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

[greennotgold]

Fletcher stared in horror at the screen. "Huh? But--but I don't want to fight!"

[thatguywhohasablog]

"Shit, already? Time flies when you're having fun I guess."

Dave looked around the lobby, apparently unfazed, and then stuck his hand in the air and raised his voice. "Yo, anyone want a piece of this? I have this massive time sword or something, it's pretty much objectively the most badass. Anyone wants to go ahead and yank that out of my chest like the once and future ninja king of all virtual reality high school fights, they are fucking welcome to it if it means I'm allowed to eat dessert and use the bathroom."

[snakesonaprincess]

A Player. This was unexpected. Even though she knew this was always a possibility, it's still rather surprising to actually come face to face with it.

Of course, no one could probably tell that just from looking at her, as her expression remained impassive as she views the screen. She would fight if she had to, she had no qualms with that at all. Especially now that a time limit had been imposed.

"So now we're being coerced, are we? Idiotic."

[trollofthree]

"Minus one? Wonder what's gonna happen after this one." Esconced against one side of the lobby, with a good view of one of the larger wall screens, Gino didn't look particularly concerned about the warning. Or any part of the announcement, despite being one of the scolded parties. As far as he could see, he'd had his turn, and it would probably take a while before he got tapped as a Player again. Plenty of time before he'd have to worry about losing the tokens he'd earned. Mostly he was curious as to whether anyone would try to recruit him before he went looking on his own.

Other than that, he just kept an eye out for Kevin. He'd made a promise, and had earned the tokens to keep it.

[forthward]

So it wasn't just her brother and Kallen... "S-Suzaku-san is here too?"

[imperceptible]

... say what? Now they had to fight?

"What kind of screwed up school is this?" The blond muttered, mostly to himself as he watched the next list of names come up and- well go figure. He was up to fight already. Not a bad thing in hindsight, really. He was getting pretty tired of being tossed around like a trading card and his current list of players hadn't left him too eager to go back to being a weapon anytime soon.

Still, the fact that he was now the fighter was troubling. He still hadn't gotten through most of the manual and using weapons he'd never handled before was going to be difficult.

Oh well, better make the most of it. He thought and began scanning the area for prospective partners. As if to mark himself as a player this round, he pulled out his glove, ever present on him... somewhere, and pulled it on, frowning minutely at the strange feel of it.

Yeah, he couldn't wait until he got out of this place...

[idkmybffxiao]

Mei stared at the big screen. A new round? Already? She hadn't even had a chance to teach Gino how to not fail at using kunai, too! Wait. Wait. That list of names. At first, the tiny girl frowned in disapproval. "They can't make Fletcher fight! He'll be scared!"

...but when her eyes moved down the list to her own.

"Aah! I'm a Player?! I'm a Player!" Unlike the rest, Mei actually cheered. "Alright! I get to collect my own Weapons~!"

Oh glee.

SORRY CEL 8'D

[tenwholeryou]

Kotarou, having confronted Dave, was now staring back up at the screen, back down at his unmarked hand, and then around at the other students. "Where am I meant to find any of those people, anyway?"

[summerstars]

Grenn stared thoughtfully at the screen, not feeling particularly bad over the "disappointment" expressed. When the only Weapon you managed to get was an accident, considering her... difficulties, and then there hadn't been enough time to attempt to get a new Weapon.

She felt both relieved and nervous about the change; she didn't like that the situation had changed yet again, and, well... there was no guarantee she'd get a Player. At least she didn't care overly much about dessert every day, and her self-imposed lessons would have to be done in notebooks, anyway.

What she'd miss the most, if she didn't get a Player, would be the chance for (even if she couldn't use it herself) a Memory Charm. And perhaps an upgrade for her weapon(s), which she was sure most people would think were toys, at first.

[pinwheeling]

"So, in other words… If I wanna get my memories back, I've got no chance but to let some jerk…" Yuffie trailed off into irritated titters and grumbles.

That they were being made to fight at all rankled on her nerves; as fun as a bit of wham, BAM, pow! could be, it'd mean breaking wide open the code of secrecy that she'd been having fun with over the years. But still, she thought, glaring avidly at the screen, if she had to fight, why couldn't she just do it herself? It was her weapon, wasn't it? Clearly, she'd know best how to use it, especially since it was identical to her 4-Point back home. These dumbasses were nowhere near badass enough to match her talents.

[themouthofhell]

[ Oichi is trying to find the cafeteria again when the announcement blares across the lobby's screens. It's still startling to see something so strange, but she's beginning to get used to this place.

Seeing her own name on the screen is even more confusing. She can understand what the lady is saying-- but as her rulebook collects dust, she doesn't know what to do, and looks at the screen with her brows furrowed. ]

placeholder until when i wake up sob

[persuades]

El had been walking, familiarizing himself with the already familiar school, when the announcement had started and he had to pause for a moment to listen. It was disconcerting enough that Utopia was not the Utopia he had known, Iwahijiri's puppet strings no longer stretched across everyone and everything. And now this, a different set of rules for Exaclan to the point that even the male population were to become possessions as well.

It was amusing nevertheless, if not ironic to some extent. The balance of power had shifted, with him placed on equal footing with the others. Not that he minded that much; he was beginning to enjoy this little charade with Himoto Sora after all. This only meant that he could no longer rely on his cohorts in fighting and would have to do it himself.

And with this, his game of pretend could continue a bit longer [though why, he couldn't really remember - could have had something to do with that memory loss]. He slipped his hands in his pockets, quickly considering the information being delivered, sorting them out and filing them neatly inside his head. It would be useful enough for him to remember all these things as well as the manual.

Ten tokens, eh? So he wouldn't be able to use it unless he had an owner.

The explanation ended and El looked up, reading the names appearing on the screen. His lips then quirked to an amused smile, an eyebrow rising, upon recognizing the last one. Well, well. Looks like the tables had been turned on him this time.

"How exciting."

[leftthesafetyon]

Whoa, she got to be a player already? She didn't expect this to happen for a good while. She had a rough time of finding a player, but it should be easier to rope in weapons. Now she was going to see just what they were training everyone to do. She looks around for someone lost-looking, with a decided smirk on her face.

Don't worry, she only looks predatory.

[isur2ndprincess]

Yuki stared at the screen in shock. She wasn't a Player, that she was grateful for, but neither were any of other Sora's princesses. Well, Tsuki is up there but they've only spoken once and she's not sure how she feels about her just yet.

She just felt lost. What was she going to do? The thought of being used again scared her too much, even if the people she's met have been kind to her, she cannot forget her experiences from her school.

Why couldn't that have been a taken memory?

[scott_pilgrim]

Scott Pilgrim had just gotten to the lobby in time to hear the announement. However, he was only half-listening to the announement. His mind was on bigger things. For example, just how had his train taken him here? And without his hot new girlfriend. Man, this totally sucked. And that was with a capital S and everything.
With a frown, he started to look around the area. He needed to poke around, and stuff like that. "So, if I get a Player-person, I guess I could get outta here sooner..." he said to nobody in paticular, pondering his fate.

[warpwhatsir]

Being a Starfleet officer, there are a lot of things Sulu's used to that'll probably come in handy for this-- following orders, hand-to-hand combat, simulations, blah blah. The thing is, though, he's... kind of more used to being the one in the front lines, not one to just sit back and watch other people fight. It comes with being a Starfleet pilot, after all.

Still, he wants out of here, so... he should probably find a Player, huh. Damn. "Where the hell..."