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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!]
no subject
Grrrrreat. [He turns in the indicated direction and picks up a bottle of water. In the ensuing silence he struggles valiantly with unscrewing the cap. Dio would have a brusque relationship with common objects in any version of his life but it is possible to expect that his aggression in dealing with this particular item, the untidy plastic bottlecap, is a function of a totally different drink storage system on the moon, one he'd never tested in the mall where he bought fountain beverages. He has to bring in his teeth and softly swears as this method sloshes a slightly amount of liquid. After it is open, he glances at Helena.] Sure, uh, yeah, ask me anything. [He's just sitting here, facing her again now, drinking the water with just one hand.]
no subject
Alright, so... you've told me a rundown of your life story, so I suppose it's only fair I do the same. Or rather, I think you'd want to know this before you trust me further.
[ She manages to say it fairly dryly, the irony of the situation is chilling enough for that. ]
If the disaster had happened in my lifetime, there's a chance I'd have landed on the moon. My family's rich. I haven't had to worry about anything in my life. I was a fashion blogger, I was popular, people hailed me like an actual saint, a saint of clothes. Everything I wore was custom made for me and I was proud of it.
[ She pauses, giving this a moment's time to sink in. ]
It took demonic possession to make me snap out of that and allow me to see the world for what it truly is. It hasn't even been half a year since I started being able to see through the masks and lies that the world of money and goods has presented me with.
You know I hate the same things you do. None of that was a lie. But until very recently, I was the exact kind of person Free The Soul wants to clean the world from for good.
[ She watches for his reaction tensely, not daring to take her eyes off his face for even a second. She may have presented her story fairly confidently, but in truth she has no idea what his reaction will be.
In the end, there's not even a real question in her statements.
It's just something she needs to know, something unspoken in the air: What do you think of me now? ]
no subject
[The description of continuous couture and attention makes his first emotional reaction a flare of envy. Dio was afraid that she'd ask him to judge her and he'd have to explain that this really isn't his job, he takes orders from above. Somehow though she fit everything into place... she's so smart. Then why is she so terrified by the great disaster? Is it a simple remorse that the world had already been so corrupted? He puts down the water bottle halfway and leans in, supportive.]
You think I don't still admire the shit out of you? That's amazing. You tore yourself out of that gilded cage all alone, without any prophesies and revelations. Staying pure is really, really fucking hard. Within the religious order we still have to remind each other how to conduct ourselves all the time. Even I strayed from the path once so bad that they punished me...
[Judging by his wandering eyes and trailing voice, this was not a pleasant experience for Dio. He refocuses on Helena.]
Everyone has an equal soul, even if we have to start at unequal places in the corrupted world. What matters is what you've done by the end of your life, not how you begin it. And, you know, here we are at the finish line, aren't we?
no subject
That's not anger like in the elevator, that's not even disdain. It's just all the same support he's given her all along. He admires her. She doesn't really want to be admired, that's a thing of the past as well, but it still manages to feel good to hear.
There is everything wrong with being glad to still be accepted by the cultist on your bed. This is the least socially acceptable situation in the world, but she doesn't care about social norms anymore. She cares about the human lives lost in the disaster of Dio's world, she cares that he's a fucking clone, she cares to figure out how to feel about that on an individual level eventually... but damn, she's dead, she can afford to at least breathe out a sigh of relief to not lose her only real ally.
Helena smiles again, meeting his now kinda close range glance, almost bashful for once. ]
Okay, cool. That's cool.
no subject
Yeah, well. You're cool, Helena. You're really cool. [As he sits there in the mostly comfortable silence, Dio is struck by the thought that Helena has always had an unusually loose, vulnerable smile. He doesn't know why this is sticking out to him so much. It's almost certainly not fueled by lust, which would travel through the rest of his body to his fingertips.
Dio realizes he has not once seen her make this expression ever since Wake died.
Several other delineating points had risen to mind first - the most obvious from his own perspective being that he hadn't seen her smiling after his own execution, the second most obvious being the natural ongoing funk after Torri's death and Akechi's trial. The first trial depressed her too, though. It's that. He did this. Dwelling on an act he always considered irrevocable has been way outside of Dio's priorities, but his feelings about the situation rise to the fore. This entire time he's haunted the mall skating around the issue of his culpability, accepting Wake's current disengagement from the matter. Now... he can't not tell her about his mission.]
I know it must be weird I'm calling you cool after I tried to kill you. I can say that I'm sorry the game kept going so long that you had to try breaking the rules. Hey, while we're at it, sure would be better if nobody died at all! That whitewashing doesn't mean jack shit. There's no way I can take back my decision. I was resolved to do it, you know? I crossed the line. Whether you're clean or unclean, any of you guys, it didn't even matter. Doesn't make it better. Either I already knew you didn't deserve to live, or I thought maybe you did and was gonna kill you anyway. That's how it was, plain and simple. The orders I remembered were really clear. Complete the mission at all costs.
I had... the truth is... [He lets out a really deep sigh.] Don't tell the others about this. But those bastards took my memories of completing my mission. [Beat.] I... fucked up here, it was my bad, I should have seen all the stupid signs. [He'd said that rather quickly and now he is moving on. Even though Dio has formed regrets based on the information he has, the guilt is still very unfamiliar, something he wants to reject in favor of enshrining his own survival instincts; and he has grander ambitions on his mind.] Back when I had completed it, I almost thought I could die happy... and now I'm in this shithole.
[He looks right into Helena's eyes, with terrible cold fire.] I won't bullshit you that I don't have anything left to lose. I can't wait to be hailed as a saint in the new world. But this place is just hell, and I haven't been able to get out on my own. I know what might happen if we try to break this cage while we're still inside. [His hand presses against her elbow; he's trying to get her to raise her hand so they can clasp hands.] I'm saying I'll do whatever it takes.
no subject
Dio doesn't bother putting pretty make-up on his words. He tried to kill her. He killed Wake. If necessary, Helena has no doubt he'll kill again. But he doesn't deceive her about this and she has hope that he won't do so again. Even if Brother ever told him to kill her somehow, she has a bit of confidence that he'd look her in the eye and proclaim his intent as he raises the knife.
Such morbid thoughts wouldn't have crossed her mind so insistently before all she's just learned , but now this is how her underlying horror takes shape and yet tries to rationalize itself. She wants this to be something manageable. She doesn't want to be stuck here without Dio, the one person she feels on a similar level to.
And so she lets him guide her letting go of her legs and nods. ]
Likewise. Burning this mall down isn't the calling either of us expected, but let's do it.
[ His new body's hand is huge and her hand is incredibly disappearingly small within it, but the moment doesn't give Helena any time to linger on such physical sentimentality, because there's... a lot of bright yet gentle light engulfing them. ]
...what the--
no subject
[Dio's first thought as she gazes into his eyes with a smile wider still is that this must have been the way the Nasty looked when she called the lightning. For an instant, the flashes strike him as an emphasis on his visual imagination of that past moment - and then he processes the very real presence of some light from above.] !!! [This doesn't make any sense! He can't scan any noise, but his instincts are telling him that something this unfamiliar is definitely a threat! Dio grips Helena's hand tighter as he turns and stares at the ceiling, looking for anything unusual; not mollified by the lack of salient results, he thrusts out his free hand to guide the visualization component of telekinesis, sending five cardboard boxes in rapid succession towards a specific point. They strike nothing. The boxes fall back down, crumpled, bumping into other boxes. Dio's gaze follows the downward trajectory and stays there. The light was already entirely gone before this counterattack even started.] ... [He realizes how stupid this has been, and lets go of Helena's hand. Stands.]
Shit, uhhhh... [Is he going to have to... clean this up? He puts his hand behind the back of his head, glances sheepishly at Helena. Deadpan; seeing Dio talk freely quite a bit by now, in this moment Helena might get the contrasting impression that he's drawing on a reserve of bravado and charismatic cliches more typical in his superficial interactions. The apologetic word that doesn't even try to be sincere, for example.] I'm sorry, I swear that's never happened before. [Seriously, as she was presumably about to say, what the fuck.]
no subject
It wasn't you - or me for that matter.
[ She did not try to electrocute anyone this time! ]
Were you watching Akechi's trial? More specifically, the whole mess before the execution.
[ She rolls her eyes as she says this. ]
no subject
[On the first sentence of Helena's question, Dio's eyes trail over to her healed face. His eyes thoughtfully narrow. His lips part. He thinks about expressing just how much her thoughts meant to him. But that's impossible in the common idiolects of the corrupted world. The connection of their minds is terminated... right? He's not getting words anymore, that's for sure. Though perhaps he's a little more acutely aware of her presence, at least.
The moment passes like a popping soap bubble. His expression hardens into shared derision.] Mess? Look. You're going to have to be a lot more specific. [He is seriously racking his mind for a few seconds before he zeroes in on the period of time immediately before the execution.] I thought that was some... Phantom Thief Psience bullshit. [He didn't make the connection when he was inside, but weren't the colors... actually quite similar? Huh...]
no subject
[ This time her lopsided grin is just bitter. ]
At the time I thought the same, but Akira talked about it again later. It appears that neither he nor Kurama know what actually happened. They described it as a power boost and a sharing of pain.
[ And then Helena takes direct action by pinching her arm, reminiscent of what Dio did when he spotted her coming out of the elevator. ]
no subject
The fucking hell?
[His palm flies to cover exactly the corresponding tingling area, and his fingers are splayed around. In a flash of indignation he briefly digs in all five of his fingernails at once. If she wants to see his reaction, the least he deserves is to see hers too.] That's... too freaking creepy...
[Dio has no idea what Brother would say about this type of invisible string. That said, there's no immediately available way for it to be cut.] You know, when you put it that way... I've been doing the mind moving thing way faster than when I was alive, but right before now might have been faster than that. I don't have a stopwatch, I'm just saying.
no subject
... eww.
[ 'Creepy' doesn't quite begin to cut it. Helena likes Dio, but she's a solitary person as well and really, being completely mindlinked with a clone is... uh. Weeiiiiird. ]
We're going to have to be very careful to not stub our toes and such from now on.
[ Because that sounds really irritating, to be honest. ]
I admit, I'm annoyed that this teambuilding exercise is something designed by the world holding us captive, but it might at least speed up the nuisance of the Noise fighting process.
no subject
[He leans against the wall, and his body relaxes all the more when there are no more immediate weird sensations.] Well, shit, we can't trust any tool they set up for us to be the silver bullet. Still... [He rolls his shoulders.] I've never been "partners" with anyone outside of the Myrmidons before. Can't say I think I could do worse than you. [Not least because he's picking up on the extent to which that's what Helena wants to hear.]
So you want to go get started on that now? [They'll bat fourth.]
no subject
[ Helena grimaces, shrugs and turns towards the door. ]
Let's get going.
[ She's not sure if she will keep up diary writing even past her physical death and if she did, maybe she'd have too much to say now that she simply couldn't write for the risk of being read by the wrong people. Before today, she'd been wondering about Dio extensively, but now she has learned more about him than she ever thought she would. Many things to muse over and be horrified by, if given the time. So maybe it's not a bad thing to go out and do something else for now. Existential dread over their bizarre situation can be postponed at least an hour or two. ]