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!]
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[Dio wakes up to a blinding pain in his feet. How strange; that part wasn't stomped disproportionately. For some reason, his boots don't fit right... was the material damaged? A shiver runs down his spine as he catches sight of his own hands tugging the shoes off; the appearance of his arms and legs is strangely compatible with the bizarre theory that his own body has grown so the kicks no longer fit. His accessories are still there and still tacky; his "loose" shirt and "baggy" pants suddenly just barely unite to cover his waist. At length his hand gets a good feel for his face and--]
You have... seriously... got to be fucking kidding me...!
[He's just going to be here, laughing, hollow and manic and indefinite. He looks like this now; taller and broader and dark-haired. Also, he is now voiced by Troy Baker or if you prefer Kosuke Toriumi. It's really bad. Des drew a reference because she is the greatest person on Earth.
At length Dio dusts his knees off and stalks off in search of new shoes and a mirror.] They still make us buy and sell shit...
later prompt
[There's a familiar voice. At least it's someone who recognizes you even though you look like that, but...]
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[He rubs his forehead at first, like, "Oh, god, it's still her, of course she won't go away." Then he points at her.]
That was just me pretending to not be disgusted by the excesses of, of, [isn't there a fancy word for the specific earthly corruption that results in different goods having different values? he points harder when he realizes it] capitalism. It was a cover. A facade. Don't you know the truth about me? [He remembers too late after saying it that she said her boss was the one who wrote the profiles, and she just read them, but whatever, it's just a question, he can let it stand.
He doesn't know that she might have been able to read his surface thoughts to the contrary...]
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Nope, but I know, like, what you were thinking at that time! You were totally interested in trying all that new stuff! Like the crab. [She giggles.]
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[He grits his teeth, almost flushing--] Shut up! That bucket of legs was made of disappointment and false advertising! I thought it was going to be meat! It's important to get nutrition!
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[She puts her hands on her hips then. And speaking of showing things. She flares her wings a bit. Now he can see why she could fly.]
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[Ugh... cooperating... He crosses his arms, which is a very natural pose in this body apparently because they're so thick and warm.] You're the one insisting on showing me, so you're paying. And I have no idea how it can increase "defense" THAT much.
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[She is getting something out and it does not appear to be a wallet.]
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...yeah, sure. [Dio is sticking to his guns here. Surely she's just getting her phone...]/small>
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[It is her cell phone! ...A picture of a pin flashes over its screen. There's an oinking noise as one of those barely-visible monster symbols is apparently drawn over to their location.]
Use your power to defeat the little piggie and that will give you the bacon you need! Don't worry, it like, won't even attack you, so this should be super quick.
[...Speaking of quick, the pig is running at him!
Actually, it's running past him!]
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.........??????
[He doesn't see the correlation and grumbles--] More like a trick than a treat...
[Well, they're standing by a clothing store. The power of the Bodacious requires a sequence of several imprecise strokes before the rolling clothing rack is in front of the two people, but once Dio has it out in the open area, he sends it hurtling towards the pig head on.]
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[The pig is alarmed to have its path blocked and runs squealing the other way, but the other things that smash into it soon cause it to burst into static. "BLING!" appears over Dio's screen and as a result his funds have increased.]
Good job!
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Noise... [He grumbles philosophically as he puts away the phone now that he's checked the notification.] So, uh, what the hell are those? I get that I'm dead, and you're apparently some unkillable angel thing, but I don't see where that "noise" came from.
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[Don't mind if you pick up on a few stray thoughts as you do, though.]
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Okay, wait. I get the part where you scan things. That explains all the mind reading shit. But... what's the other people's deal?
[To make the point, Dio sticks his arm out, and the passing living rando makes no effort to not pass through it.]
It's not as simple as, we're a dead guy or a Reaper, and they can't see us. Because the other, ugh, "Titled" don't see them.
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By the way, that's also why, like, no one notices when you throw big stuff around with your power. ...The way objects interact between planes is, like, super confusing, so we probably shouldn't get into that. Do you want to like, get the crab?
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[Dio heaves a deep sigh and falls into step with the Life Coach, his feet clopping on the ground. He waves his arm to convey the sentiment that yes, fine, they're getting the crab.]
Okay. Obviously the customers can't be "on the same plane" because they're free to come and go so they'd get asked to call the police in, what, ten minutes, and we can't have that. But why do you have to do this in a mall that's already packed to the gills with people in the first place? Is it that hard to find a warehouse to cram your fifteen strangers in?
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[Actually keeping pace with her may require a bit of power-walking, since she tends to skip ahead, sometimes with those wings of hers. She can't help it, she's got too much energy.]
And anyway, clearing the Noise is an important part of any day's mission for you guys. But they, like, follow people. Stick to em'. They prey on their negative emotions... sooo if they come through here, it kills two birds with one stone. You can erase them before they latch on. It's something to get used to!
[They've made it to the busy food court now. If he focuses he can probably see what she's talking about.]
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...
[He averts his eyes by tucking his head in to make longer strides and catch up with her. It'll be a blessing if she can't read his thoughts anymore when they're in the same realm, because the answer to her rhetorical question arises immediately - he's got memories of a murder game in a warehouse, and in every way the mall is better than a warehouse. Dio only shows his face again when they pass the threshold into the food court, and the noise flutter into his shadowy field of vision.]
A long time ago you said you're here because we can use these shitty powers. Which apparently erase the noise. But why not just kill us right away if we can only erase the noise from here? It's not like you can only get to this plane by being justly executed or some shit. [case in point wake, rip]
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[Dio actually seems to accept this explanation almost wholesale? It's not an order of magnitude more convoluted than VLR spoilers redacted for lack of thematic necessity. He listens to the whole speech without really objecting, just bringing up his phone to the counter.] Interesting definition of alien you got there. It's not like [he waves his free hand at her wings] the customers are the same species as you.
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You're just aliens cause you're from a different world. Or at least, a world that's, like, different enough that it's not already part of the existing system of parallel worlds that these angels oversee. It could still be, like, Earth.
VLR spoilers
Yeah, sure, I'm from Earth... [He guesses in a sense he's from Earth - Left is, anyway, that's close enough. And of course it's what Dio is supposed to say, he was briefed on that much. But what's the point of that when he's dead as a...] You really just had to read about us from the profiles, huh? Do you have the faintest freaking idea who the wolves and sheep are?
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You mean people who they just put in to see if they'd kill, huh?
[She pauses.... then giggles, shrugging.]
I had, like, a pretty bad feeling about you to be honest! I mean, you're a "Ringleader." That word seriously has negative connotations, though like, that's probs just me.
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[Dio gives her a wolfish smile, because that is just a thing he does.] So you noticed it didn't actually say ringleader of a circus, huh? Good eye. I know somebody up there had to have a sense of humor...
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