[EFFECT ROOM] The Red Thread of Not-Quite-Fate

[hyperhero]

[This room is definitely one that you wouldn't expect to find in a school, considering that it appears to be a gigantic cafe. Plush carpets, cushioned chairs, a whole bunch of fancy drinks and snacks...

Someone put a dating cafe in the school!]

((OOC: Here's how it works! The room is based off the idea of the red string of fate from Japanese/Chinese legend. On stepping into the room, your character will find a thin but completely unbreakable red string tied to their pinkie, with the other end tied to someone else who's come into the room. The red string persists even if you try to leave, and won't disappear until a full day later. The thread itself will lengthen or shorten depending on the proximity of the two characters, but it won't let you get more than a room's length away from each other.

Here's the complication: the Gods are kind of sort of drunk off their asses, which means that the red string could tie you to literally anyone. Your worst enemy, your brother, your father, Old Man Jenkins... it's one of those things where you're lucky if you get your soulmate! Furthermore, the strings can (by player choice) actually swap around repeatedly, so your character could end up tied to one person all day or have to deal with being tied to five different ones through it!

For characters who don't know about the legend, there's a paper pinned to the wall by the door that explains it (at least, the actual legend, not the drunk-gods part). While the paper can be ripped up, it'll just regenerate a minute or two later.

And yes I purposefully picked the most inappropriate journal for this))

Comments

[hyperhero]

Hmm...

[That one's a good place to start! One of Judai's hand fumbles for his deck, pulling out Clayman.]

Let's see if it can make Clayman here solid!

[fluffydeathdealer]

Focus, Judai. Place the card in front of you and rest your hand on it. Call to it. Out loud if you want to, inside your head if you can. But keep focused on it.

[hyperhero]

Gotcha.

[He keeps his eyes closed, putting Clayman's card in front of the Ring and focusing on them both. Whatever magic's in this thing... come on... let's see if he can say hello to one of his HEROes!

C'mon, Clayman! Make your entrance!

As the magic in the Ring responds, there's a stir of magic somewhere in Judai himself, similar yet different, "perking" up almost like a curious animal peering its head over a bush. Judai doesn't seem to notice it, fully focused on the card in front of him...

...and then on the rather large creature barely fitting in the room once he feels it work.]

Whoa! Cool!

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Not bad! That was faster than he'd expected. It was like Judai's stirring magic had been enough for the Ring to accept him. Once he took over, he'd need to find something to put part of his soul in. There was no way he could let someone like this go... and luckily, it seemed like Judai wasn't willing to leave him alone either.

...ugh. He was committing part of himself to 24 hours a day of Judai Yuki. Poor soul fragment...]

Good! Most people don't grasp it so fast. You can talk to him if you want. He's solid as a rock, so to speak...

[hyperhero]

Hey, Clayman! How's it going?

HELLO, JUDAI. [The monster seems surprised -- well, as far as that painted face can show "emotion" -- and gives a rocky chuckle.] I'M GLAD THAT I CAN TALK TO YOU LIKE THIS.

Heh! This is pretty awesome, yeah!

[Winged Kuriboh floats up over to Clayman, getting an affectionate "pat" from the Hero.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Just going to root around in Judai's head for a little while they talk, feeling out that magic. Maybe he can figure out a way to unlock it...]

[hyperhero]

[Judai seems more than happy to chat with Clayman, but finding that magic may be harder than Bakura expects. As it senses him after it, it retreats rapidly, almost like it's attempting to hide from him in some way.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Kh... how annoying. Now why would it be doing that...? There must be some trick to it.]

[hyperhero]

[It's interesting... the magic is clearly not sealed or otherwise cut off, so Judai shouldn't have been so ignorant of it. But it almost feels like... well, not a "game" so much as if there's something directing it. The magic seems like it, for whatever reason, is attempting to slip through fingers, like how you might hide an object by keeping it just slightly out of view.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Now what could possibly be making the magic act like that? He's just going to take a look in that soul room for clues.]

[hyperhero]

[The soul room is the same as ever, if just lacking the soul-bit Judai. It will take Bakura some time, but if he manages it, he'll be able to find something in a corner he overlooked, a sort of "illusion" that made one's eyes drift over it without noticing.

In the corner is a small shrine, depicting a picture of a young man in his late teens and a hospital gown. Despite the fact that he's smiling, the top half of the picture -- including his face -- is splattered with blood that has a strange mix of black within the red. The name is mostly smudged, but Bakura might be able to read it if he tries.

ISAO KUDOU

Strange... it feels as if the darkness has touched here more than elsewhere.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[It seems to take forever to discover the shrine. When he does, he wonders vaguely how he missed it. It's small, but it's obvious. To avoid seeing something like that... it's like he was being pulled away from it.

Slowly, he reaches out a hand to try to wipe off the blood.]

[hyperhero]

[The moment the blood touches his fingers, it feels like he's just been slapped in the face, a wave of that power hitting him like he's just opened some sort of floodgate. The face on the picture is still obscured, but from roughly where the eyes are, there's coming a strange glow, orange and green, standing out amidst even the "wave" that Bakura's unleashed.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Ow-! The hell...?!

[This power... It sends a shiver down his spine. It's eerie in a way, seeing the eye-like glow and he takes a step back.]

Oy, Judai. Can you hear me?

[hyperhero]

Huh? Yeah, I can hear you okay. What's up?

[fluffydeathdealer]

How are you feeling?

[hyperhero]

Pretty good, I guess!

[Even as Judai says it, the darkness that's bleeding out of the picture frame is starting to collect around Bakura's feet, like water seeping out of a drain pipe.]

I feel pretty charged, though! Kinda like I want to run around the forest. Does this usually happen with magic?

[fluffydeathdealer]

Sometimes. Magic is a fickle thing. Some people become more synchronized with it than others. Others feel more of a drain from it.

[It's flooding out into the soul room, he realizes in surprise, watching it. How far will it go?]

Maybe you should burn some of that energy off before it builds up too far.

[hyperhero]

How should I do that? Just summon some more of the HEROes?

[It floods out over everything in the room before too long. Interestingly enough, rather than twisting or warping what it comes into contact with, after a bit, the darkness simply seeps into everything in the soul room, disappearing into the bright colors without so much as darkening them a little. The pool around Isao's shrine stays, shaping into an almost pond like the darkness itself is mourning the suggested loss.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

...hm.

[That's remarkable... he wonders faintly if Judai can handle it or not.]

That might work. But I wonder... Maybe you should try something more intensive. Close your eyes and focus on the energy reserves inside of yourself.

[hyperhero]

"Intensive?" Like what?

[Judai closes his eyes again regardless, trying to do as instructed. The darkness suddenly swells up in the room, as if answering the call, though it doesn't do more than that, lacking direction.]

[fluffydeathdealer]

Focus on something nearby. Anything. Picture it in your head.

[hyperhero]

Something nearby?

[Judai looks around, noticing the desk, and shrugs a little, trying to focus on that. He's not sure what Bakura's doing, but hey!]

[fluffydeathdealer]

[Bakura doesn't either. But...]

Don't move. Reach for it inside your head.

[hyperhero]

Alright...

[Judai closes his eyes a little, trying to do as instructed. The shadows around his legs surge forward, beginning to "pull" the desk towards him. There's a loud scraping sound at it and he opens his eyes, blinking as it stops with the focus broken.]

Uh. I think that thing just moved.