GACHA CITY MINGLE - EARLY JULY

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July 2017 Gacha City Mingle!

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GACHA HELL

You arrive alone, gaining consciousness suddenly in a spartan waiting room. In your hand, a ticket, with a number slightly above the "NOW SERVING" sign above the only door, currently locked. As the number ticks up, all there is to do is read the fun and informational pamphlets explaining your situation. Congratulations - now you're a resident of Gacha City, and the only way you can get back out is going to be by rolling some ultra-rare item from the great Gacha Machine.

Welcome... to Gacha Hell.

☆ UPON ARRIVAL

When the door opens, it deposits you into a huge indoor plaza, along with a number of similarly-confused individuals. The plaza is dominated by the Gacha Machine itself (might as well give it a whirl - your free ticket has an expiration date, after all), but beyond that, it appears to be set up for... a dinner buffet?

As you emerge, a giant screen overlooking the plaza lights up, showing what appears to be a blob of slime with a cigar.

"Eesh, that's all we get? Pretty lousy for a first pull."

"Okay, folks, welcome to the game and listen up! The name's Smokey, and this is a little place I like to call Gacha Hell, and it's your beautiful new home! In case you didn't read the pamphlets, here's the basics: Ten orbs to pull three capsules from the machine, cross your fingers to get an item, ability, or memory that actually belongs to you. If you're REALLY lucky, you might even pull a piece of the Escape Key. Do quests to supplement your daily login orbs. Beyond that, just try to have some fun, eh? It's not like we put you in a murder dungeon, you have apartments and extra lives and everything."

"Speaking of quests, I've got one for you already! Things went a little haywire with the connection to Slimeworld, and we've got something of a slime infestation in the city right now. Fortunately, if you all work together, then you can surelY HAHAHAHA just kidding! Nah, your quest is to catch a slime or three, sneak up on one of your fellow rare drops and just splash that sucker right onto their head when they're least expecting it. There's up to 2 bonus Orbs in it for you."

At this point, the camera is pulled away from Smokey and on to a rather old-looking man. Liver spots, hair in ears, and all.

"Or, if you're a little more proactive, you can listen to ol' Sensei and head out in to that Slimeworld! You all may not be what we were hopin to roll, but that doesn't mean you can't impress us! Smokey, Chika - you'll meet her later, she's out fixing her hair I believe - and I would like to see exactly what you're made of, and this is an excellent opportunity.

"Now, the easiest way to do that is to mix with those locals, get a feel for everything - how they work, how they live - and then, by golly, get right in to the midst of it! But with conditions."

That sure is a twinkle in his eye. That sure is somehow forboding. Sensei's grin broadens even more as he reaches down...and pulls up a pink slime.

"This here is one of the local favorites, mainly for how cute it is! Cute'n useless. Lucky for it, I'm of a mind that even the most one-star of folks can still be useful, so you're gonna go out and impress me by using these poor unwanted fellows - 'jokes', they call 'em, can you believe it? - to clear some dungeons. Every dungeon cleared with a team of 'em gets an orb, so go out and get sliming!"

There's a pause, a loud cough from offscreen, and then a shrug from Sensei, followed by a fierce claking of heels as a woman's voice comes from just off-screen.

"Oi oi! I'm here! Gimme that! You two have no patience-"

The camera swivels sharply, focusing on a young woman - brown hair with red highlights, glinting green eyes, and a full-toothed grin that could make a shark nervous.

"Why hello Gacha City~! It's your new favorite Chika, here! Don't listen to those two, I for one am sure to be very impressed with your hard work from here on out!"

"Smokes and the old man are the ones giving you quests this time around, but don't you worry~! Once I see just how talented you all are, I'll give you something appropriate to your skill level~"

"But, if those spare orbs are burning a hole in your otherwise empty pockets, you can always pitch a few to the local Orbstarter Campaign~! Sure, you won't have them for the next pull, but I'm sure there's something that'll tickle your interest!"

The monitor returns to Smokey. "All right, that's a wrap! If you have any questions, I'll take them later. If I feel like it." Without any chance to talk back, the monitor goes blank.

☆ GACHA CENTRAL

Food from a dozen worlds and cultures is laid out in an extravagant spread for all of the newly-rolled characters to enjoy. Beverages as well - there's no concept of a drinking age in Gacha City, so booze is included and available to whoever wants it. All of it is free, as a sort of impromptu welcoming party for the newcomers.

There's nothing forcing you to stay here, though. Whenever you want, you can head out and see Gacha City itself, or find Gacha Heights to check out your new home.

Prompt 1 - Do a Pull. Each of you has a ticket for a free pull, equivalent in value to ten orbs. They expire in a few hours, so quick, line up to get your three capsules of fate. Your results are here - will you open them now, or wait until you reach your apartment? Either way, the results are bound to be worth something, right?

Prompt 2 - All You Can Eat. What better way to acquaint yourself with your stranded comrades than this? Stack your plate high, get totally wasted, and introduce yourself to a stranger. There's not enough tables for everyone to eat alone, anyway.

☆ GACHA CITY

Your situation doesn't get any less weird once you leave the building. You're armed with an Orb Card with six orbs on it, a paltry sum of Gold, and the address to your new home (the Orb Card acts as your key, too). If you want to live comfortably, you'll have to find a new job in the city to supplement your basic allowance.

To make things more complicated, just like Smokey said, there are invasive slime species clogging up the city at random. Where did all these things come from? They're delaying the subway, holding up traffic, and making a total mess of Gacha National Park. Until this is dealt with, you'll have to try to dodge your way through roving bands of out-of-control slimes if you want to get anywhere without getting doused in goo.

Prompt 3 - Late for School. For all minors, or people who look like minors, it seems like you have mandatory school attendance! It starts the day after you arrive, but there's a catch - some kind of system error seems to have set everyone's alarm clocks ahead. Almost every teen in Gacha City is looking like they're gonna be late for school on their first day! Toast encouraged but not required, hope you don't crash into anyone. It happens more often than you might think. Also, once you arrive, you might find that your class list is a little bit strange...

Prompt 4 - Slimehaver's Creed. There's a quest afoot! Stalk your new friends from the shadows. Then, when they're least expecting it, slam a big, gooey slime into their head. It doesn't hurt, but it's super gross and takes forever to wash out. Or, you can try to talk someone into taking the hit willingly, for partial credit. This'd be a good one to do some advance plotting on.

☆ EVENT WORLD

It seems like the teleport station is already powering up. Where will it take you? Step through and find out.

Comments

Courtney "King" Barker

[silentmonarch]

Pre-Pull

An imposingly tall woman stood in the plaza, looking around with the bewildered air everyone pretty much everyone has right now. Sure, her life was weird, but this. THIS was a whole new level of fucked up she'd never encountered before. A whole new strata of weird she had never even been aware of the existence of. What antediluvian oddities awaited her in these stupid depths awaited her?

She turned to try and express these thoughts (or to paraphrase them. She'd never actually use the word "antediluvian" in real life.) to one of the other newcomers, opened her mouth to speak, and let out a pathetic croaking sound before breaking down into a silent coughing fit.

Give her a minute.

Post-Pull

This really felt like one of those cryptic phone games Ember and Orion were always talking about that didn't have any gameplay as far as she'd been able to tell. Just endless micromanagement and grinding for drops. Pass.

Except she couldn't, now. At least it was in what felt like real life.

Her first pull had had two of those fragments, and a gun. Well, King liked guns, even if this one was kind of fancy and colorful, and this was a town, right? So obviously no PVP here. That meant it was totally safe to just point the gun at a nearby wall and fire.

When the smoke from the resulting explosion cleared, King climbed back to her feet and peered at the damage the giant energy beam had caused. A perfectly round hole had been burned through the wall, as well as about 6 more walls behind it. As she stared back and forth between the property damage and the inoffensive looking gun, a smile slowly spread across her face.

Post-Pull

[rose_liberated]

She had been switching outfits when the explosion rocked the building, rocking the stall she had been changing in and making Rozalin squeak with fear and clutch at the clothes lest the jumping walls collapse and leave her exposed. When that did not transpire, she finished pulling on the outfit she had just pulled (at least it was coherent) and ran outside to have a look.

She saw a woman, rough and grinning. Holding a handgun-she'd used a handgun, yes, but nothing so fine as that. Neither in destructive potential or craftsmanship. Cautiously, she approached King and peered down the hole. "Is everything all right? Or...better than all right?"

[silentmonarch]

King nodded emphatically. All the fire alarms and sprinkler systems and people running around screaming were apparently "all right" to her.

[rose_liberated]

Rozalin looked at King, then at the people running around screaming. "You could probably clean up the town with that thing. Or rather atomize it and leave no brick standing atop another." She gave the street a look again, then turned away as some of the fires came under control.

"Could I try it?"

[silentmonarch]

She shook her head. Rozalin would have to get her own damn super gun.

[rose_liberated]

Downcast gunner is downcast. "Yes, well I suppose I wouldn't want to let go of such a powerful weapon either. The old 'let me look at that-and then shoot you' trick and all that."

Realizing what she had just said, she waved her hands rapidly. "Not that I, Princess Rozalin, would dare do such a thing!

[silentmonarch]

King had been more worried about someone running off with her gun than shooting her with it. For it was definitely HER gun now. Who cares who it belonged to before? She stuck the gun in her pocket and made a note that she'd have to get her hands on a holster at some point.

Mainly though, she was snickering to herself. 'Princess Rozalin?' Who introduces themselves like that? Also it meant that King had her outranked.

Arguably.

[itemer]

"WHAT did you DO?!" Ember has said this many times to her guildmates, but usually not King. She had run over as soon as she saw the smoke, and the destruction, and her guild leader at the source.

"How in the- What- Was that a gun?" Obviously King was holding a gun, but King was often holding a gun. This was not usually the result, though.

[silentmonarch]

King pointed excitedly at the gun, then at the hole in the wall.

1/2

[itemer]

That was all the gun's doing then? That was... that was...

[itemer]

"Did you pull a five-star!?"

[silentmonarch]

King through the horns while nodding and laughing silently. Fuck yes she did.

[itemer]

"That's pretty sweet. I got a, uh, three and two and one star."

She paused.

"Hey, do you remember the botched run of the Ghost Ship?" That was her three-star regain, a memory.

[silentmonarch]

Pause.

She could remember the Ghost Ship. They'd cleared it, just like they'd cleared most other raids. But...A botched run? She shrugged and shook her head. Didn't ring a bell.

Pre-Pull

[willworkfordps]

Oh good, guildmate number three.

Orion just kind of stares as King apparently tries to talk to him, out loud. What the hell?

"Are you okay, dude?"

[silentmonarch]

King felt at her throat in a vague panic. Why couldn't she speak? Could she ever remember speaking? She thought back and could recall...vague blurry memories of speaking as a child, but then there was just this huge aching blankness, and then that fateful day of logging on to Infinity Frontier. She couldn't remember speaking a single word since then any more than she could remember why not.

So no, she was not okay.

[willworkfordps]

What the hell is going on?

No, wait, this actually made sense. The more he thought about it, the more there seemed to be distinct holes in his memory. Huge, missing swaths, in fact. So maybe...

"...King, you're mute. You've been mute the entire time that I've known you."

[silentmonarch]

What the fuck? King gestured in baffled dismay then brought up the IM interface.

Or at least she TRIED. She couldn't access it. All her interface shit was gone. After an extremely exasperated gesture, she dug her phone out of her pocket and typed a message she showed to Orion:

"Why?"

[willworkfordps]

"Uh."

It would be great to not have to be the person to give this news.

"That's. Because of cancer."

[silentmonarch]

King felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. Orion wouldn't joke about something like that. She just stood there for a while, digesting this news.

Eventually she sent him another message.

"I can't remember almost anything from before the cursed content patch. It's just gone."

Pre-pull

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"A+ there, champ," the book said, regarding that croak with dispassionate regard. Zetta was in a bad enough mood that he couldn't even get a cheap laugh out of it. "You lose your voice?"

[silentmonarch]

She tried to talk again and failed just as badly, then shrugged and nodded. No voice.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Huh."

Zetta considered that for a moment, and then quite reluctantly admitted that a loss like that sucked. If he couldn't talk, life wouldn't be worth living.

"Wait, does that mean you had some wild voice-based power?"

[silentmonarch]

She blinked, then looked thoughtful. DID she have voice based super powers? That wouldn't make any sense but it would also explain why she couldn't speak.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Better spend your crap then." The advice was actually well-meant; she might get some means of communication back from the what's-its they were supposed to get, right?