⇨ THE GAME CUBE

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[anti_nonsense]

[Scrambling into the room and immediately dropping to the floor is a female beastman with reddish fur and feline features. Rita doesn't look much like herself in this form, though she's still a bit shorter and scrawnier than NPCs of the same species. Her health is low, but she isn't visibly injured. If anything, she's just tired from running for her life. Or... one of her lives. Whatever.]

[As she tries to catch her breath, the first thing she does is... of course, complain.] Damn... stupid... bombs! I almost had that jerk! If I could use my magic here, I'd... [She happens to look up then, and in an instant, seems to forget what she was saying. Rita's sure she heard a familiar-sounding voice from this room, but... that hulking demon looks anything but familiar.] What's with you?

[walkonedge]

[ By the time Rita bursts into the boss fight area to recuperate somewhat, trying to catch her breath, Yamato is currently trying to figure out how the hell to call attacks besides somehow triggering the lava in the room to do something. and pretty much the stuff that he's figured out is that he has a short-range attack and a long-range attack and that any fire-related magic is going to cause him to regain hit points rather than lose them. That much is evident based on some of the cracks that are in the walls now, courtesy of testing out what he can do.

But woah, woah, hold up - he kind of recognises the voice. He stops his test drive attacking, lowers his fist, and looks at her beastman form incredulously.

Or rather, as incredulously as one can muster behind a goddamn metal mask. ] Rita?!

[ Oh, and this? Well: ] I didn't choose to get rebooted into this, okay.

[anti_nonsense]

Huh? [Rita's eyes widen at the sound of her own name. He knows her? No... she knows him, too.] Wait... it's you?

[She rises to her feet, dusting off her fur and the primitive-looking rags that make up her clothes.] I guess that makes two of us, though. I can't believe we're supposed to fight like this. [It's not clear exactly what part of this she's so opposed to, though it may well be everything.]

[walkonedge]

[ In all honesty, he's not... complaining as much as Rita is. Fighting in this rebooted boss demon form is infinitely easier than his human form, although from the way Rita says it, she doesn't seem so keen on being some kind of beastman type thing. So maybe it was the luck of the draw.

But then again... uh, going up against bombs sounds like this is going to end terribly. Especially on a fire level. ]

Going to have to make do, somehow. I don't even know how this works properly. [ He's holding up a hand that's covered in blue flames - that's meant to deal burn damage to the User, although he isn't aware of it just yet. He's also being very careful not to trigger this off accidentally and have it blow up in Rita's face. ]

[anti_nonsense]

[Putting her irritation with the situation aside for the moment, her eyes wander to the cracks in the wall.] You've been practicing? Not a bad idea.

... You ever do much fighting before? [She folds her arms, somewhat awkwardly, as they're longer than she's used to, and tilts her head curiously at him. Rita knows there are a few fighters of various kinds around here, though Yamato (ordinarily) doesn't quite look the type.]

[walkonedge]

[ He shrugs. Or well, shrugs as best as he can in this form - heated metal is still kind of unwieldy, and it doesn't help that the chains on this new form also kind of rattle ominously. when he moves.

Yeah, it's not a form built for stealth at all. ] I mean, the last thing i want is to go down without giving a decent fight.

[ That, and it would be embarrassing. ] Some. I had a partner who did most of the fighting, but I know how to throw a punch, at least.

[ That's about all that he can do, really, Rita's right in the sense that he really isn't usually the fighting type. ]

[anti_nonsense]

A partner...? [She raises an eyebrow, though the gesture is a bit less pronounced with her beast-face.] What, like a bodyguard?

[She seems to be looking him over with a more appraising look, now that the initial surprise at his weirdness has mostly worn off.] What can you do? Besides punch things.