idolpro | Izanagi's Heart Game

You’re playing basketball.

It’s a tough game, but you’re winning - your teammates, a ragtag group as they are compared to your clearly skilled opponents, keep managing to get the ball to you to score. It’s exhilarating, the cheers of the audience, the praise of your teammates. You’re the center of attention because of your abilities and it feels great. You can’t remember a recent time that felt any happier - like a ray of sunshine after so many grey and stormy days.

...Or at least, that's the scene you believe yourself to be in for a brief moment. Once you return to the present, you find yourself still standing on the stage. And, should you check, your badge is glowing faintly as one of the fragments goes from clear to silver.

You've found another Fragment.

[cool ... cool cool cool cool]

Also, the puzzles were simplistic. I know you're trying to be considerate of whoever ends up here, but you're insulting them.

You're also 16. Get over yourself. Trauma, sure, but don't think you missed nearly everyone else here having rough patches. Egotist.

[The attendant is just kinda standing to the side watching this, amused.]

[and holding poison bottle at him]

So, Chrysanthemum?

[...Headtilt?]

Sorry, who?

Ayumu. Integrate better.

[They seem puzzled.]

Sorry, sir. The name doesn't ring any bells.

Then, how do I get to the level below.

The level below?

[They're sincerely confused. However, at that moment, the Fragments begin to glow, drifting upwards in unison...

and pointing at a particular part of the stage flooring, which is unfortunately covered in plant matter right now.]

[cool]

Bend a little. This is all you. You're being passive, stupid. Take an active role. You're, at least, recognizing who's present, but you're leaving it chopped up.

[????]

Sir...?

[ . . . spraying the attendant then going back to make the cleanser potion with red, gold, silver]

[Weirdly, the bottle glows red, almost like a barrier of some sort is preventing the trigger from being pulled! The red Fragment is glowing too, brighter than the others.

He can go ahead and try to pull it anyway, but he gets the sense that the Fragment will be lost if he does.]

[well, emptying the bottle in the lab before reloading with new potion while fighting the urge to just whip it in the attendant's head]

[This is also fine, probably.]

[going to spray the roses in the library first!! HUFF]

[It's slow work, but bit by bit, they finally wither up, falling from the shelf in a twisted brown curl of vines.

He has half his cleaner left.]

[now spray the gorse :T]

[and when the bottle is empty, toss it at the attendant's head]

[Clonk.]

Ow!

[Anyway. Upon on further examination - there’s a thin line forming a square in the wood, and a hole one might use to stick their fingers into the piece to pull it off.]

Edited 2021-01-24 08:50 (UTC)

[doing so]

Pulling off the piece reveals a long metal ladder that extends down into utter darkness. Looks like the stage was hiding a trapdoor all along.

The Fragments are still pointing into the depths of the hole. If tested, the ladder seems secure and sound, even if there’s absolutely no indication to where it might lead.

[yeah, go down the hole, as if he fears or even expects death]

As you descend into the darkness, you become aware of a consistent, shrill sound... It seems electronic in nature, and it grows louder, though never overpowering as you descend rung by rung.

Eventually your foot meets a tile floor, and you find yourself in a dark hallway. Enough illumination comes from a door at the end of the hallway to see that the walls and flooring all seem to be a sterile white - and whatever’s in the room has got to be the source of the sound. The door is ajar, although there is nothing in particular visible from this part of the hallway.

The Fragments float up again, pointing towards the door.

[still cool, going to the door]

You enter a hospital room.

The heart monitor is flatlining, leaving it droning, a consistent and inescapable whine. Laid in the bed with white sheets drawn over a hospital robe is the thin and pale body of one who you may know better as Izanagi, eyes closed and unmoving.

Oddly enough, the light no longer seems as consistent - in fact, the Fragments are pulsing now, blinking in a steady beat. They seem to be tugging towards the body... and with a soft click, the badge loosens from your clothing, leaving the badge sagging.

It seems it may now be removed, although no matter how it is moved, the Fragments will continue to pull on their chains as they point at the body.

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