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

[radiopalkiller]

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.

1. 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.


2. 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.

Comments

[seekingsanity]

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."

[selfrespecting]

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?"

[seekingsanity]

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."

[selfrespecting]

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.

[seekingsanity]

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."

[selfrespecting]

"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.

[seekingsanity]

"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.

[selfrespecting]

"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.

[seekingsanity]

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."

[selfrespecting]

"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.

[seekingsanity]

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

[selfrespecting]

"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.

[seekingsanity]

"Have you ever ridden a horse before?"

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

[selfrespecting]

"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.

[seekingsanity]

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.

[selfrespecting]

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."

[seekingsanity]

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.

[selfrespecting]

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."

[seekingsanity]

That's Fuminori's signal to draw as well. He holds the gun like he's seen in movies, hoping that it's really as easy as pulling the trigger.

"You can't shoot us both. Even if you manage to shoot one of us, the other will get you before you can pull the trigger again."

He's pleased with how confident he sounds.

[selfrespecting]

That's right. Strength in numbers. Martha quirks a smile at the bandit. She might as well indulge in some bravado, hollow as it is, seeing how that's the whole point of this.

"Are you a faster shot than I am?" she challenges him.

That seems to get right under the bandit's skin, because in the next second he squeezes the trigger of his gun, aiming for the ground right before Martha's boots. She tenses, but does what she can to not flinch or backpedal.

"Seems that I am," he says with a shrug of his shoulders.

There's no more time to waste on this, and so Martha darts to the side, taking aim and then firing off a shot of her own. She aims for his gut. That's likely to incapacitate him without immediately killing him.

[seekingsanity]

The sound of gunshots puts Fuminori on edge and though he doesn't move from where he's standing, he does cock the hammer and pull the trigger on his own gun twice in succession. His first shot follows Martha's by a split second.

He's broken out into a cold sweat, but his hand isn't shaking like it was when he held the gun before. He doesn't share Martha's qualms about attacking someone, real or not, and he can't help feeling a little smug when his second shot hits home in the bandit's shoulder (never mind that the first didn't hit him at all).

[selfrespecting]

All in all, the man takes two shots. It seems he hadn't actually been expecting them to go through with it, as he falls to the ground, kicking up dust in the process.

Martha's hand trembles with the recoil from the gun, and before she knows it she's dropped it. She isn't cut out for this kind of thing and she knows that. The only reason she even went so far as to pull the trigger is because it's their only way out of this.

With the bandit having fallen, a few people poke their heads out of their homes, and the town doctor runs over to take stock the man's wounds. The sheriff walks up from behind them, grinning from ear to ear as he pats Fuminori on the shoulder.

"Wasn't sure what to make of you two, but it looks like you were the right people to trust. Thank you kindly for protecting our town."

Martha doesn't see why the sheriff couldn't have handled things for himself, but it's not something that's supposed to make sense. She glances over at the sheriff and smiles weakly. "It's no problem."

[seekingsanity]

Fuminori tucks his own gun back into its holster, a little surprised at his own continued calm after having just shot someone, even if he wasn't real.

He flinches away from the sheriff when he touches him and glances at Martha.

"I guess we'll be on our way."

[selfrespecting]

And just like that, everything's gone. Martha finds herself out in the gardens, the spot she'd originally planned to go before getting caught in that illusion. The guns are gone, along with their outfits and the horses and everything else.

Martha blinks and looks around before letting out a sigh of relief. "Looks like we passed."

She turns to Fuminori and very carefully sets a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

[seekingsanity]

The change is disorienting, but welcome. He recognizes, more or less, the area as the garden.

"...Glad it's over."

He rubs the back of his head. He kind of misses the gun at his side, and it doesn't really strike him as strange despite his initial alarm at finding it there.

"I learned that I really don't like horses."