CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Outside Library

“You're wrong, Riddler…” Makoto said, not even flinching as his gun appeared again. “I’m fighting for the ones you want to conquer. As long as we're all stuck here, I won't stand for any of your gang activities!” The Phantom Thieves were formed to stop corruption like this, the kind that evaded normal laws, and she couldn't call herself one if she didn't have the guts to do something when it mattered. She pulled her revolver out of the holster.

“Anat, let's do this!” she called. The bike beside her glowed with a blue aura as it revved up again, no rider needed to control it, and then the Persona unfolded into its true form, twice as tall as Makoto currently was.

"Well, it was worth a shot. Thanks for the heads up TESTER, booster dodge sounds good right now." Curly said kindly to the computer, seemingly ignoring Resentment's declaration other than to wave at Friendship and say "You just tell Silanea to hold on, it takes more than a giant to scare me"

Library

If Caboose had any traces of surprise at Ms. Tairee not spotting the totally obvious gender of Astolfo, he didn't show it. Ignoring Ms. Tairee now, he said to Astolfo "My name is Caboose." And then, deciding to mimic the way that his lightish-red haired conversation partner said his position, he continued "I'm a member of the blue team."

On to Astolfo not realizing what he and the librarian were talking about. Caboose said "Oh, she just didn't realize that you only looked like a girl. Yeah, the lightish red gave it away."

Eve|Mindscape|Death Averted. For Now.

Eve was torn between relief and annoyance. Admittedly, the more people in the mindscape, the better, but Curly was far more important that her in this. " Curly, focus on dodging," she called to the robot, thinking through her current options. The warning wasn't necessary, but Eve felt better for saying it.

" Tester, I'd like to instead attack Resentment with my hairblades, charge action."

Ben winced. "If they're someone who means anything at all to you you'll tell them the truth! Think about how they would feel if they knew you were lying to them! Friends don't lie to friends! If she is someone from your past, then tell her and get on the same page! I don't see how that's such a big deal! Why does everyone in this city feel like they have to keep secrets from everyone else?!" Ben insisted, sighing in a bit of a huff as he walked after Fastanook.

He glanced around to see if he couldn't see the hospital, wondering when they would get there so he didn't keep having this argument.

Cole blinked, glancing over at the sound of Bergree's voice, then turned his head to look at the table of silverware he had looked at previously. He hopped down from his chair, hurrying over, and saw there were indeed plates piled up as well.

"Pile up the plates!" Cole repeated happily, grabbing a handful of plates, working to keep a good grip and setting them gently on the floor. "Different stacks...with different heights, they're like stairs! Thank you, Bergree! Arcade, I'll be done soon!"

"is there even anything i can do to weaken that guy? i thought since a lot of her resentment was towards me, i could weaken it but all this time and nothing happened yet," said Sans, beginning to sound a little frustrated.

Perhaps luckily Resentment was now aiming at Curly who probably had better chances of avoiding and surviving the attack than Eve. Once the last Guilt was gone, all they would have to do was waste some time trying to hit the fake skeleton while trying to avoid the big attack, of course, if they took too long then he could easily pick them off one by one as well...

"even if i barely had any involvement in what actually happened, the fact that someone could resent me to this point, it really makes me feel like it's all my fault."

Arcade jumped in surprise when Bergree spoke up. How long had he been there? Well, he hadn't been talking about anything private, so he wasn't too upset by his presence.

He waved off Cole with a smile. "I'm just glad you care enough to actually help people," he said, "you know how rare that is in my world. And yours now that I think about it. Don't rush on my account."

Things were starting to go south, fast. Reigen had tried to ward both Makoto and Garret off, as Riddler had lowered his own weapon down, only for him to raise the gun again. So much for trying to end things peacefully. In the interest of preventing the ensuing violence, Reigen was forced to use his

"DEBILITATING SIDE-JAB!"

This was one of Reigen's special moves. He delivered a swift pointed jab just below the Riddler's ribs, hoping to throw him off one way or another.

Tairee's answer seemed to satisfy Yuna, who was already starting to imagine all the kinds of wild projects that the stranger could possibly be undertaking with her as an inspiration. Her of all people! She couldn't wait to talk to their friends and tell them...

"...oh, right!" she exclaimed, pulling out her phone. "Say, do you know if my friends are here as well? We were together a while ago, but I haven't seen them since they arrived here, and I can't call them or send them messages. I tried locating them with the phone's map, but there was nothing in it either. Do you know how I can reach out to them? That way if they're here I can maybe meet up with them, and if they aren't I can at least tell them I'm fine."

"Seriously?" Sans told Rex to go after the fake Sans instead because trying to hit Guilt D was obviously not working "Yeah, I give up. I want to run Resentment over, Tester"

Eve wasn't all that impressed about Rex's past and mockingly asked if it was a big deal. Did she really think he was trying to win some kind of competition with that?

"It's called empathizing. You should try it one of these days"

Curly pointed out Rex's story wasn't all that comforting and that it wasn't the kind of thing they should be discussing in the middle of a fight.

"But that's the point. Sometimes you screw up so badly you start to hate yourself over it but, even ignoring all this magic that would help bring back your family... Look, I don't know what you've been through but I know that all this isn't healthy. I'm kind of running out of ways to say you should let us help you"

Eve's "plan"—if you could call a suicide attempt that—made Resentment reconsider his actions and start to think aloud about attacking Sans or Rex. He finally decided to fight Curly, though, since she represented Friendship in Silanea's head.

"No, no, you were on the right track when you said you wanted to kill me. I'm sure you'd last longer than your friend"

In his efforts to deal with the problem aside from physically fighting, Sans asked the representation of Silanea's trust what he thought about him. It didn't sound good but they couldn't get depressed over that.

"What about me? We kinda hugged so I assume we're cool now, right?"

Trust shook his head. "I told you, I don't know Resentment as well as I knew Distrust... But, I do know Silanea doesn't care as much about words. After the lies Tristen told her, she has trouble believing anyone just from their words anymore. It's gotta be from actions to really get through to her; that's why I, Trust, am Connor and not Rex, even though... Well" Trust trailed off as he glanced towards Rex, and gave a sort of apologetic shrug. "And I just told you; it's not about it being your fault; she knows it wasn't really your doing. But even so, you're the ultimate representation of someone she'd be jealous of; someone she'd resent. You're someone who lost everything like she did, but you never seemed as bothered by it; you even made friends with humans even though a human was responsible for what happened to you. You were able to overlook their race, like she has been mostly unable to since before... It all happened. And then suddenly, you got everything fixed, without even trying to, after she tried so hard. To be so unbelievably lucky like that... That's why Resentment is lucky; that's the way she thinks of you" the little feeling explained at length.

"you know the longer you guys spend talking, the more time you're wasting not solving anything" Resentment said in a smug tone, though still somewhat angry.

"I will assume you mean your Rex Ride form, then" Tester said to Rex. "In which case, the actions have been processed. We will begin the turn as always with defensive actions and free actions" the AI then announced.

Rex's body morphed again, getting rid of his sword and forming his motorcycle, while Curly's booster started to come to life and her spur charged up to full.

"No special actions this turn. So on to melee attacks" Tester continued.

The giant child silhouette reached down, and despite a valiant attempt on Curly's part to dodge boost to one side, it still narrowly managed to snag her leg, then hoisted her up, flipping her into the air so it could catch her again and hold her more completely this time; then it started to squeeze.

This time when the silhouette slammed her into the ground, it followed that up with a quick pound of the bottom of its fist down onto her as well. The booster stopped, though her spur was still charged; apparently her free action was not counted in that negation.

Guilt D hissed and lunged at Sans, but as usual, he simply swiped to one side like a phone app.

"We continue to ranged attacks" Tester went on.

As Guilt D reared back up from its failed lunge, suddenly a crop of bones shot up through the ground beneath it, passing through the guilt where it hit. This was enough though, as the Guilt started melting where it was hit, leading to it collapsing down, which made more of it start melting, which made it collapse down more, which makes you get the idea already.

Rick's laser pistol appeared and he fired it off towards Resentment, with the shot going wide.

"Lastly, charge attacks" Tester then concluded.

"you guys seem to be under the impression that you actually stand a chance" Resentment commented mockingly as he made a little dance move away from Eve.

Rex's motorcycle blazed off towards Resentment in an attempt to run the faux skeleton down, but Resentment did a shimmy to one side before letting out a chuckle.

"Since your main action was negated, you will not get a chance to move. I am sorry" Tester mentioned to Curly. "That concludes the round" the AI then told them all, though once again his screen showed one more bit of info:

"well since i'm alone i better keep myself alive now" Resentment decided, taking a coin from his pocket and flipping it into the air over and over.

"... We're not supposed to be friends. Did she tell you that?" Fastanook then said to Ben, folding his arms. "I'm in the Emberlight clan, the resistance against the mad king Tinkinzar and his oppressive Crimson Order. Veela's a member of the Ironclaw clan, loyal to Tinkinzar. Do you even understand what that means, Ben?" the gremlin asked, his tone accusatory but his voice much quieter and controlled now.

"I'm a thwacker, a soldier. Everyone in the militia knows how you feel about killing, so I knew you'd be mad when you heard that; even though you don't know about my world and the plight my people went through that led me to fighting. You'd only care about the fact that I'm willing to kill for my people's freedom" Fastanook explained to Ben, then shook his head and looked around, spotting the hospital. "Finally..." the gremlin muttered, as he started walking towards the giant toybox of a building.

edited 15th Aug '17 9:39:04 PM by FirockFinion

Astolfo I Library I Still Thinks He's in the Holy Grail War

"Ahaha, looks like someone's happy!" the paladin patted at Vambre, who immediately starts hugging the books as though they were the greatest treasures in the world.

"And you're Caboose of Blue, huh? Nice to meet ya!" He spoke to the soldier in blue, grinning. "It's a good thing you're not Caboose of Red, because then, I eventually have to fight ya! Ah, but then again, I think there's only supposed the Black faction and the Red faction in the current war. And you don't feel like a Servant either, which is good because then, I've just blundered and revealed to you my true name and all!"

Then, Caboose began telling him about what he and the librarian were talking about. "Ah, is that it? I was wondering what it was all about," Astolfo notes nonchalantly, clearly not minding it at all.

Ben furrowed his brow. "Is that what this is about? You guys being on opposite sides of this civil war?" Ben asked incredulously. "Dude, she knows you're an Emberlight gremlin. She doesn't care, though! She likes you, dude! She's totally fine with putting aside all that for you. Don't you get it?" He sighed and shook his head when Fastanook stated he knew Ben would be mad about killing.

"It's not my place to judge you guys like that. You guys are soldiers. And if you guys are fighting an evil ruler that makes you guys heroes in your own right. But that's not the point right now. What is the point is you shouldn't back down from this just because she's on the other side! If you two care about each other that much, all that shouldn't matter! You should just go with what you feel in your gut!" He glanced over at the hospital.

"Yeah, I know," Ben mirrored Fastanook's expression of relief. He moved towards the building, looking worried. He thought about Eve and the others. Would they still be there? Would they be all right?

Tired.

Despite being physically unable to, I could still hear Tester's voice droning information. I figured it was some reality-warping AI assistant bullshit, since obviously.

Of course, it would be nice if I had any other indication what was happening around me. Not that I could complain, or...anything, really. I mean, I guess I brought it on myself, and was probably being shittalked for it right now, but what was that no stop I can't please no NO huh what why...isn't...?

Oh. Duh. It was. Probably just sans. Who else would it be. He could do that. No one else could, I don't...think. I could feel his hand. It was a pretty distinct feeling. I think...I'd know if it was anyone else, or if it...wasn't real...Yeah. I was worrying about nothing. Stupid.

Stupid.

I could feel the magic to rematerialize returning to me, and nearly jumped at the the opportunity to use it, but hesitated.

You'll make it worse again. I couldn't even land a hit, I kept making the enemies more powerful...maybe it was better if I just sat this out. Maybe I should have done that in the first place. The more I dwelt on it, the more I could virtually hear sans going 'i told you so'.

But...it didn't have to keep being like that, right? I could make up for this. Considering I still wanted to curl up in shame I obviously wasn't doing a very good job at inspiring myself on this...but I didn't know until I tried, did I?

...No, but it'd be a waste to do it right this second. I needed...2-3 turns, I think...to return to half hp? I needed more than that to take a hit...3 sounded good, the fact that I had nothing to do in that time except wallow in self-pity notwithstanding.

So I waited.

"Black? Red? Current War? Sir, I don't think you realize the situation you're in. You're in a completely different universe, and whatever conflict you're referring to is irrelevant here" Miss Tairee said to Astolfo. Then with one eyebrow raised in curious skepticism, she added, "and if your true name is so important, why would you willingly share it with any strangers?"

Meanwhile, the Miss Tairee standing up on the floating medivac typed on her holographic screen for a bit, then shook her head. "No, none of your friends are here. You'll be allowed one message to one person in your home universe on the next peaceful day, which will be in two days" Miss Tairee answered Yuna.

"What? We both know about that. Did she not tell you?" Fastanook said, in a somewhat confused and still slightly irritated tone. "We had an argument about it. We both know the other is from the other side; that's not related to the real issue. Or it is, but it's not- It's- It's just not that simple, okay?!" the gremlin added defensively, looking guilty and pained as they walked into the hospital lobby.

"I need to regroup, some other militia guys supposed to be here, probably need help getting upstairs" Fastanook muttered, starting to breathe a bit oddly and nearly stumbling before placing a hand on one of the waiting chairs for support.

edited 16th Aug '17 4:01:37 AM by FirockFinion

Astolfo I Library I The Naive Astolfo

"Hmm, that so? No wonder I get the feeling that everything feels weird all of the sudden." For a single moment, it would seem as though everything began to click in his mind and that he should honestly think a little seriously in light of this new information.

"... Welp, if that's the case, then I may as well enjoy my time here, wouldn't you say~?" Before the paladin throws all of that out of the window and take his current predicament in stride. The way he sees it, he's currently in a world far unknown to him, which means brand new adventures and horizons await him here. For Astolfo, a seasoned adventurer who has been involved in many, many legends, some way crazier than the last, this was par for the course.

"Ah, but before that, if I'm not here to fight for some war, then what exactly am I here for?" Astolfo asked, trying to get that out of the way. Then, she began to ask why he would reveal his true name if it was something important to hide. "Ahahaha, yeah, it's supposed to be important! Except not really, because I don't happen to have any known weakness like some legendary Heroic Spirits. Something like, say, the infamous Achilles' Heels, for instance. Ah, but then, people would be able to know what my powers are by referring to the legends associated to my true name, so it's still important for me to hide it. I guess that makes it kinda important~? But now that I will not be fighting any Servants anytime soon, that's a rather moot point, don't ya think?" Astolfo talked on and on cheerfully before suddenly remembering what her original question was.

"Oh, that? I just forgot about it, that's all~" he said it as though it is a matter of fact.

edited 16th Aug '17 4:11:56 AM by JustSomeGuy732

Eve|Mindscape|Keep Kicking Her While She's Down, Why Don't You?

When Rex made his quip, Eve just winced, and said nothing in response, looking at the ground. She tried, she really did. But it was hard. Whenever she tried to interact with people who weren't in the Sweeper Alliance, she just seemed to hurt them. This wasn't the time for this, anyway.

She took her action, not even getting annoyed when it failed. Everything had been done, everyone's actions were completed. Resentment was left alone, which meant it was a matter of doing damage, and staying alive. He seemed pretty focused on Curly, though, which was both good and bad. He also seemed to be boosting Defence, not dodge. Which was good. "...Tester.... nanocutters at Resentment..." She paused. "...and regeneration..."

edited 16th Aug '17 4:50:45 AM by secretlyasuperhero

Library

Astolfo was following all the proper steps to keep Caboose's attention on him, which is to say that he didn't pause much. Didn't help so much with his understanding, but at least he was listening. To the lightish-red haired paladin, Caboose said "I don't know any black team... except the space pirates. But you are too nice to be a space pirate, so you are more like a freelancer! But, you have a red team? I have a red team and it's led by a pirate-the sea kind not the space kind- and we fight sometimes but we're still all friends. And you don't use your real name! You are like a freelancer! What are your powers?"

Freckles interpreted the comment from Astolfo about having to fight Caboose if he was red as a bit of a potential threat and mechanically intoned "Do not attempt to harm Captain Caboose."

Caboose looked down at his gun and said "Oh Freckles, we're all friends here!"

edited 16th Aug '17 5:15:15 AM by pillowmantis

Astolfo I Library I Fellow Blabbermouths

"Space Pirates? Huh, can't say I ever fought one of those before. And yep yep, I really am nice! And I guess you can say that I'm a freelancer now? Oh, and you're led by a pirate? That sounds great! Sounds to me like he seems like your rival though, fighting with you but being friends afterwards. And yep yep, hiding my true name is a very big deal for me, since then people would know what I'm capable of. And my powers? Hmm, well, I have this lance that causes people to fall, an anti-magic tome, this very huge horn to blast away people with and my pet Hippogriff!" he spoke before pointing towards his mount, which simply stares at Caboose but nothing more.

A voice suddenly took the young paladin's attention, which seems to be coming from the man's gun. "Is your weapon Freckles? Hey there!" he greeted to the talking weapon before turning back towards Caboose. "You guys must be close! He sounds very protective of you!"

"I know, but I don't want to keep you, I know you have work to be doing..." Cole was having to take some time, reaching the plates and stacking them, but he was, surprisingly quickly for a toddler, building almost a sort of spiral staircase of them, stacking various piles heading up and onto the buffet. One return led to him tripping and falling on his face, but he was quick to get right back up, barely stopping until it seemed like he had managed to get together a nicely laid out plate staircase.

"Arcade, does this look like it works?" he asked, looking it over as he fidgeted the last plate into position, standing back to study his handiwork.

Arcade watched in fascination as Cole made his staircase. It always made him grateful to see people who cared about making things better, but Cole was more motivated and determined than he was used to.

When Cole tripped over, Arcade jumped up, forgetting that he couldn't help from his position. With a sigh of relief he sat back down as Cole continued without a complaint.

He looked at the staircase and nodded to Cole. "It looks good, but I suppose we can find out the easier way," he said as he started walking towards it. He took the stairs and walked to ground level.

Cole watched, looking to be almost fretting as Arcade made his way down the plate stairs, and when it was clear enough that they were working, he started all but grinning, bouncing a bit on his feet in clear excitement. "It works? It works Arcade, it works, people will be able to walk up and go find their food! ...if I had time I could put them in a few places but...at least they can reach something now...we helped, we really did help! Oh! Wait!"

He was off like a shot, grabbing another chair, then started pulling it towards the door, stumbling a bit with the effort, but managing to reach the door. He then started pushing at the door, working to try and block it open with the chair, grunting a bit at the effort.

"This...this way...people can...can get in...even if the door's heavy..." he muttered, even as he managed to get the back of the chair wedged into the door enough to keep it open. "There...that...that should take care of everything..."

With the Riddler

Garrett hadn't had much hope for a diplomatic solution, and now things had gotten hot.

Well, he'll make them even hotter. With his other hand Garrett drew a fire arrow and fired it at the robot's head.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Reigen, who apparently hadn't had enough sense to stay out of the fray. Ah, well. The guy barely looked like a credible threat.

Arcade found Cole's joy infectious; he smiled back at Cole encouragingly. "You helped, Cole," he stressed, "even without any powers, you made things easier for people who were having trouble. Good job."

As he approached Cole he said, "so, we should get back to finding the hospital. Someone might have woken up by now."