Act 1, Scene 1: Thing 2

[opening_act]

[ A notification on your phone goes off, letting you know the purchase of your meeting with Exael has gone through.

There is an attachment. Where are you, when you open it? ]

Comments

[opening_act]

[ The attachment is a map. It looks like it wants you to go a building in south Shinjuku. The streets are ones you've maybe taken before? It's not far from the hotel. ]

[liarliarliar]

[...huh

starts heading that way]

[opening_act]

[ watch your step. The road as you head closer seems worse for wear-- cracks riddle the pavement. Though it's not dirt beneath. There's just more black, a solid polished coating of it. There's a chunk of pavement gone here, and you can see it smooth and slick.

if you're not watching your step, that's fair. because you would have probably noticed these buildings before, right? They're the same shape as Tokyo-F's highrises at ground level, but if you look they start to contort, spiraling. ]

[liarliarliar]

[...taking some pictures with his cellphone of the buildings, then trying to send them to C with a text

yo c look at this messed up stuff

and then he stumbles a little noticing the ground, and stoops down to examine the slick ground and take a picture of that too

maybe internal screaming a little because no one saw this shit before what the fuck is going on where did i goooooo]

[opening_act]

[ Your phone works! There's no indication your texts aren't going through. That said, no one responds yet either.

And the map shows you are on track. You're not too far from the destination.

The cement ahead of you continues to crumble away. At the next intersection, there isn't any left. ]

[liarliarliar]

...............aaaaahhhhhhhhh..........

[mmm

mmmm

sends the pictures to Intensity as well, taking more as he goes

hmmmm

tries to turn on a Live]

[opening_act]

[ The ones to Intensity also seem to go through, though he has not responded to you yet.

When you try to turn on a live your phone buzzes

Message, unknown sender: ]

《 You already have my attention ☆ Let's let sleeping audiences lie! 》

[ According to the map, you are there.

You are in Shinjuku, still. A Shinjuku busier, brighter, controrted. Shinjuku as you've never known it. Everything glows, every last window blazing with kaledescopic light, wrought iron and stained glass in all the windows. In the shadows cast from the light, the street is now filled with those who aren't quite occupying the same space as you-- black outlines that jostle you with their heat as they go past, like walking past a furnace but without tangibility you can reach out and touch. Their silhouettes are something like people. The sky shudders with stars-- none of them still in their celestial orbits. Your stomach lurches to look up, to look at any of it.

There is a television on, somewhere. You hear singing, and a broadcasting of what sounds like a bit of the last game.

The building the map indicated has open doors. You can go inside, whenever you wish. ]

[liarliarliar]

[...takes so many more pictures. So many??? The buildings, the people, the sky

then, before going to the building, sees if he can find the tv broadcasting the game]

[opening_act]

[ Your camera snaps many, many pictures.

Are you willing to walk further away from the destination? You don't see it in sight, but it must be nearby since you can hear it.

You also have a return text from Intensity: ]

Is anyone with you?

[ And two photographs attached:
One is a picture of the subway train, crowded with the forms of the people that were there and not there. And a quick picture of the sign indicating that the next stop is Shinjuku station. ]

[liarliarliar]

[No I'm alone. Should I wait for you?]

[liarliarliar]

[also yeah gonna wander just a litttllee further]

[opening_act]

[ This is a building not in your Shinjuku. The second story up, it is covered in fragmentary display screens, between stained glass. The scene looks like a giant game, a board set up according to rules you don't know— and some of this glass is clear, not stained with color. Maybe fifty uncolored orbs, surround panels made to look like doors, little windows into the games you've played!

It's a movie theater. There's a lot of figures around it, it seems pretty popular. ]

[liarliarliar]

[...more pictures. pictures of that yes.

Sending a picture of that building to C and Intensity]

Goodness.

[opening_act]

[ Your pictures go through!

Also, suddenly from behind you someone has reached out to put a hand on your wrist. Unlike the silhouette people, this hand has mass, not just form, and a vice-grip on you. ]

[liarliarliar]

Ah...?!

[almost drops his phone but doesn't]

[opening_act]

[ Good, this would be a bad time to lose it.

The hand yanks at you, and you can see it is clawed and bleeding, as is the figure it belongs to. The hand feels wet on yours, but it doesn't make the grip any less solid on you— you probably can't use it to slip out. The shadow people around you turn, and start to stare—

And there's a pair of arms around your waist. ]

[opening_act]

[ Exael's arms.

Not that'd you'd recognize that, except one moment you're in that crowd with everything around you starting to stop and watch you and the next you're in an apartment building and Exael is letting you go. ]

Security doesn't like people backstage.

[ Which is kind of, sort of, not really an explanation ]

[liarliarliar]

[internal screaming, staring at Exael with wide eyes for several beats before he speaks, voice pitched a little higher than usual]

My mistake! I think Intensity wanted me to wait so I was waiting and ah...! Hahaha! Well, you saw, Miss Exael!

[opening_act]

[ Speaking of which, you get a message from Intensity:

Negotiating. Don't wait. ]

[ Exael bobs her head. You can see she looks a little worse for wear. She's got a bloody lip, gold ichor crusted at the side, and her skin seems kind of see-through luminescent in places. Maybe they're bruises. ]

I diiiid. Do you want to clean that up?

[liarliarliar]

These things happen. Ah, I had wanted to get you a cake for this meeting but I guess I blew that. Sorry.

Ah, clean what....?

[oh my arm....?

gonna text c and intensity first

go straight to exael or secuirty will come for you lol oops I'm fine]

[opening_act]

Your kind of visitors are a lot rarer than cake.

[ Yeah, your arm. She's going to go grab a handkerchief for that, since you're not injured or anything there's just blood on it. ]

[liarliarliar]

What kind of visitor am I? What makes me look like me and them like shadows, Miss Exael?

[takes the handkerchief and cleans himself up. geez rude at least it probably wont bruise

and looks around to see where they are properly]

[opening_act]

An idol visitor!

[ You're in an apartment. It's cavernous, which isn't a descriptor you'd expect to apply to any apartment in any Tokyo, but there you go. She has her ceiling tented with fabric and the walls, alternating wide pastel stripes, a trapeze (why), a wall that's pink neon signs and lava lamps, and out her window is a view of the place you were just at before— those spires and stars are distinctive. ]

You saw the game board, didn't you?

[opening_act]

Also message from Intensity:

Idiot! Don't do anything that is going to put yourself in danger! Understand?! ]

[liarliarliar]

[alcheme life (*「･ω･)ﾝ？

and pocketing phone]

I did see it, I took some pictures. I took lots of pictures, I hope they keep.

Is this your place? It's super cute.