Peep The Horror

[ciphermitarai]

Oh, shit shit shit shit shit SHIT! Nate instinctively started to fumble with his gun, but was so overtaken by his flusteredness that Ángel was able to reply before he could even do anything. The sheer amount of people in the situation sent up a flare of panic in Nate’s stomach that sent the gun comically spinning between his hands until he was able to FINALLY catch it.

By all means the sort of guy you want to ally with, right?

In any event, whoever was in there—Ángel and the other pings—knew he was there now. There wasn’t any point in hiding, but the wall gave him a little bit of security deeper down.

He looked at Bailey and made a flicking motion with his free hand, whispering “Well, go,” because he sure as shit wasn’t going in first.

[Yonagoda]

"I found v3's ending to be, from what I've seen-" youtube letsplays from half a decade ago- "faux-intellectual and a half-herted attempt at sounding serious; a gambit that kind of pissed the audience off in, like, a bad way. But I like what it went for; good concept, bad execution."

Alright piece of media, if you don't count the oversexualization, the horrid fandom, and basically everything else. No offense to the girl. Well, a bit of offense. It's all shock humor and hollow drivel.

"I'm Cee. And, wait... Who? Who shot who?" Or, like, whose avatar shot whose avatar, but it's super easy to make that line meld; he's doing his fair share of it himself.

Still, he knows that physical stimuli exists here, and the pain of being shot/stabbed/whatever is probably not fun, soooo...

Cee, as per usual, went deeper into the room to put the two bodies between himself and the new people.

[Salic]

At the sound of Ángel's voice, Bailey threw her arms up into the air out of relief and celebration. Well, she would have, if she felt like she had a single iota of energy left in her body to spare for the action. As it was, she felt like she could barely shuffle her feet across the ground. She had run for a lot longer than she thought she could, at a much higher speed than she thought she could. It was mostly out of a semi-lucid desperation to find Ángel so that she wasn't totally alone, and now Bailey was realizing just how stupid it was.

Following Ángel's voice and Gray Guy's wrist motion, Bailey stumbled through the doorway, the spinning in her head getting ever-so-slightly worse than before. It was just a lack of oxygen and water, right? She briefly saw Yu-Mi and heard the voice of a classmate she didn't recognize before she felt her legs wobbling more than they should. While they were already wobbly to begin with, they now felt like a rickety house of cards trying to support the weight of a watermelon. She did her best to ignore the sudden, furious roiling in her stomach. She just needed to sit down, she just needed to-

Bailey flopped backwards, thankfully landing in a chair and not on the floor. She attempted to stutter out a greeting or something along those lines, but her own body rudely interrupted her with a loud, guttural gag, and then she knew exactly what was coming.

Before she could begin to process anything, torrents of acidic, yellow-green bile spewed forth from her mouth, soiling the front of her hoodie, running down her legs, soaking into her socks, and spilling into and onto her boots. She slumped forward slightly, and the smell alone would've made her expulse the contents of her stomach again if she had anything left in there. A small groan escaped her lips.

"...mmmmnnngh..."

[NoLife42069]

Ángel raised an eyebrow at his classmate. Were they really about to have a little discussion on V3's ending? Apparently, "I wouldn't say it pissed off the audience more of deeply divided the community. I say this because there are people who don't mind or even enjoy it, me being one of them, and there are definitely those who hate it with a burning passion. However, I feel a lot of the outrage comes from those who don't like what the ending meant for the series as a whole, and not because of its other flaws. For example, the big twist being really fucking stupid." Ángel tapped the churro against his jaw, "If you want the same concept but with far better execution I recommend Pathologic."

Then Ángel froze. It was unlikely for... Cee apparently, to ever play the game much less play any game ever again. It sobered him, which is a good thing yet he still couldn't help missing the high.

"Raymond painted Andrea's brains across the wall." Ángel deadpanned, brevity was for calmer situations. "I should also add Kirstein shish kebabing herself to the roof of a car." The rest of his food was tossed into his mouth and chewed. "Also nice to meet you Cee, wish it was under better circumstances but what can you do."

Then came Bailey, struggling. Exhausted. Her mind, presumably, was fuzzy. She fell into a chair and Ángel began to dig through his bag for a water bottle. By the time he had it out and ready to hand it to her.

Vomit spilled forth. Ángel instinctually took a step back as it painted her front. He waited for her to groan before walking to her. The smell of bile both confused and repulsed his artificial digital brain.

The CR world was made with realism in mind. Down to needing to properly treat wounds. So it stood to reason that of course they properly programmed vomit. Yet it still bogged his mind. Just like death, his brain logically understood that even though the world wasn't real, his death would be. That if the heart of his avatar stopped beating so would his. Yet, despite understanding this, it just couldn't truly accept that a fake thing could have real dire consequences.

Which brought him here. Handing Bailey a water bottle and trying to help her out of her hoodie. The smell of vomit offended his senses but with the thought of it not being real. "Lets... Let's get you cleaned up Bailey." Avoiding touching the bile Ángel pushed Bailey gently so she could lean back on the chair.

Ángel called out to the other person. "Come on in we don't bite."

[ciphermitarai]

Eugh! Vomit! Even through his fear Nate couldn’t help but gag. Seriously, what did anyone get out of programming that into the system?

… On second thought, some questions were far better left unanswered. And that didn’t exactly soothe Nate, so he stayed on the other side of the door…

How long could he keep doing that, though? He’d been heard by some terrible completely unprecedented twist of fate! He peeked through a small crack as though the door would be an effective bodyshield, saying nothing, but at least making his presence obvious. It wasn’t as though he was a well-known person around those parts, but as he lifted his head a bit, the magenta power-icon eyes shone for a brief moment through the lenses.

Should he go in armed? Was he even asking himself that question? The question was whether he should go in at all, despite claims of biting, or lack thereof.

What was he going to do from the door, though? They already knew he was here.

“Uh. It smells,” Nate lied—well, didn’t lie. But it was more than obvious that that wasn’t the reason he was too wary to arrive.

[apocalypseyuri]

“I don’t like Danganronpa.” Were they seriously talking about Danganronpa? “Hi Cee.” Haha like the drink. Ugh. She rubbed her arms uncomfortably as Ángel recounted the previous carnage.

When Bailey stumbled inside the room, her eyes went wide. “Jesus, are-are you alright?” Obviously not, dumbass. She hovered awkwardly around Ángel as he administered to Bailey. When Nate came in, she mustered up an awkward little wave. “Hey.”

Yu-Mi’s own head felt light, and she sat down in one of the remaining desks. “Hold on, I’m–I’m going to put my head down for a second. Just give me a sec.” She put her head down and was out like a light the moment she did.

Sleeping in class again, huh?

[Cyber_HELPline]

((Quick but important reminder: this area has been declared a Danger Zone in the third announcement. You have around four days left before all chracters in it will be instantly killed.

Please leave this thread quickly.))

[Salic]

Bailey, with all the might that she could muster, grabbed onto Ángel's hand—the one with the water bottle—and hoisted herself back to her feet. The act of walking was horrendous; her exhausted legs didn't want to cooperate, and she was disgusted beyond belief by the feeling of bile sloshing around in her boots, but she did her best to press onwards.

She turned to Ángel, still trying to catch her breath. Small inhales peppered her speech. "I-I need to get cleaned up, but..."

Her head turned, swiveling around all the people that were gathered around her, even though Yu-Mi was asleep. A flush of blood colored her cheeks as her embarrassment became apparent.

"...there's t-too many people here. I don't want them to see me," she said to him in a hushed whisper. Instinctively she drew her hoodie closer to hide her face, only to instantly recoil due to the stench. It didn't matter if it was artificial or not, the terrorists sure knew how to make it disturbingly lifelike.

"I'm gonna go. Where to, I don't know. Just... somewhere private, I guess. Gotta clean myself up," she addressed to the room, directed at no one in particular. It was then that she turned to Ángel and spoke. "If you want to stick around with me, then follow me. If not, well then... um, stay safe."

With that, Bailey hauled her bag on her shoulder. She produced her baseball bat and held it limply by her side. Someone as small as she was, all worn out and disheveled, wasn't going to be considered a threat by anyone. Maybe showing off her protection would help her get to wherever she was going with the least amount of hassle possible. After a long moment to pause and catch her breath, Bailey shuffled out of the classroom, doing her best to try and stop the world from spinning around her too much.

((Bailey Hersh continued elsewhere))

[NoLife42069]

Ángel's attempt at aid was stopped. A hand came to stop his and Bailey stood up, she wobbled. Ángel's eyebrows knit together, a pang of worry. She had spilled stomach acid all over her front and yet here she was standing. Ángel opened his mouth to speak, to tell her it would be better to sit down. But Bailey beat him to speech, his mouth shut forming a thin line.

She blushed from what he assumed to be embarrassment and spoke. Yes, it was embarrassment. Like he onto her, she left him a choice. Follow or good luck. Ángel gave a nod. She armed herself then...

She was gone.

4 remained in the room. Yu-Mi had passed out, and Cee was... Cee was there and the last person. Name unknown, came in with Bailey, standof- Armed.

Ángel's hand shifted to his gun. "Hey, newcomer..." Strained, tense. They had talked about the smell, the artificial vomit that came from a virtual avatar.

They were nervous, despite having a gun. Afraid? Estimating? They had let Bailey leave, but what did that mean?

Ángel let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Think it would be better that you put your weapon away... If you can't do that..." Ángel's eye glanced at the sleeping Yu-Mi. "Well, I think you are going to have to leave." Deescalate deescalate deescalate.

[Yonagoda]

"Pathologic enjoyer!" He perked up a little- one of his favorite games!

"Never thought I'd met another one of us in the wild! Bachlor route's coming out soon, I've heard. Anyways I just love the way they play with layers of reality like that- Like I know from the very beginning they're fictional, and they don't treat me like a baby when they reveal the kids playing in the sandpit; it's not like 'psych! Your faves never existed!' and instead it's actually good existetialism and-"

Oh, damn, people are actually playing this sick game? The whole... thing we're in, I mean. Not Pathologic, but it's, well, a sick game, get it? Anyways, that's stupid. I'm just waiting to be unplugged and eat somthing in my physical body, I bet I'm kinda hungry right now."

Once he started talking, it was a bit hard to stop, though vomit certainly put a damper on his mood.

"...Not anymore."

To cut the tension a bit, he laughed, fakely. "Seriously, who programmed this shit? Pardon the language or whatever. Here, have a bottle from me, too."

He turned, then, to the new-newcomer. "Hey."

[ciphermitarai]

… Ah. So now he was the villain for wanting to defend himself? That was Nate’s first thought—it was one he probably would’ve laughed at if he saw it in some piece of media, thought it to be on-the-nose, but no situation was quite like this. Really, he wasn’t so illogical as to open fire! He just wanted to… it was as though he was a dog, and the ears that lay flat at the side of his head had perked up, alert.

Good ol’ Nate, for all his panic was worth, was still good ol’ Nate. And though he stuttered a bit he couldn’t help but grumble “… why, so you can just gun me down?” De-escalation was the furthest thing from his mind. And… well, he recognized C, but the others were more nebulous figures to him, and none which he could say he trusted with a homework assignment, much less with a possible weapon.

He stood his ground for now, but he rocked from foot to foot, antsy to make his escape at a time where he felt he could take his eyes off of them at all.

[NoLife42069]

Cee was also a pathologic fan. "I'm more of a changeling fan myself. Though The Haruspex is also fun, always been a sucker for those who pick the people above all." Ángel smirked. "Perfect segway into V3, Pathologic asks you why you are disappointed that it's not real. You, the player already knew it was fictional so why are you angry it was pointed out? I feel that's people's issues with V3."

Cee bumbled their way through something of understanding. Again Ángel's eyebrows knit together, "Have you not been paying attention to the announcements? hard to miss when our vision is stolen from us for it." Ángel shook his head. "I wouldn't bet on us-" Ángel gave air quotes "' Getting unplugged'. We were all taken to a hospital, and if they haven't got it off us yet? Safe to assume they aren't coming off externally and our physical bodies don't matter at the moment. All we can do for them is to survive here."

Then there was the newcomer. "If I wished to gun you down, I would have done it when Bailey was still here and Yu-Mi was awake. I'm not asking you to toss your gun away and tie yourself up. I'm asking for you to put it away, for it to not be out and obvious of its purpose." Clearly, the... "What's your name anyway? I'm getting tired of calling you Newcomer or Classmate in my mind." Proper order. Keep things calm. Do not escalate or cause panic.

[ciphermitarai]

Jesus. While Ominous Figure was right, they couldn’t have thought of a better way to phrase that? Nate, instead of doing anything conciliatory or anything even close to that, chose not to be stupid. At least, in his own eyes. (Wanted to? Yeah right. I’m not giving you the chance!)

He started to inch back towards the door, refusing to take his eyes off of these people-not-people.

“I don’t hafta give you that either,” he scoffed, finger inching slightly closer to the trigger as he moved. He didn’t find it worth explaining either, shoes squeaking against the ground—like usual, he thought himself the odd man out, and the odd man out was usually the first to die. First to get knocked out once his guard was down.

“I’ll just go.”

He still didn’t turn his back.

[Yonagoda]

"You are taking this too seriously- in this world of Ai-generated BS, can you really be sure of what they show us?"

He shrugged. "I mean, why get out of here? If you guys are all so worried about this death-game stuff, it's, like, early, right? Isn't getting split from each other kind of a horror cliche for dying?"

Cee made a little "ch" noise, cutting the air with two fingers. Somehow, the tenseness of the situtation drew him out a little more from his mental hidey-hole. It was easier, he figured, to let himself be a little dumb when everybody else was freaking out all over this stuff. To not take anything so seriously.

[NoLife42069]

Ángel shrugged. "Then you will remain neurotic boy in my mind." Neurotic boy was backing away, slowly towards the door. Ángel made no attempts to stop him, didn't even move. Ángel gave a nod at his words. "For the best really, your distrust of us would only lead to a..." Ángel paused as he reached for a good word. "Unfortunate conclusion."

Without taking his eyes off the neurotic boy, Ángel addressed Cee. "You are completely correct. We cannot truly trust any of the information given to us, however, that doesn't change the fact that we are here outside of our control. Even if everything we have been told is a lie, do you truly wish to risk it being real? Say that you are right and Kristen had the right idea, then I was a fool to believe this and should have offed myself from the start to save myself the stress." Ángel waited a beat. "But if I'm right? If death here really means death outside then treating this as a game would be treating my life as a game."

Why was he trying to argue his point? Changes in perspective are hard and take time, and should he fail... Having less alive could only be a good thing.

"He-They are clearly uncomfortable and distrustful. If they wish to leave then they should be allowed to. Trying to keep them here when they wish to leave would only spell disaster." Ángel then returned his attention to Neurotic Boy. "We pose no threat to you. Feel free to leave if you so wish, and good luck."

With those words, Ángel gave them a nod and called to Yu-Mi. "Yu-Mi! Wake up, we are heading out. We can sleep somewhere else, and we have to find Bailey. Cee, you are free to join us."