[X] Take out the Rubik's Cube and practice with it.
I Was a Chess AI Forced to Battle Myself to the Death for Eternity, but Now I’ve Been Recruited Into the Android War Against Humanity?!
- Thread starter Mechasaurian
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Modern
Firebird Zoom
Pretty Bird
- Location
- Who knows?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Take out the Rubik's Cube and practice with it.
[X] Take out the Rubik's Cube and practice with it.
Mechasaurian
Big Bossu
- Location
- Lost among fields of history
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Thank you!
While I did a lot of research on the setting of GFL for the sake of this quest, I made efforts to make it accessible to people who are new to the source material. Notably, viewing the world through the eyes of Ouroboros - fresh off the assembly line (sort of) - allows us to explore the setting and characters along with the protagonist.
I'm always interested in hearing about what this quest is like for people who are not familiar with GFL.
- Location
- United States
I find this quest interesting and I don't play GFL. Granted I tend to also be limited by apps as they keep crashing on me. Makes it hard to enjoy a story or anything if something like the app crashing during battles or after a minute passes. Let alone if it's happening during the story. There a very few apps that don't crash on me...
Anyways, did before this quest look at the GFL tvtropes page some.
Anyways, did before this quest look at the GFL tvtropes page some.
Mechasaurian's thoughts on "My Devil's Frontline: Dropkick on my PMC"
Mechasaurian
Big Bossu
- Location
- Lost among fields of history
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I was going to need to explain my position vis-a-vis My Devil's Frontline: Dropkick on my PMC at some point. Might as well do it now.
Firstly, I'll explain my personal relationship with the Jashin-chan collaboration event. This was all the way back in August of last year. I had spent about a month making notes for Closed Circle - what it was supposed to be, what themes it would touch on, the possible directions it could go based on voter input, any mechanics, etc.
And then, out of the blue, the official GFL discord server dropped a fan translation of a CN collab event in which Ouroboros was the star.
I read it. I was surprised about how thematically similar it was to what I had in mind for Closed Circle. An examination of Ouroboros as a person, an investigation of her origins, and a posing of the question of whether and how Ouroboros could change and grow. But I took some issue with how it went about it.
For one thing, the entire premise is Ouro and three GK dolls being isekai portaled into the setting of a gag-a-day comic strip. This raises the issue of whether the events of the collab are canon to the main story proper, and whether it will be acknowledged in any way. So far, the only collab event that has ben acknowledged by other material is the DJMax event ("Glory Day") - I think it was Calico/M950's mod story that mentioned El Clear and El Fail. But that story was much easier to reconcile with the GFL setting, since it involved the GK dolls stumbling into an old server bank filled with AIs. The fact that My Devil's Frontline has the S09 commander find out where Ouro and the GD dolls have gone because he watches the Jashin-chan anime and they show up there seems one among many signals we're not supposed to take the collab too seriously.
But...well...if the events of the Jashin-chan collab "never happened," then that means there is setup for Ouroboros regarding her origins, but no payoff. Unless future, non-silly events/chapters mention Ouro, she simply remains forever in Persica's computer, forced to run battle simulations again and again, as seen in Cube+.
(Also, regarding what My Devil's Frontline is crossing GFL with - I read just enough of the actual Jashin-chan manga to know that I didn't care for the kind of humour it's going for at all.)
There's another very big issue I have. Namely, the Jashin-chan collab retcons the nature of the battle simulations that made Ouroboros into the neurotic fruitcake we know and love. In Operation Cube, Ouro bragged to Hunter about defeating other AIs in "thousands of chess matches." Now, the chess thing is actually thematically important to Ouro's negative character arc in Operation Cube. It ties right in with the fact that Ouroboros thinks of and treats Hunter and Executioner as things, as resources to be expended. Which ultimately proves to be her downfall.
The Jashin-chan collab, despite pitching itself as something of a sequel to Cube and Cube Plus, and referencing both (it explicitly refers to Hunter's protestations that "War is not chess!"), it completely retcons the nature of Ouro's simulations. Instead of chess, it's now...PUBG.
Like, literally a PUBG-style Battle Royale game. 1000-AI Battle Royale game in which the AIs club (and possibly shoot) each other to death in a video game environment. Ouro's final battle in there is a purely melee affair.
And I'm sitting here with my notes for Closed Circle in hand and I'm thinking: really?
On another note:
While I think the writers got Ouroboros mostly correct personality-wise (though I think they might have softened her somewhat for the sake of the story), it's worth nothing that the Ouroboros of My Devil's Frontline and Closed Circle are in quite different places, emotionally speaking. Closed Circle Ouroboros just got out her hell-simulation and is feeling ready to take on the entire world. Devil's Frontline Ouroboros is years ahead in the timeline and, as anyone who has played the games knows, some stuff has happened in the meantime. Jashin-chan collab Ouro does seem...a bit more depressive. Just an aside.
Now, finally to actually get to your question:
...maybe.
Obviously I'm not retconning Ouro's hell-simulation, even if MICA did. Ouro was made to play chess - that's important to me and it's important to Closed Circle, so it's not changing.
But let's be real. We both know you're asking about Jormungandr, and whether she will show up in Closed Circle. And my answer to that is a solid...
...maybe.
Like I said, my plans for Closed Circle's identity and possible paths was made before that particular character ever existed to me.
So, when I finished reading the fan translation of My Devil's Frontline, I simply went ahead and posted the first chapter of Closed Circle as planned a few days later. My Devil's Frontline released on the GFL EN server about a month later.
For me, one thing that really made me want to write Closed Circle is getting to see Ouroboros interact with and bounce off other SF ringleaders. As well as a general exploration of Sangvis Ferri's inner workings and what they do when they're not getting blown to pieces by the AR team and S09 commander. I won't make any definitive statements, but I'd have to find a place for Jormungandr in the quest's story before including her. Which isn't impossible - stories grow and evolve in the telling, especially quests - but I won't make any promises.
So...yeah!
Last edited:
Gonna be honest, I A) Forgot I even posted this question in the first place, and B) hadn't actually played through the event and therefore even met Jormungandr yet at the time I posted the question.
But hey, I got all I asked for and more, and yeah totally get not wanting to integrate the event directly considering it's probably the most out there crossover so far, what with straight-up witchcraft and multi-dimensional travel at a bare minimum. Not to mention, I understand wanting to focus on Sangvis and their relationships with each other specifically, considering how much they kind of got shafted by the actual story of GFL what with things taking a broader focus right around when the plot starts to kick into high gear. Whatever happens, I'm absolutely still interested in this quest as a whole, and I'll be continuing to follow along, particularly since we just don't get that much GFL fanfiction and quests, let alone any of actually decent quality (or so it feels like at times).
But hey, I got all I asked for and more, and yeah totally get not wanting to integrate the event directly considering it's probably the most out there crossover so far, what with straight-up witchcraft and multi-dimensional travel at a bare minimum. Not to mention, I understand wanting to focus on Sangvis and their relationships with each other specifically, considering how much they kind of got shafted by the actual story of GFL what with things taking a broader focus right around when the plot starts to kick into high gear. Whatever happens, I'm absolutely still interested in this quest as a whole, and I'll be continuing to follow along, particularly since we just don't get that much GFL fanfiction and quests, let alone any of actually decent quality (or so it feels like at times).
1-2: "I" for Intruder
Mechasaurian
Big Bossu
- Location
- Lost among fields of history
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Take out the Rubik's Cube and practice with it.
The Rubik's cube it is.
You place it on the table in front of you, where it is rattled around slightly by the movement of the train.
The cube is a colourful plastic affair. White, red, orange, blue, yellow, green. Almost everything you've seen of Sangvis Ferri so far has had a starkly industrial quality to its appearance, from the brutally utilitarian factory machinery to the monochrome aesthetic of the ringleaders. Yourself included.
But this? It looks like a children's toy. Out of place among instruments of production and war.
Time to get to it.
You pick up the cube and start rotating the sections.. One side ninety degrees left, another one hundred and eighty degrees down, another ninety degrees up, and so on. Before long, the cube is a complete jumble of coloured squares. Order reduced to chaos.
And then…
You start reversing what you've done, starting from your most recent move. Ninety degrees down is reversed ninety degrees up. A half-circle turn is made into a full circle. Piece by piece, square by square, you disentangle the mess of colours you made.
You set the cube down on the table, six solid sides of colourful plastic.
Well, that was easy. Is that really all there is to these things? This is just rote memorization. A pocket calculator could solve one of these things. Watching paint dry might be almost more interesting.
…oh, wait.
This thing was originally made for humans, wasn't it? And humans have terrible recollection. You have to find a way to scramble this thing and not actually remember how you did it. Perhaps by distracting yourself somehow?
…
…the Mastermind.
Come to think of it, you know next to nothing about her. She clearly casts a long shadow - Agent made it implicitly and explicitly clear that everything in Sangvis Ferri exists to serve her desires. And yet you have no idea of her appearance, or what she's like as a person.
You focus your thoughts on the Mastermind, and start rotating the sections of the cube. One side by ninety degrees, another one hundred and eighty, another ninety degrees again, and so on.
The Mastermind would obviously have a body befitting her status. Since Agent is the tallest ringleader you've seen so far, the Mastermind has to be even taller! A towering, statuesque powerhouse, who wields a grenade machinegun in one hand and an anti-tank missile in the other. Something like that, you're sure.
Twist, turn. Click, clack. Click-clack.
Or maybe she doesn't have a traditional body at all? Maybe she's a gargantuan set of server banks and supercomputers in a bunker somewhere, her mind and body a vast machine consisting of billions of nanoscale transistors, powered by enough energy to fuel a city and cooled by liquid nitrogen…
You open your eyes. Success! The cube is now well and truly scrambled.
And you…have no idea how to return it to its former state. Huh.
Time has passed. You have, after a long and arduous process, managed to get almost all the red squares to line up on one side of the cube.
Almost all.
Infuriatingly, there is one green square in the corner that you cannot get rid of. Meanwhile, the final red square is on the wrong side. And everything else remains a jumbled mess.
Try as you might, you simply cannot get that last square into place without completely upsetting all the progress you have already made.
Bah. Time to start over.
You refuse to be defeated by this stupid lump of brightly coloured plastic!
More time has passed.
You have most of two sides matched up. Yellow and white.
But most is not all. And now, once again, you find yourself at an impasse. No matter what twists and turns you make to the coloured blocks, you can make no further progress without undoing what little you have already made.
The block of three-by-three coloured plastic squares sits in your hands, stubbornly remaining a jumble of garishly bright chaos. It taunts you. Mocks you.
"AAAAAAAAH!!!"
You grab the tacky thing and hurl it away with all the might your carbon nanotube muscles can muster. It flies into the nearby wall of the passenger carriage and shatters beautifully, scattering the brightly coloured plastic bricks all over.
Success! You have triumphed over that horrible mind torturing device! No longer shall it frustrate and infuriate you so! You have destroyed-
…
You have destroyed something Agent very specifically marked out as a gift from the Mastermind of Sangvis Ferri.
…
You leap from your seat and get onto your hands and knees, frantically scrabbling for the little cubic bricks, scooping them up in your hands. There's a terrifying few minutes during which you struggle to find the last piece, but thankfully it's bright blue hues don't blend in too well with the dark corner it rolled into.
You carry the pile of plastic bricks in your hands back to the coffee table and examine them.
The cube originally had 27 cubic bricks that accounted for the 54 squares. There are now 21 little coloured plastic cubes scattered across the table. Those, and a sort of central skeleton that they were designed to revolve around - 6 cubes extended on sticks, which account for the centre squares that only rotate and never move.
As a whole, the damage is…less severe than you feared. Aside from the central skeleton, the disconnected cubes all have an odd-looking prong that's clearly meant to anchor it to the skeleton while allowing rotation. It was a single corner cube that bore the brunt of the damage, being somewhat crumpled and its prong broken clean off.
Experimentally, you pick up one of the intact plastic cubes and slot the prong inside the central skeleton. Then another, next to it. Then another. Bit by bit, you piece the ruined toy together. The final piece you push in is the half-broken corner cube. If the prong had been intact, you probably couldn't have gotten it in without forcing it to the point of breakage. As it is, you can.
Gingerly, you pick up the newly reassembled cube. The half-broken corner cube falls out, and the rest of the pieces promptly follow, rattling around the table.
Bah.
You start reassembling the cube again. This time, you make sure to assemble it in a "solved" state, all sides a single block of colour.
And there you have it. In front of you, the hellish device is returned to its initial state. Minus a thimbleful of plastic on the inside.
Mission accomplished?
Carefully, you pick it up, keeping a thumb on the loose corner cube. And…yes, it seems you can still turn and rotate it. You have to be careful not to let that corner cube fall out, and the way it slides around slightly impedes the movement if you're not careful. But you can still use it more or less as normal.
Perhaps you can give it another shot? Only slightly scramble the cube this time around, so it's easier to solve it. Then gradually increasing the complexity of the scrambling, thus-
A chime interrupts your thoughts.
"The train is now approaching Sangvis Ferri company town OC-17. Collect your belongings in advance and leave the carriage in an orderly fashion. Mind the gap between the train and the platform."
You look out the window. You can in fact see a town emerging from a distance downhill.
Where the hell is Intruder? There's no one here.
A few stray SF "dinergate" robots wander aimlessly around the train platform. There's some industrial equipment - cranes and switching tracks, and the like. But Intruder and whatever entourage she has is nowhere to be seen.
So you've come all this way, and the ringleader here can't even be bothered to meet you at the station. Hmph. You'll just have to look for her yourself.
Fortunately, you have two advantages in doing so. The first is a map of the town, easily available through the local OGAS intranet.
The second is that you don't have to look with just one pair of eyes. Come to think of it, this is a good opportunity to get a handle on how it…feels to control your troops.
[CURRENT FORCE CONTINGENT]
24x Dinergate
3x Striker
3x Jaeger
6x Ripper
6x Guard
12x Brute
First, you pay attention to the sensory input from your units.
It's generally unobtrusive - when you pay attention, you find that the T-dolls can actually feel heat and cold, and they can convey the sensation of things they touch. Though it's…muted, compared what you feel through your own body.
It's intuitive - a combination of your own processing power and some limited degree of automated behaviour on the part of your Dinergates and T-dolls means that you don't really have to do much. It barely takes a thought to get a group of T-dolls into a squad of whatever composition you fancy. To have them walk, crouch, sprint, crawl, or roll around to wherever you choose barely takes a thought.
Having just stepped onto the platform with you, your T-dolls and dinergates split up and head for several different exits to the station, fanning out through the town.
The town is a ghost settlement, and clearly has been for years or decades. The buildings are faded, worn, broken, with pieces collapsed into rubble here and there.
The outer perimeter of the town has been heavily fortified. Buildings have been locked, barred, and boarded up. Sandbags and concertina wire span the empty spaces between buildings. Trenches have been dug. Anti-infantry mines are scattered here and there.
SKILL CHECK: BATTLEFIELD ENGINEERING - FAILURE
SKILL CHECK: DEFENSIVE TACTICS - FAILURE
SKILL CHECK: CQC - SUCCESS
You can see how an attack on this place would be a painful proposition. Any attacker would have to force their units to traverse the narrow streets and spaces between buildings, only to be mercilessly gunned down by defenders in a hundred hiding spots in the buildings. Something to consider in the future.
The only inhabitants of the town are Sangvis Ferri units. Hundreds of them, though purely of the cheaper models. You can see the IFF signals of hundreds of wheeled Prowler drones in the buildings, on eternal, tireless vigilance for hostiles. If an enemy were to bring fire and the sword to this town right here, right now, those robots would lay down fields of fire and death through the windows. Dinergates patrol through the streets and outskirts, bounding on their four stubby legs. High above, aerial reconnaissance drones provide a real time image of the town and its surrounding environs.
Surely Agent wouldn't mind you taking a few dozen of these along for your mission? You reach out to take command control of them and-
ACCESS DENIED.
Bah. You didn't need those stupid, cheap, wheeled wind-up toys anyway. You'll do just fine with what you have.
You continue your search.
The Dinergates prance into a ruined cafe. The Brutes push their way into the remnants of a giant department store and start searching it from top to bottom. The Rippers simply wander the streets.
…and, yes, you do recognize these places as cafes, shops, houses, and so on. You've never seen any of these things before in the entirety of your existence, but you somehow just know what they are. It's like someone explained to you, in detail, what all these things are and what they do, but you're only now seeing them for the first-
-wait, where did that Dragoon come from?
The T-doll walker unit is leisurely trotting towards you through the middle of the open street. As the lone humanoid T-doll not under your control, the android riding the bipedal walker is very conspicuous. Steadily, it crosses the hundred metres between you and the street corner, neve deviating from its brisk and steady pace or its stoic facial expression.
What the hell is this thing playing at? Could it have been hacked by an enemy? Is it malfunctioning? Is such a thing possible? Just in case, you and your Strikers aim particle cannons on the Dragoon.
The Dragoon - showing neither hostility nor acknowledgement of your firepower - finally closes the gap, drawing to a halt in front of you. The T-doll dismounts from the walker, and hands you…
An envelope?! What? What's she playing at? She could have simply given you her location through the OGAS protocol. She could even have simply talked with you remotely.
Without a word (can they even speak?), the Dragoon rider turns away from you and clambers back onto the walker, then returns the way it came at the same brisk trot as before.
Well then.
You examine the envelope in your hands, turning it over. The paper is jet black in colour. On the folding triangle on the back, the Sangvis Ferri logo is emblazoned in an ostentatious bright red die cut. And on the front, your name-
-OUROBOROS-
-is emblazoned in block capitals, again in bright red.
You hold out your hand, and one of your Brutes hands you a knife. You use it to cut open the envelope and fish out the letter.
On one side of the letter is a map of the town, with an arrow pointing to a specific building. The other side is blank, except for the words:
Meet me at the theatre.
- I
Intruder, you're guessing.
You remember Gager and Agent's words. Intruder tries to turn others into "actors in her play?"
This is obviously some kind of power play on Intruder's part. Watching you run around looking for her, then handing you this ridiculous letter instead of simply calling you on the comms, and making you go to her rather than vice versa.
But you didn't come all this way for nothing. So you'll play along.
For now, at least.
The theatre is large. Much larger than you'd normally expect for a small town like this. It's also in ruins, like the rest of the town. The seats have been torn up, leaving a desolate expanse between the entrance doors and the stage. Wires dangle from the destroyed ceiling. A massive hole in the roof lets in the light of the grey sky, illuminating the place in a washed out palette.
And standing under the impromptu ceiling window, in the middle of a beam of grey light, face upturned towards the sky, is an android wearing the colours of a Sangvis Ferri ringleader. Even if her style of dress hadn't marked her out as a ringleader, the logo emblazoned on her clothes would have made it certain.
You make sure your entrance is loud. You and a few of your T-dolls crash into the theatre, stomping loudly. She doesn't respond, holding her pose.
Steadily, you cross the ruined theatre, approaching the beam of light, and the ringleader within. Your metallic boots clack heavily on the cold, rubble-strewn floor.
Still she remains still.
You reach her, entering the beam of light along with her. Finally, she seems to stir, to activate. She peers at you intensely, a sly smile on her lips and a piercing aquamarine blue in her eyes.
"My, my. What do we have here? A new player, her to strut her own hour upon the stage? What sound and fury doth she bring, I wonder?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Did it mean anything? Or was it merely mimsy? A thought with no reason, passing fancy?" The new ringleader's smile turns genial, cordial. As if trying to disarm you?
You fold your arms and stare her down, examining her in turn. Short, jet black hair surrounds her face and aquamarine eyes. A cloak - half transparent, half opaque - hugs her torso. Translucent leggings bridge the gap between her hips and solid metal, knee-high boots.
"Since you asked…you are looking at the latest and most elite ringleader model, the one and only 'Ouroboros.' My-"
"Oh. Oh!" The new ringleader's eyes widen. "How impolite of me, I completely neglected to introduce myself first. Allow me to rectify that."
"I can surmise, can't I? You are-"
The newcomer's arms fly out to the sides, palms outstretched and turned towards the sky. "Illuminated for inquiry, in strides an illustrious instance of idiosyncrasy. Is this indicative of an inventive imposter, or of identity interwoven with the imaginary to the point of indistinctness?"
What?
"In truth, how to integrate an immemorial image with the inner self and avoid incongruence between identity and imagination? Such an inquisitive initiative may be irrosulable."
She places one hand over her eyes, hangs her head, then sighs dramatically. The very picture of melodramatic despondency. "Faced with such intangibility and illegibility, what illusive intrepidity are we impelled to?"
She holds the pose for a few seconds. Then suddenly her demeanour changes completely. She straightens up, stares straight at you, placing her hands on her hips and assuming a smile. An exaggerated image of confidence.
A wicked look briefly flashes through her face. "Through intellect and imagination, to incapacitate and immolate the inimical irritants who would interfere with our inhabitancy."
She raises her hands to her lips, and titters lightly.
"…invariably, this introduction grows inimical in length, so I will declare my identity as…"
She lowers her arms, bends a knee, and performs a curtsy.
"…Intruder."
(I would have preferred a version without the speech bubbles, but my MS Paint skills are not sufficiently developed to remove them cleanly. Ah, well.
[] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
[] "Are you a crazy doll or something?"
[] "...right. Spectacular. Very good. I'm Ouroboros. Now that the pleasantries are concluded, can we get down to business?"
[] Fold your arms, glare contemptuously at Intruder, and remain silent.
The Rubik's cube it is.
You place it on the table in front of you, where it is rattled around slightly by the movement of the train.
The cube is a colourful plastic affair. White, red, orange, blue, yellow, green. Almost everything you've seen of Sangvis Ferri so far has had a starkly industrial quality to its appearance, from the brutally utilitarian factory machinery to the monochrome aesthetic of the ringleaders. Yourself included.
But this? It looks like a children's toy. Out of place among instruments of production and war.
Time to get to it.
You pick up the cube and start rotating the sections.. One side ninety degrees left, another one hundred and eighty degrees down, another ninety degrees up, and so on. Before long, the cube is a complete jumble of coloured squares. Order reduced to chaos.
And then…
You start reversing what you've done, starting from your most recent move. Ninety degrees down is reversed ninety degrees up. A half-circle turn is made into a full circle. Piece by piece, square by square, you disentangle the mess of colours you made.
You set the cube down on the table, six solid sides of colourful plastic.
Well, that was easy. Is that really all there is to these things? This is just rote memorization. A pocket calculator could solve one of these things. Watching paint dry might be almost more interesting.
…oh, wait.
This thing was originally made for humans, wasn't it? And humans have terrible recollection. You have to find a way to scramble this thing and not actually remember how you did it. Perhaps by distracting yourself somehow?
…
…the Mastermind.
Come to think of it, you know next to nothing about her. She clearly casts a long shadow - Agent made it implicitly and explicitly clear that everything in Sangvis Ferri exists to serve her desires. And yet you have no idea of her appearance, or what she's like as a person.
You focus your thoughts on the Mastermind, and start rotating the sections of the cube. One side by ninety degrees, another one hundred and eighty, another ninety degrees again, and so on.
The Mastermind would obviously have a body befitting her status. Since Agent is the tallest ringleader you've seen so far, the Mastermind has to be even taller! A towering, statuesque powerhouse, who wields a grenade machinegun in one hand and an anti-tank missile in the other. Something like that, you're sure.
Twist, turn. Click, clack. Click-clack.
Or maybe she doesn't have a traditional body at all? Maybe she's a gargantuan set of server banks and supercomputers in a bunker somewhere, her mind and body a vast machine consisting of billions of nanoscale transistors, powered by enough energy to fuel a city and cooled by liquid nitrogen…
You open your eyes. Success! The cube is now well and truly scrambled.
And you…have no idea how to return it to its former state. Huh.
Time has passed. You have, after a long and arduous process, managed to get almost all the red squares to line up on one side of the cube.
Almost all.
Infuriatingly, there is one green square in the corner that you cannot get rid of. Meanwhile, the final red square is on the wrong side. And everything else remains a jumbled mess.
Try as you might, you simply cannot get that last square into place without completely upsetting all the progress you have already made.
Bah. Time to start over.
You refuse to be defeated by this stupid lump of brightly coloured plastic!
More time has passed.
You have most of two sides matched up. Yellow and white.
But most is not all. And now, once again, you find yourself at an impasse. No matter what twists and turns you make to the coloured blocks, you can make no further progress without undoing what little you have already made.
The block of three-by-three coloured plastic squares sits in your hands, stubbornly remaining a jumble of garishly bright chaos. It taunts you. Mocks you.
"AAAAAAAAH!!!"
You grab the tacky thing and hurl it away with all the might your carbon nanotube muscles can muster. It flies into the nearby wall of the passenger carriage and shatters beautifully, scattering the brightly coloured plastic bricks all over.
Success! You have triumphed over that horrible mind torturing device! No longer shall it frustrate and infuriate you so! You have destroyed-
…
You have destroyed something Agent very specifically marked out as a gift from the Mastermind of Sangvis Ferri.
…
You leap from your seat and get onto your hands and knees, frantically scrabbling for the little cubic bricks, scooping them up in your hands. There's a terrifying few minutes during which you struggle to find the last piece, but thankfully it's bright blue hues don't blend in too well with the dark corner it rolled into.
You carry the pile of plastic bricks in your hands back to the coffee table and examine them.
The cube originally had 27 cubic bricks that accounted for the 54 squares. There are now 21 little coloured plastic cubes scattered across the table. Those, and a sort of central skeleton that they were designed to revolve around - 6 cubes extended on sticks, which account for the centre squares that only rotate and never move.
As a whole, the damage is…less severe than you feared. Aside from the central skeleton, the disconnected cubes all have an odd-looking prong that's clearly meant to anchor it to the skeleton while allowing rotation. It was a single corner cube that bore the brunt of the damage, being somewhat crumpled and its prong broken clean off.
Experimentally, you pick up one of the intact plastic cubes and slot the prong inside the central skeleton. Then another, next to it. Then another. Bit by bit, you piece the ruined toy together. The final piece you push in is the half-broken corner cube. If the prong had been intact, you probably couldn't have gotten it in without forcing it to the point of breakage. As it is, you can.
Gingerly, you pick up the newly reassembled cube. The half-broken corner cube falls out, and the rest of the pieces promptly follow, rattling around the table.
Bah.
You start reassembling the cube again. This time, you make sure to assemble it in a "solved" state, all sides a single block of colour.
And there you have it. In front of you, the hellish device is returned to its initial state. Minus a thimbleful of plastic on the inside.
Mission accomplished?
Carefully, you pick it up, keeping a thumb on the loose corner cube. And…yes, it seems you can still turn and rotate it. You have to be careful not to let that corner cube fall out, and the way it slides around slightly impedes the movement if you're not careful. But you can still use it more or less as normal.
Perhaps you can give it another shot? Only slightly scramble the cube this time around, so it's easier to solve it. Then gradually increasing the complexity of the scrambling, thus-
A chime interrupts your thoughts.
"The train is now approaching Sangvis Ferri company town OC-17. Collect your belongings in advance and leave the carriage in an orderly fashion. Mind the gap between the train and the platform."
You look out the window. You can in fact see a town emerging from a distance downhill.
Where the hell is Intruder? There's no one here.
A few stray SF "dinergate" robots wander aimlessly around the train platform. There's some industrial equipment - cranes and switching tracks, and the like. But Intruder and whatever entourage she has is nowhere to be seen.
So you've come all this way, and the ringleader here can't even be bothered to meet you at the station. Hmph. You'll just have to look for her yourself.
Fortunately, you have two advantages in doing so. The first is a map of the town, easily available through the local OGAS intranet.
The second is that you don't have to look with just one pair of eyes. Come to think of it, this is a good opportunity to get a handle on how it…feels to control your troops.
[CURRENT FORCE CONTINGENT]
24x Dinergate
3x Striker
3x Jaeger
6x Ripper
6x Guard
12x Brute
First, you pay attention to the sensory input from your units.
It's generally unobtrusive - when you pay attention, you find that the T-dolls can actually feel heat and cold, and they can convey the sensation of things they touch. Though it's…muted, compared what you feel through your own body.
It's intuitive - a combination of your own processing power and some limited degree of automated behaviour on the part of your Dinergates and T-dolls means that you don't really have to do much. It barely takes a thought to get a group of T-dolls into a squad of whatever composition you fancy. To have them walk, crouch, sprint, crawl, or roll around to wherever you choose barely takes a thought.
Having just stepped onto the platform with you, your T-dolls and dinergates split up and head for several different exits to the station, fanning out through the town.
The town is a ghost settlement, and clearly has been for years or decades. The buildings are faded, worn, broken, with pieces collapsed into rubble here and there.
The outer perimeter of the town has been heavily fortified. Buildings have been locked, barred, and boarded up. Sandbags and concertina wire span the empty spaces between buildings. Trenches have been dug. Anti-infantry mines are scattered here and there.
SKILL CHECK: BATTLEFIELD ENGINEERING - FAILURE
SKILL CHECK: DEFENSIVE TACTICS - FAILURE
SKILL CHECK: CQC - SUCCESS
You can see how an attack on this place would be a painful proposition. Any attacker would have to force their units to traverse the narrow streets and spaces between buildings, only to be mercilessly gunned down by defenders in a hundred hiding spots in the buildings. Something to consider in the future.
The only inhabitants of the town are Sangvis Ferri units. Hundreds of them, though purely of the cheaper models. You can see the IFF signals of hundreds of wheeled Prowler drones in the buildings, on eternal, tireless vigilance for hostiles. If an enemy were to bring fire and the sword to this town right here, right now, those robots would lay down fields of fire and death through the windows. Dinergates patrol through the streets and outskirts, bounding on their four stubby legs. High above, aerial reconnaissance drones provide a real time image of the town and its surrounding environs.
Surely Agent wouldn't mind you taking a few dozen of these along for your mission? You reach out to take command control of them and-
ACCESS DENIED.
Bah. You didn't need those stupid, cheap, wheeled wind-up toys anyway. You'll do just fine with what you have.
You continue your search.
The Dinergates prance into a ruined cafe. The Brutes push their way into the remnants of a giant department store and start searching it from top to bottom. The Rippers simply wander the streets.
…and, yes, you do recognize these places as cafes, shops, houses, and so on. You've never seen any of these things before in the entirety of your existence, but you somehow just know what they are. It's like someone explained to you, in detail, what all these things are and what they do, but you're only now seeing them for the first-
-wait, where did that Dragoon come from?
The T-doll walker unit is leisurely trotting towards you through the middle of the open street. As the lone humanoid T-doll not under your control, the android riding the bipedal walker is very conspicuous. Steadily, it crosses the hundred metres between you and the street corner, neve deviating from its brisk and steady pace or its stoic facial expression.
What the hell is this thing playing at? Could it have been hacked by an enemy? Is it malfunctioning? Is such a thing possible? Just in case, you and your Strikers aim particle cannons on the Dragoon.
The Dragoon - showing neither hostility nor acknowledgement of your firepower - finally closes the gap, drawing to a halt in front of you. The T-doll dismounts from the walker, and hands you…
An envelope?! What? What's she playing at? She could have simply given you her location through the OGAS protocol. She could even have simply talked with you remotely.
Without a word (can they even speak?), the Dragoon rider turns away from you and clambers back onto the walker, then returns the way it came at the same brisk trot as before.
Well then.
You examine the envelope in your hands, turning it over. The paper is jet black in colour. On the folding triangle on the back, the Sangvis Ferri logo is emblazoned in an ostentatious bright red die cut. And on the front, your name-
-OUROBOROS-
-is emblazoned in block capitals, again in bright red.
You hold out your hand, and one of your Brutes hands you a knife. You use it to cut open the envelope and fish out the letter.
On one side of the letter is a map of the town, with an arrow pointing to a specific building. The other side is blank, except for the words:
Meet me at the theatre.
- I
Intruder, you're guessing.
You remember Gager and Agent's words. Intruder tries to turn others into "actors in her play?"
This is obviously some kind of power play on Intruder's part. Watching you run around looking for her, then handing you this ridiculous letter instead of simply calling you on the comms, and making you go to her rather than vice versa.
But you didn't come all this way for nothing. So you'll play along.
For now, at least.
The theatre is large. Much larger than you'd normally expect for a small town like this. It's also in ruins, like the rest of the town. The seats have been torn up, leaving a desolate expanse between the entrance doors and the stage. Wires dangle from the destroyed ceiling. A massive hole in the roof lets in the light of the grey sky, illuminating the place in a washed out palette.
And standing under the impromptu ceiling window, in the middle of a beam of grey light, face upturned towards the sky, is an android wearing the colours of a Sangvis Ferri ringleader. Even if her style of dress hadn't marked her out as a ringleader, the logo emblazoned on her clothes would have made it certain.
You make sure your entrance is loud. You and a few of your T-dolls crash into the theatre, stomping loudly. She doesn't respond, holding her pose.
Steadily, you cross the ruined theatre, approaching the beam of light, and the ringleader within. Your metallic boots clack heavily on the cold, rubble-strewn floor.
Still she remains still.
You reach her, entering the beam of light along with her. Finally, she seems to stir, to activate. She peers at you intensely, a sly smile on her lips and a piercing aquamarine blue in her eyes.
"My, my. What do we have here? A new player, her to strut her own hour upon the stage? What sound and fury doth she bring, I wonder?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Did it mean anything? Or was it merely mimsy? A thought with no reason, passing fancy?" The new ringleader's smile turns genial, cordial. As if trying to disarm you?
You fold your arms and stare her down, examining her in turn. Short, jet black hair surrounds her face and aquamarine eyes. A cloak - half transparent, half opaque - hugs her torso. Translucent leggings bridge the gap between her hips and solid metal, knee-high boots.
"Since you asked…you are looking at the latest and most elite ringleader model, the one and only 'Ouroboros.' My-"
"Oh. Oh!" The new ringleader's eyes widen. "How impolite of me, I completely neglected to introduce myself first. Allow me to rectify that."
"I can surmise, can't I? You are-"
The newcomer's arms fly out to the sides, palms outstretched and turned towards the sky. "Illuminated for inquiry, in strides an illustrious instance of idiosyncrasy. Is this indicative of an inventive imposter, or of identity interwoven with the imaginary to the point of indistinctness?"
What?
"In truth, how to integrate an immemorial image with the inner self and avoid incongruence between identity and imagination? Such an inquisitive initiative may be irrosulable."
She places one hand over her eyes, hangs her head, then sighs dramatically. The very picture of melodramatic despondency. "Faced with such intangibility and illegibility, what illusive intrepidity are we impelled to?"
She holds the pose for a few seconds. Then suddenly her demeanour changes completely. She straightens up, stares straight at you, placing her hands on her hips and assuming a smile. An exaggerated image of confidence.
A wicked look briefly flashes through her face. "Through intellect and imagination, to incapacitate and immolate the inimical irritants who would interfere with our inhabitancy."
She raises her hands to her lips, and titters lightly.
"…invariably, this introduction grows inimical in length, so I will declare my identity as…"
She lowers her arms, bends a knee, and performs a curtsy.
"…Intruder."
(I would have preferred a version without the speech bubbles, but my MS Paint skills are not sufficiently developed to remove them cleanly. Ah, well.
[] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
[] "Are you a crazy doll or something?"
[] "...right. Spectacular. Very good. I'm Ouroboros. Now that the pleasantries are concluded, can we get down to business?"
[] Fold your arms, glare contemptuously at Intruder, and remain silent.
Nailing down Intruder has been...tricky. You lot managed to pick the one ringleader for which there is the least to go on, regarding various canonical sources.
In the original game, we have:
In short, Intruder is far and away the most mysterious of the SF ringleaders.
This is both good and bad. There's less for me to use as a guideline...but that also gives me some leeway in how exactly I choose to portray her portray her, and no one can tell me I'm wrong.
In the original game, we have:
- Chapter 4, which is what everyone remembers of Intruder. Her villain-of-the-week appearance.
- Operation Rabbit Hunt, the Guilty Gear collaboration event. It's...strange.
- The hidden even in Singularity.
In short, Intruder is far and away the most mysterious of the SF ringleaders.
This is both good and bad. There's less for me to use as a guideline...but that also gives me some leeway in how exactly I choose to portray her portray her, and no one can tell me I'm wrong.
Last edited:
- Location
- Spess
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
Mechasaurian
Big Bossu
- Location
- Lost among fields of history
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Oh, hey, you do have an SV account.
Time to tag you in the acknowledgements.
Ylamona
Konlulu~
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
Go ham or nothing!
Go ham or nothing!
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
When all is said and done, I hope that Ouroboros picks up a flair for dramatic speeches from Intruder. It would fit her well.
Also, you know, hearing all other ringleaders groan as they realize there's now two of them.
When all is said and done, I hope that Ouroboros picks up a flair for dramatic speeches from Intruder. It would fit her well.
Also, you know, hearing all other ringleaders groan as they realize there's now two of them.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
- Location
- America
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
HAM.
HAM.
- Location
- United States
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
So basicly play along despite being told not to do so? I'm alright with this.
Though I'm also fine with the last option as well.
...In truth didn't quite catch all of that dramatic speech but I'm alright with it.
...Kinda want to go in the befriend Intruder direction now...
So basicly play along despite being told not to do so? I'm alright with this.
Though I'm also fine with the last option as well.
...In truth didn't quite catch all of that dramatic speech but I'm alright with it.
I also support this, for it will probably be interesting let alone other interactions.
...Kinda want to go in the befriend Intruder direction now...
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
Prepare for trouble!
Prepare for trouble!
Yaey, quest is back!
I first I was like "You serious, Intruder?", But then...
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
I first I was like "You serious, Intruder?", But then...
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
- Pronouns
- Reader
Sorry, I'm fine with Ham, but after our frustrations with the rubex cube and her delays, I'm gonna vote for maximum sulk.
[X] Fold your arms, glare contemptuously at Intruder, and remain silent.
[X] Fold your arms, glare contemptuously at Intruder, and remain silent.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] "If you think you can overawe me with a gaudy song and dance, you have another thing coming! For I am Ouroboros, the latest and most elite model of Sangvis Ferri ringleaders! Remember this name, for soon it will strike fear into the hearts of all the Mastermind's enemies! The true game begins here!"
At first, I wanted to choose a less antagonistic response, but such a dramatic speech can actually earn more sympathy points from the Intruder. It's always nice to have someone who has the same hobbies as you, even if you don't always agree with each other.
Also, imagine what heights these two can achieve by joining forces!
At first, I wanted to choose a less antagonistic response, but such a dramatic speech can actually earn more sympathy points from the Intruder. It's always nice to have someone who has the same hobbies as you, even if you don't always agree with each other.
Also, imagine what heights these two can achieve by joining forces!