[IC] Brass Engine Online (VKAllen and Stern Algorithm 1x1)

[Stern Algorithm]

People aren't exactly sure when The Severing actually happened, the earliest it can be traced to is the timestamp of the first complaint submitted to a Game Moderator about being unable to log off. Of course, this complaint ticket was soon followed by several others, and as the GM's communicated with one another, realized that they had also lost their administrative privileges. Messages were sent out to all players to convene in the major cities so that announcements could be issued and to wait for updates.

In the main plaza of the Capitol and starter city, Platinum Springs, a Bulwark clumsily pushed its way through the throng of worried PC's to get a better view of the stage that had been set up. On the stage, the Bulwark could see a male strategist in a heated argument with the GM that was about to make the announcement. Eventually the GM brushed him off and proceeded to the podium.

The GM, Lord Orlios, began, "Thank you all for coming, I'm sure all of you are worried about the...logout bug. Right now, no one is able to logout, not even the GM's. No communication can be established with the real world. The GM's have been trying to contact the server techs but our GM privileges are...also bugging out. We hope this situation is temporary, but if this is causing you to...miss important appointments, we deeply apologize, and after this incident is over, please submit a formal complaint on the website, and hopefully Virtual World Gaming corporate leadership will compensate you appropriately. For the time being, all I can do is ask for you to be patient."

This announcement didn't tide over well with the crowd, a large number of which was beginning to panic, while some of the players remained optimistic.

[VKAllen]

The talk... Or rather-- Cry of the PCs gathering around Platinum Spring's famous national treasure was all about the Severing. Players all of sudden unable to log out out of their games turning one's regular teen life to that one of an anime. A lot of people were seated on benches crying and bystanders doing weird poses in their futile attempts at logging out. Perhaps out of everything else in their lives they wanted it back. Real life.

The Artificier's stiletto rocked the brass floor of the plaza amongst the sea of other users wailing and crying. Some had their fists solid as rocks. The arching stage was flaring in argument as a blonde-boy took arms against what looked like the game's admins. You've got to admit, you don't get see those GMs often. It felt way too much like an anime story. The outcome was indifferent-- The GM quickly stepped up and spoke to the waves. The Screen reads clearly; 'GM - Lord Orlios'.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure all of you are worried about the... Logout 'bug'." The crashing of waves began to resound quickly-- silenced by the voice of Lord Orlios as he continued. "Right now, no one is able to log out. Even the GMs." The wave continued to raise their voices to the powerless GM. "No communication can be established with the real world. The GMs... I... have been trying to contact the server techs but our GM privileges are... Also bugging out." The waters became still. Silent. Perhaps not having the brain capacity to comprehend what sort of bad situation they're in and how they don't have anyone to blame this at. "We hope this situation is temporary--" The crowd almost shot back into its rowdy state. Somehow they knew that this wasn't the case. "... but if this is causing you to... Miss important appointments, we deeply apologise. After this incident is over, please submit a formal complain on the website and hopefully Virtual World Gaming Corp Leadership will compensate you appropriately."

"They better well damn pay my rent!" The redhead threw her fist up into the air towards the GM. "Is your company so stupid that they forgot to include what every single other game has? A log out function?! Or are you guys simply drowning in our money that you just don't care anymore?!" Alas, those words would do nothing as Lord Orlios closed his little speech and he steps down from the podium lectern. "Goddamnit! I need to get out of this stupid game now!" She waved her interface open and proceeded to go straight for the log out button. She pushed the button once-- Nothing. Once more. Nil. As steam bursted from her nose and ears she furiously tapped on the button continuously. "LOG. ME. OUT!!"

A few minutes of fuming and eventually she gave up. People were still in panic and confusion. Some people began to stand up and leave the Plaza as fast as they could. "H-hey? Where are you guys going?" She said randomly confused that the people began to split themselves away.

[Stern Algorithm]

The Strategist who had been arguing with Lord Orlios ran to the podium and said to the thinning crowd, "I want to ask everyone to keep tabs on your party and guild members, and to report any changes to the GM's immediately," but he was largely ignored. "If anyone logs out, please let everyone know so that we can perhaps find a solution..."

He jumped down from the stage with a worried look on his face as the plaza emptied. He noticed, among a few other people, a Bulwark and an Artificer who still remained. He ran up to the Bulwark and asked, "You! Do you have a party?"

Surprised by the Strategist's sudden approach, the Bulwark replied while backing off slightly, "N-no, my friends didn't log on today..."

The Strategist left the Bulwark, headed towards the Artificer, and asked, "What about you?"

[VKAllen]

The crowd scattered disorderly around the plaza. She wondered what was going through their minds as they thought over the fact that they could not log out. Locked away inside a virtual reality world without contact of those in real life... That felt terrifying. People would be on their own with no one to trust.

"What about you?" Shouted a voice fro mbehind her. As the man reached her hand on her shoulder she let her face turn towards the blonde's face of slightly-annoyed expression.

"W-what?" The Artificier replied hap-hazardly. "Oh. You're that nutjob arguing with the GM earlier. What do you want?" She stationed her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

[Stern Algorithm]

The Strategist backed off a bit, not expecting this much aggression, but he gave the Artificer the benefit of the doubt; everyone was pretty high-strung at the moment. The name's Sartorius," the Strategist introduced himself, "Although I suppose you can tell," he shrugged, referring to the words that float above his head to anyone who was looking at him, "The GM's are mishandling the situation, when dealing with the unknown, we need data, instead of panicking, players need to cooperate and keep tabs on each other. If anyone manages to log out, we need to know why and how so that we can maybe let everyone else log out. We also don't know if this 'bug' has any other symptoms. I just wanted to know if you had a party that you could keep tabs on, or if any of your friends are on."

Meanwhile, the Bulwark, named AilanthusAltissima, wandered over, picking up on the conversation.

[VKAllen]

It's the first time that she'd seen a man back off from her bark. She cleared her throat, composing herself quickly to regain control over her mixed emotions about this entire... Issue. If it could be called one. "The name's Sartorius," The blonde man adjusted himself rather surgically with those fingers dancing on the collars as air cooled the tense situation. "Although I suppose you can tell," The words above their heads would quickly identify whomever a person was whenever you look at them. She wasn't slow to pick that up. Brixxy simply blew air to her forehead abruptly.

"The GM's are mishandling the situation. When dealing with the unknown, we need data instead of panicking. Players need to cooperate and keep tabs on each other." She had the urge to interrupt him. As her finger shot up to stop him the boy continued to speak. "If anyone manages to log out we need to know why and how so that we can maybe let everyone else log out. We also don't know if this 'bug' has any other symptoms. I just wanted to know if you had a party that you could keep tabs on, or if any of your friends are on." Brixxy froze.

"You really like to talk don't you Tori?" One of her eyebrows pointed up with her index finger still in the air. "First off, have you heard of diffusion of responsibility? No one is going to listen to you! People here are brats-- They only care for themselves! Besides, if you think someone actually does log out... How the hell are they going to tell us without logging back in?" She leaned slightly forward with one hand on her hips. "But to answer your question-- No. I don't have friends in the cyberworld. Only 'Cooperative Acquaintances' if you understand what I mean." She airquotes as she spoke the last sentence.

(I'd expect Tess to step in)

[Stern Algorithm]

"Well, we don't have to be like those people then," the Bulwark said, approaching the two, smiling. "You can call me 'Tess', my username's pretty dumb anyways. Even if other people won't, we can still cooperate with each other. It may not be much, but it's a start."

"But neither of you have people to keep tabs on so you can't really contribute..." Sartorius began.

"We can keep tabs on each other at least," Tess suggested, not hesitating to send both Sartorius and Brixxy friend requests.

[VKAllen]

"Well, we don't have to be like those people then," Brixxy's face turned towards the other girl near Sartorius. She had a sincere smile on her face-- A sweet warmth emanating like light parting the clouds and showering the fields with sun rays. "You can call me 'Tess', my username's pretty dumb anyways. Even if other people won't, we can still cooperate with each other. It may not be much, but it's a start." Brixxy straightened herself up idling as they came closer.

"But neither of you have people to keep tabs on so you can't really contribute..." The stormy clouds neighbouring the warm light, it thunders.

"We can keep tabs on each other at least," Her arms curled around herself and looked at them both. Can she really trust these people? Sartorius-- Decisive and en pointe as he may be shrouds himself with doubt and insecurity. Tess also seems genuine and kind. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt too much if she stuck around with them. Playing on her own wouldn't be a great journey either...

"I suppose you're right. Hi Tess. I'm bRIXXy. You can call me Rixxy." With that, she sent both parties a friend request. A gamer card that showed a profile picture of Brixxy with her name clearly written on the side with small details of her location and status. "I'm an Artificier."

[Stern Algorithm]

Tess accepted Rixxy's friend request, as did Sartorius. "I'm a Bulwark," Tess introduced. "Strategist..." Sartorius added, ""We wouldn't make the most efficient party, but it's workable."

"There is something I want to point out," Tess said, "Even though I said my friends didn't log on, they had told me that they would log on later. They should be on now. I don't mean to jump to conclusions, but since they're not on, I'm wondering if they've been locked out, similar to how we've been locked in."

"That possibility is certainly worth considering," Sartorius agreed. "But it would mean that if anyone manages to log out, there's no guarantee that they'd be able to log back in to let us know how they got out."

[VKAllen]

"Or none of them have tried any. It's a possibility." Rixxy shrugged her shoulders casually. The entire plaza had emptied themselves of users. "We should get going. I don't think any of us will be logging in or out anytime soon." She followed the empty crowd towards the gates. "Care to join me? We're sticking together right?"

[Stern Algorithm]

"Yeah!" Tess agreed. "Sure," Sartorius added, as they followed Rixxy.

---

Weeks passed, then months. As the crisis continued, people became more compliant with the GM's demands for information sharing. What started out as either anger or apathy quickly became a desperate concern. People realized that they had been logged in for days, indicating that something was keeping their real bodies alive. Others were not so lucky, as they slowly became weaker and weaker from hunger and dehydration, until their avatars suddenly vanished. It was easily assumed that their bodies had died, that whatever paramedics had been deployed to provide life support to the trapped players had not reached them in time. It also implied that they couldn't simply be 'unplugged', or people in the real world would have been unplugging everyone and in a matter of days everyone would have been freed. It was assumed that unplugging a player probably resulted in death. Nobody ever logged in either. Another new thing that happened as well was that damage sustained in the game became the sensation of real pain proportional to the amount of total health. And especially disconcerting was the fact that when an avatar died, it was extremely painful, and they didn't respawn. This last thing then, became the great unknown, what happened to the player when the avatar died? Did they get freed from the system, or did that cause them to die as well? Since there were never any new log ins, there was no way of knowing what was on the 'other side', what was going on in the 'real world'. A few groups of players had resorted to cultish, mass suicides in the hopes that they would be freed, but the GM's highly discouraged this. Eventually, what remained was a community of players that had decided to remain indefinitely until the situation was resolved on the other end, forming a microcosm community consisting of a central government ran by GM's, as well as some fringe elements.