LOCUS

[Dr. Cakey]

Too lazy to tell you any of the circumstances around this, but basically I wrote over the course of three days, over which I became rather sick of it. Unlikely I'm ever going to make other chapters or anything, though it's totally possible.

[spoiler='WOOOOOOOOOOOORDS']
Outside, I might know you. Maybe you sat in front of me when I took that Economics course (If so, sorry, I stole your pen. It has a very nice green color, and it still works. If you want it back, please tell me.). Maybe I processed one of your orders at Wal-Mart (In that case, whoever used that forged credit card…I remember your face.). Or, maybe you’re just one of the 2,463.8 people I pass when I ride the monorail (I got that statistic from Newsweek. They should really round their decimals.).

Inside, though, none of that matters. One correction: if you’re the guy who bought the iPhone 10 with the fake credit card, that matters a lot (The probability of that is (accounting for LOCUS’ sorting algorithms, which I kind of sort of understand) about one out of 3,020,734,983.7774, or a 3.31 x 10-10% chance.). Other than that, though, you could be that girl I had a crush on in eighth grade (Victoria K. Anastasia (I never did find out what the ‘K’ stood for). Hair: Strawberry Blond. Eyes: Green. Favorite Color: White. Favorite Food: Red Velvet Cake. Favorite Movie: sOtTp (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, 2041 remake)). She was paralyzed from the waist down.), and it wouldn’t change how we played.

It’s not that I’m cruel…or, maybe a better way to put it would be: it’s not because I’m cruel. It’s because LOCUS is going up and up and up, and if you’re not going up with it, well, you can see if there are still any jobs open at the store (there aren’t). It’s not a good system, but…it’s a system. It picks the winners and the losers without any messes like market bubbles (Here’s a question for the theologians: when He’s not having angels dance on the head of a pin, does God blow market bubbles?) and stagflation and foreclosures and whatever other words people used to mash together to talk about money.

Instead, you have one monorail ticket (breakfast included), round-trip to and from LOCUS each day, six says a week, because they still can’t miniaturize the technology properly. The first time I walked into LOCUS, I thought the gilded columns (honest to goodness real, twenty-four karat gold) and the hundred-foot-high ceiling were pretty amazing (I also thought the genuine first edition LOCUS iPhone app on display was impressive), now they’re part of the scenery (I still look at the old app sometimes, though).

Today I had to take care of entering a TANGENT Tournament – I’d been putting off joining a tourney for almost two months now. They say entering tournaments, especially TANGENTs, is a good way to get cash, but it doesn’t work that way for me. You have to do well to turn a profit. I’d avoid them altogether if they weren’t required. I usually scan the list of people in the Open POINT Lobby, looking for somebody who’s weaker than me (The trick is to watch the usernames; people who don’t capitalize, add numerals, or have names that reference popular movies, TV shows, and video games – they’re doubly awful if their names are taken from animanga.). I believe they call this lurking, and it is frowned on by LOCUS administration and the targets of lurkers, but no one else.

The walls of the lobby are lined with booths from floor to ceiling (paneled with some kind of fancy varnished wood, of course), for you to log in and register for tournaments, single duels, or one of the other kinds of fights (I haven’t even looked through them all, to be honest). Once you step inside, the doors shut and it cycles upward, to be replaced by a free both from above.

Once inside, I was logged in automatically from a quick retinal scan, and the touch-screen that took up most of the booth came to life. Unsurprisingly, the first thing it did was prompt me to register for a TANGENT Tourney, which I did. Then, it had me double-check that this was the profile and avatar I would use (People with way too much money can buy alternate avatars and even other profiles, if you don’t want to be recognized in the tournament. I’m talking like, hundreds of thousands of dollars, here.).

If we ever meet inside, I’m CHESS XANATOS Izaya X (The inspiration for the name comes from an old animanga called Durarara!! where…you know, I have no idea what the hell was going on the whole time.) and my avatar is Warmetal, a Class 11 Darkling Mechanid (Yes, I started eight years ago – right before the Z-AXIS expansion fixed the balancing issues that made mechanids weaker than any other race. I didn’t know any better (besides, Darkling Mechanids look amazing).).

Anyway, once I’d confirmed that I was indeed using the same little avatar that sometimes could, I breezed through the tourney waiver (Three (3) weeks after the announcement of a tournament’s results, any and all outstanding debts owed will be subtracted from your estate. Seriously, read the waiver. That’s in there.) only to discover that the next TANGENT was in four minutes (and twenty-two seconds). That’s eleven minutes (eleven minutes thirty-eight seconds, really) after you’re “supposed” to arrive and thirty-eight seconds into “fashionably late”. I can’t fool anyone into believing I’m fashionable, but I requested entrance into the TANGENT Lobby, causing a panel in the wall to slide open, revealing the LOCUS helmet inside. Put it on, and you’re instantly pulled into LOCUS.

Kind of…
[center]…like…[/center]
[right]…this.[/right]

LOCUS is different just about every time you go in. For this tournament, it had taken the form of a kind of amphitheater, made entirely of glass. It was transparent, but distorted what was on the other side, so that you couldn’t tell its exact size, shape, and location (You know, you could be off by a few inches. It’s important to take these things into account.). The few hundred participants (including me) were milling around inside, awaiting the start of the TANGENT. Some people were chatting in small groups, others sat down by the walls and sulked or napped. Several were practically holding signs reading “I’m feeling up the competition!”. And the rest of us did our best to be ignored by everyone else, which was pretty easy. Every ten or twenty seconds, a fashionably late person would show up, stepping from the columns of light that flew down from the sky (We all come in that way, but most of them knew how to do it with style. From what I gather, you lead with your right foot, so that you come out of the light in a long, slow stride so that you’re revealed to onlookers over the course of about half a second. It helps to be taller than everyone else, both so that it takes those few more instants for your face to be revealed, and because it helps in looking down your nose at everyone else. Some use an alternate method wherein…well, you’ll see in a moment.).

We’d reached thirty seconds to zero hour when [i]he[/i] appeared, utilizing the method of entrance I’d just alluded to: leading with [i]his[/i] avatar. The first thing that appeared was a pair of leathery wings on either side of the column of light, then the whole ugly mass of the avatar emerged with a single wingbeat. [i]He[/i] followed behind. [i]He[/i] was DARK KNIGHT Versago Grande, one of the Top 1,000 players, and [i]his[/i] avatar was Vice, a Darkling Dragon (Woo-hoo, fellow darkling player). [i]He[/i] had jet-black hair slicked into some kind of bishounen hairstyle – leaning more toward the evil kind. I wondered how much money [i]he[/i] invested in ensuring that the bangs wouldn’t get in his eyes while in LOCUS (yes, you can buy that, too).

And…time. Everybody immediately got an image and username in the upper-right-hand corner of their vision, identifying their opponent for round one. I’d have to hunt through the crowd to find mine. Unless he –

Something came at me from behind. I was ready, though, and tapped the cold lump of black metal resting in my pocket. It responded immediately, Warmetal’s serpentine body coiling around mine and creating a green barrier. The something impacted against the barrier and was thrown back, give me time to turn around.

That’s a pretty standard opening for mechanids, of course, especially Darkling Mechanids. If you’ve never dueled one before, the technique is called Power Screen, and it repels any kind of physical attack. Darklings do one better: once they reach Class 5 (as Warmetal has), it becomes Negative Screen, and causes the attack to rebound at one-quarter power.

My opponent was BRONZE PALADIN Topher Cross, using an Icebound Lancer named Blizzard Warrior. I’d guess his class to be about ten. Blizzard Warrior had landed back by its master, and quickly got back to its feet. The double-bladed ice lance in his hand had a satisfying crack in it (Not that it would impair its performance. It was just satisfying.). Warmetal moved up in front of me, shifting to its default defensive posture. Time to make a move.

“Anaconda Plan,” I commanded (Yes, that’s a Civil War reference. It generally works out about as well for me as it did for Lincoln.), Warmetal moving to comply. In a flash, it slipped forward, black coils going after Topher. Blizzard Warrior intercepted, of course. That’s when my extremely clever trap snapped shut.

It is a simple fact that most people would much rather have their avatars do the fighting. In LOCUS, your physical attributes are improved and pain is cushioned, but that doesn’t change the fact that any old avatar is far better at it than you are. Therefore, the easiest way to go after your opponent’s avatar is to strike at your opponent. Warmetal avoided Blizzard Warrior’s lance and coiled around its arm. That would give me on the order of three seconds.

“Direct,” chimed a computerized voice, as I activated my energy sword (everybody has one – even though many don’t know it – so that they have the option of direct combat). It was about two feet long, greenish, humming in my right hand. With that done, I charged at Topher.

Apparently he didn’t quite get was happening, because he didn’t move until I was almost on him, at which point it was too late, and I skewered him right through the heart.

“Beatdown!” the computer announced. Flawless victory. LO – Oh god…

In a split second, the entire situation changed. Topher and Blizzard Knight were gone. Warmetal was coiled around empty air. Its shadow, as well as my own, was connected to [i]his[/i] avatar by dozens of strands of darkness. Only [i]his[/i] avatar wasn’t Vice, Class 94 Darkling Dragon. Instead, it was Bakaneko, Class 93 Darkling Thought Entity. [i]He[/i] was about ten feet away, Bakaneko curled by his side. It was a small, pure white cat, but it cast a long shadow of something big and ugly.

If you’re still lost, allow me to elaborate. Topher Cross did not exist, and had never existed. From the beginning, my opponent had been Versago Grande (I just hadn’t known it). [i]His[/i] avatar was not a powerhouse dragon; it was a thought entity, a master of illusion. And I had been snared in it. At Class 93, the limits on a thought entities power to generate illusions would be nearly nonexistent, and so [i]he[/i] had cloaked it in the appearance of a big tough dragon. Then, when [i]he[/i] located his opponent (me, in case you forgot), it wove a more complicated illusion, simulating an entire battle. Meanwhile, Bakaneko used its only attack: Hell Threads. While I was caught up in the illusion, it slowly drained the life out of me and Warmetal. As the computer had said: beatdown.

Versago gave me a kind of dismissive salute as darkness opened up below me. Knocked out in round one.
[/spoiler]

Rep to first person to guess the anime it was predominantly inspired by, more rep for the first person to correctly identify the origins of each person's name. [i]More[/i] rep to the first person to correctly match each avatar to a Yu-Gi-Oh! card (good luck with that...).

[Vector Nightmare]

I quickly skimmed through it because I'm too sleepy atm. The battle style is inspired by [c], certainly. Kinda tired to think about the names, though I was expecting the Durarara!! reference - it happens to everyone the first few [s]days[/s] [s]weeks[/s] [s]months[/s] years. Same about the cards =S. It was pretty damn good, overall, though that may be just me totally digging the genre.

[The Borg]

Blizzard Warrior - The ice warrior
Vice Dragon - Vice, the Darkling Dragon illusion
Kinka-byo - Shadow Cat Thing
Aztekipede, the worm warrior - Warmetal

[Dr. Cakey]

[quote name='Rusty Shackleford' timestamp='1307225992' post='5254974']
Blizzard Warrior - The ice warrior
Vice Dragon - Vice, the Darkling Dragon illusion
Kinka-byo - Shadow Cat Thing
Aztekipede, the worm warrior - Warmetal
[/quote]
Three out of four, man. Warmetal is a machine.

[The Borg]

Cyber Valley?