Fancy Pants's Story

The Chosen Few, though slightly disappointed, took a sigh of relief and sheathed, shut down, and packed their weaponry. In a sense, they had defended the Centre from total annihilation, simply by being there. And it would seem reality, or fantasy rather, had taken it's usual, if still warped, shape. From the crowd came a few cheers, whether it was directed at the Chosen Ones or Laadan was rather unclear. Adam would glance around at the crowd, then begin to grin and raise a closed fist, an expression associated with a boxer who just realized he had, in theory, won because his opponent was knocked out by a falling searchlight, before Max would elbow him, the bump amplified by his superhuman muscles.
The misfits' eyes would explore and, possibly for the first time, notice the collateral damage caused. Several buildings lie in ruins, several unnamed critters, persumably the victims of the imploding Innovatium, were hopping around, and there were some irate shopkeepers that needed some answering. In the middle of the cracked arena, the alien had now, quite literally, shrunk under the deflating feeling of Guilt.
From within one side of the street, a figure would budge through the crowd, muttering things like "''scuse me" and "pardon me" as he approached the scene.
He didn't follow the usual three-dimensional rule of a living entity. For some unknown reason, the paper stick figure was able to travel from A to B without folding over or, more accurately, blowing away in the wind. His white mohawk hair rose like a frozen tide, his entire being outlined in black, as if he was a doodle that was pulled straight out of the page, or more accurately, cut out. The stick figure was wearing nothing but a pair of orange shorts, his stick torso bare. His face was crudely drawn on the circle of his head, his eyes two shakey lines. The overall appearance looked like something a pre-schooler would draw.
He went by the name of Fancy Pants, the youngest member of the Chosen Ones, and considered the heart of the group.
"Excuse me, did I miss- oh," said Fancy Pants.
The band of heroes turned.
"'Ey, Fancy," said Adam, waving. "You missed a bloody good fight."
"Sorry," said the stick figure, who was the type of person who punctuated almost every sentence with an apology. "I should have come earlier, but it was my sister's birthday."
The Chosen Few sneered in a vacant, "typical" way. Fancy Pants was very enthusiastic when joining the group. At a younger age, he trained solely to become, at least, as great as the Chosen Ones, fighting crazed penguins and the like. Of course, he learnt a valuable lesson on the fact that, in person, your heroes aren't as great as they cracked up to be.
"Fancy," said Max, pointing an arm at the shrunken alien. "This is Laadan. In a way, he, or it, did all the "defendin' against an intruder" for us. He's the alien I was talking about."
Fancy would glance at the thing. Well, you see something new every day, and the sight he was witnessing was definitely new in his book. He wasn't sure to address Laadan, partly because he didn't know how to address the eldritch, but mainly because it looked like it wasn't in the mood.

"Please do not refer to Laadan as it," she says in response to Max, wrapped tightly in the strange cloak wings, now pulsing a soft blue reflecting the current mood. She had been called an it, treated as a beast and chained up deep down by Chuza, the superego. It was not without reason, she was once a chaotic mass of impulses once. It was only later that she became something more, an individual with her own conscience. "Laadan may not be any Rebecca Lappet but Laadan is a she."

She had completely butchered that reference somehow...

She turns slightly, looking back to the open portal that Kira escaped into. "Axe man could return to finish this... at least... Laadan would."

"Sorry, she," said Max, rolling his eyes.
"Rebecca Lappet?" said Adam. If he had eyebrows, they would scrunch up. "Never heard of her. Is she a fashion model?"
"No idea," said Fancy Pants.
"Funny thing," Jack said. "We don't watch teleffithion a lot, do we?"
"You know us," said Max. "Busy busy."
The Chosen Few would follow Laadan's gaze towards the open portal. A part of each of them wanted to go through it. But, where will it lead? Do they really want to fight that guy again? He looked pretty tough, and they never fought a dual demon before.
"Weeelll," said Adam, uncertainly. He had a nagging suspicion he was going to go where no other figment had gone before. Maybe it led to Grand Gaia, where he heard there were beings stronger than he had ever encountered. At the time, he wanted a challenge.
Now, though...
"Whaddya think, guys?" he would say, looking around at his compadres, who were getting the same feeling, and weren't as enthusiastic.
"Why not?" said Fancy Pants, shrugging. "It would be one helluvan adventure."
The Robloxian would grunt. "Maybe I could get some real action," he said.
"Yeah, why not?" said Jack. It would seem the Chosen Few had come to a decision, albeit a hesitant one.

"Laadan would have gone anyways, but... Laadan appreciates that it will not be a lone journey," she says in a low tone, nearly a soft growl before leaping over the gap and standing before the gate. She looks back then at the gap, then at the street light she ate at the beginning of the fight and proceeds to lash out her tongue, grabbing it and creating a makeshift bridge over the chasm Kira created. It was actually not normal for her to give this much thought or consideration. Then again, guilt was not something she felt normally either.

With one more glance at the damages she heads into the gate.

The Chosen Few glance at each other before stepping towards the portal.
No one had ever travelled to Grand Gaia before. It is one of those worlds that make themselves apparent. The Imagiverse is growing by the minute, so it wouldn't be surprising that it had developed a new world. Or had it already existed? Who knows.
One by one, they stepped into the portal, into the uncharted world of Grand Gaia.

Laadan soon lands softly on the other side of the portal on all six, immediately sniffing at the ground like an animal. Her antennae and tail swishing about as she lifts her head to look about the forest. She slowly rises, mouth going agape, she had not seen such woods before, in fact she had not seen a lot until just recently. Everything was new, she had almost forgotten why she was here in the first place. The breeze, the smells, the sounds... freedom felt amazing. Unable to contain it any longer she lets out a gleeful yelp.

"Laadan is pleased," she cries out, her voice echoing through the forest causing a few birds to flee. Even without a human-like face, her emotional state could easily be defined as giddy. "Maybe Laadan shouldn't be too angry at axe man... oh! Axe man, where did he go!?"

Behind Laadan, there is a slight cacaphony of thumping and cursing, which is revealed to be the Chosen Few falling over each other. They haven't mastered portal travel yet, even with their experience with everything else. It was always the collected momentum of travelling thousands of light years across the Imagiverse that always catches them off-guard.
The pile, from the bottom upwards consisting of Fancy Pants, Jack the Ducky Boy, Adam Skelecoot and, unfortunately for the formers, Max the Robloxian, stood up.
Adam scanned the forest with the look of mild disappointment. It would have been nice to teleport in a city, or anywhere near civilisation. Instead, they have been stranded in the middle of nowhere, in a world they've never been in before. As far as the eyehole can see, there was just trees, fauna and more trees.
The Chosen Few, as a whole, shared the singular feeling of one that, when expecting a holiday country to be an exciting experience, had found out that, in fact, it was too bloody hot and the food was crap.
"Right," said Max, who wasn't going to stand around all day. "Which way?"
Fancy would shrug. "I dunno. Just go one way and, if we read the edge, we go around the forest until we find somewhere to stay. If there isn't a town or something already there, course," he would add.
"Sounds good," said Adam.

'I thought I heard something out here while training!" A voiced called out as a man rushed into view of the group that had just appeared from the portal. The man had short red hair, plate armor, fire like wings and a massive sword. "You all don't seem to be around here, but I will say this right now! Friend or foe!" The man called out yet again as he shouldered his blade, ready to fight if they were hostile.

Laadan was distracted, her green eyes wide, observing a few insects climbing a tree, much of what she heard from the others was incoherent. She didn't share the sentiments of disappointment or boredom, though, to be fair, she was not the hardest to amuse. Then a voice boomed above the rest, causing her tendril-like head appendages to lift up straight. Then she heard a word, the word.

"Friiiieeeeennnnd," she says in a very strange crackly manner, standing up slowly. "Did you say... friend?"

Immediately she zips up to the new arrival, claws pressed to her cheeks, one of her smaller claws twirling one of her antennae, and eyes glistening... then again, they tend to always glisten. It was a rather different look for the dark creature. Unable to formulate a full response in her excitement a single utterance escapes her maw, "Yes."

The Chosen Few would look the new figure up and down. The warrior seemed to run by the theme of the primordial flame, much to the displeasure of Fancy Pants. The sword was a nice touch.
There would be a collective mumble that run by the theme of "friend, yeah, definitely friend".
"Ur, 'scuse me, but, ur," said Adam, taking a cautious step forward. "Could you direct us to the nearest town?"
Behind him, there was the sound of metal slapping flesh from an exasperated Max.
"Uh yeah," said Jack, ignoring Max, "we theem to be lotht."

Vargas lokked at the strange creature as she zips right up to him upon the mentioning of friend. She replied with a yes, and the group behind her also replied with a yes. Along with a question of where the nearest town was. "Well that's good to hear, welcome to Grand Gaia then! My name is Vargas, also known as one of the six heroes. If its a town you want to find then its going to be a bit of a trip, we are currently on the continent known as Agni. The land is pretty difficult to navigate for new people. I can help guide you, however be warned that there is a God near this continent. And there are also a bunch of monsters and some demons running amok in these woods. The second I see that God, I am going to deal with it!" The man now known as Vargas crossed his arms and nodded in affirmation to the group. He then turned to the east and began to walk. This way was where the town was.

Laadan follows closely and alertly, rubbing her chin ponderously, squinting her eyes. She is not stupid, not by a long shot, but by habit she wasn't big on using deep thinking either, impulse being more her cup of tea. hearing him refer to monsters and demons makes her wonder something. Actually a lot of questions start to fill her head.

"So you think Laadan is not a monster or demon, will others feel the same," she questions bobbing about impatiently. "A light and dark axe and sword man came through here obsessed with being the strongest as well, you know him? Oh! You plan to fight a god? Maybe Laadan is one? Laadan isn't exactly sure."

The group would follow behind Laadan. The sound of monsters and demons sparked their collective interest. Nevertheless, they need to settle down somewhere before they go any further.
"Is this the Grand Gaia you were talking about?" Fancy whispered to the red-bandana'd skeleton, who was vacantly examining the forest.
"Oh yeh," said Adam. "John wanted to visit it, to, you know, research it and that. Shame he didn't come, but, then again, we were cleaning up some bodies by Skele Manor."
"Come again?"
"Oh yeah, we got attacked by bounty hunters when those two girls - you remember me telling you? The warrior-musician wossname, hybrid sisters? - those two girls left for Grand Gaia."
Fancy Pants would turn his gaze forward, nodding. The main worlds of the Imagiverse had known each other for so long, nearly hundreds of years, that they got to diplomacy and so on. The idea that there was another world they never even heard about...
But then again, the Imagiverse was growing all the time. He vaguely remembered Jonathan telling him about Ideas, the blueprints of everything in the Imagiverse, that grow until they ripen into whole worlds. That was how places like Toontown and Anti-Earth came around.
Grand Gaia must be a very recent world, if they never knew it existed.
"Say," said Adam, bursting his thought bubble. "There's a God here? What sort of god is it?"

"If you were a monster or a demon you would have already attacked me on sight. As for this God situation I only know two friendly ones, if you are one then we just have to see if you are hostile but for now yes I want to fight one, it's my duty after all...and for the light and dark axe and sword man, I do believe you are talking about Kira. Yeah I know him, he challenged me once, mopped the floor with him though. I did not see him around here however." Vargas replied to Laadan.

As he continued Adam asked him what God was around these parts. "From what I hear, it's the Beast God Alfa Dilith, one of the strongest of the four fallen Gods strength wise. We may have problems with the Gods but people sure like to not work together. At this point the people going after the Gods are myself included, the five other heroes, some rumour of someone with the Goddess's help, and a bunch of other people. It's hard work to stop them since we cant actually eliminate them since we are all scattered keeping different areas safe. Speaking of safe areas, watch out we should be crossing into a lightning canyon, plenty of monsters here that live in the storm. They are not that dangerous, at least for people with some experience with fighting."

Laadan listens, being dismissed as being a monster or demon because she didn't attack. What an odd reason, yet she didn't know why. Regardless, she was given a choice in the matter, and the option of friend over foe was far more... desirable. Then the talk of gods, if she was one or not she did not care, she just wanted to know what she was, what her place was in this existence... if there was any.

"Laadan fears no god or demon," she responds confidently. "Laadan has seen what lurks inside others, endured the void, that is scary to Laadan. Love it here, though!"

At the news of the nearby god being one of the strongest, Adam would grin, revealing that his front teeth were gone, giving him a buck-toothed look. "Sweeet."
Gods were a common part of the Imagiverse. They embody, or control, certain aspects of their daily lives, like the sun rising and setting, death, life, the weather, the list goes on. They are so common, in fact, especially in the Discworld, that it had come to a point when believing in them seemed a waste of effort. It is obvious they exist, and denying their existence brings a sticky end to atheists, so gods are not so much as worshipped as acknowledged. Believing them is much like believing in the milkman.
In Grand Gaia, however, they appear to be different. Whilst the other gods in the Imagiverse aren't too bothered with mortals, gods here are savage, bloodthirsty, power-hungry beings, who seemed to have warred against the mortals for maybe centuries. The idea that a god would dislike mortals wasn't new to the Chosen Ones, as apparent in Evil Hand, the God of Fear, and Caedor, the Blood God, but the thought of a group of gods terrorising an entire world was, to put it lightly, a bit intimidating.
"Wait a minute," said Fancy, who was considering this currently. "I get that you lot are several steps below the gods in the sense of power, but, hope I don't sound stupid saying this, why do these gods want to kill you?"

As Vargas led the group through the lightning canyon, he chuckled a bit as Laadan said she fears no Gods or demons. "Many of the people here don't fear them, of course not being afraid and having the power to fight them are two different things. Of course this place is what we call home, so we all certainly love it here as well." Then as Fancy asked about why the Gods wanted to kill them in the first place. "Who knows, some say the Gods went corrupt and wanted to kill us all. Others say they just disliked humans like ants. And some even say they feared our growing potential and tried to wipe us out. In the end it was something that could have not been prevented, however people could have been more prepared for it...oh well, history is history." Vargas answered as lighting began to sound along with black clouds surrounding them overhead.

Laadan narrows her eyes and folds her arms, all of them, then scratches the side of her boney mask. She then looks down, the gateway in her chest flickering briefly, forcing her to cover it. Added to that problem, she was growing irritated hearing about these troubling gods. Petty beings they seemed to be, it made whatever could be called her blood to boil.

"Laadan thinks they are just bullies, pushing those weaker to feel better about themselves," she blurts out in a sudden outburst. "Laadan would smash their stupid faces!"

With that she grabs a nearby stone, draws a face on it with her goo then proceeds to crush it with her large hands.

"Just like that!"

The Chosen Ones would watch the alien abuse an unwitting stone. Well, the Grand Gaian Gods sound like a good challenge. Can't have them destroying their own world and that.
"Well, when we meet this God, we know which side of the coin it's on," said Max.
The sword slotted in the back of Adam's ribcage would start to glow and vibrate, as if responding to Max's acceptance of challenge. After years of use, the group became increasingly aware of the strange aura around the sword. With the large amounts of magic that it was infused with, Hope had seemed to gain a sort of vague personality, obscurely aggressive towards any being that isn't it's owner that attempt to wield it for themselves. Many a night had Adam been woken up by a flash of light, finding a stunned body next to the inexplicitly smug magic sword. The skeleton himself had grown to be wary whilst holding it, from fear of it assaulting a nearby bystander without his consent.
Adam would grip the sword by its handle as a mother would restrain an excited child. "Yeh, it would be fun," he would say offhandedly.

Vargas would actually begin to laugh hearing the group. "Well then, looks like you all will be just fine in this world! Good to see a bunch of people eager to fight an actual God, of course there is no guarantee we will encounter them. Of course if we did we might able to actually take him down, there are six of us and usually six strong warriors are all it takes to face a God on equal footing!"

As the group passed by the lighting canyon without any trouble, they would notice a large city just up ahead. "Welcome to the Agni Empire, or what's left of it at least. Not much people live here these days, but it used to be the capital of Agni of course. Not really a capital, it's much more of a big town than anything else." Vargas spoke as he pointed at the city that looked to be mostly dilapidated with only a few buildings that look maintained.

Laadan freezes up and stares at the state of disrepair of the city and her eyes widen. It almost looked like the end times had come and gone, and even for a somewhat child-like mind as hers could process that this was not how a city should look. How many people were left that left this in such poor maintenance?

"Did they do this," she asks, still covering the gateway in her chest. "The meanie demons and gods, Laadan means."

It was rather vexing to find that the hospitality they were expecting in a town was only partially there, as well as, well, the town itself. Then again, it was likely the gods, and slash or possibly the local demons, played a part in it's desolation. Nevertheless, the band had trained to live under harsh conditions, often in the comforts of their own homes.
"Right," said Max, rubbing his hands. "Which way's the pub?"
"Nah, I don't think there's a pub that's open, if you know what I mean," said Adam Skelecoot.
"Well, that would make it easier to get booze, wouldn't it?"
Adam would grunt in response to Max's logic. "Well, there might still be a pub open here anyways, that's just a must-have in any settlement."
Max would roll his eyes.

"You guessed correctly, during the war of the Gods when we the six heroes were mortally wounded. Not much people could withstand the Gods onslaught. There were other brave souls that held out so others could escape, but once we were out many people panicked. But yeah, there aren't that many humans around anymore. Really only a handful of villages and the few capitals and their surrounding lands. Maybe ten percent of humanity is left? No one has exact numbers. Oh as for the bar it's probably one of the few buildings that's kept maintained, a drink can cure the sorrow of anyone. But enough about our dark past, welcome to the city I was born in!" Vargas spoke as he led the group inside the city.

Just as he said, the city felt very empty. A handful of people wandered the streets looking at the group as they passed. Although they mostly looked at Vargas in awe seeing a hero walking around. Many buildings were seemingly abbandoned with no one to live inside them. Although Vargas knew that there weren't that many people gone from this town. There should be maybe an extra 50 or so people around, that was until he noticed a brand new poster on the wall 'Musical performance today! Come to the bar!' All in bold letters. "So there are people who still make the time to perform for others, interesting. Well since one of you wanted a drink let's head to the bar."

Laadan gains an odd feeling as she looks around, something of a self awareness kind of thing. She looked like a monster, she knew it, she had a frightening face, tentacle-like antennae, claws, and dripped violet goo. She was nothing like anyone else here as far as she could tell. She knew all this, and it felt... strange. Why no one had thrown anything at her yet with all the trouble these people have had with gods, demens, and monsters was well beyond her. That she was trusted to step into their last bastion... as rundown as it were... was something she never expected. She felt somewhat selfish to bemoan her own grief when there were people living like... this, with such uncertainty if there would even be a tomorrow. She grips her chest tightly with her large arms and wraps her cloak-like wings around herself, allowing only her smaller set of arms to be visible.

"Laadan likes music," she says perking up a little bit. There was some childlike enthusiasm to it, she had never been to any festivities, let alone a musical one. "Laadan is hungry as well."

The Chosen Ones would lighten up at the sound of entertainment. Although they didn't hold the philosophy on music's ability to convey emotions and messages, they did share the knowledge that music can unwind the spirit. Jonathan even got them into the art of playing music, essentially creating a band in their spare time, with John as the frontman, of course. It would be interesting to find out what type of music the denizens of Grand Gaia listen too. A drink would also be nice.
Adam, Max, Jack and Fancy, a set of names that don't necessarily roll off the tongue, would follow Vargas to the fallen town's home for the depressed, the curious and, of course, the alcoholic.