[Heart Game - Ed, Maya, Roxy]

[carptricks]

[It's dark. You're trying to move forward, but it feels like your limbs are weighed down by chains and shackles. Still, you push. You push and you pull and those chains are pulled taut and strained until suddenly--]

[Something snaps]

[You tumble forward, wind blowing past your face, until you lose awareness of anything around you. . .]

((another run ran concurrent to this one here))

Comments

THE HOUSE

[soulping]

[The house you approach is surrounded by a wooden fence with a gate, and there are even some plants growing around the front door. Rose bushes, mostly. As with the other buildings, there are vines creeping up the sides. But other than that, it is a completely, totally, and utterly normal house]

[Except for one thing]

[It doesn't have a front door. It does, however, have a welcome mat where the front door would be]

[From here, you can access the docks and the city hub. Or you can look around a bit more]

Re: THE HOUSE

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Huh, that is odd.]

[Let us investigate the welcome mat!]

[soulping]

[it's a black welcome mat with white letters that spell. . . well. WELCOME]

[seems pretty normal, if placed fairly haphazardly on the ground. it isn't straight at all]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Let's look under it. There's a trope about things under welcome mats in TV, worth doing.]

[soulping]

[You lift up the welcome mat, which turns out to be a pretty smart decision, because lo! You find a note!]

[It says "knock three times." Kaito wtf]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Knock three times?]

....

[Sets down the welcome mat, and straightens it.]

[...knocks three times on the mat.]

[soulping]

[nothing happens]

[perhaps it's not the mat you're supposed to knock on]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[All right.]

[Looks where a door SHOULD be.]

[knocks on the air three times.]

[I WILL BE A MIME.]

[soulping]

[Your knocks echo against the brick of the wall. Nothing happens. At least. . . not immediately]

Paaaaaaaassword!

[Calls a female voice from the other side. It's young-- belongs to someone around Kaito's age. Someone whose name starts with "A" and rhymes with "oko."]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Oh hey. It's Epsilon's guy's friend.]

Aoko, can I please come in?

[soulping]

[from the other side of the wall, Aoko huffs]

That's a request, not a password!

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Open saysme?

[soulping]

. . . [pfffft Aoko laughs]

Mmm, close enough. But can I ask you one more question, first?

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

Sure.

[soulping]

Who is Kuroba Kaito?

[she asks, almost wistfully]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

...he's Kaito.

He's got his masks, his personas, but at the end of the day, he's Kaito underneath it all.

[soulping]

That's so simple!

[she says with a laugh]

Hmmm. . . but okay, I'll let you in. Just a moment!

[The bricks of the wall suddenly start to shift right before your very eyes, until they create an arching doorway for you to walk through. LIKE MAGIC. And should you step inside. . .]

[You find yourself standing not in a house, but a large workshop instead. Several folding tables line the walls, and those tables are covered with all kinds of magic nick knacks: decks of cards, top hats, colorful scarves, fireworks, articles of clothing (like socks and boxers. . .) tossed about with no regard for proper organization. There's also a cozy looking sofabed (recognizable as the one from Aoko's dorm) stuffed in one of the corners with a green blanket draped across one of the arms]

[To your right is a bookcase filled with book after book, all stacked on top of each other in neat little piles. To your left is a nightstand with one drawer and a vase of roses on top. And in the center of the room is a desk with a rolling chair pushed riiight up next to it. On top of the desk is a closed laptop and a couple of school textbooks]

[Aoko is nowhere to be seen, but there is a door on the wall opposite from you. Funny, it seems to be covered in chains. . .]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

It usually is. It's all the layers on top that get weird.

[LOOK AT ALL THE COOL THINGS THOUGH.]

[Okay, but first....]

[Let's check the laptop.]

[soulping]

[You open the laptop, which thankfully isn't password protected! Either that or someone forgot to log off before they closed it. You see the words "MEMORY BANK" flash before the screen, before you're redirected to a menu]

> Home
> Kyriakos
> Jungle

[Which do you choose?]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Memories.]

[....]

[Kyriakos.]

[soulping]

[You're redirected to another menu. This one contains a list of names of everyone Kaito has ever met in Kyriakos, Echoes and team members alike. it seems to be easier to sort them that way]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[Well, let's look at her name.]

[soulping]

[a third menu flashes on the screen]

> Roxy's soul game
> Knut's murder mystery
> Nyssa's popularity contest
> Two thieves

[. . . among others, but those are the ones near the veeeery top, ranked by significance]

[thevoidsdarkhorse]

[....]

[I'm gonna regret this, but it's my heart, SO I DON'T EVEN CARE]

[Gonna check that soul game one.]

[soulping]

[WELL]

[I HOPE YOU ENJOY WATCHING A CINEMATIC RETELLING OF KAITO'S JOURNEY THROUGH YOUR HEART GAME]

[from his point of view of course]

[because]

[yeah]

[it plays on the laptop screen from start to finish, and it sure is a loooong memory]