PHASE I [ 6 00 ] You wake up, and you're in a camp ground. The graphics aren't bad here, not really, but they're definitely last gen -- not the type of quality expected out of ViViD. On top of that, every once in awhile, the scenery sort of... glitches before going right back to normal as if nothing ever happened. If you're particularly unlucky, your own body parts might glitch out for a moment too, appearing as nothing more than broken code and then back to normal. Pretty weird, right? Oh well, don't worry about it. Totally harmless.
Glitches or not, you're still in a camp ground along with everyone else. There's a fire, there's some tents, some trees. Maybe some s'mores? You got it all. You're also not wearing what you were before. No, now you're wearing some sexy shorts, or maybe you've got a whip at your side, or maybe you've got a really classy fedora. And if you're one of those lucky few who have all three at once? Good for you! Try not to blind everyone with all that sexy.
Or, you know, the game will glitch out again and you'll be stuck wearing something else. That's definitely not as sexy.
PHASE II [ 730 ] If you decide to finally go exploring that crazy jungle, you'll find that you have a wide range of exploring options. Seems ViViD's taking a crack at their very own open world game -- this one modeled after your run of the mill adventure game. There are rivers to swim through (complete with alligators)! There are cliffs to scale (complete with angry birds ready to peck at your face)! There are even ravines to swing across on vines (just like Tarzan)!
Actually, the game is made to allow you to do just that -- those vines are all conveniently lined up for everyone to use them to swing across. Go on, it'll be fun. If you miss, you'll just lose a life, right?
Of course, if you overshoot your goal, you might run into one of the other glitches; the white space that you'll stumble into implies that you flew right off the world map and are now in unprogrammed space. Don't worry, you'll dissolve eventually, slowly but surely, and will reappear on the cliff so you can try again. There's no other way around that ravine either. Still, it's only a little frightening watching your body disappear piece by piece, right?
PHASE III [ 900 ] If you manage to scale one of those cliffs or swing across that ravine or cross that river, you may find yourself a chest. It's a treasure chest, and you don't even need a key to open it! Open it right up, a cute little jingle will play, and… nothing will be there.
Or the item will be there, hovering in the air, something amazing, fantastic, incredible that you've always dreamed of having and wanting, and -- you can't touch it. No matter what you try, it hovers right out of reach, and you can't interact with it at all.
Oh, and the cute little jingle is going to follow you around now, on constant loop.
PHASE IV [ xxxx ] So you died.
No big deal. Perhaps you got eaten by a crocodile. Perhaps you fell off a cliff. Perhaps another player stabbed you (that's rude). Either way, you've only lost one life and you have two more so it's nothing. After all, this is just a video game, right? It's fine.
Except it's really not fine.
You'll find yourself in a graveyard, tombstones all around you (maybe one of them has your name on it -- hope the epitaph doesn't suck). It's nighttime, it's foggy, and you're with the other players who have also lost a life. For a while, nothing will happen. The cold and quiet of the night will start to seep into your bones -- and then a figure appears. It can't be killed, it is silent and grim, and it does not speak.
Instead, it approaches each person there, reaches out and touches them on the forehead. Even you. All you can see for a long moment is corpses around you, the dead faces of everyone who had been with you in the ViViD level, flesh rotting away and faces caught in expressions of horror --
And then you're all dropped back into the camp ground together again. It's sunny and cheery and everything is fine, and you're down to two lives. Just, you know... don't lose the rest, okay?
BONUS [ xxxx ] You have a butler now, congratulations! He's following you around everywhere. He's an NPC, and not a very well-made one; sometimes his face glitches out, and he doesn't so much walk behind you as just… appears right next to you. He's handy though because if you ask him to, he'll pull up the start menu. You can sort out your inventory there and exit the game if you wish (except no matter how many times you press the "quit" button, you... can't).
Sometimes, though, that doesn't work out so well. Not the start menu but the butler himself. He might appear next to you on a narrow cliff face, knocking you right off the edge, or appear right on top of a hornet's nest, making them angry enough to go after, well, you. Maybe he accidentally summons a bear when all you were trying to do was ask him where the next dungeon is. That's unfortunate.
You can't seem to get rid of him either, no matter what you do. How annoying. Hopefully he doesn't cause you too much trouble because that bear... well, that bear's pretty angry.
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He's also staring wide-eyed at you as if the answer is obvious. ]
Well, I don't know where I am. I just woke up here, but I've never been here. And whenever I wake up in weird places it always turns out to be a dream, because then I wake up again, in places I have been before...
[ Which isn't really an answer, considering he's woken up in someone's kitchen before with no memory of the past sixteen (or sixty-two, if you count being dead) years, but details.
He shivers. ]
Dreams aren't usually this vivid, though. Or maybe they are. Maybe I just don't remember them. [ You know, like he doesn't remember the rest of his life. ] Do you know where we are?
[ It's a long shot. If Ket doesn't know, then Sir Floorhugger, part of his imagination, shouldn't know either.
Ket scratches his head, forgetting that he's supposed to be holding onto the sheet. Sorry, Sir Floorhugger, now you're getting a close-up view of Ket's bare left side. Except his upper thigh's glitching out, making his underwear seem like it's floating.
Only for a couple of seconds, though! Ket squeals again and scrambles to get back under cover, maybe hitting Sir Floorhugger on the head with the sheet if he doesn't dodge. ]
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well
he's been called worse.
at least it's not facehugger. ]no subject
Aaaaaand the game's glitching out. Wonderful. He dodges the sheet unconsciously. ]
We're inside ViViD, which is a virtual reality game. Which is itself inside another virtual reality, and nobody knows how deep the rabbit hole goes. So none of this is real, but it definitely isn't a dream.
Also, in that folder over there, you'll find a final exam for a class you never attended, and you're already late. All of your teeth are coming loose, and there's a crocodile about to eat you.
[ He starts to unzip and emerge from his sleeping bag, because he wasn't kidding about that last part. ]
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Sir [ Floorhugger ], are you okay? [ He waves his fingerless hand, cold forgotten. Oh, that reminds him: ]
These aren't teeth.
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And the crocodile glitches out just as this kid turns around. What are the odds? But this is actually just fine with him, because an absence of crocodile means he doesn't have to leave his nice, comfy sleeping bag. He slides back inside it. ]
Hm?
[ Also just fine with him is the fact that this kid seems to be extremely literal-minded. Not only that, but fresh meat, who apparently missed the whole Powerpoint presentation. He makes a show of looking at the boy's hand, inspecting it thoughtfully. After a pause: ]
No. Those aren't teeth. They also aren't fingers. And those...
[ Now he shifts his gaze, to the boxers. ]
...aren't trousers. [ Heh. ] Do people not wear clothes, where you're from?
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While he's thinking about clothes, or lack thereof, the boxers will glitch into a tutu. And the bedsheet disappears completely, reminding Ket that cold is a thing. He yelps – not quite a squeal, this time – and wraps his arms around himself, his fingers still not reappearing. How come he feels the cold but not the lack of fingers, anyway? ]
Hey, sir. Can we share? [ Yes, Floor-sir, he wants to share your one-man sleeping bag. Please be nice. ]
1/2
(Empress, he adores you, but you make him crazy sometimes.)
Thus his first impulse is to blast this Normal kid out of sleeping bag hopping range, or just teleport himself somewhere quieter. But then he remembers, belatedly, that most people brought to this place aren't Normals in any sense of the word. They aren't espers either, but...
...
Tch. ]
No.
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You can have it!
[ A beat. ]
Well — for as long as it exists, anyway.
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You can Shift? [ And now he's looking at the sir with wonder, the name 'Floorhugger' forgotten. ] I mean, of course you can. [ It's his dream. His ViViD-dream, whatever. His imagination. He smiles, a little wistful, saying more to himself than to the sir: ] You don't have to hide here.
[ Outfit glitches are just another fun dream thing, but Shifting is Ket's power, and he's never met anyone else who can do it before. Len's a healer, not a Shifter, and she's already resigned herself to being a weapon – something Ket refuses to be. He shows his Shifting to his squad now, sure, but he'll never not feel uneasy ignoring Uncle Yossen's warnings: 'Don't do what others can't do. You're a freak, kid, but you can pass off as normal if you're smart enough.'
BUT ANYWAY. This isn't real, and even if it was, Sir Floorhugger (yep, it's back) would be awesome either way. So Ket'll just grin, reminiscing forgotten. Back to fanboying. Yep, that easy. ]
1/3
I call it "teleportation," but yes. I can.
[ He's silent for a moment, simultaneously uncomfortable with the kid's obvious adulation, and understanding that kids like him need to be around people with similar abilities. "Freaks" want nothing more than for their abilities to be seen as... as Normal.
Finally he says, brightly: ]
Heh. Who's hiding?
[ He sweeps his shoulders back and stuffs his hands into his pockets... ]
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He folds his arms and scowls and contemplates logging out. But all that's waiting for him on the other side is wet socks and rotting alien stench. GEH. ]
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Tele... port... 'teleportation', yeah? [ Laughing at people isn't nice. Ket knows that, so he's trying to stifle it. (And failing miserably, but it's the thought that counts. Right?!) ]
That makes sense! I think. Like a telelinker, but for, uh... [ Ports? Yeah, no, doesn't make sense. (Telelinkers are phones, by the way.) ]
1/2
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this keeps getting worse
Y- [ No wait he's got this HE'S GOT THIS. ] Is this a trick question? 'cause, uh. [ No, wait for it, he's got this. Really. ] That wasn't sarcasm. It can't have been sarcasm. It was too forceful to be sarcasm...
[ And hey, he's stopped laughing! Now he's resting his chin on his (still-fingered) hand, deep in thought, tutu billowing in the wind. ]