Scene #7926: Honoji Academy Tabletop Club

Owner	Pose
Chains Knight	On the outside, there's not much to speak of here. It's a modern town in a modern world, and a modern strip mall in that modern world... For those who are unaware of strip malls - imagine a parking lot bordered by one to three rows of terraced stores. The architectural focus is clearly on the parking lot, not the stores - the stores exist to give the expensive parking lot purpose. The asphalt and the lines of paint are placed first, in amounts divined via what the local stroad can disgorge on any given day, and only then do actual people move into the stores to do commerce, in much the same manner of fleas not arriving on a dog till after it has been born. ... Anyway. The gaming store. The fake gaming store, to be more precise. CHAIN LINK GAMES reads the sign above the entrance - in carefully chosen bright letters, designed to be appealing to the average sign-thief. Inside, the layout is relatively simple - to the left, a plexiglass counter, with rare collectables below and boxes of cards and dice on the wall behind it. To the right, shelves and racks of merchandise - books, model kits, figurines, and the like. And towards the back of the store are rows of white plastic folding tables and hard plastic chairs - practically the hallmark of 'gaming tournaments held here'. To give the whole thing a bit more credence and appeal, a gaming tournament is being held here - a fake one, being put on by hired actors. Towards one corner of the store, Chains Knight sits, next to a sign reading 'MONTHLY LARP MEETUP', as a thin excuse for why he's wearing chain mail in a gaming store. "Get in position," he says, to whoever shows up. "From reports - the vandals show up very suddenly, with seconds to spare."
Lory Thumper	For this op, and per Chain Knight's suggestion, Lory Thumper has procured a person-sized action figure box and has positioned herself right next to the entrance. Advertised as some life-sized collectable from one of those games/animes where there's a rabbit person (there's surely many such franchises to choose from), she is in full tactical with a set of sunshades to keep her eyes hidden and her mag-pistols stuck to the insides of the box to show the realistic weapons the 'toy' comes with. With her training it isn't too hard to stand for a while perfectly still. But, she is hoping she won't have to stay in the box for long. It is a bit embarrassing after all. Still, her eyes and ears remain alert, and with her extraordinary senses she should be able to detect any unusual activity right away.
Staren	LARP meetup. Sure. That actually explains pretty well why the store is being surveyed by a catgirl dressed like an ADVENTURER. Well, kind of. The labcoat has been replaced with an oversized one with leather lamellar strips affixed to it, worn over a leather vest (with one shoulder belt and two crossing waist belts, each with belt pouches and a sheathed dagger) that matches the steel-toed leather boots and leather-and-metal greaves on her pants. "So I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but there's this concept of a 'dojo destroyer' that does the same thing to martial arts dojos. I wonder if these people style themselves as such?" she muses to Chains.
Chains Knight	"Maybe," says Chains, idly spinning some dice around his fingers. Lory would hear it first. It's a bus - a loud one, with an overtuned motor. From the way it sounds, it must be close. ... And then it gets louder. And louder. It wasn't actually close at the start - just loud, even at a distance. Outside, the bus turns into the strip mall at speed - actually not even bothering with the proper entrance, but using a drainage ditch to ramp over the parking lot medians, going flying halfway across it and coming to a loud runway landing that skids to a halt neatly in front of the game store. Nothing happens for a moment, once the bus stops and the horrendous noises of its flight and landing die down. Then the bus doors open. What pours forth is a wall of muscle - uniformed high schoolers streaming forth from the bus, running into the gaming store like a SWAT team making a rapid insertion and taking up positions inside, followed by their leader - a stout individual with a pair of fancy gloves to go along with his uniform. "What's up, you BETA GAMERS," says the leader, stepping into the store. "Maybe you ain't heard - we're the ONLY GAME IN TOWN." He pauses by the Lory Thumper action figure, leans in to examine it, and then frowns and knocks it over. "Shit ain't MiB, this some sorta FRAUD MARKET?" He swaggers further into the store, heading towards the 'players' in the back. "Well, y'all are guilty of GAME CRIMES for thinking you can PLAY IN A NONEMBARASSING WAY, so hand over your card binders and your character sheets, so that we can dispose of 'em like the DRAFT CHAFT that they are."
Lory Thumper	Lory has a hard time not wincing from the loudness of that bus when it gets closer, but continues to watch in silence as it skids to a stop. It is even harder not to move when she is being stared at like that, but she has trained hard for infiltration and keeping quiet and still is important for that. It isn't until her box gets rudely knocked over that she finally moves, but even that she uses to her advantage to get the box face down so that the back of the box gives her some cover. She carefully pulls her pistols from their spots on the sides of the box, then as the leader starts toward the players she springs upward. The back cover of the box goes flying and she does a forward somersault jump to land in the doorway with her dual pistols held at the ready. "I'd say it's game over for you guys! You're under arrest!" she exclaims, hoping to draw their attention away from the actors.
Staren	Staren's ears turn towards the bus. Then her head turns to look. "Is that...?" When it RAMPS OVER THE MEDIAN, she has her matter manipulator out ready to deploy a barrier if the bus comes straight for them, but it stops. She just kind of stares, mouth handing open, flabberghasted at the sheer absurdity of all of this Like what do you even say to that? Caught off guard, she doesn't have a prepared speech or anything, turning to face the leader. "What are you on about, you nut?! This is something people do FOR FUN, they're not even playing a tournament or something!" She waves an arm towards the actors. "You can't WIN a tabletop RPG, there aren't even points!" "What's your deal? What do you want? What's the POINT of all this???"
Chains Knight	Slowly, the leader's hands come up. "Oh dear, oh no. I appear to have picked up a TWO STAR WANTED LEVEL," he says, with the verbal equivalent of a smirk. "It does appear that you have the drop on me, officer, but there's one small problem..." The youth twists around, grabbing at a set of dice on a nearby table, and throwing them at her with superhuman force, moving his wrist in a peculiar way as he does so. "We haven't ROLLED INITIATIVE!" And then, still twisting, he flips switches on both of his fancy gloves. "Two Star Goku Uniform, TABLETOP REGALIA!" The gloves shift and sparkle. "With this TABLETOP REGALIA, I can write a thousand pages of character backstory in one night! I can roll twenties and topdeck the exact cards I need each time, and I can detail-paint a whole army list of miniatures IN MINUTES!" "Yes - you can win a tabletop RPG! You can pick the best character options and make the best rolls and write the BEST SECRET BACKSTORY TWISTS and have the most fun - and if you're not playing to win-" He slams his gloved fists together. "Then you're nothing but EXP POINTS for those of us who are!"
Lory Thumper	Lory would usually move in to try and cuff the leader when his arms go up, but with all the other buff highschoolers around she instead keeps her weapons raised. And when he throws those dice her ninja-like quickness kicks in and she dodgerolls to the side, though a strip of fur on her cheek disappears in a puff. "I guess I get a bonus for stealth, huh?" she says as she holsters her pistols and pulls out a small collection of her grenades. Palm-sized yellow discs go flying for several of the gang members. "And you won't get any points from me! I always play to win!" she exclaims as those grenades explode, covering their targets in quick drying restraint foam. "Not sure how an army of painted figurines will help you with that!"
Staren	Staren can tell WANTED LEVEL is a game reference, but has mostly only played ancient 2D games and a couple of VRMMOs. There has been the occasional attempt to run a tabletop game at Njorun though, so at the call to ROLL INITIATIVE she takes a more combative stance and reaches under her coat for a weapon, though she doesn't draw it yet. Ah. "The 'best' options by what metric, though? What if you want to play a character who is anything but an ultra-rational combat monster?" Staren slumps. "I tried being that in real life for eight years. It was NOT fun and I did not feel like I was winning anything, let me tell you." She may not be a gamer, but stories? Stories mean a lot to her. She straightens up and points at the leader. "And if your character always wins, what kind of story is that, anyway? Who's going to care, to sympathize when she's hurt, and be invested in seeing her turn things around when she has a victory? Will that SECRET BACKSTORY even MEAN anything to anyone if it's shouted from atop a mountain of defeated foes rather than revealed in a heartfelt moment?!" And then she crosses her arms, giving a smug look as she lectures. "Besides. If you always roll twenties and always draw exactly the card you need, then all the work you did choosing the statistically optimal options is redundant, isn't it? It completely changes the game. You could 'win' with anything but you still think everyone should choose the same thing?" And then her expression hardens. "You don't 'level up' in real life. Even in a game, taking away THEIR fun," she gestures at the actors again, "ends the game. So even if you WERE awarded points, they'd disappear when the game ends. Poof." She makes a finger-snapping gesture. She holds her hands out towards him, palms up. "What do you actually WANT? You've been doing this for how long, you've destroyed others' fun many times, and what, exactly, has it brought you closer to?"
Chains Knight	Out in the parking lot, someone else gets off of the bus. The one-star students aren't expecting Lory to go after them - the first several throws go unopposed and end up with about half the group immobilized before they get their act together and rush her. "Hey, cut it with that FAKE GAMER GIRL schtick," says the leader. "If you tried it and it didn't work for you it's because YOU SUCK!" "She has a point - being an optimal-only strategy optimizer isn't-" Chains starts to say, from his still-seated position in the corner. "And you - LARP DAD - shut up too!" he says. And then to Staren, "You wanna know what it's brought me closer to? Proving me and my school are better than ALL YOU SCRUBS! If you don't understand why points matter in a game that's ended, it's because YOU LOST!" He grabs another set of dice, throwing them at Staren's head - though this set are precisely aimed for her mouth, to get lodged in her windpipe, if she doesn't do something about them!
Lory Thumper	When Lory gets rushed by the remaining goons, she darts out the door as a way to keep them from swarming her. Only to blink in surprise as someone else is emerging from the bus. "Hey! Get back on the bus if you don't want to get arrested, too!" she calls out as she turns to face the incoming one-stars. As they come at her Lory drops into a ready stance, but then smirks. "Hey, aren't you worried about your leader all alone in there with two high level bosses?" she asks.
Staren	There is a mischievous urge in the back of her mind telling her to get out the old TF potions and dart gun. Staren pushes it back. 'Fake gamer girl'? There are SO many levels wrong with that accusation, Staren doesn't have time to work through all of them before dice are down her throat. It's so stupid that the gloves let him do that. To some degree, she can stay calm; being unable to breathe is something she has a counter for. But darn, it's annoying the way that parts of her brain she can't control are VERY CONCERNED about it. She turns around and tries to cough them up, her brain rapidly cycling through a series of proposed solutions: Cough it up? Switch to guy form so you have more lung space to work with and cough as hard as you can? You can form surgery tools from your wrist, cut the dice out and patch your windpipe Wait if you can do THAT just form like a spindly grabber arm and reach down your throat with it and PULL them out. Okay, that last one is actually a good idea -- She deploys a concrete box around herself with the matter manipulator and focuses on doing that. Then disassembles it, now with a breathing mask over her face. THAT little ordeal was time-consuming, but straightforward, giving her time to think: Reducing this to a beatdown is, ultimately, supporting the very line of thinking that this dude is championing. There has to be some OTHER method, curse not being smart enough to think of it-- Oh, but her dear allies in the Concord reminded her, she IS! Just not directly. She asks her AI to work out: How can she end the threat of this group, without beating them in a fight or trying to beat them at their own game? While it crunches those numbers, she keeps talking: "I don't think people can be happy, being that way." She gives a little shake of her head, looking at him with a sad, pitying expression. She thinks out loud: "A fight won't teach you anything. Putting you in a situation where you get what you're asking for will only make you unhappy. No, the only way to make you stop being like this is to give you what don't know will actually make you happy... But how do I figure out what that is...?" No, shut up brain, mischievous shapeshifter gremlin urges are not the solution, think of ANYTHING else. If only she still had Phony's power. Finding out why they are like this, and what they're thinking, could be really useful right now.
Chains Knight	Staren's AI crunches the numbers. The most immediate, effective plan that's not 'fighting' or 'challenging', is to drop the pretense that this is a real game store, but all that'll do is get them to leave, but that's only a short term solution. The real issue is that this group is getting propped up by someone (or several someones). Staren can say whatever she'd like to them, and it might manage to influence them a bit, but there's someone else whispering in their other ear - and they've had a head start, and the benefit of not only saying 'yes' to Staren's 'no' but also handing them some fancy toys (those uniforms/gloves, and the souped-up battle bus). A real long term solution is going to be finding that person and stopping them - because, the AI crucially points out, if someone's making fancy toys and handing them out they're probably not just handing them out to one group. "Don't think using, um, CREATE WALL is going to save you," yells the leader at Staren's concrete box. The one-stars who Lory's facing down hesitate a moment, and then rush her!
Chains Knight	Outside... there's a person getting off of the bus. An adult this time, not a teenager... probably. He's wearing what can't be anything but a costume. It's mostly all leather, and entirely all cowboy, from the soles of the boots (with the spurs) to the twenty gallon hat up top. Nearly all of his face (presuming the figure is a he) is covered by a bandana with eye holes cut out, and... in fact, the clothing is arrayed so that there's not actually any skin showing anywhere. "Howdy, ma'am," he says casually as the one-stars rush her. "Alright - enough box tricks! Take this - ULTIMATE BACKSTORY DELUGE!" And he gets out a notepad and starts rapidly writing a fully fleshed out backstory complete with ties to other characters, integrations with the source material, and plenty of GM hooks for later purposes - which is all fine, except he's writing and throwing out the pages at such hyper-ludicrous speed that Staren starts getting crushed under the weight of the pages!
Lory Thumper	Is that...a cowboy? Lory of course has really only seen a cowboy in movies, but it's unmistakeable. She doesn't really have time to respond before she is rushed. She is a skilled fighter, but her attacks really don't do much actual harm. So, she focuses on dodging while using more of her foam grenades to try and immobilize the rest of the one-stars. "So, who are you?" she asks, words punctuated with swings of her feet or oofs from hits she is taking. "If you are some kind of leader I suggest you call your boys off! Assaulting an officer is usually a much more serious crime than vandalize and assault of a civilian!" It is definitely hard to carry on a conversation while jumping, rolling, dodging, and throwing grenades. One of which gets spared for the cowboy since he or she did not get back on the bus as instructed.
Staren	Just do it it's a shot in the dark but it might work No The answer comes back that removing the negative influence is key, and likely to help more reliably. But who could that bad influence be? And then Bad Influence walks right up and starts burying Staren under paper. "NO ONE CAN READ ALL THAT!" She uses cat form to dive out from under the paper using the space provided by getting smaller, then changes back and keeps moving. "So. You're my REAL opponent, huh?" She draws and fires her laser pistol at him to test defenses, while she keeps moving. "Don't suppose you'd rather talk about it? Or are you afraid you might lose a battle of words when you can't drown your opponent under them?" "What's it gonna take to get you into an earnest, open fight? A challenge to your cred? Wait, who the hell even ARE you??"
Chains Knight	The grenades take the two-stars out one by one, till there's none left... ... But when a grenade is thrown at the cowboy, it simply bounces off. "Name's Frontier Cowboy Trigger - and sorry, ma'am - saw that one coming, and already played a counter card for that before I got off the bus," he says. "It does look like this little field trip has gone awry, though, so let's just get them loaded back up onto your bus and we'll get right on out of your ears. Call it a draw." "OW!" goes the leader as he's laser pistoled. "What - challenge to my cred? My cred's fine! I'm the best at everything tabletop! Right guys?" All of the one-stars are either outside or restrained. "... R-right? I'm cool!" He says. "Someone say I'm cool." "I'm the president of Honoji Academy's Tabletop Club! Of course I'm cool!" He beats a fist against his chest. "Why wouldn't I be cool?"
Lory Thumper	Lory blinks in surprise as her grenade simply bounces away without even detonating. She looks around at the restrained and otherwise defeated club members, then back to the cowboy. "Well, Frontier Cowboy Trigger...I'm Officer Lory Thumper, MPD. And your fellows are suspected in the attacks on multiple stores and people. So...I'm afraid I'm going to have to refuse that offer, generous as it is. The one I'm guessing is your second-in-command sounds like he's in trouble in there. And you are in trouble out here if you think I'm going to just let you go." To accentuate her point, Lory pulls one of her pistols and aims at the two tires of the buss on whatever side is facing her. With a couple pulls of the trigger she attempts to flatten the tires. Would it actually stop this bus? Probably not completely, but still it is the statemtent she is going for more than the disable.
Staren	Staren stops as Cowboy Trigger gets going. She looks away awkwardly. She may not be a gamer, or have ever been in a high school, but she's seen enough movies to suspect that the person running this sort of club has a below-average chance of being considered cool. What's she supposed to say to that? Wait... so that's the answer to my question, isn't it? Staren takes a deep breath, and removes her mask so there are no barriers between them as she looks right at his face. "You want to be cool?" She points at him. "You're already on the right track. Dressing how you like, and proudly expressing your love for this hobby are a good start!" She waves a hand at the one-and-two stars. "But this is just being a bully." She shakes her head. "That's not cool, man." She tries to run up and take his hands, eyes sparkling as she looks into his. "You've heard it a million times, right? You can't be cool by trying to be cool. You can only be cool by being yourself. I always thought it was such uselessly basic advice. Of course I'm myself!" "But it's really hard. Finding yourself, AND going against the social instincts screaming that if you're weird, you'll be thrown out and die. Some people will NEVER recognize when someone is cool, though you might be able to rule them by fear. Perhaps this 'Honnoji Academy' place is not one where true coolness can blossom." "You're a dreamer. You're unabashedly excited about making up stories!" She gestures at the pile of papers. "So here's a story for you: Let's turn Honnoji Academy into a place everyone can realize their coolness! Let's make their dreams come true! Won't you sit and talk to me about what's in your way?" A little more seriousness in her voice, she adds, "What's really in your way. What's making it so hard for you to find your cool self in this environment."
Chains Knight	The bullets just bounce off! ... No, no, wait. They don't do that. They do the other thing - what was it... yeah, they deflate the tires. Trigger gets just one keikaku doori moment, and he already spent it on the grenade. "... Hmm..." he says, glancing over his shoulder at the punctured tires. "Well. That'll put a damper on any retreat plans, certainly." "So, then." Calmly, he reaches into a holster on his belt... and draws forth a deck of cards. "No way to go but forward, it seems." Inside, Chains listens to Staren, nodding along occasionally. And the two-star listens as well. And he absorbs it. And Staren is getting through to him. "I... I get it. All that stuff. And - I know that I'm just being a bully, I guess..." The problem is, though... that someone else has gotten to him first. "But..." The leader takes a step back, letting go of Staren's hands. "... I can get all of that stuff you mentioned - just by doing what I've been doing - and she's..." "... She'd end me if I went against her. If I tried to do anything like that at her academy."
Lory Thumper	Lory looks both skeptical and on-guard as Trigger pulls out those cards. "Do you have a game in mind? Or did you stack your deck against me already? I'm a bit of a gamer myself when I have time, but I tend more toward video games than tabletop or card games." She aims her pistol at Trigger and pulls out more of her foam grenades. "But, like I said, I don't intend to lose and I don't intend to let you escape. So, just tell me, did you put these guys up to this? Or is there a boss above your head, too? If you cooperate I might be able to work some sort of deal for lesser sentences for all of you?"
Staren	The mischievous gremlin urge in the back of her brain has quieted. Also, he kinda just answered her question, didn't he? Staren sighs and slumps a bit. "So that's it... The obstacle in your way." More complicated social problems... Well, worry about one step at a time, Staren. She takes a deep breath and looks up at him again, folding her arms. "Alright. I'm inclined to let you go, if you'll tarry just a moment longer..." She holds up a finger. "1: Did anyone put you up to this, set you on this path? Or did these clothes come without any ideological strings attached?" She holds up a second finger. "2: Save me some time. I suspect that 'she' and 'Honnouji Academy' are enough for me to find out who she is and track 'her' down -- so if that will draw her ire, you can't go back now -- but perhaps you can speed things along by telling me a bit more about her." "And tell you what," She holds one hand out, palm-up again, "I'll sweeten the pot a bit with an optimal play for you. You know how great the card is that when you play it, even the 'worse' outcome leaves you ahead? You've got that right now: Put this gaming dojo destroyer shit on hold. Maybe even give the signs back and play up how magnanimous you are. We'll investigate this mysterious person," she briefly glances at Lory, not meaning to ignore her but plowing ahead since she seems to be making some progress here, "and either we succeed in stopping her from holding everyone at Honnouji Academy back from their coolness... or she takes us down, and then we won't be an obstacle on your way down this path anymore." She holds out a hand for a shake, and smiles, "How's that for an optimal play?"
Chains Knight	The deck is shuffled. "Didn't put them up to anything, ma'am. I'm just a volunteer chaperone. Maybe I encouraged them a bit, but didn't push them into anything they weren't already fired up and raring to do." "And honestly - I only got the gig because I thought it'd be interesting, ma'am. And looking around - I'm thinking the excitement's about to dry up." The deck is shuffled again. "And I appreciate the offer of the lesser sentence, ma'am, but I'm more of a comma person. Gonna have to pass." The deck is shuffled again. "So make you a different deal - I'll go, walk on away, let these boys deal with their failed quest on their own. Or you can try your luck with that peashooter and we'll see who's faster on the draw. Up to you, and don't make much difference to me."
Chains Knight	"... Yes - the uniform is that," he says. "And her name is Satsuki Kiryuin - but I wouldn't try to take her on," he adds quickly. "Just - hope she doesn't notice you. She's untouchable." With that he goes to start quickly gathering his comrades, and just starts throwing them through the store's door and onto the bus.
Lory Thumper	Lory is about to try her luck with quickdrawing on the cowboy when...students just come flying out of the store and into the bus. She blinks and her ears splay back. "Um..." she hesitates a moment, then sighs. "Alright, I'll let you and the others go on one condition. You don't take any more jobs with illicit organizations..." she says to the cowboy. And as the student leader emerges she turns to him. "And you! You better take your club and help clean up and repair the damage you guys did! And apologize to the shop owners and anyone you hurt if you can find them!" The bunny cop doesn't look entirely happy with letting them all go, but with her only elite allies on the field apparently happy to let them go and this mysterious cowboy's powers unknown it seems the best solution. "Looks like it's a draw after all, Trigger."
Staren	Staren watches the leader go, then turns back to the person BEHIND the leader. "So. You're not inclined to tell us why you're doing this, or what you hope to achieve. We can fight, but I dunno how that'll go. We'll probably both get hurt and be mad about struggling and losing. So how about this:" Staren brushes back one side of her coat and reaches into one of the pouches that one might have presumed held some sort of small adventuring tools, or perhaps potion vial physreps or something... "We play cards." ...and she pulls out a card, which she holds with the back facing him. It is brown, with an oval, and a title at the top, six dots in the center of different colors one of which is conspicously NOT a mana color, and at the bottom, the word: DECKMASTER. "No magic clothes tricks. Fair and square. I win, you answer my questions. You win, I let you go without fighting you. This time." "How about it?"
Chains Knight	"Mmm - no dice, or any other polyhedrons either, ma'am," says the cowboy, doing another shuffle. "I'm not about to limit myself about who I associate with - I like being a free agent." The student leader gets everyone else loaded into the bus, and the bus limps on out on two wheels. Trigger nods to Staren when she makes an appearance. "I'm always up for a game - no bet necessary - but if you got questions, I'll answer them." Chains goes to follow Staren outside - he doesn't get very far before he stops. "You!" "Well, of all the people to run into out here in this wide open multiverse..." says Trigger. "Array. Didn't tell me you had another asset on your team, ma'ams," he says. "I think I gotta stay and draw after all, just to see how things shake out."
Lory Thumper	Lory raises an eyebrow when it turns out Chains and Trigger know each other. "Uh...sorry? I didn't realize you two knew each other." she says. She doesn't put her pistol away since Trigger seems less than agreeable about conditions for release. Staren proposes they play cards. Lory doesn't know much about card games so she steps back and moves to stand beside Chains Knight. "Did he call you Array or me?" she asks Chains.
Staren	Staren raises an eyebrow. NOW Cowboy is willing to talk? Ooookay... She puts the card back (very careful not to bend or damage it) and closes the pouch's fastener. "Well. I don't rescind my offer of a game, but I would like questions answered. Why are you--" And then Chains steps out and it turns out they know eachother. Staren looks at Chains, then back at Trigger, and groans. Honnouji Academy was barely even INVOLVED and now she's made MORE WORK for herself. And this guy isn't from Earth, he's from Chains's world and pushing some game philosophy for the sake of it, not because of some psychological mess she can set right. He may not even HAVE the sort of human drives she needs to touch on for this to work. Deep breath. And let it out. "Hoookay. Now that I know where you're from, I can guess some of it, but: What are you doing here and why?"
Chains Knight	"That's Array right there," says Trigger, pointing at Chains. "..." says Chains. "Oh - right, he's doing the psuedonym thing, huh? Don't worry, I'll stop calling you Array, Array." Chains gets his deck out, and starts shuffling it. "I signed up because it seemed like an interesting sidequest. That's why you all are here too, isn't it?" says Trigger. "Not part of anyone's main quest chain, just some funny little gang that was busting up game stores. A point of interest on the map for you to clear out. I get it." "There was something about magical clothes and some probably fascist ideology - really I'm only here because 'tabletop dojo busting' made for a nice way to pass some time, ma'ams," he says, with the implication of a smirk behind his bandana. "And now that that's at an impasse - I'll just have to find something else to occupy my time."
Lory Thumper	"Array, huh?" Lory says, looking at Chains. She obviously wants to hear more about that, but she doesn't press the issue for now. When Trigger asks his question Lory shakes her head. "Stopping pointless violence and destruction is kind of my main quest. You know...police officer." she says to the cowboy. She looks between Staren and Chains. "I can't really speak for these two, though. From what I've heard Chains here is more about playing games than anything. Guess you two have that in common?"
Staren	Staren looks at Lory. "I just want to help people." She looks back to Trigger. "But, I don't really have anything to help here. This was just a random act of ruining people's day. Fighting to the death over it" she slumps again, "really isn't the mood I was leading towards here. That's why I was gonna let him go with just a card game. But I don't know where to BEGIN, stopping him from causing trouble elsewhere." She straightens up and turns towards Chains. "What about you? Any ideas? Or does it not bother you what he was doing, anyway?"