"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
- Dolly Parton
Chapter 2
"Disadvantages and Advantages"
[Choose your Advantages, Player #03]
[Thank you once again for becoming a member of our The Walking Dead: Survival Mode Beta play! To show our appreciation to our Beta Players, we have given you a Special Welcoming Beginner Pack to help you on your grand new journey throughout this amazing Wonderful world! Not everyone will receive this most Special package, so use it wisely! You have finally personalized your Character Customization, all you need to do now is choose your Attributes so you can move onto the last stage, Simulation Omniscience Survival!]
[Attributes will have Advantages and Disadvantages to make the players gameplay more realistic belonging to this universe. Once chosen, your choice cannot be reversed.]
[How will you, Player #03, survive in this world?]
[Have fun choosing!]
Serena just stared at the giant transparent blue colored box in front of her amidst the darkness of her mindscape from where the Game Characterization began.
Well shit. What a Sassy message.
A snort escaped her.
These people sure were Fun.
She felt amusement at the many small tinges of sassiness, and tried to ignore the eerie foreboding feeling in the back of her mind. Kinda felt as if it were telling her to prepare for her life, as if it would be in actual danger, aha..ha...
Naah..
Yeah, she Would be in danger but it's not like she would Die or something... it's not like this is a freaking Anime...
Her cautious musings were cut off when she tapped on that floating message, Ooing unconsciously at the new smaller than her five foot two stature darker colored blue box with white letters brightening the almost ominous feel she kept getting slowly coming even more from behind and in front of her.
Glancing back, nada. Just Darkness... which she didn't really care for before since she was in her own Mind, what does she have to fear? But...
Shifting her narrowed gaze to the front, the box was just seemingly innocently floating in front of her, waiting patiently for her to read and choose her Attributes.
...
This isn't a freaking horror movie Simulation, so why the hell does she keep feeling as if she's being watched? As if she's not alone in the darkness of her mind with this gameplay...
'When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.'
Oh my God- she groaned exasperatedly to herself, why Why does she do this to herself?
Crossing her arms tightly in a defensive gesture to comfort herself, she ignored the eerie feeling as best as she could- Charles wouldn't have let her go in a situation where she'd be in danger- so in an exhaling breath, narrowed baby blue eyes quickly took in the white sentences against the darker blue panel.
[Attributes List: Choose 6 attributes to assist you on your journey]
[Kindling Heat]
[Advantage: You are able to create a small flammable flame wherever you are with the most barest of items, whether that is in the cold, hot, or wet is irrelevant. You can create as many fires as you want, there is no limit.
Disadvantage: You do not have control over whether that flame grows or extinguishes.]
[Blood Shot]
[Advantage: You have a control over the dead somewhat in that they don't see you as a meal- or even notice you at all really. You can make them move towards where you want. You can extend the courtesy of being Invisible to the dead to others momentarily by having them touch your skin.
Disadvantage: Your blood is a cure to the 'mysterious' infection.]
[Global Talk]
[Advantage: You have a communicator that can communicate with Anyone that has any type of walkie-talkie.
Disadvantage: The communicator only connects with those who you have already met, and it has a 50% chance of working.]
[Animal Lover]
[Advantage: You have a good connection with animals, can feel when any type of living being that isn't a human being is near your location and can manipulate them to come to you.
Disadvantage: Your body cannot digest any type of meat.]
[Good Luck]
[Advantage: You have extremely good luck in finding empty locations full of hiding spots and edible foods.
Disadvantage: The dead have a 90% chance of Somehow always appearing nearby.]
[Good Will]
[Advantage: You have good luck in bumping into good natured human beings, 40%.
Disadvantage: It is more difficult for you to escape malicious human beings, 80%.]
[Resilient]
[Advantage: You are ridiculously flexible.
Disadvantage: But you have a tremulous luck in finding yourself in situations where it comes incredibly handy.]
[Transparent Dead]
[Advantage: The souls of the dead know you know they're there, you can communicate and easily see the dead walking.
Disadvantage: It is hard to know information from the dead, they will hassle you so you can do one of their requests.]
[Holy Hell]
[Advantage: You have a healing ability that can heal anything of yourself to others from paper cuts to broken bones; except the dead.
Disadvantage: With each injury you heal, a new wound appears on your body randomly; can be small-scale or severe, which can only be slowly restored by resting.]
[Painless]
[Advantage: You can't feel any physical pain.
Disadvantage: Your pain receptors do not work, be it an agonizing wound or a broken bone- or a bite.]
[Dead Guards]
[Advantage: The undead protect you strangely as you were their newborn.
Disadvantage: There's a rare chance of finding edible food and a safe location from humans- good or bad.]
[Breathless]
[Advantage: You can hold your breath for a solid 6 minutes, during that time your body will appear dead to any unassuming, either the dead or living humans.
Disadvantage: Your body is unable to consume any water or foods for 12 hours.]
[Spacing Bag]
[Advantage: Whichever bag you choose to haul as your own, it will have an unusual amount of space for anything you deem you require to survive.]
Disadvantage: The only one who can see the items inside is yourself. Anyone else will only see darkness.]
[Sixth Sense]
[Advantage: You have a sixth sense to know when there's any undead in your general location, far and wide or close by.
Disadvantage: If you cross their paths, they will Always head directly to you, uncaring of any other humans nearby.]
Woaah...
Oookay theen..?
Serena gulped harshly from having stayed just re-reading each attribute again and again, half in awe and half in mortification. Jesus Christ...there really wasn't any in-between or grey areas- its either black or white, and damn they're really doing a good job at that, she thinks begrudgingly.
And she could choose Six?... Wasn't that too much of an advantage for her-Plus, how the hell would they all work together since their Disadvantages were all different? Wouldn't one cancel out the other or something similar to that affect?
Her deer in headlights look stayed for a few seconds, feeling a rising headache at trying to think on how all the ones she was thinking of choosing would mix together and would it even Work?
Though it was still better than paying attention to that eerie not-alone feeling.
She was utterly confused, expression showing that exactly with pursed lips and wide contemplating eyes, the Attribute window still looming ahead 'innocently'.
Well... Serena definitely didn't want to numb herself, that would be making it way too easy to die, so the Painless one was out. And the Transparent Dead, hell nah she didn't need even more trouble by trying to associate with the undead, pun non-intended, can you just imagine what would happen once they start telling her all sorts of things from when they were alive? She'd be crushed cause she Knows she can't help them that much, not now that they're Gone.
Serena knows herself, and knows she's too sensitive sometimes. Most times...
...Augh.
It was a flaw of hers as much as it was a virtue, she knows, but still.
This is half the reason why she tries to avoid associating too much with people, her empathy sometimes tends to get the best of her even though she doesn't Want it to.
Anyway. No speaking with the undead, nope not today Satan.
The Dead Guard option wasn't too much of a bad idea hmm, but the disadvantage of rarely finding any foods is a X factor for her, but still, not Too bad of an idea...
She left that one alone, mentally putting it on her 'Maybe' list.
The Resilient option seemed like one of the more easiest ones that she noticed, didn't really have any death flags waving at her, though in what situations would she be put on that she'd need to use that to her advantage..?
...Well! It's not like it has anything Death related- maybe? But still the most non red flag option...
The pad of her index finger lightly touched that white sentenced Attribute, repeating the action when it asked her if she wanted to place it on her Attribute column, but not yet finishing one hundred percent until she had chosen five others.
She hummed, how thoughtful and precise the system was.
Spacing Bag seemed like a Really good attribute, it didn't really matter if others- nnnm. Her lips pursed, eyes staring blankly in thought at the Attributes explanation. If nobody else could see what was inside... wouldn't that be Really weird? If there was a chance and somebody tried to peak, but they didn't see anything, wouldn't that be very suspicious?
...However, its also advantageous since if anyone ever tries to steal her stuff, they wouldn't be able to access it, plus if they were to check inside to steal before taking the object, they'd throw it back thinking she didn't have anything...
Intense concentrating expression broke with a narrowed blink.
Yup, she'll take it.
She placed that attribute in her waiting column, looking back at the others re-reading them all again while thoughtfully leaning her chin on her lightly closed fist, arms still crossed over her chest more loose now with overthinking of all her choices.
Kindling Heat and Animal Lover was a quick nope, crossing them out with a swish of her hand, the red line crossing over them showing her choices.
No meat and she can't control the fire? Fast way to end up either dead or crusty fried.
Serena repeatedly glances at two of the choices she'd really like, but can't help but feel deeply apprehensive over.
Blood Shot and Holy Hell. Holy Hell was- she stifled a snort at the naming, finding it incredibly ironic; what a good naming sense they have pft. It was kind of Vague, how much would she need to Rest? Will it be minutes? Days? Plus- what do they mean by Rest? Do they mean her taking a nap? A deep sleep? Sitting down?
A groan slid out, the vagueness would kill her before any zombies, she swears.
Lets not even get to Blood Shot.
Her gaze slowly moved to that option, apprehension sky rocketing nervously at the ominous way it was written- I mean, why the hell was the blood being a cure a Disadvantage? If she knows anything, its that it would be really useful, may even help- those..who...oh.
Oh shit. Damn damn damn.
Her expression soured immediately. Fuck, that would be such a useful skill to have, but daamn she wonders just how much Trouble would follow- Gasp wait!
Nobody needs to Know that!
Serena's face instantly lightened, body loosening from the tenseness, nobody needs to know that little information!
It's not like it would help much anyway, the best it would get her would be brutally experimented on and boom, dead; or worse. Nah nah.
It'll be such a good attribute to have anyway, could get her out of a pinch if anything were to happen and she were to want to help someone-
Going by her lightened and relieved feelings after much logical thinking, she sent Blood Shot to the chosen column, and stared intently at Holy Hell.
Should she take the chance? She thinks it would help her survive longer if she had such a useful skill- but what would happen if one day she wanted to heal someone? How would they react? What would happen to Her?
An exaggerated whine filled the space, no use in thinking of what if's and what not's, it sounds like a problem for the future Serena.
She nodded determined, mentally sending an apology to herself in the future which she just Knows something will happen- ah Life.
Her hand slid across the panel, sending Holy Hell to the chosen area.
How many does she have so far?
Hmm, so there was Resilient, Spacing Bag, Blood Shot, and Holy Hell. Just need two more..Sixth Sense...didn't seem so bad? If the attributes can blend together seamlessly, it would be so convenient to have a kind of Spiderman sense regarding the dead, and the with the Blood Shot activie as well, wouldn't they not Really harm her? Just...go towards her? But Blood Shot says they don't Notice her, so what would be the response...?
She sighed in mild frustration, why the hell were the attributes so contradicting? How would it Work?
Because if she wouldn't have been able to use one with the other, it would have told her by now, but so far she's had absolutely No problem with any of her decisions, none giving her a warning or a pop up letting her know it was contradicting with one another or that one would cancel out the other...
Serena was slowly getting more curious than frustrated on how they would think to mix it all together, hmmm how would you make it work, System?
Swishing the Sixth Sense to the chosen column thoughtlessly, she stared at the last three she was contemplating choosing, crossing out the last two she didn't care too much for.
Global Talk, Dead Guards, and Good Luck beamed back in their white letters stark against the dark blue of the panel.
The index finger of the hand near her face tapped thoughtfully at the side of her jaw, open expressive eyes glancing to each ones explanations.
With an abrupt decisive exhale, she swished Good Luck rapidly to the chosen column, receiving a reflective glow of pale gold light over her shorter figure once all six were together, the other dark blue panel disappearing with no sound as the light golden panel smoked back in front of her with a gentle seemingly innocent beam.
[Are you certain you would like to choose these attributes? You cannot reverse your decision.]
[Blood Shot
Good Luck
Holy Hell
Resilient
Spacing Bag
Sixth Sense]
[Yes/No]
She re-read the information on each one, just to be double sure, absentmindedly sitting down with a plop, leaning down her arms over her raised knees as she finished reading everything.
The gentle golden glow was seriously off-putting, considering how she felt an instinctive unsettling notion at it, and had no bloody idea why. This was supposed to be an interesting and fascinating experience, and Serena Did have a blast in customizing herself but then when it got to This section is when that eerie abruptly settled in and- sigh.
Serena would have to ask Charles when she would see him again, after all, he did say he'd be around in the game and gave her a code to activate for when she wanted to contact him inside, so she would just have to be patient until then she guesses. Serena wasn't exactly used to these types of realistic simulations, she was more of a PC gamer type herself, so being able to live inside one of her favorite universes was absolutely confounding, yet she still couldn't help some of her caution at how internal and mentally invasive it had to go for her to be able to enter the mind game system...
Charles. Will wait for his thoughts.
Until then- she ain't trusting any lovely golden light that looks as if its Winking at her- Hell nah.
She gestured her hand to the Yes, but frowned slightly when it didn't do anything.
Huh?
Again, and still nothing...
Eyes narrowed a bit, "Yes?", they widened when That worked, the golden soft glow surrounding the word until-
[Are you certain?]
[Yes/No]
Again? Why so much confirmation..? Her tense mind was filled with speculations and suspicions all of a sudden, but she wouldn't let that stop her; after all, lots of games sometimes had a ton of confirmations when one needed to play, so it wasn't that unusual, she was just overthinking it...
Yup.
"Ye...s?"
It was barely audible, and more of a broken out unsure cringe filled word, but the System perfectly understood the confirmation nevertheless.
Another pop up of the same golden hue-
[Yes/No]
Well... third times the charm, right?
"...Yes."
Sure, she had her caution on this section of the gameplay, however, she didn't object on how just how mesmerizing it was to watch the colors shift from the golden hue, fading in a gas smoke like way while its hues shifted smoothly to other pastel shades, sharply changing rather quickly to her surprise in their surroundings, brightening up the whole area in different faded tones until it seamlessly sharpened and now looked as if she was in an open grassland, standing right dab in the middle of the bright green clearing full of short healthy grass and under an incredibly hot sun, tall trees far far away and surrounding the large area.
Serena stood up languidly, glancing around wide eyed before she chuckled happily, spontaneously deciding to spin in a small circle, without thinking opening her arms up and out while tilting her head back, enjoying the beaming heat of the sun touching her rather pale skin, sighing aloud at the soothing feeling despite knowing how she could quickly get a sun burn with how pale her skin was.
The unsettling feeling was still there, but they sure were doing a good job at masking it with this new area and brighter clearing section, pft.
A soft ping drew her hazy attention from how in a daze she got, halting in her mid spin then blinking at the now sky blue floating transparent box that appeared directly in front again, open wide eyes taking in the new information.
[Welcome to Simulation Omniscience Survival!]
[You have successfully chosen 6 Attributes! These Attributes will assist you on your new journey, and SOS is the Simulation Training that will help you grow into these Attributes! Your Special Welcoming Beginner Pack will be available to you once you have finished your training with SOS. You will be taught how to best survive using your attributes, and will be given information regarding different areas and sections in this universe.
Enjoy your time in SOS, and Good Luck!]
Again, the sass.
She really felt like laughing at how she simultaneously felt threatened yet encouraged at the same time.
What the Hell...
A snort escaped her before she just threw hell to the wind and laughed freely, her naturally soft high pitch voice echoing in the empty clearing.
"I'll need all the luck I can get, so thanks. I guess." Serena snorted, lips twitching to a light hearted grin when her surroundings began smoothly changing once more.
She would take in all the information like a sponge. This would only benefit her in the end, after all.
A whole list of 'To-Help' awaited her when she finished her training, so she can't half ass anything.
AN: Thank you so much for the foll/favs! Much appreciated ^^
Hope you guys enjoyed the second chapter, where it shows a bit more from before Serena appeared in TWD universe!
I think this is the first time Serena has played such a realistic type of game hmm, since she's so cautious on not feeling like she's Alone, well... technically she's not Alone alone, per say..but I don't think its a Bad thing lol
Thank you SecretWyvern, Chryseum, for your reviews! ^^
SecretWyvern: Thanks so much! :D I think she would be a sort of kindness that most have had to lose in a way due to surviving in TWD, her 'holy powers' certainly won't help in trying to persuade otherwise lol
Chryseum: Thank you! ^^ Glad you've enjoyed the first chapter, hope you keep liking the story! :)
