Open Terrasphere: The World Shattering VRMMORPG

[Pandora]

3:33

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No matter what you are watching or what medium you are viewing with. Your screen begins to blur out. At first you may think something is wrong with your device, however you then hear a voice in the blurred static. The voice is muffled at first but gets progressively clearer as it goes on. The voice is chipper and very enthusiastic.

"Heya how's it going viewers!? What's this silly ad interrupting huh? A sitcom? War movie? Superheroes? Ooooh, maybe murder mystery? Or just the boring old news?"

The screen comes in bright and clear suddenly. On screen is a girl With her face taking up a good deal of the screen However the camera begins to slowly pan out as she continued to talk to the viewer. A song begins to play and it is a little different depending on who is viewing it. In fact, the girl herself was dressed in different outfits every time the commercial comes on. The speech is the only part of this odd commercial that never changes.

"Have you ever wanted to live a movie? To be a hero? To vent all that stress your boss puts you through? Want to just have a date with a cutie like me and not have to worry about consequences?"

Behind her, one would see a different area all the time. Sometimes a beautiful meadow, other times it was up high with the terrain below flying past, and other times a massive war was going on right behind her, with blasts of magic and arrows flying right by her. The most calming one was easily the home though. She stood in a living room with a fireplace and a family all holding hands and singing a carol happily. In a very holiday-like fashion.

"Welp you're in luck! Exotic locations lives you only wished you could live, a home away from home! Or maybe just a place to go wild! Write your story however you want it!"

Her arms spread out and she began to twirl as more areas and situations flashed behind her. Then with a slow final spin, she waved her hand towards the screen and vanished. The word T E R R A S P H E R E materialized on screen with nothing but space and some sparkling stars in the background. Her voice would be heard again.

"The ultimate virtual reality life and gaming simulator! Come and join us for the time of your NEW life! I'll see you in there kay?"

Her face pops back out of the corner of the screen and waves, head rocking back and forth with her eyes closed and a huge smile...

Anyone who remembered this ad from years ago, would likely not even be looking to see what came next. Rather than the usual fading out back to the regularly scheduled programming. The screen went black for a second. A distorted voice could be heard speaking in an incomprehensible tongue., followed by a single long BEEEEEEP that pierced your ears. Some last words flashed on the screen in large white font.

CONNECTION REESTABLISHED

Then what looked like some sort of trailer appeared.

Spoiler: Trailer

When it ended... the normal program would finally return.

OOC: All players are allowed one reaction post to this commercial. All replies must be in (real-life) character. If you have not yet logged into Terrasphere for some reason. You will receive an invite to the game through your email if you become even semi-interested.

 

[Ash Vargold]

It's a late night for Aisling. A frantic call from some accountant with too much caffeine, not enough common sense, and an early deadline has trapped her in what has become a long and frustrating online call about the importance of regular backups.

It isn't going well.

"Sir, if you are going to be belligerent, I will have to end this call and escalate this to my supervisor," she says, trying not to let her annoyance at being woken up slip into her voice. "If you didn't have file history set up on your personal machine, then-"

-zzzzt-

There's a confused exclamation over the call before it dissolves into static, followed by her monitors. A muffled voice, coming in clearer, and then-

Aisling watches, slack-jawed, as an all-too familiar scene unfolds. It's only the sudden distorted voice and harsh beep that snaps her out of her shock.

Connection re-established?

The interruption ends eventually, returning her to her desktop. Back to normal, as if nothing had happened - except for the man panicking on the other end of the call about being 'hacked' by 'terrorists'. Aisling immediately goes into damage control mode, trying to calm him down, but her mind is elsewhere as her heart races.

Terrasphere. It was real. And it was back.

 

[Harukami]

"Haru, hurry! You're going to miss the show!" A young woman whined from the couch. Haruka was standing in the nearby kitchen, making a snack for them to eat while the anime his sister had been dying to watch was being broadcast. He didn't know much about it, but apparently, she'd promised one of the local kids she'd watch it and compare opinions that evening when he was supposed to tutor them.

Snacks and drinks on a platter, he carried it to the coffee table and sat down. That's when something strange happened.

The screen got blurry and the anime's theme song stopped playing in the background. "Etsuko, did you press a weird button again?"

"Don't blame me, it's obvious the TV is just old!" The woman huffed. Suddenly, a friendly face of some sort came on their TV. She began talking pretty quickly and began discussing a brilliant sounding world. It was a nice commercial, albeit badly timed. Then, he saw it. The name, Terrasphere, popped up, and his jaw dropped. He unintentionally spilled some of his iced tea on his clothing, staring in shock.

Etsuko jumped off the couch to get him a towel. She only got back when the commercial had just about ended. "Really, Haru, you need to be more careful." She sighed, drying the spill on his lap. "Are you sure you're alright? Have you got a cold? You look pale."

Terrasphere was the only thing that he did that didn't involve his sister. As she showed no interest- which surprised him quite a bit, frankly- he kept his mouth shut. "I thought this game was supposed to be a secret in general... Is the TV telling me to tell Etsuko? But if I do that, she'll follow me like she always does..."

Snapping him out of his thoughts, she grabbed his arm to pull him off the couch. "Go change. I'll wait for you." And so, he went to his room without a word- even as all his thoughts were consumed...

 

[Lune]

The time was perfect for getting some late-night snack, lounging on the sofa and crying to some Korean drama. Sour cream potato chips in hand, blanket ready, and she was ready to laze around before Dayeon's smartphone screen blurred itself out, revealing a hijacked transmission of Terrasphere.

Focusing on the commercial, she was bedazzled by the beautiful environment and mellow music playing, completed with the speech from the enthusiastic girl. "Terrasphere..." Anyone would recognize that name if they have been following the news past few years. Countless PSAs were broadcasted to prevent people to delve into the game any further.

After all this time, it resurfaced again?

Seeing how well-made the commercial is, the aspects of it seemed too good to be true. At least it's what she thought before the trailer played, showing the different sides of Terrasphere. The trailer was straight out of an anime or action movie, with the numerous shot it showed.

The transmission ended, and only the reflection of herself on the pitch-black screen remains. Dayeon got off the sofa and walked towards the apartment window, gazing at the rainy night outside for a while. She took one bite of the flavoured potato chip before muttering.

"Interesting."

 

[Ru Ning]

Bored from his current conference call, Jooyoung had pulled up an online video showcasing a cute cat café located in Japan. His eyes were listlessly glued to the screen as voices continued to drone on in the backdrop regarding some useless memorandum and change in policy. Not like any of this really concerns me to begin with… I thought becoming a pathologist would keep me away from people. Cell slides don't talk. But department heads have to sit in on this drivel. An audible sigh sounded as his gaze turned toward his personal laptop he had snuck into the lab.

Given the current hour, the rest of his staff had long gone home, allowing him to kill the lights. Only an eerie blue glow from monitors illuminated his workspace. Eyes still glued to his laptop, the voice in the backdrop continued to speak gibberish, only to be interrupted by Dr. Kim's outburst. "Whah?!?" An awkward moment of silence ensued before the speaker continued. "Dr. Kim, are you ok?..." Silence again ensued, as the pathologist regained his bearing, his eyes still fixated to his laptop. "I'm ok. I almost knocked over my ramyun… that's all."

No, he wasn't ok. That suspicious cat girl from the dungeon had somehow hacked her way onto his screen. Perhaps joining Terrasphere hadn't been his best decision as of late.

 

[Cain Darlite]

She stared at the black screen of her phone, long after the trailer had ended.

Felt her heart hammer, driving rusted nails out from her lungs. Deep breaths drew in, then out. But that didn’t ease the pain. A pain like rerupturing tendons during therapy, feeling your life fall away from you as you plummet back to the start of the journey you had taken. And in that moment, she knew that nothing had changed inside of her. That rational thought meant nothing to the roar in her ears, the exponentiating rage that demanded her to flood out and break everything.

Songs at the tomb. Roses at the window. Faded memories splattered by raw emotions.

Her painted lips bloomed a brighter red, teeth digging past the skin and into the flesh. Deep breaths reminded of what world she still lived in, what work she still had, what meager life she had pulled together, like a magpie collecting sparkling trash to make a nest capable of distracting itself from the mate that it had left behind. No, distracting her from a corpse. A ghost. Fragile surrealities, illusory planes that drained precious time. But like a moth to flame, like a fly to rot, it didn’t really matter what she told herself.

“Danielle?” Knuckles rapped against the door. “The photographer’s ready now.”

She stared in the mirror once more, pulling out a tissue to dab away the blood. Unfocused her eyes, opened her mouth slightly. Good, there was the look she needed right now. The look she needed for real life. For sanctuary from insanity.

“I’m coming~” Danielle sang. Her hair was good. Her eyes were great. Her outfit as pristine as you would expect from an expert coordinator. She allowed herself to laugh at how little she had matured, how young she still was.

And with one forceful, decisive action, she hurled her phone against the floor and shattered the screen to bits.

 

[Chrys]

"What the fuck?!" Pete Simpson blurted out with a mouthful of noodles. He was, once again, alone in his late parents' house, enjoying what he tells himself is peace but is actually just his normal, every day situation now, one that he can't change because of his own attitude. Slurping the noodles into his throat and almost choking in the process, he quickly wiped his face clean of any excess soup, eyes glued on his laptop's screen.

Pete had sold his television a few months ago. Not that he needed to. It was mostly because he felt that the old thing was always his parents' favorite, his dad's mostly, and that guy was a dick. Pete didn't want any more reminders of him, even though he was still living in the late politician's old house, so he's been trying to sell a lot of the stuff in it. The television was the first casualty, so now Pete only had his laptop for entertainment.

He immediately tried to call his friend, his only friend, who had been talking to him about some sort of weird game. Pete wondered if it was all connected. He was already dialing the number, moments before putting his phone to his ear, when it vibrated, spooking him. "What the fuck?!" When he turned to look at his phone's screen, there was some sort of message from a source he wasn't familiar with. Pete just stared at it for a few more moments before his laptop's screen started streaming his "nightly news" program again.

"Bloody hell, that's some weird shit, bruv," he shook his head, calming himself down, though a smile slowly formed across his noodles-soaked lips.

 

[Sylpha Astarte]

"Ah, what the fuck?!?"
A feminine voice rang out in the kitchen. Luckily, it was empty due to a combination of luck and various factors that made every other chef step out. Erika had been watching an industrial oven and the layers of trays filled with the day's final batch of baked goods when she noticed the screen displaying the temperature and time flicker before being replaced by something it wasn't meant to display at all.

Impressive. She thought as the voice coming out from screen explained just why her oven started displaying an ad. It took several lines of dialogue from the synthetic-sounding voice (don't expect an oven to have good audio quality) before her memories were finally jolted.

"Oh."
It had been a long time since Erika last saw this. Four years in fact. Feelings for the game aside, she wasn't looking at an oven back then, so she had no idea the ad being played was this impressive.
"This stunt was way more impressive than I remember."

Turning her attention back to the state-of-the-art oven processing the pastries, Erika thought to herself:
I'm going to have to start practicing with a stone oven again...

 

[Alonso Thorlion]

Holding the screwdriver in his mouth, the bearish man tugged on a stuck section of a computer shell, jiggling it around. "Grrr ... come on ya fucker," Terry said, muffled by the tool between his teeth. Why. Just WHY did he say yes when his client decided to change what graphics card they wanted to use? Money was money, sure, but the extra charge was partially just going to be for a couple fast food meals!

After a few more jiggles, he managed to take off the one wall of the shell he needed, giving it a gentle toss next to him on the couch.

Terry sighed and spat the screwdriver out into his hand, reaching to his side and wiping it on his shirt. Five minutes were wasted doing this. At this point he was going to outright lie and tell that gamer junkie he was going to need two extra days. This entire job Terry picked up continued to prove more and more of a nuisance than it needed to be. Sure, he appreciated the fact he proved himself to be reputable enough for someone to pay him bigger amounts of cash right into his pocket, but man did he get some annoying people.

Opting to make sure he can reach the spaces he needed, he turned the shell over and started to unscrew another panel. As he did, the man's eye glanced towards the television from underneath his glasses. Some older show or something. He did not know anymore, his focus placed on constructing the computer for the past hour. Background noise always helped.

Rather, it helped if it didn't turn into loud static.

Rolling his eyes Terry raised his voice, "That's out too? Gotta be shittin' me." He shifted in his seat to get up, but the static soon ended as a familiar girl appeared on the screen. One so familiar the voice brought immediate flashbacks. His eyes soon widened, mouth partway opened, the screwdriver gripped in his hand released and falling to the ground. No.

Terry shook his head. It was just a glitch, his brain messing with him, right? The man opened his eyes and continued seeing the intrusive ad on television. Starting to hyperventilate, his chest moved in and out, stress rising to a peak as T E R R A S P H E R E became plastered across the screen.

Soon enough it ended. Hands trembled as he set the shell to his side, Terry crouching over with forearms resting on his thighs. What rung in his ears was the incoherent tongue, eyes glued to the screen as CONNECTION REESTABLISHED showed up.

Terry blinked, and his normal show was back on. His hand reached for his phone, unlocking it as he decided to look up news regarding this. "J ... Just a prank, right? Gotta be a goddamn prank!" But the truth was far different. He saw someone freaking out on one of the social media apps he barely looked at, more joining in. Utter shock was still in the large man's veins. "How is it back? It shouldn't be back."

Raising his head, he looked over towards his old VR headset. There was only one way to see if this was the truth.

 

[Ilya]

Mia Harper had just finished yet another tour and so she was currently sitting on her sofa like a fat couch potato. Her stomach rolls out for all to see, that was, if anyone was in her house. Fortunately for her, she was alone, so she could sit however she wanted. Mia was tired, drained... Life in the spotlight was pretty hard, just leaving her house was difficult enough, as people had began to notice her even more often. I miss all my friends.. I miss Terrasphere... If only the government or whatever had happened, didn't shut it down...

If they hadn't Mia would definitely still be playing in the fantasy game that she had deemed the most important thing in her life. Mia was scrolling through her tablet, when the screen began to glitch... At first Mia thought it was broken. She shook it a few times, but to no avail. Suddenly a voice sounded from her device, one that she thought she would never hear again. Her brain was instantly taken back to her life in Terrasphere.

TERRASPPHERE IS BACK?!????? Mia didn't even bother to watch the trailer, instantly bouncing out of her seat and heading straight for her bedroom, where her VRMMO device was sitting in a dusty box, not having been used in four years.

 

[Ayna Nietzsche]

When a child goes missing, a normal family would usually be in panic mode. The mother would be inconsolable for days, even as the father tried his best to make her feel better. There was no making better losing a child after all. However, Xu Huifang's family has never been normal. Even though it has already been days since his younger brother had disappeared, the home was, for all intents and purposes, as normal as it had always been, which is to say it was as quiet and soulless as the people living there.

Huifang had her own place now, having worked her butt off to get where she needed to be, at the top of her field's food chain. But with her brother's disappearance, and her older brother still being barred from ever contacting their parents just because he chose the arts instead of medicine, Huifang was by logic saddled with staying at their old home, with her parents, until the case of the missing sibling was resolved. But it seemed there was another case that needed her attention, one that may be linked to the disappearance of that sibling.

Terrasphere? Wasn't that the game he was playing...?

Huifang had been watching her routine technology news program when the strange commercial interrupted an interview with a renowned businessman. At first, she felt irritated, having wanted to figure out what the man had to say after buying one of the major social media websites in Singapore. But that word, that name, the game's name, easily piqued her interest.

And as if on cue, almost immediately, her phone vibrated on her desk, beside her laptop. It was one of those annoying email notifications. The same email one that she got on her laptop. Opting for the much bigger screen, she opened the electronic letter right away, spending more than an hour just staring at its contents. Huh. I guess I'll have to get that device then.

 

[Caligo]

“Heya!”
Angela glances over at the monitor that, until a moment ago, was playing an old movie. She’s technically writing a research report, but putting a movie on as background noise always helped keep her focused. That is, until a blue-haired girl appears on screen and starts talking to her.

I… don’t remember this part of Jaws. Wait a second, I torrented this movie! What kind of jerk splices an ad into the middle of a file they’re hosting!?

Angela begins to switch her attention to her other screen; she can at least report the file and maybe grab a new copy without a dumb ad stuck in the middle. Except, as the ad continues, images begin flashing across the screen. As the trailer ends, Angela realizes she’s been staring glassy-eyed at the screen for the entire thing.

One word remains branded in her mind: TERRASHPHERE. She immediately fires up her torrenting client, all thoughts of reporting files or the movie Jaws having left her mind completely.

I need to find this game.

 

[Ueno Mizuki]

Akemi rubbed one of her eyes with the heel of her hand as she yawned, unsuccessful in her attempts at suppressing it. She hadn't slept a lot last night, but she had work to do. Her superiors were all stocked for this new product they were planning to release soon, which just meant that she had to figure out how to best advertise it to the public. New technology always attracted some attention, but you couldn't rely on technophiles alone to reach the kind of sales numbers that upper management demanded. At least her work could easily be done from home, so she didn't have to go to the office unless there was some kind of meeting which was too important to be contained within a screen.

Of course, they could also use VR for meetings, but... Well, that ship had sailed, hadn't it? She could still keenly remember when VR had finally broken through, the technology advanced enough that it lived up to the promises that had been upheld for decennia: worlds beyond Earth and just as real, all experienced from the comfort of your own home. It had been one of the biggest topics of the year, with talk shows and experts talking about the impact this emergent technology would have on human civilization.

And then all of that had gone away. Unsurprisingly, the promise of experiences beyond this world had attracted many game companies, as immersion was one of the most important aspects of games. One of the first games born from the realization of VR technology was MetaVenture, which within a month had managed to ruin the reputation of VR completely. A glitch that trapped several children in an endless loop of dying, respawning, and dying again.

After that, VR was crippled, chained, and tightly kept on a leash, to ensure such an incident could never occur again. Sensible, true, but it also meant that most people gave up on VR. Her company, as well, had annulled any plans of investing in the technology.

Akemi realized that she'd stopped typing for several minutes now, her thoughts going back to the one VR game that had appeared several years later. It completely flaunted the rules that kept VR limited, and because nobody knew who made it there was little the VRSA could do to stop them until they figured out how to block the game completely, making it inaccessible no matter who you were and where you lived. It had been a dream and a nightmare, with consequences even direr than MetaVenture, but it was difficult to forget about it.

As if reality itself was playing a prank on her, as those thoughts shot through her head her screen flickered and her thoughts were rudely interrupted by loud static. Akemi swore in surprise, thinking that the computer had suddenly died on her, only to blink and freeze in her chair as a familiar figure appeared on the screen. As Trinity continued to talk a complicated mixture of feelings arose within Akemi. Excitement? Shock? Denial? Trepidation? It was hard to say. She'd dreamed of this moment, but now that it was actually happening she didn't know what to think of it.

Terrasphere had been a dream, a place where she could be someone completely else, be whatever she wished to be, but it hadn't been shut down for no reason. A game that could kill...

She watched all the way to the end of the ad, taking note of the strange distorted voice that played through the speakers before the trailer played. After the ad disappeared and her screen returned to normal she kept staring, even if she saw nothing on her screen as she was lost in thought.

This... wasn't good, was it? She could feel the excitement making her heart pound in her chest, but rationally speaking... Her emotions and her reason were in conflict. Forgetting about her work for the moment she opened a browser and checked the news. In the modern age, a couple of minutes was enough for articles to come out. Even if VR technology had been crippled technological process hadn't stopped. Machine learning had only gotten better over the years. But maybe she'd just been hallucinating. She was quite tired, after all, it wasn't impossible that her mind was playing tricks on her.

Her attempts at telling herself that nothing had changed were quite thoroughly crushed as it was made clear she wasn't the only one who'd seen the ad. Far from it: it seemed like practically everyone who was awake had been exposed to it. That in itself was alarming: how did they manage to get to every device? Sure, the internet connected practically everything these days, but for the developers of Terrasphere to be able to hack into every device at the same time and plant their ad... was almost as miraculous as Terrasphere itself, but that just made it deeply disturbing.

No matter how much she tried to think about all the dangers Terrasphere presented, and how it affected people psychologically even if they didn't get locked into the game, she knew what was really on her mind. She blinked as she realized she'd bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Rather than grabbing a tissue to remove the blood that was now beading, she licked it away, the rich iron taste spreading through her mouth.

The taste brought her four years into the past...

 

[Samantha Yurei]

Not so long ago... In the mysterious land... of Toronto, Canada... Seila Helen was horny.

Well... Not anymore. Not after seeing the Terrasphere ad for the second time, conveniently interrupting her session. And just as it was getting to the good stuff, too! You see, getting interrupted by an ad in the middle of watching anything good is one thing, but an ad during a pr0n clip? Heh. You wouldn't want to know what blue balls could do to a h0rby enthusiast. But here we are.

And so, with a quick huff, followed by a shrill growl, Seila Helen angrily withdraws her appendage from her nether regions and fiercely slams the table with said damp hand. The wetness on these fingers almost immediately disappear as she streaks her hand across the surface with pressure and rage, drying them up before taking the hardware to use the cursor. With her now frantic eyes furiously searching for a skip button, she begins hyperventilating as she soon realizes that it is too late to get back. Her fury have swallowed her whole. She hath been defeated.

"Fuck..."

She sighs as she numbs down and recollects herself.

Why...?! It took an entire — her eyes dart to the bottom of the screen — hour and a half to find that clip. Sad.

She blinks, returning from her daze as the long BEEEEEEP fills her earholes. Concurrently, as the beep stopped, her phone beside left leg vibrated for a notification, a QR code for what she could only assume is from/for Terrasphere. She'd let the trailer play in the background, paying no attention, as she goes through her thing with setting up the game to her VR device. Of course, the setup would be done before the trailer ended, so she'd stare at the VR device and imagined what would it be like playing the game.

She blinks again, turning her head back to the screen as the Terrasphere broadcast ended. The vivid moans and whimpers, along with the explicit motion picture, take over once again. But what else for? She has been drained, but not in the way that she intended. A shame, really. Or at least that's what she thinks at the moment.

It wouldn't be like this if she was here, that's for sure.

With an accepting nod, she finishes the sesh and goes back to her actual job at hand.

Seila Helen Icarus would have never expected the events that would unfold the morning after, nor any amount of preparation as to how much it would change her life for... the foreseeable future.

 

[Kamala Graham]

Under the pitter-patter of the rain, and the blanket of darkness and gloom from the skies, Meera hid her tears from her own view. It wasn't only rainwater that was soaking the piece of paper she had in her hands. Mumbai hasn't always been good to Meera, but the news that she had just received was perhaps the worst thing that the city had ever welcomed her back with. We were supposed to meet for coffee, reminisce about the good old days... Her friend could no longer do that. Just because of a game.

Flash forward a few months later, maybe even years, Meera had poured herself into her volunteer work. With a warm smile, she greeted a couple of fresh faces, fresh graduates who took the same path as her, wanting to fight for the future of their world. As the days passed, it seemed that Meera had found the spring in her step again. She was focused on all the good that they were doing, bad memories shoved into the back of her mind.

That was until she saw the commercial.

"Arre yaar, is this real?" She was watching a video about healthy living, about some European girl and the vegetarian Mexican recipes she was trying out to eat. Meera was enjoying the video, as she often enjoyed videos such as this, a slice of someone else's life, someone else who shared the same values if not just a blown-up version of her own. "How is this legal? How are they doing this?"

She wanted to find out more about it, but then it disappeared. Meera spent the next hour just staring at her screen, at a loss for what just happened, not sure what she wanted to do next.

Flash forward a few months later, maybe just weeks, Meera finally acquired the device. She had received the invite beforehand, and although she was worried about what could happen to her, she wanted more to find out what happened to her friend and maybe even make sure the same thing won't happen to others. I have to. I can't just ignore this.

Maybe she should have.

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Going downstairs and yawning, Brian scratched his belly and sniffed, moving straight to the kitchen before tugging his phone out of his pockets. Honestly, he shouldn't be going for another round of middle-of-night tackle on the refrigerator, but in all reality, it was a cheating day in his diet and it was just a fruit salad, so it should be fine.

With his phones on hand, and taking a bowl of pre-cut fruit pieces, Brian was surprised when his social media suddenly closed to be taken place by a random image of that so infamous figure.

Huh-

Terrasphere..? Back? There was even a trailer?! Why they would make a trailer for something that is goddamn illegal? These guys are crazy.

W-What the hell?!

He stuttered, taking a step to rush back to his bedroom before halting, clearing his throat, moving back and picking up the bowl of fruit salad, pushing the refrigerator's door closed with his feet before running back to his room.

Stumbling, he pushed the fruit salad aside and picked up his VR Device, now much more developed than the first one he had four years ago. He has never really stopped playing games, so it continued to lay on his desk no matter how long it passed.

Taking a deep breath, the game was downloaded in no time, it was weird how quickly it downloaded despite being so realistic and huge.

For a moment, he vaguely hesitated, looking at the device and reminding himself of Sean. How many others would be locked in the game? How those that were locked feel being locked in it for four years? How many others stayed all these years all by themselves in there? There were the Landers, of course... But...

With a gulp, Brian took a deep breath and wore the device on his head.

After a moment, Brian was no longer there. The one who opened his eyes was the heroic faerin called Hanno.

 

[Eve Lightscar]

It was no use. He'd lost them. Everyone was in an uproar, and the poor YouTube video of a simulation of orbital mechanics was entirely ignored--not that about 80% of the room had been paying close attention in the first place--as everyone was gossiping up a storm.

The one word on everyone's lips?

Terrasphere.

"All right, everyone, calm down!" Jade said, trying to hide just how hard his heart had lurched as soon as he heard that name. God, how long has it been? Four, five years? "I know this is all very surprising and unexpected, but in case you all don't know what Terrasphere is, I do have to mention that it is illegal."

Immediately as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. There was absolutely no better way to get bored teenagers with poor impulse control and a penchant for rebellion interested in something. As the murmuring and excited conversation grew to a fever pitch, Jade groaned and momentarily gave up trying to get his students to settle down, instead turning his attention to his phone that had been blowing up with notifications.

Two messages from colleagues asking if their projectors or computers were acting up. One from IT saying they were investigating the commercial. Another two in group chats he was in, and-

He grimaced. A message from his mother. That was a tangle of thorns he didn't want to touch right now. Millie's loss, and Terrasphere itself, was still something that no one in his family wanted to discuss, the wounds still raw even after the passage of years. Setting his phone face down, Jade once again looked towards his class, about to make one last attempt to wrangle them. He wished himself luck; he was certainly going to need it.

 

[Frey Elzeiros]

"Cut that off!"

Her manager yells, and one of Ava's coworkers scrambles to find the remote control to shut the LED screens off, all the while the transmission continues to play the image of a blue-haired girl narrating the coming of something presently beyond her understanding.

The space is filled by the multitude of devices all echoing the same transmission, overpowering even the murmurs and whispers of party-goers who have had their music cut off. People had stopped dancing, the rhythmical beat and bass replaced by the high-pitched voice narrating... A game?

There is more yelling coming from somewhere behind her, but throughout it all, the one emotion that perseveres is confusion. Had their screens been hacked somehow to pull a prank? No, that wouldn't explain the flashing screens in people's hands.

Even her phone, tucked neatly in one of her vest's inner pockets, had seemingly turned on by itself and now repeated the same as every other screen.

No one had moved, and somewhere down the counter, it's the sound of glass shattering that catches her attention. The next thing she sees is one of her clients scrambling to their feet and cutting through the crowd, making a swift exit. Some watch, unmoving from where they stood or sat, while others quickly followed suit.

The broadcast ends and with it, the image fades, returning to the electronic music that had been abruptly cut off mere moments ago. Something lingers in the air, an uneasiness that you can't quite see, but is unmistakable in its presence.

"What the absolute fuck was all that about?" Ava's voice rings out, looking at her coworker as she fetches the tools required to clean the earlier client's mess.

"You can't be serious. You live under a rock or something?"

A quirk of Ava's eyebrow is all that is required to let the other know that she was, in fact, oblivious to what had just happened.

"Listen, I'll do you a favor: You don't want to know about it. It's bad news. No one needs any of that shit."

What a way to make the spark of curiosity ignite.

 

[Caelia Etterni]

It was dark in the apartment. The curtains were drawn over the windows, blocking out any light that might still be lingering as the sun set for the day. The apartment was sparsely furnished, and nearly devoid of life.

Nearly.

A single figure lay sprawled across the couch, remote in hand as she flipped idly through Netflix options. Nothing was piquing her interest, and she'd been doing this for the better part of, what, 15 minutes? 30? Not like she was counting. Occasionally she would let a trailer play before eventually moving on through the listings to look at something else. When her cursor froze and the screen distorted, she cursed her luck.

She couldn't afford a new TV right now, dammit -

What happened next was wholly unexpected. Maggie watched with wide eyes as the colorful girl on the screen proclaimed to her about this...this game? A game, yes. Terrasphere...

Come and join us for the time of your NEW life!​

A new life...

Maggie looked over at her mostly disused VR headset. She'd gotten it as a gift a year back for her birthday, but had never really found any games she really wanted to play with it. This one felt...different, though. It felt like it was calling to her.

She turned to look at the screen as the words CONNECTION REESTABLISHED ran across the screen. She stayed sitting there as the trailer played, her eyes wide and her heart beginning to race. What did she have in this life that was stopping her from trying this game? She'd never heard of Terrasphere before today; it wasn't like she had a ton of friends to warn her about what she was getting into.

So, when the email came across her screen just a short while later, she didn't hesitate clicking on it.

Maggie was going to take a little break. It was time to be someone new.

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

.

"Hit em with the right, the right you jerk! He's wide open!" Nico yelled, as if the T.V and the men on colorful shorts could even hear her couching in the middle of their match. Too passive for her, it was almost a turn off to know the championship was being dictated on such a poor quality, but that is the case for such an old clip put on loop the past week or so, from a three month old match. She's watched it at least five times and it still gets her hyped like this. At least until the whole thing turned into a blur of pure nothingness right as Donald decided to step up his game and cut the distance with his much taller adversary.

"WHAT?" Nico stood up from her bed, picking up the controller to turn it back on and off, nothing. Not until one of the most cheesy voices came out, and a girl finally showed up, with more than enough to say.

"Heya how's it going viewers!? What's this silly ad interrupting huh? A sitcom? War movie? Superheroes? Ooooh, maybe murder mystery? Or just the boring old news?"

"I AIN'T WATCHIN' ANY OF THAT PUT THE FUCKING MATCH ALREADY IT'S THE FINALS WHAT -IS- THIS?!" Was it some kind of joke? Did the T.V just decided to ruin her evening even further?

"Nicooo?!"

"SHUT UP MOM. SHUT. UP. TURN ON THE DAMN T.V!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, a few veins popping off on her by now as blood boiled and she could feel warmth all over her face and raspiness coming over her throat.

The entire thing went off as the most stereotypical commercial, only that made it far more sinister. Macabre even. With the word of what Terrasphere is and the rumorus spread about the game, to see it broadcasted like this set off the fire on her body, replaced by icecold chills that left her on spot. It all concluded in one fateful sentence:

'CONNECTION RESTABLISHED'

She missed out the opportunity to play it last time, but now it turns out there IS a new possibility. A door once closed finally opening, but it left her on a limbo between staring back at her current VR headset, and the screen that flashed back to the boxing match, and for a moment she just stood in silence, forlorn once these last words kept a ring on her mind:

'Come and join us for the time of your NEW life!'

Nico turned off the television and dropped herself back on bed, her heart pounding with doubt as escapism felt less like a pipe dream and more of a reality, if anything about Terrasphere proved to be what it sounded like.

"Damn, what a loser." She thought to herself, with a quiet, somber smile, right before she stood up and headed over to her VR headset...