✜ CHECKMATE : redux (IC)

Legend · May 23, 2013

For whatever reason, something was scratching the back of his head. Not a literal scratching. That would be terribly awkward. No, it was more a lingering fact. A distressing realization. A painful reminder. Liam was stuck in a game. And he wasn't going to enjoy it. Not. One. Bit. Could you really blame him?

Let's reevaluate what this game, CHESS, was all about so far. Actually, let's not. Because the reality here was that Liam couldn't make much sense of what CHESS was about. Was it an action game? So far, other than falling meteors, no. Was it a shooter? No, Liam had a sword. Was it a RPG? Most likely, but really with strange terms and a lack of…well let's be blunt for a moment, common sense, CHESS could be anything at this point. Liam wished at this point that he threw the game out the window. If he never bothered to install, he would never be here. Surrounded by people. All of which seemed to be perfectly accepting of their fate. Perhaps, they didn't particularly enjoy their lives on the other side. They may have been losers, outcasts and nerds. The type of people Liam pushed around on a semi-regular basis to reaffirm his ego. They may have been simply boredom with the cards they were dealt and needed to reshuffle the cards, change things up and seek some new thrill. Liam could sympathize, but he rather not indulge in such risky activities unless he knew he could return back to the way things were. They may have been the type of people that simply never be bothered by things, and easily adjust to new situations. But wait, Liam wasn't half bad at that himself. He just didn't enjoy sudden changes.

As Liam was surrounded by newcomers, with new houses sprouting up around him with strange and often terrible "leitmotifs" or whatever they were called filling his ears, Liam pondered rational thought while everyone else pretended that this was some social gathering like some casual MMO. Was Liam the only one bothered by any of this? The meteors? The strange new world? The whole concept of being trapped in a game?! It truly seemed as if Liam was the paragon of rational thought and everyone decided to simply pretend that everything was okay. Liam was sure he was incorrect and someone else had to care about it, but on matters of pure principle, Liam was likely the most mature and collected out of this ragtag group of naive teenagers.

As Liam was consumed in his own thoughts, he only half absorbed the bulk of conversation. Enough to gather the names and first impressions. That is all he cared for at the moment. He cared more about the situation at hand rather than who's sprite was whose and the god damn annoying themes that played over the sound system. Then a rather sudden hug stirred him awake from his daze, forcing him to attend to the conversation at hand. Liam searched around to see who did it, but logic dictated that it must of been the girl, who Liam did his best to make eye contact with, offering a weak but genuine smile. While naive, at least they were nice.

"Eh ehm, I am Vincent. "Vous poulez m'appeller Vinnie. I'm from Paris." One of the gentlemen said, before directing himself to Liam. "What about you? What's your name and where are you from?" Well, it looked like Liam was going to be able to avoid speaking much longer.

"Aye, my name's Liam. I be from Scotland," Liam began. "Now before I get all friendly with ye lads and lassies, I got to get a few things off my chest. I don't like to step around the truth too much, so I'll do my best to be charming as all Scotsman are," Liam said, first turning his attention to Adrian. "Ye lad talk too much. Ye ramble on and on long enough and I'm going to ignore ya." Liam then turned to Vinnie. "Ye must be an interesting one. Rather friendly and all until a girl pops in and suddenly ye are all over that. Give her time to breath and such. I thought the French were romantic, not desperate." Finally, Liam turned to Penelope. "Ye girl..eh I got nothing bad to say. I hope ye pick the right one out of this lot. Oh and next time, warn me before ye hug me again. I rather give ye a proper one next time."

Liam was going to get down to business, but then again, he probably just angered everyone.

moon · May 24, 2013

"Aye, my name's Liam. I be from Scotland," the last boy began. A tug involuntarily made Adrian's lips smile and his eyebrows raise. He really liked that accent!

Liam would put the genuine smile down quickly, however.

"Now before I get all friendly with ye lads and lassies, I got to get a few things off my chest. I don't like to step around the truth too much, so I'll do my best to be charming as all Scotsman are," he said, first turning his attention to Adrian, who vacantly faced him. "Ye lad talk too much. Ye ramble on and on long enough and I'm going to ignore ya."

Like a hit to the guts. The smile went bleak and froze, without fading completely. Augh. So he had been talking too much, as he thought. Dammit! Bad first impression, bad Adrian. He would have to save the case somehow, he would have to act more like he did when he was with his gang of guys in school. Pretend these were them. And that they hadn't just dimension hopped away from Earth where everyone they know could be killed by flaming meteors by now. Whoa, this would not be easy.

Adrian missed the rest of what Liam was saying, but looked up again when it appeared as if he had just been addressing the girl.

moon · Jun 6, 2013

Before Penelope could reply, something moved around the corner of one of the houses. A hissing noise was heard and something very strange appeared, walking in a hostile manner towards the group of teenagers.

It was a black creature, not reaching much further up than to Liam's knees. It's eyes were like two glowing, white slits in its face, and it had no nose but a wide mouth full of tiny but sharp looking teeth. It had a plump body with thin arms and legs but large hands and feet that both seemed to have claws on them. What texture its skin could have, it was difficult to guess. But the most striking thing was that the only piece of clothing the creature seemed to wear, was a tailcoat jacket and a vest. Strangely similar to... The outfit of Vinnie's butler Reginald?

Adrian dropped his jaw and backed away as the creature growled and closed in on them. "WHAT IS THAT!" he said very loudly in a manner that clearly showed that he had no guts to try and act cool anymore.

"That is an IMP," the strange SPRITE said, suddenly standing beside Adrian. "It is your enemy. You should use your STRIFE WEAPONS to kill it, or more will come."

The IMP stopped a few meters away from the group and growled even louder. Suddenly, three more of them came to join its side from behind the corner of the house. Maybe they had been standing there for a while, listening in to the kids! If they were intelligent enough to listen, they sure didn't look that way...

These IMPS looked a bit different though. One had fairy wings but was clad in only its black skin otherwise; one had a bear's snout and ears; one had bunny's ears and front teeth. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that these guys had something to do with what the players had prototyped.

"Better get those fighting skills tuned and raise your stats a bit!" the SPRITE said, awfully cheerfully, as the IMPS seemed to get ready to jump the humans.

"HOW DO WE DO THAT?" Adrian said, again uncomfortably loud, as he made his PLASTIC MJÖLNIR materialize in his hands with sheer thought. "HOW DO WE RAISE OUR SKILLS!?"

The SPRITE smiled smugly. "Use them!"

The IMPS lounged forward, claws, teeth and tailcoat ready to strike.

((OOC: pick an imp and kill it somehow. You don't have to pick the one that matches your prototyping. They should be fairly easy to kill off as they are the weakest enemies you'll meet. Equivalent to wild animals or slime lol in SAO or any game's first levels, really.

NOTE!: When they die, they explode into a cloud of black smoke, and a couple of colorful gems the average size of your head will appear. If a player touches them, they "pop" and disappear. You can access your SBURB game on any computer and see a new meter in your stats though. It is called GRIST and seems to be some form of point system you raise when you collect this glittery loot after killing enemies.))

Geras · Jun 7, 2013

Odetta Freeman: Act 0

Part One:

Odetta sat at the top of the pecan tree in the backyard, bored out of her mind. After watching clouds very briefly, she gave up trying to guess what they looked like and instead hung upside-down from a branch. Apparently, according to her mom, the pounding of her fists against the punching bag in her room was loud and disturbed the guests. She could always walk to one of the stores in the area, but what would she even do there? She hung there from the tree for god knows how long before she started feeling dizzy from the blood rushing to her head, so she sat upright and started climbing down. Once at the bottom, she thought about her predicament. Maybe she could use the tree as a punching bag like she'd seen done a few times on TV. She turned to face the arboreal titan and began pounding her fists into the bark. Unfortunately, it hurt more than she expected it to and decided after a few punches that it was a stupid idea, so she walked back inside.

When she stepped inside, she found her mother and Laila preparing dinner, but saw that the living room and its three couches were empty. "Hey mom, when did your 'old friends' leave? Why didn't you tell me?" Seriously, who 'pops in to see an old friend' on a wednesday? Odetta didn't really care about them, but was a little annoyed that she could have been in her room punching her bag instead of a tree.

"We thought you knew," said Laila. "You couldn't have missed the sound of that humongous truck pulling out of the driveway from out there, could you?" Odetta gave a deadpan stare as that's exactly what happened. "Oooof course you could," she finished, apparently remembering who she was talking to.

Wordlessly, Odetta made her way up the stairs to her room, hearing her mom call out, "Hey, I'm spending my day off to make this so you'd better be here for dinner this time!" Odetta remembered how she'd fallen asleep on the roof last week and neither of them could find her. She felt a little bad considering how much her mom worked to provide for the family, leaving her only one day free between the two jobs. Odetta had told her several times to relax, since both her and Laila had jobs too now, but her mom wouldn't listen.

"Don't worry, I won't forget this time," she replied with a smile as she entered her room. She looked at all the things cluttering two of her walls. One of them had a shelf with model ships and military books, including an autobiography by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Another wall had her hunting rifle and fishing rods mounted along with the supplies for each respective activity in a cabinet underneath. She looked toward her punching bag with her boxing gloves resting on top, then looked at her fists that had recently beaten (or rather taken a beating from) the tree. Yeah, that wasn't my smartest decision. I should probably hold off on punching stuff until the pain stops. Instead, she sat down at her desk, on top of which sat her computer and the tank that housed her beetle, Burke. She always felt the name was appropriate, since he was large, bulky, and looked pretty damn dangerous, just like an Arleigh Burke destroyer ship. Realizing he was probably hungry by now, she ran back down to the kitchen where she noticed that her mother was missing. When she asked, Laila told her that she had gone to get the mail.

The front door opened and her mom stepped back inside, carrying various envelopes and a small box. "Odetta, this one's for you." Mom handed the case to her. Odetta opened it to reveal a DVD, no, a game case that read CHESS. "I didn't know you played video games. Maybe they'll keep you from getting yourself hurt all the time." She looked at Odetta's hands as she said that. Odetta was focused on this case, though. I don't... she thought in response to her mother while she looked at the elaborate case in front of her. She hadn't ordered anything, so who sent it to her? She recovered the torn brown paper and examined it. No return address. Huh. She didn't have anything better to do today, so why not?

Odetta grabbed an old neglected banana from the fruit bowl to give to Burke then returned to the room, dropping it in his tank. It didn't really matter whether or not it was peeled, since he'd eat the entire thing eventually anyway without a problem. She didn't know much about games, so she called, "Laila, can you come help me with this when you're done?" She heard a distant "Sure" in response and turned her attention back to the case. It had a leaflet attached to the back, so she read that first.

Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS.

Of course, it didn't matter what genres this game borrowed from since Odetta would be just as inexperienced with any game genre. The last time she had tried playing a game was when a rainy day spoiled her hunting trip with her friend Daniel, so he insisted they play a game about shooting instead, some game called 'Halo'. It took her ages to even figure out how to successfully move the character and the camera at the same time to navigate the area, so she got bored and gave up. She looked back at the box and saw more written there.

✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE.

Kiss? Dreamself? Pretty much every all-caps word in that text was unfamiliar to her, but she assumed there would be a tutorial to tell her what it all meant. She decided it was finally time try it out, so she started the computer and inserted the disc, waiting to see what CHESS had in store for her.

Part Two:

CHESS began to install itself immediately when Odetta put the disc in. I really hope this thing isn't a virus, she thought. Oh well, I was going to install it anyway so why not? After a few moments she saw Laila entering her room. After they each exchanged a brief "Hey sis," Laila walked over to the CHESS box, hesitating a little to grab it while it was right in front of Burke. Why didn't she like him? Beetles are adorable!

Laila looked at the box, turning it over and reading it as Odetta had recently done herself. "Well it's called CHESS, but by the looks of it this game isn't actually chess at all. The board game, I mean." Odetta knew that there were computer versions of chess, but for some reason it never came to mind that this game could be one of them. Perhap the all-caps-ness of the name threw her off, or maybe her mind completely ignored what the game was called and only saw 'free game!' Laila paused for a moment and asked, "Odetta, where did you even get this game from?"

"I don't know. I don't remember ordering it and it didn't have a return address." It didn't take much longer for the game to finish installing. A black box appeared prompting her to start the game.

Pick your personal color and press ENTER

> _

"Color? Can't I just leave it white?" Odetta asked to nobody in particular. It didn't seem like this game would need complicatedly awkward 3D movement, but, not having the best imagination out there, a text-based game didn't seem very fun.

"Come on, Odetta. Plain white is boring. Pick something more interesting, a pretty color that stands out. Pink! No, magenta is better!" It seemed that Laila was enjoying this game more than she was. Not really caring what color she chose, she typed in 'magenta' and hit ENTER.

Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

Well, sis was definitely right. Magenta really did stand out. Although Odetta hoped the bright colors wouldn't begin to hurt her eyes after a while. "The whole universe? That seems pretty dramatic," said Laila. "Personal adventure also sounds promising. Do you think it's an adventure game? I love those!" True enough, before Laila had a job, she spent a lot of time playing those types of games, her favorite being The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While she did that, Odetta usually preferred to be out in the great outdoors. "These sorts of games usually have really hard puzzles. I'll pull up a walkthrough, just in case."

As Laila began tapping on her phone, Odetta pressed ENTER. The words on the screen faded away, melding into the black background. After a few moments the view reappeared revealing a room with outdated graphics. In it were two pixelly girls surrounded by several objects that were sort of difficult to identify with these graphics. "Here, found it," sis notified and looked back at the screen. Her eyes went wide at the display. "Oh my god. That's your room, and that's us! But how..." She looked back at her phone and began scouring through the walkthrough.

At a second glance, the figures did kind of look like them; one with a short ponytail and darkish skin wearing a tank top and shorts, the other with long black hair, slightly darker skin and wearing t-shirt with jeans. There was a thing nearby on the desk that looked vaguely like Burke as well, along with the banana she had only recently put in. "Hey, you're right. That's actually pretty neat." A look at Laila's face as she read through the walkthrough showed that she didn't seem to agree. Soon another black box appeared with more instructions.

Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

"Die? Already? Ooh, way to up the tension," she said as she mindlessly began lifting and moving things around on the screen. She thought it would be good to click everything she could to figure this game out, and also it was kind of fun messing with her little virtual room. As she did that, Laila let out a weird, nervous laugh.

"The guy who wrote this walkthrough is crazy. Let's just keep going, we can figure this out on our own." Her voice was a little shaky, but Odetta dismissed the thought as more words appeared on the screen.

Task 1

> Equip something to act as your inventory

Time limit: 1 minute_

"What am I supposed to equip?" Odetta looked around the room, but it was difficult to tell what was what so she instead got up and searched around her own room. She was glad for the revelation of her room and the game character's room being one in the same. She looked to the large camouflage backpack in which she carried her supplies when she went on different trips, be they hunting trips, fishing trips, or even camping.

Laila took notice of where Odetta was looking and said, "The walkthrough says the size doesn't matter. It should probably be something you wouldn't lose. Here, I'll give you something to use." She reached behind her neck and unfastened her precious silver locket that contained a picture of the three of them. Sis was always sentimental like that, but why was she giving it to her? "Drag this onto yourself."

"I thought you said the walkthrough was junk," said Odetta, warily taking the locket and putting it down on the desk. She went back to the computer where she saw not only that the locket was in the same place in the virtual plane as well, but that there were 14 seconds left. She did as she was told and moved the locket onto her character. The timer stopped and INVENTORY ACQUIRED! appeared over virtual Odetta's head. The next task appeared on the screen.

Task 2

> Equip something to act as your weapon

Time limit: 50 seconds_

Weapons...weapons... "Hey, do you think I could drag one of my model destroyers and it would let me use a destroyer as a weapon?" Odetta thought it would be fun to do that, but she realized that it probably wouldn't be able to travel anywhere. Furthermore, it might give her just the model instead of an actual one. How would someone even fight with a model ship? "Nah, that's stupid. My boxing gloves would probably be just as fun, punching whatever enemies this game has."

Laila gave a soft laughter and answered, "Well the walkthrough says you can use anything, but you should probably use a real and practical weapon. Your hunting rifles would be perfect." Odetta frowned. She didn't want to use a rifle, memories of her failure to play Halo coming back to her. She reached over to where they were mounted, but the angle made it so that they appeared bunched together, and the bad graphics made it hard to differentiate between the black stick shapes. She didn't feel like wasting time on trying to figure out which one was the rifle so she just picked one and dragged it to her character, just like the inventory.

FISHINGRODKIND ACQUIRED!

Damn it.

Task 3

> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER

Time limit: 40 seconds_

Odetta didn't have time to try getting the rifle again before the next task appeared. This one was easy enough since she had seen the deploy button earlier when she was messing around. She was ready to deploy when something caused the entire house to shake. Odetta prepared to get up and check but Laila put her hand on Odetta's shoulder and kept her from getting up. "I'll check, you keep playing," she said. Odetta nodded in agreement and started deploying. "The walkthrough says that you need to put the protortuder and another thing you deploy in the next task next to each other. Move your character somewhere that there's a lot of space...like the...living...room." She slowed down abruptly with the last sentence. Odetta looked back and saw Laila completely still as she looked out the window.

"You okay, sis? What is it?"

"Huh?" Laila looked back, snapping out of whatever it was. "Oh, it was nothing. Just keep playing, everything's fine." Odetta got up and pushed Laila to the side lightly to see what was happening. "No, just keep playing!" Laila tried to keep her from looking but it was too late.

Meteors. Meteors everywhere. They fell slowly from the sky, but one of them had hit and caused the shaking. "No way. So that's it? It's over, the world is ending?"

Laila nodded. "Looks that way." Her voice was trembling. "Just keep playing, I'll tell you why but please don't let the time run out." Odetta nodded and rushed over to the computer. 9 seconds left. She moved the girl to the living room as fast as she could and hit 'deploy'. PROTOTRUDER DEPLOYED! Once it had been deployed, the machine released some sort of flashing ball thing. This thing was followed by KERNELSPRITE RELEASED!

Task 4

> Deploy the ALCHEMITER

Time limit: 35 seconds_

Odetta didn't quite know what to make of this whole situation. "This task is easy. We have some extra time, so tell me why you want me to keep playing this game so bad." Apparently, sis thought playing this game was more important than knowing the world was ending.

A tear started forming and dripping down her sister's face. "I've always believed the supernatural existed, but I never imagined I'd get proof like this." Laila handed her phone to Odetta, showing her the walkthrough. "I had my suspicions about this game when you said it you didn't order it and it didn't have a return address, but it wasn't until I saw the room and read the walkthrough that I knew this was more than just a game. I really hoped I was wrong, though. When it said you would die it was talking about you. And from what I saw outside, the part about the universe wasn't a lie either. I think you need to play this game to save the universe or something like that." That sounded ridiculous, but ridiculous didn't mean wrong. Either way, it was either play along with this and maybe survive or get creamed by a meteor storm. And if she was going to play, she might as well enjoy it.

Odetta handed the phone back to her sister."All right, I'll play. Just try to get out of here with mom. If the whole universe depends on this, I don't think this magic game will let me die if I play." Laila nodded and hugged Odetta before leaving. Realizing time was running short, she deployed the Alchemiter. ALCHEMITER DEPLOYED! Suddenly, Odetta heard her phone ring. It was the generic default ringtone, but she didn't really have anything she wanted to change it to. She picked it up and saw that Laila was calling her so she answered.

"I tried my best to explain to mom, so we're going to leave now. You still have more tasks, though, and the walkthrough says this next one is probably the hardest." Odetta saw the new task appear on the screen.

Task 5

> Create the PORTAL

Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_

She was instantly thankful for her sister's assistance, since she didn't have the slightest clue how to even start doing this. Laila immediately began giving instructions. "It says you're supposed to put the kernelsprite, the flashing ball, into your inventory and then use it on the prototruder. Then you need to take the totematerial that appears and put it on the alchemiter and activate it."

Odetta began running through the things she had to do out loud as she did them. "Okay, kernelsprite, inventory, prototruder, totematerial, alchemiter. Got it." She was also thankful for the advice of putting the two large machines next to each other. There were two platforms on the Alchemiter, but the totematerial stuff looked like it fit better on the smaller one so she put it there. PORTAL CREATED! Suddenly the alchemiter began to move and do something to the totematerial. A light formed and created a bright ring that she assumed was the portal. "Okay, that's done. What next?" As she said that the next task appeared.

Task 6

> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE

Time limit: 20 seconds_

Laila resumed her sort of mission control role and gave more instruction. "Okay, for this one you just drag something, anything, onto the kernelsprite and it becomes sentient, I guess. You can put two things in if the first isn't talking right. I think whatever it ends up becoming will stay with you, so don't put anything you hate in."

This one was also easy. If whatever it was would stay with her, then she would simply chose the only family member still in the house. She dragged Burke from his cage onto the kernelsprite creating BURKESPRITE. KERNELSPRITE PROTOTYPED! The ball took the shape of a flashing rhinoceros beetle. Odetta then got the idea of combining Burke with his namesake, an Arleigh Burke destroyer, so she dragged a model she had built of it to the Burkesprite. Instead of becoming an ArleighBurkesprite, she saw it become BURKESTROYERSPRITE. That was a pretty cool-sounding name. It became a ship with wings on the sides, six legs, and a rhino beetle head at the bow. That was a pretty cool-looking ship-beetle thing.

"That's done too. Now what."

"Hello? Odetta?" That wasn't Laila's voice, it was mom. "I don't know what's happening, but please be careful."

Odetta paused for a moment. "I will, I promise." The next task appeared on the screen. It was self explanatory and she didn't need Laila's help this time.

Task 7

> ENTER

Time left: 8 seconds_

"I love you, baby."

"I love you too, mom."

The Earth shook once more as virtual Odetta stepped through the portal.

Odetta Freeman: Act 1

Peace. Odetta opened her eyes and found herself drifting through darkness, a vast empty space. Where am I? How did I get here? She couldn't find an answer. She noticed an uncomfortable feeling on her chest and around her neck so she moved her hands there to see what it was and found a chain. Her hands moved along it until they touched a cold round object. This...oh yeah. She looked down to see Laila's silver locket. I don't like wearing jewlery... Her finger moved to the edge of the locket and pushed it open revealing a photo of her family. But this isn't really something I'd want to get rid of. A smile started forming on her lips when her peace was abruptly broken. HERRRRRRRRRRRN

Odetta's eyes snapped open. What the hell? Was that a...HERRRRRRRRRRRN She covered her ears against what was clearly the horn of a destroyer, although fortunately scaled down because a real one would have left her deaf at this range. Wait a minute...not a destroyer. She looked over to see a familiar face although very little else about him was familiar. The one who had sounded the horn was Burkestroyersprite, who for some reason had black and white orbs leaving from him. She didn't pay much attention to those, though, and focused on Burke. After her hearing returned she heard something besides Burkestroyer in the background. Music? It had guitar and at some point a man started shouting. It made her feel pumped up and want to punch something. Burkestroyer interrupted and started talking. "Soldier, our position in the Land of Gleam and Growth is surrounded so I'm going to explain this once and I'm going to explain it quick." Odetta didn't know what was going on, but she nodded. She didn't feel like questioning the rhino beetle destroyer. "Your family is still on Earth, but they are still in danger. You are in the Medium, outside your universe and inside the game. You can check essential information on any computer, information which I will brief you on at a later time. Right now your fellow CHESS players are about to be attacked by enemies, so go and give them assistance!" Burke was like a drill sergeant, probably because he had been mixed with a navy ship.

"Yes sir!" Odetta saluted, playing along with the whole military thing. She looked around the room quickly for a weapon since she was going to be fighting enemies. The hunting rifle was her obvious choice so she grabbed it, her shooting gloves, and a couple of 5 round magazines and made her way out the door. Burkestroyer floated past her and made his way towards a strange floating...thing? She didn't focus on that, though. What she really cared about were the little black monsters running towards the group of kids. She crouched and aimed her rifle, hitting the lunging one straight in its big head. It was thrown back from the force but immediately got back up, changing its direction towards her. Bulletproof? Another creature joined the first and they both chased after her. She shot the first one again then the second one, but bullets weren't working. The first had a much greater head start and caught up first. This was getting ridiculous. It was closing in and Odetta was out of options so she lifted her fist and slammed it down on the creature. "God DAMMIT!"

It appeared that her honest desire to kill this damn thing dead caused her strife weapon to materialize in her hand, the bottom end of the fishing rod slamming into the creature's head. She mindlessly proceeded to swing the pole into the side of its face, caught up in the moment and the irritation. The creature dissolved into black mist and left behind some big gem things. Odetta took a moment to look at the rod that had formed in her hand. "Sweet! But...how the hell am I supposed to actually use this as a weapon?" In her distraction the second creature caught up and bit her shoulder. "Agh! Dammit!" She angled her rifle and shot its body, but when that didn't work she tossed the useless rifle aside and pulled it off, throwing it onto the ground. While it was getting up she jumped onto it and started strangling it with fishing line, glad that it didn't cut into her skin thanks to her gloves. Sure she could probably have kept bludgeoning it with the rod, but this was much more satisfying.

Retro Bug · Jun 8, 2013

Penelope Cruz
--- Act 1

Penelope mouth twisted into the smile at the sound of Liam's voice, who had graciously accepted her hug, as did the other two. Scottish! How lucky she had been because that was the very culture she was studying at the moment and boy did she have a ton of questions for him! Adrian was rather pessimistic, but still had a lovely smile. When Vinnie spoke French her eyes lit up, he spoke it so much more beautifully than she ever would, maybe she could record his voice! Instead of being able to respond to the boys they were greeted by something creepy and icky looking walking between the houses. It was black in color, they, were black in color, there was four or more of them.

"WHAT IS THAT!" Adrian said basically screaming.

"Why is it coming closer?!" Penelope exclaimed along with Adrian and then hid behind the giant that was Liam, hoping it would attack him first.

"That is an IMP," Penelope hadn't looked much at the SPRITE since company distracted her, but once she did she couldn't stop staring at it. It was fascinating; its voice sounded like four distinct voices but at other times they all mixed together, "It is your enemy. You should use your STRIFE WEAPONS to kill it, or more will come."

"OH!" The realization of what a strife weapon happened in mere seconds, her soccer ball! As soon as Penelope thought about it the object appeared right in front of her, weird.

"Better get those fighting skills tuned and raise your stats a bit!" It seemed like CHEERBEARSPRITE was taking control with how happily the voice sounded.

"HOW DO WE DO THAT?" The one thing that Adrian needed to learn was how to not to yell, Penelope thought as he spoke. "HOW DO WE RAISE OUR SKILLS!?"

"Use them!"

Simple enough, right? Good thing she had picked something that she was very fond of using. Penelope moved herself to Liam's left side, no longer needing to cower behind him now that she knew what to do. As the IMPs jumped forward Penelope lined up the soccer ball with one in sight and within seconds the ball was buried into the stomach of the fairy winged IMP. Score! Penelope jumped up and down, but her attack hadn't defeated her foe, unfortunately. Recovering the ball was easily enough since the IMP lay in the grass stunned. Dribbling the ball in between her feet at a relatively fast speed as she got into position, the next action would be solely dependent on the IMP that had already slowly rose into the air.

Athleticism was shown in Penelope, as her yellow dress flapped while she ran forward with the ball and the IMP did the same, though it didn't have a ball and it wasn't running.

With a high lofted kick the soccer ball arched in the air to make itself known once more in the IMP's stomach. Thankfully, Penelope had practiced dribbling with flats before otherwise this would've turned out to be terrible, her movements would been more precise had she worn cleats. Music appeared in the air that meant another CHESS player had arrived on the scene, but where were they? Briefly distracted the IMP had made its move forward with razor sharp teeth gnawing, to avoid being IMP chow she leaned backwards as far as she could. The IMP sped over Penelope who then raced to get back her BALLKIND, afterwards she dribbled the ball back to the IMP. In one swift movement the ball smashed into the IMP and the IMP smashed into large jewels.

Weary if she should touch them or not, and with the others busy with their IMPs, Penelope bent over and gently touched one. The second she touched it the jewel popped and disappeared, so Penelope did the same with the rest of the jewels.

moon · Jun 9, 2013

Adrian Smidth

As the imps ran towards them, Adrian put on a stern face and raised his hammer, not at all sure that he was up for this. The butler imp threw itself forward, but was suddenly stopped but something hitting its head and throwing it aside. Not Adrian's hammer. Something unseen? He would have halted his movements, puzzled, if not a second imp had leaped towards them just then. However, Penelope stepped forward bravely and kicked a football into its stomach. The fairy imp's wings fluttered energetically in painful surprise.

Just then, Adrian realized that he heard a new tune sounding in the air. He turned his head towards the sound and gasped when he saw that there was a new house there. A fifth house. And in front of it was a girl who had just hit an imp so hard that it exploded into a couple of big, bright gems on the ground. Behind her, another imp leaped forward though... The bunny imp. It bit her shoulder.

Adrian didn't think twice. Maybe because that imp wore Jet's ears and teeth and he felt like it should be his responsibility. Maybe because if a monster bites a girl in front of you, you just have to do what you can to help her.

He ran away from the group and reached the new house and the girl just when she had managed to get the line of a fishing pole snared around the imps throat, beginning to strangle it. With a short battlecry, Adrian took a leap, raised the plastic mjölnir and swung it down hard onto the bunny imp's head. It exploded into some large gems almost immediately.

One of the gems bounced Adrian's way and touched his foot. As it did, it evaporated into nowhere. Before saying anything, Adrian reached down and touched the other gems as well - it felt oddly satisfying. Then, still panting slightly, he stood up and faced the girl who had just almost singlehandedly taken down two monsters.

She was pretty short but more muscular than him, and she looked Asian... No, Hispanic... No, he didn't really know, but did it even matter?

"Hi," he said. "I'm Adrian. Welcome to the MEDIUM."

--

The fourth imp, the one with bear-like features, was tantalizing Liam and Vinnie back in between the circle of houses. But all of the sudden, a fifth imp leaped up behind them with a scream. This one had four arms and a rhino beetle horn in its face. It was time for Vinnie and Liam to get their hands dirty as well!

--

Two of the characters present were not partaking in the battle at all. One was BURKESTROYERSPRITE, who was now walking out from the house behind Adrian and Odetta. The other was the mixed SPRITE, who was just hovering close to Penelope, Liam and Vinnie, as if it just wanted to watch and wait for something... And when its eyes fell upon the newcomer BURKESTROYERSPRITE, it seemed as if its wait was over.

The two sprites were drawn to each other as if there was a supernatural force controlling them. When they touched, an immensely bright light was let out, blinding the onlookers in case they weren't looking in the opposite direction.

When the light subsided, a dark figure stood there. Completely black, like the imps, and with white lights for eyes just like them. But the eyes of this figure weren't narrow and evil. They were round and open and seemed almost... Happy. The smile with the bright teeth beneath, which weren't at all as pointy as the teeth of the imps, also added to the perception of this dark figure as someone who would likely not attack the kids.

((OOC: we're on the second page, wohoo!))

Lt. Col. Fantastic · Jun 10, 2013

Vinnie Valentine

"Aye, my name's Liam. I be from Scotland," Liam began. "Now before I get all friendly with ye lads and lassies, I got to get a few things off my chest. I don't like to step around the truth too much, so I'll do my best to be charming as all Scotsman are," he then turned to Adrian.

"Ye lad talk too much. Ye ramble on and on long enough and I'm going to ignore ya." Yes, finally somebody who calls it as it is! Adrian's smug smile disappeared quickly, leaving only a conflicted and sad face. Then apparently it was my turn. "Ye must be an interesting one. Rather friendly and all until a girl pops in and suddenly ye are all over that. Give her time to breath and such. I thought the French were romantic, not desperate." Okay wow f*ck that. I was actually just pissed that nobody bothered to ask me my name, but now I actually am going to try and win over Penelope. Just because of that. Game on, Liam.

"Ye girl..eh I got nothing bad to say. I hope ye pick the right one out of this lot. Oh and next time, warn me before ye hug me again. I rather give ye a proper one next time." Okay so that's his game. Bash everyone except the girl and then feign indifference. Clever man, clever man. It's going to be tricky snagging the girl with this guy around. Before anybody could respond to the snark load that was just unleashed, a loud hissing noise grabbed everyone's attention. A black, small creature, with glowing white eyes and a butler tuxedo coat on started to creep towards the group. It was kinda frightening, being black and very imp-like. It was like something out of a video game, an enemy.

"WHAT IS THAT!" yelled Adrian. Funny, he wasn't so smug now. Then Penelope exclaimed, "Why is it coming closer?!" She hid behind Liam. (Liam, +1)

"That is an IMP," the sprite collage said, "It is your enemy. You should use your STRIFE WEAPONS to kill it, or more will come."

The imp was joined by three or four other buddies, each wearing something that the sprite mashup had. I guess whatever we prototyped affects more than the sprite. It's a good thing I didn't prototype something dangerous or deadly, that would have sucked. I was still a little nervous, however. What if these guys were tough? Or if they were poisonous and such? Do we even take physical injury from battle wounds? I guess I shouldn't try finding out, regardless. I materialized my chakram at this point. Better than nothing I guess.

"Better get those fighting skills tuned and raise your stats a bit!" Mr. Sprite said. He seemed really happy for some reason, no idea why. Maybe he got it from one of the other prototypings, because he sure didn't sound anything like Reginald. I wonder if *real* Reginald is on Earth with Mémé....

"HOW DO WE DO THAT?" Adrian said, again extremely loud. Jesus did he get off the smug express with the quickness. (Not that I can talk, I'm pretty much petrified at this point.) "HOW DO WE RAISE OUR SKILLS!?"

The SPRITE smiled almost as smugly as Adrian did a minute ago. Almost. "Use them!"

"Oh!"

The imps lunged at us, with deadly sharp claws and teeth showing. But a gunshot rang through the air. The lead imp tumbed to the ground, got back up, and ran off. Holy sh*t, gunshots didn't even hurt them? Another imp peeled off to follow is bullet-ridden cohort, while another (a fairy winged one) seemed ready to jump at Penelope. She quickly stepped out from behind Liam, and made quick work of the imp attacking her. Adrian ran off after the two imps that left, while a fifth player strugged to hold them off herself (yesss more females. But I had one to worry about already). By the time Penelope had finished off her imp, a fifth one emerged, with beetle like features. It approached Penelope from behind, as she bent over to gather some loot from the enemy.

Time to tip the scales in my favor.

"Watch out!" I yelled, jumping to stand in front of Penelope as the imp lunged. It jumped at me, teeth gnashing and claws scratching. I managed to hold it away from scratching anything vital on me, while also getting my chakram maneuvered into slicing its chest. It jumped away, and I readied my chakram in a Frisbee throwing position. Yeah, I know that's not how they are traditionally thrown, but I'm not about to twirl this razor sharp disc on my fingers. As it prepared to pounce again, I threw my weapon, severing the little bastard's arm. It squealed and exploded into black mist, leaving behind only a few colorful gems on the ground. They kinda looked like fruit gushers.....

My heart racing a little from the excitement, I turned back to Penelope. " Est ce que vous allez bien?" I probably shouldn't have said it so formally, but I didn't wanna make her feel weird.

I glanced towards Liam as he dealt with his imp. Knight to E4.

((ooc: I know that chess pun was sooo lame but I couldn't help myself... ;_;))

Legend · Jun 13, 2013

It seemed that introductions were over. And it wasn't bad enough that most of the people around him gawked at his accent. What? They heard a Scot before. Imagine their shock when Liam tried his Irish accent. That would be even more confused. Their brains would probably melt. Upon completing his rather brief disorientation of each of the people that he was stuck with, a small plump black creature with glowing white silts for eyes and sharp tiny teeth emerged. For now, Liam's interest was honestly piqued. Would they finally have some action? Would defeating the little creature uncover some clues on how the hell do get out? It was worth a shot. While Liam was pretty focused on killing the creature or at least prepared to do so (the fact he had a sword on hand gave him enough confidence to defeat a small creature that barely reached his knees), Adrian panicked.

"WHAT IS THAT!" he said very loudly, losing any sense of the composure he tried to show before. The kid talked a lot and would make sense he would be the first to vocalize any sense of fear.

"That is an IMP," the strange SPRITE said, suddenly standing beside Adrian. "It is your enemy. You should use your STRIFE WEAPONS to kill it, or more will come."

Well, that's awfully obvious, ye dumb sprite thing.

More of the "imps" showed up, not to Liam's surprise. Of course it had friends. Ever play a game when only one enemy showed up? These other "imps" looked a bit different though. One had fairy wings but was clad in only its black skin otherwise, reminding Liam of his own sprite. The others were probably connected to others somehow too, but Liam didn't bother to check and confirm. He didn't care enough. He only hoped everyone was useful enough to hold their own.

"Better get those fighting skills tuned and raise your stats a bit!" the SPRITE said, soundly awfully cheery about the whole thing. Maybe it shared Liam's enthusiasm about actually doing something. Then again, the information was awfully easy to process and it didn't take a genius to understand that they had to fight to level up.

"HOW DO WE DO THAT?" Adrian screamed again. Was he daft? It was common sense. "HOW DO WE RAISE OUR SKILLS!?" That confirmed it. Adrian was thick headed, whiny, loud, obnoxious and borderline useless. At least that was the impression so far. Liam wanted to yell at boy, scolding him, but the IMPs didn't leave him much of an opportunity. All of the other "gamers" leapt into the fray, engaging the IMPs with their particular choice of weapon. Penelope appeared to use a soccer ball and someone else actually seemed to shoot the damn things with something, but Liam may have been imagining things. As he zoned out, observing the fight, he found himself joined by Vinnie in a tight situation, surrounding by two IMPs, not resembling anything he noticed before. Vinnie handled one that was about to sneak attack Penelope pretty handily, impressing Liam with a surprising degree of skill. At least Vinnie and Penelope (in hindsight) were pretty useful. Unlike Adrian.

This left Liam with an IMP resembling a bear. A small, tiny, insignificant bear. Liam remain unimpressed. He generated his sword into his right hand, and took a stance, awaiting the bear's first attack. It leapt up at Liam's face, and he parried the attack. The bear IMP bounced away and went for another leap, but Liam sidestepped this one, kicking the IMP aside. As it rolled on the ground, Liam pursued the creature and jabbed his sword into the IMP as it laid limp on the ground. It dissipated into a black mist, leaving behind an handful of gems on the ground. Liam picked up his loot and turned the others, before his eyes traced another black figure seemingly watching over all the kids. Unlike the IMPs, he didn't look hostile, but it didn't ease Liam's mind any.

moon · Jun 17, 2013

Adrian Smidth

Adrian looked up, puzzled, at the thing that their merged sprite had turned into.

"What's that?" he asked Odetta.

The dark sprite seemed to have heard him. It turned its face towards them, where it was standing in between the two groups of kids. Its smile widened and all of a sudden - it laughed.

"Hello!" it said, in a voice that sounded more like a man in his twenties than like any of the previous spriteversion voices. "I am so happy to see you, you cannot even begin to understand! Well, I will try to make you understand, of course. Welcome to the MEDIUM!"

Adrian was a bit irritated. Hadn't he been welcomed here enough times already?

"I am sure you are all feeling pretty confused and maybe angry or scared right now. You must have realized that you have left Earth, you have left the confines of your very UNIVERSE, actually. And with that, you are no longer bound by the physical or logical laws of it. Space, time and life out here in the depths of PARADOX SPACE works very differently. See, the MEDIUM is where you are now. And it is like a solar system, much smaller of course, with many LANDS orbiting the center, and outside of them there is an asteroid belt and outside of that... the vastness of PARADOX SPACE spreads out. I hope that gives you at least some kind of picture as to where you are now, on the planet that is the Land of Grass and Growth!"

"Hold on there, loremaster!" Adrian said, stepping forward until he stood only a meter away from the tall, black, winged figure. It still smiled down at him, patiently. "I get that you are some kind of mix of all our sprites and those sprites tried to give a bunch of info all at once, at least mine did. But we all just started playing a game. A computer game. How is this even possible?" He waved his hands as if to gesture to everything around him.

The sprite smiled and looked over at Liam, Vinnie, Penelope, Adrian and Odetta in turns. "Well, you see... Like I said, the laws that you think make up reality, they do not all apply here. And that game, CHESS, was a mechanism that put aside some of those laws to fetch a number of PLAYERS from within my UNIVERSE, so that the game could be played. As it is always played. Outside of a UNIVERSE."

Adrian shook his head and looked at Liam and the others to see if they believed this. They had just been fighting little trolls after all...

"What do you mean 'my' universe?" he then asked slowly.

The dark sprite smiled wider than ever and stretched his arms and wings out. "Pardon me, that was a bit selfishly said. I meant to say from 'my' planet, I guess. I shaped it, after all. I would think that if you planted a colony of flowers in a flowerbed and cared for them for a long time, you would refer to them as your flowers, would you not?"

Adrian blinked. "What'r you sayin."

"I am not demanding that you praise me as your lord or anything at this point really," the dark sprite said with a wink. "But I am GOD."

((OOC: do ask "GOD" questions if you think your characters would have any, about anything,
as pretty soon he might disappear again :p ))

Geras · Jun 18, 2013

Odetta Freeman

As Odetta continued grappling with the creature, the other kids started fighting them as well. One of them, a boy, ran to her instead and hit the one in front of her, killing it. After he collected the gem things that burst out of it he turned to her and said, "Hi, I'm Adrian. Welcome to the MEDIUM." Odetta didn't thank him because she didn't really need the help but she gave an acknowledging nod in his direction anyway. There were other gems in still there from the first thing she killed so she went over to them and tried grabbing them only to see them disappear. She frowned and wondered what the point was in trying to get something that disappeared when you touched it but didn't worry about it for long.

Taking this chance to look around, Odetta saw that the other kids had taken down the other monsters, although there now was a larger one with wings in the middle. She quickly let go of the rod, which disappeared the same way it had appeared before, and grabbed her rifle which she aimed at the new humanoid creature, ready to use the last bullet in the magazine if it moved. Maybe something more human like would be hurt by bullets. Adrian asked her what it was but she didn't know so she simply (and a touch sarcastically) responded "I dunno, maybe it'll introduce itself." Instead of moving, though, it spoke and did exactly that.

"Hello! I am so happy to see you, you cannot even begin to understand! Well, I will try to make you understand, of course. Welcome to the MEDIUM!" It...he...whatever...was a lot jollier than Odetta had expected although she kept the rifle trained on him, crosshairs straight on his head. He continued and explained more about this Medium place and Adrian questioned him leading to the explanation that the laws of physics didn't apply and yada yada yada. Did any of this really matter? The way Odetta saw it was that they were in a game and they had to win to save their families, simple. She didn't care where they were, how they got here, or how it all worked. Who this guy was did matter though, but only to the extent of whether he was a friend or foe. Soon enough, though, she had a name. "I am GOD."

God? Like the all-seeing, all-powerful creator of all? The one from the Bible? Odetta sighed. "Figures, God would probably be the only one capable of pulling something like this." She finally lowered her rifle and looked God straight in the eyes. "Look, I know that they say 'God works in mysterious ways' so you've probably got some big plan in place incomprehensible to mortal minds with legitimate reasons for us all being here, but what I don't get is why you need all the sprites for this, considering that you're an omniscient being with the power to create worlds and all that fun stuff. 'cause I kinda want Burke back." Burke was the only friend she had here and she didn't really feel like making any new ones since they were here to win a game and save everyone, not to make friends and hang out. It wasn't anything against Adrian or any of the others, but she just had more important things to do.

moon · Jun 18, 2013

GOD

"Look, I know that they say 'God works in mysterious ways' so you've probably got some big plan in place incomprehensible to mortal minds with legitimate reasons for us all being here, but what I don't get is why you need all the sprites for this, considering that you're an omniscient being with the power to create worlds and all that fun stuff. 'cause I kinda want Burke back."

God nodded, still smiling. "Burke is not gone forever... Well, he is merged with that Destroyer for a long time."

He started to pace forth and back between them. "I needed all those prototypings to take physical shape in the MEDIUM, because I do not have much power here." He made an embarrassed gesture with a hand and the corresponding wing.

"See... My final reward was to have amazing power over a single world - which in one of your languages is called EARTH. I made sure life evolved on EARTH. Sometimes I had to start over, like with the dinosaurs, ugh... Reptilians are pretty difficult to cultivate." God scratched his head. It was unclear if it had hair or not, black tufts could be seen though.

"But in this MEDIUM, I am apparently confined to having the powers of all your SPRITES combined. Pretty nifty though!" His wings suddenly changed into glimmering fairy ones, he grew a white vest, a pompom appeared in one of his hands and the other turned into a branch with leaves. "Haha. This will surely be very interesting later on. But do not worry. If I remember correctly, you will most often have your SPRITES split up. I will only be able to talk with you like this on special occasions. Such as the start of the game, where you might need an extra push."

He turned back into his blank form and looked at Odetta, a bit of worry in his eyes. "Is there anything else you wonder, friends? Because more enemies are coming and I want to show you a fun - and even necessary - way to improve your weapons."

Lt. Col. Fantastic · Jun 28, 2013

Vinnie Valentine - Talking with JESUS

I turned around from Penelope to see a new creature-thing. All black with a human body and angel wings....he looked sorta like a fantasy RPG villain. His white, featureless eyes were a little spooky, not to mention the fact that he was just floating above us, watching. I unequipped my chakram and crossed my arms towards the Angel. I squinted my eyes against the glare of the Sunset on the horizon. For some reason, I felt drawn to this new character. I looked over at Adrian and the new girl, who were walking towards the Angel. Looking around, Liam and Penelope had noticed him too....wait. Where was our sprite? I scanned the area but did not see the strange informant. Maybe it ran off? Or...somehow turned into the Black Angel? Whatever, I'm sure its fine.

Adrian must have asked it something, because it turned to him and the girl.

"Hello!" said the Angel in a young adult Male's voice. "I am so happy to see you, you cannot even begin to understand! Well, I will try to make you understand, of course. Welcome to the MEDIUM!" Sure sounds like the sprites, saying the same thing over and over.

"I am sure you are all feeling pretty confused and maybe angry or scared right now. You must have realized that you have left Earth, you have left the confines of your very UNIVERSE, actually. And with that, you are no longer bound by the physical or logical laws of it. Space, time and life out here in the depths of PARADOX SPACE works very differently. See, the MEDIUM is where you are now. And it is like a solar system, much smaller of course, with many LANDS orbiting the center, and outside of them there is an asteroid belt and outside of that... the vastness of PARADOX SPACE spreads out. I hope that gives you at least some kind of picture as to where you are now, on the planet that is the Land of Grass and Growth!"

Ugh, astronomy. So like....the planets are all orbiting the thing, but they're called lands....and there's some asteroids and stuff. And the paradox thing is outside the solar system which is smaller than a normal solar system? And then- aw, screw it I'll just pretend they're like the worlds in Demon's Souls.

"Hold on there, loremaster!" Adrian said, moving towards the Angel, "I get that you are some kind of mix of all our sprites and those sprites tried to give a bunch of info all at once, at least mine did. But we all just started playing a game. A computer game. How is this even possible?" That's a good question. The Angel responded by looking over each of us slowly, still smiling.

"Well, you see... Like I said, the laws that you think make up reality, they do not all apply here. And that game, CHESS, was a mechanism that put aside some of those laws to fetch a number of PLAYERS from within my UNIVERSE, so that the game could be played. As it is always played. Outside of a UNIVERSE." Okay, so basically f*ck the Laws of the Universe. Haha, like that ExDeath thing in Dissidia: "The laws of the universe mean NOTHIIIIIIIIING!" Pchoeye pvkawww sssssssss powk. Haha yeah. That was great.....

But then I had a question, and apparently so did Adrian.

"What do you mean 'my' universe?" He asked very slowly. It was a real "omg I just figured something out that's creepy and ominous that will probably lead to a commercial break" type of moment. The Angel smiled wider and extended his arms out, as if showing us the new bathroom he painted.

"Pardon me, that was a bit selfishly said. I meant to say from 'my' planet, I guess. I shaped it, after all. I would think that if you planted a colony of flowers in a flowerbed and cared for them for a long time, you would refer to them as your flowers, would you not?"

Oh Jesus did he just say that. "What'r you sayin."

"I am not demanding that you praise me as your lord or anything at this point really," the Angel said with a wink. "But I am GOD." Dun dun DUN. Okay yeah he's probably full of sh*t. Why would God blow his own universe up? I mean, he did do the whole flood thing, which was kinda a dick move, but come on. Blow it up completely? The new girl had a question now.

"Figures, God would probably be the only one capable of pulling something like this.Look, I know that they say 'God works in mysterious ways' so you've probably got some big plan in place incomprehensible to mortal minds with legitimate reasons for us all being here, but what I don't get is why you need all the sprites for this, considering that you're an omniscient being with the power to create worlds and all that fun stuff. 'cause I kinda want Burke back." Okay well I miss Reginald too you don't see me tearing up.

God nodded, still smiling. "Burke is not gone forever... Well, he is merged with that Destroyer for a long time."

He started to pace forth and back between them. "I needed all those prototypings to take physical shape in the MEDIUM, because I do not have much power here."

He made an embarrassed gesture with a hand and the corresponding wing."See... My final reward was to have amazing power over a single world - which in one of your languages is called EARTH. I made sure life evolved on EARTH. Sometimes I had to start over, like with the dinosaurs, ugh... Reptilians are pretty difficult to cultivate."

God scratched his head. It was unclear if it had hair or not, black tufts could be seen though.

"But in this MEDIUM, I am apparently confined to having the powers of all your SPRITES combined. Pretty nifty though!" His wings suddenly changed into glimmering fairy ones, he grew a white vest, a pompom appeared in one of his hands and the other turned into a branch with leaves. "Haha. This will surely be very interesting later on. But do not worry. If I remember correctly, you will most often have your SPRITES split up. I will only be able to talk with you like this on special occasions. Such as the start of the game, where you might need an extra push."

He turned back into his blank form and looked at Odetta, a bit of worry in his eyes. "Is there anything else you wonder, friends? Because more enemies are coming and I want to show you a fun - and even necessary - way to improve your weapons."

"Yeah. I got one. Who was right? Are you Ra, Yahweh, Allah, Artemis, Jupiter, Zeus, Shiva, Quetzalcoatl? Who had the right idea, if anyone?"

moon · Jul 3, 2013

GOD

At Vinnie's question, God seemed to really think hard about what to say. Finally, he sighed. "Well. None of them were right. But that does not mean that religion was not an amusing phenomena! I mean, oh, I do not mean amusing. I mean, it was... I really think it helped humankind onwards in the strife of evolution."

He looked at all of the kids again. "The evolution which was always meant to lead to this game. See... If a world grows to host intelligent life, CHESS might find its way there to reap the planet." He shuddered a little. "That is basically what it is. To get players. And the point of that is even bigger than anything and I actually do not think it's a good thing if I tell you the whole reason for you being here yet. What is imporant now is that you guys survive. And grow as people. And..."

He suddenly froze and looked out over the grasslands that seemingly infinitely surrounded the little cluster of houses. Some more black things were seen far away. More enemies.

"Yeah, about those weapons? Listen up. Remember how you used an item from your inventory on the PROTOTRUDER to make a TOTEMATERIAL? All of you should now go back to your own homes and find some interesing item. Use that and your weapon on the PROTOTRUDER at the same time, and you will receive a TOTEMATERIAL that when used on the alchemiter will produce a new weapon for you!"

GOD smiled widely and began motioning the kids back towards their respective homes. "You will then have two weapons in your STRIFE DECK. The old, unmodified one, and the new mixed one. Try to think of an item to use that will make your weapon more dangerous - for others, not for yourself! And hurry up!"

Adrian swallowed and tried to stop seeming so frantic and silly. "Okay..." he said and nodded to the others before walking back to his own house. He missed his rabbit already.

- Find an item to put in the PROTOTRUDER together with your current WEAPON.

- Put the new TOTEMATERIAL on the ALCHEMITER and the new WEAPON will be created.

- Make up a (funny) name fitting of your new WEAPON. You are free to decide the design and new properties of it yourself, but don't make it the ultimate end-game weapon just yet. If you feel uncreative, let me know and I will design and name the new weapon for you.

Retro Bug · Jul 10, 2013

Penelope Cruz
--- Act 0

Everything... was rather confusing to Penelope. Suddenly an all black being that had taken the shape of a man with... wings, yeah, wings spoke to them. The words that came out of his mouth interested Penelope for the time being but she didn't really care to ask any questions like he had ask. She could think of a few inappropriate questions, who was more attractive, Adrian, Vinnie, or Liam? It might ease her decision, well, not that she had to get close to any of them, because a women didn't need a man to define herself or better herself. Something her mother once told her, Penelope frowned at the memories of her family, seeing them (even Vieve and Gav) again was something she looked forward to.

Paying attention to the last part the "God" person spoke Penelope wondered what was in her house that could be utilized as a more dangerous weapon. What could you combine with a soccer ball to make it more dangerous? Fire? Blech, all the ideas she had weren't of any help,

"Well... If anyone gentleman wants to accompany back to my house, follow along," Penelope beamed, looking at Liam and Vinnie as Adrian had already taken off.

Lt. Col. Fantastic · Jul 10, 2013

"Well. None of them were right. But that does not mean that religion was not an amusing phenomena! I mean, oh, I do not mean amusing. I mean, it was... I really think it helped humankind onwards in the strife of evolution. The evolution which was always meant to lead to this game. See... If a world grows to host intelligent life, CHESS might find its way there to reap the planet."

He shuddered a little. "That is basically what it is. To get players. And the point of that is even bigger than anything and I actually do not think it's a good thing if I tell you the whole reason for you being here yet. What is imporant now is that you guys survive. And grow as people. And..."

He suddenly froze and looked out towards the fields. I looked too, and saw some black monsters.

"Yeah, about those weapons? Listen up. Remember how you used an item from your inventory on the PROTOTRUDER to make a TOTEMATERIAL? All of you should now go back to your own homes and find some interesing item. Use that and your weapon on the PROTOTRUDER at the same time, and you will receive a TOTEMATERIAL that when used on the alchemiter will produce a new weapon for you!" Awesome. I can make up all kinds of stuff with this!

"You will then have two weapons in your STRIFE DECK. The old, unmodified one, and the new mixed one. Try to think of an item to use that will make your weapon more dangerous - for others, not for yourself! And hurry up!"

Adrian nodded towards everyone else and headed back to his house. Eh, who needs him.

"Well... If anyone gentleman wants to accompany back to my house, follow along," said Penelope. I shrugged, and looked at Liam, Penelope, and the new girl.

"Actually, I was thinking that perhaps we four should go to my house. I have a lot of swords and **** if Liam wants to get a bigger one or something, plus in general everything a house needs. Which for my house, is a lot." I guestured to my château.

"All sorts of weapons, movies, applainces, even a suit of armor are in there. Problem is, I don't really know what I could use to make my weapon better. But you guys are fee to use any of it, as long as you give it back later! Anyone game?"

moon · Jul 11, 2013

Adrian stopped on his porch when he heard Vinnie's words. Hmmm. He had a hammer. He didn't have overly many interesting things in his own house. Plus, it reminded him of his poor sisters rather than comfort him right now. He sighed quietly and walked back to the group.

"I'll come," he said with a nervous face and looked towards the horizon. There were clearly black creatures walking towards them now, and they weren't even far away.

"Yes, yes, very good!" GOD said with a bright smile and suddenly flew up into the air. "When you have made your new weapons, you should ascend to the highest floor of a building and wait for IMPS to reach you."

"Just, wait?" Adrian asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes. When you kill one, you'll see what happens. I can reveal that you are meant to go upwards for now, and that your goal is to reach one of the gates that look much like the portal you entered to escape from Earth."

With that and another wink, he flew away towards the creatures some rolling hills away. Hopefully to stall them, Adrian thought before he looked up into the sky above the houses. There was actually something... shimmering up there. Like dots of colorful light high above each of their houses. Were those the gates? How were they supposed to get there?

moon · Jul 23, 2013

Vinnie led the way into his house. Penelope and Adrian followed rather eagerly, then Liam with a half-content look and lastly Odetta a bit more carefully.

Vinnie's house was a "chateau" as he'd like to call it. They entered the front hallway, where the kitchen was right in front of them, some rooms on the sides and some stairs going both up and down. The machines were on the upper floor, the PROTOTRUDER in the living room and the ALCHEMITER in one of the bedrooms there. Downstairs was Vinnie's "bat cave", his second bedroom where he kept a lot of interesting stuff that could maybe be used for alchemizing.

"Okay, time to go wild, then? What kind of weapons do you guys have again? I have a hammer. So I guess I want to alchemize it with something that hurts to be hit with," Adrian said plainly and moved into the kitchen to look for a knife or frying pan or something.

Same instructions as before...

- Find an item to put in the PROTOTRUDER together with your current WEAPON.

- Put the new TOTEMATERIAL on the ALCHEMITER and the new WEAPON will be created.

- Make up a (funny) name fitting of your new WEAPON. You are free to decide the design and new properties of it yourself, but don't make it the ultimate end-game weapon just yet. If you feel uncreative, let me know and I will design and name the new weapon for you.

Geras · Jul 25, 2013

Odetta Freeman

Odetta was in the middle of walking back to her house to mix her fishing rod with her rifle when she heard the curly-haired kid say something about him having "swords and ****" at his house. She realized that she could probably get something now to mix the stupid fishing rod with later. It seemed everyone else liked the sound of that too since everybody followed that kid into his house. Adrian asked everyone what weapons they had before asking for suggestions on what to mix his hammer with. "I've got a damn fishing rod, but I don't think it really matters how deadly the thing you mix your weapon with is, considering the fact that this is a place where I can kill something faster with a fishing rod than with a rifle." Odetta walked around the kitchen opening drawers and cupboards everywhere as she spoke. There didn't seem to be anything worth it in the kitchen so she jogged down the stairs to continue her search there.

When she reached what she assumed would be a basement Odetta saw a bed and computer as if it were a bedroom along with a vast array of weapons and other stuff covering the walls. Some of them had rather eccentric appearances but she just shrugged it off and started looking for a really useful one. However, for the most they were all just swords with only looks separating one from the other. Her eyes wandered until they found the suit of armor propped up, or rather its hands. She really missed boxing but figured that she probably needed to be able to move her fingers if she was going to be climbing to roofs and things like that. The iron gauntlets on that thing seemed to offer protection, punching strength, and finger movement. Having made up her mind on their usefulness, Odetta took the pair of gauntlets and left back to her home.

Back home, Odetta went about following the instructions given to them by God. She ran through the steps in her mind as she did them. Use the item and your weapon on the prototruder at the same time... Odetta held up the fishing rod and the rifle, but she found herself looking back at the gauntlets she had taken. Was using the rifle really the best choice? She would have to worry about ammo and should probably wait until she could find more, or alchemize more, or whatever before she used it. In truth she probably just wanted to punch some imps and was trying to justify pleasure over practicality but those were actually legitimate points. In the end she decided that she was wasting too much time thinking and put the gun down, putting the rod and the on the prototruder. As told, a totematerial was created just like the first time. Also like the first time, Odetta took the totematerial and used it on the alchemiter.

After the machine did its thing, Odetta was rewarded with the Sturgeon Slugger, which looked like a metal fishing pole with a metal gauntlet in place of a hook. It really didn't seem any more useful than the original thing until she tried putting her hand into the gauntlet. It fit. That meant that she could punch things and since it was still attatched to the rod it would count! Although being attached to the fishing line complicated things a little. It could get tangled around her arm as she was punching things if the line was out too far or she could punch too hard and pull the rod out of her other hand if the line was out too little. Well at least she could also use it as a flail.

Mostly satisfied with her creation, Odetta grabbed a large hunting backpack and stuffed it with ammo, non-perishable food items (canned food, jerky, crackers and stuff) and some bottles of water along with her typical survival things before tying her rifle to it. She didn't put it on yet since she had some monsters to fight but would be back for it when it was time to go through that gate. Although she still had no idea how she would get there. Then, with Sturgeon Slugger in hand, Odetta climbed to the roof of her home as she had many times before and waited.

moon · Jul 26, 2013

Adrian

The kitchen was large and elegant. Apparently Vinnie wasn't a poor kid, no sir. Adrian shuddered a little - what if he was the lamest guy around here? He had to try and fit in. Like he always did.

Pulling out some drawers, he soon spotted a stand with knives on a shelf. Now, they looked deadly. But wasn't that a bit boring? Something inside him said that here, he could practically mix ANYTHING with his hammer, and end up with an extraordinary weapon. He materialized the PLASTIC MJÖLNIR in his hand and felt the low weight. This wasn't a too lethal weapon yet. He had to make it heavier. And possibly pointier? Hmm. A knife would be good after all...

But then he absentmindedly pulled out another drawer and spotted a bunch of silver forks. The urge to make something interesting came over him, and PLASTIC MJÖLNIR disappeared back into the nether. Before Vinnie or someone else who might be in the vicinity could stop him, he scooped up at least ten of the forks in his arms and ran out from the kitchen, out from Vinnie's house.

In the yard between their houses, Adrian heard the sound of... barking? No, squealing maybe more. He ran to his own house, and only caught a glimpse of black above his head - it made him came to a halt on his porch and look up. GOD was fluttering above his porch, a smile on his face.

"Hurry up, they are soon here~!" he hinted, in a far too cheerful manner. Adrian nodded and ran inside.

The PROTOTRUDER was still in his room, and Adrian tried to shove all the forks into it. Didn't work. "WHAT!" he blurted out. But his mind had already started searching for new possibilities, as it always did. Last time, when he had created the portal, the figure on the screen had taken an item from his inventory and - oh.

He opened up the superhero messenger bag he was still wearing around his upper body, and poured the forks down into it. Looking down, he could somehow see two things down there, both with labels. DIRTY SOCK and FORKJUMBLE. He sure didn't want to prototype a dirty sock with his weapon. Though... Maybe he should try just for the heck of it?

He first, somehow and very abstractly, took the label and button saying FORKJUMBLE from his inventory and placed them in the hatch of the PROTOTRUDER. There was a button he could press. But not yet. First, he went over to his computer and looked in the STRIFEDECK. Only the PLASTIC MJÖLNIR was there still, of course. But how would he...

He tried to imagine the STRIFEDECK inside his head. In front of him in the air. With labels like the items in the inventory had had. Boy, being a character inside a game sure felt surreal sometimes. He grabbed the label saying PLASTIC MJÖLNIR in the air in front of him and placed it in the PROTOTRUDER before pressing the button on the machine. A new TOTEMATERIAL popped up, being slightly curved in comparison to the first one.

He looked in his inventory - the FORKJUMBLE was back already! As if he had never used it. So, apparently items weren't used up in the PROTOTRUDER. They could be alchemized several times. In several combinations... Hmm.

He put the PLASTIC MJÖLNIR + DIRTY SOCK into the machine and pressed the button. Another TOTEMATERIAL popped up, and he made sure to separate the two when he took them in his arms (they felt strangely rubbery) and brought them down to the ALCHEMITER in the entrance hall.

The first one yielded something called a FORKSMITER. It was his mjölnir toy but in silver rather than plastic. Pretty heavy. Also, on the hitting edges of the hammer, little parts of fork were sticking out - if he were to squash an IMP with this, it would leave a dotted pattern of holes in its black skin. Quite interesting! But heavy, still. He had to train for a bit, to be able to wield this effectively.

He put the second TOTEMATERIAL in, but a red light flashed on the ALCHEMITER for a moment, and nothing happened. Adrian looked closer at a little screen next to the tiny platform. "Not enough GRIST." So he had to do something to get more of this GRIST in order to build more things. Okay.

For now, the FORKSMITER was a good enough upgrade (Adrian noticed that when he imagined the STRIFEDECK in front of him though, the PLASTIC MJÖLNIR was still there as well). Now what? He had forgotten what GOD had instructed them to do next.

He went out from his house again and looked for someone else. Up there was GOD, hovering near one of the houses... Hang on. Was there someone on the roof of that building? It was the girl from earlier! The one who arrived after the others. What was she doing up there? Adrian ran into her house, meaning to get up to where she was.

IMPS on their way to Odetta

CHESS sensed that the first player was ready. The barriers were broken. The enemies were let in, at last. The first onslaught was merely a horde of IMPS, sent to get the players going rather than them lazying around as soon as they had entered. They had to get a decent weapon and then get through their first portals, in order to jump into the story of LOGAG. That, or die by the teeth of the IMPS.

If the players should somehow survive the first onslaught without escaping through their PORTALS, the next wave came. This time with OGREs. An OGRE was much bigger than an IMP and had menacing fangs and fists. Sure to get even a brave player running away. If they weren't stupid.

In any case, they had to kill enemies, or UNDERLINGS as they can also be called, in order to get anywhere from here. Killing UNDERLINGS earned them GRIST to alchemize with. And also, every time they killed UNDERLINGS, it counted towards their level increasing.

Currently, all players had reached LEVEL 2 after slaying one IMP each. If they slayed 2 imps now, they would get to level 3. Slaying 3 IMPS then would get them to level 4 etc. It wasn't much more complicated than that, other than killing more dangerous UNDERLINGS might propel you faster through levels. And for each new level, you might get new abilities and your skills would increase.

((OOC: EVERYONE - as you have now grown a level, choose one of the following stats to increase -

CONSTITUTION: ties in with your health bar
IMAGINATION: ties in with your mana meter
WILLPOWER: ties in with your energy hold

Look at one of your earlier posts to figure out what you had last. I should probably add these to the OP :p))

And IMPS came. A horde of them, in various forms from the various prototypings. Still only representing one prototyping each though. Some of them ran directly into Odetta's home, while others climbed the outside of the building to reach the roof where she was... It was as if they sensed her and Adrian being ready, while they were a bit apprehensive about going near Vinnie's house yet.

((OOC: Geras - as soon as Odetta has grown to LEVEL 3, end your post. They are still just as easy to kill as before, especially since you have a better weapon now.))

Retro Bug · Jul 27, 2013

Penelope Cruz
--- Act 0

Peneloped shrugged her shoulders, Vinnie probably did have cooler things at his house to merge (or whatever it was called) with her SOCCER BALL. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do, how would it turn out? She needed something that would cause more damage, something that would slow her opponents down. It looked like Adrian was going, perhaps Liam would join them?

Just to make sure Penelope turned toward the tallest boy, "Are you coming or not?"

Not really sure if he was coming, but Penelope didn't wait to find out. Her mouth dropped when she saw Vinnie's "house" because it was like a freaking mansion! Was he rich? Man, to live in this house must have been a blast... Unless there was like family problems but with a big house like this one could easily escape. Penelope skipped, yeah, like she was on the yellow brick road, only by herself. There was a new girl here but Penelope wasn't sure what her name was or who she was, maybe they would have the time to chat later, yeah, later was always good. Unless a mob of those imps came and attacked them, then they would all be at end game.

Penelope entered the house and separated from everyone else, she was on a mission. She lost herself on one of the floors and found herself in the library, there was nothing here that would help her. Oh! Oh! Oh! An idea popped into Penelope's head and she exited the library as quickly as she came and headed to the kitchen she had passed earlier. There was evidence that others had been in here, but they weren't now and that was good. After she looked in three drawers she found what she was looking for, a box of matches. Thankfully, they were enough in there.

What had that God person had said? Oh yeah, she needed to get TOTEMATERIAL by using the PROTOTRUDER and ALCHEMITER. It was easy enough find seeing how big it was, Penelope followed the instructions to the letter that how much a perfectionist she was. The MATCHES + SOCCER BALL were placed inside the PROTOTRUDER. She gathered the TOTEMATERIAL and placed it on the ALCHEMITER.

MATCHBALL.

Cool, a brand new weapon to utilize except it looked exactly the same as her old weapon. Oh well, if things went according to plan it would work just fine. Now what? Where was everyone else? Liam? Vinnie? Adrian? New Girl? Penelope stood in the middle of the ground level floor ready to go out the door.

✜ CHECKMATE : redux (IC)

Kingslayer

Roleplayer

Odetta Freeman: Act 0

Odetta Freeman: Act 1

The Arianator

Vinnie Valentine

Kingslayer

Adrian Smidth​

Roleplayer

Odetta Freeman

GOD​

The Arianator

Vinnie Valentine - Talking with JESUS

GOD​

The Arianator

Roleplayer

Odetta Freeman

Adrian

IMPS on their way to Odetta

Adrian Smidth

GOD

GOD