Chapter Text
Next Event Playing Now - Playful Land: ✨ Miraculous Marionettes! ✨
A lot of sighs and groans filled the room. Many of them wanted to leave this place instead of watching more of this crap.
“When will this end…” Idia mumbled as he sank into his chair, Ortho by his side rubbing his brother's arm.
“Even I'm in agreement with him,” Vil said. “Doing another one of these is wearing me down…”
Leona hummed in agreement. He leaned back into his seat. The title of it sounded boring enough, not something he was interested in.
“Playful Land? What an interesting name! Maybe they throw the best parties there! Right Jamil?” Kalim nudged Jamil who rolled his eyes.
“Maybe. But don't be getting ideas for more parties, Kalim.”
Kalim slumped in his chair as he was rejected so coldly, to which Jamil hummed and turned back to the screen.
Yuu looked around and was about to say something before he was interrupted by the screen playing.
“Excuse me, you there. Could I have a moment of your time?”
“Whoa?! Did the screen just talk to us?” Ace asked, pointing towards the screen.
While some showed shocked expressions, others narrowed their eyes in suspicion. It was strange for the screen to be talking to them with a real voice all of a sudden.
“Is it really speaking to us directly..?” Deuce asked, the others also wondering as the speaker continued.
“Yes—you! I'm speaking to you! The budding scholar with a gleam of intellect in your eye!”
Many groaned at the nickname, already done with the sound of the voice. But Yuu had a question in their mind.
“Is the voice speaking directly to someone? It couldn’t be all of us together, right?”
“It's like breaking the fourth wall…” Idia said.
“Ahem... Have you heard of Playful Land?”
There were a few hums and noises but no one really had an answer to the question. It was a place not much had been heard about, perhaps it was new when the place was built?
“Maybe it will be trending in the future?” Cater asked. “If so, we should visit ASAP!”
“It does sound interesting,” Trey said. “But I'm not sure if that's the right call right now…”
“Aww…”
“...Of course you have! And look! That illusionary amusement park just happens to be right here, before your very eyes!”
“As a matter of fact, I happen to have a rare ticket I was thinking of giving to you.”
Lilia hummed as he questioned the illusionary part.
“It seems magic is involved once more, could this be by the voice speaking? Or perhaps something more.”
“It also spoke about giving a rare ticket,” Jade mentioned. “Perchance.”
“Seriously Jade? You can't just use the word ‘Perchance’ by itself.” Azul mentioned, he gave Jade a look but Jade in response, smiled.
“Why, you ask? Why else? Because you've got the makings of a star!”
“Isn't that right?”
“Myah? I got the makings of one?” Grim questioned, but puffed up his chest regardless.
“Looks like this voice knows exactly who they're talking to! Myah-heh!”
Ace scoffed. “As if! With how much trouble you caused past videos, I don't think it’s talking to you.”
Ace smirked but quickly ducked behind Deuce who got swiped in the face by Grim's paw. Yuu grabbed hold of Grim, making sure the beast didn't go for another hit on the other.
“Stop trying to kill each other every few seconds!”
“Myah?! But he started it first–!”
“If you two don't stop fighting, none of us are getting out of here.” Leona grumbled, to which the fighting ceased. Though the pair did glare at each other still, the screening continued to play.
“There, you see? By all means, don't be shy.
I swear on my good name …
...that you'll be the biggest star in the park!”
There were a lot of shocked noises as the figure speaking appeared with someone else. A fox and cat beastmen wearing colorful carnival attire.
Jack sat up a bit at the sight of new beastmen.
“They look like the ones talking to us.” Jack said, the others agreed but Leona pointed out something.
“The other one seems to not speak at all.”
Ruggie shrugged. “Eh, he could be letting the other guy speak is all.”
Vil looked closely at the outfits with a criticizing gaze.
“They don't look too out of place, but the colors and design are certainly…”
Vil tapped his leg.
“Unique.”
Grim’s eyes sparkled with stars as he was imagining himself being the ‘Famous Great Grim’ at the park. No amount of arguing could get Grim out of that mindset so most of the others ignored the beast.
“Got it? Great! Then off to Playful Land we go!”
*whistling*
“…Hah… HAHA.. HAHAHA!”
“Okay, what in the world was that laugh?!” Ace yelled.
“It was the most unserious but serious laugh I've heard…” Yuu mumbled. He knew this was another one of those cliche plot points.
“Ugh… What a grating voice.” Leona said.
“It seems he is the villain according to the ‘Evil Laugh’ all stereotypical villains have in games and stories!” Ortho said.
“Let's just hope this event passes smoothly.” Deuce says.
“As if, all these events always have something coming after us,” Ace waved at the screen. “This is no exception.”
Trey hummed and fixed himself in his seat. Cater noticed this and gave Trey a questioning look.
“You okay there Trey? You're fidgeting more than usual.”
“I'm… fine to say at least, but I don't have a good feeling about this.”
Trey didn't look worried but Cater could tell the other was. He gave Trey a comforting smile.
“We'll be alright, but we have to watch to know what happens, yeah?”
As Cater pats Trey’s arm, he looks at Cater and smiles back.
“Yeah, we do.”