aberdevine | [Heart Game]

[Heart Game]

(♫)

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.))

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The book now contains several hairs.

Ah~. No good? Somewhere else, then~.

[picks them up and moves towards the chair, taking off the dust cover completely this time.

> put hairs on chair.]

Well, that definitely does something, though it probably doesn't have anything to do with the hairs.

As the dust cloth is removed, the throne -- and it definitely is a throne: a high-backed, upholstered chair with gold decorations and emblazoned with a crest -- seems to switch on. There's an electronic beep and numerous holographic viewscreens pop up around what would probably be face-height for someone sitting on the chair. It's difficult to make out the contents of the windows from this angle.

To match the ankle manacles, there's also locking cuffs on the armrests.

[…recoils slightly… then considers.

welp.

TIME TO SIT IN THE CHAIR :)]

From the throne, the windows in the viewscreens are perfectly visible. Some contain text, while others seem to be audio, judging by the "play" button. They seem to be warring for your attention -- if you don't look at one after a certain amount of time, it will vanish and reappear right in front of you.

One window, though, stays open where it is: The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.

The titles of the text windows are all things like:
- "Tuning self-motion perception in virtual reality with visual illusions."
- "Virtual reality therapy versus cognitive behavior therapy for social phobia: A preliminary controlled study."
- "Integrated virtual reality rehabilitation system."
- "Virtual environments in clinical psychology and neuroscience: Methods and techniques."

Whereas the titles on the audio windows are much less wordy:
- "Responsibility"
- "Freedom"
- "Siblings"
- "Accident"

[hesitates, then reaches out to touch "siblings."]

It's a very short sound clip.

A boy's voice: "But nee-san is more--"

A man's voice: "She's no good! That girl, she's always so contrary!"

["Freedom."]

A girl's voice, laughing, but as though heard from some distance away.

A man's voice: "Midori, are you listening?"

[…"Responsibility," then "Accident."]

A man's voice: "Remember how important your position is. You are the next head of the Sensai Corporation. You must study hard to fulfill our vision."

The final soundclip is different. There aren't any voices at all. Instead, there's the sound of a high-velocity impact. A sickening screech of metal and flesh.

... a pop-up window appears. CONTINUE Y/N

[>Y

still so confused what even.]

The manacles snap shut around you. They're small things, but the impact is huge: you can't move. The sense of paralysis from the beginning of the heart is back, but worse: it's a struggle to even breathe. Just about the only things you seem to have control over are the movements of your eyes and tongue.

[well.

the obvious solution is to not struggle for breath.

dying is okay.

closes her eyes.]

Yes. That is easier, isn't it? Everything fades away...

And then you're okay. Back to normal. But you're no longer sitting in the chair. Instead, you're standing in...

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[Heart Game]

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