[IC] The Gamer Squad: An Ode to the Retro and New Generation (Now with 80% less Glitches!)

[Sora1297]

A group of college friends, sitting around in an apartment. Summer has just come and school's out. Rather then head to the beach, go outside or do anything boring like that, the first day of summer vacation begins with what they consider to be the best thing in the world: A VIDEO GAME MARATHON!

Busting out the Atari 2600, NES, Sega Genesis/CD, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, PSP, Dreamcast, N64, Playstation, Xbox, and their Laptops, these friends are ready for the greatest four day and 96 hour tournament of the champions, to see which one among them is the ultimate gamer! Loaded with a keg of beer, energy drinks, pop, chips, and enough order-in pizza to choke a Ninja Turtle, these gamer guys and gals are ready for anything... Except what happened next.

The enormous amount of items plugged into the back of the television and the wall socket behind it is consuming a large amount of energy. After the power goes out, one of the friends finds a mysterious generator that nobody realized was there before. Ignorant of the strange circumstances surrounding the power generator, one of the gamers plugs it into the power socket, which causes a shocking event: a powerful vortex busts through the television and rapidly begins to suck in the gamers, teleporting them to a world that they thought was purely fictional: the Virtual World of the "Datacore". Upon their arrival in this strange world within the video game, they discover that the only way to leave is by gathering many mystical artifacts. The only way to recover these artifacts, is by defeating the Bosses at the end of the level in each game world. These so called "Game Masters" are equipped with technology and items from each world, giving them certain skills to help conquer the Ultimate Gamer Challange.

Armed to the teeth and ready to face the challenge of the game world before them, the Title Screen comes up, playing an epic pixel tune, preparing them for the awesomeness that lays ahead. As the opening cutscene to the game ends, a sole option appears on the massive door before them, containing the portals to the game worlds:



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Okay, lets see.. Game Consoles? Check. Portable Systems? Check. Games for all of them? Check. Pizza, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Potato Chips, Nachos, and other various Snacks? Check. Enough beer to drown a bum? Check. Energy drinks and cola's in case somebody decides not to drink? Check. Finally, and most importantly... Gaming Undies?"

... SNAP!

"Check! Alright, seems like everything's in place! Just gotta wait for the guys to show up, and then thing's will really take off!" the brown haired man said with a triumphant smile as he observed the rack of games he had built up over time. It was all there, going all the way back to the good old 90's. Every game he ever owned was in that corner of the room, and the collection was quite impressive. He had original copies of outstanding and rare games such as Super Metroid or Nintendo World Championships (both copies: one with a regular case and one with a Gold case), to horrible and terrifying games such as the fabled E.T for the Atari 2600 and the entire Bubsy Collection. On top of that, Dylan had a whole bunch of other game memorabilia such as posters, limited edition gaming magazines, Collectors Items such as a real sized Energy Sword from Halo, The Tri-Force, Snake's Box, and much, much more. Sure, he had wasted dozens of dollars on this pointless crap, but when you came from a rich family, you could pretty much do whatever you wanted and have little to no repercussions for it.

As he checked off the last thing he had on the list, Dylan smiled and sighed, tossing the pen and clipboard aside. This was going to be a great start to a great summer break. He had just finished another brutal year at Rosenbush College in the Creative Writing program, and was eager to spend the next 4 months relaxing and living a carefree life with his friends. Like him, they too were gamers and they had all met in 2008 during the first day of E3. After that, they spent the rest of the time chatting and attending the various booths. They even managed to win a costume contest, where they entered as the "Best Nostalgic Game Character Collection" group. Of course, Dylan was "X" from the Mega Man X series, as the super fighting robot was his all time favourite game character. A knock at the door brought Dylan out of his nostalgic thinking and memories, which he was slightly pissed at, because he was just remembering the time when he made out with that hot chick at Fan-Expo who was dressed like Tifa Lockheart from Final Fantasy 7. "Oh, shit! Right! People!" Dylan exclaimed as he jumped off of the couch and ran over to the door of his moderately sized apartment. With a quick movement, he grabbed and tossed on a Mario Cap before he opened the door. Seeing a group of his friends standing there, he instantly jumped into what was probably a very embarrassing Mario impersonation, but he did it more as a joke to his friends.

"ELLO! Please, come-a in! Everything's-a set up, so just-a enjoy-a yourselves! The main-a event won't-a start until we're all-a here! LETS-A GO! WAH-HOO!" Dylan exclaimed playfully before he laughed and waved his friends indoors. "Alright guys, food's over on the counter. We've got everything you need: Chips, Booze, Pizza, you name it. Feel free to take a seat by the TV if you want to get a good spot, but the white single-seat Easy-Boy in the corner is off limits. We'll get started as soon as everybody's here."

[Mr_pink]

Darren exited his parents house. It was small, in the poorer part of the town. His parents weren't the stereotypical poor, neglectful parents who didn't try in life though and abused him. He wasn't in a JRPG made by Americans obsessed with Japan of course. His parents were actually Swedish, and came to America with the hopes of becoming successful in their respective fields of work. Darren's father, a plumber was largely discriminated against for his birthplace as most people in their area wanted homegrown workers to fix their pipes. Darren's mother was and still is a baker, although the company she worked for pays minimum wage. Nevertheless, this allowed Darren to appreciate his games more and ultimatley become better at the certain games he actually owned. The first of these was 'Sid Meier's Civilization' which grew to become an obsession for him. He'd save up for Sid Meier games whenever he had heard they were coming out, most of his christmas money went to getting expansion packs and memoribilia. Another favourite of his were the Fallouts before the third. He did like the third, just not as much as the old ones. Nevertheless, Darren set out on his way to his friend, Dylans house. He met Dylan and his other friends at E3, a gaming convention. He was dressed as 'Albert Cole', one of the premade characters in the first Fallout.

Darren was the last one to arrive at the door, walking was the slowest option after all. He wasn't late though, he knew that Dylan would take longer just to make sure everything was perfect. Darren was grateful for Dylan's bad habit, what he wasn't grateful for was the bad impression though. He stepped in first before stating
"Nice, Sweetooth impression, Dylan" He grinned before patting him on the back and making his way towards the veritable game cove that Dylan had prepared. Practically anything any gamer could ever want for a gaming session was on the counter. Darrens favourites were of course the 'Cool original' Doritos and the cherry coke. He disliked beer, the taste was too tangy. He sat on a sort of lawnchair, but more of a comfy lawnchair. Not the kind you'd buy from a chemist or something the kind you'd buy from Ikea and have someone else assemble. Overall the night looked promising, especially since Darren could spot Smash Bros on the game rack.

[Psyga315]

One more game, then I'm done.

That was the thought that ran through Elliot's head as he walked towards what people seemed to rave as the biggest gaming marathon in town. He had just finished putting together his resume when he got word of the party from some of the people at his FPS club. After the Halo Tournament, he had gathered quite a few fans. No doubt they'd be crushed to hear of him abandoning his life of gaming to pursue life as a working man. At least his gaming showed people that Halo would be another option when playing games at the club.

One more game, then I'm done.

He wondered how long the marathon would last for... Probably all night. He hoped that whoever was setting up the marathon brought some five-hour energy drinks or some coffee. He wasn't even aware of what games would be there. Modern ones? Retro ones? Platformers? Shooters? All these just seemed... massive for him to handle. Forming the resume was simple for him compared to thinking about the marathon. He had so many questions and concerns... and yet, why is he walking towards the door? He thought he'd had achieved a good enough supply of fun... but...

One more game, then I'm done.

It was like an addiction! He just can't stop. But, he planned on stopping, and this seemed to be a good event as any to end it with a bang. With that, he reached the door of Dylan's room. He reached out and gave his wooden door a solid KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Dylan said "Oh, shit! Right! People!"

He could hear what was presumed to be the host of the marathon cursing and heading to the door. He assumed that it'd take a while for him to get to the door, but as he turned around and began to wait, someone opened the door and greeted him.

Dylan said "ELLO! Please, come-a in! Everything's-a set up, so just-a enjoy-a yourselves! The main-a event won't-a start until we're all-a here! LETS-A GO! WAH-HOO!"

Elliot was a bit unnerved by the impression, but a giggle came out as soon as Dylan said Mario's trademark exclamation. He went inside as Dylan laid out where the food is at. He piped up just one question:

"Ah, I just gotta ask. Do we have any caffeinated drinks? Y'know, like energy drinks?" Elliot asked Dylan.

[Warrior of Sunlight]

--Tyler, with his Knight Solaire jacket on and laptop carrier at his side, set out on an epic quest bound for Dylan's apartment for the gaming marathon. The epic quest only took 30 seconds, as Tyler happened to live only one floor above Dylan in their apartment block. As he went down a flight of stairs, he passed a man who gave him a double-take, and on the seconds look, Tyler spun around to face him, praised the sun, and stated "Praise the Sun." Once he got there, he noticed that he was the first one there, and was 10 minutes, so he sat in a "kindling the bonfire" and pulled out green Gameboy Advance to play his favorite Pokemon game, Pokemon Emerald. He did so for about 7 minutes until he heard Darren coming up the stairs.

--Once Darren arrived, they both waited for the rest of their friends to show up and Elliot was the once who
knocked on the door. As they entered, they saw that Dylan's apartment was filled with what some people would call a "nightmare," but it was heaven. There were so many consoles and snacks galore, and Tyler immediately sat in the single-seat Easy-Boy in the corner despite what Dylan said, and immediately put on a smile at Dylan, fully knowing what he just did. Tyler pulled out his laptop and went on "http://huehuehue.com/" just to piss him off even more and kept smiling.

[Rin]

Alexis Taylor

Aw man, I can't believe I slept in!

That was dumb of her. She'd been so hyped for this that she could barely sleep, and... Well, that kind of explained it, really. Of all the stupid reasons to almost miss it... And so here she was, thundering down the street, her long blonde hair trailing behind her as she held dearly onto her hat. And in her other hand, she held her contribution to the event, her favourite video game OST of all time.

...Oh come on, the Brütal Legend soundtrack totally counted, right? At the very least, she could argue that it had the best final boss theme ever. Because... Because come on, Painkiller! Any game that used Judas Priest's best song as the final boss theme had to have the best one. Nothing could come close.

Her feet pounded against the floor as she raced into the apartment building. She didn't want to be late... Being late would be simply unacceptable. Note only did she strive to be as punctual as possible when it came to being on time for things, but... But the last time she showed up late somewhere, Dylan had stolen that hot Tifa cosplayer she'd been eyeing all day right from under her nose! She would never forgive him for that... Never! ...Even if it did lead to her hooking up with that one Reimu cosplayer. And they did more than make out, eheh... Sure, she came off better for it, but it was the principle of the thing! She would never forgive him for it! Theirs was a rivalry forged in blood and tears! And saliva. And...

No time to reminisce! she thought, as she approached the door at breakneck speed. Time for a dynamic entrance!

...And then she launched a flying kick through the door, landing perfectly in the center of the room. Pointing to her chest with her right thumb, she proclaimed...

"I... HAVE ARRIVED!" Spreading her arms out dramatically, she grinned wildly at her audience. Her... Rather small audience.... Honestly, it was no surprise that her expression quickly turned to one of mild disappointment.

"Aw man, I thought more people would be here by now..." Alexis sighed, slumping back into a chair and taking a handful of nachos. "I made that dynamic entrance for nothing!"

[Shoryu]

Emilian exercised his nasty habit of appearing fromnowhere, and seem to just 'be' at the door all of a sudden with a skateboard under one arm and ready to go.

he was all set, he had everything he needed for months worth of gaming... that is to say, his back-pack, looking suspiciously similar to a certain square shaped robot, but more importantly it's contents, his laptop, loaded to the brim with upgrades and games and stored data and... stuff... He was all grins and laughter in anticipation of the coming months... however, Hearing that Mario impersonation caused him to 'deadpan' very heavily before groaning out "No offense bro, but you over did it... Even mario doesn't use 'that many' 'A's' in his speech, and I think you put a few in the wrong places... OH hey, beer!" All at once he went from deadpan and disturbed, to cheery and sprinting across the room, around other friends, to get his hands on a can. "Ain't nothing quite like gaming drunk!"

A few moments later he was splayed out side-ways across a chair, backpack on the floor, laptop in his lap warming up already, wireless mouse in one hand and beer in the other... in barely a minute the sounds of explosions and noisy machine fighting could be heard from the speakers.

__________________

Kenneth on the other hand had taken his time getting there, actually arriving just as Alexis announced her arrival dramatically, little headphones planted firmly in his ears and hooked to something else deep in his jacket, cranked up enough that he totally missed the 'mario greeting'... The headphones played out a familiar tune everyone must have heard at least once even in passing, sounding quite like Michael jackson's 'beat it', though the voices singing the music sounded much different than the original.

Of course, once he was in the door a hand shot into his jacket to roll the sound down to a level he'd be able to listen but still hear everyone else... otherwise his greeting was more of a smile and a nod before making a beeline for the snack pile and retrieving a bag of Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream... sure, he liked doritoes too, but that particular flavor could be called something of a guilty pleasure of his... Shortly after he snacked on a few and retrieved a root bear for himself he suddenly commented on Alexis' entry "Personally, Alexis, I think your entry would've been a lot more exciting if you went with the cliche, and dive kicked through the door while screaming 'DYNAMIC ENTRY!', Hahahah." and a few moments later he had himself seated laid out on the floor near the TV, an NDS being played with one hand while the other handled his drink.

[Warrior of Sunlight]

Tyler looked up from his laptop to ask, "So, when are the rest going to be here? I really want to get started on Super Castlevania 4, I mean who's with me, right?" Tyler awkwardly looks around the room for any agreements, but to no avail, so he pulls out a mini-USB speaker and plugs it in, turning up the sound of the hues on http://huehuehue.com/ and just smiles at everyone with a devious smile. "I can keep this on all the time, I just want an answer. We ARE going to play Super Castlevania 4, right?"

[Ollumhammersong]

Alex huffed and puffed slightly as he tear-assed up the staircase to the party. He new he was a little late but that couldn't be avoided. He focused on getting there when he could and cradled his pride and joy in his arms. His Nintendo 64, and a backpack literally bursting at the seams with gaming cartridges, bags of chips and coke by the litre. after nocking on several wrong doors he finally burst through the door he hoped was finally right. "I'm here! The celebrations may commence!" he shouted, and held his Nintendo aloft as if it was a holy relic. He controlled his breath and staggered into the apartment. He saw the vast table of snacks and drinks and cheered. He placed his Nintendo on the table and emptied his bag of the four controllers he was carrying along with his games before going to the table of snacks and grabbing himself a drink. He felt nervous at first because he didn't really know anyone at the party. but he supposed today was a great day to get aquainted with as many people as possible. "So.." he took a breath and another sip of his drink. "Whats first on the menu tonight?"

[Fabricant451]

If it wasn't for the alarm built into the cellphone, Jihyo Park would've had no idea what time it was, or even how much time had passed. Another year of college had come to a close, and being in the mathematics department her final few weeks were spent with books ope, mind memorizing complex formulas and numbers, pencil writing out lengthy equations and solving them while on a timer. If she could finish the problems before the timer went off, she was ready for exams. Numbers didn't exactly come naturally to Jihyo, she wasn't that much of a stereotype - just because she was Asian, Korean at that, it seemed that her classmates expected her to be the top of the class. She wasn't, and she silently hated anyone who made such an assumption. Regardless, the past few days, exam days, had come and gone with Jihyo feeling confident that she had passed, just one more year of trigonometry and calculus and math that she was pretty sure only existed inside a college campus.

To celebrate a successful year, Jihyo had returned to her small apartment located just close enough to Rosenbush College to be considered 'on campus housing', it only took one year of rooming in the dorms for Jihyo to realize that she didn't want to do that again. Setting her backpack down in the corner - it'd be used after summer but until then she didn't want to so much as look at the thing, Jihyo sat on her couch and picked up the fight stick with its custom artwork and turned on the Playstation to work out her mathematical exam rage on some random strangers online.

It was her love of fighting games, and to a lesser extent games as a whole, that brought her to E3 that one year. She had to make a choice, only having enough money for one gaming related trip. E3, or EVO, the premier fighting game event in the country where she'd get to test her abilities against the top players. She went with E3, not because of a lack of confidence in her skill, but because the plane fare was less and gave her more spending money. It turned out well in the end, it was there that she met some friends who, coincidentally enough, attended the same college. The reason she fell in with them, despite their...idiosyncrasies, is because one of them could tell she was cosplaying as Chun Li in her Alpha outfit instead of the traditional outfit that most associate with her. People that could make that distinction were the kind of people she wanted to spend E3 with. They even won a contest, no doubt helped by Jihyo's demonstration of her version of Chun Li's kicks. All those years of martial arts training finally paid off, and they paid off by Jihyo fake kicking a crowd of people while cameras took pictures.

They had remained friends after their initial meeting, but Jihyo rarely made an appearance outside of her apartment, her studies were important - moreso to her parents than her, and since she had a tendency to lose track of time when playing, her time with her 'hobby' was limited. But she didn't have to worry about studies for months now, and it was time to make up for lost time. And just as soon as she was about to have her tenth match that afternoon, her phone went off. Taking it out of her pocket, she noticed it was for a scheduled event, just labeled 'Dyl's Jar'. It was a joke. Jihyo called Dylan 'Dyl' and couldn't help but associate that with pickles.

"Shit, was that today?" Jihyo had remembered being invited to the Jar but had completely forgotten that it was happening so soon after the end of the semester. "Whatever, I'll be late."

Another twenty matches later, Jihyo was outside and walking towards Dylan's place, her fight stick in a bag in her left hand, along with the copies of fighting games that she was clearly better at than her friends; if she was feeling generous she might even let them win a few. She didn't bother knocking on Dylan's door upon arriving, for one thing it was open. Jihyo stepped into the apartment, and her otherwise neutral expression turned sour, not from the presence of familiar people, but because of the annoying noise coming from the single-seat which, if Jihyo had remembered past visits to the Jar, was off limits.

"Turn that shit off or you're going to get punched. Hard. Not even joking about this, Tyler, turn it the fuck off. I just got here and it's going to give me a fucking headache." Jihyo shot a glare in Tyler's direction before greeting the others who had arrived with small nods. "Surprised you guys showed up. Don't know why, none of you assholes are gonna beat me. Especially not when you're gonna be drinking all this shit," she tilted her head towards the various carbonated and alcoholic beverages, "Dyl, you better have some water, and not from the fucking tap, I mean actual bottles of natural spring water and shit with minerals. Oh, Alexis, what's up. Thought I'd be the only one with both X chromosomes here."

Jihyo took a seat, placing her bag in front of her. "I'm fucking serious, Tyler, turn that off."

And so Jihyo had arrived.

[EpicNukeGuy]

Ren Young Ming Ren's Flat

Ren just had to be lazy. "Damn... I feel like I'm missing something..." He yawned, then went to the thing someone would call a "living room" in his flat. In fact, you probably couldn't call it a living room, but more of a den, because of its size. It probably was the size of 2 pickup trucks, at the maximum. Ren slouched on his spinny chair, spinning around, and around, and around... until he got dizzy, and stopped. I don't even want to draw, or even pl-" Ren's phone, a Samsung Galaxy, made a short but sweet "Old Spice" whistle, indicating a reminder. "Dylan's weird gamer convention thingy... Today? Now? Oh shit." Ren dashed to the door, which he immediately flung open, and shut behind him. The door then opened again, and Ren dashed back in. He grabbed his soda and headphones, then ran out the door, shutting it behind him for good. He hopped into his Camry, then drove a few blocks down the street, aware that he would be late. He fixed his glasses above his nose, as they were drooping down, and Ren couldn't see squat. "Calm down, you will not be late, or embarrased, or anything like that that would end out awkwardly." Ren didn't interact much with animate objects, and he mostly just drew or play Starcraft. But right now, he had to go out of his comfort zone. 

8 Minutes Later Dylan's Apartment Room
Ren arrived at the apartment room, still in half-pajamas, very woozy from chugging his soda while driving. There was a blonde haired girl in the middle of the doorway, probably finishing some dramatic conclusion.

Alexis said "I... HAVE ARRIVED!" Spreading her arms out dramatically, she grinned wildly at her audience. Her... Rather small audience.... Honestly, it was no surprise that her expression quickly turned to one of mild disappointment.

The pose she made was hilarious. It was probably as funny as seeing some guy rage while horribly failing at Flappy Bird. Ren let out a small chuckle, and the girl sat down and ate nachos. A few more people entered the room, then Ren took off his shoes, as it is good manners in Korean and Japanese culture to remove shoes before entering a room. "Where should I sit..." There were a few seats: Ren took one and saw soda and other goodies on a table ahead of him, so he stood up and picked up a soda. 

<I hope I'm not stealing this... The other people here I don't know too well are getting them, so I might as well take one too.> 

He then spotted the only person he knew here very well: Dylan. It was also relieving when he saw a few of the faces at computers: There was Jihyo, Elliot, Tyler, Kenneth, and more. He then saw the face of Alexis, and Ren thought himself an idiot for not knowing who the "blonde haired girl" was. Ren let out a sigh, before taking a drink. He smiled. <This is gonna be fun.>

[Warrior of Sunlight]

Tyler look back up at Jihyo and understood immediately, that if he didn't turn off the annoying sound of Brazilian remix laughs, there'd be skull fragments of everywhere. Tyler quickly turned off the hues and closed his laptop. Looking down in fear, Tyler decided to get out of Dylan's chair while he was at it as he could see that Jihyo was very annoyed at him. Picking up his laptop, Tyler made an odyssey to the couch next to Emilian's chair and plopped down. He re-opened his laptop to play some Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, but then noticed that people were bringing in their games and systems and realized he should have done the same. Putting down his laptop, Tyler carefully side-stepped past Jihyo and headed for the stairway, leading him up to his room. He burst through his door and went straight for his Black Xbox 360 Elite, its 4 Black controllers, and some games including Dark Souls, GTA V, Skyrim and Oblivion(just in case), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved. He also decided to bring F-Zero, for the SNES. Carefully, Tyler cautiously tip-toed his way back down to the room below his and entered the room, taking his shoes off this time.
Tyler, putting down his systems and games with the rest of the bunch, grabbed a Sprite(the best soft-drink ever) and sat down. He then continued slashing-n-hacking some fools with the Vanguard's Claymore in Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.

[Card Captor]

Jason Lee Scott

Walking through the door with a backpack full of games on his back, Jason inhaled a breath a air through his nose to take in the scent of the atmosphere "ahh...the scent of games" he walked through the door and got himself settled. Setting his backpack down, he reached in and pulled out several games "got every single Mario Party. And enough controllers for 4 people to play any of them" Putting them down, he went over to grab some booze "ah, there's nothing quite like drunken Mario Party"

Tommy Oliver

Silently making his way inside. Tommy wordlessly made his way over the the pizza. After grabbing a slice of pepperoni pizza, he spotted a nightmare 'are...are those pickles on a pizza!? Who...who would do something so horrible?' He spent a few moments in silence, morning for the poor pizza that was desecrated with pickles of all things, a single tear falling down his cheak

[Warrior of Sunlight]

Tyler look over at Jason slowly with a soul-melting glare and whispered audibly, "You fool, you killed us all." He realized that, that very marathon that his group of friends would be no more. There would be agony and blood-shed, possibly that very night, and there would be nothing that could stop it. Tyler thought it'd be a great time to remember all the great times they had together, like at the recent E3, how he kept poking Jihyo in the arm and then his legs were promptly swept and then received an ax-kick to the diaphragm, rendering his lungs useless for a minute. And the other time when he swapped Lee's decaf with an espresso, and he was running around at the speed of sound, like he had places to go. And than there was that other time when he snatched Alexis's hat(without malicious intent) and ran away down the sidewalk, but only for about half-a-mile before tripping on some raised concrete and face-planting onto the sidewalk, leaving Alexis's hat unharmed.
He was going to miss all that, because at the end of this marathon, there will be a trashed consoles and discs on the sidewalk below a broken window about 4 floors up. Someone might be in the corner sobbing due to something Jihyo said, and than Dyl might kick one or two people out due to simply winning a round. And it'd be all be because of Mario Party. Or maybe everyone would get along and nothing would happen, I mean, it is just a game, right? Nothing could go wrong this marathon, and it'd be a real bonding period for all the friends.

[Rin]

Alexis Taylor

"'Sup, Jihyo!" Alexis raised a hand in greeting at the other girl. "Not like I have anything better to do. And hey!" She glared at Kenneth, fire blazing in her eyes as the poor boy recieved a full-on deathglare. "Better the Kamen Rider cliché than the Naruto one. Even if Guy is one of the very few decent characters from that..."

Alexis sighed. Well, her entrance hadn't gone as planned. Things weren't off to a good start, really. At least Tyler had turned off that annoying video... Which was good, because she didn't need any more reasons to hurt him after he tried to steal her wonderful, beloved, sexy hat. But now the boys all wanted to get drunk, which... Wasn't exactly at the top of Alexis's own priorities. As far as she was concerned, the only good use for alcohol was cooking.

Nachos are... Okay, I guess... Well... She would've made them better. The cheese wasn't the best, the tortilla chips were a bit flavourless, and the jalapenos didn't have much of a bite to them... Now if she had made them, it would've been a different story indeed. But she couldn't really complain. After all, free nachos.

"So what're we playing first, anyways?" she asked, leaning back in her seat and staring absentmindedly at the ceiling. "Brawl? Mario Party? Mario Kart? Street Fighter or something like that? Ooh, how about Guilty Gear? I'm always up for a round of Guilty Gear!"

Of course, it was pretty much common knowledge that the only reason Alexis was always up for Guilty Gear was because of one character in particular. Namely Bridget. ...Hopefully she would not go on a long tangent about how beautiful he was, and a list of all the things she wished to do to him in intimate, explicit detail this time.

[Crossfire]

David Stark could hear from down the hall that the party was already getting started. He had fully expected to be late given the circumstances, he just hoped he wasn't going to be the last to show up. Peering around the doorframe, he slid off his backpack and laid it down as he cleared his throat to get some attention.

"Hey everyone, sorry I'm late, but I have a good excuse this time. I only played one match too many and then on the way out, I completely forgot something and had to stop to gather up this little beauty" He stepped in around the doorframe, revealing the Xbox One box that he was holding. David was one of the few members of his group of friends who had managed to get a hold of the next-gen system, so he figured he should bring it along.

"In all seriousness though" he said as he laid the boxed-up console down alongside his discarded backpack full of controllers and games, then slid off his hoodie and hung it on the back of a nearby chair "I'm late because there was this big traffic jam a few blocks away, it seems like a bunch of traffic lights all decided to go on the fritz at the same time, I had to take the long way around to get here, so who are we still waiting on?"

[Mr_pink]

Darren watched everyone make their way in. Soon enough the topic of the first game to play was brought up though. The obvious choice was of course, brawl. It had a variety of characters from at least one game that everyone would like. Darren favourite was, Captain Falcon for every game. Snake came a close second on brawl though. It was at the point that David had walked in that Darrens mood changed.
"Ugh, not the xbone" He exclaimed.
"There is literally like no multiplayer games" He moved on from the subject of the clunky console.

"Anyway, my vote is for Brawl" He grabbed another handful of doritos before picking at them in his hand and eating them, occassionally taking a sip of his drink that lay on his left. Cherry coke, like coke but with a powerup. It was like there was a party in Darrens mouth that he wasn't invited to but someone he hated was going to and wasn't having a good time.

[VitaVitaAR]

Another figure edged awkwardly in. She... she wasn't late, right? She was trying not to be late... Anna took a deep breath as she edged further into the room, looking around. Well, almost everyone seemed here already, but they weren't playing anything yet, so... that meant she wasn't late. She really just wanted to be able to have fun and enjoy herself with her friends and all... Taking another deep breath, Anna opened her mouth to speak.

"Um... hi, everyone," she said, shuffling into the room a little further as she did. She was kind of excited, too, really... she wanted to play something really fun with everyone, but, well... she was always a little nervous about trying to suggest a game, she had to be honest about that. Anna waved to her friends as she entered the room... and stood there awkwardly. She was... also kind of nervous about just sitting down, really... what if someone else wanted to sit there?

Anna was really rather nervous in general, really. But she was moreso, now, mostly because of her excitement about playing games with her friends. She knew she just needed to relax, but it wasn't always easy to do that.

---

And... then another girl entered. However, she was far less focused on what was going on around her. Or at least, it seemed like that. No, Serena was instead focusing on her Nintendo DS. Currently she was doing another run of one of the Kirby games, Super Star Ultra. And that required her attention for a few moments longer. It wasn't time to pause, not yet. She just wanted to finish up this one section before doing anything else. However, talking to people wasn't much of a distraction. She didn't have to focus on it much at all. Without looking up from her DS, the tiny girl gave her greeting.

"Hi," she said, her tone flat and utterly deadpan. And that was that. Well... almost. Finally having finished the section of Super Star Ultra game, Serena paused her game and looked up. There was... well, everyone she had met at that convention. She'd cosplayed as Reimu, thinking back to the event. It had been entertaining enough, really. If she hadn't taken a liking to any of these people she wouldn't have shown up. She knew Alexis the best, though she'd spoken to all of them plenty of times. Usually while playing a game. However, one thing caught her eye in particular.

"..." Serena stared at the Xbox One box for several moments. And then... "Oh. You didn't have to go dumpster diving just for us."

With that, she looked back to her DS, unpaused her game, and swiftly sat down on what she claimed to be the most comfortable spot in the room.

[Tachi]

Rachel sighed, watching a hellish minotaur rushing towards her. Of course, she looked defenceless, so the creature's charge seemed reasonable. If one ignored the pile of its comrades behind her. 3...2...1...Rachel smiled as a wall of semi-transparent blue figures popped up between her and the monster; spirits of the dead bound to her service. The ghosts unleashed a volley of energy blasts at the demonic bull as it stumbled around, trying to get to the human. The brunette simply sat back and watched the carnage.

Bladed Aatxe drops a Glob of Ectoplasm.

"Heh, jackpot." Rachel walked over and picked up the blob. She wasn't entirely sure WHY she was killing the monsters and harvesting chunks of them, but...it was worth a lot of money and they weren't exactly dangerous...so long as she could keep them from actually hitting her.

...And then her phone beeped, breaking the brunette's immersion. Frowning, she looked to see what the problem was. A low battery? Well, she could just sort that out later. However, something else struck her as she looked at the somewhat outdated device...Didn't she have somewhere she was meant to go today?

"Oh crap..." She mumbled, jumping out of bed, she quickly shut down her computer and hurried to get ready. Soon, she was out the door and racing towards Dylan's place...Moments later, she found herself backtracking, having forgotten to grab her laptop or 3DS before heading out. A short time later, she sprinted out again, without a word to any of her housemates. With a set of headphones plugged in, attached to a PSP which had spent most of its time recently being used as an MP3 player.

---

Around ten minutes later, Rachel arrived. Standing a short distance from the apartment's entrance, she stopped to catch her breath. Running here had been...kind of exhausting, especially given what she'd been carrying. She turned off her PSP and took a deep breath. Brushing some stray hair out of her eyes, she approached the door. Putting on her best French accent, she set about announcing her arrival...

"Allo, allo, allo. Ça va, Go-Busters?"

...With a reference she was pretty sure would be completely lost on most of the room's occupants.

"Um, hey. Sorry, I'm late." She added, looking around. Well...at least they hadn't started yet. So maybe she wasn't too late at least.

Due to a combination of not wanting to sit in someone else's spot and having forgotten to eat breakfast, Rachel drifted towards the pizza.

[Sora1297]

"Only a few more people, don't worry." Dylan said as he addressed the question of how many more people would be showing up. When asked about bottled water rather then booze or pop, Dylan laughed at the girl and raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Jihyo. Water? Of course its here. I've got a case in the fridge you can help yourself to. I know you liked it cold, so there you go, bud." he said with a smile as he pat her back and walked away, heading towards the television. He had noticed that an extraordinary amount of game systems and controllers had been plopped down on the side table, which he laughed at. He saw an XboxOne, which was cool because he already had a Wii-U and a PS4 laying in wait. The N64 with four controllers, however, he already owned, so he moved the console out of everybody's way and placed it on the counter. The four controllers, however, he kept due to the fact some people felt more comfortable using their own controllers.

((This next part, regardless if your game master character has entered Dylan's apartment by the time of this posting, you will all be present to witness it. It is, after all, a GM event :3))

As it seemed like everybody was done piling into the apartment, Dylan stood up in front of the television and waved out. "Hey everyone, glad you could make it. Okay, so you know the drill. Tonight begins the "First Annual Tournament of Video Game Mastery". Over the course of the next four days, we will... Ah fuck it, you know the drill: play games, beat the other guy, all that fun shit. Once we enter the final rounds, those who have been disqualified will pick the games at which each player must face off against. If the game allows four players, first place is an automatic win, while second and third will play again in a single match to determine who passes on to the next round, and who doesn't. Okay, so lets have some fun and get down to business. For the first event, we've got a bit of a fan favourite." Dylan announced happily. As he spoke about the first event, he switched on the Wii and turned on the TV screen. His Wii-mote drifted over to the play icon and the logo for "Super Smash Brothers Brawl" came up on the screen.

"Now, a few rules before we begin this warm-up event: There will be no items, including Smash Balls. You cannot be the same character as anybody else in the match, and you must use at least 1 of each tier character: Light, Medium, Heavy. What order you use them in, I don't really care. Also, try to be fair to others and don't spam powerful attacks. If I see anybody using "Thunder" as Pikachu repeatedly, you can just set down the controller and go have some pizza while you watch the rest of us have fun." Dylan explained as the loading screen came up on the screen and the words "Press Start" came up on the screen. With a final, confident smile, Dylan smiled and exclaimed "With that all put behind us, LETS GET READY TO BRAWL!!" before he pressed the + button on the Wii-Mote. As the game let out the signature start up sound, the lights suddenly went out. "Damn it! The power's out again.. Fucking shoddy electricity.." Dylan muttered before he pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. "Sorry about this guys, I had no idea that was gonna happen... Anybody bring a portable game system we can all try out?"

[EpicNukeGuy]

Ren Young Ming