⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

"No, I'm just hanging out here for fun," Lambert answers, as sarcastic as a stone statue can be. With Steven rearing up the way he is, the witcher can at least squint down enough to get a decent look at him, snorting when he catches sight of how he's been changed.

"What are you supposed to be, a manticore?" Steven makes ... possibly the least intimidating manticore Lambert's ever seen or heard of. The only reason he even recognizes what he is is because all the parts look about right, but seriously, Steven looks like the kind of creature a user'd take as a familiar, not as a threat.

[starseedling]

Steven drops down from the pillar, walking in a quick circle as he tries to get a better look at himself. He's not actually very adept at knowing the names of mythological creatures, so the word "manticore" basically catches him by surprise. He can see his own tail and butt, but it's not like he's had a mirror to take things in with.

"I-I dunno! Maybe?" He stops spinning around pointlessly. He scratches at his 'mane' with a paw, trying to feel out the curves horns there. "What's a manticore?"

Maybe that will help him figure out what he's supposed to be doing.

[whattaprick]

"'And ye will know the beast before you by these signs: the body of a lion, the wings of a bat, the tail of a scorpion, and the horns of a goat' ... or something like that, anyway." Lambert can't shrug right now, but it's somehow implied in his voice.

"Fits the bill, anyway. I've never actually been up against one myself."

[starseedling]

"Wings of a bat? Bat wings!" Steven repeats dumbly, like there's something really stunning about that aspect in particular. He flaps his wings as if he's just realizing they're there - they're small objectively, but not as much in relation to the general smallness of his body. "Oh right!"

He closes his eyes and concentrates, beating his wings as rhythmically as he can manages. He tries to get himself into the same mental place he does when he's floating, except this time it's flying. After about five seconds of flapping he actually manages to get himself off the ground, slowly hovering up to Lambert's level.

He opens his eyes then, and realizes he's actually accomplishing it, and laughs in surprise. "Hey, I can do it! I'm flying!"

...Only for him to fall off rhythm a few moments later, resulting him in just sort of dumping himself onto Lambert's petrified body. His paws flail for purchase, awkwardly hugging around Lambert's neck and he tries to keep from falling off the pillar.

"Haha... whoops?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert is a statue, at least nominally so, and very, very solid, so it's not like Steven's going to be short of anything to grip on -- nor is he going to be choked by being clung to. It probably is a bit of a funny sight, thought, as his own wings are probably bigger than all of Steven, and now ...

Unfortunately, Lambert is a statue, and one that is only active when in the vicinity of a User at that (this annoying bit of trivia is part of what was 'Rebooted' into him, along with everything else). Though his pose is no doubt intended to be impressive or intimidating for whatever user wanders into this hallway, it also really, really isn't stable, so even Steven's titchy, tiny little hybrid body hanging off his neck? Is enough to make him start

tipping

off

the pedestal. It's almost all certainly a trick of perception, but it almost feels like it's happening in slow motion!

[starseedling]

"Yeep!"

Steven's first response to the gargoyle starting to tip is to just cling to it harder, which obviously doesn't help when its not him falling, it's the thing he's holding onto. When he does realize what's actually happening - well, cats aren't really built for pushing or pulling with things that aren't their heads, ideally with all four feet on the ground.

"Oh, no no no!" he gasps, confused and desperately apologetic. He wraps his paws under Lambert's arms and his tail around his body and starts flapping his wings desperately, though he's not nearly big enough or good enough at this to maintain air while hanging onto a giant rock. "Oh geez - sorry! I'm sorry!"

He's putting in a pretty good effort here, but he's probably not stopping Lambert from falling over. If he does, though, Steven isn't going to let go, so at least the constant flapping might slow the fall? He guesses this is just what's happening right now.

[whattaprick]

Sorry, Steven. Lambert is really heavy, and once he's tipped off his balance, it's nearly impossible to stop him slipping off the pedestal, tugging the poor little manticore down with him.

But all hope is not lost, for a shrill, somehow vaguely demonic whinny splits the air, and with a thunder of hooves, a huge horse trailing poorly-animated fire effects bursts onto the scene, intercepting the stone gargoyle before it can smack into the ground. Of course, here, Pig doesn't have the same constitution she does as a Pokemon, so the experience doesn't leave them unscathed -- somewhere, an unseen hitpoints tracker ticks down for them both when Lambert drops on top of her and bounces off -- but Steven's efforts did pay off, because it's not as bad as it could have been.

"... I hate computer games," Lambert says out loud, to no one in particular, now that he's stuck on his back staring up at the ceiling.

[starseedling]

With the bouncing around, and with Steven's desperate desire to keep hold of the gargoyle, he unfortunately ends up pretty tangled up in Lambert's stone body - his tail is caught beneath Lambert's torso, with the stinger too fat to slip out. Steven flails around once they've hit the ground, trying to get himself the right way up, which amounts to a lot of claws on grasping for some kind of purchase.

He whines with effort in a way that sounds more lion than human, but manages to get himself arranges so he's curled over Lambert's shoulders and face. It's a good thing Lambert probably doesn't have to worry about cat fur right now.

"I'm stuck," he says, perhaps stating the obvious. "Are you guys okay?" He looks to both Pig and Lambert. Maybe this is what a visual clipping glitch looks like from the inside.

[whattaprick]

"Just peachy," Lambert grumbles, voice faintly muffled by fuzz as Steven awkwardly clambers over him. The witcher takes a private moment to be grateful breathing is temporarily optional. To add injury to insult, each clumsy kitten-swipe of Steven's claws scrapes a negligible amount of hit points off his total, more a nuisance than anything to seriously worry about.

Pig, with a full mouth of demonic teeth, burning embers for eyes, and jet-black skin split in cracks that reveal molten rock. beneath, certainly doesn't look out of place in heir surroundings. She does, however, seem highly concerned about her master and the fat, fuzzy passenger he's acquired, once she's shaken off the disorientation from being hit. She nudges Steven with her muzzle, huffing far-too-hot air against him as she nudges him in the flank with her nose.

Unfortunately, they won't be alone for long. Flickering shadows stretch long on the wall, and the sound of clashing weapons is audible just around the corner. There's only one thing that can mean... a User.

[starseedling]

Oh geez.

Steven seems to have a fire affinity as well, though he's yet to discover in what capacity. Do manticores do fire stuff? It didn't sound like it. Then again, this game can probably do what it wants with its own setting. At any rate, Pig's breath doesn't bother him, and instead Steven takes a moment to lift a paw to gently pat her on the nose...

Only for the sound of Users to arrive.

Steven immediately goes tense, his struggling restarting. He's clearly panicking, just a little. This is so hard without his usual powers to depend on.

"Oh no. We gotta get up!" He strains against his tail, shifting his position to try to make it work. It probably results in the Lambert statue wiggling a bit but ultimately not displacing enough weight to free him. "Lambert, can't you move yet?!"

This so isn't fair. Of course, it's hard to say what this predicament looks like from the User's perspective, the Warrior coming around the corner to regard a three monster pile up - a manticore on top of a gargoyle with a demon horse at their side.

In that moment, Steven can't do anything but stare dumbly.

[whattaprick]

Pig's not much of a fan of being patted on the nose, huffing again and stepping back with a shake of her big, now flame-maned head. If being in the Game actually means undoing all the plaits Lambert spent time putting up, he's going to be pretty annoyed ... although out of it, in Mainframe she just looks like a big blocky sprite in a vaguely quadrupedal configuration, so this is arguably an improvement. At least here, she has texture.

"I can't--" Lambert starts to say, as the Warrior steps closer (probably as the player laughs hysterically and decides to zoom in on this hot mess, not that Lambert has any clue about that) but then suddenly, he can. The Warrior gets just that little bit too close, and it triggers something that shoots through Lambert like a bolt of electricity, unfreezing his muscles and letting him move, wings beating sharply through the air in a single powerful sweep that bears him up and off the ground.

Unfortunately, as he does that, Steven is still. Well. Kind of on his head. So as he starts to automatically flap around in crazy circles, trying to hone in on where the User is so he can start swiping at him, it's still with the poor kid stuck to his face. The fact that the Warrior isn't actually even trying to attack them yet is probably a miracle.

[starseedling]

Yay, they're moving, is all he can think, until Lambert starts flapping around wildly and it rapidly changes to oh no, they're moving! Steven starts impulsively flapping his wings, too, as he both tries to uncoil his tail from Lambert's body while simultaneously avoiding being thrown to the floor.

The Warrior's bemusement is really their only advantage here. Might as well make the best of it.

Steven launches off of Lambert's head claws out - just in time to and straight on top of the User, kitten clawing up their armour as he scrambles for purchase, swinging over so that he's hanging down their armoured back and thus difficult to reach.

This is really not an optimal strategy, but okay. Meanwhile, Steven is growling with the inherent squeakiness of a baby lion.

[whattaprick]

It's all kind of a nightmare, really, though for which of them it's a bigger headache for is a bit up for debate. Thankfully, Steven marshals his legs under him enough to springboard off, leaving Lambert shaking his head and immediately trying to orient himself -- and whoa, flying on blind instinct was one thing, seeing where he's going and trying to reconcile it with the movement of the furiously beating extra appendages on his back is another thing.

Now that an attack's actually been initiated, though, the Warrior snaps out of their stupor. If Lambert actually knew a damn thing about video games, he'd probably guess that now is the quick-time event where the player has to furiously wiggle to scrape an enemy NPC off their back. Conveniently, there's no way to effectively whack something off your back with a sword, so they're mostly limited to their comically oversized gauntlets, trying to swat off the tiny, chubby figure latched onto their back.

It doesn't really matter if it's an optimal strategy or not, because Pig is already rearing up and stomping down, hooves striking the stone to create a blaze underfoot, giving the User more things to worry about than just a tiny child on their back. Lambert, finally orienting himself properly, darts to go for the Warrior's front while they're distracted, wickedly sharp stone claws landing hard enough to dent metal.