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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Are you saying you're not sorry?! [DON'T DO THIS TSURUMARU Kashuu is also five at heart, and so he reacts like any five year old might in this situation: he pulls up to an abrupt stop, setting his hands on his hips. Look, he doesn't care about the encroaching mob of suburban moms. His speed stats are better than Tsurumaru's, anyway... AND EVEN IF THEY WEREN'T he'd sacrifice himself for this moment okay where's his apology.]
I'm not gonna show you if you aren't gonna apologize! There's no way I'm big enough to hide behind!
[With the exception of tantous, probably.]
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oh. ohhhh. kashuu wants that one thing that tsurumaru genuinely hates giving. but given how dire their current situation is, tsurumaru sucks it up, there's your apology, kashuu — so much for his supposed longevity. ]
Stop, stop, I was kidding!! I didn't mean any of that — everyone knows how much you take care of yourself. You're so light, you probably aren't even good to use for bench pressing. You have all these tight-fitting clothes to match your figure, and how can I really hide behind something like that? [ is that enough for kashuu's ego!!!!
BUT THE ANGRY MOM MOB.... IT GETS CLOSER... and before he says anything else, he grabs at kashuu's arm, trying to yank him forward. ]
—shit, hurry, Kashuu!
no subject
Thank you. Y'know, I was really—
[AND THEN HE'S BEING YANKED FORWARD and away from the angry mom mob that's definitely catching up... slowly but surely, like the ghost from It Follows, perhaps. He makes a little noise of protest, but it's not like he's about to hamper their get-away attempt now that his bruised ego has been patted.]
Okay, okaaay! Just leave it to me!
[AND ONWARD!! Kashuu sprints forward with a little extra speed in his step, trying to take the lead again. They'll be leaving that angry mob behind soon enough... Hopefully they'll focus on picking up their children instead since it's only a matter of time before gravity kicks in.
In the meantime, Kashuu appears to be booking it in the general direction of the park, but he doesn't stop at the entrance, of course. Rather, he tears through a few ornamental hedges and such until they eventually get to a pretty well-hidden alcove with one simple koi pond and a lot of thick foliage.]
Ta-da!
no subject
still, it'd been enough to spur kashuu back into action, and as he speeds up, tsurumaru lets him take the lead again (because he's 100% certain that kashuu knows this place better than he does). they manage to keep a good distance from the ANGRY MOM MOB by the time that they get to what looks like a park, but instead of stopping, as tsurumaru had expected, kashuu continues.
wow, he's really got this whole escape route thought out. good job, kashuu!! 10/10 accomplice, would jointly frame again...
once they reach the koi pond hidden in the foliage, tsurumaru peers behind him, checking to see if the angry moms were still pursuing them. he can still hear their angry, high-pitched cries, and various electrical appliances being thrown carefreely, but tsurumaru and kashuu are 1. too far away and 2. undetected, and it's then that he finally exhales, sitting on the grassy floor. ]
Yeesh. Remind me to never, ever do that again.
no subject
But!! Once they're all settled, Kashuu will take a moment to peer out, too. Everything seems clear and the sound of The Mob is gently fading into the distance... Good enough! He doesn't sit on the grass, but takes up a seat by the edge of the pond that makes it seem like he goes here and sits at this particular spot often.]
S'not like it was your fault anyway, yeah? I saw you fall outta the sky. You're lucky something was there to cushion you at all, y'know.
[What if he landed on his sword and broke it, okay!! That would be a truly stupid way to die.]
And those kids'll be fiiine! [WAVES A HAND he's too dismissive.] The hospital here is really something else; they can cure and fix pretty much anything.
no subject
Right? I mean, I guess it was bad for the children, and everything, but it's not as if I pointed at the... uh, the bouncy thing and was like, I'm totally gonna land there.
[ at least his sword didn't fall out and take the house with it!! but tsurumaru pauses, looking around — it seems like a well-hidden alcove, and the way that kashuu carries himself here leads him to wonder if this isn't kashuu's first time hiding out here. ]
You knew this place was here, didn't you? This doesn't look like the kind of place that you can just walk into.
no subject
But he does know better, and he's feeling merciful since Tsurumaru complimented him so nicely, so he won't pin the blame and be a butthead about it.]
A bunch of people landed in even weirder spots, so it's fine, it's fine. [Is it really. As for the question, he simply nods, since that's entirely right. He had to do a little scouting to find it, okay.]
Mmmhm! I found it a while ago. It's really pretty, right? And sometimes the sun falls so it's riiight on the pond. [It's a good place to come if you need to have a break, honestly, which brings him to his next point. Very earnestly:]
But you have to keep it a se-cret! I only showed you 'cause you'd have totally died back there otherwise. No one else knows about this place.
no subject
when kashuu speaks, he glances at the pond, admiring how it glitters from catching the sun's rays, how the smallest of fish swim beneath its surface, and he sees what kashuu means — it is pretty relaxing. he'll agree to kashuu's next point, posing for him a request in return: ]
Alright, alright! As long as you promise not to tell anyone else about, you know... those children.
[ WHICH IS TOO LATE NOW, BECAUSE SOMEONE (LOOKS AT KASHUU AND SOUSEI) TEXTED ABOUT IT, but tsurumaru would have kept this area a secret either way, because there's no reason to tell everyone about this hiding place — otherwise, it wouldn't be a hiding place anymore.
plus... he's bound to get himself into more trouble, and knowing that this alcove exists means that it can function as a safe base for him in emergencies (of running from angry people, because the moms were just Chapter One). ]
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Huh? Someone else was bound to see that, y'know.
[THERE WERE LIKE FIFTY KIDS RAINING OUT OF THE SKY. And also Sousei definitely won't keep mum about it because that's the kind of person Sousei is, but that's something Tsurumaru will surely find out on his own in due time... Still, it's not like he has any reason to disagree, so he just ends up shrugging.]
But if you don't want me to, I won't. Just don't like, do anything stupid and get yourself thrown into jail, yeah? They'll probably be keeping an eye out for a weird guy in all white.
[That's you, Tsurumaru. Geez!! He almost got his ass arrested on his first day too, but not even he was this bad... ANYWAY-- Right, right, he forgot about this part in all of the outlaw excitement. He'll trot his way over across the clearing so he can crouch by Tsurumaru's side and give him a proper look over, making sure he's not sporting any damage or anything.]
You okay?
no subject
listen... the only jail he's going to is gay baby jail, but he'll stay out of the cops' reach as kashuu says! otherwise, it would terribly inconvenience their saniwa — and while swords don't usually go to jail, he doesn't want to find out what it's like to be arrested, as curious as he is. ]
Mhm, I'm fine. A little sore from, you know, crashing down from the sky, but aside from that — don't worry! None of the rakes that the moms threw in our direction hit me. Humans have bad aim with projectiles, don't they?
[ and, because kashuu had also been running with him: ] What about you? Were you hit with something? [ a microwave... a toaster... an oven... something along those lines. ]
no subject
But one day they're going to wind up in jail anyway honestly, it's only a matter of time. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME... Hopefully it'll at least be for something stupid and/or hilarious so they can laugh about it as Haru screams in the background trying to come up with bail-out money.]
Good, good! It'd be a bad way to introduce yourself to the town, y'know? Showing up all scuffed 'cause some crazy lady threw a rake at you... [Reaching out to pat his arm!! Not in a condescending way, just in the usual handsy sort of "I can't stop touching other people" way he has. Months in Cerealia hasn't cured him of this... It's probably made it worse, someone stop him. As for the question:]
Nope! You're right, they're pretty bad at aiming and I'm not bad at dodging. [THEY NEED BETTER TROOPS. Or not because then they probably would be hit by microwaves with their luck. He seems to be considering something for a second then...] You're lucky you didn't show up and get all tired like some of the people here. Keep an eye on yourself though, 'kay? Just in case.