WEEK 1 DAY 3: MISSION

[wonderful_mods]

Mission: "Defeat the Boss of Taito Station"
Time Limit: Medium
Noise Plane: Solo
Wall Instructions: Key Walls in front of Taito Station.
Wall Rewards: Supply Boost, 100 yen pin x4
Reaped Rewards: Grizzly
Mission Rewards: 5,000 yen



[It seems Taito Station is an arcade! Going inside, it seems they are having some kind of promotion for a new video game called Grizzly Gaiden. It's a 3D, HD hack n' slash for up to 3 players, and the first person or group to beat the final boss wins a plushie of the main character and his comrades, who are of course ferocious bears. Yeah!!! It seems this is what you are meant to do...

... Or is it? Apparently the game is controlled entirely with cameras and body motion sensors. Players are invisible, so there's no way for them to actually play this. But either way, it's clear that someone needs to get that bear before the time is up. What happens after that? Well...

The longer you stare at the toy, the more ferocious it starts to look... it's almost like it's possessed. Creepy.]

Comments

[wonderful_mods]

[The initial prize isn't enough of an incentive to do this quickly, this Player thinks. He walks up to the bear and pins a Lucky Panda to its fur, worth 80,000 yen.]

[shinbunshinobi]

[Sasuke sees this and decides to investigate.]

What's with the pin?

[wonderful_mods]

Oh, this?

[He chuckles.]

Too many people are giving up on the bear. I figured they'd need a push. And I should hope an accomplished gamer would recognize this most valuable of pins.

[shinbunshinobi]

I think I like your style. A valuable pin's a nicer reward than that creepy thing.

[halflight]

[Welp, time to find another weird place. Roxas really needs to take some time sometime soon to just explore everywhere he can...

but didn't he remember seeing that place when he left on the first mission? Maybe this won't be so hard. He's wandering a little far away from Taito, trying to find it and also not get himself murdered by Noise. Maybe someone else has a better idea than he does!]

[poppetstrings]

We meet again.

[Because she totally isn't stalking you, Roxas.

... Nope, totally not. Either way...]

You having any problems yet?

[halflight]

[No, not at all. He does look a little suprised to see her] I.... not really, except I'm not really sure where I'm going. Heh, that keeps happening, though. Erased anyone yet?

[poppetstrings]

Maybe. And Maybe you should start exploring a little more after the missions are up.

[Shinjuku Station, RG]

[gypsy_portals]

[It's not easy being an English-speaking pony in a world full of Japanese-speaking humans. Nobody will offer her a job, or even talk to her (save for those guys a few days ago that kind of just stared at her and walked the other way), and now she's out of what few bits she had when she showed up here. Thankfully, the shops with the spoooooky pirate skulls took them!

She's used to being ignored, though; it comes with being a gaudy pink Earth Pony. So now she's panhandling like a true homeless pink bum, situated comfortably on a bench with a top hat and a sign that says:]

FORTUNES TOLD
¥500

Tin Pin Slammer played on request

[So far, she'd gotten a few people to play her in Tin Pin Slammer - even won a couple of yen pins that way! - but nothing much past that.]

[suicidoll]

(Okay...Kreutzer's really saddened at this sight. Having the zebra be a player was one thing, but a sad, pink pony, all alone on the RG? It broke the girl's heart to see this.

So out of strong concern and an urge to console the poor equine, Kreutzer shifts on over to the RG, appearing as if she had just popped out of the crowd and approaching her. Surprise surprise: this human speaks English!)

Ah, you tell fortunes? Perhaps you could tell me mine?

[gypsy_portals]

[Well! That takes Pinkie by surprise. She wasn't really SAD, just poor. It's kind of hard to lead a fulfilling life if you can't buy the tools to make it fulfilling, after all! At the same time, she'd been getting a lot of folks speaking her language ever since she got that sign made.]

Welly-well well! I most certainly can! I don't have a crystal ball to work with, but I definitely have my magic candy!

[Wait, where did that bag of candy come from? It didn't look like she was hiding it behind the sign. No matter. She takes out a piece and looks it over, not... unwrapping it or anything, just... staring at it for a minute.]

"You are already dead"? [That causes the pony to look a bit puzzled, talking to herself.] Huh... did Twilight slip some of her cartoon candy in here before I left? That doesn't even make sense, she's obviously not dead YET or she couldn't pay me for her fortune!

[She shakes her head and pops the candy, wrapper and all, in her mouth before pulling out another one and studying it in the same way.]

Here we go! "Just grin and BEAR it, happiness is less than a week away!"

[The second piece of candy gets the same treatment as the first, the pony smiling energetically.]

That'll be one of those little 'five hundred' pins, please! ♥

[suicidoll]

(Well that's a very unorthodox method of fortune telling. Then again, there isn't really much about a pink pony in a world of humans that can be classified as normal, so even with the bag of candy appearing from hammer space nowhere, the girl decides to go along with it.

She takes a moment to let that sink in. That was...surprisingly accurate. On both accounts. Of course Kreutzer is dead (not that she'd tell the pony), but that second one...she wasn't sure about the happiness bit, but less than a week? Grin and BEAR it? Is it possible that she knows about The Game...?

...whether or not she does, Kreutz is very much fascinated now. She hands over a five hundred yen pin.)

You...you could tell all of that just from looking at candy?

[tamedhollow]

[Need money? Ichigo has a whole mess of yen pins. But you're going to have to work for them. By the third day, it seemed most of the Players knew what they were doing. He no longer felt as bad about siccing the Noise on them. They got a little beat up, but they usually won.

... Usually.

So the Hollow Reaper tosses the yen pins up and down in his claws]

[needsmorezippers]

[Sup Players. Neku's got a wall set up riiiight in front of the station, and he has some yen for you should you need it. Which you obviously do. Problem is you may or may not have to play him at Tin Pin to get them. Shut up he likes Tin Pin and he doesn't suck like Tenho, ok?

Seriously, prepare to have your ass handed to you.]

[tamedhollow]

[oh hey, fellow Reaper. Ichigo watches Neku as he gets set up, then walks over]

What is all this, Neku?

[needsmorezippers]

[It's really not that much, it's like... a table. Maybe. Who the hell knows, Tin Pin might be played on thin air how did he and Josh play in the Crossing that one time.......]

It's for Tin Pin. [he's not a dork he promises.]

[tamedhollow]

So it's like... a game? [Ichigo blinks down at the... table. We'll go with table. It makes sense.] Do you play it with the pins, then?

[shinbunshinobi]

[Sasuke has gotten a lot better at navigating the area now, so he's not wandering around aimlessly like before. However, wall. Blocking where he needs to go.]

So what will it be this time to take this thing down?

[needsmorezippers]

[Yea, they do that.]

You played Tin Pin yet?

[juuichi_yosamu]

[Grovyle's kind of been staring at this Reaper for a while; that manner of attire struck him as familiar, and not at all trustworthy. He's manning a wall, so he's not blatantly attacking, but...

Yeah, Grovyle's sent off Rhyme to look for another way around. He doesn't trust this guy.]

What's the catch?

[needsmorezippers]

[It's ok. Neku... really understands how people would not trust him.]

What do you mean?

[leggierissimo]

[So far this week, Joshua has been perfectly happy playing Harrier against the Players. But today's mission... something about it just seems like it will be far more entertaining to sit back and watch the fun. Oh, he'll still play Harrier. But he does want to see what the Players will do when it comes down to it.

As for right now? He's milling about inside Taito Station, watching for Players. What? It's a perfectly fine place to sic Noise on them, especially when they're so close to meeting their goal. As crowded as it is, it isn't like anyone will literally bump into anyone on the RG anyway.]

[shinbunshinobi]

[After finally making his way to the actual station, Sasuke discovers, much to his dismay, that he can't actually complete the mission himself. Plus, that bear is really giving him the feeling of sudden doom, so he walks back out of the station and leans against the wall.]

[He tries to scan the minds of the crowd to find anyone who wants to play the Grizzly Gaiden game. Sasuke hasn't figured out what to do after finding said person(s). This Reaper Game needs better instructions.]

[gypsy_portals]

[The thoughts around the game center are somewhat clogged with noise; more particularly, a lot of thoughts that Sasuke can pick up are indeed about the game, but they're not so much about PLAYING it. In fact, a lot of them seem to focus on how strange the control scheme is, and how difficult it makes a game that a lot of arcade goers think they should have beaten already. Then again, not all of those arcade-goers are the 'fit and active' types.

The strange part is that there's only one openly audible mind from the crowd that ISN'T thinking about Grizzly Gaiden, a pink pony sitting on a bench with a sign and a bag of candy.]

'Smile, you're on candid player'? What does that even mean? Man, my magic candy's been acting weird ever since I showed up here.

I really wish the fortune-telling thing would work out better; there was that nice lady who gave me a lot of money on her voodoo money doll, but that's still not enough to finance this vacation! If I only had the cash to buy myself a portable kitchen, then I could make money the pastry-chef way instead of the gypsy way. Don't you agree, magic candy?

What's that? 'The boss is the key to success'? Well, duh... a store can't run without a boss!

[Sounds just like crazy banter. Or is it? Maybe if you had a way to coax her into thinking about Grizzly Gaiden...]

[shinbunshinobi]

Come on RG people, play the damn game and help us Players out.

[He gives a frustrated sigh after having been here for too long, trying to figure out how he can get this mission finished. Is that pin on the Grizzly Gaiden prize really worth 80,000 yen? Money is a good motivator, but Sasuke has to wonder if anyone else knew the worth of the pin. Or if they would even notice the pin at all.]

[And there's someone who looks like someone his partner would know thinking about money.]

Wonderful, if only I could let Ms. Pink Pony know about the pin.