Gamers Rise Up | Vinzent + Viper | Furniture Car

Vinzent Mayer

Eventually, Vinzent would find himself back where he initially was. This place was both a maze and a loop. Somehow. He shouldn’t be surprised, but just a little miffed at seeing the same things again. This time however, he’s definitely avoiding the storage area on purpose.

Maybe the room displays will be more interesting this time around. There’s more after all, isn’t there?

…

One of the living room displays looked quite nice even if simple, maybe he can take his time to sit down and relax if just for a bit. Frankly easier said than done, but… He sincerely hoped it wouldn’t happen again.

… In any case! Vinzent took his time to observe the items all around him in there, and attempting to calm himself a bit more. It has started to work at least, and someone was bound to pass by here anyway.

As of now he has started to think, how could he improve his own living room back home? His bedroom was perfect by itself, but the rest of his apartment could use a little something more.

Not a big makeover, but still. Maybe changing things from their original places? Maybe… A different set up? More aerated? Uniformity? No, uniformity is boring. It needs something, even small, to pop out.

…

He was so lost in his thoughts that he hasn’t noticed someone’s presence nearby.

Viper

“I didn’t take you as one for interior design.” Viper hummed as she rounded the corner, spotting Vinzent in the process of examining the display. “Artsy, yeah, but not…interiors.” Promptly making a dive for one of the couches, she sprawls out and gestures for Vinzent to sit down in the other small couch.

“…Join me, have a sit down…!” Unless he did want to rearrange things here to help his own visions… she wouldn’t complain after all. “We haven’t talked since we got out of that ice place really! We have, like, totes got to catch up!” …Never mind the fact she was mostly bored out of her mind because she was trying to avoid making her concussion any worse.

Vinzent Mayer

Viper “I didn’t take you as one for interior design.”

That was enough to snap him out of his thoughts.

Viper “Artsy, yeah, but not…interiors.”

And… A chuckle.

“Haha, not really. I’m not that kind of artist, you’re right. I was just thinking if I ever return home, what are the improvements I could bring to my apartment rooms? Just saying that I was looking for… Inspiration.”

“Not like that’d be for soon anyway.”

Viper “…Join me, have a sit down…!”

He did so, without much question. It has been a while since he talked to her, after all. And no, that small chat back at the gacha car wasn’t enough.

“Yeah, that’s true. So… How are you holding up?”

Viper

“Psssht, yeah, that kinda scenery stuff ain’t my thing either really. Always rather liked gettin’ to the action, and I like, loathe the backgrounds.” Said 95% of artists ever, really. But he made a good point, sometimes … it was good to seek inspiration for your room at home, even if you might not be getting back to that home for a long time… if at all.

“I do kinda need to sort my room out too.” She winced, “It’s like, an actual mess.” Despite knowing her roommate wouldn’t mind, she… had to feel a little bad now they were stuck on this fun little murder trip.

“Oh, you know, I’ve been here, and there…” Finally, by this point, the pain of her concussion has pretty much gone… for now, but she’s still not out of the woods. “I had a lot of fun with ’Suka earlier. We had a little dramatic movie moment on a stack of tables, chairs and dressers.” Viper snorted, it was a fun time! No need to talk about the fight just yet… or the room that had caused it in the first place.

As she talks she waves her hands around in her ever-expressive fashion, accentuating every sentence with a flourish.

Vinzent Mayer

Viper

“Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass to draw backgrounds, I agree.” Not like he had the option to opt out sometimes. But he did opt out when he could, so as long as the rest of the flow wasn’t affected and someone else took the relay.

“I can imagine, mine isn’t the model of tidiness either but. It’s manageable.”

He listened, making a face at the ‘Suka’ part before returning to normal. No one else had this combination of sounds.

… While he wasn’t going to comment about it, because. Good for her! It didn’t go well for him. He attempted to appear neutral.

“I’m glad you had fun, then. That sounds quite dramatic!”

He fought himself on being vitriolic about the perfumer, even if his feelings were justified… Mainly because he didn’t think it was a good time, and secondly. The fight was over. He had made his point. (Even with regrets). If anything, Vinzent was surprised that Viper and Asuka seem to be on good terms.

Whatmore, he liked that the game designer herself was expressive, and in the end, who cares if she gets along with people that he doesn’t get along with? They each have their reasons.

… Still. The bitterness was strong. He also wasn’t going to tell Viper that they actually fought, and that Asuka started it.

It was draining just to think about it, really.

Viper

“Manageable, lived-in, it’s like, totes normal to be messy. But, like, I dunno. Just feeling a lil’ bad for my roomie.” …Don’t think about her. You’ll only miss her more. Viper is quickly distracted by talking about the fun time she’d had with Asuka, and she was grateful for it. Perhaps that lingering feeling deep in her chest would go away now.

“She was like, totes gonna be a mega-bitch until I convinced her not to be by creating a sick diversion.” The tower, of course. “Like, I benefitted to, so, like, everyone wins. And then I had good fun with Abel.” …Not talking about the concussion at all!

“How have you been, Vinzent?” She tilts her head questioningly, giving him a wide, casual smile.

Vinzent Mayer

Viper

“I suppose, haha… Yeah. I’d feel bad too. But I live alone, so I should probably stress about it less.”

Vinzent wasn’t willing to be more chaotic than necessary, since it needed to be a livable space, not a dump space. He’d want to invite his friends over anyway someday, so some semblance of decent order was preferable to possible chaos.

“Ah, that’s nice, actually!” He wondered. Isn’t Asuka way younger than him? (That did add to the bad feeling he had, but still…) How had Viper managed to deal with that girl’s attitude, Vinzent wasn’t sure.

…

“Uh… I’m okay now. There’s been a lot happening and I happened to find a copy of my room earlier, which was wack enough. Down to the exact details.”

That part, he is now less bothered to talk about it. When he spoke with R.N.A. earlier, he simply wasn’t sure what to say, but eventually admitted it. Soon or later, people would link the room to him anyway.

Now that he mentionned it, he was expecting Viper to actually ask him to see what his place looks like. But Vinzent wasn’t going to offer first. Oh, no. Still, talking about his room was a much better topic that diving in the fight topic that happened later.

Viper

“Oh, so, like, it wasn’t just me?” Viper grimaced visibly at the memory of the room she’d found that was such a faithful replica of that place. Her face paled ever-so-slightly, and her hands gripped at her knees. The paper name plate she’d decided to eat felt like it was stuck in her throat rather suddenly, until she quickly shook away the thoughts of it. Yeesh, she had to at least learn to mention it.

“I found one too. ’Cept it was a replica of the lobby of my old apartment complex. Kinda weird for a furniture store.” In a way, she was glad it wasn’t her room, as that would mean her games consoles and figure collection would be safe at home. “…They know my name.” She muttered, bitterly.

“But, ya. Like, Abel and I had a little… bro talk about it, and like, all is good.” She rubs absent-mindedly at some of the bandages on her hands, seeking something even vaguely sensory-stimulating to worry at.

“Ain’t it just so [heck]ed up that they know so much [crap] about us?!” Well, Viper isn’t going to ask. With how she’d reacted to her own room, she didn’t want to put anyone else back through that, even if it wasn’t as traumatic.

Vinzent Mayer

Viper

Hm. Alright, Vinzent will not inquire about her place, because he isn’t willing to intrude as always, plus it is personal that even if he did want to know more about Viper, snooping around wasn’t a solution, but talking to her is. But, he had confirmation that indeed, he wasn’t alone with that.

“Yeah, looks that way. … Huh.”

“It is weird that a lobby of all areas would appear in a furniture store, yeah.”

“…” He was sure he heard her… But he chose to not say anything about it.

“Ah, that’s good.” Right, he hadn’t noticed her hands until now… Was it patched up a while ago, or was it recent? But, should he even bother to ask about her hands, when he had f-cked up his much earlier? Probably not. But what has happened with Abel and Viper? … Anyway. At the knowing much about us comment, he nodded in agreement.

“Yep, it’s freaky enough. I’d like to know how they know about us that much.”

In the end, while a little surprised that she didn’t ask about it, it was fine. It was preferable that way. To each their history.

Viper

Viper blew a strand of hair from in front of her face, trying to find anything that could distract her as she thought more on the implications of these rooms. From what she had heard from Abel, and what she had gathered witnessing Asuka react to what was clearly meant to be her room first-hand, there was something incredibly fishy about all of this.

“…I think they’re there just to [heck] with us.” She mumbled, “…Everyone who I’ve heard or seen react to one has had a pretty bad reaction, or just… not been impressed. Kinda feels like they’re trying to traumatise us more for good measure.”

Her hands looked like they’d been patched up a while ago- however long ago it was they had been on the last car. The bandages had began to fray already after her fight with Abel, but damaged knuckles still peeked out from the worse ones that had been covered.

“Psht. Yeah. I like my anon [crap] so like, soooo few people know a lot ’bout me. So, like, what gives? It’s totes weird. An’ like, some people here have like, legit like, childhood memories being brought up to torment ’em.” …Matsu, Viper, you can say Matsu. “Abes seemed pretty [peed] off when we talked, so, like, it’s prob gettin’ to all of us somehow.”

Vinzent Mayer

Viper

Pretty bad reaction or unimpressed, huh… Well… He was glad it was his own room that appeared and not…

It could have very well showed him any places that he was frequently cornered, wouldn’t it? But it didn’t. That’s a weird mercy. One that he would take anyway.

“Hm, yeah, it’d make sense then… Luckily, my room has good memories, but… Still, not something I’d show the whole world either so casually, you know? To friends, sure, but not just to anybody. So yeah, I was rather puzzled.”

He noted that state of her hands… Alright. She seemed to get in fights alot, doesn’t she? Vinzent shouldn’t be surprised at that thought, but he was, a little. Still…

“That’s fair to want to keep some things to yourself! And also normal to trust a few people rather than trusting many.”

“Yeah, for sure… There’s always bad memories somewhere… Huh. Hm.”

Abes… Was she talking about Abel? That’s still just wrong, to build up a copy of traumatic memories of people to show back at them… Guess Vinzent was really lucky so far. But he couldn’t help feeling bad for those who weren’t spared.

“I hope we’ll get out of the car soon enough.”

Considering the store layout and how it works though, he should do something, right? Finding out what to do… Something to build, most likely?

… Hopefully not anything too heavy.

Viper

Vinzent Mayer “Yeah, for sure… There’s always bad memories somewhere… Huh. Hm.”

“Mhm, mhm, sometimes, like, in somewhere you don’t even expect.” Viper leans back against the couch, leaning over the arm and looking at Vinzent upside-down. Everything felt wrong about this entire thing, really. From being stranded on the ice, to the outside that was definitely inside, in a train car, and to the fact that magic was very much real and existed in this world.

Viper had come to one conclusion.

This was a isekai.

Although, if it was an isekai, where was her harem of fantasy-RPG women who would fall in love with her over the course of a roughly 12 episode anime series? Maybe she’d have to take that up with Neko-Neko.

She frowns deeply, before realising that Vinzent had actually spoken to her.

Vinzent Mayer “I hope we’ll get out of the car soon enough.”

“Yeah. I hope so. I’m guessin’ they want us to build soooo much furniture, but like, why can’t the sharks do it? Like, yeah, sharks are cool and awesome but, like, these guys work here?! Why do WE have to do it!” Of all things to be salty about… this was the hill she was going to hopefully-not-die on.

“I mean, wanna try and find somethin’ to do?”

Vinzent Mayer

Viper

Viper Maybe she’d have to take that up with Neko-Neko

Let her have her dream!!! But also don’t fight with the cat-

At Viper’s response, Vinzent nodded. He wasn’t sure which one they’d make him build and considering his small frame, he hoped that this car wasn’t going to give him a ridiculous one to do all alone. But yeah, Viper had a point. The sharks could do it but…

“Ah, man. Yeah, I wonder that myself. I worry that when I’ll have to build something that I can’t even lift by myself at the end.”

But… Hey! Her suggestion was sound.

“Yeah, I would like that! Let’s take a look around?”

… Even if it includes going back to the storage. He hoped Asuka has recovered and left the place by now because he wasn’t willing to explain to Viper what has happened there.

Viper

[SUMMARY MODE]

After Vinzent and Viper had decided they were going to attempt to build more furniture together, they visited the storage without running into Asuka (very luckily for Vinzent!) and there they were tasked with building… a KALKNÄS cabinet. Complicated to assemble, not a one-person job, and very much something that Viper at least got very frustrated trying to decipher the instructions of.