First Broken Illusion [Video]

[fantasykiller]

[Touma blankly stared at the hologram. His first action, once the surprisingly informative hologram ended, was to start pinching his cheeks. This had to be a dream. The whole situation felt far too surreal for it to be actually happening. He desperately pinched his cheeks until they were flushed with red and it slowly began to dawn on him that he was wide awake. This was, without a doubt, reality. Despite realizing this undeniable truth, Touma still wanted to reject everything before him. He had already experienced what it meant to have his home ripped away and forced to wander unknown worlds. The promise of safety did nothing to comfort him. To fully accept what the hologram said as truth would be to acknowledge that his greatest fears have come true.

Instead of acknowledging his fears, however, he decided to focus on the fact that there were others trapped here. Shoving aside his fears for now, the teenager decided to give his convenient new phone a try.]

...Is everybody here alright? I know that strange hologram said this place was safe, but I would much rather hear it directly from the people here.

Comments

Video

[imaginationswoes]

[Airy hears her phone buzz and picks it up without realize registering what she's doing. It's a curse of the 2oth century, phones are everywhere. She blinks a few times registering his question before her lips curl into a smile.]

I can't speak for everyone but I'm fine. How are you?

[These are the easy sorts of conversations.]

Video

[fantasykiller]

That's good.

[He tries his best to smile.]

Don't worry about me. I've already experienced something similar to this before.

Video

[imaginationswoes]

Something similar? Shouldn't that be worrying?

[Airy will never deny that Genessia is weird.]

Video

[fantasykiller]

Well, I'm used to being unceremoniously dragged from one world to another. I appreciate the concern, but I'm honestly fine. Really.

[He says this with a very unconvincing smile.]

Do you know anything about who brought us here? Do they happen to possess the title of Majin?

[youfool]

Heh, no, everyone here is more likely than not mostly wrong. Comes with being fallen. The world itself is very dangerous, as you can tell by reading the paper or the bounty boards.

But everyone's reasonably contented anyway, most days. We have bouts of peace.

[fantasykiller]

[He eyes the strange man with a look of concern.]

What do you mean by "fallen"?

[youfool]

Hmm. Maybe you'll understand like this. If, say, you were behaving disgracefully, or sullen, and someone you knew slapped you on the back and said, "be a man!", would you find that at all encouraging? Have you ever yourself tried to encourage another with a similar phrase?

[fantasykiller]

No, I haven't. [He prefers monologues.] Using phrases like that is the equivalent of buying a generic "Get Well" card from the convenience store for someone. I honestly doubt anybody has felt truly touched by someone telling them something like "Be a man!".

[video]

[orangeoutlaw]

Depends on what you mean by safe.

[video]

[fantasykiller]

Under these circumstances, I would consider "safe" to be everybody here remaining relatively untouched by whoever created this world. So, how "safe" is this world?

[video]

[orangeoutlaw]

Don't know about that. But there's plenty of criminal types around in places. Gangs and things. Dastardly pirates looking for willing young flesh. [bounces his eyebrows up and down]

[video]

[fantasykiller]

Wait, what about pirates? And why are you wiggling your eyebrows like that? Please tell me you're not trying to imply something terrible with those unsubtle eyebrow movements of yours.

voice;

[icyheart]

It's not safe and if it looks like it is, then your blind.

voice;

[fantasykiller]

You don't need to be so condescending about it. I just got here.

voice;

[icyheart]

I can be whatever I want to be. One upside to this place.

voice;

[fantasykiller]

That doesn't sound very convincing coming from someone who chose to reply to me using only audio.

video;

[powerisphwee]

"Hello. I woke up here very recently, and everyone I met so far has been nice to me. So, I think it is safe here."

[She wasn't expecting friendly tree monsters though.]

video;

[fantasykiller]

[His expression quickly softened at the sight of the young girl.]

I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for the good news.

( video )

[justalittlerunaway]

[The girl on the video is cute, and her tone is trying desperately to sound like she means it, and that she isn't being sarcastic, but she's not a very good liar, nor is she good at hiding her feelings.]

That really depends on what you call "safe".

( video )

[fantasykiller]

Let's go with the standard dictionary definition of "safe".

( video )

[justalittlerunaway]

Then...it's not. Not really. [She pauses, because there's really no reason to scare the new person, right?] I mean, no more safe than anywhere else.

( video )

[fantasykiller]

[The brief pause in her speech and how she corrected herself made it obvious to him that she was trying to protect him.]

You don't need to worry about sugar-coating things for my sake. I've already gone through something like this countless times before. Please, tell me your honest thoughts about this world. I need to know what I'm getting into.

[Video]

[justicereigns]

Depends on what you mean by "everyone" and "alright."

[Video]

[fantasykiller]

By "everyone", I mean those who are aware that this place is not their original world. As for "alright"...

[He pauses for a moment.]

The one who created this situation; have they been messing with you guys? How involved are they?

[Video]

[justicereigns]

Not overtly, no.

In fact, no one's completely sure who or what is behind all this. If it's a trap, it's a very chaotic one.