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Post by Valentus on Oct 22, 2021 10:30:41 GMT -8
Hundreds of temples dot the Westlands, only a few of them still operating to this day. The people of this region, faced with the incomprehensible, mystical nature of their world - demons, shapeshifters, witches and mysterious ki masters alike - turned to reverence, worshipping those mystical figures they experienced and whose help they sought to protect themselves from danger in the following centuries. After all, it is here, in the West, that you can supposedly find a tower stretching farther to the sky than the eyes can see, so tall that any plane flying up will never reach the top, where the god of gods lives. Over time, many of the smaller temples have dilapidated, abandoned by their worshippers over time, either due to some catastrophe, or because they simply moved on to different mythical entities for their worship. Not only was this a source of worry for the priests and pilgrims of the Westlands, it was also problematic to scholars in Earth's greatest universities - after all, these ancient temples were not merely a place of worship, but also a marvel of anthropological study. There is no greater find for an aspiring historian than to find such a working temple, where artifacts from hundreds of years past are preserved and can be studied in peace. As such, a group, or perhaps an organization formed, calling themselves the Temple Hunters, whose mission is to bring life back to these forgotten temples, bring artifacts and relics which belonged to them back to their rightful place. Reconstruction works were currently taking place in a small temple which was attended to by a handful of isolated villages, dedicated to a rather... odd choice of mythology. The so-called Great Rabbit, a fickle and intimidating creature whose mere touch could turn unbelievers into rabbits, once banished to the Moon, yet overseeing Earth and meddling with its affairs to this day. To appease this creature, those villages grew nothing but carrots, and imported everything else. While this reconstruction was taking place, important relics of the temple were lost, so a knight and his fairy helper were now trekking along the hills, on their way to acquire them. " ...wait, but if it's not a giant carrot, but just a normal sized carrot, then where does the rest of the mass go?" Valentus asked as he walked along a rubble road. Paizu flashed jazz hands and replied: " Magiiiic!" " But... that... that's not how magic works! It has rules, still..." " Well, you know, all these gods and godettes work in mysterious ways." Hearing Paizu's reply and seeing her shrug, Valentus sighed himself. He had never really felt a need for the spiritual, and while he wasn't going to discard the stories about this so-called "Great Rabbit", he also wondered if this supposed magic carrot transformation was exaggerated by those who bore witness to it hundreds of years ago. Maybe it was merely an illusion of a carrot, or they did not turn into ordinary carrots after all... Regardless, Valentus was not going to say no to someone's request for help. Not to mention, he wasn't going on this journey all on his own accord. In this case, he was also working under the Wine Clan - and as Valentus still remembered very well how his spar (or, attempt at a spar) with miss Chardonnay went, he felt he had some immaterial debt to pay off to the Baroness. (565 words, 565/8000) Chardonnay Echo
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Post by Echo on Nov 6, 2021 15:59:42 GMT -8
After training at the dojo, Baroness Chardonnay offered Echo a ride on her snowy Kinto-un to return to Truffle Village, where his brother was recovering since their battle in the North with the help of Baron Merlot and the rest of the Bossa Nova samurai. The cloud was made larger to accommodate both preadolescent nobles, leaving a trail of snow, which melted once the flakes landed on the warm grass under the sun. This particular cloud carried only the strong at heart, unlike other flying nimbus clouds, specifically people who suffered but maintained a solid foundation to continue living.
In the horizon was a field of carrots, it seemed they were all surrounding a temple of sorts, with a rabbit statue that was being repaired by pilgrims, among the various western style dressed people, a familiar redhead stood out clad in northern land style armor.
“Is that not your new friend, Baroness?” Echo wondered with curious violet eyes, their last encounter was rushed after being surrounded by mutated demonic namekians, and she mentioned that she knew him but did not reveal anything else. After growing up as children under Samba Bossa Nova, it was rare to have friends outside of their alliance, apart from their retainers, and he had no interest in being involved with anyone else as much as Chardonnay had been.
As the nimbus drew near, Echo leaped from the cloud, landing nearby avoiding the carrot field, and walked around in his woven zori sandals to observe the area, noticing the usagi statue.
“This place was once a field of overgrown weeds for a while. What is the reason for this change? With Bandits, Demons, and the Namekian horde invading the Westernland territories it is unsafe to be without the protection of the Pig Demon Duchies.” The Samurai in training directed to the pilgrims who were setting carrot flowers near the statue.
Dressed in the kamon of Bossa Nova patterned over his haori, several of the natives recognized him as the heir to a powerful clan of samurai, when they looked over to the snowing nimbus the Baroness was identified by the Wine clan kamon carved into a red jade piece hanging from her obi. The pilgrims' heads bowed in acknowledgement of the nobles, Echo bowed in return, and waited patiently for an answer from the humbly dressed pilgrims.
[390] [955/8,000]
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Post by Chardonnay on Nov 8, 2021 2:13:30 GMT -8
Few days have passed since her spar with Valentus, Chardonnay was up, early in the morning, tending the grape vines, pruning overgrown and dead branches to give way for the newly sprouting buds and younger stems, when a group of villagers approached her to ask for some favor, particularly in restoring relics and artifacts to a small abandoned temple a few kilometers away from the Grape Vine Village. As a baroness, she understood the responsibility of taking care of her own community, extending help whenever possible, no matter how simple or complex the problem was. However, it was not necessarily a good time as she was preoccupied with the affairs of their family’s business, and after that, planned to accompany Echo to visit their brothers in Truffle Village. Thankfully, she was able to get the help of her new friend, Valentus, who was still around the Western Lands and occasionally visits her after her unfortunate defeat in their friendly duel. Few hours have passed since she was already in the company of the Bossa Nova heir, riding on the Kinto-un cloud, which was gifted by Echo himself, as they made their way to Truffle Village. Chardonnay was humming to an old folk song as she enjoyed the view of the green landscape, dotted with temple ruins, small and grandiose alike. The lord called her attention, noticing a familiar face as they hovered over the fields. “Yes, Lord Echo. I asked Mr. Valentus to help the Temple Hunters who came by the vineyard earlier. Since I was busy tending the plants this morning, and had planned the visit to Truffle Village with you, I felt I didn’t have the time to come to their aid personally. But I felt bad turning them down so... “ the baroness actually found it embarrassing to have the wanderer respond to the villager’s request in her stead, but it couldn’t be helped at the time. While it seemed that the redhead tuffle was eager to do this mission, she also didn’t want to abuse his kindness. The strawberry blonde hopped off the cloud first, stating his observations of the surroundings as he recalled it had not been grown with vegetation for a while. The baroness tilted her head, as someone who was familiar with growing crops, she realized it had only been a month since the landscape was overgrown with weeds. It would take two to four months for the carrots to mature, and found the sudden growth of the said crop a strange phenomenon. Was it a result of some advanced technology? The little girl wondered, however, she left the explanation to the pilgrims as she herself was curious with the sudden change. Chardonnay bowed along with Echo, in response to the respect offered by the pilgrims to the noble. While both of them waited patiently for an answer, the baronnes realized Valentus was also drawing near, and she turned around and waved at the tuffle and his fairy. [499] [1454/8000] Starting PL: 9,055 Valentus Echo
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Post by Valentus on Nov 12, 2021 7:15:12 GMT -8
The temple of the Great Rabbit was by no means massive nor illustrious compared to some of the greatest temples scattered across the surface of Earth. The size of a large house and looking somewhat like the top of a massive carrot ready to be pulled out of the ground and harvested, it was nevertheless easy to notice from a distance, especially thanks to the flatlands surrounding it and its spire extending almost twenty meters to the sky. Smoke was coming from the top, a small streak of incense and crushed carrot burned by the pilgrims not too long ago for good favor from the gods above. There were only a handful of pilgrims around the temple - six were working on restoring the temple in total. Two were tending to the fields and planting flowers of carrots near the entrance to the temple, two others were using a combination of scythes and basic ki abilities to clear out remaining weeds in the fields surrounding the building, two others were inside, sweeping the temple out of dust and decorating the humble insides. Upon seeing two high ranking nobles of the Pig Demon Duchies descend from the sky and greet them, the pilgrims drew attention to them and bowed in respect. " It is an honor to have you here," one of the pilgrims stated after his bow and Echo's introduction - while he did not recognize the faces of the two arrivals, the clothes, insignia and respectful aura revealed immediately that they were noble. The pilgrim rested his rake on the side of the nearby temple wall. " You are correct, until not too long ago this temple had been abandoned - even though it is a holy place to the Great Rabbit and his kin, bandits and wars between the Duchies disrupted our traditional pilgrimage." The pilgrim waved towards the temple with his hand. " But, recently, a young boy helped us drive out a gang of bandits who resided in this temple, and now, with the aid of the Temple Hunters, we will be trying to bring this holy place back to life. There is still a lot of work to be done, and we still need to gather all of the temple's artifacts which have been lost, but it is a start." Just in time, making his way through a path leading across the nearby woods, the armored Tuffle and his fairy left the shade of the trees, strolling towards the temple. Already, from a distance, he could tell that the temple was visited by someone familiar - or, rather, Paizu could tell, having flown forward, witnessed the two nobles from the Pig Demon Duchies standing before the temple, and returned back to her partner, yelling: " Val! Val! Val! Char is there!" " Huh?" the Tuffle called out and hastened his pace. As soon as he advanced past the outer carrot fields, making sure to not mess up the handiwork or step on any flowers, and hopped over the fence, he waved towards the duo and yelled: " Miss Chardonnay!" As soon as he arrived, the Tuffle stopped and briefly bowed. " And Mister Echo, long time no see! What brought you two here?" As always, he was smiling brightly - while Paizu, on the other hand, skipped any of the politeness and the introductions and sat down on Char's head. (557 words, 2011/8000)
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Post by Zukkah on Sept 24, 2022 16:47:35 GMT -8
"Would you hurry the hell up, Lottus! We don’t have all day, we need to get these relics and get out of here before anyone shows up!" The shirtless saiyan shouted at his comrade from the doorway. The two saiyans were inside a Temple in the Westerlands in search of anything of value that they could potentially sell for extra Zeni, or to use for the bar back in Little Vegeta. Lottus stopped rummaging through the room when he found a shiny object. He pulled it close to examine it with his eyes wide and a smile on his face. "Hey, boss, I think I found something really good!" He shouted loudly across the room.
Zukkah had his arms crossed against his chest and a slight smirk forming across his lips. The saiyan turned to look over his shoulder when he heard his comrade speak. It was then that the warrior saw the glimmer from the object and smiled wide, before turning to head into the room once more. As he pulled the object out from Lottus’ hand, he examined it for a short time before handing it back to the saiyan. "Very good, Lottus. Put it in your bag and let's move on to the next room. The faster we get through this Temple, the faster we get paid, understood?" He spoke in a firm tone and his fellow comrade nodded in agreement with what Zukk had said.
The pair of saiyans made their way to the next room of the temple, where they would find a coffin that was surrounded by piles of golden coins and several other objects that could be worth a fortune if sold to the right person. Lucky enough for Zukkah, he knew exactly the right people to talk with about the objects they will retrieve from the temple. The two saiyans looked at one another at the exact same time, then turned their heads back to the gold, and smiled wide at what they were looking at. "Fill your pockets and the bags!" He called out to the saiyan, before running forward and throwing handfuls of the coins into the bag that was strapped around his shoulder and neck.
As the saiyans continued to fill their bags with the coins from the many piles in the room, Zukkah could sense others nearby the temple which caused the saiyan to stop what he was doing and look behind him in concern. "I am not sure who is coming, but we need to hurry up." He said as he glanced back over at his comrade, Lottus. "Looks like we have no choice in the matter." He added, while finally filling the bag with whatever he could. When he stood to his feet, Lottus struggled because of the weight of the bag itself. "Wow, this crap is heavy. I am going to have trouble flying back home with all this." He admitted with a small laugh.
490/2,501 of 8,000
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Post by Sanare on Sept 25, 2022 6:36:45 GMT -8
Sanare took a sip from her flask, trying to cool her body from the heat of the sun. She traveled to this land at the request of Master Avis, who wanted her to help restore some lost artifacts that belong to temples dotting the land. It felt like she was an archeology explorer, seeking lost and hidden treasures.
Her biggest obstacle was that she had no idea where to begin. Her best guess was to travel to one of the temples and see if they had any information about the missing artifacts. If each village she came across, which was not very many to be honest out here and these regions, she would ask for the nearest Temple and that had reports of missing artifacts.
And this is how she ended up standing in front of a Carrot top house, which she could only assume was a temple to some sort of rabbit deity. The idea did not seem ludicrous to her, while it was true that in her home City not many people were religious or devoted to gods, I didn't mean they couldn't exist. She'd never met one so she had no reason to believe in them, but most people didn't shoot energy beams out of their hands either, or even know that it was possible. So she considered herself less of a skeptic and more of a wanderer.
She traveled with very little, the obvious ration of food and drink. Her weapon, the guardian staff, and her training uniform. It was simplistic in nature with just a symbol in the back designating the school for master Avis. She didn't wear it out of some loyalty to her Masters, though she was loyal to him, but mostly she worked because it was comfortable.
I need to get a vehicle if I'm going to be traveling around like this, she said to herself as she made her way down into the carrot farms surrounding the Temple.
There's a wealthy looking woman there, she looked like she was a noble of some sort and she was talking with a group of people. She must be in charge, so Sanare made her way up to her and said, "Excuse me, I'm here to see if there are any missing artifacts in this Temple that I could help retrieve. Would you happen to know about that?
wc - 396/2,897 of 8,000
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Post by Echo on Oct 10, 2022 2:13:12 GMT -8
The explanation was that there were hidden relics that needed to be recovered, in order to restore the sacred temple to its former glory, Echo nodded his head as he was given the specifics. In the distance the red haired knight greeted the samurai but was then taken up by Chardonnay being friendly to him and some fairy hovering about. The pair were immediately distracted by conversation leaving the blonde strawberry hair boy out of the loop.
It was rude to be ignored without explanation, let alone shut out of a conversation, especially since he held a noble rank in the western lands.
To his surprise a female voice spoke up towards Chardonnay’s direction, at no point did he detect someone else’s ki approach the area, and he figured they were suppressing their power level.
“The Baroness is occupied at present after reuniting with a friend.” Echo explained to Sanare, “The entrance to the Temple is this way and it leads to an underground passage. I understand this job requires quite a few people, which is how you must have learned of it. I am Lord Echo. Who are you?”
Unknown to everyone present the temple was in the midst of being raided by a couple of saiyans who were robbing it rather than retrieving the items for the pilgrims.
[219] [3,116/8,000]
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