==== Prototype
In the blackness, a simple book in a bubble shone brightly, and the bubble split it two. One went up into the sky, and the other descended downward past the drop-off on the other side of the fence. In its place was left a person that looked kinda ghostly. Strange, he looked vaguely familiar.
The screen faded back into color to show Jessica slumped over her Alchemiter. Thank goodness she was safe. I prodded her with the cursor for a little while until she awoke. She mumbled something, but I think she dropped her phone when she saw the meteor. I couldn't hear what she was saying.
That's when the ghostly looking person floated over to her. She slowly looked up, and with a start, squealed so loud the phone on the ground picked it up.
"GEORGE!?"
I do admit, I have no clue what she said after that, but I'm pretty sure it involved fangirling. After all, she did suddenly run up and hug him with more excitement and delight than I ever thought possible for her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was foaming at the mouth.
Since she was thus distracted, I decided to check out the rest of the server features.
The interface was pretty cool. There were seven different selection options it seemed in the top tab. select, revise and deploy looked like different positions of the cursor you had seen floating around. No clue what a Phernalia Registry was, Grist Cache looked like one of those weird hard blue fruit gusher looking things, no clue what Explore Atheneum meant, and I only knew one of the words in Alchemy Excursus meant, but it looked like that pre-punched card. Alright, so I guess I really did need to fiddle around.
On the left corner, there were scroll and zoom buttons. There were also a save and load button? Also an x button. I tried pressing the save button, but it just apparently saved the location the camera was at. Alright, that will be useful if I need to get back to the backyard fast.
I looked at the deploy menu again. There was something that I hadn't seen before, but it apparently cost four purple fruit gusher things. However, judging from the name "Grist Cache", I put together that they were called grist. That will make things easier in the future!
I didn't know what else to do, so I just left Jessica to fan girl. It looked like this George fellow was trying to calm her down and tell her something.
I didn't really know what else to do, so I got off the computer. I looked around the room, and sighed, sitting down on the couch. This was the worst thing ever. I was seriously worried about Jeremy, and Jay never called me back. I decided I should look at my iPod one more time, the flimsy hope that maybe Jeremy had texted back.
Nope.
I slumped in the couch in dejection. What was I going to do? My server player and good friend was dead, and there wasn't anything I could no. No, no, no. I couldn't say that. He couldn't be dead, but somehow it felt like I was right.
This was seriously horrible.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Meager hope flared up in me as I jumped to answer it.
"Hello?" I said eagerly.
"Hey." Said Acadia.
I do admit that I was hoping it would be Jeremy, but I guess that was to no avail. At least Acadia was safe. She really needed to get into the Medium.
"Is Austen in?" I asked. Was he alright?
"Yeah, he prototyped a rubber ducky." Acadia said, trying to keep from laughing. The side of my mouth twitch upward, but with the weight of the situation was making me not feel like finishing the smile.
"We need to get you into the Medium." I said. I was serious; our situation was bad enough as it was. We couldn't let anything happen to anyone else.
"Yeah, I know. Who is going to connect to me?" She asked.
I thought for a moment, and remembered the order we had come up with.
"Zach Halso." I said. "We need to get him to enter though, and likely will need Hope to guide him through it."
Acadia seemed to understand what I was talking about. "Yeah. Just get ahold of me when he's ready, alright? I'll be helping Austen get to this first gate thing. He looks like he's having some trouble with these monsters."
"Alright, Good luck!"
Soon after, we hung up and I looked back at the screen. Was Jessica… Crying? Oh, George was trying to soothe her. It looked as if he wasn't sure what to do. Alright, I'm just going to try calling her again. I hoped the phone had hung up somehow.
I picked up the phone and dialed in Jessica's number. It started ringing. I looked at the screen and saw George float over to the phone and pick it up, bringing it back to Jessica. Finally, she picked up the phone.
"Hello?" She sniffled.
"Jessica, this is me, Jacob. It's really important that we-"
"IT'S GEORGE!" She squealed.
"Jessica, we need to get-"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT THIS IS THE BEST AND WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
"JESSICA!" I yelled through the phone. "We need to get Hope in here!"
She paused for a moment. I looked at the screen and finally she seemed to have stopped crying due to excitement overload. I continued.
"I don't want her to die, alright? I seriously doubt you do too. You need to connect to her!"
Jessica paused and got to her feet. "You're right." She said.
After she stopped flipping out about the fact that one of the Beatles was her guide thing, she got straight to the computer. We set up a three way call with Hope, and got ready to begin her entering.
"Alright." I said, "Is everyone ready?"
"Yup!" Hope said. Jessica agreed.
"Alright, I'm going to go and get hold of Jay. Just call me again when you've entered, alright? And remember, you have to enter before the timer on the Cruxtruder reaches zero. And I'm talking life and death importance here."
"Oh, so that's why you were yelling at me." Jessica said.
"Yeah." I said.
We talked for a moment after and I hung up to get hold of Jay once more.
Thankfully he picked up. I wasn't expecting what he said though.
"Hey, Jay." I said.
"Jacob," He responded, "A meteor hit my neighbor's house."
"What?" I exclaimed, "What in the world happened?"
"I don't know, but there are some weird frog ruins there now." He finished.
I remembered what Jeremy had said. Frog ruins? This was weird. Still, we had to get him in before it was his own house hit.
"Jay, we need to get you in. Have you contacted Austen yet? He's going to be your server player."
"That derp? Why is he going to be my Server?"
"Jay, come on. He's already entered the Medium. He'll know what to do. Besides, Acadia will help him. "
"Oh, that's so reassuring." He sarcastically stated. "Ah well, yeah, I'll get a hold of him."
"That's great! You know his number, right?"
"Of course." He said. "Well, I'm going to call him. I'll talk to you later."
"Alright, good luck!"
I put the phone back on the receiver, and looked back on the computer. Jessica seemed engrossed in being the server player. I shrugged and got on Tumblr.
Not to very much of a surprise, there were a ton of people on Tumblr freaking out and talking about the Medium. I scrolled down my dash for a while, and decided to look at the SBURB tag.
What I found was a surprise.
There were a bunch of people sobbing about dead players, doomed sessions, and not being able to find players. There were people posting videos of their lands, tips on how they were fighting, and a lot more people talking about Alchemizing. Some even had pictures of their sprites. Well, at least that's what they were calling them. I guess this meant that Jessica's sprite was called Georgesprite, and mine was ballsprite.
That's when I noticed something interesting. There was someone talking about how to prototype. What they were saying gave me an idea.
Ok, so judging on what me and my friends have prototyped, I think I have figured this out. You can prototype your sprite up to two times with pretty much anything you want. However, when you prototype it is very important to how your session goes.
From the looks of it, the monsters you fight will take on characteristics of anything you prototype before you enter. The prototypes after entry don't seem to have any effect on them, though. This makes for an important discovery: Prototype something weak and simple before you enter and something epic that can really help you, after you enter. However, it is really important that you prototype something before you enter, and this is the reason why.
I was in contact with one of my friends who had entered a session with their friends, but they had made a horrible mistake. As it turns out, if nobody prototypes anything before entering, all the enemies, who previously would have taken on the characteristics of what was prototyped before entry, became nearly invincible bone monsters. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!
Alright, Now for prototyping. The second prototype seems to mix with the first prototype, creating some sort of fusion between the two. However, if at least one of the prototypes are either a living, animate object, or previously were, they can actually communicate with you. This creates a guide that will be able to help you on your journey. Believe me, I wish I had known this when I did my second prototype. It was my favorite necklace, so now I'm stuck with a floating computer wearing a necklace.
I do have to admit, it's not that bad. This computer really comes in handy! I don't advise it though, it is a real problem when all the imps try to hack everything with the computer skills they all have. Ok, it is really annoying.
I hoped this prototyping guide helped you. Sorry I don't know everything, but at least you won't have to learn all of this the hard way. So long and good luck! Sylph of Hope, signing out!
That really was handy. I pressed the follow button. I hoped they would have more useful tidbits of information as their session went on.
It also gave me an idea. Two prototyping, eh? I guess this meant I should prototype something living, or used to be living. But what?
I got off the computer and paced around, thinking. That's when I went to the glass door and slipped the blinds open.
Augh, stupid imps! There were three, trying to mess with the Alchemiter! Alright, I couldn't let them break it. That would not be good at all!
Quickly slipping on my winter outfit, I got my daggers ready and went back to the door. Alright, how was I going to do this? I didn't want to get myself in danger, so I needed a plan.
Once I thought for a minute, I was ready. I quickly slipped open the door and jumped out, slicing the first imp in the neck. The imps were still kind of in a state of surprise, so I quickly sliced the second one apart and finished the first one. However, the third one was back in action, and I had to deal with it retaliating. At least this gave me more of a chance of not getting harmed.
The imp made a dash and pecked my leg with its duck beak. Wait a second, did Austen prototype something about a duck, or did someone else make it into the session finally? I didn't have time to dwell on it though. I sliced my knife downward through the air, but the imp sidestepped before I could hit it. I jumped back to dodge it's pack once more, and jumped over it, hurdling the knife through the air toward it, imbedding itself into the imp's head.
The imp puffed out of existence, and I was left with the grist the three left behind. I immediately put it on the Alchemiter and it absorbed it.
I walked to the edge of my deck and looked over the lawn, thinking once more of how to prototype my sprite. None of my family was home, so I don't have any living people. I don't have any pets, so that was out of the question.
Well, except for Sammy, but he was buried…
Wait a second; if I were to dig him up, I could talk to him again! Ok, that was a pretty gross idea, but that was really the only living or used to be living thing in or around my house.
I ran to my garage and got the shovel, and ran outside to the place where he was buried, and began the task of digging him up.
Imps would interrupt me, but I would dispatch them. However, when I was about a quarter done, I got tired of the constant interruption, so whenever an imp can close I would just smash it with the shovel. Thankfully, after a little while, I had a bunch of grist around me and the imps started to leave me alone.
Finally, I completed the task, and there it was. In the earth laid a simple metal box. I got it out of the ground and carried it back up to my deck where my ballsprite was waiting. Without warning, I opened the box lid without looking and threw the contents into the sprite. There was a flash of light and the smell disappeared. Slowly I looked up.
There he was. My late cat, Sammy, in his fullness! As I stood there staring, he came up and rubbed my leg.
"Sammy?" I asked.
"Meow!" He answered. Oh.
I felt kind of dejected and happy at the same time. I finally was with my dear cat, Sammy again. He couldn't talk, though.
"So, I guess you can't talk?" I asked.
"Meow…"
"Oh."
"I can talk." Sammysprite said.
I looked up quickly. Sammy! I felt such a warm sense of comfort enter me. Sammy could talk! I had Sammy again!
"Ohh, I missed you!" I said, as I ran up to and hugged him, holding him in my arms. I couldn't believe it! Sammy!
It was still cold outside though, and I had been out for a while, so we both went back inside.
I closed the door behind me, and looked at my sprite, and newly revived beloved pet. That's when I realized. With Sammy at my side helping me, and my friends all working with me to get to the end of this game and beat it, we really had no reason to fret. We could do this. I don't know if it was just hope that seeing Sammy once more inspired within me, or real inspiration, but for the first time since I entered, I felt like this was going to work out.
It was wonderful.