Megathread - Link Start: The Outpost | Page 2

The first thing King did was ask questions, before crossing his arms and waiting for an answer. As he began to listen, someone barged into him, knocking off his balance momentarily while he put a foot forward as to not bump into Trinity. Though, luckily, he was ample suspicious enough as to keep his distance away from everybody. He quizzically looked back. A woman. Cat woman. Woman with cat features. "eh.-" he stared for a moment before shrugging it off. "Whatever. No biggie." The last thing a King did was get angry.

He missed out on the menu stuff, because he had already learned that and she hadn't been speaking about that option. No worries there. He listened to everything the girl had to say. He would be better off by knowing the information. Something that could happen in the future? "Say, thanks, Trinity. Do you have any advice for a building artisan, or any legends?" he wanted to be the first. He doubted it as this place definitely had many people come before him. But he would ask nonetheless. King would take the time while listening to her response to scan his surroundings. Was the cat girl there still? Was she back off into the crowd? Who knew.

King would mentally begin to plot down the next thing in his mind. What was next? He grinned to himself.

@Uma Kha

 

Was he actually human? Like a living, breathing person playing the game or an NPC? Nonchalant about her bumping into him, it had seemed strange. Uma would have expected a scripted action by an NPC at least, and this guy seemed to ignore her, even if he did look at her strangely for a few seconds. Her ears twitched as he looked her over. Was it the ears? Or the tail? Who went into a VRMMO and decided to play a boring human?

"Coolness." He hadn't seem the type to want a duel; what a relief. You never knew the type of trolls you get in gamer-space. She crossed her hands and looked a bit at the other girl with him, who seemed to have sprouted a whole lot of in-depth detail about the game. "Who are you again?" she asked the bubbly blue-haired girl. She seemed a bit out of it, even if she knew so much about Terrasphere. Feeling a bit unsettled, she rubbed her stripped cheek with her knuckles.

"Don't mind me butting in, but what kinds of organizations are there?" She'd kill for a thieves' guild. Maybe one in a major city with a nice lair, she could squat at, with no NPC none the wiser.

@Trinity "The Mascot Girl", @King

 

​

Trinity blinked a few times as both King and now another player asked her additional questions. It seemed like they did not want to figure anything out for themselves! That is what the fun of a adventure was, Did they not want to put any effort into it themselves? How lazy! Here were all the starting things they should need.

"My name's Trinity. I'm the Mascot Girl! I'm here to offer help but, only so much. Hahaha, I don't know if I know about that. Depends? Let's see, let's see...."

Trinity's smile continued to beam as she put her hands behind her back and cocked her head in innocent thought.

Nope! There was no way she could give them more information right now. It just would not be right. This was part of their learning experience. The NPC's here were getting lonely. These adventurers should interact more!

"Hmmm... I'm so sorry! I don't think I can help you with that! Just look around and you will discover the wonders of Terrasphere!"

She leaned forward and winked.

"What fun would the game be if you new EVERYTHING right at the start? I'll try and remember more for ya later! Welp, I think I have a hair appointment to attend to. Time to skedaddle. You guys have a good time, and remember to be the best you can be!"​

Trinity giggled and made a fist pump of reassurance to them before spinning around and leaving the outpost.​

@King @Uma Kha

 

When the young male figure trotted across the grassy field of the outskirts, the sound of flapping fabric filled the air as the bleach blonde figure moved over a hill, a tattered brown cloak fluttered about behind him, the pair of feline ears twitching, flicking back and forth for the enhanced hearing was amazing. "So this must be what is it like for cats to hear." "Can see why they would hate loud sounds." He said with a hearty chuckle, the gray feline slitted gems glimmered with a gleeful passion, the tall figure, however slightly more so due to him altering the size because he felt like he was always meant to be taller than he is, the cream like skin that was exposed peaked into the light of the summer sun.

His long locks, waist long began dancing behind him, with a sigh, he quickly placed his claymore at his feet, took a few strands of his long silky hair, and began to tie it around the loose portions, making it stay firmly in place for now he held a rather odd looking ponytail, but with jolt of his foot, carrying his blade upwards. Using the flat portion of his foot to send the blade upwards, his slender fingers curled about the leather scabbard, firmly gripping it, upon seeing the Outpost in the distance via his mini-map, he began slowly walking towards it, unsure of what to expect.

He was certain that games with different races where going to have some not liking the other, so with his tail wrapping around his waist the best it could, his ears folding down under the locks of hair, and him pulling his cloak over his head, he tried to hide his avatars race, just encase someone didn't like the Felis people. Upon reaching the gates, he saw several people talking to a NPC like figure, or another being, he wasn't sure, from the conversations he was overhearing, he couldn't tell who was real, and a computer program, which was exciting in of itself.

"So, it uses an Artificial Intelligence System to make all the NPC human like." "Must be some secret technology not yet ready." His mind pondered on the situation, taking a seat on a bench near the group of people, trying to get all the information he could while staying hidden, despite not being trained in it, he wanted to seem as inconspicuous as possible, either that or act like a NPC, he was good at doing so from some Hide & Seek games he made while using advanced VI system at his school.

And so far, no one seemed to glance at him, except for a NPC or two, but mainly they were children, young individuals with nothing better to do than stare at anything that caught their attention. "I have to be careful, I'm unsure of this worlds people towards my race." He simply pondered to himself, trying to not incline a conversation unless he needed while listening to the others talk to the helpful assistant over yonder.

 

When Seth came upon this new area he didn't know what to expect. To be quite honest he was fully prepared for the worst. Though he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a merry place filled with many new faces. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and continued onward underneath the canopies.

It was almost overwhelming with just how much life was inside of this game. Seth actually pinched himself once or twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming. When he didn't wake up or pass out he realized that this all was in fact in the game.

"This is...truly magnificent."

Before he could ponder for much longer however he was pulled aside by a few people in matching garments. They must've been some kind of organization within the game. Perhaps they could answer a few of his questions? He didn't get the time to even think up a proper inquiry before he was bombarded.

One person held up a batch of cookies asking if he wanted a sample.

"N-no thanks I'm good."

Another asked if he wanted to take a few swings with a sword that was admittedly too big for him.

"S-sorry sir, no thanks."

This was a bit too much. He didn't know what to do with all this attention. He didn't have money or whatever counted as currency in this game and he was honestly fine with the basic clothing he had on his back at the moment and just needed a push in the right direction. That didn't deter these rapid merchants though.

"I'm sorry. I-I need to go."

He tried to gently push his way past the pushy merchants but to no avail. No matter where he went another merchant was ready to sell something else.

'Someone save me from this hell.'

 

It didn't take long for the sounds to overfill his ears, the constant strain of bustling pitches, striking at his eardrum, even under the cloak he held wasn't enough to evade the onslaught, and with that he quickly got up, unable to stand the constant barrage of words, noised piercing at his delicate feline ears. With a quickly pep in his step, he began moving away from the sounds of the people, trying to avoid the most crowed regions, and upon reaching a region where he thought his ear would be safe, he heard a cry for aid, unsure of what he was hearing, the figure approached the source.

Seeing it was an individual crying out for help as he was being surrounded by merchants and shop owners, he could see the distress this figures voice, his eyes, the facial feature, he knew, this wasn't an event, it was an actual person being bombarded by this unruly group of AI, and if he was wrong it was a well made AI being assaulted. Quickly he walked over to the group, using his blades pommel to push people aside before grabbing the males shoulder and pulling him away from the group with a hearty tone, he growled at the group, his gray-like eyes gleamed with a righteous fierceness.

"Back off, he's with me." "Come on man, you told me we would meet up outside of the post, not get swamped by the deals." Clearly he didn't know this male, but he gave the guy a look of come with me, he didn't expect the person to understand but as quickly as he came he turned his back to them and waved his hand to the guy to follow him. The shock from the encounter caused the group of merchants to be taken aback by the sudden fierce tone he held, or it was his eyes that frightened them.

Either way, he didn't like how they were treating him, using him as a means to get a deal out without begin proper and well mannered, despite his rather rude tone he had towards them, to be frank he wasn't hoping anything good would come from this situation. But before he had a chance he quickly remembered something about the male, the name that popped over his head when approaching him was interesting enough. "Hmm... @Seth Evergreen interesting name."

 

While Seth was by no means spineless, he also wasn't one to be rude to others. He just didn't have it in him. Perhaps that's why it was so easy for him to get overwhelmed by all these people. Before he could think of a proper way out of the situation however he was saved by a newcomer. He did not know this person but from the way he was doing things he didn't bother worrying about that right now. He was now in debt to this person for saving him from the swarm of gold crazed merchants so, he played along with the tirade.

"Hmm... Seth Evergreen interesting name." They said.

Seth honestly didn't know what to say to that. Was it really that weird of a name? He didn't know for sure but he wasn't going to be rude and no say anything in response. They did practically save his life after all. Even if it was a ridiculous circumstance. He began to think back to his time before he joined this game. No one would help him like that back in the city. It was often a dog eat dog world most of the time with his only sanctuary being his family. Though that was more than likely his own fault more than anything. His old friend did often say he needed more confidence.

"Y-yea. I'm Seth. Thank you for helping me out back there I can't believe that happened. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr.?"

When he looked upwards towards his head nothing popped up. Seth had dabbled in the options just a tiny bit while on his way to this outpost and immediately turned on name sharing within the menu. He wanted to establish trust between everyone instead of hiding himself. Perhaps this person didn't turn on the share feature for names like he did? It didn't really matter to him though. Now Seth just needed to get his bearings and figure out where to go from here.

@Grim

 

With the sound of the bustling Outpost coming to an end, or a muffled halt, quickly as he was able to lead the male named Seth to a more secluded area of the region, not too far away from the Outpost, but not too close that the place would hurt his ears, and upon stopping the heard Seth call out to him. "Y-yea. I'm Seth. Thank you for helping me out back there I can't believe that happened. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr.?" When Seth asked him about his name, a simple sigh rang from it, a rather mature and deep toned voice rhythmed out towards the individual whom appeared to be no older than twenty-five and no younger than eighteen.

"Not a problem, logically, merchants would get better deals if they treated every customer with personal space and not be money hungry." "Please, don't call me Mr., it's not suited for me, just call me Grim." He spoke out, putting up his hand, entering his settings tab and finding the private information distributing tab, turning on his Username to which was as he said, Grim, just like the name of Death, the Grim Reaper, but minus the reaper section.

He looked about and slowly pulled his hood down, letting his sand blonde hair flap about, the long locks dancing about behind him as the sudden shift of ears perked up, the feline eyes was his first indicator of being inhuman. Next was the ears and the subtle shifting around his waist as a fuzzy belt shifted slightly, with a smile his elongated canines glimmered out, the pearly white gems shimmered with a brilliance as he spoke out.

"You don't have to thank me, I just was sick of seeing them take advantage of another person's will to say no in a firm manner." "Think of it as... my way of introducing myself to this new world." "I mean, I was logged into a fucking oak tree, I need a better intro than that." He said with a gleeful tone as he looked at Seth, observing him, noticing this guy just had the basic starting clothes, which made him wonder just how fresh of a spawn he was, and with that he spoke out.

"Seth, how fresh of a spawn are you... unless you're a NPC?" He asked him, hoping that this question wasn't going to cause some sort of backlash, he was just taking in a hunch that his person was a player, since he saw a name above their head, which is prominent to players. Even if he was wrong, it would conclude his suspicions on how advanced the AI system was in this game, and as he stood there waiting, his hand clenched about his claymores scabbard, ready encase anything popped up.

-OCC @Seth Evergreen your turn.-

 

"Seth, how fresh of a spawn are you... unless you're a NPC?"

Seth noticed the shift in tone and Grim's now guarded stance. Seth held up his hands in a gesture of meaning no harm. He knew from the few VR games he played that NPCs could sometimes go haywire when their version of the fourth wall was broken. Honestly this person was pretty decent so far, so he didn't want to ruin his chances at a potential friendship by freaking him out. "Confidence, Seth. Confidence.", he thought.

"Don't worry Grim. I'm just as much of a player as you are. As for your other question..."

He looked at his basic clothing and deflated a bit. He was as new as a baby fresh from the womb. It's a good thing that the masteries he chose didn't require much in terms of equipment. Who needs weapons and amour when you can just guitar your way out of a situation?

"I literally just spawned a few minutes ago. I had came from the nearby forest before I was bombarded with all those merchants."

Which was completely true. His journey through the forest was quite uneventful for the most part and, apart from the occasional wolf or boar, nothing seemed hostile. Though he wasn't sure about anyone else that might've been in the area. He was a little nervous that he would drive this person away with how odd he could be a times and he unconsciously began to fiddle with his fingers on the spot. "Ugh. I probably look like a blushing school girl right now. Alright Seth enough of your lollygagging" he thought before stopping and trying to appear more sure of himself.

( OOC: @Grim )

 

Grim placed his other hand over his chin, pondering to himself about what Set had just inlayed towards him, the fact that Seth spawned in the woods like him, but he held just his basic gear was astounding, which made him point out to him. "Odd, you said you picked your Masteries?" "Which ones did you acquire?" "If anything, the system should have implemented them into your inventory when you picked your Mastery for weapon and given you a simple clothing item." He said with a confident tone of voice as he pointed out his cloak and the claymore he was holding in his other hand, still surprised by the fact that Seth was Human and not an NPC.

And even better, he wasn't patronizing his ears or tail, which uncurled from around his waist, flicking back and forth as he looked about, his gray feline eyes watching the forest line, knowing that wolves and bears loved to prowl at the edge. Looking for an easy meal while there seemed to be boar roaming about, alongside bovine and wild equine, with a tilt of his head, Grim looked back over to Seth before speaking out once more to him. "Just look at your right or left hand, a HuD should pop up with many icons, click on your Player Information tab and it should take you to the basic player information." "Took a minute to figure it out though."

A calm and cooling tone came from his throat, clearly Seth was nervous, and Grim could clearly see that, which is why his tone went from dominant to a more brotherly tone which he has well at being, he loosened his grip on his weapon. Relaxed his shoulders and became more docile and laid back, his cream white skin glimmered in the sunlight as the scent of strawberry cologne clouded him, he himself could smell it as he like smelly slightly fruity. It surely made females enjoy his company, the fresh scent of mint left his lips when he spoke about, the wind guiding these aromas to his own nose and anyone close to him.

"Anyways, once you've picked your Masteries, go to your equipment, you don't get a notification like in most MMO's that you acquired new gear." "Actually makes it more realistic, but again, breaks immersion that it is auto placed there." "But what can you expect, it's just junk tier items." His tone was definitely cocky, but it was a good way of having it, seeing how he was figuring out the system rather quickly, but he possibly still knew little about the situation, which prompted him to speak out to Seth once more. "tell me Seth, haven't you noticed anything... more... realistic about the world you?" "Like... the ability to feel the wind on your skin, or when I touched your shoulder before?" "Find it unusual how realistic the system is? He asked the young man, hoping he wasn't the only one to notice this new implantation into immersion based MMOs.

((OCC: @Seth Evergreen))

 

Seth was honestly surprised at how experienced Grim sounded. It was almost as if he knew the game in and out. Though he would guess that it was a no-brainer under game logic. He went into the motions as instructed and help his right hand in front of his face, trying to examine every nook and cranny. Wouldn't be good to miss out on anything important now would it?

Seth didn't show it but he was glad that Grim was being more casual with him now. "Crisis averted", he thought. He carefully looked upon the sleek design of the HUD and marveled at how stream-lined it all was. He could get quite used to this. No other game he has played before has been so well made. Its obvious the creator payed attention to every single little detail.

He grew just a little bit concerned however when Grim's tone turned serious once more and he asked about how the world acted upon the senses. As if we were actually there. It was his main concerned when he first arrived in this world and he almost forgot about it. Not again though.

"...Yes. This system is extremely realistic to the point where its as if we are there in the flesh. No other VR game has shown realism on this kind of level before. Its a little bit...how do I put this...disturbing."

There was nothing natural about how easily this game simulated the real world. Only a genius could simulate something of this caliber, it was simply unheard of. Seth's thoughts continued to wander on who and why before he came back to reality.

He finished going through his options and he was given his clothing. A basic black set along with a red cloak. Seems like musicians in this game preferred the light armor route. He closed his eyes and decided that he was going to figure out just what the place was about in time. For now he was Seth Evergreen a player of Terrasphere.

( @Grim )

 

With the words that Seth pointed out, he was glad he wasn't the only person here to notice this as well, when Seth finished with his equipping of new gear, he took a look at the red cloak, quite opposite to his tattered brown one. "Hmm, red suits you quite well Seth." Anyways, I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this." "I first figured it out when I was creating my avatar." He said with a rather concerned tone, pointing at his wrist before popping it gently. "I popped my wrist, which rarely happens, and the pain was intense." He retorted before looking about once more, trying to make sure no one crept upon them, seeing how they were quite unusual out in the open.

"Sorry if I seem... uptight or overcautious, usually in MMO's, if a player or two are out in the open, you can run into people who get big for their britches." "If you get my drift, I've dealt with player killers in other games, and would prefer to not get us both killed." Grim said with a confident tone before speaking once more to Seth about their situation and about this game. "As I was saying Seth, it came to my conclusion that the game interferes with the Neural Mapping within the Cerebral Cortex, the region just before your spine." "There is a large knot on your neck, that's what I am talking about, it emits electrical impulse towards the brain and throughout the body."

He pointed out as he used his free hand to point to the region of the neck he was talking about before stopping, placing that hand back against his hip, tilting it slightly as he stood at an angle now, looking more feminine like without realizing it. "My theory is that, the game uses some emitter to prevent us from moving, like any other game, but goes to the next level." "Analyzing the impulses and mimics the real world reactions we could get from taste, touch, sound, and various other senses." He paused before closing his eyes, letting out a long breath of air and returning his gaze to Seth as he tried to comprise more words to speak to him.

"If anything, the creator is a genius, it had to take years to gather all the Neural data on how the brain reacts to every day events, not everyone has the same brain receptors." "However though, I am presuming that also is another thing we're not noticing." "I could be over thinking this, but I think that this game is constantly monitoring our brainwaves." He said to Seth before looking up at the sky, keeping his gaze towards the crisp blue sea above them, before speaking once more. "My thoughts, the game is analyzing us, and adapting to them, that's my theory." Grim stated before turning back around and walking up to his new friend, patting his shoulder gently.

"But, let's not get too into thought about this, perhaps I'm wrong, and this whole thing is using some new prototype engine that no one knew about." "Let's try to have fun, I mean, a free game is a good game in my opinion." He stated as he held out his right hand, pulling up the local player map on his search bar, looked for Seth's name and sent him a friend invite, hoping he could get Seth as his first friend in this new world, seeing how he just yakked his hears off about how nerdy he was.

"Say, after this, how about we go explore the Outpost a fair bit, we might find some jobs along the way, or better." "Some chicks to gawk at, you're a good looking guy, bet girls would be all over you mister Crimson Cloak?" He said, poking fun at the fact his friend had a fancier cloak than him, but aside the fun, he was being serious about finding some work for them, or at least gaining some info on their surroundings.

((OCC: @Seth Evergreen.))

 

Seth was never much of a science guy. Sure he was by no means dumb but he knew he wasn't on the same level as Grim. Seems like he had a pretty firm grasp on how things worked in the outside world, even if Seth himself didn't understand it too well.

When Grim came over and suggested just having some fun Seth was relieved. He was just as hungry for information has Grim was but it wouldn't do well to scare themselves away from this experience. Its like he said "a free game is a good game."

Seth heard a small chime go off in his head as he was sent a friend invite. Without hesitation Seth quickly rushed through his menu and accepted feeling an uncontrollable smirk come onto his face. It was good to have a friend so early out of the gate.

Now all that was needed to do was figure out what to do next. Honestly Seth was going to follow Grim's lead in this. He wanted to prove that while, admittedly, he was a bit of a wuss he wasn't useless.

"I'll be sure to show Grim just how useful I can be! He won't have to worry about some guy coming along to ruin things while I'm here." He didn't know if he even believed that thought.

"Say, after this, how about we go explore the Outpost a fair bit, we might find some jobs along the way, or better." "Some chicks to gawk at, you're a good looking guy, bet girls would be all over you mister Crimson Cloak?"

Now Seth was by no means a saint. Even if he was dressed like one. He was a healthy man who had normal needs and thoughts. As such he had a healthy interest in women. Doesn't stop him from feeling humiliated when the topic comes up through. The word red wouldn't be able to do the color on his cheeks justice.

"I-I-I uh...No that would never happen, ya know? I mean I don't think girls would be interested in a guy like me. Girls like guys with confidence and I'm...not exactly a fitting description of a knight in shinning armor. Hehe..."

(OOC: @Grim)

 

When Grim heard this, he sighed greatly as he stopped, turned back around, looking at his friend before placing both of his hands on Seth's shoulder, giving him a strong determined look why holding a faint smile on his face. "Trust me, I've met girls before who like the kind of guy you are." "I mean... they are dominatrix, but still, I think we'll get that courage up mate." "Besides, mon amie, even if that doesn't happen, at least we can have fun goofing off."

He said, saying a few words in French as the local language translation system kicked in, saying that "mon amie" meant "my friend", which showed Seth that Grim was not just brains, but also a bilingual, which was only the surface to him. And with that Grim pulled the hood on his cloak up once more, his tail wrapping around his waist and adjusting his claymore, placing over his right shoulder, letting it lay there while he held onto the strap.

He turned his head to Seth before speaking out in a calm tone, but one that held some concern about it. "Before we head further Seth, just be careful about letting others know about my race." "I don't have enough info about the way other races interact in this world." "Much like in many fantasy games I've played and made, anything in-human like elves, often gets shafted for being lesser than them." He said, knowing how some players like to play that type of card, but also he knew the NPC's could also act this way towards him and give Seth some trouble for being friends with a Felis.

As Grim trotted along, his trousers shifted about, the tips of his hair seemed to peek out from the bottom of his cloak, due to him improvising the hoodless cloak into a shorter one to provide him the ability to hide his face and feline features. His dark brown boots crunched along the grass, while the gentle breeze made the crisp summer air dance about them both, causing feathers, leaves and other debris to flutter about them as the scent of lilac, sunflowers, spices and perfumes to litter the air about the post, filling it with many wonders.

((OCC: @Seth Evergreen))

 

Seth was glad to find that Grim didn't find him to be completely hopeless. Not many people would give him the time of day back in New York for being so fidgety, but this guy seemed to have the patience of a saint. His kind words gave him the confidence boost he was so desperately needing. Seems like he actually found a decent person in the game already, hopefully other people were as hospitable. Though he had a feeling that he shouldn't get used to this feeling all the time.

When he mentioned the idea of hiding his race from others Seth was about to protest. When Grim gave a better explanation on why he needed to hide himself he understood. NPCs didn't really have a choice in how they reacted in most games and people in the real world...well they weren't exactly the most "tolerant" of people on a few occasions. Seth wordlessly nodded to his companion in understanding though he didn't like it.

"Well if that's the case then I say we should get to work. If you're so worried about what people will think about it then lets make sure your at the top of this worlds food chain. Then, who knows, maybe you can walk around without the hood at all. I hear plenty of girls are into the whole cat aesthetic."

Seth was not used to teasing someone. It felt kinda good, but in a happy-go-lucky type of sense. Without another word Seth continued forward away from the people of the outpost. He was going to show both himself and Grim that they had nothing to fear. Seth waved a hand behind him asking to follow and smiled. He could get used to this new feeling.

( OOC: @Grim ) [Exiting Thread]