Pocket System
- Thread starter theaceoffire
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
And after the kingdom duke got his own comapny with the dice game and challenges the crew.
So yeah that is the point that severly confuses me but maybe its all just ripples in a pond. 😳
- Location
- Hiding under your bed
- Pronouns
- She/Her
part of this went missing it looks like. Missed it on the enjoyment pass.
- Location
- Here
I fixed it, but I have no clue what my brain did right there. One word was a typo, and the rest just sort of dribbled off as I got distracted by the chaos....
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
I wonder if Shadi had shoved the Millenium Eye in Pegasus' forehead rather than his eye socket the artist's pain and suffering could have been reduced. It is an oracular tool capable of Seeing Beyond? Then it should be a "third" eye, rather than a prosthetic. It is in the forehead of the crypt sarcophagus after all. Silly Shadi!
- Location
- Here
I was going to agree with you and comment that a good portion of the pain MIGHT have been caused from her squishing his existing eye with the new Millennium one, since it was only actually cut out in the manga and not in the anime, but all that is going through my head is: 'Shadi got low low low low...'
>.< And no, I don't know why.
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nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
I don't think you are actually going to stick around for the whole duelist kingdom arc, BUT I thought of a ripple that could be created.
Yugi's friends know magic exists due to John (plus Solomon's lost soul) and receive further confirmation when "Bakura" uses magic beneath Pegasus' castle against guards. What if Yugi's friends take this revelation seriously? During the duel with Pegasus, Yugi and the Pharaoh will learn that Pegasus' eye is magic. What if the kids want to use it to create magical protection for themselves? Perhaps by giving it to someone with a pure heart, a curious mind, and the trust of the friends? Someone like Solomon! Stick the eye in his forehead and use it to keep him from getting magically attacked again AND so he can share info about the duel monsters realms!
. . . . That'd require that they would pull the eye from Pegasus. Something that they didn't do in canon, and not because they didn't believe in magic. But assumed he had rightful claim to the artifact. Because if he didn't, then it would mean Yugi (and Grandpa) don't to the pyramid. So, not very likely that just because they'd be more accepting to the idea of magic being really real; that they'd just yoink the Millennium Eye out of Max's eye socket, much less try and figure out how to shove it into Solomon's forehead.
It's not easy being green…
- Location
- Here
John blinked. "Wait, how many frogs are in my Soul mesh network?"
Grace held up the growing numerical count.
Huh.
That was a LOT of frogs. "Neat."
She pouted. "My Lord, this is ONLY the current number of FROGS moving into your 'pond'! There are also toads and some fish and insects and…"
Jessica coughed, interrupting the ongoing list. "Only the frogs are the main concern, John. All the other Duel Monsters are just joining a few at a time, even the toads, but the frogs are ALL migrating away from here."
But only into his backup Souls, right? That was fine. He barely used the thing anyway, much like his Body. After all, 99% of his focus had always been on his Mind to begin with. "I mean, I can see why this might be a bit concerning, considering how our backup Soul collection reverberates and enhances our original Souls to ever growing levels…"
Temptation was dazed in the background. "Will Master start showing side effects? Like webbed toes or waterproof skin or whatever?" She tapped her chin. "I can work with that, if needed."
John waved her off. "Aside from me always being able to discard and Craft new Bodies as needed, it shouldn't be a problem. The Soul can act as a template guiding your Body towards some form of perfection, but it doesn't directly mutate a person most of the time."
She looked… Disappointed? "So you spontaneously gaining one of those tongues is off the table?"
Jessica coughed AGAIN, much LOUDER this time! "ANYWAY! Grace and I have been reviewing all the Pocket information to ensure there would not be any major long term consequences from them suddenly building a water feature into your monstrosity of a Soul collection. And it should MOSTLY be fine… But there is still a problem."
She pulled up data. "When we say 'All the frogs', I'm sure you are imagining a lot of frogs. Or an enormous quantity of amphibians. But we are being quite literal: Every frog and frog adjacent Duel Monster, and any related creatures and monsters and spells and such? ALL of them are abandoning EVERYTHING here and joining up in your Pocket."
As he blinked in growing surprise, Grace continued. "Locally, any supernatural side effects of all playing cards related to the frogs will basically vanish. It won't be happening to the few side monsters joining up as well, such as the '7 Colored Fish' or the many members of 'Mosquito Force', because there will be enough energy remaining to easily cover the minute loss of the missing members. THEIR Soul Fragments will continue to work fine when we leave."
Jessica frowned as she looked at some mental report. "But as for the frogs? Well, like I said: All of them are hopping over to your side Pocket to stay. And it's caused quite a commotion."
Shit. "Is this going to mess with reality more? Will frogs stop breeding in this world, or will the idea of frogs vanish entirely or something?"
Had he accidentally killed Kermit!? Oh no!
Oh wait, better question: Did Muppets exist in this Realm?
Thankfully Grace shook her head. "Frog Duel Monsters will no longer be 'randomly' opened in new packs and will likely fall out of favor by Duelists who should subconsciously gravitate towards other cards, but aside from that? No direct problems should show up."
Jessica hummed as she listened to another unseen report. "Theoretically, if enough Lore and Legend build up in the community that covers frogs, such as the Frog Prince and other such things… They MAY respawn here? Or reincarnate, or however those Soul Fragments work. But it would take years, if not decades, should the process have to organically occur."
Grace nodded at that assessment. "It's much more likely that the toads will fill up the void and future frogs become a smaller clan, sort of the reverse of how the archetype works today."
Meanwhile, Temptation was randomly organizing and grouping the excess cards out of boredom. "So why should we care about causing a commotion? It's not like Master did this on purpose or forced them to do this or whatever."
Jessica raised a finger… And paused. "...You know what? You may have a point." She frowned as she slowly shuffled her deck. "A few groups have noticed this change, but none of them have been able to coordinate a response yet in those higher levels of reality… And locally, my agents have managed to muddle the effects to the point where tracing down John's exact location is basically not feasible…"
Oh thank goodness, he had been a little worried there. "Then having a swampy Soul will be fine?"
Grace huffed! "No it is NOT fine! Those froggy freeloaders are able to bask in the endless light of our Lord's Soul without limit nor restraint! It's indecent! It's immoral! It's…"
Temptation giggled. "Aside from Grace's jealousy, it doesn't SOUND like there are other problems. Good enough for me!"
Hmm. "I wonder how this will affect my future duels though…" After all, these monsters were literally Soul fragments.
Having them move into his Pocket full of enhanced John-Flavored Soul clusters would probably do SOMETHING to them, right?
Jessica winced as her fingers paused perusing her cards. "...We might have to put off dueling a bit longer, John."
What!? "But I haven't even dueled anyone ONCE yet!" That would be SO unfair!
Grace looked pained. "But my Lord, your new followers are legion and many undefined or undocumented… If you attempt to play with your deck NOW, the potential of new or unstable cards slipping into your hand during game play would be significant."
His sister nodded at that. "It wouldn't be very fun, would it? If the cards you played vanished from the board, or changed text after every shuffle of the deck, or just arbitrarily said 'you win' or 'the opponent loses'. And that is assuming the alterations would be beneficial to you… There are cards out there already that actually HARM their Duelist, such as a trap that causes your opponent to suddenly have TWO battle phases instead of one, or lets them draw two cards instead of yourself."
Yeah, but… Darn it! No, you are a mature young man and basically an adult. Don't whine about the issue, just… Just adapt to it! "How long will it take for my deck to stabilize? Do we even have an estimate here?"
Grace was clearly unsure, but tried to give him encouragement. "Soon? Assuming the migration is completed as fast as possible? Hopefully in a day or two… Assuming no additional effects occur after they all move in, of course."
Temptation was humming as she moved the excess cards around. "Why do you want to play anyway? With your Soul power level, you'll just draw the perfect card every turn as your monsters hop where you want. Heck, I'm pretty positive that the local weaklings might even pass out when you challenge them in the first place!"
Wait, what? Who was she talking about? "'Local weaklings'? What do you mean, 'local weaklings'!?"
The demonic beauty waved him off. "Those dozen or so people in weird outfits that kept trying to approach us on our picnic. I was going to chase them off or whatever, but they kept freaking out and fleeing when they got too close. One guy nearly dropped his deck!"
Hang on! "I missed a chance to DUEL!?" That was so unfair!
His sister gave him that LOOK. "No. Because you told me you wouldn't duel anyone until we knew it was safe. Right?"
Oops. Uh. Go for the failsafe: Flatter and deny! "Yep! My brilliant sister is correct as always!"
But even if he had been required to decline them, it would have been a little bit cool to have at least been challenged by some of these kookie characters.
Temptation snorted. "I still don't see why everyone likes this game. A few of those guys in the reports Grace gathered don't really have a deck at all! It's just one or two powerful cards that are so powerful they dominate their Duelist entirely and force them to only focus on worshiping them. The rest of their deck is just filler to pad it out, or at best a few supportive cards to speed duels along!"
Grace huffed at her sister. "You hush! I want to see our Lord stand proud on one of those massive dueling battlefields and shout out adorable phrases like 'Time to DUEL!' and 'Now prepare for my ULTIMATE froggy!' It's going to be amazing!"
Hey! Those phrases were COOL, man! Not adorable! And he wouldn't call his amphibian pals 'froggy', he'd use their full titles and do some of those awesome poses and… Oh right. "I guess it is fine to wait a bit, I need to come up with a cool hairstyle anyway."
His sister blinked at his sudden attitude change. "Hairstyle?"
Yep! "When local people empower their Soul to a high enough level, it bleeds into the rest of their body and enhances it. That's why they can duel on trains or on bikes and stuff, because as they progress in achievements it pushes them beyond human a bit."
He pulled his currently brown hair to better see it. "One of the first places that show side effects are the fingernails, hair, and other 'dead' body material. Get a hairstyle you like, duel really hard a bit or reinforce it with raw Soul potential like I can, and BAM! An awesome hairstyle that can resist oil, water, pollution, explosions… I've seen people online survive airplane crashes with minor wounds and perfect hair here! I need that!"
No beard or mustache though, the girls modified this Body to only have hair in certain areas. "Spiky and unkempt is pretty popular, but I feel it lacks creativity."
The Pompadour look was a bit too silly even for this Realm, considering that in a few worlds the local mafia groups had somehow got into a 'longer pompadour' competition that took things to extremes.
Hair spikes were literally everywhere here, so probably not that… But maybe a mullet? "I might need both of you girls to help me with this… I've never picked out my own hair style before! What do you two think I should go with?"
John paused as a flicker of fear flashed through his mind… Huh? Why though?
Then he saw a growing grin on Temptation's face as Grace's eyes sparkled…
Ah.
He may have made a tactical error. "Girls?"
And Grace was already pulling him to one side. "Just leave it to us, my Lord!"
And Temptation was playing with his current hair, testing how it handled different angles. "Yes Master, just us… Jessica, please handle the other boring stuff while we pamper our dearest?"
Eep! Quick, backtrack! Reverse, reverse, reverse! "Uh, actually she seems like she could really use some help, maybe we should put off this…"
And the traitor broke in, a smirk on his sister's lips. "No no, you kids have fun! I'm just going to do all this boring paperwork and handle overwatch for the active missions my agents are pursuing. Don't forget to take lots of photos!"
No! "We can talk about this first, right? Right?"
Grace already had hair styling gel and a comb even as Temptation's wandering hands continued to 'assess' his follicle assets. "Don't worry, my Lord: I can easily accelerate your hair growth settings as required to ensure no issues will occur. We will have you looking fabulous!"
The demoness whispered in his ear, and it tingled. "Perhaps a bit of a private showing can be included as well? Play nice with us and you'll have a front row seat you'll never forget!"
Her 'pure' sister pretended to ignore the whispers. "It would be best to include a few extra documented hairstyles as well for completion's sake and future potential referencing. A reverse mohawk might not be the perfect style for THIS Body, but what about in the future?"
HOLD UP! "How many styles are we talking about here!?"
His sister was snickering at the back of the room. "Don't forget to coordinate outfits! Not all suits will fit for all hair designs, yes?"
STOP EGGING THEM ON!
Grace held up the growing numerical count.
Huh.
That was a LOT of frogs. "Neat."
She pouted. "My Lord, this is ONLY the current number of FROGS moving into your 'pond'! There are also toads and some fish and insects and…"
Jessica coughed, interrupting the ongoing list. "Only the frogs are the main concern, John. All the other Duel Monsters are just joining a few at a time, even the toads, but the frogs are ALL migrating away from here."
But only into his backup Souls, right? That was fine. He barely used the thing anyway, much like his Body. After all, 99% of his focus had always been on his Mind to begin with. "I mean, I can see why this might be a bit concerning, considering how our backup Soul collection reverberates and enhances our original Souls to ever growing levels…"
Temptation was dazed in the background. "Will Master start showing side effects? Like webbed toes or waterproof skin or whatever?" She tapped her chin. "I can work with that, if needed."
John waved her off. "Aside from me always being able to discard and Craft new Bodies as needed, it shouldn't be a problem. The Soul can act as a template guiding your Body towards some form of perfection, but it doesn't directly mutate a person most of the time."
She looked… Disappointed? "So you spontaneously gaining one of those tongues is off the table?"
Jessica coughed AGAIN, much LOUDER this time! "ANYWAY! Grace and I have been reviewing all the Pocket information to ensure there would not be any major long term consequences from them suddenly building a water feature into your monstrosity of a Soul collection. And it should MOSTLY be fine… But there is still a problem."
She pulled up data. "When we say 'All the frogs', I'm sure you are imagining a lot of frogs. Or an enormous quantity of amphibians. But we are being quite literal: Every frog and frog adjacent Duel Monster, and any related creatures and monsters and spells and such? ALL of them are abandoning EVERYTHING here and joining up in your Pocket."
As he blinked in growing surprise, Grace continued. "Locally, any supernatural side effects of all playing cards related to the frogs will basically vanish. It won't be happening to the few side monsters joining up as well, such as the '7 Colored Fish' or the many members of 'Mosquito Force', because there will be enough energy remaining to easily cover the minute loss of the missing members. THEIR Soul Fragments will continue to work fine when we leave."
Jessica frowned as she looked at some mental report. "But as for the frogs? Well, like I said: All of them are hopping over to your side Pocket to stay. And it's caused quite a commotion."
Shit. "Is this going to mess with reality more? Will frogs stop breeding in this world, or will the idea of frogs vanish entirely or something?"
Had he accidentally killed Kermit!? Oh no!
Oh wait, better question: Did Muppets exist in this Realm?
Thankfully Grace shook her head. "Frog Duel Monsters will no longer be 'randomly' opened in new packs and will likely fall out of favor by Duelists who should subconsciously gravitate towards other cards, but aside from that? No direct problems should show up."
Jessica hummed as she listened to another unseen report. "Theoretically, if enough Lore and Legend build up in the community that covers frogs, such as the Frog Prince and other such things… They MAY respawn here? Or reincarnate, or however those Soul Fragments work. But it would take years, if not decades, should the process have to organically occur."
Grace nodded at that assessment. "It's much more likely that the toads will fill up the void and future frogs become a smaller clan, sort of the reverse of how the archetype works today."
Meanwhile, Temptation was randomly organizing and grouping the excess cards out of boredom. "So why should we care about causing a commotion? It's not like Master did this on purpose or forced them to do this or whatever."
Jessica raised a finger… And paused. "...You know what? You may have a point." She frowned as she slowly shuffled her deck. "A few groups have noticed this change, but none of them have been able to coordinate a response yet in those higher levels of reality… And locally, my agents have managed to muddle the effects to the point where tracing down John's exact location is basically not feasible…"
Oh thank goodness, he had been a little worried there. "Then having a swampy Soul will be fine?"
Grace huffed! "No it is NOT fine! Those froggy freeloaders are able to bask in the endless light of our Lord's Soul without limit nor restraint! It's indecent! It's immoral! It's…"
Temptation giggled. "Aside from Grace's jealousy, it doesn't SOUND like there are other problems. Good enough for me!"
Hmm. "I wonder how this will affect my future duels though…" After all, these monsters were literally Soul fragments.
Having them move into his Pocket full of enhanced John-Flavored Soul clusters would probably do SOMETHING to them, right?
Jessica winced as her fingers paused perusing her cards. "...We might have to put off dueling a bit longer, John."
What!? "But I haven't even dueled anyone ONCE yet!" That would be SO unfair!
Grace looked pained. "But my Lord, your new followers are legion and many undefined or undocumented… If you attempt to play with your deck NOW, the potential of new or unstable cards slipping into your hand during game play would be significant."
His sister nodded at that. "It wouldn't be very fun, would it? If the cards you played vanished from the board, or changed text after every shuffle of the deck, or just arbitrarily said 'you win' or 'the opponent loses'. And that is assuming the alterations would be beneficial to you… There are cards out there already that actually HARM their Duelist, such as a trap that causes your opponent to suddenly have TWO battle phases instead of one, or lets them draw two cards instead of yourself."
Yeah, but… Darn it! No, you are a mature young man and basically an adult. Don't whine about the issue, just… Just adapt to it! "How long will it take for my deck to stabilize? Do we even have an estimate here?"
Grace was clearly unsure, but tried to give him encouragement. "Soon? Assuming the migration is completed as fast as possible? Hopefully in a day or two… Assuming no additional effects occur after they all move in, of course."
Temptation was humming as she moved the excess cards around. "Why do you want to play anyway? With your Soul power level, you'll just draw the perfect card every turn as your monsters hop where you want. Heck, I'm pretty positive that the local weaklings might even pass out when you challenge them in the first place!"
Wait, what? Who was she talking about? "'Local weaklings'? What do you mean, 'local weaklings'!?"
The demonic beauty waved him off. "Those dozen or so people in weird outfits that kept trying to approach us on our picnic. I was going to chase them off or whatever, but they kept freaking out and fleeing when they got too close. One guy nearly dropped his deck!"
Hang on! "I missed a chance to DUEL!?" That was so unfair!
His sister gave him that LOOK. "No. Because you told me you wouldn't duel anyone until we knew it was safe. Right?"
Oops. Uh. Go for the failsafe: Flatter and deny! "Yep! My brilliant sister is correct as always!"
But even if he had been required to decline them, it would have been a little bit cool to have at least been challenged by some of these kookie characters.
Temptation snorted. "I still don't see why everyone likes this game. A few of those guys in the reports Grace gathered don't really have a deck at all! It's just one or two powerful cards that are so powerful they dominate their Duelist entirely and force them to only focus on worshiping them. The rest of their deck is just filler to pad it out, or at best a few supportive cards to speed duels along!"
Grace huffed at her sister. "You hush! I want to see our Lord stand proud on one of those massive dueling battlefields and shout out adorable phrases like 'Time to DUEL!' and 'Now prepare for my ULTIMATE froggy!' It's going to be amazing!"
Hey! Those phrases were COOL, man! Not adorable! And he wouldn't call his amphibian pals 'froggy', he'd use their full titles and do some of those awesome poses and… Oh right. "I guess it is fine to wait a bit, I need to come up with a cool hairstyle anyway."
His sister blinked at his sudden attitude change. "Hairstyle?"
Yep! "When local people empower their Soul to a high enough level, it bleeds into the rest of their body and enhances it. That's why they can duel on trains or on bikes and stuff, because as they progress in achievements it pushes them beyond human a bit."
He pulled his currently brown hair to better see it. "One of the first places that show side effects are the fingernails, hair, and other 'dead' body material. Get a hairstyle you like, duel really hard a bit or reinforce it with raw Soul potential like I can, and BAM! An awesome hairstyle that can resist oil, water, pollution, explosions… I've seen people online survive airplane crashes with minor wounds and perfect hair here! I need that!"
No beard or mustache though, the girls modified this Body to only have hair in certain areas. "Spiky and unkempt is pretty popular, but I feel it lacks creativity."
The Pompadour look was a bit too silly even for this Realm, considering that in a few worlds the local mafia groups had somehow got into a 'longer pompadour' competition that took things to extremes.
Hair spikes were literally everywhere here, so probably not that… But maybe a mullet? "I might need both of you girls to help me with this… I've never picked out my own hair style before! What do you two think I should go with?"
John paused as a flicker of fear flashed through his mind… Huh? Why though?
Then he saw a growing grin on Temptation's face as Grace's eyes sparkled…
Ah.
He may have made a tactical error. "Girls?"
And Grace was already pulling him to one side. "Just leave it to us, my Lord!"
And Temptation was playing with his current hair, testing how it handled different angles. "Yes Master, just us… Jessica, please handle the other boring stuff while we pamper our dearest?"
Eep! Quick, backtrack! Reverse, reverse, reverse! "Uh, actually she seems like she could really use some help, maybe we should put off this…"
And the traitor broke in, a smirk on his sister's lips. "No no, you kids have fun! I'm just going to do all this boring paperwork and handle overwatch for the active missions my agents are pursuing. Don't forget to take lots of photos!"
No! "We can talk about this first, right? Right?"
Grace already had hair styling gel and a comb even as Temptation's wandering hands continued to 'assess' his follicle assets. "Don't worry, my Lord: I can easily accelerate your hair growth settings as required to ensure no issues will occur. We will have you looking fabulous!"
The demoness whispered in his ear, and it tingled. "Perhaps a bit of a private showing can be included as well? Play nice with us and you'll have a front row seat you'll never forget!"
Her 'pure' sister pretended to ignore the whispers. "It would be best to include a few extra documented hairstyles as well for completion's sake and future potential referencing. A reverse mohawk might not be the perfect style for THIS Body, but what about in the future?"
HOLD UP! "How many styles are we talking about here!?"
His sister was snickering at the back of the room. "Don't forget to coordinate outfits! Not all suits will fit for all hair designs, yes?"
STOP EGGING THEM ON!
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I think you mean "play".
Thanks for the chapter, it brightened my day.
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Frogs, Toads, Tadpoles... Eggs.. I fear this will lead to a detour to the murky depths of Spawning Pits if John isn't carefull. 
- Location
- Anglosphere
Sushi K from Snow Crash has the hair I thought of when reading…
[edit]
Sushi K - Everything2.com says:
Sushi K is famous for his excessive hair. When turned off it looks like an orange afro. When turned on, the fibre-optics and lasers create a massive light show for which his concerts are famous.
[edit]
Sushi K - Everything2.com says:
Sushi K is famous for his excessive hair. When turned off it looks like an orange afro. When turned on, the fibre-optics and lasers create a massive light show for which his concerts are famous.
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Hair today, grown tomorrow.
- Location
- Here
A lot of the annoyance of being a dress up doll for hair shenanigans fades away when you have an enhanced body that can handle extreme stress and trauma, the ability to adjust body shape and hair/eye/skin color as required with little to no effort, and the company of beautiful women who actually care for you even as they slowly drive you mad.
That said: John had his limits. "No more shaving my head. Thank you."
Grace huffed. "I don't know why she keeps pushing for the reverse mohawk anyway! You looked adorably mature when bald or with some of the more unusual patterns, but why keep insisting!?"
Temptation couldn't help giggling. "Because the hairdressers who are spying on us kept making horrified noises and hilarious faces when I would buzz a massive chunk out of his silky hair."
Sigh. "I knew we should have just done this back at the hotel."
Grace hummed as she triggered his hair to grow out further once again for combing. "Your sister has already relocated and is setting up a different place for us to 'bunker down', we couldn't stay there anyway… Besides, you have to go to a stylist to get a hair style! It's tradition or something my Lord!"
He couldn't help roll his eyes. "John, Grace. Please call me John in public."
And she pouted.
Good grief, why did he even bother? "...Fine, but try to keep it to a minimum at least? It's bad enough that Temptation keeps messing with people around us, we aren't exactly blending into the crowd with her making dominatrix jokes and you literally worshiping me."
Soft hands combed softly through his new bright green hair, causing his neck to pleasantly tingle. "Oh Master, BOTH of us worship you in our own ways… In literal ones too, when we move onto that stage of our relationship."
Grace didn't even flinch as she used the spray bottle of water used to keep his hair moist to spray her sister. "Down girl." Then she smiled at John through the mirror. "Could you shift your eyes to a more murky blue? I'm hoping that if we use more natural and swamp related coloring it may provide a less distracting outlet for your various side effects on reality."
Hmm? "What do you mean?"
Both girls gave him a look… And then gestured at the slightly illusionary waters that rippled at the touch of his feet and the ambient sounds of a moonlit bog hiding away the swimmers below.
Oh, right. "I don't think most people can see that stuff! After all, we had to adjust our defenses pretty comprehensively just to allow THIS level of manifestation of my Deck and more 'normal' people should just be blind to it all!"
Something that had SEEMED to be a log suddenly submerged into the algae coated water, vanishing into ripples that clearly DIDN'T terrify the store's audience of hair care attendants. See!? It wasn't an issue at all!
Grace sighed as Temptation poked the solid floor to the confusion of the locals, the ripples and effects invisible to those with weaker Souls. "Let's just file this as an experiment. A way to gather some data, to make sure these recent alterations won't cause long term issues."
But this was taking forever! "Not sure how messing with my hairstyle and eye color is going to correlate with providing an outlet for any froggy energies." If anything, the effect should be minimal, right?
Hell, you'd probably have to take the entire mess to a silly level to even see a reaction! "I mean unless I alter my whole body or force me to wear a frog suit or something, I doubt you'll even notice a… Why are you both looking at me like that!?"
His mind flickered and… SHIT! Go for a distraction! "HEY, uh… Didn't we try this eye color three hairstyles ago? Maybe we should go for something a bit darker and…"
The looks didn't change.
He slumped. "Can we at least go for a realistic frog? Or something awesome, like a buff Substitoad with guns and swords and stuff?"
Temptation was now FULLY distracted from her idle messing with the local salon staff. "Maybe scale up some of those adorable frog plushies online?"
Grace's eyes were sparkling! "I can make it squeak when we hug him! Or some sort of combination of squeaking and croaking!?"
Crap! "I get veto power! I can veto ANY costumes before being seen in public with them!" How was he going to get his opponents to take him seriously if he was dressed up like an animal during a Duel!?
Temptation grinned as she pulled him into her soft body. "Oh Master, I'm sure this will only allow you to ambush your opponents, putting them off their guard!"
Grace nodded as she mentally began designing outfits. "Being underestimated is a strength, my Lord! A virtue to be praised and… Ooh, maybe a big soft lilypad pillow for him to Duel on!?"
John hesitated… Oh he knew they were both playing him, but they DID bring up a good point. It WOULD catch future Duelists off guard if the giant plush frog suddenly destroyed them with an epic amphibian deck of awesomeness…
Temptation somehow sensed his weakness and whispered into his ear, probably saying something that was supposed to push him over the edge to agreeing with them but honestly just distracting John for other reasons… Fine.
At least they would have fun, and he'd still get to do some awesome poses and stuff. "Can we push for some sort of frog prince angle? Instead of just turning me into a big squishy frog?"
The angelic woman sparkled once more! "My Lord shall be the Toad Emperor! May his many ponds of followers be ribbeted as he cleans up the pond scum of opponents that threaten his reign!"
Temptation smirked! "They shall croak as he hops up to the challenge, his tad-poll numbers will go through the roof!"
Meanwhile one of the other customers hesitantly whispered in the background. "Is this some sort of local show or event? Are we being filmed?"
Oh.
Right.
They were currently in a public hair salon and had a fairly large audience.
…Meh, whatever. Grace was too distracted by puns and costume design to feel embarrassed and Temptation fed on any awkward social issues or situations like fine cuisine.
Though uh… Jessica might be a bit annoyed considering how NOT low profile the three of them were acting right now… Um.
Oh, right! This was all just to distract any potential watchers to better allow her to set up their next temporary base without being observed! Brilliant!
In fact, maybe he should make a bigger scene? "Should we go to the mall and see if they have any frog related furniture or props or whatever? Or more costume designs?"
BOTH girls loved that idea… So now they had a plan!
As he stood up with a green afro (Why, Grace?) and began moving towards the exit, he paused.
Uh… How much did one normally pay for 'buying a haircut' but actually 'renting the hair cutting station and equipment for his girlfriends to mess around'?
…Best to just take the normal cost for a hair trim and multiply it a few dozen times.
And add a tip.
Considering the small mountain of hair that had built up over the last few however long this had been: A huge tip.
Best collect that mess for scrap before leaving too. "Grace, just leave a thousand or something at the station as we leave. I think they take digital currency, so we can pay the rest on our way out."
The crowd blocking their exit helpfully split apart without a request or even a glance, which was VERY convenient!
Now let's go cause a bit of a scene to keep the heat off his overworked sister!
He was SUCH a good brother!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica wanted to strangle something. Or someone. "What do you mean, 'My brother is trending online'?"
She was pacing back and forth half way through the city, on the way to the new hotel that she had planned to rent a room at for the party.
Another report was passed along, an automated subroutine that Grace had set up translating it into the standard Pocket System interfaces… Showing a growing list of video sites and social pages and… A fan club?
Good grief. "John and the girls have their own fan club."
Because of course they did. Why wouldn't they?
There was an entire SUBCULTURE in Japan that revolved about ditzy young boys being bullied by 'experienced' older sisters. It showed up in media and fiction, it was a whole thing.
Normally? Real world cases didn't crop up often. After all, ages were a legal issue… That kept actual chaos from erupting in the real world as often as it did on the various fan based threads and forums focused on favorite anime or games or whatnot.
Just, not in John's situation. Which was unfortunate.
The fact that all the individuals in this case were legal, someone somehow DISCOVERED that little tidbit and then SHARED it with the internet as a whole…
Welp, they were going nuts. "Holy crap, they already are selling merch?"
That was FAST right there. "Send those items to Grace so we can get a handle on that… Wait! No, don't do that. She or Temptation would just feed the fires and offer 'official products', so scrap that whole thought process."
Crap, and they have hundreds of people using cell phones to record her brother shifting his hair color and stuff too, so THAT was an ability that the world was now gossiping about. Thankfully, technology was RIDICULOUSLY advanced here in some areas… Most of the net was assuming it was a personal holographic prototype being tested by some big corporation.
Therefore, in return for people assuming her brother was a media planted shill secretly trying to influence the market for future profit? Most people DIDN'T automatically assume he was magical or the twelfth arrival of Jesus Christ or whatever.
Sure, some idiots online did… But that was the internet for you. Everything and every issue had some die hard believers out there SOMEWHERE if you looked long enough, and if not? There was an army of people willing to lie to your face that they DID just to be contrary.
Another report filed in and… "No, just shove all the online rule 34 and fanfiction and fanart into a separate folder. I'm sure Temptation will be thrilled for it later, but I do NOT want to see that: Thank you very much."
At least those strange watchers and listeners were FULLY distracted now… Sigh. "Scratch the hotel plan, John can't be seen in public. Despite the hair color alterations and the many skin tones, he didn't bother to alter most of his Body and the girls are far too recognizable… See about finding a house to rent instead. There should be something, hopefully."
Her people received their orders and began scurrying about all those levels of reality, now fully adapting and taking advantage of the various tools and interfaces Grace kept idly designing and implementing to allow Jessica's Soul agents to better interact wit the various features of the Pocket.
The woman's focus was caught once again as she groaned! "Really John!? A crown!? Where did you even… Did you Craft that?"
…No, because there was video feed of him PURCHASING the stupid thing and then wandering over to get it engraved at the local mall.
Which on one hand: Good, it was only some costume stuff and not literally covered in rare gems and gold and silver and stuff.
On the other hand: Hoo boy, was there a LOT of witnesses…
He had to have Crafted that 'royal cape' though, considering there were not many places that would even stock purple clothing with 'The Frog Emperor' embroidered over the back.
…Though the high resolution image of Substitoad giving an amphibian peace sign with his webbed foot/hand was a pretty adorable addition to the ensemble.
Sigh.
Well, if she tried to look at the bright side of this: They'd probably not have to worry about people 'possibly' discovering that John was involved with the sudden and shocking vanishment of all Frogs from the Duel Monster's dimensions.
And she was now FULLY confident that she could avoid being discovered by investigators.
Technically.
Since they were practically turning themselves in.
GAH! "Should I just put up huge lights and a billboard, 'Come ask us about the frog issue'!? Dang it John!"
Nope!
Calm. Breathe in. Breathe out.
She could handle this.
…One of her agents had just submitted an update about her brother accepting being interviewed in front of a crowd.
Thankfully he saw her Soul's expression and then quickly backed off.
Good lad, probably deserved a promotion.
That said: John had his limits. "No more shaving my head. Thank you."
Grace huffed. "I don't know why she keeps pushing for the reverse mohawk anyway! You looked adorably mature when bald or with some of the more unusual patterns, but why keep insisting!?"
Temptation couldn't help giggling. "Because the hairdressers who are spying on us kept making horrified noises and hilarious faces when I would buzz a massive chunk out of his silky hair."
Sigh. "I knew we should have just done this back at the hotel."
Grace hummed as she triggered his hair to grow out further once again for combing. "Your sister has already relocated and is setting up a different place for us to 'bunker down', we couldn't stay there anyway… Besides, you have to go to a stylist to get a hair style! It's tradition or something my Lord!"
He couldn't help roll his eyes. "John, Grace. Please call me John in public."
And she pouted.
Good grief, why did he even bother? "...Fine, but try to keep it to a minimum at least? It's bad enough that Temptation keeps messing with people around us, we aren't exactly blending into the crowd with her making dominatrix jokes and you literally worshiping me."
Soft hands combed softly through his new bright green hair, causing his neck to pleasantly tingle. "Oh Master, BOTH of us worship you in our own ways… In literal ones too, when we move onto that stage of our relationship."
Grace didn't even flinch as she used the spray bottle of water used to keep his hair moist to spray her sister. "Down girl." Then she smiled at John through the mirror. "Could you shift your eyes to a more murky blue? I'm hoping that if we use more natural and swamp related coloring it may provide a less distracting outlet for your various side effects on reality."
Hmm? "What do you mean?"
Both girls gave him a look… And then gestured at the slightly illusionary waters that rippled at the touch of his feet and the ambient sounds of a moonlit bog hiding away the swimmers below.
Oh, right. "I don't think most people can see that stuff! After all, we had to adjust our defenses pretty comprehensively just to allow THIS level of manifestation of my Deck and more 'normal' people should just be blind to it all!"
Something that had SEEMED to be a log suddenly submerged into the algae coated water, vanishing into ripples that clearly DIDN'T terrify the store's audience of hair care attendants. See!? It wasn't an issue at all!
Grace sighed as Temptation poked the solid floor to the confusion of the locals, the ripples and effects invisible to those with weaker Souls. "Let's just file this as an experiment. A way to gather some data, to make sure these recent alterations won't cause long term issues."
But this was taking forever! "Not sure how messing with my hairstyle and eye color is going to correlate with providing an outlet for any froggy energies." If anything, the effect should be minimal, right?
Hell, you'd probably have to take the entire mess to a silly level to even see a reaction! "I mean unless I alter my whole body or force me to wear a frog suit or something, I doubt you'll even notice a… Why are you both looking at me like that!?"
His mind flickered and… SHIT! Go for a distraction! "HEY, uh… Didn't we try this eye color three hairstyles ago? Maybe we should go for something a bit darker and…"
The looks didn't change.
He slumped. "Can we at least go for a realistic frog? Or something awesome, like a buff Substitoad with guns and swords and stuff?"
Temptation was now FULLY distracted from her idle messing with the local salon staff. "Maybe scale up some of those adorable frog plushies online?"
Grace's eyes were sparkling! "I can make it squeak when we hug him! Or some sort of combination of squeaking and croaking!?"
Crap! "I get veto power! I can veto ANY costumes before being seen in public with them!" How was he going to get his opponents to take him seriously if he was dressed up like an animal during a Duel!?
Temptation grinned as she pulled him into her soft body. "Oh Master, I'm sure this will only allow you to ambush your opponents, putting them off their guard!"
Grace nodded as she mentally began designing outfits. "Being underestimated is a strength, my Lord! A virtue to be praised and… Ooh, maybe a big soft lilypad pillow for him to Duel on!?"
John hesitated… Oh he knew they were both playing him, but they DID bring up a good point. It WOULD catch future Duelists off guard if the giant plush frog suddenly destroyed them with an epic amphibian deck of awesomeness…
Temptation somehow sensed his weakness and whispered into his ear, probably saying something that was supposed to push him over the edge to agreeing with them but honestly just distracting John for other reasons… Fine.
At least they would have fun, and he'd still get to do some awesome poses and stuff. "Can we push for some sort of frog prince angle? Instead of just turning me into a big squishy frog?"
The angelic woman sparkled once more! "My Lord shall be the Toad Emperor! May his many ponds of followers be ribbeted as he cleans up the pond scum of opponents that threaten his reign!"
Temptation smirked! "They shall croak as he hops up to the challenge, his tad-poll numbers will go through the roof!"
Meanwhile one of the other customers hesitantly whispered in the background. "Is this some sort of local show or event? Are we being filmed?"
Oh.
Right.
They were currently in a public hair salon and had a fairly large audience.
…Meh, whatever. Grace was too distracted by puns and costume design to feel embarrassed and Temptation fed on any awkward social issues or situations like fine cuisine.
Though uh… Jessica might be a bit annoyed considering how NOT low profile the three of them were acting right now… Um.
Oh, right! This was all just to distract any potential watchers to better allow her to set up their next temporary base without being observed! Brilliant!
In fact, maybe he should make a bigger scene? "Should we go to the mall and see if they have any frog related furniture or props or whatever? Or more costume designs?"
BOTH girls loved that idea… So now they had a plan!
As he stood up with a green afro (Why, Grace?) and began moving towards the exit, he paused.
Uh… How much did one normally pay for 'buying a haircut' but actually 'renting the hair cutting station and equipment for his girlfriends to mess around'?
…Best to just take the normal cost for a hair trim and multiply it a few dozen times.
And add a tip.
Considering the small mountain of hair that had built up over the last few however long this had been: A huge tip.
Best collect that mess for scrap before leaving too. "Grace, just leave a thousand or something at the station as we leave. I think they take digital currency, so we can pay the rest on our way out."
The crowd blocking their exit helpfully split apart without a request or even a glance, which was VERY convenient!
Now let's go cause a bit of a scene to keep the heat off his overworked sister!
He was SUCH a good brother!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica wanted to strangle something. Or someone. "What do you mean, 'My brother is trending online'?"
She was pacing back and forth half way through the city, on the way to the new hotel that she had planned to rent a room at for the party.
Another report was passed along, an automated subroutine that Grace had set up translating it into the standard Pocket System interfaces… Showing a growing list of video sites and social pages and… A fan club?
Good grief. "John and the girls have their own fan club."
Because of course they did. Why wouldn't they?
There was an entire SUBCULTURE in Japan that revolved about ditzy young boys being bullied by 'experienced' older sisters. It showed up in media and fiction, it was a whole thing.
Normally? Real world cases didn't crop up often. After all, ages were a legal issue… That kept actual chaos from erupting in the real world as often as it did on the various fan based threads and forums focused on favorite anime or games or whatnot.
Just, not in John's situation. Which was unfortunate.
The fact that all the individuals in this case were legal, someone somehow DISCOVERED that little tidbit and then SHARED it with the internet as a whole…
Welp, they were going nuts. "Holy crap, they already are selling merch?"
That was FAST right there. "Send those items to Grace so we can get a handle on that… Wait! No, don't do that. She or Temptation would just feed the fires and offer 'official products', so scrap that whole thought process."
Crap, and they have hundreds of people using cell phones to record her brother shifting his hair color and stuff too, so THAT was an ability that the world was now gossiping about. Thankfully, technology was RIDICULOUSLY advanced here in some areas… Most of the net was assuming it was a personal holographic prototype being tested by some big corporation.
Therefore, in return for people assuming her brother was a media planted shill secretly trying to influence the market for future profit? Most people DIDN'T automatically assume he was magical or the twelfth arrival of Jesus Christ or whatever.
Sure, some idiots online did… But that was the internet for you. Everything and every issue had some die hard believers out there SOMEWHERE if you looked long enough, and if not? There was an army of people willing to lie to your face that they DID just to be contrary.
Another report filed in and… "No, just shove all the online rule 34 and fanfiction and fanart into a separate folder. I'm sure Temptation will be thrilled for it later, but I do NOT want to see that: Thank you very much."
At least those strange watchers and listeners were FULLY distracted now… Sigh. "Scratch the hotel plan, John can't be seen in public. Despite the hair color alterations and the many skin tones, he didn't bother to alter most of his Body and the girls are far too recognizable… See about finding a house to rent instead. There should be something, hopefully."
Her people received their orders and began scurrying about all those levels of reality, now fully adapting and taking advantage of the various tools and interfaces Grace kept idly designing and implementing to allow Jessica's Soul agents to better interact wit the various features of the Pocket.
The woman's focus was caught once again as she groaned! "Really John!? A crown!? Where did you even… Did you Craft that?"
…No, because there was video feed of him PURCHASING the stupid thing and then wandering over to get it engraved at the local mall.
Which on one hand: Good, it was only some costume stuff and not literally covered in rare gems and gold and silver and stuff.
On the other hand: Hoo boy, was there a LOT of witnesses…
He had to have Crafted that 'royal cape' though, considering there were not many places that would even stock purple clothing with 'The Frog Emperor' embroidered over the back.
…Though the high resolution image of Substitoad giving an amphibian peace sign with his webbed foot/hand was a pretty adorable addition to the ensemble.
Sigh.
Well, if she tried to look at the bright side of this: They'd probably not have to worry about people 'possibly' discovering that John was involved with the sudden and shocking vanishment of all Frogs from the Duel Monster's dimensions.
And she was now FULLY confident that she could avoid being discovered by investigators.
Technically.
Since they were practically turning themselves in.
GAH! "Should I just put up huge lights and a billboard, 'Come ask us about the frog issue'!? Dang it John!"
Nope!
Calm. Breathe in. Breathe out.
She could handle this.
…One of her agents had just submitted an update about her brother accepting being interviewed in front of a crowd.
Thankfully he saw her Soul's expression and then quickly backed off.
Good lad, probably deserved a promotion.
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Chance of getting challenged to a duel on live TV: More then zero and rising.
Someone is going to get grounded and possibly a mute button will be getting added to the UI for Jessica to save John from himself.
Someone is going to get grounded and possibly a mute button will be getting added to the UI for Jessica to save John from himself.
Please tell me the next world will be naruto !!! if only just for the magic frogs vs mount Myoboku toad ninja war
...Are you trying to get ninja frog cards? Cause this is how you get ninja frog cards
If you're trying to expand the card selection might just be easier to figure out how the imprinting on card works to be able to flat out make your own and then negotiate.
KingOfWorlds
Exists.
- Location
- Universe #8758762952950231859269663
This chapter was Toadally Awesome!
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Dis dis dis… Distraction! (Auto parts!)
- Location
- Here
The cape had been an awesome touch, and John kept swirling it during the interview… Maybe a bit too much, actually. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
The nice young lady, Clair, grinned as she held her bluetooth microphone and her friend filmed them all from his phone. "I asked how long you've been living here in Domino City?"
Oh! "None of us live here, we are visiting the place on our trip to my sister's place. We do tend to take stops here and there, get to enjoy the local stuff before moving on and all that… But we've stopped buying houses and stuff as we go because we have to keep finding people to take care of them when we leave. Mostly."
For some reason, that set the girl back slightly. "You used to just buy houses as you traveled? Isn't that expensive?"
John nodded. "Yeah, but back then we had also set up an orphanage/workhouse thing and some farms and stuff, so it all sort of got bundled together and mostly pays for itself. Although when we visited that other place and set up the food kitchen thing we technically rented an apartment complex… But we ended up owning it in the end so I just took it with us when we left."
As for the Borg's Realm… "Hey, quick question: If you build a few planets in a place that doesn't really physically exist while living with a culture that doesn't really bother to use currency or pay rent or whatever… Does that count as 'renting' or 'owning'?"
Considering that no one but John actually SAW Steve's world, that shouldn't count in this question… And they left the LAST place as quickly as possible, so they basically just couch surfed…
Hmm. "On average, while each expense was pretty significant, I mostly managed to set up SOME sort of business or something to cover the costs, so I think it all averages out to around even or so. Except for that time that my sister got a part time position with a secret government agency, that house was basically free after some complicated paperwork."
Seeing Clair's expression, John considered why she looked so confused… Oh! "Not her USUAL secret governmental agency, this one was a completely DIFFERENT secret governmental agency that was based locally there. And I don't think she's officially a part of the LOCAL secret government agencies, even if she did recently gain a large number of agents and facilities. I'm pretty sure anything not located on this planet would be out of any such jurisdictions anyway… Plus, her new people are almost technically ghosts anyway, and most governments don't actually have a ton of laws regarding entities that don't have bodies and stuff, so it shouldn't matter."
Strange that such a glaring loophole exists, but Grace assured him that MOST of the places they had visited so far don't have laws or regulations covering the afterlife, Soul entities, Conceptual creatures, and the like.
Wait, were they drifting off topic? Oops! "ANYWAY, about the whole expensive travel stuff we were talking about: It tends to average out as a net positive, even when you DON'T count the amount of illegal and lost funding that can be easily acquired in most complex societies."
Grace was making some hand gestures? Oh! "Not that I emptied out a number of unlisted and illegal bank accounts belonging to criminal syndicates and other such organizations, because that would be against the local laws and I would get in trouble and possibly grounded if I somehow got caught."
Nailed it! "Anyway, THIS time I am acting as a distraction so my sister can find us a new place to stay locally. The last hotel was nice and all, no complaints there… And that Domino's Coffee shop had some wonderful muffins, don't get me wrong… But sometimes when you are trying to be discreet and avoid detection, you have to change places once in a while."
Clair paused, scanning over his massive amounts of spiked green hair, his nearly glowing bright blue eyes, what seemed to be cartoon green body paint, his frog costume, and his whole royalty ensemble. "You are trying to be discreet?"
What? "No, silly: I'm trying to be a distraction. My SISTER is the one for undercover stuff! Sometimes as a sibling, you have to do a bit of work to be supportive of their life choices." He waved at the streaming phone! "Hey sis! Let me know when you need us back, alright?"
She giggled slightly. "So your cute little froggy costume and the king outfit is a distraction? This whole 'Frog Emperor' thing is just a prank or something?"
Uh, technically? "No, I think that I might technically be the newly established royal of this Realm's amphibian people. Which would make my sister like an Aunty Froggy Empress or something, maybe. Is that how it works? Is the older sister of an Emperor an Aunty Empress?"
Darn it, he should have had the girls look this up! "Anyway, since all the frogs and a good number of toads, salamanders, and all them have moved into my Domain and have agreed to follow my leadership, despite my non-Froggy physical deformities, I'm pretty sure I count as their leadership now. At least when it comes to interacting with other non-amphibian species and organizations."
Why was Temptation slapping her forehead? Oh! "That last bit needs to be kept on the down low, by the way."
He glanced at the phone filming them. "Everyone out there too: Don't tell anyone that I've accidentally adopted like, ALL the frogs. It's part of why my sister is moving us, because when that happened we got like a TON of people searching for the cause of it all and she's worried that if we get found out that we'd have to leave early."
Clair's smile seemed a bit rigid and befuddled. "All… Right?"
Cool! "Thanks everyone! I've only recently been introduced to Duel Monsters and I'm still trying to get my deck to stop fading out of reality and stuff, and it would SUCK if we had to leave before I even got a chance to duel anyone."
He couldn't help but sigh to himself… "Not that I am ALLOWED to duel right now. Not until Grace and my sister say I can."
That caught her attention, even if she still seemed a bit off balance from the earlier conversation. "You aren't allowed to duel? For how long? I once got grounded because I had homework issues after being distracted with my own new deck. Dad wouldn't let me play against anyone for a whole week!"
Ouch! "That sounds rough… And uh, I'm not sure? My sister is a little concerned that if I attempted to actually duel someone before my deck stabilizes and I am properly able to weaken my abilities, that I might trap their Soul or break reality or something. So… I'd guess at LEAST a couple of days. Maybe longer if something comes up."
Clair snorted. "My dad said the same thing when I first started dating. Tried to keep me from seeing anyone until I 'was at least 50' or something." Her eyes suddenly sparkled as she leaned in, ignoring Grace's glare and Temptation's smirk entirely. "Speaking of which: How old are YOU, cutie pie?"
John did some mental math. "Um… You know, I'm not sure? My Soul bits before reconstruction were so old they technically didn't exist anymore, my Body gets rebuilt and replaced on a near weekly basis, and my Mind is somewhere between half a year old and like a few thousand years or so."
Things got complicated when your Body, Mind, and Soul were easily altered and replaced and stuff. "For ease of filling out paperwork, I tend to cheat and just make new Bodies at certain biological ages when needed. I think that if you did some lab work on my current one, I'd be like… A stupidly empowered and overly healthy 18 year old or something."
He gestured at the two women who perked up at the attention. "Grace and Temptation designed this Body, and they thought I'd be cuter like this… Which is why I am so short. Being short is ANNOYING by the way, despite me being strong enough to toss a car about or whatever. I don't suggest it. Anyone out there who is short should strongly consider becoming taller as soon as possible."
Clair couldn't help but giggle once more! "Oh you are just a HOOT!" She turned to his girls, a smile on her face. "Did you two help him design that outfit? It looks so professional!"
Temptation grinned right back at Clair, causing her to blush at the raw lust in that expression. "My sister put together the frog costume, but I personally designed my Master's throne, crown, and other regalia."
Grace pushed into the conversation! "She means Mister! Or uh… It's just some sort of play acting?"
The black beauty's soft chuckle was hard to miss. "Oh, I'm ALWAYS willing to do a bit of role play with the right people… EEP!"
Grace had her hand FIRMLY over her mouth. "Like she said: Just joking around! Moving right along: did you have any other questions about my Lord's attire?"
Clair coughed and readjusted herself. "How did you come up with the overall design? The tiny webbed gloves are adorable!"
The two broke into happy chatter while Temptation rolled her eyes and messed with Grace, John happy enough to just sit on the massive mushroom/toadstool/throne thing as the crowd filmed on.
This distraction was going great!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica slowly breathed out. "I've never bothered to teach him about operation security."
A mistake.
Calmly breathe in. "He's never been inclined to lie. For any reason."
Something she had already been aware of.
And out. "Letting him go with the girls: To keep him occupied, to allow me to get the boring tasks completed, or for me to check out potential new places to stay? Not a well thought out plan."
Even now she was getting reports from her agents about his 'uneventful' picnic at the park she'd not looked into… And the large number of online videos showing eager Duelists rushing towards their little get together for a challenging duel before freaking out and fleeing in terror.
The streamed video continued on in the background. "...Oh I don't worship my Lord as a deity! He's simply my creator and the one whom I've dedicated my life towards, in love and belief and in all ways."
Oh dear. "I ALSO never bothered to ask EITHER of those girls to not talk about a large number of issues. And they are not socially aware enough to realize which topics should be avoided in public."
Jessica quickly sent a mental message to Grace, who was still happily gushing about her Lord and her sister's Master and how wonderful he was and… "In fact, we both knew we would be following him until time itself decayed and will hopefully eagerly join his future relationships as well, once our Lord has mentally matured enough to handle physical intimacy in a constructive and positive way and… Hmm? Oh, sorry Jessica! Ms. Clair, I'm afraid I will have to cut our lovely conversation short. My Lord, your sister has requested we rejoin her as soon as convenient, to ensure our next residence is something you'll be happy with."
Her brother, sitting on that cartoonish throne resting on a pillow circle of plush 'swamp water', paused in his ongoing cape swirling. "Really? Already?"
Grace shifted Temptation into a headlock. "Yes, my Lord."
The interviewer, a young girl called Clair, pouted on screen. "Oh must you? I'm sure my chat would LOVE to ask you just a few… More… Uh? Josh? Where did they go?"
…Did her brother just teleport the girls, himself, that massive throne and all that plush swamp scenery away during an ACTIVE internet stream? Damn it!
John was suddenly there. "Hey sis! I came right over!"
You certainly did. "I noticed, and thank you."
Calm. Deep breaths, in and out.
She'd try to teach him about 'common sense' again later.
It shouldn't be too hard… After all, it was a topic that came up often in their little group.
For now, unaware of the scope of what his actions had likely contributed towards online, John was eager and bouncing in that admittedly adorable outfit. "So do we have a place? Is it another hotel room, or are we renting somewhere?"
After THAT chaos? Half the options were flat off the table. "Renting, there are a number of houses at the edge of the city we need to consider before picking one."
Hotels were out, that studio apartment was WAY too close to the general public for consideration now, but her agents had thankfully gathered a LOT of available options to choose from. "Grace, please let Temptation go before she passes out. Thank you."
"*GASP!*" "Oh. I'm so sorry, Temptation. I must have been distracted due to all the havoc you'd been causing today. How unfortunate." "*Wheeze*... It… It's fine… It… It was kinda hot…" "I'm ignoring you now."
Jessica clapped. "Alright children! Let's go choose a new temporary base… I mean, place to rent! John, you'll need to wear something less froggy and more unofficial. Temptation, please don't tease Grace for a while until she calms down. Grace, please don't fall for her antics: Thank you."
"""Yes sis/Mistress/My Lady.""
Sheesh! Being the responsible one in the group sucked sometime.
The nice young lady, Clair, grinned as she held her bluetooth microphone and her friend filmed them all from his phone. "I asked how long you've been living here in Domino City?"
Oh! "None of us live here, we are visiting the place on our trip to my sister's place. We do tend to take stops here and there, get to enjoy the local stuff before moving on and all that… But we've stopped buying houses and stuff as we go because we have to keep finding people to take care of them when we leave. Mostly."
For some reason, that set the girl back slightly. "You used to just buy houses as you traveled? Isn't that expensive?"
John nodded. "Yeah, but back then we had also set up an orphanage/workhouse thing and some farms and stuff, so it all sort of got bundled together and mostly pays for itself. Although when we visited that other place and set up the food kitchen thing we technically rented an apartment complex… But we ended up owning it in the end so I just took it with us when we left."
As for the Borg's Realm… "Hey, quick question: If you build a few planets in a place that doesn't really physically exist while living with a culture that doesn't really bother to use currency or pay rent or whatever… Does that count as 'renting' or 'owning'?"
Considering that no one but John actually SAW Steve's world, that shouldn't count in this question… And they left the LAST place as quickly as possible, so they basically just couch surfed…
Hmm. "On average, while each expense was pretty significant, I mostly managed to set up SOME sort of business or something to cover the costs, so I think it all averages out to around even or so. Except for that time that my sister got a part time position with a secret government agency, that house was basically free after some complicated paperwork."
Seeing Clair's expression, John considered why she looked so confused… Oh! "Not her USUAL secret governmental agency, this one was a completely DIFFERENT secret governmental agency that was based locally there. And I don't think she's officially a part of the LOCAL secret government agencies, even if she did recently gain a large number of agents and facilities. I'm pretty sure anything not located on this planet would be out of any such jurisdictions anyway… Plus, her new people are almost technically ghosts anyway, and most governments don't actually have a ton of laws regarding entities that don't have bodies and stuff, so it shouldn't matter."
Strange that such a glaring loophole exists, but Grace assured him that MOST of the places they had visited so far don't have laws or regulations covering the afterlife, Soul entities, Conceptual creatures, and the like.
Wait, were they drifting off topic? Oops! "ANYWAY, about the whole expensive travel stuff we were talking about: It tends to average out as a net positive, even when you DON'T count the amount of illegal and lost funding that can be easily acquired in most complex societies."
Grace was making some hand gestures? Oh! "Not that I emptied out a number of unlisted and illegal bank accounts belonging to criminal syndicates and other such organizations, because that would be against the local laws and I would get in trouble and possibly grounded if I somehow got caught."
Nailed it! "Anyway, THIS time I am acting as a distraction so my sister can find us a new place to stay locally. The last hotel was nice and all, no complaints there… And that Domino's Coffee shop had some wonderful muffins, don't get me wrong… But sometimes when you are trying to be discreet and avoid detection, you have to change places once in a while."
Clair paused, scanning over his massive amounts of spiked green hair, his nearly glowing bright blue eyes, what seemed to be cartoon green body paint, his frog costume, and his whole royalty ensemble. "You are trying to be discreet?"
What? "No, silly: I'm trying to be a distraction. My SISTER is the one for undercover stuff! Sometimes as a sibling, you have to do a bit of work to be supportive of their life choices." He waved at the streaming phone! "Hey sis! Let me know when you need us back, alright?"
She giggled slightly. "So your cute little froggy costume and the king outfit is a distraction? This whole 'Frog Emperor' thing is just a prank or something?"
Uh, technically? "No, I think that I might technically be the newly established royal of this Realm's amphibian people. Which would make my sister like an Aunty Froggy Empress or something, maybe. Is that how it works? Is the older sister of an Emperor an Aunty Empress?"
Darn it, he should have had the girls look this up! "Anyway, since all the frogs and a good number of toads, salamanders, and all them have moved into my Domain and have agreed to follow my leadership, despite my non-Froggy physical deformities, I'm pretty sure I count as their leadership now. At least when it comes to interacting with other non-amphibian species and organizations."
Why was Temptation slapping her forehead? Oh! "That last bit needs to be kept on the down low, by the way."
He glanced at the phone filming them. "Everyone out there too: Don't tell anyone that I've accidentally adopted like, ALL the frogs. It's part of why my sister is moving us, because when that happened we got like a TON of people searching for the cause of it all and she's worried that if we get found out that we'd have to leave early."
Clair's smile seemed a bit rigid and befuddled. "All… Right?"
Cool! "Thanks everyone! I've only recently been introduced to Duel Monsters and I'm still trying to get my deck to stop fading out of reality and stuff, and it would SUCK if we had to leave before I even got a chance to duel anyone."
He couldn't help but sigh to himself… "Not that I am ALLOWED to duel right now. Not until Grace and my sister say I can."
That caught her attention, even if she still seemed a bit off balance from the earlier conversation. "You aren't allowed to duel? For how long? I once got grounded because I had homework issues after being distracted with my own new deck. Dad wouldn't let me play against anyone for a whole week!"
Ouch! "That sounds rough… And uh, I'm not sure? My sister is a little concerned that if I attempted to actually duel someone before my deck stabilizes and I am properly able to weaken my abilities, that I might trap their Soul or break reality or something. So… I'd guess at LEAST a couple of days. Maybe longer if something comes up."
Clair snorted. "My dad said the same thing when I first started dating. Tried to keep me from seeing anyone until I 'was at least 50' or something." Her eyes suddenly sparkled as she leaned in, ignoring Grace's glare and Temptation's smirk entirely. "Speaking of which: How old are YOU, cutie pie?"
John did some mental math. "Um… You know, I'm not sure? My Soul bits before reconstruction were so old they technically didn't exist anymore, my Body gets rebuilt and replaced on a near weekly basis, and my Mind is somewhere between half a year old and like a few thousand years or so."
Things got complicated when your Body, Mind, and Soul were easily altered and replaced and stuff. "For ease of filling out paperwork, I tend to cheat and just make new Bodies at certain biological ages when needed. I think that if you did some lab work on my current one, I'd be like… A stupidly empowered and overly healthy 18 year old or something."
He gestured at the two women who perked up at the attention. "Grace and Temptation designed this Body, and they thought I'd be cuter like this… Which is why I am so short. Being short is ANNOYING by the way, despite me being strong enough to toss a car about or whatever. I don't suggest it. Anyone out there who is short should strongly consider becoming taller as soon as possible."
Clair couldn't help but giggle once more! "Oh you are just a HOOT!" She turned to his girls, a smile on her face. "Did you two help him design that outfit? It looks so professional!"
Temptation grinned right back at Clair, causing her to blush at the raw lust in that expression. "My sister put together the frog costume, but I personally designed my Master's throne, crown, and other regalia."
Grace pushed into the conversation! "She means Mister! Or uh… It's just some sort of play acting?"
The black beauty's soft chuckle was hard to miss. "Oh, I'm ALWAYS willing to do a bit of role play with the right people… EEP!"
Grace had her hand FIRMLY over her mouth. "Like she said: Just joking around! Moving right along: did you have any other questions about my Lord's attire?"
Clair coughed and readjusted herself. "How did you come up with the overall design? The tiny webbed gloves are adorable!"
The two broke into happy chatter while Temptation rolled her eyes and messed with Grace, John happy enough to just sit on the massive mushroom/toadstool/throne thing as the crowd filmed on.
This distraction was going great!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Jessica slowly breathed out. "I've never bothered to teach him about operation security."
A mistake.
Calmly breathe in. "He's never been inclined to lie. For any reason."
Something she had already been aware of.
And out. "Letting him go with the girls: To keep him occupied, to allow me to get the boring tasks completed, or for me to check out potential new places to stay? Not a well thought out plan."
Even now she was getting reports from her agents about his 'uneventful' picnic at the park she'd not looked into… And the large number of online videos showing eager Duelists rushing towards their little get together for a challenging duel before freaking out and fleeing in terror.
The streamed video continued on in the background. "...Oh I don't worship my Lord as a deity! He's simply my creator and the one whom I've dedicated my life towards, in love and belief and in all ways."
Oh dear. "I ALSO never bothered to ask EITHER of those girls to not talk about a large number of issues. And they are not socially aware enough to realize which topics should be avoided in public."
Jessica quickly sent a mental message to Grace, who was still happily gushing about her Lord and her sister's Master and how wonderful he was and… "In fact, we both knew we would be following him until time itself decayed and will hopefully eagerly join his future relationships as well, once our Lord has mentally matured enough to handle physical intimacy in a constructive and positive way and… Hmm? Oh, sorry Jessica! Ms. Clair, I'm afraid I will have to cut our lovely conversation short. My Lord, your sister has requested we rejoin her as soon as convenient, to ensure our next residence is something you'll be happy with."
Her brother, sitting on that cartoonish throne resting on a pillow circle of plush 'swamp water', paused in his ongoing cape swirling. "Really? Already?"
Grace shifted Temptation into a headlock. "Yes, my Lord."
The interviewer, a young girl called Clair, pouted on screen. "Oh must you? I'm sure my chat would LOVE to ask you just a few… More… Uh? Josh? Where did they go?"
…Did her brother just teleport the girls, himself, that massive throne and all that plush swamp scenery away during an ACTIVE internet stream? Damn it!
John was suddenly there. "Hey sis! I came right over!"
You certainly did. "I noticed, and thank you."
Calm. Deep breaths, in and out.
She'd try to teach him about 'common sense' again later.
It shouldn't be too hard… After all, it was a topic that came up often in their little group.
For now, unaware of the scope of what his actions had likely contributed towards online, John was eager and bouncing in that admittedly adorable outfit. "So do we have a place? Is it another hotel room, or are we renting somewhere?"
After THAT chaos? Half the options were flat off the table. "Renting, there are a number of houses at the edge of the city we need to consider before picking one."
Hotels were out, that studio apartment was WAY too close to the general public for consideration now, but her agents had thankfully gathered a LOT of available options to choose from. "Grace, please let Temptation go before she passes out. Thank you."
"*GASP!*" "Oh. I'm so sorry, Temptation. I must have been distracted due to all the havoc you'd been causing today. How unfortunate." "*Wheeze*... It… It's fine… It… It was kinda hot…" "I'm ignoring you now."
Jessica clapped. "Alright children! Let's go choose a new temporary base… I mean, place to rent! John, you'll need to wear something less froggy and more unofficial. Temptation, please don't tease Grace for a while until she calms down. Grace, please don't fall for her antics: Thank you."
"""Yes sis/Mistress/My Lady.""
Sheesh! Being the responsible one in the group sucked sometime.
- Location
- Sol;Terra;EU;D;NRW
Tune in next week when:
John tries to challenge Common Sense to a duel!
Jessica facepalms so hard the Pocket almost quakes!
Grace and Temptation tease John until he surrenders and gets cocoa for everyone!
John tries to challenge Common Sense to a duel!
Jessica facepalms so hard the Pocket almost quakes!
Grace and Temptation tease John until he surrenders and gets cocoa for everyone!