Staging Area
John nodded at the announcement. "Well there you go. Guess we'll find out. You coming?"
Head to briefing.
((Nah, no need for a serious answer. I find it amusing that even George's half-decent ideas blatantly fail. For the sake of George's suffering, I'm just gonna assume that he actually did get that poorly translated guide. Maybe one of the entities is messing with him.))
George stares at the guide with a blank expression on his face. By this point, he isn't surprised. Staging Area: 3, George: 0. But he won't give up just yet! He tosses the badly translated guide aside, closes his eyes, and tries to think of a wish that has no possible chance of backfiring. He strains his face as he focuses his thoughts. Finally, an idea comes to him! His wishes won't backfire if he's the one calling the shots!
Wish for the ability to grant wishes. Then wish for the Staging Area to no longer be able to grant wishes. Savor this moment of victory as I walk to the mission briefing.
<Request denied. You lack the permissions required to edit user privileges.>Dang. Looks like this genie has been updated to the latest version. You should try a zero day exploit.
Adam stares slightly at the oddly constipated man, before shrugging, assuming it to be another weird thing with this place, and moves on.
TO THE BRIEFING ROOM.
There is no briefing room. Only a briefing plaza. So you just go there.
What's with people in power and their obsession with giving speeches from balconies anyway?
Saevus wakes up from sleep mode and walks over to the briefing area.
https://youtu.be/miZHa7ZC6Z0Report to briefing.
"Good. Everyone is here. Looks like your curiosity is great."<Or their blood-lust.>"Eh, whatever it is, you're all here now, so we can begin." the shadowman says, shrugging.
"So. This time, you'll be fighting one of us! With all our glorious reality bending power! UNLIMITED power, ready to obliterate you with the snap of our fingers!"He is yelling near the end, his shadowy fire becoming larger and more agitated and its edges turning a deep dark blue.
He lets that statement hang in the air for a couple of seconds before continuing.
"Nah, just kidding. You'll only have to fight one of our extremely powerful avatars instead!" he says in a joking manner as he shrinks to his previous size, clearly enjoying himself.
"Standard combat rules and win conditions apply. Either you kill or otherwise defeat your opponent and the one that lands the killing blow is declared the winner or you all die or otherwise fail and the last man standing is given the consolation prize." he states matter-of-factly.
"So, with that out of the way, let us meet our contestant, shall we? Any volunteers?"Both Rodger and Nick raise their hand/wing saying
"Oh! Oh!" and
*caw* *caw* respectively.
"Yes, if the pretty crow in the back could approach the stage..." he says while pointing towards it, like a magician choosing someone from the audience.
"Aaaah." Roger emits a disappointed interjection but then switches to a polite applause as the bird flies towards the balcony and comes to rest on the shadowman's shoulder, the only thing differentiating him from the darkness moving like fire being that the light reflected off his feathers is slightly blue when viewed from a certain angle.
"Yeah, you have some new guys among you and they aren't exactly fighters, so we're going a bit easy on you this time. You know, see what you can do.
Anyway, S-Zero, if you may do the honours and proceed with the briefing..."<Affirmative.>The space below the balcony takes on a cyan hue as images begin being projected on the air below it.
<You will be facing an avatar of the entity known as Nick. He will be using his original bond-former body and as such possesses most of the species' common strengths and weaknesses. Those are: a large size, strength and endurance, with limited mobility. A biological with avian characteristics, he focuses primarily on flying above an area and delivering devastating electricity-based attacks, using his limited weather control to provide cover for himself. He delivers hit-and-run attacks while using his flight capability to increase his mobility. Despite his attempts to utilize them intelligently, the relative simplicity of his abilities, mostly biological body and lack of notable magical talent leaves him weaker compared to others of his kind.>
<Difficulty Rating: 6>As he talks the images that appear show what looks like the site of a major disaster. The ground is grey with ash that is occasionally lifted into the air by wind, creating obscuring grey clouds. There are half-destroyed and collapsed buildings dotting the landscape, filled with burnt furniture, with pieces of rebar sticking out of broken concrete. Fires still burn in some of the buildings. It looks like the destruction originated from somewhere nearby, some kind of crater around which the ground has cracked. Thick dark clouds overhead make everything appear dark, despite it presumably being daytime.
"That is all. If you have any questions, ask them now, while we set up the Arena. Otherwise, you're free to do whatever you want while you wait for the challenge to begin."
"Fight well and have fun. I know I will."
Campaign
Campaign, Ike!
"SAY, ALAN, MIND QUIETING DOWN FOR A MOMENT? I AM BACK AND SO IS QUIET TIME!"
Politely interrupt Alan's exquisite performance.
You SCREAM TO BE HEARD!
Which is probably unnecessary when you can just use telepathy.
"AAAAAAAAAAA- oh okay, I got bored. Hey, do you know if Nikolai's around? I have a better idea than this was."
Alan summons a plastic cone of some kind! Perhaps one of those funnel things you use to pour liquids into other cups so they don't spill. As big as I can make it, preferably.
You summon the world's tiniest funnel.
welp, that's one way to wake Irine from her happy trance, bring her right in front of the guy with the amplified amp while she's in hybrid with its enhanced hearing.
Thanks Ike / Alan
Go anywhere away from the sound of pure pain screaming through my skull.
via comwire:<ALAN! STOP! YOU'RE HURTING US!>
((I hate my net sometimes, I've been trying to get this edit to go through for over an hour.))
You go to a place where Alan is not screaming anymore: a few seconds forward in time.
"Everything finally sorted out? Anything we should be worried about?"
Think about what would happen if Alan's noise machine were somehow amplified even more.
Step 1: Put on headphones and turn volume up to 11
Step 2: Take this sound:
https://youtu.be/6h4f77T-LoMStep 3: And combine it with that image:
https://youtu.be/249MaK8UaIEDisclaimer: Do not actually do this, because it will probably result in ear and/or psychological damage.
((Would be funny if someone came here with some sort of
dubstep gun ala Saints Row.))
EveryoneSoon, River walks to you, wearing his armour and carrying his improvised bag. He goes and stands close to Theri with little ceremony.
Unsurprisingly, the human camp has sent out some soldiers that are heading your way. But they're a long distance away. Even if they started running, it would take them several minutes to get here.
OOC((Yeah, that's what I found as well. So Ike didn't actually promise a thing. Especially after River told him sternly afterward to not tell ANYONE about any of this without so much as mentioning that little "unless you trust them with this information" caveat. Grabbed him by the collar to make his point and everything. These fucking entities, I swear.))
((
Actually....))
<That is why I asked of you that you do not share this with anyone.>
He turns to look at Irene for a few seconds and then back at you, a bit more relaxed now.
<Maybe Irine. If you really have to. If you think you can trust her with this. But nobody else.>
((Alan next turn: 'hey nick mind making my noise maker even bigger louder and uncut? Irene ow why are you punching me in my fat sac'))
((What isn't part of Alan's fat sack?
On that note, you'd think all this exercise would do Alan some good for his physique.))
((Alan operates on the Samwell Tarly principle of fatness: anything and everything can happen to him, including starvation, disembowelment, incineration, and explosions, but he'll still be a chubby motherfucker at the end of it all.))
((Yeah. That's why I left fat on him, since it's part of his image.))