Let's partyyyyyyy! [open]

[livingdeadgirl]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: A meet-and-greet party for everybody in Anchor!
When: early October
Where: the VR room lobby
Warnings: none yet
Format: go wild!

[ The day before, a wild network post appears, from the username @aa : ]

hi everyone!
i just wanted to let you all know
the meet and greet party previously discussed in this space
will be held tomorrow afternoon!

it will take place in the vr room lobby
and of course everyone is invited
refreshments and games will be provided
but if you would like a little extra challenge
please feel free to bring something to share!

attendance is mandatory!
(lol just kidding)
seriously though i do hope to see all of you there ;)

[ She's also posted handwritten signs to that effect in the mess hall and several of the staircases. Just in case! ]

---

The day of, a party appears in the VR Room lobby area, as promised!

Though it's not brightly lit, the lights there are are brightly colored, creating a chilled-out evening atmosphere like you'd find at a club. Plush chairs and couches are interspersed throughout the room, and there's been a solid attempt to clean the place up, or at least do something about all the dust.

A shortage of conventional party supplies has forced Ami and Cho to get creative, so the tables and parts of the wall are decorated with paper flowers, and the buffet table is presided over by a number of ... weird, pink, glitter-covered, vaguely animal-shaped sculptures made out of spare plastic pipes and stuff. With googly eyes. If nothing else they're a conversation piece.

FOOD: The main offering is barbecue! There's a pretty wide assortment of meats, all of which Cho has certified safe for human consumption, and also certified delicious. Chips, dried fruit, and a few different desserts are available, including homemade chocolate chip cookies that Ami made herself (wich Cho's help). All the trays are helpfully labeled, including allergy information.

Any and all potluck submissions are welcome as well! Just set it down over here and make a little card of your own.

DRINKS: Sadly, the coffee machine is still out of order. But there is a cooler stocked with ice and a few different choices of juice and soda. Alcoholic selections are limited to two types of pre-mixed drinks, which are intentionally weak on the alcohol, but at least they're not tequila sunrises. If guests want anything stronger, they'll need to bring it themselves.

ENTERTAINMENT: In fiddling with the controls, Ami got the overhead speakers to play some music, but couldn't figure out how to modify the playlist, so it's just one song on loop. Maybe if she keeps the volume kind of low, no one will notice. No live music is scheduled, but if anyone wants to bring a guitar and jam for a while, they will be more than welcome to.

And most of the arcade games are online! Anyone for Fruit Ninja? Air hockey? Dance Dance Retribution? Virtual Billiards? Or perhaps you'd like to try out a full-simulation game in the VR Rooms proper? Now's as good a time as any!

Oh, and don't forget to enter the raffle! The winner will be chosen randomly and announced a few hours into the party.

Comments

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle gives Genji a look of How dare you use logical advice like that against me before his uncertainty returns, coloring him as he glances toward the arcade.]

I... suppose one embrace could not hurt.

[And after another second of hesitation, he heads inside. Good job, Genji, you did it. You got him out of the hallway. That's a major accomplishment, all things considered.]

[arcadedragon]

[He is so smug under that helmet right now.]

See? It is not so bad. Normally they are much brighter and louder and have claw machines to win stuffed toys out of.

[Oh he's getting nostalgic now.]

Do you want to learn how to play?

[abheirrant]

[No. The answer is no, he absolutely does not want to learn how to play, but now that he's in here and he's fairly certain this fellow won't let him leave until he's tried at least one, he looks around for the least painful option. The word Dance in the title of one puts him right off; something involving Fruit might be tame, but Ninjas make it sound dangerous. Better avoid it. He's not sure what a VR room is, and all the things he can come up with that VR could possibly stand for are awful.

And then he spots the lone cabinet in the corner: Snake*bert. On the side of the machine is a pyramid comprised of cubes, a coiled snake springing (oh, like a literal spring, Carlisle thinks to himself) from step to step. He seems to be avoiding an orange creature with an elephantine trunk and angry eyebrows. No bears, no birds, no dancing, no swords -- just a snake climbing a pyramid while being pursued by a hairy, orange man with a long nose and no arms.

He points to the cabinet, casting an inquisitive look back at Genji.]

That one?

[arcadedragon]

Ah. Good, start with the classics.

[It's actually been a while since Genji has played this, the arcade in his home of Hanamura was far more up to date and didn't have a lot of the older stuff anymore. But at least it will be easy: just move in the direction you want. Not a lot of controls not a lot of game mechanics to learn.]

They are all on free-play, so you're not getting the full experience of doing this with a bucket of coins.

Here. This is you.

[he points to the snake as the machine plays the quick clip of gameplay in the hopes of enticing someone over to spend their hard earned money.]

Jump from block to block, lighting them up and avoiding the enemies. Light them all up and you go to the next stage.

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle doesn't understand what coins have to do with the machine or how a pyramid is supposed to represent a stage rather than stairs, but he understands the concept that he's the snake and must not get devoured by the elephantine man as he lights up the stairs. That seems simple. Nonsensical, but simple.

He looks down at the joystick in the center of the platform at the front of the machine, the arrows around it informing him that it controls the direction of the snake... somehow. He gives the stick a tentative push with one finger, and completes the picture of a man has no idea of how the machine works; nothing happens, save for the images on the screen continuing to show him what he's supposed to be doing. Perhaps he should have tried the buttons first.]

[arcadedragon]

[Genji surreptitiously pushes the 1-player button for him, the screen changing to an image of the snake happily bouncing around before helpfully jumping thru the instructions:

Jump on squares to change color!
Stay on playfield!
Avoid enemies!
Extra life at 8000 points!
Jump on discs to transport to other discs!

And that's all Carlisle gets before the game begins, the snake waiting there hopefully that he'll be guided to safety.]

[abheirrant]

[Playfield? Extra life? Points??? Why are there points? Is this a sport? Genji did say they would play, and it's clearly a game of some sort, if Carlisle had to guess, but the bouncing snake doesn't give him any more answers before being dropped onto what he assumes is the playfield -- the pyramid of cubes. A second or so later, the orange, elephantine man appears, angry eyebrows and all.

Carlisle bats the joystick once, much like a cat swatting at a perceived threat; the snake springs onto an adjacent cube in the corresponding direction, the block illuminating beneath him. The elephantine man draws closer. He hits the stick again, his fingers lingering just a hair longer, and watches the snake jump onto another cube, lighting it up. He wraps his gloved fingers around the ball at the end of the stick, moving the snake once more to dodge his tangerine pursuer.

Unfortunately, he gets stuck in a corner fairly quickly, and the snake is caught, releasing a chat bubble of various symbols above his head before he dies. Carlisle pulls his hands back, terrified he ruined the machine somehow by doing something wrong. You play once, and then it's over, right?]

[arcadedragon]

You have more lives.

[He delicately pushes the joystick to the right with a single finger, navigating a few blocks away from the orange monstrosity coming to get the snake and giving Carlisle a little more time to recover from his defeat. The motion is effortless, as if he could play this game in his sleep and somehow still get a high score. ]

But that is not bad for someone who has never seen a video game before. You did not fall off the edge of the world which is a good start.

[abheirrant]

You can fall off the edge!?

[And that's something he is desperately going to avoid now that he knows about it. He places his hand on the joystick and tries again, doing better at dodging the elephantine man this time. He may have just been acquainted with the very concept of a video game, but he is very good at quickly formulating which path he needs to take to light up the blocks in an efficient manner. Around the orange menace he goes, bounce bounce bouncing along, even using one of the discs as mentioned in the instructions, until they are all illuminated. A jingle plays, the colors flash, and the snake ends up back at the top as the machine chirps out a garbled message through the speakers.]

Another pyramid? [Back to moving the snake around he goes.] Why is his snake on these pyramids anyway?

[arcadedragon]

I.. I am unsure. These older games tend to not have stories.

It will get more complicated as you go, with additional enemies and holes in the level you can fall through. I am sure these characters are named as well, but I don't know what they are either.

[abheirrant]

[And indeed, here comes a green enemy onto the screen to torment the poor snake. Carlisle dodges him, irritated he has to reroute around the snouted fellow.]

One would think they would be farmers, chasing a snake. Or kitten-kind.

[arcadedragon]

Maybe they're aliens?

Kittens would be adorable. They should add that in.

[abheirrant]

Not kittens. Kitten-kind. They are Forest Folk -- little- little people kittens that desth!

[The elephantine man got him again.]

[arcadedragon]

Kitten folk? Like cat people? With ears?

Oh. Sorry. I'm distracting you.

[He quiets down, backing away and turning all the lights off in his suit. Nice and non distracting.]

[abheirrant]

You're not distracting me. [He is. Carlisle starts the game again.] The kitten-kind are a cat people of sorts, but wait wait wait, what is happening? What are you doing?

[And now he's distracted again by the fact all the lights in Genji's armor went off. Not helping the "not a construct" argument there, frankly.]

[arcadedragon]

What?

[He looks down at himself and back at Carlisle, not understanding.]

I don't know. What'd I do?

[abheirrant]

It's dark. You were—

[This is apparently way more important than the game to him. With one hand still on the console of the machine, he removes his other from the joystick and conjures an orb of light into it, turning to face Genji. Oh good, he's right where Carlisle left him.

He winces suddenly, dropping the orb with a barely stifled yep as he shakes his hand, trying to dissipate the sudden sting he'd felt from his own magic; it pops the second it hits the floor, leaving the light of the game screens as their primary illumination.]

[arcadedragon]

Oh I turned the lights in my armor off.

[he's about to ask if Carlisle wants them back on when he just summons a ball of light in his hand. That's not too alarming for someone who's used to seeing all kinds of crazy tech, but when he drops it there's a moment where Genji almost tries to catch it instinctively and then jumps back out of range in case it's dangerous. Far further than any human should be able to dodge. ]

What was that?!

[abheirrant]

I couldn't see. I conjured some light for myself, but I didn't anticipate it would sting like that.

[He probably shouldn't be musing to himself so openly, but he's still processing the fact the orb reacted to him like that. It was not that it injured him, but more that holding the orb of light came with a sharp, prickling sensation, much like holding a pincushion with a few needles sticking through it. It surprised him more than anything. He conjures another, and the sensation returns; however, he's ready for it this time, letting the orb sit in his palm rather than gripping it as it lights up the space between them.]

What are you doing over there?

[arcadedragon]

Oh.

[He stands up from his crouched defensive position, staring at the orb in Carlisle's hand. He must be manipulating Hard Light somehow like Symmetra.]

I didn't know what you were doing, I thought it was going to explode. What do you mean it stings? Is the mechanism malfunctioning?

[For someone who's afraid of technology and robots he must have one hell of a setup to conjure light like that.]

[abheirrant]

Mechanism?

[He's almost so confused by that question that he misses the first one. Almost.]

Oh, um. It just, ah. The act of conjuring it, er... stung a bit is all. Nothing to be worried about. [He hopes.] What ah, what were you saying just now? About a mechanism?

[arcadedragon]

That makes the light? On your hand? Or is it attached to your arm?

[Great now they're both confused. He turns the lights in his suit back on, not because they really illuminate too much around him but because it feels weird with them off.]

[abheirrant]

Is what attached to my arm? You're not making any—

[The machine behind Carlisle lets out a series of garbled, unintelligible swears as the snake is slain for the last time by the elephantine man. The clergyman seems slightly disappointed.]

Cisth, and I was doing so well.

[arcadedragon]

The...

[He squints at Carlisle's hand not immediately spotting whatever apparatus he's using.]

How are you conjuring light?

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle misses the squint -- it is behind a helmet, after all -- but he also looks at his own hand, as if there's something odd about what he's doing. There's not.]

I'm... conjuring. It's magic.