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//TESTDRIVE3.0.EXE
//TESTDRIVE3.0.EXE
 It's a normal day in Cerealia. Everyone is going about their business, settling into their new jobs, waving to the mail droid, enjoying themselves a sensual massage in the spa, racking up experience points in ViViD, etc. You decide it'd be a good time to check your inbox and see if there are any incoming messages. That's when you spot an e-mail simply titled 'fwd: gorg0n.' Out of curiosity, you decide to click on it and open it. What comes is a single image of a robot flashed briefly followed by scrambled words displayed on your screen:
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//SCENARIOS.EXE
PHASE I [ xx PHASE II [ xx PHASE III [ xx PHASE IV [ xx BONUS [ why[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with trigger-y or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the meme. ] |
xx ]
Nobody likes spam, yet everyone's inboxes are being filled with all kinds of strange e-mails, all with the same title. No matter how many times you try to delete them, they continue to appear in your inbox. They're frustrating, but not all of them lead to the same message. Some have other regular CERES spam attached -25% off Cosmos Cosmetics, Enlarge Your Penis Today - Here's How!, Dear Sir or Madam, I'm a Cerealian Prince, looking to deposit all these credits in a willing bank account, and the like.
//RUN.EXE
Welcome to CEREALIA's third Test Drive Meme. For your convenience, we have compiled a post detailing everyone's arrival experience and a FAQ that should explain everything in more detail. Please read them thoroughly before playing. Thank you! |
Kobayakawa Takakage | Samurai Warriors (4) [CRAU]
He's familiar with glitches, yes. Time spent in Hinoto-Ri has taught him the meaning of his modern term - errors in code which led to a cascade of mistakes down the program sequence. But for something as important as the mainframe of the city itself to be affected...
It has to be something to do with the water. But what?
Extending his awareness into the water supply revealed no foreign objects, as far as he could tell. Awanagi did not turn up anything in its scans either - but then again, it could be something inorganic and thus undetectable by both their filters. The government did not seem to be making any headway into solving the problem, either...
The strategist stands by the pavement, attempting to search for anything unusual in the sewers. However, the perpetrator makes itself known before he can finish - a tentacle snakes out of the sewer cover and shoots straight for his ankle. He darts backward with practiced reflexes, and his sword is in his hands in an instant - there is a crescent-flash of bright blue light, and the tentacle lies twitching on the floor.
But it definitely isn't over yet - a low rumble sounds below the ground, and a droid bursts out of the manhole cover. Takakage immediately steps backward, putting some distance between him and the hostile robot -
- a glance reveals no visible gaps in its exoskeleton. And a robot runs on electricity, does it not? For someone as attuned to water as he is... this will be a difficult fight. He needs to think, to come up with a plan - but will he have enough time?
no subject
But Shinpachi just happens to be out as well when he suddenly spots the man - and the droid coming out of the manhole only a second after it. And even from a distance it certainly isn't hard to tell that the droid probably doesn't have the best of intentions just from its.. body.. -- well, exoskeleton language in this particular case. And even if the guy does have a sword and looks fairly prepared for this, it'd still be pretty shitty to just run off and pretend he didn't see anything. Shinpachi's too honest and good for that. So instead he calls out, already making his way over.
"Hey, need some help?!"
no subject
"That would be much appreciated."
The robot seems to be confused by the presence of two targets instead of one, its head (presumably it was the head) glancing between the two as if hesitating to see which it should attack. After a moment it decides to go for Takakage, seeing that he was closer - but that moment of hesitation is enough to give the strategist time to prepare a counterstrike.
The spellbook in his hand rises into the air - as the droid lunges forward the tome snaps open and unleashes a barrage of pages forward, the missiles circling towards the left and deflecting the robot's tentacles. Takakage himself had taken the opening to move to the right, giving him space away from the droid (which is currently flailing about after being disoriented by the swarm of pages).
It is then a simple matter of proper focus and aim before several sharp blue crescent slashes manage to sever more of the robot's tentacles. However, it is still hostile despite being un-armed - seemingly frustrated by the strategist's attack, it turns sharply and begins advancing towards the other man.
no subject
Only for a moment though. He knows he doesn't have the luxury of being able to focus on stupid things like that when there's work to be done. Especially when he notices the robot moving towards him, and with one motion he's already pulled out his katana, ready to counter it straight away.
It's nothing fancy. Nothing like what Takakage uses, anyway, but it still gets the job done enough with Shinpachi's strength. It's not really a clean cut, but he deflects two of the first tentacles that go for him, and manages to hit the third enough for it to just break off.
"Guess I had good reasons to think these things were weird as hell already!" Not that he's specifically seen the sewer robots before, but the others are weird too..
no subject
Quite an understatement, in fact. Their code had been so corrupted that the droids are now attacking instead of remaining within the confines of their duties. There doesn't seem to be any other robots on the street at the moment, which meant the two men could focus on disabling this one.
He tries to formulate a strategy while the the robot is occupied fending off the other man - like much of Cerealia's droids, they were constructed with no gaps in their armour, which meant his usual plan of piercing them through with high-pressure water jets would not work. While his sword's energy blades are sharp, charging them took time and they might end up hitting his combat partner as well. The best method so far seems to be crippling the droid by brute force, but the other man did not seem to be completely up for the job (as he had no armour himself and might get hurt). This meant that there would be only one other ally the strategist could call on at the moment...
In one smooth motion he draws the gun holstered onto his belt with his left hand, points it to his temple, and pulls the trigger.
"Come forth, Awanagi-no-Mikoto!"
There is the sound of breaking glass and blue light flares from where the gun's muzzle had been - a humanoid being dressed in shades of blue appears behind him. Its eyes are not visible - if it even had eyes - but what little expression it could show conveyed one of determination.
The noise catches the droid's attention and it swerves around - Awanagi mimicks its movement, darting to the left. An orb of bright white light appears in its left palm, and a moment later it punches the robot, leaving a dent in its metallic armour. The droid's humming grows louder, as if taking offense. Raising one of its scythelike legs, it slashes downwards as if aiming to slice their new ally in half.
no subject
Maybe it's a bad decision, because it just makes him stop for a moment. Takakage is standing there, grabbing a gun (because he at least recognizes that, one thing they did have in his time even if it was still fairly new) and putting it to his--
Wait, what? For a moment he's about to panic since it just looks like he's about to kill himself right on the spot, but then Shinpachi remembers something. A brief flash of a memory from Zelien, of a girl who nearly gave him a heart attack by doing exactly the same thing.
Seriously, how many people are there with such a dumb distracting method of combat?!
At least it makes him less surprised when the actual being pops up. It's different from the one he's seen, but that doesn't matter - it's weird, sure, but he has bigger things to focus on right now that are trying to kill him. Not that he knows though just how alive those beings are, so.. he may as well make sure no one gets hurt here. And since he realises swords aren't going to do much to things with thick armor, he decides to go for more brute force--
"Argh..!" -- And he throws his shoulder straight into the robot's side so hard that he manages to make it tumble over mid-slicing kick for a moment. (It's going to be so sore tomorrow, he's sure of it.) "C'mon, do one of your fancy things again!"
Magic, or.. what.. ever it is. Details don't matter in the middle of this, okay.
no subject
The iridescent orb of energy detonates inside the cleaning droid - there is a flash of bright white light, the sound of static, and the robot explodes from inside. Much of its internal workings had been completely vapourized, and its exoskeleton falls harmlessly apart (its inside surface extremely charred). A few pieces go over the two men's heads, but otherwise the shrapnel is few and far between.
Takakage watches the smoking remains for a few moments longer to establish that it had indeed been neutralized before he turns to address the stranger that had come to his aid. They both did not seem to be in good shape - the strategist himself had been drained by his Persona's point-blank spell, and denting the robot must have cost his ally a lot of stamina.
"Thank you for your assistance." He gives the other a grateful nod. "Please, allow me to heal you." Without magical forms of combat, one had to rely on their own strength and stamina - he wouldn't want to cause the stranger any more trouble than necessary.
Awanagi floats back to his side, silently raising its left hand. The jewel on its mask glows a lighter blue for a moment, and golden light begins to pool at the other man's feet. The spell would heal his immediate wounds and relieve some of his fatigue - hopefully no permanent harm had been done.
no subject
He's a little more wary of the.. spirit.. thing.. (What did Minako call it again? Is this slightly different from hers?) But it's not like he's in any position to move away when he's only just tackled a robot, so he just accepts the help for now. Weird unexplainable glowing light and all. He's already seen tentacle ladies who can take on different faces and people turning into undead beings, what's one more weird thing.. and at least this does help make him feel less exhausted and stop the bruising on his shoulder before it actually pops up.
It's enough that he can fully rise to his feet again and straighten himself by the time the light vanishes, glancing from Awanagi to the other man.
"No problem 'bout helping you, but.." He glances at the gun for just a moment before he lets out another sigh, a little (but only a little) more troubled this time. "But next time you go fightin' with someone, make sure to explain that to 'em in advance. You could kill someone from surprise, pulling that in the middle of battle." He's just lucky that he saw it before, really..
no subject
He holsters his Evoker but doesn't dismiss his Persona - its skills may come in handy sometime later. Now that his left hand is free, he takes his spellbook from where it had been hovering in the air, closing it and carrying it by his side. His sword is also returned to its strap on his belt - there is no need to fight anymore, and he would not want to show any signs of potential aggression towards the individual who had just saved him.
The strategist is still curious to see someone potentially from his era here. He also notices that they are conversing in his native tongue as opposed to the Cerealian norm - that would further support the possibility that this man is also from the Land of the Rising Sun.
"Might I know your name?"
no subject
But it's not like Takakage seems unfriendly or anything, so he'll at least offer up his name. If not just in return for the healing just now - it's not like he was obligated to do that, after all, Shinpachi came to help him of his own volition.
"Nagakura Shinpachi." At least he figures he can say it in the order he's used to for once.. small blessings of normalcy even with some other stuff that's still plenty weird. There's another glance at the Persona before he looks back to the other man. ".. Good to meet you, I guess."
no subject
He dismisses Awanagi with a thought before offering a half-bow and his own introduction. "I am Kobayakawa Takakage, retainer of the Mouri clan. 'tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
The other man's name confirms their shared heritage, and he recognizes it as the name of a Shinsegumi captain - though he cannot be sure whether this is truly the man he has read about. It's a little strange to be seeing someone from his own personal future whom he knows from history texts of modernity.
Time works in mysterious ways.
no subject
Well, that is awkward, to say the least. Shinpachi may act like a dumbass half of the time, but he's a lot more intelligent than what he acts like. Most of the time, anyway. Intelligent enough to have read a lot and have had a proper samurai education and all, and so he knows very well what that name means as well. The Mouri clan - it means this guy's from a long time ago, because those were the Choshu before they were called that way, huh? Before that whole deal at Sekigahara..
Man, he never expected to actually meet anyone from his history rather than the future. And then to think it's someone from the opposite side too. Awkward. Thankfully Shinpachi isn't immediately the type to draw a blade over that in a place like this, especially now with the huge time gap going on anyway.
Not to mention that he doesn't expect Takakage to actually recognize his name because of it. But little does he know..
"Ain't it a little weird for a guy from your time to already be using that?" Motioning at the gun. It doesn't really look like anything from this place either - it's a little too old for that - so he's got to have gotten it from somewhere else.
I apologize if I get my history wrong - I haven't yet read up in depth about the Edo era and beyond
It's a little too complicated to explain at the moment, so he just leaves it at that. He can guess at the thoughts running through Shinpachi's head - he knows all too well what came after his death, and the eventual roles of his clan's descendants. But that's all over, now. History cannot be changed anymore, at least not by his hand - and conflicts in their world held no sway over this realm, in any case. Shinpachi might exhibit some hostility, but Takakage certainly did not hold any of it.
But back to the issue at hand. This is the first droid that has actually attacked him, but their tentacles have shown up all over the city. "These machines seem to have gone berserk everywhere. Have any more of them appeared?"
it's cool! my knowledge of pre-bakumatsu stuff is a little spotty anyway LMFAO
It's a good thing that Shinpachi is pretty good at shoving these things beside him for a moment. He too has to admit that their biggest problem right now is the robots, especially if more droids are lurking around to wait and try to attack them.
"Those guys in charge already said something like this'd happen." He lets out a sigh at that, but it's only a light kind of bother - they did manage to handle that robot just now fine, after all. "I mean, nothing this weird, but I think they were sayin' stuff might go a little outta control. They could've at least mentioned it'd be this bad, geez!"
together we can write a full history book
He means going out and helping as many people as they can. The pervasiveness of the technology here meant that threats were now everywhere. The downside to relying too much on something is that catastrophe occurs if it fails.
"Of course, there is still much we do not know about. We need to be careful."
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Not that it's a bad thing. Just a little surprising, considering how generally confused every other new person he'd ran into had been.
"Yeah. It doesn't seem like they're trying to do anything about it yet." If anything, it seemed like their warning and the way they told people to download something (which had gone entirely over Shinpachi's head, really) had only backfired even more, making the problem worse. "I dunno if the two of us can take care of everything in the city though. There's got to be dozens and dozens of these things around."
It's probably the downside to using robots for everything instead of people: once they go nuts, you have a big problem to deal with.
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"That is true." He inclines his head thoughtfully. "We may need to recruit others who are willing to aid us. Might you know anyone else within this colony?"
Takakage himself is all alone, but this man might have a few acquaintances in the area.
no subject
The man glances around him for a moment as if he may already be able to spot one of them, but it probably isn't that easy with just how big this city is and how more than half of them didn't exactly get to carry their Shinsengumi blues with them here.
"They're probably already around town tryin' to get rid of these things. None of 'em are the kinda guys to just sit down and take this."
Not when the robots are probably attacking any innocent person they can come across, he's sure.
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"Perhaps it would be easier if we could contact your comrades, so that a plan can be crafted." It's what he does best as a strategist, of course. "We will be able to take down the robots on our own, but if they do have a 'central mind' located somewhere, it would be faster to eliminate that instead."
Though knowing how technology usually worked... "I can also heal your injuries. Combat would be less taxing."