*PRESS START TO BEGIN*
The voice roused Xavier from his spot on the hard marble floor of the towering pillar he rested upon. “Whazzat?” Xavier mumbled to himself, rubbing his eyes.
He opened his eyes and saw the pillar’s immaculate black marble surface, and hesitantly glanced up, only to see the same stunning cloud layer as before he had passed out.
“Oh God!” Xavier shouted rolling over onto his back. “It wasn’t a dream, isn’t that just perfect!” He shouted covering his face with his hands. The string of curses that Xavier muttered into his hands was so foul that if the sky had been any less blue before, his words would’ve colored it to match the current shade.
*PRESS START TO BEGIN*
The monotonous voice that had roused Xavier the first time, repeated its message. ‘No.’ He thought ‘I won’t be doing that, I’m just gonna lie here a while longer.’ “Yeah.” He said aloud. “That’s what I’ll do.” Then Xavier curled up on his side and closed his eyes, but just a moment later the message sounded out again, interrupting his rest.
*PRESS START TO BEGIN*
Xavier briefly thought about the pros and cons of dealing with the voice rather than trying to sleep, but eventually he managed to gather the willpower to get up and address the voice. Standing, Xavier saw a bold icon labeled START, violently shifting between a stark white and yellow. Shrugging, he touched the icon, which promptly burst into small motes of light, gently drifting to the ground before vanishing.
*CHARACTER CREATION BEGUN*
*PLEASE SELECT A LOCATION*
Suddenly a long list of icons appeared in various floating walls of text around Xavier. ‘Alright’ He thought ‘Guess this is pretty cool at least.’ as he took in the rows of what had to be town names. The whole list was marked under the singular label of ‘2nd Wave Starting Locations’ Each was labeled with various names, though most were greyed out and he ignored those since they weren’t really helpful. Xavier took a few moments to skim through the list, but he focused on the ones he could read, and he took note of a few that seemed interesting.
The rest of the list had been a long list of what sounded like small towns, and just didn’t seem like they were bothering with. Other than those options there was one option labeled simply ‘Random’ but Xavier definitely going to touch that option, if for no other reason than to prevent any more injections of chaos into his life. But the fact that this list was here did indicate something important to Xavier. ‘This has to be some version of Earth.’ He thought to himself as he sorted through the list of locations further, hoping for a clue as to what was going on.
There wasn’t much information right there, but that just made it more important not to waste the things he could figure out from the names. ‘First off,’ He thought, ‘I know I’m probably not supposed to be able to tell what each place is like, else I’d get more information about them. Second, I know I’m… well I’m not sure where I am.’ Xavier raised his chin from where it rested on his palm as he took another look at his surroundings as if searching for clues, while he thought about his situation for a second..
“Huh,” He muttered to himself, “That’s actually all I know. Well that sucks… yeah.” He trailed off, out of ideas. “You know what, forget it!” Xavier shouted with all the resolve and bravado that comes from deciding you won’t be putting in effort on something. “I have no -flipping- idea what’s going on here, and I’m probably either dead or in a mental ward so screw it!” and he hit the closest button of the ones he had thought looked interesting.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
*BASTION CITY HAS BEEN SELECTED. DESIGNATION: CITY, LOCATION: EARTH*
*ENTERING CHARACTER CREATION HUB*
As the voice finished speaking, Xavier heard a chime ring across the open sky and the pillar he stood on responded in kind. A deep rumbling bass shook Xavier as the towering monolith he stood atop shook with the sound it produced, and a pulse shot out traveling through the sea of clouds in a great wave centered around the pillar. Suddenly, the wave passed over the horizon and every cloud in the layer of the clouds covering the ground, dropped away from the sky and disappeared into a blue expanse identical to the sky above. All of the shaking had startled Xavier and he was trying very hard to collect himself and brace for the next insane thing to happen, when the pillar began to shake once more. With a sound like a shattered window pane, the towering pillar became riddled with cracks and shattered, each piece falling into the abyssal blue beneath Xavier as he was left pinwheeling through the sky screaming as he fell.
As Xavier fell, he could see the pieces of the pillar as they were subsumed by the blue of the sky which darkened with each piece absorbed until the whole sky was the color of ink. Yet this time, the sky was dotted with a million scattered points of light, beautiful stars and at some point in the transition the Sun had been supplanted by the Moon as he fell. Needless to say Xavier hadn’t stopped screaming since he had started falling, but as he spun he caught sight of a brown point growing as he went.
As he fell, Xavier caught glimpses of what looked to be wooden walls affixing themselves to the four sides of a square wooden floor. ‘It’s building a room.’ he realized as he fell, and it was true. As the room drew ever closer as Xavier fell, he saw pieces of furniture rushing down past him, only to break their momentum just before hitting the ground falling into perfect the perfect arrangement on the floor.
Suddenly Xavier found himself about to land face first on the floor of the room when he was caught by whatever force had stopped the furniture and was gently dropped into an overstuffed red beanbag chair. He moved forward on the beanbag until he could reach the table in the center of the room and took in his surroundings. “It’s beautiful.” he breathed. Xavier had found himself in the platonic ideal of a gaming basement. A big squishy-looking couch sat in the corner faced the large television sitting between a set of massive speakers, and another wall was lined with shelves bearing various board games, DVDs. The room even had a whole section with obscure sourcebooks for tabletop RPGs of all kinds, with more than a few Xavier hadn’t even heard of like HyperStar, Dark Army, and something labeled Origins: Player’s Rulebook. Yet, wherever Xavier was, there seemed to be some kind of rule against normality because the room had no ceiling and left a view straight through to the star dotted sky.
*NOW BEGINNING CHARACTER CREATION*
*LISTING AVAILABLE LINEAGE OPTIONS FOR START LOCATION…*
The voice had returned to bother Xavier but this time it was accompanied by words floating in the corner of Xavier’s eye. Additionally a small holographic mannequin appeared, floating above the table labeled Xavier Finch. After another few moments, a new message appeared to help Xavier.
*AVAILABLE LINEAGE OPTIONS FOR LOCATION: BASTION CITY*
*AVAILABLE OPTIONS: HUMAN*
*LINEAGE SELECTED: HUMAN*
Help was a bit of a strong word really. ‘At least I didn’t have to deal with another decision I was unprepared for though. But what’s next?’ Xavier wondered.
*RECOVERY ROOM LAYOUT SET*
*CHARACTER VALUES SET*
*CHARACTER CREATION COMPLETE*
*STARTING TRANSFER TO BASTION CITY*
“Really?” Xavier asked aloud to nobody in particular. “What did that even do? Why did I even come here?” As expected there was no answer from the messages as the room rumbled and fell away around Xavier once more.