[i'm establishing that they're standing so that it's her injured arm ines elbows because this would happen. she makes a face and elbows her back a little, despite having Just popped it back into place. fucking ow!
her hand is still bleeding. she idly puts pressure on it while they listen, and at that question...
flurry do they still like, know this information despite being lost in the sauce. if they do she hits that tile.]
[Tifa can hold his arm, it's okay. THEY'RE OK. Barely.
W can get a pass regardless because even though Vincent's leg twitches, his foot doesn't hit the floor at all because he does not know the answer to this question. HIGHLY SPECIFIC QUESTION. He doesn't even know a geostigma, that's a whole other canon piece.
He glances around his arm at Tifa, brows furrowing. It's cool. They can try the next one.]
All he needs to hear is Seph- and he stomps his foot down to get the unholy knowledge light. Some cursed information gets blasted into the recesses of his brain, foggy.
But he hesitates, mouth open. He glances at Lucrecia, and then he looks quickly away again. THEY ARE TWELVE, AND SURELY THIS WILL BE AWKWARD?? He is not sure why this name comes to him. It's probably the puppy crush, or whatever is going on between him and this other girl contestant.]
...Lucrecia.
[Tifa is not going to say this, is she. They are going to give conflicting answers.]
[ yeah this sure is a weird thing when you're all twelve but we're committing
ines looks at w like what the fuck. what's a sephiroth.
lucrecia and hojo also very quickly slap the floor button, but they're not fast enough - hojo sneers at vincent from his space, and lucrecia looks very, very confused and kind of dazed.
tifa opens her mouth at the same time as vincent, but he says it with such confidence that she looks unsure? so she closes her mouth again, and just figures he knows what he's talking about.
and... the chihuahua claps his paws together! ]
Way to go, Silver Snakes. Good answer! Go ahead and take the next step down.
[ w, ines, vincent and tifa are now on the same level, with hojo and lucrecia at the start. ]
Next question. Olmec?
[ and the studio gets quiet. there's a very long pause. a tension rises, makes the silence almost thick with it, as all eyes are on the three pairs of teams on their platforms. there's a buzzing, even, faint. it feels like it's coming from behind them, but inside their ears, too, behind their teeth.
finally, olmec speaks: ]
What are you willing to lose to win your prize?
[ ... is there even a right answer to this question? ]
[what the fuck? isn't that girl right there lucrecia. that question got weird really fast, didn't it--
but the next one is a pretty damn good distraction, especially with the buzzing. she hates it immediately, wants it to go away, to get out; who gave it permission, huh?
w doesn't really care if there's a "right" answer for this. she stomps that tile.]
[Sorry to Lucrecia... It's fine. This is what happens when you decided to have relations with that weirdo freak.
Vincent hasn't really thought of an answer when he also stomps to try getting a light. In a way, after registering it, he is almost sure he doesn't want to get it even if it means jumping ahead.]
He freezes somewhat. He glances from W and Ines back to Tifa... Everyone is so fucking quiet, waiting.
Then he slowly looks at Lucrecia, pointedly ignoring Hojo. IT'S COOL... It's cool... His answer is the same as it's always been, hasn't it. Nothing has changed, even now. He looks away.]
...Myself.
[It doesn't have anything to do with him after all...]
[ ines rolls her eyes. lucrecia frowns, wrapping her arms around herself. and hojo laughs, not even bothering to hide it.
tifa, on the other hand, shifts her grip so she can take vincent's hand, and holds it. she glances at the chihuahua and olmec, and answers: As little as I have to. I won't sacrifice anybody for my dreams.
another long pause, and then the chihuahua bares his teeth in a weird approximation of a grin. ]
So-so answer! Realistic on the one side, and idealistic on the other! Whatever, you can take a step.
[ and he turns his gaze on w and ines. ]
Blue Barracudas, I've got a question for you. Don't bother hitting your step, just answer. Would you sacrifice yourself for your loved ones?
[With Tifa's hand, he takes a pity step with her. Sometimes, you would simply give your shitty life if it helped make something better.
Maybe not a person, like you want. Maybe to make something more better.
Despite his answer, it isn't as if Tifa's or W's don't make any sense to him. He gets it, what they're saying. They can hang on, and that is good. He does not know W, but he knows a little of Tifa, and they need her.
[ ines replies with: Death is always just around the corner. You'd think you'd want it to mean something.
and both of these answers makes the chihuahua laugh! actually - the whole audience laughs. they think that's a very funny answer, for whatever reason. but - with that, he taps his paw on his podium. ]
Good, good. Take your step! You've both made it to the bottom, congrats!
[ and the silence lifts! the set gets noisy again, the way the regular world is. no buzzing, nothing like that, just some shitty tinny background music, and the grinding stone of olmec blinking every so often. ]
As for the Green Monkeys, however... you've been eliminated. Bye!
[ and the ground opens up below hojo and lucrecia. there's a short, startled scream from them both as they very suddenly drop, and then - they're gone. tifa gasps, squeezing vincent's hand. ]
Final round! You ready?
[ wow, don't even give them a chance to breathe, huh. ]
that very nearly doesn't stay an inside thought, but w stays focused enough for that despite the laughter pissing her off, taking that last step with ines and giving an idle little wave over one shoulder. bye, whoever you people are.
they don't matter now. vincent and tifa do.]
Yeah, let's go already.
[her tail whips impatiently behind her, because her little tail is important. i just needed to add that.]
Every muscle in his stupid 12 year old body tenses.] Lucrecia!! [There isn't anything he can do. There's nothing he can do, and part of him wonders why he's wanting to do anything at all.
She's gone. His answer was himself, but she's gone, and he is still here. Is he being mocked?
He turns toward the chihuahua and the other two, the only team left. Guess he doesn't have much of a choice to be ready or not. Anger is starting to bubble up in the pit of him, somewhere beneath the numbness.]
the four of you are brought to one final room. and as you walk towards this part of the set, you start to realize something weird. this isn't right. right? you're not supposed to be twelve. you're not supposed to be on a set of a game show. aren't you stuck somewhere else? aren't you trying to get home? is this the chihuahua's fault? you don't know the answer to that last question, but the rest... hm. you're starting to remember.
your partners, though, they don't seem to remember at all. they're kids, who are used to death and despair and disease. they've both watched the planet destroy itself, and they've grown hardened against it, but... that doesn't mean they deserve to suffer everything they have, does it?
impatience, anger. those may help you in this final task, because the chihuahua ushers you into a room with a set of doors at the back. there's a bowl in the middle of the room, with stone indentations leading down to the floor and towards the door. it looks a little like if you put some sort of liquid in that bowl, it'd waterfall out and head towards the door. the room itself is made of stone, and it's dimly lit. for the more perceptive of you, some of the stone tiles seem like they might press down, if you touch them.
the chihuahua stands on a podium, out of reach, and says: ]
You know, normally, we'd have the Temple Run here, but we've found that we get way better views when we do it this way, so! Here's your final rule: the first contestant to kill the other three gets the grand prize. Time to put your mouth where the money is or whatever.
[ ines immediately backs away. tifa blinks, and protests, but the chihuahua continues right over the top of her. ]
As soon as the stupid chihuahua explains what is going on, he steps in front of Tifa and raises the (Dean) Winchester defensively.]
Tifa, stay back.
[If something happens, she can make it. This isn't even real, though. Tifa can't make it because HE has to make it. Well, he'll deal with Tifa when and if it gets down to that.
Quickly, he jumps to the side out of the way, but I rolled an 8, so he probably does it badly.]
with an 18, w explodes the fucking ceiling. it just really takes a huge chunk out and drops a stone directly on a pressure plate. that plate makes a clunking noise - and a bunch of very real, very metal spears come up out of the floor and pierce both tifa and vincent. it gets tifa through the leg because she rolled a FOUR, but you can decide where it gets vincent. it gets him pretty bad with an 8 - an all the way through sort of wound.
tifa spends her turn yanking her leg out of the spear trap and scrambling backwards, hissing.
ines, on the other hand, immediately dodges out of the way and goes invisible. okay, sure, goodbye. ]
[she could stay at range, and that would probably be a smart plan. on the other hand-- he hasn't fired much yet, compared to her, and she'll likely run out of ammo first.
w flings one of the knives she brought with her at tifa, then darts in to close the gap on vincent with another in hand, except i got a 19 and 2 so knife one is great and stab two is shit, actually.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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her hand is still bleeding. she idly puts pressure on it while they listen, and at that question...
flurry do they still like, know this information despite being lost in the sauce. if they do she hits that tile.]
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W can get a pass regardless because even though Vincent's leg twitches, his foot doesn't hit the floor at all because he does not know the answer to this question. HIGHLY SPECIFIC QUESTION. He doesn't even know a geostigma, that's a whole other canon piece.
He glances around his arm at Tifa, brows furrowing. It's cool. They can try the next one.]
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tifa gives vincent a ??? look, but she squeezes his arm. it's okay, next time. it'll be fine.
hojo and lucrecia are going to try to hit their floor tile too - but w and ines beat them to it. the chihuahua lifts a paw. ]
Team Blue Barracudas! What's your answer?
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[she's not a trivia girl, okay, but she is pretty sure she remembers this one, even if she says the word slowly.
reasonably sure.
gives ines a sidelong look like, that IS correct, right?]
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Vincent glances back and forth between W and Ines, then he looks at the chihuahua to see if they got the correct answer or not.
Maybe he should try guessing for the hell of it... But some blaring red warning part of him thinks it's a bad idea to get something wrong.]
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and... the chihuahua claps his paws together! ]
Correct! Blue Barracudas, take a step down! Get ready for the next question.
[ ines grins a bit, and yanks w down with her to the next step. in the lead... hell yeah.
the chihuahua looks over at olmec, and the statue speaks up again: ]
Who is Sephiroth's mother?
[ what a weird question that tifa and vincent may have different answers for ]
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uhhhhh.
who?
she's Not hitting the button on this one. is sephiroth like, a president or something? why does his mom matter.]
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All he needs to hear is Seph- and he stomps his foot down to get the unholy knowledge light. Some cursed information gets blasted into the recesses of his brain, foggy.
But he hesitates, mouth open. He glances at Lucrecia, and then he looks quickly away again. THEY ARE TWELVE, AND SURELY THIS WILL BE AWKWARD?? He is not sure why this name comes to him. It's probably the puppy crush, or whatever is going on between him and this other girl contestant.]
...Lucrecia.
[Tifa is not going to say this, is she. They are going to give conflicting answers.]
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ines looks at w like what the fuck. what's a sephiroth.
lucrecia and hojo also very quickly slap the floor button, but they're not fast enough - hojo sneers at vincent from his space, and lucrecia looks very, very confused and kind of dazed.
tifa opens her mouth at the same time as vincent, but he says it with such confidence that she looks unsure? so she closes her mouth again, and just figures he knows what he's talking about.
and... the chihuahua claps his paws together! ]
Way to go, Silver Snakes. Good answer! Go ahead and take the next step down.
[ w, ines, vincent and tifa are now on the same level, with hojo and lucrecia at the start. ]
Next question. Olmec?
[ and the studio gets quiet. there's a very long pause. a tension rises, makes the silence almost thick with it, as all eyes are on the three pairs of teams on their platforms. there's a buzzing, even, faint. it feels like it's coming from behind them, but inside their ears, too, behind their teeth.
finally, olmec speaks: ]
What are you willing to lose to win your prize?
[ ... is there even a right answer to this question? ]
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but the next one is a pretty damn good distraction, especially with the buzzing. she hates it immediately, wants it to go away, to get out; who gave it permission, huh?
w doesn't really care if there's a "right" answer for this. she stomps that tile.]
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Vincent hasn't really thought of an answer when he also stomps to try getting a light. In a way, after registering it, he is almost sure he doesn't want to get it even if it means jumping ahead.]
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Silver Snakes, your answer?
[ everything in this room is just waiting, still. watching. like predators waiting for prey to finally wander out. what's your answer, vincent? ]
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she sets her good hand on her hip, looking over at him. well?]
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He freezes somewhat. He glances from W and Ines back to Tifa... Everyone is so fucking quiet, waiting.
Then he slowly looks at Lucrecia, pointedly ignoring Hojo. IT'S COOL... It's cool... His answer is the same as it's always been, hasn't it. Nothing has changed, even now. He looks away.]
...Myself.
[It doesn't have anything to do with him after all...]
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tifa, on the other hand, shifts her grip so she can take vincent's hand, and holds it. she glances at the chihuahua and olmec, and answers: As little as I have to. I won't sacrifice anybody for my dreams.
another long pause, and then the chihuahua bares his teeth in a weird approximation of a grin. ]
So-so answer! Realistic on the one side, and idealistic on the other! Whatever, you can take a step.
[ and he turns his gaze on w and ines. ]
Blue Barracudas, I've got a question for you. Don't bother hitting your step, just answer. Would you sacrifice yourself for your loved ones?
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at least the question they get is one that she doesn't need to think very hard about.]
No way. I can't do anything about it if I'm gone.
[it's a nice thought, right? and the real w, outside the sauce, has risked her life for them before. straight up sacrifice, though...
not her style. temporary solution to bigger problems.]
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Maybe not a person, like you want. Maybe to make something more better.
Despite his answer, it isn't as if Tifa's or W's don't make any sense to him. He gets it, what they're saying. They can hang on, and that is good. He does not know W, but he knows a little of Tifa, and they need her.
Wait, what is he even thinking? Hello?]
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and both of these answers makes the chihuahua laugh! actually - the whole audience laughs. they think that's a very funny answer, for whatever reason. but - with that, he taps his paw on his podium. ]
Good, good. Take your step! You've both made it to the bottom, congrats!
[ and the silence lifts! the set gets noisy again, the way the regular world is. no buzzing, nothing like that, just some shitty tinny background music, and the grinding stone of olmec blinking every so often. ]
As for the Green Monkeys, however... you've been eliminated. Bye!
[ and the ground opens up below hojo and lucrecia. there's a short, startled scream from them both as they very suddenly drop, and then - they're gone. tifa gasps, squeezing vincent's hand. ]
Final round! You ready?
[ wow, don't even give them a chance to breathe, huh. ]
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that very nearly doesn't stay an inside thought, but w stays focused enough for that despite the laughter pissing her off, taking that last step with ines and giving an idle little wave over one shoulder. bye, whoever you people are.
they don't matter now. vincent and tifa do.]
Yeah, let's go already.
[her tail whips impatiently behind her, because her little tail is important. i just needed to add that.]
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Every muscle in his stupid 12 year old body tenses.] Lucrecia!! [There isn't anything he can do. There's nothing he can do, and part of him wonders why he's wanting to do anything at all.
She's gone. His answer was himself, but she's gone, and he is still here. Is he being mocked?
He turns toward the chihuahua and the other two, the only team left. Guess he doesn't have much of a choice to be ready or not. Anger is starting to bubble up in the pit of him, somewhere beneath the numbness.]
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the four of you are brought to one final room. and as you walk towards this part of the set, you start to realize something weird. this isn't right. right? you're not supposed to be twelve. you're not supposed to be on a set of a game show. aren't you stuck somewhere else? aren't you trying to get home? is this the chihuahua's fault? you don't know the answer to that last question, but the rest... hm. you're starting to remember.
your partners, though, they don't seem to remember at all. they're kids, who are used to death and despair and disease. they've both watched the planet destroy itself, and they've grown hardened against it, but... that doesn't mean they deserve to suffer everything they have, does it?
impatience, anger. those may help you in this final task, because the chihuahua ushers you into a room with a set of doors at the back. there's a bowl in the middle of the room, with stone indentations leading down to the floor and towards the door. it looks a little like if you put some sort of liquid in that bowl, it'd waterfall out and head towards the door. the room itself is made of stone, and it's dimly lit. for the more perceptive of you, some of the stone tiles seem like they might press down, if you touch them.
the chihuahua stands on a podium, out of reach, and says: ]
You know, normally, we'd have the Temple Run here, but we've found that we get way better views when we do it this way, so! Here's your final rule: the first contestant to kill the other three gets the grand prize. Time to put your mouth where the money is or whatever.
[ ines immediately backs away. tifa blinks, and protests, but the chihuahua continues right over the top of her. ]
Ready? Go!
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[she's laughing, but she absolutely is not laughing with anyone.
of course. of course it's like this! hahahaha. would you sacrifice yourself- for this? what a shitty joke.]
Hey. Ines.
[w lifts her weapon.]
Run.
[and she fires at the ceiling, above one of the stone pressure-plate tiles closest to vincent.]
You and me first!
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As soon as the stupid chihuahua explains what is going on, he steps in front of Tifa and raises the (Dean) Winchester defensively.]
Tifa, stay back.
[If something happens, she can make it. This isn't even real, though. Tifa can't make it because HE has to make it. Well, he'll deal with Tifa when and if it gets down to that.
Quickly, he jumps to the side out of the way, but I rolled an 8, so he probably does it badly.]
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with an 18, w explodes the fucking ceiling. it just really takes a huge chunk out and drops a stone directly on a pressure plate. that plate makes a clunking noise - and a bunch of very real, very metal spears come up out of the floor and pierce both tifa and vincent. it gets tifa through the leg because she rolled a FOUR, but you can decide where it gets vincent. it gets him pretty bad with an 8 - an all the way through sort of wound.
tifa spends her turn yanking her leg out of the spear trap and scrambling backwards, hissing.
ines, on the other hand, immediately dodges out of the way and goes invisible. okay, sure, goodbye. ]
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w flings one of the knives she brought with her at tifa, then darts in to close the gap on vincent with another in hand, except i got a 19 and 2 so knife one is great and stab two is shit, actually.]
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