CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Ocean Zone, Swimsuit- A Welcome Distraction

Makoto had gone back to eating "breakfast" watching the ocean with a close to impassive expression when Rex brought up the amusement park. She stopped and looked up at him again, not sure what he was getting at.

"There was a park here a few days ago? I...I guess I missed that one," she said. She wanted to sit there and glare at nothing until every annoying thing on the beach had left, but... it was hard to stay upset when she remembered how fun the amusement park back at home had been. Maybe it'd be nice there. She played with the skirt of her swimsuit as she thought it over, turning it around in her head. "...Did you want to go there? We could bring the cooler, maybe?" They could go inside and cut through the library to shorten the travel time, and she could check on the day challenge and reward.

In library

After Gon looked outside for a while, he saw that nothing significant was around, aside from being able to travel to the other places that he was able to go to previously.

Better get a look around instead of wasting my time here.

Gon decided to get out and take a walk.

Side of Horrors

After Gon took his first step inside the horror area, the assassin noted that something has changed. He went to his face to see if anything was different.

Oh...

The assassin saw that he looked just like Juan now.

Well... I just hope I don't get shot at now that I look like him and I'll have to explain myself.

He noted that the power was still on, while looking like a spooky and abandoned park that hasn't been revitalized for ages.

Makoto was interested enough in the amusement park to at least stop looking at nothing in particular. Since she had taken the bait, Rex just had to convince her and soon they would both be alone again, or at the very least away from potential shootouts. That was really everything Rex was asking for.

"Oh yeah, it had a roller-coaster and everything. Felt almost like flying"

Makoto considered it and was fine with visiting the place, even if she seemed more interested in finishing her breakfast. Someone had to do something about that withdrawn attitude of hers.

"Good idea, yes. I'd like that. Anywhere with you is fine"

There was some writing heard in the air, and the Writer's words appeared now in Cole's and Ben's vision.

"Rex was involved in the challenge, inadvertently, but it was not his requested challenge that had you going somewhere more suitable than your home universe. It was the request of my assistant."

It was around then that the fairy tale day Miss Tairee finally stood up from behind the central desks and looked over at Cole and Ben, with a worried expression on her face. "Cole, why are you assuming that it must be a give and take? That one person having a happy life must mean another person not having one?" the fairy tale Miss Tairee asked in a concerned tone.

"O-okay, but you can't just go a-around shooting- oh my goodness" Rachel was saying, while realizing that she had to pick up her own sidearm and walkie talkie that had fallen to the sand, juggling those and the phaser while also trying to keep herself a least a bit more modestly covered. "Just, d-don't go doing it again! Okay?" the militia member just about shouted with her face all red, then went to go grab one of the spare towels laying on the beach to wrap around herself.

Now that Lewis' crown had fallen off, Louie looked over at him with recognition. "Hey! I remember that guy now! He's a jerk, and he threatened me once before!" Louie said loudly, hopping up since he had little other way to gesture.

"Riss?" Lil' Sunny muttered, confused, and still a bit scared of everything going on.

"Did I not already make myself clear? I am ready to face enemies of mankind, but I have no interest in playing to the whims of our captor" Brother Marcus told Morty flatly. "I have even less interest in being some sort of lackey to people like you" the space marine added, turning and using his jump pack to make a hop of flight away, to a street corner. An elf man starting to come around said corner backpedaled out of sight again after he recognized the space marine.

Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 18th 2018 at 12:22:45 PM

Cole tilted his head slightly at Ben, looking a bit...not even confused, just sort of considering, before he looked up again at what the Writer was saying, then at Miss Tairee.

"...of course it is, Miss Tairee. The story isn't any good if people just get good things. That is what Varric always said. To make your stories good, you have to hurt your characters. Isn't that the case?"

"..." There wasn't reason to be here, and I had enough sense to keep my word, hence I walked away without even bothering to brush the sand off. The couple were leaving, and while there was some lady with a glowing militia thing and the bad luck to get mostly stripped by the day it didn't sound like she was going to press the issue. Though of course now I finally made the connection between the seedot and the irritated voice coming out of it. "Hn? Ohh..."

I spared an empty look in his general direction, still marching exaggeratedly. "Itwas a panic, thing.....it won't—won't appen again." Couldn't hurt someone if you were nowhere near them, right? "Issat your roselia? I had no idea............she stopped a giant mole yushterday. Sucked fer the mole, though...I never wanna do that agin. Caves are scary."

At said roselia, Cascabel was making this whine like it really liked being reminded of that whole catching fuss.

"Only depending on the story" the fairy tale Miss Tairee answered without missing a beat. "Many stories have some kind of hardship or obstacle to overcome, in one form or another, but more often than not it is overcome, and the characters are better for it" the princess librarian continued.

There was more writing heard in the air, and Ben and Cole saw more of the Writer's words.

"So then by your own logic, you would have me completely remove everything good about someone else's story, so that your story could be better? How selfish."

"Is it her? I dunno, I was wondering that myself" Louie commented, turning and glancing up at the cheerleader like girl. "Lil' Sunny?" the trainer asked her simply.

"Riss?" Lil' Sunny answered, perking up a little bit.

"I think it just might..." Louie trailed off, another part of what Lewis said catching up. "She did what yesterday?" the trainer added, confused.

Two Pets A Cat, Library (Swimsuit > Animal)

Suddenly, Rean was a cat. An adorable cute kitty, in fact. I stared at the kittycat dumbly for a moment before, out of reflex, I brought it up to my chest in a gentle embrace. Oh, it was so adorable! He! Well... yes. Perhaps it was best not to get too distracted. We had important things to deal with.

I set Rean down, letting him say his piece. Yuna seemed to be in better spirits now, so that too mattered, though she wanted to participate too. It was only natural, but we couldn't tell at the moment if the Writer would allow that. "Should we proceed then?" I asked everyone present, taking notice of a strange phenomenon that everyone suddenly became so much taller than me, even Rean. What happened? Another shift? I looked down at my hands - only to find them hairy limbs of a spider. Something didn't add up though... if I was a spider, wouldn't I be much smaller and have a different field of view? I don't think it would be possible for an ordinary arachnid to look at its limbs very well...

To everyone present, Two suddenly shifted from her Intoner self into a bizarre spider the size of an adult man's hand, with its head levitating on top of conical top, glowing with eerie blue light. Where the head should be instead presented an equally eerie eye, though the mandibles remained in place.

Ben shook his head closing his eyes tightly as the words began to show up in his mind.

"Get outta my head, you mega-creep!" he yelled. "I don't wanna talk to you!" Once that was over with, he looked at Cole with disbelief.

"Newsflash, Cole! We're not characters! We're not just something for the Writer to make stories about! We're real people, the Writer is kidnapping and torturing real people, and we don't deserve to be treated like this!" Ben insisted. "I don't care about the whole bleeding effect thing! We're not just fake! I lived my whole life, it's real to me and everyone else in my world! And everyone in here lived their lives for real too! And if the Writer thinks that he has the right to do anything, he's wrong!"

He looked up at the sky, in no particular direction. Ordinarily he would be glaring daggers and his fists would be clenched, but being that he was in dog form, his ears fell back against his head and he let out a growl.

"You hear that, creep? I know you're listening to every word. Well listen to these words! I hate you! Go to hell!" he shouted, emphasizing the last few words. With that little scene he was creating completed he looked down at the floor, his breathing heavy, looking intently at nothing at particular.

Ocean Zone, Swimsuit

Makoto been on roller coasters a few times, thought she wasn't the kind of person that got enjoyment from being turned upside down or going down a corkscrew drop at above 70 MPH. The adrenaline rush after the stomach turning experience ended was nice though, and surely there were other rides to try there too. She she was starting to feel bad for escalating the situation and interrupting their time on the beach, and he did want to go there-

"Anywhere with you is fine."

She wasn't sure why that had hit her so hard, but it stopped her train of thought completely. She thought he'd be upset that she told him to keep out of trouble and then had inadvertently almost started a fight the day after, but he still wanted to do something with her? Why did hearing something that simple make her this happy? It was a cliché line, but she couldn't help but believe it.

"I..." she paused, making sure her voice was steady. Why did it feel like the beach had gotten warmer all of a sudden? "Okay, I'll go," she said, standing up to grab the broken handle of the cooler and follow Rex. The situation looked like it was calming down, up until Louie claimed that Lewis had threatened him. Yes, it was definitely time to leave.

Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 19th 2018 at 11:11:01 AM

By this point my train of thought had derailed over the mole's unfortunate end. "It wash just hungry...is not like it'd now yeeting people is wrong.....it's not fair....." I'd started drunkenly sniffling when something kicked me in the shin.

Grabbing the thing, I looked down with tangible irritation at Cascabel playing with its new feet. It looked up innocently, it was just trying to learn to work these things, geez.

"Cute," I told it sarcastically. "Lishen, just becaust you have feets now don't mean y'can just kick people, you understand?"

It shrugged nonchalantly, then pointed at me and started doing this exaggerated swaying motion. "Oeeh?"

"Iss called alcohol. You'll, you'll undershtan when yer older." I sighed.

Cole shook his head. "No, I don't want you to take away from anyone else for me. I don't want my story to get better...I want it to be over. I want it to all just...stop. But if I can help someone else I want to do that...I want it to at least...help someone..."

He looked at Ben, as the puppy-boy yelled at the Writer, and Cole was silent, before letting out a small sigh, looking back to him.

"Ben...it's fine. You should go. Someone else probably needs you more...you need you more. You should go try to rest, or...play. Do something to rest today."

Hercules was about to ask Miss Tairee about where he could find Ben when he heard shouting coming from the centre of the Library and sure enough he heard Ben’s voice. Herc then started walking in the direction to the sound of Ben’s voice and found not Ben but a dog standing on fours right next to Cole who had a different outfit thanks the day’s conditions and came to the conclusion that Ben had changed again.

Ben was of course shouting up a storm about the writer once again and was out of breath as soon as he was done with his little rant, Herc then almost immediately knew what he had to do next as soon he heard Cole suggesting that Ben should relax. “Come on Ben, I think the both of us need some air right about now.” He said to the little dog, picking him up in both hands and walking out of one of the Library’s exits.

"Cole... Why would you want it to be over?" the fairy tale Miss Tairee asked quietly, and sadly.

There was more writing heard, and more words appearing in Cole's and Ben's vision.

"You were the one to walk over into our conversation, Tennyson. As for you, Cole..."

There was a pause for a bit, then more scribbling and words.

"Either you will have to earn the day's wish from the challenge, or there is another you will have to take up this matter with, tomorrow."

As Hercules started to move with Ben in his hands, the Sarah Kerrigan that was Miss Tairee from the body swap day stepped in his way. "Excuse me, you can't force him to leave. You can only take him if he agrees to go with you" the Sarah Kerrigan Miss Tairee told Hercules firmly.

Meanwhile, among the various in and out traffic of the library of mostly just random civilians coming and going, Silanea the lamia came in through the revolving doors to the space day zone, struggling a bit with the zero gravity until she was inside. She was currently herself, though her younger self.

Louie just cast a glare of slight annoyance, slight confusion towards Lewis, then turned around. "Well Lil' Sunny, if that is you, come on. I don't wanna talk with this jerk any longer anyway" Louie decided, and waddled back down the beach towards the rest of his team.

Lil' Sunny cast a very worried and sad look over towards Lewis and Cascabel, then hesitantly turned and followed her trainer slowly. "Riss-riss..." Lil' Sunny muttered as she went.

Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 19th 2018 at 6:06:15 AM

Cole looked up at the fairy tale Miss Tairee, silent for a long moment, then lowered his head again at the Writer's next words, looking thoughtful. "...because it hurts too much. Me...other people...it all...causes too much."

He looked up again, just sounding resigned. "...I'll be back tomorrow, then, to...talk with someone else. ...I hope I can do something good with this...mistake, but...if not, it doesn't matter. Whenever this is all over, I can...I can take care of it all myself. Thank you for talking with me anyway."

That said, Cole turned, looking around somewhat, and just started wandering away towards one of the doors, possibly in the general vicinity of the door nearest the snowy area.

Before agreeing to leave, Makoto hesitated for some reason which made Rex wonder if she actually wanted to leave or if she felt she had to. But either way this was a problem already taken care off, she was going to enjoy her time in the amusement park and this whole incident would be just a small part of a very good day. And maybe afterwards, Rex could get some context and punch someone if needed.

"Awesome!" he said, making no effort to hide his excitement. After all, spending time with Makoto was good and all but being able to enjoy an amusement park without needing to stand in a queue for hours was a great bonus "You are not gonna regret it, I promise" he then started walking towards the library.

"Huh." Morty stared dully at the shape of Marcus receding into the distance and quietly wished that the Space Marine would get eaten by a bird. "Okay, well, that didn't work out." he announced to nobody in particular, and shot a glance at Rick.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Morty, those kinds of people don't take instruction well. Unless you actively appeal to their genocidal xenophobia and I know you don't have that in you." Rick - now clad in nothing but his labcoat and a Speedo - leaned back against the wall and procured a flask from a pocket.

"Maybe I have it in me!" Morty shot back as he set out across the wide flagstones, wishing for a pair of shoes. Slap-slap-slap went his feet, which undercut Morty's attempt to sound serious. "You know, Rick, maybe just because I don't automatically - a-act like a piece of shit to everyone doesn't mean that there's something wrong with me."

Rick raised an eyebrow.

"Y'know? I'm gonna take that wish and use it for... something... really good! Like wishing that the Writer had an idea for his story, or..."

"Morty, you dope, that'd cause a-a-an ontological paradox and probably end the multiverse."

"End the-"

"Do you even causality, bro?" Rick rolled his eyes and shot a glance at the various strange goings-on around them - goings-on made even stranger by the fact that the inhabitants were now flickering between radically states of being for no reason whatsoever. One particularly upset-looking kid was flip-flopping between himself in a toga and some kind of bipedal chameleon creature every few seconds. "No. That wish will fuck up everything. Probably everywhere. Do you like having time move in one direction, Morty?"

Morty sighed. "Alright, Rick, you're so smart, you come up with a wish."

His grandfather threw up his hands in response. "Hey, Morty, this is your party, you're running the show, you do the wish."

Morty shot a look of venom at his apathetic grandfather and looked around for the least troubled-looking person to try and recruit - and his eyes fell upon a particularly dazed looking man, slouched against the wall, blinking and looking radically confused by what was going on around him. Adding to this strange sight was the fact that he was dressed almost entirely like the world's most stereotypical depiction of a Scotsman - a tam o'shanter, a rather smart looking kilt, and... oh god, he wasn't wearing anything under that kilt, which might explain why everyone was giving him a wide berth... but it was too late, and Morty thought that there was something hauntingly familiar about the heavy set of bagpipes he was clutching under one arm.

"Look," said Morty, doing his best to shield his eyes from the grim sight, "me and, uh, Rick, we're gonna go fight a challenge or something, you wanna help?"

"Uuuuuuh?" The man staggered to his wobbly legs and cocked his head to look at Morty. "Uh."

"This was a mistaaaake," said Rick unhelpfully from somewhere behind him.

Ben, in his exhausted and pained stupor, didn't really react when Hercules picked him up and started to carry him outside.

When Miss Tairee insisted he couldn't leave unless he wanted to, Ben sighed.

"Whatever, let's just go," he murmured, sounding emotionally drained. "I hate this place."

Ocean Zone—-> Library, Swimsuit- Today's Event

"No really, it sounds fun," Makoto insisted, keeping up with Rex. She wasn't quite smiling, but she didn't look or sound as resigned now. She still had his jacket from when he'd taken it off again, but she'd hold it until he needed it back. "Unless there's something dangerous about it, but I wasn't around to see it the first time." The library had... multiple Miss Tairees in it, all of them following different themes. It was kind of disorienting, actually...

The doors also seemed to lead directly to different city areas today, like specific gates instead of entrances to random streets. Cole was heading over to one of them, but after yesterday's mess, she felt like he probably wouldn't want to be disturbed by them. As far as she knew, today seemed relatively safe.

"Hm, you can go on ahead to the right exit, I want to check on the day challenge..." Makoto said, leaving the cooler with Rex. As she walked over to the front desk, she saw Ben's dog form and a cartoon version of Hercules standing near the suggestion box with the Miss Tairee from a few days ago, the red headed one that was a different person entirely. Ben looked really out of it, but at this point there really wasn't much she could do about it. Instead, she skimmed the plaques on the desk. The challenge itself involved finished up earlier ones in the Colosseum, which she assumed was in the section that mimicked ancient Greece and Rome. The reward was far more pressing though: A powerful wish for the person that defeated the last opponent. The person that got the final strike, to be exact. Makoto frowned slightly, thinking about the ways that someone could use a free wish with no listed limits. That was really abusable...or really helpful. Even if the Writer did limit the scale of said wish, someone could still do a lot of damage with it. But if she claimed it for herself, she could at least keep it from being used as a weapon against others. It'd be good to have a way to solve a problem without the need of a personal challenge too...like Yuna's issue.

"Er, when exactly does this challenge open up today?" Makoto asked the nearest Miss Tairee by the desk. "I don't really see a time or deadline for it."

Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 19th 2018 at 1:43:08 PM

"What? Oh..." I watched the ace trainer waddle off and just, sorta waved in their general direction. Cascabel waved more enthusiastically, letting out a sort of happy hum that sounded vaguely like 'sayonara'.

I turned around in the opposite direction to move again when it gave me this playful whine, and suddenly flew up to sit on my shoulders when I turned to face it. "W-whu—?" The girls always liked piggybacking...they couldn't exactly climb up on their own, though. Maybe it just figured this is what human kids are supposed to do, and since it was one for the moment...

I hadn't...done this in ages...

My breath left me for a moment, drawn out by the ethanol...before I caved in, taking off, laughing and rambling and making airplane noises for a while. The pokémon kept yelling and pointing, like it was trying to steer, but unluckily for it the combination of speed and constant booze-related unbalanced swaying made it pretty hard to commit to a direction.

At some point I fumbled without thinking through the library door, spouting slurred baby talk when I realized wait this wasn't the beach. I stopped to process what I was looking at, eyes catching someone especially familiar.

"¡Silena!" I ran toward her general direction. "Necesi...I'mmmmmm here to make it up to you!"

"Cole... No, please" the fairy tale day Miss Tairee said a bit weakly. "It won't hurt forever, I promise..." she trailed off, and sighed, wiping her eyes before glancing over as Makoto arrived and asked about the challenge.

"The arena won't exist until later in the evening, close to nightfall" the fairy tale Miss Tairee told Makoto simply.

Not far away, the Sarah Kerrigan Miss Tairee glanced at Ben briefly, then stepped aside. "... Alright then, do as you please" the Sarah Kerrigan Miss Tairee said simply.

Meanwhile, Silanea was glancing around and looked over as she heard her name called, and then was confused. "Um... I'm sorry, do I know you?" Silanea asked, then added, "I'm looking for somebody right now."

"It's about as dangerous as any other amusement park full of crazy rides. So, the right amount of danger"

The library looked the same as previous but this time every door naturally lead to a different slice of the pie that the city was. And naturally each Tairee also took a different theme to keep the pattern. Makoto took the opportunity to check what the day had to offer in terms of a challenge and reward. Even in a moment like this she wanted to make sure she was aware of everything, maybe that was her coping mechanism.

"Alright, you do that. I'll eat something"

With his stomach not screaming anymore after being ignored for an entire say and Makoto sounding actually interesting in spending time somewhere else, suddenly things didn't look so bad. He decided to check out the amusement park. Surprisingly, it was a lot less colorful than he remembered. In fact, it looked a lot darker, given it was nightime. That may present an issue for Makoto but anything was better than yesterday and, who knew, it could be romantic. Or at least a (more or less) controlled situation where she could see her brain was messing with her.

"So, are you done here, Queen?" Rex asked her, carelessly dropping a skewer he had eaten from to the floor.

Library, Swimsuit- A Goal

"Oh, so when the sun sets," Makoto said, before noticing how...down Miss Tairee sounded. She hadn't really seen the librarian in states beyond calm and annoyed, so this was different in a slightly concerning way. She wasn't sure if asking about it would offend her though. "Well, um, thank you. Hope you have a good rest of today..." she gave her a short bow, which was a little uncomfortable in a bikini, and walked over to Rex again.

"Don't litter," she chided him gently, picking up the discarded stick. She'd protest the nickname but it didn't appear that anyone was paying much attention. "And yes, I am done, but the challenge today..." Makoto trailed off, unsure if she should tell him or not. No, she shouldn't hide what she planned to do later. "It says that if someone defeats the unfinished challenges from the days before, they get a wish of some kind. It starts later today, but I'm worried about who might try to win it. I know there's some... pretty sadistic people that could use it to harm others around the City, so I thought that I should participate. The prize could come in handy in case another big problem needs to be solved." Like Yuna's world.

"I just felt so bad..." I started, her actual question going over my head. Cascabel whined at its fun being cut short so soon, probably pouting. "I wahn, wanted, when I heard, I wanted to help so bad but...during the bran, thing, all I did wash make it harder for everyone and I felt awful 'cause ah'm a failure but I, I knew what it fell like! I, I thought I did, to, to...care for someone and 'ave them turn on you like that, but I guess I were just playin' mah shelf...but I'll make it right, I swear on my not quite life...!"

I tripped and fell right into her, the aforementioned not-pokémon disembarking to float to the side.

Rex shrugged "Someone would have picked it up eventually"

Nothing was ever as simple as it seemed and a day like this wasn't any different. The uncompleted challenges hadn't disappeared. All of them were still waiting to be beaten and, just to make it more interesting, the Writer had attached to a free wish to the reward. Makoto pointed out basically anyone with enough drive and abilities would be after it and there would be no way of stopping them but beating them the challenge themselves. It was almost like the Writer was throwing more and more things in their way but Rex wasn't about to give up his free time. He had done that too many times already. Besides, the challenge hadn't even started yet, there was enough in there more a few rides... and maybe other stuff.

"Well, we've still got time, right? No harm in enjoying the day before we fight whatever we missed" he told her, placing his hands on her shoulders, in a weak attempt to de-stress her "It will be fine, we make a great team. But in the meantime..." he turned to face the door leading to the rundown amusement park "Ladies first"