Disclaimer: I do not own The 100 or its copyrighted materials and characters. They are the rightful property of their creators and/or their associated companies. I do not make any profit from this and it is done strictly for entertainment.
Connecting to the database… Secure connection CONFIRMED
Verifying USER data…
01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001
*ERROR*
Automatic profile reconstruction FAILED. Please reconstruct the USER profile.
"Oh god! Someone, please put a bullet in the back of my head?" Darren groaned softly.
The first thing he did upon awakening was to immediately regret his body's decision to do so. The pain that currently racked his body felt similar to that one time that he got the bright idea to try and train for a triathlon. Right now was a perfect reminder as to why he had stopped as he struggled to get up off of the ground.
As he opened his eyes, Darren was greeted not with the sight of his cluttered apartment floor, but with a white marble floor. A large text screen floated in the middle of an endless black void spread out in front of him.
"What the fuck is going on? Where am I?!"
The box continued to hover in front of him, the words 'Enter USER NAME' written inside of it.
"Um… Darren Taylor."
The text inside the window immediately shifted from 'Enter USERNAME' to 'Complete CHARACTER AVATAR APPEARANCE' once he answered.
Two options then appeared below the instruction for him to choose from: DEFAULT APPEARANCE and CUSTOM APPEARANCE. The 'Default' option seemed obvious with what it entailed so he selected 'Custom Appearance'.
A stone archway materialized before him, acting as a sort of mirror, and revealed a nude reflection of his still clothed form. On the right side of the archway was a series of drop-down menus labeled 'CLAN', 'HEAD', 'BODY', and 'ACCESSORIES'. Pressing the first menu, labeled 'CLAN', several strange words, that had to be the different clan names were revealed. All of the clans, save for the one name 'Skaikru' were grayed out and unavailable for him to pick from.
Under the menu titled 'HEAD' were all of the options for the alteration of that specific part of his body.
Darren skipped over the 'Hairstyle' and 'Hair Color' sections entirety since he'd always liked to keep his black hair cut in a low fade. Under the 'EYES' section, Darren was given the option to alter their 'Shape' and 'Color. Though he tinkered around with the shape of his eyes just to see what it looked like, he switched back to their original appearance since the rest of them seemed so bizarre-looking on his face. Eye color, on the other hand, was a completely different story. As a child, he'd always wanted his appearance to stand out a little more. Wishing that he'd been born with an eye color more exciting than dark brown was always his go-to move. Even though the system allowed for a ridiculous degree to the customization options, such as hot pink or neon yellow, Darren wanted something that looked a little more natural. He eventually settled on a shade of crystal blue for his new color. If they worked for Alexandra Daddario's eye-catching sex appeal, why not his. Finally, he opened up the 'JAW/CHEEK' section. Save for a few tweaks to his jawline to give it a more squared look, and dimples that all ladies loved, he left the rest of the options untouched.
Under the 'BODY' menu, were all of the options for altering his overall physical shape. Opening the drop-down menu the sections concerning 'Height', 'Weight, 'Physique', 'Skin Tone', and 'Endowment' were displayed.
Darren boosted his height a few inches until he topped out at 6'1 (185.42 cm) as well as taking a few pounds off of his frame. He skipped over 'Skin Tone' and stuck with his normal caramel hue. Instead of an incremental number system like with most of the rest of the character creation window, 'Physique' was instead controlled by a sliding scale that rested at a neutral center point. In one direction the slider controlled the definition of his muscularity, in the other his level of obesity. While he found it hilarious to resemble one of the Klumps from Eddie Murphy's version of The Nutty Professor, in no way, shape, or form was it a practical option for what appeared to be a serious playthrough for a game. However, the same was true on the opposite side of the spectrum with its ridiculous amount of muscles. His body looked like bowling balls had been implanted beneath the skin in his arms and legs and the skin on his chest looked like it was one hard poke away from exploding. If his areola had been larger he could have almost declared that he had breasts. Toss in his normal-sized head and the whole look had left him slightly disturbed. Darren pulled the slider back until his muscles matched what one would find in a superhero movie, similar to a Chris Evans' Captain America or a Henry Cavill's Superman. After a minor adjustment to the 'Endowment' modifier, Darren moved on to the 'ACCESSORIES' section. The only things available under 'ACCESSORIES' was 'Scars' and 'Tattoos'. Neither option really appealed to him in any way, so he closed the menu and pressed the 'Finish Customization' icon.
A text box opened in the mirror before him, overlaid on top of his reflection.
WARNING! ONCE CUSTOMIZATION OF THE CHARACTER IS COMPLETED, NO FURTHER ALTERATIONS WILL BE ALLOWED.
DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?
After hitting the 'Finish Customization' icon once more, both the message and the stone archway vanished from sight. A window with the header 'Select USER HISTORY' appeared in its place. Beneath the header were three choices to choose from for his character background.
DUTY BOUND
With a long family history of military service, dating back to before the bombs dropped, your childhood was spent training you for the day you would become a Guard cadet for The Ark.
+5 to all Combat Skill levels
Tactical Baton
FREE THINKER
As a child, your intelligence was only matched by your unquenchable curiosity of the world around you. With a penchant for always asking about the how and the why of everything, your parents encouraged you to seek out your own answers.
+2 to INT and WIS
Blueprint
WHIZ KID
If you can think it, you can build it. If you can get your hands on it you can dismantle it. You're here to build shit and chew bubblegum… and you're all out of bubblegum.
+5 to INT
Blueprint
The three choices left Darren with a bit of a conundrum. His initial instinct was to go with the fighter class since it gave him a boost to combat skills and access to a weapon before the 'game' even started. However, he had no idea what kind of game he had even been placed in or whether or not combat would be something that he'd need to deal with anytime soon. The other two choices would provide stat boosts and blueprints, but again he had no idea what kind of effects stats had or even what the blueprints could be used for. In the end, Darren settled on 'WHIZ KID' since it increased what had to be one of the main character stats, by the largest margin. He really hoped that whatever the blueprint was for, turned out to be something worthwhile.
With his character customization completed, Darren was suddenly blinded as the void shifted from being endless darkness to an expanse of shining light. Darren had little time to think about the unexpected change because he felt his body launched forward at high speed.
Profile reconstruction… COMPLETE
Darren's eyes shot open as he was greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar metal ceiling. Sitting up on the bed, he looked around the unfamiliar room. Identifying it as a bedroom, he was surprised by how spartan it was in appearance. Like the ceiling, the walls and floor were built out of the same gray metal.
'Where the hell am I where they would build everything out of metal.' Darren thought to himself as he stood up to check out his new surroundings.
Modestly sized at 10x16, the full-size bed he had awoken on was tucked into a corner, opposite of a small closet. Other than the bed and a small reading desk placed adjacent to the closet, the room was empty of any furniture. Moving towards the only door in the room, Darren was surprised to find a touch screen interface embedded in the wall next to it. As he stood before the interface, an unseen sensor inside of it registered his approach and opened the door for him to pass through.
The next room that he entered looked to be about twice as large as the bedroom he woke up in. He assumed that this was the living room of his new home since it shared all the normal amenities of one. Though he noticed the couch, coffee table, and the 52-inch flat-screen; most of Darren's focus was on other more pressing issues.
When he'd first woken up, Darren had assumed his new location was on some kind of military ship, given all the metal construction. Even the fancy touch screen on the wall hadn't swayed that belief much. However, the view shown from the apartment's sole window ended that assumption conclusively.
Practically floating across the floor, Darren moved to the window and watched silently as the advanced looking space station he was on floated through space backdropped by what he assumed was Earth.
Darren lost track of how much time he'd spent gazing out the window to the world beyond, but the unexpected sound of a trilling beep brought it to an end. Unaware of its origination, Darren stood quietly and waited. Thirty seconds later it went off for a second time. The sound made him think that it was some kind of alarm, or an alert, going off. It went off again, this time Darren realized that it was coming from some kind of intercom system. Any further into the investigation behind the sound was made pointless by a series of loud knocks against the door on the other side of the room.
Darren walked over to the door, but before he even had the chance to ask himself how he was supposed to open it a prompt, similar in appearance to closed-caption, appeared at the edge of his sight. 'PRESS THE BUTTON TO UNLOCK' was displayed as well as the correct button being highlighted with a yellow outline.
The door slid open to reveal a beautiful young woman on the other side. Tan skin with long dark brown hair and brown eyes, the woman's slim and athletic figure spoke of an active lifestyle. Though her beauty was eye-catching, to say the least, Darren's attention was again captured by the oddity of his new circumstances as he stared at a status bar hovering above her head.
Raven Reyes, Mechanic
Level: ?
Rep: 51 (Friendly)
*** ABILITIES can be unlocked through discovery or be taught by an instructor or skill book. Abilities come in two varieties: ACTIVE or PASSIVE. ACTIVE ABILITIES are abilities that must be activated by the user. An example would be magical attacks. Available ACTIVE ABILITIES can be activated by calling out their names. PASSIVE ABILITIES are abilities that grant permanent trait bonuses without any interaction by the user. An example would be an increase in the user's stats, negative status resistance, or an increase in damage output. ***
Use OBSERVE ability on RAVEN REYES
Darren followed the prompt and whispered 'Observe' under his breath. The command instantly caused the flow of time to suddenly shift around him, or his perception of it was altered because the world started to move at a snail's pace. The sudden shift caught Raven in mid-blink. Things were moving so slow that Darren could even follow her eyelids slowly slide closed. A new information window opened up in front of Raven, revealing more information to him.
Name: Raven Reyes
Level: ?
Rep: 51 (Friendly)
Profession: Mechanic
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 121 lbs. (55 kg)
ACTIVE ABILITIES level up through constant usage. PASSIVE ABILITIES are increased through continued exposure to the unlocking event. The higher the level, the stronger or more expansive an ability becomes.
Once he was done going over Raven's information, another prompt came up and revealed how to exit out of the 'Observation' window. After doing so, the passage of time returned to its normal speed.
"What took you so long, Dee? Were you trying to hide your porn stash?" Raven said to him as she walked inside of his quarters. "Because I already know where you keep it."
Darren paused at the unusual question. "Um… no. I was just in the bathroom."
Raven gave Darren a smile that said that she didn't really believe him, but she said nothing more about it.
"So what made you stop by?"
Raven whirled around to look at him with an incredulous look. "It's Freakout Friday."
"'Freakout' Friday?"
"It's movie night, dumb dumb." Raven replied before she pulled a glass bottle filled with a clear liquid from her backpack. "You did remember that I was coming over tonight, didn't you?"
"Of course I did." Darren lied. "I've just been losing the days in my head all day. I thought today was Saturday, not Friday."
Darren saw Raven give him the stink eye before quickly shifting to a wide smile.
"Good." Raven replied before setting her backpack down and getting cups for the two of them.
Ping!
[New skill unlocked: Deception]
DECEPTION, Lvl: 1 (0%)
The user gains the ability to deceive people without being discovered.
5% chance of success
-20% to chances of success if the lie is too unbelievable.
Darren quickly dismissed the prompt and moved to join Raven, who was now sitting on his couch.
"So what do you have planned in that pretty little head of yours?"
"Tonight's movie marathon will be a 'theme night'." Raven answered as while she turned on his tv screen and uploaded a playlist to it from her datapad.
"And what is tonight's theme, dear madam?" he asked in a posh British accent while he poured each of them a drink.
"Sea monsters." Raven replied excitedly as the first movie on the playlist started up.
Darren too became excited when the first "Duunn Dun" of the classic movie score started to play. 'Jaws' was one of his favorite movies to watch growing up, even though it scared the shit out of him when he was a kid. Even as an adult, he still closed his eyes during the point in the scene where Hooper goes into the water to examine Ben Gardner's boat and the corpse does a jumpscare.
Darren spent the next two hours quoting the movie scene after scene while Raven would scream at the movie's most tense moments. They even had to pause the movie for a second because Raven was too freaked out after watching the scene where the shark knocked the guy out of the boat and you could see it about to attack him from an aerial POV shot. By the time "You're gonna need a bigger boat" was uttered, Raven had buried herself into Darren's chest in an effort to get him to protect her from the giant mechanical shark.
Darren could only look down at her and smile as he found another thing to add to his list of reasons why as to why 'Jaws' was one of his favorite movies.
DARREN'S QUARTERS
THE ARK
Next Day
***You have received a full night's rest. HP and MP have been restored to 100%***
Darren opened his eyes, awoken by the message's arrival. Any lingering fatigue quickly vanished while he stared up at the message window. On instinct, Darren swiped his hand at the notification, dismissing it from view.
Heading into the bathroom, Darren went about his normal morning routine for getting ready for the day. Once he was dressed in a clean set of the clothes he'd worn yesterday, Darren walked out into the living room and sat down on the couch. He sat in silence as he stared out the window at the space station floating in the darkness. He thought about exploring his new home, but without knowing what was allowed and what wasn't he decided to just laze about on the couch. At least that had been his plan right up until a circular icon materialized at the corner of his vision. Swinging his head around, the icon moved from the corner of his eyesight to right in the middle once his gaze landed on what he considered his front door.
When he got close, the door slid open revealing the hallway outside of his home. Its appearance was a matching set to the design aesthetics of his residence. Not that he expected differently since it was a space station.
The icon blinks momentarily before it reappeared in another position in his field of view. Whatever it was pointing to was located somewhere to his right.
Darren smacked himself in the head when he realized what it was doing. 'Duh. It's a location marker for a quest.'
Walking the halls of the station, Darren met more of its occupants each of them having the same status bar that Raven had. He gave a 'Good Morning' to everyone he walked past as he followed the marker to its destination. Eventually, he found himself standing outside of another door. However, this one possessed windows allowing him to see within the room, revealing his destination to be the station's mess hall.
Walking inside the room, he was greeted by the regular sounds of a filled room as people conversed with one another over breakfast. He couldn't see any sign of Raven anywhere among the throng of people in the room, so he settled for eating his meal alone.
Once he reached the front of the line, Darren was handed a tray that held a bowl, a cup of water, and a small plate with several pieces of diced fruit. While the fruit looked appetizing the bowl held a grayish-brown substance with a consistency that landed somewhere between yogurt and cellulite. The only thing he could think of was either grits or watery oatmeal and neither option had ever really appealed to him back home. Still, he took the tray and walked away to find somewhere to sit. He chose an empty table in the back of the hall that gave him a clear view of the room. Darren had never felt comfortable having his back exposed to people, so he always sat in spots that were either low traffic or prevented people from even walking behind him. A holdover from his days being bullied when he was a child.
Looking down at his platter, Darren used 'Observe' on the bowl of food revealing it to be oatmeal or at least what the game classified as oatmeal. He stared down at the bowl weighing the pros and cons of eating it when two people sat down at the table across from him.
The first of the two was a teenage male with brown skin, dark eyes, and black hair. Looking up at the status bar, Darren learned that his name was 'Wells Jaha'. Wells' companion, Clarke Griffin, was a young woman of similar age. Clarke had cream-colored skin with blue eyes, a round face with dimple chin, and curly blonde hair.
"Breakfast of champions." Wells said after he dipped his spoon into his bowl of food and let it slide off the utensil.
"You mean the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions." Clarke replied before she started eating on her own bowl.
"If you close your eyes, it almost feels like you're eating runny eggs. " Wells said in between bites of the 'oatmeal'.
Darren decided to get it over with and took a small spoonful. The taste wasn't something that he would consider offensive to his taste buds, but it wasn't a meal that he would rush to get a portion of. Thankfully, it was nice and warm, which kept the disgust factor down to a minimum. Before long, he managed to finish off the entire bowl.
For the rest of breakfast, Darren sat and talked with Clarke and Wells, learning that the two of them had also known him prior to his arrival on what he now knew was called 'The Ark'. Clarke through her father, Jake Griffin who was the Chief Engineer for the Ark and also Darren's boss. Wells, who was the son of the Ark's chancellor, met and befriended him through Clarke. After breakfast was over, the three of them went about the rest of their day. Wells and Clarke headed for class and Darren following the location marker to his next destination.
Greetings to everyone new and old.
For those of you reading my stories for the first time, I hope that you'll join me for this ride and that I can entertain you along the way. For those of you who are long time fans, I'm sorry that I was gone for so long, and thank you for still wanting to read what I put out.
Why Were You Gone So Long?
Real-life problems, mechanical problems, and lack of interest is the easiest way to summarize why I've been gone. The first two, in multiple instances, have mostly been why I haven't POSTED anything, but I never stopped WRITING. Not entirely.
What Are You Working On Now?
I'm no longer as focused on Buffy centric stories, but I still have a couple in the works. They just aren't as numerous as before. There are a couple more Gamer stories in the pipeline, but this was the only one out of the outlining phase and ready to post. Welcome To My Parlor is going to be finished one day, even if I have to hand it off to another writer and just give them outlines and things of that nature.
What Happens If You Disappear... Forever?
In the case I shuffle off of this mortal coil, I already have plans in place to release everything so that you guys can see what was already completed, where things were going for future stories, and the tools to pick up and go off in your own directions if that's what you want.