![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
⬣//GROWING WILDLY OUT OF CONTROL.
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.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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
no subject
With the order for him to cease, he makes direct eye contact with Hien and, gaze unwavering, places another sign. ]
no subject
Though he definitely gets more annoyed when Fandaniel just stares at him and makes another blasted stop sign. Hello?!?!? ]
no subject
To Hien, he pauses and blows the head admin a kiss, Mwah. ]
I can do this all day and all night, Hien.
no subject
Then he just starts wrecking the signs at a slightly faster pace. AAAAAAAAAAAA ]
Did you do this in every root town?
[ He swears. If he did... ]
no subject
Hmm, did I? [ Fandaniel offers Hien a less than innocent smirk. ] Maaaaybe.
[ Down goes another sign, then one more. ]
no subject
Hien just keeps smashing the signs over and over. His arm will get tired eventually, but not now. ]
I should just throw you in the room.
[ The jail room, so that he can at least hack them away without Fandaniel making more!! ]
no subject
Can you even do that if I'm here in my little bubble?
[ More signs, more! He keeps producing more signs and setting them down, then stepping out a set amount of space to put down the next. It would seem they have a distance requirement, at least, so he has to chance entering the areas that Hien is working on thwacking away at. ]
no subject
[ So then why does he destroy them one by one with his weapon instead of just deleting all these with admin privileges?
... ]
People sleep in the guilds now. I don't wanna see anyone sleeping outside unless they're camping.
no subject
[ Besides, if enough of them team up, they would clear these signs in no time. Think of it as another community building project, although that's a jest Fandaniel doesn't mention aloud. It was bad enough when he decided to make everyone breakfast.
So more signs, more! So many more! ]
If you want them gone now, then you'll have to do better than that, dear admin-sama!
no subject
He looks just as he did when Fandaniel called him that the first time. ]
Don't call me that.
[ He frowns, pausing the sign destruction for a moment before resuming. ]
no subject
But that's who you are, yes? Which begs the question... why are you doing this one by one? Can you not wipe them all out?
no subject
Mac Anu doesn't have PvP enabled.
no subject
[ Use your admin powers, admin. Otherwise, Fandaniel continues to produce signs from his inventory and plonks them back down. Ugh, his arm is beginning to tire of this, but how can he possibly give up first? ]
no subject
... You never went to that place.
[ Though it sounds a little like a question as if Hien isn't sure about what he's saying. ]
no subject
[ What? Fandaniel pauses in the sign placement, head tilting slightly to the side, curious, confused. So is that what...? ]
Are you certain?
no subject
Well.
Fuck.
Not once, but at least twice. Amazing. The third time was a little special, since it wasn't directly to the same punishment room. ]
... Forget it.
[ The smashing intensifies. ]
no subject
[ For whatever reason, Fandaniel sounds as though he finds that funny. It is, truly. To forget all of that, their first meeting, honestly, how rude, but why should he expect anything more from Hien?
Another sign goes down, pushing the barrier out again, but only the one. Is he taunting Hien to come closer by slowing down the placement? Hmm. ]
no subject
[ Instead of sounding just annoyed, he growls this one out just barely short of a snarl. It looks like Hien is aware that he's losing things little by little, and that's what frustrates him.
He picks up the pace in destroying the signs. ]
no subject
Ah, though you are such a miserable beast. T'would only be an improvement for you to forget that.
[ On that note, Fandaniel finally takes pity on the poor man. He stops setting out signs and, instead, waits. Only one more sign stands between himself and Hien in that bubble of protection. ]
no subject
[ He finally smashes the last stop sign with his staff and goes over to Fandaniel. ]
—they're my experiences. They make me who I am. Whether I love or hate myself is irrelevant. It's who "Hien" is and I wouldn't want it forcibly changed for the "sake of a better personality".
[ He grabs Fandaniel by the collar. ]
So don't call it an "improvement". It's "deterioration".
no subject
Then please deteriorate as quickly as you can, NoName. Maybe the next person you become will be more willing to live their life.
cw suicidal ideation
cw: suicidal ideation
Should I say the same for you? Giving up when you couldn't find ways to help, and therefore it's not worth living in this world? Maybe it's good that your family is dead so they wouldn't have to see how much of a coward you became.cw attempting violence but the pvp is turned off qq
Maybe it's good that his family is dead.
Logically, yes, maybe it is. The real world is wretched. It doesn't want to be saved. Logic, however, has nothing to do with how all that pent-up hate Fandaniel has bubbled over at last, hearing those words, from this man, who's given up as well. The audacity. The hypocrisy! How dare he even speak at all?!
He won't say any of that, though. Instead, after a blank moment where he merely stares at Hien, his expression twists, torn with anger, and he throws himself at the other man, seeking to tackle him to the ground, barely short of screaming, ]
Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Shut your pathetic, useless face and do us all a favor and die!
[ If he does get Hien to the ground, he's definitely going to go for a handful of hair so he can bash his head against the cobblestone street. PVP isn't enabled, though, and so even that will likely be for naught, all wasted effort in a fit of rage. ]
cw suicidal ideation
"See? This is why you're so clumsy. You try to take something and hold it close to your heart, but you always end up breaking it every single time. No wonder people don't want to give it to you anymore. You'd just break it like the clumsy child you are. So keep breaking them, just like the aspirations and dreams you had once upon a time, a long time ago."
No one laughs with him, but Hien finds himself laughing a little. ]
cw: suicidal ideation
Then why don't you kill me yourself? That's what you want, isn't it? Then do it. Kill me then. Then at least you'd have the guts to actually follow up on something compared to everything else you disappointed.cw suicidal ideation continues
Oh, you would like that, wouldn't you? [ He leans down, his own grinning face close to Hien's. ] No. Oh, do not get me wrong. How I wish to rip that smugness off your pretty little face for what you did... betraying my trust... but why should I kill you myself when you're already dying in a way?
[ Another laugh, quieter this time, and he draws back. He finally lets go of Hien's hair and merely sits back, straddling his lap to keep him pinned down for the time being, although, after that many dashes to the skull, he doesn't think he'd get up anyway. ]
I will watch who you were fade away instead. If I find the outcome favorable, then I will ask to fade away, too, and become someone else, someone who can be happy, and then, maybe, we will both be someone each other can trust, hmm?
[ Let them both die. Let someone new rise in their ashes. Let them live new lives here, in this place. Why not? Why the hell not? It's insane. He isn't unaware but he's stopped caring, he stopped caring back when he first resolved to kill himself, one way or another, not so long ago. ]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)