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✜ CHECKMATE : redux (IC)

37,467
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024

✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.

✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.

✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE.



















CHECKMATE
: r...e...d...u...x


this is the IC thread - HERE IS THE OOC THREAD
A strangely dramatic view and cryptic text comprises the front of the game you just received in the mail. It is called CHESS but it is a computer game and not a tabletop game. Inside, you find a thin leaflet telling you that CHESS will challenge gaming as humanity knows it by featuring both creating and building, hack'n'slash killing, adventurous mysteries and the most vivid and challenging roleplaying since the days of text games.

Unsuspecting or not, you eventually do install the game and attempt to play it together with other seemingly random people across the world who have received a similar copy of CHESS from an anonymous sender. Little do you know that this game is the only chance for you and your newfound friends to survive the apocalypse that the very existence of the game brought about in the first place...



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RULES

1 - Follow all the PC and Roleplay Corner rules or I'll send Skymin on you.

2 - The rating is M. Even if entering a game, meeting aliens and playing with magic feels surreal, it would be nice if you were playing rather realistically. Please refrain from describing gore, injuries or "romantic" actions with detail though.

3 - Be careful not to godmod. Maybe you do want your character to succeed in everything they do, but the RP doesn't really become challenging and fun that way. Let your friends save your butt sometimes!

4 - Be polite and nice OOC. I have the final word on everything, for the sake of organisation. If there is anything about the RP, the world or CHESS you do no understand, please ask in the OOC thread because others might wonder the same thing.

5 - Reservations last for a few days and you may reserve a COLOR, a CLASS and what GENDER you'd like. Take your time to think up an interesting character but don't drag things out for too long.

6 - If you become unable to post for a while, notify the GM. Also, if you want to drop out of the RP for any reason, you have to notify the GM. If you just leave without giving an explanation, I will be really sad :)​



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ACCEPTED PLAYERS


The INVENTORY can be checked by physically checking whatever device you put as your inventory.

But these can only be checked via a computer or item alchemized together with a computer.
Hover your mouse over these for explanations!
CONDITION || FRAYMOTIFS || BIBLIOTEQUE || STRIFEDECK

Stats explanations:
Spoiler:




PRIEST soon to die
Liam Drummond by Raikiri
NAVISISSPRITE - Navi doll + sister

STRIFE DECK:
Spoiler:


INVENTORY:
Spoiler:


CONDITION:
Spoiler:


FRAYMOTIFS:
Spoiler:


BIBLIOTEQUE:

Spoiler:




BARD level 2
Vinnie Valentine by Lt. Col. Fantastic
REGINALDSPRITE - butler Reginald

STRIFE DECK:
Spoiler:


INVENTORY:
Spoiler:


CONDITION:
Spoiler:


FRAYMOTIFS:
Spoiler:


BIBLIOTEQUE:

Spoiler:



ROGUE level 2
Penelope Cruz by Retro Bug
CHEERBEARSPRITE - Blue plush bear + pompoms

STRIFE DECK:
Spoiler:


INVENTORY:
Spoiler:


CONDITION:
Spoiler:


FRAYMOTIFS:
Spoiler:


BIBLIOTEQUE:

Spoiler:



SMITH level 2
Adrian Smidth by Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers
JETSPRITE - bunny Jet + potted plant

STRIFE DECK:
Spoiler:


INVENTORY:
Spoiler:


CONDITION:
Spoiler:


FRAYMOTIFS:
Spoiler:


BIBLIOTEQUE:

Spoiler:



KNIGHT level 2
Odetta Freeman by Geras32
BURKESTROYERSPRITE - beetle Burke + Arleigh Burke destroyer model

STRIFE DECK:
Spoiler:


INVENTORY:
Spoiler:


CONDITION:
Spoiler:


FRAYMOTIFS:
Spoiler:


BIBLIOTEQUE:

Spoiler:

 
Last edited:
37,467
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024


Adrian woke up with a gasp. He had been dreaming something really strange. Again. Argh, he usually daydreamed so much that his sleep was relatively dreamless but during the last week... He just didn't know. He forgot what it was really about mere minutes after waking up though.

When his focus adjusted and he could see clearly, he was met with a big, furry face staring at him from on top of his chest. Another gasp followed by a rapid ascent into sitting position.

"Jet," Adrian acknowledged with a sigh while the big, black bunny jumped off him and onto another part of the couch. "Was I sleeping in the couch again?"

"You got home, sighed loudly and then just kind of got stuck there!" a girly voice came from the hallway. Adrian leaned his head to the side as she walked in. After living with them for 15 years, he could differentiate between his twin sisters with a blindfold on. This was Drava, the cheerful one. She often had blonde her hair in two pigtails anyways, while her sister Lina usually had a ponytail.

"And you didn't wake me?"

"I wouldn't want to disturb your beautysleep, dear brother!" Drava giggled as she came to a stop in front of the hallway mirror, visible from the couch in the living room.

"What are you doing? Are you going somewhere? What day is it?" Adrian asked, rubbing his head and getting up, trying to wake up properly. "What time is it even?"

"It's 7 o'clock in the morning on a beautiful summer's day!" Drava responded cheerfully. "We're leaving to train for the big dance competition, don't you remember? It's on wednesday."

"Oh," was Adrian's only response as he stumbled past her into the kitchen. Lina was there, sipping on her cup of black coffee all finished already.

"Stay out of trouble while we and dad and mum are gone," she said simply.

Adrian nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Don't I always?"

"No."

The twins left the house before too long, leaving Adrian alone with Jet and the sunrise. It was really so early that people on the other side of the world should still be about doing their sunlight evening business on the previous date. Ugh. If there were people he didn't bother kissing up to, it was definitely his sisters. Or his parents. Or both. His whole family. If he had only gotten some brothers instead. Then he might be more normal...

"Jet, do you think I should stop trying?" he asked his bunny. Jet just stared out the window. It wasn't as if Adrian expected an answer. He often talked to Jet without the bunny talking back. It was cool. It was the pet way. The boy lazily bit into a breakfast sandwich that the twins had left laying around and followed Jet's gaze out through the window.

A little light poked his eye. A minor reflection in something from the earliest rays of the sun. It was the swingy thingy on the mailbox down on the street. What are those even called? Anyways, the red swingy thingy was up, signaling that there was new mail. Huh, new mail? This early? Postmen must really have a hard job.

With Jet in his arms, Adrian walked out to get the mail and put the swingy... thingy down again. There was only one thing there, a package the size of a book. Adressed to him. Strange, he hadn't ordered anything. Maybe some elaborate advertisement trick? He surely wouldn't fall for it, in that case!

He walked directly up the stairs now, striding across the living area into his own room where he put Jet down on his bed and began opening the little package. Tearing apart the brown cover paper revealed a blue and red and white box, dvd size. It was a game. A computer game. That much was clear. The front picture gleamed when he tilted it, a shiny holographic. The word CHESS was printed with black letters on the white background just below the dramatic picture.

"Chess? Oh boy, this is so a trick. Who wants to play chess on a computer? It's dull enough with a board and pieces!"

He threw the game on the bed beside Jet and sat down in front of his desk, booting up his computer anyways. While it was starting, he looked around his room. His old, square shaped room in which he had been stuck for so many days of his life. Not because he couldn't leave but because he hadn't wanted to. Some days. In here, he could be himself. Just him and Jet and Thor and his fantasies. Purely innocent fantasies, but still infinitely silly and dorky and childish. Nothing he would ever tell anyone about. When others came around to his place and saw all his superhero stuff that littered the shelves along one wall of the room, he just laughed it off in a cool way and blamed nostalgia. It always worked.

His drum set had its own place between the desk and the bed. No dust on that, he played almost daily. Stress relief, plus he was quite certain that he was getting rather good at it by now. Randomly on the floor in the middle of the room lay, beside a few dirty socks, one of his skateboards. This particular one, he hadn't used for a while. It was more advanced than the one he rode daily now, because he had switched to the simpler one when he was starting to get out of tune with skateboarding... Not that it had helped. In a corner, dusty by now, still stood his half plastic half metal replica of Thor's hammer. Mjölnir. So cool. Light enough for him to lift and even swing. But he hadn't done that for a long time now. Maybe he was finally growing out of these manners? He could only hope.

On top of the bed sheets, Jet nibbled silently on a corner of the CHESS game's box.

"No! Jet, you dork!" Adrian grabbed the CHESS game box and pulled it away forcefully from the indifferent bunny. "Are you so nerdy that you have to eat the game?"

He looked it over. Not much damage. Likely, Jet was just bored and not hungry. Why Adrian would be so worried about his pet swallowing some advertisement was beyond himself, yet... Well, today he would be alone and rather bored and he didn't want to start with the chores he had been given yet so...

Unpacking the box earned him a dvd case and... No it was a CD case even. Who still used CDs nowadays when Bluray existed and all? It wasn't just advertisement, it was bad advertisement! There was also a leaflet.

Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS.

Perfection? Adrian leaned his head a bit and looked at the cover of the box again. There was more text there, small text that he had overlooked before.

✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE.

"Okay... This doesn't sound like the worst thing ever actually!" Adrian said with a smile. All he really had to worry about was if there was a virus or trojan or something in the files. This could be a very elaborate ploy to steal stuff on his computer. Not that there was much worth stealing there apart from a few pretty good fanfics that he had doodled together years ago and hadn't had the heart to delete. Plus, he had a good antivirus program. He should be safe, right?

"I'll just have to take a chance," Adrian said and inserted the CD into the computer.
 
Last edited:

Limanya

Page of Breath
517
Posts
12
Years
Charlotte Kattsburg - Act 0​

Charlotte sighed. Her flute lessons shouldn't be this long. Yet they were. Oh, what things she was prepared to do for just one skill! She closed her eyes for a moment to be able to listen better. The other people around her were playing at the same time, but some of them played entirely different things. It all caused an orchestra of chaos. She opened her eyes again, and looked around. The room she was in was quite empty, with only a few others in a large room. The lack of other things didn't really help either. So she just stared at the bright red floor for a minute. Maybe it was two minutes. Maybe even three. Charlotte couldn't tell. So she just sat there, and waited.

"Class is over!"

Suddenly, those words boomed through the chamber. Charlotte was in an instant pulled away from her little staring contest with the floor, and let out and even deeper sigh than before. This one, however, was a sigh of relief. She took her bag, put her flute back in the wooden box where it belonged and put the box in her bag. Then, Charlotte bended over and grabbed the papers that were under the table. She all put them into a dark red folder which she also put into her bag. As she kicked the wooden chair she was sitting on to the corner without caring about the fact that she could also just get scolded at, she slung the bag over her shoulder and walked out of the room. She stopped for a moment. She could either take the elevator or go down the stairs. But she really wasn't feeling like walking down all those stairs, so she simply wandered into the elevator and waited for it to take her down to an height she could actually walk out and not fall to her death. When she was downstairs, she walked outside, although the sun was burning in her eyes.

She started walking. The streets were quite empty, unlike most other days. Usually there were cars everywhere. But then again, she didn't exactly live in the most well-known or populated part of Hamburg. It was a big city, and there were lots of places she had yet to visit. However, she'd gladly do that another day. Because this day was not a good day, adding up flute lessons, boiling hot sun and general tiredness. Fortunately, it only was a short way to her home, where she could relax all she wanted.

"Charlotte!"

This voice sounded all too familliar to her. What was she doing out her? Oh well, Iris had always been a bit puzzling to her.

"Iris, why are you here?"

Her sister only chuckled, but stopped and started waving a bit. Now she was standing on the other side of the street, carrying what seemed to be two large bags.

"Just answer me already, dammit!" Charlotte screamed, getting slightly annoyed. She ran over to the other side, paying only little attention to the slight chance of a car passing. "Now again, Iris, why are you here?" she said to her little sister. "Well, Mutti said i should go and buy some stuff. Why are you here?" she said, imitating Charlottes voice at the end. Charlotte growled a bit. "Iris, stop that. You know i hate it when people imitate me. You know why? Because they always get it wrong. And to answer the question you probably already knew the answer to, flute lessons." she said, her voice sounding even more annoyed with every word. "Oh. OK! Also, Mutti said the games you bought are in the mailbox now! Heeheehee!"

Iris was smiling brightly, which would have made Charlotte slap her if she didn't come with the good news. Charlotte paused. "Really?" she asked, wondering if it was just some stupid trick. "Yes!" Iris cheerfully replied. "Oh well, got nothing to lose." Charlotte then muttered. Just as she finished her sentence, she darted off while shouting something that could vaguely be discerned as "GAMES! HERE I COME!"

As she stopped and stood in front of the mailbox while breathing heavily, she thought for a moment. Which one would she play first? What would she do if one of the games wasn't fun enough? She calmed down slowly. That would be something to think, and maybe be angry about later. She opened the mailbox and took everything in it without looking. Happiness slowly started to fill her usually grumpy mind as she walked towards the door. Even though she had a key with her, she just bonked on the door. She could hear the footsteps her Mutti was making while walking on the tiles in the little hallway from the entrance to the living room. As soon as she had opened the door, Charlotte rushed inside. After going through the tiny hallway she came in the dining room, which actually was more a central room. A large wooden table sat in the middle, and often her Mutti would invite her family to come over for an - often huge - dinner. Suddenly, the house also became more welcoming compared to the hallway. It was likely that the wooden floor and carpet played a huge role in this, as well as the fact that it connected to a lot of the other rooms in the house. Charlottes Mutti walked back to the living room, where she just went to lie on the rather comfy sofa and watch TV. Charlotte, instead, walked the other way. She came into a long hallway with not a tiled or wooden floor, but one with a deliciously soft carpet. This was basically the 'room' with the most other connctions, connecting to the attic, the bathroom and the three bedrooms. She walked into her own room and closed the door. She then just proceeded to sit down on her bed and examine the package. Or, as she only just had noticed, packages. How odd. Was there some sort of accident? Was there some kid now who was crying about not getting his games? Charlotte couldn't care less. It only meant she got extra games! One of the packages was just a normal box, but the other one was colored pitch black with colorful designs on it. Strangely enough, it wasn't the normal design and even stranger, it was adressed to her. She was just dying to open it. But suddenly...

"CHARLOTTE!"

"What do you want? Can't you hear i'm busy?"

Ugh. Charlotte was clearly not happy with this. She could almost open the package, but her Mutti just had to interrupt. She put the package down and walked towards the living room, only to see Mutti rolling around on the couch with her parrots flying around her. "Charlotte, PLEASE. Get those damn birds away!" she screamed. Now Charlotte was angry. "Those aren't just 'damn birds'! Those are beautiful, elegant parrots, and they have names! Call them by it!" she said, her voice rather clearly sounding angry. "Mhm. Okay. Get Amethyst, Smaragd, Saphir and Rubin away because they're your birds, i mean parrots, and I let you have them if you would be responsible and care properly for them. So please get them away and stop commanding me because you're my daughter, not the other way around." Elise said quite calmy. "Pfft, fine. Jerk." Charlotte said quite softly, which was followed by an "Oi!" by her Mutti. She made a sign with her hands, and the four parrots all stopped and sat on the table. Then, when Charlotte left the room, they all followed her to the large cage in her sister's bedroom. Because her own room didn't have enough space, with her bookcase, desk, bed, and the rest of her stuff taking up all room, she decided to move the cage to another room. Which, of course, was Iris' room. It was a rather uncommon show of trust, especially for Charlotte. She let the four parrots fly into it and closed the cage.

She walked back to her own room, relieved that she was done and excited to open the package. She closed the door and sat down on her bed again. Without any further thoughts, she opened the normal package and spread the contents out on her bed. Everything she had ordered. Good. But the most exciting part would come now, the black package. Charlotte opened it and found one case inside. The first thing she noticed was the colorful design, and the big letters spelling out 'CHESS'. She sighed. Chess? That could either be some fancy version of that everything-but-fancy boardgame or just a stupid acronym. However, she wanted to try it out first. She checked out the rest of the box and found nothing but a leaflet. On it was written some text, which looked quite promising.

"Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS."

Now that was something. She turned the case over, hoping to find more details on the back of the box. The only thing she saw was some quite mysterious but interesting text.

"✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE."


Player, kiss, dreamself, moons, afterlife. She couldn't even think straight anymore due to sheer excitement. It appeared to be a game unlike any other, so she opened the case and took the CD that was inside out. A computer game, huh? Charlotte walked towards her computer and put the CD in it. Oh, this was going to be great.
 

Legend

Kingslayer
1,308
Posts
15
Years

Liam Drummond


It was not your typical bedroom that Liam buried himself in. Then again, Liam is not your typical teenager. It was hard to see the painted red walls of his room, considering the vast amounts of posters (many of them signed), bookcases constructing his vast library of novels and textbooks and shelves displaying his hefty collection of…stuff (including his rocks, staplers, jars of bugs and models). Additionally, he hung up on the wall his collection of video game swords, including the legendary Master Sword of Zelda fame. Liam sat at his desk, crouching on the office chair as he meticulously constructed a new model, this one from the Gundam franchise while Beethoven's 9th Symphony blasted from his homemade desktop PC, that his father helped him make. His cluttered desk of books, various pieces that belonged to various things and cases to movies and videos was perched right beside by the window, which he creaked open to allow for some fresh air to enter his room. Despite this, Liam's man cave and shrine to eccentric interests was not a disorganized mess that looked as if someone tossed a half dozen grenades into to spurn about some perverted sense of chaos. No, in fact, Liam's room was exceptionally organized. He needed that organization. Otherwise, it would ruin the sense of Zen that his room created any time he decided to lock himself in.

Liam was drawn more and more into his model as Beethoven's Symphony ramped up, reaching his favorite part. He pretty soon lost himself that he didn't hear the creaking of the door. Or at least he didn't pay attention to it. Not at first. It was only when he reached for his sandwich that was beside him that he noticed something was afoot. "Where be my sandwich?" He said aloud. His eyes narrowed and a smile stretched across his face. Liam knew exactly what was going on. It was a game they played. Liam tried to play dumb, but it hardly suited him. He reached for one of his smaller magazines that was nearby in his stack of stuff that collected by his monitor and heaved it across his room, aiming from the small shadow that was in the corner of his room by bed.

"Ow."

"Really, Alice? Ye got to learn how to hide better than that. Now bring back the sammich!" He said, faking his anger as he changed his tone abruptly into his worst American accent. His little sister came out of the corner and shuffled slowly over to her adopted brother, gingerly returning the sandwich to him. But then she pulled a fast one and bolted out the room. "Get back haur!" Liam said as he leapt to his feet, chasing his sister throughout the house. She was a quick one and glided down the stairs as Liam did his best to follow her. She took a quick turn into the kitchen and ran out the back door into the backyard. Liam was about to jump out there himself but then.

"Liam. Lad come here," it was his father's stern voice coming from behind the local newspaper. He sat alone at the kitchen table as he did every morning, burying his nose into the paper.

"Aye?" Liam said, sighing. He wasn't going to get that sandwich back was he? Probably not. It was not big loss, so a sly smile came about him. Alice was getting sneaky. That's good. She was learning.

"Can ye check on your mum?"

"She outside like usual? Feedin' the cats?" Liam said, gesturing over to the front door. His father didn't say anything, which was in his nature. Liam's father was hardly a chatterbox, preferring to keep things concise. At first Liam thought his father was a total jerk, but in the past year or so he realized that was just his father's personality. He let his actions speak for him. "Righty-o." Liam said, as he moved out to the hallway, quickly shuffling through the closet under the stairs for a pair of shoes to go outside to check on his mother. Using his graceful skills acquiring from years of being lazy (he preferred the term efficient), Liam slid on a pair of sneakers and walked out the front door. His mother was on the front patio, refilling the food bowls with a couple of stray cats around the area. The cats were used to Liam and his mother, but hated his father and sister. This was mostly because Alice chased them and his father always yells at them (he never let animals inside the house). Meanwhile, Liam could care less about their existence and his mother always takes care of them. "Hoi! Father is looking for ye. Or somethin."

"You can tell him, I'll be there," she replied with a smile, petting one of the cats. Her accent was weaker than rest of them, because she traveled so much in her earlier years. "Oh, Liam. Can you get the post?"

"Aye. Sure thing," Liam said. He walked over to the front mailbox, standing right outside the white fence. He grabbed all the mail in one easy motion. There wasn't much in the box. Most of it was bills anyway, but strangely enough there was one package addressed to him. "I didn't order anythin'." His eyes widened as he stepped inside, ignoring his mother's questions. He dropped off the post on the table and made his back into his room.

Liam crouched on his chair, tearing open the package. He gently cleared his desk as he did, making a bit of room to put the unwrapped package on the desk. The package revealed itself as a blue and red and white box, similar to one that dvds or games come in. It appeared to be a game, at least that is what looked like. It didn't say what console it was for. Hopefully that meant it was for the PC, since Liam hated consoles. He usually used his PC for gaming. Speaking of his PC, Liam turned to it to check his email, passively chucking the tacky the package on to his bed. A few moments later, he turned back to his model, not caring that his teachers sent him critiques on his homework. A few moments later, he saw the package glisten in the light. Raising an eyebrow, Liam got up and checked the box again. "What's your story?" he asked the package, as if he was expecting reply. He didn't remember ordering any new games. After all, he preferred to download them unless the game was a big deal or one of the few console games he bothered to purchase. The front picture gleamed when he tilted it ever so slightly with a shiny holographic image. The word CHESS was printed with black letters on the white background just below the picture.

CHESS? CHESS. CHESS. The name didn't sound familiar. The only "CHESS" he knew was the traditional board game, where Liam had an outstanding record of 57-4. The only person who could beat him was his adoptive grandfather, who challenged at least once a year at the family reunion in Glasgow. Googling it would be pointless since the first pages would undoubtedly be about the traditional chess. Maybe a couple of online editions of the game. He moved back to his chair, spinning in the chair slowly as he observed his room. His collections staring back at him. He stared extra long at his collection of models, all of them influenced by his Otaku obsessions, including a few Gundams, RPG characters, and anime figures. He did this hoping that one of his hundreds of collectibles would stir some idea about this package was about. Nothing about the package seemed…natural. It felt too strange. Too unorthodox. Nothing that he would normally buy either. He made sure his money only went to things he cared for. His job at the local game store didn't pay nearly enough to waste it on senseless crap like this. After all, John would probably have mentioned it some obscure title like this. Maybe he bought it for Liam? No. That was doubtful. John hated Liam anyway, mostly because Liam insults him every day.

Unpacking the box earned him a couple new pieces of evidence. A CD case? Or a cheap DVD case? Didn't matter. It only because more suspicious. It could be a cheap indie game and they sent out to local people for testing. Though that hardly seemed effective. And who would do that? Liam probably would. Scratch that. There was also a manuel of some sort with some information.

"Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS."

Well, it was a game. Liam was intrigued. It sounded worth a shot. It was free after all. He looked back at the cover to see if he could find the name of developer. Instead he found some more text on the cover. Something he must of missed while he pondered the entire situation.

✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE."

Well, now the game didn't make sense. The lingo was difficult to comprehend. Maybe playing the game would make everything make more sense. "Sometimes ya just gotta leap into the fire."

He put the disc into the computer, waiting for the game to install.
 

Lt. Col. Fantastic

The Arianator
698
Posts
11
Years

Vinnie Valentine


The bell was about to ring, and everybody was buzzing with the usual pre-dismissal conversation. Talk about last night's calculus homework, the party at Maria's place on Friday, the new teacher on E-Wing….but none of it concerned me. I had other things on my mind, as usual. Glancing across the room, I located my target. Charlotte. Hot damn was she cute. I nonchalantly slid my book bag on as the bell rang, waiting for her to pass before I got up. She smelled like vanilla…

I followed Charlotte at a distance down the hallway, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. She stopped at a locker and started to unlock it. I grinned to myself. Too easy. As I started to close in, a big fellow by the name of Seymour Collins stepped in beside Charlotte and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He then put his arm around her affectionately.

"Bonjour, Madame Mignon…" I thought I heard him say as I shifted my course to avoid a train wreck. Damn it. I guess that makes, what? 20 girls now I've either broken up with within a week or missed completely since Veronica now? I continued down the hallway, doing my best not to look embarrassed, even though nobody really knew anything just happened. If anybody looked at me it would appear my face just flushed for no reason.

In my haste to flee the traumatic location, I nearly knocked over my pal Harrison.

"Whoa!" he said, using his hand to keep his balance on the wall. He blinked in confusion for a moment and then exclaimed, "Oh, hey Vinnie! What do you think about Phantom Pains?" Now it was my turn to be confused.

"What? Phantom Pains?" Harrison looked at me in disbelief.

"Mec! Its the new Metal Gear Solid game! Kojima's on board this time, too. You should check it out sometime, maybe stop by Le Magasin de Jeu Vidéo…" Sounds interesting enough, maybe I will check it out.

"Oh, thanks for the tip dude. I'll look into it. But I gotta run so seeya later!"

"Alright dude, seeya," Harrison replied back. We went our separate ways, his of pursuit and mine of escape.

About an hour later, I walked up to my front door. It looked like it was about to rain, and the news forecast called for lightning. As I stepped in, Mémé called from the kitchen, located on the other side of the staircase in front of me, "Did you get the mail, Vinnie?" She didn't have to ask who it was, nobody else came to our house besides us two.

"…..Non," I grumbled. Dropping my bag on the floor, I turned out the door and ran to the mailbox, which was what seemed light-years away. I hurriedly grabbed its contents, and sprinted back towards the house. Rain started to fall. I managed to make it inside without getting too wet from rain, but the extra effort of running made me sweat a bit. I dropped the mail onto the coffee table in the living room to the left of the door, and something fell out. A neatly enclosed envelope, labeled "CHESS" in printed text that resembled a logo landed at my feet. Curious. I bent down to pick it up as lightning cracked in the window. Rocco darted under the couch for cover as thunder followed.

"Scaredy cat," I teased as I tore open the envelope. Inside was a CD Case, not unlike a computer game, with the same Logo printed on the cover. On the back, there were just a few legalities and the phrase, 'What are you made of?" in English. Cryptic. I opened it up, tearing off the plastic seal haphazardly, leaving bits and pieces on the floor. Inside was a leaflet. I quickly closed it back up and picked up my trash and bookbag. I headed downstairs to the "Bat Cave" as Mémé likes to call it, my second bedroom. I had stuff to do; this can wait.

Once there I threw my bookbag on the bed and my trash in the waste basket. My room was messy as usual; spare toys such as differently sized Rubik's cubes and legos littered the floor. My walls were just as messy, with random drawings and posters hung astray. It had been months since Mémé was down here, so I hadn't necessarily felt the need to tidy up. Giving my suit of armor a fist bump (yes, I have a suit of armor in one of my rooms), I hoped into my desk chair and turned my computer on. As it was coming to life, I checked my phone for any messages. I sent a message out to Maria, who I had just broken up with a few days ago. Things were kinda hot between me and her at the moment. I looked up to find my computer waiting for me. I typed in my password and wasted no time saying "Remind me in 24 hours" to the Java update that was available. I opened up Microsoft word right of the bat, hoping to knock out my History paper in an hour or so. It was on medieval times in Eastern Europe, something easy. The Byzantine Empire was the easiest choice to focus on, but I wanted to take the alternate route and look at the Slavs and the development of Russia. I settled into my work, but the disaster of today's earlier escapade still lingered in the back of my mind. Oh so stupid. Why do you always find a way to screw it up with girls, Vinnie?

A little under an hour later, I stretched my back, viewing my paper. I did a quick spell check and printed it off. As I put my paper in my bookbag, I noticed my sword rack had fallen behind my bed. I reached down there and pulled it back up, following a second and third time to retrieve the now dislodged armaments. I smiled when I revealed my prized piece of sweet merch: a replica Revolver Gunblade, just like the one Squall used in Final Fantasy 8. God, his voice actor was so great in Dissidia. Before I could put it back on the wall, dread filled my stomach. I heard the stairs creek.

I knew I didn't have time to clean anything up, so I just buried my face in my hands, waiting certain doom. I heard Mémé's feet make contact with my hardwood floor.

"Vinnie!" she scolded, with an air of disappointment in her voice, "Your room is an absolute mess!"

"I know…." I guiltily muttered from my hands. How did she make me feel so guilty so easily? My parents never made me feel bad about having a messy room when they were alive, no matter how many times they brought it up. But apparently all Mémé had to do was acknowledge it once.

"Well," she said, matter-of-factly, "I expect this will be cleaned before dinner. In the meantime, I will tell Reginald that he needn't bother with cleaning your other room anymore; you will be responsible for both now." With that, she went back upstairs, making a tsk, tsk noise as she did.

I groaned, and started to clean up a bit of the stuff on the floor, when I saw the CHESS case again. Now was as good a time as ever to read that leaflet, I supposed. I slouched in an armchair and took the leaflet out of the game case, and began reading:

"CHESS will challenge Gaming as humanity knows it…

Create. Destroy. Protect. Explore. Endure. Survive. Kill."

Each word in that last part was a different color.

"Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS."

How intriguing…​
 

PsychoJigglypuff

Crazy and Loving It!
640
Posts
14
Years
"Alright, that's all for today! You guys are dismissed."

Everyone sighed in relief. It was a long tech rehearsal, but they somehow managed to survive. The show was coming up soon, so everyone was getting stressed out. However, there was one girl who still looked peppy.

"Man, I'm so excited! Opening night is on Friday! I'm so pumped!" Rachel cheered, flexing her arms.

"At least you're excited about it." Her friend Mike groaned. "I've got some big tests that week and I won't have any time to study with these late rehearsals."

"Pfft, studying. Who needs that?" She replied. "You can worry about that boring stuff after the Sunday show. Just relax and enjoy yourself!"

"I don't know if I can get away with that. I'm already behind in my classes from this musical…"

"You just gotta believe, Mike." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Believe in the Rachel that believes in you!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

They both walked out of the theater and into the parking lot, where cars were waiting to pick kids up. Rachel's mother could be seen in her little silver car, talking on her cell phone.

"Well, it looks like my ride is here. See you tomorrow, Mike." She walked over to the car, and waved her hand at Mike.

"See ya." He gave a wave back and smiled.

Rachel opened the car door and got in the front seat. Her mother was still on the phone.

"Oh, my daughter's here now. I'll call you back later, alright? Bye!" She finished up her call and turned to face Rachel. "So, how was practice, honey?"
"It was okay. Long and tedious, but that's to be expected. The show is this weekend, after all." Rachel shrugged. "How was work?"

"Well, it started out alright, but Jerry would not stop complaining about the broken vending machine. I swear he's the only one who uses it anyway. Nothing but candy in there. He's a grown man, an accountant, and he still behaves like a child. Why, just the other day…"

Rachel's mom proceeded to talk about office drama for the rest of the drive home, but her daughter didn't mind. Her mother always had great stories to tell. As they pulled into the driveway, Rachel noticed a package on the front door.

"Ooh, is that for me? Has my birthday come early this year?" Rachel inquired playfully.

"I don't know. I don't remember ordering anything." She parked the car, and got out to look at the package. "Well I can't tell what it is, but we'll just open it once we get inside."

Rachel eagerly grabbed the package as her mother unlocked the small, one-story house.

"We're home!" She announced as she entered the building. It was dimly lit with the main source of light coming from the living room. The television was on, playing some sort of drama, while her dad was asleep on the couch. Rachel smiled. He must have had a long day at the clinic.

Making sure not to wake him up, they sneaked into the kitchen and turned on the light. The teen eagerly opened the package to find what appeared to be a game box, labeled CHESS. She frowned. While chess was nice and all, she was expecting it to be more exciting. Still, the box seemed rather fancy, so maybe there was some potential.

After having a quick bite to eat, she headed back through the living room to the other end of the hallway where the bedrooms were. Her own room was littered with stuff. Her fencing outfit was strewn on the floor, books were lying in piles on desks, and her bed sheets were tangled together in a giant ball of cloth. Her pet snake was chilling in his tank as usual.

"Hey there, Reggie~ Momma's home!" She said, cooing at him. "Who's a cute snakey? You are!"

After feeding the ball python, she pulled out her desk chair, opened up her laptop, and put on her headphones so she could sing along to the various soundtracks she had accumulated on her hard drive. However, the game box made her curious. There had to be something more to it than just chess. Opening the box, it only had a leaflet and a CD inside. She pulled out the small piece of paper and read its contents.

"Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS."

"Hmm. Wasn't expecting that." She looked back at the cover again to see more writing. She could have sword it wasn't there before.

"✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE."


"Huh. Well, I might as well try this game out. It seems pretty neat, actually." She took out the CD and put it in her disk drive, not knowing what lay ahead for her.
 
1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Penelope Cruz
--- Act 0
"Want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world
Like I'm the only one that you'll ever love
Like I'm the only one who knows your heart
Only girl in the world..."


Limbs moved in every direction as Penelope twirled around in her yellow dress that was covered with a generic white flower print. She sung along with every word that came out of her iHome that was located on her white oak desk, which she had been sitting until this song came on. Every move she made was made with such overemphasis it made Penelope seem like she was drunk rather than gracefully dancing. The chorus is when she sang her loudest into her invisible hand mic. Both her mother and father had already begun their evening shifts trusting her older siblings to look after her, which meant that if Penelope stayed out of Gavin's way he would stay out of hers. Vieve on the otherhand was more soft spoken and those two rarely interacted, some would doubt they were even twins due to their extremely different personalities. Though, Penelope wasn't above ratting Gavin out for one, sneaking out of the house passed curfew and two, doing drugs.

If one were to stand in Penelope's wooden doorway, even though that would be extremely difficult (and somewhat creepy) seeing as she always keeps her door closed. The door itself was also wooden but painted white, not that one could see the white as it was covered in posters. Her queen size bed was pushed horizontal against the far wall and to the left, which is also beneath two sets of open-curtained windows where one could see the busy street in front of her house. She had cheetah print sheets, actual cheetah print not leopard print that most people misidentified as cheetah print. The unmade bed was messy, she hated Algebra homework, well, any homework and thus left it there. Her desk was pushed vertical against the upper righthand corner (if you're still standing at the door that is...), it too was white. Her adorable collection of stuffed animals were spread out on top of the wooden bookstore that was to the left of her dresser, which was located on the wall where the door was. It housed several popular series Twilight, The Hunger Games, Divergent, and many others that she hadn't read in awhile. The most prized stuffed animal was a small, blue bear named Blueberry who remained somewhere underneath the mounds of blankets she had on her bed, at least that's the last place Penelope reminded seeing him.

"You couldn't even be tripping
You can't afford a vacation
I'm out in Haiti with Haitians
I go to Asia with Asians
You mad dusty, you a lil dusty possum
I just come through with the six like my name was Blossom"


Thankfully the song had changed to rap, which Penelope delivered flawlessly even mimicking Nicki Minaj's voice that was her favourite part. As the song continued on Penelope found herself too energized to remained seating so she chose to do something with her energy by going to fetch the mail. Without putting on shoes she jumped down the beige-coloured carpeted stairs two at a time while humming the song that had been playing previously. The first floor was covered in family photos, Penelope blamed their mother who never, and that meant never missed a chance to take a photo. Penelope guessed it had something to do with the fact that they were rarely together as a family and with Vieve and Gav departing to college it would only be her in the house for the next two year. She arrived outside after traveling through the living room, which connected to the dining room, which lead into a path where you could either go left to the kitchen or straight to the door that led outside, of course Penelope chose outside. It was chilly and the breeze blew Penelope's knee length dress as she wrapped her arms around herself. The mailbox was a standard one, there wasn't anything special or fancy about it, which bored Penelope and made her wish she had Bedazzler. Out of the corner of her eye all she saw was a blur before another set of hands wrapped around her with a strength that was much greater than her own.

"You will die in seven days..." The person was trying to say it eerily as they made reference to the early 200 movie, but the stench that wafted off the clothes immediately gave the person away.

"Gav, what are you doing out here?" Penelope inquired, but only received a sigh in response. She shrugged her shoulders and continued toward the mailbox but yet again the same blur moved passed her and beat her to her destination.

"Junk, junk, something for youuu," At the "you" Gavin threw her package up in the air and continued to walk forward as if he hadn't done anything. Instinctively her quick reaction time came alive as she lunged forward and snatched her cardboard box out of the air before it had a chance to smash into the concrete.

"Thanks!" Normally one should be mad after their sibling deliberately tossed their stuff in the air without caring about the outcome but Penelope had grown so used it she now brushed it off without a second thought.

That was the end of their daily interactions as Gavin carried on as if Penelope wasn't there while she stared at the box she held in her hands. The last thing she had ordered was a textbook about Scotland where she learned the capital was Edingburgh but the largest city was Glasgow and that's as far as she had gotten. Someday she hoped that she would be able to visit Scotland it seemed like a beauty country from all the fantastic photography she had seen though she knew that they wouldn't show her anything but. When Penelope's hazel eyes glanced up Gavin was no where in sight, he was always sneaking off someplace as if he was some sort of secret agent. Darting back up to her room she sat down at the chair that was in front of her desk.

Eagerly Penelope opened the box that now sat on her lap and the only thing in the box was a CD disc case, how odd. Per usual she flipped to the back, that's where all the juicy information was placed...

"✜ If a PLAYER is slain, the KISS has to be given to the corpse and the DREAMSELF will come alive.
✜ If a DREAMSELF is slain, the PLAYER will nevermore dream on the MOONS.
✜ If a PLAYER with a dead DREAMSELF is slain, the player enters the AFTERLIFE."

Okay, that gave away nothing to Penelope. Maybe this was one of Gavin's games? Or Vieve's? They were the gamers, she had stopped playing video games and board games when she was ten. She preferred doing activities, such as Cheerleading and Soccer because it got her involved though sometimes she watched Gavin play a game called "NBA 2012", he hated a player called "Kobe" whoever that was...

"Hello, you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals. CHESS is an innovative, exciting new computer game meant to revolutionize gaming and life as we know it. Bringing you features from popular genres such as Simulation, Role-Playing, Adventure, Action, Strategy, Puzzle, and many more. Each of these features has been molded and refined to their maximum level. Upon installing the game, you will enter a world of mystery and suspense, all while enjoying the perfection that is CHESS."

The text made little sense to Penelope but she happily placed the disc into her computer after it had finished loading. Now, all she had to do was wait for the home screen to whatever "Chess" was to pop up.​
 
37,467
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024
A program started automatically when the CD was inserted. Jet jumped off the bed and up onto Adrian's desk, as if he really wanted to watch the screen too. The installation process apparently began without asking for permission or anything. Oh well, it wasn't as if Adrian had planned to insert the CD just to say no to the program, anyways.

A few minutes passed, during which Adrian contemplated searching for a walkthrough online. He did so and found only one. Had only one other person played this game?

"CHESS walkthrough
The simulation game that can destroy the world
"


Pfft, what. The signature said -AS, two simple letters. Nah, Adrian decided against using the walkthrough because he was generally against walkthroughs. He clicked the document down. The challenge should be his alone! If a chess game could be anything other than a bore. When installation was finished, a black screen came up with a few white words.


Pick your personal color and press ENTER
> _


"Uh..." This wasn't really what Adrian had had in mind. Maybe you could play chess with other colors than black or white? He typed in 'green' for no particular reason. It wasn't his favorite color or anything, it was a rather random thing. The same instant he had pressed enter though, he regretted it. Maybe it would be really important, like what if he grew tired of green really quick? It was a pretty dull color. He shouldn't do things as rashly! Maybe he should have picked orange instead? Or blue? One could never go wrong with blue!


Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

"Haha, sure," Adrian said. "Way to make chess more dramatic." He pressed the enter key.

The screen went completely black for a second. One of the windows in Adrian's room was open and a breeze came in, making some Marvel posters on the wall behind the superhero shelves flutter. Then, a new view appeared on the computer screen. It looked like a view from The Sims, where you look down on a house from a leaned angle above. The graphics weren't the best; it was a bit cartooney with not a lot of colors, and somewhat pixelated.

In the middle of a screen was what looked like a boy, sitting in front of a computer in his room. Adrian moved around with the controls for a moment, learning to zoom and turn the camera and stuff. With the cursor keys, he could make the boy on the screen get up and walk around. And then he clicked a toy on the floor with the mouse cursor. It turned out that he could pick it up. When he did though, a black text box with new green text came up in a corner of the screen.


Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

"Oh boy, poor guy in the game," Adrian mumbled and patted Jet absentmindedly while he waited for what came next and made the boy on the screen trip on a skateboard that happened to be laying in the middle of the floor. A pixely skateboard, but still clearly recognizable. "I hope you get several lives, you're gonna need it!"


Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_


Inventory? What, like a bag? Adrian looked at the screen. It wasn't really easy to see what things were in the cartooney room. If he would have an inventory himself, he would probably have picked his superhero shoulder bag. The time was ticking down while Adrian just made the boy walk around and do nothing. 45 seconds left. Hang on, wasn't there a bag laying on the bed on the screen? A messenger bag, if his eyes didn't fool him. Yeah, that could work!

Adrian picked the bag up with the cursor and dropped it on the boy. Blinking text came up above the boy's head, saying: INVENTORY ACQUIRED!!

"Piece of cake!" Adrian smiled and rubbed Jet behind his ears.


Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_


"Uh, weapon. What kid keeps weapon in their room?" Adrian raised an eyebrow and made the boy walk out of his room. It didn't seem like he was wearing the bag he had just given him, but if he pressed "I", the inventory came up. It was empty now, of course. Just for fun, Adrian made the boy walk up to a dirty sock on the floor and pick it up. Hahaha. He had just guessed it was dirty since all boys pretty much keep dirty socks on their floor, but the name of the item in the inventory was even labeled DIRTY SOCK.

Time left: 42 seconds. Funnily enough, this kid's home reminded him of his own. There was a living room and several other bedrooms on the top floor. Walking down the staircase, the boy arrived in a hallway much alike his own too. But then again, Adrian lived in one of hundred almost identical houses nearby.

Time left: 36 seconds. Maybe he could give the boy some scissors or something? Or a shoehorn. He laughed at the possibilities.

Time left: 27 seconds. Hm, maybe... Adrian glanced back onto his own room. Mjölnir stood, dusty, in the corner. Maybe this kid kept action toys in his room as well? That was too good an opportunity to pass up on. He moved him back upstairs and into the room.

Time left: 12 seconds. An airplane was looming above Adrian's house, making a strangely screeching noise come closer and closer. Stupid airplanes, didn't they realize that they were disturbing everyone? If people could just go by train or walk everywhere they wanted, life would be better.

Time left: 5 seconds. There was indeed an action toy standing in the corner. Adrian put a finger into one of his ears to shut out some of the noise from the airplane while he clicked the toy on the screen and dropped it onto the pixelated boy in the last moment.

An explosion was heard outside. Adrian jumped in his chair and Jet jumped down from the desk. "What was that?"

He rushed to the open window and looked outside. No crashed airplane or car or anything. But a neighbor who stood in the middle of the street looking like she had just seen a ghost. Very strange. Pondering the possible and impossible reasons for the noise, he slowly got back into his seat again, just in time to see the words HAMMERKIND ALLOCATED!! stop flashing above the boy's head.

Hammerkind. So the toy had been a hammer, just like the hammer in Adrian's room. An eerie feeling suddenly prickled at him and he turned to look at Mjölnir. It still stood there, as dusty as ever. Maybe... Maybe there were just more kids than he thought who liked superheroes?


Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_


Now Adrian was sort of perplexed. What on earth was a prototruder? And how would he deploy one? He moved the cursor to different things in the boy's room but found nothing with that label. Then he moved the cursor to touch the top of the screen. Suddenly, another control box dropped down, beside the one in the top left corner that was always there to let him zoom and handle view controls, and the black box in the upper right corner where time counted down.

Time left: 25 seconds. Oh yeah, one of the buttons in the drop down menu at the top of the screen was labeled DEPLOY. Hovering above it let another menu drop down with a strange machine in it. PROTOTRUDER. Yeah, ok. Adrian clicked it and placed it down in the middle of the boy's room, just nearly squashing the skateboard laying there, with 13 seconds left.

180px-Cruxtruder.png

Adrian thought he heard a thud from somewhere in the house, and spun his head around. The door to his room was open, just as he had left it. "Jet?" he called out. But the bunny had placed itself on top of his bed again, chewing on the remains of the CHESS package once more. "Drava? Lina?"

PROTOTRUDER DEPLOYED!! flashed above the boy's head.

"This game is so strange. What does time limits have to do with chess?" Adrian mumbled, mostly to hear his own voice. Something about all this made him feel more and more uneasy.

The prototruder on the screen blinked and the lid on the tube moved as if it wanted to get off. Adrian, having played enough games in his life to know when something was interactive, moved the boy to the machine and made him interact with it, turning the handle to make the lid come off.

Something escaped the tube and circled around the pixly room for a moment before coming to a stop, hovering in the air in front of the boy. It blinked in a really annoying way that made Adrian worry about getting epilepsy.

Spoiler:

The flashing words now were: KERNELSPRITE RELEASED!! In the corner of his eye, Adrian felt like if something was flashing in real life too. But turning around, he once again heard or saw nothing. He didn't like this. This was... He couldn't explain it. Just strange. Yet, he didn't want to stop. He was compelled to finish and see what happened when the time limits grew shorter and shorter.


Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_


"Okay, okay..." Adrian said to himself, remembering how to deploy stuff now. A new machine was in the deploy menu. But it wouldn't fit in the boy's bedroom. He had to place it in the hallway downstairs, with a good 24 seconds to go. ALCHEMITER DEPLOYED!!

20101221231123!RealAlchemiter.png

Some noise was heard outside. People were talking loudly in the street, or screaming even. What? Adrian almost didn't want to walk up to the window now. But of course he had to see what the neighbor earlier had maybe been looking ghostlike at.

Cars were taking off. People were running away from their houses. Adrian just dropped his jaw. What... Why? What was this all of a sudden? Then he saw that some were pointing up towards the sky, and looked there as well.

Flaming rocks. Meteors. Nightmare. There were space rocks falling from the sky, clearly heading towards Brisbane at an eerily slow pace. As if gravity didn't affect them as much as it should. Or... Adrian didn't know a lot about these things, he just knew that this was terrible. This was like a bad apocalypse movie. He felt nauseus.

Surreal.

The computer beeped at him and Jet had jumped up onto the desk again and were beeping as well. No, not beeping. But squeaking, more like.

"I can't... play the game now, I have to... There's..."

Surreal.


Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_


Adrian stared at the words on the screen. He heard an explosion outside. Maybe a meteor had hit a house. It felt weird to think those words, even. His body was as good as numb.

To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out.

Time left: 27 seconds.

"What if... The game is behind all this?" Yeah, that felt even more weird to say. Yet, it didn't feel as surreal to think of that as to think of meteors just randomly striking Earth. After all, Adrian wasn't the one to not be open to strange explanations and scenarios. That was everyday snack for him. But now he was put to the test.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," he mumbled over and over as he rushed back to the computer screen and took action.

Create the portal? There was no new machine to deploy so he probably had to... Do something with those already existing. He made the boy interact with the prototruder and it wanted him to use an item on it. The only item in the inventory was the DIRTY SOCK. In no game Adrian had played would a dirty sock be an important portal item. But maybe... The kernelsprite flashed right beside the boy. Adrian didn't hesitate and made the boy put it in his inventory. It worked! Next, he used it on the prototruder. The machine wobbled and from the tube at the top sprung a green thingy. TOTEMATERIAL PRODUCED!! Time left: 18 seconds.

Cruxite_zps0240464c.png

"Okay, okay, okay," Adrian chanted just because he felt better if he didn't keep quiet and listened to to the commotion outside. Chaos, was maybe a better word. "Now what, now what?"

The other machine, of course. He made the boy run downstairs with the blue thingy and up to the alchemiter. A screeching and booming noise grew louder over Adrian's house as the clock ticked down below 10 seconds. It was the game. It was all the game.

"NOW WHAT!?!?"

The alchemiter had two platforms. One large one that took up most of the space. One small one, with... Something looking like a mechanical arm sitting near it. Adrian took a chance with the few seconds he had left. The boy took out the totematerial from his inventory and used it on the small platform. Time left: 2 seconds.

Words blinked. PORTAL CREATED!! At the same moment, a huge boom was heard outside of Adrian's house, making him scream and put his hands over his ears. Jet merely twitched.

Outside the windows of his room, he could see flaming pieces of rock fly down, still as eerily slowly, and miss his house but instead crashing into other people's gardens or houses. So... It was true. The game controlled the meteors. If you finished the tasks on time, the meteor heading for your home would explode and spare you. But the time limits were getting shorter. Adrian found himself breathing faster.

Was he the only one receiving this game? The text had said... It had said "you have been chosen to participate in CHESS, a feat that will be accredited to very few individuals." What if there were more people who received this game and tried to play it? What if they wouldn't know what to do, and the meteor would strike them! He had to do something. He had to... He had to get this out on the internet somehow!

On the screen, the boy pressed a button on the machine and the mechanical arm on the alchemiter stretched out and scanned the totematerial. When it had finished, something began appearing above the larger platform. A light, flickering at first but then growing. A blue light. It did look like a portal from some game, growing from the size of a pea.

Adrian nodded as he watched this. A portal. Where the boy could escape. Not that there were meteors above his house. But then again... Hang on... Their houses looked the same. Exactly. They had even both featured Mjölnir and the superhero messenger bag. And when he squinted... wasn't there a black bunny sitting on top of the boy's bed?

"Oh my god."

Surreal.


Task 6
> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE
Time limit: 20 seconds_


Prototype. To Adrian, that word meant a physical thing, a test subject, something that was new and not truly tested out yet. An alarm was heard outside, likely Brisbane that had sounded a big cityspanning alarm. Also, firetrucks and police cars could be heard, and people screaming.

How would one prototype a blinking sprite in a game? The kernelsprite had apparently freed itself from the prototruder and followed the boy downstairs. Now it blinked eagerly next to him. Maybe Adrian could do like with the inventory and weaponkind before. Just drop something on the sprite. But what?

13 seconds left. Soon, the booming noise would be heard again, from the meteor closing in on him below 10 seconds. Adrian panicked and picked up a potted plant with large leaves and tossed it onto the kernelsprite. The screen blinked in white and then the kernelsprite had changed forms. It was still blinking irritatingly, but it pretty much had the shape of a plant, jumping on the pot like a single foot. KERNELSPRITE PROTOTYPED!! Another earsmashing explosion told him that his house had just been saved from the biggest meteor so far. This was strengthened when he saw the house next to his get crushed by a slow falling but car sized piece of flaming rock in the next second. Hot air from the impact blew in through Adrian's open window. But he was so focused on the game and determined that it was the root of all this, that he didn't move from his spot in front of the desk.

So that was what it meant! The kernelsprite tried to say something to the boy, but the sound that came out was just weird noise and a chat bubble on the screen was illegible. What if he tried prototyping it again with something a little more intelligent than a plant? Quickly, before the next time limit came up on screen.

The boy moved upstairs and found the bunny on the bed. Adrian threw a glance back at Jet, who looked back. For once without chewing slowly on something and somehow actually seeming like he looked back into Adrian's eyes. Then he clicked the bunny in the game and put it into the plantsprite, which had followed the boy upstairs.

Another white screen for a split second, and then another changed shape. A white, black and greenish blinking thing with a bunny's head, branches with leaves for arms, and a tail reminiscent of a cartoon genie.

Jet's ears stood straight up all of a sudden. He looked like he had been struck by lightning. Adrian wondered what he had just done. It was just a game, right? He hadn't harmed his bunny, right? But the meteors...

The most earsplitting noise yet reached him. He had missed the next black screen in the top right corner.


Task 7
> ENTER
Time left: 8 seconds_


There was no question as to what that meant. Adrian's heart had never beat so fast in his life. He made the boy almost leap downstairs and reach the alchemiter. Just above the big platform gleamed a now fully grown green portal, big enough for a man to step through without bending down.

tumblr_inline_mfb52mWVPh1r4v82w.gif

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Adrian found himself mumbling as he felt the air getting hot from the flaming space rock closing in above his house, and steered the boy on the screen to jump through the portal.


--


Natural disaster. Meteor shower hitting Brisbane without warning. As if they had appeared from thin air just outside the atmosphere, not picked up by satellites or anything. The city was tragically devastated and a few districts completely wiped out by rocks and flame.

But there were more teenagers who had received the game of CHESS in mail that day. Australia was in an early time zone. When the other receivers would wake up and find their own game in the mail, their regions would be next.

If these players would do a search on the internet before playing the game, searching for things like "CHESS computer game" or "CHESS meteors" or the likes, they would find a short walkthrough. Strangely enough, it seemed to have been written and uploaded several hours before the Brisbane disaster...

CHESS walkthrough
The simulation game that can destroy the world


Or at least I guess it can, if it works the same for you as it did for me. I began playing it and I passed the entry phase. I am alone here now, but my SPRITE tells me that there will be more soon. So I guess some of you will make it through alive? Anyways, I'll be brief, because I'm not sure where I am and I think there is something moving outside my house.


Task 1: click a bag or basket or pouch or I don't know, whatever. And just drop it onto your character. I don't think the actual size matters, my INVENTORY seems bottomless so far. Kind of abstract, like a game INVENTORY really.

Task 2: whatever you drop onto your character now, it WILL BECOME A WEAPON. Give them a rug and their weapon will be RUGKIND. Oh, and you'll never be able to use other kinds of weapon. Not for a while at least.

Task 3: put the PROTOTRUDER close to the ALCHEMITER. You won't regret it.

Task 4: really, at least don't put them on different floors or something. Near. By.

Task 5: I swear the game is meant to kill most of the players. This task was just... I don't even know how I figured it out. You are supposed to put the KERNELSPRITE in your INVENTORY and then USE it on the PROTOTRUDER. Take the TOTEMATERIAL that appears and put it on the ALCHEMITER and activate it.

Task 6: I'm really not sure how this worked, but you have to drop things onto your KERNELSPRITE. I put my pet in and now he can talk so I think that's a smart thing to do. I managed to throw 2 things in but the game seemed content with only one, and I kind of had to rush a lot to not miss the last timer so maybe it's better to just put 1 thing in.

Task 7: just jump or you'll die. I can still access the internet so I've read the news. Apparently this last meteor was much bigger than the others and completely wiped my house out. Or at least it should have, but I think my house, me and the SPRITE teleported to somewhere else. The CHESS screen on my computer just says that I have ENTERED the game.


I hope you'll survive and end up where I am soon, because I'm starting to really freak out. Ok, it's not that I'm afraid or anything but yes really I feel like I want to throw up.

Remember, the meteors are controlled by the game. And, um, the house on the screen is your house. Your real home, in game format. And the character you are controlling, well, it's actually yourself. Maybe I should have written this at the top of this walkthrough, in case you didn't read it all before you started performing the tasks. But anyways, maybe you would have been more stressed up then. I don't know. I don't know anything.

- AS

 
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Lt. Col. Fantastic

The Arianator
698
Posts
11
Years

Vinnie Valentine
Soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYuaVEE3jto : Kode9 - Curious



Shrugging, I popped the disc out of the game case and plopped it into my old laptop. Worse scenario, its a virus and my old computer dies. I have more. Best scenario? This is one kick-ass video game. The game loads rather quickly, but I see why soon enough. Plain text is shown on the screen, prompting me to choose a color. Oh, so this is text based. Naturally, I go with my favorite, red. (Red is just a good color, okay?) So that was easy enough. Next.



> Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_


Somewhat dismayed by the fact that my Mac doesn't have an enter key, I press Return. It takes it. Sweet. This game is a little cheesy I guess, but text games are always fun, right? When's the last time you played Zork and didn't have fun? Heh heh, good old Zork....

I waited patiently as my screen went dark. Moments later, a pixelated room appeared. Some kid was sitting at a desk near the middle of the screen. Huh? I thought this was a text based game, not some Sims rip off. Then again, the leaflet made it pretty clear that this game had everything. Wait...is that a suit of armor in the room? It can't be...heh. What a coincidence. I try not to think nothing of it, but I can't shake the suspicious feeling from my mind. To distract myself, I mess with my keyboard....getting a feel for the controls. I learn that moving the man on the screen was accomplished with the directional buttons. So I guess this was my dude. Don't I get to name him? I hate it when you can't name your characters. That's easily the biggest flaw in Final Fantasy 8, not being able to rename Zell, Irvine, and Selphie. The rest of the names are okay, even the ones you can change, but those three needed it the most. Zell...what kinda name is that? I make a mental note to refer to the guy on my screen as "Harry". He looked kinda like a Harry, with the Jew fro and tan skin.

Name shenanigans aside, I walk Harry over to something on the ground. I can't really make it out, but it looks like a DVD case. As soon as I interact with it, a text box appears in the top left corner.


Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

Well, I guess we should get started! I had some time before dinner, maybe I could get through this phase before dinner and finish the rest of the game tonight.


Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_


Huh? Equip an inventory...so I actually have to find something to carry items with? That's a first. Realistic, I like it. I scan the boy's room, looking for a bag of some sort. Finding nothing like that, I decide to try some random stuff to see if it takes it. After a few mishaps with a stapler and a sword, I finally get the game to accept a cell phone as the inventory. Whatever. Digital inventory for a digital reality, why the hell not? The text "Inventory Acquired!" appears over Harry's head. I decided to look for a strategy guide on the internet. A quick search on my nearby iPad brought up only one guide, in English of course (-_-). I guess it will work. I start loading the page while simultaneously doing the next task.


Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_


Weapon...weapon...I looked through Harry's room for something cool. He had a bunch of bladed weapons, broadswords, cutlasses, scimitars, a urami even...a few kilij and, to my disbelief, a shotel. Wow, whoever made this game sure knows his pre-modern world history. He might even be a bigger history geek than me, what with the ceremonial daggers on the table...that are....just like mine....huh. And sheesh Harry had a lot of swords in his room. One of them was...wait. Hold the damn phone. He has a Revolver Gunblade too?! I glance from my screen to the sword rack on my wall. No way. Uh-uh. I'm just going to ignore that, that didn't happen. Nope. What gunblade? I don't see one. In fact, this nice chakram is the only thing I can see. (Holy sh*t he has one of those too? This is getting inheritly obvious that Harry is me.) Ploop. Into Harry the throwing weapon goes. goes, ha ha ha..... (#whatgunblade)

The text above Harry's head appears, this time saying "CHAKRAMKIND Allocated!" But my mind suddenly left me. Oh my god this is me. Its me. In the game. Some creep made a video game about me. I bet it was Maria. Oh God it was Maria. That's it! Tomorrow Mémé will see my body on the news: "Local Hot Male Found Dead With Chakram In His Neck." I can see it now.

My flip-out was interrupted by a boom echoing throughout my house, sorta like the cannons that fire down by the WWII Memorial not far from here...Weird for it to be firing now, there wasn't much tourism this time of year. And it never was that loud, as far as I can remember...strange. I debated continuing my flipout, but the next task was already upon me.



Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_


Deploy..... Hey, there's a button for that! I click it, and a drop down menu appears with one item available: the PROTRUDER. Convenient. I click it, and an RTS-esque feel suddenly envelopes me. The protruter is highlighted in red, and I'm free to choose where to place it. I decide on placing it upstairs (which again looks eerily similar to the ground floor of my home. There's a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms like my house...) It now rests in the living room where the, uh... coffee table used to be. The coffee table now resides in beautiful Crushed-Beneath-the-Protruder Springs. It's not exactly elegant, but there's plenty of space around the protruder now.


I noticed that there was a handle on th Protruder. The top of the machine also wiggled a bit, as if something was trying to get out. I steered Harry towards the machine, and had him turn the handle. The lid popped off, and a flashy-epileptic orb came out. Awesome! I immediately thought it was like some sort of collectible, like "Find the 8 missing seizure orbs", but I had a strange instinct that it was important. I put it in Harry's inventory, after messing with a few controls to figure out how to do so. Another rewarding text bubble appeared. Kernalsprite Released!!! Before I could celebrate, however, the next task was given, with an even shorter time limit.


Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_


I noticed that my guide was done loading, and probably has been for a while. I scroll through it briefly, trying to read it while placing down the Alchemiter at the same time. I notice that the guide says to put it near the protruder, so I put the new machine in the adjacent bedroom, where a terrified pixelated cat is hiding under the bed. Damnit, Harry has a cat too. I can't deny it anymore. This is somehow a computer game of me. I don't know if it's aliens, some stalker, or my friends playing a prank on me. I'm going with the prank theory. I don't need to be on the floor crying over some dumb paranoid illusions of aliens, much like the night after I watched Men in Black. (On second thought, if this is a prank, how is there a strategy guide for it?)

I read the next task in full, because it looks complicated. Then I notice the word kill. I don't think much of it at first, but something in the back of my head gives off a warning. I then read the rest of the guide quickly.

CHESS walkthrough
The simulation game that can destroy the world


Task 5: I swear the game is meant to kill most of the players. This task was just... I don't even know how I figured it out. You are supposed to put the KERNELSPRITE in your INVENTORY and then USE it on the PROTOTRUDER. Take the TOTEMATERIAL that appears and put it on the ALCHEMITER and activate it.

Task 6: I'm really not sure how this worked, but you have to drop things onto your KERNELSPRITE. I put my pet in and now he can talk so I think that's a smart thing to do. I managed to throw 2 things in but the game seemed content with only one, and I kind of had to rush a lot to not miss the last timer so maybe it's better to just put 1 thing in.

Task 7: just jump or you'll die. I can still access the internet so I've read the news. Apparently this last meteor was much bigger than the others and completely wiped my house out. Or at least it should have, but I think my house, me and the SPRITE teleported to somewhere else. The CHESS screen on my computer just says that I have ENTERED the game.


I hope you'll survive and end up where I am soon, because I'm starting to really freak out. Ok, it's not that I'm afraid or anything but yes really I feel like I want to throw up.

Remember, the meteors are controlled by the game. And, um, the house on the screen is your house. Your real home, in game format. And the character you are controlling, well, it's actually yourself. Maybe I should have written this at the top of this walkthrough, in case you didn't read it all before you started performing the tasks. But anyways, maybe you would have been more stressed up then. I don't know. I don't know anything.

- AS

Okay, this guy is on LSD. But the guide in general seems legit, so I'll follow it. I want to beat this game, for some reason more than just being competitive. Something is driving me to win, almost like it's a duty, or a destiny. Whatever though. Regardless I'm in it to win it.



Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds
HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_



Okay, so obviously I lose if time runs out. But with this guide, that doesn't seem possible. Following the guide, I move Harry to the Protruder and have him interact. I'm prompted with the inventory, so I select the Kernalsprite. The Protruder pops out a cylinder thing. Its bright red, like the color I picked. Okay, easy. I put it into my inventory and move Harry to the dining room. As I do, Reginald comes in through my door (the real life one), scaring the sh*t out of me.

"Oh God Reginald you just gave me a heart attack," I stammer, trying to focus on the game.

"Sorry, Mr. Valentine. I was just coming to tell you that dinner is almost ready." He pauses to look at my computer. "Another one of your games?" he inquires. Reginald may not be a tech guru, but he's rather savvy for a 60 something year old guy. Maybe 70 something.

"Yeah," I said, "lemme finish this real quick. Its timed." Reginald nodded his head, more of an "Okay whatever" nod than a "I see" nod. He points at Harry on the screen.

"Is that you?" he asked, "Its a fair match if I do say so myself. Did you make him look like that?"

"Uh, no, it came like that. Weird, huh?" I nonchalantly said as I activated the portal. The bubble came back, notifying me of my success. Reginald continued to loom over my shoulder looking at the screen. Glancing at the strategy guide, I read up on my next task.

" I'm really not sure how this worked, but you have to drop things onto your KERNELSPRITE. I put my pet in and now he can talk..."

This is the part where it starts being crazy. I locate the kernalsprite on my screen, still free from when I used it on the Protruder. Shrugging, I try to grab Harry's cat and put him in. But its too fast, now spooked by the flashing sprite. A slower, and easier target is located in the basement of Harry's house. It resembled an old butler of sorts. Reginald pointed at the screen.

"Hey! Thats me, right?" he exclaimed, "You remembered to put ol' Reggie in your game."

That gave me an idea. I looked behind me, my chakram still sitting on my dresser. I reached into my pocket and felt my phone. Whatever happened in game couldn't affect real life, could it? I slowly moved my curser towards the old butler. A little nervous, I dragged him over to the Sprite, and finally put him in. The reaction was immediate.

Reginald froze behind me, gasping. My heart sunk, and then rose to my throat again when a boom shook my entire house. What's going on? The last task appeared on the screen, and I remembered the Guide. The Hint. The Leaflet. They weren't on LSD, a joke, or even cheap advertising. They were warnings. I gulped, trying to keep it under control. But I failed miserably. Paranoia raced through my mind, aliens, OJ Simpson conspiracy theories, and the same clip from the Rocket power TV show intro that haunted my childhood ran through my mind over and over. I was overwelmed already, and then I felt a panic attack come on. I more or less collapsed out of my chair and into the floor, grasping my head and probably screaming, even though I couldn't hear anything. Next came claustrophobia, as if on cue. My breathing started to pick up briskly, frightening me even more now. Exponentially, I worked myself up high enough to start blacking out, partly from my now racing heartbeat and partly from my lack of adequate oxygen. The last thing I remember was Reginald shaking me, then looking at the computer, and finally my tablet. Fading into unconciousness, I barely saw Reginald move his hands towards my keyboard.

 
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Legend

Kingslayer
1,308
Posts
15
Years
Without needing to click a single button, CHESS seemed to begin installing by itself. It was convenient, as otherwise Liam would have to click the "yes" button over and over again, signing away his life without reading the terms and conditions and all the fine print that came with it. Since he never have read of this version of CHESS and neglected to check if an instruction manual or anything came with the game, Liam tried to find anything on Google that at least would give him some clue as to how to play the game before button mashing his way to glory. Also, Liam hates in game tutorials. Cumbersome and tedious. Ack, he hated that word. Tedious. Just thinking of it made him shudder.

Luckily, Liam found a walkthrough written by an "AS". However, AS seemed insane. Liam read the walkthrough fairly carefully, but he found himself reading over certain lines more than others. The game's terms hardly made sense and the ending paragraph that talked about meteors and the house being "your house" seemed ridiculous. Must have been a troll who thought he would be cute by placing a fake walkthrough about the game. Unless…oh never mind.


Pick your personal color and press ENTER
> _


The installation suddenly finished and a black screen with white text popped up. It was a rather sudden choice, choosing a color. Liam was tempted to pick his favorite color green but decided to be different and choose another color. Looking around his room, he game to a rather sudden epiphany and typed "Light Blue." It was the color on the Scottish flag after. "I have to be proud of my culture," Liam told himself as he pressed enter.


Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

"Oi! Let's get on with it!" Liam yelled at the game, slamming the enter key again. Seriously, he already pressed enter. He just wanted to start the game, save and maybe look at his homework. The day was bright and fairly young too. Maybe he would go and play some basketball with friends, if they were up for it. The screen lit up after fading to black and soon a poorly constructed room loaded before him. It looked like a low budget Sims clone with poor graphics, a limited color palette and clunky controls. Or at least clunky in Liam's opinion. Then again, he was a critic at heart. He sighed as he got used to the controls. And then another text box loaded in the corner of the screen.


Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

"Time limits? Really, lad? This game is goin' to suck." Of course, the game has to artificially create difficulty by making your character die when you fail the task. But then a light bulb went off in Liam's head. The walkthrough talked about tasks. Was it possible that the guide was legitimate? Liam tried to remember what the guide had said concerning the tasks as the first task popped up on his screen.


Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_


Poor phrasing aside, Liam was pretty sure he understood what the game wanted him to do. He needed to find something to be his inventory pouch. It was a nice touch, but he would much rather play with pocket universes. He looked through the room that his avatar was in, finding a backpack in the corner of the room near the closet. He picked up the bag with a click of the mouse and text popped up: Inventory Acquired! . A backpack wasn't exactly original, but it got the job done better than anything he could think of. It's strange that the backpack was in a very similar place like his own backpack in the real world. Liam's eyes narrowed.


Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_


Well, this was easy enough. If the Avatar's room was truly based on his own, then on the wall should be a number of replica swords hanging there. Liam moved his character over to the wall, clicking and dragging the sword only for the game to beep saying: Bladekind acquired. A sword was about as unoriginal as a backpack, but just as practical. That served him well enough, but what was with the time limits? They were getting annoying.



Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_

Prototruder? What was that? Liam didn't recall having anything in his room called that and nor did his little Avatar have such an object in his room. He looked out his window for a moment, seeing a small little crowd gather in the middle of the street, seemingly discussing something. Strange. The collection of neighbors included a bunch that were not fond of each other. What could possibly bring them together?

20 seconds remain. Liam had to hurry and figure out what the hell a Prototruder was and how to deploy it. Then Liam saw the drop down menu on the screen, went to deploy and found the Prototruder, deploying it with about 15 seconds left on the clock. That was easy enough. The machine consumed most of the room, leaving little space for anything else. Unless the Avatar cared little for his bed.

Prototruder Deployed!

He was not given a new task immediately giving Liam some breathing room for the first time in the game since he was blasted with all the tasks. He checked outside his room again seeing the same crowd before, still gathered together. Liam shrugged his shoulders and moved his character to the machine, interacting with the device. Even with the limited graphics, it was clear what occurred when a strange sprite popped onto his screen, blinking with flashing colors. Liam was getting annoyed, but pushed on. The game wasn't hard, just difficult to understand the logic behind it.

The flashing words now were: Kernelsprite Released! The bright sprite flew around the room and Liam felt as if his dark room was lighting up too.


Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_


Deploying another item? Now that Liam knew how it wouldn't be too hard to actually do. But he needed room. Liam remembered the guide said to keep the two machines close to one another, so Liam moved his character to the room next door. It was a girl's room with a small girl in the room simply standing there. Wait…the room looked like his sister's. That means the guide was not lying at all. The game was built using his house as a model. It was getting creepier playing the game. He had to play more to find out why it was designed so. The game had to have clues. As Liam felt his privacy terribly invaded, the crowds outside grew more nervous, some were bolting into cars driving away with anxiety. And who could blame them? It wasn't like there were meteors crashing down around them.

Oh wait. There were! Was the world ending? Wait, the guide! It was the game! It wasn't talking about the character in game dying. It was talking about him! Liam had to finish it. He had to.


Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_


This was clearly the most difficult task so far, simply because of the word "create" being there. There was no create button on the menu and time was ticking. Liam took a breath, trying to block out the chaos that occurred outside. Liam had to think. Clearly it had something to do with the items he already had.

Liam moved his avatar back to his room and fiddled with the Prototruder. There were no options readily available which dismayed Liam (he hoped a new option would open up, since Prototruder sounded a bit like Portal). Sadly, he couldn't remember the guide very easily since the language at this point was harder to understand. The Kernelsprite was fluttering around Liam and he took a guess on what to do at this point. He made his avatar grasp the Kernelsprite and Liam made his character use it on the Prototruder. Totematerial acquired!. Liam had about 10 seconds to bolt over to the room next door and used his new item on the alchemiter, placing it on a small platform with barely 5 seconds left on the clock. It was a lucky guess.

Portal Created!

"Whew," Liam said with a sigh of relief. At least that worked. A meteor crashed into his backyard as the ground shook greatly. Did that meteor miss because Liam completed the task on time? Most likely. It seemed Liam held the fate of his household in his hands. Better get cracking.


Task 6
> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE
Time limit: 20 seconds_


That task was another of these poorly worded, heavy with terminology that gave Liam a headache, but this one Liam vaguely recalled what he needed to do. He needed to drop items onto his Kernalsprite. His avatar was still in the girl's room, but he decided to move the character back his room to find a useful item. He had about 15 seconds and Liam began to panic. What the hell should he drop on it? Maybe Liam would be cheeky, and make his fluttering sprite a fairy. Liam picked up a Navi (the fairy from Zelda) plushie on the Kernalsprite, creating a Navisprite. The clock seemed to stop and Liam could breathe easy again. His sister popped into his room, screaming bloody murder, but Liam ignored her because the game was still running.

"Shut up, lass," Liam said under his breath. "This game is important."

"But," she said. "The sky is falling on us. We got to go!"

Liam didn't hear her warnings and was focused on the fact that his new sprite was trying to talk to him. In the game, a girl popped into the room, seemingly talking to the avatar. Liam tried dragging the girl onto the sprite and somehow succeed creating the Navisissprite. That is a lot of "s" Liam thought. Oh well. His sister froze behind him, appearing to a massive chill as she just took a cold shower. That was a strange coincidence. This game was getting weirder.


Task 7
> ENTER
Time left: 8 seconds_


He had no time to dwell on the strange turn of events. Liam immediately pushed his avatar back to the sister's room to see the bright blue portal consuming the screen. The timer clicked down to a few seconds. He had no choice.

He jumped in.
 
1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Penelope Cruz
--- Act 0
Penelope whistled softly as a program began installing itself onto her computer. That was weird, wasn't it? Why didn't she have to accept the installation of it, but that was less work for her so she just shrugged off her worries. Perhaps she should ask Gavin if he had ever heard of a game called CHESS but soon decided against it. There was no need for her to ask anyone for help, she could complete this weird and mysterious game all on her own and then start on her Algebra homework before dinner. Before she knew it a black screen had popped up on her computer with white text.


Pick your personal colour and press ENTER
> _


Colour? Why did she need a colour? Did this game want her to pick her favourite colour? She needed something that would pop; let everyone know in this game that she was friendly and social. No one liked people who chose weird dark colors they often were people that kept to themselves. The brightest color she could think of was yellow, yes, that would definitely be her color. Though, she didn't just want any yellow she wanted Cadmiumlemon, which was the absolute best shade yellow. If the beginning was this easy she'd be able to breeze through this game with no problem at all.


Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

"The whole universe?" Penelope rolled her eyes as if she couldn't believe this game would choose something cheesy like that to begin their game with.

Without a second thought Penelope pressed down hard on the enter key. She did however like how the text now matched the color that she had chosen, kudos to the game maker(s)! The screen faded into darkness and when it came back to life it was a plain room with an avatar sitting at a computer. There was nothing special about the graphics; perhaps she had kudos the game makers too soon… It was weird; it was like she was playing one of those popular game series that Gavin always played. Penelope took a moment as she tried to recall what the title of that series was… Oh, well it wasn't that important.

It took Penelope a few tries before she got the girl on the screen to do as she pleased. Mostly she just made her jump up and down, well, because she didn't really know what she was supposed to do with it. Before she had the chance to do more another black box displayed itself on the screen, this was getting repetitive.


Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

"I JUST STARTED WHY WOULD I DIE ALREADY?!" Penelope exclaimed, now these text boxes just became melodramatic. Penelope of course didn't mind too much she wouldn't let her character die, ever. She would bet this game in record timing without using any pesky cheat sheets, of course. The girl in the room still spun around in a circle Penelope giggling every so often in result.


Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_


A minute? What was her inventory, no, wait, WHERE was her inventory? Oh man, Penelope knew she should've played more with the actual menu buttons instead of her avatar. Now, she only had one minute to find something she didn't know where one could be located. In all of Gavin's game, which she watched him play sometimes when she didn't want to do her homework, it was always a bag or a purse. Oh! Oh! There was a purse located on the girl's bed, it was cute too! Penelope didn't hesitate to place the purse on the girl.

INVENTORY ACQUIRED!

"Well, that was easy enough, aren't these tasks going to get any harder?" Penelope wondered out loud.


Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_


A weapon? Why on earth did she need a weapon? No children (the girl did look fairly young, and beautiful to Penelope) would have a weapon just laying around waiting to be used as a killing machine. Nope, nothing in the girl's room looked like a weapon to Penelope, what would happen if she went without one? Surely the game wouldn't punish her too badly? Oh wait, this was also the game that said she would die if she didn't complete such tasks.

Time Limit: 25 seconds. Crap. Penelope maneuvered the girl to look underneath her messy bed, strange, Penelope's bed looked messy in the same way. Ah well, what teenager didn't have a messy bedroom? A white ball with black hexagons on it was the only thing underneath the bed, that and a blue stuffed bear...

Time Limit: 5 seconds. A message popped up as soon as she had dragged the soccer ball onto the girl. BALLKIND ALLOCATED! A whistling sound passed outside Penelope's window and rumbles soon followed it, but she ignored it. They were always doing construction of some sort on the street that was in front of her house, like, always doing it. It bugged her when she tried to do her homework, but since it was a job and people were getting paid for and that in return was putting food on the table for families Penelope couldn't really complain without feeling guilty.


Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_


Proto-what? Why that had to be the dumbest name for anything in the history of everdom. Why did she only have 40 seconds to deploy something she hadn't any knowledge of? How to deploy something was a complete mystery, maybe there was something in her menu that would help her out... Maybe.

Yep, just like she assumed there would be one, a drop down menu. As just dragged the machine across the screen she noticed how large it was and it would in fact take up half the room, lucky, this girl had a spacious room just like Penelope. Somehow this girl and her had a lot more stuff in common but not even to make it suspicious. The machine settled in half of the room, it was pushed right up the bed and the wall opposite from the windows. It was a tight squeeze but somehow (with a lot of adjustments) it fit perfectly (well, there would be scratches on the wall, but who cares?)

PROTOTRUDER DEPLOYED!

Well, thank goodness because the clock had just reached 4 seconds. The sounds outside became deafening they were worser than they had ever been before but Penelope was much too invested in the game to check out lame construction workers. She wanted to find out what this machine did so she did just that and started toying with the handles and nobs and everything else she could mess with and consequently the following message came up:

KERNELSPRITE RELEASED!

The lid had popped off the machine and thus released a strobe light type thing. By mere coincidence Penelope felt a brighter light encircling her room same as the Kernelsprite did in the virtual room but when she slowly looked behind her there was nothing. Odd.


Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_


Now, this would be easy. Penelope worked the drop down menu like this was her fifth time playing the game. It wasn't easy but with enough force she managed to stick the Alchem-what in the same room as the Proto-what luckily her Avatar was thin and could fit through tight spaces.

A curious peek out the window revealed that cars were zooming the opposite way they were supposed to, did they not know the street was a one way? The reason why was soon explained as several giant rocks landed right in the middle of the street. Penelope had no clue how that was possible but she was beginning to think that this game wasn't talking about her character dying. This game wasn't something she wanted to play anymore, at first it was enjoyable but now strange things were happening.

There was one question Penelope had, why was she still playing the game instead of running for her life?


Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_


Create.. a… portal?

Nope. Penelope was officially finished with this game, they asked her to do things she had never heard of in her life. How does one just create a portal out of thin air? You can't. They could at least give her some instructions and a bigger time limit especially if they wanted her to get anything done. She was willing to let this Avatar die, she wouldn't allow herself to believe that this game could have any control over her reality (life) that was plain silly. Yet her stubbornness to finish the game compelled her to find a way that she could create a stupid portal. First Penelope scanned the room looking for anything that would help her create a portal. The machines must do something!

"UGH!" A flustered Penelope yelled, this was useless she had absolutely no clue what she was doing.

The Avatar walked up to the Proto-what and a tiny pop up screen indicated that Penelope was meant to use an item on it. Well, she didn't have any inventory items and the only thing she owned was a flashing ball of annoyance. If that shut the bright light down a few scales Penelope was willing to try anything.

TOTEMATERIAL PRODUCED!

Neat.

If she had to use the Proto-what for the first part of this then the Alchem-what was definitely needed in the second part. It didn't take long for Penelope to notice the mechanical arm and fiddle around with it. She eventually ended up just placing the Tote stuff on one of the platform the machine had provided for her.

PORTAL CREATED!

There the portal was covering most of the room actually. Neat, once again. What wasn't neat was the constant ruckus outside of her house, it sounded like an earthquake, tornado, and hailstorm were happening all at once. Penelope didn't want to waste time looking especially since the time limit was decreasing with every task she completed.


Task 6
> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE
Time limit: 20 seconds_


The definition of the sentence hadn't made any sense to Penelope but she guessed it had something to do with the strobe light that followed her Avatar everywhere it went. What if she just put something on top of it? Would that allow her to move on? She was already tired of this game; at this point all the work she was doing was just tedious. Without a second thought she removed the blue bear stuffed animal from underneath the bed where she had noticed it earlier. She place that along with a pair of pompoms the Avatar had on the sprite. Now, Penelope knew for sure that there was way too many things adding up for this not to be modeled after her and that was an extremely creepy thought to think about for long.

There that was good.


Task 7
> ENTER
Time left: 8 seconds_


This was the quickest and easiest decision Penelope had made the entire game. Of course she made her character jump into the portal, was there any other choice she could've made?​
 

PsychoJigglypuff

Crazy and Loving It!
640
Posts
14
Years
((I don't know how to make my posts fancy and my internet goes off at midnight, so this'll have to do for now.))

To Rachel's surprise, the game seemed to be installing on its own. It was convenient, sure, she always though it was pointless clicking all of those 'Next' buttons and what not, but it was a bit strange. Before she knew it, the screen turned black to display an archaic looking text prompt.

[S-HIGHLIGHT]
Pick your personal color and press ENTER[/S-HIGHLIGHT]​
> _

Rachel sighed. Hopefully this game wouldn't just be text based. She wanted at least some kind of visuals. Some sound would be nice, too. Complaining wouldn't get her anywhere though, so she went ahead and entered her favorite color, purple.

Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

"Well, here goes nothing," she said, hoping that it wasn't, in fact, nothing. The screen went black, but quickly switched to a pixilated room. It wasn't very colorful, but at least it wasn't just text.

There was a girl sitting in the room next to her computer. Rachel grinned. Was she playing video games, too? A quick click of the mouse made the girl move from her seat to the square that was clicked. Next she clicked on a nearby object and picked it up with her cursor. The controls seemed simple enough. After a bit of walking around, she noticed the text box at the corner of the screen.

Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_​

Rachel read it twice in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? That's kind of harsh for a tutorial, don't you think?" She complained to herself. She contemplated looking up a strategy guide, but decided not to. People who relied on guides were cowards. She was not afraid to trial-and-error until she succeeded, and by god, she was going to do just that.

Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_
"An inventory, huh?" She never had to pick out her own inventory before. Scanning the virtual room for something useful, the first thing she spotted was a large binder on the desk. That would work well, as long as she didn't have to carry anything bulky. She dragged the binder over to the girl, and a text bubble popped up with the words 'INVENTORY AQUIRED!!' So far, so good.

Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_​

Well that certainly sounded promising. It wasn't a proper RPG without some fighting, after all. The only problem would be where to get a weapon. She could make the girl walk to the kitchen and grab a knife, but that would take too long. Plus, she didn't know the layout of that house, how would she find it? Rachel sighed. If it was her own house, she'd just grab her trusty foil, which had won her many a fencing match. It would be right over there at that-

Rachel froze. There was a foil in the room. It was right where it normally was in her room. She turned to look away from her computer. Sure enough, her foil was there. In fact, the whole room reminded her of the game, or rather, the other way around. Plus, the girl seemed to bear a striking resemblance to…

Argh! She didn't have time for revelations; she had a game to play! The timer was nearly out before she equipped the foil. Another text bubble saying 'FOILKIND EQUIPPED!!' displayed on the screen.

Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_​

Prototruder? What the heck was that supposed to be? She moved her mouse around, looking for some sort of menu. Sure enough, there was a drop down menu at the top of the screen. Looking through it, she found a weird looking device with everything else greyed out. That must be the Protomajigger that the game was talking about. Dragging the Protothingy out of the menu, she placed it in the open space between the bed and the wall. It was a tight fit, but it still seemed to work.

Another text bubble popped up. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to be working. The time limits were making her nervous, as they kept getting shorter and shorter, but she used that nervousness to fuel her forward.

Wondering what the Protobot actually did, she clicked it a couple times, which made the wheel spin and a flashing orb appear. A fourth text bubble appeared. Apparently the flashy thing was a Kernelsprite.

Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_
Rachel checked the menu once again. Sure enough, another machine had showed up in the square next to the Protoman. She dragged that out of the menu as well, and placed it on the opposite side of the bed. There wasn't that much space in the room, but at least there was enough.

It was around this time that Rachel began to notice strange vibrations. They were faint at first, but soon began to increase in intensity. She dismissed it as her father watching an action movie with the surround sound pumped up. It was a bit unsettling, though.

Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_

This task confused Rachel a bit. The previous commends were pretty straight forward, but how was she supposed to create a portal? Plus, she only had 30 seconds to do it. She ended up just clicking and dragging everything of interest until something worked, and apparently it did, because the Prototype managed to produce a little item that was apparently called a totematerial. She used it on the Alchemithing, since it hadn't done anything yet, and lo and behold, it worked. It was a good thing it did, since there was only 5 seconds to spare.

Another vibration occurred, this one stronger than the rest. Was it an earthquake? It didn't really feel like one.

Task 6
> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE
Time limit: 20 seconds_​

Another strange command, but this time she dragged an item into the flashing orb. It just so happened to be a Link figma, one of her most prized possessions. There was no denying that this room was supposed to represent hers at this point. Still, the figurine fused with the ball, and in a flash of light, the orb became a strange ghost-like entity that resembled Link. It tried to communicate with Rachel, but could only speak in grunts and yells. Stupid silent protagonists. There was still some time left and the next tasked hadn't appeared yet. Could she add to the sprite? Spotting the virtual Reggie nearby, she dragged him into the Kernelsprite as well.

The vibrations were becoming more violent and more frequent now. She could hear screaming in the distance.

Task 7
> ENTER
Time left: 8 seconds_
This was it, the moment of truth. She knew that this was the last step, she could feel it. Hopefully there was a saving point after this because she was really concerned with what was happening. She would have checked it out earlier, but she couldn't stop playing. Something kept her going.

Holding her breath, she clicked the portal, and her avatar jumped into it.
 

Limanya

Page of Breath
517
Posts
12
Years
Charlotte sighed as she waited for the game to install. Meanwhile, her sister had come home and her mom finally did something. But she just decided to quickly play it before dinner, and maybe continue later. After all, she was a quick eater. She was about to grab her 3DS but noticed that her screen changed to a large black background with just a few words on it.


Pick your personal color and press ENTER
> _


She pondered. Usually, a decision at the beginning of the game was important, but then again it was usually. That meant there were a few exceptions, and what if this was one of them? Charlotte put the screen with the game away, and searched for 'chess computer game walkthrough'. Now, most things were simple strategies for winning the dumb chess simulators. She hated them. Chess in real life was much better, plus it allowed you to cheat. Oh, yes. Charlotte remembered the last time, when her sister had to go to the toilet and she quickly switched two of her pieces. Either way, she quickly scrolled past them and stopped as soon as she found one. From a first glance, she saw that it was rather short. But as she quickly read it, she found only nonsense that had nothing to do with the color choice she was about to make. Grinning, she opened the game again, keeping the walkthrough there just in case she really needed it. And without any hesitation, she typed in 'Brown'.


Press ENTER to begin your personal adventure which the whole universe depends on_

Reading the new text on the screen, Charlotte laughed and facepalmed. The whole universe, huh? It all just sounded like some cheap way of making it more interesting. All just a stupid little thing. But she shrugged it off and pressed the enter key.


Welcome to CHESS. This is the ENTRY PHASE. To pass and enter the real game, you have to perform some tasks within the set time limit. If you fail, you will die_

Die? Mhm, okay. Most games had that anyway. But it didn't really seem like a place to die. Her character was sitting in front of her computer, in what appeared to be her bedroom. The room was pixelated and not very colorful, but it just had to do. She clicked around a bit, and to her pleasure, the girl walked everywhere she clicked. There was a menu button in the corner, but Charlotte let that sit for a moment. Just then, the next text box appeared.


Task 1
> Equip something to act as your inventory
Time limit: 1 minute_


One minute? That was way too short for a task, and especially the first one! Not to mention that she didn't get any tips! But still, she had decided to not look at the walkthrough. And if she died, she could just restart, right? She looked around the room. It was quite messy, but after about half of the minute had passed she saw a backpack lying on the bed. She clicked on it and noticed that it was draggable. She moved her character closer to it and tried to let it fall on her head, just to see what happened. But what happened was different. Instead of the backpack hitting her head, a small bit of flashing text appeared above her head. 'INVENTORY AcQUIRED!!' it said.


Task 2
> Equip something to act as your weapon
Time limit: 50 seconds_


Weapons? Now this was fun! She already had her mind set on something. But with only fifty seconds, she doubted it would work. She let the girl run downstairs and check out the rooms. Funny, the layout of the house seemed to be the same as her own. When she finally found the kitchen, only fifteen seconds remained. On the walls, she could see small pixellated knives. She dragged the largest one to her character, which still was pretty small, and the text 'KNIFEKIND ALLOCATED!!' appeared.


Task 3
> Deploy the PROTOTRUDER
Time limit: 40 seconds_


Prototruder? Now this was weird. Only forty seconds, though. Charlotte made the girl run upstairs and checked the walktrough quickly. There wasn't a button to pause the game, for some odd reason, so she rushed. She read everything from task 3 on, but nothing about deploying the Prototruder. Angry, she went back and checked the time. Ten seconds. Damn, that was a lot of time wasted. She checked the menu for a pause button, but unfortunately, nothing came up. However, she did see a button with 'Deploy' on it. Clicking on it, a drop-down menu appeared, and she quickly pressed on the picture with 'Prototruder' under it. Hastily and thoughtlessly. she placed it in the bedroom of the girl. A floating ball of seizures appeared, accompanied by the text 'KERNELSPRITE RELEASED!!' which she just ignored for a while. When the next screen came up, she let out a sigh of relief.


Task 4
> Deploy the ALCHEMITER
Time limit: 35 seconds_


Now, another deploying task came up. She checked the room, but messy as it already was it wasn't enough for two devices. She walked out of the room and checked the room next to her character's. It was another bedroom, with a birdcage in it. It looked extremely much like her sister's. In fact, she swore it was her sister's room. Bonus points for the guy who mentioned it actually being her house. This room had enoguh space, so she deployed the Alchemiter there. But shortly after she deployed it, a loud sound was coming from an unknown source. Actually, the source was most likely outside. But Charlotte shrugged and continued.


Task 5
> Create the PORTAL
Time limit: 30 seconds

HINT: To survive, perform all the tasks before time runs out_


Portal? Okay, now she was confused. She just checked both devices she had deployed earlier, and tried putting Floaty on both of them. The first try already was successful, as she dragged it on the Prototruder. A block of..some stuff popped out with the words "TOTEMATERIAL PRODUCED!!" above it. She smiled at her own success, and dragged the block around. She made her character walk towards the Alchemiter, just to examine it a bit more. One thing that interested her in particular was the fact that there seemed to be some sort of slot for the totematerial thing. She put it in there, and with only three seconds left (shouldn't have been wasting so much time!) the next screen popped up.


Task 6
> Prototype the KERNELSPRITE
Time limit: 20 seconds_


Now, this was something she remembered about. She had to put something in Floaty, but she didn't know what. The only things in the room she was currently in were figurines and plushies of cute anime critters. She randomly took one, but that exact moment, the birdcage fell down. All parrots that were inside escaped, and the exact moment Charlotte dropped the plushie inside Floaty, one which was very similar to Rubin flew in. Tony Tony Rubinsprite was created, or just Rubinsprite for short. She smiled, satisfied. Now, the next task..

The sounds became much louder and Charlottes house started shaking a bit. Everything shook a small bit, but she couldn't stop ofr the next screen popped up.


Task 7
> ENTER
Time left: 8 seconds_


Enter. Enter the portal, huh? Simple. She moved her character towards it, and with one single click, she entered. No hesitation, just..Enter.​
 
37,467
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024
First, nothing. Then, a breeze touching his arm. Adrian opened his eyes.

His room was intact. An orange light, as if from a sunset, came in through the windows and gleamed on his posters and figurines lining the shelves. For a few seconds, he did nothing. Then, he realized that he was hearing two things. One of them was a strange noise in the wind outside. A melody?

The other was a hissing noise from behind him that grew louder and louder and eventually caused him to literally jump around to try and find the source to.

It was Jet. Or at least, what had previously been a sprite of the rabbit Jet on a computer screen but was now a real, possibly live, blinking blob with a rabbit's head and twigs and leaves for arms. It was of a soft, seagreen color - but it also still blinked in black and white. Until the hissing grew so loud that Adrian, jaw dropped and everything, was about to put his hands over his ears. Then the kernel divided. At least that was what it would be called later, but of course Adrian knew nothing of that yet.

A white orb and a black orb suddenly erupted from the sprite's body, hovered in the air between the green sprite and the boy for a moment, and then both zoomed out through the still open window. They took off towards the sky in different directions, Adrian saw when he ran up to the window. It wasn't many seconds before they were completely out of sight.

"What was..."

He was about to ask 'what was that', naturally. But when he turned his gaze downwards and saw what now surrounded his house, no more words came from his mouth that minute.


logag2_zpscf1ba04c.png


"It was the KERNEL dividing, mate."

The sudden voice of a man behind him made Adrian squeak like a girl and turn around. Jet's grumpy face was looking at him like it always had, with the difference that it was now floating about two meters above the floor, fastened to a glowing green body with... Yeah, the twigs and leaves arms were still there. Only the blinking was gone.

"Jet?"

"Nah. JETSPRITE, now. Or JETTWIGSPRITE, I guess, but I have a feeling it's too bothersome for you to say."

Adrian slowly walked around the sprite in a circle, with intense staring.

"What are you exactly?"

"Your SPRITE. Here to make sure you don't wet yourself every other minute."

"Hehe," Adrian couldn't help giggle a bit, but then heard how nervous he sounded and turned more serious.

"So you are from the game? Am I in the game too? What's with our garden expanding by miles and miles all of a sudden?"

"Yeah. Yeah and nah. And that's just what this planet is like."

"Yeah what? And... Planet?!"

"Land of Gleam and Growth, mate. LOGAG for short. Grass all over the place, mostly. And the neverending sunset to get the gleaming in."

Adrian suddenly walked in cirles on the floor, thinking hard, and squeaked again when he realized that there was a large thing in his room that was NOT there before. Big like three washing machines at least, he just had been too shocked and confused to really notice that it was standing there just beside his skateboard ever since he entered the game.

"The prototruder?"

"Yeah," JETSPRITE said.

"What, should I make another portal? Aren't there any more instructions?" He walked up to his computer and checked the screen. CHESS was still running, but there was no longer a view of himself and his house. Instead there was just a menu.

"CONDITION, FRAYMOTIFS, BIBLIOTEQUE, STRIFEDECK... What do these mean?" he read with a furrowed brow.

"CONDITION lets you check your stats. FRAYMOTIFS is a collection of your battle tunes. BIBLIOTEQUE lists recipes for ALCHEMIZING and STRIFEDECK is for storing the weapons you aren't currently wielding," JETSPRITE rambled as if this was common knowledge and Adrian should know it already.

"Wait, what? What's a fraymotif?"

"Like a LEITMOTIF but used for battles. But you won't have to care about that for long yet, mate. It's advanced stuff. That thing in the menu is just empty for now."

"Leit... motif?"

"Yeah. That tune you heard outside just now? That was your very own LEITMOTIF.
Listen, are you going to ask questions all day? It's not like you'd remember it all anyways, mate."

Adrian shook his head silently, as the last tones from his LEITMOTIF faded away in the wind outside the window. He clicked the button named FRAYMOTIFS. There was nothing there, pretty much. An empty list. He clicked CONDITION instead.

Here, there was text. Apparently, his HEALTH BAR was at 100% but very very small! His MANA METER was just a tad bit bigger. His ENERGY HOLD was as small as the health bar and at 90% but slowly ticking down. He wasn't sure what that even meant and didn't feel like asking the grumpy JETSPRITE more questions that necessary, so he let it be. He glanced over the STATS underneath the bars though.

His stats didn't have numbers. Instead they looked like this:

CONSTITUTION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your health bar
IMAGINATION: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - ties in with your mana meter
WILLPOWER: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your energy hold

STRENGTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines your pure strength
SPEED: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines your speed and agility
STEALTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines how good you are at hiding and sneaking
STYLE: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - determines how NPCs perceive you

Yeah, that sounded pretty low, as if he was a really weak character now. Just as in the beginning of any RPG, really. So he really was inside a game. On another planet, somehow.

"Is this Land... Land of Gleam and... Growth, is this at least in the Milky Way?" Adrian at last asked the SPRITE, who was currently hovering around the PROTOTRUDER with an uninterested look.

"Nah. We're far outside your universe, mate. Welcome to the MEDIUM."

Adrian felt his heartbeat rise in a worrying way again, but he decided to not ask any questions to follow that up. Instead he tried to calm down. He did this by getting up again and pacing forth and back in his room for a minute, trying to grasp his situation more carefully from what he currently knew. He had no reason to not believe JETSPRITE. Usually he was a pretty skeptical kid, but to his knowledge, Jet had never betrayed him before and he was kind of too shocked still to not want to believe someone who seemed to know stuff.

He was wearing the superman messenger bag. The one he had put onto the boy on the screen. Glancing down into it, he found the DIRTY SOCK which he had put in there for fun. Spooky. But okay. This was his inventory and he wore it like a bag. Smart enough. Okay.

So he was in another world. He had health bars and stats like a RPG character. And he had a... weapon? Where was it? Just as he thought that, he imagined himself holding the weapon in his hand. And there it was. Out of thin air, MJÖLNIR materialized. As if he was a video game character who had just equipped a weapon that wasn't normally visible. A faint smile came to Adrian's lips. That was kind of neat, actually. He clicked the STRIFEDECK menu button on the computer screen but while PLASTASTIC MJÖLNIR was listed as his currently equipped weapon, there wasn't anything else there now.

But hang on. Ok, so he was here. Where was his family? He went up to the window and looked out again. Something was moving out there...

Ignoring bitter comments from JETSPRITE, Adrian went out from his room and down the stairwell. The ALCHEMITER stood in the great hall still, but without the portal now. The TOTEMATERIAL he had used to create it was also gone from the smaller platform. He went out through the open door.

A breeze met him, and the smell of countless yellow flowers on the wavy fields in front of him. His garden almost seamlessly melted into the landscape, but he guessed that was only because his mother had been so dutiful in keeping it green. His mother...

"Where's my family?" he said out loud as soon as he thought about it.

"Back on Earth," JETSPRITE answered. He came floating out after the boy.

"But the meteors... Are they alive?"

"I don't know, mate. Maybe for a while longer."

"A WHILE LONGER?!?"

Adrian stormed back up to the computer in his room and clicked up a browser, not reflecting over the strangeness of a working internet connection if he really was outside of his own universe. The first news site he checked reported about the disaster in Brisbane. Adrian felt nauseous and put his hand over his mouth in disbelief. Suddenly, this felt horribly real. Not even when the meteors rained down on him in their spooky slow way back before he entered the game, had true realization struck him. But now it did. This was real and dangerous, wherever he was.

"Are more people playing CHESS?" he said silently.

JETSPRITE had caught up with him again. It was as if the SPRITE was determined to follow the player around no matter what. "Yeah."

"Will they survive? And come here?"

"Some will. Most won't."

Adrian swallowed and got a determined look on his face. Then he began typing on the computer without talking. It went on for minutes. JETSPRITE wasn't the inquiring type and left him be, hovering up to the window instead. Things were still moving in the bushes and patches of trees down there on the fields. JETSPRITE knew very well what they were. Maybe he should actually alert his player. That was probably what he was supposed to do.

"Enemies are coming, mate," he said. "You're pretty much homestuck until more players arrive. And you'll have to fight."

Adrian didn't reply or look away from the computer.

"Okay. What are you doing?" JETSPRITE sighed with the most bitter bunny's face ever in existence.

"Done. I've written up a short guide. To help others if the haven't started the game yet. I'm uploading it to a site on the net and alerting search engines to know about it. So. They'll find it."

JETSPRITE nodded. "Okay."

"Because I know I would have wanted a guide to follow, especially when the portal business came..." Adrian suddenly froze. His eyes widened. "Hang on. There... Um... Ahaha wait. Wait a minute."

"Okay," JETSPRITE said again.

Adrian did a search on the web. He found his own guide, the one he had just written up. He hadn't given it any thought when he hastily wrote it, but now when he really read the words again... Hadn't he read them before? Wasn't this just like the guide he had actually found before playing the game, but discarded?

But that journal was written several hours before he started playing the game. He must have remembered parts of it and copied that without knowing it. He checked the date of upload on the guide he had just written himself. It said in the middle of the night. A few hours ago. What? Had he mixed the two guides up? But he hadn't tried to find the old guide yet...!

"Uhm..."

He searched again. Now, he couldn't find the one he had just written. Just the old one. But he recognized the words when he read them. They were the exact same. The EXACT same. And the signature... -AS.

"Holy ****!!" he cried out and backed away from the computer. "How is this possible?"

"What?"

"I just wrote this guide. But I remember reading it before starting to play the game. It's the same. The initials are even there, MY initials. But. How could I have read something that I haven't written yet? HOW?"

"Simple," JETSPRITE said, astonishing Adrian. "We aren't in your universe anymore. Time here in the MEDIUM works independent of time there. I guess it was luck, or fate or something, that made you access the news close to your own time just now. But then it hopped and made you upload that file to some hours ago. You won't easily communicate with someone outside of the game, mate. Only way things'll happen relatively chronologically synched up is if SKAIA feels like it."

Adrian didn't even ask what Skaia was, he just leaned his head in his hand and tried to take it all in. Again. He guessed that he would have to start growing accustomed to strange revelations now. This game... CHESS... It sure seemed complicated so far. And he didn't even have any clue of what it was really about yet. Only that the fate of his universe depended on it.

"So what will happen when the other players arrive? Will their houses come too?"

"Yeah. They'll suddenly appear next to your house, as if they were on a street together."

"And then we can start fighting and winning the game and escaping and everything will be well again?"

"Nah," JETSPRITE said and suddenly floated out from the room. "I'm hungry."

Adrian shook his head and turned back to look at the CHESS game screen. "I wish the others will come soon..."
 
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Legend

Kingslayer
1,308
Posts
15
Years
"Hey! Listen!" A voice called out. Its piercing tone burrowed through Liam's ears. He was stirred awake, though it was difficult to overcome the daze he found himself in. He held his head as he came to his sense, feeling a slight headache before it disappeared. Liam looked around, finding himself in his room, presumably in his house, but everything felt different. The orange light was that of a sunset, but it was morning last he recalled. Did he fall asleep? No that wasn't it. He jumped in the portal. And now he was here. Whatever here was. Everything was strange. Surreal. Uncomfortable. And what was with the soundtrack playing in the background? Liam didn't like it. Way too confusing.

"Hey! Listen!" The voice called. Liam grimaced, the voice frustrating him.

"WHAT?" Liam roared out at the air around him as a small blue fairy like creature flew around his space, blinking for only a second as a black and white orb left its body. The two orbs flew out int the distance, Liam track the movements for a couple moments before losing interest and sight. "What was that just now…?"

"Oh, that was just the kernel dividing. Nothing to worry about it. At least for now," the fairy answered back, being surprisingly informative. Liam got a better look at the sprite, taking in its features. It was a light blue color, glowing faintly, with bright white wings and features comparable to his sister. Wait…that was the sprite he created. But what the hell was a kernel? It was pointless to ask since undoubtedly it will be explained with more game lingo. Liam was regretting installing the game now. But wasn't like he could undo it now.

"So what do I call ye? If I recall correctly, your name was awfully long."

"Indeed it was. You could call me Navisprite! That shortens it quite a bit."

"I prefer calling ye Navi. So ye be my sprite or somethin'?" Liam asked, playing stupid. He already knew what Navi was and had a relative grasp on what her purpose actually was.

"Yes I am. I am here to guide you, well, somewhat. I'll see how it goes. You seem to be fine though."

"Considering the circumstances, I'd say that be true. So I take that portal sucked me into the game and plopped me into the first world or something?" Liam wondered, now his theories on the game being hardly as knowledge as they previously were.

"Something along those lines. You are in the Land of Gleam and Growth. Nothing more than trees and a pretty sunset."

"And the big machine in my room is…?"

"The Prototruder," Navi answered, fluttering around the room. Liam buried his face in his hands, not enjoying the idea of having to fiddle with any more complex technology just to play the game. Liam turned to his PC, looking at the game screen. What once displayed characters in a pixel rated room was replaced by menus.

"CONDITION, FRAYMOTIFS, BIBLIOTEQUE, STRIFEDECK. Why can't this game just use regular terminology? God damn it. Can ye explain at least a bit of this nonsense?"

"Well, CONDITION is basically your stats. FRAYMOTIFS are like your battle themes. Kind of like LEITMOTIF but angrier. BIB-"

"Hold on! Stats? Themes?"

"Well, yeah. This is a game after all."

Liam once again buried his face in his hands again, before taking a deep breath. He sighed and composed himself. It was better to accept it. He was in a game. And this stuff exists in games. So it was an elaborate virtual reality. Let's see what stats Liam had:

CONSTITUTION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your health bar
IMAGINATION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your mana meter
WILLPOWER: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - ties in with your energy hold

STRENGTH: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - determines your pure strength
SPEED: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines your speed and agility
STEALTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines how good you are at hiding and sneaking
STYLE: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines how NPCs perceive you

Liam could of sworn he had more style than that, but nevertheless shrugged his shoulders and moved n with his life. After all, Liam was sure his stats could rise in due time. If they were stats, that means there were opportunities to level up. That's all he had to do.

"Well, I am not going to level up sitting around am I?" Liam rose from his seat and stepped out of the house. As he suspected, the house he was in was identical to his real one so it was easy to navigate out of it. As he walked out the front door, Navi bolted ahead, and then paused. It was hard to tell but it seemed to lock eye contact with something else. Liam tried to track her eyes, catching sight of another human being and another…sprite? So he wasn't alone? Great!

"Hey! You there! With the flying sprite thing! You got stuck here too?"
 
37,467
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16
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  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024
Something made the ground rumble for a brief moment. Adrian jumped up from where he was sitting next to the alchemiter. His PLASTIC MJÖLNIR materialized in his hands, in case it was the enemies trying to step into his house at last. A strained look on his face revealed his nervousness.

He had spend about an hour in LOGAG now, not daring to wander off more than a few meters from the house. Small, black shapes had been seen hiding in the garden and since JETSPRITE referred to them as enemies, or UNDERLINGS, to be exact, Adrian didn't exactly plan on walking up to them and greeting them.

But the rumbling stopped without any blackness crawling in through the open front door. Instead... he could spot another house standing mere meters from his own. He gasped, PLASTIC MJÖLNIR evaporated and the boy ran out from the house, only to find JETSPRITE already standing there, watching the other house appear. A white fence guarded the flower beds in front of the building, and as Adrian watched, another person emerged from out the front foor.

"Hey! You there! With the flying sprite thing! You got stuck here too?" the other boy said. He was tall, muscular and had a rather bitter appearance overall, for some reason.

"Whoa," Adrian uttered. "Finally!"

JETSPRITE didn't say anything. Instead he seemed to freeze in midair when he locked eyes with another shiny being hovering out behind the other player. This one was brightly blue and looked like a girl with wings.

All of a sudden, it was as if JETSPRITE and NAVISPRITE were magnets, closing in on each other faster than they could control. In a tiny boom of light and hissing noise, their bodies impacted. When the momentarily blindness had gone from Adrian's eyes, he looked up to find...

"Sparkles and blown wings! I feel really strange, matey."

It wasn't Jet's voice. It wasn't really Navisprite's voice either, but at least more like her tone but with Jetsprite's accent. The new sprite, fluttering in between Adrian's and Liam's houses now had a bunny's head but with a more girly look than before. Actually it looked like Liam's sister with fur and bunny ears. The navi wings were still there, and the leafy, twiglike arms of from the potted plant were there too. It's color was a greenish cyan, like a mix of Jetsprite's green and Navisprite's light blue.

"And I sure don't know what to call myself now. Liam, what the hell have you done to me?"

Adrian closed his gaping mouth and decided to just not be surprised. He had been surprised by too much in too little time now. Instead he tried to calm down and turn to the other player. He was real. He sure looked real. He must have escaped the meteor stricken Earth in time, then.

"I'm Adrian," he said. "I'm a player of CHESS, and I guess you are too? It's a cool leitmotif you have! Not as strange and lame as mine. Uh. We're apparently supposed to work together and fight some enemies called underlings. They are... uh... creeping around the garden here. I'm not sure what they are, really. And yeah... You did have meteors coming down on you too, when you played the game, right? They destroyed my city, it seems. So. Yeah."

What if he said too much? Too little? This guy totally thought of Adrian as a dork already. He was way too nervous to be in the right mood for introductions. He should have put on his coolness instead of rambling like an idiot! He forced a half-relaxed smile to his lips.



((OOC: if you think you can portray them ok, you can control this new mix of sprites a little ^^ Basically, every time a new sprite enters LOGAG, it will merge with the other ones. For now. They won't know anymore about the game than they did before.

Other than that, you are of course free to roam our houses but don't find an underling yet, or if you choose to do so, end your post when you encounter it, please.))
 
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Lt. Col. Fantastic

The Arianator
698
Posts
11
Years
I don't know what it was that woke me up, but it was probably the flashing lights that were being thrown from the kernalsprite thing. I guess whatever was in the game entered real life after I passed out, because suddenly Reginald is gone and Reginald's floating head is here. But yeah, the flashing lights. Just a few seconds after I woke up, the flashing stopped and two orbs, one black and one white, split off and flew up the stairs. What was left was Reginald...only he was all colored in with a burnt orangeish color. His lower body was now ghostly, like a bad guy from Scooby Doo or some other cheasy cartoon. God, my head is pounding...and I feel like I'm watching a movie rather than experiencing things firsthand right now.I guess everything seems so surreal not only because I just woke up from a blackout, but because it actually is surreal. Rocco darted into my room, mewling like something was wrong. Yeah, no sh*t something is wrong Rocco. We're in...where are we?

"Ah hem," Reginald cleared his throat, "Monsieur Valentine, welcome to the medium." I stumbled for words, trying to sort through my jumbled brains. I guess somewhere in that jumble I felt compelled to ask Reginald what the f*ck is going on.

"Reginald, the f*ck is going on?" He appeared to think for a moment before replying, "Why, CHESS, Monsieur Valentine. This is the world you were brought to, not a bad place if I might say myself. Very uplifting and pleasant. Perhaps you should take a look." My mind still ringing, I just nodded and started to climb up the stairs. Once on the ground floor (which was now my second story, since the basement was unearthed), I looked out the open window. Soft music drifted in through the opening, finishing the overall setting of tranquility of the scene. Endless hills and fields of flowers, coupled with the bright glare of sunset made the world seem golden. My first reaction was to relax a bit, but then being rational kicked in.

"Reginald."

"Yes?"

"This is the game that we're in, right? Chess?"

"Yes."

"And what happened to Earth? I kind of liked that place."

"Not much, to be quite honest. Just a few meteors. Nothing you can't manage in due time. Although, I wouldn't be wasteful with your time either, you see. Some things are at stake here. For example, Madame Romano is still on earth." Oh f*ck.

"Madame Romano...I hope you mean Aunt Fran." Reginald shivered a bit. "No, I mean your grandmother." Sadness.

"What do I have to do to save her?" I asked. I was trying not to freak out. I've played games before. I can do this. At least, that's what I tell myself. Rocco chose that moment to dart upstairs and into the kitchen.

"Monsieur, you should check your computer before we get into things. It will explain much of what I would tell you. I have something to take care of." With that, he floated off after Rocco. I exhaled, my breath a tad shaky, and went downstairs to my computer. On the screen was a menu, with different options to choose from.

CONDITION || FRAYMOTIFS || BIBLIOTEQUE || STRIFEDECK​

I decided to check out Condition first. Apparently it is some sort of stat menu...My HP is 100%, but its still like, one-hundredth of the screen size. My Mana Bar or MP I guess is just as small, and 100% as well. My Energy Hold was around 80% and slowly depleting. I guess its like stamina, but it only comes back when I sleep and eat and stuff. I mean that would only make sense. Then again, this whole damn game doesn't make sense. There is another sub-tab, STATS.

CONSTITUTION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your health bar
IMAGINATION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your mana meter
WILLPOWER: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - ties in with your energy hold
STRENGTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines your pure strength
SPEED: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - determines your speed and agility
STEALTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT - determines how good you are at hiding and sneaking
STYLE: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT - determines how NPCs perceive you​

Huh. So I guess my stats are pretty basic, which makes sense since I just started the game. I'm assuming Speed and style are a little higher than the rest. Cool. I guess. Okay whatever this screen is boring, next one! I go back a few screens and select FRAYMOTIF. Unfortunately for me, it is very much empty. Whatever. Using my ever so basic understanding of English wordings (as just proven by the previous sentence clusterf*ck) I'm guessing it is battle themes. Fray-battle. Motif-theme. Okay sweet, I get to store tunes to jam to when killing bandits and what-not. I hope I can import stuff from Beatport or even iTunes. Swell.

Next was the BIBLIOTEQUE, which is literally just library in French. Okay, a few accent marks are missing, and I think its the same word in like, Spanish or Italian or some other sh*t. Romanian maybe. It was blank too. I guess this might be different things I find, like books or scrolls and whatnot. Still don't care. Finally I checked out STRIFEDECK. It had a kind of faded green card looking shape with a black pixelated circle in the middle on the screen. I tried to click it, but the screen said "Already equipped!" Strife.....that's supposed to mean like, suffering in English. So maybe its fighting related. The picture looked like a circle....Oh yeah! I gave Harry a chakram as a weapon. I guess it's mine now?

Just as I replayed giving Harry the chakram in my mind, it appeared on my wrist, hanging from the base of my palm. I took it off my arm carefully, making sure not to touch the sharp outer edge of the throwing disc. Now this is what I'm talking about. Now how do I put it back- oh. Okay so I can like, summon it whenever. I mean that's how it works in Final Fantasy so why the f*ck not? Wait a minute...

In my pocket was my iPhone still. I pulled it out and turned it on. No apps? Not even the phone app or settings...weird. I guess this is my inventory. Oh snap this is so cool. Trying it on a kefka figurine, I touch him to my screen. Sure enough, the tangible kefka disappears and a digital one appears in the form of an app on my home screen. The app name says "Kefka Toy". Awesome. I busy myself with playing around popping kefka in and out for a few seconds, when a crash comes from upstairs. I dart up to the kitchen, where Reginaldsprite has Rocco cornered.

"You lousy cat," Reginald growls, "how many times have I told you not to claw the couch?" He swiped to get Rocco with his hand, but the kitty runs around his ghostly tail and straight to me. Still excited about my new PHONEVENTORY, I grab him.

"Heeeeey Roccocomoco," I say to him. Pressing my phone to his fur, he disappeared into my phone. My new "Scaredy Cat" App has some sort of gif icon. It's Rocco tilting his head to the side, then pulling it back up to normal, then tilting again and so forth. Yaaaaaay kitties! Now I can take him anywhere! This is so useful. The music outside suddenly gets louder, and I can't help but think that the lack of drums is disturbing.

"What awful music..." I mutter. "Its your music, Monsieur," Rginaldsprite says matter-of-factly.

"Heh, not a chance. My music kicks ass. This music is ass." I bet its that AS dude that's supposed to be here blaring his crap over a megaphone or something.

I go outside to find the dude playing such sh*tty music so I can hook up my own tunes to his speakers. Reginaldsprite follows close behind. On the way out the door I see the Protruder in the living room, crushing the coffee table. I'm actually not that surprised, given what else has carried over from the game.

Once outside, I spot two guys talking. Oh thank god, human contact! As I start running after them (I feel so light all of the sudden!) Reginald freezes at the door. Well screw that guy anyway. Trying to hurt my cat and all. Ever since he turned into a ghost he's been such a know-it-all douche.

"Salut!" I yell, not really knowing that they probably don't speak French as a first language, "Vous-êtes joueurs aussi?"


 
1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Penelope Cruz
--- Act 1
Penelope groaned, had a truck hit her? Her fingers felt the carpet beneath her before she opened her eyes to what was her room, but how had she landed on the floor? There weren't any loud noises to be heard but there was a slight melody playing, though in her groggy state Penelope couldn't recognize the tune. She hoped that they were safe now, was there an explanation for what had happened before? The room she was in was basically her own, but it was the room where she placed both machines in so it was a tight fit. A single glance out the window soon answered her previous questions. A meadow of some sort extended itself to a point past where she could see. Odd, she didn't live near any gardens nor a place full of grass, where exactly was she?

A scream left her throat. Two orbs, one black and one white in color erupted from the Cadmiumlemon colored sprite that floated in front of her and disappeared somewhere.

"O-U-C-H! Ouch! Say it with me, O-U-C-H! Ouch!" The words came from a sprite, it was an exact replica of her plush blue (except it's colored had changed) teddy bear except with the addition of a pompom in each of its small paws along with a hula dress made out of pompom strings instead of grass.

It was a combination of the pompoms and teddy bear she had tossed on the sprite in Chess...

"I'm, I'm IN the game? Cool, what's your name again?" Penelope inquired with a broad smile on her face, the dullness of sitting at a computer screen was always something she hated at least this way she got to physically partake.

"CHEERBEARSPRITE, CHEER CHEER CHEER!" The sprite twirled around before beginning a cheer routine that Penelope's cheer squad was known for... Odd. Not odd enough to stop Penelope from joining in the fun.

"Well, what were those orby thingies and are you my guide in this game?"

"KERNEL division, K-E-R-N-E-L! I'm your sprite, S-P-R-"

"I-T-E, yes I can spell I'll have you know!" Penelope sighed, and went over to check the computer. With any luck there would be something on there, did she even need it anymore? The menu was on there with several words such as CONDITION, BIBLIOTEQUE, STRIFEDECK, and FRAYMOTIFS. A simple click on "CONDITION" seem to bring up her in-game stats, they didn't really reveal anything interesting...

CONSTITUTION: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT
IMAGINATION: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT
WILLPOWER: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT

STRENGTH: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT
SPEED: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT
STEALTH: NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT
STYLE: VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT​

Penelope wondered what determined her stats? Had the game done a random selection? Whatever the reasoning behind it Penelope could tell that they were terrible stats and she wanted to get them up. The other words in the menu mattered little to her as she couldn't even pronounce half of them, well, she assumed BIBLIOTEQUE meant a library of some sort since that was what it meant in French if there was a 'h' between the 't' an the 'e', one of the three languages she spoke.

"Where's Gav and Vieve? Are they up in their room?" Penelope turned and faced the sprite before heading to the door.

"On Earth silly! N-O-T H-E-R-E!" Her companion replied.

"This isn't Earth?"

"Nope, M-E-D-I-U-M, MEDIUM!" CHEERBEARSPRITE clapped its pompoms together before going into yet another cheer routine but this time Penelope didn't join in.

Without wasting another second Penelope was eager to venture outside of the house and CHEERBEARSPRITE followed closely behind her cheering. The more she moved through the house the more it reminded her of her own, actually, it was her house just without the family members and other minor details Penelope didn't feel the need to point out. This was a lot to take in but like everything else Penelope took it in stride, if she panicked where would that get her? Nowhere, so instead she had to figure out what was going on. Though, she could ask her sprite what to do next, but she didn't want to have CHEERBEARSPRITE to spell every word out. Plus, going on an adventure was half the fun or so she thought. The first steps outside she noticed three houses next to hers, which made it four houses in total. She looked to her side and noticed her sprite companion was locking eyes with a... weird almost indescribable creature that floated above the other players.

Another boy came out his house along with his sprite. CHEERBEARSPRITE and the other boy's sprite both had made a connection with the fairy rabbit humanoid sprite and both were being drawn in like a moth to a flame. Penelope's ears picked up on the French the boy spoke while he went towards the other players unaware of her presence behind him.

"Vous parlez français? Moi aussi!" Being half French-Canadian had actually come in handy, Penelope smiled at the boy with facial hair. She spoke French weirdly but she blamed her parents for raising her in a house with two distinct dialects and three different languages.

She walked up to the group, two blonde guys and one with curly brown hair. Surprisingly they were all pretty attractive guys, well, at least more attractive than the guys at her school. "First girl, eh? Well don't I get the pick of the lot!" Penelope said giggly while touching her single braided hair, she then embraced each of the boys in a hug. "Name's Penelope and looks like we're stuck together, maybe one of you will be my Nightingale?"

Pronunciation was key, Penelope hated her weird accent (hints of Spanish & French, but mostly Canadian) she spoke with as something it made her hard to understand sometimes. Were there going to be more people here, she surely hoped she wasn't going to be the only girl. Not that she wouldn't mind the attention, but there was something about a gender evenness that was much more settling than one of unevenness.
 
37,467
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Jan 2, 2024
Before the other guy had time to react to Adrian's words, the ground shook again and suddenly another house sprung up next to Liam's, as if it grew at super speed straight up from the earth.

"..."

A new theme filled the air, but not for many seconds before yet another house sprung up, just like before. All the houses looked pretty different, making their new little neighborhood feel really strange compared to the generic houses in rows that Adrian was used to. Another leitmotif mixed in with the first, and this was quite a bit more upbeat.

((OOC: I just listened to the two at the same time and it's truthfully amazingly weirdly awesome, albeit a little off key xD Somehow I managed to match their refrains ahhahaha))​

Adrian wrinkled his nose at the second theme, pretty much ruining the beauty of the first leitmotif. Maybe they described the people behind them? Not that he had felt completely satisfied with his own theme but he worried a little about what the person with this last theme would be like.

Before he could take up the faltering introductions with the first boy again, another one sprung out from the new house, shouting something happily in french. Adrian knew next to no french at all, but he didn't have to reply before a girl came out from the last house, saying something back in the same language. Ah. Good, they could communicate at least! He glanced over at the guy beside him.

But the girl came directly up to them. "First girl, eh? Well don't I get the pick of the lot!" she said in a flirtatious way.

"You-" Adrian was surprised when he was suddenly pulled in for a hug. It was quick, brief, not even intimate. More like a greeting than something of affection. But somehow it colored his cheeks red still.

Then, the girl did the same with the other boys and Adrian felt a bit stupid and shaped up, putting on a cocky smile. "Yeah, welcome, I guess?"

"Name's Penelope and looks like we're stuck together, maybe one of you will be my Nightingale?"

"Haha, sure," Adrian said in a nonchalant facade, but his inner self was bursting. "Welcome to LOGAG. Land of Gleam and Growth, apparently. So, uh, my name's Adrian. I was the first one here and I've had time to evaluate our situation a little."

His face turned more serious as he loosened the facade and touched grave matters. "We've escaped some kind of apocalypse on Earth. But our families haven't. So. They might be. You know."

To avoid saying the ominously apparent, he looked around and was suddenly stunned by seeing a new sprite float in the air a few meters away from the group.

"Oh, don't mind me!" the sprite said happily. It now wore a color more closely grayish-brownish than anything specific, and it was beginning to look really strange. It's body was now shaped like a bear, only with bunny ears and a girl's face... And a mustache. A butler's vest and bowtie prided the body, and clashed horribly with the cheerleader miniskirt below. The fairy wings were intact, but only one arm was now shaped like a leafy branch. The other held a pompom.

Taking the sprite's advice, Adrian slowly turned back, clearing his throat with a wrinkle in his forehead and looking up at the others. "Buuuuut, yeah, introductions before super grave problems, perhaps? Penelope, right?" he said to the girl and flashed her a coolguy smile.
 

Lt. Col. Fantastic

The Arianator
698
Posts
11
Years
I'm greeted by a response from behind. "Vous parlez français? Moi aussi!" It calls in a female's voice. Yessss. I turn to the girl who was just coming from her house too, right next to mine. She is pretty cute too, but she has a funny accent. Probably American or Canadian, defiantly nothing you'd hear in Paris.
Her sprite locks in on the sprite beside the two other boys like Reginaldsprite does, an the two are dawn to the megasprite mash up.

The girl and I met up in the center with the other guys. Before I could say anything, the girl spoke up.

First girl, eh? Well don't I get the pick of the lot!" she said in a kind of teasing way. She embraced one of the other guys in a hug. He looked a bit stunned or awkward, maybe both. She moved on and hugged me next.

"Yeah, welcome, I guess?" he said with a smile that was a little to smug for my liking.

"Greet everyone this way, do you?" I asked skeptically as we hugged it out. I shot the dude she hugged first a look before she released me and hugged the last dude.

"Name's Penelope and looks like we're stuck together, maybe one of you will be my Nightingale?" She said once her hugging was finished. I don't know what she means by Nightingale, having only knowledge of the species of bird and the music playing program.

"Haha, sure," said the smug dude smugly. He put on another smug smile. "Welcome to LOGAG. Land of Gleam and Growth, apparently. So, uh, my name's Adrian. I was the first one here and I've had time to evaluate our situation a little." God his smugness is literally tangible.

"We've escaped some kind of apocalypse on Earth. But our families haven't. So. They might be. You know." I'm sorry, I can't hear over the sound of your smugness. The dude suddenly looked up, and I followed his gaze to the sprite, which apparently merged with mine and Penelope's.

"Oh, don't mind me!" the sprite said. It was greyish colored, and very strange. It had Reginald's tux and bowtie on, with a miniskirt below. It was quite a humorous sight alone, but the rest brought the freakish ensemble together nicely. Fairy wings protruded from behind, and the being's face was a mix of little girl, mustache, and bunny. It had one leafy arm and one holding a pom pom. Strange. Adrian looked back, and cleared his throat with a smug "hem hem".

"Buuuuut, yeah, introductions before super grave problems, perhaps? Penelope, right?" he said to the female smugly. He did the smuggiest smug smile yet, almost breaking the smug barrier. I chose then to clear my throat.

"Eh ehm, I am Vincent," then to Penelope, "Vous poulez m'appeller Vinnie." Back to everyone, "I'm from Paris." I looked at the guy who hasn't spoken yet, and asked him, "What about you? What's your name and where are you from?"
 
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