The Return of Shantae

The Homestead Arc: Closure

Wallis told Korah that he was waiting for the entire time at their Land Charter and got hungry, so left his post and went to the elevator. There he'd noticed that a bunch of children were beings shoved into the doors by three unwanted visitors who in turn shoved themselves inside like a very snugged puzzle. He didn't have a keycard so Wallis did the only thing he could come up with: trying to pry the doors open with his bare hands. After a number of times he gave up by giving in to hunger. For now, he had to what and eat a back of rations to quell his appetite.

After and hour, he heard the old service elevator to the other levels of the Moonlit Nestle creaking, meaning that there's someone coming down here. After dramatically waiting for the shutters to open, Wallis was scared right down to non-existent bones. He saw a skeleton driving in a transport cart full of crates and box. When he and it met eye to eye socket, the tension stood still for what seemed to be an hour. It finally broke when Roman snaps his fingers and winks saying "Ey big stuff!", in his response he screamed louder than any opera singer and kicked his legs into high gear and rammed into the elevator doors several times until they broke open.

Korah"😱You broke my elevator doors!?"
Wallis"😓I also pooped myself a little."

He mentions that due to his "girth", he was as stuck as fat in an artery. Luckily he stepped on something to get more momentum, mostly because he was scared out of his mind of seeing a dead man. With one powerful leap from his mysterious springboard, he managed to ride on the four railings of the elevator to ride up to the top floor in great speed. From there he found everyone one except Shantae covered in burns and/or injuries. From there he helped out bandaging everyone for a few hours until Korah finally comes home. This sort of completed the circle, leading everything that happened until now.

Korah didn't know whether to be angry at everyone trespassing or be relieved that they're all still alive, so instead he collected himself as he gave a second round of stew for every, except for his smaller siblings for he only stares at them with contempt. As soon as heard it all, it was his turn to tell them of his strange journey away from home. He explained that it all began when to the power of the Kraken Emblem released one of Shantae's powers: the Mermaid Dance, giving back a piece of herself and granting him something he's never been able to do before. As a demonstration, he went up to the patio where the rain was pouring and cold and slowly submerged himself in the overflowing hot tub. A moment has passed and what came out gave everyone quite a scare, especially Shantae.

Tentacles sprung out and started to pull out a strange type of merman who's based on a white squid: a black mask looking mark over his eyes, his hair was made of shorter tentacles with two of them being longer one draping as side hairs, his ears are as pointy as Shantae's, and freckles were scattered from his waist and slowing progresses into natural spots of bioluminescence. The first time Shantae saw this form was in the dark and lightning flashes made it unbearably scary for her to see, but after seeing him up close and in full light of his house she seemed a little enamored, a little.

Maxine"Oh my god..."
Sorin"Not again." Sorin had to endure witnessing his brother transform into another monster, first the fiery man beast and this- mer-squid thing!? "What happened to you this time!?" When Korah tried to speak, all they heard was gurgled gibberish and something about 'woomy'.
Tuuki"Hold on, I think I might know what's going on." Tuuki took Squid Korah inside the living room and inspected his features up close. "Hmm... I'm guessing that this is your second time?" He nods head in his answer. "How did you transform back?" He pointed at the open fire of the campfire in the room. Most of his friends hissed just imagining the pain of being burned alive just to change back. "Okay... Here's an easier method: Calm yourself and imagine your former self, remember who you were."

Korah did as instructed and closed his eyes, remembering what he looked like before he when into the water; he had red wild hair with yellow bangs, had tan skin and wore his purple adventurer's clothes. With that in his mind and a deep breath, smoke and red fiery ashes cloaked him forcing everyone to back off. After a second when the smoke dissipated, he was back to normal and he was dry as a freshly cleaned blanket. Shantae hugs him in relief for his normal self and yet again tears in her eyes start to water.

After calming her down in his lap, Korah continued saying that he was somehow carried out to sea by the old city's currents and ended on an island several leagues away from the supposed land of Gearton. While he explored around for clues about how to get home, he met the skeleton that scared 500lbs off of Wally. His fat friend cringed at the memory of seeing that literal bag of bones,

Korah"Why are so scared of him? He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
Wallis"No, it's that he reminds me of anorexia!" For three solid minutes everyone stayed silent and judged him for everything he stands for. "...What!!"
Click"Is this from seeing that one super girl from the other day after you came into the guild hauling in the Midas criminals?" Click remembered it when he was modifying the guild's defenses and seeing Wallis as pale as a steamed bun.
Wallis"... Maybe?" After looking back and forth at his friends and twiddling his chubby fingers, he confessed, "Yes.... Look, seeing a girl's chest is one thing, but there's barely anything there, nothing but ribs and her organs- it's just so creepy and just made me so queazy to the point where I'm gonna-"
Korah"JUST!! Let me finish big guy. Hold your stomach, because that skeleton's the reason why I'm even home."

This finally grabbed everyone's attention as he told him about Roman, he was the resident of an undead town called Bonesdale which survived the dreary curse for awhile until their home was flooded by the onslaught of monsters. He was a journalist for the town who's been more hardboiled than he seems, Roman found out that the survivors were taken by the orders of a man called Hex Master. Korah helped that walking set of ivory to fix his ship and free his people... Well, freeing them was more of a bonus- that bony weirdo just wanted to get the heck out of there.

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Sorry guys for the wait, this one was sorta crapped out, I just wanted to get over this arc because it was going nowhere and I'm still in a rut to what to write next. I can't be as consistent as I was for the first chapters so please be patient with me. Hope to see you guys next time.
- Kanadzuchi

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