"Hrm... you're all spoilsports, you know that?" , he says, momentarily unamused.
"What I am trying to make clear to you simpletons is that someone who was never on your side from the start is not a traitor. Balloon Boy was under Mara's possession from before you took the kid in. That's not being a traitor, that's being a spy. A traitor is someone who was a genuine ally before, but then turns against you."
Pseudo pauses. Not because Porky made that distinction clear, but because Porky knows about Mara's hand in all that despite the fact that Pseudo did not tell him about that. So unless somehow Porky learned about that from someone else (and who would willingly spend time with him?), that implies that his claims of knowing future events are not just empty bluster. That Galeem and Dharkon really didn't show up in his timeline and that's why he was unprepared.
... still, if Galeem and Dharkon never showed up in Porky's timeline, then there is no guarantee that the Assassins will win in this timeline like Porky claims they did in his.
"You seem to be so proud of knowing much more than us. Would it really be such a hassle to spare some helpful information for us simpletons?", Locke mockingly asks. Porky chuckles.
"I'm honestly shocked you don't already know. All the pieces are already in place, y'know? You should very well know who it's going to be based on your own probably-recent discoveries."
"..."
Pseudo raises one of his eyebrows.
"... What are you suggesting?", he asks with a somewhat strange tone. Porky's grin... strangely fades.
"Judging by your tone and not by your stupid question, it seems you're starting to get on the right track."
The spider mech begins to move, turning around.
"Well, I've been around you fools for long enough. If I'm so untrustworthy and you're so much better than me, surely you don't need me to tell you what I mean."
He glances back one more time.
"Oh, but... one little freebie for my favorite little double." , he grins as he raises his index finger to accentuate his point.
"I'd heed Hisoka's warnings if I were you. It may just save lives."
Pseudo looks surprised that Porky knows about that too. But before he can ask, Porky's machine begins to leave. Locke shakes his head.
"Don't bother. He wouldn't have clarified even if we begged for it."
"... I suppose so..."
"Goodbye indeed..." , he eerily chuckles as he and his prize disappear into the darkness once more.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Blackreach, G.E.M. Base
"She's saying no to that too.", Claus
◊ says as he sits on a chair, looking bored out of his freaking mind. Norm and Linda
◊ look back at Amaterasu.
"Alright then, one last question.", Linda says, looking serious. "Did you speak to anyone about the energy we showed you here?"
Claus continues to look bored.
"Of course the one day Lucas and Kumatora aren't here and I am is when they need a telepath. At least tomorrow Lucas and I can stop by Pseudo's to ask what he wanted to tell us.", he thinks to himself, moving his finger around in a circle while using PSI to create a lightning circle in front of himself for his own amusement.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.The Odinsons look at one another while Porky departs from the scene.
"What kind of warnings was he talking about?" Thor inquires.
"The only one I can think of is Hisoka's insistence that Pseudo look into the nen gauntlet. But that doesn't make any bloody sense, a gauntlet can't betray anybody," Loki replies. "How can we be certain this isn't a manipulation? Porky would love it if we tore ourselves apart trying to find a traitor who might not even exist. Even Weber is loyal to Rico Jr and Wallace, both of whom are staunchly loyal to us."
"But what if he's actually telling the truth, Loki? Maybe we ought to heed that Midgardian phrase about broken clocks being right twice a day," Thor points out.
Loki allows a quiet sigh to escape his throat.
"...Now that I think about it, even if he isn't officially our ally, the Shadowed One could potentially have an agenda of his own. One that might involve our destruction."
The brothers shift their respective gazes to Pseudo and Locke on the monitor.
"Well then, I suppose you ought to work on deciphering that gauntlet before it's too late," the half-Jotun trickster says. "And besides the Shadowed One, do you honestly believe any of our allies would ever have reason to betray us?"
Thor snaps his fingers, as if suddenly remembering something.
"Not to get off-track, Pseudo, but do you still have Pandora's journal?" he asks. "The Maximoffs and I wanted to see about returning it to its rightful owner."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 18th 2022 at 6:28:06 AM
"I believe the gauntlet thing was a different hint altogether.", Pseudo says. "But you raise a good point on the Shadowed One. He is only our ally because it's convenient for him, and he has been rather quiet. While he is not my only suspect..."
He pauses for a bit, which Locke takes notice of.
"... I will look into it. As well as the gauntlet.", he then assures. Then he looks surprised.
"Pandora's diary? Yes, I should still have it. I admittedly forgot all about it though, what with everything that has been going on. Assassins, traitors, troubling news of a child having been attacked in an alleyway..."
"The poor boy was basically black and blue.", Locke says as he gets up from his chair. "Nevertheless, I'll go search for that diary."
"Thank you.", Pseudo says as Locke walks off.
Linda looks at Claus, who raises his eyebrow.
"What do I look like, Axonn? I doubt she's lying, but don't expect me to be able to tell."
Linda groans, then looks at Norm.
"Alright, take the stupid thing off of her head.", she says, after which Norm does exactly that. As he does that, Linda begins to ponder. Nobody blabbed, so how the fuck did Polyphemous know about the Navitus energy?
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay."Excellent. Now, besides the Shadowed One, who might these other suspects of yours be?" Loki inquires, leaning back against the nearest wall. "Perhaps I could be of some assistance when it comes time to interrogate them."
"Thank you. After everything she's lost, the least we can do is return the only thing she has left," Thor says.
He then blinks in surprise at the last thing Pseudo mentions.
"Hang on, what's this about a child being attacked in an alleyway?"
"I'm not sure enough to be comfortable with making new claims. But I'll be thinking things through, and if I feel more convinced at my guesses I will be sure to inform you of what they are.", Pseudo says.
"As for the child, Locke came across one when he was out in the Hub Centralis. The boy was all beaten up and told him that a lemon-head-shaped creature tried to kill him. We're currently on the lookout for anyone with that description, though we have not yet located anyone. I wouldn't be surprised if they're laying low, since the kid they attacked escaped from them."
Locke returns.
"I've found it."
"Excellent. We'll send Ninten to-"
"Erm, Ninten isn't here right now."
"... oh. ... Ness? He can use PSI Teleport like Nesley can, right?"
"Yes. I'll ask him if he wants to help out. Otherwise I'll go look for Weber."
"Excellent, thank you."
Normally Claus wouldn't care so much for consequences and just tell Linda what he'd heard. However, he doesn't want to face the wrath of a Goddess, and worse, Linda. So he keeps his mouth shut.
Norm, after he's let Amaterasu off of the chair, turns to Linda.
"I didn't want to bring up this possibility because I knew it'd just irritate you.", he begins, getting her attention. "But considering we didn't find any culprits I'll have to anyway."
Claus quickly jumps out of his chair and runs off, just in case. Linda raises her eyebrow.
"What possibility?"
"Isn't it possible that there are no rats, and that the reason Polyphemus knew about the energy is because their technology may be more advanced than ours, possibly enough that they can bypass the programs we have set to hide the energy's presence from the outside?"
"What!?", Linda asks, angered.
"C'mon, think about it! I know you hate the idea, but now that we know for sure that nobody ratted us out, what other explanation is there!? Or are you saying that we have the pinnacle of all technology in a world connected to every other world there is!?", Norm asks, standing his ground. Linda looks pissed, then pauses and growls.
"I need a fucking drink.", she snarls before walking off too. Once he's alone in the room, Norm... well, he kinda drops to the floor, letting out a breath of relief.
"Oh god I was playing with serious fire right now.", he mutters to himself. Linda is a scary person, and he's honestly surprised he managed to convince her instead of getting judochopped through a wall... and that would be the best outcome if she got too pissed.
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Skyeezus (album of the year 2013 lesgoooooooooooo new slaves blkkk skkknhead i am a god. (feat God) and Hold my Liquour all GOA Ted tracks cannot be denied
Seresthene is unsurprisingly too slow to react, again, (although at this point its questionable if she even would react if she could) and finds herself in the respawn room. Again.
"That it?" She asks smurfette, arching her eyebrow underneath the cloth blindfold as Malenia disappears into thin air. She begins listening to the wind and feeling the ear, hoping to find out where she has gone.
With great power…you know the rest."You mean to tell me this boy was attacked by a monster... with a head shaped like a piece of fruit? Somehow, those aren't the strangest words I've ever heard uttered in this realm," Thor says, leaning against his axe, Stormbringer. "And you believe this beast could potentially be an Assassin or one of their allies?"
Loki simply nods in response, as he pulls out a dagger and begins twirling it in his hand.
"Anything else regarding this potentially true revelation of Porky's?"
Whiterun Hold, near the Crabber's Shanty
Eddie
◊ is going for a walk close to the Crabber's Shanty, having finished exploring Dead Man's Respite not too long ago.
"We never did get a chance to find that guy, did we, Eddie?" Venom asks from inside his mind.
"Who, Spider-Man?"
"No, that loud guy with the mustache on the news. Of course I meant him!"
That remark earns a bemused look from the journalist-turned-Lethal Protector.
"We saved a bunch of kids from a circus full of robot clowns, and got a history lesson on this place from a super-fast guy who hangs out with vampires and gods and his all-powerful witch sister. I wouldn't be all that surprised if he just turned up here one day."
Edited by IchigoMontoya on Jun 18th 2022 at 10:45:52 AM
"I don't think it was an Assassin. Attacking a lone child while hiding away simply does not sound like how they tend to do things. True, they hide when not making a move, but when they do, they tend to make sure we know it.", Pseudo says. "While I of course don't know for certain, this sounds like a different issue to me."
He then shakes his head.
"Nothing that I can be too sure of yet."
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.Jeridan is relieved that the summoner isn't as agitated anymore. "There you go. Again, just hang around decent people and you'll be fine."
Then, the honorary agent stretched his arms. "Say, why don't we keep in touch with each other? Leave a contact, maybe? I don't wanna say that we should help each other out yet because my bosses are pretty strict about this kind of thing, but I'd love to talk from time to time."
Apothea watches Reiss and Kroq-gar work. With things done with for now, she doesn't have anything to say in particular.
It is a strange place, this arena. She still isn't entirely sure of what they're doing, these... acquaintances, of hers. It's confusing- but thrilling at the same time. Well, maybe thrilling is giving this a bit too much credit, but it is certainly better than back where she lives. The mountains may be her preferred terrain, but... variety doesn't hurt?
...Maybe a part of her wishes she was back home. Or, at least, somewhere else in the arena.
Yatta!"Yes, but their ranks include Mara, and you know how much she enjoys committing atrocities simply because she can," Thor points out. "Still, at least we can rest easy knowing this monster probably isn't in league with the Assassins."
"Very well," Loki simply replies.
Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 18th 2022 at 9:25:40 AM
Guiding Lands — The Brawlening
With the fighters assembled, Megan grabbed a large mallet and struck a gong that had been placed off to the side of the area, signaling the start of the fight in suitably dramatic fashion!
Given that they had called this gathering of fighters to order, Thranix, Auri, and Megan elected to spend the opening moments preparing their tools and readying their weaponry.
This is actually a reference to the fact that I'm very tired and would feel bad taking the opening attacks on someone.
Hotel Del Rey
"Yoy, Rbade—"
He paused to observe the concoction that his friend was consuming. No judgements, but definitely not a combination of things he would've ever considered.
"... Uh... Fuck, what was I gonna say. Ah, right, heyo Rey! Ye, poor bastard got shot out of a portal — which I guess tracks for us lot, all things considered. ... I wonder if my student loan debts are piling up while I'm here... fuck. Anyways, welcome to the fuckery. If you need anything from back home, you can grab Rhea or Tiamat and they should be able to help."
Another pause. As he had de-activated the skeletal powers of his Stand before entering, as one might take their shoes off, it was clear that the realization hit him like a truck.
"Ah... fuck, I need to explain that, don't I?"
Edited by OmegaShadowcry on May 19th 2022 at 2:09:55 PM
"The Stick has sentimental value. It's like an enormous, hideous teddy bear we can kill things with." -rikalousThe Tarnished grabs a boiled prawn and hover it in front of their helmeted face, as it spontaneously... vanishes....? And then they proceed to light their hand on fire and slam it against their chest, empowering their physical power and resistance to flames. They then proceed to kneel and raise a talisman of a sort to the sky, as a golden circle and sparks of light surrounds them, enhancing their strength and defense further;
Having done the work, the Tarnished roll towards Megan and attempts to send her flying with a downward "slash" that's more like a smash, since it shatters the ground. With their various physical boosts, they wield their colossal greatsword as easily as a regular one, meaning the attack is surprisingly swift, and so is the follow-up horizontal strike meant to send Megan flying.
...
Gradius is lightly disturbed at the Narrator mentioning a "game", but decide not to dwell on it.
The left...? He opens the door on the right to take a peek. If there's nothing interesting, he closes it and go leff.
...
I would not recommend going out so... Ranni sighs and leave, preparing the respawn elsewhere. The others should follow her example, but they have a very limited time to do so before Malenia burst into the respawn room, having hopped all the way to the "roof" to run there from the root.
As soon as she spawns, she jumps into the air, sword at the ready, and unleashes the WATERFOWL DANCE quickly. And it's. A. Doozie.
Malenia flies around the room slicing everything around her at speed too obscene to follow, attempting to cut everyone who's in the room apart. Then, she briefly zoom back up to the battlefield, moving like a death wheel to slice apart everyone who's stepped foot on it and murder them to death. The sheer rate of slashes and attack is too much for anyone to keep up with: they need to stay out of range, and will assuredly perish if they get too close.
Once she's done with the room, Malenia returns for the third part of the Waterfowl dance, looking to kill everyone who's respawned right as they come back, with a new flurry of slashes. Once done, she stands there, frozen into position... and a bunch of slashes come out of her motionless body one last time, looking to reap their lives once more.
Lives at the beginning: 51
Lives lost: Holy. SHIT.
Edited by Bolded1 on May 19th 2022 at 6:21:22 PM
Nautolan picture belongs to Bonesmarinated on twitterMalenia
William respawns and didn't hear Ranni's warning in time, getting sliced shredded as he reached for the pen.
YOU DIED
He runs back in t-
YOU DIED
William respawns as h-
YOU DIED
Respawned, he r-
YOU DIED
Taking a s-
YOU DIED
Seeing Malenia's sudden stop, he takes a st-
He fucking BOOKS it the moment afterwards. No attempt to fight back as he rapidly writes down the deaths.
Guiding Lands
Emma leaps into action and flies into the air, her eyes rapidly moving to scan out the area for anyone who looks like Auri or sensed was Auri via signatures.
Impatient as ever she fires a warning shots once she's vaguely close to the camp mid-flight.
"GET THE HELL OUT TO THE FUN PART ALREADY, COME ON!"
She joyously shouts, landing over to the camp. Emma eyes out Auri from the distance and immediately fires multiple shots to the woman using the handgun. No specific area being aimed, just Auri's direction to catch her attention.
Edited by BoniniBanana on May 20th 2022 at 12:42:29 AM
realUrvan may eat damage like an American eats hamburgers, but even Brave Ike crumbles before the Waterfowl Dance Spam Attack, dying twice in a row to it.
"I see you have earned the right to boast," he says after it's over. "But don't expect my sympathy just because I need extra lives."
He goes in for another Aether, this time doing a spinning axe cleave into an overhead slam (think Link's spin attack with a two-handed weapon in Breath of the Wild). As before, the first hit pierces defenses, and the second hit heals himself.
Kirrey sighs. "Yeah, sure. I got a phone, you?"
With all the prepwork done, now it's just a matter of hauling their "cargo"...
—
Saurus Temple, Astil
The foundations have been built for the pyramid. A square-shaped border lies around the site of Kroq-Gar's crashed vessel, the walls currently about as tall as a human.
"Nice place," remarks Reyna.
Edited by KiriK on May 19th 2022 at 1:26:31 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."The door to the right reveals a normal office hallway leading off further to the right. If Gradius was to peek behind the door on the left, he would see the exact same hallway, mirrored.
Guiding Lands
Hearing a gong in the distance, Icarus immediately took off towards the battlegrounds, hoping to not miss out on the fight. Mid-flight, he attached the carbon fiber sword to his right arm, which started glowing blue.
The first thing he spotted upon arriving were the Tarnished, already at work not destroying the other fighters, but seemingly the ground itself. He obviously didn't like their fighting style, so he decide to intervene. Violently. By force-cancelling his landing sequence and trying to slam into them feet-first, then trying to take off again quickly for another fly-by maneuver.
The sword glow is purely cosmetic, just some LE Ds shining through diamond. Also, edit
Edited by StepexNo2 on May 20th 2022 at 9:36:17 PM
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong.Vs. Malenia
Why...?
After Super Love asked that to Ranni, they could hear the sound of slaughtering inside the respawning room.
Better let's go outt-
But they got slaughtered by Malenia.
And again.
NO MORE GAMES TODAY!
Back at the battlefield, Super Pamp, with a noticeably very tired face, began to play a summoning song, while Super Love stands aside him, ready to take any L if needed.
Guiding Lands
Mega-Paco readies his Sand in a bottle, his Ankh (essentially an extra life), and summons a lightning striking at the group, hitting everybody near them (like the Tarnished).
Edited by BombonBombin on May 19th 2022 at 11:43:31 AM
Three freaking ghosts!"I do too, just tell me your number and I'll record it, and I'll give you mine." Jeridan took out a Lookout-assigned cellphone and quickly exchanged numbers with Kirrey, prior to putting his cell away and looking around.
"Well, it's nice knowing you, and hopefully you can get your bearings together the next time I see you. If you need some help, shoot me a text and I'll see if I can." With a wave, the young man started walking away.
Meanwhile, Penina slung her rifle over her shoulder and left the building rooftop. Now that Jeridan's little break is over, she is to take him back to the Lookout.
"I will keep you updated on if I become more certain on what Porky might have meant. In turn, if you or your friends take notice of anyone who may fit the description of that attacker, please do contact us."
A psychic portal now appears nearby Thor and Loki, and Ness comes running out of it, slowing himself down to come to a halt close to them.
"Whew. Okay, didn't screw it up this time.", he says, sounding like he's in a good mood. He quickly turns on his heels to face the Odinsons, taking off his hat and revealing the diary tucked inside of it.
"Special delivery!", he says, smirking.
Edited by DevilPsyco on May 19th 2022 at 10:17:10 AM
In the year 202X, all is devastation... Soon, any last shred of hope had by the saintliest optimist shall die and decay.

Thor just rolls his eyes, looking annoyed.
"Another round of Odin-damned mind games, Porky? If this is some feeble attempt to sow dissent among our ranks, consider me unimpressed."
Loki raises an eyebrow at Porky, then cracks a smirk.
"Why don't I ask everyone who had the displeasure of doing business with you instead, Porky? Because I seem to recall you inevitably stabbing them in the back one way or another, just as you obviously intend to find a way to circumvent the Great Light's power and betray them," he retorts.