2358/A Meeting of a God and a Player

A Meeting of a God and a Player
Date of Scene:	01 June 2015
Location:	Afterus Orbit - Olympian Realms
Synopsis:	Summer and Sarah meet in person for the first time.
Cast of Characters:	441, 789

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Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer's planet, the Land of Wood and Haze, has been undergoing some minor changes in landscape recently. For some time, it has been fairly barren. Today, it is finally beginning to have life. Grass or moss now covers most of the planet again. And, in some places, there are some strange trees beginning to grow. Most of the particularly unusual trees are right near Summer's house. Bamboo that seems to be made of bone itself. Dark wooded trees that have fruit similar to lumps of flesh. Some large venus flytraps are also growing nearby now as well. Most of the rest of the planet has fairly normal trees, albeit scarce and farspread.

     Summer herself is standing outside of her home. She's currently watering a little garden of mundane plants she is growing. she is, notably, wearing an outfit inappropriate for gardening. A gothic lolita dress that is purple on top, and has a white skirt covered in black lace. She's wearing purple high heels as well. She just remains rather calm, with a blank look on her face, as she keeps watering the various plants.

     There are also a few salamander nearby. They're trying to make their own garden, it seems. ...Though one is currently stuck in the mouth of a venus fly trap.

     A small warp gate is near Summer's home, open to any who want to visit her.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah was called by one of the gods of her world, and she's kind of obligated to answer. As fatalistic and gloomy as she is, there are expectations... and one does not sass the gods lightly. That's something Noa does.

She arrives through the Warp Gate, a typical girl of 14 dressed in a plain blouse and pants. It looks like she's put enough effort in to be presentable but not really fancy. Kind of a 90 percent job. Her expression seems to shift between disbelief at the continued ineptitude of salamanders to a sort of glum curiosity at the disposition of Summer and her actions.

Personal exposure to the gods of her world is taking the shiny edges off, that's for sure. "Hello, Ms. Powers." Sarah says, simply. "I'm here as you requested."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer looks at Sarah as she arrives. And, Summer smiles. She ponders, thinking back to her youth. She really shouldn't be doing such, but she's still comparing Sarah to herself in a number of ways. Mostly on aspects of disposition. Still, though, Sarah much reminds her of the sort of person she would be friends with at that age. The sort of girls that were in her group of friends at school.

     The flashback to her youth reminds her of something though. Summer wants to be a mentor towards these new kids. And how did her own mentor, her own mother, help prepare her for life, in her own way?

     Summer casually tosses aside the watering can. She speaks. Specifically, a word that encapsulates much of Summer's own relationship with her mother.

     "Strife."

     And she holds up her right hand. A plushie of a dragon appears in it. And, in a flashing motion, Summer rushes forward, aiming to hit Sarah straight in the face with it.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah was expecting a lot of things.

Strife was on that list, but it was pretty low. She wouldn't have a chance in hell of out-Strifing a god. This is practically the /definition/ of futile effort. Her surprise causes her to get a DRAGON PLUSHIE in the face with a loud SQUEAKY noise, the youth getting bowled over and coming to a stop on her back several feet away. "You're doing this? You're seriously doing this? Okay, fine."

> ARRANGE

She drags herself up and withdraws her JENGA STACK from her PUZZLEKIND STRIFE SPECIBUS, balancing the set of balsawood blocks on her hand as she expertly plucks one from the stack and hurls it towards Summer at range.

It's not very effective even for a noob weapon.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer just stands still as the jenga piece strikes her. She is simply tanking the hit with her MANGRIT. Granted, puzzlekind is not known for its strength. Hell, even FancySantaKind might be a bit stronger than it. Summer would normally also at least give Sarah the dignity of trying to dodge it, but Summer has to take a moment to do something as she tanks the hit.

     Namely, she's turning on battle music, pressing at a golden feather earring she wears on her ear. Yes, it is in fact a computer. Summer makes it a policy to have several computers on her all at once.

     But, Summer still wants to judge what Sarah can do. she wants to push her a /bit/ more. She holds the plushie in her hand, and again moves to hit, aiming for the stomach this time. Realy, it's more of punching. If anything, the plushie is softening the blow a bit. But, Summer is putting more into it, trying to knock her as far back as she possibly can.

     "Yeah, I'm seriously doing this! Really, you should have expected it. Any time, any place, something could start attacking you! /Especially/ once you get into the game! Like seriously, even getting a good night's sleep can be tough!"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
POK. Yeah, that's about what Sarah expected. The sheer difference in power is evident. Maybe there's a trick with the JENGA STACK, but like all puzzles, it would need time to develop.

Summer doesn't give her that time. This is why she's usually hiding behind Izzy or Noa, they're the designated Strife leads on their team.

But they're not here. Again. All alone, she is extremely vulnerable. This is reflected in a serious decrease in her MANGRIT VIAL when she gets SQUEAKYPUNCHED, the impact sending her flying backwards and colliding with the wall of her house. Sarah bounces off of it with an 'OOF!' and splats back to the ground, her JENGA STACK experiencing a JENGA COLLAPSE and falling all over the place in pieces, dealing 0 extra damage since her JENGA COMBO was a mere 1.

This isn't something Sarah is concerned with, however, as she's getting brutalized by plushies by one of their own gods. She doesn't have time to reassemble her JENGA STACK and start up a new combo. Summer will just blast her again anyway. She's too fast and too strong.

She's doomed. Nothing she does will matter.

"... Well, if it doesn't matter anyway..." Sarah says, trembling for a moment as she looks up, a manic glint entering her eyes. "THEN LET'S GO!!" She slams a hand into the ground, tearing up a CLUMP OF GRASS and CAPTCHALOGUES it into her ENIGMA MODUS, the card locking down with a series of wheels and scrambling both the image and the CAPTCHA, making it even MORE ILLEGIBLE THAN NORMAL.

This also OVERLOADS the STACK, causing a BUST OF PARACELSUS to get launched from her Modus directly towards Summer! Why she'd have a heavy stone bust of a Swiss-German Rennaisance era philosopher and toxicologist is unknown but hey, it is what it is.

"Let's keep it going!!" Sarah exclaims, running towards the garden which is full of delightful Captchaloguable objects.

Oh God. This is about to get really messy.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Weaponizing the captchalogue system. That's actually a surprise to Summer. Most kids at Sarah's age wouldn't know to do that. At a guess, it's probably just a good sign of the school's education system. But, still, this leaves a giant stone bust bursting straight into Summer. It actually sends her flying back a bit, though she manages to push it to a stop midair. She floats, smiling approvingly at Sarah. Yeah, she's fatalistic. But she at least is trying. What's more, she's actually puzzle solving the situation on a fly. That's another talent that Summer much appreciates.

     The fact that she is making a beeline directly to the garden is less appreciated though. Still, it'll all /regrow/ at least.

     Summer of course is going to have to up the ante a little bit to protect her crops. She doesn't want to hurt Sarah too badly, though. She holds up her Dragon Plushie, and it vanishes. In its place, a rather generic teddy bear appears. Summer goes flying straight for Sarah. The bear leads, but the moment Summer is just about to impact, she squeezes it. And, it shifts to a long knife. Summer smacks the flat of the blade straight into Sarah.

     "Well, at /least/ you enjoy a good fight! But you /really/ need to up the ante! You're quick thinking, but you're /way/ too slow!"

     A wide smile is on Summer's face. This is super nostalgic. It reminds her of her fights with mother.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah's innovation is part education, part necessity. Puzzlekind is simply bad at fighting. It's complicated and easily interrupted, as Summer has proven. Maybe later on, some creative alchemy will help her out with giving her more functional combat options, but for now she's working with what she's got.

Provided she survives that long.

In the meantime, just as Sarah is getting into Captchaloguing range, Summer interdicts with a BEARKNIFE. The flat of the blade slams into Sarah and sends her sprawling once more, the impact bouncing her off of the ground and tumbling into another skid.

"You want me to up the ante!!?" She gasps, barely able to move... But there's still that glint in her eyes. "Fine!!"

One hand reaches out and grabs at the base of some boneboo she's landed next to, and with a wrenching motion, pulls down one stalk of it with a cracking noise. She draws herself up into a sitting motion, shattering the BONEBOO into BONEBOO FRAGMENTS and beginning to CAPTCHALOGUE each one in rapid sequence. Sure, she could store the entire PILE OF FRAGMENTS, but that's not why she's doing this.

She wants to force everything else out... And at high speed. "TAKE IT!! TAKE IT ALL!!" Sarah yells.

And as she overloads her Modus, Summer's position begins to get bombarded by a hail of stuff. A PILE OF DETERMINIST PHILOSOPHY, a JUNIOR BOTANIST'S HYDROPONICS SET, a FOLK GUITAR, A BOX OF MARBLES, some SPOOKY VINES, a DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE! SIGN, a PILE OF DEAD ROBOT MUMMY CORPSES, a SET OF BETTY CROCKER COOKBOOKS, A MAGICAL TRI-CANDLE, and a SILVERY CHEST all are flung at her with no care for collateral damage or anything else.

She just keeps racking up the RISK COMBOS.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     The amount of stuff in Sarah's sylladex is surprising. Summer always felt that she herself picked up /far/ too much useless shit in her journey, and yet she's still surprised how much useless shit everyone else has. She isn't one to be overwhelmed by the surprise, though.

     The teddy bear turns back to its non-knife form, and she brings back the dragon plushie. It's squeezed, causing it to turn from a plush dragon into its own knife form. Specifically, a laser knife. Summer starts going to work, bisecting the various items as they come at her. A few of them are significantly harder to stop. The box of marbles just opens up and lets loose a barrage at her. The robot mummy corpses are harder to cut up, even with the beam knife, as is the chest. So, a few of the hits in the combo manage to strike.

     And then, the knife vanishes again. In its place, a staff. Pure white, made of plastic. The top shaped to look like the head of Kyubey. Summer floats into the air, and waves the staff. Chunks of the grass shrivel up and die, turning into a ball of green Life energy. The ball then spreads out into several vines of Life Energy. They move towards Sarah, trying to grab ahold of her arms.

     And then Summer speaks, calmly.

     "Great Ball of Hot Flame."
     "Shaped like the heavens themself."
     "Fly forward and burn."

     As she says this, an object is launched from Summer's own inventory. One of her favorite alchemized items. Several balls of hellfire, arranged like an orrery of the Multiverse. They fly at Sarah. Summer smirks.

     "Don't worry! I'll heal you if that hits!"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
A great deal of Sarah's stuff gets cut up as Summer cleaves through it with her laser-dragon knife. But she can't keep up the barrage forever. It's when she has to go for another boneboo that Summer strikes. The Life energies grapple her, and her eyes widen. "GODDAMN TENTACLES!!" Sarah shrieks, struggling against them as she gets locked down by pure Life aspect...

And then hellfire blasts straight into her. She can't escape, where the hell can she go? It's not like she can Captchalogue Life as-

Wait, can she /do/ that? What if-TOO LATE KID.

Sarah promptly ASPLODES, dropping to the ground with serious burns and smouldering clothing.

She's not moving anymore.

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     And, Summer immediately goes to work at healing Sarah. Being a Life aspect player? Summer is, in fact, one of the most powerful healers in the Multiverse. The tendrils of Life that were binding Sarah are immediately turned form being physical restraints to being actual healing energies. They move onto Sarah's body, regenerating burnt skin, breathing new life into her, and working to fix all of the wounds from the battle, as fast as she can. She is even pulling more Life out of her reserves, as she tries desperately to bring Sarah back to conciousness.

     Summer ponders aloud to herself, "...Perhaps I overdid it by a small amount."

     Either way, Sarah will, most likely, find herself waking up again /fairly/ soon.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah isn't in a position to argue about healing Life tendrils. Luckily, Summer is a great healer, or Sarah might have been on a quick trip to her second life.

After some of those tender ministrations, Sarah stirs, groaning as her eyes open and come into focus. "Ugh." She says, eloquently (not) as she lies there. "You made your point. Would you like to keep beating up on me or is there something else you wanted?"

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer just smiles a bit.

     "Honestly, I actually didn't have much of a point in this! I just wanted to see how you'd handle in battle. Hell, you did better than I would have at your age. Better even than I would have when the game began."

     She floats to the ground to sit next to Sarah. Summer crosses her legs, and looks down at the girl. A soft smile is on Summer's face as she looks at her. "But, hey. Even though this was whim. I did learn /some/ things about you. After all, even though you think things are pointless... You /still/ kept going. Still kept pushing. That's a very healthy approach to fatalism. Much healthier than how I dealt with a lot of that shit."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah might be healed, but she looks tired as hell. That, and her clothes are all messed up. She looks down at the scorched clothing with a sort of resigned acceptance and then props herself up to sit with her back against the side of Summer's house. "Well, I'd hope we would. They've been training us for it. My Strife Specibus is crap so I use my Fetch Modus more often than not if I have to." She looks over at the pile of wrecked stuff and grunts. "What will be, will be. But doing nothing is worse than doing something. Sometimes, I push things because you have to in order to make those things happen. Things no one else would do. If it was meant to happen, it's not really a risk, is it?"

She looks back to Summer, her expression almost palpably gloomy. "We all think we're super clever and try to get around things. We think we can get one-up on it, but we're just causing what happened before to happen. I mean, you should know, you were in the same position we were, right? All of this..." She gestures in one direction, vaguely. "All of this was meant to happen. It has to happen in order for us to be created later on."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer looks across the planet. Smiling. Her hands rest on her lap. She just listens to Sarah speak, for a moment. Learning more about how she views what's coming. She doesn't want to shape Sarah's viewpoint too much. She'll learn this more as she goes along.

     "Well. Yeah. The attitude is a lot like mine, at your age. Everything was set in stone. I saw the clouds of Skaia, I saw the future. I knew the world was going to end, which lead me to convincing all of my friends to play Sburb, under the assumption that it was our way out. And, of course, if I /hadn't/, it would have made a doomed timeline. But, you know... Things got a bit different when the Multiverse got involved."

     She looks up to the sky, smiling, towards the planet of Afterus, "...You know. Once the game began, once we started play? I saw less and less. And I began to realize, hey. I was a lot happier not knowing. And I realized the only reason a lot of my failures were set in stone was because I kept assuming I'd fail. The more I changed my attitude, the less failures I saw, the less failure happened."

     Summer shrugs, "...Though. You'll come to your own conclusion on how to deal with fatalism. I bet actually being in the game will change your opinion. Though hell, maybe you could create a world where the fatalistic stuff doesn't matter, and you actually have free will?"

     A pause.

     "...Of course, that'll only happen if you're fated to."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"At least you had a choice." Sarah says, with no small amount of bitterness. "But then again, maybe you didn't. This gets really fuzzy when you get farther into things. Unlike you... I don't know what's going to happen at all. Other than what I've been told."

Sarah looks to one side. "I don't know if knowing would help. Maybe it would. Maybe it would just make what would happen even stronger. I don't know, predestination paradox is evil that way."

She gives a mirthless chuckle at the last of it. "Boy wouldn't that be ironic. But I don't know, maybe my attitude will have something to do with it. The insane number of things that go into the choices we make... I can't keep track of all of them. If I could, maybe I could figure out what we'd end up doing. I can predict some things simply because I know the rest of my team pretty well... but not that well. That's why my handle is what it is. It's fated, but we don't know what that fate is. We don't understand it. It's cryptic... A puzzle to solve."

She looks back up to Summer, then. "I want to win. Survival is nice, but I want to win. We'll probably be lucky to just fulfill our creation timeloop, though. Our group is insane."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer chuckles a bit. She's still not looking straight at Sarah, but instead at the land around still. "Well. Here is the main trick we learned about dealing with fate and paradox shit. Just roll with it, and keep going forward. The more you think on it, the more likely you're going to accidentally make a doomed timeline. Just roll with it, not worrying about fate. So worrying about /every/ little thing is just... going to mess you up."

     But the creation timeloop actually gets a groan from Summer, "Oh dear /god/, the creation timeloop. Do you guys even know how you are connected, or who you were ectobiologically created from? Because that whole process is bullshit. Like, at the least, you /can't/ screw that up, or else you /wouldn't/ already be here. But oh dear god, that bit of the adventure still annoys me, and I wasn't even present for my birth. Like..."

     A sigh. She finally looks at Sarah, straight in the eye, "Be /very careful/ with the ectobiology stuff, figure out who you are related to, and be careful. Because dear god, I almost ended making out with my sister at a point, before I knew we were siblings. And this admission does /not leave here/. Just be careful, for the love of god."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah tilts her head a bit as she notices Summer continuing to not quite pay direct attention to her. "Busy doing god stuff too, huh?" She chuckles again for a moment. "What's it like doing all that... super god stuff?"

There is a nod about the paradox stuff. "Yeah... You probably wrote the stuff on that, that's just like they were teaching us about. We can't get locked up in the small stuff or we just get paralyzed."

She shakes her head, though. "Look, it's a nudist hippie human, a luck cultist human, an powernapping troll who lazes her way through everything, myself, and an elf. I have no idea how that's going to go down."

When Summer looks her in the eye, Sarah blinks, suddenly surprised. She nods. "You got it. Don't worry, there's /zero/ chance that I'd be interested in any of them anyway." Which isn't going to result in any awkwardness whatsoever. "Your secret is safe with me."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer looks at Sarah as she asks about the God stuff. Summer just shrugs, "Well. I'm doing some pretty minor God stuff at the moment. Working on bringing Life back to this planet. It's a bit different for everyone, based on their Aspect and Class, though. But for me, well... I have some minor ability to sense Life. And, using it, I can help cultivate life throughout this planet, which is what I'm doing now. I can speed up the process of Life forming, but only so much. I still had to spend countless eons, babysitting Afterus, to make sure Life turned out right. ...And other planets in our universe have Life too. More minor forms of it, but I need to keep track of them, too. After all, not like anyone wants to be alone in the universe."

     A bit of a sigh at the Paradox stuff. It's still one of her biggest pet peeves, "Well. I didn't fully understand how Paradox stuff worked at first. I just knew that if I tried to fight what I saw coming, I would fail. But I didn't realize the Failed Timelines were a thing. Which means, by trying to fight it too much, I was dooming countless mes to failed timelines where my attempts to defy fate worked, and as such, reality rejected them. Vruasa was the one who revealed that dead timelines could even be a thing."

     And then Summer just has to stare at Sarah a bit. Something completely throws her off, even from her own 'I nearly kissed my sister' thing. She heard several of the quirks of the group already, but. One of them really throws her off.

     "...Wait, wait wait. A /nudist/? Which one is the nudist? I mean, seriously, that's a... bit unusual. --Also don't just call the elf the elf with no modifiers. You at least described the troll as 'powernapping'. I mean they have to have their own odd quirks as well."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"Huh. that's interesting." Sarah replies to Summer as she explains how Being A God works. "That's got to be a lot of work. But then, we all have you to thank for being here, so... Thank you." She says, actually putting some earnestness into it instead of her usual detatched sass.

"That must have been crazy. But then, if you were making all those timelines... doesn't that mean there was bound to inevitably be one of them that succeeded? Actually, don't answer that, it'll just hurt everyone's head more."

Sarah then shrugs as Summer calls her on some casual racism. "Izzy. He'd walk around buck naked if he could get away with it. Hell, he'd live in a glass house too if he could... And the elf is crazy. Just like every other elf I've met. Even the ur-elf, the template from which all other elves came, just seems to be crazy in a different way. And her douchebaggery just seems to prove Noa right, which is the worst thing of all."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer nods a bit, smiling. Fond memories. She always liked Laer's sass. And, the more she thinks on it, duh, of course Noa is the insane elf. She lays back on the grass, simply looking up at the sky. A few clouds float above, and she's somewhat idly watching them.

     She, of course, doesn't answer, as asked. Yeah, timeline shit still hurts her head too. Even Vruasa gets annoyed at the stuff, and he is in fact the Time guy.

     "...Well. I'll do what I can to enforce clothing on Izzy. As for Noa... Yeah. He reminds me of Laer. But Laer is so much /better/ at it. She's snarky and sassy, doesn't take anything too seriously, and coasts through life. He, on the other hand, takes everything /far/ too seriously. But, hey, he'll get over it too.That's one nice thing about the game. Everyone gets over themselves."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah nods, drawing her knees up and resting her head on her knees. "Don't worry about Izzy. He wears some bare minimum stuff even if he'd prefer to go au naturale. I guess... I don't know what to think. Maybe we will get over ourselves. Maybe we'll all just die."

She goes quiet. "I know you all have done everything you can to make that school. It's just... Knowing what's going to come doesn't make it any better. We've been told what we need to look out for, what we need to do, the whole frogs thing and all that but..."

Sarah goes quiet, and she shudders for a moment. "I'm... I'm afraid."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer turns her head, to look at Sarah. The blonde haired goddess moves her own hair out of her faec a bit, to make sure she can look at Sarah directly. Again, she isn't sure how much she should help. But. She's realizing an unintended consequence of setting up a world where people can prepare for Sburb. They can also learn to fear it.

     "...When we went in, I was the only one who knew what was coming. There was fear involved, but while in the game itself? We mostly just stumbled through it, with disregard for ourselves and our safety. We had /no/ clue what we were doing at all. I could Dream properly, and I was probably the one who was least prepared. Hell, I told all of my friends to prototype our sprites twice, before entering, pushing us into Hard Mode. ...You, at least, have some idea of what is going to happen."

     Summer sits up, putting her hand on top of Sarah's. Rubbing it gently. Summer views many of the people of Afterus as if they were her own children, or grandchildren, or something along those lines.

     "You'll do fine. And hell, even though it might screw things up? I'll help where I can, too. You've got a lot of support. ...And besides. You guys are a mismatched ragtag group of heroes. If you've played /any/ RPG worth its price, you'll know that layout /always/ works right. I mean this is /still/ a game, albeit a dangerous one, right?"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
The comforting touch of Summer seems to help Sarah. she stops shaking, and looks up at her. "I haven't even seen my... parents? Caretakers, I guess... In years. You're right... It's hard being alone. This might be a game... But it's also our life. All we can do it what we can... And the rest will play out however it will."

She smiles a wan smile. "What will happen, will happen. Thank you, Ms. Powers."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer smiles. She's /trying/ to do the whole motherly and kind thing. She's keeping her breathing gentle. But, even Summer has to admit to herself: She's worried for these kids.

     "Well. It's tough being alone. But... You've got a lot of attachments now. And some of the others you'll definitely become friends with. Lots of people there for you, too."

     One last hair-rub, and she adds, "...but. No need to thank me. I'm just doing whatever I can to help. Alright? ...And, you can call me Summer. Or Crowraven Wolfmoon. Your pick."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah probably wants a mother very badly. But Summer can't be that mom. Nor can her former foster parents... Not without being caught up in the horrible Doom that surrounds all Sburb players.

They all know better, now.

After that last hair-rub, Sarah stands and dusts herself off. "Thank you. We'll see how much it helps, but thank you anyway..." She thinks for a moment. "... Crowraven." There's a faint smile at that, and she shifts awkwardly. "I should get back to my house. Get changed and cleaned up and stuff."

Summer Powers (441) has posed:
     Summer remains sitting for now, just simply smiling at Sarah. She nods slightly, looking at the young girl. Summer herself doesn't look /that/ much older, despite the fact she gained immortality at the physical age of nineteen. But, still, the eons of life experience Summer has... She just hopes it will be of use to Sarah, and the others.

     "It was nice to meet you in person. And again, no need to thank me. I'm just doing what I feel is right. Have a good time relaxing at home. And try not to stress too much."

     And, Summer will just sit there, watching as Sarah leaves. Only after she is gone will she go back to tending to her garden again.