Mage War Online (Open to all)

[Xasik]

[Katra Station | Holodeck 5]

Simulation - Mage War Online

It had been a very long day in the lab for Xasik Freeman. He loved his job, yes, but there were days when things did not go as planned. Today had seen him break multiple samples that he had been trying to carve in a specific way. They would still be useful of course, but he was bummed that his hands were a more shaky today than normal. He had been up most of the night watching over his Tholian egg. Nothing had gone wrong, but he had had a bad dream where something bad had happened and he hadn't been able to sleep since. He probably should have called it quits for the day when he realized that he was too tired to work, but he hadn't because he was stubborn. Finally when he had decided to clock out for the day he realized it was way later than he thought, but by this point he was beyond tired and probably wouldn't be able to sleep for a while yet. So he spontaneously decided that he would pick up an old hobby that he hadn't been able to do in quite some time.

Holo Sim Gaming.

Mage War Online had been the best game he had tried so far and he found that he was craving it. He had made sure that his egg was safe and at optimal environmental levels before heading out in search of an unoccupied holodeck. When he found one he wasted no time entering and getting started. He checked to make sure that the game was available before starting it up and logging in to his account.

Quartzferatu01

He smiled as the area around him transformed from the holodeck to a world of forests, lakes and mountains. He bereaved in heavily and enjoyed the ambient bird sounds of this strange and enchanting world. His avatar was a short, agile and leanly muscled elven woman dressed in medium leather armor with a black cloak for stealth. He knew it was not very original, but it worked for him and he enjoyed playing the character, but it came with downsides too. Playing a female avatar usually attracted the wrong kind of attention, and it wasn't long before the Squeakers noticed his presence in the starting area and began to mass around him. It seemed the Squeakers were out in force today. He tried his best to ignore them but when they wouldn't allow him to peacefully go about getting supplies for adventuring he finally snapped.
The constant questioning on if he was female, of if he would date them, if he would join their guilds and if he needed help was too much. He decided to be direct with them and turned off his voice modifier.
"œListen here you pack of squeaky voiced ferals, I am not a woman, I will not date any of you, I will not join your guilds and I do not need your help. Back off and let me vibe in peace."
He knew that this would not convince them to leave him alone, but he had a plan. The amount of experience, equipment and gold he would get from accepting the challenges they were about to throw at him would be worth it.
"œPVP ME OR SCARED!" Came the first challenge from the swarm of squeakers. Xasik grinned and accepted. This would be fun, although he would have to be cautious because he hadn't played in a while. The rage squeaking fueled his soul.

It took a little longer than expected but finally he accepted and won every duel sent his way. The pack of pubescent anger dispersed with cries of cheating, insults towards his mother and threats of gathering their guild members together for revenge. Xasik had to laugh, and he knew it made him sound like a griefing troll but he couldn't help it. It was fun and he had gained some neat gear and lots of gold to fund his adventures. With a skip in his step he made his way towards the merchant stalls to stock on potions, new weapons and supplies for repairs, weaving through the crowd of other players. He almost forgot to switch his voice modifier back on. He didn't want any more squeakers coming after him for now.

[Sirol]

< Katra Station / Simulation Lab >
[Holosim: Mage War Online]

One of the benefits of her laboratory was that it had sufficient holo emitters installed. Granted, it was not as spacious as a conventional holodeck, but it was hers to use, and she did not have to put up with making appointments and waiting for her turn.
With all projects for today done, the Uropygi peacefully sleeping near her, and her uniform jacket unzipped for maximum comfort and flexibility, it was time for the weekly ritual that was Holosim Gaming...

Logging into her Mage War Online account, Particle_Ghost, she quickly skimmed over her messages before she went into what mattered:

It was Tuesday, and Tuesdays were violet. Sirol days.
The days she had reserved for her streams.
Many moderators of her MWO guild maintained their streams on a weekly basis.
Sirol was one of those providing tutorials as well as information on glitches and non-invasive exploits"¦

Putting on the small silver head-ring, a small holographic eyepiece immediately activated, displaying the little feedback text from her watchers as an overlay in front of her left eye, while simultaneously converting the holosim around her into a conveniently rendered piece of 2D media to be livestreamed"¦
There were only a small handful of watchers gathered so far, but Sirol did not mind. She did not aspire to gather the largest possible number of followers. Instead she wanted to provide quality tutorials to the broad audience, and do her part of representing the "˜Shalka Shadow Claws' - her respective SWO guild for over 7 years now"¦

"œGreetings everyone, and welcome back to Tutorial Tuesday..." She began while looking through the projections of various humanoid and not-so-humanoid creatures in front of her, before eventually selecting one of them.
All in all she had twelve different characters in SWO. One for each class.
Every single character a highly specialised tool to work on very particular skills, tasks and quests"¦

"œ...This is your host Particle Ghost, and today I will show you alternative techniques, books and potions to permanently boost your XP gain.
In order to compare effectiveness I selected my bandit character. High agility build; non-magical.
He has the statistical average intelligence value of 5 and he is relatively fresh, only being Level 32, meaning you will be able to see the immediate effects as we proceed..."

She took the shape of a tall, dark blue feline creature with piercing ice blue eyes; the closest comparison being that of an anthropomorphic lion in light leather armour and covered into a long dark coat. The bandit's fur and mane were medium to dark blue, with thin silver streaks and braids catching the viewer's attention.
While the character was impressive and even pretty to look at, this had neither been Sirol's intention, nor focus.
She used to engineer her characters around class-specific skillsets, yet tended to leave appearance and sex up to the randomly generated suggestions, which she usually just accepted without a second glance.

Beginning to walk forward her grip around her staff tightened.
"œ...The first thing we might like to do is gather all available permanent intelligence boosting effects early on in the game to maximise XP gain for every kill, discovery and crafted item....
...We will start by making our way to the archives within the Cerulean Citadel where we can accept the "˜Broken Wings'-Story quest from Scribe Valleen"¦ Not only will this grant us access to her recipes, but also - Semi-hidden in her private collection - The first skill-book to permanently increase our intelligence by 1. So be sure to have at least 6 Charisma or bring enough honey whine to pass the speech check with her..."

With that she began to venture into the simulated wild that lay ahead of her...

[Xasik]

[Katra Station | Holodeck 5]

Holosim - Mage War Online

The market had changed so much in the time he had been away from the game. He was pleasantly surprised when some of the more common items he had in his inventory were selling for much higher price than he remembered, but that in turn meant that he was paying a little more for the potions and the  gear he needed. Good thing he had all the extra gold he had earned from his attackers so he barely noticed the price rise. Preparation was always the boring part of any planned journey, but it was necessary for success so it was a chore he endured because it would lead to a fun adventure afterwards.

With his supplies in order, excess junk sold off and his gear in perfect condition, Xasik opened up his social menu to see if any of his guild mates were online. To his surprise he found that the guild section of his social menu was blank. Huh, perhaps the guild has disbanded while he was unable to play? A quick search of the guild search function and he was able to locate his former guild, the Killer Khellids. Nope, they were still active. He must have been purged for being inactive for so long. Oh well, he couldn't blame them. He had been gone for a long time and they probably had assumed he wasn't coming back. What annoyed him though was that no one had reached out to see if he was ok. Oh well. He would start his own guild, with bloodwine and dabo girls! And he would name it the Obsidian Obliteration! But for that he would have to visit the Cerulean Citadel and speak to the Master of Guilds to register a new guild. It wasn't that far from his current location but he really didn't want to walk the entire way so he decided to pay the fast travel fee and zip straight to the Citadel. He landed with a thud on the stone pathway leading towards a towering blue structure reaching high enough to have clouds swirling around the top of the tower. It was an awe inspiring sight that stilled his heart every time he saw it. He could still remember the first time he had seen the tower as a freshling player. He had fought hard through the Forest of Farthorl to reach the tower and get his hands on his first set of matching gear. He had been new to gaming and had been quite proud of his ability to adapt to the strange and sensational pastime his roommate at the time had introduced him to. It was such a fond memory that he made it a point to think of it often, a taste of freedom his child self could never have imagined. For this reason alone, the Cerulean Citadel would always be one of his favourite places to visit and hang out at.
He smiled to himself as he made his way inside and wound his way through the various areas to find the Master of Guilds. He passed many players on his way but he didn't pay them much mind until someone called out to him from across the room. He grimaced. He knew that voice. It was MadMaxMalone472, someone he had had difficulties with in the past. For whatever reason, MadMax hated elves. He claimed that anyone playing the race and running a "˜shadow-magic stealth build' was a cheater with no skills. Xasik hadn't been his only target  but he had been the one to stand up to the bully. Max hadn't liked that at all and for a while he had challenged Xasik to a duel every chance he got. He had lost every time too, which only served to fuel his rage. His beefy Boulder-Orc character was no match for Xasik's lithe and speedy Moon-Elf. It also helped that Xasik had real life combat experience and could read the other's moves before he acted. Luckily there was a strict no PVP rule enforced within the Citadel so at least MadMax would not be able to try and start duels with him. But that didn't stop the verbal harassment and while he tried to ignore it, it was admittedly difficult. He really, really disliked this player and had hoped that maybe MadMax had left the game in his absence and moved on to other things. No such luck apparently.

"œGood to see you again Max," Xasik cooed in his avatar's silky voice. "œI'm surprised you're still around. Weren't you the one complaining in the area-chat about how lame this holosim is? I would have thought that maybe you'd have found something more to your tastes by now!"

"œWhat's with the voice Quartzferatu? Why don't you use your real voice instead of that female voice, or don't you want people to know that you're a man?"

Xasik rolled his eyes. He had no problem with people knowing he wasn't actually a female, but it did kind of ruin the immersion. He reached up and turned his voice modifier off. "œHappy now Max? Did you miss my voice that much? Well, soak it in buddy, because here I am!"

He heard a spluttering from the other. Clearly that was not the reaction Max had been expecting. Xasik laughed and continued on his way towards the Master of Guilds, amused by the encounter but fully expecting consequences from Max. He would probably make it a point to hunt Xasik down in the wild and try and destroy him. Bring it on, Xas thought with a grin. He may have been a little rusty but he would still win, he was certain of that.
As he turned to leave the area and continue on his way, Xasik stumbled as he nearly crashed into someone standing in the middle of the walkway.
"œOh, excuse me. I didn't see you there." he said in his normal voice as he moved to get past the other player. He realized he had forgotten to switch his voice modifier back on but he didn't really care either. Everyone in the area had heard his voice now so he would just leave it as it was until he was done in the area.

[Susan Markington]

Susan Markington put on her nervegear and entered the simulation room. She saw two people already in the room and recognized them as Xasik and Sirol. Smiling she sat in the corner of the room before delving into the game. Her gamertag was Archergal. As she entered the game and picked out her character she followed her gamertag and decided to become an archer. After spawning in she felt someone bump into her. "Watch it Quartzy, or should I say Xas." Susan said in her normal voice. She had whispered the last part so only he could hear it before giggling and winking at him.

Looking around she saw what appeared to be a town. "Cool place here. So this is what you do during your downtime when you're not sleeping or eating. Nice. Mind if I join you?" she asks as she was new to the game. If he wouldn't help her, then she would have to figure it out on her own. That was no big deal to her though, since she had played games similar to this back on Earth. "Who else plays this game? Anyone I may know?" she asked.

[Sirol]

< Katra Station / Simulation Lab >
[Holosim: Mage War Online]

Her walk to the Cerulean Citadel had been quiet and pleasantly uneventful.
In the interest of keeping her stream a bit more varied and exciting, she had decided to not fast travel, but walk the way. It was merely ten minutes, and on their way, Sirol had offered some explanations about local plant life and their individual usage for certain potions and recipes.
The Farthorl Forest was ripe with buds and blossoms tinting the air in a vivid (although holographic) purple aroma.
Only ever once she arrived at the gates, a little blip in her social menu caught her attention.
_314echovoice_ was online!
_314echovoice_ had been one of Sirol's guild members, first acquaintances she had made in this game, and together they had finished hundreds of raids, bosses and awkward meetings in social hubs.
Also did _314ecovoice_ qualify as one of the few online people Sirol could... Tolerate... For extended periods of time...
With a little smirk of her avatar she decided to ping them and invite them to her server, then spoke towards her audience again.
"œWe are almost at the Citadel, so I already apologise for the potential lag and delay. I am transmitting from the Gamma Quadrant and my station's bandwidth is limited by rank and purpose of usage...."

She proceeded further and the expected lag did occur, yet less drastic than on most other violet days.
Walking through the cluster of other players, Sirol headed straight towards the library. While it was true that they had time, she still did not waste too much of it and risk losing traction.
Only ever when she heard a familiar voice behind her she stopped; almost even startled.
Had specialist Xasik found his way into her lab and found her sitting here playing games?!

Her avatar squinted and she turned around around, only to spot a humanoid avatar, and one moon elf avatar speaking.
Their gamertags read as Archergal and"¦ Quartzferatu"¦
Quartzferatu...
Suspicious"¦
Slowly she approached the two until she stood with them; curiously folding her arms behind her back.
Judging by Archergal's comment, the player was new to the game so Sirol bid them a polite, welcoming bow.
"œIs this your first visit to the Citadel?" She asked, them, then - once again - she realised what had confused her in the first place"¦
That rocky voice"¦
Looking at Quarzferatu she gave a nod towards the elf as well.
"œGood choice of armour." She commented. (Irony, considering they were wearing the same base leather armour with only slightly different individual customisations.)