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

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

The look quickly faded and the same stony expression she had worn the entire time returned. She reexamined Garou's soul a second time after hearing his statement and only spoke after determining it was only human. "You are not a monster. You are not simple or primal enough. Pretending will not let you become one."


Lumen

A frown appeared on the multi colored girl's face and she shook her head with a sense of finality. "I don't like asking people for things that I don't need. There's a line between being needy and just wanting something. If you really want to go I'll come with you but I won't get anything."

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter simply watched them go wordlessly, somewhat curious, before making her way out of the store as well. The fact remained that she looked absolutely ridiculous with a werewolf on her back.

"Well, if you've not got anywhere you want to go in particular, I suppose we ought to find some shelter," Annabeth noted, "Unless you happen to have anywhere we can stay? If all else fails, I suppose we can clear out a ganger hideout or something..."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Garou XIII

Garou's face twisted for a second.

"I see... Then I misjudged you. You really don't get it, what a monster is. The taste of the sand your classmates force down your throat the taste of the rat poison slipped in your lunch box, the taste of your perverted teacher's shoes. You don't know any of that... do you?  I've seen it in the way you fight
 You've never been truly miserable, have you?"

[SINIB]

Sakura and Shirou

Sakura nodded knowingly at Rider. "I'm sure they'll work it out soon, if they haven't already managed to do so." Sakura said. I just hope that they don't make a mess. she left the second bit unsaid. She thought it would be better that way. She snuggled up against Shirou, holding onto his arm and leaning up against him. "Let's get going now, we're wasting time." She was practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of their little outing. Shirou looked down and smiled at her. He couldn't help but get somewhat caught up in her mood.

"Let's get going then, there's no need to worry about your sister, she's able to handle herself."

He'd make sure he'd have a blast, and discard his apprehensions about Sakura for now. As soon as he got caught up with their date, he was sure his worries about Rin would disappear as well. However, to his dismay, as he rounded down the stairs, he ran into Archer. "Ah—" Shirou frowned. "Hello there, Archer." He attempted to do a small bow, an action made difficult by Sakura's antics.

"Is something the matter?" Sakura asked him with a cocked head.

[Aiden]

Ron

Nexus Docks - 3:23 am

The first thing he noticed was the shivering. Ron didn't even really feel cold at that moment, he wasn't aware enough in that initial moment to feel something like that. Or his body was numb from the water.

Plausible; this side of Nexus City always trended toward a colder climate than the other parts he had been to like the edge of the Primeval Woods for that biology class field trip, or that weekend in the East Asian Special Ward right after graduation with the ramen stand and the waitress with fox ears everyone was careful not to mention or stare at for long. The ears, not the rest of the waitress; of course people looked at the rest of her.

He pulled himself up from the muddy shore, and was struck suddenly with the piercing stench of fish. Ron's face wrinkled in disgust at the realization. "I know I didn't get this wasted," Ron said, muttering under his breath and looking around. The sky was cloudy right now, so he couldn't see the moon or stars and figure out where he was. A quick patdown of himself confirmed he was bereft of pants - and everything he had in the pants, like a wallet or cellphone. A look around didn't reveal anything more than that.

"Oh, damn it!" he blurted out, throwing his arms up before a chill lakefront wind blew past his armpits and made him lower them abruptly. Arms crossed as the cold finally registered properly, Ron took in the empty stretches of pavement and shipping containers. "Just... wonderful! And I don't even have any shoes!"

He could feel the loose gravel and concrete under his heel already. Stepping on that ... it would be like stepping on a lego brick.

How did he end up like...? No, no, out of the cold first. He could worry about the how and why later, when his rod and tackle weren't retreating into his pelvis. One step at a time. Quickly now. One, two, three, four-

flash of red across his vision - ear piercing scream, barely heard the cracking bone, felt the arm compact - the coppery taste of blood on the tongue

"God damn it!"

Like a Lego. Brick.

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

Nexus Streets - am

A few efforts to shake himself off like a wet dog worked well enough. He was still freezing, and the stench of fish lingered, but as long as Ron kept his arms close to his body and he kept the buildings nearby at angles that minimized his exposure to wind he should avoid hypothermia for now. Now he just had to find a pay phone somewhere and - and he didn't have any change on him now.

"I am up shit's creek right now!" he concluded to himself out loud, not caring if he looked like a madman on the streets.

[Panda]

Michael

Michael wasn't fazed as Rikuyo managed to mitigate the waves; if anything, it pleased him. Suddenly having a weapon that could simply annihilate one's foes was not a happy prospect in the least, so the reassurance that this was simply yet another tool was nice. The crackling of electricity, however, quickly brought him back to the present, his mind racing as he considered the situation. At this range, Rikuyo was likely preparing to zap him or something, if that crackling was anything to go by.

With a moment's thought, Michael's staff lashed out at a nearby tree, carving a sizable portion out of its trunk and sending it on its way down rapidly. However, the immortal kept his eyes on Rikuyo the whole time, knowing full well he couldn't dodge a lightning bolt. Thus, the trick was not to dodge the bolt itself, but rather her aim. With that in mind, the immortal watched carefully for the moment she'd fire the bolt, feinting a dodge to one side in the moment she would launch it before slipping off to the opposite side, wincing as the bolt just barely missed him but powering through regardless.

With the bolt avoided, the immortal reached out, grabbing the tree that he'd smashed down earlier, having positioned his run along the line the tree would fall, and brought it about to strike Rikuyo.

[Thedoctor]

Archer

After only waiting for a few moments they come, from around the corner. It was both Sakura and...him. Sakura was holding his arm leaning up to him as they walk. Surprise filled his face before he tried to perform a bow while greeting Archer, the bow beeing awkward with Sakura leaning on him. Archer's reaction was a bit different, in the first instant anger flashed over his face, but just as suddenly it was gone, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he did something unexpected, he bowed back and answered their greetings. "It's good to see you're taking care of her...Emiya Shirou."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Sakagami Kenzo

Kenzo smiled. Was she worried? For him? He was so happy! It was so long since anyone showed care for him. His ears twitched for a second and he turned around to see Forest calling out to him. She looked different(?) and had seemed to have brought a friend. Either way, he didn't care. It felt really good to have company again, he couldn't be any happier. Smiling, he was about to call back, until he felt something was different. Something was missing.

He turned back, and he immediately noticed one of the spirit trees had been torn apart by that fool. Shock, horror and disgust filled his face, and with that came anger. How could he do such a thing!? Did he not understand the gravity of his action!? The weight of what he had destroyed!? It's leaves's glow was already starting to fade as they began to wither rapidly, but perhaps it wasn't too late. Perhaps he could still save it!

The demon's features hardened, and the hot springs began to bubble and glow red in turn. His wounds closed with much more rapidity than before, as if animated by his oppressive nature, and jumped out despite the incomplete healing, running at the man desperately.

"STOP IT, YOU FOOL!" He roared at the top of his lungs.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Erica

A frown crossed the girl's face for a moment. She searched her mind for anything to correspond with misery and a faded memory came to mind. Her core thrummed with energy and for a moment it was hard to breathe, as if it wasn't a facade and she earnestly needed to. "I... think I have. A long time ago. But that is irrelevant in making a monster."


Oren

The werewolf returned back to her human form, albeit without any clothes. Whatever she had one was torn apart by her sudden transformation and only tatters remained scattered around the floor. The cold bothered her, but only a little bit. She was used to such temperatures and simply tightened her hold on the cowgirl to conserve warmth. "We should explore! If we need a place to stay we can always just take one. While the sun is still up we should look for something interesting."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Garou XIII

I know, Will. I know what you really are. A monster.

Garou looked different for a second. Unwell. Pained. But that look quickly faded and gave away to his usual wolf like smile. Damn. He thought he'd have found a monster who could understand him, but that wasn't the case at all. No, she wasn't a human, but neither was she a monster.

"Hah. I see, then we're not alike at all. Well, whatever. Got my hopes up for a second, you damn freak. Either way, let me make one thing clear. With me, you'll become the most misfortunate person in the world. If you care about anything at all, let go. Forget about me, and I'll forget about you."

[Elf]

Rin

Rin blinked as she watched a myriad of emotions flicker over Archer's face before he bowed to Shirou.  "It's good to see you're taking care of her...Emiya Shirou."

She turned to Sakura and said, "I think everything's okay now.  How are you guys?"


Forest

"Greyskull, can you help out?" Forest asked the Skeleton as one of the guys broke a tree and the anarchy it caused.  Kenzo jumped out of the water with a shout of, "STOP IT, YOU FOOL!"

Forest pulled out her magnum, aimed at the ground between new girl and Rikuyo and fired.  "Okay, you primitive screw heads, this is my boomstick!"

[Aiden]

Ron

The sound of cracking roots, the scent of freshly upturned earth, the sunlight chasing away some of the cold as a cloud finally had the decency to move out of the loveable ball of light's way...

There we go, Ron thought to himself, not in a good state to question why he could hear or smell such things when they clearly weren't too close by and there were cars driving along nearby. Honestly, couldn't they spare a moment for a naked man down on his luck? Did they take him for some random homeless person fresh into the city from who knows where, ready to cause trouble?

He just wanted his pants!

Still, now he knew where to start looking. So he picked up the pace, careful to keep his eyes down so he didn't step on any glass and cut his heel wide open.

He turned a couple of corners. That was when he saw a blonde woman with a gun pointing it at a pair of men who were apparently pulling trees up and throwing them?

Ron stood on the sidewalk, a flat expression on his face as he took the sight in. "Uh... not to be a bother, but uh, can someone spare a coat or something?" he asked, moving a hand to strategically cover his cold-shrunken genitalia.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Count Greyskull

Greyskull scratched his bonehead and looked at the scene unfolding. This looked just like his bachelor's party! But then, Forest pulled out a weird magic wand and cast a spell on the ground, sending a loud boom trough the forest and making the poor bonehead jump for his dear life.

"EEK!! PLEASE DON'T DO THAT AGAIN FOREST, IT'S DANGEROUS. UH, THIS IS MY STICK! CAN EVERYONE STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING FOR A SECOND!?" He said, displaying his death cane for all to see. Hopefully her little mishap wouldn't cause them to jump at their throat.

[SINIB]

Sakura Matou

Sakura unconsciously pulled Shirou slightly behind her as soon as Archer displayed his inexplicable anger. She didn’t like seeing that look on Shirou’s face. It felt deeply unsettling, and it was wrong. Shirou was a good person, the best she knew of. He’d done so much for her, so why...

Why would Archer be mad at him? She wondered. She didn’t like it, she didn’t understand, nor was she ok with it. She’d protect Shirou, even if it meant hurting him, or even making him hate her. As long as he remained alive, that’s all that mattered in the end. Even if it meant killing him.

She really hoped it wouldn't come to that, though.

Luckily, his anger seemed to pass as quickly as it had come in the first place. His poker face was completely unreadable, and that scared her in a different way. She considered herself to be fairly adept at reading the emotional states of people off their facial expressions, and especially those of people she was close to, the closer the better. And she wasn’t closer to anybody than Shirou Emiya himself.

 However, she couldn’t glean anything at all from him here; he was hiding his emotions entirely from the outside world. What had gone wrong? How was this even happening? Even when he tried to hide things from her, she would at least have an idea of how he was feeling, but the only thing she had was the context clue from his earlier anger! It felt wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong! She needed to get closer to this new Shirou. She needed to make sure he wasn’t going to interfere with her life in a negative way. He was Shirou, so she couldn’t imagine why he would want to do that, but she’d need to confirm regardless.

And if he was dangerous...

Well, she’d get to that if it came to that.

So, instead of responding to Archer, she focused her attention on her sister. “Yeah, we’re just going to get Shirou some winter clothes, and he bled all over his shirt here anyway. We’ll be back soon.”

[Panda]

Emily

Emily sat there, a slight frown evident on her face once Darcy stopped, only sparing a glance for Ur as she left. It was at this point that the Changeling realized that, unlike the rather chilly outside, the jacket she was wearing was becoming a detriment. With that in mind, the Changeling slipped out of the jacket, leaving her in a rather snug sweater that didn't leave much to the imagination regarding the Emily's figure. The sound of the door opening once more drew her eyes to Bellitanus, who seemed to have had the same idea as her, returning to them in simple jeans and a button down shirt.

Emily was soon distracted from the woman's figure, however, when new music poured forth from Darcy. Passion seemed to have overtaken him, pouring forth in every note, every chord, every last sound of the guitar. The Changeling might have wondered how Darcy's fingers hadn't fallen off yet, had the presence of mind to particularly care. His voice roaring forth fell on deaf ears, the only thing registering to Emily being the sheer energy and power of the music, enthralling the Changeling hopelessly and leaving her sitting there, simply watching.