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 Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:55 am
Toki crashes, again, for what must be the tenth time, into another waist-high bush.
"Gah! Oops. Well, there are no small woodland creatures here to step on. Probably. Back to playing!"
Head down, she continues on her way, furiously tapping at the tiny device. The chances of finding another player here are close to zero, but what better way to combine gaming with healthy outdoor activity than to wander face-first into random shrubbery?
-----
Seren was patrolling at Camp Lucy again, and as she often did, found herself wishing someone was with her. It was still on cold side, this time of year, so she was thoroughly bundled up, but she was ready to do what she needed to do when the battle came. Or shooing. Whichever she might need to do.
She rather hoped nothing would come back up, however.
And then she hear the crashing and a voice. A very familiar voice. She had to stop herself from laughing, as her brows raised up, and a grin crossed her face. She turned towards the voice and moved with care, until she found herself face to face with Toki... holding something small in her hand.
"Hello, Toki. What brings you here today, my friend?"
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"Ohh! Hello! It's been a while, hmm? Happy new year! Is it still new year for you humans? I'm taking a walk. The benefits of exercising outdoors have been long touted as unbeatable."
Toki beelines for Seren, branches and foliage be damned. When she's finally right up close, she shoves the very tiny, very shiny thing forward.
"Look! It's a mini me!"
The shiny purple toy says "TAMA" on the back. On the screen, the little character waves, jumping up and down.
"You're supposed to take care of it. Or it'll die, and the gadget will shock you. I think. People have mentioned arson...such variety. Haha! Halloween is the best."
She points to the screen.
"Look, it can even battle with NPCs -- hey, do you want to play? You don't have a tama, but I can make an NPC for you! It'll look like you, but the personality..uh...that's random. But fun! C'mon!"
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Seren smiled and chuckled a little, amused by the oddness and adorableness that Toki always seemed to carry with her. "It has been awhile... And it depends on where you are in the Human World, and what calendar you're using. I know it's the Lunar New Year, but the Solar New Year is well passed. Still! Happy New Year, and I hope yours was lovely." She smiled, softly, and added "I definitely enjoyed mine." She gave no details, just left it there.
She blinked, and peered at the little device, and had to control the urge to laugh. Halloween had Tamagotchis. What ever would come next? She remembered them as an item the cooler kids had when she was in first grade or so.
"Battle? How interesting! Sure, I can play with you. I never had one of these before... We had something similar when I was a kid, but... I never got one..." Her voice went uneasy for a moment, at the mention of her past. "So I've never played with one. Still, it sounds fun!"
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"Yes! I had a fantastic new year. Only two more years left before graduation! Hohoho. And oh my, how fascinating! Humans have similar toys. You must procure one and show me sometime!"
Without waiting for a reply, she holds the little thing up to seren's face.
"Smile! Or not! It's not that accurate!"
With a blinding flash (since when did the thing have an inbuilt camera?) and an oddly familiar whirring sound, a new, equally tiny NPC pops up on the screen...
...And promptly goes to sleep on the grass.
"Hey. Hey. It went to sleep. How can we battle if it's asleep?"
She shakes the screen, and tamatoki goes over and tries to bop it awake, accompanied by little 8-bit sound effects.
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"Good! Those all sound excellent. I made intermediate rank in November, and I am hoping to reach full Hunter as soon as I am eligible. We shall see how that goes!" She blinked a little, and nodded. "I'll see what I can do. I have no idea if they're still around... I... Kind of lost track, honestly, in the past few years." Because she had been in a pod for several years, but Toki did not need to know that.
She blinked as it was held up, and attempted to smile. However, the flash went off before she could fully do so, and so it was probably more like a grimace that the camera caught.
Once she could see again, she looks over Toki's shoulder (not hard for the taller woman to do), and blinks, watching the mini-her act very different from how she would. "That's a very good question. C'mon, Mini-Me! You gotta get up!"
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:10 am
"Wow, full hunter! Uh, don't hunt me, okay?"
Not that she really dies or anything, but still. Meanwhile, the tiny seren on the screen yawns, and gets slowly (slow even for something tiny and made of pixels) to its feet, bops the tiny Toki back, and sits down again. At least it's awake now.
"Okay okay quick before you go back to sleep," Toki says hurriedly, already losing the distinction between human and pixel avatar. "We play scissors paper stone, okay? Best out of three wins!"
She presses a couple of buttons in quick succession, and a little minigame pops up. It has little rock, paper, and scissors icons, but looks very much like a proper sparring ground.
"Yayyy. Ready, go!"
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"I don't hunt Students who aren't actively dangerous. You're not at all the kind who goes around assaulting or hurting humans, as far as I can see, and as such... I wouldn't." One of her hands drifts under the sleeve of her other arm, for a moment, her eyes abstract as she remembered a Student who was, on the other hand, VERY dangerous.
"WOO She's awake. All right, sounds good." She looked down at the device, and pokes it for a moment. "Let's get this show on the road."
She directs her Mini-Self to throw out scissors, and settles back to wait, curious as to what will happen next.
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"Huh. Well, the horsemen are pretty hardcore about all that. Kind of like a Halloween biker gang. Haha! Uh, but be careful of them."
Feeling a little like she's introducing a racist (human-racist?) acquaintance, she hurriedly turns back to the little screen and throws rock.
On the battlefield, tamaseren suddenly wakes up, produces a gargantuan lollipop out of nowhere, swings it over her heqd like a berserker, and charges towards her opponent. Tamatoki, not to be outdone, summons a giant plush bat. It acts as a meat shield, then pushes tiny pixel seren away with a huge gust of wind from its (very fluffy) wings. Tamatoki, now riding atop it's head, 8-bit cheers in victory.
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Seren grimaced a little and nodded. "Trust me, they are who we primarly are here for. Though some of your fellow students are... equally hardcore. I accidentally ran afoul of one such when in the Haunted House, patrolling. Assaulted me when I came in sight, and nearly killed me..."
She shuddered, remembering that, then watches the animation, her jaw dropping a little, before she begins to laugh at how adorable but ridiculous this was.
She bit her lip, considering the situation, then decides to gamble on the idea that her opponent won't do the same thing twice, and proceeds to do so herself, throwing out scissors again.
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"Oh! Yes. Some of us students really dislike humans very very much. I think I heard something about eating..."
Really, she doesn't know how humans even stand a chance without those weapons. Questions for another day. Turning back to the screen again, she also decides to throw out rock.
On the screen, a gaudy "COMBO!" title pops up, and Tamaseren suddenly, and again from out of nowhere, materializes a huge pair of scissors and triumphantly snips off the plush bat's head.
Shrieking (still in 8-bit), tamatoki runs backwards and up a hill, triggering a trap on the floor on her way. As tamaseren rushes after her (ostensibly to also snip off her head), a deluge of gigantic cotton balls rolls downhill, sticking to the tiny pixel seren until she's basically a giant cotton katamari. At the top of the hill, tamatoki breathes a tiny sigh of relief.
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Seren nodded and sighed. "Yeaaaaah, it's... I don't know. Still, that's why we hunters exist... To protect humanity." She paused, then gave Toki a smile. "Which is good, since if we were all killed, there would be no FEAR, right?"
She blinks, watching all of the drama on the little screen. She can't help it, she begins to laugh and laugh. "Oh my goodness, Toki, this is wonderful and also utterly ridiculous. It's like something out of a cartoon, it's so silly. I love it!"
She actually has to wipe her eyes, she was laughing so hard. Finally, after taking a deep breath, she goes '******** IT' in her head... definitely not out loud, Toki doesn't need that... and gives Tamaseren the Scissors instruction again.
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"Oh! Yes. I mean, we kind of need you to be scared of things. Us things. Which is funny, because there are also incubi and succubi, but I never got the chance to ask them how they gather fear, but anyway!"
She decides to take a chance and throw out paper, hoping for the best.
On the screen, a somehow louder, brighter, even gaudier "C-C-COMBO!!!" appears. Tamaseren is now riding a giant scissors-shaped mech. Apparently this game rewards you for taking chances...? Meanwhile, tamatoki takes one look at the scissors gundam, pulls out a multitude of barrel bombs, and starts hurling away. Somehow, in the midst of the explosions blocking out most of the screen, tamaseren has managed to upgrade her mech and is now shooting scissors-shaped lasers, taking out all the bombs. Tamatoki, finally run out of bomb-ammo, is picked up by a single scissor blade like a crane-game toy and carried off triumphantly by tamaseren into the sunset.
"Ahhh! Darn! Oh, hold on, it's calculating the score..."
The credits (credits?) start rolling, with the game giving points for things like "comfort level" and "adorable bloodshed". In the end, tamatoki comes up ahead by a minor margin, and is actually carried back on the scissors mech, jumping and cheering.
"Yayyy! Victory!"
-----
"I think... the Cubi are probably at least partly winning based on religion, and old beliefs that when they were up to their games, they were also stealing souls?" She gave a shrug, and added "Obviously only works on those who believe lust is a sin, or something of that nature."
Seren watched the insane ending, her brows raised up. This was not what she expected but it was hilarious. She begins to laugh again, even harder now. This was ridiculous on a whole new level. When it finishes... and she manages to catch her breath and calm down enough to talk again... she finally says "I have no idea who designed that game, but whoever they are, they're brilliant. That was amazingly silly and fun. Thank you for sharing it with me, Toki!"
Seren gave her an indulgent smile, not at all bothered by the fact that the other had won. They'd had fun, and that was what mattered.
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