idol simulator 2kxx » round 03

[idolpro]

For a long, suspended moment, you don’t know where you are.

And then, you find that you do.

Opening your eyes, you’ll find that wherever you were a moment ago you’re now in an unremarkable room in an unremarkable building, dressed in unfamiliar clothes.



You are understood to be human
You have your cell phone
You have no weapon
You cannot use unit powers
Retained corruptions are cosmetic

Welcome to the music industry, probationary idols. You’ve got a lot of work to do.

Comments

l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

You stand in the grand lobby of a forgotten home: vast, empty, echoing and falling to ruin. Paint peels in curling, scale-like flakes from damp walls, and tendrils of vine wind their way along rotting balustrades, their uprights working themselves loose in their fittings. The stairs are buckled and creaking, the air stale with damp and rot. The atrium is dominated by a large fountain, a vast flowering tree sprouting from its basin. Its twisting branches stretch up and out through a shattered wrought-iron skylight, seeking the sun. Broken glass and iron spars lie scatted across the tiled floor.

The ghostly figure of a young woman can be seen sitting quietly on the edge of the fountain.

At the top of the grand staircase, a single door is set incongruously in a bare wooden wall like the reverse side of a stage set, scored across its lengths with support struts and seams. There is a barred gate on the left-hand side of the lobby and a heavy set of wooden doors on the right-hand side. The front doors are thrown open. Another, smaller set of stairs leads downward.

talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[wefoundwonderland]

The woman is frankly and flatly wraithlike – skin translucent, her tendrils of her hair, like her loose skirts, caught and shifting in an unseen breeze. Her hands are in her lap, resting loosely over the hilt of a spectral knife, dried blood cobwebbed across the blade. Her eyes are hollow, shadowed with the marks of fatigue; her shoulders slumped: she is the weariest woman in the world, and her tired eyes flicker disinterestedly across you.

She bears all Wednesday’s corruptions - the feathered lashes, the ball-jointed arm filigreed with patterns, the starry eyes – and the scar from a rope burn is conspicuously visible across her throat.

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[backstory]

. . . Wednesday?

[ Now this...? This hurts. He crosses to her, gentle and quiet as he approaches. ]

Wednesdays? It's me.

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[wefoundwonderland]

Ah - Levi-kun. Hello again.

... I hoped you'd find me. That's awful, isn't it?

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[backstory]

Awful...?

[ Taking her hand. ]

What...happened?

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[wefoundwonderland]

She - we, I suppose - wouldn't let go.

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[backstory]

Let go...?

Do you mean of the past? Of this world?

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[send_noods]

[the real shit is always in the staff room.

Approaches and crouches down to talk to her]

Wednesday?

... where are we?

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[wefoundwonderland]

A place that should not be. They had no need for it, but it had to go somewhere.

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[send_noods]

Mmm...

And who exactly is "they?"

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[wefoundwonderland]

This is another game, isn't it? There seem to be very few limits on what the producers can and cannot do to us all.

Re: talk to h̢̜̬̬e̛̟͇r̜̦͘

[send_noods]

[!]

... yeah, it is.

I need to wake you... Wednesday, up.

[looks around at the ruin]

Skeletons in the closet, huh?

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[we_meet_again]

[






Do you ever get the feeling you just immediately found the Plant Horror room?




Anyway he's going back to the dressing room. Bye.]

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

this is probably a better idea

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[justfuckingtryit]

[Snaps pictures of the major features, and of the young woman by the fountain before he approaches]

Hey.

/2

[wefoundwonderland]

As you draw close to the fountain, you notice small white flowers with red-tipped petals float in the water of the basin; the elegant statue that used to top it has been twisted and crushed in the branches of the growing tree. Growing trees, more accurately: what appeared to be one tree is in fact two, their trunks and boughs so tightly entwined they’re near-impossible to tell apart, never mind separate. Tangled in their roots are bones, human ones, washed clean by the water. Two trees, two skeletons.

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

Thorn-san.

I'm sorry. We're making trouble for you all, again.

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[justfuckingtryit]

Pretty sure it's not your fault.

[Hesitates, then takes a picture of the trees and skeletons]

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

I suppose there was no helping this. I am sorry you had to get involved, though. This is not a place to linger in.

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[justfuckingtryit]

You're Wednesday, aren't you?

Why do you look... like this?

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

They didn't need this part of her, and they didn't need these memories. We were a complication they were not prepared to deal with.

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[send_noods]

[ Gladio leaves "Wednesday" at the fountain.

He grips and shakes the Barred Gate, testing its strength]

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

It is a sturdy and well-made gate, for all it's rusted and covered in flaking paint.

It's also unlocked and open.

going deeper

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[send_noods]

[This time, let's try the single door at the top of the staircase]

Re: l̺̠͖͔̦͎o̼͟b͕̰͓͕̀b̰y̱̯̦͕̦̝ͅ

[wefoundwonderland]

going down