PHASE I [ 8 00 ] You’ve arrived. You’ve received your powerpoint presentation, and your head is filled to the brim with the knowledge that your world is destroyed, and that everyone you once knew and loved is dead. You are ready to handle whatever is thrown your way --
Or maybe not. You end up in a giant game of Pacman, and from the yellow spandex jumpsuit you’re now stuck in (glow-in-the-dark, even, how snazzy), you’re Pacman. Everything is a maze, all towering dark walls and corridors, and everything seems just a little...well, off. First off, the balls you’d normally collect in pacman? They’re floating there, yellow and distinct, the only source of light in the maze, but if you pick them up and touch them, you’ll experience a memory.
It’ll be something warm, gentle and sweet, a memory of your home or the people you love that is something you truly treasure, a memory of a time that is so very important to you. And then the globe is gone and the world returns to its cold, stark state, and you are reminded: everyone is dead. Better go pick up another one!
And, of course, there are the ghosts. They’re a little horrifying (though they come in all sorts of fun colors!) and if they grab you, all of those positive memories turn horrible. A nice memory of a picnic? It’s now a memory of losing everyone important on that day, cut down by masked figures.
Of course, that’s only for the newcomers to ViViD. For anyone who enters ViViD as a veteran, well...you can watch. If you try to enter the game, there are some unfortunate consequences -- you’ll end up as one of the ghosts chasing down those poor innocents, unable to do a thing about it.
Be sure to admire the scoreboard hanging over the game for everyone to see, though.
PHASE II [ 1030 ] Just when you’ve gotten a handle on Pacman, now you’re stuck playing...Tetris?
Everyone (newcomer and old veteran) has been dumped in the game now, and those falling blocks don’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. You'll be in an unfortunate tag-team; the person you're tossed into the game with may be a total stranger to you, but you're stuck with them now. After a few moments of dodging giant, falling blocks, it should become clear how you win this game: the blocks follow you (or your partner) in an attempt to squash you, so with some careful wrangling, you can guide those blocks into place and erase row after row of deadly blocks. Of course, if you can't work together, you're more likely to end up squished at the top of the screen, but if you should somehow manage to clear the screen, the door at the other end will open and you'll be free to go.
Let's hope you're stuck with someone easy to work with.
PHASE III [ 1145 ] Stumbling out of Tetris will bring you onto a rickety platform, a hangman’s noose gently wrapped around one of your very most important people. You can’t approach them, you can’t touch them, and they can’t speak, but they look at you with pleading eyes even as the talking tree they are to be hanged from tells you the rules. Guess letters, guess the word, and your friend will be freed. Guess wrong, and, well… the noose will tighten bit by bit.
Time to work together to get your friends down from there. Admittedly you might see someone different up there from the person next to you, but it’s all the same in the end, isn’t it? You’ve got to save them either way.
If you fail, that person will be hanged -- only to reveal that they were just a straw doll all along. Phew, what a relief!
If they succeed at guessing the word, a trap door will open up underneath that person and the rope will be released, dropping them down to never be seen again. Bye!
PHASE IV [ 1300 ] And then you’re dumped right out of ViViD and back into Cerealia. The city is still a little water-logged, though it is looking better than it was before; either way, you may be dumped anywhere. On a roof, in the middle of the park, on top of the scrap heap… anything could happen.
And it seems that things are still a little glitchy, or maybe the glitchy ViViD experience has infected your code in some way, because for a short period of time after, there may be a few...side effects. Fingers and faces might glitch out for a moment, or your hand might phase through a wall. You may also have your In Game Title hovering over your head for all to see. That’s not weird at all.
It’ll all fade away in an hour or two anyway, without any side effects to speak of. Or so it would seem.
PENALTY [ xxxx ] You may have ended up here after getting eaten by a pacman (or ghost), or you may have ended up here after jumping down the trapdoor to save your friend in Hangman. Perhaps you were squashed by a tetris block. Perhaps you just fell down onto your sword (why would you do that). Either way, here you are.
It’s an empty area, totally silent and void, aside from this one carnival game. Once you’re seated, you can’t stand up -- you have to win the game to leave, as the friendly game host will inform you without a single smile. You’ll be playing against the others who managed to end up here, but you’d better give it your best shot, or who knows how long you’ll end up staying here.
Time to play a carnival shooter game.
At least the targets are of a few familiar faces. Maybe that’ll make it more appealing?
And if you win you’ll be able to exit stage right, plus you’ll have a cute Mosley plushie as a prize. Hooray!
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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phase ii
But because Mabel is just standing there almost comatose, staring at her twin brother. Even as blocks are threatening the two of them.]
...Dipper...?
[She looks like she's seen a ghost, or just can't believe that the boy in front of her is alive.]
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but then it clicks. ]
Wait, what? Mabel? [ he glances up immediately and sees her. but she couldn't be here, right? it's some trick of the game. he saw her -
but before he has a chance to voice one of the millions of questions pouring into his head the shadow falling on them makes him remember just where they are. ]
Look out! [ he bolts towards her, grabbing her arm to try and pull her out of the way of the impending L-block. ]
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Dipper! Wait--
[Okay the L-block just now seems to register and she looks up, eyes wide.]
Oh come on, give me a break!
[Ceres this is rude. This is really rude.]
So, what, are we playing Tetris or something?
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Apparently. Some really twisted, potentially violent version of Tetris. Look - there's another one coming down!
[ he points with his free hand, still holding onto her with the other. he's just going to...keep holding onto her, before she can turn into just another happy memory like in the last game. ]
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I guess we'll just have to show this game why you don't play against the Mystery Twins, right bro-bro?
[Okay, her turn to lead apparently as she drags him over the blocks. Okay, you big weird squiggly S-block, where do you fit?]
There's probably a door around here we need to look for!
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so he grins at her. ]
Yeah, that's right, sis...sis!
[ CLOSE ENOUGH. okay! they've got this. good, old-fashioned pines twins tag-teaming. he follows her lead, watching the falling shape and the other shapes below them. ]
It could be buried under these blocks. We could find a way down by clearing these rows!
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Alright Mr. Puzzle Master, let's get clearing these rows then. Where do we need to go?
[She's looking over the rows they have currently now, for a place for their current block. There are probably a few places it could go...and so she points to one of them.]
What about there? Think that'd work?
[Wouldn't be ideal, but wouldn't be a bad place either probably. At least it wouldn't leave any empty spots beneath it.]
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he nods. ] If we put it there, we can fit a T-block or Z-block next to it and clear the row.
[ good old reliable t- and z-blocks. they're so useful, except for when the get turned the wrong way at the last moment and totally ruin your perfect game. not that this has ever happened to dipper...... ]
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[Hopefully they'll have one of those coming up. If not though, she's got faith that Dipper can figure out whatever blocks this game throws at them.
So they just have to stand there and get the block to fall in that place, right? She's going to carefully hope down into the spot, keeping a firm grip on her brother, and watch the block above them.]
Do you think we're the players? Or is there like...some kind of bigger player up there just trying to squish us?
[She half wonders if it's Mosley, but he didn't really seem like the kind of guy to play games. Even if it involved scaring his residents.]
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What if there's someone playing as us right now?
[ if that's the case, he sure hopes they're good at tetris, whoever they may be... ]
Over here! [ he leads her to where he figures the next block should fall. ]
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She follows right along after him, watching for said block.]
There might be...I mean that wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened to us, right? Definitely not the strangest thing that's happened in this place, anyway...
[Oh the stories she could tell you, Dipper...]
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Wait, Mabel, what do you mean, 'this place'? Have you been here before?
[ he definitely doesn't remember being in life-sized tetris before. and if she had had some wacky video game adventure on the side, she would have told him, right? ]
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Yeah. I mean, really I've been here for a while now.
[A long while.]
You were here too but I guess...they couldn't bring you back with your memories or something...which makes sense, the whole city got totally wrecked so it was probably difficult doing something like that!
[But it's still disappointing...]
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[ none of what she's saying isn't making any sense to him. she's been here for awhile? and what about his memories? had he been here before, but his memories got erased or something?
oh man. oh man oh man, this is bad. it's bad, right? he's REALLY PRETTY SURE this is bad.
but the shadow of a falling block pressing closer brings him back to their surroundings. ]
Hang on - let's go - there! [ it's not the most ideal spot, but his thoughts are a little otherwise preoccupied at the moment. ]
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Yeah like...you saw that power point, right? The whole...code thing?
[It's hard to explain, especially with tetris blocks bearing down on them like they are, but even before she didn't really understand it all that well. That's Dipper's department, not hers.]
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...Yeah. CERES, right? But before that, I saw...
[ he doesn't want to say it. not because he doesn't want to tell her, but because part of him is afraid that saying it out loud will make this all a reality.
but then - he realizes, what her being here probably - hopefully - means. ]
Does this mean they get your code out, too?
[ maybe it's an obvious question, but it's one he has to ask. ]
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[While he looks, she squeezes his hand some, glancing back up to where the blocks are falling from.]
I don't know if it's real or not but like I said, I've been here for a while. I thiiiink it's getting close to half a year now? I don't know, going from summer to winter really messed up my sense of time.
[The game they're playing is helping to keep her pretty rational right now. To not just hug him tight and never let him go again. Or punch him. She owes him a punch too. But all of that can come later, once they're out of here. She's learned by now that sticking around longer than needed isn't a great idea, and she's sure they probably have something else stupid coming up too.]
They got our codes together though, before, but something happened and you left.
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he eyes the next falling block while he listens - a long I-shape that could clear a couple of rows if they can get it on the far side - and what she says next is a little less encouraging. kind of the opposite, actually. ]
I've been here before? [ he'd like to think he would remember something, but memories could be erased and changed, pretty easily. he knew that. and the fact that she's been here so long - almost half a year? - and he doesn't know anything about it, makes him glance back at her, as if checking for battle scars. ] How long ago was that?
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Yeah...you disappeared maybe a month ago? Maybe...less, but maybe more too.
[The time since he'd gone away had become both really slow as she waited for him to return, and also like a blur with everything that...happened. It was so much.]
I wasn't keeping track really! I was busy with things like Valentine's Day and school and keeping up with all your mystery mumbo jumbo.
[Diligently working in your stead!]
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and the tetris. right. focusing on the tetris. two rows cleared. ]
It figures you'd go crazy for Valentine's Day. [ how many boyfriends has she had here? ] And you'll definitely have to fill me in the mystery mumbo-jumbo, too.
[ HE DOES LOVE HIS MYSTERY MUMBO-JUMBO. ]
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Well duh, of course! [Two rows down, maybe...three to go? Gotta lean over the side a little to count which is kind of awkward.]
I did this whooole blind dating thing! A lot of people were really interested, and had a lot of fun. I even got some of my serious friends to try it out!
[Hey, this L-block coming down would probably fit really good in this spot over here yeah?]
Don't worry though, I've got you covered. I've got notes and artifacts and a list of theories back at my apartment! Plus all the stuff we collected too. I have all sorts of stuff to show you!
[They'll have to come back to the disappearance thing, because unfortunately some important information related to that is involved, but that can be saved for later. That can wait.]
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mystery stuff, though...man, he must have a lot to catch up on. there's so much they need to talk about, so much they need to do, but they don't exactly have a lot of choices until this tetris game is done. ]
Great! [ analyzing their block situation and leading her to the next spot, while another realization strikes him. ] You have an apartment?
[ wow, that's so adult. ]
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There's a grin again, excited about this part.]
Yup! Got it all on my own! I pay rent and everything!
[She is super adult. Of course she got help from people to get the apartment, and she's renting from a friend, but still.]
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Wow. I'm...actually not sure how cool that part sounds, but the fact that you have your own place? Awesome! [ and he continues to realize that he must have missed so much. if mabel's paying rent on an apartment, it sounds like she's done a lot of growing up without him.
which, actually, begs the question - ]
You're...not older than me now, are you? [ whoa dude, that would not be cool at all. ]
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Actually I don't really know. I don't think so at least, but like...y'know, it was summer back home, and then when we got here it was close to Christmas, so it skipped over August? We talked about it, and you decided that it probably didn't make us any older, but you know I'm not good with that time travel stuff.
[It's still stupid, even now in this futuristic place. All of her growing up has been completely circumstantial, and not because she's physically grown up. No worries.]
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