Talitha, Austere Traveller

Hm. Things were heating up. The wizard (holatavist? Or warlock?) seemed to be just as surprised to see them as they were all surprised to be here. Which was concerning, if his summoning spell wasn't a deliberate one. According to his brief explanation, Talitha gathered that his attempted magic had done the reverse of what he'd intended it to. Though how exactly a simple self-displacement could backfire into a mass summoning of this kind of scale eluded Talitha in terms of logistics. How many steps did he stumble over to achieve that level of failure...? From what she could gather, he might've invented a brand new kind of misfortune.

But then he was slammed up against the wall by one woman, and Talitha overheard his claims. His gesturings to the various media around them. Books she could recognise easily, but other things took a moment to study. She frowned, drifting between the tables as she looked over and through as many items as she could one at a time. Conventional books, as previously mentioned. Books consisting of pictures in various panels, with minimal text. Some boxy creations that rattled when she shook them, and a looser one that opened up to reveal a thin disk made of... glass? Metal? She couldn't tell, but she didn't want to damage anything she didn't recognise, so she just closed the case and set it back down into the pile again. Then her eyes fell on a thick tome on the other end of the table.

The Parable of Aethelheim — 40th Anniversary Edition (2021)

"That isn't the correct year," she muttered aloud, the first words she'd spoken since arriving here. Her voice was like a whisper on the wind, softspoken and to a degree musical, laced with a practised accent that implied an educated background. Stunned to momentary silence, she eventually regained her senses enough to pull the book over to her and open it up on the table. It was heavy, a hardback edition with thick covers that reminded her of the alchemy books from back in her realm. It felt leathery to the touch, somehow seeming old despite clearly being made recently, and she dared herself to move past the contents and open a page at random.

"..."

It was a dynastic list that covered both pages. Names of lords and kings she didn't recognise. She thumbed through more pages, quicker and quicker. More information. It was dull, like reading the latest holatavistic theorems. Educational, but esoteric. She thanked her minor deification for allowing her to comprehend at least some of it at a glance. But this wasn't what she was here for. Fed up with reading useless trivia about things she didn't need to know, she turned to the last page and skimmed over it.

She read it, then reread it, then turned a few pages back and read up to where she'd just read. She shook her head in disbelief, clapping the book shut and casting a few sigils in the air while clutching her necklace in her off-hand. Once the spell was complete, she placed her hand upon the book and caused it to fizzle away in motes of golden light; its glowing particles gravitating towards her necklace before fading and becoming imperceptible.

"One of us is running away. I don't know what's beyond those doors, but it would be wise to stop them," she spoke as she spotted Vana sneaking towards the door, before sighing as he bolted out of the room. One of the other persons went to follow his lead. Pursing her lips, she gave a brief bow to the others present before making her excuse.

"Nevermind. Two of us are running away. One moment; I shall try to calm them. If I fail, I'll return at once. Excuse me, please..."

She faded from view, in actuality turning invisible much as Briya did. Turning intangible in addition, Talitha silently sprinted out to catch up with Briya and Vana, aiming to block their path before rematerialising in front of them with a firm expression on her face.

"Don't run! We must convene. Who knows what dangers lie outside here? Are you both fools? Come back with me, now. To the room. If you fear for your lives then I shall protect you with mine," she proclaimed, her voice still gentle but now considerably bolstered with determination. "Please. Be reasonable. We're all in the same situation."

Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 13th 2022 at 1:29:46 PM

Künrahd ignores what is going on at the egress. Instead, the Barbarian sheathes Bookmark behind his back and begins reverently thumbing through a copy of "Gorthiver Among The Spires of Starfall". As long as no books are harmed, he sees no reason to interfere or interact with the other people here, and it seems the Lore Keepers of Dirt are already well acquainted with Gorthiver's adventures on far off Gorth.

Kailina

It was definitely really hard for Kailina to keep track of what was happening. Not only were there way more people here than she'd ever seen in one place, both humans and things Kai had never seen before, but without a good body of water, as it turned out, she couldn't get up off the floor. So she was mostly stuck looking at people's feet, and anything above butt-level was almost impossible to track, which definitely didn't make things any clearer.

And then the bombshell dropped that they were all fictional. Which was pretty hard to believe, to be honest, but she had a pretty conspicuous gap in her memory between receiving the letter and arriving here. And the people who could actually reach the table were reacting as if there was at least semi-convincing evidence.

In a situation this baffling, there was only one thing to do: Sing!

Where is this I find myself?
They say I'm fiction, on a shelf.
So many people, all so strange.
Enough to take my breath away.
And as for the angry lass.
She really undersells her ass.
Can I not return back home?
Back to the swamp, of my abode.
Or am I stuck here, high and dry?
Where I can't even see the sky.

Kai had a beautiful voice, but there was more to it than that. There was a hypnotic quality that compelled a person to stop and listen. Not that she herself was aware of this.

Supersonic 2: Caught out of the sky!

Whoa lady! How the heck didya do that? Supersonic 2 shouted as the martial arts monkey lady managed to catch him out of the air! He willingly hopped down to look the mysterious lady martial artist in the eye. Noticing the odd fur and clothes the lady was adorned with his mind instantly wait to another enemy.

Ah, sis, are you one of the Beastmaster's minions? I thought we already beat all of his fighters at the pound the other day. I didn't think of them knew karate. Noticing her nonviolent reaction and all the weird people around the mall brought the rare sight of this boy stopping for a second and waiting for react. His two feet were planted firmly on the ground when he heard the reaction of the girl and saw the other mysterious girl some kinda cyborg? She didn't really look that unusual. What was that? Fictional!? No way! He was real, he was always real! Just as real as his big brother and his sister!

Suddenly he turned his head rapidly and ran over to some sort of singing swamp mermaid in shallow water! Who was this mysterious and very green lady? Who could she be, and why did he want to hear some song of hers when there could be more important things on his mind? She was pretty, but why did she smell weird. He couldn't help but ask in a nasal voice while holding his nose. Hey girl, nice voice, but are you some kinda siren or something? Looking to flood this place or something?

Doctor Badd; Or, How Things Unfurl Like a Ball of Yarn

Suddenly, a do-gooder appeared to... strike him down?! That's not what they (usually) did! Before the bad doctor could get an impromptu face surgery, others stepped in to protect him from the overeager hero. "Egads! You will think twice before striking again, humdrum, else you will have to contend with modern medicine!" He called, shaking his fist-cup-of-coffee-holder (without spilling a drop, such skill) at Supersonic.

"You are no doubt unaware, but this potent concoction contains no other than the powerful 5G Virus! You shall become vaccinated, more machine than man - and no god will save you if you do! Nyohoho!" If not for Clara's flirting, he might have taken issue with the cosmic revelations just next to him (although it was likely that no villain from "Father Goode" was actually featured on the box art). As such, puffed up on his own pride, he responded with the kind of innocence a black-and-white character would.

"Young lady, you flatter this modern doctor! Although wine is not what I associate with the good time, truth be told." The doctor's face twisted up in a grunt. "The book-readers truly destroy everything they touch. Conflating blood and wine like some kind of a cave-dwelling nincompoop..."

Speaking of nincompoops... someone was singing, as if in a church. Doctor Badd's mustache twitched in outrage. And yet, the girl who was didn't fit into the venues of a church-going crowd, in their proper outfits and hands clasped together as if stuck by glue... also, the lyrics were decidedly not god-fearing... hm. Well, better safe than sorry. "You there! Fish person!" He pointed dramatically with his syringe (full of 5G) at Kai. "Cease this ritual of yours! We do not want the Bible-dumbers to be lured here like moths to a flame!"

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Dec 14th 2022 at 12:25:00 PM

Yi Min

She regarded the hero with a huff of amusement. "I dunno who Beastmaster is, but I'm no minion."

Yi Min put her fists on her hips and puffed out her chest, grinning proudly. "I am Sun Yi Min! Beautiful Monkey Queen! Strongest in all the Heavens!"

She allowed that pronouncement to linger a moment. Then she noticed Akari threatening the old man (well, the other old man, the one that wasn't a kooky doctor) and leaped over to intervene, crossing the distance in one somersault.

By then, of course, she'd already released him, and the old man had pointed them towards the books and discs and stuff covering the table.

Absentmindedly humming along to the mermaid-song, Yi Min looked at the book that Akari held up, which did indeed have pictures of Akari in it. "Actually your butt is that big. It's a really good drawing of you."

Now quite interested, Yi Min looked at the table again and saw herself. She picked up the manhwa with her smiling face on the cover and skimmed through it. It was her first fight with Xifeng, drawn in detail.

"This... this is..." A shiver of excitement vibrated down her spine to her tail. Triumphantly, she held up the comic for all to see.

"This is amazing! Look, everyone! We're famous!" Still smiling, she clutched the book to her chest. "I can't believe that someone would want to hear my story. Me, a little monkey who fought the gods. Just like my Great Ancestor. Truly, I must be blessed."

Edited by kagescorpionakki on Dec 14th 2022 at 4:29:01 AM

Briya

She heard singing and felt the compulsion to join in- there is a lot of internal noping going on right now as she keeps trying to flee. But why was this woman trying to tell them to not flee? This lady (was it from the mermaid she saw earlier?) keeps on singing. And it's beautiful. But she is not going to stick around to find out if getting close enough to listen can result in yet another stupid death!

"Someone has magical singing and they are singing right now! I refuse to find out if that singing is a deadly weapon! Now MOVE!"

Yea, her desire to leave has only gotten stronger! She uses her willpower to resist the urge to get closer and listen.

Vana

Vana shrieked in surprise as Talitha just appeared in front of him, falling on his butt and frantically scooting back. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn't going to attack.

"Um..." He awkwardly reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Wouldn't checking this place out a bit be a good idea...?"

Talitha, Austere Traveller

"Do not raise thy voice at me! Calm thyself down!" Talitha said sharply, fixing Briya with a glare as she held out her palm towards her. "That spell that thou speakest of is nought but a minor one. Harmless. It is merely an enchantment that will only compel thee to listen, and nothing more. I can feel its pull on me too—alas, I am strong of mind, so it has no major effect with enough concentration. It is not a weapon, so far as I can tell, and I am knowledgable in sorceries. But I can not say the same for whatever forms of harm are out here."

She then turned to Vana, acknowledging his question with a short nod. The tension in her shoulders fell away, and she was calm once more. Her firm attitude had come as quickly as it had left, thankfully, as her shift in demeanour hadn't suited her very well. It was too sudden and drastic of a change in tone to feel natural. Still, her voice managed to maintain a certain distance from emotions in whatever state she was in.

"Exploring this locale is a fair suggestion. But to splinter away from the group so soon is an ill one, comparatively. There are only two of you, and I do not intend to come with you if you decide to run away. I will not hesitate to leave you both to the jaws of fate if you throw yourself into danger," she stated, before closing her eyes briefly and letting out a sigh. "I am willing to follow you both, if we gain more numbers. If we don't all collect together as one group, we should at least find allies to strengthen ourselves. Is that not sensible? As I said, if anyone tries to sincerely harm anyone in a manner that they cannot handle, I will intervene. But that spell is not to be concerned over."

She parted her cloak with her hands, before extending one out to the both of them as an offer of a truce.

"Do you agree to give them all a chance? Or will you still run out into the unknown?"

Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 14th 2022 at 10:39:58 AM

Briya

. . . The singing is harmless?! But... How... that should not be possible... yet she seems to be telling the truth.

"Ok, you have a good point. I guess I can try to look at the stuff on the table first then. I will still ignore the singing though. I have... encountered deadly singing before."

She accepts Talitha's truce.

"But I do insist on looking around with a group later on! Now someone has to tell the singer to stop singing before she attracts unwanted attention from possible enemies!"

Vana

"...alright. Just..."

He hesitated.

"This is a lot to take in..."

Talitha, Austere Traveller

"I understand it is a lot for thee. But it is better to process things in relative safety, with others who are in the same situation. It may very well forge fast friendships," Talitha replied to Vana, smiling slightly at him and Briya before taking both of their hands in hers. "It will all be alright. All shall be uncovered... sooner or later. Now, come on. Follow me..."

With that, she passed by the two of them and covered herself with her cloak again, heading back into the room and leaving the door open for Briya and Vana to close. She bowed to the others there as she returned, before heading back towards the table and looking between all those who were present.

"If you'll all excuse my declaration: we should form a plan of some kind. To either separate into groups, stick together as one, or go our separate ways accordingly. However, I believe it would be best to scout the surrounding areas to ascertain where we are. Also, to assess any potential threats or risks to our safety. It would be a shame to be displaced, only to then be killed by some mundane aspect of this world due to ignorance."

She placed her hands upon the table, leaning on it as she contemplated, before raising her head back up to the group at large.

"I do not want to condemn strangers so quickly. Who agrees with the notion that we should remain a group, for now...?"

While she remembered, she parted from the table and then quickly moved over to Kai, giving her a gentle look of reassurance before carefully picking her up and placing her on a nearby chair where she could more comfortably sit. That done, Talitha then moved to sit on an adjacent chair, before clearing her throat and pointing Kai out.

"This young woman doesn't appear to have legs. She would not fare well to be abandoned. We would all be very kind to find some way to help her move about. No one in my power shall be left behind."

Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 14th 2022 at 10:59:57 AM

As the others argued, Joseph was struggling to parse his own memories. He had been forced through countless lifetimes, many of which resisted description in human terms (Joseph was pretty sure he had been a tree at some point). Within the morass of information, his true existence was by far the minority. Yet he believed that he was in his core Joseph Palmer, and not any of the myriad other existences he had experienced. Reconciling these two things was not an easy task.

Joseph had, however, found the explanation that he had sought. Clearly this was just another malformed reality to suffer through. The claim that Joseph was fictional was merely an added conceit, another layer of his delirium. As such, he had little interested in the man who purported to have brought him forth.

Joseph decided that he would humor the woman who spoke in a pastiche of medieval English. The others gathered around her person seemed like the very lowest of fools, but it would do no good to wander off into an unfamiliar world.

"I'm much in agreement. Part ways now and we'll all end up dead or beggars."

Octavius Klint - Thoroughly fuckin' confused.

Loud.

Loud.

Loud.

These people were all so god damned loud.

Alastor had a perchance to be loud. He had a tendency to be loud and obnoxious and getting on his right fucking nerves but this...this was a room full of Alastors. So he tried to focus on one thing and one thing only, namely, the old man who had, supposedly, dragged him here.

Upon being offered the books out for him to see, he was hesitant. The reality of the situation being that if what he said was true...well...

Well, he didn't even want to imagine that possibility. He walked over and touched the cover of the book.

The Ebony Waves Below - The Treasure Map it read on the front in gold font. There was Alastor on the bow of the ship, holding onto a secured rope to the crows nest as he swung his cutlass in the direction of...

...Him.

Was that...really what he looked like. H Is cutlass was glowing green, a snarl on his face as he aimed his swing at his neck? He placed a hand over the image of him and ran a hand over the raised image of him.

That was him.

In a book.

On a book.

That was a lot. Almost too much. Yes, it was too much. Wisely, he pushed his book forward away from him and took a step back. How does one process this information? How does on...fathom this?

He tuned everyone out, he grabbed his flask on his hip, pulled the cap off and began to down the endless, bottomless contents down.

As one would do in an existential crisis.

Briya

She went over to the table and looked at the pile of disk cases. If the others were saying that they were all from fiction...

One of the disk case images has... her on it? She picks it up and looks at it more closely, and then reads the back. That's her alright. What. Somehow the outside world of her home resembles that of the modern world but with magic.

So she puts the disk case down, sits down and just... stares for a while (though it would be implied with her body language rather than her face that's buried in darkness. This was too much to process, even for her.

"I'm from a fictional world... what... the... how? ..."

Akari

"Hey, don't ask me. Was never much of a thinker. Shoot first, ask questions later. Whoever kicks the most ass should be calling the shots and since I'm the best asskicker here..."

And then she stopped. The redhead distracted her, but only just. She'd nearly lost it during the fish girl's musical number, but she couldn't help but listen.

The monkey didn't have the same dulcet tones, but she had something else. Strength. Lots of it. She could feel her aura, warm and radiant as the sun. It was enough to give her chills. She was almost as strong as Sato. Not the strongest universe, no sir. Such a bold proclamation would have been enough to give her a proper spank. But she wasn't a pushover. Her fists clenched, heels digging the ground. If they weren't dealing with this fiction stuff, she'd stomp her without hesitation.

But there was something else the monkey had too. A big mouth. Akari clutched the handle of her guitar case, slamming it next to Sun Yi Min, a hair's breadth away from her face and into the ground. It made a dent. It looked as though it's been struck with a hammer, but there was no hammer that strong in this realm of existence.

"Wanna say that again, toots?"

Edited by kkhohoho on Dec 14th 2022 at 7:59:31 AM

Yi Min

"I think staying as a group makes sense." Yi Min replied to Talitha's inquiry. "Not sure if we should be picking a leader right away, though, given we barely know each other."

The slamming guitar case didn't cause Yi Min to so much as flinch. She merely tilted her head, curiously, still holding the volume of Monkey Climbing to Heaven.

"I said you have a big butt." Yi Min smiled, a hint of mischief glinting in golden eyes. "It's not a bad thing. It's a nice butt."

This was familiar. This kind of banter was always exchanged between sworn rivals. The feeling was just like with Xifeng, before they'd fought and laughed into the night.

She set the volume back on the table, and shifted into a stance, preparing to fight if Akari attacked. As Yi Min's hands moved through the air, soft gold energy shimmered off of them like sunlight. Her qi, vibrant and full of life. "Wanna fight about it, toots?"

Ydra, Processing - Convention Room, Mall of America

Like most everyone in the room, Ydra had some trouble swallowing the notion that the entirety of her existence was a falsehood. To verify the strange man's words, the cyborg sent a tentacle over stacks of books, games, and DVDs, eye sprouting at the end of the stalk to peruse the accumulated media. Then, there, she found it. The cover of a thin chapter book, no longer than 250 pages, featuring not herself but someone she recognized. The protagonist of Infinite Charisma and a generically handsome face she'd nonetheless recognize anywhere, one "Hiro."

"...heh..." The metallic maiden chuckled as dozens of tendrils sprouted from her observation tentacle, carefully flipping through the pages and scanning the reading. She kept laughing as she closed the book and dropped it down into the pile, clearing her throat to stop herself from going into a full on mad cackle. "Haha, sorry about that... I was just thinking how this revelation actually cleared things up for me."

The sudden joke my life because these past few months.

"It was quite sobering, really. I thank you for that. Now that that bit of existentialism is out of the way..." The eye stalk swam its way from the books over to the eccentric self-proclaimed doctor. "My curiosity has gotten the better of me. Seeing as I am already more machine than person, may I have a sample of that '5G Virus' you are so eagerly waving around? Studying it could prove amusing."

If anything, the revelation of false existence added a surprising joviality to the tentacled machine as she observed the simian girl and fellow cyborg banter over the latter's posterior. "If you wish I can run an objective analysis over your depiction and actual self, providing accurate measurements up to a one-thousandth of a millimeter. However, just from simple comparison..."

Ydra's hair flashed bright colors as it created a photographic copy of Akari projected onto the ceiling, in a pose mirroring that of her tankoban self. Alongside it a projection of the manga panel was shown, before the two images were quickly overlaid. "I would say that your body has been depicted 1:1. Perhaps even understated here."

Ydra turned her heel towards the old man who had summoned them all, taking one step forward, then another, as another pair of tentacles unfolded from her back. With an eyes closed smile and a sing-song voice (perhaps influenced by the mermaid's performance earlier, or perhaps not), the exposed woman said, "I really have to thank you for bringing me here; I don't think my pride could survive another month in that ridiculous story."

One step, then another, the tentacles enclosed around the old man, the right slithering across his back while the left coiled down his arm. "And for sharing yours, of course. Clarifying all intents and purposes helps us better understand who you are."

Then Ydra's eyes opened. Her red, lustrous eyes, burning brightly like iron from a kiln. "Foolish. Impulsive. Naive. You stumbled across an artifact of unknown power and rather than question things you set about laying down its rituals without a clue as to its outcome, presumptuous in thinking it would simply whisk you away exactly as you desired and not reading further into what it was you do. You've unleashed countless entities in your childish desire to crawl into a story of your own away from reality, stranding dozens, disregarding any sense to try to fulfill your selfish whim."

Her left tentacle sprouted hundreds upon hundreds of tiny tendrils, all stretching out for the Fictus Grimoire in the man's hand. Ydra had long stopped smiling.

"All the more reason to relinquish an old man of his property. After all, you wouldn't want someone who treats his books so recklessly and with such abandon to be its keeper, would you, Künrahd?"

Pause. "Ah, right. You asked me who I am. My name is Ydra, remote variant 7742. Though since I am the only real body now, you can call me Ydra. My cause is the collection of knowledge, technology, and magic, for its own sake. Don't worry, I'm not planning on consuming the book this time. I'll see it handed off to you."

Kailina

Kailina didn't miss the way almost every head in the room turned to look at her when she started singing, even if most of them shook it off and quickly went back to their business. It actually made her blush. She was used to that reaction back home, but those were her friends. These were complete strangers who hadn't even noticed her existence a second ago. Was her singing really that good? She'd kind of been struggling for the lyrics.

Before she could say anything, a boy in a mask had gotten very close, very fast. Faster than she'd ever seen anyone move. It made her flinch quite a bit, actually.

"Um, well, I'm a mermaid, actually, not a siren. I think. I don't actually know what a siren is. But I'm definitely not trying to flood anything! I mean, it'd be nice to be able to swim around, but where would I even get the water?"

She hadn't even finished the sentence before she was being yelled at by an old human holding a... weird thing. She wasn't sure what that was. "Ritual? Bible-dumbers? I was just singing, Mr... uh... what are your names, actually? Mine is Kailina, but my friends call me Kai!"

With the speed everything seemed to be moving, Kai shouldn't have been surprised when her introductions were interrupted yet again. Only this time it was because a dashing prince had decided to carry her to a chair from which she could actually see what was going on, with impressive skill given her slimy body wasn't exactly easy to grab. Being around so many strangers made her nervous, but sticking together did seem wise.

"Thank you so much, Mr... err, I mean Miss." Note to self. In the future, look at the person's face before thanking them.

Edited by PossiblyQuiteInsane on Dec 14th 2022 at 11:31:53 AM

Octavius Klint - Breakdown in 3...2...

He dropped his arm to the side after capping the flask and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. If there was one thing he could take solace in the fact everyone else was as lost as he was. There was some camaraderie there.

Ironically, that's exactly what Alastor would be telling him right now, the pissant. He chuckled, amused. Of course, some of him would be rubbing off on him this time around. He looked around for a moment to get a feel for his new...

...Hostages, he guessed they would be? Certainly not allies, not when the...monkey girl...and the....hell, he had no idea what to even call the other one but they were ready to start scrapping after some comments about the others...hind quarters?

Yes, it was pretty nice, but-

And then, he saw tentacles. He saw tentacles and tentacles and lots and lots of tentacles.

...

And then, he wasn't in the room anymore. He was cold and scared, bleeding profusely in the darkness. He couldn't breathe, couldn't figure out what direction was up, what was down-

A big yellow eye peeked out from the darkness, with enough light to shine down on him like the sun. It wasn't just an eye. It was a collection of tentacles and tendrils, hundreds, thousands, millions? Miles long, coiling around it like a knot of vines and seaweed, each one writhing independently of the other.

The eye was focused on him and a voice, sickening sweet like a grandmother, cooed in his mind, "Poor child, struck from the world so soon. Bet you'd like the pain to stop, wouldn't you?"

The tendrils wrapped around his legs and began to coil up him slowly. He tried to run, swim, fly, whatever he could do right now but he was stuck in place. He couldn't get out. Couldn't escape.

"Don't worry dear. Let mama take care of you."

It chuckled, and Octavius' vision grew darker and darker, as he was pulled toward the eye, which began to open like a vicious, hungry maw, lined with teeth.

"Mama could just eat you up-"

...

Octavius was back in the room, paler than usual, breathing heavily in a panic. Behind him with bright green eldritch fire was a row of cannons aimed directly at the source of the tentacles. His right hand now clutching his cutlass, which burned with an equally intense fire.

Not again. Not again.

Talitha, Austere Traveller

"A good point. No, we should not declare a leader. I think we should all get to know each other. In our own time," Talitha nodded to Yi Min, then sighed as she and Akari proceeded to verbally spar. Tired of the bickering, as was her tendency to be, Talitha turned her attention to Kailina; giving her that same gentle smile as before as she nodded in return to her thanks.

"Thou art very welcome, indeed. I wish thee well, miss. To be on land with no feet is a struggle, and if I am required to help in thine efforts, I am pleased to oblige..."

With that all dealt with, Talitha's mind drifted back towards her book of origin, and her attention fell away from Kailina. Unable to stop fixating on a particular thought she was having, Talitha eventually gave into her desires and summoned her book using her necklace; opening it up on her lap and searching the index before flipping through the pages.

After a few moments of careful searching, her eyes finally fell upon one name inked into the paper, and she stopped to trace her finger across it gently as if it were something precious.

Yenna.

In this section, on this page, he was alive. Speaking with the version of her in the book, how he was going to speak to the King. How worried he was, how he stressed about her and how she was treated by some of the other villagers in Hulegg. Talitha herself remembered how thin he had become the older and more independent she was. His love for his daughter was so deep that he'd become gaunt with anxiety over her, for every year that passed.

"No, Father... don't go away..." she murmured to herself, her voice barely a whisper as her hand quivered at the edge of the page. "Father, no... thou shan't come back..."

How old was she? She hadn't truly kept track of time. She was only a young woman when her father had been slain, around twenty-three years of age. Her wanderings had taken... she was for sure at least a decade or so. But she'd been raised from death for a while now...

Either way, she was too old to be weeping in public like this. So she didn't. She closed the book before those emotions could grow any more potent, and desummoned it with a thought. Away it went. The record of her entire world. She barely dared to read more than a snippet of it at a time anyway.

She looked over at what the others were doing. They were all so sharp of tongue. Her lips twitched slightly when the woman called Ydra teased Akari by confirming that her visage illustrated in her book was accurate. With the bittersweet contents of the book on her mind, Talitha recalled a time when she used to laugh and dance freely, and allowed herself a moment of levity as she raised her voice towards Akari.

"If thou art so concerned of thy backside, then be assured. I'm sure that all in the wake of thee would have to duck low, lest thee turn about to bowl them over. Yet, t'would be a similar concern from the front; moving at all with thy proportions would be a danger to all those next to thee. Mind thy curves, in short—thou art a living bludgeon."

She hadn't even turned to look at the woman while she delivered that spiel to her. However, she was very quick to sit up as soon as she heard Octavius' ragged breathing, and she turned her head to see him with spectral fire blazing and equally spectral cannons at the ready. With her brief moment of lightheartedness over, she shot up onto her feet and summoned her own, plainer sword to her hand, though held it slightly behind herself to demonstrate that she wasn't wielding it in a threatening manner. Just in case she had to defend herself or any of the others.

"Friend, please. Turn your weapons away from them. They are not thine enemies," she spoke quickly to Octavius, her eyes darting between the others as she assessed who she'd have to move in front of. Kailina was the obvious choice. She couldn't exactly move away. "Whatever is ailing thy mind, do not let it harm them. Calm thyself. There is no threat…"

Edited by Enirboreh on Dec 15th 2022 at 12:49:01 PM

Doctor Badd; Or, Attack and Dethrone Pirate (feat. 5G Waiting List)

The situation continued to be a right mess, but, eventually, the bad doctor's focus drifted - in his case, towards the monkey woman and her excitation about the items gathered around. Ah, yes, didn't the old man over there mention something about summoning them...? She seemed to be the one sole person to enjoy the fact; others have instead focused on the fact they were fictional. Or were they?

Doctor Badd frowned, holstering both his syringe gun and resheathing his coffee (though not before he finished it! Can't imagine what would Wo-Ke do to internals...) and approaching the circle. Most of the items had the characters from this room on them; like the pirate with a glowing sword or the monkey woman herself. Where on earth was he?

"If you must go about it like Israelites burning down every city they saw under the guidance of their god, then do so elsewhere! This room is sparse enough in space already." He grumbled at the two fighting women and at Ydra having an epiphany, finally picking up what looked like an old VHS casette. No box art, no nothing; just a piece of paper torn out from some child's notebook and badly-scribbled "father goode ep 4" written on it.

He could take solace in the fact that the show apparently did not resonate very well with the Bible-reading humdrums who were its target demographic, at least, if they could not even afford to give it a cover like those other works. As he pocketed the VHS, he realized that the barely-clothed modern robot woman was talking to him. "Mm? I suppose there's no hurt in trying, despite what some may say. Once our business is concluded here, we can-egads!"

There was a spirit in the air! Not a Holy Spirit (though they all seemed the same to Badd, honestly), but a Spirit-Of-Some-Pirate-And-His-Cannons! That would not stand, especially since this Ydra lady showed such interest in the ways of science. "The world may be fiction, but those god-fearing numpties are not, possessing a man like that! Not while Doctor Badd is on the move! Take this!" After a brief rummaging in his bag, the bad doctor tossed something at Octavius' feet. Not a grenade or nothing; just a flask that would spray and bring forth a cloud of vapors. Effects may include: listlessness, mild nausea, aching middle fingers and toes, dissuasion from prayer and faith, and possibly even an exorcism!

...well, too bad that there was no spirit to get out of the pirate, and neither did the vapour cloud discriminate against its targets in a room like this...

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Dec 15th 2022 at 1:24:09 PM

Sera

"Alright, let's go and kick that Demon King's- waah."

Sera stumbled and quickly righted herself as, instead of entering a castle, she appeared in the middle of a strange room. The oppressive air she felt while approaching Isengrim's lair was gone. Where the hell was she?

She looked around, searching for the rest of her party, only to find that she was alone in the room.

Well, not alone, exactly. More and more people were being summoned into the room, most of them dressed boldly and strangely. Monsters? Other Adventurers?

She should find a way back. Reynard and Hubert are strong, but Sera can't leave the two to handle a Demon King on their own. Those two would probably kill eachother first without her around.

The old man, their summoner apparently, said something about them being fictional. And that got Sera to roll her eyes.

Ugh, she's dealing with another Thane. That Lich is always all like, 'oh, woe is me, I can't confirm my left buttcheek isn't a trick some Demon is playing on my senses, boo hoo hoo.' Really, that guy should get a better unli-

Wait.

Who the hell is Thane?

Sera searched her memories, trying to figure out where that tangent came from, only to come up with some hazy memories of a Lich. What is clear, however, is that despite her complaints, Sera knew this Thane person was a friend of hers.

Well, Sera supposed it didn't matter right now. It is what it is. She wasn't going to go through an existential crisis just because a wannabe wizard said she was fictional and got some books to prove it. Still, she should check on the others since some of them don't seem to be taking it all that well.

Already, two of their number tried to make a run for it, probably overwhelmed by the events of the last few minutes. Thankfully enough, one of the others brought them back. That girl seemed to have her wits about her, at the very least.

The others were coping in their own ways. The pirate, in particular, was trying to drown himself in booze, while the two metallic girls seemed to be using vulgar jokes instead.

Then the metal girl sprouted countless tendrils, and the pirate paled and shook. Sera had seen similar things happen to other Adventurers before- he was panicking.

It became even clearer as a row of cannons materialized behind the pirate. He pointed his cutlass at Ydra, the blade burning with green flames as he used it to direct his cannons.

Sera body moved before her thoughts could fully register, instinct honed over decades of Adventuring taking over as she summoned a weapon- a blue war scythe- and put herself between Ydra and the pirate. She brought down the pommel of the polearm hard onto the floor, cracking the tiling and hopefully drawing the panicking drunk's attention.

"You're drunk, pirate. Put away the cannons before someone gets hurt.'"

Kuhnrad sees the eldritch flames. "There are BOOKS here!" he bellows, and looks for something to use to smother the flames, ignoring the cannons.

Akari

"You bet your ass, fuzzball!" Akari readied herself, gritting her teeth, losing herself in the moment. She knew there were other things to worry about, but she couldn't pass this up. She gripped her guitar case, wheels revving up, hands glowing with an awesome power. "Gonna love watching you squeal..."

But the monkeys' ass was the least of her worries. Half the room was harping on her posterior, her generous curves now the center of attention. She couldn't help but blush. She didn't mind strutting her stuff, but she'd never thought about what she was strutting. She had the same measures as Sato and most of their friends so it wasn't that unusual, but she never got this sort of attention.

"S-shut up! You try walking around with a bunch of bouncy weights, see how you like it! Bunch of losers"

And then she looked up.

She was flummoxed. She already knew how she looked, but seeing a 1:1 display was a revelation. Her butt wasn't nearly that big, it was that big. Even her boobs were as large as a pair of melons. She was a goddess, enough to make lesser men drool.

And it sickened her.

She shouted and screamed, face red as a beet. She was a warrior, not some walking pin-up! She opened her case, taking out a pair of guns, locking and loading without hesitation. She aimed at the ceiling, ready to bring it crashing it down if someone didn't stop her.

Edited by kkhohoho on Dec 15th 2022 at 6:07:41 AM