<@Dreol> [Cassiopeia Intro Session] <@Dreol> [You are set to participate in Ubercon! The largest multi-genre video game competition in the world. You arrive via public transit early on Friday, and as you approach the convention center you see a mass of people all gathered outside; some of them are cosplaying as various video game characters, or anime characters, or just in creepy goth outfits, because somehow that's related?] <@Dreol> [You are scheduled to participate in the Monkey Island tournament which will take place at 1:30 and is scheduled to run for 1 hour.] <@Dreol> [The rumor is that Telltale Games has sent a preview of their new Tales of Monkey Island game which you will be challeneged to play through as fast as you can.] <@Dreol> [The registration line is a 3 hour wait but you got there early so when you get through it's 11 AM. Once you get inside you are assaulted with a barrage of lights and sounds from all around. Stalls are set up where new games are being shown ala E3 or TGS. There is a section where dealers are selling rare games, or plushies or anything video game related that people might want.] <@Dreol> [most of the floor, however, is taken up by countless huge competition stations being set up.] <@Dreol> [Begin] * Cassiopeia wanders through the convention hall, occasionally picking up some enticing looking knicknack to buy and stuff into either her messenger bag or one of her many pockets. * Cassiopeia is a fairly short young woman, about 5'2, with a thin build and dark, tanned skin that speaks to a Mediterranian backround of some sort. Her curly black hair goes down to her shoulderblades, and is partly covered by a deep purple bandanna. * Cassiopeia is wearing a black t-shirt with a cartoon cow standing upright, wearing a pirate hat and wielding a cutlass, along with dark green cargo pants and a nifty light-brown pirate coat with a whole buncha pockets. Her accessories are limited to a pair of small black pearl drop earings and a coral necklace. * Cassiopeia continues to mill around, picking out any small thing that catches her eye, just as Sierra and its ilk trained her to. <@Dreol> [Well, as it happens, there is a booth to promote the new Tales of Monkey Island game which Cass will be playing in a couple hours. The booth has a trailer running as well as some free shirts and a poster. Behind the booth are two gentleman who are trying to get people to ask them questions and fill out a survey form to get a shirt. The posters don't require a form.] * Cassiopeia blinks as she notices that, grins, and picks up a poster before she scoots over to get on line to fill out the survey. Free stuff! <@Dreol> [Free stuff is always good, and this line moves much more quickly than the previous line did allowing her to fill out the form and get a shirt rather quickly. The Telltale Games associate keeps asking people if they have any questions while they fill out the form, and he does the same to Cass. "Do you have any questions we can answer, miss?"] How prominant a role do the various Insult games play in the game? Is it limited to just the swordfighting, or are there other Insult competitions like in some of the other games? And does anyone fight like a cow? <@Dreol> [The associates responses seem pretty copy and paste but that's customer relations for you. "There will be more than one type of insult competition, and of course someone fights like a cow." He smiles and hands her the T-Shirt.] * Cassiopeia grins brightly, takes the t-shirt, stuffs it into her bag, and wanders back around the booth to watch the trailer a couple dozen more times. <@Dreol> [The trailer has select scenes from the game and advertises its release in monthly instalments starting in July. Also at the booth is a sign reminding people to attend the competition to see a special one hour preview of the game.] * Cassiopeia checks her pocketwatch. How long until the competition starts? <@Dreol> [An hour and a half] * Cassiopeia then checks her normal watch, her digital watch, and the cake timer she set when she got here, just to be safe. <@Dreol> [They all agree, and the cake timer ticks away.] <@Dreol> [You notice that the several TV monitors that, until this point, had been displaying just the Ubercon logo now turn on to reveal two men in a press box] <@Dreol> [The one on the left, the monitor claims his name is Alex, has stiffly parted dark hair, is thin and has glasses. The one on the right looks like he just got out of a J-rock concert or is trying to cosplay someone from Kindgom Hearts II. His hair is combed back in huge spikes, his name is Jason.] <@Dreol> "Welcome to Ubercon 2009, I'm Alex Thompson." <@Dreol> "And I'm Jason Moore. It's been a big year in competitive gaming and this is going to be a very exciting competition, some newcomers this year look very promising." <@Dreol> "Yes, but a lot of returning competitors here as well. I saw Gregory Stevens, last year's winner of the Soul Calibur tournament and asked him if he thought he would be able to defend his title. He said that he would certainly try but every year the gaming community gets more skilled and he wishes his competitors luck." <@Dreol> "What a great guy, I love Greg. Anyway, there are a few competitors you won't be seeing this year. Richard Williams has been the victim of an unfortunate deli-slicer injury and cannot compete in the Dynasty Warriors tournament this year." <@Dreol> "Right, and Nate Walsh was banned from Ubercon last year after getting in a heated argument and punching a judge who ruled that his pokemon were illegally obtained." <@Dreol> "Gerard Peterson, the current Halo champion disappeared a month ago during the competition at Shutocon and hasn't been heard from since. <@Dreol> "And finally Renee Fielding who is last years winner of the Final Fantasy competition with her amazing 3 hour run through the supposed 6 hour demo of Final Fantasy XIII that Squarenix presented us, has said that she is quitting competitive gaming to take up a career in game design." <@Dreol> "Maybe she'll be here next year as a developer." <@Dreol> "We can hope. In any case a very exciting year." <@Dreol> [The TV fades out to just displaying the Ubercon logo.] * Cassiopeia mutters. "And, as always, the adventure games get no love." <@Dreol> [Once out of line a person in a mostly shody Guybrush Threepwood costume approaches the same trailer monitor up alongside Cass. "Man, I can't wait for this to come out. I'm psyched about watching the competition today."] * Cassiopeia puts all the watches away, and grins at the costume. "Yeah, I hear they've got all the top people coming in." <@Dreol> [He nods. "Yeah, it'll be pretty sweet. I'm not good enough to compete but it'll be fun to watch. Plus it'll help later when I start playing the full game."] I'm sure you're better than you think. You sound like you could sling an insult or two. <@Dreol> [He shakes his head. "Oh I don't know... " He blushes a bit and shifts uncomfortably. "Er anyway, my name's Gary." He holds out his hand to shake hers.] * Cassiopeia shakes. "Everyone calls me Cass." <@Dreol> [He nods. "'ey, Cass. So are you going to watch the competition too?"] * Cassiopeia grins toothily. "Nah, I'm gonna win that sonovabitch." <@Dreol> [His eyes widen. "Oh! Well good luck then." He blushes again. "So uh, you must be -really- good. What do you think of the game so far?" He motions at the trailer. "Think it's gonna be tough?" <@Dreol> ] Thanks! And I hope so. The Monkey Island games were never quite as dickishly hard as some of the other series, but an easy adventure game is like a blunt fishing hook - completely pointless. <@Dreol> [He nods. "Yeah... So you must have some really good insults then, huh?"] * Cassiopeia shrugs. "Not really. If you wanna do well at these things, you can't come in with pre-written insults. You gotta listen to what your opponent says and react." I mean, sure, there's topics that're always good... parentage, lack of relationship success, lack of fighting ability, cowardice, resemblance to various farm animals in appearance, smell or behavior... <@Dreol> [Gary chuckles and shakes his head. "Yeah, well I hope you do win. I'll be rooting for you. I love your coat by the way. It's awesome."] * Cassiopeia beams. "s'my pride and joy. More storage space than any other coat I've seen, as befits a true pirate. And I appreciate the support." <@Dreol> [He nods and heads off. "Well I'm going to try to get an early seat, and also try to find some monkey island products in the dealer room.] <@Dreol> (Bah. Add a " in there) G'luck! And remember to always pick up the cheese. *Always* comes in handy. <@Dreol> [He smiles as he runs off. "I'll try and remember that!"] * Cassiopeia waves, then gets distracted as the trailer gets to the part with the nifty puzzle that she's already working on solving from the 2-second clip. <@Dreol> [It is now 1 hour until game time.] * Cassiopeia stares at the trailer through a couple more loops, trying to pick out details from that puzzle, then shrugs and wanders off on her continuing quest for more random junk. <@Dreol> [There are several stands with random junk throughout the dealer room. Both relating to video games and not. Some of the stuff looks like it's been ripped right out of a renn faire. This includes a few sword stands, and some leather stands as well as a stand selling, according to the sign "Cloaks Corsets, and Cutlass."] <@Dreol> [In addition there are, of course, rare games, pins, plushies and the like. Outside the dealer room is a concession area and Cass could even pick up some more posters, and promotional cards for free if she wanted at various stands.] * Cassiopeia ignores the leather stands because, seriously, she's not *that* kind of cosplayer. The sword stands catch her eye for a few minutes, and she spends a while lingering around the cutlasses. * ThesisArd (ardweden@173.23.126.65) has left #powersliders * Ardle is now known as Ardsemidle <@Dreol> [The cutlasses range anywhere from cheap mass produced ones that are around $40 to forge crafted high-carbon steel ones that are in the range of $600.] <@Dreol> [There is also a reminder that any weapons bought at the con must be immediately removed in a cardboard box upon purchase.] * Cassiopeia accumulates various junk and swag as wanders, including some Havarti-flavored Pocky (almost cheese!), a chibi-Master Chief keychain thingee, a RE5 accordian file folder, and a Berserk letter opener. <@Dreol> [By this time she has about half an hour to get to her competition] * Cassiopeia also drools a bit at the high-end cutlasses, but eventually wanders off and heads over to the competition area. No sense in being late. <@Dreol> [The arena that Cass arrives at looks like the front of a giant ship. It is open on the bottom but no one is being let in yet. Several of her competitors are standing around. Some of them are cosplaying, most aren't but they're all looking impatiently at their watches.] * Cassiopeia looks around, sizing up the competition and seeing if there's anyone she recognizes as she idly reorganizes the stuff in the pockets of her jacket. <@Dreol> [At abount 1:50 a guy comes out wearing an "Uberstaff" badge. He looks around, "Alright, everyone you can head on in! Good luck!"] <@Dreol> [The other competitors head on into the giant ship thing.] * Cassiopeia wanders in, idly playing with a Yo-Yo Ma yo-yo. <@Dreol> [Inside there are ten stations for the ten competitors to set up at and all around are seats with monitors hanging from the ceiling.] <@Dreol> [Once everyone is situated the same staffer comes to the center of the ship. "Okay everyone! Game on!" And with that the screens flick on revealing Guybrush Threepwood washed up on the shore of some fishing village.] <@Dreol> [Cass is quick to find her way through the village, grabbing all the random items along the way, including the cheese of course! Eventually after a spledid bout of insult fighting she finds herself knocked out from behind and locked in a cell. Her cunning use of cheese allows her to be the first person to realize how to lure the mouse out the hole in the wall with a fishing line, paper clip, and some cheese.] <@Dreol> [The mouse drags over the keys to the cell which allow her to let herself out!] <@Dreol> [Victory appears within grasp! And then everything seems to freeze and go silent.] <@Dreol> [The world melts away revealing Cass standing in a black void.] * Cassiopeia blinks, and looks around. "... I knew I shouldn't have tried that Havarti Pocky. Dammit!" <@Dreol> [Slowly a soft light illuminates the world again and Cass finds herself standing on a stone floor in, what appears to be, the middle of no where] <@Dreol> [Session End]