Heart Game: Intensity (Turn 5)

[idolpro]

In the beginning, there is nothing but darkness and silence. A sleep that gives no rest but one out of necessity in order to keep functioning. Behind closed eyelids, the numbers of a clock tick down - one painstaking second at a time.

TIME UNTIL REBOOT:


And then you wake up.

As you shift to a standing position, you feel something sharp and pointed press against your side. Digging into the nearest pocket, you will find two small puzzle pieces. And from their odd shape, it looks like they would fit into a 3D spherical puzzle. Odd. You've never seen them before, but you do get a sense that these are a currency of some sort. Spend them wisely!

Game start.

Comments

Intensity's Lab

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

The room you arrive in is plain and simple in contrast to everything you know about Intensity. There is one bed large enough to fit two children at most pressed up against the far wall. A chess set sits on a folding table with two chairs. Yu-gi-oh cards are scattered atop the rest of the table's surface - this one sitting proudly on top. And the far wall is almost entirely dominated by this image. In the center of the room sits an Intensity that can't be more than 10 years old and... smiling. Like. Actually smiling as he carefully puts together a 3D puzzle that looks like it would take a long time to complete even for an adult. But he seems to be entranced with it as he carefully slots two pieces together. Perfect fit. He looks up at you as you enter.

There is only one exit: [ Back to the Fin Common Room ]

Re: Intensity's Lab

[criminaljustice]

[.... oh no.

he found a cute.

waves.]

Hey, Intensity.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[ He waves from where he's sitting but is obviously very intent on putting his puzzle together. ] Hi, Boss. ... Did you raid my coffee machine?

[criminaljustice]

Only a little. Sorry, I was feeling kind of worn out. Needed the pep.

By the way, do you know what the gold pieces are about?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[ His looks at them and his eyes widen considerably. ] Those are for King's puzzle! How did you get those?!

[criminaljustice]

He kinda left them laying around...

Which King am I supposed to hand them off to?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

There's only the one--- Maybe you should give them to Blue Eyes.

[criminaljustice]

... mm, okay. I'll make my way there.

Ah, but lemme ask... why do you keep that one guy locked up?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Oh him? [ Nonchalantly: ] He wants to kill the current version of me. Is he giving you trouble? I can put him back.

[criminaljustice]

He's not giving me any trouble.

I just think it's a little unfair to have a part of yourself locked up when you're clearly the stronger one. Your appearance is very deceptive here. Maybe you don't feel that way, but you not only out-number him but you're more supported than he is.

He can only kill you if you allow for it.

[that said, he's tossing him the last silver piece]

Try to find a way to work together with that part. He is still you, after all.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[ He catches it, but then looks up at Joker ] . . . [ And then his expression hardens into something more like what you would see of the Intensity you know in the waking world ] It's not that easy.

[criminaljustice]

Never said it was.

But do you really want me to have bragging rights on getting my shit together while you keep locking up the parts you don't like?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Better than having them get in the way during a critical moment. He can't be restored fully anyway. He's lost his name.

Re: Intensity's Lab

[criminaljustice]

[guess who's back

back again]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[ Still putting the puzzle together. But he stops when he sees Joker. ] Do what you needed to do?

[criminaljustice]

Yeah. Met your Blue Eyes. She's lovely, for the record. Clearly the better half.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Of course she is. She's saved my life more times than I can count.

[criminaljustice]

I bet.

... managed to wrangle that other guy before he did something stupid. Sorry for the chaos element.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I wouldn't expect anything less of you. [ Pats the spot next to him. ] Want to sit?

[criminaljustice]

[... on the one hand: wow, embarrassing for Intensity Joker's going to walk away remembering this.

on the other hand: a brief hesitation because like. sure did call a kid out on not being a kid, so like. s w e a t s. but also keeping it chill]

Sure.

[time to sit next to a smol Intensity]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[ Pulls out some paper and crayon. ] So. You seem to think that every part of a soul serves a purpose. Am I understanding this correctly?

[criminaljustice]

[... smollest business man]

From my experience, that's generally how it goes. Though my experience back home was more about cognition--perception. Here, probably it has more to do with things like feelings or memories or things like that.

Back home, I'd steal distorted desires from criminals who definitely deserved seeing what trash they actually were instead of the delusions they built up about themselves. But that's not something someone should do with their souls, I don't think. That's more... accepting that you have aspects of yourself you may not like--in that way, you negate the influence by acknowledging it is a part of you.

That's what I had trouble doing before my own heart experience, anyway.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

You saw the vision, though, right? You know he's also been infected by the House's ghost. Since we weren't taking memories at that time.

[criminaljustice]

I'm infected by two of that House's ghosts and I've been doing better since accepting at least some of the first one.

But I can definitely see how it'd, uh. feed into certain obsessions...

I didn't see a way to counter-act the memory while I was down there, but probably there's something there that represents that memory and I just missed it on the first run-through. If you can find what it would manifest as, you can probably figure out how to sort it out from him.

It's not the same as a corruption.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

The other ghost is somewhere else. It didn't really... It wasn't really relatable, in the end. But the one from the first run--- It's not too different from what we did feel. When King died.