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

[Elf]

Forest

"And you have," Gadreel said, "tried multiple times, from the sound of it. Did you have access to some form of sorcery when you tried? Did you attempt to access other realms, the kingdoms of the dead, the land of dreams or pantheons? Or is it all just... a trap?"

Forest bit her lip and nodded.  "I tried summoning a Faerie that can traverse between places and she didn't heed my call, and trust me, when I called for her in my home world she came running."  She grimaced and added, "And tried to be almost forcefully affectionate, but that's just her way."

She sighed, smoothed a lock of her hair back and continued, "I'm not a magic user by any stretch of the imagination other than lighting candles, but magic users aren't in short supply here.  I sought some out.  A lot of coin was used to get favors and hell sometimes I had to be bloody forceful.  The answer was always the same.  You can 'check out', but you can never leave."

[Aiden]

Gadreel

His shoulders slumped ever so slightly at her words. She had no reason to deceive him about such a thing, and it was clear to the exile that this Forest had every reason to seek with all vigor the means to escape. "Then it appears I am in a prison with abundant company," Gadreel conceded for the moment, a grim expression overtaking his face. "And milkshakes."

He took a deep, unnecessary breath. "There are worse fates I suppose."

[Aiden]

Annabeth

The Hunter considered his response for a moment, holding on to the feeling of calmness even as she saw the flickers in his aura.

"Hmm..." the Hunter pursed her lips in contemplation, weighing the possible benefits of blindly pursuing a lead like that against the possible consequences before deciding that it would probably be worth it, "Well...try focusing on that feeling again. Take it, let it flow through you, but don't let it overwhelm you. Fair warning, this might be a bit hard. It's fine if you don't get it right the first time around."

Ron

"I'm getting Star Wars flashbacks," Ron muttered to himself as he did his best to digest Annabeth's words. It was difficult since his head was being filled with visions of the red bounty hunter switching her coat and hat up for some comfy black robes. Maybe add a little extra yellow to the eyes, and... yeah he'd best stop there. He shook his head. "Okay, I'll see what I can do. Worse comes to worst, I'll be the one tied up this time. Again."

Ron tried to reach that point again, and it was all too easy now. It came to him again with but a thought, and it made him flinch how unexpectedly he felt that anger surge through his body. His muscles trembled with it, and he felt himself painfully growing. He distantly heard his bones creaking as they grew, and his body grew to accommodate them. He was in that hairy barbarian form he'd used on Annabeth earlier. It came easier now, the feeling from before. He was 'closer' to the heart of the wolf monster thing lurking within him.

He clenched his muscles. A deep rumble escaped his throat as the werewolf released a breath.

"... I feel like if I go further than this something bad is going to happen," he said in a gruff, harsh voice after a moment of reveling in his extra muscles. It was like what he'd heard of steroids, but without your penis shriveling up. Hopefully. "What exactly are you hoping I'm going to find if I do that?"

[Elf]

Forest

Forest sighed and felt her shoulder's slump.  She looked around the people milling about in the food court and nodded.  "A prison.  That's a bloody accurate description of this place if I've ever heard one . . ."

She straightened to her full height sitting up and shrugged.  "There are worse fates; there could be a zombie outbreak.  Which I'm pretty sure is going to happen at some point in time.  Anyway, you might think I'm daft, or trying to entrap you, but if you need help getting settled in I can.  Help I mean."

Thinking of Saber she smirked and said, "It wouldn't be my first rodeo after all."

[Aiden]

Gadreel

Well, since they were laying their cards on the table already... wait, no, perhaps it would be wiser to ask a question of her first and foremost? Yes, it would be best to ascertain if he had to worry about others like himself, the undiminished soldiers of Heaven or Hell, who would take umbrage with his presence if he revealed himself to them. He nodded to her, slowly.

"Until such time as we can make our escape, I would appreciate your hospitality," Gadreel said with as much gravitas as he could muster, to put it as the Romans once did. "And in the event the mindless dead walk, I assure you - I have experience dealing with such matters. I am no scion of the great Campbell, but my skills will suffice."

He managed something approaching as close to a smile as he could muster under the circumstances.

[Elf]

Forest

Did he just make an Evil Dead reference?  He did!  Well that settles it, then doesn't it?

Forest relaxed and smiled back as well.  She then held out her hand and said, "It's a deal then.  I'm glad that the broadsword isn't false advertising.  I mean, it's no chainsaw or boomstick, but at least it never runs out of ammo or gas."

I should tell him though.  Even though he might be a supernatural himself, vampires aren't exactly known for being cuddly.  Despite what that stupid book series did.

She took a large gulp of her orange froth and swallowed.  Gripping the cup she closed her eyes, took a deep, unneeded breath, and said, "Before you accept my hospitality, I should tell you something about myself though."

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter's breath caught at the sudden flash of anger from Ron, but Annabeth kept her En steady, resisting the instinctual urge to drop the En to go into Ren.

The Hunter took a closer look to find that he'd shifted into that inbetween form that had preceded the wolf-man form, pointedly not thinking about the other time she'd witnessed that form. Annabeth found herself starting to tense up, feeling something she couldn't quite identify clawing at the back of her mind. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't really worry, so the Hunter put it aside for the moment.

"Nen is heavily influenced by emotions," Annabeth explained,  "And it seems your power is similar in regards to a link to your emotional state. What I'm trying to see is if you can possible unlock a new aspect or facet of your power with those emotions."

"For example, the soothing feeling around you right now?" Annabeth noted, "I'm having to keep myself as calm as possible to maintain this."

[Aiden]

Gadreel

He reached out to accept Forest's hand, clasping it in his. "Regardless of what you have to say, your offer speaks well of you. That is unlikely to change unless you are about to tell me that you do something unforgivably awful."

Gadreel considered his own words for a moment. "That statement did not help at all, did it?"

Ron

Ron's hairier face scrunched up in concentration from Annabeth's explanation. "Well, I feel like I could become that... thing on purpose right now if I wanted," he said without much hesitation, "but that isn't very helpful. Unless there was something else to it you didn't mention? What was I like that way?"

He was getting off track, but if he was going to experiment with that he wanted to know more.

[Panda]

Annabeth

"Substantially stronger, but out of control," Annabeth said, shaking her head, "But that's not what I'm thinking of. Remember how you channeled your energy and used it to gain the strength to throw me off? Try doing that again, only channeling your anger instead of whatever emotion you felt then. If you can manage that, there might be a chance to discover something new."

[Elf]

Forest

"Well, that depends on what your definition of 'unforgivably awful' is," Forest said with a wry grin as he took her hand.  She reveled in it's warmth and steeled herself.

"I'm a vampire.  I have to feed off the blood of the living to survive.  I don't kill when I feed, I generally only take a pint or so anyway, and apparently it feels rather good when I do.  Or so I've been told.  Or seen the rather vocal reactions too.  Anyway, I don't kill to feed and I generally feed on willing donors or someone who attacks me first.  I also fight the forces of evil because . . . well that's a long story."

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

The construct's tone was utterly bland as she responded to the information given. "I am always confident in myself. That is irrelevant. But is it really true that appearance can play no part for you? Despite your alterations you are still guided by the desires of the flesh and preconceptions of beauty and what your love may be like. Could you really love someone if their appearance terrified you or repulsed you? Would you even approach them? Living with a love influenced by so many factors sounds unclean and diluted. Things should be beautiful because you love them."

[Thedoctor]

Jin

900? how does 900 fit in that bag? Jin looked at the bag incredulously, not really believeing what Oka had said. "Train you say....how long does that take and did you train all....900 of them?" Jin asked as he glanced at the bag.

[SINIB]

Jin

900? how does 900 fit in that bag? Jin looked at the bag incredulously, not really believeing what Oka had said. "Train you say....how long does that take and did you train all....900 of them?" Jin asked as he glanced at the bag.

Oka Kurosawa

Oka chortled at Jin. "Ha! Hehe, I don't have nine hundred pokemon, silly, I have nine hundred pokeballs. They don't have anyone in them yet. I have a lot more than the five I have in my PC, but definetly not nine hundred." She reached into her bag and withdrew an ultra ball. "Here!" She said, handing it to Jin. "Let's go catch a pokemon, comeon, it's fun."

[Lycodrake]

Lycodrake Aptera

William seemed to be in shock and Bellatanus was most certainly displeased with the newcomer. The wingless one was caught between curiosity, not wanting to irritate Bellatanus by hearing "Grayskull" out, and asking the boisterous being to speak with less volume. He had never been one for loud noises - noise in general, really.

"While she could say it with more kindness, I admit your volume is getting on my nerves. Do you happen to have a point? Your noise is rude and if all you wanted to say was 'oh, look, a dragon'-" He paused. "Well, that's rather rude, too. My name is Lycodrake Aptera." Pointing in turn he introduced the others. "Her name is Bellatanus, and his: William." He emphasized the names, in the hopes that the being would quiet down.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Greyskull

Greyskull listened to the two and nodded. Truth be told, he saw no issues with his volume. It was perfectly normal, and honestly he did not understand why everyone in this city seemed to speak so softly. He could barely hear them himself, having to exert quite a bit of effort to do so.

However, he had no desire to be rude, thus he would accommodate them.

“Sorry! Erm, I had no intention to be rude. Well, to make a long story short, I am enthralled in all that involves ancient magic, relics, artifacts, beasts of yore, mysticism and the occult. I guess you could say I have dwelled in the art of the scholar, nyeh hyeh. However, I never thought I would see a dragon in my lifetime, let alone a living one. I have read the tales, and I believed your kind was long extinct.

Please understand where I am coming from. Self-control has never been one of my strong points. I would be immensely grateful if you were to not let my earlier misconduct taint your mood; it was far from my intention.”  He said in a pure-hearted, earnest apology.