
Love is in the air in Cerealia -- or, well, it is in ViViD anyway. And nobody cares about your lives outside of ViViD, so that's all that matters. It's an artificial love construct, but for you sad, lonely, little people, it's probably good enough, right? CERES is on a mission to find you your other half, your soulmate, your one and only, and this is how they've decided to do it -- through technology and abuse of your private information! Welcome to your new love life, courtesy of ViViD.
For your convenience, CERES has automatically generated dating profiles to help match up the new arrivals swiftly and speed up the "get to know each other" process. Nothing like some not-entirely-agreed-to speed dating to break the ice and improve new relations! You're going to be here for awhile, so you may as well get to know each other.
For the older residents, well... you may very well find your soulmate here! You don't want to miss out on that. That would just be an unfixable tragedy. So here, use the handy-dandy profiles and find your new honey. After all, the information on these profiles is 100% accurate, certified and verified by Mosley himself.
Why would you ever doubt that?
 I've never actually been on a date before. Not that there haven't been offers but I'm just too busy a guy! I think to myself, "Mosley, me, guy who's talking to himself, why won't you go on a date with that nice lady who just asked you out?" And I reply, "Oh, you gorgeous bastard, I'm satisfied with my life as it is already! I don't need love." After all, what is love? Baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. No more.
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] Gooooood morning, new ViViD compatriots and gamers! You’re not going to get a lot of time to adjust and recover from your sudden retrieval from destroyed and sad code, really, because as soon as you arrive, fresh and new to Cerealia, you’ll be faced with a profile.
Oh, look, it’s your face! And… a quote attributed to you? And your favorite object? Hopefully those details are correct, because there’s no going back now.
You’ve become an otome love interest.
For those who aren’t brand new to ViViD, you’ll be presented the exact same profiles -- but you’ll have to pick one. You know how this works, pick the love interest you want to romance and sweep them off their feet. Better pick the right route too because, haha! You wouldn't want to end up naked and alone in a basement again! That would be crazy. Just pick some rando hottie instead, it's no big.
Or, well, that’s what they say. But then you’re dumped into a ballroom, dressed up to the nines in finery, and surrounded by other milling NPCs. You're given a moment to process the whole situation before a genteel-looking older man who seems to be running this party steps up to the microphone. Gently, he clears his throat, and welcomes everyone to the party ("Haven't been to a party this fine since I had all my teeth!"), and then he gestures to a pile of weapons in the middle of the room and finishes cheerfully, “Anyway, whoever survives can leave this room -- enjoy!”
It looks like the NPCs aren’t messing around; they’re immediately diving for the weapons, so you might want to get a move on.
Welcome to the Cerealia Dating Hunger Games.
PHASE II [ 10 00 ] When you burst out of the ball room, possibly covered in the blood of your enemies (your poor dress/suit!), you’ll find yourself in what looks to be a sprawling jungle. In reality, it’s a circular arena, and if you travel far enough, you can reach the walls, though they’re electrified with no way out. If you try to get past them, you’re going to fry yourself before you accomplish anything else! Where's the fun in that?
The bigger problem is this: there are some unfortunate monsters on the prowl (don't they... look a little familiar?) in the jungle, and they are ready and willing to eat up anyone who crosses their paths. They’re drawn to the scent of blood -- and, even more so, the scent of people in love. So hey, if you're in love right now, it might be a good time to run. Otherwise, you're the top target and about to be hunted. Have fun out there, lovebirds!
Meanwhile, the NPCs (or even your fellow player characters?!) are out for blood themselves, so nowhere is truly safe.
Was that... was that a scream for help, or someone coming to get you?
PHASE III [ 11 45 ] At some point, you’re going to need supplies. It starts to feel like you’ve been in here for days without any food or water (but that’s weird, wasn’t this ViViD session supposed to be just a few hours -- ) and you’re starting to feel the effects.
So, time to get in touch with your inner man vs wild. There are animals to hunt (deer, rabbit, etc.) and if you can fashion a spear or use a weapon you scooped up in the chaos, you can kill them for food. Alternatively, you can just try stealing some supplies from your fellow players. That's probably a saner option.
Which leaves you sneaking up onto their camp, full of sneakiness, and more sneakiness, and a little bit of stealth, you reach out and...
Suddenly, there are lights on you! Cameras! Cheering, adoring crowds! There's a narrator narrating every step you're taking (loudly) and there are fans hanging on your every move --
Oh, did that wake up the other player and/or bring monsters roaring down upon you? Whoops. The perils of spectator sports like the Cerealia Hunger Games, really.
PHASE IV [ 14 00 ] You did it. Someone came at you, and you killed them. Their blood is on your hands, but it’s fine -- it’s just a program in a game.
Right?
Except when you look again, it’s someone you know. The corpse of a person who’s very important to you in so many ways is lying there on the ground, blood still warm but clearly dead. They’re solid to the touch. They’re there, and they look just like that person you care about so very much. Your heart hurts.
And you’re the one who killed them.
Then, without warning, it starts to rain because ViViD is nothing if not good at sensing the mood.
PENALTY [ why o'clock ] So.
You died.
This isn't really that surprising, considering it's the Cerealia Dating Hunger Games. People die a lot in games like these. It's the price of love.
Don't worry, though! It's just ViViD, so it's not like you really died. You'll get reconstructed, good as new, and they'll toss you right back onto the battlefield. Except, well... it seems like something's a little different.
For one thing, you've got claws instead of hands.
You can't seem to speak, either; all you can manage is garbled growls and sharp noises.
And, worst of all... you're really, very intensely hungry, and you can smell blood (or people in love, that's an even better scent).
So yeah, you're one of the monsters now. Don't worry, it only happens the first time you die in this game; if someone valiantly slays you again, you'll come back good as new, a normal person in the Games. What a weird glitch. There's no way that's on purpose or anything, right? No way!
[ 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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P H A S E III }
W I L D C A R D }
Phase I
But others will. And others will probably attack me too. In a game like this, it hardly matters, but a lot of people won't know that either. [She glances over] It's better to be safe and prepared than hope other people will be kind enough to spare me and not just see me as an easy target.
[Her eyes naturally drift to the stand next now that she's looking at him, expression growing curious] ...What is that?
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Still he doesn't pick anything up and instead gives her a look when her expression changes as she looks at him. ]
Is there something the matter?
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Gee that wall sure is interesting. She shifts her weight uncertainly] ...Sorry. I said something weird. [it's easy to forget sometimes in this place of people with stranger abilities than her that there are still people who might not be so open to those sorts of things. Besides, what if she sees it and he doesn't and now he thinks she's some weirdo who hallucinates??
Good first impression.] It's nothing, you can ignore me. Shouldn't you be grabbing a weapon too?
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i
Are you really going to question me about that, my dear student?
[ it's right after that she looks over towards his stand. ]
I'm certain your pet [ a curious tone, pet is it? ] has a few surprises up its sleeve.
[ she's so calm. so calm that when someone tries to send an axe to the both of them, she breaks it with a heel and then sends the person flying away. ah, the hunger games. ]
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[ It's a statement and one that lacks any sort of ill-will behind it. He had been made vaguely aware of the nature of her world and what she's able to do. The tone which he uses is more that fitting for a gentle reminder. ]
But I think that there are better ways around this than simply listening to them. [ Not that he wouldn't go around punching or maiming his own fair share of people if push came to shove but just not right out of the gate. Not by people he didn't know if he could trust. ]
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you know what, that doesn't matter right now, she thinks to herself while turning her head around. it's chaos out here, there's blood everywhere and it's made a mess of her pristine white dress. ]
Well then. What can you suggest that will make this better, my dear? Because leaving would be a good idea, wouldn't it.
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phase 3
Yet, even as Giorno is walking away, Owain still calls out to him ]
Um, hey! If you want more food, you're welcome to half a package of these!
[ with that, Owain holds up an opened box of food ]
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Corndogs.
Were they frozen?? Giorno gives Owain a bit of a look. If the announcers and cameras wanted to exploit this for what it was, Giorno was going to give it to them. ]
Do you have anything to heat them with out here?
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Giorno will probably notice the sword that rests on the ground next to Owain. It's well within easy reach, yet Owain isn't really sitting in a position that will make it easy for him to quickly grab his sword. ]
I suppose I could create a fire? There was mention of a microwave, yet I am not exactly sure what that is.
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iii.
Atsushi scrambles around his belongings and does, in fact, realize that his trail mix is missing. Which is frankly an inconvenience, because between all the shit he's accumulated, he's gotten attached to that trail mix. It's like that volleyball from Cast Away, that trail mix is his buddy.
So, here's him getting up, sounding a bit indignant. ]
H-hey! You can't just... [ stumbling... ] That's my trail mix...! [ why don't you go eat a corn dog, giorno ]
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Trail mix? [ He'll stop in his tracks and turn around; keep a certain calm air about him. ]
Are you sure you didn't eat it? Didn't you hear the announcer—I only took the can of fish. [ Which he'll hold out for Atsushi. Clearly he's giving it back to him though this whole change in tone has gotten the crowd and the announcer both very excited to see what will happen next. ]
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[ What the fuck, man. Is this some sort of trick? Is this some sort of game???
Atsushi tentatively reaches out for his can of fish, though, because it's objectively his and Giorno shouldn't have taken it in the first place, how rude. ]
Th, there were other things, weren't there? I don't mind if you want to eat, but...! You shouldn't steal...
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iv! (is this really any better than all your food-related tags, though)
These so-called "games" were getting tiring. Was there even any point in playing along with them if they were just going to get stuck in one after another anyway? But doing nothing hadn't yielded much in the way of results, either, so it wasn't like he'd had a choice, and that was how he'd ended up here. He needed to get out of here, and he needed to find Giorno (that hadn't been a dream... right? He was here, he was sure of that—), but for the first time, he's come across his first real obstacle. He'd looked away for just a moment, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw it—
—a very familiar-looking suit.
Logically, Fugo knows it doesn't make any sense. It's not like he hasn't killed people before—he didn't do it by accident, so there's no possible way that even if he was here (impossible—he was already dead, anyway), he could have murdered his friend. Logically, he couldn't have just murdered Buccellati. The body of whoever he'd just killed might look like him right now, but it was definitely an illusion. It had to be.
He knew that, but it gives him pause anyway. It gives him pause, because he's thought about it, and he might never know the answer about what really happened, but— he's thought about it before, and he ends up thinking about it now, too. It's a trick, he's sure of that, but he feels guilty anyway, and he can't help but think— was he not partly responsible for what happened to him? Maybe he hadn't done it himself, with his own hands like this "game" was trying to imply, but...
No. He should go. This was too much and he refused to play along with it. ...but his heart aches and he can't look away, and—
Dammit. Fuck this game.]
(LAUGHS GROSSLY)
(They're dead.)
Giorno doesn't say a word as he slowly approaches the sight that he had stumbled upon. There was a certain level of preparedness that he had started to develop as he continued on with this place. How many days has it been since they arrived? How many people has he stolen from? It didn't seem to matter—peasantries compared to what he sees now. ]
Fugo. [ Giorno's voice is calm as it normally is, but it sounds also vaguely distant as he approaches with caution. Purple Haze might not have been the one who was the cause of this death (there would be nothing left it were), but he was aware of how closely the two were linked in emotions. ]
That isn't Buccellati.
[ Fuck this game in particular. ]
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I'M MAD BECAUSE THAT TAG DEFINITELY WASN'T WRONG.
I'M LAUGHING
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I - no corndogs this time
and that's why he's got a couple of adorable birdie knives in his hands. what can he say? the world is cruel. ]
You'll get out of here a lot faster if you just play along.
you are spared
Is that how it works in these games? We are forced to play along?
[ Somehow that doesn't sit well with him. ]
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phase i.
[ kei has his fingers entwined with each other as he watches, a bit panicking in the inside as he considers his options. none of them are favourable. he's a lot more used to playing games where there's always the opportunity to survive given that resources are provided and you're given a power-up. playing as himself is something else entirely.
he glances down at him. ] You don't look too worried.
[ or maybe he's just reading this badly. ]
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[ He'll answer the non-question simply enough. As Kei stands there with his hands entwined and looking over his choices, Giorno simply looks at the carnage that will soon be ensuing. The various NPCs picking up their weapons and looking wildly around the room. ]
I don't plan to play along with their rules and I don't need a weapon.
[ Turning back to him, Giorno watches to see what he'll do. ]
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[There's a sword in her hands - one that she just barely knows how to use, but it's there. Her hands are trembling because this is the first time she's actually even held a real one in her hands for the purpose of defending herself but there's otherwise no doubt in her eyes.
She turns to him - vaguely recognizes him from one of the stupid dating candidates or whatever - and huffs.]
And people will try to protect me if I'm defenseless and that'll just lead to more bloodshed. Now are you here to attack me or would you care to mind your own business?
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The situation that they're all in, now that he thinks about it. He wanted to aim for the top where he was but... Giorno will move but instead of grabbing for a weapon, he'll place his hand onto his chest. ]
I'm not here to attack you. In fact, I have no intentions in playing along with this.
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She doesn't expect to see someone she knows and her eyes are wide as she takes stock of not only the can of fish but the dried meat and trail mix too.]
...Excuse me.
[Stealing is wrong, Giorno.]
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[ Stealing is wrong but stealing also comes really naturally to Giorno, however he hadn't expected to steal from someone he actually had gotten to know. And so when she speaks up—the lights and the cameras not helping—Giorno instinctively takes a half step back and ducks his head a bit.
Oops. ]
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iii.
it's hard not to notice the fact that someone stole some of the food he'd stashed away when it's being shoved in his face like this, and. he should probably say something. honestly, it's not even the act itself that bothers adrien... it's more like the fact that giorno's just walking away.
given that he hadn't been killed or anything when he wasn't noticing, he can't say his impression of the person who just stole from him is bad. a person that won't kill him in a situation like this seems like a blessing, almost. so, he calls out, hand outstretched, more desperate than angry: ]
Hey, wait—!
[ yeah adrien.
call the thief-dude back! ]
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Even if he did just try to rob him of a few goods, he still have some semblance of manners so he'll stop in his tracks before turning on his heel. This wasn't the same case with Koichi where he figured he could make his getaway anyway. Well, not without attracting even more attention to him when he didn't ask for it. ]
Yes?
[ And since there's no use hiding the fact that he just stole from him, Giorno will be completely relaxed in terms of how he carries the can of fish that was so obviously pointed out. (The trail mix and dried meats however are still safely tucked away on his person.)
Though, now that Adrien had successfully gotten his attention, what did he want? ]
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