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!
makoto's not too shabby when it comes to feats of physical exertion. for crying out loud, his favorite pastime is legitimately manual labor, as weird and bizarre as that is. but mowing lawns and moving furniture had little, if any, bearing, on his own mortality. he's had a godawful time just acclimating to the steady rate of the dropped blocks at one side of the enclosed space, doing his best not to hamper his partner, who bears a disconcerting likeness to many of the robots he's encountered in tellus since his arrival. the quasi-eyeball + bipedal chassis look is new, though. most of them stuck to roaming around in some rough, uncanny valley analogue.
his chatter is a little distracting, though, which sidetracks makoto from his main goal of doing his best not to die. as it is, he can barely keep up with what he's saying, and ends up dragged down by his companion in the process. unfortunately, makoto's block hasn't finished its descent just yet, and he forcibly jolts them both upright, yanking wheatley out of the way as they narrowly avoid being crushed to death (again).
abruptly, he leans on one side of the wall to catch his breath, which come out in spasmodic heaves of air as he speaks. ]
I ... I think it's Tetris. The last game ... was like Pac-man, and this is ViViD, so ... it's all just a game. Most of the ... time.
[ so reassuring. makoto glances up once he's gathered his bearings, examining wheatley more closely. ]
What did you mean by what you said earlier? That isn't your body?
no subject
Wheatley, too, needs a moment to recover, metal hands on his knees as he pants from the exertion and also the terror of nearly being crushed (the robot, despite not being able to breathe, is definitely panting like he needs to). He looks up in disbelief.]
Most of the time? If we--if we die in the game, do we die for real?
[He sounds all at once incredulous and terrified, apparently not much of a fan of dying for real.]
Well, I mean, no, not really, I'm not exactly used to limbs.
no subject
his companion's a bit different from the rest (a sense of humor, for one thing). if they weren't dodging blocks for their lives, he might've indulged him for a round of pleasantries. as it is, he cuts corners, warily scanning the ceiling for any impending sign of blocks. ]
Um, there was this one time when ViVid malfunctioned, and the colony and the game sort of melded? It was kind of weird, but I had a friend look out for me [ with an inhuman amount of artillery and combustive firearms at-hand is the key underlying note here ], so I was able to make it through that ordeal alright. I don't think others were as lucky that time.
[ gaze crawling back to assess wheatley, his expression scrunches into comparative bewilderment. ] So, wait ... how were you able to move in the first place? Were you one of the robots that did camera surveillance?
[ sorry, the blue hal-esque light sort of reminds makoto of a camcorder's lens?! forgive him, he isn't the most tech-savvy person around. ]
no subject
[Because that's what it sounds like, bro. His optic darts upward, as if waiting for their impending blocky doom. Who's to say the game's not malfunctioning this time?
Even talking about himself is not much of a distraction, for once.]
Uh, no, I mean, I did--I did a lot of things, but I had a rail, on the ceiling, you know?
[He says this like everyone should know what he's talking about.]
no subject
[ this is so weird. he's never kicked the bucket in vivid to-date, but given the wonky manner the game started up this time around, he can't take it easy. makoto catches sight of a flat rectangular block shining from some ways up in the interminable distance, claustrophobia already seizing. there's no way they can make it through this level intact, much less alive, no way — ]
... A rail? So you ... rolled around on it everywhere? Isn't that kind of inconvenient? You could only go where it took you. [ now that he thinks of it, his robot pal does partially resemble a bowling ball. maybe he'd been great at knocking out pins in his past life. yeah. ]
no subject
[Given the impending block, Wheatley starts moving, hoping that if they keep out of it way, it won't follow them, or something. The problem is that he sees more blocks, ones waiting for this one to fall, he can only assume. There has to be something they can do, because they can't dodge blocks forever.
He hopes that's not the idea, anyway.]
I mean, yes, but it was--it was fine. I got everywhere I needed to go.
no subject
What if you wanted to go somewhere else? I mean, what if there was somewhere else you wanted to be?
[ now he's getting philosophical on him. on that note, though: ]
Why don't we try climbing the blocks? If we get them to stack to the top, maybe we can find a way out of this level?
no subject
[Wheatley looks like he's just been pitched the worst idea in the world--it's nothing personal Makoto, only that he has no idea how to use his legs and arms in tandem, much less effectively.]
Okay, so, uh. Just so--just so you're aware, I am new to this body, as I said, and I'm not entirely sure how climbing is going to go.
no subject
You can't — ... ah, it's okay! I'll pull you up as we go. I'll just, um ... need a distraction to make it to the top first.
[ and he glances up, some silent indicator of the block rapidly descending on them both. makoto doesn't want to impose, but pulverizing compression tends to kill a person, more often than not. ]
no subject
[Wheatley doesn't get to finish, however, because the rapidly-descending block means he has to hold his thought in order to dive out of the way. It's incredibly ungraceful, and he lands in a tangle of metal limbs. Still, there's no time to think as he tries his very best to scramble to his feet.
He calls around the huge block that's now separated them.]
Look, I'll--I'll try and get them to follow me, you work on getting up there!
no subject
[ and he'd apologize (some messy profusion of remorse for being unable to save them from their current predicament on his own), but he's too caught up in the heat of the moment, trying to angle blocks to tumble down correctly without quashing him in the process. makoto's actually gotten pretty far up when he takes a short reprieve to glance over wheatley's way, calling out across the divide. ]
How's it looking for you? Can you make it to the top from where you are?
no subject
It's an adequate distraction, and by sheer accident he manages to get them in a cohesive row--only to have said row blink and disappear, lowering the entire arrangement.]
Is that--was that supposed to happen?
no subject
by way of answer he redirects his gaze over to wheatley, suddenly afflicted with another (horrific) idea. ]
It's ... this is just like Tetris, isn't it?! It's a long shot, but maybe if we clear all the blocks, we'll be able to quit ViViD!
[ this is pretty much the best news he's heard all day, thanks . ]
no subject
[Despite being a robot, Wheatley has apparently never played this game. Or any video game. Blame the scientists that built him--he's a little pop-culture deficient, and he looks fairly confused.]
Just, uh. Tell me where to go, I suppose. You can see better from up there.
no subject
It's a game with blocks. You have to clear them in order to pass the level, although most variations just keep going until you lose, I think.
[ truly uplifting words from a guy who can't even help blanching once every five minutes. ]
B-But I don't think that's the case here! Just ... go right for now, and try to land them in the empty spaces until we're out of ViViD.
[ and then, a bit meekly: ] Do you want me to come down and help?