Now Ben looked ready to break into tears himself. Sophie frowned forlornly; she felt very much out of her element. Matters of the mind, matters of emotion, were things she usually left to her friends, while she kept them safe the way she knew how - with her fists. Maybe I can learn how to help people with words some day... but as I am, right now, I don't think I can help them yet.

She suddenly stood up and walked over to Ben; taking him by the arm, she gently led him over to Eve's side and motioned for him to sit where she had been seated beside the blonde. Whether or not he complied, she gave them both a soft, somewhat-sad smile, before walking away to give the two some modicum of privacy. She disappeared from view around a bookshelf corner - but stopped partway along that row of bookcases, facing the path closest to that more secluded section of the floor, to make sure nobody ran into them.

edited 16th Sep '16 10:38:52 PM by Demovere

Peace. Pace. Sanity. Check out my DeviantArt! ^_^

The library

Ben's eyes widened slightly when Sophie suddenly grabbed his arm and dragged him over to where she had been sitting. Upon her gesturing for him to sit, he sat down, slumping slightly and looking at Sophie. He opened his mouth and started to ask what was going on, but she was already gone. He winced a little, looking over at Eve apologetically, still trying to fight back tears.

"Eve... I.... I'm sorry," he muttered, though he didn't exactly know how to continue after that.

edited 16th Sep '16 10:24:51 PM by AllHailThrall

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

Library - More explanations plus some weirdness

Caro had to wonder just what Zelda was planning. Judging from the channel her device was set to, it clearly had something to do with the anti-human group. But what? As far as she knew, despite looking a little different, the other girl considered herself human. And she also didn't she had faced any sort of persecution that would have lead her to that group for support. Maybe she was trying to get some information from the channel or planning to help the group in some way? She figured it would be best to leave those question to Sans, who was part of said group.

"Yeah, things are definitely crazy today. The two of us and Cole ended being in one of those underwater tunnels when we woke up and it took us a while to get up here. We had to fight some machines down there and then we encountered this guy who used to be from Ruckus and well ... Let's just things almost ended up really badly ... Then we ended up finding out about Ruckus' plan to kidnap from Ben's meeting went to the balconies. And well, while we keeped them from doing so ... Things went terribly, terribly wrong there," she rapidly explained, having a troubled and downcast look as she said this last bit.

She tried to not dwell on that for long, however. She had already released most of the hurt related to that horrible incident and going deeper into it right now was sure to be rather hurtful, not only to herself, but also to her friend. Zelda had faced a somewhat similar issue and bring up the details of what had happened would probably bring that to the surface again. They had made progress yesterday, but there probably was still a long way to go. The same probably could be said for herself. What everyone said back there had helped, but that was likely to still be an issue for quite some time ...

Tring to focus on something else, she decided to help Zelda with the cellphone, for clearly she had been having issues with if she had spent such a long time reading over the manual. But that was only natural, since given what she had described about Skyloft, clearly there wouldn't have anything like this back there.

So while Sans went over to get some food, she stepped closer to the other girl and said, "Well, have you gotten the hang of it? If not, we could help you with it. A more practical demonstratiin would probably make for a much easier way to learn something like this. Sans is obviously the one most used to it, but I have gotten a good hang of it in the past few days. If nothing else, we probably should exchange our contacts. Here, let me show you my number. That should also help with learning how to use it," Caro pulled her phone out and held it so that Zelda could also it see it, while going through the process of locating her own contact number.

At some point, Twilight approached them and asked what was happening.

"Nothing much here, I'm afraid. We have only just gotten back and found Zelda here," she answered, "What about you? How have you been doing?"

Then Sans returned, carrying some food. She didn't think much of it at first. Adide from the silly shape of the sandwich, it seemed like a pretty normal meal. However, the unexpected way in which Sans used the ketchup, straight up drinking it from the bottle instead of spreading on his sandwich, left her uttetly baffled.

She stared in shock at the strange sight for a few moments, before finally managing to say, "Um, Sans ... Are you sure you should be drinking that?"

edited 16th Sep '16 10:51:07 PM by JamesShields

Library - Of Phones and Questionable Dietary Habits

"Well, I didn't spend the entire time just looking over phone stuff," Zelda replied to Sans, "I did some more research regarding the Lord of Change, as well. Not that I really learned anything I didn't already know." She sighed. "In any event, it's been a rather quiet day here, the occasional troublemaker getting evicted aside." She gave Caro a concerned look. "And by the sounds of things, I should probably be thankful for that."

Then she turned back to her phone. "Well, I think I have a good enough idea of how to use it now. The problem is that I didn't have any numbers to call. Had I known either yours or Sans's, I probably would have tried to call you earlier, but alas. It didn't look like anyone in here would know either of your numbers, and I didn't think dialing randomly would get me anywhere." She shrugged. "But now that you're here, I might as well make sure I can contact you, as well as see if I really get it."

As Caro retrieved her number, she went to find her own. "Apparently, this phone has the number 516-9325."

Sans deciding to drink his ketchup straight as opposed to putting it on his sandwich didn't confuse her anywhere near as much as it did Caro. Granted, it was mostly because ketchup was a food she was not familiar with. About the only thing she could guess about it wasn't mean to be a drink.

"...Maybe that's just the way he likes it? He doesn't seem to be hurting anything by drinking it," she commented with a shrug.

Neither of the two seemed to want to question her about why she was listening to the anti-humans. As much as Zelda thought she should probably tell them about what she was planning on doing, she couldn't help but feel a little relieved. She didn't expect either of them to have that strong of a negative reaction (especially not Sans, who was probably a member himself), but considering where that discussion could head she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about that right now.

She didn't say anything to Twilight as Caro had already given a sufficient explanation, but she did give the pony a smile and a nod of acknowledgment.

Icon by Civvi the Civilian!

Library - the wonders of condiments

Looked like Twilight made her way over to them while he was grabbing his food. Caro apparently took notice of him drinking raw ketchup and commented on it, much to his amusement.

"maybe i shouldn't, never stopped me anyway. ketchup, moustard, relish... it all tastes good enough for me to eat raw, but maybe i just don't have very high standards," he said, shrugging and finishing up his sandwich, "ketchup's the best tho, not only does it have the best taste..."

Sans then turned away from them, seemingly to start drinking some more ketchup as they would be able to see him holding the bottle a little above his head as he began looking up. However, once he turned back to them they would a large drop of ketchup streaming down from each of his eyesockets, not only that but there was some ketchup covering part of his chin, all of it making it look like he was bleeding from his mouth, which now had formed a demented looking grin, and eyes, the lights of which had vanished completely.

"It lets you do some really freaky stuff," he said, his voice sounding much darker than before, which Caro would recognize from when he first tried to scare her.

edited 16th Sep '16 11:35:14 PM by FullMoon

Library - Errand Hour

With Curly affirming that the plan was a go, he made his way in.

Wow. It was nothing if not a crowd inside. There were Cole's friends in one corner (one of whom was wasting a perfectly good condiment; he turned away from the scene, though not without some salt), and the new girl by the counter, among others, but the most obvious group of people in the vicinity were those of a sizeable party consisting of two (2) young girls, one (1) purple vaguely horse-shaped creature, one (1) plague doctor, one (1) shrine maiden-looking woman who seemed to be quite attached to one of the two girls, Lucas, who seemed to be doing much better now than he was, the sentai girl in the gym clothes, and a certain familiar fox maiden. Also near the table was a familiar thief having some matter of discussion with a teen he recognized from the balcony fiasco.

"Hey, nice to see you again, guys," he said as he approached the already quite large party. He added, much more softly, _{"And hey Lucas. How are you doing? Is this better than earlier?"}

moved to Oceanstuck because this handle was starting to bother me my tumblr

Eve| Library

Ben was a hero. Eve wasn't. She was barely a sweeper.

"I'm not a hero, Ben. I had blood on my hands before I came to this City."

Far, far before. Eve barely noticed Sophie's movements, but did notice Ben sitting down beside her.

"Why are you apologising?"

[TOP SECRET]

Library

Twilight's question was mostly aimed towards Zelda, who she hadn't seen in a while, and was trying to listen in on secret information with a radio.

She gave a look of slight confusion when Caro asked where she was. She thought Caro knew.

"I was flying over the boats as they headed to the library. And before that, taking part in that chaotic battle at the balcony."

She then lowered her head and gave a slightly embarrassed grin.

"Although, I admit I didn't do much. After crashing while blinded by light, I spent most of the fight swimming."

In regards to Sans drinking ketchup, Twilight mostly just looked on in confusion, deciding not to say anything on the matter.

edited 17th Sep '16 12:46:37 AM by Cybersbe

What is this "signature" of which people speak?

Library

"Oh, yeah?" Garrett snorted, looking at Rex. "That's what they're all concerned about? The difficulty of the next dogfight for his amusement?"

Circling the tea table slowly, he continued, not looking at him: "This city, for all its threats, is a toybox. It's all ultimately a game with no real consequence. People who die immediately come back to life, and even our equipment restocks itself each morning. Half a district can get blown up in heated battle, and repair itself when morning comes. But—" here he turned around and looked at everyone in order "—this is not something we can say about our home universes. They cannot heal when devastated, and when people die there, they're gone."

He stopped for a moment, then rapidly turned around, sat down on a free chair and gave everyone a serious look. "Right now, as I speak, my City might be weeks, days or hours — I don't know — from being taken over by a ruthless, ancient killer. I was just hours from stopping her, but then I got pulled into this place out of the blue, and it's been days—" He waved Thief: The Epilogue in the air "—possibly too many days already, if this book is to be believed. But there's still hope. Slim, but there is... If I can send just one message to the right person, I might still be able to save my home.

"And I'm sure I'm not the only one in that kind of a situation... not the only prisoner who desperately needs to send a letter back home, to get some kind of a word out.

"If we try this 'more difficult' challenge, the worst thing that happens is that we fail and gain nothing. If we don't... for some of us, it would mean that we won't have a world to come back to."

Bar

Nails looked at Cole for a moment as he spoke, looked at the sub and what kind of foot and handholds it had on the outside of it, then looked at Frederick. "Can you swim?" Nails asked the man simply.

"Yeah" Frederick responded immediately, then his brain caught up and realized why Nails would ask that. "Wait, no I mean-"

"Too late, you take the top now" Nails told him, and motioned at the sub. After Frederick did nothing but look uncertainly at the sub for a couple moments, Nails added in a more stern tone, "time's wasting, buddy." Finally Frederick climbed on top and swung himself around to the other side, then Nails climbed up to get inside and motioned to Cole to follow him. He also meanwhile got his walkie talkie ready and started asking for any idea of landmarks close to the militia's HQ to look out for; there was a little bit of arguing about the futility of such a plan when it came to the city's shifting, but it was shortly agreed on that it could only either be helpful or be no worse than not trying at all.

You are reading this.

Outside the Library - In Which John Proceeds to Explain Acts 6 to 7

John 'FACEPALM COMBO'D X2 in frustration. "aw jeez, see, this is what happened..."

John then proceeded to recap Acts 6-7 in which it was not written here.

"...and that's what happened."

Rero.

The Library — Terms and Conditions

Garrett's attitude apparently convinced Mirai as she immediately put her request in the suggestion box. Only then did she ask wondered what exactly Rex meant by a challenge.

"That's the thing. The guy never said what it would be, just that it would be even worse than what we had already faced" He started mentally going through his stay in the city, trying to remember the challenges they had faced in the last ten days or so "To put things in perspective, so far it's been a man-eating plant, a giant bee, a dragon, Mickey Mouse, a giant robot, six guys with elemental powers^* Rex didn't see Red because he was paying more attention to OFB, and a volleyball match" That one didn't involve a battle to the death, come to think of it "Ok, so the last one wasn't that bad but you get what I mean"

Garrett, meanwhile, walked around the talbe explaining that the city was just a toybox and that nothing had any real consequences. Unlike his world, where a ruthless killer (probably that lady from the children's rhyme) was close to taking over his city.

"No consequence? Speak for yourself, dude. This city is getting on my nerves. I already died once. And do you think you are the only one that had more important things to do than be part of a dollhouse? I'm the only cure for EVOs and now Van Kleiss can create them. He's probably with his pack doing who knows what while Providence just lost their best agent. For all they know, I've been MIA for more than a week"

The hooded man waved a book that, according to him, speaked of what was going on in his world. Apparently, it was too late for his city but he still had hope that he could solve things if he only were able to send a message.

"What's that? Did you really take that book at face value? That's exactly what this guy wants, he's messing with you"

He did make a good point about death being nothing more than nuisance in the city but that was only because the author had made it that way. He could easily undo that whenever he wanted to.

"What if he resurrects the bird demon? Or what if he makes every death permanent? What if the consequences of losing are staying here forever? I'm not taking my chances with that guy"

The library

Ben slumped a little when Eve pointed out she wasn't a hero. He looked over and up at her. "Eve," he told her quietly. "It's... it's never too late to strive to be a hero. We... you just.." He wanted to continue his statement, but the words left him. Instead he sat there, staring at the ground in thought, still trying not to cry.

Why are you apologizing? Eve's question snapped him out of his stupor and he looked over and up at her. "Eve... I'm apologizing because... I got a little worked up there," he told her. "This City is some stupid game and I'm losing. Where I come from.... I never had to deal with all this really heavy stuff, I was just a hero who rescued people from danger and beat up bad guys. Nothing too hard about that... Not like this. Not like here," he admitted, feeling very vulnerable.

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

Library - Still getting used to things

Curly smiled and waved back to Fastablook before he scurried off on his militia business. He seemed nice, hopefully there were more people like that in the militia... And hopefully Nails and Phil wouldn't stay too mad at her over that incident in the tunnels.

Inside the Library, Curly made her way to the main desk, but couldn't help but watch the debate between Garret and... Whoever the kid in the goggles was. She turned to Miss Tairee for a moment to ask "What's all this about challenges again? I don't remember anyone talking about those yesterday", then turned to watch the two again.

edited 17th Sep '16 8:09:01 AM by BlitzTrain

Karkat - Library - No Response

...DAMN. He didn't have anything else to say. That was...pretty incredible. And confusing. He even ignored the part where Gamzee threw him into lava trying to figure out who this "Caliborn" was.

...Wait, he died?

HOLD THE FUCK UP. I DIE? Karkat echoed his thoughts out loud.

(holds pool noodle threateningly) Do you want to know what we do to artists?

Outside the Library - The Stunning Revelation

"yup, you were dead. Everyone except for roxy, me, and terezi. terezi had these passwords and i had my retcon powers, so I could alter the alpha timeline. terezi used me to pull off all these pranks, but i guess they're less of a prank and a life-saving solution? gosh, this is so confusing."

John shrugged. "so that's the entire story. wanna go get something to eat?"

Rero.

Cole glanced over at Nails as he apparently convinced Frederick to stay outside of the sub, and motioned for Cole to come with him back inside. The absolutely baffled expression on the spirit's face was clear enough, but he followed along anyway, staying silent for a bit as Nails was talking to people on his little walkie-talkie device. ...Cole realized he still was carrying his own, not that he could entirely remember how he was supposed to do anything with it, but maybe that was something to keep in mind.

Once there was a lull in the conversation, Cole looked over to Nails again, keeping his head low somewhat. "...you're being so nice to me..." he finally said, in a tone that was half a question and half a statement. "...why? I don't, I...I haven't..."

His voice trailed off as he just studied the militia man a moment, then looked back down, picking at his hand wraps again. "...th-thank you for it, I...it is...it is nice."

Karkat - Outside the Library - Huh.

Well then. That was...disappointing. But then again, what were the chances that he would live, anyway? YEAH, SURE, WHY THE FUCK NOT. He said, climbing into a nearby rowboat and almost tipping over. BUT THERE'S NO FUCKING WAY I'M ROWING. USE YOUR WINDY POWERS OR SOME SHIT.

(holds pool noodle threateningly) Do you want to know what we do to artists?

Outside the Library - r o l l l l l

John rolled his eyes. "fine. but you owe me food too." And with that, John made some hand motions, and propelled the boat back towards the Balcony.

"say, what are the chances of the tentacle god randomly spewing out the undersea?" He asked worryingly.

Rero.

This post was thumped by the Shillelagh of Whackingness

Rero.

Library

Mirai sighed. "Well...I'm sure it's nothing I can't handle. I mean, you handled stuff before, right, Rex? Maybe you can help me out?"

please call me "XionKuriyama" or some variation, thanks! | What is the good deed that you can do right now?

Lucas committed all the names to memory as he drank his tea. They were all fairly distinctive in appearance so it wasn't too difficult.

When Lune asked if she could join the tea party, Lucas nodded affirmatively.

And then Lewis came by and asked if he was alright. While Lucas's current issues weren't something to be dealt with easily, he definitely was enjoying the simple act of eating food at a table as opposed to the heat of battle. He answered Lewis with "It's n-not perfect but I think I-I'll be alright now." Then a question "Does everyone in this l-library know each other? You all seem f-familiar with each other, even though w-we aren't f-from the same worlds."

Why is a yam attacking me?

Library

"It's daily challenges that my boss has every day, suited to the theme; well, almost every day. He got the idea from somebody in the city after they blathered it out loud. You can see the hint about what it will be here" Miss Tairee answered Curly, and pointed to the boss plaque on one of the desks around her. "And that next to it is the reward you'll get if you beat the challenge" she added, and pointed to the reward plaque.

Meanwhile, upstairs Thomas gave up on the second floor and went up one of the staircases to the third, let out another quick, "Ben?" and thought for a moment. He decided to not repeat going through all the staircases again, and this time just went straight to the fourth floor and called out again, then headed up towards the fifth, right towards Sophie at the top of the stairs.

---

Yellow submarine

"Uh... Nice?" Nails asked, slightly confused. "You remember that I'm essentially arresting you, right? You're just being cooperative so there's not point in being mean. You could resist arrest and I'd stop being nice, but I'd prefer if you didn't" the militia member added, and then concentrated on piloting the sub, looking out for those possible landmarks he discussed on the walkie talkie.

edited 17th Sep '16 6:20:43 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

The Library, Let's Explain Something "This kidnapping has been going on for eleven days now," she said to Lucas, who finally caught her attention. "Me and Yoshika have been here since the 9th day, and we're still getting used to some of the faces around this table ourselves." There was some definite truth here, because it seemed that Seiga had managed to run into the same few people repeatedly so far. Probably because she spent a large portion of each day in the library, but it's an odd happenstance.

Yoshika, currently making great progress while eating the uncooked ear of corn she had, nodded and swallowed. Even if she didn't care, Seiga wasn't going to stand idly by if she talked with her mouth full. "Try and stop worrying, 'cause it's a good life so far. Aside from some rude people," thinking back to Sophie's unwarranted assault, "There's a lot of nice people. You just gotta know who to stick by, and then you'll be fine, Marcus." Seiga said "Lucas," and Yoshika repeated "Lucas, right. Lucas."

edited 17th Sep '16 6:25:45 PM by wikkit

"Most people are mean to me," Cole answered plainly, rocking himself a little where he sat. "They are afraid of me, and they don't know how to be afraid, so they become angry instead. And you...you said that...that you were afraid, at least of what some of the rest of us could do, but...you aren't being cruel about it. You didn't tie me up, or hit me, or...or do other things that you could have done to make me stay, you're...accepting that I will stay. I...I want to help everyone here, like you do, I think, and I...I can't help by fighting you, so I'm not fighting you. That...that isn't anything special, but...but being nice to someone you don't have to be nice to is. It...it doesn't happen very often."

He cast another sideways glance at Nails, then lowered his gaze again, fiddling with the ends of his sleeves as he did. "I'm...glad about it. I'm...I'm still scared, of...of what might happen when we get there, but...but I'm not scared of you, at least...if...if that's...all right?"