Paracelsus's Table

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Star Ocean 2 or 3, it's all SquareEnix and I only play SO3 because I'm waiting for KH2 to come out and there haven't been any good rpg's for awhile

The stumbled through the Irisa Fields avoiding Proclaimers, Convictors and Yuanti all the way; the battle through the Shrine of Kaddan had left them exhausted. Fayt, Cliff, Sophia, Nel, Roger and Mirage passed through the gates of Peterny.
“So what do we do now?” Cliff asked leaning on the building next to him.
“You heard Blair, and the Queen, we go on to the Ancient Ruins of Mosel so that we can get to the Creator’s lair.” Mirage said authoritatively, you would hardly believe that Maria was in charge with Mirage around.
“Mirage is right, we have to finish this.”
“And we will, but don’t you think we need a little break? I mean look at us. Mirage, you have a shoulder wound, Sophia is still limping and Maria how’s your hand feeling? Fayt wasn’t fighting half as well or as fast by the time we got to that dark eye.” Cliff said putting his hands on his hips.
“I think Cliff might be right.” Sophia said timidly, holding on to Fayt’s arm as she stood.
“Yeah, what good are we if we get to the Creator’s lair and we’re too tired to fight.” Fayt said raking his fingers through strands of blue hair. Maria shifted as she stood and let out a deep sigh.
“What do you think Nel?”
“I agree with Fayt we should be at our full strength if we expect to destroy the Creator.”
“Fine, we’ll stay here for a couple days before we head on to the Mosel desert.” Maria said tiredly, she didn’t like Elicoor II very much, it was too primitive.
“Hey quit acting like you’re in charge Maria, Fayt’s the boss here.” Cliff said patting her on the shoulder. “It’s hard to know when to let someone else take charge, I know but this is his journey.”
“I suppose.” Maria said stiffly.
“We have enough money to stay at the Front Door Inn for a couple of nights…”
“I’ll go check us in, then I want to go visit the flower shop,” Sophia said taking the pouch full of Fol right out of his hands. “Do you want to come with me? It has the most beautiful flowers that I’ve ever seen.” Fayt scratched his head awkwardly.
“No… I think—”
“Fayt and I want to go check out the Inventor’s Guild to see what’s new, right buddy?” He said smacking Fayt on the back and making him lurch forward.
“Right, we’ll catch up with you later.” Fayt said with a sideways smile.
“Oh, alright,” Sophia said with a hint of disappointment, and then headed off toward the inn.
“Mirage, do you want to check out the tavern with me?” Nel said motioning toward the eastern end of town with a twinkle in her Violet eyes.
“Yes, that would be lovely I haven’t had a chance to explore much of your world yet.” Mirage said with a gracious smile.
“Well then let me be your guide.” Nel said leading her off to the tavern.
“Is it just me, or have those two really hit it off?” Cliff asked with a smirk.
“Well they have a lot in common,”
“How so?”
“They’re both strong, beautiful women…” Fayt said reluctantly.
“Heh, sounds like I’m rubbing off on you, how come you never talk that way when Sophia’s around?” Cliff asked with a chuckle, Fayt just shook his head.
“Thanks for covering for me,” He said more seriously. “I don’t think I could handle going back to the flower shop after…”
“I know kid, it’s no big deal, now let’s check out that Guild we might have found something that could end up being valuable.”
“I guess I’ll go catch up with Sophia.” Maria said with a sigh, she didn’t want to spend time with either of them, Fayt who had taken her role as the leader and Cliff who only made her leader in the first place because he wanted to get more down and dirty with the fighting. It was more than that she was jealous of the way Fayt looked after everyone else, especially Sophia. The three of them were all in the same boat but he still treated her like she was practically a stranger. She may have put up a tough and icy façade but he could have at least tried to look past it.

The “Front Door” Inn

“Wow this whole planet is so romantic.” Sophia mused to herself as she walked through the doors of the luxury Inn. She had to ask a little rabbit boy in the town for directions but she had finally found it. “I wonder if Fayt likes it as much as I do.” She thought with a little smile. When she got to the counter she couldn’t figure out how many rooms to get, it wasn’t that she minded sharing a room with Fayt but she wasn’t sure that they’d all fit.
“Miss, how many rooms would you like?”
“Um… what would you suggest for six people?”
“Three rooms should suffice, you’ll even be able to connect them if you’d like.”
“Hey that’s a great Idea, we’ll take them.” She said taking out a huge wad of Fol
“Excellent I’ll show you to the rooms.”
“Hey what is this filth doing here?” One of the nobles said bitterly. “She looks like a gypsy and a child no less.” Sophia turned to see what they were talking about. There was a tan girl with two blonde pigtails, a cute little pink dress with a red scarf connected to the back and the bangles around her slender wrists. She had pink boots with bells on them and lots of jewelry. “Terribly gaudy.” The noble said turning his nose up at her.
“Who are you to talk? You’re the one wearing all those stupid frills and ribbons!” She said putting her hands on her hips indignantly. “I’ll have you know I’m a first rate performer.”
“Peppita?” Sophia said rubbing her eyes as she looked down at the girl.
“Peppita Rossetti at your service!” she said with a big cheery smile.
“How did you get here? You’re supposed to be on the Moonbase with the rest of your troupe.” Sophia said with wide eyes.
“Well, I followed you guys on to your ship when you left the moon base. I couldn’t get onto the shuttle when you left, so I just waited for you to get back, and boy did you guys take a long time. The When you beamed down to this planet I followed you to the castle and then here.”
“Why didn’t you tell us that you were here?”
“I didn’t want you to be mad, and I thought that maybe Fayt would try to send me back.” She said, grinding the toe of her boot into the floor.
“I don’t think that Fayt will be too mad, although Cliff might be. And we don’t really have a way to send you back now…” Sophia said thoughtfully.
“You mean I can come with you?”
“Well we can’t just leave you alone on this planet.” She said with a chuckle. “You must be tired; do you want to stay in one of the rooms for a while?”
“No way, I want to go with you!” Peppita said bouncing up and down.
“Well I am going to check out the flower shop, and then maybe we can see if they have any tailors, what do you think?”
“It sounds great, let’s go!”
“What’s she doing here?” Maria said from the doorway.
“Peppita followed us all the way here, so she’s going to join us.”
“Are you kidding me? There’s no way that she can join us, she’s just a kid.” Maria said coolly.
“I’m sure Fayt will be okay with her joining us he wouldn’t just leave her here on an under developed planet.”
“Fine, have it your way.” Maria said, storming past her, “We’re in the same group, can you show me to the rooms?”
“Certainly.” The man said calmly and escorted her down the hall.

Craftsmen’s Guild

“That Sophia really is a cutie.” Cliff said with a smirk as they walked through the door.
“Yeah, but what about Mirage, you two are from the same planet.”
“Hey Mirage is great, but I don’t think that I’m her type, besides my interests are a little different too.” Cliff said fiddling with his earrings nervously.
“Are all the Kausian women that strong?”
“Stronger than humans yes, but nobody’s as strong as our Mirage, she might even give me a run for my money.”
“Excuse me,” Welch said softly.
“I don’t believe that, you’re the strongest man I’ve ever seen.” Fayt said his voice filled with awe.
“Thanks for the compliment kid, but you have to get out more.”
“Excuse me!” Welch shouted, smacking her hand-wand on the counter angrily. Fayt was stunned, and Cliff glared at her a little bit.
“What?” Cliff barked.
“What business do you have at the guild?”
“We wanted you to check some of the items we found on our travels, see if there was anything valuable.”
“Yeah there’s no reason to be rude.” Cliff said with a frown.
“Sorry, it’s been a rough day.” She said with a small bow.
“Well, maybe we can make it a little better. We found these in some ancient ruins in Surferio awhile back and these we found in the Urssa caves.” He said dumping a bag full of items onto the counter.
“And this?” She said lifting up one of laser weapons.
“Oh that…” Cliff said with a frown, he had forgotten to take out anything that was too advanced. “Forget about that.” He said taking it from her hands.
“We found it in the Mosel dunes,” Fayt said with a nervous smile.
“Oh, it must have been from Greenton.” She said dismissing it and looking over the items in the bag. “This could take a few minutes.”
“We’ll wait.”

The “Biting Kid” tavern

Mirage smiled form her seat at the wooden table as Nel returned with two flasks of liquor.
“Do you come to this town often?”
“Honestly I had only been through it a dozen times before I met Fayt; all of my business was with Lady Clair and her highness in Aquios.
“Ah, do you miss Clair?” Mirage said raising an eyebrow. Nel blushed behind her flask; she was almost as pink as her hair.
“I…”
“It’s okay, there’s no shame in it.” Mirage said with a warm smile.
“I miss her less now that you’ve joined us.”

Craftsmen’s Guild

“Wow, I can’t believe you found one of these!” Welch said holding the item they had found in the depths of Surferio.
“What is it?” Cliff asked leaning in closer.
“It’s a Paracelsus’s Table, an ancient game. It creates homunculi of the players so that they can battle. It was thought that the game didn’t exist anymore.”
“So then it must be worth a bundle.” Cliff asked.
“Well, not really. They’re too hard to maintain, taking care of the homunculi can be very expensive so not many people would even bother buying it. Sparring is cheaper. I’ll keep this here, you can use it in one of the back rooms if you like, there should be enough space.
“You want to test it out?” Cliff asked.
“Sure, why not?” He said with a shrug. “It could be fun.” Welch took them to the back room; it was about 60 square feet.
“Wow, this building doesn’t look this big from the inside.”
“We are all inventors here.” She said with pride, setting the Paracelsus’s table down, the room filled with stars and a console appeared on the wall. It looked like a battle simulator console almost.
“You put battle cards in there.”
“Battle cads?” Fayt asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Yes, for the arena and also for the homunculi’s design. If you don’t have any cards you can program it but that can be very difficult.”
“I think we can manage.” Fayt said eyeing the panel.
“Alright, have fun, and don’t destroy the building, okay? Oh wait, I think you had some battle cards.” She said running out of the room and coming back with a small stack of cards. “These are costumes for your homunculi.” She said handing them all of the cards but one.
“And what’s on that one?” Cliff asked raising an eyebrow.
“This, I don’t really know. It’s very old. It has a lot more information than the costume cards.” She said, handing it to him reluctantly.
“Thanks for all your help.” Cliff said pushing her out the door. He handed the last card to Fayt. Fayt looked over the costume cards, there was a maids out fit, a school girl suit, jungle/caveman skins, a boy’s school uniform, a cowboy suit, lots of busty women’s suits and clothes similar to Cliff’s and his own, but different colors.
“So who do you want me to program?”
“Why not do everyone? You, me, Sophia, Nel, Mirage and Maria, hell I wouldn’t mind beating up a version of that snooty bastard Albel.”
“Okay, this shouldn’t take too long,” Fayt said inputting their stats into the console.
“You know if something like this isn’t proof that our galaxy was programmed I don’t know what is.”

Ameena’s Flower shop (under new management)

“Wow, these flowers are all so gorgeous.” Sophia smiled. “You think Fayt and the others would like it if I bought some for the rooms at the Inn?”
“Yeah!” Peppita said happily.” “Why is the lady behind the counter looking at you like that?”
“I don’t know.” Sophia said picking up another bunch of flowers and putting them into a basket
“You know, Fayt is a really cool guy.” She continued trying to stifle a smile.
“He is, really cool. If he wasn’t with me this journey would all be really scary, but with him here I feel so safe.” Sophia said her voice a bit moony.
“Really? I don’t think he’s the best hero… he’s really sweet though, he’s the first person I’ve met outside of the troupe that made me feel like family.”
“Why isn’t he the best hero?” Sophia said with a frown.
“Oh I don’t know. I mean he’s nice but he’s not very heroic.”
“He wants to save the universe, that’s pretty heroic.”
“Yeah but he’s just not a warrior you know, he can fight but you can tell that he’s a natural.” She said rubbing the petals of a purple orchid between her fingers.
“Who wants a warrior anyways?” Sophia said turning to sniff the flowers.
“I guess.”
“Besides, I’d rather a prince than a Warrior.” Sophia said with shimmering green eyes.
The “Front Door” Inn

Maria sat back on her bed fiddling with a scanner; it was the only piece of technology that she had been able to take with her, aside from her phase gun.
“Why does he have to ignore me?” She said to herself with a sigh. She held the phase gun tight in her hand and a blue-ish-green light erupted from her hands and emanated around her gun, changing it into a massive laser riffle.

Versus Mode

“Okay, all done. Who do you want to play with?” Fayt asked from the control panel.
“I think I’ll play with Nel, why don’t you play Mirage.” He said with a wicked grin.
“Okay.”
“And can you put them in the maid outfit?” he asked with a big grin. Homunculi of Mirage and Nel sprang from the control panel both scantily clad in Maid outfits.
“Uh… I don’t know if I feel right doing this…”
“Come on, it’s not like they’re naked. Would you rather we play with Sophia?”
“No. This is okay.” The middle of the room turned into the arena from Gemity.
“Alright, so how do we control them?” Cliff asked raising an eyebrow.
“Well you can either control it or program it to control itself. If you want to control it you basically control it with your thoughts, just put this on your temples.” He said handing Cliff a neural enhancer.
“Alright, let’s go.” Fayt said. H-Mirage ran across the arena and jumped into the air.
“Aerial Assault!” She shouted knocking H-Nel to the ground. She was back on her feet in no time and then jumped backwards.
“Ice Daggers!” She shouted conjuring up four daggers made of ice and slicing into H-Mirage’s maid suit and revealing light pink flesh. H-Mirage ran back towards her but H-Nel was too fast, she pulled out a pair of ice daggers and slit the sides of her costume, making the skirt flutter to the floor revealing a lacy pair of panties.
“What are you doing.” Fayt said, blushing at the sight before him.
“Oh come on,” Cliff said. “What’s the harm?”
H-Nel pulled off H-Mirage’s top and then sliced the side of H-Mirage’s bra and it shifted to the side because of the lack of support. H-Mirage jumped back, her breasts bouncing enticingly as she did so. She Ran up behind H-Nel and knocked her to her knees with a side kick.
“Dimension Door!” H-Mirage shouted red and black light swirling around her as she disappeared and re-appeared behind H-Nel punching her in the back and knocking her on to the ground. H-Nel got to her feet slowly.
“Lightning Chain!” She shouted and a chin of green lightning shot across the arena in zigzags knocking H-Mirage to the ground. H-Nel jumped on top of h-Mirage and ripped off her bra exposing her pale round breasts and perky pink nipples.
“Knock it off Cliff.” Fayt said with less conviction than before. H-Mirage jumped to her feet.
“Ice Blade!” She shouted, slicing down the back seam of H-Nel’s costume.
“That’s the stuff.” Cliff said with a smile.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fayt said with a little smirk. H-Mirage knocked H-Nel to the ground and pulled at the ties on the front of her maid costume revealing a simple pair of violet panties and a matching bra that was the color of the runic symbols that climb all the way up her leg. H-Nel grabbed H-Mirage’s arms and threw her to the ground then climbed on top of her and ripped off her panties. She slipped her fingers inside of her wet mound settling on top of her and winking back at Fayt.
“Whoa…” Fayt said softly, turning to Cliff. “I don’t think…” He trailed off when he noticed Cliff leaning against the wall his pants around his knee’s as he slowly stroked his long think erecting. “WH-what…”
“Just enjoy the show, kid” Cliff said with a smile his hand speeding up as H-Nel sucked on her breast playfully as she continued to finger her. “You need to learn how to relax.” H-Mirage sat up and pulled off H-Nel’s bra and then her panties. She gave H-Nel a long slow kiss as she climbed on top of her, kissing her way down to her breasts and her navel, following the runes to the inside of her thighs and licking at the pink mound between her legs. Cliff slowed his stroking and looked over at Fayt who was drooling, erection pressing against the flap over his pants, but he refused to touch himself. “What’s the matter?”
“I-I can’t it’s…” Fayt gasped as H-Nel let out a loud moan. “How did you...” He stared down at Cliff’s erection as he stood closer to him.
“Sit down.” Cliff said, more of an order than a request. Fayt sat down slowly and blushed as Cliff sat down next to him. “Now, focus on them. Look at the way her back arches and her breasts bounce when she moans. Or watch as her tongue slips into her.” He whispered into Fayt’s ear, his breath hot, making Fayt’s spine tingle as much as the scene in front of them. Cliff unclipped Fayt’s belt and unbuttoned the fly.
“Hey, what are you…” Fayt gasped as his erection sprang from his confinement. “h-hey…” he said weakly as Cliff stroked him slowly.
“Man you’re hard, why didn’t you just take care of it yourself?” Fayt kept his eyes on H-Mirage and H-Nel as H-Nel flipped them over and positioned her hips over H-Mirage’s face and then leaned over and licked at her happily, H-Mirage leaned up and favored her with the same.
“Uhg!” Fayt groaned as Cliff squeezed his head, he closed his eyes and felt the heat pool in his stomach as he felt the long slow strokes.
“Come on look at it.” Cliff said with a chuckle, admiring the spectacle in the middle of the arena as well as Fayt leaning back with his chest heaving and sheen of sweat on his forehead. Fayt looked down at the big strong hand gripping him, stroking his pulsing member, his head weeping slicking Cliff’s hand as he increased speed slightly. He looked over at Cliff who was staring over him with dark eyes; he smirked down at him as he felt him twitch in his hands. Fayt licked his lips, he felt himself being pulled over the edge. Cliff leaned in and whispered hotly into his ear.
“You’re watching the wrong thing.” He said, lips brushing against his ear lobe. Fayt burst in Cliff’s hand with a strangled groan, and let out shaky breaths as Cliff milked out the last of his seed. Cliff chuckled softly in his ear. He pulled back as Fayt softened in his hands, and before he knew what was happening Fayt had caught his lips and was kissing him desperately, tongue searching for its partner. His hand caressed Cliff’s cheek lightly, and then he pulled back.
“What was that?” Cliff asked raising an amused eyebrow. Fayt turned a deep shade of red and tucked himself back into his pants with shaky fingers.
“I-uh… I’m sorry,” Fayt said with wide blue eyes. He eased himself up onto trembling legs and ran out of the room, leaving the H-Mirage homunculi lying limp. Cliff sighed and looked down at his sticky hand.
“Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.” He said with an even deeper sigh, and then stood up and turned off the H-Nel program and then H-Mirage, and then programmed H-Fayt in a boy’s school uniform. H-Fayt walked over to him slowly and took the thick erection jutting out of Cliff’s pants into his hands and smiled up at him deviously, a way that the real Fayt never would. Cliff let out a heavy sigh as H-Fayt knelt in front of him and slipped his hot thickness into his mouth. Cliff leaned back and remembered the feel of Fayt’s lips hot against his lips as H-Fayt swallowed him.