An Apeiron Story: The Ballad of Heroic Slinger Ballo

Howdy, godlings! It’s Apeiron story time again — we’re telling a short story this week! A story about some chaotic dood fights which…

Howdy, godlings! It’s Apeiron story time again — we’re telling a short story this week! A story about some chaotic dood fights which turned out to become a new festival. But before that, we’ve some community updates for you.

First, we’re gonna have a new boss rush game mode. The new boss rush game mode will take over the October off season leaderboard, with fabulous rewards such as Foonie Emblems (FE) and mini-Black Holes; they’ll even multiply if you’re an asset holder. Take your time to hone your skills and climb up the ladder!

Second, there’ll be new items selling in the FE shop and Soul shop on our Discord. For the FE shop, you can now buy Discord Nitro, Steam Gift Cards, DoodiPortrait NFTs, Fully Bred Tri Planet Raffle Entry, and S3 FE Loot boxes. The current selling items will also be restocked. For the Soul shop, we’re selling Doody Wallpapers custom made on purchase. The writer’s team had a peek of them, and they’re really cute, so you might want to spend your Souls!

Now with the community announcements done, let’s move on to our story. Fasten your seatbelts, as we’re traveling to a distant planet far from the Axis Mundi! Are you ready for the journey? We’ll be launching in…

Three…

Two…

One!

— — — — — — —

How does time work for the doods? Well, doods are bad at time perception, and they don’t have a well-established time measurement system, so they don’t really know what’s an hour or a minute. When dealing with important matters such as cooking, chef doods are able to time well with their extremely sensitive smelling ability that can distinguish between well-cooked food and uncooked food. However, most of the time, doods are just living their days trying to estimate the time by their bellies’ call for lunch and dinner, understanding the concept of time instinctively. Unsurprisingly, they’re pretty bad at accurate timing such as seconds. And who would’ve thought that such a deficiency would lead to the birth of a unique festival in a quiet dood village somewhere hiding amongst the stars of the godiverse…

The year was, as the doods would tell, some random time since the birth of the godiverse. There was a wasteland planet called Nob floating somewhere far from the Axis Mundi. As the resources were scarce, for many generations the doods living there had mostly resorted to banditry and petty thievery, frequently fighting each other while scrambling for food.

However, after a major incident where the doods fought too hard and totally forgot to tend their weedy gardens, leading to even more starving, Vinesworthy the Flourishing, God of Fruits from the Vine, came to the rescue. He blessed the world of Nob with the hardy Ketchy Berry plant. In his divine eyes, this killed two birds with one stone: the berries provided a new and delicious source of food, while also could be used to resolve disputes through a formal conflict known as the Slingshot Showdown.

Since then, the doods lived a relatively peaceful life when compared to their ancestors. Small quarrels and conflicts occasionally broke out during local events though, and that’s when the Slingshot Showdown came into play. It’s simple enough for the single-minded doods to perform — the two doods would go to the central plaza of their town, standing at opposite sides of the square, then turning away from each other, each holding a sling loaded with a Ketchy Berry. Next, they’d count to three and turn to each other as quickly as possible, and see whoever would react faster and shoot the other. This had successfully enforced order for some period of time, becoming a traditional practice on the planet of Nob.

Out of all the slinger doods, there was one particularly famous slinger, called Ballo. He slung with high accuracy: rumor had it that he could aim perfectly at a flying Hippersquish high up the sky and shoot it down with a tiny pebble. However, he wasn’t as accurate when it came to counting down. This wasn’t a problem before he had his first Slingshot Showdown, and things started to go wrong…

Yesterday, Ballo had had a long, tiring day hunting for wild Batterdolks under the scorching sun of Nob, so that night he decided to visit the tavern and grab some food to fill his poor belly. Now, remember, even though he’s exhausted, a cool dood would never show it on his face. They’d act very confident in order to attract the attention of doodettes drinking in the tavern. Therefore, Ballo used some strength and banged the door open with his fat dood tummy, then walked in like a very cool dood who was totally not exhausted at all.

It was a busy night in the tavern. There weren’t many vacancies left, doods in the town crowded the tiny place, chatting and cheering together, some of them even doing some line dancing. Ballo sat down at the only empty table, which was next to a group of cute doodettes, and he gave them a wink.

“Howdy! What would you like to order?” the waiter dood came over and asked.

“Hmm, a gentledood like me would like to have a doodghetti,” Ballo said pretentiously, raising his eyebrows, while the doodettes were screaming frantically at how handsome and cool he was.

“Sure, we’ll serve you doodghetti right away!” the waiter dood confirmed and left.

While waiting for his food, Ballo walked over to the doodettes and casually chatted with them. He boasted about his adventures, such as shooting down a Hippersquish with his sling, taming a sdood at the Rowdy Ranch, and even winning a local Popspicers eating competition. In the middle of the last story, another dood arrived and sat at his table, but he didn’t pay much attention to that dood, as the doodettes were too excited and couldn’t wait to hear what he was saying.

But disaster struck when he finally finished his stories and went back to his table. The late-comer dood was eating doodghetti in front of him, slurping up the pasta with the delicious sweet sour Ketchy Berry sauce.

“Hey, is that MY doodghetti?!” Ballo raised his voice, drawing the attention of the doodettes again.

“What do you mean? I ordered this doodghetti,” the dood said as he continued to munch.

“But I ordered it FIRST!” Ballo couldn’t hold back his hangry rage. He stomped the floor and pulled the doodghetti closer to him.

“Hey! I’m eating!” The dood was annoyed, so he stood up and confronted Ballo, pulling back the plate of doodghetti.

“Calm down! We’ll offer you another doodghetti-” The waiter dood rushed to the table, trying to calm down the situation, but he was immediately interrupted and ignored by Ballo.

“This doodghetti belongs to ME!” Ballo started to slap the wooden table intensely, so the plates and candlesticks started to vibrate. He even stepped onto the table to look more superior.

“Well then, we’re both not gonna have it!” The dood seized the chance, pushing over the table and with a whoosh, everything spilled everywhere. Doods and doodettes in the tavern fled from their heated argument. Ballo, who was standing on the table, fell down miserably onto the floor. Luckily, his soft doody butt landed first.

“My precious dinner!” Ballo shrieked, “What’s your name? I’m gonna challenge you to a Slingshot Showdown!”

“The name’s Flicko! I’m not afraid of you!”

“See you at the town plaza tomorrow after breakfast, and I, Ballo, will defeat you loser!” Ballo yelled at Flicko with his words, eventually turning away and leaving the mess for the waiter to clean up (sadly).

And so, Ballo officially challenged the despicable dood named Flicko who had cruelly eaten HIS doodghetti to a Slingshot Showdown.

The next morning, Ballo polished his sling, picked some Ketchy Berries from his garden, and did some warm-up practice in his backyard in order to prepare for the Showdown. He’s confident that he would win the competition as the best slinger on Nob. There’s no dood who could beat him. Yes! He’d win with glory and show that dood who he was! And maybe the doodettes would come too. He grinned to himself at the thought of his victory.

And so, he left his house and headed towards the town plaza, walking chin up and chest out honorably. It’s a sunny day and the lights shone brightly on his face, adding glory to the champion-to-be.

The moment when he arrived at the town plaza, his opponent was not there yet, but there were tons of spectating doods who surrounded the center, longing to witness the incredible performance of the famous slinger. This boosted the confidence of Ballo to even greater heights.

“HAHAHA! Flicko’s a coward! I’m gonna defeat him and beat his doody butt with my sling!” Ballo yelled proudly.

As soon as Ballo made his declaration, Flicko appeared. He squeezed himself through the crowd and finally reached the center of the plaza, standing at the opposite end from Ballo. Both of them took a deep breath, preparing themselves for this thrilling event.

“The doodghetti was mine!” Flicko claimed.

“No, you son of a bood!” Ballo rebutted.

They glared at each other with their narrow doody eyes, trying to look more intimidating to their opponent. A hot breeze blew a tumbleweed rolling across the battlefield in a dead silence. After a moment to breathe, they both turned away, and assumed the Showdown positions. Once Ballo had faced the opposite direction entirely, he loaded his sling with a Ketchy Berry, then started to count inside his head.

One-

Two-

Three!

“Splat!” The sound of Ketchy Berry bumping and spreading on a squishy dood body rang out. It was bloodily red all over Flicko, and in an instance he was lying on the ground flat without any will to fight on.

Doods hit by Ketchy Berries were prohibited to stand up and fight anymore, until the end of the Showdown — that’s a rule made by Vinesworthy. But…

“Hey!” Suddenly, Flicko stood up grumpily with the gasps of audiences. He brushed off the Ketchy Berry residue on his body, then stomped his way straight to the face of Ballo, “Why did you sling so quickly? Did you count to three?”

“What? Of course! You’re just mad ’cause you lost!” Ballo argued back, “Go back and lie down like the dead dood you are, loser!”

“But…” a spectating doodette opened her mouth and spoke softly, “but, that really felt quicker than other Showdowns…”

“Yea, I remember it should be longer,” said another dood in the crowd.

Soon, the crowd started a commotion, arguing whether the shot was made too quickly and if the Showdown had lost its fairness. Ballo was shocked, as he never expected such responses from other doods; he thought he should be winning heroically. And so, he considered for a moment, and pointed at one of the crowd doods, a doodette.

“Hey you, yea you,” Ballo pointed to the crowd, “You said that other Showdowns were not as quick as the one just now. Show me.”

The doodette was shivering all over, but she stepped forward to the center and followed the instructions of Ballo. Then, Ballo asked her to count until three and they’ll sling Ketchy Berries onto each other.

One-

Two-

Three!

“Splat!” Another Ketchy Berry smacked onto the squishy dood body. And with no doubt, Ballo won again. The poor doodette fell onto the floor with a thump, covered with Ketchy Berry juice.

“Yea! See? That’s way too quick!” Flicko, lying on the ground pretending to be dead, yelled.

“Flicko’s right, this is way too fast. I think you better count aloud so that we can know if you’re counting right,” one of the doods in the crowd suggested, trying to mediate the situation.

“That’s easy, I will count aloud from one to three now! I’ll show you doods!” Ballo said. Another volunteer came down from the crowd to face Ballo. This time, before they started, he yelled out the numbers as loud as he could: “Onetwothree!”

“No, that’s too fast! Listen to me count,” the dood took a deep breath to calm himself down, “One… two… three! Got it?”

“OK,” Ballo nodded confusingly. He had no idea what he was doing anymore.

“Now try it.” The dood stood beside Flicko’s body and played the role of Ballo’s opponent.

“One…” Ballo tried to pause as long as he could, “Twothree!”

“Splat!”

“Nooo dood! Don’t you know how to count?” The dood stood and brushed off the Ketchy Berry sauce on his face, beginning to lose his temper.

“Yea of course, I’m the best at counting!” Ballo was not satisfied either, so he shouted back to the dood.

“No, you’re counting too fast!” The dood raged and argued against Ballo.

“Lie down, you’re dead!” Ballo pointed at the dood, accusing him of breaking the holy rules of the Showdown.

And so, the dood couldn’t do anything about it and backed down, joining the other defeated doods who were lying on the ground waiting for the Showdown to officially end. Ballo grinned confidently, as he believed that he was just being too good at slinging that doods were starting to envy him. But his challengers were an endless stream, they were not convinced by the countdown of Ballo and tried to teach him how to count properly. Doods came, doods went, they all ended up falling under the sling of Ballo, defeated by the merciless Ketchy Berries and Ballo’s lack of counting ability.

At the end of the day, bloody dood corpses were all over the place. Of course they weren’t really dead, but none of them were able to withstand the attack of Ballo. Splattered Ketchy Berries began to flow like a river of berry juice, covering up the floor of the plaza. Ballo, standing on top of every dood, was the only winner of this Grand Showdown.

But then Ballo felt a sense of… loneliness. He had won all the Showdowns, but what was the purpose of all that? Look at all of the doods and Ketchy Berries lying flat on the ground, he could have had tons of doodghetti already!

While Ballo was immersed in sadness and regret, there’s a bored dood who tried to lick the Ketchy Berry juice around his lips. Then, he found himself couldn’t stop licking the tasty fruit juice (it’s irresistibly delicious), and finally decided to put an end to the incident. He sat up. “You know what? Screw all these rules! We should just shoot Ketchy Berries into each others’ mouths and make it a Ketchy Berry Festival!”

“Huh, that sounds like a great idea,” Ballo nodded thoughtfully, gradually picking up his sling again. Then, he loaded it with a Ketchy Berry, pulled the elastic rope, and aimed at one of the lying doods’ mouth. At the moment when he released the rope, a big red fruit flew across the air elegantly with a perfect curve, and ended up perfectly arcing into the mouth of the dood.

“Oooo tasty!” The dood jumped up, as if he was revived, chewing the Ketchy Berry and licking his lips, giving Ballo a thumbs up.

“I want one!” Another dood yelled, raising his hand.

“Yea, shoot me more Ketchy Berries!”

Of course, after all, they’re doods! Who could resist the tempting Ketchy Berries? Ballo stood on a bench and launched Ketchy Berries into the mouths of all the crowd of doods, feeding them the tasty treat with his accurate slingshots. It’s already evening, and doods were queuing up to get their bellies filled, even the bypassing doods joined the unending queue. Although for Ballo, he didn’t do it for long, as he couldn’t wait to redeem his doodghetti from the tavern.

From that day onward, the practice of shooting Ketchy Berries into each others’ mouths became a new traditional festival on Nob. During the harvesting season, doods would line up at the plaza with mouths wide open, waiting for a heroic slinger to sling Ketchy Berries at them. Doods came and doods went, and all were happily stuffed with tasty juicy round Ketchy Berries, enjoying the feast. They’d celebrate madly until they forgot the passing of time with breakfast, lunch, and dinner times all blending together, only to realize that another day had passed when seeing the next sunrise. This was all thanks to Ballo, the heroic slinger who couldn’t properly count to three.

— — — — — —

And that’s the end of today’s story! Do you want to enjoy the juicy festival with the doods? How accurate can you count to three? I bet it’s a useful skill for godlings when timing your castings during dungeon combats! Probably that’s why we have to tell our doods when to cast their abilities… Anyway, come to our Discord to hang out with other cool doods (as cool as Ballo), and follow our Twitter for the latest news!

Thanks for reading, see ya next time, godlings!

About Apeiron

Apeiron is the world’s first NFT-based play-and-earn god game. Apeiron will feature a unique card-based action-adventure combat system combined with god game simulation gameplay inspired by classic god games like Populous and Black & White. Players will be able to build up planets from above before descending to the ground as a powerful Avatar to solve the mysteries of the universe. Players will grow their planet to the point of developmental stagnation, then reset the planetary cycle via an Armageddon event to allow for even more advancement and thrilling late-game alliance level GvE and GvG activities. Apeiron will use a tri-token architecture, which means that there will be three separate tokens to navigate their ecosystem: a governance token, a play-to-earn token, and a premium alliance token.

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