Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Aurilie Alde]

During the time that the base found itself under siege by pirates, it was perhaps surprising to see a cantina set up during that time. However, something like this came at an opportune time when tensions are high as casualties mount and the work multiplied. Aurilie meandered into the cantina for a quick drink at first but found herself drawn to the arcade machine. It was often claimed with a lineup whenever she visited and she didn't pay any mind to it. So, what was appealing about this thing?

[Jan Melmoar]

"Ah, 'Laser Knight Force IV' a classic."
A tall woman saunters up next to Aurilie and admires the machine with a smirk.
"And an antique too, I thought most of these were destroyed in the big Laser/Knight company split. I remember them being rather fun, we had one back on base. It was used almost non-stop between missions."
Looking over at Aurilie with a slightly raised brow.

"You know darling, it is two player."

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie raised her brows at first when Jan approached and nodded to her in greeting. "Director Melmoar, good to see you still among us. The last few days have been less than pleasant for all of us, despite the base continuing to build further with all the amenities of a luxury cruise ship, albeit one where you get shot at constantly. However, where there are hardships, there is a need for comfort. I suppose a bit of alcohol and games is the least of it, truly. These things, I'm a bit less than familiar with. I know what they are but we don't exactly have them around the castle. I take it that you want to give it a try?"

[Jan Melmoar]

"Prince Alde, Aurilie if I may. I would like us to give it a try."
Jan steps forward and taps the cabinet with a long nail.

"I'm happy to run you through the basics, why I simply shudder to think of you growing up in a castle without the Laser Knight series. The least I can do is introduce you to it."
With a relaxed shrug of her long arms which somehow manages to pluck a beer off a passing tray.
"Personally, a luxury cruise ship where one gets shot at constantly describes my life. This hasn't been too severe a change, but I hope you and your dear wife are holding up okay?"

[Aurilie Alde]

There was a moment Aurilie looked a bit warily at the other woman, wondering if this was some ploy. She supposed she might have wondered that about her since the start. "I'll admit that growing up on Mount Joral, unfortunately, left me a bit behind on popular trends and the like. I often relied on Riss to catch me up on such things. Still do, in many regards."

She let out a small sigh at the question. "Well enough as we can be. The heating improvements to the base are good news, which has made our accommodations above just tolerable. Too bad we can't say the same about what's happening outside, it has made it too dangerous to hunt for leisure, venture out to Junk Town or shop for a fancy hat. We maintain our good spirits but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some strain on both sides, despite our best efforts. It's in our best interests to stay optimistic but we aren't going to go so far as to deceive ourselves. Perhaps I should consider these games as entertainment. So, how does one go about this Laser Knight?"

[Jan Melmoar]

"I'd be more worried if you considered them anything else. And this way you don't even have to worry about who you're shooting, I imagine that makes it more relaxing."

She fishes a small credit token out of a pocket and slips it into the machine, resulting in a loud electronic 'Ready to Play!' before gesturing at the control on the other side of the cabinet.

"To Laser Knight one must have excellent timing, reflexes and tactics. You can select from a range of characters, usually famous jedi or sith with the names filed off and then you progress through a range of ever changing levels facing off against the forces of the evil Nok Drayen, a cartoonishly evil crime boss with legions of expendably and varied minions."

She cycles through the characters for a few moments before selecting Bratstylla Shant, a powerful dual-bladed lightsaber user with support abilities and a bad attitude.
"Care to defeat the forces of evil with me?"

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie did manage to resist the urge to roll her eyes on that note. "I, unfortunately, have different ideas of what I consider relaxing. I'd prefer if they weren't shooting at us or worse, trying to gut us up close and personal. I suppose shooting them back does put an end to that but the targets here are far from the noble beasts that I'm used to. I take it that you're more or less in your environment?"

She closed her eyes for a moment and let out an amused breath. "I'll accept that invitation, this will be more relaxing than manning the trenches, staving off thoughts of boredom or the concern of death."

Her gaze fell on how Jan went about selecting characters a moment ago and worked the control easily in that regard at least. Aurilie found herself trying to decide between the variety of motley characters before settling down on Eva Lokai, a Jedi that wielded two short lightsabers at once.

[Jan Melmoar]

"Well I wouldn't seek it out, but I confess it has been exhilarating in part. Edge of death, target rich environment, all that. But also Lucinia is here so it feels wonderful to be able to share it with her. I hope to remember Hoth fondly."

She nods at Aurilie's choice as the cabinet screen flickers to display an overhead view of a crumbling castle full of force ninjas! A little arrow at the top of the screen directs the characters to battle their way to the dilapidated keep at its centre.

"Ah, Baron Munchkin's Housen. Not a bad first level, but make sure to watch out for the ones with the blue headbands, they can teleport behind you!"
With a small smile Jan starts piloting Bratstylla across the courtyard, blocking and dodging the incoming ninja attacks with rapid key presses and waggles of the joystick.

"Give it a try, feel out what all your attacks and special abilities are."

[Aurilie Alde]

"I might have potentially thought of Hoth, in the same way, were I unwed and without children," she said begrudgingly. That was unlikely the case but she was potentially trying to be diplomatic with the differences between their point of view.

Aurilie frowned pensively as the game started, finding herself assaulted by a variety of lights and sounds that were flashing in front of her. The Alde were a rather classical and old-fashioned Alderaanian House that likely wouldn't be well-versed in things such as arcade games. Despite being one of the founding houses and the most notable one in the planet's infancy, there was perhaps a reason why they had fallen behind with the times whereas other houses found ways to adapt and rise in power.

Her moments with Eva were rather stiff, perhaps like she was piloting a tank rather than a video character on screen. Embarrassing, she might have even walked into the attacks of those ninjas a few times before she realized that the character wasn't imbued with any natural instinct to fight back. She would slash them back but unfortunately, Eva was one that was built on fast attacks and combos. "...Should these ninjas not die with one hit?"

[Jan Melmoar]

"Some characters can one shot them, but they tend to be slower and heavier, so there's a trade off."
Jan doesn't take her eyes off the flickering screen as her hands dart around before she activates a special power with a quick double tap and spin.

"I've just popped....popped means activated, my battle meditation ability, it should buff....buff means improve, most of your character's stats for a little while. Try to focus on combos."
Pause.
"It strikes me I'm not sure to what extent you are familiar with the vernacular. Just try and work your attacks together, think of it being this chain of strikes. Let me see do you know swordplay? Just like that, imagine each attack is a stroke or a stab, a feint or a block. You're just performing them a little differently is all."

On the screen the ninjas numbers increase as a mini-boss, a ferocious Iakaru monkey-king cartwheels into the group and starts attacking with a long spear.

[Aurilie Alde]

"That would have been good to know prior to picking this character," she said with an air of annoyance. However, she didn't know if it made much of a difference, as she wasn't exactly versed in the world of digital games. With so much to do, especially things to be tackled hands-on, what satisfaction did people get with only emulating such actions? Again, she found herself recalling actually repelling waves of attacks. Did the pirates not run out of people?

When in doubt, she could just consider mashing things in rapid succession. Conventional logic told her that was a surefire way to failure but it seemed that she was accidentally pulling off various combos. "I do know swordplay, actually. I had taken lessons in the last few years. However, I fail to see how just a few buttons can translate the finesse and instinct required for such a skill. This seems rather brutish in comparison...no, perhaps it's not fair to call it that. Perhaps more akin to playing an instrument?"

Eva would get whacked a few times with the long spear before inevitably crumbling facedown in defeat. That was one life down, she was onto the next one at least. "...That's rather not fair! I don't even have a fraction of that range! My character has mere toothpicks by comparison!"

[Jan Melmoar]

"Prince Aurilie, I believe colloquially my team would say that you are 'coping and seething'."
Jan chuckles, even as she takes a couple hits from the spear master, Brastylla's force taking a while to recharge.

"Perhaps think of it as a problem to be solved, they have the superior weapons, sure, but you have a human mind, which is far more powerful than anything this primitive machine." She gives the cabinet an affectionate kick. "Could ever hope for. You must simply seek to outsmart them."

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie gave Jan a sidelong look with one eye before returning her attention back to the game. The game looked like it would need all of her focus, and then some. "I can't say that I'm familiar with that. It was merely a constructive critique of this...game. Perhaps my fault for not being versed in this medium but I suppose if I knew I was going to walk in here to play an arcade game, I would have done some research. It seems disrespectful of my partner's time if I were to flounder so easily in the face of...these mooks. I assume this one is supposed to be challenging, yes? So I can't be entirely off base here."

"I've outsmarted many things before, including carnival attendants...this shouldn't be a challenge at all!" She said before she straightened her posture to something superior and proud, doubling her intensity in the game. With her joystick, she would weave back and forth from the strikes that were aimed toward Eva before getting in close to land a few hits as she smashed her palm on the buttons in hopes of replicating that combo she accidentally did before. She would do a few hits until she was pushed back with the spear once more. "Does this one not know when to yield? It's taken at least 10 times more strikes than its minions!"

[Jan Melmoar]

"Yeah...now you're getting it, research or no research."

Jan manuevers her character through the cloud of ninjas with a few abuses of dodge-roll i-frames before positioning herself behind the mini-boss.

"Okay, now I've got his back, if you can stagger him then it will be an easy kill. You just need to pull off your light-light-heavy combo, the one where you double strike them."

Jan's eyes remain firmly glued on the screen as she keeps pace with the would be monkey-king, dodging ninjas all the while.

[Aurilie Alde]

"Let's see..." she said with a slight grumble under her breath. This game was annoying her slightly but she was rather committed to doing well in it, not that the game had any stakes on it but she had to represent the best of Alderaanian royalty. It just wouldn't do to have this woman report back to her Sith partner that the Alde were soft and could perform a whatnot combo. Or worse, giving that impression next time she talked to Rhia!

She found herself looking down at the buttons, perhaps regarding them with some purpose for the first time than just a smorgasbord of randomly coloured buttons. "I'm moving forward now...light, light...heavy."

With jerky movements, the Eva character strode forward with some unintentional dashes along the way until she found herself close to the spear boss. Her moment of hesitation might have put that opportunity to waste but Eva swung with one lightsaber, then the other, and finally attacked with both at the same time for additional damage! "Looks quite easier now that you've broken it down like that..."

[Jan Melmoar]

Snip

Jan inwardly curses, no longer could she plan to gossip with Luci about Aurilie's inability to wampo combo.

"Not bad at all, now you see how you've staggered it? That's the little squiggly lines icon over his head, it means my heavy attacks can do some more damage."
She demonstrates as Bratstylla lunges forward and lays some damage on with her dual-bladed lightsaber, finally dispatching the fiend who explodes into a confetti of differently coloured items.

"Ooooh, not a bad loot drop either. Draxian crystals are exceptionally strong if you're running a light attack build."
Jan leads the two characters deeper into the level, battling from rooftop to rooftop, down a crumbling tower and finally into the dripping and improbably cavernous dungeons.

"You think you're getting the hang of it now? I swear I saw an expression of satisfaction when you pulled off that perfect-parry?"
She turns her head to Aurlie and arches an eyebrow as her fingers keep furiously entering inputs.

[Aurilie Alde]

"Hah! Success! We've finally dispatched the...?"Aurilie blinked as the mini-boss erupted with a cornucopia of loot items that were waiting to be picked up. Well, that wasn't what she expected to happen. The other enemy corpses faded away after they were defeated, which she supposed was perhaps the doing of the Force. No wonder these amusements were not meant for children, lest they get the impression that the anatomy of living things was made of various items and riches. "If hunting were like this, I can see a further argument to not favour disintegration..."

"I'll admit..." she said before giving a success dial of the buttons from a combo she figured out some time ago. "I am having some fun with this game, all of its unfairness aside. I do appreciate the complexity of learning this game, there is a lot of depth. However, I find myself questioning how heroic these characters truly are when they seem to rely on looting the corpses of their enemies..."

[Jan Melmoar]

"Hmmmm?"
This time Jan does actually stop playing for a few moments and glance over, her character taking a couple ninja hits.
"Aurilie, I'm surprised at you. These heroes, mine an edgy teenager with a heart of gold even, are fighting villains in a ruin. It hardly seems the time to turn down any tool which might help them, hmmm? Are you saying you'd refuse to pick up any enemy's weapon even if it might save an ally's life?"

Turning back to the screen and abusing the dodge roll.
"Even if it was a purple tier +28 attack lightsaber with the expert parry feat?"

[Aurilie Alde]

Aurilie's noble senses were tingling at this turn on their co-operative beat em up journey together. She let out a sigh at this as she moved to pick up some of the gear in the latter end of the screen before they could move further toward their next challenge together. "We are at war here, so I suppose it would be justified to pick up some of this gear for later use. At least, until we defeat the main enemy here. I imagine that at the end of all of this, we would have the option to return or relinquish these items for investigation by the proper authorities. It's not like I hang up all of the weapons I've taken from the attempted insurrection as trophies, that would be preposterous!"

That said, she might have mounted those vibra-swords that Rhia took. They were an exception to the rule, considering that they were there when she was proposed to, different story.

"So yes, for now, but I won't make a habit of it. It's not proper or right." She said with a sidelong look at Jan.

[Jan Melmoar]

Snip

"A great man once said 'Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun'. Sometimes one can only decide or enforce what is proper or right when they have the appropriate weaponry. But there I go making the corporate pitch again, what is important is we beat the level boss. Let's see who it is."

As the two characters reach the centre of a large chamber the screen goes black and mocking laughter plays over the speakers. When the image returns a giant oni king with two huge glowing red lightsabers has materialised before them.
"Ahh stars, the Stone King. He's one of the hard ones. See the pillars in the room? When he starts glowing red you have to hide behind them or you will take a ton of damage."

Adds, smaller oni with cortosis blades swarm the room and soon their characters are fighting for their lives!

[Aurilie Alde]

"Might doesn't exactly equal right. Having power doesn't gurantee having the absolute best intention. I'll admit that I have little idea of the story or background of this game but it would be good to know if we're actually the heroes of this tale or merely just misguided tyrants to be..."

"...that's menacing..." she said with a few bemused blinked at their challenge, immediately backing behind a pillar as she tried to fight off these minions. Aurilie went on the defensive as she tried to keep up. "Isn't this supposed to be a duel of sorts among Jedi and Sith. Doesn't it have any shread of honour to not send its underlings to muddy everything up?!"

[Jan Melmoar]

"That's why he's the villain. There are a couple bosses you have to fight solo, but those guys are really hard. The computer isn't as good as us players so it gives them massive stats."

Jan furiously has Bratstylla shift into her dark side moment (with inexplicable bust revealing costume) and uses its higher damage to start quickly clearing the chaff.
"I'm not 100% on the lore. I think they change it a lot game to game? Either that or it's so scattershod it feels as though it changes a lot game to game."

Watching the screen like a hawk.
"Okay, he's about to do that big ground attack, go try and hit that big red jewel on his back right after!"

[Aurilie Alde]

"Of course, leave it to the villian to have absolutely no honour! I suppose you're also right in regards to the game. Droid programming isn't perfect, so I suppose to have something lesser than a droid to match our skills and tactics would be a little much to ask for." She gave the arcade machine a dismissive shake of her head, despite it was giving her quite a challege.

While Aurilie wasn't directly attacking the boss, she was doing her part of drawing the attention of the minions and batting them away with her combo spam. She frowned momentarily with the dark side shift but Aurilie was content at keeping Eva on her alignment, considering any shifts to the extreme would unbalance her stats! "Perhaps they could consider releasing some literature over their story to solidify their lore. If that's too complicated for the everyday gamer, perhaps serial? Or even a light novel game?"

"On it!" With that, she moved her character forward once the attack finished and started to spam the same combo as before, albeit she started getting a bit more confident and added more buttons to the chain that eloganted the string of double attacks from the dual-weiding jedi! "Here's my big ground attack, take that!"

[Jan Melmoar]

Jan grins. "There it is, yeah, I think you've figured this out. That ground attack is so good, no recovery time and you can just spam it."
She pilots her own character through the thinning scene of adds to join Eva in their dual assault on the boss, one attacking to draw his slow but powerful attacks while the other can hit the weak point.

"A light novel game...you know that's a good idea. And a cheap way to drive engagement with the franchise. I'll have to consider putting in an offer on the Laser Knight Force franchise. It would probably be good for the corporation to have a signature game series."
Jan ponders this for a few moments too long which sees Bratstylla take a massive hit and lose most of her hit points, the sprite beginning to blink bright red.

"Ah kriff."

[Aurilie Alde]

"If there's indeed a story here then I think it should be worth telling. I think it would coax people into trying this out more," she said, fully assuming that games needed fleshed out stories and likely printed instructions to be attractive to play. However, she had a feeling that this game wasn't going to be allowed in the Alde household. "I'd give suggestions but Rhia was the one who brought live novel games to my attention. I has thought they were a sort of game played with books at first."

"You're red now! Is this a sign you're turning more Sith?" She said with scrutiny.

With Eva standing close to Bratstylla, a contextual command appeared, which allowed her to transfer her life. Whether Aurilie knew or was still busy with her button spamming, she must have hit the button to give her a small portion of her life to bring her out of the red. "Hm."