yui

the idea is to make your own duel skills, for which i provided a few basic examples in the opening post

IC Battle Horizon is KaibaCorp's new and highly successful foray into virtual reality. The concept was simple: Create a massive online game using the cutting edge of virtual reality, lay down some infrastructure to allow duelists to carry their decks over between the game and reality, and see what happens. While initially just an experiment to see if it would stick, Battle Horizon took off and exceeded expectations for a handful of reasons. With the first anniversary of the game's release soon to arrive, fans are speculating and preparing for what new content may arrive. Of the most note is the connfirmation that during the anniversary, a boss stated to be harder than everything else so far will be announced and revealed for a future patch. In-game teams are already preparing to try and be the first in the world to take down this future superboss, and new ones are forming with the same goal. You are members of a brand-new team, newly-formed with the objective of preparing for this superboss, and striving to be the first to take it down in the world. With the usual world-first champions - Royal Flush - having split up, hopes are high that it's anyone's game to take the crown, become the first to down a boss of unmatched strength, and be recognized as the new top team for high-end content. RULES APP FORMAT DATABASE

Tim Follin just kinda does that, makes stuff that goes way too hard for the game in question and that sounds like it shouldn't even be possible on an NES sound chip.

Last night had been hell. It started with a simple phone call... Ember, you aren't gonna believe this! Cassandra's alive!" "Is she, now? Please pick someone I got along with next time, because this is a pretty shit joke.." "Girl, this isn't a joke! She's right there! Oh, she's got the mic! She's saying that... the world... is gonna end!?" "Look, I'm just gonna hang up and pretend this call didn't happen. Please try again with something that's actually believable, or at least funny." In the end, she never did get that second prank call. Instead, her phone was blowing up with G3 alerts about riots, general discord across Skitty, et cetera. And of course, mentions of Cassandra's apocalyptic prediction. Here she was hoping for a nice night of sitting on the balcony, cigarette in one hand, wine glass in the other, watching the lights and sounds of the night of revelry from afar. No such luck, it would seem. Instead, she'd worked into the small hours of the morning maintaining order in her general vicinity, until things seemed to have just about settled down in her neighborhood. "Of course CASSANDRA had to fuck it all up," Ember groaned, her last words of the night, as her head collided with the pillow of her bed after a night's volunteer work. Which brought her to today. She'd been cut a bit short on her sleep, but it was nothing a cup of coffee on the way to work couldn't make up for. The secret was to not rely on the stuff - that was an easy way to build a dependence and a tolerance - and to only get a cup in unusual circumstances like this. Coffee and a donut on the walk to G3 was a good thing, and it gave her the good momentum she would no doubt need for a day like this. She'd been asked to be ready for a special meeting of some sort. Regarding such things as costumes, Ember only ever had one made because it was some sort of requirement? But there also seemed to be no lower end for how much or how little effort needed to go into it, so she opted to keep things simple and functional. Ultimately, the costume amounted to a tank top and some shorts, since something that covered lots of skin would be counter-intuitive for her abilities. The only thing setting it apart from any other tank top & shorts combo was it being made of leather, a choice Ember had made mostly out of inspiration from an old band she'd become a fan of because of one of her gangmates back during her villain career. It did come with the downside of her needing some sort of hoodie for outside once the days started getting colder, but material aside, it also happened to be perfect for the unexpectedly hot meeting room. “Fucking goddamn piece of horseshit! Cass goes off the grid for who knows how long and then decides to pull this fucking stunt. Did they know? They must have known. Surely they realized what would happen next, right? So they just left everyone else to clean up their mess, huh?” You're telling me, Ember mentally huffed. The capes sharing the room with her were Aeon, Override, and Bard. The first, she was pretty sure was older than G3 itself, but had never bothered to actually look into the matter. She didn't have much info on Override, because, again, she didn't really pry into the details regarding her co-workers. Bard was by far the one she was most familiar with in this room. She had encountered him once or twice before joining G3 herself, but that was about as far as personal experience with him went. It would probably have been beneficial to check in with him if she had a bad feeling about one of her wards possibly being in danger, but it was her firm policy to not involve anyone else in protection; every additional eye or mouth that knew who was under her watch was one more that could end up leaking information, even if it was by accident. Even her reports to Sekelsky only ever said "witness is still protected." Speaking of reports, that was somewhat similar to what brought everyone here today. A report was the opposite of a prediction, but the concept was close enough to call them similar, right? In short, the end of the world was coming, and while this was just about the most blatantly S-Class threat to ever exist, it was also the vaguest one to ever exist. So, it fell to these four capes to meet up with the heads of the big three gangs in order to negotiate how to handle the situation. And, as per her personal agreements with G3, she wouldn't be present for negotiations with Caesar of Gibbons. Apparently, Sekelsky had another job for her after wrapping up with the Moray Clan & Zodiac. Zodiac would be an interesting meetup for sure. Ember had run paid arson for all sorts of gangs in the past, up to and including them. It was quite some time ago, though, and she wasn't sure if the boss now was the same as the one from back then. She'd never met the leader face-to-face anyway, so it wasn't like either one would know the other. The Moray Clan by contrast, she wasn't sure if they were even a gang back during Ember's villain career. Her gut was leaning toward no, but even if they were, they certainly weren't one of the big three back then. To be quite honest, she was looking forward to meeting them. "Well, guess I can talk to those kids a bit and settle em down for you, Victor. But you know, I can't really say I won't get into a fight or two. You know how it is, what if they're really boring or decide to try and mess with us while we're there? So no promises on that front buddy, I'm sure you get it." "I said you couldn't start a fight. If they're messing with you, it means they started it, right?" Director Sekelsky's glare shot from Thessa to Bard, but instead of saying anything he just sighed. "Oh, well then there's no problem! Ya here that? If they do anything I'll be sure to take em all down right there, and you'll get to see it happen! Ain't that exciting?" "...you want us to basically become hero liaisons towards the villains in a manner to which appeals to them and allows us to get extra hands on deck to this mission to save the world. Just how, may I ask, do you intend for us to make this happen without any causalities?" "If there is combat, it means the initiating party will have broken one of if not the most sacred treaty. You don't start fights under a flag of truce. You don't start fights under a flag of truce. If they start it, they're one more S-class to deal with, one certainly more scrutable and temporary than our current one." "You don't start a fight under a flag of truce," Ember nodded in agreement, going over the papers regarding the Fates. "I've seen it happen, and the result isn't pretty. Luckily, it shouldn't come to that, not with the Fates or Orphi... Ophic... I hate that damn name, the Zodiac leader. But with Caesar," - Ember also pronounced it ˈsi zər - "I have my doubts, to be frank. Keep your guard up around him." "I suppose that's all my general questions at the present time. If anything else comes up, I'll have P.I.X.E.L. send a direct line to you." "No questions here either, sir." Not for the director, at least. Looking to her fellow capes, Ember posited a question to the three of them. "Any prior experience with these gangs, you three? Papers and files are great, but there's no better resource than personal experience."

Things were going from bad to worse on this floor. Still beset by hounds and men of bones alike, a new foe had entered the fray alongside them. Another hound, but quite a bit larger than the others so far. There wasn't really time to sit here and dilly-dally, more so than on the other floors Robin had seen up to now. With such a large creature though, Robin didn't fancy the odds of Chris or Lana just running at it without some sort of supporting fire. That would be her job, then, quite literally. Robin took aim with what good hand she had left, trying her best to aim right between the eyes with her off-hand. She'd fought pirates, navymen, stormy seas, and worse! Like hell she was going to let a dog who left its flesh at home get between her and that Spark! “There’s not a lot of honor to my name but I swear on whatever it’s worth, you will not harm her! Yeah, that means you too. You’re not getting her either.” "That's the spirit! Now, would you mind setting her down and leave the protecting to me? Even if I'm down an arm, Ziun and I should be more than enough to guard one person while you and your axe-swinging cohort chop that beast up so we can all get the hell out of here. I'll even give you an opening." And so, she pulled the trigger, blasting a shot of flame in the hound's direction. A shot that the hound seemed to brace itself for, and a shot it ducked down at the impact of. The hound seemed to shake off the shock - if skeletons could feel such a thing anyway - of the fireball it had just taken in the same way a normal dog would shake off water after coming inside from a rainy day. But still the creature moved. That wasn't what Robin wanted to see at all. Once again, Robin filled the gun up with flames. Rather than simply shoot like before, though, Robin brought up her usual dominant hand that had been injured earlier. She wasn't in a state to use it for gunplay, and definitely was't going to do some accurate fireball-slinging with it either, but there was something even a wounded hand could do. Robin filled her empty hand with fire, and threw it. Rather than aim at the hound, however, she aimed just in front of it, hoping to distract it, if only for a brief enough moment that an opening for Robin's more up-close-and-personal cohorts to get closer without being the center of the big hound's attention. Though Robin had trouble making it out from across the flames, it succeeded to some extent. The hound had stopped, and did some sort of hop to the side to try and avoid the fire. Turning toward Lana and Chris, Robin made the call to arms for her allies. "Now! No quarter!"

I think it's a blessing.

Tinkaton, no contest

As the skeleton hound moved to attack Robin's chest, the "dread pirate" reacted in turn, dropping the gun in her hand to instead fill her hand with magical fire. A ball of fire that she promptly drove into the ribs of the hound, before giving the beast a push and releasing the fireball from her grasp, kicking it back enough that Robin would be only trivially singed by her fireball at worst, but she definitely felt the surge of heat from the blast. “Keep moving, uh, that way!” "Aye-aye!" Picking up her guns from the floor, Robin hurried back to her feet as best she could with her good hand barely being usable. It would definitely be harder to aim her guns like this, but actually throwing fireballs was definitely out of the question in these circumstances. Guns it was. Putting away any non-magical firearms, Robin resolved to only use the runelock pistol if her aim was going to be less than ideal. It would be a shame to waste perfectly good bullets, after all. "May wanna mind yer head, Chris!" Robin called out, taking aim as best she could manage with her bad hand, and firing a flaming shot at one of the skeletons not presently occupied with the boy. While it wasn't as clean of a hit as she would have liked, Robin was still able to land a shot on one of the other skeletons, blowing off one side of its upper body in the process. It did seem to drop the walking bag of bones, at least.

After some time spent aiding the rescue efforts in the trail of destruction Stratford's building-gone-monster had left, Sei returned to the rooftop located away from the action, where she had left her bag before getting involved. Much to her relief, the building it rested on was more or less untouched, but there was definitely some cleaning of junk and debris to do outside. And with no roof access, the bag was still there, exactly as Sei had left it. Confirming the contents hadn't been messed with by some unknown figure, Sei looked westward. Megalopolis University still needed that form. And with the destruction that had just sliced through so much of the city, Sei knew the trains would be delayed, if not stopped entirely, for some time. Which only meant one thing. Making the rest of the trip, and quite possibly her return trip - on foot. Certainly doable, but not something she wanted to do. Least of all in her current state, but she didn't have time to get patched up. Happy friggin' birthday, Sei. Megalopolis University, 1:58PM This wasn't the first time Sei had to run an errand for Alice, nor was it the first time said errands took her all the way across town like now. The campus was certainly a far cry from the rainy slums she currently resided in, generally for the better at that, but if she had to pick one or the other, Sei would go live in the 13th District any day of the week. Out of the way, generally little foot traffic, and the district wasn't fractured in what Sei considered a glorified gang war. Luckily, people generally didn't bother her, so she had no reason to bother them either. As Sei entered the building she needed to in order to turn in the form, the first thing she noticed was that the receptionist working here today wasn't the one she used to see coming here. While she hoped they were just out sick today, she did know that this would be an awkward conversation. "Excuse me," Sei said, stepping up to the desk and pulling the form out of her bag. "I need to turn in this form on behalf of Alice Solari." The receptionist looked up from his phone, to Sei and the paper she had set down. He seemed to be taken aback by the busted-up state Sei was in, but also seemed to dismiss it fairly quickly. Sei wasn't sure if that was just professionalism or if this university was really that violent, but she hoped it was the former. "Form for Alice Solari... and you are?" "I live with her." "She couldn't deliver it herself?" "She said she'd rather not do it in person if she can help it. I'm only here because there was a problem with the university website stopping her from sending it online." "So why's she sending her flatmate instead? One who seems to be a bit torn up, at that." "With all due respect, is that really any of your business? Alice's paperwork is right here, that's what matters, right?" "Ma'am, I'm gonna be completely honest with you, this is my first day working this desk, and I'm just trying to make sure you aren't submitting forged paperwork." "I can call her if you want." Without waiting for an answer, Sei reached back into her bag. It seemed she'd missed a few texts from Alice, but nothing important. Call her phone, and after a moment of waiting... "Hello?" "Hey, it's me, I'm at the university and... what's that noise?" Through the phone, Sei could hear some sort of background noise coming from Alice's end, that she didn't normally hear in these calls. "Oh, tha--AAH!!" Sei heard the unmistakable sound of a person falling down, and several metal objects clattering against the floor. "Alice!?" "Everything's fine! I just slipped! What's up?" "Right... I'm at the university. This guy at the desk wants to confirm you're real and I'm not forging your papers." "Seriously? Put him on." "Sure." Holding the phone out for the boy on the other side of the desk, Sei said "She wants to talk to you." "...hello?" "Hi, this is Alice Solari. Student ID number XXXX, major is theology. I'm not sure what's up with the website, but I wasn't able to submit that form online, so I sent Sei to do it for me. If I'd realized this would turn into a whole thing I would have just emailed my professor instead, but here we are. We were able to submit forms like this in the past with no problem, so I don't know why it's any different today." 6th District, 3:00PM After a frankly infuriating amount of back-and-forth between Alice, Sei, and the poor boy working the desk who was a bit too vigilant against potential forgeries, culminating in the form finally being submitted, it was time to go home. While she was glad to leave the campus, Sei remembered that she still would have to make the return trip on foot, likely as not. Especially since she wanted to check the site of the disaster of the day, to make sure everything didn't go back to shit while she was gone. Between her earlier injuries, exerting the power of the kami to hasten her trip to the university, then doing it again to get back to the scene, Sei was barely standing by the time she got back to the Samsara Titan's resting place to confirm that it was still immobile, and that efforts were still underway to fix things up. She couldn't help but wonder how they planned to get rid of the building. Her Fount senses were tingling though. In addition to at least one Fount still aiding in the rescue efforts, she could detect a small cluster of them in a bar nearby. Probably the group that had helped fight the thing earlier, if she were a guessing woman. Dragging her feet to the place in question confirmed her suspicions. It seemed Elita was receiving questions from someone, but Sei didn't pay much mind to the details of the conversation. Instead, she scoped out an empty seat at the bar, put herself in it, and promptly flopped her head against the bar. Mentally exhausted from the chaos and death from just a few hours ago, and physically exhausted from the trip to university and back, Sei was more than happy to just sit here for a while. That was, until she felt yet another Fount's presence. Turning enough to look at the door behind her while still keeping her head on the bar, she saw... someone familiar, but she couldn't put a name to the face at this exact moment. But she definitely knew who this guy was. Him and that power of his. Good kid, really. "I... I surrender..." He managed to get out, his voice barely a whisper. "I-I'm sorry..." "For what, exactly?" Sei groaned. "You don't seriously think you did all that, right?" "You don't have to try to make me feel better..." Karna muttered. His hands was still shaking as he took a deep breath. "I always knew this Fount Power was dangerous... I just... never thought..." "It absolutely is dangerous, but that's not what I meant. Elita here and myself were inside that tower monster thing earlier. Someone... hypnotized the mayor or something, I guess. However they did it, or whoever it was, it couldn't possibly be you. If you really wanna do something to make up from a crime you didn't commit though, I'm sure nobody would say no to some extra help in rescue & cleanup efforts. I'd help, but my legs feel like warm pudding after going to the university and back. And I still have to get back home too..." 6th District, 3:00PM "‼↨☺♀♀☼↨." Above a pile of debris, a rift in the world opened. The face - or what seemed like a face, anyway - of something that defied imagination reared its head from within. Its mouth opened wide, and from within came a number of tongues, reaching out, grabbing piles of rubble and metal, and pulling them into the mouth from whence they came. "¶◘↕☼↨." Elsewhere in the affected area, a long, jagged tentacle reached from what seemed like thin air. Each of the suckers on the tentacle seemed to be a small arm in its own right, each one scooping up some of the wreckage in the area and tossing it aside, clearing the way to find would-be survivors stuck in the rubble and debris. Survivors that, if Kiyoko were to find any, would surely be greeted with a passionate welcome and explanation of the life-saving greatness of the Old Gods. "♥☼♀♀♣♥¶." In a part of the affected area Kiyoko noticed she'd been neglecting, a few smaller, more easily-described arms descended upon the ruined area. They reached down, picking up whatever loose ends needed removing from the streets to ensure people could get through with ease, and bringing them upward into the hole in the world that accommodated them. Quite frankly, this was a whole lot of work! Far more than one person could ever hope to accomplish alone, even with some otherworldly assistance. And Kiyoko had been hard at work since the Samsara Titan stopped moving. A break was more than well deserved, and it was probably wise to confirm the other Founts that had helped during the crisis were all alright. Closing up the holy book for the time being, Kiyoko turned, and went a few blocks over, to a rather beaten-up bar that had tragically lost its roof in the chaos from earlier. Inside were several Founts, most of whom Kiyoko recognized from the efforts earlier today. Including one who was asking a lot of questions. Well, if it was answers she sought, Kiyoko was happy to provide. "Pardon me," she said, approaching the questioning blonde in question. "I mostly played a backing role, but I may also be able to provide some insight on the affairs that happened here." "You sure you wanna speak?" April raised a brow as the other young girl approached her, "I'm not exactly keen on questioning kids." "I'll have you know I am a legal adult. And while it may sound silly, I've always wanted to receive a press interview. Though I do wish it were under better circumstances..." "Better circumstances, huh? What circumstances would those be?" "Something like... "New Religion Takes Megalopolis By Storm!" perhaps. "Exclusive Interview With Head Priestess Kiyoko Nanashi: Learn More About The Divine Grace And Unfathomable Glory Of The Old Gods!" A girl can dream, right?" "You sure can," April smiled a bit... before her expression dropped entirely. "Not interested. I'm not going to be a mouthpiece for yet another cult." "Please, this isn't a cult. A cult is something like those Hyperion folks, who believe so fervently in something so obviously fake. What I preach is very real. More real than us, perhaps! Plus to qualify as a cult we'd need more than one member, but that's not the point. The Old Gods are very much real, and I've got the book to prove it right here." Gently extending the Necronomicon in April's direction, Kiyoko smiled "Read it if you don't believe me. Just a little peek, and you'll never see this world the same again. Surely you'd have nothing to lose if it's so fake, right?" Alas, it seemed Kiyoko's attempt to get someone else to read the holy book's pages had fallen on deaf ears. Either April wasn't listening anymore, or had spontaneously lost her sense of hearing entirely. Very well. Transgressions are meant to be forgiven, so I'll wave this one off. I'm sure she'll come around eventually.

Burnout Gifted Kid