While our last roleplay was more tension filled, this one's a bit more fun and lighter hearted, due mostly to the presense of Becky. Of course, Fumblies is still fuming after losing Lady Goblin when he'd gotten so close to getting her.

It's always fun seeing the interaction with Becky and Cattaras or Becky and Fumblies; this one has both.

 
OOC: Continued at the end of FC: Return to Castle Knob

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Sir Fumblies and his contingent quickly leave Castle Knob intent on getting back to Fernsworthy Tower before his having to meet up with Cattaras in Seaside Town. That and the fear of having to deal with Becky Joy drives Fumblies on. His disgruntled feelings and his desire to inflict harm Jester and anyone else who dared to cross his path could be be seen expressed in the troubled actions of Tus and the pair of goblins were with him. His pair of undead warrior minions felt no emotion other than to follow Fumblies' orders. In short anyone one with half a brain moved out of Fumblies and his minions way. The group make it about a mile out away from Castle Knob and need to take a break for a moment.

"We'll rest over the next hill," says Fumblies. As soon as they proceed over the next hill, they see.. a picnic?

Being hosted, of course, by Becky Joy.

Fumblies sighs and shakes his head before looking up to the sky in a classic "why me?" pose. He would figure out how she had gotten ahead of his group later but for now he might as well and get this over with. So like a condemned prisoner Fumblies leads his group to the picnic.

"Oh hi, am I early?!" Becky asks, searching through the picnic basket. "A good meal is important to not starving!"

Fumblies just sighs as he watches Becky search through the basket. "Starving would not improve things in the least bit." Fumblies comments while trying to remember that Becky was not the cause of his anger and frustration at the present moment.

"Here, this will make you happy," she says pulling out.. the oddest thing. Looking like a caramel covered apple- but that doesn't even make sense!

Fumblies mutters something about shoving Jester's head some place anatomically impossible being a way to make him happy. He take the caramel apple with smirk as it was actually something he hadn't had in many years. He takes a bite and chuckles in amusement as he is reminded how good a caramel apple is.

"Yummy, huh?!" asks Becky Joy.

"It doesn't look yummy," notes Green.

"Well it is, maybe you should try one. Though only if you like caramel." Fumblies comments between bites as Tus paces around the edge of the picnic area.

"Does Brutus wanna play a game? Cause he looks bored," says Becky, "and I play games when I get bored, so maybe if he's bored he'll wanna play a game!"

"His games include turning other people into blood corpses." Fumblies comments calmly as he finishes the caramel apple. "And trust me he is quite good at it."

"How do you win at that game?" Becky asks innocently.

"By making all the others who want to kill you into blood splatters." Fumblies says this with a slight grin as he mutters about turning Jester in a blood splatter.

Becky looks directly at Brutus. "You could just make them into your friends, ya know?"

"Some yes but others improve the world by being blood splatters." Fumblies chuckles at his comment then smirks slightly. "Besides Becky the brutes were created to be effective killing machines."

"Did Kadlin make them?" Becky takes a big ole bite out of an even bigger cookie.

"Indeed she did and Tus is just one of the four I happen to have under my command." Fumblies answers then looks at Becky with a slight frown. "I left Jumbo and the other two in Seaside Town under the command of Scaros with the rest of forces."

"Why's that?" asks Goblina.

"Because I had to move fast to head south to chase the people who kidnapped some of the Princesses. I trust Scaros to keep the troops in line and help out with keeping order in the town." These reasons were true but there was more to it that Fumblies didn't want to talk about.

"So what's our job, then?" asks Red. "Just run kitty litter for that scary Cattaras cat?"

"I have no idea what my new orders are other than to help Cattaras out."

"Hm.. interesting," says Green.

"Very," agrees Red. "Why's that?"

"Well, we're gonna be helping an Elite 7.. that's probably a good sign!" says Red. "For our careers, I mean. Oh! Maybe I'll get my own pasta named after me if I do well here!"

Fumblies shakes his head in amusement before sighing in frustration. "Well the Elite 7 aren't all as fun as you think they are. In fact one of them screwed up the mission I was on to the South." Fumblies smiles slightly as he thinks of several different ways to get even with Jester. "But I guess we will have to see what Cattaras has us doing when we get to Seaside Town."

"Cattaras might be a lot of things," Green says. "But I wouldn't call him a screwup. Actually, with those talons of his, I don't think I'd call him anything but 'sir.'"

"Well I wasn't talking about Cattaras being the one to cost me my last mission." Fumblies falls silent muttering about Jester and the odds of his being impregnated by a one legged goat. "I had just rescued the former Knob King's sister but I was teleported to Castle Knob before I could solidify my custody of her."

"They shouldn't steal my Fumblies when he is out to save a princess, that makes me mad!" says Becky Joy.. angry at someone. She doesn't know who at yet! "Maybe Cattaras will take us to get her too and we can have cakes with our new princesses buddies!"

"We shall have to see now won't we?" Fumblies says solemnly as he tries to figure out how he was going to get Princess Goblin back into his presence. "But either way we will need to figure out what Cattaras wants me to do."

"We can head to town after our picnic, and do we have time for a nap?!" asks Becky excitedly.

"You can take a nap if you want Becky but I will be heading on if you do and will have a camp ready somewhere up ahead if you do." Fumblies knows he needs to get moving as he has things to do before meeting up with Cattaras.

"Naw, I don't need a nap!" she says as she continues eating.

~*~*~*~*~

As the newly reopened town comes into view hours later, Fumblies takes a deep breath as he tries to figure out how he was going to get away from Becky Joy so he could meet up with his mentor in Fernsworthy Tower.

"... and that's why I prefer kitties to bloodthirsty apes," says Becky, wrapping up a rather lengthy and nonsensical story. "Want me to repeat it again in case you missed something?"

"No I got it all Becky and it is a good reason. How about you head into town and see if Cattaras is here yet while I go gather a few supplies." Fumblies asks this in the hopes that he would get some peace and the ability to take his much needed side trip.

"I can't do that, you didn't get your story times yet!" protests Becky, worried about not giving Fumblies a turn.

"Maybe he doesn't want us to hear his story," points out the senior Becky's Knob, Darson.

"I am sure you don't want to hear any of my stories as they all involve death and massive amounts of bloodshed." Fumblies says this in a serious tone while a strange glint is seen in his eyes. "I could tell you the tell you tale of the Knight and Dismembered King.""

"Hm... I dunno," says Becky. "How about the one where you had to ride a pony on Faraway Land Has Idol?! I like that one."

"I would rather not talk about that as I was sore for a week afterwards." Fumblies shakes his head trying to banish the memory she speaks of.

Fumblies hears a chuckling growl behind him. "Tell us that one- it sounds interesting." From out of the shadows stepped Cattaras. He is dressed a bit more severely than usual- being dressed to begin with as he tended to share his copatriots' lack of modesty.

"Hi, kitty Cattaras!" says Becky, finally noticing him.

Fumblies merely sighs as he looks up towards the sky in utter defeat. "Hello Cattaras and if you really want to see what happened, watch the third season of Faraway Land has Idol." Fumblies takes a deep breath knowing that he would have to put off his side trip until a later time.

Cattaras chuckles again as he sat with the group. "I don't have the time to rot my brain with such things."

"Who needs to watch that when you hang out with Diasuke and Jester on a regular basis." Fumblies speaks with a bot of contempt in his voice as he grits his teeth. "So what are the orders?"

"I wanna help, too!" Becky says excitedly, causing her four Knob Goblins to facepalm. "Can I, Cattaras?!"

Cattaras genuinely smiles at Becky's antics, then becomes serious as he turns and growls at Fumblies. "At least I do not let intruders into the room with my sister and the prince! As for our orders..." There is a pause. "My sister wishes us to fetch this new Feline that has been snooping around the Kingdom- but I am more intrigued at the prospect of rescuing the Princess of Paragon."

"Blame Jester and his ill trained pet demon for that Cattaras. I didn't ask to be summoned like that.." Fumblies falls silent then takes a deep breath before looking at Cattaras. "Of course your sister would want US to fetch the monk. Easier said than done since that last I saw her she was with some of the KOKOL folks."

"That would pose some strategic problems," Becky's head Goblin Darson says contemplatively.

Cattaras looks thoughtful. "Perhaps we should try to rescue the Princess for the moment- while giving thought as to how to solve those 'strategic problems'."

"We could always head back into the Kingdom of Panda, or that way to fetch Princess Goblin." Fumblies suggests this with a bit of a smirk. "Though we might have to fight Dash and a few others to get her."

Becky looks uncomfortable with the thought but says nothing.

Cattaras sees her look, however and nods. "We are, for the moment, allied with the KOKOL. To strain that alliance in the midst of a crisis just to salve your wounded pride?" He shakes his head. "No, too much lies at stake here other than another chance to claw up that Sebastian Dash's face. We will rescue a princess of our own- then see to our prides."

"It has nothing to do with pride Cattaras. If Jester's pet demon hadn't teleported me to the castle when he did I would have had Princess Goblin," Fumblies retorts calmly before shutting up as he knew that nothing he said would help him in anyway. It was starting to become evident that something would need to change before too much longer or someone was going to die.

Cattaras chuckles. "May I remind you that our queen has decreed that we are to do something completely other than what we plan either way? We must play a successful game or else... well even when we were kittens Catrina had a nasty streak in her. I tried to go on a yearly hunt about the time her Season was upon her- minimum safe distance."

"And how is that working out for you? Do you really enjoy being your sister's errand boy?" Fumblies angry comment slips out of his mouth before he can stop it. With a grunt of frustration Fumblies storms out of camp followed by his forces as he heads away from the group in order to keep from saying anything else to incite a war.

Becky's eyes go really wide. "Oh! Don't worry about him, he didn't get enough naps. I got you a toy as a gift!"

Cattaras growls loudly as he gets to his feet and was about to pounce on the retreating half-orc when he hears Becky. He smiles down at her, pushing his anger aside for the moment as he knelt again. "You did, huh? What is it?" Despite his best efforts he couldn't help but like the woman.

"Here!" she pulls out a small ball on a string attached to a stick. "You bat it it. See?" Becky bats at it, and is immediately distracted.

Cattaras makes the mistake of looking where Becky looks- and gets paffed in the face by the ball!

"Sorry," she says absentmindedly, walking away while still distracted by the ball and watching whatever shiny thing had distracted her in the first place.

I'm not sure how Becky got ahead of Fumblies. I like to think it's covered under the historically accurate "rule of funny," though.

Our characters are pointed in the right direction now. This story is picked up in the Mission Finale. Before we get to the Finale, we've got more tales from Ozzie, Aleena, Dash and friends. Plus, Todd Blackpaws and Lapine check into the story later on.