Spyro and Sparx-On the Streets
Maya’s words seemed to be to much for Ben, and he wen’t off on an angry rant, detailing all the atrocities that the Writer had committed so far.
Throughout Ben’s tirade, Spyro’s relaxed face slowly gave way to an instense frown, and at the end of it, smoke was billowing from his nostrils. Sparx was angrily buzzing by Spyro as well. This was NOT cool. Spyro’d give anything to be able to torch the writers non-existant butt. While Spyro may have been small in stature, anyone watching him at that moment would see a truly dangerous creature.
Before Spyro’s thoughts could go any further, Ben’s watch activated, and Ben was flung to the ground as some shadowy figure escaped the watch into the shadows.
“What the heck was that?” Spyro asked, in a ready position in case something chose to leap from the shadows.
edited 14th Jan '18 9:19:36 PM by Dezmo
2 Spooky 4 U
After the little group turned future family left to talk to Miss Tairee, Reinhardt was left with the granted tablet and he wouldn't dilly dally about calling his old war buddy! So he did that........or tried to. For the last several minutes or so he made his spot in a corner of the library as he attempted to get the special machine being on the other side to inform him of his diminutive Swedish friend's location or really get anything out of him for that matter. While the binary talk was pretty cute, it was barrier of communication that Rein wasn't quite enjoying for obvious reasons. Finally he told the omnic to keep his eyes (eye? optic camera?) open for the not-dwarf-but-dwarf and he departed his spot to do other things......
Like his close allies and friends hanging out! So he came rushing over there and said to everyone with a joyous tone and a friendly wave, "Hello friends! Good to see that you are calling your loved ones!" before placing his hammer head first on the ground, pushing one of the sofa's over, and sitting down on it. No simple chair would be able to take his massive weight you see. Now comfortable and with good company, he asked Caboose, "Ah, how are you little Crusader?" and gave the other three a short, "How is everything?"
edited 14th Jan '18 10:19:51 PM by LightToAll
That One Gal
Maya stared, wide-eyed, as Ben blew up at her. Phoenix did much of the same, too surprised to interrupt the kid's tirade. Plus, he was pretty sure he'd make things even worse if he spoke up. The pair grew more and more shocked as Ben went on, and it didn't help when something happened.
"Ben!" Maya dashed towards the fallen kid, with Phoenix close behind. Maya whipped out her cellphone and, with a few taps, shined a flashlight into the shadows that the mysterious figure disappeared into. Shadow monsters hate light, after all! Luckily nothing was there to jump out at them, so the two hurried to Ben's side.
"Ben, are you okay?!" Phoenix asked, looking over him. It didn't seem like that thing did anything but toss him around, but you never know...
Library Lobby- Even More Friends
Makoto recognized Caboose even before he yelled over at her and Rex, and she waved at him.
"Huh? No, we're still alive," she said to him. Not that there weren't a few close calls yesterday that would have definitely gotten her re-spawned, but after seeing Two die in front of them, she wasn't about to bring that up to Caboose. Just what kind of world did he come from where death was that common?
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Goggles." Futaba said, side eyeing Rex as she looked back down at her laptop.
"We have to give out a physical calling card of some kind in order to take someone's distorted desires, that's just how the Metaverse works," Morgana explained. "That's how the public knows about us. Every person we targeted was told we were coming for them the same day. We don't hurt anyone though, we just make them come clean with their wrongdoings and try to repent." Makoto looked away from Rex for a moment.
"Someone else has been causing people to have mental shutdowns. They just... go comatose suddenly and die in the real world. The police think that we're the ones attacking people." The whole group looked uncomfortable, but Futaba and Haru were especially quiet.
"The public wants us brought to justice because... someone killed my father live on television, as he was about to confess to his crimes," Haru said. Morgana looked at her for a long moment, and then back at the phone.
"We looked really guilty since we just gave him a calling card, but... we're going to get to the bottom of this! We'll prove the Phantom Thieves' innocence and find the real culprit!"
"We fell for their trap, that's all, but we're gonna turn the tables on whoever's messing with us!" Ryuji said.
"That's why... we have to change my sister's heart. It's the only way we can avoid being thrown under the bus to cover up the mental shutdowns. I know she'd never make up a crime just to close a case if she wasn't being pressured by the higher ups. We just need to remind her of her sense of justice, and I know she'd be willing to help us. But until then, I can't tell her anything." Reinhardt joined in, dragging a couch over to sit by the table as he greeted them.
"We're okay, just... catching up on things back at home," Makoto said, smiling at him.
"Uh... is that knight eight feet tall or something?" Ann asked, staring at him like the rest of the teenagers on the other end of the call.
"That dude's huge! You sure that's a human under there?" From off to the side, Futaba looked more intrigued than freaked out like Ryuji was.
"GiantDad...?" she asked quietly.
edited 14th Jan '18 11:40:40 PM by ScorpioRat
"Lewis, what d-did I—" no wait, she did a lot of things. Hrm. "...No, Lewis, I'm...I'm not going to prison. I'm never going to willingly imprison myself...when so many people want to make that decision for me."
For what he just did, she wanted him to hurt in so many ways, but obviously today wasn't the day for that. Even verbally, everything that she could come up with in her head wouldn't work, and she just didn't have the will to say it in the first place.
"...You know what? Do you still want me to leave? Because I can, Lewis. You've...made your point..."
Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library
"I am not taking chances." He replied simply to Writer's words before going back to a proper focus. The... cat (?) explained the situation Phantom Thieves were in, with others offering commentary. The girl with the sheep wool hair was a casualty of this whole conspiracy too, what's with her dad dying on live TV.
"Sounds like the police is on the bad guys' payroll." He muttered. "You don't need a genius to figure out that you guys and the jackhole murdering people on the side are two separate cases, so either your cops are dumb or they're in on it." Probably not what Makoto wanted to hear - especially since her older sister was presiding the case against Phantom Thieves in the first place - but some honesty was likely to go a long way. "Well, you said your brainwashing's been working out so far, so... if you think that's gonna help, go for it."
Caboose and Reinhardt showed up. "Yo, blue guy, old man. Things are as fine as they can be. We might be working out some deal between Silanea and the sorceress lady, too." Long, tired sigh. "I guess Writer helped."
edited 15th Jan '18 1:35:29 AM by FergardStratoavis
Big Grah
Library Lobby- When a Whole Government Sector is Dirty
"A little of both, probably," Morgana said, agreeing with Jack. "The justice department is just doing what the higher ups tell them to now, whether the case is false or not. Someone at the top wants us out of the picture, we just don't know who yet."
"We're not brainwashing!" Ryuji argued. "We take their messed up desires away so they can see how shitty they're actin'! That's why our targets confess. We force them to see what's really going on, and the guys that did crimes feel guilty about it."
"...I asked to have my heart stolen, because I was living a lie for years." Futaba said. "I thought my mother hated me for years, all because of a faked suicide letter. I felt so guilty that I wanted to die, but the Phantom Thieves made me realize that I was wrong about her. She did care. I'd just... forgotten. I would have stayed locked up in my room forever if they didn't help me. And I know whoever really got her killed is behind all of this mental shutdown stuff now."
"I know it sounds kind of shady when you can't see it for yourself, Jack, but we're doing all we can in a system that's just letting people get hurt without any real justice," Makoto said. "If we could find a way to convince Sis to change on her own, I'd try it, but if stealing her heart so she confesses that our case doesn't make sense is what has to be done at the very end..." she trailed off, still conflicted.
edited 15th Jan '18 1:58:55 AM by ScorpioRat
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
Ok, I thought I saw the top of it there, that'd be a straight shot...this would probably be easier if she couldn't casually pull away whenever she felt like it, like she literally just did now.
I tried looking back and forth between her and the building whilst grabbing at her stupid anime hair (how the fuck do people do that) and snipping "N-no, don't be stupid. I don't want you to leave, I want you to suffer," in a half sarcastic voice shaking undesirably from a mix of sadism and pained fear. Ideally the last part of that was not visible in my expression but let's face it it probably was. "Forever, ideally, but realistically that's just not gonna happen. It's really impressive that I have to explain this sort of thing to you."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
THE SLORG!
"Tester and I can hang out outside of the day, and I do have more of those plot reveals Writer wants me to do sometime. So don't worry about interrupting us" Miss Tairee said in response to Cole, before looking to Arcade. "I can set you up with some books that might help. You should also try to enjoy the day before... Well, there's no guarantee that tomorrow will be awful, but it definitely won't have the same impossibility of violence that today does" she pointed out to the doctor.
Louie came running over after the event as well, already holding a pokeball in each hand at the ready. "Was that what I think it was? But I thought we dealt with that creep!" Louie said, glancing about at the alert.
You are reading this.
Happy Box Hater
Library
"Church... Is... Dead..." he read aloud off the text the Writer communicated to him with. Of course, he was talking loud enough that the people near him could hear. "OH! So Church just can't be talked to right now, right? OK then, I want to speak with Washington." After that bit of misunderstanding the concept of mortality was done, Caboose turned his attention to those near him.
The only thing he said in response to Makoto and Rex's greetings was "Well people die a lot, even the most dependable best friends you can always count on. Breathing has nothing to do with it!" But to the big man in the giant armor Caboose straightened up a tiny bit. "I'm doing alright. Still have a little raincloud inside of my head, but I'm sure that I'll see her again. She only died, after all!" Yes, death was a lot less of a risk of never seeing someone again than having them run off without telling you.
The guy he didn't know the name of informed Caboose about the state of negotiations between two species. "That's nice! I know people can become friends even after years of killing each other from experience so this is guaranteed to work out. They both were very nice people."
The idea that the thing they were all crowding around was a communication method finally hit Caboose. He walked into frame of the shot and stared at the people blankly. It was still so weird seeing people not wearing full body combat armor constantly. Also there was a... "Kitty!" he said when he saw Morgana.
Why is a yam attacking me?
"More reveals than the Writer being here to talk to?" Arcade asked, concerned. His day was already turning into a roller-coaster of emotions, he wasn't sure if these reveals would be anything he could handle.
Still, he had more important things to worry about, so he nodded and smiled gratefully. "Thank you," he said. She'd know the required reading better than just about anyone else.
"Right, unless it's going to be like the sports day, it'd be better to stay in the library until the next break," he agreed. Turning to Cole he added, "but first thing's first, getting your message."
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Hercules then jerked his hand back from the girl’s shoulder as soon as she started shouting at Ben with a worried expression on his face he started quickly gesturing with his hands for the girl to calm down and was going: “Easy, easy, we don’t need to do this.” He was saying in a very urgent tone but it made no difference because at that moment Ben than finally lost his cool and then started to go on a vicious rant about how much he hated the writer.
Hercules turned his head in Ben’s direction as soon as he started ranting and the latter started listing all the atrocities that the writer had ever committed the hero of Greece just looked on with his eyes all widened in horror. No words escaped his mouth other than an audible gasp at one point when Ben was ranting about the writer. And just when things couldn’t get any worse than that, something terrible happened to Ben. The bracelet that Ben was wearing around his wrist went all haywire causing Ben to fall to the ground causing a shadowy figure to come out of the bracelet, Hercules looked as that same shadowy figure escaped to the shadows, that did not look good at all.
“Ben!” Hercules shouted as he rushed with Phoenix and Maya towards his fallen friend, he looked at him with a mixture of concern and horror then offered a hand out to him to help him up off the ground. “Ben, say something! What happened to you?! What was that creature?!” Hercules shouted urgently he feared that this was only the beginning of the group’s troubles.
edited 15th Jan '18 7:52:19 AM by TheStarscream759
"Hey, the goggles were a gift. They mean a lot to me" Rex said, covering said goggles with his hands to protect them from Futaba's venomous words "And besides, when you are going a hundred miles an hour riding a bike you built yourself, you need some eye protection"
Onto more serious topics, the Phantom Thieves needed to leave physical calling cards in the real world to affect people's minds. Unfortunately, they weren't the only cool kids on the block as someone was using their methods to frame them in murders.
Oh and it just so happens some of the targets were the father of the girl that liked old-style clothing and the mother of the girl with spectacles. Live execution and forged suicide respectively.
"Whoa, that's... "
This colorful and varied vigilante group sure was plagued with a lot of death, huh?
Reinhardt joined the group to try and balance things out. Everyone was surprised about his size, naturally but Rex was still salty about the crusader's hammer meeting his face.
"He's a human alright, and should really work on his swing"
So, with the Phantom Thieves terrifying the police because someone framed them, they didn't have much of a choice about their next step. Going through the mindscape of Makoto sister's was the only way to make her realize the Phantom Thieves were innocent. But that felt a bit shady, even if Jack comparing it to brainwashing wasn't completely accurate.
"Well, what about letting me talk to her? I already convinced Valentina so I'm feeling lucky"
Caboose, meanwhile, didn't quite get the concepts of dead or alive. Rex just wished his weird logic was product of him misunderstanding a word or something and not actually missing the memo that his friends had died.
"Uh, are you sure dead is the right word? Because they are not known for coming back"
Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library
"Whatever it's called, you're prancing around in someone's head, if I'm getting it right. Then again, seems like each time you do that things turn out for the better." Jack shrugged, nonplussed by the outburst. "Once you get that conspiracy worked out, you might want to look into psychology and set yourself for life." He chuckled dryly, making a wide gesture. "Imagine the poster: Phantom Thievery - become a better person with Doctor Nijima. Borderline depressives free of charge."
"Jokes aside, that explains a lot about our earlier talk. It also explains why you did a one-man raid on a yakuza's place." He nodded at Makoto approvingly, but then his expression turned mildly sour. "Still... there's a problem I'm seeing in your plan. You steal your sister's heart, she turns over a new leaf and... what then? Nothing's stopping the Man above from setting up a new prosecutor to hound you."
"If you want to make it work, you'll have to appeal to her the old-fashioned way. That means no, you can't join, Rex." He pointed out to the cyborg, ever eager to help out with his girlfriend's problems. "...I wouldn't question Caboose too much on that either. He's come from a weird place."
Big Grah
For the Horde!
Ben sat up with a start after he composed himself from the sheer fright he experienced. He glanced around at the others, seeing that the group had moved to help him. He took Hercules' hand and wobbled to his feet.
"Ghostfreak!" Ben exclaimed. "I thought he was dead... I thought Spyro killed him... I thought he wouldn't haunt me anymore..." He started looking around, eyes a bit wide. "We need to go. We need to get something to eat. Somewhere well-lit. Let's go, c'mon," Ben started to request, almost urgently as he pulled away and tried to get as far away from the shadows as possible.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
I just want to help!
Cole smiled a little to Miss Tairee again, then contemplated a moment before looking to Arcade. "...we can talk to my friends back home...and go out, can't we? I got a little Eluvian to talk with last time, I could carry it with me. We don't have to stay in the library today...just go and get the messages started, and then we can walk around? You...liked that place that had...all the different...food."
Library Lobby
The guy that Caboose wanted to talk with was apparently dead, but he seemed to take that as a temporary state. Maybe that was what death was in his world. He brought up Two's death, and Makoto hoped that she'd respawned somewhere that was safe and not directly into another alien fight. She hadn't seen her since back at the grocery store...
Caboose walked in to the call and immediately spotted Morgana, to his intense annoyance.
"Here we go..." Ann said as Morgana visibly bristled.
"I'm not a cat!" he yelled. "You think a cat can talk and be a master thief like me? I'm a human, okay?" While he sulked, Makoto shook her head at Rex's offer to talk to Sae.
"Jack is right, I have to do it myself, and she probably still won't listen unless we enter the Metaverse and speak to Sae's Shadow self. If I can convince her to help us there, then maybe we won't have to steal anything. That's what were were hoping to do. It's just... going to be pretty tough."
"Yeah, we've talked down a guy's Shadow into changing himself for the better before, so we know it's possible," Ryuji said. "We just happened to know him personally. And we have a plan for figuring out who's after us anyway. We just have to pretend to lose so they'll get cocky and show themselves!"
"One of our team members," Futaba made air quotes with her fingers. "who just joined us is a traitor. We know he's working against us for the other side, so I bugged his phone to monitor his calls. If we can get Sae's help with the plan we have to catch him in the act, we can sneak our leader out of police custody when he inevitably gets betrayed."
"As soon as that scumbag detective Akechi thinks we're done for, he's gonna call up his boss and then we'll know who's been screwing with us!"
"From there, we can regroup and target him directly to stop whoever's manipulating things from the Metaverse for their own benefit..." Makoto said.
edited 15th Jan '18 1:05:41 PM by ScorpioRat
Happy Box Hater
Library
"Church has died a lot!" Caboose said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "First I... Tucker killed him by accident... with the tank I was in. Then he was a ghost! And then he died again! But I found another him and made him into HOVER CHURCH! And then he was sort of dead, well he was trapped in a good place so I ripped him free because we are friends and now he is a ghost again! And I guess he also died again so... that is pretty bad. I don't know where I'll find another one of him, but he always comes back because he is my friend and that is what friends do!" A normal person would be out of breath after all that, but Caboose was not a normal person.
The cat was talking to him and said he was a human! What a smart kitty cat! "A cat would be a great thief because no one would expect a cat!" Caboose claimed completely seriously. "I've never seen a master thief before you. Either it is because they are too sneaky or they all are really cats! Now I don't know about you, but the former doesn't seem likely."
The way they were all talking... did they go into people's brains? WERE THEY ALL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES?! CAT AI? "I remember the time Church went into my brain!" the soldier said like he was trying to find common ground or something. " Well, I don't remember it because they were shooting a lot of bullets and they said they killed the Church in my head and I couldn't remember him for a bit, but it definitely happened." Man, Blood Gulch was a weird time! Even Caboose had to admit that.
"Or you'd just hear him calling his dad," Caboose offered when he heard the parts of the plan for something he didn't understand. "If I just completed something important I'd call someone like that and tell them everything is fine, and then I'd call the big bad evil guy to tell him everything is fine."
Why is a yam attacking me?
Prison
The moss, it seemed, muffled the sound just enough for his needs. Garrett gave the vent a couple more whacks until he broke through, making sure to hold the vent in place so the smashed metal wouldn't fall out onto the floor to make a racket.
Once the way was clear, Garrett very slowly and carefully lowered his head through, trying to ensure nobody was visible nearby... as well as checking if any of these troublesome cameras happened to be around.
Then — if there was no danger visible around — he'd use another moss arrow to make a silencing carpet on the floor directly underneath the vent; and then, jump down.
THE SLORG!
There was writing sounds centered around Caboose, then there were more words appearing in vision, and a simple little radio with a single button appeared with a blur in front of Caboose.
"This radio will connect you to the radio that Washington is currently using. Press the button to begin, and press the button again when you're done. Once you're done or once the day ends, the radio will vanish."
As the group went on about the issues Makoto and the other Phantom Thieves were facing in their universe, Valentina finally came walking back down the staircase, and approached the group and the large mirror. "I'm surprised that none of you tried to follow and eavesdrop on me" Valentina commented in a plain tone, then looked at the mirror. "I am ready now. I would suggest you let me do the talking; if you acted towards the king like you have acted towards me, you would most certainly ruin what we are attempting to accomplish" the sorceress suggested, her tone of voice indicating that it was genuine despite the rudeness.
"Indeed, more reveals. Let's see" Miss Tairee flicked her wrist to bring up her holographic screen, and tapped a few buttons to scroll through extra-dimensional information. "Since you came from the library then you must already know a bit now what The Writer is really like as an entity; I can clarify though, but not entirely. I am finally allowed to speak more about what my career has been like, especially at the beginning. I can talk about how time works across the multiverse- oh that will be a fun one, I'm sure. I can show off how my powers work, and show off more of my computer. And I finally can share what happened to Sawyer" she listed off, getting sarcastic with the quiet muttering part.
In the meantime she had been tapping away at the holographic keys, then with a final swipe, turned back to Arcade and Cole and dismissed the screen. There was a blur in the air as a simple, transparent bag appeared with a few books in it. There seemed to be a basic nutrition guide, a cook book, a parenting guide, and a few manga labeled Black Cat. "I'd take the parenting guide with a grain of salt; Cole isn't exactly like other kids, after all" Miss Tairee suggested to Arcade.
"Don't worry Ben; we beat him once we can beat him again. There's no way he could take on all of the Knights" Louie said, then looked around. "Hey, there! Isn't that the buffet?" the trainer pointed out, pointing to where the top of a glass dome was visible over the top of a two story frat house.
Everything continued going well, Garrett got the vent cover off without dropping it, and peeked his head down to where Riddler could now see him...
There was a security camera at one end of the hall, up in the corner.
You are reading this.
"Yes, we can spend today outside," Arcade said, "enjoy some new sensations before tomorrow starts." He had no idea what an Eluvian was, but he was probably going to figure it out soon enough.
Tairee's list of what she could explain was fascinating, and relaxing compared to what he was dreading to hear. "Alright, I was worried they'd be something more dramatic," he admitted, "I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle anymore drama today."
He squatted down to check out the books immediately. They could have been anything and he would have been excited to be able to read them. They seemed straightforward, nutrition, cooking, parenting. His eyebrows raised at the manga, however.
"Black Cat?" he read, confused, "what's this supposed to be?" He put Cole on the ground, pulled one of the books out of the bag, and flipped to a random page. Surprisingly, he found that the pictures in the book seemed to include Eve. He looked back up at Tairee, questioningly.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
I just want to help!
Cole looked at the bag of books with some curiosity as Arcade set him on the floor to look at them. "Are these like Hank's books?" he asked, looking on as Arcade opened one. "Oh, yes, there's pictures like Hank the Cowdog...oh that's Eve!" He pointed to the picture of her, looking to Arcade, then to Miss Tairee.
"Are we all in books like this? Am I in a book too? Can I see it? Does it have pictures?"
"Lewis, I am done here," she said as she continued to move away, "Do you hear me? I won't bother you again. Just...get away from me."
edited 15th Jan '18 8:47:07 PM by wikkit
Snowy
“What in Aidios’ name...?” Rean muttered, clenching his fists. If this was what the guy had been doing for the last 20 days, what was in store for them during the remaining 9? No wonder Ben was hated the guy so much. All of this piled onto someone who was still just a kid. And then almost in sync with Ben's rage, something broke loose from his watch, slipping into the shadows. Maya ran over and started flashing some device in that general direction.
And then more discussion about whatever the heck just happened happened. "Ghostfreak?" Rean asked, having no idea what he heck was going on.
edited 15th Jan '18 9:32:03 PM by stargirl93
Ben's frown faded a bit when Spyro and Rean tried to talk some sense into him. Unfortunately, all the good work they were doing was broken by Maya's statement to him.
"He should be used to it by now!"
Ben twitched a bit. He turned towards Maya in a huff, anger in his eyes, visibly shaking.
"No!" Ben suddenly shouted at her.
"People have died because of the Writer! Hundreds of people! Hundreds of times! You weren't there, but I was! I saw it! I saw them! Ice fell from the sky and stuck into people's brains! They were left... they were l-left broken and... b-braindead! Because of the Writer's sick little game!" He turned, kept shaking, stopping his rant only to compose himself again to the point where he was able to speak. Then he turned towards Maya again.
"But that wasn't the end! He made us fight a dragon to fix them! It nearly burned down the whole city! Then he summoned a bird demon to try and ruin everything and turn everyone against us! He nearly turned me, me, into his evil little puppet! Then he turned us all into animals! Then the zombies came and invaded! Then he threw a giant rock lobster at us and destroyed the library with a bunch of people in it, I nearly drowned trying to save everyone from that building-sized thing!" He stopped to compose himself again, still shaking.
"Then he took away everyone's powers and dropped a bunch of evil monsters on us. You get what I'm saying, right? People keep dying, innocent. People. Keep dying. He keeps killing them! And he keeps doing it, and he's gonna keep doing it! Unless I can stop him. And you tell me that I should be used to it?!" he snapped at the top of his lungs.
At the time this was happening, Ben's arm was shaking so much, that it seemed to be making the Omnitrix shake and beep as well. Or maybe... no, not now!
Before Ben could even realize what was going on, the watch flashed green and Ben was flung to the ground, painlessly but still making him dazed. A dark shadow erupted from the watch, moving along the ground and into the shadow of a nearby building, where it vanished.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.