Free Night at the Casino

[fieldtrip]

Who: OPEN to all / mingle log
Where: Queens (the casino!)
What: Wow July sure was a month! Time to take a breather and have a night out, courtesy of Toph and Mitsuru!
Warnings: N/A

FREE NIGHT AT THE CASINO

GAMBLING

Feeling down after that space infestation made you murder some friends? Getting tempted to bury yourself in the sand at the beach so no one can ever perceive you again?

Time for a tone shift! It's a free night at the casino. For tonight only, chips mean nothing -- which means everyone gets a rack of chips when they walk in and can let loose! Entertainment, food, and drink are also free within reason. (Abuse the privilege and find out who works security here the hard way!)

Welcome to Queens, the formerly shady but now revamped and reimagined casino in the entertainment district of Aldrip. Classy and minimalist but not gaudy, it's run, staffed, and heavily patronized by Chosen. Maybe you know someone who works there, maybe someone dragged you in to lighten up for once, maybe you're just stopping by for some fun.

Appropriately, the most popular game of the night is Queen's Blood, with tables set aside purely for teaching. There's also the standard casino games available in spades -- poker, slots, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and so forth.

AT THE CLUB

It wouldn't be a casino without alcohol, music, and dancing. There's a low-key bar for those looking to have a conversation where they can hear one another over the pleasant live jazz, and a much livelier dance floor set off to the side in a different part of the casino with a DJ playing dance music.

FIGHTING TOURNAMENT

Beneath the casino is a massive underground cavern converted into a fighting arena.

It's a bit hard to find, intentionally -- either you were personally invited by someone or you stumbled across the covert speakeasy-style entrance in a corner of the main floor, possibly from the people jostling to go in and out. The stairs go down and down until they suddenly open out into the huge room, lined in walkways to view the fight.

There's three circuits to the fighting tournament: a bracket for fighting with powers, a bracket for fighting without powers (hand-to-hand and weapons only), and a shooting competition. Toph (fieldtrip) serves as referee for all of the above and is prepared to break up anything that goes too far. This is just for fun, folks!

Sign up in the comment below and maybe you'll even win something! Toph promises a super cool prize to the winner of each circuit!

FORTUNE TELLING

Get a free tarot reading!

It does seem like some of the glitching in Aldrip has made it maybe a little more accurate than usual lately... or maybe that's inaccurate? Feel free to have the cards have a real effect on them with a glitch!

DOG THERAPY

In one peaceful corner away from the din and bustle is a dog petting station. All manner of adorable and highly trained dogs are available for cuddles and play time.

Some of them are even up for adoption if you want to take one home!

Kakashi (battlefieldbrat) runs and operates this station with the kind supervision of Koromaru, our local good boy.

Code by 10billionghosts.

Comments

[mightymorphin]

Same here. I don't mind being surprised.

[Well, they didn't mind when it was in the name of good, friendly competition. Toph's comment makes them grimace a little, because they can completely relate.]

You're telling me! I keep running into people that can use some sort of magic? That one week everything went crazy, I got lightning slung at me twice. How many people here could possibly have lightning magic?

[That was, perhaps, Morph's fault for using Colossus' armor-plated form so often. Turns out other Chosen look at a metal man and immediately decide to turn them into a lightning rod. That was a lesson learned the hard way.]

[fieldtrip]

[ Has she finally stumbled into someone who has actual conversational skills? Toph almost forgot what that was like - most of her friends these days are either difficult on purpose or absolutely clueless. It's kind of nice to run into someone she can just easily chat with like she would her friends at home. ]

People really are into the magic thing around here, [ Toph scoffs. ] Were you fighting Persona? Because I have definitely almost gotten hit by Persona lightning, and it really sucks.

[ She's not gonna put Minato on blast by naming him but she sure is thinking it. ]

[mightymorphin]

[Poor Toph! Luckily Morph is usually happy to talk about everything and nothing - it's a well-developed skill now after hanging out all the time with someone who wasn't big on long conversations either.]

Honestly, I have no idea. The first time, it was someone chanting. The second time, it was these ghostly giants just appearing out of thin air? And yeah, I've had enough of being electrocuted for a lifetime now.

[No one had stopped to explain to Morph what they were getting hit with in the middle of those fights. But the second one had in fact been a Persona, though it was Kotone who was to blame for it that time.]

[fieldtrip]

Sounds like a Persona to me. They're like summoned soul monsters.

[ Somehow Toph keeps being the one to explain Persona to other people. Which... is maybe for the best, considering her no-nonsense attitude about it. She's never managed to get a straight answer out of an actual Persona-user before. ]

You know about the clinic, right? Ethlyn does free healing for anyone who needs it.

[ This is probably an important piece of information to pass along to someone who keeps getting electrocuted. ]

[mightymorphin]

Soul monsters? Huh. That's pretty, uh, unique.

[And it does sound magical even if they're not too sure where that definition begins and ends. Morph is just far more used to fighting people who have a small handful of powers, which is a lot easier to anticipate and understand. It's a lot harder to deal with someone who has a whole grab bag of tricks at their disposal.]

That's nice to know, thanks. I slept it off last time. My body is... well, let's just say I'm good at pulling myself back together.

[Plus they're a little squirrely around doctors, but Morph could admit that they might need the help sometime.]

Have you had to fight those Persona things a lot? I wouldn't mind some tips. Or would that be cheating?

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph can't figure out what magic is supposed to mean, either. Whenever someone tells her bending seems magical she denies it. Isn't magic, by definition, something that defies the natural world? Bending is natural -- it's practically the definition of nature. But it's also not something she's ever cared enough about to have a real debate over.

At the end of the day, words are just semantics. Actions are what matter. ]

Eh, it's worth knowing. There's a lot of them around -- some are my friends, so I've been practicing with them, but some of them are total jerks. [ If asked, she will absolutely name names. ]

The big tip is that the Persona itself is kind of a trick. They're just pieces of soul, right? So they disappear again pretty quick. You have to make sure you're fighting the person, not getting distracted with their temporary ghost monster.

[mightymorphin]

That many, huh?

[That was interesting, and all the more reason to know how to fight them. It wasn't that Morph wanted to go around fighting the other Chosen outside of a tournament like this... but being at a disadvantage wasn't a good thing. It was far better to be ready for the next time some evil force tried to brainwash a chunk of the city.]

Huh, I did see those Personas get switched around really fast. Getting close is easier said than done, but I think I can make it work. Thanks for the tip!

[fieldtrip]

Yeah, there's a lot.

[ Toph's not judging or anything but she may be a little jealous there's so many when there's, well, one bender. Her. It's starting to feel kind of lonely, not that she's said that out loud to anyone yet. ]

We keep getting our minds messed with, so it's a good idea to know how everyone's powers works. ... Not the point of this tournament, but it can't hurt.

[mightymorphin]

[It's definitely a weird coincidence that there's so many Persona users, but Morph can't imagine what was going on with that. What, did they just look like troublemakers or something? Was that enough to get accused of some silly crime?

It's the next thing Toph has to say that makes Morph look distinctly concerned.]

Wait, really? So everyone going nuts and trying to kill each other wasn't some one-off thing? Uh, then how often does that... happen?

[fieldtrip]

Ugh, not like that. It's never been like that before!

[ Toph is quick to reassure them on that front before going on to explain. ]

But we've forgotten who we are, or lost our powers, or one time there was this miasma because someone stole the organs of a powerful snake spirit and it was all leaking out everywhere. The miasma made everyone really emotional and reckless.

[ That's her summary of events, at least. ]

[mightymorphin]

A snake spirit, really? That's, uh, pretty unique.

[It doesn't cheer them up all that much, though. At least the others hadn't involved being homocidal, but...]

Where I'm from, only really powerful telepaths can mess with that many people at once. And it's not nice to have someone messing around in your mind on any level. I'm pretty sure losing my powers alone would drive me a little nuts.

I guess there's no one around here that can make mental shields, huh? If those would even work...

[fieldtrip]

The snake spirit was the most normal part for where I'm from.

[ Different perspectives and all that. Toph is somehow not surprised but still disappointed to hear from Morph that mental shields are possible yet inaccessible. ]

Losing my powers sucked, [ she assures them succinctly and with great emphasis. ] I haven't found anyone who can make mental protection like that. I've just been practicing resisting mental effects with a friend who can inflict them.

[mightymorphin]

I hope everyone kicked the snot out of the guy that would be so cruel to an animal, spirit or not.

[They can't even imagine how that one was pulled off in the first place, but Morph could always ask for the full story later.]

If there's no telepathic Chosen, then we're really screwed. Hopefully turning everyone's powers off won't happen again, but... practice is better than nothing.