Open - The Pleasures of Fishing

"ARCANE CUTTER!"

A beam of arcane energy sliced cleanly through the tree which then promptly tumbled down. Before hitting the ground, gusts of air caught the tree before hitting the ground. Slowly but steadily, the tree was dragged next to the river's water.

"Oblivion Witch Agatha is the beeesttttt..."

Agatha cheerfully hummed a tune as her aeromancy magic softly deposited the tree on the river bank.

Now to just cut it up~

"ARCANE CUTTER!"

Once again, the spell cleanly cut through the tree making smartly cut firewood. The Oblivion Witch got to work setting the fire's foundation.

"I think it's supposed to be in a pyramid shape so this one goes here... this one there. Yeah, Broom, put a few more here... like that. Okay, looks good. Now I just need to start the fire."

Majolica crossed her arms looking at the bonfire.

I don't have any fire. Son of a bitch.

Returning to the forest's edge, Agatha pointed her broomstick at the snow. The broom's bristles grew long and then bowled like a tractor's mechanical arm and began digging.

Hopefully, there are some sticks I can rub together under the snowfall. Wow, all this magic and I'm going to have to rub sticks together like an idiot to get my fire started. The irony is palpable.

Agatha watched lazily as the broomstick dug looking for any semblances of wood or sticks. Much like winter in Boston, and probably most places on Earth, winter in Terrasphere was cold. It was a gift that players couldn't die of cold in the game, but even so, standing outside for long periods of time in this weather was anything but comfortable. Looking up through the bare branches of the trees surrounding her, Agatha scowled as gray clouds began to gather overhead.

If it starts snowing...

Almost as if the world was spiting her, flurries began falling. Slowly, but then after a few seconds quickly in large flakes the snow picked up. Pulling her hat down to stop the snow from touching her eyeballs which she thought was the grossest thing ever, Agatha, anger building, continued channeling magic into her broom as it dug. As the hole grew, Agatha took a step back to better control the broom. On her second step backward her shoe hit ice skating forward while momentum carried her back. Sitting in the cold snow, her butt wet, The Oblivion Witch's anger reached a fever pitch.

"STUPID DAMN ICE IN THIS STUPID FOREST! RAGGGGGH!"

Sickly green lightning spewed forth The Oblivion Witch's finger's living withered black marks across several trees.

"ARCANE CUTTER!"

Spinning in a circle the trees around Agatha cracked as they fell.

"STUPID. GOD. DAMN. SNOW!"

Channeling fierce winds around her, the snow blanking the ground was siphoned up into a vortex which Agatha pushed hurled forward. The vortex flew furiously down a straight path until it collided with a tree which twisted and was violently uprooted. Breathing heavily, The Oblivion Witch took note of the destruction around her.

That's what you get, stupid forest.

Agatha paused for a moment.

"Oh, man.. I really am an idiot..."

Marching back to her bonfire, her broomstick floating silently behind her, Agatha held out her finger firing a small arc of electricity. The arc struck the wood which then began to smolder. Soon, the witch had her fire. Her momentary wave of rage having passed, Agatha warmed herself for a few moments then walked towards the water's edge.

"Hope no one's swimming..."

Holding out her hand, Agatha fired arcs of electricity into the water. Fish began to rise to the surface.

"Broom!"

The broom extended its bristles picking up the fish as they floated.

"Heh... brilliant."

 

To say that someone in the forest was making a mess would be an understatement. It sounded like a tornado hit on a nearby beach, as Emerath wandered around. Not that he was lost again. Okay he was, but not that he would admit it. Why did the forests of Brisshal have to be so hard to navigate anyway?

But now there was this odd weather to contend with. It didn't seem possible that a lightning snow storm would be something that would happen. And it shouldn't have been that painfully short either. And a tornado wouldn't just fizzle out into nothing in seconds. No, could it have been another player? Had to be.

Slowly, Emerath stumbled through the trees towards the sound of the sudden weather storm that had happened, only to find a bunch of sliced and uprooted trees on a hill. But nobody to be seen. Some of the trees had some scorch marks though, and Emerath managed to follow the direction of these down the hill, to a small bonfire on the beach. A woman appeared to be fishing there... using a broom?

"This game never ceases to amaze..." Emerath muttered to himself, as he slid down the icy hill to the woman on the beach. But he underestimated the icy slope, as he found that he wasn't able to stop himself, even as he dug his nails into the ground to try to gain a handhold. It was no use, as his feet slid directly into the icy water. What Emerath found most surprising about this wasn't the cold of the water though. It was the sudden jolt of electricity that ran through his toes all the way to his hands. It wasn't strong. Perhaps just a residual charge, but enough to make his hair stand on end, and his toes to tingle.

Quickly, he jumped back away from the wet surface of the lake, and turned to the woman, trying to regain his composure and push his hair down on his head as the static made it stand up. "Ah, I'm sorry ma'am. I was simply curious about the loud noises I heard while in the forest. And about your... fishing tactics," he admitted, as he rubbed the back of his neck. Though, perhaps he had been too honest for his own good. This woman appeared dressed like a witch. Could he have stumbled into a horrible trap? Maybe the cat would kill the curious human for once?

 

Oblivion Witch Agatha watched with a mixture of disdain and annoyance as the man slid awkwardly down the slope into the river.

Agatha sighed to herself.

Gah... now what? Look at this goofy bastard. I swear, I'm not going to get a single moment of damn peace today. All I want is to sit in the forest and do a bit of fishing. Is that so hard? Now, who the hell is this guy? Some kind of steampunk engineering type? He's got the goggles... Oh god, now he's approaching me. Does he want my fish? He's not getting any. If he tries to take any I'm going to vaporize him.

"So, why are you following me? Or did you get lost and are trying to trick me into giving you a fish. I'm a genius so that's not going to work, and I'm not giving you any fish. If you try and take any, I'll use whatever parts of you are left as fish bait. Also, this whole fishing system is patent pending. You're not going to try and sell me something, are you? You look like you might be some sort of salesman or peddler."

Agatha crossed her arms and scowled.

"I'm called Oblivion Witch Agatha for a reason."

 

Emerath couldn't help the nervous chuckle that escaped him as the woman bombarded him with questions, accusations, and odd admissions. It all came rather fast. A string of them that took even his sharp wit a moment to deconstruct. Slowly, he stammered, trying to find the best way to approach this, but he felt about as successful as he would if he was trying to mentally herd a bunch of cats that all just ran off in different directions.

"Okay," he said, after another moment of processing, "let's go ahead and start this over. My name is Emerath. I'm a tinker, and I have no interest in selling you anything. I got lost in the forest, I didn't even know you were here. But admittedly after hearing you destroy part of the forest, I was intrigued. I don't want your fish. But I can probably make you a fishing rod if you need one. Probably beats using a broom, yeah?"

He hoped that the last bit wouldn't be offensive to her, but his presence seemed to be doing that already, so what would another little jab be? Besides, her magic seemed to be aeromancy based, so Emerath could probably hold his own against it with his own aeromancy magic. That was a bit of an ace up his sleeve, so he would keep that tucked away for now.

"Really though, this is all just an accident otherwise. I promise," he admitted, trying to keep the mood calm.

 

Agatha eyed @Emerath Katou up and down.

He's goofy but he doesn't look dangerous... well not yet anyway. He can't pull a gun on me, right? Guns don't exist in here I don't think... meh... if worst comes to worst I could probably take him.

"Broom works fine. Normal fishing takes to long. Have to wait there at the mercy of the fishes bad decision... which is incredibly lame. Who's got time for that? No one. It's much easier to just shock the fish then pick them up. It takes half the time. And also, like I said, patent pending. Whatever, as long as you're not some traveling salesman or something. You can sit by the fire if you want. This side's mine though. Stay on your side. Also, the town is the other way."

Agatha extended her brooms bristles which went back to gathering electrocuted fish.

"What do tinkers do anyway? I mean, you've gotta specialize in building some type of thing, right?"

 

Celestine wandered along in the snow, crunching with each step. It was pretty darn cold, which made it a terrible time to get lost… AGAIN. Why did they make this game world so darn gigantic? Granted it gave it a nice sense of realism, but the travel from one spot to another was just agonizingly slow. Maybe she should buy a horse at some point. Anyway, whatever: she was sure this was somewhere near Honeyhome, so if she was lucky, she’d find it by walking straight forward until a path showed itself.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then… probably thirty. It was hard to tell without a watch or a phone to whip out. No path, but then something much more interesting caused her ears to perk up. A loud, sickening crash coming from the distance. To her… right? Maybe? It was the sort of thing that sounded like it was best to avoid… which is exactly why she changed course and headed straight for it.

As she approached the scene of the… crime(?), Celly felt a tickling coldness on her cheek as a bold snowflake managed to hit her skin and melt there into a drop of water. Looking up from the ground, she noticed the flurry of snow had definitely thickened. Crap. She really needed to find some warmth soon, or this could be some major trouble.

Luckily, it wasn’t long until she caught sight of what she assumed had caused the noise. A “fallen” tree, though it looked more like it was violently torn out of the ground by a hurricane. Odd - then - that it was the only tree to have been hit by the alleged hurricane. She only spent a quick moment to take that in though, because what really caught her eye was the orange dot of a fireplace in the distance. It looked so warm…

Celestine tore through the snow, as fast as possible considering the thickness of it. Before the minute was up, she was able to take in even more oddities of the situation: dead fish all across the water, a guy who resembled a mechanic, and a tall girl who resembled a witch with her massive, brimmed hat. Probably a Felis, given the well-placed points on top. Celestine came in just in time to hear the witchy one claim her own side of the fire.

“Umm… please do the excusing of me,” she called out in an awkward introduction, finding it incredibly hard not to look back at the water as another fish bobbed to the surface. As she continued to speak, she shuffled closer to the fire, rubbing her hands together, “I did not mean to do the interrupting of this date of yours’, but I seem to be of lostness. Do you know the direction of the Honeyhome town,” she asked the both of them?

 

"And now another one! Ooooooh! That's IT!"

Immediately, Agatha's skin begins to crack like porcelain. Between the cracks, glimpses of a substance that looks like glossy, black glass can be seen. More and more parts of Agatha begin to chip away from her arms, hat, pants, and chest. For all intents and purposes, it seems like Agatha is crumbling to pieces like a dilapidated statue. Chunks and flakes fall to the ground and shatter like frozen shadow only to slowly fade away. Then, all at once...

Poof!

The entirety of Agatha crumples to nothing and now standing in her place is a much smaller, much younger, and much more cartoonish looking girl. Her hair is bright pink and cascades down from under a similarly large-brimmed, but much less menacing than Agatha's, witch hat.

"This doesn't make any sense! I've been parading around for weeks as mean, grumpy, 'Oblivion Witch Agatha' to see how much people would miss me! Their beloved Grand Witch Majolica AND NO ONE DID! NOT ONE PERSON WAS LIKE, 'Oh man, Agatha is so mean! I wish Majolica would come back', NOT ONE! I INVITE PEOPLE TO COME ON MONSTER HUNTS AND NO ONE COMES! I TRY AND HELP STOP A SERIAL KILLER AND THE PERSON I'M HELPING VANISHES! I TRY TO BE FRIENDLY AND RECRUIT PEOPLE TO BE MY HENCHMEN SO WE CAN GO TAKE OVER A TOWN, AND THEY IGNORE ME! THEN, I DRESS UP LIKE A MEANER, OLDER, VERSION OF ME AND PEOPLE JUST FLOCK TO ME! OOOOOOH! SO FRUSTRATING! DO PEOPLE JUST LIKE MEAN PEOPLE?! I CAN BE MEAN! ALL OF YOU ARE IDIOTS! YOU DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THERE WAS NO AGATHA! IT WAS ALWAYS ME! MAJOLICA! I CAN MAKE ILLUSIONS DUMMIES! NOW EVERYONE OF YOU NUMBSKULLS SIT! GRAB A FISH AND SIT DOWN! YOU'RE ALL GROUNDED! IF YOU TRY AND LEAVE, I'LL TURN EVERYONE INTO FROGS! DON'T TEST ME! HMPH!"

With the cutesy angry-pout, Majolica plopped down on her floating broom.

"When everyone gets a fish, then we're all going around in a circle, introducing ourselves, and then making small talk!"


[OOC: Out of the game I merged Agatha and Majolica so there is no Agatha anymore, but I want to keep this thread going. To explain this in game: Majolica has illusion magic and has been using it to masquerade as Agatha for the past couple of weeks. Historically, whenever I made a thread as Majolica no one joined, so she's angry because people seem to flock to Agatha.]

 

Celestine had expected a negative reaction to her question. Two people, alone in the middle of the woods, probably having just come across each other: sure it looked like the sort of thing that sparked the flames of love, but neither of them were showing any of the typical signs. She knew that, and having suggested it, she expected a great deal of cute floundering. ‘A DATE with HIM’ and ‘no WAY I’d ever go out with HER.’ Blushies all around. Stuff like that. Not in a million years would she have imagined that the girl would literally shatter into… another witch?

“What,” Celestine spoke, not even as a question, but more of a general comment. This was behind weird. “I have not even done the meeting of you yet,” Cel shouted back, a bit disgruntled at the idea of getting accused of something that wasn’t even vaguely her fault! She sighed. No reason to aggravate the girl any further when she was obviously very upset over… uhh… something.

Celly obliged and shuffled her way to the water to grab a fish and skewer it on a thick stick. Returning to the fire, she sat down on a well-chopped log that was clearly meant as firewood and idly began to roast the fish in the warm flames.

“Sooo,” Cel started in a hum, unsure what was even the appropriate kind of thing to say in this kind of situation. Right, introductions: that was the idea, right. “Um… I am… Celestine,” she concluded, before quickly realizing introductions also included little pieces of other information. “Oh, and I am… uhm…” how would she sum herself up quickly? “...very confused. Was someone doing the giving of the silent treatment to you? That sounds like it is of great rudeness,” she mentioned, turning the fish slowly as it simmered in the flames.


[OOC: Well that was a plot twist I did not see coming. Sure, I’ll go with it]

 

Emerath was bombarded. One moment, the girl was calm. Annoyed, but calm. The next, another girl showed up and everything fell to pieces. Literally. Blinking at the scene that unfolded in front of him, he opened his mouth, but ended up closing it again and simply going to grab a fish, sticking it on a nearby stick as Celestine did the same. Emerath wanted to say he was surprised, but after fighting a giant floating angel monster, talking to people who were anthropomorphic dogs and cats, and otherwise playing in a world full of magic, nothing surprised him anymore.

Instead, he reintroduced himself to the newcomer as he sat and grilled the fish on the fire, having already introduced himself to, what was it, Majolica now? "I'm Emerath. I tinker. And I wasn't on a date. I was just as lost as you were Celestine. Pleasure to meet you by the way," Emerath said, before looking over his fish to see how crispy it had gotten in the flames. "And Majolica, despite the odd phrasing of it, Celestine has a point. If people are giving you a cold shoulder, it isn't right. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with you right now, aside from the fact that you just yelled at us. But I can live with that. If you're upset, you're upset. It happens."

Once he had finished speaking, Emerath pulled the fish out of the fire again, and pulled some of the meat from the cooked creature, testing to see if it was done. He was impatient, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit hungry. "Thanks for the fish," he mentioned, after deciding that it still wasn't done after the short time they had been talking. He sighed and kept it in the fire, trying not to let his rumbling stomach force him into eating sushi.

"Also, if you want to have some small talk, I can answer your earlier question, and tinkers can make potions that buff and protect, as well as create battle ready weapon amplifiers, such as sharpeners and range extenders, stuff like that. My personal favorite is making traps though. I'm partial to oil balloon traps," he explained, his voice picking up as he got in his element. He also hoped that the change in subject would calm the girl down a bit. The poor thing seemed so pent up, and he didn't blame her if her social contacts were abusing her so.

 

"I'm not upset! Just annoyed by stupid people! But who cares about them anyway! I'm the Grand Witch! I don't need anyone! They'll just get in my way when I take over the whole world anyway!"

As she spoke, the winds around the campfire began to subtly pick up. As the winds grew colder, flecks of shadowy black ice began to form. Majolica huffed and crossed her arms. The winds died back down and the ice receded.

"I don't recognize any of you. I guess that's fine though, that's why we're doing introductions."

Clearing her throat, Majolica started.

"I am Grand Witch Majolica! Most powerful AND ONLY Grand Witch in all of Terasphere! One day I will rule all the world and the people will thrive under my dark power hehehehe! Currently, I'm in the market for a dark champion. Maybe a knight in full armor or something to carry out my will. Once I have that, then I can start expanding my territory... hehehe!"

Satisfied, Majolica hopped off her broomstick.

"Good. Now the small talk."

Majolica pointed at @Emerath Katou

"An engineering type. Neat. I like making things sometimes too. Can you make candy? I might respect you if you can. The balloon bomb seems fun though. Think about whether or not you can make candy and answer when it's your turn again."

Moving her finger show now faced @Celestine

"And what about you, kitty girl? What kind of things do you like to do? Do you make candy or want to become a dark knight? Maybe a head henchmen? Do you use swords? Ever think that you could run a place better than the dummies in charge and thought about just taking it over?"

The Grand Witch crossed her arms again and waited for responses.

"Finish eating your fish. If you're still hungry, you can eat more. I've decided to make this the first annual Grand Witch Majolica Camping and Dinner Party."

 

“My hellos to the Emerath and the Majolica,” Celestine waved to the both of them, still eying the latter with a strange glance. I was like she’d popped right out of some kind of cartoon. Hard to believe people like this really existed. Then again: this was also Terrasphere, so it really shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise meeting someone with such a personality. “It is nice to do the meeting of you too,” she finally concluded, mostly responding to Emerath.

Glancing over at ‘Majolica,’ she wasn’t sure what to think of her at all. Maybe it was nice meeting her… but really, it was also pretty darn stressful. Most good meetings didn’t include disguises and random accusations… plus the whole frog transformation threat? Could she actually do that? Celestine hadn’t a clue. Perhaps it was part of the darker magics. That certainly seemed to be this crazy girl’s style.

“Oh, no no no. None of those things,” Celestine answered the ‘little’ witch, though she couldn’t help but notice the little witch was taller than her. “I am wanting to do the becoming of a protagonist,” she corrected, hand curled into a first by her chest as she declared it. She delivered the totally bizarre line without a hint of irony or laughter, though she seemed aware of how strange it sounded. “I am knowing that is sounding of strangeness, but it is a truth. It is for my own reasons of personalness. I am just needing to be doing the discovering of what kind of the protagonists I want to become.”

Totally forgetting that she was actively holding a flammable object over an open flame, Celestine leaped back in shock as her stick caught on fire, along with the fish it had skewered. She frantically waved it up and down, trying to put it out, but it only fanned the flames slightly. Finally, she ran off to the river and doused the thing under the freezing cold water, quenching the flames. When she was convinced it had been totally put out, she raised a blackened fish that resembled a lump of charcoal out of the water.

“Oh, I seem to have done the fish a burning,” she remarked, not terribly upset since there were plenty more to choose from. Cell simply grabbed another fish off of the shore and discarded the black lump of fishiness, replacing it with the fresh one. Returning to the fireplace, she set the skewer down for a moment and reached into her coat, pulling out a scroll and unfurling it. It was long. Long enough to hit the ground and keep rolling for a while, if she’d let it.

“If you are of evil witchiness, maybe you can be doing me a helping with this part of my list,” she told Majolica, carefully wandering around the fireplace. Presenting her with the list, she pointed at an elegant title labeled ‘Villain Protagonist’ which featured several little doodles of skulls, a moon, and what might have been fangs, or just strangely shaped wine glasses. Celestine clearly was not the best artist.

The list featured several goals and objectives, ranging from sensible, to totally bizarre. One thing was consistent about all of the things on this list though: all of them were terrible in one way or another, and very few - if any - actually displayed a checkmark next to them.


#13 - Kick a puppy

...

#41 - Kidnap a child

...

#70 - Start a revolution


“You are sounding like you want to be doing this one, yes?” Celly pointed at her #70, supposedly excited at the idea of finally having found someone to share in the seemingly impossible goal.

Noticing that she was actually kind of ignoring Emerath, she called over the fireplace, trying to include him. “If you are finding me attractive, you could also do me a helping with my Shoujo Protagonist list,” she offered, with a sheepish grin and a bit of a blush. Talking about these sorts of things was always awkward, but it was important that she not put that list off too long.

 

"Hmm... Ooh! The villain protagonist is a good one! That's like me! Hehehe! Let's seeeee... kick a puppy? Why would you do that? You're a protagonist, not a serial killer. That one's no good. Kidnap a child..."

Majolica thought back to the family and various other people she had changed into frogs and their cottage that she "commandeered". It wasn't really 'evil' because they all lived there together and they were her humble subjects. It was... more like a symbiotic relationship honestly.

"I guess it depends on what you mean by kidnap... it doesn't say you can't also kidnap their parents too. If that's the case, that one's pretty easy. Number 70... start a revolution! Yes! That's a good one! Have you ever met the noble players in this game? I have, and they're stupid! They alllll think their such big deals with their land and their subject. Pfft! Hehehe, if you ask me, they're just dorks who've been here longer! They can't even do a good job holding their territory! If it was me, I would be a great ruler! I would give everyone candy, and everyone would be happy because they didn't have any problems. Also, if anyone tried to invade my country, I'd totally decimate them and turn them into frogs! Then, they'd just be my subjects too! Hehehe! There would also be a dungeon!"

Majolica jumped off the broomstick and puffed out her chest.

"Hehehe! If you're looking to become a villain protagonist then you've come to the right witch! We can take over some territory and then there will be a big boss battle and all the 'hero' types will come running and be like, 'Dear, Grand Witch Majolica, and her all-powerful allies! We need your help! The world is in great peril!' and then we can be like, 'Hehehe, we'll think about it.' and then they run off and later at the battle they're about to lose and we swoop in and save the day! And they're super thankful and we get a huge reward! Hehehehehe! It would be perfect! Someday, I'm going to have a floating castle on a floating continent! And maybe two children and a robot will explore it! Well, that would be much later, hehehe!"

Grand Witch Majolica grabbed Celestine's hands.

"Doesn't that sound great! You could be one of my 'Witch's Allies'! All you have to do is swear loyalty, and if I'm in trouble protect me! I can also offer you my protection as the Grand Witch! We can make cool magic tattoos to show we're on the same team!"

Majolica turned to @Emerath Katou

"And you could be my kingdom's royal engineer! You'll get a lab with all of those cool electric shooting equipment, and fog, and beakers! You can be a mad scientist in the witch's castle! Then when heroes try to invade they'll make their way to my throne room but happen upon your lab and have to fight you! It's perfect!"

Majolica was extremely excited at the prospect of finally having not one, but two people under her command.

"Well?! Sounds awesome right? Hehehe!"

@Celestine

 

Emerath stared really hard at his fish, trying to make sure it was properly grilled. Once it was a nice brown, he peeled off some of the crispy skin to show a nice cooked center. But his mind wasn’t really on the fish. Or on eating. It was too focused on how absolutely looney this had suddenly become. But Emerath could still make sense of it all. That was probably the scariest thing of all.

Majolica had to be a young player. Or an incredibly naive one. She didn’t understand things like war, politics, and from what it seemed power levels. Too many cartoons and anime. A part of him wanted to scold her. To bring up all the flaws in her logic. But how do you explain war to someone with the mentality of a child? It was something they have to see for themselves. With a heavy sigh, he realized it was better to just play along. She would need someone to lean on when she saw the hard truth. The question was if Emerath was willing to do that for someone he just met.

The answer was honestly yes. So he would play along. It didn’t seem like anyone else was willing to, and the last thing he would want to see is a child’s dreams shattered and nobody offer to rebuild.

“Okay Majolica,” Emerath offered simply, as he chewed on his fish meat thoughtfully, “I’ll be your mad scientist if you get me a lab. Sound like a deal? And I’m sure if I put my mind to it I can make candies.”

This offered, Emerath turned to Celestine, a pink hue crossed his face at her mention that he might have found her attractive. But her mention of this other list made him think of something. “A-attractiveness aside,” he stammered, before clearing his throat, “do you actually know what a protagonist is? Or have you simply made lists of things and attached the term protagonist to them? Because the first one sounds like a straight up villain. Not a protagonist.”

Then another thought struck him, and his made his cheeks glow, “Wait are you saying I look like a shoujo character?”

 

“Of course it is of no good,” Celestine agreed on the puppy one, visibly shuddering at the idea. It was probably the most despicable on the list - at least to her. “That is why it is on the list of the villain.” She let the witch continue, dropping the topic fairly quickly. No sense dragging anyone else into that particular deed. Ideally, she’d find a puppy that was already dead from something or other, so kicking it wouldn’t feel too bad. Something for another day, perhaps.

Celly stood there as the witch kept going on about a new world order or somesuch. She wasn’t honestly sure, having got lost somewhere in the mix. Once she picked up a break in the giant stream of words, she focused on one of the few questions she had been asked. “No, I have not done the meetings of the ruling people. To be of the honesty, I do not even know who is doing the ruling,” she admitted, realizing she had no idea who this king of Astorea was. She’d vaguely heard of him, but that was about it.

“That being said,” Celestine continued, “a ruling of injustice is a character motivation of great believability.” She nodded. “That would work very well if it is of truth.”

Suddenly, Celestine felt her hands lock up together with the mysterious witch’s. Glancing back at Majolica, she could almost detect a little twinkle in her eye, as she offered… actually, Celly had no idea what that offer was about. A partnership… she supposed.

“Is this the offering of the joining of a coven,” she asked? The simple fact that she even knew a specific word which referred to a regular gathering of witches hinted at just how fluent in English she really was, behind all of her speech quirks. Celly looked a bit excited. This was the first real offer to forge a villainous bond she’d ever received. Most others had either denied her, or laughed at the idea.

Celestine breathed a long, dramatic breath, and with a huge grin… dropped Majolica’s hands.

“Nope.”

She let it hang in the air a few moments, trying to decide if it was worth explaining or not. After a while, she went with the affirmative and pulled two more scrolls from her coat.

“Not yet, anyway. I cannot be doing a loyalty to one of the lists when there are another two of the lists that are needing to be considered.” Rolling up the third - “villain” - list, she swung it outward towards the witch, pointing in her direction with a dramatic flair. “But I can do you a protect at least once because it is on the list. Number seventy-three: protect another villain. Once my lists are of completion, then I can decide where to do a loyalty.” She stuffed the three scrolls back in her coat. “You can be thinking of it like an audition if you want.”

It was then that Emerath caught her attention again, asking the true meaning of a protagonist. She giggled a bit back at him as she caught his blush, but went on to explain a perfect, textbook definition. “A leading actor, character, or participant in a literary work or real event.”

A slight pause followed.

“A villain can be of a protagonist variety, if she is of focus in her story. My lists are of the things other protagonists have done, so if I do them all, I will be of more closeness to my goal. It is making the sense to you now, yes?” Another slight pause, before she smiled at him a little too sweetly. “And you are not of bad looks to be a character of shoujo.”

 

Emerath sighed, both because it was only a matter of time once the stunned Majolica went off on Celestine for denying her, and because what Celestine responded to him with was technically correct, even if it was a stretch. He also needed to put aside that this girl was so avidly pushing this shoujo thing. Just because he was Japanese, and probably made his character look much prettier than he himself looked in real life, didn't mean that he belonged in a romance anime. But he took the compliment all the same.

"Honestly Celestine, you have a point in the definition of protagonist," he admitted, but continued on with, "however, MMOs don't generally have protagonists. And if they do, everyone is the protagonist. Everyone is considered the 'hero' or something. At least that's what I've always seen. Maybe Terrasphere is different, and let's say it is because I've seen so many strange things."

A pause, as he considered how best to approach this next spot, hopefully without upsetting the girl, "We aren't living in some story. This game is meant to simulate real life. And in real life, there is no one protagonist. We're all protagonists in our own story, but that means you're a side character in my story, and I'm a side character in yours. That doesn't make either of us any more or less important. And that doesn't mean you aren't already special. It's... complicated."

He was trying his best not to confuse himself. But he felt like he was on the right path with explaining this, "Emulating others, that's not going to make you stand out and become a protagonist. Being yourself will make you the writer of your own story, in the end." Emerath tried his best to smile. Tact wasn't one of his strong suits, and he didn't want his brutal honesty to completely shatter this girl's hopes and dreams. But he did hope that maybe she could follow one that was more true to her heart. But if she didn't, Emerath supposed it didn't much matter in the end. He hardly knew her, and might never see her again.

"Long story short, you already are the protagonist of your life. And you know what, just like I offered to help Majolica, I'll help you realize that too. I'm certainly not here to overshadow you. I already walk my own path. But that doesn't mean I can't be a part of your story too." Emerath, rubbed his neck, feeling like this girl's smiles were putting him in an odd place. So he admitted, "That came out strange. Not really how I meant it. I... hope you get the idea." He gave a nervous chuckle as he put a laser focus on the remainder of his fish that he pretended to have a sudden appetite for.