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Aeon - The Odyssey


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It seemed even Monika was applying, after all. It'd be a tall order to compete --not that Karina knew how many spots were open--, but of course Karina wasn't daunted by it any. Well, as long as there was any sort of gameplay trial she'd prove herself. It'd be bad scouting if they weren't doing any of that, so she had a chance, absolutely.

Unfortunately, being so tardy meant she'd be waiting quite a while. Hmm... nobody else I know in the line anymore. Can't cut it... Ah well, she could wait. Those that had been reviewed were waiting as well, so that was just part one of the interview like she'd expected. Speaking of which, Mewlanie was just chilling there at one of the tables now. For all her arrogance, Karina bothered to wave to the girl, making herself known. Perhaps she just wanted to remind Mewlanie she'd be competing for a spot too, maybe that's what the ressurgent smug smile was all about.

--

For a moment, Felix seemed more worried about gauging the crowd, one line would certainly take longer, but perhaps the input of both of the remaining members would be needed to resolve their prospectful recruits. Then again, with the hint of a live trial, Felix waged the introductions only served the need for data collection and catching of obvious duds. "I think you should take a line, Linus. Otherwise, I hope you'll cut Hitomi some slack during the next step." A courteous but sly smile grew as Felix addressed Linus. While Linus wasn't devoid of a role right now, what with the holograms to watch, there was definitely higher pressure to Hitomi, eyes were nearly all centered on her --save for the few who were admiring the Silver Bullet's presence--. "And don't worry, no offense taken. I am reserving my comments for later." For a moment, Felix did the chance of taking a line of his own, but he gathered his presence was more as moral support and an instructor first. It wouldn't do to make Odyssey's choices for them, but he'd certainly give his opinions, so long as no anxious fellows were around to hear it.

Felix exhaled a half-sigh, the simple yet serviceable shake he'd bought earlier had been sipped dry of its contents, and honestly, while another beverage would go well with the growing warmth of the crowded building, Felix knew it'd be best not to overdo it. He could whip up a better one later, if the cravings did not subside.

One thing was certain, Odyssey wasn't going to be short of options. A platinum competitor and the highest ranking solo player seemed like good prospects of their own, in his mind they'd be ideal options save any tragic mismatches in game tempo or role adaptability, which they were still left to see. Unfortunately, battleships were a bit out of his element, as far as Frame Ops combat went. That one was certainly a wrench Felix would need to keep an eye on.

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“Ah, don’t worry about it too much.”  Friedrich was about let out another hearty laugh before hearing the fate of Zeke’s team.  He knew that the Sable Order was facing some tough times thanks to the reports he had reviewed this morning, but he wasn’t expected disbandment this soon.  Truth be told, he had watched quite a few of their matches to pick up a few tricks, so he was hopeful they would turn things around.  He returned Zeke’s small wave before turning back towards Venitus. 

“I can definitely agree with taking whatever chances you can find.  To be completely honest, this is my first formal tryout for a Spec Ops team.  I want to see how my skills measure up against the pros and well, give the viewers a show while I’m at it.  At any rate, do you have some gameplay clips picked out?  Maybe a second set of eyes can help you narrow which ones to show off,” Friedrich said as he reached for his phone to start looking for some clips as well.

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"Retiring? Well, that's a shame, but way to be proactive." So that's why he's in this line, makes sense. Least he gets to keep that awesome jacket. "Yep, I'll be applying as well, best of luck." Venitus gave Zeke a small nod before Aska started talking again.

"Your first time?" If what I recall of him is correct, this Aska fellow has done some pretty neat stuff in solo-play, but I would think he would join a team. Being an Aether level player probably means he gets a lot of offers, certainly more than I ever would. "Yeah, this would technically be my first time actually serving on a team, most of my time in the circuit has been back-up. Hasn't really given me much time to actively measure myself against others, or properly integrate into a team." Venitus let his eyes wander a bit while talking to Aska, trying to measure up who else might be vying for a spot on this team. Wow, there are a lot of popular faces here, and also ones who are certainly on a skill level far above my own. I might have some connections, nothing major, subbed for an Odyssey member once and then business was done, but those are basically meaningless against actual team experience.

Venitus almost got lost in his thoughts, but Aska started asking about game clips, which snapped him out of it. "Oh, I have a few of the customary clips picked out. Although I haven't really updated any of them in some time, and the ones that are there are more focused on how I could serve as a sub rather than a full team member, so I should probably grab some better ones for this." Venitus started to scan through whatever notable clips of him there were. He picked a few that showed off some fancy maneuvers, some that showed what his frame could do, and one that primarily was game-chatter that would show how he behaved in game. "A second eye would be great, here are some that stick out to me, although there are a few extras that would also be decent if you desire to see those as well". Venitus quickly transferred the clips from his database onto his phone, and then pulled out said phone with a quick glance behind him back at Zeke. I can't really hear what's going on there, but it looks pretty good. I'd wager my optic eye he's gonna get in.

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Faint humming of neon light girders vibrated off the chromatic finish tiles. Not one latch had locked upon any of the self-janitorial toilet capsules right of behind Makala.

"Ayyye, la chinganda," Makala intonated, pushing himself up from the sink rim. His pupils shrunk as he faced the mirror.

"No no no, what's Mewl's thinkin' of me now? Oiiii le jui, Flamebake zet me free drink, but zhen bhoure me an' trail away like little puzee cat!"

Sighing, he shuffled his phone from his pocket. His new browser tab was set to Mewlanie's LunarTicks. Nothing incriminating him upon his feed, nor any snapshots of the great time she must be having with the Odyssey big shots just behind the door. Anons out there hype AF, and Sweat E Palms McVirginface over here's full retard cuz he can't hold all dem feels. Ayyyy LMAO!

"Mince 'n' tatties, I can't pass the docket." He opened the bookmark of the legit Doctor_Flambre's BattleNet profile.

"Just had to go for the charger," scrolling the details of their Frame's build. It wasn't enough to fake it even if he could put together the same parts. He had to play the part.

 

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Well... Whoever that was had run off, and now she was sitting alone, waiting for Linus to take people off to the arcade. Melanie twirled a lazy finger against the table, casually sipping on that drink she'd been given. "Mmmm..."

''Allo, mes amis. I met one of you today, 'ere at Batcon! Quelle surprise! Donc, 'ooever you were, sank you pour ze drink~ I wish we could 'ave talked more, ben, you seemed busy.'

And... Send. It was a rather sad bid, but, she felt bad about unloading on him like that. "I probably should not 'ave done zat..." A lazy glance towards the groups, Melanie spotted Karina waving, giving her a small smile and a wave back. At least I still 'ave ma ozzer friends... Eef, Karina and I can even be called friends. Mon dieu...

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Okay, this line just wasn't moving. Karina wasn't going to stand there like a moron while they interviewed like thirty other people. "Hey, keep my place, I'll be right back." She sort of demanded from the player unfortunate enough to show up after her, walking past the crowd to one of the tables --the one with her archrival, Mewlanie, naturally--. "Heyo. Got yourself interviewed already? What did they tell you?" Surely, somebody like Mew would be on the top of their interests, right?

And if they would take Mew in, then Karina's spot was guaranteed as well~.

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"Oh, Karina... Oui. Eh, zey said zat, zey want to see practical skill een ze arcade, donc... Whenever zey are ready for zat, we will go and test people out. I sink... I am, eh, r-really out of ma element 'ere. Heh..." Melanie put down her phone, a bunch of replies were coming in asking for her location... With a small bit of worry, she put her hood back on.

"Ze, uhm... 'Itomi? Ze one 'oo I spoke to, she seemed interested een ma offer for ze battleship package. I 'ope I am not overstepping bounds wis zat, ben lâ, eef I can 'elp, I should, non?"

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"Oh, practical skill, huh? That makes it easier." Then why were they all cooped up here then? If this was just the part where they collected people's info, this should be zooming! How inconvenient. Ah well, Karina could forgive them, they did seem shortstaffed. "I can't imagine I'm going to be filtered out in that. Good luck, though." Maybe Mewlanie would need it... well, truthfully Karina would expect her to be closer to her level than she would ever admit, but there was no need to stroke the streamer's ego, surely. "Didn't expect to hear you saying you're out of your element, though, I thought you'd be used to the attention?" A curious point, for Karina.

But, of course, when Mewlanie opened her mouth to speak of her offer to Hitomi, Karina couldn't help a strong reaction. "Wait, what? A whole... a whole fucking battleship? Are you nuts?" It was... more than an herculean task, if credit costs weren't going to change compared to the previews. "W-what kind of money do you make with your livestreams?"

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"Eh, oui... Why does, everyone sink zat ees crazy?" Maybe her connection to the outside world and how these things were supposed to be run was much worse than she'd previously thought. "Eet would be good for a team to 'ave somesing like a battleship, oui? Zen, eef I am going to be on zis team, we should 'ave one... Eet ees juste savings piling up, zey are going nowhere. I am not very 'igh maintenance." It was true, she spent little on herself. Food, snacks, new clothes when the old wore out, a computer part here or there if something failed, or her rig needed updating. Computer hardware was otherwise typically supplied to her through her sponsors, so she only had to deal with what went into her tower's setup.

"I only stream ze game... Franchement... Do you sink zis ees juste some silly 'obby where I smile for ze camera? Lâ lâ, eet may 'ave started zat way, but I 'ave two professional sponsors, you know? Real companies, backing me. I make more money zen I know what to do wis, between zem and donations..." Melanie tugged on her hood and pouted a bit, looking away from the blonde.

"Enfin, of course I am out of ma element... Zere 'as always been a screen between moi and ze attention. Anysing I do ees met wis words, not... Nossing physical. I do not know 'ow to act een public. I do not know eef ze kind of fans I 'ave are... People zat I want to meet, een real life." That one guy had been nice, but that was just one, and people had scrambled do quickly to know where she was, what sort of people was she really attracting? Too naive... Ze comments een stream, zey were probably not jokes.

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"Huh..." So Mewlanie took that rather seriously. "A battleship is a lot of allowance to people, so yeah. Nearly impossible from the figures unless you share, with a team or whatever. So when you say you're gonna pay for it all it sounds like... supremely burning your cash." Even Karina wouldn't do that, and her family was rather well-off. "I guess your sponsorships are better deals than I thought..."

Seeing her so out of her element because of the lack of a screen separating them was... a bit hard to relate to, though mostly because Karina was rather socially oblivious. "Well... I-I know a thing or two about your chat. They're not the nicest, but I bet they wouldn't have the balls to say it in your face. Don't worry about them." Honestly, most of them were probably just horny frustrated teenagers. "If anybody tries to get physical with you, tell them no. If they insist... well, I'd give them a kick in the balls if I saw them. That's deserved." It wouldn't do if Mewlanie got demotivated, not at all!

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"... Heh... 'ow are you going to kick yourself, eef you try somesing?" Melanie prodded at her just a bit. "I know you watch zem too... Mais, sank you. You are probably right... I should not be so worried." Adjusting her posture in her seat, Melanie looked back at the group. "Hmmm... I 'ope sings do not take so long." The line seemed big, but, maybe they'd get started with the arcade setup first? Funnel people along as they were spoken to.

"I like ma setup. After zis ship, I should 'ave... Twenty, sousand left over? Somesing like zat, so I can still get Monika zat food I promised 'er. I suppose eef you are going to be ma bodyguard, you want to come along too?" Melanie smiled, a bit of a toothy grin sneaking in. She was really happy to have known Karina before all this, it helped keep her grounded in her own little world some.

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"I-- what?!" Shit, why did Mewlanie have to go there? "I only watch your streams sometimes, alright? Only when your matches start. Besides, I'm not that kind of person!" Gee, what did she imply? ...Honestly, what a bother. "Nuh-uh, not happening. Anyways... if anybody like that shows up, I'd show them the door, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone, don't worry." It was a good thing that topic didn't last long, Karina didn't want to be pushed to shift topics so soon.

"Twenty thousand is quite a bit... guess it's nice to have a sponsorship. Maybe on a team I'll have more freedom to set up my frames." It would be a decent change of pace from the usual 'cheap and janky' setups, not to say that she wasn't fine piloting some less than straightforward builds. Interestingly, Mewlanie gave her the ok to keep to come along to whatever she had planned. Karina took a moment to look to the side. In thought, even if the maneuver seemed excessive. "Hmm, alright. I guess I can play bodyguard." Only after deciding, she met eyes again.

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"Eh, oui, only sometimes..." FireMiko had been subscribed to her channel for over a year now, Melanie had to try really hard not to call her out or laugh. Karina was too prideful and considered herself this odd little rival to Melanie, tearing that down would be too mean spirited when she was being, or trying to be, so nice today.

"I'll 'ave to see what I can purchase for ze team, but ze, battleship package comes wis a few suits, I sink eet said? I will 'ave to see later when I go to buy eet. I am sure zat you will make eet onto ze team, considering 'ow good you are." Not very good at being 'onest, zough... "Okay~ I am sure eet will be nice to 'ave ze bose of you coming along after all zis."

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Yes. Only sometimes. That was the end of that topic. "Battleship package comes with a few suits, hmm? Yeah, that could be a good thing." It really would help out if Mewlanie joined as well, assuming the team needed the financial support. If not, at least Karina could get a new suit in without chipping too much, right? ...If Mewlanie was willing to share, of course, but why wouldn't she?

Karina struggled for a moment to process that Mewlanie had actually complimented her, her face brightening up for a moment before her ever judgemental expression settled in. "Yeah, that's right. I'm pretty sure I can make it --I didn't grind to plasma for nothing, dammit." Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Mew joined after all.

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Well, he hadn't been told to get lost so that was a good sign; looked like he could relax a little bit then. It wouldn't due to come off as too stiff. "It's nice to meet you, BB. You can call me Zeke, or Sable, if you want. Or you could just stick to Ezekiel; I'll answer to either." Only placed gold? Did that mean they could have placed in platinum just as easily? Either that or... Well, she's got the drive for it at least. Consider me convinced. "Oh, my bad. Probably should've gotten straight to the specifics. Anyway, I've got access to our Mech, a couple of Tanks, NPCs for all of them, and a spare Frame that I'm comfortable enough with. Got a few vehicles too, but they're not as important as the other stuff."

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"I always use player names in-game," Hitomi explained, leaning forward slightly, "but 'Zeke' is neat, so I'll use that the rest of the time." With how to address him settled, Hitomi focused on the assets issue she'd asked him about. The Sable Order didn't sound too bad off asset-wise. Sure, some teams had NPC armies essentially stockpiled, but with how Battlenet handled NPCs right now, once a collection got big enough, it was hard to lose even a quarter of it in regular matches ... almost like actual wealth in a sense. "I heard mini-fig," the 'mech', "One-two punch," the two tanks, "experienced drivers," the NPCs, "a backup frame you know how to use, and some supply runners~ That's great. I don't know what kind of bundle we're getting now that the warships are here, but I didn't see any mechs or tanks being offered." Naturally, since it was all about the frames most of the time.

"Anyway, you should definitely head down to the arcade with us once we finish up here, Zeke. Your old team's Sable Order, sooo ..." Hitomi glanced over to Linus, "... well we know where to look for clips so we're good and so are you." That line wasn't looking so good, though. Hitomi didn't know how long this was going to take but she knew how long it could take if they couldn't adapt to the volume.

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“Really?  I figured with your experience you would have had a permanent spot on a roster at some point with good you are.  But, at the very least, it’s good to know we’re on equal ground in a way.”  Friedrich let out another hearty laugh as he scrolled through some old footage.  There were a lot of good choices, from clips that were aggressive, come-from-behind wins with his Thunderbird to plays that would set up victory down the road with his Aktzin’s traps.  He eventually settled on the ones that had garnered a lot of attention in the past, as well as few that showed off the capabilities of both frames and some that showed good teamwork and communication.  Just to show off something to give him an edge, he also added in a clip that perfectly utilized both of his frame's modes to take control of a base to seal the game.

“Alright.  Let me take a look,” Friedrich began viewing the clips Venitus displayed on his phone.  Seems his frame is aimed towards short range combat.  A lot of these are pretty good.  Some of them are a little plain, but effective.  The extras aren't too shabby, either….Oh, this one is really nice; wonder why this one’s just an extra.  He pulled up a clip of Venitus’ frame utilizing his grenades' effects to render an enemy squadron completely useless while under heavy fire.

“I’d add this one in,” Friedrich pointed to the clip he just finished watching.  “This one shows you using your grenades effects to their best ability and shows you can plan effectively under pressure.  That’s something most teams would find invaluable, I would think.  Oh right, feel free to take a look through some of mine if you want.”

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"Hmm..." Now, that was conflicting. Felix felt it would be detrimental to take the reins away from Hitomi at any point, but with how the line was turning out to be, one could argue it would be cruel of a teacher to leave their students to fend off a task on their own until way past evening. ...Others would say it was a healthy dose of hard tasks, a test of the student's will.

Personally, Felix was having an itch, the 'do it yourself' lifestyle wasn't letting him have it comfortably by just sitting there. Felix knew what interpretation he was going to take at the moment.

"I suppose the scale of the task is a bit too high. The public announcement was possibly *too* effective." Felix started, putting the last of his shake on the tabletop --no content left to worry about--. "You keep that line, Linus takes a part... and I take another." Now it was time to intrude, if only a little. "It's in your best interests to finish it early, so you can spend your night analyzing the data, rather than packing up. Consider that this scale is a bit much, for a team with only two members to handle." Not only that, but a potential third member had been whisked away in a near tragedy involving civilian transportation, all of this made Felix's intrusion just a bit more justified. "Of course, I will not be making any decisions here, that's your job. As long as you're ready to parse impartial comments." 'Impartial', of course, aside from catching the obvious duds. Felix considered himself a decent judge of character... at least as far as Frame Ops youngsters fared --aside from lingo, those hardly changed--.

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"Well, I just kinda got into the slightly bigger leagues as back-up, so that's kinda been my role. It's been seen as me being sub-par regardless of my skill, and like any of those clips with me being good are mere flukes." Ah, no need to get into depressing monologues, this is your chance Venitus. Venitus quickly shook his head to get the thoughts out of his head, then cracked a smile at Aska's statement. "I suppose that put us on equal ground." Aska let out another laugh, he had a nice laugh. It wasn't some small giggle, it was a sincere guffaw at whatever situation cracked him up. I can appreciate a person with a genuine laugh. Afterwards, Aska grabbed Venitus's phone and started to scroll past. He had yet to show Venitus some of his clips, so Venitus observed his reactions to his clips, trying to remember the order he had set them in, but just settling on the overall picture of the reactions. Generally he seems pretty pleased with them, hard to tell with the mask and all but he seemed to nod in approval at one or two of them. That seems to bode we- ah here we go. Aska had pulled up one of his extras, specifically one on his grenades. He raised some good points on including it. "Good eye, I'll throw that in with the rest of them."

Then he handed some of his clips to Venitus. Oh, he has two frames. Fancy. Well, he found one clip for me, so I'll see if I can find one for him. Venitus began to scroll through the clips, analyzing some of them as close as possible. His two frames seemed to have opposite duties. His first one, the Thunderbird, focused more on power. The clips from that mainly focused on a lot of his last minute wins, which while incredibly impressive, can also give off the wrong impression of the rider. He saw another one that, while not as cool as one of his come-from-behind wins, showed off a more pragmatic side, and showing the sweeping potential of the Thunderbird. "I noticed that basically all of your clips about the Thunderbird are you winning in situations where all hope seems lost. This is impressive, but with every clip being about this it gives the impression that you only work well when put under extreme pressure, and at the last minute. I propose you change one of these out for a differing one, specifically this one here where you basically wipe everyone out, no issue, from the word go. Not quite as cool, but shows you don't need to be on Death's Door to do something impressive."

His other ship, the Aktzin, which Venitus wasn't even going to try to say out loud, focused more on stealth and laying traps for his foes. Same issue with the Thunderbird clips, they were all focused on a specific feature as opposed to the well rounded whole. Gotta show that you aren't just limited to your specialty. So Venitus grabbed two clips, one where the Aktzin was in an active combat situation where it couldn't fall back on any traps and still won, and another where it did the exact opposite thing it was meant to do and went completely gun-ho at the start of the match. "And as for your other frame, which has an interesting name if I might add, had most of its clips where they were all about traps and their long term usefulness. I think you should throw in these combat clips to show it isn't limited to merely hiding and placing traps."

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Well ... if Felix wanted to take on some of the load too, along with his own fans, Hitomi definitely wasn't going to stop him. The introductions were short but there were still a lot of them to get through. "Alright, let's speed things up so we can head down to the arcade!" The last plan was fine and all, but after dealing with a huge crowd up on stage as well as Motherloader, Hitomi really wanted to get back into her comfort zone, the actual game.


Felix had to take a lot of questions along the way, both from Team Odyssey hopefuls, as well as his own fans, but by cutting the line in half, he'd still saved them some time figuring out which players to bring to the arcade with them. She hadn't been expecting it but it was only a couple of minutes into the latest approach to interviewing players that the troublemakers started to rear their mischievous heads. One guy actually tried to recruit Hitomi onto his team; he wasn't here to try out for Odyssey at all. It was inevitable once enough people got a look at the team's stats. Gold wasn't really stage worthy. The perception that caused with some players was really beginning to sting.

After stonewalling an attempt to poach her from the team, Hitomi met 'Motherloader 2.0.' What was with these really reputable players coming along to try and take over? This one was Aether tier and had recently left a different team, so he could probably back up his bluster better than Motherloader could, but he was even worse than that guy. Taller, too. He was certain Team Odyssey would reach Aeon tier this year with him--of course--as the team leader, and he was willing to challenge anyone on the team for the position at the arcade. Thankfully he was also more attentive than Motherloader and realized right away that no one at the table was going to budge with an aggressive proposal/challenge like that, and he made room for the next person in Hitomi's line. That was the only good news out of that one. He didn't back off before inviting himself to the arcade, aiming to prove he was just what Team Odyssey needed.

"Okay, who's next?" Hitomi could do nothing to hide her wariness, but she was still smiling ... a nervous, pleading smile. No more jerks. Please?

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  • 1 month later...

The Stratus Arcade was positively packed when Team Odyssey and their tryouts arrived, and that was just the main floor. Everywhere Hitomi looked there were people, simpods, and more traditional arcade machines, and given how many floors of the underground complex the arcade took up, Battlenet's own gaming center might have actually been the better call. Hitomi could only hope that Motherloader had managed to secure at least a few machines or simpods for them, but it wasn't looking like that was the case. Stratus was a fairly large arcade due to its megasims, the 22nd Century gamer's wet-dream, so maybe things were just crowded around this particular entrance. Maybe. Either way, there couldn't be one head short of a thousand people in this place.

"I'm going to see if Motherloader's even here," Hitomi said, knowing she'd never find him by just standing on her toes and looking around. "Hey, where are you?" she tried to use his Battlenet profile to contact him directly ... and it worked.

"Beebs? I'm at the arcade. You guys made it here yet? I've got a big surprise for you."

Hitomi frowned. She hadn't come to know this guy for his good surprises, only the obnoxious ones. Like those annoying little nicknames he kept using, or the fact that he could just pop up out of the Aether whenever, wherever.

"You know how Stratus has seven megasims?"

Of course she did. That was part of the reason Stratus took up around ten floors. The megasims were capable of rendering full sized frames around special simpods and putting on quite the spectacle. It was more for the audience than the pilot, but there was something about actually piloting a frame that made it exhilarating, even if it was fake. Come to think of it, Motherloader getting one of those reserved was a pleasant surprise. Hitomi couldn't imagine him having reserved one of those without foul play involved. "Um, how?"

"Told'em the girl from the stage is going to put on an even bigger show here at Stratus. Still had to pay the premium, but these drones look pretty excited, so don't take too long getting over here. You're on Sim #2."

#2 seemed appropriate somehow. Hitomi wasn't looking forward to being bathed in the spotlight yet again, but she had already resigned herself to it. Between being Felix's student, attracting at least two very high profile players into the tryouts, and trying to help put Linus on the map, fame was inevitable. Best to just embrace it. There was still the matter of everyone else they'd brought with them. It was technically possible for them to play from their phones, other gadgets, or even from a smartglass display, but that was just dumb. This was an arcade. They should be able to get their hands on some hefty controls and be able to give their best showing, too.

"Okay, I'm extremely grateful you pulled that off, but did you find anything for the rest of our group? I wasn't expecting everyone to be able to get on all at once, but ..."

"Sorry, Beebs. Out of bribe funds, but why not make it part of the big show? 'Team Odyssey recruiting the best of the best to beat up Battlenet's Soldaat hordes!' Their new campaign's comin' out tomorrow so it's open season on those mono-eyed knuckleheads. That's the route I'd go."

A new campaign? Hitomi hadn't even finished the last one ... granted, these days a campaign on a game as large as Frame Ops was something only someone with no life could experience to the fullest. Too many routes, too many things to discover and collect ... it was all just too much. Maybe if she had six straight months and could get by without any sleep. All this content was free for official Battlenet players, so the new scenarios would be waiting for her on her system around midnight tonight, assuming Motherloader had the release date right. Not much to think about really. Motherloader did have a point; the momentum gained from Matsuo's shenanigans had worked out pretty well for them. Maybe they should push ahead just a bit further for the sake of getting everyone on those machines and making the most out of this. It could actually work, but the idea could use just a bit more of ... something.

"Give me a second ..." Hitomi turned to Linus and the tryouts. "Okay, Motherloader got megasim two reserved and wants me to use that. I guess the idea is to convince the people here to give the rest of us some spots so we can all go in at once. On that note, Keizerin! You're famous, right? We could definitely use your help here. I'm sure people want to see an Aeon rank clean house, even if we do just wind up fighting a bunch of Soldaats. In fact, if anyone thinks they can get people more interested in watching us as a group, that would be a huge help."

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So this was the arcade... considering she had only ever played from home, the massive setups and full simulations certainly were something else... it was a lot to take in, truth be told. Thus was where they'd be doing tryouts, that is, if they could even find enough simulators to use. The place was packed, and there seemed not an open setup as far as the eye could see. Hitomi had sent that one fellow ahead to try and reserve something, but how successful had he been?

Mildly, if what Hitomi said next was any indication. Apparently they had gotten one of the large spectacle simulators, and needed to try and create a flash in the pan to try and secure enough for proper tryouts. That was all well and good, until Hitomi turned directly to her. Of course, again... would there be no escaping the sudden spotlight that Melanie had thrust upon her so abruptly?

"Famous? I don't know about that... well, if Melanie is anything to go by, apparently so. I was always quiet about my gameplay... never really streamed or advertised... Melanie might be a better bet to draw a crowd."

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How refreshing it was to be in the arcade, hearing the sounds of people playing, seeing a few going on within glancing distance. And they were finally going to play... "Whew~" Melanie was excited, lazily keeping up with Monika and Karina, until Hitomi delivered some wonderful news. A whole megasim? Just for them!? Clout sure went far, didn't it... That would make this even better! Throngs of people could come and watch their testings, and she could show just how good she was at the game~

But, using Monika for popularity? "'Itomi, you insult moi. Franchement, not asking me first." Melanie scoffed, shuffling her phone out of her pocket. "I may not be great at talking to strangers, ben, I can put on a good show for an audience. Monika, come 'ere." Melanie's request was rhetorical, snatching the girl by the wrist and dragging her over to Hitomi. She settled herself in between the both of them before popping open her LunaTicks app, and pressing record.

"Bonjour, mes amis! I am 'ere een ze Stratus Arcade at Batcon, avec ma friends, Keizerin, and 'Itomi~" Hopefully Hitomi was good at working with on the spot material, not that Melanie would be bothered by a second take. "Eef any of you are 'ere and you wish to see us playing wis ozzers, come to ze second megasim, and cheer us on! Some of you may 'ave already seen 'Itomi on stage earlier. Would you like to say anysing to ma followers, 'Itomi?" Gently turning her million dollar smile to the side, Melanie opened the floor to the girl, hoping that Monika was fine standing there and looking pretty, for the moment.

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Despite being one of the best players around, Monika was quick to refer Hitomi to Melanie. Admittedly, Melanie had come to mind first, but Hitomi didn't know exactly how well known the girl was, or more importantly, how much of an impact on the arcade she could have right this moment. Her fans couldn't all be in the area, right? Not that it would take that many for what they needed. A hundred was more than enough and even small time streamers tended to have a few thousand fans behind them.

Before Hitomi could articulate her thoughts on the matter, Melanie closed the gaps and got on LunaTicks. Oh boy, Hitomi was not ready for this ... "Er- ... hurry, everyone! You're going to want to see this up close!" She could only hope her forced smile wasn't on camera or anything, otherwise her quip could be considered half decent.

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Luckily, Melanie was eager to use her follower count to draw a crowd, just as Monika had suggested! Unluckily, the shy girl was swiftly dragged into a video with the streamer and Hitomi as advertisement... curses. Bolting now that they were recording would be in poor form, and Hitomi already seemed to be taking it... not the greatest. Trying to be as inoffensive as possible whilst not just standing like a stone statue, Monika gave the camera a demure wave.

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