ARCADE SESSION: REBOOTED

[knux400]

(Author's Note: Changing some formatting stuff with this update. Ingame text is now bold, which should make it easier to see text colors, and spoken text now has quotation marks around it to differentiate it from narration. If you want to suggest a formatting change or if anything is hard to read for some reason, feel free to leave me a suggestion in parentheses. Thank you all for reading!!)

You take a moment to recount what allies you have and where they all are.
 

The first allies that come to mind are the KOBOLDS you created- Orkahm, Ihu, Taipu and Tamaru. They're marked with a pink K on your map, and they're pretty close to your base. (On a related note, the knocker's den is marked with a grey N. Not an ally, but still useful knowledge to have)

You also created some MOLE PEOPLE at the same time you created the kobolds, but you haven't found them yet. They could be anywhere on the map, but if you had to guess, you'd posit that they're relatively close to your base since they're your creation.

CLEMONT is... sort of an ally, you guess? He doesn't seem hostile, and neither does his player. Unfortunately, you have no idea where he or his base is. Or who's talking in his earnub, for that matter. It has to be either CRC or ???.

PICKLE seems very friendly, if slightly tentative and scatterbrained. He has a blanket type TCP named Stitch, and she's the one piloting the drone that's tailing the hostile TCP. He says his base is in O-1 and O-2.

BACK AT BASE, you have Hank the freshly spawned puffy sticker type, Opal the generic animal companion, Pumice the mole, Topaz the canary, and the unnamed golem. Well, mostly unnamed. You put a 'FRANK GOLLUM' pin on it, but no one seems to have noticed it yet.

As for EVERYONE ELSE... MRM's TCP is the one chasing Echo down. From what descriptions you've heard, you're guessing it's a weapon type of some sort. There's one other player you haven't seen at all yet, either CRC or ???. They're the one that isn't Clemont's god.

With that sorted, you CHECK Echo.

Echo is a BAT TYPE TCP. She's feeling a bit panicked, but is doing her best to push through it in order to avoid getting shot again. She is thinking of how best to escape her current situation, and also wondering what the heck all this 'water' stuff is (although that's not really a priority right now). She cannot currently fly due to the sizeable hole in her right wing, although the bleeding has temporarily stopped due to pressure she is applying to it. Her health is currently at OKAY.

How you holding up, Echo?
Fine! Can we talk later, please??
Sorry. Change of plans, turn right instead.

Echo doesn't hesitate, sprinting WEST in the direction of Pickle's base. Speaking of, it's about time you checked in with him.

"What's Stitch seeing?"
"The TCP just jumped over a stream. It's slowing down a bit, though."
"Okay, we're heading to you. Make sure Stitch is somewhere safe."
"She's holed up inside the cottage, she should be fine for now."

As you're talking to Pickle, you can see Echo making her way through a few more rooms. She stops abruptly.

...Trinket??? I really don't think I can jump over this one!!
Go back the other way! Go left instead!
I've gone too far down this path already! It's blocking the exit!

"Uhh, Trinket?? I think Stitch is seeing Echo through the drone. Like, for real this time. The TCP has a direct line of sight on her."

For the first time, you hear a new voice coming through the speakers. It sounds like electronic whining and grinding, like the sound of a large, powerful machine waking up. In rough, ragged TCP speech, you can make out a single word...

Gotcha.