[ He steadies himself when the emergency brake is pulled, watching Sabo smash that door like it's never been smashed before, and when Madara catches up, Hien glances over at the incoming view and... there! It's the station! The end! ]
Jump...!
[ Hien shouts, since the sound of the wind is so strong with the door open. His voice didn't crack. What are you talking about.
Hien jumps with Madara! Sabo goes last because Sabo is Sabo. ]
[ > Madara pulls on the breaks. Hien and Madara take the plunge, followed by Sabo. The train has effectively stopped, and they throw themselves out into the tunnel and hope for the best.
Sabo manages to make it - at least at first. Because Hien and Madara just barely miss the ledge of the station that appears to have stopped crumbling, Sabo reaches out in a desperate attempt to save his classmates. He latches onto Hien's wrist, but the force of Chadara and Fiend versus one Ssaoubo means that the former emerges victorious...and not in a good way.
The three of them go tumbling down into the void.
--
And then they wake up, again. Together, and perhaps anxious from the fall but not in any kind of pain. And they are, in fact, no longer on hell train extraordinaire. They're actually in some kind of weird, pixelated space. Blue pillars stand tall with tons of words and data flashing across them. This is, for those who are familiar, absolutely some kind of digitized space.
What an odd situation they've found themselves in.
[Chadara is sorry he rolled the 17 after they already fell. He closes his eyes as he falls, but the jolt of waking up again makes him anxious for a moment. He takes inventory of any injuries--none?!?--before looking around at whatever this D*sney movie hellscape is.]
Gotta be kidding me... [Alice. In. Wonderland. But make it techie.] You guys okay? [As he looks at the nearest pillars of words and light, seeing if anything sticks out as recognizable or if it's 01010101 business... or even gibberish.]
[ Hien wants to sleep more, but alas. The bold text has decreed his status of waking up! (/s) But he sits up, yawns, and looks at Madara. ]
I'm fine. Thanks.
[ He's actually glad that he's not in pain. ]
At least we're not dead. I'm glad for that.
[ So as if that didn't just happen, Hien gets up and looks around, trying to read the nearest pillar since it has a lot of words in it. Please don't make Hien regret wanting to read. ]
[ one wonders what the alternate timeline where sabo didn't try to save madara and hien would have looked like. would he be out in the open? would he still eventually fall into this digital world? who knows because that's not the timeline that they're living and sabo somehow did all of that falling with an ax without hurting anyone or himself.
small blessings.
for now, while hien and madara look to be slightly more in their element, sabo is decidedly not so he's just going to do a cursory look at their surroundings more than try to read anything. how far do things look like they go on for? do they look any different? ]
I would hope that we're not dead. [ he'll move to rest the handle of the ax on one of his shoulders. ] There's plenty left that I need to do.
[ > Madara will actually find that some things are, indeed, recognizable. There's a bit of Japanese text, actually, that he'll be able to read. There's some things that look nonsensical, things like "Musclehead Thug", "Eccentric Headcase", "Cunning Normal"...but he'll be able to also get a location: Sugomori City.
> Hien also looks around for more text. There are mentions of something called the Kizna Project and tidbits...about pain sharing.
> Sabo looks at their surroundings. They look like they go on for...not that long, actually, because up ahead there seems to be what looks like some kind of window that shows an an exit to the outside world. ]
If I died, it'd be really inconvenient for Shizuku. Can't have that!
[Anyway, light pillars.
Well, that's... interesting. Complete nonsense, considering he's never heard of the place mentioned, but it's a Japanese name, and so are the words. Is there anything in English or another common language? Because he speaks... several. This is literally canon, I'm sorry.]
Check this out: Some of this is in Japanese. I don't know what it means, but it's kind of like... descriptors, I want to say? Like a weird nickname you'd give somebody. And a city: Sugomori. It's not familiar to me at all, though. I don't think that place exists in my Japan. Kinda wish Idia was here...
[By the way. He's totally going to poke one of the pillars, because today can't possibly get worse.]
I don't remember a Sugomori in terms of location either... maybe as a surame, but not a city.
[ And he's been to a lot of worlds with different variations. Hm. He tries to look more into the Kizna Project and especially about pain sharing, whether it be in this pillar, or in another. ]
I don't think Ace would take it too well if I died.
[ a sentiment he mumbles to himself more than in response to madara but don't mind him. sometimes you just have a lot to think about for one reason or another and sabo doesn't know what a japan is (other than what he has learned here). ]
I haven't run across the name Sugomori either. [ if we wanna talk about flowers though. ] But it looks like there's an exit or some sort of window up ahead. It looks like it's still a bit of a ways, but not too bad.
[ thankfully so. he doesn't quite leave the other two just yet but if he focuses on the window/exit can he make out what kind of outside is waiting for them? ]
[ > Madara inspects the pillar. There are some English words here and there but none of them really seem to make sense; most of the information is in Japanese. He pokes pillar, and it seems to glitch out...and it turns off completely.
> Hien searches for more information. There are more quick words and phrases he may be able to see referring to negative emotions such as sadness and jealousy...but nothing entirely concrete over here.
> Sabo looks out the exit, and it looks like light is emitting from wherever they are, out into the room beyond this digital world. The room looks similarly to one of the lecture halls back at Estelline, but it's not an exact copy. ]
[Okay, well, it's no pit, but he's probably done causing problems. If there's nothing else to see, he looks in the direction Sabo is indicating.]
Think we ought to head out?
[He'll walk that way, idly looking at any pillars he passes for just a glimpse at new info. Anything, anything at all. He'd begun to have an eerie feeling that things weren't on the up and up here as far as the story they've been fed, but now that he sees that lecture hall he's ready to voice some of those doubts.]
Remember the jewelry store? [He didn't get to talk about it at the town hall, but it was mentioned, so he figures it's safe to bring up at least in a passing, vague mention.] Getting that saaame vibe right now.
[Of course, it could just be some generic lecture hall and the resemblance is coincidental or the product of scarcity/a lack of competition, but... The vibe is off. And he wants to know what's on the outside of that lecture hall.]
[ Hien still wants to inspect the pillars, so he goes around, using his skimming powers at work. If he starts getting the feeling of how there's nothing else of importance, he looks around the room. Is there anything other than digital pillars and the exit Sabo found? ]
[ frowns at the mention of how this is like the jewelry store given what they found there. many frowns. though that makes him wonder—no videos or cameras in this room, right? nothing up on the ceiling that would be important to notice? they...did fall into this place?
either way, when hien implies his intent to stay, sabo isn't thrilled but at the same time the comparison about the jewelry store has him really thinking about next steps. ]
Okay, it looks like the exit leads to something that looks like the lecture room. [ hmmm. sabo trusts nothing and will be sus of everything. if anything comes at him, it'll get an ax to the face as a warning. ] I doubt it's the same place.
[ to madara: ]
Feel comfortable leaving Hien here while the two of us move ahead?
[Madara just doesn't like all this tech that's just barely out of his grasp. He's no slouch when it comes to investigation, but nothing in this place has sat well with him at all. Especially not this.
He looks at Hien. Then back to Sabo.]
Yeah. If he says he's fine, he's fine. I just want to check out what's in and outside of the lecture hall. Then we can circle back or decide on a direction.
[ > Hien looks around the pillars, and there's one pillar in particular that may stand out: The phrase sponsors come up in relation to the Kizna Project. Various locations will flash around the pillar with coordinates – "United States (37.0902° N, 95.7129° W)", as an example. But there's one in particular that's a little odd.
It reads "Estelline (Unknown, could not locate)".
> Sabo and Madara look towards the exit. As they walk towards the exit, they'll see very quick glimpses...of faces. They look like hologram portraits of each person, but each portrait only flashes once before it fades away. Under each portrait is another smaller image of the mark on their arm that is exactly like the ones the current characters have....and these images actually flash right next to pillars that mention the word Kiznaivers.
The more they walk up towards the exit, though, the more they'll realize that this is actually quite different from the lecture hall they're familiar with. Similar concept, but a different interior design entirely. Will they exit fully? ]
[ Hien doesn't say anything. The coordinates mean little to him, since it's not like he can suddenly teleport to somewhere in America and tear apart one of their sponsors with his bare hands.
Anyway, he's starting to wonder if Estelline is just in a little pocket dimension of its own. He remembers seeing those orbs earlier, and he thinks things like that could be possible. They even have Florence the android.
So Estelline is a sponsor regarding the project. Hien tries to see if there's anything more on that pillar. Then he'll assume there's nothing of interest in the other pillars and explore the room itself to see if there's anything that stands out. ]
[ There isn't much else on that pillar, unfortunately, and he's right in that the other pillars are mostly just numbers and data. Maybe a few things about negative emotions, but again those are just keywords like "sadness" and "loneliness".
[ Cool. Since the pillars are useless, he gets out his tablet from his bag, takes a picture of the sponsorship pillar with relevant info and the room in general, before putting it away into the bag.
...
He quietly breathes in and out before running around and swinging his bag to glitch out all the pillars!! He wants to see if anything would affect the real world if he did something like this.
Assuming that he doesn't get retaliated on sight, he'll leave the room to reunite with the other two after all the pillars are turned off. ]
[ Glitching out all the pillars doesn't seem to do anything for the time being, but Hien will be met with pitch darkness. The entire thing just kind of turns off.
Which...will also carry over to Madara and Sabo's thread. ]
[Madara is dead set on looking at this lecture hall, but the holograms stop him cold, especially the swiftness with which they disappear, and the symbols below. He looks at his arm, as though he (and not his player) had forgotten the mark was there.]
[ it's really unfortunate that the holograms don't last a moment longer for either of them to whip out their tablet and snag a photo real quick. sabo's a man of many talents but he doesn't have a perfect memory. he'll frown as he responds. ]
No, it doesn't. It's the first time I've come across this word. I also haven't seen those people before in anything that I've stumbled into so far.
[ he'll look back to hien and then to the room before them. the obvious question is on his mind. do they leave hien here and just go ahead? in theory it should be okay but at the same time.... ]
I wonder how long Hien will take.
[ until someone gives a strong opinion to go forward into the room, sabo will, at the very least, stick his head into the exit and see if that will be okay. could have tried to do something else but his head first but it'll be fine. he's taking a better look of the room...or trying to. ]
[ Sticking his head into the exit is perfectly okay. In fact, it looks like he's just going to go through the barrier blocking them! The room, unlike the Estelline lecture hall that has individual desks, has straight tables for each row. It's also pretty dark in here, minus the light coming from whatever they're in right now.
There doesn't appear to be anyone here, too. It's just them. ]
[This place is just every kind of not adding anything but more confusion for Madara, but once the images disappear, he just... accepts it and moves on.
He looks into the lecture hall, dimly lit though it is. It's different, for sure. Just another university, from what he can tell. But where is it? That's kind of the question for him right now.]
We won't go too far. I'm going to check the room out and see if there are any security cameras.
[Which he then does. If he doesn't see any in the dim light, he'll start looking for a light switch. It feels like they shouldn't be here, so he'd hate to be caught.]
[ imagine if it wasn't okay and sabo just ended his entire life just like that, but he's also just going to accept things as for what they are as he watches madara step further into the exit...? next room? ]
Alright; try not to fall down any holes.
[ a joke, of course, but also somewhat serious because who knows what they're getting themselves into here. sabo will still be half in and out of the "exit" as he waits for hien. though depending on what madara finds upon flipping the switch, he may reconsider holding back. ]
[ >Madara looks for a light switch, and Sabo is half in and out of the "exit". RNG says that Madara is unable to find a light switch in time before all the lights from the digital world go out. The room is now pretty much pitch black. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Jump...!
[ Hien shouts, since the sound of the wind is so strong with the door open. His voice didn't crack. What are you talking about.
Hien jumps with Madara! Sabo goes last because Sabo is Sabo. ]
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Sabo manages to make it - at least at first. Because Hien and Madara just barely miss the ledge of the station that appears to have stopped crumbling, Sabo reaches out in a desperate attempt to save his classmates. He latches onto Hien's wrist, but the force of Chadara and Fiend versus one Ssaoubo means that the former emerges victorious...and not in a good way.
The three of them go tumbling down into the void.
--
And then they wake up, again. Together, and perhaps anxious from the fall but not in any kind of pain. And they are, in fact, no longer on hell train extraordinaire. They're actually in some kind of weird, pixelated space. Blue pillars stand tall with tons of words and data flashing across them. This is, for those who are familiar, absolutely some kind of digitized space.
What an odd situation they've found themselves in.
What do you do? ]
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Gotta be kidding me... [Alice. In. Wonderland. But make it techie.] You guys okay? [As he looks at the nearest pillars of words and light, seeing if anything sticks out as recognizable or if it's 01010101 business... or even gibberish.]
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[ Hien wants to sleep more, but alas. The bold text has decreed his status of waking up! (/s) But he sits up, yawns, and looks at Madara. ]
I'm fine. Thanks.
[ He's actually glad that he's not in pain. ]
At least we're not dead. I'm glad for that.
[ So as if that didn't just happen, Hien gets up and looks around, trying to read the nearest pillar since it has a lot of words in it. Please don't make Hien regret wanting to read. ]
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small blessings.
for now, while hien and madara look to be slightly more in their element, sabo is decidedly not so he's just going to do a cursory look at their surroundings more than try to read anything. how far do things look like they go on for? do they look any different? ]
I would hope that we're not dead. [ he'll move to rest the handle of the ax on one of his shoulders. ] There's plenty left that I need to do.
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> Hien also looks around for more text. There are mentions of something called the Kizna Project and tidbits...about pain sharing.
> Sabo looks at their surroundings. They look like they go on for...not that long, actually, because up ahead there seems to be what looks like some kind of window that shows an an exit to the outside world. ]
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[Anyway, light pillars.
Well, that's... interesting. Complete nonsense, considering he's never heard of the place mentioned, but it's a Japanese name, and so are the words. Is there anything in English or another common language? Because he speaks... several. This is literally canon, I'm sorry.]
Check this out: Some of this is in Japanese. I don't know what it means, but it's kind of like... descriptors, I want to say? Like a weird nickname you'd give somebody. And a city: Sugomori. It's not familiar to me at all, though. I don't think that place exists in my Japan. Kinda wish Idia was here...
[By the way. He's totally going to poke one of the pillars, because today can't possibly get worse.]
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[ And he's been to a lot of worlds with different variations. Hm. He tries to look more into the Kizna Project and especially about pain sharing, whether it be in this pillar, or in another. ]
You find anything, Sabo?
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[ a sentiment he mumbles to himself more than in response to madara but don't mind him. sometimes you just have a lot to think about for one reason or another and sabo doesn't know what a japan is (other than what he has learned here). ]
I haven't run across the name Sugomori either. [ if we wanna talk about flowers though. ] But it looks like there's an exit or some sort of window up ahead. It looks like it's still a bit of a ways, but not too bad.
[ thankfully so. he doesn't quite leave the other two just yet but if he focuses on the window/exit can he make out what kind of outside is waiting for them? ]
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> Hien searches for more information. There are more quick words and phrases he may be able to see referring to negative emotions such as sadness and jealousy...but nothing entirely concrete over here.
> Sabo looks out the exit, and it looks like light is emitting from wherever they are, out into the room beyond this digital world. The room looks similarly to one of the lecture halls back at Estelline, but it's not an exact copy. ]
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[Okay, well, it's no pit, but he's probably done causing problems. If there's nothing else to see, he looks in the direction Sabo is indicating.]
Think we ought to head out?
[He'll walk that way, idly looking at any pillars he passes for just a glimpse at new info. Anything, anything at all. He'd begun to have an eerie feeling that things weren't on the up and up here as far as the story they've been fed, but now that he sees that lecture hall he's ready to voice some of those doubts.]
Remember the jewelry store? [He didn't get to talk about it at the town hall, but it was mentioned, so he figures it's safe to bring up at least in a passing, vague mention.] Getting that saaame vibe right now.
[Of course, it could just be some generic lecture hall and the resemblance is coincidental or the product of scarcity/a lack of competition, but... The vibe is off. And he wants to know what's on the outside of that lecture hall.]
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[ Hien still wants to inspect the pillars, so he goes around, using his skimming powers at work. If he starts getting the feeling of how there's nothing else of importance, he looks around the room. Is there anything other than digital pillars and the exit Sabo found? ]
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either way, when hien implies his intent to stay, sabo isn't thrilled but at the same time the comparison about the jewelry store has him really thinking about next steps. ]
Okay, it looks like the exit leads to something that looks like the lecture room. [ hmmm. sabo trusts nothing and will be sus of everything. if anything comes at him, it'll get an ax to the face as a warning. ] I doubt it's the same place.
[ to madara: ]
Feel comfortable leaving Hien here while the two of us move ahead?
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He looks at Hien. Then back to Sabo.]
Yeah. If he says he's fine, he's fine. I just want to check out what's in and outside of the lecture hall. Then we can circle back or decide on a direction.
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It reads "Estelline (Unknown, could not locate)".
> Sabo and Madara look towards the exit. As they walk towards the exit, they'll see very quick glimpses...of faces. They look like hologram portraits of each person, but each portrait only flashes once before it fades away. Under each portrait is another smaller image of the mark on their arm that is exactly like the ones the current characters have....and these images actually flash right next to pillars that mention the word Kiznaivers.
The more they walk up towards the exit, though, the more they'll realize that this is actually quite different from the lecture hall they're familiar with. Similar concept, but a different interior design entirely. Will they exit fully? ]
thread division starts here
Anyway, he's starting to wonder if Estelline is just in a little pocket dimension of its own. He remembers seeing those orbs earlier, and he thinks things like that could be possible. They even have Florence the android.
So Estelline is a sponsor regarding the project. Hien tries to see if there's anything more on that pillar. Then he'll assume there's nothing of interest in the other pillars and explore the room itself to see if there's anything that stands out. ]
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He's got pretty much everything he needs. ]
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...
He quietly breathes in and out before running around and swinging his bag to glitch out all the pillars!! He wants to see if anything would affect the real world if he did something like this.
Assuming that he doesn't get retaliated on sight, he'll leave the room to reunite with the other two after all the pillars are turned off. ]
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Which...will also carry over to Madara and Sabo's thread. ]
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Kiznaivers?
[He turns to Sabo.]
Does that mean anything to you?
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No, it doesn't. It's the first time I've come across this word. I also haven't seen those people before in anything that I've stumbled into so far.
[ he'll look back to hien and then to the room before them. the obvious question is on his mind. do they leave hien here and just go ahead? in theory it should be okay but at the same time.... ]
I wonder how long Hien will take.
[ until someone gives a strong opinion to go forward into the room, sabo will, at the very least, stick his head into the exit and see if that will be okay. could have tried to do something else but his head first but it'll be fine. he's taking a better look of the room...or trying to. ]
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There doesn't appear to be anyone here, too. It's just them. ]
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He looks into the lecture hall, dimly lit though it is. It's different, for sure. Just another university, from what he can tell. But where is it? That's kind of the question for him right now.]
We won't go too far. I'm going to check the room out and see if there are any security cameras.
[Which he then does. If he doesn't see any in the dim light, he'll start looking for a light switch. It feels like they shouldn't be here, so he'd hate to be caught.]
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Alright; try not to fall down any holes.
[ a joke, of course, but also somewhat serious because who knows what they're getting themselves into here. sabo will still be half in and out of the "exit" as he waits for hien. though depending on what madara finds upon flipping the switch, he may reconsider holding back. ]
i rolled a 2
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