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| Assembling the Troops; Floor 1: OPEN | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 5 2011, 01:36 AM (451 Views) | |
| Overlord Taga | Jul 5 2011, 01:36 AM Post #1 |
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((Sigmund Emerson and Maria Aguilar START)) Sigmund Emerson hated pencil sharpeners. Alexis Guan from the IT department had hung up a sign near this particular little monster. It read: “Welcome to the lair of the Sacapuntas Terribles. If you do not turn the handle perfectly, or if you do not put your pencil in at the exactly correct angle, the Sacapuntas Terribles will devour your pencil. Cruelly. Without any shred of mercy. To avoid this fate, please leave a sacrifice of one goat to the Sacapuntas Terribles by tying it to the lamppost outside the building. Also, it would not hurt to speak soothingly to the beast whilst sharpening. Thank you.” Every day after the lunch the manager took the sign down. Every morning, without fail, the sign was right there again. Emerson had heard that the higher-ups were having a fit trying to figure out who was responsible. Emerson knew it was Alexis Guan, because he couldn’t think of any other reason for her to leave work with a goat in tow. Plus, she told him. He’d turn her in if he thought it would get him a raise, but as it stood, Emerson approached the situation with learned apathy. There was also the fact that Miss Guan had given him two R4 DS cards (or whatever those things were called) and one USB stick filled with emulators. It had probably been the best gift Keith and Lily had gotten for their birthday, as Emerson knew their parents couldn’t be bothered to buy them anything. But the important fact of the matter was that Emerson despised pencil sharpeners with a cold, reserved sort of fury. They always seemed to sharpen one side of his pencil, which would be a lot less of problem if, no matter which way he put the pencil into the hole, it didn’t always turn out to be the same side. As it stood, Emerson was beginning to wonder if he could get pencils written off as expenses. Hey? Hey… hello? You guys hear me? You- is this working? Oh of course it’s working, we can do anything. Hello? Okay. You can hear us. I don’t even know why I asked such a silly question- Huh? The message went on. It explained a whole lot and nothing at all at the same time, a skill that Emerson only thought humans could possess. The contents of the message were almost unbelievable. They could re-chart the path of the entire human race; completely change the fate of the earth. Emerson responded to the news in a way that dignified the situation. “Um…what?” Yeah, that was it. So, basically, his job was to get to the top of the 108-floor tower. God, Emerson wasn’t sure if he could do that without the monsters and other people and the whole race thing. Plus, the aliens sounded like…well, a bag of dicks would be the way Erik would put it. Did he want to know the secret to the universe, the end result of every action he took? It was something to think about, at l- “Rawr’ak sadeyhg Arakara’rk!” A blue, hunched over thing larger than Emerson loomed over him, knocking the man to the ground with its leg. It’s face grew closer and… Oh god, I don’t want to die right now. Not even just for my first life. That would be…embarrassing. I don’t want this! …spit on him. It spit on him. “…Okay…” The man wiped saliva off his face. The creature suddenly looked surprised and unsure. Emerson figured he might have a chance at living, until the thing decided it would be a good idea to use its arms. The creature lifted its fist and... Fell forward into Emerson, bullet in its head. Emerson pushed the thing to the side. Standing in front of him was a fairly young, Hispanic woman about his height. She looked, well, normal. The woman wore a nice blouse, neat pants, and pretty flats. Well, two things were a little less than normal. She was holding what looked to be a pistol in her hands, and had a wide smile on her face. “Heeeeeeello, Sigmund Emerson!” She said, still with the gun. Her named was Maria Aguilar, she was a gangster, and she was his partner. Emerson knew this like he had known it all his life. Maria was unimpressed with her new partner so far, but she wasn’t one to take first impressions too seriously. She had once meet a nervous, stuttering boy who had ended up her second-in-command. His name was Thomas, and she was sure that he was handling the syndicate with care while she was gone. He’d better have been, or she would see that he got punished fairly. “So, you up for this, kid?” The woman said. “Kid?” “How old are you?” “…25” “Yeah, still a kid.” “Come on, I-hide!” Emerson’s last syllable came out like a hiss. “What?” Maria wore a look of confusion on her face. Emerson pulled her down with one hand and pulled them over to a desk with the other. He covered her mouth, and his too for good measure. “What’s going on?” Maria whispered, barely audible. “She’s coming.” “Who is-“ But it was too late. Edited by Overlord Taga, Jul 11 2011, 01:36 AM.
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| Scruffy The Janitor | Jul 5 2011, 03:07 AM Post #2 |
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The blond girl turned her head, in the direction of the other voices in the room. "Oh." She squinted her eyes, putting a hand to her ear. "Oh! Was that... Sigmund?" The girl smiled brightly. She walked over to the part of the hallway that she thought Sigmund was at - oh! She bumped into a blue man on the floor! "Ahh, my apologies sir!" She gasped. "I hope you're okay! I have to say, sleeping on the floor isn't very smart. I tried that once and let me tell you everyone took very great care to step on my head-" She shook her head. "O-Of course I'm sure they had a reason to do so! I was blocking them!" She stopped the one-sided conversation short, bowed her head and kept on walking. "Sigmund?" She said, peeking her head inside of a cubical. "Sigmund, where are you? Are you around?" Huh. Funny. She couldn't find him. She scratched the side of her head, opening the door to a file cabinet before turning around. Where could he be? "... oh!" Her shoe was untied. It was a big bother at times! She got down to her knees to untie it, turning her head just so - "Oh!" Lily Hayes was never the type to really get hints. So hiding under a desk... of course that had nothing to do with her. That had to be the logical conclusion! He was probably hiding from... ... She waved. "Ahh, good evening to you Sigmund!" No, her waves weren't just waves. They were huge strides of her arm, sweeping from one side to the other. Wave wave wave. Her arm looked ready to pop off! She leaped over to Sigmund, hands clutched at the slightly burnt paperwork in her hands. "I am so glad that I managed to find you. I was really really worried, oh I couldn't tell you how worried I was. I thought the aliens had conquered you too!" Lily Hayes. The former Assistant Junior Information Clerk at Willford & Gumbs. A girl who, despite having an announcement directly beamed into her head, was clueless as to what was happening. Oh, but there's Sigmund Emerson. She knew him! "Not that I was worrying about you! I was sure you were fine this whole time! Yes, I'm sure everyone is perfectly fine!" She crossed her eyebrows in a look of confusion. "Except for the poor blue man on the floor. He wasn't looking fine at all - but I'm sure everyone else is fine!" She blinked. "Oh, but Sigmund. What are you doing under that desk? Are you making a fort? Are - " Lily's look of confusion grew as she noticed the other girl under the desk. Lily certainly wasn't one of fear. She saw the pistol. She figured this woman was the one who killed the pour blue thing on the floor. And yet she wasn't scared. Oh no. "And..." Lily gave a cheerful smile, well, overly cheerful for her. Another broad wave. "Oh! Siggy! Who's she?" |
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| Overlord Taga | Jul 5 2011, 03:50 AM Post #3 |
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Maria Aguilar had been in a lot of tight spots in her life. That was just how things tended to go when you ran a crime syndicate that ran a city. So when she was pulled under a desk in a split second, she got her gun ready to shot at whatever horror her partner saw coming. Maria could be emotional, but she was not ruled be emotion; she was a practical girl. And practical girls made things happen. That was how Maria had dropped the homicide, rape, and burglary rates in her home city to less than they had ever been. Other people, people who didn’t know the city, kept congratulating the mayor for his fine efforts, but the citizens knew better. They knew better than to cross the lines that Maria Aguilar, the Sharp-Clawed Eagle of the Southwest, had drawn in the sand. So, the point was that she was ready for anything. Anything, but, well… This. “Why, hello there.” Maria responded brightly. The girl looked confused, and the mob boss knew enough about people to know that the newest addition to the Tower-Climbing Crew was wary of her. Well, that was good. Maybe the girl wasn’t as clueless as she appeared. The women turned to Emerson, hoping to get some explanation of why they hid from a happy little blonde girl. “Oi, Sigmund! You know h-“ She stopped. The young man’s face, which was fairly light to begin with, had paled significantly to the shade of sheet paper. It didn’t seem to be from fear, but the guy clearly wanted out of this situation. What Maria did not know is that Emerson worked above Lily, and ran into her far more often than he would have liked. The girl had a habit of questioning his eating habits, asking him about his personal life and relationships, and rambling on about building boats out of cardboard. Sigmund Emerson had prepared for a normal Monday, and now he was stuck in the middle of Crazy Town, population 42. The last thing he wanted was Lily Hayes, the most infuriatingly perky girl he had ever met, to spend more than three minutes in the same room as him. As noted, however, Maria didn’t know this. “Who is she?” The woman asked. Emerson sighed, looking like he just swallowed something that died a few days ago. “This is Miss Lillian Hayes. She works here. Miss Hayes, this is Miss Maria Aguilar. She kills people for a living.” “Now that’s a rude way of putting it. I only kill people who cross my path.” Maria sniffed indignantly. “I’m a real force of good for the community.” Emerson ignored her. “Miss Hayes, this is a dangerous place. That 'poor blue man' attempted to murder me. I suggest you go hide as soon as possible if you don’t have any powers or a partner.” “Wow, Sigmund. You’re just leaving her here? And I thought I was supposed to be the only who kills people…” Maria frowned. The idea of a kid like Lily being murdered by some aliens was a little too…messy for her to handle. The girl was no thread to Maria, so Maria had no beef with her. Simple as that. Sigmund Emerson looked like he wanted to die. “No, of course I wouldn’t just…” He stopped. “Miss Hayes, are you part of the whole tower race competition?” he asked quickly. Hopefully, the younger girl who say yes and then Emerson would be her competitor and never have to worry about talking to her again. And everybody would be happy. Maria hadn’t thought of the girl as a possible competitor. Still, she didn’t want to kill her. This Lily person looked harmless enough, and god help her, Maria kinda liked the girl. She was cheery. Maria tended to like happy people. “Hey, we’re not going to leave you out in the rain, anyway.” Maria added. “If you need to find your partner, we’ll watch your back until then.” This was news to Emerson. “We will?” “Yep.” Since Maria was the one with the pistol who had saved his life, Emerson nodded. “We will.” “Just stay between us, okay? We don’t want anyone to get hurt here. This is a crazy game, and there are plenty of dangerous creatures around.” Maria added happily. Just then, a Bottom Feeder flopped by. “Except for them.” Emerson stated. “Yeah.” Maria agreed. |
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| Scruffy The Janitor | Jul 6 2011, 08:32 PM Post #4 |
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Lily was going to find herself confused. A lot. She waved to Maria again. Wave. Wave. Wave. She seemed nice! Perhaps this was the girl Sigmund always told her about, the same girl named Lillian! They looked nothing like each other but Lily certainly didn't think of that! Sigmund introduced her, and the whole time Lily nodded enthusiastically. Yeah! She worked here! Yes! Sigmund always called her Miss. Hayes! "No no, call me Lily!" She insisted, spinning her finger around an imaginary circle. Lily gave Maria a searching look. "Kill people who cross your path?" Lily thought about that for a moment... then she smiled. "That's an odd job, I have to say. You don't look like one of those gangsters from those movies they show on television, so I am really surprised!" Lily would have gone on and on but Emerson spoke up, talking about the poor blue man. She looked over at the hallway. "Him? He was trying to kill you? Well that's certainly mean!" She turned back and thought for a minute. "Well, I did hear this one person say something about a game. A race. I'm not really too sure though. I was really busy staring at the wall today, very intense so I wasn't quite sure what to make of it!" "But I wasn't going to play in the race. If the basement didn't turn into a hellish firepit, I would just stay down there." Lily pouted, but only for a second. After that her face sprung up and she smiled again. "But a race! That should be fun! I wonder if I have a race driver as my partner! His name is Shotgun or... Shotcar? Something like that!" Lily gave the Bottom Feeder a slight glance before continuing. She scratched the side of her head. "But my power... well? I can't recall. I must have not heard that part. I was very busy... something about flies." She pouted. "Ohh! I wish I had been paying better attention! All of this is silly. I should know this! This person's voice was very loud so I had to drown it out with a little tune I was humming so - Oww!" The Bottom Feeder jabbed her in the leg. For a second, Lily almost looked annoyed. "Do you know what you're doing?! That hurts you know! Now that spots going to bruise, and it'll take a week for it to heal! I know that you're a little monster wandering around trying to hurt people, it's your job after all! I know you must have a family and kids back home, eating fly casserole and waiting for you to come back! That doesn't mean you can be so pushy! Do you understand?" The Bottom Feeder stared at Lily. Lily assumed that this look was meant to say "Oh yes Miss. Lily, I'm so ever sorry." Lily smiled and turned back to Sigmund, a proud look on her face. "You see Siggy? These creatures are people too! They have feelings! All we have to do is just -" The Bottom Feeder jabbed at her again. "Oww!" |
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| Overlord Taga | Jul 6 2011, 09:10 PM Post #5 |
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"Hell yeah. I'm a whole lot prettier than your average gangster!" Maria had officially decided to like this girl. She was cheery and perky as all get out, and she seemed to have little problems with Maria's choice of employment. Meanwhile, Emerson was biting down on his tongue. "Look, Miss Hayes. A bunch of aliens with nothing better to do with their existences stuck us in here, and now we're all in a game to make it to the top. The first team that gets there learns the secrets to the universe, or whatever. Something presumably bad happens to everyone else. Your partner, well, I guess that's the guy named Shotgun." What the hell kind of name was Shotgun. anyway? "He has a weapon, and you have some sort of power." He took at deep breath after finishing his explanation, giving a look that hopefully told the other girl not to bother him ever again. Maria was messing around with her gun. "Yeah, the secret of life. I'll bet you ten bucks when we get to the top, those bastards are just gonna give us a '42' and laugh their alien guts out." "Why would they do that?" Emerson had decided that he wanted to get the the top first. Not only would it keep him from whatever fate the aliens had in store for him, it would make him famous. Famous enough to not have to worry about getting Erik through rehab and into a steady job, helping Keith's ambitions to become a chef, or putting Lily through law school. As an afterthought, it would be nice to have his own lack of health insurance fixed, and a real house instead of a basement apartment in Chinatown. "...Wait, you don't get it?" "No, I don't think I do." Emerson gave his partner a quizzical look. "Huh. And here I thought you looked like the geeky type." "Thank you, Miss Aguilar. Now if we can get back to the matter at h-" He paused as Lillian gave an almost motherly lecture to one of the more pathetic looking aliens. She turned to Emerson, pointed at the creature and talked some more. That girl always seemed to be talking, honestly. He coughed. "My name is Sigmund Emerson, not Sigg-stop playing around with that!" The thing jabbed her again. Maria picked the creature up with both hands and placed in under an overturned trash can. "There. It can't bother us now, can it?" She was wearing a face that Emerson would say was too proud for just sticking the world's saddest alien out of their reach. "Now, about those powers we were discussing. You should have one too, right Sigmund?" The young man nodded. "Yeah. Hold on a second." He picked up a satchel from on top of the desk, and dumped it out. A handful of army men lay on the table and then, as one, stood up. "Sir! Awaiting your orders, sir!" The one who seemed to be in charge shouted. "Oh, wonderful." Emerson muttered to himself. More craziness. Just great. "Sir?" Asked one of the other army men. "Alright." Emerson stood up a little straighter. "First off, what are your names and ranks?" "My rank is corporal, sir!" One of the tiny soldiers stated. "Great. What's your name?" The small toy looked at Emerson like their was something in that question he didn't understand. "My what, sir?" "Your name, corporal. What people call you." "They call me Corporal, sir!" The army man responded, confused. "Well, you're going to need a name. From now on, you're...Elliot Mizrachi, okay? You're Corporal Mizrachi." "Yes, sir!" Corporal Mizrachi responded with a surprising deal of pride. "Great, now..." Emerson looked over the 13 remaining soldiers. "Uh...Help me out, Miss Aguilar?" "No problem!" Maria pointed at one of the army men holding a large weapon. "You're Maximum Facepuncher. Max for short." She began to point at other soldiers. "You're Gregory Killmaster. You're Batman bin Suparman. You...you look like a Maximum Fightmaster. You can use Max as a nickname too." Emerson was beginning to regret this. Edited by Overlord Taga, Jul 6 2011, 09:10 PM.
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| Scruffy The Janitor | Jul 10 2011, 06:24 AM Post #6 |
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Lily clapped her hands together. That was quite the show Maria provided Lily. She would have never thought to have moved the little monster there. Yes, she was actually impressed by this very, very small feat. "Nicely done Maria!" She said encouragingly. She took a look at Sigmund's satchel as he spilled out a bunch of toy soldiers onto the table. The reaction was immediate. "Oh they're cute!" Lily beamed. "So so cute!" She was almost ready to pick one of them up and throw him around... of course, she didn't. Lily had some restraint after all! She would have to do it once Sigmund was finished talking to the tiny green things. She blinked out at first, turning back and forth between Maria, Sigmund and the soldiers. She hadn't really been paying attention to what they were talking about... until Maria said Maximum Fightmaster. "Oh! Are we naming the soldiers?" Lily said. She sounded excited. She clapped her hands together again. "Oh oh! Let me name a few! You," she pointed to one soldier, "are going to be named Sunshine Happiness, and you," She pointed to another one, "will be named ... Sunflower Unicorn! A-And -" |
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| Overlord Taga | Jul 10 2011, 06:50 PM Post #7 |
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"Um...Miss Hayes, I think you should stop now." Sunshine Happiness and Sunflower Unicorn beamed with pride, and Emerson figured that he'd better stop Lillian before she got to Sunray Loveandpeace or whatever. Did the girl have a filter? "Thanks for the help, Lily." Maria was teaching Max Figthmaster the Kyorugi joonbi. Que Dios la ayudara, but Maria was beginning to enjoy this. Her old job was getting a little boring; a race to the top of a 108-floor tower with aliens chasing her seemed like a nice change of pace. Her syndicate was probably doing alright. "Okay," Emerson glanced at the remaining soliders. "You...you're Ga Lim." He kept pointed at each army man, one after another. "Juan Álvarez. Vikram Chaturvedi. Mohammad Hassani. Kiryu Ishii. Alina Sokolov. Raoul Moreau." The young man took a breath. "That's done with. Everybody all set?" "Sir, yes sir!" exclaimed Private Killmaster. "Right. That's good." Emerson turned to Maria. "So, what now?" "We get you a crowbar." "...May I ask why?" Maria sighed as if she were trying to explain something complicated to a small child. "Crowbars are the coolest melee weapon! They're better than chainsaws for taking down zombies, for sure. They even have a cool name. I mean, come on. Crows are the birds of death, right? And bars are where manly men go to get in fights and get hammered. Crow-bar, see?" Emerson had no words. "Right then! Let's find one, goodface!" "Goodface?" "Well, I'm the badass, right? And you're the opposite, which makes you a goodface. Stands to reason." "Please just call me Emerson." |
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| Scruffy The Janitor | Jul 11 2011, 01:32 AM Post #8 |
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Lily scratched the side of her head as Sigmund told her to stop. "Oh, alright. I was running out of ideas anyhow. It's very hard coming up with names." She smiled though, seeing the expressions on the little soldiers. "Oh, but they look happy! I'm so glad! "... oh, I know that there's a crowbar in the basement! I used to stare at it from my desk for hours!" But then Lily pouted. "But since the basement's become a hellish firepit unfortunately it's stuck down there! I wish I had brought it with me!" Then Lily smiled again. "But we shouldn't lose hope! I'm sure they have another one around here, I'm sure of that! Is this is a race right? Oh, that sounds fun! I like races! I'm not sure how a crowbar will help us go fast but I'm sure it well." She turned to Maria, clapping her hands again. Maria was coming up with so many good ideas! It was a good thing she was on their team! "Goodface?" Lily beamed again. Maria wasn't looking at her, but she must be talking to her! "Oh, Maria I like that name! Goodface it is!" She turned to Emerson. "What do you think Goodface Siggy?" Two against one Emerson. Welcome to hell. |
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| Overlord Taga | Jul 11 2011, 01:47 AM Post #9 |
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"Why was there a crowbar in the basement?" Emerson did not understand. Specifically, he did not understand anything that was currently happening, but whatever. It beat cold ramen and tap water. Actually, a lot of things beat cold ramen and tap water. "And anyway, I don't think you understand how serious this is, Miss Hayes. Our lives are on the line here." Maria snorted. "Suuuure, she gestured to the upturned wastebasket. "That guy's a real danger to us. I'm shaking in my shoes right now, I really am." She wasn't; Emerson checked. Meanwhile, Lillian was going along with Maria's silliness, because this was Lillian and that was what she did. Maybe this didn't beat cold ramen and tap water after all. Maria held up her hand for a high-five from Lillian. "Alright! We're going to be the coolest team ever, Goodface Lily! Once we find your guy, we'll need a badass team name, so start thinking up one now." Wait a second. "Since when were we a team?!" Emerson exclaimed. "Hey, why not? Cooperation is the key to success. It's why I make sure to give nice gifts to the cops." "...Maria, that is bribery." "Nah, it's cooperation. Come on you guys, let's find a crowbar and a Shotgun!" Maria jabbed her pistol into the air with excitement. She was really enjoying this now. Secret of the life, get ready to meet Maria Aguilar. Emerson had decided that hell was other people. Edited by Overlord Taga, Jul 12 2011, 01:12 AM.
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| Namira | Jul 12 2011, 01:09 AM Post #10 |
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Melanie had a headache. Not from the intermittent bursts of gunfire and screams that echoed through the building - though they did cause her to jump and/or scream - no, Melanie's headache was as a result of what the Zalgo-whatevers had put into her head. Quotes. Thousands of them. And impersonations, and trivia and every little event from every little bit of a show she'd watched a few re-runs of, once. It made it really damn hard to think straight. Pop culture references might have been funny when captioned onto pictures of cats, but they certainly weren't useful when people waiting to kill her could be around every corner. An unpleasant truth, that. Melanie was an optimist, true, but she was also educated enough to be pragmatic. This building was dangerous now, Melanie liked to think that she would be able to avoid harm, but that didn't mean she could tune herself out to the hazards. There was looking on the bright side, and then there was being an idiot. One thing she wasn't was dumb. Apparently Melanie's best shot right now lay with finding her so-called 'badass', a woman who was assigned to protect her, or at least defend for her own sake. Gabriella Gracie. An exotic name for an exotic-looking woman, apparently. Melanie had a feeling she wouldn't have much of a problem identifying her partner. Couldn't be too many people with crimson red braids about the place, right? Well, the identification would be the easy part. Surviving until she just happened to run across Gabriella? Harder. Melanie wasn't a fighter. The biggest struggle she had was wrestling her jeans on every morning (they were... snug, to say the least). She was overweight, unfit and had a bust that was constantly getting in the way. None of these things were conducive to fighting off aliens. Voices nearby drew her out of her thoughts, and Melanie made a beeline in that direction. The voices weren't raised, didn't sound hostile... perhaps some of her co-workers? Her 'badass' if she were really lucky? ... Apparently somebody was very enthusiastic about crowbars and shotguns. Slightly worrying, but... worth a quick glance at least. Melanie poked her head around the doorframe, smiling a little as she saw two people that she recognised, her muddled mind somehow twisting her greeting into a... "How you doin'?" Fuck. |
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8:51 AM Jul 11