Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library
Before the call with Phantom Thieves was finished, a few more things were revealed about Akechi: that he was an orphan and that he strongarmed his way into the crew on basis of incriminating evidence. You had to wonder how he got in the first place if all of this was supposedly happening inside the "victims" minds.
Then once the call was finished, Makoto shot him a dirty look. "Hey, don't give me that face. You guys are pretty clearly on a date." Beat. "Plus, even with the old man at bay, you're probably the first person to go to once Rex starts being stupid. Sorry you couldn't catch up with the guys more." The apology sounded genuine, at least.
Valentina proposed an enhanced version of a deal: the lamias would become Vusluroan subjects (ugh, that's a mouthful), and so they would be left alone. "As long as they don't need to pay taxes or what not... And that's a man. He's just wearing power armor." He said when she took notice of Reinhardt.
Big Grah
Annoyed Mode: ON
It was a good thing that Ara decided to lead the way to the library when she did. Otherwise, there was a chance we would all have ended up at the same place they had tried to leave behind for about the thirtieth time. Plus it was a decent morale boost, and she could most certainly use the extra confidence.
The library itself seemed to be hectic as usual for a break day, with people speaking with their loved ones left, right and center. However, there seemed to be a noticeable lack of librarians inside. It would explain the presence of that sign that instructed her to speak if she wanted anything.
It made me curious as to how that system would work for someone without a voice, such as myself for example.
Ara realized this rather quickly, but nonetheless made her way to the central desks. She still looked around just in case, but in effect could not find Tairee. What she did spot where some familiar faces. Rex seemed to be involved in something rather complicated, so she chose to not bother him for the time being... although I knew for a fact she wished to speak to him later on. Caboose was already getting himself involved in social interaction. Lewis had arrived recently as well, and... it was hard to tell what he was even doing. For a brief moment Ara lost herself looking for familiar faces, and almost forgot what she had come for.
'The letter.'
"I know."
She reached into her stocking with her free hand and pulled out a folded piece of paper. I could tell by the way she was staring at it that she still had second thoughts about it... but a deep breath was all it took to encourage her to push forward.
"Hello? I'd... like to send a letter to my brother."
edited 17th Jan '18 3:40:20 AM by Katarsus
Happy Box Hater
Library
Caboose looked upon the device that would connect him with Agent Washington and despaired, for he had no pockets to keep it in. The obvious solution then came to him, and now the object was firmly hidden somewhere on his person. No one would have seen him put it away though.
"It is cool!" the soldier said to Rex. "Having a friend who is made of ones and zeroes is awesome, though the numbers must be really small since I've never been able to see them."
The situation of tense diplomacy seemed like a perfect one for this idiot to butt into. "It is like... the way the world works that if two people are neighbors without being on the same team they'll fight," Caboose said after calling upon his years of experience fighting some people in a box canyon for no reason aside from getting their flag. "Though not sharing the same space would help, except that sometimes that space is a planet and then there is nowhere to run."
Why is a yam attacking me?
Arcade let out a relieved sigh. "This wouldn't be the first time I've learned another language," he replied, "hopefully you have a Latin or English analogue." He nodded at Tairee's suggestion as he put his manga back into the bag.
"Alright, now that that's settled, we should really be getting back to the library," he said, looking at the other two for confirmation.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Hercules followed the others inside into the building that Ben said would keep them safe and looking around he could see all kinds of food on display just waiting to be eaten. Never before had Herc seen so much food in one place there was fruit, there was fish, chicken even things which he had never seen in his life, many things were on display. He didn’t know where to begin so he decided to ask: “Well it’s certainly a place to eat here I’ll give you that. But what exactly do we do here besides eat?” He asked out loud, it was honestly quite extraordinary in fact as far as he was concerned he had nothing like this in his world.
Hercules wasn’t as hungry as the others was but he decided since the others were desperate for something to eat, he saw no reason not to join them in their meal so he looked at the food on display and thought about what he might to want to eat.
I just want to help!
Cole still looked a little bit...thoughtful, but looked up at Arcade, then back to Miss Tairee. "...thank you, Miss Tairee. Have fun playing with your friend today." He smiled, and waved just a little bit to her, then turned back to Arcade and Eve, nodding a little. "Y-yes, I...I would like to...go back to the library now..."
There was a short, but clear hesitation for just a moment, with him looking away for a second, then he looked up to Arcade again, contemplative, before holding up his arms, asking to be picked up.
Prison
After briefly considering his options, Garrett decided to go for broke.
He shot a moss arrow directly underneath the vent, jumped out, and — taking out his set of lockpicks — proceeded to try and pick the lock on the Riddler's cell.
Not bothering with unnecessary greetings, he hissed to the Riddler: "Soon as I get this open I'll give you my climbing gloves. We get out, you climb the external wall and toss them down to me once you're at top."
Library Lobby- This Is Becoming More Than a Coincidence
Why was she "in charge" of Rex again? Friends got each other out of trouble, that's all. Valentina revealed her bargaining chip she had with the King to make sure that he accepted the Lamias' peace offer, and it seemed pretty sound. He'd be hard pressed to refuse if he could get the dead revived in the process. After Caboose tried to give his own two cents on the issue at hand, Makoto realized it probably wasn't that smart to let him keep interjecting if they were going to start a call soon.
"Hey Caboose, maybe you should go sit at another table while we handle this call. That way, you can make your own call back home without everyone interrupting each other," Makoto said, before looking around for another open space. Either that or, this whole diplomacy should move upstairs for more privacy... That was when she spotted a pink head of flames off by one of the revolving doors. Well, shit.
Makoto wondered if Lewis could even see her from here or even tell it was her since her clothing was different now, but he'd definitely recognize Rex and might come over, which would probably not end well for her. But they were right in the middle of something, so she couldn't just leave. Feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place, she looked away and tried to position herself behind Rex more to block any sight lines.
Once again, it took Arcade a few seconds to realize that he was supposed to be holding Cole. When he finally figured that out, he muttered a quiet, "one second," as he put the bag over his shoulder, making sure that it was secure enough.
After that, he gently grabbed Cole as he saw Miss Tairee do and lifted him up without any difficulty. He nodded a goodbye to Miss Tairee and started to head out into the street.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Happy Box Hater
Library
"No, I understand," Caboose said in a way that suggested he didn't. "Washington kept me away the last time we were negotiating peace between two nations." Not that he knew the reason, but if his teammates that weren't Tucker thought it was a good idea then it must be great.
Sitting down at a table to make his call, the soldier pulled out the device from wherever he had been keeping it and set it down at the table. After a few seconds of doing everything with it except pushing the button to try turning it on, Caboose accidentally pressed down on the button. The bit of noise as it activated was responded to by the soldier with "I think it was trying to snap the long thing sticking out that did it Freckles."
" Hold on, I think I got something! Caboose, are you there?" sounded out from the radio.
"Yes I am a Caboose, Washington!" the blue soldier excitedly responded to the message.
" It's him! Carolina, I found him!" Washington's voice announced more muffled, as he was clearly talking to someone else. More clearly, he asked Caboose " Caboose... what happened to you? And I didn't know you could use a radio on your own?"
"Oh, um... I'm in a city... or maybe a college... it changes, kind of an inside joke. And god made it easy to use the radio," Clearly communicating this would be simple.
" Right, OK, shouldn't have expected a straight answer from you..." Washington trailed off a tiny bit as if listening to someone that wasn't on the radio. "OK, Caboose, I want you to give me a detailed explanation of what happened to you, starting with the battle in the Staff of Charon."
"The what?"
" ...The ship owned by Malcolm Hargrove."
"Who?"
" The... evil bald guy."
"OH, him! Yeah, OK, here's everything that happened!"
After a lengthy explanation of everything that happened since time slowed to a standstill before their last stand in the ship, Washington had only one response.
" That was the worst explanation ever. Of all time. Listen, Caboose, is there anyone else there we could talk to because I'm going to be honest I have no clue what you just said."
"OK!" Caboose yelled at the radio before looking around the library. "Can someone help me out? My friend Washington sometimes has trouble understanding simple things like this!" The blue soldier yelled throughout the library.
Why is a yam attacking me?
Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library - That's A Second Conversation I'm Intruding On
It seemed Caboose had problems. "Son of a-I'll go get him. You guys can handle yourself." The body double offered the two intrepid teens - though Makoto looked unusually nervous all of a sudden. Jitters, probably - and the old man in a power armor an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up before leaving over to where the blueberry soldier was having issues. Apparently his friend had no idea what Caboose was saying.
Having known him very briefly, Jack came to a conclusion that this was not an unreasonable assumption. "Here, pumpkin, lemme help." God, this radio looked positively ancient. He was far too used to ECHO's by now. "Testing, testing... you guys reading me on the other side?" Name's Jack. What do you need help with, except... presumably everything?"
edited 17th Jan '18 3:51:19 PM by FergardStratoavis
Big Grah
"Yeah yeah, we are dealing with stubborn non-human haters. This ain't my first rodeo" Rex told Valentina.
Apparently, the only way peace could be achieved was by annexing the lamia village as part of the human kingdom. That was a less than perfect solution and the fact that the sorceress had proposed that idea did ring a few warning bells—can you say conflict of interest?—but they would cross that bridge when they got there. No matter how much Reinhardt's comment made it sound like a doomed project.
"Well, that's not gonna happen here"
Jack meanwhile, warned Makoto to keep an eye on her date in case he fucked up. Every one of her friends immediately dropped the conversation about the mole in their group in favor of getting more details on the unlikely couple. Futaba in particular denied such a thing could be true, saying that Makoto couldn't possible fall for someone as big of a dork as Rex.
"Or maybe 'Goggles' is a pretty cool and sweet guy and Makoto can see that, unlike some people" Rex answered, crossing his arms.
Embarrassed by Jack's words, Makoto quickly ended the call and focused herself again on solving the lamia-human situation.
"Your friends are fun. They remind me of some guys I know back home. I should probably pay them a visit one of these days"
Anyway, it was diplomacy time and Rex felt pretty good about his chances. That wasn't the case for Makoto from the looks of it, because she was trying to hide behind Rex. For some reason.
"Uh, is something wrong?"
Happy Box Hater
Library
" Oh thank god," Washington said with a sigh of relief. "OK, Caboose is a wonderful person but I can barely understand him under normal circumstances. Why don't you tell me what situation he's in?"
While Jack explained the city to Washington, Caboose sat crosslegged and was petting Freckles, who didn't seem too upset about it.
After the explanation, Washington said "I find it hard to believe, but it figures that Caboose of all people would get targeted for this. He certainly keeps things interesting." The soldier let out a sigh. "Why did it have to be right then, though? If he was there than maybe... no, it isn't Caboose's fault." The man sounded pained about something.
Caboose chimed in with "I don't know what was my fault, but you can definitely blame Tucker. I never mess up, Washington." Sounded really defensive now.
"Look, Jack, could you... is there anyone helping Caboose out? He's smarter than he looks but that doesn't mean much. He really shouldn't be unsupervised, for the safety of himself and others. He's kind of the heart of team and we really need that heart intact now more than ever."
"I prefer being the team's house... wait a second! What do you mean you need me?" Caboose had a nasty habit of understanding things only when a person didn't want him to.
" It's... well, I don't know how to tell you this..." Washington floundered a bit. He wasn't expecting to have to break the news over a call.
Why is a yam attacking me?
Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library - Twice I Am Being A Blunt Bastard
Oh. Well, here came the painful reveal. The way Washington worded himself, something bad has happened to someone Caboose would hold dear and there was only one person Jack could think of that fit that criterium. "People are on and off about this. I think he came to the library on his own now, for one."
"We'll try our best, for all it's worth." Rex was a bit hostile to him, but Makoto seemed to care enough, plus there was the old man Reinhardt. They could form some semblance of daycare for the clueless blueberry. "...so... what happened to Church? Best to be honest."
Big Grah
Happy Box Hater
Library
"Actually I brought Ara and Hibiki here with me!" Caboose corrected Jack.
" Are you trying to tell me that you were able to lead someone somewhere?" Washington said incredulously.
"Yes! I lead them back to where we started a lot! Must be pretty good at it."
"OK... Anyways, thank you Jack. Caboose is like a toddler with guns, but he really doesn't mean badly."
"Hey! I am at least six years old. Not a toddler."
"Sure Caboose."
When Jack asked what exactly happened with Church, Washington cut off for a few seconds. He finally broke the silence by saying "You know about Church? This isn't easy... Caboose... Church is dead..."
"OK! Have we found the way to bring him back yet? Like a... backup, or a second Epsilon?" Caboose interrupted him mid-sentence.
"No... there isn't anything." Washington sounded choked up.
"Well... we just need to keep believing! It never failed before!" Caboose sounded confident in his logic.
"I... I didn't finish Caboose. Sarge is dead too. We lost two good men."
"What..." Caboose said confused. Sarge wasn't supposed to die. Last time he died he just got out of his grave, and that was ages ago! "Sarge wouldn't have died! Grif was there and he never makes Sarge happy and Sarge said it was a good day to die. So Grif saved him, right?" The narrative he was concocting was frankly astonishing in its audacity.
"No... Grif didn't save him. He wishes he did though. Taking it even harder than Simmons, actually."
"Well... we care about him so... he'll come back! Just like Church always does. I mean, he's the leader of red team! We can't have a blue team without a red team."
"I hope so, Caboose. I really hope so." Washington said resignedly. Getting the harsh reality of the world into Caboose's head was almost impossible, and feeling good about doing it was even harder. Sort of like putting an animal out of its misery.
Why is a yam attacking me?
Tap.
Tap.
Morty roused from a dream - a dream where he was a circus ringmaster endlessly torturing a parade of tiny elephants - and blinked blearily at light streaming in through the slats. It was late in the morning; even now Morty could hear a thin stream of noise from just outside the flimsy walls - the noise of a bustling city up and about on a sunny summer morning. Kicking his way out from underneath a labyrinth of blankets and pillows, the teenager looked around at his surroundings. He had, by all indications, been transported out of the ruins of an apartment building and plopped down into a smartly maintained, Spartanly furnished college dorm - or a reasonable facsimile of it, anyway.
Tap.
Morty rubbed his eyes and looked around at the rest of the room in the hopes of figuring out what was making that strange, rhythmic tapping noise. A collection of pleasantly meaningless knickknacks adorned a flimsy white bookshelf that looked as though it had been drunkenly assembled from half-read Ikea instructions. A portable fridge lay sprawled on the carpet; cool mist washed out over a sea of discarded soda cans; messily torn bacon wrapper lay abandoned in a puddle of blood and grease.
In retrospect, this should have been more of a warning than the groggy Morty took it for.
Tap.
She was sitting on the lone armchair just beyond the double bed. One arm was holding a small, pink book close to her green eyes, the other arm was absentmindedly popping a slab of torn, dripping pig flesh into a mouth full of perfect white teeth. The third and fourth arms, on the other hand(s), were folded neatly at her chest, while the black, syringe-like tip of her tail was absentmindedly tap'ing against the hardwood floor, leaving behind a neat, gently smouldering divot in said hardwood floor.
Morty flinched and pulled the covers up as though they would offer him some modicum of protection. "Oh my god." he mumbled.
"You're awake!" chirped the girl, tilting her head and flashing Morty a perky smile - the kind of good-morning smile that might have appeared on a billboard for toothpaste if it weren't for the fact all of her teeth resembled very shiny, very white sewing needles.
"Um." This wasn't a particularly cogent statement to make in this situation but it was the first thing to come out of his mouth. Gingerly swinging himself to the floor, and noting with some relief that he was still fully dressed and clothed, Morty tried to find a way out of here that didn't involve going past the sixteen year old girl with a pixie haircut and a tanktop with a smiling cartoon kitten on it.
"So.... uh...." said Morty, edging closer to the doorway in case the girl tried to make a sudden move, "uh.... hell of a day yesterday, huh?" He chuckled nervously. Keep her distracted, that was the big thing. What did Rick say about them? They didn't even know about electricity? The phrase "stab to death" and "mates" bubbled alarmingly in his mind.
"I had fun!" She smiled that disarming smile again, which looked alarmingly like the kind of smile that a bored cat might shoot to a particularly nervous mouse. "They were so stupid, you know? They just kept coming, and coming, and....." She playfully swiped the air with her lower left arm; Morty instinctively flinched and backed towards the wall as she did so, noting with some alarm that her manicured fingernails evidently disguised a set of wicked, cat-like claws. "They were so stupid, you know? Even the things back home were smarter than them...." She laughed a cute, tinkling laugh and patted her belly with one of her other hands.
Morty edged a little closer to the door. Maybe if he could just keep her talking....
"So... uh.... w-what are you reading there, huh?" Morty squinted at the little pink book she was holding. It was a comic book, he realized. In one page, a nervous manga high school boy was holding out a bouquet of flowers towards a starry-eyed manga girl - a girl, who, Morty noticed in an unusual display of rapid deduction, was wearing a nigh-identical kitten tank top.
"I found it at the library," she said, as she gingelry licked her thumb to turn the page. "I was told that this would make me..." she fumbled for the correct word, "...irresistible. Am I irresistible to you, Mortykun? Do you find me irresistible?"
"Oh jeez." Morty managed to make a few more steps towards the door as his erstwhile crush leaned in to closely scrutinize one specific panel. "Look, uh...."
"C'eeein-dee." she said automatically as she popped another slice of bacon into her mouth.
"...ceeeein..... uh, look, can I call you Cindy?" Cindy shrugged, a complex ripple of motion as clumps of muscles that no normal human possessed roiled over one another like steel cables. "Uh - I mean -"
"You have to call me Cindychan," said Cindy as she extended a talon and picked a bit of bacon out of a particularly pearly clump of teeth. "So says the... booook." There was the slight but unmistakeable sound of a tongue trying to wrap itself around a foreign word. "It will make me irresistible. I will become like Haru-chan in Candy Student Club - because she is irresistible - and then I will be irresistible." Her train of logic now firmly in the "arrivals" platform, Cindy sat back and looked pleased with herself
"Cindy... Cindychan..." stammered Morty for a few seconds, "... no, I'm not calling you that, I'm calling you Cindy. That's- there's a limit here and I can't do that."
"Do you not want me to be irresistible, Mortykun?" Cindy looked a little hurt, and immediately the reptilian part of Morty's brain regretted seeing her perfectly sculpted features crumle in defeat. "The knowledge within this..." she fumbled will become irresistible and bring many mates back to my Earth. I shall spread my knowledge of Candy Student Club with my tribe and we shall overpower the lowlanders." She grinned fondly My first brood of spawnlings will bear the name of Haru-chan: the strongest Haru-chan will devour her sisters and prove her worth." She grinned fondly, and in the morning sunlight Morty realized that her big green eyes had that strange compound glimmer, like the eyes of a dragonfly.
"Oh jeez." Morty didn't even bother to mumble this time. This.... person, for lack of a better word, was not operating within the normal parameters of human logic. Maybe there was someone, somewhere, who got off on this kind of thing but Morty was not that brave soul.
"Come with me, Mortychan!" The huge, disarmingly beautiful - minus the teeth - smile on her face was worse than the most horrifying monster he could think of. "Be my mate! Sire my Haru-chans!"
"Nooo!" Steps away from the handle, Morty leapt for the handle - and was mercifully inches away from the doorframe when it opened, flooding his nostrils with the unmistakeable smell of cheap bourbon and homemade dark matter as an unmistakeable lab-coated shape filled his vision like some kind of avenging, smelly angel.
"Morty?"
"Mortykun!"
edited 17th Jan '18 7:01:20 PM by Locoman
THE SLORG!
Lewis heard a quick scribble in the air, and then saw a word appear in his... 'Vision'. There was the feeling that it wasn't quite through the eyes of his projected body.
"Hello."
Meanwhile, there was also some short lived sound of writing in the air around Ara, and she saw words appear in her vision as the letter blurred and vanished from her grip. Eun, like Lewis, was also seeing the words in her 'vision', independent of Ara's senses. (To make things weirder, Eun actually couldn't see the words from Ara's point of view, only her own.)
"Very well, it has been sent."
A moment later, if Ara's brother had ever managed to write a return letter, it would appear in front of Ara with another blur; if he hadn't, then it wouldn't.
Elsewhere in the lobby, Valentina looked at Timothy with a raised eyebrow. "Of course they'll have to pay taxes, and follow our other laws too. There wouldn't be much point to them being subjects of the kingdom if they didn't. It doesn't have to be in gold though" Valentina said to him, then glanced to Silanea and by extension the handheld mirror. "I will see to it that they don't try making laws specifically to affect only lamias or only humans unfairly. Will that be acceptable to you?" the sorceress asked.
"... I don't know... This is a lot to take in with no warning" Akyaliha said, her tone still a little bitter.
"Well unfortunately for you and me both, we don't have the luxury of giving it much time to think over. We must come a conclusion before the end of the day, and the sooner the better. We wouldn't be able to speak again for another five days, and Amelia already knows of your existence. I can't stop her from telling the rest of the kingdom now" Valentina responded, lowering her eyebrows.
Silanea looked taken aback. "What? So that's it then? You're not giving us much of a choice" Silanea pointed out.
Valentina sighed. "Look, despite the animosity of our initial relations, I am genuinely trying to help you now. I have offered you the best conditions I can see possible, and explained my reasoning. I know better than to think that you'd ever like me considering what happened, but you could at least stop treating me like I'm your enemy in the here and now" Valentina told them, her own tone a little irritated now.
Silanea shied down slightly, but still looked a bit angry, while Akyaliha was much the same. "... Can you please just give us a few more minutes to talk it over?" Silanea asked quietly after a moment.
Valentina turned away, giving a dismissing wave of her free hand. "I can't continue until you are ready, so you might as well. Just please do not dally" Valentina muttered. As Silanea slithered away a short distance to speak into her own mirror, Valentina returned her attention to Reinhardt. "... You're a man? But your arms seem too large, and your head too small" the sorceress commented.
"Uh, no? It's a buffet, man; eating is all you're supposed to do here" Louie said after Hercules' comment, before turning his attention to Ace the blaziken who was walking over to the trainer holding something in hand. It seemed to be a brownish red rice cookie, which Ace held out towards Louie while making an excited squawk. "What? A lava cookie? So they have food from home here, too?" the trainer commented, to which Ace responded with another squawk, and motioned the cookie forward more insistently.
"Alright, alright, let's split it like old times" Louie muttered, taking hold of the other side of the lava cookie. "On three? One. Two. Three!" the trainer counted off, then yanked down on his side of the cookie, while Ace yanked up on his own side, snapping the cookie into two halves. Ace quickly scarfed down his half in just a couple of bites, while Louie started to munch on his own.
Elsewhere in the buffet, one random patron was looking on with some confusion at a tall wedding cake, which Lil' Sunny the roselia had quite literally rooted her feet into the top of, while swaying her flower arms around in a dance so happy and jolly that words in this sentence could hardly do it justice if they had tried. The castform was basically swimming in a big pot of spicy curry, until the pelipper took a great big bill full scoop out of it, taking the castform right along with- the pot of course instantly refilled itself to the top. Swishee stood up straight, then opened the top of her bill, showing Nimbus still floating at the top of the curry which was now in the pelipper's mouth. Swishee looked pleased with herself, but Nimbus didn't seem to care either way.
Miss Tairee gave them another smile. "I will, Cole. You take care now" Miss Tairee said to them in a friendly tone, giving a goodbye wave.
Landing silently and getting to work, the lock proved like Garrett had expected. Internal parts were shifting and responding to his probing in a way that made it clear he would be able to pick the lock; he just had to figure the smaller differences between this kind of lock and the ones from his own universe first. He would be able to have it unlocked in about half a minute if he kept it up.
There wasn't any approaching footsteps or guard yells yet, but they had drawn the attention of someone in one of the other cells, just a bit down the hall. "Hey? What iss happening?" went the raspy voice of a woman who seemed to be made of plant matter, peeking through the bars of her own cell. "Humanss are making essscape? Let floran out too! Curssed militia put end to our hunt!" the floran woman of the Hunters complained, rattling the bars of her cell.
Meanwhile, those listening to the militia's radio channel would hear a few simple words coming from Well's voice. "It's mister Nigma."
edited 17th Jan '18 8:37:01 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
I just want to help!
Cole waved back to Miss Tairee, then just leaned against Arcade in silence as they started out of this place. The closer they got to the library, though, the more...well, anxious, he felt. He supposed it made sense, really...considering how momentous what he was about to do was...
It was a very, very, very bitter flavor of bittersweet, really. He was telling his friends...his family, his world goodbye. He knew there was one more day, theoretically, if he were still here for it, that he could reach out to Thedas, but...
But.
After just the briefest of detours, what with the library maintaining the city's habit of things not always being the easiest to find, they were heading back inside, and Cole looked around at the people inside. He remembered after a moment that, after all, Miss Tairee was off with her friend, not here, and he would have to ask the Writer for the message home.
There was a faint whimper from the new toddler, and he hid his face against Arcade's shoulder again, one hand gripping hard at the lapel of his lab coat.
Finally the trio were on their way to the library, and Arcade finally had a chance to actually think about what was going on.
He had just adopted a child. A troubled child who he didn't really have the most stable relationship with. There were still so many reasons to be hesitant, or second-guess himself, but now that he had basically decided on it, there wasn't much choice left, was there?
He glanced down at Cole as he leaned against him and bit back a sigh. At least he knew one thing for sure, if he was going to be Cole's father, he would try his best to take care of him.
Eventually they made it to the library. As the only one of the group not making any calls, he expected to be silent as the other two spoke to the Writer. Instead, Cole seemed scared for some reason.
"Hey, hey," he cooed, gently patting Cole on the head, "Cole, what's wrong?" He glanced around, trying to see if he could recognize anything he would be uncomfortable around, but didn't really see anything he knew would upset him.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
That One Gal
Phoenix walked alongside Hercules as the group entered the buffet. "Yeah. It's a buffet, like every other kind of restaurant." Wait...toga, sandals...Maybe this guy didn't even know what a restaurant was? Either way, the other kid answered the guy's question, too, so Phoenix decided to drop the question. "You can take anything you like. By the looks of it, there's a lot on offer here. Sure Maya will love this, right?" He looked over to Maya who...vanished.
"Oh. That happened faster than expected."
Maya was further into the buffet, of course, and in the short time since arriving was already with a plate in hand. Said plate was already stacked fairly high with the beginnings of one tall burger. It wasn't at "toppling over itself" levels, but, Maya was nothing if determined...
edited 17th Jan '18 9:10:50 PM by TruthHurts22
Prison
"Get her out too - we could use all the distractions we can get!" Riddler hissed, as he nodded once Garrett told him of his plan to use the climbing gloves. He hoped Garrett worked fast - if the thief could release some of these other criminals, they could not only have more allies but also more escaped prisoners for Wells to be occupied with. He didn't thank Garrett but he rarely thanked anyone - gratitude was implicit in the supervillain world.
Delicious in the Moomin Valley
Jack, Library
Ouch. Not just Church - and judging by what Washington said, this one would be final - but another of Caboose's friends, too. Still, the blueberry soldier all took it very well. Or, Jack thought, as best as someone so mentally damaged could. "I'll try as best as I can, and I think a few others around know the feeling. Losing someone ain't nothing easy." And he was thinking of Felicity again. Stupid robot and his stupid boss and...
"You guys... holding up over there somewhat?" He asked Washington uncertainly; a question mostly to assure Caboose everything on the other side was well - death of two of his friends notwithstanding.
Big Grah
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
...There was a floating word in front of me. That was new.
Okay, that first sentence was a lie. Somehow I had this sense that it was being fed directly into my mind rather than actually hovering in front of my face. Being that at this point anything being fed directly into my mind was starting to get old, I involuntarily drew away from where the message appeared to be, pulling one hand to the locket.
I had a feeling, based on precedent, that this wasn't from Tairee.
"...You're literally a sentient string of words. Go figure."
The guy seemed dedicated to being a cosmic horror antagonist or something, y'know. "Y'know, I was trying to kill someone and the day rules stopped me, so thanks."
So did that mean I had to go through this asshole for a call then? Not like I was uneasy enough about it before or anything...
There was the sound of that Caboose guy yelling for help getting something through to someone, which honestly wasn't surprising from what little interaction we'd had, and I looked around trying to pick out which direction the sound had come from. Oh, there was a dude already stepping in. That was...good, probably.
I debated barging in just in case, but noticed a group a few paces away from them. A sizable one, all familiar except...
Again, I was sure I'd seen her somewhere. It didn't seem to click where, just that it had to have been in the last few days, since abduction and whatnot. I couldn't hear what they were talking about from where I was, maybe that'd be helpful to know...but Silanea was there and that'd be awkward, and...
oh yeah, that's where I saw her
I stood there, eyes darting with suspicion and the beginnings of righteous anger between her, Silanea, Rex, Silanea again, who was now leaving, Rein, the sorceress again, what I was pretty sure was Makoto...repeat for a little over a minute...then finally started nearing with a pole in hand...
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Library Lobby- When You Wish You Were A Ghost So You Could Sink Into the Floor and Out of This Situation
As she was attempting to stay out of view for the second time since entering the library, Caboose took her advice and went off to another table with his radio. He yelled for some help explaining things, and Jack followed him away, leaving her alone with Rex and Reinhardt to handle the situation.
The discussion over the specifics of becoming subjects of the king continued, and Silanea eventually broke off to talk about the terms with her mother. Valentina went back to trying to figure out what Reinhardt was, and Makoto was about to relax and tell Rex that nothing was wrong before she saw Lewis lock eyes with their group.
"I-I, uh..." she stuttered out, her mind very helpfully supplying her with replays of yesterday's events. The tall spirit began to move towards them with a pole in his hand, which was only making her nerves worse. What was he planning to do with that thing? And then the Militia would probably notice her after, and then... Her imagination continued spiraling off in that manner, painting a much worse scenario in her head to worry over. She was so screwed... "Lewis is coming over, and I shouldn't... I don't want to ruin things again..." Makoto said, pulling away from Rex with guilt in her eyes.
I'm sure no one would care too much about wanton park destruction. It's not like the park would even exist tomorrow, or like anyone could get harmed from the broken objects or smoke or flames until then. At most it'd just sorta obstruct someone's view, if not be mildly impressive to look at anyway.
All of that was an afterthought, but it was true.
At some point a certain floating ragdoll started stalking me again. I guess I did forget to keep an eye on the little guy with the arguing and the arrest and the...falling...though the fact that it found me again probably said something. I didn't want to deal with its playful meddling for the moment, so instead it got a pink blob with a face to play with. Hopefully that didn't go too off the rails, knowing the little critters.
I don't know where I was going. I wasn't even really watching where I was going, for that matter, only staring bitterly into nothing whilst idly walking nowhere in particular (and I mean walking. I didn't have any particular reason for that either, beyond just not feeling like it). It's not like you had to look around for a place if you didn't have anywhere to look for. Maybe someone would get unlucky with the shifting and I could try again. Maybe something fun would pop up. A break didn't sound too bad, I guess. I still hadn't checked out the—
In my inattentiveness, I bumped into a figure in a trenchcoat. Several, actually. They appeared to be...blobs of slime with faces?
Yeah ok.
The bunch stacked on top of each other, reassumed their disguise, and hopped off. At some point during this, I got the idea to take a picture while it was still obvious what would be in it, and afterward realized there was a familiar glass wall with a crowd behind it a few paces from me.
Figures.
At the nearest door was an odd sign. Odd in that there were never signs here. "Speak for assistance"? That was...weird, and didn't seem like something that needed a sign. Probably not relevant unless I actually went inside, but still.
I could think of one, maybe two reasons to do that, either one of which filled me with apprehension for the possibility of it blowing up in my face (again)...but I was already here, right? I just. Needed to go inside.
It took two steps.
Yeah.
...There was a strange lack of Tairees. Somehow that wasn't reassuring, even though I did remember her leaving to mull about way back when and she was still responding to things here remotely then. Maybe...?
"Um...hey?" I waved to the open air.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess