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

[theguideless]

If Martin was anything, he was a very single-minded kind of creature. He had trouble splitting his attention between things, especially when many things required an almost even amount of care. And between the stranger-turned-acquaintance-turned...something (friend? Martin's still not sure he can even have one of those) and the visage of his own flesh and blood, well...

It wasn't much of a contest.

As Regina moved and writhed to free herself, Martin's heels dug in, dragging into the gravel as his weight proved to be little to keep either of them in place.

"Please," he was begging, over and over. "Please, Gina. Gina, I want to leave. It's fine if we just go, go home, please. Please!"

His voice shrilled as he was finally wrenched free, shoved aside to give the girl the means to attack her target.

"GINA—!"

[hornedomen]

That would be a problem. He had a plan to stop Alex, but not the both of them. However, he had to act quickly. He reached back and took his sword, scabbard and all, and held his baldric around his shoulder. Suddenly, he dashed off on light and swift feet.

Ico threw his sword at Martin. He aimed it to land at his feet because it seemed like he was not focused at all. “Take it and don’t lose it!”

If he was wrong and the monsters went after Martin, he had to give him a chance to defend himself. He struggled with the decision but he would ultimately need both his hands free. While he ran, he took sharp turns without a clear pattern. His goal was to separate them. Gina looked like a greater threat because Alex’s hands were already wounded.

[theguideless]

Martin only gave the sword a fleeting glance, desperately calling after his sister to stop. But he was no longer a factor in the program; she, like the others, had eyes only for the boy with the horns.

The boy left behind choked on his own breath, head swimming. He clutched at the cape and vest around his chest, snatching and pulling at cloth in a futile means to pull the awful feelings out of his body.

And even as he flickered and faded out of that awful, butchered memory, the beasts lingered on, warping out of their solid forms as the source of their shapes left them. From Martin's untouched energy shield to the chosen weapon Ico carried, the program began its change.