I made my way inside, stumbling around as my vision was blurring. I still managed to recognize the librarian inside and made my way over to her at the center.
"Um... Hello... I'm feeling a little ill right now and I was told you could help...?" I asked, my mind being a little too dispersed for me to even fully register what was going on at the time.
Cole walked along with Arcade, listening to the man talk for a moment, about ways to help people, and in ways that didn't involve using his powers. He even offered to see about teaching Cole medicine, or at least some basics to be able to use. Cole let out a soft sigh at that, shoulders slumping a bit more, honestly looking as though he might simply collapse where he was as he walked.
"...it wouldn't matter if you could teach it all to me or not. Once I go home...I...I won't remember any of it anyway..."
Spyro-The Library
Spyro listened to Ben's explanation about Ghostfreak (apt name) and how, because apparently if you died in this city you came back to life, they'd probably be seeing him again. Spyro wasn't fazed (about Ghostfreak. The not dying thing was wierd, but cool). Let the ugly lug try to get at 'em, Spyro would torch Freak all over again.
Ben then went on about how maybe he shouldn't be messing with the Omnitrix. It was sad thing, to see a prospective young hero doubt themselves. Before Spyro could muster up anymore words of encouragement, something happened. A loud scream, "LEWIS! KILL HER!" echoed out. Reviving or not, Spyro wasn't about to let anything like that happen.
Spyro quickly charged, keeping in time with Ben, to the other side of the building, arriving just as the chaos was starting. And boy what chaos it was. There was a fiery skeleton, a dust cloud of violence, someone had thrown a little girl to a lady floating in midair, someone was firing on the scene from above, and to top it all off, a rather catchy tune was now blaring from the library door. Spyro almost didn't know where to begin.
Almost. Spyro decided to deal with bell tower shooter, because while he had no idea who's side anyone was on in the fight at ground level, someone shooting from a bell tower could only be bad news. He charging quickly towards the bell tower, making sure to zig and zag to avoid any shot (though any shots that managed to actually hit would be absorebed by Sparx and his shielding presence), and then sidled up against the building so as to avoid any the eyesight of the sniper.
Writing the lightning symbol in the air with his tail, Spyro used his reserves of magic to summon a lightning bolt to strike the top of the bell tower.
edited 2nd Jul '17 4:53:07 PM by Dezmo
Arcade placed a hand on Cole's back, mistaking his despondency for a sign that he was going to pass out. He kept it there even when Cole made it clear he was simply upset, instead trying to give him emotional support.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, "why wouldn't you remember?"
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Fawful pressed a button on his headgear, and it emmited a yellow ball of electricity then went through the bubble. However, he misaimed, and it went careening out the door towards the chaos happening outside.
(You never said it was impermeable. Sorry.)
"...someone I know...back home...S-Solas...he was...he..."
Cole was silent for a moment, but as they walked, he started to explain everything. That Solas was an ancient elven god that was posing as a simple mage, about what the Fade was, and the Veil that separated it from their world. He explained of Solas's plan to tear down the Veil, to all but destroy their world, in order to return it to what it had been thousands of years before, when Solas had destroyed it for the first time.
And lastly, that he had realized, on calling Solas on Day 15, that not only had Solas taken some of his memory from him before...he had every intention on doing it again. Except that Solas had made it clear that he was going to be much more thorough in wiping away what Cole could remember of his plans, to stop him from trying to put a stop to it.
Nowhere in this explanation did Cole sound the least bit particularly upset, or surprised. He just sounded morose, and a bit matter-of-fact, as though describing the certainty of the sun rising in the morning.
Once he thought it had been explained well enough, Cole just shrugged vaguely. "I can tell my friends what Solas's plan is, on the next day we can contact our homes. But...they can't stop him from taking away what I can remember. And since I remembered him here...I think he will take away whatever I learned here." He looked up at Arcade again. "That...that is why I wanted to keep my powers...to go and help. What I do here won't matter. It...it will all be gone. That's...why I wanted to do good for other people...who would remember. ...and now almost all that you will remember is how I hurt you..."
Shenhua was curious about Rex's reaction to Mary since it didn't make much sense for someone as overconfident and combat capable as him to be afraid of a first grader.
"She killed a lot of people. Watch your back while you're near her. She might stab it"
Jack decided to intervene at the worst possible moment by kicking Rex in the head while he was holding Mary. It didn't hurt all that much, certainly beat hitting the pavement but it was still an unexpected kick.
"Hey, I already said I was sorry about the double date!" he yelled out at the spirit, rubbing his head. Shenhua found the whole situation humorous "I must have broken a mirror or something"
Mary's questions were seriously making Rex want to puke. She really seemed to genuinely like Rex. Still, there was certain malevolence to Mary's "thank you"—or at least that's what Rex wanted to see—because the little girl basically told him he was the reason she had achieved her goal.
And then things went to hell... more than they already were.
Lewis jumped off the top window while carrying Yoshika and Seiga ordered him to kill her. What was going on here?
"What?! Lewis? What are you doing with her?"
Meanwhile, Mary—after giving a little speech about how killing people was bad (like anyone was going to believe she wasn't crazy anymore)—spotted Ben and decided to run after him. Rex was about to stop her mostly because he didn't want her to enter the library were she would be safe and Tairee would bend over backwards to stop anyone from even implying she had done a less than perfect job at helping the former painting.
Tairee thankfully teleported Yoshika away from Lewis before he could do anything to her and for some reason there was a crappy song playing in the radio. Those guys back at the station really needed to learn a thing or two about music.
But there was no time to worry about paying them a visit in the future and teaching them because Rex suddenly found himself under heavy fire from the armored guy. Rex blocked his shots with his mechanical hands which were blocky as usual but more...
edible
◊ thanks to the day conditions. Perfect. Because that's what he needed right now.
When the sangheili tried to stab him, Rex blocked again, noticing that his hands were a little on the softer side. That wasn't going to bit him in the ass at all.
"So uh, if you don't mind me asking, I always like knowing why people are trying to kill me... so what is it this time around? Don't tell me you are actually working for Seiga" the plasma was starting to hurt "First Silanea and now her? I've got one word for you, man: Lame"
edited 2nd Jul '17 5:18:59 PM by DeisTheAlcano
Throughout Cole's explanation, Arcade's hand tightened slowly. Eventually he had to let go of him so that he didn't start digging his fingers into his back. His face was much more calm than his murderous thoughts.
"That..." He started, sounding relaxed. He took a breath and started to rant, "you can't let that bastard do that to you! I don't care if you're a spirit or a demon or a child, you have to fight back, Cole! Can't you get something from Tairee to keep your memories safe?"
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Digger - Library, Fifth Floor to First
There was a crunch, and I noticed that my pickaxe was missing something very important; the pointy part. No wonder my throw was off. I turned around to see a...plant eating the head of my pickaxe.
Right.
"THIS IS WHY PICKS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO MADE OUT OF LOLLIPOPS!" I shouted. Thankfully, by some strange reality warping I didn't care enough to understand, my pick was back; it was still made out of candy, but hey it was blue instead of red now. The glass window also fixed itself, which meant I had to take the long way down. Infuriated, I pushed past the plant lady and darted for the stairs.
Also, there was some really weird music playing in the background. Not to my tastes, but it was strangely motivating.
(holds pool noodle threateningly) Do you want to know what we do to artists?Joel was about to swing the mop when the bald guy disappeared. He blinked, and gave an 'uh,' of surprise. "Well how about that...."
The bots stopped everything and stared. "So...." Crow asked, "now what?"
"Let's go back downstairs." Joel said, tired.
Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste. Nice to meet you, hope you can guess my name.I came to a stop half an inch above the sandy ground, unharmed but deeply unsettled. Damn phobia.
Yoshika went into a panic the moment I grabbed her and dropped down, struggling to break away, and the kid in the stripes (Lucas, it came to me, his name was Lucas) jumped down, mysteriously relatively unharmed, and seemed to cast something. I caught something flying through the air at the edge of my vision and turned around to see Amazon getting thwacked with what looked like the handle of some tool, while holding a sword that was probably aimed for my back. I tried to ignore all this and make a break with the kid as Seiga was cut loose—
"LEWIS! KILL HER!"
"What?"
Besides being wrong (see, even the little blonde girl knew it), nothing about the sudden command computed. We were trying to save the poor girl, because Seiga adored her and we didn't want to lose her forever and isn't that exactly what her dying would do why would she want to hurt her pseudo-daughter but despite the complete incoherence of the situation I still felt my eyes wandering to a nearby jawbreaker, still wanted to shove Yoshika's head into it, solely because Seiga said so and I wanted to make her happy because everything she said was right but why did I care so much who was that kid yelling—
But before I could do anything, Yoshika was gone...somehow.
Someone, that being the librarian who was now at the door, yelled at a girl named Mary to get inside, before blaring a song at full blast, unknown and yet...distinct.
I couldn't find any discernible connection between the song with a voice uncannily similar to mine and the gears that began turning in my mind.
A familiar van pulling up in front of a mansion, decked mostly in black and hues of pink, sustained by magic. My magic.
I'd been waiting for too long, starting to wonder if it was futile, if this was even reality, if anything was. But they were here now, and that was all that mattered.
Arthur. Vivi. I remember dying.
She slips out of my grasp at the last moment.
(I understand, and red strings begin burning in a pink flame.)
An unusual air began to blanket the area around me. Wrathful was the only way I could describe it. I stared at Seiga, currently having the blonde girl thrown at her, at first silent but then starting to hum along to the music, in time for the chorus to kick in...
And started walking to her, ignoring everything else.
All the sudden shouting and fighting sent the alpaca running away from the door with a squeal, in the general direction of Jack and Eve, though also coincidentally into Mary's approximate trajectory.
edited 2nd Jul '17 9:36:58 PM by Oceanstuck
i guess you can watch me shitpost i guess"Why do you all say that, like it's something I should just know how to do??" Cole demanded, abruptly whirling around on Arcade. "Ben said that, Miss Tairee said that, now you're saying it, you're all always saying that I should just fight, that things can be fixed if people just do things, but if the people in my world would do things then the world wouldn't have the problems it does! I would think you would know that as well as anyone!"
To keep it brief, Seiga wasn't happy about it.
Her almost overjoyed smile as Lewis came crashing forward with her servant disappeared as soon as she realized that the ghost landed alone. Yoshika was back upstairs, behind a pane of glass that was broken a second ago. Lewis wasn't going back after her. Her growing shock let her almost ignore how she was thrown in the air; she floated, absolutely still, trying to realize what just happened.
Seiga would've had more time to be frightened if it weren't for receiving a child via air mail. She managed to catch her, breaking her stupor long enough so that she could immediately try to toss her with a mighty overhand throw, hoping that this brat would splatter against the side of the Library.
And, noticing how Lewis was coming straight for her, walking as if he had a purpose in life, she figured it wasn't to ask for clarification. Seiga immediately flew the opposite direction from all of this insanity, a brief distance away, to where she landed on the ground and took out her hairpin, feverishly trying to trace a circle.
She couldn't understand it, but it was even worse than the first time she had fought Seiga. Yoshika tried to rip apart the ghost in front of her any way she could—
Until something else she couldn't understand happened. Now, she was back by herself, Ciri and Lewis and Lucas and...wow, everyone was down there. Everyone except priesty lady. And some others.
...And that plant woman who was OBVIOUSLY WORKING FOR SEIGA.
Yoshika took all of that same fury she felt before, bottled it up, mass produced it and shipped it to store. All of a sudden, her mind blanked out, like it had while fighting a certain pink-haired girl over a week ago, and she completely regressed to being feral.
With a battlecry that sounded an awful lot like "GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH" Yoshika immediately turned around and lunged straight for the treant woman, with the intent to break her apart in any way she could manage.
edited 2nd Jul '17 7:53:51 PM by wikkit
Arcade stepped back in surprise. Cole had reacted very differently to how he was expecting. It was clear that Cole hadn't quite understood what he was trying to say.
"Cole," he said gently, "I misspoke. I didn't say exactly what I meant to, and I'm sorry for giving you the wrong impression. You said that Solas is going to take away your memory? You know the magic of your world best, what can I do to help you stop him?
"I realize that magic isn't my specialty, but if you need anything from me, I am offering to help. I do know that fighting is hard, especially when you're alone. That's why I offer help to whomever needs it, and you need it. So fight back, and tell me what you need from me to do so."
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Outside of the Library
A lot had happened all at once. Most of the anger left Lucas when Yoshika was warped back into the library. Music started to play, not just an abstract beat to the battle but actual sound. It was pretty awesome actually. As long as Yoshika was inside the library, there was nothing to worry about. All that was left to do was get rid of these people so they didn't try anything else.
It wasn't anything certain, but the way Lewis started acting... it felt like something had given way. There was nothing Lucas could do to make sure, he didn't know if trying to remove the ofuda would produce that reflexive arm grab regardless of his mental state. A much safer route would be fighting the people who were definitely going to try murdering them all of their own volition.
And Lucas would be fighting. Just because he was a healer didn't mean he wasn't also very strong, and the wrathful aura in the air tilted his strategy for this battle towards that aspect of his skillset. The music continued to play. Offense up on just Lucas. Offense up a second time. His energy was running a bit low, but that didn't matter so much when he was going to be relying on physical force right now. He chose his target out of sheer convenience, the sniper being too far away and the one that tossed the horribly familiar girl being invisible. With Seiga being approached by a vengeful flaming ghost, and presumably more people to possibly pick up that slack, that left Rega.
As if guided by the music playing so strongly, Lucas ran with his bat ready at the alien that was occupied with Rex. And then, in time with the beat, he would attempt to smash his bat into the head, multiple times if possible.
edited 2nd Jul '17 7:49:57 PM by pillowmantis
Why is a yam attacking me?"I don't need you to help! Why doesn't anyone ever understand me when I say that??" He sounded more and more frustrated. "I know they want to help, I know everyone here cares so much and they want to do everything, to save everyone, to make everything right but that isn't going to happen, it's never going to happen! Solas was my friend, he is one of the most powerful mages, the most powerful beings in our world, and he turned out to be hiding a monster behind a kind face! Miss Tairee means to be nice, but she works for the one who brought us here, and if that person tells her differently, she wouldn't be able to help us with anything anymore! And that is the person who put us in this world, who showed people like you and I that we live in places that are horrible, that are rotten and dying, when we didn't have to come to be in worlds like that!"
He seemed frustrated, near tears, and on the verge of just coming apart. "...it isn't fair for there to be worlds like our's, and worlds like some of the others, where their people can just live their lives without fearing each and every day for how today they will die! And if this...this 'Writer' made this world, did other Writers make other worlds, is the Maker people speak of, or 'God' or any of those, are they Writers, a-and...and if they are...and if they did...what is wrong with them??"
edited 2nd Jul '17 7:15:50 PM by ColeMinor
Fawful fidgeted with the headgear. It wouldn't hurt to try and shoot through it, right? He pressed a button on the headgear, causing it to shoot a yellow sphere of electricity at the side of the bubble... but it only succeeded in making it bounce all over the interior of the bubble, making quite a lot of noise.
"BY THE POWER OF SPARKLES AND MAGIC YOU SHALL NOW HAVE BABIES" - Starclan 5/21/17 "What is it, land on Luigi day?" - Luigi"Well... it was worth a shot, I guess." Rick picked up a nearby container of pebbles and rattled it around. He squinted at the label as a new thought reared its head in Rick's increasingly, terrifyingly sober mind.
"You, uh, you got any crystals around?" He mimed snorting something.
"Rick, don't."
"What?" Rick looked from his grandson to Dave and back again as though expecting validation, his voice rising. "You know something? Less than two minutes ago I almost- I almost got eaten by a giant piece of *uuuuuurp* a piece of candy straight out of Herbert Frank's Candyland! I-I-I-I- that's emotional distress! For two and a half weeks now, I've had to deal with unkillable psychopaths, the evilest villains in the multiverse, godamn.... I don't even know, Japanese kaiju... and- and - and emotionally unstable teenagers on an hourly basis! Two weeks ago, I got impaled by a chainsaw and I'm still not *urp* I'm still not sure if my internal organs rematerialized in the right place! I'm emotionally distressed! The only way I can get through - the only way I can get through these days is if I'm drunk off my ass, and I still can't find any booze! I don't know who the - who the bozo is here but it sure as fuck isn't me!"
edited 2nd Jul '17 7:37:29 PM by Locoman
Arcade could only listen to Cole sympathetically, knowing that any number of platitudes would be insufficient. He slowly approached when Cole started tearing up. Carefully, he reached out to place a hand on Cole's arm.
"I can't answer that for you," he finally said, "I'm still trying to find out for myself why I forced myself to live long enough to make it here, but I can tell you what I make of all this.
"There are people out there who don't face the terrors of my world. There are people out there who find the very notion of the war that ruined everything to be an impossibility. That... Gives me hope.
"I had always thought that the Wasteland was all that could ever be. That was all I knew, the destruction and suffering. Seeing people who never had to face that... I wonder if my world has that chance. Despite the monsters it can produce, despite how evil is often granted power; that's not all there is to life. Dum spiro spero."
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."Feeling the sheer anger apparent and following it via running as fast as her legs could bring her to see who it was that was emitting such a signal and hoping to prevent further conflicts from happening, the Priest paused for a second when it appeared to be Yoshika who was now going through the sort of Berserk rage that would make well... Berserkers proud. "Lass, it is good to trust your friends but you must always be on the look out for pieces of the puzzle that don't mesh with the overall picture. I don't know how many times I have seen something like this transpire." Giving Yoshika a rather empathic look and Miss Tairee a thankful nod, the woman glanced outside the area to let her vision wash over the sinners in question, a hard and steely light now cast over her features.
There was so much going on that if the woman wasn't able to sense the darkness inherent in the people below, she would have been confused. As it were though, she knew that there were sinners to punish for daring to try to harm an innocent child. Wrath blazed through her own mind and body as well, for the act of unleashing sins upon others made it so that her own hold was shaken to an extent as well, being source and conduit for the dark urges in question.
"Apologies, but would it be possible for you to transport this particular individual OUTSIDE of the Library so we are to not break any rules, Librarian?" Her own aura of power leaking out now in the visible spectrum to take the form of deformed faces that looked to belong to wraiths from Hell itself, the Mistress held her scythe up in a way that was obviously ready to engage in swift and destructive violence at the drop of a hat. "It's also so dear Yoshika here won't have to dirty her own hands..." Despite the willingness to fight, a certain hesitance was seen in both gaze and gesture as the woman didn't want to expose the poor girl to further bad influences even if this mass of sinful FILTH was in front of her.
edited 2nd Jul '17 9:58:17 PM by Makaioh
"...I can't make myself believe my world has a chance..." Cole said, shaking his head slightly. "There's so much more wrong with it than even what I've told you...I can't...I can't see where there's any way for it to ever be anything but what it is...or destroyed. ...I'm sorry. ...if I were something like the Writer I wouldn't make worlds like our's! I would make them happier places, places where people could live and be together and have their families, where children didn't get sick or die, where no one was hated for what they had the mistake to be born as..."
He looked up at Arcade, then wiped at his eyes. "I think that...but then I came here and...and I became a monster. I tried to make one into one. ...I don't feel any different than a creature who would create a world to make it terrible because when...when I could, I tried to make someone else terrible."
His voice got a bit more fierce. "And don't say it wasn't me! Despair...Despair isn't just some...creature living inside me that can only get out when I'm hurt, Despair is a part of Compassion, it is every piece of Compassion that refused to be...it is me, it is just parts of me that I don't...allow to the surface..."
Cole looked down and away again, looking rather...deeply embarrassed. "You were nice to me...it was an accident that Despair found you...but it would be a lie to say I didn't want you stay with me. You're like Sans, and Caro, and Ben, and...so many of them. You treat me like a person. That's...that's all I've ever wanted..."
Ben stopped when he saw the chaos ensuing, and his friends come to his aid. Yoshika vanished, Lewis seemed to stand at attention and start moving dangerously towards Seiga, and Spyro had tried to attack a nearby belltower. Everything was going faster than he could process. Ben started to stumble towards the library door and made his way in, nearly barreling over as he rushed as fast as he could towards the center desk.
"MISS TAIREEEE!!" Ben shouted into the middle of the library, nearly panicked as he stumbled to the center desk, clambered up onto it, dug into his pockets and emptied the Omnitrix shards onto the desk in front of her.
"Miss Tairee! The Omnitrix broke, I need you to fix it, please, can you fix it?!" Ben shouted, sounding panicked.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

"Good," Arcade said, letting Cole get down. He didn't particularly like the idea of carrying Cole across a desert again. He didn't want to be a complete hypocrite when it came to heatstroke. He waited for Cole to get his bearings before leading him to the library.
"Cole... I don't have any powers," Arcade pointed out, "are you saying that without them, you'll be an invalid? If I gave up everything I could use to help people, I wouldn't even be alive anymore. I can always do something, even if I was too weak to fight and too ignorant to treat the most basic bullet wound." Arcade considered for a few moments before making Cole an offer.
"Do you want to learn medicine?" He asked, "you might not learn how to perform brain surgery by the time we're sent back, but I can still give you a decent education, if you want to help people that way."
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."