Elsewhere, during Zalroth and company’s sandy tumble, and across the ocean, a sprawling structure of intricately interlocked wood settled at the epicentre of the circular archipelago's tranquil waters, all hardened and merged into a single entity after years of fossilisation, forming an appearance functionally identical to a natural island.
The foundation of the connected construct swayed under the influence of the calm ocean waves, rocking the floor of the island's lone city ever so slightly. The calls of the ocean washed through the petrified floorboards like they were a flute, distilling the air with a calming tune. But, as the tune receded, an exacerbated gasp shot out from one of the sudo island's many marble buildings. The building in question was sizable compared to the others with a large archway and above said archway was a large stylized sign reading: Voyagers' League.
"What you mean he's on an expedition!" Sunoshuuzaki whined anxiously as she dramatically bounced on her floating sword, stomping her feet into the poor thing like a pouting child. The girl's whining rippled through the large populated hall of the Voyager's League, catching the attention of various voyagers but none daring to glance in the direction of the wailing.
(Sunoshuuzaki is a slightly tall kid-sized half-elf/half-foxiua with the appearance of a fourteen-year-old human; she has neck-low freakishly spikey velvet red hair with muted purple ends tied into a low ponytail shaped like an 8, pink eyes with purple diamond-shaped pupils, tanned skin, furry pointy elf-looking ears on the side of her head, a foot-long super fluffy/spikey velvet red fox tail, and a ruby-coloured marble triangle hovering behind her head)
(Shuuzaki is wearing a plain sleeveless muted purple shirt, a robe-like hip-low dark purple fur jacket adorned in cutesy pink human skulls, puffy pink shorts with a hooped golden chain on its left side, pink and purple striped knee-high leggings, and oval-shaped birch blocks under her feet)
(Shuuzaki's weapon is a comically large broadsword with a thick blade; it has a dark grey marble-looking blade covered in superficial cracks that give it the appearance of being cobbled together from small marble chunks, a royal blue metal handle with hollow diamond-shaped ends, a long tanned-leather-clad handle, and a diamond-shaped royal blue metal pummel)
"Because unlike some, he's willing to do jobs unrelated to fighting monsters," Zukia retorted aggressively, perching over the bar counter and bringing herself face-to-face with Shuuzaki. Shuuzaki shuttered and slinked back as Zukia glared her down, the weight behind her eyes sending shivers of terror through Shuuzaki. The once-pronounced girl went silent, taking a shaky step back on her floating sword but her ruffled nerves only allowed her to place the tip of her toes down.
(Zukia is an exactly eight and a half centimetre tall, half-pixie and half-luevion with the appearance of a young adult female human; she has super long fuzzy green hair with rouge red streaks darted around her hair with it tied behind her head styled to look like a book, a white right eye with a green sclera, a green left eye with a white sclera, tanned skin, a washboard chest, slightly wide hips, large transparent green and red butterfly wings, large transparent green and white butterfly wings, two white vine-like horns on her forehead, fuzzy white bunny ears, and a white rabbit tail)
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(Zukia is wearing a short classic-styled white maid dress, a rouge red flower face paint on her right cheek, a black one-piece swimsuit, sandals and the chain of her hand-sized book wrapped around her neck)
(Zukia has a hand-sized pale purple magical book with flat black flowers and a long red qi[particle-like energy] chain attached to the head of the book's spine)
"Hey... I'm willing," Shuuzaki murmured with a whimper, slithering back even further away from Zukia's advance. Zukia gave the girl a single unamused sigh, mustering every bit of restraint she could spare before standing up straight and correcting her outfit.
"That so? Then you'll gladly take a recon quest like Zalroth to check out a newly discovered ruin." At the mere mention of new and ruin in the same sentence, Shuuzaki's tail wagged. She managed to muster a few sways before going still as she made a decision. She swiftly swung a hand to her forehead and snapped into a rigid military salute with a stoic expression.
"Without complaint," Shuuzaki uttered meekly whilst her tail anxiously wrapped around the guard of her sword, a stark contrast to how the rest of her body portrayed itself.
"Lovely," Zukia stated calmly. With a minor smugness behind her tone, the pixie gave the fox-elf a playful squeeze to her ears, eliciting a reserved eep from Shuuzaki and destroying any remaining bravado she held. Before her friend could fully recover, Zukia reached into her small book and pulled out a card-sized tile from within its pages.
"You already assigned me?" Shuuzaki blurted out in a whisper, betrayal affixed to her words. She swiftly plucked the tile from Zukia's grasp and scoured its engraved quest, the sight of its contents alone caused her to flinch and dread. Her concentration faltered, dragging most of her focus to keep herself from exploding but in doing so she neglected to maintain the stability of her floating sword.
"Try Chronia," Zukia stated as Shuuzaki spotted Chronia's stamp of approval over the quest tile. The sight of such a stamp spelt nothing but doom for the foxy elf, bringing her to her knees atop her sword as she clung to her red-tipped ears.
"noooo.... that means twenty times the paperwork...," Shuuzaki cried quietly as her floating sword touched down on the floor at last, signifying her spirit had been fully crushed and resigning herself to mountains of paperwork.
[Is three pieces of paper really considered a mountain?]
[It is when the phrase "dumb as a brick" can't be applied to them]
[Glad that doesn't apply to me]
[... ... ...]
[Barely, Nuno]