Post by Naevius on May 13, 2024 18:09:06 GMT -5
MM: $What the hell?!
MM: $Which turnip truck did YOU just tumble out of, you freak?? (≖､≖╬)
It really was a good question, and unfortunately for Mercia Issaries she was not privy to the nice little flashback we were given. No, she would have to pry such answers out of a notoriously stubborn troll--in both senses of the word.
ZA: Does that really matter right now??
ZA: An intruder is in your shrine, and you are busy interrogating me? Pluck the plank from your eyes before you see to my mote, Priestess!
MM: $Oh, shut up! (╬ Ò﹏Ó)
MM: $If the gods are so pissed off, they can handle it themselves! They certainly were able to toss a METEOR just fine without my help!
MM: $You know, I'm sick of it! $I'm sick of it always being up to me! $Let someone else do something around here for a change! $Let the gods take care of their own property for once! ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ
ZA: Coward! Of all base and lowly meekness, I have never seen a bigger craven! At least the other Page would fight if you attacked her home!
MM: $Yeah! $I'm a coward, what of it?? 凸( ` ﾛ ´ )凸
MM: $Rip off your lips and stick 'em to your ass, you troll! $How is this your business, anyway??
MM: $Hey, come to think of it, you've been describing what's been going on around me! $You hacked through my viewport blocks, you piece of shit! ((╬◣﹏◢))
MM: $If I ever find you, I'm going to run you through! $You're lucky I'm too busy to try and dox you, you know! $I've got connections! $Didn't your mom ever tell you not to do things that would spark a duel--or, I bet she threw you out the second she got a good look at your ugly mug!
ZA: Hahahahahahaha! Fool!
ZA: You are nothing, nothing but a wriggling grub on the first steps of your path! I would crush you and throw you into the wind, whelp!
MM: $Yeah, right, keyboard warrior! $What, are you going to start posting the Paratrooper Copypasta now??
ZA: Look who is speaking! A weeping craven running from all three feet of that dwarfish little mongrel would fight a duel with ME? YOU'RE the one putting up a false front, Priestess!
ZA: If you want to prove otherwise, then get back out there and fight for your shrine, you apostate!
MM: dont you dare call me an apostate whore
ZA: Then stop acting like one. Fight, damn you! Protect what is sacred!
MM: $I'm telling you, I'm done! $This has been the worst fucking day of my LIFE and it keeps getting worse every second! $I'm going to huddle up under my covers and just sleep the rest of it off! $The entire world can kiss my ass!
MM: $Let Dad handle that monster, he can box! $Gimp leg or not!
ZA: You fool! Your custodian is already gone!
ZA: He was kidnapped by more of the very monsters YOU ran from!
Mercia's stomach dropped, and an ice chill ran down her veins. All of her fury at this troll was conjured away at a single stroke. Some part of her knew that her opposing keyboard warrior was telling the truth. There was something in the air, a smell or perhaps a feeling, that always made Mercia's skin crawl. Nevertheless, her rational mind continued to rebel.
MM: $Stop lying
ZA: I never lie, Priestess.
ZA: Listen to me. Listen, even if you have never listened before.
ZA: Your day has been bad? It gets worse every second? You have undergone emotional and physical trials?
ZA: I do not care. No one cares. This world does not care. You have been appointed a great and terrible blessing, can't you see that? Or do you still think a world like this is only a game?
ZA: If you cannot fight to protect what is most holy and sacred to you, then people will die. I have seen it. You hopefully will not.
This troll was insane. Right? Talking about people dying in an--admittedly very advanced--video game like this, like this was Don't Die? They were absolutely insane, of that Mercia didn't doubt for a moment. After all, the damned troll kept saying such strange things, talking about grubs and hopbeasts and other bizarre alien-sounding turns of phrase.
...Still, they DID get past Mercia's safeguards against unauthorized viewport usage, and they HAD accurately described Mercia's surroundings. Maybe, just maybe, they'd seen something that Mercia had missed in her running around the whole house...
MM: $...Fine.
MM: $But when I get out there and see that everything's fine and Dad punched a hole in the little goblin-thing, I'm coming back here to block you. (￢_￢)
ZA: Draw your weapon as you leave.
She didn't listen. After pushing the dresser back to unblock her way, Mercia first peeked her head out of her room and quickly checked the corners. The house, at least, was clear of any similarly-looking gray imps. Though, the place looked rather messy, as though a small earthquake had passed through, Mercia could still chalk that up to the meteor. (Or, perhaps to how hard she had slammed her door.)
As she tip-toed out of her room and towards the "airlock" that separated sacred from profane, she began to shiver. Little by little, her hands first, the shiver traveled up her arms and down her spine; she was in the cold grip of terror. The purity and enormity of the emotion was almost enough to completely overwhelm; every nerve cried out that death was stalking her, with dripping fangs and shining claws to tear her apart. There were creatures out there, real live goblins from the pages of fiction! Just because they were small didn't mean they weren't dangerous!
Only her worry for her father kept trembling toes tipping on. By but an ounce, a feather's weight, the balance kept her slowly moving forward instead of back. With trembling hands, she pulled open the shoji door just a crack, just enough to see inside: the "airlock" was creature-less, and there her coat, hat, shoes, and socks still lay. Mercia took some time to don each article of clothing in turn--home, after all, wasn't quite home anymore, it seemed.
"Besides, maybe the coat can help block scratches and bites..." Mercia muttered to herself with a dark little chuckle.
Once that business was done, she crept forward and opened the opposite shoji door, just a tad, to peek out. With a deep sigh of relief, Mercia's gleaming eyes caught nothing untoward within her family's shrine. The statue, the murals, the flickering torches on the walls--everything was just as run down as it had been when she arrived. Alas for Mercia: her ears succeeded where her eyes had failed. She could clearly hear banging, scuffing noises, in the last place she would have ever wished to hear them.
"MOM!"
Mercia threw open the shoji door and sprinted across the shrine, then threw open the next. What she saw inside froze her to her tracks. That little rabbit-creature was indeed causing a ruckus and trying to claw at something, but it wasn't her mother's corpse. No, it was fighting a wispy, ghost-looking thing with the head of a rabbit: a stalwart hero and adventurer had risen to brave the danger in order to safeguard her mother's corpse.
"Hopkins?!"
She'd blurted it out without thinking, more out of surprise than anything else. Fool that she was, she distracted her brave friend at a crucial moment in the melee: the imp landed a strike with its dagger-claws against Hopkins' chest. Though it didn't seem to carve him through, only moderately corporeal as he was, the force of it pushed the sprite backwards. Backwards...into Mom herself.
A flash of light, and all were gone.
"NO!" A cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, the sensation of choking, the emptying knowledge of something happening that can never be taken back... Tears welled into her eyes as she tried to deny the empty slab before her. "NO NO NO NO!! Mom! Please, no!!
But she would not be left to her panic and despair long. All were gone, save one: the gray imp with the rabbit ears and tail, "victorious" over its foe, turned towards Mercia next and menaced with its gray claws and toothy grin. A combination of fury and pure survival instincts kicked in. Though the shivering did not stop--if anything, it grew more potent--she glared at that little imp with purest hatred in her gleaming green eyes.
Her training with her supraliege did not fail her in that moment: though hands shook and knees knocked, she adopted a fencer's stance with her left hand behind her back, and summoned her rapier to her hand. She pointed its gleaming tip squarely between the imp's eyes.
With all of her hatred, all of her fury, all of her despair: not the words to begin any proper duel, but words from the heart. "I will scatter your flesh to the wind..."
> Mercia: STRIFE!
MM: $Which turnip truck did YOU just tumble out of, you freak?? (≖､≖╬)
It really was a good question, and unfortunately for Mercia Issaries she was not privy to the nice little flashback we were given. No, she would have to pry such answers out of a notoriously stubborn troll--in both senses of the word.
ZA: Does that really matter right now??
ZA: An intruder is in your shrine, and you are busy interrogating me? Pluck the plank from your eyes before you see to my mote, Priestess!
MM: $Oh, shut up! (╬ Ò﹏Ó)
MM: $If the gods are so pissed off, they can handle it themselves! They certainly were able to toss a METEOR just fine without my help!
MM: $You know, I'm sick of it! $I'm sick of it always being up to me! $Let someone else do something around here for a change! $Let the gods take care of their own property for once! ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ
ZA: Coward! Of all base and lowly meekness, I have never seen a bigger craven! At least the other Page would fight if you attacked her home!
MM: $Yeah! $I'm a coward, what of it?? 凸( ` ﾛ ´ )凸
MM: $Rip off your lips and stick 'em to your ass, you troll! $How is this your business, anyway??
MM: $Hey, come to think of it, you've been describing what's been going on around me! $You hacked through my viewport blocks, you piece of shit! ((╬◣﹏◢))
MM: $If I ever find you, I'm going to run you through! $You're lucky I'm too busy to try and dox you, you know! $I've got connections! $Didn't your mom ever tell you not to do things that would spark a duel--or, I bet she threw you out the second she got a good look at your ugly mug!
ZA: Hahahahahahaha! Fool!
ZA: You are nothing, nothing but a wriggling grub on the first steps of your path! I would crush you and throw you into the wind, whelp!
MM: $Yeah, right, keyboard warrior! $What, are you going to start posting the Paratrooper Copypasta now??
ZA: Look who is speaking! A weeping craven running from all three feet of that dwarfish little mongrel would fight a duel with ME? YOU'RE the one putting up a false front, Priestess!
ZA: If you want to prove otherwise, then get back out there and fight for your shrine, you apostate!
MM: dont you dare call me an apostate whore
ZA: Then stop acting like one. Fight, damn you! Protect what is sacred!
MM: $I'm telling you, I'm done! $This has been the worst fucking day of my LIFE and it keeps getting worse every second! $I'm going to huddle up under my covers and just sleep the rest of it off! $The entire world can kiss my ass!
MM: $Let Dad handle that monster, he can box! $Gimp leg or not!
ZA: You fool! Your custodian is already gone!
ZA: He was kidnapped by more of the very monsters YOU ran from!
Mercia's stomach dropped, and an ice chill ran down her veins. All of her fury at this troll was conjured away at a single stroke. Some part of her knew that her opposing keyboard warrior was telling the truth. There was something in the air, a smell or perhaps a feeling, that always made Mercia's skin crawl. Nevertheless, her rational mind continued to rebel.
MM: $Stop lying
ZA: I never lie, Priestess.
ZA: Listen to me. Listen, even if you have never listened before.
ZA: Your day has been bad? It gets worse every second? You have undergone emotional and physical trials?
ZA: I do not care. No one cares. This world does not care. You have been appointed a great and terrible blessing, can't you see that? Or do you still think a world like this is only a game?
ZA: If you cannot fight to protect what is most holy and sacred to you, then people will die. I have seen it. You hopefully will not.
This troll was insane. Right? Talking about people dying in an--admittedly very advanced--video game like this, like this was Don't Die? They were absolutely insane, of that Mercia didn't doubt for a moment. After all, the damned troll kept saying such strange things, talking about grubs and hopbeasts and other bizarre alien-sounding turns of phrase.
...Still, they DID get past Mercia's safeguards against unauthorized viewport usage, and they HAD accurately described Mercia's surroundings. Maybe, just maybe, they'd seen something that Mercia had missed in her running around the whole house...
MM: $...Fine.
MM: $But when I get out there and see that everything's fine and Dad punched a hole in the little goblin-thing, I'm coming back here to block you. (￢_￢)
ZA: Draw your weapon as you leave.
She didn't listen. After pushing the dresser back to unblock her way, Mercia first peeked her head out of her room and quickly checked the corners. The house, at least, was clear of any similarly-looking gray imps. Though, the place looked rather messy, as though a small earthquake had passed through, Mercia could still chalk that up to the meteor. (Or, perhaps to how hard she had slammed her door.)
As she tip-toed out of her room and towards the "airlock" that separated sacred from profane, she began to shiver. Little by little, her hands first, the shiver traveled up her arms and down her spine; she was in the cold grip of terror. The purity and enormity of the emotion was almost enough to completely overwhelm; every nerve cried out that death was stalking her, with dripping fangs and shining claws to tear her apart. There were creatures out there, real live goblins from the pages of fiction! Just because they were small didn't mean they weren't dangerous!
Only her worry for her father kept trembling toes tipping on. By but an ounce, a feather's weight, the balance kept her slowly moving forward instead of back. With trembling hands, she pulled open the shoji door just a crack, just enough to see inside: the "airlock" was creature-less, and there her coat, hat, shoes, and socks still lay. Mercia took some time to don each article of clothing in turn--home, after all, wasn't quite home anymore, it seemed.
"Besides, maybe the coat can help block scratches and bites..." Mercia muttered to herself with a dark little chuckle.
Once that business was done, she crept forward and opened the opposite shoji door, just a tad, to peek out. With a deep sigh of relief, Mercia's gleaming eyes caught nothing untoward within her family's shrine. The statue, the murals, the flickering torches on the walls--everything was just as run down as it had been when she arrived. Alas for Mercia: her ears succeeded where her eyes had failed. She could clearly hear banging, scuffing noises, in the last place she would have ever wished to hear them.
"MOM!"
Mercia threw open the shoji door and sprinted across the shrine, then threw open the next. What she saw inside froze her to her tracks. That little rabbit-creature was indeed causing a ruckus and trying to claw at something, but it wasn't her mother's corpse. No, it was fighting a wispy, ghost-looking thing with the head of a rabbit: a stalwart hero and adventurer had risen to brave the danger in order to safeguard her mother's corpse.
"Hopkins?!"
She'd blurted it out without thinking, more out of surprise than anything else. Fool that she was, she distracted her brave friend at a crucial moment in the melee: the imp landed a strike with its dagger-claws against Hopkins' chest. Though it didn't seem to carve him through, only moderately corporeal as he was, the force of it pushed the sprite backwards. Backwards...into Mom herself.
A flash of light, and all were gone.
"NO!" A cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, the sensation of choking, the emptying knowledge of something happening that can never be taken back... Tears welled into her eyes as she tried to deny the empty slab before her. "NO NO NO NO!! Mom! Please, no!!
But she would not be left to her panic and despair long. All were gone, save one: the gray imp with the rabbit ears and tail, "victorious" over its foe, turned towards Mercia next and menaced with its gray claws and toothy grin. A combination of fury and pure survival instincts kicked in. Though the shivering did not stop--if anything, it grew more potent--she glared at that little imp with purest hatred in her gleaming green eyes.
Her training with her supraliege did not fail her in that moment: though hands shook and knees knocked, she adopted a fencer's stance with her left hand behind her back, and summoned her rapier to her hand. She pointed its gleaming tip squarely between the imp's eyes.
With all of her hatred, all of her fury, all of her despair: not the words to begin any proper duel, but words from the heart. "I will scatter your flesh to the wind..."
> Mercia: STRIFE!