Cross Effects > Areas

Halloween Town

<< < (46/64) > >>

Panda:
Nanako

Heading away from the Dojo with great leaps, Nanako wandered aimlessly for a while, stopping by Pine Garden for a snack and taking a ferry across the Divide, trying to cool off with the wind and the waves. Even thinking about Vega felt like fire in her veins as she tried to figure out how the same man could show mercy in one moment and seeming disregard for life in another. Eventually, the thought passed from her mind, carried away by the cool breeze washing over the prow and the bag of trail mix she'd been tearing into.

After some more wandering and a burger from Columbia, however, the squirrel girl found something unexpected. Insectoid creatures scurrying about near what she was sure was Halloween town, from the map on her phone, but something about these creatures was fundamentally off. Something about them simply struck her irrevocably unnatural. They were just really...weird.

Nanako took all of half a second to process this, then leaped down near one of them. It stopped cold and turned to face her. She leaned in with a questioning 'Hm?', her tail swishing behind her. It growled loudly, chitinous legs tensing and arms raising. Her ears perked up as she canted her head to the side. Finally, it charged at her with a piercing shriek.


Riding atop the beast's head, Nanako found that the creatures she'd met the periphery weren't just strange exceptions. Everywhere it took here, there were all manner of creatures, not all of them chitinous monstrosities like the one carrying her through the streets, but all of them oddly offputting. Even the land itself seemed to be more alien here, strange growths permeating through buildings and over roads. By comparison, the smoking craters and ruined husks of tanks seemed almost ordinary.

Every second that passed left Nanako more and more curious, the squirrel girl lounging atop the creatures large, chitinous head as she took in her surroundings.

Kotomine_Rin:
Zeke (even more later)

Yawn

There was nothing more boring than stagnation, peace really was an insidious little thing. It was beautiful and desirable, right until the moment you've got it in your hands. No... that wasn't quite right. He really did want to fight the hallow queen with everything he had back then, and some. Her fleeing so soon just left him blue balled, and now he was trying to laze around to avoid going in a rut. But more importantly, this meditation was important to sort out the memories that did survive the transfer. So let's see...

Serana was busy with god knew what.

Joseph was probably hitting the books.

Aruna... well, he didn't feel like getting shish kebab'd by her girlfriend just yet.

Valerie was probably playing with one of her fledglings.

"Man, I'm bored." It was shocking, but taking responsibility for this sad little district almost made him feel caring. Sure, he was working deceptively hard, getting all his boys to fix up the place, but in a way he almost felt like a dad watching over hid kids. That's fine and good, but no one really wants to be a parent forever. Sometimes, you need some spice... something! He couldn't just jump to the next phase just yet, so he was forced to kill time.

And killing time on your own is its own special kind of hell.

But that's when something showedup. A sound made his ears twitch and tingle. The sound of the plans he never quite planned falling apart and the gears of improvisation spinning madly again. Or more accurately, it was the sound of one of his children, crying and screaming for help.

"Hm? What's with the ruckus..." He connected with its senses quickly. and-


Eeee- eek! What's going on! What's going on!?

A chitinous beast of carapace and mud zipped past buildings and wrecked rubble, hopping and galopping to try and shake off something. He just came up to that girl to tell her that area was off limits and under construction! Why? Whyyyy!? Why did she just hop on him and straddle him like he was some kind of monster! This wasn't funny! It seriously smelled and it was way too heavy!

"Graahhh! Just leave me alone woman! I'm not your damn taxi!" Is what it said, but as it was a relatively early transformation, the words came out as guttural shrieks and alien screams.


Hmmmm. It'd probably take an hour or two for all of the old world organisms to get their vocal cords back to understandable frequencies. Maybe he should have tried a bit harder.

He looked down at the bumbling rodeo going on miles away, all with a lazy grin and his legs crossed. It's as if he were watching a comedy special on tv.

"Hah! Wait, I know her! What was her name again? Na...Na... Nanaya?"

A lot of the stuff that used to be Zeke's memories was wrecked trying to incorporate a human host and a grace at the same time, but memories are a curious thing. Like a fractal, you can make out the overall shape from just a speck of data. It might take him longer to remember everything, compared to his kids who were relearning communication - but this would be an educational experience nonetheless.

And there was something he did remember. The important memories, the ones considered essential, were vivid as day. So he didn't even need to try and remember to know... that beast woman had a grace too.

"Nice. Looks like I've still got something to do." His grin spread from ear to ear, and he jumped off the building like an excited kid. Without delay, he burst into searing plasma and soared into the skies like a comet. Zipping into the skies, he swirled - and finally approached the landing point. Right in front of the woman's path.

"Hey hey! It's been a while, hasn't it! Aren't I a lucky guy!"  He descended like a burning star, ready to smash Nanako like a pancake.

But instead, he missed the landing and slammed face-first on the asphalt, right in front of Nanako and her steed.

Panda:
Nanako

If Nanako didn't know better, she would've sworn her steed was trying to say something, but the squirrel girl couldn't decipher any meaning from the guttural shrieking and screaming. She looked down thoughtfully at the creature carrying her, patting it reassuringly as they carried on, but didn't get to do much more before something else caught her attention. Her ears perked up and swiveled towards the new sound, Nanako turning to look up just after to see a searing comet rocketing down towards her.

The squirrel girl's eyes widened as she quickly pushed off her steed, pushing it out of the way, only for the comet to crash down in front of her and reveal a beast of a man. Tall, well-built, and oddly familiar.

"Huh, have we met before?" Nanako asked, canting her head to the side as her tail swished lazily behind her, "It'd be hard to forget someone like you, but I don't think we've met."

Kotomine_Rin:
Zeke

"Mhphfhh hmfhhh...!"

As it turns out, it was hard to use human language with your head stuck underground. Yet with a single jerk, he suddenly ripped himself off the concrete. Stretching, he whipped the sky with his silver locks and revealing more of his powerful body. "Pwaaah! Hahahaha, this is great!" He was jovial as ever, but his eyes were a lot calmer and focused than before. He wiped the soot off his chin with a well-mannered grin.

I thought I was heading the right way. Did I... miss? No, that can't be right.

"What, is our new body that shocking? I'd figure a bombastic babe like you would be used to seeing things like this. I'm pretty sure we met, didn't we? Back when I fought that demon... Aruna I think?" He poked the black insect-like beast playfully and melted it back into his shadow in a heartbeat. He looked straight into the squirrel girl, this time a lot more calmly, but with that same placid playful smile.

"It doesn't matter. I'll ask that you don't do things like that to my crewmates though. If you made a mess, it'd make reconstruction more difficult for all of us."

Panda:
Nanako

Nanako watched as the creature melted into the man's shadow, the squirrel girl striding closer and bending over to poke the shadow curiously, but to no avail. Shrugging, she popped back up, bouncing slightly with the suddenness of the motion, and listened to his explanation, frowning slightly for a moment before realization hit.

"Zeke?" She crossed her arms under her chest and leaned back, "How often do you go through bodies, anyway?"

"Wait, comrade? Wasn't very talkative, what are they?" she canted her head to the side, ears flopping over.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page