Just call me Fallen
Shizuko looked up when she heard someone speak. It was one of the boys... she had heard him introduce himself before... Silas was his name? Yes, Silas. She saw the faint but friendly smile on his face, and decided to return it. Hearing his question, she decided it would be rude not to answer, so she did.
"I'm alright... I just let paranoia get the best of me, I suppose." She realized then she had never told anyone her name here. Might as well tell him, no harm in doing so. "I'm Shizuko, by the way."
My RP site. Please feel free to join!
Bird mom
Rue smiled. "Thank you." Rue said. "I'm not very er... Confident in general to tell you the truth. I've had some bad experiences with being assertive" she confessed. "But don't you guys feel obligated to talk down to me. I'm OK..." she said keeping her voice low. "As for food... I'd like Pizza. It's always a nice treat. I actually am rather fond of meat lover's pizza." she said. I hope they don't consider that me being a pig. Rue thought.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
Wait, he isn't dead! Shia Surprise!
“Nice to meet you, Shizuko,” he replied. “I’m Silas.”
The grey-eyed young man could not help but tilt his head a smidge to one side even as he said this, however. Though he was glad to hear that she was all right, he found her name slightly perplexing: Shizuko was a Japanese name, unless he was greatly mistaken, and yet she had come from overseas like everyone else who had stayed at the hotel last night. The amber-eyed young woman did not seem particularly Asian in his opinion; Shizuko spoke English without any noticeable accent (though that did not necessarily mean much), and if she did possess any Asiatic traits, they weren’t readily apparent. Maybe she had mixed ancestry?
It was an unusual name, to be sure, but then again so was his own; on the largely francophone island of Montreal, were most guys tended to sport French names like Antoine or Olivier, the name Silas stuck out like a sore thumb. So while he may have found Shizuko’s name unusual, the curly-haired Canadian was in no real position to judge. Besides, he had to admit it sounded nice…
Realizing where his mind was going, Silas coughed into the crook of his elbow to derail that train of thought. “Sorry about that,” he said with an apologetic smile. “Something got caught in my throat. Anyway, I wouldn’t worry too much too much about the rumour mill over there, Shizuko; all this does seem a little weird, I won’t lie, but in my opinion they’re blowing things out of proportion. It’s probably nothing that we need to worry about.”
Olivia rolled her eyes and let out a brief raspberry. At this point the green-eyed young woman had just stopped paying attention to what Shai was saying because, to be honest, there was no point; the Israeli girl was talking way too fast to even hope to get a word in edgewise, even without taking into consideration the fact that she was attempting to hold a truly ridiculous number of conversations at once. Her rapid-fire words had started to blur together into an incomprehensible morass, simply going in one of Olivia’s ears and out the other without imparting any meaning whatsoever, and even if that wasn’t the case the androgynous college student simply could not make sense of even the more coherent bits of Shai’s nonstop stream of dialogue.
Besides, it was far more entertaining to watch her spin in place like a human top; Olivia could not help but chuckle faintly as the image of Shai boring a hole through the floor and falling into the room below, Tasmanian Devil-style, popped into her mind.
With that out of the way, she glanced over towards that kid Joel and Aquilla; they were talking about food now, and the college student had to admit that she was somewhat hungry. She couldn’t recall exactly when the last time she’d eaten had been, and frown spread across her boyish face as the young woman’s stomach chose that moment to remind her in the only way it knew how.
“Great, now you’ve got me hungry as well,” she muttered under her breath. Her next words were loud enough to be heard, however, and she put on a pleasant expression as she spoke to Joel. “Sure, I could go for a pan cheese when this is done. And it’s nice to see that there are at least a few people with their heads on straight here.”
She might have said more, but at that moment those great metal doors slid open with a hiss of hydraulics once more and Mr. Weiss emerged.
“Good news, everyone!” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve finished my adjustments and we’re ready to begin. If you’ll all just step inside, we can start the tutorial.”
“About time.” Olivia rose from her seat, stuffed her hands into her pockets and made her way to the door.
Beyond them lay a rectangular, white-walled room nearly twice as long as the waiting area had been; tinted windows ran along the wall to the left, offering Olivia a brief glimpse into some sort of control room, and at the far end was a nondescript door with an emergency exit sign built into the wall above it. The chamber was dominated by a loose ring of fourteen padded chairs, each of which featured prominent amrests, a raised footrest and a lowered backrest; clearly, people were meant to recline in them rather than sit up straight. Thick, padded gloves sat on each armrest, connected to their corresponding chair by several wires, and a steel grey dome which would not have looked out of place in a beauty parlour hung over each recliner, connected to the chair’s back by a flexible spine made of multiple plastic segments.
Each of these domes, Olivia saw, bore small plaques, and on each plaque the name of one of the beta-testers had been written; the college student spotted her own name on the fifth chair from the left. In addition, she could see that there were letters stencilled on the side of each dome along its bottom rim, letters which spelt out HAR-V.
“So it’s an acronym, then?” she said, a little nonplussed.
“Correct,” came the voice of Mr. Weiss. The British businessman had moved over to the right of the door, standing next to a table laden with thirteen pairs of thick aviator goggles. “Holographic Augmented Reality Visualizer, or Harvey for short. The design is a little clunky at the moment, I won’t lie, but we’re working on fixing that; within two months, the units will be small enough that they will be easy to ship and easy to install inside of any home in the world.”
He carefully picked up one pair of goggles by their straps and held it up so that the players could see them clearly. “They may not look like much, but these little babies are a key part of the experience. I’m sure many of you will recognize the design; we at Bandai have deliberately modelled them after the goggles worn by the protagonists of the Digimon anime. Please try not to scratch the lenses; we have spares on hand, but these goggles aren’t easy to fix.”
Mr. Weiss set these aviators down with just as much care as when he had picked them up, then clapped his hands together and grinned. “Right then, if you’ll all take a pair of these and find your way to your respective chairs, we can begin.”
The Danse Macabre Codex
Because of the talk of military and Hunger Games, William took the line "Good news, everyone!" and heard it as if Weiss was an aging boss telling his delivery crew that they will make a trip to the Forbidden Zone... Though thankfully, it was just Weiss telling them that now is the time to test the game. Good. The sooner he got to the game, the better.
He followed Olivia and anyone else that went with Weiss to the room, where there were many chairs. His chair was found parallel to Olivia, though the chair kind of nerved him a bit. It reminded him of his experience with the dentist's... Though it could be from the uneasiness from other tester's chatter. He breathed in, then out. His mind sought refuge in the explanation of HAR-V. It helped William ease in... then Weiss mentioned something about some... protagonists... and an anime... He knew what protagonists mean, the character who was central to a plot, but anime? Now they lost him. Though when Weiss mentioned how everyone should recognize the designs, he kept his mouth shut. It's best not to reveal that he doesn't know jack about Digimon, lest they'd pick him apart.
Instead he just took the goggles and went to his chair.
"T-Takahashi Ayako. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
Ayako caught herself midway in her bow, as she had greeted Shai in the same manner completely without thinking. The Israeli girl's madness was catching, it seemed. However, the girl spoke pretty good Japanese...better than the American, at least. She found herself wondering what kind of girl Shai truly was, and if she really was as crazy as she made herself out to be. Luckily, her train of thought was stalled as Mr. Weiss reappeared and led the players into the next chamber.
Ayako gasped as she saw the chairs, gloves and goggles and the excited grin returned to her face. Her name was on the second chair on the right, and she would recognize those goggles anywhere! This was like something out of a science fiction anime...only real! Most of all it reminded Ayako of .hack, and she started to realize that they were truly going to the Digimon World!
"Sugoi!"
The fangirl eagerly took a couple of snapshots of the room and goggles before collecting her pair. They wouldn't believe her at home otherwise. It was with no small feeling of awe and suspense that Ayako put on her goggles and found a seat in her chair. She could hardly control herself, this was so exciting!
"Digital Gate, open! Ebarashiki Kodomotachi, ikimashou!"
edited 28th Aug '12 8:47:32 AM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
(Avatar by Coffee)
Shai would have made another spin around the room, especially since that boy — Joel, wasn't it? behaved like a jerk, and because Ayako answered her — but then Mr. Weiss returned and announced that he finished his adjustments.
When she entered the room, she lifted a finger to her lips in thought. What did those couches remind her of...? Ah, yes, the similar ones in The Matrix Neo and his group used to re-enter the Matrix. She chuckled quietly to herself. Things were getting more bizarre as time passed.
When Adam showed them the goggles, she giggled a bit. So they were all going to be goggleheads. Heh heh. She wandered around, looking for a couch with her name. She found it and lied down, having taken a pair from Adam in the way.
"You know, Takahashi-san," she said, her voice much quieter than before, "this feels more like The Matrix than Digimon Zero-Two to me."
Bird mom
Rue picked up the goggles and smiled. "That's a cleve idea. Functional and appropriate. It will be like I'm really in the Digital World!" she said as she took the goggles and placed them on her head. She rather liked the name HAR-V. That was her father's name after all. Harvey Makafari had been elated that Haruka had been chosen to work on this Beta. "That's the gateway job into the industry, Rue. Playtesting." Her father had moved from America in the eighties to get work in game design, when the American game industry was in shambles. Rue would always admire his bravery, as the rest of his family mocked him at the time. Games were just a silly pass time right? Nothing worth moving to do. Haruka knew that in his place she would never have the courage to do the same. But her father had moved to Japan and watched the industry grow and she was amazed that she would participate in the next step of it's evolution.
"This is going to be amazing!" Said Rue quietly even in her excitement. She sat down in her chair wrapping her scarf tightly around her neck, even though she knew that wouldn't impact the game at all, she wanted to keep it out of the way. She clasped her goggles excitedly waiting for a command to put them on.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
Crazed Lawrencian
"Nahce to meet you too, Miss Ayako."
— He tipped his hat to her just before she turned round, smiling brightly himself. Talking with the local girls had been easier than he'd expected, far less awkward too. He really hadn't known much beyond some of the basics of Japanese, not having much time to learn it. That went pretty well, even if we wrecked our languages! I think they'll be fun to play with too, 'cause they know all kinds of things about Digimon I don't. Especially that Ayako shutterbug, if I go by all the squee. Nice smile on her. Nice walk too. ...Not going there.
He gave a blink, shook his head with a short laugh, and looked to Rue, hat back on after being tipped to her too. —
"You don' have to worreh 'bout that, Miss Rue. Havin' a strong accent ain't cause for that sort of talk in my book."
— Then the doors were thrown open, and Mister Weiss' next words made the Southerner almost double over with a combination of excitement and barely suppressed laughter. He sure does know his audience!
Alistair sped in with the others, eyes roving every which direction around the room. He spied the goggles (having given a vigourous nod on hearing the explanation of the HARV-Es), and his hands twitched in a grabby motion. If there was one thing he knew from that old anime, it was that the Digimon protagonists got the coolest eyewear that inevitably almost never got used. He seized a pair, perched them atop his fedora, and ran to the seat marked for him. Reluctantly, he took off both hat and goggles, then put the stylish eyewear on properly, fingers rapping on the sides of the seat. —
"Readeh to go!"
Proud member of the IAA What's the point of being grown up if you can't act childish?
Eric hadn't bothered trying to keep up with all the conversations. He wasn't good at keeping track of multiple voices, and just got the idea that they all disagreed with him. Shai, on the other hand, had started spinning like Crash Bandicoot keeping up with all the conversation threads, and he just decided to leave their position in her hands. Then they all started talking about food. He was always up for food, and he guessed he could get to know some of these people a bit better...
Then Weiss came back, and announced that they were starting. About time Eric thought to himself; if this had gone on any longer, the testers would have left to get pizza. Walking into the room, he was also initially reminded of The Matrix, although the addition of the gloves and goggles got him more into the mind of a certain book. Inspired by the memory of that book, he brought up a question to their guide: "Do those gloves have any haptic feedback?"
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.
Aww, son of a bitch
Joel smirked at the blonde girl's response, nodding slightly. "Well, ya know what they say. Common sense ain't so common any more." He didn't like to toot his own horn, but it was good to get a compliment once in a while. Supposed he could say the same for Blondie, too. She was a little moody, sure, but it didn't look like they'd be giving each other trouble any time soon, which was about as far as he was willing to go in terms of compliments. Al seemed like a good guy too, though they hadn't talked as often. Seemed more interested in the local testers than anything else. Whatever, they could chat when the games began. If they began at all, since Weiss was still taking his sweet time back there.
The sound of the Englishman's voice. Looked like he'd finished up his adjustments. With a metallic thud and a muttered "Fuckin' finally.", he followed the other testers past those ominous metal doors. He had to admit, he almost felt a little giddy at the prospect. They'd be the first people on the planet to play this game, a game that would likely revolutionize the industry. As much as he cared about video games, which wasn't very much at all, it still seemed like an exciting thing to be a part of. He just hoped it wouldn't last too long. He had obligations, y'know?
He took a moment to survey the white room before him before stepping inside. So that was Harvey, then. A few funky-looking chairs and some goggles. He wouldn't say he was disappointed at this. Maybe a little underwhelmed but not disappointed. After all, he hadn't seen these things in action yet. The whole thing looked a little goofy, though. The chairs seemed like they'd been stolen from the set of a bad sci-fi movie and the goggles... he didn't know what to say about the goggles. Was some kinda recurring thing, he guessed. He was starting to regret not catching up on the show a bit more before coming here.
Joel took a pair of goggles, affixing them with a satisfying elastic snap. He strode over to the chair marked with his name and took a seat, giving a small thumbs-up to Mister Weiss before sliding his hands into the too-large gloves. The chair was about as comfortable as it looked, the plastic spine digging into his back, making him squirm in place a bit. The British kid, Eric, said something or other about feedback, but he wasn't listening. "Ready to go over here." He said, almost in response to the others.
"You have more than enough potential. So tell me what is the one wish that would make your soul gem shine." -Mitt Romney, probably
King of Anime
May gave Shai a nod in response to her remark. "We'll just see about that then." Soon the conversation dissolved into a discussion of food and books. With a shake of her head and a wave towards the others she cast a glance around not caring for her surroundings. Soonthe group was led towards the testing area where she listened to yet more explanations. Taking the goggles and gloves she slid them on before sliding into a chair. "Right. Let's get started."
edited 31st Aug '12 1:52:27 PM by Chariot
Superhero
Lucas strolled over to the goggles and brought them to eye level. He stood there for a minute, silently observing them.
"I hope I get Beelzemon. I already have goggles to protect my eyes on the motorcycle."
He put them on and sat down in his chair.
"All right, everyone, let's mosey."
edited 31st Aug '12 9:27:37 PM by luckybreak91
TV Tropes Powers. Activate!!!!!
Poetic Bard lvl 34
Quill felt the conversation give way and hoped that meant they really would go for some type of food. It didn’t matter what. Though she chalked the need for food up to nervousness and not actual hunger, for she hadn’t felt that sensation in quite a while. She always had the best food and when sampling the finest, hunger simply found someone else’s door to knock on.
Mr. Weiss’s voice brought her out of her reverie and she filed in after the others. She’d been one of the last in and her eyes drunk in the minimal sight. Her lips pursed in a small o as she looked at the chairs.
This is no Hunger Games, this is the Matrix.
After grabbing the necessities, she looked around and found her spot and was sandwiched between someone she didn’t quite know and someone she did.
Though, she thought to herself I don’t really know any of them. I have acquaintances not comrades. Names, not friends.
She spied her name once more in the printed script before reclining back listening to the man’s words. She remembered the goggles on one of the characters from her quick research. They were a staple of the franchise. At least, she knew that much. Luckily, the chairs were comfortable. She frowned at the goggles bulky design. They would clash with her perfect ensemble, but otherwise her energy shifted within herself. She crossed her legs, smoothed her skirt, and waited for further instructions.
“Will the goggles come in other designs?” She absently asked the question out loud. She wasn't expecting a real response.
edited 31st Aug '12 10:30:15 PM by ChreiyaL
Bird mom
"Do we get to pick our Digimon?" Haruka asked. "Or are they randomly selected. And is it like the Digimon World games for the DS where you get more than one Digimon?" she asked curiously. "I hope I get a good one. I've always had a fondness for Tapirmon."
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
Wait, he isn't dead! Shia Surprise!
Chuckling at Ayako’s enthusiasm, Mr. Weiss did not immediately respond to Eric’s question. “Indeed they do, my young friend; you’ll see just what these gloves allow you to do in a moment. And yes, Miss David, upon release the goggles will indeed come in a number of different designs and colours. As for the matter of partners, Miss…” Here he paused to read the name inscribed on Haruka’s plaque. “…Makafari, for the moment you will each be getting just one, though that may change in subsequent updates.”
The British businessman clapped his hands together. “Now then, for those of you who have not done so already, once you’ve taken your seats put on your goggles and gloves; once you’ve done that, pull down your chair’s dome until it completely covers your field of vision. Make sure that you cannot see anything but the underside of the dome once it’s down, even from the corners of your eyes; its surface will act as a display, and any foreign visual input could have disruptive consequences.”
Silas, who had already claimed a pair of goggles for himself and was just settling into the second chair from the right, could not help but frown at those words. “What sort of ‘disruptive consequences’ are we talking about, here?”
“Nothing you need worry about overmuch,” Weiss said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Just keep your attention focused on the dome until I tell you it’s safe to look away and everything will be fine.”
“How encouraging,” Olivia muttered from her own chair. The blonde college student carefully slid her own goggles into place, adjusting their frames until they rested comfortably on her face, then slid her hands into the gloves. She found that they fit her quite snugly, and whatever fabric they were made from made a noise not unlike crunching leather as she flexed her fingers and curled them into a fist. Satisfied with them, the young woman then lay back and began to pull the dome down over her face; in a matter of seconds, the concave surface of its underside had been brought low enough to dominate Olivia’s field of vision, and the dome let out a faint ‘click’ as though it had locked itself into position.
Once all this was done, Olivia casually crossed her legs, interlaced her fingers and began to twiddle her thumbs. “Well, let’s get on with it, then.”
Silas, for his part, had gone through much the same procedure; the only difference was in the fact that he had been forced to remove his glasses, for there wasn’t enough room to wear both the goggles and his own corrective lenses. For lack of any better place to put them at the moment, the grey-eyed Canadian youth had simply opted to tuck these horn-rimmed spectacles into the neck of his white polo; now he waited, calmly tapping an index finger on the arm rest.
“It’s a little dark under here,” he said to no one in particular.
Once everyone had taken their seats and followed Mr. Weiss’ instructions, the slick-haired executive strode over to the emergency exit at the far end of the room and stepped through it; a few moments later, had anyone not been in their chairs or looking at the underside of their domes, they would have barely been able to see him entering the control room which lay beyond the tinted windows and taking a seat before some manner of console.
“Alright, can everyone hear me?” His words came from speakers concealed within the rim of each dome, allowing Silas and Olivia to hear Mr. Weiss with perfect clarity. “Excellent. Okay, I’m starting up the immersion process. This is how it’s going to work—a short series of numbers will appear on the underside of your Harvey units over the next few seconds, counting down. Focus on those numbers, and nothing else, until they reach zero; then it will be safe to look around. Also, try to avoid blinking once the countdown begins; I’ll be starting it in five seconds, so if you need to blink, now is the time. Got all that? Good.”
Five seconds passed, during which Olivia continued to twiddle her thumbs while Silas instead stopped drumming his fingers. For a brief instant, nothing seemed to happen; then the underside of the domes suddenly came alive with an intense light, and glowing lines of green circuitry traced their way across the concave surface in complex, ever-changing patterns. The only space where these lines did not form was a conspicuous black patch shaped like a hexagon, which was front and center for each tester’s field of vision; then a gleaming number suddenly appeared in the darkness, a stylized 7 which seemed to glow with a vivid inner light. This green numeral lasted for but a second before it was replaced by a different number, this time a golden 6; then came a purple 5, an indigo 4, an orange 3, a blue 2, and finally a red 1.
The last number of the sequence then morphed into a white zero, which then flooded the underside of each dome with blinding light like that of a supernova; Olivia cried out in indignation at this shocking radiance, and Silas grimaced as he squinted against the glare…
Then all of a sudden the light was gone—and so were the domes.
Silas blinked in confusion, glancing about at his altered surroundings. He and the other contest winners were still seated in their chairs, but the walls and ceiling of the testing chamber had fallen away to reveal a seemingly endless void of pulsing circuit lines and infinitely-long strings of zeroes and ones which scrolled upwards, downwards, and sideways in no particular order. Here and there he could also spot strings of characters which he vaguely recognized as that weird font which sometimes popped up on various Digimon and things associated with them; what these might have said, he had no idea. The chairs also looked slightly different, he realized; the domes had disappeared, as had the gloves, so that everyone appeared to be just lying back in recliners.
“Welcome to the tutorial,” Mr. Weiss said cheerfully; his voice seemed to emanate from everywhere at once, and as he spoke small panels of scrolling text appeared in mid-air in front of Silas, Olivia and the other beta-testers. Unsurprisingly, these panels displayed what Mr. Weiss was currently saying. “It may not look like much at the moment, but then you aren’t in the Digital World just yet; that comes after this. First, let’s get you the final piece of equipment that you’ll need to enjoy this game—your Digivices.”
No sooner had he said these words than tine lines of light began to etch themselves into the air before each of the players, assembling themselves into Technicolor wireframes which gradually filled themselves in with colour and detail. In seconds, these wireframes had become a set of thirteen Digivices, which hovered before each player as though held up by some unseen force; Silas recognized the design as that which had been used in the third season of the anime—what had they called them? D-Power, D-Arc or something like that?
Olivia, for her part, noticed that each one was a different colour; her own was a mixture of ultramarine and bronze, while Silas’ was instead chiefly white with purple detailing on its buttons, the ring around its display, and the strap which protruded from its top. The young woman reached out to grab hers, and she raised an eyebrow as her fingers closed around it; the Digivice’s surface felt cool to the touch like actual plastic, and it actually had some weight to it as though it were an actual physical object.
“Your Digivice serves as your in-game menu,” Mr. Weiss continued. “Rather than clutter up your field of vision with countless little windows as is the case with most MM Os, here you will instead be able to access all the information you want via this simple handheld display. You can use your Digivice to check the status of your Digimon partner, see how close they are to Digivolving, consult a chart to see what they can potentially evolve into, analyze wild Digimon to determine their strengths and weaknesses, manage your inventory, consult your in-game map, manage whatever quests you may take on, and of course compose messages to fellow players who aren’t close enough to speak with directly. In the final product of the game, players will be able to personalize their Digivice by choosing from a variety of different designs and colour combinations, but for the purposes of this beta I’m afraid that your specific Digivices are locked to their current form and colouration; sorry about that, children.”
Intrigued, Olivia thumbed one of the buttons on her Digivice to see what it would do; in response to this gesture, a holographic image sprang up before her to depict a circular screen with the word Status emblazoned on the top in both English and katakana. Below these letters revolved a greyed-out wireframe of what she assumed was her Digimon, a simplistic little thing which looked like a lumpy lozenge; small lines of text formed to the right of this image, listing a number of parameters.
Name: ????
Owner: Olivia Tantalos
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
Att: Virus
Type: Crustacean
Family: DS
Techniques: ????
The androgynous young woman blinked. “I have no idea what this is,” she said flatly after a moment. “Is there any way to switch this one out for a different Digimon?”
“Not at present, Miss Tantalos. Your Digimon partners have been assigned to you based on your responses to certain questions in the contest form; in the final product, players will receive their starting Digimon after filling out a brief personality quiz which will determine which one they’re best suited to.”
Silas, for his part, had also found his way to the status screen; the wireframe Digimon depicted on this screen was similarly greyed out and lacking in detail, but even so it was immediately apparent that this was some sort of birdlike creature whose long wings ended in sharp claws and who had a single large feather sticking straight up from the back of its head.
Name: ????
Owner: Silas Roland
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
Att: Data
Type: Bird
Family: WG
Techniques: ????
Even though these parameters were somewhat lacking in information, the Canadian youth had a pretty good idea who his partner was; he remembered this particular bird well from the days of his youth, when he had spent his Saturday mornings watching the second season of the Digimon anime. That was nifty, he had to admit, but at the same time Silas was a little disappointed; he had been hoping for an Agumon or something similar.
Oh well, he thought to himself. Hawkmon's not so bad...
edited 2nd Sep '12 12:28:03 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre Codex
Ayako put on her gloves and lowered the dome, still jittery with excitement. This was it! She did as Mr. Weiss had said, following the countdown intently. She forced herself not to cry out when the light stabbed at her eyes, the powerful glare so strong it felt like it was trying to blind her. And then...
...she was in.
She looked around at the digital dimension around them. This was...incredible. She did not feel like she was sitting under the dome at all; it was like she had really been transported into a different world! There was not much time to admire the amazing background, however, as Mr. Weiss started the tutorial.
Grinning like an idiot, Ayako reached out to grasp her Digivice. It looked exactly like a D-Arc, she recognized with a smile. Her own personal digivice...it was primarily a calm pink, with a black ring around the display, white buttons and a white strap. The special gloves were working amazingly...it felt like she was really holding this in-game object in real life.
Eagerly, Ayako accessed her status screen. Who would be her Partner? She hoped for one of her favourites, but whoever it was, it would be an amazing experience. And...well, if it was one she didn't like, she could always raise it to take a cooler form. Her heart pounded as the wireframe loaded and as it finished, she could not help but cry out with joy! That lithe frame, the long tail, the tell-tale ears..
"YES!"
Name: ????
Owner: Ayako Takahashi
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
Att: Data
Type: Beast Man
Family: NSp
Techniques: ????
Renamon! One of her top favourite Digimon ever! Ruki's Renamon had been so cool and strong in Tamers, and Ayako had always tried to get Renamon in the games. And now she would be her Partner in the Beta! This was the best outcome she could have hoped for!
Ayako studied Renamon's parameters and licked her lips in excitement. Such high magic-based statistics...was this one of the rare Renamon that had high intelligence? Not as physically strong as usual, but with the trademark high agility. Ayako couldn't wait to see how it fought!
edited 2nd Sep '12 1:27:01 PM by Lemurian
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
Eric obediently put his goggles on and sat in his chair. Never one for overly dextrous work, he had a little trouble adjusting the straps on his goggles, and eventually settled for 'good enough' at a little tighter than might be ideal. He brought the dome down over his eyes. The instructions weren't encouraging. Staring contests were another thing he wasn't good at. Still, he managed to hold out until the blinding flash.
The results were spectacular. A void of digital code was an aesthetic that clicked with him on every level, and the whole thing was so real! He couldn't help but grin like a maniac. He wanted to touch the numbers to see whether thy would change, but he figured he shouldn't get out of the chair until he was told. He did, however, experimentally sit up and adjust his position so that his back was straighter.
When the digivices came up, he took a look at his. A D-Arc, like in Tamers. Although the nine holes around the rim were an odd addition. Looking around at the others, his uniformly white colouration looked quite boring next to their kaleidoscopic array. Like the others, he began to mess around with the buttons, trying to quickly get a grip on his starting position. He looked at his digimon's status:
Name: ???
Owner: Eric Jones
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
ATT: Vaccine
Type: Small Dragon
Family: DR
Techniques: ????
The wire frame was unmistakable. Veemon. A small smile. He wasn't overly concerned about what his partner was, but he could certainly have done a lot worse. Veemon was cool. His stats denoted a bit of an all-rounder, something that he was less happy about. He preferred having some strengths to play to. Everything about his digimon's evolutions was greyed out at the moment - he guessed not to ruin the surprise. Moving on, he took a look at the inventory. Empty. Not even the courtesy of a starter pack. The map showed a square space - the room - with several coloured dots corresponding to the positions of the players. Quest list was, again, empty. The last tab seemed slightly out of place: DigiEggs. Another empty list, headed by a count of 0/9.
9? The same as the number of holes in the rim... looking around the room again, he checked the others more closely, and noticed that in addition to the prettier colours, they didn't seem to have any holes in their digivices. "Uh... mine looks a bit... different?" he said, a little hesitantly.
edited 2nd Sep '12 2:52:45 PM by Anura
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.
Bird mom
When the group was taken into the simulation Haruka was fascinated by the lines of code and the lights of the circuit board. It was a bit cliche for a VR setting, but Rue was a sucker for the aesthetics of Tron. She watched amazed as the Digivice appeared before her, white with a pastel blue color, just like Ruki's in Tamers. She personally never cared for Ruki but blue was her favorite color. Haruka immediately grabbed her D-Arc and then stepped back by herself for a second. "This is so cool!." she said, excited but still quietly. "What Digimon do I have?" she said looking closely at the status screen.
- Name: ????
- Owner: Haruka Mc Caffrey
- EXP Level: 01
- EVO Level: Rookie/Child
- Att: Vaccine
- Type: Holy Beast
- Family: VB
- Techniques: ????
"I got my wish!" she said. "It's a Tapirmon." she said. She remembered that when she was a girl, her mother liked to scare her with stories of the Baku eating her dreams when she slept. Haruka however had suffered from nightmares the week before entering school fearing that she would be teased by the other children. Her Dad, oblivious about the legends surrounding the tapir, bought her a tapir plushie at the zoo, Rue was too polite to decline the gift so she slept with the stuffed animal. She had no nightmares that night and she had a fondness for tapirs ever since.
edited 2nd Sep '12 3:48:40 PM by RhymeBeat
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Shai followed Weiss's instructions, putting the goggles and the gloves on. She could feel her heart going faster — this was finally it, they were doing it! She brought the dome down.
At the businessman's next instruction she pouted, but complied. She didn't want to ruin her fun. Once that was done, she looked around. So far, the VR looked very convincing. She reached out and took her Digivice. It was white with blue decorations. She tapped it, holding it close to her ear. It felt — and sounded — like some sort of plastic. Amazing. Simply amazing. And worrying. How come no-one, not even the government, was involved...?
Putting those thoughts away was easy. She wanted to know her partner, and so she thumbed her Digivice until it reached the 'status' screen. A wireframe of what looked like a four-eared rabbit wearing a dress appeared, along with some text:
Name: ???
Owner: Shai Arieli
EXP Level: 1
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
Att: Data
Type: Mammal
Family: DS
Techniques: ???
Shai bit her lip. What was that... a rabbit, a rabbit... Not Lopmon, because of the ears. Something clicked in her mind. Lunamon, eh? An almost-unknown Digimon, only appearing in a Nintendo DS game and in the latest animé, if she wasn't mistaken. Still, if she remembered correctly it had a large number of attacks for its level. That was good, neh?
King of Anime
May gave a nod as she pulled the goggles over her eyes. She felt her heart speed up slightly as the simulation came into effect. Taking the pink D-Power with its red accents she turned it over in her hands. While more of a fan of the D-3s she did have to admit that these were nice. Fingering the device that had been descibed as "a simple handheld display" she checked over stats.
- Name: ???
- Owner: May Trinity
- EXP Level: 01
- EVO Level: Rookie/Child
- ATT: Data
- Type: Plant
- Family: JT
- Techniques:????
Looking at the figure she gave a frown at her partner. A groan escaped her lips as she took in the form.
edited 3rd Sep '12 2:04:50 PM by Chariot
Poetic Bard lvl 34
Quill gave a small satisfied nod while smiling. She was pleased by its forthcoming options. She pulled the dome over her head, licking her lips before following his directions. She attempted to keep her calm while focusing on the numbers and thought there was nothing at all scary about the sequence until it hit the zero. The bright light flooded her vision and she tightened her body while crying out. She was quickly learning that she wasn’t much of a fan of surprises.
When her vision seemed to clear she looked around and saw no dome. In fact, she was in complete awe, her mouth a perfect o as she looked around. She tried to take in the expansive plain of pulsating lines. As there wasn’t much else there, she turned around to listen to the voice of Mr. Weiss. It bounced into the space seemingly from everywhere and watched the words appear on the screens. No sooner had lines formed in front of her and from it appeared what was called a digivice. The oval device floated until she tentively reached out a hand.
It felt real! She could touch it, feel the smoothness of it. She enjoyed the color immensely as it was just as blue as she was. She smiled to herself briefly before looking around. Everyone else has pushed the buttons and she figured she would to. She mashed a random button and a small screen popped up. She read the contents with a furrowed brow:
Name: ???
Owner: Aquilla David
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
ATT: Vaccine
Type: Beast
Family: N Sp
Techniques: ????
Aquilla glanced over the information unsure of all that it meant until she spied the word: Beast. Surely there has to be some mistake. Aquilla couldn’t have a beast for a digimon. She should have something more refined, something more powerful than a simple beast. Beasts were savage, ill-mannered, and composed of nothing more than brutality. She glanced over at the wireframe and looked over the features. Worst, it looked like some sort of dog. Clearly, this was a joke somewhere in the programming team. She should have paid more attention when filling out that survey, or at least lied with better answers.
She gave an audible sigh, her voice held a tap of sarcasm and bite. “At least the color is pretty.”
William gulped as he did what Weiss said. Now comes the part where things get... claustrophobic. Completely encompassing himself in some sort of... dome thing? All while wearing some goggles based off some fictional character? However, there was no going back now... Well, there was no going back since he arrived at the airport... But still... He placed on the goggles, placing them over his eyes, and fitted the gloves, making sure they weren't too tight on his hand.
Soon, it was time to begin the game. As soon as the countdown was up and the shining light came up, William couldn't help but express some sort of pained expression. It wasn't a loud scream, but some sort of grunted growl that would have become a scream had William decided to let it out. He, with the others, were transported to the field where the tutorial would begin. He rubbed his eyes from the strain of the light blinding his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he saw a strange device in front of him. He grabbed it, and looked at it weirdly. The device was chrome gold, as if it looked like real gold, but in reality, it was just the good old Bandai gold paint. The buttons and ring, however, looked like it was unpainted, though in a sense, it wasn't like there was such a thing as pink plastic... The little strap, however, was cyan. William fastened the strap to his wrist like it was a Wiimote. He then pressed on the button.
Name: ????
Owner: William Graceton
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
Att: Data
Type: Reptile
Family: NSp
Techniques: ????
He was told that this was based off a few questioned he did in the contest. Though his eyes were glued to Reptile and Child. Was he... Was he to have a dinosaur that would grow into that massive tyrannosaurus? Then he looked at the image of the creature he would have. It looked nothing like he thought. Instead of some sort of dinosaur, it was some... thing dressed like it was ready to do fencing. Or at least the Japanese version of it. He simply stared at the wire frame Digimon, unaware of just what it is.
Superhero
Lucas began to zone out as he followed his instructions. The bright light that followed momentarily after brought him back to reality. He gave a smile that looked more like a smirk.
"Cool."
As soon as he received his black and purple digivice he began to play with it, not even waiting for its functions to be explained. He still listened what everyone was saying, he just didn't wait for any explanations.
Name: ????
Owner: Lucas Stein
EXP Level: 01
EVO Level: Rookie/Child
ATT: Virus
Type: Mini Devil Digimon
Family: NS
Techniques: ????
His smirk like smile grew even wider. Impmon. Awesome.
Motorcycle, here I come.
edited 3rd Sep '12 8:59:43 AM by luckybreak91
TV Tropes Powers. Activate!!!!!
Bird mom
Rue noticed William's confusion and decided to give him a hand. "You're new to this franchise, aren't you? You look a bit confused. Can I see you Digimon? I can help you figure out what it is." she commented.
She decided not to look over his shoulder, it would likely make him uncomfortable. Instead she faced him, trying to keep her eye contact and trying to smile. This guy looks like kind of the odd one out here. I can relate to that. she thought. It seemed like her Digimon was also an odd one. The creature had high attack and speed for a Tapirmon, at least from what she remembered from the Digimon World DS games. She hoped that her partner would be usable despite it's differences.
The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
"Y-yeah... you could be right..." William muttered to Shai. He was all but surrendering at the moment. Right now he just wants to get his head in the game. He then heard of something about... My Ho Show Joe Mah Dough Ker Magica? He wasn't into anime, and the only thing anime he's interested in were just animesque. He's heard of Faust before from his mom's homeschooling, and he could only assume this anime involved a heavy dosage of Deal with the Devil. And then they all talked about food. Joel's question of pizza didn't fly past William in the slightest.
"Sure. I'm game for pizza." William said. Not muttered. He spoke.