounded with an explosion of dirt and sound, and I had felt a great heat engulf me at the same time.

When the dust had settled, I could not move. I was out of breath, and it took me the longer part of a moment to regain enough strength to even attempt to get back up, and by the time I could, he had arrived... and his foot had already crushed my chest.

I screamed. His sheer weight had nearly caved in my chest. Perhaps half of that weight was imagined by the overwhelming horror I had felt at the time.

I barely even found the will to struggle. I watched as Father slowly opened his palm to me. He crouched down slowly before gripping my cheeks. His massive red hand covered my entire face, and it gave off more of that terrible heat. That hellish burning sensation that was enough on its own to drive humans mad, and enough to leave me fearing for my life.

Not even Necro dared to come out now. Neither did Undine. Their fear was my fear. No matter what I did, no matter how much power I put into my attacks, I knew it wouldn't be enough to best my opponent. What a fool I was, to talk back against him. Now that I had opposed him, Father was going to kill me.

("I am still willing to spare some patience. Abandon this premature rebellion, and you will live.")

I waited for the end to come, even as he said he would spare me. Perhaps I had wanted to welcome it, wanting my involvement in this unruly, chaotic world to be over.

Father let go of me. I sucked in a breath of desperately needed air. The heat quickly dissipated, and I felt the forest air suddenly grow refreshingly cool on my skin. I stared up at the canopy, at the rays of sunlight peeping through the leaves. I heard the birds begin chirping again, singing their merry songs. In an instant, everything had become peaceful.

When I finally sat up and looked around, Father was gone. He had allowed me this reprieve, and returned me to my gilded birdcage.

I don't know how long I had cried after that...

For that moment, I had despaired. I thought I had found the right path...

I could've sworn it was...

Dizzy, Van

In the middle of the van's living area, there appeared a young girl with wings and a tail◊, curled up in a ball on the floor and clearly asleep.

And if one looked closely, there were signs of dried tears on her bruised cheeks.

Edited by LatverianBadger on Nov 28th 2018 at 10:25:23 PM

Yay! Ok, let's get started then, come on!

Without warning, Tira grabbed and attempted to physically drag Corrin to the rough center of the room, then took a few steps backward. She started spinning her blade as she took her battle stance, a giant smile on her face. Then she would start swinging, first with several repeated slashes to her chest that would not be terribly hard to block. Then she suddenly spun around once or twice, still slashing with the blade using the force of her rotation, before suddenly ducking down and moving her blade down to the level of Corrin's lower leg and slashing at them in an attempt to trip her up.

"Wait, here?! Now?!" Yelping as she was all but dragged by Tira into the impromptu sparring match right smack dab in the midst of things, the queen nevertheless obliged by sliding her own Yato blade out to parry the first few blows and then having to outright leap (she was one of the more acrobatic fighters) to avoid having her lower legs get cut to the bone.

It was at that point the Vallite queen twirled about with her momentum to try to use centrifugal force and her own twirling cape to mask where her own blow was coming from to attempt to helicopter smack Tira's face with the flat of her blade via a back hand since she had Nice Person Syndrome.

That and when your blade becomes a flaming chainsword when you're serious, it's sort of hard to pull any punches the regular way. Oddly enough she felt a smidgen more tired after the clash but the girl chalked that up to the pain of losing Azura dulling her actions. Her own sword though seemed to spark with rainbow fire for a moment after feeling such an evil aura before dying down due to its owner not willing to make full use of its capabilities in a friendly spar.

"Absolutely okay! Just dandy!" Ranma's muffled response came out even as she tightened up the scarf about her lower face even further so as to hide how red she was from view, feeling even more sure that the woman before her was akin to a grown up version of Shampoo. Still, it seemed that the chance to talk shop meant the flirting had died down so being the utter social genius that she was, the redhead took it upon herself to continue divert attention by explaining how said device worked.

"From what I figured out, the thing just seems to somehow make whatever you can think of after you type in a few key words as long as it's not magical or too high tech? Also anything that would destroy the van or hurt nearby people on its appearance alone like radioactive materials. You can also make unfinished or raw materials to make your own stuff if you wanna give it your own touch. So yeah, you can probably make whatever outfit you can think of."

Crafting some more things out of the machine that looked suspiciously like ninja smoke bombs before slipping them onto her person as yet another demonstration as well as insurance for the future, Ranma then went onto voice an example of what it couldn't do. "Someone wanted to make a whole motorcycle back then but that was too big and complicated for one go so they'd have to create smaller parts before putting them together themselves."

Tira, seeing the blade coming, attempted to block it. However, not quite being quick enough due to being caught off guard, the blade was only partly deflected, and moved in such a way that the bottom half of the blade ended up scraping against her forehead as she recoiled from the hit, causing some bleeding that probably looked worse then it really was, considering she had regeneration abilties. Without any warning, Tira suddenly lunged forward, aiming a brutal headbutt right at Corrin's own head.

Stop insulting me! Fight seriously, or this whole damn thing is pointless!

If the headbutt managed to hit, Tira would attempt to follow up with a much more ferocious and quicker forward lunge aimed for her upper chest, not so much slashing with her blade as she was using it as a very long, very sharp stabbing implement.

Edited by Meanken on Nov 28th 2018 at 3:17:56 PM

Prime Meridia - Fort Hraggstad

While the Alternates continued to lurk, the wild horse continued to graze. It nibbled on a little bit of grass in the fort's courtyard, then turned around and nibbled on a different patch of grass, all the while ignoring anything else that was going on nearby.

"OH MY GOODNESS MISS GWEN IF YOU HAD A HORSE YOU COULD BE MY KNIGHT IN SHININ-" a voice suddenly pounded in the ears of all of the Alternates. It was... familiar.

"Pardon that," Meridia added, also speaking directly to them. "The new priestess you sent me has some... quirks. I'll make sure she knows the Beacon is supposed to be for important messages only."

Hearthfire - Blue Palace

Surprisingly or not, the command was accepted after Susan punched it in. Just as approached the barrier, the command line interface popped up again in the top-left of her field of vision, and a gnarled, purpled hand became visible to her - and only her, as it was in her HUD - physically grabbed the command she had input and smashing it to bits.

"Let's not have you getting too, shall we?" a male voice whispered into Susan's ears that sounded as gnarled as that hand looked.

Then, both the hand and the voice were gone, and if she tried to input any more commands, the system wouldn't allow her to submit them.

"While there are far too many people who could use help for me to remember them all, I believe that my personal steward, Falk Firebeard, has a matter that may need attention," Right-Elisif said with a smile to Android 21.

A new entry popped up in the quest log as their current quest updated, a ba-dong sound ba-donging while a new marker that pointed at the door leading back outside appeared. Another marker appeared that pointed to a man hanging out◊ nearby - presumably Falk Firebeard, given that "Falk Firebeard" appeared above his head if someone looked at him.

Find people to help in Haafingar.

"Two of me?" Left-Elisif asked Hat Woman in confusion.

"Twins?" Right-Elisif asked Hat Woman in confusion, simultaneously with the other Elisif.

Helgen - Dragonquest

"Oh I knew you were good people, thank you thank you thank you!" Alduin happily exclaimed. She even went so far as to jump at Jack-O' in order to give her a mega glomp.

"Perhaps we should get going," Parthurnax chimed in. "Skyrim is vast, and we cannot expect the solution to our problems to simply present itself. We will need to prepare for a long, tenuous journey across this world and leave no stone unturned."

For everyone else who wasn't an NPC, a new quest marker appeared, pointing towards the northwest, and a ba-dong sound accompanied their quest-updating visual cues.

Find out the truth behind the dragon transformation.

Gwen - Gwen Is Very Aware That She's Basically A Human Pinkie Pie; Fort Hraagstad

Gwen stared at the pony open mouthed, the group's questions and requests for explanations falling on deaf ears as she took a few moments to simply stare at the thing.

Her stupor was interrupted when the new Priestess chimed over the phone, quite a bit more animated than she had been earlier. And it seemed Meridia wasn't wrong in saying that Gwen had charmed her.

But she could think about that later. There was exposition to give, and a fierce blush to fight off.

"That is..." She started, before hooking her rocket launcher back over her shoulder. "Okay, so, as Ragna guessed, that's not a normal Skyrim monster. So I don't know exactly what it can do. For all I know, this could just be a reskin- that's what you call it when you just give something that already exists a new appearance, by the way. But yeah, this could totally be a reskin of something. A dragon, a daedra, or maybe just a normal horse."

"But I can tell you that her name is Rainbow Dash. She's one of the main characters of a cartoon called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's a kids show that was meant for girls but after some reviewer crapped all over it before seeing a single episode a bunch of nerds got together and decided to watch it just to prove the reviewer wrong. Long story short, the show is pretty good and it got a massive fanbase of male nerds who got a reputation for being really weird. Like, really weird."

"Anyway, she's probably friendly. Probably. But I kinda resemble and act like one of her best friends, so I'll got first, okay?"

Gwen stepped out from behind the fortress, and strode towards the giant blue pony somewhat timidly, but plastered a smile on her face.

"Hiya, Rainbow Dash!" She waved cheerily. "I'm Gwen! What brings you here?"

Santa had no idea what a console command was, but she knew evil tomes of ancient magic when she saw them. If anyone had experience with how vile wizards could get, it was her!

This kind of nefariousness wouldn't get any kinder if she let it grow. She was going to have to nip it in the bud.

Putting herself between the elf and her own Master, Santa withdrew her tainted Excalibur from its scabbard and pointed it at the knife-ear. "Halt! As a king myself, no, as a saint of all that is joyous, I cannot let you trample upon others like that. You will not ever ascend to the heavens. Surrender."

Okay, this was something Susan knew about computers.

She had heard about them before, hired trained teams of professionals to remove them, worried endlessly if the next file she loaded would harbor one, but rarely had it ever been such a visceral experience for her.

Susan just had a close encounter with a computer virus.

She withdrew her hand immediately, turning around to see if anyone else, even her non-NPC friends, had noticed that. Unfortunately, it seemed as if no one did.

"...RIGHT." Our favored goddess wasn't about to bow down to some hacker's evil machinations! She'd forge a path ahead, even with the paranoia of all of this going through her head.

Taking some firm steps back from the throne and its invisible wall, Susan seemed to the rest of the group like she had just been made very wary about something.

"...Hey, Ms. Hat Person," she said, not aware that that was pretty much her name in the first place, "Do you have any experience with computers?"

The elf paused as he was commanded to halt. Then he looked over his shoulder.

"Even kings yield to gods"

He lifted his hand, and a blast of lightning shot out of it. A single lightning bolt impacted Santa, and a red bar would appear in the lower center of her screen, suddenly draining halfway. In addition, a blue bar appeared in the lower left and suddenly drained 3/4ths.

Sevral tutorial messages would appear for the Alternates.

In the lower part of the screen, 3 bars will appear when appropriate. Green is your stamina, which drains when you heavily exert yourself, such as by blocking an attack, sprinting, or preforming a power attack. If it reaches 0, you will be unable to preform anything but basic attacks. Red is your health. When it reaches 0, you die. Blue is your mana, used by magic spells. When it reaches 0, you will be unable to use magic.

Destruction Magic has different effects, based on their element. Fire spells set you on fire and causes additional damage over time. Ice spells cause your running speed to be reduced. Lightning spells also drain your mana.

The elf, meanwhile, turned away from the group and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Edited by Meanken on Nov 29th 2018 at 4:59:24 AM

Fort Hraagstad

'Rainbow Dash' lifted its head up. It slowly walked a few steps towards Gwen.

And then it lowered its head again to nibble on the grass near her, making horse-like sounds.

Tessa - Understone Keep

Tessa scowled, balling up her hands into tiny little fists when she spotted the Console Codes and How to Use Them-A Cheat Manual For Skyrim book in the elf's hands.

"Cheating," she muttered under her breath. Or what would have been her breath if she wasn't a robot.

But then without warning, he attack. He attacked Santa!

"SANTA! NOOOOOO!" Tessa shouted.

She spun in place very quickly, her clothes vanishing and being replaced by Arm Slave components, dashing forward. Flaring her Lambda Driver and cocking her fist, she flew at the mean old elf as it created an wave of force just in front of her hand, magnifying her punch like she was ramming a Camry into his face.

Tenko Chabashira - Workshop

Tenko tried to avoid Liz's gaze while answering the Heroic Spirit's question about her visible nervousness. "Oh, that's nothing! I'm just a bit worked up from beating up giants back in that game I talked about." She eagerly moved to the topic of the thing-creating machine. Even if it was only to back up Ranma's explanation.

"Yes, that thing's really neat if you want to make nice clothes. In fact..." The young martial artist just a great idea. She went up to the machine and typed a command. A second after, she picked up and wore a newly created cute cat-themed coat."So, what do you two think?" She looked at Liz and Ranma while asking the question, completely ignoring the men and the bug-thing. "I tought it might go well with my choker." Honestly, she was proud and happy that the thing came out so well despite being designed on a whim.

The attack would cause the elf to go into a ragdoll and fall to the ground, apparently dead. A message would appear.

This character is Essential

A new tutorial appeared

Characters marked as Essential, signified by a crown next to their name on the UI, have been designated as important characters, who's deaths would render some quests uncompleteable. Because of this, they cannot be killed permanently, but they can kill you. Be wary when dealing with such characters.

And then the elf got right back up, his health back up to full, without even so much as a dirty robe. He would then continue walking, as if nothing had happened, still laughing.

Edited by Meanken on Nov 29th 2018 at 6:12:33 AM

Tetra - Break Time's Over

While it may have taken a little while to get her hair dry and put back in order, and while she may or may not have experimented with some of the shampoo bottles she found in the bathing area, Tetra finally emerged ready to go and face the world once more, a familiar smirk on her face. Not quite feeling up to just loafing around anymore, and not wanting to deal with the craziness of things in the van, Tetra headed back for the storage room, inspecting the holodeck and looking it over.

"Better not kick me out again..." Tetra muttered; looking at the nearby wall, she could swear she could still see the impact of her noggin on it, and she wasn't very keen on repeating the experience. Taking in a breath, Tetra stepped into the holodeck once more, allowing it to take her back into the game world.

Helgen - Dragonquest

Tetra just showed up out of nowhere and got the same active quest as everyone else there.

Tiki - Dragonquest

Tiki turned to face the newcomer, but relaxed somewhat when she realized it was the girl from the van. One of her compatriots, then, rather than an enemy born of this dreamworld.

"What are you doing here, child?" Tiki asked Tetra. "Are you well? Has the dream contraption sent you here?"

Edited by nman on Nov 29th 2018 at 4:50:12 AM

Tetra (Helgen - Dragonquest)

Upon spawning back into the game world, Tetra took in her surroundings, and realized that she was not back in the Thieves' Guild, but in another area entirely, where the first thing she saw was...two dragon women. One of which was glomping who she assumed was one of the alternates. That was...different.

"Medli would flip her lid if she saw this..." Tetra mused to herself, knowing how passionate the Rito girl could get about things that interested her. Her thoughts were interrupted both by hearing a 'ba-dong' and receiving an urging to find out the truth behind a dragon transformation, and that green haired woman from earlier talking to her.

"Yeah, that piece of junk must have sent me here this time. If it boots me out again though, it's getting a new hole in it." Tetra replied, fingering her pistol; however, once she did so, she could feel low level sparks coming through it, which brought a grin to her face.

"Yes! I got to keep it!" Tetra exclaimed, pretty ecstatic about keeping her enchantment from the last game...though she then wondered what became of that thieving suit, not knowing it was currently in her inventory.

Umu, I Think I'm In The Computer, Understone Keep

They found themselves in the local seat of power, stumbling across a most unusual scene: a man flying off the stairs. Judging by the crown on his head, he must have been the local leader, and yet it was the unhealthy-looking fellow in black robes that their "quest" designated as Ondolemar. It seemed he held divine powers?! Well, at least in a sense that he had somehow rigged the system they were in.

{Remember, Maestro, we're in a game.} She cautioned Magilou through the link, rubbing her chin in thought. {This system, to my understanding, is held together by a language of machines. These must be the codes the green man speaks about.} But how on Venus's bountiful bosom did this Ondolemar acquire the codes in the first place? Santa, bless her Christian heart, tried to force the solution, to which the elf-wizard merely threw a lightning bolt at her, to a staggering effect.

No Servant worth their salt would be left this damaged by a modern Magus's magecraft, and Santa there was definitely in the upper echelon of power. Tessa's attack failed to leave a dent on Ondolemar either. He didn't even acknowledge her, leaving to do whatever it was that power-hungry Magi did. "Cease for now, friends." She said, turning her attention towards the compromised Jarl, attempting to help him to his feet.

"Brute force shall not win the day. Not that we're here to fight the man, if you recall." If he held control over the system, then they had to re-rig it, or use something from the outside. Still, knowing more on the situation could help. "Good man, have you any idea where the green man acquired that book of power?" She asked the Jarl once Ondolemar left them.

Ah, to be ignored by everyone. Truly, Cell's world was thrown into disarray. "Ordinary insects, perhaps." He simply retorted to Liz's barb, watching the girls procure outfits for themselves. After some fiddling with the machine, Cell soon was equipped with a pair of motorcycle googles.

Cool beans. "Well, don't let me bother your sensibilities anymore." With a slight wave of his hand, the bioandroid slinked back to the main room part of the van, only to find a blue-haired girl in questionable clothing curled up on the floor. She had wings and a tail, too. Fancy that. He looked at her from all angles before slowly crouching down before her, poking her forehead.

"Someone got you good, huh? Rise and shine, sweetheart." He drawled slowly, curious of the story on her bruised face.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Nov 30th 2018 at 10:49:57 AM

Priscilla, Goddamn You Todd Howard, You Did It Again!!!

Goddammit. No matter how times Priscilla bought and played Skyrim, the wily bastard known as Todd "The God" Howard would make her do it again and again. First on PC, then PS 3, then PS 4, then the Switch, then the Omega Gamesphere, then the Dark Souls of Consoles, and now in VR?! GODDAMN YOU TODD HOWARD YOU FUCKING-

Ok, let's try this again. This time, Priscilla looked over to Jack-o, then towards the Quest Arrow that suddenly appeared. Well then, it seemed that merely stating your intent to complete something was enough for the game to tell you how to do it. Seemed pretty easy, but Priscilla wasn't going to complain considering how ignorant she was of modern technology.

"Very well," she said at last. "Let us venture forth towards our mission."

And with that, she went on towards her destination.

"Well, I'd rather not use the special function my sword has thank you very much!" Huffing at the fact that Gloomy was getting pissed off because she wasn't going to use her flaming vibrosword function in a regular mortal(?) fight, Corrin nevertheless used sheer will to retract the sharp and serrated blades reminiscent of a dragon's maw that was adorning her blade until it looked like a rather stylized golden tsurugi so she could at least use the edge.

And promptly ate shit for her considerations due to the fact that she had gotten hit by the boneheaded murderer right when she was distracted in fair-play, seeing stars from the impact and staggering. It was only the fact that she had been tempered in many a life and death battle that the follow up was curbed to some degree, her free hand's metallic armor jutting outwards in a spiral cone pattern to blade lock the sharp bit from embedding itself into her rather exposed chest area.

Still, the transformation was pretty half baked so Soul Edge itself was now jabbing into her unarmored hand, causing a lot of pain and discomfort to the dragon-blooded woman who was visibly gritting her teeth which was now sporting enlarged canines. "Away with you!" And then Corrin smashed her armored knee upward to attempt a forceful separation since she had been trained to fight rather dirty herself.

"Very well then, Your Majesty. I shall endeavor to help your vassal out to the best of my ability." Giving a slight nod to the queen that she was speaking to and following the command prompt that had ever so helpfully appeared, 21 found herself facing the NPC known as Falk Firebeard. "Greetings and salutations, your ruler has sent me on her behalf to help you out on a task that you might need some assistance with?"

As Corrin grabbed the blade and stopped it with her hand, she would suddenly get a sudden, sharp pain in her brain, as if someone was shoving a sharp spike right into it as it started to attempt to take control of her mind.

For a moment, she would very vividly feel the evil aura of Tira's blade, images suddenly flashing in her head, images of herself, holding a version of Soul Edge in the shape of an actual sword, her enemies slain before her, the image of a being in the shape of a man, but consumed by what could only be described as hellfire, promises of the ability to grant her greatest desires, if only she bestowed souls onto it. But between all of this, she would get the very clear sense that the sword was desperate to get out of the hands of its current owner by any means possible.

Then Corrin's knee impacted Tira and caused her to stagger backward, freeing the sword from her hand and breaking the mental link as quickly as it came. She staggered back a step or two, then grunted in annoyance before charging again, having not noticed any of what just happened between Soul Edge and Corrin. At the last second, however, she suddenly dropped into a running slide, foot first, not unlike a baseball slide as she attempted to kick Corrin's feet out from under her.

Lancelot - Still an idiot

Managing to restrain his urge to sigh, the black knight followed after Priscilla in the direction the arrow pointed. At least this quest was giving him directions, and wasn't like the time he went searching for the holy grail, hopefully the end wouldn't be as disappointing either. Perhaps he should take this time to try to get to know his master better though?

"So Master, if you don't mind me asking, where are you from?"

Van Sparring Match

Having been evicted from her part of the simulation, Kawakaze opted to spend her new found free time lazing around the Van. She got something to drink, but rather quickly sucame to boredom, and opted to head back to where the simulation was and see if she could work her way back into it. On the way however she heard what sounded like fighting coming from one of the other rooms which piqued her curiosity, and caused the fox to opt to head that way and peer inside to investigate instead.

Meta Knight — Spectating the Sparring Match

While Tira and Corrin were in the middle of a grueling sparring match, the usual spectacle that happened when someone was brought onto the van happened again. The newcomer this time was a tall, slender man in dark blue attire with dark blue hair. He was already observing the match, his yellow eyes partially shadowed by his shiny white mask.

The man was about to raise his hand as he thought carefully about which question to ask first... but the fight going on between the two oddly-dressed women was a little too interesting to interrupt. The man crossed his arms. If he was going to spectate a sparring match, it wouldn't hurt to chip in with some commentary.

"Ah, a slide attack!" he said in a strange accent, commenting on Tira's familiar maneuver. "A reliable move, for sure."

"Grr..." What came forth from Corrin's mouth was a very noticeable and bestial growling sound that a human couldn't have reproduced at all, her eyes elongating in a shining almond shape while fangs grew more prominent, dark mist wafting out from under the gaps of her armor as barely restrained dragon blood all but boiled from the sheer fury that was evoked by the damned blade that so reminded her of the Grimgari and her own sins of naivety that had killed her own mother.

In short, sheer self-hatred and loathing was brought out by the mental attack done by Soul Edge, the brief blip of bloodthirsty pleasure overwhelmed by an ocean of soul searing regret. Letting out a roar of a wounded beast, the queen was then hit by the sliding dive and fumbled to the ground even as her fingers elongated and gnarled together to resemble an organic spear before her movements paused just short of retaliating via biological pile-bunking.

Breathing heavily and panting while laying on her back from her stance being collapsed, tears streamed down Corrin's face as she gritted her teeth and convulsed, her armoring expanding and contracting in a very unsettling manner before words spat themselves out of her mouth in a strained manner.

"E-enough. I'm... not in any state to continue." Forfeiting the duel to not wanting to truly go berserk, the disheveled albino slowly picked herself up while dragging back all her inhuman features back into her being, returning into her regular pointy eared self once more. "...Your weapon will lead you to ruin one day." Rasping out with a hoarse voice, Corrin gave Soul Edge a look of disgust as she tried to mentally shift herself back into working gear.

And then the white-haired dragon half-breed that wasn't Priscilla turned her attention towards the commentating spectators, eyes narrowed ever so slightly as her breathing and beating heart slowly calmed down from the doping effects experienced earlier. "...Do you need anything?" To put it bluntly, it was not the Vallite's day right now.

Tira looked at Corrin for a monent in confusion after her ominous warning. Then she turned her blade to look it in its solitary eye.

God damnit, we fucking talked about this shit! She yelled directly at the blade. What did I say about fucking with the heads of people I'm not killing? What the fuck did I say about trying to get away from me!

There was a moment of silence as the blade stared Tira down.

That's a load of bullshit! Don't take me for a fool! I've seen this crap before! Let me make this really fucking clear.

She lifted the blade so the eye was mere inches away from her face, voice lowering to a whisper.

I don't need you. Continue to be a problem for me, and I'll find someone to atomize you.

It once again stared at her, wordlessly.

With as weakened as you are, you think I can't? In a van of goody two shoes like this? They'll be falling over themselves for the chance to destroy something like you. Don't. Test me.

She lowered the blade, and turned back to Corrin.

Are you ok, Corry? I'm sorry about that, we diden't mean for something like that to happen, but sometimes Edgy doesn't know how to behave. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again, ok? But what happened to you at the end there? I never saw Edgy cause someone to change like that before.

Then she noticed that they had spectators, and turned to wave at them.

Oh, hi there! Diden't see you guys come in! Did you enjoy the show? Like what you see?

She smiled in that way that said she probably had no idea whatsoever how else that could have been taken, given her state of dress.

Blue Palace, Hearthfire

"She has? You are?" Falk Firebeard said to Android 21 with a small amount of surprise.

"I mean of course! Anything the Jarl wants.... You mean the Dragon Bridge issue, I presume? There have been reports of weird happenings near Wolfskull Cave. Travelers disappearing, odd lights. I suspect wild animals or perhaps bandits. I don't think it's worth our time with the war going on, but... if you want to clear out the cave, I'll make sure you're repaid for your work."

He paused for a moment, and then, unprompted, continued speaking.

"The cave has a bad history. Long ago, Potema the Wolf Queen used it for necromantic rituals. That's where it got the name. That was over 500 years ago. Nothing much down there now - but everyone's always convinced the cave is haunted. Feel free to return to me with questions. The Blue Palace is an open forum."

And then the quest updated. No new goal appeared. In fact, it seemed like the 'Befriend the Jarl of Haafingar' sub-goal no longer even had a marker. However, while that one particular entry was now a dead end, a new quest appeared.

She (and the others) got a new map marker leading outside, her map indicating that it ultimately led to a cave some distance outside the city.

• A Daedra's Best Friend
  • Investigate Wolfskull Cave

Helgen -> ????, Dragonquest

The world seemed to fall away at a very fast pace, as if they walked dozens of miles in a matter of minutes, until they found themselves at some sort of ceremonial tomb built into the mountainside.◊

Their map updated, indicating that in addition to High Hrothgar and Helgen, they now had a new fast travel location called Volskygge.

"Oh no," Paarthurnax said, holding her hands to her head. "Volskygge?"

"Ha! Ha!" Alduin laughed. "Perfect!"

"How would the haunted tomb of a dragon priest be perfect?" Paarthurnax retorted.

"Becauuuuuuuuse," Alduin cheered in a sing-song voice, happily floating up a few feet - in happiness. "The dragon priests loooooooooooooooove me! The joor were led here for a reason, so it must be that we need me to get some help from the dragon priests. You wouldn't know what that's like, being a traitor to the dov and all that."

She stuck her tongue out and jeered at Paarthurnax, then continued.

"Volsung should be buried around here, obviously I just need to resurrect him and somehow he'll be able to fix this mess, duh! Okay let's go, wheee!"

She raced towards the entry door to the tomb, only to find it locked.

"Huh, there must be some sort of lock here. I just need to... huh so that's how it is... uh huh...."

There were four rotating blocks to the left side of the door, each one capable of rotating to the carving of a bear, fox, snake, or wolf. There was also a message carved into the stone to the right side of the door.

A few yards back from the door was a pedestal, the top of which concealed a lever someone could pull.

"Oh right, yeah, this is uh... uh...." Alduin nervously looked back at the Alternates, then at the door again. "Sooooo obvious, someone like me wouldn't demean herself by touching these filthy things. Well go on then, open it, ya joors."

Tiki - Dragonquest, Pretend This Happened Before That Shit In the Previous Section

"I see," Tiki said to Tetra. "Lady Priscilla is right, we must be going if we wish to accomplish our task, but it is a dangerous world. For what it is worth, I can do what I can to keep you safe, but you must be alert."

And then she went on towards her destination after Priscilla.

Edited by nman on Dec 3rd 2018 at 4:37:12 AM