Ante.EXE

Name: Ante.EXE

Gender: Female

Element: Normal

Subtype: Variable

Appearance: Click for some rough concepts. A tall woman of about 6'0" with odd, gray-tone skin and gleaming red eyes, Ante always stands straight and carries herself with a regal demeanor. She has model-like proportions hidden modestly beneath her layers of bodysuit and clothing. Her hair is a sort of shocking orange color; underneath the hood it's shoulder length and quite messy, but it normally only peaks out in tufts at her brow. Her body is covered foremost in a black navisuit of a slightly heavy cloth, so as not to fit too closely to her body, with an odd, clover-shaped extension off of the hood that holds her hair. Her outfit is layered in ways that aren't visible at first glance. Atop the bodysuit is shining, red clothing of a thin, latex-like material forming a neck covering, arm slips, boots, skirt, and corset. The most distinct piece is a large, white-feathered red hat that rests on her head at a diagonal lean. Her red navi belt and ear guards hold an image of her emblem, a spread of five white cards set over a black background. Card dispensers are mounted to the gloves and dispense various weapons and attacks during battle. Because of the way they wrap with buckles, they can be removed and attached elsewhere, but they only operate through the power of her own body, so they will be functionless if separated.

Personality: Ante is a very proud, honor-driven character who practices knightly behaviors. She is soft spoken but not necessarily inwardly humble, although she acts fairly modest. She is a shrewd tactician and master combatant, but is hampered by the bugs and glitches that a certain navi put into her for unknown reasons, removing nearly all of her former capability and adding many odd features. She's sworn vengeance against this person, but refuses to accept any aid in retaliating against them and has assured herself that she will deal with him once she regains her former strength. Of greatest chagrin to her was the switching of her protocol from a "battle/poker navi" to a "battle/strip poker navi." Even in battle now, certain behaviors she makes, particularly good card draws (an integral part of her battling procedure), are often "rewarded" by her clothing articles removing themselves. There is a point system that outlines how much stripping each hand is worth. It is quite possible that some technological expert could reconvert her from this form, but she's committed herself to deal with it and regain her power.

Custom Weapon: Ante's custom weapon is her Shuffle Scepter, a long, red-handled rod with a black, metal spade at the end. The spade releases cards from a slit in the side, but can also be used to jab an opponent.

GMOs:

-Summer.GMO (Gift)-

The concept of this outfit was to stay close to Ante's usual motif while taking away what Dare percieves as an inordinate amount of useless stuffiness. It begins by substituting Ante's usual heavy skinsuit with a thin, black bodysuit, which forgoes the hood and simply extends up to the neck. It also ends just before the feet or hands. There's a symbol of two hearts low on the right hip of the bodysuit, where Dare thought Ante wouldn't be able to see it.

Over this is a tight red layer, like a one-piece swimsuit, with a separately removable short red skirt attached low. Simple long red gloves and boots also overlay the black bodysuit.

There is no hat for this outfit. Rather, Dare gave Ante a new hairstyle, half swept over and kept in place by a heart-shaped hairpin.

Overall, Dare thinks it's a very young look! Can Ante pull it off?

-Cat-Hairband Waitress.GMO (level 0)-

Diving into the otaku culture of Electopia Net's pages, Teruko unearthed this GMO for Ante's waitress mission. The outfit replaces all of her traditional gear, leaving her rust-orange hair out fully rather than hooded. An white hairband with soft, synthetic calico-colored cat ears attached is placed atop her head, with the band mostly hidden and the ears showing. Her new costume consists of a bright orange waitress' uniform, including a wide-brimmed, but not overly long, frilled skirt, attached to a band around the waist of the same color, buttoned up the back. Frilled overall straps run up to either shoulder and cross into an X shape on the back, circling back under the armpits. The breasts are framed by the straps on the front, but said straps are partially eclipsed by the swell of the bust. A white, frilled apron covers the front , tied at the back with an oversized bow. Beneath the skirt/straps, she wears a white blouse with fluffed shoulders, but thin-fitting sleeves, also a little tight around the chest. A collar circles her neck, white leather with a gold tag displaying her name, "Ante," in cursive lettering. Long, white stockings cover the area from toe to thigh, with small, orange ribbons tied at the highest points of the stockings. Her feet are clad in closed-toed, orange-colored shoes with heels; thankfully, she has a lot of practice walking in higher heels than these. Finally, a swishing, plush, calico-patterned tail extends from lower back part of the skirt, though it's not quite clear where it connects.

Like all of Ante's outfits, it is, by necessity, layered, due to the nature of her unique glitch, but those layers will remain a secret for now. Ante's Shuffle Scepter and her card changers are dismissed in this GMO, but can be called back in their ordinary form if needed without disengaging the GMO.

Signature Attacks (100/100):

Name: Deal Hand
Effect: 15 Strengthen, Passive
Description: The glitch in Ante's system will automatically deal her out five "cards" at set intervals once she begins her battle routine. The "value" of the hand is tied into how much she will strip by a strict set of codes. Only Teruko and Ante can see the results. Curiously, there also seems to be an infusion of power into Ante's weaponry that corresponds with this glitch manifesting...

Name: Swap Two
Effect: 20 Strengthen, Passive
Description: Ante has the option to put back two cards and receive new ones; the effect is similar to the first deal. Teruko's love of gambling will usually prevent Ante from messing up her hand...

Name: Mulligan
Effect: Passive 15 heal
Description: The program that draws for Ante's glitch swaps out the hand for a new draw. It also consistently functions as a refreshing program for Ante. Could Ante be getting stronger as the glitch develops?

--CROSSES--

ZephyrCross (Level 1)

Element: Normal

Subtype: Wind

Appearance: Ante's dress takes on a white color and becomes literally composed of a fast-spinning, white-colored wind current. Both the top and skirt are composed of "tornado," although it may just be a repellant substance that looks similar. Her skinsuit vanishes, showing more of her gray skin. Her hat becomes something similar to her skirt, almost like an upward-spinning turban of wind. In reality, it is a flat-topped, light-blue piece of a similar width to her original hat, strapped on with a chin strap. A turbine on top creates the wind force, which is actually similar to what's going on with her own dress; all of it's created by a turbine-like instrument held across her breasts, like smooth, light-blue chest armor.

Her earguards and her belt (which acts as another turbine) still hold her emblem. Her staff becomes light-blue in color, with a head that is ordinarily in the shape of a white cloud. The cloud can be modified to become a spiraling tornado. By pointing the head of the staff towards the ground, she can emulate the wind subtype airstep.

The glitch acts in such a way as to modify the power of her wind turbines in unpredictable ways. Certain turbines may speed up or slow down as the glitch demands. As the turbines slow, the white funnels spouting from the turbines become like puffy white clouds and lose their shape somewhat.

The signature card of this cross is the King of Hearts. The card set becomes light blue clouds and dark blue tornados.

Buster: Ante releases a blast of wind from her funnel-headed staff.

Charge Shot: After charging up power, Ante releases a large funnel of wind from the end of her staff, which smashes into a single target.

Signature Attack(s):

(80/80)
Get Away (80) - Ante releases a powerful blast of wind from the end of her staff, which both propels her in an unpredictable direction and knocks the wind out of one opponent.
- Stun + 10 damage
- Dodge
- 2 TCD

KaijuCross (Level 1)

Element: Fire

Subtype: Break

Appearance: Ante swaps out her usual outfit for green, scaled armor, which is composed of gloves, boots, hood, breastplate, pauldrons, and tasset. The hood is itself armor and resembles a dragon's head, with sharp fangs fashioned in, but not so obtrusively as to stab the wearer. Her lower face is visible, but the upper part is covered by the hood and the eyes are cast over with shadows. The gloves and boots are each fashioned with dangerous black claws, while black spikes and minor studs adorn the armor. The armor is loosely held together with primitive bands.

Beneath the armor and visible at places, she wears a gray suit of more tightly packed scales, which clings to her like a skinsuit. Her staff becomes a long monster bone, bristling with black barbs. The head transforms between a monster claw and skeletal dragon head. Her emblem is still displayed at her tasset.

Ante's glitch is affected in such a way as to cause her body to grow larger and larger, even beyond what her clothing can support. At peak size, she may be even bigger than KaijuMan!

This cross' representative card is the King of Clubs. Her card set becomes black, pointed spines and green dragon heads.

Buster: Ante releases barbs from her bone staff, causing minor damage as they cut the enemy's flesh.

Charge Shot: Ante releases a supersonic blast in the form of a roar from her dragon-headed staff.

Signature Attack(s):

(80/80)
Big Stack (80) - As Ante grows, the fire inside her burns hotter and hotter. Occasionally, she can harness that fire to power up her own attacks, giving them reckless, explosive power.
- Strengthen 60 + Imbue Fire
- 2 TCD

DareCross (Level 2)

Element: Fire

Subtype: Speed

Appearance: Ante goes from princess to race queen in a quick transformation when this cross is activated. From the top down, her hat is the first thing to go, replaced with a sun visor. The gear has a black ring strap and red, reflective bill. From the back hangs a long white/black checkered tag, which is a motif shared by many articles of her clothing. Next is a scarf, red with a black/white checkered lower border. Her upper body is clad in a red, sleeveless jacket with a popped collar; a wide, black stripe runs down the center of the front and back. The inside is colored in the shared checkered pattern. Her lower body is covered by a miniskirt, much tighter than her usual affair, and bearing the checkered pattern in the form of a built-in belt. Her gloves are short and red, with Velcro straps around the wrists. The straps, following the pattern, are checkered. Her boots are replaced with high-heeled shoes, including white/black checkered, criss-crossing laced straps that follow from the ankle to just below the knees.

Beneath this ensemble, she also wears a one-piece swimsuit, red across 3/4 and black across the remaining 1/4. The portions are divided by a white/black checkered stripe. The legs openings are fairly high on it, running almost to her waistline. If there's anything else beneath this... it's a secret.

Of course, stiletto heeled, shiny shoes are hardly any better for speed than her traditional boots. With that in mind, it's fortunate that her staff is modified to allow her to keep up with Dare's trademark agility. The staff changes more than in most forms, adding a handle so that it can be held with its length away from the body, beneath the armpit and at the waist. The head is swapped for a red, flame-shaped, durable-but-transparent piece... while its use is not immediately apparent, a "rev" of the handle makes it apparent... jet propulsion shoots out of the back of the staff, rocketing her forward along with it. She must use her own body to steer left and right while in motion. While she can lift upward, she can only go downward by disengaging the staff momentarily. It will require sputtering the fire to make a proper landing. Like with most of her staffs, the head is interchangable. It can be swapped for a large tire, black with a rubber exterior. At first one might think the purpose of this was movement; not so. This tire is just for smacking things with blunt force. Cards can still dispense from the portion where the staff meets the head, either smoothly dispensing it along the curved windowshield, or flopping it straight out from beneath the tire.

Because no Ante form would be complete without stripping: as Ante fights, the white/black checkered bits of her outfit do not survive the flames her weapon generates. As this mostly includes straps, belts, etc., it inevitably results in things falling off as she continues to use her powers. In fact, even beyond fire, the speed of her movement can cause them to come undone. This is the kind of outfit that seems designed to come off easily...

This cross' representative card is the Ace of Hearts. Its card set is red/black with flames and tire emblems, respectively.

Buster: A whack with Ante's big, rubber tire. The staff gives it leverage, but other than that, it's just plain old blunt force trauma.

Charge Shot: By turning the staff around and holding the exhaust end outward, Ante can use her staff almost like a flamethrower.

Signature Attack(s):

(160/160)

Action Cards (100) - Ante dispenses a pair of aces from her staff. When attached as with her queen of spades, the cards allow navis to power up. It releases two cards, presumably for oneself and an ally.
- Strengthen 30 + Imbue Fire
- Strengthen 30 + Imbue Fire
- 3 TCD

Straddle Bet (60) - Ante pulls in on her handle's trigger, then back again on the handle itself, clutching her scepter with either both hands or the pit of one arm. The result is that she snaps forward with a quick spurt of short-lived fire, aided by the staff's propulsion. The recoil is bad, but it can be used as a snap dodge. Furthermore, as long as the trigger's squeezed, a few more snap dodges can be executed. It will revert to normal shortly afterwards, allowing slightly less insane levels of speed.
- Self-Haste
- Dodge
-15 HP sacrifice
- 2 TCD

STRIP DRAW RULES:
No pair: 0 points
One pair: 5 points
Two pair: 15 points 
Three pair: 30 points
Straight: 60 points
Flush: 80 points
Full House: 100 points
Four of a Kind: 150 points
Straight Flush: 250 points
Royal Flush: All Off

Accessories: 5 each
Shoes/Gloves: 5 each
Outer garment: 20 each
Undergarment: 50 each
Special Undergarments: 100 each
???: 200 each
Name: Fold.SP

Gender: Female

Element: Null

Subtype: Shield

Appearance: At first glance, Fold seems similar to Ante; she's roughly the same height of 6'0", with similarly gray-toned skin and a pretty, model-like Netopian face. Up close, it's clear that her face is a bit less angular, her eyelids a little heavier, and her lips a bit fuller; her skin is also a shade darker. With those differences, no one would mistake them for sisters up close, farther than their unusual grayness or their elegant clothing. The color of her eyes is nearly black itself, and her expression is usually a passive smile, good-natured, with raised eyebrows. Fold has jet-black hair that reaches about to her shoulders when she is not helmeted or hooded. Her body is different from Ante's; due to the fact that she always wears heavy armor, either through necessity or conditioning, she's rather muscular beneath her equipment in a way that one would not expect from the way she behaves. Her womanly features are also still admirable, with well-sized curves in the expected places, but some of it gets lost in the muscle-tone, as compared to Ante's more figure, which is closer to that of the typical ideal wife.

Like Ante's hat and dress, Fold's clothing looks eccentric, thematic, and is a sight to behold. Her armor is mostly black, including a helmet with a long, bill-like visor. It doesn't actually cover her eyes or any part of her face, but does shade her eyes. The back of the helmet includes a wide fin, which, when viewed from the top, makes a spade shape. The rest of the armor includes a metallic dress, which includes shoulder armor, breast armor, gauntlets, boost, and a number of long tassets which hang from a fauld at her waist. Her undersuit is similar to Ante's only the material is a little thicker still and the color is dark red. Like Ante's, it includes a hood, although the back of hers is held in an elongated, diamond shape instead of a club. Silver detailing adorns the armor here and there, such as at the buckles, which are shaped like tiny diamonds themselves and are arranged mostly on the sides of the armor, where the wearer can reach them. The armor bisects into two halves when unbuckled, except for the helmet, which includes a chin-strap with a discrete buckle beneath the jaw. Unlike with Ante's equipment, there's no daintiness to the gloves or boots; the heels are flat and the upper parts of the knuckles are covered in thick armor, allowing her just enough flexibility to wrap her hands as she needs for battle.

Her armaments consist of only a short, plain sword, designed like an ancient spatha with no cross-hilt or hilt-guard, and a shield. The shield itself is rather large but also light, covering a little less than half of the body when held vertically. It is shaped like an upside down spade and adorned with a splendid, silver frame; it's such an attractive design, she thinks, that she is often loath to use it as a means of defense.

Personality: Personality: Despite her military background, Fold enjoys the trappings of high-society, but she's also used to working as a servant and performing domestic tasks. She's friendly with most and loves to joke, gossip, and usually is a tad nosy, but very sociable. Her greatest weakness is that she dotes on Ante obsequiously and appears more than a little obsessive. She sees few flaws in anything Ante does and is always eagerly awaiting her next order. She is the type to think of others before herself, but Ante more than anyone else. Despite how Fold favors domestic life, she appears wholly uninterested in her own romantic life or men, possibly as an extension of giving Ante all of her attention instead of worrying about herself. Fold is also an unlucky sort, making a career out of being a meat-shield and remaining an eternal bachelorette, but seems to be unable to resist taking part in gambling or challenges.

Background: Fold is the "Black Queen," a high-ranking member of Ante's former royal guard, whose whereabouts are now mostly unknown. The same bug that changed Ante's skin coloration, took away her powers, and forces her near-naked in many battles has also affected Fold, although in mostly a different way. She was sealed inside of Ante's programming and only emerged bit by bit, first as a voice within Ante's head, then as an immaterial shadow capable of projecting itself outward and into Ante's vicinity. With Fold that far revealed, Ante and Teruko were able to use the SP base to give Fold a body again, although some of the curses that afflict Ante have transferred over to her: the odd, gray skin and, more importantly, the auto-running strip poker game that removes her clothing in intervals corresponding to the game's score. It isn't a great persistent bug for a shield-bearer to have, that much is certain. At Ante's request, Fold has revealed little more about their past to Teruko, despite the operator's insistence.

Custom Weapon: Fold's shortsword has an unassuming appearance. It's hilt is black and its blade is silver, with length only a little more than a grown man's forearm. It's not something that was made to do a lot of attacking, since her role is mostly that of a defender. If she has to fight at a range, she can swing her blade to shower an opponent with a number of silver, metallic shards in the shapes of spades but they are no more effective than the weapon proper in terms of damage.

GMOS:

-Cat-Hairband Waitress .GMO (level 0)-

The aspects of Fold's costume are all very similar to Ante's Cat-Hairband Waitress GMO, with the major difference being the color: her cat ears, hairband, shoes, skirt, and tail are all full black in color. Her nametag also states her name as "Fold," of course. Because of her height and the width of her musculature, the outfit looks somehow a little less appropriate on her, showing more of the legs and seeming more strained at the back, where it's difficult for the blouse to hide the shape of her back shoulder-blades.

The outfit is similarly layered with articles hidden beneath. Her shield and spatha are both hidden, but can be summoned back if needed for combat.