exsiliumlogs | open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The needles whistled through the air at incredible speed; it was all Koltira could do to block some of them with the broad blade of his weapon. Others pierced his shoulders and stomach, burrowing into his armor, puncturing the skin. He scowled as the wounds bled, unsure of how to retaliate. The girl moved like a whip crack, all energy and violence without a shred of restraint. But she was a child in his eyes, and she shared Martin's blood.

The ice runes inscribed on Byfrost activated, glowing a pale, bright blue that encompassed Koltira's body. The blood on his armor hardened, and frost formed along his hair and skin, protecting him from the girl's next assault.

"Martin," he said, "We must go. We must find the limit of this memory and go."

The unseen but all-felt program ramped up as Koltira did, readjusting from the lesser strengths for the Darkov boy to those of the foreign warrior. Enough to be a challenge, not enough to put the target in dire straits. Martin didn't have extensive memory of his sister in combat — training, perhaps, but the jackal she was remained more mystery and rumor than reality. The program had to improvise.

Regina bit the medal that dangled at her neck, and Martin's own jaw clenched til it hurt.

Skiigaa—

The otherworldly snake lashed out into the world to strike, a massive and coiling mass slipping in and out of tangibility.

Koltira sure as hell didn't know what kind of trick the girl had just pulled--was it a spell, a skill, something in-between? His plan might not work, but he decided to try it, anyway. A sickly, unholy glow enveloped Byfrost as he activated the necessary rune; the glow grew, pulsing, until it turned purplish, forming into a spherical shield that encompassed both Martin and himself. Although the barrier could not negate magic entirely, any spells that passed through it were severely reduced in power and efficacy.

"This is a manipulation by our hosts," Koltira said. "Come to your senses and move, boy!"

Edited 2012-08-09 06:29 (UTC)

It wasn't true reality, but the inactive shield bound on on Martin's arm, hidden by sleeves, was dictating the simulation, and it had learned over the course of many months just how the boy would react to many things.

It knew how poorly Martin's body accepted magic in its proximity.

Fire! It was like his veins, his blood, his skin — his everything — was on fire. Martin screamed, body writhing and dropping into the dirt, clutching at his arms and neck and face.

Ignorant to her brother's agony, the false Regina Darkov was circling and spacing herself out for better range. The snake coiled about the shield, fading in and out of life, snapping at it with futility.

From far afield, the remainder of the monster pack was rushing, circling to close in. The rest of the hunting Darkovs were on the move, as well.

"Damn it," Koltira said. He had meant to protect the boy, but obviously his spell had the opposite effect. He groaned in frustration as the anti-magic barrier dissipated--if the serpent was still active, it had a clear shot. He braced himself as he scanned the field, noting the other attackers, searching for some physical limit to this memory, some place where he could see the line that separated Martin's mind from the space between.

On its last legs, so to speak, the snake coiled and struck, vanishing on impact. Its hostess swooned, but steadied herself quickly, back on-target. No trouble.

It's not how Martin saw it, blurred and half-seen. His skin still tingled in a most unpleasant way after the glow and its force ebbed, leaving him disoriented. He tried his very best to keep his eyes fixed on his sister, but she kept moving, and that awful, rotten-smelling thing that attacked them was such a drawing force that he couldn't help it.

The whole place had begun to deconstruct, even while the remainder of the Lamyin pack and nearby Darkovs closed in to strike. Koltira's weapon wasn't the only one actively searching for the proper fight; with Martin's world overtaken by another's protocol, it was to send the boy to one where it could take charge. It wasn't anything said boy knew a thing about; he hardly remembered even keeping the thing on him.

All he knew was he hurt and his sister...

open log » ❝ The VR Program ❞

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SNAKES ... why did it have to be snakes

HEH

martin what are you doing rn

oh you know magic revulsion wotwot