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

[Panda]

Emily

The Changeling took a moment to process everything the gorgeous man had just explained, nodding along as she took another sip of her drink.

"...Well, that sounds like problem, to say the least," Emily admitted, "What about the other one?"

[Elf]

Cobrin

Corbin tilted his head thoughtfully and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a prison somewhere.  I do know there's a drunk tank at least."

He then smiled at Mordred and said, "Look at you, being all responsible."  Her sacrifice was admirable, but it was worrisome.  He knew she was a careful sort; her paranoia did more than enough to pain that picture, but she seemed to care about Kuro too.

He found himself leaning towards the blond and said, "That's quite the sacrifice you're willing to make, luv."  He looked back at Kuro and said, "You know, looking a gift horse in the mouth is pretty rotten.  Look, she's giving you what you need and you don't have to make out with unsavory folks like myself."


Rin

And things just keep getting better and better, yeesh.  You know, if I ran into Kirei here, I'm not going to be surprised . . . Rin thought as she eyed Garou and his bitch.

"Petra, don't you dare interfere." Garou said, his fake red eyes looking to his companion before looking at her,  "I hope you are more bark than bite, Rin Tohsaka. If you won't come, I will make you regret this."

So, the bitch's name is Petra.  Nice to know.

Petra then said, "Okay, okay, just don't rough up her too much. If you want to teach her a lesson, she won't learn anything if she won't stand up."

You know, you're the one who's pissing me off.  You don't know who I am and what I been through. 

Rin had a fleeting thought, about how far she had come on her terms and denying the general emotionless bullshit that mages generally treated as gospel.  Any other magus would have killed Sakura and Shirou during the Grail War all of those years ago.  They would have stained their hands with blood, maybe felt some regret, but in the end they would have given their actions justification.

In the cave Rin should have killed Sakura by all rights, but she couldn't and every day she celebrated her victory over that part of the magus mindset.  Even though Rin herself was alone and lonely, she was happy she had saved Sakura and that Sakura and Emiya had their happy ending while Rin had a feeling she would never really have a "happy" ending of her own.

She sighed; she didn't really want to fight Garou.  He was superhuman of some sort despite his vampire fanaticism, and she didn't want to use a jewel to claim a victory over something so stupid. 

"Look, I am sorry I laughed; that was uncalled for, but losing your temper at something like that is silly.  I could have been laughing at some piece of graffiti or one of those text messages on a cellular phone my sister could sent me," Rin said shaking her head, even though she was reinforcing herself with prana and reached up to twist the garnet earring in her left ear.  It looked to all the world like she was just adjusting an earring, but she was really activating an other layer of reinforcement from the prana stored in the stone that it captured from the loss of prana from her hair.


Gabriel

"She's a mix of contradictions, but at the end she has her own noble intentions.  For as old as she is, she realizes her people's continual creep into stagnation and wishes to stop it," Gabriel answered.

He chuckled and said, "Honestly the problematic one is the reason I forced myself into this place."

[Kotomine_Rin]

GAROU XIII

Garou stared Rin down with crimson eyes, his finger twitched at her words. The atmosphere at that very moment was simply unbelievably oppressive. It was as if either was about to explode any second now, an aura of death seeping from the white man. He raised his arm, as if ready to send a powerful attack, only to suddenly-

Scratch his nose without any warning. At that moment, the oppressive mood vanished completely. Garou simply sighed and answered casually.

"Okay. See? That wasn't so hard, damn shitty brat. No need to be so anal about it."

He sighed and shrugged nonchalantly, as if all the anger he was showing dropped to zero at once.

"Honestly, I didn't give a shit about the laughing part, I was already in the middle of forgetting about it. But next time you make fun of my awesome vampiric fangs, I won't forgive you. Oh well, how about I buy ya a drink?"


Sakagami Kenzo

The demon staggered and nearly fell over before somehow regaining balance. He gripped his forehead and let out a pained sigh, as if there was a gigantic headache he was trying to soothe with no avail.

"I don't get it." He muttered. "What am I missing? What am I doing wrong? I just wanted to share a drink normally, why can't i even do that? Why does this keep happening to me... why, why, WHY!?"

[Thedoctor]

Archer & Jeanne

Archer gave the blonde servant a nod before turning to Sakura. "I'm making bourbon chicken, since I made a western dessert earlier, I thought I would change t things up and go for something different." Then Shirou closed the distance between them, fidgeting a lot as he did so. "Oh you want to help so badly, Shirou Emiya , perhaps you wish to surpass me in cooking as well."

While Archer was explaining what he was doing, Jeanne was still surprised to see that they had servant cooking for them. She then noticed that there was something odd about the servant in front of her. She couldn't get a proper read on him, despite the fact that is it was one of her privileges as Ruler. She nudged Sakura to get her attention. "Who is he? And why are they so on edge around each other?"

[Umbra of Chaos]

Alarice

The noble paused as she heard the skeleton call out for her. Did he think she was harmed? Surely he didn't think that she would stay in such a battle when more favorable ground was a room away? She had already made some distance from the door and had been waiting for the cavalry and spearmen to try and go through. "Of course I'm fine, Lord Greyskull. Why have you stopped? There was no call for surrender."


Erica

The blue haired girl had began to wander again. The restlessness of when she had first arrives was overtaking her once more as she floated halfheartedly around. Her anger had faded but that just left a hollow emptiness. It was almost a declaration of how worthless her neutral state was. She had tried to inflame some lingering trace of anger but there was no point.

The entire ordeal was something she would admit to be quite strange. She had always been this way but now there was no duty, or purpose, or high hope, or burning irritation to distract her. She did not want to look for her because she did not want to ruin anything and she had already left the other abnormals. There was a chance that she could interrogate others to further her understanding and incite emotion but if others heard that could cause unnecessary complications.

So the Spirit Vessel glided across the air before encountering a man in tropical clothing, but his illogical choice of clothing was irrelevant compared to the sea of souls she could see inside him. The string of glyphs in her eyes spun rapidly almost as if they were analyzing the staggering amount of aura that could be extracted. It was not quite necessary to retrieve them but if she could boost her aura stores by such a large amount her survivability would be greatly enhanced. Yes, that was a sensical goal, wasn't it? If she could endure even longer than the chances of her finding the solution to her issues would greatly increase.

Erica floated right in front of the man and addressed him directly. "Are you willing to part with the overwhelmingly large amount of souls in your possession? I am in need of more to enhance my current level of survivability and longevity."

[Thedoctor]

Kuro

Kuro looked at Mordred as she focused on her explanation, trying to see if she could find anything unsavory. Not finding anything to be particularly bad about it, she replied back. "So I have to promise something, anything you'd like me to do blondie?" She half jokingly said to the blonde. She then turned to Corbin. "I'm listening to her now, you on the other hand, in what way are you unsavory?"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Theodore

Having nothing better to do, no particular goal to fight for or anything dear to protect, Theodore decided that it would be better to walk around the city aimlessly than stay around that freaky masked pervert a second longer. He simply left the premises of the castle in order to get a bit of fresh air. Of course, he didn't do such a thing before making sure his wardrobe was adequate.

Sadly, it seemed that his luck ran out, because yet another pervert was creeping on him. Jeez, didn't her parents tell her that staring at people was rude? It was pretty unsettling honestly, how long would she keep stalking him? He ignored her for now, but it seemed that no matter what he did she just kept following him.

Finally, it seemed she got sick of waiting and, much to his dismay, floated right in front of him. Good grief, had some subtlety. His empty stare met her own as he emotionlessly listened to her request. Hmph, it seemed he would have to begrudgingly humor her. Luckily for her and unluckily for him, he had nothing better to do at the moment. Or ever.

"Nice to meet you, but I don't see what you are talking about." He answered calmly before analyzing her in turn. Her body was quite beautiful, far too refined and rid of any imperfection. Her white skin was like porcelain and her blue eyes seemed to almost gleam. If he had to note something, it was that it was too perfect. Far too graceful and refined, far too beautiful and far too perfect to be human. It was like a doll.

However, he found something intimately beautiful in that expression of hers, those blank eyes that resembled his so very much. But there was n meaning in such beauty, and he doubted such a thing was reciprocal. Even if it was, it would feel wrong.

However, for the slightest moment the demon had to awknowledge that whatever feeling he had towards that individual, it was not dislike.

And yet, her soul was completely different. It was as average as you could get, much like an average human. If he had to compare it to something, it would be vanilla ice cream. However, it seemed that there were odd traces of alien flavors and colours sprinkled a little over here, a little over there...

Lost in his conjecture for a moment, the demon blanked out only to tilt his head and stare lazily at her.

"Even if I did, is there a reason for me to do such a thing?" He added flatly.

[Kat]

Petra

Damn, she really wasn't in a mood to have that smartass to hang around. She honestly expected that Garou would rough up her, but the girl at very least knew better to not pick up fight after he showed her he was more physically capable of her. She neither was inclined to beat up that Tohsaka herself, unless she really topped herself and did something even more insensitive and reckless. And Petra definitely didn't like that Garou proposed her a drink. He was broke. Of course he would try to rope her into paying for Tohsaka's bill.

"Are you really sure?" She asked for confirmation. Those two hanging around was like a powderkeg ready to blow up with provocation.

[Kat]

Mordred

"I'd argue that you could promise to stop doing such things to adults, but that's too binding to force you. I will just trust you on that. I don't really want anything, so promise me something trivial. A promise is a promise, it doesn't have to be anything grand on your part." The changeling reassured the girl. She really did it out of concern for her and others rather than to gain anything. "If you agree, we can just finalize the oath and forget about what happened. I've had a difficult day, I don't want really to do anything else but relax..."

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

The construct considered the statement carefully. He had not immediately refused which meant that the possibility of reasoning the souls out of him would be possible. "There are several reasons for you to do so. I could respond with violence which may not leave permanent damage but would certainly be an annoyance for both of us. I am physically capable and willing to perform tasks in exchange for the souls. You also seemingly have no reason to keep such a large mass of spirits and thus there is no reason not to grant me them."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Theodore

Theodore sighed annoyedly. Give me a break, things just keep getting better and better.

"Good grief, I suppose you won't take no for an answer. I just keeep getting into trouble don't I?"

Honestly, he was getting his hopes up for a second, but it seemed that girl was simply a brute. Respond with violence? Don't say things if you can't back them up, idiot. Seriously, how naive could she be to think he'd let her beat him? Well, she did look pretty strong, so he might lose. But to put herself in such a risky situation for so little was nothing more than lunacy.

Besides, her condescending overbearing arrogant confidence was pissing him off. She reminded him more and more of himself a few hours ago. He yawned before stretching back, a dome of air surrounding the two vibrated in such fashion that the sound surrounding the two was canceled out by an opposite wavelength. Then, he responded with the same flat monotone.

"Even if such a number is bothersome to my integrity, it is not completely inconvenient. After all, they are the only thing that composes my body and maintain it. I could certainly discard these souls if I had the tools, but it would be the same as discarding an arm or an organ. To put myself in such a position for an utter stranger, no matter how you look at it, it is still an utterly suicidal lose-lose situation. Besides, why would you need souls anyway, and my souls to begin with? There is plenty spiritual residue in this city and more than enough fools that would gladly give their own. To ask someone like me for help, just how desperate are you anyway?"

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

"It is not a matter of desperation; it is a matter of gains. Even if a man had plenty to eat it would be imprudent of him to not save food if the opportunity presented itself." The Mantle warped itself into a chair that Erica settled into with mechanical grace. In private her act dissolved as the illusion of breathing and meaningless fidgeting vanished.

Only her continued bargaining disturbed the absolute stillness of her form. "Let us remove any confusion first. I will not lie to you for there is no reason for me to lie. Spreading misinformation is worthless to me. I am the Spirit Vessel. A soul placed within a puppet body to be wielded by the Prophets in their struggles. My specialties are based in maneuverability and overwhelming physical strength. In exchange for a negotiated amount of souls these skills and my presence would be at your disposal as long as the situation is subtle enough or will not cause mass panic. The only exception would be if a certain individual asked for me to desist in aiding you. Is that acceptable?"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Theodore

You didn't answer my question. Kids these days truly have no manners, how deplorable. I just told you that it doesn't matter if I gain something if I am going to lose something of equal amount. Your bargaign is still utterly worthless...

However, her abilities did seem like they could be put to use. He couldn't help but feel all of this was an excuse to her, a way to give her something to do to spice up her boring highschool girl life. While he found it grating, he did understand her sentiment. Something about her look made it hard for him to dislike for him, it was as if something inside him was forcing him to go along.

Jeez, what a pain. Just when he tought he had rejected everything, it seemed there were still some things he still couldn't help but cling onto. What a fool.

"What if I gave you souls collected from a different source, there are many worms writhing in this city's underbelly. It's kinda gross, but I'm sure even the souls of good for nothing scumbags should meet your low standards. It's not like you'll get much better inside me anyway. Would that be adequate?"

[Panda]

Emily

The Changeling allowed a smirk at his response, getting the feeling that she'd enjoy meeting this woman if the opportunity presented itself.

"Well, she certainly sounds quite agreeable," Emily noted, "Though, if the other is the reason you're here, have you had any luck getting into contact with her? Maybe being in this place has changed things for her."

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

"The source of the soul is irrelevant. They will all be crushed into energy for this vessel regardless of origins or circumstances. That compromise is acceptable." The girl rose from her chair and the Mantle resumed its neutral state as she floated in front of the man.

She held out an almost dainty hand towards the strangely dressed man without a single glimmer of emotion on her face. "Although I do not understand the significance most humans appear to consider shaking another's hand as a signal of a completed deal. It seems logical enough to initiate our bargain the same way. Will my service be needed immediately?"