EDITED: October 7, 2024. (I further tweeked the Lore, in multiple chapters, and rearranged paragraphs)
Author's Note: I'm bringing my stories back to one place. While doing a re-write of them. There is a lot of new content, and tweeks to the Lore, but if you read my stories over on my "ColtKit Prods. - Virtual Reality" Profile, a lot of this may seem familiar.
"Reality is the only thing that's real."
That was the High 5's favorite saying. And with the invention of Nerve-Gear, it was made possible for people to spend their waking hours, out and about in the real world, without compromising their time in the Oasis.
The "Dreamscape Helmet", as the Oasis brand was called, was a marvel of modern technology. Built by Ogden Morrow, the same specialist that invented the hardware for the Oasis.
Although Og had little to do, with building the digital worlds, or gaming mechanics. As he just built the hardware, and contributed to the stories and plots.
This new helmet, caused anyone whom wore it, to have their dreams directed by the Oasis. They still entered RIM sleep, but instead of chaotic dreams of random thoughts, they would have their minds guided in a virtual world.
The players could feel everything going on around them, and to them. They could even taste foods. But it was all simulations their brain was interpreting, through programs.
Player's could spend a day, in the Oasis, for a single hour of the Real World. With the ability to speed up time even faster, while playing solo games.
Unfortunately, a child's brain was too under developed, to safely handle the Main Oasis server. Not with this added function.
So children, from preschool through college, would attend Virtual Reality Classes, in an entirely different server. Which also had "family friendly" games, and used "Child friendly Censorship". Until the kid turned 25, and could buy a Dreamscape Helmet.
Many kids bought a different helmet, for every more limited VRMMORPGs, they played. Which had Parental Lock options.
While 16 year olds, had developed enough brains, for the main "Oasis Matrix: Dreamscape Edition" Helmet.
New Definition of "Childhood".
Eventually the legal age of adulthood, was pushed up to 25. There were a large number of factors, that led to a new definition of "Childhood".
Starting with kids, staying kids, for longer. Due too prices going up, and being unable to move out of their parents house... which resulted in parents getting tired of having no rights over their children, despite them living at home.
Then some politicians, wanting votes, said it was unethical to imprison a 20 year old, for 20 years or longer. Given their underdeveloped brains, meant it was harder for them to make responsible decisions.
Then there were improvements in Cybernetic organs, pushing the Average life Expectancy to unknown limits, so long as they received regular maintenance of their synthetic organs. And better drugs, in simple over the counter vitamins, making it so people rarely developed brain disorders.
All that resulted in kids, being allowed to stay kids, for longer. Oh they continued to get "legal privileges", like being able to drink alcohol, or sleep with people in their general age bracket. Until they became rights, at 25, but parents had the right to set up rules and restrictions on these things...
It also become illegal for a 40 year old to sleep with anyone under 25. Which 24 year olds, whom had a "Daddy" fetish, were not happy about. Older adults, weren't happy about it, either. But it became the new normal. And Adults could always use younger Avatars... although some went way too young... but that was still legal.
Too keep children active, during the day, the High 5 opened up more real world Community Centers. Which each had 4 teams, for every sport, in every age bracket. Those would compete with each other, then the winners would compete against their counties other community centers. Then moving up to state wide. Followed by Country wide, and finally world wide.
They also had retro gaming, on consoles and arcade boxes. Even rigs setup, to play in the original server of the Oasis. There were also boardgames, and movies. They even had a Dojo, to learn real world self defense. With the Community Center, organizing a wide variety of events, for everything they offered.
• Halliday and Og:
In the year 1975, James Halliday and Ogden Marrow were born. They attended the same school, and became the best of friends.
At the age of 67, they released the Oasis. A Virtual Reality simulator, that used additional gear (such as vest and gloves, and potentially entire body suits). Which allowed players to feel what their Avatar does. With Halliday creating the programming, and Og the hardware.
Within 5 years, the OASIS had completely replaced the Internet itself.
Decades later, Halliday forced Marrow to sign away his shares in their joint company... and Og returned to his work in Cybernetic implants and prosthetics.
20 years later, the rich and powerful succeeded in Terraforming Mars, and flee Earth. Leaving the middle class and poor to fend for themselves. The last act of all governments, was to hand control of all countries over to Halliday.
At 166 years old, Halliday dies. Only able to live so long thanks to replacing most of his organs with Og's synthetic ones. Halliday leaves control of Earth's global government, to Ogden Marrow.
Og has similar upgrades to Halliday, but gets them routinely replaced, along with memory storage implants.
When Halliday dies, his brain is quickly removed, and installed into a super computer. Using a special gel to stimulate the brain, while preserving it. However, Halliday is declared legally dead, despite his conciousness surviving through his brain. Few people know Halliday is still around, and built a new identity as the Command Mode of the Oasis.
• Parzival's Origins:
Everyone knew everything, about Parzival. They freaking taught his history to school children. With multiple movies focused on Z's life. It was kinda hard not to know about "The First to the Key"... but knowing the real thing... just enforced the real life tragedy of it all.
He really was named "Wade Watts", because his dad was a dork, and thought it sounded like a Superheroes secret identity. Like Peter Parker, or Bruce Banner.
Wade was born to a couple of dumb teenagers, soon after all the small towns had been deserted. His parents had been some of those refugees. Living in "the stacks", a place where all the trailers and RVs people used, to get to the big cities, were literally stacked on top of each other.
Just a few months, after Wade was born, his father was shot to death, while looting a grocery store, during a power outage... Apparently the man had been mostly trying to steal diapers, and other necessities he struggled to afford.
Parzival's mother, Loretta, had to get two full-time jobs after that. Both, in the Oasis. By Day, She worked as a telemarketer... but by night... she wasn't anything as glamorous as a caped vigilante... no, she was a virtual escort.
Loretta introduced her child to the Oasis, at a young age, as a means of babysitting him, while she worked.
There, Wade played various games, watched nearly every movie and show in existence, and learned all kinds of useful life skills. Including his tech savviness.
When Wade was 11, his mother died from a drug overdose. Which is sadly, too often the fate of those that struggle with drug addiction, as she had.
After that, Wade moved in with his aunt, and her "Endless stream of hard loving losers"... one thing the vids didn't know, was these men were often abusive to both his aunt and himself... in more ways then one.
Wade dived further into the Oasis, often as an escape from his crappy life.
His aunt tried her best to take care of him... but that mostly meant hiding him in one of the neighbors homes, when her Boyfriends were feeling particularly brutal.
The neighbor was a friendly cat lady... who may have been a tad overly enthusiastic about her religious beliefs. But unlike the Stereotypes, she was actually a good person. Even realizing the bible didn't actually teach anything against Homosexuality, directly, as she actually bothered to read the thing.
Most of Wade's waking hours, were spent in his secret hideout. A van, within the junk yard of cars, that got abandoned after gas became too expensive, and everyone in the city switched to electric... which, given how often the batteries of those things need to be replaced, wasn't actually any better for the environment.
At first, Wade attended school in the real world. But then volunteered to go to school in the OASIS. A new phenomena at the time.
However, he didn't have enough money to do anything else. Wade was often bullied by the richer students at the school. Since he only wore the default options for clothing. The kids quickly picked up, that meant he was too poor to buy literally anything else. However, since it was a no PvP zone, he was safe from injury... and learned to wield his words as hard as any fist.
Wade largely slacked off during school. However, he still earned enough credits to graduate.
In his spare time, Wade obsessed with Halliday's Hunt for the ultimate "Easter Egg". Learning everything he could about not only pop culture, but Halliday's life.
This is how he met his best friend, Aech, a Mod Designer, and virtual mechanic.
Later, he met his first girlfriend... Art3mis, a well-known Gunter, sharing a common interest in Halliday's history. However, EVERYONE knows how that ended.
But they started out, really hitting it off. Together, they studied Halliday's life, and learned of all the regrets the man had.
Including his unrequited love for Ogden Morrow's wife, Kira... and losing Morrow as a friend, after forcing him to sign away his part of Gregarious Games.
Parzival and Art3mis formed, what was supposed to be, a temporary alliance with Aech, Daito, and Sho. The other winners of the first challenge in "The Hunt for Halliday's Easter Egg"... or at least, the players that weren't working for I.O.I at the time.
Parzival and his new allies completed the second Challenge together. Forming strong bonds as they worked on the puzzle.
Within a few months of working together, and just before the "Battle for the Oasis", they decided to "Clan up". As they had become close friends, and wanted to make their final stand, as an official team.
They called themselves "The High 5"... based on a running joke that everyone refused to give Parzival high fives... and a bit of a pun, considering there were 5 of them.
During the battle, which consisted of nearly every player in the world, going after I.O.I. . . . well I.O.I. activated an artifact, to kill all Avatars on the entire planet, where the final challenge took place. Including themselves.
Respawn took less time, back then, and they were hoping they could get back to the planet, before anyone else.
Unfortunately, for them at least, though extremely fortunate for the rest of the world, Parzival had scored an Extra Life. So he had more then enough time to complete the 3rd, and final, Challenge.
After, Parzival, apparently, won the third task. A gateway opened to Halliday's AI. Where the boy was given a contract to sign. However, Wade recognized it as the same contract, Morrow signed to turn over his part of Gregarious. Parzival refused, saying he won't make Halliday's mistakes...
Now that moment... is rather iconic, although the vids do make it a bit more grand, with an added speech about the importance of Friendship. That didn't actually happen in real life.
The AI reveals that the contract was the final test and, after talking with him for a while, gave Parzival "the Golden Egg" and control of OASIS.
Once Wade returned to the real world, Morrow appears, having tracked them down during the beginning of the final challenge.
Morrow offered Wade his services. Which the teenager gladly accepted. Wade decided to run OASIS, with the other members of the High Five.
Parzival and Art3mis, decided to get an apartment, together. They dated for a little over three years... even got engaged at one point... but that all came crashing down, when she discovered Parzival is an age player.
But Parzival's life did work out... until the world ended. Then it only got better...
• Olive's Origins:
The Toma Clan was a wealthy family, living in Japan. While they were mostly of German descent, their family had been Japanese citizens since World War 2. A large family, fleeing the Nazis, while still wanting to live with Allies to Germany.
They had changed their last name to "Toma" to better fit in with the Japanese... although it was largely chosen at random.
They started a tech company, which had evolved into a global Empire.
With most of the family, living in separate houses within a large Estate.
Dad had gone to America, to go to a popular Californian university. Where he met his future wife... not in the university... he actually met her well exploring the landscape, and stumbled into a ghetto, with a mostly Mexican population.
They had a one night stand, and she got pregnant... then it turned out, she lied about the pregnancy, to trick dad into marrying her. But she had gotten pregnant for real, by the time this was discovered... She was not a nice lady...
Dad's family pretended not to realize what was going on, as the woman was pregnant, NOW, and they didn't want to create a scandal... it was already scandalous enough, with the college boy / expectant father.
Dad's mere existence was already enough of a scandal, so this certainly wasn't helping.
Mom moved to Japan, to live on the family estate. With the clan building her a house, and hiring a nanny and a maid. Although they were sure to get a prenup when the woman actually married Dad.
Within 7 years, they had 3 children... with mom, thankfully, dying during the birth of the third child. Dad, having lost his own mother to childbirth complications, refused to let that affect how he saw his youngest. Showering her with love.
Unlike his own father, who didn't even let dad live in the same house. Instead living with his grandmother, while playing with his cousins, in the clan estate. One cousin, became more like a sister. To the point Dad's children called her "Auntie".
Little Olive lived a life of luxury and plenty... until he started school...
It was a high end private school, the type of place that vets their staff thoroughly. And only hires the most qualified teachers... but not even that is foolproof.
Anyway, one lawsuit later, and free therapy for life. Ollivander had a new found fear of women...
Things didn't get easier from there. As the family curse held true.
He was later diagnosed with Autism, and put in Special Ed classes.
Not everything was bad, as it was still a luxury private school. That worked hard with the boy to develop the skills he needed... which turned out not to matter, as a few years into his college career, he developed Schizophrenia...
He was trying to live on his own at the time... and ended up another crazy homeless guy.
His family was able to track him down, and brought him back to the estate. Getting him medication... which gave him diabetes... another lawsuit, and Ollivander was back to living in the family penthouse... with a much larger trust fund, that his father controlled... due to the boy being declared incompetent.
However, then Ogden Morrow arrived on the Scene, and developed technology to control disorders like Schizophrenia and Bipolar. The Toma family gave the man enough money, to fund the project without need of military grants. So the boy was outfitted with the chip soon afterwards.
Things finally started looking up, as Ollivander was able to go back to School, and got Doctorates in: Sociology, Psychiatry, Psychology, and History.
He spent the next decade, researching fandoms... after all he already had a pretty sizable trust fund. It wasn't like he needed to have a career that paid ridiculously well...
Then the Oasis came out, and suddenly, people like Ollivander were in high demand.
The boy was hired onto I.O.I. and started making those ridiculous numbers.
He was even able to afford one of Morrow's harddrive implants. Giving him an eidetic memory, and a few dozen new skills. He was also able to buy, from morrow, a cybernetic pancreas and liver, curing his Diabetes.
Then genetic engineering improved, allowing people to stay in their Prime longer.
Yes things were looking up for him... until they weren't...
As the world's resources disappeared, Many of the world's wealthy fled to Mars... but they refused to take Ollivander, on account of his "genetic defects".
His family chose to stay behind with him, although the rest of the clan left... and liquidated their company... so no more trust fund.
Ollivander, and the other, now grown kids, ended up having to support their Aunt. Which wasn't really a big deal, as she was able to get a new job, working in Programming for I.O.I.
A job Ollivander was able to get her, by pulling strings.
Then, resources became so scarce, that all small towns had to be abandoned. Moving everyone into the larger cities, and turning completely to nuclear power.
A few years later, the world's governments agreed to hand everything over to James Halliday, as they fled the planet for Mars.
The Major cities became city states, and a new global government was established. This would have been a good thing... if the people weren't left behind to die in the wasteland Earth was becoming.
Then Halliday died, started that stupid contest, but left control of the planet's government to his former business partner, Ogden Morrow.
Then I.O.I. started to... change. Seeming to go the Super Villain route.
Eventually, I.O.I. was defeated, thanks to the High 5, who won the contest, and inherited the company...
Things were looking up again, but... you know what happened from there.
• Kirito's Origins:
Born as Narusaka Kazuto, Kirito was adopted by his aunt and uncle, after his biological parents died in an accident, when he was a year old. They gave him their own family name, and never told him he wasn't their biological son... the kid had to figure that out on his own.
Regardless, his new parents raised him, as if he was their own son. With all the love and nurturing any boy could need.
Practically as soon as he could walk, Kazuto was forced to join the neighborhood kendo dojo. Alongside his cousin / perceived older sister
However due to his aunt's influence, as an editor for a computer systems magazine, Kazuto became more interested in computers, and dropped the course.
This decision earned him a heavy beating from his grandfather, prompting Suguha (Kazuto's cousin) to defend him, by promising to practice enough for both of them.
At the age of ten, Kazuto discovered that he was adopted, and started unintentionally distancing himself from the family.
After turning 14, Kirito was chosen to be one of the 1000 beta testers for the closed beta of Sword Art Online, the first game to use "Nerve Gear".
A year of testing later, and Kirito joined the official version. Becoming one of the 10,000 players trapped inside the game "Sword Art Online".
He remained a solo player for the majority of his imprisonment. Willingly taking on the role of a "Beater", to reduce discrimination against other former beta testers. As well as actively taking part in Boss battles.
Kirito temporarily became a member of the Moonlit Black Cats. After helping them safely escape a dangerous dungeon, but returned to being a solo player when a fatal error resulted in the death of the other guild members.
At some point in the game, Kirito became known as "The Black Swordsman" due to his tendency to wear black clothing.
3 years into the game, Kirito ran into "the girl of his dreams". Having bumped into her numerous times. However, this was the first time they got to actually stay with each other.
Choosing to forget about escaping for a little while, they both tried to temporarily live in a cabin they stumbled on. This turned into a year of bliss for both of them.
Unfortunately, just as Kirito decided to leave the escape plans to other people, she tragically died. Although they never officially married, only engaged, he listed himself as a Widow.
After being found by Klein, the Samurai took the Swordsman as his ward, with Kirito not having the will to argue... and when Kirito did recover... he found he enjoyed their oddly platonic relationship.
Kirito eventually put an end to the game, by defeating the final boss, in a one on one fight. Thus freeing everyone.
However... he couldn't keep away from Nerve Gear. Later being Approached by a new division of Military intelligence. Designed to protect players from rogue hackers, that now infected the game.
Hacking may have once been an annoyance, but now it could potentially destroy people's livelihoods... or even leave them catatonic.
Licensed Modding was still allowed, but had a lot of red tape, to insure the programs were properly tested... and didn't do anything too game breaking. People were messing with brain chemistry, after all. So officials had to ensure there mods didn't cause brain damage.
On this task force, Kirito was the first and last defense against cyber terrorism.
The Oasis was, already, the best way to cope with what the world had become. What humanity had turned it into... Well, not his generation directly. Kazuto was old, but not THAT old.
During the industrial revolution, when technology got a huge boom... those guys hadn't realized they needed to regulate their consumption of resources. Nor find better ways to dispose of the waste.
I didn't blame them. They had done what humanity had always done. The issue was they didn't understand the sheer level of pollution these things cause... nor thet that did more then make the air smell bad.
Really, how were they supposed to know? Then there was the population boom. Which only got worse and worse, as the centuries progressed. Which led to even greater consumption of resources, and more pollution. Then there was the energy crisis.
People had been saying they needed to get off fossil fuels for decades, but humans, like all animals, are resistant to change. They eventually used it all up. Only then switching to things like alternative energy... which regrettably, wasn't green energy, but rather nuclear... Which, given it's nature, was only possible to set up for major cities.
Small towns became a thing of the past. As all surrounding people fled to big cities, due to lack of resources.
The Oasis, for the longest time, acted as an escape. A Virtual Reality, housing all mankind's Knowledge. It's what replaced the internet. Though, thankfully, most major cities prioritized setting up free Wi-Fi stations. As it was more important then ever.