Chao...IN SPACE!
An All-Chao RP
This is a Chao RP. Yes, those adorable little A-Lifes that you could raise on several games in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Well, that blue hedgehog gets a lot of the spotlight, so it's time that the Chao went on an adventure of their own!
You can be any kind of Chao you want (except for Omochao - not only because it'll save you getting beaten violently by other players, but it's also being reserved for an NPC!), though variety is encouraged. If you need ideas for what a Chao can look like, http://chao.hippotank.com/gallery/ is a good place to look, using the sidebars. You can also come up with your own Chao design if you want - looking up "Chao" on DeviantArt is a good way to see some ideas, though you are pre-warned that there may be some "d'awww" moments in your future.
The bustling rural town of Chaoville, set in the hilly countryside of the Sun Sun Plains, was filled with the ringing from the one-room schoolhouse's massive bell. Chao children poured out the front door, and they celebrated with gusto, many of them rolling on the fresh green grass or hopping about the lawn.
"SUMMER IS HERE! HOORAY!" shouted the rainbow-colored crowd of Chao children. A number of them had large hearts over their heads, although one Chao child tripped and their Chao dot turned into a spiral, but only briefly.
Professor Chao preened his mustache as he waved goodbye to the children. "I'll see you at school next fall, children!" he announced, and he adjusted his ridiculous black-rimmed glasses that didn't really have lenses because they were only on his face to make him look more dignified. As was his mustache, since Chao don't really have hair to speak of. Or a need for clothes, although he still wore a Chao-sized gray business suit with a diagonally-striped tie. But just like the children, he was just as eager to have a long vacation as they were, so he locked up the school and carried his briefcase away, waving to the children as he passed by.
"So what are you gonna do this summer?" one Chao asked another as they walked with their lunchboxes back toward their homes in Chaoville. "I think I'm gonna get into the Junior Races this year!"
"Hah, fits someone like you who's always one step ahead! But I'm gonna work on my training, and be the strongest Chao ever!"
That was when a yellow Chao with blue highlights nearly raced past, but overheard their conversation and decided to butt in. "Those sound like great goals," he said, even as a cocksure half-grin started to emerge on his face, "but I think I'll go one better!"
"Huh? What are you gonna do then, Chaz? You gonna practice flying? Maybe swim around Lake Splash?"
Chaz pointed up at the sky dramatically with one nubby hand. "I...am going to reach for the heavens, and be the first Chao in space!!"
The other two Chao looked at him oddly, their Chao orbs that floated over their heads changing into question marks. "But, no Chao can fly that high," one of them remarked.
The other one chortled meanly. "Yeah right, Chaz - just how do you think you're going to accomplish that?"
Undeterred, Chaz pulled a piece of paper out of his tiny backpack and unfolded it for them. There were a number of doodles and scribbles on it. "These are my plans for a rocket that will take me higher than any Chao has gone before!" he declared.
The two Chao squinted at it. "Uhh, it looks more like you drew a bunch of coconuts," said one of the Chao, trying to be as kind as possible.
"Yeah, like you drew what you had for lunch!" sneered his companion. "Well, good luck with that Chaz, see you at the end of the summer!"
The two Chao darted off, and Chaz folded the piece of paper back up and put it back into his backpack. "Just wait until they see me flying up past the clouds!" he bragged as he smiled to himself, and he dashed off as well toward his house. Chaz the Chao had a plan, and he was going to do it no matter what it took.
He went home and immediately went to his bedroom, where he shook the bag out to dump all of the school materials he had out. Chaz wasted no time in refilling it with everything that he felt he would need for his trip - a few tree fruit he had been saving up from dinner for the last week, his plans for his rocket, and a few small tools he had taken from his dad's toolbox - a wrench, a hammer, and a plunger, all Chao-sized of course. As a last thought, he stuffed an old blanket in there as well, then zipped the bag up and flipped it over his shoulders.
"See you later, Mom, Dad!" he shouted over his shoulder as he ran out the door, and soon enough he was padding his way along the dusty, well-worn path through Chaoville towards the west.
Now to help you understand, Chaoville is centered in the Sun Sun Plains. To the west and north of Chaoville is Shrub Woods, a place where many Chao gatherers go for the daily crop of tree fruit and coconuts that Chao subsist on. But they are careful not to go too far in, for it was easy for a Chao to get lost in the woods. On the other side of Shrub Woods, a few days' travel, is Junk Mountain, an entire hillside composed of thrown-away rubbish and mechanical parts that has been there so long that it is considered a landmark. Many caves exist both in Shrub Woods and in Junk Mountain, however, and there are tales of bad Chao that use these caves for hideouts for wicked banditry...or even worse things that inhabit the caves.
But Chaz did not dwell on these things as he went happily on his way into the trees. He stopped to munch on one of the tree fruit he had brought with him. "Boy, this will be a long trip," he said to himself after gobbling down the last bite. "I'd better keep stocked up while I can!"
He approached a nearby tree that was laden with fruit, and placed his nubby hands against its palm-like bark, and rocked it back and forth. "Nngh, come onnn!" he grunted, sure that his efforts would be rewarded.
Then, when he thought he couldn't push any more, there was a plop as the fruit dropped to the ground. "Oh boy!" he exclaimed as he turned back around. "Now I can-"
But he interrupted himself with his blue dot turning into an exclamation mark as he saw a Dark Chao pick up the freshly-dropped fruit. Unlike Chaz, this Chao was in its adult stage, and it greedily chomped onto the fruit with a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Hey, thanks kid," snorted the Chao as he snarfed the rest of the fruit down and wiped the juice from his face. "I was getting a little hungry there. Now shake that tree for another one."
"Wh-what?! But I was getting that for myself!" squawked Chaz. "You can get your own fruit, I've got to hurry if I'm going to make it to Junk Mountain!"
The Dark Chao was bigger than Chaz, and sniggered. His skin was mostly black, although he had red highlights in the streaked spikes that jutted backward from his head. "Do you even know who I am, kid?" he said. "I'm Einz. I'm not a very nice Chao. And you'll do what I tell you to do, if you know what's good for you."
Chaz didn't know what to do. Einz took a menacing step toward him, his fists clutching a wooden club as though ready to pound this child Chao into the ground. Without thinking, he kicked up some dirt into the Dark Chao's face and started running headlong into the nearby woods, deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Come back here!" growled Einz as he flapped his red bat wings and chased after Chaz. "When I get my hands on you, you'll wish you were never hatched!"
Chaz panted as he struggled to run as far as his little legs could take him. "HEEELP!" he cried out.
Hearing all this noise, another Dark Chao that had been sitting under a tree with a pair of headphones on awoke from his nap. He reached up and picked at one of his purple and green spine-like protrusions atop his head, almost as if it was uncomfortable. The small flame above his head turned into a spiral as the diminutive yellow Chao passed by. He stretched, placing a foot out as he did, just as Einz came running by. The nearly black chao tripped hard, falling on his face before the other dark chao. Einz stared up at the lazy chao, glaring. "What's the big idea!?"
The other chao walked forward and grabbed the black chao by the neck. His eyes were narrow, white on a bluish background. "You tripped on my foot." grumbled the dark chao. A silence fell between the two, Chaz looking on from behind a tree.
Finally the black and red chao spoke up, "So?"
"That was my favorite foot you ingrate!" bellowed the enraged purple and green chao, "Do you know how much these cost!?"
"Nothing?" answered the first dark chao.
"Exactly..." stated the second dark chao with a content smile on his face. Then, without warning, he slammed his head into that of the other chao, his headphones flying in the yellow chao's direction.
(OOC: Ahahah! Like all the posters around in SA! XD I GOTTA join this! But I'll have to go into SA again and figure out which Chao to put in this first...)
Chaz stopped and stared at the scene as the two Dark-type Chao started to fight. That headbutt also dropped Einz's club, leaving them both weaponless as they proceeded to be as violent as Chao can possibly be without weapons.
...which is hard to describe since some onlookers might be confused about what they were actually doing and think it was cute and/or something to keep children from watching. Though in the latter case, those people would have to be utterly illiterate on Chao mating rituals. However, since this is an all-Chao RP, we don't have any onlookers who don't understand what is going on, like silly humans.
"Just who do you think you're dealing with, smalltime?!" growled Einz as he and the other Dark Chao rolled around on the ground, beating at each other with their nubby fists. "I'm Einz, and I'm the most dangerous Chao this side of Bald Eagle Badlands!"
"Must not be many other candidates then," replied the other as they rolled and rolled through the grass, and then they bumped into a nearby fruit tree, which promptly buried them in ripe yellow tree fruit.
Chaz, meanwhile, picked up the headphones and looked at them curiously. He brought them up to his own head to see what he could hear. Chaz is a little easy to distract, you see.
The purple chao jumped out of the pile of fruit, holding a handful of the yellow fruits. "Yay! These are my favorites!" yelled the dark chao as he ran to the tree he had been sitting at and bit into on of the fruits. His face grimaced and the flame atop his head turned into a spiral as he spit out the fruit. "Ew, yellow! Why am I eating something yellow!?" Einz climbed out of the pile, just in time to have the bitten fruit smash on his face. The purple chao simply laughed and clapped, shouting, "You have a fruity face!"
Einz rushed at the giggling chao, trying to slam him into a wall. The other chao simply fell back and rolled to the side in a fit of laughter, causing the black chao to ram his head into the tree, smothering the two in a pile of red fruit.
The nearby commotion caught the attention of yet another Dark Chao. This Dark Chao wasn't quite like the others; while relatively normal, the familiar violet and red markings were instead blue and white. She wore a purple cloth tied to her right arm and a simple brown belt across her torso.
Soul the Chao, she was called, had stopped in the forest to gather some fruit for her family and was on her way back when she heard a loud crashing noise against one of the trees. Dropping the basket she carried, she at once carefully maneuvered her way through the bushes and rushed to the scene, just in time catch a glimpse of two combating Dark Chao as they were buried in a pile of red fruit and a very... odd yellow chao who didn't seem aware of what was going on right beside him.
"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing? You realize there's a fight going on right in front of your face, don't you?"
Little did Soul know that would prove to be a mistake. Then again, no one quite yet knew how odd Soul was as far as Dark Chao standards went.
Chaz was distracted by the headphones. "Gee, do they have music in space?" he wondered aloud.
Then he gasped, his eyes going wide as he saw Soul. "Space!" he shouted. "I've got to build my rocket! 'Scuze me, gotta keep going to Junk Mountain!"
The little Chao dashed along past the pile of red fruit. "I'm just going to borrow these for a while! I'll bring them back, I promise!"
"Grr, get back here you little stinkpot!" growled Einz as he burst out of the pile of fruit. And then he squished one of the red fruit under his feet, and slipped on the messy, juicy, pulpy mess. "Arrrgh, fine!" He climbed to his feet and pointed at the other Dark Chao he had tussled with. "You ain't heard the last of Einz, just you wait and see!" Without stopping, he pointed at Soul. "Hey, you! This isn't a public event, move along! Bunch of worthless...hmph!"
And Einz stomped off in a different direction, although he was already scheming up a plan to get revenge on all the Chao that had crossed him. Yes, he was already getting a very devious plan...Junk Mountain, that little Chao said? Perfect.
The dark chao jumped out of the pile of red fruit and looked around. He noticed Soul standing in the area that his headphones had been flung. He waved and quickly rushed over, a large toothy grin on his face. "Where are my headphones?" he asked, flashing a rainbow of colors for a split second. He looked about frantically, returning his gaze to the other dark chao suddenly. "Khatt needs music to be happy!"
Soul simply looked at him a bit confused. "Uh..." muttered the chao, pointing in the direction of Junk Mountain. Khatt glanced in that direction before running off as fast as his stubby little legs would take him. Be before he got very far, he tripped on one of the red fruits that had fallen from the trees and landed on his face, the tiny flame atop his head turning into a spiral.
Soul crossed her short arms, huffed, and cocked her head to the side briefly, the spike ball over her own head forming a spiral as well. "Tch, not my day."
Looking between the direction she'd come from, the way the other two chao went, and where the bigger dark chao ran off to. After a moment, she, too, started in the direction of Junk Mountain. She didn't really get the things that yellow one spoke of, but she was sure that this wouldn't be the only time any of them would come across trouble. Dinner, unfortunately, would have to wait.
That was part of what made Soul tick. Whether it was a bad thing or a good thing would be up to most other chao to judge. Not that the two-tone dark chao cared about what others thought.
OOC: Poor Chaz. I wasn't intending to make him this accident-prone when I first made him.
IC:
Chaz ran for a while until he reached the edge of a steep stream bank. The stream itself wasn't too deep, even for a Chao, but both banks were high and covered with smooth rocks. And easily-distracted Chaz couldn't help put pick up a pebble and toss it into the running water.
"Darn...I've seen others skip rocks before, but how did they do it?" he wondered aloud as he picked up another rock and gave it a hurl. He cheered as his throw managed to make the rock skip once. "Hey, I did it! But, how do I get across the bank here?"
He flapped his tiny Chao wings, but didn't manage to make it far off the ground before he fell back down. "Nope, can't fly across...and even if I swim across, I've got to climb the other side...oh, how'll I get over this?"
"HEY, YOU!"
He jumped in surprise, and whirled around in time to see that Dark Chao coming at him - not the one that had tried to bully him, but the other one who had dropped the headphones. "Those are mine! Give them back to me!" said the Chao as he charged.
"What? I can't hear you that well, could you speak up?" said Chaz, honestly not able to hear as well with the headphones over his...well, Chao don't have ears, but we'll pretend their auditory organs are about in the same approximate location on their heads as with humans, for simplicity's sake.
"Gimme! Khatt needs his music!"
The Chao tackled Chaz, and they both bumped and crashed down the rocky bank. They splashed into the water, which started to carry them downstream in the gentle but swift water.
"Ack, help!" spluttered Chaz.
Khatt began to splash in the water, gleefully. That is until he remembered that he didn't have his headphones. Swimming next to the struggling yellow chao, the purple chao snatched his headphones away from Chaz and put them atop his head. In response to their return, he began to diddy-bop in the water, regardless of the fact that the headphones were not attached to any music player.
The two were swept down the stream until they both slammed into a twig dam that had been built at the end of the river.
Soul bounded through the trees, although she wasn't as fast as she would have liked to be. Before long, she had slowed to a stop near the stream, looking about her surroundings.
"Where did those two go?" she wondered aloud. "They don't seem to be around here..." Looking at the river, she shuddered. "The current's strong today, it seems... I hope they didn't end up--"
"Ack, help!" The cry was a bit hard to hear, but the two-tone dark chao definitely picked it up.
The spike ball over her head morphed into a spiral for the second time that day. "... falling in...."
IC:
By the river, sat a young white chao...not quite an adult, but showing signs of getting there, the lavendar head-feathers of a fly-type hero chao just starting to grow. She had dragon wings and feet, and little green antennae sprouting from her head. Her name was Dove, and she was buisily noming a squarefruit.
"Ack help!" Came a call from the vicinity of the river...and shortly thereafter two chao floated by...one flailing and the other...dancing? In the water? Dove's lavendar chao ball that would likely later be a halo turned into a questionmark. Forgetting the squarefruit for the moment...she followed along the bank. Maybe she could help somehow.
TBC
(OOC: There. Went into both games...and decided on this one. She was an adult before...but she re-egg-ed at some point and is a child again...but probably close to maturing again. I just decided not to bother with the re-egg thing and make her a regular child for this.)
As it turned out, Soul and Dove both showed up at the opposite sides of the bank, but as they went along, they matched each other's pace. Like reflections of each other they reached the twig dam, which was causing the water to overflow and run up onto the banks in a large pool.
Both Chao ran along the top of the dam, and wordlessly they helped Chaz and Khatt out of the water. "Are you okay?" asked Dove.
Chaz spat some water out of his mouth. "Oh, just fine now! Thank you, misses!"
Khatt was busy twirling to the nonexistent music on his headphones, but he managed to bow politely to the ladies.
Then Chaz looked around. "Whoa...a dam! It makes a bridge right across to the other side - great, I'll be able to get to Junk Mountain a lot quicker this way!"
"Hold on, why are you trying to go there by yourself?" asked Soul. "That's a long way from here."
"I've got to build a rocket!" Chaz pointed up to the sky. "I shall pierce the heavens and be the first Chao in space!!"
He started off at a run, but slowed down at the end of the dam. "Uh...though, it is kind of scary going there by myself," he admitted, turning back to the others. "I've never been there, either. Have any of you been there before?"
Khatt plopped down and began waving his hand frantically. "Oh-oh! Me! Pick me!" Chaz simply pointed at Khatt, who responded by falling backward and snoring loudly. But no sooner had he fallen asleep then he jumped up and rush toward Chaz, stopping just ahead of him. "I've never been there." He then spun around backwards to join the others, all the while grinning with his sharp teeth.
"Junk Mountain?" Soul crossed her arms and shook her head. "Heard that place is bad news. If you're trying to go there by yourself, I don't recommend it. I'll come with you."
The last sentence showed her reluctance. She remembered her parents telling her to stay away from Junk Mountain, and that the worst of the worst kinds of chao often hung out there, both dark and neutral types. She knew she was getting herself into trouble this way, but she also wasn't about to let chao like Chaz-- or Khatt, figuring him to be a bit ditzy as well-- get in trouble again under her watch.
IC:
Junk Mountain?! Dove's chao-ball turned into an exclamation point briefly as she took an involuntary step backward. Hero Chao tended to avoid the place...although she wasn't exactly sure why...surely it couldn't be THAT bad...could it? She thought nievely. But still...if she went there...would she even be able to stay on the path toward hero-chao-dom? She started backing away...maybe this was a bad idea...
But then...who would be able to keep this neutral-child-chao named Chaz from turning Dark? And with all these Dark chao around...She should tag along..if nothing more than to provide a better influcence for Chaz...
Suddenly she sneezed...and the dragon aspect of her caused a trail of fire to escape her mouth. Then she fell backward, her emote-ball turning into a spiral.
TBC
(OOC: XD she's starting to turn religious....That was unplanned...but I think I'll keep it. XP Also...about the breating fire thing...Ive seen them do that in-game...when they have dragon traits. XP)
Chaz went wide-eyed. "Oh man, this is so cool! I haven't even built the rocket ship, and I've already got a crew!"
Soul raised a Chao eyebrow...okay, the equivalent of one. "That's not exactly-"
"We're gonna have so much fun! We'll blast off to the moon and have a picnic there! We may even get to say hi to some Moon Chao! Won't that be awesome?" Chaz re-shouldered his bag, which had dried off mostly by now, and headed off through the forest. "We'd better get to the mountain right away!"
"Oh, um, I think it's that way," said Dove, pointing in the opposite direction.
"Right! Thanks!" Chaz didn't miss a beat as he toddled over past the group again, with Khatt following just behind imitating the smaller Chao's march. "Okay, here we go! On to Junk Mountain!"
"Oh, so THAT'S why they call it Junk Mountain!" exclaimed Khatt gleefully.
"But something's strange," said Dove, her voice pensive. "Look..."
And look they did. The lazy afternoon sun provided plenty of illumination as the group clung to the treeline and watched several hovering Chao-like robots hovering on propellers where the Chao ball on a regular Chao would be. They were definitely robots - no regular Chao would have a propeller or have glowing eyes that projected scan beams into the junk heap. They patrolled the area.
"It's like they're looking for something," said Chaz, a little too loudly. Everyone jumped, then even Chaz jumped along with the others as one of the Chao-bots hovered up to them, and scanned each one of them.
"FLICKY SIGNATURE NEGATIVE," droned the Chao-bot in an annoying and uninformative drone. "CONTINUING FLICKY SEARCH." And it hovered away.
"They're looking for...Flicky?" Chaz had a question mark over his head. "Wh-what's a flicky? Or who?"
Soul looked perturbed, spike ball forming a spiral yet again. "Flicky? They can't be looking for THAT Flicky?"
When the others looked at her, the two-tone dark chao explained. "I've got a lot of books. Flicky is supposedly an elusive blue creature called a 'bird' that lives somewhere in Chao World. 'Birds' can fly like us, but they've got these things called 'beaks' that they use to sing with and pick at food. They've got no arms, although they do have wings, and they have long legs that bend backwards in the middle attached to feet that look like the letter 'Y'." Soul shrugged, adding, "Those tin-plated things are wasting their time, chasing old stories. I'd be worried if Flicky actually existed."
... Because if Flicky IS real, that means something weird is definitely going on in these parts.
Khatt jumped after the chao-bot, grabbing it and cradling it."Oh, just what I've always wanted! A kitty!" He began to pet the robotic chao, before being smacked in the face by it's propeller a couple times. He let go, the robot floating away quickly. Khatt picked up a discarded newspaper from the ground and chucked it at the bot, smacking the metal chao upon the head. "Stupid Omochao!" he shouted, "What if I don't want to press the jump button to jump!" He flashed several different colors before turning back to his friends, though one-sided that claim may be, and smiled sheepishly, fiddling about. "I like Omochao... He's my friend..."
IC:
Dove looked at Khatt, her chao-ball turning first into a spiral, then a question-mark, and then back to a spiral. Strange dark chao... Turning to the other dark chao, her emote-ball turned into a question again"...Why would they be looking for this Flicky?
TBC
(OOC: Blah post is blah. Oh well.)
