#BUILT ONNA SWAMP

[puppy-kisu]

Manhattan will fall

[sumeru-academy]

M.U.S.E. Event Case 008. Ayaka Kamisato X Female Reader.

◇ Report submitted by: Moderator Chewie on ▇▇▇▇.

mention of malnutrition, vomit, gore.

CASE FILE.        MUSE-008

CLASS.               FUTAKUCHI-ONNA

SEVERITY.         7 / 10

DESCRIPTION. ▇▇▇▇ was killed today. The potent smell of blood had been hanging in the air for quite some time now, ▇▇▇▇ had become immune to the despair which hung over them.

You were unable to tell if the emotion you were feeling was raw excitement or anxiety so strong it was enough to skin you alive. Feeling worms crawl under your skin in a comforting way. Either way, you waited in front of the main office in anticipation, General Gorou had instructed you to come to the Inazuman Headquarters for your first assignment. You’d been stuck doing grunt work for a good year and a half. All the ruthless bootcamp training, the taste of mud still slimed its way into your tastebuds whenever you thought about it.

With a slight huff, you slid the shoji door. The general waited there in a formal hakama, eyes ahead to the empty space in front of him at the low table. A neatly folded piece of paper presented in front of you, your assignment. You shakily seated yourself in front of him with a determined, nervous, smile. He bowed to you, his eyes never wavering. You swallowed and bowed back. No words were exchanged when he slid the piece of paper over to you and stared into your eyes.

Quivering hands, the paper found its way to your fingers. You stood up and left the room.

You wanted to vomit out of fear and piss yourself from the excitement which mixed in your veins. As soon as you left the premises you couldn’t help but happily tap your feet against the floor in a tiny dance. A squeal left your lips as you danced around.

The worst thing about this entire experience was the fact you had to walk all the way there on your own, your poor two feet. It wasn’t all that far, perhaps only a couple days if you took minimal breaks.

You had walked through a grand total of 6 different villages. Each riddled with poverty and death, your chest aches in pity once you reach your destination. Mud huts are built with roofs made of straw and leaves of rice plants. Like most villages of poor wealth, the population consisted of a majority of women and young boys. Men were usually the first to die of over exhaustion in the fields and providing food. However, this village had one characteristic that made your stomach queasy, the place was swamped with the shogunate’s samurai.

Samurai never scared you particularly, you’d just needed to show them your identification as a MUSE soldier, and they would cause little trouble.

“Please let her go, she didn’t mean any harm!” one of the women screamed, a smaller girl with white hair trapped within the first of a much larger man covered in traditional armor.

Your mind raced, before you could process the information you were already standing in front of the pair. Legs apart with your stance clearly ready to take arms.

“Would you be so kind as to let the young woman go?” Your hushed voice was hardly above a whisper, but it was enough to get the attention of the woman and the samurai manhandling her.

He spat at you, “You lot are always getting in somebody else's business, I really hate you M.U.S.E dogs. Why don’t you do us all a favor and behead this woman here, she’s just as much of a monster as what you’re used to slaying.”

You unsheathed the longsword presented on your back, “I’m allowed to hurt you if you interfere with my job. I need to interview this woman regarding the strange events happening here, please step aside.”

Deep down, you knew you weren’t physically capable to take him on, nothing but the organization’s name to use against him. The samurai realized that this was more trouble than it was worth, with a scoff, he shoved the woman to the floor and walked away from the scene.

“Ayaka!” the bystander rushed to the young woman’s side, her hand resting on her back as she regained her posture.

“Miss Chisato…” the woman dubbed Ayaka whispered.

Her attention was directed towards you. Acidic bile spilled from your lips and onto the dirt road, your legs shook violently you could hardly stand. The two women rushed to your side.

“Ma’am? Are you okay?” Ayaka asked, you used your knees as stands for your hands.

You shook your head, “No, but… It’ll be fine. I just have to wait for this anxiety to subside.”

“Please let me treat you to tea at my home, it’s the least I could do,” Ayaka insisted with a hand on your shoulder, “I-I really think you should get some food in you, you’re clearly malnourished.”

This was the perfect opportunity to get more information about your assignment, although you felt bad for taking up this poor young woman’s time, you needed to start somewhere.

Your assignment was Futakuchi-Onna, an Inazuman yokai which married girls and young adults. The yokai shall possess the victim's head, creating a mouth upon the back of the scalp, and eat an ungodly amount of food. All of the food consumed by the victim goes directly into feeding the demon, the victim will slowly starve to death. The only way to truly purge the yokai is to kill the victim before it finishes the cycle of death.

Which means, soon enough, human blood would taint your hands.

Chisato bared her goodbyes with a small bow, and Ayaka led her to her humble estate.

“Have you heard anything about the food supply dropping dramatically? I’m here to investigate the cause,” you openly admitted, “You see, this is my very first real assignment, and I’m nervous out of my mind.”

Ayaka was too beautiful to describe with English words. Hair as white as snow, sparkling with a blue hue in the sunlight with dazzling navy eyes which pulled you into her world. Her smile was welcoming and made your stomach churn with excitement. You felt like vomiting again. Her home was… Charming. It was one of the larger huts, she stated because it was her brother who was the head of the rice planting farmers. The kanji for Kamisato was engraved into the flat wooden plank outside the gates of their property. The house was one of the few houses made of wood and bamboo. Ayaka welcomed you into her estate and brewed your tea.

“Tell me,” You started, watching her light the fire to the furnace, “Your brother is the head of the farmers here correct? Why don’t you move to one of the wealthier villages instead?”

She didn’t answer you right away, not until the flame had ignited and began to eat the fuel.

A sigh escaped from her pale lips, “Why would we? We have everything we want here.”

Her hands shook as she handled the iron kettle atop the furnace, her thin wrist peeking out of her worn kimono. It was obvious she was malnourished. You never answered her, instead you patiently wanted for her to prepare you tea.

“Why was the samurai treating you so harshly?” Ayaka visibly flinched when you asked her the question.

You were both sitting at her low table, with no pillows present. You sat on your knees and slowly consumed the tea she had presented you with.

She looked to the ground and traced shapes into the worn tatami mats, “Well, my brother is in debt to the family who sent the samurai to the village. He was meant to pay his dues today, but because he’s been working in the fields so much, he hasn’t been able to make an appearance lately…”

That’s strange, you didn’t recall seeing any rice patties near the location. The fields couldn’t be as large to be keeping a man overnight working, especially if there’s other men working out there. Her story didn’t add up, but you nodded and played along anyways. You left the area with your kind regards to Ayaka and slept under a tree right outside the village.

Still unable to see the rice fields that Ayaka spoke of.

You woke up hardly able to breathe, having to chew and swallow the humid air. It had begun to rain early that afternoon. You met with Ayaka once again, heart racing more than usual, your jaw clenched when she spoke to you.

“You’ll get a cold if you stay in the rain for too long, come join me under my umbrella. There’s plenty of room,” Ayaka told you, lifting up her blue paper umbrella and offering some space towards you without getting wet herself.

“As a M.U.S.E employee, I am trained to tolerate this sort of weather. Please don’t worry about it.”

“Nonsense, your face is getting all red, I’ll run you a bath at my home…”

Her insistence was adorable, your cheeks red as they burned with embarrassment. You found yourself getting off a small high when you caught her flowery smell once you had stood next to her under the sunshade. Your heart raced, but your chest never hurt like anxiety had made it ache. Your hands trembled but you were comfortable.

She escorted you to her home and ran you a bath, just as she said she would. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d had a bath, the warm water sunk into your skin as if you were a sponge. When you had gotten out, she’d lent you a nicer kimono that was a little too big for you.

“You see, you’re much larger than me, this is a kimono that my brother had grown out of. You may wear it,” she insisted, her hands peeking through the shoji screen which separated the bathroom to a hallway.

The kimono was uncomfortable, clearly low-quality silk but you were in no position to complain. For some ungodly reason, the brief smell of iron was presented upon the fabric. It made your stomach hurt unreasonably, the smell of blood bringing back the memories of the harsh boot camps which you were forced to go through. You trembled, breathing quickened, you rushed back into the bathroom and vomited into the bucket you had used to wash yourself with previously. Without a sound, you opened the window above the bath and dumped the bucket of vomit outside into the garden. A pang of guilt stabbed at your core; you brushed it off.

You excited the room and looked for Ayaka, your heart racing just at the thought of seeing her again. She was preparing the furnace to heat up another kettle of tea.

“Oh, (Y/N)! You’re here, I hope you enjoyed your bath,” her voice chipper, the kettle shook in her hands.

Your chest ached, “Do you think that your brother will mind me wearing his old clothes?”

“No, he’s very kind. It’s not like he’s around to care either.”

Her tone dropped an octave, every nerve in your body told you she was dangerous. Her smile was so welcoming, and she made your body feel as if it were set ablaze. The heartfelt way she’d brew tea and serve you rice crackers made you feel loved. You didn’t know that this feeling would be so wonderful, and you desperately wanted to express yourself to her, but you had no clue on where to start.

What if she thought you were weird? You’d only known her for a few days, and the lifestyle of a M.U.S.E employee didn’t have room for fickle things like love. Your imagination drifted as she ranted to you about the samurai, how cute she’d look in a formal kimono welcoming you home from a long mission. How adorable she’d be when she would come up to you and kiss you on the cheek and hug you in order to welcome you home.

Her cheeks puffed out, “You don’t care do you?”

A smidge of panic had set in once she had caught you daydreaming, “I do, the warm bath is just making me a little sleepy is all.”

“I have a remedy for that, scoot close to me.”

You did just that, sitting right by her side. It felt so natural to be around her.

“Lay your head in my lap, I’ll comb your hair as you sleep.”

Oh. You couldn’t think or breathe. Was this truly some fantasy coming to life? You held your breath as she guided your head to her soft legs, your hair was still a little damp, did she mind? Ayaka’s legs were ungodly skinny, and you could feel her bones under the thin layer of fat and muscle which covered her skeleton. She’d been so adamant about you resting, so how could you deny it? You allowed your body to relax, although it wasn’t the most comfortable pillow you fell asleep with her fingers in her hair massaging your scalp. The warm waves of sleep washed over you, feeling the high of her smell starting to sink in.

Ayaka felt disgusted with herself as you laid in her lap. She was so hungry, hungry for you. The back of her skull opened up into a mouth which stank of blood, gore of the most recent kill reeking from its oral cavity. Her white hair moved as if it were the tentacles of some underwater beast, soft sobs escaped her lips but you laid still. The stink of the kill filled your senses, adrenaline rushed through your body as you had dodged the viscous hair follicles with last minute precision. Sparkling tears decorated Ayaka’s wonderful face, she looked as if she were a doll made of China.

The instinct to run away made your legs move before you could even think, you rushed into the brutal downpour which was Inazuma storms. You had no shoes, your feet cold and sticky with mud and heart racing. You stopped at the entry gate and looked back at the Kamisato estate. Moments spent in the pouring rain, your heart ached for Ayaka to return to your line of sight, she never showed. Not even to close the door you had rudely left open in your panic. You abandoned your uniform and your sword inside the home, walking barefoot to the tree you had slept under previously. It provided little to no shelter, but you sat and daydreamed soaked to the bone with the numbness the cold rain gave you. You find comfort in the warmth of Ayaka, you cry to yourself. You plead to an unknown God to allow you to think of a different way to kill the yokai, you cried and sobbed into the void of the downpour. You wanted to scream, so badly, but you had no energy.

You found yourself in your sorrows, when a blonde man approached you. He was of a shorter stature, with a streak of red in his hair and melancholy eyes. He wore a layered yukata with reds and browns, dashes of yellow presented onto the fine silk, reminding you of the autumn trees. His paper umbrella was an ombre shade.

“Your kimono. Where did you get it from?” His voice was husky.

Your gaze was focussed onto the ground, staring at his kimono sandals, “Kamisato Ayaka, it’s originally from her brother, Kamisato Ayato.”

Ayaka’s voice was engraved in your mind, every story of her brother and her parents. Her praises about her amazing family. The modesty with her in that large home, all alone.

“You stole it?”

“No, Kamisato gave it to me,” your voice was monotone to a point you surprised yourself.

He hummed, but you couldn’t hear it over the roar of the rain.

“I am Kaedehara Kazuha, I’m a local, and I saw you run out of Kamisato’s estate. Am I to assume that you fell for Ayaka’s little performance too?”

His wording ignited something inside you that you’d never felt before. Before you could even think you were standing up before him. Face to face with the man you asked him to repeat the words he had just spoken.

“She’s been the reason for all of the recent disappearances, but because nobody has gotten indisputable evidence we can’t exactly just kill her. Her family is also one of the largest patrons for many of the farmers here, since her brother disappeared we haven’t had anybody to go to.” Kazuha’s explanation made you queasy, “You must be new, considering the townspeople talk way too much. There’s a M.U.S.E soldier in the village as of now, hopefully the issue will be solved sooner than later.”

Your hands trembled, as you had realized the weight of the situation. Ayaka never cared for you, she only made it look that way so she could lure you in and kill you. Your chest ached, you started to cry again. Kazuha offered no comfort as he nodded and trailed away at your miserable form.

You called out her name in a weary desperation.

Ayaka had never felt more guilty in her life. It ate at her stomach just as the demon ate at her spirit and soul. She let out a shaky exhale as it had spoken to her. In her head, it’s voice rang out, asking her if she really wanted to continue living. If you wish to continue, it seethed, you must bring me the flesh of a human. Stale rice and tangy tea will not suffice any longer. Stuck inside her home, alone, she had finally found someone that would allow her to trust them. To take care of. Ever since the devouring of her brother she’d hardly been able to handle the isolation inside the cold manor, when you came along you were like the sun.

You were so kind to her, so nervous, so perfect.

You were also the one who would take her head, no matter what.

It has been a whole week, and the village samurai were beginning to debate if they should kill you or not. You’d been threatened more times than you could count, held down with a blade to your neck. Ayaka was too terrified to look you in the eye, the demon in her head feeling the irrational fear whenever you were within ten feet of her. You’d managed to get your uniform and sword back, it was wrinkled and worn.

In the townsquare you stood in front of her, finally able to see her face which was engraved in your mind.

“Kamisato,” the way her surname fell from your lips felt like acid against her eardrums, “I don’t want to kill you.”

Ayaka could feel her face heating up, her mind was running wild. In the heat of the tension she couldn’t focus on your words nor the weight of your tone. All she knew is that she missed your voice. She wanted to invite you to her home, one last time, kiss you softly, and let the demon kill her while in your arms.

“Kamisato, you were one of the few people in this small dainty town that showed me kindness, there is only one way to repay that kindness.”

The youngest Kamisato’s voice was hushed when she spoke, “How?”

“I will kill the thing that is plaguing you. I don’t know how, but I’ll do it.”

A voice in Ayaka’s head screamed and then laughed.

You guided her to a shrine that was three kilometers away, almost two miles. Most of the journey she is on your back with your arms supporting her legs and arms wrapped around your neck. You needed to get this thing out of her, she was too precious to kill. The shrine was worn down, with no shrine maidens or any sort of name, but you had most of the tools used for a small ritual in an attempt to kill it. You surrounded her in sared salts in the center of the shrine hall, having her drink the water from the sacred wells. There was nothing, you simply weren’t trained in this field.

Your throat was sore with terror, Ayaka sitting so wonderfully in the center of the circle with an unwavering smile.

“Close your eyes for me,” she followed your request with no questions.

You stepped inside the circle of salt, as quietly as you could you unsheathe the sword which laid on your hip now. A hand on her head to keep her still. You took a breath in.

“I love you,” she whispered.

3.

2.

1.

Blood filled your vision, the sword cut cleanly through her delicate neck. It sprayed you in your face and you got crimson liquid inside your mouth. Her head fell to the floor and spazzed wildly. The demon died inside her brain allowing her to feel the life slip away from her. You choked on the thick taste of iron; the blood spray decorated your white dress shirt with a vibrant auburn.

Her body fell to the left, hitting your feet. You kicked her limpness off of you and turned in order to vomit onto the shrine’s wooden floors. Her lovely smile still was implanted into her face, her cheeks stuck into the position forevermore. Ayaka, while she was alive, anticipated you’d finally allow her the sweetness of death. She would not be able to participate in the feasts of the God’s, being able to feel what it was like to be full of food again. Able to see her brother again.

The thoughts made you sob harder, the smell rushed to your nose making you hurl even more.

Your entire body shook violently. Hardly able to stand.

Scrambling to find the wall of the structure, you’d sit down and cup your face. Fingers going to your hair and pulling at the roots as you rocked back and forth. Your heart beating wildly and the stink of blood and acid were the only things your senses could memorize.

There, you sat.

Never to be found again within the abyss of insanity.

[talenlee]

Wizards of the Coast Employees, this article is going to feature custom card designs.

Goodness me, this project took some time. The opening documents you’ve read so far have all been done, weeks, no, almost months in advance, but as I sit here and pen this, it’s only two weeks before it goes up – and my goodness it has been a time to get this project finished.

First, let’s introduce you to the cards, and then we’ll talk some afterwards.

The Full Spoiler

Presented here is a full gallery of this set.

White cards

Blue Cards

Black Cards

Red Cards

Green Cards

Hybrid Cards

Colorless and Lands

Staying The Same

There’s a lot you might notice is just a straight up port from Kamigawa. I tried, as much as I could, to make every single card as similar to its earlier incarnation as I could, and in many cases that meant a straight up copy. With more and more cards coming from their earlier incarnations, that meant they slowly filled out slots. Eventually all I was doing was printing existing cards with less onerous mana costs, or spreading them into two colours where they were pretty decent versions in each colour. Oyobi, for example, was a perfectly acceptable Big Awkward Flier, that in red plays into a spell theme and in white plays into an army theme.

Old Kamigawa was a draft set of your old school, with the same third-set problem most sets had. White was built around a 1/2 defensive flier and a 2/2 offensive flier, and that meant that the second and third set had to introduce more fliers like that, when really they just wanted you to have more chances to draft [mtg_card]Mothrider Samurai[/mtg_card]. The same was true of green, where there were just too many big dumb idiots designed to hold the ground, and two or three cards that wanted to try and fill the role of [mtg_card]Kami of the Hunt[/mtg_card].

Cycle Maintenance

It wasn’t all frustrating recognitions of my own limits. There were also opportunities to make some cycles feel more lined up.

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The Epic spells previously had three cards that cared about what’s in a library, and two that didn’t. These new versions don’t have the keyword any more, and there’s some formatting oddness on Undying Flames (hey, it’s an open-source program), but I really like these designs.

Another cycle that I was able to change in a way I find more aesthetically pleasant is the Onna:

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In this case, they have an increasing mana cost – 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 – and a consistant body size. I really like this cycle, especially with the new flavour for the Kemuri-Onna – a woman who would lure people into the fog where they’d get lost.

What Didn’t Fit

There are a few themes and cycles that I couldn’t make work here, in the time frame and limitations I had. I was also building to try and leave space for a second set, the Champions of Kamigawa, to

The Maros! There’s a cycle from Saviors of Kamigawa of cards that have power and toughness equal to the cards in your hand, and they do extra stuff that express their colours. I really like them, and they’d probably be costed differently if printed today. They might get to appear in the next set.

The Patrons! Since the tribes are mono-colour, their spirit patrons would want to be as well.

Toshiro Umezawa! Here’s a big one – I simply couldn’t find the space to put Toshiro in without binning an existing black card that I feel is just as important to the story as Toshiro. Kiku and Marrow-Gnawer are both important hyozan reckoners, and Kiku is there to work with her Shadow. Still, Maga was necessary for the Heartbeat deck.

It’s not so bad though because Toshiro is an easy auto-include in the next set, and a total dick so it isn’t like you miss much without him.

All the demons! Yeah, demons are red and black, so they don’t really fit in the hybrid black-white and green-black spaces, which meant the ogres that care about demons all had to be shifted to the next set.

Then as for the cards that could be made to represent underserved characters? Almost none of them got in. Uyo – who is one of the most important characters in the novels – and the bulk of the actual characters from the novels. No Kubo! The Hyozan Reckoners themselves! Boss Uramon!

Changes From The Design

One perk that I almost ran with was that the shift to multicolor as our Kami trigger meant some cards could be rethemed as hybrid, and I almost did that with the Shrines. In the end the only card that got this treatment proper was [mtg_card]Promise of Bunrei[/mtg_card], but you could definitely hybrid pair the shrines with this design idea. The reason I kept them as they were is because hybrid shrines require slightly different effects.

The Planeswalkers are both all total fabrications, and the part of the design I think have the most room to give. If I was handing this set over to development I’d happily tell them to change the planeswalkers to be whatever the colours needed, since they’re all basically queer-signalling mythic figures from Japanese myth, chosen because they were what Genzoman had done art of.

There’s not a lot of flavour text! Some cards that were Very Busy got less busy, and I’m just not big on writing new flavour text. Especially since in this case, the flavour would want things like haiku – I tried writing one and it’s not very good so we move on.

Also, some cards just can’t work under the design needs I had. Without changing names, creature types, or art, there are some oddball cards that really shouldn’t be there but it’s kind of hard to do them any other way. Seizan, Perverter of Truth is used here to show a kami that feasts on corpses in a poisoned swamp, giving tainted knowledge, for example, so the name doesn’t quite work any more, and Sire of the Storms just shouldn’t be a no-strings flier. If I had art of that Sire on the ground, I might make it hexproof or something else. The Kodama of the North Tree also suffered – I couldn’t bring myself to make it a straight rip of its original 6/4 form with hexproof, because that’s very efficient beef. Hopefully the lost point of toughness makes it more fragile and means blue has to more aggressively protect it.

What Comes Next

My plan for the next set would be to produce an ally paired set; this lets you dig into more familiar ground, enable mono-colour spirit decks (as they can draw from both ally and enemy colour pairings), and make more staple spirits than oddball spirits. You could also include O-Kagachi in this set, and add the protector spirits (the Maros and the Kamigawa death-trigger dragons).

But that’s more of a thought exercise – not one I’m going to do. I mean jesus christ look at this.

MTG: Kamigawa Revamp, Part 5: Betrayers of Kamigawa Wizards of the Coast Employees, this article is going to feature custom card designs. Goodness me, this project took some time.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 33)

Note: Ooops. I just learned that Kuchinashi is actually SOUTH of Mistral, not North, where Hoshiko is meant to be. I already corrected it to Wind Path, sorry for any sort of geographic confusion. The irony is that they’re actually learning geography for this chapter.

Oh well.

I also apologize for the excess of exposition that apparently wasn’t delivered very elegantly. I have plans for action and the return of the plot, and the villain next chapter. You’ll also finally get to see Snowie, Nick, and Freya in action.

With Akko’s guidance, Ruby’s super-speed, and the many, many, many mechanisms Nick had installed in the obstacle course to move materials and people around easily, they were done in little less than fifteen minutes. Granted, it was a very simple, small topic—a very general overview of the geography of Mistral, fit for a student just entering grade school—but it boded well for their future experimenting if the preparations were this simple and speedy.

All they really needed to do now was see how it actually worked.

The three of them stood at the top of a tower just a little higher up and to the right of the center of the obstacle course, a printed tarpaulin of the city of Mistral behind them, with a painted sign of a compass nearby.

Akko looked at Ruby and Diana in turn, smiling. “You guys ready to take a trip all throughout Mini-Mistral…?” she asked.

“Yes,” Diana replied. “Where to first?”

“Where else?” Akko said. “To Hoshiko!” she cried, doing the familiar pose, before she ran up a bridge nearby. “Thanks to the fact that we pass through a lot of mountain ridges and vallyes, what do we have to use to get there…?”

“An airship,” Diana replied as she and Ruby followed, looking at the models of Mistralian airships set up on the railings, their rotors and wings gently flapping with the breeze.

“And to where, exactly…?” Akko said, smiling as she walked backwards to the next tarpaulin.

“Wind Path!” Ruby cried cheerfully.

“And what three things is Wind Path famously known for...?” Akko said as she picked up a box, flipped open the lid and pulled items out.

“Being the biggest shipping and trading center here in Mistral!” Akko said as she pulled out a PLUCKO block in the shape of a cargo container.

“The biggest and best equipped shipyards in all of the kingdom, beating even the capital city!” she continued with a fully-constructed PLUCKO block set depicting just that.

“And of course: airship tourism!” she finished with a fully-constructed PLUCKO block of a cruise airship, complete with little PLUCKO People riding at the top, raising their arms up as if cheering, smiles on their panted plastic faces.

Akko tossed them all back into the box, you could hear the little PLUCKO people on tour meeting their tragic end at a disastrous crash involving an airship yard, and a wayward shipping container. She put the box back down, and went up a climbing net. “Now, what do you have to cross on your way to Northern Anima?” she called out as she started turning a crank at the top, powering the fans sitting on the sides.

“Vast mountain ranges, difficult to settle for the constant, powerful, and chilling snowstorms!” Diana cried out as she and Ruby climbed after her, shivering for the cold air blowing.

“Also the Yuki-Onna hiding in those storms!” Ruby added.

“And what mountain town managed to do just that, even if it’s tiny?” Akko asked as she stopped cranking, scrambled up after them.

“Hoshiko!” Ruby cheered as they made it to the top, pointing at the little tiny wooden model of a village on the edge of the platform.

“Yes!” Akko said. “Now, we’ve hit the snowy, cold north of Anima!” she said, pointing at the patches of cotton “snow” and cardboard “mountains” they’d hung from or nailed on the trees, the branches, and the platforms. “Now, what’s the one major settlement that’s survived all these decades?

“Hestia.” Diana replied.

“Which is built…?” Akko asked, waggling her eyebrows as she crawled into a cardboard box “tunnel.”

“Underground and into the mountain range it’s in, just like the Bunker!” Ruby said as she cheerfully followed after her.

Diana hesitated for a moment, before she sighed, and crawled in after them.

“And what is Hestia also called, unofficially…?” Akko said as she held up a lapel pin of Atlas’ insignia.

“Little Mantle, because of its large immigrant population from Solitas, and also because it was the forefront of the Anima-Solitas trade route,” Diana replied. “The first step for imports into this continent, and the last step for exports out of it, also.”

“And what three things is the city best known for…?” Akko said as she picked up a new box.

“Technology!” Ruby cried as she pulled out a little model of a Hestian drilling machine. “Oh, man, I know the very best comes from Atlas, but Hestia just can’t be beat for creativity!”

“Traditional metalworking, also,” Diana said as she picked up a tiny, tin pot with a lid. “Weapons and tools, mostly, but their cooking tools are prized today still.”

“Which is all powered by…?” Akko held out the box to them, let them see what was taped to the inside of it.

“Hot springs and geothermal plants, alongside their ample dust deposits,” Diana said as she looked at the laminated poster of one of Hestia’s largest and most popular spas.

They put the items back in the box, Akko set it down, and started walking around the platform. “Now, name three things the settlements outside of Hestia are known for!” she said, gesturing around them and at the laminated pictures hanging off the trees, or props resting by their feet.

“Temples and religious sites, some of which are still worshiping and practicing today...” Diana said as she looked up at a branch, found a wooden model of one such location nestled in it.

“Yaks, sheep, and goats!” Ruby cried, picking up and hugging plushies of them. “Oh my gosh, all their milk is so good, and their cheeses are so different and delicious from regular cow’s, too!”

“Some of the finest textile work and clothes to have ever come out of Mistral, too,” Diana said, rubbing a cut-out square of a rug between her fingers. Her eyes widened. “Oh… damn, is this 100% authentic wool…?”

“These are so soft, oh my gosh!” Ruby cried as she nuzzled the plushies.

“All of Winter’s plushies and the rug, yeah!” Akko said. “But anyway, we need to go down to North-West Anima from the snowy mountain peaks! And how do we do that…?” she asked, slapping a laminated picture at the top of tube slide.

“Sleds.” Diana replied.

“Bingo!” Akko said, shooting her finger guns, before she entered the slide and held onto the sides. “All aboard, everyone!”

Ruby eagerly got behind her, Diana shook her head before she brought up the rear. Down they went, making a few turns before they hit a cushion at the bottom. Diana winced at the squishy, wet, disgusting sound it made as they stepped on it.

“Welcome to North-West Anima, everyone!” Akko said as they trudged through the simulated sludge, squishy bags of goop inside tires laid on their sides. “Now, what the hell are we stepping on right now?”

“Ugh, I’m guessing the uninhabitable bogs full of industrial run-off, just at the foot of the mountains...” Diana groaned. “Goodness, did you REALLY have to make the sound this awful?”

“The worse it is, the better I remembered it, sorry!” Akko said as they finally climbed off, found themselves in a “mangrove swamp” mostly made out of cardboard, rope “vines” and plastic “insects” dangling from the branches above them. “So, quick question: are there any major cities here? yes or no.” she asked as she came to a wooden sign that had the question printed on it.

“No.” Diana replied.

Akko whipped out the bar that had been hiding the answer: “No.” She read out the question just underneath it: “What are the three major reasons why?”

“High humidity,” Ruby replied as looked around and found a picture of a breeze full of water droplets. “Wood, leather, machines especially—they’d all warp or rust super fast because of all the moisture in the air. Not to mention you’d feel all gross and sticky on really hot days.”

“The very geography of the location, too,” Diana said as she weaved her way around the treacherous ground, avoiding stepping on more of the simulated-bog. “It was hard to get anywhere by vehicle, necessitating long, dangerous treks on foot...”

She looked up, yelped as she saw the gaping maws of an alligator.

“The animals, too!” Ruby said, giggling as she worked the hinge of the wooden alligator head, making its jaws snap noisily a few times. “Just as, if not more dangerous than the Grimm there!”

Diana glared at her, Akko hopped and skipped her way across the swamp with the calm, practiced motions of someone who’d done it hundreds of times before. She picked up another box of goodies, and opened it up. “Why do people keep living here still, though?” she asked. “You know, aside from getting away from the major cities?”

“Botany,” Diana said, picking up a dried sample of a swamp flower in a case. “So many exotic, and valuable herbs you really won’t find anywhere else...” she said with a wistful look.

“Animals again!” Ruby said as she picked up a bone knife wrapped in an alligator skin sheath. “Dead and skinned for armour, weapons, accessories, though.”

“And finally, alchemy,” Diana said as she picked up a doll with a lab coat and wild, gray hair. “No better place for such a laboratory, especially with experiments you’d rather the Council doesn’t know.”

“Great! Now, let’s go, WAY further down, to South-West Anima!” Akko said, fighting her way through a curtain of “vines” and more of those simulated bogs, to a platform with sandbags, cardboard “tropical trees,” with three tarpaulins smaller scattered about than the one large one.

“Where are we now…?” Akko asked excitedly.

“The South-West Isles!” Ruby cheered.

“And what are the three most important settlements here…?” Akko said, pointing in three different directions.

“Mayari, Varuna, and Amil,” Diana replied.

“And what do all three of them export to the rest of Mistral…?” Akko said, holding up another box.

“Fruits and fish!” Ruby said, picking some strawberries up. “Aww, plastic…”

“Yeah, we used to put real ones in, but then it got too expensive and sometimes I’d forget about them and they’d go bad,” Akko said. “Anyway…?” more shaking the box.

“Spices,” Diana said, picking up an empty box of curry powder.

“And finally…?”

“Medicine,” Diana replied, picking up one of their famous pouches for herbs and cures. “My family had great use of them, for research and daily work both.”

“And Remnant’s all the better because of them,” Akko said as she climbed onto a boat hanging in the air. “Now let’s set sail, sail across the sea to South Anima!”

Ruby and Diana climbed aboard, Akko cranked the wheel, powering a fan that blew their sail, and more importantly, the gears that’d send the boat to the platform on the other side. “Whoo!” Akko gasped as they hit “land” again. “Now where are we…?”

“Elysium, where else?” Diana said as they began to step out, she looked at the mountain ranges, vast seas and harbours, even a Hoplite’s helmet hanging off one of the branches.

“Exactly!” Akko said, taking in a few breaths before she continued. “And what is Elysium famous for…?” she said, pulling up another box and opening it.

“I got this: weapons, warfare, and martial prowess!” Ruby cried. “They were the most militaristic and the most advanced in the kingdom, with some of the best, most famous, and intricate designs for traditional methods, even today!” she squealed as she pulled out a toy replica of an Elysian spear. “Sorry, I just REALLY love Elysium weapon designs!”

As Ruby fawned over that, Diana picked up a plastic cornucopia. “Agriculture also—they couldn’t have fielded their massive armies and their constant campaigns if they couldn’t feed them.”

“And finally…?”

“Architecture, like the original campus of Sanctum, before they moved it closer to Mistral, the city!” Ruby said as she put the spear down, picked up a wooden model of one of Elysium’s famous fighting pits.

“Bonus round!” Akko said as she came up to a shrouded picture on a tree. “Who’s the four-time champion of Mistral’s annual regional tournaments, also known as the girl on the cover of Pumpkin Pete’s...?”

“Pyrrha Nikos!” Ruby cheered.

“Correct!” Akko said, pulling the cloth away to reveal a framed and signed picture of Pyrrha, one of the mass-produced copies. “Now, let’s move!” she cried as she went up a rope. “Up the mountain ranges, down them again, through the inhospitable deserts of South-East Mistral until finally we’re at...”

“Caldera,” Diana said, squinting as the canopy above them broke, the bright mid-morning sun shining down gleefully on them.

Akko handed her and Ruby sunglasses, she made do with putting her hand over her eyes. “And what do you find that’s worth trekking into this land of constant volcanic activity, earthquakes, and scorching heat by day, freezing cold by night…?” she said as she picked up that section’s box.

“Gemstones and minerals!” Ruby said, picking up a handful of plastic gems. “Great for focuses for industrial cutting lasers, lenses for scopes, and really durable metals for armour and weapons.”

“Exotic delicacies,” Diana said, smiling as she picked up an empty, partially rusting tin for sugar skulls. “The ‘scorched earth’ is surprisingly friendly to plants and native animals.”

“Oh, hey, Tezca!” Ruby said, pulling up a long-empty bottle of Tezcatzontecati. “Uncle Qrow loves this stuff! Well, he loves all alcohol in general, but this is one of his favourite brands.”

Akko took the items back, before she wiped the sweat off her brow. “Let’s get out of here, it’s getting really hot out here!”

They headed back to the shade, and into a hollow carved out of a tree, a storage area that had one of the large tarpaulins hung on its wall.

“Kuchinashi, of course,” Diana said as they started looking around. “I suppose it’s not all conveniently inside a box this time, to keep in line with the city’s reputation for secrecy…?”

“Mhmm!” Akko said. “So, what is it known for…?”

“Kage!” Ruby cried as she pulled out a cloth roll of fake weapons. “Graceful. Discreet. Deadly. Lethal poisons; designs made for precise, killing blows delivered onto unsuspecting targets; trickery and deceit, all the essential tools for any super-secret, super-awesome SHADOW-ASSASSIN!” she made a sound that Diana supposed was her imitating the noises the supposedly silent warriors made in action movies.

“The birthplace of the Shadow Council, the secret cabal of criminals, smugglers, and slaves that sought to undermine the Emperor during the Great War...” Diana said as she pulled out an imitation of one of their infamous “Seikyo” scrolls, a courtesy they extended to those they assassinated or overthrew shortly after. “Currently running Mistral’s criminal underworld, if the rumours are to be believed.”

She noticed another scroll nearby. “And finally… the lyrics to Senbonzakura?” she asked as she rolled it out.

“To represent the songs they used for secret messages, signals, and getting people angry at Mantle, yeah,” Akko said.

“I got that, but why this, and not one of the more popular songs?”

“Weiss sang it her first time entering the Tsukimi Festival, I helped her write out the lyrics in Tenjin, help her pronounce it,” Akko replied.

“Well...” Diana muttered. “That certainly explains the quality of the calligraphy...” she said as she carefully rolled it up, and returned it where she found it.

“Try not to mention that song, or ask if she’s joining this year, by the way,” Akko said. “The Tsukimi Festival is where Aqua and her met, and, well, you already know what happened...”

“Noted,” Diana said.

“Any other topics we should avoid?” Ruby asked.

“Nothing that I haven’t already taught you,” Akko replied. “Now come on, let’s head back to Mistral!”

They came back to the platform they started in, sweating and a little winded. “And that concludes our tour of Mini-Mistral!” Akko said, before she sat down, reached for the box of snacks and water they had left there earlier. “So, how do you guys like my study method?”

“Well...” Diana said as she cracked open a bottle of water. “I can certainly see why it was effective for someone as active and energetic, and ah, constantly craving for variety as you, though I’m afraid we might need to find a different method—this is just too much work, space, and materials...” she muttered before she drank some water.

“Not exactly!” Ruby said as she pulled out her scroll, wrote down some new notes. “This is basically just the Mind Palace, except you construct it in real life, right?”

Diana’s eyebrows rose, she put her bottle down and looked around them. “… Huh. Now that you mention it, it is that.” She frowned. “How did I miss that…?”

“We’ll think about it later!” Ruby said, still scribbling. “What’s important is that I know how we’re probably going to miniaturize, and reduce the costs of this!”

“I’m all ears!” Akko said.

“Akko: you memorize all these facts and names by remembering the order you came across them, right?” Ruby asked. “You know that Hestia is up north because it’s after Wind Path and Hoshiko, and where all the other places are depending on what passed by first?”

“Mhmm!” Akko said. “It’s like how you know you’re close or far from home or a store—you haven’t or have crossed a street, or see one of the landmarks.”

“You know, usually, most people just construct mind palaces with their imaginations, not a simulation of it in real life...” Diana muttered.

“Ah, sorry, I was just always more the hands-on kind of learner…” Akko replied. “It’s why I really don’t like lectures and reading assignments: there’s not much for me to do!”

They spent the next few minutes in silence, either resting and catching their breaths from all the running and activity earlier, or helping Ruby brainstorm and refine her ideas.

“… And, done!” Ruby said as she slipped her quill back into her scroll. “Good news, everyone: I know how we can start experimenting with smaller versions of this now!”

“That quickly?” Diana asked. “I’m impressed.”

“Eh, mind palaces are kind of similar to the internal systems of a weapon,” Ruby said as she got up. “Just gotta figure out in which order things should happen, what goes where, and when the parts should be doing their respective jobs.

“Anyway, it’s best if we start doing our homework, so we can experiment with the material Akko will actually need to study, so team AWRD to the books...?” Ruby asked.

“To the books!” Diana and Akko said, the latter with much less enthusiasm.

Note: Do you guys think my expanding the number of settlements, cultures, and details in Mistral was too egregious? Was this too much of an info dump, and I used too little of the “advance the plot and/or show character” of the Two Main Rules of Writing?