There and Back Again

As if right on some invisible schedule, a medium-sized merchant ship docked itself in an unoccupied-looking portion of the port. Some faint conversation could be heard on the deck, for whoever was near and cared to listen.

"Here's yer stop pooplord, we ain't gettin' paid to keep yer bulge longer than we hafta so it's time ya get the hell off."

"Uhh, yessir, mister captain...sir. I'm going, I just need to, warm up with the windy thing."

"Ah, thas right. You can fly. I'll give you a couple seconds."

"Uh, thank you, captain, I—"

"Arright, time's up. Get off my ship."

"Whu—"

A moment later, a gray teenager with large bull horns fell screaming from the edge of the deck. For a moment his descent seemed to slow mid-plummet, as if upheld by some invisible force, before proceeding as normal and ending with him falling flat on his face on the dock. Directly next to him landed one end of the ship's gangplank, and from it descended a series of noticeably older staff, the majority appearing to be larger, older versions of the boy's species. Some were nice enough to walk around the boy, whereas others casually stepped on him like an awkwardly bunched-up throw rug. Through it all, he appeared to just sigh and wait for them to pass.

When they had all disembarked, a small white creature resembling a bull with fae wings hovered down from the boat to his side. The troll boy smiled at the creature and extended a hand to pet it, then rubbed his head, pulled forth a book and looked at what appeared to be a loose slip of paper inside it. Closing the book, he slowly floated to an upright position, rubbing his back with his empty hand, and drifted unsteadily forward for a few feet alongside the lusus before dropping to lean on a barrel at the edge of the market; one might note that he appeared to be supporting himself entirely with his upper body, with his legs just sorta draping uselessly.

Edited by Oceanstuck on Apr 10th 2019 at 1:51:32 AM

"Surname?" Finn squinted at the list as he mulled it over. "Oh, you mean like a last name- I guess you could put me down as Finn... the human?"

"And I'm Jake! The Dog!" added Jake. "Hey, y'know where we could get a bite to eat around this place? Gotta say, sailing really takes a lot outta you." As if on cue, his stomach rumbled. "And I mean a lot a lot."

Matilda Wormwood

Matilda reared back as the creature appeared, readying her mental powers in case she needed to defend herself.

"I can't think of anything I need help with at the moment," she said to Caitlin. "I'll be sure to tell you if I need anything, though."

"Spider Breath?! I don't have spider breath! Spiders don't even have breath!" Peter gasped, offended. Though when everyone's attention was turned away, he ducked his head and did a quick breath test. Just to be sure.

When he straightened back up only to see the panicked woman, who was apparently Columbia Christie, led away from the gathered Men by a pint-sized girl. And, honestly, Peter didn't blame her. If he had been in the midst of a panic attack and had 3 differently bizarre dudes rush up to him, he wouldn't be super calm about it.

He jogged to catch up with Miss Christie and the tiny lass, ignoring the muscular Conan and Tetra's insistence to give the woman some room.

"Uhm, pardon," Peter began as he sidled up beside the two girls, "I'm what you'd call a travelling do-gooder, and I was hoping to lend a hand. Sorry about the mask here. More than a few people have it out for me for, uh... various reasons that don't need explaining right now. But anyway, you said something about 'cargo', miss? If it's so important, then is it a good idea to leave it unattended?"

Gdonya, Long Market Or Thereabouts

"There we go." Smiling sweetly at the woman (thinking of the money she could gain from the situation, she would insist, and not merely happy at the thought of lending a hand) Tetra lead Columbia through and away from the crowd, past the fountain where a curious little mushroom man pondered over a map, and towards one of the taverns that Tetra and her crew had dined at during previous dockings. Offering seafood from the sailors and alcohol for the sailors, the locale hopefully wouldn't be too busy at this time in the morning.

Her courteousness only extended as far as Columbia- she did nothing but spare a glance at the men following them, sizing them up now that she had a second. The blond boy she knew could transform, but the other one... the mask was a red flag, as were the strange gauntlets he wore upon his hands. He could be a 'do-gooder' like he claimed, some form of vigilante, or he could come from the same criminal underbelly as Tetra herself. They were both to watch out for, at any rate.

Unfortunately, the masked one had a point. "Unless, I suppose, the cargo is on your being." she added. "Or is somewhere secure, though there's not many places in Gdonya that could claim that title. To where are you planning to take it?"

The Harbourmaster stared, incredulous, at Finn and Jake giving their last names as 'the human' and 'the dog', but dutifully jotted them down all the same.

"Oh, certainly!" He quickly brightened up as he got the chance to launch into his sales pitch. "We have so many places to choose from here in Gdonya. There's fine dining at the Gimmick Restaurant, authentic Kumari food at Good Evening Tamil, healthier options at Bio-away, or you could always stop by for a drink and get to know fellow travellers at The Green Sailor Inn! So many to show give your patronage to, and that's just to name a few. Gdonya may be a small town, but we're growing all the time!"

"Ah," The harbourmaster turned to face Naruto, "That would depend on if you're the captain of your transport or representing him. In which case it's a drachma to tie your boat at the dock. Speaking of- Excuse me, madam? Over here!"

The lovely lady in the harem trousers froze in mid walk, and her headscarfed crew piled up behind her. Apparently, they thought they could sneak by while the harbourmaster's attention was caught. Disgruntled, the captain sauntered over, with the troll captain joining the queue behind her.

"L-l-let us not speak here just yet. Walls have ears. How about... there! Let us all go, find a corner in there." Christie steered the group of helpful travellers in the direction of the Green Sailor Inn.

The inside was about as raucous as you might expect. All about, sailors and merry makers were bandied together, laughing and joking and sloshing their beers on the table. The dingy interior was lit with lanterns, the corners decorated with sails, and there was the sound of an accordion playing a jolly hornpipe somewhere. In spite of the hubbub and activity, there was still a spacious table in the corner past the dartboard, with its only resident being a red-nosed man too blotto to stay awake.

Of course, even considering it was broad daylight and Gdonya was not the biggest of towns, setting your bag down unattended in a busy town was just asking for trouble. It wasn't long before a skinny young man in dark clothes with his cap over his eyes sauntered by, scooped up the bag by the handle, and broke into a run.

The creature stopped laughing as an unimpressed Seras called him a tosspot, and was taken by surprise when she yanked him to the surface, right into the path of the ice magic. The frost encased him completely, making him a monster popsicle, and for a silent moment or two, that seemed to me the end of it. Then the creature began to shake, cracks began to spread across the ice, and all of a sudden, the ice burst to pieces as creature span into the air. This was followed by the well itself twirling upwards like a curtain cloth, swirling around the beast at incredible speeds. There was a blur of motion and colours, until suddenly, it dropped to the ground, and what was once a creature and a well was now a very large and very angry bison. Snorting and rolling its head about, the bison charged at the group, ready to meet whoever tried to fight it horns first.

It seemed for a second that it was the end for that weird thing in the well, considering it was frozen to hell...but apparently it was still alive, worst of all, it now turned into a angry bison wanting to kill them all!

Hohoho yes, it's fighting time.

"Cmon, Skaarl, it's meal time!"

"Gleeflarg!"

The duo would charge to meet the creature, Kled would pull out a contraption from his pockets, which was a bear trap tied to a rope. He would then attempt to throw the bear trap to one of it's legs so it could attach itself to the bison's leg to cripple it's mobility. If the duo were successful or not, Kled and Skaarl would attempt to sidestep away to avoid the charge, and Kled would swing his axe at the bison, attempting to cut the flesh of the bison with his sharp axe.

Edited by Darkomega245 on Feb 10th 2019 at 2:11:27 AM

Alright, Shoto had to admit, he did not see that coming.

When he and Caitlin managed to freeze the monster, he had assumed the fight was over. Those couple of seconds were nice. Then, before they knew it, there was a mad bison attacking.

While the yordle took the low-road, he took the high. Stomping his right foot on the ground, Shoto created ice-spikes that grew just high enough to go over Kled's head before rushing at the bison, intending to impale it several times.

Road to Gdonya

What in the world just happened? How did that thing turn into a bison? No matter, it was time this ferocious beast got a beating!

Kanae stared at the bison menacingly. She was a not just a titanic beauty with the voice of an angel, but also an incredible warrior with power that would make all right to fear her! This smelly bison would soon learn a lesson they'd never forget!

"Take this!" she said, readying an attack. "Hyaaaaah!"

Kanae attempted to smack the beast with her three-piece staff, while trying her best not to hit any of the humans nearby. The last thing she needed was for her dreams of stardom to go down in flames because she grievously injured someone.

Matilda Wormwood

Matilda squeaked and hid behind Kanae, the tallest person there and therefore the best shield.

She attempted to grab the bison's horns with her mental powers and prevent it from charging.

Green Sailor Inn

Geese looked towards the open table, having a mild thought but deciding against it.

He turned to the rest of the group- it seems like a couple of younger men had joined, one of them previously being a rat? He didn't know what to expect at this point, to be perfectly honest.

"So, we should probably find a seat somewhere."

He opened his mouth, words spewing out of it like they always did- with the slightest hint of politeness and sarcasm, even if he was being genuine.

The man from before had introduce himself as Conan, as Geese had just now realized and stored away in his brain- He decided it would be nice to introduce himself as well.

"Ah, where are my manners? I am Geese Howard, of Howard Connection."

He does a small bow before returning to his normal position.

Gdonya - Green Sailor Inn

Former Legate Corat Damar sat at the bar, absentmindedly swirling his glass of kanar while waiting for his second-in-command - Sygol Rusot - to contact him via the Far Speaker, so as to give him any updates as to the progress of their band of renegades (or, as they called themselves, the Cardassian Liberation Front). As he had for the past few hours.

Well, no news is good news, I guess. he thought, before taking a final swig of the semi-syrupy liquor and placing his coins on the counter. Once he downed the final drops of kanar, he stepped down from his stool, and started to walk towards the tavern's door, when he heard a rumbling coming from his stomach. In his drinking, he had apparently worked up quite the appetite.

"Bartender." he began, reaching into his coin purse. "You think you could get me some zabu meat rolls? Oh, and some red leaf tea? I think I've had enough kanar for today."

Edited by MasterOfAntics on Feb 10th 2019 at 10:40:38 AM

"So, who wants to get a bite to eat, huh?" said Jake, looking around at the strange mob of adventurers who were disembarking. "A tavern? Yeah, I could go for a tavern. In a real tavern mood, y'know? 'Specially if they serve root beer. How 'bout you, Finn? Think you could go check out a tavern?"

Finn looked around, awestruck once again by the sight of humans milling around. "Yeah. Tavern sounds about right. You go to a new city, you check out the tavern, pick up the gossip, right?"

Green Sailor Inn

“Come one, come all, come any who hear the call! The show is about to begin!”

Akane finished off with a wink and a small flourish, sending both of her over-long sleeves jostling over her covered hands while she gestured to the table next to her—whose availability had everything to do with the former occupants’ love of the holy that they held dear within their hearts, and absolutely nothing to do with the foot-and-a-half tall lizard creature◊ that seemed to be composed entirely of rock, which even now sat by Akane’s ankle with a perpetually upward-turned stare like a cat waiting for a treat that would never come. On the surface of the table itself, a wreath of smoke took up the table’s center, swirling and swishing in place like a milky bulb about to burst. Akane nodded and closed her eyes as if communing with a higher energy, crossing her arms thoughtfully to cement the illusion, before all three actions unwound into her up-thrust arm and a bright, beaming smile as she looked out onto the crowd. “It’s almost complete! For those of you who’ve never seen a miracle in person, come close, open your eyes wide, and open your heart even wider!”

Stepping back, Akane rotated her hands and sleeves out in front of her, slipping her eyes closed while mouthing arcane, yet completely meaningless, syllables into the mini-maelstrom. The roiling mass of white finally vanished like a cloud on a hot summer’s day, leaving only the wooden handles of the silverware that Utsumi had been using to repair the adventurer’s short sword, and Utsumi himself, looking practically identical to the stone creature lingering by Akane’s feet. But not, as some might notice, the adventurer’s sword itself.

“I can’t believe you!” Akane said exaggeratedly, broadly shaking her head with a disappointed expression while resting her hands on her hips. “You promised me the last time that you would be able to control your appetite! Sorry about that folks, silly Utsumi gets ahead of himself sometimes. Guess I’ll just have to go and find it!” Making a show of drawing back her sleeve, Akane wriggled her fingers expectantly over the stone creature below as it dutifully opened its mouth, and without preamble, shoved her hand down into it—careful to avoid the teeth, the thing she actually wanted to avoid from 'last time.' Rotating her gaze absently skyward while sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth, she felt the hair on her arm graze the cool steel of the vertical-sitting blade, before cranking her shoulder around in a wide, slow movement to simulate plumbing the creature’s innards. After a moment, she let out a long sigh, drawing her hand out while her shoulders sagged in defeat—before snapping her fingers in a fit of eureka, drawing her hand back comically far, and bringing it down between the spikes of Utsumi’s back, causing the little stone creature to vomit up the blade point-first into the tavern floor almost at the adventurer’s feet.

Akane gathered the edge of her dress in one hand as she bowed first one way and then the next for any gathered applause, before holding out both hands again toward Utsumi’s open mouth. “All services are completely free, but any contributions won’t be forgotten by the divine!”

Or me. Akane’s gaze turned cool as it slipped partially below the brim of her wide hat, watching those gathered. A perfect world has no place for the ungrateful, after all.

Her smile promptly exploded back out as she cocked her head to the side. “Taking broken weapons, damaged possessions, and even smashed family heirlooms! Provide all the pieces or your own materials for best results~.”

After a moment of just sorta leaning there and further nursing/dusting off what one could assume were foot marks, the boy from the boat and his fae friend once again took to hovering the streets of Gdonya, looking around a bit skittishly in the manner of someone new to the area until eventually he came to a certain tavern where a number of others happened to be stopped. Cautiously, he floated in close to the motley party of pirate princess, traveling do-gooder, shady lady, and the like, took a deep breath, and began enthusiastically.

"Uhh, hello, fellow travelers! Or, people from this town, if, any of you happen to actually live here. I, am actually not sure what the people from here are like..." The troll deflated uncomfortably, sensing his opening had been more awkward than impressive. "But uhh, anyway, all matters regarding one's residence or lack thereof here aside, do...any of you know a cost-efficient, and reasonably safe way, of getting across the continent? I was recommended this magic teacher, but he doesn't live here..."

Captain Toad jumped up in anger as a young figure in black scooped up his bag and ran off from it. Yelling for the thief to stop, he gave chase. However, with the lack of the weight on his back from his bag being stolen he found himself stumbling as he moved around the people milling on the docks. As he moved, he found himself bumping into a small, darkskinned person in pirate gear.◊ Pausing, he turned towards her and shouted our an apology before moving to give chase to the thief once more.

Gdonya Dock - To The Inn

2B found Jake's offer to join them on their visit to tavern useful, since it was a sort of place that could be called meeting point of all sorts of information. She and Nines exchanged glances, confirming that both have the same idea.

"Yeah, that sounds good", 9S replied. "Don't you agree, Toobs?" 2B nodded in agreement.

"Say... what brought you all here?" 9S asked to Finn, Jake and the boy that just arrived. We're travelers, that want to discover as much of this beautiful world as we can. Toobs guards me, in case we encounter some danger."

'Well, at least I'm not lying', 9S thought to himself as he spoke.

Road to Gdonya, Vs. Shapeshifter

Good news was, the monster didn't expect to be pulled out of the water. With Shoto and Caitlin using ice magic to freeze it solid, for a moment it seemed like that would be the end of it - but then it turned into a bison on the move. Fortunately, now that it was out of the well, it made itself vulnerable to just about everyone's efforts to bring it down. Already there was enough people handling it, including a giantess's huge staff. Seras would only get in the way there - but if the monster tried to squirm its way out of danger again, she would be eager to meet it.

For now she was content to rub her wrist back to usability. Fortunately the monster didn't clamp on it too strongly. At the same time, she hopped on the wagon, rummaging through it briefly before she found a particular item: a small bolt of odd shape, ending with a silver tip. Putting it onto her hand crossbow, she readied the weapon to fire, keeping aim on the monster should it come this way or morph again.

Gdonya, Not Green Sailor Inn

Perhaps there was more to Columbia than met the eye, for she seemed to have a talent for attracting strange men. Tetra squinted at the grey-skinned boy as he floated over (yes, floated, despite the conspicuous presence of legs) and fumbled his way through an inquiry. It was surprisingly banal, despite his off-kilter appearance, and Tetra would've waved him off and told him to pester someone else if another body hadn't bumped into her at just that moment.

Cursing, she stumbled back and glared at the mushroom man as he apologised and ran off. That could've been the end of it, but Tetra had experience with 'accidentally' bumping into people while they were distracted with their group. Normally she'd be quick enough to grab him before he skittered, but the surplus of bodies allowed him to just slip by her.

With a click of her tongue she turned and jabbed a finger at Columbia, Geese, Conan, and the other strangers. "Don't be going anywhere." Her other hand slid down to cradle the hilt of her sword as she broke into a sprint, ducking and weaving towards the retreating dome-headed figure.

"Oy!" She called, her voice announcing her presence better than her tiny form. "Think you can try an' steal from me, you little varmint?!"

Road To Gdonya, Caitlin

Well, so much for Plan A. Caitlin had been put at ease when her and Shoto's combined powers had seemingly left it immobilized, but now?

Still, the idea of draining its heat still was a possibility, and one that would also benefit her, if she could just touch the beast...

She edged closer to the creature, trying to get in a position where she could make physical contact with it without being too gravely injured...

Mario - Well

What responded to Mario's questioning was a gigantic crab that lept out of the water well before changing into a charging bull. "Mamma mia!" Mario yelled in surprise.

But he didn't become a hero by being unresponsive. He promptly took out his hammer and lept at the bull, intending on smashing its head with his trusty weapon.

Edited by Alecoene on Feb 11th 2019 at 11:05:11 AM

Peter waited precisely 2 seconds after Tetra told them to stay put before turning to Naruto, Geese, and Conan and giving them the same finger-jab that she had. "You three stay with Miss Christie." With that surely keeping the woman in question calm, Peter dashed off after Tetra and the thief apparent.

And with a little thwip, a little tug, and a little flip, Peter soared right over the tiny pirate after a simple web-line off of a retreating terrace.

"Heads up!" The high-flying Man-Spider called out to Tetra and, well, the other people crowding around the streets as he whooshed above them all. He got some pretty good distance out of it too, clearing past Tetra and coming up on the equally-short mushroom-looking thief. He thrust his hands downward and two thick ropes of his special webbing shot out, sticking to the road in front of Captain Toad. Peter zipped downward, landing right in Captain Toad's path in the classic^note classic to the readers, not the characters Man-Spider pose, making him just the right height to see eye-to-eye with the Toad.

"Going somewhere, little guy?"

Edited by TruthHurts22 on Feb 11th 2019 at 5:50:56 AM

"Me? It's... um." Finn faltered for a second and rubbed the back of his hat. "It's... uh, well, someone told me that-"

"He's tryin' to find his pop. His biological pop, I mean." cut in Jake as Finn sighed in semi-embarrassment. "I'm just here to make sure he doesn't get into trouble." Jake stretched an arm around his brother and patted him on the back. "Maybe we can ask someone at the tavern if they've seen him, huh?"

Finn blinked. "You think he's here?"

Jake shrugged. "All I'm saying is, I got a gut feelin', y'know? And I got a pretty good gut."

"You do got a good gut." conceded Finn.

Green Sailor Inn

The woman brought them into a tavern, something Naruto had learned about recently on his travels on his own. They were fun places, though they stank of alcohol, which was something he could do without.

"Your name is Geese? Isn't that a bird?" Naruto asked, before catching some kind of magic performance at the Inn. The witch girl's lizard somehow barfed up a fully repaired sword, which made Naruto think that the beast was a magical summoned creature. He'd seen magic toads and other spirits before, so this wouldn't surprise him at all. Tetra and the spider guy ran off after some toad dude, leaving him and a couple others with the woman in need of help. And if she needed help, she wouldn't want just a copy of Naruto.

"Uh...I'll be back in a few minutes!" he said, before bursting into a small cloud of smoke and leaving nothing behind.

Gdonya Dockyard—-> Long Market

"Oh you need a boat, huh?" Naruto said to the harbourmaster, looking a little disappointed. "Nah, I'm just a...crew guy. Sorry." Hopefully his lie wouldn't get called out and he could make his way into town for free. He turned and watched as a horned kid floated away from another ship as if his legs didn't work. Maybe they were broken? It was an interesting sight, and Naruto was about to trail the rest of the dock group when he was struck with the sudden memories of what his clone had been up to. His eyes lit up as he took off towards the city.

"That jobs definitely gonna be mine now!" he said with a grin and he cut through the crowd.

At Tetra's call, Captain Toad looked behind him and let out a yell as he sped up. He didn't know why she thought he'd stolen from her but he couldn't risk getting caught, especially as he had a thief of his own to catch. He was so preoccupied infact, that he didn't notice the webbing in front of him and ended up tripping face first into Man-Spider.

Pulling himself up, he looked past the man hanging in front of him. With a yelp, he began waving frantically back in forth, both at the thief getting away and at Tetra. "T-T-The thief that stole my bag is getting away and a s-sc-scary woman is after me!"