CHAPTER ONE: A Hero's Call… To The Table
"Hm? What is it?" Jessica asked, stopped on her way back to her castle by Lumina and Voidica.
"Um, I wanted to ask you something," Voidica said, rocking on her heels. But before she could do so, Alter-Ego's announcement sounded out across the island.
"Calling all Skylanders! Come to the Command Room to play a special game together!"
"...oh, a game? That sounds fun!" Voidica said, smiling. Though several billions of years old, she was still mentally an eight year old, and the idea of playing a game with friends was enough to divert her attention immediately. "You should come along too, Jessica!"
" Eh , I dunno if I'll be interested," Jessica replied. "Won't Lumina be more fun to be with, anyway?"
Lumina was about to say something, but stopped. She glanced down at her watch and smacked her forehead. "Gaaah, I totally forgot I have a show to do soon!" Sighing, she turned to Voidica. "Sorry, looks like I'll have to sit this one out. What about you, Jessica? I'm sure you and Voidica will get along great!"
Seeing Voidica's eager little smile and big wide eyes caused Jessica to relent. "OK, OK, I'll play this game with you," she sighed, standing up and stretching her limbs. "But what about that question you wanted to ask me?"
"Oh, that can wait!" Voidica said, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Come on, let's go, let's go!" Lumina was relieved to see her acting like her usual self - the poor girl needed something to take her mind off of recent events. Besides, she was perfectly fine with putting off asking about this for a while. Preferably a long while. Surely not knowing one way or the other was better than a probable confirmation of her worst fears?
Hearing the announcement, Shuichi woke up from his nap with Kaede. "A board game, huh? Maybe I should go…" he said, standing up. Kaede was rather surprised to see this from him.
"Shuichi... you willingly want to go to something like that?" she asked, sitting back up. On her head was her friend's usual baseball cap, something she'd earlier put on to help him with a depressive episode.
Shuichi smiled and nodded. "Yeah. But, the thing is… I'm doing this by myself."
"Really?" Kaede blinked in surprise at his statement. Was what she hearing really true?! She couldn't believe it!
"Y-Yeah... I need to be more confident in myself. With how much care you've been giving me, I know, at least for a bit, that I'm... worth it. I need to believe that more."
Kaede grinned in relief. Reaching up for the hat on her head, she chuckled, "Guess you'll need this, then." But the surprises kept coming when Shuichi's hand reached out to stop it.
Shaking his head, he said, "No, I don't." Smiling, he added, "At least, not for this. I think I'm a little used to it, anyway. Take care of it for me, though, okay?"
"Alright," Kaede replied, putting her hand down. At least, not before giving the boy detective a friendly push. "Now go get 'em, Shuichi!" she chirped, giving him a confident arm pump.
"I will." With that, Shuichi ran downstairs.
Wondering what the game could be, Aspen turned to make his way to the Command Room. Nearby, Katii had heard the announcement as well.
"A game huh?" Katii, tilting her head slightly as her tail twitched curiously. "Hm, this I gotta see. I could go for a few games." She stretched as she moved herself off of her pole. As odd as it sounded, Katii couldn't turn down a game night, whether it be a board game or some gambling. Plus, hey, there might be some snacks there, too! Katii made her way to the HQ, hoping to herself that she wouldn't get too excited if she won any money, real or fake.
Meanwhile, Tenyew began to notice a few Skylanders heading towards the HQ after the announcement. After watching them depart, she shrugged and grabbed her cloak. The grim reaper wasn't one for social gatherings, but she had to do something that day. Something that could get her mind off of work. Turning to her pet cerberus puppy, who was currently eating out of three bowls for each head, Tenyew smiled a bit.
"I'll be back, Spot," Tenyew waved at her demon canine, "Don't tear things up while I'm gone..."
At the Coffee Shop, Kirumi Tojo was getting Ragna's espresso ready, whilst staying out of Kirby's sight. The little rascal had already raided as much food as he could find in the shop, and now he was even eating entire mugs of coffee. The announcement echoed across the shop, attracting Kirumi attention. "A game, huh?" She did notice she had to clean up the place, however, and it would bother her the entire day if she skipped out on it. She noticed Lusamine leaving the Coffee Shop, and asked her, "Are you going to the Command Room?"
"Why yes, actually, why?" Lusamine replied. Watching Kirumi finish the espresso, the Ultimate Maid handed it to her.
"Please take this to Ragna the Bloodedge. He's probably been waiting a while for it."
Lusamine nodded as she took Kirumi's request. Espresso in hand, she left the Coffee Shop and made her way to the Command Room.
As Kirumi grabbed a broom, Kirby turned towards her, the announcement's meaning completely going over his head. He recognised what Kirumi was holding, and what her intent with it was. To say "thank you" for the delicious meal, Kirby wanted to help clean up, so he approached Kirumi and gently tugged on her dress to get her attention.
"Yahaa!" he said to her, while tapping himself with his tiny fingerless hand and an expression of determination on his face. He stepped forward with his back towards Kirumi and inhaled as much as he could within the Coffee Shop. Everything, from dirty mugs, used spoons, spilt liquid, to even a light bulb, espresso machine, and a resident penguin, all flew into Kirby's mouth. He jiggled with a full mouth, now standing almost twice his original height, thanks to the content he had eaten. Even so, he didn't show any discomfort, although he jiggled violently for a second as the penguin managed to escape from his mouth and flee the Coffee Shop, screaming at the top of their lungs.
Kirumi didn't know what to say after watching that scene play out. "Just what was that…?" She didn't know who or what Kirby was, she was just baffled by the empty Coffee Shop. "...looks like I have to bother Byakuya to get more silverware and cups." Her cleanup duties fulfilled (in a sense), Kirumi headed out to purchase replacement items for the place.
Swallowing what he'd inhaled, Kirby found himself with the Spark ability, having eaten a lot of electrical equipment. Noticing Kirumi leave, and totally oblivious to his "help" having created more work for the maid, he followed after her several paces behind.
In the Command Room, the first player to arrive hopped out of the elevator. It was Kyubey, who ran up to the table as fast as his little paws could carry him. "Alllright! Someone say games? I like games!" he said, rubbing his ear flaps together eagerly.
Next to arrive were the Naegi siblings, Makoto and Komaru - the latter of whom fidgeted uncomfortably, her mind abuzz with concern for Toko.
Waiting for the other players, Alter-Ego uploaded himself to his android body and walked up to those already gathered. Ragna was flipping through the rule book, clearly baffled by its contents, but remained pretty patient. "Hey, how do we really play, anyway? I don't really get these rules."
Nicole watched Ragna try to make sense of the rules, before she just took the book off him. "Leave it to me to explain along the way. It takes lots of study to understand the whole thing naturally," the AI replied, knowing that the game wasn't quite the easiest to understand. Nevertheless, the lynx stepped over to her seat as Game Master, awaiting more players to join in.
And as if on cue, the next player was a conspicuously capless Shuichi. "H-Hello, everyone..." he greeted, with a nervous but strangely confident smile.
Shuichi certainly seemed different to Nicole, but she couldn't quite figure out how. After a while, though, she believed she figured it out: "Shuichi, did you get a haircut?" His hair did look a little different, especially with the one stray lock stuck up in the air. And the next arrivals noticed it immediately.
"M-Mister Shuichi!" Voidica gasped, looking up at his ahoge. "Y-You've got an antennae!"
"I, uh... I don't think that's what that is," Jessica remarked, taking a seat at the table. She wasn't expecting a tabletop game… but she still felt like she should give it a shot.
"You could say it's kinda like that?" Shuichi chuckled. "But my hair has always been like this. Ever since I was born, I've had this..."
"Hey , hey! Me and Makoto have that too!" Komaru smiled, pointing back and forth between her brother and herself. "Same for Kaede!"
"Yeah... I can see that."
Kyubey slammed a paw on the desk, noticing what was different about Shuichi. "Dude! Your hat!" he said, pointing at Shuichi with his other front paw. "You lost it or somethin', you never leave without it!"
Shuichi chuckled softly, and said, "Kaede's taking care of it." Sitting down, he flattened his ahoge so as to not look strange to everyone else, but once all pressure was removed, it popped right back up. Voidica couldn't help but giggle at Shuichi's expense - Lumina had a similar problem with the distinctive pair of quiffs on top of her head.
The elevator sounded again, and two people fresh from the Coffee Shop stepped out. One was Jack Atlas, who simply sipped his coffee and took a seat. One would think he was sitting down to play poker, with his expressionless face. The other was Lusamine, who first made her way over to Ragna's seat.
"As promised, your drink," she said, placing it down in front of Ragna. He thanked her as she took her own seat. "So, what are we playing tonight?" she asked, peering over the board. "I haven't done anything like this in a long while…" Her question received no answer, as another arrival brought the conversation back to Shuichi.
"Hey, your hat's gone!" Katii said, pointing out the obvious as she walked out of the elevator. "It's actually a good look for you. You can't go wrong with the... hair sticking up thingy!"
Walking next to Katii was Tenyew, who couldn't help but stare at Shuichi's ahoge with fascination, causing her to rub her own head. She couldn't help but wonder how she would look with a long strand of hair sticking up from her head.
"S-Seriously, guys... I just took my hat off. It's no big deal," Shuichi muttered. He drummed his fingers anxiously against the table; the unwanted attention getting to him even as he tried brushing it off. But he needed their attention to be elsewhere. So it was fortunate that a distraction came pouncing out the elevator with aplomb.
"Did someone say gaaaaaaaaaames?!" sang Star Butterfly, who slid down to the table while making a flashy rainbow trail with her wand (for little reason other than to show off).
Her best friend, Marco Diaz, was far more subdued by comparison, but was still eager to play this game. However, he thought Star's shadow seemed off somehow as he caught it in the corner of his eye. Or was that just a trick of the light thanks to Star's rainbow trail spontaneously combusting?
...actually, yeah, it's probably just that.
As Star grabbed everyone's attention with her entrance, Jack noticed Shuichi's unease with the attention he'd been getting. Easing off on the questioning, he decided to respect Shuichi's clear desire to change and simply passed him the rule book. "We're playing this game, it'll be more challenging if everyone's on the same page," he explained.
"Ah, thank you," Shuichi nodded in acknowledgement. He reached out to adjust his…Oh. Right, he realised. Old habits die hard… He flicked through the book, reading it carefully and taking in how the game worked.
"I look forward to playing this game with you," Jack said, sitting back down. Well now, there was something unexpected from him. The elevator doors opened again, now revealing Knuckles (who calmly took his own seat), Alisa, Noire, Hero Prinny, Toko and a sleepy Mikan.
"Uni wanted to come, but she seemed tired from the previous mission," Noire said as she joined the others. "I told her to get some rest." Hero Prinny took a seat, but he seemed more interested in relaxing than understanding how the game worked.
Toko moved reluctantly out of the elevator, a sense of shame looming over her yet she couldn't clearly remember why. Trying to disregard those feelings for now, she stepped out and took a look at her surroundings. "...Really? A game? Don't we have better things to do with our time?" Toko grumbled, being as blunt as ever. "...Though I suspect that hideous lump Hifumi would love this crap."
"Toko! There you are! Oh, I'm so happy!" Komaru exclaimed with glee, running up to Toko and putting the writer into a tight embrace. All dread and sadness on Komaru's end easily washed away.
"Huh? Ah!" Toko exclaimed as she got the killer glomp. "H-He y, settle down Komaru. What's gotten into you? I mean… if this game means so much to you, then I guess I'll give it a try..." She seemed to misread Komaru's emotional reaction, yet despite her confusion, she still returned her embrace with one of her own.
"Yeah... Yeah..." Komaru said, wiping her eyes as she lead Toko to the playing field. "Let's play together, okay?" The two sat together, and while Toko looked for the role book, she was baffled by who had it.
"Who's this guy? Is he new?" Toko asked Komaru, pointing to Shuichi.
"Oh, that's Shuichi without his hat! He looks good without it, don't you think?"
"I never noticed how much of a pretty boy he is… the pianist should keep him wearing that hat, or the other girls will totally go for him," Toko said while winking and nudging Komaru. The writer made sure her voice was heard by everybody and a familiar mischievous smile was across her face.
Poor Shuichi groaned and buried his head in the book. People just couldn't let this slide, could they? "C-Can we just... play already?!"
Fortunately for the boy, Nicole was now ready herself. Calling out to the present Skylanders, she instructed, "Please fill out your character forms to choose your class and create your character, then we may begin."
Credits:
RP Creators: Failinhearts & Crow the BOOLET
Original episode writer: Polkadi~
Adaptation writer: Spin Attaxx
Spin Attaxx: Jessica Powell, Lumina, Voidica (The Sorceress of the Stars (original)), Star Butterfly, Marco Diaz (Star vs. the Forces of Evil)
Failinhearts: Shuichi Saihara, Kaede Akamatsu (New Danganronpa V3), Kyubey (Puella Magi Madoka Magica/The Disciples), Makoto Naegi, Alter-Ego (Danganronpa), Komaru Naegi (Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls)
Emperor Robrainiac: Aspen, Katii, Tenyew (original)
Crow the BOOLET: Kirumi Tojo (New Danganronpa V3), Lusamine (Pokémon), Ragna the Bloodedge (BlazBlue), Jack Atlas (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's)
-dan-: Kirby (Kirby), Alisa Illinichina Amiella (God Eater), Noire (Hyperdimension Neptunia), Hero Prinny (Disgaea), Toko Fukawa (Danganronpa), Mikan Tsumiki (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair)
Polkadi~ : Nicole (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Ryannumber1gamer: Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic the Hedgehog)