Re: ~Crossover Chronicles (Thread 5)~

[Swallowfeather]

Normally, Marie would have instantly corrected Mintpaw's scent-based assumption of her species, but considering the situation, she didn't bother. Now wasn't the time to explain. "Yeah, that would be great," she responded to the the cat's suggestion of finding somewhere with a less unforgiving climate, as well as a drink of water, with a sort of sighing half-laugh. Actually, this "half-laugh" was so slight that it may, in truth, be more accurately described as a "quarter-laugh". Perhaps even less. Raising a gloved hand, which appeared so brightly white under the intense sunlight that it was almost blinding, she began to fan herself in an attempt to cool off. "I'm not sure what's dryer; this desert, or my throat..."

Cookie, like many of the others, paused and turned around to see what was going on. "Awwww!" Feeling a splash of pity upon seeing the condition of their newest companion. "Poor thing...!" she exclaimed, strolling back towards her. "It's OK," she reassured the weary creature, "we'll find you something to drink! Somewhere nice and shady to sit down, too...!" Looking back over her shoulder, she called to the others. "Hey, does anyone have anything she could sip for now??"

----------

"EEEEEEK!"
Suddenly, as anyone could potentially expect by now, an old woman rushed to the window, shrieking, and snatched the pie out of the hungry creature's hands. Quickly, she sat the pie down on a table inside the house and grabbed a nearby wooden spoon. "IMP!" she screeched at her frantically, leaning slightly out of the window and trying to strike her multiple times with the spoon in her hand. "Get out of here! Scurry back to your... cave! Or the woods! Wherever it is, just go! GO!"

[Stealthy]

Link found the Lon Lon milk Torsolus had offered to Mintpaw earlier. Torsolus took it and offered it to Marie. "Sorry it's not water, but if I remember correctly...I think it has healing properties?"

"When you're done drinking that...if you can, hehe...." He added, "We never did catch your name, I don't think. Can you tell us about yourself and where you came from?"

[Mistystar]

Pit once again gazed in Marie's direction when he heard Mintpaw's request. He noted that she was rather small, then thought back to some of the large weapons he had managed to wield in the past for comparison. How hard could it be?
Nodding to the medicine cat, Pit made his way back to Marie's side. "Hang in there... We've gotta find something soon!" he told the squid creature with a sympathetic tone. Then, just before he was about to try lifting her up, he paused and simply observed when Torsolus offered Link's bottle of Lon Lon milk to her.

-------

The dark-tentacled squid creature squeaked with surprise and jumped back when the old woman appeared, snatching the pie right from her hands. "Heyyy...!" she whined. At that moment, she saw the old woman's wooden spoon suddenly coming towards her and gasped, causing her to pull away even more. "OK, OK...! I surrender!" she cried as she began to scramble away, too frightened even to stay and explain herself.
This time, the creature really did decide to abandon the village, rapidly heading into a small patch of trees on the outskirts.

[Tornadostorm]

Mintpaw smiled in a flash of pride when she smelled the LonLon milk passed to the Inkling "Yes...Thank you, er.. Torsolus... That'll do for now!! But I really don't want her wasting anymore energy..." She glanced back in Marie's general direction, but her gaze seemed to be directed to her weapon, which happened to hold a much more concentrated scent

Flint looked Marie up and down, an annoyed expression on his face He seemed to be considering, judging. Then in a soft blink, and a equally soft huff, his decision was made. He wouldn't be the one to help Marie. At least, not with out allot of coaxing. And considering that there were several more stronger, more willing members of the group, it most likely wasn't worth it to pressure him. At the moment he just stood, leaning on one foot, almost unoticeably tapping the other as he waited... Patiently for his standards, rather impatiently for normal standards.. As they figured out what to do with the unwell Inkling

[Swallowfeather]

Marie stared up at Pit for a moment before turning her attention to Torsolus. Her eyes opened a little wider when she saw the bottle that he was currently offering to her. "Ahh...! Thanks... Torsolus," she hastily thanked him- pausing for a moment to be sure she remembered his name- as she quickly took the bottle. Sheesh, that's a mouthful... Gotta come up with a nickname sometime, she thought to herself, uncorking the bottle, then brought it to her mouth to drink. It wasn't quite like water, to be sure, but it hardly mattered at this point. Just the feeling of having any sort of liquid at all run down her parched throat was an incredible relief. Of course, this particular beverage's healing properties helped, too. As she took several gulps, her eyes fell peacefully closed, and she let out a soft, pleased humming sound. "Mmmmmmm..."
Once her thirst had been quenched enough, Marie re-corked the bottle, leaving some milk inside for later use. Now feeling quite a lot better, her posture didn't droop as much, and her eyes opened wide enough to see clearly again. "That felt soooo good," she remarked contentedly, handing the bottle back to Torsolus. "Anyway," she began, responding to his question, "you already kinda know me, of course, from the night you guys found me, but..." She looked around at the others who weren't part of the small group that discovered her the night before, stepping forward a bit. "My name's Marie. I'm an Inkling... Uh, in other words, a squid," she explained to them in an almost awkward manner, finding now of all times to be a somewhat odd time for introductions. "I'll have to tell you more some other time, since y'know... we're kind of on the move right now," she pointed out with a shrug, "but... Nice to meet ya." She briefly bowed to those she had just addressed, then stared up at Pit again, resting her weapon on her shoulder. "Welllllllll...?"

----------

Meanwhile, somewhere in the small forest the other Inkling had entered, an 11-year-old girl with light brown hair was wandering around, observing her surroundings. Not too long ago, she suddenly found herself in this completely unfamiliar place, and wasn't entirely sure what had happened. Still, she appeared to remain rather calm, especially for someone so young.
Walking by the girl's side was a small, pink creature of some kind. She appeared slightly nervous, but at the same time, kind of curious about her surroundings.

Eventually, the girl chose to sit down on a fallen log, patting the spot beside her and offering the spot to her small companion creature. Reaching into her yellow bag, she pulled out a sandwich and began to eat lunch, but not before breaking off a piece and offering it to her pink friend.
The pink creature happily climbed up onto the log and accepted the piece of sandwich offered by her human companion.
Despite their situation, the two seemed to be having a relatively pleasant time.

[Stealthy]

"Marie! Inkling......" Torsolus responded, snapping his fingers. Then he lit up. "OOOOOH!!! YOURE FROM--YOU--I REMEMBER! I'VE BEEN THERE! AWWW what a GREAT PLACE! So many colors and--OHH! You're on the news! HAHA YOU AND CALLIE!" He did a floppy hand gesture. "STAY FRESH! Remember?? Hahaha...ha....."

Suddenly he whacked himself on the head. "Oh SHOOT! I about forgot myself! Look....so glad you're feeling better! But this desert's fairly big and I don't know how long you can go in this dry heat by yourself. If you need carrying again, I could, uhh...like, if you need it..."

[Swallowfeather]

"Oh...! Nice to meetcha, Marie!" Cookie responded to Marie's introduction, waving a bit. "I'm Cookie. I thought you looked kinda squidlike...!"

Suddenly, Marie whirled to look over at Torsolus when he began speaking again. As she listened to him go on to talk about the world she called home, even going so far as to mentioning her cousin, Callie, and the news program they hosted, her face lit up like the blazing sun above in absolute surprise and glee. Her golden eyes shimmered and grew wider than anyone in the group could have expected from her, and she beamed a sharp-fanged smile of almost-equally-surprising size. "NO WAAAAAAY...!!" she cried at an almost-unexpected volume. "You know us?? You've been to Inkopolis?!" she gurgled in excited disbelief. This was probably by far the most energy the group had seen coming from her so far. Is he for real?! How in the world did he end up on our turf?! she wondered to herself. However, she was snapped out of her thoughts when he continued to speak. As the topic of her home world vanished, she looked vaguely sad, even homesick, but went on to respond almost as if nothing ever happened. "Oh, uh... OK," she replied with a nod of acknowledgement. "I'd totally appreciate that; thanks. But for now... I'm gonna try something."
Marie stepped off to the side somewhat, holding up her weapon. "YOU'VE probably got an idea of what I'm about to do," she began, glancing at Torsolus with a lopsided smile before returning to staring ahead, "but the rest of you... Don't freak out. I got this." She pointed the weapon at a slightly upward angle, then there was a pause...
*GOOSH!*
Suddenly, with incredible force, a stream of bright lime green ink shot forth, traveling an impressive distance, and painted a long, straight trail along the ground.

Robin looked at Torsolus with a bit of a surprised expression, himself. "You've been to her homeland...?" he questioned. However, it seemed the questions would have to wait for now. He reeled back a little from the sudden torrent of ink that was produced when Marie fired her weapon, eyes somewhat wide. "WHA-...!" He cringed slightly as a few small droplets came splashing and managed to find their way right onto his robes.

[Stealthy]

Torsolus gave a brief sigh of relief at her response to his fanning over her. Hoorayyyy, she's not totally sick of her fanssss!

Then he quietly lost his mind when she sadly gave permission to carry her. He struggled to remain empathetic.

Then squealed in unbridled glee when she created her pristine lime green ink trail.

"YEEEEEEEEEEZZZSSSSSSS!!!! AWWWW your ink is JUST AS PRETTY AND CLEAN AS I REMEMBER IT! You have NOT lost your touch!! EHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

He began to hyperventilate.

"SO LONG SINCE I SAW PEOPLE I KNEW AT ALL. HOOOOO GOLLY. I sure as muffins can't figure out how I didn't recognize you til JUST NOW! I knew you looked familiar and all but, man, it MUST'VE been awhile!" He ran to the ink trail and dipped his hands in it, covering his palms in green ink, ready to do some unpolished impromptu hand painting.


Link bent down and curiously examined the ink. He sought to know its physical and magical properties. He basically ignored Torsolus.

[Tornadostorm]

Mintpaw was completely confused by the sudden burst of ink. Luckily she was, at least for the most part, out of the way of any flying ink, but she was totally bewildered as to how to interpret the sounds, and smells she took in. Because of all this, the fur on her spine stood on end, and she arched her back, backing towards the nearest person, who happened to be Cookie, and almost bumping into her in her attempt to get away from the confusion... She let out a murrow that was mostly fear, but had a hint of a more 'angry' sound she was using for defense.

She was even more confused when Torsolus walked over and dipped his hands in it, as she smelled their scents mixing. "Wha..Whaattt..." Was all her soft frightened voice could muster.

Flint was right in the line of fire when Marie shot the ink, but he quickly flew backwards before he was completely covered. And what few droplets he got on himself he rubbed out with an annoyed grunt. Leaving only a few faintly green marks on his cheek, right arm, and chest. "Good aim." he growled.

[Mistystar]

"Marie... It's a pleasure to meet you, too," Lucina responded with a slight nod of her head, a welcoming expression on her face. "My name is Lucina."
She was then surprised to learn, as she listened to the following conversation, that Torsolus knew the Inkling to some extent, having apparently been to her home word. Just as she was becoming slightly lost in thought trying to imagine this other world, she saw a long stream of bright green ink suddenly whizzing right past, causing her to leap back a little in surprise.

Pit cheerily bobbed his head in greeting to the Inkling as well. "Hey, Marie! I'm Pit," he introduced himself with a grin. Funny... I kinda feel like I've seen her somewhere, he noted to himself, looking at her with an almost puzzled expression for a moment. This expression soon changed to one of surprise, however, when Torsolus spoke of visiting the Inkling's home world. "You're squidding!" he piped up, then quickly fell silent again to let his companions keep talking.

[Swallowfeather]

Though Cookie just had to laugh, rather delighted when she heard Pit's pun, she, too, was quite surprised at what Torsolus was saying.
Suddenly, though, she turned her head to see a great stream of vividly-colored ink flying across the sky, landing on the ground in a rather perfectly straight line. "WHOA! What's that?! Paint?!" she questioned in astonishment. "It's so colorfulllll!" She then, much like Torsolus and Link, rushed to investigate the ink. Carefully, she ran her fingertip across the large puddle's surface, collecting a bit of the substance on her finger, then examined it in fascination.

"Nice reflexes," Marie simply retorted to Flint with a smirk before turning her attention back to Torsolus. Hearing him excitedly gush like this gave her a sort of warm, fuzzy feeling; in a way, it reminded her of home. "Heh, I really never would have guessed you were a fan," she remarked, grinning, before looking in Cookie's direction this time. "It's ink, actually," she explained to the young human. "I AM a squid, after all. And speaking of..." She took a slight step back, looking around at the others again. "I'd better get out of this dry air before I shrivel up or whatever. Here goes!" After momentarily, once again, giving Torsolus a glance first, she charged and leaped towards the beginning of the ink trail. Then, in mid-air, she suddenly transformed into her squid form, landing into the ink with a small "sploosh" sound. She swam a small distance through the ink, poking her head up in front of the three who had gathered by the lime green trail. "Ah, that's better," she commented, still fully capable of speech in this form. "It'll be a breeze keeping up with you guys like this, too."

Cookie gasped when she witnessed Marie's transformation, squealing slightly when the little, big-eyed, brightly-colored creature came and popped up in the ink in front of her. "EeeeeeEEEEEE!! So cute!!" she remarked, resisting every urge to reach out and pat the top of her slimy head.

Robin watched in fascination when Marie assumed squid form. She's a shape-shifter...! I wonder if her entire race has this ability? he wondered to himself. He had encountered members of shape-shifting races before, back in his homeworld, and this creature vaguely reminded him of them. I'll definitely have to ask her more about her kind sometime, if she's willing to talk about it.

[Tornadostorm]

Flint scoffed. Giving his wings a gentle flap. But then he saw her turn into her squid form "W..Wow... Hmmph. How are you going to keep up with us if that's all the ink you have?" he reminded with a growl, pointing at the trail..

Mintpaw was still confused and maintained her posture, fur on her back standing on end and tail fluffed. Ears pinned. Even with the calm conversation around her, her heart was still thumping with adrenaline enough to keep her from calming down for the most part.

[Stealthy]

"OH! Wonderful!!" Torsolus clapped his hands together. "I'll try not to smear it too thin or anything.....do you have enough to last you, though? It'll be a long adventure, heheh......"

Link was startled by her transformation, and examined her closely once more. She seemed content enough; by no means a baleful polymorph.

[Mistystar]

"Wowww... COOL!" Pit remarked, his gaze following the stream of ink as it flew into the air, then landed neatly on the ground. He was similarly amazed when he saw Marie suddenly transform into a squid a few moments later, bounding over to join Torsolus, Cookie, and Link to get a better look.

Oh, my... That's quite amazing...! Lucina commented internally, similarly reminded of the shape-shifters from her and Robin's home world when she saw this transformation.

-------

Now in the forest away from the village, the hungry Inkling paused to take a few deep breaths, as well as get a good look at her surroundings. Looks like there's nothing here... Phew... The area appeared to be quiet and calm, but before she could even begin to relax, some movement in the distance caught her attention. Ah! Guess not! ... Gotta hide... Glancing to her side in search of the nearest place to take cover, she spotted a rather large bush and hastily dove in.
Slowly peering out from within its leafy branches, her big, golden eyes widened when two individuals- a young human girl, followed by a small, pink creature of some kind- passed right by her hiding spot. Uh-oh... Looks like they're settling down here... she noted uneasily as she watched the two of them take a seat on a fallen log. Nervously, she slipped a little deeper into the bush in hopes of not being spotted, though she continued to keep her gaze focused on the unfamiliar individuals.
Of course, what she saw next caused her to perk up somewhat despite her current, timid state- the human pulling a sandwich out of her bag. They must've come here to eat! ... I wonder if they'd be willing to share some of that sandwich... Catching the food's scent as it was carried over to her by a small breeze, she felt her stomach rumbling. Unable to simply stay where she was with the smell of the sandwich constantly tempting her, she cautiously moved forward somewhat, though still stayed within the bush. Perhaps if her encounters with the people back in the village had been more pleasant, she would have been braver in approaching this young human now- but unfortunately, as the encounters had been her first-ever experience with real humans, she found herself feeling rather frightened by them.

[Swallowfeather]

Marie couldn't help giggling at Cookie's reaction to her current form. "Ha, you think that's all I got...?" she laughed in response to Flint. "Like I just told Cookie, there, I AM a squid. I can generate, like, endless amounts of this stuff. All Inklings can," she explained in a quite unworried tone. "Well, actually, I guess if I got crazy-dehydrated, I might have a hard time making more ink, but... yep. Right now, I'm good," she told Torsulus reassuringly. "If I get thirsty again, there's always that milk stuff. And by the time THAT runs out, if we still haven't found anything else to drink... I'm sorry, but there's something wrong with that picture."

----------

As the young girl was contentedly nibbling on her sandwich, she happened to glance up and see a pair of peculiar, golden eyes staring out at her and her little companion from one of the nearby bushes. Letting out a brief, soft gasp, she paused eating and stared back at whoever or whatever was watching them.
"Fairy!" The small, pink creature gave a small cry of surprise upon seeing the eyes, quickly jumping down from the log, just in case she needed to spring into action.

[Mistystar]

"Eeep..." The Inkling let out a quiet, nervous squeak when the girl turned to look directly at her. Pretty sure she sees me... she thought, teeth clenching together anxiously. As wary as she felt, she wasn't sure when she'd find another chance at a meal after this, so she decided to try a cautious approach.
Gathering up some courage, she suddenly popped her head out of the bush, continuing to gaze at the nearby human. "... H-hi," she greeted timidly, bracing herself as she anticipated her reaction.

[Swallowfeather]

"Hm...?" The human girl appeared to relax a little, growing more curious than uneasy. She seemed somewhat surprised when the squidlike being apparently spoke to her. In an attempt to figure out what exactly this creature was, she pulled out a small gadget. Unfortunately, it proved to be of no help in this case, as it simply returned a sort of error message upon attempting to scan this particular creature. "... Hmm..."
Putting the gadget back into her bag, the girl returned to observing. She wondered if the peculiar creature, which seemed rather timid, from what she could tell, had some reason to be approaching her like this.

The girl's little, pink companion, too, relaxed a little, and hopped back up onto the log, sitting beside the human as she had just been doing before. "Cleff...?" she murmured, with a somewhat puzzled expression on her face.

[Tornadostorm]

Flint sighed, then impatiently commented "Ok, can we go now?" He swished his tail irritated as he scoured the group for their reactions. 

Mintpaw finally calmed down enough to pull her fur flat and take a deep breath. "Er... Ya... Sure." She pinned her ears. Still uncomfortably unaware of Marie's location

(small reply is small reply)

[Mistystar]

"Hm... I imagine we could," Lucina responded to Flint's question, waiting to hear what the others thought.

-------

The Inkling stared with a sort of wary curiosity as the girl appeared to use a small gadget of some kind, then put it away a moment after. What was that...? she briefly wondered, before shrugging the thought off for now. Ah, well; maybe I'll find out later... Anyway... Looks like things might be going OK so far! Now somewhat hopeful, she fully emerged from her hiding spot. "... Um... S-sorry if this sounds kinda sudden, but..." she began to awkwardly speak. "... Do you have any... extra food on you?"

[Stealthy]

"Yeah, I'm ready when everybody else is." Torsolus nonchalantly branded his face with a green hand-inking. Link stuck his remaining Lon-Lon milk in his bag.

[Swallowfeather]

"Don't see why not!" Cookie chimed in, eagerly bouncing to her feet.

"I don't see a problem with that, either," Robin agreed, momentarily happening to glance down at his ink-splattered robes again and let out a soft, basically undetectable sigh.

"Yep; let's roll," Marie joined in. "Just a heads-up; I WILL be popping back up out of the ink every now and then to make my trail longer. Just so you know, so you don't get jumpscared by me or something later," she warned them, a bit of a chuckle behind her words.

----------

The girl listened carefully and closely to what the creature, who happened to have an accent unlike anything she'd heard before, was asking her. Now, everything seemed to make perfect sense; the poor creature was simply terribly hungry. With a sympathetic smile, she responded to the question with a nod, then reached into her bag to search for something. As it turned out, she had an extra sandwich. Carefully, she lifted it out, unwrapped it, took one half, and held it out for the creature to take, a kind expression on her face.

[Mistystar]

"Sounds good!" Pit agreed as well, looking quite eager to continue moving. He then chuckled along with Marie when he heard her warning. "Hah! Got it."

-------

The Inkling watched, wide-eyed, as the young human reached into her bag and brought out another sandwich. She felt her mouth spreading into a wide, excited grin for the first time in a while as the it was held out to her, and, feeling her unease beginning to fade away, she slowly accepted it. "Oh, thank you...!" she burbled gleefully, "thank you so, so much!"

[Swallowfeather]

The girl gave a smile and a nod in response, giggling at an almost undetectably-soft volume. After a brief pause, she then proceeded to pat the empty spot on the log beside her, opposite to her small, pink companion, offering the Inkling a place to sit while she ate.
"Clefairy!" the small, pink creature chirped in reply to the Inkling's thanks, smiling cheerfully. She wasn't sure what sort of creature this was, but she seemed perfectly nice.

[Mistystar]

Briefly glancing at the spot on the log the girl was patting, the Inkling took a few steps forward and hopped up, accepting the seat she had been offered. Then, hearing the pink creature's reply, she looked over at her and returned a smile. "Gosh... I'm so glad I ran into you two," she commented with a relieved sigh, proceeding to take a bite of her half-sandwich. For a moment, she let her eyes fall closed as she enjoyed this long-awaited meal, feeling quite a lot safer with the company of these two, kind individuals.
After finishing the entire thing, which hadn't taken her very long at all, the Inkling returned her attention to the girl and her small companion. "Thanks again, guys!" she beamed, brushing a few stray crumbs off of her lap. "... Oh yeah; guess I should introduce myself now, huh?" she added with a bit of a giggle. "My name's Callie...!"

[Stealthy]

(Would bow be a good time for them to reach the town, or should they walk a bit more?)

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