"So why are we gathering frogs?" Brendon questioned his kismesis. They'd been going for about an hour now, heading across the frog infested wasteland to try and capture as many as they could before they hopped away.
Brendon would use his Farwalkers to just be in the right place at the right time to catch one mid-hop while Furlok used her budding Thief of Space powers to flash-step to frogs farther away from her, momentarily stealing distance to catch them.
"For the machine inside the temple." Furlok said, pointing a thumb to the temple with the giant frog head carved into it, "It needs to clone as many as we can get from out here. I think it's actually the point of my planet."
"Really?" Brendon asked curiously, looking from the frogs contained on little cards in his wallet modus to the machine filled temple, "What does the frog cloning do?" "I haven't the foggiest clue." Furlok admitted, "Don't judge me, you didn't even figure out what you were supposed to be doing on your world."
"No, it's fine, I don't mind." Brendon said, catching another frog and storing it in his modus. This caught Furlok off guard, "You.. don't mind?" She questioned him, not even paying attention to the frogs jumping passed her.
Under any normal circumstances that would have been grounds for a ten minute arguement, or at least a few snide comments and maybe a pitch romantic smack or two. But now Brendon just.. Didn't mind?
The implications hit Brendon only a few seconds after they hit Furlok, "I.. no, I don't." He said again, surprised now that he thought about it. He hadn't been paying much attention to it, but he'd not been hating his time with Furlok on LoSaF.
Not even in the 'ugh this sucks by I'm gonna tap hot kismesis ass later' way either, he'd just genuinely been enjoying himself with her. And though Furlok didn't want to think about it, Furlok had been feeling the same way.
Their mutual romantic hatred was.. Waning. This caused both of them to panic now that it had been brought to the forefront, and they scrambled to message Aspico to get her help understanding what was happening.
Aspico charged across the grassy hill, taking a leap off the top and gliding with her feather lined Clear Mind Covers. The Amber Oni below her roared up at her in anger, firing up at her with its machine gun.
The boss monster had the basic shape of the Oni monster, a humanoid with demonic facial features. It glowed yellow with Amber skin, two hooked tails, a turtle shell, venus flytrap head with a painted smile on it, one scorpion claw and one normal hand with a machine gun in it. Looking at it nearly gave Aspico a headache.
She dropped her gliding to fall fast, avoiding the barrage of bullets and letting the cloak out again to slow her fall. She landed hard on the Amber Oni's shell, driving her Pitch Piercer into the back of the monster's head.
Under most circumstances that would have been the end, but the Amber Oni was tougher than the normal monsters. The hooked tails surged up, stabbing into Aspico's shoulders and pulling her off, throwing her to the ground.
The boss monster turned and spewed noxious gases in her direction. Aspico backed up quickly, closing her eyes to focus on nothing but her target. Her mind was clear, her blade was ready, and with a single breath, she launched herself forward.
She spent less than a second inside the cloud of poison gas before she exited the other side, her rapier stabbing deep into the Amber Oni, cracking the turtle shell on the other side. It howled in pain, Aspico wrenching the blade upwards as she began to run up the Oni's body; killing it in the process.
She collected the grist happily, returning to the nearby town. 'You're getting better.' The Exiled told her. Aspico shrugged as she entered the town, looking over the feline consorts she'd been helping for some time recently.
She'd found that the people were not just schitzophrentic like she'd first thought they were. In truth, their intentions were always the same, but something was causing their passions to be twisted into knots, preventing them from expressing themselves properly.
As a result, they ended up bouncing from one activity to another constantly, never satisfied with what they were doing for more than a few seconds. They were trapped within labyrinths of their own emotions.
But Aspico was able to help them. She'd found that, with a little concentration, she was able to sense the consorts' passion. She could see what they truly wanted to do, and if she monitored them and made sure they kept going at that specific thing, be it painting, cooking, dancing, carving, coding, writing, etc, then eventually they would overcome the wall placed in front of them and be once again able to express themselves.
She'd slowly but surely assisted everyone in this town, but wanted to check up on them at least once more before she left. She'd seen a few of them slip back into the previous chaos once or twice if not helped.
They thanked her constantly, but Aspico refused any rewards save for directions to the next town, "As Seer of Heart, I must find my way across all of LoCaF." She told them as they brought her maps.
'About time. I was wondering if you'd ever be satisfied with them.' The Exile said, her tone making it easy for Aspico to imagine the roll of her eyes as she said it; though she wasn't actually sure what the Exiled looked like.
'It's not my fault they were so badly affected.' Aspico replied as she headed through the grasslands, casually slaying the shale and marble imps in her path. They were too weak to pose any real challenge at this point.
As she went, she received a message, or rather several messages all in a row. They were from Brendon and Furlok. A pitch squabble no doubt. Much as she liked helping people through their romantic issues, she didn't have the time at the moment. She ignored them for now, continuing across her land towards the next town.
Lurabo drew the Seven of Cups from her tarot deck, summoning three illusions of her lusus. They dashed into the horde of monsters in front of her as a distraction as the yellow blooded troll held her Arcane aloft, closing her eyes to focus her telekinesis.
It connected to the magical power of the Arcane, firing in a wave of power in front of her. The mercury and oil imps were blasted to grist almost instantly, leaving only the basilisks and ogres when the attack was done.
The ogres continued chasing the illusions while the basilisks slithered towards Lurabo. She drew a hand from her Slicer Suits, flinging the razor sharp playing cards at them like ninja stars. The cards hit their marks, carving through the basilisks.
This left only the ogres. Lurabo drew the Nine of Swords, a pulse of destructions causing the remaining monsters to crumble and fall to pieces on the platform. Lurabo sighed in relief, climbing up the ladder in the center of the platform to the treasure chest in the center of it.
As she did, she felt the messager going crazy with messages from someone. She sat down at the edge of the platform in the spotlight and checked the messages.
FS and PP simultaneously: We/WG need/nGGD help!/hGldi
FS: Aspico, we're sorry if we're bothering you, but we're really freaking out right now.
PP: PlGasG rGsponp, !t'll only takG a sGconp.
SI: whaT's g0ing 0n?
PP: Just a.. ! guGss a proplGm for us, p!tch-w!sG. Don't worry about !t Lur, wG'll wa!t for Asp!co.
Lurabo bit her lip at this. This was definitely ashen territory. She knew she should probably just let Aspico take care of it. She'd do a way better job than Lurabo could have, Lurabo was sure of it. But… she couldn't help herself.
SI: MaybE i c0uld hElp? whaT's ThE issuE?
FS: Well… it's our fighting. We.. haven't been. Not for a few days now. No fights, arguments, not even disagreements. Maybe a few insults, but they're all token and forced. We're just getting along really well, and we're just kinda worried.
PP: K!smGs!s arGn't supposGd to gGt along l!kG th!s, !t's frGak!ng us out. You don't th!nk wG'Gr.. Not work!ng as blackrom anymore?
SI: NoT aT all! iT's perfecTly normal whaT's happening.
FS: It is?
SI: DefiniTely. somETimes kismEsis have days, wEeks, Even yEars of Enjoying Each oThers company. iT's callEd oscillaTion, and iT's jusT a Temporary spurT of fun in another quadrant. Kismesis can briefly become red, red can briefly become black, it's perfectly natural; healthy even. Normally it's a good idea to have an Auspistice to regulate and schedule red and blackrom times for you.
PP: Oh my Lur, u com!ng onto us? };)
SI: / w-whaT?
FS: You mentioned that having an auspistice is a big help right? Were you offering or something~?
SI: N-no of course noT! IT'd be supEr rudE to suggEst such a Thing wiThout bEing asked, and for all i know you don'T evEn need one, I mean.. I..
PP: RGlax Lur, wG'Gr just tGas!ng.
FS: Thanks though, that's actually a huge relief ^^
SI: No problEm.. I'd bE.. Willing to listEn if you guys gEt any other piTch problEMs. PlaTonically of course.
For those who don't check my profile, I'll be on Hiatus until March 31st working on 'The Month of Futa.'
