Post by NobleAlyssum on Feb 18, 2014 17:13:50 GMT -8
This is an archived roleplay transcript that was transferred from the old site. Some of the formatting was messed up along the way, as well as the text. This is a CLOSED roleplay.
Alright! Finally doing the thing! I'll keep key info here as well.
References
Caveats and Condolences
An Examination of the Basics
The Long and Short. The Medium Too.
Some Stuff About Captcha Codes and Punch Card Alchemy
Appendix Three. Screen Captures, pt. 1
Rose:Engress
SBURB Controls
Characters
AlexMagram - Page of Time - Prospit - Female - vociferousMiwok - #ff590a
WessSpingel - Seer of Void - Derse - Male - frigidAllurement - #aad3e3
BernFiachra - Witch of Doom - Derse - Male -minutiaeConnoisseur - #77b709
LetaDarnell - Seer of Heart - Derse - Female - schemingSphinx - #fefb51
LukeEvans - Knight of Void - Prospit - Male -cantankerousCompletionist -#2f6bff
RhysMorgan - Heir of Space - Prospit - Female - halcyonTsiologist - #47da91
UniversePairs
UniverseOne: Luke Evans, Bern Fiachra
UniverseTwo: Wess Spingel, Leta Darnell
UniverseThree: Rhys Morgan, Alex Magram
Alex sat slumped in her desk chair, doing absolutely nothing of importance. She would probably argue otherwise, of course; scrolling through the Star Wars wiki was something she might consider of utmost importance, and in fact a positively vital practice, one that should be performed on a daily basis.
It is safe to say, though, that this was not something that would impact anyone's life in any kind of notable way.
Sometimeduring this rather dull period of time, though, something slightly more important happened; the red-flippy-deally on the mailbox outsideher home was suddenly noticed as having been flipped upwards,signifying the arrival of what Alex could only hope was the game herfriends had made her order ages ago.
Ages ago.
She had no idea why it had decided to arrive now,rather than something like a month ago when it should have come, but here it was... she hoped. With luck, it was that, rather than some kind of dead animal for her father to stuff. She blamed the postal service, as always. Actually, she was fairly certain that,should she ever become a superhero, the postal service would be her arch nemesis.
Oh, fuck it. She didn't even need to be a superhero. That was already true, without a doubt.
Alex pulled herself out of her chair and away from her computer, and rushed outside the get her package anyways, half-excited and half-furious at the postal service, as she usually was. Upon opening up the mailbox, she discovered that it was indeed her package! Well, packages. There were two of them, both indifferent colored boxes, and both as beautiful as Princess Leia herself. Suddenly way less furious at the postal service, Alex ran back inside to her computer.
Then, opening a memo that had existed between herself and a few of her friends, she notified the group of gamers she'd been planning on playing with of this exciting new development.
CURRENTvociferousMiwok [VM]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CVM: GUYS
CVM: guys
CVM: the postal service finally came through
CVM: well actually they probably realized how fucking angry i was
CVM: and decided that the smartest idea would be to hand over the stuff
CVM: before i got REALLY mad and just
CVM: pummeled their asses with my slingshot
CVM: but anyways
CVM: the package came
CVM: the game is here
CVM: im loading the disks as we speak
CVM: lets do
CVM: the thing!
Leta turned away from the open window she had been staring out of for the last few minutes.She wondered if that old man hobbling down to the bus station knew that there was a hole in his jacket that was dropping all his loose change. Well obviously not, or he would do something about it. The noise of the cars passing by was beginning to grate on her nerves, so she quickly closed the window, and turned to head up stairs.Everything about the area she was in seemed to be rather dull and uninteresting.
She had been feeling rather bored lately. All of the books in their personal library had already been read, and she couldn't travel to the public one everyday. Her home had been having problems with the internet, and though the issue had finally been fixed, it meant that she hadn't been able to go online as much. Of course that meant she couldn't find solace in her conversations with her internet friends, or look up riddles. She had taken to writing some poetry in her spare time, as she so did appreciate the beauty of writing. But it really was no replacement for actual interaction with people she liked. Some more than others...
She shook her head,clearing her thoughts and continued towards her room. Maybe one of her friends was online, and she could break free from the unusual bout of ennui that had overtaken her today.
Settling down on her bed, she picked up her laptop and powered it on. Scrolling through her recent messages she found one that caught her eye. Alex had responded to the memo... Quickly she began to type out a response. It looked like this day would be a break from the recent tedium afte rall.
CURRENTschemingSphinx [SS]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
VM: im loading the disks as we speak
VM: lets do
VM: the thing!
SS: Well, it seems at last
SS: We can finally begin this game.
SS: At least your tussle
SS: With postal services
SS: Has finally come to
SS: An end I believe.
Leta hoped that everyone else would get on soon. She hated the simple, boring days the most.
It was a headache. Good god, it was a headache like he’d never known. Quitting smoking was just not something he could manage right now. Not at all. No amount of RTS games could alleviate this. Fortunately, however, this guy wasn’t using RTS games as a form of medication; he’d already tried taking aspirin, and… that had done a lot of good. Where the hell was the Excedrin?
No, really, he knew the only way he was going to fix this was to smoke another cigarette.Fine, then. Resolve shattered. The addiction was just too strong for his constitution. But not his actual willpower. Definitely not.
But what was the name of this young man?
> Enter name.
VAINGLORIOUS WISEASS
Unfortunately, the young man clearly has a problem with this, and now he is staring you down with an icy, arrogant glare in a way that makes you want to change your mind very quickly. Perhaps you were right about this guy.Too right. Eep!
> BERNARD FIACHRA
That seems to satisfy the young man… kind of. The cold glare remains, though, and he gestures to you, as if to go on.
> BERN FIACHRA
Finally, some kind of satisfaction for him, and some kind of relief for you. It appears you are now Bern Fiachra.
Oh right, headaches are still a thing. Bern groaned slightly, sighing as the throbbing pain returned after the distraction had passed. What a miserable existence. Time to fix this problem… He stepped out briefly to find a cigarette. Before long he was back in his computer chair with a cig, taking a long drag… and that was when he noticed the memo. Was it the flashing lights or the persistent noise that was inspiring his newest migraine? Perhaps so. Either way, he’d view it now so the problem didn’t persist any longer than it had to…
So, it seemed that Alex had finally received her copy of the game. She really had complained about it a lot lately… Bern glanced furtively over toward the small (meticulously organized) pile on the corner of the coffee table, a faint expression of distaste crossing his features. In someways, he’d hoped that his friends would forget about this thing they had insisted they all do together, but… well, some of them just wouldn’t let the idea go, would they?
Hm, Leta had responded.Ugh, she seemed perfectly willing to play, too. Well, it was histurn.
CSS: At least your tussle
CSS: With postal services
CSS: Has finally come to
CSS: An end I believe.
CURRENTminutiaeConnoisseur [MC]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CMC: With all due respect, I completely understand why all of you are so adamant about playing this game.
CMC: But must we really do this? I have so many prior obligations, as I’msure you are all markedly aware.
CMC: And this stack of books is clearly not going to read itself.
CMC: Moreover, I highly doubt that some video game is going to hold my attention captive in quite the same way that Plato’s Republichas for the past few days.
There. Now maybe he could settle in with a book for the rest of the evening. At least,his headache was subsiding. Smoking always worked. Every time. But such were the throes of addiction.
Wess laid on his back across his twin-sized bed, feet crossed near the bottom. He held, as was usual, a well-worn novel in his thin fingers,which was opened to a page near the end and had the words "The Princess Bride" scrawled across the cover, over what looked like a painting of a couple darting through a murky old forest.
He was absolutely entranced by the book, and had good reason for it; The Princess Bride was his favorite novel, and, according to him, simply the best book ever written. Ever. He'd been reading it for what was probably the something-in-the-thousands-th time all morning, and now he was only a couple pages from the end. Fezzik was carrying the Princess down to her giant white horse, and Westley was nearing his second death.
A few minutes later Wess finally set the book down, deciding he'd read the first tantalizing chapter of Buttercup's Baby at a later time. Or, rather, he had grown fed up enough with the little beeping reminders his computer was giving him to get him to read his new messages. He sat before his dinosaur of a desktop computer, and finally paid some attention to Pesterchum because oh,right, that was important.
A smile lifted the corners of his mouth when he read through Leta's messages, as it usually did, and then dropped in annoyance with Bern's. Well, at least they were disagreeing about something. All he had to do was support her, then. Not too hard, considering he'd been rather excited to play this game anyways. He'd heard good things about it, and other than the inclination it seemed to have towards aggression, it sounded fun. Plus, it was something he could do with all of his friends (and a couple more that were less so). That was nice.
CMC: And this stack of books is clearly not going to read itself.
CMC: Moreover, I highly doubt that some video game is going to hold my attention captive in quite the same way that Plato’s Republichas for the past few days.
CURRENTfrigidAllurement [FA]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CFA: Of course it will not.
CFA: A video game is more than a story, but rather a combination of plot,writing, character development, artistic design, and musical composition.
CFA: A book is, while lovely, simply not the same.
CFA: But of course, one cannot expect your tastes to be so refined as to appreciate that.
CFA: I assume you would much rather sit about and watch Jeopardy a few hundred more times.
Meanwhile, Bern had turned his attention back to his cigarette. Now that he'd mentioned Republic, he was starting to feel inclined to go back and read some more. But just as he'd decided for sure that was what he wanted to do, and reached for the book sitting on the table beside the couch where he sat with his computer in his lap, the notification had turned back on. Apparently more of his friends were online than he'd originally thought. He opened the memo again, and immediately wished he hadn't.
Ugh, Wess. They'd always butted heads. And what the hell was this? Had he really just commented on here to insult him? A scowl twisting his features, Bern shifted his laptop to type a response.
CFA: Of course it will not.
CFA: A videogame is more than a story, but rather a combination of plot,writing, character development, artistic design, and musical composition.
CFA: A book is, while lovely, simply not the same.
CFA: But of course, one cannot expect your tastes to be so refined as to appreciate that.
CFA: I assume you would much rather sit about and watch Jeopardy a few hundred more times.
CMC: Are you blind to reason? Just because a video game includes pictures and music, that doesn't necessarily make it "refined".
CMC: Furthermore, Plato would laugh at your obsession with the arts. He would call it uncivilized! Particularly your music.
CMC: How miserable, too, that you must be so abusive in your ad hominem argument. There is no need to generalize your anxiety about my intelligence by assuming that I would rather waste time on a trivia show when I could derive so much more information from proper and distinct sources.
CMC: I won't stoop to your level and attack your person over the fact that my grandmother enjoys game shows, and I have picked up on a knowledge of trivia by living in a small apartment with her.
Bern read what he had written down, and briefly considered that he might have been too hasty in his original argument. Most of Plato's theories,particularly those about art, were considered only a basis for modern philosophy. Eh, but Wess was no scholar of philosophy; he wouldn't know any different. And he'd never even insulted Wess as it was; just stated that Plato would have, given his viewpoint on art. A specific viewpoint that had strongly influenced Greek art, at that. No matter;he could say any number of insulting things about Wess or his mother,and the temptation was strong, but no. He was better than that.
A young woman pulled the curtains away from her bed so she could flop down in it with her computer. Her mother had left the shop for the morning, and was getting started with work, leaving it in her hands. This mean she had the entire day to herself, because the shop was… something of a facade. The shop, full of occult and magically-inspired goodies,was a pleasant enough place to be in; it always smelled wonderful,and the goods were lovely. The problem was not that people wouldn’t want to come in; it was that it was located on an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean that had no ferry to the mainland, or anywhere else for that matter. This young woman had often questioned her mother’s intelligence for making her home out on this is land a few years ago, not to say that she hadn’t gotten used to it.
But what was the name of this lovely lady?
> Enter name.
NESCIENT DOXY
She looks up with confusion, not sure what on earth you’ve entered as her name,but she doesn’t look particularly pleased about your choice,either.
> RANDGRIS MORGAN
No, no! She waves frantically with her hands. Only her mother calls her that!
> RHYS MORGAN
Okay, it looks like you’ve got it right this time. It appears you are now Rhys Morgan.
Rhys snuggled down into the covers on her bed, which was one of her favorite places to be,especially when she was with her computer. Though she spent a lot of time outdoors, she didn’t typically do that with her computer.Occasionally, an adorable white goat would come around and she would chase him around, and that was always nice. Though bringing her computer to do something physical like that wouldn’t be the best idea, so she just stayed right here.
Several minutes later,having become distracted by something — what it was had long since escaped her by now — she realized it looked like her friends had started up a memo. What could it possibly be about?
As she opened it up to look, she sighed. Bern and Wess were fighting again? They really weren’t ever going to get along, were they? It was hard for them all to be friends when Bern and Wess were always getting into it. She sure was glad that Leta tried to separate them sometimes…Maybe it was a good thing that they hadn’t met outside of being online!
CMC: How miserable, too, that you must be so abusive in your ad hominem argument. There is no need to generalize your anxiety about my intelligence by assuming that I would rather waste time on a trivia show when I could derive so much more information from proper and distinct sources.
CMC: I won't stoop to your level and attack your person over the fact that my grandmother enjoys game shows, and I have picked up on a knowledge of trivia by living in a small apartment with her.
CURRENThalcyonTsiologist [HT]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CHT: you guyyyys, stopppp.
CHT: i think most of us want to play the game.
CHT: i know i do! it’s not like i get to do a lot around here!except make tea and read and try not to get caught exploring. mom gets really mad.
CHT: and talk to you guys of course!
CHT: at least if i’m playing a game i’m inside, riiiight?
Leta felt a slight twinge of irritation twinge through her. Bern didn't want to play? They had all been waiting for a month now, and she was tired of it.
HT: i know i do! it’s not like i get to do a lot around here! except make tea and read and try not to get caught exploring. mom gets really mad.
HT: and talk to you guys of course!
HT: at least if i’m playing a game i’m inside, riiiight?
SS: Well, hello there Rhys.
SS: After the unfortunate wait
SS: I find myself quite
SS: Ready and very
SS: Eager to find out what this
SS: Game is all about.
SS: And after the whole
SS: Issue with my home wifi
SS: I would love to spend
SS: This evening with
SS: A delightful game and all
SS: Of my dearest friends.
She knew Bern was intelligent enough to pick up on the rather obvious hint. She really was looking forward to spending time with her friends... Especially Wess. While she cared for all of her friends, Bern and Wess were the ones most capable of staying on her level. But Wess, Wess shared her passions, and he was so driven with his music... It was admirable really.
A boy sits in his room, distracted by an engrossing video game. He's been ignoring the chat window for a while because he can tell that Bern and Wess are at it again, even from across the room. He never likes getting in between their disputes, especially when they start throwing their dictionary-sized vocabularies around. After a while, he decides he's had enough with his current game and goes to his computer to see what's going on.
It seems that Rhys andLeta are trying to pacify the two of them. "Good", he thought. He's not very good at trying to resolve personal problems. The boy decides to announce his presence very bluntly.
CURRENT cantankerousCompletionist [CC] RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CCC: Hi
That was all he reallyfelt like typing. Simply announcing his presence would probably be enough reason to stop fighting and start playing, now that everyone is here.
But now that we've gotten this far, we still don't know what this young man's name is, now do we?
>Enter Name
SHITSPONGE GUTTERMOUTH
The boy turns to youand...oh. Oh my, you think to yourself. You could swear that's themost unsettling glare you've ever seen! Quite...quite unnerving. You decide to stop fucking around and put in his actual name just to make him stop.
> LUCAS EVANS
You turn back to the boy and- okay, he hasn't stopped. You could have sworn you put theright name in... You quickly remember that this young man ALSO has a four-letter nickname that he prefers to his legal name, and decide to give that a shot. Anything to stop THAT, dear GOD.
> LUKE EVANS
Alright, that seemsthat satisfied him. Luke turns back to his computer and the piercing daggers have stopped digging into your corneas.
Alex rolled her eyes when Wess and Bern started their bickering again, honestly just finished with those two. As much as she was fond of her friends (some more than others), they were frustrating. And how were they supposed to play this game as a team with the two constantly arguing? It seemed to be the only way, though; Neither were going to play without Leta, and Alex herself wasn't going to play without Bern, and Rhys and Luke... well, Rhys and Luke were probably the only two people on the team that actually wanted to play this game because of the game itself and the experiences it would provide, but they needed a team.
With a grumbling sigh, Alex responded to the memo again.
CC: Hi
VM: oh my fucking god
VM: will you guys shut the hell up
VM: weve already decided to play this thing i mean you guys even had like
VM: your debate or whatever
VM: and i just withstood the wrath of the postal service for this okay
VM: ive committed
VM: you guys said you would commit
VM: lets just play the goddamn game
VM: youre worse than kirk and spock
It was probably a good thing that Bern had decided to abstain from insulting Wess's mother, because as much as Wess was against brutish anger and violence, he would almost definitely have made an exception for that specific reason.
He was a mama's boy,yes, but he felt he had ample reason. Few were actually warm towards him, and his mother was always kind, and always wonderful. No one had a right to insult her.
Bern had angered him enough as it was, though... that wasn't uncommon. And Leta's subtle support only made him smug in his anger.
VM: you guys said you would commit
VM: lets just play the goddamn game
VM: youre worse than kirk and spock
FA: Alex, must we revisit this topic once more?
FA: You are the only person in this group, and hopefully the country,that actually watches those vacuous shows.
FA: Your references are therefore meaningless, and should remain absent from any and all conversations containing people who do not view the same shows.
FA: Leta, I am sure we can play this game soon, and put an end to your misery.
FA: I know *I* am wholly prepared to begin.
FA: The necessary files are loaded on my computer, and have been for sometime now.
Bern had been able to ignore the chat for a little while, figuring he probably wouldn't receive a response he wanted to view from Wess anyway, but his attention could only be distracted from the scrolling chat for so long. When his cigarette was finally out, he had to turn hisattention back to that, because finding another distraction was goingto be difficult now.
Well, at least it seemed that Wess had directed his attention toward Alex. But he wrinkled his nose, realizing the other sure was making a show out of the fact that he was prepared. Jesus, was he the only one who didn't want to start something without any kind of planning here? This level of spontaneity fit cleanly into the category of "things Bern doesn't like". He'd never said he didn't want to play the game. He just didn't want to play it right now.
CFA: Leta, I am sure we can play this game soon, and put an end to your misery.
CFA: I know *I* am wholly prepared to begin.
CFA: The necessary files are loaded on my computer, and have been for sometime now.
CMC: How unfortunate. The meaning of my previous statement has fallen ondeaf ears.
CMC: I never said that I did not want to play the game.
CMC: Rather, I asserted that I do not want to play it immediately. I havemany other obligations.
CMC: Perhaps we could plan a time to do so later. Preparedness now savesgrief later.
CMC: Leta, you can be assured that I will not leave you alone, especially after your previous difficulties. It is fortunate to be able to speak with you again.
Preparednessnow saves grief later... where had he heard that? No matter, it was true. Ugh, there was just so much wrong with this situation. And most of it was that snarky art snob Wess. He was always trying to get Leta on his side, and that irritated Bern to no end. If she should be on any side, it should be his. He was clearly the more intelligent, and that alone made him more worthy and, for that matter, influential and powerful. He wouldn't doubt this. Wess on the other hand was more of a know-it-all with no focus. Not that he couldn't be saved, but his attitude made him rather a lost cause.
And Leta, well... She was sublime. There was no need for her to be influenced by dreck likeWess.
Oh no. Not this again. Sure if she indulged her fantasies, it felt nice to have two people focus their attentions on her so intently, and they had done this before... But she knew better than to attach romantic notions to their actions. It was probably just another way for them to have their little power struggle. Of course if one of them were to actually show affection for her, it's not like she would refuse...
MC: Rather, I asserted that I do not want to play it immediately. I havemany other obligations.
MC: Perhaps we could plan a time to do so later. Preparedness now savesgrief later.
MC: Leta, you can be assured that I will not leave you alone, especially after your previous difficulties. It is fortunate to be able to speakwith you again.
SS: I thank you both for
SS: Your concern over my state
SS: Of mentality.
SS: Perhaps we could all
SS: Engage in diplomacy
SS: And all compromise
SS: Since we did in fact
SS: Pairing into groups
SS: I suppose this means
SS: That the person
SS: I will collaborate with
SS: Will be you now, Wess.
She wanted to play the game now, and if Bern didn't want to play, she would go with the other person she wanted to play with.
Wess felt a surge of victory when Leta said she wanted to start playing with him, and a grin sneaked onto his lips. Yes, he'd surely won this round, and he hadn't even had to do much more than remind Leta that he was open to play the game whenever they were ready to start. It wasn't as if it an entirely new thing, either; they had decided to play this game months ago. It was just a matter of when Alex got her copy, since she tended to get things later than was normal, despite her not living on an island in the middle of the ocean without normal postal service, like Wess did.
Wess took a moment to get his computer started on the files again, then replied to the memo.
SS: I suppose this means
SS: That the person
SS: I will collaborate with
SS: Will be you now, Wess.
FA: Yes, I believe so.
FA: I look forward to it eagerly, and have been doing much the same for these few weeks now.
FA: I have just begun opening the files, which means we may begin somewhat shortly, should you open yours soon as well.
FA: I will open a guide for reference, in the meantime.
Rhys had totally spaced out. Something she did a lot. She was always getting distracted by something, and right now, there were plenty of things in her room to be distracted by. Like the way the breeze from her open window was disturbing some of the crystals hanging from the ceiling, causing them to catch the light and bounce it off the walls in interesting patterns. Something she could probably watch for a lot longer, but before too long, the flashing of the memo notification had her attention again.
Wait, what?! They were already going to start playing the game?! She didn't know if she was quite -that- ready! Did she need to do anything to get ready? She didn't really even know anything about the game! She remembered something about splitting up into groups, but she didn't remember who she was with! And it looked like Bern didn't want to play... That was a shame; she would have enjoyed playing with him.
CFA: I look forward to it eagerly, and have been doing much the same for these few weeks now.
CFA: I have just begun opening the files, which means we may begin somewhat shortly, should you open yours soon as well.
CFA: I will open a guide for reference, in the meantime.
CHT: nooo!
CHT: i don't rememberrrr
CHT: who was i supposed to be playing the game with!?
CHT: i thought i would ask bern but he's not playing!
CHT: alex, do you need someone to play with? or are you with luke? oooohmy memory is soooo bad!
Luke was ignoring the chat again, waiting for things to cool off. It was an absolute WONDER this ragtag group of friends actually stayed together, but he's be lying if he said he didn't enjoy their presence. Luke glanced back at the chat for a second, seeing Rhys' responses.
CHT: nooo!
CHT: i don't rememberrrr
CHT: who was i supposed to be playing the game with!?
CHT: i thought i would ask bern but he's not playing!
CHT: alex, do you need someone to play with? or are you with luke? oooohmy memory is soooo bad!
CCC: I'm pretty sure you're with Alex.
CCC: Lucky you. I guess I'm with you, Bern.
CCC: If you really don't feel like playing though, could you at least host the client?
CCC: I can just figure out how the game works on my own until you're ready.
Luke pulled over the red and green packages that had been stacked on his desk for a couple weeks now. He was excited and determined to finally play them,despite Bern's resistance.
Opening the two boxes, he noted the labels on each disk: "Server" and "Client". He opened the server packaging and pulled out the disk. It had an interesting design on it, featuring a minimalist apartment building-like design made of 6 main green boxes and other features resembling a chimney, air conditioning unit, and other features normally found on an apartment building. "An interesting design choice..." he thought to himself. He opened his computer's disk tray, inserted the disk, and closed it again. A window with a large, green "PLAY" button on a black background appeared. "Funny," he thought, "something this lazy after disk art like that?" He ignored it and went back to the chat window. He refrained from messing with it until Bern activated the server.
Bern had gotten himself distracted again, figuring his explanation spoke for itself. He'd picked up Republic and gotten back to reading, so it was a little longer than he'd expected before he got back to the chat. However most of his friends had responded by that time, to his surprise. He set the book face down on the other side of the couch and read the replies, instead.
However they were met with a feeling of the blood draining from his face. What, they still didn't understand what he was saying? They really wanted to do this right now?! And of all things, Leta was going to partner up with Wess?!?! A moment of rage seized him, and he sure was glad that he wasn't inclined to type during it. Seriously, even Rhys had misunderstood him? Had his friends all gone mental? He didn't know. He needed to take a deep breath. Maybe another cigarette.
CCC: I'm pretty sure you're with Alex.
CCC: Lucky you. I guess I'm with you, Bern.
CCC: If you really don't feel like playing though, could you at least hostthe server?
CCC: I can just play on my own until you're ready.
CMC: Please, elucidate.
CMC: I'm utterly lost as to why it is such a sin to prefer a few momentsof preparation.
CMC: Particularly when one must shift focus between another equally[markedly more] interesting piece of media.
CMC: Are you my friends, or opportunists?
CMC :My apologies to you, however, Luke. I know you have been lookingforward to this game for a great while. Let me see what I can do.
He didn't mind the idea of setting things up so Luke could play, and for that matter, so everyone could stop whining and inadvertently (or deliberately) insulting him. He put his computer down, picking up the game disk she'd been saving. He didn't bother regarding the box art in the way Luke had. Rather, he put the disk in, waiting for it to load. He was sure he'd have to install a bunch of crap to get this going. It could be a while. Oh well, that was just more time he could appreciate the workings of a utopian society.
MC: Particularly when one must shift focus between another equally [markedly more] interesting piece of media.
MC: Are you my friends, or opportunists?
MC: My apologies to you, however, Luke. I know you have been looking forward to this game for a great while. Let me see what I can do.
SS: I apologize
SS: If it does seem like we are
SS: Being too hasty
SS: However it should
SS: Be duly noted that we
SS: Have planned for all this
SS: For what? I believe
SS: A multitude of months now
SS: I understand quite
SS: Well how it feels to
SS: Lose yourself in a good book
SS: But it would be nice
SS: To see from you a
SS: More active role in our game
SS: Because I think we
SS: All would like to spend
SS: More time with you Bern. You are
SS: One of our dear friends.
SS: Wess, I would like to
SS: Let you know that I am now
SS: Putting in the disk
SS: For server player
SS: I hope you are ready
SS: For us to play now
Some flattery mixed with a mild admonition should hopefully get Bern more interested in being an active member of the game. Leta knew that she was being somewhat manipulative, but it was for everyone's own good, really! They would all start their games, and have a good time together and end the tedium that had plagued her for these past few days. It had gotten good review for its puzzles after all. Now then, time to putin that disk...
She slid the disk into her laptop, careful to keep from getting any fingerprints on the disk. As the green 'play' button appeared on screen, she smiledhappily. She was already getting excited. Not that it showed much.
Briefly she wasdistracted by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. Leta'sface twisted into a grimace. Usually she would take this chance to try and catch some of their attention, by being the dutiful daughter that welcomed them home... But she was in one of her more bitter moods today, and couldn't be bothered. Hopefully they would stay downstairs. Like they always did.
Wess was a bit upset by Leta's flattery in Bern's direction, especially the inclusion of himself in the list of people who liked Bern. He had to trust in the possibility that Bern's ego was not bigger than the obvious fact that Wess was not capable of disliking anyone more than he disliked Bern.It could go either way, really.
But he turned his thoughts away from anger, and instead pressed the green "Start"button on his loaded server file, and "Enter" where his client file told him he needed to, revealing... nothing. It did nothing.
Apparently, Leta had yet to do anything on her end. Her files had probably yet to load. Or perhaps she was supposed to be his server, and he her client? He'dread up on this game, and he'd heard a lot of talk about it somehow"knowing more than the player". He hadn't believed it at the time, and eh still wasn't sure now, but there seemed to be a creeping likelihood.
Turning briefly away from the game, Wess found the memo again.
SS: Wess, I would like to
SS: Let you know that I am now
SS: Putting in the disk
SS: For server player
SS: I hope you are ready
SS: For us to play now
FA: Leta, I have started running both files.
FA: I can't see you yet, or really do anything, so my assumption is that you have yet to start the files on your end.
FA: Or, and this is par less probable, that the game is possibly what it says in the forums, and somehow already knows more than we do.
FA: Let it be known that there is a *very* evident not of sarcasm in my voice, despite the seemingly monotonic text.
Alex definitely hadn't gotten distracted by her Star Wars wiki.
Definitely not.
Turning back to the memo from her very serious business,though, she let out another frustrated sigh. Was Wess finished taking cheap shots at Bern yet? Could they get on with things? God, he was such a fucking snob. And as much as she disliked Leta, at least she was doing something to pacify them both... She could appreciate that.
FA: Or, and this is par less probable, that the game is possibly what it says in the forums, and somehow already knows more than we do.
FA: Let it be known that there is a *very* evident not of sarcasm in my voice, despite the seemingly monotonic text.
VM: ill just
VM: ignore the general douche baggery happening here
VM: and move on.
VM: rhys, i guess youre with me, then
VM: my files are still loading, ill let you know when theyre finished
VM: but you gotta give me a heads up when yours do the same
VM: ill just start mine when theyre done okay
VM: also hey, asshole
VM: and by asshole of course i mean wess
VM: get a fucking private chat for that shit will you
VM: not everyone likes hearing you talk as much as you do
VM: or... seeing
VM: whatever
VM: personal sesh talk can stop cluttering up the memo here
VM: i promise
VM: no one will die of wess deprivation
Leta 's brow furrowed.Dear god, was everyone here a simpleton? How hard was it to pretend to be civil human beings? Fine, if people wanted to behave in such a manner, she would cut them down just as quickly. It's not that she abhorred conflict, it was rather that she was not looking for it at the moment, and seeing everyone in such a state was frustrating.While it might seem she was singling Alex out, that was merely an unfortunate side effect of her losing her patience
VM: personal sesh talk can stop cluttering up the memo here
VM: i promise
VM: no one will die of wess deprivation
SS: Alexandra I
SS: Believe you could have said that
SS: In a much kinder
SS: Manner. There is no
SS: Need for attacks upon your
SS: Friends. I certainly
SS: Hoped for a much
SS: Civil time when gaming
SS: And at this very
SS: Moment you are not
SS: Helping with your petty barbs
SS: Aimed towards Wess.
SS: However I will
SS: Take your wishes into mind
SS: And start a private
SS: Conversation now
SS: I suppose this means we all
SS: Should then do the same.
---schemingSphinx [SS]began pestering frigidAllurement [FA]---
SS: Hello again Wess
SS: I suppose that this is where
SS: We will now converse.
Rhys had been preoccupied for the moment... She was just thinking about... where her game discs were. She had a few problems actually, the first of which being that she wasn't 100% sure where they were... and if they were starting now, she had to find them! And she thought she heard her mom coming... This was just not a good time!
CSS: I suppose this means we all
CSS: Should then do the same.
CHT: alexxxx!
CHT: i think
CHT: i'm sorry!
CHT: i need to find the discs
CHT: and i think my mom is coming
CHT: aaaah!
Hopefully it wouldn't take her too long to deal with her mom. And she hoped she'd have some privacy when she did finally play the game. She got up and hurriedly started searching through her things. She was so disorganized...Thankfully the discs were in the first place she looked. Now it was just going to be a matter of dealing with what her mom had to talk to her about...
It ended up being the same old, same old. That her mom was going to be busy and she needed to keep an eye on the shop. Sure, she'd do that, like usual. Which meant laying in her bed in the back on her computer.
Bern had taken out another cigarette and lit it up by now, smirking at the responses he saw from Alex. At least she was willing to point out how much of adouche bag Wess was. Though it didn't seem Leta liked that. Bern knew he had to be careful what he said about Wess because of her. It seemed like they were pretty close friends, as ridiculous as it was.He didn't have any idea what she saw in him.
Now that he was sitting back with a new cigarette, he relaxed a bit more. However the memo was now full of bitching and abuse, and he rolled his eyes. He appreciated Alex drawing attention to Wess being a jerk, but he said nothing of it.
CHT: i'm sorry!
CHT: i need to find the discs
CHT: and i think my mom is coming
CHT: aaaah!
CMC: Everyone.
CMC: Even I have grown tired of this.
CMC: You all want to play the game, don't you? Why not do that?
CMC: Luke, I'll message you privately.
--minutiaeConnoisseur [MC]began pestering cantankerousCompletionist [CC]--
CMC: I've loaded my disc, but I suppose you haven't yet.
CMC: The game has not opened yet. I think it's waiting for you.
CMC: By the way, just message me if you need anything. I will probably be distracted.
Wess may have been upset by Leta's buttering Bern up, but her defense now pleased him,and he smirked. He wasn't all that annoyed by Alex's comments, though there was a bit of irritation there... but it was to be expected, he figured. He'd pinned her long ago as a violent, brutish girl, and thus a stupid one as well. Well... alright, her lack of intelligence came in a category all it's own, it didn't even need to be linked to her angry tenancies.
CMC: You all want to play the game, don't you? Why not do that?
CMC: Luke, I'll message you privately.
CFA: Alex, I thank you for your input.
CFA: However, despite the fact that you *technically* started this memo*months ago*
CFA: I am afraid it matters little.
CFA: This aggressive behavior is rather volatile, too.
CFA: I will return when I think things have calmed down a sufficient amount to continue conversation like civil human beings.
CURRENTfrigidAllurement [CFA]RIGHT NOW ceased responding to memo
SS: Hello again Wess
SS: I suppose that this is where
SS: We will now converse.
--frigidAllurement [FA]began pestering schemingSphinx [SS]--
FA: Yes, that seems reasonable.
FA: Have you started your disks yet?
FA: Simply pressing "enter" in the client disk's window should be sufficient for me to begin.
FA: Doing both would allow you to mess about while I begin, but it seems,from these terribly-written guides, that the client will be doing quite a lot of running about in a short amount of time.
FA: I wonder why it seems so rushed...
FA: If you would like me to be the client first, I am willing to do that as well.
FA: In fact, if I remember correctly, that might actually be the order we were intended to start with.
FA: Oh well.
FA: Notify me when you have made a decision or started doing something,please.
MC: I've loaded my disc, but I suppose you haven't yet.
MC: The game has not opened yet. I think it's waiting for you.
MC: By the way, just message me if you need anything. I will probably bedistracted.
CC: No, my stuff is...oh.
Luke turned back to the game window, which had already started loading without his input. The loading screen featured a loading bar, an odd Spirograph that changed shape constantly, and flashing images that looked like a lava lamp or an '80s indie rock music video, making Luke's eyes hurt a bit just looking at it. What really caught his attention though were the loading messages below the loading bar. "Unwinding Couplings"?"Prescribing Arc Masonry"? "Orienting Ladders"?"Referring Time Spools" The entire thing was going over Luke's head. He simply figured it was a loading screen joke like some developers like to implement. Turning up his computer's volume, he noticed it was also playing an interesting tune.
Eventually, the loading screen finished, somehow right on cue with the end of the song. Once it finished, the screen turned black, simply featuring a green logo of the game's title: SBURB. After a few seconds, the screen faded to white, displaying a shorter loading screen, featuring the game's apartment logo, breaking apart into smaller shapes as one of the squares spun around rapidly, and then formed back together again.This happened about three times before the screen faded into...oh.
The game's graphics were PHENOMENAL! The surroundings and object models almost looked REAL! All of the textures looked so vivid, it was as if you could FEEL THEM JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM! The character on screen even looked like an ACTUAL PERSON! In fact, he looked a little familiar...
But Luke, in his haste to begin playing the game, overlooked the strange avatar's appearance as well as the surrounding HUD and looked around the room. He saw a TV sitting out in the room, and, figuring he could interact with it,clicked on said TV. Luke was surprised when, instead of the avatar putting down the book they were currently reading and turning it on,the TV instead flew up off the ground, carried around by the cursor.In an effort to see if anything could be done with it, Luke flailed his mouse around a bit, the TV following its every move. Seeing that it wouldn't do anything of interest, he set it back down on the ground, creating a loud *THUD* escaping his speakers, and visibly shaking the room.
Leta double checked that all the disks were ready and within reach before starting the installation process. If she had this correct, she would be the'client' and Wess her 'server'. She didn't like long download times,so she hoped this would go by quickly. She typed out a quick message to send to Wess.
FA: In fact, if I remember correctly, that might actually be the order we were intended to start with.
FA: Oh well.
FA: Notify me when you have made a decision or started doing something,please.
SS: I am ready to go
SS: My disks are all inside the
SS: Machine currently.
Bern had checked out, entirely. He had no idea what the other was doing; honestly, he didn't care. He figured he was just getting started with the game.So, when he glanced back and saw the other had responded, it looked like he was just realizing that he had something to do on his own end still. Since it seemed this was the case, Bern turned his attention back to the book he was reading.
"And is there anything more akin to wisdom than truth?"
"How can there be?"
"Can the same nature be a lover of wisdom and a lover of falsehood?"
"Never."
"The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies,desire all truth?"
"Assuredly."
Yes, yes. These were the kinds of things he liked to hear... well, read. Plato knew what he was talking about... Not to say that it was fully formed, because he only lay the foundations. But he could never get enough of this philosophy.
And just as he went to turn the page, a terrible noise rattled the entire room, startling Bern so much that he lost his grip on the book. Momentarily stunned,he listened to the people below him yelling. "QUIET UP THERE!"Bern groaned. That hadn't been anything he could control. It had scared and disturbed him as much as it surely had them. Maybe even more so, because it was in the same room. And the sound had clearly disturbed his sleeping grandmother, as well, as he heard her hacking cough start up again, then finally calm down. What the hell had that even been? He got up briefly, looking around to make sure nothing had broken. It sounded like it had been the TV, but he'd been so absorbed in his book that he hadn't seen what it was for sure. It was a lot louder than one of the videos falling, though... that much he was certain of.
He sat back down, taking a deep breath and opening up his message window with Luke.
CC: No, my stuff is...oh.
MC: I suppose you're enjoying the game. Though the most disturbing thing just occurred somewhere in this room.
MC: Something just fell and scared the wits out of me. At least, I believe something fell. But I can't find anything that's fallen. What do you think, should I be concerned about poltergeists or some such rubbish?
Luke saw as an expression of shock came over the avatar's face as the TV hit the floor. The figure stood up and looked around the room. Apparently, the characters reacted to the way you affected the environment. Pretty cool! The avatar sat back down, and typed at a computer. But Luke noticed something this time.
MC: I suppose you're enjoying the game. Though the most disturbing thingjust occurred somewhere in this room.
Strange, it was almost as if...
Luke paid close attention to the avatar as he typed, watching every stroke. And...Enter.
MC: Something just fell and scared the wits out of me. At least, I believe something fell. But I can't find anything that's fallen. What do you think, should I be concerned about poltergeists or some such rubbish?
It was unbelievable. Almost terrifying. He had to check to be sure...
CC: Oh my god...
CC: Okay, this is going to sound weird....
CC: Bern, put your book down on the LEFT side of your computer, and stand back up.
Alex would claim she wasn't upset, but that would be far below the truth.She was way too used to this kind of crap... As much as she cared for her friends, it seemed the only ones who cared back were Rhys and Luke, but both of them had no problem with anyone,really, so that wasn't saying much. And she cared little for Wess and Leta herself, but that was just because they weren't exactly kind to her,and Bern seemed to just ignore her, and address her as part of some large group of people who were like her, rather than directly as a person. It was frustrating, to say the least.
But she could deal with it. It wasn't like she was actually going to confront anyone about all of this.
VM: fine, whatever
VM: rhys did you find the stuff yet
VM: can we start
She left it at that, and then leaned back in her desk chair to read more of her Star W-... er, very serious business.
Wess glanced only briefly at Leta's message, before he moved off to look into his chat. He wasn't quite sure how this worked but the guides made it seem like he was actually going to be interacting with Leta's physical environment... Doubtful,but curious.
He opened the window for the server file, and spent a moment scanning the room there before giving his attention to the avatar, who would supposedly be Let-
... Oh.
She was pretty.
Trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks and reminding himself that she was just some kind of computer-produced avatar, Wess turned his attention to the controls at the top of the page. He couldn't see much very well, her room was pretty large. Maybe if he zoomed in...
No, no, now he was zooming out. Wow, her house was large. And it looked like someone had just pulled into the driveway, maybe he could move the car... No, it looked like that was out of range? 'Leta' and her computer looked to be the center of some large circle, which much mark the range of his controls. He wondered if it was based off of her location, or the computer's?
Zooming back in to see the inside of her room again, Wess decided to mess with the controls a bit, and started moving things around. He clicked a few things, but that just seemed to make them disappear, and then the next click would make them reappear. That must be the storage system... When he clicked on her bed and dragged it, it moved easily with his mouse, so he moved that around a bit and then dropped it.Rather than sitting nicely back on the floor, the weight of the thing cause a loud THUMP and a cracking sound Wess didn't much like.
Not much was happening with this game... Maybe something was happening on Leta's end that he wasn't yet aware of.
SS: I am ready to go
SS: My disks are all inside the
SS: Machine currently.
FA: Alright, I can see the room of someone who is supposedly "you".
FA: I am assuming it is simply a computer's approximation.
FA: There seems to be a sort of range based on either "you", or your computer, which I cannot exit.
FA: Other than that, I am not quite certain what this game wishes to have me do.
Bern waited, riveted to the screen for once, for the response. Perhaps because he was just too unsettled to focus on what he had been doing right now. He sure was glad he'd put his cigarette in the ashtray before this had happened... Speaking of which, it might have gone out by now. He'd have to find out about that...
But just as he was reaching for it, Luke's reply came in, and he was more focused on that. What the hell was he asking him to do something like that for?Oh well... It sounded like an awfully weird request, but while he was originally tempted to ask him why... he decided against it. He reached for the book he'd dropped when he just go so startled, moved it over to the left side of his computer, then he stood up again...He didn't stay standing for long, though, even though he felt like the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and he ought to be more on alert than he was...
Honestly, he was glad his grandmother was asleep, or at least, had presumably fallen back asleep after the loud noise had woken her up. He wouldn't have liked for her to see him this unsettled.
Rhys had gotten distracted again... Well, it wasn't her fault this time! She found her discs easily enough, but as soon as she did, her mom was back,calling her again. This time, she wanted her to know that she expected her to clean up in the shop, as well. Ugh... Rhys hesitantly complied, probably lying about doing it in the first place... but hey, she'd get to it eventually...
Oh! And when she returned to her room, she saw her headphones. Surely a good game was going to have good music, right? Then she would probably want to use her best headphones! She picked them up and tossed them onto her bed... Oh no! If she was going to be playing this game all evening, then she was going to need to water the garden! She hurriedly put on her shoes and ran outside to water.
And by the time she got back... well! Alex had been waiting quite a while. Rhys plugged in her headphones, popped in the disk, at least it was the one on top. She thought she remembered putting one on top for a reason... It was the server disk, and she had to use that one, or something?
HT: aaaah!!!!
HT: i'm sorry alex!!!!
HT: i'm here now!!!!
HT: alex?
HT: i'll message youuuu....
--halcyonTsiologist [HT]began pestering vociferousMiwok [VM]--
HT: i'm sorry i'm late!
HT: stuff happened and my mom was telling me to watch the shop again and i had to water the plants and aaaagh!!!!
HT: i'm here now i put in the disk and everything i hope you're readyyyy!!!!
Luke watched with terrified eyes as the figure on the screen slowly leaned over to pickup the book they had dropped, placed it on the left side of their computer, and stood up. He couldn't believe what he was seeing! How was it possible that this was ACTUALLY BERN he was looking at?! Just to confirm further, he zoomed in on the book co-Okay, that's zooming out, never mind. Luke took the chance to look around. It was an apartment building in the middle of a city. He felt a twinge of jealousy...being surrounded by that many people looked like a lot of fun. Focusing back on the topic at hand, Luke zoomed IN this time,and looked at the title of the book. Just as he had suspected, and feared. "The Republic" by Plato.
CC: Oh my god, BERN
CC: THAT WAS ME
CC: I SOMEHOW PICKED UP YOUR TELEVISION AND
CC: I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW IS THIS EVEN HAPPENING
Luke finally took a look around the HUD. "Select", "Revise" and"Deploy" took his interest. Seeing he was already in select mode, he switched over to Revise. Clicking around did nothing, so,after a little experimentation, he clicked and dragged the cursor,and formed an entire new section of the house from the wall with another *THUD*.
CC: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERN
Bern's feelings of uncertainty were certainly well-founded. As he sat back down, after standing for a few seconds, he barely had to wait for the other's responses to show up. However, his eyes just about bugged out of his head as Luke explained why he'd asked him to do something so odd.What...?
MC: How is that even possible?!
MC: You must be kidding me! You have to! It's impossible for you to do that!
...And that was about when another wing was magically added on to his apartment, just about giving him a heart attack for the second time.
MC: What is this game...
MC: This game can somehow augment reality!
He was both terrified and intrigued at this concept. If Luke was able to do this on his end... Didn't that mean there was a way for him to do it, too? He did have the other disc, labeled "Server"...
He jumped up off the couch, digging through the stack of papers he had sitting under the coffee table. He had to find the instruction book for this game. He certainly hadn't read it before, discarding it, as he thought it wasn't going to be important... but perhaps it would give him a deeper explanation of just what was going on! He'd gone a full 180 from being disinterested in this game to being hyper-interested...
MC: What is this game...
MC: This game can somehow augment reality!
CC: There's gotta be SOME kind of a reason for this...
CC: Hang on, lemme see what else I can do.
Luke looked around the HUD for some kind of other action he could take. Finally clicking on the "Phernalia Registry" option, a menu opened,revealing...deploy-able objects? They each seemed to have some kind of associated "cost" to them, but each of them seemed to beset to zero. He decided to simply devote to one, selecting the"Alchemiter". It was a large, circular object with an odd design on it, displayed on a square platform with some sort of mechanical arm on the side as well as a smaller round platform to the side of it. Luckily, the space Luke had just created was large enough to accommodate such a device.
CC: Stand AWAY from the room I just made, I'm "deploying"something, whatever that means.
Luke attempted to place the large device down without making too much noise, but the machine landed with a crash anyways. Even though he'd never had neighbors, he could imagine they were getting pretty tired of all of the noise he was making.
Luke tried to interact with the new device, but to no avail. He examined some of the other devices he could create. Seeing there wasn't exactly any other place to put the two devices, he decided to stretch the room in another direction to make room. He pulled the room outwards on the opposite side, making just enough room for the "Totem Lathe". He tried to make it even bigger for the "Cruxtruder", but couldn't because he ran out of...Build...Grist...?
CC: Shit, uhh...
CC: I gotta find a place for this one last device and I can't make the room bigger...
Luke looked around the house for another option, but there didn't seem to be any, other than moving Bern's grandma, which was NOT something he was prepared to do.
CC: I'm gonna have to put this on the roof... Maybe I can move it later or something.
Luke dragged the odd machine out onto the roof of the apartment building. A bystander who was already standing out there smoking, jumped at the sound of the loud machine materializing and then hitting against the floor. The man innocently looked around at the odd device, not knowing what to make of it. Luke simply hoped the stranger wouldn't mess around with the mysterious object without his knowledge...
Alex had been growing antsy while she waited for Rhys, even with her very serious business to attend to. Nobody was saying anything, which meant they were probably heavily engrossing in the game already. Even Bern! And he hadn't even wanted to play! Well, alright, Wess and Leta had already left the memo, so he was probably just bored with her as usual and finding solace in his book instead, and Alex hadn't wanted to play the game either, when Luke had introduced the subject all those months ago...
But still, she wanted something to do. She was having trouble finding any more subjects in the Star Wars wiki she hadn't.... uhh.... serious business she hadn't attended to.
But then Rhys messaged her again, and she relaxed a bit, then leaned forward with interested eagerness.
HT: stuff happened and my mom was telling me to watch the shop again and i had to water the plants and aaaagh!!!!
HT: i'm here now i put in the disk and everything i hope you're readyyyy!!!!
--vociferousMiwok[VM]began pestering halcyonTsiologist [HT]--
VM: oh my GOD
VM: FINALLY
VM: your mom needs to get off your back about her crazy ass shop rhys
VM: but anyways
VM: why dont you load the server thing
VM: my client stuff is all ready and whatever
VM: let's do this bitch like han solo and chewbaca
VM: heeeeeeeeell yeeeeaaaaaaaaah
Leta was a little annoyed. There didn't seem to be anything special showing up on her screen, so there was not much she could do at the moment. Maybe she should put in the server disk? No, patience was a virtue and- What was that noise?!
Leta got up out of her seat and moved towards the origin of the sound. Upon reaching her bed, she looked around in puzzlement. Where were Arielle and Leah?She searched around for a bit before finding the lion and cow plushies that had been on her bed previously over on the sides of her bed, looking as if they had been thrown off by some sort of impact.Now that she thought about it, the bed looked slightly messed up as well... This was strange, very strange. Remembering that she was talking to Wess, she returned to her desk and placed Arielle, the lioness, on the right side, and Leah, the cow, on the left side.
FA: I am assuming it is simply a computer's approximation.
FA: There seems to be a sort of range based on either "you", or your computer, which I cannot exit.
FA: Other than that, I am not quite certain what this game wishes to have me do.
SS: Something strange seemed
SS: To happen at this moment
SS: There was a loud noise
SS: Like something creaked
SS: And my bed seemed to be
SS: Then all messed up.
Wess stopped messing with her bed for a moment to glance back at the chat, and... what?
What was she talking about? That seemed a rather strange coincidence, given what he'd just done, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.
But it was probably just a coincidence. Those ridiculous game guides couldn't possibly have been doing anything but "trolling" when they'd spoken of a game with capabilities that extended into reality itself.
Deciding to disregard that train for thought for the moment, Wess turned back to the controls. There was an assortment of large machines he seemed to be able to purchase for nothing, probably to assist them in setting up the game. Wess clicked on one of these, the "Cruxtruder",and set the large machine down in a semi-empty corner of the room.He'd have to find somewhere else to find the rest, he figured... oh,he wondered what he could do with "revise", though.
Wess clicked the icon to use that mouse, then dragged a red-lined rectangle over one side of the room, expanding it by a couple of feet to his right. This took of ten of what looked like the game's currency, "Build Grist".He then placed the "Alchemeter", and moved on to message her again.
SS: Like something creaked
SS: And my bed seemed to be
SS: Then all messed up.
FA: Strange.
FA: I picked up and dropped the bed in this room only just before you sent that message.
FA: I doubt entirely that the two have much to do with each other,though. I am reluctant to wholly believe these poorly-composed Game Guides.
FA: Are you sharing a screen with me?
FA: I have just placed two of the large pieces of machinery I assume are necessary for game progression. I will place the third in anotherroom, and attempt to discern their purpose from this completegobbledygook afterwards.
FA: I doubt entirely that the two have much to do with each other,though. I am reluctant to wholly believe these poorly-composed Game Guides.
FA: Are you sharing a screen with me?
FA: I have just placed two of the large pieces of machinery I assume are necessary for game progression. I will place the third in another room, and attempt to discern their purpose from this complete gobbledygook afterwards.
SS: I would certainly
SS: Hope the two instances
SS: Are unrelated
The sudden thump and clang of metal to her right caused Leta to jump out of her seat, and she turned to see a giant piece of machinery plopped in one of the corners of her room. At the sound of creaking wood, she turned to look to look at the other side of the room only to see it expand. What the hell? Was this part of the game? She cringed as another strange machine literally materialized in midair before hitting the ground with a thud. Thinking back to what Wess said, she felt a little disoriented as the reality of what was happening hit her. It seemed crazy, impossible even, but maybe... just maybe this game could alter reality? She quickly took a picture of her room with her web camera.
SS: Wess, please stop whatever
SS: You are currently doing
SS: Give me a moment
SS: i32.photobucket.com/albums/d15/Leta_Darnell/RPPic_zpsa9091d96.png?t=1391552704link
Wess stopped what he was doing, as Leta asked, and took a moment to stare at the picture. Well... that looked exactly like it did on his screen... Was she just taking a screenshot of what she was seeing? There was no real sense in doing that; she could just have easily described it to him, or let him know that they were seeing the same view.
But the alternative was that she had taken a picture of her actual room,and that was what Wess was seeing now. The very room he'd been messing with, and the very machine he'd just placed in it.
He far preferred the first possibility.
SS: You are currently doing
SS: Give me a moment
SS: i32.photobucket.com/albums/d15/Leta_Darnell/RPPic_zpsa9091d96.png?t=1391552704link
FA: So we are sharing a view?
FA: That is exactly what I am seeing. The machine there is called a"Cruxtruder", and if these practically incoherent Game Guides are to be believed, it will provide you with something called"cruxite", needed to make an object that will assist you in entering the game.
FA: It will also, evidently, provide you with a "Kernalsprite".
FA: I am not certain what that is quite yet, but I expect we will find out soon enough.
A brief flash of irritation crossed her features. He didn't get it. He was messing with her home.She hoped he wouldn't mess around any more before checking the chat.There wasn't much she could do if he did. Though it would certainly be annoying, the possibilities this create were rather interesting. She wasn't aware technology had progressed so far already.
FA: That is exactly what I am seeing. The machine there is called a"Cruxtruder", and if these practically incoherent GameGuides are to be believed, it will provide you with something called"cruxite", needed to make an object that will assist you inentering the game.
FA: It will also, evidently, provide you with a "Kernalsprite".
FA: I am not certain what that is quite yet, but I expect we will findout soon enough.
SS: No, Wess that is not
SS: exactly what you are now
SS: That is a picture
SS: Of my room. Which now
SS: Apparently has two new
SS: Additions to it.
SS: That picture is a
SS: Photo of my room Wess. Now
SS: Do you understand?
Rhys was ecstatic right now. All the hype her friends were making about this game really made her want to play, too! She wondered what it would be like. She had tried to sit down and read the guide that went along with it, but she couldn't focus on it for very long. Something always happened! Something ridiculous, usually. But she had a feeling she'd figure it out anyway. She was good at a lot of games!
VM: my client stuff is all ready and whatever
VM: let's do this bitch like han solo and chewbaca
VM: heeeeeeeeell yeeeeaaaaaaaaah
HT: yayyyy! whatever that means!
HT: i really can't wait!
HT: oh oh yeah i think its loading stuff for me now this is great!!!!
HT: well okay the loading is taking a while
She wondered how long it was going to take. It did say some awfully weird things, too. What on earth was in this game? She figured none of it really had anything to do with it, though... why would it matter? It was probably just there for show, anyway... When the stuff finally loaded, she waited a few more seconds, then the oddest room she thought she'd ever seen showed up, with a fiery-looking girl wearing a cute hat.
HT: ok! the game is all loaded up and stuff!
HT: it's so weiiiird!
She moved the cursor around, trying to figure out what she could do with it. There were so many stuffed animals in the room... and by stuffed, she meant taxidermy! They were kind of creepy, but awesome at the same time. So who was this girl supposed to be? Was she the main character?Clicking on a stuffed squirrel, she dragged the cursor elsewhere...and it moved! For some reason this was amusing to her, so she picked it up, and dragged it over to the bed, picking up the blanket on top and pulling it over the taxidermied animal, giggling all the while.This game was so silly! What else was she supposed to do, besides stuff like this? Anyway, she hadn't yet figured out where the squirrel had gone, so she tried to pull out the drawers and see if she could find anything interesting inside. Nope, it looked like clothes. Wait, maybe she could take the clothes out! Attempting this,she found out she could, and more giggling ensued as she started to pull all the clothes out of the drawer, one by one. Now she was making this girl look like she had a really messy room!
Perplexed was about the only word Bern could come up with for all this. While Luke set to work placing all the machines he could find in his inventory, he was hastily reading the guide in his hands, trying to figure out something... anything. However, even though he was reading fast, he had a feeling that it didn't contain any truly useful information. He wasn't coming up with anything useful. So it seemed he was going to have to try and figure this out on his own... He put the book down,going to look at the newly expanded area of the apartment, which he was tentative about touching at first... Though, thankfully, it seemed to be real. Luke had built even more space, and even more than the original machine... He eyed the machines with tentative interest,trying to deduce whatever he possibly could about how they worked...
The one with the huge platform that was taking up so much space got his attention first. It didn't look like he could do anything with that, just yet. It seemed that it required something else to work. Something to put on the small platform, he presumed. He turned his attention to the next machine, the totem lathe. This one also seemed to require something else. He considered the shapes of the objects for a moment, and realized that they probably required the same kind of object, judging by the way they looked. And that loud sound on the roof above him...He could only assume that was Luke putting down a machine he couldn't fit downstairs on the roof. He knew he'd be able to climb up from the outside balcony, so he headed out there.
Climbing up the ladder on the side of the building, he came up to observe the machine up there. Yes, now this one looked like it might be the one that could produce the objects that he needed to use with the other machines!But something wasn't right about it. It was like it wasn't... quite ready to be used. Covered up, somehow. Restricting his access...
Alex was about to respond to Rhys, excited that they could finally get into this game, when something behind her started making...sounds. She wasn't sure what kind of sounds, but there were definitely sounds.
She turned in her chair to see what was going on, and... what the hell?! Why were her clothes suddenly all over her floor?! Was that Mr. Chestnut in her bed?! What kind of insane ghostly horseplay was happening here?!
Frantically, Alex began to type to Rhys, who seemed to be the only one paying any attention to her anyways.
HT: ok! the game is all loaded up and stuff!
HT: it's so weiiiird!
VM: RHYS SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT IT IS BUT SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: ITS LIKE
VM: FUCKING NEW BATTLESTAR SEASON THREE UP IN THIS SHIT
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
Wess stared at the screen for a moment, thoroughly shocked. Was this seriously happening? Was this Leta's room he was messing with?
Oh, god...
So the game guides had been right, then. This game had the capabilities to manipulate reality itself in a stunningly physical way... This was absolutely unreal. Surely, he was dreaming!
But no, the picture was there. The girl he'd thought was an avatar was actually Leta herself, and the room he had been fussing with was her room. This was definitely very, very real.
SS: That picture is a
SS: Photo of my room Wess. Now
SS: Do you understand?
FA: ...
FA: I suppose I do.
FA: Which means this video game is capable of augmenting reality and defying physics itself.
FA: Well...
FA: I am hesitant to continue, for fear of doing something that should not be done, but it seems you already have the necessary machinery in place to do so.
FA: Shall we... continue?
Leta took a few deep breathes, calming herself. Slowly working through the information she had before her. She was playing a game that could alter reality,had already altered reality, and it was up to her whether or not she continued.
FA: Well...
FA: I am hesitant to continue, for fear of doing something that should not be done, but it seems you already have the necessary machinery in place to do so.
FA: Shall we... continue?
SS: I suppose we shall
SS: It is just a game after
SS: All. Presumably
SS: Everything will just
SS: Reset when the game is done?
SS: I mean hopefully.
Wess let a strained breath out and rubbed at his eyes beneath his glasses, then straightened them and returned his fingers to the computer keyboard.He wasn't sure if it was truly wise to continue... He could end up harming her, or... otherwise messing things up. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want her to be hurt.
But he could be careful, and these things weren't going away, probably until she got to the end of it. Or... maybe he could exit the game? Come to think of it, there didn't seem to be a way to exit the game at all. There was no little "X" button, no way to get the window to go away... it seemed he was pretty much stuck playing this. And he wasn't sure he wanted to see what happened when he shut the computer down. If it didn't want him to exit until he'd finished, he imagined it wasn't going to.
So, somewhat begrudgingly, Wess navigated his way to Leta's entryway, and placed the last of the machines, the "Totem Lathe".
SS: Everything will just
SS: Reset when the game is done?
SS: I mean hopefully.
FA: Well... It certainly seems that way.
FA: There does not appear to be an exit button anywhere on this game, so I suppose it wants us to continue playing until the end.
FA: Given the powerful nature of this technology, I do not truly wish to test things by disconnecting or shutting down.
FA: It does not want us to quit.
FA: At any rate, I have placed the last of the machines in your foyer.This one is called the "Totem Lathe".
FA: There do not seem to be any variety of instructions for any of these.
FA: The advice of the game guides seems to point in the direction of the Cruxtruder, though. That is the large machine you sent me a pictureof.
Luke noticed Bern arrive on the roof. He looked back at the odd machine. What could it possibly be? How were they supposed to interact with it? Luke had given up on clicking things. It seemed to him that most interaction needed to be done by Bern. Luke was just there to set things in place. Luke kept staring at the Cruxtruder, as if simply looking at the object wou-...
...
Luke was outside.
Luke hit the ground after falling from a few feet in the air, landing right on his behind. He was confused for only a moment before he figured out what happened.
LUKE: Fucking GOAT!
Luke quickly stood up and looked around. It wasn't long before he found the bastard. Gammalth, the strange, white goat with no eyes was lazing under a tree, eating some grass. The goat took a break from eating the grass to look up at him. Luke wasn't an expert at reading the emotions of animals, but he could SWEAR Gammalth was looking at him with a smirk on his mostly-a-face. Luke dusted the grass off of his pants and walked back towards the tower. He wasn't really in the mood for Gammalth's games right now. Usually, he would take up Gammalth's offer and take a break from whatever he was doing to entertain the goat. But these were different circumstances, and he couldn't leave his friend alone at a time like this.
Before Luke could get inside, though, a flash of green light stopped him in his tracks. The goat appeared in front of him. He took on a charging stance, aimed right at Luke. It looked as if he wasn't getting out of this... Luke glanced over at the fields adjacent to his house. His gardening tools were the only weapons he had when sparring. If he even stood a chance, he needed to get there. Luke made a mad dash towards the green house, with Gammalth in hot pursuit.
Well, going by Wess' descriptions and the games behavior, it seemed as though this activity was taking a much more sinister turn. However, it seemed by the very nature of the game she would have to push forward.
FA: At any rate, I have placed the last of the machines in your foyer.This one is called the "Totem Lathe".
FA: There do not seem to be any variety of instructions for any of these.
FA: The advice of the game guides seems to point in the direction of the Cruxtruder, though. That is the large machine you sent me a picture of.
SS: I will switch over to
SS: A more mobile method for me
SS: To communicate.
SS: This game may require
SS: A lot more movement than we
SS: First thought there would be.
Leta opened up one of her desk drawers to pull out a light yellow messenger bag, which she then stored her laptop and charger in. Her intuition told her she might need to keep them close. Reaching into another compartment she grabbed her phone and activated the chat client on it.
Heading over to the...'Cruxtruder', she noticed what looked like a small wheel on the side.Further observation of the machine led her to believe that there was something inside, judging by the way something seemed to be trying to escape through the top of the machine. Reaching for the wheel, she began to try and turn it...
...Only to find that itwouldn't budge. Pulling out her phone she began to send a message to Wess.
SS: I believe we may
SS: Require something more forceful
SS: To open this thing.
Wess watched Leta moving about on his screen, cell phone in hand. Well,he'd thought it before, and he was thinking it again: she was pretty... There was little doubt to be had about that. It made his cheeks bloom a red that didn't seem to fit him all the way, but there it was.
He allowed himself a moment on that train of thought, then, before removing himself from it. He had to focus on this game... it definitely seemed that they were going to have to keep playing it, and there was something mildly frightening about that, as if this "suburban simulation"game was really a whole lot less cute and fun than they'd thought it would be.
Or maybe they just had a really, really creative marketing department.
Either way, Wess felt it was time he attempted to speak to the others about this. Bern and Luke had probably already started, and he cared little for Alex, but Rhys, at least, was tolerable. She would benefit from knowing, too,he thought.
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
frigidAllurment[FA]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
FA: I dearly hope the drama in this memo has calmed some.
FA: However, that is not why I have re-entered.
FA: It seems this game is far less a "fun simulator" game, as described by it's packaging and many others, but rather something a bit more insidious.
FA: This game seems to interact with and manipulate reality itself. And while this feat is impressive, something about it seems more sinister than that.
FA: Has anyone else who has started quite yet noticed that the game holds no "exit" button?
FA: There is no way to quit this game, it seems, before the very end.
FA: I do not know how many of you have yet begun to play, but those of you who have not may want to hold off until something more is learned on the subject.
Bern hadn’t really caught on to some of the eccentricities of this game at first.That much he was certain of. However, now that he had calmed down enough to really get a feel for what was going on, he was beginning to understand much, much more about it. He had his suspicions about the contraption on the roof. That one was going to be hard to get to,unfortunately. Though perhaps that could be ameliorated later, given the nature of this game. He’d already seen it having the ability to expand a room… why not give him an easy way up to the roof? Though he’d gathered that Luke had no way of doing that, seeing as he hadn’t been able to expand the room any further. Perhaps they would find a way to replenish the lost resources that had allowed for this in the first place. Perhaps soon.
Now, up on the roof,Bern was realizing how inconvenient it was to be without his computer at all times. Right now, he wanted to discuss this with Luke. Though he wasn’t coming to any conclusions yet, and something about the nature of this game made him more than a little frightened to test too many things out on his own. Though he knew that to some degree, experimentation was going to be important and necessary.Still, he figured he was better off, for now, doing a lot more thinking than doing.
He headed back down the ladder, onto the balcony, and back inside the apartment. Everything was, thankfully, as he’d left it. Though he wasn’t sure what that meant in regards to Luke… He went back to his computer to take a look at the messages.
CC: Shit, uhh...
CC: I gotta find a place for this one last device and I can't make the room bigger...
CC: I'm gonna have to put this on the roof... Maybe I can move it later or something.
Okay, so it seemed that his suspicions were correct; that he was unable to make the space bigger, so he’d put the last one on the roof. Having a small space really was disadvantageous, wasn’t it? He decided he’d try to reply to him.
MC: Luke, I’m trying to interpret just what these machines do.
MC: I am, however, reluctant to do too much with them. I have aparticularly ominous feeling about all this. My instincts are telling me that it’s best to observe right now, and I assure you, they are rarely wrong.
MC: Luke?
MC: Are you there?
MC: No matter. In the meantime, I’m going to try and inform theothers of what I already do know, which is very little.
He moved to the memo.
FA: Has anyone else who has started quite yet noticed that the game holds no "exit" button?
FA: There is no way to quit this game, it seems, before the very end.
FA: I do not know how many of you have yet begun to play, but those of you who have not may want to hold off until something more is learned on the subject.
minutiaeConnoisseur[MC] RIGHTNOW responded to memo
MC: I feel that I have to (begrudgingly) agree with Wess.
MC: There is something about this game that just isn’t quite right.
MC: From my perspective as someone who is having their world manipulated,I will do what is in my power to figure this game out.
MC: I currently know very little, though I don’t think it will belong before I can begin assisting the rest of you.
MC: For now, I have noted that the machines are most certainly related.Two of them appear to modify, and one of them appears to create.However, I have not yet deduced how to use any of them.
MC: I feel as though all of us will, eventually, have to play both roles in the process. We will all have to manipulate the world of our partner, and be manipulated. I feel this may complete a sort of logical chain that will finalize the introduction of this game.
MC: While I am hesitant to conduct trials with these machines, I am afraid it will be necessary very soon.
MC: I’ll be in touch.
Now that he’d made it clear that he would try to help the others, he turned his attention back to the apartment around him. He was about to try something that would change his perspective on the game yet again.Though he could tell that somehow, one of these machines created some kind of essential material, he wanted to see what would happen if he used some kind of existing material with them… Glancing through the apartment, his eyes settled on a stack of books near the television. The one on top, “Principles of Logic”, looked promising.
Rhys was almost having too much fun to go back and look at her Pesterchum window, but noticing just how much it was flashing, and the persistence of it, she finally looked at it.
VM: RHYS SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT IT IS BUT SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: ITS LIKE
VM: FUCKING NEW BATTLESTAR SEASON THREE UP IN THIS SHIT
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
Well, that didn’t sound particularly good. But she couldn’t really place what was happening with her, right? How was she supposed to know? Oh, that sounded oddly familiar. A squirrel in her bed? Clothes on the floor?
HT:well! that’s kind of funny. i was just making a mess of thisgirl’s room too!
HT:i think it was a squirrel i put in her bed.
HT:that probably wasn’t very nice!
HT:here i’ll fix it!!!!
HT:besides i bet my mom will just say its a poltergeist and try to makeyou pay her shit.
She went back to the game, and turned down the covers, picking up the taxidermied squirrel and setting it down on the girl’s desk right in front of her,almost apologetically. Wait a second… Wait a second! How slow could she be?!
HT: so wait
HT: you just saw me put the squirrel down on the desk riiiight?
HT: that’s totally crazy if so! is that your squirrel? he’sso cute. taxidermy is kind of weeeeird though…
HT: so now what?
Luke burst into the greenhouse, looking for something he could use to fend off the wild beast charging at him. Before he could find anything he could use,the goat was at his backside, bringing its horns upwards with enough force to launch Luke halfway across the greenhouse. He quickly got up as the goat began to charge again. He picked up a hand tiller on the table as he passed by it and threw it back at Gammalth. The goat simply phased past the incoming projectile and continued charging. Luke made a sharp left turn as he dashed out of the side door of the greenhouse, running straight through the fields. The sprinkler system was on, so the ground was slippery. Luke made a quick glance back. Gammalth was already out of the greenhouse and gaining on him. He began frantically looking for his scythe. It was about the only thing that even resembled a weapon around here. Suddenly, he was regretting not starting that sword collection before now...
Soon enough, he saw a glint in the wheat fields. He jumped over the rows of strawberries and ran into the row that held his scythe. He got close to grabbing it, but tripped on the wet soil and fell next to it. Gammalth was right on his tail and pounced at him. Without thinking, Luke closed his eyes, immediately grabbed the scythe and swung it in front of him with all of his strength. He could feel as he landed a strike on Gammalth's midsection, sending the goat careening into the row of wheat next to them. He opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet.His eyes found the large wound in the goat's side. Luke always felt bad when he won, because it meant having to see Gammalth in pain. Or,at least he thought it was pain...
After a few seconds,Gammalth stood up effortlessly, his wound closing almost instantly.He let out a bleat of satisfaction, and teleported away. Luke stood there for a few seconds, pondering the strange creature, but then pushed the thought out of his head and began walking back to the tower. He noticed a flash behind him, and saw the goat had returned...only to eat some of his wheat.
LUKE: HEY!
Gammalth looked up at him, slightly startled.
LUKE: Ask first next time.
The goat made an apologetic bleat in response.
LUKE: Yeah, go ahead and finish that one, I guess. You already started onit anyways, ya little thief.
The goat went back to eating the wheat with another one of those probably smug looks on his face.
Luke finally got back upstairs, not questioning why he's brought his scythe with him the whole way until he reached his room. He leaned it against the wall and returned to the computer. Looking over at the SBURB window, he noticed Bern wasn't on screen anymore. He saw his chat window blinking and checked to see what was happening.
MC: Luke, I’m trying to interpret just what these machines do.
MC: I am, however, reluctant to do too much with them. I have aparticularly ominous feeling about all this. My instincts are telling me that it’s best to observe right now, and I assure you, they are rarely wrong.
MC: Luke?
MC: Are you there?
MC: No matter. In the meantime, I’m going to try and inform the others of what I already do know, which is very little.
CC: Sorry, I was dealing with the little green shit.
CC: I know it could potentially be a bad idea, but you're not gonna figure anything out by being overly cautious.
CC: I mean, yeah, be careful and all, but you're gonna have to get close to them eventually.
CC: Think about this from a "gaming conventions" standpoint:They're not gonna give you something that KILLS you within the first few minutes of playing.
CC: That would be stupid and pointless.
CC: Well, granted, this isn't a normal game, but still.
Alex's eyes frantically scanned Wess's and Bern's words, then she shook her head and stood,pacing the room anxiously. Oh, god... oh god. Everyone was already starting, right? They'd all begun, so they were all fucked, all of them somehow sucked into this crazy-ass game... was it really able to mess with reality? She supposed it had to, since all of her things were suddenly on the floor and her squirrel was in her bed and... oh god.
Trying to calm down, Alex fiddled with the puff balls at the ends of her hat for a moment, then moved over to her book shelf. Rather than holding actual books, it instead had a lot of paraphernalia from her three favorite sci-fis: Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. She distracted herself for a bit by moving some things around and reorganizing the shelves, then picked a light saber off the ground and toyed with that for a few moments. After that, she reverently picked up a pair of binoculars off her Star Wars shelf... her dad had bought it for her several birthdays ago, a Star Wars licensed and authentic pair of Storm Trooper binoculars actually used on set during the shooting of the Battle of Endor.They were her most prized possession, and it would be an absolute shame to pick them up without looking dramatically into the sky with them.
Which she did, walking outside to hold the things up to the sky. Unsurprisingly, it was entirely blank and dull, except for a couple of--
What?!
Alex had, as most of the population had, heard reports of large meteors striking the Ear that an increasingly frequent rate, but that thought hadn't struck a whole lot of fear in her heart.
This, though...
A fiery ball of solid space rock headed right for her home was definitely enough to get her ass in fucking gear, and she ran back inside to her computer. She doubted it would crash down very soon, because it was pretty far out there, but still...
MC: I feel as though all of us will, eventually, have to play both roles in the process. We will all have to manipulate the world of ourpartner, and be manipulated. I feel this may complete a sort oflogical chain that will finalize the introduction of this game.
MC: While I am hesitant to conduct trials with these machines, I am afraid it will be necessary very soon.
MC: I’ll be in touch.
VM: OKAY YEAH WE GOT IT THE GAME IS DEFINITELY FUCKING WITH REALITY RHYS
VM: ON A MORE URGENT NOTE
VM: THERE HAPPENS TO BE A BIG FUCKING ROCK HEADING FOR MY HOUSE
VM: I FUCKING HOPE THIS IS PART OF THE GAME AND WE CAN FIX THIS BECAUSE MY DAD IS ASLEEP DOWNSTAIRS OKAY AND I HAVE A LOT FO THINGS
VM: SOMEONE PLEASE FIX THIS HOW DO WE FIX THIS
VM: ARE YOU GUYS GETTING THIS SHIT TOO WHATS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
VM: HELLOOOO LETS GO HURRY UP
VM: LETS STOP PLAYIG THE BITCH AT EACH OTHER AND TRY TO SUBTLY ONE UP EACH OTHER GAME FOR A WHILE RIGHT
VM: AND PLAY THE SAVE ALEXS ASS BEFORE SHE BECOMES A LOT OF PIECES OF BURNING FLESH GAME
VM: WINNER GETS THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING ME STILL EB ALIVE
VM: WHAT A PLEASURE OOH AAH
VM: GAME STARTS NOW GO
Bern decided he would pick up a book. But not "The Principles of Logic". He had a feeling it might be important. He pushed that one aside to pick up the one underneath. It turned out that this choice was going to be a revelation into the mechanics of the game.
When he went to pick up the book, it disappeared. But Bern suddenly became aware of something very strange. It was like there was an inventory system before him!It wasn't quite like anything he'd ever seen, though. He seemed to have multiple "cards" ... one of which was storing the book he'd just tried to take — "Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century". Another one of the cards had something in it...something he wan't aware that he had. A strange card?
(1. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century) (2. Fetch Modus Card) (3. Empty) (4.Empty)
Bern contemplated what he was seeing, observing every last detail. Sylladex? Captchaloguedeck? This had to be part of the game, right? As startling as it was,it made sense that, if the game could do things like allow a player to manipulate reality from afar... Then putting things into some kind of digital inventory, governed by different rules than reality,seemed possible enough, too. It was strange, though. This inventory screen. He felt like if he analyzed it enough, he could learn a lot... He'd figured some things out already, just from the context.This thing that was taking and storing his items must have been the Sylladex. And these cards? Surely the Captchalogue deck. There was something else. He wasn't quite sure how it was related, but it was called a Strife Specibus. There was really no indication of what it was, and there was nothing in it. He felt like he ought to take an object, and put it there. But he didn't know what it would do. Hang on, he had to think about it. Strife? Strife implied disagreement....dispute... hostility... Fighting! Wait, this was an equipment slot,wasn't it? In that case, he had an idea.
He tried to put the next book in the stack, "A Concise Introduction to Quantum Physics", into the Strife Specibus slot.
(1. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century) (2. Fetch Modus Card) (3. Empty) (4.Empty) --- (SS: bookkind)
The result was definitely interesting, but he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, besides that it had worked. He had wondered if the game would reject certain things as weapons. However, it didn't appear that it was rejecting this one. The book had been taken into the slot, andthe label below it now read "Book kind". So now his "strife specibus" was "bookkind"? He tried to take it. And suddenly the book was in his hand, but it didn't feel like it was something he could just put down; it felt somehow separate from his inventory. Instead, he put it away.
He wondered what other objects he would need. The card in the "inventory slot" was a pretty mysterious looking one. He wasn't sure what it was. Was there a way to read tool tips, or something like that, in this game?He tried thinking hard about the object, wanting it, wanting to take it out. But he couldn't. Is that because the book was on top? He tried to take out the book. Sure enough, he was able to do that. So he could only take out the item that was "on top" of the stack.
He'd learned a lot in a short amount of time, hadn't he? He decided this was information worth sharing, so he went back to the memo.
VM: WINNER GETS THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING ME STILL EB ALIVE
VM: WHAT A PLEASURE OOH AAH
VM: GAME STARTS NOW GO
MC: I've made a lot of interesting discoveries.
MC: Anyone who is not playing the game on their computer, whose environment is being manipulated, has a sort of inventory that becomes apparent when you attempt to pick something up.
MC: This inventory is probably called a Sylladex, and the cards it uses as "inventory slots" are called Captchalogue cards.
MC: There is also a separate slot called a Strife Specibus. I have reason to believe that it is something like an equipment slot, specifically for a weapon.
MC: I tried putting a book in the slot. It did not get rejected by the game, and it appears I now have "bookkind" declared as my strife specibus.
MC: My inventory appeared to have something in it that I did not put there when I first realized it. I am not yet sure what this card-like item is. However, I did find that when you put something into your inventory, you may only take out the item you have last placed in it.
MC: I'm sure this is only a taste of the discoveries we will uncover while playing this game.
After typing all that,he went back to read what Alex had written. And he felt the blood draining from his face as he did.
MC: Alex... surely you couldn't mean there is a meteor headed directly for your house?
MC: Do you have the tools to calculate that it is, indeed, headed directly for you?
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
While his words might have sounded calm, the truth of the matter was that Bern was terrified. He didn't think there was anything he could do for Alex...Rhys was the only one who probably had control over her fate, and he wasn't sure she was going to be able to handle this, if it had anything to do with the game at all. He wasn't sure there was anything he could do for her, personally... She was in the same position as he was, pretty much. All she could do was try to follow the advice on what he was figuring out.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
He felt a new sense of urgency, for Alex's sake. Getting up from his computer, he decided he would store it in his... no, wait. He had a feeling he might need something else. He walked back over toward the TV and captchalogued a tape from one of the many piles of VHS tapes his grandmother had recorded various game shows on. Then, in the final slot, he placed his computer so he could take it with him. Finally, he headed for the roof, convinced that he needed to figure out the purpose of that machine. He swore that somehow, it had the answer to his question about what material he could use with the other machines... besides the card slot in one of them...
(1. Laptop) (2. The Price Is Right VHS tape) (3. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
Rhys was trying to figure stuff out on her own end. There were all these other things in the top bar. All these icons she didn't recognize. But when she clicked on them, it seemed to change the cursor. Maybe she could do different things? She didn't know! This was all so frustrating!
Though about at that point, she noticed that something was going on in the memo. It looked like an awful lot of people were saying a lot of things...
First off was Alex, and she read what she'd written, a look of horror growing over her face.What the heck was going on over there?! She'd just been trying to figure this stuff out; did she do something wrong?! Bern was saying a lot too; it looked like he was figuring things out and trying to tell everyone about them, but she was too concerned with Alex right now to really be able to focus on what he was writing.
-memo-
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
HT: ooooh my gooood!!!!
HT: alex i must have screwed something up i'm sorry i'm sorryyyy!!!!
HT: what am i supposed to do? there are all these buttons and things andi dont get iiiit!!!!
HT: someone help!!!!
She went back to the game, trying to figure everything out. The magnifying glass zoomed in and out. That first default cursor seemed to be for selecting and moving things... She clicked on the second icon, which looked like the cursor, except the shapes were all weird. She then clicked and realized it was making a big shape on the side of the room. She dragged it until it was bigger and let go... Suddenly, Alex had a new addition to her room that she might or might not appreciate...
-pesterlog-
HT: aaaahhhh what the heck! it just made a room! you have a weird room too right?!
Luke glanced over at the memo window when it began flashing again. He read in terror as Alex described her situation. He realized that the meteors had to have some kind of connection to the game itself. The increased occurrences started AFTER the game's release, and they all seemed to strike houses specifically. He knew this had to be part of the game,and there HAD to be a way to prevent it.
-Open Memo-
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
HT: ooooh my gooood!!!!
HT: alex i must have screwed something up i'm sorry i'm sorryyyy!!!!
HT: what am i supposed to do? there are all these buttons and things andi dont get iiiit!!!!
HT: someone help!!!!
CC: Alright everyone, listen up.
CC: I know we've kind of just been messing around and freaking out over how this game affects reality.
CC: But we have to recognize that we're on a timer now. That meteor HASto be part of this game.
CC: This game can't be impossible, though. There's GOT to be a way toavoid a firey death.
CC: Right now, we need to focus on making as much progress as possible.Ignore all the crazy shit that happens and just accept it. There'llbe time for freaking out later.
CC: I'm sure if we just keep going, we'll find a way out of this.
Luke's mind quickly turned to Rhys. He began messaging her.
-Open Pesterlog-
CC: Rhys?
CC: Look, I know you're probably freaking out right now, but I need you to focus on progress.
CC: Just stay calm, and stay serious, alright?
CC: I know it's a lot to handle, but I know you can do it!
That was all he could do for now... He could only hope for the best.
~~~~~
Leta observed themachine that had been unceremoniously dropped into her room andfrowned. She couldn't see any obvious way to open it other than theapparently non-functional wheel on the side of the machine. Maybe ifshe dropped something heavy on top of it, it might pop off? She wouldconfer with the group as a whole to get their opinion.
Letascanned through the recent posts in the memo, and felt her heartdrop. As much as she and Alex felt a tension between them, she stillcared. She could feel that there was more to Alex than met the eye,and if she were to die... All that potential would be wasted. Shewould be gone... Leta snapped herself out of her thoughts. This wasno time to wait around. She needed to progress as far as she could,as fast as she could, to make sure that she survived the countdown.Then she needed to help Wess survive too. She needed to move now.
As she traveled downthe steps, she thought it odd that she couldn't hear the voices ofher parents, and briefly considered checking in on them. They wouldprobably get angry if she did though...Taking what Bern had saidabout the digital inventory into consideration, she headed down thetwo flights of stairs that led to her basement. If it was digital,then it stood to reason that she could grab whatever she wantedwithout actually carrying it herself.
As she traveled downthe steps, she thought it odd that she couldn't hear the voices ofher parents, and briefly considered checking in on them. They wouldprobably get angry if she did though... She opened up the door at thebottom of the steps and switched on the lights inside the basement,and headed straight for the workout equipment. She searched throughthe metal pieces until she found a rather heavy barbell.
(1. empty) (2.Barbell) (3. Phone) (4. Fetch Modus Card)
Now that she thoughtabout it, she had been a bit distracted earlier, and must have placedher phone inside the digital inventory when she put it away. Thiswhole danger thing had shooken her up, and it was certainly notpleasant.
Heading over to theother side of the room, where there were a few boxes placed, Letabegan to search through them, looking for one thing in particular.Bern had mentioned a Strife Specibus, and she didn't want to beunprepared. She opened one elongated box, and pulled out a khopesh.Her parents didn't approve of it when they found that she hadpurchased one online, and insisted that it be kept in the basement,and out of sight. They didn't now about the fact that she had hired ateacher for a few lessons, and practiced while they were out either.She placed the khopesh inside the strife specibus, and marveled athow weird it was to have a digital inventory.
As she walked up thestairs, she half-expected to find some new addition to her room whenshe returned, ad while the presence of the two machines currently inplace was troubling, at least there wasn't anything new. Climbing upon top of the machine, she ejected the barbell from her inventory,and let gravity tale its course.
(1. empty) (2. empty)(3. Phone) (4. Fetch Modus Card)
As the top flew off,Leta was knocked backwards into the air While her breath was knockedout of her, she considered it lucky that she had fallen onto the bed.She lay there for a few moments, stunned, before sitting up, only tosee something odd.
There seemed to be aglowing yellow orb floating above the Cruxtrider. It emitted a softyellow glow, and seemed to bounce slightly in the air.
Taking out her phoneshe began to type a message into the memo.
-- Memo--
CC:This game can't be impossible, though. There's GOT to be a way toavoid a firey death.
CC:Right now, we need to focus on making as much progress as possible.Ignore all the crazy shit that happens and just accept it. There'llbe time for freaking out later.
CC:I'm sure if we just keep going, we'll find a way out of this.
SS:Hello everyone
SS:I have found the next method
SS:Of game progression.
SS:You need to drop a
SS:Heavy item onto the machine
SS:Called Cruxtruder.
SS:I am not quite sure
SS:What to do with the thing that
SS:Came out however.
SS:It appears to be
SS:Some sort of glowing ball of
SS:Floating bouncing light?
~~~~~
Wess had gone back towatching Leta after posting in the memo, driven away again by Bern'scomment. She didn't move for a while, which he guessed meant she wasreading the memo herself, but then she was up and doing things again.Wess took a moment or two to read further ahead in the game guide,trying to sort out the garbled nonsense into something reasonable,then came back to the game itself again.
What was thatfloating... thing? It was exactly Leta's color, a soft yellow, and...oh, he supposed it must be the "Kernelsprite" spoken ofbriefly in the guide. Which meant it probably didn't matter rightnow, but he could put something into it, if he felt the need.
The countdown was whatmattered.
It hadn't been veryclear in the guide, but the countdown supposedly had something to dowith meteors.
According to Leta'sCruxtruder, her time left was 6:24... six minutes and twenty fourseconds, and falling quickly. So she would need to get going. Now.
Wess clicked the pieceof cruxite that had falled out of the cruxtruder and dragged it overto the totem lathe, where he set it down to get the pre-punched cardout. He dropped that next to the cruxite dowel, and then moved backto the memo, figuring he should probably share some of thisinformation with the rest of the group.
Heread up on what had been happening first, and his eyes went wide. Hewasn't particularly attached to ALex, but she was still sort of hisfriend, and... even beyond that, this could only mean that the gameguides were right.This had something to do with meteors... so Leta's 6:24, which wasnow 6:02, meant that she had only that much time to get through...whatever it was she needed to get through. And so did everyone else.He figured it would be best to direct them through the informationhe'd been able to pick up form the game guides, then, and they couldfigure out the rest later.
SS:It appears to be
SS:Some sort of glowing ball of
SS:Floating bouncing light?
FA:Leta, the ball of light is called a Kernelsprite. It is irrelevant,as of now.
FA:I have read through the rest of the game guide I was referring to,and it appears Leta was correct.
FA:Not only does bashing the lid of the cruxtruder release akernelsprite, but it will also eject a dowel of something called"cruxite".
FA:Place this into the totem lathe.
FA:The Client player (in Bern's words, "Anyone who is not playingthe game on their computer"), will need to work quickly with theServer player after this.
FA:Bern, that means anyone who *is* playing the game on their computer.
FA:The Server player will need to eject the pre-punched card, which theclient will then place into the totem lathe.
FA:The totem lathe with card the cruxite, and the client will need toplace this carved piece of cruxite onto the smaller platform on thealchemiter.
FA:This will create... some form of object.
FA:I am not certain yet what this object does, as that is as far as thegame guides go, but I feel that is enough for you all to accomplishfor now.
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
~~~~~
Bern made his way up tothe roof, and sat down in front of the cruxtruder that Luke hadpreviously placed there. He didn't do anything yet, though... He feltlike he might have to check on the memo. It took too damn longclimbing that ladder up to the roof, but it was a lot faster thantaking the stairwell.
(1. Empty) (2. ThePrice Is Right VHS tape) (3. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
Good god, that was alot of memo. There was a lot of information here. So... the thingabout meteors was pretty certainly not a coincidence. Granted, Bernhad only doubted it because he hadn't heard about the incidence ofmeteors lately. He'd been too busy with reading, and his grandmahadn't exactly been watching the tv lately. No, she had so manytapes, she was always watching some game show, not the local news orany of that... So of course he didn't know anything about the suddenincidence of meteors!
However,the glaring tone of Wess's messages infuriated him. It was like he'ddone something wrong.Which he most certainly had not.What was with this douche? Didn't he have something better to do?Like saving Leta's life?
At that, he foundhimself looking up to the sky. If Alex and Leta were both indanger... didn't that mean he was too? He looked all around him,squinted... He didn't see anything- Wait! Shit, there was somethingout there. He couldn't tell if it was a meteor or not, but thethought that it very well could be had his heart sinking into the pitof his stomach. Okay, he needed to settle this right now.
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
He looked up to thecruxtruder then, contemplating it. So he'd been correct in hisassumption about there being a lid on it that needed to be removed insome way. And he was also correct to think that the wheel on the sidewasn't for that purpose. So, as it had been mentioned, he would needto find a way to get it off. But if he needed to hit it withsomething heavy... Obviously there was nothing in his sylladex thatcould do that. He couldn't think of anything in his apartment that hecould efficiently take with him to do the task, either. It lookedlike he'd need some help from Luke.
-pesterlog-
MC:Luke, if you would, I need your assistance.
MC:Do you perchance have an idea as to how we can get the lid off thismachine?
MC:I don't have anything heavy to knock it off with. Perhaps you, as theone with the cursor, can pull it off? Or whatever you might come upwith.
Until the other helpedhim with this, he didn't think there was anything he could do toprogress.
~~~~~
Rhys had beenpanicking, contemplating actually getting up and moving around, asshe felt too antsy to focus... then she realized that Luke wasmessaging her.
-pesterlog-
CC:Rhys?
CC:Look, I know you're probably freaking out right now, but I need youto focus on progress.
CC:Just stay calm, and stay serious, alright?
CC:I know it's a lot to handle, but I know you can do it!
HT:can you read my mind or somethingggg? of course i'm freaking out!
HT:it's hard okay it's really hard i don't want anything bad tohappennnn
HT:i'm going to try though i really don't want to wait too long
HT:i really care about alex ok?
HT:thanks.... i think it helps to talk to you because i'm feeling betteralreadyyyy!
Rhys was now readingthe memo rather intently as others posted there. Ah, so this was howthe game worked, huh? She needed to find a way to place machines, andthen there was this thing about knocking the top off of one of them,and stuff would happen, this weird spritey thing would appear? Okay,she thought she could handle this...
She opened up the"Phernalia Registry", the fourth button at the top. Oh,there were the machines! She had made that space on Alex's house, sothat would suffice for the machines, she hoped! There definitelywasn't enough room in her room to put them all there. She starteddeploying the machines and putting them down in her room. Okay, shethought she had that part right... But the fact that they were allrunning out of time was terrible. She was scared she wouldn't be ableto protect Alex this time...
-pesterlog-
HT:alex!!!!
HT:i think you can do the stuff you need to do now!!!!
HT:i'm sorryyyy i'm so useless i just can't figure this stuff out! it'sa good thing bern and wess are doing that because i sure can't....
~~~~~
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
Leta didn't even botherreplying to the message Wess had entered, focusing instead on thecountdown on the Cruxtruder. She had five minutes and forty fiveseconds left, and she really needed to get moving.
She followed the paththe floating cruxite dowel had taken just moments ago, down the stepsand into the foyer. At first she couldn't see anything different,until she noticed Wess had placed the machine right in front of herdoor. Why he couldn't place it to the side of the entrance hall wasbeyond her, but she didn't have time to fret about it now.
She ran over, slightlyskidding on the floor, and snatched up the cruxite dowel. Shepractically shoved it into the machine, before grabbing thepre-punched card and slotted it in. She took a step back as themachine did its work, carving the dowel into some strange shape. Itsort of looked like a misshapen vase at the moment actually.
She ran up the stairs,skipping a few steps and making sure not to have the carved doweldisappear into her inventory. As she entered her room, she quicklychecked the countdown on the Cruxtruder. She only had four minutesand thirty seconds left! Quickly she made her way over to theAlchemiter and placed the dowel in, and watched as it created... afeather?
Momentarily stunned,she stood there for a few seconds just staring at the feather. Whatthe hell was she supposed to do with a feather? Picking it up, shenoticed it was heavy and appeared to made out of the same material asthe dowel. On closer examination it appeared to have something carvedinto it, but she couldn't seem to make it out... Thinking quickly,she headed over to her window and held up the feather against thesuns rays.
As the lightilluminated the feather, she could make out the words, 'WEIGHT'. Wasshe supposed to weigh the feather? Could it be like the ancientEgyptians who weighed their soul against a feather to gain entranceto the afterlife? Considering her interest in the mythology andlegends of Egypt, as well as the omniscient nature of the game, itseemed plausible... But in that case then if her soul was found tooheavy, her existence would fade away! A quick glance over at thetimer reminded her that her existence would fade either way if shedidn't do something.
She made her way overto the desk, captchaloguing the barbell as she went as it was in theway, and began searching through the drawers. As she placed thefeather down on the top of the desk she captchalogued Arielle thelion. Frustrated, she shuffled through what remained in her drawersuntil she found a small balance. She felt like screaming when itautomatically went into her digital inventory. Her frustration levelswere rapidly rising, and as she released everything she hadcaptchalogued, the balance dropped onto the floor, the barbell rolledonto the desk, causing it to creak, and Arielle went flying into theKernelsprite, causing a brief but bright flash of light.
In her startled state,Leta accidentally knocked the barbell from its new position on herdesk, and as it rolled down the length of the desk, it reached thefeather and crushed it underneath its weight. Turning back towardsthe remains of the feather, she felt fear crystallize in her heartbriefly before the whole house seemed to shake and a bright lightstreamed in through the windows.
When everything hadsettled, Leta rushed to her window, half expecting to see a meteor,only to find that her house now overlooked what appeared to be agolden desert of shimmering sands. In the distance she could make outwhat appeared to be smooth towering obelisks reaching towards ayellow sky. Thin miasma like clouds floated across the sky, formingwhat appeared to be... words? She pulled away from her view of theglittering sands, and retrieved her laptop, recaptchaloguing thebarbell as she went. She supposed she probably fulfilled whateverrequirements the game had to transport her away from the meteorimpact. After all, she did sort of weigh it? If by weighing, youmeant crushing it under weights... At least she didn't have to worryabout weighing her soul or anything. She would hold onto the barbell,it seemed to be incredibly useful so far.
(1. Barbell) (2.Phone) (3. Fetch Modus Card) (4. Empty)
Looking over the memo,she noticed Bern and Wess were fighting. Ugh, she did not have theenergy to deal with this right now.
-- Open Memo --
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
SS:Yes, well that is
SS:Certainly something, Bern, Wess,
SS:That you will need to
SS:Work out. In other news
SS:I managed to shut down my
SS:Cruxtruder Countdown.
SS:You guys will not be
SS:Able to believe what is
SS:Going on over
SS:Here. After one does
SS:What Wess outlined in the
SS:Memo, you will then
SS:Receive an object
SS:That from my experience
SS:Must then be broken.
SS:After which you will
SS:Be transported into a
SS:Strange different place.
SS:My home is at the
SS:Surrounded by what seems like
SS:A real live desert.
~~~~~
-OpenMemo-
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
God fucking damnit...
Luke was HOPING torally the group together and drown out this petty jealousy with thecommon cause of, oh I don't know, PREVENTING EVERYONE FROM DYING?! Nomatter, it seems to have devolved into petty insults already. Lukewas going to have a serious talk with Wess, but not until AFTER Letawas safe. Paying closer attention, he could see that Rhys hadresponded. He quickly scanned her message and closed the window. Hedidn't want to distract her when she was supposed to be saving Alex.
...Kind of like how hewas supposed to be saving Bern.
Luke rushed back to hischat window with Bern.
-OpenPesterlog-
MC:Luke, if you would, I need your assistance.
MC:Do you perchance have an idea as to how we can get the lid off thismachine?
MC:I don't have anything heavy to knock it off with. Perhaps you, as theone with the cursor, can pull it off? Or whatever you might come upwith.
CC:Uhh, let me see what I can find.
Luke returned to Bern'sapartment, looking for something heavy. He went looking from room toroom when he accidentally clicked on the toilet in the bathroom,ripping it straight out of the floor and taking a chunk of bathroomtile with it.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Fuck...
Luke took a moment toconsider the turn of events and decided to not waste any time andsimply use the toilet. It was in his cursor anyways.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Okay, don't be mad, but I found something heavy.
He moved the window upto the roof again and moved the toilet over the Cruxtruder. He thendropped it directly on top of the lid, cracking the toilet nearly inhalf and causing the top of the Cruxtruder to fly off, releasing agreen crystalline cylinder and a glowing green orb. A timer thenflashed to life, displaying their current remaining time. Only 4minutes and 13 seconds left...
Remembering what Wesssaid about the game, he immediately grabbed the cylinder and draggedit downstairs again to the weird machine with a slot for the cruxitedowel. He opened and scanned the Phernalia Registry until he foundwhat he was looking for. He placed the Pre-Punched card next to thedowel, ready for Bern as soon as he arrived.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Alright, I think everything's set up!
CC:You don't have much time left, so run!
~~~~~
Alex was still freakingout, but at least now she was actually paying attention to the memo,hoping for some life-saving advice. Somewhat unfortunately, it camein the form of a long stream of useful condescension from the King ofBitter Douchewads himself, Wess. She groaned.
But it was stilladvice, and useful, so she left her computer to find something heavyand decide what the machines were. The cruxtruder had to be the tubeyone witht he actual lid, okay, that made sense... and the alchemiterwas probably the one with the two pads, and the the totem lathe wasprobably the one that looked like it could actually carve things.
Well... she had a lotof dead animals and some sci-fi paraphernalia in her room. Sheconsidered dropping a bear on the cruxtruder, figured it would be fartoo heavy for her to actually lift, then decided that she didn'tactually care and tried to lift the thing anyways, uselessly. Ugh.That was the only thing she had in the room that would probably beheavy enough, aside form her bed... she decided to message Rhys forsome assistance.
HT:alex!!!!
HT:i think you can do the stuff you need to do now!!!!
HT:i'm sorryyyy i'm so useless i just can't figure this stuff out! it'sa good thing bern and wess are doing that because i sure can't....
VM:no no no no rhys youre fucking fine just
VM:okay you need to take this big fucking bear in my room and drop it onthe tubey thingy okay
VM:the lid part
VM:you can do that i know you can
VM:lets go i have no idea how long it takes for space rocks to bringfiery deaths to teenagers and i dont really want to find out
Thatpart being done, Alex decided to try out this... sylladex thing. Bernhad said that just picking something up would store the item in oneof those cards, but obviously that hadn't worked with the bear, whichmeant she probably wasn't going to be able to put anything in it thatwas too big? Or maybe Bern was just trying to mess with them... Well,he couldn't exactly seeher, so she decided to try with something else, and picked R2D2 offof the "This is Not the Droids You Are Looking For" scene.Immediately, a bunch of cards flashed up in front of her.
(1.R2D2)(2. Fetch Modus Card)(3. Empty)(4. Empty)
That was.... weird...okay, so obviously Bern hadn't been pulling their legs.
She had known he'd comethrough.
Alex reached out,trying to touch the cards, but then they were gone again... soapparently they really did only accept things of a certain size, andthey weren't... actually... there? So how was she supposed to get herstuff back?! That R2D2 was mint condition!
Alex picked a schoolbook up off her desk, intending to throw it at the space in the airthe cards had so recently occupied, but that just disappeared aswell. Fuck!
(1. TheAmerican Vision)(2. R2D2)(3. Fetch Modus Card)(4. Empty)
Okay... so that seemedto move things back.
Slowly, Alex pickedC3PO off of her desk too.
(1.C3PO)(2. The American Vision)(3. R2D2)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
So now all of her cardswere full! Then she would probably be able to get the last thing,right? The weird card that she didn't actually own. It seemed it camewith the game, like everything else she'd seen so far.
She tried to reach outand grab the thing, but that didn't do anything. Apparently, shewould have to try some other method... Well, there was always fillingthe cards up with more shit.
Alex picked up abadger.
(1.Badger)(2. C3PO)(3. The American Vision)(4. R2D2)
The fetch modus cardfell to the floor seemingly out of nowhere. It didn't... really...look like anything. It was just an empty card! She frowned at it, anddecided that she didn't want to risk damaging her R2D2, so she wouldleave it alone for now.
~~~~~
Wess was growing veryfrustrated very fast with his group, but of course he wasn't going toshow it. He could respond to Bern, and take the bait, but... hedecided he was better than that. At least for now. He'd gotten hisshot in, he could leave that alone for a while to focus on Letainstead. She was the one who was really in danger, and if Bern didn'tactually want to contribute anything to save his team's asses, well,he could do that. He was only wasting his own time, anyways.
So he moved off to seeLeta instead, drawn what she'd said about a desert. Her room lookedmuch the same, though it seemed she had prototyped her kernelspritewith a... lion? That must have been her stuffed lion... that was sortof cute.
It seemed she had madeher cruxite thing, and the shattered remains beneath the barbell onher floor told Wess she had actually broken the thing. Okay, so thenthat was important.
Zooming out, Wess couldsee exactly what Leta had been talking about. A huge expanse ofdesert lay around Leta's house, which was... why wasn't it where...it had been? This was weird.
-- Open Memo --
SS:My home is at the
SS:Surrounded by what seems like
SS:A real live desert.
FA:It seems Leta is right, again.
FA:Breaking whatever your alchemiter produces when you do what I saidearlier will transport you to...
FA:I am not certain what to call it, but I assume we will all end up ineach other's vicinity fairly soon.
FA:I suggest we focus on accomplishing this for now, as it seems to bethe only way to escape a painful death by giant rock.
FA:I have yet to try anything with the sylladex, as this is moreimportant, but I think we should be careful with those.
FA:Losing something important could be catastrophic.
FA:We should probably share any information we manage to gather on themwhen we get into this... place Leta is in.
FA:Speaking of which, it does not seem that breaking this itemtransports both client *and* server.
FA:I am not certain whether the server needs to do the same to escapemeteors, either...
~~~~~
Alright! Finally doing the thing! I'll keep key info here as well.
References
Caveats and Condolences
An Examination of the Basics
The Long and Short. The Medium Too.
Some Stuff About Captcha Codes and Punch Card Alchemy
Appendix Three. Screen Captures, pt. 1
Rose:Engress
SBURB Controls
Characters
AlexMagram - Page of Time - Prospit - Female - vociferousMiwok - #ff590a
WessSpingel - Seer of Void - Derse - Male - frigidAllurement - #aad3e3
BernFiachra - Witch of Doom - Derse - Male -minutiaeConnoisseur - #77b709
LetaDarnell - Seer of Heart - Derse - Female - schemingSphinx - #fefb51
LukeEvans - Knight of Void - Prospit - Male -cantankerousCompletionist -#2f6bff
RhysMorgan - Heir of Space - Prospit - Female - halcyonTsiologist - #47da91
UniversePairs
UniverseOne: Luke Evans, Bern Fiachra
UniverseTwo: Wess Spingel, Leta Darnell
UniverseThree: Rhys Morgan, Alex Magram
Alex sat slumped in her desk chair, doing absolutely nothing of importance. She would probably argue otherwise, of course; scrolling through the Star Wars wiki was something she might consider of utmost importance, and in fact a positively vital practice, one that should be performed on a daily basis.
It is safe to say, though, that this was not something that would impact anyone's life in any kind of notable way.
Sometimeduring this rather dull period of time, though, something slightly more important happened; the red-flippy-deally on the mailbox outsideher home was suddenly noticed as having been flipped upwards,signifying the arrival of what Alex could only hope was the game herfriends had made her order ages ago.
Ages ago.
She had no idea why it had decided to arrive now,rather than something like a month ago when it should have come, but here it was... she hoped. With luck, it was that, rather than some kind of dead animal for her father to stuff. She blamed the postal service, as always. Actually, she was fairly certain that,should she ever become a superhero, the postal service would be her arch nemesis.
Oh, fuck it. She didn't even need to be a superhero. That was already true, without a doubt.
Alex pulled herself out of her chair and away from her computer, and rushed outside the get her package anyways, half-excited and half-furious at the postal service, as she usually was. Upon opening up the mailbox, she discovered that it was indeed her package! Well, packages. There were two of them, both indifferent colored boxes, and both as beautiful as Princess Leia herself. Suddenly way less furious at the postal service, Alex ran back inside to her computer.
Then, opening a memo that had existed between herself and a few of her friends, she notified the group of gamers she'd been planning on playing with of this exciting new development.
CURRENTvociferousMiwok [VM]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CVM: GUYS
CVM: guys
CVM: the postal service finally came through
CVM: well actually they probably realized how fucking angry i was
CVM: and decided that the smartest idea would be to hand over the stuff
CVM: before i got REALLY mad and just
CVM: pummeled their asses with my slingshot
CVM: but anyways
CVM: the package came
CVM: the game is here
CVM: im loading the disks as we speak
CVM: lets do
CVM: the thing!
Leta turned away from the open window she had been staring out of for the last few minutes.She wondered if that old man hobbling down to the bus station knew that there was a hole in his jacket that was dropping all his loose change. Well obviously not, or he would do something about it. The noise of the cars passing by was beginning to grate on her nerves, so she quickly closed the window, and turned to head up stairs.Everything about the area she was in seemed to be rather dull and uninteresting.
She had been feeling rather bored lately. All of the books in their personal library had already been read, and she couldn't travel to the public one everyday. Her home had been having problems with the internet, and though the issue had finally been fixed, it meant that she hadn't been able to go online as much. Of course that meant she couldn't find solace in her conversations with her internet friends, or look up riddles. She had taken to writing some poetry in her spare time, as she so did appreciate the beauty of writing. But it really was no replacement for actual interaction with people she liked. Some more than others...
She shook her head,clearing her thoughts and continued towards her room. Maybe one of her friends was online, and she could break free from the unusual bout of ennui that had overtaken her today.
Settling down on her bed, she picked up her laptop and powered it on. Scrolling through her recent messages she found one that caught her eye. Alex had responded to the memo... Quickly she began to type out a response. It looked like this day would be a break from the recent tedium afte rall.
CURRENTschemingSphinx [SS]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
VM: im loading the disks as we speak
VM: lets do
VM: the thing!
SS: Well, it seems at last
SS: We can finally begin this game.
SS: At least your tussle
SS: With postal services
SS: Has finally come to
SS: An end I believe.
Leta hoped that everyone else would get on soon. She hated the simple, boring days the most.
It was a headache. Good god, it was a headache like he’d never known. Quitting smoking was just not something he could manage right now. Not at all. No amount of RTS games could alleviate this. Fortunately, however, this guy wasn’t using RTS games as a form of medication; he’d already tried taking aspirin, and… that had done a lot of good. Where the hell was the Excedrin?
No, really, he knew the only way he was going to fix this was to smoke another cigarette.Fine, then. Resolve shattered. The addiction was just too strong for his constitution. But not his actual willpower. Definitely not.
But what was the name of this young man?
> Enter name.
VAINGLORIOUS WISEASS
Unfortunately, the young man clearly has a problem with this, and now he is staring you down with an icy, arrogant glare in a way that makes you want to change your mind very quickly. Perhaps you were right about this guy.Too right. Eep!
> BERNARD FIACHRA
That seems to satisfy the young man… kind of. The cold glare remains, though, and he gestures to you, as if to go on.
> BERN FIACHRA
Finally, some kind of satisfaction for him, and some kind of relief for you. It appears you are now Bern Fiachra.
Oh right, headaches are still a thing. Bern groaned slightly, sighing as the throbbing pain returned after the distraction had passed. What a miserable existence. Time to fix this problem… He stepped out briefly to find a cigarette. Before long he was back in his computer chair with a cig, taking a long drag… and that was when he noticed the memo. Was it the flashing lights or the persistent noise that was inspiring his newest migraine? Perhaps so. Either way, he’d view it now so the problem didn’t persist any longer than it had to…
So, it seemed that Alex had finally received her copy of the game. She really had complained about it a lot lately… Bern glanced furtively over toward the small (meticulously organized) pile on the corner of the coffee table, a faint expression of distaste crossing his features. In someways, he’d hoped that his friends would forget about this thing they had insisted they all do together, but… well, some of them just wouldn’t let the idea go, would they?
Hm, Leta had responded.Ugh, she seemed perfectly willing to play, too. Well, it was histurn.
CSS: At least your tussle
CSS: With postal services
CSS: Has finally come to
CSS: An end I believe.
CURRENTminutiaeConnoisseur [MC]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CMC: With all due respect, I completely understand why all of you are so adamant about playing this game.
CMC: But must we really do this? I have so many prior obligations, as I’msure you are all markedly aware.
CMC: And this stack of books is clearly not going to read itself.
CMC: Moreover, I highly doubt that some video game is going to hold my attention captive in quite the same way that Plato’s Republichas for the past few days.
There. Now maybe he could settle in with a book for the rest of the evening. At least,his headache was subsiding. Smoking always worked. Every time. But such were the throes of addiction.
Wess laid on his back across his twin-sized bed, feet crossed near the bottom. He held, as was usual, a well-worn novel in his thin fingers,which was opened to a page near the end and had the words "The Princess Bride" scrawled across the cover, over what looked like a painting of a couple darting through a murky old forest.
He was absolutely entranced by the book, and had good reason for it; The Princess Bride was his favorite novel, and, according to him, simply the best book ever written. Ever. He'd been reading it for what was probably the something-in-the-thousands-th time all morning, and now he was only a couple pages from the end. Fezzik was carrying the Princess down to her giant white horse, and Westley was nearing his second death.
A few minutes later Wess finally set the book down, deciding he'd read the first tantalizing chapter of Buttercup's Baby at a later time. Or, rather, he had grown fed up enough with the little beeping reminders his computer was giving him to get him to read his new messages. He sat before his dinosaur of a desktop computer, and finally paid some attention to Pesterchum because oh,right, that was important.
A smile lifted the corners of his mouth when he read through Leta's messages, as it usually did, and then dropped in annoyance with Bern's. Well, at least they were disagreeing about something. All he had to do was support her, then. Not too hard, considering he'd been rather excited to play this game anyways. He'd heard good things about it, and other than the inclination it seemed to have towards aggression, it sounded fun. Plus, it was something he could do with all of his friends (and a couple more that were less so). That was nice.
CMC: And this stack of books is clearly not going to read itself.
CMC: Moreover, I highly doubt that some video game is going to hold my attention captive in quite the same way that Plato’s Republichas for the past few days.
CURRENTfrigidAllurement [FA]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CFA: Of course it will not.
CFA: A video game is more than a story, but rather a combination of plot,writing, character development, artistic design, and musical composition.
CFA: A book is, while lovely, simply not the same.
CFA: But of course, one cannot expect your tastes to be so refined as to appreciate that.
CFA: I assume you would much rather sit about and watch Jeopardy a few hundred more times.
Meanwhile, Bern had turned his attention back to his cigarette. Now that he'd mentioned Republic, he was starting to feel inclined to go back and read some more. But just as he'd decided for sure that was what he wanted to do, and reached for the book sitting on the table beside the couch where he sat with his computer in his lap, the notification had turned back on. Apparently more of his friends were online than he'd originally thought. He opened the memo again, and immediately wished he hadn't.
Ugh, Wess. They'd always butted heads. And what the hell was this? Had he really just commented on here to insult him? A scowl twisting his features, Bern shifted his laptop to type a response.
CFA: Of course it will not.
CFA: A videogame is more than a story, but rather a combination of plot,writing, character development, artistic design, and musical composition.
CFA: A book is, while lovely, simply not the same.
CFA: But of course, one cannot expect your tastes to be so refined as to appreciate that.
CFA: I assume you would much rather sit about and watch Jeopardy a few hundred more times.
CMC: Are you blind to reason? Just because a video game includes pictures and music, that doesn't necessarily make it "refined".
CMC: Furthermore, Plato would laugh at your obsession with the arts. He would call it uncivilized! Particularly your music.
CMC: How miserable, too, that you must be so abusive in your ad hominem argument. There is no need to generalize your anxiety about my intelligence by assuming that I would rather waste time on a trivia show when I could derive so much more information from proper and distinct sources.
CMC: I won't stoop to your level and attack your person over the fact that my grandmother enjoys game shows, and I have picked up on a knowledge of trivia by living in a small apartment with her.
Bern read what he had written down, and briefly considered that he might have been too hasty in his original argument. Most of Plato's theories,particularly those about art, were considered only a basis for modern philosophy. Eh, but Wess was no scholar of philosophy; he wouldn't know any different. And he'd never even insulted Wess as it was; just stated that Plato would have, given his viewpoint on art. A specific viewpoint that had strongly influenced Greek art, at that. No matter;he could say any number of insulting things about Wess or his mother,and the temptation was strong, but no. He was better than that.
A young woman pulled the curtains away from her bed so she could flop down in it with her computer. Her mother had left the shop for the morning, and was getting started with work, leaving it in her hands. This mean she had the entire day to herself, because the shop was… something of a facade. The shop, full of occult and magically-inspired goodies,was a pleasant enough place to be in; it always smelled wonderful,and the goods were lovely. The problem was not that people wouldn’t want to come in; it was that it was located on an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean that had no ferry to the mainland, or anywhere else for that matter. This young woman had often questioned her mother’s intelligence for making her home out on this is land a few years ago, not to say that she hadn’t gotten used to it.
But what was the name of this lovely lady?
> Enter name.
NESCIENT DOXY
She looks up with confusion, not sure what on earth you’ve entered as her name,but she doesn’t look particularly pleased about your choice,either.
> RANDGRIS MORGAN
No, no! She waves frantically with her hands. Only her mother calls her that!
> RHYS MORGAN
Okay, it looks like you’ve got it right this time. It appears you are now Rhys Morgan.
Rhys snuggled down into the covers on her bed, which was one of her favorite places to be,especially when she was with her computer. Though she spent a lot of time outdoors, she didn’t typically do that with her computer.Occasionally, an adorable white goat would come around and she would chase him around, and that was always nice. Though bringing her computer to do something physical like that wouldn’t be the best idea, so she just stayed right here.
Several minutes later,having become distracted by something — what it was had long since escaped her by now — she realized it looked like her friends had started up a memo. What could it possibly be about?
As she opened it up to look, she sighed. Bern and Wess were fighting again? They really weren’t ever going to get along, were they? It was hard for them all to be friends when Bern and Wess were always getting into it. She sure was glad that Leta tried to separate them sometimes…Maybe it was a good thing that they hadn’t met outside of being online!
CMC: How miserable, too, that you must be so abusive in your ad hominem argument. There is no need to generalize your anxiety about my intelligence by assuming that I would rather waste time on a trivia show when I could derive so much more information from proper and distinct sources.
CMC: I won't stoop to your level and attack your person over the fact that my grandmother enjoys game shows, and I have picked up on a knowledge of trivia by living in a small apartment with her.
CURRENThalcyonTsiologist [HT]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CHT: you guyyyys, stopppp.
CHT: i think most of us want to play the game.
CHT: i know i do! it’s not like i get to do a lot around here!except make tea and read and try not to get caught exploring. mom gets really mad.
CHT: and talk to you guys of course!
CHT: at least if i’m playing a game i’m inside, riiiight?
Leta felt a slight twinge of irritation twinge through her. Bern didn't want to play? They had all been waiting for a month now, and she was tired of it.
HT: i know i do! it’s not like i get to do a lot around here! except make tea and read and try not to get caught exploring. mom gets really mad.
HT: and talk to you guys of course!
HT: at least if i’m playing a game i’m inside, riiiight?
SS: Well, hello there Rhys.
SS: After the unfortunate wait
SS: I find myself quite
SS: Ready and very
SS: Eager to find out what this
SS: Game is all about.
SS: And after the whole
SS: Issue with my home wifi
SS: I would love to spend
SS: This evening with
SS: A delightful game and all
SS: Of my dearest friends.
She knew Bern was intelligent enough to pick up on the rather obvious hint. She really was looking forward to spending time with her friends... Especially Wess. While she cared for all of her friends, Bern and Wess were the ones most capable of staying on her level. But Wess, Wess shared her passions, and he was so driven with his music... It was admirable really.
A boy sits in his room, distracted by an engrossing video game. He's been ignoring the chat window for a while because he can tell that Bern and Wess are at it again, even from across the room. He never likes getting in between their disputes, especially when they start throwing their dictionary-sized vocabularies around. After a while, he decides he's had enough with his current game and goes to his computer to see what's going on.
It seems that Rhys andLeta are trying to pacify the two of them. "Good", he thought. He's not very good at trying to resolve personal problems. The boy decides to announce his presence very bluntly.
CURRENT cantankerousCompletionist [CC] RIGHT NOW responded to memo
CCC: Hi
That was all he reallyfelt like typing. Simply announcing his presence would probably be enough reason to stop fighting and start playing, now that everyone is here.
But now that we've gotten this far, we still don't know what this young man's name is, now do we?
>Enter Name
SHITSPONGE GUTTERMOUTH
The boy turns to youand...oh. Oh my, you think to yourself. You could swear that's themost unsettling glare you've ever seen! Quite...quite unnerving. You decide to stop fucking around and put in his actual name just to make him stop.
> LUCAS EVANS
You turn back to the boy and- okay, he hasn't stopped. You could have sworn you put theright name in... You quickly remember that this young man ALSO has a four-letter nickname that he prefers to his legal name, and decide to give that a shot. Anything to stop THAT, dear GOD.
> LUKE EVANS
Alright, that seemsthat satisfied him. Luke turns back to his computer and the piercing daggers have stopped digging into your corneas.
Alex rolled her eyes when Wess and Bern started their bickering again, honestly just finished with those two. As much as she was fond of her friends (some more than others), they were frustrating. And how were they supposed to play this game as a team with the two constantly arguing? It seemed to be the only way, though; Neither were going to play without Leta, and Alex herself wasn't going to play without Bern, and Rhys and Luke... well, Rhys and Luke were probably the only two people on the team that actually wanted to play this game because of the game itself and the experiences it would provide, but they needed a team.
With a grumbling sigh, Alex responded to the memo again.
CC: Hi
VM: oh my fucking god
VM: will you guys shut the hell up
VM: weve already decided to play this thing i mean you guys even had like
VM: your debate or whatever
VM: and i just withstood the wrath of the postal service for this okay
VM: ive committed
VM: you guys said you would commit
VM: lets just play the goddamn game
VM: youre worse than kirk and spock
It was probably a good thing that Bern had decided to abstain from insulting Wess's mother, because as much as Wess was against brutish anger and violence, he would almost definitely have made an exception for that specific reason.
He was a mama's boy,yes, but he felt he had ample reason. Few were actually warm towards him, and his mother was always kind, and always wonderful. No one had a right to insult her.
Bern had angered him enough as it was, though... that wasn't uncommon. And Leta's subtle support only made him smug in his anger.
VM: you guys said you would commit
VM: lets just play the goddamn game
VM: youre worse than kirk and spock
FA: Alex, must we revisit this topic once more?
FA: You are the only person in this group, and hopefully the country,that actually watches those vacuous shows.
FA: Your references are therefore meaningless, and should remain absent from any and all conversations containing people who do not view the same shows.
FA: Leta, I am sure we can play this game soon, and put an end to your misery.
FA: I know *I* am wholly prepared to begin.
FA: The necessary files are loaded on my computer, and have been for sometime now.
Bern had been able to ignore the chat for a little while, figuring he probably wouldn't receive a response he wanted to view from Wess anyway, but his attention could only be distracted from the scrolling chat for so long. When his cigarette was finally out, he had to turn hisattention back to that, because finding another distraction was goingto be difficult now.
Well, at least it seemed that Wess had directed his attention toward Alex. But he wrinkled his nose, realizing the other sure was making a show out of the fact that he was prepared. Jesus, was he the only one who didn't want to start something without any kind of planning here? This level of spontaneity fit cleanly into the category of "things Bern doesn't like". He'd never said he didn't want to play the game. He just didn't want to play it right now.
CFA: Leta, I am sure we can play this game soon, and put an end to your misery.
CFA: I know *I* am wholly prepared to begin.
CFA: The necessary files are loaded on my computer, and have been for sometime now.
CMC: How unfortunate. The meaning of my previous statement has fallen ondeaf ears.
CMC: I never said that I did not want to play the game.
CMC: Rather, I asserted that I do not want to play it immediately. I havemany other obligations.
CMC: Perhaps we could plan a time to do so later. Preparedness now savesgrief later.
CMC: Leta, you can be assured that I will not leave you alone, especially after your previous difficulties. It is fortunate to be able to speak with you again.
Preparednessnow saves grief later... where had he heard that? No matter, it was true. Ugh, there was just so much wrong with this situation. And most of it was that snarky art snob Wess. He was always trying to get Leta on his side, and that irritated Bern to no end. If she should be on any side, it should be his. He was clearly the more intelligent, and that alone made him more worthy and, for that matter, influential and powerful. He wouldn't doubt this. Wess on the other hand was more of a know-it-all with no focus. Not that he couldn't be saved, but his attitude made him rather a lost cause.
And Leta, well... She was sublime. There was no need for her to be influenced by dreck likeWess.
Oh no. Not this again. Sure if she indulged her fantasies, it felt nice to have two people focus their attentions on her so intently, and they had done this before... But she knew better than to attach romantic notions to their actions. It was probably just another way for them to have their little power struggle. Of course if one of them were to actually show affection for her, it's not like she would refuse...
MC: Rather, I asserted that I do not want to play it immediately. I havemany other obligations.
MC: Perhaps we could plan a time to do so later. Preparedness now savesgrief later.
MC: Leta, you can be assured that I will not leave you alone, especially after your previous difficulties. It is fortunate to be able to speakwith you again.
SS: I thank you both for
SS: Your concern over my state
SS: Of mentality.
SS: Perhaps we could all
SS: Engage in diplomacy
SS: And all compromise
SS: Since we did in fact
SS: Pairing into groups
SS: I suppose this means
SS: That the person
SS: I will collaborate with
SS: Will be you now, Wess.
She wanted to play the game now, and if Bern didn't want to play, she would go with the other person she wanted to play with.
Wess felt a surge of victory when Leta said she wanted to start playing with him, and a grin sneaked onto his lips. Yes, he'd surely won this round, and he hadn't even had to do much more than remind Leta that he was open to play the game whenever they were ready to start. It wasn't as if it an entirely new thing, either; they had decided to play this game months ago. It was just a matter of when Alex got her copy, since she tended to get things later than was normal, despite her not living on an island in the middle of the ocean without normal postal service, like Wess did.
Wess took a moment to get his computer started on the files again, then replied to the memo.
SS: I suppose this means
SS: That the person
SS: I will collaborate with
SS: Will be you now, Wess.
FA: Yes, I believe so.
FA: I look forward to it eagerly, and have been doing much the same for these few weeks now.
FA: I have just begun opening the files, which means we may begin somewhat shortly, should you open yours soon as well.
FA: I will open a guide for reference, in the meantime.
Rhys had totally spaced out. Something she did a lot. She was always getting distracted by something, and right now, there were plenty of things in her room to be distracted by. Like the way the breeze from her open window was disturbing some of the crystals hanging from the ceiling, causing them to catch the light and bounce it off the walls in interesting patterns. Something she could probably watch for a lot longer, but before too long, the flashing of the memo notification had her attention again.
Wait, what?! They were already going to start playing the game?! She didn't know if she was quite -that- ready! Did she need to do anything to get ready? She didn't really even know anything about the game! She remembered something about splitting up into groups, but she didn't remember who she was with! And it looked like Bern didn't want to play... That was a shame; she would have enjoyed playing with him.
CFA: I look forward to it eagerly, and have been doing much the same for these few weeks now.
CFA: I have just begun opening the files, which means we may begin somewhat shortly, should you open yours soon as well.
CFA: I will open a guide for reference, in the meantime.
CHT: nooo!
CHT: i don't rememberrrr
CHT: who was i supposed to be playing the game with!?
CHT: i thought i would ask bern but he's not playing!
CHT: alex, do you need someone to play with? or are you with luke? oooohmy memory is soooo bad!
Luke was ignoring the chat again, waiting for things to cool off. It was an absolute WONDER this ragtag group of friends actually stayed together, but he's be lying if he said he didn't enjoy their presence. Luke glanced back at the chat for a second, seeing Rhys' responses.
CHT: nooo!
CHT: i don't rememberrrr
CHT: who was i supposed to be playing the game with!?
CHT: i thought i would ask bern but he's not playing!
CHT: alex, do you need someone to play with? or are you with luke? oooohmy memory is soooo bad!
CCC: I'm pretty sure you're with Alex.
CCC: Lucky you. I guess I'm with you, Bern.
CCC: If you really don't feel like playing though, could you at least host the client?
CCC: I can just figure out how the game works on my own until you're ready.
Luke pulled over the red and green packages that had been stacked on his desk for a couple weeks now. He was excited and determined to finally play them,despite Bern's resistance.
Opening the two boxes, he noted the labels on each disk: "Server" and "Client". He opened the server packaging and pulled out the disk. It had an interesting design on it, featuring a minimalist apartment building-like design made of 6 main green boxes and other features resembling a chimney, air conditioning unit, and other features normally found on an apartment building. "An interesting design choice..." he thought to himself. He opened his computer's disk tray, inserted the disk, and closed it again. A window with a large, green "PLAY" button on a black background appeared. "Funny," he thought, "something this lazy after disk art like that?" He ignored it and went back to the chat window. He refrained from messing with it until Bern activated the server.
Bern had gotten himself distracted again, figuring his explanation spoke for itself. He'd picked up Republic and gotten back to reading, so it was a little longer than he'd expected before he got back to the chat. However most of his friends had responded by that time, to his surprise. He set the book face down on the other side of the couch and read the replies, instead.
However they were met with a feeling of the blood draining from his face. What, they still didn't understand what he was saying? They really wanted to do this right now?! And of all things, Leta was going to partner up with Wess?!?! A moment of rage seized him, and he sure was glad that he wasn't inclined to type during it. Seriously, even Rhys had misunderstood him? Had his friends all gone mental? He didn't know. He needed to take a deep breath. Maybe another cigarette.
CCC: I'm pretty sure you're with Alex.
CCC: Lucky you. I guess I'm with you, Bern.
CCC: If you really don't feel like playing though, could you at least hostthe server?
CCC: I can just play on my own until you're ready.
CMC: Please, elucidate.
CMC: I'm utterly lost as to why it is such a sin to prefer a few momentsof preparation.
CMC: Particularly when one must shift focus between another equally[markedly more] interesting piece of media.
CMC: Are you my friends, or opportunists?
CMC :My apologies to you, however, Luke. I know you have been lookingforward to this game for a great while. Let me see what I can do.
He didn't mind the idea of setting things up so Luke could play, and for that matter, so everyone could stop whining and inadvertently (or deliberately) insulting him. He put his computer down, picking up the game disk she'd been saving. He didn't bother regarding the box art in the way Luke had. Rather, he put the disk in, waiting for it to load. He was sure he'd have to install a bunch of crap to get this going. It could be a while. Oh well, that was just more time he could appreciate the workings of a utopian society.
MC: Particularly when one must shift focus between another equally [markedly more] interesting piece of media.
MC: Are you my friends, or opportunists?
MC: My apologies to you, however, Luke. I know you have been looking forward to this game for a great while. Let me see what I can do.
SS: I apologize
SS: If it does seem like we are
SS: Being too hasty
SS: However it should
SS: Be duly noted that we
SS: Have planned for all this
SS: For what? I believe
SS: A multitude of months now
SS: I understand quite
SS: Well how it feels to
SS: Lose yourself in a good book
SS: But it would be nice
SS: To see from you a
SS: More active role in our game
SS: Because I think we
SS: All would like to spend
SS: More time with you Bern. You are
SS: One of our dear friends.
SS: Wess, I would like to
SS: Let you know that I am now
SS: Putting in the disk
SS: For server player
SS: I hope you are ready
SS: For us to play now
Some flattery mixed with a mild admonition should hopefully get Bern more interested in being an active member of the game. Leta knew that she was being somewhat manipulative, but it was for everyone's own good, really! They would all start their games, and have a good time together and end the tedium that had plagued her for these past few days. It had gotten good review for its puzzles after all. Now then, time to putin that disk...
She slid the disk into her laptop, careful to keep from getting any fingerprints on the disk. As the green 'play' button appeared on screen, she smiledhappily. She was already getting excited. Not that it showed much.
Briefly she wasdistracted by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. Leta'sface twisted into a grimace. Usually she would take this chance to try and catch some of their attention, by being the dutiful daughter that welcomed them home... But she was in one of her more bitter moods today, and couldn't be bothered. Hopefully they would stay downstairs. Like they always did.
Wess was a bit upset by Leta's flattery in Bern's direction, especially the inclusion of himself in the list of people who liked Bern. He had to trust in the possibility that Bern's ego was not bigger than the obvious fact that Wess was not capable of disliking anyone more than he disliked Bern.It could go either way, really.
But he turned his thoughts away from anger, and instead pressed the green "Start"button on his loaded server file, and "Enter" where his client file told him he needed to, revealing... nothing. It did nothing.
Apparently, Leta had yet to do anything on her end. Her files had probably yet to load. Or perhaps she was supposed to be his server, and he her client? He'dread up on this game, and he'd heard a lot of talk about it somehow"knowing more than the player". He hadn't believed it at the time, and eh still wasn't sure now, but there seemed to be a creeping likelihood.
Turning briefly away from the game, Wess found the memo again.
SS: Wess, I would like to
SS: Let you know that I am now
SS: Putting in the disk
SS: For server player
SS: I hope you are ready
SS: For us to play now
FA: Leta, I have started running both files.
FA: I can't see you yet, or really do anything, so my assumption is that you have yet to start the files on your end.
FA: Or, and this is par less probable, that the game is possibly what it says in the forums, and somehow already knows more than we do.
FA: Let it be known that there is a *very* evident not of sarcasm in my voice, despite the seemingly monotonic text.
Alex definitely hadn't gotten distracted by her Star Wars wiki.
Definitely not.
Turning back to the memo from her very serious business,though, she let out another frustrated sigh. Was Wess finished taking cheap shots at Bern yet? Could they get on with things? God, he was such a fucking snob. And as much as she disliked Leta, at least she was doing something to pacify them both... She could appreciate that.
FA: Or, and this is par less probable, that the game is possibly what it says in the forums, and somehow already knows more than we do.
FA: Let it be known that there is a *very* evident not of sarcasm in my voice, despite the seemingly monotonic text.
VM: ill just
VM: ignore the general douche baggery happening here
VM: and move on.
VM: rhys, i guess youre with me, then
VM: my files are still loading, ill let you know when theyre finished
VM: but you gotta give me a heads up when yours do the same
VM: ill just start mine when theyre done okay
VM: also hey, asshole
VM: and by asshole of course i mean wess
VM: get a fucking private chat for that shit will you
VM: not everyone likes hearing you talk as much as you do
VM: or... seeing
VM: whatever
VM: personal sesh talk can stop cluttering up the memo here
VM: i promise
VM: no one will die of wess deprivation
Leta 's brow furrowed.Dear god, was everyone here a simpleton? How hard was it to pretend to be civil human beings? Fine, if people wanted to behave in such a manner, she would cut them down just as quickly. It's not that she abhorred conflict, it was rather that she was not looking for it at the moment, and seeing everyone in such a state was frustrating.While it might seem she was singling Alex out, that was merely an unfortunate side effect of her losing her patience
VM: personal sesh talk can stop cluttering up the memo here
VM: i promise
VM: no one will die of wess deprivation
SS: Alexandra I
SS: Believe you could have said that
SS: In a much kinder
SS: Manner. There is no
SS: Need for attacks upon your
SS: Friends. I certainly
SS: Hoped for a much
SS: Civil time when gaming
SS: And at this very
SS: Moment you are not
SS: Helping with your petty barbs
SS: Aimed towards Wess.
SS: However I will
SS: Take your wishes into mind
SS: And start a private
SS: Conversation now
SS: I suppose this means we all
SS: Should then do the same.
---schemingSphinx [SS]began pestering frigidAllurement [FA]---
SS: Hello again Wess
SS: I suppose that this is where
SS: We will now converse.
Rhys had been preoccupied for the moment... She was just thinking about... where her game discs were. She had a few problems actually, the first of which being that she wasn't 100% sure where they were... and if they were starting now, she had to find them! And she thought she heard her mom coming... This was just not a good time!
CSS: I suppose this means we all
CSS: Should then do the same.
CHT: alexxxx!
CHT: i think
CHT: i'm sorry!
CHT: i need to find the discs
CHT: and i think my mom is coming
CHT: aaaah!
Hopefully it wouldn't take her too long to deal with her mom. And she hoped she'd have some privacy when she did finally play the game. She got up and hurriedly started searching through her things. She was so disorganized...Thankfully the discs were in the first place she looked. Now it was just going to be a matter of dealing with what her mom had to talk to her about...
It ended up being the same old, same old. That her mom was going to be busy and she needed to keep an eye on the shop. Sure, she'd do that, like usual. Which meant laying in her bed in the back on her computer.
Bern had taken out another cigarette and lit it up by now, smirking at the responses he saw from Alex. At least she was willing to point out how much of adouche bag Wess was. Though it didn't seem Leta liked that. Bern knew he had to be careful what he said about Wess because of her. It seemed like they were pretty close friends, as ridiculous as it was.He didn't have any idea what she saw in him.
Now that he was sitting back with a new cigarette, he relaxed a bit more. However the memo was now full of bitching and abuse, and he rolled his eyes. He appreciated Alex drawing attention to Wess being a jerk, but he said nothing of it.
CHT: i'm sorry!
CHT: i need to find the discs
CHT: and i think my mom is coming
CHT: aaaah!
CMC: Everyone.
CMC: Even I have grown tired of this.
CMC: You all want to play the game, don't you? Why not do that?
CMC: Luke, I'll message you privately.
--minutiaeConnoisseur [MC]began pestering cantankerousCompletionist [CC]--
CMC: I've loaded my disc, but I suppose you haven't yet.
CMC: The game has not opened yet. I think it's waiting for you.
CMC: By the way, just message me if you need anything. I will probably be distracted.
Wess may have been upset by Leta's buttering Bern up, but her defense now pleased him,and he smirked. He wasn't all that annoyed by Alex's comments, though there was a bit of irritation there... but it was to be expected, he figured. He'd pinned her long ago as a violent, brutish girl, and thus a stupid one as well. Well... alright, her lack of intelligence came in a category all it's own, it didn't even need to be linked to her angry tenancies.
CMC: You all want to play the game, don't you? Why not do that?
CMC: Luke, I'll message you privately.
CFA: Alex, I thank you for your input.
CFA: However, despite the fact that you *technically* started this memo*months ago*
CFA: I am afraid it matters little.
CFA: This aggressive behavior is rather volatile, too.
CFA: I will return when I think things have calmed down a sufficient amount to continue conversation like civil human beings.
CURRENTfrigidAllurement [CFA]RIGHT NOW ceased responding to memo
SS: Hello again Wess
SS: I suppose that this is where
SS: We will now converse.
--frigidAllurement [FA]began pestering schemingSphinx [SS]--
FA: Yes, that seems reasonable.
FA: Have you started your disks yet?
FA: Simply pressing "enter" in the client disk's window should be sufficient for me to begin.
FA: Doing both would allow you to mess about while I begin, but it seems,from these terribly-written guides, that the client will be doing quite a lot of running about in a short amount of time.
FA: I wonder why it seems so rushed...
FA: If you would like me to be the client first, I am willing to do that as well.
FA: In fact, if I remember correctly, that might actually be the order we were intended to start with.
FA: Oh well.
FA: Notify me when you have made a decision or started doing something,please.
MC: I've loaded my disc, but I suppose you haven't yet.
MC: The game has not opened yet. I think it's waiting for you.
MC: By the way, just message me if you need anything. I will probably bedistracted.
CC: No, my stuff is...oh.
Luke turned back to the game window, which had already started loading without his input. The loading screen featured a loading bar, an odd Spirograph that changed shape constantly, and flashing images that looked like a lava lamp or an '80s indie rock music video, making Luke's eyes hurt a bit just looking at it. What really caught his attention though were the loading messages below the loading bar. "Unwinding Couplings"?"Prescribing Arc Masonry"? "Orienting Ladders"?"Referring Time Spools" The entire thing was going over Luke's head. He simply figured it was a loading screen joke like some developers like to implement. Turning up his computer's volume, he noticed it was also playing an interesting tune.
Eventually, the loading screen finished, somehow right on cue with the end of the song. Once it finished, the screen turned black, simply featuring a green logo of the game's title: SBURB. After a few seconds, the screen faded to white, displaying a shorter loading screen, featuring the game's apartment logo, breaking apart into smaller shapes as one of the squares spun around rapidly, and then formed back together again.This happened about three times before the screen faded into...oh.
The game's graphics were PHENOMENAL! The surroundings and object models almost looked REAL! All of the textures looked so vivid, it was as if you could FEEL THEM JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM! The character on screen even looked like an ACTUAL PERSON! In fact, he looked a little familiar...
But Luke, in his haste to begin playing the game, overlooked the strange avatar's appearance as well as the surrounding HUD and looked around the room. He saw a TV sitting out in the room, and, figuring he could interact with it,clicked on said TV. Luke was surprised when, instead of the avatar putting down the book they were currently reading and turning it on,the TV instead flew up off the ground, carried around by the cursor.In an effort to see if anything could be done with it, Luke flailed his mouse around a bit, the TV following its every move. Seeing that it wouldn't do anything of interest, he set it back down on the ground, creating a loud *THUD* escaping his speakers, and visibly shaking the room.
Leta double checked that all the disks were ready and within reach before starting the installation process. If she had this correct, she would be the'client' and Wess her 'server'. She didn't like long download times,so she hoped this would go by quickly. She typed out a quick message to send to Wess.
FA: In fact, if I remember correctly, that might actually be the order we were intended to start with.
FA: Oh well.
FA: Notify me when you have made a decision or started doing something,please.
SS: I am ready to go
SS: My disks are all inside the
SS: Machine currently.
Bern had checked out, entirely. He had no idea what the other was doing; honestly, he didn't care. He figured he was just getting started with the game.So, when he glanced back and saw the other had responded, it looked like he was just realizing that he had something to do on his own end still. Since it seemed this was the case, Bern turned his attention back to the book he was reading.
"And is there anything more akin to wisdom than truth?"
"How can there be?"
"Can the same nature be a lover of wisdom and a lover of falsehood?"
"Never."
"The true lover of learning then must from his earliest youth, as far as in him lies,desire all truth?"
"Assuredly."
Yes, yes. These were the kinds of things he liked to hear... well, read. Plato knew what he was talking about... Not to say that it was fully formed, because he only lay the foundations. But he could never get enough of this philosophy.
And just as he went to turn the page, a terrible noise rattled the entire room, startling Bern so much that he lost his grip on the book. Momentarily stunned,he listened to the people below him yelling. "QUIET UP THERE!"Bern groaned. That hadn't been anything he could control. It had scared and disturbed him as much as it surely had them. Maybe even more so, because it was in the same room. And the sound had clearly disturbed his sleeping grandmother, as well, as he heard her hacking cough start up again, then finally calm down. What the hell had that even been? He got up briefly, looking around to make sure nothing had broken. It sounded like it had been the TV, but he'd been so absorbed in his book that he hadn't seen what it was for sure. It was a lot louder than one of the videos falling, though... that much he was certain of.
He sat back down, taking a deep breath and opening up his message window with Luke.
CC: No, my stuff is...oh.
MC: I suppose you're enjoying the game. Though the most disturbing thing just occurred somewhere in this room.
MC: Something just fell and scared the wits out of me. At least, I believe something fell. But I can't find anything that's fallen. What do you think, should I be concerned about poltergeists or some such rubbish?
Luke saw as an expression of shock came over the avatar's face as the TV hit the floor. The figure stood up and looked around the room. Apparently, the characters reacted to the way you affected the environment. Pretty cool! The avatar sat back down, and typed at a computer. But Luke noticed something this time.
MC: I suppose you're enjoying the game. Though the most disturbing thingjust occurred somewhere in this room.
Strange, it was almost as if...
Luke paid close attention to the avatar as he typed, watching every stroke. And...Enter.
MC: Something just fell and scared the wits out of me. At least, I believe something fell. But I can't find anything that's fallen. What do you think, should I be concerned about poltergeists or some such rubbish?
It was unbelievable. Almost terrifying. He had to check to be sure...
CC: Oh my god...
CC: Okay, this is going to sound weird....
CC: Bern, put your book down on the LEFT side of your computer, and stand back up.
Alex would claim she wasn't upset, but that would be far below the truth.She was way too used to this kind of crap... As much as she cared for her friends, it seemed the only ones who cared back were Rhys and Luke, but both of them had no problem with anyone,really, so that wasn't saying much. And she cared little for Wess and Leta herself, but that was just because they weren't exactly kind to her,and Bern seemed to just ignore her, and address her as part of some large group of people who were like her, rather than directly as a person. It was frustrating, to say the least.
But she could deal with it. It wasn't like she was actually going to confront anyone about all of this.
VM: fine, whatever
VM: rhys did you find the stuff yet
VM: can we start
She left it at that, and then leaned back in her desk chair to read more of her Star W-... er, very serious business.
Wess glanced only briefly at Leta's message, before he moved off to look into his chat. He wasn't quite sure how this worked but the guides made it seem like he was actually going to be interacting with Leta's physical environment... Doubtful,but curious.
He opened the window for the server file, and spent a moment scanning the room there before giving his attention to the avatar, who would supposedly be Let-
... Oh.
She was pretty.
Trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks and reminding himself that she was just some kind of computer-produced avatar, Wess turned his attention to the controls at the top of the page. He couldn't see much very well, her room was pretty large. Maybe if he zoomed in...
No, no, now he was zooming out. Wow, her house was large. And it looked like someone had just pulled into the driveway, maybe he could move the car... No, it looked like that was out of range? 'Leta' and her computer looked to be the center of some large circle, which much mark the range of his controls. He wondered if it was based off of her location, or the computer's?
Zooming back in to see the inside of her room again, Wess decided to mess with the controls a bit, and started moving things around. He clicked a few things, but that just seemed to make them disappear, and then the next click would make them reappear. That must be the storage system... When he clicked on her bed and dragged it, it moved easily with his mouse, so he moved that around a bit and then dropped it.Rather than sitting nicely back on the floor, the weight of the thing cause a loud THUMP and a cracking sound Wess didn't much like.
Not much was happening with this game... Maybe something was happening on Leta's end that he wasn't yet aware of.
SS: I am ready to go
SS: My disks are all inside the
SS: Machine currently.
FA: Alright, I can see the room of someone who is supposedly "you".
FA: I am assuming it is simply a computer's approximation.
FA: There seems to be a sort of range based on either "you", or your computer, which I cannot exit.
FA: Other than that, I am not quite certain what this game wishes to have me do.
Bern waited, riveted to the screen for once, for the response. Perhaps because he was just too unsettled to focus on what he had been doing right now. He sure was glad he'd put his cigarette in the ashtray before this had happened... Speaking of which, it might have gone out by now. He'd have to find out about that...
But just as he was reaching for it, Luke's reply came in, and he was more focused on that. What the hell was he asking him to do something like that for?Oh well... It sounded like an awfully weird request, but while he was originally tempted to ask him why... he decided against it. He reached for the book he'd dropped when he just go so startled, moved it over to the left side of his computer, then he stood up again...He didn't stay standing for long, though, even though he felt like the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and he ought to be more on alert than he was...
Honestly, he was glad his grandmother was asleep, or at least, had presumably fallen back asleep after the loud noise had woken her up. He wouldn't have liked for her to see him this unsettled.
Rhys had gotten distracted again... Well, it wasn't her fault this time! She found her discs easily enough, but as soon as she did, her mom was back,calling her again. This time, she wanted her to know that she expected her to clean up in the shop, as well. Ugh... Rhys hesitantly complied, probably lying about doing it in the first place... but hey, she'd get to it eventually...
Oh! And when she returned to her room, she saw her headphones. Surely a good game was going to have good music, right? Then she would probably want to use her best headphones! She picked them up and tossed them onto her bed... Oh no! If she was going to be playing this game all evening, then she was going to need to water the garden! She hurriedly put on her shoes and ran outside to water.
And by the time she got back... well! Alex had been waiting quite a while. Rhys plugged in her headphones, popped in the disk, at least it was the one on top. She thought she remembered putting one on top for a reason... It was the server disk, and she had to use that one, or something?
HT: aaaah!!!!
HT: i'm sorry alex!!!!
HT: i'm here now!!!!
HT: alex?
HT: i'll message youuuu....
--halcyonTsiologist [HT]began pestering vociferousMiwok [VM]--
HT: i'm sorry i'm late!
HT: stuff happened and my mom was telling me to watch the shop again and i had to water the plants and aaaagh!!!!
HT: i'm here now i put in the disk and everything i hope you're readyyyy!!!!
Luke watched with terrified eyes as the figure on the screen slowly leaned over to pickup the book they had dropped, placed it on the left side of their computer, and stood up. He couldn't believe what he was seeing! How was it possible that this was ACTUALLY BERN he was looking at?! Just to confirm further, he zoomed in on the book co-Okay, that's zooming out, never mind. Luke took the chance to look around. It was an apartment building in the middle of a city. He felt a twinge of jealousy...being surrounded by that many people looked like a lot of fun. Focusing back on the topic at hand, Luke zoomed IN this time,and looked at the title of the book. Just as he had suspected, and feared. "The Republic" by Plato.
CC: Oh my god, BERN
CC: THAT WAS ME
CC: I SOMEHOW PICKED UP YOUR TELEVISION AND
CC: I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW IS THIS EVEN HAPPENING
Luke finally took a look around the HUD. "Select", "Revise" and"Deploy" took his interest. Seeing he was already in select mode, he switched over to Revise. Clicking around did nothing, so,after a little experimentation, he clicked and dragged the cursor,and formed an entire new section of the house from the wall with another *THUD*.
CC: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERN
Bern's feelings of uncertainty were certainly well-founded. As he sat back down, after standing for a few seconds, he barely had to wait for the other's responses to show up. However, his eyes just about bugged out of his head as Luke explained why he'd asked him to do something so odd.What...?
MC: How is that even possible?!
MC: You must be kidding me! You have to! It's impossible for you to do that!
...And that was about when another wing was magically added on to his apartment, just about giving him a heart attack for the second time.
MC: What is this game...
MC: This game can somehow augment reality!
He was both terrified and intrigued at this concept. If Luke was able to do this on his end... Didn't that mean there was a way for him to do it, too? He did have the other disc, labeled "Server"...
He jumped up off the couch, digging through the stack of papers he had sitting under the coffee table. He had to find the instruction book for this game. He certainly hadn't read it before, discarding it, as he thought it wasn't going to be important... but perhaps it would give him a deeper explanation of just what was going on! He'd gone a full 180 from being disinterested in this game to being hyper-interested...
MC: What is this game...
MC: This game can somehow augment reality!
CC: There's gotta be SOME kind of a reason for this...
CC: Hang on, lemme see what else I can do.
Luke looked around the HUD for some kind of other action he could take. Finally clicking on the "Phernalia Registry" option, a menu opened,revealing...deploy-able objects? They each seemed to have some kind of associated "cost" to them, but each of them seemed to beset to zero. He decided to simply devote to one, selecting the"Alchemiter". It was a large, circular object with an odd design on it, displayed on a square platform with some sort of mechanical arm on the side as well as a smaller round platform to the side of it. Luckily, the space Luke had just created was large enough to accommodate such a device.
CC: Stand AWAY from the room I just made, I'm "deploying"something, whatever that means.
Luke attempted to place the large device down without making too much noise, but the machine landed with a crash anyways. Even though he'd never had neighbors, he could imagine they were getting pretty tired of all of the noise he was making.
Luke tried to interact with the new device, but to no avail. He examined some of the other devices he could create. Seeing there wasn't exactly any other place to put the two devices, he decided to stretch the room in another direction to make room. He pulled the room outwards on the opposite side, making just enough room for the "Totem Lathe". He tried to make it even bigger for the "Cruxtruder", but couldn't because he ran out of...Build...Grist...?
CC: Shit, uhh...
CC: I gotta find a place for this one last device and I can't make the room bigger...
Luke looked around the house for another option, but there didn't seem to be any, other than moving Bern's grandma, which was NOT something he was prepared to do.
CC: I'm gonna have to put this on the roof... Maybe I can move it later or something.
Luke dragged the odd machine out onto the roof of the apartment building. A bystander who was already standing out there smoking, jumped at the sound of the loud machine materializing and then hitting against the floor. The man innocently looked around at the odd device, not knowing what to make of it. Luke simply hoped the stranger wouldn't mess around with the mysterious object without his knowledge...
Alex had been growing antsy while she waited for Rhys, even with her very serious business to attend to. Nobody was saying anything, which meant they were probably heavily engrossing in the game already. Even Bern! And he hadn't even wanted to play! Well, alright, Wess and Leta had already left the memo, so he was probably just bored with her as usual and finding solace in his book instead, and Alex hadn't wanted to play the game either, when Luke had introduced the subject all those months ago...
But still, she wanted something to do. She was having trouble finding any more subjects in the Star Wars wiki she hadn't.... uhh.... serious business she hadn't attended to.
But then Rhys messaged her again, and she relaxed a bit, then leaned forward with interested eagerness.
HT: stuff happened and my mom was telling me to watch the shop again and i had to water the plants and aaaagh!!!!
HT: i'm here now i put in the disk and everything i hope you're readyyyy!!!!
--vociferousMiwok[VM]began pestering halcyonTsiologist [HT]--
VM: oh my GOD
VM: FINALLY
VM: your mom needs to get off your back about her crazy ass shop rhys
VM: but anyways
VM: why dont you load the server thing
VM: my client stuff is all ready and whatever
VM: let's do this bitch like han solo and chewbaca
VM: heeeeeeeeell yeeeeaaaaaaaaah
Leta was a little annoyed. There didn't seem to be anything special showing up on her screen, so there was not much she could do at the moment. Maybe she should put in the server disk? No, patience was a virtue and- What was that noise?!
Leta got up out of her seat and moved towards the origin of the sound. Upon reaching her bed, she looked around in puzzlement. Where were Arielle and Leah?She searched around for a bit before finding the lion and cow plushies that had been on her bed previously over on the sides of her bed, looking as if they had been thrown off by some sort of impact.Now that she thought about it, the bed looked slightly messed up as well... This was strange, very strange. Remembering that she was talking to Wess, she returned to her desk and placed Arielle, the lioness, on the right side, and Leah, the cow, on the left side.
FA: I am assuming it is simply a computer's approximation.
FA: There seems to be a sort of range based on either "you", or your computer, which I cannot exit.
FA: Other than that, I am not quite certain what this game wishes to have me do.
SS: Something strange seemed
SS: To happen at this moment
SS: There was a loud noise
SS: Like something creaked
SS: And my bed seemed to be
SS: Then all messed up.
Wess stopped messing with her bed for a moment to glance back at the chat, and... what?
What was she talking about? That seemed a rather strange coincidence, given what he'd just done, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.
But it was probably just a coincidence. Those ridiculous game guides couldn't possibly have been doing anything but "trolling" when they'd spoken of a game with capabilities that extended into reality itself.
Deciding to disregard that train for thought for the moment, Wess turned back to the controls. There was an assortment of large machines he seemed to be able to purchase for nothing, probably to assist them in setting up the game. Wess clicked on one of these, the "Cruxtruder",and set the large machine down in a semi-empty corner of the room.He'd have to find somewhere else to find the rest, he figured... oh,he wondered what he could do with "revise", though.
Wess clicked the icon to use that mouse, then dragged a red-lined rectangle over one side of the room, expanding it by a couple of feet to his right. This took of ten of what looked like the game's currency, "Build Grist".He then placed the "Alchemeter", and moved on to message her again.
SS: Like something creaked
SS: And my bed seemed to be
SS: Then all messed up.
FA: Strange.
FA: I picked up and dropped the bed in this room only just before you sent that message.
FA: I doubt entirely that the two have much to do with each other,though. I am reluctant to wholly believe these poorly-composed Game Guides.
FA: Are you sharing a screen with me?
FA: I have just placed two of the large pieces of machinery I assume are necessary for game progression. I will place the third in anotherroom, and attempt to discern their purpose from this completegobbledygook afterwards.
FA: I doubt entirely that the two have much to do with each other,though. I am reluctant to wholly believe these poorly-composed Game Guides.
FA: Are you sharing a screen with me?
FA: I have just placed two of the large pieces of machinery I assume are necessary for game progression. I will place the third in another room, and attempt to discern their purpose from this complete gobbledygook afterwards.
SS: I would certainly
SS: Hope the two instances
SS: Are unrelated
The sudden thump and clang of metal to her right caused Leta to jump out of her seat, and she turned to see a giant piece of machinery plopped in one of the corners of her room. At the sound of creaking wood, she turned to look to look at the other side of the room only to see it expand. What the hell? Was this part of the game? She cringed as another strange machine literally materialized in midair before hitting the ground with a thud. Thinking back to what Wess said, she felt a little disoriented as the reality of what was happening hit her. It seemed crazy, impossible even, but maybe... just maybe this game could alter reality? She quickly took a picture of her room with her web camera.
SS: Wess, please stop whatever
SS: You are currently doing
SS: Give me a moment
SS: i32.photobucket.com/albums/d15/Leta_Darnell/RPPic_zpsa9091d96.png?t=1391552704link
Wess stopped what he was doing, as Leta asked, and took a moment to stare at the picture. Well... that looked exactly like it did on his screen... Was she just taking a screenshot of what she was seeing? There was no real sense in doing that; she could just have easily described it to him, or let him know that they were seeing the same view.
But the alternative was that she had taken a picture of her actual room,and that was what Wess was seeing now. The very room he'd been messing with, and the very machine he'd just placed in it.
He far preferred the first possibility.
SS: You are currently doing
SS: Give me a moment
SS: i32.photobucket.com/albums/d15/Leta_Darnell/RPPic_zpsa9091d96.png?t=1391552704link
FA: So we are sharing a view?
FA: That is exactly what I am seeing. The machine there is called a"Cruxtruder", and if these practically incoherent Game Guides are to be believed, it will provide you with something called"cruxite", needed to make an object that will assist you in entering the game.
FA: It will also, evidently, provide you with a "Kernalsprite".
FA: I am not certain what that is quite yet, but I expect we will find out soon enough.
A brief flash of irritation crossed her features. He didn't get it. He was messing with her home.She hoped he wouldn't mess around any more before checking the chat.There wasn't much she could do if he did. Though it would certainly be annoying, the possibilities this create were rather interesting. She wasn't aware technology had progressed so far already.
FA: That is exactly what I am seeing. The machine there is called a"Cruxtruder", and if these practically incoherent GameGuides are to be believed, it will provide you with something called"cruxite", needed to make an object that will assist you inentering the game.
FA: It will also, evidently, provide you with a "Kernalsprite".
FA: I am not certain what that is quite yet, but I expect we will findout soon enough.
SS: No, Wess that is not
SS: exactly what you are now
SS: That is a picture
SS: Of my room. Which now
SS: Apparently has two new
SS: Additions to it.
SS: That picture is a
SS: Photo of my room Wess. Now
SS: Do you understand?
Rhys was ecstatic right now. All the hype her friends were making about this game really made her want to play, too! She wondered what it would be like. She had tried to sit down and read the guide that went along with it, but she couldn't focus on it for very long. Something always happened! Something ridiculous, usually. But she had a feeling she'd figure it out anyway. She was good at a lot of games!
VM: my client stuff is all ready and whatever
VM: let's do this bitch like han solo and chewbaca
VM: heeeeeeeeell yeeeeaaaaaaaaah
HT: yayyyy! whatever that means!
HT: i really can't wait!
HT: oh oh yeah i think its loading stuff for me now this is great!!!!
HT: well okay the loading is taking a while
She wondered how long it was going to take. It did say some awfully weird things, too. What on earth was in this game? She figured none of it really had anything to do with it, though... why would it matter? It was probably just there for show, anyway... When the stuff finally loaded, she waited a few more seconds, then the oddest room she thought she'd ever seen showed up, with a fiery-looking girl wearing a cute hat.
HT: ok! the game is all loaded up and stuff!
HT: it's so weiiiird!
She moved the cursor around, trying to figure out what she could do with it. There were so many stuffed animals in the room... and by stuffed, she meant taxidermy! They were kind of creepy, but awesome at the same time. So who was this girl supposed to be? Was she the main character?Clicking on a stuffed squirrel, she dragged the cursor elsewhere...and it moved! For some reason this was amusing to her, so she picked it up, and dragged it over to the bed, picking up the blanket on top and pulling it over the taxidermied animal, giggling all the while.This game was so silly! What else was she supposed to do, besides stuff like this? Anyway, she hadn't yet figured out where the squirrel had gone, so she tried to pull out the drawers and see if she could find anything interesting inside. Nope, it looked like clothes. Wait, maybe she could take the clothes out! Attempting this,she found out she could, and more giggling ensued as she started to pull all the clothes out of the drawer, one by one. Now she was making this girl look like she had a really messy room!
Perplexed was about the only word Bern could come up with for all this. While Luke set to work placing all the machines he could find in his inventory, he was hastily reading the guide in his hands, trying to figure out something... anything. However, even though he was reading fast, he had a feeling that it didn't contain any truly useful information. He wasn't coming up with anything useful. So it seemed he was going to have to try and figure this out on his own... He put the book down,going to look at the newly expanded area of the apartment, which he was tentative about touching at first... Though, thankfully, it seemed to be real. Luke had built even more space, and even more than the original machine... He eyed the machines with tentative interest,trying to deduce whatever he possibly could about how they worked...
The one with the huge platform that was taking up so much space got his attention first. It didn't look like he could do anything with that, just yet. It seemed that it required something else to work. Something to put on the small platform, he presumed. He turned his attention to the next machine, the totem lathe. This one also seemed to require something else. He considered the shapes of the objects for a moment, and realized that they probably required the same kind of object, judging by the way they looked. And that loud sound on the roof above him...He could only assume that was Luke putting down a machine he couldn't fit downstairs on the roof. He knew he'd be able to climb up from the outside balcony, so he headed out there.
Climbing up the ladder on the side of the building, he came up to observe the machine up there. Yes, now this one looked like it might be the one that could produce the objects that he needed to use with the other machines!But something wasn't right about it. It was like it wasn't... quite ready to be used. Covered up, somehow. Restricting his access...
Alex was about to respond to Rhys, excited that they could finally get into this game, when something behind her started making...sounds. She wasn't sure what kind of sounds, but there were definitely sounds.
She turned in her chair to see what was going on, and... what the hell?! Why were her clothes suddenly all over her floor?! Was that Mr. Chestnut in her bed?! What kind of insane ghostly horseplay was happening here?!
Frantically, Alex began to type to Rhys, who seemed to be the only one paying any attention to her anyways.
HT: ok! the game is all loaded up and stuff!
HT: it's so weiiiird!
VM: RHYS SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT IT IS BUT SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: ITS LIKE
VM: FUCKING NEW BATTLESTAR SEASON THREE UP IN THIS SHIT
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
Wess stared at the screen for a moment, thoroughly shocked. Was this seriously happening? Was this Leta's room he was messing with?
Oh, god...
So the game guides had been right, then. This game had the capabilities to manipulate reality itself in a stunningly physical way... This was absolutely unreal. Surely, he was dreaming!
But no, the picture was there. The girl he'd thought was an avatar was actually Leta herself, and the room he had been fussing with was her room. This was definitely very, very real.
SS: That picture is a
SS: Photo of my room Wess. Now
SS: Do you understand?
FA: ...
FA: I suppose I do.
FA: Which means this video game is capable of augmenting reality and defying physics itself.
FA: Well...
FA: I am hesitant to continue, for fear of doing something that should not be done, but it seems you already have the necessary machinery in place to do so.
FA: Shall we... continue?
Leta took a few deep breathes, calming herself. Slowly working through the information she had before her. She was playing a game that could alter reality,had already altered reality, and it was up to her whether or not she continued.
FA: Well...
FA: I am hesitant to continue, for fear of doing something that should not be done, but it seems you already have the necessary machinery in place to do so.
FA: Shall we... continue?
SS: I suppose we shall
SS: It is just a game after
SS: All. Presumably
SS: Everything will just
SS: Reset when the game is done?
SS: I mean hopefully.
Wess let a strained breath out and rubbed at his eyes beneath his glasses, then straightened them and returned his fingers to the computer keyboard.He wasn't sure if it was truly wise to continue... He could end up harming her, or... otherwise messing things up. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want her to be hurt.
But he could be careful, and these things weren't going away, probably until she got to the end of it. Or... maybe he could exit the game? Come to think of it, there didn't seem to be a way to exit the game at all. There was no little "X" button, no way to get the window to go away... it seemed he was pretty much stuck playing this. And he wasn't sure he wanted to see what happened when he shut the computer down. If it didn't want him to exit until he'd finished, he imagined it wasn't going to.
So, somewhat begrudgingly, Wess navigated his way to Leta's entryway, and placed the last of the machines, the "Totem Lathe".
SS: Everything will just
SS: Reset when the game is done?
SS: I mean hopefully.
FA: Well... It certainly seems that way.
FA: There does not appear to be an exit button anywhere on this game, so I suppose it wants us to continue playing until the end.
FA: Given the powerful nature of this technology, I do not truly wish to test things by disconnecting or shutting down.
FA: It does not want us to quit.
FA: At any rate, I have placed the last of the machines in your foyer.This one is called the "Totem Lathe".
FA: There do not seem to be any variety of instructions for any of these.
FA: The advice of the game guides seems to point in the direction of the Cruxtruder, though. That is the large machine you sent me a pictureof.
Luke noticed Bern arrive on the roof. He looked back at the odd machine. What could it possibly be? How were they supposed to interact with it? Luke had given up on clicking things. It seemed to him that most interaction needed to be done by Bern. Luke was just there to set things in place. Luke kept staring at the Cruxtruder, as if simply looking at the object wou-...
...
Luke was outside.
Luke hit the ground after falling from a few feet in the air, landing right on his behind. He was confused for only a moment before he figured out what happened.
LUKE: Fucking GOAT!
Luke quickly stood up and looked around. It wasn't long before he found the bastard. Gammalth, the strange, white goat with no eyes was lazing under a tree, eating some grass. The goat took a break from eating the grass to look up at him. Luke wasn't an expert at reading the emotions of animals, but he could SWEAR Gammalth was looking at him with a smirk on his mostly-a-face. Luke dusted the grass off of his pants and walked back towards the tower. He wasn't really in the mood for Gammalth's games right now. Usually, he would take up Gammalth's offer and take a break from whatever he was doing to entertain the goat. But these were different circumstances, and he couldn't leave his friend alone at a time like this.
Before Luke could get inside, though, a flash of green light stopped him in his tracks. The goat appeared in front of him. He took on a charging stance, aimed right at Luke. It looked as if he wasn't getting out of this... Luke glanced over at the fields adjacent to his house. His gardening tools were the only weapons he had when sparring. If he even stood a chance, he needed to get there. Luke made a mad dash towards the green house, with Gammalth in hot pursuit.
Well, going by Wess' descriptions and the games behavior, it seemed as though this activity was taking a much more sinister turn. However, it seemed by the very nature of the game she would have to push forward.
FA: At any rate, I have placed the last of the machines in your foyer.This one is called the "Totem Lathe".
FA: There do not seem to be any variety of instructions for any of these.
FA: The advice of the game guides seems to point in the direction of the Cruxtruder, though. That is the large machine you sent me a picture of.
SS: I will switch over to
SS: A more mobile method for me
SS: To communicate.
SS: This game may require
SS: A lot more movement than we
SS: First thought there would be.
Leta opened up one of her desk drawers to pull out a light yellow messenger bag, which she then stored her laptop and charger in. Her intuition told her she might need to keep them close. Reaching into another compartment she grabbed her phone and activated the chat client on it.
Heading over to the...'Cruxtruder', she noticed what looked like a small wheel on the side.Further observation of the machine led her to believe that there was something inside, judging by the way something seemed to be trying to escape through the top of the machine. Reaching for the wheel, she began to try and turn it...
...Only to find that itwouldn't budge. Pulling out her phone she began to send a message to Wess.
SS: I believe we may
SS: Require something more forceful
SS: To open this thing.
Wess watched Leta moving about on his screen, cell phone in hand. Well,he'd thought it before, and he was thinking it again: she was pretty... There was little doubt to be had about that. It made his cheeks bloom a red that didn't seem to fit him all the way, but there it was.
He allowed himself a moment on that train of thought, then, before removing himself from it. He had to focus on this game... it definitely seemed that they were going to have to keep playing it, and there was something mildly frightening about that, as if this "suburban simulation"game was really a whole lot less cute and fun than they'd thought it would be.
Or maybe they just had a really, really creative marketing department.
Either way, Wess felt it was time he attempted to speak to the others about this. Bern and Luke had probably already started, and he cared little for Alex, but Rhys, at least, was tolerable. She would benefit from knowing, too,he thought.
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
frigidAllurment[FA]RIGHT NOW responded to memo
FA: I dearly hope the drama in this memo has calmed some.
FA: However, that is not why I have re-entered.
FA: It seems this game is far less a "fun simulator" game, as described by it's packaging and many others, but rather something a bit more insidious.
FA: This game seems to interact with and manipulate reality itself. And while this feat is impressive, something about it seems more sinister than that.
FA: Has anyone else who has started quite yet noticed that the game holds no "exit" button?
FA: There is no way to quit this game, it seems, before the very end.
FA: I do not know how many of you have yet begun to play, but those of you who have not may want to hold off until something more is learned on the subject.
Bern hadn’t really caught on to some of the eccentricities of this game at first.That much he was certain of. However, now that he had calmed down enough to really get a feel for what was going on, he was beginning to understand much, much more about it. He had his suspicions about the contraption on the roof. That one was going to be hard to get to,unfortunately. Though perhaps that could be ameliorated later, given the nature of this game. He’d already seen it having the ability to expand a room… why not give him an easy way up to the roof? Though he’d gathered that Luke had no way of doing that, seeing as he hadn’t been able to expand the room any further. Perhaps they would find a way to replenish the lost resources that had allowed for this in the first place. Perhaps soon.
Now, up on the roof,Bern was realizing how inconvenient it was to be without his computer at all times. Right now, he wanted to discuss this with Luke. Though he wasn’t coming to any conclusions yet, and something about the nature of this game made him more than a little frightened to test too many things out on his own. Though he knew that to some degree, experimentation was going to be important and necessary.Still, he figured he was better off, for now, doing a lot more thinking than doing.
He headed back down the ladder, onto the balcony, and back inside the apartment. Everything was, thankfully, as he’d left it. Though he wasn’t sure what that meant in regards to Luke… He went back to his computer to take a look at the messages.
CC: Shit, uhh...
CC: I gotta find a place for this one last device and I can't make the room bigger...
CC: I'm gonna have to put this on the roof... Maybe I can move it later or something.
Okay, so it seemed that his suspicions were correct; that he was unable to make the space bigger, so he’d put the last one on the roof. Having a small space really was disadvantageous, wasn’t it? He decided he’d try to reply to him.
MC: Luke, I’m trying to interpret just what these machines do.
MC: I am, however, reluctant to do too much with them. I have aparticularly ominous feeling about all this. My instincts are telling me that it’s best to observe right now, and I assure you, they are rarely wrong.
MC: Luke?
MC: Are you there?
MC: No matter. In the meantime, I’m going to try and inform theothers of what I already do know, which is very little.
He moved to the memo.
FA: Has anyone else who has started quite yet noticed that the game holds no "exit" button?
FA: There is no way to quit this game, it seems, before the very end.
FA: I do not know how many of you have yet begun to play, but those of you who have not may want to hold off until something more is learned on the subject.
minutiaeConnoisseur[MC] RIGHTNOW responded to memo
MC: I feel that I have to (begrudgingly) agree with Wess.
MC: There is something about this game that just isn’t quite right.
MC: From my perspective as someone who is having their world manipulated,I will do what is in my power to figure this game out.
MC: I currently know very little, though I don’t think it will belong before I can begin assisting the rest of you.
MC: For now, I have noted that the machines are most certainly related.Two of them appear to modify, and one of them appears to create.However, I have not yet deduced how to use any of them.
MC: I feel as though all of us will, eventually, have to play both roles in the process. We will all have to manipulate the world of our partner, and be manipulated. I feel this may complete a sort of logical chain that will finalize the introduction of this game.
MC: While I am hesitant to conduct trials with these machines, I am afraid it will be necessary very soon.
MC: I’ll be in touch.
Now that he’d made it clear that he would try to help the others, he turned his attention back to the apartment around him. He was about to try something that would change his perspective on the game yet again.Though he could tell that somehow, one of these machines created some kind of essential material, he wanted to see what would happen if he used some kind of existing material with them… Glancing through the apartment, his eyes settled on a stack of books near the television. The one on top, “Principles of Logic”, looked promising.
Rhys was almost having too much fun to go back and look at her Pesterchum window, but noticing just how much it was flashing, and the persistence of it, she finally looked at it.
VM: RHYS SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: IM NOT REALLY SURE WHAT IT IS BUT SOMETHING IS HAPPENING
VM: ITS LIKE
VM: FUCKING NEW BATTLESTAR SEASON THREE UP IN THIS SHIT
VM: EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AND IM NOT SURE HOW MUCH OF A LEGIT REASON THERE IS FOR THAT
VM: MY CLOTHES ARE ON THE FLOOR AND MY SQUIRREL IS IN MY BED?
VM: RHYS YOUR MOM'S A PSYCHIC OR WHATEVER RIGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE
Well, that didn’t sound particularly good. But she couldn’t really place what was happening with her, right? How was she supposed to know? Oh, that sounded oddly familiar. A squirrel in her bed? Clothes on the floor?
HT:well! that’s kind of funny. i was just making a mess of thisgirl’s room too!
HT:i think it was a squirrel i put in her bed.
HT:that probably wasn’t very nice!
HT:here i’ll fix it!!!!
HT:besides i bet my mom will just say its a poltergeist and try to makeyou pay her shit.
She went back to the game, and turned down the covers, picking up the taxidermied squirrel and setting it down on the girl’s desk right in front of her,almost apologetically. Wait a second… Wait a second! How slow could she be?!
HT: so wait
HT: you just saw me put the squirrel down on the desk riiiight?
HT: that’s totally crazy if so! is that your squirrel? he’sso cute. taxidermy is kind of weeeeird though…
HT: so now what?
Luke burst into the greenhouse, looking for something he could use to fend off the wild beast charging at him. Before he could find anything he could use,the goat was at his backside, bringing its horns upwards with enough force to launch Luke halfway across the greenhouse. He quickly got up as the goat began to charge again. He picked up a hand tiller on the table as he passed by it and threw it back at Gammalth. The goat simply phased past the incoming projectile and continued charging. Luke made a sharp left turn as he dashed out of the side door of the greenhouse, running straight through the fields. The sprinkler system was on, so the ground was slippery. Luke made a quick glance back. Gammalth was already out of the greenhouse and gaining on him. He began frantically looking for his scythe. It was about the only thing that even resembled a weapon around here. Suddenly, he was regretting not starting that sword collection before now...
Soon enough, he saw a glint in the wheat fields. He jumped over the rows of strawberries and ran into the row that held his scythe. He got close to grabbing it, but tripped on the wet soil and fell next to it. Gammalth was right on his tail and pounced at him. Without thinking, Luke closed his eyes, immediately grabbed the scythe and swung it in front of him with all of his strength. He could feel as he landed a strike on Gammalth's midsection, sending the goat careening into the row of wheat next to them. He opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet.His eyes found the large wound in the goat's side. Luke always felt bad when he won, because it meant having to see Gammalth in pain. Or,at least he thought it was pain...
After a few seconds,Gammalth stood up effortlessly, his wound closing almost instantly.He let out a bleat of satisfaction, and teleported away. Luke stood there for a few seconds, pondering the strange creature, but then pushed the thought out of his head and began walking back to the tower. He noticed a flash behind him, and saw the goat had returned...only to eat some of his wheat.
LUKE: HEY!
Gammalth looked up at him, slightly startled.
LUKE: Ask first next time.
The goat made an apologetic bleat in response.
LUKE: Yeah, go ahead and finish that one, I guess. You already started onit anyways, ya little thief.
The goat went back to eating the wheat with another one of those probably smug looks on his face.
Luke finally got back upstairs, not questioning why he's brought his scythe with him the whole way until he reached his room. He leaned it against the wall and returned to the computer. Looking over at the SBURB window, he noticed Bern wasn't on screen anymore. He saw his chat window blinking and checked to see what was happening.
MC: Luke, I’m trying to interpret just what these machines do.
MC: I am, however, reluctant to do too much with them. I have aparticularly ominous feeling about all this. My instincts are telling me that it’s best to observe right now, and I assure you, they are rarely wrong.
MC: Luke?
MC: Are you there?
MC: No matter. In the meantime, I’m going to try and inform the others of what I already do know, which is very little.
CC: Sorry, I was dealing with the little green shit.
CC: I know it could potentially be a bad idea, but you're not gonna figure anything out by being overly cautious.
CC: I mean, yeah, be careful and all, but you're gonna have to get close to them eventually.
CC: Think about this from a "gaming conventions" standpoint:They're not gonna give you something that KILLS you within the first few minutes of playing.
CC: That would be stupid and pointless.
CC: Well, granted, this isn't a normal game, but still.
Alex's eyes frantically scanned Wess's and Bern's words, then she shook her head and stood,pacing the room anxiously. Oh, god... oh god. Everyone was already starting, right? They'd all begun, so they were all fucked, all of them somehow sucked into this crazy-ass game... was it really able to mess with reality? She supposed it had to, since all of her things were suddenly on the floor and her squirrel was in her bed and... oh god.
Trying to calm down, Alex fiddled with the puff balls at the ends of her hat for a moment, then moved over to her book shelf. Rather than holding actual books, it instead had a lot of paraphernalia from her three favorite sci-fis: Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. She distracted herself for a bit by moving some things around and reorganizing the shelves, then picked a light saber off the ground and toyed with that for a few moments. After that, she reverently picked up a pair of binoculars off her Star Wars shelf... her dad had bought it for her several birthdays ago, a Star Wars licensed and authentic pair of Storm Trooper binoculars actually used on set during the shooting of the Battle of Endor.They were her most prized possession, and it would be an absolute shame to pick them up without looking dramatically into the sky with them.
Which she did, walking outside to hold the things up to the sky. Unsurprisingly, it was entirely blank and dull, except for a couple of--
What?!
Alex had, as most of the population had, heard reports of large meteors striking the Ear that an increasingly frequent rate, but that thought hadn't struck a whole lot of fear in her heart.
This, though...
A fiery ball of solid space rock headed right for her home was definitely enough to get her ass in fucking gear, and she ran back inside to her computer. She doubted it would crash down very soon, because it was pretty far out there, but still...
MC: I feel as though all of us will, eventually, have to play both roles in the process. We will all have to manipulate the world of ourpartner, and be manipulated. I feel this may complete a sort oflogical chain that will finalize the introduction of this game.
MC: While I am hesitant to conduct trials with these machines, I am afraid it will be necessary very soon.
MC: I’ll be in touch.
VM: OKAY YEAH WE GOT IT THE GAME IS DEFINITELY FUCKING WITH REALITY RHYS
VM: ON A MORE URGENT NOTE
VM: THERE HAPPENS TO BE A BIG FUCKING ROCK HEADING FOR MY HOUSE
VM: I FUCKING HOPE THIS IS PART OF THE GAME AND WE CAN FIX THIS BECAUSE MY DAD IS ASLEEP DOWNSTAIRS OKAY AND I HAVE A LOT FO THINGS
VM: SOMEONE PLEASE FIX THIS HOW DO WE FIX THIS
VM: ARE YOU GUYS GETTING THIS SHIT TOO WHATS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
VM: HELLOOOO LETS GO HURRY UP
VM: LETS STOP PLAYIG THE BITCH AT EACH OTHER AND TRY TO SUBTLY ONE UP EACH OTHER GAME FOR A WHILE RIGHT
VM: AND PLAY THE SAVE ALEXS ASS BEFORE SHE BECOMES A LOT OF PIECES OF BURNING FLESH GAME
VM: WINNER GETS THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING ME STILL EB ALIVE
VM: WHAT A PLEASURE OOH AAH
VM: GAME STARTS NOW GO
Bern decided he would pick up a book. But not "The Principles of Logic". He had a feeling it might be important. He pushed that one aside to pick up the one underneath. It turned out that this choice was going to be a revelation into the mechanics of the game.
When he went to pick up the book, it disappeared. But Bern suddenly became aware of something very strange. It was like there was an inventory system before him!It wasn't quite like anything he'd ever seen, though. He seemed to have multiple "cards" ... one of which was storing the book he'd just tried to take — "Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century". Another one of the cards had something in it...something he wan't aware that he had. A strange card?
(1. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century) (2. Fetch Modus Card) (3. Empty) (4.Empty)
Bern contemplated what he was seeing, observing every last detail. Sylladex? Captchaloguedeck? This had to be part of the game, right? As startling as it was,it made sense that, if the game could do things like allow a player to manipulate reality from afar... Then putting things into some kind of digital inventory, governed by different rules than reality,seemed possible enough, too. It was strange, though. This inventory screen. He felt like if he analyzed it enough, he could learn a lot... He'd figured some things out already, just from the context.This thing that was taking and storing his items must have been the Sylladex. And these cards? Surely the Captchalogue deck. There was something else. He wasn't quite sure how it was related, but it was called a Strife Specibus. There was really no indication of what it was, and there was nothing in it. He felt like he ought to take an object, and put it there. But he didn't know what it would do. Hang on, he had to think about it. Strife? Strife implied disagreement....dispute... hostility... Fighting! Wait, this was an equipment slot,wasn't it? In that case, he had an idea.
He tried to put the next book in the stack, "A Concise Introduction to Quantum Physics", into the Strife Specibus slot.
(1. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century) (2. Fetch Modus Card) (3. Empty) (4.Empty) --- (SS: bookkind)
The result was definitely interesting, but he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, besides that it had worked. He had wondered if the game would reject certain things as weapons. However, it didn't appear that it was rejecting this one. The book had been taken into the slot, andthe label below it now read "Book kind". So now his "strife specibus" was "bookkind"? He tried to take it. And suddenly the book was in his hand, but it didn't feel like it was something he could just put down; it felt somehow separate from his inventory. Instead, he put it away.
He wondered what other objects he would need. The card in the "inventory slot" was a pretty mysterious looking one. He wasn't sure what it was. Was there a way to read tool tips, or something like that, in this game?He tried thinking hard about the object, wanting it, wanting to take it out. But he couldn't. Is that because the book was on top? He tried to take out the book. Sure enough, he was able to do that. So he could only take out the item that was "on top" of the stack.
He'd learned a lot in a short amount of time, hadn't he? He decided this was information worth sharing, so he went back to the memo.
VM: WINNER GETS THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING ME STILL EB ALIVE
VM: WHAT A PLEASURE OOH AAH
VM: GAME STARTS NOW GO
MC: I've made a lot of interesting discoveries.
MC: Anyone who is not playing the game on their computer, whose environment is being manipulated, has a sort of inventory that becomes apparent when you attempt to pick something up.
MC: This inventory is probably called a Sylladex, and the cards it uses as "inventory slots" are called Captchalogue cards.
MC: There is also a separate slot called a Strife Specibus. I have reason to believe that it is something like an equipment slot, specifically for a weapon.
MC: I tried putting a book in the slot. It did not get rejected by the game, and it appears I now have "bookkind" declared as my strife specibus.
MC: My inventory appeared to have something in it that I did not put there when I first realized it. I am not yet sure what this card-like item is. However, I did find that when you put something into your inventory, you may only take out the item you have last placed in it.
MC: I'm sure this is only a taste of the discoveries we will uncover while playing this game.
After typing all that,he went back to read what Alex had written. And he felt the blood draining from his face as he did.
MC: Alex... surely you couldn't mean there is a meteor headed directly for your house?
MC: Do you have the tools to calculate that it is, indeed, headed directly for you?
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
While his words might have sounded calm, the truth of the matter was that Bern was terrified. He didn't think there was anything he could do for Alex...Rhys was the only one who probably had control over her fate, and he wasn't sure she was going to be able to handle this, if it had anything to do with the game at all. He wasn't sure there was anything he could do for her, personally... She was in the same position as he was, pretty much. All she could do was try to follow the advice on what he was figuring out.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
He felt a new sense of urgency, for Alex's sake. Getting up from his computer, he decided he would store it in his... no, wait. He had a feeling he might need something else. He walked back over toward the TV and captchalogued a tape from one of the many piles of VHS tapes his grandmother had recorded various game shows on. Then, in the final slot, he placed his computer so he could take it with him. Finally, he headed for the roof, convinced that he needed to figure out the purpose of that machine. He swore that somehow, it had the answer to his question about what material he could use with the other machines... besides the card slot in one of them...
(1. Laptop) (2. The Price Is Right VHS tape) (3. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
Rhys was trying to figure stuff out on her own end. There were all these other things in the top bar. All these icons she didn't recognize. But when she clicked on them, it seemed to change the cursor. Maybe she could do different things? She didn't know! This was all so frustrating!
Though about at that point, she noticed that something was going on in the memo. It looked like an awful lot of people were saying a lot of things...
First off was Alex, and she read what she'd written, a look of horror growing over her face.What the heck was going on over there?! She'd just been trying to figure this stuff out; did she do something wrong?! Bern was saying a lot too; it looked like he was figuring things out and trying to tell everyone about them, but she was too concerned with Alex right now to really be able to focus on what he was writing.
-memo-
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
HT: ooooh my gooood!!!!
HT: alex i must have screwed something up i'm sorry i'm sorryyyy!!!!
HT: what am i supposed to do? there are all these buttons and things andi dont get iiiit!!!!
HT: someone help!!!!
She went back to the game, trying to figure everything out. The magnifying glass zoomed in and out. That first default cursor seemed to be for selecting and moving things... She clicked on the second icon, which looked like the cursor, except the shapes were all weird. She then clicked and realized it was making a big shape on the side of the room. She dragged it until it was bigger and let go... Suddenly, Alex had a new addition to her room that she might or might not appreciate...
-pesterlog-
HT: aaaahhhh what the heck! it just made a room! you have a weird room too right?!
Luke glanced over at the memo window when it began flashing again. He read in terror as Alex described her situation. He realized that the meteors had to have some kind of connection to the game itself. The increased occurrences started AFTER the game's release, and they all seemed to strike houses specifically. He knew this had to be part of the game,and there HAD to be a way to prevent it.
-Open Memo-
MC: We don't have any proof that this has anything to do with this game,though... I suppose it is a possibility.
MC: A good question to ask would be what we can do about this.
MC: Above all, don't panic. Perhaps what I'm discovering can help you,too.
HT: ooooh my gooood!!!!
HT: alex i must have screwed something up i'm sorry i'm sorryyyy!!!!
HT: what am i supposed to do? there are all these buttons and things andi dont get iiiit!!!!
HT: someone help!!!!
CC: Alright everyone, listen up.
CC: I know we've kind of just been messing around and freaking out over how this game affects reality.
CC: But we have to recognize that we're on a timer now. That meteor HASto be part of this game.
CC: This game can't be impossible, though. There's GOT to be a way toavoid a firey death.
CC: Right now, we need to focus on making as much progress as possible.Ignore all the crazy shit that happens and just accept it. There'llbe time for freaking out later.
CC: I'm sure if we just keep going, we'll find a way out of this.
Luke's mind quickly turned to Rhys. He began messaging her.
-Open Pesterlog-
CC: Rhys?
CC: Look, I know you're probably freaking out right now, but I need you to focus on progress.
CC: Just stay calm, and stay serious, alright?
CC: I know it's a lot to handle, but I know you can do it!
That was all he could do for now... He could only hope for the best.
~~~~~
Leta observed themachine that had been unceremoniously dropped into her room andfrowned. She couldn't see any obvious way to open it other than theapparently non-functional wheel on the side of the machine. Maybe ifshe dropped something heavy on top of it, it might pop off? She wouldconfer with the group as a whole to get their opinion.
Letascanned through the recent posts in the memo, and felt her heartdrop. As much as she and Alex felt a tension between them, she stillcared. She could feel that there was more to Alex than met the eye,and if she were to die... All that potential would be wasted. Shewould be gone... Leta snapped herself out of her thoughts. This wasno time to wait around. She needed to progress as far as she could,as fast as she could, to make sure that she survived the countdown.Then she needed to help Wess survive too. She needed to move now.
As she traveled downthe steps, she thought it odd that she couldn't hear the voices ofher parents, and briefly considered checking in on them. They wouldprobably get angry if she did though...Taking what Bern had saidabout the digital inventory into consideration, she headed down thetwo flights of stairs that led to her basement. If it was digital,then it stood to reason that she could grab whatever she wantedwithout actually carrying it herself.
As she traveled downthe steps, she thought it odd that she couldn't hear the voices ofher parents, and briefly considered checking in on them. They wouldprobably get angry if she did though... She opened up the door at thebottom of the steps and switched on the lights inside the basement,and headed straight for the workout equipment. She searched throughthe metal pieces until she found a rather heavy barbell.
(1. empty) (2.Barbell) (3. Phone) (4. Fetch Modus Card)
Now that she thoughtabout it, she had been a bit distracted earlier, and must have placedher phone inside the digital inventory when she put it away. Thiswhole danger thing had shooken her up, and it was certainly notpleasant.
Heading over to theother side of the room, where there were a few boxes placed, Letabegan to search through them, looking for one thing in particular.Bern had mentioned a Strife Specibus, and she didn't want to beunprepared. She opened one elongated box, and pulled out a khopesh.Her parents didn't approve of it when they found that she hadpurchased one online, and insisted that it be kept in the basement,and out of sight. They didn't now about the fact that she had hired ateacher for a few lessons, and practiced while they were out either.She placed the khopesh inside the strife specibus, and marveled athow weird it was to have a digital inventory.
As she walked up thestairs, she half-expected to find some new addition to her room whenshe returned, ad while the presence of the two machines currently inplace was troubling, at least there wasn't anything new. Climbing upon top of the machine, she ejected the barbell from her inventory,and let gravity tale its course.
(1. empty) (2. empty)(3. Phone) (4. Fetch Modus Card)
As the top flew off,Leta was knocked backwards into the air While her breath was knockedout of her, she considered it lucky that she had fallen onto the bed.She lay there for a few moments, stunned, before sitting up, only tosee something odd.
There seemed to be aglowing yellow orb floating above the Cruxtrider. It emitted a softyellow glow, and seemed to bounce slightly in the air.
Taking out her phoneshe began to type a message into the memo.
-- Memo--
CC:This game can't be impossible, though. There's GOT to be a way toavoid a firey death.
CC:Right now, we need to focus on making as much progress as possible.Ignore all the crazy shit that happens and just accept it. There'llbe time for freaking out later.
CC:I'm sure if we just keep going, we'll find a way out of this.
SS:Hello everyone
SS:I have found the next method
SS:Of game progression.
SS:You need to drop a
SS:Heavy item onto the machine
SS:Called Cruxtruder.
SS:I am not quite sure
SS:What to do with the thing that
SS:Came out however.
SS:It appears to be
SS:Some sort of glowing ball of
SS:Floating bouncing light?
~~~~~
Wess had gone back towatching Leta after posting in the memo, driven away again by Bern'scomment. She didn't move for a while, which he guessed meant she wasreading the memo herself, but then she was up and doing things again.Wess took a moment or two to read further ahead in the game guide,trying to sort out the garbled nonsense into something reasonable,then came back to the game itself again.
What was thatfloating... thing? It was exactly Leta's color, a soft yellow, and...oh, he supposed it must be the "Kernelsprite" spoken ofbriefly in the guide. Which meant it probably didn't matter rightnow, but he could put something into it, if he felt the need.
The countdown was whatmattered.
It hadn't been veryclear in the guide, but the countdown supposedly had something to dowith meteors.
According to Leta'sCruxtruder, her time left was 6:24... six minutes and twenty fourseconds, and falling quickly. So she would need to get going. Now.
Wess clicked the pieceof cruxite that had falled out of the cruxtruder and dragged it overto the totem lathe, where he set it down to get the pre-punched cardout. He dropped that next to the cruxite dowel, and then moved backto the memo, figuring he should probably share some of thisinformation with the rest of the group.
Heread up on what had been happening first, and his eyes went wide. Hewasn't particularly attached to ALex, but she was still sort of hisfriend, and... even beyond that, this could only mean that the gameguides were right.This had something to do with meteors... so Leta's 6:24, which wasnow 6:02, meant that she had only that much time to get through...whatever it was she needed to get through. And so did everyone else.He figured it would be best to direct them through the informationhe'd been able to pick up form the game guides, then, and they couldfigure out the rest later.
SS:It appears to be
SS:Some sort of glowing ball of
SS:Floating bouncing light?
FA:Leta, the ball of light is called a Kernelsprite. It is irrelevant,as of now.
FA:I have read through the rest of the game guide I was referring to,and it appears Leta was correct.
FA:Not only does bashing the lid of the cruxtruder release akernelsprite, but it will also eject a dowel of something called"cruxite".
FA:Place this into the totem lathe.
FA:The Client player (in Bern's words, "Anyone who is not playingthe game on their computer"), will need to work quickly with theServer player after this.
FA:Bern, that means anyone who *is* playing the game on their computer.
FA:The Server player will need to eject the pre-punched card, which theclient will then place into the totem lathe.
FA:The totem lathe with card the cruxite, and the client will need toplace this carved piece of cruxite onto the smaller platform on thealchemiter.
FA:This will create... some form of object.
FA:I am not certain yet what this object does, as that is as far as thegame guides go, but I feel that is enough for you all to accomplishfor now.
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
~~~~~
Bern made his way up tothe roof, and sat down in front of the cruxtruder that Luke hadpreviously placed there. He didn't do anything yet, though... He feltlike he might have to check on the memo. It took too damn longclimbing that ladder up to the roof, but it was a lot faster thantaking the stairwell.
(1. Empty) (2. ThePrice Is Right VHS tape) (3. Astronomical Tools of the 18th Century)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
Good god, that was alot of memo. There was a lot of information here. So... the thingabout meteors was pretty certainly not a coincidence. Granted, Bernhad only doubted it because he hadn't heard about the incidence ofmeteors lately. He'd been too busy with reading, and his grandmahadn't exactly been watching the tv lately. No, she had so manytapes, she was always watching some game show, not the local news orany of that... So of course he didn't know anything about the suddenincidence of meteors!
However,the glaring tone of Wess's messages infuriated him. It was like he'ddone something wrong.Which he most certainly had not.What was with this douche? Didn't he have something better to do?Like saving Leta's life?
At that, he foundhimself looking up to the sky. If Alex and Leta were both indanger... didn't that mean he was too? He looked all around him,squinted... He didn't see anything- Wait! Shit, there was somethingout there. He couldn't tell if it was a meteor or not, but thethought that it very well could be had his heart sinking into the pitof his stomach. Okay, he needed to settle this right now.
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
He looked up to thecruxtruder then, contemplating it. So he'd been correct in hisassumption about there being a lid on it that needed to be removed insome way. And he was also correct to think that the wheel on the sidewasn't for that purpose. So, as it had been mentioned, he would needto find a way to get it off. But if he needed to hit it withsomething heavy... Obviously there was nothing in his sylladex thatcould do that. He couldn't think of anything in his apartment that hecould efficiently take with him to do the task, either. It lookedlike he'd need some help from Luke.
-pesterlog-
MC:Luke, if you would, I need your assistance.
MC:Do you perchance have an idea as to how we can get the lid off thismachine?
MC:I don't have anything heavy to knock it off with. Perhaps you, as theone with the cursor, can pull it off? Or whatever you might come upwith.
Until the other helpedhim with this, he didn't think there was anything he could do toprogress.
~~~~~
Rhys had beenpanicking, contemplating actually getting up and moving around, asshe felt too antsy to focus... then she realized that Luke wasmessaging her.
-pesterlog-
CC:Rhys?
CC:Look, I know you're probably freaking out right now, but I need youto focus on progress.
CC:Just stay calm, and stay serious, alright?
CC:I know it's a lot to handle, but I know you can do it!
HT:can you read my mind or somethingggg? of course i'm freaking out!
HT:it's hard okay it's really hard i don't want anything bad tohappennnn
HT:i'm going to try though i really don't want to wait too long
HT:i really care about alex ok?
HT:thanks.... i think it helps to talk to you because i'm feeling betteralreadyyyy!
Rhys was now readingthe memo rather intently as others posted there. Ah, so this was howthe game worked, huh? She needed to find a way to place machines, andthen there was this thing about knocking the top off of one of them,and stuff would happen, this weird spritey thing would appear? Okay,she thought she could handle this...
She opened up the"Phernalia Registry", the fourth button at the top. Oh,there were the machines! She had made that space on Alex's house, sothat would suffice for the machines, she hoped! There definitelywasn't enough room in her room to put them all there. She starteddeploying the machines and putting them down in her room. Okay, shethought she had that part right... But the fact that they were allrunning out of time was terrible. She was scared she wouldn't be ableto protect Alex this time...
-pesterlog-
HT:alex!!!!
HT:i think you can do the stuff you need to do now!!!!
HT:i'm sorryyyy i'm so useless i just can't figure this stuff out! it'sa good thing bern and wess are doing that because i sure can't....
~~~~~
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
Leta didn't even botherreplying to the message Wess had entered, focusing instead on thecountdown on the Cruxtruder. She had five minutes and forty fiveseconds left, and she really needed to get moving.
She followed the paththe floating cruxite dowel had taken just moments ago, down the stepsand into the foyer. At first she couldn't see anything different,until she noticed Wess had placed the machine right in front of herdoor. Why he couldn't place it to the side of the entrance hall wasbeyond her, but she didn't have time to fret about it now.
She ran over, slightlyskidding on the floor, and snatched up the cruxite dowel. Shepractically shoved it into the machine, before grabbing thepre-punched card and slotted it in. She took a step back as themachine did its work, carving the dowel into some strange shape. Itsort of looked like a misshapen vase at the moment actually.
She ran up the stairs,skipping a few steps and making sure not to have the carved doweldisappear into her inventory. As she entered her room, she quicklychecked the countdown on the Cruxtruder. She only had four minutesand thirty seconds left! Quickly she made her way over to theAlchemiter and placed the dowel in, and watched as it created... afeather?
Momentarily stunned,she stood there for a few seconds just staring at the feather. Whatthe hell was she supposed to do with a feather? Picking it up, shenoticed it was heavy and appeared to made out of the same material asthe dowel. On closer examination it appeared to have something carvedinto it, but she couldn't seem to make it out... Thinking quickly,she headed over to her window and held up the feather against thesuns rays.
As the lightilluminated the feather, she could make out the words, 'WEIGHT'. Wasshe supposed to weigh the feather? Could it be like the ancientEgyptians who weighed their soul against a feather to gain entranceto the afterlife? Considering her interest in the mythology andlegends of Egypt, as well as the omniscient nature of the game, itseemed plausible... But in that case then if her soul was found tooheavy, her existence would fade away! A quick glance over at thetimer reminded her that her existence would fade either way if shedidn't do something.
She made her way overto the desk, captchaloguing the barbell as she went as it was in theway, and began searching through the drawers. As she placed thefeather down on the top of the desk she captchalogued Arielle thelion. Frustrated, she shuffled through what remained in her drawersuntil she found a small balance. She felt like screaming when itautomatically went into her digital inventory. Her frustration levelswere rapidly rising, and as she released everything she hadcaptchalogued, the balance dropped onto the floor, the barbell rolledonto the desk, causing it to creak, and Arielle went flying into theKernelsprite, causing a brief but bright flash of light.
In her startled state,Leta accidentally knocked the barbell from its new position on herdesk, and as it rolled down the length of the desk, it reached thefeather and crushed it underneath its weight. Turning back towardsthe remains of the feather, she felt fear crystallize in her heartbriefly before the whole house seemed to shake and a bright lightstreamed in through the windows.
When everything hadsettled, Leta rushed to her window, half expecting to see a meteor,only to find that her house now overlooked what appeared to be agolden desert of shimmering sands. In the distance she could make outwhat appeared to be smooth towering obelisks reaching towards ayellow sky. Thin miasma like clouds floated across the sky, formingwhat appeared to be... words? She pulled away from her view of theglittering sands, and retrieved her laptop, recaptchaloguing thebarbell as she went. She supposed she probably fulfilled whateverrequirements the game had to transport her away from the meteorimpact. After all, she did sort of weigh it? If by weighing, youmeant crushing it under weights... At least she didn't have to worryabout weighing her soul or anything. She would hold onto the barbell,it seemed to be incredibly useful so far.
(1. Barbell) (2.Phone) (3. Fetch Modus Card) (4. Empty)
Looking over the memo,she noticed Bern and Wess were fighting. Ugh, she did not have theenergy to deal with this right now.
-- Open Memo --
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
SS:Yes, well that is
SS:Certainly something, Bern, Wess,
SS:That you will need to
SS:Work out. In other news
SS:I managed to shut down my
SS:Cruxtruder Countdown.
SS:You guys will not be
SS:Able to believe what is
SS:Going on over
SS:Here. After one does
SS:What Wess outlined in the
SS:Memo, you will then
SS:Receive an object
SS:That from my experience
SS:Must then be broken.
SS:After which you will
SS:Be transported into a
SS:Strange different place.
SS:My home is at the
SS:Surrounded by what seems like
SS:A real live desert.
~~~~~
-OpenMemo-
FA:In regards to the meteor, it appears that it's impact is directlycorrelated with the game.
FA:Specifically, to the countdown shown on the cruxtruder.
FA:We need to accomplish whatever we are supposed to accomplish beforethe time runs out.
MC:Well spoken, lord of the plebeians.
MC:Given that I figured all this out without the help of a guide, andmerely do not know the "proper terms" that are not given tome in some fashion, I dare say I've had the more enriching experiencebetween the two of us.
MC:That said, in regards to your insensitivity, I cordially invite youto fuck yourself with a "cruxite dowel".
God fucking damnit...
Luke was HOPING torally the group together and drown out this petty jealousy with thecommon cause of, oh I don't know, PREVENTING EVERYONE FROM DYING?! Nomatter, it seems to have devolved into petty insults already. Lukewas going to have a serious talk with Wess, but not until AFTER Letawas safe. Paying closer attention, he could see that Rhys hadresponded. He quickly scanned her message and closed the window. Hedidn't want to distract her when she was supposed to be saving Alex.
...Kind of like how hewas supposed to be saving Bern.
Luke rushed back to hischat window with Bern.
-OpenPesterlog-
MC:Luke, if you would, I need your assistance.
MC:Do you perchance have an idea as to how we can get the lid off thismachine?
MC:I don't have anything heavy to knock it off with. Perhaps you, as theone with the cursor, can pull it off? Or whatever you might come upwith.
CC:Uhh, let me see what I can find.
Luke returned to Bern'sapartment, looking for something heavy. He went looking from room toroom when he accidentally clicked on the toilet in the bathroom,ripping it straight out of the floor and taking a chunk of bathroomtile with it.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Fuck...
Luke took a moment toconsider the turn of events and decided to not waste any time andsimply use the toilet. It was in his cursor anyways.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Okay, don't be mad, but I found something heavy.
He moved the window upto the roof again and moved the toilet over the Cruxtruder. He thendropped it directly on top of the lid, cracking the toilet nearly inhalf and causing the top of the Cruxtruder to fly off, releasing agreen crystalline cylinder and a glowing green orb. A timer thenflashed to life, displaying their current remaining time. Only 4minutes and 13 seconds left...
Remembering what Wesssaid about the game, he immediately grabbed the cylinder and draggedit downstairs again to the weird machine with a slot for the cruxitedowel. He opened and scanned the Phernalia Registry until he foundwhat he was looking for. He placed the Pre-Punched card next to thedowel, ready for Bern as soon as he arrived.
-OpenPesterlog-
CC:Alright, I think everything's set up!
CC:You don't have much time left, so run!
~~~~~
Alex was still freakingout, but at least now she was actually paying attention to the memo,hoping for some life-saving advice. Somewhat unfortunately, it camein the form of a long stream of useful condescension from the King ofBitter Douchewads himself, Wess. She groaned.
But it was stilladvice, and useful, so she left her computer to find something heavyand decide what the machines were. The cruxtruder had to be the tubeyone witht he actual lid, okay, that made sense... and the alchemiterwas probably the one with the two pads, and the the totem lathe wasprobably the one that looked like it could actually carve things.
Well... she had a lotof dead animals and some sci-fi paraphernalia in her room. Sheconsidered dropping a bear on the cruxtruder, figured it would be fartoo heavy for her to actually lift, then decided that she didn'tactually care and tried to lift the thing anyways, uselessly. Ugh.That was the only thing she had in the room that would probably beheavy enough, aside form her bed... she decided to message Rhys forsome assistance.
HT:alex!!!!
HT:i think you can do the stuff you need to do now!!!!
HT:i'm sorryyyy i'm so useless i just can't figure this stuff out! it'sa good thing bern and wess are doing that because i sure can't....
VM:no no no no rhys youre fucking fine just
VM:okay you need to take this big fucking bear in my room and drop it onthe tubey thingy okay
VM:the lid part
VM:you can do that i know you can
VM:lets go i have no idea how long it takes for space rocks to bringfiery deaths to teenagers and i dont really want to find out
Thatpart being done, Alex decided to try out this... sylladex thing. Bernhad said that just picking something up would store the item in oneof those cards, but obviously that hadn't worked with the bear, whichmeant she probably wasn't going to be able to put anything in it thatwas too big? Or maybe Bern was just trying to mess with them... Well,he couldn't exactly seeher, so she decided to try with something else, and picked R2D2 offof the "This is Not the Droids You Are Looking For" scene.Immediately, a bunch of cards flashed up in front of her.
(1.R2D2)(2. Fetch Modus Card)(3. Empty)(4. Empty)
That was.... weird...okay, so obviously Bern hadn't been pulling their legs.
She had known he'd comethrough.
Alex reached out,trying to touch the cards, but then they were gone again... soapparently they really did only accept things of a certain size, andthey weren't... actually... there? So how was she supposed to get herstuff back?! That R2D2 was mint condition!
Alex picked a schoolbook up off her desk, intending to throw it at the space in the airthe cards had so recently occupied, but that just disappeared aswell. Fuck!
(1. TheAmerican Vision)(2. R2D2)(3. Fetch Modus Card)(4. Empty)
Okay... so that seemedto move things back.
Slowly, Alex pickedC3PO off of her desk too.
(1.C3PO)(2. The American Vision)(3. R2D2)(4. Fetch Modus Card)
So now all of her cardswere full! Then she would probably be able to get the last thing,right? The weird card that she didn't actually own. It seemed it camewith the game, like everything else she'd seen so far.
She tried to reach outand grab the thing, but that didn't do anything. Apparently, shewould have to try some other method... Well, there was always fillingthe cards up with more shit.
Alex picked up abadger.
(1.Badger)(2. C3PO)(3. The American Vision)(4. R2D2)
The fetch modus cardfell to the floor seemingly out of nowhere. It didn't... really...look like anything. It was just an empty card! She frowned at it, anddecided that she didn't want to risk damaging her R2D2, so she wouldleave it alone for now.
~~~~~
Wess was growing veryfrustrated very fast with his group, but of course he wasn't going toshow it. He could respond to Bern, and take the bait, but... hedecided he was better than that. At least for now. He'd gotten hisshot in, he could leave that alone for a while to focus on Letainstead. She was the one who was really in danger, and if Bern didn'tactually want to contribute anything to save his team's asses, well,he could do that. He was only wasting his own time, anyways.
So he moved off to seeLeta instead, drawn what she'd said about a desert. Her room lookedmuch the same, though it seemed she had prototyped her kernelspritewith a... lion? That must have been her stuffed lion... that was sortof cute.
It seemed she had madeher cruxite thing, and the shattered remains beneath the barbell onher floor told Wess she had actually broken the thing. Okay, so thenthat was important.
Zooming out, Wess couldsee exactly what Leta had been talking about. A huge expanse ofdesert lay around Leta's house, which was... why wasn't it where...it had been? This was weird.
-- Open Memo --
SS:My home is at the
SS:Surrounded by what seems like
SS:A real live desert.
FA:It seems Leta is right, again.
FA:Breaking whatever your alchemiter produces when you do what I saidearlier will transport you to...
FA:I am not certain what to call it, but I assume we will all end up ineach other's vicinity fairly soon.
FA:I suggest we focus on accomplishing this for now, as it seems to bethe only way to escape a painful death by giant rock.
FA:I have yet to try anything with the sylladex, as this is moreimportant, but I think we should be careful with those.
FA:Losing something important could be catastrophic.
FA:We should probably share any information we manage to gather on themwhen we get into this... place Leta is in.
FA:Speaking of which, it does not seem that breaking this itemtransports both client *and* server.
FA:I am not certain whether the server needs to do the same to escapemeteors, either...
~~~~~