PHASE I [ 6 00 ] You wake up, and you're in a camp ground. The graphics aren't bad here, not really, but they're definitely last gen -- not the type of quality expected out of ViViD. On top of that, every once in awhile, the scenery sort of... glitches before going right back to normal as if nothing ever happened. If you're particularly unlucky, your own body parts might glitch out for a moment too, appearing as nothing more than broken code and then back to normal. Pretty weird, right? Oh well, don't worry about it. Totally harmless.
Glitches or not, you're still in a camp ground along with everyone else. There's a fire, there's some tents, some trees. Maybe some s'mores? You got it all. You're also not wearing what you were before. No, now you're wearing some sexy shorts, or maybe you've got a whip at your side, or maybe you've got a really classy fedora. And if you're one of those lucky few who have all three at once? Good for you! Try not to blind everyone with all that sexy.
Or, you know, the game will glitch out again and you'll be stuck wearing something else. That's definitely not as sexy.
PHASE II [ 730 ] If you decide to finally go exploring that crazy jungle, you'll find that you have a wide range of exploring options. Seems ViViD's taking a crack at their very own open world game -- this one modeled after your run of the mill adventure game. There are rivers to swim through (complete with alligators)! There are cliffs to scale (complete with angry birds ready to peck at your face)! There are even ravines to swing across on vines (just like Tarzan)!
Actually, the game is made to allow you to do just that -- those vines are all conveniently lined up for everyone to use them to swing across. Go on, it'll be fun. If you miss, you'll just lose a life, right?
Of course, if you overshoot your goal, you might run into one of the other glitches; the white space that you'll stumble into implies that you flew right off the world map and are now in unprogrammed space. Don't worry, you'll dissolve eventually, slowly but surely, and will reappear on the cliff so you can try again. There's no other way around that ravine either. Still, it's only a little frightening watching your body disappear piece by piece, right?
PHASE III [ 900 ] If you manage to scale one of those cliffs or swing across that ravine or cross that river, you may find yourself a chest. It's a treasure chest, and you don't even need a key to open it! Open it right up, a cute little jingle will play, and… nothing will be there.
Or the item will be there, hovering in the air, something amazing, fantastic, incredible that you've always dreamed of having and wanting, and -- you can't touch it. No matter what you try, it hovers right out of reach, and you can't interact with it at all.
Oh, and the cute little jingle is going to follow you around now, on constant loop.
PHASE IV [ xxxx ] So you died.
No big deal. Perhaps you got eaten by a crocodile. Perhaps you fell off a cliff. Perhaps another player stabbed you (that's rude). Either way, you've only lost one life and you have two more so it's nothing. After all, this is just a video game, right? It's fine.
Except it's really not fine.
You'll find yourself in a graveyard, tombstones all around you (maybe one of them has your name on it -- hope the epitaph doesn't suck). It's nighttime, it's foggy, and you're with the other players who have also lost a life. For a while, nothing will happen. The cold and quiet of the night will start to seep into your bones -- and then a figure appears. It can't be killed, it is silent and grim, and it does not speak.
Instead, it approaches each person there, reaches out and touches them on the forehead. Even you. All you can see for a long moment is corpses around you, the dead faces of everyone who had been with you in the ViViD level, flesh rotting away and faces caught in expressions of horror --
And then you're all dropped back into the camp ground together again. It's sunny and cheery and everything is fine, and you're down to two lives. Just, you know... don't lose the rest, okay?
BONUS [ xxxx ] You have a butler now, congratulations! He's following you around everywhere. He's an NPC, and not a very well-made one; sometimes his face glitches out, and he doesn't so much walk behind you as just… appears right next to you. He's handy though because if you ask him to, he'll pull up the start menu. You can sort out your inventory there and exit the game if you wish (except no matter how many times you press the "quit" button, you... can't).
Sometimes, though, that doesn't work out so well. Not the start menu but the butler himself. He might appear next to you on a narrow cliff face, knocking you right off the edge, or appear right on top of a hornet's nest, making them angry enough to go after, well, you. Maybe he accidentally summons a bear when all you were trying to do was ask him where the next dungeon is. That's unfortunate.
You can't seem to get rid of him either, no matter what you do. How annoying. Hopefully he doesn't cause you too much trouble because that bear... well, that bear's pretty angry.
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Will it be relief? Guilt? Pain? Or maybe the anguish, the anger of being left behind to pick up the pieces of his life. ]
I don't have orders.
[ Let him guess. ]
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And yet, he'll go ahead and guess where he ended up anyway. It's something he saw coming a while ago, to be honest. Perhaps he's even partly responsible, too. ]
But you have a collar, right?
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Silently, he drops the end point of the rifle. No matter how angry, he can't pull the trigger (he thinks about a time that feels so long ago, when Kasei told him to shoot Kogami; his hands shook for days). ]
Do you really think Tsunemori would?
[ The order would never come from her. She'd find a way around it, like she always did. A true disciple of Kogami's type of Inspector. Of his father's type, too. He still can't compare. ]
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[ Looking at him now, Kogami would argue that Ginoza is more like him and the old pops than he thinks. Not that it's something worth being happy about - if he was supposed to be like anyone, it's Akane Tsunemori. Instead he let the abyss gaze back at him... ]
And you should have got treatment. [ pot kettle black, right here. ]
im so sorry for the angst.......
[ No matter the expectation or circumstance, hasn't she proven them wrong? Hasn't she risen above what's been thrown at her? Kogami had let rage consume him over the years while Ginoza watched, frozen, warnings unheard or waved off. Akane had cracked through that surface somehow and even though Kogami left them all in the end, she stood strong to her convictions. She was everything that the both of them had failed to be.
(Because, he thinks to himself, he's always been weak). ]
You–! [ Gino cuts off the words there, swallowing as he practically feels his coefficient blip up. He's not as concerned about it, not anymore, because what else has he to lose at this point? ]
I did. After. [ His voice is wavering, reminded of watching Kogami stare at him in shock. Reminded, of how he hadn't even felt the pain in his destroyed arm, not when he was overwhelmed by the shock. By the fact his pants had been soaked through with blood that wasn't exactly his (but ran through his veins, anyway). ]
never be sorry!! (but I want to hug poor gino)
We should keep moving if you don't have any orders. The rest of the pack will be here soon.
who doesn't want to hug Gino tbh
And there had been no one better than Kogami Shinya to do just that.
Pressing his lips together, he lets the words roll off of him. He's not ready to forgive. ]
Let's go, then. [ Just like old times, even if miles seem to stretch between them. ]