>>30463138
After class, you wander past another lecture theatre. And stop. Up on the screen is an introductory slide. The subject appears to be economics. In the background, are some pleasant pictures of scenery, and among them is a picture of a slave.

It has to be. You'd know that bland, smiling face anywhere. It's situated at rest, only its head sticking up above the ground on what looks like a rocky island. The sea and skies behind it are blue.

This is not one of the official screenshots. You know them by heart. And until now no one's managed to take any others as far as you know.

The classroom is emptying, and only a handful of students are talking to the lecturer as he packs up his things. The screen goes blank as he unplugs his tablet. You don’t have another class for an hour, and Martin and Wing are planning on getting a coffee.

>Tell your friends you’ll catch them up, duck in and ask the lecturer where he found that screenshot.
>You’re taking this too seriously. Someone, either this lecturer or someone else, has just figured out how to take screenshots, that’s all. Go get coffee.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30463166
>>Tell your friends you’ll catch them up, duck in and ask the lecturer where he found that screenshot.

>>30463166
>Tell your friends you’ll catch them up, duck in and ask the lecturer where he found that screenshot.

>>30463166
The first one with a hint of the second. We really shouldn't take this too seriously, but we are curious.

>>30463166
Sweet, Arcadian's back!

>Tell your friends you’ll catch them up, duck in and ask the lecturer where he found that screenshot.

>>30463202
>>30463226
>>30463246
"I'll be right there." You wave Martin and Wing off, although they look a bit puzzled.

You hang back and let the lecturer's actual students talk to him first. Most of them are girls and you can sort of see the appeal of an older man who's ethically and contractually obligated to both pay you attention and reject any advances. This guy's average, but you guess economics students can't be choosy.

When it's your turn you apologise for interrupting and explain that you're not actually in his class - the last thing you want anyone to think is that you're a terrible student who doesn't attend (even though you sort of are; your grades are great but you mostly glide through.)

"Um, I was walking past and I saw that screenshot on your first slide, and I was wondering if you had a source for it." You know this sounds a little odd.

He seems to think it's a little odd too, but he taps at his tablet and brings up his presentation again. "Which picture do you mean?" he asks, holding it out so you can see.

"That one, it's a screenshot from-"

He's shaking his head and looking amused. "It's a photograph."

"Are you sure?" you're not sure what else to say.

"Pretty sure; I took it. It's a small island in the Mediterranean known for its peculiar stone statues. In another lifetime I was on a dig there."

>Huh. So the game makers based some of their stuff off the real world. Wouldn't be the first time. Thank him and leave.
>Ask him for more information about this island.
>Tell him about the slaves in-game.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30463441
>>Ask him for more information about this island.

>>30463441
>Ask him for more information about this island.
Why not? The guy at least seems interesting and glad to talk about it.

>>30463441
>Ask him for more information about this island.
Some names to plug into search engines might be nice.

>>30463441
Explain why you asked him (Island used as basis for a game). Inquire after identifying information regarding the Island. We want to be able to look up any available information on it later. Suggest he look into Quest for Arcadia if he ever wants to revisit the Island without actually traveling. The realism is amazing etc.

>>30463521
>>30463478
>>30463471

"Could you tell me more about this place?" He glances at his watch. "If you have time, of course." This isn't exactly the sort of tutoring his paid for.

"Honestly, I think I'd make time if I had to. First year economic theory wears thin after a while. I've missed talking about this." The lecturer for the next class has arrived and he nods at her and leads you out of the room. "If you give me your email address I can send you some references for further reading."

"That would be great, thank you." You recite your student number while he taps away at his tablet. He's practically lit up at the chance you've given him.

He tells you the name of the island, and you stumble horribly over the syllables. It's all Greek to you.

"We don't actually know much about the people who lived there. By the time we get to Greece's golden age they'd gone. It's a pretty barren island. Most of our sources are Roman translations of Greek observations too. All they left were the statues and some ruins."

He leads you to his office, which he clearly shares with another academic, who's currently out. He waves you into a chair in front of a desk that looks efficiently cluttered, mostly with economics textbooks. You manage to catch his name, written on the door as you enter: Lawrence Green.

"I'll send you my photos too." He abandons his tablet for his computer. "If I can remember where I put them. Basically" he looks at you. "We don't know where they're from, and we don't know where they went. In the '70s some enthusiasts suggested they were the survivors of Atlantis."

He turns his monitor towards you, and you see a group of young men and women standing around a large rocky hole. There's a statue in it; only its head is above the ground.

>Ask why the statues are underground.
>Explain how the slaves work in-game.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30463837
>>Ask why the statues are underground.

>>30463837
>Ask why the statues are underground.

>>30463837
>Ask why the statues are underground.
This is getting a whole lot more intriguing.

>>30463837
>Ask why the statues are underground.
Might as well.

I'm taking this moment when I'm still awake to vote against ever buying, much less using, Blasphemy. It is pretty much a given that the game has some deeper relation with the real word and I don't want us to get into bad graces with whatever in-game angels represent.

>>30463888
>>30463887
>>30463886
>>30463881
"Why have they buried their statues?" It must have been a hell of a lot of work to unearth them as well as bury them in the first place. The island looks mostly solid rock.

"We've only got the word of a Greek trader for that. I'll email you the reference link. According to him the people on this island believed they'd wronged their gods somehow and that the end of the world was immanent. He's pretty dismissive; the Greeks didn't really go in for that sort of theology. Anyway, apparently they spent their time making those statues and burying them so once they gods had taken their revenge, the statues would come to life and rebuild the world again afterwards."

"That's pretty strange."

"I thought it was terribly deep when I was an undergraduate," Green says. "Why are you so interested anyway, if I might ask. Is this your field of study?"

"Um. No. I'm doing comp sci."

>"It just looked like a game I'm playing. They must have based it off the actual thing." He's probably not that interested.
>Tell him about Arcadia and the slaves in a bit more detail.
>Tell him about the weird shit that's been going down recently since you started playing.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30464033
>Tell him about Arcadia and the slaves in a bit more detail.

>>30464033
>"It just looked like a game I'm playing. They must have based it off the actual thing." He's probably not that interested.
He probably isn't.

>>30464033
>>Tell him about Arcadia and the slaves in a bit more detail.

If he's so interested in it he might want to play.

>>30464033
>Tell him about Arcadia and the slaves in a bit more detail.

>>30464033
>"It just looked like a game I'm playing. They must have based it off the actual thing." He's probably not that interested.

>>30464033
>"There is a very mysterious and secretive game that seems to be based on the Island and its myths. There's no advertisment, no screenshots, no guide, no nothing. But it's specs are far above what other games have, so someone seems to put a huge amount of money and effort into it."

>>30464115
>>30464095
>>30464124
>>30464115


"Well, I started playing this game called Quest for Arcadia, and they have those statues in there. They're exactly the same; they're buried until a player comes along and wakes them up, and then the build a bridge to another part of the game."

"Really? Quest for Arcadia." He starts typing, presumably googling it. "It's interesting they chose such an obscure part of real-world history. I'm actually quite surprised anyone's heard of it. So it's set after some apocalypse and you rebuild the world?"

"Um, no, not really. The world just changes." You start explaining in a bit more detail. He's listening, and seems politely interested at least. You feel you haven't quite reached the heart of the matter though.

"It's very mysterious and secretive. The game seems to be based on the Island and its myths. There's no advertisment, no screenshots, no guide, no nothing. But it's specs are far above what other games have, so someone seems to put a huge amount of money and effort into it."

"Basically, it's captured your intellectual curiosity beyond just playing it," he says. "It looks really good. I see what you mean about the effort. And why you thought my photograph was a screenshot."

"It's so real."

"Well." You can see interest sparking on his end too. "I might take a closer look at this. The company is Quest for Arcadia as well. It doesn't look like they have any other interests. Who owns you?"

Right. Economics lecturer, of course. You grin. This is detective shit right here.

Green types away. Movement behind him catches your eye and you see a large, black bug crawling in the window and it disappears behind the rather tired looking pot plant on the windowsill.

>Let him work.
>Apologise and get rid of the bug.
>Your friends are probably wondering where you are. Thank him and leave.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30464360
>Let him work.
What would we learn from smashing another bug?

>>30464360
>The Infestation spreads.
Catch the bug with something. Do you have any contained available? Maybe an empty lunchbox?

>>30464360
>>Let him work.

>>30464360
>Let him work

>>30464360
Say, which authorities already know about the bugs? We might want to spread the word to quicken the arrival of exterminators.

>>30464360
>Let him work.

>>30464460
>>30464491
>>30464494

More of those goddamn bugs. You decide that squashing this one wouldn't make much difference, and Green seems to be concentrating pretty hard. The corners of his mouth turn down and he frowns. He realises you're watching him with interest and he glances up.

"It's not a publicly listed company and was only created last year. Which I don't quite understand. I'm no gamer but these games take years to develop-" He goes back to typing.

"They must really want to avoid paying taxes," he mutters. "That's a lot of effort, even for that."

He's interrupted by a familiar tone reverberating around the building. The fire alarm's gone off. Green sighs, and he gathers up his tablet. "Well, this might take longer than I thought." The tone changes to the evacuate signal, and he ushers you out to join the stream of people making their way to the fire exits at the end of the building.

You can't smell smoke or anything; but then again, every time an alarm's gone off you never have.

>Stick with Green for now.
>Thank him and go and look for your friends before your next class starts.
>Take the opportunity to check your emails etc.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30464688
>Take the opportunity to check your emails etc.

>>30464688
>Stick with Green for now.
Keep an eye out for a bludgeoning implement. Mister Roasty might be back.

>>30464688
>>Take the opportunity to check your emails etc.

>>30464688
>Thank him and go and look for your friends before your next class starts.
If we have time, we can check our emails now or in the next class.

>>30464734
>>30464772

In the climate-controlled building you'd almost forgotten about that biting wind outside. People pour out of the building and a significant minority keep going in search of warmer places. Green stays in the evacuation area however.

"I expect half my students will assume this counts as cancelling my next class."

You slide your glasses down off your head and check your emails. As promised, Green has sent you one with a list of references for further reading about the island. He's even attached his photographs.

You've got a message from Wing asking where you are.

>Tell him you'll be right there. Thank Green and leave.
>Tell him you'll see him in your next class.

You've got a message from Melissa too:

Hi Ash! R u in class? I think the game is broken. Can I bother u for tech support? I'm so sorry. U must get asked that alot.

>Tell Melissa you don't troubleshoot other people's computers, sorry.
>Offer to help when you've got a free moment.

>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30465013
>Tell him you'll see him in your next class.
We're not done with Green I think.

>Offer to help when you've got a free moment.
Why not?

>>30465013
>>Tell him you'll see him in your next class.
>>Offer to help when you've got a free moment.

>>30465013
>Tell him you'll be right there. Thank Green and leave.

>Offer to help when you've got a free moment.

>>30465013
>Tell him you'll see him in your next class.
>Offer to help when you've got a free moment.

>>30465096
>>30465083
>>30465072

You tell Wing you'll see him in your next class. The fire truck has arrived, and since there's still no sign of a fire, you'll probably be allowed back in the building in a few minutes. It probably wouldn't be worth queuing up for a coffee now.

You tell Melissa that you're still at college, but you'll be able to help her later. She sends you back a smily face.

Thank u! I will owe u pizza or whatever u want. How about we meet up before dinner?

That seems fine to you. You don't have any other definite plans, and you suspect whatever Melissa's problem is, it won't be very difficult to solve. People like that rarely really break something because they rarely leave their desktop.

Eventually the building is given the all-clear, and you and Green waste no time getting back inside. Green looks at his watch. "Come on, let's see if I can solve this before class. I've got ten minutes."

When he opens his office door, he recoils as a bug crawls out into the corridor, practically running over his shoe.

"Fuck! Sorry."

Splat! You step on it; it was basically right under your foot; you didn't even think about it. Green looks at you with mild surprise.

"Those things are all over our dorm," you explain.

"Wonderful."

When he sits down at his computer he recoils again, this time because of what's on the screen. You edge around the desk for a look. It's full of code; looks familiar too. Green hovers over the keys for a while, and then thinks better of it.

He picks up the phone. "I think I need to call IT."

>No wait, you want a crack at it first. 1d100 persuade check.
>Well, Green looks like he won't be able to help you further right now. Go to class.
>Hang around and see what IT make of it.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

Rolled 51

>>30465381
>No wait, you want a crack at it first. 1d100 persuade check.

Rolled 23

>>30465381
>No wait, you want a crack at it first. 1d100 persuade check.
I want to flex our comp-sci bonus.

Rolled 56

>>30465381
>No wait, you want a crack at it first. 1d100 persuade check.
ha ha the bugs are bugs

Rolled 12

>>30465381

>>30465452
Didn't we only make the one computer-ing check in like the first thread?

>>30465381
>>No wait, you want a crack at it first. 1d100 persuade check.

>>30465418
>>30465452
>>30465467
>>30465479

"Professor, wait."

"It's Doctor, actually. What?"

You take a deep breath. "This code looks familiar to me. I am top or near top in all of my classes, I swear I won't make anything worse. Can I just have a look first, please?" You meet his eyes, willing him to trust you.

He thinks for a few moments. "Okay." He stands up waves you into his chair. "Show me what you can do, Ms Fletcher."

You crack your knuckles and plug you glasses into his machine.

1d100 (again no DC. The better you do, the more info you get.)

Rolled 11

>>30465587
l33t h4xx0r

Rolled 78

>>30465587
1 here we go

Rolled 92

>>30465587

fuck consistency

>>30465629
4 short of a critfail........
close calls

>>30465605
You try to keep up a running commentary for Green's benefit, since you aren't even typing there's nothing for him to follow otherwise.

"This is definitely the game code. It's so weird; I'd recognise it anywhere. It's as if it's installed itself right over everything else. But it's huge, how did it download so fast? There's gigs of it. We were gone what, fifteen minutes?"

The next thing you notice is that the code is growing, writing itself bigger and more complicated, filling up what's left of the drives. It's acting more like a virus than anything else. It's still not enough to explain how it got so big so fast.

"The game? The Quest for Arcadia?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't do anything," Green says, with that slightly guilty air that many people get when faced with someone working on their broken electronics. "I didn't download anything. I was thinking of playing it but-"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I think this was an attack."

"Doesn't the university have a firewall or something?"

"It's hardly bulletproof. But I think this came from within the network anyway. Ooh, yes it did. Where did it come from then?"

"You are really good at this."

You grin, but it fades fast when you recognise that IP address. It's yours. You can't quite bring yourself to be totally surprised. You are kind of angry though. And you realise your battery is drained far more than it should be.

>Tell Green your glasses were the source of the attack and try and investigate further.
>Concentrate on fixing his computer, and keep quiet.
>Stop here, unplug your glasses and tell him you hope he's backed everything up.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30465927
>Concentrate on fixing his computer, and keep quiet.
What good will telling him do?

>>30465927
>Concentrate on fixing his computer, and keep quiet.

>>30465927
>Concentrate on fixing his computer, and keep quiet.
oops

>>30465927
>>Concentrate on fixing his computer, and keep quiet.

>>30466076
>>30466064
>>30466015
>>30465979
You concentrate on trying to reverse the damage.

"You're gonna lose a few files," you tell him.

"I back things up fairly regularly. Most of my teaching files are on my tablet anyway." He taps at it, reassuring himself that it's still working and untouched.

You are doing a bit of damage control. You don't want this to happen again, and you still aren't sure why it happened without you noticing. You install some more complex monitoring software and have it display at all times. Next time the game launches without you telling it to you should notice the spike in power usage.

Green falls silent and lets you work. Ideally you'd prefer a clean install, but you probably don't want IT to get huffy about you playing around with staff computers, and you do your best with the repair tools you have.

You breathe a sigh of relief when you get Green's desktop back.

You pull your glasses up and unplug them. That's the best you're gonna get, you think. "I've got some scan disks running so, just let them run, and hopefully everything will work," you tell him. "It might take an hour or two. This is not a fast machine."

"That's all right," Green's frowning. "Thank you, he adds. He shakes his head. "This doesn't make sense. The fire alarm goes off, and then this happens while we were out of the building. Did someone walk in here and do this? And why?"

>I have no idea. I should get to class.
>It might be because you were looking into the company behind Arcadia. But I still don't know how.
>Don't worry about it. It was just bad luck that you were targeted then.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30466294
>>I have no idea. I should get to class.

>>30466294
>I have no idea. I should get to class.
Also thank him for his time.

>>30466294
>It might be because you were looking into the company behind Arcadia. But I still don't know how.

>>30466294
>I have no idea. I should get to class.
How quickly can we log into Arcadia, observe our immediate environment, and log back out?

>>30466294
"May be because you were looking into the company."

>>30466314
>>30466341
>>30466344 (You can log in and out in under a minute. Logging in is almost instant, and logging out only requires you to take your mirror out.)

"I have no idea. I should get to class."

Green looks at his watch. "So should I. Thank you for your help, Ms Fletcher. I might look into this game of yours. I wouldn't mind seeing those 'slaves' for myself sometime."

"I'm glad I was some use."

"A lot faster than the IT helpdesk, that's for certain. If you want any more information or more references about the island, feel free to email me. There's not a lot out there, but I know most of it."

"Thank you."

You separate at the door. You really have to get to class now, and you hurry off.

Wing is waiting for you in your next class and you slide into the empty seat next to him. You made it just in time; the lecture's starting.

"Where's Martin?" you whisper.

"Still playing in the cafeteria. I couldn't get through to him."

>Concentrate on class for now. If Martin forgot he had things to do that's his problem.
>Go and see if you can wake him up.
>Forget class, try and work out what happened with your glasses.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30466495
>Forget class, try and work out what happened with your glasses.
We should figure out what's going on before we do anything else. Especially before playing Arcadia.

>>30466495
>Forget class, try and work out what happened with your glasses.

>>30466495
>>Forget class, try and work out what happened with your glasses.

>>30466495
>Go and see if you can wake him up.
oh boy oh boy

>>30466495
Fix our babies. I mean glasses. No, I don't have a problem!

>>30466537
>>30466542
>>30466550

There's no apparent difference between you taking notes and you messing around with your glasses settings in a class like this one, and you are confident you will remain undisturbed.

You hadn't really given any thought to the actual software once you'd finished installing the game, (and breaking it just slightly to get the secret class.) Now you go back to it. Previous experience tells you that MMO installs can get big and bloated once the updates start piling up, and you expect that something as mutable and complex as Arcadia will be no different.

Only it is. It's almost exactly the same size. You have to find out how it did what it did. You still don't know how it uploaded itself so fast to Green's machine.

The code seems to have changed. It has the same style you remember, but every line seems different. You close your console and reopen it again, and once again the code is entirely different. Power usage is normal. While you watch it, nothing happens, you look away, it rewrites itself.

You want to show this to someone. Someone who understands, make them look at it and tell you how the impossible becomes possible. You can't diagnose this; the program could write itself to do almost anything and then write itself back. The only time it would definitely remain inert is when you're actually playing the game, you think.

There doesn't seem to be an outside connection controlling this. Dropping off the network and repeating the experiment yields the same results.

You could uninstall it. Or you could isolate yourself from the network to prevent it doing things to other machines and cut off your internet.

No you couldn't. You don't want to do either of those things. You decide to back up your files instead. You've been messing around for most of the hour, and class is winding up.

It's lunchtime.

1/2

>>30466795
>Go with Wing and see if Martin's awake and have lunch with them.
>Lunch by yourself and start going through Green's links.
>See if someone else has the same lunch break as you (Emily/Jess/Melissa.)
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30466828
Track down Melissa. Fix glasses. Acquire lunch.

>>30466828
>>Go with Wing and see if Martin's awake and have lunch with them.

>>30466828
>Lunch by yourself and start going through Green's links.

>>30466828
[x] >>30466852

>>30466828
>Go with Wing and see if Martin's awake and have lunch with them.

>>30466873
>>30466852
vs
>>30466868
>>30466902
rolled1d2

You wish Wing luck in getting Martin to wake up. By the end of the lecture, he still hasn't shown up, although you guess he probably wouldn't bother once he was past a certain point of late.

"This game might actually be really good for my grades," Wing says ruefully. "It's been so boring because all he does is play, so I got a lot more work done."

You tell him that you've been asked to troubleshoot someone's glasses and he knows that feeling and waves you away.

You text Melissa, to let her know you're free now if she'd like you to take a look at her glasses. Then maybe you could get lunch. Melissa agrees and says she'll pay.

You meet up outside a burger joint. Melissa says she's only just arrived on campus. "I tell myself I'm going to study Monday mornings when it's quiet, but I never do."

You sit down and arrange your bags, and Melissa explains the problem. "Maybe I just misunderstood, but you said the game had different classes, right? I installed it, and I thought I'd try it out, but when I went to make a character, it sent me straight to the cosmetic stuff. No class options at all."

>"I'm an expert in getting this game to give out class options. Don't worry."
>"I'll take a look, but no promises."
>Tell her you think the game might not be as benign a piece of software as you thought, and maybe you shouldn't mess with it.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30467050
>"I'll take a look, but no promises."

>>30467050
>>"I'll take a look, but no promises."

>>30467050
>"I'll take a look, but no promises."
but turn our glasses wireless off. So it doesn't know.

>>30467050
"No promises, but let's see what's going on."

>>30467128
>>30467110
>>30467101
You disconnect your glasses from the wireless network, and a bunch of icons on your desktop go dark as the connection is lost. You feel a bit safer.

"No promises, but I'll take a look."

"Thank you. It's okay if you can't get it to work. I mean, as long as it runs fine I guess I don't mind what class I am." Melissa smiles. "I'll get us some lunch while you have a look. What do you want?"

You give her your order, and she goes to queue up, leaving her glasses behind. It's the lunchtime rush so she'll probably be a few minutes. You plug your glasses in and disconnect her from the wireless as well, just to be certain.

You plunge back into that byzantine code. You've beginning to visualise it as a dense, dark mass; there's nothing elegant about it, but it's sheer complexity is sort of awe-inspiring. You're already familiar with how the classes are assigned, and even if parts of the code change, this part of the game's structure is the same and in a short while you locate it.

It looks like Melissa was right; the class options have been disabled. If she'd made a character and logged in, you think she'd have defaulted to meat.

>Leave it. Explain to her what meat is and say the other classes have been turned off for now for some reason. The problem isn't on her end.
>Fix it so she can select one of the three standard classes.
>Unlock Liberated Soul for her as well as the other classes.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30467251
>Fix it so she can select one of the three standard classes.

>>30467251
>Fix it so she can select one of the three standard classes.
I don't think we need anymore liberated souls. It could attract unwanted attention.

>>30467251
>Fix it so she can select one of the three standard classes.

>>30467251
Fix it so she can pick one of the three base classes.

>>30467251
>Fix it so she can select one of the three standard classes.
>use the chance to look into turning Meat back into the Class it used to be.

>>30467342
>>30467305
>>30467284
>>30467280
You dig your electronic fingers into the code and release the blocks that prevent her from selecting one of the three standard classes.

You have a look at the meat class, and try and work out how it might be possible to change it back, but since Melissa hasn't made a character yet you can't really get a handle on it. It might be possible to tell if you got your hands on a character that has died and lost its class.

Fixing the classes is a lot easier than opening up the Liberated Soul was, and when you lift your glasses off your head, Melissa is sitting opposite you and your drinks are on the table, but the food hasn't arrived yet.

"How did it go?" she asks. "I didn't want to interrupt."

"The classes were blocked for some reason, but I unblocked them for you. You should be able to select one now." You hand her back her glasses, and reconnect your own to the internet. Your game remains dormant.

"That's so awesome that you can do that sort of stuff. I kinda wish I'd learnt."

>"You're learning how to fix people, not machines. I think that's even more useful really."
>"I could lend you some of my textbooks if you wanted to learn."
>"This game's code is weird. Even I had trouble the first time I looked at it."
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30467480
>"I could lend you some of my textbooks if you wanted to learn."

>"You're learning how to fix people, not machines. I think that's even more useful really."

>>30467480
>"You're learning how to fix people, not machines. I think that's even more useful really."

>>30467480
>"This game's code is weird. Even I had trouble the first time I looked at it."

>>30467480
>>"You're learning how to fix people, not machines. I think that's even more useful really."

>>30467541
>>30467514
"You're learning how to fix people, not machines. I think that's even more useful, really."

"Haha, thanks Ash. I wasn't sure it was for me at first, but I'm kind of getting into it." She puts her glasses on, but doesn't activate them, instead using them purely to see you a bit more clearly. She sighs, "Ahh I wanna play now. Lunch first. And then I got class, so I'll have to wait until this evening, I guess."

"Just have someone remind you when to go to bed," you say. Your sense of time passing in games is okay, even though Arcadia screws with it a bit, but Melissa might have more problems.

"Good point. I got a prac tomorrow. Oh! Speaking of nursing. I was at the hospital last week, and we were examining this guy. See, he'd trodden on this nail, but instead of going between like the metatasals-"

Your burgers arrive.

>She's having fun. Bear with it and try not to think too hard.
>Can we not talk about this while we eat? This is why you'll be a nurse and I won't.
>You sometimes turn the gore UP in your games. Lean in and listen up.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30467654
Bear it. If you get a break, check your timekeeping app to see why it's failed.

>>30467654
>You sometimes turn the gore UP in your games. Lean in and listen up.

>>30467654
>You sometimes turn the gore UP in your games. Lean in and listen up
I personally don't get queasy while eating no matter what I hear and I feel this is a trait my characters should share.

>>30467654
>Can we not talk about this while we eat? This is why you'll be a nurse and I won't.

>>30467654
>She's having fun. Bear with it and try not to think too hard.

>>30467679
You're good at multitasking, and Melissa's comment reminds you that your timekeeping app stopped working the last time you tried to use it in Arcadia.

It seems to be fine. Playing with it now reveals nothing wrong, but you're more aware of what the game's software is capable of, and you wouldn't put it past it to have messed with it a little. You redouble your vow to back. everything. up. You're glad you haven't copied the games files onto your computer back in your room; if it breaks you'll bear with re-downloading it.

>>30467700
>>30467688
vs
>>30467679
>>30467774

"Seriously? That's gross," you grin.

Melissa laughs. "Yeah. My lecturers have the best stories about that kind of stuff." You don't have lecturers with gory stories, but you have been kicking around the internet a while and you and Melissa swop urban myths and creepypasta as best you can remember them while you eat.

"We're freaking out the waitress," Melissa says eventually. "She probably thinks we're a couple of serial killers."

"You mean you're not?"

Melissa laughs. It's been a good lunch.

"Hey, what class should I pick anyway?" she asks.

>"It doesn't really matter. You're not restricted in your weapons or armor by your class."
>Foresight will save you a lot: go Seer.
>Avatars get a really versatile first ability, and wings later.
>Prophets get powerful later. They make angels fall and they start with an AoE stun.
>Write in.
>Play Arcadia.

>>30467857
Just give her a short description of each of the classes without recommending anything

>>30467857
>"It doesn't really matter. You're not restricted in your weapons or armor by your class."

>>30467857
All of the above: explain all the basics.

>>30467919
Seconding. Ask her which appeals the most.

>>30467919
>>30467923
Without class archetypes being all that important, explain the basics of the first three abilities as best you can, and let her know that class choice doesn't really dictate what sort of character she'll end up playing.

"No healers, huh? Interesting. I kind of like the idea of getting wings though. Thanks." Her gaze unfocuses as she looks at her glasses rather than you to check the time.

"I gotta get to class. Let's try and meet up in game. It'll be fun."

"The map's pretty big, but we can try."

"Will you be playing this evening?"

"Probably."

"I'll message you."

~~~
Okay folks, that's four hours. Felt short. Was short. But I have just enough time to stuff my face and go to work.

Now, I work the same shift every week, so I'll be able to run threads like this consistently. I know this time sort of sucks for any fellow Aussies.

My other option is running irregularly on Saturday night EST. I'll run longer, but not consistently.

Which would you guys prefer?

I'll be around for a few minutes, and I'll keep the tab open so I'll get any belated comments eventually.

Thank you all for playing.

>>30468057
I liked this time. It's perfect for me.

>>30468057
Whatever gets me more Arcadia, man. Have a good day at work!

>>30468057
This was a good time. Shame you can't run more though, This is a good quest.

>>30468123>>30468069
>>30468117

Thank you. I only get one late shift a week though.

I may try and run on Saturdays occasionally if there's something coming up that will work better in a longer thread.

>>30468057
Thank you for running, Arcadian. Real world intrigue is a nice break from fighting sometimes.
This time works even if it is short. I prefer regularity, personally.

And a couple questions:
>Will our battery life become an important mechanic or does that depend on what we choose to do?
>How would the other majors picked in the first thread have effected the character?
>Why's the quest set in America if you're, y'know, not one?

>>30468186

>Battery life.
Potentially super important later.

>Other Majors.
Would have changed the focus of the story slightly, and the NPCs would have changed to give complimentary skills.

>America.
I needed somewhere with plausibly bad weather, and I've seen more American colleges on tv than I have seen British ones.