A young man that became an adventurer for the thrill of it.
Name: Ferrus
Quote: "I'm reckless, not stupid."
Starting class: Warrior
Specialty: Ability replication
Goal: To have a grand adventure
Bio: An unmotivated young that burned with wanderlust, he became an adventurer in order to broaden his horizons. His unique disposition may make it hard to understand him at times, but he's an invaluable ally.
Goal: To protect Ferrus and to develop a stronger sense of self
Bio: A basic, low level wild cat type monster. She was one of the first monsters the party encountered. On Ferrus' plea, they spared her life and from that moment she followed him out of gratitude. She gained a humanoid form after a botched translation spell by Wille and afterward she formally registered as a member of the party.
Goal: Finding the artifacts and Manor of the elusive Jester King
Bio: Misa grew up hearing stories of the fabled Jester King and was enamored with the legend. When she happened upon an old journal of an adventurer that had almost found the hidden manor of the King, she couldn't sit still. After passing the academy exam for the Thief class, she set out to find a party to help her along the way.
A young man that became an adventurer in order to hone his skills.
Name: Erikks
Quote: "Aw, hell naw."
Starting class: Archer
Specialty: Trick shots
Goal: To make an updated compendium for the academy
Bio: A young hunter that freelances for the Adventurer's Academy. Despite having his certification for a while, he had never joined a party or really left the town. After hearing of some younger students nearly dying due to an outdated field guide, he resolved to explore the world and make a more up to date guide.
Bio: A young woman on a journey of self improvement. Her lofty end goal was initially more of a gag, but it became more of an earnest desire as time passed.
Bio: A scholar of various schools of magic, he became a classed adventurer in pursuit of his goal. He that being of a specific class would severely limit his casting options, but did so to improve his overall chance at forming a pact with an Elder God.
Goal: To compose the greatest ballad he can muster
Bio: A young minstrel exploring the world for musical inspiration. He joins the party through some clever negotiations and becomes an invaluable member.
When an Umbra is formally born alongside their host, they leave behind a tangible physical gift before becoming dormant. The gift can be anything, ranging from an article of clothing, a weapon or tool, or even a form of magic usage.
While the gift may not have immediate use in the host’s life at birth, it will invariably become a necessity at some point in their life. Should the host reject gift, their bond with their symbiont would weaken, potentially to life threatening degrees
All Umbra have two forms, their sealed form and their true form.
The sealed forms tend coincide with the physical form of their host, often looking like siblings or close relatives.
Their true forms are a reflection of their nature had they been born as separate beings. These true natures tend to be well guarded, even from the bonded Bringer, and stay so until the time is right. The only clue as to an Umbra’s true form lies in the gift they give their Bringer at birth.
i woke up with game fluff on the brain. so Creator Siblings date night with all their respective partners. now featuring Yuu’s new girlfriend! *applause and fireworks* (it took 6 months for me to stop being lazy and write this. pao i’m terrible)
The dorm’s media room was rather quiet for a weekend but this didn’t bother Abby as she began to prepare the room for the evening. Her employers and their dates would be arriving shortly and she simply would have everything perfect for them.
Couch fluffed, surfaces dusted, games and movies alphabetized, bookshelf made presentable, personal and guest controllers laid side by side, and a variety of snacks and beverages laid across the end tables; truly the maid had done her job to the height of satisfaction. She was soon joined by her acquaintance, Johnny, and the two waited calmly as she counted down toward the arrival of the night’s guests.
“3, 2, 1...”
As she said the last number, the room was filled with a rush of sound as the Nebras siblings simultaneously arrived in the room with their guests.
In true flashy fashion, Yuuko and Crimson were the first to arrive, both appeared in a flash of light and smoke, and struck flamboyant poses together. Her elder sister, Lala, arrived with her girlfriend, Eclair, through what could be considered a dimensional rift, both linked arm in arm and flirting with each other. Yuu arrived with his girlfriend Evalynn in tow, with their form of transport having been magical teleportation via her ability. And the last to enter were Reika and Cami, whom simply entered through the door like normal people.
“I still don’t understand why the rest of you can’t use doors like normal people.” Reika huffed as she chided her siblings.
“Bell and I technically did, so your argument is a little moot,” Yuu replied
“You--” Reika said as she made her way over to him and started pulling on his cheeks in mock frustration, “are being a butt, brother dear.”
Reika was lightly removed from her position by both the glances of the others and the robo maid’s hand pulling her away. She quickly and dramatically collapsed upon her girlfriend’s shoulder.
“Oh Buns... They’re so cruel! Comfort me, darling.” Reika said with mock hurt
To her further frustration she was met with head pats and an unsympathetic giggle. “Oh, I see how it is! Everyone just gang up on me!”
Abby simply removed a sucker from the pocket of of her apron and held it in front of the loud girl. Reika showed no hesitation in grabbing the the candy before she settled herself on the center of the couch in front of the tv.
“Lynn!”
“Yes!?” the girl responded, mostly in surprise to the sudden shout.
“As the new kid on the block/the guest, you get first choice in game,” Reika stated
The mage looked at the other freckled girl in confusion fo a bit as she hadn’t been prepared to be put on the spot. A light tap on the hand from her boyfriend and she’d regained her composure.
“Um, is that a WiiU?” she asked tentatively. “Cause I always have fun playing Smash with Yuu.”
The room lit up with cheers as everyone applauded the game choice.
“Yuu, your girl has good taste!” Cami boasted
Evalynn blushed a tad and grabbed at Yuu’s hand. The two made their way over to the couch with the others and took up seats on the far left. As Cami plopped down next to her girlfriend, Lala and Eclair sidled in next to her on the right side, and Crimson and Yuuko took the far right side, with the latter sitting on the arm rest. Abby and Johnny took up seats next to a white board that had various listings of names. She then laid out the rules of the evening.
“Master, Mistresses, and guests, welcome to our home tonight. We hope that you’ll enjoy your stay. Please feel free to help yourself to any of the refreshments at your leisure. Tonight’s games shall be special as we will be keeping track of your scores. The losers of each round will have to engage in a punishment game, suggestions of which I will be collecting shortly.”
As she stated this last part, she made her way to each individual, handing them a pen and blank card to write the punishment they’d like to see others perform. After a few minutes, all had submitted their cards and then they all proceeded to gather their individual controllers.
“The first round is an 8 player free for all on Big Battlefield. The last person eliminated is the loser. Please select your fighters,” Abby stated
Reika instantly picked Cloud and made sure he was in his Advent Children costume. Cami opted in for a default Toon Link. Lala gravitated toward Game&Watch, while Eclair chose Wii Fit Trainer. Yuu grabbed the black palette Dr. Mario and he giggled when Evalynn chose Bayonetta. Crimson then chose the green skin Greninja and Yuuko picked out Captain Falcon.
“Well I’m avoiding Buns and Yuu.” Reika stated. “I know what you two do with those characters...”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Evalynn asked
“I have no idea what she means,” Cami said
Yuu gave no response and just did that weird anime trope of lens glare when adjusting one’s glasses. Or at least he tried to.
With everything set, they all loaded into the field with 3 stocks and the chaos began.
Reika and Yuu immediately took up defensive positions by the ledges and began spamming their neutral B fireballs as wall attacks. Cami simply avoided these by standing still and letting her shield negate them whenever she got near them, and began spamming arrows when she had the chance. Lala played a bit tactical and positioned G&W to absorb all the projectiles with his down B bucket until it was full, after which she started inching toward Eclair in order to spring her trap. The black cat wasn’t falling for it and started dodging into shield in order to create space and leave Evalynn in her place. This would have been fine, but when Crimson came in with a shadow sneak and Yuuko came in with a raptor boost punch, the mage simply tapped down B and perfectly countered both with Witch Time before she comboed both and sent them off screen with a Wicked Weave up smash. The two looked at her in disbelief from the other end of the couch.
“What? I play the DS version with Yuu on the weekends. I know how to bait.”
The cheers from the others on the couch made he blush a tad but she remained focused on the combat. With the time set to infinite, and items turned off, it was still anyone’s game.
Four minutes in and the battlefield was starting to thin out. Thanks to the consistent projectile spam, both Lala and Yuu had strong advantages, with the former being able to absorb projectiles to use as an attack and the latter using the character’s cape to reflect projectiles when able. Between the two playing rather messily, Eclair, Yuuko, and Cami had lost all their stocks. The current stock total left Reika with 2, and everyone else with 1. Seeing an imminent victory for the oldest Nebras sibling, the rest silently agreed to 4v1 the stock leader as she charged her limit guage.
Reika had anticipated such tactics and kept charging as bait. Lala and Evalynn made the mistake of rushing in together and ended up accidentally attacking each other which gave Reika the opening to up smash them both off screen, eliminating them from the game. Yuu attempted a frontal assault as well but was punished with an up air combo string before being dunked off stage with a down A hit.
“Aw crap!” Crim shouted
The pink haired cat had been lamenting her now solidified loss, as her shadow sneak was read once again and her final Greninja stock was launched to the blast zone by a finishing touch. Victory solidified, Reika had Cloud use his down taunt to lean against his sword as the announcer called the game.
“I love being Emo Strife.” Reika said giddily
As the group set the game to team battle for the next round of fights, Abby noted a point in the solo column for Crimson.
The tag team battles were structured in a tourney setup where each team would get one chance to per round to win before all the winners got a chance to face off. The first team to out would be the losers of this round in order to expidite the process so other games could be played.
First up was Cami and Reika--whom were sporting Roy and Peach-- versus Yuu and Evalynn, whom were using ROB and Shulk. Things started out fairly simple, with the teamwork between the to girls easily trouncing the other couple, that was until Yuu started making excellent usage of ROB’s top for attacks and zoning.
“Why does he have your ROB tactics? I fucking hate ROB when played like that!” Cami berated
“He IS me, hun. Only natural he’d use the top like that,” Reika stated
The “strategic” usage of the top began to throw Cami off her game just enough that the other team was able to whittle her stocks down by focusing her despite Reika’s interference. It wasn’t long before the stock deficit had matched with the Roy/Peach team being forced to split stocks so that both teams were at one stock per player. Things would have worked in favor of the two girls if Peach’s turnip pull hadn’t spawned a bob-omb. The hasty throw at close range was reflected by ROB’s side B arm spin and was set off by Roy’s side smash which caught all three--whom were at 70% or higher-- in the blast radius and launched all three off screen. Evalynn capitalized on the moment by having Shulk shout his signature catchphrase as the announcer called the game.
“It’s always the fucking bombs! Every single goddamn time! I fucking can’t win!” Reika shouted
“That is still the weirdest thing...” Cami agreed. She patted her girlfriend on the back and pulled her into a hug. “It’s ok honey. Maybe next time.”
“Stupid, cheating-ass bombs...”
The others laughed at the display while Abby added the marks underneath the loser’s names. The rest of the doubles bracket went by with just as much merriment, with the eventual winners being Yuu and Evalynn due to their bait and counter strategy of play.
The next round of play was the single’s tournament which also held the same loser stipulation of the last round. First up was Lala going against Eclair, with the former picking Jigglypuff and the latter picking Lucina. The pink haired girl’s siblings all leaned forward and looked at her from their positions on the couch.
“Laly. Laly, why?” Yuuko asked
“That’s the worst match up Bell.” Yuu stated
“Ruby, love yourself and pick a better match.” Reika said
“I got this!” Lala said with confidence
She didn’t have it. She didn’t have it at all. Three stocks each, and six minutes of play time. In was all done in three. Lala lost the first stock to a foot stool stealing her last jump when she tried to recover from off stage. The second stock vanished as a result of a misstep when using rest, where she was punished by a forward smash. The last stock, the last stock was the worst as it was the truest attempt at a comeback. She’d managed to get the stock count even at 1-1, but her last stock was at 107% when the last Lucina descended. The damage build up on Eclair was going just fine until the cat started a reversal. A near launch off stage left Lala floating in to recover; she saw a shield breaker being charged at the ledge and went in for an air dodge. Her timing was perfect to catch the ledge, but the invincibility frames fell off right when the shield breaker charge ended, letting the stab easily knock Puff off the screen for a victory.
There were many praises going around for Lala’s attempt at a comeback but she was still pouting about it. This was easily rectified by a rather steamy kiss from the winner--to which the room lit up with cheers, all while the robo maid noted the loss down.
The rest of the single’s bracket passed with similar results, whether the match ups were between siblings, lovers, or friends. The overall winner at the end was Cami, as she was the historical winner on this couch for all time.
After things had calmed down during the snack break intermission, they all sat back down at the Wii to start up some races in Mario Kart. Via Abby’s RNG calculator, it was decided that they would race the Special Cup-- AKA: Rainbow Road.
“Yuunko, isn’t this cup hard?” Eclair questioned
“The lord RNGesus hath proclaimed this be our trail by fire!” Reika responded. “We race this cup.”
As these particular races would take some time, they all agreed that they’d only race this one cup and that the people in the last two places would be considered the losers. They set about picking their racers and proceeded through the cup. Since many of them hadn’t played the game in ages it was a fairly even game, but you could tell who the more experienced racers were by the tricks and tactics they used. At the end of it all, the top three spots belonged to Reika, Cami, and Yuu, while the losers happened to be Evalynn and Yuuko.
After the salt had worn off, the line of losers gathered around Abby to receive their punishment games. Crimson was tasked with performing a handstand for 5 minutes; Yuuko had to drink baby formula; Cami was to be tickled for 5 minutes straight; Lala and Reika had to upload a performance to Youtube; and Evalynn had to get several apple juice body shots sipped off of her. All in all it was a almost a rather tame set of dares.
Once Crimson was propped up against the wall--for balance sake more so than anything-- Eclair and Reika set about tickling Cami, as she would be the time metric for both their punishments. As those two struggled to pin down and tickle the third, Yuuko took up a cross-legged squat in front her partner and began swigging from her cup of baby formula.
“Tastes awful, doesn’t it?” Crimson said with a smirk.
“Meh,” Yuuko responded with a slight grimace. “I’ve had worse before.” And she proceeded to drain the cup near instantly.
Back on the couch, Evalynn was flat on her back with her shirt hiked up and a nervous blush that nearly as dark as her freckles. Her boyfriend doled out a generous amount of juice on her abdomen before he bent down slurped it off. A process repeated a number of times until he felt the challenge had been satisfied. By this point everyone had finished their own punishments--except the oldest Nebras siblings, as they opted to do theirs to round out the night-- and the festivities switched over to Uno.
As Yuu shuffled the cards, Reika went over the specific playing rules of the night.
“House rules are as follows: Normal rules of play are intact. Specialty rules include triples, doubles, and follow suit. If you don’t call Uno in three seconds then you have to draw four cards instead of two. We all good?”
“How exactly does follow suit work?” Evalynn asked as she gathered her dealt hand.
“Mostly a numbers thing in this case, Lynn.” Lala pitched in. “We play in ascending order so that it’s more fair. So if you have cards for 1-3 you can play them all at once, regardless of color, with one at the bottom and three on top. If the next player in the rotation can build off it then they are allowed to. Specialty cards aren’t allowed in this particular game because someone with a handful of skips or draw cards can easily win the game. Got it, hun?”
“More or less.”
And so they set about the three round set. Eclair flubbed an Uno call during the first game, which let Crimson narrowly escape the clutches of punishment once more. Yuu finally met his misfortune when constant draws and skips left his hand ludicrously stacked and he was the last one out. And Reika was once again on the losing side when a sneaky Draw 4 from her brother let him steal victory.
“Well that was a thing.” Reika lamented
“Yep.” Yuu said
Once again the robot maid handed down the punishment slips, with great chagrin from Eclair as her punishment was to spend the rest of the night in a pair of tight jeans. On the other hand, Yuu was subject to a slow rub down--via Evalynn-- and Reika added another performance to her list of tasks.
The look of malicious glee that supplanted Cami’s otherwise innocent face was the biggest indication that she was the one to suggest what had become Eclair’s punishment. Despite the cat’s reluctance and struggles, she was forced into a very form fitting pair of jeans that showed off the curves of her lower body, much to the delight of her girlfriend.
“You’re so mean, Master!”
“You’ve had this coming for a long time!” Cami stated. “Always wlaking around with no bottoms on. I don’t even know how Lala got you to wear panties tonight...”
“Sex.” The two replied flatly in unison.
While those three were preoccupied, Yuu had taken up a seat on the couch once more and Evalynn had straddled his lap to begin his “punishment”. Given the girl’s love of physical contact, her boyfriend relaxed and let her hands sensually roam his body over the cloth. As they continued she was more and more visibly entranced by the action, so much so that she began to draw the eyes of the others.
“Get a room you two!” Crimson shouted in a mocking tone.
“We are techinically in one...” Yuu responded flatly
“I-It’s not like we’re doing anything!” Evalynn said nervously
Embarrassment sullied the elation she had been feeling and she made to move from her perch, that is until she was firmly held in place by her partner.
Yuu glanced over to Crimson before saying, “Nothing to be ashamed of Lynn. At least we know how to control ourselves in public.”
The room went wild with “oh’s” and “burns” as everyone responded to the clapback. Crimson looked to Yuuko for support but the other girl just shook her head in resigned agreement.
“He’s got a point, Red. We do get into some heated situations.”
Crimson sat a spell and had to concede the point herself. “Ok, you win...”
Now the shoe was on the other foot, as the the attacked couple struck the best flamboyant pose they could while seated and entangled, before saying, “[ ] never loses!”
The rest of the room either laughed or groaned at the anime reference as they all settled in to watch the elder sibling’s singing punishments.
The two had settled on a duet to a cover of a Fire Emblem theme and opted to do a partial cosplay of characters from the corresponding game. Via her brand of transformation magic, Lala combed out her hair which turned her normally bubblegum pink locks purple; she then did the same to her sister, turning the other girl’s hair blue. Returning the favor, Reika transformed their clothes into casual facsimiles of Camilla and Aqua.
Abby assisted the two by setting the mood lighting and starting the music, all the while recording them via her internal cameras. The two gracefully fell into their roles, singing in tandem when necessary and tagging off via verse composition based on character. They were met with many cheers and applause when they finally finished, but whereas Lala was free, her elder sister still had another song to perform.
Gracefully she spun until her clothing was now a facsimile of one Pyrrha Nikos. This confused most of the room until the music of Dream Come True started playing and they all figured out the connection. The song and dance really began to amp up when Reika started flirting with Cami in time to the song’s lyrics. Her overt and over the top gestures served to make the girl more than embarrassed enough to regret becoming the second point of attention. Luckily enough, the song wasn’t nearly as long as the former, but the icing on the flirtation cake was when Reika sat upon Cami’s lap and gave her the steamiest kiss she could muster at the moment--much to the cheers of the others.
After all was said and done, everyone began to relax with snacks and small talk and they all gathered back around the screen as everyone chipped in to play the co-op version of the Babel stages in Catherine. It was a pretty relaxing evening.
Shadowlotus fluff, specifically between Ren and Cyaia. takes place during the time skip while Ren is training and continues the trend of them writing letters to each other while he travels
Four months into the training, but it had been so much longer for him. Ren had been in the zone of compressed time for such a short time but to him it had nearly been a year. The purpose of the setup was to give him the necessary time to develop his Bringer powers that he wouldn’t be allowed in the outside world. He’d been thankful to Milena and Milon for giving him the needed tools and worked tirelessly with his brother to deepen their bond. Be that as it may, it had been slow going and they were just barely getting the hang of the basics. Milena gave them a strict time limit of two years in this realm to learn and at this rate they’d never reach that goal.
Their current session had ended hours ago with the bare minimum of progress. They had mastered shadow molding a while prior and so Flare had suggested that they attempt assimilation so that he could store more items on his person in a non-cumbersome way. While they had been practiced for weeks, Ren just couldn’t seem to put the concepts into practice. Today’s session had also ended in failure and Flare decided to cut it short early in order to spare his brother the fatigue due to magic overuse.
As the boy relaxed next to the lake by his makeshift home, he heard the telltale sound of the spatial distortion marking entry into the world.
“Hey there Lulu~”
He sat up to see Milena casually stroll in with Zephyr the hawk perched on her shoulder. Ren readily accepted the bird as it perched on his outstretched arm and praised the bird for her dedicated work.
“Thanks Milena,” Ren said, “I really appreciate you making sure I get Cyaia’s letters.”
“Think nothing of it! I know how it is being away from your beloved for ages at a time.”
“Oh right, you and Auntie Mina are married. I always forget that because you’re never at the compound.” Ren pouted a bit at the thought. “Isn’t it hard being away for such long stretches of time? Don’t you get lonely?”
Milena looked at her godson and heaved a bemused sigh. “Of course I do. I adore that woman, I love everything about her. It’s only natural that I would get lonely. But we make it work. Just like you two, we keep in touch and I make to visit her whenever I get the chance.”
Ren removed the letter from the carrier harness and sent Zephyr back to his godmother. Taking her words to heart, he saw the two of them out before he returned to his position on the lakeside. He unfurled the parchments and began to read.
Dear Ren,
How are you now? is your training going well? I hope it is. Your last letter made it sound as if things weren’t going too well and I was worried. But I’m confident that you can push through any problems you might have with ease. I mean, it’s you and all, you’re great!
Oh, but you must be concerned about things on my end as well. Fret not, my princess! Everything is going quite swimmingly. Why just the other day I was at a dinner ball with my family--some grand gala that was more or less a pretense for renegotiating trade treaties-- and I was approached by so many suitors. It was a real rush to use some of the tricks and sayings you recommended, modified obviously so as not to offend, and to see the looks on their faces when they found themselves outclassed by what they assumed to be an easy to persuade girl. If there weren’t rumors about me shutting down foolish boors before, there certainly will be now!
Ren laughed at the last comment. He recalled the letter in question where he sent those “suggestions” and shook his head in disbelief that she’d actually taken them to heart. It touched him in a way.
On top of that I’ve been making more trips into town and down to the castle stables. My favorite baker always has those fresh rolls we like waiting for me if he ever sees me walk by the shop. I really appreciate it and can’t wait til we can visit him together again. The tarts he makes lately are also just divine! The strawberry ones and the cherry ones the softest, flakiest crust and the filling is blended and seasoned so well that it’s like magic when it melts in your mouth. Just, so good...
Ehehehe, um, anyways, so the stable thing. Well, the new horses and other animals brought in lately were being a little too rowdy for even the more seasoned handlers so they called me in. Still don’t really understand how I do it, but I managed to get them calm enough that they would allow the handlers to bond with them, so... yeah. Go me?
Ren chuckled at the thought of some of the groundsmen and handlers struggling with fussy animals only to be shown up by their petite princess. Seems like it would make you question your line of profession.
Um, I miss you. I really do. I know dad doesn’t like the prospect of us being a couple given his history with your parents... And with what happened at the festival... But I really do care for you! I do. I know I’ve said it before, but even though I’m a romantic, I’m not hopeless about it! To be frank, I never considered romance until I met you. That time in the forest, when you held me in your arms after rescuing me, was one of the happiest moments of my life. You looked so handsome in the sunlight filtered through the trees; a kind of silent beauty, filled with some profound depth or darkness but still radiant. And when you smiled? I fell for you hard and fast in that instant, and to this day I don’t regret following my heart. I guess I’m just trying to say that... I love you. Truly, truly, truly, do I love you, and I will cherish every interaction we have. I hope that you’ll come back to me when this is all over.
P.S.-- The next two pages are also for you, but the others are addressed for Raven, Liz, and Akira. Please make sure they get them as soon as possible. Love ya, Princess, say hi to Flare for me, ok?
Ren shuffled through the parchments and set aside the papers that weren’t for him. His face lit up upon reading the contents of the other two pages, but with happiness and with blush. Before long he was meditating under the tree where he and Flare had agreed to meet. It didn’t take long for his brother to manifest his corporeal form.
“What is it Ren?” Flare inquired
“Cyaia send her regards.”
“Was that all?”
“Actually... I want to give assimilation another try. I can’t just slack off when she’s trying her hardest as well. So, once more, if you will?” Ren requested
He stared down his partner whom returned his gaze in turn. Wordlessly, Flare dropped an assortment of weapons and items into the grass at his side with a wave of his arm. They were all normal items, things that were not made of shadow or that hadn’t been previously assimilated by Ren prior to beginning his training.
“Once again, visualize your shadow as a pool, a reservoir, and imagine that you can reach into it...”
Quick little blurb based on a starter prompt to get me back into writing after a long hiatus (forgive me). it’s about Maja and Neph, my alraune and arachne respectively, in an AU where they’re both human
It was genuine stroke of luck when Nephila managed to snag the small 2 bedroom apartment for herself. Downtown, with easy access to public transportation that made her commute to school mere minutes instead of the hours it had been. Truthfully she’d barely be able to afford rent since the utilities were included in it, but she had been careful in saving what she could to offset the moving costs, so she’d only be hurting for the first month or two.
Two weeks after she had the keys handed to her, the seamstress had finally finished unpacking and set up her home. The decor was light, mostly small pictures along the walls and furniture decorated in pinks and purples. The opposite room was her sewing room, which had seen many hours of work and delayed the overall unpacking process, and was draped in various class assignments and personal projects.
A month passed since she moved in and as the weather had begun to warm, Nephila had taken to spending more time on her outside balcony in the evenings and on the the weekends. It was a nice way for her to unwind after school and work, and she had taken to people watching every so often as a way of brainstorming ideas for her designer partner. Things had been fairly tame until today when her eyes happened to wander over to a balcony of an apartment across the street from her building.
The sun was close to setting, and so the light was less than optimal, but Neph swore she saw the lady of the house watering a number of plants lining the balcony in nothing but a bikini.
“I’m surprised she’s out in weather this cool with so little.”
That would have been the last of it if this mystery lady had not made a habit of consistently gardening in nothing but bikinis. Nephila was a bit amused by it at first but after a while she became curious as to just how many bikinis this woman had. It took nearly a month before she wore the initial swimsuit again.
“That’s... a lot of diversity in swimwear, to say the least.”
It was another few weeks after this that Neph came to a rather sudden realization while repairing a seam on the balcony: the gardener lady across the way only came out when she was out. Was it it a coincidence? Was it intentional? The seamstress was lost in thought instead of her work when she noticed the neighbor lady back on her balcony again. Only this time the lady made an effort to show that she knew she was being watched.
Nephila frantically retreated to her room and hid underneath her covers in embarrassment. There were a multitude of thoughts racing through her mind and no clear answers were forming. Eventually she gave up and went to sleep, although her dreams gave a version of herself that was bold enough to respond back to the bikini lady.
On her way home the next day, Nephila noticed an attractive dark skinned woman sitting on the stoop outside the building as if she was expecting someone. Not wanting to be rude, she averted her gaze and made to politely walk up the opposite side of the stairs, but was surprised when the woman lightly grabbed her hand.
“Hey. Sorry to be so sudden, but you’re that girl that sits on her balcony every day around 6pm, right?”
“I um...” Nephila stammered out, a bit of apprehension coated her words. “Uh, yeah. I’ve been, um, doing that lately...”
A bit of her nervousness eased up when she saw the lady smile at her response. The woman soon let her go and laced her fingers together.
“Oh thank heavens! I was worried when you fled after I waved at you last night.”
“I-I didn’t mean to watch so much. I’m sorry if I offended you are made you uncomfortable.”
“Not at all! It was nice to have some company. Albeit at a distance, nonetheless, it was nice, miss..?”
“Nephila...” the girl replied with a slight blush.
“That’s a lovely name. Mine is Majalise, but Maja is fine.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“Would, would you like to come in for a drink or something? I feel bad that I made you wait out here with no idea when I’d be back.”
Once again Nephila found herself taken aback when Maja took her hand.
“I’d love that, and to talk a bit more.”
Still wrapped up in the pace of the attractive woman, the two made their way back up to Nephila’s apartment, where they made small talk over tea.
A little blurb about Arianne a few months after she joins the Resistance and her feelings toward her current situation. this is all a bit extra canon atm, but the that may change
Meal times at the main Resistance base were always a bit of an ordeal of sorts for Arianne. Before she had even arrived there had been more or less established groups within the stronghold, both for the Atlas natives and the the summoned champions, so it wasn’t surprising to anyone that mingling between groups was kept to a minimum. This was all fine and well, but it left the word mage as a sort of outlier. Sure she’d made friends all over but it meant little when it came time to mingle and all she would ever feel is a sense of exclusion. Eventually she just started taking her meals alone rather than bear the more public isolation, but that too bore it’s own burden.
As she made her way to the service counter, she was a little surprised when her usual order was already served to her upon a tray before she could even order. The girl counted her blessings as the cook that had prepared it--Evan-- had always been good to her and ready to accommodate her requests.
“Thanks again, Evan.” Arianne said
“No worries, love. You take care now.” Evan replied
“Yeah, thanks,” Arianne said as she grabbed her tray. “You have a good one as well.”
Back in her room, Arianne set her dinner on her nightstand, after which she went to open her window. She conjured her wire spool into existence and began weave a series of tethers which she soon affixed to both her window sill and multiple branches of the tree next to her window. Once the basic frame was done she deftly wove a tight mesh together into the shape of a hammock. After a few tests of sturdiness and magical reinforcements, she grabbed her food and settled into her makeshift seat in order to eat as she gazed into what little of the sunset she could see.
Despite the food being to her favored specifications she found the taste to be dishearteningly bland. Fallen tears soon made their way into the food as a bittersweet seasoning, having fallen as the negative emotions the girl had been bottling weighed heavily upon her in solitude.
She hadn’t always felt this way though. In fact, she’d been ecstatic to enlist and help the Resistance at first. They’d rescued her from whatever fate she’d have suffered at the hands of the Goddess’ armies and had even given her a purpose in helping them to reclaim their world. She’d started out as more of a figurehead enlistee, solely acting in a sensory role as she was the only person in the world (even including the outsider’s abilities) that could accurately and reliably find the veins of Asterite crystals that would let the fledgling army maintain an active presence in the war. The sense of purpose quickly lost it’s value when she realized that she was only making the most minimum of efforts to help, and with everyone effectively keeping her locked away for her safety, the seeds had been sown for her active disdain for her role.
So it was the greatest surprise to her when her powers of word magic manifested. It gave her a stronger sense of drive and purpose to assist on the front lines, but after her first sortie went poorly due to her lack of foresight, she tirelessly poured her energy and efforts into mastering her ability. Arianne felt her rapid improvement with both her magic and wire skills were just the thing she needed to prove herself capable, to prove herself worthy of truly assisting in a more active role, but even after all her hard work she still found herself in a largely support role with almost even less time in the field.
Between the moodiness she’d presented at being more or less shunned and more recently her previously infrequent migraines becoming more frequent, her general demeanor was enough to scare off all but the most persistent of her allies. Though of late, even some of those people where bearing her a wide berth as they didn’t wish to incur her wrath should she be having another stressful period. The last person who had was just barely recovered from both the physical and mental scars she had unintentionally doled out when she blew up. At this point she wasn’t truly sure if any of them still considered her a friend or comrade and instead just saw her as nothing more than a war asset. Just the thought of such impersonal relations to the others made more tears well up from deep within.
As she continued to silently sob through her meal all she could think was, ”What am I even doing here anymore...?”
It was another day in the warehouse of a decor store. Yuuko was busy stocking the interior decor section with some small ceramic statues of owls. They were cute in her eyes, but the sheer amount of trash made by their unboxing was beginning to grate on her nerves and in her mind all that negativity was directed at the manager that had assigned her to the task. As both motivation and a distraction from such things, she started humming a few songs as she continued the task at hand. It wasn’t long before she was seriously into it and started dancing a tad as her volume slowly increased.
“Hehe, excuse me, could I get some help?”
The clerk froze mid-stride and slowly turned to the giggling woman down the aisle from her. She quickly dusted off the styrofoam pellets and closed the gap between them.
“Yes! How can I help you?” Yuuko asked
“I’m looking for some wall art and a mug or two. Could you tell me where I might find them?”
“Yes.” Yuuko responded. “If you go back towards the main isle, you’ll want to head straight bacck toward the corner and for like five rows there’s nothing but art. The canvas arts are along the walls and the framed arts are in the last few rows before the wood arts. For mugs and any other dishes, continues straight down the main aisle--or along the wall--and you’ll find them in the aisles in the corner past the rugs. Did you need any other assistance?”
“Oh no, you’ve been quite helpful. Thank you.”
“No problem ma’am, I’ll be here if you need me,” Yuuko stated
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
And with that the woman with the vibrant pink hair walked off to continue her shopping trip.
Yuuko slumped against the shelf when she was alone again, completely mortified that she’d been caught while trying to ward off boredom. She couldn’t believe she’d let her guard down that much only to be caught so easily. In a fit she finished up the remainder of her work and walked the trash back to receiving. By the time she’d set the box aside her walkie had gone off and requested her assistance upfront.
“Great, now I have to deal with this because whoever’s up front can’t do their job right...” Yuuko complained
When she arrived to the checklane she was a little surprised to see that the call was legitimate as the line had upwards of five people with full carts, and more slowly trickling through the “temptation” part of the aisle. She hopped behind the register near the door and signed into the system so she could begin to assist the customers.
The process of shrinking the line went rather smoothly. While her coworker was taking a more leisurely pace, Yuuko put her high energy into scanning and bagging as fast as she could so she could get back tot the floor. After about four customers, a familiar flash of pink wandered into the girl’s point of view.
“Hello again.” Yuuko greeted
“Hello, and thank you again for all your help.”
“Find everything ok?” Yuuko asked as she continued to scan items.
“That I did. All thanks to your good advice.”
“Um, did you want to sign up for our email listing? They’ll send you a 10% off coupon for you next visit.” Yuuko said
“Hm... Sure, why not?” The lady said as she finished filling out her payment on the card reader. “Could you hand me that pen?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah...” Yuuko said as she complied. “But you do know that you’re supposed to do that online, right?”
The lady returned the pen along with the slip she’d torn from the wrapping paper and then grabbed her bags.
“I figured as much, but that’s for you. Have a nice day, Koko~”
“Have a nice day...” Yuuko said with a slight trail
She looked down at her hand to see that the slip of paper was a note.
“You were cute when you were dancing earlier. Let’s get together sometime. I’m free after 7, call me.”
The girl glanced down further to see a flirty face emoji next to a string of numbers and shoved the paper into her pocket out of embarrassment. She couldn’t believe how smoothly she’d been flirted with and her cheeks burned as she continued to check out others.
germansingergirl
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