Fantasy Satan Shrugged [In-Character]

[Kylesar1]

Melora Adonis
Library
LostHaven ​

"Miss Adonis."
"I thought I asked you to not call me that," Melora immediately responded without looking up from her shelf search. It was one of the servants.
"My apologies, Melora.......Did you read the note from Master Ornias?"
She stopped and looked at the woman. "Yes. Breakfast at the dining room. Since we don't get hungry here though, I don't see a reason to go there. I'd much rather keep studying for the mission ahead."
"I understand, but neither does Master Ornias either. The food is more of a..........formality. It's actually pretense of a team meeting."
Why was he so cryptic then? Melora thought. "Right. I suppose I should go there then."
"One of your teammates are here, the one with the............" she pulled close and spoke in a low voice, "in the creepy mask," she finished, which made Melora smile. While they were servants to the divine, at least they weren't completely mindless drones. "You should both go to the dining room to meet up with the rest of your team. Of course, if you need me, just call my name."
"Right. Thank you." Melora's stomach finished dropping by the time the servant finished her spiel. She had to go talk to that guy who seemed to WANT that gore Ornias showed them. If this man followed a god, it'd be probably the least merciful god in their world's pantheon. Definitely not the Goddess she herself followed while alive in her world.


Maybe I shouldn't be so judgmental. Melora sighed deeply and internally gathered the courage she would need to approach him. She couldn't die here unless Ornias wanted her dead. They were as invincible as he wanted them to be at any given moment. Melora approached him slowly, holding a few books in her hand and praying he wouldn't bring up her comments and almost vomiting in response to Ornias's display of mass gore. "Hello. Henry Vanheimer, right?" she said a bit cautiously, "I'm Melora Adonis, but Melora or Mel are fine. Mr. Ornias wanted us to have a team meeting in the dining room." She stole a quick glance at his books. Books on alchemy, which was impressive how multiple presumably different worlds all had alchemy........not that she was interested in it. The closest she got to it was Herbs and magic. Alchemy was pretty far from her alley, but knowing his intentions behind such alchemy only pushed that sort of thing out of her radar of interest

 

[Archdemon]

Sam Greyson
Location: Celestar - Library
Interaction: Birdsie Kylesar1 LostHaven

Spoiler: Sam

Sam had, undoubtedly almost got lost in all of the exposition. The amount of information that was just thrown out there was almost like a video game trying to explain why it has certain mechanics. However Sam knew this was no video game, it was.... too real. This God went from examples of similar things to nuclear weapons to Physics and chemistry to a large dump of how magic works, and a rather detailed look into the world infrastructure as a whole. Though this allowed Sam to calm down somewhat as some of these things where understandable especially magic and chemistry.

The fact that's such questions were asked especially whether this entire experience was a simulation begged the question, who were Sam's companions? The man with the mask clearly came from a similar time from Sam with questions of nuclear warfare. The cyber cosplay girl talked so fancy that Sam kinda lost the meaning of her sentences. She then looked to an old man who seemed like he was from the same world too, though his accent was thick with something Slavic? The other 3 were hard to read as they seemed to be more like herself in appearance, fantasy or at least 2 did. Though one of them did have burn marks covering her body before she was covered by the God.

Sam heard that everyone was free for a week in Celestar to learn or relax. Everything about this place screamed video game, especially the world itself. She wondered what aspects would be similar to a game? Sam figured she should head to the library to figure out the ins and outs of this alheria.

Sam saw the naked woman talking with the masked man. Sam figured she should talk with then since they are her compatriots in this, weird world. She slowly walked towards them and noticed Henry was creating a periodic table. There were some elements she knew weren't in it but it was relatively the same. She walked up nervously and attempted to speak to them.

"Hello... I hope I'm not intruding in anything."

Sam was screaming on the inside and couldn't ask the pertinent questions she wanted to ask.

 

[Noble Scion]

Risk
Celestar, Dining Room - ??:??

Spoiler: Appearance

Being taught everything about the languages she was about to go to, and even her own, both written and spoken was something a little jarring. Her mind buzzed slightly as an aftermath, but she assumed it would go away soon. It was slightly strange to see the errors in words she'd spoken throughout her memories all of a sudden, and what the correct manner of saying it was, but overall it wasn't something that should surprise her considering she'd gone from an endless wasteland filled with monsters to what was essentially the heavens itself.

The thief simply hung her head in disappointment at the god's words, but said no more as she sat there, breathing unsteadily. Priscilla liked to think disappointment was something she'd grown used to, but it still hurt to hear. "I understand." she mumbled quietly, eyes shut for a moment as she settled down her hopes into their coffins as the lord at the end of the table engaged in chatter she understood, but didn't care to hear.

A hand touched her shoulder and caused her to jump slightly as she turned around only to see the same woman from the day before in all of her unnatural beauty, akin to the nobles with their make-up, but in a different style. Normally it would've made her feel worried, but relaxation came easily, although she wasn't sure why.

Examining the woman's face cautiously as she worked up a response, the red-haired girl tried to move away from her gloomy thoughts to chat. "Yeah.. Last thing I remember was wandering a desert looking for New Eden, next thing I know I'm here with all my wishes attended to. It's.. Hard to believe, what with my background." she chattered absently, cutting herself short as she realised she probably shouldn't be talking about her life given what it was, before realising it was probably fine, given the talk of the now understood bombs from the day before. "Hi, Celly. That's right, but I guess you can call me Risk. My parents said to use it as a fake name once I got there so nobody tried looking checked where I was from, but.. I guess this place will do."

There seemed to be more than enough conversation fuel given they both came from different worlds, and Risk was more than curious enough to ask.

"So... You're lookin' nice today, did you use all those things the fancy people used back at my home? Makeup?" she asked in a friendly, but unmotivated tone, her mind dwelling on her declined wish as she hurried to change the subject away from home.
Birdsie Epiphany

 

[Hanarei]

Reina
Celestar - Dinning Room

"Foooooooooood!" A voice carried out through the halls as a woman charged into the dinning hall her arms sprawled out behind her. Her blonde locks flowed behind her as her purple horns poked out almost looking like some sort of hair pin without a closer glance at them. Standing five foot two inches she was far from being very tall for what she appeared to be a human. Her elegant looking black dress flowed down the skirt falling down just above her knees in length. White stalkings continued up her legs reaching underneath her skirt. A rather nice looking pair of black shoes were on her feet the over-all look seeming quite expensive over-all even if perhaps a little strange fashion wise depending on where one might come from.

Her eyes couldn't help but glance at the two women in the room looking a little bit confused by their appearance. She tilted her head to the side her hand lifted up lightly flicking at the violet ribbon tied at the top of her dress. A bright smile came upon her face as she ran up excitedly towards the two stopping just short. She grabbed her one hand behind her back seemingly bubbling with excitement with a bright smile on her lips. She wasn't sure when they arrived but it seemed as if there were new people around! It was a great sense of relief given how the winged ones tended to be rather unfun nor interested in her.

"Oooo! Hello hello! You must be new here! My name is Itovirir!" She spoke her tone and accent seemingly changing when she said her name. She pulled her hands from her back holding her one finger up in gesture looking slightly awkward as if she wasn't use to having hands knowing the correct gesture to do to emphasize something like a name.

"Sorry sorry! Thats my dragon name, you can call me Reina! You are both way too tall to me dwarves... not to mention not as hairy... though your outfit is a bit scraggly like one... well that one drunken fellow I always saw at the corner of the street... well he did dress a bit better then that." She spoke looking over at her before shifting her attention to Celly. She seemed innately rather interested in her tilting her head not being very subtle about glancing at her.

"Ooo! But you really seem like you know how to take care of yourself and make yourself look good unlike her! You know all the fashionable stuff you wear as a human? I'm not use to having to wear clothing, but this looked nice when I asked Orinee to have some nice clothing! He kept going on about like armor or like something about a big axe or something... silly guy doesn't know how to look nice at all so obsessed with beat'in stuff up when you gotta look good first, that's like the first rule of everything!" She spoke seeming to bubble with excitement. it was such a relief to see someone else besides the pigeon people and the grumpy old man who didn't seem to know anything about style and being far too obsessed with other stuff. Her excitement clearly got the best of her not even to consider the fact she neglected to even ask the two their names or why they were even there... not to mention forgetting the fact she had rushed their expecting to eat, although it was more then likely that had been a ploy to get her in the room quickly in the first place.

Mentioned: Noble Scion Epiphany Birdsie

 

[LostHaven]

Henry J. Vanaheimer

Celestar, Library | Kylesar1 Archdemon ​

Though Henry was quite absorbed in his work, it wasn't as if he was entirely oblivious to the various glances from the servants that maintained the library. That being said, in Henry's mind, that worked rather well in his favour as it lessened any potential disturbances. Perhaps it was for that reason that he seemed rather pleasantly surprised that somebody had hardened their courage to actively approach him, despite any efforts to encourage otherwise through the offputting mask.

He glanced upwards at Melora as she approached him, eyes thoroughly scouring the woman. Now that she had clothes, a majority of the scars that riddled her body were hidden from the naked eye. That is to say, she looked much less pitiful than she had been when she had been summoned. Henry pondered the nature of her world, and exactly what could have occured prior to have been pulled into Celestar. Needless to say, the images in his head weren't pretty. "Good morning, Miss Adonis, yes? You seem much more alive compared to yesterday - a relief, no doubt," he replied, in a seemingly sincere tone. Though he had noticed Melora's inability to tolerate gore, as evident by her display the day before, he simply chose not to ask of it. "A team meeting, you say? I suppose these ears are starting to go deaf, I hadn't caught a single word of that. I'll head there right now, then."

The two were then approached by another one of their otherwordly comrades; this time the sickly knight with pale skin that seemed to suggest an absence of life within the girl's body. What also caught his attention were the knight's eyes that were dyed in a melancholy hue. From Henry's observation, almost all of these 'summoned heroes' had experienced some sort of trauma prior - unsurprising, seeing as Ornias had explained that many had been plucked from Death's grasp and taken to Celestar. "No, no, of course not. I was only just about to leave for the dining room myself. Perhaps you'd join us? Supposedly, we were meant to hold a meeting there as well," he replied, placing his now empty coffee cup down on the table, rising to his feet as he piled up all the sheets and tucked it under his left arm, while his right hand reached out for his cane that had been gently laid against his chair. "Well then, shall we leave, now?"

Spoiler

I haven't forgotten about Yuzu I'll do that tomorrow I'm too tired UwU

 

[Kylesar1]

Melora Adonis
Library
LostHaven Archdemon​

"Good morning, Miss Adonis, yes? You seem much more alive compared to yesterday - a relief, no doubt,"

The girl's face immediately went bright red. So he saw, as did everyone. Of course they did. While she DID care of them seeing her completely bare, she cared more of them seeing her covered in all those scars. "Sorry. I should've been a bit more presentable at that moment, but my modesty was beyond my control long before then." The public dragging flashed through her mind and not even the unnecessary-for-the-location leather armor she had on could cover up the exposed feeling she had. It was a moot point anyways because her face also had cut and burn scars on it, though those weren't as prevalent, which told Melora that she was pulled before the fire engulfed her completely above the neck. "I take it we've had similar ideas on what to do for the next week, so my apologies for disturbing your studies."

"Hello... I hope I'm not intruding in anything."

It was Sam and she looked to be very hesitant and tense. "No no. I was just informed that we should be going to the Dining Room for a team meeting," she responded quickly to her, "I guess it applies to you as well." She held a smile when engaging the both of them and was fairy disarmed at this point. Henry, while he desired alchemy for probably nefarious purposes, was at least polite and not mentioning the gore he seemed to want, and Sam was the exact type of person that would come to her for healing and was the type of people who actually comprised her friends circle while she noted Sam's overall look of sleep depravity despite the lack of need to, she wouldn't engage THAT. She didn't want to discuss what happened to her before coming here, and Sam may not want to discuss what happened to her either. "Shall we?"


As they walked together heading to the Dining Room at the lead of a servant quite a bit ahead, she didn't want to get too lost in thought to the point where she could come off as ignoring one of them. "I spent all the time so far studying the Holy and Healing magics that are present in Alheria," she said, as indicated by the books she was holding, "It looks like there are some similarities between this world and my world, which grants me a natural affinity for this world's magic. Unfortunately, it's not all the same. I'll have to learn some other magic before I can get to healing again." Plus, I don't know if I'll be able to get it to the same degree as on my world, Melora thought. When Ornias took her away from her world, he also took her away from the goddess she served that made her strong healing magic even stronger.

 

[Epiphany]

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Vi Enceladus

Current Quest: Coordinate with companions on a name for the team.

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LA Class ROYAL Interface - 22H-F-HWROY

System Status: Running
LA Oversight Network Status: Offline (No Signal Detected)
LA GAP Chipset Status: Offline (Structural Damage Detected)
LA GAP Reactor: Running
LA GAP Integrated Defense: Paladin-class MK IV Multipurpose Defense Arm (Offline - No Reactor Detected)
LA GAP Integrated PFS: Nyis-class, 22H-F-HWROY variant (Offline - No Reactor Detected)
SynthWeave Integrity: 94%
SynthWeave AR Protocol: Running
Personal Telemetry: Running
Corgi Telemetry: Offline (No Signal Detected)
Time/Date Stamp: Offline (No Signal Detected)

ACTIVE QUESTS

Active Main Quests
1. Learn how to quantify and exploit magic:

A. Read the books in Orinas' plane of existence - In Progress​

B. Use modern learning techniques to optimize magical mastery - Not Started​

2. Optimize the Empire of Common Cause:

A. SIPOC, VOC, CTQ Evaluations - Not Started​

3. Devise a stratagem for dealing with the Gods:

A. Seduce a servant of Ornias, determine if the loyalty of spirits can be co-opted - In Progress​

Active Side Quests
1. Watch companions for evidence of simulation; are they real people too? - In Progress
2. Get a massage - In Progress
3. Gather Resources:

A. Determine if any of the plants, products or components of Celestar have any useful qualities on Alheria - Not Started​

B. Find a way to collect them and bring them with when transported to the temple - Not Started​

Noble Scion
The small, youthful redhead definitely displayed signs suggesting an Outcast. Her out-of-proportion fear response to being touched was diagnostic, along with the fact that her phenotype didn’t match anything Celly had ever seen on file.

Then the girl mentioned searching a desert for New Eden. Why the girl was looking for the band in a desert environment of all things escaped all understanding. Last, she revealed her preferred nickname of ‘Risk’, as well as her deviant origins. Parents? Homo sapiens had parents. Homo Apicem left nothing to the whims of random chromosomal assembly.

An NPC? Possibly. The idea of concealing one’s identity by claiming a false name made no sense to Celly. But then, this setting appeared to lack the Universal Gene Code Bank, or uplink capabilities.

If Risk was an NPC, she was an engaging one. The redhead even appealed to Celly’s vanity by complimenting her appearance, a useful trick for ingratiation and infiltration. Obviously, she should respond favorably to the attempt while determining who Risk might work for. Perhaps not an NPC. A rival Arcology?

“Thank you!” Celly said, willing herself into an expressive smile like the ones she’d seen on the faces of this simulation’s residents as they wandered about their ‘heaven’. “I haven’t had a chance to make myself up since coming here but I’m pleased my default looks pleasing to you.”

Celly reached up to touch her own face, rubbing briefly beneath an eyelid to show her ‘eyeliner’ was natural pigmentation and her blush was skin deep. Then she gave her companion an interested look. “I understand this effect was achieved in ancient times through the application of powders and chemicals. If you’d like a similar look, I imagine we can achieve it for you by asking one of the servants assigned to us.”

The presence of visible pores, asymmetry and stray eyebrow hairs was just as telling of Risk’s base template. But it seemed emulating the Blood Royal could be a means of positive reinforcement for the girl. Surely helping her do so would be useful for creating a common culture and solidarity for this mission.

Hanarei
It was impossible not to hear the booming voice of a purple-horned girl who charged into the dining hall. Assuming Risk looked, Celly saw no harm in looking as well. Another small woman, a blonde this time, but those horns weren’t remotely natural. SynthGene tech? Or was this another trope in this peculiar take on ancient fantasy? If so, why wasn’t she wearing armor? That black dress was surprisingly fashionable for a woman who looked like she had no concept of decorum or dignity.

Of course, Celly wore her SynthWeave and it looked equally out of place here. The one-piece garment looked like a white bodysuit with slim bands along her forearms, legs, waist and ribs. This circuitry contained her General Arms MK IV Paladin-class Multipurpose Defense Arms, as well as her personal forcefield, climate control, variable fabric configuration and of course her optical cloak.

Experimentally, Celly queried the LA Governance All-Purpose Chipset that controlled all of her SynthWeave’s functions. Sure enough, much as her LA Class ROYAL implant had already confirmed, the Chipset was offline. Worse, the self-repair systems also seemed to be offline. There was no telling when it would work again.

But she already had that objective tracked.

Celly’s inward contemplation ended when the purple-horned girl exhibited the highest degree of excessive emotion she’d ever seen. That smile was diagonistically manic, at least among Celly’s own people. So was the girl’s body language, which was so expressive it appeared to not be entirely conscious. It suggested a defect in the subcortical pulvinar-superior colliculus-amygdala-striatal circuit. Or possibly bad writing, if this was an NPC.

Celly forced herself to respond in kind, if not to quite the same degree. The smile she’d had for Risk widened slightly and she leaned in to exploit the girl’s extrastriate body area in her occipital cortex.

“We are new, yes,” Celly said, knowing that agreement was useful influence, mirroring the girl’s word choice would be subconsciously relaxing, and choosing ‘we’ to imply she and Risk were already a common social unit. As this team would need to be. “I’m Celly. This is Risk.” She hesitated before brightening and saying, “Itovirir’s a lovely name. Does it mean something?”

Dragon name. Dwarves. Of course. Definitely an NPC.

Reina’s lack of subtlety was astonishing. Actually comparing someone’s wardrobe as inferior to a person who wasn’t present made no sense at all. It alienated one’s converstaional partner and failed to positively influence the absent party. Unless this was an odd technique for Reina to get Celly on her side?

Celly ended her analysis as the ‘dragon’ turned back to her. Yes, Reina definitely was putting one person down to get in with the other. Which was never a smart tactic if you hadn’t done your research ahead of time to know who to insult.

“Thank you,” Celly said, dipping her eyes downwards to showcase a degree of modest humiity. “I’m unfamiliar with any rules that place appearance ahead of personal safety. But then, where I’m from, we never have one without the other. I’m certain everyone called by the God of this place will have the opportunity to dress for success.”

“My friend and I are here on a quest for Ornias. Are you familiar with the world we’re traveling to? I’ve read something about their elves and dwarves. Do they have dragons as well?”

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QUEST LOG

Spoiler: Pending Main Quests

1. Learn how to quantify and exploit magic.

C. Devise an artificial soul for a power source.​

D. Implement scalability plans for mass production.​

2. Optimize the Empire of Common Cause.

B. Suborn select Empire officials for implementation of low-hanging fruit items.​

C. Learn Imperial succession rules.​

D. Find a suitable and pliant candidate and train/condition them.​

E. Replace Morrigan Prentiss.​

3. Devise a stratagem for dealing with the Gods.

B. Identify and profile rival heroes (co-opt if possible).​

C. Research methods for fighting Gods.​

​

i. Create a method for studying divine meta-supernatural ephemera.​

​

ii. Undertake analysis of ephemera, test for physical commonalities/characteristics.​

​

iii. Devise stratagems for causing harm to divine ephemera.​

​

iv. Can the total sum pool of power all Gods draw from be siphoned?​

D. Investigate Orinas' altruistic claims for validity.​

E. Devise and execute a stratagem for killing the Gods of the Balance.​

F. Devise a stratagem for killing Ornias when he inevitably turns out to be the final antagonist in this simulation.​

Spoiler: Pending Side Quests

1. Discover all the factions and figure out how to balance accumulated favor scores.
2. Repair LA GAP Chipset.
3. Build a home base including a fabrication lab with nuclear capabilities.
4. Profile Henry.
5. Recreate a Science Rig using simulated materials to investigate Planck length for pixelation.
6. Locate Fel Seeds, the Elementals of the Fifth Age, the Exclusion Zones, the Void Crystal Mega-Bombs.
7. Investigate anomalous substance properties: Crystals with non-standard refraction indexes, non-Newtonian fluids, substance lacking molecules or atoms that behaves like a solid, liquid or gaseous.
8. Find out how the elves used soul magic to reprogram themselves.

A. Replicate.​

B. Reformat the Empire's civilian populace.​

C. Determine if Gods can be reformatted.​

9. Eliminate the orc horde.

A. Acquire a dwarf.​

B. Create ideal replication conditions.​

C. 100 days to create 5000 dwarves.​

D. Repurpose a select amount to produce arms and armor, and food.​

E. Create an unstoppable army.​

.

 

[Noble Scion]

Risk
Celestar, Dining Room - ??:??

Spoiler: Appearance

The terms the woman used were very strange. She wouldn't have understood the sentence but gotten the gist of it if the god hadn't given her this strange information on all the languages in the world, but she smiled and didn't mention it, pondering if the way she spoke sounded the same to Celly.

"You think so? I've never gotten the chance to try it. Never had the money, heh." she smiled softly, her face glowing at the thought of it. Risk'd never had the opportunity to think about something so small as appearance, what with food to be taken and money to be made for the sake survival, but the idea of it now was something like a childhood wish come true, and made her slightly more wary of how she probably looked. Hiding her smiling face as she indiscreetly tried to wipe away her blushing at the potential luxuries now at her disposal, the red-haired girl let loose a soft giggle. After all, if she was to be there for a week, might as well make the most of it!

The sudden yelling of what appeared to be a child crashed into the room, painfully grating in comparison to the gentle tones of whom she was reluctant to call a friend, given the short-timespan since their meeting.

The first thing she noticed were the undeniable horns protruding from their head. Other races had been present in Abbadon, not that she'd met them often, but horns were symbolic of demons, and she'd heard more than enough stories to tell that they were a sour business. Yet before she could even say hello, the person introduced themselves as a dragon and bubbled on to the next topic, going so far to said an indirect insult her way.

"Well excuse me if money's tight." Risk growled in annoyance, crossing her arms at the smaller girl, brows furrowed, but unsure of what to say aside from feeling insulted. "I value some things greater than some frilly clothes, and if I ever really wanted them I would just take them. Besides, that dress of yours would do nothing but get clogged with sand and fail to protect you from just about any weather." the thief brazenly retorted, puffing her chest forward and pouting at the brat from her seat.

Despite having defended her own pride, all that was left was anger and embarrassment at having been made fun of in front of someone she'd just met, by someone else whom she'd only just met. The newcomer was definitely strange in her eyes, and she wasn't impressed nor happy to have met them given their evident vanity. Where Celly had looked at the nobles she'd never liked, Reina acted like them, and needless to say, she'd never been fond of those in large houses while she lived in a hovel.
Epiphany Hanarei

 

[Hanarei]

Reina
Celestar - Dinning Room

Reina could barely stand still excitedly bouncing about in place. She was far from fully familiar with the human body she now inhabited, though luckily taking such a form seemed to at least give her the ability to naturally know how to move and act even if it could get a little strange trying to do things the body didn't allow her to. Of coarse it meant any little ticks a person might have as far as being idle or what not were a little bit foreign to her. At least she didn't feel the need to try and mimic that like her with the hand gestures. When asked the meaning of her name she nearly jumped in place smiling brightly, her tail attacking to wag though it clearly didn't exist in this body just causing her to twist her hips a little left to right.

"OOo! My Dragon name? Ah well um... hmm.." She spoke pausing placing her finger on her chin tapping on it as if in thought.

"I guess if you were to put it in your language the best way to phrase it would be... loving one? It loses a bit of context though your language both overly complicates things while also making much simpler... its a little weird." She spoke as she moved her hand behind her back smiling brightly again. She wasn't at all the type to have too much of a filter. Even for her kind at her age she tended to be perhaps a bit more immature then she should be. In ways perhaps the 'problem child' of the brood. Even as Celly spoke mentioning her lack of function for the sake of appearances she didn't really seem to pay as much attention, listening though perhaps just not really letting the words sink in. It didn't really register in mind the notion of her outfit not being useful for fighting or even that was going to be an element to consider.

"Oooo! Orinas... Orniass.... Orinias... Ornias! Thats his name! Is name is so weird to pronounce... I keep forgetting it." She spoke tapping her finger to her chin looking a bit questioningly not so much directed at Celly's question being a bit more absorbed in the name half registering what she said. She was perhaps a bit too easily to be distracted from the topic drifting off in thought one way, though fortunately at least to some extent her words clicking in her mind.

"Ah! Elves and Dwarves? I mean I know Dwarves... I might of seen an elf before... or was that a human? I'm not sure his ear was kinda pointy but I'm not sure where its pointy enough to be an elf. Dwarves are so much easier to tell, they got all the hair all over their faces, with the girls having a little less unless its the few that shave all the way! That and they are small and on the pudgy looking side... I think the halflings are more skinny stinky short though I don't think I've ever seen one of those before." She spoke going off on a bit of a ramble not really answering much as far as the world they were traveling to. While she didn't really have any knowledge of it it would of likely been better of her to just say no in the first place... but that wasn't how Reina's excited mind was allowed to work at the moment.

The girls attention was quickly moved to risk. She looked at the girl blinking her eyes tilting her head noteably to the side. Her hands rested on her hips a rather neutral look on her face. Rather then registering her as taking what she said as being insulted, she couldn't help but start giggling a bit looking at her expression. Her one hand lifted up to cover her mouth as if in at least a small extent of awareness of it being rather improper of her though it didn't go perhaps far enough.

"You really can make silly faces! Looking nice is important! You should always look nice and makes sure your scales are all clean and shiny! Wer vor di self leads ekess wer lotocra di flohli." She spoke the last bit coming off in her native tongue the voice a bit deep, less seeming to reflect its natural accent and more so her attempting to mimic someone else who said it. She looked at her curiously leaning in getting a bit close to Risk not seeming to much register the fact she wasn't exactly happy with her.

"Money? Aaaah! Its those token things that you trade for the icky brown water! That just makes you stumble around though if you drink too much. Why do you want money for that if you can use it for clothing?" She asked a little oblivious to it all. Perhaps in ways she was a little pampered when comparing it to human standards, granted a lot of the human 'needs' was a bit beyond her and what all went into it with her need of food being usually given by the Dwarves with the occasional catch of her own.

Mentioned: Noble Scion Epiphany Birdsie

 

[LostHaven]

Yuzuriha Hiyama

Celestar, Dining Room | Noble Scion Epiphany Hanarei Birdsie ​

"Mhmm, five more months..." Yuzuriha murmured, half asleep. Drool trickled down the side of her lips, and her blankets were sprawled all over the bed and floor. "Urrgh," she groaned groggily, her body dragging her eyelids open. The wolf hadn't had a proper night of sleep for so long, let alone one on a comfortable bed with warm blankets. Correction, that was her first time sleeping on a comfortable bed with blankets. However, exposure to such luxuries now presented the wolf with a pressing issue previously nonexistent: the blankets were so comfortable that it made the trial of dredging onself out of bed a whole new ordeal that made the infernal trials of Hell itself seem trivial. "Noooooo~ I don't want to get up yeeeet," Yuzuriha moaned again, her mind seemingly still adrift somewhere in the fourth dimension of darkness.

​

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Yuzuriha let out a thunderous yawn as her feet dragged her body onward to the dining hall. By some godsent miracle, she had somehow gathered the mental and physical fortitude to drag herself out of bed, Her ears drooped downwards and her fluffy, snow-white tail swayed hesitantly near the ground. "おはよう..." She murmured absentmindedly in some sort of foreign language, to nobody in particular. Her half-asleep daze did not last long, however, as evident in her ears which suddenly perked up excitedly, as did her tail. Unfortunately, Yuzuriha seemed oblivious to her terrible choice of clothing, as the moment her tail had stiffened and perked upwards, it had also lifted her dress upwards as well, putting her underwear (and rear) in full view to the general public.

Unaware of this, Yuzuriha rushed over to the source of her excitement. Food. Real food. She had went so long consuming plagued corpses that she had long forgotten the joys of real food. Completely ignoring fellow otherworlders, the beast-eared girl began stack piles upon piles of food on her plate, a steady stream of drool dripping off the corner of her lips. Making her way to a table, Yuzuriha laid down several plates stacked to the sky with food, and begun to ravenously devouring plate after plate at a horrifyingly fast pace. At the same time, memories of her terrible hardships began to flood back into her mind, causing tears began to well in her eyes, and before long, Yuzuriha had began putting on a bizarre display, consuming food by the plate-full, while also simultaneously bawling her eyes out.

 

[LostHaven]

Henry J. Vanaheimer

Celestar, Dining Hall | Kylesar1 Archdemon Noble Scion Epiphany Hanarei Birdsie ​

"Don't dwell on it, nobody will blame you," Henry chuckled in response to Melora's apology. "We all had our circumstances, especially if we were nearing our expiration when we were summoned. I was only hours from my execution myself! Public hanging, if my memory serves me correct." Henry chuckled again, seemingly unfazed by his previous circumstances. In fact, it wouldn't surprise Henry if some of them had been summoned right as they died. Perhaps he was one of the lucky ones who weren't summoned in the middle of dying. After all, showing up with a broken neck would be indeed quite embarassing.

Upon arriving at the dining hall, Henry immediately headed toward a vacant table, once again spreading out his sheets over the table, and resuming with his activities. Apparently, to Henry, going to the dining hall was really nothing more than a relocation of his work space. While he did make a round to the stands for food, he returned holding only a cup of black coffee. Evidently, he was either not hungry, or unwilling to remove the mask. Laying the cane against the table, Henry retrieved a pen from his pockets, and returned to his makeshift blueprints and sketches.

As it currently stands, creating more complex tools such as the 'Anti-Infantry Mine Type: GAWAIN' or remotely detonated/timed explosives were far out of his range of capability due to the intricate parts needed to create these. To put simply, he didn't have all the tools he needed. "Alchemy really is the only option, after all." He murmured to himself. He had heard, apparently, that dwarves were renowned for their craftsmenship, and thus the possibility of finding one such dwarf able to meet his demands did cross Henry's mind, but the thought of leaving a major part of his plans to a factor which he didn't have full control over annoyed Henry greatly, and thus he scrapped that idea in the blink of an eye.

"Looks like poisonous gas is the easiest option right now," he continued to mumble to himself, contemplating his current plans. First, he needed to either request Ornias to grant him the power of alchemy, or somehow learn it himself. Then, he'd first need to acquire basic tools such as beakers, tubes, a beaker torch*, and etc to begin synthesizing compounds and chemicals necessary for his schemes. Canisters were also likely necessary for storage. "This should make for an acceptable starting point," he muttered. He'd have to acquire tin storage cans as soon as possible, right after obtaining alchemy. Of course, this was only the start for Henry - if possible, he wanted to play with a nuclear bomb sooner or later, and perhaps toy around with what this world could possibly offer.

There were a couple of things Henry wished to bring up at the team meeting, but for the time being, he'd pass his time until everyone else was finished with their business.

 

[Epiphany]

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Vi Enceladus

Current Quest: Coordinate with companions on a name for the team.

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LA Class ROYAL Interface - 22H-F-HWROY

System Status: Running
LA Oversight Network Status: Offline (No Signal Detected)
LA GAP Chipset Status: Offline (Structural Damage Detected)
LA GAP Reactor: Running
LA GAP Integrated Defense: Paladin-class MK IV Multipurpose Defense Arm (Offline - No Reactor Detected)
LA GAP Integrated PFS: Nyis-class, 22H-F-HWROY variant (Offline - No Reactor Detected)
SynthWeave Integrity: 94%
SynthWeave AR Protocol: Running
Personal Telemetry: Running
Corgi Telemetry: Offline (No Signal Detected)
Time/Date Stamp: Offline (No Signal Detected)

ACTIVE QUESTS

Active Main Quests
1. Learn how to quantify and exploit magic:

A. Read the books in Orinas' plane of existence - In Progress​

B. Use modern learning techniques to optimize magical mastery - Not Started​

2. Optimize the Empire of Common Cause:

A. SIPOC, VOC, CTQ Evaluations - Not Started​

3. Devise a stratagem for dealing with the Gods:

A. Seduce a servant of Ornias, determine if the loyalty of spirits can be co-opted - In Progress​

Active Side Quests
1. Watch companions for evidence of simulation; are they real people too? - In Progress
2. Get a massage - In Progress
3. Gather Resources:

A. Determine if any of the plants, products or components of Celestar have any useful qualities on Alheria - Not Started​

B. Find a way to collect them and bring them with when transported to the temple - Not Started​

Noble Scion
Ah, currency. Risk’s reference to money had initially confused Celly until she recalled the antique social stratification system once used in the ancient past. It suggested Risk wasn’t a real person either. But if not, what was the girl’s purpose? Why would a sim designer put effort into building backstory that would invariably break immersion and complicate plotting?

Hanarei
The dragon and the survivor sparred verbally with each other in a way that was...curious more than entertaining. When Risk made the point about the practicality of clothes, Celly could only smile briefly in agreement. This was to be a fantasy epic adventure, after all, not a fantasy romantic adventure. Probably.

Reina’s additional elaboration of her name was more unnecessary detail, but then an algorithm was probably producing and tracking all of these extraneous variables. Celly showed her appreciation for the explanation by looking the dragon in the eyes and saying “Thank you.”

Celly filed away Reina’s explanation of dwarves and halfings in her quest journal, in case it came up in the future.

Noble Scion Hanarei
The question about money deserved an answer, though. “We should see if Ornias can outfit us all with sufficient currency before we leave this world,” Celly said, to both Risk and Reina. “We’ll need to exchange it for food and lodging wherever our journey takes us and we may not have easy or quick means to obtain more without sidetracking. Additionally, we can use it to barter for information or cooperation with the locals.”

Note to self: Make sure to find out how the currency system varies from nation-state to nation-state.

LostHaven
The other gene-spliced Outcast of their party, Yuzuriha, at last made her entrance and promptly fell upon the food. Cell looked interestedly at the amount the girl intended to pack away, and then her expression shifted from interest to awe before finally settling into disinterest.

It seemed unlikely any human stomach could contain as much food as Yuzuriha intended to shovel into it. But then, this was a simulation and the designers had already made it evident they played fast and loose with the rules here.

When the woman began to bawl, while still eating, Celly’s look of interest returned. Everyone here had a badly regulated amygdala but even the rest of the people here had never managed to cry and eat at the same time.

So Celly beckoned Risk and Reina to be seated at the table, even as she took a seat next to the wolf-tailed girl. A servant set a plate of food before her, though Celly didn’t acknowledge the NPC’s existence beyond avoiding bumping into her. Instead, she picked up a tablecloth, reached out and tapped Yuzuriha with it.

If the wolf-girl turned her way, Celly promptly dabbed at a set of tears on one cheek before offering the girl the napkin. “You’re safe here,” Celly said, well aware there was no such assurance in this simulation. “I’m Celly. This is Risk and Reina. Why don’t you finish that bite and tell us who you are, so we can get to know each other a little better?”

After all, they would all be working together for the forseeable.

LostHaven
When Henry made his entrance, Celly noticed him peripherally but made no move to interfere in his routine script. She did take the opportunity to glance over at his table once he’d laid out his blueprints, while Henry was off getting coffee.

The man plainly had dreams of building weapons of mass destruction.

Highly atypical for an NPC. Another player then? Henry’s immersion-breaking remarks suggested so. But he didn’t belong to any pheno-type Celly knew of. From another Arcology perhaps? But then, the Blood Royal were the Blood Royal; surely the tell-tale markers of her engineering should have prompted some conversation or even interest by this point.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Kylesar1 Archdemon Noble Scion Hanarei LostHaven
As the rest of the party entered the dining room, Celly beckoned them over to the same conference table the original three here had rallied to.

“Excellent, everyone seems to be here.” Celly rose to her feet then and circled the table so she could face, and address, the gathered heroes. “For those I don’t know, I’m Vi Enceledus. Please call me Celly. I hope we can all go around and introduce ourselves to each other.”

“Then we need to begin to plan.” Celly beckoned behind her, at the greater world of Ornias’ realm. “We have a task of some sophistication and we’ll need a strategy for achieving our objectives. I’ve prepared problelm statements, objectives, scope and charter material for this undertaking which you’re welcome to read. Before we get to it, though…”

Celly gestured in Henry’s direction and said “Clearly a few of us have some ideas already. Would any of you like to give us your thoughts first?”

.

QUEST LOG

Spoiler: Pending Main Quests

1. Learn how to quantify and exploit magic.

C. Devise an artificial soul for a power source.​

D. Implement scalability plans for mass production.​

2. Optimize the Empire of Common Cause.

B. Suborn select Empire officials for implementation of low-hanging fruit items.​

C. Learn Imperial succession rules.​

D. Find a suitable and pliant candidate and train/condition them.​

E. Replace Morrigan Prentiss.​

3. Devise a stratagem for dealing with the Gods.

B. Identify and profile rival heroes (co-opt if possible).​

C. Research methods for fighting Gods.​

​

i. Create a method for studying divine meta-supernatural ephemera.​

​

ii. Undertake analysis of ephemera, test for physical commonalities/characteristics.​

​

iii. Devise stratagems for causing harm to divine ephemera.​

​

iv. Can the total sum pool of power all Gods draw from be siphoned?​

D. Investigate Orinas' altruistic claims for validity.​

E. Devise and execute a stratagem for killing the Gods of the Balance.​

F. Devise a stratagem for killing Ornias when he inevitably turns out to be the final antagonist in this simulation.​

Spoiler: Pending Side Quests

1. Discover all the factions and figure out how to balance accumulated favor scores.
2. Repair LA GAP Chipset.
3. Build a home base including a fabrication lab with nuclear capabilities.
4. Profile Henry.
5. Recreate a Science Rig using simulated materials to investigate Planck length for pixelation.
6. Locate Fel Seeds, the Elementals of the Fifth Age, the Exclusion Zones, the Void Crystal Mega-Bombs.
7. Investigate anomalous substance properties: Crystals with non-standard refraction indexes, non-Newtonian fluids, substance lacking molecules or atoms that behaves like a solid, liquid or gaseous.
8. Find out how the elves used soul magic to reprogram themselves.

A. Replicate.​

B. Reformat the Empire's civilian populace.​

C. Determine if Gods can be reformatted.​

9. Eliminate the orc horde.

A. Acquire a dwarf.​

B. Create ideal replication conditions.​

C. 100 days to create 5000 dwarves.​

D. Repurpose a select amount to produce arms and armor, and food.​

E. Create an unstoppable army.​

.

 

[Noble Scion]

Risk
Celestar, Dining Room - ??:??

Spoiler: Appearance

"You don't seem very loving." Risk mumbled with a curled lip as they explained their name a bit more, not that it mattered much to her. Names meant nothing aside from an identifier, so having reasons behind them or explanations for them was just sentimental logic that she'd never cared for. She didn't even know why her own name was chosen, she'd never bothered to ask, nor intended to now, yet despite all this, she actively chose not to give the woman her name.

Risk instead continued scowling at the "dragon" that she was now adamantly sure was either a demon or some kind of fae, what with their blatant disrespect, strange name, and appearance. Dragons were supposed to be all-powerful and all-knowing, yet this one seemed to take joy in mocking her and didn't look very much like a big scaly lizard. The insults felt juvenile, but that could just be adding an extra layer to the insults. The thought of a lizard though made her shudder slightly though as memories of the plains drifted through her mind.

She'd almost been eaten, and seeing anything that even resembled a snake wasn't going to be on her wishlist for the rest of her life.

"We never bought alcohol to drink, if that's what your presuming. Food's too scarce." Priscilla huffed at Reina, unwilling to talk about herself to someone who was undoubtedly going to use it as fuel at her expense.

She was broken from her silent rage by a few more people entering, that she vaguely recognised from that place she'd been 'summoned' to yesterday. They were still clad in that beautiful dress that invoked jealousy, but she didn't feel compelled to want it herself when applying logic to it. As she'd said to Reina, practicality was more important, as much as her mind wanted her to at least try on something as pretty. The red-haired girl let out a quiet, saddened hum to herself at the thought. She'd need to ask some of the servants if they could restore her clothes somewhat. The colours seemed irretrievable, but patching some of the holes might make her tatters look a little more reasonable.

The next person that entered didn't make her feel much of anything, just reminding her of all the shady men that sneered at you if you walked past their seemingly designated alleyways that she always scurried past or got robbed by. It had happened a few times, but they'd never hurt her as shed been compliant. Upsetting, but the upside is that when things were taken from her, she didn't exactly have much to lose. Usually a couple of fruit or some bread, rarely coins, considering stores practically banned everyone scruffy-looking like her.

Celly mentioned being provided with money, which she guessed made sense, but the idea hurt to hear after all the struggles she'd had at home. "I.. Don't think I should hold onto my money if we all get some. Heh.. I've never had more than a coin or two and wouldn't know how to spend it..." she said sheepishly, trailing off at the suggestion as it sparked thoughts of if she could even move into spending, or if she'd become something of a kleptomaniac.

Food and shelter were other stories. "I don't think we'll have any food problems, I can always find something, although feeding so many people might be hard without being noticeable, and.. I'm not too sure about shelter, but I'm alright with sleeping just about anywhere." she preened, a soft, cheeky grin lighting up her face at the thought of her skills being put to use, as well as her tolerance. That being said though, she hadn't been able to sleep in her bed last night. It had been too comfortable to the point of being uncomfortable, and got warm instead of staying cold, like she was used to. She wondered if anyone else had experienced the same problem.

The trio made there way over to the woman with the tail, led by Celly, to greet the sobbing animal-person. She'd met people like them before, with the tail always being the most distinguishable feature, but she'd never seen one quite so bushy. Prowling towards it as her friend consoled them, she allowed curiosity to get the best of her as she extended a hand and ran it down the length of fur to feel the texture, bristly. It made her shiver in childish glee as she retreated. The slums didn't have any dogs, and if they did, they were trained to hurt you if you got close. She'd never been too fond of them.

Once they were done there, they headed back to where she'd been sitting and did a reintroduction of the one that seemed to be the world's friendliest human, from what she'd seen so far and how approachable they'd been. Yet the chatter turned to plans, and that was something she hadn't even thought about, so she simply dropped into silence and listened, as was her usual tendency, as the shady one was brought under the spotlight for any ideas on how to solve their overarching issues in this new world, and for Priscilla specifically, how they can be done with this mission and have her and her family live up in paradise.
Epiphany Hanarei LostHaven

 

[Kylesar1]

Melora Adonis
Dining Room
LostHaven Archdemon Hanarei Noble Scion Epiphany Birdsie ​

"I can take it up first if that's alright." Melora stepped up and gave a respectful bow.

"I am Melora Adonis. Call me Mel if you so desire," Melora said to all at the table, "There isn't much I can do about a plan to achieve our objectives. However, there are some other things that are interesting logistics to note:"

Melora dove a bit into it. "Even though we're all unified in a common language, it's very likely that the people of Alheria don't speak any language that we're fluent in. In my case, all of their languages differ from any known language of my world." This presented what could be a significant language barrier between them and the people they were to save. "Since I have a higher affinity for Alherian magic as it is in many ways similar to my own world's magic, I can learn a few spells in the time we're here so I can become a translator of sorts." Otherwise, they would be treated with confusion at best and as hostile foreigners at worst.

"As you can see, I grabbed some armor and a good blade, as well as some healing equipment in the past 24 hours, as well as looking into learning some essential magic that we may need, including that translating spells." That was about all she could do as she wasn't highly trained in either combat or strategy, especially for killing gods. "I need to look more into the lore of Alheria and maybe the pantheon we're dealing with, but I'll leave combat plans to combat experts." Melora didn't want to get into the intricacies of killing anything other than the undead. She would rather look to trying to save the empire in other ways than mass death like Ornias showed them. "What were you all working on the past day?"

 

[Hanarei]

Reina
Celestar - Dinning Room

Reina remained oblivious to Risk's distaste of her even as she called her not seeming to be very loving. She could tell she was making 'funny faces' towards her thought she only assumed it to be just a quirk of her. There were plenty of dwarves she met that made off expressions now and then, particularly after drinking the brown water. She smiled brightly taking quite a liking to Risk while being completely oblivious to her ire. She was far from the best at being able to read people after all. Celly on the other hand was a little more odd to her, coming off more like an... adult? She wasn't quite sure what to make of her outside looking rather pretty, something that innately Reina caught onto as a positive. It wasn't as if she needed to be around pretty people after all dwarves weren't exactly typically known as 'lookers' though she could recall one dwarf woman who she found to fit that niche being the mother of one of the dwarven children she played with.

Reina had been rather occupied that the tailed one didn't even register in her mind right away. It didn't help that she watched her carrying a whole giant plate of food that suddenly jolted her own attention back to why she had strolled in to begin with. Her stomach rumbled as if having regained a sense of awareness on its on as she ran forward seeking to get herself food stacking it up being a bit less picky and piling on much more food then she should... though perhaps not as much as the tailed girl. She had found out rather quickly the new body she was in didn't take well to as much food as she might normally eat.... both nearly choking at first trying to stuff far too much in her mouth at once and then the terrible stomach ache she had for overfilling herself. Being in a smaller body meant eating less.. though more so taking your time to do so.

She had came back quickly next to Celly and Risk not quite hearing much about what she had said about bartering and all. Her eyes lingered on the food on her tray reaching down as if to try and bite at it though pulling back as if in awareness of her current body. When Celly gestured to sit that quickly was registered though as Reina sat down, rubbing her hands together excitedly sitting next to Risk. She paused before using her hands as if recalling table educate, grabbing the fork and knife holding them rather awkwardly as she used them in an attempt to swiftly start eating. At least she was on her way to learn some form of table manners? She heard her name mentioned by Celly looking towards Yuzuriha with her mouth full of food as she waved her hand with the knife gripped into a fist almost doing a stabbing motion rather then a wave while smiling as best she could with a full mouth.

"Reina!" She spoke her mouth still having a bit of food finishing chewing upon it after she said the name not thinking to go into as elaborate of an introduction as earlier much more focused on eating. "I got this pretty dress!" She spoke quite upbeat as she shoveled in another bite beginning to chew it not really having much else it seemed to contribute to the conversation at the moment as she was eating. Her eyes did manage to shift as she glanced over towards Henry. She eyed him up staring at the mask not at all hiding her gaze as she continued to eat looking curiousily at the masked individual.

Mentioned: Noble Scion Epiphany Birdsie Kylesar1 Archdemon Birdsie