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Okay! Maybe they were getting somewhere. Gabby guessed that she could talk to skeletons and Kyouko had a bat and that was basically halfway to a plan already. Maybe the skeletons knew. They were monsters, after all. They were a part of this. Or maybe skeletons couldn’t talk, what, with their lack of tongues and everything. But having more to work with would be useful. But unfortunately, speaking of monsters, the bathroom suddenly became significantly more crowded as three monstrous individuals sauntered their way into the restroom. Melissa shrunk back; she instinctively knew where this was going. What she didn’t expect, though, was the exact method of approach: hip-hop, and bad hip-hop at that. Not that she was, like, a connoisseur or anything like that. A few albums had been thrust upon her growing up in a “you like Christian stuff so here’s Christian Rap” sort of way and she’d really only listened to be polite. It wasn’t for her, that was all. But now the choices were either go on a date with… what? Or rap? Neither was great. Obviously, the latter was preferable, but expecting her to come up with something on the fly like that? Now please excuse me, I’m not much of a lyricist Something you can tell if you are being empiricist was really all she had in terms of cute rhymes to use. And they weren’t really that cute. But, fortunately, while Melissa was searching for follow-up rhymes (something with clouds? Cirruses?) Jun stepped forward. Really, all you want is a date? Well, that’s a problem ‘cause you’re just a bit late See our plans for today are already spoken for But we’re a great group of gals so I can see why you’d adore Much better than anything she could come up with. Who was even making a beat, though? It didn’t matter. Jun ended with a pretty good mic drop of “You can hit them now,” too, which, while Melissa wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of violence, these were extenuating circumstances. Through Kyouko, Melissa even felt a little bit of catharsis. She actually felt better than she had been before; they could actually do this. Do what, she wasn’t really sure yet, but it was a good feeling to have. The following sensation, of being grabbed by the arm and dragged out of the restroom was less nice. She didn’t exactly fight it, but it was still a feeling of being jerked around. But Gabby was the one doing the pulling, and Melissa trusted her to do what she thought was best. As soon as they were out, though, it almost went the other way around. “Should we… try to get help?” Gabby said. Now she was trusting her. What was Melissa’s answer? “Of course!” Well, she didn’t say “of course,” or at least not like that. It was more of a “We really should.” But, like, it really was a question with only one answer. And just because she didn’t know exactly how to go about it didn’t make it any less true. She glanced around like there was supposed to be anyone else around. There wasn’t. But when her gaze returned to Gabby, her eyes were wide and staring down the hall. When Melissa followed her gaze, she saw a large drudge of skeletons. And the skeletons were coming their way. Melissa didn’t scream. Her flight-or-fight response was stuck between running away and making sure no further harm came to the girls still in the bathroom. What if the skeletons went in there after she’d done nothing to stop them? But at the same time, they were skeletons! She’d already run from Mokey Mokey, what else was she going to do here? “Hold still. I’m going to try something.” Try what? What was there to try? Kyouko was the only one with a weapon, and she was a door and a trio of thugs away. What could they possibly- “Cease your movements, lowly servants of skull! You dare approach me, Gabriela Von Draculesti, in such a manner?” With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. -1 Samuel 24:7 (NIV) It worked! The skeletons -- the Skull Servants -- were hanging on Gabby’s every word, and she ordered (using some rather ambiguous language, Melissa couldn’t help but note) them into the restroom to help with the brawl inside. Though they were seemingly safe now, Melissa didn’t let herself exhale until all the skeletons had crossed the threshold to the restroom. There were one- no, two things to do now. The first was to hug Gabby. No words necessary there, just one long and tight until she’d managed to calm down for the other thing. The other thing was thinking about what just happened. Gabby had said she could control skull servants, and she did. But wasn’t that how duel space worked anyway? If you had a strong enough will and you were dueling, couldn’t you just create a space around you that was representative of you? And even if you weren't, isn’t that what summoned the beat Jun rapped to? Hadn’t been Hitomu’s application of duel space been one of the things that had brought Gabby and her together in the first place? Is that what Souji had been going on about when it came to getting used to duel space? An idea formed in Melissa’s head. It wasn’t even a “what do we do next?” idea, but one fully-formed and, while it probably couldn’t fix everything, it at least could help make things a little safer and a whole lot nicer. “I have an idea.” Yes, she had to say it out loud, first. That was step one. “It needs some duel disks maybe, and I don’t have mine on me, uh, the first hurdle is getting those, but then the only other thing we need is a whole bunch of people. Can you help me with that?”

Princess Garden [Quick Play Spell] Target 1 Plant monster on the field with an original ATK or DEF of 2800; Special Summon 1 Plant monster from your Deck with 2800 ATK or DEF but a different Attribute. You can banish this card from your GY to target up to 2 "Princess" Plant monsters with different Attributes in your GY; Special Summon 1 and/or add 1 to your hand. You can only use each effect of "Princess Garden" once per turn. - - - - The 4 princesses are Tytannial, Talaya, Chirubime, and Marina. Since we have "Rose Bell of Revelation" in the TCG now, they have a search and Summon way of working besides Lonefire Blossom. Plus them being a Trade-In target and all. I figured it'd be fun to have them aim to be more usable together. Oh, and Aromaseraphy Jasmine can help them as well.

This has some very interesting applications like bringing out Red-Eyes and Dark Magician for that broken Fusion, or Red-Eyes and Summoned Skull.... or anime Elemental HERO monsters to make sure easy Fusions and GY setup. At first I thought the drawback said you cannot use the monsters Summoned this way for an Extra Deck Summon after the turn they are brought out, but now I think I understand it as you cannot use anything else as materials this turn except the monsters this card brings out. Makes sense to me that it'd be a very cheap Extra Deck Summon(s) but have this limitation. Making a deck that could avoid the materials being Garnets sounds like fun. You know, I used to have this Level 1 Normal Monster deck full of 2000 DEF monsters like Bunilla, D.D. Trainer, Charcoal Impachi, Flamvell Guard, and would go "Triangle Power" + "Shield & Sword" to get a bunch of 4000 to 8000 ATK beaters before dropping "Law of the Normal" to nuke the hands and field. This card could setup that play with just 1 card so if the theme ever gets recovery effects for it, this would get pretty fun. Other ways of swarming with it are Inferno Recless Summon, Ties of the Brethren, Rescue Rabbit, and League of Uniform Nomenclature.... and back then "Human Wave Tactics" xD

Chris didn’t really know what he had been expecting when Estellise’s light shone over that mysterious black patch but, yeah, the way down probably should have been near the top of his list. In fairness, his mind had been otherwise occupied by Sergei trying to tell him what to do, and not in a tactical way. “You can’t just go running off ahead,” he’d said like it wasn’t Chris’ job to run around unfamiliar places with a cautious eye. He hadn’t gotten hurt before and he wasn’t about to start now. Or more hurt than normal, anyway. Estellise had already spent time fixing the rest of the party up and while he’d managed to escape injury so far (despite being covered in blood) he wasn’t so prideful that he thought he was going to completely avoid any nicks or scrapes. Then he heard it. It was Lana who sent the call out, actually, but he could hear their noise even above her. More rats, and when he turned around he saw how many. Well, three started to feel like an “only” sort of number now. Like, if all the rats they’d seen this floor had decided to group up, then they’d have been in big trouble, but especially after they’d all recuperated a little, it didn’t seem so bad. With the rats approaching so cautiously, Lana had the right idea, Chris thought. He slowly made his way to the new front of the group and waited, weapon drawn and ready, for the inevitable charge.

Pins & Needles

Truth and Lies

Despite any initial hesitations on her comrades parts to receive her healing spells, Estellise finished her work with a contented smile on her face. But this soon dampened at Sergei's words. He had corrected himself to simply compliment her but she was not so ignorant to not know what he had initially meant. She was very kind and thoughtful for a mage. And it was a sad truth. Seldom few mages would be traveling with this group, let alone using magical energy to treat simple wounds to ensure the progress into the dungeon went smoothly. Regardless, the Fereis wouldn't let her smile fade completely as she hadn't been personally hurt by his words, just call to reflection on the way of the mage families. "Really, it is nothing all that special." Estelle assured with a laugh at Lana's awe over the healing magic. She meant for this too to play down Sergei's compliment as she felt this to be a basic standard of human decency given her abilities. "Magic can do much more incredible things than patching scrapes and lighting hallways if one has studied enough." the Fereis added without commenting how far her own study had taken her so far. But for the moment, these simple tasks were much more immediately helpful and so she turned to Chris who had returned from scouting ahead. Sergei issued a quick scolding, eliminating the need for Estelle to do so as well. The woman stepped forward, magic already glowing from her hands again, to help the group identify whatever it was Chris had found. "Be careful not to look directly at these, given how our eyes are adapting to the dark." she offered as a gentle warning. From her hands sprang forth four orbs of light, smaller than the ones she had sent off to light the long hallways before. With a wave of her hands, one orb drifted slowly to each member of the group, finding a spot at about eye level but behind their left shoulder to help light the way forward. They would keep to this position were not snappy in their movements, lazily drifting after the intended member, hence the warning to not look directly into them. "Now then, Chris. Let us go investigate the thing you have found." she declared with some confidence.