The first thing you notice is the lack of icons. You must have just dozed off for a few moments. Then you notice you can feel your chair, the marble table, your body as it touches the furniture and your gear.
You have logged in once more to Yggrasil. It has been quite a while for many of you. But the guildmaster has sent his request to meet once more before the server's shut down.
A grand feast has been prepared in the meeting hall.
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Kazko is in little hurry to reach the meeting hall. Instead he shifts his avatar's view to the left from the entry area and begins to make his way to level three and the massive trophy room that he had spent so much time on.
As his avatar reaches the room he begins slowly moving through the aisles of trophies of grand conquests by the guild and remanences about some of the best raids as his cursor drifts over the small icons that pop up text boxes with reminders of what lies in the various boxes and shelves.
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Present as always the head butler, Dom, welcomes each of the members in the guild's greeting hall. He holds a tray of chilled glasses and a mixture of different drinks ready to serve before a guest even goes into the hall.
The sublime half dragon is repressing his claws and draconic maw, keeping to his human form. Though his grand silver wings still raise from his back.
He is a very charismatic and imposing figure of thickly corded muscles which you can see on his mostly exposed arms. The Elven white spidersilk kimono covers him with grace, the minor colors expressing fealty to the guild.
With the turn of his head many have feigned to swoon.
A towering figure, 7’1” and 300 pounds of pure muscle and sinew, Dom is larger than any half-orc you have seen. His nearly perfect white skin seems like it has never seen the sun. There are silver scales that covers nearly the rest of his body. His copper colored spikey hair is kept short. A mithril headband of beauty rests upon his temples with light blue sapphires augmenting its simplicity. His eyes match the light blue sapphires of the headband, pools for interests to fall into.
An intricate black leather belt with three glowing sunstones resides on his waist, with multiple sheathes which you soon find out hold wands.
Bob shuffles in on his many cilla. His main body is short and wide, with sensory caps rising up and tendrils waving about, two with rings. A leaf-patterned cloak covers his back, and a belt secures his boneless body.
A little door pops out of a satchel, and ]Sprout pops out. The little fern stretches out his fronds in greetings.
The people present get a popup - You have joined ϪӝѬʓʢϞԬ₺ᴥᵹ₾'s telepathic collective and healing co-op. Please remember to stay within 158 meters to share in the healing.
Present as always the head butler, Dom, welcomes each of the members in the guild's greeting hall. He holds a tray of chilled glasses and a mixture of different drinks ready to serve before a guest even goes into the hall.
The sublime half dragon is repressing his claws and draconic maw, keeping to his human form. Though his grand silver wings still raise from his back.
He is a very charismatic and imposing figure of thickly corded muscles which you can see on his mostly exposed arms. The Elven white spidersilk kimono covers him with grace, the minor colors expressing fealty to the guild.
With the turn of his head many have feigned to swoon.
A towering figure, 7’1” and 300 pounds of pure muscle and sinew, Dom is larger than any half-orc you have seen. His nearly perfect white skin seems like it has never seen the sun. There are silver scales that covers nearly the rest of his body. His copper colored spikey hair is kept short. A mithril headband of beauty rests upon his temples with light blue sapphires augmenting its simplicity. His eyes match the light blue sapphires of the headband, pools for interests to fall into.
An intricate black leather belt with three glowing sunstones resides on his waist, with multiple sheathes which you soon find out hold wands.
"Dom! You know they fall off if you don't use them ... right? Wanna stretch those again? Like the old days? The Stormdragon reunites? Say the word old friend, the sky has whispered that it misses you."
Jacen smiles at his friend, but he's also ravenous. Magic, like life, needed sustenance. It was time.
Cuka Blyad Thinks Ekaterina Mikhailovna Rostova as the Login Server asks for her password.
Now what effing password did I reuse for that? GAZPROMFARTCLOUD2006
Password denied
Oh wait, that IT nerd told me a fairly cunning way of increasing password complexity by substitutiing As with 4s! So
G4ZPROMF4RTCLOUD2006
Password denied last remaning Login!
Oh wait, I substituted the zeros with Os and vice versa because I am clearly incredibly cunning IT security Genius! Ok, dont let me down! G4ZPR0MF4RTCL0UD2OO6
Logging into Yggdrasil
Weee here I go!
Tadaa, did you miss me The half Succubus, wearing a smart professional business look, 2 pistols, and magically enchanted glasses, beams at the group.
As she manifest her "spirit powers" as a dry run, various Company Logos manifest, around her and around these who accept the corporate inspired ferocity, ready to slam adversaries with negative energy.
Eh, McDonald Logo? I need to double check which corporate Logos and mascots are allowed in Russia and in the west because of Sanctions and Counter sanctions, which will probably reduce things to relatively small indie companies. She thinks as she uses her interface to make some changes. Ronald McDonald suddenly becomes an Owlcat, to everyone approval probably.
Bob can't resist the set-up. ::Yes, we missed you. But I'll use an aimbot next time.:: He finishes of with a psychic canned laugh track. Inside he wonders if anybody notices that he uses a different laugh track each time.
Lady Ekaterina casts mirror image, and smiles And now you, and your new aimbot friend, will miss me even more! Have you introduced me to Mr. Aimbot yet? I am quite familar with all of our fellow employees!
The half Succubus incorporates some dance moves into her performance and draws several piruettes mid air as if auditioning for the Bolschoi theatre.
Ballet is so much easier when Gravity is something you can simply disable, wings are pretty practical for it as well!
Five skeletons walks in.
One seems medium and elvish like while the others seems to be a mix of a kobold, goblin, halfling and a gnome.
They strike a pose!
"Form Legs and arms!" the goblin and kobold seems to break apart and form two vaguely leg like bones.
"Form Arms and Torso!" The halfling and Gnome does the same to form arms and parts of a torso. More Halfling then gnome forms the torso though.
"And I'll form the head!" The Medium sized Figure jumps out and has all four limbs connected to him in place of his own arms and legs whil other bone parts smashes into his own face to reform greater parts of the torso and finally a larger skull.
Pieces of Armor and weapons fly in attaching themselves to the figure.
He strikes a pose.
still medium sized.............
"Dom! You know they fall off if you don't use them ... right? Wanna stretch those again? Like the old days? The Stormdragon reunites? Say the word old friend, the sky has whispered that it misses you."
Jacen smiles at his friend, but he's also ravenous. Magic, like life, needed sustenance. It was time.
He laughs at the jest, then he merrily offers, "I would love to go for a fly while we wait for everyone, though it will have to wait until all are here butler duties and all. Is there a drink that I can make for you? Perhaps a Brandy on the rocks?"
===
"I agree Kazko, it is and excellent and well put together entrance," He says and claps once Ginza is done.
He would walk up to Ginza with a bubbling and steaming goblet and he says, "It is just something special I have concocted for you Ginza!"
He then goes back to his portable mini bar and puts several liquors into a large tankard. Then he brings it to Kazko. "A specialty for fine giants as yourself, Kazko." It is fizzing, though the strong liquor burns nicely with it.
He continues making his rounds making sure everyone has a drink or replenished.
A strawberry shake for Lady Ekaterina. Bob's own special tri cup, which allows him to experience three drinks at once.
Dom's four battlemaids flit about with trays of snacks and finger foods. Each in the outfit of those in service to the Masters. There are other attendants at tables to serve food, gifts, and nearly anything you would wish to have.
::Maybe we should make some sort of toast?:: adds Bob before anybody drinks.
somehow you get the feeling that he's not good at making up clever toasts.
"Dom! You know they fall off if you don't use them ... right? Wanna stretch those again? Like the old days? The Stormdragon reunites? Say the word old friend, the sky has whispered that it misses you."
Jacen smiles at his friend, but he's also ravenous. Magic, like life, needed sustenance. It was time.
He laughs at the jest, then he merrily offers, "I would love to go for a fly while we wait for everyone, though it will have to wait until all are here butler duties and all. Is there a drink that I can make for you? Perhaps a Brandy on the rocks?"
===
"I agree Kazko, it is and excellent and well put together entrance," He says and claps once Ginza is done.He would walk up to Ginza with a bubbling and steaming goblet and he says, "It is just something special I have concocted for you Ginza!"
He then goes back to his portable mini bar and puts several liquors into a large tankard. Then he brings it to Kazko. "A specialty for fine giants as yourself, Kazko." It is fizzing, though the strong liquor burns nicely with it.
He continues making his rounds making sure everyone has a drink or replenished.
A strawberry shake for Lady Ekaterina. Bob's own special tri cup, which allows him to experience three drinks at once.
Dom's four battlemaids flit about with trays of snacks and finger foods. Each in the outfit of those in service to the Masters. There are other attendants at tables to serve food, gifts, and nearly anything you would wish to have.
"Brandy would be perfect my friend, and no need to soil it with ice. It's early; the flavors and nuances of brandy can only highlight the flavor and nuances of the team. Good thought."
As the team are about to toast you hear the first toll of 12 rings. You wonder why the servers have not shut down. Then you realize all the icons and information on your HUD is gone. Then you notice you can feel your cup, your body as it touches the furniture and your gear. As you drink to the toast you taste your drink, feel the liquid enter your mouth. Smell is for sure a new sense and so is feeling. It's almost as if you are in your real body but in your avatar's body.
Even Ginza feels the liquid and the slight burn.
ϪӝѬʓʢϞԬ₺ᴥᵹ₾ sways and twitches and flails around as they transition to their new body. A body with nothing in common with their old body, in structures, organs, even down to the cellular level. A body that didn't even evolve on the same world that humanity spawned on. But part of them is familiar with this. Part of them has been living in this form for nearly a century. Did this world exist before the programmers built it or was it made with millennia of history?
Just as their sense of body stabilizes, they feel the level of magic around him. The burbling of the spirits, the vibrations of psionics, the waiting potential of the magic in their cells. All on different levels, but deep down different variations on the same cosmic energy.
And then the rush of the minds around them. This brings it home. The mammals connected to them are now aliens, something organized completely different to his own. And each so different from each other. Kazko is the most earthly, a body rooted in carnality with hunger and struggle built into each cell. Ginza is undead, a connection to the opposite of life. An energy just a strong but opposite polarity. Each of the others has some connection to other planes, something that merges biology with philosophy. Despite what they've chosen, deep down parts of them are as much concept as matter.
Through the same link comes the life force. They can feel each heartbeat, the flow of fluids, the balance of ki. All of them are healthy, and he knows that he will feel their wounds when they do get hurt. There's a bond much deeper than anything a human could know in their world.
All of this takes an eternity. All of this is over in a moment. They think at the others, not in words but in raw concepts that each of their minds translate to their native tongues. ::That was some drink, Dom.::
"Po velnių! Aš pavėluosiu! Kvailos laiko juostos!"
Domas Dapkus carefully, and with some discomfort, lowered his body into his deep dive chair. The young lithuian booted up Yggdrasil for the last time. It took a moment for his senses to adjust to the new imput, but Domas disappeared to be replaced by..Domayoku, The errant Demon King once more.
Domas was able to log out of Yggdrasil last time in the Guild Hall entrance, and so was able log in at said entrance.
A familiar face graces the Guildhall as Domayoku walks in. A large anime mane of black hair rises from the 6'8" muscular frame. His yellow eyes piecing the hall, normally very intimidating, but filled with joy at seeing his guildmates in their avatars once more.
"Sorry if I'm late. The aurora borealis has been causing upload problems for the last couple days over Vilnius."
He felt weird, 'Wait I am feeling?!' he thought to himself. He was likely one of the first to realize::I don't think that was the drink. I mean there have been some break throughs in sensory development but nothing like this.::
The butler took another sip of his orange fizzing drink.
Then he dropped his glass, letting it shatter upon the floor. After all these experiences and differences as if he was not just playing his avatar but being his avatar, he freaks out. He was a control freak after all, he looked for the normal icons to hit with his eye to log out. No luck, then he began saying commands that should work, "Emergency protocol Alpha." No response, then he tried another and kept trying and waiting hoping something would work, "Call game master. Log out. Emergency game master. Hail god. Summon technical support."
::This isn't a VR system.:: thinks Bob sympathetically. ::And if it's a neural link, then they went from zero to billions really quick. I don't have any bones. You don't normally think about feeling your bones until there's none.::
He pauses, ::I suppose that we could be entirely simulated in software. It's inevitable if you go by Bostrum. If so, I applaud them. but it doesn't feel like a simulation to me.::
Ekatarina tries to fly, which presumably works.
This could be bad, what happens to our bodies while we are here?
She keeps thinking out loud.
Dehydration after 3 days? I am on a f%$#ing oil drilling platform with one more person on it.
This is going to be such a pain in the arse.
Alternatively, we are copies, and our actual selfs just logged out, normally, and feel a bit groggy/sad.
All this time 'knowing' what this is like, and yet I could never imagine 'feeling' what it is like
Subconsciously, Jacen lifts off the ground. He hovers.
His energy is everywhere.
Freedom!
Seeing the other two take flight, he joins them now that all of his attempts to logout or find a GM have failed. He sighs as he enjoys the his first time truly flying. His face quickly changes at the ecstatic feeling of being so free.
"Well there is nothing we can do to log out, so we can't do anything for our real bodies." ::I agree with Bob, I don't think this is a simulation. Our subordinates are still here. Shall we go out for a quick flight to see what is around our guild house?::
Seeing the other two take flight, he joins them now that all of his attempts to logout or find a GM have failed. He sighs as he enjoys the his first time truly flying. His face quickly changes at the ecstatic feeling of being so free.
"Well there is nothing we can do to log out, so we can't do anything for our real bodies." ::I agree with Bob, I don't think this is a simulation. Our subordinates are still here. Shall we go out for a quick flight to see what is around our guild house?::
"Absolutely! If this is the new-real? Absolutely we should! Dealing with this world non-virtualized will be a thing for sure, can hardly imagine having to go to an actual storeroom vs having an interface for it ..."
Without need for any command Dom flies out of the keep, the front gate quickly opening so he doesn't have to slow down.
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The guild house looks to be still in the same shape and functions as it was in game. The keep is still on the edge of a cliff. Molten lava pools around it in the moat. There is a 50 foot drop down to the lava now as opposed to the 10 foot drop. The drawbridge is made of metal. A fierce brazier with flames put out a good amount of smoke as each of the four towers is lit. The guards standing watch wave to those who fly by.
Perception DC 20: You can see there is a lot of wild life even in the grasslands. Many birds fly along the coast and fish swim in the water. There is plenty of vegetation along the coast so you feel it might be fresh water.
Ginza stays perfectly still. The burning sensation of acid still on his fleshless lips.
Wait. Burning sensation? There wasn't such a thing before!!!
He feels different.
Where there was once fleshy weight there's now nothing.......
His sensations seems off. No it wasn't that. There were none..
He should be in panic but he didn't. A detachment like he was here and not.
His menu.
Yes. The menu. The Privileges from buying the Infinity Package.....
was gone.
No Logout.
No Moderator function.
Most of his Special Moderator functions and his purchased DLC Specials were either grayed out or just weren't there.
He....
was a not Ginza was he?
He got Ginza via a special set of packages and triggering this easter egg for himself.
He had programmed some of the game's functions himself!
He....
He....
He.
was stuck as Ginza.
Ginza was him and He was Ginza.
What had happened?
His guild members were obviously stuck on the same state as he was. he could see them from the left and right of him as well as from his back.
Wait... He was seeing them from 5 different view points...
Bob was about to call for Vayuvata to go flying with the others. But then they notice Ginza. The old Bob had a hard time recognizing his own emotions, let alone understanding anybody else's. He and Ginza had spent long hours going over the way the game rules interacted. Perhaps for different reasons, but he definitely enjoyed his insights into how things worked.
And Ginza had a transformation that was deeper in many ways than their own. Flipping to undead? Becoming a suit of armor? pretty strong stuff. ::Hey there, G#.:: They think this without expectation, simply letting him know that he's here to bounce ideas off of. Or listen to his screaming.
There would be time to explore later. They had a teammate down now.
Without need for any command Dom flies out of the keep, the front gate quickly opening so he doesn't have to slow down.
Domayoku quickly pops his demon wings and takes flight after the others.
I shouldn't be able to fly inside the Guildhall. The dev never allowed it before."I can sense the flora and fauna down there. It.. seems real. We are all..real here."
The half-fiend opens and closes his hands.
"My frail human body..can't exist here." Domayoku whispers to himself.
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Kazko follows some of the others outside reach out to touch the different walls and items as he passed in wonder and confusion. The game was supposed to be over. What was this? His old computer never had the greatest graphics, but now he could feel and smell as if he was really walking down the halls. "This has to be a dream..or something. Maybe I just fell asleep waiting for the game to close."
"This has to be a dream..or something. Maybe I just fell asleep waiting for the game to close."
"Then it is a dream we are all sharing", Dorayoku stated flatly. "This is not Yggdrasil. But some other game. Some other world."
Ekaterina walks over to Domayoku and playfully pinches him.
I am reasonable certain that this is "real" although I am not certain if our conciousness got shifted here, or got copy-pasted. I genuinely hope it got copy pasted, or we are on a strong time limit to unf%#@ this before our actual bodies die of dehydration.
The Demon Kind fliched at the pinch. "That's fair."
Ваша психика, вероятно, не говорит по-русски или может по памяти пересказать определенную часть "Войны и мира"?
As if remembering something, she speaks in another language.
Wir haben vollkommen zusammengehaltene Krafte, nahe an 70 000 Mann, um den Feind, wenn er den Lech passierte, angreifen und schlagen zu konnen. Wir konnen, da wir Meister von Ulm sind, den Vorteil, auch von beiden Ufern der Donau Meister zu bleiben, nichtverlieren; mithin auchjedenAugenblick, wenn der Feind den Lech nicht passierte, die Donau ubersetzen, uns auf seine Kommunikations-Linie werfen, die Donau unterhalb rerassieren um dem Feinde, wenn er sich gegen unsere treue Allierte mit ganzer Macht wenden wollte, seine Absicht alsbald vereiteln. Wir werden auf solche Weise dem Zeitpunkt wo die Kaiserlich-Russische Armee ausgerustet sein wird, mutig entgegenharren, und sodann leicht gemeinschaftlich die Moglichkeit finden, dem Feinde das Schicksal zuzubereiten, so er verdient
She switches to common
Your subconcious likely speaks neither Russian nor German, but I do which means I am not your subconciousness I believe?
"I can't swipe my out of this now Can I..." Is all Ginza can respond with.
His mind is remarkably clear.
He's not in a panic mode.
A detachment occurs within him but he knows it, not feeling it.........
I'm really a Skeleton Easter Egg of my own making.
::I think that we're stuck here. If not permanently, then until we can figure out what happened.:: Their mental voice has a bit of regret, but also a bit of curiosity. ::At least we're starting out at a decent level with some good drops and a few special boons. That should give us some time to figure things out. Shal we join the others in exploring?:: After a moment, a horse made out of wind arrives.
[u]::UI upgrades are always a b&*@~.::[/i]
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"But how is that possible? My system had trouble running this game at all. Much less managing to run it as a VR system." Kazko says as he tries to come to terms with how he would get sucked into a game that was going offline. "And if the servers for this are going down what does that mean? Are they not actually offline yet? What happens if they do go offline and we are somehow trapped in here?"
Lets start exploding, I mean exploring. And acquire some resources.
Ekaterina Will fly off to explore, being quite confident in her abilities.
She will take not, but not initiate hostilities off:
--Animals
--Lonely artists
--Stragglers
--Monster lairs
--Roads
Possible wild Lonely artists she will actually scout out, land (out of their line of sight) alter self into an attracive opposite sex of their race and approach them.
Lady Ekaterina which direction do you head out in? Do you plan to head in one direction for more than an hour?
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He flies around the keep possibly with Jacen. After circling it for a third time, enjoying different maneuvers, he comes down and flies into the keep and meeting hall again. He lands besides those who stayed behind. Then he offers, "To the South and West are water, maybe a sea. I didn't go down and find out if it is fresh or salt water. To the East and North are grasslands with no sign of villages let alone something larger."
Amadea slithers into the meeting hall, her swords draped across her back and at her hips. She takes stalk of everyone in the room.
"I did know there were so many of us... I thought I was just being nostalgic. I was redoing the raid on the Svartalfheim mines, though I'm about 50 levels too high for it be challenging anymore, it was always my favorite. I just thought I'd see if I could speedrun it completely before the servers shut down. But when they did, I was back in the catacombs beneath the citadel here. There wasn't even a shift; one moment I was in Svartalfheim, the next I was about 30 levels underneath where we now stand. Took me a while to climb up. Why are all the fortress exits.. scrambled? I don't recognize the view from any of them. Has anyone been able to page a GM? I can't even bring up the menu!
"No Amadea, I tried many different ways to contact a GM and they all failed. Yes all of the menus from the game are gone. It is strange. Our keep and ourselves have been transposed to this place, plane, possibly a new world? So anything just out of the keeps range seems to fit the layout beyond. Ginza how are you doing?" He states shifting from the newcomer and then to Ginza.
Ekaterina is circling, with an increasing radius, mostly mapping the immidiatly surrounding areas.
"It seems like once we have some superbasic recon in place, we will need to decide on what to search for, and whether we do it together or in teams. I cannot and will not speak in favor of ANY of us doing ANYTHING alone. It's not a matter of how great we thought we were in-game: THIS is not THAT. If something seems glitchy, it isn't a coding error anymore, it's a life error, hopefully only a speedbump."
"That said, how much brandy is left ...?"
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"I will have to take stock, though our count last night was 52 barrels." He says in response to Jacen and nods to one of his battlemaids who then quietly walks away. He then adds, "It also seems that our NPCs are still functioning normally."
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Bob will reconnect the new arrivals to the collective and any of the scouting party that went out of range.
They then address the group. ::I think we need to treat this as if it were real for now. I'm not sure if we'll respawn with all of these changes. Jacen is right that we shouldn't go alone. Just because there's no immediate danger doesn't mean this world doesn't have it. There are probably other refugees from Yggrasil. We'll probably want to share information with them. But some may be power-tripping or around the bend over this, so we'll need to prepare for violence. We should set the guardians... Order the guardians to be ready for Raid Defense.::
"Am I the only one freaking out about being stuck I here? I mean, what is happening right now with our bodies? Are they going to starve or die of thirst? How long till someone on the outside notices us missing and comes looking? Where is this program even running? I thought the servers were being shut down? Even if the program was migrated somewhere, shy would they be dedicating this much run time to a program that if anything seems more intensive than the old one. Has anyone else noticed you can smell things? There are just too many questions to comprehend."
"OK,OK. You guys are probably right. Since we don't know if we will properly respond, we should probably do our best to stay alive for now; unless dying is slow how you get out... damnit, no, we can explore that if we finish all other options. Right now, we don't know what dying in such an intense simulation would do."
Domayoku nudges Amadea shoulder. "You die in the game, you die for real!!"
The Demon King looks down at his hand where a striped tiger ring glints the sun.
I wonder.., Domayoku thinks to himself.
Pointing his cletched fist at an empty place, Domayoku thinks hard on what he wants.
Suddenly, a familiar dire hyena brings from the striped ring.
"SMILEYFACE!!" Domnayoku smiles with fanged teeth, embracing the equally-pleased dire hyena mount.
"Who's-a-good-boy?! WHO'S-A-GOOD-BOY!!"
Once mount and master has reunited, Domayoku climbs upon Smileyface's saddle.
"I shall scout the immediate area." The Demon King holds a hand out to one of the demon lady present. "I could use an extra pair of eyes."
"I will head out and fly with Lady Ekaterina, Jacen you could instigate Aplha or Beta protocols." With that said and no one has objections he runs and then flies back into the sky.