open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: August 5th, mid morning.
Location: Anywhere characters happen to be/the VR.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: From August 5th to August 8th, characters are plunged involuntarily into the VR Program.
Warnings: Potential violence within the threads.

When the chance arises, she's quick to take it. The programming is incomplete, she knows; the simulation isn't ready — but she's not likely to get another shot at it. And so she moves, slipping through security codes to input the command. The machines hum to life with nothing but a flicker of a green light in a dark room, and it takes only seconds to establish connections. The signal is sent out; the weapons respond.

In a single pulse, reality drops away.

There will be darkness at first as the mind realigns itself to the signals being sent it. Slowly, the darkness fades, forms take shape. People take shape. The setting is terribly familiar, plucked from the user's own mind. It might feel like a dream at first, with events playing out as if predestined, the would-be dreamer moving through a familiar and unalterable route in them. But as things begin to feel more and more realistic, as more senses more fully connect to the simulation, awareness will change. This is not a dream. This is more than a memory.

Welcome to the VR.

Only 20 minutes later, in some underground quarters, Doctor Sponde is roused from an undignified sprawl. He's hastily briefed and shuttled toward the command center, looking grim. He knows the problem demands an immediate fix, but… well, this is some complex machinery. It could take some time. It could take days. He gets to work.

Comments

[rorosa]

Corosa opens his eyes in darkness. And-- immediately notices the sudden, terrifying ability to move in all directions. Left, right -- up and down -- Corosa flails and lets out a short yelp of panic as he searches for something solid, something to stand on.

It's right about now that he also notices that he's underwater and therefore, in fact, should not be able to hear himself scream at all. Or breathe for that matter.

Corosa clutches at his throat. That motion, unfortunately, causes him to drift slightly down. And suddenly brings him face-to-face with a whole lot of tentacles.

Corosa freezes. His panic starts to grow. Exponentially.

[fintastic]

Feferi notices a figure drifting downwards towards the reach, grasping tentacles of her lusus. For a second, she thinks to just leave them. It wouldn't be the first time she's let Gl'bgolyb catch her own prey. As sad as it is, it's the circle of life! The foodchain! And what's a handful of deaths to the potential eradication of whole castes of trolls?

But it isn't a troll, at least it doesn't have horns, and yet it isn't an animal, so she swims towards it, holding out her hand and completely unaware of the menacing of the tentacles around them.

[rorosa]

Corosa sees a hand -- and notices that it's strange, grey, greyer than it should be, and he recoils away immediately. Or at least, he tries to recoil. It's hard to do underwater. He sort of kicks wildly in an effort to propel himself away, instead.

"Get-- get away!" he says, once he looks up to see the rest of Feferi. He reaches for his gun. But before he's even touched it, he's managed to drift straight into one of the tentacles.

[fintastic]

Oh, don't mind the tentacle gently curving around your back to catch you. It's completely harmless. Yep. Feferi doesn't seem deterred at all, and approaches once her target's drifting has been arrested.

"Hi there!" Chipper as ever, not a care in the world. "What are you doing down here?"

[rorosa]

Corosa's still trying to come to terms with the fact that he can both breathe and speak underwater. And trying to get away from the tentacle. And still trying to wrestle his gun out of its holster. He's finding it very hard to do all of these things at once.

He stares up at Feferi in something very close to fear.

"Where-- where am I? I was just--" He doesn't even remember anymore. Not here, at least.

[fintastic]

That tentacle doesn't want Corosa going anywhere, apparently, since it starts to curl around his waist as he tries to get away...

"You're in one of Alternia's oceans!" Feferi explains cheerfully, treading water in front of him. "And this is my lusus! Say hello to Gl'bgolyb!"

[rorosa]

Corosa goes dead white once he realizes the tentacle's very intent on trapping him. He looks down, down, further down... Oh, god. It starts to dawn upon him that this tentacle is only one small part of a much greater being. Corosa bites down hard on the inside of his cheek.

He forgets about his gun and resorts to kicking even more hysterically in a futile attempt to propel himself away.

"I don't-- can you-- can you make it let me go?" No matter how cheerful Feferi seems about this whole thing, Corosa really does not want to say hello. Sorry, Gl'bgolyb.

[fintastic]

"She's just being friendly! I think she really likes you."

The deep-sea horrorterror's jaws are stained with the technicolor blood of the lusus that have been fed to her. To a humanoid, it might not be immediately obvious, but the trail of indigo blood following the whale might be a good tip-off.

"You should hug her back! She doesn't get very many hugs, you know?"

[rorosa]

"I don't-- no-- I really don't--" Corosa takes note of the colors. He knows that's not blood. It's not, right? That's not the color -- the colors -- of blood. It's....

It's still unsettling.

He goes very still. Maybe that'll do the trick? Flailing wildly wasn't helping, after all.

Out of the corner of his mouth, he says, "If you can't make her let go. I'm going to shoot her."

[fintastic]

"Why would you kill my lusus? She doesn't mean any harm."

There's the eyes, and the innocent voice of a child, sincerely confused-- okay no she's not, but she'll ham it up, because she definitely doesn't want anyone trying to kill her lusus. Not for Gl'bgolyb's sake, but for everyone else's. Goodness knows what kind of noise she would make with bullets being fired at her...

[rorosa]

Judging by the curl growing more and more insistent with each passing second, Corosa thinks that harm may, in fact, be the first thing on Gl'bgolyb's mind.

Corosa draws his gun. He looks at Feferi, panic still bright in his eyes. He points the muzzle down into the depths, wherever the tentacles seem to be convening.

"Then make her let go." Last chance. He's one twitchy finger away from pulling the trigger.

[fintastic]

"I can't!" Feferi protests, then adds hastily, "You can't either! If you hurt her, she'll kill everyone else!"

No sense in hiding it now. She doesn't even really think about it as she says it, just blurts it out in a last ditch effort to protect her lusus from harm. She's never really expected to become dinner, and she herself is probably safe enough, but her new friend... well, he might be a different. She doesn't know what humans taste like, but Gl'bgolyb probably wouldn't mind. That's really not what she wants, though, and her attention is visibly torn between him and the creature as it continues to murmur, its voice echoing up from the depths.

[rorosa]

Corosa hears the words and horror flickers over his face -- he may be nearly mad out of his mind with confusion and panic, but he's still got just enough rationality left in him to realize that he does not want to be responsible for a catastrophe.

Unfortunately, he is near mad out of his mind with confusion and panic. So he's already pulled the trigger before the full impact of Feferi's words catch up to him.

He yanks his arm back last second, which sends the bullet straight into the tentacle gripping him.