entrancelogs | If you could be any you, who would you be? [OPEN]

Entry tags:

If you could be any you, who would you be? [OPEN]

Who: EVERYBODY!
Where: TV Wonderland
When: June 29th - July 1st
Rating: anything from Teletubbies to Game of Thrones
Summary:
As announced this will be a catch-all post for shorter scenes, commercials, or things you simply don't want to make an entry for.

If you want to involve your character in anything and everything, leave a blank comment with them and see what others drag them into! Other characters will respond and set a random scene for the two (or three or seven) of you.

If you only have one particular thing in mind then set it up in a comment and wait for replies of anybody who wants to play along with the idea and stumble into that scene in their next response (or mark the thread CLOSED if you already have participants in mind)!

The Story:
Over the course of the event, everyone will be forced to act out various stereotypical roles and common tropes. The setting immediately around them will change randomly into settings from cliche popular media, complete with mediocre side-character NPCs who will never break character. It will become clear very quickly that they are expected to act out a particular role in the scene. They might be expected to be a tough cop, or a handsome sexy doctor, or someone’s evil twin come back from the dead, or any number of terrible tropes – and these tropes do not necessarily have anything to do with who the character is or what they do for a living. They could be the most innocent person and suddenly find themselves forced into the role of a hardened criminal.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

All things considered, this event could be worse.

Playing out the role of a crime show along Evelyn, that had almost been fun in an odd way. And seeing how it had all been fabricated, it's not as if any real damage had been done either. Martha figures if that's all that this takes, playing along with things, then she can manage it. This is already loads better than that shadow, at least.

She's also hedging her bets that it isn't over, though. It's still only Friday, after all, and these things usually go on for days. Martha isn't quite sure what to expect, but this event hasn't been all that subtle about anything so far, so she imagines she'll know when she hits the next leg of it when she sees it.

It's when she decides to take a walk outside that she's hit by the next leg of it. Instead of seeing the gardens, when she walks out the front doors of the mansion her foot scrapes through dirt and she looks up to see a dusty old town like in one of those Western films. Cowboys and Indians, that sort of thing.

There's a saloon off to the right, a few horses tied up near it, and a number of appropriately dressed townspeople milling about.

She reaches up and finds that she's wearing a cowboy hat, but she's also got a duster on, and a pair of blue jeans tucked into some legitimately hideous cowboy boots. Martha laughs and shakes her head. "Who's ever heard of a British cowboy?"

Or a Japanese cowboy, for that matter. Fuminori is on his way back from the hills when he wanders into this small Western town. Not that he can immediately tell what it is, but he recognizes pretty quickly that this isn't what the garden is supposed to look like.

He ventures forward with caution, wary but not particularly alarmed--events are nothing new, after all--at least not until he encounters his first horse.

That elicits some actual terror, sending him reeling across the street even though the creature doesn't exhibit any aggression toward him.

"What is going on?"

He finds the gun at his hip totally by accident and fumbles it out of its holster, pointing it at the horse to the consternation of several of the passing NPCs.

Martha's too busy taking in the surprisingly real setting (unlike an actual movie production, it's as if all of this is the genuine article) to notice Fuminori's approach at first. It's only when she senses a commotion and notices all the town people on edge that she homes in on what's happening and finds him pointing a gun at one of the horses.

The horse itself can also sense what's going on, and Martha doesn't want it to spook and hurt anyone, even if Fuminori's the only real person in all of this. She quickly runs over to him, doing her best to placate the crowd on the way over. "He's just frightened, he won't shoot, I promise..."

Martha places herself between him and the horse, hoping that even with his warped vision, he'll recognize her. "Fuminori, it's me, Martha. We're... in some kind of illusion." Granted, for him everything must feel that way, like he's wandering through some nightmare constantly. "Just calm down, it's going to be fine. None of this is real. Just me and you, yeah?"

It takes Fuminori a minute to really process what Martha's saying. He looks from her--he's learning to recognize her voice, at least, so he trusts her when she identifies herself--to the gun in his hand, breathing hard as he realizes that he's holding an actual gun.

He shoves it back into the holster at his side quickly, like he expects some consequences for even having it in the first place.

"An illusion?" He glances around, avoiding looking at the horse again. The people around seem to be calming down as he does, drifting away slowly, but with some reluctance. "...This is a pretty elaborate illusion."

The only real consolation for him here is that Martha probably won't think less of him for that small freak out. That saves his pride a little.

No, Martha doesn't think less of him. How could she, when Fuminori's life is more or less like walking through a living hell? She can't imagine how he makes it through every day when no matter where he turns, he's likely seeing something straight out of Lovecraft.

This, though, is more like Louis L'Amour. Most of the townspeople drift away once it's clear that the threat is over with, and one of them goes to tend to the horse, but a few of them are still eyeing him and Fuminori curiously.

"Doesn't look like either of you are from 'round here," one man says.

Martha turns toward him and clenches her jaw imperceptibly before nodding. "You could say that. But we don't mean any harm. My friend just scares easily."

"What, he ain't never seen a horse before?" That comment earns a laugh from a few people, and Martha has to fight not to glare at them.

"...Not in person." Fuminori glances around the street, then looks at Martha, more or less ignoring the person questioning them.

"What are we supposed to do here?"

It's clear that they're still setting off alarm bells with the other people here, and if they don't play along well enough, Martha gets the feeling that they're going to suffer for it.

"We need to play along," she says under her breath, drawing closer to Fuminori so that the others don't hear her. "We can go into the saloon, or..." She trails off and looks around. "The sheriff's office."

Fuminori looks around, guessing based on the number of people congregated around one building's entrance that that's the saloon.

"..Let's go see the sheriff." He crosses his arms, breathing normally now and ready to deal with whatever. "He might be able to tell us what's going on."

Martha doubts that the sheriff will actually be of all that much help, seeing how they're supposed to know their own roles in all this, but it still might give them a clue. She nods to Fuminori and leads him toward the sheriff's office -- that also means dealing with less people, so she thinks Fuminori made the right choice.

When they walk in, Martha spots a man sitting back in a chair with his boots up on the desk in front of him. He's got a handlebar mustache and is so stereotypical it's hard not to roll her eyes.

Luckily, the sheriff starts things off.

"So, you two are new in town, that right?" He looks both of them over. "Kind of an odd pair, ain't ya? What's your story?"

Fuminori contents himself casting his eyes upward at the ceiling when they enter. With a shrug, he gives the sheriff the first answer he can think of.

"Just passing through."

His eyes flicker around the room and land on a couple of wanted posters tacked up on the wall. He drifts in that direction to get a better look. Maybe it could provide a hint.

"We uh...wanted to see if there was any trouble in town."

Just passing through. It's a good answer, the exact sort of thing that you would hear in a film like this. Martha winks at Fuminori before realizing that whatever he'll see, it's bound to be bloody strange.

She steps after him to look at the wanted posters, which causes the sheriff to kick his legs off the table and sit up.

"You offering to help, then? Gotta say, we could use a hired gun or two around here. There's a bandit that's been raiding the town from time to time, harassing the good people here. You saying you two could do something about that?"

Martha doesn't think so. Not at all. She isn't cut out for that kind of thing, but she's got a gun and so does Fuminori, which means they've probably got to go along with it either way.

"What do you think?" she asks her so-called partner. She doesn't want to agree to anything without his say so.

Fuminori puts a hand on the gun under his duster and mutters, "...We might not have a choice."

The sheriff comes over, clapping a hand on either of their shoulders. "Good! He should be here today, right at dusk."

As the sheriff goes back to his seat, Fuminori looks over at Martha. "...Great."

"Right at dusk?" How does he know when a bandit's going to show up? Unless the bandit comes at the same time every day, but that seems like a daft way to go about it.

Still, it's supposed to be a scene from a film, so Martha realizes there isn't much point in questioning any of it. She returns Fuminori's glance and lets out a sigh. "Suppose we'll just need to wait, then."

She takes them lead back out of the sheriff's office and glances around, looking for any signs of damage to the town. There's really no indication that they've been under attack, but now she can sense a tension among the people here that she hadn't noticed before.

"I wonder if there'll be some kind of time lapse like there usually is in films," she muses.

"Is that what this is supposed to be?" He guesses that makes a little sense. "So then we just have to stick around until we do something about the bandits?"

This is going to be great, he can tell.

"I would imagine so," Martha says with a shrug of her shoulders. While some of the people out and about may still be looking at them suspiciously, it's not quite to the degree that it was before. Martha's going to take that to mean that they've "passed" the first part of this.

Strangely enough, the sun above them does seem to be moving through the sky rather quickly.

The sky still looks completely black to Funimori, but he can see that the shadows around him are shifting.

"...How exactly are we going to do that? I've never used a gun in my life."

"I... don't really know," Martha admits. She's pointed and shot a gun before, but it's not something she's made a habit of and she's hardly trained for it. "I can probably do what needs to be done if it comes to it, but... hopefully the pieces will just fall into place."

So long as they do what they're expected to do, it should be fine, shouldn't it? Even if they both turn out to have terrible aim.

The only reason Martha's even considering it is because she knows none of this is real. She wouldn't accept the idea of shooting a gun so carelessly in reality, though she wonders if negotiation is an option here.

Fuminori runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "...Do you think it's going to involve horses?"

"Let's hope not," Martha says with a frown and a shake of her head. "If there is, though, then you just stay in the background and let me handle it, got it?" There aren't any real stakes here, other than how quickly they're let out of the illusion, so she doesn't think that Fuminori needs to deal with anything he can't handle.

"Have you ever ridden a horse before?"

He can tell the light is considerably dimmer now, and expects something to happen at any moment.

"Once or twice, but I'm hardly an expert," Martha replies with a sigh. "Hopefully it won't come to that and we can just... I don't know, shoot him down when he rides into town."

But there comes the noise that she's subconsciously been waiting for: fast approaching hoofbeats. The townspeople all hear it as well and rush into their homes, locking the doors and boarding up the windows.

Martha knows there's no reason to be scared, but even she can feel the suspense of the bandit's approach.

Fuminori hears it, too, and even more alarming, he can feel it in his feet. Now they're alone, standing in the middle of the street, and he thinks that at least there won't be extra people running around in the way.

Pushing his duster aside, he reaches for his gun, but doesn't draw it yet.

"I'm not really sure how much help I'll be." But he'll give it a shot. He can't be a drag on everyone forever after all.

Martha shoots a quick glance at Fuminori and shakes her head. "It's fine, let me deal with it." She can't imagine the sort of horrors that he must be seeing right now, and it's going to be far easier on him if he can just remain in the background.

The bandit draws to a halt, his horse rearing up and whinnying and it's so cliched that Martha has to fight not to roll her eyes. She also grabs hold of her gun and marches forward.

"Oi, you there! We've been told that you've been making things difficult for the people living here. Are you going to put a stop to that, or do we need to do this the hard way?" It's... not quite what she was going for, and Martha doubts that she's all that intimidating, but at least she's giving it a try.

The man sneers at her and then slides off of the horse, dusting his hands off. "You and some kid think you can stop me? Really? You gotta be delusional, lady."

Someday, Fuminori thinks he ought to write a general letter to Wonderland and its inhabitants about his age. Right now, though, he's got a bandit and maybe a horse to deal with.

From what little he knows about Westerns, Martha's doing pretty well. It sounds good, anyway, if not cliche and scripted, as though sounding natural were their biggest worry here.

"Just give it up already." He throws in his verbal two cents. "You don't stand a chance."

Hopefully.

At that, the bandit laughs and spits in the dirt.

That's disgusting. Martha pulls a face when she eyes the glob of spit as it sticks into the dirt ground, and while that's hardly any reason to shoot someone, they've got a part to play.

Fuminori's doing a good job with backing her up, too, and Martha smiles over her shoulder at him before reminding herself yet again that it probably looks horrific to him.

She draws closer, pulling her gun up and leveling it at the bandit. "I don't want to have to do this, but this town doesn't deserve to be harassed this way. So you've either got to leave, or we're going to make you." She feels ridiculous, and maybe that's the point.

The bandit narrows his eyes at her and pulls out his own gun with a toss of his duster. "You got another thing comin' if you think I'm gonna run away with my tail between my legs, missy."

Martha and Fuminori | Closed | Western Shenanigans

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