Lucas (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lovetheme) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
boxfullofzeroes2016-01-13 04:58 pm
lovetheme) wrote in boxfullofzeroes2016-01-13 04:58 pm
wreck-it ralph au-nanigans
"Undertale" has been the talk of Game Central Station for a variety of different reasons, lately.
Oh, yes, the kids certainly did seem to have become thoroughly taken with the game already--it's only been plugged in for a few days, but nearby cabinets within view could readily report the piles of quarters it was already raking in. Chatter of "amazing music" and "cute characters" and "retro graphics" and "multiple endings"--it's been an instant hit.
But the days had ticked by, and the Undertale portal had remained inactive, and other questions started cropping up. Word had it the leading hero of the game was a kid in a striped shirt, but so far that was...still pretty much all that most people knew, about the game's characters. Because none of them had emerged to visit Game Central Station yet--and that was peculiar, to say the very least. What was going on in there? Were they shy, some wondered? Are they too good for us, others grumbled? A consensus had yet to be reached, but with every passing day the curiosity grew. And finally, talk of sending over an "ambassador" had started to form too.
Lucas still isn't entirely sure just how he'd managed to be picked for this, exactly. He doesn't think he's very outgoing nor particularly diplomatic, which seem like more ambassador-ish traits to have. But between the collection of fellow kid protagonists that had gotten together to decide this in the first place, they'd discussed "fellow striped-shirts" and how "people keep saying it's like the Mother series" and "Lucas ought to have more experience with this anyway" and things like that.
And now here Lucas is, entering Undertale's portal entrance for the evening. Instead of a train, he finds himself needing to step into an elevator for transport. Then, after a long wait, the elevator stops and opens and Lucas finds himself...on a pale path, surrounded by pale buildings and silence. Hm.
Hesitation, just long enough to glance back to the closed elevator door behind him, and then Lucas starts forward down the path. It's a pretty long one. So long, and quiet and empty, that Lucas begins to wonder if he did something wrong and has ended up somewhere he shouldn't be in the game--but then the path opens up to an equally pale house surrounded by leaves up ahead, and warm music begins to filter in softly, and that's a bit of a relief. Lucas pauses, blinking down at a yellow shining star-shaped something suspended in front of him here. Trying to examine it closer... "Lucas; LV ?; ???:??; New Home; Save/Return". Oh...Lucas backs away from the star-something--a save point, that must be what it is--and looks around uncertainly, trying to figure out what to do next. Still no sign of any characters, but...well, it's worth a shot, right?
"...Hello?" His voice feels a lot louder in such an empty place.
Oh, yes, the kids certainly did seem to have become thoroughly taken with the game already--it's only been plugged in for a few days, but nearby cabinets within view could readily report the piles of quarters it was already raking in. Chatter of "amazing music" and "cute characters" and "retro graphics" and "multiple endings"--it's been an instant hit.
But the days had ticked by, and the Undertale portal had remained inactive, and other questions started cropping up. Word had it the leading hero of the game was a kid in a striped shirt, but so far that was...still pretty much all that most people knew, about the game's characters. Because none of them had emerged to visit Game Central Station yet--and that was peculiar, to say the very least. What was going on in there? Were they shy, some wondered? Are they too good for us, others grumbled? A consensus had yet to be reached, but with every passing day the curiosity grew. And finally, talk of sending over an "ambassador" had started to form too.
Lucas still isn't entirely sure just how he'd managed to be picked for this, exactly. He doesn't think he's very outgoing nor particularly diplomatic, which seem like more ambassador-ish traits to have. But between the collection of fellow kid protagonists that had gotten together to decide this in the first place, they'd discussed "fellow striped-shirts" and how "people keep saying it's like the Mother series" and "Lucas ought to have more experience with this anyway" and things like that.
And now here Lucas is, entering Undertale's portal entrance for the evening. Instead of a train, he finds himself needing to step into an elevator for transport. Then, after a long wait, the elevator stops and opens and Lucas finds himself...on a pale path, surrounded by pale buildings and silence. Hm.
Hesitation, just long enough to glance back to the closed elevator door behind him, and then Lucas starts forward down the path. It's a pretty long one. So long, and quiet and empty, that Lucas begins to wonder if he did something wrong and has ended up somewhere he shouldn't be in the game--but then the path opens up to an equally pale house surrounded by leaves up ahead, and warm music begins to filter in softly, and that's a bit of a relief. Lucas pauses, blinking down at a yellow shining star-shaped something suspended in front of him here. Trying to examine it closer... "Lucas; LV ?; ???:??; New Home; Save/Return". Oh...Lucas backs away from the star-something--a save point, that must be what it is--and looks around uncertainly, trying to figure out what to do next. Still no sign of any characters, but...well, it's worth a shot, right?
"...Hello?" His voice feels a lot louder in such an empty place.
omg...im so glad tbh also PREVIOUS SUBJECT LINE STILL APPLIES :V
But the words confirm it, and his own demeanor brightens even more. Lucas smiles, staring back in turn--though he's a bit less in wonder, and a lot more plainly relieved to see them at all.
"Oh--you are? You are..." The relief is in his voice too, and he trails forward again. "Gee, I'm--I'm really glad that I found you! I've been looking, for a little while now. I thought--I thought maybe I'd broken something, since..."
The fellow kid's words properly sink in now, belatedly, and his smile fades marginally. "...Yeah, they didn't--they didn't know why I was here at all. Do they not know the arcade's been closed for awhile already...?" His voice trails off, bemused and more than a little concerned, but other thoughts catch up to him. Lucas steps up to the edge, offering a hand to Frisk--albeit a bit uncertainly, suddenly unsure of the invisible wall's status now. "Um, but also, do you...need help getting up? From there...?"
OTL
"Didn't--didn't know there was a way out of Undertale, or into it. I can't really go around to look where the monsters could see me, though. You didn't break anything," they reassure him quietly. "They...nobody...they think the game's real. Everybody, I think, or just about. 'Cept me."
Re: OTL
He sounds audibly relieved about this, too. Fighting had never been part of the plan, here--but apparently he'd scraped closer to genuine danger than he'd actually realized, as Frisk's explanation sinks in. Even if he'd suspected it already, Lucas's eyes still widen at the words.
"But wait...so they really do? They all think it's--not a game?" He draws forward a bit, glancing around uncertainly and voice hushing. "...I don't think I've ever heard of something like that? But that doesn't make sense...why's it only just you, do you know?" Lucas pauses, looking back down the long empty path he'd come now. "There's definitely ways in and out, yes...every game has them. Should have them? I got here through an, elevator--that one over there?"
no subject
They lean forward and hush too, even though they know they don't need to. Lucas already triggered the New Home speech.
"...he won't remember next time. Nobody does. Every new player, every reset, everyone forgets everything again. Even Sans, and he--he's programmed to know more than everyone else," Frisk whispers. Ironically, he'd been their best hope after their first No Mercy run, saying what he did, seemingly talking to the players and dropping hints.
They circle around until they're standing beside him. "I don't know...why. I was...starting...to wonder. If it was normal."
no subject
"That's--yeah. That's...definitely not normal, I don't think. I'm pretty sure? My game's been plugged in for about ten years now, but...never seen a game where the people in it don't--know."
Unbidden, he tries to imagine himself being the only one knowing it's just a game in his own game--while everyone else, all his friends, kept playing out the script like a real thing, unaware, and he doesn't even know how to leave. It's an unsettling enough thought that he quickly pushes it out of his head again--but he can't help a visible wince of sympathy, all the same.
Now that they're standing right beside him, Lucas offers a very light and tentative sort of shoulder pat. "...Must've been...something else, being the only one to know." His voice has dropped almost to a mumble by now, but after a moment he steadies it a bit. "Everybody in the arcade's been wondering about it, actually--why nobody was coming out of here. Lots of people thought maybe you guys were shy? Or, um, too good for us...since your game's been doing really well." Lucas shakes his head quickly. "But I never thought that. Our games are sort of alike, though, so they decided to send me in to visit. See how things are going. But I guess--things are actually going...not very well, huh?"