idolpro | Heart Game: Talon

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!heart games

Heart Game: Talon

Was it this late when you stepped into the Game Tower...? Now the sky above is dotted with a few scarce stars, occasionally obscured by some light cloud cover drifting by. Most of the night sky has been washed out by the bright lights of the city which, by the way, is spread out far below the rooftop that characters find themselves on. There's a faint buzz on their phones. When checked, the screen shows a Game Notice:

Win Condition:
1. Locate the True Heart
Or
2. Leave a Lasting Mark

The skyscraper towers high above the streets, easily dwarfing any other building in sight. The city is some dozens of stories below, and the sound of the wind rushing by is louder than anything that can be heard from the streets. Occasionally the wail of a siren pierces the distance, but it's easier to spot the lights of an ambulance or police car zipping through the roads than it is to hear them. If you look closely enough, and for long enough, you might notice figures in the distance leaping between buildings, sometimes in pursuit of a siren or with an emergency vehicle trailing in the distance behind them.

The roof itself is expansive—the building must take up the better part of a city block, judging by the space available up here. A helipad (sans any helicopter) takes up the entirety of one side of the roof, complete with what looks like a freight elevator for moving things from the roof further into the building. The elevator itself has a keypad lock on it, but a staircase entrance beside it has no obvious lock in place.

The rest of the rooftop is empty save for a small, hooded figure perched atop one of the parapets along the edge of the roof, feet dangling over open air.

[ OOC NOTES:

1. Powers are on. THIS INCLUDES CANON POWER SETS.
2. Characters may keep any equipment they had on them when entering the heart, but there is a risk it will be taken away during the run. However all equipment taken will be returned when you exit the heart.
3. Significant changes/damage to the heart will reset each time someone new enters an area for the first time. For example, if Bob kills the sentry at the entrance of the heart, the sentry will respawn for Sally when she arrives. This way everyone can experience the different areas.
4. CAVEAT TO THE ABOVE: exceptions made for anyone specifically going through the heart with a partner(s), or anyone who requests to react to damage that's been done. The goal here is to allow everyone to have fun in the heart at the end of the day. ♥ ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Door number 2 features...an empty stock room!!

Just kidding; there's an extremely unfortunate shop clerk who's been strung up on the wall with a slit throat. Judging from the blood spray spread around the room, it was not an easy death. The floor is littered with dead robins as well, feathers plucked from their wings and stuck messily to the wall in a sad mockery of wings. The only other detail of note is a disturbing smiley face scrawled out in the victim's own blood.

Gruesome scenes aside, the only ways out of this room are through the employee door leading into the main shop, back the way Jay came, or down through trap door to who knows where. ]

[poor bastard.

time to take the trap door, since he's not convinced the main shop isn't booby trapped.

nor is he sure this trap door isn't boobytrapped, but.

you know.]

[ Down the trap door are two things:

1. The...cave system is down here? Weird thing to put under a pet shop, but it's definitely a tunnel of cave and not something reasonable like a storage basement or access to maintenance tunnels or anything.

2. There's a fun box decorated with glitter and little paper hearts oh so lovingly cut out of construction paper. :) When the door is opened it trips the box to burst open, hurling a spray of glitter, confetti, and all sorts of cool nails and glass shrapnel right up at the trap door. Somewhere, a recording starts to play: ]

Whoopise! Looks like you've found my trail! Here's hoping you can keep up.

[like he wasn't expecting some sort of trap, opening the door so it can mostly shield him from this.]

Looks like Talon remembered a little bit more about you, bastard.

But not enough.

[which is concerning.

anyway, once he's sure the trap is sprung, and can't identify anymore obvious traps-- only then will he head down.]

[ There's a helpful message painted on the wall—in bright green paint this time. The poor guy upstairs only had so much blood to use, after all.

There's a party, and you're invited!! :)

The message features a doodle of a little figure in a hoodie below it ]

[that memory, huh.

that memory.

unless there's a different one. he inhales softly, and then-- eyes on the way forward... keeps going.]

[ The tunnel slopes away down into the earth and gradually grows wider, increasing in size until a car could be easily driven through it. The sound of laughter drifts up occasionally from somewhere further down the tunnel, sometimes in the distance, sometimes sounding close enough to be just around the next corner.

The first person Jay sees, though, isn't the Joker. Instead it's a small figure huddled along the edge of the tunnel, back turned to anyone approaching. ]

[he's going to cautiously approach that figure, tbh.

he doesn't trust shit when the joker's involved. and when he gets close enough, he's going to put a gun towards the back of their head.]

Don't move.

[ Well. The figure doesn't move, that's for sure. ]

Who are you?

I'm warning you, I got a panicky trigger finger.

[ The voice that responds isn't quite Damian's, but it sounds young.

Young, and terrified. There's a fearful whimper in the kid's tone, and their shoulders are trembling faintly ]

I-I'm Jon! Please don't shoot me!

[who the fuck is Jon?]

Gonna have to get more specific than that, kid.

Stand up. Slowly.

[ He stands up

and up

and it really should be completely impossible for this much mass to have been crammed into such a small package, but that does nothing to stop this from happening. The "boy's" limbs stretch out to impossible lengths, bent and contorting to fit into the space. The fearful tremor in his voice transitions unsettlingly into hysterical laughter, and he turns to lash out with an impossibly long arm, trying to smash Jay into the wall ]

[yep.

he ducks, and shoots him, first the arm, and then the stomach.

instinctively.]

Fuck off, Joker.

[ Not the actual Joker, unfortunately! But given the manic laughter and impossible smile, it's obvious who inspired this monster.

The ex-boy shrieks another peal of laughter, grabbing at his stomach in agony and—hahahaha he can't even manage that with a straight face. He rushes at Jay, apparently not even phased by the bullet wounds, and goes for a punch right to his throat ]

[guess he was going too soft-- he has to duck, letting that fist clip his shoulder instead of his throat.

but it gives him the opportunity to shoot the fucking thing in the face.

he doesn't have time for this shit, and a slow, cold death is never gonna make him feel better.

well, it would help a little.

but this fucker's like a cockroach.]

[ Sure is!

The thing jerks his head out of the way, taking the bullet on his cheek instead of right in his face. He drags an arm across the cave floor, sweeping up a spray of stones and pebbles to fling in Jay's face ]

[see, good thing he has...

a mask.

he blocks some of the spray with his arm

but he's gonna shoot again, aiming for the thing's throat]

[ The mask is nice and all, but in the scarce second Jay has to take to block that spray the beast is swinging up with an uppercut aimed to knock him off balance

which does mean that it can't quite dodge the bullet, but it's done its job of bringing just a little more chaos into the world ]

[honestly-- he can take it.

it's just gonna get him bloodied.

and you can't even tell with the mask. so.

but once he can see its corpse, he's gonna look over it.]

[ It may have been human once, but it's distorted far beyond that now. Black hair, cinnamon skin, limbs and spine stretched out to grotesque proportions, and the all-too-familar rictus grin still fixed firmly in place, even in death. It's impossible to tell if it was actually a child or not before whatever transformation took place. ]

[that's new.

he frowns.]

This doesn't look like anything the Joker can do from what I remember.

[but his presence is well announced here.

time to move forward.]

[ The tunnel continues on into the Earth, and along with the laughter that echos through the caves, muffled screaming can be heard now. It's hard to tell where, exactly, it's coming from, even when the tunnel finally opens up into a wider cavern. There's no one immediately in sight, but there are so many stalagmites and boulders scattered around that anyone could be hidden away in here. ]

[he's less concerned about the cover, and more concerned about branching paths. he knows that it's important to keep the nooks and crannies in mind, but the entrances are gonna give him a hint on where possible traps might be laid.

it's also needless to say,

he's moving cautiously to identify traps.]

[Do you know who can't identify traps for shit?

This guy. He's just running down the tunnels at full speed to catch up.

It's fine, what's the worst that could happen. He's got his sword revved and his arm's feeling way more like its old self.]

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