Sector 21: Ready Player One

Camleen

I'm going to be my own kind of princess
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  1. Intermediate
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Genres
In no particular order: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Modern, Magical, Romance, anime, comic books, cartoons, video games..
Sector 21: Archaide and Syrinx

Archaide is a planet in the OASIS with a barren surface comprised of vector graphics (an old style of video game graphics used in the 80's to give a three dimensional effect to a game). The planet is in perpetual darkness and some of the only surface features are a large volcano (which stays to the north no matter where you are) and multiple entrances to the inner parts of the planet. The inside of the planet is mostly comprised of vintage arcade cabinets. Some OASIS users have come to the planet and have coded their childhood arcade gaming spots within Archaide. To navigate the inner parts of the planet a user has to go through different levels seemingly arranged by the age of the systems. Starting closest to the surface are the newest Cabinets and then the farther you go the older the games are. At the center are the games Tennis for Two and Space War!.
Technology and Magic are permitted in this part of the Sector.

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Syrinx: A recreation of the world that is featured in the 1976 Rush album "2112". It was considered an experimental album, the album itself telling a tale of a dystopian future of the year 2112. The name of the OASIS planet is tribute to the second song on the first side of the album: 'The Temples of Syrinx'.
And the meek shall inherit the earth...

We've taken care of everything
The words you hear, the songs you sing
The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes
It's one for all, all for one
We work together, common sons
Never need to wonder how or why

We are the priests
Of the temples of Syrinx
Our great computers
Fill the hollowed halls
We are the priests
Of the temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life
Are held within our walls

Look around this world we made
Equality our stock in trade
Come and join the brotherhood of man
Oh what a wide contented world
Let the banners be unfurled
Hold the red star proudly high in hand

We are the priests
Of the temples of Syrinx
Our great computers
Fill the hollowed halls
We are the priests
Of the temples of Syrinx
All the gifts of life
Are held within our walls
 
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Damagi could not help but smile when W3ndy came into the cockpit humming to the David Bowie song playing throughout the ship. She even almost breaks into singing, but refrains. Neither are aware they share that personal reservation of not being comfortable singing in the presence of new people. Sure Damagi was very open about other things, sometimes to the embarrassment of Iria and her other compatriots. But singing was a deeply personal thing for her. The jukebox shuffles to the next song: 20th Century Boy by T-Rex

The Kickin’ Wing comes out of hyperspace above Archaid and slowly descends to the surface. In her opinion Archaide is one of the weirdest planets to see from orbit because it’s a planet of pure darkness in the most literal sense. You only see the planet outlined by the simulated stars around it when looking unassisted. She’s flown here countless times to get to her own (kind of) private piece of The OASIS, but Damagi still feels just a little unsettled headed towards it. It feels to her like they’re going straight into a black hole every time.

“Coming dowwwwn.” Damagi announces as she pilots the ship to land in a lot in the eastern hemisphere near one of the entrances, the one nearest their destination beneath the surface. “And here we are.” Damagi says as she gets out of the pilot seat.

When the pair step off the ramp and it closes behind them, the whole ship is engulfed in a faint yellow light. “Best security protocols money can buy.” Damagi comments. They come to the large circular entrance/pit into the inner planet. Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard can be heard emanating from within. Damagi jumps off the edge yelling “GERONIMOOO!”

She lands on her feet with no problem and opens up her display with it set for W3ndy to see it as well. It shows the full but very confusing layout of the cavernous museum they had just entered with their position indicated by a pair of yellow dots, their destination a blue dot a couple levels down “Follow me, and you won't get lost.”

Damagi leads W3ndy around the twisting cavern streets and escalators down to the section of the museum which roughly correlates to the late 1990's and early 2000's era of gaming. They pass several places with sleek corporation-approved designs to their fronts and come to one of the simpler places named Happy Jack's Pizza Place. The brick front suggests its real world counterpart was part of an older downtown area.

“Welcome, to Happy Jack's Pizza Place. My favorite slice of The OASIS.” Damagi presents it to W3ndy before pushing open the double front doors.

The interior of Happy Jack's is unlike the others on this level. One of the last to really look and feel like a locally founded and owned place because it was. The pizzeria section is quaint, and its jukebox even looks open and welcoming with the panels of album covers ready to be browsed and played. The arcade section doesn't even look like it was originally part of the pizzeria to begin with. The wood clashes with the tile of the other half, as if it were some other smaller business which had been assimilated.

It even comes complete with a teenage girl working the register. Well more leaning forward on the counter. A little over five feet tall, with frizzy red hair popping out the bottom and top of a black visor and wearing a matching black polo. Her face might be considered pretty, if it weren't so glum.

“Welcome to Happy Jack's Pizza Place, how can we make you happy today?” She asks lacking all the cheer that's supposed to come with the delivery of that greeting.

“Renee! Exciting news!” Damagi comes up to the NPC and smiles at her. “I got a party meeting me here. Please put whatever they want on my tab, and that includes songs on that old jukebox. They ever get it fixed by the way?”

Renee sighs “You know for a fact they haven't. Still won't play Country music for some reason.”

“Eh, not like it's missed around here.” Damagi says dismissively and waves W3ndy over “Come on and order up! I got this place hooked up with Domino's in case that matters to ya. I'll be over here.” Damagi takes one of the booths near the register and opens her UI to start perusing the applicants for their party that have come in during the flight over to this place.

@Not_Amy @Zadok shadows @Camleen
 
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Iria’s heart shaped ship begins to hover above the deck of the landing pad, and it then takes off with a burst of red glowing glitter. She sets the autocourse for Archaid, and she then opens her friends list. She puts in Dante’s name, and sends the Friend Request to him. And as her ship rockets towards orbit, it automatically sends coordinates to Dante’s ship. There is also a text and a mini map, showing him the path to take to get to the pizza place.

Her ships heads towards Archaide, but Iria then slows her ship a little. A new message comes through her private messaging, and she sees it’s from 5P1D3R. She frowns to herself as she stares at the message notification, but slowly she opens it. It’s from him alright, and she finds herself smiling a little.


Hey babe. Miss you. Got called into work, IRL sux lol. Prolly be home in the morning, just stay at your place tonight. Want to go to Bascilica in a few days? Love, S.E.


Even after the encounter on NeoNoir, she still feels good about what she has in the real world with him. She thinks that’s what the feeling is in her heart. Or maybe that’s just what she wants it to be. Iria closes the message and looks over her friends list once more. 6 people on it, and that’s it. Dante’s name is greyed out until he accepts or rejects her friend request. She closes the friends list, and a soft series of beeps comes from the small droid mounted to the back of her armor. She glances over her shoulder and smiles a little, and then looks ahead out of forward view. “Yeah, he is.” Another series of beeps, and she now frowns a little as she speaks. “No, I don’t. And you don’t be thinking that either, please.” No response from the droid, which means it feels like it got yelled at. Which it kind of did.

Iria looks down at her hands as she puts her ship back to full thrust… she forgot she was even wearing this armor. She sometimes feels very… constrained.. in armor. Especially form fitting armor. She’s super self conscious, even about her body that isn’t really her body. Maybe that’s part of the reason she wears robes so much.

She now opens her inventory screen, and goes to the personalized screen she has dubbed ‘Dress Up Time!’. It’s a list of the different gear assigned to different outfit sets. By activating one of them, her avatar will be changed into that set.

Stormtrooper
Magey
Vest/Jeans
WHM
TankTop/Skirt
Desert
Blue Skinny
Chinese
Bikini Top
Beach Vest

She has spent a lot of credits on just clothes over the years. And she loves it. Iria looks down the list slowly, her brows furrowed in thought. Her finger lingers over the Vest and Jeans combo, and then the Chinese designation… but finally she activates the Magey outfit. Artemis is safely tucked away in her Inventory, and her armor starts to glow softly, and then shimmers as it is replaced by her normal robes. The robes are varying shades of grey and silvers, a thin tiara now looped along her head. Her phaser pistol also goes automatically into Inventory, the pistol replaced on her hip by her wand.

“Better” she utters to herself as she leans back in her seat. She stares at her Inventory screen and lets out a soft sigh. She reaches out and uses the auto-organize function… which she has to do every time she’s done with the Inventory screen. That screen closes… and she then steps away from her avatar a moment. In real life, she moves to the door of her room quickly and slips through it. Carefully she looks left to right, to make sure no one is there. She then jogs down the hall to the bathroom. And after a few minutes she emerges, and she sneaks down to the kitchen. She doesn’t see her father anywhere… he must have gone out with his pals, his chaps. She shakes her head with the thought. She grabs a few packs of protein nuts… peanuts, granola protein clusters, candy coated dark chocolate soynuts and almonds. She smiles with her new treasures, and sprints back upstairs to her room. She closes the door behind her and locks it as quietly as she can, and moves to her gear once more.

When she comes back to her waiting avatar, Archaide is in sight. She now sits up a little, looking along the forward view. She isn’t sure why she half expected to see the others arriving. But she was hopeful. If they party comes together.. it will be 4 of them all together. Not..terrible.. but Iria likes to plan better than that. She hopes W3ndy is nice… W3ndy is very pretty, and clearly looks up to Damagi. Or so she assumes, in the little time she had meeting her. She wonders if W3ndy will become Damagi’s new partner.. they do seem to make a better pair than Damagi and herself. And W3ndy is prettier. Iria just sighs sadly to herself, just pushing the black thoughts to the back of her mind. Her ship automatically heads towards the same place it lands every time, outside of entrance that is the quickest way to the pizza shop.

Iria finds herself smiling a little, seeing the Kickin’ Wing already there, its shield already erected. That means Damagi has gone on inside. With W3ndy. Iria’s heart shaped ship lands near the Kickin’ Wing, and she promptly gets up and out of the cockpit as the hatch opens. She walks along the ship just a few feet and then hops off, her robes swaying gently as she does so. Once more her inventory screen is open, and she taps the small icon that looks to be the outline of her own ship. Said ship glows a moment, and then shrinks to the size of a Matchbox car. She spins on her heels and scoops it up, and it is digitized automatically into her inventory screen. She looks towards the entrance now, taking a slow and deep calming breath.
 
Hearing the opening chords of 20th Century Boy W3ndy cannot help herself. Her microphone is clicked off and her avatar looks around the cockpit as in real life she checks to be sure she's alone in her dorm room before singing along. Damagi being focused on piloting the ship allows W3ndy to sing her heart out until they land.

She's never been to Archaide before, and W3ndy has to to admit it is kinda surreal. You get so used to most everything being rendered realistically as possible for you, that the primitive graphics are them are weird to see. She falls behind Damagi looking off at the horizon all around. All the same. So weird. W3ndy trots to catch up with Damagi and looks down at the tunnel entrance. The song is a nice touch but it doesn't alleviate W3ndy's slight anxiety about just jumping down. But evidently it's the only option to get in, and when Damagi takes the leap, W3ndy steels her nerves, closes her eyes, and jumps after her yelling "CRAZY HORSE!"

W3ndy is thankful she lands safely on her feet next to Damagi and opens her eyes to a really amazing sight. Arcades, pizza places, bowling alleys literally far as the eye can see! What's not to love? While following close behind Damagi, W3ndy takes notes on which places she wants to visit next chance she gets. For a moment she wonders if someone made Pizza Planet from Toy Story down here.

At Happy Jack's, W3ndy is disappointed at first. Why this place? It's so....drab compared to the other places. But if this is where the group leader wants to meet up, then this had to be where she'd have to be. The offer of free pizza is tempting but W3ndy goes right to the old school jukebox and takes advantage of the freeplay offered. Since it looked like Damagi wasn't interested in doing more than browsing whatever it was she was browsing, W3ndy made a small playlist to run while they waited.

1. Trampled Underfoot by Led Zeppelin
2. Another One Bites the Dust by Queen
3. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
4. Dancing Machine by The Jackson Five
5. Crazy by Gnarles Barkley
6. Love Rollercoaster by Red Hot Chili Peppers

When the first song started playing, W3ndy also took advantage of the fact Damagi was focused on her stuff to dance a little. Just some shaking and swaying of her hips to the music as she went over to the arcade section. There were a lot of arcade staples, but her eyes went right to a not-too-old favorite: Area 51. The girl goes up to the game, takes one of the lightguns, and presses START. In her gameplay W3ndy wasn't much of a shooter, but in the context of this game she was more than happy to pick up a 'gun' and fire away. While she waits for others to arrive or Damagi to ask her anything, W3ndy plays and blasts through levels of escaped aliens with her back to the front doors still swaying her hips to the music.
 
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Iria makes her way along the tunnels and pathways of Archaide’s underground just as she has a hundred times before. Before she met Damagi, she didn’t really spend much time in this place. She was kind of an isolated person, and she always thought this Sector was more for group get togethers or something. She just wasn’t interested, really. Or maybe she was scared of the groups of people she might find in this place. But now with a partner, with a small group, she feels like she has reason to actually land on this vector landscape and journey within.

She’s close to Happy Jack’s now, her eyes cast down towards the artificial ground before her. For a few moments she considers doing something.. magicky.. to enhance her entrance. Maybe impress whoever is there a little. Just as she had the Air Spirit summoned during the tournament on Tazuka. She didn’t need to keep it summoned, but she supposes it made her feel a little more secure. And it showed off her abilities a little. But she decides against any of that. While she would like to show off a little… it might make a bad first impression on whomever is there.

Her eyes look along the front of Happy Jack’s Pizza Place.. and she finds herself smiling a little. She likes this place. Nice and quiet. Great for reading. She would often spend hours in the dining area just reading while Damagi played games, usually having nothing more than a soda the whole time. Iria can’t say why she feels this place is so comforting.. but it is to her. With a deep breath of courage she opens the front door and slips in.

“Hello Ms. Renee! Namaste!”
She smiles brightly and goes into a sort of skip as she passes through the door. Well no one here but Damagi and W3ndy so far. She hopes Dante didn’t get lost, or scared off. She’s a little disappointed no one else has answered the call yet. But she’s sure people will. She hopes. “Hello W3ndy! It’s so nice to see you again!” She waves excitedly to their new friend as she makes her way to Damagi’s booth. She avoids looking towards the game W3ndy is playing… as she actually is afraid of it. She doesn’t even want to look at it, or the graphics on its side. She's never voiced it, but its obvious she avoids eye contact with that general area. Usually sitting with her back to it. Iria slides into the booth across from Damagi, smiling brightly as she folds her hand on the table. “Hi Damagi!” She then waves excitedly to her from about 6 inches away. “Dante should be here pert soon. He’s a cool guy. I think his thing is a Fallout thing. I think. Iunno you know that kinda stuff better’n me.” She says with a shrug, her wide smile not fading.
 
Dante was orbiting Archaide for a while. He was staring at the friend request he had received from Iria. Dante looked to the list of his current friends. All of their names had lines through them. They were mostly of his former squadron on the veteran rangers. They were gone now. They never bothered coming back to him. Perhaps they decided to start over and leave their old lives behind, maybe they committed suicide after losing it all. Who could be for sure. All Dante knew was that he was the last one standing. Dante clicked the accept button on Iria's friend request and her name became green.

Kara sighed. "Wow you think you would learn. Ah well it's your funeral.... or more theirs."

Dante ignored the AI as he got up from the cockpit and made his way to his quarters in his Dynamic Class Light Freighter, The Dirty Wastelander. He decided it was time to change out of his armor. Even though his Ranger armor was his favorite, Dante did have an assortment of other armors and outfits in case he needed to blend in other sectors. For this particular meeting he wanted to in with a light armor outfit. His choice in clothing comes from the final album of early 2000 emo rock band My Chemical Romance. Their final album was a concept album depicted the band members as rebels called the Killjoys who fought against the corporation Better Living Industries.

The outfit he had was Mikey Way's persona, Kobra Kid. It was a red leather jacket with a yellow and black sleeveless shirt with black jeans and combat boots he even had the motorcycle helmet to go with the outfit.

Once he decided on an outfit Dante would walk to his personal armory on his ship. Being a bounty hunter meant that he a rather wide variety of weapons to chose from, though he often stuck to the classic weapons of his ranger days. On the wall was an assortment of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, semi-auto and burst fire rifles, and snipers. They were from various video games, movies, anime, and real life. One of his most prized weapons was the Lawmaker MKII, the weapons Judges used in the Judge Dredd comics. His favorite shotgun was his copy of the golden shotgun from the movie Constantine. One of his favorite battle rifles was the BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle from Halo. His sniper of choice was his 50 cal. Anti-Material Rifle "Beatrice."

For this meeting Dante would be packing some small arms just in case it was a trap and he needed to get out fast. In his quick draw holster he would keep a red KillJoy ray gun.

Once Dante was dressed and geared up he decided to land a bit away from others. He needed a moment to compose himself. He decided to use 4way's high tech motorcycle to ride across the barren surface. 4way was kind enough to top off the fuel. Dante would ride the bike into a cavern and used it to move through accessible roadways.

Once he was near the pizza place he stopped dead in his tracks. It had been over a year since his squad was killed because of his call. Was he ready to be with a team again. Then he remembered what Iria said. How you can never know where your next friends come from. With that Dante clenched his fists and entered the bar with his helmet on.

He pushed the double doors open and walked in with a confident swagger in his step. He didn't aknowlege the others as he walked over to the jukebox and fiddled with it until he found the song he wanted to play, Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. The song held a special place in Dante's heart as his favorite song by the artist. Dante also enjoyed the weird trip that was Moonwalker, both the movie and the video game. Which Dante hoped that this pizzeria had a copy of the game here.

Dante looked to the three women and took off his helmet to show his face. His blonde hair looked to be a little messy in an on purpose sort of way. His features were above average as though they were just touch ups of a real face.

Dante gave the others a grin. "So I hear you may be in need of a badass to go exploring a place that could either be certain death or a place of awesome loot. The name is Dante Castellanos, former NCR Ranger turned Deleter at your service. I must say I am truly a fortunate man to be in the presence of such lovely ladies."

Dante's tone wasn't smug, but rather it was confident and genuine. Like he truly felt he was lucky that he was in the company of the individuals present.

kobra_kid_by_xoxo_boo-d31lahx.gif


(Deleter is a term I have been using for bounty hunter since Dante has been deleting people for money)
 

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This guy’s a scrub so a big silent NO
Maybe if I was starting a circus I’d want a turtle man.
Not judging you by your body, but I’m not in the market for an armed hooker. Today. Put you in my Later folder.
Dude did you not watch the video? No Gunters. Your fanboy mural and map are right behind you.


These were a few of the thoughts to cross Damagi’s mind as she browsed the applicants for their team. One of the biggest advantages of The OASIS was since most of the world plays, there’s no shortage of possible teammates. You just had to sift through the massive amount of posers who think a skin and some weapons makes you a badass.

Between her very quick estimations of applicants Damagi does look over at W3ndy as she gets her playlist going and then takes up a gun at Area 5. All nice choices, and Damagi giggles to herself when it becomes obvious that W3ndy thinks she's not being watched except by Renee the NPC. Must be a really shy kid behind that avatar, Damagi thinks and assumes said player is a kid. Until she gets to know someone a little more, she always assumes other players are 'kids' in relation to her. Damagi lets her continue thinking she's not being watched and keeps sorting out the few hopefuls.

On Iria's arrival, Damagi is in the middle of watching a particularly lengthy application video from some dude named i-Rok. The guy goes on and on about his exploits; all of them obvious big fish tales. Renee waves back and gives her programmed greeting, and makes a pouty face when again she doesn't get a pizza order.

“Hey Iria. So he's a Fallout fan? That was my first playthrough back in the day. I was a Commonwealth Minutemen, but never made it to level four. Anyway check out this massive doorknob.” Damagi says upon Iria trying to get her attention. She makes the screen visible for Iria and flips it around. “Would be bad manners to post this around. But I soooo want to know how many hits this garbage would get on Youtube. I mean look at him. The skull chest, the hood, going for a grim reaper look and failing.”

Damagi's attention is caught by the sound of a familiar engine coming up to the building. She knows that sound belongs to a swanky motorcycle, and that motorcycle used to belong to 4Way. But he was zeroed out. Which meant that bounty hunter was just arriving. “Play it cool.” Damagi tells Iria the moment before Dante makes his entrance. Which far as entrances go, Damagi has to admit privately is not bad of all she's seen so far. The skin and song are a nice choice as well. Damagi is of the opinion you can tell alot about a person from their music choice, and so far she likes what Dante's presenting.

“And you hear right, Ranger.” Damagi slides out of the booth and comes up to Dante. She's of course smaller than him, about chest height to him. “You said in your application vid you recently zeroed out 4Way. He was kind of a big deal, so good on you for that. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered with you.” She points over at W3ndy. Well it appears she is at first, but really she points out the machine next to Area 51, Moonwalker. “Next to Barbie over there is Moonwalker. If you're an MJ fan, have a slice and play a while, socialize. We're going to look over a few applicants, send out some messages, all that boring stuff before we get to the real planning.” Damagi grins and goes back to the booth. She opens a private channel with Iria so they can be seen chatting but not heard.

“So Iria. Give me a little more on Dante here. The juicy bits you couldn't fit in a message, please.”
 
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Iria smiles a little more as Damagi greets her, and she settles into the booth. Her gaze drifts around the pizza shop for a moment or two, finding herself sidetracked by all the pretty flickering noises and pleasant pulsing sounds. Her eyes blink and she looks back towards Damagi as the screen is swung around towards her. She starts to attentively lean in to look at what Damagi was looking at… but immediately leans back, her eyes widening a little. “Ah! What’s wrong with his chest? You can see through it… that’s so creepy..” she shudders noticeably. “Does anyone really get intimidated by looks like that anymore? I mean… if he’s normal size and all. If he was like Voltron size and looked like that.. then I’d be all intimidated… but he just looks.. desperate..” she shakes her head, not wanting to stare at the creepy image anymore.

Iria gets a surprised look on her features as 4Way’s bike (well it USED to be 4Way’s) pulls up towards the building. She looks towards Damagi, and she nods a little. “Hey he got the bike.. that’s pretty cool. That’s about the only thing I liked about 4Way… his bike was pretty.” She turns a little in her booth, her arm draping over the back of it as she looks towards the front door. “Hey I’m cooler than cool. Like ice cold, baby.” She says softly, looking towards Damagi.

She forgot to warn Dante that a punch could be heading his way from Damagi. She once more sighs at the memory of when Damagi ‘tested’ her.. just like Damagi tested W3ndy. But unlike the far more battle experienced W3ndy… Damagi clocked Iria right between the eyes.

It’s too bad that wasn’t the most embarassing part.

Speaking of… when Damagi motions towards W3ndy, Iria looks towards the woman also. That’s such a cute hat! Iria finds herself smiling a little as she watches W3ndy play that awful game. No, she’s never actually played Area 51, so how would she know it’s awful? Well she’ll never really know since she’s scared of the arcade machine. “You’re doin great W3ndy!” Iria calls out in a happy tone, pumping her fist. Of course she doesn’t know if that’s true.. but she felt the need to offer W3ndy a little cheer. Maybe somewhere in her heart she feels bad for W3ndy… both because she got ‘tested’ by Damagi and Damagi is insisting on calling her Barbie.

But back towards Dante and Damagi she looks as Damagi starts back towards their booth. Iria smiles faintly and gives Dante a little wave as she sits there, her arm still draped over the back of the booth. Her gaze lingers upon Dante, and for a moment she doesn’t actually hear Damagi address her on the private channel. But then after a moment… she blinks and looks to Damagi, turning to face her in the booth.

“Oh… oh um.. okay.. I mean there’s nothin to juicy..” Why does it feel like it’s getting warm in here suddenly? “He.. used to be a Gunter. USED to be, Damagi. He doesn’t do that no more. He.. um.. he works as a bounty hunter. He has a AI on his ship he’s tryin to get mobile like my Artemis… uh.. I get the impression he hangs out more in the technological thingies places. He’s really really nice… but that whole tough guy thing.. I mean that’s what he wants himself to seem like. And I’m sure he is a tough guy… but I mean he’s nice. He was concerned about me, that’s why he approached me. And… um… um.. he doesn’t really hang out with anyone anymore really. I got the impression he’s the lone wolf type. And he figured out I was a summoner and healer type just by how I acted. Which nobody’s ever done b’fore.” Iria now leans back in the booth, a little smile on her lips as she continues. Her eyes are on her hands setting on the table, her fingers moving lightly as if she were playing a piano. “It feels like he’s trying to build something in his life again. I think I made him understand about Sixers.. I mean” she glances towards Damagi “how we feel about them being attacked and all.” She looks back towards her hands as she continues to play a piano that isn’t there. “I think he would be good. He’s a combat medic, so he could be a front line healer too if need be.” She falls silent then, still staring at her moving fingers as she smiles to herself.

She probably gave Damagi more than she was expecting there…
 
Dante grinned as he saw Damagi walk towards him. So this was their fearless leader. Dante could tell by her avatar that she took the Sayain race to be her character. Upon hearing that the only reason she bothered with him was because of his recent bounty, Dante chuckled. "No big deal really. Some big names wanted him gone so it was inevitable. 4way was arrogant and didn't take into account his weaknesses. He was a lot of talk. Not me baby. I'm all killer no filler."

Dante looked over Damagi shoulder. He took interest in both the Arcade machine and the avatar playing the game next to it. She seemed to be in her own world playing that game. "I have a lot of respect for the King of Pop. I just might take you up on your offer."

Dante went back to the Npc and ordered a pizza and a Pepsi to be delivered to his dorm room in the real world. Dante decided to pay for it himself before walking to the Arcade cabinets. He didnt lose any confidence in his step. Dante went to the Area 51 cabinet and picked up the blue 2nd player gun. He looked to W3ndy with a grin. "Love the design. I was a wanderer of the wasteland myself... fallout and all that. I still have my deck laying around. Thought about getting it digitized to do oasis battles. Mind if I join your game miss..."

Dante left his sentence open for W3ndy to finish. He was sure that her real tag wasn't Barbie. That was a quick way of getting shot. Dante would look to W3ndy with the plastic gun controller in hand and grin on his face.

@Not_Amy
 
While she plays with plenty of enthusiasm, W3ndy has not made it past the second level when Iria arrives and she's distracted by her greeting. “Oh hey Iria! Nice to see you again too!” She says turning to look at Iria, and at the same time an alien mauls her character in the game and depletes the last of her health. The Continue Screen comes up and W3ndy sighs. Yes it doesn't cost her anything to continue like she has a pocket full of quarters burning a hole in her pocket. But where is the fun in that? So W3ndy instead lets the countdown hit zero and go back to the main screen before pressing the Start Button.

Her mini playlist ends moments before Dante enters and W3ndy turns around to see who was coming in. The skin isn't one she recognizes, but she does think it's very cool. Makes her think maybe she should put on one of hers. Not much of a selection, but it'd be something to hopefully put Damagi off calling her 'Barbie' again.W3ndy doesn't let on she kind of resents it but chooses to ignore it. Seeing Dante's face, W3ndy turns back around and refocuses on the game. “Do not get distracted by a cute boy with great taste in music. That's how you make a fool of yourself.” She tells herself after momentarily turning off her audio. “You joined up to get experience and loot and maybe some friends. Not to flirt or hookup.”

Her vow to not get distracted by Dante is rendered null when the guy comes right up to her and takes the second gun. W3ndy keeps her eyes on the screen, but does put her free right hand on her hip. Because that's what confident women do, they always have their hands on their hips for some reason. W3ndy peers over and smiles back. “W3ndy_Wrekker, and thank ya kindly.” W3ndy internally smacks herself for letting her accent get through. People assume things of accents, particularly Texan. She continues “And no problem, plenty aliens to go around.” She flashes him a thumbs-up with the right hand and puts it right back on her hip. It could also be holding the gun, but W3ndy thinks this makes her look cooler.
 
"Hmm. A former Gunter, eh?” Damagi looks over at Dante then back to Iria. She's not visibly put off by this new info; her eyes are contemplative if anything. "I won't make anything of it. So long as he doesn't.” The Saiyan points with her lips at W3ndy. "That one did not hesitate to fight back. Even smiled and looked really excited, and not in a poser way.” Damagi rubs her chin as she looks off at the pair again. “You know, it’s a little early in planning to be all geared up.” Damagi waves her hand over herself and she switches skins into what she has labelled ‘Monkey Suit’. “There we go, much more casual.” Damagi says grinning at Iria.

“No shirt, no shoes, no service.” Renee says to her from the counter while reading an old copy of Weekly World News with the infamous Bat Boy on the cover.

“Please Renee. I run the place when I’m here.” Damagi sticks her tongue out at Renee and leans in closer to Iria, nods her head at Dante and W3ndy.

“What do you think Iria….should I test Dante with a punch, kick, or a blast while he’s flirting, distracted? See how W3ndy reacts?”
 
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Out of the corner of her eyes, Iria watches discretely Dante moving towards the arcade cabinets. There is a small smile on her lips as she watches, W3ndy coming into the picture then. For a few more moments she watches them, Dante commenting on how he and W3ndy have similar tastes. In regards to the wasteland wanderer thing. Iria finds herself looking away then, her gaze averted back to the table in front of her.

She’s seen this sort of thing before. Her perception of things going on around her is probably vastly different than the others.

Iria looks towards Damagi as she changes into the ‘Monkey Suit’. She finds herself grinning a little and rolls her eyes. “Veeeeery classy.” She says with a soft chuckle. Following suit (so to speak), Iria pushes herself out of the booth and draws her hand down her frame. For a moment she considers one of her fancy skins, she does love playing dress up as noted before. But she goes with what amounts to her own version of very casual wear. Perhaps changing into one of the other skins, the ones that change her look completely, would have been her way of hiding away. She chooses not that route, instead opting for something more suited for this sort of get together.

She shrugs to Damagi’s question, a look of concern drawing across her features. “Just don’t hurt anybody, please.” Once more remembering when she was tested in such a manner by Damagi. Sliding then back into the booth, she kind of leans back in the comfy seat. She motions in front of her, and a small digital pad appears. A pen also materializes. While the others relax, Iria goes to work. She starts writing, making digital notes to herself. She doesn’t really look towards the arcade cabinets as she works, her cheek resting on her hand, her elbw upon the tabletop itself.
 
Dante looked to W3ndy and grinned at the accomplishment of obtaining her name. It was a small victory but a victory none the less. Dante grinned a little at the sound of her accent coming through. It was nice. Dante spent most of his life in a metropolis setting so hearing something... rustic was an interesting change. He liked it. "Well then W3ndy_Wrekker it is truly a pleasure to make your aquantince."

Dante was a crack shot as he should be given his occupation, but he knew that it would be no fun to kill all the aliens himself so he would be sure to only take out an even spread of the foes. Dante wasn't playing for points. He was playing for the company he had.

He did take notice of his partners stance one hand on her hip as she fired. It looked artificial to Dante. Perhaps she felt nervous in the real world, like so many that come here. Dante spoke in a low volume so only W3ndy would hear him. "The way you have your hand... You don't need to be trying so hard. You shouldn't worry about how people see you here. Here you can be who you truly want to be. All you have to do is let go of who you are out there and become who you want to be in here. Then people will see who you really are and be impressed, and if they can't see it well... fuck'em."

Dante's stance was relaxed with his right foot forward while firing the gun in his right hand. He had the look of someone who was truly confident. Even if it was only in the character he chose to play on the oasis. He wasnt sure if his real self could do what he just did. Dante would finish killing the last of the aliens on the level and took the moment to look at W3ndy and grin. "By the way I like your accent. It's cute."

Dante knew that this bit of flirting and flattery might not help W3ndy at the moment, but this was who he wanted to be. Someone who could speak their mind in a charming way without scaring people off with all that he saw in people's mannerisms. "So W3ndy I have to ask. What is it that draws you to the Oasis?"

@Not_Amy
 
“And yours, mine.” W3ndy replies and resumes shooting at the screen. That time she was careful to hide her accent, stamp out the drawl as it were. She keeps looking aside at him in the meantime. There are a lot of attractive human(or humanoid) avatars. Enough that you can stop seeing them as attractive as they become normal. So you start to look for other things that makes someone attractive. Like how confidently they hold themselves, their humor, most everything else which constitutes a person.

Or in Dante's case, also how they dispense advice. W3ndy doesn't feel admonished at all hearing Dante talk about her current stance and how she shouldn't worry about how others see her. It doesn't stop her from conciously acting contrary to how she does in the real world, but it is a nice sentiment. She does feel just a little more incentive to bring out her accent again when Dante says he thinks her accent is cute. So she puts it back as she answers his question and takes a more natural firing stance

“What brings me here? Hmm.” W3ndy shoots a couple aliens as she considers how honestly to answer him. In her experience you can't be too honest. “What brings most people here. Some fame, some money, go to amazing places without stepping out of your dinky little dorm.” She smiles a wider as an idea occurs to her. Her right hand comes off the gun and she taps her temple. That triggers her avatar to change into her Bayonetta skin. It's not the full, more expensive licensed skin for Bayonetta. It gives her the clothing, glasses, and hair but retains her avatars' soft, youthful face and blue eyes. “And the more interesting wardrobe, and you know...less shaming for wearing it because some people dress in less here.”
 
"I would test him." Damagi sighs "But Archaide is a non-combat zone. Would go over, chat him up, and sock him a good one right on that nice jawline." She puts her fist to her own jaw, laughs "But that'd be redundant. He took out 4Way, he's got something we need." Seeing Iria writing, Damagi leans over the table "Whatcha doing? Making plans? Oh oh I was thinking on a couple points." Damagi leans back in the booth and starts to go through her thoughts.

"So far we got me, Barbie, Dante, and you. A good team so far. If we were taking on like a conventional dungeon quest. Which we're not. So I was thinking for the remaining slots we need-" She puts up her fingers as she counts them up. "-two heavier hitters, one a tank for sure, and we need something like a...real hunter, tracker. You know since we'll be playing this 'Hunter and Hunted' kind of game. Dante beside, nobodie's a hunter here. Me and you least of all, cause I like my opponent in front of me, to the sides or back dodging. They get out of my sight, hide, my first instinct is to torch it all and bring them back out." Damagi sighs again, rubs her temples "Buuut none of the applicants so far are hunters. You'd think with that Monster Hunter world and others, there'd be a lot more, but I guess they're sticking to their worlds." She leaves her thoughts there, open for Iria to build on any way she can.
 
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Iria’s brows furrow a little, though in the back of her mind she’s glad of the restriction Damagi brings up. “ooooh right, PvE only.” Or so she assumes. She nods in agreement, looking up towards Damagi, her eyes only lifting towards her. “He’s gonna be good for our group, I know it.” Yes he took down 4Way, but she knows he can offer more than muscle.

With the switch, Iria’s attention is drawn towards W3ndy. Now seeing her as Bayonetta. She sighs heavily in the back of her mind. No matter how many players say her ‘base’ skin is pretty, she always always feels like she’s the ugliest one in the room. She knows she’s not as attractive as Damagi, and she knows she’s not as attractive as W3ndy. Yes, she has a sever self esteem issue. To the point she really does hate herself most days. But at least Dante seems to be getting comfortable here. At least it seems he and W3ndy have become friends. So she’s happy for them.

Damagi leans over her shoulder, and she immediately leans forward, her arms covering her notepad. She gives Damagi the stinkeye in warning. She hates when people try to see what she’s working on while she’s working on it. “Hey” she utters softly. Iria rattles off the members of the team, and as soon as she says ‘Barbie’ Iria speaks up in a quick tone. “W3ndy” correcting her midsentence. Iria sits back in the booth and huffs softly as Damagi makes her point. “Huh… yeah I guess I’m in a cenventional dungeon frame of mind..” Her right hand slowly crosses to her left arm, and she scratches herself quite a few times along her forearm as she frowns. “That was really dumb… you were relying on me ta come up with something and I can’t even get it straight.” She shakes her head quickly, and she glances towards Dante and W3ndy. “Maybe we see if they know anybody? Dante’s gotta have some good contacts, right?” She looks back towards Damagi as she speaks once more. “Artemis can do tracking.. but he’s not very intuitive. I don’t think we could rely wholly on him. How about…” she now taps the tabletop as she continues “We give it a little more time. See who else reaches out to ya. We got a damage dealer” she motions to Damage “a combat medic who can also do damage.. and W3ndy could ideally do damage and support stuff. Like the traps thingy.. and I guess I’m only good for healing. So yeah a good tank.. or a main tank and off-tank. That would be good.” She shakes her head once more, smiling apologetically “Sorry, got sidetracked. We wait for a lil bit for more responses, and see if we get lucky with a hunter. If not.. we see if Dante or W3ndy know anyone.” She emphasizes W3ndy’s actual name, hoping tos ubconsciously trick Damagi into not calling her Barbie anymore. “And if worse comes to worse.. I’ll head to the Monster Hunter sector and hit up the hunter’s guild, see if anyone wants in. Ooooooor the.. well and/or Horizon Zero Dawn sector. That’s usually packed with good hunters, if I remember right it has a huntin guild too. But let’s see what we got to work with first…” Iria might not be the most confident of people, or the most outgoing. She may not ever be the ‘belle of the ball’. She may even hate herself and the skin she’s in some days (both in the OASIS and in real life), but there’s one thing you can’t deny..she does have a little knowledge of a lot of things. When one tries to live life wholly in the OASIS, you get to know things about it and its worlds..
 
Dante was unaware of Damagi's plan to test him and how it was foiled by the setting of the planet. If it had happened Dante of overreacted in his response. There were plenty of people that wanted him dead. He may of not pulled any punches.

Dante would listen to W3ndy's answer as to why she came to the oasis. It was very much similar to Dante's reason. "Ahh I see. I am glad that I am not the only one here on a Ramen Diet blowing off an assignment from snooty professors in tweed jackets."

Dante was sort of telling the truth here. He was attending a place of higher education in his free time, but his accommodations were not as modest as the ones described by W3ndy. Though discussing more details of the real world was not the best oasis ediquite. That was usually reserved for when you know the person better. Though Dante had a good feeling about W3ndy.

Dante saw what W3ndy changed into and he actually would miss a couple of aliens for the first time. The player behind Dante really liked Bayonetta. She was in his top fifteen female protagonists of all time. Dante tried not to sneak glances as he continued to play the game. He was really hoping that the sensors in his full body gear didn't pick up the light blush of arousal he experienced.

"Well you do have a point there. The best part of the oasis is how free you can be. Though I don't think people would shame you. They should know...you don't fuck with a witch."

Dante hoped his reference would be caught by W3ndy.
"Well Miss Wrekker. If your ability to kill 2D aliens indicates your ability to kill 3D ones then I would be happy to fight with you side by side. You can trust that I've got your back, and afterwards we can gloat about how we were the first to beat a Predator. Perhaps at the Distracted Globe sometime."

Dante finishes the level by killing the last of the aliens and gives W3ndy a confident grin. He wasnt confident cause he thought he was smooth, but more in that he felt right about this new team. He thought that he can for once work along side people again.
 
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"Oh I don't blow off assignments. I'm a good girl. Do all my homework on Friday so I'm free to party all weekend." W3ndy replies, wondering if Dante would catch she'd just paraphrased a quote from that old movie Wayne's World 2. So many in the OASIS were so focused on 80's culture, that references to movies even the next decade over were often missed. At the same time W3ndy is grateful, as she often is, that she doesn't have a full haptic suit. Otherwise her avatar would have a full red face and be fidgeting to match her real body. As it is all Dante would see is W3ndy biting her bottom lip as she tries to keep her composure while he piles on more flattery, and tops it off with....a veiled offer for a date? That causes her to also miss a couple aliens who deal her some damage. It's swiftly avenged though.

"You offering to take me to the Distracted Globe? Well don't mind if I take ya up on that." W3ndy winks at Dante "So long as you understand in my neck of the woods when a fella offers to take a gal somewhere, he pays up." She giggles, and for once in a long time actually starts to feel nice letting her accent spill out.
 
Herak of Olympus

Finally at his home base, Herak scans through some adventurers needed advertisements. While he knows he could not have killed the alien predatore by himself, he feels cpmfortable enough taking the lions share of the credit.

He finds an add that intrigued him. He answers the add quite simply. A picture of him with the helmet momento and a copy of the certificate he got for killing it. Like a video add, he announces who he is, avatar name and his basic adventure career history.

He was not religiously hunting for things of note like a lot of the crazies were. That being said, he behaved like a sight seeing tourist in game. He did feel there were things to be found and lessons to be learned.

@Ms.Ezra @Camleen
 
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The avatar known as Jerick-O is a Gargoyle of the kind imagined in the much-beloved Disney series. Meaning when the player who controls the avatar is logged off, the avatar turns to stone instead of digitizing into nothing like other avatars of The OASIS. This makes the Gargoyle vulnerable to destruction, in keeping with the lore of the show.

When his player has to tend to real world needs, Jerick-O travels back to The Disneyverse to find a suitable perch to sit while that business is dealt with.

On this occasion Jerick-O is perched on a ledge of Notre Dame Cathedral. Not the famous front, no that would make him too obvious. He is crouched at the top and back of the historic church with wings and arms out, claws and fangs bared. The 'statue' overlooks countless avatars milling about in the street below.

In the real world Jerick-O's player puts on his visor and says his passcode aloud to log in to The OASIS.

"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,"

After the words 'Ready Player One' flash before his eyes, the player re-enters his avatar. Stone cracks, falls revealing light blue skin, deep blood red hair, and eyes that glow white. He rises to his full height of seven feet, throws off the stone from his body with a roar and mighty flap of his wings. Below him on the ground said stone fragments are showered upon a couple on a date, ruining the mood somewhat.

Jerick-O looks out over Paris with hands on his hips. There are a few avatars about, and some not occupied with something else in their UI look up at him. He steps back from the ledge and opens his own UI. “Let's see who needs some grunt work done.” He says aloud to himself. His voice is modulated to sound deep, almost like the voice of Goliath but softer. He checks the Looking For Party postings and browses by ad title. He opens some, but the first few are looking for what he's not really qualified for. Then he comes across a very interesting prospect: A female Saiyan avatar looking for some partners for her early access to Yautja Prime. Jerick-O had been planning to take a crack at it about a week after release, when there was more known about the planet and the capabilities of the Yautja AI. That was what felt to be the smart move, the safe move.

Yet here was an opportunity to get in early. If and when he survives, he could make a good mint on not even the loot he might acquire, but also trading info or even being paid to guide/guard other players. It was risky. A lot riskier for someone like him, who made his living solely off this game. Then again, he thinks to himself how far playing it safe has gotten him. Still scrounging, even though he's a much more capable player now. Taking any job for any quest he can, and even those were just small oddjobs like newbs needing a bigger more experienced player to help them through a tough spot.

“Time to take more risks, get more rewards.” He says resolving to apply anyway. He activates his camer drone, the standard grey one every Avatar gets at startup he's been thinking to bling up eventually. Then he goes into his inventory and equips what he thinks his most impressive ensemble: His metal shield, his gunblade, and the armor set he'd gotten recently from a very profitable quest. It was from God of War, which he'd never played before, but it looked nice on him and that's what mattered to him.

“Showtime.” He says to his drone and it starts recording. Jerick-O stands straight, looks directly ahead into the camera holding his gunblade in his right and shield on his left. “Greetings! I'm Jerick-O, and I would best describe myself as a flying tank. I'm level 14, comfortable with this gunblade and most one-handed blades, but more so with a shield. I'm no Captain America, but I can chuck this thing with deadly accuracy and even if I lose all my shields, I can still take a good beating before I go down. I got a kind of 'highlights reel' I'll attach to this as well, so you can see me in action.” Jerick-O chuckles and twirls the gunblade. “I also got a blooper reel but that'd be only for if and when I'm on the team. Take me on your team, and I'll add our quest to that highlights reel. Ciao.” He winks and the video ends. Jerick-O sends in his application email with the two videos, and unequips his gear for now. He goes back to the ledge, and leaps off. He glides through the air, heading for the Teleporters.

The Highlights Reel has seven clips in total. Horde of goblins, a werewolf, another Gargoyle in an arena fight that looks like it was brutal in the leadup to the his final winning blow, an enormous scorpion, and the final moments of other bouts. The common denominator for a lot of the clips is another avatar either fighting alongside him, or using him as a shield from the danger going on around them.

Jerick-O
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