Cross Effects 3.0 - October 21, 2015—June 23, 2016

[Aiden]

Ron

The rope caught him quite thoroughly! He could not move an inch, or at least, could not do more than twitch. The pressure hurt, hurt quite badly, but the bloody haze across his eyes thickened until he couldn't see anything at all. His ears were full of white noise.

Worth it.

Thought ceased.

His bones cracked again, and the lasso bulged with muscle as his body began to rapidly extend and expand in all directions. His teeth tore at the lasso around his head, extending further in length until it looked every inch a razor sharp canine maw. His thrashing increased, and just from lack of space his shoulder was crushing the front of a nearby cabinet.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Meat was almost literally sawed through by the material of the lasso while the monster that had been Ron fought to escape, but the damage was repairing itself almost the very same instant it occurred. Ironically, it kept him from dismembering himself to freedom.

[Panda]

Annabeth

Annabeth's eyes widened as his form started to expand, watching as it cut into his flesh only for the wounds to heal over with startling rapidity. With a thought, the Lasso just barely relaxed, enough to accommodate the new form and nothing more.

Not even flinching as he roared wordlessly, the Hunter took a few steps back and considered the situation for a moment. Looking around, her eyes fell upon the moon shining through the window. Looking back at Ron lying on the ground, she quickly went over to the window and pulled the curtains shut, hiding the moon from view. With that complete, the Hunter went back into Ron's view, looking at him while making sure not to make eye contact.

[Cherry Lover]

Rider

Rider smiled as Sakura pointed at a nice, black dress that would reach to just above her knees, one which Rider would happily wear. Seeing no reason to disagree with her master's perfectly-good choice, she nodded.

"Yes, that looks good. I should try it on", she said with a smile.

[Aiden]

Ron

Going by the clock on the wall, whenever Annabeth gets the opportunity to glance at it when not focusing on the lasso, the entire episode takes close to 15 minutes of time. 15 long, agonizing minutes of correcting for minor shifts in size and shape, and superhuman bursts of muscle power as the wolf monster's body twists against cabinets and the dish washer and other things beside. It glared at her with murderous hunger, baring its teeth in her direction, and making every effort to snap forward at her. Good thing the lasso was keeping his mouth shut.

The beast's baying seemed to draw the attention of neighbors, because someone at some point started to bang on the door with their fist, shouting "Ronald, shut that mutt up already! And since when do you even have a dog?!"

It was a relief when he finally started to relax, and his body began to lose mass everywhere.

Thus, Ron returned to factory settings - human and bare ass naked. Only this time tied up in ropes.

"Ugh..."

[Panda]

Annabeth

As Ron thrashed about, Annabeth watched with almost clinical detachment, keeping an eye on the clock as the minutes passed. The Hunter reflexively summoned Pete and Repeat as she heard the banging on the door, but nobody actually came in.

Finally, as 15 minutes passed, Ron suddenly reverted back to his human form. Letting the Lasso dissipate from around him, Annabeth helped Ron up to a sitting position, keeping her Ren up just in case. Watching him with some concern, the cowgirl held him upright, not sure if he was steady at the moment.

"Well, good to see that you're back, more or less," Annabeth noted, "You think you're going to be okay?"

[Aiden]

Ron

The werewolf let out a little grunt of discomfort as his eyes fluttered open. He leaned his bare body on the person supporting him - Annabeth, he presumed - and reached up to rub at his face. Why were his ribs so sore and tingly?

Whatever she did must have bruised them. Too bad he couldn't remember any of it now.

"Anne?" he said with a hoarseness to his voice, blinking again as he looked to the side at her now. "I uh, I think I'm okay. What did I break this time?"

[Knick]

Nanashi

Nanashi sighed, letting her annoyance spill out slightly, “Ok so we are doing this then?” Nanashi said dryly as she raised herself to a proper sitting position, this guy was going to take some focus to deal with. She began to stretch out a bit, rolling her shoulders when she was done, something to stave of the exhaustion a bit.

Then she looked over to him, glancing at him with one eye as her right hand began to absentmindedly tap on the bar, “But aren’t priests supposed to be celibate? Are you really willing to turn away from your god like that?” She asked him a bit cold. “From what I know, he can be rather vicious, ten plagues, flooding the earth, eternal torture and damnation, you know, that kind of thing.”

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter looked around the room at his inquiry, unable to help a slight blush as he leaned against her.

"Not much," the cowgirl said, wrapping an arm around him to help keep him upright, "Just a cabinet front."

[Aiden]

Ron

"Well, nothing I can't fix then," Ron said with a little relief. He was a little  hesitant to look back toward the window right now, so hearing that was a comfort. Then he noticed his leg rub against fabric on one side but not the other, and glanced down at himself. "I just ruined another pair of pants again, didn't I?"

He did his best to subtly cover his crotch without drawing attention to it. Bit late there, Ron.

[Panda]

Annabeth

"I suppose it's fine," Annabeth said, unable to help a chuckle has he moved to cover himself.

"Well, I covered the window," the cowgirl continued, leaning up against him in turn, just a little bit, "So you don't have to worry about that for now...I suppose you could use a drink though."

[SINIB]

Sakura Matou

Sakura was surprised. “Wait, that’s not all you want, right? You like wearing different things at times, right?”

[Aiden]

Ron

"I owe you like six drinks for this one," Ron said, relief starting to really sink in with the cowgirl's chuckling. "I'll see about boarding that thing up later, or something."

Then their respective positions really sunk in as he felt her coat pressing against his bare chest. His face turned red in the dim lighting of his apartment, and he tried to draw away a little. "A-Anyway, let me just grab those out of the fridge. I could, well, I could use a second try at being drunk right now."

Maybe it'll help me ignore the frustrating feeling in my chest right now. And other places.

Or convince himself the frustration is due to the lovely lady next to him, and not the murderous thing inside him getting cockblocked.

[SINIB]

Oka

"Of course he can! He's a powerful Volcarona, one of the most powerful fire types in the world! Wormy could be as hot as the sun!" Oka boasted to Jin.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter couldn't help a light grin as she noticed his face lighting up in the relative dark. This time, however, she decided to let it be, letting him draw away. Besides, the promise of more drinks was worth it, especially considering he'd probably be back soon enough.

"Sure, I suppose I could use it too, though probably less so than you," Annabeth mused, "I do suppose this means you'll need to keep more than a few sets of a clothes around here, though, considering how quickly you seem to go through them."

[Cherry Lover]

Rider

Rider smiled.

Truthfully, she was actually OK with having a limited wardrobe. It wasn't like she went out very much, and her nature as a servant meant she did not need to change clothes regularly. But, it was obvious to her that Sakura very much wanted to buy her more clothes, and she certainly didn't have any objection to doing so if it was what Sakura wanted.

"No, that's not all I want", she responded, still with a smile on her face. "I meant to try it on later."