The shouting match between grandfather and grandson quickly died down as the blue dinosaur began yelling at them... including something that was probably some alien curse word of some kind. This was short lived, as the orange creature quickly hopped up onto the front of the boat and doffed his tall green hat by way of introduction.
"Uh..." Morty was taken aback by the orange creature's almost disarming friendliness. "I mean uh- hi."
Rick squinted at Wander before turning his head and downing a shot, almost as if he was looking for Jim Henson's arm somewhere beneath the orange alien.
"Uh- I mean I-I'm Morty, and this is my grandpa Rick."
"Yo." Rick took another shot and leaned back against the seat, propping his feet up against the steering wheel. "You're *urp* you're in the city now, you and your *urp* your -" Rick mentally looked at Sylvia, cross-referencing it with every alien he could remember over the course of his dimensional travel" "...dinosaur thing- you're in the city now." Rick watched Sylvia flounder in the water a bit. "I-it's a thing-place-pocket dimension thing, lots of *urp* wacky, colourful characters from all different works-worlds interactin' with one another and- you know, havin' adventures and shit." Rick looked Wander up and down again as though trying to ascertain something. "Yep. You'll fit right in." Rick rolled his eyes, as though the saccharine content of that lone sentence was enough to give him a cavity.
"Like, uh, t-there's this guy who kidnapped us because he wants to... uh..."
"Write a story."
"Y-yeah. That. And uh... there's a lady in a library, she like, gives us stuff to do? Makes us fight monsters and stuff?"
"Kind of a *urp* bitch really. Oh and uh there's this kid, uh, turns into aliens. Ben. Yeah. And another kid, nano-machine infused post*URGHuman, throws around giant... fists... and stuff..."
"-Rex-"
"Oh and, uh, wh-whashisname, Plague Knight, stick-up-his-ass... chemist or something... from *urp* some backwater hick universe where they haven't even invented toilets yet, dude hates me. Aaand you've already met my grandson Morty," slurred Rick, slurping down the last of the grog and tossing the bottle overboard, "without him, you know, we wouldn't have almost ran you down, j-just puttin' that out there."
Morty stared resentfully at his grandfather before turning back to the two waterlogged aliens. "I mean uh, we could take you to the library, you know? Meet the... group."
"Morty this is a *urp* advanced underwater speedboat, not some stupid party-time StAUGHten Island Ferry for you-"
"We almost killed them, okay, Rick? Least we could do." Rick rolled his eyes again and sighed. "Just uh -just hop in the back there... y-y'know, if you want. I mean I think there are monsters and stuff in the water today?"
edited 19th Aug '16 7:53:43 PM by Locoman
After Q10 had left, Ripjaws swam, most likely with Eve in tow if she decided to follow, off in a direction away from the library. He swam down, trying to find some kind of clue as to where the balconies were. Seeing the tunnels leading deeper and deeper into the depths, Ripjaws would have followed them to see where they went, but he noticed a shadow passing overhead. He looked up. A futuristic boat of some kind, with two people (at least, a person and what looked like a weird dinosaur) swimming beside it.
At first, he thought they might be in trouble but they looked like they were swimming competently. He decided to check to make sure. Also, perhaps whoever was on the boat would know where the balconies were. He swam towards the surface and surfaced beside the boat. "Hey, are you guys—" Ripjaws started, when he winced a little at who was driving the boat... Rick and Morty. "Oh. You guys," he muttered.
edited 19th Aug '16 8:38:37 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Karkat's departure and quick return made her earlier point very clear. Before she could come up with a viable plan of attack, PK tossed in some kind of alchemical explosive, making an impressive sound. She got up to the door, and motioned for Yoshika to follow her.
"Okay, Yoshika. I need you to peek around the corner and tell me what the thing is doing. Alright?" Yoshika saluted, saying "That's pretty easy sounding!" She slowly pried open the bulkhead, and looked beyond it.
"I see...a little egg shaped thing lying on the ground. It's just sitting there from the pooks of it." Seiga patted her on the head for a jpb well done, considering how much more descriptive she was than usual. "Looks like that did the trick, Sir Knight...but I must ask, do you have a name beyond just Plague Knight?"
Sophie's strength lay more in how she focused force into her strikes, rather than raw lifting power - in short, she was a brawler rather than a grappler. Coupled with her shorter stature compared to the woman, it meant that as the woman thrashed around, she had trouble pulling them both away from the dispatched creature's body. The woman's shaky threat and half-crazed, half-mournful look also gave her pause; for a moment, she looked a little fearful... and a little concerned as well.
"...Let's go somewhere else," Sophie said after a moment of allowing the woman to cry her heart out. She let go of one arm, but kept hold of the other as she began to move, hoping to lead the woman out of the stone-laid plaza and away from the creatures' corpses.
Karkat - Chamber - I'm Different
The dude with the mask—Plague Knight, apparently—found a very simple solution to the problem at hand: explosives. At least it worked. Seiga had Yoshika double check, saving Karkat the trouble of doing it himself, and the bomb seemed to have done it's job right. Sure enough, when Karkat went out to see for himself, the white spherical weapon let out a tiny "I don't blame you" before presumably shutting down, given the flicker of the red light at its center. It was positively creepy, but at least it wasn't trying to punp him full of lead anymore. JEEZ, MAN, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU PUT IN THAT BOMB? Karkat said, examining the charred surface of the walls.
(holds pool noodle threateningly) Do you want to know what we do to artists?Underwater Tunnels - Waves of tranquility
Caro watched worryingly as Cole rambled on, specially once he slumped on the floor and then seemed to be about to burst into tears. Feeling that she needed to get him to calm down somehow, she hesitated a bit before gently sliding to the floor as well, ending up sitting next to him. She then attempted to gently lop her arms around him in a sideways hug.
Then regardless of his initial reaction, she began to speak softly, "No one is perfect. We all make mistakes sometimes, some bigger than others, even we have only the best intentions at heart. I'm sure that most of those people would understand that you were just trying to help. So please, don't let that stop from trying to get close to people and helping them. And for what's worth, you didn't hurt me at least. Sure the situation just now got bad, but that was not really anyone's fault. And if anything, I may also have hurt you beforehand with some of the things I said ... But please, don't regret staying with us. I sure don't regret getting to know and befriend you."
She got a bit of a thoughtful look and paused for a short while before continuing, "I can somewhat get that. Back home, I'm a part of an organization not that different from his group. Following orders is a part of my job too. So there's nothing really wrong with that if you think it will help accomplish your goal. But at the same time, you're your own person and you should be able to decide on your own what to do, specially when it comes to helping others. Maybe you will need some guidance at first, but you can do it. And honestly, I feel that part of the issue may be that people have decided for and/or forced their will on you so much that you can't do it by yourself anymore, but that can change. I for one will never force you do to anything you don't really want to do. But I'm here to help you figure out a way to do what you supposed to regardless.""
She flashed him a warm smile and further added, "Yeah, neither of you were really bad. I'm not mad at either of you. That all just ... Happened. Sometimes it goes like that, unfortunately. But it is nothing that shouldn't be able to be fixed shortly. You don't really have to change just for our sake, or anyone else's. I accept and like you just for who you are. We'll get through all this together, alright?"
edited 19th Aug '16 10:36:18 PM by JamesShields
Gon, now in trouble.
As soon as the pirates (Gon saw that they weren't human, but they were anthropomorphic. In this case, they were animals. But he's not sure if they were animals from land or from the sea) opened fire, Gon was forced to drop the oars and take cover, hoping that the blunderbusses won't hit him.
When the firing seized for a moment, Gon sat up and opened fire with his double barreled shotgun twice.
After he ducked back down, he heard some loud groans from the ship, indicating that they were shot.
"It's not really her life, but her person's, Riley" Miss Tairee stated idly as if to slightly correct Zelda, then looked at Twilight. "I don't need any help, but maybe Zelda could use a hand in tracking down the anti-humans. Unless you want to wait around on the off chance some of them come here, you're going to have to..." the librarian trailed off as a crashing noise came from inside the library, then lifted up her glasses frame and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Dag nab it Rex, I'm sorry, something just came up I need to deal with" Miss Tairee told them, then turned around and walked into the nearest set of revolving doors back into the library.
Jackson watched Rex bring out one of his smack hands, and continued to watch as Rex swung it towards him, just standing there. He didn't try to dodge or get out of the way, or look very concerned or even surprised. He just kept grinning, and said, "Stup-"
With the size of Rex's smack hand and the fact that it's made of metal, getting punched by it would be like getting hit by a dumpster going at 20 miles per hour. (And that's assuming an average speed punch, which Rex can probably do better than.) A light smearing of blood was left on the front of the smack hand as Jackson's crumpled body went barreling through a few pieces of furniture and came to a stop, partially under a busted sofa. A few moments later, his body disappeared with a blur, leaving only a small puddle of blood that had started to form there.
There was a brief silence, then Rex was abruptly yanked off his feet and placed inside one of the invincible bubbles. "Blast it Rex, I thought I explained to you people that rules are rules" Miss Tairee said, her tone only half apologetic as her Southern Belle accent was starting to creep in. She was walking over to near the bubble, typing away on her holographic screen. Once she stopped typing, there was a brief blur in the air nearby, and Jackson reappeared. Miss Tairee glanced at him and said in the most dull, neutral tone she could manage, "I hope the interruption to your visit was not too intrusive."
"Oh no no, it was no trouble at all" Jackson said snidely, glancing around and then spotting Rex in the bubble; the man then promptly burst out laughing. "See?! See!? This just proves exactly what I was talking about! Oh man, who needs psychic mind bugs or magic illusions to screw with you guys? You can't even realize when someone is trying to get you to fight them!" he continued.
Miss Tairee had been looking at the damage to the furniture and starting to type on the holographic screen again, but stopped when she heard Jackson say that and realized something. She then wheeled around to face him. "Sir, if you're just going to sit around in here and try to start fights, then I'm going to have to ask you to leave" Miss Tairee told him.
Jackson seemed surprised a moment, then lifted his hands up, accepting he was done now. "Alright, alright, I'll leave. This place was starting to lose the appeal anyhow" Jackson muttered, and started walking towards one of the revolving doors. "Now hmm, just how am I going to get off this isolated location filled with a bunch of angry heroes who are going to chase me down?" he thought out loud sarcastically, then snapped his fingers and added, "oh! I know!" Whistling as he walked, Jackson pulled the butterfly knife from his pocket and deftly unfolded it again. The moment he walked out the revolving door, he interrupted his whistling by stabbing the knife into the side of his own neck, down to the very base of the blade. Then with a jerky motion, he yanked the butterfly knife over to the other side, and promptly collapsed as blood poured all down the frontside of his suit. He disappeared once again just a moment later, again leaving only blood behind.
"... Ugh" Miss Tairee commented, and with a little more typing, made the bubble around Rex disappear to drop him back on the floor.
"B-but, if there's more of th-the, those things, I should stay here to, to fight them" Kelsey said weakly between sobs. Despite her verbal protest, she allowed Sophie to start leading her away by the hand; though she seemed unwilling to go any faster than a walking pace, and was still sobbing.
edited 19th Aug '16 11:16:49 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Cole flinched a little when Caro hugged him, ducking his head a bit, but when there didn't seem to be any pain coming, he finally looked to her, listening as she talked. He looked over at Sans, biting his lip, then sniffed, wiping at his eyes, lowering his head and looking downright ashamed.
"...I had a friend, when I...f-first came to be, inside the dungeons of the Circle...no one could see me at first. I was alone, always, and nothing I could do changed that. I...I didn't know what I was, or...well. I...I was bad. But then there was a man...h-his name was Rhys. S-somehow he could see me, hear me...he could remember me. A-and I was...I was so alone and so desperate to have...have someone..."
He sniffled, swallowing hard. "A-a lot of bad things happened...Rhys wanted to help me, because we...we didn't know what I really was. And...be-because of that, the bad things that happened...g-got him hurt. Got him almost killed. Did get his lady friend Evangeline killed for a few minutes. And...so many other people. The Templars hurt so many, the mages fought back...word spread. Th-there was a war...th-that went on until I made it to the Inquisition...and is still...still there."
Cole looked to her, then back to Sans. "Helping me...m-made the world worse. A-and it was for nothing. W-when Rhys learned what I was he...he was horrified. They thought I was trying to use him, that being a spirit meant I was just...just trying to steal his life from him. He...he didn't blame me. He knew...knows more about spirits than anyone. B-but..."
He shivered a little. "It's...it's frightening, it hurts. But it still...S-Sans helped me here...and he died. I-I know he says it doesn't matter, but...but I hurt him because he helped me. I...I remember the sound of things exploding, of people screaming while the demon threatened me...it...it was like a-another war...because of me. ...d-does that...does that make...sense? I'm..." Cole sniffed, wiping his eyes again. "I didn't mean to hurt him...I don't want to hurt anyone. But...but I'm scared. I'm so scared, Caro, I just...I just don't want to spill more blood. I am about to see my third autumn, and I've already caused so much..."
After getting a little time to think and hearing more of Caro and Cole's conversation, Sans eventually took a deep breath and went back to them, still carrying the scarf in one his hands.
"cole, you're gonna hurt people sometimes, it's just how it goes, no matter how close you are to someone eventually you're gonna mess up," said Sans, sighing, "but that's fine, if you hurt someone, you just have to make it up for them later. apologize, try to do something nice for them, just anything to prove that you do still care."
He then glanced at Caro, letting out a chuckle. He wondered how she must have felt when she saw get him so worked up earlier, she had never really seen him get angry before but at least it wasn't as bad as it could've been.
"you said you made the joke earlier because you knew me and caro talking to each other made us happy, right?" he asked, looking back at Cole, "well, you're not wrong. but at the same time, just yesterday... while i wouldn't say she hurt me, she still messed up pretty bad and just like you she only wanted to help, but it didn't work, but that's fine. she apologized and we carried on, that's just life." He looked back at her. "she's probably gonna end up doing it again, i will probably end up hurting her eventually too and it likely won't be just once, but it's ok"
He then sat down in front of them both, his expression was much softer now than it was before and even his voice sounded gentler and calmer than usual. He looked down at the scarf he was holding.
"what makes a friendship strong isn't just whether or not we can make each other happy, that's just the start. true friends don't just make each other happy, they're also people who fight and argue with each other, but at the end of the day they still care about each other to work things out. to be able to stay together through the good and the bad; and no matter how bad it can get, still finding a reason to be smiling together at the end, that's what makes any kind of relationship last."
He kept a strong grip on the scarf as he began facing Cole again.
"you made me upset and you already apologized. i don't hate you. you didn't mean to make me mad and i know it's true. i'm fine and i'm ready to move on, because even if you can be hard to deal with, i still care about you enough that I want to see you happy."
edited 20th Aug '16 1:14:04 AM by FullMoon
Underwater Tunnels - Hopefully the last wave
Caro listened attentively as Cole spoke, gently tightening her embrace around as he did so, of the tragedies he had seemingly caused. She also took note of his "Third autumn" comment. Did that mean he was not even three years old yet? That would make him much younger than she was, several years younger than even Vivio was. She had to admit that did explain rather a lot of some of his behavior ...
Then Sans came, thankfully having seemingly sucessfully cooled off and spoke to Cole. She quietly and attentively listened to him as well, taking special notice of he said about what had happened between them yesterday.
Once he too was finished, she loosened her embrace just enough so she could look more directly at Cole and spoke gently, "He's right. You didn't mean to hurt anyone, you just wanted to help, you regret that it went badly and want to fix things up. That's normal, Cole. That makes you so much unlike some of the people we are facing here, so much unlike that demon that you unfortunately think you are similar too ... They want to hurt people and don't even regret it. You may have made some mistakes, maybe some pretty big ones, but it's not anything that can't really be fixed."
She turned pensieve and took a bit of a pause before adding, "Plus, you shouldn't blame yourself for the hurt that others caused just because you were somehow involved in it, more as a victim than anything else. Sans dying was at the hands of the hands of that horrible guy from Ruckus who did it and then kidnapped you. What then happened, with them doing horrible things to you and others, was their fault and not yours. The same thing could be said about what went down in your home. Blaming you for any of that would be like ..."
A sorrowful look overcame her, as those bad memories appeared once more. She needed a little while longer before she continue, "There's this little girl in my family ... Her name is Vivio and she has only seen a few more autumns than you have. My friends and I found her one day, hurt and alone somewhere underground in out city, so we took her home to be healed. Then another day, while most of us were on a mission somewhere else, our base got attacked and Vivio got kidnapped. A lot of people got hurt, the place many of us, including me, called home got razed to the ground. What's more, the people who kidnapped her planned to use her for something soi truly terrible, that if it had suceeded, our whole world would have been destroyed. She was turned into something was not, manipulated into fighting someone she loved very much ... She too turned to be not what we thought she was ... "
She gave him an utterly imploring look, her tone sounding in a similar way as she pressed on, "Do you think any of us blame her for any of that? Of course not and we have done our best to make sure she never blames herself for it either ... She was the uttermost victim in all that, the one who suffered the most for it ... The people to blame are the criminals to did all that, who were arrested and are still facing the consequences for it ... The same could be said for most of the terrible incidents that you think you caused. You were a victim too, so please, don't hurt or blame yourself over it ... "
She glanced at Sans, before looking back at Cole and continuing, "He's right. I did make a pretty big mistake. I wanted to do something about his world, so Zelda anf I asked the storyteller god for it , without letting Sans know about it first... But he asked us to do terrible things for it and we couldn't do it ... Sans caught me before it got any worse and even though I may not have hurt him directly, I ended up hurting myself a lot over it, which sometimes can be just as bad if not worse, because it hurts the people that care about you to see you hurting like that ... "
She then flashed a warm smile and she further added, "But also like he said, I managed to fix this that and we even grew closer for it. I'm sure that there will still be hardships, but our bond will always be strong enough to survive all of it. And maybe the three of us will also be stronger, closer for this too. So let's do our best to press on and move forward," She finally let go of the embrace and slowly go up. Then she held her hand out to him to help him up.
edited 20th Aug '16 10:55:13 AM by JamesShields
Cole took in what they both had to say, actually seeming a little surprised at the notion that Sans and Caro might have had any sort of incident where they had any disagreement. They'd seemed so in-tune with one another all the time he'd observed them that it was clear that even the thought that they hadn't been baffled him.
Still, they both tried to assure him that mistakes happened, people got hurt, and that didn't mean it was his fault. Caro told him about how people had hurt one of her friends, used her the way the Ruckus had wanted to use him, and that it wasn't her fault. He would agree with that, someone stealing a child to warp them was a terrible thing...he would have happily cut down anyone doing the same thing back home.
Was that...was that how they saw it for what happened with him? That he was the victim rather than the instigator? That...couldn't be right, could it?
"...but...but Vivienne, and Cassandra, and...they told me..." He paused for a moment, seeming to mull it over, before speaking in a voice, sounding feminine, haughty, and indignant. "You brought matters in the Spire to a head. Without you, there would be no rebellion. Countless deaths are on your head, demon." He looked to them, biting his lip. "I...I know now it was wrong, the things I did, I didn't want to make people hurt...I..."
His expression fell slightly, as he lowered his gaze again, just seeming confused. "Your friend...wasn't at fault for what happened to her, Caro, she...and...and you just wanted to help Sans...right? It...it wasn't your fault it went wrong..."
The next part he clearly struggled with, keeping his gaze away from them, cringing down a little, looking terrified even as he said it. "Th-then...then...then it means I...it...it wasn't...m-mine...either?"
Sans listened to what Cole had to say with a blatantly baffled expression on his face, the more he heard about it the worse Cole's world sounded and considering the skeleton came from a world that probably didn't even exist anymore, the fact that it was still better than that was saying something.
"... uh, yeah, it's not your fault. somebody tried to help you and things went wrong, that's pretty much what caro did except a lot worse. that would be like blaming me for what happened between us and, uh... what kind of insane logic is that?"
The more he learned about the people Cole hanged out with the more the way he behaved and thought made sense and all the more he started to think that maybe Cole should not be hanging out with those people to begin with.
"none of what happened was your fault, cole, you just got involved in it. it was the templars' fault that the war happened, at least from what you told us and it was the ruckus fault that i died. you were just another victim in all of this stuff and i'm not the kind to do any sort of victim blaming."
Sans then got up and, following Caro's lead, offered Cole a hand to help him stand up as well.
"now get up, i'm starting to get tired of this place and the way to the library is right next to us," he said, with a patient smile.
Underwater Tunnels - Another crisis averted
The more she heard about what went down back in Cole's world, the more Caro got utterly shock. All that deal with the war waged against mages and all ... If that world had existed in her reality and it had been found, she was sure that the TSAB wouldn't have hesitated in taking action to stop such horrors ... The way that the people Cole knew had treated him ... The less she thought about for now the better. There wasn't much that could drive her into true anger, but this might just do it ...
While keeping the same warm smile, she responded, "Yeah, it was completely wrong of people to blame for those things. You were just as much hurt in all that as anybody else, a innocent victim who got caught into it ... No one should have ever told you otherwise."
She then glanced at the large entrance not too far away from. While keeping her extended to him and still smiling she said, "Yeah, let's get going. I'm sure you will feel much better once we get out of this cramped place and back to the library."
Underwater facility
Garrett put back the phone. Only Plague Knight answered, the other seemed to be incommunicado. So far, the best clue seemed to be to head upwards. He opened the door at the end of the passage, and what luck — there was a staircase behind them, which he ascended.
He came out into a rectangular chamber maybe twenty feet long and six across. There were no viewports here, only illumination from flickering lamps. A noisy steam engine against the far wall drove several pistons up and down for some inscrutable purpose. And there was a bulky contraption hanging from the ceiling — an arrangement of lenses and glasses, with a boxy metal tube affixed underneath so that it pointed towards where they looked. It felt strangely familiar. This ensemble rotated slowly in an arc with a grinding sound, but the moment the lenses pointed at Garrett, it stopped with a sudden clang.
At this point Garrett realised what this machine reminded him of.
The lenses were like a Mechanist Watcher's eyes.
And the tube was not unlike one of these firearms—
With a desperate leap Garrett leapt back towards the opening he came out of — just in time, as, at this exact moment, whatever mechanism lurked behind the lenses decided it didn't like the way he looked.
From the tube erupted a ratchety blazing noise — echoing painfully from wall to metal wall — and a series of bullets embedded into the steel panels where Garrett stood a moment ago. The machine gun blazed away for a good few seconds, before whatever drove it realized that no target was visible, and held fire.
Garrett stood up shakily, wincing at the ache in the elbow which had hit the metal steps. "Damn! Even without unwanted company, I gotta be careful. I can only hope I won't meet one of these 'metal disks' Birdface was talking about..."
Cole was quiet for a bit more, slowly relaxing his posture from what looked like expecting to be hit or otherwise punished. He looked up at the two of them, glancing back and forth a moment, before finally taking Caro and Sans's hands, more to hold them than needing help standing up, since he got to his feet fairly quickly and easily.
"I...I, y-yes. I don't...I don't like these small places very much, they...they make me think I can't get out easily. Th-that scares me." Another hesitation before speaking again, a bit timidly. "I-is it okay to tell you that? I don't...I don't want you to worry too much. I-I am all right, it makes me nervous but I can...I can stand it, I can, if...if it is not all right I am sorry, I...I will be all right, I promise."
He was quiet after that, looking down at his feet still, but it wasn't the same cringing that he had been doing before, less of a reaction that could bring to mind a dog expecting to get hit.
"it's ok, cole, it's good to know you're claustrophobic if nothing else," said Sans, shrugging.
There was something that was making Sans a little curious though and that was the fact Caro never did give him the details of what she would have to do in order for the boss to do something to help him.
"by the way caro, what exactly did you have to do to save my world that was so bad?" he asked her as he started heading towards the docking bay, he already a slight idea of what it could be, but it never hurt to be sure.
Viola I Library (1st Floor) I That Went Well
I looked on at what happened next with a mild interest, seeing Jackson announcing to the whole room what he thought of them, before finally instigating Rex into taking action despite the librarian's warning.
The result of that was pretty much what I expected. Jackson getting off easily(right after he was presumably killed, but it doesn't look like he minded), Rex getting punished appropriately for breaking the rules and the man who was being asked to leave eventually did so, but not before committing suicide to get away from the others.
The last one was the least surprising, though. With the way how the City works, I'll be surprised if other unscrupulous individuals didn't take advantage of it either. And to someone who doesn't seem to be affected by death, or the pain that comes with it, it's the perfect system for them to completely abuse.
Regardless, I should take notes from him. Dying would be a painful and uncomfortable sensation, true, but there will come a time where I need to exploit them too, among other rules that I should be aware of, that being the library rules and the day-to-day challenge rules. Besides, I'm fairly used to personally dying back on my own world, so how different would a self-inflicted death be?
There was nothing left for me to see here once the spectacle is done, though. All that's left is to watch the aftermath. But that's not important. As amusing as it is, right now my priority is getting to know the library. And so, without further ado, I began to take a step to the upper floors, eager to see what I could learn from it; the event that happened before no longer keeping my attention.
edited 20th Aug '16 1:12:47 PM by JustSomeGuy732
"That is a question which the answer is both confidential and honor bound," Plague Knight explained to Seiga after the coast was clear. "Whenever an errant knight takes up the title, they abandon whatever titles and names they had before and must to referred to exclusively by whatever title they chose henceforth. The only ones allowed to know their true names are those whom knew of them before they became a knight, and those whom the knights have a very close and dear relationship with after. It was a practice that was started centuries ago in my world whenever a knight chose to break ties with their ruler in some way as a means of concealing their identity and possibly creating a legacy, but it became a requirement as more and more people outside of nobility become errant knights themselves. It was a good way to differentiate between errant knights and regular knights still swearing fealty to their rulers and from any other traveling warriors."
Then Karkat asked about the contents of the bomb the knight through as the group walked by the now non-functioning turret. "That would be my patented Cascade Powder," Plague Knight explained. "A special combination of sulphur, minerals, and chemicals of my own design, it turns into a liquid state when exposed to open flame that moves outward from the point of impact like a cascade of water! Sure the concept is similar to pouring flammable liquids into a bottle and lighting a soaked rag stuffed into it, but the flames from my powder can incinerate and burn almost anything! Even ice and underwater!" It was clear the alchemist was beaming in pride as he spoke.
"Anyway, as I was saying before, we should try to find some sort of way to head upwards," Plague Knight continued. "I came down here through some sort of ramp, but that way up most likely have moved by now."
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HITTING HELPY!!Underwater Tunnels - Deadly interruption
Caro flashed Cole another smile and said, "Yeah, it's not really a problem. I could kinda already guess that but it's better for us to know than not knowing, I think."
As they walked towards the docking bay, Sans then asked her what the storeyteller god had asked her and Zelda in order to save his world. She froze in place for an instant, hesitanting, before sighing. She supposed there was no point in hiding that anymore. It had been the storyteller god who had set out those choices and they had never accepted them, never would, so hopefully Sans would get mad at him instead.
"Well, I suppose there's no reason not to tell it anymore. It's like this -" She attempted to say, before suddenly stopping due to a rumbling noise coming from one of the nearby tunnels. "What was that!?"
From the next tunnel after the entrance they were standing in front of, emerged four forms. Two were rather large metallic spheres, rolling around. The remaining two were clearly so type of robot, with glowing yellow flashlights as eyes and flying around supported by a set of helices. On the bottom of each was mounted some sort of gun.
Upon spotting them, the lights on the two flying robots flashed to red and they opened fire. At the same time, once the spheres were close enough, they unfolded to reveal a humanoid machine atop each, with a sword replacing a hand on one arm and a crossbow mounted on the other. Finally at the far back of the room, another machine, this one being composed of a gun mounted on a makeshift, rotating structure, roamed to life and started to fire away at the trio as well. The ones riding on spheres also started to fire bolts from the crossbows, though at a much slower rate.
At that point, Caro exclaimed, "Oh no! Quick, let's take cover!" Pointing to the crates and structures around the middle of the room and rushing there herself, with Fried flying low to avoid being hit by any bullets or arrows.
She reached a metallic crate and leaned against, peeking around its side at the advancing enemies. The closest one was one of the flying robots, approaching the crate at a fast rate and firing against it. Suddenly, it stopped, presumably to reload.
There was her chance. She quickly switched Kerykeion to her second mode, with pink energy wings appearing on the sides of one of the gloves that comprised the Device. She then aimed that hand at the robot, with mana already starting to charge and the Device beginning the shooting assistence. These were presumably mindless machines, just like the gadgets drone from last year back home, only seemingly much less advanced. Against opponents like these, she didn't have hold anything back. She could use her fullest strenght to defeat then.
As soon as the short charge had finished, she called out a simple command, "Shoot!", finishing the spell and causing several pink energy bolts to be rapidly launched at her target. They reached it without issue, squarely hitting several spots on it's front, including its main flashlight. It was then easily torn apart and crashed down on the floor.
The other flying robot was still fastly approaching, as were the ones with the spheres. The turret on the back was still firing away at their cover.
edited 20th Aug '16 4:36:18 PM by JamesShields
The sound of something approaching distracted Caro from the topic. Some machines showed up and not too long afterwards they began shooting at all three of them and Caro instructed them to do the obvious thing and run for cover. Sans quickly teleported behind one of the low walls in the area and crouched down, they just couldn't catch a break couldn't they? Even worse was the fact that those were machines so...
"i can't use my powers on those things, they don't have souls!" he called out to Caro and Cole to let them know.
Cole still looked deep in thought as they started walking, but when there were strange noises coming, and...things starting firing at them, he didn't hesitate to run for cover behind Caro, ducking down and just looking vaguely bewildered at how quickly things had shifted.
Caro managed to take out one of the creatures, and Sans yelled that his powers only worked on souls and he couldn't affect these things. ...Cole was going to have to ask more questions about that later.
"I'm going to try and get behind them," Cole called to Caro, taking a breath and drawing his daggers, instantly vanishing into a green wisp of smoke, staying low and in cover as much as possible as he headed around the edge of the room. With the chaos going on around, he didn't worry too much about covering the sounds of his footfalls, heading for the turret at the back of the pack, looking over it for any sign of a weak point.
Rex didn't even process what was going on and realized a bit too late that he had punched Jackson with all he had. The results were like being in a car crash: Lots of broken bones, a little puddle of blood, a busted sofa...
Unfortunately, Tairee made her presence known and Rex was lifted by an invisible force only to be trapped inside some sort of bubble. He tried to punch his way out of it but it didn't even budge. Tairee berated Rex for resorting to violence and typed something on her computer.
Jackson immediately reappeared and mocking Rex for falling in an obvious trap. Luckily, Tairee told him to get out of the library if he was just going to stay there and provoke people.
After Jackson left the library and killed himself, from the looks of it, Tairee let Rex get out of the bubble. The guy could be anywhere now, so he didn't even bother to try and chase him. He had to vent his anger somehow, though.
"Why did you let him leave? He was making fun of how Mary killed Cole"
edited 20th Aug '16 5:51:28 PM by DeisTheAlcano
For several minutes, Ara wandered blindly through the endless maze of deteriorated corridors and hallways, looking for, discovering, and soon after loosing any signs of other people scouting the structure. Unfortunately, every time she detected a nearby noise, she was unable to properly trace its origin before the location changed entirely and she stopped hearing.
That is, until at one point, she heard a particularly loud noise occur very close to where she was. Naturally, she followed it, and somehow she was able to track it to an area in which the floor and part of the walls looked as if they had been recently set on fire, alongside an oval object which simply stood there, completely immobile. But there was very little time to examine the object, since another series of sounds caught her attention.
Voices.
"Hello?" she announced herself right before she slowly came around the corner. Fortunately some of the faces she saw there were somewhat familiar, while another was both completely new, and covered by a mask. "Oh thank goodness! I've been trying to find other people for who knows how long!"

Outside the Library
Zelda mentioned Sadness getting to go back to her own world.
"Oh. Well that's good to hear."
It was a bit bittersweet. Twilight liked Sadness, and she hadn't gotten to say goodbye. Furthermore was the slight envy at her getting to go back while Twilight and the others were still trapped.
Then Miss Tairee asked Twilight if she needed any assistance.
"No, not really. Quite the opposite, I was wondering if there was anything I could help you guys with."
What is this "signature" of which people speak?