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

[SINIB]

Foxkura

Shiro quickly found her target: a red haired woman. She quickly thought about the best way to stalk her and take her out. It was a crowded place, and she'd quickly found out that doing that was not the best of ideas in this new place, they didn't understand, seemingly, why she was doing it. That it was right and good for her to do it.

So she'd try a more stealthy approach.

She ran up to the woman, sobbing, tears streaming from her eyes, and grabbed her leg. "Mama! Can you help me find my mama?" She sobbed sadly, begging for help. "I can't find her anywhere!"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Theodore

The man looked with the same unnervingly stoic dead eyes, mustering another frown. He nodded afterwards before helping himself up.

"Forgive me, you are right. I do not know you. What I do know is that I found you crying in the middle of nowheresville. I am not trying to patronize you, I am trying to help you. This city is not the sort of place where a lady should walk alone. Do you understand?"

Indeed, the girl had subjected herself to an immense risk to come here. Whether it was willing or not, there was no greater misfortune than arriving in this place. She could not know, of course, and he could not tell her for none would believe him. However, if there was anything she could do at the moment, it was to try to enjoy her life to the fullest.

If she could do that, perhaps he would be satisfied.


Count Greyskull

Crap! She was strong! Well, no matter, she would tire out eventually! There was no way such feats would not tax her even a little, no matter how you looked at it her body would eventually weaken. A white glow surrounded the lich king as winds shifted and swirled around him, glowing a pale light as his surroundings became colder and colder.

The temperature dropped dramatically, sub zero winds  refrigerating every surface they encountered. With a deliberate motion of the hand, he sent the winds forth to freeze the hallway and turn the floor into a slippery ice surface. It was cold, and only growing colder by the second.

"QUIT RUNING AWAY, YOU'RE NOT SENDING ME TO THE COOLER! ICE PARTY!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEEH!!"

[Umbra of Chaos]

Numina

Numina was interrupted from her scouting by a loud voice and the grip of pudgy hands on her leg. She looked down to see a dark haired girl sobbing and asking for help in finding her mother. It was almost a shame, really. It would only take a little visit to a secluded face and she could save this girl from all the issues that a conversion could bring. She had done it before, and there was no doubt in her mind that it would be a mercy, but she had already decided.

The redhead kneeled down and gently took one of the girl's hands. "Hey, you don't have to cry. I'm sure we can find your mama very soon. I'm Numina. What's your name, and where did you last see your mama?"


Alarice

Alarice narrowed her eyes as a bitter, cold wind swept through the hallway and ice began to coat the ground. The battle was beginning to turn against her even with the lack of meaningful wounds she had sustained. Her muscles had began burning and her breathing was becoming heavier as she constantly exerted herself while Greyskull seemed to be drawing on an endless store of mana.

She needed to gain more distance. The noble placed the hilt of the dagger in her mouth, dropped to all, fours and sank her claws into the ground as she scrambled towards a wall. Then, once she had gotten close enough, she carefully stood up and slashed the wall before bashing her way through the chewed up remnants.

The Chosen spilled out of the hallway and rolled into the adjacent room. A few cleaning skeletons looked up at her and immediately began to clear the rubble but she paid them no heed as she carbed her way through another wall to try and escape the skeleton's detection.

[Kat]

Petra

"Are you really sure you head the right direction. You aren't infallible, you know." The saint was skeptical whether Garou really knew what he did. Abnormal sense of smell or not, whole situation was suspicious. She wouldn't be surprised if he took her to a shady establishment as a way to get back at her for taking him to Trussardi's place. Sighing, she followed him anyway, it's not like she had anything better to do.

[SINIB]

Numina

Numina was interrupted from her scouting by a loud voice and the grip of pudgy hands on her leg. She looked down to see a dark haired girl sobbing and asking for help in finding her mother. It was almost a shame, really. It would only take a little visit to a secluded face and she could save this girl from all the issues that a conversion could bring. She had done it before, and there was no doubt in her mind that it would be a mercy, but she had already decided.

The redhead kneeled down and gently took one of the girl's hands. "Hey, you don't have to cry. I'm sure we can find your mama very soon. I'm Numina. What's your name, and where did you last see your mama?"

Foxkura

"My name... sniff... my name is Sakura..." She looked up with hopeful, teary eyes. "Will you help me? Really?" She looked beyond cheerful, and extactic. "I saw her in... one of the stores... I don't know which one."

[Thedoctor]

Shinobu

"Hahaha." Shinoub laughed as she heard Medaka's embarrassing ramblings. "I was merely teasing you human, do not think I am enamored by you just because you flaunt your body so brazenly". The vampire declared with a serious voice. "Your youth is quite telling here."


Kuro

"I don't think we an play rugby with only three people." Kuro stated, as the possibility of it was mentioned. She then turned started heading for the exit. "What matters is that we can't do any of that here. So let's go." She told them whith an excited grin on her face.

[Cherry Lover]

Sakura and Shirou

As soon as Sakura made her move, the blonde servant stepped in, grabbing hold of her hands and stopping the attack. Sakura glared angrily at the servant, but she knew there was nothing she could do, especially given that she appeared to be able to completely nullify her magic. Her shoulders sagging slightly, she simply continued to glare, hoping that the servant or her master would not decide to finish off her helpless husband.

Shirou, meanwhile, continued to struggle to stand.

Sakura is in danger! he thought, desperately, struggling against the white-haired woman holding him.

Before he could do anything, however, the alternate Sakura spoke.

"Apparently, this fool never uncovered his true nature, and still naively trusts him, like a child", she said, seemingly talking to Jeanne, presumably continuing an internal conversation. "It must be unfortunate, to find out your beloved is worse than an axe murderer. I'm truely sorry."

Sakura felt a combination of sadness, irritation and anger at the woman's words. Her willingness to openly slander Shirou and the way she was talking down to the much-older version of herself was seriously grating, but the empathic tone blunted Sakura's anger a little. It was clear that the woman meant her no harm, and was simply seriously mistaken as to Shirou's nature.

Whilst Sakura did not like seeing someone misjudge Shirou in this manner, she could understand it to an extent, even if she was surprised at the unwillingness of the alternate version of herself to give Shirou the benefit of the doubt, as she knew she undoubtedly would have. He had made a serious mistake, and compounded it with an inexplicably bad apology. And, besides, despite her obvious anger, Sakura knew she was heavily disadvantaged. Shouting at or insulting the woman would not help her, all she could do was try to convince her to see reason.

"Sakura, Shirou is not a monster. He simply made a mistake, one which he was about to apologise for. Properly", she aaid, glancing at her husband, who was gradually struggling to his feet, hoping he would soon get to it. "Please, do not hold his mistake against him, or against me."

It was obvious that Sakura was angered and upset by what she had said, but she held it in. She just wanted to protect Shirou, and avoid causing a conflict between herself and Rider's new master. She knew that her beloved servant would be heartbroken to see the two of them fighting, and it was something she desperately wanted to avoid.

Shirou, having struggled free of Irisviel's grip and unsteadily risen to his feet, stood straight up and walked towards the alternate Sakura, only to immediately throw himself to the floor again. Prostrating himself before her, he began to speak, his voice full of regret and distress.

"I'm sorry for kissing you! I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" he said, his anguish obviously genuine. "Please forgive me! I'm really, really, really sorry!"

[Thedoctor]

Archer

Archer smiled as Shirou was so enthusiastically trying to figure out the the trick. "You see there isn't a secret ingredient....There's several. "First off I used a heavier cream, your usual whipping cream has a milk fat content of around 35%. What I used had a milk fat content of 48%, it's called double cream in most places. That was the first thing."

Archer gave a slight pause before continuing. He then picked up one of the soufflé's, showing it to Shirou, turning it around so he could see it from multiple angles. "The second thing, is in the chocolate or should I say chocolates, there's more than one type here."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Count Greyskull

The mighty dark god sorcerer could feel her presence crawl further away. While he could have had his legions jump on her and ive her the beating of a lifetime while she was down, that would have been not only in poor taste, but completely undramatic! That would not do. He pondered on his options, considering dragging her screaming and wailing back to the training grounds by force.

However, that would be mean. He didn't really want to hurt her or cause her distress, because he truly considered a friend. He nodded in approval. Very well, it simply couldn't be helped. Intimidation was an ugly thing, he didn't really want to use fear to control her. If she would not come, he would.

"MYAAAH!! IT'S FUTILE! NO MATTER WHERE YOU RUN, EVEN IF YOU HIDE IN THE CORNERS OF THE WORLD... YOU WILL ALWAYS BE WITHIN MY GRASP!!"

Shadows quickly enveloped the skeletal lord, his mana wrapping him with pitch black darkness like coweb. Before long, he sank into the shade like a fog. Black tendrils of shade crawled across the castle walls, like the writhing limbs of insects and serpents.

It was almost as if the skeleton's shadow was taking physical form, an arm of pure darkness blacker than the blackest of coffees shooting across the halls  and zigzagging until the dark hand found itself a few meters in front of Alarice. Suddenly, a highly telegraphed red magic circle of satanism glew in the brightest reddest of reds.

A figure emerged from the shadow, standing atop the circle of evil magecraft. Almost as if it was mud or goo, the shadow slowly dripped down to reveal the elusive Greyskull! The arm, his shadow spiraled back from the source down to the origin, its whole length that had been running down the castle coming back to him.

Tldr, his shadow stretched to skedaddle in front of her, then the skelelord switched places with his shadow.

Three humongous bones emerged from his shade, glowing blue and spinning rapidly. With a wave of his skeletal hand he sent them flying at her. You couldn't telegraph an attack more even if you tried. Oh, but they were no normal bones. For as soon as he launched them, they caught on fire! NOW WE ARE TALKING!

"TAKE THIS!

[Umbra of Chaos]

Numina

The cultist smiled at the girl and nodded before standing back up. Her grasp on the child's hand was gentle but firm as she said, "Don't worry about it. It shouldn't be an issue at all. Do you remember what was in the store? We can find her without knowing that but it would be a lot faster if I knew where we should start looking."

[SINIB]

Sakura and Shirou

As soon as Sakura made her move, the blonde servant stepped in, grabbing hold of her hands and stopping the attack. Sakura glared angrily at the servant, but she knew there was nothing she could do, especially given that she appeared to be able to completely nullify her magic. Her shoulders sagging slightly, she simply continued to glare, hoping that the servant or her master would not decide to finish off her helpless husband.

Shirou, meanwhile, continued to struggle to stand.

Sakura is in danger! he thought, desperately, struggling against the white-haired woman holding him.

Before he could do anything, however, the alternate Sakura spoke.

"Apparently, this fool never uncovered his true nature, and still naively trusts him, like a child", she said, seemingly talking to Jeanne, presumably continuing an internal conversation. "It must be unfortunate, to find out your beloved is worse than an axe murderer. I'm truely sorry."

Sakura felt a combination of sadness, irritation and anger at the woman's words. Her willingness to openly slander Shirou and the way she was talking down to the much-older version of herself was seriously grating, but the empathic tone blunted Sakura's anger a little. It was clear that the woman meant her no harm, and was simply seriously mistaken as to Shirou's nature.

Whilst Sakura did not like seeing someone misjudge Shirou in this manner, she could understand it to an extent, even if she was surprised at the unwillingness of the alternate version of herself to give Shirou the benefit of the doubt, as she knew she undoubtedly would have. He had made a serious mistake, and compounded it with an inexplicably bad apology. And, besides, despite her obvious anger, Sakura knew she was heavily disadvantaged. Shouting at or insulting the woman would not help her, all she could do was try to convince her to see reason.

"Sakura, Shirou is not a monster. He simply made a mistake, one which he was about to apologise for. Properly", she aaid, glancing at her husband, who was gradually struggling to his feet, hoping he would soon get to it. "Please, do not hold his mistake against him, or against me."

It was obvious that Sakura was angered and upset by what she had said, but she held it in. She just wanted to protect Shirou, and avoid causing a conflict between herself and Rider's new master. She knew that her beloved servant would be heartbroken to see the two of them fighting, and it was something she desperately wanted to avoid.

Shirou, having struggled free of Irisviel's grip and unsteadily risen to his feet, stood straight up and walked towards the alternate Sakura, only to immediately throw himself to the floor again. Prostrating himself before her, he began to speak, his voice full of regret and distress.

"I'm sorry for kissing you! I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" he said, his anguish obviously genuine. "Please forgive me! I'm really, really, really sorry!"

Sakura Matou

Sakura furrowed her eyes at her alternate self. "Excuse me, but I don't remember giving you permission to use my first name? Why do you think that's ok? You think you know me well enough to call me by my first name? Really?"

"Feh." Sakura spat on the ground, and began speaking in German, leaving little space in between words and making it hard to understand "If you know me as well as you seem to think you do, you must understand me right now, correct?" She leaned in and switched back to Japanese. "No, clearly not. And Faust wouldn't mean anything to you, either, Emiya-san." She emphasized her last words, visibly upset to even be saying them. She saw Shirou getting up from the corner of her eye, and frowned. What's he doing? She wondered, but when she saw him collapse onto the ground, she know exactly what he was doing.

"I'm sorry for kissing you! I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" he said, his anguish obviously genuine. "Please forgive me! I'm really, really, really sorry!"

"Grrr..." Sakura frowned at him. "You're a bit late for that, don't you think? And you didn't do it right, or maybe I misheard? You apologized for what, kissing me?" She looked at him with hate. "You meant to say you apologize for forcing your tongue into my mouth, and raping it, right?" Sakura spat out reflexively as she remembered it. "You're sorry for raping my mouth, and not bothering to apologize afterwords, right?"

[Kat]

Mordred

Huh, she seemed more then eager to go outdoors. Good, she felt somewhat cramped with such clingy child inside the cafe. She would forget about the oath thing for now. It was time to go out and
do some sports. "Are you coming too after all, Corbin. Don't straggle behind us."

[Thedoctor]

Jeanne

Her master was getting more upset by the second, speaking in German for a moment before switching back to Japanese. The other Shirou fell to his knees and started prostrating before her, looking as if he truly regretted his actions. Her master was seemingly even more upset at this, as if the man was being dishonest, Jeanne however could feel that he was telling truth, not accepting it would be detrimental to her master, she couldn't tell why exactly, but she trusted in it, it had always been there for her, ever since that day.

While still holding the other Sakura's hand she spoke through her bond to her master. Master, I believe he's serious about his apology, I urge you to at least listen to him. He's in pain too Sakura, please try to understand him. Compassion is after all one of the greatest of the virtues. Jeanne's words were stern yet there was an undertone of caring to them.

[Aiden]

Foxkura

Shiro was walking around, when, suddenly, she noticed a pungent and foul smell. She didn't bother asking if anyone else could smell it, she knew they couldn't.

Only she could smell the smell of a Demon, after all.

She whipped her head around suddenly, before bowing at Breeze.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go kill a demon now. I hope to meet you again." She said sadly.

"You can find me at my tree!" She told her cheerfully before sprinting off at top speed, transforming into a small, mundane looking child as she climbed up the wall of a building and jumped up and over it.

Auspicious Breeze

... huh?

"That's kinda... wow, spirits are strange," the Solar concluded after a moment of confusion. It was just pretty weird, talking to the cute foxy girl one moment and having her run off another. And to hunt demons? "I hope it's not a nice demon."

Like, if they were some cute demon with purple skin that was all soft and kissable. Or one of those little bugs that crawled in your belly and ate some of your food so you didn't get fat and drank all the poison out of you. There were a lot of nice demons!

While thinking all this she tried to pursue the girl who was going to introduce her to 'Asian' food, but foxy stopped looking the same and Breeze lost her in the skittish crowds. "Darn it!"

Forest

Forest gave Gadreel a wiry smirk at his thanks and replied, You're welcome . . .   She looked away; he was a fallen angel.  Theoretically he could have probably shrugged it off like a duck with water, but nope, Forest had done the hero thing.

She rubbed the back of her neck, chuckled and said, "You're welcome.  It's a bad habit.  But I like you so . . . I just, you know, acted."

It's a long story, but not long.  Something about a Holy Grail War, summoning epic heroes from the dead for the Gathering until there's only One, but someone flubbed up and put the spirit of all the world's evil into the Grand Prize.  So, the heroes got corrupted or something.

Gadreel

A smile stealthily stretched its way across his features. "One whose first instinct is to help has a good heart, regardless of their other foibles."

Still, the thought of such a strange ritual... and what was this about 'all the world's evil' taking form? This had not felt like the Adversary, that blasphemous rival of the Creator from outside Its dominion. The enemy he had been forced to leave undefeated by his unexpected imprisonment in this place was fundamentally incompatible with the world as it existed, and had to be invited by the collective effort of millions of immature human souls kneeling in supplication to it.

This felt... natural. Unpleasant, downright vile even, but ultimately natural in the same manner as a cancer.

He needs to have that looked at by someone eventually; his sanity may well not survive for long otherwise.

[Elf]

Corbin

"Fine, fine, I'm coming.  Bloody hell," the dhampir said as he left a tip on the table and grabbed Mordred's untouched soda.

He easily caught up to them and said, "Well, what do you ladies want to do then?  Or do we find some unlucky sod to play with us."


Rin

Rin gave Petra an arch look and said, "Well, doesn't Garou mean 'wolf' in French?  Even though looking up a bar in the phone book would have been more reliable. Or maybe asked someone with one of those 'intelligent cellular phones'."


Forest

"I guess," Forest replied, smiling herself.

Still she could see the confusion in Gadreel's eyes about something she really didn't understand herself.  Despite liking Saber for all of her follies, the girl couldn't explain something to save her life.  Unless it was her giant crush on the man known as Archer, then she was somewhat easier to understand and actually sounded like the young woman she attempted to be.

She frowned and replied, . . . I want to tell Saber; she's the person he's the closest too, but I'm not sure how she'd react.  Plus, sometimes sticking your nose where it's not wanted can make things even worse than they were before.  Not to mention I sort of feel like I'm violating his privacy if I do try to help him.  It's a bloody tightrope to walk.