Final report : Actor Improvisation Incident July 31st, 17617 : The Duelist Grand Brawl Event Month 2 Finale

  (Open Video File)

  Screaming children filled the school’s courtyard and elevated corridors. A half-dozen screens floated in midair, colorful images bubbling as they were distorted by the sparse breeze. All eyes were on two boys, three stories up atop the roof of the school building. One in a blue suit with long coattails, frilled sleeves, a perfectly tied cravat. The other in a red sweatshirt over baggy jeans, a pair of goggles snapped over brown hair. Both boys were abnormally shaped, their eyes, faces, and limbs cartoonishly exaggerated in size. The peach sun hung between them, sky beyond the climate control bubble already fading into the gentle orange of an early sunset.

  The one in blue was hunched over, his fists clenched, his breathing heavy. The one in red was boisterous and smiling, but panting just the same. Silver Special Effect Sand? swirled around them in a molten ring of shifting color-changing particles. Unbeknownst to the screaming crowd, the two were stalling for time, waiting for the sluggish particles to coalesce around them. Nearly every time a show was staged atop the roof, it had been reported that additional Sand piping was needed. But the engineers had insisted that too much guttering on a building from the late 11th millennia would have been out of place, and would ruin the authenticity of the setting.

  The guests were starting to notice the pause. The hollering grew in pitch as the two main characters from their very favorite show stood still and gasped for breath.

  The boy in blue, Lucy, was the first to break eye contact. He glanced left and right at the collecting Sand, sizing it up. The boy in red, Ken, laughed as if that counted as a victory, and stretched out his arms.

  “Well Lucy?” Ken spoke, voice echoing in the speakers around the building, “You ready to end this?”

  “Today’s the day, Ken,” Lucy spat, “That I squash your little dueling club once and for all!”

  Lucy whipped his large hand around in an exaggerated motion, holding it open at his side. The Sand transformed into a gold line of coins that flowed around the golden orange gem set atop his wrist, and spun between his fingers. The rattling and clinking of the coins was pumped throughout the courtyard as they condensed. A thin golden halberd formed in Lucy’s outstretched hand.

  In response, Ken struck five intricate poses with his arms and hands, then shouted “Mercury!” He flung his hand in the air, displaying a blue and red gem set atop his wrist. Silver Sand flowed from the circle around him, flashing gold as it solidified into bands of armor engraved with little white wings.

  “Don’t underestimate me!” Lucy shouted. And, with a scream echoed by the crowd below them, the boy in blue charged towards the boy in red.

  Lucy began slashing and stabbing with the long reach of his halberd. Ken lept away, lithe and nearly floating. The Silver Special Effect Sand?, each grain a clump of nanomachines, gave small amounts of thrust, buoying his body. . Despite the multiple screens displaying the action from multiple angles, the crowd below strained to watch and record the minuscule figures atop the roof, thin phones clogging the air.

  With a twist of Lucy’s wrist and another telegraphed yell, the boy in blue lunged forward, a burst of coins streaming from his halberd. The shaped Sand rushed towards an inconveniently midair Ken, the rattling of coins growing louder and louder over the speakers. But with a few more esoteric poses and a call of “Mars!” Ken’s armor transformed. The Sand shifted into a steely red color, and quickly encased his body. Ken landed with a heavy thud, and took the brunt of the coins directly to the chest.

  With a whoop of joy, Lucy shot forward, speed elevated by Sand shaped like paper bills rolling around his feet. He twisted and spun around the now grounded Ken, landing blow after blow on the red boy’s armor.

  “You really never learn, Lucy,” Ken said with a laugh, and, to another excited roar from the crowd, he grabbed the halberd as it glanced off his armor, wrenching it from Lucy’s hands. The red boy tossed the halberd off the roof, towards the squealing crowd. It never hit the ground. The Sand dissolved into coins, then burst into silver fireworks. Children below eagerly slapped at the fading sparks, trying to catch them as they fell, but the nanobots scattered dutifully away, trickling into their designated canisters.

  “Curse you Ken!” Lucy shouted, whipping his arm around in exaggerated rage, “Of course I learn! My grades are way better than yours!”

  “I meant you don’t ever learn important stuff!” Ken said with a smile, curling his hand. “Like dueling!” He laughed as the crowd groaned.

  “Dueling is trivial!” Lucy barked, “I don’t know why I waste my time with your pathetic, silly school club.”

  Ken smirked, and shouted, “Well, you seem to be enjoying yourself.” He cocked his head slightly to the side. “Aren’t you?”

  “Oh yes it is quite a good exercise and —“ Lucy froze for a moment, then hunched over in anger. “I MEAN NO! Not at all! I hate you, your club, and—!“

  There was no need to finish the sentence, the joke already sending the children into groans and laughter. Lucy stomped and growled as screams for the fight to continue echoed off the walls.

  “One of these days, I’ll beat you Ken!” Lucy declared, “Then I’ll shut down your pathetic Dueling Club, and then finally, I’ll have peace in my school!”

  Ken’s smirk grew wider. “Don’t you mean your father’s schoo—“

  Lucy huffed, slapping his arms across his chest. “Oh come on, even I know that gags done to death. Give it a rest already!”

  A chant began to rise in the crowd. ‘Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!’

  Lucy huffed and stuck his tongue down at the crowd, to elated whooping. He stood to his full height.

  “You want me to learn something, huh...?” Lucy barked, “Well how about.... THIS!”

  Coins shot up around Ken, encasing him from the neck down. With a twist of Lucy’s wrist, the Sand hardened into a solid gold cast, perfectly outlining Kens armor.

  Ken rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and shouted “Saturn!” Cracks swiftly formed in the metal, and Ken burst out in a shower of coins, armor replaced by sharp steel rings. With his freedom, Ken jumped over Lucy’s head with another carefree laugh, and threw one of the rings Lucy’s way.

  It didn’t even come close to hitting; before Ken could land, Lucy had darted forward, his shoulder planted into the red boy’s chest, elbow jammed into Ken’s bare stomach. In a burst of force emphasized by flung Sand, Lucy lurched towards the edge of the roof, and threw Ken off the back, out of sight.

  The crowd gasped. Children frantically looked from Lucy to the various screens. But all feeds of Ken falling to the ground had switched away, and were instead focused on Lucy’s blank stare. Several children within the building scrambled towards the opposite windows, trying to see where in the back parking lot Ken had landed.

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  And yet, the pause carried on. Lucy stood there, stock still, arms loose at his side, staring down at the place Ken fell without motion or expression. A small group of kids in one of the walkways hesitantly began a new chant.

  But before the chant could get traction, Lucy finally acted. He spun dramatically around, smirk awkward and tilted. He walked to the front of the school building, struck a victorious pose, and shouted, confused, “I.... I have won!” He held his fist in the air. “The dueling club... is no more!!”

  He began to laugh uproariously as the crowd murmured and booed the villain, which Lucy comically huffed and snapped back, “What? No applause? I won!”

  “You may have won against Ken, Lucy...”

  A new voice rang out, a female voice. She was standing among the crowd in a raised walkway, a head or two taller than the group around her, an orange-haired girl in similar exaggerated proportions.

  “Camilla!” Lucy growled, “I should have—“

  “However!” She shouted, voice similarly magnified, “You only defeated one member of our club! And as far as I can tell, we’ve got HUNDREDS of members all here! And they’re all mad as heck!”

  The screens focused on her as she waved her arms to the children around her. The kids had mixed reactions. Some ducked away as the cameras focused on them, others posed or shot off sparks from their toy gauntlets.

  “Now...” she pointed angrily at Lucy, “Show him what I taught you kids!”

  There was an excited ripple in the crowd. One at a time, then in a torrent, Sand in a myriad of glittering effects shot up from the crowd, arcing up toward the roof and splattering all around Lucy. The screens dissolved and sprinkled down on the crowd as more and more special effects were demanded from the hyperactive children.

  “What? Wait!” Lucy yelped as a bolt of light shot past his ear. “Stop!” He swatted away a tiny fireball. “No fair! Duels are one on one!” He caught a green globby ball midair and tossed it aside. “I don’t have to stand for this! I have my dignity!” He made an ‘oof’ sound and gagged comically as an orange fist buried into his gut. The crowd screamed in an excited frenzy as Lucy rushed out of sight, no screens left to follow him.

  “Come in everybody!” Camilla shouted, “Let’s go get him!”

  The front doors burst open, and a number of cartoonishly proportioned hosts tried to usher hundreds of kids into an orderly stampede, directing them to different parts of the building, and shooing them away from all doors that led to the back parking lot.

  It was hastily acknowledged by those in charge that this new plan had to suffice, as their star Actor, Ken 01, was nothing more than twisted metal and shattered plastic, pale oil leaking into the slatted cracks of the parking lot’s concrete pavement.

  Event summary :

  The Grand Brawl was a summer story event held over the course of June, July, and August to promote the Galaxy-wide Duelist Championships at August’s end. Property 12 : Theme Park “Bout! Green Hills Modern Magic Academy” was a location where one could qualify for the Championship in the Under-13 or Under-18 Bracket, as well as duel with our Actors for entertainment.

  All battle choreography tends to be improvised to some extent. Hosts are sometimes provided lines or points they must hit, but through our 2 years of operation, it has been made clear that emergent choreography from the hosts is frequently more exciting for the audience.

  At the end of each month, there was a 7 pm show between the lead actors, Host ‘Ken 01’ v1.3 and Host ‘Lucy 01’ v 1.6. The June event went as planned.

  The July Event did not.

  In this incident, against direct orders, Host Ken lost to Host Lucy. Not only that, Host Ken 01 sustained terminal damage from its fall.

  Damage Report :

  Host carapace cracked throughout posterior, from skull, down back, down each arm and each leg. Visual, auditory, and speech centers rendered completely unusable. Core computer case shattered. Carapace melted throughout host’s abdomen where battery ruptured, and where oil tank caught fire. Light muscular damage sustained where fire crept along the wires.

  It was decided Ken 01 would be scrapped, and Ken 02 booted up. Minimal data was lost, and Ken 02 was quickly rolled out at the end of the event with no further incident.

  Minimal damage was sustained to school property, a few broken chairs, one cracked window, and a crack in the pavement in the parking lot.

  Final Cost : 6500c for backup body. Material of cleanup minimal, less than 200c worth of already on-hand materials.

  Cause of Actor Improvisation Incident : Improvisation Taken Too Far

  Testimony from Host ‘Lucy 01’ v 1.7

  I perform very few actions with the intent to truly damage Ken. My character both loves and despises Ken for his rebellious personality. I display this flux between care and hatred in appropriately strong or weak attacks, depending on the overall ‘flow’ of our performances. As Ken had just openly insulted me, and mocked my lack of creativity, I believed an unpredictable attack to be thematically necessary. As always, I trusted in Ken’s ability to respond accordingly.

  I watched him fall. He smiled all the way down, still very self-assured. He had many ways to prevent that fall himself, so I did not attempt to save him. I am not sure why he did not attempt to save himself. I still review his actions occasionally, coming up with alternative actions I could have taken.

  Testimony from Host ‘Ken 02’ v 1.4

  While I hold no particular memories of that moment, I believe I performed this act on purpose. I believe the quality of the overall performance was improved by my previous body’s actions. I had spent the last two months dueling with our guests. The guests seem to exhibit signs of increased excitement whenever I lose, far more than when I win. I had been actively testing what kinds of victories or losses they prefer, and was actively processing my results in my nightly reviews.

  Analyzing the footage of the event, I came to the same conclusion my previous body did. I believe losing there was the most exciting thing I could do that would not conflict with the safety of the guests. I am not certain why I did not catch myself and sneak away. Having been told that there was a cost associated with the loss of my previous body, I will put additional effort into prevent damage to myself, and to school property.

  Testimony from Host ‘Camilla 01’ v 1.2

  I was alerted as soon as Ken was broken, and prompted by the Principal Administrator to follow Lucy’s lead in improvising a new plan. While we have frequently improvised smaller scenes, I do not recall a time when things had gone so catastrophically wrong at a finale.

  I came up with the solution used to conclude the event, from my experiences guiding numerous tour groups. The guests enjoy learning how to use Sand for themselves to augment the rules of the card game. They also enjoyed employing the Sand in non-game related situations. And they loved the opportunity to interact with popular Hosts. The solution was clear, my suggestion was accepted, and the specific plan was quickly organized by The Principal.

  I understand that this impromptu event was not as well organized or orderly as the school prefers, However, from my observations amidst the crowd, the vast majority of Guests enjoyed themselves.

  Public Reaction to Actor Improvisation Incident : Very Positive

  Verified guests at time of event expressed surprise and excitement, leaving a general rating of 4.9 stars on exit polls. At of time of writing, edited video of event is the most viewed video on Bout! Green Hills Modern Magic Academy, The Theme Park’s public channel, and fifteenth most viewed video in the entire Bout! Franchise. Alternative Perspective, Reaction, and various Analyses videos have all been posted in response to this event. Comments and Offsite Threads are generally positive, with top rated comments excited about this from a story perspective and an emergent live combat perspective.

  Conclusion

  As a result of this extreme deviation, the administrators of Property 12 have gained numerous insights into the guests, and our robotic Hosts.

  In our latest hotfix we have adjusted the weight of the first need, increasing the threshold where Hosts will damage self for the consideration of other needs. The hosts also seem to have collected enough experiences to act more quickly in improvisational situations, so we are expanding the number of situations where Hosts can act alone without the additional lag of contacting the Principal Administrator.

  It becomes clear that out of concern for our guests’ age and safety, we have not allowed for enough freedom or interaction. From here, we should continue to expand our repertoire slowly to include more interactive events. To accommodate for this, we may need to expand our Hosting staff, or potentially our cheaper security staff, to better ensure safety and control of guests when things get out of hand.

  And finally, for the last month of The Grand Brawl event, the rivalry and ‘tied status’ of our Host’s battles should be played up in our advertising campaign. We will encourage improvisational dueling, as always, but we are working on a script that allows for the guests to be the true victors once more, no matter if Lucy or Ken is victorious.

  As always, we are always seeking to improve this experience. Events such as these will continue to be refined as long as park remains operational.