RE: The Battle of the Victors (*S1/2*) - Round "1" - Crystal Mirage XIX
06-26-2025, 06:33 PM
“What the frick are we even doing?” Fran muttered to herself.
Before her Ginger leapt from one table to the next swiping and gesticulating with a child’s pink plastic wand (complete with a big yellow star on the end), while narrating her adventure in perhaps the most self-aggrandizing way possible.
“She’s very boisterous.” Quartermaster Velvet commented neutrally. Fran rolled her eyes. She was leaning on the Quartermaster’s kiosk not necessarily in search of companionship but more out of a desire to physically distance herself from Ginger.
“You can say that again.” Fran sighed. “...You know, in my homeworld, we’re fighting to save the universe?”
Quartermaster Velvet cast her a curious look but just said: “Well, you are a Hero after all, right?”
“Am I?” Fran asked irritably. “I feel more like a glorified babysitter at the moment. As far as I can tell we have no plan, no real goal. We’re just sort of drifting about, ignoring the one thing we’ve been told to do.” Fran felt herself getting more and more worked up the longer she spoke. “But that’s not quite right is it? Ginger over there is definitely trying to do something but rather than actually communicate with me about what her goals are and work together to try to solve them, she’d rather play pretend about barnacle pirates and I’m just expected to accept that. Every minute we spend here my world gets closer to complete annihilation at the hands of Valhart and I’m just supposed to be good with it.”
By the end of her rant Fran had raised her voice enough that it seemed to interrupt Ginger’s imagination adventure. She cast a sour look towards Fran before brushing it off with an exaggerated “Anyway,” and returning to what she was doing.
Fran and Quartermaster Velvet stood in silence for a minute watching Ginger, neither quite knowing how to best pick up the remnants of the conversation they had been sort of having.
Eventually Fran asked: “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of any new heroes?” She paused. “Aside from me and Ginger, that is.” It could easily have been small talk, if not for the frustration underpinning the question.
“From what gossip I’ve been hearing on the wire, there has been a sudden influx of new heroes.” Quartermaster Velvet confided. “Suddenly Kiste has new daughters shouldering the mantle in the little villages on the edges of the Central Fangs. I hear the same is true of the delve, the sylphs and the cephynin, even the bexini and the quronne.”
“Most of the ‘heroes’ I’m thinking of are furless… humans I think they’re called.” Franchesca said. “And from my understanding they’d kind of stick out.”
“Ahh I think I know who you mean.” Quartermaster Velvet said with a smile. “Four girls, one of whom bears a remarkable likeness to Archon Lah, and they’re travelling with a disembodied hand.”
“That sounds like as good a place to start as any.” Fran said, ignoring her stomach sinking at the thought of what she was trying not to admit she was contemplating. “Any idea where they are now?”
“One of my sisters runs a stall on a small rail between Junimaynr and The Pit. They hopped off halfway and headed north into The Wastes.” Quartermaster Velvet replied. “They were all chattering about Cephyx, The Shining City.”
“I’m probably going to need a map.” Fran mused, and promptly Quartermaster Velvet brought one up from the mysterious space beneath her counter. Fran didn’t have any of the local currency but managed to barter an exchange for her Crashin’ Thrashin’ Janjirica.
Fran unfurled it on the counter before her and looked down at a rough outline of the world of Makvelia. One large landmass with a couple of curving peninsulas, and a couple of smaller islands to the east and southeast. The land was divided up into clearly defined sections labelled such things as ‘Sinstorm Ruins’ and ‘Coralvine Plains’. The Fangs, their destination on this underriver trip, took up an entire three chunks on the east side of the map. Between there and Cephyx was a dark red zone labelled ‘The Scorchwoods’ that they would probably have to traverse.
“Ooh what’s that?” Ginger asked.
“A map.” Fran said plainly. “I thought it would be wise to consider our destination.”
“Good idea.” Ginger said, before jabbing a finger at random into the map. “I think we should go here.” She glanced down at where her finger had landed. “Bexial Swamp.” This seemed to prompt a concerned splutter from Quartermaster Velvet, which took attention away from Fran’s exasperated rolling of her eyes.
“Something wrong with that?” Ginger asked impudently.
“Well of course not.” Quartermaster Velvet composed herself. “If you want to visit the notoriously isolationist Bexini homelands, well far be it from me to stop you.”
“Good.” Ginger said, folding her arms. “Because that’s where I want to go. I love swamp.”
Fran met Quartermaster Velvet’s gaze and held steady until she seemed to get the message. “The curses will be what will stop you, of course.” Quartermaster Velvet continued and then by way of explanation she pressed on: “Archon Xoxellous has grown bitter over the years and draped their homeland in awful black magic to keep out any but their own kin.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Only the most foolhardy of adventurers set foot there without the Blessing of an Archon themselves.”
“We’ll be fine.” Ginger insisted. “Archon Christmagicus gave us their special blessing already. And besides this swamp place is probably exactly where we need to go if they have such good magic over there…” She trailed off and then muttered to herself. “Stupid mole council.”
“I think maybe we should split up.” Fran said quickly.
“You - wait a minute what?” Ginger’s gaze snapped back around to Fran. “No, hang on a second.”
“You clearly have something going on that you don’t need me for.” Fran said plainly. “And honestly so do I, but a long long way away from here. Let me just get on with the work of getting us home and then we can both happy.”
“You can’t!” Ginger insisted, grabbing Fran by the arm. “I need you. I need protection. You promised The Baker.”
“And I’d like to fulfil my promise to The Baker by actually finishing this fight.” Fran said, brushing Ginger off, only for her to grab her arm again, this time with both hands. “I’d recommend you don’t go to the death curse swamp in the meantime but otherwise you let me go and do your thing and I’ll do what actually needs doing.”
Ginger remained clinging onto Fran as she folded the map up and stuffed it into the small satchel it had come in. She continued to demand that Fran stop what she was doing, going so far as to threaten that she was going to go and get The Baker herself.
“You know,” Quartermaster Velvet interrupted, “if you’re looking for someone with a powerful command of magic there’s a better spot than Bexial Swamp?” Ginger glanced back over to her, clearly interested.
“Yes, tell me right now.”
“Archon Lah.” Quartermaster Velvet said. “She’s the progenitor of the elves. They practically bleed magic. She’s your best shot for anything magical. And she’s located in Cephynin - The Shining City, so you wouldn’t need to split up.”
Ginger grinned widely. “Yay, oh thank you Miss Fox.” She looked back to Fran. “Isn’t that great news Fran, we can both get what we want and we don’t even need to split up.”
“Oh, yeah. Yay, of course.”
Before her Ginger leapt from one table to the next swiping and gesticulating with a child’s pink plastic wand (complete with a big yellow star on the end), while narrating her adventure in perhaps the most self-aggrandizing way possible.
“She’s very boisterous.” Quartermaster Velvet commented neutrally. Fran rolled her eyes. She was leaning on the Quartermaster’s kiosk not necessarily in search of companionship but more out of a desire to physically distance herself from Ginger.
“You can say that again.” Fran sighed. “...You know, in my homeworld, we’re fighting to save the universe?”
Quartermaster Velvet cast her a curious look but just said: “Well, you are a Hero after all, right?”
“Am I?” Fran asked irritably. “I feel more like a glorified babysitter at the moment. As far as I can tell we have no plan, no real goal. We’re just sort of drifting about, ignoring the one thing we’ve been told to do.” Fran felt herself getting more and more worked up the longer she spoke. “But that’s not quite right is it? Ginger over there is definitely trying to do something but rather than actually communicate with me about what her goals are and work together to try to solve them, she’d rather play pretend about barnacle pirates and I’m just expected to accept that. Every minute we spend here my world gets closer to complete annihilation at the hands of Valhart and I’m just supposed to be good with it.”
By the end of her rant Fran had raised her voice enough that it seemed to interrupt Ginger’s imagination adventure. She cast a sour look towards Fran before brushing it off with an exaggerated “Anyway,” and returning to what she was doing.
Fran and Quartermaster Velvet stood in silence for a minute watching Ginger, neither quite knowing how to best pick up the remnants of the conversation they had been sort of having.
Eventually Fran asked: “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of any new heroes?” She paused. “Aside from me and Ginger, that is.” It could easily have been small talk, if not for the frustration underpinning the question.
“From what gossip I’ve been hearing on the wire, there has been a sudden influx of new heroes.” Quartermaster Velvet confided. “Suddenly Kiste has new daughters shouldering the mantle in the little villages on the edges of the Central Fangs. I hear the same is true of the delve, the sylphs and the cephynin, even the bexini and the quronne.”
“Most of the ‘heroes’ I’m thinking of are furless… humans I think they’re called.” Franchesca said. “And from my understanding they’d kind of stick out.”
“Ahh I think I know who you mean.” Quartermaster Velvet said with a smile. “Four girls, one of whom bears a remarkable likeness to Archon Lah, and they’re travelling with a disembodied hand.”
“That sounds like as good a place to start as any.” Fran said, ignoring her stomach sinking at the thought of what she was trying not to admit she was contemplating. “Any idea where they are now?”
“One of my sisters runs a stall on a small rail between Junimaynr and The Pit. They hopped off halfway and headed north into The Wastes.” Quartermaster Velvet replied. “They were all chattering about Cephyx, The Shining City.”
“I’m probably going to need a map.” Fran mused, and promptly Quartermaster Velvet brought one up from the mysterious space beneath her counter. Fran didn’t have any of the local currency but managed to barter an exchange for her Crashin’ Thrashin’ Janjirica.
Fran unfurled it on the counter before her and looked down at a rough outline of the world of Makvelia. One large landmass with a couple of curving peninsulas, and a couple of smaller islands to the east and southeast. The land was divided up into clearly defined sections labelled such things as ‘Sinstorm Ruins’ and ‘Coralvine Plains’. The Fangs, their destination on this underriver trip, took up an entire three chunks on the east side of the map. Between there and Cephyx was a dark red zone labelled ‘The Scorchwoods’ that they would probably have to traverse.
“Ooh what’s that?” Ginger asked.
“A map.” Fran said plainly. “I thought it would be wise to consider our destination.”
“Good idea.” Ginger said, before jabbing a finger at random into the map. “I think we should go here.” She glanced down at where her finger had landed. “Bexial Swamp.” This seemed to prompt a concerned splutter from Quartermaster Velvet, which took attention away from Fran’s exasperated rolling of her eyes.
“Something wrong with that?” Ginger asked impudently.
“Well of course not.” Quartermaster Velvet composed herself. “If you want to visit the notoriously isolationist Bexini homelands, well far be it from me to stop you.”
“Good.” Ginger said, folding her arms. “Because that’s where I want to go. I love swamp.”
Fran met Quartermaster Velvet’s gaze and held steady until she seemed to get the message. “The curses will be what will stop you, of course.” Quartermaster Velvet continued and then by way of explanation she pressed on: “Archon Xoxellous has grown bitter over the years and draped their homeland in awful black magic to keep out any but their own kin.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Only the most foolhardy of adventurers set foot there without the Blessing of an Archon themselves.”
“We’ll be fine.” Ginger insisted. “Archon Christmagicus gave us their special blessing already. And besides this swamp place is probably exactly where we need to go if they have such good magic over there…” She trailed off and then muttered to herself. “Stupid mole council.”
“I think maybe we should split up.” Fran said quickly.
“You - wait a minute what?” Ginger’s gaze snapped back around to Fran. “No, hang on a second.”
“You clearly have something going on that you don’t need me for.” Fran said plainly. “And honestly so do I, but a long long way away from here. Let me just get on with the work of getting us home and then we can both happy.”
“You can’t!” Ginger insisted, grabbing Fran by the arm. “I need you. I need protection. You promised The Baker.”
“And I’d like to fulfil my promise to The Baker by actually finishing this fight.” Fran said, brushing Ginger off, only for her to grab her arm again, this time with both hands. “I’d recommend you don’t go to the death curse swamp in the meantime but otherwise you let me go and do your thing and I’ll do what actually needs doing.”
Ginger remained clinging onto Fran as she folded the map up and stuffed it into the small satchel it had come in. She continued to demand that Fran stop what she was doing, going so far as to threaten that she was going to go and get The Baker herself.
“You know,” Quartermaster Velvet interrupted, “if you’re looking for someone with a powerful command of magic there’s a better spot than Bexial Swamp?” Ginger glanced back over to her, clearly interested.
“Yes, tell me right now.”
“Archon Lah.” Quartermaster Velvet said. “She’s the progenitor of the elves. They practically bleed magic. She’s your best shot for anything magical. And she’s located in Cephynin - The Shining City, so you wouldn’t need to split up.”
Ginger grinned widely. “Yay, oh thank you Miss Fox.” She looked back to Fran. “Isn’t that great news Fran, we can both get what we want and we don’t even need to split up.”
“Oh, yeah. Yay, of course.”
Telephone | Born This Way | Bad Kids | Teeth
Paper Gangsta | Sour Candy | Bad Romance | Bloody Mary | Just Dance | The Edge of Glory
Paper Gangsta | Sour Candy | Bad Romance | Bloody Mary | Just Dance | The Edge of Glory