Morgana
Among the group of contestants was a black and white cat with a yellow collar, just as confused and unable to move or speak as the rest of them. This was not where he'd gone to sleep last night. What happened to his bed in the attic? .... This was a pretty nice house though, wherever he'd been taken. As the blonde woman talked about some kind of television show, Morgana took his time looking around the house the best he could from his position. It didn't look Japanese at all, so he probably wasn't in Tokyo either. The multiversal "contestants" didn't phase him too much, considering the odd things he'd seen over the last year, but the part about what the show's winner got was enough to get his interest again.
Anything his heart desired... Was this his opportunity to regain his memories and become a human again without getting to the end of Mementos? If it was, he wouldn't waste it. As far as Morgana was concerned, he was already the winner of this game. These other guys just didn't know it yet. He even started with an advantage, since no one would expect him to be more than just a cat.
A button was pressed, and whatever force was holding him in place and silencing him disappeared. Instead of immediately speaking, he decided to play dumb for the moment. This was a prime opportunity to gather information, after all. He wiped the grin off his face and looked as clueless as possible, his blue eyes taking in the rest of the group's activities as he walked out of the crowd to not be accidentally stepped on.
Breath of the Sun
Amaterasu and Issun
A great white wolf, with trailing crimson markings upon her thick swirling fur, sat on her haunches, shaking the feeling back into her body as she regained the ability to move. Her inky-black tail swished as she looked around at the other gathered contestants, her head tilted in curiosity.
And then a tiny man with a beetle hat leapt off her head and towards the 'host', the green glow around him turning red with fury.
"Hey hey hey, what's the big idea!" Issun fumed, bouncing angrily in front of the blonde woman. "You can't just kidnap innocent people for some stupid game - " And then he was caught under a paw, as the wolf stared impassively up towards Miss Knight.
"Ammy?! What..." Issun faltered at the determined look on Amaterasu's face. He read her expression, and paused a moment. "You really wanna do this, huh? ...you really think they can bring back the Celestials?" His aura turned green again, and he hopped back onto Amaterasu's head. "Fine, fine. You're the boss." He turned back to the host and drew his sword, pointing it at her. "You better be telling the truth about that heart's desire thing, you hear me? Because the Great Okami Amaterasu and her Celestial Envoy Issun are gonna win this competition no sweat!"
Amaterasu punctuated Issun's loud boasting with an excited bark. Perhaps drawing so much attention to themselves wasn't the best idea in a competitive game show, but as a wise and handsome wandering artist once said, leap before you look.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
Valkyrie had absolutely no idea what that Sidney lady was going on about. Show? Multiverse? Contestants? All she knew was that it was weird being in some sort of... some sort of prison! They couldn't even move or speak while she was talking to them. Was she talking to them? It seemed like she was talking to someone else, but who else was there? Someone invisible?
No.... It didn't seem like there was anybody invisible around. Although, thinking about it, if there were somebody invisible nearby she probably wouldn't be able to see them anyway. Drat, there goes that idea. As far as non-invisible people went though, there sure were a lot of people. Mostly men and women, most on the young side, some on the older side, and... and... and... and a cat! A cute little kitty cat. One that reminded her of Ian, except he was mean sometimes, this kitty looked nice and friendly.
"Kitty!" she said, rushing over towards Morgana to try and pick him up and pet him and cuddle him and pat him on his cute little head.
That One Gal
Magnus
Waking up in a big room he's never seen before with some invisible force keeping him from doing anything while a sharply dressed woman talked out loud is an experience Magnus was unfortunately familiar with. Everything seemed like another vision - demigod children seem to be a magnet for bad dreams and cryptic messages - so Magnus was okay with riding this one out. Maybe this time it would be some mundane, like Avoid taco Tuesday, the guacamole went bad!
Magnus was quick to realize that this wasn't an ordinary vision, however. Everything was much too clear and blatant (nobody grew wolf heads or turned into locusts or started singing showtunes) and that from what he could see, there were other people in the same frozen state as himself. A couple animals too. Not to mention everything that woman explained to...was that a camera?
A competition, the multiverse, and a grand prize that was pretty tempting. He could bring back his mom if he won. A promise like that would catch anyone's attention.
The woman, Sidney Knight, produced a tablet out of thin air and pressed a button on it. Magnus was able to move again, though he did nothing yet. He took a look around the room at everyone else. Most of them looked human, but that meant absolutely nothing. He's seen gods before and most of them looked human, so for all Magnus knew he was in the middle of a holy battle royale.
Before Magnus could do much of anything, though...
Jimmy
"What the hell is going on?"
The short, stocky schoolkid that was Jimmy Hopkins stepped towards Sidney Knight.
"Look, lady, whatever all this is, I want out. I didn't sign up for this!"
He didn't care about the wide array of characters or the small bug-like thing that had just spoke, or the floating camera, or anything. He's seen enough freaky stuff just by being at Bullworth. All he really cared about was that this chick had taken him from the academy, and there was going to be trouble for him if he didn't go back there soon.
As the people around started getting their bearings, one boy spoke. Sidney looked at him.
"Ok."
She pointed at the door down the small hallway.
"The exit is right over there. Close the door behind you please, if you can. Bye!"
That One Gal
Huh. That was easy.
"Yeah?" Jimmy replied, less a question and more of an exclamation. "Alright. See ya."
Without a second thought Jimmy stomped down the hall towards the door, yanking it open.
Magnus watched on, a feeling forming in the bottom of his gut. It couldn't just be that easy...could it?
edited 8th Feb '18 1:03:47 PM by TruthHurts22
Jimmy would open the door and be greeted with the empty, vast void of space. If he looked down, he would see that the house was in fact floating through space. Whenever he managed to stop himself in time to prevent himself exiting the house or not, a generic laugh track would go off at his sudden predicament. Were he to fail and fall into space, once he finished dying of lack of air, he would reappear back in the entrance hall. If he managed to stop himself, Sidney would ask a question.
"Is everything alright? What seems to be the problem? You wanted an exit, there's an exit. Use it or close the door, you're letting all the heat out."
Lizard Metabolism
Valentine Bros
"Ohhhh shit, bro, we're in here!"
"...here being?"
"It's the next best thing right to the sliced motherfucking bread!" Jan Valentine made a grand gesture around their prison apartment. "These are the same fuckers who made Nemesis. You know, the Good v. Evil shitshow?"
"...how about that." Luke Valentine raised an eyebrow, then decided to not think too much about it. His brother's deluded musings about a reality show gladiator games he was a part of during his unexplained absence a while back had been ignored so far, but now it was proving to be uncannily true. Well, it certainly was a lavishly decorated house. "How long do you plan on keeping us here?" He asked the host - Sidney Knight, it seemed - as he produced a Richmond cigarette and lighted it, taking a moment to appreciate the texture of the tobacco. "I'm on a bit of a schedule."
Meanwhile, Jan went off to do his own thing, that thing being catching up with old friends. "Tira, girl!" He called out to a clown with a ringblade, grinning. "Guess we're back in this together, ain't we? What have you been up to?"
How do lizards fly?
That One Gal
Jimmy stopped short the moment he opened the door, staring into the dark abyss. He was dumbfounded for a moment until the sound of a laugh track snapped him out of it. With an annoyed grumble, he slammed the door shut again and turned back towards the entrance hall.
"Hahaha, very funny," he said, glaring at Sidney. "How do we really get out of here?"
Being brought into another world and presented with all of these new sights and sounds, why wouldn't Ionia be the picture of a shining, happy face when she got the opportunity to experience this? Oh, right, because SHE DIDN'T GIVE ANYBODY HER PERMISSION.
This impropriety wasn't going to go unanswered! Soon, the woman most obviously in cahoots with whoever did this would die in as painful a way she could imagine, then she'd kill everyone until they stopped making such ghastly noises (starting with the short white one), and then she'd think of a way to solve her predicament.
But first, let's have a quick consultation. It's usually a good idea to get a second opinion. She turned around, saying to the air, "Aeolia, what do you think we should..."
Huh. Her sister wasn't there. That was unfortunate. Now Ionia was going to—
Oh. The door was right down the hall, you say? Ionia stayed her hand for just one moment. She looked between the annoying woman with the machine and the pudgy-looking kid who asked the question. The Maestro followed the child, ready to just waltz right on out of here in possibly a literal sense, but stopped when greeted with nothing. Just the stars, and no obvious way out.
If Ionia seemed irate when she first got here, as she slowly turned around to face Sydney, her gracious host would find that her mood had improved to red faced and livid.
She raised out a hand to the woman, and suddenly strange markings of light appeared over her suit. Luke Valentine's question was going to have to wait a moment, as when Ionia called out "SCORE: APPASSIONATO!" an incredible wave of sound would appear out of nowhere and (probably) crush her into a fine red paste.
Fear me
Rachel
-Well that was weird. One second I was pushing down a house and the next I was ina chamber like the one that originally brought me here. I demorphed quickly to avoid crushing anything and going out. Some woman was talking about a TV show-I thought we were already on one? I looked around, some people I recognized, others completely new.-
Wulfrik
-At last, his prayers were heard. True, the elves had vanished before he had had time to slay a single one, but clearly Wulfrik's service made the offering unecessary, and he has been rescued from the living nightmare. Wulfrik opens his eyes... and sees that he is trapped in a chamber containing bizarre instruments, with a woman's voice explaining their imprisonment. With a sinking heart, Wulfrik realizes his torment has only begun anew. The chamber opens and pushes him out.-
"I am afraid there is no exit from the game, at least not until casting decides to remove you. But-"
She was cut off as the angry women attacked. Sidney sighed as her camera suddenly flew above her head, producing a shield that circled around her and blocked the attack completely. As the attack was blocked, she pressed a button on her headset, a visor appearing in front of her eyes. Without even so much as bothering to glance at Ionia, she lifted a hand, a futuristic looking gun appearing inside of it. She pulled the trigger, and the shot flew at the speed of light, harmlessly passing through the shield, and instantly obliterating Ionia atom by atom, only leaving her intact long enough to feel the most immense pain she likely had ever experienced. She would then reform back in the hall. The robot turned off the shield, but remained in position.
"As I was saying" She said, almost as if she had not just obliterated someone without looking at them. "Nether of you really need to be concerned with that. Preform well enough, and you will be deposited back at the same moment you left your universe, meaning no one will notice your absence."
edited 8th Feb '18 1:53:14 PM by Meanken
Morgana
This group was pretty damn weird, he thought as he sat and watched them, tail curling around his legs. There was a tiny bug man and a white wolf that he claimed to be a goddess (obviously a lie, why would any god pick such a dumb form to take?), a few teenagers and rough looking adults, and-
"Mrowww!" He should have expected someone to try and grab him, but the blue haired girl's appearance was, uh, distracting enough to slow his reaction time, and Valkyrie was able to pick him up before he could make an escape. It did give him a good position to see from, and he watched as two people tried to leave, only to see the vacuum of space outside. So they were definitely trapped here. One of them turned to attack the host, but it was blocked by a machine. Morgana's jaw dropped as the attacker was shot with a strange gun and disintegrated into nothingness, only to reappear again.
Okay, he definitely wasn't upsetting this Sidney Knight woman.
Unlike a lot of these other players, Akira Fudo entered Pandemonium in the middle of something extremely specific. As soon as he was released the young japanese kid lunged forward with both hands in a vicious cry of defiance... only to find himself somewhere else. This wasn't even the first time it had happened before. After getting smashed by Silene he just woke up in a parking lot with the woman standing over him triumphantly. He'd regained consciousness back in human form then too.
So this was... this was hell then. The name made it clear too. That and the kid trying to leave only to be confronted with inky space. He wondered if he'd made good on his promise to take Ryo there too—even if he didn't see the bastard anywhere yet. He saw... people, though. Maybe more Devilmen. There were so many of them, he'd probably just forgotten about these specific ones. The celestial envoy and Amaterasu... it absolutely made sense some Devilmen would take the names of gods, honestly.
He stood. Maybe Akira was just spent at this point, emotionally and physically, but he felt at peace in death. "I want to ask you if someone's here, ma'am. Have you seen a Japanese boy named Ryo Asuka? White hair. Short. Blue eyes..."
He looked around the room. "Sometimes he's..." Akira had to laugh a little bit. "He's Satan. Wings, pale. We were on our way here together."
"Let's see here...."
A pair of reading glasses appeared on Sidney's head, the visor vanishing back into the earpeice as she looked at the tablet, unreadable symbols and gibberish on the screen as she went through a few menus, coming up on a list of cast members, each with a photo next to the name.
"Nope, don't see anyone by that name or description on the cast list." She said to Akira.
Tira's confusion vanished as she was greeted by an old friend.
Jany! Tira yelled as she turned to face Jan. You're back! Ohhhhh, I really missed you, you know. I was having so much fun killing stupid looking elvy thingys, you missed all the fun!
Tira took a second to laugh as one of the new people were disintegrated. So, what have you been up to?
edited 8th Feb '18 4:23:40 PM by Meanken
Flowey
Well, that was annoying. It seems Flowey's captors suddenly decided to change the rules of the game in the middle of it. Furthermore, they just teleported him and a few of his teammates without warning while they were about to win! Oh well, at least the new teamless format will probably be a better fit for him. Now what to do...
He saw Tira, a woman he got along as well as a souless flower could possibly get along with anyone, talking to another former Nemesis contestant. Might as well catch up with a potential "ally". "Howdy! So, you're also a former Team Villain member? I fear we haven't met. My name's Flowey, Flowey the Flower!" Cue a deliberately harmless-looking smile and wink. "Anyway, I was wondering knew what is the true meaning of all worlds?"
Tenko- Another game?
Tenko Chabashira was sadly not as weirded out by the situation as she felt she should be. She was already accustomed to weirdness and to her, the whole thing initially seemed like another twisted game held by Monokuma or someone like him. They even provided "motives" to force her and the other captives to play it. The angel, the talking flower and other weird things were probably made up so they could be tricked into thinking this ridiculous "alternate reality" nonsense. Yeah, that was it! There's no way heavenly angels would be degenerate males, anyway.
Or at least that was what she tought until a contestant was disintegrated and brought back as if it was nothing. This earned a scream and a panicked expression from Tenko. What was that? The deads can't be revived just like that, can't they? Does that meant that they were telling the truth?
edited 8th Feb '18 10:22:51 PM by Alecoene
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Fist
Estelle
The pink haired princess was sleeping rather peacefully on the floor of the entrance hall, until all the noise woke her up. She gingerly sat up, still groggy and turned her head from side to side. "How did I get in the foyer....?" she mumbiled to herself. But upon further inspection she noted that the walls were painted rather than made of marble. And the chandelier was gold, rather than crystal. This wasn't her foyer, this wasn't her foyer at all. And there was some loud woman going on about a game show.
She stood up, briefly noting she did not have her sword a shield with her. Well, they could be replaced. Her blastia was intact at the very least. Seeing that the blonde woman had been the one answer questions she walked up to Sidney. "Excuse me, ma'am would you happen to know where exactly we are? I really would like to get my bearings and get home soon."
PM box is Closed, Indefinitely Friend Code: 3368-4181-6850
Lizard Metabolism
Big Brother
This was a madhouse. Between one puff of his cigarette and another, one of the co-contestants got disintegrated with... whatever their host did, got brought back not worse for wear and someone else not only slept through all of this racket, but asked just where they were. "There is no escape. We're on a reality show." Luke answered in Sidney's stead to Estelle. "Think gladiator games. And I'll be taking your word for it, Miss Knight. Hopefully you will not disappoint us." Here he turned to their host, pointing at her with the burning end of his cig.
Little Brother
"Oh man, I don't know where to start. We were about to do our gig." Jan chuckled, idly taking note of the big ugly Norseman with a corner of his eye. Some more old faces, that was always neat. "You know, walk in, kill everything that fucking moves and call it a day. Instead, we're here. That guy in white over's there my bro, Luke." He gestured to the other Valentine, just in time to see some dumb loud lady get obliterated by their host. This Sidney Knight was no Liberty, that was certain. Aw, now he was getting all nostalgic. It would be fun to have someone for a target practice.
"And you made friends with some weed?" He raised an eyebrow at the approaching Flowey. "With a shitty name, too." Still, that harmless facade reeked of a hardcore nutter, especially if he too once belonged to Villain Team. "Sup', Shitweed?"
How do lizards fly?
That One Gal
Jimmy
Jimmy looked between Sidney and the spot Ionia used to inhabit. "Whoa," he eloquently responded. "So, what, it's either we take part in this thing or we die?" It was a lot to take in at once, but Jimmy didn't worry himself with trying to understand everything at once.
They're all trapped in this ridiculous house with a trigger-happy chick who wants them to participate in some kind of reality show. That was easy enough to get, so Jimmy focused on that aspect above everything else.
Magnus
Magnus had come up with a conclusion after seeing the whole group.
This place might rival all of the Nine Worlds in terms of oddness.
Everyone accepted the fact that they were all apparently from different universes really quick. It wasn't like Magnus was having a hard time dealing with the idea, he just figured that somebody would be a little freaked out at the idea.
Also, that flower had a face and was talking. Now that was something.
"Who's watching us?" Magnus asked Sidney, keeping a cautious eye on her.
Vampire Hunter
Juri & Chun-Li, Entrance Hall
"This shit again?" Juri said as she was finally freed from the force field holding her in place. "What? Did the old show do so poorly it got cancelled?"
Soon enough, Juri wandered over to Tira and Jan, "Looks like I'm not the only rat trapped in this maze again."
Meanwhile Chun-Li crossed her arms and looked annoyed at the situation as soon as she was freed from the force field holding her in place. She watched as someone tried to attack the apparently new host, and got disintegrated for it... and then respawned.
"Well, a host who can actually fight back is new," Chun-Li shrugged and glanced down at Amaterasu. "The pets are also new."
Wizard Needs Food Badly
King of Lame-Style
004
Well this was a new fresh nightmare, 004 thought to himself. Well at the very least it was new, not that he was pleased about being kidnapped for a game show. He stood back, straightened his shirt and crossed his arms with a scowl already in his face. Poor guy was snatched right out of his appartment and he was in his civvies. Wherever he was seemed to be in the middle of space which was troubling already before the first brow raising event truly happened; a girl getting disintegrated and reformed almost immediately. "What the hell!?" he exclaimed, but quickly regained his composure.
They weren't bluffing, to make it worse they were being casual about the whole affair. Which actually put him even less at ease. He had no reason to trust them, yes they seemed to back up their words which would be good if they didn't seem absolutely malicious, which made him think he might have to find a way home and hope his absence was truly not felt, he would hate to make the rest worry... but well, there was one silver lining regarding. That prize was real now, and he had a couple of ideas on what he would do with such a possibility. So for the while he resolved to cooperate and help around.
edited 8th Feb '18 5:35:36 PM by Sanojutsu
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.
Munsu
Another new contestant regained his movement and staggered forward as though he'd only just woken up. This one was a tall, dark-haired man in rough clothing and a heavy coat, and he stared around the strange environment in open bewilderment. Munsu wasn't sure if he was dreaming or if he'd totally lost all grip on reality, but this place seemed real enough. The blonde woman said something about advanced technology, but it seemed more like powerful magic to him. That was something he could grasp onto and comprehend, and there was precious little else. He spoke vaguely to anyone nearby, not sure how any of these weird people might react.
"Well... shit. No point in being coy, I might as well just ask: am I the only one here who doesn't know what a 'reality show' even is?"
Breath of the Sun
Amaterasu and Issun
Amaterasu growled at the deranged woman who attacked the host with sound - only for the host to defend herself.
"Yikes." Issun ducked into Amaterasu's fur at the sight of one of the other 'contestants' being obliterated and reformed. "So don't attack the hostess, gotcha."
Then a woman with fantastic thighs came over, causing Amaterasu to sit back on her haunches and turn her head to face the woman, tongue lolling happily. She called Ammy a 'pet', however, so Issun jumped in front of her eyes to get her attention.
"Hey, hey! Ammy's nobody's pet! She's the sun goddess!" He jumped back on Ammy's head, which the wolf then tilted to the side, curious. "That said, uh, you and that other lady- " He gestured to Juri with his sword, "-have been through something like this before?"
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?
"Basically" Sidney said to Juri's question. "A few of you used to be on some other show, Nemesis or something? I don't know much details, I was on set in a universe not connected to the main networks at the time, but the ratings tanked and so they made this as a reboot. They dragged a few of the fan favorite contestants to the new show and replaced the rest. As you can see, some things changed."
She looked at Chun-Li. "Liberty was a cowardly sack of shit, let's just get that out of the way. Never been in a fight in his life and he let himself get eaten alive by the networks. Fans got really tired of him by the end, so they hired me to replace him. I usually have my own show, Knight's Hunt, I go to the universes with the biggest, baddest things in the multiverse and hunt them. But right now the show's involved in a legal battle, some animal's rights crap. So I took a contract for this show for the indefinite future."
She gave the person who just woke up a glance like she was particularly stupid to have missed her explanation. "As I explained less then 3 minutes ago, you're on a game show. Multiversal competition. Reality TV. You fight your fellow contestants in challenges, at the end, one winner is chosen, receives whatever they want as a price. And I mean anything. Bring the dead back, reverse history, that kind of thing."
Next was Luke. "Just to be clear, I'm an independent contractor, more or less. I don't have any love lost for the network executives, they just pay my bills. They screw me over, I'll be right there with you shooting them. Of course, they know this, I have a reputation, so they keep me very well paid. Besides, they have their own rules to follow. Lots of regulations with these kinds of shows. They're good for what they offer, but expect to work for it if you wanna win."
Then she turned to Magnus. "There's countless universes which have advanced to a sufficient degree to be connected to our networks, the Multiversal Television Viewership. Literally trillions of viewers are watching this show right now, from all walks of life."
Oh, hey, you're here too! Tira said as she saw the weird flower. Ya, this is a guy who showed up after you left, Jany. His name's Flowey, and he likes killing things too! But, er, I don't know what you're talking about, Flowey.
Then Juri reappeared. Oh, Juri's here too! Hey. hey guys, you know what we need to do? Tira said as she started lowering her voice. We should totally restart the Murder Buddies! It'll be really fun!
"30 seconds"
"Are we sure this is going to work?"
"Little late to be asking that now, don't you think?"
"I'm not talking about the show"
"Oh. That's what the bosses seem to think. Personally? I won't complain if they're right, but I'm gonna be hedging my bets with this new show."
"Same."
"15 Seconds"
"Anyway, on topic, everything's set. New house is built, gravity and air systems are in place."
"We still have all those guns installed in the walls?"
"Yep, but they'll only be used on contestants now. The new host is a bit more........"
"Assertive?"
"Let's go with that. We had to meet her terms before she signed the contract, that was one among many."
"5 seconds"
"Alright, let's watch the sparks fly"
The contestents of the newest reality show on the block would find themselves waking up. Each of them were in a fancy, elaborate entrance hall. Polished wooden floors, freshly painted white walls, a gold chandelier, expensive looking wooden furniture, the room had all the standards you expected to see. On one side of the room, a set of stairs led up to a second floor. Visible behind said stairs, if one walked around them, was an opening to another room. On eather side of the stairs, a door sat, both leading to other parts of the house. Opposite the stairs, a short hallway led to a single door. Currently, the contestants were restrained by some form of forcefield that prevented them from moving or talking.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Pandemonium, the hottest new show on the block! I'm your host, Sidney Knight!"
They would see a blonde haired woman standing in the middle of said entrance hall in a crisp looking business suit with a black bow tie on. On her ear was what appeared to be a small wireless Bluetooth type device. Hovering in front of her was a white robot, which looked very much like a moving camera.
"In this show, we pick contestants from across the multiverse, throw them all into a house, and then have them compete in challenges against each other. At the end of the show, one contestant will be selected as the winner, and receive whatever their hearts desire is! Maybe they want to bring a loved one back to life? Maybe they want to reverse a mistake that destroyed their lives? Maybe they want to achieve world conquest in their own dimensions? As they'll quickly find out, there is very little we can't do with our technology!"
"But enough talk from me, that's not why you're here. Let's let our contestants out and see what they have to say!"
The floating camera started slowly panning around at the contestants as Sidney reached up into the air, and a white tablet appeared out of thin air, falling into her hand. She looked down at it, then pressed a single, very large red button on the screen. Suddenly, the contestants would find themselves freed, and able to properly react.
Over by one corner, a girl in white facepaint and a colorful dress, holding a red and steel blade in the shape of a ring, looked very, very confused.
edited 8th Feb '18 9:24:51 AM by Meanken