ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Feb 26, 2020 1:33:38 GMT -8
Strolling alongside Rise and stuffing the sylladex cards into her pouch, Dana doesn't think to check her datapad until they arrive at the bus stop. With the driver asleep at the wheel and the vixen giving a scowl, she pulls the upgraded smartphone and turns it back on. To her surprise, days have indeed passed according to its clock! Messages missed on social media, and of notable importance at that.
"Gimme a moment", she responds, eyes glued to the cracked, backlit screen. "If the driver's not awake in a minute or so, we'll deal with them. Just gotta message someone". Seems an issue with another out-of-universe acquaintance had only escalated worse. At a prompt from the lion-monk over the website, Dana quickly uploaded a text file she'd snagged off the warp gate's systems before leaping into the fray. After all she'd planned on giving the outsider a visit in her own world sometime, and it helped that she could pass herself off as a fey being in the lioness's realm.
As it were, the friend might need more backup than just Thoren alone. Why not call the cavalry in the vixen's stead?
Raising her head from the screen at long last she gazes toward her host, stuffing the datapad back into her shorts pocket. The climate seemed warmer than the late winter of her Earth, which was good. It meant she didn't have to restrict herself with as much covering clothes here. Always felt uncomfortable to wear layers for long. "Sorry about that! Any luck?"
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Post by flightlessicarus on Feb 26, 2020 7:40:23 GMT -8
Rise steps up into the bus.
"Hey, we're ready," they project with a rather loud voice.
The bus driver is awakened easily, put into a momentary daze.
"HUHWHAT?"
They look around and notice the duo in familiar party attire, one with her phone in hand, and the other standing there, staring at them.
"We're planning on going to the Prospit Derse Battlefield board," Rise states to the bus driver.
The bus driver takes a couple seconds to process the situation.
"The battlefield? Can do! Find a seat!" they gesture to the rows of seats available. The bus appears to be somewhat shorter than your average city bus, appropriate for a shuttle bus at least. There aren't any other passengers so all seats are open.
Rise makes their way to a middle seat on the driver's side. Makes for a smooth path to and from the door.
They sit down and wait.
The bus driver turns the key and starts the engine. The bus apparently runs on an alternative biofuel, according to a sticker on the outside.
"All aboard to Prospit Derse Battlefield!" The bus driver hollers out.
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Feb 26, 2020 12:10:39 GMT -8
The sticker is one of the last things Dana notices as she hops aboard, but it catches her thoughts even as she slips inside. A world able to regularly manufacture bio-fuel, and being able to sustain its public transport with it? Such a thing was something her Earth was experimenting with before the end. It was long considered that if the supernatural didn't ravage her reality, World War III would have occurred with world tensions. If there was some way the tech cults of the world could build upon those old ideas...
By then Dana realized she was standing in place, and probably garnering an awkward stare from the driver and/or Rise. As such she shrugged sheepishly, giving a big ol' foxy grin as she took a seat. "A battlefield, huh? Not going easy, but I'll show you what I've got when we get there"
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Post by flightlessicarus on Feb 27, 2020 18:12:43 GMT -8
Rise grins.
"Glad to hear."
And with that, the bus's doors close.
The bus leaves the bus stop and begins its trip down the road, towards the edge of town.
Fungi city is a rather interesting place, with all of its buildings and native inhabitants made of the same mushroom material. Rise glances out at the window to see the sights.
"A quaint little place, isn't it? I forgot how much I miss being around consorts on different lands. They don't judge you for most anything..."
As they continue onward, a mountain range can be seen beyond the mush-buildings of Fungi city. A layer of clouds struggles to glide past the mountaintops. The road seems to head right towards those mountains.
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Feb 28, 2020 7:05:22 GMT -8
Rise's reply takes Dana by surprise. The whole trip through she's been peering out the window of her seat, watching the fanciful mushroom sprawl pass her by. She's always had a habit of staring out the window on vehicle trips, from cars and trucks to even a helicopter once before. Heck, she even takes a time to admire the scenery when riding her collapsible bike across cracked asphalt streets. At least, until she starts to hit city limits or disputed territory.
The fox flinches as they chime in wistfully. "Uh, yeah", she responds reluctantly. A moment passes as their words dawn on her. "Actually, you've got a point. I dunno about the 'consorts' part myself. With or without companions, literal or euphemism, it's nice to be in a nicer landscape. Nicer folk. No need to be a hardass for one's own sake".
The vixen's words trail off. Two years have felt like an eternity. The people of Lock City have been a lot less trusting than anyone she'd ever met in Pine Vale. Every now and again a traveler en route to the dead streets of the city might give her an uneasy look. But the folks around Pine Vale have at least tolerated her. Further off into the Great Forest, in an old campground now called Paul's Haven, Dana had met the nicest people she'd known yet. Too bad she had too many shattered dreams attached to the haven.
If not for the stories told to her by her mother figure, she'd have feared all people outside of the long-abandoned cabin she lived in. Her father had no hope for the future, but her mother did. Well, she once did.
And as the bus wheeled its way down that path, closer and closer to the mountains and the clouds drifting lazily past its peaks, Dana felt alone. Another world, risking her tail for fun and profit. Her initial ambitions to buy Thoren time for their new body didn't occur to her, for she barely knew them and hadn't met them face-to-face. The two hadn't even known each other online for long. If she didn't know any better, her rusty fur might've inverted to blue.
Trying to jerk herself away from her ruminating thoughts, she gazed toward Rise. A statement like theirs meant that, like the Region, there was more to them beneath the surface.
The two of them really were cut from the same cloth. Maybe.
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Post by flightlessicarus on Feb 28, 2020 7:51:25 GMT -8
The bus continues its way towards city limits.
"Yeah... "
Rise continues looking out, thinking briefly on the past, when they were in the session. There was something calming about witnessing the simple life, to be able to just stay in place and live your entire life in such a small mile radius.
But at the same time, ambition calls upon them every day, propelling Rise towards new adventures. While it may be a relaxing thought, to just stay put, it also feels confining.
Wanderlust can be a bitch, but still the most rewarding bitch if fulfilled.
"Honestly, I feel you there. Too many years I spent trying to prove myself to others by acting like I didn't care about shit. Practically consumed by the dark and edgy persona I put forth. It was only when I could be alone for a while, away from everyone who knew me for what I tried to be... That was the only time I could let down my guard and just... be myself."
The bus finally leaves the shroomscape behind. It is oddly barren beyond its edges, bare rock and stone cut across like a knife by the paved roadway. Up ahead, there is a magical "gate" intersecting with the road. It resembles a constantly shifting spirograph. A light peeks out from the center, faint colorful shapes can be made out on the other side. Yellow and Purple... with a checkerboard in the middle?
"Alright, our destination is coming up fast! Hold onto your caps!" The bus driver calls out as they quickly approach the pale green gate upon the horizon.
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Feb 28, 2020 11:45:20 GMT -8
Listening to their words, Dana nodded. Yeah, she thought. Similar cloths indeed. Debating on whether or not to 'have a moment' with her opponent-to-be, she made the mistake of looking outside her window again. The rock and stone pathway reminded her of the broken pavement back home, and the bizarre colors flowing from the gate ahead boggled mind and senses alike. What was going to be a potential heart-to-heart faded fast, leaving just the perplexing arena ahead.
That said she does offer something of sentimental value, she hopes. "Rise", she offers, "You'd better not get killed here. You'd best hold me to those standards too. Still... may the better of us win!"
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Post by flightlessicarus on Feb 28, 2020 14:58:02 GMT -8
The introspective moment is broken by the upcoming change in scenery. Rise smiles as they look over at Dana. "Heh, you kidding? Do I look like I'm gonna fall so easily? I'm looking forward to seeing how well you perform against me!"And with that, the bus crosses the threshold of the gate, and all becomes filled with light...
The bus crosses the threshold and lands on what appears to be a life-sized chess board. On the left and the right, there are massive pentagonal floating structures covered in architectural spires and peaks, each with a small companion structure chained to its side. Hard-shelled individuals who resemble pawns stand at their starting positions, though no other types of figures are present. The bus drops off the two contestants and then drives off through another spirograph gate, leaving them standing there on the chessboard.  Rise looks over at Dana. "So, here we are, I suppose."Soon enough, a rather massive tv screen is lowered where everyone can see it, at the far middle end of the board. On-screen, there is a serpentine figure dressed in fancy attire, complete with a flamboyant party mask. The boardmaster. "Weeeelcome to the Prospit Derse Battlefield! I will be your host for today's game! I see we have a newcomer to the board today!"Can the boardmaster see what's going on over here from their end of the broadcast? "Don't worry, I don't bite... much," The boardmaster banters as the participants listen. "Now, as this board is somewhat unique in design, I must explain how it works. Each of you picks a side, prospit or derse. Both dream moons need at least one player assigned to it. From there, you start from your respective dream moon towards the battlefield. Do note that the battlefield does not operate in a linear manner as the dream moons do. While you still move via diceblock, the direction to go is entirely up to you! You may move in whichever way you please! However, captures must be performed diagonally.""...Captures?" Rise has a rough idea what this might entail, but t never hurts to ask just in case. "Yes, that's right, captures! While on the battlefield, you can capture your opponent's team by leaping over them diagonally, provided you have at least one square of movement reserved upon getting into range. If you manage to capture everyone, your team wins! However, it is also possible to rescue your teammates by traveling to the opposite team's dream moon and making it to the very end, with at least 20 booncoins to spare for the guard bribe fee. This game will at most last for 15 turns, with minigames between every other turn. Most minigames will net the victor 10 booncoins upon completion."There is a pause in the explanation for a moment. "Now, any questions before we begin?" The boardmaster asks the contestants. |
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Mar 1, 2020 12:33:59 GMT -8
Giving a firm nod to Rise's returned challenge, Dana smirks back. A good way to save face, at least for now. Arriving on the board the vixen grimaces, her lips curling into a vulgar word. "Fuck".
Chess. One of those old board games from Earth. Even with a stained board and missing little plastic pieces, she'd played the game against her father in her youth. Even if bright and clever, she'd lost every game of Chess she'd ever played. Strategy was not her forte, as she was more skilled at improvising in the here-and-now. Her mental skills were more suited for resourcefulness, energy weapon operation, mythology both old and new (and how to fight its beings), and some digital tech; thinking many steps ahead didn't apply.
What bothered Dana even more was the enigmatic boardmaster and their serpentine visage. Raziya had told Dana about a particularly deadly fiend of her fantasy realm: the demonic 'Dread Serpent'. Immediately lore about huge fire-breathing snakes, sapient yet sadistic, came to mind. This might just be the entity Rise warned about earlier. Apparently there's a mechanic to recover lost pawns, similar to promoting one that survives a trek across in vanilla chess? Good to know. She hoped capturing enemy pawns didn't involve violence, and was unsure if she and Rise were subject to penalty or worse by being jumped over. She wasn't in the mood to liquefy or stab a mere minion to death. A literal pawn.
She remained cool and collected on the surface, falling back on her tough mask, but her mind raced with possibilities and how to compensate for them. Nothing new. At the least there was only one type of piece to worry about. Still?
"So how do Rise and I apply? When and how do we have impact on the chess board? And what's with the colored spaces between us and the board?" She shrugs. She's sure there was a Super Mario spinoff that used some ideas, but the budget computers she used in downtime at the tech cult barely handled N64 emulation. Thus Dana never bothered with those games, sticking to 16-bit ROMs. "Aside from that, gimme whatever side the black pieces are on. I see myself a black knight anyway".
Wait. The black pieces always go last. Damn. Oh well, too late to look fickle or worried now!
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Post by flightlessicarus on Mar 1, 2020 17:39:22 GMT -8
The boardmaster answers Dana's queries.
"Excellent questions, my dear contestant. While upon the board, you will be able to capture your opponents, just as the others can. Capturing teleports the captured immediately. If you are captured and sent away, up to ten coins are subtracted from your total and if fulfilled, will trigger a jailbreak. If you do not have ten booncoins, only you will be able to escape, but you will have no booncoins remaining. The blue spaces give three coins, and the red takes three away. Green spaces trigger board-specific special events. these space effects only occur upon stopping on the space, passing through does not trigger them."
"So you align with Derse. Perfect,"
Rise smiles at Dana's choice in lunar sway. Now they don't have to worry about being assigned to a side that's not Prospit.
The boardmaster nods in agreement.
Meanwhile, the carapacians shuffle awkwardly in their squares, anxious to begin the battle reenactment they were hired to perform.
"Does that answer everything?" The boardmaster asks one last time.
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Mar 2, 2020 1:46:24 GMT -8
Seemed simple enough. She and Rise were eligible to be captured, and could escape for free; if they had enough coins they could also do a jailbreak to save their pawns. No minions would be hurt during the mock battle too. Blue good, red bad, green was a potential wild card. Good thing she liked the color of pine needles.
Something about Rise's smile invoked a raised brow from the fox. "Perfect, huh? We'll see". Turning her attention back upon the Boardmaster's broadcast she crosses her arms. "Simple enough. Kudos for the info. Let's begin. Rise, you're up when we get to our start spaces". Padding back to give some space she finally notices her surroundings, a pang of disappointment that she wasn't alert to it before. Seems the board hovered above sparse clouds, winding strips of checked path below them with no railing. Dana wasn't afraid of heights or clumsy, but she couldn't afford to develop either of those flaws.
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Post by flightlessicarus on Mar 2, 2020 10:38:08 GMT -8
The boardmaster nods once more. "Without further ado, let the games begin!"[ Current BGM: Prospit Dreamers ] The sound of snapping fingers rings out and suddenly Rise and Dana are teleported to their assigned spots by small spirograph gates that appeared before their feet. Rise appears at E2, and Dana at D7. A floating yellow Imperfectly Generic Object appears above Rise, with rapidly changing numbers on its faces. They appear to go up to 6, and then loop back to 1. Rise gathers their bearings and focuses once more upon the game. They've played this before, but not yet on this particular board. It can't be too much different than the others, right? Rise jumps up and punches the cube with their fist! The die lands on... hfURx|3u1-6[ diceroll result: 1! ] Rise takes one step forward to E3. A command slip appears in Rise's hand. They can use it to move their team's pawns a maximum of the amount of spaces that they rolled. In this case, only one space total for them. "G2 pawn to F3!" Rise calls out. The Prospitian at G2 walk over to the F3 square diagonally, now right next to Rise. They look over at Rise for a moment, and then resume focusing on the opponent's side. Rise awaits Dana's move.  A purple diceblock, much like Rise's yellow one, appears above her. 1-6 |
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Mar 2, 2020 13:33:49 GMT -8
As the Boardmaster makes their announcement, Dana's unsure of where the starting point is-- wait. Wasn't she just standing closer to Rise a split-second ago? Was this teleportation? Traveling to this world took a few seconds (or so they felt), was a lot more technicolor... and really nauseating once she arrived. Spare mints to soothe her stomach helped, at least. The power to shunt her and Rise to a starting point at a moment's notice was powerful; even if she'd heard of espers with that power, she'd never been teleported so seamlessly.
Her fanciful sound triangles pick up on Rise bopping the floating yellow object though, and Dana snaps back to reality. Not a good start for them, but the vix couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Seeing their pawn advance a step, she blinks as a purple cube appears above her. Rapidly changing numbers across its faces, Dana follows their example. With a little hop and an upward punch, the die comes up:
zv20sH7n1-6
Hot damn! A sudden smirk crosses her muzzle; seems her lucky stars shined a bit brighter even in across space-time! With a brief tactical decision she points and calls to her living pieces with confident command, "F7 pawn to F4! A8 pawn to A6! B7 pawn to B6!" Her voice is loud and clear, arms crossed and a reassuring nod and smile offered as each pawn takes their steps. She know little of tactics and leadership, yet hopes to channel both from her ex-merc ally Eric. Though his own orders are barked with tough love, Dana hopes her eager expression will inspire more confidence without being cocky.
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Post by flightlessicarus on Mar 2, 2020 15:29:48 GMT -8
Rise watches as Dana orders her troops forwards. A bit odd that she didn't go forward any spaces herself, though maybe that's a tactical move. They bash the yellow diceblock that appears before them once more. l3i9PEmQ1-6[ Diceroll result: 5 ] Rise decides to take things in a defensive direction. This is pretty much more like checkers rather than chess, right? Honestly they're glad that this board doesn't play exactly like actual chess. They take one step to the side from E3 to D3. They then call out orders to their own troops. "B1 to B2, C2 to C3, F3 to F4, F1 to F2, and H1 to G2!"A bunch of single space movements.  1-6 |
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ApocFox
egg
A real atom bomb, baby
Posts: 25
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Post by ApocFox on Mar 2, 2020 18:05:29 GMT -8
Watching Rise's pieces advance, Dana continues to maintain that smirk. Even if she sucks at chess, she's played other tabletop games before. From all of them, she's found she does better to let the opponent act first and plan around it. The fox's wit was sharp as a monoblade, but apprehension sunk into her as the purple die popped into being above her. Apparently strategic sacrifices are needed for this game, even if it felt more like checkers. Always fun to have an opponent take the bait of a gambit.
But she needed at least a three to attempt it.
kDbqKhTi1-6
A sigh of relief left her snout. She needs to retain that poker face, and realizing her tell she hopes it won't bite her in the tail later. Taking a moment or two of false decision-making she shrugs indifferently. "I'll trot forth, D7 to D5. Pawn on C8, why not step up to C7?" As she pads coolly ahead, she ponders the board state and wonders if being shunted to the jail space would be as sudden as being placed to the start position.
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