HSR Open Mingle: The Virtual World

[magisteriamods]

ooc: Welcome to the Special Interactive EMP/ATP quest! One special quest/log will consist of the Interactive EMP/ATP, in which a canon or universe is honored with an open log mingle which can double as thread samples (log or network), EMP/ATP, or just for fun! We're starting with HSR, or Honkai Star Rail. Ya mod just slayed it with HSR last night.

Consider this a celebration of the game, which features a lot of cool characters, including not just one but two purple-haired ladies.

This log takes place in an HSR-themed simulation world within Magisteria. Any characters, including guest characters who attend, receive 🎰 five hundred virtual coins towards the casino, 💥 50 skill points for the arcades, and the shadiest goddamn teddy bear ever from the Magisteria vending machine. The claw of the Magisterian toy machine reaches only into hell, it would seem.

1. Any player with a character from the canon can introduce any scenario, but please tag for spoilers.
2. Feel free to mix/match Hoyoverse and Magisteria-verse in the Virtual World. It's a Virtual World!
3. Other players/characters can tag in, too. It's an open mingle. They will just enter the Hoyoverse-world simulation.
4. If this idea takes off, we'll do it with more canons soon! Everyone will get a turn eventually!

___
🎰 Casino(s) exist in Eden 6 and will be explicit on next TDM.
💥 HSR gave me the idea of Skill Points, even!

Comments

[thelifeofafaker]

Sparkle has set up a colorful stall on a busy marketplace street, with a back wall full of balloons, plus one pinned to one of her pigtails, and if you look closely, a tiny one next to the bell on her choker. There's a tray of red and white pistols on a table in front of her.

"Step right up!" she carols to passersby. "Pop a balloon, get a prize! Every gun has at least one bullet!"

[emet_sulk]

Funny how no matter how much your surroundings may change, certain things stay the same. Fairground games being one of those. He is a pretty good shot if he does say so himself, and so he approaches her stall casting a dubious eye over the pistols.

"What do you mean 'at least one'? Did you load them with a random number of bullets?"

[thelifeofafaker]

"That's part of the fun!" She winks at him. "A game of roulette as well as one of skill! Are you good, lucky, or both?" She twirls, spreading her arms with a flourish to indicate the rows of balloons, the one tied to her pigtail bobbing with the movement. "Do you think you'll win, venerable sir?" It's not just the hair color that gives her an impression of age--one learns to get a sense of these things to some degree even in long-life species, which he has the air of.

[emet_sulk]

"Hmm."

A non-committal answer. He glances over the pistols, trying to separate them from the glow of Bios. IS there even any magic associated with them for him to tell their loaded statuses apart?

Out loud, he muses, "If you haven't rigged them like other carnival games then I have no fear of missing."

[thelifeofafaker]

"Oh, I don't need to rig anything! Letting the chips fall exactly where they may is so telling." She bounces on her toes a little, the balloon on her pigtail and the one on her choker bobbing with the movement.

The pistols are... odd. All of them register as having some kind of energy associated with them, and there is more of that energy in some than in others. It's a slippery, squirrely sort of energy.

"Aim and fire, then, sharpshooter!" She twirls a hand and bows dramatically, stepping to the side so he has a clear shot at the wall. She doesn't turn to look at the wall, either, remaining facing him, still smiling widely.

[emet_sulk]

He frowns. Then decides to take up a pistol with more of that odd energy than the others. Emet-Selch has a good eye - some would say eerily good - and perhaps that is a consequence of his particular Sight.

Whatever the case, he certainly doesn't miss his target. As if he could miss something so ridiculous as your average balloon. Whether it pops though...

[thelifeofafaker]

Unfortunately for him, more energy means more chambers that are not filled with anything as ordinary as a bullet! The gun pops, discharging a burst of colorful confetti, and Sparkle claps, giggling. "Perhaps skilled, but not lucky! Would you like to try again?"

[emet_sulk]

He lowers the pistol, giving it a look of disgust before setting it down. This time he tries one that is the opposite: with little (he assumes) magical interference.

Another brief moment to aim at a balloon. Then he fires.

[thelifeofafaker]

Luck is with him this time! The gun fires, and a balloon is obliterated. Slightly excessively. Like, that’s a for real bullet that’s embedded in the wall now, not any kind of more innocuous pellet.

“Bang!” Sparkle applauds again. “Luck and skill are with you! Would you like to play some more, or choose a prize?” She grins, pink eyes almost glowing and the balloon on her choker knocking against the bell. “Different balloons get different prizes!”

[emet_sulk]

A soft, terse exhale this time when he lowers the pistol. Good grief. He hadn't been expecting an actual bullet. What if someone had gotten hurt?! He squints past the board where the balloons are to check that there are no bodies before turning his attention to the girl.

"What prizes are there?" Emet-Selch hadn't even thought to ask about prizes.

some of my friends who xiv made prize suggestions

[thelifeofafaker]

Sparkle uncovers a tray with a bright smile. "For that balloon, this size of stuffed animal!" In the tray are a collection of cheaply-made stuffed animals about the size of a spread hand. The selection of animals is bizarre, and includes a shoebill, an axolotl, a lemur, and what appears to be a tardigrade.

your friends have good taste

[emet_sulk]

Hah. Cute. Anyone else might have at least cracked a small smile but Emet-Selch remains outwardly impassive.

"Then what do I get if I continue to shoot?"

[thelifeofafaker]

"It depends what balloons you hit, of course!" She bounces on her toes, the balloons on her pigtail and choker bobbing. "Every kind of balloon has a different prize! And you get one for each balloon you pop, in six shots total, from as many different guns as you like!"

[bodyoftheseus]

V wasn't really here because he particularly cared to be as much as it was just something to do. Shiny new thing required him to put eyes on it: perhaps there was something worthwhile to be found.

He stopped before the booth and looked over the balloons, hand idly rubbing one of the pistols longingly. He missed his guns every day that he was here. He missed going shooting. It didn't take long for his gaze to fixate on the balloon on her choker.

"The one on your choker a joke?" Or was she really gonk enough to have such a messy death wish?

[thelifeofafaker]

Oh doesn't he look interesting, the way he's touching the pistols like they're a lost lover. Doesn't he deserve to have a little reunion?

Sparkle's grin spreads wider. "Different balloons earn different prizes!" She tilts her head, the ones on her pigtail and choker bobbing. "And everything is a joke, or nothing is!"

[bodyoftheseus]

His expression remained calm as she explained, glancing up at the movement of the balloons on her pigtails before falling back to her face. His expression was hard to read but he was clearly thinking about it as he looked down at the pistols and looked them over.

V was trying very hard to figure out what the gimmick here was: there had to be one if she were so willing to be shot in the throat. Not to mention that this was a fairgrounds of sorts. They was always something to keep people there once lured in. He started to look over the guns, considering which one felt lucky.

"How many tries I get?" With the one at her neck he would assume one given the consequence of missing, but for the others should he choose for an easier target.

[thelifeofafaker]

Are her eyes glowing, or is it a trick of the light? "Six pulls of the trigger, from as many different pistols as you like." Her grin stays just as wide and delighted and she does a little theatrical twirl, sweeping her arm towards the wall of balloons, landing facing him again, the balloons on her choker and pigtail bobbing with the movement.

"The more you pop, the more prizes you can choose!"

[bodyoftheseus]

Six pulls, from pistols that should be the same, but given the way his hackles were starting to raise, he had to wonder. Could just be her demeanour, though.

"Alright, I'll play."

His hand kept being pulled toward the red pistols, and eventually he seemed to settle on one of them. He picked it up with his left hand and the way he examined the pistol and checked it was clearly habit rather than some attempt at a show. He was perhaps a little surprised by the weight: it felt like a real gun, loaded with real bullets, not some little toy gun with pellets. It felt good though. Real good.

Once he was satisfied, he looked back up at the young woman. His expression was still outwardly stoic but easygoing, but his eyes had a roguish glint to them. He'd fire at one of the balloons on the wall: a simple task. He didn't care if he hit or missed, he just wanted to get a feel for the pistol. Then he'd move on to the real target.

His intent to test fire at the wall was clear and he took aim, then pulled the trigger.

(OOC - up to you if it's a dummy gun, hits, or misses :p)

[thelifeofafaker]

[OOC - it's russian roulette, so if he hits now, the same gun is less likely to hit again! but also I want him to experience some confetti so]

The gun pops, releasing a shower of brightly colored confetti.

"Bang!" Sparkle claps, giggling. "Skilled, but not lucky! Would you like to try again?"

[bodyoftheseus]

(OOC - ahahaha brilliant)

The shower of confetti actually surprised V, his expression shifting momentarily to surprise before he actually cracked a small smile. There was the gimmick.

He looked down at the pistol and considered trying his luck swapping it out. He opted not to. Surely if he just spent one dummy chamber, he'd be that much closer to a real one, right?

"Sure. Guess I'll go for the one at your neck," he said as he motioned vaguely at his own throat. "So do whatever you gotta for that'n stand real still. Lemme know when you're ready."

[thelifeofafaker]

A reaction! Delightful.

Sparkle grins. How terribly polite of him to warn her! She cocks her head to the side, resting her cheek on her hand. The balloon stills, resting in the hollow of her throat. "Fire at will!"

[bodyoftheseus]

There was some little part of V that still had misgivings with this trick. Some part of him hardly wanted to gamble someone's like this, and he caught himself wondering if being away from Night City for such a short time was already turning him soft. In Night City, playing stupid games won you stupid prizes, and he'd killed so many people for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He wasted no time taking aim and pulling the trigger. Even without all of his tech his aim was still good and true, it just mattered whether the gun decided to cooperate with him or not.

[thelifeofafaker]

The gun cracks, and a bullet hits the balloon, throughly obliterating it, and continues through Sparkle’s throat in a spray of gore. Her body crumples to the ground, smile still fixed on her face.

There is a long beat of silence, waiting to see how V will react.

you ever just... depersonalize

[bodyoftheseus]

There's a split second, a split second, where his pupils started to dilate in shock. A twitch at his lips, the start of a tug at his brows. In truth, he'd expected this to play out differently and somehow work around this outcome: a silly display of confetti like the gun proved, some sort of invincibility or... Something. He'd convinced himself that it wouldn't have this outcome.

He clamped down on the shock and it was like flipping a switch: the feeling of it went away and he shoved all of that ugly, messy emotion in a box that he locked tight, then shoved it far back in the back of his head where he didn't have to look at it. In an almost overcompensation, his brows furrowed and he set his jaw as he watched.

V was waiting for something to happen with a cold, dispassionate stare. There were many calculations going on in his head, silently weighing the likelihood that he had actually killed her, and how much of a pain in the ass that might be for him. (This may be a virtualization, but killing people in it still probably wasn't considered polite.)

were you scared just now?

[thelifeofafaker]

Laughter starts from behind him, and a red and white fox mask floats into his peripheral vision, bobbing alone in the air, then Sparkle appears behind it in a curl of smoke, her eyes glowing through it for a moment before she pushes it up off of her face. "Congratulations, sharpshooter! Your aim is good! Are you ready for your prize?"

The corpse on the ground stays a little longer, still lying in a spreading pool of blood. Its grin is still just as wide as the one laughing next to him.