✿ OVERFLOW
WARNING. SYSTEM OVERLOAD.| A problem has been detected and the device has been shut down to prevent damage. To prove that you are human please░░░▒░▒▒░░??░▒cont▒nue. |
WARNING. SYSTEM OVERLOAD.| A problem has been detected and the device has been shut down to prevent damage. To prove that you are human please░░░▒░▒▒░░??░▒cont▒nue. |
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She taps lightly at the tile she'd stood on...
And it starts again, the lights ending on five new tiles.]
Looks like it? I must have accidentally found some sort of swi--
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She closes her eyes as her hand starts to slip. She doesn't want to know what's down there.]
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[It's a good thing she made all those sounds. IV bolts over to Leia, his caution thrown out the window in favor of making it to her first and foremost. He slams down onto his knees and reaches over to grab her wrist while his other hand grips the edge of the tile.
For the time being, there's no more slipping, yet IV can't claim they're out of the red zone even now. There's the matter of pulling Leia up without throwing them both off the edge.]
That was close . . .
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She's been there, done that--won't inflict it on anyone else.
For all the conflict, her response is a simple one of gratitude.]
Thanks...
[Her voice cracks, but she'll quickly reach up with her other hand to try to grab at the surface above. It's just out of her reach, but she struggles anyway, thinking of her staff. Is she going to have to resort to artes here...?
Meanwhile, her newsboy hat slides slowly off her hairbun without her noticing.]
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Hey, your hat . . .
[It's important to her, isn't it?]
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[To her credit, she learned her lesson about sentimentality at the garden. Still, his mention of the hat makes her notice it, and as it falls, her head turns. There's a distressed look on her face and she inhales sharply, until she realizes that... as dumb luck would have it, she'd caught it on her foot.
How?]
I... [Even she can't believe it.] I got it. I think.
[All she has to do is reach down and get it so it's not dangling and threatening to fall. But that'd be such an insult to his efforts, she doesn't even consider it. Noticing that she's that much closer to the edge, she grabs at it and finally starts to crawl her way up while being careful. She grunts and manages to get her elbow up, too, with her other hand clamped firmly against IV's.
Just a little upper body strength from there.
Hopefully.]
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With Leia a good chunk of the way there, IV presses down on the balls of his feet and releases the tile to grip her upper arm. He pulls back with a heave, using his weight to drag both of them the rest of the way away from the edge. Even once that's finished, he doesn't let go of Leia's wrist or arm yet as he looks over her, just in case.]
Are you up?
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She's a bit shaken as the adrenaline wears off, but finally smiles at him when she's safe on solid ground. She sits for the moment, propped by her knees as she presses her hat against them. Lightly, she squeezes it, almost like a stress ball.]
I'm here. [Deep breaths, Rolando, deep breaths.] Jeez, that was--
[Close? Yes. Scary? Leia's certain she's been through worse, way worse--and yet.]
I- I couldn't see a thing down there.
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It must go down far. Do you think it leads back to the basement?
[As much as he hates it down there, it'd be preferable to a long drop and a sudden death.]
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She bites at her lip.]
Anything's possible. But doesn't it feel like a new level all together?
I don't even know that we're in the hospital anymore.
[But they probably are.]
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There's only one way to find out. Let's see what the end of this labyrinth has to show us.
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They may be lucky. It feels like they've cleared the section of trap doors, but that's not to say there won't be other traps to worry about.
...Man, she hates puzzles.]
Sounds good...
[Placing her hat back on, she feels much more like herself, and is able to move on with relief.]
But you know, it's almost like this place is reacting to us. See how the floor changes? [She points ahead.] It must mean we have more challenges to face before we make it through. Maybe a lot.
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Fine by me. It wouldn't be worth calling a level without some sort challenge. I'm supposed to be a pro ViViD player; this is nothing.
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But it would've been fine... probably.
...]
Then let's get some answers.
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[As they turn a corner, she grabs at his white lab coat to stop him without thinking of the blood still staining her hands--or her face. All she notices is a thin blue line streaking across their way in the shape of a heartbeat reading on a heart monitor before disappearing. Then it repeats in rhythm.
A threatening electric hiss follows in its wake each time. It definitely looks like a laser of some sort like one of those security systems.]
And let's avoid those.
[Miss States-the-Obvious... and yes, there are more. Some are low, some are high... and others somewhere in between. Some more annoying than others.]
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I noticed. Don't you think I would have figured that?
[He says without malice before striding up to step over the lower part of the EKG reading. The next reading is a higher one, and he ducks under it.]
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That's not why I pulled you back.
[Is he serious?
...Idly, she follows him. Over, under, over again. It starts off easy, it's true, but as they go on, there's a faint sound of a heart beating that starts to get louder. It matches the EKGs and seems like it's coming from all around them; though besides the distraction and adding to the eerie atmosphere, it doesn't do much.
It definitely gives the impression that they're getting closer to something, though--but what is it? Her expression quickly dissolves into curiosity and anticipation. Hand pressed to her chest like she's making sure her own heart is beating, Leia keeps looking on.]
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A fork, huh . . . Which way should we go?
[He looks between the two paths, his instincts leaning toward the left.]
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They seem practically symmetrical. She doesn't know why, but it won't be long before they find out they're standing at the tip of a heart-shaped path.]
I wonder if one's easier to get through than the other. You wanna try the right?
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[He stops to look off in that direction. It isn't what he had in mind, but he doesn't have a reason to distrust Leia's own hunches. In the worst case scenario, the right will take them to a dead end and they'll have to turn back, and that's not so bad. Who's to say the left wouldn't lead them to that?]
Fine. Let's go.
[Better to try and find out for themselves. IV starts down the right path.]
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[Well, he doesn't seem disappointed at least, so she'll take his answer as it is. She glances down the left path one last time as they leave it behind, but otherwise doesn't seem to regret the choice.
Yet.
They are met with more of the same EKG style lasers, which aren't difficult, but really test their attention span and muscle memory. The pattern alternates: sometimes there's one, and sometimes there's two. Two become more common as Leia uses her staff more to maneuver around...
And then, as they come to an end of a curve... they're met with a gate that feels very final, EKGs pulsing and disappearing across the way in what seems to be a pattern.]
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IV crosses his arms as he studies the pulsating EKG readings. He doesn't know a lick of what it's trying to say, but even he can notice there's some sort of art going on here.]
The lines are making a pattern. What do you think it means?
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"Do Not Enter," maybe?
[She jokes, offering a wry smile as she approaches gate. She wants to look over its posts.]
I'd say we try to destroy it, but that doesn't seem like a very video-gamey way to progress.
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. . . No, it does. Destruction is easier to cause in ViViD than outside of it.
[After all, skills can easily be exaggerated. The question, then, lies in whether or not they should attempt said destruction.]
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