Vampire Hunter
Trevor, Common Room
"Oh shush!" Trevor glared at Carlos for misinterpreting his statement, before pointing to where the Vampire Killer should have been. "Havoc stole one of my weapons and I need to get it back."
"From what Hell's Gate Tokyo has shown me, it is in possession of..." Trevor pointed to Castlevania on the map. "I do not know where Havoc went, but I am trying to recruit help to retrieve the weapon."
Felicia & Talbain, Common Room
Following Erza, Wendy, and Carla, Jon Talbain & Felicia walked over to where Malkuth was. In fact, Felicia helped Luigi up after he tripped before asking Erza. Felicia has her cat ears visible and her cat tail moved about, but otherwise she was wearing a nun's outfit. Jon Talbain was in his human form and otherwise looked like a white-haired martial artist to anyone looking at him. Most people could not tell he was in fact a werewolf.
"What is happening over here?" Felicia tilted her head in curiosity as she asked Erza and Malkuth.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
Kyoko & Tojo- Common Room w/ Spiderman
"I see..." Kyoko stated to Spider-Man's Declaration. So, this is a whole new Manhattan, with the other Manhattan disappearing. How curious. She wondered why that is. The Cure didn't seem like someone who'd want to answer that, though. Perhaps she'll try to learn along the way.
"We were requested by the chunk head to look at Manhattan to get our perspective on his businesses, as he was looking for a potential partnership. However, that seems to be irrelevant now." Tojo elaborated.
"..." Kyoko thought. "If we were to enter Manhattan, either through the border or the portal, do you have an idea what would happen?" Kyoko asked.
Oma and Koizumi- Common Room w/ Molly
Oma meanwhile turned his attention to a girl that came to address the group, as well as Koizumi.
"Oh, a Magician? You mean, a Mage. Like, a real one? Some back at my chunk is reallllly insistent on the terminology." Oma opened. "I knew about that anyways, though."
"No you didn't." Mahiru responded, trying to shut him down before he starts.
"How do you know?"
"Because you can't even try to say you made a global conspiracy in a day."
"I am the Ultimate Supreme Leader. Who knows how resourceful I am."
"..."
"Of course, in this case, you're right. It's a lie." He turned to Molly. "I'm Kokichi Oma. Ultimate Supreme Leader."
"Mahiru Koizumi. Ultimate Photographer. Please forgive him, he can be...quite a handful. I don't know how his class does it." She sighed. "Yeah, I didn't sign-up for this, certainly".
"Combat capability? Well, we have a few people talented in combat. I know my class has the Ultimate Akido Master, Our upperclassman has The Ultmate Biker Gang Leader and Fighter, and your class has the Ultimate Swordswoman, right?"
"Yeah, Peko. Two other students in my class like to fight as well. the Gymnast, Akane, and the Team Manager, Nekomaru. I think a good chunk of the Future Foundation is also combat trained."
"Yeah... annnnnd that's it." Oma finished. "We've all been good boys and girls. Well, besides-"
"Point is, we haven't gotten into trouble, no." Koizumi clarified.
Koichi Kizakura- Common Room w/ Nagi (featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series)
While waiting for the Cure, Kizakura noticed two figures going to the portal to HPA. They looked eccentric, one like a younger Mutakata, and the other... he can't entirely describe what she looked like, but the best he's got she came off as a younger version of their local inventor mixed with their mechanic. hopefully she's less...feisty than the former. That's a way to put it. Either way, probably best to put the Cure on hold for now, this probably takes priority, at least in the immediate.
The fedora-wearing, suited man approached the half-demon and the young girl. "Excuse me, where are you going?"
Sonia Nevermind & Class 78's Very Own Byakuya Togami (feat. Kirigiri)- Common Room for the Tour + Green Mario
Seriously, why were there so many stuffed animals in that school?
The young blond man
walked out of the portal, mostly just to not be at Hope's Peak. He knew a few other students had left, in fact, one had left just a few minutes prior. The Princess, specifically. He didn't care all that much. All he cares about is that he's away from the Togami family. Needless to say, this did not leave the esteemed Byakuya Togami in a good mood. Still, day after, he decided it was time to start building things from the ground up.
"Oh, Togami!"
... If he was allowed to, anyways. A blond girl
addressed him, the princess of the Novoselec Kingdom, Sonia Nevermind.
"What do you want?"
"Well, one of the people here were offering tours of a place called Facility X-394. It's an energy and technology plant, it seems, looking to produce things for other chunks. I figured it would be an opportunity to see what another chunk is like, while we're stuck here, maybe even see what other people are like. Do you want to come along? I'll appreciate the company."
It was shot down almost immediately. "I'm busy. Where's Xanthos?" Byakuya asked.
Kyoko rolled her eyes to the heir. "Have you checked the map?"
"The map, why would- what?" Togami was shocked, to say the least. Kyoko cracked the slightest of smiles.
"So, you're not busy anymore?" Sonia asked
"Gh..." Face with going to another chunk or dealing with the amoebas at Hope's Peak... it didn't take to long for him to make a decision.
"Fine. When do we leave?"
"Soon I think."
Sooner it was over, sooner he could be done, besides, this place might be a good starting point for trying to rebuild what he lost. And so, the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy and the Ultimate Princess went towards the group in front of the portal to the Facility, ready to embark.
And with the sliding, paper-like man, Togami regretted it already.
"This is a group going on tour to Facility X-394. It's an open invite, if you want to join." Soina answered his question.
Edited by Boomer75 on Oct 15th 2018 at 10:32:42 AM
Salute the freedom fairy! ._.7
Carlos, common room, to trevor
Predictably he whirled and glared at me. "Oh shush!"
I grinned and spread my hands. "Phrasing sure is fun, right?" I gave the white haired girl an apologetic smile for brushing her off before getting back to business. "How bad?" I lowered my chin an inch and asked him quietly.
He pointed down towards his belt. I cocked my head, frowning slightly. He explained, "Havoc stole one of my weapons and I need to get it back."
Ah right, Trevor had been carrying a whip the last time I had seen him. This girl was developing a nasty habit of disposing of people's important weapons. I clenched my fist a couple of times with a heavy frown and nodded. "Do you have any clue where she took it?" I left out the possibility of it simply having been destroyed or lost forever. Like mine was. Damnit.
He nodded and pointed to the map, at castlevania. "From what Hell's Gate Tokyo has shown me, it is in possession of..."
"Dios", I rocked back a bit when I realized what he was getting at. In other words, Lord Dracula was now in possession of the very thing made to kill him and his ilk. That was just...wrong.
"I do not know where Havoc went", he said while I took that in, "but I am trying to recruit help to retrieve the weapon."
I nodded slowly, letting out a breath. "Sounds like a plan. You trust the intel you got though? Sounds an awful lot like someone wants you to walk right into Dracula's front door; if this is all it takes then it would be easy to get you to go running to your death while she makes off with the weapon somewhere else." I rubbed my chin, thinking. "How bad is the possibility of him getting his hands on it? Are things about to go super sour?"
"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016
"The harlot is indeed correct." Vergil said as he snapped the book shut, turning to look at Havoc directly. "Me and my dear brother are not on friendly terms. If you have had the misfortune of meeting him, then perhaps you understand why."
He stood up. "Our instructions for the moment are to settle into the area, and prepare ourselves for action whenever the demon lord we all have allied with sees fit. Mostly, this will invlove dragging you to the local shops and attempting to ensure you do not burden us too greatly."
Lady stared for a moment as Dresden made his melodramatic speech and demonstrated his magic. Then Lady spoke.
"Put him down"
"You sure? We-"
"Put. Him. Down"
Raising his hands, Nero did as ordered. Lady flicked the safety back on as she stood up, rage gone from her eyes and replaced with frustration.
"Damn it, I can't believe this happened again, I-"
Lady gave off a groan of deep frustration at herself as she hung up the gun and fell back into her chair, putting her elbows on the desk and letting her face fall into both of her open hands, clearly stressed.
"I'm sorry Dresden, I'm an idiot, and a lot happened since you've been gone that has me on edge."
From the back of the room, Nero, who had sat back down and now retuned to staring at his cell phone with a pair of loud headphones on, coughed into his hand.
"More then usual, fine." Lady said without any anger. "I just...Dresden, what happened? You diden't just avoid us, you all vanished, you and both of those other wizards with you. Your rooms disappeared, the chairs by your table went away, someone put your names up on that memorial to the dead that someone set up...we thought you were dead, or at least had been sent back to wherever that demon thing sends people once he gets bored of them, even the spy I talked to yesterday afternoon hadn't seen any trace of you since the Death Star. I don't understand how you're even standing here right now."
The Cure quickly turned to Tatsu. "Yes, as I explained at the beginning of the day, you do. Make it whenever you are ready."
Then he turned back to the scientists, looking annoyed. "The third time I have had to explain in less then an hour. Perhaps I should just make a big sign to point at. Very well. This planet, a world of my own creation, is a world which I have forged by taking bits and pieces of other universes and putting them together into one mass. Those who I bring here are here to do battle with each other, for my own personal amusement. Those are the barebones basics."
Both Yusuke and Morgana quietly took seats at the table everyone was gathered at, and leaned forward to whisper to everyone without the risk of the two about to face off overhearing them.
"Queen's the most versatile member of our team, not counting Joker, who kind of cheats since he can switch personas at will." Morgana said. "She's got magic, healing, buffs, something for most situations, but most importantly, she's undeniably the brains of the team, and she can rapidly assess a situation, work out how best to solve it, and then implement the plan. She's our teams strategist, and even though she's the newest member of the team, she's easily one of the toughest and most valuable. Also, her persona is a particularly cool one, but I won't spoil that."
Meanwhile, Makoto stood silent at Akihiko's pointing out of her armor for a moment. Then she shrugged.
"Alright, fine then. But if that's how we're doing it, no using Persona's on your end. Natural weapons only."
She took back out her cell phone and switched off the app, and the armor vanished, returning her to her normal clothing. She put the phone away, then put a hand on her hip.
"Whenever you're ready." She said as she stared at him and whatever stance he entered.
"Interesting." Yusuke said back at the table. "I don't believe I've ever seen her fight outside of the Metaverse. I wonder if this will impact her approach."
"Didn't she say before she joined the team and got a Persona that she had taken self defense classes?" Morgana said.
"Indeed. I doubt she would have abandoned her armored form unless she was confident that she had some sort of plan. Could it be a ploy to make him let his guard down?"
"Maybe. Look, she's letting him make the first move, goading him into attacking. Probably going to use the opportunity to figure out his combat style. How he moves, which hand his favorite is, how quick he punches. That kind of thing."
Yusuke nodded at this as they waited to see how Akihiko would respond.
Perhaps a small part of him had been expecting to see this space at some point, but he was not particularly shocked to find himself again in the familiar prison, ablit in an unfamiliar area of it. An eyebrow raised as he overheard the conversation between Igor and the two wardens. The first shock came when one of them charged him, clearly intent on attacking. She had always been a little too eager to swing that baton, but he didn't actually think she was that eager to kick his ass. He reached into his pocket quickly and, in a maneuver he had been practicing, blind turned on his app without removing the phone from his pocket, quickly switching into his thieves form. As she neared, he launched himself into the air, leaping over the small girl and landing several feet behind her, drawing his pistol and pointing it at Caroline.
"I wouldn't be a very good trickster if I followed the rules now, would I?" He said with a smirk.
Regardless of his glib quips, he did not want to get into a fight with these two. Dispite their looks, he had a very strong feeling that they could probably wipe the floor with him with both hands and feet tied behind their backs. Thus, he glanced behind him at the calmer, more reasonable half of the pair.
"I might be able to help explain this, but I'm not going to be doing much of that if she's trying to club me unconscious."
While Nagi was dealing with a paticular red hooded hunter, Dante turned to Koichi, who was asking him where he was going.
"Oh, me and the kid are on our way to Hope's Peak. There's a school there, or so I'm told, and I've been asked by this kid's guardian to check it out, see what they're all about, and if they're on the level and open to enrollment, to get the kid signed up to go to school there."
Edited by Meanken on Oct 15th 2018 at 9:47:44 AM
Salute the freedom fairy! ._.7
Molly, common room, to oma and koizumi
The three of them, apparently realizing that there was something of a divide and conquer problem here, split their attentions up to try and address me and spidey both. Kyoko went to work on Peter while the other two both turned to talk to me instead.
I put them off for a second though, I needed to make sure Peter wasn't getting bullied around on his first outing as —
"Oh, a Magician? You mean, a Mage. Like, a real one? Some back at my chunk is reallllly insistent on the terminology." Kokichi Oma said, in what I'm sure he intended to be a friendly opener. I knew because I couldn't feel any malicious intention from him. Yup. Intended, to be nice. "I knew about that anyways, though."
They started to bicker after that, pleasantly nostalgic little emotions like sullen familiarity and resigned annoyance tickling me from their direction.
I rubbed my forehead, breaking out into a small and sheepish smile as I pulled my gaze away from Amber and Peter. If he really needed my help, I'd be able to feel it. I had some important corrections to make, myself. Can't let word get around that one of the wizards of the fellowship was being called a magician, of all things.
Magician, for pete's sake. I wasn't even wearing a tophat.
I folded my arms and patiently let them argue, cocking my head slightly at the display while I also tried to mentally keep track of what Tojo and Kyoko were saying. The sorta foppish boy shrugged her off, not particularly feeling any distress as he looked up at me. "I'm Kokichi Oma", he said coolly. "Ultimate Supreme Leader." He was perfectly at ease, somehow, both in stance and in mind. I couldn't tell, maybe it was confidence? Innate serenity? Or maybe he was just very good at controlling his emotions.
I giggled and a friendly nod back, slipping my hands behind my back. "In that case, beyond pleased to meet you, Oma. Heaven knows we need an ultimate leader around here." I studied him for a moment longer, but funnily enough, I really couldn't get much out of him behind his smooth expression. I gotta admit, internally it actually creeped me out a little. It was rare to find someone who could keep emotional and facial composition like he could, especially not among teenagers. ESPECIALLY not among teenagers who had just been ripped away from their homes and families. On the other hand, maybe he could have just been trying to make a strong first impression; in some ways, we must all be pretty terrifying to brand new people.
"Mahiru Koizumi. Ultimate Photographer", the easily-identifiable girl followed up and I gave her the same nod back. She motioned at the boy in mild exasperation and said, "Please forgive him, he can be...quite a handful. I don't know how his class does it."
I snorted wryly, feeling a good natured smile form on my lips. "Oh trust me, girlfriend, it takes quite a lot these days to count as being a 'handful' in my book. Just take a look around to see what I mean." She had a bit more nervousness flutter through her than Oma did, but she had an optimistic look on her face to compliment it. She was still doing way better at processing this than most people in the world would have. Strong girl.
She sighed. "Yeah, I didn't sign-up for this, certainly".
I felt legitimate anxiety rumble through that statement, and a stab of sympathetic pain shot through my torso. "Neither did we", I spread my hands in understanding at them. "Waking up with my bed in an entirely different appartment in an entirely different reality wasn't exactly on my bucket list. What are the odds, huh? And I'm from a world that actually has magic, here."
The complimentary anime body pillows, on the other hand, had been nice. Not that I was going to tell them that. Or anyone. Ever.
They proceed to regail me with tales of their glorious combat prowess.
"Combat capability? Well, we have a few people talented in combat."
I nodded. "Like?"
"I know my class has the Ultimate Akido Master."
I ran a hand through my hair. I was starting to wonder if their school taught them the proper definition of the word 'ultimate'. If so, then boy did their faculty market the school well. "Okay, that'll prove somewhat useful. What else?"
"Our upperclassman has The Ultmate Biker Gang Leader and Fighter".
I was trying to keep a supportive expression on, I really was. "I uh. I see. Ultimate biker gang leader and ultimate fighter, huh. Those are some...overly impressive titles."
She turned her head to Oma, "and, your class has the Ultimate Swordswoman, right?"
"Yeah, Peko", he confirmed. "Two other students in my class like to fight as well." My smile sure was taking a turn for the watery. "The Gymnast, Akane, and the Team Manager, Nekomaru." My knees started to feel the same. "I think a good chunk of the Future Foundation is also combat trained."
"Yeah... annnnnd that's it." Oma concluded. "We've all been good boys and girls. Well, besides-"
"Point is, we haven't gotten into trouble, no." Koizumi interrupted him.
"..." I stared at them. They'd been good boys and girls, they said. They've been GOOD boys and girls! That didn't even sound like something a teenager would say, that was freaking moe! "Oh. My. God", I put my hands over my mouth in rising horror, refusing to believe it. "You really are just a bunch of normal high schoolers." Did the cure decide what battleworld really needed to keep people invested was some schoolyard antics?
"...I'm..." I nodded slowly, trying to contain how upset I was getting, and I bet my expression was partially failing the attempt. "...really, really sorry."
"...Okay", I nodded to myself, "Okay. Well." I cleared my throat and stood up straighter, back to speaking like I was sure everything in the world was going to work out somehow. "First off, heck no I'm not a magus. Certainly not a magician either — those are people who pull tricks on stages." I beat my fist against my chest and declared, "I'm a Wizard, capital W. Means I'm in the point zero zero zero one percent of magic users. Don't get us confused, it's hard to get that title!"
Which was technically a lie. I was a warlock, not a wizard. But that had...baggage to it, and it was easier to just call myself a wizard. I was one in terms of power anyway.
"Secondly, my advise is you all make as many allies as you can since you don't exactly have an army sitting around to use in case any of your neighbors are hostile. I suggest you try and think of something you can give back in return to appeal to people, but there are some who will go out of their way to assist you if you just ask." I dug into my back pocket and brought out one of the old pamphlets we had handed out during the death star invasion; I had a few still, having been in charge of handing them all out. "My team's information is on the back of this, contact us anytime. We have connections to some fairly powerful people too, don't hesitate to ask."
"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016
Common Room - Mirajane
"Pizza, huh?" Mirajane replied to Trevor. She reached out to grab the piece he offered. "Thanks!""Ooooh, this is pretty good," she said with a smile after taking a bite. "Anyway, I'm Mirajane, and I'm part of Fairy Tail!" She wriggled her nose and took another breath, sniffing the pizza and sighing happily.
"Saw you playing with some magic arrows with that kid a minute ago," she commented after taking another bite. A piece of cheese got caught on her finger, so she popped it into her mouth and licked the dangling dairy delight off.
"So what are you guys getting them for? You're getting your weapon back, but what's up with the holy stuff?" she asked. "Is this Havoc monster some sort of... demon?"
After asking, Mirajane cheerfully giggled and took another bite of her pizza.
Common Room - Erza, Wendy, and Carla
"Yes... it seems our tour group is already getting bigger," Erza noted, nodding her head as Luigi showed up, asked a question, had that question echoed by a pair that showed up, and then had it answered in turn by a young woman from another pair that arrived.Wendy was looking a little weirded out at all the strange people showing up, especially the man in the green hat who looked like a blue-collar immigrant laborer, but the cat-lady Happy and Lucy had been talking to earlier was there now too, she seemed nice.
"Wow, you sure are tall, and pretty, and cool, and you look real strong too...." Wendy said in awe of Felicia. She mumbled something under her breath that seemed to resemble complaining about being trapped in the body of a twelve-year-old, but then she put her hands on Carla's shoulders and lifted the cat up, holding her up in front of Felicia.
"Is that your human form? Can you turn into a cat like Carla too? What sort of magic can you use?" she asked.
"Wendy, put me down!" Carla protested. "It's rude to ask someone so many personal questions when you've only just met."
"Oh... sorry, Ma'am," Wendy said, looking up apologetically at Felicia before going quiet and looking sad.
Pumping her shorter legs with impatience to catch up with Dante's distance stride but also forcibly holding herself in check so that she didn't speed up too much as to be rude, the eager scientist was about halfway to her goal before they were waylaid by two different individuals from two different factions.
One looked like a girl her age dressed up in one of fairy tale's most classic stories' main character while the other one was adorned in the sort of apparel that was popularized by a certain internet meme. Both were rather eccentric to the Mechanician's eyes.
"E-er... I'm Nagi Clockwork... and that's Dante..." A bit taken aback by the sheer energy that BB Hood was displaying (by Hades she was Fuuka tier), the girl wondered what was going on before her thoughts tried to correlate things into a manner that made some sense.
"I was on my way to enroll into H-Hope's Peak... are you a student there?" Seeing Dante addressing Koichi, Nagi nodded her head shyly as she took a look at the boy and saw the barest hint of 'school uniform' on his person even if it was overshadowed by everything else. Maybe this was the legendary 'senpai'?
"Welcome back, Commander Hiriko. I trust your stay in Battleworld has been without too much mishaps?" Nursing a hot cup of an especially strong tea while seated in the bridge chair as always, a somewhat tired looking Da Vinci greeted the fox woman that had entered Chaldea's territory while letting out a small grunt before popping several joints in a satisfying stretch.
With the giant screens having the profiles of various individuals of note filling up the holograms, it was clear that the Acting Director had been updating the various info logs to be up to date with the various factions in Battleworld. "Are you here for Medjed? I can call her if you'd like." Now that a chance to liven things up had come along, Da Vinci's playful side all but perked up at the thought of stirring mischief.
"Wut." Hearing all the screams and such going on from outside of the office, the Demon King -of the Sixth Heaven turned her attention towards Trish with a quizzical look on her face as she tried to sound out what the heck was going on. "This happen a lot round these parts? I heard your boss was pretty trigger happy but this isn't doing her rep any good you know."
"...Art thou sure this is something thy wishes to do?" Looking worriedly at his young charge in question, the giant of a Bakumatsu hero asked worriedly while he hunched over to give Homura Ren a once-over to see if he was sane. The Monster Strike Club had spent the majority of their stay safely out of conflict and trouble for the most part, only really keeping their ears to the ground and picking up information.
"...Yeah, this is something we have to do... or rather I. It's the only chance I have to be able to... save them." Trembling while gripping the hem of his pants, the redhead took a deep breath before wiping away the beginnings of his tears that welled up in the corner of his eyes to straighten up out his earlier slump. "Please..."
"...Very well. They are precious comrades that deserve better... and thou art mine partner. Mine aid shall thy have." Flashing a big grin and slapping the teen on the shoulders with enough force to cause him to wince and stagger, Ryoma then gave the teen a nudge towards the group of people gathered about Malkuth before flashing into digital static and dissipating into the smartphone he inhabited.
"Is there room for one more on this tour?" Rolling his shoulders to try to make the stinging area back to normal faster and flashing a shaky smile, the high school student with the comb over asked as he joined the group in question. With his outfit and shoulder bag, the only difference he had from a regular cram schooler was the fact that his hair was a muted ember hue as well as the fact his eyes held the same sort of sad quality that one might find in a shellshocked veteran.
Edited by Makaioh on Oct 16th 2018 at 10:00:52 AM
Trish shrugged, not seeming to look terribly perturbed by the commotion. "I haven't even heard any gunshots yet, so I don't know what you're talking about. If she wanted to shoot someone, you'd know. Also, we're business associates. I don't work for her, she doesn't work for me. We're just in the same line of work, sometimes we team up for tough jobs, and Dante owes Lady a stupidly large amount of money between blowing up her bike and losing a lot to her playing cards, so she tends to hang around to keep an eye on his lazy butt."
"Besides all that, it only does something to her rep if people talk about it." She gave the Demon King a very pointed look. "What happens in the office, stays in the office. We clear?"
Glory to Arachnos
Zone-Vehicle Station
The stalkers, having gotten used to their new ally weirdness now that Lucy turned into the Bandit Exo Leader, Crow nodded silently, taking out a combat knife as he and Dominic waited out in the corner.
The bandit looked surprised at the appearance of their "boss", and even more when he suddenly grabbed his makarov pistol away from him, he was going to ask him why he took it away from him until...
"Oh, I get it, boss. It's to show them that they're barely worth you shooting them with your desert eagle, clever!. Will wait outside, boss, just give me back my pistol when you're done giving them a bullet in their brain, will ya?"
With that said, the bandit slowly started to walk away from the house, and if Lucy paid attention, just as the bandit reached the door, two hands grabbed the bandit by the neck and covered his mouth before he could scream out for help, immediately he was moved out of the scene. If she listened, she would hear the nasty sounds of flesh being cut by steel, and the dying gurgles of the bandit.
Meanwhile, the captive loners stared at the "bandit leader", two of them looking at her in fear, though one of them was looking at her with anger and disgust, and speaking to the "bandit" with a angry tone.
"Let me guess, you are going to keep shoving in our faces that we are your bitches and that Wolf will not rescue us anytime us? Why don't you pull the goddamn trigger for once and get this over with?"
"Well, I'm trying to make do in this shithole." Pietro was trying to make a conversation "You see, before I was going to this mission, me and a friend were like this, but like THIS close to get a goldfish artifact from a whirligig anomaly. If he managed to grabbed it, we would had gotten a shit ton of money from Sidorovich and I would not be forced to do this to get money..."
"Man...poor bastard stood too close to that shit. Now his guts are all near the garbage." He then turned to Sagittarius. "What's your story?"
Kruglov's Scientist Expedition Crew- Common Room
"You sure are giving him a good first impression, Kruglov." Shade snarked as he noticed the Cure's annoyance, Kruglov turned immediately to scold the Merc, not really wanting a important recording to be interrumpted.
"Hush, Merc."
As the Cure then spoke, the Ecologists interest piqued higher, a extremely powerful being that ripped other universes and brought them straight into one land, this is amazing!
Well, the idea to fight for his amusement not so much..but the scientific discoveries, the existence of non human species, other powers, the proof that other universes exist....they need to document this, study this! They just...can't let this go to waste!
"Interesting." Kruglov spoke."I only have some questions left. One, as you can see, we're scientists, not soldiers, mercenaries or stalkers. This idea of a neverending battle would be more interesting to say, our ex SAS friends here," He pointed to the mercs at their side. "Our personal focus would be far much focused on to study and document this "Battleworld" and it's population. Would you have a problem with this? We simply are not meant for battle. And second.." Kruglov looked over at the map of the Battleworld, studying it for a few seconds before speaking once again.
"Are you able to bring every single place of all the universes at once if you wished, or do you have a limit of how many you can bring?"
Strelok-Far Harbor
Strelok gave a nod to the Mariner, accepting her offer of searching for these tools, which must definetely be in a dangerous area. Apparently he wasn't going alone, as the old man was going with him too, named Oldfellow.
The Loner gave a nod to the old man. "Of course, I wouldn't mind some help, considering how hard it already is to deal with mutants and bandits alone, it is nice to have to company. My name is Strelok, by the way. You lead the way whenever you're ready."
Edited by Darkomega245 on Oct 16th 2018 at 10:48:14 AM
-Spider Lizard Noises-
I mean, she is a vessel for a god. That'd be kind of a conflict of interest, right? Right.
"I don't need a tour guide," Utsuho announced, still amused at the shocked reaction the two gave her. "I'm pretty strong, and I'll just sterilize the whole place if they really are a problem, okay? Have a good day, dudes!"
Utsuho unfurled her black wings, and after a couple flaps took off into the sky. To the airspace above the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant!
"I've had this little one right here for a generation," she said, possibly while still hanging onto Cana. "I ain't tradin' it now."
Yuugi, adding onto the dogpile, moved over and tried to tip the gourd to spill some into her drinking dish. "Sorry, girl. Celestial Spirits wished they could have something like this. Probably. I don't think I've ever met one."
"They're all stuck-up, Yuugs. Holier-than-thou jerks."
With a little hesitation, she started ripping open the nice box it came in.
This is where two more foreigners arrived, and unlike Sakura Dungeon's very unique and self-identificating choice of dress, they looked...normal. Ish.
One of them was wearing pajamas, sure, but lots of people do that. All the ones Yamame had heard about were shut-ins, but since Osakabehime was out and about that meant she wasn't one! Naturally...
"I'm not sure about nonconformist," Yamame admitted to her, "but it's nice, right? Where are you two from?"
"Hiding? I ain't hiding," Kisume confidently declared. For some odd reason, with her slurred voice and inflamed cheeks, it seemed that this girl must've...had a high fever. No wonder she was stuck in an ice bucket!
"I think you'll find that I'm in the middle of everything! Ain't no better place to be." Indeed, though this table of refreshments was off to the side, it wasn't as if Maeve had a lot of elbow room. This party was poppin', and everyone around knew treated the watering hole as a great place to snatch nearby buffalo and drag them to their watery graves. That is FH-speak for "mingle with strangers".
"Besides, what does a flower girl even need to do? I just get a bunch of flowers and throw them at people when Yamame walks down. Not complicated or anything.
The Zone - Sneeki Deeki Cheeki Breeki
"Wuuuaaaah... you guys are... efficient," Happy said quietly, taking a couple steps away from the two friendly STALKERs after they did something rather unfriendly to the bandit.He scampered alongside the house's wall until he could get a line of sight on Lucy, and waved at her with his paw.
And just what in the heck was a desert eagle? And why was it able to shoot things? All that the eagles in Fiore could do was peck and claw at you.
She waited a couple of seconds until she heard the STALKERs doing their business, followed by Happy waving the all-clear.
Sighing in relief, she pressed a hand to her chest, and then in a dull puff of smoke she was once more in her normal attire.
"Your friend Wolf sent us here to get you back," she explained to them in a low voice. "Crow and Dominic are here too, and Pietro's keeping watch. Now stay still so I can try taking those bindings off."
She tried to see if she could take the impromptu cuffs off of the captives without too much hassle.
"I serve Miss Lucy!" the horse man said with certainty to Pietro.
Truly a complex individual.
Chaldea Bridge - Hiriko
"Oh, hello. Ahem, that is.... Greetings," Hiriko said to Da Vinci, deflated somewhat as she turned she looked left and right for a moment. Her face slightly flushed and she turned a little to her side to make it harder for Da Vinci to see the box under her arm."Yes that is correct," she confirmed with a nod. "I'd appreciate you calling her if you wouldn't mind...."
She moved a little away from the portal so that she could stand somewhat closer to Da Vinci.
"I trust Miss Theosophical has kept you informed of our progress?" she added to the Caster. If they had time to spare, might as well use it.
Former Hell's Wedding Bells
"Is that so?" Maeve inquired, looking at Kisume. "Then carry on."She looked around the festivities, taking note of Charlotte and Isabella's entrance, as well as that of another pair of women. She walked over towards the gathering group, and spoke up to Musashi and Osaka.
"Oh, now where did you two come from?" she asked, then winked at Yamame. "And you were worried that you had no friends. It looks like you had quite the turnout after all!"
"I think it's more fun for you to learn what it does on your own," Charlotte snickered as Yamame tore into the box.
Aside from a few fancy-looking bottles of what was presumably the stamina potions Isabella had mentioned, there was a small silk bag that contained an anachronism. Despite the Sakura Dungeon mostly resembling a place out of the middle ages (that coincidentally had a space army parking their ship in one corner), the shopkeeper's gift was downright high-tech. It was a little blue rectangle the same general size and shape as some sort of early-2000's MP3 player, or other sort of iPod-like device. Though the cable leading out of it didn't end in a pair of earbuds, but rather a single one. Though it was big enough that didn't look like it would fit in someone's ear.
Cana - Getting Plastered in the Common Room
"Haha, yeah. Stuck ups!" Cana cheered."Awww...." she groaned sadly when Suika took the gourd back and Yuugi poured from it. She slumped down against the wall of the common room and took a seat on the floor.
"Still, now that I know it's possible, I'll have to keep looking for one," she explained to Suika. "No one'll have to worry about how much of the liquor budget I use if I had one... or, I could keep the budget the same but just buy a lot more fancy stuff instead! I should take my fortune and see what it says."
She pulled her legs towards her so that she was sitting cross-legged and then pulled out a few cards, practically from thin air. She smiled brightly and slapped them down in front of her. But after watching them for a few moments, she frowned, then scrunched her forehead.
"Well that's no good...." She scratched her head. "I can't tell a fortune for some reason. Ugh, I bet it's that red guy's fault. Messing with the constellations and fate by putting a bunch of different worlds together."
She sighed in mock defeat, blowing out a deep breath of air.
"Well alright then," she said. "Were you guys planning on staying here all day or were you going to check some other place out?"
Salute the freedom fairy! ._.7
Dresden, Lady's office, to her and Nero.
Hard eyes narrowed further at me, likely searching for any probable way this could be a trick. It WAS theoretically possible that personasty could have found some way to impersonate my magic, after all. It wasn't like we had ever verified otherwise. A bead of sweat went down my brow, and hardened into ice before plinking to the floor.
But after the span of several adrenaline-pumping heartbeats, she said without any change of expression, "Put him down". I felt my shoulders sag with relief as Nero's ghostly ghoulish hand retracted itself from the edge of my sphere, which felt quite literally like a weight had been lifted off of my chest. I didn't lower the shield until I heard the click of Lady's safety being activated, and only then did they honeycomb shield dissipate.
The adrenaline wasn't mixing well with the sudden flash of fury an attack usually brings, and I struggled to still my expression. I folded my arms, willing them to stop shaking as I stared down the bridge of Lady's nose. "Some welcoming party", I grumped.
I could already tell that I had screwed this one up myself, though. "Damn it", Lady breathed a moment later, more to herself than anyone else. "I can't believe this happened again, I-" She let out deep groan and dropped back to her desk, the gun going back to its resting place.
I hesitated as she dropped her face into her hands and rested her arms on the table. I wasn't sure who should speak first, honestly — that's the thing about lethal confrontations. You pull one gun out on someone and all of a sudden everything gets awkward. I glanced at Nero for some help, but he had already put his headphones on and was pretending to lose himself entirely in his phone like someone had just sent him a lottery winning number. Way to leave me hanging, man.
"I'm sorry Dresden," she said in a tired voice some seconds later. "I'm an idiot, and a lot happened since you've been gone that has me on edge."
The throbbing of my heart was finally lessening, and with it my mind finally let me go to begin thinking. It was a sad thing, seeing her like that. She looked so much wearier than I had ever seen her, a feeling I knew too damn well myself. Way to go Harry, I told myself. This is your fault for leaving your allies alone for a whole day. What did you think was going to happen when you just walked right back in like everything was fine, in a world where people already know shapeshifting demons exist?
I had been busy taking care of my own close companions, that was the simple truth of it. But damn if it still wasn't fun seeing the consequences of that choice. Especially not since I had been planning on staying low for far longer than that. Then again, I had done it with the intention of trying to do them all some good from the shadowy end of things. Did that make it right?
Wasn't that always the question, these days. If you had to keep asking yourself, the answer was probably not what you wanted to think about.
She kept going before I could work out exactly what to say. "I just...Dresden, what happened? You didn't just avoid us, you all vanished, you and both of those other wizards with you. Your rooms disappeared, the chairs by your table went away, someone put your names up on that memorial to the dead that someone set up...we thought you were dead, or at least had been sent back to wherever that demon thing sends people once he gets bored of them, even the spy I talked to yesterday afternoon hadn't seen any trace of you since the Death Star. I don't understand how you're even standing here right now."
I sighed and finally left the corner, seating myself on the edge of the table, which put me towering pretty far over her and Nero. I rested the staff against it and let out a weary breath of my own, feeling a bit like I had just entered one of those 'come to jesus' meetings.
"First off", I sighed and addressed everyone there, "You all didn't do anything wrong — I should have realized how suspicious this would all look. Anyone else, if it had been just about any other group here, it would have almost certainly been personasty sneaking in like you suspected. Sometimes we try to be too damn sneaky for our own good."
This hasn't been the first time our obsession with secret keeping had caused our friends stress — hell, not the first time for Lady in particular. So that's why, I decided, that for once I was going to be purely straight with her and everyone else who had been on my side since day one.
I glanced at everyone briefly, then at Sypha. "Mind excusing everyone from the room who you don't think I should be trusting?" I'd leave it to her judgement. After everyone had left and shut the door, I leaned forward and rested my elbow on my leg, my chin in my hand. Adopted a simple, straight forward tone and explained. "The rooms and the chairs were both glamoured", I motioned out through the door, "if anyone had been walking at just the wrong spot they probably would have run into our invisible doorknob or seats. Someone thought we were gone and put that memorial up." I paused. "Which was the idea in the first place, so we weren't eager to correct it. We had wounded — Molly was out for most of yesterday. Wars and extended large battles play absolute hell on her with her powers, her brain simply shut itself down and went into a small coma to guard itself. I was afraid she wasn't going to even wake up for weeks, though thankfully she woke up yesterday evening. Carlos was mobile, but he wasn't in any shape to deal with much of anything either. So we went dark, to make sure no one was going to come for us."
I then explained the details of our escape. How Molly and I had frantically tracked down and rounded up Carlos, how the portal had closed by then so we made an emergency escape out with the fleeing shuttles, the crash and stay at the Underground's overworld. Hiding away in Area 11 due to it being new and fairly easy to sneak around in with our magic.
"After that, I tried to negotiate my wish with the Cure from afar." I paused and scratched my neck. "Would you ever guess that sometimes my mouth gets me into trouble? He summoned an old friend of mine into battleworld out of spite...right into Outworld that is. So I was busy, uh, taking care of that for most of the rest of the day while the other two rested up and secured the location."
I leaned back a bit as I finished explaining, waiting for further questions.
Edited by tvtropesnoob on Oct 16th 2018 at 6:12:46 AM
"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016
I have a plan.
Far Harbor—Walk in the Park
"Alright then, Strelok, let's mosey on out of here. We'll take the road."
Longfellow eagerly lead the way. The moment he stepped out of the gates of Far Harbor, he took a lever-action rifle from his coat, and proceeded to walk through the ruins outside of town. The abandoned streets soon gave way to a crumbling countryside highway.
"If you came from that portal, I take you don't know much about the Island's history. Two hundred years ago, there was a war to end all wars. Just about wiped the whole world off the map. The Island hasn't been the same since. Every now and then, the whole island gets swallowed up by the fog, and people have to leave homesteads they've kept for generations."
Longfellow continued to walk with Strelok down the quiet road. There were several mangy rabbits running across the street, but otherwise, the wilderness seemed to be totally devoid of life.
"The fog's poison, on account of all the radiation, and it harbors the nastiest creatures you can imagine. We're in the clear right now, but sometimes, when the Fog swallows up the whole Island, the only safe place on the Island is Far Harbor and Acadia. Between the trappers, the creatures, the cultists, and the mutants, there ain't any friends for Far Harbor."
It wasn't long before the two reached their destination. The Eagle's Cove Tannery
◊, like every single building and structure on the Island, was abandoned and in poor shape. Longfellow took a pair of dirty binoculars from his coat before he got too close to the location.
"Yep, we're here. Tools should be around here somewhere. But we're not alone..."
He put down his binoculars, and shook his head. "Children of Atom," he growled.
Off in the distance, three men in tattered brown robes patrolled around the Tannery, checking through boxes and sorting through the piles of trash that surrounded the warehouse. The men didn't seem to be armed.
"The Children of Atom have been a pain since they've got here. Always goin' on about their god, Atom, and givin' a hard time to people that don't wan't to join their poisonous cult. Trouble is, they worship that radiation crap, and if you don't got the genes to resist it, you'll end up dead or worse. They're all nothing but trouble. The Children know who I am, and I'm not one to be welcome in their presence. I don't think they'll bother you too much, though, since you're a mainlander. Then again, they usually carry some serious weapons on 'em..."
Longfellow stuffed his binoculars back into his coat, and had his rifle ready as he turned to Strelok.
"How do you think we should play this, Strelok? I've got you covered, whatever way you wanna handle them."
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"
Tatsu stared up at the being on its throne, taking the moment while it was talking to go over the information that he was receiving from the reward they had chosen the previous day. It didn't take long for him to go over it really, the disembodied information showing up as little more than a name and a whole heap of question marks under things labelled 'Weaknesses' and the like. It wasn't normal, having tested it on his crew to get a good idea of how it worked, and he wondered if it was a matter of power or just something The Cure was doing itself. He'd have to find out another time.
Now, he had something more important to do. And a moment of truth. Glancing back at the others, the young teen nodded to his friends before turning back towards The Cure. "We want to bring our friend, Delfi, here. Safely and unharmed."
"Yeah, don't worry about that. I know when to keep a secret. Back on the battlefield, you have to know when to be quiet for a blitzkrieg and all... people that break that sort of caution would be get executed for dishonorable displays." Saying such an alarming thing with the ease of someone ordering a pizza, the Demon King pantomimed zipping her mouth shut with a wink.
"Oh, we're from the Chaldea Security Organization! I'm Niten and this shy one here is Hime!" Cheerfully responding to the hail with good humor and sunny cheerfulness in great contrast with the Grumpy Cat-tiered expression that the snuggled up youkai in her grip was leveling to all and sundry, the Servant slapped on some rather lazy pseudonyms over their actual names in the very barest minimum at identity obfuscation.
Seeing that people were already putting the celebratory presents up, Musashi's eyes shone like twin suns. "It was a good thing I brought wedding gifts too, would be rather rude to show up unannounced while contributing nothing!" From her bag came out something that looked like a set of five books dubbed The Five Rings as well as a bulk box of instant udon bowls.
"Hime here will make origami decorations as her present after she sees the bride and groom so she can model them in their likeness. She's super good at the art of paper folding and she makes the best stuff!" Gushing like a fountain while putting Osaka on the spot, Musashi instinctively ignored the fact that the bespectacled NEET was pretty much drooping and lifeless from the shilling she was being given.
"Ah yes, Theosophical Caster has been rather starry-eyed with the progress thus far. She has had nothing but the highest praise for your corps as well as cooperation. You have done some good work thus far and for that I shall thank you on behalf of Chaldea proper." Peering a bit curiously at the box that was being somewhat obscured from her view, Da Vinci gave up on searching it after a bit while pinging the eponymous Medjed.
After a bit of idling about, the sounds of rushing footsteps could be heard pattering against the hallways outside the open bridge door before tripping at the last second to slide into the room with the force of an anime gag character. Picking herself up with a wince and rubbing her nose, Nitocris would then glance up and have her face turn a nice cherry colored hue as she saw that both Da Vinci and Hiriko had probably seen it. "T-this great pharaoh is here!"
Still, the fact that she was putting on something fancy meant that a fair amount of effort had gone into her appearance for the reunion.
It was just too bad the Formal Dress' tone was pretty much ruined with her cute clumsiness and pouting expression that showed all the fluster she was currently experiencing. "T-the great me hopes that you haven't been kept waiting long!" Jumping up with her back ramrod straight, Nitocris' volume rose up a level above the average even as she gave a slightly stiff salute.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Team RWBYJNPR - Honestly, Mostly Ruby and Yang; Common Room
Ruby listened to the Cure's explanations with a look of resignation, nodding along with the points he made. Once he was finished, she spoke:
“I see.” She said quietly. “Sorry for wasting your time.”
Ruby swallowed and turned to walk away, coming face-to-face with Link's offer of a cookie.
“No thanks.” She said, easily forcing a smile. “I'm fine, really.”
It was obvious to everyone else that no, she was not.
Yang meanwhile, looked on in heartbreak as Ruby swallowed her grief once again. But something about what the Cure said didn't add up. Something was throwing her off.
It was when Morrigan mentioned that Lillith was created artificially did it click.
She stepped forward, shrugging off Blake's confused look, and stared up at the Cure.
"So, that whole thing about people who come here not leaving. Is that a rule you made, or is it like a law of physics?”
Nora - This Is My Squishy!; RWBY RWMS
Nora was silent as she took in Maki's words. At the very least, she took heart that he wasn't threatening her life. He was just throwing a big tantrum, and breaking things.
“Maybe you're right. Maybe you're the best contractor. But you're a kid, Maki. And you're not bulletproof. If you died, I-”
She stopped. She couldn't bear the thought.
“The only way I could use you, Maki, is if I didn't care for you. If I didn't care what happened to you. And I do. So I can't.”
The last thing he said, though… Nora was now primed for Maki being sneaky, and that couldn't have been more obvious.
“I'm not telling you. But we've known since before Genosha left.”
They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
Mushroom Kingdom, Rogueport Sewers: Birth of A Beauty
Funny, huh? Jai studied the accessory with the precise and expert eye of someone who knew absolutely nothing about an object, and gave it a nod of approval. Whether he took the warning seriously or not was a mystery...even to Jai, considering how he forgot about it just thirty feet round the corner from the hobo's flea-ridden stand.
It was a pretty little thing. It glowed with a welcoming luster that radiated off it like plutonium. It spoke to him in a warm voice inside his mind: "You will look so pretty wearing me!" Assuming the thought had originated in his own head (and not questioning why he'd look pretty wearing himself) Jai immediately placed the crown on his head.
And then...
The Contractor was enveloped in a golden light, and aura that raised him off the ground and stripped him of clothing. Enveloped in the power of magical love n' shit, Jai stretched, twirled and daintily floated above the sewer's floors like a gymnast suspended by elegant ribbons. The caterpillar had entered his beautiful cocoon.
The face—square chain, sunken cheeks, blocky nose—shifted to smoother features, with a rounder cheeks and larger, pillowy lips. Complete with a little makeup. The sandy blonde hair stretched beyond the nape of the neck, down to the middle back. The eyes (always half-open in an expression indistinguishable between really tired and really bored) remained exactly the same.
The stringy limbs of a marathon runner fattened a few inches, most notably in the thighs which now had to support a round, full, spank-worthy booty. The worker hands softened and shrank, the calloused feet grew dainty and fair. The hips widened as the torso shriveled into an hourglass shape. The pectorals ballooned out of nowhere, but stopped at a D-cup, before they broke the wearer's back under their weight. She still had to walk.
With the body perfected, the magical crown turned to clothes. Taking the Contractor's dark green shirt and the light brown accents of his jacket, the dress clothing the wearer was of a noble forest green, with light brown laces along the sleeves and rim. Off-white silk gloves covered just past the elbows, and the feet were adorned with rich brown high heels. The dress had no shoulders, and cut low. Real low.
The transformation complete, the light released its sculpture and Jai stepped back down on solid ground...now a beautiful princess!
Considering what the fuck just happened, the Contractor took his new body pretty well. He blinked, stared down at his chest, squeezed them a bit to see if they were real, and muttered:
"Huh. Weird."
With those profound words, the newest Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom hiked up her dress an inch and continued her journey towards Rogueport.
Archades, Safe House: And Now, for Something Completely Different!
Havoc made a small expression of surprise when yet another roommate showed herself; that expression being a shift of her hand and a sharper stare at the stranger. Her figure didn't suggest she was much of a threat, but then again neither did Havoc's, and the Contractor had always used that assumption to her advantage. It was the deathly pale skin—and more importantly, the notably sharp canines—that Havoc took most notice of. A vampire, for sure. But was she one of Dracula's?
The Red Giant turned her attention to the subject: Mr. Bookworm's idiot of a brother. When Vergil concurred with Carmilla, Havoc nonchalantly listed reasons why Dante wasn't her favorite person:
"Too friendly, lives in a sty, so overly-trusting he shouldn't still be alive, let alone still be a threat. Can't say I've ever met someone that chill about handing sub-machine guns to a complete stranger. Or someone so stupid that they only realized that was a bad idea ten minutes later."
As Vergil stood up and stated his orders, Havoc couldn't help but shoot him a small smirk.
"What, you gonna hold my hand, too? You're a peach for 'worrying' about little ol' me, but somehow it doesn't look like you're interested in babysitting."
She stepped away from the wall and turned towards her room. "If the boss wants someone keeping an eye on me, we'd look less conspicuous with someone who has a normal hair color. Assuming there's a parasol lying around here, me and the vampire can head out to gather supplies. I'll just change into something more fashionable for the city."
Assuming she wasn't stopped by either of her new 'comrades,' Havoc would enter her room and close the door to get changed into the provided Archadian attire.
Underground, Dreemurr Residence: Sometimes, the Plans Come to You!
Mao paused at the question to chew it over (along with the eggs). "Well, I guess the first thing on the agenda's to head for Ikebukuro. Rendezvous with Yin and Huang, figure out a way to get back into the Syndicate's good graces; least then we won't need to worry about having a target on our backs."
Suddenly, the phone rang. On the other end was the gruff voice of a gruff old man, a voice that either Asgore or Asriel (depending on who answered it) would recognize as Mao's human teammate, Huang.
"Hey, so we got a bit of bad news: Ikebukuro's gone. Yin and I got dropped in the Common Room with a few other...interestin' folks. Think our best idea's to head back to the Underground for a minute. Grab the furball, put our heads together and come up with a new plan. That okay?"
Common Room (Tatl and Link): And Tatl's Heart Grew Three Sizes That Day!
Link's smile drooped into a frown as his small gesture of comfort was rejected. He might not know a lot about how people think, but didn't need a Lens of Truth to know the girl was very upset.
Perhaps more surprisingly, Tatl even seemed to feel sorry for the Hunter. Getting a chance to reunite with a loved one only to have that chance rejected for, ugh, arbitrary reasons must've felt like a punch in the gut. The fairy knew it felt that way because that's how she felt right now. She risked leaving the safety of Link's cap to float towards the other members of Team RWBY.
"Hey." the fairy muttered to the silver-haired girl who had stood by the dark-haired girl's side. "I really don't get half the stuff you're all talking about—back where I'm from, we don't have row-bots or artificial people or whatever—but if Big Red and Ugly isn't going to help out, then maybe you can find someone else on this planet who could!"
Joining his companion, Link nodded in agreement. This world had all sorts of weird and different sorts of people. Somebody here must know how to make an arty fish hull person! Whatever that was!
"Name's Tatl. My partner and I came here with...well, a problem we're planning to fix really soon. It's supposed to be in Castle Vania right now, but once we're done there...think there's any way we can help you guys out? Help you look for someone to bring your friend back to life?"
RWBY RWMS, Living Space: Searching for Answers From the Girl Who Has None
Maki was about to speak when Nora gave an assertive answer: she wouldn't tell him where Amber is. His fingers twitched on the table, hesitantly curling into fists even as a small quivering smile appeared on his face.
"I understand." he replied, perhaps more calmly than his expression might've suggested. "To be honest...I was hoping you wouldn't tell me."
He stared idly at the table's surface. "For as long as I've known her, Amber's been the person with all the answers. Contractors who were a lot older than me listened to her; some of them, like Lady Alma, had been Contractors even longer than I have. People came to her with problems, and she always seemed to know to either fix it, or work around it. She was like some sort of all-knowing being. Amagiri used a strange word to describe it. Claire-something. I guess I never really asked how she knew everything, but time-travelling sounds about right."
Maki rested his chin on the table, pillowing his head with his forearms like an incredibly bored student at his desk.
"But that's all changed. When she met us back in Tokyo, a few days after we arrived on this planet, she wasn't offering us many solutions—she was telling us Genosha could solve all our problems. She talked about the King as if the all-knowing powers had moved to someone else. I didn't have a chance to ask her what happened, but I could tell something was wrong.
"Then, two nights ago, she told me that I was going to join the Hellions and didn't tell me why. That's nothing new—she talks about a lot of things she never explains, like who Hei is and why he's so important—but the way she said it was something I'd never seen in her before. She looked scared. Like she wasn't sure that this was the right move. Maybe you're right, and she was thinking of me like some sort of pawn; something she didn't want to risk without much gain in return. But when I look back on that night, the way she looked at me...it gives me a weird feeling. A complicated feeling I don't know a word for: part sadness, part anger, and even a little bit of fear. And my Contractor brain's yelling at me the whole time, telling me that she's not someone I should be around anymore, or I'll end up dead."
Were Nora to look closely, she might spot droplets of water forming around Maki's half-closed eyes.
"The Amber I've known back on our world isn't the Amber on this planet. She's lost so much of herself here: her confidence, her reassurance, her pleasant way of approaching even the most dangerous missions, I didn't realize how much of what made her her relied on her powers. She's so fragile without all that, and I'm worried that someone will try to use that weakness to finally break her."
The boy's eyes blinked towards Nora. Raising his head from the table with a sniffle and a quick wipe of his eyes, he turned to face his friend with a serious stare.
"That's what I meant by using me: when you said your friends were going to talk to Amber, I was worried that I'd be brought to meet her as well—someone who's seen her when she had all the answers, and can recognize how weak she's become. That could only hurt her, and depending on who else is there, it could dissolve the Evening Primrose for good. I couldn't do that to her...no matter what we were trying to do before we arrived here.
"So if you really mean what you're saying, then I'd like to ask you to do something for me: keep me and Amber away from each other. I don't want to talk to her, or even look at her. Right now, I think that's the only way I can help."
His head tilted forward a bit, doubtful. "You've just told me that Amber wasn't sincere, and that Director Shaw was just using me as well. I didn't see any of that, and I've only had a doubt or two about Amber for the past two days. I just don't trust myself to tell when someone's lying to me right now, so...do you mind doing this for me? To prove that you don't want to use me?"
Edited by TheodoreHastings on Oct 17th 2018 at 3:15:29 AM
Hiriko - Chaldea Bridge
"Your are far too kind, the thanks belongs to my soldiers," Hiriko simultaneously accepted the thanks and tried to deflect it. "It is due to their support and effort that things are progressing as they are, so I can only accept your kindness on their behalf."Hiriko clinged slightly when Nitocris tripped. That... had to be unpleasant.
"Oh Miss Medjed, you look... very well," Hiriko said, looking down at her own attire. For all the pros and cons it had in the fashion department, she was still wearing the same thing she had been wearing the day before - her Titan Weapon System. She was a soldier first, and that meant staying combat-ready when on duty.
"Oh, right, yes, I brought this for you," she added, remembering the box. She held out the hankerchief-covered container.
If unwrapped, it revealed that the box inside was a set of Japanese-styled stacked lunch box consisting of at least four trays. While it was Japanese on the outside, though, it was wholly Egyptian on the inside.
The top tray had a whole array of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, including figs, grapes, dates, cucumbers, radishes, and slices of pomegranate.
Below that was a tray with some appetizers and starters. A whole fattened liver of a force-fed goose, bottles with thickened sweet-smelling beer, a few loaves of emmer and barley bread that were short and thin so that several could fit inside, nabk nuts, and even sesame-roasted papyrus.
Under it, the third tray had some meats and entrees, with most of the storage going to several finger-sized cuts of goat and mutton, and a chunk of thinly-sliced beef. A few choice pieces of sparrow and fish were lined up in the other half of the container, separated from the other meats by a wooden divider in the tray.
Then the bottom tray had dessert items. A lidded cup of ground and dried tiger nut mixed with honey, carob treats, sweetened bread, roasted nuts, and a few pieces of baqlawa.
"I mentioned yesterday that I thought your Egypt reminded me of certain areas of the Sakura Dungeon, and the Inn happens to have a few monsters from there who work in the kitchen so I asked them to make a few of their delicacies from their home because maybe it would be similar to yours...." Hiriko tried to explain. She put one hand on the back of her neck and grimaced. "It's probably silly now that I think about it, my apologies."
Vampire Hunter
Trevor, Common Room
"The current leader of Hell's Gate Tokyo, a woman named Misaki, showed me this moving image thing that showed Havoc entering Castlevania's portal," Trevor answered Carlos. "Truthfully, I do not believe Dracula is even involved in the situation beyond perhaps having my weapon in his possession."
"If Dracula was truly using Havoc to ambush me, I would be dead," Trevor noted to Carlos about how he viewed the situation. "Dracula is not that stupid."
"As for how bad it is for Dracula to have the Vampire Killer," Trevor actually laughed at the thought. "It can only be wielded by a member of the Belmont Clan, which on Battleworld consists of only me."
"Anyone else who tried to wield it would die," Trevor frowned and sighed. "As for if things would go super sour, it would if we were back in my world... The Cure has negated Dracula's immunity to weapons other than the Vampire Killer and his own dark power."
"Havoc is a monster, but she is not a demon," Trevor turned to Mirajane, narrowing his eyes at her as he pulled out a bottle of Holy Water to show her. "But Dracula and his forces do have demons in their ranks."
"Dracula and his forces are susceptible to holy weaponry like my Holy Water or the Vampire Killer," Trevor put the bottle away and pointed to Link and Tatl. "...and he can imbue his arrows with holy magic."
"Unfortunately, I cannot just borrow his bow and arrow just to use that holy magic, though," Trevor frowned and crossed his arms, unhappy about bringing a child that young along. "He is also hunting for someone he believes to be in Castlevania."
—-
B.B. Hood, Common Room
"Oh... So that briefcase has your tuition money?" B.B. Hood asked with the appearance of innocence though it seemed like she was overhearing Dante and Koichi talk. "Your guardian must be rich to have a briefcase like that... Who might she be?"
Sypha & Grant, Lady's Office
"I will point out that it was Trevor who put your names on the memorial," Sypha explained to Dresden, before looking at Shanoa. "Shanoa, it is perhaps time for you to join up with him, actually."
"Yes," Shanoa dispelled her crimson rapier and left Lady's Office for the DMC Office. Grant jumped down from the wall and introduced himself.
"Name's Grant Danasty," Grant offered a hand to the Chicago wizard, grinning widely. "I'm part of Sypha and Trevor's group."
"Grant can be trusted," Sypha nodded to Harry. The two listened to Harry's explanation of what he had been doing for the past two days, and both seemed to be simply nodding as if accepting it... Until he got to the thing about his wish and Outworld when Sypha just facepalmed.
"Never dismiss one of the Cure's wishes," Sypha shook her head disappointingly. "Dante did that and..."
Sypha looked over to Lady as if she could explain that situation better than her.
Carmilla, Archades Safe House
"I did get to sit on his lap as he flirted with me," Carmilla said to the two flirtatiously, before switching to a disappointed tone. "It was in that accursed Common Room so we could not exactly do anything but flirt."
"And I do not need a parasol to head out into the city," Carmilla waved to Havoc as she headed off to get changed for travel. If she was angry about being called a harlot, the vampiress sure didn't show it.
Wizard Needs Food Badly
The Cure lifted his hand toward Tatsu as he made his request, and dark energy surrounded it.
"As you wish." He said as the requested person appeared next to him. Then he turned back to the scientists.
"For the first question, my demands are for the goverments and leaders of the various lands of this world. I will not pretend to care to control the actions of every single man, woman, and child of this world. Do as you will, but be aware that other lands you venture to may be much less understanding of your wish to avoid battle then I. For the second, while I could theroerticly continue to expand my planet infinitely, there are a couple of reasons I do not."
"Firstly, by the very nature of the multiverse, such an act as bringing every universe to my planet is quite impossible. The multiverse is, indeed, infinite, ever expanding, not only with different places, different times, but different possibilities. Your every choice, every man's choice, in turn creates a new alternate reality. From choices as insignificant as whenever or not you cross a street, to whenever or not an assassin attempts to shoot a world leader, to whenever or not he succeeds in killing said leader, and more.....you understand the problem."
"Ignoring that, however, not every universe is fit for my world. I have made strides to ensure that each land has some unique elements that set them apart from all others, that give them some time of unique difference. This would become rapidly harder and harder to do the more I expand my world. And while I have the power to watch everything on my planet at the same time, at some point, too many events will just become a chore to watch. I hope that answers your question."
Then he turned to Yang. "The prohibition against people leaving is indeed a rule of my own making. People only depart from this world once I tire of them, grow bored with them. And before you ask, as many others have before you, no, I will not disclose what happens to those I remove from this world."
Lady sat silently as Dresden explained himself, a tinge of sympthathy appearing as he mentioned how one of his friends got thrown into Outworld.
"I see." She said, nodding once he was finished. "I won't blame you for priortizing your friend. But coulden't you have at least shot me a text message or something?"
She shook her head even as she asked the question.
"No, no, forget it, it doesn't matter anymore."
Then Sypha spoke up, and Lady sighed.
"Well, that's as good a lead in as any." She looked over at Sypha. "And hey, if you want to get going, don't let me stop you. I know you've got a full plate today, I can take things from here."
She gave her a moment to decide if she was staying or not, then turned back to Dresden. "So, first day here, Dante was offered the same wish thing as you. And he told that Cure thing to....I forget the exact word...."
"Surprise me." Nero offered from the corner.
"Right." Lady said, rolling her eyes as she was reminded. "And so we got Vergil. Vergil is Dante's twin brother, and his opposite in pretty much every way. A monster who embraced his demonic heritage, he's obsessed with power, and will stop at nothing to get it. Ever since, we've been trying to track him down, since before you even arrived. He wandered the planet for a couple days, doing what he does best."
"I know of at least two major incidents, one involving him slaughtering a dozen armed police officers who tried to question him and had no idea what they were getting into, and a separate incident where he got some kind of lead about a demonic artifact held by a Yakuza clan, and he launched an assault on them single handily. Yesterday, I was out most of the day, meeting with their boss. As it turns out, the artifact in question was a sword held by a teenage girl, which had somehow bonded itself to her, and he tried to kill her too, just to claim it for himself. Somehow, she managed to escape with moderate injuries, from the sounds of things, Vergil apparently lost interest in the sword and left before he killed her."
"I coulden't pry many details about the sword itself, or the situation with the girl, not even her name, but I'm hoping once the job's done, he'll be willing to let me have a look, see what can be done for her. But, well, with the shape shifter on the loose and targeting us, that Empire thing, and everything else going on....we only have so many resources, you understand."
"Then yesterday afternoon, somehow, Sypha got a lead on the demon. Somehow, this thing had taken control of a whole city, that City 17 place, by strong arming their leader into obeying his commands. From what Sypha said, the guy was a real piece of work and probably deserved everything he got, but there was still a whole city under his control and innocent civilians at risk. And it was then he turned up. Molly told you about those SEES kids, right? Somehow, their leader managed to bump into Vergil after his assault on the Yakuza, and challenged him to a 1 on 1 duel. Then she somehow beat him. Someone recorded it, I've watched the video, and I still can't believe it happened. But then, rather then try to restrain him, or kill him, or call us, or do anything else, she forcibly recruited him. Basically said "If I win, you work for me". And then she somehow trusted him to abide by that, with no restraints, no conditions, nothing beyond his word that he wouldn't betray them."
"I doubt I need to tell you what happened next. On that assault, he betrayed them, joined up with the shapeshifter, and tried to kill them. Dante was there, he managed to hold him off and stop him from hurting anyone, but in the chaos, he managed to get away. I'm done playing around, and so today, I'm assembling a strike team, hunting squad, whatever you want to call it, with one goal. We are going to find Vergil, and kill him. Part of the reason I was wary of you was because you had very convenient timing coming through that door, right when I'm in need of powerful people to back me up. But since we've established you are indeed you, I'm going to have to ask if you're willing to join me."
As Havoc started to walk toward the door, Vergil would suddenly reappear several feet in front of her, teleporting in front of her. In a single motion, he rapidly drew his blade, fully extending his arm and halting the blade so that its tip was pointing right at Havoc's throat. He did not bother looking at her directly as he spoke.
"Let us be clear, so that the nature of this relationship is not misunderstood, human. None of us are here because we want to be. I doubt even the demon lord entertains that notion. He has what we want, and we are here to work to get it. And other people, at best, they are useful tools, at worst, obstacles and complications to be dealt with. Each of us only reached this point through backstabing, betrayal, and defections. As such, I trust none of you, and none of you trust me, or each other. So no, I will not be staying behind. In fact, I will be keeping a very close eye on you both. Humans have a saying, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer", and I believe at this time, such logic is apt to use."
Edited by Meanken on Oct 17th 2018 at 8:59:21 AM
Glory to Arachnos
"I see. That explains everything." Kruglov said, looking at his other comrades as they took care of taking notes of the interview. "That is all for now, mister Cure. Right now, our main interest is to move out now to explore this world, and document it, which I say we can't wait to move out. We thank you for this great scientific opportunity you gave to us." Giving a small nod to the Cure, the Ecologists and the Mercenaries left the Cure, as they grouped up together in the center of the Common Room.
"Alright, that is a wrap, folks." Kruglov looked over at his fellow scientists, as they finished fiddling with their research gear.
"Semenov, how's the video?"
"Perfect high quality, as always," Semenov was looking over at the video of the Cure with the video camera. "Though I'd bet the public would assume this is just a Computer Generated Image, or a photoshop image if they're that dumb."
"Considering the Zone exist, the public would be idiots if they really deem this as a fake. Stefan, what you've got?"
Stefan was fiddling with his tablet, before giving a small chuckle at some of the pictures of the Cure. "Pretty good notes and pictures, bet some of these pictures would look pretty damn good on a cover of a National Geographic maganize, Kruglov."
"That it would. Petro?"
Last but not least, Petro listened to the audio recordings he got, giving a nod to Kruglov once he heard they came out well.
"All saved and well, professor."
Kruglov nodded. They got a few basic details of this battleworld, but their main focus was to enter one of these many portals and to document these worlds. The potential would be limitless, but...if what the Cure said was right, some of these places might be dangerous, and he does not want to risk the life of them...though considering that they went to study the Zone, they knew what they were getting themselves to.
"Mercs."
The hired guns turned to the professor. "What?"
"We will go onto one of these portals, so I'd like you to take point when we enter to protect us. But please do NOT, and I mean, do NOT, shoot at anybody unless they are clearly hostile and mean us harm. Is this clear?"
"Fine. Where do you want to take your movie crew?" Mist said, as then he looked over at the portal names until...
He pointed at one.
"...The Underground? Professor, I swear if that place is nothing but a nest of fucking burers-"
"Just, trust me okay? Everything will go fine Merc, just stay with us, get us out alive, and you and Shade will get paid. Deal?"
The exoskeleton merc merely sighed, before nodding to the professor, as then the Ecologists and the Mercenaries moved out, walking over to the portal.
"Alright, this shall be recording 1 of the "Battleworld", onto the land known as the Underground. Gentlemen, be prepared, who knows if this place is hostile or friendly. Petro, you still have those artifacts with you?"
"Still do, don't worry." Petro said, pointing to the large bag of his hazard suit.
Eventually, they stopped right over at the portal to the Underground. Semenov fiddled with his camera recorder, before giving a thumbs up that the camera was ready.
Kruglov was sweating under the screen helmet of his hazard suit, worried that he would send his crew to a certain death. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he then spoke.
"Scientist Expedition Crew exploration of the Battleworld. Land 1. The Underground......begin."
Afterwards, they entered.
"Thanks." Crow merely said to Happy, cleaning the blood from his knife, the corpse of the bandit still leaking blood from his throat.
The captive loners looked at Lucy with surprise, and as they got a peek at the door, they noticed Crow and Dominic standing guard, as then the stalker who verbally attacked Lucy smiled and looked to the others.
"Told you guys they would come." He then turned to Lucy. "Thanks for the help. The makeshift cuffs aren't that tough. Bet you can get those off us without trouble." The rookie was right, as after a few seconds she managed to get them off their hands off each other, as the rookies got up from the ground.
"We need to move." Dominic was peeking over the door, wary of any bandit that might arrive. "Who knows when those fucks might arrive in any second."
Pietro looked over at Sagittarius...before slowly burying his hand to his face.
"Crow, I'm so going to kill you for this shit."
"Wait..what are you-" Andriy looked with surprise as Utsuho grew wings out of nowhere, and then flew off the checkpoint.
"Wait! Stop! Stop! St- oh why the fuck do I even bother?" Andriy looked as Utsuho flew away from the checkpoint to the Zone...god damn, why did he had to be transfered here of all places?
Yegor did not stopped drinking his vodka.
Utsuho of course, should know that it still would take a while to reach the NPP. As she flied over the dark skies of Chernobyl, she would see a small village nearby, with the shapes of a few people living in it. If she paid attention, she would also see that near the village was a small bunker
with it's doors open.
Strelok looked over at the Children of the Atom. Seems like they are this place's version of the Monolith. It seems he can't avoid fanatical cults no matter where he goes.
"Not a fan of cultists, considering on the Zone, I had to deal with some of them too. As for a plan..."
Strelok looked over his backpack for a moment, before taking out what seemed to be a grenade launcher attachment for his AK-74. He then installed into his rifle.
"I've only got one grenade shot left, so we need to make it count, as I'd rather not be forced to drink large amounts of vodka just because I was hit by a radioactive gun. As for a plan, I'm thinking that you should bait them in, while I stay hidden, make them stick together in a group, and once they do..."
He then loaded his only grenade into the attachment.
"I come out of cover and hit them, taking them down in one move, that is, if they don't have any resistance to explosives. If you don't like the plan, we can simply do it the old fashioned way of shooting them down until they're dead."
Edited by Darkomega245 on Oct 18th 2018 at 10:34:18 AM
-Spider Lizard Noises-
Eternal Princess
Malkuth opened her mouth to answer ever more questions from the red head when more people showed up. A lot more. It completely caught the Sefriot off guard as she quickly turned to each in turn. She fumbled to say anything as she didn't know who to greet or respond to with everyone coming in such rabid succession.
She took a moment to take a deep breath and gather her thoughts. She was the manager of the control team, she couldn't let her self get overwhelmed with a little something like this. She put on her game face, which quickly turned into a wide smile, then raised her pen in the air to get everyone's attention.
"Thank you so much for all your interest. The tour will now depart!"
As she walked backwards toward the portal, she pointed to each person as she silently counted them off. So there were ten (twelve?) of them. Three highschoolers, one knight, her companion, two cat like abnormalities, a man, a clockwork girl, and a maintenance worker. She quickly jotted down a little note about it. Just in case anyone goes missing, she will know who to look for.
"This way, and please remember to stay with the group."
She disappeared into the portal, presumably followed by the rest. The woman in the lab coat followed with the group silently.
Through the portal, the group would be greeted with florescent lights. They would appear to be in a corridor of some sort, all steel and concrete. There were no windows, just the occasional pipes and heavy set metal doors to line the walls. It was everything one would expect from an underground facility, though perhaps only slightly more inviting due to the light yellow interior design.
"Welcome to Facility X-394 of the Lobotomy Corporation!"
Their tour guide loudly declared the introduction with a sense of pride and bit of showmanship. There we a few people in suits waiting for them, but they seemed to be there only to run a few tests. They took out equipment and ran scans on the Malkuth, making sure she wasn't bringing anything in with her from interacting with the Cure. They learned their lesson after D-03-109. They would try to something similar to the tourists, pointing scientific equipment at them with little beeps and whirls, then giving them a thumbs up to know they were clean. Satisfied they stood at attention at the sides of the halls, letting them pass, giving only a nod in both greeting and farewell. It was around here the woman in the lab coat left the others to pursue her own endeavors.
Malkuth would lead the group down the long hall and into others, as if much of the facility was nothing but these corridors that connected rooms. They would occasionally pass through large rooms
lined with camera feeds and scientific equipment to break the monotony. The whole time they walked, Malkuth spoke.
"We are one of many corporations that have sprung in response to the energy crisis that now face the world we come from. While many have resorted to unsavory methods of achieving their goals, Lobotomy Corporation has found a clean renewable source that will solve the crisis.
In your world, do you have fairy tales? Ghosts stories? Accounts of things that have no business existing in the waking world? In our world, the subjects of such tales are not only true, but the solution of our real world problems. We call them abnormalities.
Our research has found that to merely exist, these abnormalities have to warp the world around them. The supernatural by there very definition can not be part of natural world. Think of it like an air conditioned house in the middle of the desert, to exist in that state it requires energy to deviate from its natural surroundings. The further it deviates from the natural world, the more energy it needs to produce to maintain itself. The Lobotomy Corporation has developed a way to harvest the excessive energy emitted by such beings and repurpose it to our own ends.
Behind each of these locked doors is an abnormality. I know what you are thinking, if they are anything like the stories they tell from my world, then aren't a lot of these abnormalities dangerous. Well, in so many words...yes. We even have a classification of system to help employees who have to deal with them on a regular basis tell what their threat levels are. ZAYIN are all but harmless. TETH are only problematic if the agent does not use proper precautions. HE requires experienced agents who know exactly what they doing. WAW should always have whole teams on standby in the case of breach. And ALEPH, ALEPH are things that should never, ever, be allowed to escape their containment chambers. Oh, our mutual friend the Cure. That is something we would classify as an ALEPH class threat. But all in all, its nothing you should have to worry about. Our staff is the best of the best who have plenty of experience dealing with these abnormalities on a daily basis. You are completely safe, I promise."
She stopped the tour in the middle of a hall, just in front of one of the metal doors. She turned to the group and smiled.
"Would you like to meet one?"
A little demonstration of the daily grind. It was also a way to placate any fears they had about their methods and show that this was a safe and reliable. Malkuth motioned to the door as she began reading off her notes.
"This here is O-01-92. The employees have named her Shy Look Today. What usually happens is we receive word of some sort of paranormal activity in the world and we send the Extraction team to investigate and possibly acquire the Abnormality for housing in the Facility. This particular case came from reports in a city about a shy young woman who had trouble expressing her emotions. Not particularly out of the normal, but she found an innovative way of overcoming her social anxiety."
The door open and Malkuth motioned for the others to stay out side a moment. She walked in into the containment chamber. The room itself was a nondescript bare cube
. Equipment lined the walls and a yellow striped line ran ran down the center. The room itself was dark as Malkuth walked in. She likes the dark. But the motion caused the lights to blink on, revealing what was inside.
Right behind the dividing line was two rusted poles. Between them was stretched a canvas of human skin
. Carved into the flesh was five different facial expressions, complete with teeth. They ranged from the laughing and smiling to the sad and angry. Behind the display was a woman. It was hard to make out her appearance as she hid behind the veil of flesh. But under the display they could see the fleshy meat of her legs devoid of skin. Blood stained the floor with her every step as she made her way to the canvas of flesh, pressing her face against the middle neutral face until in became like macabre mask
.
Malkuth cheerily greeted the abnormality.
"Good day today! Are you still shy today?"
The abnormality silent nodded.
"I'm Malkuth, do you remember me? It seems the Facility has been moved and we are doing rounds to check on all the abnormalities. Are you feeling well? Is everything ok?"
The abnormality pulled back from the veil of skin. Her feet shuffled to behind the smiling face display, blood trailing as she moved. She once again pressed her face until her eyes peered through the face's empty sockets and nodded once more.
"That's good! And I trust my employees are treating you well? Are you enjoying their company?"
Again the abnormality changed position until she was behind the laughing face. A light gurgle and noise came from the shy woman, as if she wasn't completely sure how to make the sound she wanted.
"...heh..."
"That's great! Thank you so much for your time."
Malkuth bowed out and joined the others back in the hall.
"And that's it. As I am sure some of you surmised, normally a person should not be able to survive without their skin and losing as much blood on a constant basis as Shy here. But Shy can because she is an abnormality, warping the world to allow what should not exist to exist. In that short little conversation, I have provided enough stimuli for the abnormality to emit enough energy for us to power a city block for several days."
As if on cue, two employees made their way down the hall to join the group. The first carried a yellow box with a green light. They held it up to show to the group as Makuth continued on.
"This is the end product. E-boxes which contain the stored energy. I'll arrange for one of these to be given out to each of you upon exit so that you can begin experimenting with the possibilities of our energy source."
The other employee wore a padded suit with metal plates. Stretched over it like some kind of armor were some familiar faces
. Malkuth motioned to her model as she continued the sales pitch.
"But as I have said, our research had taken us to make a number of new discoveries and invention. For example, studies into Shy's skin has revealed that her skin creates a psychic barrier which goes a long way to describing her inability to connect with other people. This is more then likely due to saturation of her own feelings of isolation changing the very properties of her skin. However, by making this discovery, and with Shy's permission, we have been able to utilize it as an effective means of protecting against mental and emotional manipulation that many other abnormalities try to use against our employees."
As she looked at the armor, Malkuth looked less then pleased. It really was such a grotesque looking thing. She only chose it for show because Shy was such a harmless abnormality, making her perfect to display each step of what they do here at the Facility. She looked at Erza almost apologetic.
"Don't worry, most of the armors and weapons produced are actually quite nice looking and not nearly so ugly."
A look of surprised showed across her face as she realized what she said. She waved her hands then put finger to her lips as if telling everyone to be quiet.
"But don't tell Shy I said that. I don't want to hurt her feelings, I mean that is her face we are using..."
With that little aside, Makuth seemed to get back to her genki self.
"So any question so far before we continue moving on? Oh and if you want to say hi to Shy your self feel free. She's a sweet heart. Just remember to stay behind the marked line."
Should any one take up the offer, the skin less girl would creep her way to the far end of her flesh canvas. She would gaze at the new comers through the angry face and make a gurgling noise on verge of a whimper. The shy girl clearly not liking the sudden influx of company.
How do you kill that which has no life?
The Zone - Vehicle Station - Lucy and Happy
"Alright, you're all free now," Lucy said after the third STALKER was freed from his cuffs. She blanched momentarily when she looked back and saw the sorry state that the bandit was in."Yeeesh..." she grumbled, shaking her head. She held up the pistol towards the trio of freed STALKERs. "One of you guys can take this."
"Virgo can't dive through wood, and kicking her way through it would make a lot of noise," she tapped her foot on the floor, frowning. "Plus with this many people it would be tough for all of us to move out at once. Whatever happens, we'll have to make sure the coast is clear at least. I'll check this window."
She went to go and carefully look out one window, while Happy sprouted and fluttered his wings to go take a peek, and would inform them of anything important they saw.
Facility X-394 - Erza, Wendy, and Carla
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!" Wendy cried out suddenly when she saw the suit with the faces all over it, jumping up at Erza."Wendy, wait a-" Erza started, but reacted quickly and caught the kid in her arms so that she wouldn't fall off or unbalance her.
"WAAAAAA. ERZA IT'S A M-M-MONSTER!"
"Come now child, n-n-no need to be scared," Carla tried to reassure Wendy, but couldn't hide the own tremor in her voice as she kept her eyes peeled for danger.
Erza grimaced, her eye glaring at Malkuth.
"Such grotesque methods," Erza remarked. This wasn't exactly a completely unfamiliar scene. Wizards did things with monsters commonly enough - even going so far as to create magical beasts they could fight for sport - but it seemed to have an... efficiency... that was somewhat unsettling.
"What could a city even need with so much energy?"
Former Hell, Chuukuu-Yama Summit: Go Tell It On the (Other) Mountain!
No.
The single word felt like a bonk on the head; so much so, that Majora actually covered its scalp and rubbed it, as if to relieve a sudden pain. Seemed like the special treatment had run its course; if it wanted to know anything else about this planet, then it'd just have to hoof it and see what there was to see!
Looking around at the four (well, three) possible choices, Majora elected to explore the land to the West...
The Far West. Fun as that flashy metallic palatial place might be, it was a little too risky trying to search for puppets in a place where there were multiple Gohts in plain sight. And who knew how many of those creatures weren't visible from the summit! Going there would mean the mask was just begging to be crushed.
So that left the place just beyond that kingdom: another mountain! The slopes could offer decent hiding spots if it found something too strong in the area, plus it could look down on whatever was at the bottom. If need be, it could also use the summit to do what it had just done here: use the elevated height to search for a new playground!
Majora kept to the clouds as it flew to its destination, just in case Flashy Metal Land had some of those telescope things, like the astronomer outside Clock Town did. It couldn't know what on earth thermal readings were, but thankfully it wouldn't need to worry about things like that, since the husk had no blood or pulse to generate body heat. Besides, something as slow and small as a child flying to Neverland was not likely to spark an artillery barrage...probably.
So arriving at the other mountain (hopefully!) undetected, Majora began exploring Mount Ebbott. It didn't take long to doubt anyone lived either on the mountain, or at its base, so the masked child stepped deeper into the territory and explored the bottom of the mountain.
Over time, it discovered a cave: a deep, dark, and scary-looking cave that seemed to go on and on and on forever! It'd be terrifying if it didn't look super fun! With nothing better to do, Majora floated into the cave, over the slippery rocks that would no doubt trip most children who wandered inside, and came to a bed of yellow flowers.
Majora giggled to itself, delighted to start on a brand new adventure.
Tokyo MPD, Kitchenette: Alright, Baby Steps It Is!
So, Mayor Kurogane was one of those "men of few words" that were all too common in this line of work. But was he truly that tight-lipped, or was it because he feared leaking too much intel on a recording?
"We are managing, all things considered." Kobayashi replied as he rattled his free fingers on the kitchenette counter. "Our mutual friend Eric was vital to developing a swift solution to Genosha's bioweapon. My one regret is that the synthesized cure had a limited range of effect; it could not extend far beyond the city's boundaries."
With the coffee finally pouring into the big glass pot, the frowning man stepped away from the counter to stare idly around at the kitchenette.
"You should still be able to see the results of our work: that oddly-colored fog sitting inside Tokyo. It is designed to dissipate within a few hours, so if there are any citizens of Mitakihara afflicted by the mutagen, I highly suggest escorting them to our border. I can supply aid far as transportation and medical staff are concerned, you need but say the word. Apart from a wish from Miss Akemi, Mitakihara's victims may not find a better chance to be cured."
It was a rather bold move, to be honest. The subject matter assumed that Mayor Kurogane knew many things that those who've never stepped inside the Common Room couldn't know: that Genosha had released a bioweapon that activated dormant X-Genes, that Tokyo had the means to combat this attack and even downright reverse it, and that Goro Kobayashi was a man with enough influence in Tokyo to mobilize assistance and open up the border.
The hope was that all this would push Kurogane away from beating around the bush: he now had a real offer to accept or deny, and had enough of an idea of who this faceless figurehead was to know that he could get things done. No doubt that was the impression Nishijima had wanted to impose, when he gave the Acting Mayor this phone number.
Archades, Safe House: So! You're Not As Stupid As You Look!
Havoc had stepped on the ball of her foot, just in case the bookworm decided to express how he wasn't fond of jokes. She could smell the threat coming—again, if the bastard wanted her dead, she already would be—but what she couldn't know was from what direction. Now, with the half-demon right in front of her and a katana flirting with her throat, she knew at least one muscle he could flex.
She listened with the calm eye-contact of one who took the speaker's words seriously, but who wasn't surprised by the actions that led to it. Vergil hadn't taken the slightest interest in her presence until she'd hinted at keeping him out of the loop; easy bait for anyone familiar with betrayal. Hell, were their roles reversed, Havoc would've tried a similar stunt, just to set the record straight.
So when the swordsman finished his threat with a proverb, Havoc offered something that almost resembled a genuine smile.
"That they do, and I agree. Glad to see you've got the brains your brother lacks. Now if you'll excuse me."
She waited for Vergil to step aside, or to step around him if he refused to move. She didn't bother offering any suggestions like "wear a hat" or "lose the painfully colorful coat," since she didn't expect any response apart from a "useless human" jab or an even more aggressive threat—the sort that might draw blood this time. If he wanted to be spotted, that was his problem; Havoc wouldn't cover for him.
Dresden, Lady's office, to lady nero and sypha and everyone else who came in to watch him get bullied
Oh. Super.
"Wai—" I didn't even get the full word out before the attack lashed out at me. My instincts had been screaming at me to run the entire time I had been inside, so I managed to leap and roll away to the side just in time, but for some reason said instincts didn't compel me to roll OUT of the room, but instead to push myself into a corner.
And that's how I wound up hugging the wall behind my own shield, being screamed at and threatened by my longest-term allies here (granted, not saying much), all because I had wanted to pay off my debts like a good man would and reaffirm that they were all alright.
One day, I will be met with warm cheer and hugs upon returning home from some grand and dangerous misadventure. There will be a parade too, with strippers dressed like twi'leks and tons of loony tunes floats. One day, or maybe one wish.
Best part? The only thing I could think to say in response to all of this was to hurriedly offer back "Lady, please, ask anyone I know. The word 'fucking' has never been associated with me in any way possible." It didn't make the pressure let up, thanks mouth.
I grit my teeth and brought winter to bear, trying to mentally calculate which was about to kill me faster, the gun or the giant demon hand, even as more people came running into the room to join the Harry roast. Sypha shot out of the room like she didn't want any of this business, for which she had my completely sympathy, but she came back and offered the one reasonable sentence anyone had said in this encounter.
Glaring wearily at everyone, I knocked a fist against the shield wall between me and them, causing flickering light to appear on its surface in honeycomb patterns. "Want me to tear my own heart and so you can see it pumping red?" I offered dryly. "If you give me ten minutes and a piece of string I can do all sorts of party tricks like letting everyone act like a snake dancer or we can all play self propelled jump rope. I can probably end it by having it hang me from your ceiling, let you clean up the mess afterwards!"
Edited by tvtropesnoob on Oct 15th 2018 at 6:51:47 AM
"Your Sig is now charmingly out of date" — Vox, 7/6/2016