RP Smash [IC/Conditional Acceptance/PG-16]

[Yui]

---

Hallways! And elevators! Aesthetically, this was actually far from the most exciting place Aurora had been by any means. It was rather plain in fact. Once on the second floor - where she could supposedly get some food - the chill in the air told her it was time to get a move on. According to her map, the concession stands - no doubt where she could get her hands on some fresh hot pretzels - were closer than any other location for food. How convenient! Without wasting any time, Aurora set forward for the concession stands, noticing that the people here weren't entirely human. They had ears like animals, and tails too! Aurora had seen people with wings and stuff before, but traits like these weren't as common. Of course, this wasn't the Earth she was familiar with. She was on R...some foreign world.

 

The idea of what a goat person would look like briefly passed through Aurora's head as she made her way to the concession stands, on the prowl for pretzels. They'd definitely have the horns and the cute little tail. Would their entire body have wool? Hmm...no, maybe just parts of them. They could have hooves too! Wait...wouldn't that just be a satyr? I wonder what August would look like as a satyr actually... The mental image lasted for all of three seconds before a stifled giggle escaped her lips. That doesn't suit him at all! If he had animal traits he'd be more like...a bear. A polar bear, because he hangs out with me all th-ooh, there's the pretzels! The idea of people with animal traits would have to wait until later; after she'd eaten. Aurora stepped up to the pretzel stand, taken back a bit by the person running it. Whoever she was, her skin was a reddish hue, and she had a long head. However, those were just minor things. Aurora's attention was more directed at how she had four arms! How cool was that!?

 

"Two pretzels, please," Aurora requested. "The fresher the better. Also, you don't mind telling me more about this place, do you? I heard Mauvache mention the name of this world once but it kinda slipped my memory."

---

[Tesability Black]

~Tesability's POV~

 

"Not many people appreciate good meat in the way I do, good to see one of you fighters has fine taste!"

The leaf-like ears on her head lifted upon these words as she gulped down her current biteful. "Ai ownwy hash 'cheekin' befowsh," she said, lifting her snout so that it was above the counter before hopping up onto her hindlegs. "Ai no now wha' offer dingks awe wike."

The whole time she was trying to talk to the strange not!human, she hadn't noticed the crowd coming up behind her and trying to talk and pester her with questions. She did, however, see the being in front of her frown before speaking in a gruff voice with his gaze appearing to be aimed at something above her head, "Hold it now kiddies Mauvache don't want her fighters to be swarmed like that, back it up a bit."

"...huh?"

Tesability, forepaws remaining on the counter, turned her head to see the curious, and now slightly annoyed, crowd behind her. "...oh." She hadn't even realized there had been so many around her while she was eating nor did she hear them, was she that odd in this place?

...though, now that she thought on it, it wasn't the first time someone saw her and had no idea what to expect. A tiny grin appeared on her muzzle as she recalled the impromptu race that resulted from that, too. It'd been a good while since a race brought her near top speed.

So, without any real worry, she pawed her way into the crowd to better look at all the odd peoples here before finally raising a paw and saying "Hai" in her high-pitched, child-like voice.

[Alaina]

 

As Xia, dejectedly, walked away from the door to let Angela attempt to open it wide. She watched as the girl went to try and open it through similar means, which made Xia wonder if she had simply messed up in the process before. As the girl was being met with an equal amount of success, Xia then started to wonder what it was that they were going to do if they couldn't get this door open. As she contiuned to look at the mysterious sort of wooden rectangle, her expression deep in thought, Angela then went on to try her next method of gaining entry. Brute force. Of course! It was so simple Xia started to wonder why she didn't think of it. While the door budged not at all, the duo was told that security was approaching. Security? Well, they sounded friendly. After all, Xia was in charge of security back home, and she thought she was pretty friendly. 

 

While they were awaiting the nice security person to assist them, a weird shimmery wall of force had formed around them. With a bit of awe in her face, the dragon girl started tapping the force to see what it was. It was indeed, a barrier of force. Continuing to tap it, fascinated as to how such a magical construct worked, they were eventually greeted with the security person. Upon seeing it, Xia had a far more underwhelming reaction than most. The giant maw of super sharp teeth and the oddly fleshy body had reminded her of things that lived far deeper in the ocean than any person should ever go. The tentacle eyes and the one giant eye was a bit new as was the ability to fly, but not all fishes looked a like and what was flying but swimming in air? 

 

As Angela seemed ready to fight, Xia's eyes lit up as she got into a stance of her own, with an oddly contrasting smile on her face. She had never fought such a weird fish before, but fighting was all about learning and new experiences so this should've been no different. However, before she got ready to punch it she remembered that Mavich didn't want them fighting outside of arena places. Was this one of them? There wasn't a sign or anything that Xia had seen. But Angela seemed like she was ready to go so maybe Xia had just missed something. Her fighting stance went away as she seemed to be incredibly pensive about this whole predicament. Well, the only thing to do in these situations was ask. Looking to the large creature her face went back to its usual jovial demeanor as she waved to it saying, "hello security friend, are we supposed to fight you right now? I can't tell." 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

---

Xia and Angela

---

The guard looked at the two girls who stood before them. They hovered, menacingly, and moved closer to the barrier. Its middle eye blinked and the barrier suddenly vanished from around them.

The creature now had free reign to reach the two and do whatever it wanted. It's large maw split open, showing off its many, many, sharp teeth. And then...the creature spoke.

"Well howdy kids, seems there's some sort of misunderstanding here!" he spoke, in a voice

. "I don't want to fightcha, I'm here to help! I don't know why you're trying to go into Nana Babading's room but she's sleeping now so you might wanna come again later...unless...Oh golly I'm such a fool. You're new here, aren't you? My name's Gnash and I was hired by Miss Mauvache to keep this place safe and secure."

---

Aurora

---

"Two pretzels, please," Aurora requested. "The fresher the better. Also, you don't mind telling me more about this place, do you? I heard Mauvache mention the name of this world once but it kinda slipped my memory."

 

The woman smiled mysteriously at Aurora and grabbed what seemed to be straight dough. They rapidly twisted it into a pretzel shape and dunked it in boiling oil, still holding onto it, for a minute, before pulling it out, salting and buttering it before putting it in on a paper-plate-like object and handing it to the girl. While getting the other, she spoke. "Why, it's Rama-Indri, human child. I could tell you more but...well we were told to avoid saying too much unless specifically asked. What do you want to know human child?"

 

As this happened, Aurora would overhear someone shouting nearby. "Guys doesn't she kind of look like The Dragon?"

---

Tesability

---

The group gathered around Tesability seemed extremely excited by her greeting, and several of them went to pet her, only to be hissed at by the food truck's owner.
They settled down, keeping their distance, until one shouted out. "Guys doesn't she kind of look like The Dragon?"

"You're right! But, she's so small! Maybe she's a baby Dragon?"

"Did The Dragon have any babies?"
"Who knows? No one actually saw The Dragon in thousands of years."

They began pressing closer and, this time, the tiger-kin seemed to be too curious to stop them.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

 

As the creature started to speak in a cartoony tone, Angela had started to internally curse Mauvache's name as she had yet once again stopped her attempt to have some fun in this place by getting into a fight. Sighing, she placed her spear on her back once more as she listened to what the guard have to say. The guard was seemingly content with just getting them to the guard station first. Angela thought that it would be nice to finally get some clearance on what the hell was she supposed to do there, and along the way, she asked Gnash a question.

 

"So, how do we get ourselves to our room?"

 

"Well little lady, you'll have to come with me to register your key."

 

The rest of the trip was silent, and so they went towards the speech-bubble shaped observatory-like room, located in the middle of the floor. The room had a lot of openings, probably so the guards could watch the situation better. She noticed a hole on the ceiling and on the floor in the middle of the room and was going to question it when the sight of levers and buttons that was scattered through the place started to intimidate her. For a while, Angela spent the time being silent and worried, but after a point, she decided to voice her concern to Gnash.

 

"So uh...we have no idea how this entire thing works. Can you guide us through the process?"

 

Gnash was happy to oblige, and brought the two into a monitor of sort, where they would scan their watches there and allow them to gain the correct key for the apartment rooms. It also marked a position around the map, giving pointers on where they room would be. Angela was still concerned about some things though, and asked about how to operate those so called elevators. However, Gnash also had no idea about it. Sighing, Angela got Xia to follow her and walked through the area until they finally got into the location of their room according to the map, near the corner of the area. Xia's room was quite close with hers, and so Angela asked her to hang out with her for a while as she checked out the room itself.

 

It was mostly bare, around 6 feet in width and 9 feet in length. White walls, wooden floor, twin-sized bed, and a chest for clothing changes and other things. There was also a blue screen on the wall that made Angela groan in almost an instant, but after she messed with it for a bit, apparently it was mainly for getting herself stuffs by paying points for it. Well, it's better than nothing. It looked neat, and not that different from her place in Cherry Heart, and Angela wasn't really the type to complain about her accommodation. Placing her spear and sword on the corner of the room and tossing her hat somewhere else, she jumped into the bed in joy before turning towards Xia.

 

"Hey hey, let's hang out here for a while. Just close the door, it's fine.

 

You know...I haven't really seen much dragons in my life, so can you tell me more about yourself and your world? This place is total nonsense...gah, I just want to have some fun, you know?"

 

---

[VCR_CAT]

Aria

 

Aria's watch pinged, showing her the directions to where she can find some food. Shrugging, she got into the elevator after the trio of noisy dudes got on, and keyed in the proper floor. The elevator dinged, and Aria stepped out onto the floor, checking her watch. The place she needed to go to was at the far end of the hall, and it was... a bar...

 

Whatever, a bar didn't mean she needed to drink. Aria took a deep breath and marched down the hall, her eyes set dead ahead. She passed by the sound of voices, possibly one of the other contestants, and eventually made it to the bar, making her way in and visibly uncomfortable with the place she was entering into.

 

"Hello?" she asked out with her voice betraying a hint of nervousness.

[Alaina]

 

After asking her question to the giant eye sky fish, Xia's expression of confusion did not change as it floated towards her. As the creature opened its mouth, a rather friendly voice came out from it, telling them that he wasn't here to fight at the moment. Xia let out a sigh of relief, her confusion on the matter finally being solved, as the fish introduced itself and what it's role here in the area was. As he had introduced himself, Xia remembered that it was proper course to introduce herself as well. "Hello Gnash, I'm Xia, nice to meet you." The next part was, as she remembered, handshaking. Extending out her hand she then looked to the eye fish, her expression becoming more confused as she attempted to figure out just where its "hand" to shake was. She felt as though she were missing something obvious, as the eye fish looked to her with a similarly confused expression, it then just waved one of its eye tentacles at her, causing her expression to light back up. Right, hand waving. That was another form of introductory greeting. After she waved to the creature it then explained what they needed to do.

 

After guiding them through the building and then further through the process of getting their watches turned into keys for their very own rooms, Gnash had left the duo to their devices. Following after the blue haired girl, they had eventually found their way towards their own personal rooms. As Xia's was close by, and she was already having a jolly good romp with her new found friend Angela, she had decided to stick around with her as they went into her room. Looking around, the room they had found themselves in was not all that large, nor was at all that furnished. Yet the dragon girl still looked at it with her usual expression of awe as she said, "whooooa." Her attention was instantly focused on the blue screen on the wall, though before she walked to it, the blue haired girl had told her to close the door, to which she did so. Angela then asked her about her "world" which was an odd way to say home. 

 

Her face lighting up as she had found something in common with the girl, she said, "I haven't seen many dragons either! Just the one. And I didn't really ever meet him in person, but I'm sure he must've been a nice person." As she thought on it more, she then looked back and said, "oh right, I come from a place under the ocean. I can't really remember much about it, but I know it used to be this really neato place and had a lot of people all living in it. It was amazing. And I was in charge of guarding it. I guess I was like the Gnash of my home." While she put her hand to her chest in pride in stating the fact, her expression soon dropped as she remembered more about it. "Though, I guess I didn't really do my job that good." Putting her finger to her chin as she thought about it, her eyes became more downcast, only to perk up again as she then stated, "but then I met a bunch of other people and got to security for them too, and I think I did a pretty good job at that. How about you Angela, what was your hom- er, 'world' like?"

[Andx]

Tes took off suddenly leaving a rather perplexed Caleb behind. That had to be the Tes he knew and yet she sounded different and showed no sign of recognizing him. So assuming then it wasn't the Tes he knew, nothing about what he'd been thinking was correct. And that was going to prove problematic. He hadn't paid very good attention to Mauvache due to thinking this was all some Leviathan prank on him. And he hardly registered the names of the others brought here as they had introduced themselves. He sat in the room as the others left trying his hardest to remember things and process the fact that perhaps this wasn't Leviathan related at all. He might actually be in an entirely different world, expected to fight for the entertainment of others. This thinking of things made him last in the room and soon a strange spherical robot approached him telling him the battlefields were closed and to please move on. He was going to ask it something when it simply repeated its message. That was probably all it did. With a sigh Caleb picked himself up and made his way out of the room.

 

He saw Aria departing into one of the elevators. He moved that way as there didn't seem to be anything else to go to. The others had likely gone to get food which wasn't a bad idea now that the canine thought of it. He entered into the elevator and the watch about his leg informed him food was most readily available on the second floor and so that was where Caleb went. As the last of the gathered fighters to get a move on everyone else had already determined where they wanted to go. The dog however put his nose to use and began following appealing scents. There were people moving about these parts of wherever they were other than those called. And they appeared to be all kinds of races. This was exciting to the man turned dog who loved meeting new kinds of people and learning about their ways of life.

 

Now lightly trotting about he finally ended up in front of the various concession stands. It looked like there had been fancier restaurants but this is where his nose had led him. In six years time as a dog he'd learned to trust it a lot more than he'd ever thought he could. Though he'd only been around them briefly he seemed to be getting somewhat familiar scents of people as he moved about too. Before long he felt a bit of a chill and found himself standing not far off from Aurora who had just gotten herself a pretzel. He heard mention of a dragon as well and caught the strange Tes off in the corner of his eye. It seemed he really didn't know anyone here so he'd have to play by Mauvache's rules.

 

"Damn magical people." he said with a sigh. Well no better time to start than now by getting to know this girl and maybe getting some food somewhere along the line. "Hey there," he started a bit awkwardly but also friendly from behind the girl. It seemed she had been starting a conversation with the person behind the counter. Upon realizing this Caleb felt even more awkward. Not a good start to a conversation. But hey no where to go but up right? Perhaps a little too literally as he had to look up to talk to anyone as it was.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Under the ocean, huh? That explains why you look so...wet...I mean water-y."

 

Angela listened to what Xia had to say about her world and how she was there excitedly. Although, she was worried when Xia said something about her not doing her job well and suddenly looked quite down for a while. She was tempted to ask about what was that all about, but held herself from doing so, not wanting to go overboard on someone she had just met. Thankfully the dragon girl perked up afterwards, and continued to talk, and finally ending her sentence with a prompt for Angela to also tell her about her own world.

 

"Well for me...I live in a land. I'm for the most part just a normal human, I think." As she said this, the distortions around her acted for a bit and opened their slits, revealing many holes in space-time for a few seconds before disappearing as Angela was thinking about what she should say next. "I'm in this adventurer's guild called Cherry Heart, and it's pretty cool! There's a lot of very different people there, and I got to explore the world while having fun adventures too.

 

Those people are very great, I'm really blessed to be able to meet them. Ah, I wish that I can be anywhere close to their greatness..."

 

She paused a bit, clearly thinking about something. The image of a blue-haired girl passed through her mind as she said her last sentence. She never got the chance to know her much outside of her name and that she was a supervisor and helper from Yggdrasil, but Angela quite admired her. Something about her gave her a feeling of dejavu she couldn't shake...but that woman kept on avoiding her. Did she do something wrong? Was she just too unimpressive for a Yggdrasil ace to care about? Just thinking about it made her feelings of inferiority and inadequacy surfaced, but realizing that Xia was still there, she suppressed those thoughts and continued the conversation.

 

"Ah, sorry...I was just thinking about someone earlier. Anyway...want to have some fun here? We can play pretend wrestling here while we can't fight. Or do you want to go together to the bar? We can take some rest too, but...can I sleep with you? I'd like some company now, that's all~"

 

---

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

---

Aria

---

The room Aria entered, through sliding doors, was very different from the hallway she exited. It resembled a medieval style tavern, with wooden floors and bar, with a few key differences.

One was the lighting. Which was dim but obviously electrically generated. They focused on the middle section of the bar, a dance floor large enough for thirty people to stand, and move around, comfortably. There was music coming from speakers built into two sides of the dance floor. They seemed to be connected to a large jukebox in the far right corner of the room, beyond the tables that took up much of the space not dedicated to the dance floor.

Said tables were around waist-high. With high-backed chairs set up around them and a silver bell in the middle.

The bar, which was almost antique looking, stretched all the way around the far wall, extending quite the distance. Stools were set up in front of it and, behind, rows and rows of various drinks were set on display, making a myriad of colors that was almost hypnotizing.

Behind the bar was a single, push-open, door with a sign above it that said "Kitchen".

The bartenders seemed to be tall, skinny, robots with pincer-like hands.

All except one. In the middle, near the kitchen door, stood a seven foot tall, Minotaur, wearing a suit. It seemed obvious they were a heavy drinker, however, they seemed to be somewhat cleaned up at the moment. Above him, and the kitchen door, was a massive crossbow-like device.

When Aria spoke up, the Minotaur, who had been talking to one of the few patrons in the bar at the time, looked towards her. "Ello there lass!" he shouted boisterously, "Yer looking a wee bit young fer this place, ain't ya?"

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 
Cyanthrax let out a yawn as the elevator reached the second floor. He followed the map closely in order to reach his destination - the bar. The area around him was very different than the hallways that had preceded it. In fact, it looked like many of the taverns that he had hit up back from his world. Well, except for the fact that all the people looked like animals. On closer inspection, it was all a bit off - the lighting, while close, was clearly lit in a more technological way compared to the ones he was familiar with. The bartenders were also robotic. Still, it wasn't the weirdest thing he had seen that day - after all, he appeared in this world out of nowhere. He shrugged it off, taking a seat at one of the stools. "Hey, bolts! How about ya pass me uh..." It hit him at that moment that he wasn't completely sure about the form and quality of the drinks here. "...surprise me." He turned around to get a look at the others around him; a rather large Minotaur had especially caught his eye. He relaxed a bit, slouching as he sat there. The atmosphere was comforting to him, even if it wasn't exactly how he remembered it. As the robot slid his drink to him, he heard a familiar voice.

 

"Hello?" he turned his head towards the voice. It was one of the others that was with him and the others. He recalled her saying something about him - the only word that he could remember was "edgelord", which he didn't completely understand. He also recalled not caring. Still, it was strange to see someone as young as her in a place like this. He wasn't the only one that thought this, as the Minotaur began speaking to her. He took a chug from his cup as he sat there, waiting to see how the events laid out would unfold.

[VCR_CAT]

Aria

 

The inside of the bar was a breath of fresh air, reminding Aria of the months she spent in Lore. Oddly enough, this ended up being the first place in this new world that she was starting to feel a little more at home.

 

"Ello there lass!" a voice shouted boisterously, "Yer looking a wee bit young fer this place, ain't ya?"

 

Aria looked over and spotted a large minotaur; giving her the surreal feeling that she was going to need to get used to all of this being real and not some sort of game. At the Minotaur's comment, she laughed a little nervously.

 

"Well, I'm not here to, y'know, drink or anything; I was just looking for a place with food and the watch directed me here..." Aria went over to the bar and sat down on one of the stools. "This is a nice place, though, I wasn't expecting, like, a tavern or anything. Kinda just thought it'd be one of those seedy clubs I see downtown where I come from." Aria glanced over and spotted the guy from earlier that was bragging about being some sort of "demon". Real or not, the memory of it alone caused Aria to cringe on the inside. "Anyways, do you guys have a menu or something?"\

 

"Was different when I first came ere but Mauvache let me change it to something more like home...As for menu, just let me know what yer interested in and we'll try and whip it up. If ye want to ye can sit at a table and it'll be brought out. Or ye can stay here and chat a bit, this old man could use the company, gwahahaha!" The Minotaur responded with a hearty laugh.

 

Aria thought for a moment. There was a lot she wanted to eat from home, but she wasn't sure how much she would be allowed to have, or how expensive. It would probably be best to keep things simple.

 

"I've actually been wanting some food from home; well, I guess this wouldn't technically be totally authentic, but would you guys be able to do up some sushi? I think the americans called it a 'Dynamite Roll'; tempura fried prawn, avacado, cucumber, masago, and radish sprouts with japanese mayo?" Aria realized that she might have sounded crazy to someone from another world just then. "I mean, if you guys don't know what that is that's no problem, I was just wondering if--"

 

The Minotaur laughed again. "Don't worry about it! Mauvache let us know ya lads and lasses might be hungry for! Comin' right up!"

 

Aria breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, and I'll stay at the bar, thanks. Not that fun to be sittin' at a table by yourself."

 

"Sounds good!"

[Tesability Black]

Tesability let off a muted whine as the group was forced back, preventing her from getting long-overdue pets.

"Guys, doesn't she kind of look like The Dragon?" Tesability lifted a leaf-like ear in confusion, tilting her head slightly to one side.

"You're right! But, she's so small! Maybe she's a baby Dragon?"

"Did The Dragon have any babies?"

"Who knows? No one actually saw The Dragon in thousands of years."

Unlike the last few times, no one stopped the crowd around her from getting closer, prompting her to have to sit to have room around her. "Wha 'Dwagon' awe yu tawkin' abowts," she asked in confusion, blinking a few times during her question. "Dey wewe mennies Dwagon Netmonstewsh eens...de..." Her ears lowered, her head lowered slightly and her shoulders drooped upon thinking back to her home.

She didn't make it through the Path of Origin...which means her home may never come back to how it used to be...

[Yui]

---

"Why, it's Rama-Indri, human child. I could tell you more but...well we were told to avoid saying too much unless specifically asked. What do you want to know human child?"

 

"Guys doesn't she kind of look like The Dragon?"

 

Aurora turned briefly toward the second voice she'd heard. Seemed there were some other folks here, excited about that dragon that was part of the group of fighters. Which apparently looked like "The Dragon". Whatever that was. Actually...that was a question worth asking, wasn't it? What was "The Dragon" and why was it apparently a big deal on Rama-Indri? As Aurora was about to ask her question, she was met with another awkward voice behind her.

 

"Hey there."

 

Aurora looked, and...it was the talking dog! Was it rude to think of him like somebody's pet? ...yeah, that's definitely a bit messed up. Not a pet then. Even so, Aurora turned to face the dog, got down to be on eye level with man's best friend, and reached out one hand to scratch behind the dog's ear. It would probably be cold to the touch, and while she did feel a bit bad about that, she'd never really had a chance to get this close to a dog before. "Hello," she smiled, before taking a bite of the fresh pretzel she now had, wrapping the plate around it so that she could handle the food with one hand and the dog with the other. Not yet taking her hand off the pooch's head, Aurora turned her own head back up to the pretzel lady and asked "Those guys at the meat stall seem real excited. What's The Dragon they're all talking about?"

[Alaina]

 

Xia listened intently on what it was that Angela was saying about her home. The girl seemed to be part of some group known as a "Guild" that had something to do with organ fruits. It definitely sounded different, and likewise, exciting from what Xia was used to. The girl wondered what kind of people it was that Angela knew in this guild place, especially since the blue hair girl seemed to hold them in such high admiration. While she was wondering about this, she didn't notice the girl actually seeming to get a bit down trodden herself, and only snapped her attention back to Angela once she began speaking. The girl seemed to want to do something fun to pass the time. The first suggestion was some kind of fighting that wasn't actually fighting but was still so? As she tried to think on that, she then stopped listening as the girl mentioned going to the bar.

 

The bar was almost a mythical entity to Xia. She had heard of it before, and the humans she had spent time with back home frequented this "bar" often enough, though she had never been able to accompany them. As such, she was always left to wonder what it was actually like, and given the generally jovial and looser mood the people had when they came back from it, it must have been wonderful. As such, Xia's eyes lit up as she confidently declared, "let's go to the bar!"

 

As she started to happily walk out of the girl's room, she had realized that the girl hadn't actually answered yet, and thus stopped in her tracks. Worried that she might have messed things up a bit, she looked back only to see that Angela was indeed planning on following her, and a wave of relief passed through her as her expression lit up once more.  With that, the two girls had left the room, and got back to the apartment elevator. Inside, there was a button labeled "Arena Elevator," to which Xia pressed thinking it would take them back to the first magic box. Once it had, the duo then finagled around with the elevator until they had managed to end up in the food court area, walking around she had marveled at a few of the areas before stumbling onto the place labeled, "bar." 

 

Once inside, the dragon girl could only marvel at the interior. She hadn't ever really seen a wooden furnished place quite like it, or at least not in any years she could remember, and continued to look in awe at all the patrons who were moving about. As her eyes scanned across the area, they eventually fixated onto a familiar looking figure, which caused Xia to simply beeline it for them. Walking over to them, her tone chipper she said, "hi Aria! Great seeing you here right now. Are you, too, here to check out the wonders of this 'bar'?"

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

---

Aria

---

Tegur poked his head into the kitchen and shouted out the order before moving back to his place. "I take it you'll be wantin' something to drink, mm? We don't got much more than alcohol but I can get ya something lass, if yer wanting it."

It was only a few minutes before a robot, similar to the ones at the bar, came out with a tray, holding Aria's food, came out of the kitchen. It set the tray in front of Aria and let out a monotone "Food is hot." before moving back to the kitchen.

"Eat up lass, eat up, gonna need energy for tomorrow I reckon, gwaaahahah-" the bartender stopped laughing as he noticed the newcomers walking in. His eyes widened a bit. "She never said anything about this..."

---

Tes

---

"Wha 'Dwagon' awe yu tawkin' abowts," she asked in confusion, blinking a few times during her question. "Dey wewe mennies Dwagon Netmonstewsh eens...de..."

 

"She doesn't know?"
"Where's she from anyway? Must be a planet far from here right?"

The crowd didn't seem keen on answering Tes's question and so the tiger-man let out a loud cough, silencing them, before explaining to the NetMonster.

"The Dragon. Well. They're basically our God, ya see. Its said he created this planet long ago and looked after the people in it for many years. Before vanishing. We still worship him and, in fact, this Arena was made in part to honor him. Dragons are a species that only exist in legend. So you can understand why seeing someone who looks like the depictions, well...sorry about that Miss."

---

Aurora

---

"Those guys at the meat stall seem real excited. What's The Dragon they're all talking about?"

The lady seemed uncomfortable with the question and a flash of frustration came over her face before she smoothed it out and smiled at Aurora. "Ah, well, The Dragon...That is to say Legends say The Dragon is this planet's Guardian Deity. No one has seen trace of her for years but...many people here still worship her."

[ChampionZero]

Elijah looked up from his map to find himself accidentally at the bar, with Cyanthrax and Aria.

 

"Oh. Well, this'll certainly do." He admitted, his watch display blinking off. It was rather like a Duel Disk, he noted, and that made using it so much easier. It was mildly upsetting that his cards and Duel Disk didn't make the trip, but Mauvache said she could grant some wishes. So he could retrieve them in time.

 

 With a wave towards the minotaur, Elijah called out a bit. "Hey, bartender! Can I get a drink, big guy?"

 

He glanced sideways at Cyanthrax, and decided to say something. "So, Cy -can I call you Cy?- Cy, I feel like maybe we got off on the wrong foot. I wasn't trying to upstage you or anything, man, I know how much that sucks."

[Tesability Black]

Shoulders, ears and muzzle were drooped low upon the remembrance of her Collapsed home, the remnants of a reality rendered long devoid of most life.

"The Dragon. Well. They're basically our God, ya see. Its said he created this planet long ago and looked after the people in it for many years. Before vanishing. We still worship him and, in fact, this Arena was made in part to honor him. Dragons are a species that only exist in legend. So you can understand why seeing someone who looks like the depictions, well...sorry about that Miss." In her depressed state, she barely heard him speak, but as she listened to his words, her mind began to form a parallel to what happened with her home...
 

"Geez, these Bosses know how to hide, don't they?"

A trio of figures walked across the empty space of green. The middle one of the trio was clearly human, a female with blonde hair held in a bun while wearing a blue suit, might like the battle dress uniforms of the US Armed Forces. She had brought a hand across her forehead, wiping sweat off her forehead before looking to the two beside her.

To her left, a mechanical wonder of bluish color walked beside her. One of the two arms ended in a sharp, long point for stabbing and the other was a hand-cannon replacing a proper hand. To her right, a small, smoky-black dragonling walked alongside the human. The dragonling looked up towards the human, big black eyes looking up with evident tiredness.

"I get sleepy," the shadowy-looking dragon whined with a feminine voice. "Let go home."

"I agree with the Champion on this one," the icy mech to the human's left remarked with a masculine one. "Immortalis did do quite the number to her earlier, I'm surprised she's not in Doc Boo's ca---"

"NUNUNUN! NOT HIM!"

The human shook her head as the dragon suddenly hid behind her legs, putting the girl between her and the mech. Looking slightly behind herself, the human gave the dragon a gentle smile. "Tesability, you're not going to the Ghost yet. A good nap should tide you over." Suddenly, her tone, direction and expression changed as the human suddenly turned towards the mech with a stern look. "Kawuros, what have I told you about spooking the Tricky Dragon with that?"

"My apologies, Professional Talen Avalon," he remarked before giving a slight bow. "I failed to recall her last experience with Doc Boo...even I thought the chainsaw was a bit excessive."

"Only a bit," the human referred to as Talen Avalon questioned with a raised eyebrow before sighing. "Let's go back, I gotta get up early for school anyway." An unseen grin formed on the dragon's maw as the trio went back towards their collective home...

...unfortunately, the human was never seen again. And Talen Avalon was not the only one that suddenly went missing...

"...Dwagon'sh nawt commin' backsh," she finally replied. "Dwagon mae bee gon' fow gud. Ai...eckspewienshed de saim fiwsht han' wiff da Peowpil befow mai wowld wash Kawapshed...befow Nemeshish deshtwoyed de Eentewnetsh..."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"let's go to the bar!"

 

"Sure, why not?"

 

Angela was quite easily pretty disappointed at how Xia didn't take her offer to get frisky, although with how she worded it, perhaps that might end up badly since Angela might be seen as taking advantage of her. However, the bar didn't sound like a bad idea either. Despite the miniscule fund she had, she felt that a round of alcohol would help her ease up, and perhaps she might even get a date there! Ah, or perhaps a drunken orgy, if the people here were into that. Ah...it had been ages since she had one. The guild business really had taken most of her attention lately.

 

With a renewed cheer, she followed Xia through the elevator, and into a certain area after they struggled with the device for a while again. Once they were there, Angela was surprised at how...familiar the design of the bar was. It was as wooden and comfy as the bars from her old place. Of course, back there the servants weren't automatons, and she couldn't find anyone she could think as a potential help. However, as Xia went to greet Aria, someone else caught her attention. Her mouth wide agape for a few seconds, before she rushed towards him as he seemingly noticed her presence too.

 

"...Tegur, is that you? H-how did you even come here? No, why are you even here?"

 

She was mostly sounding like she was questioning him, but seeing someone from her homeland was very nice. The minotaur wasn't someone she's especially close with, although she mostly knew him being somewhat close to the winged elf with the guns, and outside of a few attempts to ask him out and being in the same quests as him, Angela wasn't thinking of him as a close friend. But a member of Cherry Heart was a member of Cherry Heart no matter where, and she was just so ecstatic to meet him that she didn't even bother sitting down.

 

"Can you give me some of the stronger stuff here? I'm in a partying mood now. And hey, maybe you can drink too with me!"

 

---

[Andx]

Thankfully for Caleb it seemed the girl wasn't super opposed to talking him, awkward salutation aside. She turned to face him and then- oh no what was she doing? She was squatting down to look at him properly. There was only one reason to do this. She, like most any other human, possessed two of the fated tools however one was busy holding her food. But then that meant the other was still free. Caleb's eyes watched Aurora's other hand moving towards him. Time seemed to slow as he watched the hand draw ever nearer. On the one hand petting was kinda nice depending on the person. But on the other this was a girl not all that much younger than him from what he could guess. It'd be like getting pet by one of his little sisters right? This moment lasted for what felt like in an eternity while externally only a slightly confused look shot across his face as the girl's hand quickly moved to the back of his head and began scratching behind his ears.

 

She just had to go for it didn't she? She had to pick that spot. The one spot that in all his days as a dog Caleb could never quite scratch at well enough on his own. Almost instinctively his tail began wagging faster and he took a sitting position to allow the girl continue. His tongue hung out of his mouth for a moment as he panted happily though something was odd. The girl's fingers felt cold to the touch. The thought sort of snapped him back into focus as Aurora asked the person at the stand she'd gotten food from about a Dragon. For a moment the woman seemed almost upset but then answered that this Creature was something like a god for planet. And while it hadn't been seen for some time many worshiped it. The idea of a god dragon fascinated Caleb though given his other encounters with dragons perhaps it was best to hold off on trying to meet this one.

 

"Hey are you alright? Your hand's really cold." he said, shifting his attention back to Aurora. The building didn't seem that cold to him but then he was covered in fur. Maybe he just wasn't noticing. Regardless he was concerned for the girl's health being as cold as she was. He got up and moved out from under the girl's hand and paced about a bit looking for some place that looked a bit warmer or maybe sold something to help. But in the immediate area was just food. Well it'd be a little awkward but he could probably keep her warm enough for a bit until they found something. He returned to Aurora's side still concerned. "Come on lets go get you a coat or something."

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 
As he drank more, more of the other contenders showed up. He didn't pay much attention to who'd had come in and out, but there was a small gathering around the young girl and the minotaur. However, the one person that did catch his attention was the King. "So, Cy -can I call you Cy?- Cy, I feel like maybe we got off on the wrong foot. I wasn't trying to upstage you or anything, man, I know how much that sucks." He couldn't help but scoff. "Oh please. You couldn't upstage me even if you tried!" He threw his arms back, placing his head on the palms of his hands and placing his feet on the bar. "That said, I like your style kid. Let's hope you're not full of hot air" He say back up, grabbing what was left of the drink in his cup. "After all, I'm suppose to be the hot head here. Fufufu!" In one quick chug, he finished the alcoholic drink. He turned his attention back to the bar tender. "Another!" He let out a hearty laugh, before sliding the empty cup into the small pile of empty cups next to him. He turned back to Elijah. "You know, I don't think I got yer name, your highness."

[ChampionZero]

Now, this was the kind of personality Elijah could work with. Arrogant, but not quite narcissistic. Boastful, but grudgingly respectful. He'd met a few people with this kind of attitude, and in his experience, the best tactic was to be respectful, but not go kowtowing to them every time they speak. Try and level with them, so to speak.

 

Elijah sat down next to Cyan and waited for the bartender to come over by engaging with the supposed demon. "Elijah Diamond. But Elijah works. Or Eli." He shrugged, and decided to just ask. "So, you said earlier that you're a demon? Like, a legitimate demon from hell and all that? DARK, Fiend-type, the whole deal?"

[Yui]

---

"Ah, well, The Dragon...That is to say Legends say The Dragon is this planet's Guardian Deity. No one has seen trace of her for years but...many people here still worship her."

 

"Oh. I hope she's okay."

 

"Hey are you alright? Your hand's really cold."

 

"Huh?" Aurora's attention was directed back to the talking dog. Her hand. Right, her hand! She wasn't wearing gloves so he felt that. Whoops. Aurora was about to insist she was fine and explain the situation behind her Fragment and the sheer power of it being uncontainable in at least one sense of the word, but before she could bring it up, the dog was already looking around elsewhere, in search of something. Before long, he returned to Aurora's side, looking concerned.

 

"Come on lets go get you a coat or something."

 

"No no I'm fine," Aurora said, waving off the dog's concern with a smile. "I just have these superpowers, and they're really strong. I can do something like..." To demonstrate her ability, Aurora took her spare hand and tore off a small piece of the pretzel she was enjoying, just big enough to fill a balled-up fist. She closed her hand around it, and the air around her hand turned frigid and misty. Aurora winced at the sudden temperature drop just a bit, but when she opened her hand, the piece of pretzel was frozen solid. The girl then briefly held her pretzel in her mouth, reaching into the trusty blue snowflake-print bag faithfully hanging at her side, and pulled out a pair of gloves. She pulled the gloves on over her hands before grabbing her pretzel again and sticking its tiny frozen piece in a pocket on her right side. She could find a trash bin for that soon.

 

"Like that. Only thing is I can't completely contain my power since that would freeze me from the inside out after a while so I just keep it on a little bit all the time. I'm a walking AC sorta." Aurora took another bite of her pretzel, the smile returning to her face with its flavor and texture - not to mention warmth - filling her mouth. When she swallowed, she patted the dog's head briefly with her newly-gloved hand, and both reassuredly and insistently said "I'm fine."

---

[VCR_CAT]

Aria

 

"I take it you'll be wantin' something to drink, mm? We don't got much more than alcohol but I can get ya something lass, if yer wanting it."

 

Aria looked up. Contrary to what most people go to a bar for, Aria had no intention of ordering anything with alcohol in it.

 

"That sounds good, I wasn't expecting to have beer or anything anyways," Aria replied with a nervous smile. The bartender was nice enough, but the nature of the establishment wasn't one she was most comfortable with. It wasn't long until the robotic waiter returned with Aria's food. It was definitely sushi, but it didn't look any better than something she might find at a cheap restaurant. Disappointing, but probably in-line with what they were allowing her to get for free. Thankfully it came with a pair of chopsticks; at least there was the mercy that she wouldn't be eating it with her hands.

 

"Eat up lass, eat up, gonna need energy for tomorrow I reckon, gwaaahahah-" the bartender stopped laughing as he noticed the newcomers walking in. His eyes widened a bit. "She never said anything about this..."

 

Aria already had a mouth full of rice and tempura shrimp when she looked over and spotted a couple other contestants.

 

"I washn' prannin ta mee' any--" Aria paused and swallowed. "I wasn't planning to meet anyone here."

 

"hi Aria! Great seeing you here right now. Are you, too, here to check out the wonders of this 'bar'?" Xia said as she took a seat next to her. Aria was only made more confused by this statement. She knew some people were sheltered, but how sheltered was this girl?!

 

"I mean, it's a place that sells food and drink, and that's what I came here lookin' for," Aria replied with a dry tone, holding up another piece of her sushi with her chopsticks. "Have you never been to a bar or a tavern or whatever?"

[👀 REP 👀]

 

---

 
"Elijah Diamond, eh? Alright, I guess." He took another swing of his drink as Elijah asked him about his status as a demon. "Of course I'm an actual demon! Do you not see the insignia on my chest!" He pointed to the marking that covered the majority of his chest. "What, have you never seen the Demon Clan mark before? Actually..." He put his half-empty cup down onto the table. "Is there even a Demon Clan where you come from, kid?" He asked, curiosity laced in his voice. He wasn't quite used to the idea that all of them had come from completely different worlds - hell, all of this was hard to believe. He picked up his drink from the table again and took a swing.