VCR_CAT

Do it, you coward

you won't

no balls

Itsuki Watanabe

As expected, considering the colourful characters in the classroom and the manners they display during the exam and even after, much of the classroom's interactions devolved into chaos. Though, it wouldn't be fair to not recognize that much of this was due to a certain few members of their classroom who were... very obviously known for their aggressive behavior. Itsuki sighed as he somehow managed to slouch even further into his seat, closing his eyes for a quick pre-class nap.

"Oh dear, oh dear~!"  A voice could be heard ringing from the doorway.  Itsuki groaned as he let his feet slide from the top of his desk. So much for that plan.  "Let's settle down now everyone~!  Let's all get in our seats~."  The teacher introduced herself as Ms. Hitostume, who looked as nervous and inexperienced as she was tall and muscled. Had this been a normal middle school classroom, Itsuki would take this opportunity to mess with the teacher. But this wasn't normal middle-school, and he imagined that the he would get more than just a slap on the wrist. "Ah yes~!  Your homework assignment from Sharp Shogun~!!  Please come up in any order, and give me your answer~!!"  She clapped her hands again, her eyes growing stern once more.  "And make sure it's a good one~~!"

"Shit," Itsuki muttered. Hopefully the benefit of being at the back of the classroom would kick in and he could get away with being one of the last to present, giving him enough time to come up with a bullshit answer.

Of course, Yuuka was first to step up. Itsuki snorted something about being a "keener" under his breath. "I believe that being a hero is about not only being able to know what the right thing to do is, but acting on it the moment you realize what that is. At least, that's the base requirement of being a hero."

That's it?! Itsuki thought. But that was just a job description! I could've said that! Dammit, I could've gone first! Of course, now he couldn't use that, knowing how obvious it would be that he just copied Yuuka.

The giant beetle man was next, who turned out to be another gaijin in the class. He was loud and obstructive, as many people in the classroom seemed to be. "I guess when it comes down to it, what being hero is to me is a responsibility to use my power to help others."

Itsuki felt his jaw dropped. He just did it too! Dammit! I'm losing all my opportunities! I gotta think of something!

"Hello, everyone. My name is Lesnar Claypool... or at least in America it is. I guess here it'd be... Claypool Lesnar?" Next up, sure enough, was another gaijin. At this point the "A" in "U.A." might as well stand for "America". "...being a hero, at least to me, is about the initiative. A hero stands out for their initiative to act for selfless reasons. In other words, they never hesitate to go out of their way to protect those who need it, regardless of who they are or who they're helping."

This is the sort of answer Itsuki expected to come from Yuuka, and it even sounded like it came straight from a textbook. Itsuki was beginning to wonder if he had the wrong impression of Yuuka all along.

"Pleased to meet all of you. I'm Himura Hibiki! To me, being a hero is like, doing whatever you can to make the world a better place. Stopping bad guys, helping good guys that need it, and giving to your community and stuff. I've looked up to heroes ever since I met one as a little girl, so I always thought they're supposed to be these amazing people you'd want to look up to. Even if it's just by doing something small, being a hero means you should strive to make the world more peaceful. That's what I think anyway."

The next girl gave the sort of response Itsuki would expect to hear from a kindergartner explaining what it was that they wanted to grow up to be. Maybe Itsuki was fretting over the assignment too much? Maybe it was just that simple?

Next up was the hot gaijin. "A hero does everything they can to protect those who can't protect themselves." She declared. "They fight past their own limits, work harder than anyone else, and never surrender in the face of evil. Being a hero isn't a choice or a goal. It's just what you are. Being a hero means putting the protection of innocents and the defeat of those who'd harm them before anything else. Being a hero means dedicating yourself to never letting evil win!" She took a deep breath. "And I'm going to be the best hero there ever was!"

That one seemed pretty on-point for the kind of thing that girl would say. No surprises.

Thankfully the big scary girl decided to go next. "Yo.  My name's Yoshino Misu.  Call me whatever you'd like.  But don't go makin' any dumb ideas." Ideas like what, though?! Itsuki found himself more worried at the prospect of what would qualify as a "dumb idea" than how much the statement made sense. Being a hero, to me, means being someone that someone else looks up to... Quirk or Quirkless. I mean... you can't disappoint the people who put so much faith in you, right?  Anyone who tells you differently ain't got enough guts.  And if there's one thing heroes are about, it's guts." 

Simple. Again, what Itsuki would expect from someone like that. Though, she said it as if she was held at gunpoint the whole time.

"Good morning. I'm Shiba Yuudai." Yuudai said. Who? "What it means to be a hero, to me...honestly that's one question I didn't have to think too hard on. To me, being a hero means to be someone's inspiration. It may sound weird, but think about it this way, the heroes you saw on TV when you were younger... you were aspiring to be just as cool... if not cooler than they were. The heroes spark a bit of a fire in everyone who sees them. That spark of inspiration slowly grows and sooner or later it'll erupt into an individual's life... and heck, it might just bring them to where we are now." Whoever this guy was, now he was just rambling. Get on with it, already! Honestly, the type of hero that can just inspire others to follow in their footsteps...that's something that I honestly think defines a hero to me." He gave a small nod and smile, before returning to his seat.

"<I'm Diana Seigi!> Half-Japanese, half-American!" Oh, it was the girl that punched Itsuki in the exam. A hero is someone who stands for justice. Defending those who can't defend themselves. Protecting the world from danger... Finding and acting on the truth, above all, no matter if someone is blessed with a quirk or born powerless. That is what being a hero is. <That's true justice!">

"<Justice...>" Itsuki said quietly to himself with a short raise of his hand, chuckling to himself at the reference.

Next, the boring-looking guy got up to the front of the classroom, stiff as a board and introduced himself. "So, I had to think deeply about this question, where I found the answer in my faith. I found two passages that showed me what it means for me to be a hero...” Itsuki groaned and let his head sink into his arms, refusing to listen beyond that.

Lastly was Kess, who stood up in front of the class and gave a very long-winded and angry speech about inspiring fear into the hearts of her enemies. Itsuki raised his head from his arms just enough to mimic the yapping-mouth gesture he made with his hand. Finally, when she finished the room fell quiet, as he was one of the last, if not the last student to go up. "Shit!" Itsuki swore as he pushed himself to his feet and strode to the front of the class. He didn't have anything, he spent more time making fun of the other students to himself with his shitty commentary than thinking of an answer!

"Yo, I'm Watanabe Itsuki, Yoroshi-kuuuu~~" Itsuki gave a half-hearted gesture with the barest attempt at his introduction. Small drops of cold-sweat ran down his face. What did that Yuuka girl say? Be honest? What the hell did it mean to be a hero anyways? Wasn't that the reason they were there, to learn that? Itsuki cursed to himself. "What does it mean to be a hero?" Itsuki laughed to himself nervously. To hell with it, he'll just have to say the first thing that comes to mind, but right now he felt like nothing more than a ritual "Sacrifice," Itsuki blurted out, and stood there frozen in place for a moment. No, no this was good, he could roll with this. "Like... okay so, whenever like, a fight broke out at the arcade or whatever. Sometimes out in the streets. There's always like, this one dude that just gotta step in and try and break it up. It almost never works, but if a guy was gettin' picked on then they usually get a chance to run away. Anyways, they'd often get the shit beat outta them." Itsuki laughed nervously again. There wasn't anything funny about that, though! "In the end, though, someone gets beat up anyways so I always figured 'shit, they didn't do anything'. But... maybe they did? Maybe for those dudes that ran away they're just glad to get away, and made that dude who got the shit beat outta him was willing to do it so the other guy could get away. Anyways, those guys always end up gettin' called heroes around my parts, so I figured that's what it meant. Sacrifice for others? I dunno." Itsuki stood up there for a few silent, awkward seconds. "Anyways that's all I got. See ya!" Itsuki marched back to his seat and sunk deep into it, thankful he was at the back of the class. No way he wasn't gettin' expelled for that half-assed attempt.

Rosha

"I dunno, oh, hot, hot, hot, but it's pretty great isn't it? One of my favorite hobbies is watching her reactions."

Rosha shook her head, with nothing to answer her question. "Humans are so weird," she muttered.

"But enough of that." Kelsey said, dramatically gesturing towards the game. "It's game time! All or nothing! Life or death! The fight of a lifetime!" She paused. "Or something like that."

Rosha's ears perked up. "Now you're talkin'! Let's make it a battle to remember!" Rosha laughed as the game booted to the character selection screen. Immediately she moved over and selected the largest and most intimidating character on the screen. When the character was selected and the whole portrait could be seen, Rosha couldn't help but laugh at his size and apparent strength. "Now look at that! There's no way you're gonna stand up to this! I'll crush you!"

Which, of course, was unlikely. A good portion of Rosha's height was her ears, and while she could reach the controls for the arcade cabinet she was still quite low for the intended height of the cabinet. Not to mention that when she actually did play this game, most of the time she just mashed control inputs until she won. The idea of "combo-inputs" wasn't something that ever flew off with any interactive media on her planet, and she never even though to consider that this was how fighting games were meant to be played.

Tora Mori

As the duel progressed, something happened with Leiko that changed her demeanor entirely.

“Clear Mind!”

The TV blinked out for a moment, and the staff scrambled to get the feed back online. When it was, Leiko performed a combo that netted her with a very strong-looking monster on her field, summoned on her opponent's turn no less. Tora's fist clenched.

"Can the rest of you not do that?" Natsumi asked off-handedly.

Raijin nodded. "Right? Have none of you seen a Synchro Summon before?"

Tora shrank back a bit. She had seen synchro summons before, but always had trouble figuring out the combos to get the right combined levels on her field to perform the one that she wanted. Every time she tried, she either ended up with too much or fell too short, and sometimes when she even managed to get the right combination of levels she would still neglect to summon the right tuner on the field, or any tuner at all. Everyone else in the room seemed more than comfortable with the summoning mechanic, and Tora's faced continued to flush subtly as she felt more and more afraid that someone was going to ask her and then she would have to answer and--

"It's not the Synchro Summon that's amazing. I can do more than just Synchro, but to achieve Clear Mind... Ah, how wonderful!"

Tora breathed a sigh of relief when Shannon spoke. Saved by the bell.

The duel progressed and Tora watched with almost an eye of jealousy. Leiko made it sound like she was just as bad as Tora, and that at least made Tora not alone in her incompetency with duels. But now, she felt like the lowest on the totem pole more than ever. As much as she wanted to spend the rest of her day in the garage, she knew that there something more important that she needed to do.

"Excuse me?" Tora asked the staff present, though nobody in particular. "Is there, like, any sort of... duel sim place in here? Where I can practice? I figured there would be, but I don't remember anything from the tour..."

Not gonna lie, I have concerns after watching the trailer.

I'm happy this is getting made. It's been a long time since any Borderlands content, and I hope that the time they took has lead to a very polished and well-made game, but as for the concerns that the trailer did not alleviate:

- Borderlands 1 and 2 are both incredibly repetitive and sloggy games, and while this gives them that coveted "Wow! Look at how much time you can sink into these games!" medals that so many people (for some reason) place above so much else, it also lead to them being games that were often quite mediocre for me. Not bad, but never great. I hope future press shows how much different 3 is going to be, because at the moment it doesn't look like much more than "more Borderlands 2". I'm not, frankly, quite interested in another large collection of fetch-quests and long walks across stark, empty wastelands with nothing but little wads of enemies here and there. I want Borderlands 3 to be an actually great experience, not an experience, like 1 or 2, that was really nothing more than "Well hey, it's a decent way to burn some time."

- The writing. Sweet genius the writing. Let me put it this way: when Borderlands 1 and 2 set out with a serious mood to tell a serious story with proper characterization, it was GOOD. In fact, it surprised me on multiple turns and my best memories on both games is when they stopped trying to tell jokes and said "Okay, this is where shit goes down." 1 and 2 had some genuinely great moments when they did that, and even managed to evoke some feelings. But when the games try to be funny? Holy shit it's bad. Insufferably bad. "I'm turning off the dialogue" bad.

Don't get me wrong, I like some good peepeepoopoo jokes now and then, but when the jokes are nothing more than "it funny because she fat" or "it funny because he incesty southerner", it's just... shallow, and actually not funny. No, I'm not saying "It's not funny because it's insulting". I don't care about that with humor. I'm saying it's not funny because it just isn't funny. Their comedic writing has been just some of the shittiest I've ever seen, and the trailer only leads me to believe they haven't learned a thing since 1 or 2. Well, okay. That's a lie. I did notice that they barely spent any time paying attention to Claptrap, and he didn't even dab or anything during the trailer. THAT impressed me. Hopefully he stays quiet during the whole game.

Rosha

"This is a two player game for a reason," Kelsey said. "Who are you anyway? I'm Kelsey. This sweetheart here is Stella."

"Kelsey, eh? Well my name's Rosh--" As Rosha spoke, debris began to strike the ship's hull at an increased rate, and the room shook violently with each hit. As the ship rocked, Rosha's grip on the pipe above the machine came loose and the small alien girl fell to the floor with a loud thud. "[Xa'shaya!!]" Rosha shouted, with universal translators neglecting to interpret the harsh expletive. "I hate being in this stupid space ship!! Why does anyone bother to not have solid ground under their feet?!" Growling, Rosha pushed herself into a sitting position on the floor, rubbing her shoulder where she had landed. "My name's Rosha Ta'Megn, strongest warrior from my tribe!" she lied. "And I would be happy to compete against with your silly human 'videos game'!"

Rosha leapt to her feet and took the player two side of the arcade cabinet. She cast a glance in Stella's direction her face betrayed her confusion. "Also, why is the dark-haired one so flustered? I can hear her heartbeat a mile away! All you said was that she is like a sugary heart."

Itsuki Watanabe

Despite his least efforts, Itsuki had still managed to be accepted into UA. Though, considering his written exam, there was no surprise to see that he got put into Class 1-B. Still, he had accomplished what he needed to do and walked to school proudly. Now all he needed to do was breeze through school, graduate, beat up a bad guy now and then and live the easy life.

Itsuki strode into class later than most but still technically on-time. His uniform was on, more or less, but he wore the jacket with only the top two buttons on and the sleeves off, with the article pushed back like some sort of makeshift cape. It was still too warm to wear long sleeves anyways. Like a magnet, Itsuki was drawn to the back row of desks where he set down his bag, sat in the chair, and leaned back with his feet kicked up on top.

For the most part, Itsuki didn't recognize any of his classmates. Out of the ones he did recognize, he saw the girl that had punched him in the head, the gaijin who yelled "just ice" or whatever, the hot gaijin, Ballory was her name, right? And then Yuuka who almost cost Itsuki his admission into the school, though that was partially his fault. Unfortunately, the other person in the class was also the tall, scary-looking girl. Either Itsuki had seen her on the streets beating someone up before, or he had seen someone who looked similar doing just that. Either way, her entire presence spoke of the kind of danger that he had grown used to avoiding.

After a few moments, Itsuki was able to catch some bites of conversation and remembered the homework they were "assigned" just after the exam. "Shit, we were supposed to do something for today, weren't we," Itsuki said. "Whatever, I'll come up with somethin'."

Rosha

Rosha's time aboard the Finback was soon going to come to an end, and she couldn't be more excited. So much of the way the ship was run infuriated her. For starters, the sleep schedule was a problem. Rosha was used to how people slept back home, which is to say, mostly during the day. While the Finback was pretty lax on how the students went about their day, Rosha had been reprimanded a few times for her boisterous "night-time activities". The Finback lacked a full track and its space for exercise was woefully limited. The only place where Rosha could really run around and cut loose were the ship's halls and spaces, but these were usually full of people during the day. So, to solve this problem, Rosha took to running around the halls at night. But this presented another problem: the metal flooring of the ship made terrible sounds when her claws scratched against it, and when she put on shoes instead Rosha found the banging made from her running to be just as loud. Once the noise complaints started rolling out, the ship's command was forced to find its source and, in turn, address Rosha's little noise issue.

So, for the past few days, Rosha was forced to remain more still. The crew suggested she use the exercise room to burn off the excess energy, but lifting weights was never good enough. She needed to run, climb, and leap, and there was no room around to do it. This caused her to become quite antsy and irritable around the other students. To make matters worse, the ship made all kinds of terrible noises that none of the other students seemed to be able to hear; high-pitched whines and low thrums that echoed down the halls from the engine room that made sleeping difficult for Rosha whenever she wanted to. Thankfully, the crew was able to provide noise-blocking earplugs that made a world of a difference for her.

On the penultimate day, Rosha had awoken from her second morning-nap within her bottom-bunk mess of blankets, peering out from a makeshift curtain she had hung from the top bunk with a spare blanket she had stolen from the laundry services to block out light. She made her way to the cafeteria, scarfed down a hasty lunch, grumbled about being on a space ship for the fifth time, and then made her way to the game room. The Hangar staff had already gotten after her about getting in the way of work when she was practicing acrobatics there, and the library was for quiet and boring people, so this left only one space left where she was officially allowed to be.

A couple students were playing ping-pong while some were at the arcade cabinets already, much to Rosha's chagrin. Rosha walked over to a pipe that ran up the wall and scampered up to the high ceiling to climb along the ventilation that lined the roof. Eventually, she clambered over to the arcade cabinets and, by hooking her legs on a pipe, let herself hang upside-down just over the cabinet while one of the other students mashed on the buttons furiously.

"Are you almost done?" Rosha nagged, gently swinging from side-to-side. "I wanna play! Hurry up!"

Aria

It wasn't long until Aria received another reply from Masaru, one that forced her to pause and re-read a few times in order to get the gist of what it was that he was trying to say. She wondered if he remembered that their meals for that day were being covered by Mauvache or not, shrugged and sent a simple "Sure, see you there!" and resumed waiting for him to arrive.

Sure enough, a large tadpole-looking slime with Masaru riding on top had entered through the door to the pub. "Honestly I don't know what I was expecting," Aria muttered to himself as Masaru approached, dismounting the slime. "Ok so, I haven't received a reply from Mauvache yet. I figured we could maybe search on the watch if there are local doctors or somethin' that we can use? I dunno, unless Tegur has any ideas, he's been here longer than either of us," Aria said, motioning to Tegur before realizing that it was maybe a bit rude to cut straight to business instead of first greeting Masaru. "Also hey, I hope you're not feeling too bad, I know how it can feel to suddenly get sick on your day off."

Itsuki

Once Itsuki had managed to return to the entrance of the exam ground, he noticed that a majority of the students had already returned. On the one hand, he wondered if he could have placed higher had he actually tried to get back in a more immediate fashion, but on the other hand he wondered how much work that would actually be. As he joined the rest of the crowd, he was approached by Yuuka, who had apparently made it back with five medals herself.

"and I'm glad to see that you made it back just fine as well, Watanabe," she said.

"No problem, really. Congrats to you too," Itsuki said, lifting his right hand for a peace-sign and uttering a slight "ow" as he did so. Casually, he scanned the small collection of students that had made it through until he spotted an american girl that captured his attention. "Now, if you'll excuse me for one moment..."

Itsuki walked over to Valerie and generated a barrier to his side that he leaned against as if it were a wall. "Hey, what's a good-lookin' gaijin like yourself doin' here? My name's Itsuki, what's your's?"

*rolls up sleeves*

it's time for my final form

https://chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/track/pizza-force

(yes I know, Bandcamp link. This song isn't on Youtube.)

Tora Mori

Tora was already well focused on her bike to notice that the rest of those in the garage had gathered to watch the duel. From the looks of things, it seemed like almost ever part had been replaced. Even if it ended up running much better, Tora only found herself getting more and more annoyed at this prospect. The Cross-Whip was a bike that her brother had built from scratch with used and recycled parts, inspired by Yusei's story of doing the same in order to win the Fortune Cup. They never had the money to afford the best of the best parts, and Yusei proved that you didn't need to in order to win. Yet, looking over the inner workings of this bike, Tora couldn't help but feel like the heart and soul of the bike had been stripped away.

Tora raised her head from looking over her bike and spotted where everyone had gone to gather. She approached and stood behind the crowd, arms crossed as she watched the moves closely. She didn't recognize any of the cards, not that she ever really spent much time trying to get to know all of them, but still did her best to comprehend exactly what was going on. However, based on what everyone else was saying, it became very clear that the way both of them were playing, they weren't playing to their fullest.

"What's going on? Don't either of them want to win?" Tora asked, as she watched the duel unfold.

Aria

It wasn't long until Aria received a reply from Masaru. Opening the message and reading only a few lines and seeing the emojis, her head sunk into her hands. "Oh no, what have I done," she muttered before diving into the rest of the text. "Does he mean a tomodachi? Is that what's living in his watch?" Either way, she figured she could help. She started by tapping out a quick message to Mauvachi briefly explaining the situation and asking if there's a doctor they could visit. Then, she got to replying to Masaru.

I sent a msg to Mauvachi asking if theres a doctor. I can go with u if u want, is there somwhere u wanna meet up? Mb hang out for the day?

At the last second Aria panicked over that last line, worrying that maybe it was too forward, but in her hasty panic she accidentally hit the "SEND" button and loudly proclaimed "Shit!" in the tavern, once again burying her face in her hands.

Hiraku Tsukino

"Will do! Sorry for wasting your time," the girl said. Hiraku shrugged as she turned around, and out of curiosity he looked towards what it was she was watching.

Just to the side of the booth was a duel that was currently going on between Jun and none other than Yushiro. Hiraku narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized the moves made during the match. Jun played as Jun plays, although it seemed as though she started off taking it a little easy on him. Yushiro's moves were very amateur, as expected. He used a lot of cards to summon a single synchro, responding to Jun's field with simple attack strength and neglecting to even read the monsters that were used for the synchro summon. When Jun ended the duel handily in a single turn, Hiraku could only think of how deserved that loss was for Yushiro. With a display like that, there's no way he should be allowed on the tea--

“Welcome to the team," Jun said, shaking Hiraku's hand.

Hiraku stood there, growling to himself with his arms crossed. With this luck, there was a good chance that Hitomu let the chuuni join the team as well. At this rate, their team was about to become the laughing stock at any event. Of course, with so many people around, now wasn't the time to draw a scene. But, either way, chances are that Hiraku would need to have a word with either captain, but regardless, he would probably need to prove that Yushiro wasn't good enough for the team through their exhibition match, and he intended to.

Itsuki Watanabe

"Ah, maybe we should... Thank you. Though, I'm not sure if any of us have quirks that help us go through a falling building like that..."

"Thank you again Watanabe. I hope to see you back at the entrance."

"Yeah yeah, don't mention it," Itsuki said. "Just don't get crushed by rubble or whatever." Itsuki waved at them and continued on his way, nursing his wrists as he walked along. The pain had dulled, but it still hurt whenever he tried to move them. Even if the rest of the medals that he managed to find were easy to get, taking them back to the entrance was going to be a task in and of itself.

As he continued down the city streets, he came across a group of students that only seemed to have a couple medals to their name, at least based on what he could see out in the open. In fact, one of them seemed to have their stash sticking precariously out of his back pocket, and when the students dashed off down the street two of their medals dropped to the pavement with a clatter, but they were too long gone to notice. At first Itsuki thought it would be another easy pick, but Yuuka's words range in his head and he hesitated. He started to call after the students to tell them, but there was really no sign of them. Was it a trap, or were they really just that dumb?

Either way, if it was too late to help them get their medal back, then it would just be a waste anyways. Itsuki bent down to pick up the medal, cupping it between both his hands to keep from moving his wrists too much, while also keeping an eye out in case it was a trap. But it wasn't. "I guess they really were just dumb," Itsuki muttered as he slowly stowed away both medals and made his way back to the entrance.

Aria

"You don't want to let your soup get cold." Tegur interjected, and while his calm voice helped visibly put Aria at some ease, her unwavering glare remained fixed on Cyan. "I think it might be much better if you to go back to your bowl and eat. Eating is good. Warms the soul. Keeps you going. Not at all like fighting."

"I said I'd like.." Cyan fired back, slamming his head against hers. "...to see you try, shrimp!" His voice became sharper, smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke. His eyes glanced over to Tegur and, as they did, he backed off from the girl. "Try to have a tantrum somewhere else, kid. I actually like this fuckin' place."

Aria almost leaped from her stool to plant a fist right into Cyan's face, but all that was stopping her was another look from Tegur. She growled, then shouted back at Cyan as he left. "That's right! Run away, you coward! Just you wait until our next match, I'm gonna blast you into next WEEK!" At this point, however, he was long gone and couldn't hear her. Grumbling, she turned around back to the rest of her ramen and continued to eat, albeit at a faster pace. Just as she was soon about to finish, her watch notified her of an incoming message.

She read through the message, her mood still stewing until she saw that it was from Masaru. Almost choking on her ramen, she opened the message with haste, but her excitement immediately died down when she read that the message wasn't meant for her. "Who the hell is 'Little Slime'?" She muttered to herself, before typing out her own response.

Hey Masaru, this is Aria. Looks like u sent ur message to the wrong person. Im at Tegur's atm and u just missed mauvache. i dunno wat u mean by 'lil slime' so i dunno if i can help, but mb some1 can help u get in tuch with mauvache? i dunno, gud luck!

"That last emote was probably a bit much. Oh well," Aria said, returning to her ramen.

Itsuki Watanabe

"If anything other than your hands are hurt, I can carry you somewhere safer." Diana rubbed the back of her head. "It's the least I can do if I hurt you. That's fine, right, Yuuka? Shoshiki?"

"Nah, 's good," Itsuki said, his speech becoming a little less slurred but still rough around the edges from the slang. "I'll prolly be fine carryin' my stuff anyways."

"well, that sounds fine by me. Watanabe, was it? Do try to be less underhanded with your fellow classmates."  Yuuka said, which seemed to slightly annoy Itsuki.

"Hey hey hey, whaddya call this, then?" Itsuki said, pointing at the spot on his head where he was punch. No doubt by now a bump was forming. But, she turned around anyways and addressed her group, especially regarding the issue of badges. Itsuki sighed and stepped into the circle. "Hey, for not killin' me or whatever, I guess I could share. There's a building a coupla' blocks that way," Itsuki pointed down the way he had come, "that had at least one badge in there. Maybe more, I dunno. It looked like it could fall over any second, though. Seemed like too much trouble so I let 'em stay. I haven't told anyone yet so, if you wanna go that way go for it. Too much work for me anyways."

Eighteenth

Flail is a real good boy!

Aria

"That's the spirit, my dear. You might want to start with the young witch though. She could use it." Aria joined Mauvache in giving Morgan a look of distaste.

"Whatever, hag." Morgan muttered. Then, to Aria, "You can try but the only thing you'll ever beat me in is an ugly contest." She tossed her hair and turned towards Tegur. "I'd like a drink, pumpkin spice latte, and some apple pie. On our gracious host."

"I'd love to see you try, shrimp!" Cyan said, even though he really shouldn't have.

"The hell you just say?" Aria snapped, slamming her hand down on the counter, causing some amount of broth to splash out of her bowl. "Say that to my face, asshole! Say it right now! See what happens!" The look she gave him betrayed her murderous intent, and Cyanthrax would need to choose his words carefully before he found out why Aria's fist was clenched so tightly.

Monsters
Super Express Bullet Train x3
Heavy Freight Train Derricrane x3
Symphonic Warrior Miccs x1
Quickdraw Synchron x2
Infinitrack Roadheader x2
Infinitrack Trencher x2
Infinitrack Rock Anchor x3
Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede x3
Symphonic Warrior Guitaars x3
Infinitrack Harvester x3
Symphonic Warrior Basses x1

Spells
Revolving Switchyard x3
Monster Reborn x1
Tuning x3
Urgent Schedule x3
Sky Striker Engage x3
Hornet Bit x1

Extra Deck
Wind/Fire/Earth Sky Striker Trio
Infinitrack Goliath x2
Platinum Gadget x1
Anger Knuckle x1
Qliphort Genius x1
Infinitrack Reverstorm x1
Big Eye x1
True King of All Calamities x1
Infinitrack Earthshaker x1
Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora x1
Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula x1
Number 77: The  Seven Sins

Before it's asked: No I do not have the space for: Terraforming or another Sky Striker spell. The maindeck is packed fairly tight and I use everything. I wish there was something better to run engine-wise than Sky Strikers, but alas: Terrortop is still limited.

Other fun facts: Harvester + Level 10 = Number 77 and can use the banish nuke immediately. Goliath can attach itself to any Xyz (including VFD). The deck has a lot of instances where it looks like you open lack-luster but has a lot of opportunity for maximum galaxy-brain combos.

17 hours ago, Tinkerer said:

Could I suggest maybe trying out Infinitrack Rock Anchor over the Symphonics? While the second effect will be practically useless in Trains, Anchor is summonable off Switchyard and it turns your monsters in hand into "self-summon EARTH Machines". It removes a Garnet from your Deck, it isn't Ash bait, and it gives you more total resources (even if its payoff is slightly weaker).

Possible thoughts on using Summon Sorceress? If you resolve 1 Hornet Drones, it looks like the deck is capable of going into Summon Sorc to "fix" pretty much any field. It's more of a conditional power play though, so it probably isn't worth it.

Other than that, the deck looks like it could really use some draw power somewhere. But I dunno; you've run the deck for years now, right? Would you consider trying to find space for Desires?

Summoning from-hand is nice and all, but the deck is too resource intensive to really justify having something that doesn't help keep the economy rolling. This did get me thinking, however, and I did replace the Symphonics to bring Gearframe back, though I'm not fond of having another normal summon in the deck to use. At least with him I can bring Machina Fortress out for some more economic setup and a bit more versatility what with the 2500 beatstick I can search.

Running Summon Sorc is too much Extra Deck commitment. I'd need to run one more Sky Striker Ace to make that combo work, and I don't exactly have links to spare. Summon Sorc combos with machines are only especially worth it within the Needlefiber combos anyways, and this deck doesn't have the space to run the tuners to make that work very well.

With the Symphonics removed and another Sky Striker spell in, I think I'm down enough 1-of's to justify bumping the deck to 42 cards w/ Desires. That's more or less the best you can do with good draw power, outside the Roadheaders I put in. If I had more space I would want to fit Scrap Recycler back in, though.

11 hours ago, Darj said:

x3 Engage but only 1 search target in Drones. Maybe try 1 Afterburner and/or 1 Widow Anchor as secondary targets? Trains shouldn't have too many issues with sitting on a single Xyz monster for a couple of turns, so those 2 Striker Spells can be more live than in other decks that tech Drones. I do know that Switchyard can make use of any dead Engages as discard fodder, but if you have 3+ Spells in GY already, then you would be getting an extra card. Likewise, Switchyard can use as fodder any dead Afterburner/Anchor.
I would find space for a 3rd Called by the Grave. IIRC the deck is too vulnerable to Ash (e.g. Ash on Switchyard), although with the new support IDK if that's not much of an issue anymore.

Not enough space to really fit a 3rd Called in. I went with Afterburner since Widow Anchor is only really good if you have three spells in the grave already, and this deck isn't great at getting them in there efficiently. At least with cards like Urgent Schedule I at least have a potentially easier time going second. In testing, I might just end up cutting Afterburners for a third Called, though.

Also, misc. change because I forgot it existed: switched out Megaton Gale (looks like an awesome card but too impractical to summon with these combos) for Demiurgear, because that's a much easier card to summon with still a solid impact.

Monsters
Night Express Knight x2
Speedy Express Bullet Train x3
Heavy Freight Train Derricrane x3
Machina Fortress x3
Infinitrack Roadheader x2
Machina Gearframe x3
Ruffian Railcar x3
Flying Pegasus Railroad Stampede x3

Spells
Revolving Switchyard x3
Pot of Desires x2
Terraforming x2
Urgent Schedule x3
Special Schedule x2
Monster Reborn x1
Called by the Grave x2
Sky Striker Mobilize - Engage! x3
Sky Striker Maneuver - Afterburners!! x1
Sky Striker Mecha - Hornet Drones x1

Extra Deck
Number C9: Chaos Dyson Sphere x1
Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Juggernaut Liebel x1
Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora x2
Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max x1
Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula x1
Number 11: Big Eye x1
Infinitrack Reverstorm x1
World Regalia Demiurgear x1
Double Header Anger Knuckle x1
Qliphort Genius x1
Sky Striker Ace - Kagari x1
Sky Striker Ace - Kaina x1
Sky Striker Ace - Hayate x1
Infinitrack Goliath x1

Honestly still very much annoyed by how Infinitrack turned out. I'm pretty desperate to replace Symphonics and Sky Strikers in this case, but really if you want self-summon EARTH Machines your pool of options is painfully slim. Unless anyone has better ideas, this is what I'm working with.