Cross Effects 3.0 - June 23, 2016—April 02, 2018

[Kat]

Mordred

Frankly, on another hand Mordred felt guilty that she jumped to conclusions so fast about Oren's intentions (as that episode with Emily made her more than a bit uneasy over clingy people), but another hand the antler girl quickly got distracted by her talk of motorcycles and that really bothered her for some reason. Just how much you had to act following your whims to shift attention so quickly. And that made her quite uneasy as it was common pattern among Fae and Changelings whose state of mind was fractured. But this was no place and time to investigate. Not with Breeze around who was strong but trusting person and thus not one to suspect Oren of anything. Sure, she could become her 'friend'. Just to get better picture of things.

"I'm sorry for assuming things. I do blame certain incident in my past, but that's not really excuse. So please accept my apology." She apologized 'sincerely' to Oren for her words.

[SINIB]

Paladin

The armored man was beginning to get the feeling that today was going to be a very strange day. It was the crack of dawn and yet- crash -he was fighting some sort vampiric creature. Possibly a heart construct? The bash from his shield hadn't even sent it reeling! It was already upon him again as if the strike hadn't hurt it at all, but Paladin had seen the same moves a thousand times before.

He sidestepped over the drained corpse of the motel owner as a mass of teeth and fangs lunged past him and crashed into the wall of the building. Then Paladin charged with a sudden burst of speed. His sword sank into the monster's flesh and it wailed as blood froze into spikes and its flesh grew cold.

This close he could smell its meals as it thrashed and struck at him over and over again. His shield held back the brunt of it, sharp fangs doing nothing to the righteous scale, but a few shadowy tendrils slammed into his armor. A jarring feeling that he knew was going to bruise as he struggled to hold the twisting creature in place. Then he let out a wave of chilled air that left frost upon the wall and froze some of its thinner extremities.

That did it! It managed a burst of strength to knock him back, but he had been ready for it. It merely sent him skidding back a few feet as the twitching mass of twisted flesh began to move again as if it wasn't impaired at all. It shifted away from the wall as he drew back and lashed out with a score of tentacles coated in sharp teeth as he began to charge in.

Hah! As if that was enough to impair a warrior of Stribog! The blade of ice sang through the air as it amputated appendages intending to grasp him and covered the stumps with painful bursts of bloody ice. Anything else was irrelevant. They left scratches and dents in his armor, but his shield was left nice and whole as he held it in front of him and crashed into the beast once more.

That numb feeling in his arm meant that the beast had braced itself. The fact that they were currently in broad daylight and covered in dusty plaster meant that he had performed the charge at the right time and was not being eaten right now. Which was good!

He managed to get in one more cut that forced itself wide open with miniature blades of ice before kicking the monster away. And then he realized that he had very nearly missed crashing him and his bloated foe into a young woman. That was quite shameful. Without removing his gaze from the creature that was quickly gaining its bearings he announced, "My apologies, citizen, but unless you are capable of reducing men to meaty pulp and can resist the same force I must ask you to leave while I finish dealing with this creature."

IRON=SAKURA

Sakura had been walking along, whistling a song and keeping a firm hold on her money, when suddenly, a large monstrosity burst through a wall directly in front of her, with an armored man following suit.

There was only one thing she could do.

She screeched in surprise. "Kya!" She nimbly jumped back a yard, and took a fighting stance. The thing in front of her looked really gross, totally disgusting. She really wished she was carrying her club. Then she could just beat it to death without actually touching it.

Oh well. She thought to herself and shrugged.

She burst forward at high speeds, and with a deft grip, grabbed one of its appendages and threw it high up in the air. She then took a stance as if to charge a punch up, holding one arm with her other and waited for it to fall back down, at which point she punched it with all her might, sending it flying into another wall.

"Iron Fist of Annihilation!" She yelled out as her fist connected. She wondered if that would be enough, or if it would just get back up.

[Aiden]

Liam

"Ya don't meet a lot of nice ladies in my line of work," he admitted to Petra while they worked. "And the ones I do, they tend to have men of their own already. I'm not really the sort to wreck homes."

He was more the sort to fix them. Or frighten folk back into them.

------------------

Muramasa Katase

"I am rather confident in my ability to refrain from gutting them for insisting on physical contact in their greetings," Katase's puppet said with some rather uncharacteristic cheer and a smile on her face. "As for the bath..."

Her eyes went to her true form, the Muramasa blade by Mitsuba's side. She could use a good cleaning after touching the filthy corpse of the witch who murdered her beloved wielder. It was one of the only activities for which the demon could be drawn from her sheathe without her own thirst for death overtaking her.

"This puppet is quite clean at the moment. However, if you would be willing to properly tend to my blade, then I would be... appreciative."

----------------

Ron

Getting out of that crazy forest was both disappointing and relieving for Ron. The former, because he'd been feeling so damn comfy just letting loose and tearing the place up like that. The latter, because holy crap that was a little crazy even for him! And he was a werewolf who ate criminals and lived with a trigger-happy bounty hunter, so that was really saying something.

No longer was Ron one of the ordinary people of Nexus, he was starting to really realize. Just walking along with Rikuyo and not finding her all that strange anymore? Well, he was a bit more like one of the weirdo foreigners who kept showing up and causing trouble than the average guy trying to duck his head and not get caught up in it. At least he still had his day job. Sometimes.

A doughnut shop... didn't have the same appeal it used to have for him. It was even more empty calories than before now that he was an obligated carnivore. Coffee wasn't safe for him either since he turned into a dog. The smells were still nice as long as he limited his nose to human range, though.

Wait, was she about to pick a fight? Well, he should have expected that from Riku.

"I'm Ron," he said with a short wave and a sheepish little grin.

[Kotomine_Rin]

The swarm

The holy water struck a fraction of the swarm true, cleansing the filth with God’s holy wrath.

However…

The swarm did not die. As powerful as the sacred substance was, it was one made to cleanse demons inferior to God. Dozens of insects fell to their doom, melting into a sickening goo never to rise again, but the calamity that would annihalate this world was not a mere insect. Their name was legion, for they were many. Something as vile and horrid as that unholy swarm would need far more than mere water.

Even as the fires grew bigger and hotter, enveloping the insects like the scalding sun, their bodies did not crumble into nothing. Instead, they would burn and melt only to reform in an instant, stuck in an eternal loop of destruction and regeneration. Those demons still wouldn’t die, instead they only multiplied in numbers, the fire spreading further and further through the swarm until the very heavens above the two were covered in a cloud of melting hellfire.

The prior attack smashed in the garden near them, annihilating it and burning all its surroundings as it tore all in its path asunder. With inhuman speed, more blades formed from that hellish swarm would crash down and surround them from different directions, devouring all without discrimination while spreading the fires further.

[SINIB]

Jeanne

"Oh so you want to lie to her~" The blond complained. "Lying is very very bad..." Jeanne pushed him down on the grass suddenly, pinning him down in a way reminiscent of what they had done here earlier in the day.

Looking right into his brown eyes, she smiled at his apparent helplesness. "Now what should I do with someone who's been as bad as you?"

Shirou Emiya

Shirou resisted the urge to squirm and otherwise act embarrassed by his situation. He knew that was what she wanted, but he wanted to seriously talk to her.

"Jeanne, seriously. It's not a good idea to tell her. You understand that, right?"

[SINIB]

Jin

A swimpark, how did she manage to find a swimpark in the middle of this. Did he somehow pass through the boundary while he wasn't looking? No that can't be he wouldn't be alive...

"They...they have waterparks here?" The disbelief was clear in his voice, after all how did such a large public place manage to keep open in a place like this?

Oka Kurosawa

"Yep! Surprising right? I was super excited when I heard that this place had been pulled into the Nexus and they'd decided to keep operating it. We should enjoy it while we can, I don't know how well they're doing right now." With that, Oka headed inside, pulling some money out of her bag to buy the tickets. Just before she went in, she turned back and winked at Jin. "I'll pay for this too, so don't worry about the cost."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Vanguard

Vanguard shrugged and glanced down at his result dismissively. With a bitter, ironic smirk he  chuckled and shook his head.

“I suppose you could call it boredom.”

His blue eyes  shifted coldly and met the puppeteer’s own. His presence was like a hundred serpents, coiling and grasping around the man's soul. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Like a fog, or a haze, erupted multiple shimmering, opaque forms in his vicinity. At the very same time, Vanguard's senses were assaulted by low moans that made him want to cover his ears. Those were the cries of the cursed fallen, suffering and lamenting even in eternal un-death; their endless wailing causing even the seething hot air to chill.

They were the spirits of the dead. Among their swirling mass, Karlheim's form could be made out. He was devouring the very souls of those he had slain. On that moment, he spoke to that man without uttering a single word. Nay, words were unnecessary when dealing with that man, it was much simpler to communicate with his very soul.

Tell me, Relius Clover. Have you ever felt like you already knew something in advance? I speak not of mere deja vu, but rather the prior knowledge of a certain idea. For instance…

I’ve witnessed this scenery once before.

I’ve tasted this wine once before.

I’ve smelled this aroma once before.

I’ve enjoyed this piece of music once before.

I’ve bedded this woman once before.

A delusion – an elusive kind of illusion that springs to life as the brain errs. I do wonder – have you ever experienced such a sensation?

Man’s life is a journey of studying the unknown and changing it into the known. And so this is how I see it. The father that repeats night after the night the very same moral lecture. The mother that prepares the very same meals day after day. The good neighbor whose smile beams the same way again and again. The bird that only sings the same song. The household with an ever-unchanging scent.

A sun that knows only one way to sink below the horizon.

The world truly is a place of such tedium. A man of knowledge who will only ever touch the already known, merely repeating the same play for eons to come. Like a broken record spinning into a mad song.

Because you and I are both aware of the truth of the universe. Can any man truly be satisfied by such shackles, dragged down into a fate already known?

Are you truly content with such an outcome?

[Thedoctor]

Shinobu

Earning money for solving an equation, how utterly silly for that that to even be possible, yet these things kept happening around her blue haired minion. While she didn't attract a slew of girl's like the previous one, the things she got herself involved in were somehow even more bizarre. She was about to point out to her that she couldn't fat either when they were interupted.

She turned her head around and saw someone dressed most peculiar, it was woman with sandals and bandages around her chest. Apparently she knew her from somewhere...but where? Wait. That overexcited expression, that thinly veiled lust for battle hiding beneath the surface, it was her .

"So it's you....have you come for a rematch, I see you brought a dog with you this time." She glanced at the man that came in besides her, He must have been fairly recently turned if he couldn't tell she was a vampire from this distance.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Oren

The Fae's face looked just a bit cold as she smiled at Mordred. It was a particularly curious thing on her face. As if she was perfectly aware that the blonde was not being entirely sincere and deliberately showing off that she knew . But that was alright. Oren was a liar too. The most deceitful liar who ever lied and always lies. So how could she hate a fellow liar! "Well, alright. I don't forgive you! But I'll remember that you tried."

And that was that. The coldness didn't quite creep away but there wasn't as much tension than there was before. Or Oren was such a flawless actor that it simply seemed to be the case. The distinction didn't really matter.


Paladin

The armored figure let out a hearty laugh as the creature was thrown into the air and sent then crashing into another building. He jogged up to the girl and gave her a pat on the back that would have left any normal person in some pain. "Excellent work! It certainly wasn't expecting that kind of thrashing. But that probably wasn't enough to put it down."

And sure enough the creature was rising up again. The parts of its body that had been turned to mush were already almost healed. Thankfully, the frozen wounds had remained so but it was already cutting itself apart to free itself from that particular restriction. At the same time it was beginning to make a hasty retreat at it suddenly realized its predicament. Paladin would not allow that to happen.

"Citizen, throw me at it! I'll distract and slow it so you can crush it into pulp!" He was completely ready to be manhandled and tossed like a projectile through the air.

[YOLF]

As if on cue, one of the patrons approached Michael, sitting down nearby. He spoke amiably enough, even if the double meaning was clear enough that the man might as well have spoken plainly.

Let's see, how to present myself...Confident, definitely. A little cocky, perhaps? Probably shouldn't be too subtle, wouldn't want to risk him missing it...

"In a place like this, I can't fault that observation," Michael said, his own tone just as amiable as the man before him, "But I'm not lost, merely looking for something that isn't wrapped up in the usual red tape and this seems like a good place to start looking."

With that, the immortal allowed a smile brimming with confidence, allowing it to reach grey eyes that watched the man carefully.

The man let out a polite laugh, closing his eyes in a constrained invitation of casualty.

"I don't know about that mister," he said, plain hawkish features narrowing. "But if you need something in this area I can probably hook you up."


Hiroshi would remember with admonishing regret the day he thought this man was only as dangerous as he seemed and tried to lead him on, first through alcohol, then through indirect intimidation, to weasel out of him a slip that would show his nature. The yakuza only wanted a hint that would let him make a judgement with confidence, whether to have him taken down an alley and brutalized, or treated at arm's length and with zipped-up lips. He had gotten more than he'd bargained for, and in the end they had just more or less followed on his request.

It felt like when you were really sick or tired and stayed in bed, so you distractedly emptied the contents of your bladder right there and it felt warm and relaxing, but then when it cooled down all you had left was sadness and uncomfortable remorse.

So that had brought them here, to this old and dust-covered but still standing dojo a little removed from the edge of the East Asian Special Ward, squarely in the group's territory. "Here we are," he said, sliding open the creaking front door and scattering web and dusty motes everywhere. Waving the worst of it away from his face, he turned back to Michael, sullen. "Maintenance is on your sweat and wallet, I'll be here in a week to collect the first parcel of the rent for now. Knock yourself out."

Then he left.

[Kat]

Rikuyo

"Nah, nah, he's not gonna fight ya. I brought him because I think he should meet more people. And bull's eye, he's a werewolf. I think he's been a one as long as Medaka's been a vampire. It's cool
to meet ya too, Medaka, I'm Rikuyo. Long short story, I met her, fought her, lost, lost my powers, got pushed around by some damn fox and goddamn living doll, trained myself back to shape and more, met Ron-kun and here I'm." The redheaded half-wolf explained it as briefly as she could, leaving any details for later if they asked for more.

Then she reached Ron's head and started ruffling his hair as if he was a dog, ignoring that he was walking around in human shape. "Ron-kun ain't as strong as me, but I think he can get much better in the future. Maybe he should try himself against ya when he's strong enough, Shinobu. I guess ya turned Medaka because ya see something in her too."

Instincts told her that it could be the case. A thought that she could have at least as much potential as Ron-kun really made her fired up. Pity though she was undead tho. She wasn't sure if she could learn the same thing as Ron-kun did.

[SINIB]

Lucy

She tapped her fingers together. "Well, it'd be great for assassinations! Just get close enough and poison right in the mouth! Or hot sauce I suppose. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Knocking people down a peg or two is always fun for me."


Oren

The Fae actually managed to look legitimately (and oddly) hurt at that. As if she was insulted that the blonde thought she was just trying to get in her bed. Her furious whispering was almost indignant as she said, "That's not what I- I just wanted to see if we could be friends."

But she was very quickly distracted by the talk about motorcycles. "Well, those aren't really big enough for all three of us, right? You could just ride me instead! I'm a lot faster than them anyways."


Liseth

She just sort of watched. Although the whole thing was making her feel a bit funny inside. All neat and orderly. The sound of pistons and steam echoed in her mind. "Nope. Can't feel a thing."

Sakura Matou

"Huh, well. That's fine." Sakura said as she continued crafting it until she finished, at which point it glowed brightly for a second before it disappeared. Then she must not use prana for her special ability Sakura thought to herself.

[Thedoctor]

Archer

Archer let out a sigh as he heard Sakura's misplaced praise. You should really stop idolizing me so much. Being good at using my magic doesn't mean the magic itself is actually good. I'm sure Shirou would appreciate honest praise more than something he knows isn't true." He advised her.

[SINIB]

Oren

The Fae's face looked just a bit cold as she smiled at Mordred. It was a particularly curious thing on her face. As if she was perfectly aware that the blonde was not being entirely sincere and deliberately showing off that she knew . But that was alright. Oren was a liar too. The most deceitful liar who ever lied and always lies. So how could she hate a fellow liar! "Well, alright. I don't forgive you! But I'll remember that you tried."

And that was that. The coldness didn't quite creep away but there wasn't as much tension than there was before. Or Oren was such a flawless actor that it simply seemed to be the case. The distinction didn't really matter.


Paladin

The armored figure let out a hearty laugh as the creature was thrown into the air and sent then crashing into another building. He jogged up to the girl and gave her a pat on the back that would have left any normal person in some pain. "Excellent work! It certainly wasn't expecting that kind of thrashing. But that probably wasn't enough to put it down."

And sure enough the creature was rising up again. The parts of its body that had been turned to mush were already almost healed. Thankfully, the frozen wounds had remained so but it was already cutting itself apart to free itself from that particular restriction. At the same time it was beginning to make a hasty retreat at it suddenly realized its predicament. Paladin would not allow that to happen.

"Citizen, throw me at it! I'll distract and slow it so you can crush it into pulp!" He was completely ready to be manhandled and tossed like a projectile through the air.

IRON=SAKURA

"Hahaha, you're one crazy fucker, aren't you?" Sakura asked, and returned the pat on the back, causing him to stumble a bit when she used a bit too much force. "Ah, sorry, well, up you go!" Sakura lifted him up and quickly chucked the gleaming armoured projectile at the regenerating blob like a gigantic silver bullet, chasing after him herself at top speed.

[yinsukin]

Medaka Kurokami

What was interesting about Rikuyo was not her mangaesk outfit but her dialect.  In contrast to the formal speaking that she and Shinobu engaged in, Rikuyo tended to speak more in a sort of slang, paired with a brazen attitude.  Ron on the other hand seemed rather shy but perhaps she could help him feel more comfortable as the conversation develops.

"Oh I see.  So your the girl that Shinobu mentioned before."  She said casually. She decided to stay quiet since Rikuyo seemed more interested in talking to Shinobu.  Plus, she was curious to hear her response.