⬣//GROWING WILDLY OUT OF CONTROL.

[cccorp]

>>Gathering // >>Waiting // >>Can't Return // >>It's Real

⬣//STERILE WHITE WALLS

September 23rd—conference day. In the hours preceding the meeting, beta testers are supplied with information on how to access the virtual conference room and offered a set of conduct guidelines. Testers are urged to read them thoroughly and instructed to sign their name on the bottom of the page to confirm that they’ve read and understand the following guidelines:

1. All questions will be addressed. Do not interrupt speakers or other beta testers when they are asking questions or having their questions answered.

2. Conduct yourself professionally and appropriately. Do not curse, shout, or otherwise engage in disruptive behavior. Violators will be muted and their speaking privileges revoked.

3. No eating or drinking. Keep your virtual space clean and free of debris.

4. Remain seated. Excessive movement or inappropriate behavior will result in restriction of your avatar’s movements.

5. PvP is disabled in the conference room. Weapons cannot be drawn and your Fragment inventory is unavailable during the duration of the conference.

Players are generously allowed one hour to filter in and find their seats, review the guidelines, and discuss the questions they’ve prepared with their fellow beta testers.

⬣//THE LOW RUMBLE OF DISTANT THUNDER

One hour comes and goes. The room remains occupied only by the beta participants, CyberConnect Corporation’s flashy logo spinning idly on the conference room’s 80 inch display. Restlessness begins to settle in, idle chatter turning to frustration as one hour becomes two. Still, no one from the Corporation shows.

The conference room remains devoid of purpose, some forty-odd people sitting alone in a sterile conference room, a locked room, should anyone grow so restless they try to leave. Any attempts made to break doors and windows will fail.

The door is locked, as are the windows, the world beyond their stark white blinds a slurry of purple and black. Thunder crackles in that dark, endless void. Even if you could leave, where would you go?

⬣//TORRENTIAL RAINS

It’s painfully evident after three hours of silence that no one from CyberConnect is showing up to the conference, but you knew that already, didn’t you? This mandatory meeting was fishy from the start, some would argue, while others may yet hold out hope.

That ends the instant anyone tries to log out and leave. Everyone who attempts to leave will be met with the same error Shoka was some weeks ago, but this time, the error is permanent. This time, there is no connection between mind and body anymore, and any attempt to “reach” your real self will fail.

You feel no one on the other end. You no longer feel the weight of your headset on your head or the keyboard beneath your fingertips. All your worldly aches and pains have drifted away only to find you here in your new reality, every sensation so real that Fragment no longer feels like just a game. Fragment is reality.

Three hours pass from the start of the conference. The boring white walls and rickety office chairs shudder and shake and give way to the Mac Anu everyone knows. You’re back where you started, more or less. What you do from here is up to you.

⬣//LOST TO THE TUMULT AND BEDLAM

Some menus remain online. Players retain the ability to send and receive friend and party requests, access their inventories, spells, and weapons, and so on, but a few notable items are missing.

Players can no longer toggle their pain sensors on and off. Every blow you take is one you’re forced to suffer through, and what’s more, your health no longer automatically regenerates when idle. You’d better keep a stash of potions or a pocket healer handy.

While you’re at it, try not to die. The sharp-eyed among the group may notice that the respawn information nestled in the menus is no longer accessible to them. The respawn counter now reads as a series of zeros instead of the typical 20 minutes. Now is probably not the best time to continue testing Fragment’s death mechanics, but nothing’s stopping you from trying. No one’s going to save you, either.

Good luck, players. The real test has begun.

>>Navigation

Comments

[threatmewted]

A. Aftermath

[Immediately after her announcement, Shoka goes to survey her new room with the guild and get it set up with the excess materials she's been sitting on. It's only once she's deemed it suitably livable that she finally ventures out into the rest of the World to see what exactly they're dealing with now that their lives have been completely upended for the foreseeable future.

Thus, her first order of the day is securing potions from the markets, before heading over to the chaos gate and tapping her way through random keywords.]

C'mon, where are all the low-level fields when you need 'em?

[She has some gathering to do, dammit.]

B. Better Than Nothing

[After gathering from hunting down monsters and locating flora, she can be found in the various root towns... fishing.

She looks bored out of her mind, and those who have talked to her while fishing before will probably know by now that she hates fishing and finds it boring as hell, but well.

Continued survival didn't depend on it back then, now did it?]

C. Cat of the Night

[And once evening hits, Shoka... is much harder to find, actually. Not because she's retired to her room, but rather because she's on a rooftop in Mac Anu that requires a fair amount of climbing to reach.

That said, if your character still manages to spot her and get to her, she may not even notice. Her knees are drawn up and she's currently got her head buried in them, so. You know. Things are going great in Shokatown apparently.]

D. Wildcard!

[Either hit me up on discord or plurk or her plotting post here!]

b;

[sicklysweet]

Catch anything good?

[Hello, asshole's here. He's not doing any fishing of his own, but he's watching Shoka and looks just as bored as she does.

Having to gather their own things... sucks...]

[threatmewted]

Surprisingly? Yes. Shame it takes so frickin' long between casts, though.

[Gathering their own things sucks SO much.]

[sicklysweet]

How long have you just been standing here? You know you can get food from the area explores, right?

[That would be way less boring.]

[threatmewted]

Yeah, but certain dishes and potions need certain fish. And those have actual utility on fields, too.

aftermath

[secondthoughts]

Yeah, I don't think we want to risk our actual lives getting ingredients.

[ Hector steps up beside Shoka, eyeing her as she flips through keywords. ]

I need to do some gathering, too. Need a buddy?

[threatmewted]

Somehow, I think I'll survive. But if you want a guard, I guess I've got room in my party.

[secondthoughts]

[ Hector chuckles at that. ]

Survive, sure. But better neither of us get hurt at all.

[ He gestures to the gate. ]

Lead the way.

[threatmewted]

[She'll send him an invite and return to scrolling through the possible fields.]

Found a level 30 one. We should be able to handle that.

c

[dissimulative]

[ Oria is not a night owl. He's not an early bird either. However, he decided to take it up to do his physical activity at night when less people are around. "Night", because Mac Anu is in a perpetual state of sunset. He heard it's like living in Alaska at certain periods of the year--either constant sun up in the sky or constant darkness.

But he eventually finds Shoka on a rooftop that he eventually lands on while practicing his parkour. It sucks that he doesn't have his in-line skates, but he'll make do. ]

Swallow?

[ He quietly walks up to her. ]

Hey, what's wrong?

[threatmewted]

[She only snaps her head up when he actually speaks to her, looking - a mix of annoyed and embarrassed at being caught.]

...Nothin'.

What the heck are you doing up here?

[dissimulative]

Taking part in my hobby of jumping from building to building.

[ He promises he's not being sarcastic. ]

If you don't wanna talk about it, you can just say so instead of trying to lie, you know. That curled up position was definitely not a "everything is peachy" posture.

[ But he offers her the game recipe tea, herbal and creamy, as something like a peace offering. ]

[threatmewted]

Oh, right. Because it's totally possible for everything to be just peachy when we've all been trapped in a game that can kill us.

[She is absolutely being sarcastic. Still, after a beat, she slowly reaches out to accept the tea.]

A/wildcard-ish

[trashtier]

[While Shoka is getting herself settled in, she might bump into Levi again as he returns to decompress and wait for Barrett.]

Oh...hey. Welcome, and all that.

[While he has a good reason for being unenthusiastic right now, one might get the sense that he wouldn't be any better at this even under normal circumstances.]

If there's anything you need, we...might have it lying around.

[threatmewted]

[Almost immediately:]

I'm a gatherer too. I've got my own stuff.

[And then a beat, before:]

...Thanks, though.

[trashtier]

[Oof. He flinches hard, and internally questions himself why he even bothers trying when this is all he gets for it.

He's about to apologize for disturbing her so he can scurry to his private room with his serpent tail tucked between his legs, but he's thrown off by the sudden gratitude.]

H-Huh? Oh. Y...Yeah, no problem. I just figured it was the least I could do since Barrett's not back yet.

[As much as Levi wants to try, he knows his brother is way, way better at handling people. And stress. And people-induced stress. It's hard to not feel a little useless in the face of everything going on.]

[threatmewted]

Where'd he run off to, anyway?

aftermath

[insinning]

[ Guess who is going in on a dungeon run on his own]

Do you think they're scaling themselves to our level now?

[threatmewted]

They better not be! What the hell, CC Corp?!

[insinning]

Maybe we can try a dungeon we've already been in before.

[Hmm. Hmmmmmm. Checking the randomiser too]

[threatmewted]

I don't remember any of those keyword combinations.

[For some reason, she didn't think it would be necessary.]

A

[knightofratatosk]

... how low-level are you looking for?

[You know. Because he's... still really low-level, but hey, if he can help, then why not?]

[threatmewted]

Anything low-level. I'm maxed out, so I'd probably one hit KO just about anything if it's weak enough.

[knightofratatosk]

Oh.

[Well, that's a little embarrassing, but...]

Then, um... would you mind if I came along too? I'm still pretty low-level, so it'd probably be a lot safer for me to go with someone else, but I might still be able to help out... a little.

[threatmewted]

Oh. Yeah, sure, that's fine. Heck, I can probably just kill them for you so you can get the EXP.