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Welcome to the Mainframe.

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​

We are pleased to hear you took interest in our program! Whether you're here out of curiosity, have the urge to learn, or are just here for the pay, we are glad you came. Every subject is important, and having a large variety of personalities help our experiment all the more.

Here, with the power of our BARRIERS SYSTEM, you will be participating in our largest and most fruitful experiment, which we have dubbed The Morality Game™. The "game" is simple enough: The Mainframe will put you through SCENARIOS, where it will fabricate a SETTING and MISSION for you or the entire group to undertake. It may or may not also create CHARACTERS, programs that act as real people. The system can only create one setting at a time, so all of the subjects will experience the same SETTING during each SCENARIO but most likely will have completely different MISSIONS.

The point of the experiment is to study human behavior. What truly makes human beings unique? Why do we act on a certain set of principles in one situation, but not the other? Why, out of all other kinds of Pokemon and creatures, has the human race become dominant? Because of our ability to communicate? How we communicate? These are some of the many questions our company is dying to answer.

And you, our bright and lively subjects, will help us answer those questions. The way you go about your MISSIONS through each and every SCENARIO - whether you accept or reject them, and how you do so - is vital to know. Each and every move you make and why you make it will be analyzed by our Mainframe and allow us to better understand what we are, and how we work. Thank you, sincerely, for your participation.​

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+ FUNCTIONALITY OVERVIEW +​

In our program you'll be placed in the BARRIERS SYSTEM, which, when unactivated, appears to be a large room with white steel walls, floor, and ceiling. The system works in the art of twisting perception. That's why, even though in reality you are traversing through a very large room being observed by several scientific professionals, you see fantastic places and interact with interesting people that never existed until now.

SCENARIOS lock the subject in the SETTING once they have begun. Regardless of the attempts made by the subject to flee or exit the SCENARIO, only administrative staff can choose to pull them out before the TIME LIMIT or before the MISSION is accomplished or decided upon.

The way the system bonds the subject to manipulate their perception is through a process called SYNCHRONIZATION. If the subject tries to manipulate the system or the staff becomes displeased with the subject's behavior, the subject is at risk of being DESYNCHRONIZED. Termination from the program and withheld compensation for their work usually follows.

We do warn you, however, that perceptions are the roots to feeling. You may sense real forms of pain on occasion, so do be careful. We have a fully booked medical staff on premises is anything goes seriously wrong with any of the subjects, but this does not mean the company will DESYNCHRONIZE you if you are feeling immense pain. That may be exactly what we're testing for the particular SCENARIO, and we wouldn't want to corrupt data. But please have faith that our company is not in the business of murdering our subjects.​

+ YOU, THE PROGRAM, AND THE BARRIERS SYSTEM +​

Subjects will receive a new set of clothing including one specialized black turtleneck, a pair of specialized black khakis, and specialized black sneakers. These clothes must be worn at all times whilst in the facility, and are meant to be conductive to the BARRIERS SYSTEM's perceptive-altering nature.

That said, the Mainframe has the ability to alter your appearance significantly. This is usually exclusive to just changing your clothing to better blend in/stick out from the SETTING you are in or imitate the role in which you are to play. However, the more sophisticated or specific SCENARIOS may alter the very creature you are, but don't worry- this is temporary, and your actual appearance will be unharmed once you exit the BARRIERS SYSTEM.

To better differentiate between other subjects and CHARACTERS within a SCENARIO, our company has equipped your specialized clothing with irremovable BADGES, a small symbol made of metal that will be in full view regardless of how much your appearance alters for a SCENARIO.

While in our facility, you'll also be given a device that looks strikingly similar to a Game Boy Color. This device, in actuality, is a communication device that has a black interface with green text (exactly like the one you're reading from now) and will provide you messages from our staff, your MISSIONS, any WHISPERS you receive, and will send hourly data logs of your actions and progress to the Mainframe.

In addition, you'll have complementary room and board in our facility as long as you're with us.​

+ MECHANICS OF THE GAME +​

Now onto the mechanics of the game. When a SCENARIO is booted up, subjects will find themselves in a SETTING. They can range from very small or ridiculously large, but will have invisible walls to define limits of where you can go within them. These walls usually wont be as blatant as they sound, and the system will try and blend them in as seamlessly as possible. For example: closed doors without knobs or keyholes, a line of tightly-knit trees, etc.

The buildings you encounter, the CHARACTERS it creates; they aren't living, so to speak, and may be temporarily created programs- but they don't realize that. They are fully equipped and processed to act and function like real buildings and human beings, and will respond appropriately to interaction of any kind put upon them.

A MISSION is an objective the system gives to you to do within the SCENARIO, and they are the cornerstone of the game. They range from simple objectives, like a delivery, to very complex puzzles such as solving a multi-suspect murder case. Note, however, that most MISSIONS are not just what meets the eye.

Usually, each SCENARIO will have a TIME LIMIT. Each hour, a data log will be sent to the Mainframe automatically through your Game Boy Color device. It likes to refer to these logs as POSTS, and it sends you a limit on how many POSTS it will receive until the SCENARIO ends. Essentially, if it tells you you have two POSTS for a TIME LIMIT, you have two hours before the SCENARIO ends.​

+ REWARDS AND THE WHISPER SYSTEM +​

At the end of a SCENARIO, the Mainframe will grant you KARMATIC POINTS, also known as KARMA(s), based off how well you performed in your scenario. Although you have a distinct mission, please remember that this is a game, and more importantly, an experiment. The company recommends, nay, encourages that the subjects make decisions based off what they think is right and wrong, or what they feel it's best to do. The Mainframe will grant points for sticking with the mission it wants you to accomplish and how well you pull it off, but it's also programmed to grant points based on conviction, creativity, aptitude, interesting decisions, conformity, deviance…. amongst other things. So, feel free to do anything you wish in the SCENARIOS.

The Mainframe is instructed to spawn a type of MORALITY STORE in each scenario it creates. Every shop you encounter in the BARRIERS SYSTEM or selected CHARACTERS will provide a list of options that you can use your KARMATIC POINTS to buy. However, the Mainframe is also equipped to hear out anything that you want or need as well, so feel free to be creative. The more specific the request though, the more expensive it will be. Some requests will be denied depending on the SCENARIO.

The Mainframe is equipped with a new bit of software our company has been very eager to test, and you get to be our beta testers! This new software is called WHISPER TECHNOLOGY. Whilst in the BARRIERS SYSTEM, the Mainframe will randomly decide to WHISPER to you during your MISSION. What it's supposed to do is give you hints or suggestions on your current goal, and how might best to reach it. Alternatively, it might give you insights on the behavior or appearance of other subjects or CHARACTERS you may encounter, as to better take advantage of your situation. In our dry runs it's been a bit buggy, however, so please, give us feedback on the honesty and performance of the technology. But don't be alarmed, it should be functioning perfectly fine. You will know when a WHISPER is sent to a player: a notification will pull up and alert all players that a certain player has received a WHISPER, and that player will receive a Private Message containing a WHISPER. Subjects may reveal what this WHISPER says to other players (or, if they so desire, keep it a secret and lie about its contents) at their whim.​

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So, you'd like to join in our program! Excellent. Please fill out the form below and upload it into Registration. Please click here. Spots are always open, and always will be.

NAME: The name or alias you have provided for us or that we assign to you. We ask you disclose and nicknames you intend to use as well so the Mainframe can recognize these and can attribute them uniquely to you.

AGE: Physical age of participant. All subjects must be over the age of fifteen.

GENDER: The subject's physical sex will be listed here. If appropriate, the Mainframe would also like to know of any transgendered or intersex attributes you have (if any.)

IDENTIFICATION: A description (or provided photo) of your physical appearance must be provided here. Type of favored dress is unnecessary to provide, but tastes may be listed here so it can be stored in the Mainframe. The Mainframe is mostly interested in identification of the face and hair region, as well as body shape, health, interesting features, and strength.

BADGE SYMBOL: Please draw or describe the badge symbol you'd like provided for you.

PERSONALITY: A thorough description of what makes you tick should be listed here. Any quirks, constant attitudes, strengths, fears, flaws, and foibles are very important to know for any deviance you make from your usual behavior.

PROVIDED HISTORY: Where you are from, accents, and a history will be listed here.

CLAIMED OCCUPATION(S): What you believe is your occupation and any occupations you've currently/recently had.

TASTES IN POKEMON: You may or may not encounter Pokémon during the course of the experiment. The Mainframe would like knowledge on what you prefer to see in your team (e.g. Types, colors, sizes, moves, natures, origins, etc.) as to better conform to/deviate from your tastes.

STATISTIC SPREAD: Similar to how Pokemon have statistics, the Mainframe analyzes subjects and assigns them numbers in seven categories. Each statistic is assigned a number 1-10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best you can be at that particular statistic. When added up, the sum of all statistics should be 40. A statistic can never be lower than 1. Please write down the numbers our physician has assigned you.

These statistics grant you better conditions to work with and special powers within the BARRIERS SYSTEM. A lot of them have corresponding checks that will occur in SCENARIOS, and you will succeed if the random number generator rolls under the number in that statistic. If it generates on or above your skill number, you will fail in varying degrees.

Health Points

Unlike the Health Points on a Pokemon, this is how much the Mainframe favors the subject, essentially making them "luckier." Having a high number in this category might reap them some special conditions within SCENARIOS that will benefit them. They will also find that the Mainframe rewards them much more generously.​

Attack

This is the measure of how physically strong and apt the subject is. Subjects with high value in this category will find they ace strength checks without even trying, and any weaponry they use will be better utilized and pack much more of a punch.​

Defense

Essentially, how much stamina the subject has. Subjects higher in this statistic handle toughness checks easily, and are able to survive with scarcer supplies (ergo, making items last longer in usefulness), and how well they resist perception-manipulation from the BARRIERS SYSTEM.​

Special Attack

This category is all about how sharp the subject is mentally. With high scores comes much more given insight about SCENARIOS that may be unmentioned to other subjects, and the WHISPER TECHNOLOGY may like to send more notes their way. The subject will find that puzzles are much more easily solved.​

Special Defense

This category tests how perceptive the subject is. They pass perception checks much more easily, and they can usually pick up higher quality stuff. They are also great Pokemon handlers, and can use them much more effectively.​

Speed

Those who have a high number in this category pass quickness tests much more easily, which may give them a significant upper-hand in situations. This skill also prevents or lessens the backlashes and negative repercussions of their actions.​

Nature

This refers to how well-tempered the subject is, and how they get along with other individuals. Subjects with a high value in this category will find they more easily pass speech checks and persuade CHARACTERS and other subjects. They will also find that their charisma earns them lower prices at MORALITY STORES and narrative favorability when dealing with humans and Pokemon.​

+ EXAMPLE +

HP: 10
Attk: 5
Def: 2
Sp. Attk: 7
Sp. Def: 2
Speed: 10
Natr: 4​

This subject will find that they are very lucky and will certainly be benefited much more generously after their SCENARIOS and be given superior equipment at the start, and due to their Speed, they will pass quickness tests with ease and never face a severe negative backlash. They're also pretty smart, and will gain some insight during their MISSIONS and hear a bunch of WHISPERS. They're pretty okay with using weapons and being fit, and they got a bit of charm, but they will fall flat on their face when it comes to taking a hit, surviving well, using Pokemon, and perceiving anything significant.

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1. Please adhere to all Company Rules outlined in our Terms and Conditions. Breaking these rules may have you DESYNCHRONIZED and terminated from the program.

2. Inactivity is not tolerated well by the Mainframe. If a user becomes inactive for too long, administration will compromise their SYNCHRONIZATION and they will be removed from the game.

3. Please refrain from being too vulgar once you're in the BARRIERS SYSTEM. We are conducting science, not promoting foul language.

4. Participants should be informed that the Mainframe may produce mature content at times. Discretion is advised.

5. Our program is highly interactive. We encourage subjects to constantly interact with each other, and will give rewards if they do so constantly.

6. Despite our best efforts, the software involved in the BARRIERS SYSTEM can be a bit buggy. We urge subjects not to abuse the system for their benefit and make them more powerful during SCENARIOS. We believe an accurate term for this in tabletops games and online roleplays is "godmodding."

7. Any Pokemon that constantly travels with you in SCENARIOS will be analyzed in level and have their experience tracked by our Mainframe. It will alert you on your Game Boy Color device when it is to evolve and what new moves it is capable of. Let the computers do the tracking work for you.​

Also, some of our musically savvy staff have assigned a "theme song" to our program. Odd, but if you'd like to listen to it,
click on this part of the sentence you are reading right now.​

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SCENARIO RR01/BASIC_MODv.57

Credit goes to Dr. Hidcnawsamai, who can't be here today due to his previous obligation attending the International Science Conference to promote regulations for the ethical treatment of luncheon meat.​

The Game Boy Color devices will be turned on shortly before entering the Barriers System. In the subject's logs, a short segment about their experience in the facility before initiating the experiment will be recorded. Hopefully the guests will find our spacious and sterile white-walled facility comfortable. All personal items will be kept in their respective lockers. All eye-impaired subjects will have contacts provided for them that suit their needed prescription. The subjects will enter the Barriers System and witness the power turning on and the environment being created around them. Then, initiate the experiment.

The setting of this first mission will be BASIC_MODv.57, or as I like to call it, "Winds Village." The area is a very small village consisting of a few cubic black stone buildings with orange windows and doors. The streets and floors in the village are made of orange stone and cover every surface, and the barriers of the town are defined by huddled trees weaving in and out of themselves to create a stable and impenetrable wall of bark. The time of day is locked at comfortable noonish feel.

There are no characters deployed in this scenario, and the only subjects present right now should be the few that were accepted by Dr. Luch and Bill Agerholm."​

MISSION

"The subjects will find themselves scattered around the village, and have a generic Pokemon Egg leaning on their leg. There will be a various notes attached to the egg for each subject, as listed below. About twenty minutes in, the egg will hatch. The subjects have one post to accomplish the task assigned to them. Any interaction between subjects should be organized by analyists elseware and then posted in one complete log for organizational purposes.

The notes are listed as follows:

[PJBOTTOMZ]

"Don't let me explode."​

Programmed to hatch: Voltorb.
Tendency: Trigger happy.

[KHAWILL]

"I'm lazy. Get me to run."​

Programmed to hatch: Gastly.
Tendency: Extraordinarily lazy.

[ICHIRO]

"Be careful! I bite hard. Teach me some discipline."​

Programmed to hatch: Rattata.
Tendency: Violent and restless.

[SKYMIN]

"Teach me how to dance."​

Programmed to hatch: Tropius.
Tendency: Easily confused and startled.

[HEARTTHEWOLF]

"Get me to leave the village."​

Programmed to hatch: Minccino.
Tendency: Clingy and overbearing.

[ARCARAY]

"I love you. Please hug me when I'm born."​

Programmed to hatch: Qwilfish.
Tendency: Affectionate.

[TRUE EPICNESS]

"Eat me."​

Programmed to hatch: Tynamo.
Tendency: Sickly.

​

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Cashmere Bombard [CashyBoo]​

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Accessing .log file prelimLogCSMRB... Completed.
Loading .log file... loaded.

God, this place is just cold.

Cashmere rubbed her goosebump-covered arms as the two employees decked out in all-white clothing led her down an all-white hallway. She momentarily reasoned that this place was probably whiter than she was as the group continued their walk down the hall that Cashmere almost mentioned was entirely too cold, even when she was wearing this ugly black turtleneck. "Hey, um, people. When are we gonna get to, well, wherever we're going? I'm freezing."

"We will arrive at the common rooms shortly. Please be patient." The woman, who had her brown hair wrapped into a very tight and possibly restricting ponytail, responded almost robotically, as if she had been rehearsed into saying that so many times that it was embedded as a monotone thought.

"Well, can I get a sweatshirt or something? And what's with all these ugly clothes? Do you guys know what a color is?" Cashmere retorted, feeling snark as the woman had made the rather condescending-like comment at her.

"We are aware of what a color is. The clothing you refer to is necessary for the testing procedure. You are simulated reasonably different clothes in the testing room. It is also warmer in the testing room and the common rooms than it is in here, so you do not need a sweatshirt at this time. We may provide you one during resting periods if you find the temperatures unsatisfactory." The robot spoke again, using the same rehearsed voice for each word. What do they do these people?

"May? So I have to freeze here the whole time? Great." Cashmere groaned and threw her head back as she walked, her hair bouncing and jiggling around as she did so. "What exactly do we do in these tests? And are you guys robots? Because you sound like robots."

"We are not robots, miss. We are merely trained to answer your questions in this manner." This time, the guy spoke. He had jet-black hair that was sleeked down so much that it could be the one place in the world where air couldn't possibly exist. "And we are not allowed to disclose testing information ahead of time. We also do not know what tests are planned for you, and we would not want to mislead you with false information."

"Okay, C-Borg 291." She rolled her eyes. I better get paid a whole lot for this stuff.

The group finally arrived at what Cashmere assumed was a common room. The, you guessed it, completely white door that had the label reading "Common Room" on it seemed almost embedded into the wall - however, the male robot pushed a button on the side and the door slid out of the way, revealing the common room for what it was.

All white. Everything was absolutely, 100% white. Table, chairs, desks, everything. In the center of the room was a large circular table, with six chairs around it. On one wall, there was a row of large lockers, seemingly big enough to fit... well, anything inside of it. Cashmere reasoned that a dead body could probably fit in there. The female robot stepped forward and held her hand out to the lockers. "In there, you will place your personal belongings, such as jewelry, cell phones, et cetera. They are completely safe and the lockers are automated to recognize your voice when addressing them, so no one can open your locker except for you or a staff member with an override card."

"Um, whoa. I didn't agree to leaving my cellphone unattended." Cashmere responded. "That can stay with me."

"That will not do, miss." Male robot came over to Cashmere's other side. "Satellite waves emmited by mobile phones interfere with the testing room's equipment. It may cause terrible effects during the molecule scrambling process. Many of our beta testers who had not left their cellular devices behind walked away from the test with missing limbs or re-assembled body structures. It was not a... good sight."

Cashmere's eye twitched. What did I get myself into? "Right... well, I'll just get settled in then. Thanks... weirdos."

The two employees nodded, the insult bouncing off of them like light off metal, before they left the common room, the door sliding shut behind them. Cashmere rolled her eyes and made her way over to her locker to begin unpacking all of the crap she brought along with her.

Accessing .log file RR01CSMRB... Completed.
Loading .log file... Completed.

Ugh... my head hurts so bad...

From the ground she had materialized on, Cashmere pushed herself up and brushed the sight-offending hair from her eyes, allowing her to take in her surroundings. A two-minute walk away from where she was rested stood a very cubic and uncomplimentary-colored village, with buildings that contained rather linear windows and doors, and no visible life present. Cashmere was utterly baffled about this, but remembered that she was in a test.

"Oh yeah, I'm in a test. None of this is real." She laughed a little, sitting up... and noticing a wonderfully green egg had rolled over when she did so. She picked it up gently, setting it in her lap, and read the note attached to it.

"Do not let me explode. Programmed to Hatch: Voltorb. Tendency: Trigger Happy."

Well then.

"Um..." Cashmere looked around, hoping to see if there were programmers or whatever hiding in the shadows. "Hey! Test people! How am I supposed to hatch this thing? Do I have to sit on it like a bird or what?" No response. "Hello?! Can't you guys help me or something?!" Again, no response, and the silence of the area was really starting to bother her.

"Okay then, guess I'm on my own." Cashmere surveyed the egg and its structure; it was a sickly white, with even sickly-er green spots on it. It was ovular, and felt somewhat heavy. Wasn't that a sign that it's close to hatching? It felt a bit warm, too.

Cashmere looked around, trying to find something... something that she wasn't aware that she needed. She honestly had no clue what she was doing. Was there stuff in the houses? It was worth a look, she guessed.

She stood up and began making her way towards the houses, the egg in hand and a wary expression on her face. Knowing her luck, something would probably jump out of the house and kill her. Could she actually die in this thing? She hadn't considered that when she signed up. She stopped in the middle of the town and looked around again. "Test makers! Can we die in this thing? Don't tell me we can die!"

Again, no response. Cashmere was somewhat bothered by this solitary place. Even with the nice temperature, it still felt unnatural and odd. The colors of the ground and buildings didn't help too much - it was entirely different from what you usually saw in cities and towns. Maybe the test makers weren't good at graphic design?

Cashmere went up to one of the doors of the house and grabbed the door handle, twisting it and attempting to open it - with no luck. The doors were either locked, or there wasn't actually anything on the other side and it was only a facade. She groaned and sat down.

For the next fifteen or so minutes, she waited, staring patiently at the egg in her hand. Right as she was about to doze off into a sleep, she heard a small cracking sound. Looking up, she noticed that the egg was hatching right in her hand. "Oh God, it's starting."

She gently set the egg down on the ground and backed away, worried that the Voltorb inside might come out with a bang, and leave with one too. After some wiggling and some more cracking, the egg burst open in a flash of light - one that thankfully was not coming from an Explosion - and the Voltorb inside came rolling out, not looking particularly happy... not like it would be expected.

Cashmere bent down and picked up the Pokeball-themed orb, looking at it all over. "Hm, you're a little cutie aren'tcha?" She laughed, running her hand along the top of its, well... body? "Okay, so I can't let you explode, can I? That'll be, uh, difficult. You guys tend to do that quite a bit on your own, and you have a tendency to be trigger happy. That makes this so much harder..."

The Voltorb glowered at Cashmere in angry anger, not understanding nor caring about whatever she was saying. Cashmere sweatdropped slightly, because she honestly had no clue what was this thing's problem. Maybe that's just how Voltorbs are? "Don't you know how to smile? Oh wait, you don't really have a mouth..."

Cashmere sat down, placing the Voltorb in front of her, dealing with the fact that he was probably going to glare at her eternally for all she cared. "Well... maybe if I just sit here and don't piss you off, this test will be over and I can pass. What makes you angry? I need to not do it."

The Voltorb sat motionless in front of her, never letting up on his glaring. "You're quite the socialite, Voltorb. Maybe I should nickname you. I'll call you Grumpy. Or Prissy, if you're a girl. Are you a girl? How would someone tell? Or do Voltorbs not have genders?"

Cashmere realized how crazy she probably sounded right now - she was talking to a metal ball with eyes like it was a person. But hey, this is probably what the test makers wanted. They said this would be like some kind of personality evaluation. Or... something like that. Whatever. It didn't matter. She was winning at this test, seeing how she wasn't actually doing anything and the Voltorb wasn't exploding.

Wait. Why is it glowing?

"Oh no, no no no no no! Grumpy, stop!" Cashmere yelled as she noticed that Grumpy the Voltorb didn't feel like staying in this solitude and was beginning to glow and turn bright white in preparation for an Explosion. "****, this isn't supposed to be happening. No, Grumpy, stop that. Stop it now. Don't you dare explode! That's gonna hurt both of us, you know it!"

Cashmere's reasoning failed to halt Grumpy's exploding process. He was now glowing very white, and would probably explode any minute. "Oh God, what am I supposed to do? How do you stop an explosion? Let's see, ummmm... ah! Water! When Voltorb are damp, they can't explode. Now I just need water. But where...?"

Cashmere looked around the village hastily - only to find that there wasn't a single water source available as far as she could see. Grumpy was looking pretty deadly at the moment... if she can't stop the explosion from happening, there was only one thing to do.

Cashmere grabbed Grumpy and held him like a bowling ball, aiming down the path that she had came from. She gave herself a running start and flung Grumpy down the path, watching him roll away from the cubic village. Moments later, a large explosion filled an area down the path - and the force was strong enough to blow Cashmere back and send her tumbling down the street of the village. She landed with a thud, groaning from the pain.

The village around her slowly began to dematerialize, until she was back in the solid white testing room of the laboratory. She groaned and pushed herself up on her hands, looking around. "So... was that a failure?"

Archiving .log files... Completed.
Closing program...​

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With a short, sweet 'beep', the locker door swung open to reveal an empty locker set aside just for him. They all had lockers that would only open to them, and so Ross simply shoved his piled of clothes in, laying his watch and necklace on top carefully. All around him the other participants were clad in their respective black clothing, looking like something out of a horror movie. Ross moved uncomfortably in his own turtleneck and khakis, as if they had purposefully given him clothing that was slightly too small, but when he asked if they had a size up, the 'scientists' dressing him were adamant that it was the right size for him. On the front, left breast of the turtleneck, a small, metallic, red Pacman ghosts lay attacked in full view of all others to see. While he was one for retro games, he wasn't entirely sure why he chose the ghost, other than that, from what he understood it would help the scientists to differentiate him from other participants. However, looking around he could see that he was both the tallest and also most well-built of the participants.

Shutting the locker, he turned the brick like gaming device over and over in his hands. As a kid, he had played Tetris on the system multiple times, but as he grew up, grew more apart from the gaming style of life. It was a blast from the past, but the green text running down the screen on the black background almost made him want to vomit. He pocketed the device, opting instead to stretch his muscles before entering the Barriers System, whatever that was. They had been given little to no information on most of the experiments, apart from the fact that they were the lab rats in some sort of testing phase. Needless to say, they were all standing around waiting for the system to boot up and drop them into the so called 'game'.

The switch from the white walled common room into the barriers system surprised Ross as they room seemed to dissolve around them into an awful palate of orange and black, as if they had hired a colour-blind person to work on the palate. He could only stare at the tiny Game Boy Colour screen as lines of code rapidly flew past the screen. He waited for the simulation to completely render before he even tried to make a move. Around him, the orange cobblestone path twisted and turned between the oddly cubic black and orange houses. In the distance, he could see possibly one or two of the other participants, which confused his as they were only a couple of meters away from him in the beginning. He stretched his right hand out to his side, desperately trying to find the lockers, yet his hand only swept through thin air. He remembered there being a table and chairs in the room too, yet nothing seemed to be where it was.

He went to step forward, but a peculiar egg rolled out in front of his foot. Ross would have stepped over it if it wasn't for the strange note stickered to the outside of the egg. Picking it up, the egg felt rather heavy, and was bigger than any chicken or duck egg he had seen before. He turned the pasty green egg over and over in his hands, really feeling the texture of it, it felt as real as anything else in the material world.




"What the hell is a Rattatat?" He murmured to himself as he continued to survey the egg for any other hint of information. He came up with nothing, didn't even know how he was going to even hatch it in the first place, but then again it was simply data.

Shifting the egg to rest in the crook of his left arm and shoving the note in his right pocket, Ross began to survey the village he had been dumped in. He paid most attention to the overall graphical design of the place; the grass not only felt like grass, but looked like it too, even the oddly coloured bricks seemed naturally coloured like that. The place, despite its colour impairment, was so well designed; no graphic design program on the market could match the intensity of it. Placing the egg safely behind his legs, Ross leaned in forward, aligning his elbow with the window as to be able to break it without cutting himself. Pulling back, he breathed in, holding his elbow steady before striking the window on the exhale. The window didn't magically disappear like he had thought it would, but rather it shattered both inside and outside of the house, the tiny pieces of glass ringing as they hit the cobblestone below. Inside looked like a foreboding, dark void as if its sole purpose was to suck even light into it, sending shivers down Ross' spine.

Pulling his elbow around, he took a quick look at the ripped fabric of his shirt and the slow trickle of blood that began to emit from the shallow cuts. He felt really puzzled at that moment, on one hand, he felt pain as if he had just smashed his elbow into a glass window pain, but on the other, he felt nothing but a dull throbbing emitting from his elbow as if it was simply bruised. Whether this was a part of the program to make him think he was bleeding or not, it began messing with his head. Scrunching his eyes together, he focussed on the pain at hand; that dull throbbing coming from his elbow. When he opened his eyes, he found the turtleneck unharmed and no residue of blood to be seen.

"This system just keeps on getting better and better," he spoke to the egg as he brought it back to its previous occupation in the crook of his arm.

For the next ten minutes, Ross continued his self-obsessed inspection of the environment dubbed 'Wind Village". He tried twisting a door knob, but found it locked firmly, ran his hand over the smooth surface of the black brick houses and bumpy cobblestone path. He even made it as far out as the trees that apparently lined the edge of the room, feeling the differing grooves in each slice of bark. Everything in this world was screaming at him that it was real, but in his mind he knew it was simply a computer program made to mimic the real world. Clutching his forehead in agony, he felt a headache blossom into existence as he fell to his knees, the egg rolling out of his grip and into the soft bed of grass.

It was the cracking that made Ross snap out of his crisis, thinking the world around him was breaking apart. Instead, it was the claws scratching against the fragile eggshell that drew his attention away. Crouching on his knees, he stopped all actions to watch the egg break apart bit by bit until a small, purple head poked through the head of the egg. The small, rat Pokémon was unlike anything he had seen in Toronto before, and he almost thought he could like it until the rest of its head rose up showing two large, teeth jutting out from its upper jaw.

"Rat?" the purple rodent tilted its head to the side, as if quizzically considering what relation Ross was to it.

"Oh, sh*t," was all he said as he noticed the gleam in its eyes. Stumbling to his feet, he began legging it around the outside of the village, the small rodent voraciously chasing after him. "Guys, guys guys! You can turn the simulation off!" he yelled at the sky as he pelted around the houses.

Just as he was passing a break between two houses, he noticed a glowing ball roll right past in front of him. The fact that it emitted heat and was glowing was enough to tell Ross that whatever it was, was going to explode, and sure enough, he brought his arms up to protect his face as he heard the ball explode with a large 'bang'. He waited to be buffeted by air or thrown off of his feet, but when he opened his eyes, he was standing back in the bland, white room with the other participants.

Letting out a deep sigh, he counted his luck before looking down at the small device he held in his hands. The green text had slowed down considerably since synchronising with the program earlier on, slowing to the point where the final word flashed up: 'complete'.​

She stood there, a little unsure what had been asked of her. She stood in what had been explained to her as "Winds Village", watching her environment as it was built up around her, turning from a white-walled, hospital-like room to a little town of some kind. A strange town at that, with cubic-looking dark buildings with orange doors and windows. The floor beneath her, as the environment finished being created, was also a startling orange, but Rosalee had to remind herself that this was a created scenario and that some poor fool with zero sense of design had created this eyesore of a town. She also had to remind herself that it was probably a programmer who did this and she couldn't remember the last time she saw a programmer with a proper sense of colour schemes.

She suddenly felt a weight on her foot as an egg materialised on it, a note sitting on top of it. She picked up both, cradling the egg in her left arm as she held the note with her right. She read it aloud, to let it sink in.

"Teach me how to dance." She stared at the note for a few moments and then back at the egg. This was a Pokémon egg, wasn't it? God, she couldn't remember the last time she had involved herself with Pokémon. She had one, a Sentret if she recalled correctly, as a pet when she was younger but had never been much of the Pokémon battling or breeding type. There was nothing wrong with the career path, only that Rosalee liked to be in control when she was the boss and not have some Charmander lighting you on fire when you told it to distract the opponent. Pokémon were too unpredictable. It was bad enough that she had to work with humans. But maybe it was their ability to be unpredictable that made them so entertaining to watch in battles.

So, alright, she was meant to teach this whatever how to dance. Was it meant to hatch? Did she just have to wait for it? Maybe there was something in town which helped it hatch, like a hammer or something. She went with her intuition and took a small stroll around town, her eyes flicking off to the other subjects warily, standing just out of sight. She avoided them like the plague; she wasn't about to help nor give help to any of these amateurs.

She noticed, stepping under the shade of one of the god awful buildings, that the simulation had weather, which was rather pleasant. The white-walled facility had that feeling of air-conditioning, where it was too cold for t-shirts but too warm for a coat. Maybe that's why they were all wearing these disgusting turtlenecks. Rosalee pulled at the neck, wondering who the hell design all this crap. An uninsightful person, that was for sure. No sense of design. None. The lack of it all just frustrated her a lot more than it should have. Maybe she should work for these schmucks after this was all over to save the next lot of subjects running through these halls from bare walls and ugly turtlenecks.

The egg in her arm made a clicking noise and before she knew it, the egg in Rosalee's arm had suddenly become a tree with legs. It had a long neck, leafy wings (is that what they were), yellow buds under its chin and kind of looked like a dinosaur. She took a sudden liking to it; at least this Pokémon had been well designed from whatever higher power or science that had created it.

The GameBoy she had shoved into her pocket before entering the scenario beeped loudly. Rosalee pulled it out with her spare hand, reading the green and black script which appeared on it.

> "Teach me how to dance."
> Programmed to hatch: Tropius.
> Tendency: Easily confused and startled.​

That was her objective? Rosalee scoffed at the text, shoving the GameBoy right back into her pocket. She could barely dance herself, how was she meant to teach a neurotic dinosaur how to do it? Maybe the hokey pokey or the macarena... without arms. The swim? Eagle rock? Twerking? Whatever, she'd figure it out.

"Hi there," she said to the Tropius. "Ready to learn how to dance?"

It stared back at her from her arms, tilting its head the way dogs do when they don't quite understand what you want them to do. Weren't Pokémon meant to understand the English language or were they like humans and they had to learn it as the grew up? If it was the latter, well, that would be a big waste of time. She'd have to try body language, but risk looking like a total moron in front of these morons? Not if she could help it.

She ducked out of sight, behind another god awful building, and plopped the dinosaur on the ground.

"Alright. Dancing. Uh, step one: move your feet. Like, uh, this." She swayed her feet on the ground, feeling like that undrunk dope in a nightclub who really didn't want to be there. The Tropius watched her feet cautiously but didn't respond in the way she wanted, just exchanging looks between her feet and her face. "You're meant to be doing this. Dinosaur, copy me."

The Tropius did diddly squat other than just look at her. Rosalee stopped, her temper slowly rising. Humans were more co-operative than this.

"Listen here, buddy. I don't want to be dancing in front of you as much as you are confused about this thing, so why don't you just sway your feet and we'll call it even?" The Tropius just dipped its head the other way. It was ignoring her? That wasn't something she could tolerate for long. "HEY!"

Her shout did almost what she wanted it to do. Yeah, the Tropius changed its reaction, but it seemed to yelp and make a run for it. Oh. Yeah. 'Easily startled'. Smart move, Rosie. She took off after it, dipping around the corner only to see a Electrode roll past a few streets ahead and out of sight, followed by a loud explosion. The Tropius yelped again, turning tail the other way, right into Rosalee. It bumped into her and fell down, Rosalee stopped and leaning on her knees. She did not like running. At all.

"Alright, uh, okay," she puffed, trying to think what to do. She had to remember: this was a digital projection. Everything here, par her and the other subjects, were just lines of code. So they followed a program. It was probably like the Matrix or something, where code developed over time but still followed if and then statements over and over. So Pokémon were programmed like, well, Pokémon. Which were just animals. And animals all seemed to follow a similar pattern when it came to learning things; praising on good behaviour and scolding on bad. So she just had to use positive reinforcement when it moved. Of course, she had no snacks but she could pat it or something. Whatever. "Alright, I got it now."

When the Tropius got to its feet, it seemed an awful lot less startled, which was a good thing. She clicked her fingers to grab its attention in a non-startling way. When it heard the noise, its eyes flicked to her hands. She then continued to click her fingers at a consistent rate, keeping its attention somewhat focused, and circling its head slowly. The Tropius followed the clicking fingers, hanving to turn itself around to do so. It might not be able to follow basic orders, but if it could follow basic instinct, she might be able to do this. And according to Rosalee, spinning around in circles could be considered dancing.

When the Tropius had maybe spun around five or six times, she stopped it and gave it a bunch of "Good job!"s and "Well done!"s, patting it on the head and rubbing its belly. It seemed to enjoy it enough, the confused look fading and turning into something Rosalee could have considered 'happiness'.

So, she rinsed and repeated. Clicking and spinning followed by the positive reinforcement. This went on for what felt like four hours (but was probably maybe one) until she removed her hand from spinning the Tropius around, and just clicked. The Tropius was confused for a moment, but knew what it did when she clicked all those other times, spinning around, basically looking like it was chasing its tail (or leaf wings. Whatever). Rosalee laughed, stopping it and giving it another round of positive reinforcement. If she was bothered, she could probably train it to spin faster and slower depending on how fast she clicked. But, she wasn't.

"You could count that as dancing, right?!" she shouted to the Heavens above her. The environment started to break down and Rosalee sighed. She hoped that the next scenario wasn't as dumb as this one.​