Welcome to CERES' new dating experience -- ABOMIDate (Catchy, huh?). They've found that they're a little concerned with everyone's ability to... connect with denizens of different species, and in a place like Cerealia that is full of aliens, that's a Big Problem! After all, it's pretty clear by now that there are a lot of things about your friendly neighborhood aliens that you just know nothing about. What else do you not know? That the greeting of a Faswwg is face licking? That feathered species require mating dances to woo? That [REDACTED] needs [REDACTED] to [REDACTED]? So clearly, the way to fix this problem is...to practice dating other species!
Namely eldritch abominations! In CERES' experience, eldritch abominations really sum up the full interspecies dating way of life and provide you a variety of different species (and orifices) to enjoy.
So it's time to put on some proper music -- no, not that, that's not right. There, that's better. Anyway, time to put on some sexy background music, and woo the monster of your dreams!
 [ horrifying noises of nightmares and despair ]
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PHASE I [ 8 00 ] Welcome to the new and improved Abominable Dating, CERES’ brand new virtual dating experience! The first thing you will see will be a character select screen, because CERES wants you to get to the dating part right away. Don’t worry, there are a lot of beautiful and handsome candidates to choose from so feel free to jump right in! There’s this fellow, or this dashing lass and even a hidden character who is... not really all that hidden if they’re right there to be picked, but there you go!
You have to pick one. There’s no other option, I’m afraid.
And once you do, you’ll end up in a room with your date, dressed up in beautiful, date-like clothing. Unfortunately, everyone else who picked that date will also be in the room with you, also dressed up and prepared for dating.
This is awkward.
It gets even more awkward when your date decides that you look like a great main course. Watch out for those claws/teeth/limbs/etc! Maybe you can work together to take down your starving date, sad as that sounds.
PHASE II [ 1000 ] No dating game would be complete without stat boosting sessions. Regardless of how you feel about your current date, you’re locked into the game now (and hopefully not while covered in the blood of your date themselves, though they just come back even if you managed to kill them), and the game is picking a stat it thinks you need to work on. Either your intelligence is deplorable, your charisma is totally lacking, or your strength is at noodly-arm levels. That’s pretty bad. (It doesn’t matter what your actual intelligence, charisma or strength are, the game might be making things up at this point.)
Because of this, you’re going to be automatically tossed into a mini-game to increase those stats! This will be fun, absolutely. Nothing but Fun here in ViViD. So regardless of what the game thinks you’re lacking, it’s going to throw you into the same mini-game -- eldritch abomination make-over sessions.
You'll show up at a row of dressing rooms, each marked with a sign above the door reading NO INTELLIGENCE or NO STRENGTH or NO CHARISMA in bright red letters. Choosing the right one (embrace your shame) will reveal your initial date to you. They bat their eyelashes in greeting and growl out a very sultry, Will you help me, senpai?
Time to get to work!
You won’t be able to leave the mini-game until the monster is completely satisfied with its makeover, so it’s time to really tap in to your inner fashion sense. Of course, the fact that you’re all trying to apply makeup to the same monster might make this hard, but you can surely all get along, right?
Right?
PHASE III [ 1800 ] At first, you were on a date. Finally, you, your monster, candelight. Everything was going right until... well, you made a bad dialogue choice. They asked you what your favorite food was, you accidentally picked "Italian" (or maybe picked it on purpose which makes this even worse!) and then things went dark.
When you wake up, you'll find yourself in a cage. The room is dark and dank and there's no light other from the crack of a door somewhere up a flight of stairs. You're in a cage in a basement and there's a key glinting on the table right across the room there. Is it for your cage?
Welcome to the Yandere Route.
You might not actually be alone though. The cage isn't terribly big but there's enough room for someone else and if you shift around a little, you'll bump into them. Maybe you should share some woes of the eldritch horror dating experience. Maybe you should try and find a way out! Who knows? But there's one thing for sure:
You're both extremely naked.
Good luck!
PHASE IV [ 1830 ] You did it. You’ve gotten to the end of the game, or nearly. You’ve earned up enough affection points somehow. Maybe it was through the eldritch abomination following you around to trying to eat you or maybe it really, really, really liked your makeover. Maybe there was that thing and the cage and some weird pictures it took -- who knows! But now it’s time for the inevitable scene.
The confession scene.
Except... well, ViViD can’t do confession scenes very well. You'll find yourself there in the schoolyard, dressed in the appropriate school uniforms but...
For one thing, there’s a heavy shower of rose petals. A heavy shower. They’re everywhere. They might get in your mouth and face, they’re pooling around your knees, it's a rose petal flood and you're about to drown!
For another, the eldritch abomination you chose to romance is getting closer and... closer. And closer. And that sure is a lot of teeth, huh? Is it coming in for a kiss or to eat off your face? It’s... really hard to tell with all the rose petals, isn’t it?
To make matters even worse, you can’t move -- you’re locked into the scene until it comes to its proper conclusion. The game is stuck and you're here, suffering through it all. Well, you're suffering unless someone comes and rescues you, but who in the world would interrupt a touching scene like this to do that?!
BONUS [ why o'clock ] You know you have to get dressed up nicely for your date. It's an important one! Third date means third base, after all. So, you’re shoved into a closet, and surrounded by tons and tons of choices to pick from. You're spoiled for choice!
But, well... no matter what you put on, or even if you just elect to stay in your regular clothing, it changes as soon as you step out of the closet to meet your date.
Don’t worry, you look adorable.
It can’t be taken off, of course. So you’d better get comfy, because you’re going to be a pink dinosaur for your third date and... your fourth date. And your fifth. Hell, you might still be a pink dinosaur when it comes time to confess! How... cute.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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Emily Madsen | Original Character
phase i.
[Okay. No. Nope. NOPE.GIF
She could deal with monsters, she could deal (poorly) with dates. Putting the two together?
Hell no.
Especially when her "date" is sizing her up like she's the next big food trend. Roast hybrid. Yum. Yeah, definitely not.
Her eyes are narrowed, and as soon as there's an appendage of any sort coming at her, her eyes flash before the thing finds a flaming sword embedded in it.]
I don't kiss on the first date.
[Though that doesn't seem to make it any happier, and she's quickly dodging what she can only assume is it's mouth and prepping another fire sword, looking around to see if there's someone else who at least appeared somewhat human.
Halp.]
phase iii.
[Right, so alongside nearly getting eaten, she can count being captured and thrown in a cage on her list of things she really wasn't in the mood for and was subjected to anyway.
Fabulous.
And being naked, apparently. (Link's to a drawn turnaround model with scars, slightly NSFW)]
Fucking fantastic. [She groans, pressing the heel of her hand to her face. It's ... also about then that she realizes that she's not alone in the cage. Hope you enjoy having a human heater.]
... you awake?
bonus.
[Compared to everything else that's happened, Madsen's totally okay with this turn of events. Under normal circumstances she might've been a bit irritated, but this was just a minor problem compared to just about everything else.
Though she probably still looks incredibly irritated. Perks of having a slight resting bitchface, perhaps. Not looking forward to any sort of "date" involving this, but as she at least made clear earlier, if things got hairy, at least she could fight back.
Unless there was something that could resist fire. Then we'd have problems.]
phase iii.
He looks... maybe a little fazed, but also pretty fucking amused, all things considered. It's not every day that he gets to wake up to weird surprises, so he's just going to go with the flow.
It'd be nice if he could cover himself up, though. ]
Very. This isn't too bad of a wake-up call, you know.
[ SAM
FOCUS. ]
Ah, but I knew I should have chosen Japanese. [ fucking dialogue choices, right. ]
no subject
[Granted, she probably couldn't talk in that regard, but deflection was one of her stronger points. At the moment, Madsen's trying to figure out a way out of this - she probably wouldn't be able to burn through the bars anytime soon, so that option was right out.]
Tried that, by the way. Either Japanese is their equivalent of cussing or my translation skills are rusty. Hard telling. [It wasn't that long ago that she and Takeshi had spoken, but it had been awhile since her best friend and former teacher decided to spring an impromptu conversation in his native tongue.
In the meantime, she's reaching out with a hand to ignite a small flame to get a better look at their surroundings, though she's doing her best to at least try and keep covered.
That, however, is not going quite as planned.]
no subject
He rubs his chin, politely keeping his gaze away from his companion because he's a gentleman like that, don't you know (ha ha). ]
Ah, so they gave you more than one try.
[ To pick a favorite food... which shouldn't have been Italian, apparently. Dating sims fly right over this guy's head.
But ok, moving right along: ] Nice trick. [ A wave of the hand, to mean 'the fire thing'. If he sounds blase about it, it's because his 'coworkers' are all so weird that he doesn't even consider seeing someone who can make fire an oddity anymore. ] All the better to see me with, my dear?
[ sam
shut up ]
no subject
Maybe. The jury's still out on if questions were going to come up later on if things got to a certain point, but she's hoping that won't be the case for multiple reasons. The biggest relief is the lack of questions about her battle scars. God knows how awkward it is to explain what happened initially, never mind the whole "technically died" thing.]
Maybe they liked my blunt approach? Who knows.
[Dating sims really weren't her bag either.
She gives a snort at the last statement, though. Not the worst reference to her abilities, so gold star for effort there, Sam.]
Yeah, well, might as well try getting out of this dump. No offense, but I'd personally like to get my clothes back and pummel the shitlord who thought this was a great idea.
no subject
Her scars— well. He's riddled with his own, and he knows better than to overreact about people who've seen battle. The sad fact of life, right?
So he's. Very casual about all of this, really. Even the whole naked thing is kind of a mild inconvenience as opposed to being anything really pressing.
Because, as it turns out, he has a cybernetic arm that he can use to bend iron bars. There we go, initial problem solved. ]
Pummeling the one responsible. Now that, I can get behind. [ a low, throaty chuckle. ] You'll have to beat me to it, though— pretty sure there's a long list of applicants for that particular job.
no subject
[She can't help but give a bit of a smirk at that. Though this is about the first time she's actually starting to get a good look at who she's stuck with - huh. that's definitely a cybernetic arm, there. Not exactly very common in the group she ran with, but that definitely explained a few things.]
I can do more than just just give a convenient night-light, y'know.
no subject
[ A brow quirks up in some semblance of knowingness, as if to say 'you and I both know the answer to what I just said'. He can't help himself, really— it might be fatalism that drives him to his decisions, or it might just be that he likes fighting.
Probably both.
The bars bend enough for one person to wiggle out of the cage at a time, and Sam wastes no time in stepping out first. What a guy. ]
But first, clothes.
no subject
Honestly, she's not offended considering that he's even able to bend the bars back enough to get them out in the first place, so there's no complaints on her end when he slips through first. She follows suit, though still slightly hesitant. For all her smartassing earlier, this still is an incredibly vulnerable position for her and something she's definitely looking to get rectified quickly.]
Agreed. [She frowns, holding out her flaming hand to try and get a better look around.] Whoever they got to decorate around here should've gotten canned. Or eaten.
[Shut up, it's on reflex at this point.]
no subject
I'm thinking that their interior decorating skill isn't the worst of what they have to offer.
[ If whoever locked them up here has an affinity for keeping people caged??? That seems to be the bigger indictment of their character, to be honest.
But he appreciates her levity, and helps her out here in the lighting department by popping his katana out of its sheath. The red glow of the blade isn't particularly comforting, but it's something. ]
no subject
[There's a shrug, though that's a hell of an interesting sword there. The fact that it glows is an added bonus, though now ... of course it's not like their clothes are just laying out there in the middle of the room, that'd be too easy. And judging from the situation as it was, there was no way that's possible. Everything that had happened so far was frustrating in one form or another.
Though there was that key. Even if it was just the key for their cage, there's got to be more around here somewhere.]
I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but: you think we should split up, see if we can find our clothes?
no subject
Her suggestion of splitting up earns her a casual wave of the hand, offered without him looking over his shoulder (possibly a dick move, but he's also still trying to be moderately polite). ]
I won't stop you, if that's what you want to do. Though you will be missing out on all of this.
[ A vague gesture towards himself, maybe meant to fluster; he's teasing, really. He's incapable of not doing that, apparently. ]
no subject
Madsen's not setting the bar high on that one.
Sam's answer (or lack thereof) has her risking a glance over her shoulder, and immediately jerks her head back to where it was, biting her lip and trying to ignore the heat rising from her cheeks.
Good job, Sam. Mission accomplished on flustering her.]
Lucky me.
no subject
Feel free to speak up if you see anything you like in this dim light.
[ Shameless........... listen, he's just trying to bring a little levity into this situation, ok.
That said, he walks towards the sliver of light he can see under the shut door, and tries the doorknob.
Predictably, they're locked in from the outside. Not that that poses any issue now, but, you know. ]
no subject
[The banter at least lets her get a chance to get her mind off the ridiculousness of the situation. Sort of.
There's a groan when he mentions the door. Okay this was just getting stupid.]
Alright, that's really not that surprising. Mind if I take a whack at it?
no subject
While he can just, you know, probably kick this door down if he wanted to (not to mention that he has Murasama), he's curious about what his companion can do...
...so he steps aside 'graciously', extends a hand in the universal gesture of 'go ahead'. ]
It's all yours.
no subject
Honestly, she'd normally be all for him taking down the door, but she figured that since Sam took care of the bars, she could handle one door. Common courtesy or something like that.
She flicks her hand, and the flame is snuffed out momentarily as she steps toward the door.]
You might wanna stand clear.
[And about a five second pause is all she's giving him before slapping a hand on the door and concentrating on it, a pulse of flame moving from her hand and across the door itself before she reels back with her other hand, coated to the elbow in white-gold flames and punches as hard as she can. True to her word, chunks of the door fly from the impact, but it seems that whatever's getting close enough to actually hit her seems to burn away before it can hit her, or if an edge does catch her, the wound closes ... eerily quick.]