Update

Update

So to everyone who liked the Starter Call, I’ll be busy tomorrow so Sunday night, I’ll work on the Starters for y’all.

Tonight, I’m working on Fanfic chapters for The Dragon’s Flight and The Light of Valencia so hopefully, y’all who read those stories will have new chapters tomorrow.

“AH! WHAT THE-”

Lucette had been enjoying a rather nice and peaceful dream of being cuddled by a group of black panthers when she was RUDELY and forcefully awakened by a loud voice yelling in her ear. 

Lucette shot up in the bed, hair a tangled curly mess, clothing a wrinkled mess. All in all, she looked like someone who was startled out of sleep. Blue eyes stared in bewilderment at the man who dared to wake her up in such a manner.

“What...What is wrong with you?! Why are you shouting?!” She yelled at him, covering herself with her blanket. She was wearing a robe but was too startled to remember that.

‘Has no one taught him that its rude to walk into a woman’s room and wake her up in such a manner?’

Lucette quietly agreed. She was not properly dressed to receive visitors, especially men! “Could you not knock on the door before entering so?!”

kingarise 

Lucette froze with pork halfway in her mouth when Kuai announced that dinner will end soon before groaning alongside the recruits. Its always hard to choose between bed or food. Especially really good food. She mostly just been spending her time eating and watching the other recruits and how they conduct themselves. They all seemed…..normal. Well, normal in a middle class way. If this had been a dinner with the Royal Court, it probably would’ve been a lot quieter, with sharp venomous glares being thrown at various other nobles. A poisonous cloud, figuratively and sometimes literally.

Here however, there was a atmosphere of camaraderie and comfort. Conversation was lively and constant and filled the room. It reminded Lucette sorely of home. Not the palace but of simpler times. Where she and her grandfather and her parents would gather around a simple wooden table and trade stories of adventures and funny moments, Lucette, small as she was back then, always chirping up with a statement or two.

The flood of memories made Lucette homesick but this was one that couldn’t be cured by returning home. Because even if she did, nobody would be there. All the persons that should’ve been, are long gone from this plane.

‘You humans have a tendency of making yourselves feel worse when you’re already sad. I don’t understand it. You live too much in the past, my dear. And your grief from it is preventing you from enjoying the presenting.’ Lucette sighed sadly, knowing that she was right. But it was so hard. An atmosphere of grief hung over Lucette. She was glad that nobody noticed. She didn’t want to ruin anyone else’s mood.

Bi-Han woke with a groan.

“Shinnok’s ass this hurts.”

‘Language.’

“Fuck off my head hurts like a well fucked slut’s hole right now.”

‘That’s what you get for getting blackout drunk. Just because your brother gave you a bottle doesn’t mean you should drink all of it and three more after that in the middle of the night.’

Once this headache passes and the night falls, he’s going to shut that smug shit up. Though he had a nagging sensation that Saibot would be expecting this. Little shit probably planned it out - ugh, where did his brother leave the herbs anyway?

By the time the first gulp of medication and water ran down his throat, the elder cryomancer pinched the bridge of his nose; peering out the window. The sun barely started rising over the eastern horizon, prime time to start training, then hopefully his head would stop hurting like a little bitch. But speaking of training…

“Good morning Lucette, it’s time to wake up!”

Lucette mused over the events that happened to her in the past few hours as she tied the odd sash of the uniform she was given around her waist.

“Kuai Liang and Bi-Han. We’re definitely not in the Spiral anymore but everything here reminds me of Mooshu. Even....whatever I’m wearing now has bits and pieces of Mooshu design.” 

Lucette wasn’t too fond of what she had to wear. It wasn’t a dress or even a robe or a jacket! It was some odd tight sleeveless bodysuit in a dark gray color with some odd medallion on the chest and long elbow length black gloves. All in all, not something Lucette has ever seen before, even in Mooshu. When wearing it, she felt like she was naked! The blue sash didn’t really help either, so she just decided to wear it as a belt.  ‘At least its something. I think you look lovely in it. Highlights all of your curves well.’ Lucette looked in the mirror, frowning at her reflection 

 "That’s what I DON’T want. I look...odd in this uniform."

‘Well, that’s all you’re getting until after dinner. So stop whining and let’s go. I’ll lead.’ Lucette grumbled under her breath as her legs took her out of her room and down the hall, the sound of chatter and noise growing louder. Entering the dining hall, Lucette was left standing by the entrance as feeling finally returned to her legs, now back in control. Except, now Lucette was entirely frozen as a feeling similar to a lamb walking into a den of lions overtook her. 

“Great, what do I do now?” She mumbled, partially to herself. The air brushing against her body in places it normally wouldn’t and the tight material lining to her skin made her feel like everyone was staring at her. She’d never thought she’d say this but she missed her polonaise and panniers.

‘You are so dramatic over nothing’

kingarise

“I have never heard of the Lin Kuei before. And yes, your brother found me……and then forgot about me.” She was still not over that. She has never seen such a short attention span before in her life!

“Saibot, hmmm. His shadow huh? But he seems to think independently from Bi-Han. Much more helpful.” Lucette has never seen such an odd entity as Saibot before. Ghosts, zombies, clockworks, werewolves, vampires, yes. But that? Never. Lucette pouted and let out a low groan of annoyance when she was told that she couldn’t take a bathe until after dinner. Her royal upbringing was screaming in terror and horror.

“After dinner?!”

‘Oh, stop whining. At least he’s giving you better clothing. It’s not like you’re sweaty or smell right now. You can just eat dinner quickly and then take a bath.’

Lucette frowned at the internal scolding she received but didn’t argue as she knew the voice was right. She was lucky to get new clothes and food. She’ll just have to take a long bath after dinner. “Very well. I understand……Who are you?” She completely forgot to ask for the man’s name before.

“Kuai Liang, Bi-Han is my older brother. I am the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei clan of assassins.” -

Bi-Han folded his legs beneath him, regarding the plates set before him. Pork belly, fried fish, some steamed vegetables and rice. A true feast fit for a king! Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to have his little brother handle most of the important things, after all.

‘I can hear your thoughts, you want a dessert after this.’

The cryomancer paused, rolling his eyes: ‘Shut up, bastard.’

He scooped a spoonful of rice up, sprinkled with broth. Everyone else were fortunately too busy conversing amongst themselves to notice his little… distraction. Elder gods above did he adore him, but this is one of those times when he sincerely wished that he could yank him out and shut him up properly.

“Got you a little something, since you did cut your little break short.” Kuai winked with a gesture at the bottle on the elder cryomancer’s table, Bi-Han quirking his brow in return. It was not like Kuai Liang to allow emotions out, much less when in public: who is this man and what did he do to his stiff-backed little brother?

For the next hour, I’m just gonna be posting incorrect quotes from the Artorias Dadverse @wolfdivined and I have made a while back. Now that I think about it, I should probably talk more about that verse on here since I have art and writing for it. I love it, Lucette is living her best life in it and is as mischievous as ever and Artorias is a great dad taking care of his teeny tiny daughter and she eventually has kids and Artorias is an amazing grandpa to them and it’s just....wholesome.

So yeah, get ready for chaos

The man’s long period of silence rang alarm bells in Lucette’s mind. The way his head tilted and his eyes looked distant for a bit before focusing on her was not natural. She would’ve been more disturbed by it but-

‘Let’s not have the pot calling a kettle black now, girl.’

Yes, she could not speak so boldly. When he spoke to her, he started talking about....some other odd place. 

“S...Spain? My apologies, but I have never heard of such a world. I am from the world of Valencia, ruled by the clockworks. I can most certainly assure you, I am no visitor. Or...at least, not willingly.”

She felt embarrassed admitting that but withholding too much information from someone who seems to know the place would not be very helpful in the long run.

“The Changbai Mountains? Am I somewhere in Mooshu?”

‘I have traveled Mooshu and have never heard of such a mountain range. He is either messing with you or we are truly further away than I thought.’

It seems so. She was in really deep trouble now. At the man’s answer of being a human and admitting he knew he didn’t look like one, Lucette’s body posture relaxed slightly, though she still kept her hands close to her side.

“My sincerest apologies for the rude question, Bi-Han. I have encountered many odd creatures in my life and have many magical enemies.”

Wouldn’t be very queenly to forget her manners, after all.

kingarise

The sound of someone else’s voice startled Lucette, causing her to yelp and whirl around, only to pause when she laid eyes on….what was talking to her.

’Well, that’s different.’

Different was putting it nicely. The man looked like a frost bitten corpse who had been dug up and dressed in Mooshu like clothing. Pale ashen skin with a blue tint, odd colored eyes, and the mask covering half of his face didn’t help. And that sickle hanging off his hip looked a bit too sharp in her opinion. She decided to answer the question but keeping her Royal title hidden. You never know.

”I….I am Lucette Favero of Valencia. Who is it that I am speaking to? And are you human or otherwise?”

Many would think that a rude question but considering her situation and the man’s odd appearance, Lucette thinks it’s a well deserved one. If he is a hoodoo possessed or controlled creature, she would rather know upfront than later. It didn’t help that he was wearing armor and she….wasn’t. She was dressed in Terrus’ shirt, Maria’s odd trousers she called “shorts” and odd shoes that Maria called “sneakers”. Nothing one would wear to a fight.

She kept one hand close to her hip, palm open, prepared to summon a fireball if he tried something.

‘Valencia? Isn’t that a city from the Earthrealm country of Spain?’ Though Bi-Han was admittedly more focused on the how, even with Saibot’s incredulous vocalization in his thoughts. 

Saying he was suspicious would not be wrong: her clothing, her claims of where she came from, nothing was adding up correctly. Unless, of course, she was thrown here by some sort of magic, nothing was really impossible in those realms. Though if that was the case - 

‘I swear if this was Quan Chi doing his bullshit again, I’m going to lose MY shit.’ 

‘Not possible, he is dead. We watched Hasashi tear his head off.’ 

Bi-Han scowled beneath his mask. Even his bloody name left a sour taste on his tongue. It was all thanks to that vile sorcerer that he was very nearly condemned to the fires of the Netherrealm, at the hands of the specter Scorpion and now Grandmaster Hanzo Hasashi of the Shirai Ryu. Fucker deserved to die and more, lucky that Scorpion got to him before he did, or he wouldn’t just be losing his head. 

“You are quite a distance from Spain, girl. Did you get lost from your party of tourists?” For the sake of now, though, he’ll wear his nice little mask of civility. “It’s quite an awful month to be out here in the Changbai Mountains.” 

Her reaction to his appearance was… not unexpected, to say the least: “Bi-Han. I am a human, even if I may not look like one.”

Lucette froze with pork halfway in her mouth when Kuai announced that dinner will end soon before groaning alongside the recruits. Its always hard to choose between bed or food. Especially really good food. She mostly just been spending her time eating and watching the other recruits and how they conduct themselves. They all seemed.....normal. Well, normal in a middle class way. If this had been a dinner with the Royal Court, it probably would’ve been a lot quieter, with sharp venomous glares being thrown at various other nobles. A poisonous cloud, figuratively and sometimes literally.

Here however, there was a atmosphere of camaraderie and comfort. Conversation was lively and constant and filled the room. It reminded Lucette sorely of home. Not the palace but of simpler times. Where she and her grandfather and her parents would gather around a simple wooden table and trade stories of adventures and funny moments, Lucette, small as she was back then, always chirping up with a statement or two.

The flood of memories made Lucette homesick but this was one that couldn’t be cured by returning home. Because even if she did, nobody would be there. All the persons that should’ve been, are long gone from this plane.

‘You humans have a tendency of making yourselves feel worse when you’re already sad. I don’t understand it. You live too much in the past, my dear. And your grief from it is preventing you from enjoying the presenting.’ Lucette sighed sadly, knowing that she was right. But it was so hard. An atmosphere of grief hung over Lucette. She was glad that nobody noticed. She didn’t want to ruin anyone else’s mood.

kingarise 

Seeing the gesture, Lucette quickly made her way and sat down behind an empty table, looking at the plates of food before her and scooping some onto her plate.

“At least the food looks normal.” Lucette ate some rice, her eyes looking around the room in curiosity. It was beautiful place, in her opinion though its beauty was of a different kind than Valencia’s.  But everything around her reminded her of Mooshu. She wonders if all of Earth was like this.

An odd noise caught her attention and she turned her head to glance at the man called Bi-Han, arching a confused eyebrow at his odd behavior before catching sight of the flush on his cheeks and the bottle in his hand and sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. ‘Nice to know that men still act the same even here.’ Lucette silently agreed and continued to eat her food in peace.

As the din of dinner died down, Kuai Liang looked up, surveying the various recruits sitting around the halls: “Half an hour left! Then it’ll be time to clean up and prepare for lights out.”

A few grumbles; nothing out of the ordinary.

He glances at his brother, shaking his head fondly as he finished off the last bit of the drink he had given him. Big scary Bi-Han, grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, he could claim to be as hardened as he was, and in a way, he wasn’t wrong: Bi-Han was a dangerous warrior sharpened with years of experience that made him a formidable fighter. Yet undeniably he was also quite unused to handling emotions, neither hiding them away nor openly displaying them.

His brother was a confusing mess, to say the least.

A shadowy mass materializes behind the elder cryomancer, looking quite comically unamused with pure white eyes. Sometimes, he was admittedly quite curious as to what the shadow thought, being the one to deal with his older brother at all times. Not a job that he would trade for, even if he did love him to death.

Kuai turned to his own plates, gulping down the last few bites of the pork belly and hot tea -

Takuya leaned over to a fellow recruit: “Think Master Hasashi would come to visit anytime soon from the Fire Gardens?”

The girl turned, arching an eyebrow. “Wasn’t he here last week?”