PHASE I [ ?? ?? ] It's impossible to tell time in this place, and everything looks the same, but it won't be long before you're probably sick of the tower. Time to get down -- unless you have magical powers or can fly or something, it'll probably be pretty tough, too. You could try to climb down, but the walls look pretty slick, and -- oh god, your arm just went through the wall, what the hell.
Whatever you do, don't fall.
If you fall, you'll be stuck falling forever. And ever. And ever. Looks like they didn't put a failsafe into ViViD for falling, so now you're stuck. You might see some other people stuck in the same glitch, falling forever a la Alice in Wonderland, but honestly? You're stuck that way until your game resets itself.
PHASE II [ ???? ] Either way, you've made it to the ground (somehow). The ground looks like... a half-finished city, really. There are streets, and houses... but some of the houses are unfinished, just four walls and no roof, or only three walls, or nothing inside, and a lot of the NPCs are completely faceless, or only have one line they repeat over and over again.
It's honestly pretty unnerving, especially since there's no soundtrack at all. You can just traverse this creepy hellscape in complete and utter silence.
And then the cars start to fly away.
That's definitely normal (is there anything about this game that isn't faulty?).
PHASE III [ ???? ] It's not safe.
You could be anywhere in this level, wandering, searching -- and then suddenly, it's there. As it appears, a battle theme starts, but it's distorted, eerie and off-pitch. There's something very wrong about this enemy, that's for sure. It can't be defeated, either. Attacks can harm it, and it can be tossed aside or fought, but it just gets right back up, bloodied and beaten, as if unstopped by anything it's feeling.
Over and over and over again.
Just don't let it touch you.
Because it will start to absorb you, code bit by code bit, until there's nothing left of you. It's a cannibalistic distorted monster, wonderful.
PHASE IV [ ???? ] If it wasn't apparent already, physics is a little weird here. One second you're walking along, and the next there's basically no gravity; you could jump wherever you want, clearing buildings in a single bound like the superman you were always meant to be. One second you're your normal amount of strength, and the next you could life cars (if you so chose), for no apparent good reason.
Sometimes the world just tilts, making the ceiling the floor very suddenly, and sometimes the floor drops out from under you entirely.
Anything that could go wrong with the physics here does go wrong.
Just try not to get caught halfway through a now-solid floor. That sounds really, really uncomfortable.
BONUS [ ???? ] Of course, it wouldn't be glitch central without something weird happening to you. And it could be anything -- one second you're fine, and the next your arm is twice as long as it should be, and totally noodly. Suddenly you have a mermaid tail or animal ears, or your head has rotated upside down (how is that even happening?). You're suddenly able to walk through walls, or drag objects to you by pointing at them.
If this was a video game (it is), it would be the faultiest game to ever exist, that's for sure.
(Still, teleporting from one side of the world to the other by jumping on a single spot on a flowerbed is kind of entertaining, if nothing else.)
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no subject
Can we look first and shout out a warning, in case anyone's there? We might not die forever in here, but you still feel what happens. You'd still remember that death.
[ Point being: she has no objections to blowing the buildings up, as long as they're not blowing people she cares about up along with said buildings. You know. It's the little things. ]
I'd like to avoid that for people if we can.
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Sounds good. [ It's the duty of a Border agent to protect civilians, after all. ] We'll go and clear the area of any people we find, then tear down the buildings. Are you ready to head down?
no subject
Regardless, she settles herself down and koalas on again, nodding her head. ]
Ready when you are.
[ She presumes he's already ready. Mission: Evacuation and Demolition is a go! ]
no subject
[ She's voted for plenty of good ideas. Blowing up the city for escape is a clearly noble cause!
Taking care to watch for signs of finicky gravity and other such things, Izumi gradually descends from their current location by using various buildings under his feet. At the final jump, he hops over a lone wall to the side with the nearest completed building. Back on ground at last, he retracts his arms to let Chihiro down. ]
Hey! Anybody around?
[ Anyone that isn't faceless or doesn't repeat a single line over and over again? Do those things even count? ]
no subject
She gets down without fanfare, walking off to one side and cupping her hands around her mouth to shout. ]
Hello! If anyone's here, this place isn't safe!
[ She trots on forward into the walkways leading between two of the fully constructed buildings, looking this way and that. ]
These buildings are going to be leveled! Please come out if you don't want ViViD to reset you!
no subject
Demolition is so much simpler in a restricted zone. ]
It doesn't sound like anyone's here. There could be others farther in, though.
[ He appraises the building behind him. Its perimeters look and sound devoid of people. ]
How about I make a warning shot?
no subject
It's hard to ignore the sound of something like that when there's no soundtrack here.
[ Except when the glitching monster appears: the no soundtrack is greatly preferred. Overhead, the countless windows of the completed buildings stare down as hundreds of unblinking, silent eyes.
Overhead, a flock of chicken wings fly by. Lightly battered. Crispy. Definitely with improbable pigeon wings attached. ]
no subject
That just means he needs to work faster, so Izumi raises both hands to his sides, summoning cubes of Trion that split into bullets. ]
Meteora!
[ Pew pew. Boom goes the building in a brilliant fireworks of debris. Ah, how satisfying. ]
no subject
Despite the fact she entirely cringes at the initial impact, Chihiro's wide eyed look as she trots back on over toward Izumi is... honestly really wide eyed. What emotion's behind it is difficult to pin down. ]
Are you sure you're not super powered?
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. . . He's used it after that minor fuss about confidentiality, so what's the harm in a little more? Besides, it's nothing the public back home doesn't know. ]
That was a Trigger. As long as you have the right qualifications, you can use it.
Anyway, it looks like there wasn't anything worth investigating there. Anyone nearby should be alerted now, so let's keep going.
no subject
That's really powerful... you're Japanese, aren't you?
[ Noooot as random a statement as it might seem, because for the life of her she's trying to decide how that fits with the JSDF and what she knows of her own Japan. She's learned how different worlds called Earth were from each other here, but she's not sure if his is necessarily different, or just a future beyond where her own has hit.
She has mixed confidence in the clock running down eventually once they're depleted of energy, but after that display, she's not sure how long it would take Izumi to run down... finding the exit feels all the more important, somehow. ]
no subject
He just doesn't follow what this has to do with his nationality. ]
Yeah, I am. You're Japanese, too, right?
[ Because Chihiro . . . is a Japanese name. Izumi is a genius. ]
no subject
Where's Chika when you want a Trion powerhouseIt's just a question born out of the epitome of not knowing any context for Triggers. ... Otherwise it's entirely irrelevant. ]I am, yeah. I was just wondering... do you have anything to do with the Self-Defense Force?
[ It's so far from being important, but when he mentions Triggers and qualifications and he just leveled a building, that's the leap her mind makes. (Aliens, for some reason, in spite of where they are now, are not her first presumption.)
What does catch her attention, on the other hand, is in watching patterns of things rising up into the sky and falling back down. She'd noticed some of it earlier, but... something in the pattern is jarring enough she's seeing it. Like there's an epicenter?
Too bad she's not aware enough to actually point that out. The section their in is part of a spiral nearing around to where the gravity distortions are both worse and more predictable — following a pattern. It might mean something. Chihiro, for her part, mostly notices it's... there. ]
Things keep rising and falling like a tide... hey, Izumi, do video games have a lot of timed events and stuff?