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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She gives a nod of agreement at the suggestion to keep her head down. That's definitely a lesson she's already learned here. This place was made more to a different scale than she's used to.]

What am I? I'm a sergeant in the space marines. Hero's Duty. I know there's a few different kinds of us out there.

[Space marines are hardly a rare element in first person shooters, she knows. And that's pretty much what she's assuming is the story with this Spartan here. So Calhoun offers the other woman a slight bow of the head in recognition of a potential similar background.]

Sergeant Calhoun at your service.

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?

[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.]

Ma'am?

[Her visor looks up to Calhoun, pausing in confusion.]

Inner Colonies, United Earth Government... I'm not sure if I understand.

[That, and this woman has a passing familiarity with Spartans.]

[You know, after the weird looks she's been getting, she's sadly starting to get used to this People Aren't Aware of Their Games thing.]

Lemme guess. You've never met someone from an arcade game before.

[It's not meant mockingly. Her tone is just a little exasperated. How are so many of these people unaware of where they're from?]

[... She slowly shakes her head.]

We have worlds of our own, ma'am.

[It's odd. Belonging to an arcade game? Only way something like it would work.]

You mean... you're an A.I.? I don't think I've seen some for a single purpose before...

Well, more of an NPC.

[Which doesn't bother her at all because hey, nobody ever controls her. This is a good thing as far as she's concerned.]

It's my job to get the first-person shooter through the game. Not to say it doesn't get real ugly sometimes.

[Daisy finally knows how people get confused with her language.]

... Combat often does.

[Eventually, she finds the closest thing Calhoun's size. There was no way Daisy would fit in it.]

Will you need help, ma'am?

[Oh, thank the gods of gaming, it's her armor. No space marine should ever be without for too long. Calhoun nabs the familiar armor, and also snatches up some casual wear which looks to be about the right size. It's not like she has to worry about getting anything too big.]

I don't think I will, but I appreciate it all the same. It would've taken all too long to find all this without your help.

It's no problem, Miss Calhoun. Call me if you need anything else. If you need to suit faster... [She brings up her journal.] There's a place called the Battle Dome, which works with hard light and solid holograms. I made a scenario which allows you to suit up faster. You might want it.

[She nods. That definitely does sound helpful. Not to mention that it sounds like a pretty fun game to peek into for a while.]

Which way to this Battle Dome?

[She opens the journal for Calhoun.]

South-west of the village, hidden in the woods. Once you know where is it... won't be hard to miss.

[Aha. A map! Precisely what she's needing. Now she just needs her scanner and her gun and it's aaall good. Speaking of which...]

Southwest. Got it. How about an armory? Or a weapons cache?

There's Slash and Crash if you're into melee weaponry. But munitions for guns? [She lifts her visor.] You'll have to get mission points for it.

... Sign up for the missions that will help this enclosure and others. Others? They help the organization.

1st Quarter Alert [Action/Video]

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