CONTACT | Call me, maybe

[intercalaryninja]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, HAZYREFLECTION FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 011.04.151.01 *** HAZYREFLECTION has joined 011.04.151.01 <HAZYREFLECTION> Only contact me if it is necessary. <HAZYREFLECTION> Report to me immediately if it's regarding Reira-dono. <HAZYREFLECTION> I will be checking this nightly when possible.

Comments

[intercalaryninja]

[Wow. That is hard. He can see why Yuya has so many lumps on his head. Still, Tsukikage moves gracefully with the motion, minimising the hit.]

Very good. Now see I've sort of bent forward. However, I'm not off my feet. You have control now, so you can alter our positioning. Move closer to hit me again if you can't pull your hand away now. You can kick my stomach and hit the back of my neck, for example.

[songstressedout]

Okay!

[ Starting to get a little more comfortable, she does... exactly as Tsukikage says and moves closer, before attempting to kick him hard in the stomach.

She... might be putting a bit too much force in now. ]

[justbeingknife]

Ah -- the one the locals put up, what with the Fog god being a 'peacemaker' until she starts resentin' her siblings. And drumming up a war to boot.

[ Sorry man... ]

It was... an interestin' watch.

[intercalaryninja]

Oh yes. That's an old Ryslig fairytale.

When the Freedom Fellowship visited Haftesal, we found an old storybook with the same story. I actually have the original book in my room.

Did it include her heart?

[intercalaryninja]

[Ah. Well... Tsukikage ASSUMED that she wouldn't hit him and just practice the motion. It was her first time, after all, and even children knew that sparring didn't involve physical contact.

So he gags as Yuzu hits him hard in his stomach. He wheezes and lets go.]

... Irk. Well... you can see how effective the element of surprise is...

[justbeingknife]

No, actually. Would it be possible to take a look at the original?

Dunno why they'd leave that part out, but there wasn't a single peep about any hearts.

[songstressedout]

A-Ah! I'm sorry!

[ She had somewhat assumed that, since she'd seemingly done the right thing in actually carrying out the motion just before, that he was asking the same thing here.

...oops. ]

A-Are you okay?

[ Yuya should thank his lucky stars that Yuzu only ever used a paper fan on him. This extends to everyone else who have felt Yuzu's wrath. ]

time to find that old thread *rolls up sleeves*

[intercalaryninja]

Of course. Do you mind if you came over to look at it? The book survived a fire and had been trapped under Vandare for years. It's in delicate condition.

The book never explains about what the Fog's heart is but the annotations suggest it may have been a real thing, rather than just a metaphor.

[intercalaryninja]

[There's a difference between hitting bone and hitting the fleshy middle. Even if Tsukikage has a carapace, it doesn't function as armour.]

No, no. It's fine. I'm fine.

[Tsukikage coughs and straightens himself up]

Did you hurt your leg when you hit me?

[Might as well make sure her form is right and she's defending herself safely if her strength is sufficient.]

[songstressedout]

[ It did feel a bit strange, kicking the carapace. Still, there's nothing wrong that she can feel at the moment. In the first place, her arms and legs are where her changes currently are, so it might also be because of that. ]

No, my leg is fine... but are you sure? I kicked you pretty hard...

[ Something about these girls and targeting a person's stomach. ]

[intercalaryninja]

I'm fine. I've had worse.

[He's taken worse beatings. Of course, the last time he did he was killed but details. He coughs again and shakes his head.]

Ideally, the person will let go. If not, you can sweep them onto the floor with a hard kick to the back of the knee or tripping up their ankles. When I catch my breath, I'll try grab you from somewhere else and you can try again.

[He promised to teach you and damn it he'll do things properly.]

[songstressedout]

A-Alright!

[ She still feels a bit bad, but he said he's okay, so she'll try to carry on... without actually-seriously kicking him again. ]

Thanks for doing this for me...

[ She says it gratefully. For a second, she remembers when Sora was teaching her how to Fusion Summon... it's a good memory. ]

o7

[justbeingknife]

'Course not, it's been a little while since I dropped by. When'd be a good time?

[ He'd just show up as instructed, with a package of tea for Tsukikage. Never knew when you'd need an emergency brew! ]

Holy shit I did It i updated the page (sorta) in the comments. Deets are there fyi

[intercalaryninja]

Any time is good during the afternoon.

----

[Tea is always appreciated. Tsukikage has so much tea from Christmas but he works through it quickly, so new tea is always appreciated.

Tsukikage places the book carefully on the dining room table and opens it to the right page. He's just tidying up when he hears the doorbell. Soon, he's opening up. There's a smile on his face. It's been a while since they saw each other.]

Happy New Year, Majima-san.

you are a champ

[justbeingknife]

Happy New Year. How'd that Christmas party go?

[ He smiled as he stepped inside with a slight bow, handing the box over. ]

Mana bring ya anything good?

[intercalaryninja]

It's fine. You're a friend, after all. [He'll let Yuzu try to stop him grabbing her. He'll even let her practice the motion of kicking.]

Just work hard, okay? Once you get the hang of grabs, we'll move on to someone coming at you with a knife, or a fight. And we'll escalate from there, okay?

:D

[intercalaryninja]

It went well. I think everyone had fun. [Admittedly it was a little quieter this year, which wasn't a bad thing.

Tsukikage carries the box over to the kitchen, leading Majima into his home. He already has the kettle on the boil so he'll get right to the tea.]

She got me a fridge full of energy drinks. A little strange but certainly appreciated. I work long hours.

How about you?

[songstressedout]

Right!

[ She looks confident and ready. She also makes a mental note to not actually use all of her force since... well, she doesn't actually want to hurt Tsukikage again. ]

[justbeingknife]

Energy drinks? [ Where the heck did she find those? The world was a mystery... unless, of course, the answer was 'Mana'. ]

You're lookin' at a man who got his favorite knife back for Christmas.

[ One might question, really, what sort of monster had not only one knife but so many knives that one was unquestionably his favorite. Maybe Majima liked to cook?

Maybe Majima liked

TO STAB.

He glanced over at the book on the table, and approached it with curiosity. ]

Is this the one? You mentioned some old rituals back when ya first brought up that Haftesal, didn't you? Don't suppose this has anythin' to do with 'em?

[intercalaryninja]

Yeah... Caffeinated beverages. I never had them before but they do help keep me awake. [He can get away with so many extra days to work and not sleep ::::)]

I'm glad for you. I had a favourite blade back in my world. Perhaps I should have asked for that... it was shattered on a robot man.

[Tsukikage doesn't know what Majima uses his favourite knife for but he supports him anyway.

The arachne begins to prepare the tea over the counter and nods.]

Yes, I did. But it's a different book. That book had the ritual we used to temporarily stop the Fog. This is just some scholar's copy of the children's stories.

[justbeingknife]

Temporarily what now?

[ That caught Majima's interest; he looked up from the pages of the book. ]

I guess if there was a way for it to permanently stop her, ya would have done it.

[ He was curious about this blade, too, but Majima figured one was probably more important than the other here. ]

[intercalaryninja]

We temporarily stopped arrivals with a ritual in the book. It was a one-use thing but no one came in for months. She was... quite upset after that. Especially since she didn't know we did it at first. Rin and Haru did a good job pretending it was only one person doing it instead of a team effort.

... That book is how we figured out the Fog had a heart and what lead us to use the Night God's typewriter. We could actually kill her if we could permanently kill all her followers at the same time.

[They can talk about it later. A lighter conversation after all of this...]

[justbeingknife]

I'll bet she was pissed. No more potential followers to string along? And the ones who did it were her 'children' in the first place?

[ Not that Majima put much stock in that relation. ]

...Still, I can't help wonderin' why she's so eager to get rid of her weak spot. It might be true that it's hard to kill a bunch of monsters at once. But wouldn't it be more difficult to off a divine bein'?

[intercalaryninja]

Perhaps. But if the Night God and Day God can lose so much power and be 'killed', perhaps that's what she wanted to avoid. All her followers would have to die at once to kill her. And with her priests able to resurrect almost instantly, it does make it a difficult endeavour.

I sometimes wonder if it has to do with the God that once ruled the Fog, Day and Night. I have no evidence for it... but I wonder what happened to them.

[He'll pass a piece of pottery from Haftesal depicts the shadowy and starry figure behind the three figures that represent the three Gods to Majima.]

<joshua626> [Backdated to the 9th]

[tellessultan]

Hey, my name's Joseph.

Sorry to contact you out of the blue, I was looking to have some armor made and someone on the network gave me your recommendation. If you're taking commissions, I'd love to hire you for a project.