Masa con Papas: Proxy's Memory

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Bucket claps their hands twice, Bern following suit immediately.

Geezer starts to walk back toward you, with a tired look on his face.

He gestures to walk toward him, you give him a puzzled look only for him to shake his head.

Opera: They’re tagging out? This fast? I mean you fucked them up but-

Geezer: They’re stalling to get some rest and figure out a new gameplan.

Opera: How’d you even manage? Could barely make out the scramble…

Geezer: Old school knights like them aren’t trained for ground game. Nearly every fight gets taken to the floor quickly but…

Opera: Yeah but like…It was so clean..
:
Geezer: Something to worry about later.

Geezer: Don’t know a thing about Bern, she’s got something up with her though.

Geezer: Like… if they’re willing to bring someone like that with them..

Opera: And tag out after a beating like that…

Geezer: Yeah, that’s the thing. If she was just some rookie, that’d be insanely cruel.

Opera: I mean…

Geezer: Family’s got a issue with being too comfortable passing off a lot as just “tough love”, not gonna deny that.

Geezer: This isn’t it dude.

Opera: I can scout.

Geezer: Figured you’d be good at that.

Opera: Need you to be able to pull that trick twice. You deserve the rest.

Geezer: Yeah..

Geezer: Part of me wants to keep in, stay warmed up but..

Geezer: If I get down’d here and now cause of lack of prep? That’s it.

Geezer: Which means you know you can’t let a pin happen before I’ve got enough info to work with.

Opera: Surprised you didn’t manage it earlier..

Geezer: Didn’t think they’d tap out that, fast honest.

Geezer: Buck’s a fiend too, strong one.

Geezer: Not the same kind as my grandma or Charon though. Bit of a rarity…

Opera: What do you mean?

Geezer: Every fiend’s got a breath tied to their specific category, yeah?

Opera: Mm…

Geezer: Got a set of fiend silk on me, has a lot of usage.

Geezer: Fact that they managed to muscle out is impressive but… that’s it. Managed to completely muscle out.

Opera:... Isn’t Charon a bug fiend?

Geezer: Yeah.

Opera: Erica too? And uh.. Arabis?

Geezer: Yeah. Webbing type.

Opera: Webbing types can get stuck but they absorb it into themselves, that’s how it works in this world too I’m sure?

Geezer: Yep.

Geezer: There’s something hell off.

Without knowledge of what Bucket’s fiend type, there’s now a massive danger to worry about.

A fiend is incredibly variable in nature, some can become a threat just by making the slightest bit of contact to your skin.

It’s clear Geezer has the toolkit to deal with them but..

For now you do what you have to. Scout, gain info, stall for Geezer to plan round 2 and..

Opera: Mm.. Okay.  Get the gist.

Geezer: There’s a 5 minute timer before being able to tag again, just a heads up.

Opera: 5 Minutes? Sounds long for a fight..

Geezer: Only for freestyle dueling. New ruling, recent high profile match has people worried about stall tactics.Big timer in theory puts people off of trying to tag stall til the max timer on spectated events. Long matches lead to more risk of injury.

Opera:.. This region’s kinda weird dude. There’s a story right?

Geezer: I’ll tell you some other time.

He gestures over toward the other team, Bucket having their own conversation with Bern, too quiet for you or Paige to make out from the distance.

Geezer: You got this, yeah?

Opera: Mm…

Geezer gives you a pat on the shoulder.

Geezer: You’re up then.

Paige’s head perks up from your cloak.

Opera: You ready to go?

The proxy squeaks in confirmation.

Of course we’re ready, always will be.

Geezer walks off and takes a spot with Zana and Fenton spectating, the three of them seem to start bantering amongst themselves as well.

You Approach the other team, Bucket pointing you out to Bern before backing off.

The mysterious squire walks up to you. There’s a new intensity to the fight, one that exudes directly from her.

Bern: Feels like each of you got a proxy on you. Guessing the world did something to you and your friends.

Opera: Always have, just another adventure for the two of us.

Bern: Mm..

Bern: Read up on the case as much as I could.

Bern: Target’s got a history.

Bern: One I can relate to.

She looks over at Paige. There’s an immediate nervous response, one that you can feel bleeding over.

Bern: You know something.

Bern: I’m a bit of a thread in this too…

You try comforting Paige with a pat on the head.

Opera: What’s up?

I don’t want to do this…

Opera: Really? I mean I can handle it on my own if you’re not up for it-

No. I don’t want you to get hurt.

I haven’t felt scared like this since we were kids.

Opera: I mean we dealt with a lot of scary stuff..

Opera: Always pulled through though.

I know…

Opera: Tell me what’s up?

Paige: She’s a husk.

Bern: Don’t like being called that…
Bern: But… yeah.

Bern: Guess I’d fit the bill.

Bern:.. Wasn’t expecting to get that response from another proxy to be honest….

Bern: Don’t hold back.

Bern looks over toward Bucket as the countdown starts.

Bern: It’s time.