Work Text:
When Kou got lost in the woods nearby, he didn't expect to come across an abandoned building so huge. Neither did he expect to find two dusty old looking virtual-reality headsets in one of the long had collapsed rooms.
So what would any rational minded boy do in this situation ?
Perhaps he should've been a rational minded boy.
"So, you're telling me you found this in a collapsed old building ?" Sousuke, who was sitting at his desk, had wiped off most of the dust, and was staring at the logos with interest that was most definitely above his average.
Kou nodded behind him, which he couldn't see, but couldn't care either. He was half paying attention to the one intruder in his room and weirdly focused on the object in his hand.
"C&A" was inscripted on the side, which didn't ring a bell, but surely did it spark his curiosity even more. Kou was pretty sure Sousuke was a total nerd, probably the nerdiest nerd he's ever known, but probably would it be better not to say that out loud.
"Maybe we should try them on. Worst case they don't work and we throw them away. It's worth a try !!" He finally dared to say.
"Are you insane !? This isn't the worst case scenario, there is so much worse that could happen !!" Sousuke replied in a scream as he presented the headset to him.
"A damaged device can very easily explode. What would you do if I put this on and it injured me !?" He yelped as he pointed at the used and damaged points. There were many of them, and it was most definitely true that if they did work, they wouldn't play their content smoothly.
"Then I'll put it on first." He snatched the headset out of Sousuke's hands, looked at it for a few seconds, rotating it within his grasp before finally wearing it.
The second he put it on, he felt as if his body was quietly leaving the floor of Sousuke's room, as if he'd been sucked out of the realm he grew up in. It was all pitch black, until soon enough there were multiple colours surrounding him, so bright he was sure he was seeing them wrong. Then the noise came, irrelevant at first, but persisting enough that it took just a moment before there was a scream he couldn't ignore. He turned his head towards that scream, and was met with a cartoonish version of his best friend, staring straight into his skull.
"Kou, what is this !?"
"I don't know..." He looked down at his own hands and realised they were the same, but oddly cartoonish and that just screamed something was wrong in his guts.
Both of them tried taking the headsets off, but it seemed they had vanished, and they were now stuck somewhere they weren't quite sure was virtual. But it had to be, right ? It's not like you could magically shift to another reality. This only happened on social media, where people would share methods on how to do exactly that and swear it was real, not lucid dreaming.
"Who are you, people ?" A voice echoed behind them.
Sousuke was quicker to react and turn around. He was met with a tall plushed purple bunny, also cartoonish just like them.
"Sousuke what the fuck is that." Kou said.
"Probably a character in the game." Sousuke replied, calm as ever.
"Me, a character ? You guys sound like the npcs here. But it's okay, I forgive you, you're probably not programmed to understand that." The bunny laughed.
"What the hell is it talking about ?"
"I don't know." They whispered to eachother.
"You know, there are people in this circus, like me, who are just meant to be better than others like you. Think of me as the main character, and you two as the extras nobody will remember. Doesn't that make much more sense now ?" The bunny smirked in a way that made Sousuke's face scrunch up.
"Do you have any idea how to get out of this place ?" The blonde asked, ignoring the plushie's visible pride.
"Huh ?" The bunny frowned.
"No you can't get out of here, you're trapped here forever buddy."
"You're lying, there has to be a way we can get those headsets off."
"Well maybe there is, and maybe if you accept to submit to my greatness I'll tell ya. Who knows ?"
Kou's eyes filled with disgust. He turned to look at Sousuke, who seemed in about the same state of mind.
"No thank you, we'll find our own way..."
"Oh please, you think you can work your way around here ? You'll realise soon enough that you guys are worthless puppets, whose only goal...Is to amuse me when you cry."
Sousuke cringed at those last words, and it didn't take long for Kou to give up on his barely straight face too.
"Oh, dear magical circus, can you please give me a gun..." Sousuke loudly pleaded.
To everyone's surprise, a gun formed out of thin air into his right hand. He didn't think twice before he aimed at the tall purple bunny plush...
"W-wait ! I was k-ki-"
...And shot.
The world disassembled almost as quickly as it assembled, and soon it was all pitch dark again and Kou could feel his hands on the headset. He slowly took it off and sighed in relief when he saw he was back in Sousuke's room, himself standing beside him with his headset already back on the desk.
"Thank goodness it was all fake."
"Did you seriously think for a second that it was real ?"
"Let's throw these away."
"That's what I said in the first place."