⬣//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

[legendofthelion]

I'll take another if you're offering. [She waves her hand with a limp wrist, not lifting her head.] Actually, even if you're not, I have after another. I can afford ten anothers!

[alchemicalbirth]

Yes and maybe fall down while you're at it as well.

[ ... ]

I will let the bartender know you're finished for tonight.

[ Though, letting such indulgences continue would be one way to figure out if someone could keel over from acute alcohol intoxication in-game. ]

[legendofthelion]

[Finally she looks up, just to give Albedo an expression of offense.]

Two beers isn't even enough to get tipsy! [She's just full of despair. Existential despair, which maybe also does not mix well with alcohol.]

[alchemicalbirth]

If you recall, these bodies aren't even our own, even if they, in some cases, may bear similarities to our original ones. Even so, tolerance isn't always a sign you are able to evade potential risks to your health from a certain amount of alcohol consumption.

[ Albedo seems unaffected by a facial expression of offense directed towards him, for better or worse. ]

Hence, two entire bottles of beer sound like enough.

[ Looking at the bartender, he boldly and quietly makes sure to emphasize to indicate she has had 'enough'. Mental state does indeed play a part in it. Either way, they are firmly in these bodies right now...Albedo seems to be taking this seriously. ]

[legendofthelion]

Ugh. [Dehya smacks her forehead on the table.] You can't be handling things this easily.

[alchemicalbirth]

[ Easily...

Albedo likes to imagine that he is, actually. He's not overindulging in drinking, for example. ]

Some simply handle certain situations differently from others.

It's a fact of life.

[legendofthelion]

And you're going to judge mine? [She scoffs, though it's without any heat.] So why did you come in here if not to drink?

[alchemicalbirth]

What is there to judge? A response such as yours is simply human.

[ That reply is an answer in of itself. ]

...I considered indulging. I don't believe myself to be a frequent drinker, but I have partaken before.

[ Though, it seems his mind has changed, given that he has not ordered anything. ]

[legendofthelion]

[To be human is to be judged. But his calmness does mollify her a little, bit by bit, if only because it doesn't stoke the fires.

She slowly pushes the half-full beer mug across the table.] You can finish mine. I don't want it anymore.

[The mood's ruined. Not that it was a great mood to begin with.]

[alchemicalbirth]

[ At least it does to someone... ]

I'm afraid beer isn't my drink of choice.

Would you like to head out of the bar, or chat about our situation?

[ Albedo isn't the most conventional of listeners (edging towards a certain degree of awkwardness), but maybe that in of itself can be a distraction, even to himself, he supposes. ]

[legendofthelion]

[Dehya snorts. Virtual beer goes to waste, then.]

I guess I don't have any reason to stay if I'm not drinking. [She doesn't know if she'd get kicked out for being a loiterer and she's not about to find out.

The chair creeks as she pushes it out to stand.]

[alchemicalbirth]

Not at all.

[ When Dehya suddenly stands, Albedo is paying close attention if she might have some difficulty walking straight? Not that he thinks he'd be able to do much should she topple. She's kinda on the very tall side. ]

Coincidentally, I don't either. So, we may as well make our way back to our respective guilds.

[ He will go to the door of the bar, and keep it open. ]

[legendofthelion]

[She walks fine! Even in those heels. There's a mumbled thanks as she walks out the door, taking a deep breath of the air outside.

She looks aside at Albedo.] You, uh... you got anyone taking care of you in real life?

[alchemicalbirth]

[ He is out when he is startled at the question, in the sense that his expression doesn't change, and there is a moment of silence. ]

...I'd like to imagine so.

[ Albedo casts his gaze away from her. He believes he knows the answer well enough. But keeping it like that, uncertain either way but potentially sounding hopeful will ensure the illusion holds. ]

Yourself?

[legendofthelion]

[Her smile is a bit thin.] I'd like to imagine so.

[It's not that she's alone, but she's been always a rock of her own. Hani had asked after some personal information at one point and they are Kara's roommate anyway, but being stuck in the game as well--can she be sure anyone would find her in time?

Distantly, she wonders what her Dad would think if he heard. If he'd even hear about it at all. They haven't talked in years.]

There's no way they can cover up all of us being in comas, right?

[alchemicalbirth]

[ Well, as any kind of answers Albedo might have anticipated, it's certainly not this one. The blond blinks again, quieted at that, which matches his own.

Albedo lets out a sigh of his own. He doesn't know anyone here, but all the same, it isn't like he was in a public area when this occurred.

He doesn't want to think about it, because even for him, the worst case scenario feels laughably inconceivable even if it is most likely. So, after that moment of silence, for once Albedo lets out another sigh right after the previous one. ]

We have no idea what else they're capable of, correct?

[legendofthelion]

Guess not. But the real world can't be completely in their control like their game world is. So I can't believe that there won't be someone in the outside looking into this while we find our way out from the inside.

[It feels conspiratorial in an unreal way. They'll have no method to prove it until they get out, but--she can't accept that they're totally helpless, at the mercy of some larger force.]

[alchemicalbirth]

[ It truly does. Albedo has always theorized that there was some kind of large, unfathomable agenda that this company would make strides in perpetuating unto them at some point, but this is beyond his imagination.

As for whether he personally thinks they're helpless or not...he hasn't actually decided. He's just focusing on what he's doing, without knowing for certain that he will like the result at the end of it. ]

I do imagine that there are others who are looking into the situation. However, at the same time, I can just as easily picture the company doing whatever is in their power to make themselves a hinderance in a myriad ways.

Due to that, it may be simply up to us to free ourselves at all.

[ If there is anything left of them to return to. ]

[legendofthelion]

Well, I didn't think we'd sit around doing nothing... [But the idea of CCCorp having that much power is disconcerting.] But you're right. After everything else that happened there's no way they're going to fess up so easily. They haven't even acknowledged us directly.

[There's no way they can't program a message into the game. Dehya has to believe they've been abandoned by the company on purpose. Probably even trapped on purpose.]

[alchemicalbirth]

[ Albedo gives a short nod. Whatever the kind of playerbase this is, nobody would certainly wait for the worst to come upon them.

It's a matter of how far their efforts might get them, though. ]

I would prefer to be more confident enough to say that their hubris will be instrumental in being a hinderance to their plans, but I will hold off on that a bit longer. There are other aspects that could potentially do that well enough.

[ Yeah...Albedo definitely is certain this trap isn't exactly coincidental given the timing of everything. ]

[legendofthelion]

[Dehya tips her head.] Other aspects?

[alchemicalbirth]

They may act foolish or outlandish, but those 'other aspects' I mean to suggest is the evidence that indicates their sophistication does not end at the level of intelligence required on their part to successfully produce a game like this.

The fact we remain in this situation and have not been immediately let go is proof of this. Typically when people are held hostage, you would anticipate that their loved ones would work as hard as they can to free them. But even their efforts are limited, when they don't know who their kidnappers are, or even that they have been kidnapped at all.

Therefore, as long as CC Corp is careful in how they proceed, it will not be carelessness or arrogance that is their immediate swan song.

[ Ergo, Albedo simply means they can't also rely on CC Corp to slip up. Which he indicates that he'd prefer to be the case. ]