Even Sophie was momentarily distracted by Lewis accidentally setting fire to his headrest. She stood from her own seat when he did, keeping an eye on the (thankfully small) flame until he returned with water to douse it, then sat down afterward as if nothing happened.
The return of some of the Guardians' powers and the climactic fight that ensued had her on the edge of her seat - or rather, given Sophie's usual demeanor, had her indifferent-looking attention. They fight well, she thought, with the gaze of eyes trained for combat. Unorthodox, but effective. The concept of belief being the source of one's power wasn't alien to her, but in her world it was certainly downplayed compared to the Guardians' more... literal effect. Sandy's return seemed to be tied into said effect, too - and seemed to confirm that, indeed, he was corrupted and taken, not outright killed. Maybe that's why Pitch went after him first?...
Speaking of Pitch: the way he feared his own Nightmares coming after him brought Lambda to mind once more. In the end, even he wasn't above fear. His reaction, his past, his motives... maybe once upon a time, he was indeed just another spirit of that world who wanted to belong in some way... just like Lambda. Maybe he can be saved one day, too?... Maybe Asbel can do what I couldn't?......
As the movie closed out and the credits began to roll, the lilac-haired girl turned to Jack again. "You've been through a lot," she said simply. She noticed Miss Tairee standing up to leave, and she quietly motioned towards the librarian to get everyone's attention.
edited 11th Aug '16 8:56:13 PM by Demovere
For the Horde!
Ben nodded and put his hands on his hips. "Ah, okay," he replied. He felt the balcony idea was a good one, though he would have to pick a building. Upon her suggestion of a symbol, he looked at his watch. Then he pointed it in the direction of her voice.
"Hey, how about the Omnitrix symbol?" he asked her, unsure if that would go over well.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Without anything else to do as she waited for Yoshika, she found herself walking amongst the wreckage of the party, looking at the devastation left behind. She was a little regretful that she had attended the party in the first place, but crashing it almost made up for it. Almost.
The one thing to catch her eye, ignoring all of the discarded drugs on the ground because she wasn't even going to touch those things right now, was the poor bladderhorn. Even if it lacked just about anything making it seem terrestrial, like eyes, it was pitiable enough to almost be cute. She liked those kinds of sad, helpless things, like crying puppies or lost children. Oftentimes Yoshika had filled that void in her life, but it was nice to mix things up a little every once in a while.
She carefully knelt down by its side, watching it fitfully sleep. She reached out...and then withdrew her hand. After what had happened earlier, she felt that petting it was going to be a mistake. It was just fine to look at it, and maybe make sure nobody else bothered it for a while. Very hypocritical of her, she knew, but it's not like it would hurt.
There was the sound of feet kicking up sand in the distance, along with some blubbering, and Seiga had a good idea on who was making that noise. Just before she could yell her name, Seiga held up a finger to Yoshika, signalling a need for quiet. The jiangshi ran up and hugged her from behind, resting her head on her shoulder, and started muttering things like "I'm so sorry for abandoning you" and "I thought you were gonna die". This kind of display wasn't exactly normal for Yoshika, but seeing her master in a completely helpless state must've been the cause.
Seiga softly patted her on the head, like usual, getting her to calm down to a state of rationality. Yoshika whispered, "How did you get better all of a sudden?" She replied, "A doctor came and helped me, he called himself Plague Knight. He was an alchemist, like I am." Yoshika looked away, and Seiga held her hand up to her cheek. "It's fine that you didn't get to help me, Yoshika. You tried to help me on your own volition, and that's what mattered. I'm proud of you, Yoshika."
Yoshika's hear soared with elation as she heard that, and she gripped her master tighter. Seiga gasped out, "Okay, that's a little much, Yoshika," and she lessened her grip a little. "Oh, and Viola says you were very helpful with dealing with me. She offers her thanks. Be sure to thank her back when you get the chance."
"...I have to ask, though. Be frank with me. What was I doing when I was affected, earlier?" Yoshika stopped, looking a little bit worried. "You...uh, you tried to lick everyone. And you poked me, and rubbed your face on me, like a cat. Stuff like that was why I was scared, you know? It's not natural." Seiga silently nodded, managing to not let her internal grimace show. She had confirmed that yes, she must've licked Karkat. She would have to live with this shame for the rest of her eternal life.
That horrid thought caused a pause, as Seiga contemplated it and Yoshika enjoyed hugs. Seiga gently pushed her off, deciding that after her trip she didn't feel comfortable with any physical contact tonight. Yoshika decided that she had enough with the silence, and asked, "So, what are we gonna do tonight?"
Seiga looked around, her question offering a nice break from that awful line of thought. Then, she realized, the best solution to her problem was right in front of her.
"Yoshika...have you ever ridden a bull before?" The jiangshi shook her head. "Well, how about you start out with an alien one?"
Web Spidus
Rex did his fancy-schmancy technobabble on Lune's phone. It now can communicate with the walkie-talkies and she can call Rex whenever she feels like it. With this, the network of people Lune can call has grown much stronger.
Lune smiled at Rex until Rex reminded her that they had to hunt that ghost. However, it was nighttime, so they have to go to bed soon before it was too late.
“Yeah. We gotta wake up bright and early to beat that ghost before he harms everyone in the city. As they say, the early bird catches the worm.”
Lune begins heading in the direction of a random hotel.
I mean it when I say I'm an RPG nut
Grimlock; Dino mode
Library
Late but Not Too Late'
Grimlock didn't verbally react to what happened because one, he was thinking about Redring's request, two, someone falling from the above, especially when it turned out to be Yoshika, wasn't exactly surprising after that fight with the giant two headed dragon a few days ago and the hordes from yesterday, and three, by the time he was about to answer, it had been handled, as far as he was concerned. So he decided to turn his attention to something else, Ben's group of heroes.
"Let me try contacting your phone," he said. Then Grimlock tapped the side of his head, then focused in trying to do what he said. Though whether it worked or not was up to debate, seeing as he had no idea if a phone could call him and vice versa.
But as he waited, he then said, "I think the symbol's okay, but wouldn't others think you're the leader if that's the symbol?"
edited 12th Aug '16 12:43:43 AM by ShoutmonZ
"You said you had a dream... That dream... Make it come true! ... If anyone can, it's you!" - N (shortened) Oh, and I'm a girl.
THE SLORG!
"Some people around the city do know about that symbol being tied to you. There would be no mistaking your association with the group, but whether you consider that to be a bad thing is up to you" Miss Tairee's voice added in, to go with Grimlock's comment.
You are reading this.
Outside the cinema
Garrett left the building and approached Miss Tairee; he waited until she was finished talking to Ben, then he spoke.
"There's something you've got to explain to me. At the end of this... movie... I've seen a list of names, 'director', 'actors', 'screenplay', just like in a typical theater play. This got me thinking. Just where did all these movies come from? And these books?"
"Back home, at the Keeper's library, they keep entire shelves of prophecies... old puzzles written by half-crazy mystics. At first I thought the books at your library were something similar. Maybe recordings of someone's visions, or even written and sent down to us by Our Gracious Host himself. But that one about the Lord of Change... it was written like a manual for some kind of a game. And now, this movie. I heard you talking with Jack in the cinema... apparently, what we've just watched was a 'children's movie', like the cute theater plays they put on for kids."
"What I want to know is, what does it all mean? Why do I keep finding documents here that precisely recount our lives and pasts, except they all feel like they've been written as entertainment? The people who made the movie... if they weren't prophets or mystics, how'd they know about Jack's life? The authors of that odd game-book... how'd they know all that about the Lord of Change and his world?"
edited 12th Aug '16 2:50:30 AM by Korodzik
throwback
Sadness took Zelda's hand. She let go after only a split second, though. She figured Zelda had had enough sadness during the last few days to last a while.
"Oh...we're back here." Sadness looked around at the beach. The water looked quite nice under the stars like that. "Do you want to just...stay here? Maybe walk around? I don't think either of us have anywhere to go for the rest of the day." Privately, Sadness would prefer to seek out a nice fluffy bed and collapse on it, but she didn't want to abandon her friend so soon.
Currently writing something. Currently procrastinating.
For the Horde!
Ben frowned, crossing his arms. Grimlock and Miss Tairee were right. If he used the Omnitrix symbol as the symbol for his hero group no one would take it seriously because they'd see it as run by a kid. Normally he'd be all for showing off his symbol to the masses but in this City he didn't seem to have very much clout. "Okay, uh, how 'bout a shield?" he asked, taking another piece of paper and drawing a tall, downward-pointing triangle with a vertical and horizontal line across the shield, crossing in the center. He then slid the piece of paper up towards Miss Tairee's desk.
At that moment when Grimlock tried to contact Ben, Ben's phone rang, and he picked it up, confused. The number wasn't a number he recognized, instead it was in bizarre glyphs that Ben couldn't make heads or tails of. Ben answered the phone. "Hello?" he answered tentatively.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Hotel bedroom - Safe exploration
Fortunately, she easily managed to get Cole out of the bathroom. He seemed to be curiously about a few things there, but that could be handled later. However, when Sans said he would head to search for something, presumably tools for what he wanted to do with this phone, Cole started panicking again, worrying about his safety since the day was about to change. Caro didn't think Sans would be that casual and reckless in the face of potential danger just for the sake of something like that, so she might as well both reassure the spirit and confirm her idea.
"I don't think he actually means to leave the building, Cole. Hotels like this sometimes have stores within them. There could be something on the lobby that we missed earlier because we wanted to come straight up here. Usually, whatever changes happen don't normally affect the inside of a building all that much, so he should be safe. And both him and I still have phones, so we wouldn't be completely cut off from each other if something did happen," then turning to the skeleton in question, she asked, "That's what you have in mind, isn't it, Sans?"
edited 12th Aug '16 8:37:38 AM by JamesShields
feeling blue
Just as Sans was about to leave the room, Cole began freaking out about how something bad could happen to him if he left and the city changed and other stuff like that, he really was acting like a little kid who was afraid of having their parent leave them which was about as amusing as it was weird. Caro understood it better and tried to explain it to him, asking the skeleton for confirmation at the end.
"yea i'm not leavin' the building, i'm just gonna look if there's anything in this hotel that could be of use." He shrugged. "leavin' the building is kind of a dumb thing to do, if i went too far it could take hours for me to find this place again, phone communication or not, so don't worry, kid, i'll just be downstairs for a little bit."
He then proceeded to leave the room proper.
I just want to help!
Cole looked like he very much wanted to protest further, hunching his shoulders a bit and wringing his hands again, but both Caro and Sans reassured him that the skeleton wasn't going to wander off into danger or get separated if the day changed on them. He didn't seem convinced, but didn't say anything more as Sans left the room, just watching uncertainly for a moment before shifting back a bit to lean against the wall of the room, looking over to Caro in silence before looking to the curtains on the window again.
"If...if you want me to leave at any point, I will. I understand, if...if you would. I'm glad you've been so nice but I don't...you don't have to be if you don't want to. I...I just want to help, if I'm...if I'm not helping, then you don't need me to stay, and...it's...all you ever have to do is ask."
Plague Knight with Q10 presumably following arrived at the Library. "Here it is, the Library," the knight began to explain. "It is the only building in this city that remains in place, exactly in the center, and it contains books on any subject that you wish to know about. The only one working here is a single librairian, but as I said before she may not be here in person today." He walked up to one of the entrances and opened the door for Q10. "You want to come in?" he asked.
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HOTTING HELPY!!
Hotel room - Reassurence
Sans confirmed her suspision and then left the room without no further issues. However, even though he hadn't protested any further, it was pretty clear that something was still up with Cole. It was easy to tell that he was anxious and upset about something. When he did finally speak, without even looking at her, it only confirmed this. Although given what he had told them earlier, what he was now saying probably should have come at no surprise at all.
With that in mind, she only approached and leaned against the wall a bit away from him. He was a lot taller than her, so she felt that the best way to physically comfort right now was to try to reach for his hand, as she looked up at him and said softly, "Why would I want you to leave? Why wouldn't I want to be nice, specially to you? I told you before, Cole, I know what's to not be liked by a lot of people and it seems to have been that way for you until now. And I refuse to be like the people who wronged us. What those people said about you doesn't have to define you. I like you for who you are and you're my friend, that's reason enough for me to want you stay."
feeling blue
It didn't take long but the door to the hotel room soon opened again and Sans peeked inside from it.
"y'know, i never said you couldn't come with me if you wanted to help me find what i'm looking for," he said, rolling his eyes slightly, "i just thought you two would rather rest than go around looking for stuff in a hotel."
I just want to help!
Cole looked to Caro as she leaned against the wall next to him, then looked down at her hand as she offered it. After a pause he reached down to take hold of her hand, listening to what she had to say. He looked at the ground, fiddling with the amulet again, but when she'd finished, he just lowered his head a bit, and a nervous hint of a smile came to his face.
He didn't respond before Sans poked his head back into the hotel door, mentioning that there wasn't any reason they couldn't come along with him as he searched.
Cole contemplated that, looking down to Caro, then back at Sans, before smiling just a little more, clearly nervous as he spoke up.
"I-I...i-if you'd like to go with him, C-Caro then...yes, b-but, I...I think I'd...like to stay here, and...a-and not walk around a lot more today. I-if if that is a-all right? I can go if you like, I...I don't mind, if you'd...rather I...came with you, or...I...it's...p-perhaps you should decide?"
Beach - Cramming At the Last Minute
Given her mental state, Zelda almost didn't notice the brief twinge of induced sadness. She did, however, get a brief glimpse at another one of the goddess's memories. It was gone too fast for her to really see what it was, but it did remind her that maybe she should tell Sadness about who she really was. Maybe once she didn't have a ton of more pressing things to worry about.
"W-well...." she started, looking over the beach herself, "I w-was just planning on t-taking a quick walk a-around and then g-getting back to the l-library. E-even b-before our l-little talk, I...I've b-been through q-quite a lot t-today, so I j-just...n-never got the c-chance. A-and if I d-don't take it n-now, I'll p-probably never w-will get another one...."
Then she looked down at Sadness. "I'd a-appreciate your company, b-but...it is rather late. If...if you'd r-rather be sleeping or s-something, then...d-don't worry about s-staying with me."
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Hotel room - Should I stay or should I go
While Cole didn't say anything, it was pretty clear that he was visibly pleased with she had say, even if a bit nervously so, which all made her glad.
Then not at all long after he had left, Sans returned to say that they could go help him if they wanted.
While Cole seemed to OK with complying with what she decided, it was somewhat clear tha really wanted to stay in the room.
So after thinking about whatever she would rather stay or go, she first said to Sans, "Well, I don't think I'm all that tired yet and while I don't know what you're looking or if it really help find it, I think I would like to go help anyway, but ...." She turned to look up at Cole again and while gently squeezing his hand, said, "Would you like to stay here resting while we go do that? Like we said before, we will still be in the building and hopefully we shouldn't take long at it."
I just want to help!
"I...y-yes, I would like to stay here. I've...I-I have walked a lot today, I'd like to not walk as much anymore, i-if that is all right."
He smiled again, still small and a bit timid, but a fair bit less nervous. "If...if I get scared I...I-I could take off the amulet a-and find you, so there would...be that, yes? S-so if anything happens I can find you both. So...so it is all right. I will stay here, then."
feeling blue
In truth Sans was a little concerned with letting Cole alone with Caro considering what had happened in the supermarket before when he went to do something else and left him with the girls, but it looked like the two of them were really getting along now. Cole wanted to stay in the room while Caro wanted to join the skeleton in his searching, all things considered there wasn't too much risk other than Cole messing up the bathroom so letting him be for a bit shouldn't be a problem.
"alrighty, c'mon caro, the faster we do this the faster i can finish doing what i want and sleep," said Sans, already going ahead of her.
throwback
"No, it's fine," Sadness said hastily. "I'll come with you. I haven't really ever walked around a beach myself, anyways...
"Where to?" She looked up at Zelda, this time letting her lead the way.
Currently writing something. Currently procrastinating.
Beach - Starlit Stroll
"Guess t-this is a new experience for the both of us, huh?" Zelda asked, before heading off to the right and towards the water. Before too long, she'd lead them to the edge of the sea, stopping just short of the splash zone.
The view now wasn't quite as pretty as the view from those stacked books had been, but it was still quite beautiful to someone who'd never seen a body of water larger than a fountain. Between the sights and the sounds, it didn't take Zelda long to finally start calming down a little. Which was a good thing; she had some difficult decisions to make, and she'd need all the clarity she could get.
Along with calming down came the temptation to try splashing around in the water a little. However, while she was unfamiliar with oceans she definitely knew what water was, and what happened when clothing got wet. In fact, that was probably why special clothing existed for going in the water. That, in turn, reminded her of the swimsuit she'd found at the start of the day. Too bad she'd left that back in the library.
Then she looked down at her feet briefly, and an alternative idea came to her. Another moment later, and she'd plopped down and started taking her boots off. In the process, there was one other thing she needed to tell Sadness before she got too carried away here.
"By the way, Sadness.... The demon, the Lord of Change, is currently in no position to hurt anyone. But there's a few of its underlings working to bring it back. As much as I hope someone will be able to stop them...there's a chance it might return. And I wouldn't doubt that it'd try going after you again." She frowned. "So...be safe. I don't want you or anyone else to go through all of that a second time."
edited 12th Aug '16 4:27:17 PM by Yomegami
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Curly smiled a bit at the Easter Bunny's cute new form, even if it was a bad sign of just how much belief had been lost. But she had little to say as the movie reached it's conclusion, there was too much happening too fast for her to do anything but watch and enjoy as, even with Jack being right there in the theater and having assured them Sandy came back, the film did it's best to make it look like Pitch might just win. The kids gathered together and declaring they'd protect the Guardians was a touching moment, especially when they discovered they could change the nightmare sand back to dream sand.
Eventually, the battle was over, Pitch was beaten and, despite his claims about fear never truly dying, he certainly looked like he wouldn't be bothering anyone any time soon.
"How do I know that? Because the moon told me so. So when the moon tells you something. Believe it." Film-Jack's parting words prompted Curly to think about the first time she'd seen the moon, though she wasn't certain she could really say it had "said" anything to her... The experience was close enough to give her pause. Funny, it felt like a lifetime ago now. Though she was pretty sure it couldn't have been more that 24 hours since then.
"That was certainly something else. And here I thought you were just some kid that needed to get more sun and stay out of the bleach" Curly said teasingly to Jack. Though Miss Tairee quick exit caused a brief conflict for the robot. Should she stick around to talk about the film? But there were questions she wanted to ask, some of them somewhat pressing given the sun was already going down when they entered.
After a moment's contemplation Curly followed after the Librarian, if she was fast she'd at least be able to see which way the others went when they left the Cinema. Or meet up with them another time. Unfortunately, by the time she had caught up to Miss Tariee the quiet guy that was at the Buffet was already talking to her and asking some rather complicated sounding questions. Curly's curiosity won out and she decided to just listen for a moment.
THE SLORG!
"Hmm, a bit crusader-esque, but it seems fine to me" Miss Tairee's voice said from the center of the desks.
Sir Redring remembered something else and spoke up again. "Oh, and one last thing miss; could I get one of those 'phone' and 'walkie talkie' devices? It seems they'd be rather handy here" Sir Redring asked.
"Certainly. Now sorry you'll have to give me a bit; someone else is talking to me" Miss Tairee's voice responded. Somewhere between thirty seconds and a minute later, there was a blur on the desk, and a phone, walkie talkie, and little booklet explaining how to use both appeared on the desk, which Sir Redring took and started to inspect carefully.
"Hold on a moment" Miss Tairee said to Garrett, then tapped one of the keys on the holographic keyboard. "Hmm, a bit crusader-esque, but it seems fine to me... Certainly. Now sorry you'll have to give me a bit; someone else is talking to me" the librarian went on to apparently nobody, then tapped another key before starting to type away on the keyboard more freely.
"I thought you were there one of the times I explained it before? I suppose not. It's... Well, it's not really that complicated, but it is a bit much for some people to wrap their heads around: I call it the multiversal bleeding effect. Basically, the multiverse has a intriguing tendency for significant events and people from any given universe to show up in other universes as well, but not always directly; sometimes as a work of fiction instead. The important thing for you to know is that it does not mean that any of these universes or the people in them are any less real than any others" Miss Tairee started to explain to Garrett, still typing on her holographic keyboard. She seemed to finish up whatever it was she was doing on it, because she then stopped and finally turned her full attention to him. "Though the order of cause and effect is not always clear. Sometimes the universe existed first and the fiction came after; sometimes the fiction came first and then the universe became real. Other times it is purely coincidence; you have enough creators across enough universes creating works of fiction and eventually some of them are going to create 'fiction' that actually happened in another universe, just by chance" the librarian continued.
"I mean, there's so many different universes with that planet 'Earth'; like, a number so large I don't think your brain would even be capable of comprehending the number, let alone what that number implies. So if you wrote any story that takes place on Earth, chances are that story has actually happened in some universe. There's even one in my universe" Miss Tairee added, ending with a quick shrug. "Would you like to see how your universe is typically represented? I could show you" she then offered.
edited 12th Aug '16 4:55:39 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
Cole hadn't expected hot water to come out of the strange device, neither so hot nor with such force. Fortunately the day kept anything from being painful, but he still retreated from what felt like some sort of weird threat anyway. Apparently it wasn't much of one, since Caro came in and just turned the sink off without any issues.
"I've...I've seen water pumps but they were never hot...or hit so hard..." Cole said, sounding a little impressed, even as Caro started to lead him out of the bathroom. He did cast a curious look to the shower, but that was something to ponder later. Right now, Sans seemed to be up to something.
"But it's almost time for the day to change!" Cole said, looking a bit more alarmed. "What if it does while you're alone and the day is dangerous? What if something happens and we can't find you out there?"