Ben looked worriedly at Louie, looking back and forth between the healing potion and the Pokemon Trainer's face.
"We'll find them. Don't worry. Just try to take it easy, okay?" Ben responded. "Seriously. You're in bad shape and I'd hate to see anything happen to a friend and valued team member like you, all right?" He smiled up at Louie supportively.
Edited by AllHailThrall on Dec 8th 2019 at 9:03:56 AM
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.I caught up to the group of 3, looking between them with concern. "I could shoot fire in the air like an improvised flare, but I feel like that has even odds of something else coming to us before your team does. Um..." I took out Vivi's bat, offering it to Louie. "Here, if you're still having trouble standing."
A moment of thought.
"...Hey uh, I..." It seemed like a decent time to start talking, now that we weren't actively in mortal peril, and I really needed to get it out, but still I felt myself stumbling and choking awkwardly. "About the crossbow thing, and uh. Being a basic dick. I-I...s-sor...ry...I guess that probably doesn't mean much to you but, it didn't feel right not saying it."
Cascabel quieted down when it saw the Clone Garrett fall and die, just sorta watching the event, then tilted its head at Melanie suddenly nerding out over its existence, giving an 'uh...yeah?' look.
Edited by Oceanstuck on Dec 8th 2019 at 8:09:47 AM
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guessWarehouse
Caboose stopped shooting where the noisemaker had landed, presumably assuming he had killed whatever he thought was there, and turned his attention to the events around him. It seemed as if they had won! That was good, he had expected it because he wasn't able to comprehend the possibility of losing, but now he got to see it happen quickly!
"Yeah, uh, I am Caboose!" the sim trooper introduced himself, before turning his attention to Cascabel. "Is it? And here I was, thinking it was a Digimon!" He sounded completely serious. "There are, like, way too many nowadays to even remember all of them, with all the games that have been released."
"Captain Caboose, there are still unknown individuals around in a neighboring building," Freckles cautioned its owner.
He shrugged in response and said "OK, if you say so!"
Why is a yam attacking me?There were a few audible beeps as usual, before Garrett would see the dialogue box appear again in his vision.
As for searching his doppelganger, Garrett would find in his alternate's possession: Eleven of his broadhead arrows, also eleven water arrows, one fire arrow, four moss arrows, one gas arrow, two noisemaker arrows, another set of his climbing gloves, three flash bombs, and two healing potions; he had attempted to use his gas bomb on Caboose earlier, and evidently had also used up his other oil flask before encountering them. Aside from the rest of his clothes, the only other thing the copy had was what seemed to be some kind of journal.
Mel turned when she heard the whistle, and preemptively stepped back when she saw Gon. "Who the fuck are you? Why do you have a gun?" Mel asked bluntly, trying to sound calm, but some fear was seeping in.
Louie shook his head, then chugged half the potion. "I can't just take it easy while they're still out there; I'm their trainer, it's on me to care for them" Louie said to Ben, then paused, staring at Lewis as the semi-undead tried to make his apology. "... Whatever, man" the trainer grumbled, and drank the rest of the potion.
"Just, 'sorry'? You don't even have an explanation?" Thomas said, folding his arms as he cast a glare at Lewis. The young wizard didn't say it, but his expression did carry a bit of that, 'and where's my apology?' feel to it.
Edited by FirockFinion on Dec 8th 2019 at 10:29:28 AM
You are reading this.Ben winced as Louie insisted he couldn't take it easy.
"I know... I know, that was stupid of me to say. They're your friends. They're more than that, they're like family to you, I get it. And we will find them, I promise. I can't sit still when my friends are in trouble either," Ben admitted. "That's how I feel about the City Knights. You guys are..." He trailed off, looking down at his feet worriedly.
He glanced up at Lewis as he tried to make his apology. Ben raised an eyebrow, not saying anything but looking unsure of what Lewis was saying.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither."Yeah, we will" Louie said to Ben with a confident nod, and looked to Thomas. "Are you gonna come help?" the trainer asked.
Thomas looked back, giving a small, sympathetic frown, before casting his head down and sighing. "Sorry Louie, I really hope you find them, but I've got a responsibility to help these people" Thomas said, motioning to the crowd of civilians. "I can't help you search and protect them at the same time" the young wizard added, explaining the obvious.
There was some disappointment on Louie's face, but it gave way to understanding, and the trainer gave a resolute nod. "Yeah, you're right; in fact, that's the right thing to do" Louie muttered, glancing at the crowd. "Which means, I should help you, but... I'm sorry, I can't. I just have to go find my team, you know? And we've got to do it together, so no leaving any behind" the trainer explained, subconsciously moving a hand to his three occupied pokeballs.
"... Yeah, I understand" Thomas replied, giving a nod.
"Which means you've gotta protect 'em well enough for the both of us, you hear?" Louie then added, giving Thomas a soft play-punch to the shoulder. "You let them down, and you'll have to answer to me and my pokemon" the trainer concluded.
Thomas gave a short chuckle while rubbing his shoulder. "Uh, yeah sure" Thomas muttered, and couldn't help but smile a bit.
You are reading this.I sighed, feeling...something. That stuff was out there, on one hand, but...I don't know...but we weren't done, so I didn't dwell on it long. "Ah—" I stuttered, not prepared for being pressed further, before standing there fumbling painfully for a coherent answer. "...I—the crossbow, I—the last person to suddenly shove me kinda took my life and I guess I got scared and just..." I sighed. "...I don't have an excuse for anything else, for either of you," I looked between the two teens, and then at the ground, getting the sense I wouldn't be able to finish if I tried to keep eye contact, "unless you count deflecting to try and dodge the fact that...I'm just a bad person.
"...Actually, that's...also kinda why I was put off with Knights membership." I ran a hand through my hair. "You should go look for your pokémon...shit, I should look for my pokémon." Realizing mid-sentence, I facepalmed and started looking around worriedly. "I guess I could let it find me like how we met but that doesn't sound right."
Cascabel looked idly at the sudden Gon; then, after detecting nothing unusual, it began glancing in various different directions as if trying to find a specific face in a crowd.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guessBen looked unsure what to say. He could tell Lewis was trying to make things better but as it stood it seemed like he didn't know how to go about doing that. Ben knew what that felt like.
When Lewis pointed out he should be looking for his Pokemon, Ben glanced back at Louie, then back at Lewis.
"If you're trying to make things better and fix things, that doesn't make you a bad person," Ben said quietly. He paused for a moment. "...What's this about a crossbow?"
Edited by AllHailThrall on Dec 10th 2019 at 10:00:59 AM
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Louie and Thomas looked at Lewis with a sort of almost unconvinced skepticism, but after Ben spoke up, Thomas sighed. "Yes, I suppose I should give you that you're at least trying" Thomas admitted, then looked to Louie.
"I was trying to get somewhere, and he wanted me to stop and answer some questions or something, and pointed a crossbow at me when I didn't" Louie explained, folding his arms. "Freaked me right out, especially since I'd just watched Swishee..." the trainer trailed off, averting his gaze down with a deep frown.
Mel stared at Gon with a slightly confused look. "... That is not what I asked you. At all. In fact it's so clearly dodging the actual questions that it's incredibly sketchy" Mel pointed out, then glanced to Caboose and Garrett. "So I think he's the real deal, just also an idiot; any fake would be smart enough to not make themselves that obvious, right?" the Fangirl concluded, pointing her thumb at Gon.
You are reading this."I appreciate it Ben, but please don't try and defend me like you know my whole life story," I mumbled, arguing with myself. It's a shuppet, it could phase through walls, surely it could manage? But then it just about flung itself into death and that's why it's not here in the first place. Still, did I leave this giant crowd with barely any backup so I could get one creature that might not actually need the help? Maybe it would play it safe after that disaster? I sighed in a mixture of regret and weariness. "That's not why, I just told you why...and I was worried about you, damnit..."
I reached for the quick ball in my bag before realizing with annoyance that I had neither ball nor bag. "...I hate to ask, but do you have another pokéball? I had one but I think it got exploded when I did. And everything else I was carrying."
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess"Well that's the way I remember it. You kept on talking and I didn't have the time" Louie replied, in an indignant tone. "Besides, you normally point a weapon at people you're worried about?" the trainer criticized in rhetorical fashion, reaching into his jacket and grabbing a pokeball to toss dismissively at Lewis, adding, "whatever, I have like a hundred."
"There is such a thing as overreactions in the heat of the moment" Thomas said, directed more to Louie. "However, there is also taking things too far; no matter the circumstances" the young wizard went on, directed more to Lewis.
You are reading this.Warehouse
Garrett glanced at Gon, slightly more relaxed. "...I think that's the real him. At least, he hasn't attacked us yet or anything," he said to Mel.
Then he turned towards Gon and said: "Hey. Be careful, there are still some armed people in the neighboring building. Might be copies. ...One of them looked like Wells, actually. Do you know if the fake Wells is dead or not?" he asked Gon.
He went back to robbing the fake Garrett's corpse. He took two broadhead arrows, the four moss arrows, the one gas arrow, and both the healing potions. He left the rest of the stuff behind, not wanting to encumber himself any more than he needed to.
However, he also found some kind of journal on the corpse. Curious, he took it, climbed down to the ground floor and found a place that was pretty well lit. He looked inside the journal.
Edited by Korodzik on Dec 11th 2019 at 8:54:39 PM
Ben furrowed his brow and glanced between the group as they began to turn on Lewis once again. Ben crossed his arms.
"So he did some bad stuff. What I think is important is that he wants to change. He wants to do good, he wants to move past what he used to be. If he wants to be a good guy, that's awesome. We shouldn't stop him from doing the right thing if he wants to," Ben explained. "Maybe I'm trusting him too much. Maybe you're right and maybe I'm just leading us into another big fight that'll break up the City Knights for good this time. But if we don't give him a chance then what kind of good guys are we?" he asked.
He looked at his feet.
"Yuna wouldn't want us fighting. She'd want us to work together and help each other. She was a better hero than I am," he admitted. "Like... I was too busy getting worked up over Rex to accept him as a hero. Cause I didn't want to accept someone like him could be good. I didn't want to move past the fact that he treated me like some dumb kid. When I was acting like some dumb kid," Ben sighed. "I was wrong."
After a pause, he then looked up.
"I trust Lewis. If you still don't, fine. But a hero doesn't turn away from someone in need. Someone in pain," he stated firmly.
Edited by AllHailThrall on Dec 11th 2019 at 8:39:53 AM
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.The journal was not about anything the fake Garrett had done, but rather, detailed accounts of the thieving jobs Garrett had gone on before coming to the city, with said details being enough to determine that it was particularly about this Garrett, and not some alternate timeline Garrett.
The focus of the journal in particular was... Every little mistake he'd made during those jobs, no matter how small or insignificant, with key sentences such as: 'Stepped on the wrong part of the floor, guard heard; had to hide until he left.' 'Mistimed the guard's patrol in the hallway; only barely managed to knock him out before he would see me.' 'Water arrow went a bit low, had to shoot another one.'
"So what'cha got over there?" Mel asked, curious, but seemingly not wanting to take Gon out of her line of sight yet to go check.
Thomas and Louie were both silent at first; Louie looked a little guilty, but Thomas didn't really. The young wizard looked more in thought, and looked at Ben with an expression of being somewhat impressed. "... Well, it's good to hear you admit your mistakes, and you're not wrong, Ben, but... Unless I missed something, Rex only ever made fun of you. He didn't point a weapon at you and make you think he might kill you, did he?" Thomas half asked, half pointed out. "I think only Louie should get to decide how he feels about that. You shouldn't try to force him to forgiveness through guilt" the young wizard went on.
You are reading this.Warehouse
"Well, I think he is acting completely normal!" Caboose exclaimed. Not that he'd know normal behavior if it hit him in the face. "I've seen him, like, a few times around here and he's not any different!" Mainly passing sightings of him, rather than interactions, but that was enough in the sim trooper's mind to justify it.
Still, there were other things to worry about. Even the red armored idiot could understand that nearby enemies was a bad thing... well, assuming the nearby individuals were clones. "Wells doesn't matter that much, I think. I mean, he's just a man with a gun, right? That's, like, nothing compared to Mark," he exclaimed, referring to their earlier close encounter with space marines.
Why is a yam attacking me?Warehouse
Scowling, Garrett paged through the journal, but all the pages were like this. Page after page of... all the minor mistakes. Some of them bringing back unwanted, stinging memories.
He shook his head and tossed the journal away, then said to Mel: "Apparently, my fake had a big list of all the small mistakes I've ever done on my jobs. No idea why... unless the Writer gave it to him, just so I could find it. Just to be petty and get on my nerves."
He realized that Mel likely didn't know who he was, and explained: "I'm a thief, in case you're wondering."
I pocketed the pocket monster ball, hoping it could handle a little heat if I needed my magic soon. Considering its intended purpose, it should be fine, right?
"Ben you only like me when I'm yes manning you," I complained, giving him a 'yeah, bullshit' look. "I wanted to know what the problem was since something was obviously bothering you and I pried too hard and then you shoved me and—I don't, know...how to explain it." God, how did people explain what triggers were before they had the word 'trigger'? "Like...normally when you say someone isn't thinking they're still consciously deciding to do something and just don't consider the consequences because they don't care, and god knows I've done that too but this was more...you don't think to flinch from a hot stove because your body automatically knows to and just does it, except instead of an actual threat it's just a scared kid who happened to get physical because he's stressed and doesn't like you but your body is stupid and thinks you're about to die because it got vaguely reminded of something that actually did kill you and—guh.' I held a hand to my face, exhausted and kinda ashamed trying to recount the whole thing. "...And no, that doesn't make it ok, it's just you at least deserve an explanation."
Cascabel took a break from scanning the area around it to peer over Garrett's shoulder at the book, then squeaked something about wanting to keep these in mind for the future.
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guessMel put a hand to her mouth to suppress a laugh, then shook her head, though still had an amused smile. "Ah, well, I was gonna guess fallout survivor with the mask, but thief makes sense too" Mel commented, and looked over at the discarded book. "The fakes aren't just here to kill us; they're here to mess with our heads too" the fangirl added, then shrugged, "I guess you didn't know yet."
"Mine for instance tried to guilt trip me about my babies, and my ex boyfriend. So I pointed out that at least I got laid here, and she came at me with a waffle iron, then Calvin knocked her out with a wet floor sign, so it worked out" Mel explained, rather nonchalantly.
Then she looked to Gon, one eyebrow raised in a sort of skeptical manner. "... Uh, so you like, know this guy or something?" Mel then asked Garrett, turning back to him.
You are reading this.Ben winced at Thomas and Lewis' retorts. He nearly snapped back that he was trying to defend Lewis, but he held his tongue. Instead Ben looked guilty for a moment before turning away.
"You're right, Thomas, it's not my decision to make. And Lewis? I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm trying to make things right. I've been really stupid while I've been here. And I can't expect everyone to get over things so easily. I understand that more than anyone." He sighed, putting his hands behind his head again.
"How does Yuna do this stuff so easily?" he groaned. "She can get mortal enemies to be best friends and I'm stuck here trying to stop my friends from going at each other's throats..."
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Louie still looked very uncertain of what to think, but was clearly skeptical of Lewis' words. After some silent thinking, he spoke, in a low voice. "You already didn't like me. You expect me to believe you didn't do it on purpose?" Louie asked, the tone not entirely rhetorical.
Thomas meanwhile had his face scrunch a bit, and he looked at Ben. "Ben, why would you blame yourself because other people aren't getting along with each other? That doesn't make any sense" Thomas told the younger boy plainly. "We don't like him; his shortcomings are not your fault. It doesn't really have anything to do with you" the young wizard explained.
You are reading this.Hercules shifted to another part of the city, he started looking around whilst calling out to his friend. "Rean? Rean, are you there?" He waited for a response, but no response came. He was just about to turn back around and look for Rean elsewhere when he stopped himself in mid turn and saw in the distance four familiar faces. There stood, Ben, Louie, Thomas and Lewis, oh good Herc thought looks like I'm in safe hands here.
"Ben, guys, are you alright?" Herc called out to the group as he then quickly approached them, relieved to see them.

"Garrett", the thief said to Melanie distractedly as he rifled through the fake Garrett's clothes.
He took a brief inventory of his own equipment. He hadn't used up that much of it: he was only short two gas arrows (used on the copies in the office building), one healing potion (to heal the wounds from fake Marcus's bolter), five moss arrows (to make a silent path to the warehouse) and two broadhead arrows (shot into the fake Garrett's body.) He searched the fake Garrett's body to see if he could refill his resources.
Hearing whistling from the ground floor, he stopped, looked down and saw Gon. His eyes narrowed. Was this another fake?
Under his breath, he said: "Hey, Mr. Designer. Is there any way to tell one of these fakes from a real person? Without killing them?" He figured he might as well ask, even if it was unlikely to help.
Edited by Korodzik on Dec 8th 2019 at 12:21:15 PM