Tale of the Tape [Event]

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A new job was delivered to Anastasia as she was dropping off some supplies.  She had received a summons to the Ancient Ruins where there was a small village very close to the ruins; one that the group had originally passed during one of their jobs in this place.  The place was filled with bullet holes and holes in the ground thanks to the explosions that were carried out the last time they were there.  Team Four Star, most certainly, didn't leave that place better than it was when they were there.  Though, it really wasn't their fault.  

The airship landed and Anastasia stepped out of the Cargo Hold where the cargo door descended, turning into a ramp.  Having Taliya and The Fire Moth by her side, Anastasia held her hair so the jetwash from the engines didn't blow hair into her face, disrupting what she was saying.  "Hey!  It looks like we're here.  The village elder wants to speak to us to give us our mission.  You guys ready?" Anastasia asked before her eyes fell upon the new girl, Jessi.  

"Just stick with us and everything will be alright," she said with a re-assuring smile.  Along with the new girl, Nao and Almyra decided to join in in this fray.  Ashelia, however, was nowhere to be found; big surprise there.  "You too, Almy.  If things start getting too rough for you, let me or Taliya know and we'll get you to safety, alright?" she mentioned before nodding and stepping off of the ship, finding themselves in the middle of the town.  

Eyes turned to look towards them.  These people looked extremely primitive with faces covered in dirt and wearing tribalistic clothing.  They all pointed at George, the airship, for a moment and their jaws dropped.  They seemed to be fixated on the flying machine; as if it was a god.  Noticing the strangeness of the locals, Ana turned towards Taliya for a moment.  "I think we should just keep going," she said with a sweat drop falling down her forehead.  

"Eh heh.  Maybe, yeah.  Well, you know the elder's house is probably the biggest and most exquisite looking, so let's go," she said before Ana and Taliya lead the way through the village.  More and more people spilled out of the wood-work to gaze upon the airship.  The group made their way to what appeared to be a strange hut.  A man stood outside of the hut and nodded to the group.

"Elder will see you, young heroes of Tape," the man said cryptically.  This caused Anastasia to bite her lower lip, resisting the need to laugh.  "Alright, thank you," she said before the stern-faced man's appearance changed slightly to that of a young child.  "Now I get to see the sky god!  Yay!" he said before waddling over to the ship and stared upwards in awe.  If it were to rain right now, all of the locals would have drowned themselves to death.  

Opening the door to the hut, there was a lot of smoke.  Coughing, Anastasia swiped her hand in front of her to clear out a path for her to breathe, only for a chair to swing around with a strange blue colored man wearing a headdress filled with feathers and a hookuh in his hand.  "Hello, destined warriors of the Tape.  Your appearance has been foretold for many centuries," the creature said as it took a deep puff out of it's hookuh.  

"Don't worry, I'm just vaping," the elder said.

"We get it," Anastasia replied with a slight bit of annoyance in her voice.

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The elder took another deep puff from it's vaporizer, releasing a thick cloud of vapor towards the 4 plus pets. It smacked it's lips together for a moment and nodded it's head. "Well, you are all prophecized to have shown up here for thousands of years to fulfill a single purpose," the creature said as it took another deep puff of the vapes. It smacked it's lips together once more before turning to look towards the only male in this group.

The creature burped in Nao's direction. "Well, to be fair, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy as my people sent her," it said as it pointed it's 'fin' at Anastasia. "a message," the elder said before Ana pulled out the note the elder was talking about. It was covered in duct tape. Ana shrugged her shoulders and put the note away. Upon looking back at the blue creature, a cloud of vapor was blown into her face with the smell of fish coming from it. This caused Ana to grow extremely dizzy for a moment before fighting through it and enduring.

"Oh, right," the elder said for a moment before taking another puff. "You 4 have been recruited to find a legendary artifact of our people," the creature said before pulling out a stone relief that showed a strange roll of something upon it. "The Mythical Item called 'Duct Tape'," the creature said before taking another puff from it's vaporizer. It paused afterward and took the vaporizer apart only to pour more liquid inside of the vaporizer. Afterward, it took another couple of quick puffs before a look of satisfaction went across it's face.

"You must look far and wide for the legendary artifact in order to repair the fissure in the world. Yes, this artifact must be used to hold the world together," the creature said before nodding it's head.

"You can find the duct tape deep within the ancient ruins behind me. However, beware of the dangers that lay within as there is a creature so terrifying defending the artifact, that it may detour you from going in," the creature said before Anastasia jumped in.

"So, let me get this straight. We need to find Duct Tape to heal the world?" Anastasia said simply.

The creature took another deep breath inwards with a nod, releasing the white cloud back onto Ana's face. "Yes, pretty much. It is a band-aid for the world. However, you must dawdle as there are others trying to get the item as well. Creatures known as 'Tape Wraiths'. They are servants of the Dark Lord; Scotch that are sent to chase after the Duct Tape in order to get it's adhesive formula," the creature said once more before a loud sound of hissing could be heard from outside.

"Sounds like the Tape Wraiths are here," the creature said once more and took another puff. It didn't seem all that bothered by it's presence.

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And as soon as Ana had a chance to think of what to say to the elder next, Jessi broke into the hut holding a bottle of yellow liquid with the bottle bearing a pine-tree on it.  In a loud and boisterous manner, Jessi shouted And That's the Power of Pine-Sol, Baby!  Anastasia simply turned her head towards Jessi for a moment before it went back and forth with some invisible creature, expressing her hatred for it.  Anastasia and Taliya both blinked in disbelief and muddle.  "What exactly is going on, Ana?" Taliya asked before Anastasia shook her head, while keeping her eye on Jessi.  "I don't know, Taliya.  Just ignore it.  We'll understand," she said with a brief pause -- "some day."

And then it appeared that Jessi's arms vanished into thin-air, causing Anastasia to stop breathing for a moment.  She didn't understand what the hell is happening.  Did Jessi just lose her arms all of a sudden and she was playing a cruel joke?  Nope, because her arms returned with pictures of Heero.  This caused Anastasia to grumble and scowl at Jessi.  She knew who Heero was from watching him show-off during the Priory Invasion at Magnolia Town.  "Don't worry about who Heero is.  You're better off not knowing," she mentioned before turning to look towards the Elder for a moment and nodded her head.  "We're going to go into the ruins to find the 'duct tape'.  We'll be back," she said as she walked out of the hut with Taliya quickly following her only to see children kicking Almyra.

Fuming, Anastasia took a step forward before the kids were repelled for a brief moment and Nao removing the kick-me sign.  These wraiths, these tape-wraiths looked as small as the children.  If they weren't considered the 'enemy' they would kinda be adorable if not terrifying at the same time.  Ana stepped forward once more to continue to shoo the children away before turning her back to them and looked towards Almyra.  "Are you alright?  Those kids didn't bother you did they?" she asked her friend before feeling a pat on her back.  

As if, on queue, the children ran up to Ana and started to kick her in the shins.  "What the hell?" she asked as she danced around a bit to avoid the little feet hitting her shins.  Taliya simply sat back and laughed before a horde of kids started to kick her as well.  "C'mon, you brats!" she said before the black-colored Tape Wraiths started to swarm around and kick Ana and Taliya in the shins as well.  

Something was weird about these wraiths, they were wet, but they seemed to be kicking (literally).  She turned to look towards Nao for a moment with a shrug of her shoulders.  She felt another pat on the back before the kids started to grab at her chest.  In reflex, Ana covered herself before kicking the duct tape creatures hard enough to cause one to collapse into a heap.  One of the creatures fell to the ground and appeared flattened, as if the sticky sides on the inside pressed together.  The flattened wraith stood up and waddled away in a cartoony fashion.

But this didn't stop the local children from kicking them.  "Stop.  Seriously!  I'm ging to spank you brats," she said as she continued to dance around, all the while holding her chest and swatting away grabby hands.

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"Damn all of this duct-tape!" Anastasia said as she was trying to kick away all of the kids. She didn't use any force, but used her feet as a means of pushing the children away. Turning to look towards Taliya, Ana pulled something off of her back only for the kids to go away. "Taliya! Is there something on my back?" Ana asked, however, she didn't get a response. All Taliya did was drool seeing Nao's shirt slowly decay to show off his body for a brief moment, only for him to turn into a liquidized form. Wiping her mouth, she turned and took the tape off of Ana's back, causing the kids to go away.

Now they just had the annoying Tape Wraiths to deal with. Taliya saw one of the tape wraiths and punched at it, only for it to bounce back and stick to itself, forcing it down upon the ground, flailing about. She did this to the last remaining duct tape version; not knowing of the existence of the scotch tape version. Everything seemed to settle down for a moment before Ana sighed and collected herself. "Alright, let's go into the ruins so we can," Anastasia said for a moment before pausing. A giant ball of tape came from the ruins and simply rolled down the hill passed everyone. The massive boulder was taller than she was, rolling down hill. The locals seemed to move out of the way and cheered it on as if it was a daily occurence.

"What the hell is wrong with this town?" Ana asked before turning to the group. A little grumble came out of her lips before she removed her uniform top, revealing her tight black shirt underneath and tossed it to Nao so he could wear it. Something about Nao topless was extremely distracting; not only for Taliya but for Anastasia as well. Holding her chest, still having not bought a decent pair of bras, she looked to the rest of the group.

"Let's go inside of the cave and get this duct tape," she said before letting out an annoyed grumble. "I swear, if there is someone guarding that duct tape, I'm going to be pissed," she said before turning her shoulders and walking towards the mouth of the ruins with Taliya following her. The inside of the ruins were as they were the last time they all romped and stomped in there. Still full of bullet holes and still full of explosions. The strange part was, the last time they were here, they didn't see any signs of this Duct Tape of the Ages. But, the elder requested it and so the elder will receive.

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And Tammy came rolling in on the ball of duct tape that Ana, Taliya, and the rest of the villagers avoided. Suddenly, the time was stated. Not the current time, but a seemingly random time. A look of annoyance came across Anastasia's face for a moment as Taliya inquired on what just happened. "Hell if I know, Taliya," she said as she simply walked away from the shenanigans of the ball of tape. Maybe things will make a bit more sense once they have entered the ruins just a bit more.

Nope, even more non-sense came about in the form of a squatter wearing matte-silver armor. The man's voice was silky smooth and mentioned being from Ductoria. Everything began to feel like a terrible filler episode. Wraiths made of duct tape, something slapping a kick-me sign on people's backs causing children to kick them, a man wearing duct tape armor from Ductoria. Everything seemed a bit too strange. This almost feels like it came from Jessi's imagination and we are merely pawns in her sick and twisted fantasy. But alas, they were in the real world and what is unfurling before them is actually happening.

And then Almyra was given the roll of tape to summon the man. At first, Ana would think that their journey was over now that Almyra had the roll of duct tape. But nooooo, that isn't the key item they were looking for. Of course, the treasure would be at the deepest level of the dungeon. After conversation with Silvere was completed, Ana attempted to speak with him once more, only to get silence.

"Well, I suppose we should go further in. After you, Almyra," the same look of annoyance still present on her face. "Try to keep up, Jessi and keep your eyes open for any of those boulders, alright?"