Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

[zerotohiro]

'Busy, leave a message!
...oh, you've reached Hiro Hamada. Whatever. Still busy!'

Hamada art by D-Joel, found on tumblr

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[covenantal]

[ For this, Yu takes the chair that Hiro got for him, wanting to sit down as he keeps doing. He sets his tea down on the work station, too, so he can thread his fingers together between his knees. He meets Hiro's gaze solidly, his expression calm, but his eyes intensely focused. ]

Why else go to such lengths to always cause intense emotions in us? Joy, love, sorrow, grief, anger... they even get robots to drag us places to ensure that everyone experiences these things. They need us to experience these emotions. They must be using them.

[ They're code. Whatever it is they're feeling, all their pain, their happiness, their rage... CERES must have a way to process it all. Otherwise...

Why bother? With any of it? ]

[zerotohiro]

I didn't even think they were using our emotions, but I've had a theory that they're definitely using us. Doesn't that make you wonder then if what we're feeling are real emotions or if they're just coded by CERES?

[covenantal]

[ Yu considers that, but then shakes his head. ]

They've gone to a lot of trouble to get extreme emotional reactions from us. If they could just code the emotions they wanted, they wouldn't need to bother. I don't think that adds up. There's got to be more to it.

[zerotohiro]

We should start making a list of things that've happened and emotions associated with it then. I think you're really onto something with that. What else happened in that first ViViD game you and Yosuke arrived in?

[covenantal]

... there was that game of Hangman.

[ He doesn't like to think about that much. His mouth thins into a line. ]

It made you see someone you care about in the noose. Plus the game of Pac-man that turned your good memories into horrible ones, by making you see your loved ones get killed. There was Tetris... that one just tried to kill you. [ A beat. ] That was it, pretty sure.

[ His intro level was god awful. ]

[zerotohiro]

[That's pretty messed up. That was the game after his, he remembers that.] So fear, despair, and...panic, I guess.

...I never did really tell you about my intro game, did I? Outside of the maze for the truth and the murder mystery.

omfg i've had this open in a tab in a separate window for like a week SORRY ABT ME

[covenantal]

No.

[ His voice is mild, prompting. ]

Im cracking up tbqh

[zerotohiro]

[A deep breath.]

It was a hospital. I think I told you that part. We all got these bogus examination charts and diagnoses and we had to basically move before we could actually be examined by the aliens. They took our clothes and shoved us in hospital gowns and everything. [Yu might remember that Hiro's vaguely uncomfortable with hospitals based on how he behaved during his visit to Yu and Dipper.]

Anyway, one of the levels dropped us down into the basement. But it didn't look like a basement. It was all white and sterile and this huge long hallway...I was by myself for a really, really long time just walking around trying to figure out how to get out. But the level glitched and like..I saw me? Except not me. I was like eight or something and covered in blood and holding this giant knife which is stupid because why...but it kept following me. And calling me a murderer.

[Based on what he's told Yu about Callaghan? He can see why this freaked him out immediately.] Trying to get rid of it just meant getting blood all over my hands. [And a rueful smile.] It wasn't real. I knew it wasn't real...but Tadashi found me in that same level and I was so sure he wasn't real either.

["You're not real!" The horrible thing he shouted in his brother's face. They were pretty doomed from the start.] Tadashi couldn't see the apparition either even as it followed us out of the level and then we got separated. The rest of the hospital was crawling with those blind nurses giving us shots or aliens that wanted to "operate" on us until we got to the maze and could escape.

So...that was my first game.