We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. -Romans 6:4 (NIV) Melissa had indeed heard of both boxing and aquariums, but didn’t immediately say she had for two reasons. The first was that she was worried saying something quickly would create mundanity. It was cute to see Fen wonder at things Melissa had long since taken for granted. In fairness, it was hard not to wonder at Ambrosia’s aquarium, the only place in the entire world to have many types of fish, nothing so marvelous as Prana’s, but a place Melissa always thought fondly of even if she had never really thought to visit. How could anything dampen Fen’s excitement about that? But a proper, thoughtful response was necessary to encourage her exploration further. The second reason, though, was that, while Melissa had heard of boxing, her impression was largely a negative one. Ambrosia already used Duel Monsters as a proxy for most conflicts, and until recently, when she had discovered it was one of the very few things connecting her to home, a distasteful activity involving interacting with other human beings. To disregard that proxy and return to actual -- albeit consensual -- violence was only further down the distasteful scale than that. Melissa really did not understand it. Of course, some consideration was to be had for the fact that violence was her occupation now. And she could explain that away by expressing distaste for the concept, that Mauvache had forced her into this role and she was only trying to help people as best she could, she had just sparred with Rei and would not hesitate if given the opportunity to do so again. Was that just training for the job, or was it evidence that she needed to reexamine her view, and possibly change it? She was staring now. Gone was the possibility of a considered response, now Melissa had accidentally ventured into the realms of pauses, ranging from pregnant to awkward and everything in between. Even as she tried to play it cool, with a smile and a general, “This city is full of wonders, isn’t it, Fen?” Melissa could not help but be aware of that time. “I had quite the adventure traipsing all over the city today,” she continued. “I even ran into Natasha. You remember her, right?” Speaking of distasteful, though, was Trevor as he came stumbling through the doors of their apartment barely sober and with the appearance to show for it. It was the sort of thing that would have had an elder member of the congregation whispering, “Looks like he’s had too much communion wine,” even though that was always a weird phrase to Melissa. Father Gregory was always very exact with the size of the sip you were allowed to take from the chalice. Trevor mentioned mead, so at least he was willing to admit it. Melissa took Trevor’s words under advisement, but also followed the advice of, “If you don’t have anything nice to say…” One thing Melissa picked up on was Mauvache’s use of the word “cemetery.” Back home, such a word would imply the burial plots were not connected to a chapel -- those that were were the only ones referred to as “graveyards.” It was an interesting bit of trivia, she thought, but the few times she had mustered the will to share it, everyone invariably expressed disbelief, that she was just making it up, so she just kept it to herself this time. Whether such a designation was true or not on Prana, Melissa still felt weird about such a place used as a combat arena. There were rites involved with burial on Ambrosia, and limited space meant there were also rites for disinterment. There was no way Prana didn’t have similar ceremonies. Plus, if she was going to practice what she had learned with Rei, it meant she was, at various points tonight, going to be skipping through all the gravestones- gravecubes. There was context, obviously, but would an outside observer piece it together, or would they think she was just frolicking, and on the job, no less? Melissa didn’t have too much time to continue pondering optics; the skeleton Mauvache had warned them about made its appearance known right quick. It was bigger than she expected; Melissa instinctively wondered what sort of person would normally have a skeleton that was twice her size, but the sight of its club brought her back down to earth. Enough of the errant thoughts. They had a job to do. She balanced herself next to one of the gravecubes, apologized to its occupants for her indiscretion, and closed her eyes. Her choice to summon the ophan is rooted in the ranged nature of its attack, but the extra light and vision do not escape her notice. The ophan has eyes at every point along its wheels, and while in the past the girl may have focused on the amount she was used to, leaving the rest to a sort of background awareness, now she does her best to open her mind to the possibilities available to her. She is still conscious of the news reports provided to her, warnings of “skeletons,” with an s at the end. A plural. The light, meanwhile, has always been there, though only now does she truly appreciate it. Her vision blurs. It is still a bit too much for the girl -- another thing to practice. But perhaps it is for the best, she thinks. There is still only one that they are at all aware of, her focus would be here on the one monster trudging towards her and her companions anyway. She instructs her ophan accordingly. The ophan’s wheels spin; they align themselves perfectly to fire off an opening salvo of one, a single beam of pure light to ward off the darkness, both the concept and its skeletal, physical manifestation.

Ayyy glad to have you!   And with that, this is now an OOC! I will also create a Discord server for this RP, hopefully pretty shortly. Also, after looking at what people are choosing, I have decided not to keep to the hard limit of three native and three foreigner characters. I think I can make it work with an uneven distribution. I think I might also be able to do the same for fakemon vs non-fakemon. I will still divide you all into groups of two, however. And it looks like I'll be making my own character as well to join one of the teams lol.

I feel I'd like it more had it been a bit shorter, it sorta after a couple minutes felt a bit much but I still liked it, 7/10