Jessica (Hafnium)

[CrazyPerson]

Bio:

Spoiler

Name: Jessica
Age: 20
Level 0 Trait: Sword.
Description:

Spoiler

Attitude: A college student-slash-fast food worker with an unreasonably cheery personality considering that she's a college student-slash-fast food worker. In most aspects of her life she can be adequately described as an athletic tomboy with a dangerous blend of confidence and impatience, and she usually more than willing to throw herself at any problem or challenge until she comes out on top. She's an energetic sort and most of her free time is spent at some physical activity or another.

When she was invited to test the EGG she quickly decided to give it a try for three reasons in particular: first being that it's full immersion VR and who hasn't dreamed of that since they were a toddler, second being that she's always been interested in European martial arts and certainly wanted to give melee combat a try in a risk free environment, and finally that she's a bit of a closet pervert who has never been brave enough to try to act or find a partner willing to try her fantasies and has read many enticing rumors about the game's content since she received her invitation. Obviously getting triple-stuffed by virtual tentacles is a much more reasonable first step in that direction than asking a boyfriend that she doesn't have.

Jessica was pretty sure she had the right address. Well, mostly. The invitation had been clear enough, an email with a perfunctory greeting, a location, time and date, and more attachments than she’d seen on a single email, ever since that freshman group project left her to compile everyone’s essays into a coherent document.
Thing is, the building at the address didn’t exactly scream “Virtual reality made here” - it was an anonymous office tower, the kind she’d only been to once, visiting an old school friend at her workplace. Great view over downtown, but not exactly kind of place students got into.

“What can possibly go wrong?” She thought as she walked in the front door. Only one way to find out. Looking around, she saw something else she wasn’t used to seeing: A decent coffee machine, and by the looks of it, you didn’t even have to sign up to some prof’s special-interest club to get some. Right next to it was one of these old-timey black boards with stuck-on letters listing every company in the building.
She grabbed a cup of homework miracle sauce, and checked if this mysterious ‘E.G.G. Corporation” appeared in the list - which made her quickly revise her earlier notion: apparently students did get here. At least, she was pretty sure the company on the first floor wasn’t actually called “Bally’s Investment Wanking”, and “Anal penetration testing” probably wouldn’t be able to afford a penthouse office. This did leave some entries a jumble of leftover letters, though, so maybe “A. .G. MR Carp.” on the fourth floor was the place?

"Ya headed for them E-Gee-Gee folks?" Came a voice from behind her, which turned out to be a weary-looking security guard watching over the lobby. She nervously responded “Erm, almost, visiting a friend who’s working right next door to them.” At which the guard just gave a sigh, rolled his eyes, and said "Listen, lady. I’m not paid to care what they do up there that gets everyone who shows up so flustered. But the shit I’ve seen ma night shifts, I doubt you’d even get into my top 10. ‘Sides, the place next door to them tests adult diapers, and you look a bit young to be doin’ that."
Just as she wondered if she’d offended the man and would have to find it on her own, he continued “Stairs are through there, up 3 flights, just across the hall. Or, if ya prefer the ‘vater, up to 3, down the hall, second right.”

Up there, she was quickly greeted by a young receptionist, and after a few minutes of waiting, got picked up by her “tech”, a busty nerdy girl in some odd sort of dress/labcoat combination. Her tech badged her through an unmarked door, through a twisted corridor, through more badge-locked doors, and more twists.
Along the way, as Jessica remarked on the list down in the lobby, her tech explained “Yeah, sorry about that. As you’ve seen from the invitations, we don’t exactly advertise much. We know you’re cool with what we do here, but unfortunately not everyone is so enlightened. So we figured we’d try to get a few years of calm alpha in a nice building before every church in the contintent pickets us for corrupting the youth.” The tech paused briefly mid-sentence through every door until it clicked shut behind them.

Eventually, they ended up in a small, featureless room with a large white pod in the corner. “Um, where’s the VR arena? Where’s all the stuff?” - “In a datacenter downtown! You don’t want to go there, though, it’s all hot and stuffy.” Came the cheerful reply. “Doesn’t anyone read the fucking manual anymore? The details are proprietary, but you just get into the Egg - how did you think we got the name? - and BAZOOM, you’re on the fun side of the datacenter. Well, at first it’ll be Josh’s new settings menu, which is a bit weird. Sure beats manually tweaking system parameters from the debugger, though. Oh, those were the days...”

Spoiler

Apologies for the text flood - I won't be this verbose every post, but I figured it's an intro, and I had some time where I couldn't do much but type that up. Hope this didn't get too out of hand.
I also figured the initial is a bit railroaded with little actual interaction, so I just wrote a few intro scenes together. That said, if you'd prefer to play out some of these interactions more, you can totally just pick a point to play to and I'll move the rest into the next post.
Otherwise, the next post will just be the settings menu - I figured this post was getting a bit too long to put that in here, too.

As I'm new to this: Any feedback or improvement suggestions appreciated!

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

"There was a manual?" The words slipped out before her brain processed what a bad idea it was to admit that she hadn't even glanced at it. At first she was genuinely confused because she honestly didn't remember it but as the seconds ticked by so too did her brain tick and tock until her memory jolted. Right, the manual, the one that she kept promising herself that she was going to read but getting distracted by other things every time she'd been at her computer. It had been completely innocent. Just a few more minutes on that website to see what new images had been added since she'd last looked thirty minutes prior, just another few funny cat videos, just one more list of the nineteen most X that Y'd. If only just a few more minutes hadn't turned into forgetting about the thing completely.

"I must have overlooked it or something, sorry." She rubbed the back of her head, the picture image of awkwardness. It was just a little white lie, right? She'd gone through all the shorter documentation, it was just that big one that she'd put off until it had been put entirely off of her mind. It was a situation made more awkward by the fact that now she had to blindly stumble through asking the tech questions that had probably been covered. Plus she was still constrained by that creeping societal pressure to pretend that she wasn't there to enjoy all the benefits of having an adventurous boyfriend and none of the responsibilities, even if the other woman had already made her understanding clear. "Um, so, there are no controllers or keyboards or anything then, right? It's all just based on my body movement? I don't have to have something attached to the back of my neck or something like in the movies, right? That always made me squeamish."

"And how do I get in? What about my clothes? Will they interfere with the, uh, controls?" That was the ticket. The tech would never suspect a thing, phrasing it so innocently. She was just worried about whether or not the EGG would be able to pick up on her motions and commands, yeah, that was it. Her question definitely couldn't have been more accurately put as 'if I don't get naked will that block the vibrators or whatever the EGG uses for stimulation?' If Jessica pretended to believe it then the tech would definitely believe it as well.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

FP=?/?, AP=?/?, Status=Keepin' it real.

Strangely enough, the tech actually brightened up as Jessica mentioned she hadn’t read the manual. "Ah, don't worry about it. They bury it in so much boring paperworky stuff that I'm surprised anyone still maintains it to begin with. Besides, these days they're all about the self-explanatory tutorials, right? Annyhow..." At this, the tech transformed into what could only be described as a cheerleader stance, extending an arm to the pod, and pressing her finger down on a hidden button. "One newbie introduction to the EGG, comin' right up!" Just as she finished her line, there was a hissing sound, a large circular crack formed on the pod, and a door lifted slowly out and up, revealing a white, featureless interior.
She patted the inside, revealing that the walls were cushioned. "Sooo. You get in there, door shuts, the walls block out any outside sensation. Gets you into a state just like dreaming, see, except that instead of getting into an adventure with grandma, you get a carefully-crafted set of adventures that'll blow her cookies right out the water!" A sly wink at that. "So, when you're cleaning this, you'll want to give the walls a good scrub, but be careful here at the top - electronics and all that, don't like to get wet. When you're done, just toss your bucket o'soap right down this drain here in the center, just be sure to wipe down into it - some of the clients really leak, and this'll start to smell if you're not careful."

As the tech looked up from her explanation, she saw the confused expression on Jessica's face, looked down to her clipboard, frowned, looked back up, back down… "Oh, right. Customer intro, not tech intern intro. My bad." She visibly fast-forwarded through half her intro, and continued, getting right back into her groove: "Right. So when you're all settled in, I'll shut the door, and you'll start having fun reaaal soon. Clothing? Don't worry about it. It all works without contact, so you could get in there in a winter parka and it'd still work. Not that I'd recommend that, sweat and all that. Personally, I just go down to panties - easy enough to bring a spare pair of those, I still need to work a shift afterwards. Besides, freedom for the puppies, amirite?" Jiggle, jiggle.
"Oh, controls. I've never heard of anyone who didn't get the hang of it, once you're zonked down, moving your foot is, well, just like moving your foot. One thing: If you need assistance, just say 'operator' and ask a question. Finding a landline phone and dialing 0 toootally optional. Right, I need to ask operator selection: You can get me as your totally savvy operator, and I'll solve allll your problems. If you'd prefer not to have a human know what you're up to, I can instead hook you up to the 'ole robo-oppy. I think they've even finally fixed the bug where it parsed 'Please help me!' as 'Pound me harder!'"
A beep came from the tech's pocket and a flashing red light came up on her glasses. "Whoopie, give me ooone moment..." Her glasses suddenly filled with a white glow, and she started gesturing in thin air. "Hey there. - Oh. - Well, okay, sure, but only this time..." Some more twisting gestures, and whatever she just did was apparently finished, her hands dropped back down, her glasses going normal again. "Sorry about that. Someone just got stuck on the wrong end of a nest of butt-spiders again... Oh. Right, I'm not supposed to talk about my opping incidents. So you never heard that, kay?"

Bright smile, turning back to the EGG. "Where were we? Oh, right, environment. Both me and the robo-op work on the standard environment. State of the art, and don't worry, you won't run into any other players. But the system will collect some anonymous stats on your gameplay, so we can tune and improve the adventures - did you know people on average enjoy anal for 27% longer than vaginal? So if you're one of them paranoid folk, I can instead set you up on a private partition, which will self-wipe the moment you exit, total privacy assured. But to make our lawyercats happy, I can't support you there, and you'd be running on last year's hardware, so you might see some glitches. So, your favorite opsen ever, old robby, or total isolation? Your call, I get paid either way."
When Jessica gave her answer, the tech would kneel down, open a hidden panel at the base of the pod/EGG, and quickly fiddle with some switches and wires. "Setup: Profile KJN742 ready for entry." was displayed on a small LCD screen, quickly vanishing as the tech closed the panel again. Bounced up again, and another cheerleader pose with both arms pointing at the still-open entrance door: "Ta-dah. All set up and ready to receive. Give the word when you're comfy and settled in, and I'll make the outside, go bye-bye."
If Jessica chose to undress, the tech would turn around and stand facing a corner, to give her some privacy. Almost managing to disguise her smirk before her back was turned.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Had she been a bit more observant and less mortified, Jessica might have gotten hung up on the apparent added functionality of the tech's glasses. As it was, the young college student was at an impasse following the tech's frankly impressive ability to breeze through from point to point of her explanation. On the one hand, being a pervert in total, virtually created privacy was one of the primary three reasons she had jumped at the chance at testing the EGG and involving another human in the act was pretty much the exact definition of what she was trying to avoid. On the other hand, being at the hands of a potentially uncaring machine that might not listen to her pleas to relent didn't seem as much fun outside of the world of the rated-18 comics she occasionally indulged in, especially not when something referred to as a 'butt spider' might be present. The idea of anonymous stats didn't bother her, whereas being isolated in a potentially glitchy VR simulation with no link to the outside world was worrying. By process of elimination, she ended up with one choice. "Uh, I guess I choose you, then? Sounds the safest, right?" She wasn't very confident about the second part.

But with that decision made, that just left entering the EGG. Well, that and getting undressed. She felt terribly silly about her earlier question right then. Actually, if she was to be honest she was feeling self-conscious in general about her reasons for pursuing the EGG, even though the tech seemed completely without judgement and admitted to having made use of it herself. Jessica felt almost as if the churches the tech had joked about might burst in through the door and drag her off for an exorcism for being lewd and impressionable or something. She had never let nervousness get in her way of sampling some of the most debauched things legally available on the internet, but her bravery hit a few stumbling blocks when faced with a VR machine that had people who would be directly involved in monitoring her and speaking with her afterward.

She had already accepted the invite though, right? And who wouldn't have if they'd been given half a chance? It was VR simulation like they dreamed about when she was a little girl! Besides, it wasn't like she was just going into the EGG for perverted reasons, that was tied for second on her list of interests. She might get a chance to delve through dungeons or save princesses or fly! She had to go through with it, she couldn't chicken out! And if she was going to do it, she was going to go all in on it! Swept up in that wave of courage, she would start to strip down without any warning to get the tech to turn around before the clothing started coming off, ignoring the other woman's knowing smirk.

She removed her shirt and pants and folded them first before leaving them next to the EGG and then unclasping her bra and dropping it on top of that stack. Jessica would march into the EGG a determined woman with almost everything on display. Her tech had probably seen it all before and in greater quantity anyway, as her lifestyle of athleticism hadn't exactly left her with much weight to spare for her chest. "I'm ready," she would announce, at which point her courage, having done its job getting her undressed and into the EGG, would falter and she chose to use her arm as a bra until the pod closed. Before the tech could actually push her along on her journey though, she would speak up one more time. "Oh, and I don't think you mentioned your name?" It seemed like a good idea to be know the first name of the woman that Jessica might need to call should she encounter any butt spiders in the EGG.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

That was either the worst or the best way to put that, and her tech immediately jumped into her best pokemon-throwing pose: "Squirtle, I choose you! Thanks, you won't regret that, I'll take greeaaat care of you. Just one thing: I won't be actively monitoring your actions, for obvious reasons - if you need help, you do need to ask, or I won't know. Remember the magic word!"
You had to give her one thing: The tech studiously kept her face pointing into the corner while Jessica was changing. "I'm ready!" At that, the tech turned around, exclaiming "Excellent!" with a big smile - whether at how quickly and smoothly this was going, or at the cute skin on display, nobody knew.

Another button, and the door slowly crawled shut, with a faint noise of servos audible within the EGG. "Oh, and I don't think you mentioned your name?" - another button, and the door paused its descent.
"Oh. Names, those complicated things. I'm Hope, but please don't call me that - after the fifteenth 'lost Hope in the EGG' pun, I've learned to just tell people to use my username. It's Squirtle! But judging by how far your shirt ended up across the room, you must be eager to get started. Remember, I'll be there if you need me!"

With that, the door closed all the way, hissing as it squeezed into its seals. It took a moment for Jessica's eyes to adjust, but then she noticed she wasn't in complete darkness: there was some faint light coming from electronics above her head, though all it let her see were the featureless padded walls around her.
Not that she had a long time to inspect her surroundings - moments later, there was a hum of machinery springing to life all around her, and then a bright flash of light blanketed everything.
As she blinked to clear her eyes, she noticed that the walls were a lot further away than the walls of the EGG had just been moments ago. Also, they were square now, and she was pretty sure the EGG walls hadn't been tiled in little orange rectangles that read "Wall texture 60x60".
As she looked around, she noticed the room was far from empty: In front of her was what looked like a large audio mixing desk, to her left was a little podium with a statue on it, to her right was a rack of medieval weaponry, and behind her were a couple of doors leading out of the room.

Examining the desk closer, it was filled with knobs and sliders and dials, each with a little label. Reading the labels, she realized this was no DJ desk, at least for no party she'd ever been to. A sign on the wall said "Please customize your experience to your preferences", and there was a sharpie sitting on the panel to fill in blank labels, or try to scrawl notes into existing ones.

Spoiler

(who)
Males [0-10] Females [0-10] Futas [0-10]
Animal [0-10] Anthro [0-10] Insectoid [0-10]
Classic fantasy races [0-10]
Mythological [0-10] Fey/Faerie [0-10]
Mechanical/Construct [0-10] Tentacle/Plant [0-10]
Slime [0-10]
Undead/Zombie [0-10] Ghost/Spiritual [0-10]
[_______] [0-10]
(what)
Body modification [0-10]
Temporary Futafication [This one was a red switch guard protecting a toggle marked OFF/ON]
Pregnancy/Egging [0-10] Birthing [0-10]
Lactation/Milking [0-10]
Bondage [0-10] Humiliation [0-10]
Parasites(external) [0-10] Parasites(internal) [0-10]
Symbiotes [0-10]
Roughness(sex) [0-10] Violence(nonsex) [0-10]
[_______] [0-10]

To her left, the statue turned out to be - herself. A clay model, actually. A little poking showed that any change she made to the statue instantly also appeared on herself - this was VR, all right.
In front of the statue was a large chest, which turned out to contain clothing. No matter how much she pulled out, it seemed to never empty, just refilling with new colours and styles. Any items she discarded would disintegrate into dust and disappear as soon as they hit the ground.
Opposite that, the weapons rack held a sword, axe, bow, hammer, staff, and next to it a somewhat out-of-place looking button labeled “Open full weapons matrix”. A sign said "Please take only one."

In front of the last wall, there was a large lever stuck in the floor, with positions labeled “Easy” / “Normal” / “Hard” / “Insane”. Behind that, there were 4 wooden doors set into the wall, each with a metal plaque carrying a carefully-engraved label:

Spoiler

Delving into the Pyramid
Beneath the Ancient Castle
Escaping the Hedge-Witch’s Maze
Space Station ZX-73

Spoiler

FP: 5/5, AP: 0/10, Status: Has entered... The twilight zone.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

She couldn't help but get the feeling that any situation requiring her to call for Hope would be made incredibly more awkward by needing to refer to the woman as Squirtle. Jessica would acquiesce to it anyway of course, precisely because there might be times when she would need the tech's help and she'd prefer to be on her good side. At least her taste seemed good, Squirtle happened to be Jessica's favorite starter in the first games, even if that was mostly because she liked the color blue.

At the technician's indication that it was time to get things started, Jessica would simply nod and wait nervously as the pod finished closing. She couldn't help but anxiously cross her arms and shift her weight from foot to foot as she waited for whatever would signal her entry into the game. Her anxiety intensified as the electronics inside the EGG flared to life. She could do nothing but her best to calm herself and remind herself that the EGG had probably been tested a hundred times before by the staff team, at least until the flash of light came and she was suddenly in a new place entirely.

"Huh. It's CP orange all over again," she remarked to nobody but herself as she took in her new surroundings starting with the walls and floor. Despite her dry commentary, Jessica was amazed. This was how far VR had come? It was like she was really in the room. Next they'd probably be developing real hoverboards and hovercars and... probably some other form of hover technology from 80s and 90s sci-fi flicks that she couldn't recall right that moment.

She took a few steps and waved her arms about to test the controls. The tech hadn't been lying, it was exactly the same as moving around in real life. The young woman tried dropping to her knees, then onto her belly, and then rolled onto her back. She would hop back up to her feet and then jump as high as she could. It all worked without an issue, no bumping into the side of the EGG or hitting her head on the top. The EGG amazed her more and more by the moment. When she'd first heard VR she was expecting those old-fashioned goggles and some sort of modified treadmill and peripherals for each game. There was nothing wrong with them, of course, but the pod system was so far beyond them it wasn't even comparable.

The next thing that caught Jessica's eye was the weapon rack and she rushed over to it like a kid who'd just spotted a free candy buffet. Her eyes lit up like Christmas lights as she surveyed her choices. A real longsword! A dane axe! A polehammer! The heavily decorated staff and the bow and quiver of arrows caught her attention too but it was the first three that had her nearly squealing like a fangirl. But she could only pick one? So unfair! She loved them all to some extent. If she were to narrow it down she supposed she'd have to go with the weapon of kings: the sword.

Jessica would gingerly pick the longsword from the weapon rack and could no longer contain a squeal of delight as she examined it from tip to pommel. Not just a taper on the blade but a distal taper, a functional crossguard, a scent stopper pommel, and a hot peened assembly with a riveted wooden grip. It wasn't a twenty-dollar wall hanger, it was one of those five-hundred dollar fully functional swords. And it was hers to use and abuse without any concern for damage it might take in her fooling around, so obviously the first thing she did was testingly swing it through the air at imagined monsters. The second was to shift between Liechtenauer's four guards while once again imagining staring down nonexistent enemies with them.

That would last for a few minutes, right up until she realized that she was by herself in nothing but panties waving an imaginary sword around at even more imaginary creatures when she could've just proceeded and had slightly less imaginary enemies to test herself against. Her next stop was the clothes chest, and after determining what it did she would pull out clothing until she finally settled on a simple set consisting of a blue tunic long enough that it covered her from her neck to just short of her knee when she put it on, a thin, golden sash to tie around her waist and keep her sword on, a pair of simple, brown boots, and a white with blue trim, butt-length cloth jacket to wear over the tunic.

After attaching the scabbard that came with her sword to her sash and sheathing the weapon, she would briefly mess around with the clay doll. Jessica started by immediately accidentally giving herself a pointed nose that would shame the wicked witch of the west. After struggling to fix that, she would make an effort to fill out her other assets only to find herself with four gravity-defying cantaloupes divided between her chest and butt. Having run into the similar issues every time she tried to beautify a character using character creation in other games, she soon ended up resetting the doll so that she could just go in as she was. Maybe when the EGG officially released they'd have presets or more talented people would share files that she could use.

Next on her list was the settings table. Being more an internet pervert than a real-world one, she could only call upon her experiences in incognito browsing to guide her in making her choices. Males? Yes. Females? Yes but not as yes as males. Futa? Best of both worlds. She gave a conspicuous look around as she cranked the animal dial to max. Elves, orcs, and the like were staples of fantasy games not to mention a pretty popular subset of doujins. She assumed mythological meant minotaurs and sphinxes and the like so she cranked that up too. Tentacles only got a lower setting because while she liked them on occasion, they tended to lack a sense of 'presence' while they were filling their victims to the brim. Temporary futafication barely got a glance before she clicked that on. A chance to see how the other side felt? No way she was passing that up.

Pregnancy could be fun from a scenario standpoint, might as well crank it up. Birthing was less fun, unless it was one of those doujin types of birth where the birther felt inexplicably good in which case she supposed she'd be willing to give it a try. She reached for the sharpie for the first time in order to mark a little note next to the birthing dial, hoping that it would convey her intentions well enough. Bondage was one of the few things that she really wanted to try in the real world so she cranked that as high as it could go. Parasites and symbiotes were fun but not her favorite, so she stopped short of ten on them. Roughness got turned to the max, though it received a note of its own to convey that she didn't necessarily want any partners to go out of their way to be rough, just to be as rough as they normally might be. Violence ended up being the lowest setting because, as much as she wanted to swing her sword around in a realistic fashion, she didn't care so much to get blood everywhere or see someone's organs.

Spoiler

Males 10 Females 8 Futas 10
Animal 10 Anthro 8 Insectoid 9
Classic fantasy races 10
Mythological 10 Fey/Faerie 10
Mechanical/Construct 10 Tentacle/Plant 7
Slime 9
Undead/Zombie 8 Ghost/Spiritual 8
Body modification 8
Temporary Futafication ON
Pregnancy/Egging 9 Birthing (not realistic) 7
Lactation/Milking 9
Bondage 10 Humiliation 10
Parasites(external) 8 Parasites(internal) 8
Symbiotes 8
Roughness(sex) 10 Violence(nonsex) 5
(Roughness conditionally based on how they would act anyway)

With one last glance to confirm her dials were all where she intended them to be, Jessica would finally be ready to choose her adventure. That turned out to be a tough decision in itself. She wasn't really into space settings, so the fourth one was quickly out of the running, but the other three all caught her eye. An Egyptian pyramid dive would definitely be fresh but new and ancient castles basically screamed fantasy adventure. In the end she chose Escaping the Hedge Witch's Maze, with it only winning narrowly over the other two by the existence of the apparent antagonist in its title and because a labyrinth-style run seemed exciting. With a quick push of the lever to the normal position she would venture through the door, excited for whatever might await her.

Spoiler

Lotta text but not much that actually requires a response from you, sorry about that.

Anyway, quick version for reference: Jessica chooses the sword! She also choosing Escaping the Hedge Witch's Maze on Normal victory!

Her body is prepared!

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

The setup went mostly without incident - though as Jessica had her melon mishaps, she quickly learned that this environment had cloth ripping physics, as her jacket couldn't quite contain her temporary assets. Some more digging through the infinite chest fixed that easily, though.
As she turned to the door, there was an almost-imperceptible flicker in the environment as she turned the handle, and then - nothing. The door didn't budge. If she tried to force it, a voice would crackle from everywhere around her, apparently recorded from a cheap laptop mic: "*sigh* - you know, I tried to be nice and make this an immersive loading barrier, but noo, you players keep messing it up, and now they want me to add loading bars to the door. Could you imagine that? A perfectly good wooden door, and a digital progressbar slapped on it. No way. They always try to meddle..." some knocks on a door in the background, and the voice suddenly cut out mid-sentence.

A minute of waiting later, there was a click from her chosen door, and it swung open, revealing a grassy path leading off around a bend, flanked on both sides by dense bushes growing higher than the door was tall. Sun streamed in through the door from clear blue skies above, wind rustled through millions of tiny leaves, and the smell of wet earth drifted into the room.
As she stepped through the door, a burst of laughter suddenly came from right behind her - only that instead of the room she'd just come from, that direction only had more hedges, more path, and someone standing right where the door used to be: A witch, as ripped straight out of a comic book - if the comic book in question was aimed at sixteen-year-olds: Wide-brimmed ragged pointy purple hat, raven-black hair falling to her shoulders, and a low-cut shirt revealing a pair of B-cup breasts pushed up into bubbly cleavage - above all that, a nose copied straight from Jessica's failed character customization, head tilted back so she could look down that nose at Jessica: "Hah! Thought you could just come in here and take what you please without me noticing, didn't you? Well, as you'll find, getting in is always easier than finding your way back out again!" There wasn't any time to react, as the witch just stepped off the side, and the hedge parted before her. With a swish of her entirely too-short skirt she revealed black lacy panties for just a moment, and disappeared through the opening, as the hedge closed back up behind her without a seam. "Don't get too tangled up, now! And beware the snorlax!" Came the final parting words, as the witch's laughter trailed off into the distance.

All that left Jessica standing there in the middle of nowhere, staring at the hedge. It looked dense and green and well-kept, unlikely that she could squeeze through it without magic bush-shifting powers. That left the path trailing off to both sides. Towards the sun, the direction in which the door had entered her into the level, there was some high-pitched giggling coming from past where the path bent slowly to the right, while the other direction was quiet, with the grass getting longer and patchier as the path led towards a sharp left turn.

Spoiler

FP: 5/5, AP: 0/10, Status: Has recently used a portal, kills against this player grant no honour.

Spoiler

Apologies for the short post after such a long delay - got tied up for a while, but things should get a bit faster-paced from here on out.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

"Could've always just had it open into a waiting room or something," she remarked, again to herself, as she was chastised for not understanding that the door wasn't budging because the setting was loading. "Maybe take a page from old game downloader software and throw a target dummy or a space invaders machine to mess with in there until things are ready," she suggested, which again was of little use since the prerecorded message couldn't exactly hear her. She'd try to remember for long enough to repeat it to Hope -- er, rather, Squirtle -- when she took her first break, at least.

The chance that she would remember proved unlikely, however, as the moment she stepped inside all extraneous thoughts were replaced by marvel at her surroundings. Even just through the opened portal she could feel the warmth of the sun and the chill of the wind as both brushed against her exposed skin. She could smell flowers on the air and freshly cut plants. As she walked through the door she could even feel the earth through her boots beneath her feet. It was like she'd truly stepped outside.

The laugh that followed was every bit as realistic and yet much more jarring. Despite her vast experience in watching both Scooby Doo and horror movies, Jessica hadn't quite been ready to personally experience a door disappearing behind her only to be replaced by a witch, and seeing as much when spun to look for the source of the cackling was enough to make her brain seize up in protest. She found herself unable to draw her sword take a swing at the woman, the apparent titular Hedge Witch, not only for lack of time to react but because the idea of trying to stab a woman was still a bit taboo. She'd spent the vast majority of her life in a reality where attempting to eviscerate another human being was very much wrong and usually carried lengthy prison sentences behind it, after all. But even beyond that, the biggest reason for her hesitation was the sight of the witch's nose. Jessica found herself frozen and staring at its impressive shape it in sheer astonishment.

It was only after the witch turned and walked away that she regained control of her own eyes. It was an opportune time too, as after the apparent villain called out her parting words from beyond the hedge it struck Jessica that, unlike in all those older RPGs that claimed as much, she truly was the hero in the EGG and that personally being the hero of the story meant writing her own dialogue, so to speak. The protagonist had to call out something to the antagonist's parting words, right? Something like 'you'll never succeed!' Or maybe 'I'll be out of here by dusk!' Even 'I'll stop you, you dastardly villain!' But which in particular...?

"I totally saw your underwear!" The heroes in most fantasy RPGs were always way too melodramatic, anyway.

With a self-amused grin, Jessica would begin to muse over her options. Her game sense told her that attempting to physically shove herself through the hedges would not only be disallowed by means of story progression, but that putting herself in the middle of a hedge at any time after setting plants and tentacles to seven was probably the quickest path to discovering exactly how realistic the EGG's more perverted functions felt. Swinging her sword at it to clear it might've been an option too but even if it worked, where would the fun in that be? That left the the two paths.

That didn't end up being much of a choice at all. "Think I'll wait until the professor gives me my starter to venture into the tall grass," she remarked, again to herself. Afterward she drew her sword with her right hand and went creeping in the direction of the high-pitched giggling. "Let's find out if I'm grinding quest XP or monster XP."

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

"I'll return the favor soon enough, I'm sure!" - That witch wasn't going to let her have the last word, was she…
Around the bend, the source of the giggles turned out to be a gaggle of little fairies, each about the size of her hand. They flitted around a ragged hole in the side of the hedge, chattering to each other between laughs: "That's the first time I've seen it so clear." - "Like you've ever seen anything outside your nest!" - "Shush, you two, just enjoy it while it lasts." - "Careful, you'll never know who gets attracted by these." - "Scatter! Human incoming!" And before Jessica got anywhere close to them, they flew off in every direction and disappeared into the greenery.

That left her standing alone on the path as the giggles faded into the distance. The hole was set about 1m high in the hedge, about 20-30cm in diameter, and led to some shaded area on the other side. Unfortunately, because her eyes were adapted to the sunny path outside, she couldn't make out more than a faint glint coming from some object on the other end.
She could probably just barely squeeze her head and arms into the hole to investigate, she could ignore it and just see where else the path led, or maybe find some other option what to do - SHE was the hero of this story, after all.

Spoiler

FP: 5/5, AP: 0/10, Status: Fine, working on comebacks.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Jessica would barely contain the urge to reply to the witch's retort, mostly because it was only a short step from there to devolving into a back and forth consisting largely of 'no, you.' She was pretty sure that sort of argument with an antagonist didn't qualify as heroic or even witty banter.

From there it was off to adventure. Or, rather, it was off to see fairies. The EGG really wasn't pulling any punches when it came to awing her. The tiny sprite folk looked so real that, had they not flown away at first sight of her, Jessica would have reached out to pluck one of them from the sky just to touch the fairy. Figuring out where she stood between respecting fictional creature's rights and boundaries and disregarding real world conventions in order to do as she pleased aside; she couldn't help but imagine that between immersive RPG enthusiasts and sexual deviants the EGG team was going to make so much money when they released their hardware.

More immediately important, however, was the presence of the strange hole the fairies had been swarming around. She found herself conflicted. Hole or no hole, she still didn't imagine any good coming from willingly pushing herself through the strange hedge walls. Or, well, that was to say that she didn't want to throw herself directly into the embrace of any vine-y creature that might be lurking within the hedges for free, she might have been a bit of a pervert but the imaginary monsters were going to have to work for it at least. At the same time though, there was something shiny on the other side of the hedge, and in these situations shiny might mean precious loot. Or, with the way the fairies had been talking, perhaps it was some indication as to whatever powered the Hedge Witch's shifting maze? Could be useful for the boss battle, right?

Ah, hell, she had to at least give it a look. She would return her sword to its scabbard on her sash because virtual or not she didn't want to have it in hand if she were to trip or stumble. Afterward she would give into curiosity and stick her head through the hole to try to get a better look, but only her head. She preferred to keep her arms on the same side of the gap as her sword, just in case she needed to pull it back out to start chopping away tentacles or some other attacker.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

Rolls: J 16 vs ??? (Success)
J 18 vs 11/8/14/4 (No sneaks for you today, forest creatures)

As she cautiously peered into the hedge, Jessica took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and quickly picked out two things: One was a small crystal bottle with a label strung around its neck, sitting on a little pedestal on the other side of the hedge. But since her head was still mid-hedge, she couldn't make out what the label said, let alone do anything with the bottle. But the second thing she saw kept her from pushing further: Just in front of her nose, there was a length of vine circling around the hole, in a way that couldn't be natural.
As she pulled her head back out of the apparent trap, some hair or breath must have triggered some sensor mechanism, and with a SNAP! the vine whipped around harmlessly in front of her eyes - that would have been interesting had it caught her around a neck or chest…

That noise echoed into the silence around her, and suddenly some rustling started coming towards her from the left side of the path. A speck of dark appeared some ways off at the top of the hedge, rapidly growing larger as it approached. It soon grew into a furry square with claws and a head that sailed straight at her face - but it took more than a little critter with ninja aspirations to take her down, and since she'd seen it coming all the way, she sidestepped it without much trouble.
As it landed, the furry square turned out to be a squirrel, which puffed out its tail and chittered angrily up at her. More rustling indicated this little guy wasn't operating alone, and she picked out another squirrel making its way along the side of the hedge, as well as two more bouncing along the top, which glared at their easy prey being significantly less easy than expected.

Spoiler

Jessica: FP 5/5 AP 0/10 Status: Spotting like a mother-in-law on a surprise visit.
Sq1: FP 2/2 Status: Grounded
Sq2: FP 2/2 Status: Wallwalking
Sq3: FP 2/2 Status: On top of the world
Sq4: FP 2/2 Status: Wondering where his raccoon and turtle friends went

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Clever trap, but I've played enough Nintendo Hard games to know to look before I leap, she thought to herself with a grin as she narrowly avoided the tentacle snare. It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to snag the vial on the other side, but pursuing it seemed unwise given the nature of the EGG. Playing the trial and error game until she figured out how to obtain that particular treasure, or if it was even possible, seemed like it would leave her incredibly sore by the time she was done.

She didn't have much time to revel in her victory as the hedges began to rustle around her. A two part trap? Jessica drew her longsword and looked to the source as it sped along the walls of the maze. With her eyes on the target it wasn't difficult for the athletic woman to sidestep the first creature as it made its lunge. Trying to wrap her head around the fact that an apparent crack team of ninja squirrels was attacking her and would've done who-knows-what to her if she had fallen for the trap was a little bit more difficult, but not so much so that she allowed it to delay her response.

Jessica moved her second hand to join the first on the handle of her sword and took the blade through a half-circle in order to swing an overhead strike at the squirrel which had already lunged at her and given up the safe cover of the hedges. Talhoffer hadn't exactly included a 'vs Squirrel' section in his treatise but she was pretty confident in her ability to cut down small woodland creatures as long as she could accurately hit them. At least she certainly hoped she could, she wasn't sure her pride would survive the blow if she found immediate defeat in the EGG at the hands of a Disney princess's retinue.

Spoiler

Targeting Squirrel 1.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

J 4+1 vs Sq1 14 miss
Sq1 5 vs J 0+1 hit
Sq2 14 vs J 4+1 hit
Sq3 5 vs J 4+1 parry

Jessica brought her sword down in a mighty overhead strike that would have stopped a bear in its tracks - unfortunately, she wasn't fighting a bear, she was going up against a small critter that had no trouble bouncing out of the way, rebounding off the hedge and landing on her upper thigh.
There wasn't much damage the squirrel could do with just a jump, even as it decided to scurry up towards her lower back. However, the little claws walking up her thigh and across her butt tickled her and she got ever so slightly aroused by the ordeal.

Meanwhile, the squirrel sitting in the hedge had a mean glint in its eyes and nuts in its hands, which quickly turned into a barrage of nuts flying at her. Unable to move out of the way this time, she took a few hits to the stomach. You'd think a nut couldn't do any damage, but several of them hitting a small area at high speeds still left her skin stinging even under her tunic and jacket.

The third squirrel took off from the top of the hedge and sailed down towards her, and this time she was distracted enough that it would have caught her straight on the head - except that her sword training barely saved her, as she'd just recovered from her failed strike and reflexively brought the sword up for a parry. This meant the squirrel harmlessly bounced off the flat side of the blade and landed on the grass below, annoyed that its move was so closely denied.

Meanwhile, the fourth one of the gang was rummaging around the top of the hedge, readying something she couldn't quite make out from below.

Spoiler

Jessica FP 4/5 AP 1/10 Status: Being - grappled? - by Sq1
Sq1 FP 2/2 Status: Sitting on Jessica's lower back
Sq2 FP 2/2 Status: Newly empty-handed
Sq3 FP 2/2 Status: Black squirrel down
Sq4 FP 2/2 Status: Getting ready for something

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

The squirrel's dextrous scrambling up Jessica's leg was met with the ineffectual flailing of her off hand toward it as it climbed up her butt and eventually perched on her lower back. That left her spinning in place trying to remove the squirrel from her body in a manner that looked like it belonged in a Three Stooges gag for long enough that the second squirrel had an easy target for its barrage of nuts. Batting the third squirrel away with her sword as it attempted the same attack that its comrade had made was more an involuntary reaction in her flailing than anything intentional.

"I'm being Gulliver's Travel'd!" Jessica would protest to nobody in particular as she attempted to fend off the squirrel horde. "Shoo already!" That was aimed directly toward the apparent premier special ops team of the squirrel kingdom. With that she would lash out again with her sword at the fourth one, quickly choosing it as the recipient of her next attempt at violence simply because she wanted to interrupt whatever menacing act it was building up toward. It had either been that or further attempts to remove the squirrel that was climbing her, and by then her dwindling sense of pride was demanding that she at cause some harm to one of her attackers in revenge for being pelted with nuts.

Spoiler

Attacking squirrel 4 'cos it's spooking me out, man.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

J 9+1 vs Sq4 11 miss
Sq1 7 vs J 14 miss
Sq2/Sq3 no rolls
Sq4 12-2 vs J 17+1 miss

Jessica swung her sword in a mighty arc at the rummaging squirrel, unfortunately the bright sky behind it caused her to barely misjudge the distance, and she just cut a chunk of shrubbery out of the hedge.

Meanwhile, the squirrel on her back tried to get to somewhere more interesting, and managed to find its way under her jacket - but then got stumped by her one-piece tunic as it looked for a seam, almost falling down but hanging on to her jacket with one last desperate claw.

The second squirrel had just exhausted its supply of nuts, and was dashing this way and that through the hedge, presumably looking for something new to throw. Halfway through, its search was met by squirrel number three, which had just decided it didn't like its vantage point, and was scurrying through to get back to the top, settling there and giving her the now well-known glare of the angry squirrel.

Barely missing its appointment with the big nut in the sky, the fourth squirrel meanwhile proceeded with its plan, and got into jumping position on the hedge, the end of a vine held in its paw. Unfortunately, the slash had severed a structurally critical twig, and rather than majestically jumping off the top, the squirrel's push just caused it to go down in a crumple of leaves tumbling down the hedge, dropping rather ungracefully down and looking a bit silly holding a vine that still led somewhere into the hedge.

Overall, that left the situation mostly unchanged: One squirrel hanging on to her, one on top of the hedge looking down, one in the hedge, and one on the floor glaring angrily.

Spoiler

Jessica FP: 4/5 AP: 1/10 Status: Still playing christmas tree for Sq1
Sq1 FP: 2/2 Status: As confused by clothing as a 13-year old boy with an older sister
Sq2 FP: 2/2 Status: Used to think you were crazy, but now it can see your nuts.
Sq3 FP: 2/2 Status: Bounced back up.
Sq4 FP: 2/2 Status: Looking very silly.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

In Jessica's increasing frustration she couldn't help but call out: "You're all going to be squirrel soup if I ever get my hands on you!" The woman would raise her longsword a third time and took a single-handed horizontal swipe at the squirrel atop the hedge likely causing the one dangling from her jacket some motion sickness as she turned with the swing. She made no effort to avoid chopping into greenery and all with her blade. The one dancing about her body was by far the most annoying of the four-squirrel team, but after having witnessed the failed attempt by the fourth to leap onto her with hedge vine in hand she had no intention of allowing another one to proceed without at least trying to impede it or sever the vines it was relying on.

Spoiler

Attack Squirrel 3! MUSICAL SQUIRRELS.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

J 18+1 vs Sq3 12 Hit!
Sq1 15 vs J 19 Stuck!
Sq2 6 vs J 4+1 Hit!
Sq3 3 vs J 3+1 Miss!
Sq4 no rolls

This time Jessica knew exactly how things lined up, and swung around her sword in a long arc that peaked exactly where the squirrel was glaring from its perch. While it didn't quite explode in a satisfying puff of fur, the blow was enough to send it staggering, it wouldn't take much more to finish this one off. Meanwhile, her swing sent her jacket billowing outwards, and while the squirrel desperately clung on getting the ride of its life, this meant it wasn't able to do much other than chitter at her.

Unfortunately, this left her facing the hedge, and out came a rotten purple fruit, flying out in a slow ponderous arc towards her. As she was too distracted by making sure her aim was right and keeping the rodeo squirrel busy, it hit her square on the chest and exploded. Parts dripped down her cleavage, and the smell of fermented fruit hitting her nostrils got her slightly hot and bothered.

With that added distraction, the injured squirrel was taking its chances at another jump, and would have hit her square on the head - except that it misjudged its injured leg and spiralled off to the side, landing back into the hedge near the bottom, almost bumping into squirrel number four as it abandoned its vine and scurried back to the top.

Spoiler

Jessica FP: 4/5 AP: 2/10 Status: Newly fruit-bombed
Sq1 FP: 2/2 Status: Hanging in there
Sq2 FP: 2/2 Status: Being an ace shot
Sq3 FP: 1/2 Status: On its last legs
Sq4 FP: 2/2 Status: Still got its first legs

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Jessica couldn't help but wonder what the fruit that had just exploded across her chest had been before it had rotted beyond recognition. The smell made her more serious thoughts feel just a little bit distant from her and caused a general sensation of airiness to circulate throughout her brain. It felt almost like the precursor to being lightheaded or dizzy.

On the bright side, she was pretty sure she had the squirrels' attack patterns down. The first trying to get into her nonexistent pants while the third and fourth did their best impression of base jumpers and the second provided fire support in the form of fruit and nuts. Of the four, the one that had attempted to use the vine on her was the most immediately concerning and might have been gearing up toward another attempt. She couldn't pass up the chance to finish the injured one off though. Setting her focus on it as it recovered from its failed jump, she angled her longsword for a stab that would skewer the little creature... only to shift the blade into her left hand so that she could scoop down, attempt to pluck it from the hedges with her right hand, and then stand up and throw it as far as she could over the hedges. Even despite the dogged assault on her by the squirrels, she still felt a moral block against turning an injured woodland creature into a kabob.

Spoiler

Attempt to pick up Squirrel 3 and fastball it over the hedges, because out and out stabbing an injured woodland creature still registers too badly on her moral compass to do so.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

Spoiler

J 20 vs. Sq3 20 Hit!
Sq1 10 vs. J 6 Success!
Sq2 no roll
Sq4 11 vs. J 13+1 Miss!

Jessica's surprise switch had the intended effect, as despite the squirrel's best attempts to dodge around, it ended up caught in her hand. And with that, it was short work to send it off flying the distance - apparently, these squirrels were just the perfect size and weight for throwing! At least it was surviving the ordeal: Just before becoming an indistinguishable speck against the sky, it apparently got its bearings back and spread its limbs out, settling into a controlled dive/sail into the distance.

Meanwhile, the rodeo squirrel capitalized on her bowing down, and took the opportunity to run down her tunic, switch over to the inside, and run back up her inner thighs. That left Jessica thoroughly tickled by the run, and with the uncomfortable sensation of a squirrel settling on her butt, claws holding on to the waistband of her panties.

With all those distractions, the vine-jumping squirrel made another attempt at a dive - and promptly missed the landing as Jessica was twisting around this way and that because of the squirrel crawling up her legs. Finally, despite its earlier successes fire-support squirrel seemed to consider a career change to basejumper, as it reappeared on top of the hedge with a vine in its paws, getting ready for another jump.

As everyone was setting up for their next move, they were interrupted by a voice echoing over from the direction of squirrel toss: "Hey! Who did that?"

Spoiler

Jessica FP: 4/5 AP: 3/10 Status: Turns out butt-squirrels are distracting [-1 focus from AP]
Sq1 FP: 2/2 Status: studying the patterns on Jessica's panties
Sq2 FP: 2/2 Status: ready for liftoff
Sq3 Out. Status: Team squirrel blasting off again!
Sq4 FP: 2/2 Status: Sucks at jumping.

 

[Hafnium]

Re: Jessica (Hafnium)

The feeling of tiny paws against her thigh and butt distracted Jessica from taking much deserved pride in her first ever squirrel toss. Not only that, it had prevented her from responding to what she assumed was the Hedge Witch's complaint with a yell of 'goal' or something similar and that was by far the greater crime. She was so ticklish around her thighs that it caused her trouble in focusing on the remaining two squirrels, and since she was in a virtual environment where hopefully nobody would ever review the logs ever again she might have even admitted aloud that the light touches against her butt felt a tiny, but only tiny, bit nice. It was kind of like a miniature electric massager pressed against her, albeit a terribly furry and annoying one.

Still, if she had anything to do with it these squirrels were going down. Or maybe up. "Who else wants to join the first hedge squirrel space program?" She asked of the lot at hand, but her eyes focused on the latest one to scale the hedge. She shifted again, left hand moving to grab at the squirrel against her butt and trying to prevent it from making any progress while with her right hand she prepared the blade with pommel presented toward her target as if she was going to take a backhanded swing at the furry base jumper.

She wouldn't though. Instead, after it made the jump, after its trajectory was a bit easier to predict, she would lash out at it with the pommel, attempting to strike it squarely. If she succeeded and didn't end up completely lassoed in the process, she would follow up by removing her left hand from the one on her butt for just long enough to grab the newly injured one and chuck it in the same direction as its comrade, hoping that against all odds she'd manage to hit the same target twice. A rain of squirrels would surely teach the Hedge Witch for getting the last word earlier.

Spoiler

Smack Squirrel 2.
If she manages to get a hit on squirrel 2 then it's fine to just roll the next round with her attempting to add him to the SSP.