[ Instability Portal ] Happy Happy Joy Joy ( Bix & Ariane )

[iloveyouDIE]

DISTORTED WORLD OF TRANCE: Human World

Prompt: You wake up. There are bright lights surrounding you, the bustle of people nearby, consumed in holiday shopping. You have somehow made it to the Human World. It is UP TO YOU the location, but it has to be a populated area (ie: city area) at a shopping district (mall) areal.

All players: You will need to navigate through the Shopping District.
- All players may notice something odd: You look perfectly Human (if you are Human, then you just look civilian). You can't summon your weapon, you can't use Fear attacks, and you are wearing odd colourful clothing that kind of hurts your eyes.
- Someone is yelling at you, all of you, a man that seems very angry. He calls himself Your Boss. He says if you do not complete these tasks, you will be ejected from the store immediately. While he does seem intimidating, it is more questionable as to why you are here in the first place: now is a good time to stay to explore the area
- If you GET FIRED you immediately are ejected from the Distorted Portal but suffer side effects of hallucinations for 24 hours where you continuously see everything in red and green. You also feel slightly Joyful...
- It is recommended that players go through the shifts at the same pace (ie: I am player 1, in shift1, I roll 3 times and wait for the others before ICly proceeding to shift 2 together, though they can skip players that become inactive after 24 hours).
- Even if you finish this exercise, you will continue to feel lingering effects of Joy. It will last up to 24 IC hours.

gaia_crown Step 1: Shift 1

The Boss is telling you to do something strange: talk to these Humans and ask them how their day was. Offer them something about a Promotional Sales Item, the discount mascot of Sappy the Sad Reindeer for only twenty dollars. You are given a stuffed sad reindeer to promote.

- Roll 1d10. You must do this three times.
- If in ANY of your dice rolls you roll 1, the customer becomes very angry and you and complains to Your Boss. You are ejected from the store- YOU ARE FIRED
- For each time you roll even you gain +20% Joy (you get a little happier, feel more in the holiday spirit, feel that everything is awesome and Christmas is the best thing ever...)
- If you pass, proceed to STEP 2.

gaia_crown STEP 2: Shift 2

You now need to Man the Cashier. You don't really know what that means but there is a small machine in front of you with a lot of numbers. Humans carrying items are looking expectantly at you.

- Roll 1d6. You must do this three times.
- For each time you roll even you gain +20% Joy
-If any of your dice rolls to a 1 The Human waiting in line is getting very angry at you. They keep on saying things like how they're going to use their Visa Card, and that you're Pricing the Wrong Item. You have no clue what that means, but your Boss is very upset at you and yells at you. YOU ARE FIRED.
- If you manage to make it through, you are on Step 3.

gaia_crown Step 3: Shift 3. Mass chaos everywhere, there are Humans running around everywhere, all at once, it is crazy. They keep on asking you where things are.

Roll 1d6. You need to do this four times. Whenever you roll even, a Human comes over to ask you the location of *insert item of your choice*. You have no clue where that is.
- If you roll three evens, your boss comes over to you and looks Super Angry. YOU ARE FIRED.
- If you manage to pass through this phase you are at the end.

gaia_crown Step 4: THE END.
- Finally the crowd seems to be over and you manage to survive to the end. The Boss tells you to go home, and you are given... nothing? All you feel is a little bit of sadness. Is this what being a Human is really all about....

- You WAKE UP FROM TRANCE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix had been coming back from working out when he spied Ariane in front of him in the hall.

He was lurking.

Sneaking.

Creeping up behind her.

His hand drawn back to give the almightest stinger of a** slaps.



And then a portal appeared and sucked the two of them in.

Dragain

 

[Dragain]

Ariane was just minding her own business when she felt someone slap her on the a**. However, before she could even react - by returning the favor - a portal had sucked her, together with her attacker, right in.

The a** slap was so mighty that it smacked her all the way to another dimension, apparently.

"What the s**t?" She muttered, staring at the red and green dress that she was wearing; she even had a pair of antlers, attached to a headband, on her head. It was all very festive. In fact, it was so festive that it made her slightly uncomfortable... Besides, the bright, flashing lights and colors were hurting her eyes.  

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix's legs felt... breezy. In fact everything from the waist down was... cooler than normal. The albino glanced down to see his legs clad in dark green spandex tights, curly-toed red shoes on his feet and as he looked and felt himself further up.

"AN ELF?!" His eyes darted around at all the shiny and bright. He really couldn't process much beyond that.

"YEAH AN ELF. FALL IN." A booming voice cut the chatter before Bix could react to much. He found himself shuffled in next to Ariane, who thankfully was here with him, and looked adorable in antlers and a dress. They'd even painted a red nose on her! The albino snickered audibly, shushing only when the angry man cast him a look.

The angry man in particular was clearly THE BOSS judging by his successful filling out of the Santa suit he wore. His falsely rosey cheeks were offset by the glare he gave them all from under his glued on white eyebrows, "You know what you all have to do. Get in there. Get them happy. Get them buying." He barked like a football coach, pointing at other employees in the small gathered group. "And you know what to do?"

A skinny teen in glasses dressed like a candycane drawled boredly, "Don't be sad for the holidays. Let Sappy the Sad Reindeer be sad for you. Only $19.99 this holiday season."

"THAT'S RIGHT!" Santa boss slammed his fist excitedly into his hand. "NOW GET OUT THERE!" He spun and charged off. The other employees filtered away to their stations, leaving Bix and Ariane standing dumbstruck.

Bix smirked, unsure where to go right this second, but starting to absorb the shiny smile enducing vibes of this place. "Nice dress."

Dragain

 

[Dragain]

"Nice tights," Ariane muttered in reply, clearly unhappy about the situation they were in; was this some kind of illusion? Why were they in some shopping mall? She started tugging at her dress, frowning at how horribly clashing everything was; she liked the color green, but not this shade of green with that shade of red! Ugh. Turning to look at Bix, she continued, "It's like you're showing off your legs."

Oh right.

"And this is for earlier," She hissed, slapping Bix on his a**. For some reason, that made her feel oddly joyful... Maybe it was just the atmosphere of this place, "So... We're supposed to work?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

The slap stung but made him grin. His cheeks seemed to be turning rosy... all on their own. At least his a** looked fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine in these tights.

Mina hissed in displeasure in his head. It was natural for her to despise anything Christmas related. He had no desire to summon his weapon, but even the tingle of possibility was missing.

"I guess so." Bix and Ariane were hovering around the entrance to the store. It seemed to lead out into a mall but the Boss was watching them closely. Leaving didn't seem to be an option. "I guess we try to sell these things."

Sappy the Sad Reindeer was.... really pathetic looking. His antlers sagged, his eyes were desu sparkly and almost half the size of it's head. "You think we could take some of these back? They are kind of ridiculous." Or was that stealing? WAS THIS EVEN REAL?

Christmas tunes pumped through the in-store speaker system and the albino found himself shifting and humming 'Here Comes Santa Claus' for a moment before he stopped. Why did this feeling seem so... familiar?

Customers began to drift in the door so the albino peeled away to try his hand at sales.

"Happy Holidays how are you today?" He didn't seem as sure of it as he was a second ago. The man he spoke with sort of mumbled an acknowledgement but didn't want to be bothered. Bix jogged a bit as the man started to walk faster. "Don't be sad this holiday season... Sappy the Sad Reindeer will be sad for yo-..." The customer snatched the stuffed reindeer from his hand without a word and kept walking. Even if they left it somewhere else in the store, at least they took it.

Bix came back to Ariane with a smirk. It was almost a 'show me what you got' challenge.

[SHIFT 1 - ROLL 1 - PASS]  

[Dragain]

"Why would you want one of these?" Ariane asked, making a face as she stared at the toy, "Can you imagine it staring at you as you sleep with those bulging eyes of it?" Because she could imagine it oh so vividly, "No thank you... It's all yours."

Feeling the Boss' eyes on them, she half-heartily repeated what the candycane-teen said just now. However, after yelling "Don't be sad for the holidays. Let Sappy the Sad Reindeer be sad for you. Only $19.99 this holiday season." a few times, she felt oddly enthusiastic about making a sale... Probably because Christmas was the best thing ever, and an awesome holiday.

In fact, she was starting to feel excited, waving the stuffed toy around in the air to garner attention from the shoppers.

[Shift 1 - 1/3 - Pass!
Joy: 20%]  

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix thought they were kind of cute. He actually played with them a little while Ariane was making her approach on the customer. Seeing her snowballing (no pun intended) enthusiasm made Bix want to pick it up a bit.

He came at a pair of old ladies, wielding a reindeer in each hand.

The old ladies were very responsive. They giggled, the fawned over him. They called him adorable and they both took a reindeer. By the time he'd hugged each of them and gotten large wet lipstick kisses on his cheeks, he was GLOWING with holiday cheer.

"BAM!" He finger gunned at Ariane. "Top that."

[SHIFT 1 - ROLL 2 & 3 - PASSED]
JOY: 40%  

[Dragain]

Ariane narrowed her eyes, and folded her arms across her chest; challenge accepted.

Putting on a smile - which wasn't difficult, with how jolly she felt - she grabbed two of the reindeer plushies, and approached two young men who were just exiting the nearby mall. Holding out the plushies, she giggled a bit, and said something along the lines of 'why don't you help out a poor girl at Christmas'; before long, both men had walked away with a plushie each, looking absolutely pleased with themselves.

Ariane turned to face Bix, flashing him a grin before sticking out her tongue at him; she totally did better than him.

[Shift 1 - 2+3/3 - Doubly passed!
Joy: 40%]  

[iloveyouDIE]

"You have boobs!" Bix laughed. "Totally cheating!"

The albino now was outwardly humming christmas carols. He grabbed another reindeer, ready to close in on a rosy cheeked child (who would then force their parent to buy the doll) when a loud whistle came from THE BOSS MAN.

He motioned to the pair to man the registers and Bix suddenly found himself stuffed into a booth with a machine in front of him. He'd worked in a convenience store in high school so this couldn't be too hard... right?

Ariane's register was right next to his, in the same console thing, and he muttered, "This sucks this sucks this sucks.."

And then the line started to form.

They came at him all at once! Every item's tag seemed not to scan and then one of them didn't have a tag. And then he rang it twice.

Here came Santa, screaming!

Bix tried to hide under his counter.

[SHIFT 2 - ROLL 1 - FAIL]  

[Dragain]

"Hey, I'm just using my given resources!" Ariane laughed, wrapping her arms around her body to hug herself. Before she could make another sale, they were transferred over to do cashiering; to be honest, she thought that standing behind a booth, and collecting money, would be easier than sales, but she had underestimated the amount of patience - or lack of patience - that the customers have.

"NEXT!" She exclaimed, scanning one thing after the other; despite how busy it was, she couldn't stop smiling. After a while, she was even humming along to the Christmas jingle that was currently playing, "NEXT PLEASE!"

[Shift 2 - 1/3 - Passed!
Joy: 60%]  

[Dragain]

"NEXT!" Ariane exclaimed, greeting the next customer with a grin. Taking the plushie from her, she then proceeded to scan the barcode printed on the tag... Only to realize that there was no tag. Her grin grew a little sheepish, and she begun manually punching in the price; unfortunately, the cash register chose that exact moment to jam.

Meanwhile, the line was growing, and grumpy customers had begun to grumble. The grumbling became louder and louder until-

"YOU'RE FIRED!"

[Shift 2 - 2/3 - Failed!
Joy: 60%]  

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix had been trying to scramble away, ducking under registered with his tight wearing butt in the air. He'd just managed to sneak around the corner of Ariane's register when she also screwed up.

"Let's get outta here!" he grabbed her hand to run, gunning for the door.

And then the world distorted and he woke up, clutching her hand, in one of the dorm common rooms.

Everything was green and red and there were elves just dancing everywhere for a few seconds.


"Awesome."

Dragain

 

[Dragain]

"LEAD THE WAY, BIXDOLPH!" Ariane yelled, sticking close to Bix as they made their escape; she could hear the Boss yelling after them, but that was quickly drowned out by the joyous music in the air. Even as the world around them distorted, and she found herself back in Deus Ex, cheerful Christmas music was still ringing in her ears... It was like she was living in Christmas.

The fact that the world was all red and green - even Bix looked like he had been dipped in a can of red and green paint - did not help.

Normally, she would be pretty annoyed; Christmas wasn't her favorite holiday, mostly because she wasn't a very "giving" person... However, she couldn't bring herself to be annoyed. There was too much JOY in her; the red and green just made her smile, even if her facial muscles were starting to ache from all the smiling and grinning.

"What was that?" She asked, withdrawing her hand from Bix's grip as she massaged her temples, "That was ho-"

Ho ho ho? Wait, no.

"-Horrible."  

[iloveyouDIE]

"The only ho-ho-hoooorrible thing about it is I didn't get to keep one of those plushies." His ho-ho-ho had sounded more like an unfortunate stutter. Thankfully the elves had stopped dancing but everytime he turned his head he swore he could hear sleigh bells.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." he nudged her, repeatedly. "Let's have a christmas thing this year. Like.. just our friends. In my dorm thing. Food and presents and games maybe." He was grinning and his cheeks were flush.

"YOU CAN'T SAY NO." He shook Ariane by the shoulders in GLEE.