Bria The Human

Empty City part II

"Oh snap! Yeah that's my Gamer tag!" She smiled excitedly. "That must mean you're 1WingedAngel! What a coincide-" She paused, the faint sound of a distant ringing bell reaching her ears. She didn't know what direction it was coming from, but something about it sent a chill down her spine. She gulped, looking at Angel "Did you hear that? Or am I just going crazy?"

Empty City part II

Just saw this! I'm gonna mention in my next post her hearing the shrine bell ringing. That's pretty legit though not gonna lie haha

Empty City part II

Mari grabbed the tray that was left behind and followed the stranger to his table. She gave him kind of an awkward smile before sitting at the empty chair in front of him. Since they were the only two people in the mall it made sense that they would sit together. After hearing him talk about his order being perfect to his usual she took a moment to further inspect her own. Just like his she had the same exact thing she got every time. A large fry, quarter pounder, and a Dr. Pepper. "Uncanny..." She scratched her head in confusion. "But hey, I'm just happy that there was food here."

Ready to bite into her burger, Mari realized that she hadn't answered his question. "You know, I was actually kind of thinking the same thing about you. I've definitely never seen you before, but your voice is very familiar." She searched through her memory trying to figure out where she'd heard him... "OH! Do you like video games by chance? I don't really talk to anyone outside of playing online."

Empty City part II

Mari jumped at the sudden voice from behind her. "Eep! Or, oh, I mean--" She coughed awkwardly trying to gather her words. It'd been a while since she left her apartment. "I feel that, this place is like something out of a zombie film right now." She noticed the guy she was talking to staring at something ahead of her. She turned back around and noticed that there were two trays, already full of food, just sitting there ready to be eaten. She gulped, trying not to show how badly she was ready to go devour one of those burger trays. Her stomach gave her away again however, as she let out a long embarrassing, grumble.

She smiled awkwardly her cheeks flushing. "Uh, sorry about that I'm just pretty hungry is all." She walked up to the trays to inspect them further. "They probably just left these out on accident...orrrr not?" She noticed that both trays had steaming fresh burgers, full drinks, and hot fries. They looked like they had just been made. "I mean it wouldn't hurt if we took these would it, you think?" She looked back at the blonde haired stranger, longing for some kind of approval to dig in.

Empty City part II

[@romikoohara] I'm not gonna lie if I walked outside and saw that I'd probably lose it lmao

Empty City part II

Mari

As Mari was headed towards the mall she noticed that there weren't any other cars on the street with her. That and what should have been a 15 minute drive wound up only being 5. It's probably just because there's so little traffic. Made the trip faster. She looked at her speedometer. Maybe she had been speeding?

Mari pulled into the mall's parking lot, parking near the food court entrance and locking up her car. Whatever was going on, it could wait until she's got something in her belly. She walked through the double sliding doors leading into the food court and started speed walking towards her favorite burger joint. As she made her way through the food court she noticed a very distinct lack of noise. She couldn't hear the bustling of people enjoying their food and talking to each other, the sizzling noise of fryers, the occasional child having a full blown meltdown: there was nothing. She stopped in front of Burger Paradise. "This is way too weird." It was 2:00 in the afternoon shouldn't there be a lunch rush right about now? If the mall is closed then why aren't the doors locked? Way too many questions...

Empty City part II

Mari

"Mari, you are the love of my life. Will you marry me?" Prince Yuki got down on one knee and presented Mari with a beautiful diamond ring.

Mari clicked "A" accepting his marriage proposal. "You've made me the happiest man alive <3." A marriage scene rolled for about 2 minutes before end credits started scrolling on the screen. Mari smiled weakly, having pulled yet another all nighter playing her newest dating sim "For the Love of a Prince."

"Finally... finally, I've got the ending that I wanted." She had already played through this game three times trying to unlock all the endings. In one ending she married the Prince's brother. In another she was discovered fooling around with the prince's servant and wound up in heartbreak. Finally she was the prince's bride though. She raised her hand up above her head in victory, tearing up a little. This was probably just due to the fact that she'd been staring at her computer screen for the past 12 hours straight. In a dark room. Alone.

Mari's stomach grumbled. She had ordered food at 10:30, so it should be arriving any second now. She checked her watch for the time. Wait... what? That couldn't be right. According to her watch it was 2:00 in the afternoon. She scratched her head in confusion. It usually never took them this long to deliver her food. Maybe they forgot her order? Mari picked up her cell phone and began dialing Happy Burger. The phone rang about 6 times before leaving an error message. Her stomach growled again.

"GrrrrrrrrUGHHH I'm HUNGRY DAMMIT!"

She checked her phone to see if they had already taken the money out of her account. Maybe she had forgotten to pay online. She opened her mobile banking app. Nope. She definitely paid. Sighing in frustration Mari slowly stood up from her blanket cocoon on the floor of her apartment. "Guess I better go find somewhere else to eat..."

Mari trudged through the cluttered mess that was her apartment until she reached her clean clothes basket. She quickly grabbed a shirt off the top that said "Straight out of dimension C-137" and some blue mom jeans. She walked towards the door grabbing her car keys and stepping into the same pair of slip on shoes she'd had for the past two years now. She cracked the door, opening it very slowly as her eyes needed time to adjust to the brightness outside. Squinting uncomfortably, she walked outside. Luckily her apartment was located on the first floor so it made getting to her car that much easier. She had a cute, yellow 2010 bug. A lot of people wondered why she didn't buy herself a sports car now that she had so much money, but honestly her old car works and that's all that counts to her. She hopped inside, starting the car and immediately reaching for the red bull she had left in her cup holder yesterday.

Or at least she thought she left it? Her hands grasped at nothing but air and she looked down to see that there was nothing in her cupholder. Not even her old drive thru napkins or straw wrappers. "Well, that's weird..." Luckily she kept an emergency stash in her back seat. She turned around, once again reaching for nothing but air. Her confusion only continued to grow as she realized that not only did she not have any Red Bull in her car, she didn't have ANYTHING in her car. All of the trash was gone from the seat floors, the seats didn't have any stains or tears on them... what exactly was going on here? Mari's stomach grumbled yet again. "I'm too hungry to think about this right now." Mari sat up, throwing her car in reverse as she prepared to exit her apartment's parking lot. That's when she noticed something even weirder. Her bug was the only car in the entire lot.

Maybe everyone was at work? No... because there should at least be a few cars from the people who work in the building. She shook her head, convincing herself that there had to be a reasonable explanation for the uber clean car and the astonishingly empty lot. She was probably just so sleep deprived that her brain was coming up with all this craziness. She laughed at how ridiculous the whole situation seemed. Who ever complained about a clean car right?

Mari pulled out of the parking lot. She's probably just been cooped up too long. Maybe a trip to the mall would help? It'd been a while since she'd talked to people who weren't characters in a game. She pulled out her phone and plugged the mall's address into her maps.

Empty City part II

Ooh, the gamer friends will meet up. Maybe Mari and James can bump into each other grabbing burgers lol

@Azure Flame

Yesss that'd be awesome lol

I need to ask how many have an idea of what a dysonsphere is and what it might look like once the clouds clear

This is one of the few pictures I can find to show what it might look like and this would be a smaller sphere than I thought but lets go with it

@RumikoOhara

That looks wicked cool :o never heard of it, but it's a great visual.

Empty City part II

Mari

Name: Mariana Ingram (Mari)

Age: 20

Description: Mari LOVES video games. Specifically dating sims. She spends most of her time locked up in her room binging different RPG love stories and finding the princes of her dreams. She doesn't leave her apartment nearly as often as she should, or at least that's what she's been told by her family... Honestly though, who needs real friends when virtual ones are so much better? Plus it's not like she NEVER leaves. She has quite a few different spots she loves to eat at. Mari is an absolute foodie. She'll try anything once, doesn't matter what it is. Her family still has no idea how she manages to eat as much as she does and only weigh 145 pounds. Honestly it's a mystery. You're probably wondering how she can manage to afford this lifestyle without working. Well it helps when your super rich grandmother dies and leaves you a VERY healthy amount of money behind (rest in peace). Her family doesn't approve of the way that she uses this money, but it makes Mari happy. She's a pretty good person, she treats others nicely when she sees them and she sticks to herself for the most part. Most people don't understand her lifestyle, but she doesn't really have a problem with that. The way she sees it if they're not willing to try to understand then they're probably not worth making friends with.

Empty City part II

@rumikoohara Thank you for accepting! A strip mall sounds like a good place :) Do you think some of our character's should start heading towards the strip mall now?