CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Colosseum Arena, Phantom Thief Outfit to School Uniform—- Taking Inventory

Rex just thought that Lewis looked suspicious because he was being stupid and unwilling to admit his flaws. Well, ego was always a thing to factor in. Morty and Rean were here to help Yuna, and Lewis was...going to cling to that reasoning since he didn't intend to be here anyway. Rick didn't care but would go along with Morty. The idea of a list of innocents was good though.

"I can keep a list on my phone if you want," Makoto said to Rean. Her appearance shifted back to her normal clothes, and she pulled her smartphone out of her skirt pocket, tapping the screen a few times to open a blank set of notes. While she worked on adding in names, Trent decided to throw himself under the bus because no one here really could confirm his identity anyway. Well that was an interesting strategy... Was it a reverse psychology technique, or did he genuinely believe that his elimination from the group would help? Rex went wild with his vote and picked Kelsey, who hadn't really stood out much so far. He was right about speeding up their voting though, that was partially why she had picked Louie. She nodded slightly.

"Yes, we really should try not to waste all our time on round one," Makoto said, trying to address the entire group. "If you really don't have any idea who to pick by now, it might just be best to cast one randomly and see what happens when someone gets eliminated. Then we can at least make a more informed choice next time." She finished her list. "So far, we've identified Rex, Ben, Morty, Silanea, Rick, Hartwig, Thomas, Blue, John, and Yuna as most likely real. That can change later. I'm not counting myself since that's somewhat biased. We have 13 people we are less sure about. Does anyone else want to change or make their votes now with what we have?"

Edited by ScorpioRat on Oct 28th 2018 at 8:24:47 AM

"... Alright, I'll change my vote to him too" Eight Four decided after some brief thinking, and pointed to Trent.

"What? What did I do?" Kelsey said in an indignant tone after Rex cast his vote on her. "Why not the guy who wants to get voted out?" she continued, motioning at Trent and adding, "I'll throw in my vote on him!"

"Come on, I'm serious. This isn't some reverse psychology. Everyone like me who just can't be safely vouched for should just be removed, because if I or someone else like me was a fake, then it would be too easy for them to just hide on the sideline and stay quiet while you all suspect each other" Trent said to them all.

"It also brings us closer to defeat to remove those who are not fake" Brother Marcus said, then looked over at Rex. "What makes you decide to vote for her?" the space marine asked, pointing to Kelsey.

"Good idea, Makoto. A list would be of great help" He complimented the Phantom Thief.

"I will vote for Trent" Genji said throwing his hat into the ring. Before looking at Rex, sighing at the fact he voted for the girl known as Kelsey.

"You should reconsider Rex, or at least give us a reason for our vote. It must at least be a better one than not liking her". He said giving a glare towards Louie, his eyes behind his mask narrowed in suspicion. Ben knows the kid well by the looks of it, so he will ask him to question Louie next.

"I, uh, I, uh..." Morty screwed up his face in concentration as he looked around at the assembled challengers. "God, this is like the stupid Thing movie, but we can't even take blood tests," he grumbled. It would be nice if the imposter had the social graces to say something wildly out of character, or react with revulsion when a human touched them, but no such luck.

"You know what? I vote for Trent too." said Morty. Rick shrugged from a nearby wall, where he was fiddling with a circuit board.

"Eh, me too."

"... I don't know if it's really a good idea, but I don't see how we'll change the outcome at this point, unless a fake becomes real obvious all of a sudden" Blue said, then pointed to Trent and said simply, "come on fellas, let's vote him out."

"Hyu're de boss" Hartwig said with a shrug, and added, "Hy'll vote for dat Trent guy too."

"Alright, me too" John said, sounding just a bit reluctant.

Thomas sighed. "Okay, let's see what happens... I'll vote for him" Thomas muttered, and pointed at Trent.

"Then that concludes the first round" Miss Tairee said, clapping her hands together once. "As the remaining eight votes would not be enough to make John's two match Trent's twelve, he is therefore eliminated" the librarian continued, then turned towards Trent.

"He is not one of the fakes, but luckily for the rest of you, the fakes still do not yet outnumber those who are real. We move on to the next round" Miss Tairee continued, then Trent blurred for a moment, and reappeared up in the separated seating area, now as a child around ten or so.

"I do not believe that was wise..." Brother Marcus thought out loud, resuming his state of paying attention to all the others.

Edited by FirockFinion on Oct 29th 2018 at 4:07:03 AM

With the first elimination not being a fake. Genji decided to confront one of the suspects, he approached Ben before asking something of him in a calm tone. No need to be confrontational or antagonizing to him.

"Ben, I believe you should ask Louie a question now. His behavior appears suspicious and I don't think I am the only one that thinks that. Especially since he got a non-fake eliminated." Asked the kid hero while pointing at the Pokemon trainer.

Ben watched as the others proceeded to vote the Literate out. He wasn't fake, but good riddance.

Now that he was out of the way, Ben was about to point again at John the trooper when Brother Marcus stated his belief that their choice wasn't wise. He furrowed his brow and looked at the space marine.

"Who cares what you think?" Ben said bluntly and then turned to Genji, who asked him to vote up Louie. The idea of Louie being the traitor struck some kind of nerve with him. A nerve that he would show in a way that would prove Louie was really who he said he was.

"No way! Louie's a City Knight, through and through!" he exclaimed. "He'd never betray us like Thomas did. He's stayed with the City Knights all the way since the beginning and nothing would ever change our friendship!" He looked at Louie, grinning. "Right, Louie?"

"You really should put yourself in that list, Queen"

She had pretty much confirmed her own authenticity a few times now. And not adding herself to the current list of most-likely-not-fake-people proved, at least to Rex, that she wasn't a shapeshifter.

Rex got some odd looks for picking Kelsey of all people—including some from some guy in white armor and Marcus, strangely enough—with the former mailwoman wondering what had motivated him to do something like that instead of choosing the guy drawing a target on his forehead.

"Because that's what he wants. We can't trust anyone, remember?"

The super-soldier was still unsure what Rex was thinking. Trent got eliminated, which made him voice his concerns again about randomly voting someone out as a group.

"Last time I checked you guys had a difficult relationship. I admit I haven't kept up with you two—I've been... busy with other stuff" he winked "But unless I missed the most radical transformation in the city, you are feeling a little out of character. You know about Legion, though, which rules you out for now. The only option left was her"

The new round revealed the real people still had the number advantage over the copies so it would go on for now. Rex didn't feel his curiosity was satisfied, though.

"Well, if it ain't broke don't fix it. I'm gonna vote for Kelsey again"

I thought about explaining to the goofball what sunk costs were,^note the money side of the restaurant didn't exactly come up as much as the food side, but I knew some...and I vaguely remembered high school econ but. Caboose. What I ended up doing was just trying to lightly shove his hand out of my face. He didn't stay there long at least...

Taking notes wasn't so hard, though, right. This phone had a notes app, I could do that. I copied down the names, trying to follow everyone else at the same time. I guess people figured voting this Trent guy out wasn't so bad when no one knew who he was anyway and so didn't have much to check him on. Apparently he was real, though, oops. I kept writing.

I looked up from the screen at the trainer, gazing a little too long. Not in like, a confrontational way, more...unsure. "...Never, huh."

Edited by Oceanstuck on Oct 28th 2018 at 10:43:45 AM

Colosseum Arena, School Uniform—- Round 2 Begins

"U-um, if you really think I should," Makoto said to Rex, before adding her own name to the list. She was a little surprised that he bothered calling her that in fron tof all these people though. Kelsey was reasonably annoyed to get voted for, but Rex explained his seemingly random decision by stating that Brother Marcus and Kelsey were not normally this tolerant of one another, and yet the soldier was defending her. That was... certainly a point. Brother Marcus appeared more innocent though, so that left Kelsey. A few more votes for Trent, and he was kicked out, though it turned out that he was telling the truth the whole time. Hm...

"Well, we still have at least another round," she said, looking over her list again. Going by Rex's logic, either Brother Marcus or Kelsey were fake. ...Or they could have just swallowed some pride in order to solve the current puzzle. either way, Rex wanted to vote for her again. She wanted to wait a bit longer before casting her second vote though. This was a gamble between three people right now, and she wanted a little more evidence. Genji asked Ben to clarify if Louie was real or not with a more direct question, only for Ben to yell that Louie would never betray him like Thomas did, and that he was a constant member of the City Knights.

"...Can we maybe tone down the yelling?" Makoto asked with a sigh. "And for the record, you voted for Trent too, Genji-san." She should work on shortening the number of people not on her list though. "Two, what did I look like on Day 21? I'm sure that someone else here can confirm your answer." She could move on to Rean, Caboose, and Yuna next.

"What?! I was voting for that guy!" Louie snapped in an indignant tone at Genji, while motioning at John. "And yeah! I- wait, uh..." the trainer trailed off, looking at Ben with a slightly worried look, and adding, "'betray'? That's kind of an... Extreme word for it, Ben. It's not like he fought us, he just..."

The exchange was getting Thomas' attention, though his expression towards the Knights was mainly one of exasperation.

Brother Marcus turned his head to stare at Rex for but a moment, then looked towards Kelsey. In a calm though swift motion, the space marine drew his bolt pistol, and aimed it right at Kelsey's head. A couple seconds of nothing happening passed, then the space marine shifted aim slightly, and fired. With a loud boom, the bolter round shot through the air, passing by Kelsey and going off to the edge of the arena, where it exploded against the wall. "As it is impossible for me to currently harm her, there is no point in wasting the time or effort" Brother Marcus stated in a very matter of fact tone as he holstered the bolt pistol away. "Speaking about any of our prior interactions unnecessarily may be accidentally feeding the imposters information that they had not previously held. That is why I will stay silent, unless there is some matter I can directly speak of" the space marine explained, going back to his mode of watching the others carefully.

"Are we just... Gonna ignore that he tried to shoot me?!" Kelsey asked in a somewhat mortified, mostly indignant tone.

"Rex, do you want me to vote with you?" Silanea asked Rex, throwing an distrusting look towards Brother Marcus.

"He's really salty about Tom leavin', huh," I commented to myself, looking between Ben and Thomas as I added Bens really salty about thomas leaving the knights to my notes. I had the impression that it'd been more than 5 hours since he quit, too.

"Uh, Ben, it's not exactly a betrayal if it's not actually him..." That sounded closer to home now that I said it out loud. "Um, that's not an accusation at—"

I flinched at the big plasma fire explosion. Ha ha yeah I was gonna die if we made it to next round

"—anyone...I'll be honest, though, I. Kinda worry about Ben's ability to be not biased, even assuming he's real. Y'know what I mean?" Totally not something Louie was mad about that one time. "Though I, guess I don't, get to, complain. Ha, ha..."

Two, Light in the Tunnel?, Arena

So Trent wasn't actually a fake. "...damnit." Two wasn't the kind to curse much, but she couldn't help it this time. Feeling so stupid, so outmaneuvered... but perhaps there was something to be found here. She couldn't dwell on how this was her fault (since she was the first to agree to vote on Trent). There must have been at least one fake in the crowd of those who voted for him. Maybe. The bluenette grumbled under her breath. This wasn't her strongest suit.

The green man called Genji seemed to be onto Louie... would he really use "extreme"? "Hm?" In the midst of all this thinking, Two looked a little absentmindedly at Makoto before blinking. "Oh! Uh, you were Ryuji." Realizing that this might not be enough of a description, she continued on. "You had short blond hair, slouched a little forward and your jacket was open, with a weird shirt underneath." What did "Zomg!" mean, anyway?

And then the loud boom of a bolter brought Two's attention back to Marcus and Kelsey. "..." She narrowed her eyes at the space marine. "Don't do that again, or I'll make you sorry once I'm able." Since they could not hurt each other now. Ugh, all this distracting stuff, and here she was thinking to see if she could confirm Louie's identity somehow. "Whatever quarrel you might have with her, it's clear she doesn't want no part in-"

Then it struck her. "Hey, Louie..." Slowly, Two turned to the pokemon trainer with a half-curious, half-suspicious look. "we had a fight on the day when everyone was small. Well, an argument. Do you remember what it was about?" She asked him, gauging carefully for reaction. Lewis was right. Ben was going to defend his friend, disregarding that Louie could very well be a doppelganger. It was a subconscious response at this point; something that a fake could easily use to their advantage.

...please don't say anything, Caboose.

"Huh? You?" Louie said, turning and looking at Two, narrowing his eyes for a second in thought. "... Oh yeah, I remember that! You were making excuses about times you 'needed' to kill, and called one of my pokemon a bomb!" the trainer stated, in a fairly 'not taking your shit' kind of attitude and tone.

"If you all just start yelling and bickering, then I will do it again to make you stop" Brother Marcus said, both in response to Two's warning at him, and seemingly in response to Louie's behavior. The space marine's tone wasn't one of counter threatening or bluff calling, but simply one of stating a fact.

Genji flinched and covered his ears at the sound of Marcus firing his bolter at the wall. Did he really have to be so loud and angry? He's like an anti-Reinhardt. Complete with armor and being a big guy.

So he wasn't a doppelganger by the looks of it, and he got the name of the other guy, Trent, confused with John. Genji mentally chastised himself for that blunder. But if he isn't the doppelganger, then who is it?

"Who here knows anything about Kelsey? Someone that is familiar with her should ask a question so we do not have a repeat of what happened to John" He said out loud to the group, focusing on no one in particular.

Edited by Pandemonius_Panda on Oct 29th 2018 at 6:19:29 AM

Ben, grumpy that Louie didn't answer his question in a way that either implicated him or freed him of doubt, and also grumpy that Louie was calling Thomas' betrayal into question, crossed his arms.

"He just decided that hanging out with the soldiers and killers was better than hanging out with other heroes," Ben snapped. "He'd rather spend time with the stick in the mud old man who keeps looking us over for being kids than people his own age. I thought he was cool but he's just like everyone else, he thinks he's better than us just because he's older than us! Well—" he ranted, before he was cut off by the sound of a bolter going off. Ben jumped a little and clenched his fists.

He whipped around and turned towards Brother Marcus, livid. "And that does it!" Ben shouted, pointing dramatically at the space marine. "If you're gonna be like that then I'm voting for you! Get out of here, you big blue jerklord! Nobody likes you!"

Genji sighed, it's going to be one of those days, isn't it? He looked at Ben, frowning behind his mask, he and Louie aren't bad people, but they need to stop being so damn emotional and calm the hell down.

"Ben, you need to calm down and stop being so childish, voting out people because you do not like them is not going to help anyone!" He said, letting out a little bit of frustration slip into his tone. But after all that happened, can you really blame him?

"So either you start helping out with the investigation, or stop being so immature!" ...He shouldn't have said that last part, well, he should have said it with more care, but the kid needs to learn how to control his emotions or at least vote for someone that's suspicious instead.

Two, Arggggh, Arena

"...I'm sure there are better ways of doing that than threatening violence." Two stared defiantly at the marine before sighing, her glare softening. "This does nothing but set everybody on edge, and that's the kind of thing we want to avoid, don't we?"

She had to test herself on that matter when Louie replied. "There was a person that started the argument." She took a deep breath, trying to appear composed. "Not by themselves, but they were not allowed in the ranks of City Knights. Who am I talking about?"

Ben was up to his usual shenanigans. Brother Marcus was making it hard to like him, but he was one of the few voices of reasons they had left, since even Makoto seemed to be on edge there. "No, Ben, we are not doing that." To think she would feel frustration when talking with a child... truly, the city had changed her, and not in the way Two liked it. "I understand you are upset, but we are all on the same team. We may not like it, but we have to work together if we want to win the wish." She didn't add "for Yuna", just barely holding herself from saying that. Her pink friend wasn't some commodity to do business with.

Two approached Ben, kneeling down to put hands on his shoulders, trying not to think of Genji making things worse. He seemed to be new around here, so he couldn't have known better. "I know some people think you're childish, but are you going to prove them right now?" She offered an encouraging smile. "We all need you to be a hero. To be a man. And I know you can be both at the same time."

Things then took a turn for the ugly as Brother Marcus then shot at the wall threatening to do it again if everyone wasn’t going to behave. “We don’t need this happe-“ Hercules begun to say but Ben shouting at Brother Marcus got his attention he was wanting to vote the space marine out. And was already in a foul mood about Thomas something had obviously happened between those two but questioning about it would have to wait.

“Ben calm down. We don’t need this to get out of control here. Nobody’s voting out Marcus and nobody’s having a go at you either.” Herc then said calmly going over to Ben whilst giving him a reassuring look.

Two was also trying to calm Ben down she was saying that they needed to work together as a group, Herc then agreed with the sentiment: “Two’s right, we need to find those doppelgängers quickly before this round is up.” He then patted Ben on the shoulder and then added: “We can do this, Ben. We can do this.”

"If there's anyone I trust here, it's you" Rex told Makoto. She still wanted to make sure everyone was who they said they were, starting with Two. She recalled day 21 perfectly "That's all true, unfortunately"

Marcus thought his relatively calm attitude towards Kelsey was self-explanatory and made a point of pulling the trigger of his gun while aiming at her. Nothing happened given the conditions in place and just to hammer the point, he shifted his aim slightly and the projectile did fire this time, barely passing by Kelsey's head.

"...you could have simply used your words like an adult. We got the idea"

Even then, it made sense. Someone like Marcus would see extreme violence as the only course of action so if that wasn't available, there would be no point in calmly reasoning with Kelsey.

Speaking of, she was understandably startled by the shot and tried to call attention at the not quite attempt on her life. Silanea wondered if Rex wanted her to vote for Kelsey.

"Sure, if that scares her into saying something the real Kelsey would say" he looked back at the mail-woman "It's that simple"

Ben's outburst regarding the heroicness of one of his former buddies—the one that had complained about him acting his age—quickly devolved into him trying to vote Marcus off after the literal explosion. A few people were concerned about him, while others simply wanted to keep some semblance of peace among the group. Rex meanwhile, thought this was more proof he hadn't been replaced. And tried his best not to laugh at Two's wording.

"Pfft... 'a man'. Yeah, right"

Colosseum Arena, School Uniform—- A Little Too Heated

Two did answer her question properly, naming and describing Ryuji. That'd be hard to fake since Two would have to have seen and spoken to her to confirm that. She nodded and wrote down Two as probably real. Probably. Marcus proceeded to explain his behavior by shooting his plasma gun at Kelsey, which forcibly missed. Right, so he didn't see the need to start fights when it was impossible to injure someone. Makoto couldn't help but jump, but recovered quickly enough.

“O-okay then, fair enough…” she said, writing Marcus down on the list. That seemed too crazy of a move for a clone, right? Two questioned Louie on an argument they had earlier in the week, and while he did recall the context, he also got all worked up again. And now Ben was complaining about Thomas and trying to vote Brother Marcus out over emotional reasons. Did they all just enjoy yelling? Maybe that was the real issue here.Genji, Hercules, and Two attempted to calm him down. Rex could barely grasp the concept of Ben being considered a man in any context, and Makoto silently agreed, but now wasn't quite the time to say that.

“Yes, if you want to help us win this, we can't stop and derail the conversation over your group dramatics or whoever is being a jerk to you. We need to focus on the big picture,” Makoto said to Ben, before walking over to Kelsey. “I'm sure he was just giving us all an example when he shot at you. No harm, no foul, right?” she said in a calmer voice, placing a hand on her shoulder for a couple of seconds.

Colosseum

The first one to be voted out was not a fake. If one were to look at anyone else, they might have been concerned about the precedent this might set. But Caboose didn't seem bothered. Everyone else seemed to be moving on pretty quickly from the mistake, though. Even Lewis was doing something instead of curling up in a ball of uselessness... even if he also was still not really doing much. Caboose would take credit for that slight improvement.

He glanced at the explosion caused by Marcus' bolt pistol. That was pretty dangerous, huh? "Well, we'll get them next time!" the soldier told Two, reacting to her frustration over the mistake. Despite the fact that Caboose was perhaps the most at risk of being taken in by deception, he failed to feel concerned.

"I like Marcus," he contradicted Ben idly. It didn't sound like he was really too invested in the whole mess of childishness that was coming from the City Knight's leader. They were talking about a lot of stuff he didn't really know about, so there really wasn't anything for him to say beyond that.

Thankfully for his bluenette friend, Caboose did not interject with any comment related to her question for Louie. He was too busy looking at the scoreboard. The names varied a lot in how complete they were. "Hey... do you know my full name Two?" he asked slowly, like he was trying to work out an idea and didn't know where he was going with it.

Rean nodded, confirming that Two got both his question and Makoto’s right.

And then everything erupted into chaos. Rean flinched as Marcus fired at a wall to prove that he couldn’t do anything to Kelsey and Ben started threatening to vote for him.

“Alright, we get your point. Please don’t do that again. “ Rean said, glaring at Marcus.

Ignoring Rex’s immature snickering at Two’s choice of words (Really?), Rean header over to where Two and Herc were currently trying to help calm Ben back down. “You want to win this, Ben? Then you have to stay focused on the goal, and right now that’s figuring out the imposter. You can’t get distracted by what people did that you didn’t like because it’s not going to help us win. Ok?”

Speaking of...

“Hey,Rick, Morty. You two helped repair a friend of mine on Day 21 in the radio station. I was the blonde girl in the red jacket, so who was my friend?” Rean said, turning to the duo.

"Uh - uh, what?" said Morty, looking around nervously. "I was - oh man, that was - god I don't really like thinking about everything that went down that day, Rick," he added, his anxiety momentarily giving way to a resentful glare.

"Ooh, clever." said Rick sardonically, not looking up from his circuitboard. "Morty was off killing people. I fixed Caboose. He was, like, a robot or something."

"Actions speak louder than words. It was also a way to test whether the librarian had lied to us from the beginning" Brother Marcus stated to Rex very plainly.

"... It was about someone else?" Louie said to Two, in genuine confusion. "I don't remember; there was that fight with bad guys right after that, and other stuff going on" the trainer added.

Kelsey looked over at Rex, her helmet obscuring any distinguishable expression, but she seemed ready to speak up until Makoto came over and put a hand on the woman's shoulder. "... The 'real' Kelsey? Psh, you're gonna act now like you know me so well? Try to cast suspicion on me to justify voting for me? I bet you don't even know what my favorite hobby is" Kelsey said in a slightly annoyed manner, brushing Makoto's hand away. In the meantime, Thomas had started to walk away, towards the City Knights group. "If you want to look at someone suspicious, it seems like nobody can vouch for that-" the former mail woman started to say, pointing towards Genji, but was cut off by...

"I think it's Ben" Thomas said, in a somewhat defiant tone while standing a few feet away from the group around the Knights. "He seems awfully focused on trying to cast other people in negative light and instigating votes on them, or starting arguments. Something a fake might do to get us all against each other" the young wizard went on, narrowing his eyes in a glare down at Ben, "or if you really are Ben, then you're even worse now than when I left the Knights."

"Hey! At least he didn't turn his back on his friends, like you did!" Louie yelled defensively.

"You expect me to side with someone who treats their own feelings as being more important than keeping people safe?!" Thomas snapped back.

With a sigh slowly coming through his helmet's breather, Brother Marcus started to move his free hand towards his bolt pistol again.