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]

"Don't be silly! Your prize is for popping the balloon, of course. Anything else is just a bonus!" The corpse, having done its job, dissolves into glittering motes of light and disappears, along with the pool of blood.

Sparkle skips forward and spreads her hands dramatically over the tray of little red and white pistols. "And that balloon's prize is: You can take one of my special guns with you! And you've still got four shots if you'd like to try for any other prizes, of course." There's still a balloon on her pigtail, though the one on her choker is, for the moment, hanging in tatters. And some of the ones on the wall are smaller than others, in a rainbow of different colors--the significance behind any of this is known only to Sparkle, if indeed there is a system behind it and not just impulse.

"As for my tricks... only the Tavern can really show you how to play the stage like that! And it isn't here, sadly."

[bodyoftheseus]

Getting to keep the pistol was, admittedly, a very fun prize. V really couldn't be upset about that. Even if it was a trick gun (to an extent), it had ammunition, which was more than could be said about his regular pistol.

"How delightful, I almost feel like I should quit while I'm ahead," he joked again - a little less flat, though not by much. He very much was starting to look at the other balloons - including the one on her pigtail - and was considering which to shoot for next.

The train of thought was interrupted as Sparkle mentioned "the Tavern" and spoke as if her little trick with faking her death was just some stage magic trick that anyone could learn. The corpse that had been there and dissolved into the glittering light was not some simple little trick that could just be taught, and V really had no way of explaining how she did it.

"Real disappointment it's not here, but I never really had the charisma for show biz." Which was true enough, as far as he was concerned. "Four shots? Let's make it three," he said as he quickly aimed for the balloon on her pigtail, pulling the trigger. Sorry Sparkle: no heads up this time.

[thelifeofafaker]

"This isn't the casino, silly! You don't lose any prizes by continuing." She winks at him. "And who knows what you could gain!"

A bullet tears through the balloon on her pigtail with a loud crack, and Sparkle bursts into laughter again. "Your aim is good, isn't it!"

She pulls a tray out from under the counter of the stall, revealing... a tray of brightly painted paper masks. "They're not real masks, of course, and I don't think you've quite the temperament to be a Fool anyway, but they're fun! Single use only."

[bodyoftheseus]

"Well shit, what's stoppin' me from winnin' everything you got, then?" He was teasing, contriving a playful tone to match hers and continue to pull himself back from the momentary dissociation he had. That it wasn't a casino and he wouldn't lose any prizes was obvious, certainly, but he still liked making her say it out loud. He did smirk at landing the shot at her pigtail. He was glad the gun didn't decide to pull a trick on him and he managed to get it, and that she didn't move so much to get herself hurt - fancy little trick or no, this type of setting wasn't one he wished harm on anyone.

He opted not to comment on the fact he didn't have the temperament to be a Fool - whatever that meant. Based on her own behavior he would imagine the persona he put on was far too serious, and the way he dissociated would collapse the game that she was playing were he to try.

"Single use?" He asked as he picked up one of the masks, looking it over front and back. V almost asked what that meant when a mask was just a mask, but he figured there was some other trick to this as well. A gun that sometimes misfired like a cartoon, a woman that could somehow fake her death with a double in a way that V flat out could not explain. Of course there was some trick with this.

"What's it do to be 'single use'?" In truth, he was just going to take it to his apartment and put it on display like all of the other items he'd won or been gifted from the acquaintances he'd met since finding out he was a dead man walking.

[thelifeofafaker]

"How many balloons can you hit in one shot? If you want more than six, you have to pay for another go!" She grins, what might be disarmingly to someone who hadn't just watched her cheerfully fake her own death.

"A perfect disguise, the moment you put it on! But only once." She pulls her mask down over her face, eyes swirling and glowing virulently pink, and transforms into a perfect copy of V. In his voice, she continues, "My mask has no such restrictions, but only the Laughter and the Tavern can issue something like that." She hasn't dropped her bouncing, playful intonation, so this definitely sounds really weird. The illusion dissolves and she pushes her mask back up off of her face, continuing in her own voice, "Also, you can't choose what the disguise is with these. That part's a surprise!"

[bodyoftheseus]

There were moments when she smiled that she reminded him of a clown. Not the Bozos, no, but in the sense of someone paid to smile for a living. Regardless, he was still weighing if he wanted to keep going as she explained what the mask was. His gaze lifted toward her as she put on his face and he heard himself in the bouncy way she spoke - disturbing, to say the least, but something he already could do thanks to the NSUA feds.

Regardless, he lifted his brows as if surprised and feigned some level of awe. The mask did have the advantage that it wasn't limited to having to collect biometric data, though he had to assume it didn't strongly encourage habits and mannerisms by how she acted while wearing his face. And, well, she finished saying the disguise was random, which meant he was disinclined to use it. At least for now.

"Well that is a rather nice prize," he said cooly, looking the mask over. "With yet another fun little surprise," he added, glancing back to her as he set it down on the counter. "Good way to get into trouble," he said with a mischievous upturn to the corner of his lips.

He glanced at the rest of the prizes, seeing what else was there. He had three shots left, after all.

[thelifeofafaker]

"Aww, sharpshooter, you think I'd get you into trouble? I'm hurt!" Her grin is sharp and fully implies that this mask will absolutely pick a face that will get him in a novel kind of trouble.

There are covered trays under the counter, the prizes won't be revealed until they're won.

But in the wall of balloons, among the ordinary ones, there's one with what appears to be a goldfish swimming in it, one with a round golden bell inside it, several that are inflated much smaller than the others, and one wearing a grinning steel mask with one open eyehole, the only place at which the balloon is actually exposed.

[bodyoftheseus]

"Takes one to know one, right? Just call 'em as I see 'em," he said as he gave up the search for the prizes, looking back at her. He'd been in the part of a good samaritan here, but he enjoyed a good bit of fun like anyone else. As a teenager he particularly liked fun at the expense of others, but honey ultimately worked better than vinegar.

As for the choices in balloons to shoot, well. He could opt for something easy after netting what he assumed were her top prizes, or he could continue to make life harder than it really needed to be and go for the balloon behind the grinning steel mask. His curiosity was tugging at him: he was curious what each of the prizes were, and so far his luck was holding well enough with the trick shots.

He looked them over just a moment longer, then aimed for the balloon behind the steel mask. He took a half second extra to make sure his hand was steady and his aim was good, then hoped that he wouldn't see a spray of confetti as he pulled the trigger.

[thelifeofafaker]

Sparkle laughs, eyes bright. “Perhaps it does! You’re more fun than a lot of people, sharpshooter.” This may or may not qualify as a compliment, since part of why she likes him is that he shot her in the throat.

Unfortunately for his luck, he’s run out of real bullets in that gun. It pops with a shower of confetti, and Sparkle laughs again. “Unlucky!”

[bodyoftheseus]

V had to smirk when she admitted he was more fun than many, and he had a vague idea it was because he ultimately opted to take her bait and run with it. It was for the better he couldn't acquire this little trick of hers. He'd take it, though.

His smirk didn't wane even when the confetti shot out of the gun. He eyed the gun as he considered, then set it down and glanced over the array in front of him. As far as he was concerned, they were all the same, so it hardly mattered which he took - but he went off of the "vibe," as it were, and picked whichever gun felt luckier to him.

"Second time's a charm, right?" He asked as he made his selection and aimed, firing for the same target as before. As far as he was concerned he'd already won - the gun was decidedly cute, something he would have had as a teenager (without the gag shot, of course). Whether he got this shot or not did not really matter to him.

[thelifeofafaker]

"Bang!" She giggles as his bullet demolishes the balloon behind the steel mask. "Your prize, sharpshooter!" She pulls out a tray with two large stuffed dolls on it, one that looks like her, and one of a round yellow man with a counter in its stomach.