erankluck - Tumblr blog

[erankluck]

hunteroftreasure:

“Legs open? Is she doing jumping jacks? The splits?” He looked at the wall, as if pretending to see through it. “Is she having a picnic with her hot brother? I wonder what she’s serving at the feast!”

He turns around and looks a little dumbfounded when he realized Candy Cane was joking. He was getting curious to the situation at hand, a sibling picnic while contorting you legs in different open positions… To say the least, he was mildly disappointed.

Pagliacci sighs but then quickly perks up to continue to the conversation. He lifts his finger up as if he’s about to make a remarkable point.

“Suck? Silly roo! This place doesn’t have a mouth!” He snickers, “Oi! Do your eyes not work? We are at the Great Gambino! Problem solved!”

That was… perhaps the most literal interpretation of her words he could have gone for. Candy Cane pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Are you stupid? I mean, yeah, that’s what the hotel calls itself, but the Garbage Gambino is….”

a pause. 

“…Wait, you’re just trying to piss me off, aren’t you.”

Well, technically, she’d kinda walked into this one. Still, going inside to find someone else to bother would be a hassle, and if this kept going she’d just go and make an utter child of herself. Candy Cane sighed, pushing up the brim of her hat. Time to see if this was really more trouble than it was worth.

“…Okay, all right, well played, dude. What was your name again?” 

Great tact.

[prolo] exitquest [c.c. @ pagliacci]

[erankluck]

oneeyemanyanimals:

Skulking was a common option for Mongrel to do to fill up time whenever she was in a place she just didn’t want to be. She’d done it countless times in the past, wandering around with a sour expression, though she’d ususally have something to distract her - a phone, her 3DS, anything. In this case, however, she was left with nothing but a whole lot of fuck and shit. Well, that wasn’t entirely the case. She had her small owl, who still perplexed her by the reality of its existence (seriously, what exact species was this?) but pleased nonetheless. They were adorable little things, after all.

And skulk she did, wandering around the inside after having already gone outside, trying to get a feel for the layout of the place. Or, well, that was going to be the case before she got… Hungry. What was she to do? Actually COOK for herself? She’d seen people cook plenty of times before, even helped! Her skills, beside being an assistant who was told what to do, were lacking. Sure, she could… Probably get something together, but nothing very good.

Ah well. Cover it in seasoning and you’ll never know. Vegetables were lenient that way.

Still, she had no idea where the kitchen was, and she was determined to find it herself. She didn’t need any help, thanks. So she stumbled into the dining room, where she found herself viciously assaulted not once but twice - once by marshmallow, prompting a brief 

“FUCK!”

followed by a tiny owl bumping into her leg before falling backward, making what might have just been the cutest noise she’d ever heard one of these things make.

And then, a girl called out to her about a sacred proving? She quirked an eyebrow in disbelief, hands flying outward in her perfect ‘what-the-fuck?’ pose.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Are you fucking high?”

Not that she’d ever actually know what someone high would look like in person. She’d always been a bit too sheltered for that. She had Youtube, true, but that’s nothing compared to the real thing.

“God, I wish.”

Her tone was almost wistful; if this was a bad trip, or even just a bad dream of some sort, that would have done miles towards explaining whatever was happening... with all this. Unfortunately, she was fairly confident that neither of those things lasted as long as this whole... thing... was. Whatever the case was, she had a distinct feeling this one wouldn’t appreciate the joys of teaching an owl to play fetch in her current mood. 

“Anyway, you wanna, like, chill? It was just a marshmallow.”

As if to punctuate, she pulled one out of the bag and popped it into her mouth, watching as Pudding swallowed the one that had bounced off of the strange girl’s head before toddling back over to join her. 

[prologue] marshmall-ow [c.c. @ mongrel]

[erankluck]

hunteroftreasure:

For reasons unknown to those wondering, some schmuck really was wandering around the courtyard! Perhaps, this is the attraction of one redhead to another? They gotta stick together, pinch a ginger day could be right around the corner and there’s always safety in numbers!

“………”

Pagliacci blinked and simply stared at her. Her greeting started off good, turned bad, than remained that way. Who was he to turn someone down who would request help from him? He smiled.

“G’day to you too!” He pauses, then puts a hand up to his forehead in salute. “Rodger! Where is the girl that needs help, mate?”

Ah, another sassy one. Or maybe she just looked like a guy without her hair down? She mimicked his salute anyway.

“On the other side of the wall, dude. Just cryin’ for you. Got her legs open n’ everything. Her hot brother’s also there, if that’s more your thing, but she might be mad if she prepared the feast for nothin’.”

A shrug.

“Nah, seriously, but doesn’t this place, like… suck? I wanna know where we are, at least. N’ we won’t figure that sticking around here.”

[prolo] exitquest [c.c. @ pagliacci]

[erankluck]

shslfrosting:

Brat, brat, brat, brat, brat… why on this of all days, did the gods decide to immediately test him so? She was practically pulling him along on his own fishing line at this point. Cassino pondered for a moment, rubbing a thumb over one of his rings. He could still make this work. Despite the little devil sitting on his shoulder irking him otherwise.

“No, then? I was only offering the insurance since you have a lot of investment in this game. My luck is unquestionable, I assure.”

Note to self: video games- deathly serious and not to be underestimated in the future.

“The bonus is yours to decide if I lose… ᵂᶦᵗʰᶦⁿ ʳᵉᵃˢᵒⁿ.”

“Deal. Let’s see that unquestionable luck in action, bud.”

She did not hand him her phone, but she did offer it over to him after navigating to the proper page, her thumb and index fingers pressed against its sides.She then gestured loosely with her pinky - 

“Just push the ‘x10 Summon’ button there. I’ll tell you if it’s good or not.”

And so, at some point during this, Rhy bothered Han to roll for him, and produced two 5 star craft essences, but only 3 star servants. C.C. considered the screen for a moment, clicking her tongue

before bursting out into laughter.

“Seriously? Cassino, buddy, guy, your luck is worse than mine.”

Well, maybe not worse so much as ‘on par with’, but details. She considered him with a smug little grin. If this hoity guy got squirmy over this, it’d be worth the 17 bucks wasted.

“...Now, what sort of compensation for this grievous injury to my time and quartz to ask for?...Hmm...”

[c.c.] freezerburn [@ cassino]

[erankluck]

shslevelanimatronics:

[BULLET] didn’t normally dislike Lassie, not in the slightest For a woman like herself, who chased after any business opportunity that came her way, even those far outside of France, the app had been a godsend - why dislike something that made her business dealings so much easier?

But at the moment, she hated the app with every fiber of her being, and as for the woman before her? God, she was on thin fucking ice.

In any case, [BULLET], whose understanding of Spanish was on far shakier foundations than her understanding of English or Japanese, stubbornly refused to get out her phone because to hell with that, she… could roughly guess at what was being said here, and she didn’t appreciate it at the slightest, as indicated by the twinge of annoyance surfacing on her otherwise-flat expression.

“Oh, for god’s sake, it’s French. French.”

And of course she said this in French. Of course she did. Sure, sticking to her native tongue clearly wasn’t going to serve her the way she wanted it to (and even she could recognize the futility of further efforts on that front), but. It was the principle of the thing, damn it.

“And yes, obviously, it’s me. [BULLET], animatronic engineer, inventor, revolutionary. Charmed.”

So [BULLET], who was clearly not charmed said, apparently completely oblivious to the fact that she’d undermined her prior claims of not understanding English in the space of thirty seconds or so.

Well, even if she had ruined her master scheme, [CANDY CANE] certainly wouldn’t be the one to call her on it. 

“Huh? Francis? Isn’t that, um, like, a guy?”

She could already feel her grandmother pulling her ear for butchering her mother tongue with such purpose, but luckily, she wasn’t here right now to disapprove. She hummed a little in thought, listening at the other’s introduction as she pretended to confirm the accuracy of the the words flickering across her phone screen. This science butch-ass robot wax-sculpture maker ... thought a lot of herself, huh. She attempted in vain to conceal her amusement as she gave her a chipper smile. 

“That’s a lot of titles. Makes my head spin a lil’... guess you must be important. But, like, totally great to meet you, hommasse scientifiques!”

Oops. Freudian slip. She cleared her throat.

“I mean, [BULLET]. Sorry, my Francis is, like, super bad. Totally. I’m... like,[CASSINO]. Sometimes scientist. Big pleasure! ♪ ”

[c.c.] si : ( [@ bullet]

[erankluck]

shslfrosting:

He inhaled and bit his lip. Just. Be patient. With kids.

“Miss [Candy Cane], I’m hurt! You think I would just steal your quartz like that?”

Alright, the first plan may have been the better option after all. No backing out now, though. Materialism was clearly key to this instance. Cassino couldn’t blame her– he just didn’t like having to play on his own level. He groaned in his head. Play along, now!

“I’ll even pay you a little bonus if I do poorly. Does that sound like a deal?”

“I dunno, you sounded pretty thirsty for ‘em when you jingle-jangled up, dude.”

But he spoke further, and offered... a bonus? If he did badly. Ophelia’s eyebrows quirked upwards a bit. This wasn’t really her division, but... in her time of greatest need, she knew to call upon the oldest of adages, WW[N]D - What would [NICKEL] do? A quick glance across the room suggested that she probably couldn’t be summoned personally to negotiate this one, but...

Great virtuous men, or whatever the hell she called them, took risks. She shifted her posture a bit, making a point to examine him as though he were an insect she’d never seen before she’d just found splattered on the sidewalk.

“What sorta bonus you thinkin’, holmes? You, a relative stranger, are asking to use of my private account. Would be kinda stupid to risk my rolls that I paid for on just anyone - especially someone who doesn’t believe in his own luck.”

[c.c.] freezerburn [@ cassino]

[erankluck]

shslfrosting:

“That works nicely, thank you”

And it was kind of.. uncanny, actually. He’d have to remember to ask back home if someone really had hopped onto that lucrative gacha market.

Cassino toyed idly with his braid, reviewing her screen once more. Questioning her opinions further on the matter (what did Umber call them? “Faves”? “Husbandos”?) might not be a bad way to lighten her up a bit. But it could also U-turn if he came off as too judgmental.

Then he cooked up a better idea.

“…Would you mind if I took a swing at it?” His head tilted “Sometimes all you need is a fresh hand to roll the dice to get that lucky roll. Oh.. and, well, I’ve always been kind of curious to try, I suppose! Haha~”

“....”

He’d ‘always wanted to try it’... and yet he’d made her run through that entire spiel? And then proceeded to request if he could use her account, after she’d told him it cost her money? Candy Cane closed her eyes for a long moment. She had half a mind to tell him to get fucked, but this... called for a more delicate approach. 

When she opened her eyes back up, she gave him a slightly sweeter smile.

“Depends. You buyin’?”

[c.c.] freezerburn [@ cassino]

[erankluck]

boun-nostra:

At first, at the blunt rebuff en français, [CANDY CANE] had just blinked. This woman… realized that Lassie had been out for at least the last decade, right? Even if her mother’s side of the family hadn’t demanded that she learn the language for ease of communication, the invention of a universal translator had all but made that excuse obsolete in this day and age.

Should she…?

Naaaaah. 

Putting on the most earnest look of confusion she could manage, [CANDY CANE] gingerly placed her free hand to her lips, glancing away nervously as though she had just been subject to a major faux pas. 

And, still in English,

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry, what did you say? I, like, didn’t catch that.”

She made a show of fumbling for her phone, switching to the Lassie app with an experienced sort of deftness and, after making a point to select something other than French, she typed in a message, cranked up the sound, and let her phone do the talking;

“Yo no hablo español???”

[c.c.] si : ( [@ bullet]

[erankluck]

shslfrosting:

“Hm? Nothing important, my dear” he hummed with his well-practiced smile.

This would be a fun one, for sure.

“I was only curious about that game you’ve been picking at. You seem awfully full of passion for it cheating you out of your hard-earned gems like that. Surely you could enlighten me?”

People did have the oddest lust for arbitrary things. It would be good to gauge whether it was more of a tough-loved passion if these were threats taken to heart, since this was a person they’d all be within a stone’s throw of at any given moment… One chosen to be a leading world figure, no less. He pulled himself up and offered a hand.

“…[Cassino], by the way!”

C.C. squinted. ‘My dear’? Gross. Was he one of those old men who got off on calling strangers pet names?... well, whatever. She let him introduce himself, chalked his efforts to speak to her as either an exercise in attempting to either be ‘down with the youth’ or set a condescending tone the way the board had, and moved on. It was all the same in the grand scheme.

“[Candy Cane]. Nice to meetcha, cupcake.”

She turned back to her phone, changing the screen to show her inventory and selected a rainbow star-like gemstone to show the other. 

“This is a saint quartz. You need 3 of them for a chance to summon either a character, called a servant, or an item to make your servant stronger, called a craft essence.”

She returned her phone to her lap.

“If you want to do a full summon, maximizing your chance at getting good servants and craft essences, you need 30 quartz. To put it simple-like, they can be earned in game, but after you cap out on the free ones you get there, saint quartz cost money. Money can be exchanged for goods and services.”

A shrug.

“So, when you get a bad summon, you lose money. Bad investment. You make a lot of bad investments, you’re not happy. Make sense?”

[c.c.] freezerburn [@ cassino]

[erankluck]

[c.c.] freezerburn [@ cassino]

As a rather jingly shadow leaned over towards her in her time of strife, Candy Cane didn’t even bother to look up.  Another day, another Romulus. Two of them, a Blackbeard, and a bunch of low level craft essences. Ughhhh.

“Too late for that, bud. A princely sum of 17 dollars and 40 cents was just stolen by fiends and rapscallions just now.”

And then, ominously,

“They’ll burn for this.”

And, without context, that was that. Did she roll again? She only had 60 quartz left, another bad roll would be a waste at this point… but the event was only going on for a few more days, and… wait. Someone was trying to talk to her. Someone she’d have to…likely see multiple times in the coming weeks. Damn it.

She looked up and shit, he was tall. 

“…Ah, fuck, sorry, guy, caught me at a bad time. Didja need somethin?”

Smooth.

[erankluck]

[c.c.] CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! [@ bullet ]

It took a bit to tear herself away from her phone, but after some time spent realizing that this doctor’s offer was…. being absolutely not treated like a doctor’s office at all, [CANDY CANE] figured that treating it partially like some sort of weird, shitty mixer wouldn’t be so bad. When in Rome, yadda yadda yadda.

Still, with the coffee machine having been thoroughly fucked with and her own personal lack of a flask of anything remotely exciting… well. Not fully accepting or embracing that this place was anything other than a waiting room, rather than, say, some shitty night club, or even Chuck-E-Cheese, had proven moderately difficult. Even if she had been trying to stay in her lane from where the nonsense was concerned, there wasn’t a whole lot of options she wanted to cut in on. A couple having a touching reunion? Next. 

The guys squatting on the ground? Next.

The woman texting?… Naaah, that kind of shit was way too normal to cut in on. Next.

An old friend - who seemed to be occupied with business, by the looks. She knew better to interrupt when she was with a client, or… potential client, maybe. White haired boy was probably loaded, no doubt. Or, at the very least, he was about to be. A small grin crossed her face as she shifted her gaze elsewhere. Next, but just for the moment.

Which left her with…. the stack of magazines on the table. Picking up one and flipping through it out of a vague sense of curiosity, she found not cutting articles about herself as anticipated, but… the texting brunette, and what appeared to be her expy from the uncanny valley. [C.C.] snuck a peek at her again, to find her downing a bottle of… something (protein?)… with the sort of fervor that suggested one of the doctors was about to come out and saw her legs off. [C.C.] blinked

shrugged,

and, folding the magazine over itself so as to assure it remained on the page, made her approach, holding it upright for the other woman to view once she was close enough. And, in English;

“Hey, uh, not to interrupt your Olympic chug - don’t think they’re testing your gag reflex, but keep on keepin’ on - but is this you?”

[erankluck]

[continued in discord yo]

gardenia O bamble O re: cc

Bamble was never going to be the kind of person who said she absolutely, 100% legitimately, bought into some kind of ‘gamer sense’ or something like that; not like some people she’d come across before, who treated the entire ‘profession’ like an exclusive club only they could tell the worth of or something.

But she could naturally admit to being able to tell when someone was getting salty at a game, and possibly refine that even further into telling someone was getting pissed off at bad RNG. Namely because she had functioning ears, and even in this hellpit of a room, the words ‘three month’s unwashed hooker’s snatch’ were still fairly easy to hook onto a feeling of ‘what’ with.

It didn’t take too long for Bamble to consider that this might be worth replying to (somehow), crossing over to the apparently enraged girl and leaning on the wall nearby her. Not too close, in case of sudden range, but enough to clock the screen on her phone.

“Hm. Yeah. Anime casino, huh. Sorry, don’t think LASSIE is about to translate anime casino speak for me, so bear with me as I give it a shot myself. Never really played these, see. What did that virtual jpg ever do to you. He’s showed up ready to kill time for you in this waiting room and you’re calling him these names. Almost slander, really. Probably.”

She shifted her weight against the wall.

“You come to this anime casino often, then.”

[erankluck]

[c.c.] whaler at work [open]

So here you are. Hope’s Summit University. Everything you have done to this point has lead up to this moment - one where you rub shoulders with the real difference makers of the world. Finally, you can network with someone of your caliber, instead of those other losers from home. The experience of talking to such an influential person must make a world of difference.

Oh, there’s one over there, muttering in English to herself. What’s she saying? Surely something profound, given she’s sporting half a track suit and is busy fiddling with her phone over networking with her peers. Genius at work! If you were to listen in….

“You dare trespass on my property, you little family-owned and operated pissmonger? You outdated and three month’s unwashed hooker’s snatch? You freewheeling, talent-less three-star clone? I will shit fury into your gaping maw if three more of you dare chance the opportunity to enter my abode with the saint quartz meant for…”

… 

Yeah, uh, maybe you shouldn’t talk to her. She’s… probably busy?…

[erankluck]

✉ ;0

;p

the color pallet is taken from a gsc pokemon sprite! i wonder what pokemon she is, though…?

[erankluck]

✉ @erankluck when u thought he was being modest when he said he sucks at braiding but he’s actually genuinely pretty bad at it

[erankluck]

✉!!

when the kids say your talent is outdated and irrelevant

(original here)

[erankluck]

17 to 22!

17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?

She used to steal her mother’s scented candles and try to turn then into makeshift bunsen burners after watching too much bill nye does that count

Otherwise, she used to have a stuffed lamb named ‘Dunkon’ she dragged everywhere with her. He got incinerated during an incident involving one of said candles, and from that day forward, C.C. decided she would never be a chemist

18. Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others?

Ambition, all the way. Wisdom is for nerds and old people.

19. What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before?

Unsurprisingly, C.C. is incredibly impulsive, and tends to make decisions oftentimes without considering the consequences for herself or others. Sometimes, this has meant ruining appliances in the name of science - other times, it means she gets caught in the heat of the moment and says things she doesn’t mean in anger. Couple that with her tendency to blame other things for her problems, and most of her relationships have had difficulty bouncing back from arguments that could have otherwise been relatively minor.

20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?

In spite of that, she’s surprisingly graceful with criticism... provided it comes from a source she respects. Randoms and male coworkers who don’t think women should be in STEM for whatever reason are met with the cold shoulder and ignored; physicists or others in the field who give respect and she respects in return, she’ll gladly accept critique to improve her work. She tends to compare her work with other initiatives that have attempted teleportation in the past, and tries to use them to better troubleshoot what she’s currently doing if relevant.

21 & 22 answered!