03-18-2010, 03:45 AM
“We have a winner!!”
His fingers were clasped around a wide pole, which was connected to the end of a large mallet. The hammer had smashed squarely onto the scale, sending the cylinder rocketing up to the bell, which had dinged loudly, signaling Juno’s victory. At least, that was what was supposed to have happened.
In reality, Juno didn’t remember entering this contest of strength at all. One second, he had been watching Kazuya jam her sword into the archdemon’s draconic skull, and the next, he had found himself here, the squeaky voice of the event’s overseer whistling songs of victory into his ear. He let his fingers slip off of the mallet, and let his eyes flicker up to the surroundings. The winner’s bell continued to chime annoyingly as he realized, rather quickly, that he had returned to the central hub of Kill Town once again—the carnival. Well, at least that meant his didn’t lose. Quite the contrary, in fact…
It seemed he’d won.
“Congratulations, sir!” the announcer grinned, sidling up next to the half-Saiyan as the computer-generated crowd cheered on for a winner who hadn’t even played the game. “To honor your exemplary performance, Gamer—the ringmaster of our circus—”
“Gaaaaaameeeeer,” the crowd cooed.
“—yes, Gamer, has chosen to award you with forty monies to your account!” At this, the crowd cheered, but Juno’s face took on a perplexed expression. Monies? Account? What the heck was this game? “According to Mixie, that puts you at sixty monies, my friend.” The first thought that crossed his mind was obvious: where’d he get the first twenty? Oh, well. He wouldn’t argue with luck, he supposed. And it seemed prudent to have some type of currency in this madman’s game. Perhaps it’d get him somewhere.
Something materialized in his coat pocket. He felt it drop to the bottom the cloth appendage to his jacket, and slowly reached in and pulled it out. It was small, and white, not small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, but about the size of one of those video-playing iPods. On the side it read ‘Portal Appearance and General Event Recording Device.’
Wonderful—something else of Gamer’s to mess with. Slowly but surely, a colorful screen popped up, and a small, 2D, pixilated avatar of Juno popped up, falling into a map of the carnival. A small exclamation mark flashed in the bottom corner of the screen, but there was something else that caught Juno’s eye—a button that said ‘Other Contestants.’ He quickly clicked on the words with the stylist that had come with it and read the list.
Ander, Belle Hibiki, and Kaden… all these names he recognized, but they weren’t the one he was looking for… there it was! Sophia. Good, she was still up here in the carnival. Maybe the map would show him where to find her—
The PAGER device beeped, and the exclamation point in the corner grew larger. Someone wanted him to read the message. ‘Post Round Two Update,’ it read, and Juno opened the miniature email, squinting his eyes, struggling to read it. His vision had been deteriorating slightly. First signs of age, he supposed.
“Dear contestants,” it read, “Thank you for making the game so enjoyable to watch so far. Of course, there were the boring spots, but of course, that’s where the eliminations come in. Speaking of, let’s recap. In Round One, Sage and Xenia were relocated to the prison, and Mirabelle Calliope passed away. Such a tragic situation. In Round Two, no one died, unfortunately, but Wolfgang, Alura, and Mr. Zhu have been relocated to the prison. I’d also like to take a moment to congratulate our winners this round: in the Sinking Ship event, Kaden took home the gold. In the Perform for Gamer event, Ander achieved victory. In the Age of Wyrms event, Juno walked away with the prize, and in the Ice Climbers event, Piper and Szar managed to snag first place!”
“But that’s not all this time,” the message continued, slowly reaching its ending, “It seems that the competition just got heated. As you all may or may not know, there’s a certain way to win this game, and that’s through collecting the most badges. My friends, I am pleased to report that we just had our first purchase. Kaden, so far standing strong on a relatively awesome winning streak, has purchased two badges. And remember, in this game, thou shalt covet…” With this, it fizzled out to the by line: “Your friend, Gamer!”
“My friend?” Juno scoffed. “Anything but.” He examined the message again, however: he had obviously been terribly out of the loop when it came to this whole ‘winning the game’ thing, but now that he knew, he knew that he’d have to take life by the horns and make his moves to win the game. Perhaps laying low would serve him well right now, but he wasn’t about to just sit there and let Kaden take all the glory. He had to win this game, for Sage and Xenia… for Sophia… for Juliet… for everyone back home, for… for lots of people, he concluded, mostly women, and so he navigated through his pager to an app called Shop Town. Going to the actual shop probably wasn’t a smart idea at the time, though upon further notice, it was just across the way. He could actually see the red-jacketed courier as he turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
He glanced down at the pager and observed the list. That looks promising, he thought as his vision read the description of one of items. He took the stylist and clicked the ‘Purchase’ button, and the shopping list quickly changed to one that read: Coveting… Coveting…
Within seconds, a compartment at the bottom of the pager opened and a shiny new badge slid out on what looked to be a mini-tray. The badge was interestingly designed; it bore a hand on it, one finger up in the air, the middle one. He nodded, looking up to where he’d seen Kaden previously. “Nice one,” he muttered respectfully, and walked slowly over toward Shop Town, hovering in between the games area and the large display of many different items which he now realized he had the monies to buy—forty monies, in fact. Nevertheless, he decided that waiting would be prudent now. After all, that first one had probably just sprung from bitterness.
“Nothing personal, Kaden,” Juno muttered to himself, “I was just leveling the playing field.”
His fingers were clasped around a wide pole, which was connected to the end of a large mallet. The hammer had smashed squarely onto the scale, sending the cylinder rocketing up to the bell, which had dinged loudly, signaling Juno’s victory. At least, that was what was supposed to have happened.
In reality, Juno didn’t remember entering this contest of strength at all. One second, he had been watching Kazuya jam her sword into the archdemon’s draconic skull, and the next, he had found himself here, the squeaky voice of the event’s overseer whistling songs of victory into his ear. He let his fingers slip off of the mallet, and let his eyes flicker up to the surroundings. The winner’s bell continued to chime annoyingly as he realized, rather quickly, that he had returned to the central hub of Kill Town once again—the carnival. Well, at least that meant his didn’t lose. Quite the contrary, in fact…
It seemed he’d won.
“Congratulations, sir!” the announcer grinned, sidling up next to the half-Saiyan as the computer-generated crowd cheered on for a winner who hadn’t even played the game. “To honor your exemplary performance, Gamer—the ringmaster of our circus—”
“Gaaaaaameeeeer,” the crowd cooed.
“—yes, Gamer, has chosen to award you with forty monies to your account!” At this, the crowd cheered, but Juno’s face took on a perplexed expression. Monies? Account? What the heck was this game? “According to Mixie, that puts you at sixty monies, my friend.” The first thought that crossed his mind was obvious: where’d he get the first twenty? Oh, well. He wouldn’t argue with luck, he supposed. And it seemed prudent to have some type of currency in this madman’s game. Perhaps it’d get him somewhere.
Something materialized in his coat pocket. He felt it drop to the bottom the cloth appendage to his jacket, and slowly reached in and pulled it out. It was small, and white, not small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, but about the size of one of those video-playing iPods. On the side it read ‘Portal Appearance and General Event Recording Device.’
Wonderful—something else of Gamer’s to mess with. Slowly but surely, a colorful screen popped up, and a small, 2D, pixilated avatar of Juno popped up, falling into a map of the carnival. A small exclamation mark flashed in the bottom corner of the screen, but there was something else that caught Juno’s eye—a button that said ‘Other Contestants.’ He quickly clicked on the words with the stylist that had come with it and read the list.
Ander, Belle Hibiki, and Kaden… all these names he recognized, but they weren’t the one he was looking for… there it was! Sophia. Good, she was still up here in the carnival. Maybe the map would show him where to find her—
The PAGER device beeped, and the exclamation point in the corner grew larger. Someone wanted him to read the message. ‘Post Round Two Update,’ it read, and Juno opened the miniature email, squinting his eyes, struggling to read it. His vision had been deteriorating slightly. First signs of age, he supposed.
“Dear contestants,” it read, “Thank you for making the game so enjoyable to watch so far. Of course, there were the boring spots, but of course, that’s where the eliminations come in. Speaking of, let’s recap. In Round One, Sage and Xenia were relocated to the prison, and Mirabelle Calliope passed away. Such a tragic situation. In Round Two, no one died, unfortunately, but Wolfgang, Alura, and Mr. Zhu have been relocated to the prison. I’d also like to take a moment to congratulate our winners this round: in the Sinking Ship event, Kaden took home the gold. In the Perform for Gamer event, Ander achieved victory. In the Age of Wyrms event, Juno walked away with the prize, and in the Ice Climbers event, Piper and Szar managed to snag first place!”
“But that’s not all this time,” the message continued, slowly reaching its ending, “It seems that the competition just got heated. As you all may or may not know, there’s a certain way to win this game, and that’s through collecting the most badges. My friends, I am pleased to report that we just had our first purchase. Kaden, so far standing strong on a relatively awesome winning streak, has purchased two badges. And remember, in this game, thou shalt covet…” With this, it fizzled out to the by line: “Your friend, Gamer!”
“My friend?” Juno scoffed. “Anything but.” He examined the message again, however: he had obviously been terribly out of the loop when it came to this whole ‘winning the game’ thing, but now that he knew, he knew that he’d have to take life by the horns and make his moves to win the game. Perhaps laying low would serve him well right now, but he wasn’t about to just sit there and let Kaden take all the glory. He had to win this game, for Sage and Xenia… for Sophia… for Juliet… for everyone back home, for… for lots of people, he concluded, mostly women, and so he navigated through his pager to an app called Shop Town. Going to the actual shop probably wasn’t a smart idea at the time, though upon further notice, it was just across the way. He could actually see the red-jacketed courier as he turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
He glanced down at the pager and observed the list. That looks promising, he thought as his vision read the description of one of items. He took the stylist and clicked the ‘Purchase’ button, and the shopping list quickly changed to one that read: Coveting… Coveting…
Within seconds, a compartment at the bottom of the pager opened and a shiny new badge slid out on what looked to be a mini-tray. The badge was interestingly designed; it bore a hand on it, one finger up in the air, the middle one. He nodded, looking up to where he’d seen Kaden previously. “Nice one,” he muttered respectfully, and walked slowly over toward Shop Town, hovering in between the games area and the large display of many different items which he now realized he had the monies to buy—forty monies, in fact. Nevertheless, he decided that waiting would be prudent now. After all, that first one had probably just sprung from bitterness.
“Nothing personal, Kaden,” Juno muttered to himself, “I was just leveling the playing field.”