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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You have done very well! Yes, you have! [He'll pat the creature on the head, finding it to be utterly charming. He also gives a look of concern, however.] Were you harmed...?
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but she gives a shake of her head. no injuries here! or any injuries have already healed. she's still not going to bark SHE IS NOT GOING TO BARK but she stands up and starts walking towards the path the monster was blocking. then she looks back at lee. come onnn, time to find the exit. ]
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Thank you... Please guide me to the next step of this vision quest!!!!
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I can't wait to learn all of your secrets. [He looks towards her curiously.] Are you hungry? Perhaps we can find you food, even in a place like this!
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but then her stomach growls and she looks down a little. shit, she is hungry. she looks up to lee again and then in front of them when --
is that a deer??? holy shit. malia's going to take off at a run towards it, the deer immediately bolting into the forest and off the path, malia following. ]
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Ah! Is this the first test?! [Rock Lee dashes after the coyote as she takes off. Can Rock Lee keep up with a coyote? If so, he'll keep running by her side.] Don't worry, I'm cheering you on!
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but no seriously that deer is HERS and she has not had deer meat in FOREVER AND--
oh, it's leading them to a clearing? it stops in the middle and stares right back at them which causes malia to skid to a halt. she curls her lip and snarls, taking a step forward.
but then the deer also does?? with the snarl and everything?? this is not a safe deer. ]
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Then the snarling ensues! Everyone else snarled... Lee doesn't want to lose face during a vision quest. So he grits his teeth and lets out the most youthful snarl he can muster.
Then, he blindly lunges forward at the supposed to dear, in an attempt to tackle it and wrestle it down.]
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but then he does! and seriously, lee. no. that's not the point here. she stops and looks over at him BUT THEN HE'S LUNGING and now, yes. now she lets out a surprised bark. god damnit, lee.
she's about to run forward to help him but then THAT DEER. as lee goes to tackle it, it stands up on its hindlegs and grows... taller... and buffer... with sharper teeth! this is no normal deer! this deer is gonna punch rock lee in the face. ]
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You must be... a friend of Blitzen-san!
[They look like a pair of boxers. Rock Lee deftly dodges the deer's first punch and then tries his own punch. Not only does the bara deer dodge, but he takes the moment to grab onto Lee's neck and then immediately suplexes him.]
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oh. oh, that looks like it hurt. lee should kill the deer already so she can eat it, that's what she thinks.
-- except wait is it a weredeer??? IS THAT WHY IT CAN BOX?? this is incredibly stupid. ]
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The deer gets Lee into a headlock, but then Lee bicycle kicks him into the air.]
The time is now! [Surging with energy, Rock Lee leaps up into the air around the deer, enwraps him with some of his training bandages and-]
Reverse Lotus!
[Then he piledrives the deer right into the ground.]
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the true question is: can she eat it? it still smells like deer after all. malia's gonna get up from her spot and walk over, sniffing at the unconscious deer. hmm. ]
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Is this what you want, proud beast? I hope that I have made you proud!
[Is a virtual deer monster edible? Good question. Lee will just kneel here until the answer presents itself.]
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