algagrass | We're making this happen.

Entry tags:

We're making this happen.

CHARACTERS: Rose Lalonde (

knitwit) and Dirk Strider (

splinterself)
DATE: May 23rd
RATING: PG13 for possible foul language!
SUMMARY: Rose is planning on improving her skills by grinding in a remote area. Of course, she naturally wants to stock up on goods at the weapon shops and item stores and it is here she runs into Dirk Strider.

There had been no true reasons why Rose Lalonde could find comfort in her surroundings. Not only was the eternal calling that pecked and pierced her brain giving her a headache, but it was urging her onward in her quest for knowledge on their situation. Her datalogs had been finished for the day and all she had to do was step back into reality -- or virtual reality -- and make her plans active.

The weapon store had been dealt with, a small upgrade was her prize after selling some useless items she encountered. The heavy book still traced against her hip from it's sling, but she was not weighed down too much. It swayed to and fro as she continued towards the dimly lit merchant booth that housed her current needs and wants: items.

Rose's vivid irises scanned the stock, attempting to navigate her needs and wants with the utmost calculations. Darn those calculations.

"If only there was some sort of walk-through I could read on this stupid item guide," Rose whispered under her breath.

It was tedious to navigate their little communicator, but she made due using the apps she needed. Perhaps when she wasn't aimlessly tired and the eternal sunset wasn't plaguing her vision she'd learn the electronic. Highly unlikely, but she still continued her search through the silly item bar.

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And suddenly he was chasing after a Lalonde again, though this time it was to a portal opposed to across the void. Consistent and constant. Fortunately Mac Anu was far more scenic than Sburb.

"Right behind you," Dirk drawled as he followed, but was otherwise content to do so in silence, thinking. He mentally prodded the part of him that was his dreamself and felt...nothing, which was nothing new at this point. Since he had arrived in Mac Anu, it had been him and him alone that he had to contend with. A fragmented existence was an intense one, and a pain in the ass, but what the hell was he supposed to do when all the fragments vanished? He hated not knowing.

Fortunately, there was something else to preoccupy him and keep him from brooding.

They walked to the Chaos Gate, which went pretty much as expected. If he got to the door first he held it open long enough to keep it from slamming shut in Rose's face: if she did, he just followed. However they arrived, when they did he pulled out his Relic and asked, "Got any requests for the dungeon?"

Rose wasn't as much anxious or excited as she was determined to be better than she was. The prospective leveling was tempting, as if it was the forbidden fruit many mortals gave into at one point in their lives. Regardless of the stranger, this Dirk Strider, with a name familiar or not, she was foolish to start onward.

Well, theoretically, Dirk would be a sweetie if he held the door open. Either way, she was out checking her stats and inventory one last time.

"No, I don't believe so. I'd suspect there should be NPCs in the beginning of the dungeon giving quests -- unless you have those already, you can share it with me via our party."

She pauses a moment, "If you want to, that is."

"I would if I had any."

He flipped through some word combinations on his Relic before finding a likely looking dungeon: Submissive Aster's Belladonna, fire-element and low leveled enough they wouldn't immediately die upon entry. (Also with a boss at the end.) He didn't want to chance anything higher until he had taken the measure of Rose.

Dirk held the Relic so that she could see the dungeon in question.

"Look good?"

"Tch."

Rose sucked her teeth a bit, as if she had tasted poison on her tongue. More-so, it was the disappointing news to know there might have been missed opportunities on extra experience from the dungeon. Sigh, no bother, really.

A few short steps were taken and she was right next to Dirk, standing upon her tip toes to look over the device. "Hm. Sounds like a pornographical comic that ...."
...

Dave's...brother...would make. Oh well. She bit down on her bottom lip, shaking her head. "Nothing, nothing. That's fine."

Rose shifted the grimoire's weight on her, finally lifting the book up and causing it to somewhat float above her hands. It would glow, the pages flipping as she was glancing over the countless locked spells she had yet to obtain.

"We should be fine and if not, I have a few health potions to spare."

She pauses momentarily, letting a confident smirk flash upon her black-stained lips.

"But, I somehow doubt you'd take kindly to healing unless it was a dire situation."

An eyebrow raised imperceptibly upwards at the space between 'pornographical comic' and 'nothing,' but he let it pass without comment.

"You got me there. I like to think I can take care of myself." He echoed her smirk with one of his own. "As for the field, I'm cognizant of the fact we probably won't get that much experience, but I'd rather not get shanked my second time out."

He used his Relic. The scene changed.

Suddenly, it was sunny, high noon, fucking hot, and an endless field stretched about them. And really fucking hot. That bore repeating.

"Good. You're not as ballsy as Dave. Well, in the impulsive way."

She took a step away, wiping a bit of stray hair from her face. It was weird, but Rose wouldn't expose that fact too much. She was the one who was suppose to be prepared and know everything. She did write some of the gameFAQ, after all. That task alone was not easy.

As the sudden shift occurred, her eyes narrowed and a hand came up to shield her vision from the onslaught of harmful UV rays. It was bright, and for someone who was akin to light, that was a bad sign.

Good thing her outfit was more revealing, to her displeasure, so she wasn't too heavy with her armor to suffer a heatstroke.

She wiped away a bit of sweat that began to form against her clammy skin while she overlooked the field.

"Hm. I'm assuming there will be some tasks to do before any large groups of enemies or boss arrive?"

Like, truthfully so, Rose just didn't explore the dungeons as much as Dirk. Once, and then she quit prematurely to continue searching for others -- because she just did not want them to end up like her mother did. She actively hunted, this time.

Her book was hoisted higher, levitating between her fingertips. "No matter, it won't be hard with us to take care of." Derse dreamers for the mo'fo win.

"Honestly? I'm not entirely fucking sure." He frowned. No shame in admitting he didn't know something, sure, but it annoyed him anyway. He'd spent his entire life trying to learn what he (and the others) had been thrust into, and it was for nothing.

"This is the second time I tried a dungeon, and the first one was rather straightforward. Go to a room, beat up monsters - usually goblins - and then proceed to the next room. And I didn't exactly have games like this when I grew up. Just Sburb."

Goddamn, it was hot. He half-wished that he had picked a different field, maybe one with an oce- yeah, no.

"But yeah, it shouldn't be tough." Dirk hoisted his own sword. "Got a preference in direction, Lalonde?"

Well, between Rose glancing around curiously, it was obvious she had no clue in any slight way of how to advance their dungeon.

"Hm. Sburb dragged on more than this in my time playing it. Although, it was more battle oriented later on, the beginning did revolve around cryptic puzzles and conundrums. Shouldn't too hard," she would finally repeat, having faith in both her and Dirk.

"Away from the sun," Rose would say with a soft hum, teasing the boy as the whole damned field was near the Sun. She shook her head and simply started walking.

"We'll get hit with a barrier if we can't proceed, so might as well just test the --" And smack, Rose would walk right into an invisible barrier that kept her from going onward. She stumbles a bit, rubbing her face as she attempted to keep her cool.

"Other way, Dirk. Let's proceed that way," She groans out a bit, but once her eyes focused, she'd notice a few small stumps with unlit torches -- barely poking out of the dried out grass.

"Wait. Those, right there, could be our beacons for enemies."

He gave the barrier one rap of the knuckles (seemed solid enough) before turning towards what Rose had indicated. Looked suspicious enough.

"Could be." With a nod of his head - intended to mean 'I'm melee, you're ranged, I'll check first in case it's a trap' but could be interpreted as 'Aight' or 'Cool' or something really bizarre for all he knows - he ventured towards the torches.

Nothing exploded or did anything nefarious or diabolical. A good sign.

He prodded one of the stumps with his foot, and then idly tapped the hilt of his sword, thinking, before turning back towards Rose. "Have any fire spells?" Like it would be that easy.

Well, Rose had a bit of impulsiveness -- no, actually more so confidence, that lead her to take lead even if she was a caster. A smack to the face via an invisible barrier put her back in her place. She'd tag behind, eyeing the torches.

His question was obvious, but fell upon helpless ears. A soft shrug and her hands lifted the grimoire higher, flipping through the pages.

"Aha, one more level and I'll earn a fire spell," of course, it was never that simple, "Well, if you get hurt, at least I have a decent HP restoring incantation..."

Healing was nice, but sadly, that didn't cut it.

She pauses, looking over the torches intently, "There has to be a way around simply casting a spell. It would be a broken pass if one could not advance without a spell."

Rose hums a bit, glancing over the area. The field itself was barren and all there was were the stumps, torches and the glass decoration at the torch's base. This was a doozie and with a sigh, she'd wipe away a bit of sweat.

Wait.

"Dirk, allow me to be ballsy for a moment," Rose stated bluntly, inspecting the glass decoration.

"Break this," she pauses, "please. If my theories are anything short of plausible, have you ever had the demented tendency to kill ants as a child? Specifically through burning them via a magnifying glass and hot sun?"

She'd pause, yet again.

"Not that I have, I mean, it's a common thing for children to do..."

"Gotcha. I didn't exactly have ants, but I know what you mean." Scenes like that featured in more than one movie Dirk had watched.

As for the last thing she said, he ever so slightly...smirked. Aw shit. Ain't that adorable.

What Rose was implying see-...was feasible. He could see her chain of logic and it was a solid chain like th-...right. Skipping the metaphor in favor of taking his sword and just breaking the glass decoration in question. There. That's how shit gets done.

He could've kicked it but it seemed more effective.

Sea slugs, ants, all the same thing. Either way, she was glad he connected the dots with her theory. Rose watched as he sliced the poor decorations, as beautiful as their translucent shapes were, they needed to surrender their forms for the shards of glass needed.

She would quickly snatch one up, kneeling down carefully, allowing her spellbook to hover her.

"If you'd be so kind, could you take care of the other torch? It would save us time, I'd imagine," Rose hummed sweetly before angling the shard towards the torch which easily smelt of gasoline.

The light ray was defined and focused towards the torch. It was a minute or two of silence as Rose chewed the tip of her tongue. It wasn't until one sizzle and a rise of a thin smoke trail garnered a heavy sigh.

"Okay, it takes a while, but -- "

And whoosh! The torch lit up like a firecracker, causing Rose to basically youth roll away. The flame reached towards the sky in an exaggerated way.

"Hm, yes be careful."

Details.

"Ok."

He followed suit: knelt down, grabbed shard, shard angled towards torch, light ray angled - and you know what was nice? This team up. For some haphazard group formed from a chance meeting and a shared last name, it was surprisingly enjoyable. For one thing, Rose had yet to give him hell for being too serious. He liked Roxy, but goddamn that got old.

Als- whoosh! And Dirk nearly lost an eyebrow as he - nearly belatedly - awkwardly youth rolled away in what was far from one of his finest dodges. It was like half youth roll, half pratfall.

He checked, one hand raised to his forehead. His eyebrow was...

...

...

Yeah, still there. Fucking figures. Even without the responder he was still distracted.

Rose was not like Roxy in the slightest besides a few common interests. The way she treated Dirk was how he presented himself: respectable, so she would respect him.

With the shard in hand and only one last torch to light. She, admittedly, couldn't help but let a snicker out under her breath at the Strider's not-so-elegant moves.

"I won't ask. I know you're alright," her voice chimed in before digging her soles into the soil.

Rose kneeled down and began the last bit. The strong sun beam began to focus and sizzle at the flameable broken straw and sticks in the torch. Once she heard that first crack of a burning cherry, she was stepping back. Still, she barely missed as the final torch lit itself into the sky.

As the three torches reached to the heavens, much like a drill of fire, there was a slight rumble. The skies above were almost ominous with their darkened clouds, that somehow never blocked out that damn harsh sun.

Figures.

"And here we are to face the inevitable battle ahead of us. Nothing much left to do until the creatures expose themselves after their dramatic world-changing entrance. That's rather cliche..."

"You gotta give them credit for respecting the classics," Dirk drawled, sardonic...and in other breaking news, it was kind of hot here. He got to his feet and hefted his sword in something resembling more of a battle ready stance. (Opposed to an idle sort of 'I'm smashing glass objects, hey' stance.) "Ain't a real entrance without dramatic..."

Dirk gestured, indicating the torches, the weather, the general mood. "...you know." He made a noise. It sounded amused. Meanwhile, the surroundings continued to purple prose it up, reaching a precipice of power which would cause those who were about to swoon from the sheer darkness below them and other such dramatic things. They were on the cusp of the big entrance, the liminal zone before the enemies would arrive. "So what the hell do you think is going to show up, Lalonde? Goblins? Ghosts?"

"Respect for being utterly stereotypical and downright wearisome with their deliverance? Yes, you might as well give an Oscar to those who made Deuce Bigalow."

Oops, she sounded like a Strider, rambling onward for a distaste for those who didn't add true elements of surprise and icons of flare to their performance. Or in this case: arrival.

Rose lifted her stance as some relatively low leveled goblins ripped from the very Earth itself, bringing chunks of clay, a spray of lava and hardened rock careening towards the two Derse Dreamers. One lonely goblin followed after another, sprouting from the ground like devils themselves. Rose nodded towards the boy and took a quick few backsteps away, hovering the grimoire above her grasp.

"Goblins and their sassy little attitudes. Don't let them fool you, they can be rather aggravating to deal with."

Rose's fingertips ran across the golden glowing lettering for a low level water spell, too bad it would take a few moments for her to cast it.

Dirk stopped. He stared.

"I know," he simply said, and then swore with more feeling than a Strider would usually muster for any occasion. He sprinted forward, sword in hand, and then did his best impression of a yaoi fangirl and started brutally slashing the goblins. OTP, fuckass, OTP.

Quite frankly he was getting to the point in which he was seriously starting to hate seeing goblins.

Of course, Dirk was just doing an impression of himself, right? Slashing... away. Anyway, Rose's magic was diminished within moments as a torrential burst of water erupted from the very fissures the creatures ventured upward from. The water's vast wave was an area of effect spell: attacking the onslaught of goblins that were zeroing in on the blade wielding Strider.

Her wrists flicked, like a concert director conducting the sweetest symphony, shifting the final splash to gush outwards and send some of the goblins away from Dirk, to the best of her ability. He may have gotten wet on that one.

....yeah, pretty much, the astute can connect the dots between metaphor and subject. Fanart available later upon request. Anyway. Suddenly dampened, but also suddenly clear of goblins, Dirk shot Lalonde a look which was just that: a look. It was filled with the annoyance of being wet coupled with ultimately being okay with it given how damn hot it was, tempered with the fact that he was clear of goblins.

"Thanks." And if nothing else, he could respect efficiency.

He continued with crowd control, reaching for a puppet instinctively before realizing that he didn't have one at hand. Damn. Being limited to one strife specibus was restrictive. The tradeoff was not having a sylladex to navigate, he supposed, but Dirk found himself instinctively categorizing his possessions based upon shade columns and groove rows anyway so the end result was the same.

"So Lalonde, back in Sburb...what strife spectibi did you use, anyway?"

Hey, she tried her hardest to control the spell, but it was an area of effect, after all! His glare was given to one of her own, her eyebrows knitting downward to showcase the same sentiment.

Rose was resting for just a moment, letting her internal magic regenerate. It was at an all-time low, but over time, the radiance inside began to trickle onward to her normal status.

"Needlekind. Call it misfortune or a cruel addition to my arrival here, but my needlewands are no where to be found. I would have expected some consolation prize, but alas; a mere spell book was all I acquire."

Her voice called out, mid-sentence the vision of a lone goblin advancing towards her came to understanding. With little to no choice, the caster did what she did best: carry on, her wayward alternate universe son, kind of? Her digits gripped the spine of the over-sized grimoire and with a harsh swing, crashed the front of it towards the goblin for a sickening crack, only to allow it to dissipate into dust.

Same as Roxy's mother. And she had his sympathy almost immediately: he knew that feeling. "Bladekind's my main but I had puppetkind and fancy Santa kind in my deck." (Technically it was Fncysntakind, but details.)

A goblin had slipped past him. He was aware of this almost in the same moment that Rose dispatched it with her tome, and given now easily she wielded that immense thing Dirk was willing to bet that she would be a natural with bookkind.

He kicked the nearest goblin and then brought his sword down decisively. One for him.

Dirk found himself wondering how much different that battle with the Batterwitch would've been if Rose - Roxy's mother - had been using literature over needles. Probably not very.

The name slipping past his lips for his spare strife decks were obviously foreign and she perked a thin golden brow at the mere mention of the name.

"I won't even ask. Just try not to get near Dave if you ever find your puppetkind deck resurfacing."

Her words were soft, but her fingertips danced against the pages once more. Almost as if she was in some animu, her hand slammed down, dramatically lifting the glowing words right off the text. A generic sleep spell would send "zzzzzz" stampeding towards it's target: knocking it out instantly in a fumble.

"Still find it a shame I was equipped with only one. But curiosity killed the cat."

She was still charging her energy, a few low level spells were enough to keep this kind of instance assault at bay. With no healer and her HP restoring spell still locked, they were pulling it close.

"What, why?"

What she said was distracting. (Why would his bro have problems with puppetkind? Puppets were the shit.) Too distracting: he took a claw in the side for his trouble, a glancing blow that still stung. Careless. He replied in kind. Sword flashing, he cut through the herd of goblins like some overwrought metaphor and felt slow the entire damn time.

It was one of the harder things to adjust to. He had gone from being a flashstep puppeteer gifted with the extreme dexterity necessary for operating his false friends unseen to...Dirk wasn't sure who'd win in a race between him and his bro. Hell, Jake might win given how fast Dirk's been. (In case you can't guess: not fucking very.) It felt like he was nine again, swimming in the ocean, but instead of dodging fish he was dodging goblins.

She shouldn't have done that. Stupid, Rose. She cursed to herself, eyeing the quick wound in action. She winced, that was painful even for her to watch. Primarily, because her own guilt washed over her like a burst of flames.

It was getting hot again, almost too hot. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck, coming to a rest at the stained dark fabric of her collar.

Her magic was replenished over time, just in time for sprouts of flames to raise from the ground: much like the torches that they lit moments ago. In fact, it all... seemed moments ago. Sigh. The flames were the harbinger in a sense, their forms dancing into an humanized way. The flames would die once an eruption of earth sent rocks and chunks of soil towards the two Derse dreamers.

As Rose moved and dodged the rocks to the best of her ability, she'd be struck roughly against the temple among her movements. Trailing blood soaked the light blond strands but she didn't mind it.

In fact, her eyes were more concerned with the oversized goblin with fists of fire. That was their target now.

"I suppose now is a good time to say: watch yourself. I can't help you between casts. You're already aware of this, but I figure it would be nice to remind you."

Dirk dodged as well, dancing between the rocks and rubble, eyes on the target. The scratches and nicks weren't important...damage to his shades aside. (They remained scratch free, but he had spent the time ages ago to come up with shades that could withstand almost anything. Dirk still deemed it a worthwhile investment of his time.) That was. The thing with flaming fists.

"Got it," he replied, sword in hand. Then, orange eyes briefly flicking back in Rose's direction, he simply added, "Watch yourself as well."

Now wasn't the time: Dirk could ask her more questions about Dave afterwards. He ignored the sweat and the blood, even if the heat...how could anyone deal with a place this hot? (Imagine an entire planet that was sweltering like this. God damn. There had to be some standards with the weather. His next field was going to be something cooler, like a cave.) He attacked.

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