Cross Effects 3.0 - November 16, 2014—April 13, 2015

[Cherry Lover]

“Kids. Four of them. I have. Four kids?” Sakura slumped towards the floor. “That’s so unfair...” She said in a soft and subdued voice.

Rider frowned as she held onto the slumping Sakura.

Oh....

This Sakura was alone and desperately looking for Shirou. Clearly she couldn't return home easily, otherwise she would have done so already. Obviously she was going to be upset to hear what she potentially could have had, had fate not intervened.

"Don't worry, Sakura, I'm sure we'll find a way to get you back to your Shirou", she said, hopefully. "Your sister is a user of the Second Magic, after all."

[YOLF]

Sarse

Ann listened to Sarse's tale quietly and for that small instant ceased to play with his hair or move her hand against his body. "I do believe in fair trades, little angel, so I will show you what I first remember."

She removed one hand from his chest and placed it on top of his head. Then she opened her mind to his and sent to Sarse the first things Death had seen upon its creation. It was a sea of white fire that pulsed with life itself and shone with a light infinitely brighter than all the stars in the universe combined. Then it expanded and washed over the nothingness surrounding it and with a flare of immaculate light creation was born.

The images struck him like a flash of divine light and a mental hammering of holy thunder. He saw a grand chorus of every instrument start, all sounds blasting into existence as one chaotic note that expanded and split off into many. He heard and felt that begginning, like a story made real in his head, overwhelming him for single moment. The angel groaned sharply and hit the breaks instantly as the motorcycle swerved out of his control. He was half a second too late to stop its sliding.

They hit the elevated sidewalk at an angle that made the bike jump. Sarse floated off his seat, projected with the young woman holding on to him towards the ground. Instinctively, he shifted their positions, shielding her body with his as they and the vehicle flipped in the air from the impact. His back hit the pavement with a dull smack and continued to move, while the bike bounced with a metallic crash before landing on its side and grinding to a halt.

Anne and Sarse stopped rolling and came to a stop. Ignoring the meaningless bruising he had occurred, the seraphim let his arms drop to the side and opened his eyes. He noticed two things.

One. Ann was straddling him. Two. His bike was quite beaten up, and its flame decals were scratched.

Grimacing, he duly commented, "This is not proper road safety."

[Knick]

Grenth

"I hate to interrupt, but you couldn't even have the courtesy to stop some of them in my way?"

He was wearily waving his empty hands at his direction to show he actually did as the magician exactly wanted. The frost from his frozen joints and the snowing environment were really chilling him to the bone, hypothermia is no doubt going to set in soon.

Grenth looked over to the man, “Ah yes, my apologies, I am not accustomed to combat after all these years, especially with bystanders.”

Grenth held out his hand towards Time and his magic began to work, shards of still not melted ice floated out of his wounds, and as they left the flesh was mended back to its original form prior to the ice puncturing his skin.

But it was not ‘healing’ he simply moved the more compressed, torn, and misshapen flesh back to its pristine form. Then the now freed man spoke after all of the floating ice fell to the ground.

"Maaaan, this sucks" , the dead apostle now spoke in a clear voice, he looked annoyed, all trace of his past enraged self gone, all that was left for now was nonchalance.

And as he scrubbed the dust from his tattered clothes, he asked, this time in a slightly annoyed tone: "The hell was that for, you cheeky old bastard?"

Grenth raised an eyebrow behind his mask, “Cheeky? Hardly. I am simply giving you advice on how to improve that pitiful display you gave me. As for why I put you in the prison in the first place...” He paused for a moment contemplating his words.

“I thought you needed too cool off.” He finished with a horrible pun, but he was proud of himself. One of his students was adamant about making him learn how to ‘joke around’. He was sure he succeeded.

But what Grenth was really focusing on was the way in which the man healed. No, healing was incorrect; it was more like he was reverting to his previous form. This was incredibly interesting. He should keep a Shade following him at all points, it would be good to observe it more.

[Puck-Chan]

Time

Grenth looked over to the man, “Ah yes, my apologies, I am not accustomed to combat after all these years, especially with bystanders.”

Grenth held out his hand towards Time and his magic began to work, shards of still not melted ice floated out of his wounds, and as they left the flesh was mended back to its original form prior to the ice puncturing his skin.

But it was not ‘healing’ he simply moved the more compressed, torn, and misshapen flesh back to its pristine form. Then the now freed man spoke after all of the floating ice fell to the ground.

It was an awfully strange sensation. The ice melted and his flesh was squirming as if trying to go back to time it was before penetration. The blood was still there, staining his shirt. But the wounds disappeared.

"Itchy."

He scratched at the area, but not without marveling at the ease that his body "recovered" so quickly. Time had to give magic its due, no matter how much he didn't like it. Almost nonchalantly, the swordsman kicked at the sword he dropped in a lifting motion. The blade spun up in the air before he caught it with one hand and quietly sheathed it back inside the leather sheath.

"What was even the point of your interruption, Magician?" he asked the magic-user with arms crossed.

His expression remained in a frown, still displeased by all of this.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Ann

"This is not proper road safety."

There seemed to be a thoughtful expression on Ann's face from her position on top of Sarse. The flight from the bike was mostly harmless but now she was in an interesting position. A pulse of the Rot and the movement of her fingers quickly reduced the angel's suit jacket to nothing but a few strands of fabric. Then she popped each of the buttons from his shirt, opened it up, and began to make herself comfortable on the Angel of Choice's bare chest.

A single mental message was pushed into the mind of Sarse. "If this lasts any longer the pants go next."

[SINIB]

“Kids. Four of them. I have. Four kids?” Sakura slumped towards the floor. “That’s so unfair...” She said in a soft and subdued voice.

Rider frowned as she held onto the slumping Sakura.

Oh....

This Sakura was alone and desperately looking for Shirou. Clearly she couldn't return home easily, otherwise she would have done so already. Obviously she was going to be upset to hear what she potentially could have had, had fate not intervened.

"Don't worry, Sakura, I'm sure we'll find a way to get you back to your Shirou", she said, hopefully. "Your sister is a user of the Second Magic, after all."

Sakura looked up at Rider, continuing to sniffle. "We'll? Who else is here? Am I here?" Sakura paused, thinking over her words. "I mean, is your me here?"

[YOLF]

Tar

Henry thoughtfully scratched the back of his head while attempting to process the information the - all things considered, kinda odd - man had exposed. And leaving the miscellanous details to the side, the science fiction account was by no means anything other than terrifying. Mr. Tar reasserted his dislike of cultists to himself in a silent nod.

He would've said something to the unknown criticizing his partner, but she said all that need to be said. No point in opening his mouth now, Saber could defend herself just fine. He wondered at the explanation for her eating habits she gave. He had heard of no such thing, but if she wanted to keep her nature mostly hidden, it was an excuse as good as any other.

The matter remained however, that with how things were in the Nexus, there was a very real and frightful chance the entities Grendel had described were to blame for this incident. They could not just dismiss him. He hadn't missed the implication that the natural weaponry required to leave the body in its current state was generally not possessed by the beings, but that wasn't enough to entirely close off the possibility.

"Ahem," Henry coughed into his hand before continuing. "Following your explanation. Suppose this was a 'Genestealer'. Why would it risk itself gathering biomass, as you put it, when the... cult is probably going about its function much more subtly?"


Sarse

The angel's eyebrow twitched. He could feel everything. And then she mentally sent the call of his damnation.

"If this lasts any longer the pants go next."

Sarse suddenly sat up and grabbed her by the shoulders, as impassively as possible, to remove her from atop of him. Of course since this effort required touching her, "impassively as possible" was really not so at all.

"Okay, that does it. We're going clothes shopping." He said in a steely tone, lifting her.

[Cherry Lover]

Sakura looked up at Rider, continuing to sniffle. "We'll? Who else is here? Am I here?" Sakura paused, thinking over her words. "I mean, is your me here?"

Rider smiled at her master's adorable nature, and continued to hug and comfort her.

"I don't believe so. My connection to her is weakened, and I am not drawing any prana from her currently. I also do not think anyone else from my world is here", she said softly.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Ann

"Okay, that does it. We're going clothes shopping."

As Sarse rose and attempted to remove her from him Ann simply drew upon her own supernatural strength and pushed him back down. Then she simply moved closer to him until mere centimeters of space were between their faces and as she came closer her left hand ran across the fly of his pants and it began to fray ever so slightly.

"Now, now, Little Angel. Surely you can muster something more than that to remove me from you unless, of course, you don't want me off." She practically purred this statement as she began to nibble his ear for the second time this day.


Caedia

“Sorry about that… I had a bit of a freak-out there.” He said, refusing to meet Caedia in the eyes. “Do you know the quickest way to actual civilization; I need to stock up on supplies.”

The Arisen was a bit less comfortable with speaking than she seemed. It was very rare that she would ever have to use her voice in Gransys so much so that she was almost unused to the sound of it. "Northwest from here there is a large city but its people and culture are strange to me. They may have supplies there but it may be... dangerous. I will go with you until you have what you seek. It is the least I can for the aid you rendered to me."

[YOLF]

Sarse

The irony of his thoughts would've made him laugh, but he was at the moment too preoccupied for that. Because, not for the first time in his long life, Sarse rued his choices. Of course it was never big choices he reconsidered, no, it was always little choices like this one, that ended up landing him in a pickle which, while no doubt hilarious to onlookers, had now locked him in extremely uncomfortable situation.

He had only one resource left.

Before the distance between them could shrink any further or his remaining clothes get damaged any further, his hands darted out to catch hers. Hastily, he pulled them up and made room before them.

"I really don't want to end up with any less clothes in the middle of the street, so could you please stop?" The Angel of Choice asked, the urgency clear in his expression. His voice then turned dire, despite the semi-joking nature of his words, as he said, "It seems like we're going a bit too fast."

Whether out of paranoia or caution, he mentally prepared himself to throw her off if she reacted adversely.

[Panda]

Tar

Henry thoughtfully scratched the back of his head while attempting to process the information the - all things considered, kinda odd - man had exposed. And leaving the miscellanous details to the side, the science fiction account was by no means anything other than terrifying. Mr. Tar reasserted his dislike of cultists to himself in a silent nod.

He would've said something to the unknown criticizing his partner, but she said all that need to be said. No point in opening his mouth now, Saber could defend herself just fine. He wondered at the explanation for her eating habits she gave. He had heard of no such thing, but if she wanted to keep her nature mostly hidden, it was an excuse as good as any other.

The matter remained however, that with how things were in the Nexus, there was a very real and frightful chance the entities Grendel had described were to blame for this incident. They could not just dismiss him. He hadn't missed the implication that the natural weaponry required to leave the body in its current state was generally not possessed by the beings, but that wasn't enough to entirely close off the possibility.

"Ahem," Henry coughed into his hand before continuing. "Following your explanation. Suppose this was a 'Genestealer'. Why would it risk itself gathering biomass, as you put it, when the... cult is probably going about its function much more subtly?"

"This is where the behavior of these Xenos does not follow previous patterns. Certain species of Tyranids are in possession of the requisite natural weaponry, so there is the possibility that a small force has been sent down to weaken the planet's defenses ahead of time and to assist the Genestealer cult. The only other beings with this kind of weaponry would be Daemons of Slannesh, and I doubt they would have left the building standing. However, if it is actually Slanneshi Daemons, then we would still be looking for a cult..."

[Umbra of Chaos]

Ann

"I would say that we aren't going fast enough, Little Angel, but I will relent for now. Begging will only help you so many times." Ann slowly removed the angel's hands from her own and slowly began to withdraw but her right hand lingered on the fly of the pants for an instance. In that one moment the Rot pulsed once more and the front of Sarse's pants decayed to reveal the boxers underneath.

Ann then moved back to the motorcycle and sat on the back again while looking at the angel. "It would have been much better if you had simply shown them to me yourself but it is a decent view nonetheless. Time to go clothes shopping now, Little Angel?"

[YOLF]

Sarse

Attemping to scrounge up the remains of his dignity, Sarse hurriedly got up, fingers twitching. Walking to the motorcycle, he buttoned his shirt back up and untucked it to try and cover the rather obvious hole exposing his chess-patterned boxers. It really didn't do much.

"Yes. Clothes shopping." He grumbled out, climbing onto the driver's seat and starting the engine.

Ignoring a few odd looks from passers-by, they drove away towards a nearby shopping center Sarse had seen on his rounds. If there was a non-negative way for them to describe the angel's expression as they went, it would've been 'pouty'.

[SINIB]

Sakura looked up at Rider, continuing to sniffle. "We'll? Who else is here? Am I here?" Sakura paused, thinking over her words. "I mean, is your me here?"

Rider smiled at her master's adorable nature, and continued to hug and comfort her.

"I don't believe so. My connection to her is weakened, and I am not drawing any prana from her currently. I also do not think anyone else from my world is here", she said softly.

Sakura nodded. "I think I understand... So you don't have a reliable prana source, and need to find one?"

[Umbra of Chaos]

Ann

Sarse would continue to show a pouty expression until they reached the shopping center. Once there Ann pulled back the collar of his shirt and the back of his pants for his sizes. With that in mind she quickly entered the store and dutifully began to collect any article of clothing that fit the angel and looked as if it would appeal to him. Once she had collected them all she moved to the stalls and with a careful use of the Rot it was all reduced to shreds of fabric and nothingness. Then she returned to Sarse's side as he parked the motorcycle with an incredibly innocent look on her face.