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

[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.

[myownfuture]

"It looks like it's counting down to something..." Reiko mused, glancing over at the boy who'd wondered.

More girls this time... including Sora's friend. Could the people running this Exaclan really be Iwahijiri? Tied to a chair and covered in snakes one week, and a Player the next. How did that make any sense?

[trollofthree]

He returned her look, and shrugged. For all he knew, it could just be another attempt to speed them up. "Looks like we've got a week to prepare."

[myownfuture]

"Yeah..." That last round had seemed way shorter than a week not to get all meta or anything. She wasn't happy about it, either way. They were being jerked around by some unseen force for some unknowable reason. At least Iwahijiri had made their reasons clear.

"I guess we have to play along for now, though."

[trollofthree]

"Guess so." Not that he'd had any intentions of doing otherwise, but apparently behaving like this was a terrible situation was in style. "I don't believe we've met before..?"

[myownfuture]

He didn't seem so bad. Not at first, anyway. Reiko kept her guard up, but she nodded to him in introduction. "My name is Reiko Date. I was a student here before."

[trollofthree]

Another of Sora's friends, then? He was sure he'd seen them together, now he thought about it. It looked like at least one Knight had arrived with their entire retinue, even if she wasn't anything official. "Another princess, huh?" He held out a hand, "Gino Weinberg. Nice to meet you, Reiko."

[myownfuture]

She bristled slightly, but shook his hand. Anyone calling her a princess rubbed her the wrong way, but at least when it was Sora it was... different, somehow. "Not exactly. I'm just a student. ...nice to meet you, too."

[idkmybffxiao]

He wouldn't have to be curious about that for long. Considering how much shorter she was than the rest of the students gathered, her ability to go unseen until the exact moment she sprang merrily out of crowd couldn't be too surprising. There was now a Mei by Gino and, unlike the others, she actually looked excited by the round change.

"Gino! Did you see? My name is up there! I get to be a Player!"

Apparently she chose not to dwell on how badly he had handled her weapon in that last fight, because she is talking to him again. Hooray!

[trollofthree]

Gino started at her sudden arrival, but covered it fairly well. Looks like someone had gotten over the vague embarrassment that had been Gino's first introduction to throwing knives. He grinned, and crouched down. It didn't quite close the gap between their heights, but it was near enough.

"I saw, I saw. How many weapons have you gotten so far?"

[idkmybffxiao]

The height difference, so vast.

"None yet!" Mei had only just found out. She was going to have an interesting day, running around, collecting more, but she already knew where to start. "I think I should get the other kids close to my age, because their weapons are probably be closer to my size, but!" Soooo excited. "I thought you might like to be my first Weapon!"

Right to the point, this girl.

[trollofthree]

It was very difficult not to be charmed by Mei. So difficult, in fact, that Gino didn't even bother trying.

"You've really thought this through!" He agreed with her plan for other Weapons; from what he could remember, his own weapon would be at least three times her height. On the other hand, he wasn't going to find a Player more enthusiastic about fighting, and he had the sneaking suspicion that she was a lot more competent than anyone else he could have asked or would have accepted him.

Except for the Knight of Seven, but they'd be more effective split up. The guy ws good, but he hardly needed another weapon. It'd just be a repeat of Gino's accidental victory in the previous round.

Mei it was. "It would be an honour."

[idkmybffxiao]

"Of course I have. I need to be a step ahead of everyone if I want to win." Whether she meant the round, the entire game, or just in general, well, it really applied for all of it. In any case, Mei barely contained a squeal of joy when Gino agreed. Instead, she beamed, so happy.

Haha, now she had a real knight as a Weapon. This was going to be great.

Okay, okay. Calm down, she told herself. She really shouldn't be looking forward to playing a game that everyone was being forced into. Deeep breath. There. Mei moved right on to the vow part. She didn't feel at all silly to go down on one knee, as she'd seen most other Players do when vowing. One hand went over her heart, the other held out towards Gino.

"I, Mei, Seventeenth Princess of the Empire, vow to own and protect you, Gino Weinberg, as best as I can, until... um..." Until what? She had to think for a second, but she figured out the next words quickly enough. "'til loss or round change does part us."

There. That one sounded really good. She was so proud of it.

[trollofthree]

It was certainly the most official vow made thus far. Unfortunately, it was also lost on Gino from the seventh word onwards.

"I accept your vow," he said, his register automatically formal as he tried to work out what she meant. To be honest, he couldn't remember the name or face of the Seventeenth Princess of Britannia. The Emperor could very well have taken a Chinese wife in the past ten years; it wasn't like Gino had been paying any particular attention to additions to the Imperial family when he was seven. With Britannia the only empire, he couldn't imagine where else she would mean.

So, of course, he asked.

"Mei, where are you from, exactly?"

[idkmybffxiao]

"Yay!" Mei sprung back up to her feet. She had her first Weapon! Now it was time to track down one or two more and she would be ready for an actual fight, ideally. Someone might step in and challenge her at moment now, so time was running short.

The question managed to stop her before she did just that, though the answer Gino got was hardly going to clear things up for him. "The Empire, of course!" There's only one empire! And that was Xing. Honestly, did no one in Amestris ever look at a map?

"Anyway!" Mei had something MORE IMPORTANT to add before going. "Stop by Red 1-B sometime! I can re-braid those for you!" She pointed at his hair. "They look awful right now." Just so he knew. Then she waved and turned to dash off as suddenly as she had arrived. "I need to find at least one more person to vow to before we challenge someone! I'll let you know when I do!"

Byyye, Gino. Enjoy the confusion.

[princesspowerful]

Molly was running around trying to find Fletcher. Unfortunately, she wasn't really watching where she was going, she was too busy looking around trying to find the younger boy.

Oof, she runs right into Gino and falls to the ground, she looks up with a scowl on her face ready to tell him to watch where he's going because she's on an important mission but, "YOU'RE SO TALL!"

[trollofthree]

Gino, on the other hand, only staggers a step sideways. He moves to help her up, but she seems to have handled that part fine on her own; he blinks at her outburst, one hand still outstretched to help her up, then straightens and rests the hand on his hip instead, all the better to look down at her.

He knows this is a school, but the number of small children is a bit unnerving.

"Yeah? Maybe you're just short."

[princesspowerful]

She sticks her tongue out, "Nuh uh! You're just too tall!"

[trollofthree]

"Oh?" His voice lilts, amused. "And you decided this just now?"

[princesspowerful]

Pout, "Maybe I did!"

[trollofthree]

He's grinning outright now, but then, "Hey, you're the other girl from our room."

Honestly, he's been out of the dorm so much that he hasn't seen his fellow Pale 1-Bers enough to recognise them off the bat. The fact that Molly is 90% hat doesn't really help.

[princesspowerful]

Molly stared at him a bit, "You're that guy!" Oh Molly, so descriptive, "That guy Kallen doesn't like!" Take it as you want, but Molly has a grin on while saying that, like it's funny or amusing. And she does think it's amusing because Gino is just so tall and funny looking how could you not like him?

For the record, she has a kitty hat on today.

[trollofthree]

Well, you could not like him because he's casually slaughtered several of your friends in Knightmare combat, or because he's an elite soldier of the empire that crushed and enslaved your country with no intention of changing sides, or because he keeps reminding you of everything you lost.

Or just because he's always friendly and overly familiar despite all that.

Like now, as he laughs at her description.

"Right, that guy. But you can call me Gino, for short."