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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah. Hi Gon." Jimmy's trying to be as nonchalant about this as possible, and not really doing that great. "You're.... Are you the end boss?"

He has to be, really. Five heads, giant plant dragon monster, the biggest thing Jimmy's seen yet. And maybe Jimmy's a little irritated at everyone else getting turned into monsters and he's a pixelated centerfold. But being able to actively sabotage the users more than made up for it, though.

"Looks like you made out okay when the game came down."

[.........Well.] A...Auuh, evidently so, though...

[Gongenzaka stoops as low as he can, his heads stretching toward the end of the room to try and make Jimmy out. Whatever Jimmy is, it doesn't look like...er...] For the most part, it would seem so, but...

...Exactly...what sort of 'enemy' did you reboot into..?

"I'm not. I'm a bonus objective. I got carried off in the opening movie and there are bonus rewards if I get rescued." Jimmy looks around at the pike around him again, and then looks back through the door at Gon. "I think I'm in a pile of stuff meat to help boost the users and improve their chances of killing you."

Not that Jimmy's going to let that happen, anyway. "You're a... Plant creature, right?" There's no money and a suspicious amount of fire breath potions here. Not a good sign.

Bonus objective..? [Well that's new. But as Jimmy describes the pile he's in, and asks the question, Gongenzaka stiffens. Oh.

He thinks he can guess what it all means.] S...Something along those lines, it would seem. There are petals along my back, and the end of this tail appears to resemble a tree...

"That would definitely explain the...." He picks up a bottle and holds it up to the light, seeing the faint orange glow within, and the picture of flames on the front. "... fire breath potions. And I would assume the invincibility potions are to help them survive some kind of special attack of yours."

"There's some haste ones too. For the spellcasters, I'd guess." Jimmy looks over the pile of softly glowing potions, then back up at Gon. "How much of this should we let the users actually have?"

Edited 2017-05-14 02:23 (UTC)

Well, He's raising a few scaley brows to that. "Hmm! With the alternative? ...If it becomes easier for the users, it becomes a far greater risk for the actual citizens of the Mainframe trapped in here alongside us. And such a thing would be UNFORGIVABLE..!" he announces, his voice an echoing roar.

"...We shall divide them between those of us still fighting!"

"That sounds good to me.... Here. Let me hand you the invincibility potions..... I don't know if you can use the haste ones, but better you than them." Jimmy starts sorting through bottles, dumping out the bag of gold onto the floor, and replacing the metallic ringing of coins with the careful clink of glass bottles.

"I'll dump the fire breath ones down a drain or something. Maybe give the users a nasty surprise when the rats start roasting them." Not that Jimmy really wants to set anyone on fire, but the binomes and the characters have a lot more at stake here.

"Th-The invincibility potions?!" UM-!

...Well alright. "Are we entirely certain such things will work on myself? It seems...like a rule that one would want to exclude from a game..." So he says, but the bottles are getting sorted, and there isn't really much else to do right now.

'Even if they don't work, it's better that they get used up trying to figure that out than the users getting their hands on them and using them against you." He keeps loading bottles into the bag, before getting up and walking over to Gon.

There's only so far he can get from the spawn point, though, and he's jerked backwards after about fifteen feet. "Ugh! What the..." The bag hangs in one hand as Jimmy gropes behind his back. "...... Somebody's funny. There's a chain attached to the back of this bra thing." Jimmy sighs and mutters something about messages and skewed focus markets before looking back at Gon. "Can you reach through with a claw or something and I can hand these to you?"

"This is true..." Well, it's certainly odd to see Jimmy coming closer in this state, but at least they can properly see the other. He jumps, the sound of tensing chain catching him off guard. Well, there goes that idea...

"I, the man Gongenzaka, can certainly try to reach," he replies, straining over, "But I am also fairly large..."

"As long as your... hand or whatever is open, I can try tossing the bag in. And even if the bottles break, the users won't get them." Jimmy still wants a few words with whoever thought sticking him in a harness was anything resembling a good idea, though. How would you expect to sell this to female gamers? Then again, considering how dated they look, the studio may not be in business anymore.

"So move your hand over here and I can toss you the bag." Jimmy tests the weight and he's pretty sure most of the bottles will survive, when he throws it.

"Aauh, I, the man Gongenzaka, shall do my best..." Unfortunately, he doesn't think his hand has much reach. His best chance? He stretches one of his heads as close as it gets, opening wide.

Please don't miss, please don't miss... "AhHHHHHH...."

Well, throwing the bag at Gon's face wasn't something he'd anticipated, even though it does provide him with a much larger target. "... I don't know if they'll survive, so be careful when you open the bag, and if any do... We'll have our answer whether or not the potions work on you."

He does take a few minutes to scavenge some old rags from a skeleton and pack the bottles a little more carefully. "This will probably taste terrible, Gon, and I'm sorry." He hefts the bag to get an idea of the weight before he gives it a few spins, ready to chuck it at Gon's mouth on his say so.

"Hmmm!" Understood, in other words. The bag lands just as Jimmy gives his warning, and Gongenzaka chokes somewhat as the parcel lands. Pulling back, he does his best to let them land in his hand..

...Only to gag and sputter. Oops. "KFUGGG...You were not kidding..!" Whoops they broke.

Jimmy winces as the potions shatter, leaking shimmering streams of purple and blue everywhere. "... At least the users won't get them?" It would have been helpful for Gon to use them, but denying them to the users was better than nothing.

"And I'm pretty sure you don't want the fire potions." He looks at the glowing orange potions before shrugging and popping the top off. "I'm.. kind of tempted to try it, to be honest. See what they taste like."

"M-Most certainly not..." Though, hey, if Jimmy wants to try...

"....Perhaps you could move from being a 'pleasant' surprise to an 'unfortunate' one?"

"I don't know if I can. There's only so many animations coded into this." He waves a hand, indicating what he rebooted into. "I have a feeling I should be glad I have a walk cycle." There's no mistaking what did get the most attention, but he can walk, so that's that.

A tentative sip of the firebreath potion makes Jimmy flush. "Well, I wasn't expecting it to taste like Fireball, but I probably should have." He coughs once the burn hits and there's a small puff of smoke. "I wonder if we can keep these...."

"Aaah, that makes sense..." Yikes, he really is lucky, huh...Gongenzaka squints, but immediately shakes his head in response to the question of potions. After all- "Most likely not. These are merely coverings and additions from the game, after all. When the game vanishes, the potions will likely go with it."

"Darn. This is pretty decent stuff, really. I guess the sigh animation can fake me taking a drink and blowing some smoke."

"This is the green level, huh?" At least, going by Gon's makeover it is. ""Level one was blue, level two is purple, and this one's green. At least they're going down the 'creepy color palette' checklist at a good clip." Jimmy takes another sip and blows out another small puff of smoke.

"Hmmm? Is that so? We're those levels also themed...?" He asks, curiosity admittedly piqued for the moment.

"Kind of? They went with a lot of fire damage in level two, which kind of lost me with it all being purple, and level one is all 'Blue=Cold'. Although I do have to give the developers credit for changing it up a little on two, though." He shrugs, taking another sip of the potion and making an attempt at blowing smoke rings. They're not very good, though. He's really rusty at it.

"Hmmm. So I see..." ...Those rings are a little...odd, yes.

"...Auh, what are you doing exactly, with the smoke..?"

"Trying to blow smoke rings. I used to be pretty decent at it back in college." Jimmy takes another sip and falls back on the 'tapping your cheek' trick to produce a much better one. He smiles faintly as it drifts upwards. "Quit smoking when Claire came along, and that was... Well, it's been a while."

"Aah, I see..." ...Huh, interesting. "...I, the man Gongenzaka, heard that was easier if you keep your breath steady..."

This is probably a rumor.

"Nope. The trick is to get a little puff of air, kind of like you're coughing. And that gives you that little puff of smoke that you shape into a ring as it's coming out of your mouth. You can totally cheat by tapping the side of your cheek, though." Which Jimmy does, sending out a few small, rapid rings in quick succession.

"It's a filthy habit, though. I wouldn't recommend it if you like having clothes that smell decent and actually having money."

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