we found a map to candy mountain ][ open

[dielectrics]

Who: dielectrics, punchestumors, chainjailer, and you!
When: 12/02
Where: ViViD
What: ViViD gaming shenanigans
Rating/Warning: none

---

[ It’s a perfectly lovely day in ViViD. The sun is shining, the grass is green, and birds are singing in the leafy boughs of the towering trees lining the side of the path. Off to the side, a small, rotund werewolf pokes its nose into a patch of flowers and sneezes as it inhales a snoutful of pollen.

On a hillside, a flock of fluffy pink sheep graze, meandering from patch to patch of flowering clover. Totally harmless, innocent, adorable sheep. Those totally aren't fangs peeking out from their mouths at all. The air is filled with delightful floral scents and the soft baa-ing as one sheep converses with another.

Three men (well, an old-looking guy, a teenager, and a pre-teen) are standing around in a circle in this nice valley, paused at the edge of the ravine that marks one of its borders and overlooks a swiftly flowing river. Their attention is absorbed by peering at a map — conveniently, the bridge stretching across the ravine is on that map. Score, they're not totally lost! Also on the map: a large, red X marking a spot - looks like it’s treasure hunting time!

Or, at least, fetch-quest time. As Leorio, Kurapika, Killua, and company discuss (read: argue) over which way to go, one of the adorable pink sheep wanders nearer toward them, curiosity piqued by the sound of their voices.

And the dragon at the other end of the bridge belches a scorching wave of fire right at our intrepid heroes.

Yep, it sure is a lovely day in ViViD. ]

( See individual thread starters for Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika for prompts! Feel free to assume that your character has been roped into making a party with them, or that you’re just running into them in the course of playing the game. )

Comments

Our Heroes vs Directions (closed)

[dielectrics]

[ As the wave of flame comes roaring toward them, Killua neatly dodges behind a soot-streaked bit of stone wall, tucking himself down to keep the tips of his hair from being singed. Almost as an afterthought, he grabs Leorio by the arm and yanks him down into cover, too. (Kurapika, he can at least trust to look after himself.)

When the flame lets up a bit — even dragons have to breathe sometime — he pokes his head up for a quick look at their foe. The distinctly less than impressed look on Killua’s face, brought about by their current menaced-by-dragon situation, is matched only by the bored disdain on the dragon’s reptilian visage. ]

Are you sure this is where we’re supposed to be going?

[ Because, you know, there’s a dragon in their way. ]

[punchestumors]

[Leorio pokes his head out too, calmly pretending he did not just get rescued by a kid]

That's where the town is, ain't it?! ....Gah, This dragon is seriously out of place in fluffy sheep land, though. I bet some asshole lured it over.

[chainjailer]

[Kurapika neatly plucks the map from Leorio's hands, taking a better look at it himself. Those two could stare at the dragon and wait for it to bletch fire again, but that wasn't going to get them where they needed to go.]

Yes, that's where the town is if we go in a straight line... However, there should be another way around. Bridges are hardly the be-all and end-all.

The Party Thief - Killua (open)

[dielectrics]

(a: riff raff, street rat )
[ What does any good RPG have? A marketplace. Bustling and full of sights and sounds, merchants hawking their wares, the smell of roast beast flavoring the air, and banners waving in the brisk breeze. And the city guard running past and yelling about some thief. Typical RPG town, typical RPG happenings, that’s what happens when “thief” is one of the available character classes. This is totally nothing out of the ordinary.

Except for that kid dressed in a really class-specific outfit who’s ducking behind you (or yanking you down to crouch out of sight behind some crates, or pulling you into a nearby alley, or… well, you get the idea) and is pretty obviously trying to hide from those shouting guards. Killua peers out from his cover, watching as the guards spread out to search through the area with a self-satisfied smile. He turns to his new companion and says, brightly: ]

Quick, act natural.

[ Looks like you’ve just been drafted as the would-be-thief's accomplice. ]

(b: lie down with dogs )
[ You’re walking through the woods. There’s no one around and your CEREvice is dead. Or just not functioning since you’re in ViViD. Out of the corner of your eye, you spot him:

A werewolf. A werewolf bouncing around and barking at the base of a tree. And is that— yep, looks like it brought a present to someone. A nice, dead, level 1 trash mob sitting on the ground and slowly fraying into individual pixels.

Killua’s perched up in the branches, eyeing the werewolf with distaste and resembling nothing more than a treed cat. ]

Shoo. [ The werewolf whines at him. ] Ugh, you’re the most useless pet ever.

[ In response, the werewolf wags its tail. ]

(c: luck be a lady )
[ Every good RPG has that one city where you can go to spend all your hard-earned (or ill-gotten) in-game currency in one fell swoop through the magic of slot machines. Slot machines with fabulous, fetch-quest item prizes. Sure, you could go out and hope the RNG gods are with you in the pursuit of acquiring all thirty five “brightly shining bezoars” one random drop at a time.

Or you could be like Killua, sitting at one of the slot machines and surrounded by a not-inconsiderable pile of loot with luck+ items equipped in every slot as you industriously try to win the bezoars. Too bad those luck+ items have a chance of catastrophic failure, but hey, that’s statistically improbable, right?

Maybe someone should stop him before he tests those odds. Gambling is a terrible habit to get into, after all. ]

(d: cue final boss fight music )
[ What would an RPG be without a dungeon crawl? After corridors upon corridors of handily-dispatched mooks, broken up by a midboss or two, the boss room door looms near. That sure is an imposing entrance, what with the skulls tacked over the lintel, human bones spilling out of the doorway, and some really incredibly welcoming growling noises coming from within.

Rather than intimidated, Killua looks thrilled as the group approaches. ]

Great, there’s the dragon’s lair.

[ The dragon’s lair, and the dragon inside — and everyone knows that dragons drop the best loot.

Killua turns to his nearest companion and grins, bright and innocent. ]

You go distract it. I’ll circle around from the back and get in a critical hit.

[ Or take advantage of the dragon’s distraction to grab the steal-only item it’s carrying. The true reason he wanted a party is revealed: gotta have those meatshields. ]

(e: wildcard )
[ Insert your own scenario of choice here! ]

a

[masakados]

[Congratulations, Killua! You have chosen the most conspicuous person that you possibly could have chosen to duck behind-- but that's probably a good strategy in itself. If the guards look his way, it's because his tattoos are a steadily pulsing green of strobey distraction and not because they think someone's hiding behind him.

Naoki looks back over one of his shoulders briefly with faint surprise, then recognition, and then he faces forward, watching the shouting guards scatter this way and that.]

Natural, got it, [he says.] But... gimme the full story after.

[Regale him with your exploits.]

[dielectrics]

[ The glowing tattoos are a great distraction from some totally innocent kid who's definitely done nothing wrong and deserving of having the city guard chasing after him.

Killua waits until the guards have given up on this section of the market and gone on their grumpy way before he steps out from behind Naoki and grins up at him. ]

Hey! [ He offers a little wave in greeting. ] Think they're gone, or are they gonna circle back?

b

[flaredo]

[ Well, isn't that a familiar face?

... In the tree, Yang seems to remember a plethora of werewolves that all looked like this one, but because of who it's harassing-- she'll approach and crouch down. ]

Long time, no see, Fluffles!

[dielectrics]

[ Up in the tree, Killua freezes. No. No, this can't be happening. It's bad enough the stupid werewolf keeps following him around, being totally useless — he even fed it enough experience for a level up and all it did was get a little furrier! — but to have Yang of all people show up! It's like someone is out to make his life as hard as possible.

It doesn't help that the stupid werewolf sees Yang and obviously remembers her, if the frenetic round of barking and jumping around her in a circle is anything to go by. Ugh. Dogs.

Maybe if he stays really, really still, she won't notice him. It's kind of late for it, but a quick sealing of his aura can't hurt, right? Right, it's totally worth trying to see how well zetsu will work on her in the slim chance she hasn't already spotted him. ]

D

[puerilely]

[ Okay, So Killua said they could go into ViViD and beat up some stuff. And you know what? That's basically all the incentive Shuu needs to do anything, so he just followed the other guy around.. all the way here until this lair here.

And to be fair, it's not like his plan is failing. It's just that Shuu is a little too aggressive to just be a meatshield and nothing else.. ]

Distract it..? That's no fun. [ SLOWLY LOOKING MORE UNHINGED.. you're doing such a good job at seeming like a sane person, Shuu. ] How about I kill it first..?

[dielectrics]

Nope.

[ Sorry, Shuu, DENIED. And to get it through Shuu's head, considering he's looking more and more like certain members of Killua's family with every passing second, he gives Shuu a friendly flick right to the forehead. Bad dog. ]

Not until I have a chance to steal its rare drop. It's supposed to be one of the best daggers in the game.

[ And Killua is going to get it, damnit. Shuu can go all out nuts on the dragon AFTER he gets that dagger, he's not going to have wasted collecting thirty five stupid goat-digestion stones just to miss out on the loot! ]

c

[chainjailer]

[After watching Killua for a few minutes, Kurapika silently walks over and ahand comes to rest disapprovingly on Killua's shoulder, stopping him from his next crank at the slot machine.]

Killua...I think you've had enough. [Mom is here to ruin your fun.]

[dielectrics]

[ Why do you have to ruin all his fun, Mom!!!

Luckily, he is aware enough of his surroundings to realize it's Kurapika and not some stranger with their hand on his shoulder, though, so Kurapika gets to keep that hand! Success all around!

Without glancing away from the slot machines, Killua says, cheerfully: ]

Oh, hey, Kurapika. I've almost got ten, I'm on a roll.

LeorioQuest (open!)

[punchestumors]

a; JOURNEY
[His party took off too fast and Leorio doesn’t know where the fuck he’s going, as a result he’s kind of putzing around the area talking to NPCs. One of them told him to collect random plants to make healing potions and hey, that’s a bit old school but who is he to judge? What I’m getting at is you’re going to come across this huge gangly man picking flowers while he tries to figure out where he’s even supposed to go. Also, if you’re passing by and seem injured, he might offer to take a look at it! Despite the fact that he doesn’t look even remotely like a healing class. What’s up with that.]

b; MONSTERS
[So, in the end it turns out Leorio has been given the task of retrieving weapons from a small camp of orcs hanging out in a cave. Thanks guys, for sticking him with the one with the greatest concentration of enemies. He gives them the stinkeye from behind a large boulder. They’re around his level, but he’s outnumbered 12 to 1. It seems like they are all rather firm in their posts… All right, maybe he can mess with them then. He slams his hand into a warp portal that he just opened in the side of the boulder, which appears from another portal into the back of an orc’s head. It spins around to attack! … But sees nothing there, so it returns to its post, casting wary looks at its fellow orcs. Leorio grins widely - it looks like he’s in business. A few minutes later, the foolish monsters are squabbling amongst themselves. Feeling lucky, he swoops in to grab the sparkling crate full of daggers and run! … And that’s how Leorio starts a train of orcs across the zone. Help him maybe? Or just point and laugh. It’s your call.]

c; LOOT
[Whether it’s with friendly assistance or masterful kiting and singlehanded slaughter, the orcs got dead. Now Leorio’s frisking all of their corpses obsessively for drops. Anything that could be armor or weapons, he’s shoving in a bag. Mostly he’s just getting even more daggers, but he doesn’t seem satisfied with that.]

Hey, you think these earrings they’re wearing will sell for anything?

[Later, he can be found at a vendor, hell bent to make all this stupid junk sell, and at the price that he wants. His haggling is actually quite impressive in a way.]

d; CRAFTING
[Well now that that’s taken care of, he’s ready to go back to the NPC from before and make some sweet ass potions. But why did that one explode!? Just because his alchemy level is low, that’s no excuse for it to spontaneously combust!]

Shit! What kind of plants are these!!

b

[masakados]

[Naoki's just doing his thing when he sees a glint off in the distance. Pausing after taking down another crowd of monsters, he turns toward it and shades his eyes with a hand... Huh. Is that a guy?

--being followed by a train of orcs? It sure looks it.

He doesn't move out of the way, though, even if he's kinda in the path that Leorio's running in. Nope. Just standing here nonplussed, watching him grow closer and closer.]

[punchestumors]

[Leorio is still holding the crate under one arm as the orcs chase him. Man, he hasn't had people after him like since he was a kid!

But now there's a guy in his way - and well from the look of him Leorio's honestly not sure if he's even a player or part of the game - but it's not fair to involve someone else in his mistake, so he'll just try to signal him the best he can. By yelling!]

Oi oi oi oi oi! WATCH OUT, ANGRY MOB COMIN' THROUGH!

The Red Mage - Kurapika (open)

[chainjailer]

intro;
[Kurapika hardly thought it sensical to split up within Vivid. It would cut down on the menial fetch questing they were doing, but he and Leorio were still unfamiliar with the territory, and he was unfamiliar with the specialties involved with his "class" that left him in bizarre thigh-high boots and a red motif. Really, it was as tacky as it was tactless given his eyes… He preferred blue.

Unfortunately it was far too late to argue now, especially after he had hurried away from the group to make sure he wasn’t last and left to suffer Leorio’s complaints. Unfamiliar or not, Kurapika was used to adapting to situations and working alone, so instead of mulling on it any longer he decided to head out.]

a; kurapeta
[Stopping at the edge of the nearby forest, Kurapika gave his first fetch item a look.

Antelopious Horn x55]

…Fifty-five? What in the world would anybody need 55 horns for? That’s ridiculous, I’m not killing 55 anything. [A pause. Animals usually had two sets of horns.] Or 27.5, as the case may be.

[Another pause. Just how many horns did an Antelopious have? He wasn’t familiar with the animal at all. In fact, how was he supposed to find an animal if he didn’t even know what it looked like?

Going around killing everything with horns hardly seemed productive, and he was still against it unless the thing managed to have just that many horns on one or two creatures. Perhaps he could just cut the horns into enough pieces, but first…]

Excuse me, do you know what an “Antelopious” is?

b; a two party team
[Learning about a spider terrorizing a local village, Kurapika forgets that he’s playing a game and gets all riled up. Immediately taking the task into his own hands, he starts trying to get information from the villagers of the affected town in order to hunt down the monster.]

You need a party of at least two to complete this quest. [One very helpful NPC says.]

You’ve already said that, but I prefer to work alone. I want to know the location of the Spider’s base. [The NPC merely repeats the requirements to Kurapika.]

Is that really all you can say? [The NPC repeats the requirements again, earning a frustrated noise from the Kurta as well as providing an answer to that question. Storming off, his eyes scan the village. If that’s how it had to be then fine, he would find himself a temporary ally.

Someone nearby catches his eye and he walks over, determination glinting in his narrowed eyes.] You wouldn’t happen to be an actual person, would you?

c; “crafting”
[In one hand, a leaf. In the other hand, another leaf. Between the two stood a dubious looking Kurapika glancing between them.]

How is putting two leaves together meant to create a flower? [It’s what the directions said…

He wasn’t going to craft these himself anyway (he was a “Red Mage” not an “Alchemist”), but that was hardly the point.]

d; spider dungeon from hell
[Somehow during his exploits on the sidequest he unwittingly walked into and followed to completion, Kurapika came to the final dungeon in his quest. Spiders had been a running theme in the information he’d been getting, and maybe a little foolishly he hadn’t expected actual spiders.

So here he was, stepping into a 25-foot tall dungeon with a 12-foot tall spider bearing down on him. Even with the level gap Kurapika doesn’t seem to hesitate. His eyes burn red as he uses his Dowsing Chain like a mace to slam into the spider’s mandible. An intense battle follows with Kurapika darting around the cavern before, finally, he hits the spider under its belly. There’s a loud screech and the monster keels over before slowly fading out from existence entirely.

Kurapika’s too shocked to even react at first, simply standing in an empty cave with nothing but the drop items remaining. They were a few stray legs, a set of spider eyes, and a trading card.]

...A trading card. [The ridiculousness of it all keeps him rooted to the spot, and then he notices the eyes. Walking over, he steps on them and speaks through clenched teeth.] What a waste of time.

e; this loser is reading
[Kurapika entered the library for research at some point and hasn’t been out since.. Now, hours later he was sitting in one of the plush reclining chairs with a book in his hands and several more piled up on the coffee table beside him. History books, biographies, adventure novels, and several on the in-game lore.

His pile of 53 Antelopious horn pieces sat at the edge of the chair.]

f; wildcard
[Choose your own adventure!]

reading rainbow

[souredsweet]

[There's a familiar face! Kaoru, who had only just been looking around for books on relatively dry subjects (Cerealian business in particular, it seems), almost immediately sets off toward Kurapika's chair once he's spotted, a friendly smile in place.

Of course, that smile fades to a look of curiosity and then confusion pretty dang fast when he realizes that there's a pile of horns just sort of hanging out there. Has the library suddenly become a hunting lodge?? Manners first, as always:]

Good afternoon, Kurapika-san. [And THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH, manners done, time for the important part-] Pardon the question, but... what are those?

[And why is Kurapika carrying them around like one might do a wallet??]

[chainjailer]

[Glancing up, Kurapika really hadn't expected to see someone like Kaoru here. He's glad his immature fool of a friend isn't around.]

Ah, Kaoru. [He looks down at the bag of horns--or rather, piece of horns--at his feet. A look of exasperation overcomes his features just at the sight of them.] I tried to compromise with one of the quest-givers. They wanted 55 horns from one of the fauna, but it seemed a waste to kill that many just for their horns.

b!

[flaredo]

[ Yang is all for teamwork, but she's also used to working alone, so either way, she's by herself today and seemingly okay with it.

... And also not expecting some irritated-looking guy to approach her. Still, she's not all that fazed, propping a hand on her hip. ]

If that's your usual way of saying hello, you might want to work on that.

[chainjailer]

It's not, but when half the people I try talking to in this game are nothing but robots... [Kurapika, they're not called "robots".]

Given your reaction, I take it you're not one of them. [He looks a little less irritated now, since that turned out easier than expected. Glancing towards the last NPC he'd been talking with, he goes on.] The one over there tells me I need a partner in order to take on a certain "quest".

A

[puerilely]

[ Wow, look at this loser over here... Shuu still doesn't really like Kurapika all that much, despite having gotten over the worst of his psycho moment back there. Then again, it's still not enough to stop him from acting like a shitlord now and laughing when he sees the other guy asking something from one of the other people. ]

Wha-t..? [ He stretches out the word almost childishly and giggles. ] Looking for something like this..?

[ He may or may not have a bloodied pair of horns right there in his hands, dangling them out of the other guy's reach. ]

[chainjailer]

[Kurapika still thinks Shuu is an immature fool, so they're on equal disliking ground here.

That hardly changes when he hears the other man and turns to see him dangling those horns at him as if he were a dog begging for a treat. Having half a mind to just knock them right out of the guy's hands and then kick him in the jaw, Kurapika remains still with an unamused leer instead.]

That would depend. Do those belong to an Antelopious?

slams into option b I'M NOT LATE YOU'RE LATE

[perfectstrike]

He's a party of two.

[A wild, oh-so-helpful Pekoyama appears! Dressed in what's obviously a Warrior's garb, complete with armor, helmet, and sword. She isn't in ViViD very often, but enough times to be more than familiar enough with the way the people in-game spoke.

Not that it doesn't alarm her, to some extent, considering that in theory all they are is data, and maybe there wouldn't be much to take a real person and turn them into something like these NPCs?? Overthinking it.

With Peko there to serve as his party member, there shouldn't be much more of a problem getting information about the quest!]

IT'S TRUE I'M LATE

[chainjailer]

Ah-- [Kurapika blinks to look over at Peko, wondering just where she came from all of a sudden.

He doesn't even recognize her from the time they met at his work, so she might as well be a total surprisingly helpful stranger to him right now. Still, he won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Turning back to the NPC, he confirms.] That's right.

[Lifting a hand and holding it out towards her.] This is my, ah...party.

[Forgive him, he's still not used to using this RPG jargon. It works though, and soon enough the NPC is rambling on a list of convoluted directions that Kurapika is apparently content with taking entirely mental notes on. When the monologue is over he turns back to Peko.] Hm... Thank you for that. These robots are impossible to reason with.

C

[punchestumors]

...Huh, you're supposed to start by making flowers? Guess that explains why my potions kept exploding.

[he thought it was just a steep learning curve!! And yet he has a stack of them already made. He's nothing if not determined.]