lostcarnival | ⇨ 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

"Well... I guess," says Amethyst. "But it's like she just wants to be good at that because she thinks she's got to. It's not like the other stuff she's learned how to do – y'know, like, art, an' caring about people, and all that junk she's really awesome at." She sighs impatiently, which is weird because there isn't really anywhere in her body, which is currently a solid block of viscous slime, for air to be expelled from.

Edited 2017-05-17 02:44 (UTC)

This is indeed sort of an awkward physical context for this conversation, but Steven can roll with it. Even if... Amethyst literally can't.

Of course, his reaction to what Amethyst says now is mostly to just blush because damn, getting stuff like that out of some of these guys is just the most wonderful thing ever. (Also he doesn't know they're literally dating.)

"Aw... Amethyst..." he purrs, putting a paw over his mouth. "That's so sweet."

Amethyst doesn't blush because she absolutely doesn't have any blood right now, but she does kind of puff her weird square jell-o body up indignantly and glare at him.

"What?! No it's not!! I'm just being – practical or whatever! It'd be dumb if she got hurt for no reason that's all!!"

There's no escaping it, Amethyst. HE'S SEEN IT. The Steven does not forget.

But... he'll let it go for now, though. Though he's making a mental note that maybe he should have some FEELS TIME with Peridot, if she really feels like she has to be a fighter even if she doesn't actually want to for personal reasons.

"Well... I told her she should stay away from the Users so that she doesn't have to give them any information." Which you should be happy about because it means ~Peridot won't get hurt~ blushu.

"Well... good," says Amethyst, deflating slightly. She still looks kind of offended, though. Probably because of the look on Steven's face.

Can't he just be happy for you and your emotional developments??

Okay, though, they should probably switch topics before a User comes charging in to lightning bolt them or something. Steven takes a moment to put on his game face, in the manner of Jamie getting ready for Acting.

"... I have an idea! How about... I try to lead a User down a hallway... but then you get in their way so they run into you on their way out?"

NO?? EMOTIONS ARE FOR DWEEBS?

The change of subject is welcome, though, even if the reminder of the stakes here isn't so much. Amethyst... nods...?? It's kind of just a wobble, but with a bit of imagination a person could say it's a nod.

"Nice one," she grins. "If I just..." She squints her eyes closed and scrunches up her mouth for a couple of seconts, which through some kind of ridiculous video game cartoon sorcery causes the opaque areas of her eyes and teeth to vanish entirely, leaving her totally translucent. "... Then they probably won't even see me!"

...Somehow Amethyst removing her face entirely maybe this more weird? He's just so accustomed to random purple objects having her face on them that the lack of a face feels strangely unwholesome.

But okay. Focus.

"Great!" he says, grinning a little despite himself. "Okay... I'll go out and try to get one of their attention, okay? You try to... hide somewhere, so you can jump out behind them!"

"Uhh, not sure I can really jump out behind anyone," she points out. "Maybe it'd work better if you chased them towards me...?"

"Um..."

He's not really sure if he's capable of chasing anybody towards anything, because, like... look at him? He can't imagine a scenario where the User would choose to flee straight into a blob monster than fight him.

"Most of them can probably take me in a fight... so I don't know if they'd want to run from me..."

Darnit, this plan isn't working!!

"But maybe if you were around a corner or something... I could push them into you? Like... if they're not expecting you to be there at all!"

"Oh yeah, good point," says Amethyst. "Sheesh. Yeah, maybe that'd work..? How're you gonna push 'em?"

Er... Hm.

"I... dunno? Just kind of... run into them, I guess?"

Is that still something he can do? He's got horns and stuff, maybe he can ram them like a goat.

She considers this. "I mean... worth a shot, I guess." NO, AMETHYST, IT'S PROBABLY NOT

⇨ THE GAME CUBE

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