CoLC crossover RP, main thread

Mindscape

As the turn started, Caboose was reassured by Two's wide and friendly smile. Such a nice grin, clearly suggesting no malice or mental problems. Further happiness at connecting with one of his shots. This was so much fun! And Two was being so helpful to Rex, with how she was damaging the weird monster thing growing out of him!

"I shoot the guy again!" Caboose announced with vigor. He really was getting into this whole thing, this whole thing referring to his artwork of course. Having completed everything else already, he was adding the final components: The murderhobos. Truly this was the most important thing going on right now.

Looking up from his masterpiece for a few moments, Caboose noticed the hug going on and encouraging words being spoken. Ever one for following the crowd, he ran towards them... and right into the wall keeping him in his proper location. Undeterred, he launched himself at the wall again. And again. And again. Finally he gave up and said in an incredibly puzzled voice "I feel a wall but I don't see a wall. Why do people keep putting walls in my way?"

"Hey, fuck you, I'm giving a legitimate suggestion!" I yelled back, offended and irritated, as was apparently the routine with giving Rex the time of day. "You're the one who can't stop thinking with your cock long enough to focus on important things like actual problems. Like..."

I fumbled for some way to finish that thought.

"...What, what were you doing yesterday morning, arguing with a little girl? You think I didn't see that? In front of the guy pretending to capture the crazy slaver lady trying to sabotage some other little girl's bid for freedom from her? Yeah, nothing fucky about that, just gonna draw all eyes to this randomass child that just showed up. Care to explain what that was about?"

Construction lot

"What are you doing?" Garrett hissed at Gon as the assassin apparently decided to shoot Spiderbee. Anyway, neither man's efforts seemed to really succeed at drawing the fairy's attention, but then Ant-Man proceeded to grow to a large size and call down the fairy. Well, if I knew he could do something like that, I'd just have asked him. Ah, well.

"Uh, hello there. You might want to tell people that the challenge's on," Garrett said, sweeping his arm in a wide arc to point out the lot and the building materials. "In particular, any people who are giant right now... heck, even one of them would guarantee us a victory, far as I can tell. I mean, the whole point of this game is to construct a tower taller than the ant guy's, right? Surely a single big fella could outdo all these bugs. Far as I know, you work at this... 'radio', so you could get to the whole city at once with your message."

Two, One Problem Goes, One Problem Appears, Mindscape

As always, Yuna was there for her. Two was starting to feel a bit sheepish; she'd been incredibly dependent on her and Caboose for a while now, it just felt awful if she couldn't try and help them in return.

Two didn't return the hug right away, still a bit anxious, but once she did, it was a tight, affectionate hug, complete with picking the magical girl off the ground (though not spinning her around like it was with Rex earlier). The metaman's casual remark was also soothing to the mind; very Cent-like. "I'll try my best with the meatloaf, sure." She said to him

Caboose couldn't join in the hug, and that was a tragedy in itself. "You're not in the range. I'm as sad about it as you are." The bluenette said wistfully, finally letting Yuna go off the warm hug... just in time to hear Lewis lob accusations at Rex, serious accusations regarding... children? "Rex, Lewis? What is this about...?" She asked carefully, frowning.

Cole just sighed again, starting his way over to a nearby couch and setting the hat down on it, clambering up himself to sit down, letting out a bit of a breath. "That walk is more difficult than it was before when I was big. But we are here now at least and...everything should be all right...at least...I hope it will be."

He glanced over to Sunset, looking a bit lost for a moment. "Well...it's...safe, here, so...now you don't have to worry about me anymore. And the librarian is there at the desk if you'd like...I can take you over there."

Lewis wasn't happy to see his joke backfire after Rex pointed out his abysmal luck. Not happy with just accepting defeat or resorting to name calling like a normal person Lewis just had to bring her up. Because sooner or later everything turned about her.

"I didn't know what had happened to you and I went with Seiga exactly to see what the guy was doing with her. It's not my fault the Writer decided to screw me over and send Mary my way precisely at that moment"

That accusation made Two wonder just what had happened. Well, there went his chances of asking her out. And trying that meatloaf.

"Look, Mary is a vicious monster that pretends to look like a kid—she actually became one but that's beside the point. The thing is she's a psychopath that killed people without remorse and willingly worked with a demon while pretending to not know any better. So, yes, when I saw she was back I freaked out and forgot everything about... anything, really. I mean, come on, I literally have nightmares with her! I can't just let her walk away free to terrorize the city"

He defended that the little girl was also a psycho (Mary? That's a cute name) and he legitimately shat himself as a result. That sounded out there, but...god knows you can't be too wary of any person.

I paused for a minute, considering it. I knew from experience there were less probably killers...that and it was a common rpg maker horror trope, and rpg maker horror games actually existed. Still...

"...I'd buy it, except you also dismissed Cole becoming a demon as inconsequential, so as far as I know you have skewed priorities and are pulling shit out of your ass to justify them."

edited 17th Sep '17 4:49:21 PM by Oceanstuck

Arcade was mostly zoned out of the entire fight between Lewis and Rex. Something about a young girl who was a psychopath? It didn't matter to him.

His attention was grabbed by Lewis mentioning Cole, then talking about how he became a demon. No no no no no! Not Despair! He couldn't think... he couldn't fall back into...

Grabbing at the sides of his head Arcade started to cry, "shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!"

edited 17th Sep '17 5:15:22 PM by Skooter910

Sunset Shimmer| Library| "You really haven't been listening, have you?"

Sunset looked at the toddler. "That's okay, I'll get over there by myself. You look tired. And really, have you not been listening? I'm going to worry about you, safe or not." Sunset clambered as best she could onto the floor, and walked (walking when you were this small is hard) over to the desk. "Hey, Miss Tairee?" Sunset yelled, and paused, wondering what she was going to ask for. According to the pamphlet, Miss Tairee could summon anything. "Would you mind getting me a guitar. Preferably adjusted to my size?" She paused again. "And acoustic?"

Two, Oh No, Mindscape

Rex explained that the child he allegedly tormented was a psychopathic murderer...? What?

"I... I see..." Rather obviously, Two was not buying it, but... there had to be some reason for why he would attack her. Perhaps Rex was right? But what kind of monster would masquerade as a child? Were there creatures so heartless to do that? And then Lewis mentioned Cole - the child from the hospital - turn into a de-

Her pondering on the topic was interrupted by Arcade's breakdown. She could only watch helplessly as he clutched his head and screamed at them to shut up, unable to leave her cubicle. "P-please, Mr. Arcade, calm down!" She called to him before an idea crossed her mind. "Mr. Tester, do Silanea's Dreams... um, can they heal the mind too?" It was her best shot, really.

The turn went a lot better than expected but of course people had to start a whole new set of drama and this time it was about Mary. Rex said a few things that didn't quite match-up with what actually happened, but Sans couldn't be bothered to correct him.

"uh... you guys just attack the guilt with everything you have, i'm just gonna teleport over to the root."

Mindscape

There wasn't really much Caboose could do about not being able to join the hug, so he continued with his drawing. A few seconds later and he finally completed the final touch, the rogue. It was complete. A sloppily made masterpiece depicting the battle in gloriously crude detail. Still, considering that he was drawing in the dirt, it was remarkable that one could tell who was who easily in the drawings.

"Later then!" he called out to Two in reference to the hugs. The talk about the demon psychopath child was really interesting and he definitely didn't follow it so well. Caboose chimed in quite loudly "I know someone who killed a lot of people and didn't feel bad and stuff also! But then he wasn't bad and he did something good and everyone that wasn't me didn't want him to go but he did. I don't think he'd be able to terrorize anyone after that." Almost as if he came to a brilliant realization, Caboose said "Oh my god, if he dressed up as a kid no one would know and Locus could do what he wants! It's the perfect plan! He won't need to take candy from babies because he will be the baby."

It didn't really sound like he understood what was going on, but someone listening to it while angry and defending their decision to hate a little girl might interpret it as mockery.

Little Spiderbee pouted a bit after Gon spoke up. "You shot at me? That's very rude! You could hurt someone doing that!" Little Spiderbee chided him. After Garret spoke up, her expression eased, and she looked a bit confused. "'Ant guy'? Well if anyone big will do, what about him?" the fairy pointed out, motioning at Ant Man, since she and him stood around the same height.

"Oh, I'm the ant guy he's referring to. And I'm on the other side of the challenge" Ant Man told her simply.

"Ah, I see" Little Spiderbee said, and seemed to think for a moment as she stood up. Then she grabbed her microphone and spent a few moments preparing her voice with a quick, "la la la la la la la..."

"Hello everyone again, it's Little Spiderbee here! Reporting live from the place where today's challenge is happening; it's a big, flat place where we're supposed to build a tower higher than a bunch of ants and some guy helping the ants! There's some guys who are little today here that want help beating it, so that..." Little Spiderbee trailed off, then crouched down and looked at Garret again. "Uh, what's the challenge for?" the fairy asked, a little awkwardly.

Behind Garret and Gon, in the lot the ants were leaving alone, one of the medivacs from he library had flown over, and was dropping off a load of SCVs. The SCVs started getting to work building four supply depos in a little square in the middle of the lot, as another flying vehicle◊ came over, hovered above the lot for a moment, then said, "transform!" as it did just that and touched down to the ground as a walking vehicle.◊

Ant Man looked over at the toy-like things. "You guys are taking part in the challenge then?" Ant Man asked towards them.

"I can fix anything!" one of the SCVs commented, looking over and starting to wave an arm. The arm suddenly jerked to a stop and there was a few sparks from the SCV. "If this dang thing holds together..." it muttered.

"Yes indeed" the Viking commented. "By air or by land, all shall fall by my hand!" it then bragged, then after a short pause added, "Wait, d-did I say that out loud?"

The Fighter actually noticed Lewis' pointing, and followed it to look at the root and Curly. As the others started arguing, there was a distant but slightly more audible rumble of thunder somewhere far above; a little harder to notice was a slight wind starting to blow through the battlefield. The Fighter glanced upwards for a moment, then looked back towards Curly and the root, and once again braced himself for a charge, now in that direction.

Tester meanwhile was silent for a few moments, his screens still turning on and off idly. "... Oh, perhaps I shouldn't have said anything about that" Tester then said. "But yes, the power of your faery Gyuki to protect you with a shield is normally completely unbreakable, so long as it is still working. This would make you next to impossible to defeat in combat, unless done with precise, calculated means" the AI went on.

"A potential ease of the mind due to the lessening of pain upon the body is possible with the Dreams, but they do not have any direct mental effect on you, no" Tester then replied to Two's question.

As Sunset walked over to the central desks, behind her one copy of Miss Tairee approached Cole, still standing on the flying medivac. "Cole, you're back! Has your day been good?" Miss Tairee asked him.

At the central desks, the Miss Tairee standing in the Terran base looked up from her holographic screen with a, "hm?" then over at Sunset. "An acoustic guitar? Well certainly, one moment" Miss Tairee said simply, and typed on the holographic screen for a bit. Then there was a blur next to Sunset as an acoustic guitar appeared.

edited 17th Sep '17 6:03:43 PM by FirockFinion

Gon with Garrett

"If I wanted to attack, I would've done things differently." Gon glared back.

This was before he turned around to see the SC Vs arrive in the area.

Now I'm wondering if this challenge involves handling that kind of machinery?

All of sudden the Fighter was charging at the... Spire? Curly? Sans couldn't tell, but that did leave him free to do whatever he wanted. Of course, it looked like the arguing was making the scenery worse for everyone.

"hey, you guys, you might want to just shut up and do the thing we're here for. remember that we're in silanea's head and she's hearing all of this petty argument when we have more important stuff to do." He said in an attempt to stop the pointless discussion before looking up at Tester. "changing my action to bone attack on the guilt."

Cole looked up at Miss Tairee when she appeared near him, riding on some sort of...flying thing. She asked about his day, and he did his best to offer a reassuring smile. "It has...been...something of a difficult day..." he said finally. "Some of the others are...still helping Silanea. I do not know how well they are going to...be able to. I went to help as well and I am...already back here, so...I did not help as much as I wish. Arcade is helping as well, and there were more people who wanted to go help when I left. So...Silanea has a lot of good friends to help her. I hope they make it."

He lowered his gaze to where he was folding his hands in his lap, sort of hunching down a bit where he was. "I am ready to not be bigger than so many people today, but...I came here and brought Sunset because...I am afraid tomorrow will hurt. ...do you think you will still be here tomorrow with us?"

Yuna's hug seemed to have the desired effect, to the point where Two actually lifted her up, which was enough to actually cause the middle-schooler to laugh for a brief moment.

Unfortunately... it all just went downhill from there. An argument started yet again, this time between Rex and Lewis about... a child, and demons, and she really had no idea of what that was all about, but Arcade was starting to break down again, and the sky was starting to rumble with thunder.

"Guys, guys, guys!" Yuna called out to both Rex and Lewis, stepping between them. "Sans is right! You shouldn't argue like this inside another person's head! It'll just hurt her a lot, and we can't do that to her. So let's help out and then we can talk about this away from anyone that doesn't want to hear it... please?"

With that, she turned her gaze towards Arcade, who seemed to be very... not okay.

"Hey, hey, Arcade, it's okay, it's all fine!" she exclaimed, in a rather desperate attempt to get him to calm down. "They won't argue anymore, but we still need your help to save this village! So we need you to either shoot the guilt or heal someone! You think you can help us with that?"

Well, she could not do much more than that. Not without heading over there to hug him, but that would waste her turn, and she had to finish the fight as soon as possible. So, without skipping a beat, she turned towards Tester.

"It's okay, I'm glad you told me," she responded to the extremely informative screen. "That way I know my friends and I don't have to worry so much about getting hurt in fights. Either way, I'll use Hero Punch. I want to end Silanea's suffering already."

She got in position to fight, but there was still a small, yet important doubt lingering in her head. Something she needed to ask.

"...say, Tester? Do you know if my sense of taste will come back? Will my friends and I recover what we lost to this Sange thing?"

Rick crunched another onion ring and wiped some drool off his face as he tried to observe the large blurry thing in his field of vision that was now crying and screaming for everyone to shut up.

"Geez. Calm down, y-y-you're acting like a *urp* frickin' lunatic." Rick stared vaguely at the other blurry thing running towards what might be the root, or possibly a methadone clinic, it was hard to tell.

"Yo, Tester, T-meister, T-bob, w-whatever your name is, I shoot that... blur thing."

Yuna's order was enough to barely get through the guilty haze being reminded of Despair threw Arcade into. With even more difficulty he stuttered, "sh-sh-sh... sho-shoot... gu... guilt..."

"Guys, seriously?" Curly sighed in frustration, if the robot was feeling more cynical she might believe the Writer gave rex a team-based challenge just to watch this whole thing fall apart like this.

She shook her head and turned to the shadow "Fine, you wanna take a stab at me you're more than welcome to try. Charged Spur on the Fighter. Also, Tester, can I make an observation check or something on the figure in the root?"

Sunset Shimmer| Library| "I also play guitar."

"Thanks!" Sunset said to the Miss Tairee by the desks, picking up the acoustic guitar next to her, throwing the strap over her shoulder, and strumming it gently. Surprisingly, everything was in tune. Well, maybe not surprisingly, since the guitar probably never had a chance to go out of tune in the first place. It was a good guitar. A very good guitar.

Sunset walked back to where Cole was, and sat at the foot of the couch, strumming the guitar gently.

edited 17th Sep '17 8:47:06 PM by secretlyasuperhero

Lewis apparently didn't have much trouble accepting the idea of Mary being a monster—what, he didn't know her?—but he still had issues with how Rex had handled the situation with Cole at the hospital, so of course it meant he was lying.

"Why do you think I did that? Suddenly Cole came out of nowhere and started making fun of Silanea's past. Everyone was freaking out and losing their minds, what was I supposed to do? Call me an idiot if you want but telling him he wasn't dangerous was the only thing that came to mind to show him he couldn't beat me. Maybe it wasn't the best idea but..."

Arcade freaked out at being reminded of the situation and started telling people to shut up over and over, shouting more and more each time.

"Great" Rex muttered "It's okay, dude. Cole can't hurt you. I made a deal and he doesn't have his powers anymore. And he's not even here, he can't do anything"

Caboose tried to come up with an analogy to what had happened with Mary but it sounded more like a half-baked ramble that took idioms literally. Well, at least he was trying to understand Rex's point of view. That just made it sadder, didn't it?

"...sure, something like that"

Given the sudden thunder in the background both Sans, Yuna, and Curly advised the rest of the group to actually get around to attacking instead of wasting their time insulting each other.

"Yeah, we can talk about this later" Yuna was still full of surprises, though, as Tester apparently wasn't joking about crippling her senses "You... lost your sense of taste?"

Still, there was a fight underway, even if it didn't seem like it. The Fighter decided to change tactics and go after Curly. He was going to charge at her but Rex was faster so, provided his rolls didn't suck, this would be over pretty soon.

"Oh no, you won't" He told the Fighter "I'm gonna charge at him with my fists, Tester"

Rex tried to assure Arcade that Cole couldn't hurt him again. That was ridiculous, Cole wasn't the same thing as Despair. Cole had regretted what Despair had done and only wanted to do good, that made him a good person in Arcade's book.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the words to explain his thought process. All he could do was jerk his head towards Rex and say, "no-no-no... not af-afraid... C-Co-Cole."

"Yeah, I'm not seeing what you have to gain from dismissing it to me when he isn't even here. It's not like I was there for the event that caused it or anything. You know, he told me he—"

I would have continued that thought with a recounting of Cole's ranting about Rex's astronomical ego, and how I might have dismissed it out of hand as purely an attempt to delay what ended up happening if not for observed reality, but then Arcade went into a flipout.

Wha...?

I looked on, bewildered, which had the side effect of making me snap out of it. "Did...I say something?" I asked, concerned, though not really expecting an answer considering, uh, yeah.

Wait, he was involved with—?

The wind began to pick up, accompanied by a crack of thunder. I looked up, and between the weather and the sound of frustrated disapproval realized I was doing it again.

"..."

I slowly sank to my knees. You think a guy would learn.

I gave a pitying glance at Yuna's taste issue, but didn't say anything on it, just acknowledged that it was a conversation taking place.

"...Told you to step on him. It does the same damage, and you can dodge boost."

Ben winced when the Militia said to be patient, and that someone would let him in. He squirmed a little bit. "But I caught one of the murderers, and the plant lady's getting away! We've gotta catch her before she hurts anyone else!" He sighed, slumping more against the prison.

When he heard Makoto's voice, he perked up. "She's with me!" Ben chimed in. "She was coming to the prison with me. She's fine."