lostcarnival | ⇨ THE GAME CUBE

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⇨ THE GAME CUBE

Who: Everyone who gets caught in the game.
When: Day 97
Where: Hellbound Hallows, the game inside of a cube inside of a city inside of a computer.
What: On Day 97, a massive Game Cube drops on the city of Mainframe, forcing those caught inside to fight against the User for their lives. This log is 100% Hellbound Hallows gameplay. Plotting deets are here.
Warnings: Diablo-esque violence, characters dying, and edgy video game aesthetic gore.

HELLBOUND HALLOWS↴
The Game Cube drops close to the entrance of the carnival - so much so that it will end up pulling a lot of people from it in, out of sheer terrible luck. Alternatively, your character may have seen it coming down and understood what allowing the programs to fail would mean, dashing in to be caught beneath it out of sheer heroism. Maybe you entered the game for some reason in between.

Either way, once the walls of the Cube have passed you, you'll find yourself in a new reality. You find yourself somewhere in the levels of a dungeon crawling game with a dark aesthetic. Some binomes and sprites from the city have been pulled in with you, and all oft them know what to do. It's time to Reboot.

Use the icon button the Ringmaster gave each of you. Tap it twice and say "Reboot", and you'll be able to assume your new form. Maybe it's useful, maybe it's not, but it's probably better than nothing. Probably.

Now, figure out where you fit in to the structure of setting, and wait for the Game to begin.

► LEVEL ONE: Level one is where the Users will enter. With a cold blue aesthetic, it appears to be some manner of underground fortress, filled with many hallways and grand archeways. In a standard game, the enemies here would be theoretically the easiest to defeat, but you are under no obligation to follow those rules. Level one is ruled over by Sora, rebooted into the form of a vampiric overlord. He must be defeated in order for the Users to gain access to level two.

► LEVEL TWO: The colour pallet shifts to purple here, the corridors becoming darker and only lit with scattered braziers and the occasional stream of lava. Banners and tapestries depicting some hellish god line the walls. The traps here are primarily fire based, with lava traps or geysers of flame becoming more common. Level two is ruled over by Yamato, who has rebooted into the form of a fiery hellbeast. He must be defeated to access level three.

► LEVEL THREE: As the colours shift into a sickly green, the Users will reach the final level. The architecture is shaped based on the screaming faces of the damned, and the rooms are large and dramatic, filled with vast obelisks and deep chasms. Subterranean plant life haunts the floors and shadows of this place, and poison traps become deadly and common. Level three is ruled over by the man Gongenzaka, the final boss of of the game. If he is defeated, the Users have won. Do not let this happen.

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[ 1: THICK SKIN AND A STONE HEART ]

To say Lambert's not pleased with his Reboot form is the understatement of the century. For one, he doesn't get to keep his sword or any of his other equipment, things that he's damn sure he'd be able to wipe the floor with the Users, but as it is...

Lambert can be found frozen in a crouch on a plinth, or a pedestal -- whatever elevated, rocky outcrop the level has to offer-- not looking too differently from how he usually does. Mainly, he looks like he's carved out of stone now, and wearing a lot less, dressed in a loincloth that tastefully obscures his now-dragonlike nether regions in pixelated shadow. He's also sprouting a pair of batlike wings that rise majestically from his back. However, he's completely inert. Not for lack of trying, either, but nope, his feet remain firmly fixed in place, muscles locked no matter what he does. At least he can still talk, something any other NPCs passing by can attest to if they pass close enough and he hisses at them:

"Hey, you! Are there any Users around?"

At other times, he can be encountered with Pig -- who's Rebooted into some kind of hell horse, flaming hooves and all -- who's pushing him along the ground, to the sound of scraping stone. She's actually not doing half a bad job, either -- well, until they hit a bump on the ground and Lambert topples over.

[ 2. SWOOPING IS ... GOOD? ]

Maybe you're in a tight spot, cornered by a couple of the Users. Or maybe you misjudged the distance of a jump, and found yourself accidentally plummeting into the abyss because of a stupid map glitch.

Well fear no more, because with a beat of leathery wings, salvation descends from above in the form of huge, taloned feet coming to wrap around your body as you're borne up, up, and away.

Though not without complaint, as Lambert grunts when he takes on the weight.

"Oof! Damn, you're heavy!"

Edited ( ) 2017-05-09 05:54 (UTC)

From the other end of the corridor Scout watches Pig shoving him and him falling over, and weighs her options while the poor mudsdale lips and nudges at its master. Yeah she'd probably better step in.

It would be nice if she was completely and not mostly unrecognizable. The lower face certainly is, but the upper one has something of her in it, despite the color and the fire and the different horns, and her extremeties are bronze-tipped, and of course she can't change her voice.

Still it's kind of good to be reminded that she absolutely could be worse off. Scout approaches, trying not to think about the coordination needed for four legs and arms that nearly reach the ground. It works better that way. "Do you need help? I understand that's a rhetorical question, but if you like I could leave you here."

"Scout? What the fuck are you supposed to be?" Enjoy that warm, compassionate greeting from your boss, champ. To be fair, Lambert is lying on his side and the angle to squint up at her is not a great one, so he's working with some limited information here. Pig, on the other hand, snorts in confusion at the entrance of another quadruped ... if that really is the term that applies here.

Hopefully, she doesn't take that as his final answer to her question. Being frozen in place with none of the skills you're used to fucking sucks, man.

"I thought Rebooting was supposed to be useful."

Extra chirpy and sweet it is, then! "Okay~ Take it easy and enjoy the view!"

She's being sarcastic of course. Scout extends the equid head at the mudsdale, trying to keep the jagged discolored teeth hidden under the thin scaly lips, but doesn't try to pet her. Or reach for anything really, she hates these awful long hands. "Easy, Pig, it's just me. I want to help."

She's noticed that neither mouth moves when she talks. Actually the upper head doesn't really appear to have a tongue or a jaw, it's just decorative. Possibly there to make this body resemble her more.

Don't be a butt, Scout--! Though honestly, Lambert would be pretty resigned to be getting left behind if she did. What a life. Pig sniffs curiously back at the equine head, her own jaw filled with much too sharp teeth she keeps absently snapping. It's a very menacing effect, but really, she's just trying to adjust to having so many things in her mouth. Her breath is a little too hot, but she isn't puffing fire yet...

In any case, Lambert utters one more wordless grumble from the vicinity of the floor before he relents. "I can't move unless one of the Users is around. It's a pain in the ass." But also, at least he isn't some insane-looking man/horse hybrid. He loves Pig, but he has exactly zero desire to be Pig. In fact, you could say he's adamantly averse to the idea.

She probably smells, more than anything else, like saltwater. Somehow this body is supposed to be a sea faerie. There is absolutely nothing aquatic about it beyond the smell of brine.

"Oh. That sounds fun! Me, I'm just ugly! And resistant to everything but magic and holy stuff, but they'll have both. Of course." She can probably do this without Pig freaking out, now. Scout turns that upper torso and grabs his wing in one clawed, spidery hand, one of his horns with the other. She starts backing up slowly, placing her surfeit of feet deliberately and with care. These arms are wiry and long as anything and he's got a pedestal but, also, she's extremely strong.

He should get back upright in a moment unless he does anything incredibly stupid, like point out that her reboot didn't come with an outfit. In fairness, it didn't come with the need for one either. Her upper body looks like some kind of lizard creature trying to look like a skinned human.

If Lambert had all his proper witcher senses, he could pick up on that, but alas, stone isn't so good at smelling things. Still, as he always has when encountering another monster, he's already running through the grimoires and bestiaries he's skimmed over time, trying to think if he's ever run into a monster with a description that fits what Scout is now ...

But, he's being helped up, so the matter will have to wait for the moment. Having no desire to bang down on the stone again (it's amazing how much of your health you can lose that way) he's quiet until he's properly upright again, Pig happily nosing at his stony cheek again.

"Thought you were flayed, at first," he says, squinting at her. Probably. His eyelids aren't actually moving, but he's pointed at her, at least. "You figure it'll count as losing if you scare them into running away from you?" It's a compliment! Sort of?

Scout suspects something of this form is going to stick around. That's how it tends to work. If it's being hugely, carelessly strong, that wouldn't be so bad. She lets go and with care and caution folds the terrible arms one over the other in that space between the upper torso and the lower neck.

"Well, you look like a really hard man now," she says helpfully, almost managing to say it straight. Scout is not in the business of hiding her emotions except very obviously. "You should pretend to be a statue and try for a jump scare. I'll be visible from pretty much any distance. The fog I can make won't float up enough to hide me, I tried."

Even in this incredibly annoying situation, that bit of humor is enough to make Lambert smirk. Or it would, if he could make any expression right now, but since he can't, he'll have to settle for it being audible in his voice.

"It was a rocky start, but I think I've finally got the hang of it. Guess I can try that idea whenever the next one comes around." He doesn't know what the hell a 'jump scare' is, but he can guess from context. More interestingly, though...

"You can make fog?"

"I can..." Her firey eyes can't look more distant as she reads off something, but her voice can change a little. "'Breathe toxic fumes that wilt crops, cause drought and plague, and infect horses with mortasheen.' Whatever that is. I think my bestiary entry is describing something that's a way bigger problem than I can actually cause."

That's irritating. If she has to be this screwed up she should be more dangerous! "I'm something called a nuckelavee. They're demon fairies that come up out of the ocean when they're mad. Because this is a practical shape to have underwater."

"Huh. Never heard of them. Too bad there aren't any crops to test that theory on." Since they ended up in death dungeon simulator and not farming: the game. On the other hand, what kind of farming game would have fae-induced disaster anyway (though Lambert would argue that to be more realistic).

"Try not to plague Pig, though." The horse snorts at the sound of her name (the sound effects make it sound like hissing flame) and tosses her head.

"Any luck offing the players yet?"

"No? I think they're only supposed to be found in a place called Scotsland." Her bestiary entry is just not that helpful. Scout's pretty sure it was just written to sound 'cool'. "And that's a really obnoxious power and it'd better not stick when we get out of here."

She's not sure what the Mudsdale is supposed to be, beyond 'an ominous fire type', but Scout will readily admit most monsters are ones she's only heard of through Carnival workers, so it wouldn't mean much to her to hear about it.

"I haven't seen them yet. You picked up on how there's three levels, right? We must not be on the first one."

"I've heard of it. Somewhere north of England, apparently." Surprise geography knowledge, between two magicians that won't stop harping on about English magic, he's picked up a few things.

"Guess it's a good thing if they never make it down here. Means they've lost the game, right?" And that means they win, and nobody gets turned into mindless slugs today.

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stillwinningthehardway - 2017-05-18 18:16 (UTC) - Expand

Rita's rebooted form is some kind of feline beastman with reddish fur, equipped with crude weapons suited to long-range combat. She keeps her distance from the Users, firing arrows to whittle away their HP. Bows aren't something she has much experience with, but hey, she's starting to get the hang of this. Unfortunately, it's not long before her targets have had enough, and she finds herself flanked, her own health dwindling...

And that's when she's swooped up by some sort of draconic monster. She cries out in surprise, feet kicking in the air, even as the Users' attacks fail to hit, prompting them to lose interest and move elsewhere.

Rita, however, is a bit disoriented from the whole thing, and it doesn't help that she doesn't quite recognize her savior. "What are you -- What do you mean, heavy!? -- Put me down!" But looking down, she realizes they're currently passing over a deep, fiery chasm. The kicking and shouting comes to an immediate stop. "Or don't," she quickly adds.

Yeah, the long range arms hitting Lambert as he drags Rita out of the mess? Not great. Luckily, however, gargoyles have a great immunity to magic and are brutal on melee targets, so a hard swipe of his claws gets the armored user trying to hack at them both to tumble back with a yell. He doesn't wait for the healer to replenish his target's health before he flies them both off, even though he probably should be by all rights doing his best to cut them down right now...

Unfortunately, with the Users moving away, the programming that keeps Lambert moving loses its impetus to keep going. There's a sickening lurch as his wingbeats slow down, but he manages to brokenly flap over to a higher platform and drop Rita on it before he lands on the stone himself, going into a crouch to start replenishing his lost health points ... and unfortunately back to being immobile.

"This is kind of shit, isn't it?" Lambert asks, voice a little muffled by the way his face is hidden by his wings. Not that he's actually really using his mouth to talk to start with...

That lurch just about makes Rita's heart leap into her throat. "Wh, what are you..." Are they falling? It feels like they're going to fall. Rita's never been fond of heights, and this sure isn't helping. Scared stiff, she squeezes her eyes shut and tries not to look at the pits below them. When he reaches the platform and lets her go, she lets out an ungraceful "Gah!!" and flails her limbs for a brief, panicky moment... before landing neatly on her feet, as a feline would.

She stays there, crouched on the solid platform and watching Lambert as his movement slows and stiffens. Once she's had a moment to process the fact that he did indeed deposit her onto solid ground and not into a death-pit, she stands up straight and walks over to him. "Uh... yeah," she says, answering him after an awkward delay. "What are you doing?" Is he just... sitting there?

'Awkward' just describes about the whole situation, really, Lambert grumpily frozen and shuttered behind his wings, unable to so much as look at her when she approaches.

"Recovering," Lambert answers, with supreme annoyance. "Just give it a minute..." Nanoseconds later, really, the wings shift apart, revealing Lambert's scowling visage (it's not all just in-character, there's very real frustration in his voice too) as his body shifts itself to its default 'being a scary fucking rock' position, then freezes into place again.

"Any luck killing these assholes yet?" His mouth doesn't move, but his voice comes through well enough.

Rita watches him with a dubious stare. Is he... a statue now? Okay. Sure. Nothing else in this place makes any damn sense, so why even try to make sense of that?

"It's going about as well as you saw just now," she answers with a dissatisfied groan. "These stupid arrows barely do enough damage to slow them down. Hit them enough times, and they catch on and come after me. It's a pain in the ass." Unsurprisingly, a thin layer of fur partially covered in some sort of primitive rags doesn't offer much protection against the Users' attacks, meaning she has to avoid close combat at all costs. Not that it's much different from Rita's usual defenses in combat, but at least normally, she'd have her magic to keep her foes at bay. Without it, she feels especially vulnerable. Useless, even.

Literally nothing about this whole thing makes sense, Lambert would agree. They're monsters in body, but even that is only in a limited capacity; no gargoyle he's heard of has ever been literally stuck in one place the way he has, constrained by the rules of the game that he inherently understands from being 'Rebooted' but is no happier for the understanding.

"I can't even move unless they're close enough," Lambert mutters grumpily. He's not particularly happy about this state of affairs, nnnope. Not that he's a ranged fighter, but he's usually used to being able to close the distance, dammit. "Or if one of them hits me with a spell or arrow, and then they just keep moving away." Leaving Lambert circling furiously while the Users kite him (not that he'd know what such a term means) which is annoying as hell when he's too slow to catch up.

"Seriously?" So that's why he suddenly went inanimate on her. "That explains a few things, but... This world operates in stupid ways, I guess." Particularly when those 'Users' are involved...

"At least their mage is a total joke," she declares with a wave of a clawed hand. "They just use the same simple spells over and over, and the trajectory's so predictable, it's a wonder they manage to hit anything." Rita is, of course, comparing the party's mage to herself, confident that she could do much better. At least, she would if she could use her damn magic.

"How much they suck at fighting doesn't matter if we still can't beat them," Lambert points out sourly. Although ... "Since they're teaming up, so should we. If you can lure them to me, I can keep them distracted while you fight from a distance. How fast can you move?"

Based on what she looks like alone right now, he's guessing 'pretty fast.'

Edited (phone tags were a mistake ) 2017-05-17 11:31 (UTC)

"Pretty fast," she replies, unknowingly echoing his thoughts. "Running and jumping are about the only things this body's good for."

As for that plan of his... "I guess it's worth a shot. As far as strategies go, it's not too different from how I normally fight..." Using her allies as shields while she attacks from a safe distance is about par for the course for Rita. "Once my health's finished recovering, I'll go catch up with them." Fortunately, it's been steadily replenishing ever since they got out of range of the Users. Seems like this world really does revolve around them.

"If things get hairy, I can always pull you out again." Even as immobile stone, though, Lambert's voice contains an ever so slight but definitely present smirk. "Though for a cat, you seem awfully scared of heights."

Not that Lambert is one to talk. Witchers are good at dealing with monsters, but he'll never be graceful at falling without breaking something.

Rita visibly bristles at that, gritting her fanged teeth and scowling at him. "Scared? Why would I be scared of something stupid like that? You're imagining things." And she might be protesting too much.

"Uh huh. Sure I am." Real convincing, Rita, and the light mocking in his tone makes it obvious he isn't in the least bit convinced. Still, if he's relying on her as an ally for the foreseeable future, he should at least try to get along.

"If it helps any, I'm not actually sure falling here can kill you." Because surely that's reassuring and will address all of Rita's worries and fear can be rationalized away.

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⇨ THE GAME CUBE

Lambert | Level 2

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