InfiniteDaze
Too lazy to leave the house
- Location
- I wish I could stay
Well Ra is probably pissed.
One Foot - Another Multiverse SI
- Thread starter Ars Poetica
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Alt. History
Well Ra is probably pissed.
- Location
- Northern Ireland
I ship Poe and Kokonoe.
DarkHabit
Soldier of Twilight
- Location
- the border of good and evil
So I binge read everything, and there are several suggestions I want to give to the TVtropes people. Cause I ain't good at that coding mumbo jumbo.
I offer this in the name of our Glorious Writer, Ars.
Update: HE HUG'D ME! I FEEL SO LOVED!
Second update:
Refuge in Audacity: The governor of Texas is an openly revealed Akuma, and (Link here forward to Human are Morons) had one of the highest followings at his conception.
- Other governors include animals, foreign revolutionaries, a Ghost Rider-worshipper, and Dio's American relative!
Adaptional Heroism: After a rough start, Funny Valentine is more than willing to advise Poe in setting up the Pineapple Confederacy. Helps that Poe accidently intercepted a bullet meant for him and was severely injured.
Smuck Bait: When fighting a (Link to JJBA) Vampiric Stand user (end link), He ends up in a museum holding an exhibit with an Aztec arrow. Poe starts stabbing himself with it, thinking that it was a Stand-granting artifact (it wasn't).
-On a meta level, upon being asked if Poe would obtain a Stand, the author asked the readers to roll for it. Poe stabbed himself once for every five dice rolled.
Shipper on Deck: Lust for Poe and Medusa, (link to meaningful name) for obvious reasons.
Relationship Upgrade: Poe and Medusa. On the real world's Valentine's Day no less!
Name's the Same: One of the governors was named Poe R.R. Acti. He was not amused with our Poe having the same name. (Fringe Brilliance) Given Poe's self-depreciating nature, the governor might actually be the native incarnation of Poe!
Driven to Suicide: The real reason Poe started his journey; just about everything that gave his life purpose was taken away at close to the same time. Finally confronting this allows him to (link to character development) grow as a person.
Plot Detour: Poe decides to take a extended stay in Claymore to help set up the fledgling government. (Subverted Trope) Too bad a Second Ghost Rider appears to force him to move to the next world.
Have We Met Yet: due to the fact that Poe travels through space and time, he starts meets beings who had prior interactions with his future self.
Witch Trial: Fittingly enough, Medusa, backed by the other spirits, starts one to protect Poe, accusing the Black Order's general of aiding the vampire. (link to Accidental Truth)To her surprise, she was absolutely correct.
Next Tier Powerup/Power Limiter: Grand King and Centrecroix are revealed to be actually the two halves of Poe's true shikai, Grand Center King's Cross, but using it to the fullest potential makes him effectively high.
Embarrassing Middle Name: Well, there is a reason Poe never mentions that the R.R. stands for Reginald Raspberry. Even his inner world's occupants can't help but laugh!
- Other governors include animals, foreign revolutionaries, a Ghost Rider-worshipper, and Dio's American relative!
Adaptional Heroism: After a rough start, Funny Valentine is more than willing to advise Poe in setting up the Pineapple Confederacy. Helps that Poe accidently intercepted a bullet meant for him and was severely injured.
Smuck Bait: When fighting a (Link to JJBA) Vampiric Stand user (end link), He ends up in a museum holding an exhibit with an Aztec arrow. Poe starts stabbing himself with it, thinking that it was a Stand-granting artifact (it wasn't).
-On a meta level, upon being asked if Poe would obtain a Stand, the author asked the readers to roll for it. Poe stabbed himself once for every five dice rolled.
Shipper on Deck: Lust for Poe and Medusa, (link to meaningful name) for obvious reasons.
Relationship Upgrade: Poe and Medusa. On the real world's Valentine's Day no less!
Name's the Same: One of the governors was named Poe R.R. Acti. He was not amused with our Poe having the same name. (Fringe Brilliance) Given Poe's self-depreciating nature, the governor might actually be the native incarnation of Poe!
Driven to Suicide: The real reason Poe started his journey; just about everything that gave his life purpose was taken away at close to the same time. Finally confronting this allows him to (link to character development) grow as a person.
Plot Detour: Poe decides to take a extended stay in Claymore to help set up the fledgling government. (Subverted Trope) Too bad a Second Ghost Rider appears to force him to move to the next world.
Have We Met Yet: due to the fact that Poe travels through space and time, he starts meets beings who had prior interactions with his future self.
Witch Trial: Fittingly enough, Medusa, backed by the other spirits, starts one to protect Poe, accusing the Black Order's general of aiding the vampire. (link to Accidental Truth)To her surprise, she was absolutely correct.
Next Tier Powerup/Power Limiter: Grand King and Centrecroix are revealed to be actually the two halves of Poe's true shikai, Grand Center King's Cross, but using it to the fullest potential makes him effectively high.
Embarrassing Middle Name: Well, there is a reason Poe never mentions that the R.R. stands for Reginald Raspberry. Even his inner world's occupants can't help but laugh!
Update: HE HUG'D ME! I FEEL SO LOVED!
Second update:
Complete Monster: The handler is so corrupted that the Ghost Rider explicitly wants Poe to smite him, going so far as promising to forgive Poe's own sins should he do so. He's that bad.
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- Location
- The Z-Cave
Not bad for a beginner, better than some veterans even. I'd like to do more, but my labtop is wigging out and gives me a 400 error every-time I try to go to TV tropes.
Ars Poetica
ULTIMA RATIO NEMO OBLIGATUR
- Location
- The Kingdom of Fiore
- Pronouns
- He / Him / His
I'd do it myself, but as you know... I'm not thrilled at the idea of putting tropes into my own trope page. It's a conflict of interest, I think.
On another note, I passed my driving test.
......I am now road legal.
The Dark Esper
Watching With Interest
- Location
- Britain
God save us all...
DarkHabit
Soldier of Twilight
- Location
- the border of good and evil
Oh, I've logged a triple digit number of hours into Tvtropes, I'm not a rookie when it comes to it. I just can't seem to get links right. I've tried editing some stuff on the page about a week ago and the preview showed I kept failing when it came to links.
I did 15 attempts before I gave up... I wish I was joking...
Edit: Something else I wanted to mention. Goddammit Poe actually isn't a Catchphrase. A catchphrase is a line repeatedly spoken by one person.
A proper catchphrase would be Poe constantly saying 'get in the F'ing van' (I have a mental block when it comes to cursing, so selfcensoring) and its variations.
Goddammit Poe is what everyone says in response to Poe. That's a Phrase Catcher. That has been bothering me since I saw it labeled that in the forum and yet still managed to completely slip my mind once I had the chance to bring it up once I finished.
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Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Have you tried copying the formatting of a link someone else has set up, that you know works properly? Editing it for whatever your needs are?
DarkHabit
Soldier of Twilight
- Location
- the border of good and evil
That was attempt 3. Not making this up.
Ars Poetica
ULTIMA RATIO NEMO OBLIGATUR
- Location
- The Kingdom of Fiore
- Pronouns
- He / Him / His
How? It's literally just brackets, or parenthesis. You just copy the format, paste it, then replace the link and words accordingly.
There's a whole guide and everything! Though, I suppose I shouldn't be one to throw stones when it comes to screwing up in improbable ways.
After all, I failed my written test... what, six times? Six or so, before I passed my practical test on my second try. "Driving's easy," they all said. "You'll do fine," they all said. Well fuck all y'all!
I floored it and totaled my car on the first try down in Lodi four years ago when a deer jumped in front of me! Broke the test driver's arm in the process, and I was banned from driving in NJ for several years after that. It took fucking Bob abandoning the family for me to try passing the test again, and that was out of necessity.
...Where was I? Oh, right. Just... uh... if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That's right. Yeah.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
i'm actually part of a test to create a new driving school, while also getting my license...
got 30/30 first try thanks to the other students help.
...granted actually driving isnt that easy....but i havent crashed yet...
SoothingCoffee
Umumumu
- Location
- The Library
Not sure how they do it in US, but the first time I took up my Driving Lesson, the lecturer quite literally put me behind the wheel and told me to drive right into the streets right after he told me the general uses for the pedals and signals. No written stuffs or something. Thankfully, I didn't crash, but it was nervewracking as fuck.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
did the car you were using have the pedals and brakes on both sides as well?
so that all you really have to do is steer?
- Location
- Greece
Seconded. Failed my written test once because I was a dumbass and didn't study hard enough, I get that.
But I failed my practical BECAUSE THAT FRIGGIN CUNT COULDN'T WAIT UNTIL I LEAVED MY PARKING SPOT FIRST AND HE PASSED ME AT FULL SPEED AND I FAILED BECAUSE I HAD TO WAIT FOR HIM AND GOD, I HATE HIM SO MUCH!
Sorry about that, still bitter about that particular incident. Had to pay 100 euros to redo the test and I was so nervous I didn't sleep all night. Also, do any of you guys had that test where you have to drive in reverse and turn in a corner perfectly? What is the point of that useless exercise? I have been driving for near 2 years and I never once needed to do something like that, what the hell?
And the fact that my instructor's car was a small two-siter while my family uses a station wagon certainly did not help.
- Location
- .
You can Now legally drive? 
Uhhh....what state are you in again so I can stay off the sidewalks?
But seriously? Good job.
Uhhh....what state are you in again so I can stay off the sidewalks?
But seriously? Good job.
DarkHabit
Soldier of Twilight
- Location
- the border of good and evil
I am somehow that bad at links. I can link directly to a trope (ie AccidentalTruth), but the moment I attempt to embed one into a phrase or sentence, or reference a work, the site goes "LOL, nope!" Its a similar problem with all wikis actually... on a different one I managed to fail a direct copy-paste. It worked the second time, but it was the same exact paste! Just... why?
On another hand, stupid thing I realized which is totally in character for Poe. He can not meet Chrona. He is stupid enough to say something along the lines of "give your new daddy a hug." and completely trigger a break point in her (I think she's female in One Foot... not going back through Soul Eater to check) psyche.
- Location
- Hunting in the Void
I've finally caught up! Hallelujah! 60 chapters today kept me awake through my classes. That was certainly a... Roller coaster if anything, that was on fire of course and at a 90 degree angle. Man the dice must really hate Poe.
DarkHabit
Soldier of Twilight
- Location
- the border of good and evil
No, it's just that they are more Tsundere than Medusa was before they finally became a thing.
Edit: How is this insightful?
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Chapter 295
Ars Poetica
ULTIMA RATIO NEMO OBLIGATUR
- Location
- The Kingdom of Fiore
- Pronouns
- He / Him / His
I keep trying to post regularly, and real life keeps kicking my heart in the balls. But I'm back, for now. Let's do this!
-x-
"Eventually, he stopped coming to school. He'd developed an addiction to the stuff, and he needed more and more. It stopped being about killing the pain, started becoming about the high, and he just couldn't get high enough anymore." I rubbed the back of my neck, "I'll admit, seeing the good and bad it did for him – that's what convinced me the D.A.R.E people were full of shit."
I stopped talking. For a while, I didn't say anything as I began pacing back and forth in the sand again. Desiree watched me with her hands in her lap, as though waiting for something. "How so?" she asked me, "What happened to him was horrible, of course, but how did that impact you personally? Did you rebel against society? What did you do?"
"Nothing." I sighed, "I didn't do drugs, I didn't drink or smoke… but I realized, if this stuff stayed in the hospitals where the doctors could be put in charge of it, if my buddy got the care he needed instead of a load of shitty patch jobs that bankrupted his family – if, if, if – I realized most of his problems were exclusive to people in his position, and that there were easy fixes to it… and that nobody would fix it. They'd just keep shoveling the lies on top and hope it buried the real problems too deep to be dug up."
"So you began to embrace your own version of cynicism."
"Why not? My best friend was frying his brain and body on drugs he needed, but that were illegal. Nobody could make sure he didn't go too far, so he eventually started doing just that. And when people are suffering, someone has to be profiting from it. At the time, the anti-drug people were the ones I blamed – but it wasn't just them… and I started applying that to everything else, too. If I'm suffering, who's at fault?
"But there's a problem with that philosophy – it doesn't take into account when you are what's wrong. When I had to pick who to blame for why I suffered, eventually I ran out of people to blame until I was the only one left."
"…Poe," she said softly, "It's not your fault."
"I jumped in front of that train. My legs didn't act on their own free will. I didn't fuck up totally because of outside forces. When it all came back to me, when I couldn't handle it, I figured I was too much of a burden." I breathed deeply, "I was only good at hurting myself, and a majority of my problems were because of me. So why not jump?"
"…" My eye blinked as I noticed her concerned expression.
"I-I know better now," I stuttered, "Come on. I get it; I learned my lesson. Suicide was wrong. I gave up when I shouldn't have. It's just… I understand why I gave up… and that just makes me want to punch the person I used to be even harder."
-x-
I could count on one hand the number of times that I'd felt like I was burning. Since I'd received my Ghost Rider powers, I'd been fireproof. But occasionally I'd run into someone who could torch me and make it hurt. This was one of those occasions.
Yuki Terumi's cackling resonated through the halls as he marched steadily towards us, walls of adamantium easily breaking apart as he stalked towards us. Kokonoe's eyes were wide with shock and awe, "That's impossible." She stated it as flatly as she could manage, "This is the most durable metal in the universe. How is he–?"
"Questions later, running now!" I took a look around, checking every angle of the hallway. In the darkness of the red hallway, I waited to see him emerge from any corner just to catch us by surprise. Instead, the slow steps continued to grow louder.
Kokonoe caught on quickly, turning in the opposite direction as she fled back into the lab. "This way!"
I backed up a step or two, waiting to see the end of the hallway glow with emerald hellfire before I turned tail and started running right behind her. "Where's everyone else?" I called from behind.
"Topside, searching the city for supplies, killing monsters–"
"Can you recall them?" I asked as we entered her office.
She moved a piece of furniture out of the way, revealing a metal door with an electronic panel on the front. I watched her hand as it darted across the buttons – 1870? Really? I mean, sure, whatever floats your boat, Kokonoe, but I'd have picked a much better four-digit security number – the door slid open with a long, drawn out hiss.
It was slowly opening on its own, but given time was of the essence, I'm pretty sure Kokonoe was understanding when I reached my hands in and started pulling the door open in spite of the loud protests of countless, small gears. "Let's go, let's go!" Kokonoe slipped through easily enough, and I was quick to follow her before I started pulling the door shut – then I paused.
"Wait. Hold on. I'm doing a stupid." I stepped back and clapped my hands, pressing them against the door. "I'll just use alchemy and seal the door shut."
…There were no sparks as I held my hands against the adamantium door. Yuki Terumi steadily approached. I could hear tiles hiss from the heat of his shoes against the floor as smoke began drifting above my head.
"Any second now."
"Poe, what the fuck are you doing?! Shut the door and run!" I heard Kokonoe snap at me.
A fact finally settled in, "…My alchemy isn't working." I eyed the door, and I saw the silhouette of Yuki Terumi. I could just barely make out a grinning skull obscured in smoke and fire. "Oh shit my alchemy isn't working." I backed away from the door, drew on my powers of sound, and threw out a hard punch.
With a sharp cry, the door flung itself shut only to immediately be brutally kicked open. "There you are…"
I paled and ran, barely able to see Kokonoe's back. She was dozens of yards ahead of me, and this hall seemed to extend forever, but I could feel the slight incline as it lead up to the surface. And just as I ran uphill, so too did Terumi follow me.
Reaching my hand forward, I pulled my burning shotgun out and reached behind my shoulder to fire blindly. A chain, wrapped in flames, flew out and struck the weapon out of my hands and shattered it against a wall. "Fuck!" I hissed, clapping my hands and blasting fire behind me.
It was useless as Yuki walked through waves of ember like it was nothing – and to him, it probably was nothing. I wondered – was this how Amagai felt when we fought those years ago? Was this how he felt when all his fires were useless against me?
How terrifying.
But at least I had the sense to flee. Cries of solidifying sound flew behind me, each blast striking Terumi and holding him back only for another moment. But each moment counted, and each second he spent recovering was a second I had to run forward.
The sound of chains ran towards me from behind, and I fell forward as my body shifted and warped into a more dog-like form. On all fours, I charged forwards and began to catch up to Kokonoe. By now, I was tracking her by scent. She stood by another panel, and slammed her fist against a big, red button.
Doors of adamantium shut behind me. Each set of doors slamming closed, one after another. I glanced over my shoulder just for an instant, and had enough time to see one such door fall down on Terumi, crashing against the back of his neck.
…The monster took a knee, then slowly began standing up again as he glared at me. I heard the sizzling of melting adamantium before one more door shut and kept him out of view.
My pace didn't slow until I reached Kokonoe and made to stand up again. "Fuck… Oh, fuck… Fucking fuck…" I panted, my heart beating a lightyear a minute. I struggled to breathe and sweated buckets, righting myself and rocking back on my heels to prop my back up against a wall.
I slid down, and stared up at the ceiling with one, wide and fearful eye. Every moment that passed, I could hear the sound of Terumi ripping through one door after another. "Every door, every wall, everything in this entire facility is made of the most durable metal in the universe–" Kokonoe stared at the doors, desperately trying to maintain her composure. "Nothing should be able to break through it. How the hell is this happening?"
There were a few answers I could provide for that. If I channeled the power of the Rider through a material, it would become more brittle in exchange for a quick burst of strength. I'd seen it with my clothing, and it made sense… but I'd also seen it happen to rocks and other metals. Why couldn't it apply to adamantium?
Of course that posed two questions. Firstly, how much power was Yuki Terumi channeling into that adamantium in order to force it to shatter? And secondly, how much stronger was Terumi's Ghost Rider compared to mine? I wasn't looking forward to the answers in either case.
…Actually, there were a number of things about this that were disturbing. When all the lights went out, why didn't he do that trick from before? When Terumi abducted me from the previous world, he was moving in and out of shadows similarly to Analay… which in itself was a suspicious detail I'd be saving for later, but the point stands.
If Terumi could teleport through shadows, why didn't he do that here? Was he trying to intimidate us by breaking the adamantium? He seemed like the kind of person who played with his victims, but considering his original goal was to get me from one world to the next when I didn't intend on leaving my kingdom behind, I wasn't sure.
He could've killed me before, but he didn't. I don't know why he didn't, but he likely had a reason for that. Now we were in a world that he didn't want me in, a world that neither of us was supposed to be in. Naturally, he'd come after me to retrieve me and try to go to that world… but it would've been faster and more efficient to do what he did before.
To summarize, why didn't Terumi teleport to me? He did it before, and that's part of how I lost to him the first time. If he was doing this to intimidate us, then that almost worked… but this felt more like an ace in the hole that he'd want to reveal, right when our hope reached its apex. It felt too soon to reveal this.
So he didn't intend on revealing it. He was forced to. How?
"…He can't teleport." I murmured the words in surprise, my brain going into overdrive. It wasn't a sure thing, but it made more sense than assuming he'd decided to bust through adamantium walls for the hell of it.
Next question: Assuming he couldn't teleport, why would that be the case? What was present that could be inhibiting his abilities? Or… maybe it wasn't what was present, but instead what wasn't. This wasn't his world, and this wasn't a world he was supposed to be in. So perhaps his teleportation was limited to those kinds of worlds?
This was a timeline that couldn't exist anymore, which meant he couldn't teleport in this timeline, which meant he had to do things the hard way, which meant we could beat him.
A door of adamantium shattered; it was one of several as Terumi's rampage continued towards us in a straight, blazing line. I could hear him roaring with fury as each subsequent set of doors provided one challenge after another. Furious expletives blended seamlessly into his shouts and the explosions.
"You noticed it, too?" Kokonoe spoke softly, "The Terumi of our world could fold space with ease. I thought it was odd that he'd be taking such a brute force approach."
"Oh, good, we're on the same page," I nodded happily. "Do you have a plan to hold him back?"
"That depends. What can you tell me about his Ghost Rider?"
"Big, green, fugly, and stronger than mine."
She gave me an odd look. "Stronger than yours?" Her voice was filled with incredulity. "That shouldn't be possible, Poe. I'll admit, my experience with the Ghost Rider is limited, but based on what we know of you, that claim is bullshit."
"And how do you know so much about… me…" I paused, "Riiiiight. Alternate future timeline, I must've left one hell of a mark on history for you to know that much about me."
"You were open about your status as an interdimensional flaming skeleton man. It was hard not to learn about you." A smug grin was growing across her face; Terumi's voice forced her expression into a scowl.
"I hear your heartbeat, Kokonoe! Don't tell me you're pussing out! Come on!"
"Long story short, your Ghost Rider is absurd." Kokonoe watched me with a stern expression. "I can't think of a situation that would let Terumi's be stronger than yours." The doors chose that moment to open fully, "Get in."
"Oh, thank god; an elevator, we're saved." I drawled, not hesitating to enter. With one last exhale, I collapsed and put my ear to the floor. For a moment, I laid there with my one eye closed. I held my breath, waiting for the worst as I tried to keep everything as quiet as possible.
"You can stand up," Kokonoe frowned, "I know you're not that tired."
"I'm not doing this because I'm tired." I answered her, "I'm listening." The sound of bending, warping metal sent shivers down my spine as Terumi found his way to the elevator doors. "How high up are we now compared to before?"
Kokonoe eyed the light above the door as it ticked up. "If I had to guess," she said ruefully, "Not high enough."
"Good guess," I congratulated her, "He's climbing the shaft, and he isn't being slow about it."
"How long before he reaches us?"
"If I had to guess… two minutes?"
She sighed, "…Good guess. We're about a minute from the surface. When these doors open, we run. If you follow me, you will live."
"Follow you?" I blinked, "He's after me. I was gonna propose we split up."
"No." She shook her head, "He can't kill you. You still have things you need to do. But this timeline, everyone in it…" Kokonoe took a breath, "Whether I die here, later, or by his hand, it won't matter. Poe, this timeline is disappearing."
"I know," I waved her off, "You told me. That's why you brought me here, right? To fix it?"
"…It can't be fixed."
"What?"
"I had reasons for bringing you here, but… this timeline is going to die, and everyone in it will fade no matter what. I didn't bring you here to fix it – that was a lie, and I think it's the only thing that's kept our group going – in truth, I brought you here so you could help end it."
Thirty seconds left before we reached the surface, I stood up and stepped towards Kokonoe with aggression wafting off of me. "So it was all pointless? You dragged me here to destroy all of you? Are you fucking kidding me?"
She shook her head, "It's more complicated than that. We can't escape, and most of the world outside this city is gone. We're the only people left in it."
"What about Tager? He was on a mission–"
"He went on that mission a long time ago. It never ended, because the time in that area ran out first." She didn't look at me as she turned her gaze to the elevator door. "So, from a certain point of view, I was telling the truth."
"You don't get to use that kind of Jedi shit on me, Kokonoe!" I snapped at her, "You lied to your comrades about there being a chance out of this, and you expect me to let that slide?!"
The elevator doors opened, a soft chime emitting from the door. "We need to go." Kokonoe kept a brisk tone as she quickly ran out of the elevator. But she came to a stop, turning around to eye me as I stood firm.
"No…" I trailed, "Answer me, Kokonoe. I don't care if death itself is on our heels right now, tell me. Did you think I'd be okay with this? Did you?!"
"What are you going to do about it? Kill me? Cripple me? Poe, this world is already dead. It just doesn't know it, yet."
"So why am I here?" I asked, circling back to the first question. "What, you want me to take this world off life support?"
"Yes."
The elevator shook. Terumi was forty seconds away, and I could feel vibrations of his laughter through my feet. "What if I say no? What if I refuse?"
"Then the world ends. If it goes on your terms, then maybe we can stand a chance in a different timeline. But you can bet that if it ends and you're still here, and Terumi is still here, then this is going to spread to other timelines."
"…So that's it, then? Sacrifice the few, save the many?" Fuck. It's one thing to make that choice on my own, but being forced into the whole situation, and having that thrust on me was something else entirely. I took a deep breath, stepped forward, and let the power of the Rider consume the elevator.
The doors shut, and I forced my impromptu ride to fly down and crash into Terumi – I could hear his cry of surprise, and I heard him swear and shout as he tumbled all the way down. He'd survive, of course. But that just put a fuckton of distance between us.
Slowly, I turned to look at Kokonoe. "I told you we were saved," I said, gesturing over my shoulder with one thumb. "Elevators are just Rides on and inside buildings."
Kokonoe gaped at me with open shock, all seriousness draining out of her. "You… That was an act. That…"
"Nothing about your story made sense, everything about this was weird, and I needed a chance to figure out what the fuck was going on. Now I know." I crossed my arms and glared at her, "Kokonoe, you lied to me. You gave up on saving this world, and you didn't want to push the button to end it. Isn't that right?"
She said nothing, settling on clenching her fists as I heard distant footsteps approach us.
We shared a glance, and I shut my eye. If she wanted to wait on this until we were alone… fine. Even if I disagreed with her, I'd seen what could happen when I opened my mouth and blabbed about this kind of important shit in front of people who didn't know.
I could be discrete… kind of… sort of…
…Speaking of "discrete", I'd only been here… a day, maybe two at best? And a base made of adamantium was already on fire and completely destroyed.
Was that some kind of record? I didn't feel like a winner.
-x-
One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train
End-295
-x-
"Eventually, he stopped coming to school. He'd developed an addiction to the stuff, and he needed more and more. It stopped being about killing the pain, started becoming about the high, and he just couldn't get high enough anymore." I rubbed the back of my neck, "I'll admit, seeing the good and bad it did for him – that's what convinced me the D.A.R.E people were full of shit."
I stopped talking. For a while, I didn't say anything as I began pacing back and forth in the sand again. Desiree watched me with her hands in her lap, as though waiting for something. "How so?" she asked me, "What happened to him was horrible, of course, but how did that impact you personally? Did you rebel against society? What did you do?"
"Nothing." I sighed, "I didn't do drugs, I didn't drink or smoke… but I realized, if this stuff stayed in the hospitals where the doctors could be put in charge of it, if my buddy got the care he needed instead of a load of shitty patch jobs that bankrupted his family – if, if, if – I realized most of his problems were exclusive to people in his position, and that there were easy fixes to it… and that nobody would fix it. They'd just keep shoveling the lies on top and hope it buried the real problems too deep to be dug up."
"So you began to embrace your own version of cynicism."
"Why not? My best friend was frying his brain and body on drugs he needed, but that were illegal. Nobody could make sure he didn't go too far, so he eventually started doing just that. And when people are suffering, someone has to be profiting from it. At the time, the anti-drug people were the ones I blamed – but it wasn't just them… and I started applying that to everything else, too. If I'm suffering, who's at fault?
"But there's a problem with that philosophy – it doesn't take into account when you are what's wrong. When I had to pick who to blame for why I suffered, eventually I ran out of people to blame until I was the only one left."
"…Poe," she said softly, "It's not your fault."
"I jumped in front of that train. My legs didn't act on their own free will. I didn't fuck up totally because of outside forces. When it all came back to me, when I couldn't handle it, I figured I was too much of a burden." I breathed deeply, "I was only good at hurting myself, and a majority of my problems were because of me. So why not jump?"
"…" My eye blinked as I noticed her concerned expression.
"I-I know better now," I stuttered, "Come on. I get it; I learned my lesson. Suicide was wrong. I gave up when I shouldn't have. It's just… I understand why I gave up… and that just makes me want to punch the person I used to be even harder."
-x-
I could count on one hand the number of times that I'd felt like I was burning. Since I'd received my Ghost Rider powers, I'd been fireproof. But occasionally I'd run into someone who could torch me and make it hurt. This was one of those occasions.
Yuki Terumi's cackling resonated through the halls as he marched steadily towards us, walls of adamantium easily breaking apart as he stalked towards us. Kokonoe's eyes were wide with shock and awe, "That's impossible." She stated it as flatly as she could manage, "This is the most durable metal in the universe. How is he–?"
"Questions later, running now!" I took a look around, checking every angle of the hallway. In the darkness of the red hallway, I waited to see him emerge from any corner just to catch us by surprise. Instead, the slow steps continued to grow louder.
Kokonoe caught on quickly, turning in the opposite direction as she fled back into the lab. "This way!"
I backed up a step or two, waiting to see the end of the hallway glow with emerald hellfire before I turned tail and started running right behind her. "Where's everyone else?" I called from behind.
"Topside, searching the city for supplies, killing monsters–"
"Can you recall them?" I asked as we entered her office.
She moved a piece of furniture out of the way, revealing a metal door with an electronic panel on the front. I watched her hand as it darted across the buttons – 1870? Really? I mean, sure, whatever floats your boat, Kokonoe, but I'd have picked a much better four-digit security number – the door slid open with a long, drawn out hiss.
It was slowly opening on its own, but given time was of the essence, I'm pretty sure Kokonoe was understanding when I reached my hands in and started pulling the door open in spite of the loud protests of countless, small gears. "Let's go, let's go!" Kokonoe slipped through easily enough, and I was quick to follow her before I started pulling the door shut – then I paused.
"Wait. Hold on. I'm doing a stupid." I stepped back and clapped my hands, pressing them against the door. "I'll just use alchemy and seal the door shut."
…There were no sparks as I held my hands against the adamantium door. Yuki Terumi steadily approached. I could hear tiles hiss from the heat of his shoes against the floor as smoke began drifting above my head.
"Any second now."
"Poe, what the fuck are you doing?! Shut the door and run!" I heard Kokonoe snap at me.
A fact finally settled in, "…My alchemy isn't working." I eyed the door, and I saw the silhouette of Yuki Terumi. I could just barely make out a grinning skull obscured in smoke and fire. "Oh shit my alchemy isn't working." I backed away from the door, drew on my powers of sound, and threw out a hard punch.
With a sharp cry, the door flung itself shut only to immediately be brutally kicked open. "There you are…"
I paled and ran, barely able to see Kokonoe's back. She was dozens of yards ahead of me, and this hall seemed to extend forever, but I could feel the slight incline as it lead up to the surface. And just as I ran uphill, so too did Terumi follow me.
Reaching my hand forward, I pulled my burning shotgun out and reached behind my shoulder to fire blindly. A chain, wrapped in flames, flew out and struck the weapon out of my hands and shattered it against a wall. "Fuck!" I hissed, clapping my hands and blasting fire behind me.
It was useless as Yuki walked through waves of ember like it was nothing – and to him, it probably was nothing. I wondered – was this how Amagai felt when we fought those years ago? Was this how he felt when all his fires were useless against me?
How terrifying.
But at least I had the sense to flee. Cries of solidifying sound flew behind me, each blast striking Terumi and holding him back only for another moment. But each moment counted, and each second he spent recovering was a second I had to run forward.
The sound of chains ran towards me from behind, and I fell forward as my body shifted and warped into a more dog-like form. On all fours, I charged forwards and began to catch up to Kokonoe. By now, I was tracking her by scent. She stood by another panel, and slammed her fist against a big, red button.
Doors of adamantium shut behind me. Each set of doors slamming closed, one after another. I glanced over my shoulder just for an instant, and had enough time to see one such door fall down on Terumi, crashing against the back of his neck.
…The monster took a knee, then slowly began standing up again as he glared at me. I heard the sizzling of melting adamantium before one more door shut and kept him out of view.
My pace didn't slow until I reached Kokonoe and made to stand up again. "Fuck… Oh, fuck… Fucking fuck…" I panted, my heart beating a lightyear a minute. I struggled to breathe and sweated buckets, righting myself and rocking back on my heels to prop my back up against a wall.
I slid down, and stared up at the ceiling with one, wide and fearful eye. Every moment that passed, I could hear the sound of Terumi ripping through one door after another. "Every door, every wall, everything in this entire facility is made of the most durable metal in the universe–" Kokonoe stared at the doors, desperately trying to maintain her composure. "Nothing should be able to break through it. How the hell is this happening?"
There were a few answers I could provide for that. If I channeled the power of the Rider through a material, it would become more brittle in exchange for a quick burst of strength. I'd seen it with my clothing, and it made sense… but I'd also seen it happen to rocks and other metals. Why couldn't it apply to adamantium?
Of course that posed two questions. Firstly, how much power was Yuki Terumi channeling into that adamantium in order to force it to shatter? And secondly, how much stronger was Terumi's Ghost Rider compared to mine? I wasn't looking forward to the answers in either case.
…Actually, there were a number of things about this that were disturbing. When all the lights went out, why didn't he do that trick from before? When Terumi abducted me from the previous world, he was moving in and out of shadows similarly to Analay… which in itself was a suspicious detail I'd be saving for later, but the point stands.
If Terumi could teleport through shadows, why didn't he do that here? Was he trying to intimidate us by breaking the adamantium? He seemed like the kind of person who played with his victims, but considering his original goal was to get me from one world to the next when I didn't intend on leaving my kingdom behind, I wasn't sure.
He could've killed me before, but he didn't. I don't know why he didn't, but he likely had a reason for that. Now we were in a world that he didn't want me in, a world that neither of us was supposed to be in. Naturally, he'd come after me to retrieve me and try to go to that world… but it would've been faster and more efficient to do what he did before.
To summarize, why didn't Terumi teleport to me? He did it before, and that's part of how I lost to him the first time. If he was doing this to intimidate us, then that almost worked… but this felt more like an ace in the hole that he'd want to reveal, right when our hope reached its apex. It felt too soon to reveal this.
So he didn't intend on revealing it. He was forced to. How?
"…He can't teleport." I murmured the words in surprise, my brain going into overdrive. It wasn't a sure thing, but it made more sense than assuming he'd decided to bust through adamantium walls for the hell of it.
Next question: Assuming he couldn't teleport, why would that be the case? What was present that could be inhibiting his abilities? Or… maybe it wasn't what was present, but instead what wasn't. This wasn't his world, and this wasn't a world he was supposed to be in. So perhaps his teleportation was limited to those kinds of worlds?
This was a timeline that couldn't exist anymore, which meant he couldn't teleport in this timeline, which meant he had to do things the hard way, which meant we could beat him.
A door of adamantium shattered; it was one of several as Terumi's rampage continued towards us in a straight, blazing line. I could hear him roaring with fury as each subsequent set of doors provided one challenge after another. Furious expletives blended seamlessly into his shouts and the explosions.
"You noticed it, too?" Kokonoe spoke softly, "The Terumi of our world could fold space with ease. I thought it was odd that he'd be taking such a brute force approach."
"Oh, good, we're on the same page," I nodded happily. "Do you have a plan to hold him back?"
"That depends. What can you tell me about his Ghost Rider?"
"Big, green, fugly, and stronger than mine."
She gave me an odd look. "Stronger than yours?" Her voice was filled with incredulity. "That shouldn't be possible, Poe. I'll admit, my experience with the Ghost Rider is limited, but based on what we know of you, that claim is bullshit."
"And how do you know so much about… me…" I paused, "Riiiiight. Alternate future timeline, I must've left one hell of a mark on history for you to know that much about me."
"You were open about your status as an interdimensional flaming skeleton man. It was hard not to learn about you." A smug grin was growing across her face; Terumi's voice forced her expression into a scowl.
"I hear your heartbeat, Kokonoe! Don't tell me you're pussing out! Come on!"
"Long story short, your Ghost Rider is absurd." Kokonoe watched me with a stern expression. "I can't think of a situation that would let Terumi's be stronger than yours." The doors chose that moment to open fully, "Get in."
"Oh, thank god; an elevator, we're saved." I drawled, not hesitating to enter. With one last exhale, I collapsed and put my ear to the floor. For a moment, I laid there with my one eye closed. I held my breath, waiting for the worst as I tried to keep everything as quiet as possible.
"You can stand up," Kokonoe frowned, "I know you're not that tired."
"I'm not doing this because I'm tired." I answered her, "I'm listening." The sound of bending, warping metal sent shivers down my spine as Terumi found his way to the elevator doors. "How high up are we now compared to before?"
Kokonoe eyed the light above the door as it ticked up. "If I had to guess," she said ruefully, "Not high enough."
"Good guess," I congratulated her, "He's climbing the shaft, and he isn't being slow about it."
"How long before he reaches us?"
"If I had to guess… two minutes?"
She sighed, "…Good guess. We're about a minute from the surface. When these doors open, we run. If you follow me, you will live."
"Follow you?" I blinked, "He's after me. I was gonna propose we split up."
"No." She shook her head, "He can't kill you. You still have things you need to do. But this timeline, everyone in it…" Kokonoe took a breath, "Whether I die here, later, or by his hand, it won't matter. Poe, this timeline is disappearing."
"I know," I waved her off, "You told me. That's why you brought me here, right? To fix it?"
"…It can't be fixed."
"What?"
"I had reasons for bringing you here, but… this timeline is going to die, and everyone in it will fade no matter what. I didn't bring you here to fix it – that was a lie, and I think it's the only thing that's kept our group going – in truth, I brought you here so you could help end it."
Thirty seconds left before we reached the surface, I stood up and stepped towards Kokonoe with aggression wafting off of me. "So it was all pointless? You dragged me here to destroy all of you? Are you fucking kidding me?"
She shook her head, "It's more complicated than that. We can't escape, and most of the world outside this city is gone. We're the only people left in it."
"What about Tager? He was on a mission–"
"He went on that mission a long time ago. It never ended, because the time in that area ran out first." She didn't look at me as she turned her gaze to the elevator door. "So, from a certain point of view, I was telling the truth."
"You don't get to use that kind of Jedi shit on me, Kokonoe!" I snapped at her, "You lied to your comrades about there being a chance out of this, and you expect me to let that slide?!"
The elevator doors opened, a soft chime emitting from the door. "We need to go." Kokonoe kept a brisk tone as she quickly ran out of the elevator. But she came to a stop, turning around to eye me as I stood firm.
"No…" I trailed, "Answer me, Kokonoe. I don't care if death itself is on our heels right now, tell me. Did you think I'd be okay with this? Did you?!"
"What are you going to do about it? Kill me? Cripple me? Poe, this world is already dead. It just doesn't know it, yet."
"So why am I here?" I asked, circling back to the first question. "What, you want me to take this world off life support?"
"Yes."
The elevator shook. Terumi was forty seconds away, and I could feel vibrations of his laughter through my feet. "What if I say no? What if I refuse?"
"Then the world ends. If it goes on your terms, then maybe we can stand a chance in a different timeline. But you can bet that if it ends and you're still here, and Terumi is still here, then this is going to spread to other timelines."
"…So that's it, then? Sacrifice the few, save the many?" Fuck. It's one thing to make that choice on my own, but being forced into the whole situation, and having that thrust on me was something else entirely. I took a deep breath, stepped forward, and let the power of the Rider consume the elevator.
The doors shut, and I forced my impromptu ride to fly down and crash into Terumi – I could hear his cry of surprise, and I heard him swear and shout as he tumbled all the way down. He'd survive, of course. But that just put a fuckton of distance between us.
Slowly, I turned to look at Kokonoe. "I told you we were saved," I said, gesturing over my shoulder with one thumb. "Elevators are just Rides on and inside buildings."
Kokonoe gaped at me with open shock, all seriousness draining out of her. "You… That was an act. That…"
"Nothing about your story made sense, everything about this was weird, and I needed a chance to figure out what the fuck was going on. Now I know." I crossed my arms and glared at her, "Kokonoe, you lied to me. You gave up on saving this world, and you didn't want to push the button to end it. Isn't that right?"
She said nothing, settling on clenching her fists as I heard distant footsteps approach us.
We shared a glance, and I shut my eye. If she wanted to wait on this until we were alone… fine. Even if I disagreed with her, I'd seen what could happen when I opened my mouth and blabbed about this kind of important shit in front of people who didn't know.
I could be discrete… kind of… sort of…
…Speaking of "discrete", I'd only been here… a day, maybe two at best? And a base made of adamantium was already on fire and completely destroyed.
Was that some kind of record? I didn't feel like a winner.
-x-
One Foot on the Platform
OR: One Foot on the Train
End-295
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Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
spencer1519
(Verified Heretic)
- Location
- Oregon, USA
So you could say they're riding... the Hellevator?
Eh? Eh?
Eh? Eh?
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- Location
- Northern Ireland
PLEASE let Kokonoe be Poe's companion. I beg!
Hye
Reader of The Long Words
- Location
- In the middle of a story
LEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOYYYYYY JEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!
Congratulations! You somehow fucked up without doing shit!
Well... Maybe? I mean, you managed to lose your swords within a short time, when you arrived at Avatar. And you did fuck up when you came to Teen Titans, and you were there for... 30 minutes? An hour?
So, Rather short one, this time. I didn't really have any thought except for these and a constant repeat of "oh crap" running in the background
- Location
- Northern Ireland
With all this shit going on, I definitely feel Poe needs a break and have something good happen to him at last. Which is why I've been the main advocate for Poe/Kokonoe as well as her becoming a travelling companion of his to other worlds.