Re: DEATHGAME 9000 [S!3] Round One: Gamexus X99
03-01-2012, 08:08 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Lord Paradise.
The “center,” though lavish, didn’t look like much of a clinic. It had all the trappings of a waiting room: a flowery yet comfortably sterile smell in the air, magazines on end tables, furniture in clusters located just far enough away from each other that you don’t feel like you’re going to contaminate anybody or be contaminated. A pretty nurse in pink sat at a computer in the back. Trisha’s own clinic back home had a similar setup—a bit cozier, of course, being a private practice. The center, with its self-important nomenclature and futuristic architecture, gave the impression of a government facility. Why the government had put of these in the backwater of Bellicose Town, which lacked so much as a library, a hairdresser or a place to get a good milkshake, Trisha had only a vague suspicion.
Aside from its government trappings, the main difference between the center and Trisha’s clinic was that Trisha’s clinic had other rooms aside from the waiting room. The center simply ended with the nurse at reception. She was beginning to suspect that this part of the Deadly Maze had been designed to mock her.
The girl with the blue hair sat down next to Trisha while Boxer approached the nurse, carrying a small metal cube. ”Weird, isn’t it?” she offered, clutching her rabbit. ”I’m Lynette, by the way. We haven’t really had a chance to talk.”
Trisha smiled warmly. “Trisha.”
”Oh. The Amazing, uh, he got yours right then.”
”Yes.”
A few more seconds silence. Then, Lynette dared to ask: ”He also said your last name was—“
”Bearonrollerblades. Spelled the way it sounds.”
”Okay.”
The other girl giggled from behind her magazine. “How well do you know her?” Trisha asked Lynette.
”Not very. Her name’s Eris. She’s been helpful so far, I guess.”
Trisha nodded. The cover of the magazine Eris was reading promised that there was a Tech Code for Hailstorm inside, good for all Colds and most Wets. She had no idea what that meant. “’Helpful so far’ is good to go on, I guess. For now.”
”I guess us girls need to stick together,” joked Lynette, scratching her rabbit behind the ears. When Trisha gave a little sneer and a grunt at that, the girl flushed. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”
Through her last few years of high school, Trisha had been an active member of the Masculinist Alliance, but it wouldn’t do her any good to lose a potential ally over social politics. “Not really,” she decided to answer.
”Are you sure?”
”I’m a Tiaran citizen, in case you were wondering,” blurted Trisha, not sure what it had to do with anything. “I’ve lived there all my life.”
”I don’t know what that means,” replied Lynette.
The two of them went silent after that until Boxer, having concluded his business at the counter, walked over to Trisha, holding his cube aloft. He snapped a button and Burnaby appeared in front of them in a flash of light, prompting Lynette to yelp a little. “See?” said Boxer. “Good as new. The center. I’m gonna go now. Oh, and—“ he pulled some bills out of his pocket and handed them to Lynette “—here’s your winnings.”
”Uh, thanks,” said Trisha, pocketing the money. Boxer dismissed Burnaby, stashed the cube in his pocket and left.
”Nice kid,” chuckled Eris from across the room.
”Either of you have any idea what just happened?” asked Lynette.
“No idea,” answered Trisha, deep in thought.
”Who cares? We’re making money.”
”I care,” said Trisha. “Hang on one minute.”
The veterinarian walked up to the counter. “Excuse me,” she said to the nurse.
“Welcome to the Bellicose Center,” intoned the nurse. “Place all your cubes on the counter, six maximum, you know the drill.” When Trisha did not place any cubes on the counter, the nurse’s voice and expression got a little less automated. “Or is there something else you wanted?”
“Yes, actually.” Trisha flashed what she considered to be her sweetest smile. “I don’t know how to say this without coming off as rude, but I’d like to talk to someone who actually knows the theory behind what you’re doing.”
The nurse became sullen. “Hmm. Tough one. Try talking to Cherry in Satisfaction City. He’s compiling the new almanac. If he can’t answer your questions, he’ll know someone who can.”
“Great. An almanac. That’s perfect. What’s the easiest way to Satisfaction?”
The nurse rifled through a file cabinet behind her and produced a foldout map of the region, which she handed to Trisha. “Have a nice day.”
“You too.” Trisha returned to Lynette and Eris. “Can we go? There’s a man in the next city I want to see, and I’ve left that chimpanzee outside for too long, I’m worried he’ll have run off.”
”One second.” Eris ripped her page out of her magazine and stood. Trisha winced. She hated when people did that.
* * * * *
So by the time Trisha, Lynette and Eris had set out on the road again, she had learned the following things:
1) This region seemed to follow a weird sort of socialist model. Medicine was socialized, and if you needed to travel quickly you could apply for a “Bike Voucher,” although there were no other forms of mechanized transportation. There was no real evidence of a local government. The people seemed happy.
2) Trisha and Lynette would never really understand each other. They agreed that Hippocrates was a “horse” and Vigil was a “rabbit,” though Lynette preferred the term “bunny,” and agreed that humans and animals were part of the same biosphere and evolved and reproduced in the same ways. However, they had absolutely no basis for comparison in terms of history and geography beyond an inkling that they both lived on planets.
3) After Trisha’s refutation that she was not, of course, a “magic veterinarian,” she worked out that where Lynette came from, magic was, in fact, real, and treated as a matter of course. (This discussion became more complicated when Lynette asked why, if magic didn’t exist on Trisha’s world, did she know what it was?) Eris, meanwhile, claimed to be an embodiment of pure elemental Chaos, and knew what a planet was but wasn’t sure how it applied to her. Eris was mostly silent for the rest of the trip.
4) The chimpanzee was not from this part of the Maze. As soon as its helmet was removed, it would lose that intelligent sparkle in its eyes and become frightened and begin yelling. It was pretty affectionate, most of the time, but Vigil didn’t seem to trust him around it.
5) Oh, and Vigil could talk. That one would have given Trisha quite a shock if she were, at the moment, psychologically capable of fear.
”Yes, yes, that’s a monkey,” snapped Eris when Trisha resumed an earlier line of questioning. ”What’s your point?”
”No, that’s the point exactly,” replied Trisha. “Where I come from, if it doesn’t have a tail, it’s—“
”—An ape. Yes. I know.”
”Yes. Well. You may know that, but I don’t think the people here would. Their entire biosphere is completely different. And their naming conventions are... I don’t even know. Just sort of weird.”
”Honestly, Trisha,” piped up Lynette. ”All the small-talk is getting a bit annoying. Things are different for us cause we got taken from different places, or different planes of reality or whatever, but don’t you think there are more important things to obsess about? Like the whole ‘battle-to-the-death’ bit?”
Trisha considered this for a while. “I think,” she eventually said, “That the Amazing expects us all to start fighting each other as soon as we’re put together, even without prompting us to. Because we’re just so different. We can’t mutually exist, it’s impossible, we all know it’s impossible. It’s like different religions, times ten. And then there’s this place, which... doesn’t really make sense... at all.”
Eris shrugged. ”The idea of making sense never made much sense to me.”
”I just think it’s important that we have some basic idea of how the world works, whatever world we’re in. So I’m going to get us an almanac.”
Lynette sighed. ”Well, as long as we’re going somewhere.”
Hippocrates said, “Neigh.”
The “center,” though lavish, didn’t look like much of a clinic. It had all the trappings of a waiting room: a flowery yet comfortably sterile smell in the air, magazines on end tables, furniture in clusters located just far enough away from each other that you don’t feel like you’re going to contaminate anybody or be contaminated. A pretty nurse in pink sat at a computer in the back. Trisha’s own clinic back home had a similar setup—a bit cozier, of course, being a private practice. The center, with its self-important nomenclature and futuristic architecture, gave the impression of a government facility. Why the government had put of these in the backwater of Bellicose Town, which lacked so much as a library, a hairdresser or a place to get a good milkshake, Trisha had only a vague suspicion.
Aside from its government trappings, the main difference between the center and Trisha’s clinic was that Trisha’s clinic had other rooms aside from the waiting room. The center simply ended with the nurse at reception. She was beginning to suspect that this part of the Deadly Maze had been designed to mock her.
The girl with the blue hair sat down next to Trisha while Boxer approached the nurse, carrying a small metal cube. ”Weird, isn’t it?” she offered, clutching her rabbit. ”I’m Lynette, by the way. We haven’t really had a chance to talk.”
Trisha smiled warmly. “Trisha.”
”Oh. The Amazing, uh, he got yours right then.”
”Yes.”
A few more seconds silence. Then, Lynette dared to ask: ”He also said your last name was—“
”Bearonrollerblades. Spelled the way it sounds.”
”Okay.”
The other girl giggled from behind her magazine. “How well do you know her?” Trisha asked Lynette.
”Not very. Her name’s Eris. She’s been helpful so far, I guess.”
Trisha nodded. The cover of the magazine Eris was reading promised that there was a Tech Code for Hailstorm inside, good for all Colds and most Wets. She had no idea what that meant. “’Helpful so far’ is good to go on, I guess. For now.”
”I guess us girls need to stick together,” joked Lynette, scratching her rabbit behind the ears. When Trisha gave a little sneer and a grunt at that, the girl flushed. “I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?”
Through her last few years of high school, Trisha had been an active member of the Masculinist Alliance, but it wouldn’t do her any good to lose a potential ally over social politics. “Not really,” she decided to answer.
”Are you sure?”
”I’m a Tiaran citizen, in case you were wondering,” blurted Trisha, not sure what it had to do with anything. “I’ve lived there all my life.”
”I don’t know what that means,” replied Lynette.
The two of them went silent after that until Boxer, having concluded his business at the counter, walked over to Trisha, holding his cube aloft. He snapped a button and Burnaby appeared in front of them in a flash of light, prompting Lynette to yelp a little. “See?” said Boxer. “Good as new. The center. I’m gonna go now. Oh, and—“ he pulled some bills out of his pocket and handed them to Lynette “—here’s your winnings.”
”Uh, thanks,” said Trisha, pocketing the money. Boxer dismissed Burnaby, stashed the cube in his pocket and left.
”Nice kid,” chuckled Eris from across the room.
”Either of you have any idea what just happened?” asked Lynette.
“No idea,” answered Trisha, deep in thought.
”Who cares? We’re making money.”
”I care,” said Trisha. “Hang on one minute.”
The veterinarian walked up to the counter. “Excuse me,” she said to the nurse.
“Welcome to the Bellicose Center,” intoned the nurse. “Place all your cubes on the counter, six maximum, you know the drill.” When Trisha did not place any cubes on the counter, the nurse’s voice and expression got a little less automated. “Or is there something else you wanted?”
“Yes, actually.” Trisha flashed what she considered to be her sweetest smile. “I don’t know how to say this without coming off as rude, but I’d like to talk to someone who actually knows the theory behind what you’re doing.”
The nurse became sullen. “Hmm. Tough one. Try talking to Cherry in Satisfaction City. He’s compiling the new almanac. If he can’t answer your questions, he’ll know someone who can.”
“Great. An almanac. That’s perfect. What’s the easiest way to Satisfaction?”
The nurse rifled through a file cabinet behind her and produced a foldout map of the region, which she handed to Trisha. “Have a nice day.”
“You too.” Trisha returned to Lynette and Eris. “Can we go? There’s a man in the next city I want to see, and I’ve left that chimpanzee outside for too long, I’m worried he’ll have run off.”
”One second.” Eris ripped her page out of her magazine and stood. Trisha winced. She hated when people did that.
* * * * *
So by the time Trisha, Lynette and Eris had set out on the road again, she had learned the following things:
1) This region seemed to follow a weird sort of socialist model. Medicine was socialized, and if you needed to travel quickly you could apply for a “Bike Voucher,” although there were no other forms of mechanized transportation. There was no real evidence of a local government. The people seemed happy.
2) Trisha and Lynette would never really understand each other. They agreed that Hippocrates was a “horse” and Vigil was a “rabbit,” though Lynette preferred the term “bunny,” and agreed that humans and animals were part of the same biosphere and evolved and reproduced in the same ways. However, they had absolutely no basis for comparison in terms of history and geography beyond an inkling that they both lived on planets.
3) After Trisha’s refutation that she was not, of course, a “magic veterinarian,” she worked out that where Lynette came from, magic was, in fact, real, and treated as a matter of course. (This discussion became more complicated when Lynette asked why, if magic didn’t exist on Trisha’s world, did she know what it was?) Eris, meanwhile, claimed to be an embodiment of pure elemental Chaos, and knew what a planet was but wasn’t sure how it applied to her. Eris was mostly silent for the rest of the trip.
4) The chimpanzee was not from this part of the Maze. As soon as its helmet was removed, it would lose that intelligent sparkle in its eyes and become frightened and begin yelling. It was pretty affectionate, most of the time, but Vigil didn’t seem to trust him around it.
5) Oh, and Vigil could talk. That one would have given Trisha quite a shock if she were, at the moment, psychologically capable of fear.
”Yes, yes, that’s a monkey,” snapped Eris when Trisha resumed an earlier line of questioning. ”What’s your point?”
”No, that’s the point exactly,” replied Trisha. “Where I come from, if it doesn’t have a tail, it’s—“
”—An ape. Yes. I know.”
”Yes. Well. You may know that, but I don’t think the people here would. Their entire biosphere is completely different. And their naming conventions are... I don’t even know. Just sort of weird.”
”Honestly, Trisha,” piped up Lynette. ”All the small-talk is getting a bit annoying. Things are different for us cause we got taken from different places, or different planes of reality or whatever, but don’t you think there are more important things to obsess about? Like the whole ‘battle-to-the-death’ bit?”
Trisha considered this for a while. “I think,” she eventually said, “That the Amazing expects us all to start fighting each other as soon as we’re put together, even without prompting us to. Because we’re just so different. We can’t mutually exist, it’s impossible, we all know it’s impossible. It’s like different religions, times ten. And then there’s this place, which... doesn’t really make sense... at all.”
Eris shrugged. ”The idea of making sense never made much sense to me.”
”I just think it’s important that we have some basic idea of how the world works, whatever world we’re in. So I’m going to get us an almanac.”
Lynette sighed. ”Well, as long as we’re going somewhere.”
Hippocrates said, “Neigh.”