"Yeah, let's keep going."

I laugh and josh with the others, letting them tell jokes at my expense on occasion.  And then after the laughter goes down, it out with a joke of mine.  I don't keep even as I don't really
care.

One of the other non-Tadeusz racers says "I would never let the Creators take control over me. I might get blown up every game, but at least I'm nobody's puppet."

And Tad Prime says "Yeah, but nobody gets out of your way when you walk down Game Central. I get respect for what I do. I might be a puppet in the game, but I'm a master outside it."

Five hours to go till game closure. Tad Prime asks if you want the next Quarter Alert.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:06, Tue 04 Nov 2014.

"Yes, I'll take the next quarter alert for the rest of the game day.  Don't let me keep you from your business."

And as soon as he's gone, I'll walk over to the guy who said he was independent, and ask him what he means, and how that works.

Tad Prime disappears. You ask the other racer.

"I'm what the Creators would call a computer controlled character. Except I'm not. I control myself. My job is to compete with Tadeusz. I'm limited though. I can't game jump as a player. A Tadeusz can play in any Tadeusz game. I'm stuck here. And he was right. Nobody gets out of my way when I walk down Game Central. I get no respect. Some of the Tadei call us 'Expendables'. They've been known to kill us outside the games because they know we won't regenerate." Then he turns away from you. You hear sadness in his voice. "Tad Prime was right. Being independent isn't all it's cracked up to be. You're better off as a Tadeusz."

"They call me Two, and I don't hold with killing the weak or the innocent."

I'll ride, but as I ride in the game, I'll try to learn from it.  Later, I'm going to be keeping an eye out on how Tadei deal with Expendables.

"Not all of them are like that. For characters that are supposed to be the same, they're as different as any other group of people. Tad Prime in this game is pretty cool. He's gotten us out of a few scrapes with his fellow Tadei. He's a Prime. NOBODY!!!! messes with a Prime."

Primes are the top echelon. The backup avatars have ranks, as you've found out. You're now somewhere between a Two and Three. But even the highest ranked backup avatars will still back down to a Prime.




What are you trying to learn?

It isn't long before you hear "QUARTER ALERT!!!!" The rest of the racers disappear to their positions. You get to drive a DeLorean and several other hopped up cars and bikes. You do notice though that the racer you were talking to isn't as competitive as he was before. He stays back a little bit. He seems to be trying to prevent the other racers from overtaking you. You win a few more races.

In between races, you're back in the pit alone. The clock counts down time rapidly. You are a computer program. Time is relative to you.

But then you hear an announcement. "GAME CLOSURE!!! GAME CLOSURE!!!!"

The other racers appear out of nowhere. One of them asks what you're doing. If you have plans. You were planning to meet Ryu at Mario Three.

I try to learn how to do the driving stunts, like sliding around a curve, and how to do the shooting at cars while moving.

I've got a lot of driving experience, but not much at all at extreme high speeds.

"I'm meeting someone at Mario 3, maybe another time, okay?"

OOC) Well, you got a New Use on your driving skill. Is that good enough? Or are you wanting those stunts as separate skills?



To this one says "Don't go crazy in there. Don't try to pick the place clean. I know it's tempting. There's coins and power ups all over the place. But Mario and Luigi can be kind of territorial if they think you're taking too much. If they get pissed off about it, whatever you do, don't try to fight them. Just surrender what you've got and walk away. They're at home. They regenerate. You don't. There's not an avatar out there that won't defend his home turf."

And then another one says "Yeah, and the enemies that kill them can kill you too."

And a third says "We're going over to Burger Time. They got some amazing burgers over there. Stop by when you're finished if you want to."

So you all board the train back to Game Central. Whilst you're exiting the tunnel, you see across the hallway a tunnel that says "Verser Tadeusz." There's two Tadei leaving. They both have the blacksmithing hammers, Katana swords and MH's cloth bag. So that's where you get the unreality sack. Also, it seems you use the same weapons in multiple games.

One of the random kiosks has a sign that says "Information." There's a map leading to Mario Three.

"Thanks for the advice, and yeah, Burger Time sounds good." It does.  I wonder if they have bacon cheeseburgers, or jalopeno burgers....mmm, mmmm good.

I laugh to myself at seeing the other verser game.

Then I follow the map to Mario, and once there, look around for Ryu, which is not something I'm that good at.  Spotting people in crowds is a weakness of mine.  But I figure he can see me looking around, and just walk up to me.  And then we can go in to the game.

Whilst you're looking at the map, Pac-Man floats past you and hands you one of the chips from his game. He's just smiling and passing chips out to random people. It tastes exactly like you expect manna to taste. Sweet with a bit of honey.

So you're walking down the hallway. People are getting out of your way. You see Link from Legend of Zelda. He's carrying a huge treasure chest. Wreck-It Ralph walks over. Links says to Ralph "Smash this open for me, will ya?" And Ralph screams "I'm gonna wreck it!!!" and smashes the lid. The chest is full of rupies. Link tells Ralph to take a handful for his help.

When you reach Mario Three, Ryu is waiting for you. You don't have to find him. He's standing outside. He comes up to you and asks "So, uh, did you have a good first day Tadeusz?"

And you enter Mario Three. You board the train and roll into the game. It's Mario Three alright, but it's a three dimensional landscape instead of side scrolling. Blocks and coins floating in midair. Ryu jumps up under one of the blocks and punches it from underneath. A mushroom pops out and starts sliding across the floor. Ryu picks it up. He says to you "I heard that if we eat one of these, we become twice our size and strength for 30 seconds. Oh, what I wouldn't give to take one of these into a fight with Chun-Li."

No sign of Mario or Luigi.

"Thanks Pac Man." I eat the chip.

"Yeah, Ryu, most enligtening.  I learned a lot of stuff."

Mmmm. I listen to Ryu, and try to come up with a solution, but can't.  Oh well, some things are not meant to be.

I follow Ryu's example.  After that, I leap for a block.  If I can get an edge, maybe I can climb up, and then I'll leap down.  Just to get an idea for how it feels.   I don't want to be doing some super high jump and go splat when I did not expect that, after all.

If that works out well, then back up on a block, and leap for coins...

So you Great Jump up under a block and hit it with your fist. It explodes into a shower of bricks. The bricks just fall through the ground and out of the world. You jump up on top of blocks and fall off. And although you're falling from a height which would normally be painful, you don't feel a thing. You just take it and walk away.

Ryu meanwhile has jumped up onto blocks which would put him about 5 or 6 stories up. He jumps off and does a tumbling leap. He lands on his feet and doesn't seem to be hurt at all. This is a video game. Falling from great heights doesn't hurt.

You see a bunch of coins arranged in an inverted U shape floating in midair. You leap up and into them. You grab one with your hands, but all of the coins your body touched disappear. You feel your pockets getting heavier. The coin in your hands is about 8 inches around and weighs a half pound. Solid gold. Looking into your pockets, you see more gold coins about the size of quarters. Pulling one out, as soon as it leaves your pocket, it changes from the size of a quarter to eight inches around and weighing a half pound. Putting it back into your pocket, it reduces to the size of a quarter. Video game physics. You've got 10 coins.

Ryu says "I wonder if it works the same for us as it does for Mario. If we get 100 coins do we get an extra life? The extra life wouldn't work for us, but I've heard they're really tasty."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:18, Sat 08 Nov 2014.

"A good thought." And so Ryu and I set out to collect a hundred coins each.  It gives me a goal, and along the way I practice my Great Jump, and High Punch, and Flying Side Kick, and High Fall with Tumble like Ryu was doing.

Its exhilarating to feel the surge of adrenaline as I swan dive off a seven story high block, do a double flip, land on my feet, and do a somesault roll...awkwardly.  But that's what practise is for, and soon I'm not so awkward.

After a bit, I say to Ryu...

"See that really high block with the mass of coins above it?"

"How about I do a boost?  You run  and I hold this coin between my hands for you to jump on, and I'll shove at the same time...."

So you jump up and hit a block. Out pops a mushroom. It's about 3 feet tall until you pick it up. Then it reduces to the size of a normal mushroom.

The next block you hit has a fireball flower in it. Again, three feet tall reduced to the size of a dandelion when you pick it up.

The third block you hit has a leaf in it. Turns Mario into a flying racoon. The leaf is three feet across until you pick it up. Then it's a normal leaf.

You boost Ryu up to the block with the coins over it. He tumbles through the air and falls, landing on his feet. The he turns to you with an idiot grin. He says excitedly "There's a whole field full of coins about a mile that way. I saw it when I was in the air!!!!"

So I presume you take off after it. Indeed there's rows upon rows of coins floating in the air. If you just start running into it, you'll collect a hundred within minutes.

So you do. (I would assume) And you feel your pockets getting heavier and heavier. Then suddenly your pockets feel empty and on the ground is a green, three foot mushroom. An extra life. But you have no more coins.

And you eat the mushroom. (Why not?) Every bite is a different flavor and texture. First bite tastes like chocolate cake. Next bite tastes like sweet sausage. Next bite tastes like vanilla pudding. All amazingly delicious.

But then you hear a voice from behind you. An Italian sounding accent. It says forcefully.

"Tadeusz-uh. What-uh are-uh you-uh doing here-uh?"

Turning, you're face to face with Mario. He's six feet tall, pixelated in the old 8 bit fashion.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Fri 14 Nov 2014.

Cool.  We tumble, leap, and flip through the air.  I have Ryu also do the stair maneuver so that I can do  high-flying leap.  Its awesome upon the top of the curve, but going down is worse than any roller coaster.

So fast I almost forget to tumble in my horrified fascination.

When Mario shows up, I turn and gravely nod to him.

"Hello, Mario, we're practising our skills in the off hours.  I hope to get good enough to defeat some of the virii.  Do you wish to join in?  Or are we in your way?"

OOC)You rolled a GE of 6, so Mario isn't upset, he's happy to see you.

Mario greets you with the same complicated hand salute that the other Tadeusz gave you. When you don't return it, he says:

"So-uh, you-uh, haven't been-uh to-uh Search-uh And-uh Rescue Tadeusz-uh?"

And since I don't feel like typing this in the Italian accent, he goes on to say that there's a game where Tadeusz is a SAR team leader. That's where you learn the salute. And since one of the levels has Tadeusz rescuing someone from a sewer, naturally Mario is a member of the SAR team. So you're in a game together. It's kind of a crossover game.

He tells you that he gets notified whenever someone from outside collects 100 coins. Anybody else he would throw them out. They're taking too much. But not for his buddy Tadeusz. You're welcome to stay and hang out. Ryu on the other hand.....

"You-uh vouch-uh for-uh Ryu-uh Tadeusz-uh?"

If you don't vouch then Ryu has to leave. Ryu is looking at you like a lost puppy.

"No, I haven't, perhaps I can check that out tommorrow, or soon."

I smile and nod at Ryu.

"He seems a good guy.  Hey Mario, why don't we practise, and before we leave, we'll leave all the coins and the extra lives behind, keep the powerups.  I do need to develop my virus hunting skills, and this looks like a good place to learn how to jump and balance and hit targets."

Mario says "Ah!!!!! Tadeusz-uh wants-uh to fight viruses-uh? Go to Verser Tadeusz-uh game. What is name? Wizard-hamma? Magic mallet? Mario no remember-uh. He give potente virus weapon-uh."



Ryu couldn't be happier.



Mario authorizes you to test the power ups in his game, so you don't have to go to the designated testing area. That's an exception to the designated area rule. If you have authorization from the game owner. You could do that too, but you would have to test Tadeusz power ups in a Tadeusz game. And you do that all day.

He says that you all should go battle some Goombas and Turtles to get practice. And he even knows where the power ups are.

(Doing Therapy)

We will come along with him to the power ups, and practise using them, and taking on the goombahs.

Mario says "First, let me-uh suit up-ah."

And hits a block. Out pops a hammer. He grabs the hammer and is transformed into Hammer Mario.

"I hope Tadeusz-uh let's Mario down to a Tadeusz-uh game. I want to try that hamma of yous."

But he points out blocks that have Fire Flowers and Raccoon Leaves in them. Those are all over the place. The hammer suits are really hard to find, so naturally Mario is saving the best for himself.

"Tadeusz-uh want to try-uh frog suit?"

Lets you swim and jump like a frog.

So you grab several Fire Flowers and Raccoon leaves. You have to eat them to activate them. The give outsiders one minute of the power.

And now it's up to you to decide which you use and how. But Mario takes you to a field of Goombas. They're three feet tall and they're just walking around aimlessly, bumping into each other. About a half-mile away. There's pipes going into the ground; blocks and coins are floating everywhere. Mario tells you you can grab 20 coins to take with you. That's what he usually lets people get. There's nothing keeping the Goombas from coming at you, but at the moment, they're relatively far away.

But Mario does tell you that they can kill you just by touching you. This is his game, it's his game rules. So you do not approach one unless you are on at least one powerup. Then you can get hit once without dying. And then you run. They're slow and easy to outrun. This is a lot more dangerous than you might have been thinking. He advises you to skip the racoon tails and just use fireballs on them. You can do that from here. Use the tails somewhere else.

OOC) You've evidently played Mario 3. What other powerups are in that game? Hammer suit, frog suit, several different raccoon suits, fireballs, what else? We might even make up new ones.

HAPPY NOVEMBER 19th!!!!!!

(Doing Therapy)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:39, Wed 19 Nov 2014.

Two Posts

Almost forgot the mushrooms. You got a bunch of those too. Those take you from 6 feet tall and 1@9 strength to 12 feet tall and 2@8 strength. But it only lasts for 60 seconds. Six foot tall Mario was on a mushroom when you met him. In this game, he's normally only three feet tall. Ya know how it works. He's short, he can't break bricks. Then he eats a mushroom and grows taller and able to break bricks. So twice the height and strength. Or something like that.

Invincible stars, 20 seconds. That's about how long they last for Mario.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 07:40, Wed 19 Nov 2014.

"I'll try to get you in, but they call me a Two.  So...you know..."  Shrugs.

I'll get close to the outer edge of the goombah's and Fire Flower them, and when they charge, I'll shift to Frog and jump way over them on the other side. And rinse, repeat, and recycle until they are all gone.

It turns out frog suits are almost as rare as hammer suits. Mario has 3 of them. You're welcome to all of them. So for the moment, I'm going to assume you only use one.

You get up to the field of Goombas and eat your fire flower. It tastes spicy. But it doesn't linger. Your mouth stops burning shortly after you swallow. You feel yourself grow warmer. Very hot. And then you fire. You just think about shooting a fireball and your shoot one. They bounce along the ground, traveling in a perfectly straight line until their either hit something or go out of sight. You fire at the Goombas. It's just like in the video game. The fireball hits them and they fall through the ground. Which is not to say the fireballs can't set things on fire. You're just playing by Mario World rules at the moment. So in 60 seconds, you shoot off 60 fireballs. Some of them visibly bounce over the targets. The Goombas don't seem to even notice. They just keep wandering around aimlessly, bumping into things.

Then the fire flower power goes away. You burp, like you would after a long night of good Mexican food. It burns!!! But you're okay. Then you take out a small plastic-like model of a frog. It's like a hard gummy candy. It tastes like chicken. (Ever had frog's legs? They really do taste like chicken.) And then you have frog's legs. Actually, your whole body that you can see is a frog!!! And you jump up 30-40 feet in the air, effortlessly. Giving it a great jump, the suit enables you to reach 60-70 feet. You jump up and stomp on a Goomba. It squishes flat, blinks twice and disappears. And you bounce around in the Goomba field for 30-45 seconds, squashing Goombas every time you land. It feels like you're stepping on something soft and flexible. Then it disappears. When your time gets short, Mario yells at you to get out of the field.

"You-uh have-uh good time Tadeusz-uh? Mario never gets-uh tired of squishing thu Goombas." and you share a laugh.

(Doing Therapy)

"This is AWESOME." And I do a frog leap and double somersault before coming down on another Goomba.  After this, I try to take out two of them at once by landing on their heads, one head, one leg of mine...

And I wonder to myself what frog legs taste like, having never had them, not that I really wanted to anyways.  Fact is, a burger was sounding better and better.

"Hey Mario, and Ryu, I got invited over to Burger Time....after we get done here...." Jump. "We could grab some burgers."

I've played Mario before, but not much so I'm not familar with their powers, so this is new to me as I soar over the field doing acrobatics in the air.

Little known fact about the Mario games. If you can step on (I believe) 10 enemies in a row without touching the ground, you get an extra life. So you smash one, then you smash two at once, then you flip and smash another. This continues for a few seconds, and suddenly there's a green mushroom on the ground, directly underneath you. You grab it and eat it. Each bite is a different one of your all time favorite foods.



Ryu "Yeah, they do have some great burgers over there. You want to come Mario?"

Mario "Nah, I-uh got-uh some things to-uh do here-uh."

But Mario does ask if you want to go somewhere else to test the raccoon suit. It lets you fly and gives you a tail to whack things with. The mushroom would make you twice the size and strength, but there's nothing in this game that you can't already do.  You're as big and strong normally as Mario is on a mushroom.



You've only got 60 seconds unless you eat another frog suit. You've only got three frog suits, so I am assuming you test one and save the other two. Unless you say otherwise, of course.