Wonderful art by https://inkbunny.net/SuchAEliott which did a really great work here. Continuing the adventure of the Smol free company in the world of FF14 !
It was supposed to be a big day. It was supposed to prove to everyone, especially Babysittingway, the lopporit who put herself at the head of the free company, that they weren't babies. They were going to go all four down into the Palace of the Dead, the deep and haunted dungeon in Quarrymill. All adventurers of any salt have gone there and gone through many of its levels. Snow the pizzly plush the machinist with alchemical skills; Drifter the snow leopard black mage specialized in damage and utilitarian spells (often involving his nearly all the time soaked diaper); Fiona the pup tank, a paladin known for her enchanted padded armor and magical sword that look like a wooden sword but can cut steel with ease; and finally myself, the wolf people nickname Princess Loupy and white mage and healer of the group.
The first levels were pretty easy. The constantly respawning monsters had seen endless numbers of adventurers and only the weakest ones would fall to them. Despite the thick Lopporit-made pink diapers we wore, we aren't babies and we were eager to prove it. We have fought all over the world and even on the moon itself and further, yet everyone treat us like kids. Babysittingway is the worst of them all, she just seems to want us to be helpless toddlers 24/7... The supply of diapers was constantly getting lower as we get deeper and deeper into the dungeon, but everything was going well. Until Snow failed us.
As we were defeating a monster, the machinist suddenly stopped shooting. Had he ran out of ammo, forgetting to charge them with his aether ahead of time, or did he leak so much he couldn't keep on fighting ? Sadly, the truth would soon be exposed... in a huge explosion. With a still burned sock, the pizzly was just muttering "but... the sock..." as the story unfold to the rest of the team. The sock-addicted bear had saw a lone sock poking out of a chest, and despite having been told repeatedly to not open a chest while we were fighting and to not open a chest before checking for traps, the machinist had rushed to the sock and got blown up... and us with him. Our clothes singed and our health low, our aether spent to finish the monster and with diapers about to leak, we had no choice but to go back before reaching the boss of level 10. Our attempt to be seen as real adventurers ended in shame, and babysittingway would likely had us work as cute mascots for wealthy people to pay to for the reparation to our gear... Fiona was so upset, she yelled she was going to spanks the bear all the way back to the surface then all the way back to our free company house. All what Snow could say was "but... the sock... the sock ...."
