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SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 18 - Mock Trial
🕑 Added 2023-10-25 15:47:34 +0000 UTCAuthor's note:
Exceptionally, this week, I'm an HC:P chapter on Wednesday instead of Thursday.
The reason for this is that the first volume of Hidden Class: Pacifist and Planet Ignis are available for free on Amazon!
This is the perfect opportunity to get a free copy or to share these stories with your friends.
I wish you a great week. Thank you for all your support.
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Spring of 346, A.D.
With the current population of the sector, everyone had a turn as a firekeeper every other week. It was Alex’s turn again. Kai didn’t know why, but his friend seemed to be going out of his way to come up with awkward classes.
Last time, he had gotten into a very heated debate with Trudy about whether it was right for everyone to be a firekeeper. He defended that only the brightest should teach, whereas Trudy defended that there was no such a thing as ‘the brightest.’ It had been hard to look at, really. He was dreading the theme of the class that Alex was going to teach today.
“Today, we’ll have a practical lesson.”
Kai sighed in relief. Enough with the controversial descartian debates. Finally, his friend had come to his senses.
“We’ll host a trial. Half of you will represent the defendant, and the other half will be the prosecution.”
Kai didn’t like where this was going.
“The defendant will be Phineas Cotton.” Whispers of discontent started to go about the others. Even Ariel was frowning.
“What are the charges?” Asked Clara.
“Whether he was a traitor for creating Daisy or not.”
“And how does this help us in the exams?” asked Ariel. Kai was surprised to see Ariel, who was usually so shy, ask such a confrontational question.
“I haven’t had the honor of being summoned to an exam yet. However, from the trial runner journals I’ve been reading, more than once, trial runners faced questions about the purpose of the exams and how humanity got to this point.”
Everyone nodded. Kai could think, off the top of his head, of the trial runner for the 7th, 60th, 172nd, and 224th exams having a whole philosophical dissertation in the middle of their journal on the matter.
“I figured that it would be good to think about this now so that we don’t have to waste valuable time or energy wondering about it in the exams. Now, I’ll announce who is going to play which side. Ariel, Trudy, Sunny, and Kai, I want you four to be the prosecution.”
Kai gulped. Why was Alex choosing the people who advocated the most for the Turnover? Was his friend really helping them prepare for the exams? Or was he trying to do something else?
*
353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 128.
Arabian Oryx (Rare)
A creature known as the desert’s unicorn.
Tries left: 13 of 20
2 of 2
Hp: 5
Vp: 2
This time, Kai wasn’t taking any chances. He took the two pictures back to back without leaving space for his opponent. Kai looked at his score on the board and smirked. Now that he knew it was considered a rare card, he almost wanted his opponent to hurry and find the animal. That way, they would try to capture it only to waste their remaining precious shots. That would give them a taste of their own medicine.
Kai tried to shake the petty thoughts away as soon as they formed. There was no point in despising his fellow trial runner like that. They were a person with feelings just like his. They might have families and friends waiting for them back in their sector. Worse, they might be just like him, the remnant of a dying culture.
Kai forced his thoughts down a more benign road. It wasn’t just because compassion was one of the traits that Daisy often examined in trial runners, but because Kai genuinely believed there was nothing to gain from belittling his rival.
Kai couldn’t help but reach out toward the Oryx to pet it, but his hand went right through it. Of course. Kai was in a separate dimension from it. The creature, oblivious to Kai’s presence, finished grazing on this bush and headed toward the next patch of grass. It seems that Daisy had placed this creature in this arena to roam, from bush to bush, until one of the trial runners had the good luck of finding it.
As Kai compared this to the mining wagon in the quarry arena, he made a mental note that every map had at least one movable element. If that was the case, was it just up to chance to run into it? Or could he increase his chances of finding it by implementing a strategy or purchasing an upgrade? Had he missed a movable element in the very first arena? Perhaps he could gain some answers to his questions if he followed the oryx.
As Kai walked side by side with the oryx, he again purposefully tried to see the animal from the same angle as he had approached it, and one horn disappeared behind the other closest to him. The description on the card couldn’t ring more true. No wonder some people called it the desert unicorn. From afar, that’s precisely what it looked like.
As the oryx left its hoofprints on the arid desert, it eventually reached the next piece of shrubbery. It started munching through the woody grass, pulling the leaves from the dry stalks. Were there any more advantages in following after the animal as it went from shrub to shrub? Nothing more interesting was happening. What else could it do? Poop?
Nonetheless, just in case he was missing something, Kai kept trudging along. His opponent’s score had stopped climbing, causing a smile to spring on Kai’s lips. He told himself that it wasn’t a smile of happiness for his competitor’s misfortune but a smile of relief at the thought that they had very few shots left on his camera.
As Kai watched the oryx munch on some more grass, he again admired its horns. They had such a simple design but looked so elegant. What a beautiful piece of art. As he regarded the elegant bony towers, Kai’s thoughts returned to the acacia tree he’d seen earlier and the woodland pine trees. He looked at the oryx again and rubbed his hands together.
Could it be that, just like he could capture individual parts of plants and make a card of its own, he could do the same with the Oryx? Why not? An animal was structurally more complex than a tree. He walked right into the shrubs, unafraid of stepping on them or getting hurt. Daisy guaranteed that he just phased through it. After he got a good angle, he fired the camera, waiting for the flash to engage.
Capture successful!
Oryx Horn (Rare)
A gently spiraling ivory tower with a sharp point.
Tries left: 12 of 20
1 of 2
Hp: 4
Vp: 3
Capture successful!
Oryx Horn (Rare)
A gently spiraling ivory tower with a sharp point.
Tries left: 11 of 20
2 of 2
Hp: 4
Vp: 3
Bingo! It worked! The Gestalt principle also applied to animals. He sighed in relief. It was a good thing that he hadn’t hurried and had taken his time following after the oryx. He studied the Oryx for a few more moments. Was there anything else here that was worth capturing? Perhaps the creatures’ eyes. Or maybe its hooves. He tapped his foot.
He decided against it. It was unlikely that Daisy would reward him for making his whole trial all about getting different components of an oryx’s anatomy. Variety was the key to doing well in the crafting stage of the arena. In variety, there was possibility.
He decided it was time to get going. As Kai prepared to leave, he moved past the oryx grazing in a valley between dunes. As he did so, his gaslamp cast a long shadow of the animal on a nearby dune.
Amused by it, Kai took a few steps back and got the lamp at the right angle so that there was now what looked like the shadow of a unicorn in the sand. As Kai saw the shadow, he chuckled as he remembered the nights around the bonfire, goofing around with Alex, and his mind returned to the card's description. He paused as the gears in his head turned furiously.
The description in the cards. The upgrade that he’d purchased. The [Shadow] card. His breath quickened. He had just had an idea. It was unlikely and possibly even stupid, but he still had several shots to try. He put the gaslamp on the floor at the right angle, casting the oryx’s shadow on the dune. He then looked for an option in the camera that allowed him to turn the flash off.
He was happy to find one. When he had bought the flash upgrade, the camera had just been put on auto as default, but he found a way to deactivate it. He readjusted the gaslamp on the floor a little, and as soon as the oryx set himself in the right position, Kai shot the camera at the shadow in the dune.
Capture successful!
Shadow Unicorn (Rare)
The shadow of the mythological one-horned horse of legend.
Tries left: 10 of 20
1 of 1
Hp: 1
Vp: 8
Kai screamed happily as he ran up and down the dune! His gut had been right. It had been a photo taken on a whim inspired by the card’s description. Was he glad that he had gone for it! He had captured a unicorn!
As he reread the description of the card, he was intrigued by the grade of the card. Rare cards only offered total stats, but [Shadow Unicorn] had, for some reason, nine total stats. Additionally, whereas there were usually pools of two in rare cards, this card was unique.
All of this told him this was a special card, just like [Fire]. That meant that this card obeyed a particular set of rules. He didn’t have a clue about what rules there were. But, whatever they were, the card was worth 8 points! That was an impressive number. The only card he had captured that rivaled this amount of points had been the [Mining Wagon], a legendary card. He had also crafted the [Infinity] cards last round, but those had been the result of fusing two rare [Mirror] cards.
Now satisfied with having squeezed the full potential of the rare oryx, he saw it leave but didn’t bother following it. This last photograph changed things. A whole new realm of possibility had been opened before Kai. He placed himself between the gaslamp and the dune, admiring his shadow.
He was starting to suspect why unlocking his own shadow had cost so many victory points. It turns out there was a very good reason for Daisy to keep players’ shadows hidden from them.
Kai cracked his knuckles and shook his hands, letting the muscles in his wrist and fingers relax. He went through several complex shapes that he and Alex had learned to do. He hadn’t played around much since his friend was gone, but it was time to see how rusty he’d become. As he moved his hands and arms in different shapes, overlapping shadows and forming increasingly complex forms, the sands of the desert received their very first shadow puppet.
Suddenly, in between the shadow puppet of a bear and a giraffe, thoughts of Alex ran through his mind like a flood, and he found a tear forming in the corner of his vision. He missed him. He tried thinking of Ariel instead. He had promised Alex that he would take care of Ariel, and he owed it to him to be entirely focused on the challenge.
After finishing his warm-up he froze as a realization struck him. He looked at both his hands and then at the gaslamp. Then he looked at the camera strapped around his neck. He slapped his forehead. How was he to take the photographs if he needed both hands to make the shadows? If he could only use one hand, then the number of shapes he could make was significantly reduced!
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid, Kai! Stupid!” He tried kicking up a dust of sand, but his foot just went through it. He calmed himself down. He would make do with what he had. There had to be some upgrade down the road that would leave both his hands free so that he could do this better. Meanwhile, he would stick to simpler shapes that he could do with just one hand.
First, he found his right hand’s shadow and stretched his hand. He closed his fingers, leaving his thumb up, and curled up his index finger. He slightly separated his index from the three to let a little hole of light in between and slightly tucked in his middle and ring finger, lowering his pinky. While trying to maintain his right hand’s shape locked in place, he clumsily held the camera with his left hand and pushed the button.
Capture successful!
Shadow Wolf (Uncommon)
The shadow of a formidable and highly adaptable carnivore.
Tries left: 9 of 20
1 of 1
Hp: 1
Vp: 2
Kai let out a shout twice as loud as last time! Yes! This was unprecedented in the exam for him so far. He had always been limited by what he could find in the arena, but this was his first time creating an object he could capture. He wasn’t at the mercy of Daisy’s whims. He could now make the very shapes that he captured. He had an extensive repertoire of shadow puppetry, and if he could find a way to keep both his hands free and find a dark enough place in every arena, he could keep making shadow animals and get a consistent score!
Certainly, there was no way his opponent had thought of this! This [Shadow Wolf] was just the beginning. The card was only uncommon and offered significantly fewer points than [Shadow Unicorn]. The fact that there was only one of them, though, also told him that this card was considered special. He shrugged. It was still worth something, and he was sure that shadow cards had potential.
He prepared the next shadow puppet. As he thought this, he paused. It sounded almost too good to be true. Dark thoughts started forming. He doubted that Daisy would make it this easy for him. Kai made the only two other shadow puppets that he could think of that could be made with only one hand. He overlapped his three middle fingers for the next shadow, trying to make a rough triangle shape with his hand. He held the position in place, and once he found the right angles for the shadow and his hand, he took a picture.
Capture successful!
Shadow Goose (Common)
The shadow of a waterfowl known for its sturdy body and distinctive honking call.
Tries left: 8 of 20
1 of 1
Hp: 0
Vp: 3
Finally, he stretched his pinky and ring finger up while trying to curl all other fingers into a ball. He was getting the hang of taking pictures while holding the camera only with his left hand.
