ROUND -1

[utopiamods]

This morning, the marks of ownership disappear from the bodies of every Weapon who was owned during the previous round. The woman from the introductory video appears on the Exaclan video screens across campus, and on all of the computer screens as well.

She doesn't look very happy.

"My, you weren't very enthusiastic this time, were you?" she says, frowning and waving one finger in disappointment. "That's no good. If you don't fight, you can't earn Tokens to buy your powers or your memories back! If you don't even have those, imagine how hard it'll be to earn Legend Fragments!"

She smiles; the shift from her previous expression is sudden and startling. "You know, if you hear the legend, you just might learn a few things!

"We didn't want to do this, but it looks like we're going to have to. Okay! From now on, Players, you can only go three days without fighting. After that, we'll start taking away one Token a day. And you want your Tokens, don't you?" She smiles even more widely, as though she has no idea why anyone might be upset at being forced into such a situation. "To get you all started, we've given you some free tokens! You already had three each, you know, and we've added seven more. That means you all have ten tokens, so visit a booth and get spending."

She pauses, and then snaps her fingers, "Ah, but only Players can do that, so if any of your Weapons want to buy something, you should do it for them, okay?

"I know you can do it! Believe in yourselves and each other, and you'll achieve utopia!

"Now, here are the Players for this round!"

The screen goes blank, and the following appears:

PLAYERS FOR ROUND -1:
Fletcher Tringham
Kevin Smith
Mei Chang
Meryl Silverburgh
Oichi
Suzaku Kururugi
Tsuki Aoi

Comments

[summerstars]

Mentally grimacing at the vow, not so much because it was applied to her, but that it was there at all and what it implied, Grenn nodded at Mei's question.

"Ah, yes... Atair," she said with a slight smile. "That'd be nice, thank you." Because, well, in Grenn's mind, 'nice', was all it was. As of yet, nothing she couldn't do without had been forbidden.

"I think putting a use to the tokens would be good though..." Grenn trailed off, uncertain if she should put this decision... but why not. Mei would be the first one to use them anyway.

"Ability to other sort of upgrade?" One memory charm, one sort of upgrade. That'd still leave one or two tokens.

[idkmybffxiao]

"Grenn Atair." Mei nodded and made a mental note to write her a permission slip as soon as she found some paper. "Tokens? Ooh, right. I haven't gotten around to using any of those, either..."

Think, think, think.

"I think you can get the upgrades yourself, but someone has to give you a memory charm?" She vaguely recalled that being said once, somewhere. "I can help you with that, too, if you want!"

[summerstars]

Grenn shook her head and waved a hand at the screen.

"If I remember right, only players can use tokens, so I'd need you to buy both the charm, which I then have to give to someone else, and any upgrades." She paused and shrugged. "Since you're going to use my weapons first, I think it'd be fair if you get to choose what sort of upgrade."

Of course, had it been someone else, Grenn may not have offered to use her own tokens for an upgrade, but she felt rather sure it was all right.

want me to drop a post in the booth post noting what they get?

[idkmybffxiao]

"Oooh." Mei really needed to get around to that rule book. "Okay! Let's go do that!"

Seems like a good idea!

[summerstars]

Grenn nodded and smiled, but wondered for a second if she'd ever been that excitable when she was younger... Memories of flying with her mother, and seeing ships and... okay, so she had.

"Right."