Hello Everyone. I'm back.
Now for the fic.
"Talking"
Thoughts
'Mental Communication or using a magic item'
[Debuffs]
Skills/Systems
Chapter 9 – Superiors
A few minutes before the explosions
Pilot, Crescent Rose
Crescent and Wotan were getting ready for bed.
As per what had become a routine anytime Wotan took her teasing too far, she was now being cuddled in her white wolf/raven outfit by Crescent in one arm while the other held the giant Cheshire plushie she had bought after her first quest.
Sooooo soft and soooooo cute. Crescent thought to herself.
It just wasn't fair. Wotan could rile her up more than Yang, Dad, and Uncle Qrow could combine, but the second she felt this impossible soft fluffiness it all melted away into nothing.
She thought about her most recent quest and how amazing this game was. From the delicious food to the cuddly creatures, to the AWESOME battles between robots and what was effectively a dinosaur – minus the fact she'd have to replace her mech's arm…again- was amazing.
What struck her most was this was her fifth night in Infinite Dendrogram. Her FIFTH and it was only Saturday of her two-and-a-half-day weekend!
So much had happened so quickly. Fixing a robot, getting an Embryo, and one-shotting a monster for the first day. Joining a guild and fighting a Rockbird for her second. Officially joining the guild on her third and then the fourth and fifth mining ores.
A part of her regretted not taking up Java's invitation to the Margraviate of Barbaros sooner. This last quest had been really cool, if a little uneventful.
Java hadn't brought it up, so Crescent chose not to as well. Still, any quest that netted her more high-quality metal ores to upgrade her MG-250, would be worth the time.
"Master?" Wotan asked, her tone unusually somber.
"Yes?"
"Are you happy with me as your Embryo?"
Crescent blinked, "What, you're the best. Why would you think otherwise?"
The wolf/raven girl cuddled closer to her, forcing the Cheshire plushie away and taking herself into both of Crescent's arms.
"When that Earth Dragon showed up, we- I- couldn't even leave a scratch on it." She said, shaking slightly, "I could accept things even if my skills did damage your weapons, but only if it meant we injured our enemy."
Her tone became more of a whisper, "But this time, I not only damaged the MG-250, I was useless."
"Is that why you said that stuff to Duncan, to distract from you feeling down? Or was it so I wouldn't notice?" Crescent asked recalling a time when she had tried pushing Yang to distract her after a boy in school had pulled out her pigtails. She didn't want those close to her to worry.
Granted that plan didn't work out because the next day Yang had knocked out three of his teeth. Sure they were baby teeth, but still.
Despite the trouble that followed, Yang had taught her one thing.
Crescent took Wotan's face in her hands so the blonde-haired girl met her eyes, despite the eye patch, "We're in this together. If we don't like something. We won't change by hiding our pains from each other. No, we'll move forward together." She said firm and resolute.
Wotan wrapped her arms around her and hugged her a little too tightly.
"Air-air Wotan…gah…need…air."
"Whoops." The Maiden Embryo released her Master before giggling, "Usually, it's me giving you pep talks, but I don't mind it when it's the other way around every now and again."
"Any time Wotan." Crescent smiled, "Plus I think I have an idea of how we can use your skill to its fullest."
"Oh, and how is that?"
*BOOM**BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*!
The entire area seemed to shake as explosions rattled their room. That last one felt like it was just below them.
"Was it Valean Independence Day?" Crescent shouted as the floor beneath their bed began to creak and groaned.
Not even needing to say anything, Wotan grabbed her Master, fireman carry rather than princess carry like she normally would have- because it embarrassed her Master- before jumping towards to door to their room in time for another explosion to destroy the half of the room they were just on.
"Cheshire no!" Crescent cried as her human-sized plushie burst into flames.
Ruby considered herself a level headed person when it came to her temper, but she could swear her silver eyes were seeing red right now.
Crescent used an accessory Java had given her, stating they weren't selling as fast as she would like because it had only one skill attached to it, to invoke the skill Clothing Switch.
Which in her honest opinion was far too overpowered. Even if it only worked on items that could be counted as "clothing" such as armor, accessories like necklaces or broaches, or just plain t-shirts it allowed a player to preselect an entire outfit of their choosing and instantly swap it with what they were currently wearing.
Supposedly Bun-Bun's maid uniform was a custom crafted to have six different preselected equipment configurations for different situations.
Rather than having to individually equip each piece of equipment- a few she got after finishing the quest with Coffee Lock- at a time, Crescent instantly equipped her new driver's suit with the accessories that counted as clothing such as her Rockbird Feathered Necklace and a pair of gloves that gave a 50 point boost to her DEX.
As she rushed down the stairs, she saw a Master with a fireball the size of a soccer ball in each hand staring down the kindly old innkeeper, Misses Gray, who was equipped with only a cast iron skillet.
Crescent instantly took her mech out, which she could do since half of the building facing the street was now gone, and hopped into the cockpit as Wotan coalesced into her signature red energy cape.
The process itself took only seconds, but in that time…Misses Gray had deflected both fireballs back at the man like she was playing tennis before striking him in the legs with such force that both of them no longer pointed in the right direction before raising her skillet overhead.
"No, wait! AGH-" Okay, she just saw the innkeeper take the top part of a Master's head off…with a skillet.
Yeah, she didn't need her help. As if to emphasize this further, she threw the Skillet…which ricocheted (?) taking out three more…
…was she Captain Atlas or something? (1)
'Master, I believe we should leave Misses Gray our lir for the room…and a big tip.' Wotan sent through their bond.
Despite the danger of the entire capital being set on fire, tians dying, and countless explosions sounding everywhere, Crescent mechanically dismounted her mech, took out the lir, plus a generous tip of 20,000 lir, and set it on the counter…and left a plate of triple chocolate chip cookies with a note that read "from Crescent Rose", just in case.
"Go on deary, I might be old, but I can handle punks like these!" she shouted on the last part as a Master came charging at her with a flaming sword only to take a skillet to the groin before she adjusted her grip and hit him in the face so hard, he was sent flying into the building across the street before bursting into motes of light.
"And thanks for the cookies." She said never once even turning around.
How did she know that? Crescent pondered as she went to see if she could help those in trouble.
/-/
King of Engineering, Doc Cricket
Pietro Polendina had seen riots. More than he would care to remember. The people of Mantle were often one bad policy from such a state even with the compassionate elite in "Atlas looking out for them".
That was why he opened his clinic in Mantle, to actually do some good instead of just trying to collect political brownie points and pats on the back for doing…well nothing really.
But in the dozens of riots, he had seen throughout his long life, this didn't feel like one.
Yes, there was looting, and destruction of private property, but every grouping of people had opportunistic actors. But it was too coordinated to be spontaneous.
His own clan was currently under attack.
That by itself wasn't proof. The Clock Tower raked in more lir in a month than most small countries could in a year, but so far, the only ones attacking were either Masters or tians dressed in poor imitations of Dryfeian soldier uniforms armed with weapons not common in Dryfe.
His clan's machine guns and giant robots were met with flaming arrows, gems with fire magic stored in them, and what were very clearly fire spells.
The common theme was 'fire'.
Earlier that day he, and a few members of his clan, had received an email from Will that he had been PK'd but didn't know who did it.
At first, they had assumed it was someone taking petty strikes at the Clock Tower for its success.
It has happened a few times before.
Now, however, it seems it was planned.
Will, or Tinker as he was known in the game, had an Embryo that excelled at extinguishing fires by absorbing heat. He could have, in theory, disassembled their entire clan with that ability alone.
"So, the Fire Bugs are making their move." He frowned behind his whale suit.
Getting up from the custom seat in his office, with a perfect view of the assault on his clan's base, he went over to a bronze whale on a pedestal with its mouth opened to a fanged maw. He then opened the whale's mouth revealing two abnormally small inventories that each one could be balanced on the tips of his fingers…his normal fingers, not the costumed ones he had in the game.
Despite their size, each one had been painstakingly made as a custom order by the King of Inventories in Huang He as part of a business deal and could hold his entire clan's base inside of them…minus the people of course.
Thank goodness they got Tinker after he picked the inventories up. Especially the custom magic items inside of them.
Opening the mechanical book on his hip, he slipped the inventories into it where he heard a whirling and clinking sound before the book glowed a vibrant green.
He then ran, both in part due to the urgency, but also because in real life he couldn't so he tried to do it as much as possible in the game.
/-/
Their clan base mainly ran thanks to so many of its members having odd hours and thus there were almost always several people on staff at any given moment.
However, since their schedules were…inconsistent at best, they needed to staff several tians to help with the odds and ins of things. Those that had the Maid/Butler jobs kept the place clean and running but had little in the way of defending themselves. (2)
…minus a certain killer maid he knew.
But still, each tian staff member had been instructed that in the event of an attack, they were to head to designated shelters within the center of the compound.
Oddly enough, they took to it with surprising ease.
Then again, when you live in a world of monsters that could annihilate entire countries if they got strong enough, it wasn't that hard to believe that would embrace such safety measures.
As he passed one such shelter, he saw a mech, an MG-290 if his guess was correct, coated in what could only be described as the skin of a giant beast that wrapped around each part of the body like some kind of living suit…with six three meter long claws on each hand.
Savage Furry, Wechuge, a fifth form Advance Embryo of the fourth strongest duelist in the Dryfe Imperium and the strongest individual battle type in The Clock Tower, Dahlia Decoy.
Despite being only fourth in the Duel Rankings, Dahlia was number one in brutality…such as when a group of six intruders came rushing in only for her to shred three with her claws, step on the legs of a fourth with her giant robot before using the treads to grind them to hamburger and use what remained of his top half to bludgeon the remaining two to death.
…apparently, none of them were Masters.
As if already knowing what he was going to say, "They attacked first, anything in self-defense is allowed. Even killing tians." She said before moving on to look for more people to…self-defend against.
Sometimes he thought she only joined his clan for the discount on Magingear parts.
Shrugging, he ran a different way, while the main assault was at the front gate to the south, his office view showed him a small skirmish going on in the east.
Within a few minutes, he saw the last of his clan members who had been defending the gate, disappear into motes of light.
Standing in front of the force he would say numbered only about thirty, was a humanoid badger, no it was another man in a costume.
A badger costume.
"Leave now, and there won't be any trouble." Doc Cricket spoke coldly not even attempting any of his usual 'humorous' whale puns.
"Heh, really?" the badger asked amused, "Because from where I stand, the only one in trouble is you."
"I know your Embryo is only good for fixing up machines, in a straight-up fight, you're worthless." The badger said as the gloves on his hands became encased in flames.
"After I'm done with you, I'll be sure to make your tian staff scream before I kill them. Tians always give good EXP." He said, and though Doc couldn't see his face, he knew he was grinning.
Badgey was currently ranked in the low twenties in the duel rankings due to his Embryo, Screaming Flames of Disaster, Itqiirpak, ability to induce and stack the [Burn], [Fear], and eventually [Fainting] debuffs with each consecutive hit.
It made him a dangerous opponent, to say the least.
"Let the Flames of Madness Scream Themselves to Death – Itqiirpak" Badgey intoned his ultimate skill as he soared toward Doc…only for metallic spikes to rise from the walls, floors, and ceilings to turn him into Swiss cheese.
"Your associate made one mistake," Doc spoke to the group with an almost unnerving calmness.
They tried to back away as the whale-suited man approached, only to find out that a metal wall with electrified circuitry was cut off their escape.
"You see, my Embryo, Book of The Machines, doesn't simply "improve" machines, though it does do that. it also allows me to modify and upgrade anything that counts as a machine, such as the floors, ceilings, and walls of a building that has numerous sensors and devices hidden throughout it so that I could turn the clan base into a literal fortress should I need to. I just need to add a few inventions", or inventories full of inventions, but he didn't tell them that part, "to my book and I can upgrade any machine I want."
As he finished saying that, someone in their group noticed that the sound of battle that had been taking place only a moment ago at the south gate, had stopped…
Before anyone could fully process what that meant, several machine guns formed from the floor taking on the appearance of liquid metal before coalescing into shape.
Within 0.2 seconds, all enemy Masters had been eradicated from the Clow Tower clan base.
Despite himself, Doc looked down at his Embryo. "Book of The Machines", was the title of three chapters of the book Erewhon by Samuel Butler made from several articles he had contributed to The Press – a daily newspaper. In those chapters, Butler was the first to offer the idea of what would happen if machines gained consciousness and could self-replicate.
Both abilities his Embryo had, though to varying degrees.
For someone like Pietro, such a thing was a source of inspiration and terror. Perhaps his Embryo manifested the way it did due to his subconscious fears that the very machines he wished to create both in real life and in Infinite Dendrogram to help people may be used to harm them instead.
'The path to hell is pathed with good intentions'. As they say.
Taking a deep breath, he steeled his resolve, no matter what came next, he would always see the better of people and hope to help them however he could.
/-/
Southern District, Vandelheim
A serpentine comet showered raining streaks of fire down on the city below. A few of the city guards and Masters tried to shoot him down, and while his Cherruve wasn't the fastest, its maneuverability was top of the line.
Paul-E laughed as those idiots began to notice the sparks from his Embryo continued to spread as they were gradually engulfed in flames.
Watching the Masters was okay, but since most of them had turned off their sense of pain, they were a lot less enjoyable than the tians.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a sonic boom somewhere behind him, but before he could fully turn his head, he saw a large black…thing zoom past him before…
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
/-/
Eastern District, Vandelheim
Tomato Bisque grinned as tians were slaughtered wholesale by the flaming mechanical wheels with swords protruding from them.
Tians always did give the best EXP. Being in a party helped him gather more EXP by the moment as each and every one of them burned a tian or Master to crisps.
Level 450, finally.
The plan was coming together well if he did say so himself.
The Masters that could stop them were either distracted, PK'd, or logged off.
Even if their plan didn't work, he had already figured out the recipe for the Marshall II. He couldn't believe that idiotic whale couldn't realize he was stealing their secrets from under their noses.
Caldina would pay a fortune for them.
Suddenly, a woman seemed to manifest a few metels in front of him. She was abnormally tall for a woman with a slender build with long golden hair down to her waist capping her ageless appearing face.
While his build was more suited for crafting, he still had the Appraiser Job and the combat experience to know to use it. "Reveal."
Name: Jenny Frame
Job: Overlord Luxuria
Level: 200 (Total Level: 700)
HP: 10,000
MP: 143,500 (+4,000)
SP: 115,070 (+4,000)
STR: 300
AGI: 2,000 (+5,800)
END: 820 (+1000)
DEX: 300
LUK: 200
He was afraid of being right. She was the top of the Duel Rankings. He had watched her matches a few times.
"Trial and Trivia, Guess the Answer – Sphinx."
And that is how he knew he could beat her as he and his party is transported into what looked like a stage of some old-fashioned gameshow set complete with giant colorful blocks that looked like they were from a giant toddler's playroom, giant novelty foods, two different climbing walls, and a giant pool with a narrow pathway broken up by rotating pathways and even giant red bouncing balls.
But more than that, he knew he could beat her due to knowing how her Embryo, Multifarious Quiz Show, Sphinx, worked. It was a rare World Labyrinth that trapped Jenny and her opponents in a giant obstacle course with random trivia cards hidden throughout. Whoever answers five questions correctly in a row, wins and the loser gets the death penalty. Granted the number of questions the participants needed to answer changed based on the difference in levels.
In this case, his party had "0/5" hanging over their heads while Jenny had "0/10" over hers.
While within her Embryo neither party could engage in direct combat, and the only spells or buffs that are allowed are ones that boost AGI, DEX, or be used to extend a person's reach.
Embryos were allowed, but can't be used to inflict damage.
But it had one weakness. She couldn't prevent her Embryo from drawing in those within the area of effect. As a result, things like tamed monsters were included.
Since he was in a party, they would be dragged in, and this meant they had the advantage.
When he looked at her stats he wasn't sure what to make of any of them. Her MP and SP were off the charts with her AGI quite high as well. Everything else was abysmally low.
His Embryo, Scything Wheels in the Sky, Barcädžy Calh, could move far faster than she could and since each one of them could answer cards picked up by other party members it would be his win…
Until an equal number of humanoid figures, completely cloaked in black, stood behind her.
"Who are they?" someone behind him asked.
"My kin. They are my personal tamed monsters and each one has above-human-level intellect which I have cultivated into being the greatest trivia buffs in Infinite Dendrogram.
Okay, this could be bad, but that didn't mean they were going to lose…when did the black figures grab those trivia cards?
"Did I mention they are all able to move at supersonic speeds?"
"No!"
The "kin" broke their trivia cards and ten questions appeared in the air.
What is the name of the iconic sword of the Arc Family?
Which mythological creature of Grimm is represented in the constellation for September to October?
Which Dust mining company is famous for depleting the natural resources of Vaccuo?
What objects are on the Kingdom of Vale's flag?
What is the name of the law enforcement organization in Kuo Kuana?
Which general is considered to have led the raid that resulted in the turning point of the Faunus Rights Revolution?
In the fairy tale, Poppy, what possesses the main character and her brother?
What dangerous insect is attracted to the sweet sap of the trees in the Forever Falls?
What island off of the coast of Menagerie is famous for tuna fishing?
What is the largest lake in Anima?
"Crocea Mors, Sea Feilong, Mistral Trading Company, a laurel wreath, and crossed axes, the Menagerie Guard, General General Lagune (3), a Chill, rapier wasp, Azure Island, Lake Matsu." She answered rapid fire so quickly, Tomato could only blink before…
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
/-/
Dryfe Imperstand, Noble District, Vandelheim
Tick walked slowly through the massive mechanical palace in the center of Dryfe's palace, liquid-filled inventories resting on her hips and a map in her hand.
Getting in had been too easy in her opinion. Sure a few people had tried to resist, but now they were laying in puddles of their own blood missing their heads or torso.
She sighed, most of the guards were distracted with the rest of her clan. LMS had given her just about everything they needed; guard rotations, job breakdowns, combat experience, and even a detailed map of the Dryfe Imperstand's layouts.
The latter most of which she was using to navigate to where the current Imperator and his visiting granddaughter should be in the panic room. She would kill them while the other strike force would be taking out the rest of the Imperator's bloodline at the Barbaros family's mansion.
She didn't really see much sport in hunting a bedridden young boy.
Then she could take the Superior Job Imperator Machina for herself and become the ruler of Dryfe.
Queen Tick, yes that was a good name.
She could almost kiss LMS for telling her she could become a ruler like this.
Hell, she might do it. What is a queen without a few concubines?
After she blew open the correct door, she walked into the room she found an elderly man and a younger woman. Supposedly this kid was only thirteen, but already had the high-rank job of Gale Lancer after two weeks of using a spear for rehabilitation.
Yes, she would make a good opponent.
"Who a-are y-you?" the old man wheezed. Not out of fear, but bad health.
Guess he won't be much fun.
Shame.
"Me?" Tick pointed to herself, "I'm just here to kill you and take your Superior Job."
"That's impossible. It is bound to our bloodline." The young girl said, taking a spear out of her inventory. Strangely, Tick couldn't hear much emotion in her voice.
"The Sacred King Superior Job changed bloodlines when the previous one ended, I'm just going to see if it can apply to Masters." Tick smiled.
As she stepped forward she got a series of debuffs. [Missing Head], [Missing Left Torso], [Missing Left Arm], [Missing Right Leg], [Blood Loss]…
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
/-/
A dark-skinned woman with red hair, green eyes, and white tribal tattoos up and down her body walked out of the shadows as the rogue Master's body- missing large chunks of her body gone replaced with what looked like large bite marks- disappeared into motes of light.
"Are you okay Claudia?"
"I am fine, but I'm not comfortable with how she knew about the Imperium's Special Superior Job."
"I-I d-don't care about her, what about Reinhard?" the Imperator rasped.
"That won't be a problem grandfather, Gifted Barbaros isn't a member of the Special Mission Task Force for nothing." The young girl reassured her grandfather.
/-/
Barbaros Family Mansion
As the garden outside the mansion was burning as several figures disappeared into motes of light as human-sized mechanical dolls used weapons to end them. The tians among the assaulting force were laying dead in puddles of their own blood.
Gifted Barbaros didn't know why, but he had always loved the gardens and felt a pang of guilt as they burned.
Thankfully, the fires had not even so much as touched the mansion proper.
He examined one of the corpses crushing the rose bush he, his wife, and child had planted last year.
The man had skin tanned from heavy exposure to the sun. He also noticed a tattoo of a gold lir coin on his right wrist.
It was the tattoo of the Golden Coin, a disbanded mercenary clan from Caldina.
As he further investigated he found signs of former or current illegal clan activities among the corpses. Former Mirage mafia members from Huang He, ronin from at least three dissolved clans in Tenchi, four bandit clans, and even two mercenary clans, one of which was active in Dryfe.
Letting out a tired sigh, he mentally commanded his marionettes to sweep the parameter for further intruders as he and his honor guard went to the interior of the mansion to protect his family and the servants.
…and his charge of course.
/-/
Pilot, Crescent Rose
Despite her MG-250 missing an arm, she could still operate her gun and that was more than enough to PK those attacking innocent people.
This was like a dream come true. She was piloting a giant robot, helping save people, shooting bad guys, and the fact her level went up while doing so was cookies on top of the chocolate frosting of the triple chocolate cake.
"This is the best day of my life!" Crescent cheered sniping a Mage mid-chant.
A monkey-faced man with an afro and a flame thrower tried to swipe at her by before he could turn to engulf her in the conflagration her lightning flail hit him between the eyes- well where the top half of his head was before piercing the guy behind him in the chest before electrocuting him as Crescent made a sharp turn, flinging the body into a third wannabe arsonist with a flaming dagger. Turning the both of them into meat confetti.
A little girl in a tutu tried taking pot shots at her with a revolver while circling her on a flaming skateboard, but a visit from her uncle's favorite exterminator, Mr. Foot, solved that problem.
As a ten-foot-tall giant man wreathed in flames approached, he stopped and twirled the giant flaming Dao with the flourish of a Mistralian festival dancer. Crescent was half tempted to let him continue before giving him a round of applause.
Instead, she drew her gun and downed him in one headshot.
"Did I just pull an Indiana Bones?" (4)
'Dodge Master.' Wotan sent causing Crescent to lung to the side as fire and lightning rained down on where she had just been standing.
In the central plaza, stood a Mage in a plum-colored robe with a large bird resting on his shoulder, crackling with lightning and wings coated in tongues of fire.
"Why are you doing this?" Crescent asked into her microphone.
"Everyone needs a hobby." The Mage shrugged.
First, they burned her plushie and now they say harming people is a HOBBY!
Ruby was not one to get angry easily, but for the first time in a long time, she was angrier than she'd ever been.
"If that's the case I stop yo-" she stopped as someone had picked now, NOW, to log into the central plaza.
She was a tall woman with a picturesque figure and long hair styled like the night sky topped with an adorable pair of cat ears. Even if her outfit looked like a Mistralian thug she had seen in a couple of manga.
She definitely had the scowl down pat. She looked like she could bite through nails.
The mage laughed, "More EXP for me-" he was cut off as She lifted a gauntleted hand before a dark purple mist erupted from it, the Mage being washed in a sea of miasma.
"Endless Miasma!" Crescent gasped as she began to pilot away from the Superior only for her console to start showing structural damage all over the entire mech.
'Master, you need to eject.' Wotan sent as she felt the MG-250 crash to the ground, the status showing that the legs were no longer showing any sign of being connected.
This game has poison corrosive enough to melt metal!?
Before she could even think of using an antidote or elixir…
[Fatal Damage]
[Party Eliminated]
[Resurrection Period Expired]
[Death Penalty: 24 Hour Login Ban]
(1) Atlas is supposed to be the Remnant equivalent of America so Captain Atlas = Captain America.
(2) As far as I know, there aren't any Maid or Butler jobs, but given that there are literally thousands of jobs and the system has jobs like Actor, Secretary, Chef, Dancer, and Journalist, something like Maid seems pretty possible, if not under that same name.
(3) They never said what his first name was, so I made his first name General. So, he is General General.
(4) Indiana Jones, but adapted to follow the RWBY naming convention.
Welp, Crescent got her first death penalty…and a lot of people got both the death penalty and just regular old death.
The whole point of this chapter is to show off how strong some of the Superiors and a two Pre-Superiors really are. I wonder if anyone can guess who our mystery Masters are.
Dahlia Decoy = Vernal. Supposedly, Vernal isn't her real name so I went with Dahlia due to it both being a springtime flower (going with the whole spring theme) and that it comes in Maroon which is one of the colors Vernal wears. I actually got the idea from the tattoo on Vernal's arm of a bird rising from flowers. The "Decoy" part is because I thought an alliteration would be fun and Vernal, in the show, was a literal decoy.
Badgey = Badger. Yeah, couldn't come up with much for this guy. For those who don't know him, he was a character in Roman Holiday. He was a bouncer for the Parrot gang, and a contact of Roman, but was killed because his boss couldn't keep a solid leash on his pet murderous Grimm…which he kept in a night club…that people visited frequently. I don't know who made the worse decisions there, Badger or his boss.
Paul-E = Pauly Parrot. Badger's boss and former club owner who was killed by his own pet grimm. A rather sadistic man who enjoyed watching people suffer.
Tomato Bisque = Bisque. From Roman Holiday, he is the owner of the Broken Memories shop in Mistral Below. He is responsible for the shop's black market operation, reverse-engineering Atlesian technology.
If you like my work, please support it at Pat Reon Dot COM (Slash) jwrite
And remember to review. Seriously, it helps me get better at writing and you get a better story to read. It's a win-win.