Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
"...Tell real you that—"
Disappointingly, I couldn't finish that sentence without a respiratory tract. Even if I'd wake up 'fine' tomorrow...I didn't...no...I willed myself to stay conscious beyond the point where I physically couldn't, but...
...
desperation,lying...this felt familiar somehow...only this time there was no...
sorry.
The currently trainerless pokémon stared at the crime scene in muted...something, before blinking it away and phasing through a nearby wall.
A previously mentioned ragdoll creature rose from the floor near the librarian, looking a tad less excitable than usual, and squeaked something about weird moves it sometimes saw trained pokémon use at home. It seemed to be wondering how they got such moves when they didn't look like they should be able to learn them.
—!?
I spent several seconds feeling up my neck like that would somehow keep it from spontaneously disappearing. It felt like waking from a bad dream, moreso than most respawns in this place (likely since this one had been delayed comparatively), and a bit like when I'd first resurrected. Only with disappointingly less magic. I snapped my fingers trying to call some fire, just to be sure, and indeed nothing happened. Damn it...I was running out of time and I wouldn't have this chance again, and I had to get new weapons now.
It was morning, so no one must've gotten Vi after I didn't...it made sense with how hard it was to find anyone here and how tied everyone's hands seemed to be literally all day, but still I wasn't entirely cool with the missed time. Then again, the alternative was someone killing her...well, Casca probably got away at least, so that was something.
I sighed. Time to ask Tairee for a new gun.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
THE SLORG!
"Yes, but if you set the building on fire, you will be in trouble. You're not allowed to harm the books" Miss Tairee said in response to Rick, her voice back to normal as she typed away on her computer and the requested items started to appear. "That would probably be the 'technical machines' as they're so called. They allow some of you to learn a move, depending on what move" the librarian added to answer the shuppet.
You are reading this.
Hercules managed to sleep well after his quiet chat with Ben but he was brought out of his slumber when he heard Miss Tairee's voice over the intercom, what she was telling everyone was not clear. He got up rubbing the sleep from his eyes and then wandered over to where Ben and Louie were.
"Ben, Louie, what's going on boys?" He asked them as he drew his attention to the people who were just leaving the Library.
Day 27 - Washington and Viktoria fight
Wounded, burnt and angry, Viktoria left Gon alone, and furiously lashed out with her right arm towards Garrett, again making her limb sprout into a mass of vines. However, too late she realized that doing so placed her right arm in Freckles' angle of fire. Immediately a shower of bullets ripped across it, severing some of the vines and significantly wounding some others. Viktoria cringed and retracted the limb, which now was leaking something that was not quite sap and not quite blood. She increased the strength of her hold on Garrett's right arm, enough to divert Freckles away from herself once more.
Meanwhile Garrett, hissing in pain, clumsily pawed with his burnt hand in a pocket somewhere under his cloak. Luck was with him: he stumbled immediately upon the gadget he was looking for, and quickly he tossed it towards Viktoria. She recognized the object—a gas bomb—and hastily made to cover her face with her right arm, moments before the bomb exploded near her.
She did manage to avoid inhaling too much of the knockout gas, and her not-quite-human nature made her more resistant to its effects, so she did not get knocked out immediately — but it still managed to weaken her significantly. Her senses became dull and her body weakened, enough that the vines entangling Garrett slackened.
Assuming nothing would stop him, Garrett would use this opportunity to aim Freckles straight at her.
Edited by Korodzik on Sep 20th 2019 at 6:14:30 PM
Stop Killing My Titles
Two, Library
So it seemed that the library was no longer a no-fighting zone. Two frowned again. Ben and Louie wanted to stay in the library and fight off would-be invaders, but the exits could not be blocked, and people were already leaving. It was a fair assessment that this one man had done - whoever was their opponent today, they would likely know the library is no longer safe and plan accordingly.
"I think we would be better off moving out and remaining on the move for the day." She suggested. "At least until we can find some space to barricade in." The bluenette looked at Miss Tairee. "Would it be fine to ask for something to communicate over long distances with? Like a, uh... the phone thing?" She asked, her tone sheepish that she forgot about the word "walkie-talkie" in such a crucial moment. "Something that I could use to contact the Militia's mothership, that is."
Those two had good intentions, but they needed more hands on deck today.
Edited by FergardStratoavis on Sep 20th 2019 at 12:30:22 PM
grah
For the Horde!
Four Arms glared at Miss Tairee as she reminded him of the rules of the Library.
"Oh, so your stupid books are more important than people's lives?" Four Arms retorted to her. "You're okay with innocent people suffering and dying, maybe even kids dying, but you won't let anyone lay a finger on your precious little books? Screw you!" he snapped, then turned towards Hercules who was asking what was going on.
"Oh, nothing, the Writer's just being evil and Miss Tairee's just being a doofus as usual. The Library's not safe anymore. We need to protect the innocent people here because someone thinks her books deserve more protection than powerless civilians do," Four Arms explained. "If we can't block doors then we should stand guard at the entrances. Don't let any monsters get in to hurt anyone!" With that he set himself up nearby the nearest door, watching the entryway like a hawk.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Arsene tried to use his to gain some distance and avoid Rex. A smart move since Rex would have to sacrifice his effective range to follow the persona. Come to think of it, he needed to get over that limitation one of these days. If he hadn't already suffered the consequences of multiple challenges he would ask for another one to speed things up on that front. Thankfully Makoto accidentally took care of that by beating Joker into submission and making his persona not stay for much longer. A pity, since Rex was just getting started.
But even then the phantom thief wanted to get the last word in.
"Just accept you lost. I swear, all these copies really love the sound of their voice"
With another copy down, Silanea was obviously late to the party. Nobody blamed her but it was funny to see how fast things had ended. That's just how effective they were. Of course, she also wanted to know what the hell had happened to the ship.
"Uh... something threw it off course?" he glanced at Makoto to gauge her reaction and briefly considered if he should even tell the truth.
Rooftop, Day 27
"...The mast snapped in the middle of the fight, and it tipped off course. Sorry we couldn't prevent the damage," Makoto said, making brief eye contact with Rex as she stood up. "But we can help with repairs if the Militia needs it...right? They'll want it working again as soon as possible." And she still had to either get rid of Joker or make sure he stayed out of the way until the next day. She grabbed Joker by the collar of his jacket and started dragging him towards a door that led to the inside of the building. Maybe she could lock him in a closet and barricade the door to stall for time? That might work.
Day 28, Library 2nd Floor—-> Lobby
While Makoto would rather just find an abandoned house to crash in, the Library was relatively safe in case there were still murderous people on the loose, so it made sense to camp out there until the day changed. By the time she woke up from the announcement over the loudspeakers and looked over the railing to investigate, there was already some activity coming from the lobby. Furniture was being moved and people were yelling about rule changes and what to do now.
"Hey Rex, Anyone can fight in the library now," she called back to him. Which meant that anyone could walk in and attack whoever they wanted. But what was the actual twist of the day? "I'm going to see if I can figure out what's happening today." She headed downstairs and waited until Four Arms cleared out from the central desk to approach Miss Tairee.
"...So who or what exactly is going to be a threat this time?" she asked. "Or is that meant to be a secret again?"
Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 20th 2019 at 1:23:17 PM
THE SLORG!
"Knocked off course? It was supposed to just be hovering" Thomas said, then sighed and threw his head back. "Well, there's not much I can do, because I would break the stuff in it with my magic" the young wizard added.
Though Thomas seemed to have bought the explanation, Silanea's eyes had narrowed just a bit, yet she said nothing; which probably was to be expected given her pledge to Rex. "It's all outside my expertise, but I would be willing to help where I could" Silanea said, easing her expression back to normal as she looked to Thomas. "That would be up to Rex, though" the lamia added, glancing back at Rex again.
Miss Tairee rolled her eyes. "No, the books are less important. Unlike you however, I don't get to choose what rules I enforce" Miss Tairee said in a slightly annoyed tone. Then, she turned her attention to Two. "A walkie talkie would probably be the most convenient for you in that regard. Just one moment" the librarian told her, and started typing on her computer. In not long, there was a blur on the desk as a walkie talkie appeared, along with a note explaining how to use it.
"I've made it already set to the militia channel" Miss Tairee added simply, as she kept working.
As it so happened, just after that, Wells' voice came over the walkie talkie. "Any teams near the library?" the lieutenant asked. He got a few negatives in response.
"Could you do me a favor and tell him I'm here?" asked Thomas, walking over from another angle, but keeping some distance from Two. "It won't work if I do it. I'm Thomas, by the way" the young wizard added.
Then, when Makoto showed up, Miss Tairee glanced at her briefly. "No, sorry I can't tell you exactly what it is, as usual. All I can say is that just like the last two days, everyone in the city has a special opponent somewhere; with the exception of myself this time" Miss Tairee explained as she went back to typing.
Louie, who looked a little conflicted given what happened last night, muttered, "how lucky for you" before moving over to one of the other revolving doors.
Over at where Four Arms positioned himself, the delivery worker Kelsey walked over, clearly thinking about something. "So hey, if she says that fighting is allowed in here today... Doesn't that mean you could fight her?" Kelsey asked quietly in a rhetorical tone, motioning back at Miss Tairee. "Just an idea to think about, you know?" the postal worker added, then grinned and started to head out the revolving door.
Little footsteps waddled down the alley, then something let out a noise like a bark. Other than the acknowledgement of Lewis' presence, the little trapinch wasn't really acting out about him being there. Pecha only stopped once she got close, glancing up at Lewis and tilting her head in a curious, calm stare.
Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 21st 2019 at 1:18:25 PM
You are reading this.
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
I'd been about to leave when something made a noise behind me...Louie's trapinch? What was she doing by herself? Did...? I stared at her for a moment, before squatting down to pat her head. "Pecha? What are you doing here? We should move, would you rather walk or should I carry you?"
Cascabel lightly nodded, before making a rattling sound to the effect of 'can I have one'.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
THE SLORG!
Pecha closed her eyes in a moment of content as her head was pat. After Lewis asked his question, she opened her eyes back up and let out another bark-like sound, and continued waddling down the alleyway.
"Well, which one? You're going to have to be more specific" Miss Tairee said to the shuppet.
You are reading this.
Stop Killing My Titles
Two, pls help
Ben... was himself. Yes. No time to deal with that. Nodding at Thomas, and then nodding hello at Makoto and Rex - she was more than happy to see them, really - she tuned into the frequency. "Um, this is Two. Miss Tairee gave me the means to contact you. Thomas is here at the library - but I'm calling about that. We have a confirmation that the library isn't a safe zone today, so I wanted to ask if you could possibly arrange for your mothership to come in and pick up the innocents."
...fingers crossed. She watched Kelsey go with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't wrong - Ben (or anyone else) could probably fight Miss Tairee, even if the outcome of that fight seemed painfully obvious.
grah
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
"Alright, walking it is." I lightly shrugged to myself, getting up and following her. "Your moves were Earthquake, Sand Tomb, Crunch, um...sorry, I'm just trying to remember in case something nasty shows up. You can probably tell but I'm totally unarmed and kinda just died, well I guess technically it was a while ago but—the point is, you fight and I play-act as trainer or something, ok?" Pressing against a wall, I surveyed the street just outside the alleyway we'd been in just to be safe.
Cascabel let out an overly long 'uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' sound, before bringing its head and lower half into a < shape, evidently its closest equivalent to a shrug. It didn't seem to know what moves were available or useful to it.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
For the Horde!
Four Arms crossed his upper pair of arms and put his other set of arms on his hips.
"Why would we wanna do that? That's stupid," Four Arms retorted to "Kelsey". "She may have books for brains but I gotta admit she's on our side. Even if the Writer doesn't let her do anything that means anything. Besides, there's no point. She's off limits, just like her stupid books. And on top of that she has god powers that she could totally cream us with," Four Arms said.
Four Arms watched Kelsey start to leave, then blinked and narrowed his eyes.
"Wait a minute," Four Arms said sharply, reaching out to grab Kelsey's shoulder before she headed out, trying to stop her from leaving.
"Something's not right here. You're that crazy cornflakes girl, I thought you were wearing giant armor and running around with a chainsaw. Why are you wearing that stupid post office getup?" he said firmly, narrowing his eyes. "And you seem awfully level-headed for someone who was messed up by an evil bloodthirsty elder god thing. What's going on here, lady?"
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Rick rolled his eyes "I'm not gonna set fire to the library... why-why would I burn down the one place that is more or less the most defensible point right now?" He got to work, procuring a few lengths of wire from somewhere in his labcoat. "No, no, no... I'm gonna set whoever comes in on fire..."
Rick shot a glance over Kelsey's way, where Ben was already interrogating the first interloper "...starting with her." He pulled out his pistol, keeping it at his side. "Alright, you have five seconds to tell me why you're here and what you want before your metaphorical library card expires."
Perhaps to make everyone stop worrying about it, Makoto offered her help and Rex's in fixing the mast of the ship. Considering Thomas didn't play well with technology and Silanea didn't understand much of it—despite how much she insisted on helping, it was only fair they stayed to fix "their" mistake.
"It's fine. Okay, I'll stay to fix this before the day is over"
He sighed, clearly not looking forward to the work hours. And then he looked at Makoto leading Ren into the building. No one wanted a dangerous criminal like him to escape, right?
"...after I make sure this criminal is behind bars" he followed Makoto along "Lead the way, Queen"
Nights in the library were always... interesting. Which is to say that waking up there usually meant dealing with very rude people causing too much noise and ruining everyone else's sleep. Rex did his best to not wake up but whatever was going on was enough to call Makoto's attention and make her tell him about it.
"That's awesome" he almost whispered back. Before realizing what that meant and rubbing his eyes to get ready for a new day. There was no way he could keep sleeping after that.
"Wait... fight?"
His body wasn't exactly happy with that though and he had to really fight the so tempting call of the the chair he was sitting on. The fact Tairee was as secretive as usual made it even more frustrating.
"Ugh, I just want a break. Tell me it's not Breach, at least" he leaned over the railing.
Day 28—-Library Lobby
"Another special opponent..." Who else could even show up that fit a theme? Family members? No, that sounded both too broad and too specific. How would the Writer select just one person to fill that role? And why was Miss Tairee somehow exempt from this challenge? It couldn't be about a different in strength, because her opponents for the last two days were inconsequential to her reality manipulation. It felt like an important hint. When Two brought the ship up on the Militia's radio channel, Makoto broke away from her thoughts.
"The uh...their ship is probably still in need of repairs from yesterday..." she told Two. Over by the door, Four Arms was now grabbing Kelsey to question her...but why was she dressed like that? No one else had a change of clothes today. Rick pulled a gun on her almost as soon as he noticed the commotion. Makoto's eyes widened as everything started to make sense. This Kelsey didn't match up with the one she knew, so this could be a copy, just like the challenge a few days ago. An incorrect one, but a copy of some kind. Miss Tairee wasn't a part of this challenge because a copy of her would easily defeat the rest of the City unless she was severely underpowered, but then there was not logic to why the Writer wouldn't just allow it.
"This is just like that game we played in the Colosseum, isn't it?" she said, louder than before. "I bet there's clones of all of us! But...why don't they look exactly the same, then?"
Edited by ScorpioRat on Sep 21st 2019 at 12:16:43 PM
Happy Box Hater
Day 27
Washington cursed under his breath when his surprise attack got him nothing but a grazed cheek. And, when Gon retaliated with gun fire of his own, he cursed far more clearly. " Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed, only managing to avoid getting hit in the face by blocking the beam rifle's shots with his own gun.
Unfortunately for him, his weapon was broken in the process. Another shot promptly hit him in the neck. He collapsed to the ground unconscious, technically still alive but only moments away from death.
In those few moments before Washington died, Freckles was pointed straight at Viktoria. The strange plant woman would soon face a barrage of bullets that almost emptied Freckles of all its ammo. The only reason it stopped early was that the gun completely vanished from Garret's hands after a few moments of firing.
With Washington finally slipping into death, Caboose was free to respawn. And that, of course, meant all his equipment, gun included, respawned with him. Hopefully the bullets Freckles fired before that point would be enough to do in Viktoria.
Why is a yam attacking me?
Day 27 — Streets — Wrapping up the fight
Viktoria screamed in pain as bullets ripped into her body. The vines wrapped around Garrett slackened and fell away. Heavily wounded and partially poisoned, Viktoria could only choke out some last words: "Curse on you... human..." before she collapsed completely. Lying in a puddle of her almost-blood, she ceased to move, and soon her body started to wilt and lose color.
Garrett looked away. It was not a sight he wanted to look at.
Then, suddenly, Freckles vanished. Garrett looked at his hand in surprise for a few moments before he realized what this meant. "So Caboose's back," he muttered. Looking at the evening sky, he added: "Not that it'll give him a lot of additional time today..."
He quickly drank a healing potion and watched as his burnt hand fixed itself. "You okay?" he asked Gon, offering him a healing potion as well.
"I think I'll be heading over to the library, see what'll come tomorrow," he then said. "You coming with me?"
Regardless of Gon's reply, Garrett would then head towards the library.
Edited by Korodzik on Sep 23rd 2019 at 10:03:14 AM
Gon, with Garrett
"Thanks." Gon took the healing potion. "Let's regroup for now."
"And what's this stuff?" Gon pointed to the healing potion after he made sure his things were with him and okay.
THE SLORG!
"Alright, we'll get started on what we can" Silanea said, and followed Thomas over to the Thunder Child.
When Rex and Makoto would get back, they'd find that there had still been a couple of living militia members below deck, who had been confused and scared to come out yet; also Greg and a few others had showed up after finally respawning. With their help, they identified that thankfully most of the damage was relatively superficial; bullet holes and laser marks, and of course the dead bodies, which is what Silanea mainly helped with, getting them moved out of the way and respectfully covered with sheets and such.
The only serious damage was to the masts, the insides of which were machinery that pumped energy generated by the solar panel like sails down into the main engines of the ship. Presumably Rex would use his nanites to see what was up with the machines and the damage, and he'd find that the machinery was seemingly both severely outdated compared to the technology he knew, and simultaneously far in advance of it. It was kind of like finding a car that could drive way faster than any car you'd seen before, but used techniques that were really old to do it.
The main decision left to Rex would be whether he'd try to repair the machinery back to the state it had been in before, or instead try to patch it with his own style of technology.
"The library isn't safe..? I was afraid something like this might happen" Wells' voice responded, sighing and going silent in thought. "... Greg, what's the condition on the Thunder Child?" the lieutenant then asked into the channel.
"We're on the ground right now. Thanks to Rex, the sail power is working again; I think it's not quite at optimal performance, but it should still work as long as the sunlight's out" Greg's voice answered.
"And after sundown?" Wells' voice responded.
"... I don't know" Greg's voice came back in apologetic sincerity. "I guess, it probably depends on how much we need to push it before then. Once the light's gone, it should last... Maybe another hour or two, hopefully more" the militia technician went on.
"See what you can do about that. We'll also try to track down any alternative power sources, like that little sun ball one of Ben's friends had" Wells' voice told him. "In the meantime, get her up in the air and on course to the library; keep the speed low and the power consumption efficient. Two, was it? Keep ready on the line, and tell us as soon as possible if there's any immediate threat on the people in the library" the lieutenant ordered.
Meanwhile, Miss Tairee glanced at Cascabel. "You didn't have any in mind before asking?" Miss Tairee asked, somewhat rhetorically. Then she glanced to Rick. "Placing traps at each door? Well, I guess that may technically be allowed..." the librarian told him, thinking that one over.
Kelsey didn't seem concerned about Four Arms suddenly stopping her, and she just glanced back over her shoulder at him with a smile. "Oh, you know the real me? I'm looking for her; she and I have a lot to talk about" the fake Kelsey answered nonchalantly, with a shrug. "She's not here, so I'm leaving. I'm not causing any trouble here, so what's the problem with that?" the duplicate added.
Pecha turned her head at Lewis while still waddling along, and tilted her head in slight confusion again. She let out another little bark noise, and walked out onto the sidewalk calmly.
The street was relatively empty; a few groups of people could be seen in either direction, but not anywhere close. There was only one person close: A tall man dressed in what would probably be a nice suit and tie if it weren't currently so disheveled. He staggered along drunkenly, a bottle of whiskey loosely held in one hand reinforcing that notion. He eyed Lewis with one eye lazily half shut, then pointed a finger accusingly about four feet off to Lewis' left. "Tha' fook you lookin' at, mate?!" the man grunted rudely in some kind of British accent, then kept on staggering along his way.
Pecha stared at the man a couple moments, then glanced at Lewis.
Edited by FirockFinion on Sep 22nd 2019 at 12:16:22 PM
You are reading this.
Dark Sun, what choices have I...?
Some unfamiliar drunk guy did show up, but he didn't seem interested in or able to start shit. Still, I watched him for a couple moments to make sure he wasn't feigning something, just since one or two of the random guys from yesterday had had the idea. "Give 'em a moment. If he doesn't do anything we should probably drag him with us."
The shuppet thought for a moment, then made a 'poof' noise at some distant corner of the room, as though attempting to shoot something at it.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess
Stop Killing My Titles
Two, Phew
Fortunately, it seemed Makoto was wrong. The Thunder Child could, at least, take someone aboard. Also, clones. "...I haven't noticed, ashamedly." Indeed, Kelsey's outfit was as far from her usual as possible. "Can we not just imprison her then?" She figured that it would be good to have Ben cooperative for once, and killing Not-Kelsey would likely quickly expire what little trust there was.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for your assistance." She spoke into the walkie-talkie, lowering it back down. "...so, we can arrange for most people here to board the ship. If the Library is no longer safe, that's likely going to be the safest place available. Please stay, Kelsey. We've been through "a lot to talk about" before twice before." She sighed, shaking her head. "No one is fooled."
grah
Gon, Day 27. Trying to stay alive.
Gon was ready to take out Viktoria's vines with either the beam rifle or the knife he got a few days ago.
But when he saw that Viktoria was being distracted, he heard gunfire coming from the back.
Oh crap...
Gon felt one of the gunshots graze his cheek slightly.
He immediately dived to the ground, back first, and continued to fire at Washington. Hoping to hit him in the face at rapid fire.
"Oh crap..." The assassin felt the slight pain of landing on his back when his tac bag was on his back. He shifted so that he was prone and flat on the ground by his belly.
"Ambush!"