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Post by Clipper on May 26, 2010 12:07:54 GMT -5
"it's my pleasure, Emirate Xaaron, sir," Clipper replies cheerfully, completely oblivious to what she'd just interrupted. Of course, Xaaron could always send her off for more snacks, or a strategy datapad, or something completely frivolous to get her out of the way again for a bit. Otherwise, she is going to perch there on her chair, her small cube in hand, avidly watching the game play until she has a question.
Which, come to think of it, she sort of already does.
"So... what's the purpose? How is it played, anyway? How do you win?" Clipper has never seen Full Stasis before now, actually.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 26, 2010 14:56:19 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron moves Ultra Magnus's piece for him, just as he indicated, since he said he didn't want Clipper to do it for him.
If they were all human or thereabout, Emirate Xaaron just might send Clipper for pad thai. Ultra Magnus seems to be the type to bend over backwards to punish himself.
Instead, he reaches for one of the snacks that she brought and munches on it thoughtfully. Ultra Magnus still looks uncomfortable! Emirate Xaaron decides to just call it openly again, rather than dance around it, "Does going first displease you?"
He stands up from his chair, actually, pacing around the table for a moment to look at the board, before sitting back down. Emirate Xaaron explains to Clipper, "It's... roughly a strategy simulation, but really, it's just a game now. Each player has units under his command. Ultra Magnus has white; I have black. Each player has a turn where he can move one of his units - usually - there are a few cases where more than one units can be moved, but that is a bit of a special case. Sometimes, these turns have time limit on them, but as this is a casual game, I see no need. Each type of unit has it own move style, and a few of the pieces actually have randomized movement, so that boring people," cough Shockwave cough, "won't just sit down, do the math, and figure out the optimal opening move to win every time." That is a big problem with machines! "There are a few different win scenarios, but generally, you're trying to take out the opponent's Commander. Goes back to the roots as a strategy game - an army without a head isn't much of an army. Decepticon variants, though, often allow for multiple Commanders under one player at a time."
He snickers, apparently finding this funny.
Finally, Emirate Xaaron calls out, "Cavalier to third." Relatively powerful piece, with an unusual movement style. He makes his move.
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Jun 1, 2010 23:14:37 GMT -5
Does making the first move displease him?
"No," Magnus tells Emirate Xaaron in a faintly distracted tone. Displeased isn't the word for how he feels. Discomfited, perhaps. Uneasy. He's out of his element in more ways than one and he knows it's obvious in spite of his best efforts to keep a neutral face. "It's just… different." He never did have any initiative of his own.
All this while, he simply stares at the board. Naturally, he wants to win, but… part of him knows he can't no matter what tactic he tries. Not that a hopeless front ever really stopped him before. He might just have a masochistic streak in him after all.
"Gamma second rank, forward two." At least now he knows that one of these pieces is called the cavalier. Or does that vary by region as well?
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Post by Clipper on Jun 8, 2010 13:44:46 GMT -5
"Ohhhh," Clipper replies, nodding. "So, was it once used as an actual training simulation? Or something that this was based off of, maybe?" Because that makes perfect sense to her, really.
"Have you played this often, Mister Magnus, sir?" Nope, she's not going to let you forget that she's there, Magnus. Sorry.
Worse, she doesn't even know that she's being mean.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 8, 2010 18:13:53 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron stands and makes Ultra Magnus's move for him and casually bumps his hip into the cell's control panel.
Ultra Magnus might notice that the radio jamming field is now down. Emirate Xaaron radios him, observing, //Certainly, it is possible that you could kill us all with your radio. I've experienced the brunt of less practical plans before. But I have a little faith, and we have a conversation to continue.//
Emirate Xaaron looks over at Clipper and explains a bit more, "It's sort of like how you might loosely consider mecha-soccer training for combat. It's been distilled and extracted, and it doesn't look or play anything like how it started out, any more."
Everything varies by region and sometimes within the region. This is worse than Magic: The Gathering.
Emirate Xaaron announces that he is moving his cavalier deeper into Ultra Magnus's territory, into that gap left by Ultra Magnus advancing his ranks. This raises the question: will Ultra Magnus ignore the incursion into his territory and press on aggressively, or will he pull his men back to deal with the threat?
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Jun 9, 2010 9:03:08 GMT -5
Clipper's question goes unanswered for several seconds, and even Magnus finds it a miracle that when he finally speaks up, he can keep most of the tension from his voice. It's awkward, stilted, but sounds little worse than that.
"…No," he says. "This is my first time." His gaze never leaves the board or that manoeuvre being set up. His oldest instincts tell him to defend; recent experience favours forging on to remove the threat. Defending too heavily will only drag out the conflict and eventually make it harder for him to mount a counter-attack.
//…Ah. So we do,// he adds just as awkwardly, a mix of distraction, bafflement, and remorse. Splitting his attention three ways in the middle of a tactical exercise – now this is almost familiar. It just needs more artillery fire coming in over his head. He neither ignores the threat nor shifts everything to stop it, calling for his own cavalier to move in against Xaaron's while leaving the others on their course.
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Post by Clipper on Jun 11, 2010 5:59:18 GMT -5
Clipper nods, oblivious to the silent conversation continuing over her head, even though it's been switched to radio for her benefit. Proabably a good thing. Besides, it's Holi who is the communications specialist. Her specialty lies in ducking red tape.
"But you've got real battle experience, though, right, Mister Magnus, sir?"
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 11, 2010 13:16:39 GMT -5
"Ah, what war stories Ultra Magnus could tell you, I am sure," Emirate Xaaron murmurs, hiding the sharpness of those comments.
Hmm. Most Autobots tend to play a reactive, defensive game. It can make watching two traditional Autobots playing full stasis against each other a painfully boring experience. But Ultra Magnus's response is tempered, and that is very interesting. It isn't a full devil-may-care Decepticon all-out attack, but it isn't entirely defensive, either.
Emirate Xaaron wonders... what did Shockwave learn from Ultra Magnus, and what did Ultra Magnus learn from Shockwave? He makes no attempt to hide the fascination on his face.
He advances some infantry. They could easily go reinforce his Cavalier against Ultra Magnus's, but then again, perhaps they might not.
//So. Micromaster-related trauma.//
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Jun 14, 2010 11:27:47 GMT -5
"Ultra Magnus," he corrects Clipper, perhaps a little too brusquely given that she's only trying to be polite. But the way she keeps addressing him makes Magnus feel strangely dirty – moreso than usual. "And yes, I do. Quite a lot of it." He's probably been fighting wars since long before she was built.
The very engaged look on Xaaron's face does not go missed and for a moment, Magnus wonders just what the other Autobot is thinking. He assumes it's about Micromasters, of course, once that radio transmission comes in. That Xaaron has his personal frequency should be more surprising, but it isn't. Xaaron knew an Ultra Magnus of his own, after all – the former security commander remembers hearing that voice call his name in a relieved tone – and Ultra Magnus being a very public figure seems a consistent thing given all the other differences.
//…I….// Again, he hesitates. Pondering his next move makes a serviceable distraction. //My Cybertron was desperately low on fuels, but the war had no end in sight. I commissioned the Micromasters… they were supposed to be a new generation of more efficient soldiers.// And nothing more, he leaves unsaid, but it bears down on him all the same; his shoulders drop a little with shame. //It… was a joint project at the time. After all that work – all that suffering – the only time we and the Decepticons agreed on anything, it was a way to stretch out the war even further.// He maintains his own infantry advance. //I shuffled them off to their own ghetto and when the project failed, I claimed as many of them as I could. Shockwave took the rest. Having them officially in the ranks didn't stop me from treating them like tools. I didn't even value them enough to plant bombs in their heads so the Decepticons couldn't convert them if captured.// His optics dim and his voice tightens with both pain and self-loathing as he pauses, nearly taking a sip of his drink, then stopping. //When Crunch died, Big Daddy's patrol laid the blame solely on me. They were right, of course. Fortress Maximus quit over the whole affair… I've no idea where he went, but I can't blame him… and the Micromasters ended up leaving us all to our fates. We – I deserved worse.//
But he did get to hear about Shockwave's stint as a talking head. Small favours.
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Post by Clipper on Jun 14, 2010 17:56:28 GMT -5
Whoops! "My apologies, Mister Ultra Magnus," Clipper replies sheepishly... and completely missing Magnus's intent. She just doesn't feel comfortable addressing him without the honorific since she hasn't been given express leave to do so. Perhaps Magnus feels that he just did give her leave, but things are a bit more formal about such matters where she and Holi come from.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 14, 2010 22:18:02 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is a bit confused. So... the Autobots and Decepticons sat down together to make some Micromasters and then proceeded to keep murdering each other? What? He doesn't even...
He rubs his temples. So his Cavalier won't become a Sacrificed One, just yet. Ultra Magnus is continuing to be fascinatingly aggressive, however.
Emirate Xaaron replies curtly, //Just don't treat any of the shorter crew members here like that. Life is life.// So Emirate Xaaron has learned the hard way. //Being young or made for a purpose doesn't make anyone less alive.//
So, there's infantry rushing him, and Ultra Magnus's Cavalier threatening his own Cavalier, who he could reinforce with that infantry of his own that he advanced, or...
Emirate Xaaron has the Cavalier backtrack to stab Ultra Magnus's infantry in the back. How does betrayal taste?
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Jun 15, 2010 19:40:07 GMT -5
Never did Ultra Magnus say any of his past made sense. Nor is Emirate Xaaron the first to drive the proverbial knife into his back; simply the latest in a series. Certainly the least traumatic.
//I wasn't planning on it,// he says, anger nipping at the edges of his remorse even as he orders one of the infantry units to turn and face Xaaron's oncoming Cavalier. //Skystalker certainly took his revenge on Shockwave. You might have liked his puppet show.// When he speaks aloud, finally forcing himself to actually look at Clipper, his tone is far different – gentle in his own awkward way. "Don't apologise," he murmurs, "please." Because he should be apologising to her.
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Post by Clipper on Jun 29, 2010 19:39:44 GMT -5
How does one make amends for apologizing without apologizing again? "Very well, sir," Clipper replies with a practiced grace of one beyond her years. She would refuse any apologies if she were privy to his thoughts, though, and not out of spite, but merely out of the youthful, perhaps naive, assumption that he obviously had known what was best, based upon his experience and age.
She may not be voicing that young trust, but the smile she offers him is rather quite obviously filled with it.
"What do the different pieces signify, sir?" she asks Xaaron as she turns her attention back to the board.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jun 29, 2010 22:01:32 GMT -5
Remember that infantry that Emirate Xaaron advanced, perhaps to reinforce the Cavalier? Yeah, it's not in a great position to encircle Ultra Magnus's detached forces from the other side, and he moves it do just that.
Boom. Ultra Magnus's little detachment is trapped, alone, and doomed, and as for the rest of them... they're nearly back where they started.
The wars of the Transformers are like that. People die, often senselessly, and nothing ever really changes, for all that the soldiers change forms.
He gives Clipper a quick run down of the pieces and what they mean, and he even digresses off into the history a bit more than he really wanted. "...and in Tarn, under Shockwave's reign, this particular infantryman was known as... well, nevermind. Suffice it to say, due to his position on the board, this infantryman is often hopelessly slaughtered, and his death is really quite meaningless in terms of the whole game."
//Do you want to make things right or do you just not want to feel bad about yourself any more? Those are two different goals,// Emirate Xaaron asks sharply. Not everyone can tell the difference. //And, ah... do I want to know what you are implying about me that I would enjoy such a 'puppet show'?//
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Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
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Post by Ultra Magnus on Jun 29, 2010 22:50:14 GMT -5
//Might like,// Magnus corrects Xaaron even as he stares at the board, expression remaining neutral by force of will alone. That naïve smile Clipper gives him and the entrapment of that infantry unit nearly drag a pained scowl from him. He's too much the perfectionist; he strives too hard to avoid failure and takes it too much to heart when he makes a misstep. Perhaps he takes the deaths of those under his command far too personally. None of them is meaningless.
One of many reasons he's sick to his very core of it all. One of many reasons why he isn't the leader everyone seems to think him.
//And yes. I would like to make things right.// This time, he doesn't immediately think of a counter to Xaaron's move. He adds, quiet and uncertain and for a moment too tired, too broken to put on a lighter air, //…I'm not sure if I can.// He isn't the Ultra Magnus everyone else expects and knows; he doesn't have the same confidence he once had, that he supposes every other Ultra Magnus still possesses. He wonders if he ever really had it at all, or if it was just false surety borrowed from the leaders he admired.
In spite of his thoughts, he voices no qualms with leaving the trapped unit to its fate. He pits his Cavalier in a flanking move against Xaaron's instead, aiming to remove it altogether.
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