thearena | (no subject)

Who| AndrAIa and OPEN to Arena 2 tributes
What| AndrAIa's arrival
Where| Desert arena
When| Right at nightfall, end of Week 1
Warnings/Notes| None yet

Strangest. Game. Ever. That's all AndrAIa could think as she wandered the desert, keeping an eye out for other sprites. So far, she hadn't seen any, besides very basic animal game sprites, that didn't seem a hundredth as bright as Frisket, or as friendly. After the first one she encountered, a snake, rattled at her when she got close, she decided to leave the rest alone unless they approached. None did.

She went over the chain of events in her mind. The system voice had announced the game's arrival and the cube had fallen from the sky, like any other game. But once it landed... well. First there was that weird tutorial level. She couldn't remember rebooting, but she must have, as the game sprites noticed her right from the beginning and treated her as part of the game. They'd helped her change outfits and appearance, which had always happened automatically before. Now, instead of her shells, she was wearing a cloth ensemble that was still vaguely nautical, with her colored yellow with powder and styled in an upright curl. Two locks hung in front of her ears, highlighting the points. The game sprites who had helped dress her seemed pleased, and she had to admit that it looked nice. On the other hand, they'd also taken her weapons, and hadn't given her any in return. Or any knowledge or powers specific to the game, as far as she could tell. At least they hadn't taken her icon. She touched it for comfort.

Then, after the really weird tutorial and rebooting, she'd been released into the arena... which was nothing like what she thought an arena was. In fact, it had more in common with that rabid raccoon's game setting than any arena, down to the lack of hostiles (besides the basic animal sprites). No system sprites or binomes to team up with, no game sprite competitors, and no User. Maybe finding the others was part of this game? She wondered if that would make it easier or harder to find the User, if he needed to find all of them before winning. If he did, then they might just win the game and leave before she even met anyone.

Almost as if triggered by her thoughts, the game started changing. The sky got darker and the sun, previously high in the sky, moved towards the horizon. But the game didn't seem to be ending, nor was it changing to a different level. The sun simply kept moving, instead of stopping in a new position, and the sky kept getting darker. Furthermore, besides the sky, nothing else in the surroundings changed.

AndrAIa stood in place, in the middle of nowhere in the arena, gawking at the sky and wondering just what was going on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Punchy's not a huge fan of the cold (or of shivering or of goosebumps or of the fact that he's pretty sure you can hear his teeth chattering from space), but he has to admit at least it's a welcome break from the pounding sun. He stopped sweating days ago, and his sunburn has started peeling into grotsky strips of flesh that leave small bloody trails behind. Last Arena he tried to play up being buff and handsome. This Arena, he looks like a cautionary tale about skin cancer.

He's even less a fan of the dark. It's not that he's afraid of it, but Punchy's been trying to look for allies, and they're significantly harder to locate when he can't tell the difference between a crouching Tribute and a weird-shaped rock. That's how he almost bumps into AndrAIa - he thinks she's a cactus.

In the normal world, he's brush her off and tell her to get out of his way, but he isn't in the normal world. He's in the Games, which, unfortunately, means anyone could be a threat. He jumps back, ready to kick or punch if he has to, and sizes up the dark form in front of him.

"I ain't got no beef with you, shawty. You chill?"

AndrAIa starts when the stranger almost bumps into her and raises her arm in shooting position, before remembering that her wrist crossbow was gone. She lowers it when she realizes, and that the stranger seems as cautious as she is.

"I- guess so," she answers. "The only one I want to kill is the User. I would rather work with others than fight them. That way, we all get out fine."

She looks him up and down. His skin has odd patterns that don't look very helpful. He doesn't seem to be dressed to suit the game at all. Which probably meant he was a system sprite, but just to be sure... "Are you a system sprite or a game sprite?"

Punchy doesn't raise his arms in fear when she looks as if she's about to tase him with her wrist. He does, however, fall into a combat position, ready to drop to the side and kick her leg out from under her. She's younger than him, smaller, and he doesn't want to hurt her, but he knows better than to be totally off guard.

When she starts asking questions he relaxes a bit.

"We don't need to be icing nobody, Users or not. I'm trying to bust us out too, dawg." He gives her a quizzical look that's somewhat lost under his mask and hat. "System sprite, yo. I'm hardcore with the hack skills."

AndrAIa raises her own hands in a placating gesture. The last thing she wants is to start a fight over a misunderstanding.

She looks at him quizzically. "But do we not need to kill the User to end the game? I did not think anyone had found a safe way to exit a game without defeating the User. Not even Mouse."

She looks him up and down again, searching for an icon. "You are a hacker? Did you hack your icon so the game will not take you with it when it is over?"

Punchy holds a hand up, shaking his head slightly. "Wait, wait, shawty, I'm hip to the slang but that shit's soaked my bean. I ain't got an icon here, and I sho' as shizzy ain't gotten anything to hack."

Not that he wouldn't love to. He's way more comfortable behind a screen than on it, though he'd be loath to admit that he doesn't just fall into camera-readiness.

Now she stared, completely confused. "Shit soaked your bean? What does that mean? How can you not have an icon? It has your code, your identity! Even when I was just a game sprite in a game, I had my back-up to hold my code!"

She looks almost panicked now and removes an item about the size of a pin from her belt, holding it out to him. "If you are a hacker, perhaps you can use my icon to hack whatever you have, so you will not be trapped."

For a moment, when AndrAIa hands him the little pin, Punchy dares to get excited. Maybe it's a tiny smartphone, or a USB, or something...but no. It appears to be your standard pin for a belt-buckle. Not even that swanky, either.

Punchy's expression visibly falls. "Nah, yo, I can't voodoo this. So wait, shawty, is you sayin' we're all code? Inside a game, not like, the Games game, but inside a videogame?"

AndrAIa takes her icon back and reattaches it, shrugging in apology. "I am sorry. Maybe if we can find Enzo, you could use his keytool Glitch to help. But be careful with it!"

Her brow furrows in further confusion. "Of course we all have code, no matter how simple. I am pretty sure this is a game, but not what type. It is not one I have seen before. But I did not think it mattered. It is a game, and we need to win to leave and protect the sector it landed in."

"So wait wait wait." Punchy waves his hands around a little. "Way I'm egging this, you're from inside a game. I'm from outside a game, in the meatspace. So either we's in a game," which would explain an awful lot, especially about the infinite lives and instantaneous, impeccably-edited feed, "or you's in meatspace now."

He's got to tell Tim.

"Shawty, you best be coming with me. I got homeboys. We can keep you chill."

"Meat... space?" Her face is a study in complete incomprehension. "I was from a game, but I left it. I am just like a system sprite, now. We travel with the games, Enzo and Frisket and I, because until we find a system with open ports to the Net, they are our only way of traveling between systems."

She looks around, thinking about the game. "I think this is a game. It is definitely not a system. But it is an unusual game. Rebooting did not work as it normally does. The first level was very weird, even for a tutorial, and the other levels are not different enough from each other- if they even are different levels."

Her face lights up in a smile when he mentions his friends. "Yes, I can come! Your friends- have they explored the game? I want to find Enzo and Frisket, but making plans with allies is important, too."

Punchy scratches at his chin which, after the last few days, is starting to get quite stubbly. "Ain't met no one named Enzo or Frisket, but I'll keep peeped on the crow's nest for them, a'ight? My dawgs is named Tim - both of them - and they's solid. They got it screwed on right upstairs."

He starts walking, taking smaller steps than his normal stride, since she has like. Shorter legs.

She follows readily. "Thank you for your help! Enzo is a Guardian about my age, and Frisket's his dog. Hopefully they have not changed much when they rebooted. I did not, after all. If you meet them, tell them I am your friend, and Enzo will come with you, probably. He- is more cautious now and less welcoming."

In fact, if circumstances were reversed, Enzo would probably be giving this stranger the third degree. She frowns a bit. He hadn't been like that, when they first met... And she realizes that maybe this Tim would be more like the Enzo of now than the Enzo of before. "Your friends- they would not mind you bringing a stranger back?"