Current Events > Teen Titans CYOA: Romance Resurrected Part 12

(+) Yeah! (+)

A
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C
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C

War for Honor. As the movie loads, it looks like this movie is about samurai.

"Wow, a samurai movie where the lead isn't played by a White guy," Raven smirks. "Don't see that very often. Like, people complain about tokenizing, and then others complain about the people complaining, but shouldn't things make sense?"

"Of course," you say. "It just seems lazy to take an existing character and make them fit some other mold."

"Right!" Raven says. "It's lazy. Make up new characters."

"You know what would be a little less lazy?" you say.

"What?"

"Finding a less-explored but still interesting character and flesh out their background. Give them a story that's all your own, so no one can really say if this should or shouldn't be the character."

"That would be nice," Raven says.

The movie finishes loading and begins to play. It is set in feudal Japan, naturally, and clearly a war is about to begin. The camera watches both armies' front lines as the tension mounts.

"ZENSHIIIN!" one of the generals shouts, with subtitles reading, "ADVANCE!"

"IKU ZEEE!" the other general shouts, also with subtitles, that read, "LET'S GO!"

All the soldiers and samurai charge, whether on foot or on horseback, and meet at the middle of the large field. They clash with swords, some have spears, and there are archery units that stand in the back. Arrows fly, but a samurai easily defends himself with his sword and armor.

However, an enemy samurai rushes him on horseback. The first samurai, in red and gold, rolls and dodges the incoming attack. The second samurai, in silver and black, has his horse turn around and rush the red-and-gold samurai again. The red-and-gold samurai slashes the horse and causes it to fall, and the silver-and-black samurai with it.

"Oof, Beast Boy would not like that," you whisper. "Even if it is just a stunt."

The silver-and-black samurai gets to his feet angrily. He and the red-and-gold samurai circle with swords at the ready. In the real world, the attendant returns, having spotted that you're watching a movie.

"Pop kohrn?" the attendant asks.

It's obviously what she's asking you.

A) Yes
B) No, thanks
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A)
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Cartridge88 posted...

A) Yes

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Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

A) Yes

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A

"Nai," you nod.

The attendant nods and returns to the kitchen.

Back in the movie, the two samurai rush each other. The swords clash again and again, and then the samurai grind the swords before backing off. The black-and-silver samurai tests the red-and-gold with some feints and false steps. When the black-and-silver samurai finally rushes forward, the red-and-gold samurai is still ready. He blocks all the strikes from the black-and-silver samurai, but then the black-and-silver samurai uses another feint to throw him off.

As the red-and-gold samurai realizes he fell for a trick, the black-and-silver samurai pulls out a dagger from under his sleeve! The black-and-silver keeps it hidden as he swings his katana. The red-and-gold samurai easily dodges, but then the black-and-silver samurai thrusts backwards! The dagger was lined up with the butt of his sword, and its shorter blade goes into the gap between the armor!

"Sa... Saga-shi...!" the red-and-gold samurai says; the subs translate it to, "Ch-Cheater...!"

"Hoh?" the black-and-silver samurai says in a mocking tone. "Dare ga sens ni rru ga aru to itta no? <Who said there were rules in war?>"

The black-and-silver samurai pulls the dagger out and lets the red-and-gold samurai bleed as he falls to the ground. At the same time, may of the red-and-gold samurai's fellow soldiers are being slain, so that the other side greatly outnumbers them.

"SHORIII! <VICTORYYY!>" the black-and-silver samurai shouts as he raises his sword.

The black-and-silver samurai's forces cheer as they run off the survivors and run wild. However, the red-and-gold samurai we'd been focusing on isn't dead yet. He's fading as he watches the black-and-silver samurai riding off on a new horse. We take his perspective as his eyes close.

"I bet someone saves him," you whisper.

"Well obviously," Raven chuckles back.

The attendant returns with a moderately sized bowl of popcorn. You thank them as you take it and place it between you and Raven.

"Sda?" she asks the two of you.

"Nai," you say again.

A) Cola
B) Lemon-Lime
C) Orange
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A
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Cartridge88 posted...

C) Orange

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Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

C) Orange

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C

"Portokli?" you say.

"Na, choume portokli," she says. "Mia stigm."

The attendant leaves again and the movie goes as you and Raven guessed. The heroic samurai wakes up in a hut in the wildnerness, his armor removed and his wound patched up. He sits up and looks around and sees the fire burning under a cauldron.

"Do you think it'll be an old man or a young woman who saved him?" you ask.

"Could be an old woman," Raven says.

"Bet?" you ask.

"Ok, but what for?"

A) Winner chooses lunch
B) Winner chooses dinner
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B.
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Malcrasternus posted...

B.

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B)
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B

"Winner winner chooses dinner," you say.

"Alright," Raven says. "Deal. I'm going with old lady."

"I'm going with... an old man. Perhaps he'll be an old ronin."

The hero looks over as someone walks into the room. The camera cuts to show them walking in. It's an old woman!

"Hah!" Raven grins. "I win."

"Alright," you say. "You choose dinner, but I choose lunch."

"What? That wasn't part of the deal."

"Well someone has to choose," you say.

"Or we could eat different things," Raven chuckles.

"And yet you're choosing dinner," you tease.

"Oh..." Raven says with a stifled laugh.

In the movie, the old woman explains to the hero that she did save him from dying on the battlefield. She used herbs to patch up his wounds underneath the wrapping.

"<Thank you,>" he says. "<But you should have let me die.>"

"<What?>" the old woman says in shock. "<What are you saying?>"

"<I lost because of his treachery,>" the hero says. "<I should have been better prepared. But now I've lost the war, and my honor.>"

"<The people will lose more than honor if he is allowed to continue on,>" the old woman says. "<You do know he plans on conquering far more than just one kingdom, don't you?>"

"<But what chance does anyone have of stopping him?>" the hero counters. "<He has a massive army that tore through mine so easily. And now that I have been dishonored->"

"<Honor is not lost so easily, boy!>" the old woman says. "<But if you do not get up again and fight him, then you will have no need for honor at all.>"

"They've sure said a lot about honor in just the last minute or so," Raven says.

The old woman irritates the hero, despite her being right. He mopes, leaving her with little else to do but make him food. The hero doesn't seem too pleased with the taste of the soup, but it's all there is and he is hungry, so he finishes the bowl.

The hero still needs to heal, so he stays with the old woman. However, he does help her in return by shooing away the birds and animals that would eat the vegetables in her garden.

The attendant returns, and you can guess she's going to ask about lunch.

"Kotpoulo, brizla, psri?" she asks.

"Chicken, steak or fish," you translate for Raven.

You just had venison steak last night so you go with...

A) Chicken
B) Fish
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B.
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A
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A
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A

"Kotpoulo," you say.

"Kotpoulo," Raven also says.

The attendant nods and heads back to the kitchen.

"We ended up having the same thing after all," you smirk at her.

"Well, I figured we already had steak last night," Raven says, "and I wasn't in the mood for fish."

"We're becoming rather alike, aren't we?" you say with a big smile.

"Is that really a good thing?" Raven smirks back.

The two of you chuckle while the hero of the movie slowly regains strength.

The hero starts doing more work, such as digging new rows for crops, bringing water from the river and chopping wood for the fire. But when the old lady gets sick, the hero has to go to the village to get medicin. That is when he hears about the silver-and-black samurai making his move on more of the country. The hero isn't bothered by that, but then there are stories of what the silver-and-black samurai is doing to villages as he makes his way through, and it starts to anger the hero.

"I'm sure he's going to recruit an eccentric but highly skilled group of allies," you say. "Most hero teams are like that."

"They are, aren't they?" Raven says. "Just look at the Titans."

"Very true," you say.

The attendant returns with two platters, and you trade those for the plates from the breakfast bagels.

"Perisstero?" she asks as she points at the glasses of orange soda.

"Nai, efcharist," you say.

You hand the glasses over and she takes those to the kitchen.

The chicken meal is chicken breast with a little bit of rice. The chicken seems to have been oven roasted and seasoned with garlic. You peel the chicken apart with the little knife and fork that came with the plate and take a taste.

"A little dry," you say. "I didn't think they took that long to make, so perhaps they didn't properly defrost it."

You try some chicken with the rice.

"The rice is better," you say. "A little mushy still."

"You ever thought about doing something in the food industry?" Raven asks. "You're a really good chef, and you're also a decent critic."

"Perhaps I could do something," you say.

A) Chef
B) Critic
C) Little of both
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C
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C
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C.
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C

"Maybe a little of both. Cook some, critique some. Maybe more cook than critique, though. Gordon Ramsey takes care of the judging for the entire United Kingdom."

Raven giggles while you take another bite of chicken.

"What would you want to call your cooking business?" Raven asks. "Or restaurant, if you think about opening one."

"I'm not really sure," you say. "I haven't really thought about any of this. I don't think I'd want to bring my family name into it. Mostly because there aren't any easy puns and correlations between food and the word 'Null.'"

"Yeah, none come to mind," Raven says. "Maybe something that references you personally?"

"Well, not to be down on myself and my ancestors, but I don't think 'Rorek's' makes for an appealing name, either."

"I wasn't going to suggest naming it for you like that," Raven chuckles. "I meant more like, how you have your snow white hair, icy blue eyes, things like that."

"Oh, yes, that makes a lot more sense."

You think about motifs relating to things like white and blue and things like that.

A) The Blue Crown
B) The White River
C) The Magic Melting Pot
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Cartridge88 posted...

C) The Magic Melting Pot

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Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

C) The Magic Melting Pot

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Alakazamtrainer posted...

Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

C) The Magic Melting Pot

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C

"How about 'The Magic Melting Pot'?"

"Oh, I like the sound of that," Raven says. "Didn't even think about magic."

"And 'melting pot' works, because I love all styles of cooking," you say. "If we open up in America, it'd be even better. It would represent the best parts of American culture, where it is also international."

"That sounds really great, actually," she says. "I bet you could make it happen."

"Oh, I don't know," you say. "Again, I haven't thought about this before, I don't know if I'd actually do this."

"Aw c'mon," Raven says. "You could totally pull this off. Your family's money, your skills, and your good looks. You could totally make something of this 'Magic Melting Pot.'"

A) Take a serious look into it
B) Don't worry about it right now
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B
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Alakazamtrainer posted...

B

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Malcrasternus posted...

Alakazamtrainer posted...

B

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B

"Well, let's not worry about this just yet," you say. "A business like a restaurant is a lot to consider, and we're still having fun on our road trip."

"Alright," Raven says. "But I'll keep it in mind."

"Well alright," you say.

The attendant returns and has your refilled orange soda. You thank her and sip.

"Oh, we totally lost track of the movie," you chuckle as you look back at the screen.

The hero has rounded up some of those eccentric allies, such as a tall warrior with a staff, a shorter warrior with rather ridiculously big gauntlets, what can only be a ninja with a spooky mask, and a bulky monk with hefty prayer beads.

"We definitely missed some important events," you say. "I wonder if the masked ninja is secretly a woman. We didn't get a young woman with the person who saved the hero, so maybe the ninja is."

"We could rewind," Raven says, looking up at the buttons. "If we're looking at this upside-down, then it should be the button on the right."

A) Rewind
B) Don't rewind
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B
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Cartridge88 posted...

A) Rewind

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A
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A

"Let's go ahead and rewind," you say. "Just try not to pay too close attention to anything, we'll end up with retroactive spoilers."

"Right," Raven chuckles as she presses the button.

The movie rewinds, and now the hero and his new allies walk out of the room backwards, and then it creates the effect of him leaving one of them behind as he keeps going back the way he came.

"Does this not go faster?" you ask.

"Let me try pressing it again," Raven says.

She presses but the rewind doesn't speed up.

"Oh well," you say.

You see the hero had to fight the members of his team to convince them to be part of his team. Obviously that means he won each fight to this point. This rewind almost seems pointless other than to watch these fights going forward.

"While we wait," you say, "what were you thinking for dinner tonight?"

"I dunno," she chuckles and shrugs. "It's still a long time before we're off this plane, we might even end up having to have dinner onboard."

"Good point," you say.

A) Wait until you land
B) Have dinner on the plane
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B
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Cartridge88 posted...

A) Wait until you land

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Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

A) Wait until you land

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A

"Well we can wait until we land. Just have a later dinner than usual."

"Alright," Raven says. "I just hope we can wait that long."

The movie finally reaches where you lost track of it, and Raven presses the play button. Now you get to watch the fight scenes going forward, but you also learn the characters' names.

"The hero's name is Yuusha?" you say. "That's rather lazy. 'Yuusha' translates to 'the hero.'"

"That does seem a bit lazy," Raven says.

Yuusha faces the tall warrior with a staff first, and this warrior is Segatakai.

"So his name translates to, 'Tall,'" you say.

The shorter warrior with the big gauntlets is made fun of as "Chisai" for "small," but his actual name is Panchi, as in "punch." And the mysterious a ninja with the spooky mask, whose voice even suggests it is a woman pretending to be a man, is "Sakkakumaru." The suffix of "-maru" is to suggest masculine, but "Sakkaku" is "Illusion."

"Yeah this is so obviously a young woman," Raven says. "They'll probably reveal her at a dramatic moment."

"These names haven't been very creative, though," you say. "It seems like the writer wasn't trying very hard, they just wanted to get the story figured out."

Lastly is the bulky monk with hefty prayer beads. Kaminari Kumomaru, in Eastern style introduction, so that it translates to "Thunder Cloud," is a much more creative name, and gives Yuusha perhaps the toughest fight.

"That was really good, actually," you say.

"I suppose," Raven shrugs.

The movie returns to where you had it, and the team of five walks into that room again. That room is a tavern, and it looks like there are many of the silver-and-black samurai's followers having a raucous time with food, drinks and women, some not as willing to sit next to these men as others. But as they see the red and gold armor, they all stop to look at the group.

"M-Masaka... <No way...>" one of them says. "<He died... Didn't he?>"

"<I'm no ghost,>" Yuusha says. "<But, I'll gladly haunt you.>"

"<Then we'll prove you can kill a ghost!>" one of the men in the back shouts.

A massive fight breaks out! Of course Yuusha's team handles these grunts with ease, but Yuusha himself is after the one in the back. He seems to recognize them as one of the silver-and-black general's lieutenants.

"Do you think he takes the lieutenant alive?" Raven asks.

A) Yes
B) No
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B
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A)
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B.
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B

"No," you say. "And it's not that he won't try, he just might not have a chance."

The battle rages on inside the little ryoukan tavern, and many of the silver-and-black soldiers are thrown out into the street. Each of Yuusha's allies show their stuff, Kumomaru using his hefty beads as a whip while Segatakai easily holds grunts off with long legs and jabs of his staff. Panchi obviously punches, sending one soldier into another so hard, they both fly into a table and break it. Sakkakumaru is in the rafters, throwing darts to tranquilize soldiers and make them easier for the others to knock out of the way.

Yuusha charges at the silver-and-black lieutenant as he stays in the back. But as the grunts go down left and right, the lieutenant has no choice but to fight for himself. The lieutenant holds his sword at the ready, but then kicks a chair at Yuusha. Yuusha slices that easily, but the lieutenant rushes Yuusha directly now! Yuusha gets his sword up in time to guard, and some sparks fly off the blades.

With the grunts cleared out, it is only Yuusha's allies that stand by in the tavern. Yuusha pushes the lieutenant away and the two readjusts. The two stand off, so the others take a seat at a table.

"Sumimasen? <Excuse me?>" Segatakai asks. "Sbisu shite kudasai? <Service please?>"

"H-Hai...! <Y-yes...!>" a waitress says as she hurries over nervously.

Yuusha's allies order lunch while Yuusha continues his stand-off with the lieutentant, and you find this rather amusing.

"Yuusha-dono," Kumomaru asks, "<what would you like to eat?>"

"Etto... <Well...>"

The lieutenant strikes in the distraction! But Yuusha dodges and spins to get behind the lieutentant. Yuusha thrusts but the lieutentant deflects then kicks Yuusha away. Yuusha bumps into the counter, spooking the manager hiding behind it. The lieutenant slashes downward but Yuusha moves. The sword cuts through the counter, narrowly missing the manager! Finally too scared to even stay put, the manager runs out the back door.

The lieutenant struggles to pull his sword out but Yuusha stands at the ready. The waitress still gets the food and drinks for Yuusha's allies, but she gives the dueling samurai a wide berth.

Yuusha and the lieutenant circle again once the lieutenant's sword is freed from the wood counter. They approach as the tension mounts. The waitress returns with drinks, and Yuusha's allies take a sip as they watch. Except for Sakkakumaru, because "he" doesn't want the mask to come up.

"Ganbatte!" Panchi says with a big grin to Yuusha.

"Arigat," Yuusha smirks back.

The lieutenant grumbles and roars as he rushes back in. Yuusha easily deflects these angry strikes, and then disarms the lieutenant by pinning the sword down with a foot. The lieutenant tries to free his sword, but Yuusha bops him with the butt of his own.

The lieutentant staggers back and Yuusha kicks him down. Yuusha stands over him, sword aimed to thrust down.

"<Where is your leader headed to next?!>" Yuusha shouts at him.

"<NEVER!>" the lieutenant shouts.

He pulls out a short sword, much like the silver-and-black general did at the start of the film! He swipes at Yuusha, who gets back before his legs get cut. But instead of continuing an attack, the lieutenant turns the blade inward and stabs himself through the stomach!

"See what I mean?" you say to Raven.

"Are you hungry?" Raven asks. "I'm not dinner hungry but I wouldn't mind a snack."

A) Sure
B) Not yet
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B
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B.
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B
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B

"That seems out of nowhere," you say to her. "But no, I'm fine, you go ahead."

She presses a button and a few moments later, the attendant returns.

"Ti snahk chete? <What snacks do you have?>" you ask.

"choume krotdes, biskta, patatkia, kai koulourkia."

"Crackers, cookies, chips and pretzels," you translate for Raven.

"Cookies sound nice," Raven says. "But what kind?"

"Ti edous biskta?" you ask the attendant.

"Vanlia, tsip sokoltas kai fystikovotyro."

"Vanilla, chocolate chip, and peanut butter."

"Ooh, peanut butter sounds nice," she says.

"Fystikovotyro, sas parakalome."

The attendant nods and heads to the kitchen while Yuusha and his team talk about what to do now that the lieutenant has killed himself. Considering the other soldiers ran off, it is clear they'll all warn the general of Yuusha's return. It is therefore decided that Yuusha and his team will need to hurry out of this town and to the next one before the general comes looking.

The attendant returns with a sleeve of cookies for Raven. You thank the attendant for Raven as she opens the packaging and pulls out the light brown, plain looking cookies.

"Chreizeste tpota, krie? <Do you need anything, sir?>" the attendant asks.

A) Yes, more to drink
B) No
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Cartridge88 posted...

A) Yes, more to drink

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Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

A) Yes, more to drink

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scubasteve42 posted...

Malcrasternus posted...

Cartridge88 posted...

A) Yes, more to drink

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