The year was 2234. The date was 10/10... or at least he believed it was... it was right? Bah he was getting distracted. He danced around the monsters around him. Clad in their black suits wielding their fancy engraved stylus' as if they were feathers dipped in ink. Matching squares and symbols on those squares like one matches a tie to a dress shirt.
With impeccable precision and by handing the job off to the store clerk.
Which was what he did.
He never really understood the need for the perfect suit.
If it fit him well and he felt comfortable why bother trying to show off. Maybe it was rich people thing. He shrugged unconsciously and wandered around the mall. Each holographic display flashing with different items including some new fancy sneakers. Something he'd wanted for a while... He was half tempted to tip toe in and snag a pair for himself.
No he didn't need them, he had a perfect pair of dress shoes on. Made specifically for him by the owner of the shop. But the allure those sneakers had... He shivered just a touch as he glanced at the shoes... He gave his head a minute shake and continued down the long open area that made up the malls center. He glanced over at the bright red sign he saw above his destination.
Closing down sale. 40% off all items.
Not very catchy but it did it's job. The sale hadn't really gathered many people. Just the usual customers with a few meandering through. He spotted a familiar silver haired man and walked over to him. A smile was exchanged as they talked.
"... A shame that this place is dying off so soon."
The man gave a sad nod as he sighed. Though his expression became a tad brighter as he waved him over to some of the newer equipment.
"You want me to buy this? You sure... it's pretty cheap?"
The man smiled. Something that wouldn't look out of place on a grieving parent remembering the good times of their lost child.
"You're one of our longest running customers... I can't think of anyone better to give it to."
It wasn't really much to look at. An antique really. It was a solid screen monitor. Something that had been made irrelevant years ago with the holo tech. He could see why the man had kept it though. Gold engraving round the frame and an almost perfectly polished screen. Neatly assembled hard drive as well. All the wiring and such was neatly ordered and ziptied. The case was sparkling like a gold bar. It even had a solid keyboard. A rarity these days.
He gave the man another glance before sighing as he smiled lightly.
"Fine. I'll take it. I'll even pay full price. No discount."
He was pretty sure the man's jaw hit the floor but it seemed to be back in place just as quickly as he turned around and handed the man a large chit full of currency. He saw the man blink in surprise as he winked.
"You should have told me you were struggling with your money. I would've helped."
"I... I can't take this..."
He shrugged as he fixed his collar.
"Yes you can. And you will. Plus. I can afford these kinds of things. It's better then hiring maids for my maids and butler's for my butler's. Besides. It's not like I'm getting any younger."
"Your twenty. Your rich. If you wanted you could become younger."
He smiled and shook his head as he carefully picked up the monitor.
"De-aging syrum isn't really my shtick. Now games on the other hand."
His miniature meglomanic laugh was interrupted when he felt something rectangular and plasticy stuck in his mouth.
"Don't laugh. It annoys the customers."
He nodded and his unorthodox gag was removed. He could still taste the plastic covering.
"This is an antique by today's standard... Maybe antiques not the right word... more like it's impossible to find. The game was pulled from stores after only forty copies were sold."
He glanced over at the man as he carefully put the monitor on the counter.
"Only forty? What happened?"
"Its cursed."
He gave the man the most deadpan look he could muster and the man only smiled.
"Is it really?"
"Yes. Or at least the evidence points towards it being so. Forty people bought the game. Forty people went missing over the next few days."
He rose an eyebrow as he moved the heavier hard drive onto the counter as well.
"Really?" He drawled "so... what? I shouldn't buy and play this game?"
The man shrugged.
"If you value your existence it's best not to."
He stared for a moment.
"You know what... Just to smite you I'm going to buy that game. Then I'll play it and prove that this game ain't cursed."
He picked up his new stuff and walked out despite man's continued warnings. He rolled his eyes as he walked.
Disappearing due to a game. Yeah right. Next thing you know I'll become some cliche with a massive gun and bulging muscles.
He froze momentarily as the image arrived at the forefront of his mind and after a brief shudder he banished the memory as far as he could. Preferably to hell.
HOME
He wouldn't call his home grandiose. Maybe oversized?... It worked. It was odd that he started to contemplate this now. He'd lived in this house as long as he could remember. It might have been the large arch that stood in front of the house... Or was it the spiraling staircase that warranted somewhat higher then average levels of fitness to be able to climb.
It was probably the staircase.
The blasted staircase.
He breathed heavily as he finally reached the top. Why the hell hadn't he installed an elevator yet. Oh right. He didn't want to become one of those fatass nobles with equally large sums of money... and sins. He slowly managed to get his breath back and he looked up at the sound of quiet laughter. One of the maids... Jasmine if his mind recalled correctly walked towards him with a tray bearing the life saving liquid itself... WATER!
"Master." She cutseyed "You seem to have found a new toy."
He smiled appreciatively as he downed the glass.
"I got bored. What can you expect?"
He saw a glare cross her face. One that he found hard to not wince at.
"What I expect master is that you start studying. Like you were supposed to half an hour ago."
He laughed awkwardly.
"I got bored studying... so I went and got this."
She looked at him with that disapproving glare again before she showed him something significantly more terrifying. She smiled.
"I see. Is that so Master?" You bought that collectors item did you?"
He felt his usual sense of danger kick in as he backed away ever so slowly.
"Y-yeah I bought it. F-fancy right?"
He smile grew ever so slightly predatory.
"Yes. It's quite a fine piece of technology."
He felt himself freeze as she effortlessly picked up the hard drive and threw it down the center of the staircase. He felt his jaw drop.
"That... that... that was expensive."
She nodded in agreement.
"As were the tutoring sessions I organised for you. Yet you skipped them with little care. So I took your example and adapted it to my own. "
She shook her head again.
" I expect a twenty page report on the detrimental effects of video games on a man's mind by this afternoon."
With that request and a curtsey she walked off down the stairs.
He stood frozen as he stared at the place she'd occupied. He then contemplated his life choices. Specifically the one where he'd chosen to hire a lecturer as a maid... a particularly good lecturer at that.
He looked longingly at the spot where the hard drive had once been and quietly sighed as he pulled out the small disk in his pocket. The protective padding it was surrounded by made sure it didn't break after the years of neglect and he smiled quietly as he wandered over to his room.
A twenty page report. Piece of cake... He could really go for some cake actually. He took a ten minute cake stop and wandered back to his room. It was rather small to be honest. A double bed facing the window, wall mounted holo tv, a few drawers and a closet. Rather homely in his opinion. He carefully placed the monitor down onto one of his desks and with a wave of his hands he flicked the television on and lowered the sound. Background noise as he set up the monitor. It didn't take too long. A few minutes at most. Maybe his obsession with hardware was actually paying off... nah he doubted it. It was only a cash sink. A place to waste the excess money he wasn't donating to charities or using to enhance his businesses. Well his families businesses. Not like he had any experience running a business. He waved his hands again and the tv shut off. The lights lost their glow and he sat down in the chair he normally had here. A character creation screen greeted him and he smiled.
Sure there was all that fancy VR tech but he preferred the old school stuff like this. Immersion was good but if you lost yourself among your characters then it became dangerous. Plus motion sickness was significantly rarer on a monitor then on VR.
He stared at the pasty white ghost in front of him. Time to play god.
An hour later
His eye twitched as he stared at the character in front of him. Something didn't add up. It looked like he'd wanted. Normal silver hair, normal build hell he'd even given it reasonably normal eyes. Grey was normal right?
The clothing wasn't anything outlandish either. Dress shirt with the top button undone. No cuffs. Pants that were an interesting shade of black. Interesting in that under the right light they had a purple tinge to them. He'd thought for a good while about whether a jacket would've been appropriate too. He said no after looking at the first one. He did have to say. The game knew how to give someone freedom of choice. He'd even been able to select the damn footwear. A pair of simple grey sneakers. Nothing too fancy but it suited the blank slate he was envisioning.
A moment of silence ensued as he slowly rotated the character around. Maybe it was the colour scheme... no. White and grey worked well enough... Maybe something brighter that popped out.. that might do... but what?
Ten minutes later
He smiled as he stared at the painstakenly drawn blue cuffs that adorned his dress shirt. He finally made a character he could be happy with. It's only taken him... A little over an hour too. He rolled his neck and clicked on the next button.
Time for the hard choice. The one choice that would define Desmond and his future. He'd called the character Desmond after feeling his cat brush up against his leg. He hoped it was his cat... He shut down the train of thought and stared at the large wheel of options in front of him.
Gunslinger.
A master of ballistic warfare. Favours the pistol and small scale firearms. Kills from close range result in 10% increase in xp while kills from long range result in -10% xp. Starts with gunsmith, medium armor and duel wielding perks allowing the creation of low class ranged weapons and medium armor as well as weapon wielding in the characters off hand respectively
Dust mage.
The elements beckon and you respond. A 'magician' to most. A soldier to few. A terror to all. Dust mages bear the power to manipulate dust with a precision impossible to non-mage characters. You shape the battlefield to your will. Geysers of fire, fields of ice, spires of stone, spears of wind. All to be made with a twitch of your hand. Begins with dust manipulation, dust imbued equipment and basic grimoire perks allowing dust to be utilised or imbued into equipment and armor as well as memorization of spells respectively. 10% xp from dust kills and dust related events. -10% from melee weapon kills.
Neutral
Specialization. Who needs it? You can become anything. Do anything... with practise. You follow the path of rigorous training. Years went by before you noticed. Noticed the power welling up before you. It wasn't much stronger then a breeze. But it was a breeze of dust... Class for players looking for a significantly longer term experience. Neutrals have the ability to draw dust from their surroundings. Dust spells are free but take three times longer to charge. Melee attacks gain 25% xp if damage is done by the player alone. 5% xp gain from all kills. 5% increase in buying and selling price of drops. Begins with dust summon, basic grimoire and Gunsmith perks allowing for a dust creature to be summoned for 40 seconds at base level. Summon damage and health increase with level. Basic grimoire allows memorization of dust spells. Gunsmith allows creation of low class ranged weapons.
There were more of course. A plethora of choices for every type of person. Various types of thief, warrior, sniper, ranger the list went on for kilometers. But these three. They stuck out to him. The gunslinger held a special place in his heart. One of the first games he'd played had him firing two revolvers out at the various enemies he'd run into. Each shot shattering their defenses and giving him energy... good old life steal enhanced weaponry...
The dust mage sounded more like a classical mage. Strong attacks with large areas of effect that had long cooldowns. Something he'd found himself playing as of late. They were terribly squishy though. He shivered at how quickly he'd seen his health bar drop on occasions.
The neutral was odd to say the least. Free spells were a plus but the real thing that caught his eye had been the experience boost... All 25% of it... that was huge. Kill a strong enemy and he'd get more experience then he'd know what to do with. It even helped in the late game. Higher experience enemies meant more experience for him. Something he craved as a player. The summon spell also sounded fun. He wondered if he could summon a bear made from explosive dust... did explosive dust even exist?
He stared long and hard at the options before him. This was important. He doubted that he'd get to change his class later on so he had to be smart here. Gunslinger rewarded close combat but it also meant he could run away if he needed to. Dust mage favoured medium to long range. He'd also be able to buff people of he needed to. Neutral was more of a jack of all trades. It preferred close combat but it let him fall back and use his dust spells if he wanted to...
Another hour went by as he stared at the glowing circle in front of him. He'd found a filter button and limited the circle to those three classes and his mind quickly did calculations for him. Early game favoured the Neutral. Late game favoured more specialised classes.
The antagonizing choice finally subsided as he nodded. He moved his mouse and selected his class. He felt a sense of accomplishment... it felt weird.
The lights died.
His eyes widened.
He shouted.
The lights came back on.
He stared at the black screen. It lit up again. A strange tune played in the background. Electronic meshed with distorted choral lyrics that gave an eerie atmosphere. He stared at the large green button in front of him.
Enter into the abyss? Enter into Remnant?
He took a breath and calmed his heart beat.
He clicked the button.
The world went black.
His head hurt.
He saw the blue sky above.
He shouted.
Hello to my wonderful readers. How ya doing?
So this is a little something I've been mulling over in my head for... let's say a month or so.
Yes it's a RWBY fix.
No I did not mix that up with some other VR esque universe.
Yes I know RWBY isn't a VR universe. Shush.
This is a pilot of sorts. Tell me what you think?