Brendon's curiosity about his new planet rapidly became replaced with a mix of excitement and frustration when he found the first wave of imps. He felt that he'd mastered the shale imps he'd fought in the Medium, but was now faced with monsters called Mercury and Cobalt imps.
In addition to having a new coloration-light grey for the former, deep blue for the latter-they also had more combat potential. They still had Droog's machine gun, but now had various other features.
The cobalt imp was flying in the air with feathered wings, and also had a scorpion's tail. There were also two mercury imps still on the ground, one with a turtle shell and long curved claws, one with an alligator mouth and mechanical arms.
The Boxcar Buffer still repelled most of the damage from the bullets, but the imps' new features made them harder to deal with. The mercury imps bit and slashed at him, the cobalt swooping down to sting him.
He managed to bring down the mercury imps, keeping Furlok in his thoughts as he spun the Spade Sparker, burning the imps away. The cobalt was harder to deal with because of its mobility, and he took two stings before managing to nail it with a shot from his Shotty, killing it.
He gathered the build, mercury, and cobalt grist, panting from the venom now in his system. He staggered across the fleshy ground of his land, leaning against one of the fangs that sprouted from the ground like plants. He could see the town in the distance, and headed for it.
He was surprised to find it inhabited not just by humanoid looking people, but by ones that appeared see through and ghostly; like spirits. They all seemed to have a sense of grim resignation about them, all silent unless spoken to.
He walked through the town, evidently cared out of bleached white fangs. He found a shop, and found to his surprise that the imps had been giving more than just rist. With each kill, he'd been receiving a small about of cash called Boon Dollars. He happily traded ten of them for an anti-venom to cure himself, and another fifteen for a night at the town's inn to rest.
He sat down on the creaky old bed of the inn, Droobarsprite looking around the town still. He decided to put his new grist to use before he laid down to sleep off the soreness of the battle, combining his boots with the Felt figures of three and five, known as Trace and Fin.
Trace could see trails left behind by people's pasts, letting him follow their past actions. Fin could follow people's future trails, seeing into the future and messing with them through time. Combining their figures with his boots created the Farwalkers, boots that would reportedly always keep him on track. He would test them out later though, needing now to rest.
Furlok found that her land was indeed living up to its name. There seemed to be two different zones on LoSaF, the market zone, which was a maze of different shopkeepers, all of whom appeared as anthro raccoon creatures.
The other was the frog zone, an empty expanse of nothing but fields and frogs. In the distance, Furlok could see a massive building with what looked like yet another frog o it, a massive stone one carved into it.
Furlok also found, to her disappointment, that the shopping zone didn't actually qualify as a town, and she could indeed be jumped by imps within it. The shopkeepers didn't lift a finger to help as Furlok battled white alabaster imps, who had not only the rodent features of the shale imps, but also grinning clown faces, long mole claws, and vines that could extend from their bodies.
Furlok's Brushware set made short work of them, and she obtained quickly some extra grist and boon dollars. She attempted to use her new found money to purchase a set of knives from the nearest shopkeeper, wanting to combined them with her brushware to make them even stronger.
"Back!" The shopkeeper hissed, "Back! There's been too much stolen from me by thieves like you, back!" Furlok frowned, holding out the money she planned to spend, "I just want to buy-" "Back thief!" The raccoon threw a cube of some kind of stone at Furlok to scare her off.
Furlok jumped back, painting the block of ore with her sketch modus and keeping it for herself. She stuck her tongue out at the shopkeeper and walked off, looking for a shop that she could buy from.
Furlok quickly found that her encounter with the first shopkeeper would in fact be the running trend with all of them. None of them would let Furok get within arms' reach of their stands, all assuming she was a thief out to steal their wares even when she was literally walking forward with her money in her hands.
Furlok ended up proving them right by the end of her first hour on the planet. After two more fights, one of which was with a fucking airborne tar impo with jet boosters for wings, Furlok was fed up with the hostility. She needed shit and she was going to get it one way or another.
She tossed her last splatterbomb into the air, letting it explode in a display of color and lights. While the shopkeepers were distracted by it, she sprinted through the market stands, grabbing as much as she could before bolting towards the frog zone.
Once she was safe, she found that she'd stolen a set of daggers, a kaleidoscope, and a paint roller. She smiled at this, combining her brushware with the daggers to create the Bladed Brushware, the kaleidoscope with the goggles she'd brought; pre-alchemized with her computer for hands off messaging, and creating the Spectrumicles. A set of colorful eyewear that would let her view the entire color spectrum, while still allowing for hands off computing.
Lastly, she combined the paint Roller with the Ore block she'd been given, making the RollOver, a large, dense painting device for rolling over enemies. Satisfied with her alchemy, and that she wouldn't be attacked while in the frog zone, the teal blooded laid down for a quick rest.
Aspico found the inhabitants of her lan to be quite odd. They were all humanoid felines, and they all seemed very.. Artistic would be the word used for politeness, but Aspico could have also described them as schizophrenic.
One moment they were painting, the next they stood up so abruptly they knocked the canvas into the dirt and ruined the it as they began dancing to a tuneless song being performed by other felines who'd moments before been attempting to cook. It was rather upsetting to watch after the first few moments.
Aspico focused on battling the imps surrounding the town. They seemed to be of the rust and chalk variety, some with her Harpysprite's wings, but also having long hooked tails, scorpion pincers, and cuesticks in hand and smooth salamander skin.
Her Pitch Piercer was strangely effective in combat, which Aspico refused to think about. Once she'd gathered enough grist, she began combining a few more things, combining her Harpy Harness with her moirallegiance guide-a book detailing all the ends and outs of the pale romance quadrant, to create the Diamonds Dressings.
She then with her auspisticism guide-the instructional guide to the ashen quadrant, to create the Clear Mind Covers, a long, protective robe of a simple gray that would steady the mind of the wearer.
'Interesting choice.' Said a voice from with a speaker Aspico couldn't see."Who said that?" She asked allowed, receiving no response at first, and seeing no one as she looked around. '
Do not be alarmed, all of you have one of us,' the voice, which Aspico recognized as female, said, 'you just seem to be the only one who can hear us. The others take advice from us without knowing, taking action or thinking thoughts from them while thinking it was their own idea. It's been quite odd for us really.'
"I see.." Aspico said, "I take it you and your associates are a part of this game that we were heretofore unaware of?" 'I suppose we are, though I'm confused by your calling this a game.' She replied.
"Interesting." Aspico said as she saw a rust ogre approach from over the hill, "Feel free to continue speaking while I fight, I can multi-task." She said as she rushed towards the enemy.
No sooner had Furlok's eyes closed on LoSaF did they open again on Derse. She still didn't know how she knew the name of the dark purple kingdom she woke up in when she slept, but she'd been appearing there whenever she slept for years.
She'd thought it was just a dream at first, until she found that many of her friends had versions of themselves sleeping there as well. It seemed that only Furlok able able to appear there when she slept, but she hoped that the others would be waking on Derse soon when they slept within the game.
She wasn't sure how she knew that the game and Derse were related, nor did she really care. Her dream self rarely cared about the same things as her waking self, with the two obvious exceptions of painting and Brendon, whose dream self was sleeping in the spire next to Furlok's.
She'd learned young not to paint as her dream self, at least not without setting up her canvas first in the waking world, as if she didn't, she'd wake up with paint covering the walls. She could, however, still visit Brendon.
She walked across the purple brick room to the window. It was barred over, but Furlok had pried the bars off with her brushes years ago. She looked down, seeing that the coast was clear, and quickly scurried across the rail between the spire she slept in, and the one containing Brendon, hoping her kismesis would be awake finally.
Apologies for the vague language here and there, but there isn't much better a way to introduce certain elements of the canon, lol. As always, you'll have to visit Sinful's Drabbles for the lemon scene of this chapter. Those who read Homestuck will likely already know a class and an aspect from these players just from the terminology, lol.
