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

[Kat]

Rikuyo

Behind the thick wall of trees there was a clearing, with a hole in a ground leading somewhere. It was large and wide for a large bear to fit through. The blood moon loomed ominously in the sky, shining on the entrance.

"Aw, yeah, seems like we made it to the deep part finally!" Rikuyo exclaimed, knowing they were in the right place. "Here, below the surface, a mighty bear spirit slumbers. Bribe it with honey mead or rouse it from the sleep and beat it, these are two ways to gain its favor. We're choosing' the hard way, amirite?"

[SINIB]

Rin

Rin sighed and reached out and embraced Sakura, stroking her hair.

I am worried about this vampire fixation of hers though.  There are worse things than Dead Apostles, but maybe I could talk to Rider to get her to talk about that.

"Well, we can work on it together, maybe make a compromise about how to do things," Rin said.

Sakura Matou

Sakura returned Rin's hug awkwardly and tried to smile. "Yeah. Maybe." She agreed. "I hope it's possible to make this place better. That'd be nice."

[Aiden]

Auspicious Breeze

"Ahh, well, I mean you do have to treat bodies right," Breeze pointed out. "Otherwise their ghost sticks around and is all angry and you have to worry about them going around eating people who are still alive!"

That's totally how it worked everywhere. She didn't really know who this 'Jesus' guy was, but he sounded kinda nice. But technically her god was the sun, because the sun made her Exalted... but she kissed lake goddesses... Breeze had a lot of gods, then. Made perfect sense, really! But she had only one mistress, and she was more important than some mere god.

Then Mordred showed the former gladiator her spear, and Breeze tilted her head to get a better look at it. "Whoa, that's really cool! Oh, can it hit spirits? Then it'll really be a god-slaying spear!"

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

Gadreel

"Lead the way, Forest," the exile said with a nod and a hint of a smile. "To pants."

Whatever discomfort the vampire possessed regarding feeding on others due to the sensations involved, she would have to attempt to overcome it. Gadreel had no qualms about the potential experience in any case. A more prominent concern was discerning where on his body might be delicate enough for Forest's fangs to pierce through. His epidermis and deep tissue could withstand small ballistic impacts in most places, so it would require considerable effort.

Well, there were a few places that would suffice...

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

Liam

Gun now drawn, the vampire stalked with confidence into the apartment. Small signs of disturbance, but overall just the sorta almost-furnished place you'd expect from a newcomer like Petra. It definitely needed that personal touch only time and money could afford. Plenty clean, though; nothin' unusual from a woman.

Then he opened the room all the noise was coming from, and pointed his gun at them. "A'right, party's over," Liam announced calmly.

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

Ron

Once they stopped the werewolf took a moment to catch his breath, mouth open in panting to disperse the build-up of heat in his wolf form. He sniffed the ground a few times, and was easily picking up their potential prey now. It was rich, strong, a genuine danger compared to the wind from before.

Ron turned his eyes up toward the crimson moon and felt a surge of power flood through his body. Pupils dilated and all his attention focused on it. It felt like family, so different from his own. Months before it would have driven him mad with fury, but now it just felt like...

mother

He reared back, and let out a howl of greeting to the sky. Incidentally, he obnoxiously announced his presence to whatever they were looking for.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Oren

"Then you just kill or eat the ghost!" That just made sense. Messing with things that could attract spirits without being able to kill spirits was really silly. It was like beating a crone up but not preparing any defenses when they came after you with rituals later! But she was then distracted by Mordred summoning a spear.

It looked very nice and deadly. But she never really liked spears. Knights always hit her in the eyes with those when she was being a dragon! Still, she could make little awed noises at it. It was rather pretty after all.


Lucy

Mammon had returned early to warn them all about the people that were coming back. Well, he at least warned the other Messengers who busied themselves with trying to make the place as presentable was possible. Lucy was currently taking a nap with her head in the pot as she sat in a chair by the table. Two of the bunny dolls had busied themselves with the task of trying to wake her up.

Once one of the scouts saw the duo coming to the room the whole group converged onto Lucy to try and get her awake. When the man walked into the room with a gun in hand the blue eyed girl finally woke up and lifted her head out of the pot. She blearily blinked as she looked at the newcomer and she looked every bit a mess. Completely naked with some soaked hair sticking to her and a good deal of wine spilled all over her body. Her clothes were hanging on the door. "Bwuh?"

[Kat]

Mordred

"No eating anyone dead on my watch, whether they're moving or not!" Mordred again scolded Oren. "You can just ward off ghosts with salt, and eating vampires is not best idea. Their blood turns people into fucked up junkies just itching for another fix. Well, there's a reason why I want to train, Breeze. It won't hurt to get better at pest control, even if wield powers of the sun and flame at my disposal. They sometimes have more weaknesses, but that's basically two weaknesses that they share."

Once the changeling got onto her metaphorical soapbox to talk about the vampire menace, it was unlikely she would stop soon.

[Aiden]

Auspicious Breeze

Being a knight was starting to sound tough. Cute girls were arguing and she wasn't sure how to stop them, so Breeze just let the talk change to whatever this new topic was. That was a question she should probably ask!

"So um, what exactly is a vampire?" she asked, looking between Mordred and Oren and hoping they both chipped in instead of talking about eating. "Because if it's bad and the sun hurts it I can handle it."

[Umbra of Chaos]

Oren

The Fae shrugged at Breeze's question. Whatever Mordred was talking about sounded nothing like the vampires she knew. "Hmm, dunno. The vampires from my world don't care about the sun, or fire, and their blood isn't addictive either. They're just monsters that like drinking blood. They're pretty reclusive too. One of them sounded strong so I wanted to skin it but I couldn't find it no matter how hard I tried!"

She sounded relatively upset about that, and she pouted a bit.

[Thedoctor]

Jin

"Revenge for what exactly? I don't really remember doing anything worth doing that for." He complained as he was finally put down. "Now look where we are, do you recognize this part of town even?" The blond man was waving his arms around as if to demonstrate how lost they had gotten.

The part of the city that the two of them found themselves in now looked rather run down, it had clearly seen better days. It was the kind of place that you would expect criminals and such people hang out, and given that this city also housed a variety of supernatural creatures, this really wasn't the optimal place to be in.


Kuro

The gentleman looked to be in a hurry, yet he kept making statements that gave credit to the notion that he was completely out of touch with modern times so to say. Kuro decided to indulge in the ironic act a while longer and thus answered the man's question. "Horse riding is only practiced in certain competitions these days." The white haired girl suddenly paused, looking like she had realised something.

"Excuse me I haven't given my name yet, I am Chloe von Einzbern, at your service." Kuro said while curtsying to the gentleman. She gave him a sharp look as she stood up straight again. "I would appreciate it if you didn't regard me as a simple child."

[Kat]

Mordred

"Vampires are corpses who drink blood of humans, manipulate them in their sick games and power plays, and even turn other people into vampires. They don't see humans as anything more than food and pawns. They are nothing but a blight on mankind. You wouldn't be overjoyed if a vampire enslaved someone you like with their cursed blood. No, you would want to try to save a cute girl or her friend before it was too late and punch the vampire so hard that its face would melt off. It's fortunate you have similar powers to mine, but you don't feel exactly similar to me. Who you are?"

Mordred was genuinely curious about the source of her power. She wasn't obviously a Changeling, otherwise she would see her true form. And the changeling herself would see it either, yet Breeze looked like a strong human with summer like aura.

Oren then started talking how she wanted to skin a vampire, and Mordred again gave her a disapproving frown. "Damnit Oren, killing a vampire is one thing, but who would want to be some disgusting blood drinking monster. If they're reclusive at your place, then maybe you're not fully aware what menace vampires are. I think we should go patrol tonight so I can show you what kind of monster we may run into. And maybe save someone attacked."

[Elf]

Rin

"Well, we should get back before Liseth explodes around Archer.  She's kind of shy from what I've seen of her, and a guy like that would probably start teasing her because he can," Rin said with a sigh and a shake of her head.

She smiled and said, "And I'm kind of hungry, the strawberry sundae I got really wasn't enough."


Forest

"Yes, to pants," the blond said with a nod, taking her gorgeous companion to the underwear first.

She grinned and said, "'Pantaloons' first.  So, boxers or briefs?"  Despite everything, she saw a pair of Batman boxers complete with a cape that covered the rear end.  Seeing this, she started to chuckle as she picked it up and lifted it for his inspection.

"Or do you want to be vengeance and the night?" she asked with giggle.

[SINIB]

Oka Kurosawa

Oka suddenly looked sullen, realizing now how obnoxious she'd been being. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes drooped. She hung her head low and apologized.

"I'm sorry Jin… I got carried away… I wasn't trying to be a pain, it was just alot of fun teasing each other and I took it too far." She told him with teary eyes. "If we just go this way." Oka said while pointing behind them. "We should get back on track. I have a good sense of direction."

[Aiden]

Auspicious Breeze

"Wow, vampires sound pretty bad!" the divine champion concluded, her eyes wide and her head nodding along with Mordred's explanation. "What do they look like, anyway? I mean, do they just look like dead people? That doesn't sound like they'd blend in well..."

She shook her head after a moment, wondering how much to tell Mordred and Oren about what she was. Well, Oren had already seen it all but Mordred hadn't and she didn't want to get in trouble with her.

"Huh. What kind of powers do you have?" she asked her fellow knight instead, obviously and guilelessly turning the tables. "Besides that really neat spear.'

[Break]

Coppelius
"Well, now i need a place to set up an Atelier... This could be difficult."

The Doll looked around in search of a suitable place; the crowded streets were filled with people at this time, while this part of the city seemed to be mainly dedicated to strange and unusual shops.

"I may be able to set up something with one of the other propietors here... Hng?!"

Coppelius let out a surprised sound as a tall man in bright red coat almost bumped into him.

[yinsukin]

Relius Clover

"Yes right there Ignis."  Relius instructed.  A dark light emitted from his chest as Ignis moved her arm over him with a feint magic light.  The doll stood over him as he lay relaxed on a table.  "So that doesn't has little effect as well.  Hmm." 

He was interrupted by the sound and feeling of a vibration running through his pocket.  He jumped off the table and dug the cellphone out of his lavish clothes.  Upon examining the context of the message, he noticed it was blank aside from detailed instructions for blue prints.  He got up from the table and walked around his lab, clearing the space. 

"Ignis my dear, it is time to undertake a new project."  He said, with a smug smile.

[Aiden]

Gadreel

"Alas, my considerable wealth did not follow me into this metropolis," the exile said, lamenting his fate with comically affected gravitas. "I am thus unsuited for the role of Bruce Wayne. I will have to don more plebeian boxers."

It was heartening to see that Forest was still capable of humor after that experience. Many came out of exposure to the eldritch... less hinged.