Futuristic Equinox Online || In-Character

[StoneWolf18]

Equinox Online

IC || OOC || CS || Lore​

It was the next biggest thing, something everyone had been anticipating since it was revealed at E3 in 2017. Equinox Online was the very first MMO to not only fully embrace virtual reality, but take it a set further and take the player’s consciousness and place it into the game. Many opposing companies scoffed at this, saying it couldn’t be done. But truth be told, they were simply jealous that they hadn’t been developing this technology first.

Years later when 2025 finally rolled around, people were lining up outside store fronts to get the device needed to make all of this happen. A neck-brace that wound around the base of the player’s skull and head, receiving neurological signals from around their brain. It had a battery that would last around 24 hours before needing a charge, although most kept the cord plugged in for extended play.

Millions of players surged the servers from all over the world, it being a glorious experience. Some hardly able to believe they were truly able to walk in the world of Equinox as one of the Caeles, warriors imbued with the power of light or dark to defeat the approaching alien armies.

The game was fantastic, people growing in fame and fortune as they played. Things seemed perfect, until they weren’t. A small party of lower level players had found a glitch that made it so they could keep a boss at low health and “kill” it to farm experience and rewards. The anti-cheat AI was quick to ban their accounts and try to remedy the problem, but in the process accidentally triggering some files the developers had forgotten to remove. For a few moments, everyone’s HUDs went dark and they were unable to move as if having been disconnected from the server themselves, until slowly becoming aware in game once more with a shocking realization.

They, themselves, were in the game with their avatar’s body lying still beside them.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Blake 'Bane' IrinBlake was sat within her room, arms crossed as she leaned on the wall sat upon her bed. The developers were kind enough to allow access to television channels through a holographic interface on the empty wall. The scowl she wore was caused by the current news report, it telling of hospitals that were taking the money sent to them to keep the Equinox Online players they housed alive, when in reality they killed the players long ago but were still accepting the cash flow. While it was angering the woman, it was also a bit frightening in a way. She had already asked about what hospital she was currently in, it being the largest hospital that had agreed to accept the players and because they had a reputation to uphold, it was unlikely they would try anything like that… hopefully anyway.

With a huff she would stand and shut the device off, not wanting to hear any more of it. Even after three years their situation was still a hot topic, whether it be lawsuits aimed at the developers, wondering if pulling the plug on someone would be considered murder, and anything else they could come up with. Blake even recalled when someone was ‘claiming’ to have gotten out of the game but they just wanted the publicity an didn’t even own the console required to play.

Soon, however, what sounded like an announcement sounded out throughout the building, asking all available and registered celestial guard caeli pilots to gather in the briefing hall. Seeing as there wasn’t much else she could be doing with the current restriction on her caeles usage, she would move out of her room and start down the hall towards the specified location.

The woman had gotten about halfway there when a small throbbing began in the back of her skull. At first, she tried to ignore it, knowing what it was. But soon it grew, becoming overwhelming enough to cause her to grab onto the nearby wall, closing her eyes and waiting for the awful migraine to pass. “You know…” A masculine voice spoke up beside her. “This wouldn’t happen if you would listen to the time limit we have set in place.” Opening her eyes somewhat, she would see a tall dark-skinned man standing not too far away, offering her a small cloth. With a grunt Blake would accept it, pressing it beneath her nose to try and halt the current blood flow.

This was Frederick Demas, or rather known in-game as Colonel Trenton Zuan. He was assigned to the more drastic cases of ‘caeles abuse’ which she was included under.

“I’m aware of that.” She grumbled. “But if it’s been three years since we got stuck in here, it might not be long before we’re pulled out.” Frederick would sigh, gesturing for her to follow him while he began to speak. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t want to leave, but Blake, it wouldn’t hurt to rest at least a day or so before going back in.” Normally she would’ve been more displeased with the use of her real name, as with the slowly growing culture within the game, it was seen almost as impolite as referring to one of the characters by their real name. But knowing who it was she was talking to, it didn’t phase her, Blake not responding as they made their way to the briefing hall.

Lewisia atomic One Mean Ghost SentinelSevn

 

[SentinelSevn]

"Damn this freaking toy; couldn't solve it out there and you'd think I'd be able to solve it now!", exclaimed Francis, who was struggling with a small cube in his hands; twisting and turning before tossing the toy beside him where he was lying on his bed. The toy was one of the many cosmetic items implemented for the players' personal space in the game, resembling a Rubix cube but with a futuristic twist that changed the base colors to neon lights of various shades. It was quite the eyesore, but Francis had little to keep him occupied when him and the other players weren't out on another mission. It wasn't very long before he picked it back up and began toying with it again, engrossing himself into something that was simply time consuming.

In the background, he had a projector displaying the current real-world television across the entirety of his wall. There was no real use for the massive projection aside from Francis not wanting to waste any wall space, a poor excuse for his lack of decorative creativity. While initially displaying the news of the recent hospital money bust, he began flipping through the channels only to find that the last few had consistently been about the future of fully immersive virtual reality. He let out a heavy audible sigh, even tilting his head back to express his annoyance before settling on a channel with one gentleman who was expressing his theory for removing the players from the game. It wasn't something that Francis hadn't heard before, but it was a lot more interesting to him than some money bust or some radical expressing their personal opinion on virtual games.

To his surprise, the television suddenly cut to mute before a resounding chime of an incoming announcement echoed down the building's halls and into his room. He stopped fidgeting with the 3x3 cube in his hand, turning his gaze upward towards the ceiling as if it were personally speaking to him. It had asked for all the guards to gather in the briefing hall, which Francis immediately assumed meant that there was another mission that had turned up.

Excitement welled up in his chest, and he couldn't help but let a smirk flash on his face. "Finally, time to get back in the Caeles.", he said before allowing the toy to drop from his hands and roll onto the bed. He threw his feet over the side of the bed, and stood up quickly to reveal himself to already be half-dressed to leave. He sported the bottom half of a plain black jumpsuit, with a white t-shirt fitting snug over his figure. Francis grabbed the top matching half of the jumpsuit he was already wearing, and threw it over himself before zipping it a few inches below his neck. A hairband on his bedside table was the next item to be grabbed, which he used his pull his messy shoulder-length hair back into a ponytail the hung around the middle of the back of his head. He let a few strands of the hair droop and hang in front of his face, giving the adult male an almost boyish rock-band look. It was messy and unkempt, but being with the same players for three years gave him freedom of how and who he was. If they didn't know him after three years, they didn't know him at all.

Francis pressed a button on a remote that was resting atop the table, immediately shutting off the television that was displayed on his wall, and began to look around his room for anything else that he needed to adjust before leaving. He began to bite at his lips as he gnawed on the idea that he was forgetting something, before leaving it as nonsense and making his way out the door. As he opened the door to leave, he began to step out before stopping and peeking his head into his room once again trying to remember if whatever he was forgetting would come back to him. There was a moment of silence, then the door came closed as he shrugged the idea away and headed straight to the briefing hall as announced.

(Hey Stone, let me know if I'm crossing the line with anything. I hope nothing broke anything you had in mind like the useless toy item, or if anything I did in the post bothers you. Just let me know and I'll get to changing it asap. It was the first post aside from yours haha, so I really didn't have anything to base it off of. And I'm not so hot at coding anything so its real plain and simple >.>)

NAME:
Francis "France" Wagner
USERNAME:
TheD1vineKing; aka Div
LOCATION:
Personal Space - Briefing Room

COMBAT ROLE:
- Tank
CAELES STYLE:
- Oberon
PRIMARY:
- Soma Prime
SECONDARY:
- Atomos
MELEE:
- Galatine Prime
POLARITY: Light


TAGS:
None

 

[One Mean Ghost]

Dante

Player Information

Player Name:: Dante de la Cruz

Username:: MetaCypher

Location:: Briefing Room

Role:: DPS

Caeles:: Loki, Incubus Skin

Weapons::

Tags:: NONE

Another night spent sedated.

Every since the incident, that had been the norm for him. Every morning, he woke up with no memory of whatever dreams he may have had the night before. A welcome side effect to the medication he took in game and had administered in real life. As one of the few who survived outside of a social hub when the Incident occurred, Dante had been forced to witness the gruesome deaths of his closest friends. That trauma had, not so surprisingly, caused him to be plagued with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

Prior to being formerly diagnosed, he had been a danger to everyone around him. Should anyone around him directly or indirectly mention the Incident, it would trigger powerful flashbacks, to the point he'd violently attack what he thought was the enemy that had killed his friends. Thankfully, his diagnosis came swiftly after the first such outburst, and no one was seriously injured. The process of finding the right medication, however, took a great deal of time, and had been closely monitored to see how the medication worked. It took almost two months of trial and error, but doctors in the real world finally found the right combination of medications to relieve him of the flashbacks, nightmares, and overall anxiety that had haunted him.

Even still, the road to recovery was far from over.

At least for now, all he has to do to prevent symptoms from reappearing is to take a pill in game that signaled physicians in the real world to administer the medication at regular intervals. Although he still avoids talking about the Incident whenever possible, he at least won't try and knock the lights out of the nearest person anymore when it comes up.

As he awoke at this odd hour, he caught notice of the alert sent to all active Caeli pilots. He chuckled to himself as he scratched his chin. "Wonder what they want to gather us all up for this time..." He murmured thoughtfully to himself. Dante shrugged before dressing himself to head out. After all, sitting around wondering what the notice was for would solve nothing.
Once he was decent, he set out from his room to the briefing hall, covering his mouth to stifle a yawn as he entered and took a seat near the back.

 

[Vampunk]

Lying on the bed in his modest chambers, Richard pensively let his thumb brush over the picture of his fiancee he always kept close. The photograph's edges were worn out from being pulled out of his pocket countless times as it reminded him that somewhere outside of the world of Equinox he had a family waiting for him, or rather that was what he still believed in.

For all he knew they could have moved on with their lives and come to terms with him being gone. He could only imagine what it would feel like having a loved one locked into some game with no way to contact them.
Letting go of a sigh, he'd get up from his bed as his boots found the metal floor, reminding him of the fact that for the time being he was still stuck in this strange space.

And for better or worse, he was unable to do anything against his current condition.
Putting the picture back into his pocket, Richard would retrieve his leather jacket from his bedside, slipping into the sturdy piece of clothing as he heeded the call summoning him to the briefing room.

The past three years he had spent in another's skin, his Caeles, the marvelous device that allowed him and the others of his ilk to walk hazardous paths and achieve inhuman feats.
And it was an experience that felt so real, was so real, that it almost made Richard forget that they were simply caught in a very sophisticated video game.

Resting his hands in his jacket's pockets, Richard would arrive in the briefing room, his hazel gaze wandering around as he'd greet the familiar faces with a warm smile.
They all shared the same fate and while not everyone seemed to take it all in stride, they had fought and would fight side by side for the foreseeable future.

"What's this all about? Not that often that all of us get summoned, huh?" Richard remarked with a raised eyebrow as he'd take a seat near the others, leaning back as his fingers would adjust his jacket's collar.
"Maybe it's about Bane once again abusing her Caeles, hmm?" The man would add with a chuckle, glancing over to the dark haired woman.
"Wouldn't be the first, nor the last time." Richard teased with a playful tone, knowing that Blake wouldn't be too unhappy about staying in Equinox's virtual reality, unlike some of the others who still had unfinished business in the "real world".
But with it becoming harder to differentiate between real and virtual worlds and them getting accustomed to a live of adventuring in the vast galaxies one would question if what they were experiencing was lesser than the live they used to know.

 

[atomic]

H U X L E R 'hux' W A S H I N G T O N
character info

TAGS Vampunk , StoneWolf18 (mentioned)
NAME huxler fletcher washington 'hux'
SCREEN NAME kleptonaught69 || klepto
AGE 27
HEIGHT 5' 7"
FRAME-CLAIM limbo
PARTY ROLE support
PRIMARY xxx
SECONDARY xxx
MELEE xxx
POLARITY dark

Huxler couldn't figure out whether the day was a 'stay in bed and sleep his problems away' kind of day, or a 'go out and play nice' sort of day. He was in his room as he usually was, though that wasn't to say he lived in his room. No, Hux hadn't been a caustic stow-away for a good solid year and a half now. He should honestly win an award or something. Get some damned recognition for being such a team player. Of course, this train of thought was simply comical and served him more in the path of tasteless humor than anything else. No, the boy was slowly growing into somebody that he hoped his elder brother could somewhat be proud of. It wasn't every day Huxler Washington was rolling around in a group of (more or less) like-minded people. He was free to share his inner most passions and feelings with other people - take full advantage of the very human concept called 'friendship'.

Yet, here he was, lying in his bed and staring at a ceiling, wondering how much he'd have to pay somebody to bring him some food and a humidifier for his 'room'. The man's room was something of a neat freak's worst nightmare. He held absolutely no value for cleanliness, and so it was stacked with things he'd found and 'picked up' along his three years in the game. He didn't even remember where half this stuff came from. It just sat in his room as inert as the man who'd brought it there. Some would say it might look like a dragon's lair as he certainly found himself grabbing shiny things over dull. There were a few random blades he would never dream of using on his nightstand, jewelry, and abstract objects he was kind of scared to touch (although he was pretty sure that the machine he'd stored away under his bed was some fancy alienesque blender). However, those who knew him would probably liken his room more akin to 'the public dump'. Because, aside from the miscellaneous clutter, he had clothes everywhere, half empty cartons of food, and empty bottles of whatever drinks he could find.

Hux rolled over on his stomach, burying a shaggy head of hair into his pillow when the announcement rolled through his room. He'd grown to both anticipate and resent the faceless man behind the announcements. But hey, he had to look at the bright side. When somebody was kind enough to tell you what to do, you didn't have to make decisions for yourself. And let's be honest, the boredom was quickly getting to Huxler Washington. It often got to him pretty quickly, always feeling the need to distract himself from.. well... himself. The man hopped onto his feet and scratched his thigh as he eyed the floor for any clothes that probably wouldn't smell. He found the white shirt he'd been looking for and slipped over a bright orange jumpsuit. He laughed at the irony of the color... Really, it suited him.

Actually getting to the room was pretty hard. He'd get distracted easily by some of the people eager to talk his ear off or humor one of his awful pick up lines. Huxler wasn't very popular here, but that didn't bother him a bit. When the man finally did reach the briefing hall, he'd made it in time to hear Lead make some offhand comment. It brought an instantly obnoxious smirk to the the klepto's lips. Taking inspiration from his childhood hero, John Bender, Huxler pulled up a chair as if arriving for detention. He immediately began to lift the front legs off the ground like an idiot. With a glance towards Lead, Hux cocked a brow and spoke in his heavy Irish accent, "What're you on about? Bane? Abusing her Caeles? Never. Besides, I'd be more worried about her abusing one of us, mate."

Over the years, he liked to think that he understood the girl better. Yet, he didn't - didn't really understand any of these people. He knew he cared about them, but wasn't it stupid to form these kinds of relationships inside of a video game they might get out of one day? He eyed the pilots in the room from his chair, biting his tongue thoughtfully until he had something to say, "In any case, I don't care what they want. Just as long I get to sleep in my own bed sometime soon." And yeah, he meant in the game. He'd long stopped verbally announcing his desire to go 'home home'. At some point, you only ended up sounding like a whiny child, and it was about time Huxler grew up.