- Location
- Tampa, FL.
BEHOLD! GAZE UPON THE GINGER KINGDOM AND DESPAIR!
Jokes aside, they're (mostly) harmless. Mostly.
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I Was Destined to End the World, But Became a Traveling Llama Salesman Because Screw Destiny, I Do What I Want-The Musical. (Original Shonen-Inspired)
- Thread starter TripleMRed
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Superhero
Jokes aside, they're (mostly) harmless. Mostly.
- Location
- San Francisco
BEHOLD! GAZE UPON THE GINGER KINGDOM AND DESPAIR!
Jokes aside, they're (mostly) harmless. Mostly.
They said that about Arthur Dent.
Man destroyed whole civilizations by accident.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
Consider yourself lucky then that the Gingermen (and Gingerwomen) are in Kevin's Realm.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Hey everyone, just letting you all know the next update wont be until at least Wednsday. Busy with RL stuff until then, so I thank you for your patience.)
Have Friends, Will Travel, Pt. 4.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
Alyxia stared at the masses of cheering gingerbread people yelling their proclimations of devotion to their newfound gods as said gods stared down at them in either embarrssement, confusion, or in her case in particular, stunned silence. Bards were not the most adept at a wide range of magical talents, being honed in on the power of sound and song, but Alyxia had traveled with her fair share of wizarding companions enough times to recognize what she was seeing before her was something to be given pause.
Producing life was hard. The natural way, on an evolutionary sense, worked on a geological timescale so massive, it was literally impossible for a Mortal mind to fully grasp the sheer enormity of the amount of time that was involved to go from a bubbling ooze of unliving chemicals, to the complex multicellular life forms that now lived, talked, and fought across Terra in the modern day. The other natural way, involving two compatible beings with the right means to unite their forms to create a third, new entity, still took a matter of months at a time to safely produce a functional, healthy offspring.
On a magical level, producing life was not something that 'just happens'. The necessary requirements for producing a living creature was grand in both time and resources, and to produce a viable new species capable of self-sustained reproduction was harder still. And yet, somehow, not only had Kevin managed to breath life into gingerbread cookies, not only were they walking, talking, thinking, they had a culture with religion, and going by the gingerbread children, infants, and telltale bumps on some of the gingerbread women, they were somehow capable of reproduction.
Her head snapped to stare at Kevin, who was still looking more than a little embarressed by the whole worship thing.
"How?" She asked.
"Huh?" Kevin blinked and looked at her when she asked her question.
"How did you do it?" She asked before motioning to the Gingerbread people. "How did you make them?" Kevin let out a sound of understanding before he launched into his explination.
"Well, I was learning to make cookies with Pappou, and I listened to his instructions and followed them very carefully."
"His instructions?" Alyxia asked. Kevin nodded.
"Mhm!" And with that, he began to list off items and their proportions. Butter, half cup. Brown sugar, half cup. Egg, 1. As he continued to list things, it dawned immediatly on Alyxia that Kevin was listing of the actual ingriedients for, well, gingerbread cookies. "And to top it all off, love!" Kevin declared out loud. Alyxia stared at him, which caused him to start to uncomfortably wilt under her gaze. "Did, uh, I say something wrong."
"No, no, Kevin," Toyo, who had up to that point been stuck in an endless internal debate of if the gingerbread people were delicious and if eating them would be a form of sapient cannibalism, mixed with some potent chiding for even considering the topic, broke out of his stupor as he heard Kevin's concerned tone of voice. "Alyx is just, uh, curious?" He asked, seeing if he got the right word to describe the conversation he had tuned out until just now. Alyxia blinked as she realized she might have overdone it on the staring before nodding.
"That's right," She stated. "I'm curious as to how you made these, er, Gingerbread people."
"I just told you how I made them." Kevin said.
"No no, I mean, how did you bring them to life?" She specified. Kevin made a noise of comprehension.
"Oh! Well, I poured in too much love when making them." He admitted. "Too many kisses and poof! They came to life!" Once more, Alyxia's mind froze as she tried to process what Kevin just said. Love? Kisses? Were these euphamisms for magic? No, Kevin didn't seem the type to dance around with wordplay, he said things exactly as he meant them. So, somehow, someway, he poured in his actual love into these Gingerbread people, presumably through the medium of kisses, and they had.....sprung to life? It was insane. It was absurd. It was impossible. It was Kevin. Then, a creeping thought slithered its way into her mind.
"Kevin," Alyxia said slowly. "Are the Gingerbread people the only things you've brought to life?" She asked cautiously. Once again, Kevin looked embarressed.
"Well, um, not exactly."
"What else did you do that resulted in-" Toyo motioned to the Gingerbread people, who had not stopped their celebrations even now. "This whole situation?" Kevin gave a shakey smile, looking more like an awkward wince than anything.
"Weeeeellll......"
-
"It is him!" Alyxia and Toyo stared. "It is the Great Uplifter!" Tentacles flopped around in the air as a swarm of octopi surfaced to the water of a massive, ocean like lake within the realm, to waggle their appendages in salute towards Kevin. Regular cepholopods, from octopi to squids to even a few cuttlefish, somehow cheering and behaving with sapiency and thought. Kevin was smiling and waving at his hordes of creations.
"Were these an accident too?" Alyxia asked.
"Oh, uh, no, I meant to make them this way." Kevin replied.
"Alright, but why?" Kevin turned to look at Alyxia with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had seen on him up to that point.
"Because nature is so mean to octopi! They are so smart in the wild, but they live such short lives and they can't even have babies without dying! It was so sad, I had to help some of them!" Kevin's voice was so earnest, so genuine, that Alyxia instantly believed him when he told her his reason for uplifting an entire swarm of cepholopods. "I would have helped them all, but Pappou sat me down and told me why I couldn't do that...."
"Kevin," Toyo began, "Buddy, just how many times has something like this happened to you?"
"Well, there was the time I gave snakes arms, because I was said they couldn't hug anyone." Kevin began, only to be interupted by a noise from Toyo.
"Wait, that was you that caused the Hug Snakes?" Kevin actually seemed a little proud of that.
"Yush!"
"Kevin, you have a big heart, and it's definitly in the right place-" Alyxia began, "But you can't just uproot the entire natural order on a whim."
"I know, Pappou sat me down and told me." Kevin sighed. "But I still don't fully get why. I mean, none of my stuff has ever hurt anybody, and it's not like wizards don't regularly do stuff exactly like this but worse all the time."
"Now Kevin, that's a bit of an exaggeration-"
"Like the time that mad wizard decided to mash big cats and birds of prey together, and that's how we got Gryphons." Kevin didn't waste any time going into examples. "Or the time another mad wizard did the same thing, but made them sapient, so now we have another bunch of Gryphons but they're people without history or culture of their own. Or the time a mad wizard tried to make an army of golems, and that's how we got a bunch of wild golems that are dangerous." Kevin huffed before looking at Alyxia with confused eyes. "Wizards do stuff like this all the time, but the difference between me and them is that my stuff doesn't become a problem, and I keep it all safe and happy here in my world."
"What about the Hug Snakes?" Toyo chimed up.
"Is hugging people a problem?" Kevin asked.
"Well, uh, technically no, but it is pretty scary when a snake with arms slithers over, hugs your leg, and tells you it loves you." Toyo piped up. "Whatever happened to them anyway? They disappeared a month after they first showed up."
"I happened to them, I rounded them up and put them in their own special place here in my realm, just like Pappou said I should for their safety." Kevin pouted as he sat down. "I just wanted to help make the world a better place. Is that so bad?" Alyxia felt her face softening a little as she walked over to sit beside the puppy faced young man and pat his back.
"No, Kevin, wanting to help the world is never bad." She stated soothingly. Toyo moved to sit beside Kevin as well, sitting crosslegged as he scratched his neck.
"It isn't that what you're doing is bad in the sense that it's hurting people." Toyo explained. "But look at it this way: How many Hug Snakes got gobbled up by another predator because they were too busy trying to hug them rather than defend themselves? How long would these octo-people have lasted before they got into a territory dispute with Merfolk? Do you think the Gingerpeople would be safe when they are literally delicious snacks unto themselves?" Kevin sniffed.
"Pappou told me the same thing...." He looked up, a sad look in his eyes. "But.....It's unfair."
"Life is unfair, Kev." Toyo sighed. "Listen, lil' buddy, Alyxia's and your Pappou are right on this one. You're heart is huge, and it's definitly in the right place, but you can't go around helping everything, because it'll cause problems you didn't think about in the first place." A look came over Toyo's face as he considered what to say next. "Have you done anything funny with ants before? Or bees?" Kevin shook his head no. "Well, let's say that you think it's unfair that Bees get their honey stolen so people can eat it-"
"It is pretty unfair now that you mention it-"
"Kev, Kev, focus on what I'm getting at, not how I get to it." Toyo uttered. As Kevin settled down to continue listening, Toyo continued. "Say you think it's unfair, and ya give bees the ability to think and feel so they can better defend themselves. At best, they'll force people to pay up for their goods, but what is more likely to happen is that people will just cut their losses and destroy the thinkin' bees and just go looking somewhere else for their honey. And even if the best scenario happens, what happens when a Beowulf comes around to eat their honey. They can't reason with a wild animal, and it's to big and tough for them to sting away, so now not only will they lose their hive, but they'll be aware enough to know what they've lost."
"I....I didn't think of it that way." Kevin uttered.
"And even if you do put them here in your realm like the rest, is that fair for the rest of bee kind you won't uplift in the world?" Toyo pressed on. "Sometimes, Kevin, the best of intentions still leads to the worst of outcomes, because there are things beyond your control or realization that can turn a good idea into a disaster. People and critters get hurt you never intended to get hurt."
"I...I understand." The young man uttered after a long moment's thought. "I stopped doing it before because Pappou said not to, but.....not I get why I shouldn't."
"Your Pappou sounds like he is a wise man, Kevin, there's a reason why you should listen to him when he talks about things such as this." Alyxia stated as she rubbed his back. Kevin sniffed before nodding.
"Yeah...Yeah, you guys are right." He smiled as he stood up. "I know you and my family would get along great if you got the chance to meet one another."
"That's high praise, I think." Alyxia spoke to Toyo, who chuckled.
"Yup." The Goblin male said as he stood up himself. He looked to the Octopi, who were watching everying unfold with watchful eyes. He waved at them. "Hi, all. I'm Toyo, nice to meet'cha."
"Hail, Toyo the Wise!" The lead Octopus shouted, causing a wave of shaking tentacles in salute. Toyo just chuckled at the display while Kevin and Alyxia looked on.
"So, I believe you were still giving us a tour?" Alyxia uttered to Kevin.
"Oh, that's right!" He stated. Smiling as if nothing had dampened his mood before, Kevin floated up and waved his friends to follow him. "Let me show you the training grounds, and then we can start the day's walk for work!" Waving goodbye to his cepholopods, Kevin zoomed in front of them as Alyxia stood up and joined Toyo in following him.
"Wise and mature one day, pouty and childish the next." Alyxia whispered to Toyo. "I think we've got our hands full."
"He's a kid." Toyo shrugged. "They're smarter than they look, but they still need someone around to guide them the right way." Alyxia nodded, before a frown came over her face.
"He's been raised well, but with so much power and ability at his disposal..." She trailed off, and was pleased when Toyo picked up on her meaning.
"Someone has to keep an eye on the little guy." Toyo then gave her a smile. "Luckily, he's got two someones." Alyxia nodded, a smile of her own coming over her face in turn. They had their work cut out for them, but for Kevin's sake, they'd give it their all to help him in the coming weeks and months of their journy together.
Producing life was hard. The natural way, on an evolutionary sense, worked on a geological timescale so massive, it was literally impossible for a Mortal mind to fully grasp the sheer enormity of the amount of time that was involved to go from a bubbling ooze of unliving chemicals, to the complex multicellular life forms that now lived, talked, and fought across Terra in the modern day. The other natural way, involving two compatible beings with the right means to unite their forms to create a third, new entity, still took a matter of months at a time to safely produce a functional, healthy offspring.
On a magical level, producing life was not something that 'just happens'. The necessary requirements for producing a living creature was grand in both time and resources, and to produce a viable new species capable of self-sustained reproduction was harder still. And yet, somehow, not only had Kevin managed to breath life into gingerbread cookies, not only were they walking, talking, thinking, they had a culture with religion, and going by the gingerbread children, infants, and telltale bumps on some of the gingerbread women, they were somehow capable of reproduction.
Her head snapped to stare at Kevin, who was still looking more than a little embarressed by the whole worship thing.
"How?" She asked.
"Huh?" Kevin blinked and looked at her when she asked her question.
"How did you do it?" She asked before motioning to the Gingerbread people. "How did you make them?" Kevin let out a sound of understanding before he launched into his explination.
"Well, I was learning to make cookies with Pappou, and I listened to his instructions and followed them very carefully."
"His instructions?" Alyxia asked. Kevin nodded.
"Mhm!" And with that, he began to list off items and their proportions. Butter, half cup. Brown sugar, half cup. Egg, 1. As he continued to list things, it dawned immediatly on Alyxia that Kevin was listing of the actual ingriedients for, well, gingerbread cookies. "And to top it all off, love!" Kevin declared out loud. Alyxia stared at him, which caused him to start to uncomfortably wilt under her gaze. "Did, uh, I say something wrong."
"No, no, Kevin," Toyo, who had up to that point been stuck in an endless internal debate of if the gingerbread people were delicious and if eating them would be a form of sapient cannibalism, mixed with some potent chiding for even considering the topic, broke out of his stupor as he heard Kevin's concerned tone of voice. "Alyx is just, uh, curious?" He asked, seeing if he got the right word to describe the conversation he had tuned out until just now. Alyxia blinked as she realized she might have overdone it on the staring before nodding.
"That's right," She stated. "I'm curious as to how you made these, er, Gingerbread people."
"I just told you how I made them." Kevin said.
"No no, I mean, how did you bring them to life?" She specified. Kevin made a noise of comprehension.
"Oh! Well, I poured in too much love when making them." He admitted. "Too many kisses and poof! They came to life!" Once more, Alyxia's mind froze as she tried to process what Kevin just said. Love? Kisses? Were these euphamisms for magic? No, Kevin didn't seem the type to dance around with wordplay, he said things exactly as he meant them. So, somehow, someway, he poured in his actual love into these Gingerbread people, presumably through the medium of kisses, and they had.....sprung to life? It was insane. It was absurd. It was impossible. It was Kevin. Then, a creeping thought slithered its way into her mind.
"Kevin," Alyxia said slowly. "Are the Gingerbread people the only things you've brought to life?" She asked cautiously. Once again, Kevin looked embarressed.
"Well, um, not exactly."
"What else did you do that resulted in-" Toyo motioned to the Gingerbread people, who had not stopped their celebrations even now. "This whole situation?" Kevin gave a shakey smile, looking more like an awkward wince than anything.
"Weeeeellll......"
-
"It is him!" Alyxia and Toyo stared. "It is the Great Uplifter!" Tentacles flopped around in the air as a swarm of octopi surfaced to the water of a massive, ocean like lake within the realm, to waggle their appendages in salute towards Kevin. Regular cepholopods, from octopi to squids to even a few cuttlefish, somehow cheering and behaving with sapiency and thought. Kevin was smiling and waving at his hordes of creations.
"Were these an accident too?" Alyxia asked.
"Oh, uh, no, I meant to make them this way." Kevin replied.
"Alright, but why?" Kevin turned to look at Alyxia with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had seen on him up to that point.
"Because nature is so mean to octopi! They are so smart in the wild, but they live such short lives and they can't even have babies without dying! It was so sad, I had to help some of them!" Kevin's voice was so earnest, so genuine, that Alyxia instantly believed him when he told her his reason for uplifting an entire swarm of cepholopods. "I would have helped them all, but Pappou sat me down and told me why I couldn't do that...."
"Kevin," Toyo began, "Buddy, just how many times has something like this happened to you?"
"Well, there was the time I gave snakes arms, because I was said they couldn't hug anyone." Kevin began, only to be interupted by a noise from Toyo.
"Wait, that was you that caused the Hug Snakes?" Kevin actually seemed a little proud of that.
"Yush!"
"Kevin, you have a big heart, and it's definitly in the right place-" Alyxia began, "But you can't just uproot the entire natural order on a whim."
"I know, Pappou sat me down and told me." Kevin sighed. "But I still don't fully get why. I mean, none of my stuff has ever hurt anybody, and it's not like wizards don't regularly do stuff exactly like this but worse all the time."
"Now Kevin, that's a bit of an exaggeration-"
"Like the time that mad wizard decided to mash big cats and birds of prey together, and that's how we got Gryphons." Kevin didn't waste any time going into examples. "Or the time another mad wizard did the same thing, but made them sapient, so now we have another bunch of Gryphons but they're people without history or culture of their own. Or the time a mad wizard tried to make an army of golems, and that's how we got a bunch of wild golems that are dangerous." Kevin huffed before looking at Alyxia with confused eyes. "Wizards do stuff like this all the time, but the difference between me and them is that my stuff doesn't become a problem, and I keep it all safe and happy here in my world."
"What about the Hug Snakes?" Toyo chimed up.
"Is hugging people a problem?" Kevin asked.
"Well, uh, technically no, but it is pretty scary when a snake with arms slithers over, hugs your leg, and tells you it loves you." Toyo piped up. "Whatever happened to them anyway? They disappeared a month after they first showed up."
"I happened to them, I rounded them up and put them in their own special place here in my realm, just like Pappou said I should for their safety." Kevin pouted as he sat down. "I just wanted to help make the world a better place. Is that so bad?" Alyxia felt her face softening a little as she walked over to sit beside the puppy faced young man and pat his back.
"No, Kevin, wanting to help the world is never bad." She stated soothingly. Toyo moved to sit beside Kevin as well, sitting crosslegged as he scratched his neck.
"It isn't that what you're doing is bad in the sense that it's hurting people." Toyo explained. "But look at it this way: How many Hug Snakes got gobbled up by another predator because they were too busy trying to hug them rather than defend themselves? How long would these octo-people have lasted before they got into a territory dispute with Merfolk? Do you think the Gingerpeople would be safe when they are literally delicious snacks unto themselves?" Kevin sniffed.
"Pappou told me the same thing...." He looked up, a sad look in his eyes. "But.....It's unfair."
"Life is unfair, Kev." Toyo sighed. "Listen, lil' buddy, Alyxia's and your Pappou are right on this one. You're heart is huge, and it's definitly in the right place, but you can't go around helping everything, because it'll cause problems you didn't think about in the first place." A look came over Toyo's face as he considered what to say next. "Have you done anything funny with ants before? Or bees?" Kevin shook his head no. "Well, let's say that you think it's unfair that Bees get their honey stolen so people can eat it-"
"It is pretty unfair now that you mention it-"
"Kev, Kev, focus on what I'm getting at, not how I get to it." Toyo uttered. As Kevin settled down to continue listening, Toyo continued. "Say you think it's unfair, and ya give bees the ability to think and feel so they can better defend themselves. At best, they'll force people to pay up for their goods, but what is more likely to happen is that people will just cut their losses and destroy the thinkin' bees and just go looking somewhere else for their honey. And even if the best scenario happens, what happens when a Beowulf comes around to eat their honey. They can't reason with a wild animal, and it's to big and tough for them to sting away, so now not only will they lose their hive, but they'll be aware enough to know what they've lost."
"I....I didn't think of it that way." Kevin uttered.
"And even if you do put them here in your realm like the rest, is that fair for the rest of bee kind you won't uplift in the world?" Toyo pressed on. "Sometimes, Kevin, the best of intentions still leads to the worst of outcomes, because there are things beyond your control or realization that can turn a good idea into a disaster. People and critters get hurt you never intended to get hurt."
"I...I understand." The young man uttered after a long moment's thought. "I stopped doing it before because Pappou said not to, but.....not I get why I shouldn't."
"Your Pappou sounds like he is a wise man, Kevin, there's a reason why you should listen to him when he talks about things such as this." Alyxia stated as she rubbed his back. Kevin sniffed before nodding.
"Yeah...Yeah, you guys are right." He smiled as he stood up. "I know you and my family would get along great if you got the chance to meet one another."
"That's high praise, I think." Alyxia spoke to Toyo, who chuckled.
"Yup." The Goblin male said as he stood up himself. He looked to the Octopi, who were watching everying unfold with watchful eyes. He waved at them. "Hi, all. I'm Toyo, nice to meet'cha."
"Hail, Toyo the Wise!" The lead Octopus shouted, causing a wave of shaking tentacles in salute. Toyo just chuckled at the display while Kevin and Alyxia looked on.
"So, I believe you were still giving us a tour?" Alyxia uttered to Kevin.
"Oh, that's right!" He stated. Smiling as if nothing had dampened his mood before, Kevin floated up and waved his friends to follow him. "Let me show you the training grounds, and then we can start the day's walk for work!" Waving goodbye to his cepholopods, Kevin zoomed in front of them as Alyxia stood up and joined Toyo in following him.
"Wise and mature one day, pouty and childish the next." Alyxia whispered to Toyo. "I think we've got our hands full."
"He's a kid." Toyo shrugged. "They're smarter than they look, but they still need someone around to guide them the right way." Alyxia nodded, before a frown came over her face.
"He's been raised well, but with so much power and ability at his disposal..." She trailed off, and was pleased when Toyo picked up on her meaning.
"Someone has to keep an eye on the little guy." Toyo then gave her a smile. "Luckily, he's got two someones." Alyxia nodded, a smile of her own coming over her face in turn. They had their work cut out for them, but for Kevin's sake, they'd give it their all to help him in the coming weeks and months of their journy together.
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- Location
- San Francisco
Otherwise known as CHEMICAL X!!!
"Oh, you." *studio laughter*
Awwwww. Very sweet!
Oh boy…
"No-no, he's got a point."
But, young Kevin, imagine if life WERE fair. Then every time something horrible happened to someone, it would come because they deserve it.
…alright, i get how that sounds a BIT better than what we have now, but-
Have Friends, Will Travel, Pt. 5.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
Alyxia wasn't completely sure what Kevin had meant when he said he had training to do, but despite her expectations for something flashy and Kevin-y, she found herself surprised by how…..simple it all was. Constructing and reinforcing practice dummies of various materials, he began to practice a flurry of kicks, punches, and a handful of combat abilities including localized gravitic manipulation, telekinesis, and elemental attacks.
Honestly, it was all extremely mundane compared to Kevin's displayed abilities, but there was one thing in particular she noticed: his speed. As befitting his level of power on the Hero scale, Kevin was fast. Fast enough that there were points that Alyxia was struggling to keep up, and she has been adventuring for years by that point.
If she was having trouble keeping up, then poor Toyo, having had no time or chance to increase his level of power as Adventurers and Heroes did, found himself constantly blinking and missing entire moves as Kevin performed his practice.
"This is, uh…." The Goblin male was grasping to find a good term to describe his thoughts.
"Overwhelming?" Alyxia asked.
"It's a lot, yeah." Toyo nodded. Suddenly, a chuckle escaped him. "Silver lining, we won't hav to worry about trouble finding us now and it bein' a problem." He said with a genuine smile. It was infectious enough to get Alyxia to smile right back as she adjusted her spectacles.
"You know, I could help you unlock your potential." She said.
"Wait, for real?" Toyo asked, a look of surprise on his face. "You're not pulling my leg, are ya?"
"Oh no, I'm quite serious." Alyxia nodded. "There are many ways, many paths to unlocking and growing ones Power. It's how no two hero develops and grows the same way." She looked him over. "You're a trader, yes? A wandering one?"
"That I am, aye."
"Even something as simple as trading and wandering can act as keys and methods to unlocking and growing one's Power." Alyxia stated.
"Now you have to be joking." Toyo said, a disbelieving look in his eye as he looked at her critically for a tell in the supposed ruse.
"It's true." She said as she took out her guitar and started to adjust it. "A Bard such as myself? We unlock and grow our Power through the playing and honing of musical skills." With that, she plucked a few chords in practice before launching into a a melody of strumming, a wordless folk song from her home town filling the air. As she played, whispers and strings of mystic power flowed off of her, coalescing as ghostly pieces of armor over her and Toyo. She smiled as she stopped playing and, while the apparitions faintly dimmed, they did not go away.
"Whoa." Toyo whispered in astonishment as he felt the Sound Armor, feeling the harmonies locked within the sound made solid as they reverberated through him. He could feel as much as he heard the Melodie's now protecting him.
"First spell all us Bards learn." Alyxia declared with a smile.
"This is amazing, Alyx!" Toyo giddily uttered, his world traveled experience briefly melting away into child like wonder as he got to experience what he'd only heard of in stories.
"The real silver lining is that I've gained an ear to be able to play just about any song I hear."
"Whoa, for real?" Toyo and Alyxia both were spooked by the third voice to join their conversation. It would seem that while they had gotten caught up with their talking, Kevin had drifted in in a pause from his practice session.
"Oh, hey Kev." Toyo welcomed him.
"Hi, To!" Was Kevin's response, earning him a warm chuckle from Toyo. Kevin then looked to Alyxia, eyes wide and smile giddy. "You can play any song you hear?" He asked her. Alyxia smiled as she adjusted her spectacles once again.
"Ah, well, yes! It's a shared gift us Bards gain access to as part of our sound and music based Power." She explained. "Though, it also disqualifies us from entering musical contests, so there is also that." She said. Her tone was light but she wasn't joking: but of a sore spot in the Bard's Guild, that little factoid.
Kevin nodded as he fished out a strange device of unknown make, like some sort of fat, flattened wand that was thicker at the top end given the way it was held. Kevin closed his eyes as if to focus….and then, miraculously, music began to play. It was unlike anything Alyxia had ever heard, with chiming instruments she'd never heard and lyrics that matched no song she knew of. A glance between the odd device and Kevin's grinning, expecting face made her realize what he was asking for. With a smile right back, Alyxia retuned her guitar before launching into the song as she was listening to it for the first time.
The acoustic, real time cover seemed to make Kevin extremely happy, going by the way he was swaying himself in the air, eyes closed, to the tune as the she dog played. Toyo listened intently as well, his ears picking up and comparing the acoustic version with the original as they played side by side. Alyxia hadn't been lying, she really could play by ear and play it well.
"Oh, oh, try this one!" Kevin cheered as he used his device to summon forth a new song, this one by the same singer. It seemed to be about the singer's relation to a woman and how she wasn't his lover. Alyxia listened to the music play for a bit before starting from the beginning, sturmming the guitar to the beat with an expert hand that belied the fact she'd never heard the song before in her life.
"Oh, this is fantastic!" Kevin cheered, zipping up into the air and pumping his fists upwards. "You're amazing, Alyx!" Kevin declared as he hovered back down to the ground, eyes wide and glistening with wonder. "I wish I could play an instrument."
"If you want, I could teach you how to play guitar." Alyxia offered with a smile. "It wouldn't be any trouble at all. We could even add it as part of your training, if you want." Kevin gasped, eyes wide as he realized the opportunity being offered before him.
"You'd do that? For lil' ol' me?" Kevin asked bashfully, rubbing his paw like foot into the dirt.
"Absolutely." Alyxia nodded. "Consider it repayment for saving my town." She declared.
"I know how to play this ol' thing." Toyo took out what seemed to be a small, rectangular instrument. A harmonica. "Picked it up in one of the big cities and I've gotten pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. I could teach it to you too, when Alyx here ain't teaching you the guitar. What'ya say?" Instead of a verbal answer, Toyo found himself suddenly embraced in a bone-crushing hug as Kevin couldn't help but show his thanks through the power of physical affection. "I'll take that as a yes!" Toyo managed to breath out. Realizing how hard he was hugging the Goblin, Kevin suddenly let go and zoomed a fair distance away, a self-concious look over his features. He looked embarressed and, if Alyxia didn't know any better, ashamed by the amount of force he'd put into that.
"Sorry!" Kevin yelped out, but Toyo just waved him off.
"Forget about it, that was nothin'." The Goblin said with a friendly smile. "Got a lot of force for a little guy, but given it's you, that ain't surprising." He paused as he realized this seemed to make Kevin even more self-concious, and his mind quickly went into overdrive to look for a solution. If Kevin was anything like his younger siblings, traditional comforting wouldn't help much. "Hey, Kev," Toyo spoke up, deciding to go the side-stepping route this time. "How's about you finish up your training session here, and we can go start up the job selling Llamas. That's your job, ain't it?" This seemed to brighten up Kevin a little, though it was clear he wasn't completely free of his shaken expression.
"Y-yeah!" He said out loud. "Yeah. I just got a few more moves to do, and then we can get the day started proper." Toyo smiled and gave him a thumbs up in response, leaving Kevin to zoom off to finish off his practicing with the dummies he'd made.
"You alright?" Alyxia asked as she moved closer to Toyo, a look of concern on her face.
"I'm fine, just winded is all." Toyo said as he cracked his back. His Sound Armor had noticeably become visibly cracked in several places. "That kid's got a hug to snap a tree in half, easily." Alyxia nodded as she played a tune on her guitar, whisps of musical energy extending outward. Toyo took a deep breath as the Healing Note spell allowed him to breath a little easier. "Thanks Alyx, that-" A sudden and violently viscious cracking sound echoed through the meadow where the trainined was taking place. Toyo and Alyxia both snapped their heads to stare in Kevin's direction to see what hat happened. Kevin was looming over one of the dummies, which unlike the rest he had simply beaten into 'submission', was now with a large, violent hole in its chest cavity, a chunk of wood where the heart would be torn out. "......Uh....Well then. That's.....Concerning."
Honestly, it was all extremely mundane compared to Kevin's displayed abilities, but there was one thing in particular she noticed: his speed. As befitting his level of power on the Hero scale, Kevin was fast. Fast enough that there were points that Alyxia was struggling to keep up, and she has been adventuring for years by that point.
If she was having trouble keeping up, then poor Toyo, having had no time or chance to increase his level of power as Adventurers and Heroes did, found himself constantly blinking and missing entire moves as Kevin performed his practice.
"This is, uh…." The Goblin male was grasping to find a good term to describe his thoughts.
"Overwhelming?" Alyxia asked.
"It's a lot, yeah." Toyo nodded. Suddenly, a chuckle escaped him. "Silver lining, we won't hav to worry about trouble finding us now and it bein' a problem." He said with a genuine smile. It was infectious enough to get Alyxia to smile right back as she adjusted her spectacles.
"You know, I could help you unlock your potential." She said.
"Wait, for real?" Toyo asked, a look of surprise on his face. "You're not pulling my leg, are ya?"
"Oh no, I'm quite serious." Alyxia nodded. "There are many ways, many paths to unlocking and growing ones Power. It's how no two hero develops and grows the same way." She looked him over. "You're a trader, yes? A wandering one?"
"That I am, aye."
"Even something as simple as trading and wandering can act as keys and methods to unlocking and growing one's Power." Alyxia stated.
"Now you have to be joking." Toyo said, a disbelieving look in his eye as he looked at her critically for a tell in the supposed ruse.
"It's true." She said as she took out her guitar and started to adjust it. "A Bard such as myself? We unlock and grow our Power through the playing and honing of musical skills." With that, she plucked a few chords in practice before launching into a a melody of strumming, a wordless folk song from her home town filling the air. As she played, whispers and strings of mystic power flowed off of her, coalescing as ghostly pieces of armor over her and Toyo. She smiled as she stopped playing and, while the apparitions faintly dimmed, they did not go away.
"Whoa." Toyo whispered in astonishment as he felt the Sound Armor, feeling the harmonies locked within the sound made solid as they reverberated through him. He could feel as much as he heard the Melodie's now protecting him.
"First spell all us Bards learn." Alyxia declared with a smile.
"This is amazing, Alyx!" Toyo giddily uttered, his world traveled experience briefly melting away into child like wonder as he got to experience what he'd only heard of in stories.
"The real silver lining is that I've gained an ear to be able to play just about any song I hear."
"Whoa, for real?" Toyo and Alyxia both were spooked by the third voice to join their conversation. It would seem that while they had gotten caught up with their talking, Kevin had drifted in in a pause from his practice session.
"Oh, hey Kev." Toyo welcomed him.
"Hi, To!" Was Kevin's response, earning him a warm chuckle from Toyo. Kevin then looked to Alyxia, eyes wide and smile giddy. "You can play any song you hear?" He asked her. Alyxia smiled as she adjusted her spectacles once again.
"Ah, well, yes! It's a shared gift us Bards gain access to as part of our sound and music based Power." She explained. "Though, it also disqualifies us from entering musical contests, so there is also that." She said. Her tone was light but she wasn't joking: but of a sore spot in the Bard's Guild, that little factoid.
Kevin nodded as he fished out a strange device of unknown make, like some sort of fat, flattened wand that was thicker at the top end given the way it was held. Kevin closed his eyes as if to focus….and then, miraculously, music began to play. It was unlike anything Alyxia had ever heard, with chiming instruments she'd never heard and lyrics that matched no song she knew of. A glance between the odd device and Kevin's grinning, expecting face made her realize what he was asking for. With a smile right back, Alyxia retuned her guitar before launching into the song as she was listening to it for the first time.
The acoustic, real time cover seemed to make Kevin extremely happy, going by the way he was swaying himself in the air, eyes closed, to the tune as the she dog played. Toyo listened intently as well, his ears picking up and comparing the acoustic version with the original as they played side by side. Alyxia hadn't been lying, she really could play by ear and play it well.
"Oh, oh, try this one!" Kevin cheered as he used his device to summon forth a new song, this one by the same singer. It seemed to be about the singer's relation to a woman and how she wasn't his lover. Alyxia listened to the music play for a bit before starting from the beginning, sturmming the guitar to the beat with an expert hand that belied the fact she'd never heard the song before in her life.
"Oh, this is fantastic!" Kevin cheered, zipping up into the air and pumping his fists upwards. "You're amazing, Alyx!" Kevin declared as he hovered back down to the ground, eyes wide and glistening with wonder. "I wish I could play an instrument."
"If you want, I could teach you how to play guitar." Alyxia offered with a smile. "It wouldn't be any trouble at all. We could even add it as part of your training, if you want." Kevin gasped, eyes wide as he realized the opportunity being offered before him.
"You'd do that? For lil' ol' me?" Kevin asked bashfully, rubbing his paw like foot into the dirt.
"Absolutely." Alyxia nodded. "Consider it repayment for saving my town." She declared.
"I know how to play this ol' thing." Toyo took out what seemed to be a small, rectangular instrument. A harmonica. "Picked it up in one of the big cities and I've gotten pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. I could teach it to you too, when Alyx here ain't teaching you the guitar. What'ya say?" Instead of a verbal answer, Toyo found himself suddenly embraced in a bone-crushing hug as Kevin couldn't help but show his thanks through the power of physical affection. "I'll take that as a yes!" Toyo managed to breath out. Realizing how hard he was hugging the Goblin, Kevin suddenly let go and zoomed a fair distance away, a self-concious look over his features. He looked embarressed and, if Alyxia didn't know any better, ashamed by the amount of force he'd put into that.
"Sorry!" Kevin yelped out, but Toyo just waved him off.
"Forget about it, that was nothin'." The Goblin said with a friendly smile. "Got a lot of force for a little guy, but given it's you, that ain't surprising." He paused as he realized this seemed to make Kevin even more self-concious, and his mind quickly went into overdrive to look for a solution. If Kevin was anything like his younger siblings, traditional comforting wouldn't help much. "Hey, Kev," Toyo spoke up, deciding to go the side-stepping route this time. "How's about you finish up your training session here, and we can go start up the job selling Llamas. That's your job, ain't it?" This seemed to brighten up Kevin a little, though it was clear he wasn't completely free of his shaken expression.
"Y-yeah!" He said out loud. "Yeah. I just got a few more moves to do, and then we can get the day started proper." Toyo smiled and gave him a thumbs up in response, leaving Kevin to zoom off to finish off his practicing with the dummies he'd made.
"You alright?" Alyxia asked as she moved closer to Toyo, a look of concern on her face.
"I'm fine, just winded is all." Toyo said as he cracked his back. His Sound Armor had noticeably become visibly cracked in several places. "That kid's got a hug to snap a tree in half, easily." Alyxia nodded as she played a tune on her guitar, whisps of musical energy extending outward. Toyo took a deep breath as the Healing Note spell allowed him to breath a little easier. "Thanks Alyx, that-" A sudden and violently viscious cracking sound echoed through the meadow where the trainined was taking place. Toyo and Alyxia both snapped their heads to stare in Kevin's direction to see what hat happened. Kevin was looming over one of the dummies, which unlike the rest he had simply beaten into 'submission', was now with a large, violent hole in its chest cavity, a chunk of wood where the heart would be torn out. "......Uh....Well then. That's.....Concerning."
- Location
- San Francisco
The heart of the cards, but the heart is but one muscle you must apply! The pecs, thighs and the glutes are all very important too!
What a bunch of cheapskates…
Uh-OOOHHHHH…
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Sorry for the lack of update this week folks. Hurrican Ian is passing through Florida and me and my family had to leave Tampa for a safer place. We're back home now, but there won't be an update this week to spend time unwinding from that whole fiasco.)
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Howdy everyone, just chiming in to let you all know that, barring unforseen circumstances, the next update will be out tomorrow!)
The Letter.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
Of the many bountiful lands of Terra, few were quite as captivating as the Mountains of Pink Rose Trees. A land of hills and mountains, some of them floating land-masses in the air, interconnected by massive vines and roots of equally massive pink leafed trees that dominated the landscape. In a world of adventure and turmoil, this place was among the few that could truly claim to be free of the usual chaos that enveloped much of the rest of the world. It was for this reason, as well as the generally harmonious and beautiful aesthetic, that this was the place of choice for many Heroes to retire, or to come and meditate in silent contemplation.
For one Brew Master Han, however, he just liked to use the place as a napping place to avoid being disturbed. The wizened old Wukong was massive for his species size, though whether it was because of ancestory, ascension in the rungs of Power, or some other third thing was a hotly debated topic in the Brew Master Guild he belonged to. As the pink leaves drifted down, painting the orange-purple streaked evening sky with a rain of rosamel petals, the old warrior relaxed on his back, legs crossed and arms behind his head as he lay against the root of a particularly old and venerable speciman of the hulking trees that dotted the land.
He had done this routine a thousand times in his life so far, and he planned to do this a thousand times more. So used to this simple, relaxing cycle in his life, that as his fellow Brew Master's learned, absolutely nothing could pry him from his beloved relaxation spot.
Well, almost nothing.
As he lay there, he sensed a disturbance in.....well, 'everything' was technically accurate, but it was less that something was there, and more that nothing was. In a spot not far from his prefered resting site, something stirred, unseen but not unfelt. A void began to split apart the air, something he was all to familiar with as the distinct sensation of Emptiness filled his senses. An empty Nothing, that grew and grew in its power. What would have alarmed anyone else didn't even cause Han to flinch, much less open an eye. He was all too familiar with this brand of Aetherworks for its usage to disturb him in any way.
Exactly 7 seconds after the Emptiness began to grow, just as suddenly it disappeared, the Void popping with an audible hiss as where there was once Nothing, there was now something. A letter, inacuous in its appearence, mundane in its form, and now fluttering towards him as though the very wind itself was its courier. Han neither moved nor stirred an eye as he calmly waited for the letter to find its destination, resting on his belly. It lay there for a while as he staunchly refused to acknowledge it, much less try and open it. Once again, the wind picked it up and it fluttered up to land on Han's straw hat, percariously perched on the tip but never falling off as if it was trying to catch his attention. Again, he did nothing, though by now not even he could help hide the amused smirk on his lips.
As if with a mind of its own, the letter fell and landed directly on his nose, before the wind spun it and the edge of the closed letter hit him directly in the eye lid. As a Brew Master at his level of Power, such a thing didn't even begin to hurt him, much less draw his attention. The letter stopped spinning and hitting him in the eyelid, almost as if it was contemplating its next course of action. For a long, drawn out moment, nothing seemed to happen. And then, the hollowing feeling of the Nothing returned, this time a sharp, instant increase in its presence in the span of a split second. Almost an instant later, a bolt of lightning came down from the clear sky, split off a particularly large branch from the lower rungs of the tree, and the tree limb subsequently fell unceremoniously directly on Han's head.
The bark split as it landed on him, as though hitting something harder than itself, but it didn't need to hurt him physically, for it had wounded him in a far worse way.
The Wukong's straw hat, lacking reinforcement charms and strength of its own, was torn asunder by the falling branch as it impacted it. This finally caused Han to rouse, his eyes now open in an annoyed, lidded stare as he glared down at the letter still perched on his nose.
"Really?" He asked it as if it could answer. It replied by slamming its edge into his now open eye, once again not causing him to flinch but it did cause him to sigh. "Alright, alright. My nap's ruined now, so let's see what you have to say." He grumbled as he picked up the letter, tore it open with a claw, before pulling out the paper within and giving it a read.
For all the trouble it had given him to be read, the actual message was surprisingly brisque and to the point:
'H,
Something has come up and I will be held up longer than expected. I'm calling in my favor. You know the one.
G.'
Raising a brow, Han stood up and stretched out the kinks in his back before looking the letter once over, finding no other messages, hidden or otherwise, on it, before nodding.
"Right then, a favor's a favor." He murmured to himself as he crumpled up the paper, took a swig of one of his Brew bottles, before tossing the message up into the air and spitting forth a burning mixture that engulfed the page and the packaging it came in. So hot was the fire that the message and its letter were instantly reduced to ash and cinders, now wafting away on the wind and joining the endless cavalcade of petals that flowed through the land. Putting away his bottle and clapping his hands together, a small, fluffy looking cloud appeared before him, coming when called like a faithful companion animal. Taking his seat upon it, he gave his cloud a loving pat and a smile. "Come now, old friend. We have a little pup to train!" With that, the flying cloud buckled forth like a mighty steed.....before jetting out at a speed comparable to a bird rather than an extremely fast mode of transportation. The price of having such an old cloud, but he didn't mind. While he could reach his destination faster on his own, the slower journey would give him time to plan his regimen.
This wasn't his idea of relaxation, but damned if he wasn't going to give it his all!
For one Brew Master Han, however, he just liked to use the place as a napping place to avoid being disturbed. The wizened old Wukong was massive for his species size, though whether it was because of ancestory, ascension in the rungs of Power, or some other third thing was a hotly debated topic in the Brew Master Guild he belonged to. As the pink leaves drifted down, painting the orange-purple streaked evening sky with a rain of rosamel petals, the old warrior relaxed on his back, legs crossed and arms behind his head as he lay against the root of a particularly old and venerable speciman of the hulking trees that dotted the land.
He had done this routine a thousand times in his life so far, and he planned to do this a thousand times more. So used to this simple, relaxing cycle in his life, that as his fellow Brew Master's learned, absolutely nothing could pry him from his beloved relaxation spot.
Well, almost nothing.
As he lay there, he sensed a disturbance in.....well, 'everything' was technically accurate, but it was less that something was there, and more that nothing was. In a spot not far from his prefered resting site, something stirred, unseen but not unfelt. A void began to split apart the air, something he was all to familiar with as the distinct sensation of Emptiness filled his senses. An empty Nothing, that grew and grew in its power. What would have alarmed anyone else didn't even cause Han to flinch, much less open an eye. He was all too familiar with this brand of Aetherworks for its usage to disturb him in any way.
Exactly 7 seconds after the Emptiness began to grow, just as suddenly it disappeared, the Void popping with an audible hiss as where there was once Nothing, there was now something. A letter, inacuous in its appearence, mundane in its form, and now fluttering towards him as though the very wind itself was its courier. Han neither moved nor stirred an eye as he calmly waited for the letter to find its destination, resting on his belly. It lay there for a while as he staunchly refused to acknowledge it, much less try and open it. Once again, the wind picked it up and it fluttered up to land on Han's straw hat, percariously perched on the tip but never falling off as if it was trying to catch his attention. Again, he did nothing, though by now not even he could help hide the amused smirk on his lips.
As if with a mind of its own, the letter fell and landed directly on his nose, before the wind spun it and the edge of the closed letter hit him directly in the eye lid. As a Brew Master at his level of Power, such a thing didn't even begin to hurt him, much less draw his attention. The letter stopped spinning and hitting him in the eyelid, almost as if it was contemplating its next course of action. For a long, drawn out moment, nothing seemed to happen. And then, the hollowing feeling of the Nothing returned, this time a sharp, instant increase in its presence in the span of a split second. Almost an instant later, a bolt of lightning came down from the clear sky, split off a particularly large branch from the lower rungs of the tree, and the tree limb subsequently fell unceremoniously directly on Han's head.
The bark split as it landed on him, as though hitting something harder than itself, but it didn't need to hurt him physically, for it had wounded him in a far worse way.
The Wukong's straw hat, lacking reinforcement charms and strength of its own, was torn asunder by the falling branch as it impacted it. This finally caused Han to rouse, his eyes now open in an annoyed, lidded stare as he glared down at the letter still perched on his nose.
"Really?" He asked it as if it could answer. It replied by slamming its edge into his now open eye, once again not causing him to flinch but it did cause him to sigh. "Alright, alright. My nap's ruined now, so let's see what you have to say." He grumbled as he picked up the letter, tore it open with a claw, before pulling out the paper within and giving it a read.
For all the trouble it had given him to be read, the actual message was surprisingly brisque and to the point:
'H,
Something has come up and I will be held up longer than expected. I'm calling in my favor. You know the one.
G.'
Raising a brow, Han stood up and stretched out the kinks in his back before looking the letter once over, finding no other messages, hidden or otherwise, on it, before nodding.
"Right then, a favor's a favor." He murmured to himself as he crumpled up the paper, took a swig of one of his Brew bottles, before tossing the message up into the air and spitting forth a burning mixture that engulfed the page and the packaging it came in. So hot was the fire that the message and its letter were instantly reduced to ash and cinders, now wafting away on the wind and joining the endless cavalcade of petals that flowed through the land. Putting away his bottle and clapping his hands together, a small, fluffy looking cloud appeared before him, coming when called like a faithful companion animal. Taking his seat upon it, he gave his cloud a loving pat and a smile. "Come now, old friend. We have a little pup to train!" With that, the flying cloud buckled forth like a mighty steed.....before jetting out at a speed comparable to a bird rather than an extremely fast mode of transportation. The price of having such an old cloud, but he didn't mind. While he could reach his destination faster on his own, the slower journey would give him time to plan his regimen.
This wasn't his idea of relaxation, but damned if he wasn't going to give it his all!
- Location
- San Francisco
I feel it in the earth…
An unsettling of the firmament.
A disturbance in the fundament…
A rumbly in the tumbly.
Nuuuu! The hat!!
I'm imagining a jet skii for some reason.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Howdy folks, been a while. Just popping in to let you all know that the next update is coming this Thursday, barring unforseen circumstances getting in the way.)
Have Friends, Will Travel, Pt. 6.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
The rest of the morning routine that followed passed by without much fanfare. Soon, the trio found themselves back on regular Terra once again, and with a smile on his face and a seeming innate knowledge of where he was going next, Kevin began to march to the West, following the main road out of Cotcher's Town to wherever the path took him to continue his never ending mission to sell Llama's and Llama adjacant life forms. For their part, Alyxia and Toyo found themselves spending the time chatting about nothing particularly important. Mostly it was trading gripes about some of their worst misadventures in their time wandering the lands.
"-And that's how I escaped with my life from a pack of cannibalistic garden Gnomes." Toyo declared as he shuddered, finishing off his tale of a particularly eventful sale gone array as Alyxia listened intently.
"Goodness, did the Wizard really take your offer that badly? To animate procelain garden decoration to eat you alive?"
"Honestly, I think I got off lucky since I managed to get away." Toyo shrugged. "I saw a cow he had on the front lawn with a name tag on the collar named 'Dave', and I'm pretty sure I would have ended up turned into a sheep or something if he wasn't so mad he went with the Gnome thing."
"Wizards are rather petty like that." Alyxia admitted.
"You ever have any trouble with them before?" Toyo asked.
"I was an Adventurer, so yes, many times. The worst was probably the one that had gone completely insane and was trying to turn an entire village into his own personal musical number. Have you ever tried to fight while you're doing a musical number? If it wasn't for my own skill with music magic, we would still be tap dancing to this day." The mental image earned a little laugh from Toyo. Glancing over at Kevin, who was leading up the front, Toyo noticed the bubbly little fellow was in his own little world as he hummed and skipped along the road.
"It's a good thing Kev isn't like most Wizards, huh?" Toyo uttered. Alyxia reflexivly nodded her head in agreement.
"He has such a gentle soul for such a powerful being." She agreed. "Though, the final attack he did on those practice dummies was rather....jarring."
"Oh, definitly, but I wouldn't worry too much about it, at least not yet." Toyo said waving it off. Alyxia looked at him curiously.
"What makes you say that?"
"You mean aside from the kid being sweeter than sugar and softer than silk? The fact that he looked realy upset when he did that." Toyo declared. "He doesn't have it in his heart to be a killer.....well, at least not when he can avoid it." The Goblin uttered. "I'd imagine if he's willing to train with it at all, there would be something that would cause him to do the deed, but it'd have to be something really, really bad and unforgivable. But I'm just throwing guesses, and I don't think it'd be polite or wanted to straight up ask him." Toyo paused as he considered the thought. "Assuming he even knows what his limits for kindness even are."
"You are quite perspective about people and him in particular, I'm noticing." Alyxia stated. Another shrug came from Toyo.
"I grew up in a big house hold, middle child of a bunch of brothers, sisters, cousins. I grew up in a family of traders, and have been a part of the family buisness for about ten years now. Understanding people and learning to read them is just something you pick up and learn quick."
"Though not perfectly." Alyxia uttered with a teasing grin. "Otherwise you wouldn't have angered that Wizard so much."
"One, he was a Wizard. Those guys aren't all right in the head, you know that." Toyo scoffed defensively. "And two, how was I supposed to know he'd go berserk over me trying to sell him a whisking set? Not my fault the maniac was convinced I was trying to sell him 'faulty metal wands' instead of kitchen appliances." A giggle from the dog woman was all he earned.
"Well, Kevin is a seller himself. How's about we step back and see how he does his buisness?"
---
"Hello, sir, would you like a Llama?"
"What's that?"
"I asked if you wish to have a Llama, sir."
"No no, I mean, what is a Llama? I've never heard of it? Is it some kind of newfangled auto-mechanical form the cities?"
"Oh, no sir, a Llama is a cameloid animal that lacks a hump, has soft wool, and produces delicious milk. Here, a display animal to show you!"
"I see, I see....What's a cameloid?"
".....It's like a Choco, but a four legged mammal with a hump of fat on its back to help it survive in deserts."
"Why would I need something that lives in a desert, we're in a temparate climate."
"Oh, no, I'm selling you a Llama, not a Camel."
"But you said it was one of those."
"No sir, I said it is a cameloid, as in its in the same family."
"So it's the same thing."
"......."
---
"Hello, ma'am, would you like a Llama?"
"Is that supposed to be a pick up line?"
"What? No, ma'am, I'm quite literal in my asking. I even have one right here ready for purchase."
"Trying to give me a cute, fuzzy animal, yeah this is definitly some kinda pick up line."
"No ma'am, I assure you, I am strictly proffesional in my buisness."
"Then why the cute, fuzzy animal if you don't want to give it to me?"
"I'm not trying to give you a gift, I'm trying to sell it to you."
".....You sure that isn't some weird pick up line?"
"Ma'am, how is that possibly a pick up line?"
"You tell me, you're using it."
---
"Greetings, sir! Would you like-"
"I will take twenty."
"What? But I haven't even given you my pitch-"
"Thirty five."
"Huh?"
"Five hundred, final offer."
"I-"
"I am so sorry about my brother, he got fired from his job recently as a stock broker and he still hasn't recovered from his breakdown."
"15! Sell at 15!"
"Oh my."
"Yeeeeah...."
Alyxia and Toyo didn't look at one another, simply staring at the latest in a long line of oddballs they had seen Kevin encounter that day. Toyo glanced at his wrist mounted chrono and Alyxia glanced at it with him. 2:45 PM. Kevin had told him he didn't stop working until 10 at night. This was going to be a long, long day.
"-And that's how I escaped with my life from a pack of cannibalistic garden Gnomes." Toyo declared as he shuddered, finishing off his tale of a particularly eventful sale gone array as Alyxia listened intently.
"Goodness, did the Wizard really take your offer that badly? To animate procelain garden decoration to eat you alive?"
"Honestly, I think I got off lucky since I managed to get away." Toyo shrugged. "I saw a cow he had on the front lawn with a name tag on the collar named 'Dave', and I'm pretty sure I would have ended up turned into a sheep or something if he wasn't so mad he went with the Gnome thing."
"Wizards are rather petty like that." Alyxia admitted.
"You ever have any trouble with them before?" Toyo asked.
"I was an Adventurer, so yes, many times. The worst was probably the one that had gone completely insane and was trying to turn an entire village into his own personal musical number. Have you ever tried to fight while you're doing a musical number? If it wasn't for my own skill with music magic, we would still be tap dancing to this day." The mental image earned a little laugh from Toyo. Glancing over at Kevin, who was leading up the front, Toyo noticed the bubbly little fellow was in his own little world as he hummed and skipped along the road.
"It's a good thing Kev isn't like most Wizards, huh?" Toyo uttered. Alyxia reflexivly nodded her head in agreement.
"He has such a gentle soul for such a powerful being." She agreed. "Though, the final attack he did on those practice dummies was rather....jarring."
"Oh, definitly, but I wouldn't worry too much about it, at least not yet." Toyo said waving it off. Alyxia looked at him curiously.
"What makes you say that?"
"You mean aside from the kid being sweeter than sugar and softer than silk? The fact that he looked realy upset when he did that." Toyo declared. "He doesn't have it in his heart to be a killer.....well, at least not when he can avoid it." The Goblin uttered. "I'd imagine if he's willing to train with it at all, there would be something that would cause him to do the deed, but it'd have to be something really, really bad and unforgivable. But I'm just throwing guesses, and I don't think it'd be polite or wanted to straight up ask him." Toyo paused as he considered the thought. "Assuming he even knows what his limits for kindness even are."
"You are quite perspective about people and him in particular, I'm noticing." Alyxia stated. Another shrug came from Toyo.
"I grew up in a big house hold, middle child of a bunch of brothers, sisters, cousins. I grew up in a family of traders, and have been a part of the family buisness for about ten years now. Understanding people and learning to read them is just something you pick up and learn quick."
"Though not perfectly." Alyxia uttered with a teasing grin. "Otherwise you wouldn't have angered that Wizard so much."
"One, he was a Wizard. Those guys aren't all right in the head, you know that." Toyo scoffed defensively. "And two, how was I supposed to know he'd go berserk over me trying to sell him a whisking set? Not my fault the maniac was convinced I was trying to sell him 'faulty metal wands' instead of kitchen appliances." A giggle from the dog woman was all he earned.
"Well, Kevin is a seller himself. How's about we step back and see how he does his buisness?"
---
"Hello, sir, would you like a Llama?"
"What's that?"
"I asked if you wish to have a Llama, sir."
"No no, I mean, what is a Llama? I've never heard of it? Is it some kind of newfangled auto-mechanical form the cities?"
"Oh, no sir, a Llama is a cameloid animal that lacks a hump, has soft wool, and produces delicious milk. Here, a display animal to show you!"
"I see, I see....What's a cameloid?"
".....It's like a Choco, but a four legged mammal with a hump of fat on its back to help it survive in deserts."
"Why would I need something that lives in a desert, we're in a temparate climate."
"Oh, no, I'm selling you a Llama, not a Camel."
"But you said it was one of those."
"No sir, I said it is a cameloid, as in its in the same family."
"So it's the same thing."
"......."
---
"Hello, ma'am, would you like a Llama?"
"Is that supposed to be a pick up line?"
"What? No, ma'am, I'm quite literal in my asking. I even have one right here ready for purchase."
"Trying to give me a cute, fuzzy animal, yeah this is definitly some kinda pick up line."
"No ma'am, I assure you, I am strictly proffesional in my buisness."
"Then why the cute, fuzzy animal if you don't want to give it to me?"
"I'm not trying to give you a gift, I'm trying to sell it to you."
".....You sure that isn't some weird pick up line?"
"Ma'am, how is that possibly a pick up line?"
"You tell me, you're using it."
---
"Greetings, sir! Would you like-"
"I will take twenty."
"What? But I haven't even given you my pitch-"
"Thirty five."
"Huh?"
"Five hundred, final offer."
"I-"
"I am so sorry about my brother, he got fired from his job recently as a stock broker and he still hasn't recovered from his breakdown."
"15! Sell at 15!"
"Oh my."
"Yeeeeah...."
Alyxia and Toyo didn't look at one another, simply staring at the latest in a long line of oddballs they had seen Kevin encounter that day. Toyo glanced at his wrist mounted chrono and Alyxia glanced at it with him. 2:45 PM. Kevin had told him he didn't stop working until 10 at night. This was going to be a long, long day.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Hey everyone, just letting you all know there won't be an update this week, but barring outside circumstances, next week will have the next update.)
LocalCatHybrid
Now I am become floof, the floofer of floofs.
- Location
- You know where...
- Pronouns
- Il/Lui
This is the greatest phrase ever to exist. I am going to shamelessly steal this and use it IRL. It's even better bcs I'm not exactly Tally McTallson. And "surviving puberty disease,"? My God, I'm dead.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Thank you, I was inspired to use 'puberty disease' as the descriptor thanks to Hunter the Parenting. That was a particularly fun sentence to write.)This is the greatest phrase ever to exist. I am going to shamelessly steal this and use it IRL. It's even better bcs I'm not exactly Tally McTallson. And "surviving puberty disease,"? My God, I'm dead.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(While we are at it, yes, Hunter the Parenting did inspire Kevin's name, and the temptation to add 'Great and Mighty' to his name was powerful, but I ultimately decided not to since I want Kevin's story to end up being it's own thing in the end, rather than an endless reference factory. Don't get me wrong, I started out writing crack, so making it an endless reference factory would have been fine, but I think it's clear that I'm aiming for something beyond just the comedy, even if there is a lot of it going on.
This has been your behind the scenes development reveal. Hope it was enjoyable.)
This has been your behind the scenes development reveal. Hope it was enjoyable.
)
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Howdy everyone, remember how I said barring outside circumstances there would be an update this week? Outside circumstances have shown up, and the update is going to be delayed this week and next week. We have family visiting this week, and next week we are going on a family trip. Apologies for the delays, and I hope you understand the reasons.)
Have Friends, Will Travel, End.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
"Sir, I understand your concerns, but I can assure you that a Llama is a highly efficient animal for all of your needs."
"What about meat?"
"I'm afraid that isn't an option with these animals, but I can assure you their dairy is more than sufficient for all of your food and food adjacent needs!"
"I'm lactose intolerant."
"What? Why are you intolerant of lactose? What has it ever done to you? Bigotry has no place in this world, even towards animal byproducts used in consumption."
"What are you-no, I mean I can't have milk or stuff made of milk. I get stomach aches and can't sleep at night."
"Oh! I see. Well, you could always sell the milk for money, and the wool is very high quality."
"That….is fair. How much for two?"
"For you? 10 silver for both!"
Toyo said nothing as he watched Kevin's current deal unfold, though he did scratch his neck at the price. In the last few days they had been traveling together, he had come to see that Kevin, oddball as he was, had a way of selling his Llamas thanks to a magnetic persona and a can do attitude that never dampened no matter the attitude he got from his customers. It was inspiring to see for the older merchant, and he hoped that Kevin would never lose that energy and kindness.
That all being said, if he had one criticism of the younger fellow, it was that his prices were inordinately low. Giving the customer a good and fair deal was admirable and something Toyo could approve of, but ten silver for two extremely high quality Llama such as those Kevin sold? He trusted and respected Kevin enough to let him run his business his own way, and he was not about to butt in to say anything while said business was being conducted….but he decided he would at least ask about the whole thing after it was over.
As the sale was completed, Kevin and his friends left with ten silver pieces more than they started out with, and two llamas less. The price of the llama seller trade. As the trio walked on their way down the road to the next destination, they were in high spirits: Alyxia hummed as she strummed the chords of her guitar to the tune of a song she heard Kevin's musical device playing the other day. Kevin hummed along with her, and the harmony between the two was inviting Toyo to join in, an invitation he felt all too eager to join in on, but he resisted the urge in favor of satiating his curiosity.
"Hey Kev." Toyo said.
"Yeah, To?" That got a bemused snort out of the Goblin.
"To?" He asked.
"Yeah, you know, short for 'Toyo' like how you shorten my name to Kev instead of Kevin." That got a chuckle out of Toyo. Fair.
"Right. So, I gotta ask: why are your prices so low?" Kevin stopped in his tracks, causing his friends to pause as well. Kevin looked to Toyo with a confused look on his face and his head cocked to the side.
"Watcha mean?" He asked.
"From a mercantile perspective, you short change yourself constantly. For the quality of the Llamas you sell, you ask for only a fraction of the price. I'm curious as to why?"
"Oh!" Kevin said, understanding. "That's easy: I sell Llamas ti help people."
"I understand that, and respect you for it, but isn't the boss of the company you work for going to get mad?"
"Nah, Mr Dalei said I could make my own prices." Kevin said like that explained everything. Toyo opened his mouth to say something before saying one word.
"Okay." He said without argument. Alyxia gave him a thumbs up. The two had agreed: helping Kevin and keeping him on the right path was the priority, first and foremost. Personally, Toyo was glad for the simplicity of Kevin's answers. They gave him an out from asking deeper and going mad trying to comprehend the little guy. With a smile, Kevin turned around and the journey continued. Kevin and Alyxia resumed their humming, and Toyo once again was tempted to join them. However, something else caught his mind that he felt the need to resolve.
"…..So. To?"
"Yup!"
"Not even like Toto? Or Yo-yo?"
"Silly To, the point is to shorten the name!" Again, Toyo had to chuckle. Again, fair.
"Yeah, but 'To' makes it sound like you're talking to part of a big foot."
"That's good, it means you are a giant bean!"
"Bean?" Toyo asked.
"Bean." Kevin nodded. Toyo glanced at Alyxia for help. She responded by non chalsbtly showing him her palm, revealing paw padding on the palm and finger tips.
"He means paw pads." Alyxia chuckled.
"Ah, gotcha." The Goblin male nodded. "Yeah, if I was a big toe, I wouldn't have beans. No pads."
"What?!" Kevin stopped again, whipping around to look at Toyo in shock. "How can you not have beans? You don't have hooves or hoof adjacent thingies!"
"Not every species has paw pads, Kevin." Alyxia calmly explained. Toyo supported this by raising his hands, facing the palms to Kevin so he could see that, indeed, he had no beans, just the calloused hands of a hard worker and traveler.
"No beans." Toyo confirmed. Kevin was shocked. Aghast. Very upset, even.
"No! That's awful!" Kevin declared in horror.
"That's life, Kev." Toyo shrugged.
"Then life is wrong!" Kevin huffed. "Don't worry, I can fix it!"
"Fix it?" Was all Toyo could manage to say before Kevin began to float, his eyes glowed their golden light, and the angel-song flowed. In less of a dramatic flash and more of an anticlimactic 'pop', Toyo I strangely felt something different with his extremities. A look at his hands revealed his palms and finger tips now adorned with paw pads, and by the pressure in his shoes, the same had happened with his feet.
"There, I fixed it!"
"Kevin, what did you do?!" An appalled and uncharacteristically loud Alyxia shouted. The look of anger on her face was as foreign as the alien tone of reprimand was in her voice, both of which caused Kevin to flinch at the unfamiliar look on his friend.
"I-I-"
"You. Do not. Change people. Without. Their. Consent." Alyxia scolded harshly, finger jabbing accusingly towards the young man. "Fix Toyo right now!"
"Now hold on a sec on that." Toyo interrupted. His friends looked to him to find him inspecting his hands post beaning. "Alyxia is right, Kevin, you just don't do that to people without their go ahead. That said, now that it's happened, I think I'll keep these a bit, see what it's like to have them." Alyxia relaxed a bit at those words, but didn't fully let go as she looked Kevin in the eye.
"Kevin, you have to promise us you won't do that again." Kevin's wide eyes hardened into something new now. A steely determination she hadn't seen since the day of the comet when they first met.
"One better." He declared as he extended his hand out and had his pinkie finger out. "Pinkie Swear. An unbreakable oath." Alyxia blinked before a small but genuine smile came over her face. She wrapped her pinkie around his. The two pulled the fingers taught and shook once. The covenant was sealed.
"Alright then." Alyxia stated, gently now. "I'll hold you to that." Kevin nodded before glancing at Toyo, who gave him a thumbs up, wiggling it with a smile to show off his new bean. Kevin gave him a small smile to his other friend, nodded to him too, before taking his lead back at the front of their procession.
As they walked together chatting to one another regarding his new acquisitions, Toyo and Alyxia were blissfully unaware of the furrowed brow on Kevin's face as a look of regret and more than a little distress lay on his face. He'd done it again. The consequences weren't as severe as last time, but he's done something to a fellow thinking, feeling being without thinking again. And this time, he'd done it consciously. It couldn't happen again. But he knew in his bones, some day, it would. He would act without thinking, whether consciously or unconsciously.
But he wouldn't be alone, he realized. Glancing back at his new friends, he caught sight of them in time to see them laughing together, he felt something. That it would be alright, because he had his friends with him. A smile of his own formed over his face as he realized his blessings. He would mess up again. But he wouldn't be alone, and his friends would help put him back on the right track, like Pappou and Cousin before them.
A skip returned to his step as Kevin felt that knowledge of mistakes to come being counterbalanced by knowledge that his friends would help pick him up again.
They'd be together, and together, they'd be alright.
"What about meat?"
"I'm afraid that isn't an option with these animals, but I can assure you their dairy is more than sufficient for all of your food and food adjacent needs!"
"I'm lactose intolerant."
"What? Why are you intolerant of lactose? What has it ever done to you? Bigotry has no place in this world, even towards animal byproducts used in consumption."
"What are you-no, I mean I can't have milk or stuff made of milk. I get stomach aches and can't sleep at night."
"Oh! I see. Well, you could always sell the milk for money, and the wool is very high quality."
"That….is fair. How much for two?"
"For you? 10 silver for both!"
Toyo said nothing as he watched Kevin's current deal unfold, though he did scratch his neck at the price. In the last few days they had been traveling together, he had come to see that Kevin, oddball as he was, had a way of selling his Llamas thanks to a magnetic persona and a can do attitude that never dampened no matter the attitude he got from his customers. It was inspiring to see for the older merchant, and he hoped that Kevin would never lose that energy and kindness.
That all being said, if he had one criticism of the younger fellow, it was that his prices were inordinately low. Giving the customer a good and fair deal was admirable and something Toyo could approve of, but ten silver for two extremely high quality Llama such as those Kevin sold? He trusted and respected Kevin enough to let him run his business his own way, and he was not about to butt in to say anything while said business was being conducted….but he decided he would at least ask about the whole thing after it was over.
As the sale was completed, Kevin and his friends left with ten silver pieces more than they started out with, and two llamas less. The price of the llama seller trade. As the trio walked on their way down the road to the next destination, they were in high spirits: Alyxia hummed as she strummed the chords of her guitar to the tune of a song she heard Kevin's musical device playing the other day. Kevin hummed along with her, and the harmony between the two was inviting Toyo to join in, an invitation he felt all too eager to join in on, but he resisted the urge in favor of satiating his curiosity.
"Hey Kev." Toyo said.
"Yeah, To?" That got a bemused snort out of the Goblin.
"To?" He asked.
"Yeah, you know, short for 'Toyo' like how you shorten my name to Kev instead of Kevin." That got a chuckle out of Toyo. Fair.
"Right. So, I gotta ask: why are your prices so low?" Kevin stopped in his tracks, causing his friends to pause as well. Kevin looked to Toyo with a confused look on his face and his head cocked to the side.
"Watcha mean?" He asked.
"From a mercantile perspective, you short change yourself constantly. For the quality of the Llamas you sell, you ask for only a fraction of the price. I'm curious as to why?"
"Oh!" Kevin said, understanding. "That's easy: I sell Llamas ti help people."
"I understand that, and respect you for it, but isn't the boss of the company you work for going to get mad?"
"Nah, Mr Dalei said I could make my own prices." Kevin said like that explained everything. Toyo opened his mouth to say something before saying one word.
"Okay." He said without argument. Alyxia gave him a thumbs up. The two had agreed: helping Kevin and keeping him on the right path was the priority, first and foremost. Personally, Toyo was glad for the simplicity of Kevin's answers. They gave him an out from asking deeper and going mad trying to comprehend the little guy. With a smile, Kevin turned around and the journey continued. Kevin and Alyxia resumed their humming, and Toyo once again was tempted to join them. However, something else caught his mind that he felt the need to resolve.
"…..So. To?"
"Yup!"
"Not even like Toto? Or Yo-yo?"
"Silly To, the point is to shorten the name!" Again, Toyo had to chuckle. Again, fair.
"Yeah, but 'To' makes it sound like you're talking to part of a big foot."
"That's good, it means you are a giant bean!"
"Bean?" Toyo asked.
"Bean." Kevin nodded. Toyo glanced at Alyxia for help. She responded by non chalsbtly showing him her palm, revealing paw padding on the palm and finger tips.
"He means paw pads." Alyxia chuckled.
"Ah, gotcha." The Goblin male nodded. "Yeah, if I was a big toe, I wouldn't have beans. No pads."
"What?!" Kevin stopped again, whipping around to look at Toyo in shock. "How can you not have beans? You don't have hooves or hoof adjacent thingies!"
"Not every species has paw pads, Kevin." Alyxia calmly explained. Toyo supported this by raising his hands, facing the palms to Kevin so he could see that, indeed, he had no beans, just the calloused hands of a hard worker and traveler.
"No beans." Toyo confirmed. Kevin was shocked. Aghast. Very upset, even.
"No! That's awful!" Kevin declared in horror.
"That's life, Kev." Toyo shrugged.
"Then life is wrong!" Kevin huffed. "Don't worry, I can fix it!"
"Fix it?" Was all Toyo could manage to say before Kevin began to float, his eyes glowed their golden light, and the angel-song flowed. In less of a dramatic flash and more of an anticlimactic 'pop', Toyo I strangely felt something different with his extremities. A look at his hands revealed his palms and finger tips now adorned with paw pads, and by the pressure in his shoes, the same had happened with his feet.
"There, I fixed it!"
"Kevin, what did you do?!" An appalled and uncharacteristically loud Alyxia shouted. The look of anger on her face was as foreign as the alien tone of reprimand was in her voice, both of which caused Kevin to flinch at the unfamiliar look on his friend.
"I-I-"
"You. Do not. Change people. Without. Their. Consent." Alyxia scolded harshly, finger jabbing accusingly towards the young man. "Fix Toyo right now!"
"Now hold on a sec on that." Toyo interrupted. His friends looked to him to find him inspecting his hands post beaning. "Alyxia is right, Kevin, you just don't do that to people without their go ahead. That said, now that it's happened, I think I'll keep these a bit, see what it's like to have them." Alyxia relaxed a bit at those words, but didn't fully let go as she looked Kevin in the eye.
"Kevin, you have to promise us you won't do that again." Kevin's wide eyes hardened into something new now. A steely determination she hadn't seen since the day of the comet when they first met.
"One better." He declared as he extended his hand out and had his pinkie finger out. "Pinkie Swear. An unbreakable oath." Alyxia blinked before a small but genuine smile came over her face. She wrapped her pinkie around his. The two pulled the fingers taught and shook once. The covenant was sealed.
"Alright then." Alyxia stated, gently now. "I'll hold you to that." Kevin nodded before glancing at Toyo, who gave him a thumbs up, wiggling it with a smile to show off his new bean. Kevin gave him a small smile to his other friend, nodded to him too, before taking his lead back at the front of their procession.
As they walked together chatting to one another regarding his new acquisitions, Toyo and Alyxia were blissfully unaware of the furrowed brow on Kevin's face as a look of regret and more than a little distress lay on his face. He'd done it again. The consequences weren't as severe as last time, but he's done something to a fellow thinking, feeling being without thinking again. And this time, he'd done it consciously. It couldn't happen again. But he knew in his bones, some day, it would. He would act without thinking, whether consciously or unconsciously.
But he wouldn't be alone, he realized. Glancing back at his new friends, he caught sight of them in time to see them laughing together, he felt something. That it would be alright, because he had his friends with him. A smile of his own formed over his face as he realized his blessings. He would mess up again. But he wouldn't be alone, and his friends would help put him back on the right track, like Pappou and Cousin before them.
A skip returned to his step as Kevin felt that knowledge of mistakes to come being counterbalanced by knowledge that his friends would help pick him up again.
They'd be together, and together, they'd be alright.
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Pixel Art Kevin.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Ladies. Gentlemen. That sentient pineapple in the fridge. Behold!
Kevin! Visualized in pixelart form! By ReynLynxPSI)
Kevin! Visualized in pixelart form! By ReynLynxPSI)
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Kevin: [Casually goes into space, opens a massive portal, and football kicks a speeding comet into another reality]
Also Kevin: [Crafts an entire pocket dimension of indeterminate but demonstablly large size just to fill it with gingerbread people, hugging snakes, and god-like Llamas.]
Still Kevin: [Alters reality down to the fundamental laws of physics to give a man toe-beans]
Kevin's abilities are vast, as is his capacity for whimsy. They are irrevocably linked, for they are what make Kevin Kevin.)
Cup Noodles, Part 1.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
"Come now, little one, say 'Apple.'" Gamil stood by as he watched his uncle showing the fruit in question to the tiny creature they were looking after. The tiny, puppy like baby 'ooh'd and 'ah'd at the sight of the fruit, taken in by his own reflection in its shiny skin. He reached out with a tiny hand for it, but uncle Guyial retracted his hand before it could touch the apple. "Now now, you can have it when you say 'apple'. I know you can do it."
"It clearly doesn't understand, uncle." Gamil declared. Gamil's words seemed to attract the babies attention and it almost looked hurt.
"Clearly he can, nephew." Guyial sighed. "Why must you insist on being so distant? Is it really that hard to open your heart when you already agree to live under the same roof as him?"
"Growing attached is the last thing we should be doing with it." Gamil scoffed. "Honestly, what is your plan here?"
"Connections are what will save us all, nephew." Guyial cryptically uttered as he turned his attention to the baby. "Come now, little one, let's focus on the apple and not your mean cousin."
"'Cousin'? Really, uncle?"
"Yes, nephew."
"So what, is it your child now?" That got a chuckle out of the older Oberon.
"I think of it more like being a grandfather. Certainly fits my age more." The baby looked between him and his uncle before settling on him. Gamil rolled his eyes. "Don't look at me for attention." He declared before pointing directly at his uncle. "Get your 'grandfather' to give you your fruit." The tiny baby blinked before looking directly at his uncle.
"Pappou." Gamil nearly choked on his own tongue in surprise as Guyial looked at the infant with wide, surprised eyes.
"Did you hear that, nephew?" Guyial uttered in amazement. "He called me 'grandfather'!"
"I-it's just refering to the apple." Gamil insisted, motioning his hand around as if to wave away what his grandfather had said as though it was the unwanted spray of the sea itself. "It wasn't refering to you!"
As if understanding Gamil, the tiny baby took its tiny baby hand out of its tiny baby cloak and pressed its fingers against Guyials own.
"Pappou." He declared again, with as much confident as such a tiny infant could muster. As Gamil stared slack jawed, Guyials surprise melted to genuine grandfatherly affection as he reached out with his free hand to gently pat his younger ward's head.
"Thank you, little one." He uttered sincerely. The tiny infant made leased noises, clapped his hands, and then reached out in a beckoning motion for the apple. That earned a laugh from Guyial.
"Oh no you don't, you little sneak. You're not getting this until you call it what it is!" Guyial smiled as he showed the apple again. "'Apple'." He motioned his free hand towards the infant. Rather than pout, the baby clapped his hands as he repeated the fruit's name.
"Milo!" He declared as loud as his tiny lungs could muster. Gamil groaned as he realized he had been proven wrong, while Guyial laughed in joy as he rubbed the baby's head and gave him the apple, which he began to nibble on with his already developing teeth.
"Good work, Caoimhin!" He said smiling before picking up the baby as he nibbled on his meal. "Come, let's go for a walk, and when we get back we'll get you some more of that Llama milk you like so much." The baby giggled. Seeing Pappou so happy with him made him happy!
---
Alyxia hummed to herself as she cooked her morning meal of oatmeal while Toyo nibbled on a sandwhich he made from stored ingriedients and Kevin munched on his usual fair of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches with llama milk.....Actually, now that she stopped and thought about it, she couldn't think of a time that Kevin hadn't eaten anything other than his PB&J sandwhiches. She heard him mention he had been working on some yogurt, but he'd messed up and the batch he was making went bad in a non-edible way and had to be thrown out. But even so, Yogurt and PB and J sandwhiches? Every day, all meals of the day? It didn't sit right with her.
"Something on your mind, Alyx?" Toyo piped up. Alyxia looked up to see him looking at her as he kept feeling up his meal to see what it felt like with his newly acquired pads. It had been a week since he'd gotten them and he still didn't stop testing everything they encountered to see how they felt with the pads. It was adorable.
"Huh?" Alyxia looked to Toyo with the face of someone who wasn't quite sure how to answer the question presented to them. Toyo just smiled at her response.
"Yeah, something's on your mind." He took a bite of his meal before swallowing it in one gulp before nodding to her. "I'm all ears if you need to talk." The male Goblin uttered.
"Oh, it's probably nothing."
"If you've got something on your mind, it's alright to share." Even the individual of her concerns was piping up on the matter of her letting out her thoughts.
"I'm just concerned about your diet." Alyxia uttered slowly. When Kevin didn't immediately reply, she took it as her opportunity to continue. "Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwhiches every day doesn't seem very healthy." She elaborated.
"Ah." Kevin uttered. "Probably, yeah." Alyxia blinked. Even Toyo looked stumped. Neither had expected Kevin to flat out agree with her.
"So, you'll change your diet?" Alyxia asked cautiously, testing the waters.
"Nah." Now Alyxia was very confused.
"But you just agreed it's unhealthy." She pointed out.
"Yup."
"But you won't change it?"
"Nope!" Toyo chuckled.
"Any particular reason, bud?" The Goblin asked.
"I need the sugar to fuel my titanic power." Kevin bluntly stated. Alyxia and Toyo both shared a look.
"I….see." Alyxia said, not seeing. It was then that Toyo got an idea.
"I noticed a lot of your practicing on the dummies is physical attacks." Toyo pointed out. Kevin turned to look at him with a stare beckoning him to continue. "Well, wouldn't it make sense that you ate stuff to help you build muscle too? To help?" Toyo explained slowly before looking to Alyxia for support.
"Yes!" The female canine perked up. "Sugar to fuel your magic, calcium rich milk to strengthen your bones, but you need things to boost your muscles too, no?" Kevin seemed to give this some thought.
"That makes sense…..but I don't want to build muscle, all of the proteins necessary is in meat, and I don't eat that." Figures.
"Well, there are alternatives." But Toyo came in with the save. Kevin's state turned to a narrow eyed glare and his cheeks puffed out incredulously.
"What'chu talkin' 'bout, 'Yo?" Toyo smiled as he got his chance to shine.
"Over my many travels, I have managed to find many meatless alternatives to gaining the necessary nutrients and proteins needed to live a healthy lifestyle and grow strong. We can look through what I have and see if anything stands out for you that you will like!" Silence drew between them, stretching across one second, then two, then three. Then, with a dramatic gasp and a leap into the air clicking his heels together, Kevin giddily floated down in front of Toyo.
"That's a great idea, Toyo!" Kevin declared eagerly. "When do we start?" Alyxia smiled as Toyo slyly gave her a thumbs up behind his back.
"We start….uh, we'll, we're having breakfast right now, so how's about lunch time?"
"Then the time of lunch will be the hour of our great journey!" Kevin declared giddily. This was going to be an interesting day.
"It clearly doesn't understand, uncle." Gamil declared. Gamil's words seemed to attract the babies attention and it almost looked hurt.
"Clearly he can, nephew." Guyial sighed. "Why must you insist on being so distant? Is it really that hard to open your heart when you already agree to live under the same roof as him?"
"Growing attached is the last thing we should be doing with it." Gamil scoffed. "Honestly, what is your plan here?"
"Connections are what will save us all, nephew." Guyial cryptically uttered as he turned his attention to the baby. "Come now, little one, let's focus on the apple and not your mean cousin."
"'Cousin'? Really, uncle?"
"Yes, nephew."
"So what, is it your child now?" That got a chuckle out of the older Oberon.
"I think of it more like being a grandfather. Certainly fits my age more." The baby looked between him and his uncle before settling on him. Gamil rolled his eyes. "Don't look at me for attention." He declared before pointing directly at his uncle. "Get your 'grandfather' to give you your fruit." The tiny baby blinked before looking directly at his uncle.
"Pappou." Gamil nearly choked on his own tongue in surprise as Guyial looked at the infant with wide, surprised eyes.
"Did you hear that, nephew?" Guyial uttered in amazement. "He called me 'grandfather'!"
"I-it's just refering to the apple." Gamil insisted, motioning his hand around as if to wave away what his grandfather had said as though it was the unwanted spray of the sea itself. "It wasn't refering to you!"
As if understanding Gamil, the tiny baby took its tiny baby hand out of its tiny baby cloak and pressed its fingers against Guyials own.
"Pappou." He declared again, with as much confident as such a tiny infant could muster. As Gamil stared slack jawed, Guyials surprise melted to genuine grandfatherly affection as he reached out with his free hand to gently pat his younger ward's head.
"Thank you, little one." He uttered sincerely. The tiny infant made leased noises, clapped his hands, and then reached out in a beckoning motion for the apple. That earned a laugh from Guyial.
"Oh no you don't, you little sneak. You're not getting this until you call it what it is!" Guyial smiled as he showed the apple again. "'Apple'." He motioned his free hand towards the infant. Rather than pout, the baby clapped his hands as he repeated the fruit's name.
"Milo!" He declared as loud as his tiny lungs could muster. Gamil groaned as he realized he had been proven wrong, while Guyial laughed in joy as he rubbed the baby's head and gave him the apple, which he began to nibble on with his already developing teeth.
"Good work, Caoimhin!" He said smiling before picking up the baby as he nibbled on his meal. "Come, let's go for a walk, and when we get back we'll get you some more of that Llama milk you like so much." The baby giggled. Seeing Pappou so happy with him made him happy!
---
Alyxia hummed to herself as she cooked her morning meal of oatmeal while Toyo nibbled on a sandwhich he made from stored ingriedients and Kevin munched on his usual fair of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches with llama milk.....Actually, now that she stopped and thought about it, she couldn't think of a time that Kevin hadn't eaten anything other than his PB&J sandwhiches. She heard him mention he had been working on some yogurt, but he'd messed up and the batch he was making went bad in a non-edible way and had to be thrown out. But even so, Yogurt and PB and J sandwhiches? Every day, all meals of the day? It didn't sit right with her.
"Something on your mind, Alyx?" Toyo piped up. Alyxia looked up to see him looking at her as he kept feeling up his meal to see what it felt like with his newly acquired pads. It had been a week since he'd gotten them and he still didn't stop testing everything they encountered to see how they felt with the pads. It was adorable.
"Huh?" Alyxia looked to Toyo with the face of someone who wasn't quite sure how to answer the question presented to them. Toyo just smiled at her response.
"Yeah, something's on your mind." He took a bite of his meal before swallowing it in one gulp before nodding to her. "I'm all ears if you need to talk." The male Goblin uttered.
"Oh, it's probably nothing."
"If you've got something on your mind, it's alright to share." Even the individual of her concerns was piping up on the matter of her letting out her thoughts.
"I'm just concerned about your diet." Alyxia uttered slowly. When Kevin didn't immediately reply, she took it as her opportunity to continue. "Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwhiches every day doesn't seem very healthy." She elaborated.
"Ah." Kevin uttered. "Probably, yeah." Alyxia blinked. Even Toyo looked stumped. Neither had expected Kevin to flat out agree with her.
"So, you'll change your diet?" Alyxia asked cautiously, testing the waters.
"Nah." Now Alyxia was very confused.
"But you just agreed it's unhealthy." She pointed out.
"Yup."
"But you won't change it?"
"Nope!" Toyo chuckled.
"Any particular reason, bud?" The Goblin asked.
"I need the sugar to fuel my titanic power." Kevin bluntly stated. Alyxia and Toyo both shared a look.
"I….see." Alyxia said, not seeing. It was then that Toyo got an idea.
"I noticed a lot of your practicing on the dummies is physical attacks." Toyo pointed out. Kevin turned to look at him with a stare beckoning him to continue. "Well, wouldn't it make sense that you ate stuff to help you build muscle too? To help?" Toyo explained slowly before looking to Alyxia for support.
"Yes!" The female canine perked up. "Sugar to fuel your magic, calcium rich milk to strengthen your bones, but you need things to boost your muscles too, no?" Kevin seemed to give this some thought.
"That makes sense…..but I don't want to build muscle, all of the proteins necessary is in meat, and I don't eat that." Figures.
"Well, there are alternatives." But Toyo came in with the save. Kevin's state turned to a narrow eyed glare and his cheeks puffed out incredulously.
"What'chu talkin' 'bout, 'Yo?" Toyo smiled as he got his chance to shine.
"Over my many travels, I have managed to find many meatless alternatives to gaining the necessary nutrients and proteins needed to live a healthy lifestyle and grow strong. We can look through what I have and see if anything stands out for you that you will like!" Silence drew between them, stretching across one second, then two, then three. Then, with a dramatic gasp and a leap into the air clicking his heels together, Kevin giddily floated down in front of Toyo.
"That's a great idea, Toyo!" Kevin declared eagerly. "When do we start?" Alyxia smiled as Toyo slyly gave her a thumbs up behind his back.
"We start….uh, we'll, we're having breakfast right now, so how's about lunch time?"
"Then the time of lunch will be the hour of our great journey!" Kevin declared giddily. This was going to be an interesting day.
- Location
- Tampa, FL.
(Howdy all, TripleMRed here. We're at the second page now so I think it's time to open up the flour a little: What do you all think of Kevin's story so far? What would you like to see more of going forward? How's the humor, the characters, their interactions, ect?)