Ok, I need to cure my writing needs, so I am going to do that by doing some sort of fanfic related on the forums!
If it's meant to go somewhere else, tell me.
Jeff_ray's Story (Main)
Click here to view the secret text
×---
Day 1
The day is May 16th, 2005. I was so busy looking at my GameCube games' cover I didn't see the large building the car stopped next to.
"Alright, if the address you gave me is the right one, this is your stop." said the taxi driver. "Oh, and pay up. 10,50$."
I stop watching my game covers and I started to search in my pockets to find money. I had two 25 cents coins and a 10-dollar bill. I hand over the demanded price, then get out of the car with my luggage.
I look in front of me to see the building. It was about 9 floors large, with a bunch of tiny windows in the front wall. A small plaza with a fountain in the middle of it was near the main entrance. I had seen the element on the fountain before. Being an intermediate-leveled DROD player, I was able to recognize the main character on it.
I decide to look around the plaza. No one was in sight, despite the nice day it was. I walk around the fountain, dragging the luggage along with me. I see someone sleeping in the fountain's shadow. The guy did wake up. When he did, he noticed I was staring at him.
"Huh... are you new around here?" said the guy.
"Yes. I'm not even registered yet!" I reply.
"Well, nickname's zonhin." he said, as I shook his hand.
"So, zonhin, since when did you register?" I ask.
"Well, thing is... I'm a bit shy to do it now." he said. "For now, I'm lurking around. People see me, yet never talk to me."
"Oh. Well, I'm not rushing you to register." I say, as I walk away. "Goodbye! See you around."
"Sure." he sent back.
I walk for the main doors. As I approach, the building feels really larger. I enter the place, and see a small microphone and automatic doors.
"Hello. Who are you and what is the purpose of your journey here?" says a voice.
"Well, I don't have a nickname yet, but I'm here to register as a member." I say.
"Very well. Proceed to the office to your right after you enter." says the voice as the doors open.
I do as the voice indicated, and I went to the Registration Desk.
"Hello! So you want to be a member? Lucky you, it's free!" says the guy who runs the registration booth. "Let's begin! So, desired username?"
"Jeff Ray." I say.
"Ok. How do you spell it?
"J-E-F-F-space-R-A-Y."
"Good, good. For how long did you play DROD?"
"A few times, enough to master the controls." I say.
"Ok. Age?"
"10." I say.
"Good, good..." he says as he writes down. "Good, that's all you need to tell me. Now, follow me. We'll take a snapshot for your member card."
I follow the guy to a room where a bunch of photographic instruments were. I stand where the snapshotter told me to. I cross my legs (even though he wouldn't snapshot them), I frown a bit and let out a smirk.
"Good. Now, stay put..." he said.
Then, a flash blinded my eyes for a second. But I knew the snapshot was took.
"Good! You'll receive your card tommorow." said the guy. "For now, you can have your member keys." He said as he handed the keys over.
Well, one big thing was over, and it was getting that membership. Now, the good times are to come. I think.
I head for the room a small white card that came along with the keys indicated. The hallway I was going through was filled with DROD-related posters, small hints&tips papers written by a member that calls himself Oneiromancer and some announcements about games and contests hosted by the very members of the place.
After some walking, there were a bunch of wooden doors that had number labels. I take another look at the small card. It had 208 written on it. I keep looking at the labels, yet no room number matched the number I had. I come across an elevator. I enter, and just as I was going to press the '2' button, I realize something. Where was my luggage?!? I left it outside, where the zonhin guy was! I press the 'Open Doors' button, rush back to the fountain, and find my luggage where it was. I grab it, and pull it all the way back to the elevator. When I do, I press the '2' button, and up it goes.
When the doors open, I see another hallway similar to the one on the last floor. I find room 208 four doors away. I rush there, pulling my luggage along. I put in the key, turn it, and open the door.
The room is sort of small, with a TV, two desks with a computer for each. One of the desks is occupied by someone. Other than that, a window gave a view of the back yard. The sun, which was moving away slowly, but surely, lighted the room with its orange hue.
I opened my luggage and put my purple GameCube near the TV.
I try to remember how my dad plugged my GameCube, and then try to do as I remember. I had a hard time doing so, but when I did, I decided to play on Super Mario Sunshine.
I control Mario through the area up to Pinna Park, where I try to do mission 8. I had to try about 312 times, and when I was about to complete it...
"Excuse me, but do you mind lowering the TV volume? I'm really busy with my holds." the person on the CPU told me.
I go up to the volume switch on the TV, but by the time I get back to my remote, I had noticed that the ride went through the last lap, and I failed.
"Darn!" I let out.
I turn off the GameCube, then the TV, and I go on the avaible computer.
"You're new around here, right?" asked the guy on the other computer.
"Yeah, I barely arrived." I tell him. "Say, who are you?"
"Well, my nickname's egg egg." he responds as I shake his hand. "Seems like we'll be roommates for now!"
"For now?" I ask. Do you intend to leave?"
"Well, sorta. I quite miss my family. I left them to join that club thing, but I never thought I'd really miss them, after all that bad stuff I had to go through."
"Oh." I reply. "Alright, I think I should get on that CPU, now! Can't wait to play!"
I boot up DROD, and I notice Create New User was blocked off, and that there were no new user files. Because of this, I let out a grunt of frustration and close DROD.
"Oh, yeah. New members must register at the 'Arnold Thread' place. It's located on floor B221." told me egg egg.
"B221?!?" I let out, "There are SO many floors? I thought there were only 9!
"The nine floors are mostly bedrooms. The real stuff happens underground." he told me.
"Right, I'm going." I say.
Just as I reach the door, a sudden flash occurs to me:
"Oh, and you better not mess up EVEN ONE of my GameCube files." I say. "Got it?"
"Uh... yeah, sure..." he replies as I close the door and head for the elevator. I type in B221, and there it goes.
After what seemed like 3 hours, I reach the floor.
It was pretty dark there. The only sources of light were the numerous torches on the door. I eventually find a room with a label that said 'Arnold Thread'. I enter.
The room wasn't pretty large. It felt dark and creepy. The grey bricks, the random cracks and some tiny roaches, unlike the ones in the game, made the room. It gave some sort of dungeon feeling.
"Hello, I'm Malarame, and I run the Arnold Thread. You just have to write an introduction so the server can prove you're not a spambot disguised as a boy." the guy said, handing me a piece of scroll and a pencil.
For a while, all that was heard was the sound of the pencil writing on the scroll. Soon enough, I'm done, and I hand the intro over.
"Nice, nice. You may go back to your room, we will unlock the 'Create New Player' function for your DROD games.
"Thank you." I said just before I reran the sentence. "GameS?" I say, saying the S out loud.
"Yeah, it's quite recent, but the Caravel Games have released a new DROD version: Journey To Rooted Hold. You should have a look at it, even though it's only a demo." said Malarame.
"Whatever, thanks." I say, as I leave the room. I go to the elevator, type in 2 and I waited.
When I reach my room, I quickly checked each and every game I had, and made sure the files in them were intact. I was glad to know they were. I go on the computer, open DROD and I create my player file.
When I saw the little familiar Beethro faces, I thought I had the wrong one, since it did mention Architect's Edition.
"Oh well, I can keep the surprises for later." I said to myself.
I boot up the Build Levels function. It asked me to insert my hold's name. I type in: 'Jeffrey's Hold'. Obviously, it was.
When I finally finish filling the three other forms, I see the level editor screen. I click on the room, and I carve in an entrance room. It was empty, and led to the north. I make another one, except with orbs in it, and a few doors, like some intro to orbs. Then, a flash came to me.
"Hmm... I have a bit of experience in that domain... Maybe I should challenge myself to making the most rooms I can!"
However, I said that out loud.
"You know, I doubt it's a good idea. It's only your first day here... you should maybe enjoy the luxury this place has to offer first, THEN start making holds... but then, it's only a suggestion..." egg-egg told me.
"...You're right." I say, as I close DROD, then my computer.
"I might want to play on my Nintendo GameCube system for now."
Of course, I didn't play on it yet. I went out for a walk, keeping my NGC cards just in case. I went to floor one, as well as some of the underground floors.
Of all I had the chance to see, the floor B14 was the most surprising. It was a SubTerra floor. I didn't really understand, though, as SubTerra was only BoulderDash on steroids, and had no true link with the DROD game. I didn't need to download the game to know what it was, since I had a little more experience in the game than I did with DROD.
Of course, I met The Stew Boy, a dedicated fan of the game, as well as its WIP sequel. He just kept making SubTerra levels, he told me.
Shortly after that, I went to get the Download Key for SubTerra. Stew helped me find where I get these. It was in the room B14-23.
I open the door, and see that Pieter Simoons, the one responsible for the game, was working on the computer. After a bit of waiting, he turns to me.
"Why, hello!" said Pieter, "What can I do for you?"
"Well, I'm here to get a download key for SubTerra." I respond.
"Right... do you have your member card?" he asked.
I had forgotten they said I'd get my card tommorow.
"Well, you see, I registered today, and the guys who make memberships didn't give me my card yet." I tell him.
"I see. Sorry, but without a card, I can't confirm your membership. Come back when you have your card." he said.
"Ok, I understand." I say, as I reach for the door.
I let a desperate sigh. Back in the times where I didn't play DROD, SubTerra was the shine and gold of my computer games. Too bad I couldn't revive the experience... today. I went to the elevator to return to my room. When I opened the door, egg-egg told me something:
"Someone just came in and told me to tell you that the secretary wants to see you."
I almost already knew why they wanted to see me. Judging from the indigo hue coming from outside, I guessed it was about 6PM.
If I was quick enough, I would be able to make something out of the level editor. I make a run for the elevator, in which I press the '0' button. It passes the first floor, and reaches the main lobby. I hurry to the secretary's desk. When I reached here, I received my member card, with that smirk on it. Now, I remembered I had a floppy disk with me. It might be even faster if I check this out and then send the levels to the public! I make a run to floor B14, then room B14-23. When I got there, Pieter asked:
"So, I guess you have your member card now?"
"Yes, I do!" I responded as I handed him my card. He looks at it, then lets out a chuckle.
"Funny expression you did here." he remarked.
"I know."
He typed in something, and then clicked.
"Alright, you should have SubTerra on your computer." he said,
"Have a nice day!"
"Bye." I let out, as I exit the room.
I made a run to 'my' room. When there, I quickly opened the computer, and I noticed SubTerra being right there. I insert my floppy disk, then I run SubTerra.
When done, I loaded my levels, one by one, into the system. After I confirm three of them were OK, along with a 'random' level, I go back at floor B14. I ask Stew, who was still there, where one would submit levels. He said it was a computer function.
I run all the way through that again. I put my four levels through the system, and they were submitted. I also noticed a download program, probably to download holds and SubTerra levels, as well as other stuff.
Now, since the day was pretty much over, because of the nearly-black sky, I decided to play a late game of Mario Sunshine. This time, I successfully complete the mission I began a few hours ago.
After I was done playing the game, I close my GameCube, verify that my computer is shut, and open the small lava lamp. I never saw one before, so seeing the lamp's heat make bubbles was surprising.
I took a small magazine that was on my desk, called The Daily Caravel. I quickly read the thing, sometimes stopping to analyze an article about some hilarious event. There were hold reviews, as well as news on the Caravel life.
After I finish my reading, I put the book away, and realize I didn't take a shower yet. I go up to the bathroom, with a pyjama in hands, and I take my shower, leaving my pyjamas on the counter nearby. When I was done, I put on my pyjamas, then went to sleep after this completely insane day. All I hope is that such complications won't be hassling me for the next days here.
---
Day 2
***
I saw something. At first, it wasn't quite clear, but it was my sister. She was bugging me to go on the computer.
"Come on, Jeff! Let me go on! It's only for a research!"
She sounded, and looked older. She was about 15, from the looks.
"Look. There's one reason why I left that house for the Caravel Building years ago. It was to get you off my back. And now, you HAD to come in here, and ruin my fun!"
She was surprised, and shocked at the same time. She went off on her bed, and started crying. Of course, I ignored her childish attitude and played on DROD 5. In the room I was, there was a 2x2 roach sleeping in a corner.
"I want to go home!" she cried.
"Simple. You can log out, and never come back here. That would help me a lot."
*RIIIING!*
My eyes opened wide. I am still 10, egg egg is still my roommate, and my sister is nowhere to see. I let out a sigh of relief to know it was only a dream. But it felt so real! And how come I was older in my dream? I didn't understand anything of the dream. Will it really happen?
I tried to forget this nightmare. I went in the bathroom, and put on my clothes. I left for the plaza.
I then went outside. It was a marvelous sunshiny day. I decide to walk around. I saw zonhin sleeping under the fountain. Other than him, I didn't see anyone else. However, as I was walking around the fountain, I suddenly noticed someone on one of the Plaza benches. I went and sat on the bench next to his.
I heard him mumble about DROD: Journey To Rooted Hold, which I quickly thought it was the new version.
It was then quiet for a while, until he turned to see me looking around.
"Are you new around here?" asked the person.
"Yeah. My account is two days old." I reply.
"Well, the username's MeckMeck Gre." he said as I shook his hand. "And you are?"
"Jeff_ray. As in, a raygun." I said.
"Oh! That's a good one!" he said, with a chuckle.
"Well, that was, indeed, my plan with the username." I tell him.
"Oh well, I have to go! I have some work to do with my hold." said MeckMeck.
"Bye!" I said.
The person got up, and went for the main doors.
When he left I decided to return to my room. I took the chance to look around on the way and greet any people that were walking around. When I was in the room, I saw something horrible!
egg egg was nowhere to see. I looked everywhere, only to find a note. It said:
"Dear Jeff_ray,
It's only been two days, but the torment was too much for me to stand. I just had to get away. I hope you won't be mad at me for doing this, Jeff_ray. Hopefully, they might give you another roommate soon enough.
Signed,
egg egg"
Why did he do this? He knew I was going to be alone! However, I then remembered my dream. My sister was there, but for how long? What if she heads in tommorow?!? I tried to take this thought away, but it wouldn't leave. I played on my GameCube, hoping to have the thoughts fade away. No avail.
But then, I heard a knock on my door.
"This is the room you will be in, madam." I heard behind the door.
I shivered. Was it finally going to happen? Will my annoying sister come in and ruin my new life, maybe my inexistant reputation? I looked at the door, and then closed my eyes, hoping for the best.
As the door opened, I opened one eye. I was relieved to see that it wasn't my sister, but another woman DRODder. She looked around, and saw me.
"Why, hi there!" she said.
"...Hi." I said, nervously.
"So, you're new here, aren't you?" she asked.
"Yeah, today's my second day here." I replied.
"I'm techant." She said as I shook her hand. "And you are?"
"Jeff_ray." I replied, "Actually, it's a pun on my name and ray guns.
"Oh, I see!" she replied with a chuckle, "Anyways, they sent me in this room for a bit. The roommate I used to be with left a while ago, and I was with a new guy, but yesterday, he burned the room up and ran away. Luckily, the building's firemen were able to kill out the flames, but they have to rebuild the room. I hope you don't mind that they put us together, right?"
"No, of course not!" I replied back.
"That's good! See you around! I have to go somewhere."
"Ok. Bye!"
She left the room and took a turn to the right. I closed the door, and went to play on my Gamecube.
---
A while later, I went on the computer, and tried JtRH out. The graphics were greatly improved from the original. I built some test rooms for the game to try out the new elements. Sadly, I only had the first style: Foundation.
However, I remembered that people on some places such as Spriters Resource made and ripped some sprites from games to upload sprite sheets to make sprite comic making easy. I decided to do this for DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold.
I was done with the ripping process, and I printed the sheet out.
I was about to leave to show it to the others when techant returned. I showed to her the sheet with the ripped images from the game.
"I must admit, Jeff_ray, that's not something to do." she told me.
"How come? I'm not harming anyone with that, am I?"
"Well, the graphics for JtRH are copyrighted by Erik Hermansen, the maker of the game."
"That means that ripping isn't allowed?"
"Exactly."
"Oh... I guess I might as well trash this."
I tore the sheet apart and threw the bits in the recycle bin.
"Alright, I'll go. Don't mess with the gamecube, ok?"
"Ok, I will remind that."
I walked out of the room and went for the elevator.
***
I went for the lobby floor and take a look around. B-24 was the holds floor. I take a look and select some holds to download to my computer. I find one of them made by MeckMeck, the guy I had met a few hours ago. I return to the room, and I take a look at the holds. The puzzles were rather tough for the amateur player I was. I manage to complete one hold.
I then continue building my hold in JtRH. I was working on 1S1E, a room with a character shape similar to Ogmo, Jumper’s main character. There were secret walls with snakes and rows of trapdoors on which the snakes were meant to die. I keep on making some rooms until the clock in our room hits noon.
I ask techant where we were supposed to eat lunch. She mentionned the floor B50. I went there, and went in one of the rooms. There was, to the first door to the left, a unknown restaurant with weird burgers sold. I take a closer look at the menu, and I see Roach Burgers, Wraithwing Soup, Seep (maybe one of those new JtRH critters), and some more DROD-like meals. I take a tiny roach burger to give it a try. It didn’t cost me anything, as I was only there for 2 days, and there was a discount for the new members. It tasted rather weird, unlike anything I ate before. I was used to eating burgers, but this one just tasted strange. But I managed to finish the burger, and I take a look around the floor. There were some replicas from fast food franchises. I was rejoiced to see a McDonalds replica, and a stand. There was also a Microwave Room, where I can cook food I bring along.
***
I return to my room, and continue work on my hold. It was 3 o’ clock when I stopped. I walked down to visit the building some more. B-52 was the relaxation floor. There were spas, lounge rooms, and a few more rooms I didn’t get to see because the doors were closed…
I walk up to the lounge, and see a few people already there. I decide to go take a seat to discuss a little bit. Two people were engaged in a serious discussion at the moment: a person whose username was Abbyzzmal and one other called agaricus5, while someone was on their own, looking around. Even though I was tempted to go talk to this person, I decided to go chat along with agaricus5 and Abbyzzmal, who were two real nice persons. After the chatting session was over, I decided to walk back to my room and prepare for dinner.
I head to the floor B-50 and head to the Roasted Roach Grill room to take another roach burger. I was used to their taste, so it wasn’t so hard to eat it this time. Even though my stomach protested, I was able to finish my burger. I then decided to order a seep, just to taste it. It was that small little white critter with the red eerie eyes from the JtRH game. I walked to my place, and took a bite. It tasted a lot better than the roach burger, but it still had that weird feeling to the taste.
***
The night was upon us. The sun was setting down on the day of May 16th. Wind came through the windows, pushing the curtains aside. The fresh breeze penetrated the room, which had a little bit too much heat from today’s heat wave. The sky was colored in a strangely marvelous shade of orange and red, tinted with a darker purple far away from the setting sun. The colored lights made a print on the walls of the room, with an orange shade covering the furniture placed in front of the window. It was seven o’ clock, as I gazed outside the window, looking at the last shine of the sun. The floor B-52 was closed at that time, and I was stuck to staying in my room. Luckily, this wasn’t the place with anything of the curfew type, so I could get up at nighttime. However, when I went out for a walk, no one was in the hallways. I didn't bother going in the B floors, though. I decided to take a small piece of paper and sketch things. One of the things that I drew was a strange UFO-like beast which could move at twice the normal speed, and had to be trapped to be killed. Another was a new type of tarstuff, which had a mouth. I scrapped the thing and put it in my desk drawer, which was empty at the current moment.
Now deciding that it was time for a nap, I went in the bathroom to take a shower. After that, in my rather confy pajamas, I get ready for bedtime. I take the small Caravel Building magazine and read it through. I then put it away and open the small lamp light.
***
Jeff_Ray's Story: Bonus Parts
DROD RPG's Release
Click here to view the secret text
×We were all waiting for the DROD RPG game to come out. The room was full of people waiting for the new game to come out. Everyone cheered when Mike and Schik came in the room. Mike then announced that the game was close to release. Everyone started screaming so loud I had to put my hands on my hears.
"However…" started Mike.
This word caused everyone to quiet down in barely a second.
"We have one more bug to fix, involving a rogue NPC."
People let out claims of disappointment. The game seemed to take forever to come out!
"Have faith, my friends. The game WILL be released today, this evening at least."
Mike then left the room, and people started multiple discussion and rants on the rogue NPC deal and the soon-to-come release. Meanwhile, zex was in a corner, taking clear notice of the member count with the close to come release.
After a few hours of waiting, someone made notice of the broken site. One found the download link for RPG, and everyone ran to their rooms, in an attempt to get the game ASAP. I gave it a shot, and it worked! I was so excited to play the game! I installed it, and I eagerly double-clicked the icon…
Pilchard's Story
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×The morning sun gently shone through the small gap in the curtains, which were lazily blowing in the breeze from the partially-open window. The rest of the room was somewhat starved of light due to the curtains intercepting most of it. The single ray of light that was able to enter the room fell on the face of a teenage boy, lying on his bed in a white shirt and black trainers. Slowly, he came to, waking due to the light hurting his partially-opened eyes. Once fully awake, he slowly turned round and got up, stretching slightly. He couldn’t quite remember what had happened the previous night, only that it was the Fourth Annual People’s Choice Awards; it must have been one hell of a party. He slowly moved over to the window, to open the curtains. After doing this, he couldn’t help but look down at what was going on outside; someone had just got out of a taxi and was carrying his luggage towards the entrance of the building after stopping for a conversation with zonhin. Another new member joining the building. Anyway, after spraying on some deodorant, he decided to go for a walk and figure out what he needed to do today, and maybe even greet the new member.
As he walked down the corridor, he saw his friend Ezlo walking towards him, another teenage boy who was about a year older than him, but was already a renowned smitemaster, a superior status to that of Pilchard’s, who was only a smiter. “Hey Ez!” he said, trying to appear like he didn’t wake up feeling rotten. “Hey Pilch!” he said in return. Ezlo was clearly feeling much better than Pilchard was. “Hey, what happened last night?” Pilchard asked. “I woke up this morning feeling rotten. What did I do?” “Well, you drank two pints of coca-cola, and nicked all the chocolate éclairs. After that, you tried to do an impression of a wraithwing on crack, then you collapsed at the bar.” They both started laughing. “Okay, I’m gonna go get some breakfast. Or lunch, whichever’s closer.” Pilchard said. “What’s the time?” “It’s about 11:15.” Ezlo replied. “You mean I slept for ages and I’m still shattered? I’d better hurry, I need to check how my new hold is coming along with the HAs.” Pilchard said in quite a panic. “Okay, I guess I’d better let you go.” said Ezlo, and with that, he continued down the corridor.
Pilchard quickly ran down the corridor, making a bee-line straight for the elevator. Fortunately, no-one was there, as he was already very late, and he knew from past experience that Hold Admins hate it when their time is wasted with latecomers. He pressed the button for the elevator to open, and the doors gently open. He stampeded in and quickly scanned the buttons and pressed the one that said ‘B-17’. The doors slowly closed and the elevator gently lowered. If only the rest of the world was in as much of a hurry as he was at the moment. When he was descending, he wondered why the Hold Admins’ domain was located so far down. On the outside, the building didn’t exactly look that big, but below it were about one-hundred floors built for varying purposes, some for hold testing, others for recreation and games. then there was the dreaded floor B-265. Since that terrible accident with the server crash, no-one, except for Erik, were allowed access there. What could possibly be down there? He stopped thinking about it. Finally, after the longest minute anyone could imagine, the elevator stopped, and there he was, fact-to-face with some of the scariest faces in the DROD universe, the ones who could make someone’s life work a reality, or shatter them in an instant. The room itself was very dark, with the only light source being a large bulb coming down from the ceiling, something about the room suggesting a gangster’s meeting. He knew that he had to be careful around these people, and he attempted to be as polite as possible around them. He approached the circular table, and sat himself down. jbluestein turned to him and greeted him, which was returned with a polite “How do you do sir?” Chaco decided to jump straight in with the purpose of this gathering. “Okay, case number 1832, the proposal of King Pilchard VIII’s Dungeon 3 to be promoted to the holds board.” And so began three hours of hard discussion.
After the long debate, Pilchard was absolutely shattered. So he decided to go to B-55 for some relaxation. The elevator continued going down, until he reached a recreation area, complete with pool tables, chat areas and bar. He headed over to the bar, and asked for a cup of ice tea without the ice. He turned to the side, and saw the same new guy that he saw arriving earlier, along with a few other friends, such as Syntax, coppro and Alneyan. He would have liked to introduce himself, but he honestly didn’t feel like talking to anyone, he was just too tired. He drank his tea and returned to his room, he didn’t even bother to check his Private Messages. He just got back onto his bed, continuing on from where he left off before he woke up. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow for something interesting to happen.
***
The twilight of the moon shone through the small gap in the curtains, which were furiously blowing in the gale from the partially-open window. The whole room was completely starved of light due to the fact that it was still late. You know the scene, it was Pilchard VIII’s room, in pretty much the same state as it was the previous day, save the fact that it was all completely dark, due to the fact that the weather was awful, a torrential downpour and a wind so strong, you’d think the whole building was in the midst of a hurricane. Suddenly, there was a crash of thunder, and Pilchard was rapidly awoken by the resultant bang. He was panting hard in shock. He turned his head to the side to check his digital clock which was glowing brightly in the darkness. Two o’clock in the morning? It was way too early, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep in these conditions. So he got off of the bed, put on a pair of slippers and a dressing gown on top of the clothes he was already wearing and went back to B-55 to relax.
The whole place was completely empty, save the night-time bartender. He walked over to the bar, and had a seat. The bartender turned around and smiled. “Hey Pilchard. What’ll it be?” he asked politely. “Just lemonade without the lemon, or the aid.” he said with a tired expression on his face. The bartender looked rather confused. “So, just water then?” he asked to confirm his bizarre order. “That sounds even better actually.” Pilchard responded. So he got his drink, and began to sip it slowly to calm his nerves. “So, what’s with the weird get up?” the bartender asked in curiosity. Just then, the elevator doors opened and Robobob3000 emerged. He casually walked over to the bar, asked for a diet coke and sat down next to Pilchard. The first thing he noticed was that he was dressed in quite an unusual way. “Can’t sleep either huh?” he casually asked, as if to attempt to start a conversation. Pilchard just drank some of his water and responded after a slight pause. “Yeah, it’s the weather that woke me,” he responded in a fairly depressed voice. After an awkward pause, he continued. “I was thinking of the family I left behind. My parents, my sister, my friends, and that special person in my life.” Robobob seemed intrigued. “You used to have a girlfriend?” he asked, with curiosity in his voice. “Yeah,” he responded. “She was comparable to angels, the living embodiment of beauty, the girl I loved. And I promised her that I’d never leave her. Ironically, as they say, promises were made to be broken...” Tears started to gather in his eyes. After a brief pause, he quickly downed the rest of his drink and walked swiftly back to the corridor. Robobob seemed slightly moved, but casually continued with his drink as normal.
As he headed back to his room, he saw a notice on his door. He tore it down and read it. “BECOME A SMITEMASTER IN JUST 10 DAYS!” He looked very puzzled, but it wasn’t the notice that confused him. Every other door also had the same notice on them. He had a pretty good idea of what had caused this, and decided to follow the path of notices to investigate. He turned a corner in the corridor, and there it was. A human-esque figure, except slightly more squared, posting the notices up at a surprisingly fast rate. A spambot! He knew what he had to do, thanks to the initiation course he took when he arrived here as a roachling. He pulled up his left sleeve to reveal a red button on a wrist strap that he was wearing, and activated in an over-dramatic way, a bit like in some of the anime cartoons he used to watch. Suddenly, the deafening sound of sirens could be heard throughout the building and the whole floor went into lockdown. The chase was on. He dashed forward to attack the spambot, the sirens fuelling his pursuit. Unfortunately, the spambot had already began his escape. Although Pilchard was always really bad at sports, the spambot was moving quite slowly, so it was easy for him to catch up with him. He was preparing to tackle the bot to the floor, when a small nozzle emerged from the back of it’s head, and began throwing flames all over the place (flaming lol). The flames spewed out everywhere, scorching everything in sight, including part of Pilchard’s arm, causing him to recoil in pain. He was unable to do anything escape watch the bot escape. Or so it would have been if the whole bot’s body didn’t suddenly go into spasm. It was being disabled with a large electric discharge, causing blue sparks to fly everywhere, and causing Pilchard to cover his eyes in fear. After a few moments, the shocks stopped, and the bot hit the floor with a large clang; it had been completely disabled. The elevator doors swung open again, and Schik emerged, approaching the spambot calmly. He spied the teenager standing near it, and reached for a microphone behind his ear, and positioned it to his mouth. “Command. User equals Pilchard VIII. Rank points equals plus two.” He said in a monotonic voice. He replaced the microphone and spoke again, but in a more natural voice. “Thanks for alerting us to this. Now we need to analyse it to get it’s IP, so no others will return from it’s source.” And with that, he grabbed the bot by the leg and dragged it into the elevator, and began his descent to B-211. Pilchard just stood there for a while taking in what had just happened. After a while of silence, he returned to his room, and settled down for a restless night, the thunder still audible.
Monkey's Story:
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×Date: 9-23-07
"Hey, Monkey! Wake up! You're drooling on the keyboard!"
Those were the first sounds I heard that day. Obviously, playing "Doom II" with ZDoom to midnight wasn't the brightest of ideas. My guy, with god mode on, and infinite ammo, was still firing a plasma rifle at a wall, with a cyberdemon firing rockets at me, and a few SS Nazi bodies around me. I switched to a BFG9000, checked the cyberdemon's health (937/4000), and killed it in a single hit. I shut down Doom II, and slumped to bed, seeing a blurry shadow at my door. The shadow says, "Hey! Get up! There's a new contest!"
As my vision clears, I see that vittro's the one at my door. I get up, and add another entry to my "1000 Reasons Not to Have a Roommate," this one being "If you're not reminded, you get to oversleep easily." I get out of my bed, and roll into the elevator. As I slided into the hall, I got a feeling that I get a bad reputation from this. "Monkey, you've gotta stop rolling out of your room," VIPCOOL tells me when I get in the elevator. I reply "Well, it's not my fault that somebody woke me up too early." I give a "you know you did it" look to vittro, and he just shrugged it off.
At floor B-187 (formerly known as the Contests forum, until mrimer got the idea to make the "CaravelNet Hotel"), I put on my iPod, and put on "Fortress Battle 1". I walk over to the bulliten board, and find the contest marked "Official". "Huh. Invisibility," I mumble to myself when I finish reading it. "I scored fairly nice on 'Limited Space III'. Maybe I'll attend this one."
"CCCOOOOOOMMMMMMIIIIINNNNGGGGGG TTTHHHHHRRRROOOUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!" Some lurker decided to become more lively by running at full speed, with a cart in hands, then whle the cart was at full speed, jump in said cart. He crashed into a wall (leaving a big dent), and got banned immediately. Luckily, there was no way I was gonna let this pure insanity leave my grasps, because I caught it on camera. But, a mod came, and told me, "Delete the video." I did, but unknowingly to them, I made a backup under their noses. As I said, no way was this insanity sliding past me.
***
Date: 19-7-2008
After a browse of the topics on the "FR" floor, I decide to get back to my room so I could play some UT2004. It takes a long time to get back to my room, but luckily, the elevator is big enough for a hundred people, complete with benches and food. I take a bag of potato chips, sit down, and wait for the elevator to reach the "Delver/Master Delver" floor. This place has way too many topic floors, I think to myself, as the amount of time on the elevator exceeds 10 minutes.
Finally, I reach my floor. I get out of the elevator, find out that vittro went to the "Smiter/Smitemaster" level, and that since I'm a master delver now, I get a bigger room that I don't have to share, and that all my stuff has been moved into it already, including my "1000 Reasons Not to Have a Roommate" paper! After booting up my computer, I start up UT2004, and have a long botmatch. 2 hours after I started the match, I decide I should really get some sleep now, so I lock my door, and start snoozing.
When I wake up, I find an Illumination in my mailbox. I read it, decide that yeah, achievements lengthen short games in a very bad way, and see that I got a Steam friend invite. Being the guy I am, I accept, and decide that for a change, play some Garry's Mod. After posing a TF2 Heavy to make it look like it was dancing with a melon, I get bored, and decide to see what's outside. I see a guy riding in a cart at a really fast speed, and find out he's the lurker from last year! I watch the video again, and remember that mod who tried to make me delete it. Then I crawl into bed again, nd let this chapter end very abruptly.
Well? Why isn't the chap-
Chaco's story:
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×As the sun shone through the red cellophane filter on the bedroom's window, the room's occupant lazily got out of bed. For some reason, everyone in the Caravel Building slept on top of the bedsheets, and the occupant was not about to question that tradition, although he was relatively new to the whole organization of ideas.
This person was Chaco, a relatively respected and admired member of the community, although he'd deny it if you asked him about it. He said that it mattered not how many years one spends in a society, although two was a perfectly fine number for him. Chaco would say something grandiose such as "it's your behavior that counts" or "it's what you accomplish during that time that counts".
As Chaco left his quarters and entered one of several hundred thousand elevators in the skyscraper, Chaco reflected that a rumor was going around that he was helping to promote Pilchard VIII's third hold to the Main Holds Hub. That was fine and all, except that it wasn't true, and people were starting to ask him why there were so many delays. Chaco had dealt with rumors before - tricky beasts, elusive and evasive, but worst of all having the one thing closest to invulnerability - instant replication.
He passed the community Christmas Tree and helped put up some of the decorations, although he didn't quite have enough finesse or ambition to decorate the entire tree himself.
No, no, today was about something different. Chaco was meeting with his actors today, whose production was about to be performed in a few day's time or so. Present at the meeting were 53rd Tar Technician, 40th Mud Coordinator, four Imperial Citizens, two guards, a Slayer, a smitemaster, and one of Chaco's clones which he had placed the night before. The real Chaco entered the dark yet green-lit room containing this medley of characters, and called the meeting to order.
"Today's topic is a communal gathering of final remarks about this whole production. The hold is just about finished, with just some final feedback required. Standard Hold Administrative stuff that I'm sure you all understand. We've practiced all of our parts" - the clone-Chaco nodded at this point - "and I believe we're all set to go for our first performance. If there is anything anyone would like to say in conclusion at this point, I'm sure everyone would like to hear it."
The smitemaster was the first to speak up. "Yeah, I got somethin' to say here. I've been tryin' to change my part name since the day you guys hired me. Couldn' you have come up with a better name for me than 'Smitemaster Sam'? I hate that name cause it reminds me of one of my annoying nephews."
The main-Chaco replied "It was stated explicitly in your contract that the name of your part was going to be 'Smitemaster Sam' and that I would not compromise on this issue. You took the job anyway, so you're going to have to 'put up with it' as I believe the saying goes."
There was a murmuring within the crowd. Suddenly a Runner burst into the room, and screamed "Run for the elevators! Briar's gotten out of control on this floor! Run for your lives!" He then turned around, ran smack into the door in his confusion, then left the room in somewhat less of a hurry. The others followed.
Unfortunately, the elevator only had enough room for everybody minus one person. There was a heated argument about who should be the person to remain behind (in which both Chacos participated and agreed with each other, naturally) which lasted until the briar actually came into sight, at which point there was a mad dash for the elevator. The smitemaster was the person left out and died a horrible spikey death. Nobody in the elevator much cared, however, since none of the group members liked him much and smitemasters were rather replaceable with people wearing orange clothing, wielding swords, and following scripts.
12th Archivist's Story:
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×I was running down the building halls as fast as I could, trying desperately to find the elevator. When I found the elevator, I jumped in, annoying the other three people there a bit. Pressing the B195 button as hard as I could, my brain went crazy as an eternity passed from when I pressed it to when it lit up. Relieved, someone asked me why I was being so insane... and why I was carrying a large black case. I told him I was late for Future Release Music Rehearsal.
"Ahh," he said, "part of the band/orchestra that makes such fine music?"
"We don't make the music, we just play it," I replied.
"Hmm. Well, what kind of instrument do ya play?"
"I can't tell you. That's classified."
He looked at me funny. I found that everybody these days seemed to look at you funny when you said something was classified. I sat down and waited three minutes for the elevator to get to B195.
--------------
When I arrived, I leaped out of the elevator and ran down the hall as fast as I could to the room. The teacher, seemingly not present, did not appreciate late students, no matter what age. Instead of the regular Mr. Thrison, we had a substitute, who was named Mrs. Imer, seemingly evidenced on the board.
"Wait," I thought, "Mrs. Imer? Why would she be the substitute today? Why not Mrs. Norse or the occasional Mr. Wanfried*?"
I took my seat and looked at the other band people. They didn't appear too disturbed by me late arrival, though the teacher looked at me while she spoke. I think she was talking about etudes, but I wasn't really paying attention. Etudes really weren't my thing, as I just didn't get them, though I probably would've gotten them if I had payed an ounce of attention in that class.
We finally got around to playing. The teacher told us to take out "Thundering Deeps", a song that I enjoyed more than most. She began the "1, 2, ready, go" with a nice flick of the wrist. The melody began, while the rest of the people in that room had to wait 2, 4, 7, or 9 measures until they got their part. It was a nice song to be sure; powerful yet not considerably overwhelming. It made you stop thinking about what you were doing now and start thinking about how this benefited the greater good.
After playing the song around 15 times, we left through the sound-proof doors. Everybody wondered why those doors were soundproof since they also wondered what was behind those doors. Only the band/orchestra people knew what was behind those doors. They also knew why they were soundproof: so that people couldn't listen in on the future release DROD music. Erik used to make the songs on his computer, but they sounded a little bit messy, since computers couldn't learn to seize the music and throttle (not the improper way) it like a human could.
Returning to my room, I looked outside the windows for just a bit. Surprisingly gloomy and dark, and covered in rain clouds, threatening to burst in a thousand pieces of water droplets.
"Hmm..." I wondered out loud, "what would happen if I asked what they thought about the sky outside."
I was about to ask someone when suddenly, something happened.
Comments and suggestions are well accepted, unless it's offensive to me in any teensy way.
____________________________
I make Let's Plays too!
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Currently playing:
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×
(Updated 5/05/2020)
-Witherwood Castle
-Escort Mission
-Subterra Prime
My Holds:
-Completed:
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-Work in Progress:
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[Last edited by Jeff_Ray... at 02-18-2009 09:57 PM]
Good job 