627/Grindin' ain't easy

Grindin' ain't easy
Date of Scene:	20 September 2014
Location:	BaG - The Arcade
Synopsis:	Dillon and Frederica get dragged out by Ziggy. Unfortunately for them, old friends from the RPM universe greet them...
Cast of Characters:	73, Ziggy Grover, 549

---

Ziggy Grover has posed:
If there was one thing that was a -big- problem with Ziggy Grover, it was his tendency to try and do -things- with the taciturn and the unwilling. Something about people who did the whole -standoffish- thing inevitably drew Ziggy like a moth to flame.

On one such break from being a Power Ranger, Ziggy was forced to take a break from 'prompting Dr. K to be more personable'. Naturally, then, certain Unionites were drawn into being Ziggified.

"Isn't this -awesome-? I haven't seen -arcades- in years, not since Venjix attacked," Ziggy enthused, throwing his arms open and motioning all about, doing a full 360 spin around, before coming to a standing look at his companions. "Come on guys, it's not that bad. I mean, we can stop by a candy store and get lollipops, after, I promise."

Dillon (549) has posed:
"You owe me a box of cherry tootsie-pops anyway, Zigfurd," Dillon mentions, having kept track of every one of the candies which Ranger Green absconded from his glove compartment. Those were precious, precious things that kept Dillon's mouth from going all dry and dusty when he drove through the wastes, and //someone// kept treating them like an open-ended lending library of candy goodness.

The videogame parlor brought back half-formed memories to Dillon, which made him shake his head suddenly as if to jar the memories loose, either make them come clear or go away.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    If there's one problem Frederica has... well okay, limiting this to just ONE problem might be tricky. One of them though would definitely be how she just doesn't avoid boys that annoy her. She COULD have refused Ziggy, or ignored him. Still, she's not got so many social connections that she can simply ignore someone asking her to come meet a friend. A friend who, in Ziggy's words, isn't at all like him. That at least is a good excuse to come even if she's sceptical. Besides, she has a distressing tendency to actually like earnest-but-kind-of-stupid guys. As long as they're more earnest than stupid, at least. Not that she'd ever admit such a thing.

    "Lollipops are a treat for children." Frederica says dismissively, remembering fondly her childhood habit of nearly always having one at hand, or in mouth. She won't admit to having a sweet tooth though! It'd make her seem immature! "Video games are cool though." she says grudgingly.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
"A whole -box- of cherry tootsie-pops? C'mon, Dillon, it wasn't even that much," Ziggy replies. "One, two... dozen, maybe, but not a whole box."

Frederica's response was rather despiriting, causing Ziggy to look towards his teammate. That Dillon was what, six foot tall, badass, and still ate lollipops? "Well, I wouldn't say -just- for children. I mean, lollipops are good for keeping your mouth occupied when you have other things going on. Like driving figure eights around grinders. Though I've seen Dillon use them to trigger his little bombs... which, I might add, is pretty clever. Adding moisture to whatever you're using to blow up things in a desert is a great idea. Just... probably a little dangerous in rainy locations, though...? Or the seashore. Or a lake. Or a river..."

Prattling on, Ziggy pauses in front of a little crane game... "Oh hey, a fox plush. You need one of those. And a wolf one. And ... why aren't there any sharks?"

Dillon (549) has posed:
"I use 'em to keep alert when I'm driving. They keep the dust out of my mouth too," Dillon says, wondering why he's defending himself from that left-field diss. It's not like he knows this person, or anything. Still. He's along to meet people, and provide a second perspective to Dr. K, and possibly maybe to get some time away from the utter horrible constant combat that is Corinth - the Doc said he was twitching after the last two fights. Like it was something he could help. The stupid Veng-Bot had kicked him in the shoulder before Ranger Yellow shot it in the face with her toy car gun. OK, not really a toy car. An energy charge shaped kind of like a toy car that tore apart the molecular bonds of the V-Bot and blew it up.

"They don't have sharks because sharks aren't kid-friendly," Dillon suggests, even though everyone knows that making a plush out of something makes it perfectly safe for children. If someone could come up with a plush Venjix, things would be a lot easier.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica's not at all an unfriendly person and would never go out of her way to insult someone. Not unless they were a boy, or they annoyed her, or they were a boy who annoyed her. She makes a face as Dillon defends himself, not sure yet what to think of him. On the one hand he's a boy, and he's Ziggy's friend. On the other, he's not Ziggy and he hasn't yet done anything to convince her he's an idiot. Even by her own over-broad definitions.

    Frederica eyes the fox plush, casting a wary eye Ziggy's way. That IS cute. She likes cute... particularly since being forced underground in a world where cute things tended to die horribly. Cute was pretty rare while she grew up. "So." she says, considering. "Are you a wolf then?" she asks Dillon without quite looking at him, studying the plushies instead. "Like Ziggy is supposedly a shark?" she asks. Her voice doesn't get sarcastic until that latter part, of course.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
"Well that's ridiculous. Sharks are kid-friendly. Kids like creepy things sometimes. Like things with BIG TEETH..." And Ziggy demonstrates, with fingers pointing towards a very very toothy smile.

That the crane machime got a -wary- look from Frederica earns a wide smile from Ziggy. "Ok, then!" And setting about to inserting a coin into the crane machine, Ziggy leans the joystick towards the plushie, sticking the tip of his tongue out as he moves the crane into position. A little bit of a tap here, and then... just about to push the button, he leans forward a little too much, bumps the joystick, and ... down it goes... grasping absolutely nothing, as it picks up.

Clenching his fists, Ziggy makes a visible OH GOD look as he looks to the ceiling, before turning about, eyeing Dillon. "YOU do it, machine man."

Dillon (549) has posed:
"My Zord vehicle is kind of wolf-like, and my helmet has wolf ears. So I guess so," Dillon says, and he shakes his head at Ziggy's lack of claw-machine skills. He feeds it a coin and smoothly drops the claw over the fox plush, almost smug when the claw lifts it, and starts to return it to the drop hole... and it slips out balanced on the edge of the hole. That. Sucks.

"Huh. It uncovered something," Dillon says. There _is_ a shark plushy. Right there. Mostly buried by two other plushies, now that the fox is moved.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    "My brother liked creepy things." Frederica notes noncommittally. "One of them anyways." she clarifies. The other two were more normal. So Ziggy isn't completely right at least, in her eyes. Speaking of eyes, she rolls hers. "You're going to be here all day, you know?" she says. "Especially if you're planning to win three of those. Oh well, it's your money." she says dismissively.

    Not that she'd MIND winning something. It'd be kind of neat actually. But she shrugs. "Machine man? If my sister were here she'd definitely be able to win any of these. But... " Frederica sighs, shaking her head. "Marie's a good girl. She wouldn't use her ability. That'd be cheating."

Ziggy Grover has posed:
Giving Frederica a -look-, Ziggy holds his hands up. "Okay, we won't be spending too much time here then. We'll just... let Dillon do the next three and then we're good to go," he adds, as he hands over three coins. He was reasonably sure that Dillon -would- find a way to do it, simply because he never backed down from a challenge. Even one as stupidly demeaning as this. And he'd just leave Dillon to explain the machine man thing in his own terms.

"You have brothers?" he asks as he waits, nonchalantly conversing for a moment, at least until there was a scream, and people cleared out of the way of ... things that came in.

There were humanoid beings that looked as though metal things had upchucked on their spandex suits. A metal eye here, a nut and bolt on their shoulder there, and generally appearing as though they were put together like cheap mannequin dolls with scrap metal.

"Aw man," Ziggy groans, upon recognizing them. "How'd they get all the way over here?"

Dillon (549) has posed:
Dillon drops a coin in, and the wolf plush is quickly snagged, bringing the fox plush along with it by some miracle of tag-hooky-ness. There they sit in the opening, waiting to be retrieved. And then as he's lining up for a take on the shark, just before he's about to drop the coin and start the hook moving, he hears it. Grr-whine-grr-whine-grr-ind ... the mechanical joint noise he's grown to loathe.

"Grinders," he says in a way that makes it sound like he's just spoken a vulgarity that crosses all the bounds of decency. He picks up a push-broom that someone foolishly left out, and he's moving toward the grinders, ready to sweep them out in pieces like the rest of the trash. Before he can reach them, though, a whistling song makes him freeze up - the Farmer in the Dell, the Farmer in the Dell...

"Tenaya? Oh *@!*" Dillon says, and the grinders ... aren't attacking. That's not natural.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    "Three brothers and a sister." Frederica says in a somewhat brittle tone. It's not exactly a sensitive topic. It's come up often enough that it doesn't cause her pain... but she can't make it seem entirely casual either. She misses them all. The pang isn't as bad as it was a year ago, but it's still there, still bittersweet.

    She's about to go on, to explain, when Dillon's amazing feat of electronic cheatery makes her pause in open-mouthed astonishment. When Ziggy groans and mentions the Grinders, she looks up at him and only THEN seems to realize her jaw's dropped. She closes her mouth abruptly with a faint clicking, distressed at being caught out of sorts.

    Then, however, Dillon makes his move. In a moment of panicked reaction, she reaches out in a perhaps startlingly fast movement, touching his shoulder. "No!" she warns. "There's no fighting in here. I don't even know what the punishment is, but you don't want to be the one to break it." she says. A forced truce that holds the worst of Union and Confederate forces at bay... well, that's not likely to be something pleasant. There's even the possibility that fighting's outright impossible. She's not about to want to see otherwise, however.

    Dillon stops however, and ... a song? Frederica tilts her head, confused and curious, but not frightened. She has NO idea, probably.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
That whistling was entirely too familiar, and Ziggy is only too quick to react, a hand flashing up in a pose. "RPM, GET..." he begins, before freezing, as Frederica warns them to not do anything.

There was a frustrated look, before it gives way to a quizzical look as the grinders do nothing but stand there. "What's going on...?" he asks, as he looks around for the source of the whistling.

Dillon (549) has posed:
The grinders at the door move aside, and the silver-spandex-garbed woman who enters looks at Dillon with a less than respectful expression.

"Oh, you're working as a janitor now? Appropriate," she says, her voice arch. "What an interesting place you've found. I'm sure Venjix would find it to his taste as well."

She walks further inside and looks at Frederica. "How charmingly quaint! Are you recruiting for you colorful group?"

Dillon actually growls. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"Other than to see you in pieces on the ground in front of my master? I'd love to thrash you senseless as always, but a reliable source says that it's not a good thing to fight here ... physically," Tenaya says, smiling slightly. There's no actual feeling of warmth or friendliness to that rictus of evil glee. Nobody could mistake it for an actual smile, seeing it for more than a second.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Once it's clear neither Dillon or Ziggy are planning to attack, Frederica wills herself to relax. It's not that hard really. This woman means nothing to her aside from the reactions of the two Power Rangers. An adversary of theirs, apparently. No doubt from their own corner of the multiverse.

    In fact, there's no reason Frederica shouldn't make a particular point of her elegant coolness. She straightens, rising to her full and entirely unimpressive height, though her posture does give her some dignity points at least. "It's rude to taunt someone while hiding behind a rule of truce." she says. "Not to mention cowardly." she adds with a very dignified and overdramatized sniff. "If you have business here that doesn't involve being rude, get to it or go order some food or something." the pyro girl suggests.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
"Um, we don't go to pieces that easily," Ziggy replies, holding a finger up as he finds something objectionable. "And you know, I'm still not up to speed on my Power Ranger one-liners, but if you're not here to fight, are you here to just -tell- us that you've found out about the multiverse, and that this is your charming way of telling us that you're here? Because if you are, I got to say, it's kind of stupid to tell us you're here instead of just launching an attack to announce your presence."

Dillon (549) has posed:
Tenaya actually pouts. "Well, I _wanted_ to attack you, but when one of my grinders attacked one of those sheep outside, the poor thing exploded. Not the sheep. The sheep explained that little detail to me, so I decided just to taunt you, since the advance group had already come through the door."

Dillon smirks, "Got ahead of yourself, again? Good job with the evil plotting, Tenaya."

"Shut. Up. Anyway, since you now know we're here, I thought I'd challenge you to a game," Tenaya says. She points to the virtual reality combat sim. "How about it, meatling? You and your little green toadie could use the practice."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Unfortunately Frederica's not much for one-liners either. She seems annoyed by the Grinder leader though, and certainly wouldn't mind seeing her put in her place. Frederica dislikes uppity bitches, which probably makes her a wee bit hypocritical. Fortunately there's a core of niceness in the pyro girl that makes her attitude a bit less annoying than, say, a supervillainess.

    She's surprised, and perhaps a bit impressed, by Ziggy's logic. Also his flippant disregard for his opponent. Dillon's too for that matter. Cocky perhaps, but not unpleasant. "Oh yes. You two should beat her virtual self senseless." Frederica says, grinning mockingly. "Unless of course you want ME to do it instead. I have a bit of experience in VR gaming." she says maliciously.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
The thing with Tenaya 7, Generation 7 Venjix Human Infiltration Attack bot, was that she -always-, always had a tendency to announce her arrival at a scene with that -tune-. The Farmer in the Dell was a cute children's song, but lately, Ziggy had associated it with the arrival of Venjix's general, as cute as she may be.

Still, Ziggy had to admit, that was a good idea. "You mean, you're giving us a chance to fight you without property damage? No worrying about innocent bystanders, using people as props for combat, that kind of thing? Well, that's pretty sporting of you. You know... three of us, one of you... or do you want to do a three on three combat...?" Ziggy eyes the grinders,before wrinkling his nose. "That hardly seems sporting. What about the four of us? We can pick teams."

Dillon (549) has posed:
"I could easily destroy both of you by myself. I don't know your friend, yet," Tenaya says logic and arrogance entwined. "But sure. Let's let the machine choose the teams."

Dillon looks over to Frederica. "Is that a thing? Can it do that?"

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica shrugs, frowning at the suggestion. "It might be able to, but I don't care." she sniffs. "I don't just partner with someone randomly. You go ahead if you like. I wouldn't want to get in the way of a grudge match." she claims.

    She looks over at the woman, the challenger. "Lucky for you." she adds, very unsportsmanlike. "And you don't want to know me. I make a very bad adversary." she says, grinning in a cheerfully malicious manner.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
"Sporting chance, at least..." Ziggy replies, before eyeing Frederica. Let's see. She really didn't know anyone other than himself, which meant... "I wouldn't call it a grudge match if we're not allowed to do anything to each other in here. So it's... a fair play match, right? So how about... I partner with -her-," Ziggy indicates Frederica. "And you two work together? It's... it's fair, right? And I wouldn't want to leave her out."

Dillon (549) has posed:
"It's probably safer for you than you partnering with Tenaya," Dillon says, and Tenaya remains inscrutable. He frowns at that.

"Yeah, I don't know if that's a great idea. Tenaya kicked off that viral burst last time I let her get close."

The infiltration android smiles again in her very arch way. "It's not an attack, it's an upgrade."

"Yeah, not gonna happen, Tenaya. So the third option would be if Fred were to team with Tenaya, and ... that'd be weird. I don't even know what she does."

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica looks between Tenaya and Ziggy, apparently not at all pleased with either option. It might be that were she given her choice, she'd have chosen Dillon. He's not a psychotic villain and he hasn't yet come across as a moron. Plus he has tricks with electronics. If she teamed with him, it'd probably be a winning combination. But then, if they ended up losing, she wouldn't have anyone to blame but herself.

    So Frederica sighs wistfully. "I suppose it's only fair. Keeps the teams balanced." she claims. "Ziggy obviously needs a strong partner." she adds, making it somewhat more explicit what she's trying to imply.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
There's a pause as Ziggy works out the permutations. "Wait, wait, are you saying _I_'m the weak link here?" he replies, giving Frederica the -look-. "I'll have you know, I've got moves you've -never- seen before."

Cracking his knuckles, Ziggy does a few warmup exercises (which consists essentially of stretches, jumping jacks, and then breathing hard as though it were some sort of yoga thing, or maybe a kata), and then points at Dillon. "Just so you know, despise our strong friendship bond, I will show -no- mercy. For you, or for -her-." He sets his chin up in a tough-guy face jut at Tenaya 7.

It was rather like a chihuahua yapping at a rottweiler.

Dillon (549) has posed:
Dillon looks at Frederica, shrugging. "He's like this. And you don't want to see those moves."

Tenaya sighs. "What. Ever. Up to you, fox girl. You want to team with me or with the obsolete version there," and she gestures at Dillon. "I'd be fine either way, but no, I don't want to be on Team Green."

Dillon shakes his head and tries not to laugh.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    "What makes you think I'd WANT to see them?" Freddie replies to Ziggy dismissively. And yes, she definitely considers him the weak link and herself the strong one. She has a lot of experience in Alfheim Online after all, and her own psychic talents. They aren't all that useful in a fight, but they're pretty impressive in a VR game. She can overcharge her reactions after all, which means in such a game she's as fast as a champion. Plus if she loses, she can set the machine on fire. Very flexible psychic powers indeed.

    "Fine." Frederica says. "We're all agreed? Then it's time to see who's the best and who gets to go home crying."

Ziggy Grover has posed:
"They're really awesome moves?" Ziggy replies, although he looks a bit put out that Dillon can so easily turn it down. Then again, the two of them knew damned well how pretty lame the moves were in the first place. On the other hand, this -was- a game, and Ziggy was good at -games-. Unlike Dillon or Tenaya. Tenaya had probably never -dealt- with the incredible -cheapness- of certain gaming styles, and Dillon... well, Dillon was more apt to break a game, one way or another. It was just a question of -which- way he'd break it...

"Okay, let's do it. I hope you have your tear ducts lubricated... say, do Venjix attack bots shed oil tears or something? Though given your complexion, I don't guess oil is going to be any good for your skin. You don't have acne or anything..." Prattling on, Ziggy gets ready for the VR machinery...

Dillon (549) has posed:
The game was some sort of pseudo-medieval thing. Dillon, to his great disgust, found himself manifested as a half-naked and very heroic-bishi purple elf in a loinclout with nature magic, which ... really didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Tenaya 7 was an anthropoid cow with similar nature magic, and the game became GRUMPY and did negative things to her avatar when she tried to tweak things. As in, she got shorter, and hairier, and despite being female ended up with an awesome moustache on the end of her cow face. Some of the other characters were very rude and disrespectful, but since Dillon had only his vestigial clothing and a handful of seeds, he couldn't really do anything about it.

Besides, Tenaya deserved it.

Meanwhile Freddie manifested in what was clearly a favorite Sorceress outfit, looking not a whole lot different from her real self, except for perhaps the ghost of nine tails made of fire behind her, and the little swarm of fire-imp servants. Ziggy manifested as a human. In something that the interface insisted was thievish gear. The fact that it looked like a green jester's cap and tunic was irrelevant; it gave him (somehow) the ability to become invisible.

The game challenge was to reach a particular dungeon (yes, they called an old abandoned mine a dungeon, and neither Dil nor Tenaya could tell why) and to extract from inside it a mystical necklace.

Eight subjective hours later, Dillon and Tenaya were ejected from the game, less than halfway to their goal, with a "TOO SLOW YOU LOSE" message.

Frederica (73) has posed:
    Frederica ended up pretty giddy when she saw the nature of the challenge. Unfortunately she wasn't in her ALO avatar form, which would have made the race and competition pretty trivial. Frika is FAST after all, and an absolute nightmare to guard against. She's not one of the top fighters or anything, but she was always able to find a role among those who did the fighting

    Still, being a kitsune wasn't a bad experience, and once Frederica was persuaded to stop admiring herself the contest was ON. It turns out she is rather good at this sort of thing. Definitely a gamer, and ... well, she's got some advantages besides.

    Once out of the VR game, Frederica looks a little tired, maybe even a little drawn. Psychic feedback isn't fun, and her gifts aren't without cost. Extended periods of using heightened perception has left her in somewhat rough shape, but it's worth it! Especially since no one can complain she held back the team. THAT would be too embarrassing to bear!

    Unfortunately, no gloating from Freddie on her team's victory. She's pleased, yes, but she doesn't have any actual vitriol to shed upon the losers. She just looks happy, if on the edge of exhaustion or perhaps even pain.

Ziggy Grover has posed:
That Ziggy was apparently dressed up as a thief would be -completely- and utterly objectionable... and the would-be ranger -would- protest, except Dillon was right -there- to remind him exactly how the two of them had met.

So instead, Ziggy just takes advantage of his manual dexterity. Shadow puppets? Very useful fingers manipulation for thieving. And so he's in completely good position to take advantage.

At the end of it all, Ziggy -has- to rub it in.

"Just so you know, I take no great pride in this, but this is -why- thieves and magic users are -much- better than purple elves and... uh... I got to say, cows aren't terribly intimidating. Plus, could use a little waxing around the lips there, Tenaya... but woo-hoo!"

And Ziggy does a little jig-dance. Which is, putting it mildly, horrible.

Dillon (549) has posed:
Tenaya 7 is seethingly quiet when she emerges from the machine interface. Dillon rubs his philtrum a bit, where a moustache might go, and says, "Wow, Tenaya. It's like it caught your true personality."

That earns him a gaze that very nearly triggers the defenses against combat.

"I. Am. Out of here. Naked purple ... GAHH! Come on, you idiots," she says to the grinders. The grinders who simply WATCHED the display of the game. And who will, most likely, play the log back to Vengix, in the very unlikely event that they make it back intact to the RPM-1 Universe.

"I thought you did pretty well," Dillon calls after her. He looks down and rubs his stomach. "At least it got the six-pack right."