Gameland

Video games, a popular pastime for many people. Little do they know that when their console shuts down, those who populate these code-constructed worlds have their own lives. A popular destination for these wary entertainers, when all is said and done for the day, is Gameland. A sort of hubworld where everyone from all interactive media can gather. Gameland is huge, a city floating on a sea of information. Anything and everything is available here, from restaurants, to sports stadiums.

Though Gameland is seemingly rather empty as of late. Just the other day, a frightening turn of events took place: No one turned on their games. Not a single person, around the whole world. Leaving Gameland completely empty. Only a few were able to get through before their respective gates closed. And perhaps a few were even trapped outside of their games when this happened. Either way, only a few remain outside of their domains, trapped in Gameland forever. Or... Is it really forever?

At the start of this bright and artificially sunny day in Gameland, it has been a whole day since the incident, and chances increase that those trapped here will begin to cross paths. Will they blame each other for the incident? Work together to solve the issue at hand? Perhaps form teams?..

edited 20th Nov '12 3:37:55 PM by HeadWreckingBallOfStaff

Somewhere, a young girl was walking around. She had pink hair that was covered up with a chef's hat with some flour splashed on it. She also had flour on her face. She was also wearing a green apron over her tee-shirt, and yellow sweatpants. She never wore shoes, since she wasn't a big fan of them. Her name was Xylia.

"Hello? Anyone out there? My name's Xylia, I come from the game Cookin' Kidz..." Xylia yelled out.

Cruisin' in his tricked-out Cadillac Convertible, Eddie Montague kept driving through a strange land. He must have taken a wrong turn on the freeway, because he certainly wasn't anywhere near Verona Beach now.

Looking at the sparse landscape, Eddie noticed he was now on a dirt road and saw on the side a small girl with flour on her face. She was wearing a green apron. The Hawaiian-shirted man pulled over and stepped out of the car, taking off his sunglasses. Maybe this girl knew where the hell he was.

Making sure to hide his gun holster and look as non-threatening as possible, the freelance rogue asked the girl "Excuse me, do you know where I am? I must have taken a wrong turn on the road."

Xylia was interrupted by the new person coming up to her in the car.

"Um... My mommy says I shouldn't talk to strangers... But at this instance, I'm Xylia. If you say your name, we won't be strangers, anymore!" Xylia replied.

"Your mother is a good woman who gives you sound advice, but my name is Eddie Montague, pleased to meet you. Now, do you know where this is? I need to get back to Verona Beach."

Xylia was relieved. At least he wasn't a stranger anymore.

"Heck, I'm not sure. I was dared to pick up some ingredients by my tormentors..." Xylia said. "They all dislike me due to my cooking skill. I think I took a wrong turn somewhere as well."

On another road, another refugee is doing her part to help ease the worries of those who have lost their homes in the crisis. Her name is Marin, and she's helping the way she does best: by singing. While she's best known in her own game for the "Ballad of the Wind Fish", outside of it she has a wider repertoire, much of it being songs she's picked up from other games. Currently she's singing "Mysterious Flower" (the ending theme from Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask), in a duet as it happens with Yuming, the in-game representation of the song's original singer, so that works out nicely. She's gathering a bit of a crowd, but Marin is a bit concerned that nobody else from her game has appeared.

(Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4kf4fo2bvI )

edited 20th Nov '12 5:19:27 PM by Kayube

"Well, if we're lost together, we might as well join up." Xylia said to Eddie. "You seem to be the type of character from a world that causes a lot of moms to be upset, especially after the Hot Cocoa incident, but at this point, we should work together... I think those moms play soccer, if I understand correctly."

Paulie, you take control of Xylia until I wake up.

edited 20th Nov '12 6:52:27 PM by DiurnalBrocolli

A few floors above and across the street from the performance, on the roof of a spaceport, Captain Twystar listened to the music as he took stock of the situation.

"Mission Control, this is ETEXA Probe 810. Do you read me?" he said into his holo-watches. No response came other than static. He tried every channel, only to get the same thing. "Okay, so obviously that's not going to work."

Looking at his wrecked ship, it was obvious something had gone awry. "Where were the guys in the control tower?" he said, looking up at the darkened windows of the Space Traffic Control tower. Noone had been inside when he busted in the door to complain about the damage to his spacecraft (Mk II). "Well, I can always Assembuild a Mk III, I guess. Now, time to make an entrance!"

He looked down at the small crowd that had gathered on the street below. Quickly opening his crafting menu, he 'Assembuilt' an Anti-Gravity Parachute, attached it to his air-filter-pack, and jumped off the edge of the roof. "Gonna have to remember to pick up some more Fabric-of-Spacetime after this!" he said as the effects of the invention kicked in. He slowly drifted to the ground as 'Mysterious Flower' came to an end. Pulling a strange alien instrument out of his inventory, he began playing a different song he had picked up from a travelling musician once.... via the MP 3 player function in his holo-watches. He finished floating to the ground just as the new song finished playing. "Hi, there. Sorry to interrupt so ostentatiously. Okay not really, but I'll be quick. Does anyone know what's up with the general emptiness of this place? I haven't seen anyone on the streets except for all of you!"

Eddie chuckled at Xylia's comments and patted her on the head.

"Yes, I am the kind of person who royally pisses off soccer moms, and as for the Hot Cocoa incident, well, nobody ever saw THAT coming. Some hackers found an abandoned code and it caused a scandal that rocked Verona Beach to no end. When I'm not cruising Verona Beach's streets, I may be out in the Badlands looking for Sasquatch and The Slasher, but so far, I haven't found them yet. I have a strange interest in myths and urban legends. Come on, Xylia, let's go find out where we are. Get in my car, I'll make sure nobody will hurt you. We'll see if we can get you back to your mom and I can get back to Verona Beach."

The two got in the car and started driving off down the road until they encountered yet another individual, a spaceman who parachuted down to the streets of an empty town...

edited 20th Nov '12 7:03:20 PM by PaulieRomanov

"Nobody? Okay, never mind. Feel free to continue." He walked out of the way, unsure as to what he was going to do now, when a vehicle pulled up to the small furry alien. Figuring there was nobody else that would be of any help, Twystar decided to ask the driver for help.

"Hi. This must seem pretty ironic, but I need to ask for directions." He then pointed at the sign for the nearby spaceport. "Any idea what planet 'Gameland Interuniversal Spaceport' is supposed to be on? There's no 'Planet Gameland' as far as my holo-watch is concerned..."

Eddie was utterly flabbergasted at the spaceman's odd words.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm kind of lost myself. Name's Eddie. And this girl here is Xylia. And your name is?"

Though they weren't likely to hear it over the running engine of the car, the sound of very light footsteps approached from an alley off to one side of the little congregation of characters. A little white figure with large red eyes, less than a foot tall with a sprout on its head that ended in a bulb, stepped out of the darkness of the alley and tilted its head in curiosity at the car.

It looked back over its shoulder, and waved one hand forward while it let out a little high-pitched squeak. There were more light footsteps, and the sound of something metallic being jostled around slightly.

Slowly, more figures like the first emerged, with varying colors and features and most having leaves on their sprouts instead of a bulb. Working together, the ten of them besides the white one with the bulb were carrying a trash can. The white, bulbed one led the others with hand motions over to the car, which they set the trash can down next to, before quickly backing away from the trash can and car. The white one with the bulb held his arms out towards the trash can and let out a triumphant squeak, offering it to the occupants of the car while the rest of them looked either proud of themselves or confused.

edited 20th Nov '12 8:44:47 PM by FirockFinion

"Captain Twystar of the Gabywr Empire. Mind if I hitch a ride?" That's when he heard a skittering noise and noticed a moving metal object that he originally assumed to be a service droid until he realized it had no blinking lights. "What the-" Twystar turned to the moving garbage can, wondering what was going on, when he saw the tiny creatures. "Oh, hey there! Aren't you supposed to be with that Olimar dude, little guys?"

Xylia looked at the Pikmin. "Aww, how cute!" She said, as one of them jumped onto her lap and fell asleep.

edited 21st Nov '12 4:22:24 AM by DiurnalBrocolli

Up awoke the servers containing the conversation history of deluxe NPC Green 337 after much struggle and maintenance. The Green series was designed with a unique interface which talked based on it's interactions with players in the underground First person shooter RUIN 3D. These conversations made him an fairly unstable and an in-joke among the players who completely ruined him for fun and profit, making him act like one of them.

But being this high tech was tiring, his conversation history was a big enough load, and he got busted pretty bad last night, one of his most profitable. He alphanumerically flipped off a pair of soccer moms trying to preach or something to the players, all in a custom map called D1ld0 F@ctory. But seriously the lag on him was "GAAAAY."

There was a lag on the servers too, he didn't know if it was a holiday but he didn't think he could crush noobs today. He ventured outside, something he was unused to.

"BRB" he muttered to no-one in particular and entered the crossroads. Another thing he was unused to was there also. He saw a small girl and impulsively shouted "It's a trap!"

edited 21st Nov '12 10:16:25 AM by sonofkong

"Oh, not that Star Wars crap again." Twystar groaned. "Why must so many people try to Assembuild X-Wings and Death Stars?"

There was a whole ensemble of characters from games obviously less uber than Greens'. Green stuck his thumb out, his thumb made transparent from a skin that attempted to gloss his power armor into a shirtless rambo I mean seriously who does that.

But yes, after composing himself, he hailed a ride from the casuals. He then sat waiting their response.

Awakening to find absolutely no other familiar characters around was quite unnerving. It was as if the Grand Berlin Theater had been totally abandoned. No amount of searching turned up anything, other than the bromides that "Nani" Hato sold in the gift shop. Trying not to worry too much she reasoned that either a) the others were getting redesigned by the developers, or b) the promised harem guy had arrived and everyone had gone out to fawn over him while "Nani" was still asleep. Something felt... off.. about their absence, so she made sure to don her battle uniform. Her STAR, however - it was still powered down, she didn't think she'd need it.

Attempts to call up the New York, Paris and Tokyo units via her Cameratron proved futile as well. Now she was concerned, just a tad. So it was that she set off on one of the other girls' trusty motorbike. "Nani" wasn't the best of drivers, but it was a damn sight better than walking. The motorbike was an odd contraption, looking like a military vehicle with odd pipes coming out the bike. That was steam power for you. Eventually she passed some girl who was singing, and felt an inkling to stop. Not that much further up the road there was a strange looking car.

Stopping about in between the two groups, she stopped her bike and called out loudly enough to be heard, "Um.. you people wouldn't have happened to see some mecha that are vaguely shaped like garbage cans with arms and legs recently? Or maybe a historical figure who's turned out to be a demonic villain?"

"Oh, hello Captain Olimar," Marin says with a smile. "I don't think we've met since the time we had our trophies made for Super Smash Bros. Melee," she observes. "I'm Marin," she adds to the others. "I've been singing here to try to cheer up the people who've been locked out of their games. It seems like it's been happening to a lot of them... and the ones that aren't locked out have no players! It's sad, don't you think?"

"Well, we have seen a garbage can being lifted by these tiny plant things, but that's about it." Twystar said, pointing at the Pikmin. "We're all pretty confused right now, sorry."

He turned to Marin at that comment. "What? No, I'm not that Olimar guy. Name's Twystar, and I'm in charge of colonizing new planets on behalf of the Gabywr Empire. I did happen to meet that Olimar captain once, but I haven't seen him anywhere in ages, let alone here."

—-

(Edit'd due to Ninja'd)

edited 21st Nov '12 3:03:06 PM by iTroper

Eddie was shocked and surprised by all these strange people and creatures surrounding him. However, one thing was clear, something was up. None of these people were from around here and perhaps they had been called here by fate.

The freelance gangster spoke "Listen up! We are all stranded here for whatever reason and as such, we must stand together and work together until we find out two things: What the fuck happened and how the fuck do we get out of here! Come on, get in the car. It will be a tight squeeze, but we should be able to fit in my car. There must be some locals around here."

-Near Eddie's Car-

"So... Who gets to ride shotgun?" Xylia asked.

We should use location tags so we don't get confused, okay?

-In Eddie's Car-

Eddie turned to the adorable child and said "You will ride shotgun, Xylia. Mind if we listen to the Oldies station? I love the hits of the 50's, 60's, and 70's."

Tuning the radio, Eddie could only find static. Something was up. Fortunately, Eddie kept mixtapes of classic rock, disco, techno, oldies, and 80's hits.

Xylia lept into the car beside Eddie, and the gangster made sure she buckled up before turning to everyone else and saying "Alright guys, get in the back. Any of the little ones may have to hide in the trunk."

The white Pikmin in front looked at Twystar and nodded, then looked around for a few moments, like it was searching for something. Then, it looked back at Twystar and slumped down, its sprout drooping as it was clearly sad.

The rest of the Pikmin were having similar reactions, save for one of the blues that perked up in excitement when Xylia suddenly exclaimed how cute they were. Encouraged by this, it rushed over to her and settled into her lap.

The Pikmin, save for the blue now in Xylia's lap, milled about a bit randomly as the others talked, having little input on the conversation other than the white Pikmin with the bulb tugging on Twystar's leg. That was, until Eddie spoke up about them all teaming up, which made all the Pikmin perk up to attention and look his way, including the blue on Xylia's lap. As soon as he said 'get in the car' the Pikmin glanced at each other, quickly giving each other nods, then all moved to the side of the car.

The two purples stood by the side of the back of the car, preparing to lift the rest over the side and into the back, but the group of them as a whole paused once Eddie mentioned that they may have to hide in the trunk. The white Pikmin with the bulb hopped up onto the head of the purple bulbed Pikmin, so that its head was just visible over the edge of the rear left windowsill. There, it gave a single squeak, and tilted its head at him in slight confusion.

edited 21st Nov '12 6:34:56 PM by FirockFinion