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 [ 10 30 ] 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 [ 11 45 ] 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 [ 13 00 ] 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 [ xx xx ] 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. ] |
ii
I-is that it?! I don't understand this nonsense at all!
[ iwatooshi is probably the largest and scariest-looking Huma he's ever seen - he didn't even know humans could get that big - but at least he seems friendly. Relatively. ]
Shouldn't we be trying to stop them from falling at all?
no subject
Well, I guess we could try that?? [Time to switch gears! Iwatooshi holds his place, now staring straight up at the block coming towards him. Yeah, he's gonna try to hit it with his blade.
It's not going to end well.]no subject
Wait--! That's not going to-- [ forget it, there's not time for shouting - immediately, he runs towards the other man, with the intention of shoving him out of the way. However, he is a 5'6" thinly-built rabbit man, so that probably won't end well, either. ]
no subject
He watches as a block crashes down on the spot where he was just standing, then turns toward his new savoir.]
Ah, thank you! That might have been kind of painful if it landed on us. [no, Iwatooshi, the word you're looking for here is "deadly," and you should probably take this a little more seriously, too.]
no subject
Kind of-? [ ??? no it would have been kind of fatal. But there's no time for details. He shakes his head. ] -- Nevermind that! Perhaps we should try to stack them somehow and climb to the top?
[ or: how to lose in Tetris ]
no subject
[He looks up- out of the block's path this time- and squints his eyes, trying to see if there was some sort of exit hidden in the darkness of the playing field.]
But, ah... what if we get up there and then more blocks fall on us? We'd be closer to them and we might get squished!
no subject
That's certainly true... but it's the best that I can come up with right now. We'll simply need to move quickly and hope for the best.
[ and/or get Iwatooshi to throw him to safety(??) once they're up there... ]
no subject
Well then, what have we got to lose? [he gives an encouraging smile, then extends an arm.]
Need some help getting up there?
no subject
blankly, he stares at the extended arm for a moment, though his gaze does flick upwards nervously for a half-second between to make sure he's not about to be smushed. ]
Help? I... [ well, he could climb himself, surely, but. ] What do you mean by "help?"