video | forward date to august 6th

[thedarkbond]

[On the first day of the Cordis moon, a video feed is opened on several Prismatican social media sites almost simultaneously, as well as the app the Moonblessed generally use for this kind of communication. The camera's view is crowded with a bevy of nervous and excited looking young Prismals of various and sundry stripes, standing in front of a building with rainbow windows and led by one Ren Suzugamori, flagrantly obvious Moonblessed. Except he's flagrantly obvious in a different way this month, skin still ghastly and glowing and eyes still gold, but now with nine white tails that look thicker than he is wide and a set of long, foxlike ears. His fangs poke out of his mouth slightly, but at least his claws are covered by the ridiculous drape of the shirt sleeves he's wearing right now.

As soon as the feed starts, he waves at the camera with a light smile and winks, starting up with a cheerful and cutesy sort of tone.] Everyone, say hello~

[The crowd of Prismals all shout a greeting in muddled not-quite unison, and Ren curls a hand over his mouth as if thinking it's cute.]

They're enthusiastic, right? My name is Suzugamori Ren - nice to meet you all - and we're all here to welcome you to a new place to have fun on Level 1 - Sanctuary Gaming.

[They all gesture behind them to the unmissable building.] We're having a proper grand opening party on the 8th where everyone can come in and game together, but let's explain a little more first. If you need a place to play or buy tabletop or video games, we're right here for you for all kinds, even if you only really know the classics like chess or Go or shogi. And we're also taking custom orders for accessories and peripherals for all kinds of gaming - everything from card sleeves to headsets and keyboards, we can work out with you as well. We've got a lot of talented staff here to work on our own game releases in the future, so in the meantime, we can also offer you their skills on custom orders while we're working on bringing on a game that this world's never seen before~

[Ren puts a finger to his lips as if to say it's a secret, then points downwards.] If you want updates, make sure to follow us...and we're taking expressions of interest from anyone who wants to playtest when we get that far. Just come in and we'll put your name down, or if you're interested in joining our team, I can arrange an interview as well.

[Now that the important parts are out of the way, Ren puts a finger to his lip in a dramatic, thoughtful sort of motion.]

So here's a question we'd like to ask you all: If you could recommend one game to everyone else, or if you had to pick your favourite game, what would it be? It can be from your world or this one, we'll be happy to hear more from you whatever it is.

[Even if that's very broad wording and could potentially introduce some shenanigans. For now, though, they all wave at the camera.]

That's it from us for now. Remember to come to our opening party for food, games, and maybe some specials too~

[[OOC: Business information can be found here, including custom order form or expressions of interest for jobs or playtesting! The opening party will have some prompts on Ren's monthly log unless there ends up being enough interest for a mingle.]]

Comments

[punshots]

[ And from his end, there comes a sound of enthusiastic agreement. ]

I know exactly what you mean! Why bother playin' a game of something you can do in real life? Though I guess my life did kind of start to be like a real life RPG...

[ This is getting meta. ]

[thedarkbond]

[Ren can't even say his life hasn't gotten like that on multiple occasions, but he doesn't tend to bring up that sort of thing, so instead he gives a bit of a laugh at Prompto's mention of it.]

Oh, you can't just say that and not tell me what you mean...if it ended up like an RPG then that must mean it got really interesting, right?

[And not, you know, dangerous or exhausting or whatever else.]

[punshots]

[ What if it got both really interesting AND dangerous and exhausting? ]

That's one way of putting it. Think a roadtrip, but throw in a bunch of monsters, some literal gods, and lots of enemy troopers following your every move. Let's just say we had no shortage of random encounters. And we were a perfect four-man party!

[ They even had a tank, a cleric, and two DPS! ]

[thedarkbond]

[That does sound interesting, and there's a sound which seems something like Ren clasping his hands together in excitement.]

Oh, that does sound pretty interesting...though the enemy troopers thing sounds like it'd get kind of dull to deal with after a while. People like that get pretty bothersome in RPGs too.

[Ren disdains mooks enough that he just lets everyone else deal with them instead of doing it himself.]

[punshots]

Oh, believe me, they soooo did. Seemed like those guys would never get off our trail for long...

[ Though it's not a subject that's easy for him to dwell on, so he changes the subject. ]

They daemons were the ones that were real trouble. They only come out in the dark, but they're feisty. Creatures of pure darkness, and all that jazz.

[thedarkbond]

Mmm, those kinds of people are annoyingly persistent, I try to avoid them where I can...

[Ren's keeping his plausible deniability that he's definitely still talking about games and not dealing with those kinds of people in real life.]

Daemons sound way more interesting. Creatures of darkness usually look pretty cool~

[Says the guy who's basically soulbonded with a ragtag mob of darkness-aligned people and creatures.]

[punshots]

I mean, I guess they were, in, like, a "monsters that look like they belong on the front of a death metal album" kind of way. They definitely looked less cool when they were swingin' giant battle axes at the heads of me and my friends.

[ But that's kind of just the way things go when you're a (JRPG) adventurer. ]

[thedarkbond]

Well, that's mostly the kind of cool I meant. Though obviously the battle axes didn't do too much to you in the end, right? Otherwise I feel like you'd be in worse shape...

[Ren can be somewhat blase about potentially life-threatening dangers if they're not happening right now in front of him. And sometimes even then, if it's only happening to him.]

[punshots]

Guess not. Having a buddy with magic and healing energy drinks really goes a long way! ...Geez, the more I talk about this, the more it really does sound like a video game, doesn't it?

[ It's his knowledge of video game tropes that probably got him through they journey, honestly. ]

[thedarkbond]

Oh, that would be useful...but it really does sound like a video game. With your friend as the healer and...what's your fighting style?

[He doesn't look like a tank, but then, that can't always be judged on appearance. But Ren definitely has enough video game trope experience to make the same kinds of observations.]

[punshots]

Oh, I'm the DPS. Ranged physical DPS, if you wanna get specific. I've got a high speed stat that makes up for my lower damage output. Gotta stay balanced with the rest of the team, y'know?

[ It's funny how well that all worked out, huh... ]

[thedarkbond]

Oh, so you're the speedy one and not the big hitter... [Which does make sense, given Prompto isn't the kind of big ridiculous hulk that the really big hitters in games like that tend to be.] That sounds pretty convenient, though. Maybe it was some kind of fated thing.

[punshots]

[ Nope, Gladio is definitely the big ridiculous hulk. Ignis has better group utility and Noctis is a great all-arounder. They really lucked out! ]

I know, right?! I mean, the rest of the guys are wayyyy out of my league as far as experience goes, but I like to think I'm doing okay keeping up with them on the battlefield. If nothing else, I've easily got the best hair.

[ He will take what victories he can get. ]

[thedarkbond]

[Unsurprisingly considering what Ren's hair is like, he gives a light laugh at that.]

There's nothing wrong with just having the best hair. I don't usually have trouble with experience in my world, but in physical combat stuff I'd definitely be lagging behind a lot of people here...

[Not everyone, because he has something like inherited experience from his powers, but he's never had to actually apply it until coming here, so he's not actually trained in doing it in his own body.]

[punshots]

Never too late to start, my dude! Even if you don't wanna go, like, full combat training, if you ever just want a gym buddy, hit me up. Unlike in a video game, I can lose stats if I don't stay on top of my work out, soooo...

[ He's not so sure how he'd do with training, but he's always willing to help a friend out however he can! ]

[thedarkbond]

Hmm, I'll think about it. I'm kind of lazy, so I don't know that I'd keep up with anything like that all that well...

[He's been able to defend himself and people he's come to care about here well enough with his powers so far, so he hasn't truly been motivated to improve himself on the combat front. It has been a consideration, though, since it's not like he doesn't at least have the reflexes for it already.]

[punshots]

You sure? It's easier to keep up with than you think! Plus having a buddy doing it with you really helps. Makes you kind of responsible to each other, y'know?

[ But it's not something he'll push too hard for. Fitness is a big part of his life, but he knows it isn't that way for everyone. ]

[thedarkbond]

Most of my friends would tell you I don't know much about being responsible at all... [Ren says that more like it's something he's heard a lot than something he agrees with, though he's definitely aware it's the case. He gets nagged about it a lot.] Having someone else frowning at me for being too lazy to do something is kind of normal for me.

[At least he sounds...somewhat apologetic in saying it.]

[punshots]

...Oh. [ Well, that kind of reminds him of Noctis, though Noctis isn't quite so flippant about it. ] Well...I wouldn't frown at you for something like that! Only you can decide what you wanna do. Heh, that sounded like one of those inspirational posters...

[ Maybe not a very good one, but you know what he means. ]

[thedarkbond]

I don't know if it counts as inspirational if you're telling someone they're free to be lazy. [Ren points that out rather casually, though he certainly doesn't sound like he's questioning the fact that he is indeed free to be lazy.] But it's nice not to have people on my back about it all the time.

[Even if he does miss the friends who get on his back about it more deeply than he'd ever admit in a public forum.]