CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Cole gasped when the changes hit Sawyer, and she was pulled away and into the bubble over the desk. "Wait, no!" But Miss Tairee had already scolded them and disappeared from the library, leaving him staring up at the bubble with the child-Sawyer in it.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!" He pulled at the sides of his hat again, shaking his head. "Oh Maker, I'm so sorry, Sawyer! I never should have been angry at her, I shouldn't have said anything...!"

The spirit slumped back to sit on the floor, ducking his head down to stay hidden under his hat, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt anyone..."

Sans just looked as Miss Tairee transformed Sawyer into a kid and then trapped her into a bubble, looking pretty much unfazed by it despite how dramatic the librarian was being about the whole thing even making what he could only assume was a pun.

"that's it? wow, that was really petty," said Sans, shrugging "and here i was hoping she would do something really big or somewhat meaningful."

Cole, on the other hand, was freaking out like crazy over this pretty much trivial issue, he sure was acting less like a spirit of compassion and more like a spirit of neurosis. It was kinda funny to see him get this stressed out about everything, but knowing how he was, the skeleton figured he had to do something to calm the spirit down.

"cole, c'mon. she's not hurt, she's just trapped in a bubble and is now a little kid. the worst thing that could happen would be she dying out of boredom and that would be quite an achievement."

Middle Layer

Cassiopeia practically beamed at Grimlock and Rex, then nodded eagerly at Ben's offer. "Oh, absolutely! I do so love libraries!" She briefly pivoted to wave at Tick and Arthur once the Omnitrix-bearer was distracted by what was clearly a handheld communication device of some sort, though whether she was saying goodbye to the superhero duo or imploring them to come with was unclear. Inside, however, she was tepidly congratulating herself. H... Ha! That was easy-peasy! We're practically friends already!

"I don't suppose we shall be able to get there particularly quickly, however, knowing how these streets change, and considering that night is already upon us..." She seemed to contemplate something for a second, then nodded at the vaguely Hispanic young man. "I could teleport us all straight there, being a wizard, but only if I knew the exact look of it. So then, Mister Rex, how about this? You concentrate as deeply as you can on the library, I shall use some magic to read your mind, and we'll be off! If I may ask, though, why a pastry shop? Have you a bit of a sweet tooth, mayhap?"

"But it was my fault! Everything that's come to this moment and she's being punished because of me! I didn't want this! I should have stayed on the elevator with you, I wouldn't have been taken, you wouldn't have died, I wouldn't have been a demon, and all of this wouldn't have happened! So many people have been hurt today because of me! I don't want to hurt people anymore! I thought I could be better than this, that things could be better here, but it's not! It's not better! People are still afraid of me, still hate me, still want to use me! And the person who's been nicest to me all along is being punished because I caused this! It all goes back to me making the wrong choice and causing everyone to hurt!"

It might have been becoming clearer that it wasn't just the fact that a kid Sawyer was having to spend the night in a soap bubble that was causing this particular outburst, even as Cole let go of his hat to start wringing his hands together and rocking again.

"I just want to help people and I keep getting it wrong...ever since I've been human it's been so much harder to do what's right! I wish the Inquisitor hadn't changed me! I wish I were just a spirit again!"

".....Ben?" Plague Knight responded, his worry alleviated only slightly. "I meant to call Lune or Caro, but alas. Anyway, while myself, Lune, and Caro managed to find Mary at this pastry shop, but when we found her, she and a woman from the Ruckus had already finished brutally murdering a group of small green-skinned people in cold blood," he started to explain. "We initially tried to talk Mary into coming with us, but it seemed Old Feather managed to tempt her with niceness and assigned a clearly mentally unhinged woman as her older sister as a means of further corrupting her! We could not retrieved Mary because two more Ruckus member came in and we did not believe we could fight them all off and safely grab Mary in the process.

"I would just let things go from there and can figure out a method of storming the Ruckus base to rescue her tomorrow," he continued, "but the madwoman had just scrapped off the floor some of the blood from their earlier kills and mixed it into cake frosting! I don't think she knows, but the thought of her eating something with blood in it is enough to disgust me greatly! We need help!"

Plague Knight was too engrossed in his conversation to notice Sadness, Zelda, and Twilight approaching, but as they neared they at least clearly hear what he said about Mary killing someone again and about her going to be tricked into eating blood.....

edited 17th May '16 12:45:03 PM by UdtheImp

Before they could search for a place to eat, Ben's cellphone started ringing. Huh, Rex didn't know he had a phone. Maybe he could try using his powers on his earpiece to connect it to Ben's phone or something. But, enough of ideas, the call seemed important.

"Who is it, Ben? Put him on the speaker"

Ben's eyebrows raised when he heard Plague Knight's voice on the other end of the speaker. "Plague Knight?" he asked, in astonishment. His astonishment gave way to horror as Plague Knight described just what sort of things were going on. Rex asked to put the conversation on speaker, Ben looked onto the screen and pressed the speaker phone button, listening to the horrible things Plague Knight was saying.

"That's... that's horrible! Where are you? Where is this pastry shop? Where's Mary?! I've gotta help you!" Normally he would still be very hungry... but the talk about bloody cake made him lose his appetite.

Middle Layer - Approaching Pastry Shop - Madness Incoming

Zelda carefully took her phone back from Sadness as to not accidentally give herself an emotional breakdown from touching the emotion. While it wouldn't be as bad now as it would had been earlier, it still wasn't exactly the best of times.

After taking another bite from her apple, she looked at what was supposedly her phone's number.

"According to this, my phone has the number 516-9325." She looked up from it at the others. "So, how do I add other people's numbers to this? For that matter, how do I contact them with it? Sorry for all the questions; this is just something that doesn't exist where I'm from."

Granted, a lot of things she'd seen so far were something she never knew existed before. Once she told everyone back home about all this, she expected that they would think she was absolutely crazy. Of course, this was assuming that the storyteller god would be nice enough to return her to Skyloft instead of dropping her off wherever that tornado would have. In which case, she had another adventure to look forwards to after this one...or to not look forwards to.

Fortunately, Sadness caught sight of another person up ahead, ending Zelda's bout with homesickness before it had a chance to properly begin. She was fairly sure she didn't recognize this person herself. They looked to be human-shaped at least, but that head looked very birdlike. Maybe it was just a mask? Regardless of this person's fashion sense, all Zelda could hope for that it wasn't a repeat of what happened earlier. Thankfully, this seemed likely since Sadness appeared to recognize this person to some degree.

As they approached, it became clear that this new person was already occupied with something. To be more specific, they seemed to be keeping an eye on something while talking to someone else. Maybe they were using a phone themselves? In that case, if they turned out to be friendly that'd be another number they could add to their phones.

Then they got close enough to catch what they (or he, judging by the sound of his voice) was talking about.

"What?!" Zelda exclaimed, her facial expression reflecting her great concerns perfectly, "...Excuse us for interrupting, but...what's happening here?"

edited 17th May '16 2:01:42 PM by Yomegami

Library

"Cole."

Having taken in more or less the entire conversation between the librarian and her critics from nearby, a certain green-haired witch at last decided to interject, striding over to stand directly in front of the spirit-turned-human and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I am Cassiopeia. I heard much of what was said, and though I know not the fullness of thy circumstance, this much can I tell thee: There be times when the choices of one person may make all the difference in the world," the queen began, gentle yet firm like the grip on his arm, even as she accidentally lapsed back into a more familiar tongue, "But hear me now, young Cole, this be not one those times. Here, as verily at most times, what hath transpired be the result of the choices of many persons together. Thy choices, aye, but also a great multitude of choices by Miss Tairee, Miss Sawyer, Mister Sans, young Mary, and even Old Feather Beak. To think that thy actions alone hast led to these ends be the same as saying thou hast made their choices for them, and that only thy own actions hath been of consequence. 'Tis not only incorrect to think thus; 'tis unspeakably arrogant of thee. Thine actions mayhap contributed to that which was no part of thy intention, but ne'er can a majority of the fault be thine for others having chosen the paths they didst. Thou wished to help, and there be not a thing wrong with that. Dost thou understand?"

Cole looked up at the newcomer, eyes scanning across her face a moment, before looking back down at the floor, one hand patting at his own leg slowly. "You know what it's like to turn dark inside..." he said softly. "...you know what it is to despair. The world is mine to remake as I see fit...and none shall defy my will. ...but then...I want to make everyone happy, just as they all were. This world shall bloom."

Cole looked back up at her, then back to Sawyer, before lowering his head again. "It's all right. Thank you. I'm sorry..."

Regardless of whether Karkat followed or not, Lune entered the lopsided apartment after Caro. She didn’t want her to be hurt by whatever lurks inside this wretched junkheap.

As soon as Lune entered the place, water suddenly dripped onto Lune’s head. Oh, great. Not only is this place structurally unsound, it had a terrible plumbing problem. To make matters worse, the place smelled a little moldy and rotten. Who maintains this place?

Lune tried to catch up with Caro, passing various facilities inside this disgusting apartment. One shop was a noodle-making factory, but the group of people was completely unaware of the rats and roaches lurking within one of the bags of flour. Gross! Do people really live in these horrid conditions?! Despite this pessimism, the workers still had smiles as if they were hoping for a brighter future.

Lune looked away in disgust as she passed another shop. This shop was filled with women making the bags for the various supermarkets in this city. Guess some people have fallen on hard times, huh? They even brought their children to work, and some are teaching them how to read and write while working on the plastic bags.

After passing that shop, Lune finally caught up with Caro, who was just looking around for the stairs in this building. Fortunately, the stairs had a sign above them, indicating their location.

“Well, I saw this place a bit,” said Lune with a bit of disgust in her voice. “Hopefully, there are better rooms on the upper floors, right?”

Cassiopeia said she could teleport them all to the library. That was definitely convenient but she still wondered why Rex wanted to find a pastry shop of all places. She sked if he had a sweet tooth.

"You could say that"

The one calling Ben's phone was Plague Knight. Rex couldn't hear everything but what he did hear was enough. The Ruckus had gone from kidnapping to murder to cannibalism and Mary was following their path.

The day was almost over so they had to deal with this quickly or they would have to take care of another stupid condition on top of two psychos (plus a bird demon and an unhinged supersoldier).

"Forget about the library. I have some unfinished business with Kelsey and Mary. You can come if you want to"

He said that last part pointing at the seat behind him that had formed along with his hoverbike.

"She did what?" screamed Morty as he overheard the phone conversation. "Oh my god! Th—th-th-that's horrible! Oh god!" Morty looked like he was going to throw up at the mere thought. "What the hell?! Why? That's, it's, it's like something you'd see in some kind of messed up horror movie! What the hell?! What the hell?!" Morty's hands were blindly clawing at his face as he tried to purge the horrible mental image from his memory. The remains of the pastry lay crumbled on the street, as Morty had mysteriously lost all of his appetite.

"Easy there, Morty." Rick patted his grandson awkwardly on the back. "

"H-h-how could she do that, huh?" Morty screamed. "She was- I- she- I thought we snapped her out of it, right? We told her that it wasn't okay to kill people, or something, I dunno. She was acting all nice to me and stuff a few days ago! I, I, I, I-"

"Well, Morty, you *urp* you know, the recidivism rate for psychopathic behaviour is 85%." Rick explained, in his usual I-don't-have-time-for-this-voice. "Not a lot of - you know, not a lot of margin for correction there, right?"

"Oh, yeah, you'd know, huh?" Morty snapped.

"What, you're calling me a psychopath now, Morty? Low blow, Morty. Low blow. I'm not the *urp* creepy, what, some creepy child of the corn cutting up people and turning them into cakes! I mean, what, do I look like Sweeney Todd here? Look, I got this under control, okay? I'll build a cryogenic blaster, freeze her solid, put her in the beer fridge in my lab, and everything'll be fine."

"I don't want that either, Rick! She's a, a human being!"

"Hate to burst your little bubble there, Morty, but she's-*urp*- she's just some kind of sentient... paint... conglomeration... that thinks it's a human. She's an unSTURAGHble artificial intelligence at best." Morty blinked and looked down at the ground.

"I thought she could change, you know?"

"Take it from grampa, Morty. Nobody *urp* really changes."

Middle Layer — Red Light, Red Light!

Seeing as at least one of their number was about to go racing off, Cassiopeia wasted no time in putting up a hand to signal him to stop. "Hold, Rex! I do hate to say this, and of course I don't know the whole story here," she interjected with a thoughtful frown, "but it is already night. Even if we took the step of splitting up to search for this young lady, we could go all night without finding her, thanks to the shifting nature of the city. Moreover, what are you going to do once you find her? Throw her over your shoulder and take her someplace safer perhaps, but where? You would still face the problem of navigating the streets on your way out, and even if you were to bring her to a safe place, would she want to stay? Do you have some means of restraining her?"

The wizardess sighed and shook her head. "You are all tired and hungry from that battle just now, are you not? Any extra adrenaline from that will soon wear out, and the hour is late. Why not retire for now and resume the search on the morrow, once you are sufficiently rested and prepared?"

"By the way..." The wayward royal turned to eye the pair who had been trailing behind them with unconcealed curiosity. "Who are you, if I may ask?"

Ben looked at Cassiopeia and furrowed his brow. "We can't just leave her though! I'm a hero! Heroes don't leave those in need!" Ben leaped onto the seat with Rex and held on for dear life. "Besides. my watch is gonna come off cooldown pretty soon. Now. Let's go. It's hero time," he stated, putting a serious expression on his face.

"The pastry shop is in the middle layer, I am just outside it and Mary is inside with the three Ruckus members," Plague Knight explained to Ben. "Best hurry!" The knight hung up when Zelda approached. He looked up, not recognizing the princess.

"I'm sorry miss, but at this point you better leave, as - " Then he noticed both Sadness and Twilight. "Twilight!" he greeted. Then to Sadness. "Excuse me, but are you Sadness?" he asked the emotion.

edited 17th May '16 4:59:08 PM by UdtheImp

Library

Before she could comprehend just what was going on, Sawyer was not only in the bubble, but also aged down, but much more greviously than she was before.

She couldn't leave, she couldn't go do things, she couldn't do anything because some godforsaken bitch had a bitchy fit, judged her based on her own whimsy and, flaunting her power, made her power the law.

After, all things considering, a nice change of pace in her usual life, this felt like Roanapur, its worst part. Its most impersonal, most quasi-professional part that she spited and reveled in all the same.

But after spending some time here, actually warming up to the concept of social interaction, gaining sort-of-boyfriend and not feeling like a deadman, this was a really rude awakening.

Sawyer said nothing, just staring blankly at the bubble she was trapped in, seemingly unaware of everybody around her. Only after a while did she began to mumble something, too quietly to be heard.

Middle Layer

Shiara finished, wincing a bit since the salve stung. Moving towards the others she noticed a newcomer. She was very...green. And thenshe heard what was coming from...some ssort of handheld magic mirror. Briefly sickned, she almost agreed with Rex, but Greenie made a good point.

That's a good point. I'm Shiara, what's your name?

Meanwhile, Nightwitch jumped up onto the spare seat, curled up, and pro mptly fell asleep.

Middle Layer — Which Witch 2: The Whiching Hour

"Oh!" the other witch exclaimed, easily distracted from her attempt to interrogate Rick and his grandson, "I'm Cassiopeia. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Shiara."

That said, she turned quickly back to Ben. "I am not saying she should simply be abandoned, Benjamin Tennyson, but you must seriously consider what it is you will do if you do manage to come across her in the middle of the night. To start with, you need a plan of action beyond 'find Mary'. Heroism is about more than that. You must think carefully and understand what it is you must do in order to help people in need, not just locate them."

edited 17th May '16 2:27:17 PM by darksidevoid

All of sudden a newcomer joined in as Cole had gone on a rant about how everything has been his fault and basically did the skeleton's job for him in a fancier way of speaking to boot. This seemed to have worked well because it got Cole to calm down and also rambling some weird things as it was typical for him at this point.

"it was me who provoked that lady into all of this so this is all definitely my responsability more than anyone else's. either way, with this we got to see more of how that librarian is and considering all she did was basically a small slap on the wrist after i did my best to push her, it's looking like she can't really do much to us other than inconvenience us out of spite."

He then turned to meet this new person, she had quite a regal look to her so she was probably actual royalty, that would explain the way she spoke just now anyway.

"so you were listening through the whole thing? well, since you went of your way to calm down the kid here, i guess you can't be bad. nice to meet ya, miss."

edited 17th May '16 2:36:09 PM by FullMoon

Ben winced when Cassiopeia referred to him as "Benjamin". At least she didn't use his middle name too, otherwise she'd sound like his mom when she was angry at him.

"Don't call me Benjamin," he muttered. "Anyway! I have a plan. Go out there, rescue Mary from the Ruckus, and take care of anyone who tries to stop us!" He leaned against Rex's seat back. "I could pretty much do whatever. I could go Stinkfly and stick the Ruckus to the ground like concrete. I could go XLR8 and run circles around them to get Mary out of there quick. I could go Wildvine and snatch her away from them with my vines. Either way, we have to hurry!"

The white witch made some good points in favor of going back to the library but Tairee's boss never put the real challenges at the beginning of the day. And, with Ben's help, they could probably do it with enough time left to eat something on the way to the library.

"Sorry, Cass, but I like to improvise. This the perfect opportunity to take down Kelsey and she doesn't look too dangerous. Mary is just a little girl so there's no way we can't force her to be exorcised. Anything else is a minor detail. Although Rick may be right. We could probably build a cage for her anyway"

Ben explained that he could take care of Kelsey and any potential Ruckus members in a lot of ways. Yeah, compared to the giant robot, this was a piece of cake.

"And Plague Knight's there. We'll be back in no time"

Rex raced of looking for Plague Knight and/or the pastry shop but not before saying goodbye in his own way.

"Don't worry, guys. We'll be fine!"

edited 17th May '16 10:00:48 PM by DeisTheAlcano

"Understood" Aigis said as she took one of the offered artifacts. Her attention was drawn to a regal looking woman as she spoke to Cole about something (She had missed most of the prior events regarding Cole and his company in her focus on the Lieutenant) She decided she would introduce herself to the woman, and walked over to her with heavy metallic footsteps.

"Greetings. I do not recognize you, so I assume you are a recent arrival to this place. My name is Aigis, a Seventh Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon, or as most people call me, a "robot"."

Internally, Aigis wondered if she should continue using her full designation every time she introduced herself here, as it was a mouthful for most humans to take in and she had yet to see any Shadows here, so its relevance was becoming questionable.

"Also, greetings, Cole-san. How are you?"

edited 17th May '16 3:43:03 PM by Meanken

Karkat continued to think, and by the time he was done, he saw Lune, Caro, and Fried already walking into what looked like a hive. His hive, specifically. How convenient! Maybe it even has his own recuperacoon? HEY, WAIT UP! He followed them inside, and despite the horrid conditions (he saw Lune's disgust hilarious for some reason) he decided he could survive as long he saw a recuperacoon somewhere.

Phone tutorials, familiar faces, and what became of Mary: Middle Layer

Twilight was able to use telekinetic magic to avoid physical contact with Sadness while taking back her phone.

"It says my number is 657-7669. I think to contact others you just input their number on the keypad?"

After Sadness maybe provided additional details, and pointed out the newest location, the trio overheard an individual reveal what became of Mary... And it was quite possibly the worst fate to have befallen her.

After Zelda spoke up, the individual turned. And he recognized Twilight.

"Oh! You're Plague Knight, correct? And yes, this is Sadness. But more to the point... What did you just say about Mary?!"