gonna_shoot_it | 1st Quarter Alert [Action/Video]

[When Calhoun awakes, she finds herself facedown on a table in what must be Tapper's. The wood is slightly sticky under her cheek and smells of root beer, although when she moves a hand around stiffly, there's no mug anywhere to go with it. Which is strange.

What's also strange is that she's in Tapper's when she's supposed to be leaving Sugar Rush. That was the last thing that happened, right? Wreck-It had finally gotten his butt moving and they were going back to where they belonged before...

Stiffly, Calhoun sits up and looks around. And her eyes narrow. This isn't Tapper's. Wherever this is, it isn't the familiar watering hole filled with other arcade citizens. There isn't a single familiar face anywhere. And her gun is nowhere to be found.

For that matter, her armor isn't anywhere to be found. This is a plain white dress. What in the seven levels is this dress.

Calhoun is not amused. With a low growl, she gets to her feet - hits her head on the low-hanging light over the table - and takes another glaring look around the bar. Definitely not in Sugar Rush anymore. This isn't saccharine pink enough. There is, however, a thick journal with her name on it. She knows better than to leave a key item like that behind. After flipping through it quickly and deciding it's infinitely TL;DR, she takes the impatient route and just pokes at the transmission options a few times before she finds the video function.]

Anybody care to share what the flying fairydust is going on around here? Short version. I don't have the time to go through this whole cheat guide here.

[Aaand end transmission.

Alright. Now. First things first. She has to find her scanner, then her gun, then her armor. Then she can figure out what happened.

And somebody is going to get smacked for this.

Calhoun can be spotted slowly making her way through the main part of the village, looking almost like a lioness on the hunt at first as she tries to sniff out any kind of threat. Once she's made her stops into all the stores and found what she's looking for, she'll be a little more at ease, but no less irritated-looking. She's still got this place to scope out and figure out.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I am not in pain, yo.

[Loki shakes his head while smiling broadly.]

Nice to meet you Calhoun. I am most sure I will obtain a lot of swagger if you will be my shorty, yo.

Wasn't the tallest-- w-what kinda world did ya come from?! And what's it have to do with a hero's duty?

[Okay, she's pretty intimidating. Not just because of her height - though that's definitely a factor - but the way she carries herself. It puts Red in mind of some of the larger robots, looming over him even in his own robot. Heck, she could probably take on the Dahak with one hand tied behind her back!]

[what is this she doesn't even]

Your... shorty. [Beat.] You've got the wrong person for that.

[She is pretty sure she's the opposite of a candidate for being anyone's shorty.]

[She nods. Good, that makes things easier.] An arcade is where a lot of video game cabinets are kept and run. I'm not sure if they're all like mine was, but all of our games were connected together by Game Central Station.

[Eyeroll. She's used to intimidating everyone, so that's not that big an issue here, but still. He's a little slow on the uptake.]

Not a hero's duty. Hero's Duty. That's where I came from. You asked, I told you.

And now you've lost me again. Why did you have to jump worlds to save an arcade?

Because if I didn't, the Cy-Bugs-- [Dammit this guy doesn't know arcades, how is he going to know that.] -- viruses would have spread to every game and destroyed them all. They came out of my game and went into another one. If we hadn't stopped them there, they would've kept going until there wasn't anything left.

You're sayin' you came from some place called... Hero's Duty? Furballs, I thought other worlds had strange names...

[Uh, Red, maybe it's not the best idea to mock anything about this woman.]

Out of the game?

Wait.

So...

[Rubs his temples.] When we were talking about worlds, you meant game to game?

Of course I did. That's why I called it game jumping.

[There's a flash of irritation in her eyes, but she doesn't rise to the bait. After Vanellope and Ralph going on and on about how funny the word "duty" is, she's learning to take the criticism with a grain of salt.]

It's a game called Hero's Duty, fuzzball. Lemme guess, your game's got some kind of wonderful, awe-inspiring name.

I always think shorty sounds more fitting than referring to a female canine, you see?

[He remembers that conversation he had with that man from the broadcasting station.]

But of course I know the word shorty refers to a more romantic situation. Ah, I should expand my knowledge about cool phrases.

[Good grief this kid needs some help. Calhoun weighs the options for a moment, sighs, and then decides to make things easier for everyone involved.]

Why don't you just stick with "Sarge", hm? Much less of a headache.

Game? Are ya sayin' you came from a game? What, like cards or board games or some kinda sport?

[Guess who's almost never heard of video games? This dog.]

[Yeah, she's getting that vibe. And it's weirding her out.]

Video games. You know, Pong, Asteroids, that kind of thing?

[Those are as old as old gets, they should ring a bell...]

Video... hey, I think someone told me about those, but they're fictional stuff, right? So how can ya be from a video game?

[None of those titles are ringing any bells. It's just not his area of expertise.]

[Loki probably would disagree with needing help and the like... He's got this.]

Sarge? As in sergeant?

Chief Petty Officer Daisy SPARTAN-023. UNSC NavSpecWar, ma'am.

[Space marines... no one referred to the UNSC Marine Corps like that. Something like Calhoun would be something from ONI, perhaps, by the looks of it.

She lowers her head upon crossing the door. She clears the path for the Sergeant to do the same.]

... what do you mean with hero's duty?

You got it, kid.

[She looks a little annoyed at that.]

I just am. It's in my code. Maybe you're the one who doesn't realize he's from a game.

[Oh, good, another low door. Calhoun does appreciate that Daisy has cleared the path, though, so she ducks through the door as well.]

That's the name of the game, Spartan. [Wry smile.] Or at least it's the name of my game. Where're you from?

[Yeah, totally just calmly discussing being a video game character. Nothing strange here.]

Yeah, because I'm real fictional.

[There's some irony in that, maybe.]

Y'know what, forget it. Maybe ya really did come from a video game thing, I've got no real reason to doubt ya. Let's start this over. What's your name?

Wow.

How do we know that this isn't a game inside an arcade now then?

[A lioness on the prowl, huh? How do lions feel about ponies? Because a little pink one just bumped into your leg.]

Oof!

[She grins, a little wickedly.]

We don't, do we? It could be plugged in on its own, that would keep it isolated from the games around it. Or there might be a way out. Somewhere.

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