Letter Bee

Tri-Mon Crossover (Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon, and Pokemon in a Shared Universe!)

In the hope to bump this for more traction, interested. Here's hoping this gets enough players to take off.

@The World

Thanks!

Fate/Dark Heritage

Constantine XI Shielder Lily

Boy on a Motorbike

Shielder sighed and said, "No, I do not lie. As for how I found out about all this, well, the Grail itself is in a tug-of-war between 'Fragments of Purity' trying to prevent Angra Manjyu from corrupting any Wish made, and Angra Manjyu itself. Various acts committed during the Holy Grail War will affect that tug of war. I have one of those Fragments inside me during my summoning pumping knowledge into my Saint Graph from the Grail, but not extra Mana - This is another reason why I need to either stick to Leylines or get someone to provide me with magical energy soon... Although to be honest, I'd choose Rider any day after he stood up for me, and as atonement for me being indiscreet with his True Name and Identity."

He then faced Saber and sighed, "So it seems that you'll have to make a very good counter-offer or just defeat me if you want me serving you - I have a debt to repay now..."

@GubGar@Randomguy@Double D

Oleg-Marie Animusphere

Oleg grumbled at Kayneth's words, making his views clear with his own, "No one trusts anyone 'willing to commit any act' to get to their goal. So paradoxically, to get my goal of displacing my father and stopping his foolishness... I must have some limits. That said, I am willing to kill and betray to get what I want; sometimes the end does justify the means, and sometimes... It might not. It depends on what ends and what means. Is that an adequate answer, Lord El-Melloi?"

While waiting, he took out his personal Mystic Code, a microcosm of his father's project, "CHALDEAS", and gave it a short, but deep glance, before muttering, "Huh, Lorenzo and a bunch of Servants are in an abandoned construction lot. Also, it seems like some of the corruption that stopped my father from using the Fuyuki Grail has rubbed off on the Kyoto one."

Remembering Puss' existence, Oleg then telepathically messaged, Assassin, you're still watching that construction site, right? If so... Observe what you can about that mysterious Saber. If you can kill her Master, do so at once.

No Command Seals were used, though, and Puss can feel, through their bond, that Oleg didn't actually want to kill Saber's Master, the Churchman. But he was still going to do so if it got him an advantage. After all, Lorenzo Calungsod Emiya was the enemy, mysterious personal attachments must be pushed aside.

@GOATPlumber@ManyThings

Hello, forum

@KillerKermie, welcome!

Tri-Mon Crossover (Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon, and Pokemon in a Shared Universe!)

The three main factions have been posted - Smaller ones, such as the Pokemon Gyms, HYPNOS from Digimon Tamers, and Team Plasma (not sure if Team Rocket should exist here) also exist but will not be elaborated upon yet.

Tri-Mon Crossover (Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon, and Pokemon in a Shared Universe!)

Factions of the Tri-Mon Setting

The Order of Mesia (Law): Humanity needs Law and Order under One God, One Law, to find true meaning and community in a harsh world where each individual is weak. Under orders from the God of Monotheism, the one who proclaims himself the "One True God", YHVH, the Order of Mesia seeks to conquer Japan and set up the 'Thousand Year Kingdom', where the chosen few will live under absolute order and peace while the rest will be exterminated and their souls thrown into eternal torment. They despise Pokemon and Digimon and prefer to use 'Angels', which in this setting are just a subtype of Demon.

Their leaders are four such Angels: Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel.

The Council of Wisdom (Neutral): Scholars of multiple faiths met in Nagasaki, Japan, during the Sengoku Period and compared notes and found out that through 'Observation', the Gods, or even God/YHVH himself, can have their nature changed by human belief. Weaponizing this, the Council embarked on a centuries-long quest to shape the beliefs of the Japanese people to maximize the amount of supernatural power it could draw on, creating the first Pokemon as a side experiment to create a more dependable type of 'Monster'.

In the late 20th Century, they split into the Nagasaki Fleet (who believe that rewriting God/YHVH into a benevolent, non-genocidal entity is viable and desirable), the Imperial Army (who want to replace all Demons with Pokemon and Digimon through mass genocide), and the Zaibatsu (a group of rich corporations that want to make money, even if it means exploiting Humans and 'Mons alike).

The Ring of Gaea (Chaos): The Gaeans believe in two things: One is Free Will, and the other is Rule by the Strong, even when the strength is used to deny others' freedom. The Ring of Gaea seeks to bring down the remnants of the central government in Japan so that an anarchic landscape of warlords, bandits, and pirates can take their place; a wonderland of slaughter, superscience, and sorcery. They work with local warlords and provide them with magical strength in the form of Mages while making side deals with the Zaibatsu to make money off the trade in human beings - Slaves.

They claim to worship a 'Mother Goddess', Gaea herself, but their strongest leader is Lucifer himself, who in the past had been rewritten by the Council of Wisdom to be a well-intentioned rebel against YHVH's tyranny.

Tri-Mon Crossover (Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon, and Pokemon in a Shared Universe!)

Tri-Mon Crossover (Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon, and Pokemon in a Shared Universe!)

I. Intro

Intro

A Japan where reality is shattered, and Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons compete and coexist.

Demons have the fundamental powers of Creation, which allow them to bring forth new objects from nothingness. However, they can be changed and altered by Human beliefs. Not merely that, but Gods, or even Capital-G God, the Creator of the Universe, can be downgraded into Demons by those same Human beliefs, and there is a cottage industry engaged in doing just this so that Demons can be controlled by Human 'Summoners'.

Pokemon originated from an attempt at making artificial Demons resistant to attempts to change them through belief. However, even they need energy from Human bonds to gain real power, which is why many of them, even Arceus, the first Pokemon, form friendships with Humans that they draw energy from; sometimes, however, weaker Pokemon can be disadvantaged by those friendships and abused.

The Digimon, meanwhile, are fully independent beings, capable of human speech like Demons, drawing energy from Human relationships like Pokemon, but cannot be changed by just believing different things about them. In fact, as Digital Beings, they can reshape Demons as well as Humans can, which they use to transform Demons into Digimon. This is a terrifying development.

As for Humans? They are the real rulers of the Universe, yet subjugate each other with 'Mons as their tools. They want meaning and belonging from being part of a greater cause, yet do not want to accept that they have subjugated and altered every being that was once worth their worship. Now they make war with each other in a Japan similar yet different from our own, hoping to shape a new Reality where one set of beliefs is on top, hoping it would grant them satisfaction...

------

Yes, a Pokemon + Digimon + Shin Megami Tensei RP that tries to meld the settings together. This will be an Open World RP, within reason, where you guys get to play in multiple places and have multiple plotlines with each other, maybe across multiple threads. However, there will be a lot of violence, including violence towards Pokemon, so do not expect this setting to be, well, child's play.

II. How does this all work?

Backstory and Lore Stuff

The Great Will, also called The Axiom, created Humanity, and gave it the power of Observation, which means that what Humanity believes, about Gods/God, Angels, and Demons, becomes real. So as Humanity grew and evolved, they 'Observed' the supernatural landscape around them, reshaping them according to their changing beliefs and local cultures. Even YHVH, the foremost avatar of the Great Will/Axiom, the creator of the Universe, and the God of Law and Monotheism, was affected by the very power given to Humanity even as the latter praised and worshipped him.

In Japan, this had consequences, where except in various areas of Kyushu Island, YHVH is transformed into an evil tyrant opposed by Lucifer, who according to most Japanese is the benevolent sort of rebel, when this is not the case in other areas of the world, where it was the reverse. Eventually, as the various nations of Humanity forged global connections and began to compare and contrast notes, they realized that they could create and control their Gods, and so experiments in creating their own, more consistent 'Monsters' were kick-started.

This resulted in Pokemon being born from alchemical experiments melding Demons and biological life in the Sengoku period (Oda Nobunaga fully united Japan in this timeline), and Digimon being born in Great Britain in the 1940s when computer technology was advancing at a rapid pace. Now, Demons, Pokemon, and Digimon are commonplace throughout the world, although Demons are more common in places where traditional beliefs are strong.

The consequences are that Japan and the rest of the world are more divided; Japan's Imperial Diet is almost as powerless as the Emperor, as entire cities and prefectures use the power of Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons to defy the central government's decrees. The country is in a low-level civil war, albeit one where the most powerful 'Rogue Regions' have made it clear that they'd unite against any obvious foreign interference.

And this, my dear Demon Summoner/Digimon Tamer/Pokemon Trainer, is where you come in.

Are you a warlord, using the power of Bishamonten to slaughter your foes?

Are you a corporate executive, masterminding the creation of new, stronger Digimon?

Or are you a Pokemon Trainer who's just using his Pokemon to farm?

...Maybe you're something else; we'll see - Either way, Japan is your oyster.

III. Magic, Technology, and How Humans Can Match 'Mons

Magic

Magic exists in the world, and in Canon SMT, most Humans are incapable of it without aid from a magic item, demonic ancestry, or having a demonic magical item implanted into them like the Magatama. Needless to say, this rule is relaxed in this Roleplay, and you can be a Mage as well as a Pokemon Trainer, Digimon Tamer, and Demon Summoner, albeit with this limitation:

The Grand Restriction: More Powerful Magic, Less 'Mons in your Team

Magic feeds on the very same emotional energy that Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons depend on. If you use your Magic to cast a spell, you can't use that energy to fuel your 'Mon's powers. Being a Mage at all reduces your Pokemon or Demon Team to 5, being able to burn down a house with a fireball reduces your Pokemon or Demon Team to 4, being able to raise an army of 50 zombie warriors means you can only have 3 Digimon or Demons, being able to transform a Human into a Pokemon for 24 hours reduces your team to 2, and being able to cause a volcanic eruption means you can only have 1 Pokemon or Demon and they cannot use their abilities when you are using yours'.

You can only have a single Digimon partner at any given time, so they are not affected by you being a Mage until you try and cast Magic on the level of a Volcanic Eruption or higher, in which case they are drained to Baby Form.

But what about Aura, DIgisoul, and Crests?

Aura exists and is subject to the same restrictions as Magic, except that if your last remaining Pokemon partner cares about you, he can still use his abilities even as you cast epic-level Aura techniques (there is a list of Canon ones; use those).

As for Digisoul, you can only have one Digmon partner, and as long as you care about them, you can punch Gods or even this world's version of YHVH as many times as you want without them being drained to Baby Form. But if you have stopped caring about them, well, I hope the Gods/God you punched have mercy on you.

Oh, and Crests allow you to cast Unlimited Magic without forcibly devolving your Digimon as long as you feel the emotion or virtue associated with them. Good on you if you have the Crest of Hope, bad if you have the Crest of Envy.

Guns

Guns exist and are now legal in Japan, and can wound or kill the grand majority of Pokemon. With enough belief and willpower (the equivalent of the Gun Skill from various SMT games), they can harm Demons as well, although a Digimon is resistant to them unless the guns double as Anti-Data Energy Weapons (think the Yuggoth from Tamers). The grand majority of Guns in Japan are American and European Models, although Japan has cornered the market in Anti-Data Energy Weapons.

Civilian Tech

Pokeballs exist. The cities have the fancy teleportation tech from Shin Megami Tensei I and II. Bullet Trains Exist. Digivices exists. Holograms from the Digimon Ghost Game Anime exist. Name a piece of technology seen in a canon series and I and potential Co-GMs can decide if it's too strong.

IV. Character Sheet

Character Sheet

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b] (can use a picture or just a description)
[b]Powers:[/b] (remember, keep it reasonable)
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] (no exceptions)
[b]Bio:[/b]
[b]Theme Song:[/b] (not required, but I figured it would be nice to have the option)

[b]Team of Mons:[/b] (Digimon Tamers/Digidestined only have 1 Digimon (which would be capable of Digvolution to Mega level), Pokemon Trainers can have 6 Pokemon (and their version of Mega Evolutions), and Demon Summoners can use 2 Demons per fight, but keep 4 more in reserve, aka not used in a fight.

V. Rules

1.) No godmodding, powerplaying, metagaming, etc. etc.
2.) No getting raunchy with OCs under 18, please. With OCs above 18, just be careful not to do anything above non-descriptive nudity.
3.) No OOC feuding! If you must argue, be respectful. IC, meanwhile, you can hate each other as much as you like as long as it doesn't seep over to OOC.
4.) Please notify me if you will be gone longer than a few days, I will let you guys know if I will be gone.
5.) Only one Digimon per Tamer/Digidestined, six Pokemon per trainer, and two Demons per fight for each Demon Summoner, but the latter can have four more in reserve.
6.) Special Rule for someone who wants multiple types of Mon (aka a Digimon, Pokemon, and Demon on their roster): You spend more emotional energy than if you had one type of Mon, meaning that you can only use one of them in battle. If you have Magic, all off your Mons get drained of emotional energy when you use even the tiniest amount of it; that's how demanding having multiple types of Mon are to you.

OOC Discussion Discord

Pokemon/Digimon/Shin Megami Tensei Unified World

Factions of the Tri-Mon Setting

The Order of Mesia (Law): Humanity needs Law and Order under One God, One Law, to find true meaning and community in a harsh world where each individual is weak. Under orders from the God of Monotheism, the one who proclaims himself the "One True God", YHVH, the Order of Mesia seeks to conquer Japan and set up the 'Thousand Year Kingdom', where the chosen few will live under absolute order and peace while the rest will be exterminated and their souls thrown into eternal torment. They despise Pokemon and Digimon and prefer to use 'Angels', which in this setting are just a subtype of Demon.

Their leaders are four such Angels: Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel.

The Council of Wisdom (Neutral): Scholars of multiple faiths met in Nagasaki, Japan, during the Sengoku Period and compared notes and found out that through 'Observation', the Gods, or even God/YHVH himself, can have their nature changed by human belief. Weaponizing this, the Council embarked on a centuries-long quest to shape the beliefs of the Japanese people to maximize the amount of supernatural power it could draw on, creating the first Pokemon as a side experiment to create a more dependable type of 'Monster'.

In the late 20th Century, they split into the Nagasaki Fleet (who believe that rewriting God/YHVH into a benevolent, non-genocidal entity is viable and desirable), the Imperial Army (who want to replace all Demons with Pokemon and Digimon through mass genocide), and the Zaibatsu (a group of rich corporations that want to make money, even if it means exploiting Humans and 'Mons alike).

The Ring of Gaea (Chaos): The Gaeans believe in two things: One is Free Will, and the other is Rule by the Strong, even when the strength is used to deny others' freedom. The Ring of Gaea seeks to bring down the remnants of the central government in Japan so that an anarchic landscape of warlords, bandits, and pirates can take their place; a wonderland of slaughter, superscience, and sorcery. They work with local warlords and provide them with magical strength in the form of Mages while making side deals with the Zaibatsu to make money off the trade in human beings - Slaves.

They claim to worship a 'Mother Goddess', Gaea herself, but their strongest leader is Lucifer himself, who in the past had been rewritten by the Council of Wisdom to be a well-intentioned rebel against YHVH's tyranny.

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Raven Rivers

Ten lashes should not have cleared his head.

If he had been Andrew, he'd have bounced back and forth between blaming literally everyone but himself, then blaming himself and mentaly self-flagellating. But he wasn't his son; he was not a haugthy, over-ambitious child who had not learned contentment with what he had.

So as he recuperated from the ten lashes in his new quarters, Raven seriously began to rethink and reflect upon his behavior so far, and found it wanting. He hated to admit it, but he was out-of-character; loony and incompetent. Well, except on the battlefield; despite him breaking opsec and a number of communications offenses, he still scored a number of hits against the Crimson Fists - That cannot be taken away from him.

Pain had eliminated his emotional distractions; it should not have taken that extreme to do so, but it did, anyway. Now that his mind was clear, Raven did not focus on his damaged ties with the other members of his Lance and his Captain, nor the fact that his family was in the hands of the enemy like everyone else's. No, what he focused on was winning.

They had turned the tide, humiliated the Crimson Fists and their paymasters, the NRPDE. The FPA should be considering flocking to them, because there was no other way for their resistance to win, no other way for them to achieve their dreams. So all they had to do was wait for cooler heads who had not been taken in by the NRPDE/Crimson Fists' deceptions to prevail and they can do this. At the end of the day, in this universe, the real monsters got what was coming to them, one way or another.

But to do that, he had to give up on rebuilding bridges with the rest of the group - Not because he had stopped liking them, but because those bridges would rebuild themselves if he just focused on the job. Victory allowed many grievances to be forgiven. And victory will allow his family to be rescued or avenged much sooner than if he spent his time moping about them, too.

So Raven focused on winning. On planning to make the best use of his Shadow Hawk and its suite of weaponry that he knew like the back of his own two hands. He loved its missiles, its autocannon, though even to this day he couldn't quite grasp how optimally to use his machine's lasers. So he had to double down on his missiles and other comfortable physical weaponry... Or actually learn the best usage of energy weapons...

Pokemon/Digimon/Shin Megami Tensei Unified World

Shin Megami Tensei + Pokemon + Digimon: Joint Universe

I. Intro

Intro

A Japan where reality is shattered, and Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons compete and coexist.

Demons have the fundamental powers of Creation, which allow them to bring forth new objects from nothingness. However, they can be changed and altered by Human beliefs. Not merely that, but Gods, or even Capital-G God, the Creator of the Universe, can be downgraded into Demons by those same Human beliefs, and there is a cottage industry engaged in doing just this so that Demons can be controlled by Human 'Summoners'.

Pokemon originated from an attempt at making artificial Demons resistant to attempts to change them through belief. However, even they need energy from Human bonds to gain real power, which is why many of them, even Arceus, the first Pokemon, form friendships with Humans that they draw energy from; sometimes, however, weaker Pokemon can be disadvantaged by those friendships and abused.

The Digimon, meanwhile, are fully independent beings, capable of human speech like Demons, drawing energy from Human relationships like Pokemon, but cannot be changed by just believing different things about them. In fact, as Digital Beings, they can reshape Demons as well as Humans can, which they use to transform Demons into Digimon. This is a terrifying development.

As for Humans? They are the real rulers of the Universe, yet subjugate each other with 'Mons as their tools. They want meaning and belonging from being part of a greater cause, yet do not want to accept that they have subjugated and altered every being that was once worth their worship. Now they make war with each other in a Japan similar yet different from our own, hoping to shape a new Reality where one set of beliefs is on top, hoping it would grant them satisfaction...

------

Yes, a Pokemon + Digimon + Shin Megami Tensei RP that tries to meld the settings together. This will be an Open World RP, within reason, where you guys get to play in multiple places and have multiple plotlines with each other, maybe across multiple threads. However, there will be a lot of violence, including violence towards Pokemon, so do not expect this setting to be, well, child's play.

II. How does this all work?

Backstory and Lore Stuff

The Great Will, also called the Great Axiom, created Humanity, and gave it the power of Observation, which means that what Humanity believes, about Gods/God, Angels, and Demons, becomes real. So as Humanity grew and evolved, they 'Observed' the supernatural landscape around them, reshaping them according to their changing beliefs and local cultures. Even YWVH, the foremost avatar of the Great Will/Axiom, the creator of the Universe, and the God of Law and Monotheism, was affected by the very power given to Humanity even as the latter praised and worshipped him.

In Japan, this had consequences, where except in various areas of Kyushu Island, YWVH is transformed into an evil tyrant opposed by Lucifer, who according to most Japanese is the benevolent sort of rebel, when this is not the case in other areas of the world, where it was the reverse. Eventually, as the various nations of Humanity forged global connections and began to compare and contrast notes, they realized that they could create and control their Gods, and so experiments in creating their own, more consistent 'Monsters' were kick-started.

This resulted in Pokemon being born from alchemical experiments melding Demons and biological life in the Sengoku period (Oda Nobunaga fully united Japan in this timeline), and Digimon being born in Great Britain in the 1940s when computer technology was advancing at a rapid pace. Now, Demons, Pokemon, and Digimon are commonplace throughout the world, although Demons are more common in places where traditional beliefs are strong.

The consequences are that Japan and the rest of the world are more divided; Japan's Imperial Diet is almost as powerless as the Emperor, as entire cities and prefectures use the power of Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons to defy the central government's decrees. The country is in a low-level civil war, albeit one where the most powerful 'Rogue Regions' have made it clear that they'd unite against any obvious foreign interference.

And this, my dear Demon Summoner/Digimon Tamer/Pokemon Trainer, is where you come in.

Are you a warlord, using the power of Bishamonten to slaughter your foes?

Are you a corporate executive, masterminding the creation of new, stronger Digimon?

Or are you a Pokemon Trainer who's just using his Pokemon to farm?

...Maybe you're something else; we'll see - Either way, Japan is your oyster.

III. Magic, Technology, and How Humans Can Match 'Mons

Magic

Magic exists in the world, and in Canon SMT, most Humans are incapable of it without aid from a magic item, demonic ancestry, or having a demonic magical item implanted into them like the Magatama. Needless to say, this rule is relaxed in this Roleplay, and you can be a Mage as well as a Pokemon Trainer, Digimon Tamer, and Demon Summoner, albeit with this limitation:

The Grand Restriction: More Powerful Magic, Less 'Mons in your Team

Magic feeds on the very same emotional energy that Pokemon, Digimon, and Demons depend on. If you use your Magic to cast a spell, you can't use that energy to fuel your 'Mon's powers. Being a Mage at all reduces your Pokemon or Demon Team to 5, being able to burn down a house with a fireball reduces your Pokemon or Demon Team to 4, being able to raise an army of 50 zombie warriors means you can only have 3 Digimon or Demons, being able to transform a Human into a Pokemon for 24 hours reduces your team to 2, and being able to cause a volcanic eruption means you can only have 1 Pokemon or Demon and they cannot use their abilities when you are using yours'.

You can only have a single Digimon partner at any given time, so they are not affected by you being a Mage until you try and cast Magic on the level of a Volcanic Eruption or higher, in which case they are drained to Baby Form.

But what about Aura, DIgisoul, and Crests?

Aura exists and is subject to the same restrictions as Magic, except that if your last remaining Pokemon partner cares about you, he can still use his abilities even as you cast epic-level Aura techniques (there is a list of Canon ones; use those).

As for Digisoul, you can only have one Digmon partner, and as long as you care about them, you can punch Gods or even this world's version of YWVH as many times as you want without them being drained to Baby Form. But if you have stopped caring about them, well, I hope the Gods/God you punched have mercy on you.

Oh, and Crests allow you to cast Unlimited Magic without forcibly devolving your Digimon as long as you feel the emotion or virtue associated with them. Good on you if you have the Crest of Hope, bad if you have the Crest of Envy.

Guns

Guns exist and are now legal in Japan, and can wound or kill the grand majority of Pokemon. With enough belief and willpower, they can harm Demons as well, although a Digimon is resistant to them unless the guns double as Anti-Data Energy Weapons (think the Yuggoth from Tamers). The grand majority of Guns in Japan are American and European Models, although Japan has cornered the market in Anti-Data Energy Weapons.

Civilian Tech

Pokeballs exist. The cities have the fancy teleportation tech from Shin Megami Tensei I and II. Bullet Trains Exist. Digivices exists. Holograms from the Digimon Ghost Game Anime exist. Name a piece of technology seen in a canon series and I and potential Co-GMs can decide if it's too strong.

IV. Character Sheet

Character Sheet

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b] (can use a picture or just a description)
[b]Powers:[/b] (remember, keep it reasonable)
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] (no exceptions)
[b]Bio:[/b]
[b]Theme Song:[/b] (not required, but I figured it would be nice to have the option)

[b]Team of Mons:[/b] (Digimon Tamers/Digidestined only have 1 Digimon (which would be capable of Digvolution to Mega level), Pokemon Trainers can have 6 Pokemon (and their own version of Mega Evolutions), and Demon Summoners can use 2 Demons per fight, but keep 4 more in reserve, aka not used in a fight.

V. Rules

1.) No godmodding, powerplaying, metagaming, etc. etc.
2.) No getting raunchy with OCs under 18, please. With OCs above 18, just be careful not to do anything above non-descriptive nudity.
3.) No OOC feuding! If you must argue, be respectful. IC, meanwhile, you can hate each other as much as you like as long as it doesn't seep over to OOC.
4.) Please notify me if you will be gone longer than a few days, I will let you guys know if I will be gone.
5.) Only one Digimon per Tamer/Digidestined, six Pokemon per trainer, and two Demons per fight for each Demon Summoner, but the latter can have four more in reserve.

Noble Arms - The ASEAN War, Second Thread

Collab Post between @Digmata, @DammitVictor, and @Letter Bee

Diamond Island Convention and Exhibition Center, The City of Phnom Penh - 11/11/2022 06:30 UTC+8

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

"Well, Ren-ren... I can say it's been real, and I can say it's been fun, but I can't say it's been real fun. My superiors have invited me for a little TV watch party, some hors d'oeuvres, some champagne." Berto blew him a kiss and made a beating heart with his fingers. "Just bet your superiors are gonna sit you down to watch the same show. It'll be like we're watching it together before you go away on your new assignment. Toodles!"

Berto faded into the crowd and made some distance before Huo Ren got the news. He took some detours before making his way back to the exfil point-- fewer than usual, due to the time constraints, but hopefully enough to shake any of Huo Ren's comrades.

He signaled, discreetly, to Special Agent Makaraig before approaching. Can't be too cautious. He leaned in and whispered, "What's the good news, Mac? Did I miss something juicy?"

@DammitVictor

As Myron walked to the balcony where Cristina stood, he gestured to Roberto to talk with him as he walked, then whispered, “We’re being framed and have to leave - All of us.”

But the two would see someone walking towards Cristina, a tall woman who looked to be in her late twenties, wearing a red silken eyepatch that seemed to be an indicator of style and not actual disability, such was the ease of her gait. She wore a crimson-and-gold silken dress whose scandalous (to others) sleeveless-ness was balanced out by a short fur-lined cloak that exposed her shoulders.

This lady was Mei Yuanyuan, a former member of the Disablers, now an Arms Master, and she was sauntering towards Cristina as though she did not fear the ‘little girl’.

Ignore the part of the picture where it says ‘Genshin Impact’, please.

Her next words, as she smiled were, “Myron. It seems you don’t keep your belongings unattended…”

Berto smirked. ”Well, if you knew how much fun we were to play with, you’d want to keep a close eye on us, too.” He winked. ”Don’t want to talk out of turn since Mac is my boss, here, but we’re on a bit of a schedule, Miss… ?”

Cristina looked at the phone with shock and alarm, she knew that no side here was acting in good faith but for an actual frame-up to happen here? The world was getting crazy and all she could do was weep.

Unfortunately, she cannot follow the orders that she's given, as felt the heavy steps of a woman who looked like a cosplay of Chinese pirates. Unfortunately, it means that she is definitely an Arms Master like her.

Summoning Sinagtala at her hand she pointed it at the woman.

“If you want to talk with your mouth, then don't take another step.” she commanded as she glared at the taller girl.

“What do you want?”

The woman introduced herself as, “Mei Yuanyuan; Myron’s old partner in crime during the days of the Old Conflict, when the fault lines were about who had Noble Arms and who did not, instead of… This. I’m here to tell you that while the Big Three have replaced the Old Conflict, the ghosts of the latter are still echoing in the shadows.”

She smiled, and then went on, “Your friend, Callie, she’s facing her father, who was Public Enemy #1 in the 2014 war against the Hammer of Masters. But what neither of them knows is that progress has been made towards restarting the other end of the Old Conflict - There is a way to quell the cries of the soul; a way to eliminate Noble Arms.”

Myron glared at her, and asked bluntly, “What grift are you peddling now, Mei?”

In response, Mei looked at Cristina, then Roberto, saying, “Turing has decided that Noble Arms were a bad idea, an accident that he had unleashed upon the world. But he needs someone, with a Noble Arm of exact parameters, to enact his plan to erase them. One of you three has that Noble Arm.”

Looking upwards, puffing her chest out like a fertility goddess, Mei openly spoke, not knowing that Cristina already knew some of what she was going to say, “Noble Arms were made of an Occult Programming Language that can create new facts and alter existing ones but cannot destroy anything. But Noble Arms themselves can get around that. By using the Deletion Key, or so that Noble Arm is called, we can either: Destroy this timeline so Noble Arms never existed, or two, override this timeline with data from the Base Universe, the Main Timeline most Earths are copied from.”

She then smirked, “The first will kill everyone who exists because this is an alternate timeline, the second will allow those who are alive today to somehow still exist despite the logical impossibilities. But I am prepared to allow the first if you three don’t come with me - This world is dead to me and I have enjoyed myself with its pleasures enough…”

Cristina stared at Mei and never diverted her eyes nor lowered her sword for a single moment. “I don't really care who you are or what the hell the Old Conflict is,” she spoke.

“But it is clear to me that you're one crazy birch that must be put down.” she decided as her Noble Arm began covering itself in white flames.

“Because the dead world you're speaking of is the world I’m living in.”

Mei’s smirk held as she said, “As you wish. That said, have you ever wondered why no one has been eavesdropping on us, considering the information I’ve just given out? Why don’t you take a look around you?”

For Cristina’s Noble Arm, the sword named Sinagtala, was manifesting Mirage Space by itself, forcing Cristina, Myron, and Roberto inside the pocket dimension formed by the technique/power.

Berto’s tone and his facial expression softened; there was a hell of a lot of pain behind his goofy facade. Takes one to know one, he mused. ”Listen, lady. Mei. I don’t know what kind of mistakes you’re running from, but this is not the way. If there’s one thing I learned all those years buried under the hospital for the magically insane, recoding my brain by hand with a plastic fork, when you shit the bed, you don’t get to unshit the bed. There are no do-overs. You have to clean up the mess you made and go on with your life. There’s no erasing your mistakes, and there’s no reliving your wasted years. This is the world we live in, and if we’re goddamned lucky, we get to save it every once in a while.”

”You want to wash your hands, you’re gonna have to do it the same way everyone else does. One hand washes the other, and then you keep ‘em clean and you pretend you don’t still hear the angry ghosts of your fuckups.”

”This… this kind of hubris, this isn’t how you get out of the hole. It’s how you got into the hole. The ‘greater good’ ain’t nothing but the accumulated mass of a whole lot of little goods. Man… you people still get offended when someone reminds you the Dalai Lama exists? The Dalai Lama said one time, ‘everyone wants to go out and save the world, but noone wants to stay at home and help Mama do the dishes.’”

”We’ve all got powers, and maybe we shouldn’t… but we do, and we have to use our powers to make things better, or else we’re inevitably gonna make them worse.”

Mei sighed and said, “Perhaps, but those beliefs must always be tested, shouldn’t they?”

They and Myron were still in Cristina’s involuntarily activated Mirage Space; what exactly did Mei do?

This question was answered when she said, “A gift from Turing; let’s just say that when I find the people that I am looking for, I can activate their Noble Arms on their own…”

Cristina took a step as she realized where they are, this is her Mirage Space but she hasn't used it yet. Subsequently, Berto’s speech had simply emboldened her that the woman in front of her needs to be put down, not that she needs more motivation.

Although that gives her a thought, if she can involuntarily activate Noble Arms then she likely could do the opposite as well.

So there is no declaration, Cristina immediately warped her way to the woman's back and tried to slash Mei with her still-burning sword. Whatever trigger she had, she needed to outdraw it.

Only for the ground to suddenly rise up, ramming Cristina’s feet and legs with enough force to break them. But it wasn’t really the ground, it was the deck of a ship, a wooden Sloop-of-War whose planks were strengthened to be stronger than concrete.

Mei Yuanyuan’s Noble Arm was an entire flying vessel, replete with banks of cannons ready to fire at the other targets within the mirage space.

Its Captain drew a sword, a Chinese Jian Longsword that was no Noble Arm but had been modified by Occult Programming Language.

“Turing’s Gift,” Mei said as she turned around to face Cristina. “This ought to be enough to counter you.”

Cristina struggled to keep her balance at the suddenly rising ship forcing her to temporarily use her Noble Arm as a crutch to keep herself stable. The freelancer raised her sword against the modified weapon, after her lessons with Qingshe she could easily recognize the traces of OPL on the item.

She decided to attack first, swinging directly at her to get a measure of how she fights.

Mei parried the swing with breezy ease, then followed up with a thrust aimed at Cristina’s collarbone, before saying, “I have my ship’s cannons aimed at your comrades. Would you like to see them die? Also, give this a thought; if this timeline was overridden by data from the Main Timeline, your sister won’t be serving the Downward Descent, right?”

Cristina easily evaded the thrust with the slightest of margins before aiming her own, in her mind are ideas on how she’ll get the upperhand in this spontaneous duel. Only for her body and mind to suddenly stop at the woman's words. She did need to keep her allies alive as much as she could. And her sister being safe was too tempting to just ignore.

“Speak.” she ordered, her sword an inch away from her neck.

Mei smiled, then said, “Right now, I am not planning on abducting you or using your comrades as hostages. Rather, all I want is for you to think my offer over; come over to us and much suffering will be averted. After all, for all your friend’s optimism… Your trip here is on the verge of failure, is it not? So when your darkest hour comes, think of me and call me - I’ll even give you a phone.”

She then pulled a burner phone out of her pocket and threw it at Cristina to catch, saying, “Take it, and I’ll leave you alone for today. Then, when the darkest hour proves your friend’s words wrong… I’ll be waiting.”

Mei caused the ship to vanish. She and Cristina began to fall.

Then Mirage Space was deactivated, and Cristina, Myron, and Roberto were back in Phnom Penh… But Mei was gone, the last that could be seen of her was the hem of her dress vanishing into a corner.

Cristina looked at the phone in her hand, logically she knew that she shouldn't use it; she knew that she should destroy it now to prevent any temptations. Emotionally, this is a path to saving her. There is no world where she would let this go. So she kept the phone in her jacket and faced her friends at Obsidian.

“Let's get out of here,” she spoke as she dematerialized her Sinagtala. Meanwhile, the phone felt like a recovering alcoholic’s bottle for her.

Just one call and her wish would be granted, it felt so fake.

”Look… you heard the speech I gave Mei. You ought to think about it, too. You ever try to put the toothpaste back in the tube, when you were a kid? All it does is waste a whole lot of toothpaste. And get your hands sticky. And ruins your Mom’s–” He shook his head. ”You’re a grownup, so that’s the last thing I’m going to say about it. To you–” he looked at the rest of the team, rushing to check on them, ”-- or anybody else. You’ll make the right call.”

He waved at the approaching Obsidian team. ”Man, you guys are not going to believe the day we are having…””

END