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

[Aiden]

The Dealers

They had aspirations of respectability. Each of the four men wore nice slacks and dress shirts under expensive suit coats. They had pistols by their sides, and one of them carried a shotgun. Another had a suitcase full of product and profits that they were still sorting out in the alley from the day's take. It had been a good market that day; plenty of people wanted something to take the edge off or help them forget about their troubles in this city.

Others wanted something a bit harder to help them compete with all the psychos and monsters out there. These men, and their bosses, provided such services at affordable rates. Affordable, that is, for those with steady incomes. Plenty of folk didn't have that, so they had to pay in other ways - physical assets, services, and so forth. It was a rather extensive operation all told, and they only knew a fraction of just what was going on there.

They were working out how much their street dealers had to sell to justify their continued employment for the next day, and counting out their own personal cuts. But then, well, then some blonde young thing started approaching and the man with the shotgun frowned. He whispered to one of his buddies, "Hey, she don't look too happy. Keep your guns ready."

By the time Forest reached them there were two pistols and a shotgun trained on her while another man was locking up a briefcase. "Miss, I don't think you're in the right neighborhood. Unless you're lookin' to purchase, I suggest you turn on around now."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Lorenzo Remei

Tch, he should've snuck an explosion somewhere. The poor lad didn't seem to be approving, while the lass was begging for a clout to the ear. But when it came to women, no one was a nicer guy than him. He had lovers all over the world. He might lie to women, but he'd never hit one! It didn't matter if she was ugly, beautiful, young or a hag. He respected women, so all he could do was twitch his imaginary brow and hooooold it in.

Lorenzo turned his head away from both and pouted, this was simply too much. It was time to use it.

"Well, I did let her go yknow?" He said in a flat, sour tone. "But It's not my style to go away empty handed. Hehe..."

Suddenly, a flash flickered behind a nearby cover. A magnificent light soared the heavens freely, only to plunge down. Was it a bird? Was it a plane? No, it was a bird. A birdy bird of fire!!

      _{I        will    devour   all       you       love!!!!!}
"Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep!!!!"

[Aiden]

Gadreel

Regardless of whether the Creator answered prayers or not, Gadreel would answer this one. He moved to push the skeleton aside and interpose himself between the praying demon and the malignant bird of fire, uncaring as to the potential damage to his own profane form. "Move!" This should suffice to allow the girl to escape, even if the foul creature is somehow sufficient to slay me!

[Kotomine_Rin]

Birdy Bird Bird of Faiah!!!

Ahahaha! He was on fire once again!! Tremble world, before his heating claws of DOOM!!! He was just a great fire god with a smaller corporal form, and soon he would BURN THE WORLD!!

Why all the rage?

Have you ever tried to indulge in an all consuming urge to kill when you don't have disposable thumbs? Or hands!? Or anything other than a tiny beak, wings and scratchy little claws!? You'd have a lot of pent up anger too. To make things worse, he had to live with the knowledge that his one true creator was an irredemable moron who couldn't tell his two hands apart even if he burned one off.

But since he couldn't kill him, he had to listen to his inane requests, else be annihilated by his all powerful architect.

He was the scourge of all small critters, the boogeyman who keeps lesser animals at night!! And now, he had closed in for the kill. But just as he was about to rip that meatbag's hair off, a bigger meatbag moved in his way. But this wouldn't stop him, he just changed his target, instead flapping aside and tearing away. A streak of crimson flashed, and the meatbag's red hair was in his grasp.

      _{I   FUCKING   LIVE    FOR     THIS!!!}
"Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep!!"


Yes, tremble before his power and suffer!!! Ripping the redhead's strand of hair, the bird flew away, chirping in an seemingly adorable but truly maniacal fashion. Mission fucking accomplished.

[Aiden]

Gadreel

The fallen angel blinked. "... what?"

Even the standard eloquence of Gadreel's speech was ill-suited for this ridiculous scenario.

[Elf]

Forest

Three pistols and one shotgun.  Business suits so maybe Mafia.  Chances are they'll go for body shots and not head shots, but they're human.  Getting them closer would be idea.

So, time to play Ditzy Blonde Teenager.

Forest made her eyes as wide as possible as she eyed the guns trained on her.  She slowly lifted her hands and made her voice a breathy tremor.  "I'm sorry, I didn't see anything and I just got lost and my boyfriend left me the fucking jerk . . . Some creepy guy with glowing eyes has been following me for two blocks and I'm really sorry.  Just please let me go and I won't tell anyone . . . I'm just lost and scared . . ."

She let the words tumble out in a nervous rush, sending a physic suggestion that she was just what she appeared to be: some "sweet" blonde girl who was lost and terrified.  Vulnerable.  Even easy to take advantage of.

She even trembled ever so slightly to better sell the illusion.

[Aiden]

Petra

"If we can, I'd like to roughen them up but not necessarily cripple them for good or kill them. The judge'd be displeasured if we passed a sentence without his involvement. Maybe another mine or farm needs cheap labor." The grim reality of Nexus was that there was not enough resources to create prisons that wouldn't generate profits, so weak and poor criminals got pressed as a cheap workforce while major offenders got executed. Those with enough influence or money could get away from troubles by paying a fine.

That reminded her of that troublemaker that she met in the mall. Rumors said that she tried to break into a hospital armed with an axe. On another hand those news didn't mention that she was a vampire. Petra didn't care enough to inform her co-workers about it after all. She doubted though that a fine would teach her a thing. Petra had to watch out for that vigilante in case she barged into her assigned territory, she attracted trouble.

However, she wasn't someone to lecture others about the law, after all she co-operated with a criminal right now. "I hope you will follow those guidelines in spite of your career."

Liam

"I wouldn't do a thing to make your life harder, Petra." That was for her to do to herself, after all. The vampire nodded to her and hefted up his baseball bat. "Now let's go take care of some lower-lives, shall we?"

Breaking their knees weren't any sort of permanent thing if you did it the right way.

So along they went, to the buildings where the street workers for this operation stored their things and rested their heads. They were apartments of a sort. There were fire escapes, which apparently weren't a sure thing in Nexus, next to some of them. Others had back doors, while others only had the one entrance in the front by the street unless you wanted to break a window.

"Now the real question is... where do we start? Got our pick of the lot. Break in the rooms while they sleep, or walk in the front door?"

[Aiden]

Forest

Three pistols and one shotgun.  Business suits so maybe Mafia.  Chances are they'll go for body shots and not head shots, but they're human.  Getting them closer would be idea.

So, time to play Ditzy Blonde Teenager.

Forest made her eyes as wide as possible as she eyed the guns trained on her.  She slowly lifted her hands and made her voice a breathy tremor.  "I'm sorry, I didn't see anything and I just got lost and my boyfriend left me the fucking jerk . . . Some creepy guy with glowing eyes has been following me for two blocks and I'm really sorry.  Just please let me go and I won't tell anyone . . . I'm just lost and scared . . ."

She let the words tumble out in a nervous rush, sending a physic suggestion that she was just what she appeared to be: some "sweet" blonde girl who was lost and terrified.  Vulnerable.  Even easy to take advantage of.

She even trembled ever so slightly to better sell the illusion.

The Dealers

Huh.. maybe they'd had the wrong impression of her? No knuckle cracking monster here, just some ingenue who'd walked out from the pan and into the fire. Or at least, that's probably what she'd thought of it. The man with the briefcase nudged the guy with the shotgun, who nudged one of the men with the pistols, and that one lowered his gun and got closer. "Hey, hey, it's gonna okay," he said as he moved closer to her, to put his arm around her. "How's about we get you inside, get you something to warm you up? Old glowy ain't gonna follow here. They know better than to come here."

[Elf]

Forest

Getting them inside would probably be better than me just bludgeoning them to unconsciousness here.  Plus less chance of some poor sod wandering in at the wrong place and the wrong time and getting shot, the vampire thought to herself while one of the men in suits walked up to her and wrapped an arm around her.

She flinched ever so slightly; it wasn't a faked reaction, even now she still had an issue with unknown men taking liberty with her.  So she took a deep, unneeded breath and looked up at the guy with his arm around her.  She flashed a quick but nervous looking smile, still keeping up the suggestion that she was vulnerable.

"R-really? I've heard s-stories . . . about some of the stuff here but I am really cold . . . and thank you," Forest said before biting her lower lip in a way that Ash had told her was almost irresistible to most straight men.
 

[Kat]

Petra

"I'm not good at sneaking around. Chances are that we're going to alert them anyway. Let's confront them. If they shoot back, we'll shoot back." Petra shrugged. If she had Martha on her side, they would just blow the front door and scare them straight. "If they're too many of them, we will retreat and maybe bait them into area where we can pick them off more easily."

[yinsukin]

Joe

Joe matched her eyeing with a polite grin. That was not the reaction he was looking for.

Shoot I should probably change topics. He thought.

“I don’t know.  I never liked fish.  You can’t cuddle them at all and they don’t live long.”  He said nonchalantly.  He pulled his hand in, resting it on his lap.  He quickly scanned her for things to talk about, widening his scope as his eyes continued to face her's.  Now that he looked at her, it seemed as though she had just come from a hiking trip or maybe a short running session.  Her body looked tight too. She probably does this often. While examining her, he also glanced slightly at the outside area, his eyes shifting for a sec from the city back to her.  There were plenty of shops nearby, mostly for clothes and food.

I already ate and shopping issn’t the most fun thing to do.  He thought.

As he came back to the lovely lady, a thought lit up his mind.  “Hey, you wana go rent a boat?  I don't get many days off and I don’t want to waste this one just because I didn’t have the best start.”

Medaka

Medaka took the cellphone from Ron's hand and promptly started walking.  "Alright.  Follow me."  She said simply.

After a while, they arrived at Irisveail's castle, the snow haired woman who healed her.  She hadn't talked to Theodore much but he might have come back here sometime in the months since he was Toe.  After all, Toe was the one who brought her here when she was hurt.  There had to have been a reason for that.  At least, it was the only place she could think of that wouldn't have changed much after all this time.

The place was more or less the same, except it looked as though it had been attacked.  Even from the gate, it looked like the place had a few holes in the structure.  In the distance, she could see hooded figures in the distance, repairing the castle.  It wouldn't have been too suspicious, if it weren't for the fact that it looked like criminals were hanging out in the place, delinquents and thugs that she occasionally ran into around the city.  Something must have happened to this place after Irisveil moved out but it was hard to tell if it was good or bad.

The blue haired vampire stood before the gate, gazing softly upon its closed doors.  A gentle breeze caused her hair to flutter in the wind. "So, can you smell him?"  She said, not bothering to turn around as she spoke.

[Elf]

Rin

Rin didn't know that much about fish, other than how to prepare and cook them.   She watched as his fidgeted for a moment before he looked her over.   Her cheeks heated up at his appreciative gaze before he made a very wild suggestion.

"Y-you just met me and you're asking me on a boat ride?" Rin stammered before looking away.  "That's . . . really forward don't you think!  I mean, what do you know about me other than I have a cat and I don't know anything about other than you apparently work a lot and don't have pets."

[yinsukin]

Joe

Joe’s face turned a little red as he averted his face for a moment, completely breaking eye contact.  Woah.  That broke just shattered her whole facade.  Don’t tell me…

He turned back to face her, only to be met with that disarmingly adorable face.  “No.. I didn’t mean it like that! Wait, no I kinda did...”   He said, trying desperately to gather himself.  After a moment, he paused and closed his eyes to think.  “Look, we never truly know how long we have on this earth. So, we should live our life to the fullest!  Lets go rent a boat!”  He proclaimed to her, his voice rising as he spoke and practically screaming at the end.

He grabbed her by the hand and ran down to the docks, hoping she wouldn’t swat him away or anything.

[Elf]

Rin

“Look, we never truly know how long we have on this earth. So, we should live our life to the fullest!  Lets go rent a boat!” Joe proclaimed before grabbing Rin's hand.

Her cheeks heated even more as she jogged at a steady pace to keep up with him.  "Do you even know how to pilot a boat?  I don't want us to get stuck out there without knowing what to do.  Besides, how do I know you won't try anything?"

Even though, if he did and Rin didn't want him to, Rin was fairly certain she could thoroughly beat it out of him. 

[yinsukin]

Joe

“I learned when I was a kid!  My parents were convinced we would need to someday!”  He said smiling. This was a lot of fun.  “And I don’t! But im tired of doing the same boring things everyday!  I want to do something spontaneous!  Besides, you seem sweet!  I doubt you'll do anything to crazy."

The two arrived at the docs, just in front of the booth.  "Ill take a speed boat please."  He said, his face radiating with excitement. The man told him that he would have to wait for a guy to escort him to the boat.  The staff member also pointed them to life jackets.  "I can help you put one on if you want."  Joe offered as they walked down the docks.