Larstern

Vanitas wrote:"Alright. I'm here because I've been here before. Right now, this world is in danger. Every other world too. And I've seen all this happening twice before. I'm gonna make this short because we're strapped for time. An army of metal men and monsters are gonna be at the gates, trying to kill us all. They're good at killing people and they enjoy it. Every single one of you is displaced and I get that it's a shock, but there are bigger things at stake. These guys are called Chaos and they're not like anything you've fought before. I don't care where you're from, 'cause this is bigger than any one person. Now they're not invincible. Holy stuff seems to hurt them pretty bad. Y'know, holy grails and faith - that kind of thing gives 'em the heebie-jeebies. That said, you don't want to underestimate the threat they're posing to us. You gotta work together on this. They look like tanks with faces but they're faster than you think and all they want is to put a bullet in each of you and burn whatever you leave behind. In short, you need to do your part and you're gonna need firepower. Any questions?"

'Gee, how nicely put that we're all gonna die that quick' Josuke thought to himself as he took in the information, but really now, he isn't some holy man, nor can Crazy Diamond do any of those holy magic stuff he kept blabbing about. 'I still have a hard time taking in about this whole outside of earth thing, and now this!'

He then waved at Vanitas hoping to get his attention


"Hey you! Gotta question here! How the heck are we gonna have holy stuff? Do we have to get like a sword or something and get it blessed by Goddess Astrid here?" Seemed like a reasonable question from a teenager...

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Artanis wrote:Artanis seemed to be listening intently on this conversation.  "It appears that we may very well require the Spear of Adun after all," he mentioned.  "I will need to return to Aiur and reactivate the Spear if we truly face a foe of such great power.  Still, I do not believe it wise for me to immediately head out just yet when we just established our presence here. We still need to build the Forge World that Leonardo desires."

"We can help get started on making that Forge World. My team's already raring to get building anything at this rate. Artanis, If you could start with your Nexus, and have your probes start warping in buildings, you should have some time to get that gargantuan Spear of yours in here quick!"

Astrid waved to Josuke. "Hey, over here!" she said. "I can help ya out with getting holy stuff, and ya don't even need to be a part of my faith to get it either. There was a fun little thing invented here a while back called Holy Drives. Those things can allow those without faith to use my own holy powers as their own as if they did. Super useful for this kinda stuff, believes me, lets anyone be a healer even if they normally can't. I can get ya set up with a few Holy Drives for free, though anything beyond that you'll need to buy, same with Spellstones."

Artanis, meanwhile, nodded to Wolf and put a hand on his own chest. "Then it is fortunate that you will join our cause. Your numbers may very well mean the difference between victory and defeat in this war," he mentioned. Then, to Raynor, he said, "I will have Phase-Smith Karax begin construction of the Forge World at once. We will need a supply of minerals and Vespene Gas to begin construction, or some other fuel source like Vespene Gas."

"There is magic," Serma mentioned, having finally spoken up. "Both Arcane Magic and Goddess Power are very potent sources of power, and highly renewable. We typically use magic for our power plants, though we've been steadily moving towards Goddess Power over time."

Slowly but steadily, a young lady in a turtleneck cardigan descended the staircase. The axe she was holding had clearly been sharpened recently and it was pointed directly at the man opposite her. Although her shaky hands could not conceal her budding terror, it was evident that the girl was more than prepared to use the implement if it proved necessary. By now, a dozen different possibilities had come to mind regarding her reason for being here (each worse than the last) but there was a lone voice buried somewhere deep in the subconscious that cheered her onwards.

The boards creaking underfoot, Haru inched closer towards the bottom of the stairs, still unwilling to relinquish her advantage height-wise. It happened to be the only advantage she had, other than the axe itself. But would a kidnapper really have taken a rich girl hostage without bringing a knife with them, at the very least? Then again, she supposed, would a kidnapper have left her in a warm, comforting bed completely unrestrained? The more she thought about all this, the less sense it made.

Being alone like this suddenly made the girl feel very vulnerable. Best to stop thinking altogether.

Haru thust the tip of the axehead in the stranger's general direction and bit her lip hard. At this moment, another question crossed her mind. Did she have it in her to kill a real person? Few of the adventures she had participated in before involved fighting real people. Just Shadows and the like. There were exceptions, but Haru and her friends had been forced to defend themselves so suddenly that nobody had stopped to question the morality of such a thing. And it was thankful that it had never come to having to kill, but now the reality of that choice was dawning upon the corporate empress.

She would just have to try her best not to let anything like that happen and pray that the man across the room was not her enemy.



"You! Who are you and what are you doing here," questioned Haru rapidly, her voice becoming shrill and breathy. She motioned with the weapon she wielded and furrowed her brow in way she thought seemed threatening. "I know how to use this thing, y-you know! And I'm not going to go easy on you if you try anything funny, okay?"

***

Vanitas massaged his temple with one hand, sensing his uselessness given the context of Josuke's question. There was only so much that the boy could help out with and most of his experience came down to practical matters. The Q&A was great and all, but Vanitas' forte was still hitting things with a big stick.



"Ah, geez, you know..."



"Look. Why don't you redirect all your questions about supplies to the goddess woman over here? I'm just a guy with a sick coat, alright?"



"Hey, you! Yeah, you," yelled Vanitas, looking back at Josuke once more. "What the hell did you to your hair? That's some pretty outdated shit you've got going on. I thought I had it rough, but what kind of bet did you lose?"

"Hey, you! Yeah, you," yelled Vanitas, looking back at Josuke once more. "What the hell did you to your hair? That's some pretty outdated shit you've got going on. I thought I had it rough, but what kind of bet did you lose?"

Everything went quiet for a brief second. But Josuke didn't respond.

Astrid came to explain to him about the Holy Drives but it all fell on deaf ears to Josuke. In fact, he doesn't know she was speaking in general, nor others who were talking amongst themselves.


"Hey...."


"What..."


"Did..."


"You say..."


"About. My. HAIR??!!"


Josuke dashed infront of Vanitas, shoving everyone out of his way, not caring or seeing whoever they were. All that mattered to him, was going infront of this "cool" bastard that insulted his hair.

He was going to make him pay.

Standing infront of him, he took a step forward closer and immediately summoned Crazy Diamond, his stand.


"Say that again...I DARE YOU!!!!" And ethereal pink and blue fist that may or may not be seen by anyone swung at Vanitas.


"DORA!!!"

Now, Shadow wasn't going to let Vanitas get injured because of some guy being too defensive about his hair.  The moment Josuke started yelling and approaching Vanitas, Shadow was ready.  At the last statement, Shadow quickly pulled out a Chaos Emerald and shouted, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Time froze temporarily for everyone except Shadow.  Shadow quickly Dashed over to Vanitas and grabbed him, forcibly moving him out of the way of Josuke's attack.  Chaos Control ended, and the attack missed entirely.  Shadow then turned to face Josuke.  "You'll have to excuse my companion," he said, crossing his arms.  "Vanitas doesn't always know when to keep his mouth shut.  I strongly suggest you calm down and think before this gets uglier, because I am not going to let you hurt my friend."

Before either of them could fight, however, Astrid restrained both of them with chains of light. "Alright, alright, enough with that," she said. "Jeez, we've spent so many pages of posts just doing exposition, it's time for you guys to actually do something more interesting than listening to folks rambling about things none of ya get. Now then, those of you with money, go with Chogro to the bank and exchange your currency for my own people's Gold. Those without it, you're going to the Adventurer's Guild and get a mission so you can get money. Those of you running tech, you're going next world over and building the Forge World. Now, unless anybody else is wanting even more exposition and wasting more of our RPers' valuable time with words they don't get, let's actually try and have some fun here, alright?"

Vanitas wrote:"Hey, Dollar Store Slavic Hobo!"

"WHA-----!?!?!?"

Oh no. Nobody insults the outfit. NOBODY.



"That DOES it! I'll show, you twerp! Lemme at 'im! LEMME--!!"



"Sit, boy."

Yukine is holding Yato by the collar of his track suit, pulling him back. The last thing they needed right now was to start a brawl out here. The Joestar Guy already had that covered enough.

---

Meanwhile, Teddie is holding Labrys' hand, wondering idly what's going on. All of this scary talk is way over his head, though he gets somebody is trying to get them to help out, but... Geez, he knew that already! How much longer were they all gonna stand here? This tension could kill a bear!

---

"Ah, so it's not just me. Good to know."

Kyoko yawned a little.

"Looks like those folks are tryin' to rally up people to give some cash, but as you can probably guess, I'm as broke as ever. Hey, how about we sit that one out and use the time to catch up with one another? Because, y'know... The whole 'our memories differ in large parts' thing..."

Even just talking about it made Kyoko feel uncomfortable. Right. That here in front of her was Sayaka, but it also wasn't... It was so damn surreal...

General Tommy wrote:Now, Shadow wasn't going to let Vanitas get injured because of some guy being too defensive about his hair.  The moment Josuke started yelling and approaching Vanitas, Shadow was ready.  At the last statement, Shadow quickly pulled out a Chaos Emerald and shouted, "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Time froze temporarily for everyone except Shadow.  Shadow quickly Dashed over to Vanitas and grabbed him, forcibly moving him out of the way of Josuke's attack.  Chaos Control ended, and the attack missed entirely.  Shadow then turned to face Josuke.  "You'll have to excuse my companion," he said, crossing his arms.  "Vanitas doesn't always know when to keep his mouth shut.  I strongly suggest you calm down and think before this gets uglier, because I am not going to let you hurt my friend."

Before either of them could fight, however, Astrid restrained both of them with chains of light.  "Alright, alright, enough with that," she said.  "Jeez, we've spent so many pages of posts just doing exposition, it's time for you guys to actually do something more interesting than listening to folks rambling about things none of ya get.  Now then, those of you with money, go with Chogro to the bank and exchange your currency for my own people's Gold.  Those without it, you're going to the Adventurer's Guild and get a mission so you can get money.  Those of you running tech, you're going next world over and building the Forge World.  Now, unless anybody else is wanting even more exposition and wasting more of our RPers' valuable time with words they don't get, let's actually try and have some fun here, alright?"

Unfortunately, Crazy Diamond managed to have its fist contact on the floor, rather than his intended target. Before he could turn to beat Shadow, however, he got restrained by Astrid. Being unable to move any longer, he calmed down. Especially now he has heard of the mention of Gold.


"Fine..."


"By the way, Goddess? Did you say something about Holy stuff?"

He tried not to make eye contact with Shadow and Vanitas as he could still be prone to his rage.

On the floor he punched though, it somewhat fixed but sort of twisted and warped.

Nenilein wrote:How much longer were they all gonna stand here? This tension could kill a bear!

For Labrys, not much longer as the fight quelled, although she was confused at the meta being addressed. Come to think of it, what's going on now is...currency exchange rates?  "Teddie, do you have money on you? I don't have some, because, ya know. No pockets. Because if not, we're gonna have to do jobs."

Croma on the other hand did have some money on her. Money she'll have to split with Raffaello given how he doesn't have any. It seems she'll have to follow Chogro to the bank for the currency exchange. Raffaello stuck close to her side as she approached the orc.

Wolf watched from a distance as Josuke attacked Vanitas, only for time to freeze suddenly. When things turned back to normal, Shadow had moved Vanitas aside. causing the Werepyre to raise an eyebrow. He looked at both of them, and got between the two hostiles.

"If you're quite done with your hostility, we have a war to wage." Wolf said authoritatively. He just wanted to get to the point. He'd spent enough time dealing with idiotic nobles who hated each other to lose patience with internal squabbles.

"Astrid, I'm willing to donate myself and my armies to help with the cause." He said, "Does that seem reasonable?"

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"I'd greatly appreciate having you on the team," Astrid answered to Wolf, disengaging the chains on Shadow and Josuke. "These folks are gonna need some coin as well. I've given them 500,000 Gold, but that's hardly enough to cover the cost of an army, especially one that's building itself on the run. Please Wolf, go with Chogro and see if you can't add more to the war chest to start with."

Chogro nodded and called out, "Alright, everyone with funds to donate, rally around me! Everyone who's here to get money at the Adventurer's Guild, go over to Shadow there! Rest of you, go over to Leonardo so we can get that Forge World set up!"

Shadow nodded and stood at the ready. "Any way for us to get over to the Adventurer's Guild?" he asked. "I'm not used to this city yet."

"I'll help give ya some navigation," Astrid said. Then, to Josuke, she added, "Yes, I can help get you established with holy stuff, but first, you should probably get some coin to help establish yourselves in Larstern."

Leonardo would have smiled if he had any mouth, but since he had long-since replaced his vocal chords and mouth with a mechanical vocabulator, he could not. Instead, he simply stayed to one side as Artanis approached him. "Friend-Leonardo, I am ready when you are to construct this Forge World."

As for Ramalies, he declared, "If you shall excuse me, I have a favor I must call in from an old companion of mine. I cannot say when he will arrive here, but you will know his presence when he does." With that, Ramalies turned back towards the Temple and went back inside to send out his message to whoever he wanted to talk to.

Joe walked over to Shadow, clamping his Lightrifle on the magnetic holster on his MJOLNIR's back. Bowser stomped over towards Shadow while Eggman went over to Ramalies. Ganondorf stood tall as he walked over to Chogro alongside Brandin, whose mere presence made him bristle with annoyance. Already he had to work alongside "heroes" and champions of the light. Still, he would do his part. Hyrule will be his, and he will not allow anyone to take what is rightfully his from him.

Jotaro rounds a corner and looks up observing an attractive young woman holding an axe. He responds to her holding up her axe by tugging on the brim of his hat and saying " Star Platinum...THE WORLD!" Instantly time freezes and quickly the broad,muscular frame of Jotaro swiftly takes the axe from the woman's hands and sits it next to her. He then says " ....time has begun to flow again... Sigh, look lady, I don't know WHO you are but I'm not your enemy. I just want to know where this is and why I'm here...got it? Weapons aren't needed ok?

Nora sighed, looking at the display around her, before heading over with Chogro,"I do have a small planetary fund to provide, however, I trade more in weapons and technology. Artanis, Leonardo" Nora calls out, opening a portal, where many of Nora's pirates, with four legs, a more insectoid appearance, and many machine parts, appear

"You may consider the Neo Tau'Rei at your disposal" She tells them,"I will speak with Astrid about management, and strategies we can use to prepare for our enemies" She explains

Haru herself had been so busy considering what she would do if the other character beared ill intent towards her that she had not stopped even once to think about how a person in her shoes should react if that were not the case. That being what it was, the girl found herself rather at a loss for words, especially once she realised that she was no longer holding her axe. No matter how hard she tried, words would not come. What she wanted to ask was exactly how Jotaro had moved across the room so quickly. Haru had only blinked and suddenly the man with the white get-up was inches away. Had she misjudged the distance he had been at?

The agitated heiress felt her slight fingers curling out towards the axe longingly, but dared not reach for her weapon just yet. This did not seem to want to harm her, if he happened to be telling the truth. But why lie about something like that? It actually made more sense that his story was true and they were both in the same boat, up a creek without a paddle between them.



"If you mean what you say, then-"



"Is that door over there unlocked," asked Haru, brushing past Jotaro with learned grace and trying the handle. "I think it is! There's some kind of commotion going on close by, too! Maybe we should go see if anyone can help us figure out where we are."

Blushing slightly, the girl opening the grand front door stopped for a moment.



"Oh, also... I'm very sorry for acting the way I did just now, to you."



"That wasn't very nice, was it? My parents raised me better than that."

***

Now, Vanitas was usually pretty good at dodging punches. Unfortunately for him, he could not see the first that had come flying towards him. It was lucky that Josuke had only been aiming for the ground and Vanitas' peers had intervened, else that really might have hurt. Wasn't the first time the Wielder had gotten carried away insulting someone's choice of fashion that day and it probably wouldn't be the last. Even Yato was gunning for him now, swinging away wildy.

Meekly, the would-be preacher thanked Shadow and apologised to Astrid, deciding to be quiet for a little bit.



"I'm no good at this talking stuff," confessed Vanitas with a tired roll of the eyes. "Maybe I should stick to what I know. If anybody wants to do this guild thing and kill some other things, probably, come with me. Shadow, should we decide on group leaders now?"

Jotaro, gruffly replied " Its ok. I can tell you're a lady of social standing and class. You have the refined skin of someone that can afford luxury. Also, if such a large door at this location in a building co-notates this is probably a bar or restaurant. Sigh, my name's Kujo, Jotaro I'm a grad. student in Marine biology. Mom said...I should be nicer especially to ladies." Jotaro pushes open the heavy door rather effortlessly and picks up Haru's axe. He then states " Here, you're not wrong, you might need this if it gets rough in here
.

He turns and then says " well....are you going to join me in my investigation?"

"I'd say I was lucky, if that's what you mean. I know some people who were treated quite poorly by society, just because someone of high social standing demanded it."



"But I was lucky, you're right."

Haru nodded morosely, then replaced the look on her face with something closer to a smile, even if it was forced.



"Well, I just use moisturiser to be honest. It's not that unusual for a girl of my age, but thank you anyway."

She took her axe again, making sure to grip it quite firmly this time. At the very least, nobody would be surprising her like that any time soon.



"Yes, let's get going. And I'm sure any mother would be proud of a son who holds doors open for strangers."

And with that, Haru popped outside, running as fast as she could with the axe equipped. The light was difficult to adjust to, but she figured she was heading closer to the noises that had been growing ever louder in the distance.

Wolf went over to Chogro, sighing a bit.

"I don't have the funds right now, but I can give a blank cheque from which to guarantee funding." Wolf said, "5 million in your people's currency, 2 million for weapons, 3 million for research. I can donate war material from which can be made into more things to help our side."

Eager to do as she had already decided, IF stood by Chogro.



"Ready to go whenever."

Meanwhile, Remilia followed what happened between Vanitas and Shadow's intervention. When Vanitas spoke up again, she decided to approach too.



"On one hand, I can't wait to get ahold of something I can rip asunder to vent some frustration. On the other, I think I'd make myself more useful doing something else."



"The Ashbringer was incredibly effective before. I'd like to have it in our arsenal this time again if possible. This means leading a search party for it now that it's dissapeared. I'm quite willing."



"But then again, I'd be more than happy to cut some throats too."

As the groups divided themselves, Sayaka turned to Kyoko as she spoke.

Nenilein wrote:"Looks like those folks are tryin' to rally up people to give some cash, but as you can probably guess, I'm as broke as ever. Hey, how about we sit that one out and use the time to catch up with one another? Because, y'know... The whole 'our memories differ in large parts' thing..."

"Ah, yeah, that."

She could borderline feel the mood it put Kyoko in. It was very unnatural to see. The Kyoko she knew wouldn't just show this kind of vulnerability openly, ever, would she?

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Sayaka forced out a laugh.



"On one hand, we gotta get some money at some point if we want to fill that void you call a stomach, don't we?"



"But I agree that we should straighten up what happened with our memories. If that's even what's happened in the first place. It's gonna help to wash off the bad taste of what happened when we got here, right?"

Sayaka tried to wrap her arm around and over Kyoko's shoulder, in a show of comraderie.

"So, we can talk! Let's take a walk around the city."

Haru and Jotaro would find themselves exiting the inn and in the streets of Larstern. The most noticeable building in the city was the Temple of Astrid, which dominated the skyline and could easily be seen even from where they are. That's probably the most important building within the city, since it looks like a cross between a Gothic Cathedral and a castle, though perhaps the term "palace" would be more accurate. It's likely that any answers they seek could be found at that temple.

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Shadow crossed his arms at Vanitas' suggestion. "I think it's best for us to hold off on establishing teams until we know what we're dealing with," he mentioned. "As for the Ashbringer, we'll have to recover that at some point. We might need a bigger party before we do that though, and everyone else is prioritizing their own matters. We'll have to put the Ashbringer on hold for now."

Chogro nodded. "That'll be a solid starting point for funding," he concluded. "We'd need more, of course, since we're commanding a vast army, but we'll have plenty of coin to at least get us on our feet. As for war material, I'm guessing you'll be sending us minerals and whatnot for us to use?"

Wolf nodded to Chogro.

"If we're going to be running a war, we need weapons and vehicles. To make those, we need metal, and to make metal, we need minerals to smelt. I have my people already making vehicles and weapons, but I doubt you guys want to be equipped with what basically equates to Bouzaculan Imperialist propaganda." Wolf said with a slight bit of a sarcastic tone.

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Continuing from here...

A cool dude in shades flies around the city, heading back towards the massive Temple. He remains high in the air, easier to find things like that. He keeps an eye out for the large lady from earlier.

Astrid was present right in the same spot that she was earlier, watching everybody split into groups. Bellatrix and Nora were right by her side, as well as some new faces that Dave might not recognize.

________________________

Joker would find himself waking up in the streets of Larstern, nearby Haru and Jotaro. It wouldn't be hard for Haru to notice Joker or vice-versa. I'm sure our two dear sneak-thieves would like to work together again in this madness.

Dave sees the giant lady again. He swoops down, ignoring the new faces. He's just here to fetch the goods.

Once he's near Astrid, he calls out to her.

Dave: excuse me, hello again
Dave: spoke with the vulgrim dude you told me to find
Dave: he said its cool but needs payment. something about some stuff or whatever that you owed him
Dave: just here to pick it up and take it back to him.

Aliucon wrote:


"Ah, yeah, that."

She could borderline feel the mood it put Kyoko in. It was very unnatural to see. The Kyoko she knew wouldn't just show this kind of vulnerability openly, ever, would she?

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Sayaka forced out a laugh.



"On one hand, we gotta get some money at some point if we want to fill that void you call a stomach, don't we?"



"But I agree that we should straighten up what happened with our memories. If that's even what's happened in the first place. It's gonna help to wash off the bad taste of what happened when we got here, right?"

Sayaka tried to wrap her arm around and over Kyoko's shoulder, in a show of comraderie.

"So, we can talk! Let's take a walk around the city."

"Don'cha worry about food. I can figure something out, heh! See?"

Kyoko shook her wrist and a stick of Hi-Chew candy appeared in it. She held it out to Sayaka to share.

"Here ya go. ...So yeah. Let's take that walk. I'd like that very much."

Even if Sayaka didn't realize it, to be here, next to her, meant a lot to Kyoko. More than Sayaka would ever know. Even if it wasn't really her. Well, not entirely. Maybe it wouldn't matter to much...?

---

For Labrys, not much longer as the fight quelled, although she was confused at the meta being addressed. Come to think of it, what's going on now is...currency exchange rates?  "Teddie, do you have money on you? I don't have some, because, ya know. No pockets. Because if not, we're gonna have to do jobs."

Immediately, Teddie perked up. He saluted to Labrys.



"Why, of course, my fair maiden! Nebear you fear! For I have!!"

Inside his suit, Teddie rummaged in his pockets, but--



"-Yikes! Pocket change...!"



"Oh nooooo! How can that be!? I'm usually such a frugal bear!"

Those were a couple hundred Yen. At best.



"Hmpf... That box of Topsicles the other day most have put me over the edge..."

And the one before that. And the one before that...

Teddie felt beary ashamed right now. He disappointed Labrys! What is this blasphemy...!

Nora had been calculating her personal funds, and determining how much of them she could push towards this war effort, and determining she was about even. nodding in satisfaction, Nora closes her screens, and looks over at Astrid, remembering why she was angry with her

She had expected stupid moves with bad explanations from humans...but this???

This defied anything Nora had expected. Nora says to anyone who is listening,"I'll be going now... I need to set up my workshop" She says, opening a portal next to astrid, and before she enters it, she mutters into Astrid's ear

"You and I will discuss this in further detail later...do not think i haven't noticed what has happened"

...

...

In an alley close to Jotaro and Haru, a rather confused looking teen awoke from his slumber. Apparently quite groggy from his unplanned nap, the boy struggled to pull himself up from the ground as he clutched at his head and tried to get his bearings. Where on earth was he? This didn't look like any street he had seen before and it certainly wasn't the trusty automotive cat that he had fallen asleep inside of.

Instinctively, he reached for his phone and searched for an answer with the Metaverse Navigator. Of course, it was gone. It had been gone ever since the Metaverse had been destroyed, so he wasn't sure why he expected to find it.

Huh...?

Was that?


"Haru? Is that you?" He asked the familiar girl, then noted the rather menacing looking dude stood with her. Who the hell was this poser?