Welcome to Ambrosia!

[Minato Namikaze]

Last Post in Ambrosia

The food was great, he didn’t know that Coffee and Cake could taste so great. Maybe it was because he hadn’t eaten in for a while, maybe it was because this place had seemed to both heighten and dampen his senses at the same time. Minato took a sip from the cup, the coffee was a nice compliment to the piece of cake. The bitterness of his beverage was evened out by the sugary sweetness of the cake. Minato smiled as he took the last sip from his cup, placed it down on the dish, sat back and let out a large - satisfied - sigh.

‘Thank you for the food.’ Minato smiled as his muscles began to relax, he’d found him in a position that didn’t come around often. He was relaxed, and he felt no sense of imminent danger. It was nice.

‘You’re welcome! Now how are you going to pay!?’ Mina smiled, her words bringing forth a realization inside of Minato. He didn’t know what currency they used in this world, let alone this place specifically. Minato sat forward and looked at Mina with a worried and embarrassed smile.

‘Well…’ Minato began as he pulled out a relatively small pouch and opened it up. Minato looked into it and began counting. ‘Two… Three… Four… I have forty thousand Ryo on me…’ Minato finished, gesturing for Mina to take out was was appropriate. Mina leaned forward and peeked into the wallet. Mina pulled out a hand full of notes, examining them carefully as she did so.

‘Hmm…!’ Mina seemed to exclaim as she laid the notes out on the table in front of him, even her body language was outgoing. She seemed to be taking her time, carefully examining each note as she did so. There were five notes in total, each one had the number one hundred printed on it. It was a lot of money, but Minato wasn’t going to eat and then run without paying. He would just suck it up and pay what he needed to pay.

‘This should be enough!’ Mina finished as she took two notes and placed them in her dress pocket. Minato took the other notes and placed them back in his wallet as Mina returned her attention to the slight unhappy look on his face and laughed.

‘You’re still new, but the currency here is Omnillium!’ Mina laughed. ‘I just used my best judgement on how much Omnillium was in that money of yours!’ Mina continued as Minato nodded his head. His conversations with Mina had been enlightening, and he was now understanding what this world was like.

‘That’s fine, I-’ Minato began as he felt a familiar presence enter the restaurant. Minato turned his head to see a man walking through the room. His hair was black and his bangs partly coloured his eyes. He wore a dark blue, high-collared cloak that covered most of his body, save his feet and head. This man was definitely a ninja from his own world. Minato was so focused on this man that he didn’t notice when Mina took her leave. Something about the way the man presented himself seemed so familiar to Minato, but he just couldn’t figure out what it was.

Minato watched as the man strode through the Cafe and to the front counter, talked with Mina for about a minute, and then left with a bag of food. Minato placed his wallet back in the pocket of his jacket and proceeded to follow the man out of the shop and towards the entrance of Ambrosia. He didn’t mean to be so rude. In fact, he wasn’t even thinking about that. But he needed to find out where this Ninja had come from and where he was headed. Maybe this world had a Hidden Village, maybe it was just a coincidence. But he had to find out.

[Gamzee Makara]

Karkat is going through his own stages of “What the fuck.”

What the fuck is this clownish asshole doing?

What the fuck is this annoying human kid doing?

What the fuck should he be doing?

What the fuck is going on?

He sighs, running a grey hand through his pitch colored hair before meeting the human’s eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah. Gamzee is now one of this Guu lady’s vassals or whatever the fuck have you. She mentioned that you didn’t have an incredibly spotless opinion of our race, and sent us here to sort things out because I don’t know. I guess being a princess or a queen or whatever similar title of douchey power one might hold could entail making sure that two opposing forces don’t spontaneously start blowing up buildings and murdering innocent citizens, so here we are. What sort of nonsensical but probably rational hate do you harbor for our kind?”

Gamzee sits there with his usual dopey grin, hand still extended, before he begins to speak veeeery slowly. Adam is clearly a Godless Heathen.

“I-come-in-the-peace-ful-name-of-miracles.”

Karkat would slap a palm to his forehead if he wasn’t already so numb from stupidity.

“Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, but seriously, cut that shit out. You’ve obviously played SBURB so I mean I get that you’ve been through a lot of shit, but so have we. At this point your whining and bitching is gratuitous and unnecessary, because our session has had plenty of it. I-”

“What my crabby little bro here is trying to say all graceful-like is that whatever badness my kind has all up and committed to with your kind, we don’t intend to give off them same nasty vibes. Y’dig?”

Adam still has a supreme expression of what.

Karkat is currently fuming at being cut off, and is furiously typing away at his husk phone, or cell phone, whatever it is the humans call it. The stubby horned little teen is currently plotting an exit strategy, when all of a sudden, one makes itself apparent. In bright, bold text, on the Omniverse message boards; an exit strategy of troubling yet exciting proportions.

Coliseum. Tournament. Camelot. Glory.

Such and such words were featured in the advertisement, promising fame and fortune for whoever may triumph over their opponents in glorious combat. Karkat’s eyes shift to Gamzee, who was trying in vain to explain what miracles are to an exasperated Adam. His thoughts drift back to the battle with the Black King, the main antagonist of the trolls’ SGRUB session. Gamzee had...God Karkat didn’t even know. He’s not even sure Gamzee knew what was going on. For the better half of the fight, the clown had sat on his bum and knocked around low-level imps and chess guys, not really contributing that much to the cause - that is, killing that big black bastard dead. And then, just Jesus Christ, Terezi does something and he flips his shit. He gets this outright twisted, insane look in his eyes, and just demolishes that asshole. One second, that gigantic motherfucker had two heads and the next, there’s a bloody stump next to a single, confused, rather pissed off face.

Gamzee didn’t take no shit.

Gamzee is strong. Stronger than his laid-back attitude gives away. Maybe...Maybe Gamzee could enter this tournament. Maybe this would impress that Guu lady, and she could help the two aliens return to their universe, fucked up though it may be. And and while this is going on, Karkat can go find Jade! Yeah! He can find Jade, and with their combined brainpower, surely they can find some way to get home even if this Guu girl can’t.

“Gamzee. Stop being mirthful for a second, we need to talk.”

“D’awww c’mon Kar-bro, I was just about to get my preach on and tell Adam all about-”

“No no no no, that’s quite alright. Please, er...Karkat. Explain.”

The mutant-blooded troll gives him a dull look, but shrugs and pulls out his phone to show the advertisement to the creepy clown and his plus one asshole.

Gamzee struggles a little reading it, his mouth moving along with the words, but as his eyes begin to widen, it is clear the troll is beginning to make connections. A new way to impress his new mistress, and complete the task already given to him! Should he notify her of his departure? No, no it should be a surprise, yes, most definitely.

“Yes! Yes! That’s so hella perfect! We’s gonna make a name for ourselves Karkat! Guu will have to recognize my wicked skills after I beat some motherfuckers up!”

The excited alien throws a sideways glance at Adam.

“A-and you! You’re gonna tag along for the ride, motherfucker! Two flying feathery things with uno rock. On the journey to this wicked medieval place, you and I are gonna bond bro-style. No objections.”

Adam starts to spew some choice words about this assumption, but the clown cuts him off by turning to Karkat, excitement sparkling in his eyes.

“And I can bet, without a doubt, that my best bro in the entire Universes is gonna be in the stands, cheering me on with a bottle of miracles raised high in my name.”

Ooh.

Oooooh…

“Er...Yeah, you insane clown, I’ll definitely be there to watch you mindlessly beat the shit out of everything in sight, but first, I have to take a detour. As in, I can’t travel with you.”


Sadness flickers behind Gamzee’s eyes, his grin faltering.

“Oh...But like, you’re actually going to be there right? For my fights?”

Gamzee's lack of care about how they're going to get home is a little troubling, but also a little unsurprising.

“Yes dude, yes, but I have to go meet up with Jade, that human girl from Earth. Remember her? The really smart, bubbly, always annoyingly cheerful one? Listen I’m going to see if I can bring her along to the tournament, but either way, we need to make contact. I think if she and I work together, we can go home! Or at least figure out the next step.”

Throughout this strange exchange, as Karkat repeatedly assures the clown that he will have the shorter one’s support as a cheerleader, Adam has been utterly at a loss as to what’s going on. The tournament though? Intriguing. Not really sure if it’s something he would want to participate in, but maybe. He definitely didn’t really want to travel with the troll, however...but it doesn’t seem as though he’s being given much of a choice. And then the shorter troll mentioned another human. From Earth. Like him. He perks up at this, several different thoughts and emotions swirling around in his head. A SBURB player? He can only assume, if the trolls know her. God-Tier maybe? Gah this is a weird development in his shitty life.

When he is done with his short little reverie, Gamzee is staring at him patiently, same dopey look on his face, and Karkat is typing away at his phone again. It seems they have reached some sort of agreement.

“So, brother, you down with the clown?”

[Guu]

Nealaphh

“Looking for me?” Spoke a dull voice from the opposite direction.

Klee and Shen turned around sharply; the recognizable pink-haired princess was standing just a few feet behind them, staring into them with dull blank eyes.

“Woah! How did you get behind us like that?” Yelled out Shen in shock.

“Calm down, she must have stealth abilities.” Responded Klee towards his excitable partner. He did a motion that could be construed as bowing as he spoke to the Ambrosian Leader. “We’ve been sent by out leader, Nealaphh. He seeks Ambrosia’s aid.”

“Nealaphh?” Guu placed a fist on the hook of her neck, pretending to not know who that was.

“He was on your ask blog a while back.” Shen responded bluntly.

Guu gave him a dirty look as she wanted to pad out the issue for at least a couple more minutes.

“Fine, follow me to the palace.” She said, frustrated, mumbling under her breath.

-----

She leads them to the large mansion in the middle of town. Pokutes and volunteers from town were preparing the building for the oncoming orc diplomacy meeting. Meats of many many varieties were being cooked and displayed on long tables in the throne room. One pink little pokute was wearing a chef’s hat frying steak, earning several disturbed looks from a pair of cows. A fox and a human teen were arguing whether or not the in house decorations should be gothic or traditional.

Guu leads them passed the throne room, passed the dance hall, and into a small little bedroom down the hallway. The wall above an ornate bed was adorned of framed pictures. Some were of the princess, but most were of people they had never seen before. Klee was quick to deduce that it was her bedroom usual bedroom, Shen was uncertain.

“Sorry for the unprofessional meeting place. Everywhere else is preparing for the thing.” She said casually. “Anyways, what does he want from me? If this has something to do with my father, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“It’s not. He wants to save a verse from a Volvagia.”

There was silence as the name entered Guu’s ear. She thought hard, trying to remember where she heard that name before. Then it hit her.

“The dragon on Death Mountain?” She remembered reading about it on the dataverse somewhere.

“That’s correct.” Responded Klee.

“You want to fight an evil dragon?”

“That’s correct.”

“…go on.”

[Tearen Wover]

Well. This was already going better than expected. The Master had been afraid of the possibility that Princess Guu would be outright hostile to their presence in her holy land of misfits and adorable snuggly woodland creatures. It spoke volumes to the pink abomination's patience that she had elected to at least hear them through. Or...maybe The Master had just been overreacting to its own ineptitude when it came to dealing with others of its kind. Klee and Shen couldn't know for sure. Still, this was no time to get caught up in idle rumination! Guu was giving them one of her grade A stares!

"In essence, The Master seeks to rid the Ashen Steppes of one of the two largest problems it possesses."
"He's gonna blow that dragon sky high!"

"Specific details for the plan have been posted on The Master's Dataverse site. Perhaps you've seen it?"
"Mad deets is on Nea-Nea's blog! Read it?

Guu just continued to stare at the Aspects with a look similar to someone having mild abdominal pain. The Aspects were nonplussed by her signature silence.

"Regardless, The Master is aware that a great many Primes have aligned themselves with your rule."
"Anyway, He knows you been collecting big names up in here!"

"The Master would like to open a line of negotiations for your lending of powerful Primes to the battle, in exchange for raw materials."
"Primes for shiny rocks, ya dig?"

Guu closed her eyes and held a fingerless hand up to her chin, as if considering the options heavily. In reality she was just trying to remember what she had to do after this nonsense was cleared up. Still, it was important nonsense. That happened a lot in Ambrosia.

"A trade, huh? Like what, exactly?"

"Metallic ores, building materials, distilled chemicals, and other various materials valuable in manufacturing and construction."
"I 'unno. Gold 'n shit."

Guu cracked open one of her eyes to stare at the noisy cube. Out of the two, he was the main reason this meeting was starting to become a pain in her ass.

"Gold 'n shit, eh?" she asked, protruding a finger from her stub hand and tapping her chin in an overtly theatrical manner. Decisions, decisions...

[Roger Smith]

There were a million and one things Adam really wanted to say about pretty much everything that had just happened. He was kind of curious about this whole tournament business, but more on the, ah....watching end of things, rather than participating. But as he tried to formulate the exact extent to which he would most definitely not be fucking participating in that shit, he was finding it disproportionately hard to form his disagreement into coherent sentences. The fact that there is apparently someone else here that just might be another SBURB player, that wasn't a walking neon sign of "LET'S DIG UP THOSE REPRESSED MEMORIES KID", had him more distracted than he'd care to admit.

The name didn't ring any bells, meaning it wasn't anyone he was familiar with, which didn't exactly do anything at all for his spirits. They were neither lifted nor crushed. They just kind of....were.

Blinking once to snap out of his dazed thought process, Adam is confronted with the painted, dopey visage of Gamzee staring at him. Adam recoils ever so slightly, a visible cringe flitting across his face as he backs away half a step.

NO YOU IGNORANT FUCK I AM NOT DOWN WITH THE CLOWN. I AM NOT UP WITH THE CLOWN. I AM NOT ANYTHING WITH THE CLOWN, CLOWNS ARE FUCKING MORONIC.

A twitch of one eye hinted at his barely-contained rebuttal, but otherwise there was no sign of the shitstorm of anger boiling away in his cranium. He merely slapped one hand over his eyes again, groaning in something approximating weary resignation. "If I said no you wouldn't just leave and we could all forget this entire ordeal ever happened, would you."

For a split second there is a flash of confusion, before the same dopey look that was hard to decipher -- something between being half asleep, utterly oblivious, and probably....high as fuck, or something -- was back in its ever-present position on the highblood's face. "Can't say as there'd be any chance of anything like that happening. Can't go and just be leavin' the task from my mistress all up and half done."

"I didn't think so..." Shaking his head, Adam dropped his hand from his face, and wearily retrieved his rifle from its resting place leaning against the wall. "Okay, okay....whatever. Yeah, I'm in, I guess."

[Guu]

Nealaphh

Guu processed the information available to her. Gold was non-corrosive, which would be useful if Ambrosia ever wanted to do more with the giant underground reservoir the town sits above. Not to mention, the city could always benefit with extra resources.

Though, all this actually kind of genuinely surprised the princess. Knowing Nealaphh’s history, she expected some level of deception to occur; like maybe a cute little animal creature or some teenage lost girl who pretends to befriend her and build pillow forts before mentioning who they work for. So for someone to come to her door and outright state their intentions was not what she expected. She still didn’t trust him, but it was enough to peak her interests.

“Tell your master, that I’m interested in his offer. I’ll ask around to see who else is willing, but I’ll be able to offer my own services if need be… well, after I’m done making peace with the orcs that is.”

“Our master would be pleased to hear this.”

“Just make sure he knows that the topic of our shared history will come up at some point, so be prepared for that can of worms.”

[Tearen Wover]

Shen was attempted to try and justify The Master's strange behavior, but Klee preempted the hastier Aspect's blithering so as to save face in front of this critical ally. The business was done, and there was no need to occupy her grace any longer. Shen was a little petulant about this, but agreed nonetheless.

"The Master looks forwards to the day when such complexities can be resolved. In the mean time, we are most gracious the assistance, your Highness."
"Aw it's cool. We'll be in touch, dig?"

"...dig." Guu said in her permanently droll tone. With that she very politely made a shooing motion with her hands and turned on her heel to pad back out into the Pokute Palace foyer. Maybe she should try to get a nap before the next ridiculous thing happened. Maybe build a pillow fort on her own. No...that didn't sound fun. Maybe she could rope Yu into it once he got back.

Meanwhile, the Aspects were floating silently away from Ambrosia, up into the overcast rainforest sky. So much to do, so much time...

[Gamzee Makara]

“Platitudinous!”

Adam, who had his head in his hands, looks up at the tall troll with a weird look in his eyes.

Karkat glares up from his phone, his features covered in a “You fucking idiot” formation.

“Aaanyways… Gamzee. I need you to focus for a sec. I need you to synthesize me up something that will get me across the verses, fast.”

The clown claps giddily and closes his eyes, hands pressed against each other in a prayer like style.

“You got it bro! I got the perfectest thing! Been thinking about it for a while.”

Minutes pass. Karkat groans, Adam moans, and Gamzee is still in that same prayer position. Then, the telltale prismatic, shimmering light erupts in the middle of the room. Karkat shields his eyes, and when everything comes to view again-

There’s a jetpack in the middle of the room.

It had a wingspan of roughly three and a half feet. Attached to said black wings via metal holsters were lots and lots of convenience store bottles of Faygo, a whole rainbow of flavors. Each of them had little evaporators fastened to the bottom end, and emerging where bottle caps would be are long, rubber tubes that all feed into a machine on the back. Several slightly larger bottles of Redpop were lying against the base of the machine. Fay was spray painted in big, purple, stenciled out letters on the left wing, and go! was printed the same on the right wing.

“What.”

Gamzee jumps up and down, so excited at his newest creation. He retrieves one of the wicked elixirs from its resting place at the bottom, quickly unscrewing the cap. The juggalo sighs in time with the escaping hiss, taking a big whiff of fruity miracles.

“What.”

The tall, polka-dot bottomed troll pays his shorter friend no mind, taking a tentative sip of his bottled miracle. He smacks his lips a few times, savoring the strawberry goodness, before pouring the rest of the soda down an opening in what appears to be a small engine located on the back of the jetpack.

It’s a jetpack.

Powered by Faygo.

“Oh no. No no no, a thousand times, hell to the motherfucking no, I am not riding in that sugary neon death trap. I would rather jump out of this two-story window and walk my ass straight to Jade’s frozen ass tower. No. No.”

“Awww c’mon man, ain’t no harm in it.” Gamzee walks up beside his best friend, slapping an arm around his shoulders. He gestures out in front of him, as if having a vision.

“I can see it now, bro. My little buddy Karkat all up and spreading the miracle of the wicked elixir to the masses below as he flies across the horizon, all mystic like. Man you’d be just like Troll Santa Clause, but y’know, with Faygo!”

“There is no such thing as Troll Santa Clause and I am not fucking emulating a fictitious jolly clad-in-red asshole.” Karkat has begun to shake with barely contained rage, developing a weird twitch in the right corner of his mouth.

Gamzee is trying his hardest not to giggle from joy. His voice almost holds a sort of mocking tone at Karkat’s disapproval. “Weeellll brother, I guess you’s gon’ have to walk, cause I ain’t synthesizing nothin’ else. This right here is a Prime, bonafide Miracle. Besides man, I worked really hard on that and if you don’t use it, why, I think I might just tear up and-”

“Ugh fine! Fucking hell, Gamzee! Whatever I’ll fucking take the stupid Faygo Jetpack.” Karkat crosses his arms in annoyance, almost pouting at his clownish idiot of a friend.

“Aww, don’t be like that bro. Look! I even miracalized up a motherfucking Faygo dispenser! You can just be all flyin’ and shit, and then, if’n you gets thirsty, BAM! Instant elixir.”

“Oh my god, I fucking said I’d take the damn jetpack! Jesus…”

In the time span that this brief little argument has taken place, Adam could be found banging his head against the wall again.

Stupid. Fucking. Trolls.

-----

Moments later the trio is on the shingled roof of Adam’s townhouse. Karkat has been strapped into the Miraculous Elixirizer (as dubbed by Gamzee) via leather harness and is prepped for launch. For all the excitement, the crabby troll sports an “I’m so fucking tired of this asshole’s whimsy” look, coupled with mutters of “I should be leader goddammit” and “Shit’s what got us here in the first place”.

Gamzee is straight chillin’, and as he pours the last of the two liters into the Elixirizer, he jogs over to an exasperated Adam.

“Awwwwriiiiiight! Karkat! Are you read-ie?” He shouts to his companion.

“No. I am not ready to fucking die.”

“Good! Cause we have motherfuckiiiiinn lift off!”

With that, Karkat shakes his body vigorously, causing the Miracles inside to grow volatile and combustive, as per Gamzee’s vivid instructions. After the Miracles have been sufficiently roused, the Cancer mashes a button with his thumb on the metal handles that steer the Jetpack. The rubber tubes fill with neon rainbow colors, and misty Faygo erupts from the bottom of the machine in a similar rainbow fashion with enough force to launch Karkat high into the blue sky. A scream can be heard as he flies all around the small town of Ambrosia.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS FUCKING PIECE OF JUGGALO JUNK WORKED!”

This is followed by reluctant laughter. He was having a good time.

He just didn’t need anyone knowing that.

At any rate, Gamzee gives him another thumbs up, and Adam tentatively waves at the mysterious asshole that is now flying off into the horizon, like Troll Santa Clause. All that remains of Karkat’s presence is the multi-colored fruity mist emitted from the miraculous jetpack as he flies off towards the Nexus Gate.

-----

As the clown waves his best bro off to the Frozen Fields, he throws a dopey stare at Adam.

“So, new best friend. S’Adam right? What now? Miracalizing up that complicated beauty took a lot out of me, imagination wise. We gotta get to er...Camel Lot right? Do we need to build some kinda transportation or we just hoofin’ it?”

[Roger Smith]

"Yeah....yeah, it's Adam...." Adam currently has one hand intently massaging his temples, the other only loosely gripping the rifle that was cleverly disguised as his trusty mobility aid, propping him up. "I got....I got an idea, just....just gimme a second..."

"Everything cool up in that human-think pan?"

"Yeah....fine, fine.... I just....auuugh....this has been a really trying morning." He passes his hand over his eyes, letting out a deep sigh of frustration and reluctant acceptance that, yes Adam, this is ACTUALLY happening. "We are most definitely NOT hoofin' it. That would take hours, at minimum...possibly days, if we have no idea where the fuck to go. Which, by the way....we don't. That's your job. Do a thing. Find out which Nexus gate goes to Camelot."

Gamzee just blinked at him.

"Just ask literally that exact question on the Dataverse. Someone will answer."

Leaving the highblood to ponder how to go about that particular conundrum himself, Adam turned his focus inward. He hadn't yet really summoned anything intentionally, so this was going to be a real exercise... He was contemplating whether he could get away with summoning some kind of rapid, one-person transit to get him the fuck outta there and never worry about looking back. That idea was quickly quashed by the realization that he really had nowhere to haul ass off to. So he was kinda stuck.

Several minutes soon go by, with Adam remaining locked into intense focus, with his eyebrows twitching in ill-suppressed annoyance at Gamzee generally being himself, trying not to let his focus break. And slowly, but surely, the telltale glimmer of the cocoon of Omnilium that marks an object being summoned sparks into view. There is a moment of merciful silence, as the clown is enraptured by the myriad of rapidly-swirling colors, and soon the orb expands to be bigger across than even Gamzee is tall, prompting a most curious expression to pass across his face, before the cocoon slowly solidifies into what looks very much like an actual egg shell.

With a sigh of relief at being finished by Adam, he lets his focus diminish, thankfully warding off a headache that had begun to encroach. Slowly the 'cocoon' cracks and splinters before quite literally falling apart and disintegrating to blow away in the wind, leaving the contraption Adam had summoned being to stand clearly and proudly in the late morning light.

It was....basically what looked like a roller coaster car affixed firmly to a platform mounted to eight legs and sporting an array of engines and thrusters along its underside. Adam turns to look at Gamzee, who is just kind of scratching his head in bewilderment. "Don't even ask. It was...something a friend made for me during my session, alright."

Gamzee just holds up his hands in a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it none, man. It ain't even close to bein' the weirdest thing I've seen."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever...just get in. And hold on, it isn't exactly the smoothest take off in the world." With what is clearly a well-practiced and familiar maneuver, Adam hops up and over the railing of the cart, not even bothering to open the shitty little door in the side, and plants his ass down in what is apparently the "driver's" seat, if the amalgam of levers and pedals is anything to go by. It looks more than a little like someone just threw in a bunch of shit to make it look complicated more than anything. The heir of time immediately went to work on messing with this and that, and soon elicited a groan of ignition from the contraption as it reared up, the many legs flexing to attain a relatively even level, even on the somewhat slanted roof it was perched on.

Gamzee hopped up and landed with all the grace of a drunk flamingo in one of the seats, ending up sprawled over both of the back seats. "All set to get goin', I guess."

With a look that had "UUUUUUGH" written all over it, Adam kicked the thing into motion. It took several relatively stable and steady steps forward, prompting Gamzee to look over the side and marvel at the motion of the thing, before it lurched into a surprisingly powerful leap, the myriad of thrusters kicked into activity and propelled it along to well outside of the colorful little town of Ambrosia, settling back onto the ground once it neared the trees.

"Motherfuckin' WHAT." was all Gamzee has to say as he rubbed at his chin, having unceremoniously banged it as the spider-walked leaped into motion.

"Told you it wasn't a smooth takeoff," Adam remarked offhandedly. "Now let's see....the gate back to the Nexus was this way, I think..."

-----

"Hey.....Adam, bro...."

"If you ask me if we're there yet I'm turning this thing over in a ditch."

".......'kay."

-----

Finally, the Nexus gate came into view after what seemed to be much, much longer than it had been, when it had only been about an hour, even with Adam's driving. "Well....let's get on with this, then. Hold on to your butt, these gates are weird."

And then they plowed on through.

[Guu]

Guu had felt like this day had been going on for like forever. Her rap battle just an hour or so earlier felt like months ago. By this point, she was eager to get on with the diplomacy summit. She tapped out an e-mail to Minnie Mouse to remind her that it’s almost time.

She began to make her way to the throne room, when she received a text. Her phone still in hand, she quickly went to check it out, expecting it to be a response from Minnie.

It was certainly not that.

Rushing off towards the other side of the palace, she stopped in front of Molly’s room where she could sense the girl’s presence. She rapped hard against the wood surface, which was replied with a “come in!”

She was reading a magazine titled “Tangled Life” which had the picture of a hot blonde male ninja with a sexy stare at the camera posing besides an equally sexy blue elf chick. She could barely make out the headline from this distance that read: “Ninja Toby and Aura Beams: meet the duo act that has been running the Tangled tweens wild!”

Molly tucked away the magazine as the princess sidled beside her.

“What’s up princess? Kind of surprised to see you with the orc thing coming so soon.”

With a single nubbed arm, she lifted up her phone, which displayed a pair of text messages from the wizard named “Gildarts.” Upon spotting the name, she immediately snatched the phone from Guu’s hands and tapped through to read them.

Text from Gildarts to Guu

Taking in the message, Molly felt both relief and sadness. This was confirmation that he was still out there, but at the same time, it did not mention how long it’ll be before he returns. Also, the final text ended abruptly, which made her nervous of his safety. However, her building fear was interrupted by Guu suddenly rubbing up next to her; like a cat claiming her territory.

“What are you doing?” The little on asked confused.

“Comforting you.” She responded as her mooshing face rubbed the top of her head, messing up her hair. This got a chuckle out of Molly as she pushed Guu off of her.

“I know he’ll be back eventually. I just worry sometimes… I wish he would carry a phone on him.”

“If he takes long enough, I’ll track him down myself and handcuff a smart phone onto him.” The princess said. Molly laughed, not sure if she was serious or not.

Suddenly, the door flung open. Sylvia is standing at the door, huffing from the exertion.

“Guu! There you are! We need to get ready!” She said, grabbing the princess by the wrist and pulling her out the door. She looked over at Molly one last time who responded with a smile.

“Thank you.” The little one said.

[Proto Man]

Ambrosia was a strange place.

Without Blues or the equally chipper Mickey at her side, Mireya walked the streets in silence. Although her own personal bubble was silent, the world around her was loud and vivid—colors and noises that she hadn’t really seen in a very long time. Although Yggdrasil had a lot of color and light, the focal point of the night elves’ culture was still very somber. Darkshire and the outlying cities in Camelot were oftentimes the worst of human culture in terms of appearance and mood.

This place… this place was something that the half-night elf couldn’t exactly comprehend. Nothing looked the same—houses and business were built from different, incongruent materials and painted in eye-assaulting shades of every color on the rainbow.

“Hey there, kupo!”

When she realized the voice was aimed at her, Mireya paused and turned around. When she saw no one looking back at her, she glanced down and realized that a tiny little animal was addressing her. Standing at a little over a foot and a half tall, the creature was covered in short white fur. Had that been all, Mireya would have taken it to be somewhat normal, but as luck would have it, the creature also had a pair of undersized bat wings and a single antenna that terminated with a large purple pompom.

“Kupo?” Mireya asked the little animal that stood before her.

“Oh no, I’m Mitch, kupo!” The creature said again as he bounced from one foot to the other. Since its eyes were shut, it was hard for the woman to figure out what exactly was going on. “Kupo, you’re new here, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Mireya replied as she noticed that several nearby citizens of the town had paused to look at her. “But I’m on my way out… I’m going to, uh…”

“What’s your name, kupo?” The creature said as it floated up from the ground using its tiny wings that shouldn’t have been able to support its furry body.

“Mireya,” the half-night elf replied, realizing that she had become the focal point of this entire street. “Mireya Vasquez.”

“Hi there, Mireya. I’m Mitch, kupo!” The now floating animal replied as he extended one of his tiny, nub-sized arms toward her. “Let’s be best friends, kupo!”

The half-breed woman reached out and accepted the tiniest handshake she’d received in the last week (and there had been some teeny ones in there). “Thanks, Mitch... now do you want to tell me what you are?”

“You don’t know, kupo?!” He said, his voice and the inflection he placed on the last word a clear indicator of some profound and previously unfelt level of shock. “Why, I’m a moogle, kupo!”

Mireya shook her head as she stared around at a crowd that consisted of a dozen pastel-colored animals walking on their hind legs and watching her with unnaturally large eyes. “Is… is that supposed to mean something? I don’t know what anything here is.”

The moogle let out a gasp and actually did a surprisingly acrobatic midair summersault. “You don’t know what moogles are, kupo?! Have you lived under a rock?”

A soft chuckle escaped the woman’s lips without here realizing it. After a moment of silence to watch the floating creature shake its head—causing the pompom to jiggle back and forth—Mireya gestured in the direction of the River Animus. “Nah, I lived in a tree for a while, and then I lived in a different tree.”

“Oh boy… That sounds pretty boring, kupo!”

The half-night elf shrugged her shoulders. “It wasn’t terrible, although I probably got too used to the peace and quiet. This place is very…”

“Very fun, kupo!!!” Mitch said with another midair flip that left behind a momentary trail of glitter. “Kupo, Ambrosia is the best place in the Omniverse!”

Knowing she was the focal point of everyone around her, Mireya just smiled and nodded her head. “I can believe that,” she spoke, prompting Mitch and everyone around her to break out into exuberant cheers.

[Guu]

The doors of the throne room flew open as throngs of people filed out of the palace. Hours of boring negotiations had come to pass, but finally the orc diplomacy was finished. Molly was sleeping soundly on Sylvia’s back. Why she stayed by their side the whole time is a mystery to both of them.

“Glad that’s over.” Sylvia said with a sigh of relief. “Who knew orcs cared so much about trade agreements.”

The Princess was knocked awake by her words as she was almost dozing of as she walked.

“Uh yeah, um well, trade is important when you’re less eager to pillage.”

“I hope those new citizens will get along well.” Continued Sylvia. “Chieftain Azuk must really care about his people if he’s willing to go this far so some of them can lead a civilized life.”

“I wonder how an orc living in the wilds gets a law degree anyways.” Inquired Guu.

“Or a Goblin has nurse training.” Asked Sylvia. “Oh well, nothing weirder than what we usually get around here.”

“I’m sure they won’t have too many problems around here. And considering their chieftain is offering us protection, it’s not a bad trade off at all.”

The pair stopped amongst the jungle sanctuary. A long platoon of orcs, armed to the teeth marched alongside their leader. Azuk was a big guy wearing all sorts of fancy jewelry and items. Guu would have described him as menacing if she hadn’t spent an hour or so arguing the what the fabric traded pillows will be made of. They gave him one last bow before he and his escorts transverse the sanctuary and through town where people parted ways to make room for the group. Guu and Sylvia gave each other a relieved but tired look before heading up into the palace.

-----

The next day, with Ambrosia a lot safer, Guu thought it was time to complete some unfinished business. Molly deserved her father and it has been long enough that she needed to step in. She ate her bags and set off for Camelot the next morning.

Sorry for the rushed finale, after weeks of writer’s block, I just wanted to move on. Anyways, see ya all in Camelot!