Posts made by Kazuhiro

Titania stood defiantly in the middle of the path with an arrow nocked and her body positioned, but she did not draw yet. As Soundman's shield surrounded her, combining and overlapping with defensive data-structures of her own, she understood what was to be done. Her eyes burned deep blue with the power of the second Navi looking through them, power which flowed from the blue gem on her forehead and into her hands.

Whatever came through that door would have a big surprise waiting for it.

Double Aegis
Tandem Surge [Strengthen 120]
Readied Cannon [160, knockback]
Auto Dodge
Auto Dodge

Titania, take out that Totem on your way over. Don't bother getting into melee range.

Titania's feet beat a snare rhythm against the path as she took off at a full sprint. Her bow seemed like it would dissolve in the air as it formed from white mist in her hands and was drawn. What's he thinking? Asked Oberon. He's thinking about line-of-fire, she thought back. He understood as her eyes flicked across the door momentarily before returning to their current mark.

The chip came. The arrow was energized. The shot was lined up. And after a nanosecond's hesitation, taken on the run. A blue streak of attack data was drawn across Net-space, perpendicular to the trail of white following her movement, aimed for the core of the remaining virus. There was no break in the patter of her footsteps. She sprinted hard, then finally twisted her body and slid on the dusty footpath, aiming to land bodily against the pyramid wall just next to the entrance.

She had no way of knowing the drama happening inside Guy's own mind, but she could hear the conversation, and she knew what was transpiring-- what had to transpire if Guy was ever to achieve the status of NetBattler proper. She did not let it distract her.

[1] Move to pyramid
[2] IceWave [80 Aqua] TotemF
[3] Move to pyramid
[4] Move to pyramid
[5] Move to pyramid (beside door)

Right. So Trenn was telling him to do exactly what he didn't have the experience for: Process tactical opportunities and act on them without delay. Well, he was about to find out whether or not he was a fast learner. Guy's eyes narrowed as he brought his focus to a point on the screen. Trenn's chip selection showed up. Titania's weapon was energized. The shot was fired.

Guy's eyes tracked his Navi's form the whole way, leaping off of his-her form only to identify targets and trace possible locations where the alternate might make an appearance. He was no NetBattler-- yet-- but he wasn't as clueless as Oberon deemed him. He didn't realize it, but he was learning to think like a fighter.

He looked to his chips. Rachel seemed to have them organized in order of what she considered most useful: The first few chips in the top left were the ElecSword, Sword, and AreaGrab. That wouldn't do for what Trenn was trying to teach him. He needed to have all his chips laid before him, so that when his mind matched a situation and a chip, the weapon could be found without needing to visually scan the whole folder. Alphabetized maybe. Or by attack type: Gun, sword, thrown.

Command snap. Yes, that was what he would call Rachel's responses. But Rachel's style was not Trenn's. She knew her maneuvers and weapons and looked for situations to use them in, which was why Titania and Oberon infuriated her so. Trenn was teaching the opposite. He was to identify situations first, then match them to weapons.

And for that he would have to know exactly what Titania and Oberon were like. What they were capable of and what they were best at. What they liked and what they were likely to think of for themselves. Well, damn.

It was annoying and gratifying at the same time. He was going to have to become one with his Navi. Form a bond between them. Just like on TV. Oh, if Rachel could hear that thought. Just like that, his fear evaporated. Whereas once Titania and Oberon's abilities were intimidating, a way to exhibit Guy's failure at Operating, now they were an asset, something he would learn to use to his advantage. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of understanding such an advanced Navi. It was that he had been afraid to.

"Synchro," he muttered under his breath. "Trenn," he said out loud, "I think I know why I couldn't handle this before..."

His fingers flicked across his chips. No chip was shunted to the end as useless. He needed every single tool available, for better or worse.

Conceded. We'll make the best of this.

Titania's focus returned to the battle. A flicker of determination which nobody but Oberon could appreciate crossed her milk-white features, and even Oberon's mind was receding from her mental processes as he directed his thoughts towards his own strategic goals. Her feet left the path with a cloud of dust as she made the most of her legpower before she was forced to run across the soft sand. Her boots shifted and slipped infuriatingly, but still she ran, building speed. The Heavies... maybe they used a falling attack, like Quakes. And Totems... maybe they attacked linearly. Maybe, maybe. After spending a few nanoseconds rolling the info around in her head, she knew how to hedge her bets.

Her body dipped low into a slide and she raised her hands, from which the SideBubbles emerged and hovered menacingly in the air. From there, she reversed her momentum, pushing against the sand with what force she could and retracing her steps for a short distance before pivoting and vanishing.

Oberon's twin blades glowed with the second chip's energy, tearing a yellow rift through space and data as he drew a wild pattern of arcs and spikes aimed at one of the Heavies. His weapons seemed to blink in and out of existence as the glowing aura of yellow extended their reach to strike beyond the data-steel. With a final angry flash, he thrusted his katars in opposite directions, hoping to delete two at once with the beams of energy extending his reach before he too vanished.

His essence flowed across the Net to fill the space where Titania was-- leaping off the sand again, back onto the path.

[1] Unison Flow (4x Tac Move)/Close to Group3
[2] Place SideBubbles (90 Break Trap)
[3] Close to Group4/ElecSword [80] HeavyD
[4] Position for double delete/ElecSword [80] HeavyE,F
[5] Dodge/Avoid Glass

Everyone's just too good for Drakim-tabs all of a sudden. How sad. D:

Well shit.

Guy frowned but relinquished control of his PET, folding his hands on the table as he watched Trenn from where he sat. He didn't say it, but he didn't think he was going to learn much of anything from watching... at least the pressure was off of him.

But, despite himself, he had learned one thing: Survival was up to Titania and Oberon; he couldn't concern himself with their safety while he was trying to work his flesh hands to keep up with their electronic thoughts and movement. A kind of synthesis was happening in Guy's head whether he realized it or not as he tried to make sense of what he knew about Netbattling from watching Rachel, plus what Titania, Oberon, and Trenn had to teach him. The sting of having control wrested from his hands faded quite quickly. He had flipped the fuck out. It had been a costly mistake. He would not do so again.

And Trenn's chip choice... he had assessed what chips he had and then looked for strategic opportunities. The idea made Guy grimace; Titania and Oberon could move and fight automomously, but in order to give them strategic resources, Guy would have to know much more than he currently did.

---------------

Do Totems attack linear?
This is a good way to find out.
It would be a waste of--
The way this chip *works* is--
Well it was a poor tactical--
Op's splitting his neurons between us and--
Conceded. We make the best of it.

Titania and Oberon's voices blurred together in Trenn's ears, until it was hard to tell the male side from the female. They argued and reached consensus within a scant few seconds, ostensibly inculding the human chip-dispenser in the conversation but somewhat failing to allow him input.

Guy flinched violently at the touch of Trenn's large, cold hand on his shoulder. "What do I use? Rachel's so fast with this and I just can't keep up..." His fingers skittered crazily around every object in front of him-- PET, chip folder, laptop-- without ever settling on something productive. Finally, with an almost audible click, his hands froze in place and he stood stock-still, taking a few deep breaths.

"Trenn," he said with measured breath, "Please help me out here."

This Public Service announcement has been brought to you by Pikaman taking a hilarious fall off a SCOOTER of all things and falling in an incredibly unfortunate and possibly avoidable fashion.

I've taken some serious falls on my heelys, not to mention off bikes, scooters, and snowboards in years past, but never have my teeth shattered against concrete.

Guy made a kind of guttral sound over the mic as if he had been hit by a sudden intravenous dose of paralyzing venom. That low nrrrgh sound was as much of a danger signal to Titania and Oberon as the sound of a pod full of missiles arming up and locking on.

"He's not ready," murmured Titania.

"He's useless!" Scowled Oberon, making sure Guy heard this as well. "Listen up, boy, we may be a top-grade Navi with experimental programming, but we're not Net Gods."

"OH god oh god oh god."

"Pull your shit together or we're going to get iced and it'll be your fault! Is that what you want? Huh!?" Because he had the luxury of not having to actually execute the evasive maneuvers that Titania was pacing through, he had plenty of processing time left to use for berating his Operator. Titania, on the other hand, was busy running for her life.

Oberon had a saying: When there is no defense, attack. Titania had a saying: When there is no attack, wait for one to appear. Both of them agreed on this situation, where there was no attack nor defense: Run.

For now, they ran to escape, but not to leave the battle. Titania ran along the path for a few steps, but before that would become too predictable, she suddenly slammed both armored feet into the ground and hurtled backwards, then up into the air. With the immobility of airborne travel, she interrupted Oberon's process of yelling at Guy to remind him to be ready to switch and defend.

When she landed, it was on sand. She rolled low across her shoulders, to avoid the inconvenience of having to push off of soft sand and to decrease her target area. Guy would get it together soon. He would have to.

1. Dodge
2. Dodge
3. Dodge (Jump)
4. Dual Aegis
5. Dodge (roll)

Guy ran a hand through his hair, closed that hand into a fist, and held it there as his eyes widened and his free hand hovered uneasily over his chip folder.

"Nrrrgh."

His eyes darted to the screen, then to the slots on his PET, then to his fingers reaching for the chips, then started to dart between these three points in no particular order, forming a sort of triangle of panic.

"Oh god oh god oh god oh god."

Neither Trenn nor Soundman could hear it, but the look on Guy's face probably meant Oberon was yelling at him, and he wasn't taking it well.

The moment in your avatar was totally epic IMO. Seeing the alternate-styled Future Dream Rose, I mean. But it throws the theme of the avatars you usually use and I can't really see it as representing you. 8/10

Bloodlines?

If you don't know what Dwarf Fortress is, shame on you.

It's that ASCII game that everyone talks about but you were never nerdy enough for. The one where people talk about the incredibly elaborate deathtraps they made to deal with goblin invaders. The one with the catsplosions.

I've picked it up. I've learned the barest of the basics. All I have to learn left now is how to use levers (those things that everyone makes death traps with) and learn how to play without dying.

"Trenn is right. You don't have to take the whole burden yourself."

Guy breathed deep. "Thanks, everyone," he said, looking from his PET to Trenn. This was a really terrible way to learn how to operate a special Navi. Still, Titania and Oberon didn't heed Guy's help to dodge attacks. His role was to arm them. Maybe... with Trenn's help... this would work after all.

Titania and Oberon were distracted from their interior dialogue by their Operator's... moping would be the best way to describe it. Apparently, Guy was instinctively holding down his push-to-talk while talking self-pity. Either that, or he really wanted Titania and Oberon to hear. Curiously, they reacted so differently that if not for their awareness of each other, they would never have known that the opposite reaction was possible.

Trenn is right. You don't have to take the whole burden yourself, said Titania as soothingly as she could, before Oberon was able to give his particular brand of encouragement.

"I don't know anything about how to actually operate a Navi like this," muttered Guy. "When you saw me doing it earlier was maybe my... third time or something operating Titania and Oberon. Even with my old Navi, Rachel just... she's got something I don't."

He rubbed his forehead with one hand even as he reached for the chip folder with the other, making the unspoken statement that despite his lack of self-confidence, he knew his duty.

"Sorry, Titania and Oberon," he said, sounding more scared than anything.

"It's Guy... Rachel went to buy upgrades. I'm operating you now. I'll do my best..."

Oberon's groan, though he didn't express it in any particular way, was practically tangible to Titania. Don't be that way, she chided. He knows more about Navis than he thinks.

What he doesn't know is slightly more significant, replied Oberon, And what he doesn't know is rapid PET operation.

Would you rather help Guy with his technical skills, or try to teach Rachel to overcome her own faults?

Rachel seems like a fine operator to me. She just needs to remember that we're not a machine that needs to be micromanaged--

And what I'm arguing is, that's a much bigger flaw--

I don't think we can agree to disagree here when the battlechips at our disposal are what's at stake--

Titania and Oberon whittled away the time by arguing with themself as they walked along the path, Titania's blank eyes glancing curiously around the desert landscape.

Rachel clicked her tongue. She hadn't lost anything she would miss, but then again, she already had *two* Guard chips. Was a Thunder, or a Firehit, or something a *little* not-totally-boring too much to ask for?

This was how people ended up with gambling addictions, Rachel reflected, as she rustled through the small pouch on her belt for what she would feed the trader next. Duplicate chips. Things she wouldn't miss...

[AquaNeedle1, Guard1, Guard1]

Rachel furrowed her brow at the chip that the trader spat out. She didn't recognize it whatsoever, which meant that it was either something very rare, or something with very niche appeal that most people didn't like to use. Either way, she knew that it was a stroke of luck.

She didn't want to push it, but then-- she -had- brought enough chips for a second shot at it.

[Minibomb, Minibomb, Cannon]