VR gamer IC

[fawcettp]

OOC link - http://roleplayerguild.com/showthread.php?t=158390

Jacob walked beside the other contestants as they were led through the building, by a young pretty brunet woman wearing a black dress with a lab coat over it, as they walked they wold stop at viewing windows to look into the developmental laboratories. At each stop the young woman would explain the scene beyond, “this room holds the microchip development and analysis systems… we are working on a way to nearly triple the power of any pre-existing microprocessor… but it is still a few months from practical testing” she said with a smile as they looked into one of the rooms through the glass viewing window, she would than move onwards through the complex to the next area.

After about an hour of walked around the complex Jacob was beginning to get tired of all the talking, “um… miss… where is this game?... I thought we were here to test some new game not walk around a laboratory” he asked their guide. Their guide smiled at him and then turned to walk away, “yes… we were just about to get there actually” she said as she moved over to a door at the end of the hallway, as she reached the door she swiped an ID card through the scanner and the door alarm deactivated with a loud beeping noise; followed quickly by the door sliding to the side, she smiled once more and waved them inside “this way please” she said indicating they should enter.

Jacob moved with the others through the doorway into a new room, this room unlike the others had no viewing window, as he entered the room he looked around trying to see everything within it. The first thing he noticed was the fact that all the surfaces within the room were a clear crisp white colour, and that standing in the middle of the room in a star formation was 5 egg shaped devices about the size of a human being. Their guide walked over to one of the devices and touched the surface lightly, “and lastly I would like for each of you to see… and yes experience... possibly our greatest invention of all… the virtual reality gaming system… or VRGS for short” she said, as she touched its surface a small 12” screen appeared on its surface.

She looked at each of them before giving further instructions, “though the science behind it is extraordinarily complex the actual use of these machines is relatively easy… your primary access is through this interface… you simple input your character design through the touch screen… and then enter the pod” she said. To demonstrate this she asked for a volunteer to step forwards, Jacob took the chance first and stepped up beside the woman, “so… what do we do” he asked, she turned back to the screen and asked a couple of simple questions; “its simple really, you just need to build your avatar like every other online RPG… you must choose a race, class and all the other details about their appearance” she said looking at the screen “so… say I wanted a human berserker… I would pick human from the races and then berserker from the classes” she said demonstrating to them; as she did so a simple avatar appeared on the screen that depicted her chosen character. She turned to each of the others before indicating the other pods, “if you would each choose a pod and build your characters… we can then begin the game” she said.

After she had said her piece to the others she turned back to Jacob, “would you like to use this character… or build your own” she asked, Jacob thought about it for a second before answering “I prefer magic over melee” he said “so I think I will build my own” he finished saying as he started looking through the races and characters. After about a minute he had made a quickly built character of a human mage and named it Din-Hor, after it was made he turned to ask the woman another question to find her standing slightly off to the side, “miss… I’ve made mine… now how do we play it” he asked. The woman turned to the wall beside the door and typed on a screen which was hanging there, as she did so the sides of the egg shaped pods began to rotate upwards revealing the interior space large enough for a human to lay in (see image at bottom), “in order to play your characters you just built… you only need to lay down inside them, place the small head band on and close your eyes… once the doors are closed again the machine will read your brainwaves in order to control the characters… it will also send impulses to the head band which will result in images and sensations forming in your mind” she explained.

After only a second of thinking Jacob nearly jumped into the pod and slipped the band on his head, he laid down and closed his eyes allowing the system to start, as the machine started Jacob could hear a soft humming around him followed by what he thought was a tunnel of light. After the light had disappeared Jacob, or Din-hor as he was now known in this world, found himself standing in a strange room. His mind wanted to turn his head and look around and so his avatar did so, he spun around and looked at both the room he was in and his own body; he saw that he was standing within a gigantic cathedral lit by what he thought to be a thousand candles hovering just above the first story. The light of the candles was casting out to all corners and even reached high enough to light up the pictorial on the ceiling, and the giant stone support columns running around the edge of the room, and at the far end a set of two double story iron doors.

Din-hor laughed, “this is great” he said, as turned back to the main alter of the cathedral; as he stopped turning he noticed that their were several other ‘people’ there. Jacob thought about walking forwards, and the avatar moved forwards to stand next to them, as he moved Din-Hor was now able to see a series of five green star shaped crystals on the alter.

the pod

the cathedral

[Espiculeas]

Ryan looked around as they were lead on a small tour, with the ultimate destination being the game. Everyone around him was practically a kid, probably the oldest was half his age, kinda makes you feel old being around people who are only just finishing high school and going into college. He wasn't sure what kind of environment the game would center around, or if there would be any gaming tournaments for it, but he was pretty sure that if there was he would win. Experience and skill trumps everything after all, and Ryan had been playing games since before these guys were born, good games too. You just can't get bored with the classics.

They arrived at the gaming center, and it was amazingly. The technology in this room was years ahead of its time, he hadn't thought that he would live to see the day that VR gaming became real. The implications were just ... to much to consider. This could be used in the military, to communicate with comatose patients, so much more, and here it was before Ryan and 4 others of the best gamers in the world, they were test subjects most likely, but Ryan was happy to be a test subject, as long as he was one of the first for this amazing moment.

He listened as the others talked, of course he had already guessed at how the system worked, he quickly skimmed through the options and made his choice, his character was unique he believed, and its race had natural abilities that he wanted. He would now become Slar.

It was like being a child exposed to a new toy, that amazing sensation which he felt once more. His family would never understand the gaming world, or those who lived in it. He heard the woman say the last few words about the machine and he hopped in, trying to imagine his character and what it would be like, and of course how it would act. The movements would be different, possibly hard to adjust to. Who had 4 arms after all? Well all the better to kill with, so Ryan slipped the headband over and closed his eyes. He heard the machine close its doors and then felt the most amazing thing ever.

It was like being tugged from your body and put into another, without moving. He could feel a slight jerk and then as the machine fully integrated with him, he felt himself fall, straight into the waiting Slar. He noticed his environment quickly, and the others around him, however he had no time to pay attention to them. He made Slar do martial art warm-ups, trying to fully sync with Slar and understand the movements he would control. It took a few moments to figure out how Slar worked, but after those few moments Ryan knew exactly how he could kill. He pulled out his weapons and experimented with them, and after a few more moments he was done.

He looked around once more and took note of the others. There were 2 dwarves, a human and an elf, interesting choice. The Elf would be able to shoot him if he was seen, so in a battle against her he would have to remain unseen and kill her before she could kill him, the human seemed to be a mage, so the same applied to it, kill before it killed you. There were also a fighter dwarf and a assassin dwarf, he might be able to take those on in a one on one fight without sneaking around.

The blue color of the room was interesting, making his first environment almost surreal, plenty of places to hide and fight, except he was probably jumping the gun. He didn't think that they would be fighting against each other, most likely it would be a work together, learn weaknesses, then fight if it came down to it. He had Slar move back, closer to the shadows to watch although still staying near the others.

[antibiojoe]

Arthur lay down in the pod and felt the sensation of weightlessness which he had felt only once before. He felt a chill run up his spine and a sudden coldness which engulfed his body. His left leg started to twitch. He felt as though he was being squashed to fit his new shape. Damn, she told me there would be problems if I chose a female character.Arthur's legs & arms had lengthened by about three inches and his ears had elongated. He tried to look at his feet but was confronted by two breasts.

Kylia examined her surroundings, she was in a dim, blue-lit cathedral with two dwarves and a human, out of the corner of her eye she saw a metallic shimmer. She drew her bow and ducked behind one of the pews.

[Hueyblade]

Paul approached the egg shaped pod and tapped the side of it. When the touch screen appeared he started tapping at the different features. All the races made Paul giddy with excitement. Then he remembered an old character he had back in high school when he was obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. He picked dwarf, gave him long black hair, a long black beard, and sleeve tattoos. He chose the stealth class assassin, his starting abilities, and favored weapons. Then finally a single word over a empty space popped up all alone on the screen. The word said ‘NAME’. Paul smiled remembering again his D&D character and typed in “Jethro the Deft”. He jumped into the pod, placed the ring on his head, and then pushed the button to close the doors. Once the doors closed the feeling of something pulling at the very fabric of Paul’s being shoved him into the body of Jethro.

Jethro looked around to find himself in the center on a grand cathedral that seemed to give off a sort of blue hue despite all the dim candle light. In one corner of the room was the rest of the players. Another dwarf, a human, and an elf. When he saw the elf he walked up to her. He looked her up and down then lost himself in laughter. “I can not believe one of you daft fools chose a female.” Then all of a sudden the elf drew her bow and notched and arrow. “Woah lass, I didn’t mean to offend.” He said then noticed it wasn’t aimed at him. He turned and saw a flicker of something. “Think, you ditzy elf. There was five of us, but there is only four here.” He gestured to the group. “That’s probably one of them Krian’s.” He faced where the elf had her arrow pointed. “Come on out you sissy. We aint gonna hurt you. Unless you want us to.” He lifted his chin confidently.

[antibiojoe]

Kylia lifted the middle finger of her right hand and shoved it straight into the dwarf's face.
"I love this game, I can do all the things I want to. I'll bet you didn't choose intelligence for one of your focus abilities, I however did. I chose a female to see what dialogue I get from the NPC's 'tis what I always do. I usually play through with a male character as well though. One more thing, you're Paul aren't you?"
She looked over to where she had seen the shimmer.

[Espiculeas]

Slar listened as the other players chatted with each other, they seemed to be ... the kind of party that got you killed along your journey, should he change that? It would be interesting. The fool was arrogant, and insulted his honor by calling him a sissy, a lesson would be needed.

Slar already knew where the two were looking, and it was in the wrong direction. Using the handy shadows, and big seats Slar was about the make his way behind the two, using three of his hands he picked the dwarf up, and with his final one he held one of his katar blades to the dwarfs throat. "Did I hear you correctly, do you wish to reconsider what you have said?"

[antibiojoe]

"I don't care if you kill him or not. You can do anything you want in this game."
Kylia stated while breaking off an arrowhead and throwing it into a pew.
"I honestly would prefer it if you didn't though, but simply taught him some manners."
Kylia said with a wink.

[Espiculeas]

"By manners I assume you mean throw him into some river and watch him drown?" Slar said, "Well he is an arrogant fool, and thats how you die in games such as this one. Killing him would only ruin the fun, would you like to see me juggle a dwarf?"

Good, the Elf was playing along, that was always a good thing. There should always be an elf archer in the party, they came in handy, actually everyone seemed like they would be useful, except this dwarf assassin. I mean, who puts a loud dwarf into the roll of an assassin anyway?

[fawcettp]

Din-hor stopped beside the elf and the dwarves, his new eyes taking in the main alter as he tried to ignore the brewing conflict around him, his human nature and natural magic intellect caused him to focus on the green star gems. As the others were talking, about teaching one of the dwarves a lesson, he turned to look away from the gems and at the others; “Oi… you lot… mind not killing each other” he said “I would rather start playing the game then killing each other… and besides at this level it’s not much fun” he finished with a smile on his face. He turned his hand slightly shaping it into an upturned claw, after a second a crackly rope of lightning descended from his hand to the ground, “and besides… this stuff is best at ranged… so I need someone to act as a meat shield” he laughed whipping his hand out causing the lightning rope to strike out and crack just off to the side; after it had cracked Din-hor cancelled the rope.

Din-hor turned back to the gems, “I think we are meant to take these” he said reaching out to pick up one of the gems, as his hand made contact with it a strange vibration could be felt in it and it seemed to glow slightly. As he picked it up a voice could be heard aloud in the room, seeming to emanated from within the gem he held.

“welcome great heroes… to the land of ETERNAL… and this first ever Virtual Reality game” it spoke in the same voice of their female guide form the real world “now I would like to introduce several features to you about this world… but firstly… each will need to take one of the green star crystals… they will act as your interface, storage, and character controller” the voice sounded, “the green gems will also act as your lifeline… so you can enter and leave the world of eternal… and as a communicator” she finished speaking and waited for them to each take a crystal.

Jacob smiled, “simple… but elegant” he commented on the design “you heard the lady… pick up your gems” he said walking over to one of the pews and taking a seat on it. After he had sat down on the pew, still holding the gem in one hand, he touched its surface with the other. As he touched it’s surface, the gem projected a beam of light that formed into a screen floating just above its surface, the screen was a light see-through blue square which held the images of their character, a large bag, a scroll and lastly a door. Din-hor reached out to touch the character and the screen changed, it seemed to zoom in on the image and a series of ‘stats’ appeared next to the image as well as small details about their costume along with a small arrow allowing navigation. “not bad… its simple… yet enables us to access everything we need” he said as he filtered through the different screens.

[antibiojoe]

Kylia picked up one of the gems from the altar and examined it. "Oooh green!" she said fascinated by the object. She tapped a face of it and she appeared on the screen. She tapped herself and 'stats' appeared next to her. Her armor was also detailed here as were small arrows that led to the other parts of the device.