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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!]
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[Another week means another location full of furniture that Dio will have to throw at noise because his power is the most badass offensive ability of them all. He's picked up another change of clothes tailored to his borrowed body, a black coat over a deep green shirt and tan pants. The buttons are gold, to go with the gold chain that remains around his neck. The dark top hat and red scarves do not go with anything. His taste is just still terrible.
Dio has requisitioned a plush chair close to the entrance of the Netfugee Cafe, and is committing the new location to memory. Yeah, uh, he is so badass that he doesn't need to directly look at the layout in later stages during his memorization of the furniture. Sure. That is why he is multitasking by reading a stack of Scarlet Spider comic books.
He also has those threats of partnership on his mind, though, so he'll greet anyone dead who comes by.]
Yo.
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Is there something you want from me?
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Woah, chill the hell out, I'm not asking for the shirt off your back, Jesus. [He flaps his hand dismissively, as his irritation already rises to the fore.] I'm just keeping tabs on you people to see how the shitty missions are going. Well, have you even been doing them?
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Well, if that's your attitude, once the Noise show up, don't ask me to partner up with you or cry at your second funeral.
[His eyes drop back down to his comic book.]
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[He does not look up, and goes on to turn a page.] Oh, I wish I could trust you to do whatever's convenient for yourself. At least that would be predictable. But no. So I gotta keep an eye on you.
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[He shrugs, giving one of the computers an idle glance over. Seems modern, at least.]
Think what you want of me, though. I hope you've been enjoying watching the murderer pine for the boyfriend he can never talk to again?
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Ha! Not really. I think it's pretty sad. [He glances up.] You think that you can do this [he mimes stabbing someone in the back] and that at the same time? Karma [overcompensating] Akabane was right, you really are an amateur.
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[If he'd left Yuuri to die of his internal injuries, Torri wouldn't have caught him and he only would've had one crime scene to clean up. If he hadn't made a habit of welcoming Akira into his room, he could've hidden the bloody clothes there and not smelled of smoke at the trial.]
But if you're trying to rile me up by insulting my capability as an assassin, don't bother. It's not exactly something I ever took pride in.
just ftr both akechi and dio's tags are riddled with both p5 and vlr spoilers
[A tension is forming in his arms as he continues to not look up, and Dio speaks with a sarcastic sunny emphasis on individual syllables.] Oh! Really, now? You had me totally fooled. You seemed to think you were so special. The only person who could stop that "Shido".
And things that didn't come up in the trial are showing up now.
Heh...I've never been anyone special, really. Just a poor bastard who stumbled his way into a conspiracy while trying to get back at his deadbeat dad over his dead mom. It just happened that I was the only one who knew about it and wanted to stop it. I had just enough power to make myself useful enough to keep around, but not enough to stop him from killing me the moment I tried to get help. Honestly, it was pathetic more than anything.
[A quiet moment, then, under his breath:]
Akira was always the special one.
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[With virtually no sympathy or even interest] How exactly were you going to "stop a conspiracy"? You just said you couldn't get help without being killed. And didn't this whole shitshow keep going for years after you stepped in it?
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...There's nobody to blame for myself for why it kept going on, though. I could have revealed everything right away, but I wanted to make him see me as useful first. To wait until he acknowledged me, the child he abandoned before I was even born, as essential to him, and then destroy him at the very moment he thought he'd won. I wanted him to feel the same level of humiliation and despair he put my mother through.
[The past tense is very deliberate, as his tone doesn't reflect any of the hatred, resentment, or twisted attachment that would lead to that train of thought.]
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So. You have this guy Shido, doing bad shit all the time. This huge number of murders and stuff. Some by you, others by people who aren't you, like the people who would kill you if you told anyone.
[Dio is on the last page of the comic book by now, and is looking at Akechi as he holds it loosely.]
And to stop this guy, you could tell people about the crimes, or about the illegitimate child situation. You could even just try to kill him. Those things are just so hard, though, and could have gotten you killed.
Oh, you also apparently believe like most of us that this mall is in another dimension, and while you're sitting pretty here none of these conspirators could lay a finger on you, even if this big old juicy secret got broadcasted right to them. But who cares about that.
You're waiting years for this guy Shido to acknowledge you, and you keep killing people, and the conspiracy isn't stopped. You have no actual plan to stop the conspiracy! Or maybe just no idea how to make the guy acknowledge you so then you can use your perfectly good plan to stop the conspiracy? Same difference.
And then, you come here, and suddenly it's so important to escape so you can get back to your lightning speed progress stopping the conspiracy. So, you kill someone. You make no move whatsoever to stop that deed of yours from leading to the execution of everyone else here. You just get caught eventually, and now you're here.
Am I wrong about any of this crap?
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Second, I had a plan, that would have come to fruition in a couple of months. He'd be at the center of public attention, everyone would have seen a public announcement about his true behavior, and he would have lost everything at the moment he thought he was secure. I would have been killed, yes, but I could accept that if I dragged him down with me.
Third, I didn't kill to escape. I killed to keep my secret from getting out early...and to keep Akira's secret. What he's hiding is something Shido would have him killed for, too. ...Something he already ordered me to kill him for, actually, but the secret being publicly announced would make it possible for him to do that without me.
Fourth...I pushed them in the right direction. I called for that review of the evidence, knowing the fabricator's interference was keeping them away from my trail. Because you're right, I am an amateur. But I'm not exactly torn up about not having the guts to kill ten people in one fell swoop, just to save my own pathetic life.
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There are these things you might have heard of called "bombs" and "guns"... [He just sticks that in there, halfway under his breath, as Akechi continues a logical explanation that otherwise mostly has Dio closely listening. His brow starts to furrow as Akechi denies killing to escape - and then his face crumples up all at once over the description of a pathetic life, because he knows exactly what that's supposed to mean.]
So you're really going to pass it off as trying to prevent either of those two secrets getting out. After you murdered a witness to the one - (1) - required murder. She ran away for yards and yards, and didn't attack you hard at all, and you followed her, and you put a knife into her neck, after you saw exactly what that did to Katsuki.
And you're still jacking off to your Lady Justice pinup poster in front of everybody? Really? That's how it's gonna be?
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[He shakes his head with a shrug. He doesn't really care anymore, anyway. As long as Akira survives to change Shido's heart...]
I could kill two people to save us both. I lost my resolve when it came to killing ten more. It's really as simple as that. Justice...society's justice lost its glamor to me a long time ago, when I saw just how corrupt the world really is.
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You "lost your resolve".
[Imagine a college upperclassman and a college underclassman as they wait outside the classroom for their combined section course. The final is due today, and the upperclassman has been leaning against the hallway wall with crossed arms; he has only completed one essay question out of three, and that by a loose definition of signing his name on top of the paper. The underclassman has rushed over, out of breath, and declared that the dog ate his homework. Dio is the upperclassman in this situation; that's the idea here. He neatly closes the comic book and lays it down flatly on top of the stack.]
Do you really not understand? [It's a grammatically distinct tone, not quite an obvious quote like "life is simply unfair", but like he's switched registers to impress the old professor watching them.] The corrupt justice system is you. The cogs in the system who can't see past their own temporary lifespans and family ties and intimate attachments, that's you. The greedy guys who step on human after human on their way to their own personal glory, your petty desire to see this one person's pathetic face - that's you.
[His tone becomes more casual again.] I mean, I could try to see it the way you probably do. [Emphasizing this sentence with sarcastic halfhearted jazz hands.] How I'm this psychotic terrorist on an evil "mission". [His hands fall; his gradually manic investment does not.] I'll even pretend that your half-assed approach to stopping conspiracies still makes any sense after switching methods partway through! You had your mission, I had mine, the rules were harsh. Fine!
[Finally, as might be anticipated, his voice rises.] But you think you're so much better than me just because you didn't vote for anybody? You rub my nose in it again and again that I'm this filthy [sarcastically dramatic] "evildoer" who totally deserves to die and not try to survive after some rule 7 action? I know you like to dress up as a regular detective, [to make it very clear that he understands Akechi has done some detecting at some point but still operates very differently from what you would assume of a detective actually reporting all known crimes and certainly not committing any of them] but I didn't audition to be a chorus line extra in your little criminal crushing musical number.
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[Well, Dio, you've finally gotten some emotion out of him: a manic, half hysterical laughter as he covers his face with one hand.]
You think I don't fucking know that I've become the exact kind of person I became a detective because I hate? Do you want to hear me say that I'm a goddamn piece of shit who deserved what he got? That Akira and Kurama shouldn't have bothered trying to save me, and that it would've been my own damn fault if they'd died for it?! I guess it is about time I started telling the truth.
Hahah...but I bet you thought I was just some hypocrite, judging others and seeing himself as above reproach, huh? Like I haven't known this entire time that I didn't deserve to be the one everyone relied on. Like I don't know I don't deserve Katsuki-san's forgiveness. Why the hell do you think I've been so half-assed about the missions?
[His crazed chuckles finally start to die down and he turns to drop down into the chair in front of one of the computers.]
Just leave me alone. I don't know why I bothered to explain my situation to you in the first place.
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YES! I seriously can't fucking tell! You can whip yourself a little and still be a hypocrite if you reproach other people so much MORE! Do you think you come off feeling that bad about dragging "Kurama" into this when you started out with this noble little "resolve" to save your own self and Akira?
[He stands up with his hands on his hips, looking down at the retreating boy.] I'll tell you how it looks when you don't do missions. And it's not "oh, woah, he must feel SO bad about still existing". You call this crapshoot your shitty decision, but then just whine how every other option was worse, until the cows come home. That's not regret. You obviously want people to feel sorry for you and the people you ditched after what you did like the guy you'll [briefly doing an impression] "never talk to again" - who you already get to hit up on the Ouija board after, what, one fucking day. There's no "feeling sorry" I can see here.
Because the noise you're dashing away from? They're just as much of a threat to the people you supposedly feel so bad about killing, and you don't lift a finger. [That is, within Dio's sight, when this is actually the first time he's properly laid eyes on Akechi in the UG.] You look like some loser who never wants to do anything hard or worthwhile ever again.
[Dio sets about to gathering his own possessions.] Enjoy your video games or whatever you're doing on that outdated craputer. I'll be off saving people, like an actual "ally of justice". [He spits that unnatural alternative to "superhero", which he probably learned quite recently from one of those Sentai shows.]
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And you do realize we can only use that game once per person, right? And seven yes or no answers is hardly a conversation, it's barely even communication. And even that was almost entirely used up by giving him half an idea of what the hell's even going on over here.
[He rests an elbow on the desk, dropping his head into his hand.]
You want to know why I'm only putting half effort into earning points? It's because everyone else here deserves them more than me. Katsuki-san and Feiiji-san, especially. I'd rather let them have their lives back first and be the last one to leave here, than take their futures away for a second time. Especially with what I remember now...how stupid I was to think I was ever really his teammate...
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[His teeth grit at the mention of only getting seven questions per person.] You don't waste that many questions if you're talking to someone smart who can wait five minutes for you to show up. [Dio had not processed the reality that he would either experience the resurrection he'd personally deemed extremely unlikely, never speak to Helena again, or see her dead. He does not like these suddenly salient prospects.]
If I got into what I think of you Phantom Thieves I'd be here all day, so forget about that. You don't know the first thing about being anyone's teammate, period. Torri and Katsuki surviving is - tch, suddenly - so important to you? You can't get any good offense against the Noise on your own? I know what only looking out for number one is like, but Jesus Christ. Put two and two together, dipshit! HELP THEM!
[He's gathering up the stack of comic books under his arm.] Maybe if you do that coffee thing out of thin air right in front of me, I'll look into it. Everyone else has already been drinking the shit out of them and not died yet... Later.