A Tear in the Code (Moogle&Shadicmaster)

[iApollo]

It had been roughly three months since Joshua dropped out of High School. His reasoning behind it? Failing. Joshua was in his final year of High School, and his grades were no where near passing. It's not that Joshua wasn't intelligent, but rather quite the opposite. Joshua is one of the most intelligent people he knows, and isn't afraid to flaunt the fact. Due to his intolerance for ignorance and stupidity, Joshua chose a lifestyle of loneliness in which he refused to interact with those of significantly lower intelligence than him unless absolutely necessary. Joshua eventually got to the point to where classes bored him and were no longer a challenge, so he started skipping school to do basically whatever he pleased.

Joshua was awoken to the incessant yelling of his mother. "Joshua! Wake up! You can't keep sleeping through your alarm!" Joshua had recently got a job. His parents had made it quite clear that if he wasn't going to be in school, he needed to be working. He had a habit of staying up later than he should, and would often sleep through his alarm clock on his cell phone. This was one of those days. He woke up, wiping his eyes and stared at the digital clock on his nightstand. Shit. I have less than a half hour to get ready and head to work... "Yeah...yeah..." He shooed his mother off with a dismissive hand wave, causing her to leave his room.

Joshua got dressed in a dark blue polo shirt and tucked it into a pair of khaki dress pants. He grabbed a large cup of coffee as made his way over to the door and slid on his black and white sneakers, leaving his house. He had less than ten minutes to get to work now, and was dreading the reprimanding that he'd get from his less than amused manager. Joshua was already teetering on the edge of being fired, having showed up late to work six times in the past month and a half. If it hadn't been for his stellar abilities of computer repair and hardware maintenance, he would probably have been fired by this point. However, his manager saw him as a valuable asset to the company. Joshua works for a worldwide chain store that does electronic repair. He managed to quickly work his way up to be the top worker in the shop, managing to fix just about any problem that was thrown his way.

As Joshua entered the shop, he was greeted by his rather upset boss, Cynthia. She was middle-aged, but looked great in spite of it. She has long blonde hair that stretches down to the mid-section of her back. "You're late again, Mr. Hodges. Care to entertain me with another story as to why?" Joshua shook his head and took a sip from his coffee. She stared down at him with an eyebrow raised. "Oh. I'm sorry....do you want some?" He offered the cup up to his boss with a sincere half-smile on his face. She did not look impressed. "Mr. Hodges. I most certainly do not want any of your coffee, I do however want answers as to why I shouldn't fire you." Joshua tilted his head to the side. "Cindy." He referred to his boss on a first name basis. "It's because I know you wouldn't fire me. Me showing up roughly five minutes late only shadows in comparison to the increasing amount of money I bring to the company." He said with a cocky grin on his face. "In fact, you're really only having these semi-intimidating talks with me so that you'll keep the rest of these lackeys in line. Right?" Cynthia's left eye twitched with anger as she stared down upon Joshua. "Get to your place and do your work, now." She demanded of him. Joshua smiled and nodded, casually walking over to a countertop with his name atop it. There were a few other people on different sections of the counter who were being consulted by customers.

After working for nearly nine hours, Joshua was locking up the place and shutting everything down. He decided that he'd quickly check his e-mail. At the very top was an e-mail with no subject from an e-mail address that contained strange characters. Having had his interest piqued, Joshua clicked it. In a light blue color was a link. Upon clicking the link, the computer went black, crashing the computer entirely. Joshua suddenly felt light-headed and then slipped into a state of unconsciousness as his consciousness was quite literally sucked into the computer. His body walked mindlessly back towards his house, his parents were both sleeping. He made himself food with very choppy body movements, almost as if he were a robot. His body began to eat away at the sandwich that he'd prepared for himself, and then he proceeded up the stairs to his room to fall asleep. His body relying purely on instinct at this point, having lost any actual consciousness.

***
​

Joshua awoke in a strange place. It was the computer store. But...it looked abandoned. It was night time, but it didn't feel right. It felt eerie. Eerier than normal. As he left the store, he was taken aback to notice that the streets were completely empty. "Where the hell is everyone...." Even at night time, the streets were always busy. But now...? There was nothing. He continued to walk around, breaking out into a run. He came upon his house and the interior looked nothing how it did in the real world. Joshua was beginning to freak out. I must be asleep. Am I lucid inside of a dream right now? He began to punch himself repeatedly, very much so feeling the pain of doing so. "I'm obviuosly not in a dream...." Joshua said aloud as he ran from his house. Finally, he came upon someone. He shouted upon the figure and approached her. It was a girl with short multi-colored hair. She held a basket and was placing various fruits inside of it. He knew this place. It was a fruistand that was less than a few blocks from his house. "Excuse me? I believe I'm lost. Where are we?" The figure didn't answer, but instead continued to go through the fruits, almost like she didn't even hear him. "Excuse me, lady?" He gripped her, but she didn't feel normal. She felt hard...metallic...like a machine almost.

A voice suddenly came from nowhere. "She can't hear you." A female's voice came from behind. He turned to face her. It was a girl that was roughly a few inches shorter than he. She had blood-red hair that was held in a high ponytail that hung to an inch below her shoulders. "You're a human, aren't you?" She remarked, looking him up and down. "Well...yes....obviously...aren't you?" He replied, sizing her up as well. "I am not. I'm merely a simulation of this world. You really don't know, do you? You're inside of the Internet." Joshua couldn't help but laugh. "You're fucking with me. No such thing is possible. Inside of the internet... Are you on drugs lady?" The female shook her head in disappointment. In the distance, a loud sound began to be heard. Joshua knew not of what it was....it was unfamiliar. "I'm most certainly not on drugs human. However. If you wish to live, you'll grab my hand." Joshua decided that he had nothing to lose by doing so. Whatever was happening made no sense to him. He grabbed onto the girl's hand, it feeling warm and soft like a human's. In an instant, they were transferred to an unknown location. It matched with the pictures that Joshua had seen of the very early 21st century. "I'll explain in due time, Human. But for now. You should rest in the corner over there." The building they were ontop of was more likely than not an office building. It was still night time, however, and Joshua knew not what to do in this situation. However, a strange feeling of trust overtook him as the girl spoke. He didn't even know her, yet she spoke with such persuasion. "Alright...yeah....I'll sit down...but I want you to explain." She nodded as Joshua seated himself against a metallic vent fixture. "All in due time human. All in due time." He took a few nervous breaths and stared down at his lap, waiting in silence.​

 

[Shadicmaster]

"six six.... eight nine...... zero four four seven......" There were footsteps that echoed across emptied hallways, an abandoned building where no light shone in exception of the meager allotment that the sun cast through the occasional window. Two males, both silent for the most part, were in the process of reading through a couple of files, neither of which looking to be any more than high school age. The two stopped simultaneously and looked up to a set of stairs that now impeded their forward progress, allowing for only direction to be traveled. Up. The pair climbed until they reached the roof of the strange building, they now standing on a concrete formed roof structure with many lights embedded into the small walls, meant to prevent anyone from falling off, though none of them seemed to work in the slightest. A faint breeze toyed with the rather large jacket of one and of the trench coat of the other.
"I should have known that tipping the king wouldnt end the game...." said one, he bearing the trenchcoat, leather made and black, covering over a dark green shirt that complemented his dark, and yet vivid green eyes. He wore a pair of black dickies and some black and white tenis shoes, a fashion that was very reminiscent of the twenty first century, which of course, shouldnt be all that surprising. The boy brushed some of his black hair out of his face and looked out to the tops of the other buildings, knowing that the commision of which he was seeking was amongst them somewhere.
"Are you sure that you input the right coding...?" he inquired of the other male, turning to face his companion. The other of the two bore hair so orangish red, it was hard to believe it was natural by any turn of fate. He wore a black and red shirt and a white jacket, as well as some faded black pants and a pair of white shoes that seemed slightly scuffed. Every article of clothing on him besides the shoes, however, looked simply too big for his slight, willowy frame. The boy's eyes were dark, shadowed from many things seen that shouldnt have been seen by anyone of such an age, but despite this, like his fellow, the blue hue captured within them was ever focused, vivid, without cloudiness to be conceived.
"Have I ever misprogrammed something for you, Roman?" The difference in the voices of the two was rather strange to try and pick out. They both sounded so similar, and yet, so different at the same time, as if they were brothers who were never meant to be.
"I would doubt you'd wish me to answer that question in truth, Archer." the other replied, looking back out over the skyline. One building shown slightly, lights clearly having been activated upon it. That would be their target.

As both boy and program settled themselves upon a building, the wind picked up, carrying with it a strange sort of distorted laughter, like that of a young girl's, and yet, dark and twisted, like that of something you would hear in a horror movie. The pair of male companions heard it to, the sensation sending shivers down their spine, though the continued on, knowing better than to focus on it for too long. They had pulled a small device about the size of a quarter from their pockets, flipping it like one would a coin and looking out to the building to which they were to alight, they appearing there with the coin like object falling into their hand, they looking to eachother with a nod, putting the device away, and looking about themseves.

 

[iApollo]

Ontop of the office building, Joshua began to grow tired of waiting. The unnamed female had been walking around the top of the building for roughly a half hour. She had been scouting the area. It was strange. She teleported him here, but it appeared to him to be that she didn't even understand where she was. So how exactly was he to ask her where he was and expect her to know? Joshua stared down at the rooftop of the building, his eyes starting to shut. "Don't do that!" She warned in a very demanding and warnful tone. Joshua snapped upward into a more erect-backed sitting position. "Don't do what?" He queried and stood up infront of the female. "Don't close your eyes. If your simulated body goes into a state of rest in an unkown place like this....you could be lost forever. I'm not sure if this is a safe place for your simulated body to rest, so until then....you will keep your eyes peeled." She said in an authoritative tone. "Look lady, I don't even know who you are or where the hell I am. Explain that to me and then you can start giving me orders." The female glared at him for a few brief moments before obliging. "As you wish." She said through gritted teeth, obviously not liking to have been put below Joshua.

"For starters, I am called Ashley. The place you are in is, like I said, the internet. I'm a simulation of the internet, and for now, so are you. But unlike you, I do not have a mortal body in the real world. More or less I'm an autonomous and self-aware computer program. I suppose a term you would be familiar with is Artificial Intelligence. While I have no way to really prove that you're within the internet, I can make a sort of relation to how this works. It's very similar to the concept of Virtual Reality Video Games in which you connect to the video game with a helmet of sorts. This helmet will transmit all feelings within the virtual reality world to your actual senses in the real world. For instance, I'm sure you've already felt the wind ontop of this office building. That is something that appeals to your basic sense of human touch." Ashley explained before taking a quick break to breathe and clear her throat. "It's more or less what I just explained, but without any sort of helmet. And also, your body is traveling around right now, on its own, doing basic tasks so that you do not die. You will not be able to leave this place until we find out what exactly is going on. However, for now, we should focus on a method of getting down from here. Sadly, I think we came upon an archive file. Therefore, there's only this exterior. There are no interior photos of this place, therefore it will be void. In a short amount of time we will be able to teleport. But for now. I think we should sit tight."

Joshua stared at her with disbelief, hanging on to every word she was saying. "You can't be serious." He said finally after a long pause. Joshua seated himself near the air conditioning vent and stared up at her. "But I am." Ashley said with a tone of reassurance. She sat down across from him and stared into his eyes. "I think you should tell me about yourself. If we're going to be up here for a while, might as well make this time useful." Joshua stared at her and shook his head. He was never great with social interaction, having chose to abstain from it unless absolutely necessary. "I suppose that should be fine." Joshua stared around his immediate area and then began to tell a bit about himself. "Well....my name is Joshua. I prefer to use nicknames, so Josh will be well-suited with me. And I'll refer to you as Ash." The red-haired girl had some sort of flicker in her eyes when he'd mentioned the idea of nicknaming her. "I've never been issued a nickname before." She spoke the word as if it were alien to her tongue. She seemed almost embarrassed, flattered even that Joshua had taken to nicknaming her. "Anyway. I'm seventeen-years-old and a drop-out of High School. I work well with computers, and I...-" He was cut off immediately by Ashley in response. "Why would you drop out of high school? From my data readings of your previous internet activity, personal files, postings, and history....you seem to be a genius. Why would you drop out?" Ashley asked curiously. This was one of her first experiences with a human, and found interaction with him to be strange, yet exhilerating. "I dropped out because I was bored. I failed my final year of school and didn't want to go back and do it again." Ashley glared at him. "You had the tools to excel, but you chose not to? You're foolish." Joshua felt a small tinge of guilt hit him hard. He'd never thought of it in that respect. "I suppose you're right...but you still have no basis to judge me on. You don't even know me." Joshua squinted his eyes at Ashley and then ceased to look at her. "Right. Well. I'll be back over in an hour or so. By then I should be able to transport us again.

 

[Shadicmaster]

It seemed that the duo had actually landed one floor down from the roof of the building they had targeted, but such was a small inconvenience in comparison to having to walk the entirety of the way over there. As they both climbed a new set of stairs, a conversation could be heard overhead between a female and a male. The female sounded like who they had come here for, and as the conversation had no indication of ill intent or malice, the male wasnt an enemy to say the least of the matter. Perhaps a tag along? The 'archer' would have to see the man in question to be able to make a further analysis, but at least they already had the boy's history without him having to find out the observationalist way. Soon enough, however, the pair was able to make their way through a door and onto the roof, finding the female in question about to leave.
"Why leave so quickly? We're in the archives, the only time transverse place of the internet. Wouldn't you think it to be the place we would find you, miss anonymous?" The sentence was aptly spoken by the darker of the pair of males, he stepping forwards first and approaching, whereas his companion of fiery hair and silent nature walked further to the other end of the roof, keeping a dutiful watch over the seeming 'ghost town'. A sort of dizziness began to sweep over him, causing him to sway slightly and forcing him to sit down, else he fall.
"Be careful. She's gotten stronger, which no doubt means she can be more invasive now," he called back to the other who was still focused upon the man and woman that they had joined. A nod was the only acknowledgement that the fiery haired male would recieve before his focus was resumed. Only moments after, however, distorted vision and a nauseous, dizzy feeling would begin to affect Joshua on a more direct level, being a bit stronger than it had been in the 'archer'

 

[iApollo]

Joshua noticed that his vision was starting to get severely distorted, a sharp pain jolted through his head as well. He felt like he was about to puke. "What the hell is going on with my sight....?" Joshua asked as he gripped his forehead. "Stare at something in particular." Ashley commanded as two new faces had joined them on the rooftops. She immediately took notice of them, and began to examine them further. They seem different. More mature even. Her eyes moved automatically, practically scanning the two males for any major differences from the last time she'd seen them. "Good. You're here. Have you two seen any other humans walking around."

Doing as was commanded, Joshua stared at the ground and waited for his sight to go back to normal. The headache and the dizziness soon faded, but it was a terrifying experience that he was not wanting to have replicated. It's apparent that one shouldn't lose focus while inside of the....internet. Joshua had just noticed that two new people had gotten onto the roof. They looked older than him. Ashley seemed to know the duo, and so he took that as a sign that he should be weary of them. Joshua, regardless of this, took a few steps back to where he was beside Ashley.

 

[Shadicmaster]

"See anyone? In the archives? No. Never would you find anyone in here if Paradigm brought them in for his game. It took us three years to figure out the precise method of getting in here, so I'd hope you have a plan. Or at least we would hope the future allots advanced artificial intelligence on par with what we had created within Paradigm...." The male with the dark hair didnt seem like he could be any more than twenty five, the same seeming to be true of his willowy companion, but even so, their method of speaking was in a way far beyond their years, cold, calculative, and very focused, to the point you could say. A rumbling could be heard in the distance, though the man didnt seem to bear any sort of worry to such an occurrence. 'Archer' got up quickly, looking out over the horizon line.
"The archive is in for a purge. Do we have teleportability, or do I have to work on another chip set modification?" he asked swiftly.
"I'd say you should start working on it just in case. So tell me, any reason why there's more than two humans on the top of this building?"

 

[iApollo]

"Not in the archives specifically, but in general. I have a feeling that Paradigm is bringing in more playthings. Otherwise this human wouldn't be here." Ashley said, looking at Joshua who had been cautiously standing behind her. "I have a teleport ready. Everyone grab onto me." She said, as her body began to take on the faint glow of a golden aura. Joshua blinked rapidly, running up to her and taking a firm grip onto her left arm, awaiting everyone else to be readied. Here we go again....holy shit. He felt a queasy sensation overtake his stomach, nervous of teleporting again.

 

[Shadicmaster]

A sound akin to a coin dropping and hitting something rung out, 'Archer' cursing and diving off of the side of the building. The remaining of the two males sighed and placed a small chip in the girl's hand, giving her a nod as a 'you're a go' signal. The chip would extend her range to search our just the other male's biological signature and his own, making it fairly useful in terms of simplicity. The rumbling was growing louder by the second, showing that the purge was coming close to their current location.
"I hope that this game of hide and seek will be fun~!"
The voice rang out from everywhere and seemingly no where, bearing a very childish tone, teasing, taunting them. It was distorted just as the laughter was, and was followed by a giggle as a building collapsed beside them, the purge now right in their midst.

 

[iApollo]

Ashley had managed to have them teleported just at the right time. Their new destination was drastically different. As opposed to being within the realm of some early 21st century picture archive, they were now in the midst of some online MMORPG. The game that they were in was highly populated, there were people of all sorts of strange clothing running around wildly. The quartet of people had their clothing to match that of the realm. It seemed to be a fantasy medieval RPG. "Where the hell...." Joshua scanned his surroundings, finding quite terrifying looking people. There were large hulking figures of green skin that ran around violently with large axes in hand. In the more city/town-like area, there were people that had human bodies, but cat ears and tails. It was all so much to take in. It looks a lot different when you're in a first person perspective and actually experiencing the game as opposed to being on an outside screen and watching it from a top-down third-person perspective.

 

[Shadicmaster]

The trench coat bound male still seemed to look exactly the same as he had before until he swiped his hand through the air, a translucent menu screen appearing in front of him. Apparently he was very familiar with the mechanics of virtual immersion mmorpgs, despite there being very few of them in his time.
"Do any of you have any useful gear? Its not going to be easy getting through this place...." he said as he uploaded a character from a previous mmo he had played, the transformation starting from the head and dissolving through his person. From a shady figure in a trench coat, to another shady figure in a cloak, there wasnt much of a difference. The male now wore a long cloth cloak of black, red, and brown, intricately designed. Strapped upon his back were dual thin long swords, wrapped in medical tape. The hood of the cloak cast shade over his face, leaving no telling what changes could have been made to his true person, but at least he was more fitting for the area they were in now.
"I have healing supplies and a high attack to defense ratio. I can be a front line driver should fighting be needed," he stated simply before looking up to the rooftops, particularly the roof of the town's armory. Crouching upon it was his companion, also cloaked, but without a hood on. His cloak was of white, blue and yellow, in a very similar pattern to his comrade's. The male bore a long bow that was resting upon his back over the quiver of arrows that he had strapped to him as he surveyed the land.

 

[iApollo]

Joshua hadn't been much for video games, but decided to open his menu regardless and see if he had at least something. He'd played virtual reality MMOs before, but hadn't done much in many of them. He swiped his arm across, mimicking the motion that one of the males had done previously. A menu came up in his point of view. Black Duster of Concealing? He asked himself as he tapped it and equipped it to himself. A large black coat appeared onto his body as the rest of his clothing remained underneath. It felt surprisingly heavier than his clothes previous. There was a rather audible clanking sound from within the coat. He moved the coat's flaps off to the sides and realized that he had daggers concealed inside of it. What the hell?! He said closing it quickly and shaking his head, buttoning the top of his coat. He didn't understand why he had these daggers and this coat.... he'd never even played the game before.

Ashley, on the other hand, had a rather limitless inventory. She equipped a set of reinforced leather armor that was skin-tight, obviously made for more stealthy characters. She scrolled through her inventory some more, finally deciding upon a short sword as her weapon. She sheathed it at her hip, not having much use for it at the moment. Now what were they to do? Her teleportations were always completely at random, usually taking her wherever she was needed the most. So something had to be going on here for her to be needed at at such a place.

 

[Shadicmaster]

"Good to see we have at least something to show for our inventory..." said the concealed figure as he turned around to memorize the look of his party. With a slight nod, he began to walk off.
"The name is Julius, and you'd best not forget." he said as he continued walking, disappearing into the crowd seamlessly, looking like he belonged. He soon found himself at the edge of town where a large plains could be seen, ending off at the side in a forest, and to the other in a dip, either the beginnings of a ravine, or a lake like area. To the normal person looking about, it would seem peaceful, but Julius knew better. There was danger lurking in every step taken outside of the town. He could see the subtle shifts in the tall grasses, the eyes flicking about in the woods. His partner jumped from rooftop to rooftop until he finally landed beside him, standing up with seemingly no injury whatsoever. At such a close range, now, one could see a slight brown tone highlight to his red hair, making it a more rust like color, as well as the pointed ears he now bore, his form being that of an elf, though it was unclear as to whether this game had distinctions as to elven races.
"Do we venture out or do we ask around town to see if anyone knows about anything big going on here?" he asked as he checked through his inventory for any quest items, finding none to speak of.

 

[iApollo]

Joshua said nothing to the concealed figure, not being one to like taking orders from others. Ashley, on the otherhand, had followed after the figure. She seemed to know where they were going just as much as he, so Joshua figured that there was no harm in following her. She had been the first person to explain the situation and the first person he'd actually met since he'd gotten here, so Joshua had a sort of trust for Ashley, even though there was really no reason backing his trust. When asked in regards to venturing about or asking around, Joshua was in favor of the prior. Having no problems with speaking out into a group of people he doesn't really know, he decided to voice his opinion. "I think it would be the most logical thing to ask around. And since there are quite a few of us, possibly branch out? We should check and see if there's a group or a party system in this game. That could help us keep in contact."
Ashley nodded in agreement, her eyes glowing almost robotically as she went through a series of menus. Finally, she found a "create a clan" option that cost a huge amount of in game currency. Though, her being a piece of artifical intelligence of sorts, she had access to just about anything that she wanted. She created a nameless clan, that way they couldn't be seen by anyone but the game administrators, and hopefully they wouldn't be in long enough. She then sent invites to the rest of their clan. Not long after, Joshua received a notification infront of him that read, "You have been invited to a clan!" with two options of "Accept" or "Decline" at the bottom. He tapped accept.