TheLineTrotter

Everything happened so fast... suddenly there was a second person... Codely, he thought, but he was crazy too, and attacking people... then there was a bolt of electrcity. He'd tried to keep the girl behind him, but she'd stepped out, and now she was on the ground, shaking and shivering... whatever was going on, those two guys from the party, one of whom was dancing, were now fighting some weird... thing... and those two crazy kids... he tried to think fast... one of them was already injured, they had no way of contacting the authorities, and there was a good chance more of them would get hurt... she muttered something about medicine. "Alright... shit, okay, I know what to do. Arti, pick her up, get her in there, and find that medicine... i`ll..." He stood up, having kneeled down to check on Minx. "I`ll keep em distracted while you run by..." damn... it was times like this he owned his own gun... his dad had him fire the pistol he owned a few times, but... "Hey! You sick bastards! You done messing with the weak stuff? C'mon! Show me what you got!" He said, charging by the two boys towards the freaks... certain he was either about to die, or get into a whole lot of pain. He skidded to a halt in front of them and took a stance to fight, preparing to dodge, block, and counter. He suddenly noticed the weird tarantula... thing and it's strange gun hands. Doing the first thing that came to mind, he gripped the thing by it's arms and hefted it into the ground, carefully pointing the guns away from anyone... incidentally giving the two brothers a pretty good shot. @, @, @, @, @@Secret Person,

Yu nodded along as he heard Chie's little pep talk. He had to admit, it did him some good. Having someone, friends, to remind you of your goals and to keep you in line when your mind starts to wander down the wrong path can do you alot of good... "Yeah... you're right Chie." He said, sitting up abit straighter, smiling lightly. "Sorry I became a downer there for a minute... don't know what got over me... " When she informed him of her already talking to Yukiko, he nodded. "Alright... I`ll call Naoto. We won't be able to start the search until she and Kanji are out of school, but..." he shrugged. "Maybe you can come by and talk to Dojima about that reccomendation in the morning, unless you wanted to wait... anyway, I`ll see you tomorrow Chie. Goodnight... thanks again." He said, hanging up his phone. He called Naoto, and ended up leaving a quick message, before changing into his sleepwear, and allowing himself to fall asleep. @,

"Yes, of course. I just got off the phone with Yosuke and Kanji... we discussed it bit, but nothing really of note. I figured the best course of action would be to contact you, and make sure you were informed on what happened, along with the others..." He sighed, sitting on his bed... he usually was pretty calm and collected but... here, with Chie he allowed his concerns to creep into his voice, "How... how could this happen..." He muttered into the phone. "I mean... I thought we did everything we could... was it not enough...? I..." He sighed... might as well admit the fear he was feeling as of late... "I keep wondering if there was something different that I could've done..." @,

Vincent rolling his eyes. This proffesional Enclave solider had all the wit of a colt. He was half tempted to blow his brains out on principle: he'd just insulted him as a mercenary! He couldn't figure out how he knew he was a merc, but he guessed that didn't matter. "Ooooh man, you REALLY wanna get your brains blow out huh?" He said, feeling as though the way the Enlcave solider insulted him showed that he had to have some kind of death wish. "Well, sad for you, but... I don't really think you're worth the bullet." He muttered, holstering his pistol. "Sorry, .44 rounds are expensive pal." He muttered, walking away to loot the corpses around him. Mostly, he just picked up the guns. He'd head upstairs and see about breaking them down and putting them back together again... could probrably sell them for a preety bottlecap. He also made sure to loot any drugs the raiders had them, medical or... recreational. Could always sell them to some junkie... @,

When he was asked what to do, Vincent fought to stay calm and, thankfully, succeeded. Years of being mentally prepared for stressful situations had to be thanked for that. The flames were way too tall to smother with something, even if he had a jacket or something on him... he didn't have a cell phone, and he imagine that if Minx had one, it wasn't with her: wasn't as if she had pockets on her dress, so that threw out calling the fire department... So imagine his surprise when the fire suddenly turned to ash. "The hell...?" He muttered. He gasped as the girl... was it the same girl he'd seen before, with the blue dress? Regardless, her freakin' hands caught on fire! Okay, that was something he couldn't explain, but she shouted something about time being up, and then she threatened them! Normally, a threat from a girl her size wouldn't have bothered him, but... fire hands kinda changed that. "Minx, get behind me!" He said, stepping in front of her forming a human wall between Minx and the fire-hand girl... he had no idea what was going on, but he remembered one thing: protecting civilians. Okay, technically he was a civilian too, but regardless... maybe he was just being stupidly protective. @, @@Alex Kennedy, @,

"Oh man, you are just asking to be left in my dust!" He said with a smirk as he initially jogged alongside her. At her question, he didn't even bother vocalizing and answer, a smirk and him picking up the pace into a run being his only response. He kept alongside her the whole time, the only reason he didn't break ahead was... well... he didn't know where he was going. He was relying on her to lead the way, even in a race. His plan was that,once they were almost where they were going, he'd put that final boost of speed and get just ahead of her in time... He blinked as the arm was put in front of him... and promptly did nothing as he ran through the outstretched arm. He was running, and with his size, the girl's arm wasn't gonna do much. "What, a fire!? Damn... okay, you need to- hey!" He shouted, seeing her already heading up the ladder. he reached up, trying to pull Minx down, but she was already climbed out of his reach. Dammit! He'd planned on having her stay, or head back to get the fire department, but instead she was climbing up! Towards a fire! Seeing no other choice, he promptly climbed up after her. @,

Vincent fought not to roll his eyes as the girl cried out. Judgeing by how she was speaking it was Devilinx, best he could tell. Well, that awnsered that question... Angelinx had mentioned that they only came out when they were particularly excited. He watched her run off ahead, challenging him it seemed. "What'd you call me?"He asked, feigning being offended as he got into a runners stance. He started off sprinting, quickly making up the distance between them, before jogging alongside her with ease. Oh yeah, running was easy. He wasn't a sprinter: running supper fast for short distances... yeah, no. But he had endurance to spare, so distance running was his thing. He was pretty confident he could keep up,if not pass her if he wanted to. @,

He continued to appreciate the trees around him, and the various plant life. Ah... Natura valde simplex est et sibi cosona... he thought to himself. He glanced at Min x, walking barefoot on the ground. He wondered if her... other selves were happy they were going this this factory. The first one seemed to be, before at least. He wondered what it was like, having multiple personalities, but considering how he'd acted before, he wasn't sure it would be proper to ask. He had initially walked right by the man hole, assumeing it wasn't where they were going, only looking back when he realized Minx wasn't beside him. When she started to struggle with the manhole cover, he walked over towards her to help, but she finished before he could. She mentioned a group of kids using the manhole cover alot to get around. "Huh.. seems weird..." he muttered. He pulled out a miniature flashlight from his backpocket, flashing it down the hole. "I guess i`ll head down first..." he muttered, pocketing the flashlight and climbing down... great... he was heading into the sewers with a crazy person. Father would be so proud. At least it's something different... part of his mind pointed out. @,

He headed out with her, giving a quick wave back behind towards Arti. When they were outside, he smiled abit. It was good to get some fresh air. School gyms always just smelt... funky to him. He blinked, hearing the girl speak to him. "Oh, yeah, I get that a lot." He said with a bit of a smirk. Admitably, it was rarely said so casually, or not by an adult. Still, at least she didn't linger on it. As she pointed towards the park, he nodded,following behind. Parks... he loved parks. When he was doing his required jogging, he tried to deviate towards paths that lead to parks if possible. Nice and peaceful... he just wished he could have found the time to come to one for a more casual visit... regardless, he walked alongside Minx, taking it in. @,

"Um. Yeah, sure." He muttered. He supposed it wouldn't really be right to drag Arti to some abandoned factory... with a girl with multiple personality disorder... "It was... nice to meet you Arti." He said as he stood up. "Hope we share at least one of our classes... anyway, i`ll talk to you some other time." he blinked, standing up well over the girl. Now that she had her high heels off, she was about average height... and now that he was standing it was pretty clear how much taller he was than her. Oh well. He was use to that sort of thing. Still, even though the dress still didn't suit her, he felt she looked better without the heels. "Well, uh, guess you can lead the way." He muttered, having no possible idea how they could get to some factory. @, @@Secret Person,

"Alright.Night, Yosuke.I`ll handle the rest of the phone calls." Okay,he hadn't noticed her hair... either she'd done it recently, very recently, or the shadow was just following the motif. He called up Kanji. They had a short exchange, coming up with a few theories that they eventually decided didn't hold water. Kanji said he'd talk to those two guys who expressed interest in going into the tv tommarrow as well... see if they wanted to come in with them. Yu nodded, saying goodnight and oppening the speed dial to Chie's phone, hearing the ringtone go a few times. "Come on, Chie..." He muttered, pacing in his room as he waited. @,

"Oh, I see. I`ve read about that... like I said, i`m taking a psychology course, do I have done some preliminary reading..." he muttered. He tried to remember what usually caused multiple personality disorder... he read about it usually being caused by traumatizing events from childhood, creating some sort of disassociation with these events. He decided not to worry too much about it. "Huh... so... like the angel and devil on your shoulder?" He said, remembering the old motif. 'Well...uh... I look forward to getting to know you. Er, all of you..." he muttered, not really sure how it worked. Quickly feeling the need to change the subject. "A-anyway! Factory! I say we head there!" @,

"Well, if one of us hadn't broken his phone, there wouldn't be any mis-communication, now would there?" he pointed out. When the discussion turned to Marie, he shurgged. "I dunno. Last time I saw her, she had black hair... you guys watch the weather, right? Was her hair black still last time you saw it?" he asked curiously. He shook his head a little. "It'd be wierd if he shadow just decided to change it's hair... maybe it's going for some sort of carnival motif with what?" He said, honestly having no idea. "Etiher way...I say we just go into the TV tomorrow. I know we usually spend a few days preparing, but we know enough about Marie to just have Teddie find her... and we already have all of out gear from before..." he said, glancing towards his closet, where he'd stored the Downpour Sword. "And honestly, I don't want to wait..." @,

"A little..." he said bluntly. It seemed there was at least a 3rd voice... seemed calmer than the other. "But, I mean, hey, it's just an illness like any other. Not gonna judge you for it." He said simply. He tried to give her a bit of a smile, one he hoped was comforting. "Heh... according to that second... er.... third... voice, seems you're excited about this at least... can't turn you down now." He said with a slight smirk. He realized a bit how... rude it was that he'd said she was a little crazy but... well, his social skills weren't great, leading to him being a little blunt... even when he really, really, shouldn't be. Oh well. At least it made him truthful.

Okay... a circus. When he'd tried to imagine what could be Marie's true self, that was NOT the first thing that came to mind. Still, he tood there and watched it as it flashed on the screen. A girl stepped onto the screen... she was blonde, unlike Marie... odd. But she did look like he aside from that. She spoke of the place... a circus without a name, huh? Still, he wondered if that was Marie... she'd never expression any interest in a circus, although she imagined it had to do more with some deep, emotional thing. Like always. He felt his phone ring, immediately picking it up. "Hey, Teddy." He said, presumeing it was the bear calling as it was his number. "A circus, huh... lets hope nobody is afraid of clowns..." he muttered. Kanji, although he'd worked to make up for the dolls he hadn't managed to finish last night after the phone call, inevitably turned on the tv, making sure to watch. He blinked, seeing a carnival. "What the hell?" had he turnedit onto some advertisement? A girl stepped out... with blonde hair? Was that even Marie?

"Um... might seem kinda rude to ask, but... what kind of-" he blinked, suddenly cut off as the girl's voice, and her stance momentarily changed... as if a new persona took over. When he said her voice changed, he really just meant how she said her words. "Fight? I-" He was again cut off as she apologized. "Hey, don't worry about it... i`m guessing that was the mental illness you were talking about? Um... to awnser 'your' question... not really. I mean, I certaintly can, but..." at her suggestion, he thought a moment... he looked around, the teacher still running around scolding random students, whether they were doing anything or not, and the dance was preety lame even by his short standards... "Sure, why not? I mean... night's young I guess..." It did sound atleast kind of fun, and it'd be cool to get a look around... ...and... if he was honest with himself... he didn't want to push away one of the few people to ever just come up and talk to him... @,

(Should Dojima just be an 'open character' people can control as they need, or should I control him? I can work with either.) Yu nodded, walking back towards his own house. Since he was going in the same direction as Kanji, he ended up catching up and talking to him abit. They talked about the dolls Kanji was making, reminiscing about how that all got started with the kid who threw his friend's toy into the river. "Heh. Funny how things work like that. Didn't think something already sewn would sell well in a textile shop, but..." Kanji shurgged. They parted ways and Yu arrived home. When he got back, Dojima smiled abit at him. "Hey, welcome back." He said, sitting at the table with Nanako. "You were late getting home, so me and Nanako made something... well, Nanako made something... I was more of a spectator..." He grumbled the last bit. "We made Yakiudon!" the young girll said cheerfully. He smiled, grabbing his own bowl which was thankfully still warm and discussed the day with the others... he wondered if should tell Dojima about the midnight channel coming back... he'd at least believe him about it this time... Yu glanced as the clock slowly ticked towards midnight, heading off to his room as Dojima and Nanako headed to bed. (Suppose we have to wait on Pixalte to come back, so he can decide what appears on the midnight channel exactly. ) @, @,

Yu was thankful that Yosuke agreed... it really would have felt wrong to leave Marie in the television while they threw a party. "Thank you, Yosuke." Kanji nodded as well. He would've been pissed if while he was in the TV the first time, instead of saving his ass everone just sat around eating cake. When Yosuke and Teddy left, Kanji checked his watch. "Oh, jeez, I gotta get home and get some work done... i`ll be sure to check the TV when midnight comes around though, see ya!" He said, swiftly turning and going. Yu waved goodbye as those left, turning to Chie and Yukiko. "I have to go as well..." He needed to go online... he was starting his online classes soon for college, so he could continue studying while in Inaba, and he had to get things set up... "It was good seeing both of you... talk to you tommarrow." He said, turning to go. (Hey, sorry I didn't post in so long... I was kinda waiting on @, but.... ) @,

"Wow. Do you really think they give a flying fuck about you?" He asked,tilting his head, not even noticing the Changling now up and about behind him. He was focused on his... interrogation. "First off, even if I do kill you... so what? You're surrounded by Raider corpses, some of them little more than goo now... they'll think you died fighting them. That's it. They'll never know. Second, even if they do bother looking for you, you know what they'll do? They'll probrably take a picture, use it as some propaganda against the surface, and take your armor. I bet they just leave your body to rot with the raiders. " He gave a confident smirk, cocking the hammer back on his gun, "So, lets try this again: why are you here, and why shouldn't I put you down like a raging hellhound?" He asked... 'politely.' @, @,

"I dunno. Why do you?" He asked, raising his brow. Wasn't sure why she'd think he'd be lying about being military... why would military trained solider just be sitting at some school dance, talking to a guy in a trilby? "I know I look the part, but you can thank my dad for that. I come from a military family, generations back. I`ve been living a military lifestyle since I was a kid, and i`ve been training since elementary." He explained, hoping this would be enough for the girls apparent curiosity. When it came to classes, he listed off the basics. "I`m in the normal stuff... plus a few advanced history classes plus sociology and psychology. " He noticed the girls face light up at the mention of history... well, and writing. Maybe she was a history nut too? He'd never had someone to talk to about this. Woah... talking to me, pretty, likes history... maybe I can- WHOA,what am I thinkin', jeez?" He said, mentally shaking himself of such thoughts. He was being crazy. When the mention of what Art's name came from, Vincent felt inclined to jump in, "Yeah, Artifex. Latin. It means mostly people who work in fields of art. Y'know, artist, actors, craftsmen, masterminds..." Vincent spouted out a few of the more common uses of the word from memory. He'd always been a fan of roman history, and had picked up some phrases and words. EDIT After the girl sat down next to him... the conversation suddenly turned to mental illness. "Huh?" He asked, seeming completely confused by this sudden turn. "Um... no. I mean, I don't think so." His dad had taken him to a psychiatrist a few years back... something about it 'being pointless to sharpen a sword if it's just going to snap'. From what he knew, he'd come back okay... (BTW, Vincent's current infactuation with Minx doesn't really mean I intend to them to end up together. I just feel it's fitting because, well, this is some of the most extended interactions he's had with a girl his age! It'll either wane or wax as time goes on ) @@Secret Person, @,

At the comment of him being rather big, he nodded simply. He wondered if she was simply refering to the fact that he was pretty tall for a teenager, or if she also was referring to the muscle he had on him. At the question, he shook his head: why would a member of the military be at a school dance? At least the security idea some around here had made some sense. "No, I just wear the haircut... i`m just a student." he explained simply. His father would be letting out whoops of joy at this... two people within few minutes assuming he was military... he'd be so proud. Still, Vincent fought to keep his face from flushing: the girl was rather pretty, even in a dress she seemed uncomfortable in... he tried to keep those thoughts out of his head. @,

"Huh?" was Vincent's first reaction to yet another person coming up to him. It was a girl, even! He'd had more interaction with people with what could be a normal, casual conversation within the first hour of being at this new school than he had in, well, years! And now even a girl was comming up to him... she was rather pretty two... her honey-gold eyes were noticeable even in the slightly dark room, and her hair was an eye catching purple. The dress, while certainty nice... didn't look natural on her. Regardless, two people coming up to him like this, was preety surprising. And they both seemed pretty casual about it. Either he was actually getting lucky, or this was the start to some prank. When she told her name, Vincent managed to recover from his less than eloquent response and actually reply to the question. "I`m Vincent. Vincent Walker." He said, introducing himself as he somehow seemed to sit up even straighter in the presence of the girl. @,

"Erg... shut up... do you want to do this? Oh, wait, you can't." He said with a smirk at the complaining, flashing his talons for emphasis. He imagined an earth pony would have a hard time using tweezers under the best of circumstances, especially on their own hoof. When peroxide came up, he sighed. "Look, i`m doing the best I can here. You're lucky if you can find that stuff at a real doctors office, let alone in the middle of the wasteland." He fought the temptation to freak out the pony by going 'peroxy-what?'. The pony was, at the least, able to help dispite his wounded state. He had some purified water in his pack, which could have helped... but honestly, he didn't want to use such a precious commodity on some random pony. "Alright, clean bill of health.... well, relatively. he blinked as he watched the pony work on the changling, looking the thing over... it looked... clean, surpriseingly. Looked like it had stepped right out of a... what'd they call it? A shower, from one of those Stables. He couldn't see how it could be so clean, though. The pony seemed uite medically adept, when it wasn't himself he was working on. He watched the two of them trot upstairs and, ignoreing the Enclave's warning, looked the Changeling over. "Huh... not sure how something like you is still alive... I mean... love isn't exactly an easy to get food source in the Waste... anyway, don't shoot me in the back or anything. You'll regret it..." He turned, looking over the various corpses around him, wondering which to loot first... when he remembered the enclave, going over towards him. "So...." He muttered, reloaded his revolver. "I know that armor is tough... it handled dynamite like it was nothing..." He looked the armor over, before resting his eyes on the eye-slits. "But..." He pressed the barrel against the right most eye-slit of the armor. "I`m willing to bet this little spot can't handle a direct shot from ol' Raging Buffalo here... so I have two questions for you: What the hell is an Enclave solider doing down here, and why shouldn't I blow your brains out inside of that helmet? "

"Yeah, you're right..." Vincent said with a nod... it was certainty true. Years of discipline and, once he was old enough that it would do more good than harm, training. He was disciplined... never had a problem with a teacher, never got punished in schools, and was strong enough and trained in hand to hand combat to tangle with the best of them. It was great, really... but he still wasn't sure he liked it. He wished he wasn't as well built, so people would talk to him... wouldn't think he was some freakin' security guard. He wished he didn't have all these military call signs and hand-gestures drilled into his skull, sitting there uselessly. He wished he had some other god damn skills other than this, so his only choice after school wasn't the military, which his dad was pretty damn insistent on. As the questions turned to classes, he looked notiably more... at ease. It was hard to tell, as he still sat straight up, but there was a differant look in his piercing eyes, and in his general face-lines. "Oh, y'know, just some normal classes. Nothing completely out there... I have classes focusing on history though. Maybe we'll be sharing a few. Really, they're the only classes i`m looking forward to." He said, remembering how Arti mentioned taking history courses. Honestly, he was glad he had those classes... even if no one wanted to talk to him and he spent more time training or in his dorm studying, he'd have one thing to look forward to. @@Secret Person, EDIT: Decided to add a Teacher character. He's not my character, so use him as you wish. Just thought i`d introduce him It was only then that one might notice a teacher stomping through the group of students, most of them just talking to eachother, but instantly getting an earful. The man was a skinny, short man. He wore a dark navy suit with white lines along it, with a white undershirt and a yellow and white checkered tie. He had black hair, but it was clearly balding, and stand-out buck teeth. If one had to guess, he looked to be in his early 40s. "Alright you little brats! I want everyone arms distance from eachother at all times! I`ll never understand why the school allows functions like this... all it does is get your hormones up, and THEN who gets to deal with a punch of perverts? Me, thats who! Hey, you!" the teacher, named Mr. Cultrou stomped over towards a student holding a flask. "Are you drinking? On school property!?" @@Suitaloo,

Okay... this was bad. Apparently, a whole god damn army's worth of raiders had just been upstairs with the hooves up their asses while he was down here looking for a drink! He looked over at the stallion he'd spotted before, the one who had known he was there behind the table, and he seemed to be holding his own fairly well. He used some sort of fancy rifle, which seemed to snap raider's necks with a crack... interesting. At one point, a raider charged him with a bat, and only dumb luck stopped him from getting a bullet to the back of the head as he was forced to fight him. His pistol had, just his luck, run out of ammo and he'd been forced to fight with just his claws. Luckily, it seemed that this pony's drug of choice was med-x. Sure, he didn't feel as much, but that didn't matter when your throat was slit because your reaction time was slowed. Still, dispite this, he had the feeling they could be overwhelmed. He was about to attempt a retreat, or atleast get out into the open where he could pull out his rifle, when he saw something that nearly made him crap his armor... Enclave. Shit. Shit shit... he'd heard about the Enclave... they were preety well known for being absolute assholes. Pegasus that had come down to the serface testified that, and stable pegasi who flew up and never were heard from were proof enough for him. He saw those glowing energy weapons and wondered if he could fight this thing... his revolver was preety powerful... maybe it could punch through an eye piece? And... suddenly the fighting was over... the Enclave pony mowed down raiders, but they managed to use an EMP grenade to take him out. Those that remained, now few in number, ran away. He was about to rush after them, kill them and take thier weapons and ammo... when he heard a cry for help. He blinked, seeing the pony from before... the one he thought could be deaf for ignoreing that bottle. He was torn between a deep, innate, genetic bloodlust and an urge to atleast do something today that wasn't bloody work... he sighed, walking over. 'Erg, shut up already..." he muttered, bending down. He pulled a pair of tweezers out of his pack, slowly pulling out pits of glass and various other shrapnel from the stallion's back leg. He took advantage of the ample supply of booze around to even sterlize the things. He wasn't a doctor... heck, couldn't really qualify as a field medic, but he'd patched himself up a few times in his day. EDIT: He jumped, suddenly seeing a strange... thing land beside him, staring at it a moment as he tried to figure out what it was... suddenly remembering from an old history book he'd gotten off of some trader, who claimed he'd gotten the book from a real Stable. "Holy shit, it`s a changling! Ive never seen one..." He muttered. It had a gun, but it dropped it, presumably in surrender. @, @, edit to the end of my post to account for Blackligh01's post