You've seen the flyer. Or maybe you haven't. Whatever your reasons may be, you've decided to log onto ViViD today at around 6 PM. At first, all seems normal as the game loads, and you prepare to start on what should be an average adventure. Maybe you'll do a little fighting, or some exploring, or even a little platforming. Either way, there shouldn't be anything unusual about this.
Right?
You couldn't have been more wrong. The moment you log in, something goes strange. The game glitches around you, whatever world that started to load seizing up and freezing with static, warping with strange colors. And then a different setting loads smoothly like nothing ever happened. The first thing you notice is that it's sprawling and beautiful, if not a little ostentatious. Should your curiosity draw you from the courtyard you've arrived in through the great double doors, you'll arrive in...
... a ballroom. Welcome to prom. |
PHASE I [ 6 00 ] There are tables scattered around the periphery of the room, and a DJ, somewhat out of place in this beautiful setting, is stationed at the back, spinning out tunes to help you get settled into the start of the night. On the scattered tables are... punch bowls? They look tantalizing, and they come in quite a rainbow of colors. Should you be brave enough to take a sip, you'll find interesting things will happen. Drink the red punch, and you'll end up in rococo fashion. Drink the pale champagne-colored punch, and you'll find yourself sporting elegant regency attire. How about that cool blue punch? You'll step right into the roaring 20's. What about that dayglo orange punch over there? How about some far out 80's, man? That futuristic purple punch will suit you up in Tron style. And then there's one last punch bowl on a lonely table in the corner. No one can quite identify that color. Is that ... brown? Brave this punch bowl and you'll be, uh ... richly rewarded with modern-day fashions. Will you step up and test these refreshments, for science? Or will you be the first onto the dance floor, or to make an insane request of the DJ?
Last but not least, certain Cerealians who glitch into the level may find they have a specific corsage attached that they cannot remove! If they stick around long enough, they'll find one other lucky soul with a matching corsage. This is your ViViD assigned date! No one is going to force you two to dance... but you might find that the longer you put off dancing, the tighter that corsage gets around your wrist, or the more it begins to prick your chest, depending on its location. Might want to rethink your position...
Dates: - Shijima Kurookano & Himeko Inaba
- Trucy Wright & Enomoto "Ene" Takane
- Adelina & Rock Lee
- Byakuya Togami & Lailah
- Archer & Touka Kirishima
- Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane & Maya Fey
- Leon Kuwata & Alisha Diphda
PHASE II [ 730 ] So you're here. Whether out of curiosity or you've resigned yourself to the strange festivities, you're in. Maybe you've been wallflowering it up for a while, even with the cool kickin music playing. Whatever the case may be, the DJ announces themselves (DJ Slim Shaydee, not to be confused with that knock off from Earth). You're welcomed in an enthusiastic manner. Also hey, if you're near a table, see those cute placards? Yeah the ones in the center pieces mixed in with the bowl of candy and flowers. You'll notice they have a neatly typed out list— DJ Slim Shaydee says whoever fulfills the criteria on the list will be crowned Prom Royalty. Who doesn't want that???
- Successfully complete a slow dance
- Do the cha cha slide OR do the electric slide without messing up the turn
- Make out in the rose garden out back
- Have a dramatic fight with a close friend and storm out (you may come back after)
- Comfort a crying friend in the bathroom
- If you're a minor, accidentally get drunk
- Successfully spike every punch bowl within a 20 minute time limit
- Confess romantic feelings to the object of your affections
To truly kick it off or maybe give those ambitious types a head start, DJ Slim is gonna play you (yes all of you) a group dance! Hope you know the moves to the Cha Cha Slide. If not, don't worry, the song will tell you every step.
Oh and one more thing — anyone who fulfills an item on the list will get a confetti surprise. What does this mean? It means a golden, multi-faceted little ball will spontaneously appear over your head out of nowhere soon after you fulfill a condition, hovering for a moment before it explodes into a shower of confetti. Enjoy!
PHASE III [ 900 ] Whew. All these fast paced songs sure have you tired out, right? Maybe take a sip from the many punch bowls around the room if you haven't tested them out yet. Or try your hand at fulfilling another portion of that list from earlier—by spiking the punch. Better work fast though, the bowls themselves refresh fairly quickly once they sense contamination. See how many you can get in one go! Or if you're not a dirty prankster, see how many people you can catch spiking those dang bowls.
While you're doing that, the DJ seems to want to wind down the energy in the room. That means, you guessed it: time for that coveted slow dance. As the first chords of the song play, the doors to the garden veranda and hedge maze open. How romantic.
PHASE IV [ 1000 ] It's the end of the night, and maybe you've been trying your best to satisfy all those win conditions. Or maybe you haven't! Either way, it's clear from the mood in the air that the time is drawing near for the announcement of the Prom Royalty. The DJ brings the lights low, and spotlights hit his stand. He brings a mic to his mouth, and announces grimly that there will be no Prom Royalty. Apparently, no one satisfied enough of the win conditions! How can that be? Surely someone tried! Well, whatever happened, the DJ isn't happy, and the lights in the room will come back up. The DJ will mess with some of the equipment at his station, and all across the room, small panels will open up near the ceiling. Pouring out will come ... balloons? And not just any balloons - they're water balloons, and not only are they somehow floating, they're coming straight for you. How are they flying? We just don't know. If they come in contact with you, they'll frizz your perfect prom hair. Worse, if you apply even the mildest force to them, they'll immediately pop and drench you in freezing cold water, leaving you drenched.
The ballroom quickly fills with these angry little balloons, threatening to flood the room completely if too many of them pop. Will you flee and save yourself? Try to save your friends? Try to reason with the DJ and stop the balloon menace? No matter what you do, you'd better work fast. The floor is already getting dangerously wet...
BONUS [ hour ??? ] Remember that garden maze? From a certain point of the evening on, prom guests have been free to wander through as they please. They're beautiful, a rose maze by day that looks even more breathtaking at night with fairy lights glittering and winking in between all the flowers and leaves. Maybe you wandered out there to get away from the craziness in the party. Perhaps you want to be a true wallflower. But should you explore this maze with another at your side, you'll find it a pleasant enough trip, and if you manage to make it all the way to the center of the maze, you'll discover a secluded little gazebo that seems like it was placed there just for you.
Go in alone, though, and the maze seems like a completely different place. The fairy lights will be dimmer, less pleasant. You'll hear a rustling too loud to just be the wind. What was that sound? Turn around, and nothing is there. Too late you'll realize that the maze itself is alive, and has been watching you this entire time. It doesn't like lone wanderers. Better run fast or find a way to get out of the plant's clutches before you really become veggie.
However, if you get caught, you'll be trapped by the sentient vines that shoot out from the walls and bound to the side of the maze until another lone explorer finds you. At this point the vines will reach out and snap up that unlucky soul, too, wrapping you both up in a not-so-tender embrace. You'll both be stuck there until you can do whatever it is the maze wants that will convince it to set you free. What is that? Well, it does seem to be fond of lovers... and public displays of affection.
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estoria2016-01-04 07:52 pm
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[ He's pretty proud of himself as he leans in closer, awkwardly inching his fingers into Leon's pocket and finally managing to grip onto the knife. ]
—I have it.
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[He changes his tune immediately at the prospect of freedom, resisting the urge to engage in any celebratory wiggling. He doesn't want to lose the grip on the knife or anything, so just grinning about it will have to suffice. He does arch his back to try and get a look down his own body at Togami's hand, though; let's do this bro.]
Just push the button when you get it out!
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I'm just going to start with what's closest to me...
[ He inches even closer, sawing the vines awkwardly with his half-restrained hand. ]
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[He goes very still, trying to watch that. He can't get a good look from here, which is making him even more nervous, but if he freaks out he's really going to have reason to be nervous, and he's very very aware of that right now. Intensely aware.
(He can't help, either, the way he reacts to having a knife pointed at him again, some of his color draining and his fingers going cold. He swallows around a lump in his throat—shit, this is stupid. Why's he feel like this when he knows better? Why should he ever have to feel like this when it's totally inappropriate and pointless and all that junk? Togami'd probably laugh if he knew . . . )
He stays very, very still, straining his eyes without moving his head much to try and see what's happening.]
Where're you even cutting?
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[ That's a lot of not-very-reassuring preemptive excuses. But that's not exactly the kind of thing Leon is anxious about anyway, so maybe his trademark Togami assholishness will help distinguish this event from Leon's previous trauma?
He grits his teeth, making a frustrated noise as the knife gets stuck in the vine in the middle of cutting. Now he has to tug it out when he only has limited use of his own arm... ]
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[He hastens to explain! That he definitely was not worried! About this! (He's not, really, in any conscious way he's in control of, which just makes him hate the reaction even more. Damn, he'd probably looked uncool in front of Togami just then . . . not that it's even possible to look cool in front of him.)
Leon cranes his neck again at Togami's straining, trying to see what the issue is, though he can guess by the way he's pulling at the vine.]
Shit, is it stuck?
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[ Or, he did. But when he yanks it out of the vine forcefully, then that force causes it to slip out of his grip, too. It tumbles down, bouncing off of the vines a couple times before clattering down to the ground. It doesn't seem to be broken, and it's in plain view, safely right there in the middle of the walkway. But there's no way either of them are going to be able to reach it until they're free from their restraints.
Togami doesn't say anything else, although a choked sound of horror escapes his throat. ]
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[He stares dumbly after it. Just, wide-eyed and blank, down at the knife, for a good few beats. Then he jerks his head up to Togami again, completely confounded, as if he can't quite believe what he's just seen.]
. . . Can you reach it?!
[Uh, no. That's a stupid question and he knows it, but there it is, couched in dawning horror.]
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[He feels the need to clarify he knew already even though he did ask. Look, Togami's not the only one harried here. And that reaction gets Leon's hackles up; he glares daggers (ha ha) right back.]
So now what do we do, genius?!
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[ Saying that is more or less just stalling for time as his mind speeds through possibilities. There has to be some way to manipulate this situation to get them out of it. He just has to think of it quickly to cover up for his lost dignity. ]
Or some way down—
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He sighs.]
Yeah—c'mon, don't look like that, of course we're gonna figure it out! It could be way worse! It's not like we're gonna die here or whatever. It's just ViViD . . .
[Not that he wants to die in ViViD, either; he's managed to avoid even that so far, mostly by avoiding ViViD. Ugh. Leon jerks hard at his hand, the one Togami had been cutting near, to see if he loosened it up enough to snap the vine.]
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The vine was cut through at least halfway. It's possible it could be snapped through with enough force... That is, if it were a regular vine. There's no telling if these particular vines would be so easily destroyed. ]
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Leon groans through gritted teeth, frustrated; now they're both wearing hardened expressions. And he hadn't missed that reaction, either. Togami had been upset and then even more upset to be called on it—well, okay, Leon can relate to that. It does feel better to be angry, much like he is at this vine right now.]
Shit—! I almost had it! These things ain't normal! I should be able to break a friggin' vine easy with that arm!
[A vine is nothing compared to a fastball!
He groans again and slumps forward in the vines' grasp. After their little shifting-around dance earlier to get the knife, he's actually close enough to Togami that he can lean forward and thunk his head against his shoulder. So he does, in a moment of tired weakness, and some sympathy for Togami's plight here too.
. . . Maybe he can bite through some vines? Eh, he'll think about that in a minute.]
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[ His instinctive reaction is to pull back from that, but he doesn't really have the freedom of movement to do so without a struggle. Is it just his imagination, or have the vines become tighter? It had difficult to shift around before, but it had been easier than it feels like now.
He squirms, testing the limits, but he's only able to shift himself forwards, pressing himself up closer to Leon—not flush against him, but lightly touching, as if they were both standing on a crowded train and were no longer allowed the luxury of personal space. And now he's stuck here. ]
Ugh.
[ That sentiment is worth repeating. ]
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[He's defensive at the reaction, geez Togami, but he also notices that something's abruptly different about Togami's posture and body language. Did something happen? Maybe he's not reacting to Leon's proximity after all . . .
Speaking of which, he also notices that said proximity is. More. That he didn't expect Togami to do. Leon jerks his head up, and he means to use the momentum to carry himself backwards again and look up at Togami's face . . . but that second part of the gesture is blocked, suddenly, by the death grip of the vines. His face turns up, but he can't lean back like he'd intended, and suddenly there he is with way too little personal space, and with Togami's face way too close.
He automatically yanks at his hand again, but the vines are tighter.
Well, shit.]
I, fuck, t-they're grabbing onto me, this ain't—you too?!
[Him too, right? That has to be the reason he's suddenly so close. Leon's cheeks heat, but he absolutely refuses to acknowledge that happening. Refuses!]
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...But, wait a minute. Togami suddenly looks like he's gotten an idea. Unfortunately, what he murmurs maybe isn't an idea that Leon would find favorable. ]
That list of tasks...
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[He hears the comment, but at first it sounds like a complete non sequitur. He barely even parses it as words at first, because it's not what he expected to hear; he was expecting something like are the vines tightening their hold on you? or this is annoying or even get out of my face, Kuwata! For a moment, the mention of the tasks might as well be something like "do you like ketchup on your burgers"?
Then he catches up.
Right. The tasks. The garden had been on the list of tasks. The garden where you were supposed to go and—]
Hell no!
[That's such a fucking stupid thought and yet the second he figures out what Togami was getting at, he's sure that's exactly what's going on here. It's too convenient! Of course this is the kind of stupid-ass thing CERES would do to force people to play along!
His cheeks were hot before, but now they're burning. He can't even allow himself to think about the possibility. Nope. He's blocking it from his mind, actively.]
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But a competitive opportunist doesn't strictly have to be forced in order to see the potential here. ] This is a convenient opportunity. I hadn't been certain of how to go about fulfilling that one, but at least this will make it so this isn't a complete waste of our time. It will even fulfill the criteria for you, too... You should be grateful.
[ He would try to physically trap Leon in some way, if he had the freedom of his limbs to do so. He'll just have to count on the vines doing the job for him. Apparently, he's not seeking consent before he leans in, kissing Leon square on the lips. ]
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He doesn't have time to actually ask it, but it's about all he has time to think before that's happening and his brain short-circuits for a moment. He's not sure how to take what Togami had just said, and not let him reply to. A convenient opportunity?! Is this not CERES dicking them around and forcing them into this incredibly awkward situation that he really really never wanted!
Here's the truth: after the whole library incident, he's thought about it, like, once. A couple, no more than five times. It would be stretching it to call it a fantasy. Does it count as a fantasy if you don't actually get off to it? No! Of course not! Case closed! And he hadn't even meant to think about it most of those times! It was one of those thoughts that popped into his head, like jumping off a bridge when you're walking across one, screaming obscenities in the library, or deliberately leaving That Drawer open when he has company just to see what happens. Not things he would actually do; they turn his stomach a little to think about. (Okay, the library thing might be funny, but . . . )
They're just there. Thoughts in his head. Just like this, except for how now it's actually happening in real life, and Leon's frozen in stasis between oh hhhheeeell no and if it's happening anyway, might as well make it good—
Jesus, why would he even think a thing like that?! Togami's a dude! It's been a long time since Leon kissed anyone, but not that long! And yeah, so that whole library thing had been . . . awkward, or something, but feeling awkward sometimes about it at night didn't mean he . . .
This sucks. He can't enjoy this like this. (Isn't it better not to enjoy this?!)
All of that feels like it takes at least ten minutes, but it's actually only two seconds before Leon pulls back enough to break the kiss, ugh—
—and automatically goes to move his right hand to wipe his mouth, and while he can't do that, he can move his hand. Just a little. The vines have loosened enough that he can just budge.
Well, shit: it actually was working, wasn't it? And now that he's already gone and locked lips with a guy, even if it wasn't like he wanted to or anything, and didn't immediately throw up or something from guy-on-guy mouth-to-mouth, isn't it worth it to get the fuck out of here and go home . . . ?
Okay. He takes a breath—all of that only took another second, geez—and leans in again, closing the distance himself this time, to kiss back and get this over with.
Please.]
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For now he has to focus on the task at hand: making out. "Making out" is some slang term that definitely has to do with kissing. He is very sure about that much. But the specific definition of it was... what, again...? It's not just any kind of kiss, is it? (How many kinds of kisses are there, even?) This is all suddenly important to know in a way it never has been previously in his life. Well, from completing tasks before, he knows that when they actually "succeed" there will be a signal of their victory. So it has to at least be more than just this. Maybe he can just keep experimenting. ]
Hmm.
[ He hums thoughtfully into the kiss, almost clinical, parting his lips further. He could pull away to ask, but that would probably involve too much talking for his liking. Leon would probably make fun of him for not knowing idiotic commoner slang and he'd have to spend way too much time defending this action that he doesn't even really want to do either!
It could be worse though. At least there's no mind-numbing music this time. ]
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This "making out," which hasn't really gotten to that point yet—he knows it will, they have to, but he's shoving any conscious thoughts of it out of his brain for now—reminds him of playing Too Hot, except they literally can't touch one another, rather than just having to resist the urge. Sure, they're close, enough that Leon can feel heat from Togami's body on his own chest, but he can't reach out and do anything stupid with his hands . . . and it's kind of comforting that he can't. There's no obvious reminder of who this is, if he closes his eyes, which he is definitely doing. It's lips on his, in a vacuum, no hands or thighs or bodies really involved at all. There's a kind of purity to the art of just kissing, in circumstances like this, devoid of any other sensory satisfaction . . .
He can handle this. If Togami shuts up. The noise twists Leon's stomach a little.
And since he's being invited—or at least that's how he reads Togami opening his mouth under his lips—Leon takes a deep breath and lets himself go for the inevitable. He leans in a little harder, briefly sucking at Togami's lower lip before slipping his tongue between them and kissing him more firmly, more open-mouthed.
Just a kiss! The purity of the kiss! No hands, no need to think about who's on the other end!]
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[ Sorry, dude. It's not like Togami is necessarily trying to make noise. But these things require a reaction. A tongue in his mouth is definitely... remarkable. If he didn't make some kind of vaguely offended noise, Leon might think he was actually okay with someone's slimy organ in his mouth!!!
...Well, technically he is okay. And actually it's not as bad as he would have expected. And, actually, it makes him feel—okay, he's not some middle schooler. Saying it makes him feel funny or weird would be a level of willful ignorance he doesn't want to partake in. Of course this is a sexual act; that much was clear from the outset. Maybe he just thought that he was above carnal pleasure, or at least that he had a choice in the matter. If he did have a choice, he wouldn't let himself enjoy anything in such an awkward situation. Right...?
But overthinking it would probably just make it worse. Faltering now would be a sign of weakness. He can at least choose to ignore whether or not he's enjoying himself, so he does, touching his tongue to Leon's without any further reservations. ]
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It's so unfair! It's unfair the way that Togami's tongue touching his makes his spine feel. He knows it's been waaaay too long since he had sex—and it's not like he's got his hands all over some dude right now. Just his mouth. They had to do it. It's not his fault! So no one can give him any shit for this! In fact, they don't have to know!
He bites back on any noises himself, even though having someone's slimy organ in his mouth does feel good to Leon. It always has, because he's not a weirdo like Togami. To say he appreciates sex is an understatement. To say he appreciates sexual acts with men is, well, just don't. Don't say that. He's sure not going to, ever, to anyone!
Leon shifts his body juuuust a bit closer against Togami's, just to test the hold of the vines, which are in fact beginning to give. His range of motion is gradually expanding. If it weren't, he could just pull back now and be done with all this, but . . . it's working. So he has no choice but to keep going—he sucks Togami's tongue into his mouth, then lets it go and nips and tugs at his lip, casting aside as much of his overthinking as he can manage and just letting himself fall into one of his favorite of all activities. He can't control whether to like it or not, only how much of an awkward asshole to be about it later—but it's not later yet. They aren't free yet.]
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It's around now that he makes the connection between their activities and their freedom, himself. He sucks in a sharp breath in surprise, which comes off a lot differently in context, with his mouth pressed against Leon's. ]
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