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

[Kotomine_Rin]

Lorenzo Remei

Lorenzo was... surprised for a second. He paused, then nodded. Of course, they were a team weren't they?

"Heh, thanks Joe." He said confidently, giving his comrade a good hand holding before stepping down the boat. Having someone to hold onto, even if it husrt his pride a little, it didn't feel so bad.

He put his arms behind his skull and stretched.

"So, what's the plan?"

[Elf]

Rin

Rin found herself smiling at Joe's words and that made her cheeks even warmer.  A laugh bubbled up as they landed.  "I'll promise not to abuse you," Rin said with a smile and a wicked gleam in her eyes, "unless you deserve it."

Before he went to help Lorenzo off the boat, she whispered, "Red's actually my favorite color."

Once Lorenzo was down, Rin winched at the remains of the boat.  "We're going to need a really good explanation for this.  Or Joe's gonna have to pay a pretty steep fine for this damage."

[Aiden]

Forest

The blond took note of Liam's little crack about the people they were about to ruin their night's eating Italian.  She wondered if he had an aversion to garlic.  It was an annoyance at worse to her, not anything that could cause permanent damage due to her age.  However, itchy burning wasn't any fun for anyone, even if she could rapidly heal from it.

"Hopefully none of the folk in there are wanna-be Van Helsings and the like," Forest said as she folded her arms over her chest and frowned.  She tilted her head thoughtfully and grinned.  "However . . . There's something I can do that would definitely distract them."

Liam

The Irish-American vampire tapped his baseball bat against the palm of his other hand. "Well alright then. I'm all ears for your little scheme. So, what can ya do?" He showed her a little fang.

It was a good way to gather a little info on this Forest girl, and if he had to reciprocate a bit that was fine. In the meantime anything that got this done quicker was alright in his playbook.

[Elf]

Forest

"Well, I didn't get those wankers off with my hands obviously," Forest said before shuddering at the thought.  "However, what do you know about the cassowary?"

She wondered if she should show him.  Or if she was capable of showing him; he might be immune to such things.  She wasn't picking up any broadcasting thoughts right now, but she wasn't overly trying either.

[yinsukin]

Joe

That giggle actually made Joe turn away for a moment.  Crap!  Too cute.  He couldn't decide if the next line turned him on or scared him, probably a bit of both.  Thankfully his thoughts drifted as she mentioned her favorite color.  Ruby it is.

He pulled the pirate up in one strong movement.  The weirdly warm bones still were pretty weird.  He then grabbed Rin by the hands and walked her back to Lorenzo.  He gave the pirate a good slap to the back.  "I think an undead pyromaniac will be a great insurance story, especially if he can pay for it with treasure later."  He said with a chuckle.

With a happy strut in his step and a cute girl in hand, he bolted towards the booth. "You know, if you have anything that will make us go faster, now is the time.  Im all for being in your arms."  He yelled excitedly.  A race to the booth might be fun.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Vanguard

Vanguard's eyes widened for a second, only to narrow. He thought, and pondering for a while he was shocked to realize he had no words to answer for. How amusing, it seemed even the young and inexperienced had wisdom worth noting. He smiled and looked up, sighing before shaking his head. How foolish.

"It doesn't matter. It's the only way I can live, even if it makes me nothing more than a sleeping slave of fate, I must fight. Even if it is hopeless, as long as I do not fight I can never be free."


Lorenzo Remei

The pirate was surprised at the sudden slap on his bony back, luckily his spine didn't give up so easy. He roared of laughter at the bold man's words, and crossed his arms in approval.

"Bwahahahaha! You bastard, you've got guts to come up with a devious plan like that! Fine, I accept!"

Fire cracked behind the soles of his feet and with a stomp he raced forward, leaving a blazing trail behind as he accelerated with a determined run. In races like in everything else, he was always number one. Bwahaha!

[SINIB]

Jin

The former officer left the apartment after putting up the usual Ars seal, didn't hurt being carefull. He'd actually heard someone trying to break in once. Suffice to say they were dealt with swiftly. As he set out, he had a goal in mind. Aquire more pokémon. While it was true he didn't like them quite as fanatically as his girlfriend, they did have their uses. It would most likely also make her happier, which would be beneficial for him. "Ahahahaha" The blond man gave a crazed laugh as he could already envision this evil masterplan of his.

Walking out of the building, he grabbed his phone and made a call to her.

Shirou

Shirou looked at the girl with confusion as she sighed before beginning to explain what the text next to Eevee meant, totally contradicting everything he knew about what evolution meant. Ultimately, he concluded that it was simply some kind of jargon amongst Pokemon enthusiasts and, with that in mind, he could understand what she meant, although the use of the term "level" was bizarre to say the least, something he felt like he needed to clarify. It seemed like Pokemon could, given certain conditions, change into other, presumably more powerful, Pokemon.

Before he could ask any more, though, the girl pulled out a weird coloured ball from her bag, handing it to him with a rather bizarre instruction.

"You throw the ball and then the pokemon comes out. It's simple", she said.

To most people from his world, even magi, the claim would be frankly extraordinary. The girl was claiming that the creatures were stored in a ball far smaller than they, presumably, were. But, Shirou knew that Sakura was capable of something similar, at least in principle. Presumably, the ball worked as some kind of pocket dimension, providing a hopefully-comfortable space for the creature to reside in.

Figuring that he should give it a try, Shirou threw the ball as instructed and, to his slight surprise, a creature did indeed pop out, a small puppy-like dog with sharp teeth which he knew from reading the brochure was a "Poochyena".

"Impressive", he said to the girl as he bent down to give the puppy a stroke.

"By the way, what do you mean by 'level' when you talk about Pokemon evolving? Is that another piece of Pokemon enthusiast jargon?" he added.

Oka Kurosawa

Oka shook her head. She hated how stupid people could be. What was complicated about the idea of leveling up? Everyone knew that. Even people not from her universe seemed to understand at least leveling up. It was in all sorts of video games.

"You train them, they gain experience, and they get stronger. Eventually they evolve when they get strong enough." Oka replied, unsure of how to possibly explain such a simple term. It felt like trying to explain something like, well, air or something else to her. Well, maybe that was too extreme. But still, it seemed baffling.

Luckily, she didn't need to think of a better way to respond to him when her phone began ringing, and she saw it was her beloved Jinny. Not that she'd ever call him that. She felt like he wouldn't like such a cutesy nickname. She smiled, looked at Shirou, and said, "Excuse me, I need to take this," and walked away a bit so she'd be out of his earshot.

"Hey, what's up?" The girl asked Jin.

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter sighed at Gabriel's reply, not really having a problem with the job itself so much as being left in suspense about it. Well, it would be worth the price, though she was starting to seriously consider the possibility that he was the contact in question. Of course, the chances of him being an intermediary were decent.

"Don't much appreciate being held in suspense about these sorts of things," the Hunter said, "So, try to give me a notice ahead of time if you can. Anyway, should I pay you now or later? Personally, I'd like to hold off on talking business for now."

Knocking back more of the brandy, the Hunter couldn't help but look over the strangely attractive man again, this time with an appreciative eye. If nothing else, she could at least admit that he was nice to look at.

[Elf]

Rin

Rin stammered a little as Joe took her hand and began to ran to the rental booth.  They weren't going overly fast; Rin generally jogged at a faster pace than this.  Then, she heard Joe say, "You know, if you have anything that will make us go faster, now is the time.  I'm all for being in your arms."

She looked to see Lorenzo running at breakneck speed, surprisingly fast for a being who had no muscles or tendons to hold up his skeleton.  So she reinforced herself, lifted up Joe and began to run. 


Gabriel

Gabriel chuckled at Annabeth's request and said, "I only request payment after a service has been rendered.  I don't require half down or whatnot, and I do not believe in receiving payment until I have fulfilled my part of the bargain."

He waved the bartender over, pointing to his now empty beer glass before tapping beside it with a smile.  Once the bartender grabbed his glass to get the replacement, he turned back to Annabeth.  "So, what would you like to converse about then?"

[yinsukin]

Joe

This was fun.  Now lets see how far I can push my luck.

As he was lifted up by Rin, he looked back at the pirate.  Holy shit.  Never thought id see a skeleton move so fast.  He thought as he watched the fire trail form behind the pirate.  He turned around and looked at their path to the booth.  Thankfully, they popped up at a weird spot.  They were on one of those barren lakeside trails.  If they followed it, they would reach the booth in no time.  There were one or two trees decorating the sides of the road, as well as other foliage.  However, it was pretty minimal.

"Can you knock over that tree without losing speed?  Ill keep an eye on our pirate friend here."  He said, trying to hold back a laugh.

[Elf]

Rin

Rin was glad that the path to the booth was fairly stable.  Reinforced at this speed, one misstep could lead to major injury to Joe or worse which meant she had to keep sure and careful footing.  Since Lorenzo wasn't a physical threat, she was just focused to get to the booth as fast as she could.

Besides, I'd just keep wondering how Lorenzo is physically possible . . .

"Can you knock over that tree without losing speed?  I'll keep an eye on our pirate friend here," Joe said, his voice quaking with mirth.

Rin pointed her finger at it and fired a barrage of gandr at it in a fairly precise line.  The curse ripped through the tree trunk, it was a fairly young tree, and it went falling with a tearing crash.

[Aiden]

Forest

"Well, I didn't get those wankers off with my hands obviously," Forest said before shuddering at the thought.  "However, what do you know about the cassowary?"

She wondered if she should show him.  Or if she was capable of showing him; he might be immune to such things.  She wasn't picking up any broadcasting thoughts right now, but she wasn't overly trying either.

Liam

Well of course she didn't; it was a particularly strong reaction, but vampires biting people did some mighty pleasant things to their nerves. Well, unless you made it hurt on purpose. He frowned at the mention of whatever that animal was though. What the heck was she talking about that for?

"Some kinda bird, I think? Doesn't fly."

[Panda]

Annabeth

"Not sure," the Hunter said, "I was looking for a distraction to begin with, and I guess I got a bit more than I bargained for."

With that, she knocked back her latest glass as well, finally starting to feel the familiar warm buzz of the alcohol.

"So how has this place been treating you?" Annabeth asked after a while, lacking any other ideas for how to keep the awkward silence away.

[Elf]

Forest

Forest grinned at Liam's response and the look of confusion on his face.

"I'll show you," Forest said with a grin.

Then she started to probe the other vampire's mind.  For a moment, it was like hammering a brick wall with a pencil.  The resistance was remarkable, but it wasn't an unmovable object to her irresistible force.  Eventually, with enough strain, enough that made her glad she had literally taken all of that blood a few minutes ago, she was in.

She didn't read his mind, but projected into it.

He would have seen a giant, flightless black bird with a blue head.  Sort of like a punk rock version of an ostrich but meaner.  The bird looked as if it was standing before him before fixing it's bright red eyes on him.  It gave a loud, shrill cry before charging at him, swiping at his face with a clawed foot, almost like some evolved velociraptor.

As it attacked, it looked as if it's eyes caught fire and the bird was glowing with some sort of mental imagery.

Then almost as soon as the illusion had started, she cut it off.  Shaking her head she said, "Okay, the glowing aura and fiery eyes aren't standard, but you get the idea.  I can do other things obviously, but giant death bird is never not hilarious."


Gabriel

The hybrid threw back his head with a laugh, the sound causing a few of the patrons to look at him with a sort of adoration.  Gabriel took his new beer, lifted it up to her, and smiled.  The taste was just as good as the first one he had imbibed in.

"Well, it depends on what sort of distraction you're looking for," Gabriel said with a smile and a wicked chuckle.  "As to how it's treating me.  I'm adapting fine, but I'm trying to help a family member and that's . . . well not optimal."

[Panda]

Annabeth

The Hunter cocked an eyebrow as he laughed, looking around curious as it drew the attentions of other patrons. All the same, she couldn't help a slight blush at his response, or rather how he framed it. At least this time she could blame it on the alcohol.

"Not sure, any kind of distraction would be fine, and someone to drink with is nice," Annabeth said, glancing away, "That sounds like a bit of a pain, though I suppose it's worth it."