PhoenixOfCute

╔. .═════════╗ "Pomoglo by, yesli by ya ne byl takim tupym idiotom..." Falisha seemed lost in her own world as she sifted through cards, glancing idly at her teammates before walking in. She let out a small breath as Rosalia spoke to her, nodding and giving a soft smile, "Thanks, I do appreciate that. Granted I could have optimized my deck so something like that didn't just totally out me. I even have been looking at the store's lists to see if there's any cards in stock that would help me out." She stretches in her seat before standing up, picking up her cards and giving them a quick shuffle before they went into her deckbox and went into her pocket as she nodded along with everyone else, a look of shock crossing her face as she was one of the players suggested, "Er, wait, me? I uh... I dunno if I'm such a good idea after how terribly that first match went, I think Eve would be a better pick until my deck is optimized better." "I'm not sure which of you is most suited for this; Both of you are strong duelists. Perhaps Falisha may be best in the wake of her last match, or Eve, given her opponent made what some would consider a game-making error. But I think either of you can make admirable showings. Unfortunately, I am the only one here without a win on their dueling record. The only one without a loss, as well, but as captain I think I am expected to have a strong showing, and my first was not up to my standards, or of potential sponsors. I do not intend to repeat it." Falisha scowled a bit, "Gah I need to be better about speaking up, but well..." She scowls a little, "My opponent sent my hand immediately to grave the first game and I didn't play anything, that might have been to an advantage since due to that less of my cards are known to the upcoming opponent's." She sips at a drink she had gotten a while ago in the break room, "Though... can I make a suggestion? I want to show that we're not a totally fractured team that doesn't get along, this might be the last chance this tournament to do that. Anyone have some ideas for how to go about doing that for the next matches? If not I'm fine brainstorming for a bit, some of your opinions on my decklist might actually help me out too if we wind up sending me in cuz uh..." She started sweating bullets, "Have I ever uh... actually -shown- anyone in this room my current decklist?" She seemed to shrink in on that question a little as if she knew the answer wasn't the one she'd want to hear, even shifting nervously as she looked around the room as she suddenly felt like she hoped the meeting ended soon.

Falisha gave a bit of a cheeky grin as she watched the conclusion of the duel between the two duelists in front of her, "Y'know, now that I think about it... you two duel like a Major League's Turbo Duelist I used to watch every once in a while... gahhhh what was their name..." She rubs the back of her neck and gives a chuckle, "My fault for not paying attention when my family dragged me out to duels I guess for family bonding time." She smiles and gives a shrug as she watches the duel finish concluding, "Oh right, guess we're still technically supposed to be prepping for that..." She scratched her cheek, she had been hoping to work on something once the duel ended, though she headed to listen to the briefing anyways. __________ Falisha stared at the blackboard with a scrunched up nose, "Team 'Shining' seems a bit.... glory-hogging doesn't it? I know our name isn't exactly subtle either but Shining makes me think they're full of themselves." She'd be staring at a certain magician with a playful smirk, starting to feel the bags forming under her eyes before she pulled out a small hand-mirror to start covering them again. "Anyways, I think I'm perfectly capable of competing in a duel, though my Adamancipators I really need to uh.... I need to figure out a way to get them more consistent, but that means cutting some of my Duel Runner budget upkeep. Or food. I can survive off snacks, I think..." She had started mumbling to herself the longer she talked before being snapped out of it by someone rather unexpected to her. "Oh, hey Eve! Uh...." She blinks a few times as though she was actually processing being approached before hearing 'bike', "Wait why didn't you just lead with that? Sure thing! Though is it just the brakes or ya wanna like have me look into seeing what I could do to pimp it out? Crowds love a good hot rod ya know! Oooh or have you seen some of the like really unique D-wheels some people go for? Oh or how about getting some more practical add-ons? I may as well make sure your runners up to date on the card database too! Learned that lesson the hard way when mine was throwing up white cards on the screen...." She had already began walking towards where she thought Eve's room was, her heels clacking against the ground as her coat flowed behind her.

"At the same time, though...we're seeing these two play in rapid succession...in real time." Daichi commented, still watching the Duel continue on. "Whether we can process the cards being used, you can at least see the strong response timing that they have. No second thoughts, no double backs...it was truly seamless...it's actually impressive." Falisha raised an eyebrow towards Daichi as she put down whatever she was fiddling with for once, "That may be true but we all still need to learn. It's hard enough from wanting to keep myself to dupe Sai into 32 duels into the late of the night and early morning. All for the purpose of learning, of course, but from what I understand with his attitude he could use all the beauty rest possible, his personality requires the handicap." She smirked a bit as she poked a small amount of fun at her other teammate as she watched the duel unfold. "Though I must admit I'm a bit shocked to see an Action Duelist that's going completely for substance over style, even in a learning setting. She mentioned this isn't even her deck so the fact she's processing it so well means that it's still one she knows the ins and outs of." She taps her cheek and smirks over towards Kendra, "My, you're almost sounding like a team leader yourself over there, Kendra." She placed her hands into her pockets as she finally looked towards the duel itself. "I admit I never enjoy standing duels much myself, there's no motion or excitement behind what's going on, so it's never appealed to me. Though if I could play like this it'd definitely help my enjoyment... Maybe I'll try it sometime! My Adamancipators go into so many different options with checking the top of the deck it can be a bit of a slog for my opponent if I take too long... I do want to ensure they have fun as well so uh..." She glances off to the side, "I've got a second bike, not as flashy as my custom one or anything and it's just got a Duel AI installed for practicing Turbo Duels but I can disable it if any of you would want to try one out sometime? I'll try not to keep it too late!" She realized she'd gotten distracted, looking back towards the duel field and sighing with a small laugh, "Maybe I should pay attention first, looks like quite a few things happened. Though you go girls with explaining stuff now, thanks!"

“Abooout that…” Adrian smirked a bit at Kendra, “You’ll get the chance, but your coach decided you needed a bit of a break before that. Sooo, why don’t you guys head down to the training room, and we’ll meet you down there once everyone is here? You too, Ms. Outsword!” Falisha looks up from a rock she had been banging a screwdriver against in seemingly random patterns, “Uuuuuh Vega not here today?” She looks around, shrugging as it looks like everyone else had seemingly accepted it, “Sure, guess she partied a bit too hard? Heard something about alcohol I think. Not that I’d know much about it I suppose.” She pockets the purplish-red rock, “Also if anyone here finds any thunder eggs just laying about wanna give me a heads up? Thought about something I could use them for.” She passes by Adrian on her way downstairs, “...Kinda short for someone I’d relate to Vega, aren’t you?” Adrian froze and gave Falisha a look that could only be described as sheer confusion. “You… realize we’re within millimeters of each other, right? And that you’re also associated with Vega?” Falisha froze a bit herself, “Er, wait, really? Oh god how long has it been since I’ve checked my height….? I’m usually on the ground under my duel runner so uh… wait have I ever seen Vega while I was standing up instead of napping or working on my bike?” Falisha strains her face, rather hard in thought at this revelation she was barely taller than Adrian. “Aaaanyway, please head downstairs. I’ll wait for Evelyn Takao to show up, as well as Vega, then we’ll head down. I probably shouldn’t spoil it, but…” A little mischievous smile crept across the girl’s face, “You’ll get to see your coach in action today~” The resident adamancipator duelist would nod, waving politely as she headed downstairs, after a few moments shouting from the usually quiet girl could be heard, “WHY DID NONE OF YOU TELL ME I WAS SHORT?!”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Takehiko panted, clearly having over-exerted his movement with the new Piece: Bishop. A bow was drawn back as he eyed around the arena, his body seemingly shifting in and out as there had been a few opponents with rather rough kicks to their back as they very quickly learned that Takehiko could now do something that would seem very similar to merely stepping forward before he appeared behind them. He would be sent careening down to the ground afterward, using Rika's dexterity with her tongue to rely on her catching him before he repeated the process to blindside those unlucky enough to fall into the planned trap. It wasn't as long as he thought it would be before he heard the buzzer ring, practically collapsing to catch his breath from the exertion, "Good job Rika. Glad to have had you as a partner and good luck in whatever the next round brings." He'd give her a thumbs up before turning his attention to the monitor as he saw the results announced... Oh. "Diana... Well that could go... hm, I'm not sure." He'd glance over to her, smiling and giving a small wave, though he assumed he'd likely go ignored. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Kanda Takehiko! What are your thoughts going into the third stage of the festival?" Honestly Takehiko would probably have gone back into the arena after everyone left to look over anything he missed while fighting and walked back through the fight in his head for anything to do differently so I suppose they'd find him there "Oh me? Right I made it in. Still a bit of a shock to be honest, and it's always an honor to be considered for the third stage of the festival. I'll likely relax, take some time off, and make sure I'm mentally prepared for the trials it's sure to bring as well. Does that cover the question nicely enough for you or would you be interested in my battle analytics here? It was a bit of a rush having to take everyone's quirks into account, though thankfully there was at least a tiny bit of info I could dredge up on everyone before we started. Did you know that the public library gets new entries every year on students entering into the hero course for anyone interested? It's a bit of a small tabloid, dunno if they're well-known or not. Can't remember their name at the moment but there was an article I found from someone about 15 or so years ago that had a story of an up and coming hero doing a similar strategy. Can't say I was partial to him myself, his family got him in running a szechuan restaraunt it looked like, too spicy for me and seems he inherited the spicy spirit of those people. Anyways, when I saw some of the clever things like that armor that Syo and Akane wound up going with it was a bit bewildering, we could have lost if they chose to charge us immediately and were left to scramble for points. Good thing they didn't, huh? As well I suppose another plan in that situation would have been to merely saint step and trip him before he knew what was happening. Though you saw plenty of my Piece: Bishop today, maybe next time I'll show off Piece: Pawn and show what swarming tactics are like! Though have you ever tried to strategize with 9 other personalities in your head all screaming about the slightest changes that their neural cortex can comprehend? I've had them try to take notes for me and merely end up drawing ducks. Sorry, got a bit carried away, you had more questions?" "It looks like you're up against Seigi in your first match, a stand-out from the previous round. If it's between you and us, we think you've got it in the bag, but what's your plan?" "My plan is to plan accordingly for my match. Currently I just found out that I'd be in the matchup and will need to figure out how best to approach this. And please, thinking I have this in the bag is too much praise, Seigi is a strong contender in their own right. Even the smallest abilities can shine in the strangest circumstances, after all." "Very astute, very wise. It's no wonder your team was able to do so well. Would you say you were the brains of the operation?" "No, it was very much a joint effort on my and Rika's end. I may have been the one to propose the idea but Rika was the one to flesh it out and edit some holes that were in my initial plan, which I'm very thankful for." "We will see how that talent suits her, as she is going to be facing off against the heiress to quite a heroic legacy! Whatever the case, we hope to see you in the finals!" "Thank you for the vote of confidence, and I look forward to seeing how my classmates fair." Takehiko pleasantly waves away the reporters, continuing his inane-sounding ramblings to himself, before they were out of earshot, "Well... I think I talked enough without giving away the plan..." He looks around, starting to pick up scraps and looking at disturbed dirt and cracked stone where he believed would have come from impacts from Diana, "...Maybe I should talk to her instead." He hums as he places his hands into his coat, walking back to the school as he wound up in the office, requesting a phonebook before finding what he was looking for. A rather sleek flip-phone found its way out of his breast pocket, opening it and dialing what he hoped was the correct number. He didn't think she'd be home, leaving a voice message, "Greetings Seigi residence, this is Takehiko! I'm Miss Diana's opponent in the upcoming match, and wondered if she'd like to celebrate us both making it? I'll be honest, this is an exchange of sorts, I'd like to get to know you better so I can try to use it in the upcoming match, and offer to allow you to do the same. My treat for wherever you'd like to go, merely give me a ring or swing by Kanda Kandy's and ask for me. My schedules pretty open after all! Hope to hear from ya soon, Diana! ...No, mom, I'm not-." His phone would cut off on the message there as he made it home, getting back into the swing of being home for now.

Falisha had remained uncharacteristically quiet as her teammates discussed things, even after all was said and done, seemingly lost in thought for a good portion of it, "Y'know... we're a team yeah but even our decks kind of scream to everyone how different we are from eachother, huh? It's not the same in a single duel where all you have to rely on is your own luck and tactics and come what may. In these types of team duels your defeat can be overcome by another teammate's victory and vice-versa. That draw definitely showed that well today. I think all of you did wonderfully and know what mistakes you made and have already identified them. Uhm... this might... well..." She frowned and glanced to the side, "Look, this doesn't have to be a loss forever. We can all get better and understand our decks more and... well look. I may not be able to play your decks but... I want to support all of you as best as I can." She hated how tense she felt as she was speaking. She hated having to try and comfort her team. She hated seeing them be down and knowing how little she could do. Seeing as her teammates weren't machines she could crack open with a wrench to fix the shortcomings they might be having, Falisha switched to her arguably worst skillset: The spoken word. "Just... I hope you all had fun. That's what I know I joined for and it's what I hope the rest of you are having. Hell you guys know how much I tend to be scraping by money-wise, I live in a run-down apartment and splurge way more than I should on my Duel Runner. But it's because I have fun with all of you and think that you're amazing at what you're doing. That's what I think matters. And I think you all deserve to be told good job. Now let's not sulk when we did that well and celebrate this memory and any future memories that will shape into the brilliant gemstones of our careers. After all... a Genesis has to come into it's own being eventually, right?"

"I honestly didn't spend any money on this. As you said, got to have friends...I was given some of these by one of my friends who runs a card shop in town. I'm a regular at the shop annnnnd he knows I'm looking for some good Pendulum cards, so he knew I'd be enjoying them." Falisha gives a small nod, humming as she slipped open a few cards, shifting through the packs a bit more, "There's definitely some odd cards in here. I admit I don't much pay attention to non-synchro cards!" She smiles before looking up as Daichi responded to her question. "Honestly that's why I was offering the card opening right now, since we didn't have a chance earlier. Ya know, better late than never." Daichi nodded, before his smile turned into a smirk. "Same time, the arcade or coffee offer does sound good too...so perhaps I'll hold ya to that!" A light laugh came from the young man, before returning to this opened pack and immediately seeing the card he stopped on. "Well then, sounds like it'll be a lovely day out whenever I can manage to drag myself away from my D-Wheel! Oooooh..." She seems to get a bit of a glint in her eye, "You wanna see how fast an unclocked D-Wheel can go on a straightaway interstate that doesn't have much traffic? We're not too far away from some of the high-end video game head offices and I'm certain we could have some fun there." She gives a small chuckle, whispering that entire sentence and seeming to eye towards Vega to make sure she wasn't heard. He slowly thumbed it to the side and brought it closer. "Hatrickuriboh...well, that's certainly adorable." he nodded. "Same time, seems like a perfect fit!" Sliding the card over to his deck box, Daichi was thrilled about the new addition. Falisha grinned and gave him a thumbs-up, "Nice, that's great! Though if you wanna use me as a good luck charm..." She pouts at him, "You're supposed to invite a gal out before you use 'em, Daichi! How rude!"

Falisha sat cross-legged with her eyes glued to the screen as her teammates were introduced. At least most of them were getting good reactions. Except for the obvious one, of course. She let out a small sigh as she listened to the boos, "You'd think he'd be at least a little more concerned, but ah well." She gave a small shrug before taking out her deckbox and shifting through a few cards. She went through editing her deck for a few minutes before looking up at the duel screens again, "Gotta admit I wasn't expecting gun decks." She gives a small laugh before she glanced over to Daichi, giving a nod as she clasped her deck box back shut before hopping up and strolling over to him. "Sure, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to help you out. How many ya gotta get through?" She gives a cheeky grin, already grabbing a pack and gingerly tearing it along the side of the pack before taking the cards out by the side. She flicked through them rather rapidly, "Also ya like, know it tends to be cheaper to get what you want by not buying from packs, yeah? Makes it kinda hard to get multiples though..." She lets out a deflated sigh and pouts as she looks at her deckbox, "Unless ya got friends, that is!" Her grin returns as she pushes the booster of cards back in the pack, holding it out to Daichi, "Sadly not too much in that one, granted I tend to go for some of the janky stuff seeing as I can afford it." She hummed to herself and sat down next to Daichi now, kneeling on the floor as she started to help him sift through cards, "By the way, what do you think of how they're dueling? And uh, I know I was kinda unavailable to hang out the other day, sorry about that. You mind if I treat you to coffee or like the arcade to make up for it? I-It's okay if no!" She held up the cards and waved her hands frantically, "But I managed to set aside some cash for extracurricular stuff. If you decide not to I can just use it on like boosters and stuff. Or uh... or my bike. Though granted I'm trying to get better about how much money I'm putting into it..." She scratched her cheek a bit, obviously a bit embarrassed, "I just feel bad I got so obsessive over my baby that I didn't notice it had been a couple days... and well when I realized that uh... I don't remember how long I was out, though I think someone was checking up on me...? I woke up with a blanket so..."

Falisha blinked as she heard the quite loud ovation of boos coming from one of the seperated arenas, "That's... not directed at me it doesn't sound like." She frowned as she made her way back to her team, smiling and waving to the crowd that had watched her match. As she walked in she puffed out her cheeks a bit, placing her hands on her hips as she bent over, "Yo what's with the boo's? Nobody lost like turn 1 right?" She crossed her arms before blinking seeing as she entered at what appeared to be a point that they were getting on Sai for... playing a heel it sounded like? "Oh wait that was the boo's. I mean if that was the goal then kudos, I heard it from my match." She laughs and gives a small shrug, "Hopefully it doesn't reflect poorly on our other teammates' duels, though it didn't seem like it did mine." She hums as she slips into a chair and places her face in the palms of her hands, looking between all of our teammates, "Hopefully I don't make everyone upset seeing this but as much as we're a team we're also individuals, we're all going to have different ways of achieving our goals. Granted I haven't seen this duel yet so like, excuse me while I go watch it before I fully butt in, yeah?" She gives a laugh as she goes to look at the replay, nodding to herself, "Hmmm... mhm... let's see... oh that makes sense!" After a few minutes of watching the play Falisha would clap her hands, "Sai you're a dick!" Before she clapped her hands again, "Dick you're also a Sai and still a member of the team, I think some of us may just be shocked, though granted if that's how ya duel obviously I'm not gonna stop you, you know you'd make like a pretty good tournament like... oh gosh don't some guys get hired specifically to target out tournament participants? That'd definitely be a good career choice!" She hums and rubs the back of her head with a light smile, "Though that to be said, I can't exactly fault the rest of the team for being upset either, y'know? My head still hurts a bit from all of the baiting out I was doing of Sorrel. Like yes I -sounded- like I was playing nice but if you pay attention to my gameplay I feel like I spent a lot of the game pulling her around. Granted it was fun and there were a few spots where she almost got out." Before she took a deep breath, "Wait, what about my replay?!" She immediately went to the screen playing her replay, seeming to keep her eyes glued to the screen, "Please tell me they didn't catch it, please tell me they didn't catch iiiit...!" She takes a breath after a certain point, "Okay that's good at least... cool, don't have to worry about that." She wipes her brow a bit before grinning, "Anyways, I had fun and I hope everyone has an enjoyable experience in their upcoming duels!"

“You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought you were taking this duel seriously! I special summon Analyzer in defense mode, activating it’s effect and with it checking 5 cards from the top of my deck!” A man behind a desk appeared on the field, scribbling out paperwork before he wrote something down and threw it at Falisha’s Duel Runner, causing her deck to eject 5 cards that were displayed on her opponent’s runner as well. Within them were Rock Band Xenoguitar, Spellbook Organization, Card Advance, Adamancipator Friends, and Zerozerock. “I select Rock Band Xenoguitar, perfect for my opening performance!” A monster blaring out a guitar solo erupted from the top of Falisha’s deck, before stopping his playing and placing his guitar in front of him. “Now be amazed at how quickly my rocks can crash through a Runner like a rockslide!” “Synchro summon! Erupt from the vast waters, Adamancipator Risen - Dragite! Xenoguitar’s effect also activates, returning Analyzer from grave to hand and placing one card from my hand on top of my deck!” A dragon in blue crystal formed quickly before with a beat of its wings, crystal shattered like dust over the two duelists once it fully formed, before flying next to Falisha’s Duel Runner. “Dragite’s effect! There’s 2 rock monsters, and as such I bounce cards on your field equal to 2, selecting your two set backrow cards!” The dragon beat it’s wings, crystal flying forward towards the card’s near her opponent’s runner before swirling quickly around them as she forcefully returned them to her opponent’s hand. “That’s a bit cowardly, don’t ya think?” Sorrel snarked as she picked up her cards, “Personally, I think you’re showin me too much respect, leaving the monster and not going for the kill!” “I respect cards you’re running in your deck to be relevant to a situation, and backrow’s simply the biggest factor when you have two. I then activate the continuous spell, Card Shuffle, proceeding to pay 300 life points in order to shuffle my deck!” The spell card opened next to her, a man holding two decks that he quickly began to shuffle together, her runner’s disk activating and shuffling for her, as well as displaying it happening to Sorrel. “Don’t worry, I’m not done yet! I normal summon Maharaghi!” A small stone statue appeared in front of her next to her dragon, looking fairly bland to the spectators she imagined. “I then proceed to battle phase and have Dragite attack your face down!” “What’d I tell ya?” the red-haired girl laughed as her face-down was revealed to be Hyena, which died… only for two more to appear in defense. “When Hyena dies, it calls more copies of itself from the deck.” She gives a grimace as it turns out to be Hyena, “Damn it, Maharaghi, attack another Hyena. Your monster was simply better than I was expecting for the situation, Sorrel. I then set 1 card and pass the turn, Maharaghi’s effect returning the spirit to my hand.” She frowned as Maharaghi shined as it’s end of turn effect activated, picking up the card off her duel disk and adding it back to her hand. ”Alright then, I’ll draw for turn! Then I’ll activate Ready Fusion, allowing me to Fusion Summon Flower Wolf for nothing more than 1000 LP!” As her counter fell from 4000 to 3000, a wolf adorned with flowers leapt from the spell card, panting as it ran alongside its duelist, flowers appearing on the track where its paws landed. “I thought you were a turbo duelist, yet here you are using fusion! Couldn’t keep up with the skill of standing duelist’s or what?” She smirked as she egged her opponent on, hoping to bait her into an attack. “Eh? There a problem with that? Anywho, boyo isn’t sticking around. I tribute both Flower Wolf and Hyena, in order to tribute summon Thunderclap Skywolf!” The two monsters had a slight energy appear around them before they disolved, only for a bolt of lightning to strike the ground where they were before! A growl filled the track as the blue lightning wolf appeared, trained on Dragite. “Next up, I activate Ayers Rock Sunrise! I revive Flower Wolf, and then…” The duelist revved her bike up as the wolf reappeared. a burst of flowers suddenly appearing on Dragite! The dragon’s body seemed to shrink slightly as it let out a small roar, the counter showing its attack drop to 2400. “The second effect of sunrise reduces the effect of opponent’s monsters by 200 per beast in my grave! Battle, I attack Dragite with Thunderclap Skywolf! Heavenly Skybreak!” The wolf howled out, sounding more like thunder than a howl, as it charged forward… Only for it to begin to crystallize alongside Flower Wolf, while Dragite faded into nothing. “That may deal with my dragon, but you still have quite a rockslide to overcome! And now I’ll reveal why attacking was a mistake! Trap card, Adamancipator Relief, activate! I tribute Dragite to destroy both Flower Wolf and Skywolf!” “Well, that’s a shame,” Sorrel laughed, setting the two cards from her first turn once more. “Guess it’s your turn, then!” She blinks as her opponent only sets 2 cards again and passes, “Have you learned nothing? Playing passively isn’t going to beat me, speed up your game! At this point I’m just thinking the wolf is more like a de-clawed kitten!” “Maharaghi’s effect, I choose to place the card on the bottom of my deck, draw!” “I activate the effect of Card Shuffle, and Normal Summon Analyzer!” The man scribbling behind the desk appeared once again, throwing another piece of paper towards Falisha’s runner as the top 5 cards were revealed once again to Sorrel. Xenoguitar! Zerozerock! Adamancipator Signs! Slip Stream! Doki Doki! “Finding Doki Doki, I special summon it in defense mode. I discard Maharaghi for Doki Doki’s effect, special summoning a Xenoguitar from my deck in attack position!” She shows the Maharaghi in her hand as she slipped it into her graveyard, another Xenoguitar rocking out before placing its guitar between itself and her opponent. “Let’s see if any of those face downs can even stop me, it failed to last time after all!” “Nah, you’re golden! I’ll let ya know if anything comes up,” the duelist revved up again, passing by Falisha and looking back to give her a thumbs up and toothy grin. “Heh, good job at least not revealing what they’re for then I suppose.” She returns the toothy grin as she revs her engine louder to drown out Sorrel’s. “Synchro Summon, roar from the volcano top, Adamancipator Risen - Leonite! Activating its effect, I check top five, finding Crystal - Leonite!” Her Adamancipator and Doki Doki leapt above her disk, a swell of flame erupting as Leonite formed, before her bike’s wheels gained a wreathing of fire as the effect activated, leaving a trail as it searched her top of the deck. Her deck ejected 5 cards again, revealing Speed Spell: Angel Baton, Adamancipator Crystal - Leonite, Catapult Zone, Adamancipator Resonance, and Card Advance! “...” Falisha quietly and sheepishly indicated on her runner that she selected Crystal- Leonite, desperately hoping that her opponent would just gloss over she had forgotten to take a Field Spell out of her deck, as she had forgotten she ran two. “I attack with Risen - Leonite! Gah!” “Oi, oiii, who was the one that said attacking was a mistake?” Sorrel teased as her first face-down revealed itself to be Call of the Haunted. Out of it came Thunderclap Skywolf, a brace around its ankle causing it to be tethered to the trap card… Except for a brief moment where it disappeared entirely. Within that second, a large bite mark appeared on Leonite and Xenoguitar, causing the gem lion to roar in pain before exploding with crackling thunder. “When it’s special summoned, it destroys all monsters my opponent controls. The good news is that I don’t get to attack you the turn I use this effect… Oh, wait, I didn’t fuckin’ get to do that this turn, anyway!” The toothy grin grew wider as the wolf returned to its chain, growling low as it ran alongside its master, but leering at Falisha over its shoulder. She glares at the activated trap card as Skywolf returned, placing both her monsters in graveyard, “Maybe you should stop having to play catch-up, I’m tired of looking at you in my mirror! Xenoguitar’s effect activates, and I return Risen - Dragite to my Extra deck, placing 1 card on top of my deck!” She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, not wanting to show she was nervous about her first duel and was embarrassed that her turn had been blemished by something completely out of the duel itself. “I activate the spell card, Adamancipator Friends, in order to check for any friends lurking in the top 5 of my deck. I add Adamancipator Researcher to my hand! I end the turn!” She smiled as she found the researcher, the other cards shown being Zerozerock, Tackle Crusader, Spellbook Organization, and Gorgonic Gargoyle. She simply grinned and nodded to herself, “Hey, Sorrel, you just need a monster to win! Go for it, I’m wide open and no field, but if you whiff… This game is mine, and that’s a promise!”

Steely Contestant

Falisha slowly blinked as Vega said her name in the first matchups, "Oh shoot I'm one of the one's up first? Huh. Well hopefully my deck is willing to perform well then!" She gives a laugh and rubs the back of her head, "I kinda totally spent the last week working on my bike to get the colors right, wanted to like start leaving a trail of rainbow-colored lights once I have enough speed counters!" She nods as she slips her deck out of her deckbox, eyeing through the cards. While she looked through her deck she snatched a donut herself, getting a bit messier lemon donut as she snacked on it. "Hm... oh I probably shouldn't have this in my deck for now..." She blinks as she pulls out her Adamancipator Field Spell, replacing it with another spell card and slipping the Field Spell into a side deck box. "I think that's enough to get my deck going, probably need to remember to take out my Field Spell whenever I've got a Speed Duel coming up. That could have been a bit bad if I drew it out of the deck before remembering to take it out!" She lets out a small laugh as she looks at the new entry, "Thank you for the donut, dear. I forgot to eat this morning unless getting some powder from crushing rocks in my mouth counts..."

J'adoube Takehiko heard Glory signalling the end of the first event. He took out a breath before looking around a bit before he left. "Well... hopefully they don't mind this too much." He reared his arm back near a building, punching out a window and collecting the glass from it in a small carrying bag he had on him. He did this for a few more before he nodded, seemingly having enough before making his way out of the testing area. _____________________________________________ Takehiko blinked as he looked up at the scoreboard, the Chess Hero had placed quite a bit higher than he would have realistically expected. He scanned over the list of potential teammates as he listened to Orikami. ”Something you students may notice is that the scores displayed here do not directly match the number of rescues you performed. Instead, each rescue was weighted based on the danger involved. Additionally,” the third place spot on the board flashed green, highlighting its occupant, ”the third place contestant, Kawashima Risa, was awarded a large mass for saving another student from a crisis on the testing ground. Not that such a feat would be unexpected for the second daughter of the late Kawashima Yozo, the original bearer of the title Glory, and once the headmaster of this very school.” Takehiko hummed as he saw the spot flash, it was definitely good that someone managed to catch the eye of the school, hopefully that meant heat would be off of him. He grinned, finding his position in the rankings perfect. 7th, so he would be worth some points but he also wouldn't be perceived as an easy target. In an event like this being near the middle was probably the best of both worlds. Which caused his eyes to scan closer to the middle of the board, "Let's see... I do have -that- that I want to try out..." He lifted his sack a bit, looking and making sure there were no tears in the finely-crafted leather bag he had saved for this, carrying broken glass he was still a bit concerned about after all. Sun, Rika, Ayane, or Ben. Takehiko's eyes continued to scan specifically the center of the board, before finally he seemed to stop on Rika, "Wait... that could definitely work..." He gives a smirk as he turned and walked over to the Chameleon girl, giving a polite bow, "Rika, I do believe it would be beneficial for us to partner up. Your abilities are actually a bit perfect for what I have planned. Though... if you accept we need to get out of earshot of everyone else." Rika's eyebrow raised for a moment as the boy approached her, before she brought up a finger, "Me? I can play defense pretty well here, I'm not sure what else I can do this round. But..." She tapped at her cheek for a moment, "If you say so. Atsushi is already mingling with others, I think he has his own plans this round. Which means I need to figure out my own way forward." Takehiko gives a small laugh as he motioned her away from the rest of the teams, "Oh no worries, I think that we can be one of the more aggressive teams with my plan." He grins as he started to explain his plan to her, showing her the decent amount of glass he had collected, a faint glimmer possibly catching in some of the other contestants' eyes. Rika closed her eyes for a moment, her hand rubbing at her cheek for a moment, "If we get thrown in the air, how well can you swap between the two modes? If you can create pawns fast enough to catch us, then go back to the new mode, we have a really low chance of getting disqualified, which would be our biggest concern with this strategy... If that's too much to ask, I'll have to try and catch us using other people, which is significantly harder..." He hums and taps his cheek, "This is a newer mode so I can't guarantee I can switch between them fast enough. In an emergency I probably can but when I don't have enough focus I'd probably use all of my reserve material to make up for it. So I'd say I can do it once with the material I collected extremely fast, luckily pawns don't require any so I can go into that mode but quickly switching back to the mode would require either enough focus and time or a surplus of material to make up for it. Though I believe we have our plan figured out then, no?"

"If anyone wants to discuss what we watched, and what sort of strategies you got from it, let's go for it! But that's the only thing I'm forcing you to do for the day, so if you guys just wanna talk amongst yourselves, that's fine, too! Just be ready for our first match next week!" Falisha had been eyeing the screen almost a bit absentmindedly, "It looked like there was a lot of stuff happening in that match. I can't help but wonder what that face-down card was after all. Just watching it leaves you with a lot of questions and not a ton of answers." She gives a small shrug as she kicks her chair back a bit, pulling out her Synchro Adamancipator cards, "I suppose we could make an educated guess, after all, most tournament decks get registered and are public knowledge afterwards. I'll probably go look it up later and see what Spell or Trap cards hang out in his deck." She hums as she takes out a pad of sticky notes, flipping about 30 in before writing down a reminder for her. Once she was finished writing down her reminder, she glanced back up to see Sai and Daichi having what... seemed to be a disagreement? Still friendly though, as she glanced over to Kendra talking about what she assumed they had been discussing, "Hmmm going by what Kendra says I have to say I'd agree to. It's not something my deck is focused on doing but if the situation came up I wouldn't just... not play a way that would be a win. I'm going to respect my opponent enough to think they have a counter after all." She nods to herself before tapping her cheek, "Team Genesis? That definitely sounds like a good name for a newly rising star team to me!" She crosses her arms, slipping her cards back into her deckbox, "Though I really want to know what that face-down was... Do you know, Vega? After all, you're just as much part of this discussion even if you're doodling." She grinned as she took out her Duel Disc, a screwdriver and a few rocks as she started to fiddle with the light display on it.

Takehiko took a deep breath as he eyed the small gathering of plushies, "...What am I doing? I should actually be trying harder." His eyes glanced in the distance to a Ferris Wheel crashing to a halt with a golden glowing shield, "...I'm not sure if that's resolved but maybe I should check it out... if nothing else I might be able to bend the metal into better armor for Knight Mode." He nodded to himself as he took off for the Ferris Wheel, leaving a few pawns guarding the plushies he was leaving behind until he needed to disperse them. As his pawns activated his current armor clattered to the ground, spent and a bit rusted and cracked. It probably took him about 5 minutes just to get there, performing a few rescues of stragglers as he saw them before coming up to the Wheel. He placed his hand on it, his pawns dispersing back where he had them as the wheel contorted and shaped itself around his body into a silver armor adorned with bits of metal in the shape of the ferris wheel cars making up the joints, "Hopefully nobody wanted to keep this around for afterwards..." He gave a small look around, it seemed he'd arrived a bit late to whatever had happened here but he gave a shrug as he took off bolting up an alleyway and to the top of a few buildings, beginning to leap from one to the next as he surveyed the landscape below him. Eventually he came to a top-level office where there seemed to be a board meeting of plushies set up around a long desk, looking at projected merchandise sales for some of the top-level pro hero's. As he watched a few robots blasted down the door, putting the board meeting at gunpoint as they rolled inside. "Damn, wasn't expecting that so quick. Starting to wonder if these things are proximity activated or if someone's controlling them remotely for when they're active..." He gave a chuckle as he leapt from the building, crashing through the window and smashing an armored foot into one of the robot's, knocking it over since he decided not to put in enough force to pierce it this time, "Don't want to be electrocuted again..." He took a breath as he lifted the table and threw it into the other two robots, quickly gathering up the 5 plushies that were there and bolting past the robot's and down the staircase, going to return his newly-found plushies to his established safe zone. Thankfully once he got there they all seemed to be doing fine, though Takehiko was starting to feel like his time was almost up at this point. It had definitely been a while and he didn't feel like he had scored very highly, but ah well, "I think I've done the best I can, though if I see anyone passing by I'll offer to protect whatever their current rescues are." He nodded to himself, happy with that as he went back to guarding the 'civilians'.

"To start things off, we have the first U.A. Rescue-A-Thon!” "Being a hero takes a wide variety of skills outside of combat, so we have set up the course with hundreds of stuffed animals in various dangerous situations. By ‘rescuing’ them, you earn points to help advance to the next stage. And you’re allowed to do whatever you feel is appropriate to interfere with each other. So have fun.” "Go! You only have half an hour!” __________________________________________________________________________ Takehiko grimaced, half an hour to commence multiple rescue operations was a lot tighter of a time limit than what most would think at first. That and he knew this was a competition but in a real situation there might be others left behind, straggler villains needing dealt with. He sighed, he was going to have to just focus on the rescue aspect. But as he was lost in thought the gates opened and paper birds were already harassing the competitors! He knocked a few out of the air around him, dashing in and going to the first thing he needed: metal. The young Chess Hero created his 8 pawns, ordering them into multiple directions and to disperse as soon as they found enough metal to activate Knight Mode. It didn't take too long, 2 minutes at most but he knew in that amount of time there were likely already students swarming every area he could think of. Although memories from his Pawns seemed to flood him as the metal encased his body, his agility and speed increasing drastically as he began to run through the cityscape. It didn't take long for a situation to come to him instead though, as an unguarded group of stuffed animals that seemed they'd been escorted out of a fire going by the small burns on their fabric would indicate, "Gah, the moment you don't have someone to patch up injuries... an actual person would be in so much pain, maybe even needing a skin graft... God I'm glad we're using these but..." He shook his head, clearing it of the cobwebs in his mind as 3 robots came out of an alley and raised their weapons. J'adoube let out a roar as he dashed forward, slamming a gauntleted arm through what would normally be the sternum of a bipedal creature like this, his arm blasting through the wiring as it sparked along his metal, giving him a brief shock as he winced, "Damn, wasn't the best idea...!" He turned and gave another a harsh kick, sending it crashing into the concrete before turning to face the last robot. Though this last adversary was different, it didn't have any firearms equipped and was instead outfitted with an electrical stun baton, "...Are you kidding? I'll have to be careful..." He shook his arm that had already been through the last robot, the electricity still causing his arm to cramp and shake a bit. He took a deep breath, before leaping and aiming a kick to the robot's face! The robot was more agile than he realized and easily knocked him away, rearing back the stun baton for an attack and slamming it into the concrete, J'adoube only barely able to roll out of the way in time before he used the opening to leap up and slam a foot into the robot's arm in an axe kick, knocking loose some mechanics as the robot staggered. He gave one more hearty kick to its face and knocked it to the ground, watching as the lights on the robot's started to dim and shut off. "Guess I should move these guys to a safer place... Doubt they even count as my points but I can always clean up any that were left behind in high-impact areas." He grabbed the plushes before bolting to the gate, setting up a quick rest area that he hoped would be safer away from the chaos that was further in before leaving to get back to the Rescue-a-thon. __________________________________________________________________ UA Sports Festival Arena Spectating A woman clad in red and carrying twin flintlock pistols on her hips gave a cheer as the gates opened, "YEAH, GO 1-B!" She seemed rather excited as her grin just got wider and wider as she watched, though at certain points she had to close her eyes and rest them it seemed like. "HEY GLORY, GET BETTER AT GIVING US THE PLAY BY PLAY, YOUR MIC WORKS FINE!" She laughs as the girl was boisterous and loud, even if to most she seemed frail to any that knew of her they'd know she was a force to be reckoned with. Pro Hero: Breakpoint! Quirk: Appraise: The ability to see things unable to perform at their maximum potential. Current Homeroom Teacher of Class 1-B "I BETTER SEE ALL MY STUDENTS GET AT LEAST 30TH IN PLUSHES RESCUED, ANYONE WHO FALLS BELOW THAT GOES ON A WEEKEND TRAINING EXPEDITION WITH ME!" She gave a large grin, her shouting and boistering seemed to irritate a few people around her before she finally sat back down, "Thoooough I don't think they can hear me so maybe I should calm down... hehe unless Glory wants to give me the mic but something tells me he wouldn't..." She seems to get a bit of a sheepish look as she looks back at the screen, seemingly mesmerized by watching the progress of her students.

Chess Hero-J'adoube// Takehiko Present Day Takehiko let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding for these last two weeks, his parents had been... worried about him but they had also let him know that he'd have to be prepared for these kinds of things. Sure he should be protected while in school but once he's out in the wider world they'd drilled it into his head that if he wasn't always vigilant it could end with the deaths of both himself and his comrades. He hadn't been expecting such a heavy discussion and honestly... to himself admitted they would have tried to get him to leave instead so he could at least claim he was overcoming the odds. But no, instead he now felt violently aware of how dangerous his chosen profession was. "Our annual Sports Festival will be starting today! It's such a fun time for students your age to practice what you've learned so far against each other in real time!" The sudden announcement made the Chess Hero jump out of his seat just a little, his body immediately tensing into a combat stance, before looking a bit sheepish and relaxing, sinking back into his seat again as he rubbed at his forehead before he was once again interrupted, though before he could get into a combat stance this time, his eyes widened at seeing the #2 Hero. Though his distraction made him almost forget he had been activating his quirk from the rather... sudden entrance! A clone of Takehiko was practically half-formed, collapsing back into the floor of the classroom, but not before whispering it's short-lived purpose, "He could have killed us if he was a villain barging into the room like that with us being off-guard...." Takehiko grimaced at the thought, he had been trying to refrain from saying that even if he had been thinking it... But his clones, as much as they were useful, loved to bring to attention his unfiltered thoughts, "Er.... my apologies... But yeah, like Ayane says we need to try and stay on the positive end of things, even if my thoughts don't match what I say. We need to get strong enough to pose a significant threat ourselves to being attacked if we're to remain students here."

Jin found herself looking towards the higher floors where she believed the braggart and someone else had gone, "Well damn, that's a high PPL. It probably outmatches me but..." She bites her cigarette a bit, "Damnit, why'd kids have to show up to this kinda thing?" She blows a puff of smoke and flicks the cigarette into a nearby 'ash-tray' or well... it would work as an ash-tray, seemed to be someone's mug but worked to not accidentally burn the building down at least. Jin started to make her way up the stairs quickly, at a soft jog so she would have enough energy once she showed up, arriving just in time to hear John detailing the creature's abilities, "A hitbox, eh? I wonder if that would work with my ability... Probably a bit too risky to chance it though given the fact I smell blood." She grimaced a bit, glancing towards where she could feel the monster's energy radiating from. She took out her single-shot hand cannon, flicking open the clip storage as she started to store a few shells inside of it, "I've got 2 armor piercing rounds, don't ask me how I got them. They cost an arm and a leg but this situation seems rough enough I'm willing to use them. I'll just send the bill to ToSoft I guess." She gives a bit of a shrug, taking in another breath, "They probably won't -pay- it but that's another story." She started to slowly maneuver her way towards the entryway, peering around the corner and trying to figure out everyone's position, "Oh damn, like everyone's here. Eugh... damnit, a few departed as well." She looked over at the couple of ESPers still out in the hall, "Either of you, is there any way that your powers would be able to be utilized if it were to be stored into a small space and released all at once, say out of an incredibly small release mechanism with extreme loading capacity?" She frowned, there had only been 2 ESPers she'd ever met that had that sort of ability that could synergize with her... less than stellar ability but if one of them was the lucky third maybe no more kids would die. "If no it's aight, I can use these AP rounds but I uh..." Most could have sworn there was a sweatdrop, "I'd really rather not fire something that cost me $50 a pop. I only have 2 and rents due in like a week and a half." She chuckles a bit as she smirks, "Anyways, yeah. My ability is... Infinity Storage I guess is a fitting enough name, though not technically infinite. I have a limit but I don't think that'd matter in this situation." She gives a laugh and grins, "Tch, if only there was something I could force to be contained in the building... I might get knocked out after but who knows..."

The battle between Jin and the skeletal spirit seemed to go back and forth quite a bit, making her let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding that nobody had followed her. "Well, at least the kids are good at listening to some direction..." She hummed as she tapped her firearm, "Well, this is definitely more powerful than usual... bloodthirsty... So..." She picked up one of the bodies that had been impaled near her on the floor, giving it a quick toss out over the desk she was covering behind, watching as the spirit let loose an arrow that pierced the body with a quick 'squelch!' She immediately hopped over the desk herself, rushing the spirit as she reared back a fist, taking a direct swing to give it a shock and knock it prone, before pressing her firearm to it's chin, "Pass on to a better life, and stop harassing the damn living!" She pulled her trigger, a blue light emanating from the barrel before blowing away it's head. She sighed, taking the firearm back as the bones started to shake slightly, "Yeah yeah I know that trick." She pressed her hand to the reload slot, blasting her soul into it a few times as she shot a blast at the ribcage, each leg, and each arm. Jin took a moment and looked around, before holstering her firearm and turning to walk back downstairs, to anyone that was still in the meeting room she'd ask, "Have there been any screams or anyone that hasn't reported back that should have by now?" As she asked she took out a lighter and cigarette, taking a deep whiff.

Takehiko gave a grunt as the paper hound ran into him and yanked his stick, taking a breath as he let it go, "Heh, relinquish your foe of any weapon I suppose. And knowing you made me relinquish the stick at least shows you only have control of paper instead of its component materials." He had gotten dragged a good 3 or so meters before he had let go of the stick, a few bumps and bruises on him as he reaches up to his headset, "Yo, tower man, when ya see paper birds incoming ya ought to give a heads up." He rubs his mouth of a small bit of blood that seems to have appeared after the rather nasty fall the dog had pulled him into, closing his eyes. He gives a hearty laugh, "Bit ironic that someone talking about listening has to drown out the noise with a headset, yeah?" He smirks, "But you're right, we should be going with the assumption you know everything. Well, you're certainly correct that we may not beat you, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop trying! Make the impossible, possible!" He flicks his eyes over to the tower again. But unknown to J'adoube, the clone had left his post, unable to transfer information of the aerial assault as it had been running around with the intent of gathering material, specifically aluminum. It showed up carrying a large load of cans, a small few trailing behind it as it panted, dropping the materials next to Kio and Ayane, "*Pant* Zone him so... *pant* Take can get over here... paper... *pant* absorbs sound... but if we... *pant* have Takehiko wearing Aluminum armor it should... *pant* carry enough of the vibrations that Take's punches can get through... Your guys' choice... if ya wanna go with that plan, I thought ya'd be done already..." The clone seemed to collapse, clearly physically exhausted as it evaporated next to the jumble of cans. J'adoube glanced over as he saw the clone appear with the materials, giving a swift kick off the ground as he took a fighting stance, starting to slowly back up towards Kio and Ayane, "I assume plan was explained enough, we have to make your guys' sound waves break through that paper barrier. I told clone to come up with his own plan, and this was the best thing I could think of I guess. I'm sorry it doesn't help you two show off a bit more though. If you can keep the paper stuff off me I should be able to switch armor in about 20 seconds, but he's definitely going to try to stop it."

Ya know what, I'm actually a bit curious what you'd think with me at this point, and I will admit I actually have 2 mons I very actively try to get on my teams whenever possible during nuzlockes as they are my babies. I'll probs tell you in DMs after you have some fun with this but genuinely curious what you think of me so far with what you know so why not!

I'm still gonna be inclined to the 27 PB system of 5e but stats total 54 makes sense to me. Oof makes 9 the average, this PB sounds a bit miserable but understandable if building for closer to commoners. STR: 7 DEX: 9 CON: 5 INT: 13 WIS: 7 CHA: 13 Obvs I think maybe some of my stuff is too high but I genuinely do think my Con would be that low considering earlier events in my life. Or higher I guess considering I survived all of them. But yeh I guess with 54 stat-spread I'd put myself around those numbers.

As one of the other people that watched the show with Blake I have to give the show credence that it was very obvious what lessons it was trying to go for by episode 2 or 3 with a very interesting look at individualism. But it never felt preachy about it and even past that has a collection of characters that all mesh and interact well off of eachother. And since Blake never got to it, I will. The OST for Brand New Animal was probably a high point of the series, as there's at least one track that will stick with you each episode, be it the anxiety-inducing track from Episode 1 or the melody that leads you through the climax. I'm not great at music stuff but I can appreciate how well put together it was. I suppose I have a different favorite character from @Blake and @Kazooie, but honestly I think something this show did an amazing job with was explaining situations from all sides of the story in an understanding way. Granted, one of those sides suddenly backpedals into a completely different motivation with practically no fan-fare and to say the reveal was jarring would be putting it lightly. And regretfully, not in a good way. Some of the last few episodes sadly try to pack every character's motives into 2-minute fragments at best and 10 seconds of screentime for the reveal at worst. And even -then- I'm not going to fault those at all, as antagonists during the previous episodes easily put out what they were about, their motives made sense, and I'm still ridiculously upset about a villain I genuinely -liked- getting shafted by the writing practically feeling forced to jump the shark with them. If you can handle that and want an anime with -ridiculously- well-crafted protagonists and interesting uses of powers, ideals, and background characters where one episode literally made me -sob- for a drunkard coach that only shows up in that episode, you'd probably enjoy Brand New Animal. Oh and it probably helps that Blake's been listening to the opening track non-stop.