Into the World of Twisted Wonderland Pt 2

👑 The Beautiful Tyrant: Chapter 52 👑

The four arrive at the Board Game Booth, stepping into a classroom, seeing tables being filled with pieces of games by students, seeing a few familiar faces, but one person caught the group's attention the most as they look at a small corner of the room. "Two hours to go until my research presentation. Uuugh," Idia says with a groan. "I've tried everything I can think of to calm my nerves, but I'm still an anxious wreck. Seriously, why do we have to do this in person again? Isn't that asking a lot? Wouldn't it be way easier to use video chat with avatars? My voice software setup is perfect and all, but how sure can I be that I can type in front of an audience without making any typos?"

"Uh, there's some guy mumblin' to himself in the corner of this booth," Grim states as they watch the figure pacing around. The person seemed awfully familiar for some reason. But where...?

"Idia?" Riddle calls out. "What are you doing there?"

The man named Idia flinched at the call. "WHOA!" He exclaims as he turns around, seeing the four's attention on him, but stiffened with a particular set of grey eyes on him. "Instructor Riddle?! What are you doing here?!" He says in a panic.

"Since when am I an instructor?" Riddle asks with a slight glare.

"Uh, n-never mind. Forget I said that."

"Are you all set for your on-stage research presentation?" He asks.

The question shocks Idia for a moment. "Y-yeah, I'm good, no worries. You'll see for yourself soon enough, hee hee..." He chuckles.

"...Um, all right," Riddle suspiciously says. "Your field of specialty, technomancy, is one of the most fascinating areas of study in modern magic. I'm looking forward to seeing you share your insights."

"U-uh, sure," Idia quickly says, shifting his gaze to anywhere other than the four. "Anyway, I've got last minute-prep to do, okay? If you want to get in some board gaming, talk to Ortho." He quickly leaves, making the four even more confused.

"Riddle Rosehearts. Trey Clover. Angel. Grim. Hello to you all!" A familiar voice calls out, approaching them, seeing Ortho in front of them. "Welcome to the Board Game Club's booth!" He happily greets. "You can enjoy tabletop experiences from all over the world with our club members here, Oh, and you can also play the technomantic VR board game my brother developed!"

"The techno what, now?" Trey asks in confusion.

"That sounds cool!" Grim happily says.

Ortho picks something up that looks like goggles up, but something was different about them. Instead of being see through like the lab goggles, these goggles looked to be black with a blue front, almost as if blocking the sight in front of them. He also picked up two things that looks to be rackets of sorts, each one having a handle and a set of buttons on them, along with something attached to it that looks like it would fall off, but stayed perfectly in place instead. The group look at the objects, curious about the purpose. "You put these technomantic goggles my brother developed...And immerse yourself in the world of virtual reality," he explains. "Different things can happen to players in the virtual world based on what space the dice puts them on. Rolls are programmed to be completely random. There's no way to game the dice and make them land where you want. Sometimes you slay monsters in the jungle. Other times you dig for oil in the desert. You cosign your fate to a game of chance and make your way towards the goal. That's VR Magical Dice- the latest in board gaming!" He happily finishes.

"How is that a board game...?" Trey skeptically asks.

"That sounds neat!" Angel says, curiosity rising as she listens to the explanation.

"Ooh, did I pique your interest?" Ortho says as she nods. "By all means, give it a whirl."

"Thanks for the offer, but we're making our last rounds right now," Trey apologizes. "Could we come by and spend more time trying it later?"

"Oh, that's a shame," Ortho says with a sad sigh, only to perk back up. "But sure, you're welcome to come see us anytime!"

"Well, well," a voice approaches, and everyone sees Azul stopping in front of them. "Hello, everyone. Welcome to our Board Game Club exhibit."

"Hello, Azul," Riddle greets. "I'd almost forgotten you were in this club. I thought you'd be throwing yourself into running the Mostro Lounge for an event like this."

"You would me!" He says as he feigns being hurt. "I'm a student here too, you know. As a member of a blub, it's only natural I would take part in a culture fair. Besides, I've struck up an arrangement with some loafers- ah, I mean, a few of the sports clubs," he says with a glint in his eyes. "They'll be running the shop and working the stands as drink vendors at each of the main stages. The center of attention at the festival will, of course, be the SDC on the Purple Stage."

"Wow, you've thought of everything. I should be taking notes," Trey comments.

"Jade and I are but two of the many Octavinelle students who belong to arts clubs. We would have been woefully understaffed to handle the expected flood of customers."

"Oh, yes, that's right. Jade started his own club," Riddle recalls. "The Mountain Lovers Club. I did receive a booth application for that. The name sounded more like a sports-affiliated club to me, but I suppose it does count as an art."

"What kind of activities do they do, anyway?" Trey asks, with the others being a bit curious as well.

"I haven't the faintest, personally," Azul states with a shrug.

"Considering how intimidating the guy founding it is, it's gotta be somethin' scary," Grim says, shuddering at the thought. "I bet they dig up crazy stuff in the mountains, and bury even crazier stuff."

"I wouldn't put it past Jade," Riddle says. "Perhaps we should go check on his booth. He applied to hold an exhibit, but there's no telling what sort of mischief he may be up to." Wouldn't we have to worry about Floyd instead of Jade for that?

"By all means, pay him a visit," Azul says with a smile. "I'm sure he'd be delighted to have company. I assume he'd be all alone and cored out of his skull otherwise."

A/N: Honestly was thinking about this since I already finished the content released in about an hour after I started the game, but I'm thinking about writing the Stitch's Tropical Turbulence event story. Wanting to see what everyone else says first before writing it (6/15/24)