PHASE I [ 10 00 ] The “cleansing" doesn't begin too strangely. No, instead it starts with some minor inconveniences. After Mosley's broadcast, anything running on electricity seems to be… mildly on the fritz. Characters will find their home appliances suddenly rebelling just enough to be troublesome. Anything that uses electricity within the bounds of the colony will start suffering from some small malfunctions. (Do we have any cyborgs in the crowd tonight?) Toasters burning your breakfast and shooting the crispy things at you. Televisions suddenly exploding in a haze of smoke before working perfectly fine a moment later. Hair dryers suddenly running a little too hot and whoops, your hair's on fire… Well, this is all still just a small issue. Probably. Here's hoping the fire extinguisher doesn't run on electricity too?
PHASE II [ 1200 ] It's only glitches for a day or so, but by noon the next day, things get a little weird. We interrupt your regularly scheduled routine to bring you this important message: Welcome to ViViD. … Wait, what? Yeah, sorry about that. Whether you wanted to or not, you've found yourself in the virtual simulator… except it doesn't seem very… virtual anymore, no. The monsters look a bit meaner, and they seem to be after you in particular. You might suddenly be glitched into a dead end, or a level that actually doesn't seem to be beatable at all, with people you've never seen before as your party members. Endless mazes! Boss battles with a wooden sword! Dungeons with no walkthroughs! When you finally make it to the end, you might even find a giant wall blocking your way, or a moat where there was once a path. Now that's troublesome.
And make sure you don't get hurt by any of those monsters. Not like it matters, it's just HP, right? Wrong. Rather, it'll actually hurt quite a bit, just as if you were injured in real life.
If you're lucky, you'll find yourself glitched back out maybe half an hour later -- your wounds still fresh from the experience and still bleeding. Just don't die. You don't want to see what will happen if you die.
PHASE III [ 1800 ] It's the day after, and you've survived your unfortunate ViViD runs (though there's no promise that you won't end up there yet again). But for now, you've finished your work day without too many electrical object malfunctions, and you're on your way home. Normally the transit system is so very reliable. From district to district, the metro is your only way of travel and today? Today it's stopping with an ugly screech. Hopefully you don't need to be anywhere because it's safe to say that you're not getting off this ride any time soon. The lights aren't only flickering anymore, they're completely out. The darkness settles in uncomfortably as you're only left with the other people who were making the same trip. A second later, things start to get weird. Cold breath down your neck. The scratch of something sharp and angry against the outside of the cabin. Seconds pass in silence, the presence of something outside growing more and more frightening. If you hold your breath and stay very still, you might make it out just fine. That is until a forceful SLAM sounds behind you and there's something against your window. At least you know what's been making all that noise.
Of course, should you pry open the doors, there's nobody there, but… you couldn't have been imagining that, right?
Looks like the entire city's blacked out… and without the hum of technology and warmth of the advanced lighting system, some ghosts have come out to play. But they can only be seen from the corner of your eye, a glimpse, a breath, a nondescript whisper on the air and then they're gone. Who knows what they want from you…? Either way, they're not saying, staying just out of reach and mostly out of sight… but always there, watching and waiting.
PHASE IV [ 0000 ] Here you are, finally: day 4. You made your way through the dark, avoided the things that go bump in the night and found your apartment. Your pants are gone, your door is locked, and you've managed to stumble right into your bed/nest/cocoon/what-have-you. Your unbearably long day is finally, finally about to come to a close but then something glitches, worse than before. Suddenly you're not all cozy in your bed, but rather suspended in an unidentifiable space. In this darkness, there is screaming and only screaming. You try to move your limbs, use your voice -- and there is nothing. Rather, you can only look on as the space shifts and you see two figures appearing in the darkness, glowing in the same digital blue that lights up the rest of the colony. As you get closer, the screaming grows louder -- a woman's screams, you can hear now. It sounds garbled, like broken pieces of sound bytes. She's being strangled, you can see now. The other figure strangling her is a robot, metallic and ruthless. He turns to see you and his eyes glow with the same blue shine. As the woman -- LILITH, for those who have seen her or heard her voice may recognize -- finally begins to lose her strength to scream, the robot's mouth slowly spreads into a smile as he maintains eye contact, cold and yet somehow pleased.
In the next second, you have been returned to your body, echoes of screaming your only lullaby. Sleep doesn't seem as likely anymore, does it?
BONUS [ whyo'clock ] If at all possible, the darkness just got darker. How, you might ask? Well, it seems like someone just put a bag over your head! That's a little inconvenient, but it looks like you're suffering from an old school kidnapping at some point through these couple of days, complete with your assailants pushing you around asking, “Where the hell is the money?!" As they shove you into their shady kidnapper van, you can hear a certain song playing which is… a bit too on the nose for this situation. As the wheels of the vehicle stop and you're pushed out, the bag comes off and you're facing down your friendly neighborhood debt collector. He's slow to get his words out but they are very menacing indeed, something about threatening your family and sleeping with the alien fishes in the park. When you protest, insisting that you don't owe them any money, they pull out a CereVice and show your bank account, which does indeed seem to be approximately 50 million credits in debt.
They'll do this even if you're not in debt at all, and, in fact, it is impossible for you to be in debt, as CERES doesn't loan money to you people. Looks like the glitching did a number on your bank account though, and the numbers don't lie.
Looks like you're out of luck, friend. Why not have a friendly chat with the other half a dozen people who have been bagged and kidnapped as well? There's even a small table with snacks as you wait. Wait for what, they haven't exactly said yet. Maybe you should just leave through the window.
PENALTY [ xxxx ] Should you be unlucky enough to die in ViViD while it is glitching and injuries are being sustained, you will find yourself in a penalty game. Even more than usual penalty games, this one is increasingly unnerving. There is nothing but a dark room, a single light hovering over two masks on a table. One might recognize them as the masks of comedy and tragedy. In front of the player, red words slowly illuminate the room. Pick one. Well, that's an easy penalty game, isn't it?
Yet as you reach for one, the masks will suddenly turn into the faces of the two most important people to you. Their voices whisper, growing distressed as time goes on, “Pick me, pick me, pick me." The red words turn into a countdown if you take too long -- your hand forcibly moved to pick one mask or the other if the timer runs out. Yet once you put on the mask, you will see the person who was not picked, suddenly and brutally murdered right before your eyes by a shadowy figure, wearing the mask you chose.
With that, you will return to the colony, good as new. Though on occasion, you may see the person whose mask was not picked in the corner of your eye, dressed in black and wearing the very same mask of tragedy.
[ 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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Lee-san! [she moves over to him] Are you all right?
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[In fact, he'll eye Minako's enemy now, worried about for her safety. He'll have to open some Gates to deal with these enemies... although the monster that had attacked Lee is charging forward at the same time.]
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the monsters are still coming, and Minako doesn't know how to stop them. they have to have a weak spot. all enemy bosses do!]
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[Then he tosses off the weights on his ankles and starts dashing forward as he opens some of his chakra gates. As he unleashes the energy, his skin starts to turn red, and he starts swiftly attacking the monster closest to Minako, this time with much stronger punches and kicks.]
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her hand goes to her hip, where the Venus Crystal is tucked away in her coat pocket...
and then Rock Lee starts attacking with his own kind of power, and it's so incredible. she hadn't expected it at all]
Lee-san... [he was amazing!]
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As I hold him off... Keep your eyes open for weak points! I believe in you, Minako-san!
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she starts running to the other side, keeping a mindful eye on where the ninja attacks. it takes her a few minutes of observation, but then she sees something, sees when the monster reels back]
Lee-san! You're getting the most damage out when you hit it between the eyes! It must be where its brain is!
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Keeping your brain there as well... That's too much!! [He's shouting this to the monster as he charges forward and delivers a powerful kick to it right between the eyes.]
Konoha Rising Wind!!!
[Now the monster topples backwards, critically hit.]
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but then the other monster is going in for an attack] Look out!
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Lee looks over quickly as the monster dives towards him, and he tries to leap up above its strike. However, the monster then starts unleashing its entire mass of tentacles towards Lee. He deftly dodges some of the strikes, but then a few manage to strike him and slap him around in midair.]
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no longer hesitating, Minako grabs her Venus Crystal from her pocket and thrusts it into the air]
Venus Crystal Power... MAKE UP!
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Lee-san! You're hurt! Get back!
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But... I can still fight! The enemy... Let me keep going! [At least now the monster's attention is starting to be divided between the two.]
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Rolling Heart Vibration! [she creates a heart from her energy and fires it at the monster's face. well, what she thinks is its face]
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The lotus of Konoha blooms twice!!
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so if they keep working together, they'll have these monsters beat in no time!]
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And then, Lee gives it one last strike to its weak point at the same time that his comrade does. Finally, that monster crumples in defeat.]
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Venus Love and Beauty Shock!
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Reverse Lotus!
[He then heads straight for the monster's weak point and kicks it up into the air. Then he leaps up, wraps it in bandages and piledrives it directly into the ground.]
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within seconds, both monsters pixelate and disappear. Venus pumps her fist into the air victoriously]
All right! That's how you do it!
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Thank you so much! [He looks around quickly.] Ah, but where did Minako-san go?!
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Minako-san? You mean the beautiful girl who was standing here just moments before? I think she... Was zapped back outside! Into Cerealia! [she nods to herself, hands on her hips]
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She... she was? [He looks at her with eyes full of worry.] A-are you sure? It would be great if that were so! But if not, I... I hope I did not fail her!!
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You didn't fail her. I think you fought brilliantly.
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