idolpro | 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

[ peers in through that front window, just trying to see if everything is cool inside ]

[ Everything appears normal. All the merchandise looks undisturbed, and the few pens of animals visible from the front window look peaceful. In one of the more obvious cages, a ferret's little paws twitch in slumber. There's a light visible through a window in the Employee's Only door behind the counter, so it could be that there's a worker or two left just wrapping up for the day. Maybe sharing an especially funny story?? ]

[ tries the front door? is it open? ]

[ The front door opens easily ]

[ walks in and calls out ]

Anybody here?

[ There's no answer. There is the unfortunate coppery scent of blood. ]

[ well. that's not good.

gonna follow his nose and follow that scent ]

[ The scent leads into the crack stockroom where 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, an employee only exit into the alley, or a trap door in the corner]

[ note to self: give talon A BIG HUG later

but he's going to first look at the dead robins on the floor. any indication on how they died? ]

[ They look like they've been crushed to death or, in a few cases, had their necks wrung ]

[ now checking on the shop clerk. how is he strung up on the wall? and are the wings on the wall meant to look like they're coming from him? ]

[ The wings are definitely nearby to look like his, but they aren't actually attached to him. The guy's been strung up using cord meant to hang banners and other displays. Someone drilled hooks into the wall just for this, it looks like. ]

[ someone wanted to make a statement...

cccchecking out that trap door ]

[ [ 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. Anyone fool enough to stick their whole head over the opening when they lift the door will be in for a nasty surprise!

Somewhere, a recording starts to play: ]

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

[ THANKFULLY bark is careful enough to not stick his whole head over the opening when opening the door, but enough is still there that he does get hit with some shrapnel that causes him to cry out in pain and clutch his face for a moment.

he's still for a moment, but he doesn't bother to clean it up as he just. goes down into the cave system ]

[ 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.

The tunnel beyond 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. ]