Might make a lot of people mad (Star Ocean 3) but it could be. Then it would be a VR within a VR when you're doing Extreme Quests or Challenge Mode.Spoiler!
Might make a lot of people mad (Star Ocean 3) but it could be. Then it would be a VR within a VR when you're doing Extreme Quests or Challenge Mode.Spoiler!Throughout the story I did touch on how people view the Hud. Both Yoshis see it through their glasses.
Marean saw it through contacts, since she wore disguises often in the past, though I don't think I ever mentioned it. Your Mag could display a screen for you on command, or you could stand around and fiddle with something like it yourself. I also imagine it being a neural thing for some people. So it would all just be in their brain. Sounds the most scary of the variants though.
You could still add an Oceanid with a side story, maybe somewhere after the end. Assuming anyone survives.
- Extra -Spoiler!
The white and yellow Oceanid gathers his hands and bows several times. “Ah, how embarrassing. Thank you for saving me,” he says as he stands just meters away from his saviors. Though he would have liked to get closer and feel much more honest in his gratitude, he also fears for his life. After Kreszentia had ripped the rifle out of Kazamir’s hands and pointed it at him, the shell headed Oceanid feels a lot safer if he kept his distance instead. After he bows a few more times, along with a few more thank yous, he skitters away with great speed and disappears into shallow waters.
Seeing that the trouble maker no longer poses a problem, Kreszentia hands the stolen rifle back to her dewmen friend and gestures for Yoshi to lead the way.
“Wow,” Kazamir exclaims. He watches the shell person the whole way and couldn’t help but stare in awe, even after it disappears. “That was pretty realistic. Did you program that yourself, Mr. Xol?”
Yoshi’s father appears on their glasses and on Kazamir’s binoculars. “No, but the person who did make it did spend a lot of time collecting the data for it. Said he spent a lot of time recording and hand picking what was usable or not. Anyways, you better get going. The others have already continued without you.”
The boy drops his binoculars and sees that Yoshi’s father is right. His friends were already turning into a corner full of rock formations of various kinds. “Hey, wait up,” he calls out. He then bursts into a full sprint and nearly crashes into Yoshi’s back had Sardines not caught and lift him by the shoulder. “Heh, thanks,” he says sheepishly to the smirking human.
“Aren’t your type the kind with good eyes?” Sardines puts the dewmen back on the ground and places her hands on her hips. Mostly since the others had stop to see what was going on.
Kazamir puts a finger on his skull and pokes near his eyes. “Hard to use good eyes when you can’t see what’s behind a corner.”
“Fair enough.”
“Land-ho,” Yoshi suddenly shouts. “Oceanids off the bow.”
Everyone turns to see the teal hear newmen point in the area where more sea creatures start appearing in. They come out of the sand, jump down from the rock walls and out of an enclosed pool just barely shut off from the ocean. In response Kazamir lifts his rifle and opens fire to make them scatter in fright. While the sea creatures run away in every direction; a few of them bravely charging forward; Sardines, Yoshi and Kreszentia flank around to catch them off guard and make quick work of them.
In the midst of fighting, a sea wolf manages to get a lucky blow on Yoshi and knocks her backwards near one of the walls. Before she could get up however, the wolf not even noticing her or that it used her to break its fall, Yoshi looks up to see a tall woman wearing a one piece walk through the battlefield nearly unnoticed and out of sight. Shocked by the random appearance of this mysterious woman, the newearl jumps up and points in the strange woman’s last seen location.
“Hey, did anyone else see that?”
Kreszentia gracefully finishes two Torbons at once and looks up. “See what?” she asks.
Sardines stabs an enemy of her own and throws it back into the water. Afterwards she twists around and replies, “I didn’t see anything.”
“Nobody saw the lady that just walked by?”
Kazamir walks up to Yoshi and pats her shoulder. “Must have been one the people who decided to join the mission. Seems they came here to relax while we do our job. Anyways,” he continues and points through one of the many holes that gave line of sight to a distant staircase. “Our exit is over there. So let’s start making our way in that direction.”
(-/-)The group collectively agrees and leaves the area. They enter into a network of arching rocks and small tunnels. They even had to turn around after meeting a dead end. As the four of them finally stumble their way onto the correct path to their exit, a sudden hook flies out of nowhere and latches onto Yoshi, just as she starts to fall slightly behind. This is partially because she almost trips on a shell flower that decides to sprout up right in front of her. Firmly latching to the back of her outfit, the fishing line pulls the girl off her feet and just past a suddenly collapsing structure. The rubble falls in front of her and barely misses her feet.
“Yoshi, are you alright?” Sardine calls out from the other side of the freshly formed blockade.
“Yoshi, what did you do this time,” Kreszentia says right after.
The teal hear newearl gets up and dusts the sand off her skirt. “Yeah,” she shouts back and turns to look behind her. When she does, she could see a trio of older looking students wave at her with large smiles on their faces. One of them holds a launcher and another makes their photonic fishing line vanish into thin air. Beyond them, and the mysterious woman now reclining in a chair, Yoshi could see a random teleporter waiting at the end of the path.
“You guys go on without me,” Yoshi shouts to the rock rubble. “I found the teleporter dad spoke about. I’m going to take it and meet you guys over there, okay?”
“Alright,” shouts Kazamir. “We’ll see you over there.” Then, though Yoshi barely caught it, Kazamir adds, “Kris, I hereby promote you captain.”
“The amount of luck you have never ceases to amaze me,” says Kreszentia. “See on the other side of the teleporter.”
Yoshi hums and accidently gives the rocks a fist bump. Realizing what she had just done, she blinks twice and turns around to see the sunbathing woman pick up a shell.
Blue palm shell in hand, the woman harshly chucks it at the student with the launcher. “You couldn’t have waited until after she cleared the underpass?”
“I did,” the boy with the launcher responds.
“Well obviously you didn’t wait long enough. You nearly got her killed.”
The student with the fishing pole walks up to Yoshi and bows. “Sorry about that,” he says while keeping his wide brim hat from falling. “I wanted to count to three, but we didn’t want to blow our cover. So we kinda just went with it.”
Yoshi looks around, back at the rubble and then to the trio in front of her. She then points behind her and says, “What was that all about and aren’t you guys stuck here doing that?” Suddenly the newearl’s eyes grow wide and she uses the thumb pointing hand to caress her chin. Oh, yeah, she begins to think. I can teleport. I could have just teleported to the other side. Good thing I didn’t do it in front of them though.
The boy with the launcher drops his weapon on the sand and rubs the back of his head. “Mr. Xol said if we helped out with luring you away from the group, we would get extra points on our makeup test. Sorry about that— but you look okay it seems. So everything should still be fine.”
“Still be fine, he says,” the reclining woman mocks. The woman sits up and lifts her sunglasses. “While I do need the points, I’m also here to make sure these two boneheads don’t do anything stupid. Anyways, go on and take the pad behind me. Mr. Xol says you’ll be doing a different fight from the others.” After that she puts the sunglasses over her eyes and goes back to sunbathing. “Good luck.”
“Don’t worry about us,” says the fisherman. “We have our own way of getting back.” After that the two boys give Yoshi a thumbs up and few extra words of encouragement. Partially to get her pumped for the fight, partially because she’s the teacher’s daughter and treating her nicely might net them extra points. Mr. Xol watching over them with full control of the setting also adds to the pressure as well.
Nervously does Yoshi smile and nod. She chooses to take their advice and walk to the pad. As she does she places a finger on her ear to say, “Dad, what’s going on?”
“You wanted to get stronger, right? So to pass this test, we’re putting your strengths to work.” Yoshi activates the pad and realizes her weapons are missing upon arrival. Right in front of her, a large blue–grey bipedal shark bear mix with two large fins stands before her and stares back at her with a clueless look on its face. “Your mother told me to help you improve your Diga skills, so for this fight you’ll be only using that as a weapon.”
Yoshi frantically pats around at her back and panics. “Dad, where did my weapons go? Dad, give me my weapons back. Now.”
“Now I know you don’t like being a Force because you’re not good at it but—”
“Dad, this isn’t funny.”
“Hold on, let me finish.”
“Dad,” Yoshi cries to the sky.
“But,” her father cuts in strongly. “That’s doesn’t mean your natural talents are anything to laugh at. It will be a cake walk, trust me on this. To start off, let’s use some sword and shield tactics. Block and counter attack. Its attacks won’t be fast, so the blocking part should be a cinch. Do you remember how to create a barrier?”
A shaking Yoshi lifts her hand in the air and produces a small floating wall of earth in front of her. The edges of the wall squiggle in harmony with her shaky arm.
“Good. The battle starts in three, two, one. I believe in you. Go make me proud.”
After the count of one, the Org Blan comes to life and leans in to get a look at the newearl standing before it. Once it determines Yoshi to be an enemy, it stands straight up and rapidly pounds on its chest. Yoshi seeing this as somewhat of a good idea does so as well, if only to get her legs moving as soon as possible and instill a little bravery into herself.
The sea beast wastes no time and charges forward to take swipes at her. Seeing as it wasn’t anywhere near as fast as a Banther’s claws Yoshi dodges it with ease. In one summersault she leaps over the Org Blan’s paw and backs up upon landing. Even though her dual blades were missing, she still held her hands near her back as though she were waiting for the right time to draw them.
“You dodged the attack. That’s a good start. Watch its movements and counter attack when you think the time is right.”
The sea beast gets down on all fours now. Since there was a lot of distance between the two of them, the creature bends its knees and leaps into the air. As it flies through the air it holds its two front paws together to slam them as one giant mass on the ground. Though this attack is much faster than the last, to Yoshi it still moves in slow motion. Slow enough to motivate the teal hair girl to put her hands forward and produce a wall in front of her. One made up of several ceramic honeycombs overlapping each other.
Yoshi closes her eyes and prepares for the worst. She has never tried to block something like this before, let alone use her Diga powers in combat at all. Imagining the creature’s flight in her head, she bunkers down and tightens her arms for what’s to come. Much to her surprise though, all of that wasn’t needed. When she hears the Org Blan slam down upon her wall and opens her eyes, she could see the sea beast stop in its tracks and bounce off.
“That’s good, Yadira. Excellent, keep it up.”
Yoshi’s heart wanted to backflip. Her confidence skyrockets into the clouds. I did it, she cheers in her head. It was very easy to do too. The newearl drops her shield. She originally did it with intention to taunt the large Oceanid, but a voice in her head convinces her otherwise. Now was not the time for her to get cocky. She still doesn’t know how much of a punch she can pack with her abilities. Now more than ever eager to give it a go, Yoshi puts on a boxer’s stance and waits for the next attack.
Once again the Org Blan gets on all fours. It leaps into the air a second time, but unlike the first attempt, this time it chooses to land and swipe its tail under her barrier. Unfortunately for the beast, Yoshi decides to back up instead and the two are almost caught off guard by each other’s actions. Though the sea beast is surprised by the lack of a barrier, it still goes for the tail swipe anyways. An action it would soon be punished for.
Before the tail could find its mark, a rock wall shoots out of the ground and blocks it. Seeing this as an opportunity to counter attack, Yoshi punches forward with her other arm and summons a lance out of thin air, which keeps going until it stabs into the creature’s back. As successful as this was for Yoshi however, she only manages to lightly scrape the Org Blan’s skin and watches as the lance harmlessly glides off its steeply angled backside.
“Damn it,” Yoshi growls, bearing her teeth to show that she is as angry as her opponent was. “Alright, alright, something different,” she says in a low voice. Then looks up and shouts, “Come on, is that all you got?”
The large Oceanid spins around and takes a blood thirsty swing at her. In an unorthodox manner, and much to her father’s surprise, instead of blocking it this time Yoshi spurs forth a tape of earth. It wraps around the creature’s arm and pulls it to one side. As the Org Blan nearly trips to the force of the pull, Yoshi hooks with her arm in sync with an extruding slab and punches the Oceanid towards the other direction. So strong was the left hook that it even blew off chunks of the creature’s protruding facial features. Since Yoshi is also focusing more on her punching than maintaining her hold, the earthly tape breaks as soon as the blow lands and fades out of existence.
“Great shot, Yadira,” her father shouts into her ear. “Incredible improvisation, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The smirking newearl pounds her fists together and goes for another attack. In a lunging punch, she shoots forward and produces a spike right beside to her reaching arm. Not thinking of what could happen next.
In the nick of time the Org Blan recovers from the first attack. With foot firmly planting onto the ground it immediately counter attacks with a jab. To Yoshi’s dismay, she watches as her spike is instantly broken and is forced to duck underneath and get away. Just as the Oceanid swipes with its second paw, Yoshi jumps backwards to safety and is made to jump again to avoid an overreaching follow up slam. Since Yoshi is more focused on not falling on her back, she misses her opportunity to punish the final attack.
The girl heart is pounding harshly now. She could feel it trying to escape her chest. Just by the flying specs of sand stabbing into her skin, she could tell that taking a hit was out of the question, and even if she could, she’d rather wouldn’t. Now the Org Blan runs to her. As it attempts to attack the newearl in the middle of the run, Yoshi upper cuts into the air just as the Oceanid is about to swing and slams a pillar of stone straight into its jaw.
The creature reels backwards and roars. It pounds its chest with rage, but it was a huge mistake. This is just the kind of opening Yoshi was waiting for. As the creature screams into the sky an arch flies in from the left. The creature’s head flings right and crashes into a right arch. The head flings left. Again a left arch comes in. Back and forth does Yoshi keep punching, and keeps punching until the Org Blan could stand no more.
(-/-)Finally, when the battle seems to be all but over, Yoshi, tired out and breathing hard, watches the Oceanid slowly drag himself closer with one arm. Reactively the newearl raises her fist to launch another attack, but as soon as she gets a good look of what the creature is staring at Yoshi moves aside and let it pass to see where he plans to go.
It is at something behind her. She watches the Org Blan drag himself on by, past her, and stop at a pile of crushed eggs that have been sitting behind the newearl the whole time. Once the Org Blan gets there and wraps the arm around the pile of broken shell, he closes his eyes and utters a long sad groan. After that, silence follows. When Yoshi creeps forward to get a better look at him, she could see that the creature, stiff as stone, has breathed his last.
“Excellent work,” her father suddenly shouts into her ear. “Not even a scratch on you. Your mother— if she were here— and I are proud of you.”
Yoshi jumps to the sudden voice and clutches her chest. Everything starts to get fuzzy. Feeling a surge of overwhelming sadness wash all over her, she hunches forward and backs away from the body. “I-I didn’t do it,” she cries. “Why? I didn’t know. It wasn’t my fault. Why?”
“I know it wasn’t,” her father calmly responds. “But it is a future lesson you, and your friends, will have to learn. About what it means to be Arks and what we do as an organization. In the meantime go ahead and take the telepipe back. Judging by this girl’s reactions, your friends may still need your help.”
Yoshi sniffs and nods. She takes one last look at the Org Blan before she makes her way to the telepipe.
“Oh, and one more thing. Since we still don’t know how long you can keep this up— Forces get tired too you know— let’s keep the Diga punch outs solely on the bigger marks, alright?”
Yoshi wipes her eye and nods again. When she steps into the telepipe and activates it, she finds herself not standing anywhere near her friends and instead sees that she is actually in the navigation room with her father, who kneels down in front up her and gives her a much wanted hug.
Spoiler!They were just *virtual* crushed eggs, though, right? In that case, Yoshi doesn't need to feel sad. "No Org Blans were harmed in the making of this chapter."
So those other three people were just randoms? I expected some sort of reveal, but I guess they weren't important after all. Was that your attempt to incorporate the new fishing mechanic from the game? I haven't tried it myself.
I'd like to see Yoshi's Diga abilities used in more mundane ways, like tossing pebbles at someone she doesn't like, or creating a stick to poke someone. I think if she used Diga in everyday situations, the ability would come more naturally to her. Then again, the whole thing is kind of a secret, isn't it?
Sig art by Aussei ^_^
Spoiler!Funny enough Kreszentia, who's suppose to keep secret, uses it a lot more than her sister in general. And Yoshi, who's officially allowed to use it, doesn't because its not socially accepted. Yoshi being able to personally warp anywhere is a larger issue though. But yeah there's no reason to be sad, but since the simulation is built for total realism, sometimes people can get lost in it. Its also used to test students and technically none of them were suppose to take it yet. The randoms may appear again with proper appearances and names,
but for now they're to show that people go to the academy even on off days. Or maybe they were strong armed to be there. Who know?
- Extra -Spoiler!
Yoshi opens hers eyes to see enormous pink and yellow petals blocking the sun leaking outside. In an effort to free herself from the green stem towers the dark skin girl sits upright into bright light. Not caring if anything got caught in her long teal hair or blue dress. With one hand to shield her eyes she tries to look around. As they start to adjust she notices that the petals look far smaller than before, normal size compared to the tarp sized things she woke to. From under the shade of the tree she then sees a vast emerald valley glowing all around her. Rolling hills walled off by a distance forest and mountains. With how neat everything appeared to be, it almost looks as though everything came out of an old painting and she is the center piece of it all.
“Woah, where am I?” the newearl asks out loud. She looks around and brushes off the petals clinging to her knees.
In a way the area reminds her of Naberius. Only it wasn’t. Instead of snowy mountains these were brown and dry. The trees also look far more foreign and not as wide, and the flower pedals look like clovers and not nearly as abundant. In fact all the flower beds she could spot look as though someone had recently came to trim them into a neat circle. This was definitely not the same planet, or at least not the same location she normally visits. Out of everything she could see the strangest thing of all would be the out of place shrine sitting in the lowest point of the valley. An extravagant shrine sheltering a single but large fountain covered in plant life. When she peers closer, the sun not as blaring as it was before, it begins to look kind of familiar. She’s seen this fountain somewhere before. Only this time it is filled to the brim with overflowing water and many birds swoop by to drink in it.
“Hello,” says a deep cheery voice from above. From the sound of how happy it was, it seems someone was glad Yoshi had finally woken up.
As if to answer Yoshi’s question a small chubby Rappy wearing a blue and brown propeller hat descends from the clouds. Even though it rapidly flaps its wings to try and stay afloat, Yoshi could easily tell that it was actually the hat doing all the work. There’s no way this mag size bird could stay in place on wings alone. So Yoshi believes anyways.
“I’m so glad to see you have finally returned to the land of the living,” says the Rappy. “You never know what kind of critter will come by just to nibble on your hair. Though I wouldn’t worry.” The Rappy drops until it hangs just above the flower bed Yoshi sat in. “It appears these guys were protecting you the whole time. Pleasant little things, don’t you think?” the bird asks and spirals back up to Yoshi’s face. “Now then, where was I?”
The Rappy begins to lecture her about the species of the flower, where it came from and an infamous tale of how they got there. During this time Yoshi just sat there, not listening to a single word the bird spoke, and stares with bright wide eyes. While she finds the Rappy to be cute and wants to own one as a mag, she didn’t know who it was or why it is talking to her. In great confusion the newearl places a hand behind her to scratch her head, but she couldn’t find anything to say and simply shrugs instead.
“Ah yes,” the bird continues and spins around. “Do you see everything the light touches?”
Yoshi blinks and strongly nods to pretend she was paying attention the whole time. “I can see it,” she responds.
“Do not go out there. You will be set on fire. Very painful. Be sure to wear plenty of sunscreen if you do. Preferably SPF 5000.”
Yoshi sleepily asks, “What?” Just as slowly she twists her head and squints at the Rappy as though it wasn’t right in the head. Nothing looks out of the ordinary. At least it does when you put aside the fountain shrine and crown wearing gulfs samba dancing around a flagpole. Other than that there was not a single fire in sight.
“Trust me, I’m a professor,” the Rappy replies.
The tan skin newearl lifts an arm and pretends to check the time. She apparently didn’t have a watch though. So she looks the other arm to make her seem less awkward. “Well, I certainly don’t need the tan so I’ll consider it. I think I’ll be fine in the sun. How bad could it be?” Just in case, Yoshi plucks out a strand of hair and tosses it out of the shade. As soon as the strand of teal hair glows under the sun light it spontaneously bursts into flames, leaving a wide eye Yoshi and an unfazed Rappy to watch it quickly disintegrate. “You know . . . now that I think on it . . .” Yoshi says as she closes her eyes and looks to the Rappy. “I think I’m fine sitting right here, thanks.”
“Well unfortunately you cannot,” flatly says the Rappy. “You will never repair your friendship with Kreszentia if you do. Oh, and remember to brush your teeth.”
“Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything?”
Yoshi’s vision blurs and loses focus. She finally feels the warmth on her skin and the ground on her legs. The Rappy calls her by her name, but its echoes and starts to lose volume. Suddenly the sun goes out. Everything is black until a sharp loud, “Yadira,” calls out and force her eyes to open up elsewhere.
“Huh? What?” asks the startled newearl. From the center of three chairs Yoshi looks up and see her parents up front, still sitting before a large cockpit windshield. It seems they were still flying to their destination. Seeing as she still had time to kill, Yoshi relaxes and slumps back into her chair to gaze out the left corner of the windshield.
“Did you remember to brush your teeth?” asks Yoshi’s mother.
“Yeah, I did,” solemnly says Yoshi. She rests her head on one arm and ponders out the window again.
The Rappy was right she thinks to herself. It has been a few weeks since the Olg Blan test and Kreszentia has yet to talk to her since their argument. She didn’t mean to steal the spot light though. It’s just how things ended up, but she wasn’t sure how she could convince her friends otherwise. Especially since they refused to come with her and talk with her father afterwards. In the heat of her anger, Yoshi turns her head to the other side and grunts. That would have solved everything. Other than that, Kazamir didn’t get off scot-free either. Before Kreszentia stormed away, Sardines complained to him about not being considered a first choice to something, or considered at all. Though Yoshi offered to get something to eat after Sardines ran off in a different direction, Kazamir refused and chased after the girl. Ever since then he hasn’t hung around with her as often as he used to either. Only Noreen came around to spend time with her anymore. Maybe it was time she came to them to fix everything?
All of this sadness causes Yoshi to sigh and gloomily look around. First at the two chairs her parents sat in, then at the gray carpet and beige walls, to the three chairs she sat in and the crescent wood arch installed behind them, until finally she reaches all of the consoles lining the back wall and the salmon doors leading into other areas of their mobile ship house. Come to think to think of it, as Yoshi begins to sit straight and twist around, there’s an awful lot of empty space in their cockpit. It was almost as if it was made for a ship crew rather than a small family.
The newearl decides to walk out of her seat and give it a better look. Fingers an thumbs forming into a square, Yoshi could easily picture it being the captain’s chair to a bridge. An idea for another time she thinks. Instead of worrying about the purpose any longer, she instead turns to her parents.
“Where’s grandma?” she asks and peeks between her parent’s shoulders. Ideally being older and wiser, maybe her grandma could give her some advice.
“Your grandma is in the ready room,” her father responds while he double checks an image of something similar to a parking complex.
Yoshi raises a brow in confusion and asks, “The what?”
“She’s in my study,” her mother replies this time, and gives her father a funny look afterwards.
“Hey you thought it was amazing when you saw it too,” her father says instantly. He then looks up at the windshield and magically waves his hand. “The ready room. Don’t you think that’s a great name? I also have some great books in there you know. A Thousand Ways to Blow up a Darker with Coffee, The Restoration of Ancient Weapons, and my favorite Xebalpu: The Complete Comic Collection.”
Yoshi shifts to the other end of her mother’s chair and grabs onto the backrest. “Dad, why are you so weird?” she asks. Her mother looks at the teal hair man too.
“That’s what I ask myself all the time,” adds her mother.
“Oh ho, I see how it is. Mrs. I watch ancient videos of blackheads being pushed out.”
Before the conversation got out of hand, and grossed out by the thought of blackheads, Yoshi escapes to her mother’s study. Just as she rings the bell built into the door, she could hear her father shout a playful “Ow!” followed by a muffled “Come in” from the other side of the door. When Yoshi opens the door she could she an android seemingly made entirely of gold sitting behind a dark wood desk. All around the Caseal; even behind; float several holographic screens which contain graphs, images and scrolling text. The top row rotates panels in a circle above, but everything else stays in place. When the tan newearls enters and shuts the door, the Caseal pops all the screens at once and rises from her chair.
“Yadira! Oh~,” she says in a motherly tone and half jogs towards Yoshi. “Come give your grandmother a warm up hug.” Before Yoshi could do anything, she is soon bound by her grandmother’s vice like hug and held in place. Unable to move even her head, Yoshi glances around with her eyes and wonders why her grandmother even needs to warm up. “Ah, just what I needed. Thank you for humoring grandma. Did you know that you have always been my favorite grandchild?”
Yoshi pushes away from the gold Caseal and awkwardly smiles. “You always say that, grandma.”
“Well, it’s true.” Cheers the Caseal with much glee, and taps a finger beside one of her glowing emerald eyes. “There is never a moment where I ever forget our time together, and I fondly look back at each and every one of them.”
“Heh, by the way, grandma. Why are we all going to the Melchior? I thought you and mom hated going there?”
Yoshi is taken by the arm. Her grandmother guides her to a nearby chair and pulls one aside for herself to sit in. “Would you like some tea?” the Caseal asks and gestures a free hand to a tea set waiting on the desk.
“No thank you, grandma.”
“Well, one of the few times our entire family . . . rallies their banners together . . . is when rivaling families have made us reach a breaking point and force requests for additional assistance to aid their plight. Normally, namely out of pride or prejudice, most of your family refuse to call your mother and father in, but,” the Caseal says and looks to the wall between them and Yoshi’s parents. “For this case, because your father and mother are so well verse in certain fields, they are willing to make an exception.”
Wide eye and eager to know Yoshi leans in to ask, “What are mom and dad good at?”
The grandma places a hand on Yoshi’s shoulder and gently replies, “Nothing you need concern yourself with. All you need to know is that your grandma, your . . . great grandmother . . .” she says with subtle contempt, “and Mrs. Fraser will be there to prevent that from happening.”
“Alright, I don’t really understand, but okay I guess. Mrs. Fraser is the woman dad call Shiomi sometimes, right? White hair? Also a newman?”
“That is correct, and because we may be seeing some outsiders gather in one place for once, you may even find people your age. At the very least it is an opportunity to experience another ship’s culture.”
“That’s okay, grandma. I’m more worried about what I’ll be doing there than who I get to meet. Besides, if my bro is around, I’d rather not stick around at all.”
The Caseal claps her hands together and smiles. “Well then, lucky for us, you father says he has a big surprise to show you when we get there. Won’t that be exciting?”
In a burst of sadness, Yoshi straightens up and purses her lips. She had almost forgotten why she came here. Thinking about the last surprise her father showed her, she feels it nearly cost her close friends. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for another.
“This is about your little friend, Kreszentia, isn’t it,” the grandma continues, as if reading Yoshi’s mind. The Caseal gives her granddaughter a strong side hug and rocks the two back and forth. “Oh, my poor baby, don’t you worry your precious head about any of that. Everything will work out in the end. Just give it some time.”
“But how do you know things will be fine, grandma? She won’t even speak to me anymore. What if she hates me forever?”
“Because grandma has a good feeling as to why it happened. Trust me, just let her speak to your father on her own time and all will be well again. Well, mostly. Okay? Do you believe in grandma?” the Caseal asks and holds Yoshi by the shoulders.
Yoshi looks down for a second before looking back up with a smile. “Yeah, I do.”
The grandmother takes her by the arm again and gestures to stand back up. When they do, they head towards the exit so she can open the door and says, “I know you aren’t very keen about surprises right now. So I’ll give you a little hint. This is just between us, okay?”
Yoshi nods her head.
“You aren’t going to stay on the Melchior. So pick out your favorite weapon and prepare for a little adventure. An official ARKs adventure.”
Yoshi rapidly nods her head this time and charges towards her room. Before she could make any ground, her grandmother catches her by the arm to add,
“Oh and be sure to grab your father’s mag. I’ll sure he’ll forgive you for stealing it for a little while.”
Finally, a new update! I'd been wondering when the next one would be. I was actually thinking of dropping a message here, but you beat me to it.
Spoiler!I knew that first part had to be a dream. Not that you pretended otherwise. It was very whimsical and silly. I laughed when the Rappy said, "Trust me, I'm a professor."
Oh no, the group of friends has been split apart! Considering how much time they've spent together, it's sad to see them fighting. But I'm sure it will only be a temporary thing (I hope!).
Yoshi Sr. is/was such a goofball that I could understand him going along with the idea of Ijiraku as his mother, but what's even funnier is that the idea stuck for his whole family too! I mean, Yoshi Jr. has to know that "grandma" isn't actually related, but I think she honestly does see the Caseal as her grandmother. It's a complicated family dynamic, that's for sure!
P.S. As an FYI, I plan to start releasing my next story pretty soon, probably in the next week or two.
Sig art by Aussei ^_^
Yeb, a lot of things have been grabbing at my attention lately, so i've been spending less time writing because of it. Hopefully it won't take a month+ to get the next one out too. In the meantime, looking forward to your stuff.Spoiler!Because I never really wrote down what happened next after the previous post, I ended up forgetting a lot of stuff that happened. It was a good time to introduce old faces though, like Shiomi, flesh out/introduce some people in the academy and get Yoshi to spend some time as a solo protagonist. Albeit a grumpy solo protagonist.. But since I forgot, I ended up skipping all that and did a summary for our heroes instead. The group won't be apart too long though. The idea of introducing old faces still stuck though, haha.
Sia doesn't like it, but since she dislikes most of her own family members (they never visit it anyways), she rolls with the idea of grandma (and the three caseal sisters being aunts) because it the only semblance of family Armon and Yadira had. That and two people who grew up without parents winging parenthood. Ironically old and wise grandma is actually somewhere around 5-7 years older than Yoshi (Yadira). Her programming and the works has been around for a long while now, but Ijiraku as a person herself is a pretty recent thing. But I don't think anyone will ever let Yoshi know, heh. Save maybe Leanna on a bad day.
- Extra -Spoiler!
In the next few hours her family finally reaches their destination. In a very professional manner, they approach a tower in the same way a cargo ship would approach a dock. Slowly, smoothly, precisely, as large doors recede sideways in both directions Yoshi’s mobile home ship floats on into an empty studio like garage and softly touchdown upon a glossy marked landing pad. Little jets poof on and off to aid in the turning and large bold letters could be seen merging in view of the windshield. It was mostly to let you know where to face when unloading cargo. Now landed and ready to unload the entire family leave their vessel and start unloading a few crates from the back of the ship. Since Yoshi is hardly around for any of the rare delivery runs, she often forgets that their mobile home ship also doubles as a decent cargo ship, albeit one with less storage room due to the housing.
As she stares at blocky red, greed and orange crates; slanted edges on both the bottom and top corners; she begins to remember asking her father why the ship was customized to be like this in the first place. In her head she could hear her father say something about owning a ship like it and how they simply wanted to upgrade. Though for all the searching she did for this old vessel they used to own she could never find any pictures of it. Which she found odd because she would have imagined her parents who would have spent a long time in it, considering how expensive it must have been, would have spent enough time in it to have at least one photo.
“Mom,” Yoshi awkwardly says, the moment she catches a larger brown hair newearl passing by. So preoccupied by the chart in her hand, her mother didn’t stop. So Yoshi matches her mother’s pace and adds, “What’s with all the large metal boxes?”
The fairer newearl stops to count the nearest crates on a lift. “I told our family we would get supplies on the way here. They’re not the easy to find kind either. So now they owe mom big time.” A short pause is had before Yoshi’s mother looks up to survey the room. “Yadira, have you seen your father?”
Yoshi points somewhere around the second floor of the ship and responds, “Yeah, he should be in the ship grabbing something. He said he had a surprise for me. Oh and Grandma is there again too.”
As if to dismiss the last sentence her mother steps past to stare up at the ship. “Oh yes, the surprise,” she drones. The brown hair newearl looks to the floor and sighs. “Well I guess it’s better than sitting around listening to posh family members all day. Well tell your father I’m going to get these things delivered now.”
“Alright,” Yoshi says with a vacant looking smile.
The two spend a moment in silence staring at one another. While Yoshi smiles with great intensity, her mother on the other hand looks as if she’s waiting for something to happen. After a few more seconds of doing nothing her mother roughly taps Yoshi on the head and says,
“Well, go on.”
“Ah,” Yoshi quickly says, acting as if the rough tap were just a gentle pat on her cheek. “Alright,” she adds and runs off into the ship.
Just before she could enter through the front entrance of the ship Yoshi’s father opens the door and steps outside. A large vent near the roof of the ship, all the way in the back were the crates are, lifts to extrude a crane holding what looks to be an old racing vehicle. It lowers the vehicle to the floor, drops it, comes back up and recedes back into the ship. When finished the shutters drop back down and the crane disappears. “How’s my little chicken nugget doing? Also have you seen your mother by the way?” her father asks while this happens.
The equally tan daughter points out the garage doors. “Mom says she’s off to deliver the crates.” Yoshi then puts a finger on her chin and realizes the many questions she didn’t ask beforehand. With great uncertainty she adds, “She didn’t say how long she would take or what she would be doing afterwards though.”
Judging by the gentle smile her father had on his face he didn’t seem to mind at all. He just as softly pats her head and replies, “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. If anything comes up I’ll know.”
“You’re going to give her a call?”
Yoshi’s father turns his head and uses a finger to scratch his chin. “Well that’s one way to know.” As soon as the man’s eyes looks back down, he could see his daughter’s eyes widen the moment she feels something creeping up her forearm. When she peeks to check though she couldn’t see what had touched her skin. “In any case the car is ready to go. So come on, let’s go see what surprise awaits you.”
A half hour later the two walk now through the ship’s majestic gateway lobby. Unlike the usual greys and blue hues Yoshi would see an ARKS lobby use, the Melchior’s lobby is far more extravagant and bombastic in comparison. Glowing white marble walls and floors, gold trimmings on almost every edge and railing, sweeping stairways, some stairs even becoming cascading waterfalls with scrolling text over them; the more Yoshi looks the more it begins to look like a museum exhibit. Everything all seems very unlike something mercenaries would use to go about conducting business every day. Though like everyone moving about in the room, even the people showing off their gear and weapons, Yoshi and her father didn’t stop to wait around either. She didn’t want to stay there anyways.
As soon as they got there they immediately head down the lobby’s long gateway corridor leading to the docking bays seen outside. An experience equally as fancy with its fast moving escalators, machines offering drinks and appetizers on the way down and all sorts of well-dressed people talking here and there. Occasionally Yoshi’s father would have to stop her from ordering something she shouldn’t. So she looks out the windows instead. Like Ur’s, these even enhance their view of space to make it more entertaining to look outside. Unlike Ur though, it made the girl feel a mixture of envy and disgust. She couldn’t figure out why. Space is far prettier outside these windows.
“So, what’s in the bag?”
Yoshi looks to the black leather strap on her shoulder and gives the backpack she is wearing a good shake. “Just snacks,” she says. Her pulse increases and a sense dread sets in.
Yoshi’s father also looks out the window and rests his arms on the escalator walls. His dull smile could be seen reflecting in the windows. “Just snacks, huh?” he asks in a very bored fashion. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll get hungry. So I brought a lot just in case,” Yoshi lies. Yoshi looks over her shoulder and nervously eyes the bulges in the bag. She curses in her head and screams. She knew it was too big for that excuse to work.
“Yadira, I know you. Running out of snacks would be the last thing we’d be worried about. I’d actually be worried if you did.” The father looks back at his daughter with a piecing gaze. “What’s really in there?”
For a moment Yoshi was going to repeat what she said before, but after thinking about it for a split second she decides to remove the bag from her back. After everything that had happened earlier this month, she would rather not risk any more bad events happening right now. So with the bag now open she presents its contents up to her father and says, “I kinda borrowed your mag but I didn’t know how to turn him on. He hasn’t budged since I got him and I’m worried I-I . . . kinda broke him.”
Her father takes out a small machine from the bag, a blue cloaked person with cat like ears in the hood and a giant leaf looming over it. As he holds it in his hands the man pokes the device on the forehead and gives it a nostalgic smile. “Nah, he’s not broken,” Yoshi’s father replies. In that moment the Mag springs to life and twirls out of the man’s hands. “He was still just on standby mode monitoring the ship. Naturally mags are very attached to their owners. So it would have taken a lot of convincing to get him to listen to you. Then again, I could be wrong. There have also been plenty of cases where a Mag would quickly bond with another person, after their previous owners have moved on.”
“So why didn’t he just fly back to you when I took him out, dad?”
The Mag lands on its owner’s hand and blinks. “He could still perform his duties and talk to me as you carried him. So nothing had to happen, though the talking part is pretty limited. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when you get your mag, yours could be able to communicate with you like we are doing now.” Yoshi’s father lets go of the mag again and the cloaked machine takes its place by its master’s shoulder. “Alright, little guy,” the man says and pets his mag. “You ready to meet some old friends?”
Without having to look Yoshi’s father spins around and opens a door that just so happens to approach them. Without thinking as they reach their destination, the two step off into a room where people on the other side of the door wait and wave. Yoshi’s does to but is much weaker about it and only waves because her father did.
“Sorry I’m late,” says Yoshi’s father as soon he closes the door. He didn’t even bother to check to see if they were in the right room.
To Yoshi’s surprise there weren’t many people as she expected. Being so used to doing missions as a class, she expected the room to be brimming with people. In reality only two people were inside. To the left inspecting a variety of rifles sat a large armored up Cast. Black in color with white accents to mix things up, he soon gets up and waves to Yoshi’s father. In the middle of the room stands a black hair newearl also wearing black as a primary color scheme. From neck to toe in solid combat armor, the woman is quick to spin around and greet them. The armor makes a lot of noise too, but this is because everything is loose, dangles and not tied down.
“Yoshi,” the woman squeals, “It’s been so long.” The woman rushes up to them with arms wide and ready for an embrace. Some of the armor pieces drop to the floor as if to avoid pinching people.
Because the young girl uses Yoshi as a nickname as well she expects the woman to rush up to her, but instead the black hair woman strongly latches onto her father and cause the now slightly embarrassed newearl to stand there and stare.
“I see you brought an old friend along too. You haven’t been getting in trouble again have you?”
“It’s good to see you too, Yvonna,” Yoshi’s father responds. He gestures to the armored woman and looks to his daughter. “Yadira, you remember Yvonna right? She would sometimes travel with us when you were a baby. Speaking of which, Yvonna, my little girl uses my nickname now. So why don’t we use something else for me so we don’t confuse her.”
“Wow, how could you give your daughter your dweeb nickname?”
“I’ll have you know my dweeb nickname holds much honor in the community.”
“Honor my ass, nobody talks about you, Bitol. Do you see this guy, Stats? He think’s hot stuff now. Made it big. Oh look at me, I’m a teacher at the academy teaching the next generation to be dweebs like me.”
“I do not. Besides, I told you already she made the decision herself, didn’t I?”
“I thought you were joking! Why would you do that to your only daughter?”
The embarrassed father scratches at his chin and replies, “I thought it was touching.”
“It’s your job as a father to give her a better one.”
Yoshi places her hands on her hips and stands proud. “Hey, I’ll have you know I took the name myself thank you, and am very proud of it. So you take your bad attitude and . . .” Yoshi glances around and glares again. “Before I take that helmet of yours and hit you on the head with it.”
Quickly the two adults stop talking and look at Yoshi. Looking a little touched by teenager’s words, and returning the man’s punch to his shoulders, Yvonna bends a little to hug the tan newearl.
“You’re so big now,” says Yvonna. “I remember when I first saw you, you were so tiny. Now you’re all grown up and wow . . . how time flies, huh?”
Yoshi’s father steps behind and gently holds his daughter’s shoulders. “Where’s your son by the way? Wasn’t he going to join you?”
“Kien?” asks Yvonna and folds her arms. “That boy called in to say he couldn’t make it. Probably got scared thinking mom was going to kill him if anything happened to your little girl. I’m sorry about that. Honestly, I don’t understand that boy sometimes.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure he had his reasons. Unfortunate that he couldn’t make it though. I was hoping he would show Yadira some of those new age fighting styles that’s been going on. Also! Let’s not leave Stats out of all this. How you’ve been, man?”
As Yoshi’s father walks up to greet the large Cast, and as Yvonna wraps her arm around her father to walk with him, Yoshi could feel a murderous aura looming behind her. When she looks behind she nearly jumps when she sees her mother smiling with eye nearly closed. A looks she normally has when she about to destroy something. When did she get here, how did she manage to find them, Yoshi asks in her mind. When she and her father were traveling to this place, Yoshi had checked behind her several times and never saw her mother traveling with them. Yet here she is.
The teal hair girl glances back to see her father and his friends merrily talk on the other side of the room. No one has seemed to have noticed her mother until her father finally looks back and halts the conversation. “Ah, Stats, have you met my wife yet.”
“This would be our first meeting.” The metallic man replies.
Yoshi’s mother waves and everyone relocates towards Yoshi.
“Sia this is Stamato, and you remember Yvonna.”
Yvonna and Yoshi’s mother give each other light bows. While Yvonna says hello, Yoshi’s mother remains silent and serene in appearance.
“Gee, Bitol, you sure like the quiet ones, huh?”
Yoshi could feel her spine nearly jump out of her skin when her mother’s aura spike in fury. But the moment her father takes her mother’s side, arms strongly intertwined, and gives a kiss on the cheek the aura it nearly vanishes. Her mother goes from a graceful smile to a look of absolute victory, and as she does the two bend down to hug Yoshi and wish her luck.
“Well, I guess we should be going now, huh?” Yoshi father says with much reluctance in his voice. “Can’t stall those conversations forever.” Her father then pets his mag and repositions it to Yoshi’s side. “Take care of her for me, alright?” The mag answers by bobbing its entire body forward and everyone watches as Yoshi parents walk out the door. Just as the door closes, they could see her father wave behind the frame and add, “See you when you get back.”
Their guests now gone Yvonna walks over to the table and ponders over the weapons. “They we’re kidding, Stats. Velariums sure are a creepy lot.”
“She appears to be more pleasant than the last person Bitol got involved with.”
After a second of thinking, Yvonna reaches down and picks up a single gunslash, one with a wooden stock and solid black blade. Holding it by the stock, shaped to be held up like a sword if desired, she flips it in the air, catches it by the blade and presents it to Yoshi.
The tan newearl stares at the weapon with confusion and looks up at Yvonna. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“You’re going to need a weapon right?” Yvonna replies and gives the weapon a shake. “Take it.”
Yoshi stares at the gunslash again and looks at it as if it had insulted her somehow. “Ew,” she cries. “I don’t want no babies first weapon.”
“Funny, your father and sister loved these things.”
“Sister? I don’t have a sister.”
Saddened by the unexpected response Yvonna looks to Stats with great concern. The Cast, after snapping his gaze onto Yoshi and then at the gunslash, looks back to Yvonna and shakes his head. “Guess I confused her for someone in your family. Either way you’re going to need a real weapon.”
Yoshi tries to contain her laughter when she raises her hand and point at the gunslash. “That’s a weapon? Let me show you a real weapon.” After that the tan newearl snaps her fingers and summons a large blocky but sharp great sword in her hand.
Mimicking Yoshi, Yvonna also raises her hand and points at the great sword. “You call that a real weapon? You poor child. Stats tell her about the limiters on that thing.”
Yoshi fumbles forward and nearly drops her weapon. “What!?”
“All weapons given out by your father may have been highly modified to prevent you from harming yourself and any of your comrades. They are adjusted or upgraded in power should your father feel you can handle any increase in output.”
“You mean I’ve been beating up Banthers with a handicapped sword this whole time?”
Stats begins to politely clap and move to the weapon table. “The fact that you have defeated Banthers with such a weapon is an achievement within itself. You should be proud of your accomplishments. Seeing as you seem to be proficient in blades, may I suggest a katana?”
Stats offers up a standard grey and blue katana but Yoshi pushes away. “Ew, katanas are gross. Only losers use those,” she complains, forgetting that her mother also uses them as her main choice of armament.
“And let me guess,” says Yvonna as she holds up a pair of jet boots. “You hate being a Force too, huh?”
Yoshi crosses her arms and turns her head away. “That’s right . . . but I can see why people think Forces are cool. Anyways, don’t you know that only Bouncers use those things?”
Yvonna raises a fist and struggles not to hit the bratty girl criticizing her. “Okay smarty pants, since you obviously think you’re hot stuff, then why don’t you take one of my son’s weapons.” In a snap a tall, nearly blunt giant slab of a sword appears in the woman’s hands. She gives it a twirl as if it didn’t weigh anything and shoves it forward.
“What is it?” asks Yoshi who nearly drops from the surprising weight falling onto her. It’s is slightly bigger than any sword she’s used before. Then it hits her. “Oh, wait I’ve seen this before. This is what Henry uses.”
“What happened? I thought you were smart. Don’t you know what that is?” Yvonna asks in a mocking fashion.
Yoshi manages to split the great sword in two and nearly shrieks in fright. “Nope, I’ve just been taught the core classes,” she says as she tries to fix it. Unable to put the blades back together she gives up and takes out the spear fitted between them. She carelessly drops the two blades and looks at it. “I know this isn’t a Hunter’s weapon though. They don’t hide spears in their sword or keep them blunt. Why would anyone even use this?”
“Well first of all, they’re very modular. You can easily swap out the two great blades should they get damaged and the spear makes for a really nice backup weapon to have. And if the spear gets lost, you can still use the two blades as their own weapons.”
Stats steps in and politely takes the weapon from Yoshi. “Originally inspired by the legendary Sealed J Sword, the Sealed Zweihanders are made to be powerful weapons sheltering a far more powerful polearm inside. Rumors have it that users would launch their spears to warp to the location they have landed in and deliver devastating blows with their sword. Another tactic that would be used is to extend the spear to do additional damage or reel their opponents in, though this would require a specialized spear or harpoon to be installed first. On some occasions they are also used for mountain climbing, but that is highly ill-advised.”
“In the academy they train you in three stances. Sealed Form, Sacred Spear Form and Oni Form. . .”
Yoshi hops in place and eagerly listens to the Cast’s lecture. “That sounds awesome,” she says with great excitement. “Do you have any other ones?”
“Sorry,” butts in Yvonna. “That’s the only model you get.”
Yoshi looks to the ceiling and quickly groans at it. “Fine, I’ll use the sealed whatever it is.” When Stats hands it back to her, she wildly swings it around, now used to the weight, and adds, “I’m gonna chop up so many dudes with this sword. This is like every Hunter weapon made into one.”
“Oh sure, now it’s cool after the Cast talks about it. Alright kid, calm down and board the ship already. We got a mission to take care of.”
“Wait, we’re not going to do a mission briefing first?”
Both Yvonna and Stats look to the tan girl with great surprise. At least as surprised as an expressionless face could make. They look to each other for a moment and Yvonna clears up all the weapons.
“You actually want a briefing?”
“Yeah, dad and the academy always give one first before we go on any missions. Dad also always brings a lot of info and holograms too.”
Great shock and disbelief causes Yvonna slams her hands on the table. “Your dad actually gives mission briefings?”
Spoiler!More reunions, yay! It seems you are slowly bringing the old cast into the new story. And was that Bitol's old mag or a different one? I assume it was supposed to be the same one.
That part where Yadira felt something creeping up her arm was rather mysterious. I'm guessing it's something Bitol did but I'm not sure what. I suppose that's part of the mystery? The same goes for the "sister" comment as well.
How do you imagine limiters being applied to photon blades? Is it simply that their photon output is reduced, lowering their cutting power? That's the only thing I can think of. Also, was all that "weapon talk" based on stuff from the game, or did you make it up? For example, the types of weapons, different forms, etc.
I am in favor of briefings. Knowing your objective(s) before jumping into a mission makes sense... right? xD
Sig art by Aussei ^_^
Spoiler!It got wrecked enough at the end of the story that it got a complete make over. Though I never put any thought into how mags actually change their appearance. Since you just feed them something and poof, whole new look. What I do know is that I don't ever plan to change my character's mag, so it's appearance is pretty set in stone for the future.As for reoccurring doods, I plan to eventually work them all in somehow. Though Zelatus squad isn't the same anymore and all the original members are elsewhere, leaving just Yvonna and Stamato as the last two original members. The sister part is why Stats is meeting Sia again for the first time. He caught on pretty quickly before and Yoshi Sr. wanted to avoid complications should he find out who Sia is, but it couldn't be helped.Spoiler!Basically went from looking like this in the main story,to this after.Spoiler!Spoiler!Spoiler!
In Yadira's weapon's case, its a mixture of two fields, the second one preventing things from getting to the first field (the main blade), but still weak enough that things will still cut or glide off as if it wasn't there. To make it stronger the weapon would either get better output potential or the second field would be reduced. Kinda like a reverse utility knife. The Seal J Sword is actually a weapon in the game, but the sealed zweihander is just something I made up. With the advent of advance classes and Hero being what it is, I figure the future would have some of its own fancy or crazy stuff. Such as someone trying to combine all the Hunter weapons into one super weapon, that can be used as smaller separate weapons if you wanted two. By now its been a thing long enough that forms can be taught for the weapon.
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