Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Trick or Treat; Valentine's Scrapyard

The large mech sat nestled among a few piles of assorted boulders and scrap metal as a large crate of various things lay beside him. It had nearly anything you could imagine; sodas to ciders, candies to small baskets of food. The mech stood up after a while, deciding it was time, and carried the crate to the entrance to the yard, standing with one foot atop it. His carbines let off an orange glow, similar to his eyes, as he watched around for trick-or-treaters. He had gone around, collecting whatever he could, and decided that since he couldn't have it himself, he should redistribute it to anyone who hadn't had a chance to go to all the other places, or simply people who just bega to trick-or-treat. He hoped he didn't look too intimidating for people to come.

Halloween was still a relatively new concept to her, but she had seen how fun it had looked and she wanted to try it out. A pair of black cat ears sat perched on top of her head and she had pinned a cats tail to the back of her shorts. It had taken her a few tries but she eventually managed to paint whiskers on her face that didn't look crooked. All in all, it was a very basic costume, but she thought she had done well for her very first time dressing up. She was currently wandering around looking for anyone that seemed to be taking trick or treaters. As she walked, she saw a glow in the distance and drew closer, her eyes widening in awe at the sight that greeted her. Skipping forward, Eliane gave a bright smiles upwards at the mech. "Hello! Trick or treat!"

Sascha had thought she was done Trick-or-Treating for the day. But, as she was walking towards her home, she spotted an orange glow in the distance. She also caught sight of a distant figure, who seemed to be approaching the glow. Curious, she quickened her pace, walking until she came near the scrapyard. Sascha looked at the mech, then at the girl dressed as a cat who was already present, and smiled at both of them. "Oh hey! This a Halloween party or something?" She asked with a note of lighthearted sarcasm. The costume Sascha wore was an assortment of various colourful items - a sugar skull mask hiding her face, jester shoes, bright pink gloves, and glittery wings, all combined with a fuzzy cat onesy. She always liked throwing random items together to make mismatched costumes.

The metal titan's guns slid back and down on their mounts, barrels pointed skyward in a non-threatening fashion. He said, "Hello! Take whatever you desire from this container. I went around and personally amassed this collection of confections myself. I have everything from your average candy to fresh-baked cookies to any soda you can imagine." He took his foot off the container and tapped the doors open with his gargantuan foot. "Take as much as you want, or as much as you can carry. By the way, I love your costumes! The cat, a simple yet classic costume, and the exotic mix-and-match of a truly creative person. What a sight it is to see nowadays with mass-produced costumes built strictly to appeal to the stereotyping younger demographic." He said. "If you'd care for a story while you search, I would be happy to give one." The mech was quite excited that people had visited; he was standing in the same position for hours at this point. And he did have a few stories; he was a famous arena battler, after all, and most everyone knew him. Then again, that's why he came here; nobody knows who he is here, meaning he gets a break from the endless crowds following him around.

"Thank you!" Sascha said, smiling behind her mask. She was relieved and grateful to be getting compliments on her costume today, since most people just looked at her funny and asked what she was supposed to be. This year, people had been nicer, and thus far no-one had given her That Look.
She knelt down to look through the container, adding some items to her bag while also leaving room for the girl dressed as a cat to look through it as well. She took some caramels - well, maybe a bit more than just 'some'... They were her favourite and the mech had generously said people could take as much as they wanted... She also took a bottle of soda.
"Oh, I think a story would be cool," She said cheerfully.

He said, "You probably don't know me, but I am a mech arena combatant. My weapons and I are both unique prototypes that have no real background to research, meaning that nobody knows how to beat me. One time, I was put in a tournament - a low their one - and I was put on a team who had things like autocannons, shotguns, your basic things, and thermal lances
.

(sorry, misclick. I'm typing on a rather small phone rn)

"Your basic combat necessities

(this phone, I swear) "and I was, of course, quite high-teir. Somehow, we were pitted against a team of very experienced pilots, with weapons like railguns, burst repeaters, and arc torrents. Needless to say, the rest of my team was annihilated, and I was stuck defending the very last capture point. They rounded the corner and unloaded everything they had into me. When they realized that not only had they not done any damage, I was not even phazed. They backpedalled furiously as there numbers dropped zero quite quickly. One of them even called in both a javelin missile and a mortar strike, to no avail. I won that match singlehandedly, which started my career in cpc battles.

Sascha sat back on her heels as the mech told his story. She listened intently as he spoke. She had never heard of mechs battling or anything of the like, except for in TV shows or movies.
"Wow..." She murmured. "That's impressive! You're really tough, mister."

He said, "Please, call me Valentine. And yes, I am quite tough, but it is because I am truly one-of-a-kind. I am a non-produced prototype, meaning there is but one of me, and all documents are top secret. My armor is made of a hyperdurable, highly corrosion-resistant alloy of Osmium and Iridium, meaning that you could stand me out in the wind and rain for a year and I'd still be shiny. My frame is made of a superalloy composed of Tungsten, Chromium, and Cobalt, being fairly light for how incredibly strong it is. I can't be destroyed by conventional weaponry, the majority of my systems are analog, the only exception being my targeting systems(which I can hit all my shots without), meaning system crash attacks from Sentinel mechs are useless, as well as shock pulses and EMPs from Surge and Dasher mechs, I weigh enough to defuse, not detonate, DEFUSE the mines laid by Guardians, and combined with the fact that I have an extremely broad frame, as long as my teammates stay behind me, my team will be invincible too. The downside? I have to walk to every single battle. I weigh much too much to be carried by anything, and the fact that I am slow means that it can take weeks to get to an arena that may only be a thousand miles away, which would take all of 16 hours for a lighter mech being carried by truck. So I'll let you decide; Am I really all that impressive? Or am I a downgrade to other mechs?"

Sascha shrugged. "Well... I'm certainly impressed. I've never even met a real mech before... Honestly, I didn't know they were real at all."

"We are very real. It's just... The directors keep everything under wraps. The ammunition costs, the amount of power to run the arenas, it is definitely a rich people's sport. There is one thing, however..." The center eye on his head slid back and a coin flipped out, landing at Sascha's feet. His eye closed back up and said, "On that coin, you will find that stylized A, and on the back, you'll see a minimalist carving of me. If you head to

Tianmar's Peak, a while west from here, you'll find the arena I play most at. Show the guards that coin, and you can come see me fight. Your choice, you can still just keep it as a momento of our meeting."

"Wow... Thanks!" Sascha picked up the coin and put it into her candy bag, since she didn't have any pockets. "I should probably get going," She said, standing up. It was getting quite late, after all. "Oh, but first—" She briefly pulled aside her mask, showing the part of her face that was scarred and had been cybernetically altered. Her mechanical eye glowed violet in the dim light, and she said, "A lot of people don't think this stuff is real until they see it, either." After that, she quickly hurried off into the night, towards home.

Flux felt it was getting better at Trick or Treating. Though some humans turned it away because of its strange appearance, some reluctantly gave Flux candy. As it went on, its confidence boosted. And it also found that one of the best places to get candy was outside of human grounds, where not-so-human creatures roamed.

Speaking of which...
As Flux was looking for a spot where candy was being given out, their attention was brought to a warm orange glow. It went to investigate, only to find the scrapyard. It narrowly weaved through the scrap metal and boulders, and came face-to-face with what could only be described as a mech. Flux suddenly remembered that back at one of the places it had first gone to for Trick or Treating, it was told to keep an eye out for "a really nice mech guy." Was this the one?

The mech was standing near crates of candy, so this had to have been it. Flux smiled and approached, letting out more guttural cries with glee. "Trrrrrick! Rrrrrrrrr..... Treat!"

Valentine swiveled and focused on the newcomer. He tried to register his language in his database but came up with a null error. He simply nudged a crate towards them slowly, the crate shortly coming to rest as a small bucket of candy spilled out, fanning out assorted sweets upon the ground. "Take whatever you want from this crate. Also, what is your parent tongue?" He wanted to make sure Flux felt welcomed and hoped that if he could learn a name of what he spoke, he may be able to at least greet him properly in his own tongue.

Realizing that she was on her way into a scrap yard, the ponytaur's trot turns into a full gallop. Oh, she is delighted -- what hidden treasures might be buried amongst all these torn up bits of artifice?

Tonight, Cavalia is wearing her shiniest performing costumes, though instead of letting her scarves stream behind her she has wrapped them raound her torso several times to prevent the sheer fabric from snagging on any of the metal gadgets strewn about the place.

"Trick or treat!" she near-bellows in glee, holding out a rather large burlap sack to the mech.

"Parrrrent... Tongue?" Flux stroked its round chin before shrugging. Flux didn't have a parent tongue, and it seemed to perfectly understand the language of the humans anyway. It would be able to speak it if it weren't for the fact that it had a horrible speech impediment.

Well, the candy was there, and Flux had decided to shuffle through it. These crunchy treats, what the humans called "chips," were absolutely delightful. They had the perfect texture, and Flux never got bored eating them. Flux was able to locate a few mini bags of chips of different flavours (not that it matters, Flux couldn't taste them anyway) and stuffed them into the garbage bag it was using to carry them.

"Thhhh... Thank yoooou!" Flux grinned widely up at Valentine. A very polite thing to say, as it had quickly learned when it first came to this planet...

The mech said, "You are very welcome, my friend! Find me wandering the streets around here sometime! I think I may stay awhile." He then turned to the ponytaur that had galloped up, and said, "Well aren't you extravagantly dressed! How very beautiful your scarves are. You practically are glowing in the pale moonlight. Here; I have something special for you..." and rummaged around in a separate bin. He pulled out a single candy apple with a rich, void black chocolate coating. His center eye opened, and a small torch came forth. A gentle blue flame emitted and licked the outside shell, turning it glossy. He then handed it to the ponytaur, saying, "I made these myself, after nearly 20 years of acquiring ingredients and recipes. I've easily traveled a million miles, carried over 750,000 pounds of material, and arena credits that, if converted to USD, would be well over a quarter million. I got the richest, smoothest chocolate from a recipe that has been perfected by dutch culinary masterminds, the caramel directly under the chocolate I literally has to fight in a ring for. The apple is a Tibetan apple, supposedly with a flavor sweeter than honey, and is the crispest apple on earth. Please; this batch is the culmination of everything I did outside of my current job, so please enjoy."