R1 DEADLAND PT2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

[lockdownmods]

[it’s strange, for the people who were already dead, the shift in scenery is sudden and complete. For those who have just arrived? It’s like you’re back where you left?

How strange.

But if you ever need her, you can always reach out to the guardian of this place.]

LOCATIONS
Note: locations lag a week behind the living counterparts

Comments

[sendintheclown]

Oh, fun! Do they have a bard?

[That'd be his chosen class.]

[lovedanime]

If they didn't before, they can now.

[sendintheclown]

Why now?

[Is that just what happens when Gogol gets in the game.]

[lovedanime]

[At this point they cross into the arcade room proper. The sea of chiptunes melts together into a dull roar.]

Because nothing says you're limited to the precoded music, does it?

[sendintheclown]

[His face lights up.]

You're right! There are no boundaries anymore! We can do anything!

[...probably. He's assuming.]

[lovedanime]

[It's a good thing Mitarai had turned to the counter, because a conflicted expression crosses his face. The boundaries seem to have always really bothered Gogol, but ignoring the boundaries has consequences.

Mitarai turns back with his free hand full of coins.]

As, as many laps as you want!

[sendintheclown]

Really?

[That’s enough to distract him. He’s a simple man sometimes.]

Will you join me?

[lovedanime]

Of course. It's a snowmobile racing game. Head to head.

[The cabinet is over there - the kind with an overhanging ceiling, you have to practically climb inside, two padded chairs, one for each of the steering wheels in front of the respective screens. There are real vents for hot and cold air built in. Mitarai lets go of the arm to make a "tada" gesture.]

See?

[sendintheclown]

Oh!

[There’s a pure delight in his voice as he looks over to the cabinet, clasping his hands together.]

You’d better not go easy on me, now!

[With a parting wink, Gogol crawls into the cabinet, seating himself down. This wasn’t something he’d really done much before in his life, preferring more traditional carnival styled arcade games, but he was dead now - it’s time to play video games.]

[lovedanime]

Of course not!

[It would practically be ideal if they could physically fight one another to get out the aggression Gogol probably has against the entire world, but unfortunately Mitarai's hope does not take that form, in his body shaped like a twig. The best he can do is fight hard at video games.

Mitarai takes one last glance to make sure it's tactically wise to put his little body between Gogol and the entrance - it would be nice to protect him though maybe impractical - and then places the coins in a pile between the two seats for easy access. He readies the coin at the slot and makes an announcement as he puts it in.]

Ready, set, go!

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol settles into the controls, eagerness overtaking any other thought process, until Mitarai starts the game.

Then he realizes it.]

Wait- I don't know how to play!

[He flails a little bit as he scrambles to work it out.]

[lovedanime]

Ummm...!

[Mitarai is really stressed out even though he knows how to play the game because he is not sure how to play the game at full power while explaining to Gogol, so he speaks forcefully to hammer out the ideas while not removing his eyes from his own monitor.]

You just - it's just like driving a car! There's a steering wheel, and a throttle, and a course you can see out the window! It's exactly the same as driving a car!

[THIS IS ADMITTEDLY A SNOWMOBILE SO HE KNOWS IT'S NOT REALLY THE SAME AS A CAR DOESN'T GOGOL HOTWIRE CARS? AND PILE TONS OF ACCOMPLICES INSIDE? THIS SHOULD BE A BASIC CRIME CLOWN SKILL!]

[sendintheclown]

You know, I never got my license.

[He’s gay, Mitarai. He can’t drive.]

I’ll just have to follow intuition then! Haha! Let’s go!

[It might be worth keeping tabs on how many times Gogol crashes.]

[lovedanime]

Well, I guess that makes two of us.

[Though by his second year of high school everything went to shit and continued to be shit until the present day. Gogol, what happened to you? Though he's European, not American, so at least there's a reasonable public transit system, and bikes. At any rate Mitarai is happy this is an environment where Gogol feels that following his intuitions is safe.]

Time to go full throttle!

[They're approaching one of those areas with big HUD arrows guiding a jump over a ravine.]

[sendintheclown]

['Gogol, what happened to you?' is one of the more pressing questions that come with being faced with him, and yet, no one actually seems to be asking that.]

Let's go! Like Thelma and Louise!

[Drive right off a canyon for your freedom, that's Gogol's way. Sure, it's snowmobiles and ravines, but the intent is all the same.]

[lovedanime]

[Mitarai's face goes blank in the moment the snowmobiles are suspended in the air, and when they land he forgets to turn the steering wheel for the first few seconds so he bumps against the snowdrifts as the track curves in front of him.

He never actually saw the movie but the seminal cinematography reached him through analyses. Now he understands that idea of liberating evil a little more, huh?]

It's funny, I just remembered that movie from my collection that you found, about the witch. I think you'd really like that one too.

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol turns away from the screen, letting his snowmobile trail off blindly in the snow, vaguely giving it some direction with the controls.]

Really? Why do you think?

[lovedanime]

[Mitarai stares back at his monitor, focusing on the direction but not modulating the speed slower over the slick parts or fast over the rocky ones.]

The witch girl flies on her broomstick everywhere to help people, and this boy without magic follows her around because he loves airplanes. Then she forgets how to fly... That's as far as I can say without spoilers.

[Though now that he's older, it seems kind of lonely watching that storyline always happen to a girl and a boy...]

[sendintheclown]

[A slight concerned gasp as his snowmobile bumps blindly against the barriers of the track.]

Does she remember again? No- wait- I don't want to know!

[That ruins all the surprise and magic of it.]

It sounds lovely! Is it a favorite of yours?

[lovedanime]

Yes, absolutely. My greatest inspiration.

[He clears the finish line of this level first and the game gives him a static notification for his trouble, his points rolling up until Gogol catches up and they can both start the next level.]

The director once said in an interview that... This was a fast and loose translation into English, but that... "Anime was a mistake." All this time I was confused and angry he thought of me that way, but I think I'm starting to understand now.

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol’s snowmobile bumps it’s way along to the finish line, though his attention has completely abandoned the game at this point.]

A mistake? But it’s your passion, isn’t it?

[lovedanime]

Oh, don't get me wrong, he didn't literally mean drawing moving pictures was a mistake; that's CRAZY TALK!

[sendintheclown]

[He doesn't get it.]

Then answer me this! Where's the mistake?

[lovedanime]

Animation... is a contradiction in terms.

[The game starts timing out.]

You want to show the audience a dynamic image, but each image you show them is actually static. True animation would be a completely different field of work. Just like a stage magician doesn't actually pull a rabbit out of an empty top hat. But if you only ever studied photographs of rabbits instead of real rabbits, even though your stuffed rabbit had exactly the same fur and body shape, you couldn't trick the audience at all...

That was my mistake.

[> continue?]

[sendintheclown]

[Gogol gives some pause to thought, letting the game run in the background. The analogy helps put things into clearer terms for him, and he starts to get an idea of what he's getting at.]

A trick sold with a great enough conviction could fool anyone. A great performer can give a man a mouse, tell him it's a dove, and the crowd will watch as he throws it into the air.