Balance of Dimensions [RP]

[Lunartic]

Jessie chuckled and shook her head. "Right, post-game interview. Better get to that." She made her way back to the screens where his interview was being shown. It was his first match and looked pretty high from it. His last words made her laugh. Some of the other battlers gave her strange looks, which she promptly ignored. "I'm the Monkey King!" she bellowed when he returned. "Is that your new catchphrase?"

[GoldForge]

Alexa Lockhart
------------------
"WHAT?!"
There was a disruptive outcry from Alexa as she lurched forth from her chair, the flimsy piece of plastic and metal topping over behind her as though cowering in fear. "Impossible! Impossible! None of that should have happened! The odds were clearly against that hopeless brat!"

The antisocial lump had caught aflame from the moment she stood up, pouring out her rage passionately as though it was a stage script she knew by heart. The moment the guards raised up on their haunches at her unruly behavior, she quieted down, drowsiness draining the lively color of her eyes. "...I'll kick his ass someday. Just give me a second."

No second glances were given to Aaron when she was called forth to the stage, jabbing her hands into her pockets and shuffling out through the entrance.

Oh, how the crowd departed in her ears. Left and right, spotlights danced around like frantic fireflies, bearing symbols of various colors. What were they? Words? Astral marks? Elemental icons? Nonsense? Yeah, probably nonsense. Bringing her gaze to the roof to distract herself from the stage fright, the twisted array of screens tangled and dangled above along with all the other bits and gizmos like a technological wonderland.

A-LE-XA! A-LE-XA!

Hear that, sonny boy? Reality's comin' t'get cha.

The scar of anxiety was torn open once more, a crooked, gritting-teeth grin upon her face. On the screen, it displayed the splash of both her and Steven, then their astrals swooped in on either side to replace their portraits with a flashy animation, slooowly gliding for a moment as they were shown off before flying back out of existence. In their place was one half of each of their astral marks pressed together, split down the middle by a lightning-bolt crack. All in a delicious, rotating 3D render. Well, to the terminal she went. For glory.

Alexa could already feel the courage of her astral collecting in the back of her right hand, burning with...valiant warmth, perhaps. The circular platform to her side of the terminal was as always, everything in simplistic glossy jet, the only source of color from the various rectangles that decorated the stand...and the rings she was now standing upon. Her sponsors had made a fitting choice for the illumination, randomized flickering between various shades of yellow and orange illuminating her like a lantern's light. Now, all that was left was to wait for Steven, and perhaps approval from the announcer.

N.S.B
It was in this moment, she took on the nasally, airy voice of a timid young child, leaning closer to Stella. She almost sounded quite...sad. Lost. "Do you...not know me...?" Ah! Holy hell! When did she get there?! Was she just that light when walking in boots, or was this matryoshka of a freak secretly part ninja, too?

"I'm not scary, am I?" Came a new voice, deep and tomboyish with a hint of lazy. Raising up from her hunchbacked position, she threw her hands back out of her pockets. Shockingly enough, it looked like her movie star demeanor was wearing off. "Or are you having a little..." They reached up to cover the eyeholes, she feigned cowardice. "...Stagefright?~" Her fingers shot back out to allow herself to see, wiggling like tiny jazz hands.

[The-Blades-slave]

Aaron
Aaron wavered when he saw the girl - Alexa's - reaction to seeing him, and the fact that she painstakingly went out of her way to pretend he hadn't been the one to call to her to the stage. She brushed past him with her shoulders hunched, curled into herself like everything around her was hostile and her hoodie was the only shelter from it. Did he know her? The name had seemed familiar, and when he got a good look at her she appeared familiar too, but trying to wrestle the memory from the foggy recesses was like trying to dodge every drop of rain when running through a storm. In other words, it was rather pointless.

"Huh...?" Aaron shook his head to clear away the thoughts, turning around to find Jessie shouting at him from across the room. A smile stretched across his face out of habit and he closed the distance between them so he didn't have to shout himself, saying, "Hehe, it could be. I could call my fans monkeys," he stuttered over the word "fans", because it was still weird to think that he had people looking up to him.

"They'd be my monkeys, and I'd be their king," he struck a dramatic pose, puffing himself up and stabbing a thumb into his chest. After only a second, he broke the pose and laughed. "What do you think? Too cheesy?"

[Desbear]

Stella

As the box-headed girl crept up on her, Stella herself tried to back away further; very obviously growing uncomfortable at the girl's presence. "Why did I have to try and talk to the one that would follow me...?" Shaking her head, she tried to give the other a smile; though, it was a bit forced. "Y-yeah, something like that." She responded to the stage-fright comment, fidgeting with a strap on her coat.

GM

Behind the scenes, the battler's entrance opened up as the fighter's on stage got ready. A staff member walked in first, holding a small paper. "Alright, so, I would like to inform everyone that there has been a change in plans. Miss Heather Grayson has dropped out last minute. Luckily, we were able to find a replacement in record time, and as such, I would like to welcome Tyler MacEntire. Your schedules have been updated accordingly, and we would like to apologize to those of you who had already put time into forming strategies against such an opponent. That is all." As the staff member finished, he motioned for someone to walk into the backroom; likely the new participant.

Steven

As Aaron called his name, Steven gave a small thumbs up, before getting up himself. Cracking his neck, he motioned one of his team members to follow him out onto stage. As he walked out onto the stage, he re-adjusted the beanie with their logo on it as he walked to his side of the sync machine. He went to say something, but ended up shaking his head; merely telling it to the staff member that followed him on stage instead. As he walked forwards, hand outstretched, his staff member followed alongside him, speaking for him. "Good luck, and have fun."

[Humen]

Tyler

At motion of the staff member, a brown haired man walks through the entrance. A smile is stretched about his face as he looks over the room, meeting the eyes of anyone who looks at him. "Please, just call me Mac. That's what most people do. A shame Miss Grayson had to leave, but I'll do what I can to make a suitable replacement." Waltzing over to the staff member, Mac bends over to mutter into their ear. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare sheet with the match listings, would you?"

[GoldForge]

Alexa Lockhart
------------------

With the hiss of pneumatics, the screens of the syncing station were lowered down to Steven and Alexa, displaying the models for their astrals in all their 3D glory. A huge step up in tech from when he had first arrived to the arena, but there was a unique charm to the digital artwork that used to be shown in the early days when she first watched these battles.

A roar of flame flooded the darkness of her screen, warping into a warm tangerine display. With little blips, the stats, abilities, and name came on the screens from their respective sides. Though, where was Goldlock? The digital model cartwheeled into view, took an aggressive stance, and vented a taunting puff of flame from their gauntlets' vents while flashing a cocky grin. From the speakers, came a little pre-recorded 'Let's do this!' along with the metallic swing of a UI sound came with a big green (READY) popping up from the bottom. Wow, they really went all out with something that nobody would see.

"Top of the evenin', Steven!" Here, at the platform, she finally felt a little more at home. It wasn't typical Alexa, but it was a far happier Alexa, wasn't it? After removing the glove upon her right hand and tossing it over to a member of her crew, she jutted it proudly towards the man, the geometric crab with a cracked shell glowing as brightly as the flicker of courage in her eyes. "Good luck to you too, eh?"

N.S.B.
She lay silent, the concerned, minimalistic expression carved into the box facing straight forward at a clearly uncomfortable Stella. She was quick to notice this. Her hands returned to her pockets, a casual voice was donned, as though trying to best alleviate the situation...a gaze was cast to the side. "Well, gee. If that's the case... There was a pause, the hollow gaze of the box soon returned. "Hey, bud. It's the first night, don't sweat it out there. Chances are, I'm in the same shape you are under this big getup...maybe. Can't tell, can ya? Well, let that food for thought marinate in the broth, kiddo. Just head out there with a big ol' grin, see?" She shuffled to stand over by the girl, making a gesture for the screen. Particularly, she was noting Alexa. "Even a total antisocial blob can burst forth into an amazing bundle of dreams, if there's something there to drive them. Take that chip of advice, I'm going to go meet the others. Toodles!

Without second thought, she was back into a springing bundle of animation and energy as she approached Tyler, pulling the schedule for the night out of her pocket. "Right here, buddy-o!" Beneath the TV head of a cardboard box this punk rocker wore, one could almost hear their smile. "This your first tourney? Got a name?"

[Humen]

Tyler
Mac tilted his head to the side curiously when he saw the girl with a cardboard box, but brushed it off, presuming it to be some form of sponsorship costume. When she brought out the paper, he hastily took it to study the names.  "The name is Tyler MacEntire, but again, you can just call me Mac. Sorry if I seem out of place, but I'm usually given more prep time before a competition. Thankfully, I've been through this kind of stuff before, so...." He paused when he reached the fifth match-up on the list, and looked back at the helpful box girl, cocking his eyebrow. "Say, you wouldn't happen to be Stella, would ya?"

[Lunartic]

Jessie watched the hooded girl that Aaron had just called to the stage. She recognized her, having seen her fight not too long ago in a practice, but she ran off before they could be introduced. Maybe that was a good thing, she thought. It was probably in her best interests to steer clear of Alexa from now on.

The blonde left Jessie's thoughts when Aaron came up to her. She laughed at his reply and jabbed him lightly in the arm. "Way too cheesy. But the whole 'Monkey King' spiel is pretty good, though. I think it suits you. But you have to say it with more..." She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, looking for the right word. "Confidence," she finally said. "You're the king, man. Act like it. Come onto the stage doing backflips, rip the mic out of the announcer's hands, and shout 'I'm the Monkey King!' as the crowd goes wild, 'Monkey King, Monkey King, Monkey King' . . ." She stopped shouting and put her arms down. "Or something like that."

[Desbear]

Steven

After having shaken his opponents hand, Steven stepped back; smiling. "Yeah... Good luck..." He repeated, his voice sounding forced, and foreign, as if he was having trouble forming the words. As he stepped back, he peered at the large screens, taking into note his opponent's screen. Beside the screen, another lit up, with three silhouettes coming into view; before a brief static overtook it, being replaced with a rotating question mark. In a similar fashion to before, from the speakers sounded out a pre-recorded voice message; a native English voice echoing out. "No, that isn't right is it?"

Smiling at his own Astral's voice, Steven stepped back to his side of the machine, as a referee stood between the two. Over the speakers, a loud voice echoed out as he began to speak, holding his hands in the air. "Alright, our combatants are ready. As was the case with the last battle, our participants will be fighting in The Champion's Forest. On my mark, both of our combatants will sync into the battle..." His voice trailed off, as he held up a hand; all five fingers out stretched.

"Five..." The referee started off, slowly curling a finger downwards. "Four..." He continued, the crowd beginning to chime in. "Three..." he persevered, his voice echoing out along with the crowds cheers. "Two..." He cried out, a grin coming to his otherwise stoic face. "One..." He called out, balling his hand into a fist as he rose it into the air.

"SYNC!"

[GoldForge]

Alexa Lockhart
---------------------
To be frankly honest, she was a little taken aback by the uncertain tone that Steve's astral carried. Goldlock was overflowing with such overabundant confidence, but this one was... was it questioning him? Was it questioning its own presence in the world? Of course, that would be a concern for a later time. Now? Now was the time to fight, get it over with, and head on home no matter what the outcome was. No, something about that outlook just felt... plain strange to thing about. Something really wasn't right, was it? Yeah, that's right! She shouldn't be sitting around contemplating what to do, she should just... y'know, do it! Yeah, like, right about--

"SYNC!"

Ohgoodsweetlordshehadletherselftrailoffonatrailytrainofthoughtthatnotrainofthoughtshouldeverbetrailytrailedwhatshouldshedowasstevenalreadyinwasshegoingtobedisqualifiedohlordshedidnthopesowhydidthishavetohappenonthissortofdayinwhichshewashalfasleepohsheknewsheshouldvestoppedatthelocalcafetogetsomemoreenergyintoherselfbeforethisbigfightbutshejusthadtositaroundlikealazybumandmakehopelessattemptsatengaginginconversationwhydidntsheformulateabattleplanyeahthatwouldvebeenarealbighelpbighelprighttherethatswhatshestalkingaboutgetbacktofocusjustgetyourhandonthemarkandgetitoverwithsimpleasthatwoopdefiddlydeedoopdamwaithowlonghadshebeenstandingthereinpanicohgodnooooo
Just as she was on the edge of panic, eyes darting about the arena, a sense of warmth enveloped her, the roaring of flames crackling in her ears. It was as though an invisible torrent of flame had wrapped around her in an ensuring embrace, convincing her that everything was going to be alright. Heck, she sure hoped this gut feeling was no liar. Alright, no more stalling! This was it, the main event! Although her movements were spastic, Alexa smacked her hand down upon her palm... a reflex action that would be sure to leave a mark when she came to. As though the world was flipped onto its head, a flood of stars poured into her vision, pulling her through a great white gravity. As bittersweet as the whole concept was, she was far more than eager to leave Earth behind, even for a little bit. It was true that she had the potential to make many, many friends in her corporeal state. Though, the emotion of happiness that she felt as this 'other self', this 'better self', she preferred to dub it...

Goldlock
-----------

As the world flipped around and the ceiling of reality was only but a floor, she stood now upon the tree-studded sky. A familiar breeze combed through the rolling mane of gold that cascaded from her head, as if dancing with the leather coat that flapped in the wind. Where an awkward grin that struggled to face the crowd once was, genuine cheer bloomed across her visage. In fact, as though hoping the crowd had their sights upon her right now-- and how truly amazing she must have looked in her cool gear-- she struck a few little poses. With a small sigh, her hands returned to resting upon her hips, the metallic sheen of the orange work gauntlets deciding to take a break to regain their energy.
Though, this was no time for a leisurely stroll. Right, right, she had a battle to attend to, didn't she? The sort of battle-y battle of battles where she'd smash someone's screen in. Ahh, yes. It was going to be another one of those beautiful days. The ribbonlike pair of antennae stricking up from her head twitched idly, as though waiting to pick up on the sign of a presence. Thusfar, all looked pretty safe. Taking the hint, the beetle shell of a backpack attached to her popped open, a drone no bigger than a soccer ball rolling out onto the forest floor. "Good to have you back, lil' buddy!" The astral flashed a grin as the six spindly legs popped out of the shell, wriggling about until it propped itself into an upright position. Cute.

N.S.B.
--------
At the questioning, the girl with the box for a head reeled back a little. Was it as if the comment insulted her greatest ancestors? No, she just... had a strange flow to her movements, like a curious bird cocking its head as a primary form of communication, obnoxious chirping to come directly after. "Alas, I ain't." A Texan accent was upon her, now. Behind her, a pointing finger was jut in Stella's general direction. As though someone had changed the channel on this dollar-store TV girl, her voice got all nasally and squeaky. "The 'timidated girl over there, ya see? Me? I'm just an ordinary Joe battler, just like you! No need to worry." Of course, her, being as easily distracted she she was, turned her gaze to face the monitors. This... 'Steven' guy. She had quite the strong curiosities about that fellow's astral, seeing as it was shadowed out and all. Though, one of them had quite a boxy head, didn't it?

[The-Blades-slave]

Steven/Discord

"SYNC!"

As the words echoed out, Steven closed his eyes, sliding a hand over the gray, glowing symbol on his forearm out of habit. The world seemed to shift and change around him as he felt himself divided up, until finally, all of him made it to a body.

In a clearing of the forest, sparks of color began to fly out in every which way, before a single, massive die was thrown into the air from seemingly nowhere; rolling for several seconds above the forest, before flashing a single number in every direction: One. In immediate response, the die seemed to explode downwards in a myriad of color, as a single figure was constructed from the ground up amidst the chaos. Inconspicuous, his entrance was not.

The figure stood a bit taller than Steven, however, a good bit of that was simply his head. Atop his body was an old, CRT-TV, with several dials on the front. The display by default showed a bit of a color-spectrum, before fizzling out into a static-y mess. The static was interrupted as a smile was 'drawn on', in mess of scrambled colors; until a flash of light overtook the screen, and the display turned to a blank screen.

His outfit was rather normal in comparison to his head; he wore a a striped dress-coat with a white dress-shirt, and an orange bow tie. He wore white gloves, with a pair of brown dress-shoes at the bottom of it all; and in his left hand, he carried a wooden cane, similar to a Sheppard's crook in shape. At a snap of his gloved finger, a pair of small dice appeared over his left hand, palming them as he began to walk around.

A muffled whistle echoed out through the forest as he walked; prompting him to pause, and tuck his cane under his arm as he began to turn the dials. His voice grew clearer, ever so clearer with each turn, until the number '58' was displayed on his screen; and his voice came through crystal clear. Perfect. "Aha! There we go!" He exclaimed, as he took his cane  and began to lean on it. "Now then... Where is our opponent?" He asked aloud, his volume increasing as he twisted a different dial up; perhaps he was trying to lead them to him.

[Humen]

Tyler
Thrown for a loop at the sudden change in her vernacular, the girl came off as fairly. . . eccentric, but her straight forward demeanor was admirable. Mac followed her gaze to the screen playing the current battle, but he didn't recognize most of the names. Probably have to call my organizer. . . He thought to himself, thinking that the Steven fellow looked familiar - or at the very least, the logo of his sponsor did. The girl he wasn't too sure about, yet the matched looking interesting enough, and Mac opted to hold off on conversation until after the battle so he could watch it.

[GoldForge]

Goldlock
-----------
Of course, just as the drone-building fellow was beginning to get comfortable, it was hard not to notice the disturbance in the arena. I mean-- come on. Even a blind man would be able to notice a giant die cascading over the treeline and crashing into the Earth below. Things like that make a loud noise. Plus, it didn't help that the familiar buzzing in her head to indicate the arrival of an enemy was present. It was dull, but still noticeable. At the same time, it felt more like an itch, as though trying to determine whether or not this entity was... real.

It was about as sudden as the tug that had brought her into this world. Curling up and around through branches and leaves, a prismatic wind lit up the scene. At the same time, the hum no longer jittered. Whoever they were, they were North of where she stood. Damn, she had only got one drone down, and it was already time to seek this bastard out... whoever it was. Either she could stomp forward and track this fellow down, or she could stay back and try to think of a new battle plan. After all, something was going a little screwy with data, and she managed to lose an entire super move! Playing it safe, she cast a hand out, ordering the little ball drone to scuttle off and scout the area. With a soft honk.

"Come on, ol... 'me'. Do something cool. I know you've got it in there somewhere." A brow was raised at the silence. Among it, a gaze was cast down to her hands as though expecting knowledge to simply float down from the heavens and nestle up to her palms. Sadly, as expected, that was not the case at all. However, after the first drone had scuttled off, the hopelessness was answered by an involuntary creaking open of the shell upon her back. From the depths of the inner workings, a bronze disk slipped out to the forest floor, rustling against the leaves with each bounce and roll until it came to an anticlimactic thump and halt against a tree trunk. Intrigued, she made an approach to this foreign object, kneeling down to take it up into eager hands. Was this a building material? Highly likely. Though, what the hell was she supposed to do with this fiddly little thing?

[The-Blades-slave]

Aaron chuckled at her suggestion, which slowly grew into a deep, healthy laughter that rumbled up from his stomach and filled the area around him as Jessie animatedly acted out what he should be doing. "That. . . was amazing." He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, smiling brightly, shoving the weird way the other girl had looked at him to the back of his mind. "I'm not sure I'm quite that flexible, though. I'd probably end up flat on my face."

He offhandedly rubbed at the Nimbus Cloud astral mark with the palm of his left hand, nervously tracing small circles on it. The room was a good bit quieter than he had expected it to be; most of the people were off on their own, or talking to their teams to rehearse last minute strategy. It was a bit unnerving, especially after a representative of the Galactic Tournament dropped in to tell them one of the competitors had been replaced at the last second.

Aaron leaned against the wall and watched the new guy, Tyler, interacting with the girl with a TV-box on her head. They both seemed nice enough, at least; maybe not everyone here is so bad after all. The blonde looked over at Jessie, and recalling that she had been battling for six years, asked, "Is it a normal thing for people to be replaced so late?"

[Lunartic]

Jessie couldn't help but laugh with Aaron at her display. "Thanks," she said, still chuckling. "And the backflip part was a joke. Leave fancy acrobatics to Wukong."

She thought for a moment about his question, but then shook her head. "Not really," she replied. "Usually their opponent just gets a bye for the match and then there's one less person in the round robin. Happens every year, someone gets injured or DQ'd and the spot doesn't get filled. Maybe he was on the waiting list and just happened to be around when the other droped?" She shrugged. "I dunno. Could be new policy." The redhead glanced up at the screen and then pointed at it. "Hey look, that's the guy you and I fought! Remember that? His name's Discord, right?" She tilted her head back and laughed. "Oh man, that fight was a lot of fun."