That Lass Over There
Constant Panic
"- Well, that's enough of my voice for you all, isn't it? The servers are almost up, go on, beat the queues!" A cheerful, energetic voice ruined only slightly by the wolfish grin of the woman shooing away the audience of the stream, before the video feed cut to a promotional video. Blindly fumbling for a moment on the bedsheets, a hand finally found the tablet and its power button, cutting off the noise of the trailer before the music could swell.
It wasn't like there was no sight at all with this device on her head - much like old virtual reality headsets, gaps existed giving ever so slight glimpses of the bedroom beyond - well, part of that was because this didn't actually need to block her vision, though.
60 seconds left until server launch. 1,329 in queue.
Starting dive. Confirm: are you laying down in a room with no or dim light?
A soft, feminine voice sounded in her ear even though the device had no speakers.
"-es."
Confirmation acknowledged. Dive starting. Please make sure to relax your body to avoid muscle strain or injury.
The little ambient light she didn't even know she had been getting faded until it fully disappeared, and true darkness swallowed her vision for the first time in her life. Background noise of electricity humming through the modern world, the feeling of the cloth and air on her skin all slipping away from her... The experience might have been harrowing, but she kept her body relaxed and steadily breathing for as long as a trace of sensation remained. The cramps from the calibration had taught her a valuable lesson of not stopping early...
In the void of sensory deprivation, a paper unrolled and had the ink of words bleeding into existence cross its surface rapidly.
A brief moment as the paper still kept inking through the lines reminiscent of an old loading screen, and sensation started slowly fading in to avoid shock. First, the feeling of herself, nothing like what was familiar. A lack of limbs, grass punching deep into her soft, non-solid flesh... So incredibly strange and interesting an experience that some might have justified the price tag of DVR development with this vivid, eccentric experience alone. That wasn't all, though: being able to smell - taste? - the things touching the gelatinous membrane of her body, rather than experiencing the day-to-day sensation through a nose. And the disorienting ability to see all around, blurry and flawed vision as it was.
Perhaps the effort that went into making all this palatable for a human mind should be admired the most? Even terrible as her vision was, she could sort of make out the tall gray structures overran with green around her to be a sort of overgrown city ruin, with no more difficulty than had she taken off her glasses in real life.
Such musing thoughts crossed her mind as she saw a light in front... Well, now deemed 'front' of her spherical blob of a body, motion locked in the apparent cutscene.
"Welcome, Wayward Traveller, to what you might consider my world." Apparently, she could hear somehow - and thankfully well, considering how she could barely tell if the pale smudge a distance in front of her was a person without the voice to accompany it. "Whether you come to be part of a story, experience joy and fun, or just to explore some place new - mind that everyone you meet is a person. Treat them duly if you want to remain peacefully here." The apparent NPC, presumably the tutorial character, gave what seemed to be an in-character friendly reminder to be courteous in game. A nice touch for RPers.
"Now, I hope you remember: the only path is forward." ... Hm? Did she accidentally press a skip dialogue button? There'd been no exposition or tutorial, but it seemed like the NPC was already sending her off... She didn't see any skip option, though-
In her moment of confusion the blurred figure waved what was probably an arm in goodbye, and a moment after they disappeared into nothingness - the area behind them did, as well. A violent explosion of the earth rending itself apart to particles and dust, gone in a moment as if reality itself had deemed the tract of land a heretical anomaly to be rectified. Only leaving an abrupt end into scrap metal and void beyond. An endless abyss of the night sky with small motes of debris as token of the incident, just like in the promotional material of the shattered ringworld.
... えー?
The only reason her voice didn't leak out was the lack of vocal chords in her gel body. Before she knew it, others filled the open area she was in; players, presumably, as many went to each other to discuss the explosion or whatever else. Dismissing the momentary blur of what looked like one person clipping into a wall on their spawn and being ejected upwards at blinding pace as a misinterpretation on her part, she tried to move forward... and nothing happened. Trying again, thinking about it in a different way and trying to be in touch with the slime or something, she tried again. For her efforts, the blue gel of her body jiggled like a plate of gelatin.
Out of options, and without a voice, she went to the forums through the in-game menu and posted about her plight. She saw a few other inhumans struggling with similar issues, but she got really ticked off when she saw someone respond to her specific post with 'skill issue'.
-----------!
She still didn't have the vocal cords to shout, though.
It wasn't like there was no sight at all with this device on her head - much like old virtual reality headsets, gaps existed giving ever so slight glimpses of the bedroom beyond - well, part of that was because this didn't actually need to block her vision, though.
60 seconds left until server launch. 1,329 in queue.
Starting dive. Confirm: are you laying down in a room with no or dim light?
A soft, feminine voice sounded in her ear even though the device had no speakers.
"-es."
Confirmation acknowledged. Dive starting. Please make sure to relax your body to avoid muscle strain or injury.
The little ambient light she didn't even know she had been getting faded until it fully disappeared, and true darkness swallowed her vision for the first time in her life. Background noise of electricity humming through the modern world, the feeling of the cloth and air on her skin all slipping away from her... The experience might have been harrowing, but she kept her body relaxed and steadily breathing for as long as a trace of sensation remained. The cramps from the calibration had taught her a valuable lesson of not stopping early...
In the void of sensory deprivation, a paper unrolled and had the ink of words bleeding into existence cross its surface rapidly.
Loading user body mesh...
Loading user mobility profile...
Loading user sensory profile...
Loading mobility settings...
Loading sensory settings...
Loading
Connecting to server...
Searching for pre-made character...
'Melt' found. Applying...
Applying selected starting skills...
Applying appearance...
'Melt' is an inhuman race, so morphs will be applied to the body shape and appearance.
Applying body morphs... Done.
Compiling sensory rendering program...
Compiling movement translation program...
Compiling thought interface...
Finished. Welcome to 'Perseverance'.
Loading user mobility profile...
Loading user sensory profile...
Loading mobility settings...
Loading sensory settings...
Loading
Connecting to server...
Searching for pre-made character...
'Melt' found. Applying...
Applying selected starting skills...
Applying appearance...
'Melt' is an inhuman race, so morphs will be applied to the body shape and appearance.
Applying body morphs... Done.
Compiling sensory rendering program...
Compiling movement translation program...
Compiling thought interface...
Finished. Welcome to 'Perseverance'.
A brief moment as the paper still kept inking through the lines reminiscent of an old loading screen, and sensation started slowly fading in to avoid shock. First, the feeling of herself, nothing like what was familiar. A lack of limbs, grass punching deep into her soft, non-solid flesh... So incredibly strange and interesting an experience that some might have justified the price tag of DVR development with this vivid, eccentric experience alone. That wasn't all, though: being able to smell - taste? - the things touching the gelatinous membrane of her body, rather than experiencing the day-to-day sensation through a nose. And the disorienting ability to see all around, blurry and flawed vision as it was.
Perhaps the effort that went into making all this palatable for a human mind should be admired the most? Even terrible as her vision was, she could sort of make out the tall gray structures overran with green around her to be a sort of overgrown city ruin, with no more difficulty than had she taken off her glasses in real life.
Such musing thoughts crossed her mind as she saw a light in front... Well, now deemed 'front' of her spherical blob of a body, motion locked in the apparent cutscene.
"Welcome, Wayward Traveller, to what you might consider my world." Apparently, she could hear somehow - and thankfully well, considering how she could barely tell if the pale smudge a distance in front of her was a person without the voice to accompany it. "Whether you come to be part of a story, experience joy and fun, or just to explore some place new - mind that everyone you meet is a person. Treat them duly if you want to remain peacefully here." The apparent NPC, presumably the tutorial character, gave what seemed to be an in-character friendly reminder to be courteous in game. A nice touch for RPers.
"Now, I hope you remember: the only path is forward." ... Hm? Did she accidentally press a skip dialogue button? There'd been no exposition or tutorial, but it seemed like the NPC was already sending her off... She didn't see any skip option, though-
In her moment of confusion the blurred figure waved what was probably an arm in goodbye, and a moment after they disappeared into nothingness - the area behind them did, as well. A violent explosion of the earth rending itself apart to particles and dust, gone in a moment as if reality itself had deemed the tract of land a heretical anomaly to be rectified. Only leaving an abrupt end into scrap metal and void beyond. An endless abyss of the night sky with small motes of debris as token of the incident, just like in the promotional material of the shattered ringworld.
... えー?
The only reason her voice didn't leak out was the lack of vocal chords in her gel body. Before she knew it, others filled the open area she was in; players, presumably, as many went to each other to discuss the explosion or whatever else. Dismissing the momentary blur of what looked like one person clipping into a wall on their spawn and being ejected upwards at blinding pace as a misinterpretation on her part, she tried to move forward... and nothing happened. Trying again, thinking about it in a different way and trying to be in touch with the slime or something, she tried again. For her efforts, the blue gel of her body jiggled like a plate of gelatin.
Out of options, and without a voice, she went to the forums through the in-game menu and posted about her plight. She saw a few other inhumans struggling with similar issues, but she got really ticked off when she saw someone respond to her specific post with 'skill issue'.
-----------!
She still didn't have the vocal cords to shout, though.
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