⇨ 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

[control_freak]

"It'd probably be inappropriate to just come right out and show it," Foster quips benignly, but doesn't clarify what exactly he's referring to. It could be anything. It could be about his eating habits! Nevermind that when he's not a crocohorse (horsodile?) he's underweight to the point of being ribby. Or--okay, look.

It's a dick joke.

He's making a dick joke.

"Anyway, fuck this," is what he follows with, because he's not really in the mood to try and... have a conversation that isn't about how much he hates everything about this.

[kingsroads]

"Agreed," Strange responds, with a little grumble. He also isn't in the mood to have a conversation that isn't about how much this place sucks because spoilers, this place sucks.

"These forms we're stuck in are utterly nonsensical. Can you even use your hands as hands?"

Still bitter about the lack of a hands thing, don't worry.

[control_freak]

"Depends." Foster picks up his stubby-taloned, thumbless webbed hands crossly. It's actually sort of hard to even look at them, because his eyes are situated at the front of his gator-jawed face, and his hands are located below his maw. Making them..... well.

"Am I trying to open a bottle of pop? Or am I just trying to--" He actually just stops talking at that point, because he's trying to coming up with an activity that doesn't pertain back to his dick joke and failing.

Not that he even has a dick any more. As a... horseodile. He's just gonna stick with horseodile.

"This is stupid," he concludes, eventually.

[kingsroads]

At least you have hands, buddy, and aren't a sentient box with creepy little legs. This is so stupid. It's completely odd how Strange is looking up at Foster, the tiny little mirrored eyes inside the black depths of the chest being the only thing that's moving.

"Honestly, I'm just thankful we won't be staying here for too long. If I had to go through this nonsense on a regular basis, I wouldn't know what I'd do."

Probably be grumpy and annoyed and spend all of his time at the Carnival instead of the Mainframe in protest.

[control_freak]

Okay, fair. Stumpy, webbed, thumbless, and attached to arms that are mostly shoulderless though they may be... they are hands. He's seen video games--Sophie was a fan, when she was in certain moods. The useless arms, Strange's stupid everything... it's all equal parts unfamiliar and completely typical.

Honestly, Sophie would probably have considered Strange's spindly little limbs 'cute.'

"Define 'too long,'" Foster remarks sourly.

... though he's the one who was in the Mainframe to get away from the Carnival.

--just hope you don't have to scratch an itch or something before it's over."

[kingsroads]

Oh God. He never thought about that before. What if he did need to scratch an itch? Or what if he sneezed? Could he even sneeze in the first place? Strange goes very still and very quiet for a moment as he mulls that over, trying to decide if he could feel a nose or anything on his new boxy body.

Thankfully (and oddly) he seems to not have a nose. Foster does have a point, though.

"I suppose I'll simply have to tell you where the itch is and ask you to scratch it," said as if it's the most obvious thing ever and Foster would be perfectly fine scratching a box.