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Post by Bass on Nov 26, 2020 9:24:08 GMT -8
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Post by Bass on Nov 26, 2020 9:52:49 GMT -8
" Alright, that's the end of our shift. If you want to steal some cotton candy now's your chance." Bass said, forewarning Taras that the employee was about to arrive so she had a window to do what she wanted. Sure enough, not much time would go by before the disgruntled but refreshed employee would return from his lunch break and with a pained smile he'd declare. "I'll take it from here, thanks guys!" Moving passed them and into the concession stand. Walking out and closing the door behind them the Namekian cracked his knuckles and neck to get the kinks out of his body from standing so still for such a long time. He'd start to consider their next course of action, he knew the template but not the form in which it'd take. Generally speaking word spread quick when employees were expected to relay information like them assisting to management for further employment opportunities, and by Bass's calculations based on previous experiences something should be passing by at any time now. Yet looking out to the bustling urbanized streets of the amusement park, Bass couldn't help but be positively clueless as to where the lead was. Surely it wasn't just a flyer expressing something so likely important to Pilaf higher ups, the kind of stuff they'd need to get into was much more sensitive than the odd-jobs the two had been doing previously. " Well, on the bright side that's about the last of the small stuff. On the not so bright side I ha-" "Hello!" Cried out a Pilaf mascot from thirty or so meters away. Bass didn't immediately realize he was being talked to, and instead just continued. "- I hav-" "Hello! Hellooooo! Blue man and small person!" That got his attention, and the black heart Namekian pivoted around to face the oversized Pilaf mascot who appeared to be holding what looked to be an office file, beige in coloration between two hands at center mass. Approaching the figure the mascot would proceed to elaborate. "You've gotten an employment opportunity. Please see inside as soon as possible. For the two of your eyes only- well, I mean four, two sets, two people- you know what I mean!" The mascot even seemed to have the Pilaf spasms on point, it was an impressive act if the mascot was acting at all. Personalities are contagious, so perhaps that could explain it. Taking the folder in his hand, Bass would respond. " Sure, where are we supposed to go after reading?" He asked. "Read, and you'll find out." Responded the mascot, before giving an energetic salute and turning off to merge with the crowds and business of the excessive amount of attractions. " Well... There it is. Like clockwork, though if I'm being honest it was just a decent crapshot at best. Afterall, a hunch is only as good as the end result says it is." Flipping open the document, Bass skimmed over the contents and nodded his head a couple of times. His blue antennas wobbled each time he did. Scratching the back of his head lightly after finishing it he'd extend the document out towards Taras to give her an opportunity to read. Though if she wanted the footnotes and short and sweet of it, he was summarizing it as he handed the document over anyways. " Looks like we need to save some rich guys kid from a video game. Now, if you didn't know what cotton candy was that probably sounds like a whole lot of nothing to do. To summarize it, video games are like..." Bass wondered as he started to walk towards the location they'd be pulling this off at. " Say you're a normal Human. All of them technically have potential, but it's much harder than those that have proper talent. Though there's a sort of thrill in doing extraordinary things they still want to feel that they can't, so Humans created a sort of technological way to do so. Games simulate dramatic versions of reality and offer experiences you normally can't get here. None of it is real, but some of it can border on that realm when it is sophisticated enough. For example, simulation chambers where you fight opponents for training- something I've experienced a few times. While they are very much not real, their actions can have real world consequences.
Looks like our guy is stuck in a fake world, virtual reality it's called. We'll need to go in there and get him out, sounds exciting right? You get to design the perfect you in something called a character creator. Want to make bets on what type each of us make? I'm putting down a hundred thousand zeni on you making a replica of yourself." With that, the two found themselves at a corporate building. With some minor attempts to look eye-catching, it was mainly a stark contrast to the vibrant theme park attractions. Large and square in shape, muted colors and no windows seemingly made of metal. It was definitely a suspicious looking structure, but that was to be expected out of a closed door deal. Pressing his hand to push open the door, an imprint would suddenly appear with a sort of glowing portrayal of the Namekians palm. Blinking, an autonomous voice would ever so faintly emit from a nearby speaker. "Authorization accepted. Have a great day." The doors hissed as they slid apart, and with a final glance towards Taras, Bass walked inside and rolled his shoulders. It was like walking into the void, an ominous pitch black that went down a long hallway. After getting about fifteen or so meters in, a sudden spotlight would shine down about three meters before them over a series of documents. A Pilaf Corporation agent sat at the far side of the table these sheets rested on, looking towards the two of them. "Come, take a seat and sign some papers. We'll get you situated right away. We've programmed the game to attempt to simulate your real world capabilities as much as possible, but the rest will be up to you. If that's good with you, let's get started." Bass moved to take his seat in a relatively uncomfortable chair, reading before signing a handful of Non disclosure agreements. Taras would be expected to do the same, but that rested in her hands. 1,055 1,055/8,000 Queen Taras
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Post by Queen Taras on Nov 26, 2020 11:54:46 GMT -8
There are definitely a lot of things that Taras is having trouble with when it comes to adjusting to life outside of the desert. She looked particularly irritated when she was addressed as ‘small person’, but she resisted the urge to barbecue their next meal-ticket. Instead, she tried to pay attention to what Bass was telling her as she read the folder. It took her much, much longer, though. In fact, Bass might notice that the woman mouthed the words as she went along. Truth be told, Goji-sama had never provided her with any kind of formal education. Reading was something that she had needed to pick up where she could amongst the bandits that she worked with. They weren’t real big on it, as a rule, and a lot of these higher-level concepts are just completely beyond her. The growing frustration at her clear limitations was growing by the moment, but to her credit she didn’t let it restrain her. Seven million zeni was a powerful incentive to keep going in spite of her difficulties, and Bass had at least been a straight shooter with her thus far. Cotton candy was good, the mushroom had been… well, easy enough to deal with once they actually got to it, and the carrot hunting had taught her a valuable lesson. The head injury she’d sustained earlier was, by now, essentially gone and she could remove those bandages. So what if she didn’t understand what this video game nonsense was getting at? She’d work it out as she went along. “Hmph! Please! I have some imagination! Besides. I might as well use this as an opportunity to test their technology. I doubt they’ll be able to simulate anything like my real full capabilities, but it’s worth a shot!” She moved up onto the chair as directed, and once again found herself confronted with a lot of legalese paperwork that – honestly – she completely failed to grasp. It wasn’t as though she held a lot of respect for such things though, really. She got the general gist. She wasn’t supposed to talk about what happened here after she was done doing it. In her opinion, nothing important in life was ever written down. The fact that these guys seemed so insistent on doing it just implied to her that they were fundamentally an untrustworthy bunch. But so long as she got paid, she didn’t really care. “I don’t really understand why anyone would waste time in a game like this.” She admitted, “Doing stuff somewhere that isn’t real, that’s basically like spending all your time asleep because your dreams are more pleasant…” And even as she said it, she was trailing off. A heavy sigh followed. “Ara, ara. What am I saying? This isn’t so different to Goji-sama. I suppose I can understand it. We just have to go in and convince this Prince that it is in his best interests to wake up, right? Hmph. That shouldn’t be too difficult. Ruining dreams is easy work.” Plugging into the machine turned out to be pretty simple after that; just a matter of a lowered helmet and then she was into the character creator, just as Bass had warned. And, good to her word, when she is done with that, she isn’t the tiny gremlin person that she had been previously. In fact, the Queen is towering. Fully three times as tall as she was in the real world (for just around twelve feet in total), the woman’s build stayed more or less the same, but put to this new scale she was… well, something of a bombshell, really. Her classic black dress was a lot more flattering on a figure that was tall enough to allow all of it to be seen. Her inhuman elements still shone through of course; the horns were still tall and pointed, the turtle shell on her back still massive and spiked, along with her tail. The only thing that had changed on that score were her feet; where in the real world she has her raptor-like clawed talons, here she was apparently in the mood to indulge in footwear, something that was completely outside of the realm of possibility in reality. The enormous, chunky soles she has picked out add a menacing element to her dress, though the spiked toes will help to ensure that she doesn’t lose any of the impact of her kicks. Freed from the confines of her tiny figure, the diminutive despot definitely looked more the part that she played. It was far easier to believe that a woman who looked like that might, in fact, one day sit upon the throne of the world. Even though many of the world’s great rulers – Pilaf and the current inhabitant of the Throne himself – were diminutive in stature, there was just something far more commanding about the Monster Queen when she held herself with a stature commensurate to her ego. The rest of the virtual world shimmered into being around her slowly as her brain was hijacked to help fill in the details and add the processing power required to enter the virtual reality. That was an odd sensation, but it also helped to explain how it was that they were able to map her capabilities so expertly, and make everything feel as real as possible. Her insinuation about it being similar to a dream wasn’t far off the mark, really, except that it was the conscious mind being utilised rather than the unconscious. The end result, though, was startlingly realistic. A lush, green forest filled with chirping birds, running animals, and all the sound and smells of the real wilderness hit her hard. Sad, really, that this was the first time she experienced it. And naturally, she disbelieved it immediately. “Ohohoho! I can see why someone might have a dream about this!” She exclaimed, her voice fairly BOOMING out of her newly-enhanced figure, “As though such a place could ever really exist! Talk about your fanciful notions!” (1022 / 2077)
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Post by Bass on Nov 26, 2020 20:15:53 GMT -8
A helmet slid onto the Namekians head as he sat partly laid back in a cushy chair. His objective was to bring the kid back intact, and he had a pretty bad gut feeling this was more than a simple obtuse child. Chances were, if that was the issue they'd have turned off the helmet and forced him out a long time ago. Something was more serious here, it was entirely possible some sort of malicious interference had caused the program to go haywire and not- Bass couldn't really keep up with his mind at that point. He didn't know the intricacies of virtual reality, he just new what it was and vaguely how to use it. Yet when he found himself in a character creator of some sorts, he'd look down at himself after seeing himself in a sort of reflection. There were his hands, copied down to the slight marks he had here and there. It was surprising how graphically capable it was, but that was simply the advantage of building around perspective instead of building to perceive as a developer. What in the world, when faced with hundreds of thousands of options would he see as his ideal self? The Namekian took a moment to consider that, but came up empty. He wanted to be more powerful, but he thought he looked fairly nice- he was extremely fortunate to be that way coming from King Piccolo. Maybe he could try to experience what it was like to have a different body? Perhaps a Human or Beastman, Monster, or a normal Namekian. Though he knew he wasn't a normal Namekian, and he never wanted to believe he was. Even pretending to be one for the purposes of this game felt disgraceful, he shouldn't forward the shame of being the spawn of King Piccolo to right and proper Namekians. He could even make a female character- technically Namekians weren't one or the other, but he'd always felt like a guy. Though he quickly shook his head at that notion, to him there wasn't much of a purpose there. Perhaps a Human? Or a Saiyan? Maybe he could even be a Majin- though did this software even support something like that? How did feeling and senses come into play? He was overwhelmed by the sheer possibilities of it, mixed from the fact that he really didn't feel strongly about any one option. And then it hit him. If their combat capabilities were preserved, Bass started to almost giggle to himself. He had no idea of what Queen Taras had chosen for herself, but he'd decided it would be funny to send someone flying when... ...Well, his avatar speaks for itself. Crafting such a diabolical scheme made the Namekian cackle in triumph over his inner indecision as he expertly slid sliders and selected swatches to craft his masterpiece. It rapidly came together down to the large confused looking face and the little green tie. It was perfect! It captured his corporate spirit, his unwavering focus with that a hundred mile stare that could catch an eagle flying on the horizon! A man couldn't ask for a greater form to defy assumption and overthrow oppression with action! Then he just needed to figure out a name by the end. Though he had to get used to the changes he was making- which, it was incredibly jarring to change perspective and sensory feelings on the fly like that. Opening up the name selection box, Bass squinted and typed out on a little virtual keyboard. "Doof." And hit create, causing the blank space filled with virtual UI around him to brighten up to a blinding white before he was transported into the spawn point locale. During that time he refocused his priorities, recognizing that they would need to try to find the supposed Prince or whatever as quick as possible so they could get on with their little scheme Bass'd been cooking up. Though when he appeared in a peaceful nondescript forest as hundreds of particles accumulated into a solid mass Doof realized that was going to be a lot more difficult than they had originally expected. It was a massive world, and their target was just another character. Thankfully he at least had some briefing with that file, including details on the kids avatar as well as his level. It allowed them to roughly gauge which zones he would be in if he was doing current content, but given the situation it might be difficult for him to just casually continue playing when he realized he couldn't log out- no doubt he got it in his head that if he died in the game he'd die in real life. Though on the flip side, that could very well check out by frying his mind or just never transferring back consciousness to his husk of a body. There was one thing Doof realized, the world was much bigger than it was before. Wandering through the forest with the feeling of grass pattering against his calves he just stared up at the tree trunks that rose up and up into a great canopy. Normal sized trees looked massive when you weren't, Doof was currently learning a lesson in perspective. Making sure to have selected only the best sound effects, each step he took made a cartoonish squeaking sound that resonated through the forest. Unfortunate Doof came to quickly regret this, but he wouldn't have much time to contemplate such things as a silhouette became visible through the trees and bushes. It was massive, maybe the size of a hour and seemed to be making grunting sounds. Then it closed in rapidly and instinctively Doof took a step back from the sheer size of the thing. Then, Doof regained his focus and resolve and brought a fist back. Dents appeared in the virtual space, trees practically lost resolution from the sheer amount of processing power his punch required as he swung forward! And as his fist connected it was revealed to be a sabre toothed boar. As it flew up and up and away, twinkling away in the sky Doof noticed a little pop up in front of his face. +10xp. Blinking and walking forward, before he knew it he'd wind up running into a leg. " Oof!" He said, bouncing off with a squeak sound as he hit the ground. Looking up to see the sun blotted out, a voice that might normally sound dismissive like being bothered with a nuisance came off as meek and nervous. "Oh f***." Then the figure squinted. " No way... Taras?" 1,100 3.177/8,000 Queen Taras
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Post by Queen Taras on Nov 28, 2020 2:43:13 GMT -8
“Gwa ha ha ha HA! Bass! I see you decided to go small where I decided to go big! This should be quite a fun turnabout, huh?”
Taras was pretty impressed with the way the virtual world felt. It really did feel like this was reality. She didn’t understand what sort of science, magic, or both, made this feasible, but it was immediately clear to her why someone would perhaps choose to try and stay somewhere like this rather than stay in the real world. All she’d done was get a glimpse of where she was likely to wind up in a few hundred years, and that was intoxicating enough. If normal human beings could experience what it was like to have a fraction of her power, let alone Bass’, then why would they ever want to leave? The world was not a kind place to ordinary people.
“Get up here. It’ll be easier to keep a lookout that way.”
She bent down to offer her hand and – whether he accepted and allowed himself to be placed on her shoulder or not – the enormous Queen would regardless start to stomp her way through the forest. With its wolves, boars and bears, it was clearly not a particularly high-level area – they’d need to venture deeper into the heart of the game if they were going to find their quarry.
Now this was definitely something that she could see herself getting used to. Each heavy footstep shook the ground, and she could brush aside the trees easily when they got in her way. She found herself just revelling in the way the animalistic AIs fled before the enormous predator that she represented.
“So, we’re both thinking that this guy probably just doesn’t want to go back to being a boring human, right?” She asked as she walked. Even at a casual stroll, her enormous size meant that she was covering ground at a fantastic rate. Ah, if this really was a glimpse of things to come for her, she couldn’t wait to get there!
The forest around the pair grew denser as she moved through it. Lush woodland slowly found itself being replaced by vines and a far more humid, heavy and oppressive heat. The plant life became far more vivid and colourful; bright oranges, reds and yellows mixed in as the animal life gradually ramped up from the low-level forest life which had been easily cowed to… other, far more dangerous, animals. They prowled in the shadows, not attacking, yet, and barely glimpsed by Taras – she was having far too much fun just existing in her current state to worry about anything much smaller than she was.
“If it isn’t that, then there’s got to be something wrong with the actual machine, in which case… we’re going to have to figure out a way to break out all of us, so I hope he’s just being an idiot. Not quite sure how we’re going to talk him back around, though. Do you think ‘end the simulation or you’ll find out what it’s like to be eaten’ is convincing enough?”
She grinned toothily at that, showing off her many, suddenly far larger, teeth. It’d be easy to believe that she wasn’t joking.
But she probably was.
Right?
(561 / 3738)
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Post by Bass on Nov 28, 2020 12:40:08 GMT -8
Taras' reaction made Bass blink slowly. Truthfully he anticipated a choice like that from her, after all typically for short people being called short is why they had a short fuse. Though who knew how achievable a prospect of tripling or quadrupling ones height in the real world was- though, Bass had an inkling with his Giant Form and the... Limits he was breaking that if she wanted and pushed hard enough it was possible. Though old habits die hard, and even the small little tubby avatar reached a hand to rub the back of its neck. " I guess it did haha, this feels weird. I feel like I am in peak rolling form." Bass said before he curled up into a ball and rolled around in a circle. " Yeah, peak rolling form." He confirmed as Queen Taras extended her hand out for him to step on. He squinted, couldn't he just fly? He hadn't tried frankly, and it was more than possible that the game even though it was possible might treat it as cheating and boot him. So opting not to take the risk even if it were technically possible, the small avatar hopped into Taras's hand with a signature squeak as selected while creating the character. As he was helped up to the shoulder and got a hold, the world did really open up. Even higher than he was familiar with when he was on the ground, he could see why being this tall would just feel great. Practical? Well, there was a reason why Bass never cracked open the Great Namekian transformation when it was something he was probably more than capable of achieving. At least, even if it made no practical difference it wasn't his style. " Thanks, and yeah that's more like it. Everything feels so much more massive than I'm used to. That boar actually dwarfed me, is this how you feel all the time? Must be tough, though on the bright side if there's ever a dinosaur I guess you could hide in gopher holes or something." Adjusting to sit down as if sitting at a ledge, he began to observe the terrain in front of them. Listening to Taras explain her thoughts, he would share his own in turn. " Well, yes and no. While it is entirely possible that he doesn't want to leave on his own accord, if that was all they could've just removed his device and forced him out before having to call us. Apparently it's something they need capable fighters for, and if this was simple they would've told us.
So the hard reality is that there's a few possibilities. Either they suspect there might be some sort of... Virtually manifested corruption that is twisting at least the VIP in questions connection or... Whatever, technical nonsense- basically making it so his consciousness won't return back to his body or something.
Or, it's a trap and they just plugged us in here so we were defenceless in the outside world. Of course if you ask me, I doubt even with the best weaponry humanity can conjure they probably can't hurt me out there, but if they get their hands on tuffle tech that might be a closer call." Scanning out over the new environment he'd open a virtual interface with his right hand to pull up a map. " Okay, so we started in the Pilaf Forest, and now we're in the Pilaf Tropical Forest. I think we just ignored the normal progression of heating into the Pilaf Plains second. This is actually the third zone that's technically accessible from the first. I imagine we bypassed the tutorial because of whatever changes they made to our characters. With that being said uuuh..." He scratched his forehead. " I imagine he could either be in the... Pilaf Desert, which is a mid-high level area or the Pilaf Jungle not to be confused with the Pilaf Tropical Forest. To get there we'll need to travel East and at the speed we're going thanks to your new stature I suspect at a casual pace it'll take us... Five minutes? That's the thing about virtual worlds, they're pretty compact for convenience sake." Assuming they started in that direction when it was mentioned, Bass started to talk a little more about actually spotting him in the world. " Once we're there uhm... We're looking for this guy." Standing up and shoving a hand in front of Taras's eyes if possible, Bass pulled up a virtual image of him. The avatar of their VIP looked like some massive barbarian eight feet tall and stacked with muscle. " Of course, they might be wearing something different. The good news is, they're not hard to miss. Now that being said it's not like many other people are in this world right now but uh... Yeah, just thought that might help. All those years learning accounting software is really coming in use right now. Like how I had to learn what ram was after my computer seized up. I know, doesn't make sense to you." There was a pause, and then he raised a finger. " But, if all else fails I might have an idea. Games put a load on computers, devices and servers, they use memory. If something big enough happens that it can't handle it might crash or stop working properly, becoming corrupt. So if all else fails we need to do something really big and complex to create a ton of particles. Though they'd have just shut the server off if that would've solved it." He wracked his mind more. " I'm probably just overthinking this. Regardless we have to find the guy first. If it is him responsible for one reason or another, I don't know if the eating thing will matter much. I mean it's a game, he gets attacked and dies over and over right? Or maybe it's different with whatever problem is happening, worth a shot at least.
Which reminds me, why so tall? Not entirely unexpected but I was thinking you just didn't want to be short. This is nearly the size of a Great Namekian. I guess it does fit the image a lot more, I think Pilaf with all of his goofy antics ruined the image of small people forever." After just a single second Bass suddenly realized what he said and frantically waved his hands. " Didn't mean to offend! Jus- you know what I mean!" 1,075 4,813/8,000 Queen Taras
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Post by Queen Taras on Nov 28, 2020 13:16:02 GMT -8
Taras gave Bass quite the side-eye as they walked. She did indeed turn to the new heading. If there was one thing she had gotten pretty good at over the years, it was directions. Even in this strange virtual space, she has an unerring knack for finding the right path.
“This is roughly as tall as I can expect to be in a couple hundred years.” She said, at last. “My species never stop growing. We enter a series of hibernation cycles that get longer and longer. I haven’t had my first one of those yet, but I’m only in my twenties. Goji-sama was about twice this size. I thought it’d be fun to get a preview.”
And it certainly is fun, at that. She wasn’t any stronger than she was in the real world, that was the surreal thing. She was strong enough now that brushing the trees aside and just going where she wanted was something that she could do either way. This, though, was just… convenient, and the higher vantage point was a lot more pleasing than she was used to.
“A lot of humans seem to think they can look down on me because of my size, but that doesn’t usually last much longer than the first time I breathe fire! You get used to it. I don’t get intimidated just because someone’s bigger than me. Goji-sama was the biggest person I ever met, and I could bully him into doing anything I wanted! Gwa ha ha ha!”
The echoing laughter isn’t, quite, genuine there. All this talk about Goji-sama has her thinking about the old man more and more. At first, being left on her own by him had been exciting; it meant that she was in charge, free to go off and do whatever she wanted. She was rapidly starting to realise how strange and frightening the world outside their cave really was, though. He’d kept her away from the rest of the world because it had not been kind to her people. She had no idea what he would have made of ‘virtual worlds’, cotton candy or malevolent plumbers, but she would dearly have loved to know.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so long before she could ask him, but the way he had explained it, the more times you went into hibernation the longer it took for you to wake up. Given how huge he was, it’d be years before he came around again, she was sure. Would he even remember her? What were fifteen short years in the lifespan of someone who had lived for so many hundreds upon hundreds of years? Maybe that was part of the reason he had drifted away from this strange world of small, annoying people. She doubted he could comprehend the technology that the humans used any better than she could, and he had far less patience when it came to trying to understand anything new.
“Anyway. If this is a trap, they better pray that it holds us in, because if they’re doing anything weird to our bodies out there, I’ll eat them for real – even if I only have a little stomach and have to do it bite by bite!”
The directions seemed solid. The zone denotation was, again, pretty clear and obvious when she crossed the border between the tropical forest and the jungle. The background noise was filled with more hooting monkeys (always something to be concerned about in a Pilaf property, so this must be quite a high level zone), chirping birds and denser foliage.
She was just about to ask where she ought to head, when a terrifying roar split the jungle air, and Taras found herself grinning.
“Oh. Okay. Now THIS I have to try! Sorry, Bass, but can you give me a moment?”
The T-Rex that she had inadvertently aggro’d came crashing through the jungle trees. Thirteen feet tall in the classic, enforced hunch posture, it was a little larger than Taras was and, when it spied the interloper into its hunting ground, it gave another roar.
“GRAAAAAAAAR!”
Taras took a deep breath, and raised both hands up in front of her, wicked claws definitely seeming FAR more menacing on a version of herself scaled such that each was longer than the average sword.
And when she opened her mouth, well. The sound was far more deafening.
Her bellowed roar was coupled with a slight hunching in her posture, the echoing noise of it sent birds and beast scattering from the zone, and she lunged forwards. It is true that such giant figures are often clumsy and slow, particularly in comparison to their smaller counterparts; indeed, Bass might well be in a good position to see that, yes, Taras’ enhanced size does make it comparatively easy to read her intentions.
But equally, compared to the T-Rex, the way her body moves is just so much better suited to combat. The lizard’s only advantage was its greater size and physical strength compared to its prey. Taras is nimble, her arms give her greater reach, and she does not have the kind of bulk that the old-style predator is carrying around.
She hits him like a lightning bolt, before the unfortunate monster has even finished reeling from her challenging shout. Her claws rake down his sides, carving deep into leathery hide thick enough to repel a hunter’s arrows, but nowhere near enough to protect from the Dragon Queen’s talons. He swept his tail around to try and knock her from her feet…
And Bass, unless he has already intervened in spite of her wishes or taken his leave, will have to hold on tight as she leaps over the clumsy swing, which wreaks all kinds of carnage on the surrounding jungle, to grasp the dinosaur and lift him bodily over her head.
“HYAAAAH!”
And with one mighty throw, she hurled him into the distance, clapping her hands when she was done.
“Now THAT’S fun! Are there jungles anything like this out there in the real world? Because I have definitely discovered my hobby after my third hibernation cycle! Gwa ha ha ha ha!”
Well. If this guy is anywhere in the zone, there’s literally no chance that they’re going to have the element of surprise on whatever problem he is suffering from – then again, with Taras, that was always going to be unlikely. At least he’d be able to find them easy enough!
(Wordcount: 1094 / 5,907)
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Post by Bass on Nov 28, 2020 14:01:16 GMT -8
" A couple hundred years?" Bass started from his seat atop her shoulder. " Maybe your sense of time is different than mine, but that's an awfully long time. Though I guess if you're sleeping for it you practically traverse it in an instant. Funny how sleep does that. That being said, that's interesting. I usually shrug off people with stories of grandeur- especially people who go and tell me they're from a lineage that ruled the Earth in ancient times. Naturally, it's farfetched.
Though I'm starting to believe you. It's a bit too... Nuanced, to be a complete lie. Exaggerated, maybe, but a lie? I don't think so. I just think it's a little torturous to give yourself a perspective of what it'd be like in a couple hundred years, that's a long time to wait even if you're only conscious for a quarter of it." As they travelled the land, he'd continue to speak. " My people- well, Namekians, there is a difference between I and them, typically can if they're powerful enough transform into a massive version of themselves. It's called a Great Namekians, kind of how like Saiyans can turn into giant monkeys. Though Namekians have more control over theres- I never cared for it, I think I'm a pretty solid package without being a tower on top. Though maybe there's some insight in hidden doors to get what you want sooner in there, I don't know. I'm opening doors I never thought existed, I'm sure the same stands true for your species to." Reflecting on the imagery of Queen Taras literally eating a person bite by bite, the acute avatar Bass was using just rubbed his temple lightly. It was a pretty intense scene to imagine. Then suddenly, his attention was lifted up by a roar within the Jungle. It sounded like a T-Rex, something he'd dealt with plenty of times in the Southern Lands, Southern Islands and Western Lands primarily. Needless to say, Taras seemed a lot more excited than he was about the discovery. Looking over towards her he'd tilt his head. 'Give her a moment?' He didn't really piece together what it meant, before the T-Rex was face to face with them. Now, Bass had the power to send this would-be pixel fossil out of the maps boundaries, but by kami did just experiencing something so utterly massive in such a tiny body make him feel a pang of doubt for the slightest of moments. It let him appreciate how Taras had come to not be intimidated by larger creatures after being so small. Nevertheless, it looked like Taras wanted to make her WWKB Debut (World-Wide Kaiju Battle), and he would just have to hang in there. Thankfully he had a grip and strength unlike most life on Earth, and so what was once a jostle and waving small figure became like a bolt in the ground as he held a deadlock on Queen Taras's shoulder. The dinosaurs roar was loud, but well, the tiny little chonky avatar he'd picked widened its eyes to a comical extend with both hands occupied holding him in place, unable to be used to cover his ears. The roar was so loud that he found himself adding the faintest of undertones in a high pitched; " AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The wind pressure from the roar even had his hair whipping all over the place and the clothes on his body flapping wherever it could. Bass hoped virtual tinnitus didn't carry over into the real world, as that was a discomfort and subsequent ringing he didn't want to have to experience again in the near future. Before he could really recover, he became part of the wrecking ball. Round one would be the only round needed for Queen Taras to win, but it was a messy one. Even with his grip as tight as it was he was grabbing cloth, and so with that in mind he was still swinging around back and forth beyond his tilting up and down as she moved her limbs. Disorienting was an understatement, the small chubby little avatar was about to vomit a rainbow of pixels all over the e-space around them. The impact with the dinosaur sent him flying out only for his grip on the cloth to allow him to return as he was pulled taught and the momentum was defused. Then suddenly they were airborne, and despite having never actually gone on one of Pilaf Lands amusement park rides he got a feel for what the drop of a roller coaster was like. The weird startling feeling of butterflies as he plummeted incredibly quickly until unlike a roller coaster they slammed into the ground. Nearly flattening out on her shoulder due to the impact, the little avatar scuffled back into secure holding position with frazzled hair and eyes which looked in different directions as he tried to refocus. " Duuuuh...." It seemed he was just operating on muscle memory or something like that at this point. Though his eyes went back and center when the world went dark, and he looked up to see the scaly dinosaur renewed in its size and scale with it looming above them. A bead of e-sweat formed on his brow before it disappeared as it flew off further into the Jungle, or some other zone or boundary entirely. It was over, the tension in the avatars body released and he scuffled back to a proper seat. Blinking and rubbing his head to try and care to his e-headache Bass tried to make sense of the words she was saying. After which, he mumbled out a response that was surprisingly coherent, though his pitch and tone were all over the place. " Iiii uuUH yeah mhm there's lots of myep Jungles and DinosAURs 'nd T-Rexes 'nd stuff. You can uhm find thEM in the SOuthERN lANds aAND Southern ISLAnds and uh West Lands most but really anywhere is good myep myep. Don't mgoing out putting dinosirs extinct bUT if you do oOF one deliver it to The MMBurrito Bass or the closest Momentum Corporation place and... We'll sort it out." The little avatar flopped back on the shoulder and gasped air as it stared towards the sky. Clouds rolled, birds flew. What could've been a final breath squeaked out of his body like a whoopie cushion before he shook his head firmly. " Whew, ah." He dinged his head with his right palm twice. " Hey I'm not just seeing that right?" Pointing through the Jungle between some trees, an eight foot tall silhouette surrounded in what appeared to be purplish pixels that erratically shifted, grew and shrank came into view. It seemed to be making a lot of spooky gasps and groans, as if a zombie of a sorts. " Right?" 1,128 7,035 Queen Taras
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Post by Queen Taras on Nov 29, 2020 2:08:32 GMT -8
“Hmph. I can’t really fault you for being sceptical, I suppose.” The Queen said, in the aftermath of her impromptu bout. “But you should know, a Queen never tells a lie!” Though that, definitely, wasn’t true. She told lies all the time. Just very rarely about herself. She had no reason to lie about that stuff, after all. The lies she told were generally only to cause less trouble in the long run, so did they even count as lies?!
“I suppose it isn’t a short time.” She admitted, scratching behind the back of her head as she pondered Bass’ words. “And you’re right. I’m not a very patient person. But I have plenty of time, you know? In some ways, I guess I should be enjoying the benefits of being short whilst I can, because I’ll spend much more time huge!”
Before she can go on to ponder about the benefits of dropping dino-meat off for Bass’ industries, though, the woman’s attention was drawn to the strange moaning and corrupted figure. Eight feet tall was pretty big, and the stranger thing, as Taras trained her senses upon the unfortunate man, was that she couldn’t get a good read on him at all.
His figure was surrounded by the twirling mass of purple corruption. The musclebound barbarian-esque warrior definitely didn’t look like he was in full control of himself, that was for sure. His eyes were rolled into the back of his skull, his jaw slack, and his shuffling gait more robotic than any of the falsified creatures that they’d seen so far.
“No, you’re not the only one seeing that.” Taras confirmed as she took one meaningful step in that direction.
“Oi! Congee, right? Stop messing around, you jackass! You’ve got everyone worried sick about you! Quit the game and get back to the real world before you embarrass yourself any more!”
Taras’ impassioned words were delivered loudly and forcefully. Unfortunately for all concerned, the decision to quit or not was no longer in Congee’s hands. The Prince was very definitely not in charge of himself, which only became more apparent when he launched himself forwards towards her, and the enormous Queen found herself taking a punch right to the gut.
That bowled her over backwards and had her crashing into the earth with tremendous force. Smouldering purple fire burned at the point of impact, trying to find purchase on her avatar just as it had on the ghostly, possessed figure of Congee. Thankfully for her, this corruption was not based on physical aspects of their capabilities, but instead on their self-image; and Taras was well and truly certain in herself. She patted out the flames as she rolled back up to her feet, looking around for Bass – hopefully he hadn’t come loose or been crushed in all the commotion.
“Okay.” She groaned, “That was painful. I got the last one, how about you handle our wayward Prince, neh?”
After all, whilst the punch had hurt her, she was still able to talk – surely Bass would be able to deal with this guy in an instant, weird purple fire or no!
(540/7575)
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Post by Bass on Nov 29, 2020 13:11:37 GMT -8
"Mmmf-ph-furf!" Were the sounds that resounded by the small avatar whose head appeared to be jammed a foot into the ground sticking straight up. Wiggling both arms and feet, eventually he'd corkscrew out of the hole. Interestingly enough the ground would pop back into perfect shape as if nothing had ever happened, meanwhile Bass was spitting out e-dirt and getting his bearings after the impact and fall Taras had. Looking over he'd notice Taras had that purple distorted effect on her, though thankfully it dissipated and made the situation significantly less complicated. Turning his attention over in the direction of the guy in question, Bass rubbed the back of his neck and started to move forward. " Well, I suppose I have no choice." Announced the little tubby avatar in a meek voice as it walked forward. " You see, as I said earlier the only thing you can rely on is your own two fists at the end of the day. Nobody else, and no other thing." It squeaked out in a voice that did not match the tone of the words being spoken. " So, sorry buddy, but this is going to hurt a bit." And as the the purple mass sprinted towards Bass suddenly everything froze. It was as if time had stopped- but not quite. Sound went distorted, visuals split as the horizon appeared in another place, trees split in half with perfectly clean lines, and then the server updated again. Bass's hand was a blur and the purple figure was going so fast and forcefully that it looked more like a purple blur. Then with another update a massive booming sound as the audio struggled to catch up. Another update showed the green grass flickering between grey and green, the area around the purple figures impact space appeared to lose all matter, a drop into an endless void that when looked into seemed to indicate that beyond a tiny line when looked at horizontally, there was no visibly matter below the ground. Then everything seemed to speed up and get out of control. The VIP they were dealt with was just T-Posing and looked like a grey mannequin, trees had lost all of their realistic depth and the sky looked like a sheet of blue and white speckled paper. Rapidly the environment broke down into exceedingly simple shapes until a popup appeared in front of them. 'PilafWorld servers have stopped responding, this issue will be fixed as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.' And then suddenly they were back in the real world, running into the room was what looked like a scientist who spoke up. "You guys did it, we're so greatful! We would've been screwed if not for you, thanks." And after some pleasantries or whatnot, payment, various exchanges the two would be shunted out of the building. But not without a spicy new opportunity. 481 8,056/8,000 Queen Taras
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