exsiliumlogs | open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

Date & Time: August 5th, mid morning.
Location: Anywhere characters happen to be/the VR.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: From August 5th to August 8th, characters are plunged involuntarily into the VR Program.
Warnings: Potential violence within the threads.

When the chance arises, she's quick to take it. The programming is incomplete, she knows; the simulation isn't ready — but she's not likely to get another shot at it. And so she moves, slipping through security codes to input the command. The machines hum to life with nothing but a flicker of a green light in a dark room, and it takes only seconds to establish connections. The signal is sent out; the weapons respond.

In a single pulse, reality drops away.

There will be darkness at first as the mind realigns itself to the signals being sent it. Slowly, the darkness fades, forms take shape. People take shape. The setting is terribly familiar, plucked from the user's own mind. It might feel like a dream at first, with events playing out as if predestined, the would-be dreamer moving through a familiar and unalterable route in them. But as things begin to feel more and more realistic, as more senses more fully connect to the simulation, awareness will change. This is not a dream. This is more than a memory.

Welcome to the VR.

Only 20 minutes later, in some underground quarters, Doctor Sponde is roused from an undignified sprawl. He's hastily briefed and shuttled toward the command center, looking grim. He knows the problem demands an immediate fix, but… well, this is some complex machinery. It could take some time. It could take days. He gets to work.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Corosa arrived in the world with a coin in hand and panic already on the rise. This wasn't right. He hadn't walked into any warps, he hadn't walked into any buildings, but it'd been the countryside in bright daylight just moments ago and now it was desert, dark and foreboding. And teeming with monsters, it seemed.

He drew towards them warily, and gave his coin a flip. Tails. Nothing. Again, then. Heads brought a second coin to him, landing heavily in his palm with the first. And one more-- tails. The second coin disappeared as quickly as he'd come. Corosa swore and the coin disappeared up his sleeve. He drew his gun instead, aimed, leveled it ahead of him. For all his fear, his hand was steady.

It was only after firing it at the nearest of the Adjuchas that he noticed Halibel. More out of surprise than anything, he called out to her-- "Hey!"

Even If they were merely Adjuchas, in such numbers, their strength could've been formidable. Additionally, such a gathering of Hollows would only attract further attention. It was as though she had become the enemy of the entirety of Hueco Mundo. Ironic, in a way, considering how she had stood against not only their laws, but their previous "king" as well. All that had been left to her now, was the sole option of fighting. Like so many times before, she'd been reminded of one universal truth.

No world was without sacrifice.

However, for this fight, Halibel was not alone. There was a voice, one that shouldn't have been present. She turned towards where the sound had come from for only a brief moment. Not a development she would've wanted, but it was too late to change anything at that point.

Her spirit energy gathering within her sword, the former Espada fired a wide cero at the Adjuchas and used it to buy herself some time. It would not last for long, which prompted her to use sonido in order to appear next to the visitor.

"What are you doing here?"

Corosa blinks in surprise at the sight of the woman suddenly appearing next to him, but isn't thrown completely off-guard.

"I don't know-- I just showed up here. I was in a forest before," he said, looking back to the wide array of monsters ahead of them. They were still at a distance right now, but he assumed that would not last long. He readjusted his aim, fired again, and once more.

He looked at his newfound companion and asked the question while he still could. Before the heat of battle swallowed them both up. "Where is this?"

"You are in Hueco Mundo. This is... where I came from." Where corrupt souls fought each other in an eternal cycle, all so that they could live for another day. A pathetic existence, Halibel felt. Though pathetic or not, those very souls, having long since become Hollows, would be upon them once more.

She could've told him to run, but what would that accomplish? Sending him to face the dangers of Hueco Mundo alone would only bring a premature end to his life.

"Can you fight?" Halibel asked. "Are you strong?"

As Corosa thought over his answer, he reholstered his gun and went for the coin again. That was annoying, having to choose one or the other, but he was going to stock up while he could. He started to flip it as he spoke, tossing and catching new and old coins as they appeared and disappeared with ease, hardly even paying attention.

"Fighting is what I do for a living," Corosa said, grimly. He honestly wouldn't know about strong, especially these days; losing an arm had cut his effectiveness down by far more than half. But he certainly had no intention of laying down and dying just because of that. He shrugged. "And I'm strong enough."

He looked down at his hand. Five coins now, where there had once been four. He made them disappear up his sleeve and drew his pistol again.

Corosa looked to Halibel. "Shall we go?"

The Adjuchas were many, while they were just two. Would they survive the encounter? Difficult to say. While confident in her own strength, Halibel wouldn't have made claims of victory this early.

As the confusion from their earlier attacks vanished, the Hollow set their sights on the two fighters once more. To be frank, she'd faced worse odds.

She nodded, staring right at the rapidly approaching Adjuchas.

"I'm ready."

Corosa nodded, grimly. And moved.

There was no cover out here. There were a few trees, but they were so worn and thin that Corosa thought he would've had more luck hiding behind a sheet of paper. So he didn't bother with that. Accuracy was hardly a problem here, too. The press of Adjuchas was thick enough that he could close his eyes and start firing and still have a good chance of hitting something.

He fired off his rounds: one, two, up to five. Watching out for Halibel out of the corner of his eye. Then a quick reload. Clumsier than he would have liked, but it couldn't be helped.

But the mob was not so easily thinned.

Corosa fired off a few more shots, then raised his voice to yell back to Halibel. "I'm going to fall back-- I'll cover you from behind!"

Meanwhile, Halibel continued to fight. For being simply Adjuchas-level, their strength was to be acknowledged. Once again she was attacked by those impersonating her comrades, and once again she defended herself. Strength in numbers was an advantage the other hollow definitely had, but they had yet to actually maximize said advantage.

Some were simply spectating, while most of the others failed to coordinate their attacks properly.

She would have to whittle away at their numbers. Pick them off, slowly and carefully. The benefit of cover fire would be of enough use, so long as he didn't attract further attention to himself with it.

For all his faults and recently-discovered fears, Corosa was still well-hardened by years of training and experience. He fell back, as promised, and followed Halibel's movements to judge where he was most needed. Pressuring the monsters when they fell too heavy, every shot carefully leveled and aimed.

Until he heard movement from behind. He grimaced and ignored it for the moment, long enough to pick off one of the Adjuchas coming at Halibel from a blind side -- then turned.

The shadow that it cast over him blocked out what little light there was. Corosa blinked into the sudden darkness, and managed to swear loudly and fire off one shot before the thing lunged forwards and knocked him off his feet.

Halibel took notice of the newest arrival, this one already attacking Corosa. Forcing additional distance between herself and a particularly formidable Adjuchas, she used sonido to instantly travel towards the gunman. Blood coated her sword as she reappeared, having cut down the attacking hollow.

She looked on at the rest, already coming after her and Corosa. The two of them were getting nowhere fast, and at this rate the outcome would favor them less and less.

"Stand, and move as far from me as you can." She said, holding out her sword in front of her, the blade pointing down at the sand beneath her feet.

"I'll keep them from following you."

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