Ramen
Administrator
PL: 217,000
Akuma no Gisei (x16T) Soul Mastery (x24P)
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Post by Ramen on Mar 19, 2019 10:42:20 GMT -6
DEVIL'S GAMBIT| Ramen's PL: 143,000 |
The Diablo Desert was well-known for its roaming groups of bandits. It had practically become a cliche at this point. Motivated by her most recent revelation, Ramen had learned that some of her ancestors had stalked these very wastes, searching for easy targets along the makeshift roads and secondary paths that spun complicated, winding webs through the region. Today, she had come not to play hero and disrupt their attacks, nor to join in their sordid ways. No, she came to gamble, of all things. Dice games were hardly her taste, but the bandits gathering under the canopy of a large, mushroom in the accurately-named Mushroom Forest, had something to spark her interest.
A prize -- a particularly tempting prize, at that.
There were seven or eight of the bandits, men and women in brightly-coloured, but varied and mismatching dress. They made good money plying their illegal craft, if it could even be called that. The game was fairly simple: trinkets and stolen goods were placed in a pot in the center of the group and the highest roll would take the pot. Intricate gaming wasn't really among their primary talents. Ramen had managed to convince them to let her join in the group, mainly after a display of strength in which she made it painfully clear they weren't capable of robbing her.
For the first several rolls, most of the winnings were standard: bits of jewelry and gold, precious metals torn from scrap, the occasional heirloom. But one bandit hiding near the back was pinching something between his fingers: the prize she had come for, and the prize that he would no doubt have to offer up the minute he ran dry of his more conventional goods. A small bean with mystical, healing properties. She could have just attacked the camp and stolen it, but something compelled her to do otherwise. Not honour, exactly.
Maybe this was just more fun.
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Post by Majin Mumbo on Mar 21, 2019 21:02:31 GMT -6
Thread Power Level: 104,000
It wasn't often Mumbo visited his old haunts anymore. They were old for a reason, after all. He'd outgrown many of them, as most of the places reminded him too much of Maple. That little purple power-slinger was still a sore memory for Mumbo, but he'd been trying his hardest to rid himself of those venomous thoughts. Maple left for his own reasons, and Mumbo would continue on without him.
Perhaps that was part of why Mumbo had decided to swing by Diablo Desert for the first time in months. He'd had some old buddies from the early days of Goodbusters who still had some blood running through those wicked veins of theirs. Donning the best suit magic could make, the Majin drove down to the deepest reaches of the desert, where there laid a small outcropping of massive mushrooms. The bandits loved setting up shop here, and Mumbo couldn't blame them. It had a charm to it that was hard to beat.
With a dash of flair that was a bit too high-class, Mumbo slid the Badmobile into a parking spot near a collection of other, more unkempt vehicles. His firetruck-turned-evil stood out like a sore thumb in the dark of night. The little toy ghost sitting atop the car let out a howl as Mumbo honked the horn, before jumping out.
This place was surprisingly quiet tonight. Normally there'd be tables upon tables brimming with covered faces, but it seemed only one crowd showed up. A few faces at the table turned when Mumbo arrived, and seemed to be genuinely happy to see him.
"Ey! It's Mumbo!" Said the fuzzy-faced dealer. "At least... It kinda looks like ya. What's with the horns? Lose a bet?"
Mumbo smiled and laughed. "Nah. Eatin' too much. Doctah said too much lizahd in my diet! Behehehhh!"
A few other players laughed. One of the paler-looking players seemed to shrink a bit in their seat.
With a snap of his fingers, a myriad of new pleasantries appeared. A pair of robotic women winked to life, carrying trays of drinks, and a jukebox clanked to life just behind the table. The tunes were jazzy and high-tempo-- the perfect backdrop for an illegal poker game.
"Deal me in, eh?"
Mumbo grabbed one of the bandits by the shoulders and shoved him away from the table, making himself a spot where the poor fool had once sat. He had a meager collection built up: some necklaces and rings here and there, as well as the odd wad of cash, but nothing special. Sighing, Mumbo punched one hand through the other, and pulled a trio of gold watches out from inside his wrist, throwing them into his new pile.
As he waited the next round to start, he surveyed the scene. There were mostly newer faces tonight, save for one. It was a girl with bright red hair. Where had they met before? A bank robbery maybe? No, surely a smaller heist than that.
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Ramen
Administrator
PL: 217,000
Akuma no Gisei (x16T) Soul Mastery (x24P)
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Post by Ramen on May 9, 2019 0:20:59 GMT -6
DEVIL'S GAMBIT| Ramen's PL: 143,000 |
Ramen hesitated in the middle of picking up her cards for the round at the sight of the newest member of the game. Although it had been quite a long time, it was hard to mistake him for someone else: it was clearly Majin Mumbo, the monstrous terror from the Lookout that she had later learned to take a strange liking to, if just due to his rather humanizing friendship to the late Chamil. She managed a weak smile, though it seemed the recognition might be one-sided.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" she finally spoke, flipping the edges of her cards up to take a look at the results. A pair of fours wasn't exactly a good hand, but at least it could be the start of something. Maybe four of a kind, if the next couple draws were in her favour, but she really couldn't bet on that. Knowing her usual luck, she couldn't bet on being able to bluff any of the stronger hands out of the game either.
"The last time we met must have been on Namek, no..?" she continued, occasionally flipping the cards up again to double-check them -- as if they were going to suddenly change on her or something. A nervous tic she couldn't help but show whenever she thought her hand might not be all that strong. "Things have changed on my end since we last met. I sort've found my way rolling up the ranks. Got named second-in-command of the Saiyan Kingdom and everything. But it's mostly a whole lot of drama. People seem really determined to hate the people that're stronger than them."
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Post by Majin Mumbo on Jun 1, 2019 15:38:10 GMT -6
The game rolled on, and the red-haired girl got to talking. He knew he recognized her somewhere, and the voice was what sealed it. He’d never forget a girl like her.
”Ey. You shot me in da ass! On da Lookout! Hot damn, I knew it was someone special sittin’ at dis table.”
A few of the other players cocked their brows, but said nothing. Mumbo was known to be tough. If this girl had gotten a hit on him and made him remember? Maybe she was stronger than she looked. One of the bandits folded before the round even started, taking his small collection and stuffing them back into his pockets. Whatever these two wanted, he was not gonna be part of it.
”Saiyan Kingdom eh? Not bad, not bad. I tink I remembah one of yer buddies fightin’ Chamil on Namek. They did a numbah on each-udda.” Mumbo finally took a moment to look at his hand. Absolute trash. Bandits really knew how to stack a deck.
”Tings have been kinda slow on my end, ta be honest. Da Fleet is kinda... Quiet. Dey always talk about big plans but nuttin’ evah happens. You’d tink they’d be waayyyyy moah active, since dey took so long to come out of da shadows and all.”
The first draw came up. A King of Hearts. One of the other players, a fish-faced weirdo, let a grin spread, showing off his fanged teeth. A bad tell if Mumbo ever saw one.
Even still, Mumbo kept in the game. No reason to give up now, right?
”How’s da King guy doin anyway? Heard he dyed his hair or somethin’”
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Ramen
Administrator
PL: 217,000
Akuma no Gisei (x16T) Soul Mastery (x24P)
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Post by Ramen on Jun 29, 2019 18:50:38 GMT -6
DEVIL'S GAMBIT| Ramen's PL: 143,000 |
"... Oh yeah, I did do that," Ramen blinked her eyes. It was an exchange she had honestly forgotten, after all this time. Mumbo had terrified her in the weeks following the fight at the Lookout: he and his demon friend had been the figures that had haunted her, driving her to finally take her training with the kind of seriousness it deserved. But since then, a lot had happened. Namek had happened, most of all. "--I sort of think that's in the past, though. I mean, we're probably still enemies as long as you're working for the Trade Fleet and looking to help conquer Earth, but after fighting together against Boreal, y'know."
She tilted her head, taking a closer look at Mumbo. It sounded like him, but he seemed to be missing something. "The last I saw of you, you were running out of the medical facility in the Kingdom base," she spoke, though she kept her voice a little quieter this time. "You haven't, uh -- forgotten everything that happened on Namek, have you?"
The idea that the Majin had somehow blanked on everything that followed those earlier fights, from the pained diplomacy between the Kingdom and the Stargoons, to the duels against Boreal, to pulling the near-dead Chamil out of the fire and curing her, to the bitter end of the whole saga... well, it wasn't an idea that made her all that comfortable. Maybe he had just chosen to forget it all as some sort of quest to make himself feel less like a 'goodie', or maybe that problem he was having early on had gotten much worse.
She glanced down at her own hand, unable to keep herself from her poor habit of wrinkling her nose. Her hand wasn't particularly good, and it wasn't going to get better if the draws kept being Hearts. She sat up straighter and just sort of shrugged at the question of 'the King guy.' "He got unseated by a Pirate-Queen turned actual Queen," she replied. "And he turned into a Super Saiyan. It's not quite dying your hair, it's sort of... for some reason when they get really strong, their hair goes gold."
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RAMEN
