[TheSpatialWeeg]

The explorer Toad would lead the all-girls team to a certain point inside the jungle. They weren't that deep in the jungle to worry about a more treacherous path...at least for now, anyway. Coming next to a lake, the Toad stopped and began talking. "This is where I last have seen the girl. To enter in more detail, she wears green, has orange short hair with curls at the end, and I think I saw a purple pendant with her. Well, it had a purple glow, anyway..." he commented. "Well, she went in a straight line, but I doubt she could've gone that far just by going one direction. Don't quote me on this, but I think a few natives around this region must have seen her and can point you to her with the right bargain."

Toad would move in the opposite direction. "I'm gonna go back now. If I stick here any longer, I fear I'll become a hindrance to you all, especially if fights do break out. Good luck! Especially to you, Your Majesty!" A bow to Peach in specific and the Toad ran off to reunite with his fellas. 

The mission begins...now!

[Mari]

Peach would smile at the explorer Toad, very much pleased with his manners. It... definitely helped in these dark times that her kingdom had always loved her. Without her castle or any territory to call her own, they could have just as easily disregarded her and dissolved the kingdom spiritually. Thankfully, that wasn't the kind of kingdom she'd ever run. It turned out doing your best to help your people endeared them to you! "Thank you, and do be careful on your way back!" Peach calmly requested. Meanwhile, a smaller girl in a pretty, frilly black dress hovered over Peach's shoulder and watched. She weightlessly grasped Peach's shoulder to stabilize herself, the shoulder Perry wasn't currently resting against, not wanting to get shoved around by any errant gusts of wind.

"Let's go find that girl~!" Perry cheerily remarked.

"Yeah~! I hope she's okay. Don't you start hallucinating when you're outside the life sphere for too long?" Amitwo cheerily chimed in before quickly asking in a more concerned tone. Y'know, come to think of it this girl explorer toad described sounded a little familiar! ...But she couldn't trust her memory anyway. It probably wasn't real, like the rest of them.

"--That is quite true, Amitwo~! And I agree. It would befit us to act quickly in the interest of our lost friend~" Peach thoughtfully mused aloud, though she was, in fact, buying time for the others to catch up with her while she spoke.

[Deleted]

Using her zoom ability, Maribel had managed to teleport to the entrance of the jungle from where the Toad was with no problems at all. She often walks to her destinations, but seeing all those infected made her just want to use zoom instead. "No need for introductions ladies, although I would highly appreciate it if you all do." Maribel landed on the ground, appearing and bowing to everyone in the area.

"I am Maribel Mayde, daughter of the mayor of Pilchard Bay. I will be at your service to save Alice from harm." Maribel smiled, forgetting the name of the girl they were supposed to save. She then followed the Toad into the jungle, until they reached the cave, which was the last appearance the girl was last seen, as the Toad explained.

"A purple pendant, that isn't good." She then looked down at the Toad, disappointed at his actions. "And you just let her walk away? Jeez, you serve the princess yet you can't do a simple task, no wonder Peach get's captured all the time, what with Toad's like you walking around her kingdom. My father has better protection in my old village." Maribel yawned, clearly showing her disappointment in the Toad.

"The natives would be more helpful, you, as you already stated are a hindrance, so if you don't want to get eaten by anything that moves in this jungle, I suggest you leave now." Maribel waved to the Toad. "Ta, ta, thank you for wishing us luck at least." Once the Toad left, Maribel turned towards the other girls in the mission, no doubt waiting for them to defend the Toad from her taunting. She waited to see if they would reply to what she said to the Toad.

"So, shall we begin this mission or would you rather scold me for scolding that Toad instead of helping the girl who's life is on the line?" Maribel waited for the group's next actions. "Because I do believe those natives might provide us with information." She started to follow Peach and Amitwo from behind.

[Coolshaymin]

Rom and Ram, not really having any teleporting magic, traveled by their own safest way, by using their CPU forms to fly. The two spotted the Toad that was here to direct them to the girl that needed saving. "Hey, Rom, doesn't he remind you of someone from Lowee? I think she complained about a princess all the time..." Ram asked, the Toad looking familiar to her. He did resemble a citizen of her native land that she mostly greeted in passing. "Yeah, Miss Toadiko," Rom answered, seeming better at remembering who Ram meant. "Oh yeah, that's right! We should go meet up with them," the other twin replied before the two landed next to the toads and a beam of light emenated from them as they turned off their CPU forms to their human like forms.

"I'm Ram and this is Rom, we are the CPU Candidates of Lowee!" Ram introduced, Rom seeming more the queiter of the two. After the Toad explained the situation, Maribel went into a big scolding of the Toad... Wow, that was just unecessarily harsh. This girl was a big meanie. "You're mean..." Rom stated simply from behind Ram as the two sisters followed behind Peach and the other girl. "Yeah, it's not like they can help it you know. Not everybody can be strong enough to handle monsters. Who cares if he can't fight? That's what we are for," Ram explained, not really stopping her walk and keeping it short. She really did not like this girl already. She seemed really mean and was scaring Rom! She can't just let her scare her sister like that.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

Well, talk about bad impressions. Maribel's snotty-nosed attitude and scathing comment seemed to leave a mark, but the Toad just rolled his eyes with a sigh and went along his way. He had received worse comments beforehand.

Now that the group was on their own, it was time to move. The road right in front of them was still pretty clear, but something odd was how the jungle was pretty silent. You'd think that even though there was an evil virus around, you'd at least still hear some wildlife noises, right?

As the group continued to press on, those who didn't float would notice a faint tremor on the ground...The briefly mentioned golem could've been closer than they expected.

[Deleted]

"Mean?" Maribel darted her eyes towards the twins. Ram and Rom were there names? According to the board at least. "Miss, i'm just pointing out the obvious. Besides, if they can't defend themselves from something such as the Starvia, then what are they doing out here surrounded by everything that's trying to kill them? And for the record." Maribel briefly laughed. "If I had to put up with those kinds of troops at my old village, my father would of removed them from there jobs so fast, that they won't have time to form a union."

Maribel continued to walk forward, doing a small run while holding her hands out to gain an extra boost from her speed. As she did she looked back, grinning to the girls. "Besides, all this chitter chatter is wasting precious time on finding the girl, so save anymore of your scoldings until the mission is over. In which case, i'll just zoom back to the Life Sphere before you could even get started on them." She looked forward, stopping when she heard a tremor suddenly.

"Huh, what!?" Maribel took a few steps, looking back at her group. "Hold your steps." She looked forward, realising that there not alone in this abnormally quiet jungle.

"Strange, could whatever is causing these small tremors perhaps relate to the fact that there's no animals in the area?" Maribel summoned a small fire ball from her finger and slowly walked forward, ready to see what will come in front of the girls at any second.

[Mari]

Peach looked mortified at what went down. Wait what?? What was with all of these assumptions? Amitwo, Peach and Perry shared several very questioning looks for a long moment. "...He doesn't work for me..." Peach ever so softly added after several long moments listening to the discourse. It wasn't even that toad's job to guard her in the first place! It was her job to guard HIM! Her guards had spears and shields and a uniform, and even they couldn't really do much about a thousand pounds of claws, muscle and fire breath storming in! It wasn't even Peach's business what he did in his free time, let alone anyone else's! So unapologetically rude!

Regardless, she seemed reluctant to address the topic further. She doubted that random civilian she had nothing to do with would be all that upset about being scolded for not doing the job he didn't have right. "My name is Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom, and these are my treasured companions Perry and Amitwo." Peach greeted, doing her best to ignore what had happened. "Hiii~" "Howdy~!" Amitwo and Perry added. The princess then moved to acknowledge the other children present. In her mind, letting a coupld of kids be scared of the group was a bigger issue than a few seconds lost. The odds of a few seconds being a big deal were much less than a poorly cohesive group being a big deal.

Peach would offer them both a bright and inviting smile. "And you both make a very good point. It can't be helped." she reassured them both, reaching out to gently pat them both. "And may I add--You're both the cutest heroines I've met since Amitwo~!" she quietly yet light-heartedly remarked, attempting to bond with the two so that they could feel comfortable trusting at least one of them. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do~! Don't be afraid to ask me for help with anything, though. I'm here to help with anything you might need." Peach went on to offer, offering them both her free hand for holding either of them so chose.

Regardless, introductions were finally aside and progress was to be made. When the group came to a stop, Peach did not comment on what was going on. Rather, she looked around searchingly for a sign of something that might alert her to a hidden danger.

[Coolshaymin]

This girl was only making Ram madder and Rom more shy!  How simple minded could one girl be? There was more to those kind of jobs than just being strong you know! The CPUs kind of handled the threats anyway, but the guild was invaluable for telling them where to go back home and that Toad was no different. Ram was about to ignore the girl's complaints and give her the rightful reply that her dad was a big fat dummy, but fortunately Peach stepped in before the arguement could escalate any further. Well, at least someone else understood where she was getting at! Unlike the dummy of a girl over there.

Ram and Rom both blushed slightly at the compliment, they were often considered the cutest goddesses, but getting that from this royal princess. And her words were oddly calming for them both and they partially forgot what the big deal was. "Th-thanks, we are the cutest goddesses around. We will keep that in mind and we will put our all into showing you how strong we are! Right, Rom?" Ram said, looking taken aback for a second, but quickly throwing all sense of humbleness. "Uh-huh. We will give it our all, Miss Peach," Rom added, clearly comforted by Peach's kindness.

That was before however the trembling shook the area. Now that she considered it, this area was empty of life, both monsters and wildlife. "Didn't you read the report, Dummy? It might be that Golem," Ram rebuttled, seeming to get back at Maribel some more. Rom however was the more sensible of the two, and looked around to see if she could spot anything. Afterall, she had to be the one to warn Ram if something was up while she was distracted.

[TheSpatialWeeg]

With the group on high alert after the tremors, it was safe to assume that they'd notice a couple of sounds coming to the northwest of the group. Well, they were less like sounds and more like--

"WHERE IS THE COCONUTS, Y'ULIGA??!"
"I...uh...lost them, sire..."
"INCOMPETENT FOOL!!"

--More like screaming. Lots of it. From a bush came 3 Spear Guys, one of them absolutely fuming with wild anger. "I TOLD TO HOLD THESE COCONUTS LIKE THEY WERE YOUR LIFE. DO YOU LONG FOR DEATH?!" their supposed leader yelled some more at the guy with a suspiciously normal name. "Well, it's hard to cling to coconuts when you're this close to being squashed, Joe." "MY NAME AIN'T JOE NO MORE!! I AM Y'STOL, WARRIOR OF RAGE!!" The screaming Spear Guy yelled at the other some more. The third Spear Guy quietly meandered over to the second one and tried whispering to them. "Neville, I think Joe's lost it. Spending time in the jungle was a bad idea."

"Did I HEAR ANYTHING FROM YOU, Y'HGANJA?" Joe just kept yelling, causing the other Spear Guy to shudder and shake his head in response. "Joe, that's enough. You're scaring Meric." Neville intervened, clearly getting tired of his 'friend'.

This...colorful trio could potentially help them. Who knows? Maybe the two more normal-sounding Spear Guys actually had an ear to spare with the travelers.

[Deleted]

Maribel moved in front of Ram and Rom when Peach was talking to them so she can introduce herself to the princess. She gave off a bow towards the princess, completing changing her attitude, at least, towards her, after all, Peach appears to be a respectful adult in this group full of rude girls according to Maribel. "It's nice to meet you too princess Toadstool. It's an honour to meet another person who's royalty." She looked up to notice Peach's blonde hair.

"The last person who I was friend's with that was related to royalty was also blonde, but unfortunately, it didn't end very well for him." Maribel lightly let go of her dress when the memories about what happened in the fragment adventure came back to her, but then she introduced herself, quickly getting back to her snobby personality.

"Anyway, I am Maribel Mayde, the daughter of the mayor of the great fishing town Pilchard Bay, it's a great town, and maybe it will one day come to this admittedly gross planet with a virus that's trying to lay harm on us." Maribel had failed to notice that this talk of Peach was slowing down time to find the girl that they were looking for.

But she kept walking soon after to investigate the large sound that was coming down the path in front of the girls, she gave a light wave to Amitwo and Perry. "Yeah, hi." Maribel wasn't that bothered with introducing herself to Peach's lackeys, poor Peach, having to be surrounded with unruly girls, except for Maribel.

However Maribel's short investigation of the strange noise subsided when she gave a snarky comeback to Rom. "Dummy? Who are you calling a dummy when i'm looking at one right now." Maribel laughed at Rom soon after before turning and noticing three Spear Guys to start fighting with each other.

"Oh, i'm not going near them." She turned back towards Peach. "Princess, since you must have high charisma to get the title you have today. Please go over to the spear guys and try to subside there fighting, because I can't do it and nobody else is going to do it. I mean do you expect those two to try and stop them?" She pointed at Rom and Ram before pointing to Amitwo.

"And with the fact that she hasn't said anything yet, she's obviously shy." She referred to Amitwo before finally pointing to Perry. "And he's an Umbrella, I think that speaks for itself." She crosses her arms, waiting to see the group's response. She knew it will be negative, for some reason.

[Mari]

...Huh? Peach could swear Ram had just claimed to be a goddess, which was ...alarming? But not ... too alarming. As strange as the idea was, they still seemed like little kids to Peach, which was all she needed to know. She'd have to keep that in mind and pay close attention to their behavior to see if they were perhaps older and more mature than she'd initially considered. A playful giggle escaped her. "I will especially look forward to getting to know the strength of your hearts~" she replied with a little wink, seeming to suggest an ulterior value above raw power. Goodness knew Bowser was a giant turtle monster shaped anvil when it came to that lesson.

And then--Maribel was being nice and polite to her? This was also alarming to Peach, but ... she probably shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She had a feeling she'd be babysitting three children here, but she decided to keep that thought to herself. No one needed that sort of negativity--not even her. So she quickly banished it from her mind. "I do hope it will wait until we've found a way to combat the starvia's influence. I would hate to see anything 'gross' become of such a great town. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintence, Lady Mayde." Peach thoughtfully replied, a tad bemused as to how Maribel was 'royalty'. Was the mayor perhaps a member of a royal family? That seemed like the most obvious conclusion to her, but...

Peach's smile weakened as Maribel and Ram kept fighting, but she declined to comment for now. "Ms. Amitwo is indeed quite shy at times, but she is very amiable~!" Peach light-heartedly remarked, patting Amitwo on the head. A bashful Amitwo chimed in in response. Maribel might notice that her hat, which had eyes, seemed to react to the patting as well by closing its eyes briefly. "I'm not very strong, and I'm still learning a lot about the world and who I am... but I am made of magic, and I can use it to heal you or make you stronger if you need or want it~" Amitwo explained, managing to show a bit of pride in what she was. Self-Esteem had been hard for her, not being a person at all by many people's accounts let alone human. It was no coincidence neither she nor Peach had brought up what exactly Amitwo was. "But that's quite alright, because I do believe your initial plan was a good one~!" Peach added, holding up a finger to her delicately painted lips and winking, seeming to request some quiet so that she could approach the trio on her own terms. Perry declined to comment. Although he didn't feel the best about being demeaned like that he... didn't have legs and definitely saw the problem. Oh well.

Without further ado, Peach meandered forward at a leisurely pace and simply walked right on up to the shy guys. "Pardon me..! I could not help but overhear your dilemma. It sounds as if you are all having quite the day..." Peach greeted and lamented on their behalf. Her hand gently reached out to affectionately caress the head of the irate looking one, the one she believed to have been yelling earlier. There was nothing like a woman's touch to bring down the testosterone-induced rage in the room~! She made a point to keep her hand on the angry shy guy, her other hand reaching to comfort Meric. There was an ulterior motive to her holding them like that. Shy Guys were ... not the friendliest sort. She was half expecting them to attack her, and her gentle hands resting on their heads also served as a deceptively innocent feeling grapple she could use to try and quickly dispatch them if they, especially Joe, reacted hostilely. A grapple she could simply release if they didn't without anyone feeling attacked.

"My name is Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom, and I'm here searching for a girl in green who might have been seen near a golem guardian. But perhaps I could help you along the way..?"

6pN5L8yCp_1d20+5 (Peach's attempt at endearing herself to the shy guys and, failing that, grappling them without them noticing.)

Princess Peach

150 / 150 HP
45 / 45 Shield

Status: Normal

1d20+5

[Coolshaymin]

"Hey! We are royalty too! Kind of! We rule an entire nation!" Ram called out in annoyance at Maribel showing respect to the Princess and not her. Who did this girl think she is. "Um, Ram, technically our sister is the one that rules Lowee...." Rom corrected. "Doesn't make us any less royalty than some mayor's daughter. Moreso actually," Ram insisted, clearly being rather childish about this despite being a Goddess. "And don't call me a dummy, dummy!" Ram called back, this arguement getting more and more childish by the moment. "We'll try our best to impress you there too, Miss Peach," Rom commented to Peach, while Ram was busy calling out Maribel.

"Hey! I can do ne-gah-ta... Noguti...... I can talk them over too! Watch me!" Ram said, having trouble saying Negotiation. Sure, she could let Peach handle it, she was doing it wonderfully, but that meant giving up to Maribel and she was not about to do that. So, she headed over with Peach while Rom watched with a bit of concern as she tried to talk information out of them too.


xU08RWvqp_1d20+2(Ram's pointless assist of sheer competitiveness)

"Yeah, if you need some help, the Goddesses of Lowee will be happy to assist you only for praise... and maybe some sweets... " "Ram..." "Of course we'll just accept the praise too and maybe you telling us more about almost getting squished," Ram relented after Rom's warning from behind her.1d20+2

[TheSpatialWeeg]

The three Spear Guys turned their attention to Peach. The furious Joe seemed to have calmed down a bit after the petting, looking only kinda grumpy instead, Neville sighed in relief, seeing as his internal prayers for some help were answered and Meric grew more comfortable with Peach around. "A pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty." Neville spoke. "You'll have to forgive my friend here, he's a bit...loopy." he continued. "We've been stranded on this forest for a while, and well...you could see what happened."

"I think we saw the girl you were talking about." Meric quickly interjected. "She went a bit more ahead to a crossroads, then turned right. I fear she went right into the direction of the golem...Whatever that you came here to do, try to save her as quick as you can before the golem could feed on her o-or become just like Joe!"

Joe then cast a look at the group of rescuers, to be more specific, the twins. "Yer a brave group. Perhaps a bit too brave. That golem ain't a joke. It ate the toughest critter in this jungle 'round for its breakfast. Word of the mouth has it that the rainbow tree in his back supplies 'im energy to live eons. If you're thinking of taking that thing down, you have to aim for the tree."

The two lucid Spear Guys glanced at each other. "...Huh, Joe's not yelling now." "I can't scream at royalty, Y'uliga. It is disrespectful." "Well, at least he knows when to draw a line..."

"Aaaaanyway, we should get going and get Joe to a hospital. Anyone know where to get to any civilization at all?" Neville asked, not to anybody in particular. Seemed like he was expecting someone to reply with the necessary information.

[Mari]

...Phew. She didn't have to fill up on junk food. What were the odds of them coming across friendly shy guys? Enough for Peach to feel grateful, anyway. She gave the Shy Guys little pats before turning to gesture with one hand in the direction they'd came. "You may find the Life Sphere quite a ways back. It is quite the journey, but I'm certain a few brave Shy Guys can make it if they are careful to avoid any infected." Peach explained in an encouraging tone. "It's a humongous blue dome! You can't miss it~" Amitwo added in from her position hovering over Peach's shoulder. It felt nice not to be the smallest person in the group for a brief moment.

"Is everyone ready to go find our missing companion?" Peach asked, glancing around at the group. She'd made a point to stay out of the bickering, and was now making another point to try and distract the other girls from it as well. There was only so much she could do that didn't involve putting anyone in time out. And she wasn't in a rush to put anyone in her idea of a time out.

Princess Peach

150 / 150 HP
45 / 45 Shield

Status: Normal

[Deleted]

While Peach was more gentle and friendly when she told the shy guys where the Life Sphere was, Maribel was more straight forward. "Just go to the giant bubble, it's not that hard to miss, unless of course." She snickered. "Your that blind behind those masks." She then looked back at Peach, acting more friendlier then before now that those Shy Guys were getting ready to leave, although they did warn the group about the Golems, to which Maribel shrugged.

"Golems? I faced many golems before, this will be easy." She bragged triumphantly as she crossed her arms and looked at Peach. "Ready when you are princess." She smiled, before putting to Rom and Ram. "But those two slowpokes probably need more time, it's not like a girls life is in danger or anything." She sounded annoyed at the twins.