Virtual Lands by Tim Onstad

[Tonstad39]

The year is 2130 A.D, you are in line waiting in line for one thing: A login to a London VR parlor. Virtual reality is a common feature of both major cities and small towns the world over, used for many things ranging from visiting permanent residents of cyberspace, to video-games that let you to experience whatever you want to experience.

The line is a colorful mix of androids, cyborgs and pure humans like yourself. While there has been long term conflict between the groups in some countries, you inch in line behind your best friend Ace. Ace is a plastic robot with aluminum undercoating and dual 8K cameras, the both of you met at university in a Remedial Algebra class.

You're both seniors in college even though you personally have no idea what exactly to do with your life with a Political Science major. The walls and windows are sleek yet feature Victorian revival gilding and the line barriers have also been painted brass to fit the ornate vibe of the room. You're nearing the front of the line and the ticket booth is only two people away from you and Ace being next in line.

“Can we do this thing together?” Asks Ace excitedly
“Of course we could” you reply “But we would need to pay for two and I doubt that I have that sort of money”
“With all those credit transfers from your mother I would think you would!” Exclaimed Ace cheekily before moving up in line
you reply “She’s just been a little lax in recent years”
“Mama’s boy” stated Ace
“Shut up” you say with a laugh “You’re just jealous”
“Jealous of what?” Asked Ace coming up with a mental syntax error
“Jealous that I got to grow up with people who love and support me” you say “Your mother was an automated assembly line in the engineering armpit that is Texas!”
“OOOH” said a stranger in front of Ace “You just got fried!”
“Nobody asked you!” Exclaimed Ace as the stranger walked up to the ticket booth

You reach into your front pocket to get out your holo ring before putting it on your finger as you look in anticipation at the ticket booth. ‘Finally, an escape' you think not having done this in two years. Possibilities rattle your mind for in Virtual reality you can be anything and do potentially anything. This train of thought was interrupted by the ticket droid saying “Next”

“Oh” you say as you come up to the box office with your holo ring fitting snugly on your finger “Are you two together or separate?” Asked the droid “together” you answer “That’ll be £610 please” said the droid before you press a small button on your holo ring causing a red laser beam to emanate out the front of it. After touching a visible light sensor on the register console, the ring transferred a sizable percentage of your already meager income in a matter of femtoseconds.

“Enjoy” said the droid
“Oh, we will” said Ace happily

You and Ace go into the hallway where you find an array of VR headsets, plugs and ports that connects the player’s brain directly to the VR servers both in the parlor and beyond. People wearing the headsets would seem motionless or vacantly walking around as the AI of their helmets control their bodies while the brain is used as a controller for a virtual body.

“It’s been two years” you say in anticipation

“Indeed it has” Said Ace endearingly sitting down near a helmet at the end of the hallway just where it begins to meet another. You sit down next to your best friend as the both of you put your respective helmets on. Your vision goes from seeing a decently lit hallway to total darkness at the second you put the helmet on.

Ace would have a USB lead jut out from beneath his helmet to plug into a port in the back of its head. You, however open your eyes to a sudden white flash as nanomachines prep your brain for leaving its spinal cord. The process is relatively painless as a minute later you are greeted with the all too familiar sensation of nothing, hearing nothing and feeling nothing. You have previously heard lobby muzak and felt your clothes, but now that your plain is disconnected from the spine everything became absolutely nothing.

You haven’t died as the helmet’s AI keeps your physical blood pumping and your muscles moved every now and then so the wearer doesn’t atrophy. The helmet is also responsible for keeping the body nourished and taken care of while the user has vacated. Your experience as of now isn’t tied to a material world, now it is experiencing the virtual world. This means that nearly everything that your polygonal counterpart feels, you feel as your brain is the controller as well as the monitor, making the immersion into the virtual world is perfectly seamless.

“Welcome back, Eric” appear two feet away from your face in black helvetica font. Your avatar starts out with an exact likeness of you in real life, with Pale brown skin with hazel eyes and black hair. Your avatar is completely nude by default, you make the avatar move the way you would move in real life. You wiggle your fingers around and make a few faces to the virtual mirror and your avatar does exactly that. Each limb and appendage as the same tactibillity as it would have on your physical body.

After you have gotten acclimated to your digital body, the welcome text floats away from you vanishing in the mirror. “I remember this” you say expecting to be player two, like last time. Different text now appeared behind you backwards “customize yourself and your reality, Player one” in the mirror it would seem easy to read as you look at the mirror wondering just what sort of reality to lock your friend into. “Intergalactic Exploration” you say tapping the mirror revealing a number of alternate models before you type in ‘Dragon’

The keyboard would vanish as your genitals turned into a cloaca and your hands and toes sprouted claws. Your body would become armored and scaley as your neck extended outwards. Your face became a beastly muzzle full of razor sharp teeth. You’d grow in size as the mirror would grow with you. Two spikey horns came out of your head and you let out a great, beastly roar as your batlike wongs finish forming.

 

[Tonstad39]

You soon exhale Fire as well as a large pillar of smoke as you admire your red scaley form with your yellow eye slits. An onscreen promt would pop up saying ‘Eric, what would you like to make player two, Ace into’ You soon try to type, but your great paws aren’t bearly dexterous enough. You say “Make him his usual avatar” in a deep rolling voice with your English cockney peaking through the growl “I rather not Humiliate him.”

The mirror vanished and the sky turned black with red twinkles. A gas giant loads in soon afterword with red and beige clouds. You feel the texture of a rocky moon under your paws as you look up at other moons that appear pixelated at first, but soon become fully rendered in a matter of minutes. You lie down on your moon with rocks feeling like nothing until hunger pains kick in as if your dragon avatar is your real body.

“Must be time for their party” you mutter noticing the sensation as you get up and take a running start on the moon’s lackluster gravity before you extend your wings and fly far above the lunar surface. You soon see a Spaceship flying off in the distance in the distance and through one of its windows, you see an anime style schoolgirl “Ahh, that must be Ace” you say before roaring at it while it prepares for landing.

You are a boss battle waiting to happen, while the party of Avatars does Military drills with Birdlike NPCs as part of their story mode. The spaceship soon crashlands as it shakes up and down landing frontfirst into the lunar surface.

You fly over there only to freeze in midair as a cutscene plays out inside. You can hear all the dialog from inside as the game puts you back a hundred metwrs and a giant health bar appears over your head.

“Men!” said the Pengian corpral “We’ve got a code two-one-two, get your weapons and kill that motherfucker! We need supplies to gather so we can breathe, do you understand!?”

“But sir” complained NPC what if we just lead it away “How about we get rid of our bases in the colonies, Now move and I don’t even want to see your beak around here! Understand!”

“Yes sir” sighed the NPC “Good said the General, now get in positions!” The cutscene ended as the game forces you back several meters so the players could see you land in front of their windows. “Who dares land on my moon!” you groan as a slough of custom avatars empty out of the ship in their suits with phasers and other weapons in hand.

You start off the fight by exhaling fire onto the players, giving each model severe burns in the process as a grey alien avatar swears at you in Russian. You see all their health bars go down due to the burns before you feel a pricking from a player’s phaser. You feel the same hunger you felt when everything was rendering, so you rear your head and whack most of the players in the process with your great girth. Your tail also knocked over the space capsule, you fear opening your mouth since that might be the weakspot as you feel two players grabbing onto your body near your wings.

You exhale more fire at the players as a wave of exhaustion overrids you for a player attempted to Jab you in the hind leg with a painkiller syringe.You draw your wings open before fimly hitting the both of them with your left wing. Next, you Fly well over a twenty meters in the air while you have over 200/370 hp remaining and you might be in an injured daze, but it’s better than getting defeated. Players still fire at you as you proclaim “I will kill every last one of you if you ruin my moon!” playing off the game’s story.

You keep ascending at a steep angle going higher and higher until all the shots resembled rays of light. You feel your tail getting tugged tighter and tighter so at the expense of crashing down onto the lunar surface, you whip your tail around, flinging the players off and they soon crashed onto the soil below with a great ‘boom’ as their oxygens burst open. An exp. bar blocks your vision before it fills up and empties, it vanished out of sight as san serif text blocked the lower portion of your sight reading ‘Congratulations D@rksl@de, you are now lavel 35!’

 

[Tonstad39]

You groaned at the sight of your old username ‘Did I really have to be so edgy then’ you wonder as the level up text went away before lasers shoot at you and graze your wings, with som creating large holes through your wings. You soon end up nosediving into a nearby soil clreating a large crater of rock and soot. Your hp drops to 120 as you caugh out ash and smoke. You extend your neck up to the ship as a cutscene played out.

“Halt” boomed the general holding up his right flipper “We’ve only recently charted this territory and we need to know more about the nobility of this system”

“General!” said the npc “He already killed two soldiers, don’t you think we ought to put him out of his misery?”

“Well” replied the general “Let’s fix the ship and retreat, none of the troops have proper training.” He looked out towards the soldiers and commanded “Let’s repair the ship and retreat, we need more training before we take on giant extraterrestrials”

The cutscene ended as the players all ran into to the ship’s still functional airlock. You use your heat vision to vaguely see through the capsule where all 10players are inside duscussing strategies. You are wounded and exhausted as you wonder what to to next. You crawl off the pain looking down upon the crashes ship “I’ll just leave them be” you mutter before flying away and leaving them to repair the ship. You continue to flap your wings for they still have gaping holes jutting through them. You severly need healing, but you carry on otherwise.

 

[Tonstad39]

The scenery is nothing, but black sky, grey luner surface and a red sun in the sky. You wonder if you’ll despawn from the game and end up back in the VR lobby when you see a large flock of dragon npcs inside of a cave, causing you to land. You are exhausted, wounded and starving as you look at your surroundings as you begin to feel lightheaded until you attempt to forage for food. You get to the Dragon NPCs who upon you crawling in the cave start talking to you.

“Governer!” said the npc “What are you going to do about these intruders!”

“Just let them into the system.” you say before the game’s dialog speaks through your model “They’re not working with the Quldiks or anything, they’re of a people that I hardly recognize.”
“We elected you govorner to protect this noble solar system!” complained another NPC
“Whatever!” you say “I’m hungry and tired, let’s go under for Salkis!”

And just like that, all the dragons follow you down through the cave comprised of ash colored dirt as it descended well over a couple hundred meters to an underwater lake. “We also noticed holes in your wings, they can’t be all that passive!” exclaimed an npc.

“Their generals called the whole thing off” you say “It’s nothing to worry about now”

“But what if they reach our homeworld?” asked another NPC “What would the president think about it!”

“There’s millions on the homeworld, they’d be wholeheartedly outnumbered!” you said “I was elected governor of this Yonkun moon to serve their excellency, we’re about seven planets away feom the homeworld anyways and there are few other countries that are out this far in the solar system!”

“Until now at least!” Bickered the npc “Now, spaceships take ages to repair, but we should at least see if there’s more where that came from. Lord knows how powerful these people are.”

“But where are they comming from?” Said the npc

Well, they could’ve come from an astroid base or another astoid, but let’s go to the Capitol and see if there’s any Axion signatures” you reply motioning the others to follow you out of the cave. You and your elite team of scientists eventually get to the surface where you fly away from the cave with all of the others flying behind you. After about ten minutes of flying, your model and everything else froze in place as an inaudible cutscene was activated hundreds of kilometers away.

Every sensation has stopped, from the breezy wind flying past you right down to the feeling of a heartbeat. everything in the game stopped for a good couple of minutes before every sensation swiftly returned like a slap to the face. There were large spaces of empty surface area stretching out for seemingly forever untill you see clustered areas of dragon villaiges and small towns.

You don’t hear any sound from below as it would lag the game otherwise. You eventually get to Yondel-F, the sixth lunar capitol in Yondel’s orbit. It’s a booming metropolis with houses and skyscrapers alike as you land near a humbly made capitol building with your scientists landing behind. You soon descend a staircase leading into the ground careful your tail doesn’t smack them in the face, where a warp module had been set up. “Analize any foreign axion signiture from the last two hours”

“Whatever you say, Governer” replied the NPC as you look into the water spotting the heat signitures of the Salki, whitch is a crab the size of a small car that scuttles along the lake deep within the lunar sand.

“Would you mind catching them for me, i need healing” you say

“Of course governer” replied the NPC’s we’ll take care of it for you” All the npcs save for one flew off over the lake. The remaining NPC stayed behind to heal you as she got out some phoenix ashes from her large, obsidian box that she grabbed with her mouth.

She dumped the ashes on both of your wings and almost like magic, the holes closed up leaving behind unscathed batwings. she soon set the box back down as your hp went up by 50. “Great job, Gerdin” you say making up a name “My pleasure governer” Some bubbles would appear in the water as the dragons dove down into the underground depths where they’d remain for a few minutes. They’d come back with three Salakis as two of them are carrying each side with their maw. They body slammed on the shells once the salakis had substantially suffocated.

You eat the claw meat as well as the midsection as you now have a full bar with 370 hitpoints. “Now we need to see what these aliens are all about!” said an npc who was done with Dinner

“No” you state “They’re not worth it, just some imperial force full of n00bs”

“But what if they reach our homeworld?” asked another NPC “What would the president think about it!”

“There’s millions on the homeworld, they’d be wholeheartedly outnumbered!” you said “I was elected governor of this Yonkun moon to serve their excellency, we’re about seven planets away feom the homeworld anyways and there are few other countries that are out this far in the solar system!”
“Until now at least!” Bickered the npc “Now, spaceships take ages to repair, but we should at least see if there’s more where that came from. Lord knows how powerful these people are.”

“But where are they comming from?” Said the npc

“Well, they could’ve come from an astroid base or another astoid, but let’s go to the Capitol and see if there’s any Axion signatures” you reply motioning the others to follow you out of the cave. You and your elite team of scientists eventually get to the surface where you fly away from the cave with all of the others flying behind you. After about ten minutes of flying, your model and everything else froze in place as an inaudible cutscene was activated hundreds of kilometers away.

Every sensation has stopped, from the breezy wind flying past you right down to the feeling of a heartbeat. everything in the game stopped for a good couple of minutes before every sensation swiftly returned like a slap to the face. There were large spaces of empty surface area stretching out for seemingly forever untill you see clustered areas of dragon villaiges and small towns.

You don’t hear any sound from below as it would lag the game otherwise. You eventually get to Yondel-F, the sixth lunar capitol in Yondel’s orbit. It’s a booming metropolis with houses and skyscrapers alike as you land near a humbly made capitol building with your scientists landing behind. You soon descend a staircase leading into the ground careful your tail doesn’t smack them in the face, where a warp module had been set up. “Analize any foreing axion signiture from the last two hours”

Yes sir” they said laying down and gazing at their screen modules. Your character’s role in the game sinks into you hitting you like a ton of bricks. ‘if I’m the governer, am I going to worry about assasination attempts?’ you wonder trying to keep your head held high.

“Sir!” said an NPC “There was a QuWarp jump about 1.2 au’s from here!

“And did it come from anywhere in particular?” you ask
“Yes, sir” replied the npc “all axion signitures lead back to an eliptical galaxy 15 parsecs away”

“Well that’s just gr-“ you said interrupted by the tones of a panal phone whitch had been mounted onto a labratory wall. It’s OLED screen read ‘Prasident Felwyn’ so you crawl up to the phone and answer it with the tip of your muzzle.

The game did the dialog for you as your character had a completely different accent to your own “Govorner Selysiff of the F moon of Yondel speaking" you say as the game would speak for you for the rest of the cutscene.

“Ahh yes” said the president “I would like to speak with you about declairing a state of national emergency”

“You’re excelency! what has happened on the homeworld?” you asked

“Hanamia has invaded Culdina with an army of remote control animals!” answered Felwyn

“And have you spoken with the other governers, your excelency?” you ask

“I’ve alerted those closest to the homeworld, but you should be safe where you are.” said the President

“I’ll call up the regiment and send them there!” you reply as the scientists gawk at you for they can hear the call as well. You hang up before the cutscene ended and you could talk as yourself again “Call the commander for the 15th Yonkun” you say as your English dialect swiftly returned as all the scientists stopped what they were doing and crawled over to you and looked over your wings. A dial tone can be heard for a few seconds before a voice on the other end said “Sir, what did you call me about?”

“President Feldwyn has declaired a state of national emergency, Hanamania has invaded Honwiff or whatever our country is supposed to be called. Send the troops to warp pads and have them fight!” you say as the npc on the other end replied “I will send my front line there on the double!”

Now that’s what I want to hear” you say as the general hung up. You growl to yourself saying “I didn’t sign up for this”

“Well sir, it could be worse” consoled an NPC putting their paw over your own “But, you have to put on a brave face for the camera.”

“And i’m sure you have other ideas!” you exclaim tempted to quit the game

“We’re only doing our job sir” said the NPC “Now let’s go and call a press conference, alright”

You sigh and groan as the npc took his paw off “Well, I guess it’s alright.” You soon walk up a few stairs to find yourself in the ornately crafted capitol with marble floors and portaits of all the previous presidents as you bring up the game’s menu, whitch block the lower third of your vision. You click ‘info’ before another drop down menu came up and you checked off ‘location.’ Another message would appear reading ‘Moon F, under Felnivan jusistiction’ “Ahh, felniva” you mutter as you crawl past a stature and toward your governer’s office.

There was a large desk for your secretaries, where they had been working. “Sir” said the secretary “I’ve called a press conference, so you can talk to your people”

“Great” you said with a fake smile before crawling back out “Now pray tell, where is the conference”

“It’s in the press room on level one” she said as you walked out onto the main hallway towards a room simply labeled ‘briefing’ Inside, the journalists were setting up their camaras, tripods and microphones while you get up on ste stage and stand proud and in charge. Your heart is racing as you remain unsure about how to address the nation, but soon enough all the record lights went on as you wait for the journalists to ask a question in akward silence “W-well, President Felwyn has declaired a state of national emergency because Hanamania has invaded Felnivan soil and I will do everything in our power so that this proud nation will prevail!”

“Have the felnivans declaired war?” asked a journalist

“I can’t say for certain, but central intelligence has made an assessment of the Hanemanian army and they have a cultlike devotion to their leader” you answer as waves of flashing white light cane from their cameras “This is purely antithetical to Felnivian values of Democracy and the rule of law!”

“Does this mean that we’ll be expecting martial law anytime soon” asked a journalist

“of course not” you reply “But I will do everything in my power to support our comorades fighting on the frontlines”

“Will congress be overridden so you could achieve your goals” asked another journalist

“Of course not!” you reply “We’re seven planets away from that, we should be safe here so the legislative process will still continue like normal. I will insure that life goes on as it always does because there shouldn’t be any reason for us to live in fear. We have always been the apex of the food chain, when something happens, we don't run away and hide, we fight to protect our borders and our sovereignty! Thank you very much”

You bow your head and crawl out the other side before making down the hall back into the office where personal messages appeared on your screen once you log in.
You mostly ignore these as you focus your attention on various bills passed by congress ranging from Orbital traffic regulation to Single payer healthcare. You keep reading and working for the next hour untill you get a notification reading ‘Danger foreign ships in orbit.’

“Well that’s just great” you say sarcastically “Call Waterglen” you say as the hologram of a dragon spy appeared on the opposite side of the room “I just got an automated notification about another ship in your midst” you say.

“Alright” you say ”and good luck out there.” The spy hung up and you can comfortably get back to work. You keep working for a couple more hours before you get up and crawl out of he office feeling hungry and exhausted, so you go outside to guess where your character’s house as bodyguards virtually surround you “Thanks guys for doing this, It’s like this system has gone to hell lately”

“I understand said the body guard, now let’s just go home” said the guards as you fly up in search of a large home on a small moon as its your best guess of where your home is so you fly down with your guards to an elaborate manor among a few other manors untill the game freezes again as a cuscebe was triggered hundreds of thousands of miles away around a different planet. You bring up your menu with various options as a virtual piece of paper shows up before your still muzzle that read 4320 Bloodbourne ave.