[IC] Trespassers DC: Tribal Times (Forgotten Realms Hunt)

[Hal Henderics]

"No, you COINCIDENTALLY saved lives, You would have had no idea if they were friendly looking doomsday cultists, or worse!"

"You mistook a little girl for a fully grown man and did the exact opposite of self-repair when you suffered critical damage!"

"You're lucky that someone came in with the knowhow to fix you before you fired off some incredibly powerful weapon and triggered volcanic activity when you managed to scramble up your safety mechanisms to make these people can openers!"  Law says, exasperated.

"There is nothing wrong with self sacrifice for a good cause Tiffany, but this wasn't that!  This was a series of incredibly bad decisions that made your chances of helping people even worse."

 

"The priest said you were talking before, before you devolved into the state we found you in.  With how quickly these villagers latched onto you, all it would have taken is a "please and thank you" to talk them into clearing this rubble out days ago!"

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine, for her part, started to quietly shuffle away, back towards her hover bike, before the ottsel pissed off the AI that had given it to her enough that she decided to rescind the gift (which wasn't given intentionally in the first place.)

[StormLord]

Tim shugged at Tiffany's dismissal. 

"Whatever you say.  Though I still think it would be a good idea to set you up with some alchemical energy condensers so this--" He gestured around at her ruined state "--doesn't happen again."

Tim turned and went back to fiddling with the little box he made before.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

The brief amount of satisfaction and pride Freya felt upon freeing up the giant box was quickly killed off as it seemed to delve into an argument between it and the small weasel, causing her to stare almost blankly between the two, primarily on Law as he became angrier and angrier. Most of the things they were talking about flew over her head, otherworldly terms that her place didn’t have being spoken about casually until Freya shrugged to herself, turning around on her heel and walking away from the two.

 

However, there was someone she had been wanting to talk to. The other small girl in the group.

 

“Hey” Freya greeted as Lucine went back to her bike, “I heard your familiar say it channels ‘Second and Third Magics’. I’m a bit curious on what that means, since I don’t recall hearing any magic that channels numbers of all things” she asked. She knew that they really didn’t channel numbers for magic, probably not at least, but her world had named magic schools after what they did. Not in ranks like Lucine’s familiar had said.
 

[Chevaleresse]

"Oh, hi." The necromancer, right? She was sure she'd seen one or two of them wandering around the castle. . . They were typically a little ostracized, even among mages, but the Yggdmillenia didn't exactly have much ability to be choosy. "Um, they don't really channel numbers. Imaginary Number Magecraft might, though? Um, anyway, Opal was exaggerating. She doesn't really actually perform any Magic, just magecraft that's trying to imitate it." The capital M was audible as Lucine explained. 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

At Lucine's reply, Freya raised an eyebrow in surprise/confusion, "So, magic and magecraft are different things in your place? Weird. But what magic is 'Opal' imitating?" she asked, her curiosity still having not died down. In fact, she was more or less a bit more curious now.

[Chevaleresse]

"Magecraft is something that's still within the laws of the natural world. A spell can start a fire, but you could do the same thing with a match." From Lucine's tone of voice, it sounded like she was reciting a lesson she'd heard once. "Magic is the performance of miracles that are outside of the natural laws. True Resurrection, Teleportation, Time Travel, things that one could never achieve through effort and mundane ingenuity alone." She stumbled a bit over the second-to-last word, before dropping into a slightly more normal tone of voice. "Opal was supposed to copy the Second Magic, Kaleidoscope, to generate infinite energy. I'm the one connected to the Third Magic, Heaven's Feel, but I'm not actually doing it. And I don't want to, either." The homunculus shivered slightly at the thought.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

For the most part, it wasn't hard for Freya to notice that Lucine seemed uncomfortable with this "Heaven's Feel" Magic, enough to shiver at what appeared to be the simple thought of it. A reminder to avoid that topic later on. Lucine, however, would just see Freya nod, "I see. That's pretty nice. I'm guessing it's a pretty big deal for people to be able to do actual, real Magic in your world, huh?" Freya stated, before pausing, "And... Uh... How do they tend to treat people that can bring people back to life... Or partly?" she asked, giving Lucine a sheepish grin as she brought a hand to the back of her head. It felt sort of wrong to ask that question, but she wanted to at least know.

[Chevaleresse]

"Well, um. . . Necromancers kinda weird people out, but it's still a valid thing for a mage to learn, I guess. If you actually brought someone back to life, they might give you uh, what was it called. . . a Sealing Designation? Yeah. There's only one weird old guy that does Magic, and I couldn't get my dad to tell me much more about him. It didn't seem like he liked the conversation, though." Lucine shrugged. "A sealing designation is supposed to be a big honor, since it means you have a super special ability, but um. . . It also means they kinda, uh, kill and dissect you, to learn how you work."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

At first, Freya simply went into a more blank faced expression after her question. Necromancers weirding people out, life story right there. However, once Lucine got to the Sealing Designation, Freya's face immediately brightened when she said it was a big honor... Before visibly crashing at the final portion. With that all said, Freya ultimately leaned forward, sighing heavily, "Well, you take your victories where you can I guess..." she muttered.

 

A mere second later, however, Freya had gotten back up, restraightening her hat as if nothing had happened, "Well, at least they get a mark of recognition" she stated, before giving Lucine another smile, "Sorry for asking all these questions, just curious on how other worlds are like. Mine feels kinda dull in comparison."

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine shrugged. "It's fine. My world seems kinda boring sometimes too." Her world. That was weird to think about. For the longest time, her world had essentially been that castle. Sure, they went into the city on occasion, but usually a trip into Trifas proper was official business that a mage wouldn't want an inquisitive child on anyway; other than that, the Yggdmillenias tended to avoid going in. Now, though, she'd been in more than three universes. That was crazy. "What's yours like? Um, like, uh. . . the mages? The ones in my world are stuffy and a little creepy."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

"I never met much of mine. Maybe like... 10 or so. They're generally stuck up, 'my power is bigger than yours' type of people, a bit aggressive since three of them tried to burn me alive. Or, well, my hat, anyway. But, otherwise they weren't really far from other people besides arrogance" Freya replied with her own shrug, "I was never really that popular with mages at large. On account of me being a Necromancer and all that. Most of the time they never wanted to talk to me. Otherwise it was the before mentioned burning" she finished.

 

After that though Freya paused, before snapping her fingers, "Oh right! There was one mage that didn't try to burn me alive at all. They were kind of a loner, guardian of an ancient and really dangerous forest, one that surrounded a friggin' sleeping Dragon. Well, they tried to kill me one for trespassing, but I survived and managed to befriend them. I think. They let me stay in the forest and at their place when I'm around, so I THINK we're friends... But I can never tell with her..." she explained, looking to the side as she went into a deep thought.

[Chevaleresse]

"Oh, that's lame. . ." She'd been treated rather stiffly (some would say poorly) by a number of the mages she'd encountered, on account of her being artificial life or "a glorified highschool science project" as she'd overheard one refer to homunculi as. (Followed fairly shortly by a very curt dismissal.) She perked up a bit at the mention of a dragon. "Wait, your world still has dragons? What are they like? Er, what was the guardian like, too?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

“Oh, they’re awesome. They’re pretty much mountain sized, have powerful magic that is tied to their blood, and despite all that they're oddly really nice to us tiny people. Which to them is literally everyone. I know there was, like… 5 of them if I recall, and I’ve personally seen two, and know a bit about another one. One of them, who people just call ‘the Watcher’ for whatever reason, is what surrounds that forest I was talking about. They’ve sort of being sleeping for a long time… Not really sure how long, no one’s ever told me. But another lives in a desert and just stomps around the place, and even has an entire town on its back” Freya explained, seeming pretty excited to talk about Dragons herself, until she suddenly calmed herself down as she began to talk about the “guardian”,

 

“The guardian is a friend of mine. She calls herself the ‘Herald’, but everyone else just calls her Evelyn. I’m… Still not sure if that’s a nickname or her actual name- But anyway, she’s a bit weird. Strong enough to basically have full control over the forest surrounding the Watcher, but really weird. Never takes a step outside of her place, never eats or sleep, rarely ever talks to me, that sort of stuff. We met when I wandered into the place and she tried to kill me… Except I was lucky enough to survive long enough to meet her. Now she just lets me stick around. Never gave me much of a reason though, like I said, she’s weird."

 

After that, Freya paused, before tilting her head at Lucine, "Wait, what happened to your worlds dragons?"
 

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine shrugged. "A lot of them died. There's a lot of stories about dragon slayers and stuff. I don't know if any of them are left alive at all. They were. . . well, not everywhere, but you could find them in the Age of Gods, but that was like three thousand years ago. Some say that they went to the Far Side of the World," the emphasis was clear in her tone, "but people can't go to the Far Side, so you can't even really say it exists. They, um, weren't really nice though, usually. The eastern ones, maybe, but there's a reason you mostly hear about heroes killing them. I don't know how smart they were, either, most of the stories just kinda make them sound like animals."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Huh... Well, at least yours were killable. Well, mine were too, but... Not entirely sure how. I only know of one Dragon that died back home, and that's because people tried to ressurect it for their own uses. It failed, thankfully. Honestly I'd much prefer your Dragons... Though they sound a lot like Wyverns..." Freya replied with a sigh, before perking up again, "But what is this 'Far Side'? And why can't you go to it? Is it something like a spiritual plane, or another existence entirely?"

[Chevaleresse]

The magical girl scratched her head a bit. She'd sort of dozed off during that lesson. . . "I don't even know if it's really a thing. Supposedly it's where all of the Mystery in the world is going, or something. It's supposed to be, um, how did that guy put it. . . a "layer of reality" underneath the real world? And then underneath that is the actual planet itself. Humans can't survive there, since it's full of Phantasmal Beasts and might just not allow them to anyway, but I don't know if I could. . ." Lucine coughed abruptly. "Er, obviously I couldn't, because I'm a human." She looked about a little shiftily. 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Huh, interesting. My place only has a plane ABOVE the 'real world'. Maybe there's one below, I dunno" Freya stated, not really knowing herself. She knew there WAS a spirit world, she had been there multiple times, but nothing like this 'Far Side'.  There was a notable moment where Freya raised an eyebrow at Lucine's statement that she WAS in fact a human, but she decided not to pursue a topic that would make her uncomfortable.

 

... At least, directly.

 

"By the way, I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but what is up with your mana? Whenever I'm near you I feel like I'm a few feet away from a leyline. Do you just have a lot of mana stored up in you, or is it something else?" Freya asked.

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine continued to try and maintain a "natural" expression, which for the twelve-year-old made it look rather like she'd been caught with a hand in the cookie jar and was trying to pretend she was merely cleaning it. "Umm, yeah, you could say that. I can hold a lot of mana at once because I have a lot of really high quality magic circuits." That much was true, at least. A noise from her bag caused her to thump it a bit. "I'm a little hopeless with actually using them, though. . ."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Understandable, I guess it would be hard to actually control mana when you have so much" Freya replied with a nod, "Honestly, if I can ever try to tap into it, we might be able to put it to controllable use... But, that's if you want to share in the first place. I can handle using my own mana. Either way, maybe later on, would you be willing to do a few projects or something with me? I get the feeling we could do some pretty cool things if we combined our magic."

[DragonRage]

"Hahaha!  Flight systems green!  Armor integrity eighty-three percent an' climbing!  The minerals hereabouts are steaming shite, but they're enough!  Ah'm too happy to get into an argument with the grease weasel!  Ah'm back!"  Tiffany's SCVs retreat back inside her spaceframe, and with a rumbling roar of rockets, the salvaged battlecruiser lifts off, hovering just above the treeline.  "Whoa, so that's what the village looks like.  Ah'd wondered.  An Ah think Ah might see where the cultists are at.  Looks like a stockade covered in way more spikes with skulls on them than any reasonable people would decorate with, anyway.  Mah guns are still bein' repaired, but Ah could spot a drone to guide y'all to the site ta investigate and maybe deal with 'em permanent-like."

[StormLord]

Tim sighed and shook his head.  It was clear to him this machine just wasn't listening to him and he was starting to agree with the weasel more and more every minute they stood around it.  Damn mechanists and their shoddy hap-hazard work, almost as bad as a Thaumaturge.

Thinking of shoddy hap-hazard work, it looked like he would need to work on his collector some time later.

"Now that we've fixed the 'Flower God', anyone want to go clear out some cultists?"

After addressing the party Tim turned his attention back to Tiffany once more.

"If you can get me a clear shot a few hundred feet out from the Stockade and in relative safety I'll blow it and anything remotely nearby into the next world."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

Suddenly, the roar of Tiffany finally lifting off caused Freya to become extremely distracted from her conversation, having to hold her hat from the wind blowing from them lifting off, "Alright, seems like we're going again. We can talk later, maybe figure out something we both can do together with our magic, or something" Freya shouted to Lucine, before turning and walking back to the group,

 

"I mean, I'm good on dealing with more jerks, but do we have to blow everything up? Seems like a really extreme solution" Freya pointed out to Tim when she approached.

[StormLord]

Tim shrugged again as he turned to look back down.

"I mean I could probably leave a few if you want to fight them in hand-to-hand, but I always figure the further away you can be while dealing with a target the better."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Freya

 

"Well, that is true, but there's a difference between taking out targets at range and then turning them and everything into dust. That's not something people normally do for free, and probably takes you a lot of energy to do, right?" Freya replied, "So, it might be best if we take them out first hand without destroying everything, especially if we can nab some stuff for ourselves. Because we might be losing more than we could be gaining if we just destroy everything, right?" she continued, before pausing for a second, "Though, um... If you can do it without much trouble then I guess there isn't much room for me to speak..."