The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15corpses2017-12-02 02:07 am
strangerpeople) wrote in 15corpses2017-12-02 02:07 am
WELCOME TO THE GAME.
[You have died. When you awaken, it's in your body back to the shape it was in before whatever it was that killed you - but not all is right. Nothing surrounds you but darkness as far as the eye can see. A girl's gentle voice speaks to you from seemingly nowhere. It is a voice you probably haven't heard before.]
It's all right...it'll be all right.
Please forgive me for this, but, you're in the True Game now. As you're now here, on this plane, I...took something from you. Something important. The thing dearest to you. It has to be taken, though, as it's your entry fee - it's one of your means of surviving this!
I promise, we don't mean to do anything terrible to you! But this Game is important, and you getting through it is, as well. You'll receive missions, and for the missions you complete, you'll be given points. The more points you earn, the closer you'll get to leaving this place. And then, when you do finally leave, perhaps you'll understand why you were brought here. You'll regain what you lost, and you'll know the truth.
So please...please survive! I have faith in you! You'll be all right!!
[Sure enough, as soon as she's done explaining and collects your fee, something important of yours is missing. It might be memories, an object, or even a person (that's not a Titled), but they are your collateral now. Your motivation for continuing your existence in this world. You black out, and when you wake again, you're back in the mall, in the bedroom you'd been assigned. You remember everything you'd forgotten while you were alive, although you might have re-forgotten it if that was your entry fee. At least everything here seems mostly the same.
However, there's a few new things to discover... your cell phone now lets you read the surface thoughts of everyone that's living, and imprint thoughts into their heads (except for Croix, The Chance. Maybe it's because she didn't have a power? Who knows.) You also have all the items and money you had when you were still alive, which will be useful, because you still get hungry and, we'll say you still need clothes, but that's actually debatable because you are invisible. Not to other dead people, no, but to the other people in the mall.
Yeah. That's a thing. This version of the mall is full of random people who are using the mall as a mall, and even working the registers - oddly enough, there's this one girl with pink hair who seems to work at all of the restaurants at different times. But no one can see you, except for the shopkeepers of food and clothing stores specifically. (Luckily, the Barcade counts as food.) The Titled can be seen going about their business as well, and you can follow them around and watch them, listen to their conversations. However, nothing you say or do can be perceived by them. Even using your powers goes unnoticed, no matter what you try to do with them. It's like you're in parallel worlds. So that's a little spooky.
Speaking of spooky things, there are also monsters in this version of the mall, though the living seem as able to perceive them as the Titled can perceive you, and even to you they are only barely visible unless you focus on seeing them clearly. But these monsters attack people - they attach to the mall-goers like parasites, however for now, they seem to be leaving the living Titled alone... they prefer to attack the dead Titled, and only the power you gained here seems to truly damage them. They also seem quite difficult to defeat on your own. If one of them happens to come for you, you'll need to find the others, fast. At least if you checked your phone, your first mission told you where to go!]
It's all right...it'll be all right.
Please forgive me for this, but, you're in the True Game now. As you're now here, on this plane, I...took something from you. Something important. The thing dearest to you. It has to be taken, though, as it's your entry fee - it's one of your means of surviving this!
I promise, we don't mean to do anything terrible to you! But this Game is important, and you getting through it is, as well. You'll receive missions, and for the missions you complete, you'll be given points. The more points you earn, the closer you'll get to leaving this place. And then, when you do finally leave, perhaps you'll understand why you were brought here. You'll regain what you lost, and you'll know the truth.
So please...please survive! I have faith in you! You'll be all right!!
[Sure enough, as soon as she's done explaining and collects your fee, something important of yours is missing. It might be memories, an object, or even a person (that's not a Titled), but they are your collateral now. Your motivation for continuing your existence in this world. You black out, and when you wake again, you're back in the mall, in the bedroom you'd been assigned. You remember everything you'd forgotten while you were alive, although you might have re-forgotten it if that was your entry fee. At least everything here seems mostly the same.
However, there's a few new things to discover... your cell phone now lets you read the surface thoughts of everyone that's living, and imprint thoughts into their heads (except for Croix, The Chance. Maybe it's because she didn't have a power? Who knows.) You also have all the items and money you had when you were still alive, which will be useful, because you still get hungry and, we'll say you still need clothes, but that's actually debatable because you are invisible. Not to other dead people, no, but to the other people in the mall.
Yeah. That's a thing. This version of the mall is full of random people who are using the mall as a mall, and even working the registers - oddly enough, there's this one girl with pink hair who seems to work at all of the restaurants at different times. But no one can see you, except for the shopkeepers of food and clothing stores specifically. (Luckily, the Barcade counts as food.) The Titled can be seen going about their business as well, and you can follow them around and watch them, listen to their conversations. However, nothing you say or do can be perceived by them. Even using your powers goes unnoticed, no matter what you try to do with them. It's like you're in parallel worlds. So that's a little spooky.
Speaking of spooky things, there are also monsters in this version of the mall, though the living seem as able to perceive them as the Titled can perceive you, and even to you they are only barely visible unless you focus on seeing them clearly. But these monsters attack people - they attach to the mall-goers like parasites, however for now, they seem to be leaving the living Titled alone... they prefer to attack the dead Titled, and only the power you gained here seems to truly damage them. They also seem quite difficult to defeat on your own. If one of them happens to come for you, you'll need to find the others, fast. At least if you checked your phone, your first mission told you where to go!]
own icon for own thoughts and also VLR spoilers A THIRD TIME. IT'S A LOT
Why?
[He's getting into it with a variety of contrasting hand gestures.]
It's not like I expect you "capitalists" to agree with the teachings of Free the Soul. But you control spacetime and you don't kidnap me until I already complete my mission? That's just stupid! Did you think you were gonna slow down whatever the Myrmidons do afterwards? You gotta already know there's so much more where this came from! [His volume increases.] Don't tell me you only needed someone who would protect her, either! Fifteen isn't a goddamn even number!
[Years of training have left Dio for all intents and purposes entirely disinclined to tears. You either must have heard many of Dio's more simply crabby rants in your time, or often heard someone else take a similar twisted trajectory, to detect the veering from anger into the territory of anguish.]
Your whole game keeps screaming at me, [Coco's perky falsetto] "Do stuff you enjoy!" [Seven's teasing baritone] "Change your fate, owoo!" [Resetting.] But then you take it away! The only destiny I ever had!
[And then the phone rockets away from 707.]
How would you like it if I did that to you?
[Dio is standing there holding his arm up high with the phone in his hand, like a rock that he is going to smash on the ground in the most dramatic manner possible. He's trembling underneath the tough stance, partially because this is an easily called bluff, and also because his powers don't actually protect him from the pain of catching fast-moving objects with no mitt of any kind.]
no subject
But before she can wallow in these feelings too much there's Dio, in front of her, yelling his heart out. And her own emotions take the backseat. She's looking at him now, not at 707. Since the day she died she understands so much more about Dio. It hasn't stopped unsettling her a single day since, but there has always been something pleasant about the pieces falling into place. In the world of the living, Dio was a mystery. And a murderous disappointment.
Here, Dio makes sense. When he complains, when he drags her to mealtimes, when he fails to use chopsticks, when he kills Noise, when he catches cats - he always makes sense. There's missing puzzle pieces, of course, but they fall into place sooner or later. And this feeling of understanding each other has become something Helena cherishes. They're not the same kind of person by any means, but they have a tangible connection. Something that feels real, something that is based on their values not their socially dictated aesthetics.
Which is why the finale of the speech hits her harder than it presumably hits its intended target.
So she decides quickly. Helena ducks past Dio's arm quickly so that she is in front of him. Her body is far too small to effectively shield a person as large as Dio's current body, but she has electricity and the will to buy as much time as needed. The phones are important. Every moment Dio has with it, whatever he does with it, that's the most chance they have at giving their existences meaning again. ]
Do it!!
[ Whatever he is planning to do, that is. ]
no subject
[So this is why Helena thinks that love and justice aren't a contradiction in terms. Precisely due to her faith in him, their shared convictions, she hasn't asked him to protect her instead of do what they think is important. Dio is holding the phone at the apex of this exhilarating realization, the thrill of feeling instead of embodying someone else's faith, when light glints off the screen, and he finally processes some of those pixels. ...atur... He knows the image of the planets very well, their large mirages. This must be related to Seven summoning the bullets underneath - and for that reason, destruction suddenly seems risky to Dio, all too familiar with detonator fail-safes. He's heard conversations about the type of net connection offered in the cafe for refugees. Maybe taking away Seven's method of conversing or clashing with other people is how they'll ensnare him. Dio pounds down the power button and, during those precious seconds where light flashes around them, watches the screen go dark.
He just turns around and runs at full tilt, legs healed somewhat by the fusion (and phone itself tucked roughly into his pocket after a series of rough motions that rattle his ribcage into coughs a little). Every vending machine he passes by, is sent flying towards that single point where Helena was trying to keep Seven stunned.]
1/3
Falling out of the atmosphere! Mayday, mayday!
no subject
Oh Bodacious. That wasn't even my final phone...
[There's a third identical one he's holding up.
He lets it drop to the ground.]
no subject
Anyway, to answer your question... that already happened. I was in a game like this three years ago. In the end, I became an angel, like you're seeing now.
I gained the power to go to other timelines and realities... I could watch over the people there. But things weren't the way I wanted them. I knew I would have to keep control of things if they were ever going to, and that meant I had to work with the others on the higher plane. They're a lot like the bosses I had in the intelligence agency I worked for, so of course, they have me oversee this hellhole of a game while they hunt down the threat. Aliens can take care of more aliens while the angel who actually knows our enemy hunts them down. It makes sense. I'm a bad person, but I still won't let the Noise do as they want to your worlds. [He punctuates that with a shrug, and then flaps his wings, ascending even higher as a blinding light radiates from him, until it's all the two of them can see.]
So now you've met me, even if you didn't ask! The angel Luciel has 707 faces. If you want to see the one that's been chained to this world just like you, then fine! But, oh, don't blame me if it's not what you're expecting~
[When the light fades, they'll find that the space field with the vending machines has been filled out as though the "invisibility" is gone and the metal is now truly there beneath their feet, gravity pulling them down unlike the winged creature before them. And it is a creature, but the way it appears to both of them is slightly different. Dio will see the massive monster in shades of red and gold, while Helena will see black and white. As if there are actually two of him filling in for each other. His new form, Simia Cantus, is basically a huge monkey, with long arms and legs and a prehensile tail - many of these features are graffiti-like, the way they'd be used to seeing on Noise. He's flown up to a huge setup of computers, where he has hands rapidly moving on one keyboard, stencillish nimble toes on another, and the abstract tail pecking away at a third one. Lines of code race across the many screens.]
Hallelujah, may the god of hacking rip apart the code of your souls.
[Immediately, their bodies feel much weaker than before
no subject
Helena hadn't expected anything this man could possibly say to resonate with her, but this one phrase feels like they aren't so different after all. It's a similar feeling as the one she had gotten with Coco in the trial, when she obtained the knowledge that there was a greater cause she'd die for...
Helena hates their captors more than anything, yet more and more she gets a feeling that they have just as much to fight for as her own side. A feeling she can... respect? Maybe?
There's not much time to dwell on this because she has to evade this attack and she can't evade this attack so within moments, she is just crouching on the floor hiding her face in her arms and there's still pain and pain and then blackness.
With her defense reduced to nothingness, Helena has no choice but to simply pass out. ]
no subject
[Dio is getting a faint stress headache building in the front of his skull as he runs without looking back to see just what Seven means by his phone. How many does he have, can he need? As the light fades, Dio finds himself looking up at the looming angel who still has a suspiciously relatable color scheme.
They're a lot like the bosses I had in the intelligence agency I worked for--
The surface of the space station is smooth, so Dio can't trip over anything. He's still pushing his legs forward a few more labored paces as the defense seeps out of his bones, and then the lightning strikes him in the back; Dio falls face-first, his entire body pressing against the ground, painful where the hard material of the phone presses against his pounding heart. The silvery metal surface reflects his own "borrowed" face, and Dio thinks "I'd rather see something else", in the moment before a black void becomes the only thing in his vision.]
1/2
End sequence.
[The lightning disappears before it can take the killing blow on their un-lives and truly unravel their souls. Now they're just on the floor in this room, and the monster drops down to their level, tilting his head and talking to them even though they can't hear him. But he pokes Helena on top of her head anyway.]
Well, seeing as I'm just the Producer, I can't actually erase you. That would interfere with the Game too much... and be pretty pointless, after everything.
[Turning to Dio, he decides to just not touch him, even to take his phone back. He can always get more, and he doubts they'll be able to use the darklit planets - but if they could, that would just be a real sign of growth. He'll just order some more from CAT later. Cats though, that gives him an idea...]
no subject
Of course, any attempts they'll make to use the administrative functions on Seven's phone will cause any number of hilarious computer viruses to pop up instead.]