Edge of the Multiverse

Noel, Kitchen

The paper lieutenant hummed a merry tune to herself as she prepared one of the worst culinary disasters known to man.

Few know how she manages to cook so bad. She just does.

As soon as she was done, she let Altair take some as his provisions, and put out the rest of the paper wheatcakes out for everyone to enjoy.

"Bon' appetit guys!"

The wheatcakes seemed to be censored by a blur, fate having decided to at least spare them having to witness the presentation and go mad.

Random Rooftop

Shampoo looked up when someone said hello to her, woken from her thoughts.

"Oh, hello, Dog Demon!" Shampoo said happily to Momiji, but then twisted her head at noticing her floating in mid-air. "How you do that?"

Momiji would notice with her enhanced smell that Shampoo smelled sort of like a cat.

Momiji - Sharing rooftop

Momiji smiled and settled down next to Shampoo. Sniffing the air up close to the Chinese girl, Momiji caught the scent of a cat. Not in itself odd; many people smelled of cats, especially humans living with cats. But this scent was different somehow, more intense and less...territorial. Oh well, it would make sense later, Momiji assumed.

"You mean the floating? It's super easy, you just jump up high, start flying but not quite and then you let the wind keep your body up."

As Axton was passing by an old newspaper box, in this case made of cardboard and clear plastic wrap, on his other side an unimpressed sounding grunt cut into his otherwise mundane walking.

Standing at the entrance of an alley was a large, brutish figure of a man; or rather the image of one plastered onto a two dimensional piece of paper. Other than his size, the only thing to stand out about the man was the fact that he had four arms, both sets of which were crossed in front of him. His expression was one that Axton probably knew well, the expression of someone who didn't have to say out loud 'I could take you in a fight', because the expression said it for them.

There were other, smaller figures behind the man in the alley, but it was difficult to make out any specifics about them with the large man blocking the way.

Shampoo - Sharing Food

"Right." Shampoo shook her head but then asked Momiji, wanting to be sure. "You not eat cooking girl's wheatcakes, right?"

"I can tell she bad, bad cook like Mallet Girl back home, so Shampoo snuck out quickly," Shampoo gave Momiji what was left of the meal she had cooked for herself. "If hungry, can have."

"Today, everyone has fatal water curse, due to being paper," Shampoo seemed to nervously keep looking up into the air on occasion, as if she were worried about rain... Naturally, she had always been worried about rain, but this particular day, rain could kill them all. "Feel so, so sorry for everyone."

edited 24th Mar '14 1:10:29 PM by GameGuruGG

Freakalair Kitchen — Rock (A little time ago)

"Okay, that's good to hear!" Rock flashed Peter a thumbs up, his anxiety melting away to be replaced by a smile. "Please don't hesitate to tell me if something's up."

Spider-Man's follow up question gave the machine pause. He tried to pick out any unusual tingling sensations. Shaking his head and shrugging, he said, "Nope, nothing... unless you count the electricity in my circuits. I... don't think that's what you mean, though."

Any further probing was cut short by Noel's cheery announcement and doling out of wheatcakes. Still entirely unsuspecting of what fate had in store for him, he accepted some of them and chirped, "Thanks!"

Altair's suggestion made a lot of sense as far as he was concerned. He was no tactician, just a robotic guardian of the weak, and so Mega Man decided to let Altair take the lead.

In the City, with Altair — Rock (The Present)

Rock had spent much of his time gawking and peeking into various nooks and crannies as he travelled with Altair. Even now the City never ceased to amaze him. Sure, it was now their prison, but he would be lying if the magnitude of what their captors had achieved wasn't impressive! When the Assassin stopped and asked an odd green coloured fellow he listened with obvious interest in what he had to say.

Once he wandered off, Rock cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should try paying a visit to those groups and see what they're like? ...Aside from those City Guard guys. They sound scary."

IT'S SURVIVAL IN THE City WITH YOUR BACK AGAINST THE WALL

As Axton moved by what appeared to be a box made of old newspaper (or a box of old newspapers, he couldn't tell), he heart a sort of grunt-snort.

He turned to see the man in the alley, who looked easily the size of a Bruiser. On seeing the second set of arms, he corrected himself; the dude looked like a Bullymong. A lot like a bullymong. And the expression set on his face was one Axton could easily tell. It was the dead-set "take me on" expression he'd seen almost every bandit with a face use. And of course, the Bullymong had friends.

"Buddy, I've got an autoturret, ten years of military training, and multiple mil-spec firearms. I'm gonna keep walking this-a-way, and if any of you follow me, then your obituary will state 'killed by someone who knows how to fight a lot more than he slash she did'. So. I walk that way, you stay here, we're golden." And so Axton moved away.

Internally he was already preparing for combat. These types of people usually liked to put their money where their mouth was - often, even at the expense of themselves. A smaller storage deck at his hip kept a mote ready and he grasped the papercraft thing that was his Sabre. Alright. In the event they follow me, pitch the Singularity behind me and then drop the turret, draw the Carbine, spin, and pick 'em off as they charge.

edited 25th Mar '14 12:45:23 PM by SpartyMcFly

Spider-Man - Freakalair - Kitchen

Rock seemed to believe Peter when he lied about the cause of his loud awakening and general uneasiness. Unfortunately, it seemed as though he and Agent G did not experience the same tingling sensation that he was. This puzzled him greatly, a feeling which (along with the tingling) had only increased when Noel started to serve the wheatcakes.

"I don't know, maybe I'm still a bit woozy from last night. Who knows?"

Before Peter could chow down, though, Altaïr suggested either staying behind and fortifying the Freakalair's defenses or coming along with him to gather information about the people within this mysterious City. Knowing that if he stayed behind, he'd undoubtedly draw more questions from those who saw through his response to Rock, or from those who were just concerned in general, he decided to tag along with Altaïr and Rock. The interrogation could wait 'till later. He grabbed one of the wheatcakes, thanked Noel for cooking them, apologized for leaving before she had a chance to see how he liked them, and left the Freakalair.

Spider-Man - The City - Following Altaïr and Rock

Coming out to the City was definitely not a mistake. Despite the fact that everything and everyone was turned to paper, the two police forces roaming the streets, the strange local religion, and the idea that the whole City could shift when nobody was looking, Peter just couldn't shake a familiar feeling about this City. Even though he wasn't swinging past buildings, feeling the rush of the wind in his face, this City felt like home to him. Rock suggested checking out some of the groups around town, so Peter responded to the robot boy's idea.

"Well, if we plan on swinging by any of these groups, we should probably get a good idea of the City's current layout. Maybe it won't do us much good if the Police and Guard stations switch places before we can get to them, but it'd be better than just walking around blind. We'd need to get to a good vantage point, or find a map, or something, though."

"I'm not so sure. If you ask people what they are like, they only tell you what they want you to know. If you really want to know someone, you have to ask others, witness who they are when they don't know you're around, or read what they write meant for others' eyes" Altair said, drawing upon his assassin experience when it came to learning about a target before striking against them.

Altair did look around though, and spotted what was originally a tall office building, though was now a cardboard and plastic wrap facsimile of one, only a few blocks away. "We can take a look around up there" Altair mentioned, since it was the tallest building in sight besides the central tower. He then headed off that way.

The trek to the office building got a little twisted around when Altair rounded a corner and it should have been ahead of him, but had instead become off to his side while the building next to Altair was blocking his sight of it. On the plus side the building was actually closer than it was before, but it was still... Unsettling. "I think maybe getting a layout of the city is not that simple" Altair muttered, now rethinking the idea.

The man-beast guy gave only a short and unimpressed, "hmph" in response to Axton, but made no offensive move. Instead he actually turned around and headed down the alley. That seemed to be the end of that... Though, as Axton walked away down the street, something was missing, out of place... But what?

...

His Infinity pistol was gone.

Momiji - Having lunch

"Thank you very much!"

Momiji accepted the Chinese delicacy with a big grin, and ate it literally in an instant. She sighed contently. The d- wolf biscuits hadn't been very filling, and a hot meal tasted delicious in this fresh air.

"Water is dangerous today? Hmm, being made of paper isn't as easy as I thought. But besides that have you heard anything about what today's challenge is?"

Axton

Of course, the Commando didn't notice.

After a few minutes, he turned around, and saw... nothing.

"...holy shit. For once, the meathead realizes he's in over himself. Didn't think that'd work."

The Commando continued on, unaware about the missing, one-of-a-kind Legendary firearm (as advertised by damn near every corporation in existence, anyways).

edited 25th Mar '14 12:46:50 PM by SpartyMcFly

"No, though hopefully not Giant Scissors Man or Water Hose Man," said Shampoo to Momiji, smiling. "You see water dissolve paper and everyone here paper so..."

"Though... Why water not paper also?" Shampoo mused to herself more than Momiji, wondering if cold paper water would turn her into a cat.

Spider-Man - City Streets

Following Altaïr around the corner only to find that the office building he was heading for had shifted places, Peter had to agree with his assessment that navigating the City would be more difficult than previously thought. Originally, he was planning to climb up to the roof and get a good look at the City's current layout. Now, he realized that if he had tried, the building would probably be warped away while he was still on it, and get separated from the others.

"Okay, so, it looks like I just got outsmarted by this City. Anyone else have any ideas for navigating this crazy place? I'd hail a cab, but I don't exactly have pockets. Or money, for that matter."

((OOC:The way my schedule works, this is still my "Sunday". Sorry about any confusion.))

"... What is a 'cab'? And how would one navigate this world any better than we do?" Altair asked after a pause, glancing at Spider Man since the word meant nothing to Altair. "For that matter, how does anyone get around in this place?" he added before the super hero could answer, realizing that as he looked around at all the people moving around the sidewalks.

There just had to be something to it... Didn't there? The assassin wondered to himself what it was as he looked around at the people and the buildings. He stopped when he looked at the building they were next to. An ice cream shop, but that part didn't matter; Altair turned around, then back again, still the ice cream shop. Again, then again, every time still the ice cream shop. That was it.

"I see. The place we are at does not change, but the layout of the city as a whole does. If we are not at the place we want to be, we just keep going until we are" Altair said, observing that a few people who looked like they weren't new to the city would repeatedly take the first available turn. Like when they were trying to reach that building before, a simple turn of a corner could change what was in front of them, so doing that repeatedly could cycle you through... Potentially the whole city, just by going in circles. "Then all that's left to ask is, where do we want to go?" the assassin muttered aloud, thinking through their options.

They could try going to the base of one of the groups they'd heard of; though going to the city guard sounded like it could lead to trouble. Altair wasn't sure how receptive the city police would be to someone snooping around their headquarters, which left... "I say we try to go to the church. If we're lucky, there may be a service we could slip into the crowd of" Altair suggested, based on his own ideas of reconnaissance. That and, he didn't want to try the 'go completely unseen' kind of stealth with two other people, especially not ones wearing bright red and deep blue, respectively.

A bit down the street, a certain vault hunter commando walked into view at the street corner. If Altair had noticed, he gave no indication.

edited 7th Apr '14 4:45:41 AM by FirockFinion

Street

As Axton walked along, blissfully unaware of the fact his gun was missing, he saw Altair and changed course to head over to him. While he may not have been a friend, he was familiar to the Commando, and that's what mattered.

"Hey, uh... buddy. How's it going?"

Great, flopped harder than Blowhole the Apocalypse.

"We're investigating other groups in the city" Altair answered Axton in a rather neutral tone, but he did cast a momentary, almost confused glance at Axton's choice to call him 'buddy'.

"Right now we're deciding what course of action to take next" Altair specified, turning back to Rock and Spiderman, neither of whom had apparently opted to speak up yet. "Why don't we at least start moving, and take the first turn we can at every possibility; that way the city's shuffling will eventually take us to one of the places we want to check, and we can decide if we want to stay or keep moving when we get there" Altair suggested, though started walking towards the nearest street corner anyway despite it simply being a suggestion. "At the very least, I see no reason to wait around here" he explained, apparently intending to either go with them or go alone.