The Trippy Hamburger. Open (up to 2 others)

He awoke in total darkness. Slowly, he got to his feet. An echoing sound resonated in the distance, and he turned around in circles, unsure of the source.


"Plungk"


He had to let a few more fall before he could approximate the direction with his ears. He took a few steps forward, before abruptly stopping, realizing he had no idea where he was, or what he was standing on. The ground was... solid but ephemeral. Fingers brushed nothing, but were unable to delve below his feet. As if he was walking on solid air. No edge was detectable either, even when he got to his knees and crawled for several meters in the dark. Eventually, he gave up on being cautious. With a complete lack of sensory ability, there was no way for him to truly avoid obstacles or hazards.


He stood once more, swaying slightly. A couple of loud stomps were strangely silent, and it seemed nothing could disrupt the echo of dripping water. Nothing for it. He started walking. Whatever was under him would support him, until he found a giant chasm indistinguishable from literally everything else.


The distance he walked was endless. Minutes, then hours flew by, with no discernible change in the lack of scenery. The dripping was incessant. It plunked every few seconds like radar or a broken clock striking the only working note. No matter how far he walked, he never tired or got bored. It was as if his body was in a suspended state of motion. The darkness stretched on endlessly.


Time was obviously a little fluid, the normal rules of physics held no power over this realm. After what could have been days - or less than a minute - Rajiasu saw a slash of something in the distance. The dripping emanated from the same direction. The flashing pulsated gently, then disappeared. Then it reappeared for a brief moment, before fading into the darkness once more.


Pins and needles shot through his legs, he hadn't realized he had stopped walking the marathon. The ground seemed less dark than the surrounding horizon or "sky", while still being completely pitch black. It briefly occurred to him for the first time that gravity seemed to be constant. So there were some rules that stayed from the normal world, here.


One foot in front of the other, over and over. The briefly flashing light pulsated regularly, matching the monotonous dripping he had tuned out. The ground slowly became less dark, until it was almost... visible. By now, the dripping and flashing seemed a little faster. Gentle sounds and soft light but clearly defined all the same. His sense of initial confusion had shifted towards wonder at this dream-like real, into annoyance at the never-ending scale.


Finally, his persistence paid off. The light began to flicker more rapidly, and the dripping water sped up until it was impossible to ignore. The ground lightened, and became visible for the first time. Except... it wasn't ground. It was as if Rajiasu was walking on water. He was so surprised, he checked to make sure he hadn't simply practiced surface walking and forgotten. The water rippled with his footsteps, radiating outwards into the darkness, the light glinting off it in rolling waves. Yet he still remained suspended on it's surface, as if he was walking on glass and the waves were merely simulated. He even felt the "water" rolling into his feet, even though it didn't affect his footing or balance.
Eventually he came into a clearing. It wasn't technically a clearing, as there was no true surrounding terrain he broke free from. But there was clearly a delineation on the ground - a circle with darkness outside, and a dimly lit area in the center. Individual droplets of glowing "water" fell from somewhere above and out of sight, their splashes falling and radiating outwards concentrically, disappearing into the bleak darkness with the occasional reflection.


Carefully, he set foot within the perimeter, testing his footing once more. The invisible glass support, or whatever it was, held firm. Once fully inside, he belatedly examined his surroundings, but found nothing else. The dripping had never ceased, and held to an excessively frequent consistency. As if it wasn't natural at all, like the rest of this realm. A true drip would have varied even a little, but for all he knew, Rajiasu was in a social experiment. Nothing going. He reached out to stick his hand in the stream above where it disappeared below the "glass" and joined the puddle underneath.


.............................................................................................................................................................................................


Time seemed to truly stop. Not the weird time bendy nonsense that happened when he seemed to have walked a day on end without tiring, but a genuine stop. The stream had paused for the first time - the droplets hung motionless in the air, one still touching his hand. Everything was still.
Then the water droplet virtually exploded. Not with concussive force, but as if it was expanding like a supernova. Rajiasu briefly saw the water blowing up like a charge had gone off inside, but then it was over almost immediately. Despite the speed, the water didn't hurt when it hit him. Rather, he felt a cool sensation over his body as he was enveloped by the water, and then it was gone. As if the water droplet had expanded to fill the darkness, and he was within a new world. It was odd that he didn't need to breathe, but there were so many other rules broken that this didn't stand out.
Curious, he reached out a hand, and tried to grasp the "air". Nope. It was as if he was swimming in liquid. He tried jumping and found himself suspended, like he was weightless. With some awkward paddling motions, he was able to start "swimming" through the liquid. Like before, he could feel the blue-tinted fluid moving and shifting around him, but it didn't appear to affect his progress. As if he was only partially there....
This time, it wasn't a glow or a sound that compelled him forward. A current pulled him through the ethereal liquid,slowly gaining speed. Slowly, the current sped up and the water began to thin and ultimately disappeared. Rajiasu found himself whizzing along in a sea of nothingness. The pace slowly picked up, and he suddenly noticed it was hard to breathe - that had never been an issue before. Even though everything had become weightless and... a transparent white, his senses screamed at him to get to the ground. Feebly, he tried to crawl through the nothingness back down to where his inner ears told him to, but he made no progress.


What he did notice, despite his lack of progress, was agitations in the nothingness emanating from his body. The nothingness seemed... connected to him. While it was largely invisible, he could feel it moving and shifting with him when he reached out to grab some. Which was good, because he was having trouble breathing due to the rapidly increasing speeds he was travelling at. For the hell of it, he tried to taste some of the nothingness. He expected an awful taste, since then you couldn't be disappointed. Surprise, surprise, the nothingness had no actual taste. It did stick to his face hole though, and he panicked briefly, eventually realizing that he was directly breathing nothingness. It was a ton better than suffocating by accident. He tried to paddle along the ever-accelerating stream, gorging himself on the nothingness. The lightheadness disappeared slowly, his deficit of oxygen somehow eliminated. His internal organs screamed that his body was travelling too fast, but he had no specifics due to the endless transparent whiteness around him.


Like before, there was something in the distance. At first just a dot, but slowly growing. Meanwhile, the nothingness around him began to coalesce, as the G forces took their toll on his thick but oh so weak body. He fought down the urge to throw up, it would be a friggin mess, and he had no idea what would come out. As he was violently slammed around, he saw other dots briefly appear and then disappear in the distance. One was yellow; it glinted and crackled dangerously before disappearing like a dolphin into the sea. A second dot was red, and he felt heat even at immense distance. The third one appeared... immovable, if that made sense. It appeared in one spot, and provided the only sense of distance available in quite some time. This dot felt closer than the others, and it grew rapidly into a mighty fortress surrounded by a swamp. Rajiasu looked away from his path in front of him, trying to sear the details in his head. He felt like this fortress could be important. The fortress had grown in a very short span of time, but suddenly it flashed by his face and was gone. As if he had been travelling at hundreds of speed stat unconsciously. It would explain the G forces his internal organs complained about.


He had forgotten about the first dot in the distance. While he was distracted, it had grown into a solid line, with some small bends in its features. Like the massive fortress before, it rapidly grew in visual details and size while approaching. Unlike the fortress, the line didn't flash by in an instant. The line became blue tinged as he approached, seeming to fade into existence alongside his stream of nothingness. It went in the same direction, but in a spiral pattern, and his own stream of empty nothing began to fulfill the same pattern. The effect was extremely disorienting, and he was glad he hadn't had any alcohol the night before. The blue spiral line radiated... power. Not an aggressive kind like some of the dots in the distance had, but not a totally static stolidness like the fortress. Just... power, and potential. He thought he saw a shark swimming in the spiral for a second, but it was disappeared when he blinked.


Like two coins rolling down a vending machine, the two spirals wobbled back and forth, edging closer and closer, yet somehow never touching. There were a few close calls, and Rajiasu had been tempted to reach out and touch the blue spiral, but he was clearly moving at a rate that could lose him a few fingers in doing so. Wherever the hell he was, he intended to remain whole. That determination lasted all of a few seconds. Slowly, a final dot appeared in the distance, as his body felt like it was approaching lightspeed (300 lol). The spirals at this point were almost intertwined, blue and clearly defined nothingness weaving together into a beautiful twist. A twist that ended in a rapidly growing wall of solid white. Not a nothing-filled white. A solid wall of white, with intricate fractal patterns moving and shifting upon its surface.. Rajiasu gasped in wonder, before realizing he was about to smash face first into it.


There was no time or point in cursing. His journey was over. Through the solid white, he could see superimposed images of... the real world? He recognized some of those landmarks. And one of them was...


Rajiasu slammed into the white wall as it assumed the shape of a snow flake. Rather than blasting through the wall, or being flattened against it from the sheer force of his momentum, he was instantly absorbed in a flurry of white dust. The world went white for a second, and he couldn't help but notice that the two streams had finally ended.

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Rajiasu woke up in a very cold sweat, lying on the ground. A few curious bystanders looked away, the show finally over. Rajiasu was unaware of what had happened in real time though. Slowly, he began to piece it together. He looked around, wondering if anyone would tell him what happened. The bystander effect was in full swing though, and people who had obviously been watching now turned away to go about their own business, perhaps with a new bar story to tell. He sat up, realizing his sweat was unnaturally cold. Almost... frozen. The ground crackled when he shifted his foot, and he realized that a solid ring of ice had formed around him when he slept. Perhaps thats why all his ryo was still on him. Sodden footsteps from the nearby food court were still tracked all over the place. It looked like he had had a struggle with an invisible opponent, he might need to fend off visits to the lunatic asylum. Or check himself out for genjutsu, because that "dream" was freaky as hell.

He got to his feet, and saw something encased in the ice. He grabbed a rock, because he was dumb enough to have not bought the ninja starting pack, and chipped at the ice. The ice was harder than normal, and Rajiasu could have sworn there was an affinity between it and him. Almost as if the ice could be used for actual ninja techniques. Perhaps his clan based ice talents were finally rising to the surface, though this was an odd way to go.

The extracted hamburger had one large bite from it. F***. He remembered now. He had been super stressed about trying to get in shape, and finally had a cheat day. 30 days of solid dieting and hunger and pain, followed by one deluxe double cheeseburger. The cook had upgraded Rajiasu's meal for free, adding some "special ingredients" to it. Rajiasu thought that meant extra pickles, but now he suspected he had either been given something to help train elements - or some kind of trippy drug.

He groaned ruefully. If this was gonna be how his "cheat days" went, while dieting and getting into shape, it could be better to avoid them altogether. After all, you can't out-train a bad diet, especially if a trippy burger screwed you up this badly.

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(ooc: you'd basically see a guy eat a spiked hamburger and wander down the street, before collapsing and having a minor seizure while blasting small amounts of chakra uncontrollably. Then wakes up and figured out what happened.

ttl wc: something meaningful over 2k

edit: Also, Mizuki the resident chef sez eat LSD Hamburgers medium or medium rare)

"Ooorgh..."

He wasn't used to downing drugs at all, let alone of that caliber. He looked wistfully at the hamburger, then up to see a young woman approaching him from some distance. Pinkish hair and blue eyes were a pretty rare combination, at first he thought it was some sort of dye. His eyes flitted away from her for a moment, looking to see if anyone else was with her. She ended up stopping a short distance away, he guessed she didn't want to slip on the ice.

Well, neither did he. He was testing the ice with one foot when she spoke up.

"Hey there, you alright?"

Her tone was pretty casual. He relaxed, no longer worried whether she was going to haul him off to a drug rehabilitation clinic. His toes got his attention for a good ten seconds. To many, it could appear that he was specifically shy around girls, especially those his age. In fact, he was shy around everyone, but that wouldn't be obvious at first glance.

"Erm.... I'm not sure... Do you know what happened to me? I just wanted a sandwich. I've been trying to lose weight and it's... stressful."

He wasn't sure how much he could give away about his inner demons, much less to a new person he'd never met before. If he had a shell, he would have tried to crawl back inside. He sighed, and slowly tripped over the ice on his way to a trash can. If one burger screwed him up this badly, he'd have to eat healthy for the rest of his life! Maybe it was all the additives....

A minor scuffle broke out when he tried to walk back to the girl and slipped. He slid across his own ice and crashed into the back legs of a larger man. While Rajiasu was kind of obvious as a big quiet softie, this other fellow looked a bit meaner. He loomed, and stuck his finger in Rajiasu's chest.

"You looking to start something?"

Rajiasu started backing away slowly, glancing between the (bigger) fellow and the girl who approached earlier. His body stance shrunk visibly as if he could hide in thin air.

*gulp*

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(OOC: When I say "shell", I really mean this:

Spoiler:

attempted to give you more different things to respond too. )

Momoiro wasn't particularly feeling up to doing much interacting with others and she had planned to make an exit once she could safely say the guy was ok. It should have been something simple, but as she watched the boy slip on the ice under him and hit a much larger man, she felt a sigh come over her. Clearly he wasn't ok and this was going to be a much longer interaction than she wanted.

" Does he look like he's trying to start something? It's obvious he bumped into you by accident. "

She started to close the distance between herself and the downed boy, holding her hand out to him once she was close enough to him to do so. She was careful of course as she didn't want to also slip on the ice which she didn't notice right away from where she was standing a moment ago.

" Come on, let's get you out of here before you start another scene. "

Momo smiled at the downed boy, but her eyes quickly flashed as a glare up at the larger man. That seemed to tick him off as he made a move towards the two. He must not have noticed the ice because he slipped over it once he started to move. This nearly caused Momoiro to chuckle but she only returned her gaze back to the boy.

" Ya might want to hurry up... Unless you wanna deal with him if he ever gets his footing. "

She was a lot more careful about the ice than its maker or the pissed off dude. Rajiasu almost slipped a second time when trying to get up on his own, before accepting her hand. Carefully, he would get up, attempting to hold his legs still to prevent extraneous slippage. His feet tracked through the slowly melting ice, testing for solid ground or thick pieces of ice for grip.

At her words, he looked a little downcast, even despite her smile. It was a reminder that he tended to bungle up social interactions. He could manage alright if it was strictly matter of fact. Nuances were a struggle though. At least she was pretty forgiving.

Curse words and an impact - a sudden "thud" behind him. The larger man was sprawled on the ice, and this time he was fully right to be upset. The humor of the situation was lost on Rajiasu though, and he hastily concurred with the young woman.

Hastily, he'd scramble away, with little attention to his direction. Soon, he would check to see if she was still around or if she disappeared into the bystanders. If she had gone in a different direction, he would attempt to catch up, while avoiding the sight of the angry guy stuck on the sheets of ice.

If she hadn't disappeared entirely, he would try to talk to her.

"Umm.... Thanks for earlier.... Sorry to disrupt your day. Can I repay the favor somehow?"

He didn't know her very well, but she was his first real social interaction in a while, and he was loath to end it quickly.

"I had plans, but that hamburger ended them. Maybe I can get you some food in return? Hopefully... not with any funny stuff in them...."

He realized that speaking this way might make him look more suspicious. Oof.

"I mean, I didn't expect the hamburger to be so... potent. Wasn't my idea. I just mean that hopefully any other food I encounter isn't spiked. Not that I would do that myself. Erm."

He shuffled his feet, increasingly awkward, and hopefully appearing as sincere as he felt.

(OOC: Momo said she's going inactive, this is going back to a mostly inactive solo topic)

In the blink of an eye, she was gone. The mysterious pink haired girl had vanished into the mist, disappearing into the crowd from whence she came. It made him sad, losing another potential connection due to the entropy of life. But that was how it rolled, sometimes.

Still....

He felt glum and alone and cold - due to the his inner guilt, hunger, and the ice forming on his hands.

Hastily, the ice was scraped off, clattering quietly to the street, melting into little puddles by his feet. Standing tall, eyes futilely scanning the bystanders, he gave up waiting. Five minutes, no sudden reappearances.

And to think, a punk ass burger started this. They would have never spoken if not for the strange events surrounding his cheat day sandwich. Perhaps oddities were the best way to get started talking to other people, as long as he didn't lose control like he did with the ice forming. If his Yuki heritage wasn't apparent before, it certainly was now. Hopefully word didn't get out; he didn't need people on his tail. There was relative security within the walls of the city, but it was a matter of time before he stepped beyond its protection.

A deep breath and a wistful sigh broke through the surrounding noise for but a moment. Followed by the clanging of food hitting the inside of a trash bin. It was a shame to waste an admittedly delicious burger, but there was no way he could take another bite. The first bite of the spiked burger took his naive self from the burger shop about seven streets over, with seizures and freaky ice sculptures emerging all over. No bueno.

Footsteps trailed away, as he faded back into the crowd....

(exit)

(twc = 3335, claiming 16 stats + all wc towards unlocking wind element)

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