Yankee

djarin's introduction, how cool!!

Hello and welcome! Don't be intimdated by the forum, I'm sure you'll get used to it and if you like, there's a section for testing formatting and other things. Feel free to ask if you have any questions! (As for the two year thing, if I'm understanding that question correctly it's because the topic/thread/RP was started two years ago but the most recent posts inside that topic are from today.)

Hello, everyone!

Hey there, welcome to RPG! The majority of RPs on the site are freeform so no worries there. If you're looking to join a group RP, just mind the "apply" or "jump in" tags. Otherwise the one on one section is probably the most active.

Enjoy your stay!

World of Light

Primrose, Therion, & Pit

Level: 10 - Total EXP: 237/100 ------ Level: 7 - Total EXP: 287/70
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● ---------------------------- 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●
Level: 5 - Total EXP: 257/50
Word Count: 1921 (+3 exp)

It was very much looking like Pit was going to lose three minigames in a row.

If there was one bright side to that, it was that at least he wouldn't be dead last. During the course of the game he'd passed by others with stopped cars, crashed cars, or no cars at all (along with the results of seeker sabotage in the form of paint and other goopy hazards, craters in the road, and more)... so he was doing better than them, but it only made him feel a little better. He wanted to win, and not because someone else was doing poorly but because he was doing great.

That said, the red fares turned out to be much harder than they appeared. The sudden jump up from green fares saw Pit wildly careening through the city's streets to try and reach his client's destination in time. Balancing safety with speed was tough, and more than half of the passengers he picked up ended up bailing because of one thing or another. And while at first Pit would happily chat with the NPCs that got into his cab, as the time limit ran out on the more challenging fares the chatting turned into complaints to "stay on the road" or "go faster." There was no pleasing them!

At the very least, driving around was really fun - and when Pit did manage to complete a fare, the elation washed away the previous failures and spurred him back on the road. It prevented the game from truly being stressful, keeping it squarely in the 'enjoyable' category.

He was in the middle of ferrying his latest passenger across town when the sounds of battle caught his ear. With all the hijinks going on, plus the sounds of the city itself, it really wasn't that remarkable. In fact he ignored it; driving with both hands gripped tight on the wheel, leaned forward with his brows pinched and the tip of his tongue poked out of his mouth in concentration. Only when he turned fast around a corner and came upon on the scene of the fight did his attention drift from the road to Ms. Fortune and Juri's bout.

"Huh?" He blinked, craning his neck around to watch while the taxi continue forward, actually registering the newcomer now. Why are they fighting? Did they give up and decide to spar instead? Aw man, that sounds fun...! Although from what little he could overhear, the girls were being pretty catty with each other. Maybe not a spar, then...? Maybe Ms. Fortune was trying to set the crass lady free from Galeem but forgot the damage was turned off?

"Hey, watch where you're going!" Pit's passenger urged him, grasping his shoulders from the backseat and shaking them to get the angel's eyes back on the road. "Wh-oh!" The taxi struck several flower stalls and then scrapped the side of the shop itself, forcing the vehicle down a one way alley. It burst out from between the buildings with its wheels bouncing off of the pavement, across the road and onto the curb. Pit spun the wheel, resulting in a loud screech and tire marks burned onto the street as he got the taxi back on track.

"Sorry!" Pit said, looking back at the frazzled man still miraculously in the cab. The NPC held his dizzy head, then shook it. "Just pay attention and let's go."

Since quitting wasn't something Pit did and he was still in the middle of transporting his fare, he got a move on in the direction of the arrow above rather than hop out and join the new impromptu game of smash. It did get him thinking a little though. When the taxi skidded to a halt and his disgruntled passenger hopped out, Pit glanced at the displays on the dashboard. He couldn't read the words, but after the first few fares he determined one set of numbers to be his score, and the other his game timer - and the latter was running down quickly. Pit drummed his fingers on the wheel while he thought. He could keep playing, or he could see what the fight was really about, or if he assumed the feral was trying to help Juri, he could get a head start on doing the same for his fellow Smasher Capt. Falcon... Speaking of, the blue blur (not that one) whizzed by in the opposite direction. It wouldn't come as a surprise if the F-Zero pilot handily won this game.

Pit turned the car's wheel again, quickly sending it clunking across the meridian in order to chase after the front runner, but he never managed to catch up before his timer hit zero and the taxi's engine cut out, gradually bringing Pit and his vehicle to a stop in the middle of the highway. The angel let his forehead fall onto the steering wheel with a thunk. Game over. In the other lane, another taxi drove by with an unfamiliar driver and a women in red in the passenger seat.

---

Driving around in the taxi was a little bit fun. Mostly due to the low stakes of the game, as Primrose thought the prospect of controlling these high speed machines wouldn't be half as fun if it was in some serious situation. Either way, the dancer seemed to very much prefer riding shotgun rather than behind the wheel. For most of the game after her first fare, that was what she'd been doing - with that first passenger having taken over her role.

With her Allure, getting what she wanted out of the weak willed was trivial... and there was no will weaker than none at all. The NPCs functioned like real people in order to breathe life into the game, but Primrose was still surprised that batting her eyelashes and asking the man to drive in her stead had actually worked. It definitely would be considered foul play of some kind, if her help was any good at his new job.

As if following a strict map, her thrall never deviated from the road, meaning no short cuts, off-roading, or ramps. He also wasn't the best at avoiding obstacles left over from other players (or said players themselves). Even with those faults, he was still probably more effective than Primrose herself as a driver, so the dancer just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

The slow and steady progress was not enough to keep up with the ever declining timer. When Primrose noticed that it was getting close to running out she sat up straighter in her seat, looking around for any nice spots to wait out the rest of the game. She, her driver, and an NPC woman (a green fare, if the small increase in money was any indication) were headed over the long bridge separating the heart of the city from the island next to it. Palm trees lined the road, making bars against the sky with pleasant streaks of setting sunlight filtering between them to light up the street ahead.

When they crossed the bridge, the arrow indicator turned left. The taxi followed it to a little inlet dock, where the third passenger hopped out. "Thanks!" She called, waving as she dashed away. A couple seconds later and the timer ran out, so Primrose exited the vehicle too.

"My thanks as well," she told the driver she'd enlisted. He replied with a "no problem!" before coming to realize that the car would no longer start. He sat there in confusion for a moment before hopping out and hoofing it, presumably back to where he'd originally wanted to go back across the bridge. If he was a real person, Primrose might have felt bad about that.

She stretched her arms over her head, then stretched her legs by walking along the roadside. Compared to the havoc being wreaked in the main city, things seemed pretty quiet over here. She continued on, appreciating the scenery - the mountain on one side, the ocean and the beach on the other. Even if it wasn't real, this was a pretty place.

Behind her, Primrose heard the rumble of another taxi. Without needing to focus on driving, she'd realized that the players' cars sounded different than the ones that just populated the game. She slowed down, looking over her shoulder before stopping and waving her hand.

"Could you give a girl a lift?" she said as the driver slowed down.

Somehow, Therion wasn't surprised to see Primrose here. He'd hardly seen anyone on the second island, save for a few of the top players taking harder fare to and fro, but eventually other people must have come up with the same strategy as him or else gotten themselves stuck here after trying too hard a fare. Primrose seemed like the latter, since he'd already passed her abandoned taxi down the road.

He pulled over, and with a flat expression he held a hand out towards like her expected to be paid a fare. Primrose's mouth curled into a little amused smile. "My company isn't enough~?"

"You know that doesn't work on me," he scoffed. He didn't keep up the act, reaching over the cab's center console to open the passenger side door for her. "Come on. I'm almost out of time anyway."

Primrose obliged, rounding the vehicle and closing the door once she was seated. Therion pulled away from the curb and set them smoothly down the road, downhill where they got a great view of the coastline.

Despite saying he was almost out of time, there were still a couple of minutes left on Therion's timer. Since he'd been taking a bunch of easy fares, his overall time limit had increased by a fair amount while his score, the money he'd earned, was fairly low. He didn't have a chance at placing in the top three due to that play style, but he didn't really care. 'Kooky Cabbies' turned out to be pretty fun, and even pleasant after the pressure of trying to win was removed. Therion had been getting a much better handle on driving with the multiple easy fares, and though he couldn't be called an expert by any means he was at least competent by now. Putting his focus solely on the car and the road kept his mind off of everything else - the mission, the changes everyone was going through, the horrors they'd experienced earlier that day... and there was no chance of creepy monsters, being submerged, or falling off a mountain in this minigame. With the warm sun and the soft, salty breeze... it was actually relaxing.

Savoring that unexpected relaxed feeling, Therion had abandoned the game a little before Primrose herself had been disqualified. He just kept his focus on driving, and steadily getting a little better and more comfortable with it, until he got to this point: being able to enjoy a nice ride with the wind tickling his hair.

Primrose settled down in her seat, resting her head back against the headrest. She'd thought it before, but riding in a car felt so different from riding in a carriage, even an uncovered one. It was nice, especially since she could trust he friend at the wheel instead of what she'd been doing before. Not wanting to break Therion's focus, Primrose didn't bring up any conversation topics. The Orsterrans simply soaked up the wind, the sun, and the sight of the sparkling beaches until the taxi chugged and rolled to a stop.

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Greetings or my name is Richard Phoenix

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World of Light

Primrose, Therion, & Pit

Level: 10 - Total EXP: 234/100 ------ Level: 7 - Total EXP: 284/70
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●● ---------------------------- 𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●
Level: 5 - Total EXP: 254/50
Word Count: 1921 (+3 exp)

Taking second place was a surprise for Primrose, especially because she didn’t particularly feel she contributed much. Therion had at least been “eaten” on camera. Still, she wasn’t going to argue the result. Figuring much of it had to do with Roland’s know-how, Primrose glanced at the Fixer and gave him a small nod. She accepted the prize, now at a total of five tokens. Beside her, Therion was sitting at nine - which officially made him the most token-rich player at the moment. He could have been smug about it, but instead he drew no attention to that fact.

And then there was Pit, who snapped up his consolation token with a petulant frown. It wouldn’t last long, because he really had been having fun so far, but while the results were being tallied he couldn’t help but feel that this was so unfair! Rushing through levels (though it had been some years since he could call himself a true platformer), bypassing obstacles, dealing with creepy monsters… it was all stuff he regularly dealt with! So how was he doing so poorly? It was easy enough to blame his teammates and partners, especially since he preferred to work alone, but a true captain could compensate for his squad. So Pit sighed, wallowed for a second, and then tried to psyche himself up for the next game.

He missed something that Ballyhoo said, which did not go unnoticed by the two Orsterrans. A new name among the victorious players: Juri. She had a very distinctive look, so it was easy to spot her with a quick scan of the area. There was no fuss over her - she’d just been added to their group for the games like Capt. Falcon technically had been, it was just an interesting development. Especially after poor Sectonia had been partnered with a rock in the first game.

And speaking of games, the next one was swiftly announced. The most popular event in the big top, although the explanation made little sense… at first. Once she parsed through the words, context clues led Primrose to believe they would be transporting people akin to a rented carriage… although she did raise a brow at one word. Non-lethally…?

Without further ado, they were transported once more.

---

While he may have lost the first two minigames there was no way that Pit, Angel Land’s strongest soldier, captain of Lady Palutena’s royal bodyguards, and all-around super cool heroic guy, was going to lose three in a row! Not if he had anything to say about it! And though he hadn’t really grasped Ballyhoo’s explanation, once they were in the minigame for real and he saw the taxi cab everything sort of fell into place. The goal of this game was to drive around town really fast while getting passengers from point A to point B. That sounded easy enough!

"Alright," the angel said to himself as he hopped over the side of the cab into the driver’s seat. "This can’t be any harder than using an Aether Ring! So this time, I'm definitely placing!"

Throughout his life (as short as it was compared to the gods’), Pit had seen a lot of different vehicles. From the primitive horse-drawn buggy, to the modern day car, to the futuristic spacecrafts of mortals, as well as all sorts of divine vehicles ranging from chariots to mechas. Theoretically, a taxi cab should not be beyond him. Once behind the wheel, he immediately realized that he was right: this would not be as hard as using an Aether Ring. Its controls seemed to be more like an Exo Tank’s, which he could definitely handle. It was fortunate too that the taxis were sized for their drivers, so he didn’t have any issues reaching the pedals. The rest of the intricacies of driving the car… he’d just figure those out as he went.

With newfound determination, Pit started the engine and grabbed the wheel. For good measure, he imagined what Lady Palutena might say to further encourage him. ”Start with the green fares to get used to the taxi’s handling, but remember this is a race against everyone else too. So once you’re comfortable go right for the red! Okay Pit, show them why we deserve to be invited to the next Mario Kart!”

"Yes ma’am!" Pit replied to the vision his brain conjured up, then stepped hard on the gas pedal towards his first client - and very nearly ran them over. "Hop in!"

"Thanks! Get me to the courts!"

"Okay! That's... where is that?" Pit squinted at the mini-map in the form of a GPS. It was all lines, colors, and squiggles. He had never needed to read a map before... but thankfully a big yellow arrow appeared in the air that let him know where to go. "Oh! Alright, hold on!"

His destination wasn't that far away. The next passenger wanted to go back to where the first had been. The start of the game saw Pit driving back and forth between easy green fares while he got used to the car. When he eventually felt good enough to start taking jumps and crashing into stuff on purpose for once to make shortcuts, he blasted onto the freeway with his sights set on the red fares.

---

When Therion had practiced driving back in Twilight Town, it had only been a way to pass time. Sure, he figured it might come in useful in a pinch, but he didn’t expect to be using the knowledge so soon. Once everyone was transported to the island (separated, he noted, so no teammates this time) and he inspected the taxi, he realized it wasn’t entirely different from the vehicle he’d practiced with. It looked much more put together, so it was probably sturdier, and there were a few more handles and levers, but otherwise for a medieval guy like him? Practically the same. The taxi also featured two displays on the dashboard, one being a map and the other showing zeroes.

The total fare I’m guessing, Therion thought. Though it took him slightly longer, he came to the same conclusion as Primrose. The concept of a “taxi” was not foreign to either of them, the word itself was just unfamiliar. Well, and the car they’d be expected to use. So in this case, Therion actually had a leg up on the dancer. I could give her some pointers through the pearl, but… nah.

This was only a game after all, so he left his friend to fend for herself. She would hardly be the only one struggling with this anyway. With half a shrug Therion entered the car, turned the key, and felt the engine rumble to life. He wondered for a moment how well he would realistically do; of the Seekers he knew best, he couldn’t imagine any of them doing that well save for the Koopa family who seemed versed in a wide variety of random things. Then of course there were those that they had split up from, who mostly seemed more familiar with this kind of thing. Lastly, the professional racer they’d immediately found and the dark horse that was dropped into their group last game. Therion’s odds weren’t terribly great, but at least he wouldn’t be the worst.

"Let’s see…" he fiddled with the map, coming up with his strategy in a few moments: rather than fight for fares in the larger, more populated city area with more experienced drivers, he would first go across the bridge connecting the two islands and collect some passengers where there was less competition.

He set off, stopping at a few people to see if they were going the same direction and turning them down until he found a yellow fare with a destination on the volcanic island. Unfortunately he ran into trouble almost right away. As expected the city was full of of Seekers making the most of the game, whether they were playing the right way or not. Therion had started off near some junction, and had to dodge not only the maniac drivers actually trying to ferry passengers but the rogue elements of Blazermate and Ms. Fortune who seemed to have decided that ramming others off the road was the goal. He passed plenty of scenes of destruction until finally making it across the highway's bridge.

To his chagrin, the passenger he'd picked up was long gone - driven away either by the long drive time or the hasty, jerky movements he'd needed to take in order to avoid obstacles and other players. Oh well, whatever, he thought. At least now he could drive in relative peace.

---

The game’s precious starting minutes, the time when everyone that was vying for first would set out to get as much of a headstart as possible. Though for Primrose, she spent that time in the cab’s driver’s seat. She had one leg crossed over the other, a manual she’d found in the glovebox spread open in her hands. She had been deposited near the heart of the city on the edge of Mixed Martial Park where she could see a few others getting their start or driving by, but she paid them little mind. She'd seen some crashing already and figured out that the players, their vehicles, and their passengers were immune to damage, so there wasn't much need to pay attention to what everyone else was doing just yet.

Like with the first game, Primrose discarded any notion of placing first, second or third. Even the previous one she wrote off as more or less a fluke. And since she wasn't playing to win, she could take her time and figure out how the car worked. She flipped through each page of the instructions, appreciating the "dumbed down" language used in them. It served its purpose: making it so almost anyone, from any walk of life, could understand how to play. Putting the knowledge into practice was a different thing entirely, but the dancer made progress incrementally. She figured out how to turn the car on, how much pressure to put on the pedal to convince the two tons of steel to move, and on the other pedal to get it to stop. Her time limit was really running down since she wasn't picking up any passengers, but it really didn't bother her much. It wasn't until Nadia drove back around her way and rear ended Primrose's taxi (causing a major lurch that pushed the dancer's car into the side of a fountain) that she decided to actually try and play. "Alright, I get it," she said, flipping her ponytail out of her face.

Unfortunately the cat burglar had already driven away by the time Primrose pulled her car around, so she couldn't return the favor. Instead, she slowly drove toward the first green fare she could see. It was a nondescript man who was only headed around the block, though when he hopped into the back of the cab he smiled brightly. "Yowza, I lucked out with my driver!"

Glancing into the man's eyes, she could see that he wasn't exactly all there. The people in this city were basically props, designed to play a human-like role. How deep did it go, Primrose wondered. How well could they emulate a person? An idea came to her mind, one she'd test as soon as she dropped her fare off. If she didn't plan on winning, anything she did could hardly be counted as cheating, right?