CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Two, On Strength, Library Lobby

"W-well..." Two blushed with embarrassment. "I used to pull doorknobs off all the time, ashamedly enough. Some of my sisters would give me an earful over it, but luckily, that won't be an issue anymore." There was probably no need to explain the whole Flower business to Sae. "S-so, um... please don't be upset with Makoto over her disappearance. None of us had any say in the matter when we ended up here."

Eve | Library | Deis Picked It

Eve progressively got more and more... not embarrassed, but self-conscious, even if she couldn't put the name to the emotion, as Ben talked. Well, ranted, almost, but in a nice way. A stream of compliments, and she started to smile awkwardly, quietly glad that he wasn't shouting or drawing attention to himself beyond the norm.

And then he said-he-he sai-he s-h-he-he sai- he said tha- he said that. Eve just stilled, as her mind seemed to stutter, even her breathing going quiet to the point of concern, getting a look akin to a flight or fight response in her eyes. She had to say something. Right? Saying something was a good idea.

But what.

That was a problem.

"I... I... ok."

Edited by secretlyasuperhero on Feb 9th 2019 at 10:59:09 PM

Ben wasn't sure what to expect when he told Eve that he loved her. She seemed to freeze up and didn't look all that thrilled with the idea.

Ben's smile faded slightly.

"Eve?" he asked. "You okay? I didn't mean to freak you out... I'm sorry." He looked self-conscious himself. He looked down, embarassed. Maybe he shouldn't have told her that...

Cole stayed quiet as the tablet was dismissed, contemplative as well, before twisting himself around enough to be able to get an arm around Arcade's neck in as much of a hug as he could offer while still holding on to his own mirror. "She's happier now. She probably always worried about you, about if you were safe. You were the last piece of her life she didn't have a place for, and now she does, and it's a good place. It hurts...but she'll be much more at peace."

He paused for a second before continuing. "I...I can't see into minds, the way I could before, but...I've seen enough good parents, loving ones. They can withstand so much in the names of their children. I don't think the bad people she's with have anything else to hurt her with now that you're safe. She's going to be okay, no matter what happens now."

Hugs weren't really something Arcade was used to, but he didn't begrudge Cole as he threw an arm around his shoulders. He was quiet as Cole spoke, clearly trying to process what he was being told.

Eventually, he sighed and nodded. "Yeah... that's at least. That's better than before."

I nodded slightly at Curly wishing the furries well, not exactly having much to add. "Well...what I specifically asked was to freely change between this and, the death thing, because magic, and I'm paraphrasing here but the condition for that was to 'be a hero', and I'm assuming if I don't before this is over I just...go back ta how it was."

"Oh. Well it's not, impossible, going by tv, so...?"

I sighed. "I dunno, I can't really see it. Actually I couldn't see it even before knowing about...you. It feels very...pure, and I'm...for a while I wanted to pretend I just didn't get what was being asked, but in all honesty."

"..."

I glanced at the stars again.

"...Do you have to be? I mean, how many protags stay squeaky clean forever. Besides, it's a wall of text that throws people at each other like weebs rping anime characters, maybe it has low standards."

"..."

I had a thought that probably shouldn't have taken as long as it did, and looked at Curly. "Oh yeah, did you wanna be filled in on the past week?"

Once Sae conceded that Rex's abilities required quite a bit of effort from his part, he looked very proud of himself. Things had only gotten better since their initial introduction.

"What can I say? It's in my blood" he winked at her "Didn't mean to make a pun but that's just how good I am"

Surprisingly enough, Makoto's reaction was the one that made him more uneasy. He hadn't really shared—and the episode they watched thankfully hadn't revealed—that all of his machines had proper names. Naturally, she was curious and also struggling not to laugh. Rex didn't make eye contact to hide he wasn't feeling as confident as he had just a minute ago.

"...m-maybe"

Eve | Library | AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Eve stared for a little longer, taking in Ben's face, and shook her head for a moment, and then just...kinda stopped thinking, letting emotions rule her for a second. "Don't apologise," she said, starting to smile a little. Then, on a whim, mostly, she leaned forward and kissed Ben very gently on the cheek.

Cole was quiet as he glanced around a bit, then looked back at Arcade. "If you need some time, I can stay inside the library and not leave it. Or even on that couch over there if you'd rather make it a smaller space?"

Ben was very confused for a moment until Eve pecked him on the cheek ever so slightly.

At once, the rest of Ben's scattered thoughts completely disappeared. His face turned a bright red and he started shaking.

"Uh... uh..." Ben muttered, at a complete and total loss for words.

Then Ben fell back and collapsed, a happy and dumbstruck expression on his face. His mind was doing backflips and fireworks were going off in his head.

"No, no," Arcade shook his head, "I don't... you. You still have your call to make, right? Can we just... focus on that for a bit?" Having something else to think about sounded much more pleasant.

Library Lobby

"Hm...I was more concerned about what exactly we're going to tell the police when she appears again," Sae said. "If Makoto didn't run off by herself, then there's no point in being upset. It's just...definitely going to make things more complicated." She sighed at Rex's joke, but resisted immediately shooting it down. "Teenagers..."

"Maybe? What do you mean by that?" Makoto asked Rex. She calmed down more when she realized he wasn't happy. "...Rex? Hey, what's wrong?" She stood up and went over to him, avoiding his giant sword arm to take his normal one. Sae watched them silently, curious about how Makoto was acting aroud him.

Makoto's interest was even bigger now that Rex had given her a very ambiguous answer. She seemed worried about his reaction and grabbing Rex's hand was pretty much the last thing needed to make impervious mask fall apart.

"It's nothing" he said, fighting his body's efforts to blush. "...I just didn't think they were any good"

Cole just studied Arcade, then shifted to get comfortable being held again, holding up the mirror. "Okay. ...this is...this is going to be very, very strange, I...I haven't seen Rhys since the Spire, even though..."

He grimaced again, taking a deep breath. "I...I don't know if he'd even want to see me again, after everything that happened, after everything I caused...I almost got him killed...I did get Evangeline and...and ultimately, his mother...I don't...I don't even know what I want to say...or what I want him to say. I just...today is the last day to ever have a chance..."

Cole swallowed a little hard, before holding out the mirror and quickly touching the center of it, wincing a little even as the image began to swim into vision.

The room seemed...very ornate, for lack of a better word. The walls seemed taller than the vision of whatever was showing them, with intricate stained glass windows depicting images of griffons, wyverns, and apparent hunters of those beasts. The furniture was well-carved in dark, rich woods and white marbles, with curtains of deep green silk and pillows embroidered in fine golden thread. All-in-all, despite the clear medieval nature of it, it still implied a sense of wealth.

Sitting at a rather too large table in front of the view were two people: a tan-skinned woman with dark hair pulled up in a braided bun, wearing rather heavy silver armor; and an older man, perhaps in his early 40's, with graying black hair and beard, who was wearing what seemed like some sort of red and gold robe, with a long silver staff in his hands. He seemed rather startled, though not threatened, even as the woman was looking around in some confusion.

"Oh. Well. This is something new then, isn't it. There's a uh, child. Looking at us."

The woman abruptly shot to her feet, drawing what seemed an impossibly large sword from a scabbard at her side, but seeming to realize that there wasn't anything to properly attack just yet. "Are there other mages in the palace now?"

"...well, yes, Evangeline, we did travel here with several others."

"You know what I meant."

Cole just seemed to stare at the two for a moment in silence, eyes wide, almost frozen. "It...it...it really is...you...both of you..."

The two just stared back, in clear confusion, before the woman's face seemed to blossom with a startled recognition. "Wait...you look very familiar, child. Who are you? How are you doing this?" She seemed to become aware that there was someone else, and gestured at the mirror with her sword. "Who is that with you and what are you doing? Answer me!"

Eve | Library | What What What

Eve blinked as Ben promptly fell over. She had not expected that reaction. At all. "A-are you okay?" she said, still kind of reeling from what had just happened.

Arcade was feeling rather drained, all things considered. When Cole tapped the mirror and whoever he was hoping to talk to finally showed up, Arcade seemed less than invested for the first few seconds. He snapped out of his somewhat trance after a bit, but he still seemed rather subdued.

Obviously, the woman's sword was rather ineffectual, so he didn't look all that startled. He simply answered the questions posed at him directly. "My name is Arcade, and I'm just... moral support for Cole, here."

The man and woman both stared back at Arcade as he answered, then both shifted their gaze to the child again, with the woman looking bewildered and the man...also looking bewildered, but also with a slowly breaking expression of amazement.

"...Cole? And since you're here...Cole from the Shire...?"

Cole looked rather nervous, even almost fearful, shifting his gaze away, seeming as though he wanted to curl in on himself. "...I'm..."

"Cole!"

The voice wasn't angry, or scolding, or fearful...more amazed and even a little glad. Cole peeked back at the mirror in his hands, eyes wide, even as the man was on his feet, hurrying over to look more closely at the screen.

"Maker, Evangeline, I had heard of this, read letters from members in the Inquisition about these...'Eluvians' but to think I'd actually see one! I have to examine this magic right-!"

"Rhys."

The man paused, staring at the mirror again, his face clearly taking an expression of a man who has just realized he has done something stupid and coming to terms with it, before he stood back again. "Right...right. Cole."

Cole offered just a faint smile, still clearly nervous at that. "It is...it is good to see you again, Rhys."

"And...and it is good to see you again as well, Cole. ...why are you a child, and what are you doing?"

"That...that is a very, very long story, Rhys." Cole seemed to sniff just a little, reaching a hand up to wipe at his eyes. "You...y-you remember me...both of you remember..."

"We remember you being uh...bigger. And a d...spirit."

"Demon, Rhys. Very much a demon. Being helpful as a demon doesn't mean not a demon." The woman's words weren't spoken with any malice, though, and she was even tucking her sword away again. "But yes...bigger. Who is this...Arcade...person?"

Cole glanced back up at Arcade, hesitant, before looking back at them. "He...he is...he's my father."

The two looked at Arcade for a moment longer, Evangeline's expression taking on a somewhat annoyed, exhausted tone, even as Rhys was already speaking.

"He seems very much...not dead."

"RHYS." Evangeline said, even as Rhys was barely finishing his sentence.

"You and I were both in the Fade, we saw...everything. Even though...Cole, you're a demon. You don't...have a father."

Edited by ColeMinor on Feb 9th 2019 at 11:06:34 AM

Ben was more than okay. He was elated. He had a dopey grin on his face as he sat up, looking dizzy but contented.

"I'm, I's... it's... yeah, okay, I'm... really... super... I... yes," Ben stammered. "It's. It's just. I. This. We. Me. You."

He gulped, still blushing. Why couldn't he get this out? He hated how stupid this was making him seem.

But he was okay with looking like a dork if it meant he got to be kissed by Eve.

"Thanks."

Edited by AllHailThrall on Feb 9th 2019 at 12:21:29 PM

Library Lobby

"Are you sure it's nothing?" Makoto continued. "You don't like the names you gave your builds? If this is because I thought your name for the sword was funny, I just... wasn't expecting something that straightforward. I thought you make up something really complicated, but it's not bad." She squeezed his hand slightly. "I bet the other builds have really good names. I didn't even get to name my"- Makoto cut herself off before she said anything that would alert Sae, and then switched to whispering closer to his ear. "Uh, my own spells. They already had proper ones, but...maybe you can come up with some more interesting ones later?" She backed off him with a smile on her face. "Would you tell me your build names if I let you do that?"

Sae watched them with a difficult to identify expression. It wasn't quite guilt or worry or sadness, but something subtler in-between.

"I have no idea what you two have been through over this last week, but...she better be okay when she returns," Sae said, though it was more to herself than anyone else. Makoto didn't even notice.

"... If you don't like the names, but you're the one who came up with them, can't you just change them, Rex?" Silanea pointed out in mild confusion.

Eve | Library | CONCERN

Eve blinked, glad that Ben seemed to be okay, but still working out her feelings about the whole issue. She felt something for Ben, but she wasn't sure if it felt like love, or something else. She didn't know what love felt like. She nodded, though. "...thanks," she replied back, not sure what else to say. "I...yeah."

Ben smiled at Eve, standing up next to her and moving close, still blushing up a storm.

"Mhm," murmured Ben quietly. "I'm happy— was scared that— hoping you'd— how I— you like— what you— you and me— what Miss Tairee said— and. We. And."

Ben had become distracted by Eve's kiss. He didn't know why he was getting so fixated on it. He normally thought kissing was gross but he was willing to make an exception for this particular moment.

It was now or never, he started to think. If he didn't do something like this now he'd never work up the courage again.

Looking into Eve's eyes, smiling up at her and face red, he paused for a bit longer. Swept up in the moment, he leaned up to meet her and gave her a swift kiss of his own. It was just a peck, but it didn't matter to Ben. As soon as he pulled away from her, he looked down at his feet, smiling and looking embarrassed in a happy sort of way.

If he could melt into a happy puddle he would.

"Cole, you need to elaborate more when it comes to stuff like this," Arcade muttered under his breath before addressing Rhys and Evangeline, "just so we're clear, I'm not his birth father, I'm adopting him. Like he said, long story."

Once Hercules touched the mirror the surface then rippled and then the face of Zeus was then staring back at him. “Dad? Dad, it’s me Hercules!” Hercules cried out to the ruler of the gods and father. At first, Zeus didn’t see him but once Herc spoke up, Zeus then gave a huge smile as soon as he saw his own son looking at him.

“Hercules!” Zeus shouted back. “Hercules my boy! It’s always good to hear from you my son!” He was now beaming at his son with pride. Hercules himself couldn’t help but smile back at him, happy to see his own father again. He chuckled a bit at his dad’s overjoyed reaction: “Hi Dad.” He greeted back with a wave.

“I am so relieved you are all right. We’ve heard about what’s happened. “ Zeus then continued his smile then disappearing from his face and was then replaced with a concerned expression and Hercules almost immediately knew exactly what Zeus meant, the city and by extension him being there.

“Oh…no dad, you needn’t have worried anyway.” Hercules then said trying to be modest concerning his predicament but really as he recalled a couple of days back he was anything but fine about where he currently was.

Two, Library

Sae raised a valid point: Makoto's reappearance would invite many a question. "Well, I hope the Writer takes that into account..." There was no need for him to meddle with their lives past the final day, right? That was what she believed, at the very least. Two let the two lovers to the side have their moment before nodding resolutely at Sae's words. "Rex is many things, but he wouldn't hurt Makoto in any way. I'm sure of it." Beyond maybe doing so by accident, but mentioning that wouldn't exactly warm him up for Makoto's older sister.

"...so, uh... is it fine if I ask you about yourself? What do you do for a living?" She asked, hoping to divide the attention away from the two lovers somewhat.