This is a bit different, and I’m not sure if this is allowed. Anyway, for this section, it’s the ‘I’ll start and you continue’ thing. It’s, like, I’ll give the introduction, and you can continue posting whatever you like to continue the story. Figured out this’ll be fun. So I’ll start.
“Here’s your money. Make sure you do a good job.”
“Deal.”
Corn felt the small pouch he was holding in his hands. He was an expert at financial stuff, he could tell how much inside just by feeling it. He took one last look at his employer before he left. His friend Ralph was waiting outside.
“That was quick,” Ralph commented with a smile.
“Really?” Corn gazed at the sky. “It seemed like an eternity in there. Here,” he entrusted the pouch to Ralph. “Don’t lose it.”
“So, what’s the job?” Ralph asked, folding the pouch carefully into his pocket. He looked at Corn, who was headed towards the Item Shop. “Hey, wait up,” Ralph squeezed through the crowd, going after him.
Edit: Sorry I know it seems like I’m picking on you, but I’m not. I just haven’t been able to sleep all night because it’s uncomfotably hot here, and I’m really, REALLLLYYY bored.
We did something like this years ago, and it grew into Weiila’s Group Story, the One with all the Final Fantasy characters. Which was never appropiately finished, sadly. Let’s hope this one fares better. Anyway, since I don’t have much time for writing fics these days, I’ll help here instead (I assume the characters are original?):
“Dammit, how come you never wait up for me?” Ralph spat out, after catching up to Corn.
“Is it my fault if you’re always so slow?” Corn retorted back, without even looking at his partner. “Adventurers are supposed to ALWAYS be on their feet.”
“Oh, cut the BS, and tell me what the mission is, already.”
“Simple, actually. We must retrieve some documents lost by a courier in the Frontier. Easiest job we’ve had in ages.”
“Oh? Then how come some body more- official- wasn’t sent to handle things?”
“Not our problem. We find the papers, deliver them, collect the other half of the pay, and leave. No questions asked.”
“I have a bad feeling about this” Ralph sighed.
“If we followed YOUR feelings we’d never gotten anywhere. Anyway, here’s the shop” Corn responded, stopping at the entrance of a rustic-looking store. "Now, let ME decide what to buy. "
“Fine” Ralph snorted, “But dammit, don’t buy just supplies. We may need STRONGER weapons”.
And they stepped inside.
“Yeah, yeah, somebody’s really going to go all out to protect the stolen documents. We’d better bring a packed lunch while they decide whether or not to hand it over, just in case.” Corn retorted.
“Har, fucking, har. Look come on, just once listen to me and buy some strong weapons.” Ralph said angrily.
“Fine, fine, whatever. Don’t see why you care though, it’s not as though you fight that much, all you do is shoot arrows at people and run away.”
“I do as much as you, you sneak up behind them and run them through. Dangerous stuff. Look here, a new sword for you. Don’t you want a new sword? I mean, look at your one now, it’s practically broken in half.”
“Alright already! I’ll buy the damn sword. Now come on, let’s get what we’ll actually need.” They pay for their purchases and walk back out of the store into the crowded street.
As soon as they stepped outside a beautiful, young teenage girl suddenly bumped into them.
“Oh dear! I’m so sorry,” she said, as she stood up and ran off.
“Aw, I wonder why she’s in such a hurry?” Ralph said, picking himself up. “And she was such a beauty…hey Corn, what’s the matter?”
Corn sprang and squeezed through the crowd. “Two options. Either we dropped our money, or that girl stole it.” He said, “you go look for it in this crowd. I’m going after her.”
“What?! That’s not fair! …he’s nowhere in sight.” Ralph scratched his head and bent down. “Oh well.”
I almost forgot. For those of you who likes to write long stuff, please keep stuff short for this thread, so that it’ll be more pleasant to read. And, I really appreciate all your contributions. =)
As corn started gaining on the woman she yelled, “ Help me he’s trying to rob me.” Two police officers heard the cry and ran to help the woman. They went to corn and caught him. Then one of the officers said, “That’s Martha the high thief,” and ran at her but Martha ran as well. Ralph looked and found something that looked like a green stone as he wondered what it was, he looked around and saw corn.
Ralph ran over to where Corn was, standing by two town guards. Oh no, don’t tell me Corn has ALREADY got into trouble with the local authorities?? he sighed. Ralph took one last look at the stone in his hand -it was green, with some kind of rune-like scratches etched into it- a magic item? Or just a loose cobblestone?- and put it into his coat pocket. Then he ran to where Corn was.
“What’s going on?” he asked his blonde friend.
“The girl who robbed us is a notorious local pickpocket” Corn replied, between angrily clenched teeth.
“So, let’s go get her!”
“Wait!” one of the guards, the fatter one, warned them. “She’s already slipped into the Dark Quarter.”
“The what?” Ralph aked.
“Don’t you know? You must be new in town” the skinny guard said. “That’s the worst part of town. Nobody in his right mind goes there.”
“Not even The Guard?” Corn asked, sarcastically.
“Errr…” the fat guard mumbled.
“Look, we’re just a couple of flatfoots” the skinny guard spat out. “You’d need a whole squadron if you’re going in there. If what you lost was so precious, go to the Major and ask for help. Or go find it yourselves. Good luck in either case!” Then the two of them stormed off.
“…So, what ARE we going to do, Corn?”
Corn looked at the area for a while then motioned Ralph to follow as he moved off. “Come on, it’s probably mostly rumour anyway.”
Ralph grinned at his back and said “Then why do you have your hand on your sword hilt? Surely not afraid of some rumours are you?”
“Not at all, just…taking precautions. Just like you’re always telling me. Now come on, take out your bow, even if it isn’t rumour…well we’re good enough fighters to take 'em.”
He swung his bow off his shoulder and knocked an arrow to it. Suddenly a voice spoke out from the alley ahead.
“So you followed me here despite the warning. Big mistake, buckos.” It was the same voice as before but it’s tone had switched to a cruel, mocking one.
Ralph shot an arrow at the woman, it missed “bad shot,” she said and sent a flame at Ralph. Ralph yelled, “ Kill her I’m just leaving for a while, good bye.” Ralph ran dropping his bow. The flame hit Ralph’s trousers and burned his leg. The two guards laughed when Ralph came out “couldn’t even last that long.” They said.
“Looks like your partner ran away. Why don’t you quit too?” the girl said, still holding her magically-glowing hand up, pointed at the blond thief.
“…You’re not the girl we saw” Corn suddenly said, sounding surprisingly unconcerned.
The girl grew angrier. “Look, idiot, I’m giving you a chance to walk away with your life intact. Don’t waste it.”
“You are a magic user. You have no need of picking pockets from strangers. And you don’t even SOUND like a teenage girl” again he continued, body ready for action, but voice still oddly calm.
The brunette grimaced. Then, suddenly, her shape shifted, growing larger. In the blink of an eye, she had become a middle-aged woman!
“Fine. You figured it out. But can you figure what I’ll do now?” she said, mockingly.
“Kill me to keep your secret.”
Her eyes widened a little. “You ARE smart. Too bad. I could’ve used someone like you.”
Corn smiled. “What makes you think you can kill me?”
The woman snorted. “You saw what I did to your friend. And I was just toying with him. What makes YOU think I won’t be able to do it??”
“Him” Corn said, pointing behind her.
“Eh?” the woman said, as she sensed someone suddenly walk behind her. She tried to turn around quickly-
-but never made it.
Before she could even look, a fist slammed into her jaw, punching her so hard, she was unconscious before she even hit the ground.
“Took your sweet time, eh?” Corn snorted.
“Hey, YOU try to find the other side of an alley in a town you’ve just arrived into! If not for my Ranger skills, you probably would’ve been roasted by the time I found you” Ralph snorted back.
“Oh, never mind. The important thing is, she fell for the old ‘fleeing partner’ routine. Mages can be SO overconfident.” Corn said, shaking his head.
“Anyway” Ralph said, “Just search her for our money before she wakes up, and let’s go before any other resident of the Dark Quarter decides to show up.”
Ralph dug around inside the mages pockets, tking his sweet time, suddenly,
“what the f…”
A sharp pain ran along the length of his arm and into his spine. The pain was incredible. Ralph was only vaguely aware of the small insect crawling out of the mages pocket.
“What?” Corn inquired, looking at his friend.
Ralph hit the strret before he had a chance to answer.
“Is there a white mage in the house?” Corn yelled out, hurrying to his friends side.
A crowd gathered around the alleyway but none entered. “What if it is a trick.” They said to each other. Then corn and Ralph went out. Some cheered and a woman stepped forward. “What is the problem?” said the woman. “My friend is badly hurt, it could be poison,” said corn. “Come with me,” said the woman
Corn threw Ralph over his shoulder and started after the woman. God damn that mage. Still pretty neat trick of hers, age changing. Why’d she bother picking our pockets though? And what did she do to my friend? That’s what I want to know, he thought, as he followed her to just outside the Dark Quarter.
“Inside,” she ordered, then led them upstairs into a room which was covered in lace. “Put him on the bed, there,” she said, pointing to one, also covered in lace.
“Er…” Corn said, slightly nervous. “Is this your room?” he asked.
“Yes, is there a problem with that?” she demanded impatiently.
“No, no problem, ma’am.” But I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he wakes up in this room, he thought as he tossed him onto the bed.
“Please leave me. This will require all my concentration, and it will be easier if I’m alone,” she commanded, turning towards Ralph.
Meanwhile, in the Dark Quarter, Martha had watched the shape-shifter attack her previous victims. She hefted the coin purse absently in her hand, wondering why it had assumed her shape. What was so special about those two men that they would be specifically targeted by a mage? And what was a shape shifter doing in this territory anyways?
She walked over to the unconscious body, but kept to the shadows in case it woke up. She didn’t want get too close anyways, in case whatever happened to that man happened to her, too.
She had just finished circling the body when she notice a green stone with some runes engraved on it lying on the ground.
‘One of those guys must have dropped it,’ she thought to herself gleefully, and picked it up. ‘It must be their super-unlucky day!’
At that moment, the mage began to show signs of movement.
A huge claw suddenly appeared below her and clamped her skirt tightly.
“What the…?” Martha screamed. Corn rushed in. Black magic? He looked around. Ralph seemed safe. He rushed to a corner to take Ralph’s bow.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Martha shouted.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Corn said coldly. He slung the bow over his shoulder and dashed towards Ralph. Another giant claw suddenly appeared and charged towards Corn. Corn dodged it lightly and was about to grab Ralph when another claw suddenly appeared.
“Hmm, two against one isn’t fair,” Corn said, looking at his opponents.
“Hey, are you going to just sit around and watch a lady in distress?” Martha shouted. The claw had now clamped her whole body and was sucking out her life energy.
“If you still have the strength to scream, you still have plenty of life energy left,” Corn said, giving her the evil eye. “Besides, you’re the one who got me into all this trouble. I have a mission to do, and I can’t be bothered by the likes of you.” He dodged another attack from a claw, but the other one charged at him the moment he dodged and attacked him.
“Ugh,” Corn dropped to the ground, clutching his chest. He smiled. “This is getting interesting.”
(Yeah, he should be. Continuity error there. Be careful about things like that, folks. Let’s see if I can fix it. )
Ralph rolled back to his feet, at the same time pulling his knife out of its sheat, and, in one fluid motion, stabbed the hand grabbing Corn, causing it to let go. “Corn! Let’s get outta here!!”
“Hey, YOU are the one who insisted on running back here after the healer magically depoisoned you. You didn’t even rest!”
“Hey, I was hoping the hag would be gone by now!”
“WHO are you calling a hag??” the witch screamed, as she picked herself up from the ground. “I TRIED to give you a chance, but you rejected it. Now you’ll PAY!!” And she gestured, and more claws formed out of the ground, Then she turned to Martha. “You, girl! Give me the bag you lifted off them. NOW!!” So it’s our bag she wants? Corn thought. *But there’s just a few coins left in it… unless… *
His thoughts were interrupted as Martha screamed weakly. The things were leeching her life out. Despite his harsh words, he felt bad about abandoning someone to die, especially a beautiful girl. He looked at Ralph, and saw the same concern cross his face.
“…Aww, dammit” the brown-haired Ranger sighed. Corn responded with a wry smile and a shaking of shoulders.
Corn and Ralph assumed their usual fight ing technique, with corn hacking at anything close and Ralph shooting at anything out of corns range. But these hands were not what they were used to fighting.
“Damn, they’re just too fast.” Corn hissed, he barely dodged a hand as it tried to scratch him with it’s horrible black nails.
Ralph got a shot at the mage and took it, the arrow was blocked by one of the two hands, which disintergrated into black goo.
corn, with a yell of triumph severed the hand gripping Martha at the wrist with a quick slice of his sword. She sank to the ground, too winded to try and escape, while Corn and Ralph both turned on the Mage.
“So, who told you about our mission,” he asked, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about.
I know it seems like I’m picking on you, but I’m not. I just haven’t been able to sleep all night because it’s uncomfotably hot here, and I’m really, REALLLLYYY bored.