transmitting live, transmissions rise

[faceplate]

Who: faceplate & YOU
When: IC 11/6, OOC 24/3
Where: Mostly ViVID
What: Zer0 is terrible. Time to make friends!
Rating/Warning: Violence, probably.

---

[ you spy with your little eye someone who isn't being quite as stealthy as they think they are. a tall, dark figure (maybe handsome?? we just don't know), loitering in alleyways, behind buildings, up on rooftops... it's hecka creepy. if you approach fast enough, zero doesn't run away!

and sometimes, they even initiate conversation., with things like, ] Wanna go kill stuff?

[ ...yep. ]

(( ooc: closed starters below! ))

Comments

MARCO.

[faceplate]

[ for once zero is unhidden. they step between busy pedestrians who are programmed not to notice a fairly tall, black-suited figure cutting through the crowds. upon being noticed or looked at for any more than a passing glance, however, zero seems to notice, turning their head to fix their... helmet in marco's direction.

ah, another player. zero walks towards him quickly. ]

Wait.

[drinkscola]

[ woops, yeah, perhaps that had been more than a passing glance on his part. marco should know better than to do that, really, as intriguing as zero's — was that an avatar, specifically created for the game? he wasn't sure — appearance is.

but damn, seems like he's attracted this player's attention. marco forces an apprehensive smile, slowing in his pace. ]

Ah, hey. What's up?

[faceplate]

[ zero closes most of the distance between them, staying only a few feet away. marco could probably still run at this point..! ]

Looking for partner. [ zero elaborates, after a second. ] Two-person quest, requiring another's presence.

KOUHA.

[faceplate]

[ a king has an audience in his main hall, a palace in a game equal parts fantasy and nautical adventure. as he stands and makes a grand gesture, people stand—

—and then the king falls, stabbed through the chest by a blade that glows blue for only a second before vanishing again. zero runs, cloaked into invisiblity, to the side of the room and hides between brocade curtains until the furor moves and they can find a better hiding spot. any other player characters in the audience just missed out on their chance to fulfill an assassination quest! ]

[roughcut]

[As it so happens, Kouha is just standing around by those (very nice) curtains, too. He had been waiting for his moment to approach the king and finally grab the reward for this overly-long quest, when someone snatches it away before he gets his chance. Unfair!]

No way! Hey, that kill was supposed to me mine!

[He can't see whoever did it, but he gets the feeling they're hanging around. There's no convenient way out, so the killer can't have run off that quickly.

Unfortunately, yelling like that just gets the attention drawn to both of them. Uh-oh. Maybe hanging out next to a wall was a bad idea.]

[faceplate]

[ zero feels a quick moment of satisfaction, because haha, they got it first. a second after they tamp down the reaction and focus on escaping—a more difficult task when people are looking at them.

zero doesn't waste any time when the guards start moving towards them. they slide out from behind the curtains, materialized now since their cloak has run out, and does their best to dart by. if the other person gets left behind, too bad! ]

FELIX.

[faceplate]

[ the game's not even meant to allow NPC killing, but hey, isn't that just another obstacle to overcome? zero faces this challenge like they do all others: without much hesitation. they're perched up in a quaint tower that fits into the fantasy-esque vivid game, scope trained on one of the shopkeepers below. there's a hole in their code, a spot that leads to a kill.

zero touches the trigger of their rifle. just a little bit more... if that player in the helmet would just move out of the way...

a minute or two passes. zero sighs to themselves, switches out rounds to soft-ish plastic pellets, and fires into the cobblestones by their feet. scoot, buddy. they want a clear shot. ]

[monology]

[Frankly it startles the shopkeeper more than it startles Felix. He's been shot at more times than he can count, and he could tell just from the sound of it that it wasn't metal bullets. He doesn't even look down to check if he's bleeding. No, instead he glances upwards, gaze casting around vaguely. Like he doesn't really know what he's looking for. To the untrained eye, he gives up and shrugs it off, turning back to the shopkeeper.]

Weird huh? Must've been a glitch or something.
[Though the shopkeeper is puzzled by his wording, they seem to settle down. And Felix takes his time finishing his business, unabated. Or maybe on purpose. He's fidgeting a lot with his hands, and the reason will become apparent to Zero moments later when Felix disguises a knife toss as a casual gesture, and it sinks into the tower wall near where Zero's hiding.

There's a paper wrapped around the grip. If you investigate, you'll see it's got "You know you can't kill NPCs, right?" scrawled on it.]

[faceplate]

[ zero tracks trajectory well enough to know that it won't hit them, but it could still be an explosive. when they don't sense anything from it, they reach down just enough to grab the knife and retreat back up to their perch.

...rude. zero's amused more than anything, however. they replace the note with another message before lobbing the knife back in a smooth arc; the tip lodges itself in the stones and the knife stands up next to the stranger.

now the message just says Watch.

the shot still isn't perfectly clear. but zero takes it. they know the risks and weigh them with the ease of long practice—which is to say, with caution and taking as much time as they can before they lose their chance.

a bullet (real, this time) punctures the hole in the NPCs code. where a normal attack on an NPC would have resulted in a scripted reaction, mostly a flinch and complaint, this bullet lodges in deep and the storekeeper freezes completely in their tracks. ]

YUSUKE.

[faceplate]

[ dirt is already coating zero's bodysuit, dust thrown up by the constant passing of motorbikes on a path to the half-pipe causing chaos.

but at least it's fun. not as fun as running people over, sure, but when the game is based on the sikkest triks (sic), zero just can't say no. they're still picking between the given bikes to decide which one to use, but there's only a minute or two before the game actually starts. there's no rush in zero's movements, though. ]

[fingerbanged]

[If there was an upside to this hellhole of a place, it was that there were plenty of distractions when one needed them.

And, considering all the stress Yusuke had been through in the past few days, one was sorely needed. It didn't seem that smart to willingly go back into one of these ViViD things after what he went through in the last one, but Yusuke was the king of dumb ideas. Besides-- they couldn't seriously toss monsters into a game like this, right? It would be way too easy to run them over!

It doesn't take Yusuke long to settle on a motorcycle, a Phoenix Evo with a green paint job which he's currently throwing a leg over to hop onto. He knew absolutely nothing about vehicles and their mechanics or racing, so he didn't care what he went with as long as it looked cool. The dust from the other bikers made him a bit gritty, but that wasn't anything new to him.

Settling onto his bike with his hands on the handles, Yusuke keeps a casual eye on the others in the pre-game area, wondering if any of them would be like those crazy NPCs back in the dating game he fell into. His sight settles upon Zero and their less-than-conventional get-up, and he frowns just a bit. If anyone screamed 'creepy NPC', it'd be this weirdo right here, although with how much time they were deliberating on their bikes, it was possible they were a real person instead.

So yeah, don't mind him keeping a low-key eye on you Zero while you decide, waiting with thin patience for this game to actually start.]

[flimsylies]

[ His eyebrows go up. It's usually his job to loiter in alleyways being a creep. It's quite novel to find someone else willing to take up the mantle, and Hisoka does so love a novel experience. However, he never likes to show his hand too early and instead inquires in a tone of false obtuseness, ]

What did you have in mind?

[faceplate]

Perhaps a mission nearby.

[ not that zero is adverse to general murder, but why not make some money in the meantime? ]

[makigumo]

[ Shihoudou laughs, amused. ]

Sure, Granny doesn't mind doing that once in a while~!

[faceplate]

You have grandchildren? I thought age took from you types.

[ "humans", zero thinks. or something like that. ]

[digiteyesed]

[Oh, hey! Check out this guy! Ene is very curious about the guy running around all Assassins Creed style and she will absolutely float up to see what he's up to.

The question, however, takes her off guard.]

What kind of stuff? That's a concerning question to hear from a rooftop stalker!

[faceplate]

Perhaps a mob to aggro, or bigger targets.

[forceofnature]

[Viridi was sitting on a rooftop ledge eating chocolate ice cream when she spotted the creepazoid out of the corner of her eye.]

...Um. You need to work on pick-up lines.

Also probably on not picking up little girls.

[faceplate]

[ ? ]

Why would I pick you up? Don't need projectile.

[beaconed]

[ THIS IS SUUUUUPER CREEPY because some masked dude just spoke up from behind an alleyway and asked Jaune if he wants to go kill stuff. You know, while Jaune is carrying grocery items on his way home.

What does one even say to that?!? ]

...
You-- you mean right now, or...?

[ He may or may not be screaming internally for help. ]

[faceplate]

[ look, buddy, murder waits for no person. ]

Preferably, yes. Now. Please?

[spaghettibia]

No, thank you!

[ Truthfully, Papyrus didn't really mean to approach Zero, he's just been finding creative ways to get home (aka getting lost) and headed down a dark alley on accidental-purpose.

He's carrying several bags of dry pasta noodles. ]

What if we go do an activity in no ways related to killing stuff?!

[faceplate]

[ a skeleton is pretty weird, but zero has seen weirder. they think so, anyway. what is weird is being told that they could do a group activity that doesn't involve murder. ]

Other things are boring. I would like to kill, now.

[ there's no threat in their tone, just a sort of disappointment at being turned down.

for what it's worth, zero means killing... in a game. mostly. ]

[kirkwalled]

[ hawke's got on her janitor jumpsuit with the little nametag that reads "HAWKE" on it and she's busy painting over some graffiti in an alleyway when zer0 approaches her. she blinks in surprise and scratches her nose with a finger, getting red paint mixed in with the already there blood on her nose. ]

Well, yes. [ . . . ] But also, why?

[ technically, she's working but also: who cares. hawke is actually huckleberry finn irl. ]

[faceplate]

ViViD. Have some fun killing. [ zero tips their head to the other side. ]

Are you busy now?