Aeon - The Odyssey

[Xinnidy]

"Heh, sore winner?" What a piece, Mewlanie was. Still, it was flattering to be deemed important enough to private messaging. Winning that one did get her places. Now... totem pole, was it?

Karina excused herself from her warship sightseeing to focus the lens on the crowd. Now where could it... oh, cat ears hat? Was that--yep, that was totally Mew. The use of hoodies was clever, but still... that tail wasn't hiding itself.

I see you. Found a friend to lift you up? Don't wanna deal with that crowd myself, but I got a way better view here anyways. :p

To the right, third window.

Whether Mewlanir bothered or decided paying attention to the stage was more important, Karina held a satisfied, smug smile at her nonetheless.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Xinnidy

[Nanami Touko]

"Toi lâ, i blew nassing. Juste a... Friend. Rival, ees more appropriate. Someone 'oo ees jaloux of ma popularity and wanted to knock me down a peg, mais... Eet was kind of funny, to see someone get zat upset about eet, so I played along. She ees nice, ozzerwise." Mostly. Still had that stick stuck up her ass, Melanie looking over at the main building to see a smug glance off in the distance. She stuck her tongue out again and pulled an eyelid down, if miss FireMiko wanted to be immature, she could too... What even was her name?

'What ees your name, anyway? Take out ze W and you 'ave mine, eet ees not zat complique. What about you, miss 'FireMiko', lol. As for my 'friend', we juste met. Bit of a sucker... Ben, she seems nice enough. Probably could be called a friend, eef today goes well.'

Edited November 29, 2018 by SnakeMomMelissa

[Ether]

Getting used to the weight on her shoulders, Monika leaned back against the beam a bit more, getting into a more comfortable position. In the end, Melanie's thighs had ended up as a soft pillow to rest her head against, but with the girl using her shoulders as a chair, such an exchange seemed fair enough. Resting this way actually allowed the redhead to look up towards the incoming ship and the main stage, so it was a necessity for her own viewing of the event either way.

"That makes sense... if you want to be in the spotlight, seeing someone more popular must be annoying if you're the competitive sort. I never put much thought into trying to get popular, myself."

[Sarki Soliloquy]

Makala heard the reverb of the presentation screen audio feed echo around the food court. With the prize battleship coming through, Battlenet's keynote announcement would start momentarily - no way he suffer slacking on such profound news. Judging by Mewlanie's last Tick, the Independence II's bow was approaching the stage area slightly rightward, with a good 3 yards of people preceding. Makala posited his greatest chance of running into her would be towards the anterior left looking over the front stage.

"Uuuuhnnn...!" Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he paid no heed to his leftover trash as he processed through the vestibule hall. Reaching the plaza, he melded between two adjacent couplings of congoers. The last thing he need was someone obstructing his surfacing calm from behind.

Easy with the elbow room, famalama. These tards insist on packin' ass, I can always use my bag as a barge. That's why I made sure to pack only the pointiest metal & plastic bits in the front pouches!

Makala swore he saw a fuzzy rope swish in the horizon of the head sea. He could see someone sitting upon someone's shoulders, sporting a purple hoodie. With a cap sporting flappy ears? His teeny mewblob came closer and closer, but he needed to muscle it if he wanted to guarantee a spot next to her.

Edited November 29, 2018 by Sarki Soliloquy

[Balcerzak]

 

Linus tossed the crumpled wrapping that had held the bouquet of flowers into a wastebin on his way out of the hospital. He didn't actually know Karina's favorite flower, but the florist had said hydrangeas represent perseverance, and would make an excellent 'get well soon' gift, so he'd gone ahead with the suggestion. Though, whether his teammate would come out of stasis to see them before they withered was another story. No, stop thinking like that, Linus lightly slapped his cheeks to try to psyche himself up out of taking that train of thought all the way to the end of the line at Downsville, but it was a little late to fully avoid the spiral of negativity.

This really was the final straw wasn't it? The transport accident on the way back from The Belt had been the cause for Carmen's handler yanking her from the team, or if not the real reason, at least a convenient excuse. With her, the three of them still might have been able to limp along long enough to secure a new sponsor, after Janus had opted out of renewal. But without her? It had been hard enough trying to expand the roster when Odyssey had been at its full strength--his ultimate goal had been to try to get enough subs so they could start hosting some in-house scrims, instead of having to set things up with the friendlier of their rivals--but that hadn't been panning out so well. A few bites, sure, but mostly lukewarm interest, and from the wrong kinds of players. Now though? He had to be realistic. Odyssey hadn't made the kind of name for itself that would really enable them to pull a Negaデス, that group with the record number of different rosters, held together almost entirely by its recognizable frontman. If they had, well, Janus wouldn't have cancelled on them, and Joe wouldn't have bailed.

Pulling out his phone and thumbing to his frequent contacts page, two numbers standing well above the rest in terms of overall hits, he made the call. When it connected, and the other party had picked up, Linus started, "Hey, Hitomi, it's me. I've been thinking--", then he paused and waited for her to interrupt, like she always did. He could get back on point once that was over with, it was pretty much a usual song and dance routine by this point.

 

"Plan E!" Hitomi's voice came through with the kind of desperation one would find in the last thirty seconds of a losing game. "We'll challenge a high ranking solo player and--wait ..." The idea had clearly just come to her. She would have realized that plan had big problems a lot sooner, otherwise. Of course, they could individually run up and challenge someone from the 'big leagues,' but there weren't many people stupid enough to let themselves get turned into a publicity stunt. Having only been at this for a year herself, Hitomi's chances against a higher ranked player in a one versus one were just shy of abysmal. Linus might fare better, but it was still too big of a gamble for their reputation.

"... n-never mind. No one's gonna fall for that. Plan F's yours."

 

Oh, by Jove, she was still at it... Linus shook his head a little, as the slightly shrill tones coloring his friend's voice rang through loud and clear. Her interjected idea was, of course, terrible, but damned if she wasn't steadfastly refusing to give up, scrounging for anything. He was going to have to phrase this delicately, or he'd break her heart. It was already almost breaking his own. To think, not being able to accomplish either of his goals... Well, maybe not a total loss, he revised his thoughts. Hitomi certainly had been given a good boost in the motivation department and a clear sense of direction, compared to a year ago, which (provided she didn't lose it after this whole fiasco) was at least a consolation prize.

"Wait, did we skip over Plans C and D when I wasn't looking, or did I just forget," he joked back briefly, to keep the mood light. Plan A had of course been posting that they were accepting applications to Odyssey on some of the main Frame Ops community sites, and Plan B was to see if they couldn't leverage some of Felix's contacts. Of course, Linus didn't have much hope on getting anything out of that old warhorse, but somehow Hitomi had a curious knack with the man, so maybe there was a chance, however slim.

"Listen and let me finish. ...I guess, there's no better way to say it, but my 'Plan F'," he kept up the charade, "Is to start putting in our apps to other teams. Maybe Nessus...? Maybe not... Maybe it'll be back to solos... duos," he quickly corrected himself, "Until we can get enough notice to get picked up. If this next batch of potential recruits falls through, I'm just, I'm having trouble seeing another way around things, Hitomi. If we had a path forward for Odyssey, I'd fight for it, you know that. But I'm really not seeing any signs other than 'Dead End' right now."

 

Hitomi let Linus finish, and it was like a ride at a theme park: ups and downs, a couple of worrisome turns, and a track jump thrown in for a good measure. Trying to transfer over to Nessus was definitely out, even if it meant they could play with Carmen, again. That Babelbrain Ninos would turn his nose up at them at best, and at worst, let them onto his team just to lord over them.

Fighting in pairs seemed like their only option, right now, but it wasn't the way forward. Working their way up from there would take longer than going solo. And that was the real problem with either option ... time. It wasn't against Battlenet's rules for team members to fight solo or in other arrangements in their spare time, but there was a participation period all of the official teams had to adhere to. Failing that, those teams would be disbanded and their names reserved, so the next team to register couldn't simply scoop it up and try to use it for their own ends. Even if they kept doing regular matches, too big of a losing streak, or a judgment by Battlenet that a team was no longer viable, would lead to that team being disbanded, as well. They would lose the name they came up with, and just be a couple of down and out players. They weren't in any condition to win any serious matches, right now ...

"Mrgh ..." Hitomi could see Linus' point, but still ... "Don't think about applying for a different team," she said sternly, "Odyssey is where we belong and we'll make this work! I know we will ... j-just ... need to find some extremely bored, talented players that no one else has scouted, yet ... heeeh." Hitomi could feel herself getting lightheaded at the prospect alone.

 

Linus could practically see Hitomi's pouting face as she grumbled on the other end of the line before firmly entreating him to reconsider. Her desperation would have been almost cute if he could somehow manage to detach himself from the unfortunate position of actually being swallowed up in all this mess. He really wished it had pushed her into thinking up some clever solution, instead of just the... baseless hoping she managed to latch out onto. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it, come on, Hitomi.

Trying not to sigh audibly, Linus instead opted to scratch the back of his head with his free hand and tilt his face upward, gazing up at New Victoria. It was an interesting vista, certainly different than the one you'd get living on Evergreen City, rather than here in Providence. There you'd get an actual view of the stars, space, all that. Instead of well, mostly residential districts.

"You're right, surely there gotta be a few diamonds in the rough," he could humor her at least. Hopefully the despair wasn't too evident in his voice. "Just, do we have time to sort through the whole litter... Ladder, to find any of them? Well, maybe we'll get some good luck to balance out the bad. How many applicants we have in this latest batch anyway?"

 

"Erm ... two," Hitomi said, trying to keep her spirits up, if only to keep Linus from backtracking into the muck. "They uh ... didn't put in much ..." Just their names and a brief description of how they prefer to play. The second of the two was a little obnoxious with their wording, almost like they thought they were a shoe in and coming on as team manager or something. Linus would just 'love' that.

"The first one is 'Bel Belim.' Sounds Babylonian as braided beards. He likes to play tank, so that's not too bad. The second one's ... 'Motherloader' ... and we should probably just ignore that one," Hitomi's face twisted in discomfort, "I can already tell they're going to be a pain. His profile has things in it like, 'Your team needs direction to stay competitive, so when I make a call be sure to follow through.' Just ... we are not looking for a new leader, guy." Beggars couldn't choosers, but Hitomi doubted they could hit their quota and avoid being disbanded while trying to straighten out some pushy FNG.

 

"Ho boy," Linus exhaled in disgust as Hitomi described the second. "Sounds like if we were looking for assholes, that certainly would be the 'motherload'. Just dump that little shitter quietly. If you think Bel Bel has a shot at working out, send me the contact info, unless you want take point on that one yourself." He found himself nodding a bit as talking his way through the situation proved to be a welcome change from what might have otherwise been steady stream of sighs. Sometimes diving in and taking action was what ended up spurring change for the positive.

"If that's all we've got though, I guess it's time to start hitting the circuit hard ourselves, instead of hoping they come to us. I'll hop onto ASync later tonight and see what I can find." If nothing else--even if he couldn't find any folks that might slot into Odyssey, maybe it'd give him a window into places he might consider applying. A twinge of guilt ran through Linus, as the double-purpose of his actions hit him harder than he was expecting. "You should probably start thinking about options too, Hitomi. If... if we can't make the dream happen. Sucks, I know, but..." Linus trailed off. She didn't want to consider failure, sure, who did? But there was a difference between being hopeful and blinding yourself to the facts. Not worth pushing the matter any further than this right now, though.

Of course she refused, and had some more shaky reasoning and weak logic ready to fire back, but Hitomi was in a bit more fluster than usual, so after a bit of perfunctory posturing from the both of them, they opted to put the rest of that discussion on hold till they met up in person a little later on. The big Battlenet con was having a couple of special guests today with more than passing relevance for them, so that provided an excellent excuse for a get together.

"Hmm, guess I'll just take the metro." Having terminated the call, Linus mused to himself, shifting his gaze to the streets, sweeping from the lanes for private traffic to the channels carved out for public transit. It would be crowded, and probably a little obnoxious, but then again, so would the convention. Nothing wrong with getting a little head-start on all that, and to be honest, he was looking forward to that strange, paradoxical, sense of aloneness that could be found among the overwhelming crush of people, and all the impenetrable din and clamor that came with them. It would be almost perfect for the sort of deep thinking he had on his plate.

 

While Linus and Hitomi had agreed to set aside their unfinished business until meeting up in person, the two of them hadn't actually settled on a time or place. That said, he wasn't particularly concerned with that current state of affairs. It's not like they were stranded without any means of communication, after all. Until the itch got bad enough for one or the other of them that there were no getting around trying to scratch things out immediately, it should be perfectly fine for them to just tool around the convention grounds as they individually saw fit. So that's exactly what Linus had been doing.

His first order of business had been to hit up the underground mall, where sections had been alloted to individuals, setting up stalls to display and sell their custom models, arts, crafts, and whatever else. Similar to what they'd done with shopping center's main building up above, Battlenet had negotiated a clause into the agreement vendors had to sign when applying for stall space. While Linus didn't know the exact details, it was clear that there was something in there specifying that some fraction of the wares had to be Frame Ops goods, or at least FO adjacent. But a lot of the sellers were still proudly advertising some of their side projects as well, so it was always exciting to take a stroll along and see what popped out.

Speaking of which, he'd actually picked up a few things along the way. One of them was an indy horror flick, almost certainly cheesily directed and probably cringe-worthy, but the vendor had been friendly and cute, and it was cheaper than the other offerings, so he'd sprung for it anyway. If nothing else, he was pretty sure he could rally together an appreciative audience it could entertain for an evening, so it wasn't too much of a waste. And supporting actual individuals instead of mega-corporations always felt... right, uplifting.

But it was getting to be closer to midday than morning now, and there was something lined up for pretty soon, if he remembered his schedule, so Linus had wrapped up his browsing and was fighting against the crowd to make his way back into the open air above. Of course, it was the perfect time for his phone to ring. After a couple more moments of jostling, he succeeded his way into a free pocket of space about a stone's throw from the end of the stairs. Finally, he managed to pull the phone out and pick it up on the third ring. "Hello? Hitomi? What's up?" Maybe she was thinking about coordinating them grabbing a bite to eat together or something? It was getting to be about time to start considering it, anyway, wasn't it?

Edited November 30, 2018 by Balcerzak

[the_whistler]

Felix looked up from his handheld screen briefly when yet another alert popped up with the latest ETA for the Independence II, not quite visible in the sky. He shook his head; luckily a bit of buffer time had been built into the schedule for today, and his guest speech could be cut short if needed. A quick flick of his fingers brought up the 'Hitomi tag,' which displayed their ten most recent digital interactions: Compak message, Swift payment, yesterday's video chat... Looks like Hitomi should be here by now, judging by that timestamp, he thought. Another swipe brought back his to-do list for the next few days.  

---

"10:29 ... begin operation," Matsuo said, getting ready to head on stage. 

"I'm ready when you are. I'll see if I can't help her sort through any interested folks once all the talking is done. If you do manage to give Hitomi and Odyssey a shoutout, she'll probably be swarmed at the end." That also meant Felix wouldn't have time to grab a bite after Matsuo got off stage. After his own talk was finished and Matsuo resumed though - would there be enough time for him to sneak off stage, loop around the standing crowd without being noticed, buy a Silver Bullet shake, return to this side of the partition blocking him from view of the audience, and scoop Hitomi out of the crowd before she was trampled post-presentation? Maybe not. 

Sighing internally, Felix made a quick request of one of the BattleNet employees loitering behind stage. There was a little irony in Felix Lis buying a 'Silver Bullet' shake; a percentage of the profit technically went to him. Here's hoping they didn't neglect taste for looks when making this.

[Phoenix]

"Linus," Hitomi sounded relieved and excited at the same time, "It's time for Plan H! Dad might be just what we need to get a good publicity boost, here. He told me to find a spot up front, and ..." Glancing around, Hitomi was fairly certain this was as close as anyone from the audience could get without being invited up on stage. On that note, the crowd seemed pretty well behaved. People weren't testing the rails as far as she could see, even though no security drones had made their way onto the scene, yet. Then again, Battlenet was probably relying on the plaza's security drones, which were tucked away behind unassuming panels the like. Right, focus. "Iiii made it to the front row. I think he's going to give our team a shoutout~ We can use that and find some interested players after the presentation."

There were downsides, to be certain. With fifteen seconds of fame came scrutinizing gazes that wouldn't think much of Team Odyssey in its current state. They had done considerably well in the past, but their bad luck recently would look like a death spiral to most people, and Linus' suggestions from their last talk would just seem like the natural course. They had talent, so why not join another team and not go down with the ship? For Hitomi, it was just plain stubbornness. Felix had never had to do anything like that. When things got hard, he just brought more ammo, and that's what she was going to do. If it meant having to get over her aversion to a bazillion eyes bearing down on her, judging every little thing ... so be it. They would be praised in the end.

---

Matsuo was amused by Felix's decision to help Hitomi's team after the presentation. It was a good idea in theory, certainly not as counterproductive as the pure hand holding and shameless promotion less principled players would be begging him for. "Heheh, with you with them, they'll be dealing with more than just auditions, you know. But I suppose that just comes with the territory."

---

The timing of this call seemed as off as the last one, and for much the same reason. The welcome message disappeared in short order and the various screens began showing the stage. That was when Mr. Moto himself stepped out from backstage, dressed in a navy blue suit. "Do me a favor," Hitomi quickly said, lowering her voice to avoid drawing attention, "Find a spot where we can handle any interested players and send me a waypoint!"

Matsuo reached the center of the stage right as the warship began to drift directly over the plaza. For the first time, the roar for its engines could finally be heard, albeit barely. Hitomi could only scowl at her father as the man tried to act like he didn't know the thing was right above him. Instead of immediately acknowledging the ship along with everyone else, Matsuo took a moment to scan the crowd, looking curious and confused by the skyward stares and incessant finger and camera pointing. "... something wrong?" Matsuo asked, his hidden microphone carrying his voice throughout the plaza and the whole event.

Finally, Matsuo got to the part of his little act where he followed the upward focus of many in the audience to the warship overhead. "Ohhh," Matsuo exclaimed, really hamming things up. Hitomi could only pretend she didn't find her father's antics amusing at times. Seriously, though ... "Would you look at that!" Matsuo looked back down at the crowd with a youngster's awe and amazement. "What's a battleship doing here at the convention ...?"

Hitomi scowled at that one. As if they hadn't paid millions to convince Scipio to lone them the ship for a while. Also, it was technically a battlecruiser, but that was an unwinnable debate about semantics at this point. Maybe someday everyone would put their differences aside and stamp out the weirdos calling them 'battle carriers.' That heresy needed to stop.

"Erp-!" Hitomi flinched when Matsuo spotted her and grinned knowingly at her. He must have been both happy and amused that she'd made it this far up.

"You know," Matsuo looked to the wider audience, "It just so happens ... mm, one thing at a time," he pretended to shift gears, "First, let me welcome all of you to Batcon 2405. Each of you, your interest in Frame Ops, in Battlenet, in your fellows, that's what makes this community strong. It's what keeps everything going, and our community growing. It's why the Frame Ops community is one of the longest enduring gaming communities in modern times."

Hitomi found herself nodding at her father's assessment. For some reason a lot of gaming communities would shrink to almost nothing after perhaps a decade or so. Only the people who had too much time on their hands or an unhealthy attachment to those franchises seemed to still be around after that. Frame Ops, even with plenty of other similar titles out there, was only getting bigger, even after roughly two decades. There were probably politics of a sort working their unsightliness in the background, but overall, Hitomi was glad to have something so big that she belonged to. Not an army, or a stellar religion, but a group of people that liked to blow stuff up in cyberspace, and others who liked to watch.

"Still ..." Matsuo seemed to be having a little brainstorming session with himself up on stage, "we don't want things to get stale now, do we? We've heard back from you for years about all things you want added into Battlenet's Frame Ops from the base game, and I am pleased to announce that once again ... your wishes have been granted. My dear friend and teammate is here with us today, and I think it only fitting for the legend himself to show you just what we're doing here at Battlenet, and the new content that's coming. Please give a warm welcome to the Felix Lis, ladies and gentlemen, the Silver Bullet!"

Somehow, Hitomi got caught up in the excitement too, throwing her hands up with just about everyone else in the front row and clapping. It was hard not to be excited, what with her sensei coming out to greet a huge crowd like this. Honorable and hardworking players like Felix were what made the game so great for the spectators and so engaging for players trying to get stronger. Self made legends deserved all the praise they could handle, so Hitomi clapped right along with the others. She clapped until her palms hurt.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Phoenix

[Nanami Touko]

"Hah, popular. I only 'ave around uh... Une moment... Two... 'undred, sousand? 'Undred fifty sousand? English numbers are weird... But, zat. Two 'undred and fifty sousand people zat follow me on Juno Channel, and ma Ticks account 'as even less. I suppose I am, popular, ben, someone like ze Silver Bullet zey are announcing? Now zat ees popular." This Matsuo fellow was really playing up the situation... Geez, they didn't have to ham it this far, but... It was amusing, at least. "What ees your username, anyway, Monika? Mine is Mewlanie... Zough I do not sink you will 'ave eard of me, eef you did not recognize moi by ze tail." Maybe she was new to the game? She didn't seem like fit with the crowd, that could be it. Not zat I fit any better, ben...

[Ether]

"I mean... that's still a lot of people, if you ask me. Look at how crowded this plaza is... there probably isn't even close to that many packed into this place, but they already look like an ocean of people." Monika began... there came that Silver Bullet name again. The announcer had talked about them too... some sort of big shot player, to be certain. The redhead pondered for a moment, if she had bothered to play with nameplates on, would she recognize that name? Perhaps they were a regular in Aeon... although a lot of team players didn't spend enough time in solo queue to maintain that ranking, team priorities and all... but on a more pressing note, now Melanie wanted her Frame Ops username... what harm could it really do? She hadn't been in the top spot for that long, how likely was it for someone to recognize a random high-Aeon player, really...

"I don't really follow streams or any of that stuff... I just kind of play on my own, I even keep names off most of the time. I find stuff like that only tends to psyche you out in game... so don't take my not recognizing you as a shot, Melanie. I can't say I recognize this Silver Bullet guy either, aside from having heard the name in conversation at some point. As for me, uhh... it's Keizerin."

[Nanami Touko]

"You do not follow anysing of ze game? You must really enjoy eet, to juste play for eet and nossing else... Ben lâ, lâ lâ, quoi? Kessé tu dit? QUOI? KEIZERIN!? Toi lâ, you cannot be-- whoa-- ack!" Had she seriously said Keizerin? Seriously? No, there was no way, this wallflower couldn't possibly be... But... But how would she know just that name if she didn't know anyone else? And... But that meant... These thoughts swirled in Melanie's head as their totem collapsed and she met the ground, slowly sitting up. "Oi... Vraiment? Are you, seriously? Zere ees no way... Zat... Zat would make you ze number one player for solo, non. Non non, zis cannot be... You are... You do not... Ayoi..."

[Ether]

"Well, it started out as a bit of a hobby, something to do after work. After a while I star- hwa?!" Monika began, before Melanie's sudden jostling swiftly and abruptly brought both women toppling to the ground in a heap. Well, that was probably the worst way that could have gone... it might have been better to simply give Melanie a false name, after all, the chance she'd want to friend or play with some nobody she met at a con would have been slim... ah, what a mess.

"Err... yeah, that's me. I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't recognize it... do a lot of people follow Aeon solo queue, even if it isn't being streamed?" Monika asked, rubbing the back of her head for a moment... it didn't make any sense unless... 

"Ugh, unless the other players were streaming with names on... which they probably were. Damn it..."

[Nanami Touko]

"Quoi? Ayoi, non, non Monika, you are a legend. Franchement, I cannot believe you did not know... Are you sérieux? I cannot believe zis, no one can be zis blind to zeir own popularity." And thinking other people wouldn't stream with names on... "Of course we do... And you are... I cannot believe eet. Hehah~ Très bien, zis ees amazing, non? Can I get a picture wis you? Eef people saw us togezzer... I cannot imagine what l'internet would say. Ees eet okay? I am still een shock..." Melanie stood up proper and held her hand out to help Monika back up. "What do you say to being friends?"

[Ether]

"A legend? That... surely nothing like that, you must be joking... trying to pull a fast one on shy little Monika, h-huh...?" The redhead retorted, blush growing in her cheeks as Melanie heaped on her knowledge of Frame Ops mythology... something that Monika herself was apparently a part of. And then she froze. A picture? On an account with that many followers? That was... whew, that was a... it was a sell, alright. On the one hand, it was... unlikely, to reach any problem individuals, but on the other... that many people? Taking Melanie's offered hand whilst still in a mild stupor, Monika looked over the suddenly very excited girl, for reasons other than the battlecruiser this time.

"I uhh... I'd love to be your friend Melanie, but uhh... I mean... a picture? No one would believe that someone like me could be... legendary, as you put it. You were so flabbergasted that we ended up on the ground."

[Nanami Touko]

"Ehh? You 'ave your name attached to your account, non? People can juste look eento eet from ze picture... You 'ave never used sings like zis, 'ave you? What a strange girl." Anyone could just look up her picture and it would bring up her Frame Ops account, they were attached to your name, after all. No one could refute that she was actually Keizerin that way~ Perfect. "D'accord, come 'ere." Melanie stepped herself over and pushed up shoulder to shoulder with Monika, holding her arm around the girl to keep her close. "Juste smile for ze camera, oui?" Her free hand held up her phone, a small glance at Monika. "Say when you are ready, okay?"

[Ether]

"Ahh... umm..." Rats... curse you, convenient technology! Well... there wasn't much she could do about it at this point, was there. Melanie seemed set on this selfie, and the catgirl streamer was a tad too assertive for Monika to properly rebut. Accepting her fate, Monika managed a small, shy smile towards the camera. Hopefully this wouldn't turn out too badly...

[Nanami Touko]

"Fantastique! Cheers~" A wink, and a snap, one premium Mewlanie and Keizerin selfie. Melanie let go of the poor girl to look at her phone, almost afraid to upload it to LunarTicks... "You do not know 'ow much power I 'ave een siz photo, Monika... You really, do not know." But... With great power came great responsibility, right? Time to find out what that responsibility entailed!

'Look 'oo I found 'ere at Batcon? Keizerin! Ze number one player een solo queue! Can you believe 'ow cute she ees!? 'Opefully I can get to play ze game on stream wis 'er once zis ees all over~ I 'ope you are all as surprised as moi!'

"And, send..." Immediately replies came in, Melanie poked at the first few, most were calling her a liar, but then other came in with what she'd expected. 'Check her profile', 'no way, is that seriously keizerin!?', 'who knew the number one player was such a cute girl... what the hell?' Melanie Couldn't help a laugh. "I can see zat ma followers are quite 'appy wis zis... I will give you ze link later, so you can see as well. Merci, Monika... I suppose I owe you more zan juste one meal après, non?"

[Rothene]

Somehow managing to squeeze to the railing due to her small frame(she might be more than a little disappointed with the condition of her parcel when she gets home...), Helena pokes her diminutive head over the railing to catch the sight of the battlecruiser in its full glory. Definitely commandeering one of that if there's a patch that adds it!"

 

And then the Silver Bullet was introduced and Helena promptly dropped her dessert on the floor. it was very difficult to applaud without both hands empty while skipping like a hyperactive schoolgirl.

[Xinnidy]

Hah! Sticking her tongue out, what a piece. Melanie's reaction only made Karina's smug smile wider, as she stared down the window. It reminded her of the time she beat Melanie. Good times. And then, another message. Mewlanie wasn't completely done with her, which was probably a good thing...

yeah not hard to figure out your name. its not that hard to find mine if you look into my account tho, im Karina.

There was no need for animosity anymore, even if reminding Mewlanie of the loss was amusing. Contacts were contacts, and Mewlanie was fairly popular, maybe it would lead to some opportunity for Karina later. Speaking of opportunities, it seemed Mewlanie had made another public post, and... that couldn't have been a more unlikely person for her mystery friend to turn out to be. "That son of a gun, she found Keizerin? Yeah right--" The replies were coming in hordes, some agreeing with Karina's initial stance, some telling to check their ID... no way. With a touch of the smartglass at the red-headed girl in the picture, Karina had her doubts debunked. "Are you... holy shit." Mewlanie was just there hanging out with the Keizerin? Unthinkable, but, that was them, which meant...

The totem, it was no longer in sight of the smartglass, Karina zoomed once more. Good, they were still there, she had to mark that spot on her navigator. "Ugh, that crowd... but..." She wouldn't let that chance pass, antisocial as she was. "I'm going to have to ask the waiter to hold my table for me. This might take a while..."

A couple minutes later, Karina stepped on the ground floor, taking in a deep breath. That crowd absolutely wanted to make her give up, but she wasn't known for backing down. "Fuck it." She walked out of the café, into the incoherent mass of people watching the host's talk. At least that played to Karina's advantage, with most spectators calming down and paying full attention to the man's speech, it was easy to swerve to her designated target, and those who didn't move... well, elbows worked wonders.

Where was she now? There, the cat hat.

[Afterglimmer]

The Silver Bullet on stage, huh.  Guess they really want to go for a strong showing.

Friedrich joined in the applause with some of the other spectators gathered around the display as Felix took the stage.  A familiar buzzing in his left pocket, however, brought him back to reality.  He pulled out his phone to find a familiar message from Nicholas.

Shall we do this the same as always?

Yes, I think it would be best.  We'll proceed as planned.

Though his demeanor remained as stoic as usual, Friedrich couldn’t help but be excited for the forthcoming news.

[Sarki Soliloquy]

The crowd settled in place as Matsuo's speech continued. Wedging up the plaza was more navigable when most attendees stood in place for the ideal camera views. Granted, those in more compressed bunches or the directionally-challenged had to etch their shoulders just to see the main stage or the Independence, others bobbing upon tiptoes. Makala hastened pace once Mewlanie seemed to have tumbled below.

Hoooi, dios mio. His breathing labored, sweat beginning to bead beneath his nylon tracksuit. Warm bodies radiating off each other by an elbow's distance only cranked the pressure loop he tricked himself into just from the arousal of finally seeing his hero IRL. Surely that... that didn't prompt the med team. The drones are watching that, right? Jove, the drones. She, she's got to have limbered up by now. Feline dexterity! How else does her profile mount 33.6 IPM!? R-Right? Couldn't be that she has a boyfr-

He dug into his soles: Mewlanie was just a shoulder's squidge through some standees. No boyfriend, but she seemed to be gushing about something to some diminutive redhead svelte. V-celebs (if her following even warranted that stature yet) often want to keep a low head at majors like this, lest they be assaulted by overzealous fans. Mewlanie's wardrobe was definitely dressed for concealment over the breathable housewear on stream.

Remain calm, she's not going anywhere soon. Just don't hover 'round her. Mew's just not meeting any other rando. You... you're, M3W CR3W M00KZ33Z! Her #1 donor-o! Xelco-Shave® Dolphin Hormone Antiperspirant, lend me your peer-reviewed, clinically-proved mojo!

Washing the rosy rouse from his ashen-tan face, his fists clenched from a deep breath. He sidled his way behind her, gluing his eyes on Felix's entrance in hopes he wouldn't look suspicious. He darted his eyes at Mewlanie & her companion.

[DarthR0xas]

Hmm, and I thought the Battleship was supposed to be the huge showstopper. Venitus thought to himself. Well, I mean it still is, obviously. It's a literal Battleship nothing could top that at a convention like this, but an appearance by the Silver Bullet himself, now that makes a solid second. Looking out over the crowd, it stayed mostly still, maybe a bit of swaying, or slight sidestepping when they were elb waiting in anticipation for the exact moment that the Bullet would walk out. There was still movement in said crowd, a few fans that just couldn't contain their excitement, a few people moving closer, some people moving in the direction of some girl with a cat hoodie, and so- wait why are so many people moving towards her? Sure, it's only two, but that is too many for this to be sheer coincidence in a crowd as still as this one. Actually, she's probably just a streamer, no need to get worked up over something that amounts to nothing important. 

But if this really is the Silver Bullet himself, then I should probably get up front. That railing looks packed, but I'm sure I could force my way too it, or at the very least somewhere near the front. With this decision made, Venitus jumped off the roof of the building, doing a quick flip in the process, half to show off, half just for the fun of doing flips. He then started making his way up front. The greatest amount of people were situated around the front center and front right, but the left still was a tad more open. Sliding into a position along the railing, Venitus relaxed and looked up right as the Silver Bullet walked out.

[Xinnidy]

"There you are!" Finally, Karina struggled through the crowd hard enough to reach the streamer. Goodness, these people could really complicate traffic over some announcement, why were they so hyped up? Ugh. "Mew... Melanie... you've been with the Keizerin all this time? This can't... I know I just looked at their info but, ugh! What a time for you to show your face." The fact they were with Melanie was somewhat ticking, but the showoff catgirl streamer did say they just kind of met. Lucky girl. "So yes! You're Keizerin, right? Like, the real one, number one and everything?" Karina stared at Monika, silently judging the girl. There was no time to wait in her books, with such a big catch. "Fight me."

[Ether]

"Ho, geez..." Monika shrunk a bit as Melanie showed her the immediate aftermath of the fateful Tick. Those likes and reTicks were climbing fast, as were the comments... and just like that, her face was known. Anonymity broken, shattered into tiny bite-sized pieces. Well... what was done was done, she would simply need to best deal with what was coming... speaking of which, it didn't take long for another girl to approach the duo, apparently someone who knew Melanie enough to address her by name, and who had already read that Tick.

"Err, yes, that's right. I suppose the cat is out of the bag..." Monika replied... would Melanie take offense to that turn of phrase? It seemed unlikely, but it was too late now, since she had already said it. What followed wasn't quite expected, but wasn't... overly surprising, she supposed.

"Fight you? Err... who are you, exactly?" Monika asked, tilting her head a bit. Not that she would recognize the name, no matter what the answer was, but you should at least name yourself when challenging someone to a duel.

[Nanami Touko]

Looks like Karina had caught up. And as Melanie had expected, she was just as surprised as the cat had been. "I know, right!? I 'ad juste grabbed onto 'er because she saw moi adjusting my tail, ben, 'oo would 'ave known zat she would be so famous?" Melanie was still rather shocked... What wasn't shocking was what Karina did next. Melanie sighed, smiled, and shook her head. "Do not mind 'er, Monika. She ees juste some platinum player wis dreams of grandeur... Only a fool would rush up to ze number one on ze ladder and demand a one on one. Karina, mon ami, s'il vous plait, calme toi lâ. You should be paying attention to ze stage, non? Not embarrassing yourself een front of Keizerin." The audacity on this girl... It was almost charming, but she was so focused on winning, at all times, Melanie wondered if she ever rested.

[Xinnidy]

"I'm not plat! I'll have you know, I just won my promotions to plasma yesterday... no, today, past midnight. Still." Karina retorted strongly, hand turned to her own person as she snapped a finger. She turned her attention to more pressing things --Keizerin. "I'm Karina, FireMiko in the game, and like I just corrected Melanie, I'm on a roll, and who knows, maybe I'm closer to the number one mechanically and solo matchmaking is just dragging me down. Still..." Pause for breath, "Nothing staked, nothing gained. If I lose, I'll learn how far I am from the top players and try later, and if I win, I'll have everyone know I did. Sound fair?" Karina's confidence was almost obnoxiously unwavering, that was for sure. "What do you say, miss number one?"

Edited December 2, 2018 by Xinnidy