Hello friends! Welcome back to the next chapter of this fiction! :)
This story is loosely based on a game called "Conan Exiles", which is a fairly explicit survival RP game. The fiction will be rated 18+ (M) for violence, gore, language, and adult situations. If you are not a fan of any of the afore mentioned themes, this is NOT the fiction for you.
Disclaimer: I dare not dream of owning the franchises I'm writing about. I'm way too poor :')
Chapter 6
That got Cat Noir's and Marinette's attention.
"You can't just paws for dramatic effect," Cat Noir whined. Carapace snorted while Rena and Ladybug groaned.
"So as I was saying," Rena continued, raising an eyebrow at Cat Noir as if to test him, "I found a different Kwami than Sass! Their name is Trixx!"
"What does Trixx do?" Marinette asked. "Sass had snake-like traits. What is Trixx like?"
"Trixx had the body of a foxy lady," Carapace said, and when he realized he made a pun, a slow grin curled up his lips. The girls groaned again while he and Cat Noir pounded fists in appreciation. "But in all seriousness, Trixx's statue's body was definitely female and had fox-like traits. And Rena chose to follow them."
"I did!" Rena said excitedly. "It looks like depending on your devotion level, you can unlock different tiers of perks. Like for example, I'm only on tier one because I literally just started following Trixx."
"Ooh," Marinette and Cat Noir fawned together, and giggled at their synchronization.
"So do you have any perks at tier one?" Cat Noir asked after they had calmed their fit of laughter.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Rena said with a wicked grin, and suddenly Marinette was feeling much less confident about the situation. "I can detect physical and magical traps, and, what I'm more excited for, seeing through disguises, including but not limited to the true appearances of players in this game."
"O-oh?" Marinette stuttered, promptly feeling self conscious. She didn't really know what her character looked like in game (there was a small picture in her inventory screen, but it wasn't super detailed), so she wasn't sure how close it was to her actual appearance.
"Yup. All I have to do is choose what I want to look for and say 'Reality'." As soon as Rena spoke the activation word, a bright puff of thin orange smoke surrounded the camp, before dissipating almost as quickly as it appeared.
The dark haired young woman quickly looked around, but was slightly disappointed when no one looked any different. Just as Marinette fixed her gaze back on Rena, she gasped softly. The redhead was staring wide eyed between both Marinette and Cat Noir, her lips pulling into a wide, ecstatic smile.
"You good over there Rena?" Cat Noir asked, a blond brow lifted incredulously.
"Babe, are you OK?" Carapace asked, seeming vaguely amused as he waved a hand in front of his partner's face.
"Holy shit," Rena breathed, her eyes filling with stars and she jumped up, whooping loudly and started doing some sort of vigorous victory dance.
"Should I be concerned?" Cat Noir stage whispered to his fellow clanmates that were still sitting as they watched Rena celebrating… or so Marinette assumed.
"Nah, dude, she gets like this when her intuition proves to be spot on," Carapace blandly replied with a fond look towards Rena, that slowly morphed into one of confusion and then speculation as he turned back to Marinette and Cat Noir.
Cat Noir shrugged back at him and Marinette just shook her head. After a few moments of Rena's utter glee demanding an outlet, she returned and sat her happy ass down, still wiggling at times.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Cat Noir grinned.
"I actually physically can't share," Rena said as if she were truly happy about discovering a secret. "I'm sure you're familiar with attempting to talk about personal IRL stuff."
"Are there any tidbits of information that you can share?" Marinette laughed.
"As a matter of fact, yes," the new Trixx acolyte snickered, and Marinette and Cat Noir audibly swallowed. "Both of you are smokin' hot and are in good physical shape IRL. That's about all I can divulge without us attempting virtual hearing loss."
Way to pique my curiosity Rena, Marinette groaned. She tried to discreetly glance over at Cat Noir, but his expression was unreadable.
"So Ladybug," Carapace said, trying to cut through the odd silence that had fallen upon the group, "do you think we collected enough materials for you to start building?"
"I can definitely get things started," she chimed in, grateful for a change in topic. "Is everyone going to want to build their own homes?"
"I'll shack up with Rena," Carapace shrugged. "We're actually newlyweds in real life, and I have no intention of separating from her now."
"A-ah! Congratulations!" Marinette squeaked as her face flushed crimson.
"Thank you!" Rena smiled. "But yeah, we'll share a house. I'd also like to build it too if that's ok…?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Marinette nodded. "I was mainly asking to see if anyone wanted a house, but didn't want to build one themselves."
"Makes sense," Cat Noir agreed. "I'd also like to build my own house, but it might take a while with the location I have in mind…"
"Sounds fine to me," Marinette said. "The only requests I have are that I get some help building city walls first, and to entrust the area around the springs to me. I've got a really neat idea for it."
"Yes ma'am!" the rest of Marinette's clan mates saluted simultaneously, and then everyone burst into peals of laughter.
"Do you guys think we should go ahead and start setting up torches in our base tonight? Or just wait until tomorrow?" Marinette asked.
"It wouldn't hurt to set up a few," Rena shrugged. "They're cheap to make, so it's not like they're going to ruin our building plans."
"Is someone afraid of the dark?" Carapace asked jokingly, and all eyes were back on the clan leader.
"Uh, actually, yes," Marinette hesitantly answered. "But it was more that we've got vision in case any hostiles try to sneak up on us."
"Well if it's what the clan leader wants, I'm in no position to be able to argue," Cat Noir shrugged and then stood up. He quickly strode away and started placing torches. "Feel free to move them if you see a better spot. Since I still have a lot of materials on me, I thought I'd go ahead and make them."
The shit-eating smirk that Rena gave Marinette made the clan leader terribly worried about her friend's food preferences. Without replying to Rena's gesture, Marinette also stood up and went to go place and move torches where she thought would be most appropriate.
"OK dude, I know Ladybug said she was afraid of the dark, but we don't need to burn through all our resources," Carapace half joked as Cat Noir continued his spree.
"I kinda figured that if we had enough light, we could go ahead and build the city wall tonight since we don't have to sleep," Cat Noir said with a look that was far too innocent.
"He has a point," Marinette chimed in, and went to go get the materials to start the crafting benches and the furnace. "We can also have materials and items crafting through the night once everything is set up."
"I mean, that would probably get us out of the 'running for our lives from everything' phase we're in right now faster," Rena said dryly.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Carapace grimaced before joining the rest of the clan with their building projects.
By the sun had risen the next day, the Miraculous clan bade welcome to most of the basic material crafting stations, their entire camp being lit up like a Christmas tree (courtesy of one blond goofball), and their base walls were coming along nicely.
"You know what I just noticed?" Carapace said, a sly grin forming as he got his clan mates' attention.
"What?" Marinette asked, still half distracted by trying to place stone walls in a line parallel to the tops of the canyon walls to soothe her OCD.
"Thanks to our all-nighter, we now have all of our basic benches."
"Oh my Kwami, Carapace!" Rena facepalmed, looking like she physically wanted to throw something while Cat Noir started cackling loudly.
Marinette hid her smile for Rena's sanity. I will admit that was a pretty good one.
"I hope today is Monday because I found my new man crush," Cat Noir declared, stepping in to bump fists with the other male. "I knew you were a man after my own heart."
"Can we keep him Rena?" Carapace asked with his best puppy dog look. Rena gave a withering stare in return.
"I'm not sure a newly wedded wife would want a stray cat so soon, my friend," Cat Noir said apologetically with his voice, but his facial expression said otherwise.
Carapace's face lit up as he clearly thought of something to respond with, but only said, "Babe, because I love you and I really don't feel like being castrated today, I'm not going to say what I just thought of."
Rena and Marinette both raised an eyebrow but chose to remain silent.
"PM me," Cat Noir said with a grin and the women rolled their eyes. When the blond opened his messages, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open a little. "Yeah, I feel like she would've gone after your dangly bits with one of milady's daggers, but I will admit it was crème de la crème." Cat Noir's eyes sparkled mischievously and Carapace snickered.
"Spare me," Rena said with a long suffering look and Marinette chuckled as she patted her friend on the shoulder.
"Come on Rena, let's go ahead and finish up the walls. Then we can send the children out to go play while we build our houses with the first materials," Marinette said soothingly, and it was Rena's turn to giggle while the males stared in shock.
"Hey! I'm not a child-"
"Dudette, that is not cool-"
The men started and stopped their defense in total sync while Marinette and Rena snorted with laughter.
"Let's get to it then. I think that we can sun near the springs while they're away. At least one person has to stay here to keep the benches crafting anyways." Rena smiled.
"And now they're dismissing us," Carapace huffed.
"I thought you said you wanted to go kill things," Marinette said innocently. "I was just giving you the opportunity to do what you wanted."
"I don't think we're winning this round mate," Cat Noir whispered just loudly enough for Marinette to hear and she giggled.
"Looks like the 'stray cat' catches on quick," Rena smirked and beckoned Marinette to follow her. "I hear the springs calling me darling, let's go."
Cat Noir just shrugged good naturedly and dragged his sulking friend in the direction of the mostly complete wall. The clan's progress was quick, and it didn't take long for everyone to laugh again. Soon, the quartet were staring at their successfully walled off base with a collective sense of accomplishment.
"I know I said this already, but I really am so glad I've met all of you," Marinette said warmly.
"Milady, this is what games like these are all about," Cat Noir grinned. "Building things and creating memories with friends."
"The furball is right," Rena said brightly, earning a brief protest from the blond. "This game wasn't meant to be played alone.
There was a companionable spell of silence (you know, friendship is magic and all that ooey gooey stuff) that was eventually broken by Marinette. "OK. Carapace and Cat Noir, I really would like you both to go out and gather materials. Bringing back hide so we can make leather and then get better armor and weapons should be next on our to-do list. Once we can actually work on our armor scores, I think that we'll be able to go on raids. Try to scout out NPC camps so we can start working on getting thralls to defend our base in case we all want to venture out. I don't think our position is secure enough as of right now if PKers tried to take this place from us."
"Sounds like a plan to me dudette," Carapace said, Cat Noir and Rena nodded in silent agreement.
And that's chapter six! I wonder what Carapace PMed Cat Noir about... :) But they have a start of a base now! And everyone is starting to really vibe with each other! Woooo adventure!
Thank you so much for reading my fiction! I really wanted you all to know that. Until next time, buh-bye! :D