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]

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.