2019-11-09 - Daft Punk Scores This

Whether waking or sleeping, once more the denizens of Oak Street are drawn into a Dream. It starts with blackness, and then brilliant LED bars appears around the Dreamers, and a pulsing techno soundtrack drops. The beat drops, but they ascend, on a circular platform that rises up through a tube. Light and noise appear overhead, a circle that gets closer and closer, and then they rise out into a glowing landscape, a stadium etched in light and color. That's when they realize that they are not wearing their normal clothing. Instead they wear close-fitting bodysuits accented with glowing light. They aren't tight enough to show anything, but many of them suggest. As the platform they're on stops, a voice booms out, "And in the other corner, the defenders of the Users!" Boos ring out through the enormous stadium.

It's just a dream. Corey probably fell asleep listening to Daft Punk or something. He hasn't yet twigged that this is a Dream-with-a-capital-D, holding up his hands and arms, inspecting his bodysuit, looking down to see the rest and then around at the stadium. Huh. Pretty awesome dream to be fair.

Neon lights and bass drops? Yeah, this feels natural for Sparrow. More so than monochrome niceness or overgrown aliens. This exists in some corner of her brain 24/7, not too far from the spot Bax occupies. Which might be why she looks around to the other players, searching for some sign of the purple-haired punk, nevermind that he hadn't been visiting Oak Street today. The heart wants what it wants. No luck. She nods to Corey--why shouldn't he be here--and rolls her shoulders. Ready to go.

Astrid opens her eyes, blinking through the neon with a slight squint. She knows she had been asleep, and there had been a mighty Viking in her bed. But now, she's wearing a super awesome bodysuit with those plates and disks. Her hair is drawn back into a tight pony tail that emphasis her cheekbones and high forehead. She's checking out her hands and arms, and then she looks up toward the crowds as she steps out slowly. Awkwardly, Astrid starts to wave awkwardly.

Marius shifts where he stands in his black bodysuit, putting his weight on one foot so that he can tug at the leg of his bodysuit. "This thing clings." But then they're out in the stadium, and he blinks, looking around wide-eyed, "Woah, shit." Only as he turns around to take in the stadium does he recognize who else is there. "Yeah. Woah. Shit." Astrid waves, and Marius pumps his fists over his head, soaking up the... boos... even as he murmurs out of one corner of his mouth, "What the hell is going on, guys?"

"Uh.. electro dance party with added violence?" is Corey's assessment. Okay so it isn't just a dream - he might dream something with Sparrow or Ash in, but definitely not the other two. He moves closer to the other dreamers, looking out over the crowd, seeming slightly more nervous now he knows it isn't just something his subconscious whipped up.

This is awesome, all on it's own. And thing is, really, Ash might actually dream about pretty much anything. But probably not something like this, honestly. Because there is a very decidedly confused look, and she's glancing around at everyone else, "What the fuck is happening?"

"Sounds like my kinda riot," Sparrow quips to Corey at his rundown of what the hell is going on. There's very little awkward about the way she steps forward, untroubled by the crowd's reaction. Her red hair damned near glows here, done up all sleek and sexy. Ash get a grin, a look over. But she behaves herself. Nothing said. About that sleekness or sexiness. "I think we're racing."

Perhaps predictably to a couple of the participants, there's an exceptionally plain man in the midst of their group, looking around and shaking his head, "No no no no no..." He points a shaking hand out of the group where a group of black-clad beings with red highlights encircle a white-clad man with blue highlights. Two of them hurl glowing disks at the man in the middle, and he shatters into his coherent pixels, falling apart and just flat-out disintegrating. And then the group turns toward the newcomers, the disks coming whipping back to them like boomerangs.

Astrid continues to wave while speaking to the other Oak Street clan, "I think we're in TRON tonight, guys." She winks, and blows a kiss to a particular region of the crowd, and then she's looking back toward the others, and -- "Ash! You look great!" She scoots toward her, gravitating toward that central point that is Ash. She then is looping her arm around her waist just as she glances toward the plain guy who has been tagging along. "Nice to see yo -- " But then she's looking toward the other group that just shatters. "Um." She slips back a foot a bit, letting Ash go as she reaches for the disk on her back in the same manner she might draw an arrow.

"Hey, Charlie!" Sparrow calls out just in time to watch that guy get derezzed. Whatever worry crosses her features doesn't linger, dissipating under an all too pleased grin which plainly reads 'bring it.' Even as she corrects, "Not racing." Without much thought, she follows Astrid's lead, drawing a disk into her hand and getting ready to make with the disco violence. Definitely the best sort of violence.

"Whoa...Ast!" Ash is always happy to see Astrid, and she shuffles in for a proper hug of her, and looks like despite the arm around her waist she might shuffle off to bestow hugs on other people, too. Only, well, people are being shattered into a bunch of pixelated parts. Which just makes her reach up, her hands clamping over her mouth as she chokes back the scream that is trying to explode out of her mouth at this. Dreams are one thing, but come on. "Oh my god, guys...he just..."

Poof! It's there. Ash is probably the weak link here, and it shows when she's not hopping onto this disk grabbing bandwagon.

Holy... shizen! Corey hasn't seen TRON in a long time, but when Astrid and Sparrow reach for their disks, he does likewise, moving to stand in front of his sister. "Ash, grab your disk, babe. They're gonna try to kill us," he murmurs, frowning. And then, flinging his disk towards one of the red-highlighted guys! Take that!

Marius looks over to Ash, shrugging his broad shoulders. Corey and Sparrow's description of the situation causes him to blink and looks around, "I mean, dance party and violence... I'm good with that." And then there's a guy over there getting derezzed, "TRON?" His eyes widen, "Oh shit. I was so high when I saw that." He looks around, looking to Sparrow and Astrid and reaching back to get his own disk, "So these are like glow-boomerangs? Or death-frisbees?" He hefts the object as if he's not quite sure what's going on still.

The blue-and-white disk goes arcing toward the red-highlighted programs, and one of them brings up his disk as if to deflect it... but Corey's shot slips right underneath, and the program shatters, derezzing spectacularly. This gets the full attention of the remaining five, and they charge forward, launching three disks at the group.

Astrid follows her instincts as a glowing disk comes zipping toward her. Her own disk comes up fast, flicking the enemy disk away as she advances forward two steps... only then to realize her disk is clattering off across the stadium. "Shit!" She scampers to the left, going after her disk while she tries to keep her head low.

"Hey baby." Ash forgets about all this digital violence long enough to offer a smile to Corey, but then she listens to what is being said, reaching for the disk since that is very clearly what they are supposed to be doing. It's all very distracting though, and she looks up, ready to try throwing things just in time for one of those things to come hurtling her direction, and with a terrified yelp she flings herself to the side. Too slow to really save herself though as she gets hit by it, hitting her her knees before scrambling back upright.

Reaching up for his disk as it circles back around, Corey only just notices the red one flying his way, throwing himself to one side - it catches his arm, but fortunately just grazes it rather than doing any greater damage, little sparks flying from the lit-up strip that just got dinked. Without even thinking, he hurls his disk again, at the group of five red asshats.

Sparrow watches, assesses, and when the discs start flying toward her people? Sparrow looses her disc with a vicious spin! Which looks totally cool, but isn't as effective as she'd like, chipping at digitized shoulder instead of repeating that proper pixelization that the baddies had managed on the NPC. She mutters beneath her breath as she dives to collect her disc again while aiming to get out of the way of any retaliation.

Marius doesn't get his disk out in time to get in the way of the incoming disks, his eyes widening sharply as Astrid's disk goes flying away, and Ash and Corey get tagged, "HEY!" He takes a hopping crow-step forward, then launches his own disk, sending it whipping past one of the programs and striking a few sparks along the way. "Pick on someone the same size." He pauses, catching the disk as it comes back by instinct more than anything, "Or... um... bigger than you."

The brunette slides across the ground of the playing field -- it's a pretty impressive skid that ends with her in a half-lunge and grabbing for her disk. Astrid gets back up, and starts to sprint back toward her friends with her disk in hand. She flings it off toward the one attacking Ash, but it gets deflected off with a zing. "Double shit!" Then she's trying to figure out: what do you do when you've lost your weapon?

"Ow..." Ash informs everyone. Even the bad guys. That getting hurt actually hurts. Which, duh, right? Once Ash is back on her feet she throws that disk at the bad guys, grazing one and nearly missing the thing coming back because despite obviously seeing everyone else doing this, well, she wasn't expecting it. "I need a fucking hug after this..."

The red-lit programs spread out as they advance, catching up their disks on the rebound and sprinting closer. One of them even leaps across a void in the platform, turning a flip as he does. Several of them get tagged, but they keep coming, gathering up their disks and once more sending a trio launching forward, this time at Sparrow, Marius, and Corey. They don't talk, but the announcer starts up again, "And your champions, the defenders of the common program, are on the attack! Can the tools of the failed users stand up to their might?" There's a pause, and then a laughing, "Of coooooourse not."

"There'll be hugs," Corey promises Ash, scowling as his disk completely misses the guy he was aiming at, then feeling somewhat exposed as his disk clatters away. He starts to run to grab it, leaving himself open - but just managing to duck in time as one enemy disk flies his way. Then he's skidding, grabbing his disk and running back to the others on 'team user'.

Sparrow's fingers withdraw sharply as the disk she was reaching for simply disintegrates before it gets to her or she gets to it. Fuck. She stares wide-eyed at that vaporized space, not sure what to do. And not sure she should just stand there and... gawk. She looks around, hands held out at her sides in a sorta continued shrug. Would be really nice if she could just hack the system and manifest something useful right now, but that's definitely not within her skill set. "Any thoughts on what we're supposed to be doing here, guys? If we die, do we die?"

"Many hugs, Ash." A disk comes whipping in at Marius, and he deflects it, stopping and looking at his disk, "Hey! These things are great." His eyes widen when Corey runs off, and then he looks back as the Sparrow's disk disintegrates. "Oh shit! Not so great!" He steps forward, holding his disk in front of you, "Don't know for sure, Sparrow. But I know if you get hurt in here, you stay hurt." He licks his lips and looks at the array of red-lit figures approaching -- and is that one flipping? "I got you. Who's seen this movie before when they weren't high? Ast? What do we do?"

Some small part of her registers that Corey and Marius have agreed to consolation hugs when this is all done, but Ash is too busy to actually make much response to it at the moment. Instead now that she's getting the hang of things, sort of, she throws the disk again. This time she throws it in the direction of the one that threw their disk at Corey, "No you don't!" Certain people are worth throwing things for, and almost everyone that is on that list happens to be in this freaky dream, but she can't manage to throw something at all the program combatants at once. One must instead pick and choose the most annoying of them at any given time.

Sparrow's terrifying question is ignored, because Ash is not going to panic. Only, really, she's panicking. A lot. "I've seen it! But I still don't remember it."

Now she's without a disk, so Astrid is charging one of the neon Programs at a full sprint. She slides in close, and then she's grabbing hard at the disk of the opposition. She snags it away hard, spinning away from it while dropping into a low squat. She glances over toward the others. "Guys! I got a disk!" She's probably a bit too excited by this as she starts her retreat.

With his disk back, and in place with the rest of the user group, Corey turns to face outwards to the hostile programs. He stays in front of Sparrow since she doesn't have a disk, reaching out to fling his toward one of the red-lined folks, hoping it spins back to him in time for defending them both with.

Sparrow watches Astrid with a combination of awe and inspiration. That was amazing. Could she do that? Is this why she's been taking kickboxing classes? Almost certainly not. With Corey close, she keeps to the group for the moment, looking around, scanning for... exits? Options. Alternatives to the currently limited scenario.

The programs hesitate when Astrid comes rushing out after them, evidently not used to this much aggression from their opponents. The one who got its disk nabbed goes tumbling aside, rolling back to its feet and hissing electronically. It reaches out a hand, looking aside, and Astrid's knocked-aside disk comes flying over to it like he's Thor with Mjolnir. Corey hammers another program with his disk, and it staggers back, trying to recover. That leaves one more to come racing forward, and two more throwing their disks at the group, aiming for Marius and Astrid.

Marius bats the next disk aside, now that he's ready for it, and then steps on the thing, giving the program that threw it a snort and a shake of his head, "Well you're no help then, Ash!" Humor's the way you help someone who's freaking out, right? "Sparrow? You want this one? Because I've got nothin' besides Astrid's a badass." He looks between the oncoming figures, "Open to brilliant ideas, or else I'm gonna try to hit that guy." The one who's getting very, very close now.

"None of us remember it," Sparrow points out to Ash, as if there might be some comfort in their collective uselessness. When Marius steps on that disc and offers it over, she doesn't hesitate to accept, chirping, "Yeah she is," of Astrid's undeniable skill. "It doesn't look like they wanna talk." And she doesn't see any way out of this. "So." That's a yes? Who knows. She certainly takes the throw now that she's armed.

Astrid is a badass. Ash takes a moment to admire, and might even get twitterpatted over it for a moment, except that whole 'do we die for real' thing. And so Ash focuses, "Sorry!" She retorts to Marius, looking like she might really be very, very sorry. And to make up for that she flings her disk at the bad guys once again.

The program targeted by Sparrow is stymied for a moment by the attack, bounding back to try and dodge the attack -- and losing its own disk in the process. He stops and reaches out with one hand, and the disk comes whipping back, but it's prevented from attacking back for a moment. Ash's disk hits one of the already-damaged programs, as does Corey's, and they each derez spectacularly. This leaves just Astrid sparring with one program, Sparrow's target looking to get its disk back, and the one charging up close. Charlie, undoubtedly emboldened by their example, throws his disk at the close-up program -- only to have it snatched neatly out of the air, leaving Charlie disarmed and the program with a pair of disks, poised before the 'User-supporters' for a moment as the blue light lining the disk slowly turns blood red. The announcer makes some flabbergasted sounds, but this last point seems to cheer him, "Did you see that, my fellow programs. What skill! What coding! Sacren caught the disk."

Marius shakes his head at Sparrow, "So... nice!" And then Ash and Corey chip in too, and he laughs, "Triple-nice! Don't gotta be sorry now." And then Sacren lands before them with Charlie's stolen disk, posing like a mofo, and Marius backs up for a moment, "Uh... so maybe we find a way out?" His eyes narrow then, and he draws in a breath of... is that air they're breathing? Anyhow, he charges forward with a wordless roar, deflecting two attacks from the program with showers of sparks, and then planting his boot in it's chest, knocking him back so that he can bounce the disk clean through the fallen program's chest. "Less posing, more fighting!"

The announcer coughs, "Did I say skill? I meant luck. Clearly Sacren wasn't up to the task."

Sparrow watches what Marius is capable of and just... Right. Fighting. Not gawking. Again, she throws her disk, and again, the program zigzags around it, effortless grace. Frustratingly effortless grace. She manages to reclaim her disk, but she doesn't seem convinced of its utility in her hands and grumbles, "I liked the find a way out idea..."

The praise for a good job just makes her careless, obviously. Ash takes the disk and throws it towards the one and....there goes the disk. Now she's standing there without a disk, and there is clear alarm that crosses over her face as she stands there and stares dumbfounded for a moment before murmuring, "Oh fuck." Then she's diving for the disk, because unlike some she's never going to be able to manhandle one of the programs with her hands.

Effortless grace to avoid, but between Sparrow's shot and deflecting Ash's attack, the program doesn't have time to respond. The program fighting Astrid seems to be finding its stride, driving her back and even clipping her with the disk. And there goes the announcer again, "And Lassel is taunting the paltry defenders of the Users now. That's right, program power!" Charlie looks around scared, and nods at Ash, "I know, right?" He scurries forward to snag his old disk, the red lining turning back blue as he clutches it close, "So how do we get out?"

Marius looks this way and that, wincing as Astrid gets clipped, but trying to keep himself between the program and Ash, Sparrow, and Charlie. Sparrow's words draw a nod though, and he looks down at the disk in his hand, a broad grin coming over his face, "Oh yeah... I got this." Turning about, he takes a momentum-gaining hop-step, and hurls the disk full-force at the wall -- only to have to bring his hands up super-quick to catch the disk before it rebounds straight into his face. "I don't got this."

"All the other ones have been through," Sparrow answers Charlie, not exactly sounding thrilled at that. This whole through thing isn't going all that well for them this time. She winces when the disk rebounds on Marius like that, but doesn't make any move to throw her own again, instead keeping the bulk of her attention on Mr. Plain. "Are you familiar with the movie? Is there any way to open up an exit?"

"Through?" Ash glances at Sparrow, then back towards the program in front of them, "Maybe through is still the answer?" She gives them a smile that is supposed to be reassuring, and just comes across as terrified and pained. "Remember me well." She has no idea if death here is death for real, and while she's already gotten wounded from these things, she is not going to let a game construct beat her. So she heads straight, not running for the program but instead trying to run past it.

Charlie ducks down as Marius whips the disk at the wall and it rebounds, "So in the movie, Olivia Wilde comes in in a giant cruiser while everyone's racing lightcycles and blows a hole in a wall." His eyes widen at Sparrow, "Should we try to create lightcycles and drive through the wall? That's sort of what they did in the first movie. I mean, there was a tank shot into the wall and a couple of other things first." But then Ash is running past, and his eyes widen, "Woah!" The program had started pacing when the quartet failed to attack it, a crackling sort of laughter coming from its helmet. When Ash darts forward, it dodges aside, hurling its disk at her -- and missing her. The announcer is conspicuously silent as to the program's failure.

Sparrow watches wide-eyed, worried, when the blonde splits from the group. "Ash!" Her gaze shoots promptly to Charlie as she tells him, "Yes. Lightcycles, explosions, Olivia Wilde. Whatever the fuck we can do to get through the wall and out of this dream. All of us." She throws her disk again at the program going after Ash, aiming to defend, but she just can't seem to get the hang of this.

"We're playing frisbee when we get out!" Marius claims as he moves over to help Astrid, "And so how do we get lightcycles or Olivia Wilde?" He swipes with the disk like it were an incredibly-awkward knife, trying to drive the program into a place where Astrid can finish it off. "Do any of you remember or have any ideas?"

Marius drives the program back, and Astrid swipes with the disk she pilfered. The swipe of the disk flies across the program's shoulder and it explodes in a burst of pixels. Then she's turning around, searching for Ash. She spots her friend, gives a nod, and then scoots in toward Marius. "Um! I think that we just..." Then she turns toward the programs. "Time to race!" Worth a try, right? She definitely remembers this movie, but she cannot remember how to summon Olivia Wilde.

Honestly, Ash has no idea how to summon Olivia Wilde either, so she just runs. In fact, the program throwing things at her is enough incentive to run faster, too, "COMEON!" In case people weren't on board with her idea, which would probably be the smart thing. She isn't even exactly on board with it, truth be told. But she's out of options.

The surviving program in the arena deflects aside Sparrow's attack, and then twists as the rest of the group -- including Charlie -- go running off past it after Ash. The announcer bellows, "They're trying to escape! They're cheating, as Users will always cheat us programs! Get them!" It's a convenient excuse for the program getting their butts kicked. A group of four programs drop out of the stands, through the roof of the arena, and land on the floor. Each of them holds their hands together in front of them, and a bar appears, folding out into a light-limned angles of a stylized motorcycle.

"Now that's a cool ride," Astrid points out, but a dart of a look over her shoulder has her thinking about how to do this. Monkey see, monkey do. She does the same move as the programs, and that same bar appears. She splits her hand apart, and there's the bike. "Whoa!" She glances around her. "Ash!" She isn't too worried about Marius, but she glances a look to Ash just as she swings into the saddle. "Come on!"

It's probably wise to be worried about her, because Ash wasn't paying attention to Astrid, and the arrival of the four new ones almost made her turn back around to try and just go the other way. But when she spots what Astrid is doing she stares, then blinks, "How..." How? Yep. Okay, she can do this, she lifts her hands up and tries to repeat the gesture with her hands so that her own bike appears.

Marius nods to Astrid as they two turn back to the rest of the group, running after Ash in the midst of the rest of the group. The surviving program on foot hurls its disk at the biggest target, and Marius is driven back, nearly falling and definitely losing his disk in the process. "Jesus!" This points him several paces behind the others, so he can see both Astrid and Ash turn nothing into light cycles. His steps slow for a moment, "That is so cool..." and then he follows the others in trying to do the same, leaning forward as the bike constructs itself around him, "Woah!" Immediately, he twists the throttle to catch up. "Okay. Now we're going fast. So how do we get through the wall?"

The quartet of programs come zooming in from the group's right, and suddenly their light cycles sprout long wall-like tails, trailing behind them. "It looks like the Users' stooges want to derez fast!" The following program brings up his own light cycle as well, racing after the group. Charlie wobbles on the lightcycle, "I don't like going fast."

"Coolest bikes ever," Astrid admires, but then there's bad guys behind them. She shoots a look to Charlie that includes a warm grin. "You got this, Chuck." Then she glances toward Marius, and then at the wall, and she tries to remember. "Um. I think we just... charge it." She guns it, wheels spinning a bit before she takes off toward the wall.

"I like going fast but..." But what? The potential for maximum speed into an unmovable object is a daunting one. But Astrid is doing it, and she can't let her do it all by herself. So she glances upwards, saying a tiny mental prayer that this is going to work, and aims herself at the wall to take off after Astrid.

"Are we just going through the wall?" Marius's eyes widen behind the helmet his suit extruded, but he accelerates after Astrid and Ash as well, letting the rest of the group sweep in behind them. He nods to Ash, then notes, "You're crazy, Ast." That's... not exactly a complaint, as he flashes a look over to Astrid, his eyes wide and his grin fierce. "You're both crazy."

Charlie... uh... Charlie doesn't go as fast as the others, but the approach of the programs from their right at least keeps him moving. The leading trio smash into the wall and... ow. That hurts. Because they don't fade out of the dream with the impact. They have time for their bikes to hit the wall and smash apart in a spray of pixels, and for them to bounce and thump painfully against the wall and floor -- until the second wave arrives and smashes into the wall -- that's when they wake up, with the wounds they gained in the Dream.