event: start

[idolpro]

Who: You.
Where: The bus.
When: Monday.

[ You wake up on a bus. What was that . . . ? How did that happen? Where the hell are you? A tour bus? What?

As if to catch your attention, a gong sounds. At the front of the bus, two silhouettes dance upon the windowpane, echoing each other's giggles: ]

Welcome, welcome! Welcome to the exclusively special Hell tour!

What!? That's totally impromptu!

Yeah, well, what are you going to do! The budget is great but Tokyo F is down for maintenance!

Down for maintenance!? It can do that!?

Duh! With all the beatings it gets, it's gotta have a spa day!

This looks like a little more than a spa day, the city broke, you know!

Yeah, yeah, whatever! Complain if you want, but you've been dying to get out of that city!

Even if you say that, my heart wasn't ready! I didn't pack my shampoo! I didn't take my favorite stuffed animal with me! My phone doesn't even work!

Don't worry, you'll be able to use the hotel's complimentary shampoo, and the room you get will have a decent enough pillow! As for your phone, it's working again! That was just, you know, maintenance!

Maintenance!?

Maintenance!

[ . . .

. . . ]

Well, if my phone is working, then I can totally take pictures of myself again! All's well that ends well! I can get through it if my phone is working! But what am I even supposed to do while Tokyo F is down for maintenance? I'm an idol, you know! An idol!

- Take photos of yourself. . . ? You damn whippersnapper, kids these days! But obviously you're still an idol out here too! There's not going to be any Lives or anything but you can do events, you know! Meet with your adoring fans, you know? You could have your own events, not that we're going to organize them for you! Handshake events! Meet and greets! Photoshoots! An idol should have initiative!

Eeeeeh, that sounds like work, though! I would rather play my mobile games~

Now listen here, you - what happened to that professional attitude you had before!?

[ The two girls chase each other off the window and disappear, ending what appears to be a bizarro comedy skit.

. . . That was odd, but sure enough, even if you don't have anything you didn't have on you before - at least your phone is working again. But really, where are you . . . ? Honestly, that didn't really answer any of your questions whatsoever?

At least the other residents on the bus seem to be others who were in Tokyo F with you - though maybe some of them look changed. Maybe you look - Hell, maybe you even feel changed. Well, shit.

The bus is chugging along to . . . wherever your new destination is. The hotel, apparently - if you can trust anything those girls were saying. One thing's for sure, though: this "maintenance" thing is bullshit. But, what did happen, just then. . . ? ]

LIAR HELL BUS | VENGEANCE HELL BUS | HELL, IN GENERAL | EVENT INFORMATION

Comments

Re: Liar Hell

[purrrnicious]

[She’s got an unnerving addition — it almost looks like cracks spread all over her skin, faintly glowing, if you look for it. ]

Where would we be without you to state the obvious?

[Without any bite, though, sounding more distracted as she looks around. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Laughs]

Probably in a better situation than you are right now.

Then let me state one more.

[Points to the cracks in her skin]

You really should switch moisturizers.

[purrrnicious]

What. . .?

[Inspecting her hands, turning them side to side.]




Okay, what is this?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Probably a byproduct of being outside of the production.

Does it hurt?

[purrrnicious]

[Flexing her fingers, everything seems to be in order. . .]

No. I'm fine.

So––any idea where to start looking?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

No. But first let's get our house in order if we're actually going to do this.

Turn off your phone. They can track us by them. Break it if you like, I can always repair it if you need it.

And then a little something else I promised you---

[Pulling out a gun and taser from somewhere in his bag-of-holding coat. He's not as good as hiding weapons as Maki or Kohime, but luckily he has the coat volume to make up for it.

With some fancy FiN powers, he merges the two together - thank goodness for Gadgeteer and then hands the new weapon to Kohime, grip first]

[purrrnicious]

[Turns off her phone while he's doing that, so when she looks back up there's now a taser gun being held out to her, and she immediately starts swishing her tail. That's great Intensity is great what a great human being.]


Oh man, you are definitely my favourite person right now.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

It probably isn't going to kill any demons we meet. But the alternative is having only 6 shots.

[There you go. Don't do anything he wouldn't do! (Which is a very short list, by the by)]

If we manage to survive this without getting our brains scrambled, I'll upgrade it when we get back to Tokyo-F.

[purrrnicious]

We couldn't drop them with something more lethal anyway. You saw what happened in the cell with the noisy Avante guy, they'd just regenerate.

[Tucking it away into her waistband since she doesn't have crazy pockets set up for this.]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Right.

So priorities. Find out what happened to the rest of the group. See if we can find the transferred idols.

Secondary priorities. See if we can get forged paperwork to travel between the domains. Information gathering.

Don't get separated. Don't get caught. John is off doing John stuff. He'll signal me when he's done.

In the meantime, I think Requiem found two of our missing party.

[purrrnicious]

Getting kinda crowded. Sticking with a big group's kind of, you know, noticeable.

But anyway, let's find a local. The guards can't have gotten the word out yet, they're not gonna be looking for us.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

We don't have to be joined at the hip. But we should know where we all are or have some way to signal to each other at any given time.

It's best not to leave anyone behind or what they know could be used against any one of us.

[Though he looks thoughtful about the suggestion]

Probably the best next course of action. Let's see what they have to say, pick up the good doctor, and head somewhere not near the fucking prison gates.

[purrrnicious]

[Laughs, in a great fucking mood now that he gave her a gun, thanks.]



What, you don't like the scenery? At least they probably wouldn't be expecting to find us here.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Don't think they'd expect us to hang around the scene of the crime?

[purrrnicious]

Well, like you were implying, it would be pretty stupid.

Any ideas on direction, or is this a "pick one and wander" deal?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Toward somewhere populated. More people so we can blend in and get lost in a crowd.

[purrrnicious]

[Eying the corrupted patterning across her skin again before huffing softly. ]

We might, sure. You might wanna start working on sprouting a pair of wings, though.

But whatever, let’s go.



[Starts marching off without actually waiting for the whole group to rendezvous. Bye John. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Grabs her by the back of the jacket]

Kohime...

[purrrnicious]

[He’s lucky she likes him. She fluffs a bit and lashes her tail, but doesn’t go any further than that. ]

What? You just said we should get out of here, so what’s the problem?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[Lets go and also starts walking.

How's that for mixed signals?]

I also said we can't leave anyone behind.

Or at the very least, have a way to contact each other when we execute our exit strategy.

[purrrnicious]

[Kind of mixed??? But she just shrugs and continues on with him. ]

Tough to do that if we have to keep our phones off.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

If you have to turn it on, make sure you can vacate the area within the next 30 minutes.

Though a code would also be nice.

That ever come up while being a Force Captain?

[purrrnicious]

What, for using tech?

[Scoffs. ]

The princesses didn’t have tech, we never needed to. I think they covered signal flares and smoke signals in survival training, but that’d just get us noticed.

[Also there’s a really good chance she either skipped or didn’t pay attention to lectures like that, whoops. ]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

No. I mean like a cipher so if your correspondence was compromised, they couldn't read it.

[purrrnicious]

[Scratches at her cheek. ]

Maybe? I don’t remember.