[Heart Game]

[aberdevine]

(♫)

For a moment, there is nothingness. The black void is all-pervasive. Perhaps more worrying, though, is the fact that you seem to be unable to move. It's less a sensation of restraint than it is the horrifying sensation that your own body has gone numb and refuses to obey you.

But then there's a voice, speaking to you. "Remember," it says with a sort of vicious glee, "a bird can only fly within its cage."

And the world explodes into light and color, and you can move.

((NOTE: your scissors remain scissors, but your tape has become an emerald-green ribbon.))

Comments

[START]

[aberdevine]

You find yourself standing-- well, not in water, but close. You're in a pavilion over water that seems to be part of an ornamental garden, the kind you might find in a large temple complex. It's constructed of wood, with lovely carvings along the eaves. Everything's slightly weathered, but well-kept.

All around you is a shallow lake dotted with blooming lotuses. In each of the cardinal directions, a short bridge extends from the central pavilion like the spokes of a wheel. There are smaller pavilions at the end of the bridges, containing what looks like... individual computer terminals? Huh. There's a terminal in the central pavilion, too: just a projected touchscreen floating above a pedestal. Each terminal's screen glows a different color.

It's odd. The scenery feels completely real. You can smell the flowers, hear the gentle lapping of the water, feel the wood railings under your hands. But every so often, there's something off about it. If you turn your head a little too quickly, you sometimes get the brief impression of static at the edges of your vision and inside your ears. Occasionally you can make out what looks like wireframes overlaying everything.

The sky is a beautiful blue color. A few scattered, wispy clouds float by... as well as some dead pixels. Also, there's a strange pattern like a glowing net overlaying the whole thing.

The screen in the center of the pagoda shows a diagram of some sort.

A computer-generated voice speaks: Logic error. Please activate peripheral modules before attempting to access central core.

From the outside, the central pavilion is more of a pagoda, really. It stretches upwards, floor after floor, impossibly high. The top isn't visible. Which is weird, because it's not like it disappears into the clouds or fog or anything. It's just... not visible, as though it fades away after a certain point.

Re: [START]

[scalesfromeyes]

Ah…

Re: [START]

[aberdevine]

It's a bit like home, isn't it.

Re: [START]

[scalesfromeyes]

[goes… to the west terminal. :) completely ignoring the center terminal.]

Re: [START]

[aberdevine]

There's some sort of login window open. The username and password fields are already filled in.. sort of.

.{IjSER%.NxJy'E: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I
P͟A͊S͖SͩW͝OͨR̻D̸:͗ *̈́̚*̛ͬͭ͑ͯ̌ͤ͜͡*̴͒̾̾ͧͯ*̵̵ͪ͒͗*ͭ̈͊̅͋͒͂͢
Ĺ͝͝OG͞ÌN̨?҉̸ Y/N

Re: [START]

[hakutaku]

[Just flops down and sits for a second, trying to get his bearings]

I don't like it.

Re: [START]

[aberdevine]

Rude.

Re: [START]

[forthefonofit]

[now why would you let me go traipsing through here Viridian hmmm?]

[oh wait ~you didn't~]

[north~]

Re: [START]

[aberdevine]

This was a terrible idea.

There's some sort of login window open. The username and password fields are already filled in.

USERNAME: HIWA
PASSWORD: ********
LOGIN? Y/N

>> LOGIN: MIDORI

[aberdevine]

(♫)

In front of you is a large room. It seems to be some sort of library, judging by the neat rows of bookshelves. The stacks are divided down the center into clear left and right sections. There's plenty of light provided by the high, arched ceiling. It's made of glass, criss-crossed by metal support beams. Around the edges of the ceiling, you can just barely see grass and flowers -- perhaps the whole area is set into the ground? The floor and walls are covered in white tile, and the bookshelves are gleaming metal, giving everything an oddly sterile look.

At the other end of the room is a slightly raised platform, with a large object draped in cloth resting on it. It's hard to make out any details.

Re: >> LOGIN: MIDORI

[scalesfromeyes]

[well, this definitely doesn't look familiar. glances at the object in the cloth, then the bookshelves… then goes over to the object to examine it.]

Re: >> LOGIN: MIDORI

[aberdevine]

It looks like a large piece of furniture covered by a dust cloth.

>> LOGIN: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I

[aberdevine]

A private hospital room. Everything is white. Everything is sterile. Impersonal. The scent of disinfectant is in the air.

Everything is quiet save for the ever-present electronic hum and occasional beeping of the medical machinery. The figure in the bed does not move. It's as though he's very, very deeply asleep.

There's a video screen installed into one wall, with four buttons under it. On the opposite wall is a door.

Re: >> LOGIN: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I

[scalesfromeyes]

[wow, it's almost like he looks familiar or something. but not quite…?]

[softly:]

Viridian…?

[hesitates, then reaches out to touch the figure's cheek, very gently.]

Re: >> LOGIN: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I

[aberdevine]

He doesn't react. But he does look like Viridian. Exactly like Viridian, really, except paler and more emaciated. Like he's been sick for a very long time.

Re: >> LOGIN: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I

[forthefonofit]

[slow. eyebrows. raise.]

[hmmmmmmmm]

[leans over and inspects the figure in the bed]

Re: >> LOGIN: M͡ÍD̵̨͠Ò̶R̸̷͝I

[aberdevine]

He looks like Viridian, if Viridian was even skinnier than usual and also very pale. It's obvious he probably hasn't left this bed in quite some time.

>> LOGIN: HIWA

[aberdevine]

(♫)

You find yourself standing in a forest, or at least an approximation of one contained within a square room. The ground is vinyl tile printed to look like dirt, moss, and grass. The walls and ceiling have been painted with trees, bushes, and sky. There are a few two-dimensional cardboard trees propped up in the corners.

In the middle of the room, there's something like a sideways hourglass. Two huge orbs of glass with wooden bases -- no, they're snowglobes, aren't they? Two giant snowglobes connected like conjoined twins. Each contains the same scenery: a thick forest on one side, and the outskirts of a shrine on the other. A torii gate stands in the middle of each.

The globe on the left shows winter. Snow falls gently from the sky, and there's evidence of children at play. Snowmen, a shogi board, and other games litter the border between the two halves.

The globe on the right shows summer. The toys are gone, and bloodstains cover the ground along the border instead.

Re: >> LOGIN: HIWA

[forthefonofit]

I'm beginning to wonder about your childhood, Viridian, but I'm technically not a qualified psychologist. Yet.

>> LOGIN: BONTEN

[aberdevine]

(♫)

You're inside a square room with sliding screen doors on each wall. The floor and all the wooden trim is red. Scattered here and there are the signs that people live here: a rolled-up futon, a garment box, candles, a small toilette set, etc.

Scribbled notes, pictures, and assorted ephemera are stuck to the walls with pushpins. Bits of string of various colors run from pin to pin, connecting things in what's probably some form of organizational system. It's hard to tell, though, because the result is that strings stretch from wall to wall, covering the room in a sort of loose rainbow spiderweb. It's definitely possible to move around within it -- there aren't that many strings -- but you're going to have to do some ducking and careful footwork to navigate.

Re: >> LOGIN: BONTEN

[scalesfromeyes]

[well… going to examine that organizational system and the notes and pictures attached, then.]

>> LOGIN: VIRIDIAN

[aberdevine]

(♫)

The sun is shining, and a pleasant breeze blows through what looks like Beauty's Forest.

Emerald's cabin -- it looks like bits and pieces of every realm's housing have snuck into its design somehow, but overall it gives the impression of "cabin" -- sits at the end of a small path lined with flowers in every team color. There's a swanboat standing outside on one side of the lawn, and a drankberry tree is growing on the other. A lion skull with a wreath around it has been nailed above the door.

It's peaceful here. It feels like home.

Re: >> LOGIN: VIRIDIAN

[scalesfromeyes]

[goes to lean up against the door.]

Viridian… what is it that you want?

TRUE HEART

[aberdevine]

Unlike the other rooms, this one doesn't fade in with pixels. If anything, the world around you unfolds like flower petals, slowly dissolving and leaving behind something that was always there.

That something is a breezy, expansive tatami room with a tall ceiling. The beams of the ceiling have been strung with a garland made of hanging bottles and paper flowers. Several of the screens have been left open, revealing a lush forest carpeted in velvety moss outside beyond the porch. Sunlight filters in between the leaves of the trees, occasionally sparkling off the glass of the bottle decorations. The faint scent of greenery and flowers comes in on a gentle breeze.

Viridian, looking much as he normally does in Aather -- Emerald kimono draped around his shoulders, hair in a ponytail with a ribbon woven in, ring on his finger -- is sitting on a cushion across from you. A gold folding screen stands behind him, patterned with birds.

He's holding what may (or may not) be recognizable as a small touchscreen tablet on his lap, and he swipes it with one (still slightly clawed) finger before looking up at you with a faint smile.

Re: TRUE HEART

[scalesfromeyes]

Hello.