Forest-y Adventures

[Guu]

Nyeseth and Desco awoke to the sound of footsteps all around them. They look up to see, villagers in a circle around the two, holding muskets at the ready
“It’s them!” Yelled an older villager, “It’s the folks they warned us about!”
A younger man approaches to get a better look.
“The girl in purple has little demon horns like the three men said.” The younger man spoke. “And the eyes on her outfit look surprisingly real. Maybe she really is a demon like they told us, and that would mean the tallest one is a reaper, and the shortest… Wait, where is the third?”
Nyeseth, Desco, and the villagers look around, but Guu was nowhere in sight.
“We’ll find her later. For now, you are all coming with us back to town. We’ll determine your guilt later.”

[Schwi Dola]

Desco looked at the villagers as they approached. If they had been intimidating demons that glowed with power auras or had huge muscles, she might have been intimidated. But villagers that look like villagers wielding some muskets had no impact for her that they might have wanted. Desco looked curiously at them, Yogsothoth nowhere to be seen. They seemed angry and self-righteous in their pursuit of them. Since Nyeseth didn't take the lead, and Guu had disappeared, she responded without moving from her spot."Desco is a Demon. Desco is a Final Boss Demon. She isn't going anywhere with you."

[Cloud Strife]

Desco began to show her fierceness towards the band of villagers that had surrounded them. Nyeseth had searched for Guu, but he couldn’t see her in sight, either she had anticipated and was waiting for the time to strike, or she had left on her own accord, which would mean that there are now two girls to find in this damn forest.
‘Look, I don’t know what you’ve been told, but it’s not true.’ Nyeseth tried to explain as he stepped between Desco and the villagers.
‘They told us you’d say that!’ One villager with a musket yelled as he raised it in the air and shook it a little bit.
They weren’t going to see reason, whatever they had been told, it was bad enough that they’d dismiss anything Desco or Nyeseth had to say. Nyeseth looked to Desco and saw the fire in her eye, she was anticipating a fight, a slaughter maybe, and that’s not what they were hired for. Nyeseth swiftly drew his sword and disappeared, using his flash step to gain an advantage over the villager’s movements. Nyeseth shortly reappeared and sheathed his sword as each villager fell to the ground, unconscious.
‘I used the flat side of my blade and my flash strike to knock them out. That avoids any deaths.’ Nyeseth explained as he looked around, expecting to see Guu.

[Guu]

From the distance, a grinding sound could be heard. Desco and Nyeseth looked through to the source. They saw Guu, her arms around the arms of a statue, pulling it along on the ground. After, covering up the scrape mark left from the statue in the dirt, the two baffled as she ran around the statue a number of times before running off into the distance faster than he’d seen most animals run.
Nyeseth thought about chasing after her to make sure she didn’t get lost, but then he saw Guu running back, and around the statue again a number of times before running off again. She would do this three more times before walking up to Desco and Nyeseth as if nothing had even happened.
“What were you doing, Guu?” Nyeseth asked.
“Yeah, what was that?” Desco butted in.
Guu looked up at the two, as if it was foolish of them to even ask.
“The villagers woke me up. Didn’t have time to wake you. Figured you two had it anyways.” Guu began. “They most likely saw some of the statues on the way over here. They’re probably going to ask some questions about that. Unless if they saw the footprints of a certain mythical creature that could turn people into stone...”
She lifted up her toeless foot for the two to see, and they watched as it took the basic shape of a bird talon.
“…like a chicken footed cockatrice perhaps? Maybe even a whole hoard of them of differing sizes. Maybe even ones going the opposite direction of our girl.”
A smug little smile spreads across Guu’s face as she looked down on the unconscious villagers.
“Team Guu: 1, crap village: 0. Enjoy the ensuing cockatrice panic.” She said, a slight hint of malice under the usual monotone. She turned to the crew, stepping up towards the two.
“Lead the way.” She commanded.

[Schwi Dola]

Desco was excited to be in the search, but after thinking for a moment she decided they needed some help. For demons there was only one kind of menial labor with which you could do anything with or to and they pretty much had to help or they wouldn't get paid. "Wait! Desco is going to get some help for this!" Desco pulled out some Omnilium and held it out. The Omnilium spread to three figures and Desco focused on the summoning. It took a while to summon, about 5 minutes. Prinny hide formed into the container that held the soul of some criminal human. The time was short for this summoning since Prinnies were so weak and exploded if you threw them, especially as these were Hades Prinnies that were technically still in training.

As the summoning finished, the Prinnies looked surprised. "How did we get here Dood?" "I don't know Dood, hey look its Master Desco Dood." One expendable prinny pointed at Desco "She must have brought us here Dood." "Whatcha need Dood?" "We are on a mission to find a missing girl! You Prinnies are going to help." "A missing Girl Dood?" "That doesn't sound too hard, Dood." "Yea Dood, but what if some bad guys show up?" Desco turned back to the other two. "There! They'll do anything you tell them to do."

[Guu]

Guu, who wasn't paying any attention to what Desco was doing because she was surfing the net, finally noticed the three penguins in front of her. She walked over to 'em and glared at them, making all three recoil in horror.

"Your eyes frighten us dood!" Yelled one of them, the other two nodded in agreement.

Guu gave them a solid minute of looking over, which to the three felt like forever.

"Prinnies," said Guu, unexcitedly. "I met one of these in the Nexus"

And with that, she went back to focusing on her Dataverse device.

[Cloud Strife]

It was good to see that Desco was learning to use her Omnillium, but he wasn’t sure how three funny looking penguins could help. They had taken out a whole group of villagers and were looking for a girl who was god knows where within the forest, the footprints they were following were a help, but they weren’t the best lead to follow, they were sporadic as if she was back tracking a lot. Yep, they were almost as lost as she was.
‘How are they going to help exactly, Desco?’ Nyeseth asked as he looked down at the her and the three penguins, that Guu had called Prinnies. It wasn’t that he doubted Desco, he believed that they could help, he just didn’t know how.

[Schwi Dola]

Desco pointed at the Prinnies she'd summoned. "They are Prinnies, they have to do what you say to get paid. They'll do anything you tell them to." "That's how it is dood." "We don't want to do anything dangerous though Dood." "A lot of demons make Prinnies do awful things." Desco pointed in a direction that wasn't where the group had come from. "Prinnies, go find the girl we are looking for?

The Prinnies looked at eachother, a lack of information didn't help. "Dood, we aren't like detectives. We wouldn't know where to start looking." "Who is this person anyway Dood?" "I'm hungry Dood, why don't we go find some fast food first? Or how about a drink dood?" The last prinny that spoke looked around. "I don't know where we'd go to find something out here though Dood."

[Guu]

“That’s enough!” she said in frustration.
She stepped aside, and positioned herself for summoning.
“Give me 30 minutes.” She looked determined.
“Guu, we don’t have that kind of time!” Nyeseth protested, but that ball of light was already in front of her, shimmering its rainbow light.
After five minutes or maybe a little less, thirty or so strange creatures formed from the light. They recognized Guu and form around her in a circle. She picks one up and presents it to the group.
“This is a Pokute.” Guu said, rather matter of factly. “They are from my world.”
They had rabbit like ears, tiny little legs, and a face that looked almost human. The face gave Nyeseth the willies, Desco seemed unfazed by this turn of events. The prinnies just complained.
“Dood, that’s creepy.”
She continued to summon, again and again and again. The area starts getting covered with them, all loafing around, ear like things twitching around in the air. When she finally stopped, there must have been 200 or them or so.
Guu pointed in the general direction of the footprints and statues.
“Spread out and go that direction. Come back when you find a little girl.”
Without hesitation, the pokutes run that direction, waddling on their little legs as fasts as they could until the disappeared into the trees.

An hour goes by, Nyeseth is looking more and more anxious.
“Guu, they aren’t coming back.” Nyeseth said, a little impatient
“Give them time.”
Then suddenly, one pink colored pokute returns.
“You find her?” Guu asked.
The Pokute shakes its entire body up and down.
“Are you the only one?”
Another shake.
“Well, lead the way.”

The group follows the pokute deeper into the woods. Along the way, they find little pieces of Pokute strewn across their path. The further in they got, the more and more torn apart pieces of Pokute they came across. The things didn’t seem to have blood or internal organs, so it wasn’t a gory sight, but it made Nyeseth more and more nervous.
The Pokute lead them into a little clearing in the woods. In the middle was a little girl, about Guu’s height, fitting the description perfectly. She was quivering in fear in the middle of the space, with four or five wolves frozen in stone around her.

[Cloud Strife]

Nyeseth walked up to the little girl, her shaking made him feel a little sympathy for her. She was trapped alone out here, lost and wandering with people chasing after her, for whatever reason. as Nyeseth approached the girl she turned to him and yelled.
'Go away!' The little girl screamed as she watched him, expecting him to turn into stone, like most of her other pursuers.
'You're not stone?' The little girl asked as he knelt down next to her. Nyeseth shook his head and picked her up, she was light and easy to carry.
'Let's get you back to your mother, okay?' Nyeseth smiled as he signaled Guu and Desco to join him in walking.

[Schwi Dola]

Desco considered something that she hadn't thought of before. Nyeseth was all for this thing but they hadn't talked about what to do if they started turning stone from this person."It looks like we aren't going to turn to stone! But the Prinnies might." "What Dood?! We didn't sign up for 'that'!" "We didn't sign up at all dood." "We haven't turned into statues yet dood. Maybe we are okay?"

Desco looked at the prinnies and then the litlte girl and pointed at the Prinnies. "Why don't you try to look at them?" "Dood that is harsh. Almost as bad as getting thrown.."

[Cloud Strife]

The little girl on his shoulders was still shaking, which made him wonder if she was cold or if she’d gone through something horrible. He didn’t want to think about it but… maybe those villagers had chased here away and tried to do things to her, either way, she’ll be safe with her mother, despite the… entertainers living there. Nyeseth turned around to see more tracks like the ones Guu had created to throw others off their trail.
‘Very funny Guu.’ Nyeseth said as he looked at the tracks, as a tugging on his shihakusho could be felt.
‘It wasn’t me.’ Guu said with a cold stare, causing him to turn and look back at her and Desco, then back at the tracks, back at her and then back in front of him. Nyeseth was greeted by a large, black bird creature. It’s breath made him squirm a little, but he could tell it meant business.

[Guu]

The creature was taller than Nyeseth. It had the head of a rooster, the body of a vulture, a lizard’s tail, and four legs; two talons in front, two paws in back. It stood like a predator spotting its prey. With a huff it approached, slowly putting one set of feet in front of the other set. The creature points its eyes towards his face. Out of instinct, he kept averting his gaze.
“Guu?” He asked, somewhat nervously. “Is this the Cocka-thing you mentioned before?”
“Eeeyup,” she said rather plainly. “Quite the coincidence aint it?”
“So if I look it in the eyes, it’ll turn me into stone?”
“That’s correct.”
Nyeseth suddenly realized the little girl wasn’t on his back anymore. He looked around and saw that Guu was carrying her now. He was glad she was somewhere of relative safeness (or at least as safe as you can get considering Guu,) but it still confused the hell out of him.
“Oh, I snatched her up while you were gawking.” She said. “Anyways, usually you’d fight these things while looking around you with a mirror. But we don’t have that right now. So um… stare at your feet I guess?”
She shuffles the little girl further back.
“You two do your thing. We’ll just keep alive so I can deliver the girl in case you die.”
Then she proceeds to turn her arm into a yo-yo and do tricks with it in and attempt to keep the girl calm, but she’s a bit distraught at the moment, constantly peering away worriedly from Guu’s distraction at the Nyeseth and the creature.
‘You’re not helping Guu.’ He thought to himself.
Desco, not keen on sitting around for this, summons Yogsothoth and prepares to strike the creature. Nyeseth has his weapon out at the ready. In a split second, the beast charges… towards Desco.

[Schwi Dola]

As the beast started its charge, Desco avoided its eyes like Nyeseth and Guu. If she looked into its eyes, she'd be a statue! That meant the little girl didn't turn things into stone. The prinnies didn't after all. But while Desco could avoid its gaze, Yogsothoth could and would not. Yogsothoth eyes moved to watch the incoming enemy, and proceded with the petrification process. Desco panicked as she felt herself starting to petrify. "Waaah! Desco is changing!" She grabbed a Prinny and threw it at the Cockatrice as it charged. "Doood!" But the process stopped once the yellow eyes all over her body, and Yogsothoth had changed to stone. As Desco was not conciously aware of what the eyes saw, only Yogsothoth which was instinctively in control of them changed.

The explosion in front of the Cockatrice made it pause and reconsider its course. Two more Prinnies were still close to Desco and it didn't want to be caught in an explosion. "Master Desco is turning into a statue Dood!" "But she stopped changing Dood." Desco tried touching Yogsothoth. He was a part of her as much as an arm or leg, and it felt pretty weird to be partially petrified. "Desco can't fight like this!"

[Guu]

After watching that whole ordeal, she sighed heavily. She turned to the little girl.
“Change of plans.” Guu said. She formed the tip of her noodle arms into fingers and then pressed two of them against her eyes. Her soulless empty eyes merged into her head under the pressure until they are both completely submerged under her skin, creating a flat surface. The little girl just kind of silently screams at this vision.

Positioning her feet apart, she reels her arm back. With one swift movement, she threw a punch. Her arm stretched across the field and impacted against the Cockatrice’s head. This knocked the beast clean off its feet. With it firmly on the ground, Guu moved her still stretch arms to grab onto the beast and toss it into the air. The Creature airborne, she launched a few more stretched punches to juggle it in the air like something out of Smash Brothers before mercifully letting it hit the ground.

Guu smiled at Nyeseth confidently who was frozen in his own stunned silence. The Cockatrice took this moment to get back up and charge at her. The beast would take her by surprise and get its beak around her arm. She detached her arm from where the creature bit her, however she could still feel the pain as it clasped down hard against the skin of her helpless arm. Nyeseth began to move, but Guu gestured to him to stop.
“No! You might hit my arm!” She yelled at him. He holds back, but looks incredibly concerned.
She quickly filled her partial stump with internal organs she wasn’t using at the moment and formed a makeshift arm out of it. She started wailing on the cockatrice.
“Give Back MY ARM!” She yelled.
However, no matter how many punches she threw, the beast held tight onto that arm. She felt her energy draining as the exertion of keeping her arm alive was paying its toll.
With a quick moment of thinking, she controlled the arm inside the creature’s mouth to jam a giant hand down its throat. The beast lets off a violent cough, which is enough to release the arm. The arm turned into a dozen or so skin colored Pokutes on the ground and crawled back to Guu and into her mouth. Her organs go back into their original places and her arm becomes “normal” again.
“OK! You can join in now.” She said as the beast recovers for another attack.

[Cloud Strife]

Desco’s weird tentacle summon had petrified over, and Nyeseth didn’t know how they were going to heal it for Desco. Guu had done a good job at fighting the Cockatrice, despite the vomit worthy scene of her internal organs forming out of her arm, no normal human should be able to do that… without serious injury. All that was left was for Nyeseth to finish this fight, one way or another.

Nyeseth looked at its feet with a determined look on his face, if he moved as fast as he possibly could, he could cripple its legs and deliver a killing blow. Nyeseth ran at the beast, keeping his vision anywhere else but its eyes. Nyeseth was definitely fast, but the cockatrice was prepared, just as he reached its legs, he was batted away after being sideswiped by its head and neck. Nyeseth coughed a little as he collided with a tree, The cockatrice hadn’t planned it that way but Nyeseth took it as a personal insult.
‘Alright then… We’ll play it that way.’ Nyeseth said angrily through his teeth as he raised his blade but kept his eyes looking down at its feet, four centuries of training and he was going to let a glorified chicken beat him in a fight, no way.
‘Bleach them white, Shiro Ryu!’ Nyeseth exclaimed as he waved his hand over His katana, it shone with a white light and transformed as he moved his hand over the blade, transforming it into what appeared to be a blade forged from bone.
‘Now we’ll see who has the last laugh.’ Nyeseth grinned as he flash stepped towards the Cockatrice, this time he was much faster, reaching its legs in no time at all.
‘Flash Strike!’ Nyeseth exclaimed as he began his assault on the bird, causing it to collapse under the pain of the lacerations he’d just inflicted on the animal. Nyeseth stood over its head, looking up to the sky as he plunged his sword through its skull, it let out a large howl and then went limp. Its lifeless body looked almost peaceful, if not for the stream of blood pouring from its head. The beast wouldn’t cause any more problems for anyone now.

Nyeseth took his sword from the Animal’s skull and wiped it clean with the grass, as he did so the blade transformed back to its original state. Nyeseth sheathed his blade and turned back to the group, a half smile on his face.

OOC: Used T1 Tranformation, -1 SP

[Schwi Dola]

Desco still looked at Yogsothoth and touched him, trying to think of a way to restore her own body. She didn't like being crippled like this, it almost made her miss how Nyeseth had defeated the demon creature that approached them. But she stood by and waited as he fought, confident that he would finish up with Guu. The two fought well, and the creature fell into a bloody pile. Meanwhile, the Prinnies who were cowering, looked out to see that the fight was over. "So I guess that was the real reason people turned into statues then, Dood." "But Dood, who would blame a little girl for that?" "Who knows Dood, I just want a drink.

Desco turned and pointed to the prinnies as they spoke. "Can you prinnies cast Espoir on Desco?" "I guess so Dood, but I'm not very good at it." The Prinny held out his arms and cast the spell. In a flash of blue light, Desco was no longer petrified. "There you go Dood." Desco hugged the Prinny that had cast the spell. "Thanks!"


---------------

Nearby, the Demon Ninja watching the group carefully noted the actions of the party. They noted how unusually nice Desco was to the Prinnies. They found that she was from a Netherworld, so it was more expected that she had treated them with the same respect that any other Demon did, with no respect. They weren't sure when their master would want to make contact, but keeping track of another demon was their duty so they continued on it. That they had lost one from the Cockatrice made little different to them, the risks came with being a Ninja.

[Guu]

Guu’s eyes popped forward, appearing back on her face. She walked up to the little girl, who is still a little shaken from all she’s seen today. She takes both her hands, switches to her social face, looks her directly in the eyes, and gives her a little smile.
“Don’t worry!” She reassured her, “The danger is all gone now! Everyone will see the cockatrice body and see that as blame for the statues. You’re all clear now, so don’t be a afraid anymore.”
She goes in for a hug.
“Let’s go back to your mother. Okay?”
She felt the little girl ease up a little bit, her shoulders falling a little bit. She felt her nod in agreement. Still maintaining the social face, she breaks from the hug and takes hold of her hand as she leads her along. Guu heads for Nyeseth.
“Good work out there.” She said to him, sounding way more genuine with this face, “being the hero a strong suit of yours I see.”
She looks over at Desco. She smiles in relief seeing that she’s no longer in stone.
“Better luck next time Desco! Maybe the next one won’t have weird OP powers.” She said, giggling cutely.
Nyeseth looked at Desco confused.
“How did you get unstoned?” He asked
“Prinny cast an Espoir spell on Desco, and now Desco is better!”
Nyeseth didn’t fully understand, but he was just happy everyone was okay.
“Well, shall we go?” He said.
So the four go, heading towards the general direction of the harem.

Hours pass as they get lost a few times. Guu eventually had to ditch the social face, but Nyeseth had already taken over looking over the girl at that point. Finally, they reach the harem.
As they approached, Hank was there to greet them, along with a young Elf woman standing beside him.
“Mom!” The little girl yelled.
She leapt off Nyeseth’s back and ran towards her, joining her in a tearful embrace. Hank steps forward.
“You’ve gone beyond the call of duty. Not only did you discreetly save the little girl, but also the cockatrice body should give her a little extra protection. You’ve well earned your reward.”
He places a handful of coins in the palms of each of them. The coins phase into their hands, as they feel something increasing deep within.
“And as promised, I owe you any favor a man in my position can reasonably grant. Collect anytime when you need it.”
He nudged Nyeseth,
“Also, if you ever want some fun, your next one is on the house.”

[Schwi Dola]

As the group went in and got their reward, the Prinnies got sidetracked in the entertainment the establishment could provide. When the left, Desco hadn't though about the Prinnies and the others were thinking more about what they were going to do next so the Prinnies were left behind. The group left the place, Desco and Guu blindfolded again as to protect the young ladies from the establishment. Though, Guu would probably not have issues for it and already knew what was going on while Desco would simply block out anything that she wasn't allowed to think about. Her father had programmed her not to think about things like romance, or physical love until she was of age. Desco could only consider it in relation to other people.

Since the day was getting late, Nyeseth suggested that the group set up camp. Desco agreed and Guu shrugged, so they found a fairly level spot at set up. This time, Desco tried and successfully set up a full queen sized bed in Hades fashion made out of metal and bone. While it looked quite unfriendly, it was quite soft and the bedposts extended up to make a roof to shield the bed from the elements. Nyeseth started a fire, preferring the old fashion way of collecting wood rather than using Omnilium while Guu started to jump on Desco's bed. Desco meanwhile laid down herself and started a diary on her dataverse device.

As they started to settle down, Guu detected something nearby. Several being had approached the camp and her senses could tell. Guu told the others, in her usual unemotional voice. "Someone is here." But from the opposite side of where Guu was watching, undetected by Guu, an unknown person shouted out. "*huff* *huff* I've found you my newest interests!" He was breathing heavily for some reason, with a wide and creepy smile.

[Guu]

Suddenly, a white hair kid just shows up. He’s wearing thick rimmed glasses, a jacket that he wore like a cape, and shorts that would make a certain Pokemon trainer jealous. The chain that kept the jacket around his neck up as well the black and white accents screams Goth, but everything else screamed teacher’s pet. He was an amalgamation of every high school reject stereotype rolled into one.
He looked at the two girls with pure fascination; to an extent that Guu could have claimed that it was lustful.
“My names Mao. I want Desco, and your little pink-haired girl, too.” He stated excitedly, “they’ll do well in my… collection. Mehehehe”
“Guessing those are your ninjas that have been following us for a while now.” Guu said.
“Why yes! They are my minions… OF SCIENCE!” He said, breaking into a laugh. Then he stopped. “Wait, how did you know?”
“The three ninjas following us since we entered the forest? I’ve been sensing them the whole time. They really need to learn how to keep their distance.”
“If they’ve been following us this whole time, why didn’t you say anything?” Asked Nyeseth.
Guu shrugged. Nyeseth gives a sigh.
“Fine, whatever. How many are there?”
“Three. Couldn’t tell you of their skill level.” She responded. “Though, considering they never gained suppression, they can’t be very good. Heck, I’m more equipped to be a ninja.”
“Don’t underestimate my ninjas!” Mao exclaimed.