Despite the standard day and night cycle, some of you may notice this place still doesn’t feel quite right, a bit outside of time. That shouldn’t stop you from having fun! And should you need to go back to the Grove — or if you’re someone looking to get into Neo Eden in the first place — you need only to gaze into a mirror placed in each of your bedrooms or apartments and wish to go home… which may lead you to fall catastrophically through it to the other side. Try not to hit your chin on the ground.
Life goes on regardless. In this city, there’s a lot to do. You could go shopping at the strip mall near Mania Square, where Heimr and Ydalir have set up a temporary shop to continue to provide for everyone’s needs. They’ll still take shells, but there’s nothing much they can do if you run out of Credits — both will gently suggest you find work in Neo Eden. You guys own businesses back at the Grove, it can’t be that bad, can it?
The good news is, Mr. Bone-Jangles and his entourage of skeletons who you swear weren’t originally here 12 hours ago are happy to help you get a job, where the interview process involves simply “showing up and asking your holographic boss if you can be employed”. Starting your own business is more difficult — you’ll need a loan from the bank! — but not impossible. Any hologram humans that come in to buy things will ignore you, get what they want, and leave. The only time you can interact with your fellow neon-coloured humans is when they’re making a purchase, at which point their items will digitize and they’ll leave. All very odd, but at least the customers aren’t rude to you… or your skeletal coworkers who have joined you for back-breaking labour.
After work, perhaps you want to head to the amusement park — Thrill Point is an utterly massive one to the far northeast of the city past the river that cuts through the digital roadways. With drop towers, roller coasters, rides for little babies who hate heights and fun, and tons of food stalls to stop at, you could feasibly spend all night here and almost forget that you have to be at your next shift in the morning! If you seek a different thrill, Arcadia is a nightclub southwest of Mania Square, where the music plays all night, the liquor flows freely, and anyone under 21 who enters gets marked with an X on the back of their hand by a harmless laser beam. Just outside Arcadia is a small photo booth named “The Swap”, and if you enter with a partner, both of you hitting the “TAKE PHOTO” button will bodyswap you for 12 hours. It will also print out a funny photo of you as a keepsake. Enjoy being someone else for a while!
Head to the Rent-a-Ride, where you can rent any vehicle on wheels — electric scooters, cars, motorcycles, hoverbikes — as long as you can pay the expensive fee. Speeding will get you a ticket from your local robopolice; breaking standard civilian laws will get you arrested and thrown into the unmanned city jail. And try not to tailgate or crash your ride — not only will you be on the hook for vehicle damages, but you’ll be shafted with a ludicrous hospital fee. Seriously, people live like this?
But, if a calm walk through nature is more your style, City Park and its
digital trees to the north may suit your needs. The fish in the river here can be fished up by hopeful anglers, though all are wiggly, inedible robots. Hm.
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sticksandbones2025-04-01 12:12 pm
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Wolfwood has no way to get out of here, as what Add has sealed him into is essentially a glorified death trap. Like, sure, he wants people to not be able to escape, but this kind of thing kills people. It kills people Add!!
Watching as the dark smoke billows out thicker and thicker into the room, the high pitched whine growing in intensity, the only thing Wolfwood can think to do is stagger to his feet, using his good foot to kick the bed over onto its side. It’s not going to protect him much if the room literally blows up, but maybe he’ll be saved from having a limb blasted off if he throws himself behind it.
Only one way to find out!]
no subject
And then, with a final cough of black smoke, the thrum of machinery and malfunction congeals into a deafeningly loud boom
The entire wall explodes in a burst of light and sound, shrapnel shooting out in every direction. The toilet is shattered into hundreds of pieces. Tiles everywhere. Huge chunks of "near-indestructible" metal are sheared apart and embedded in the walls, slicing clean through the cell bars like butter. The bed is getting shredded and set on fire. The hole blows clean through to the next cell over, which is thankfully empty, and also sets that bed on fire. The power cuts out only moments later, leaving only the flames to illuminate the destroyed cell as smoke starts pouring into the hallways and through the thin gap above the fake-window which was actually hiding a real-window the entire time.
anyway, it takes a minute for Add to kick down his own door and make it over here to the cells. He just stands there and stares at this mess for a bit, jaw hanging open.]
... my security system...
cw: blood/some gore
What that will be remains to be seen, because Wolfwood is quite literally buried in rubble currently. From the shrapnel, to the tiles, to the chunks of the actual wall that fell over onto him and the bed he was shielding himself with, it’s by sheer luck that he didn’t end up getting any of his limbs lopped off by the blast. HOWEVER…
When Add comes into the cell, once he’s looked past all of the destruction and the fire, the flames licking up the walls and smoldering on various debris piles will light up the pool of slick crimson that’s spreading from the center of the floor outwards near where he’s standing. It’s coming from Wolfwood’s body, laying half underneath the toppled-over bed, his blazer torn open in places by the blast, smoking from the flames in others. Very little of his exposed skin was protected from getting lacerated to some degree, but the worst of all of it is where all of that blood’s coming from: Wolfwood’s side having been quite literally blasted open, a hole punched straight through from front to back. It’s almost poetic, that Add would stab him in the opposite side that Elsword stabbed him all those long months ago, resulting in his first death.
Even more ironic that Add would be the cause of the second, because he sure is not moving. Or breathing.]
no subject
Oh. Ohhhhh fuck.
He starts cursing under his breath, hastily tossing the rubble aside with his drones as he tries to assess the damage—the fire is ALSO not helping, this cell is NOT equipped with a proper fire extinguisher Great fucking El this is a shitshow. He settles for tossing the bed into the neighbouring cell, kneeling down in the pool of blood to get a better look at Wolfwood up close.
It does not look any fucking better up close.]
H...hey! Hey, come on! [reaching out to touch his shoulder, like maybe he might shake him awake from this ???? horribly fatal-looking wound, but common sense wins out enough to not actually start shaking his body. His grip on Wolfwood's shoulder is still tight.] Don't you dare pass out on me like this! If I have to call that idiot... you have any idea how upset he'll be, if he comes and finds you like this?! If I have to tell him I...
[He killed him. He didn't mean to, but who's going to believe that when they see what he's been working on? Ain's going to find out, and he'll hate him for it, and then everyone else here... they'll all turn on him, and then]
Fuck... fuck! Dynamo— [if Wolfwood isn't dead he should probably say something before Add starts trying to like. shock his heart back to life and sear his wounds shut with lasers because he has NO other plan to fall back on here, he is NOT equipped for sane medical treatments only the kind that makes you worse]
no subject
The vials do not heal instantly like they do back home. It will take a few minutes to fully stitch the wounds over, which is why he won’t waste time as he fades in and out of consciousness, weirdly grounded by the hand on his shoulder and Add’s shouting above him.
Huh. So the guy is capable of feeling remorse after all, if only for Ain’s sake and not his own.
Hm.
Wolfwood shifts under Add’s grasp, and with an absolutely Herculean effort, he manages to turn over enough to rip open the pouch on his hip, causing a couple glass vials to clatter out to the floor. He’ll worry about the others later as he manages to catch his shaking fingers on one, bringing the entire thing up to his mouth. He puts the glass between his teeth and bites down hard, the glass breaking with a sharp crack that releases the blue, almost glowing liquid so he can swallow it. Gasping, the glass falls empty to the floor by his head as he lays there as….smoke? Steam? SOMETHING rises up from the wounds on his body as the serum works, pumping frantic through his veins to heal him over faster than the grim reaper can pull him away.
It’s a familiar feeling.]
no subject
[... but he's also reaching for something. A vial? Medicine? Add hesitates, unsure if he should interfere. His attention is drawn instead to one of the vials on the floor, rolling lazily through the pool of blood... a dynamo floats down to investigate. Hmm.
It's a risk, but he decides to let this play out. Wolfwood is going to have five dynamos up in his business whenever he breaks out of the near-death haze, while Add merely watches with a curious expression. Maybe a little nervous, too, until the man starts to stabilize himself, but once the immediate danger has passed it's all very fascinating.]
... impressive for a potion. High energy readings, but I'm not familiar with this chemical structure... [he's picked up the second vial by now, twirling it between his fingers to stare at the liquid inside.]
no subject
Of course, he made a promise to himself and those that care about him that he wouldn’t overdo the serums anymore. Take more than one and you run the risk of exploding your heart. He’s specifically been engineered for the vials to work on him, so he doesn’t like to think about what would happen if a normal person tried to use one. They’d just get poisoned and die horribly, he imagines.]
Ain’t…a potion.
[Wolfwood finally manages to rasp, eyes glassy as he looks at Add with his gaze unfocused, not yet coherent enough to try to push Dynamo out of his face. Right before Add’s eyes as the seconds tick by, more steam billows up from Wolfwood’s body as his body repairs itself, the worst of the wounds sealing over completely in a matter of a few minutes. The only evidence he was ever hurt is all of the blood he lost, along with a scar that will remain there since the serum isn’t as effective in this world.
Yet, even though he’s laying there in a sea of his own blood, he can’t help but feel a sort of grim satisfaction over seeing Add fuck up for once. Mr. Perfect isn’t quite so Perfect all the time, Wolfwood thought as he was literally dying-]
no subject
[He probably shouldn't be acting so calm, but he is curious, and he can relax now that Wolfwood isn't bleeding out in front of him. And if Wolfwood was hoping Add might be apologetic for almost killing him he's gonna be disappointed. It's science time now.
There are two dynamos huddling around his new scar and another uncomfortably close to his neck. At least the other two will offer him help getting back up, if he needs it.]
Vitals are stabilized... I have to admit, it's impressive. Even Ain couldn't heal a wound like that so quickly. Just what are you...?
no subject
It only works on me.
[So! You know, more questions than answers, honestly.]
I’m a freak of nature, and you’re…damn lucky I am, too. That’s all you need t’know.
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But also, uhhh it's probably a bad idea to lay down on the ground while there is an active fire in the room over and explosion damage all around...? Where are the robofirefighters, this city is going to fall apart. Add just sighs, standing up.]
Freak of nature, but still susceptible to damage. Kukuku, careful if you ever decide to cross me. Now that I know what your physical limits are...
[Despite that ominous threat, Dynamo converges around his body to gently wedge themselves underneath Wolfwood—hello, you are going to be air-lifted out of here. It probably feels weird as hell, but despite their size Dynamo is fully capable of lifting him effortlessly. Following behind Add as he steps over the rubble and heads down a hallway that isn't full of smoke...]
Try not to struggle too much, unless you want to drag yourself out of here on your hands and knees.
no subject
But anyway, he kindof…sighs, staring up at the ceiling with blood still swimming in his eyes as the pain dulls more and more the longer the serum stays in his system, though he knows he’s going to have a miserable headache later because that’s just the fucking way of it.]
You might wanna watch your mouth. If you ever try to pull this kind of shit on me again, I won’t be holdin’ back for Ain’s sake anymore.
no subject
They make it through the end of the hallway, and... Add stops, clicking his tongue. Instead of another normal hallway or an open space, there is a split path. He pulls down a holoscreen.]
Are you... ugh, this is broken, too?! How many systems did that damage... [and swapping his holoscreen over to a map because yeah, they're in the fucking labyrinth. If Wolfwood thought Add was being merciful by trying to give him another way out of the escape room he obviously didn't know Add has a labyrinth installed outside.] This is going to take at least a week to repair... take out some of the weapons for calibration...
[there is a 50/50 chance something still explodes better get out of there soon]
no subject
Are you seriously worried…about that now? We need to fuckin’ get out of here before this whole place goes up in flames.