>>27881675

"I wanted you to be the first to receive a key," he answers as he holds out his hand. A moment later and a shining key materializes above his palm, floating in the air before you. Printed onto the face of it is your military ID, Sergeant Warrick Locke d'Angelo MC1309018. And a timer set to go off in three days.

"Warrick, I am your doctor and your friend, and you need to chill the fuck out; it's not good for your health. I'm not a programmer and this is nothing illegal, it doesn't really matter. Are you still in for poker tomorrow? Because that's what I care about, not some guy hitting on you in programese," Chase explains, putting a hand on your shoulder.

"Ah, you're one of Dr. Chase's patients. That would be five kilograms of medical cannabis? How will you be paying for this?" he asks pleasantly.

"Um, well. When I picked up the ring, , do you remember that bracelet I was wearing? This one? He also gave me that and told me it would activate to take you out of commission so I could slip away, and that I could just leave if it didn't work. If it makes you feel any better, you can actually just have it because he said it wouldn't work on anyone but you," she explains as she picks up her arm and slips the bracelet off to offer you.
2/3

>>27881680
Now for Tonight’s Installment.
It’s still the middle of the day, and last you saw the skies were clear. Your room shouldn’t be as hazy as it is. You take another drag as you think about the source of the strange smoke. As you exhale you look down at the blunt in your hand. You had only lit up the one. Two if you count the one you snubbed out in your tea mug. And there’s only like three roaches over in the kitchen. You check the time. It’s 18:19. At least your migraine is gone.

>Continue relaxing. It’s been ages since you smoked.
>Examine the bracelet. Curious what her plan was.
>Go get Barry. Haven’t spoken with him in days.
>Other

You currently have a penalty to reactions.

Also, I need a batch of 1d100s

And I double checked my math. Eden has a diameter of 100 km, not a radius. My apologies, even though it really doesn't change much at all.

>>27881697
>Examine the bracelet. Curious what her plan was.

Rolled 93

>>27881697
>Continue relaxing. It’s been ages since you smoked. Light an other one, or two, or ten. Maybe make a sandwich or something, your getting hungry...


No offense or anything, great game, but i thing that's WAY to much Weed, even the 500g prescribed would have lasted some months of heavy use, 5kg is enormous amount which could last you well over a year. Even a fat blunt weighs no more than maybe 2g...

>>27881697
>Examine the bracelet. Curious what her plan was.

>>27881904
Seconded

Rolled 11

Rolling.
I would sage but I don't think dice+xdy+sage works anymore ever since mot made sage invisible.

****** : 76

Rummaging around in your pockets for a moment produces the bracelet Twi gave you. You let it hang in the air and turn it around in the dim light. Similar to a charm bracelet you suppose, with a nylon loop to go around the wrist and a lump of metal sliding around it. You can't quite tell what shape it's supposed to be, some form of art but it is honestly too much for you to tell, just looks like a blob to you. Why she thought this would distract you is beyond you.

Oh, right, it probably has a program in it.

You look around for your desk and see that you had rolled some feet from it while smoking. You slowly reach over and try to grab the lip of it to pull yourself over with. When you can't reach you push out of your chair a bit to reach farther until you can just barely reach the edge. and grab on. You pull yourself over and only spare a moment's thought to why you didn't push over with your legs.

You drop the bracelet on your computer's scanner so it can dock, and you pull up the programs inside as you snuff out your blunt. Seems to be a sequence of programs, and it wants to link with neural implants to perform them.

>Connect to it with your neural implant. Yours is a prototype, it can't do much to you.
>Keep mucking about in it. Better safe than sorry.
>Try to spoof it with an EMU. It just has to think it's a neural implant.
>Other

>>27881997
Try to spoof it with an EMU

Rolled 32

>>27881997
>Keep mucking about in it. Better safe than sorry.
Get an idea what the programs do. Who ever gave this to you is clearly capable to mess with the prototype.
Make sure its not some kind of Virus that can spread itself onto your transplant on his own while you are working on it...

>>27881997
>Try to spoof it with an EMU. It just has to think it's a neural implant.

You start digging around in the code as you reach down for one of your EMUs. The bracelet wants to connect to the Net or something, so you're not quite sure what will happen. You plug the EMU in and spend a while trying to find your mounting program with a dummy AI. You find some old gems of useless programming in your searches before finding the spoof program and loading it up.

Your 3d monitor comes to life to display the EMUs avatar, at first in first person but you toggle it out to third.The base simulation is just an empty white room, but it's stable.

The EMU's avatar is...

Certain that everything seems to be running smoothly before you let the bracelet connect to it. The processing speed of your computer drops a bit as it takes the burden of running the program, enough to make you think it's running a few endless loops, but then it starts working. The old base female avatar appears in the room with the EMU's avatar.

1/2

Will write and post 2/2 after an avatar is chosen. Anything goes

>>27882321
Just make it an average looking man, not sure if anything fancy is needed for this situation.

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>>27882321
A red fox,, not anthropomorphic or anything. Just a fox like in the picture.

>>27882372
Pretty much this. Give him a beard.

>>27882372
These EMUs and their avatars are what you muck about with when in the Net, and are already generated. Choosing boring choices now means you'll have boring appearances later.

Doesn't sound very cyberpunk to have your avatar be 'an average looking man with a beard'

>>27882377
has to be humanoid

>>27882321
Hatsune Miku

>>27882405
Oh okay, so basically this is an Avatar we'll be using permanently, I thought it was just for this emulator specifically.

Well in that case why don't we be a huge towering bear of a man..with a beard? I dunno, I don't really have any experience in cyber punk settings so this isn't really my strong point.

>>27882321
Guy in sunglasses with a beard.

I hate to make the comparison but I must. JC Denton but with beard.

>>27882460
>>27882321
A lumberjack

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>>27882479
>>27882497
So, him, but with "Power-armor" and sunglasses

Mr. Kent, one of your more normal avatars, happens to be the one you chose. You specced him out to be a hulk of man with an old school style to him in terms of clothes. The dummy AI is of course just idling as the program runs, having Mr. Kent just stand there rigid. A whole list of errors is springing up about data fetch failures, but the core of it is still running. Graphical glitches abound as it tries to render the female avatar as it walks forward and drapes her arms around Mr. Kent's neck and reaches up.

You slowly twirl your finger in the air, deciding whether or not to stop the program as the avatar, glitches aside, tries to seduce Mr. Kent. You suppose it's a reasonable enough imitation of human behavior, but the data fetch errors are certainly disrupting it. Finally you pause the system, leaving the two avatar's frozen in place, each halfway out of their clothes.

It's a sex simulator. Which is exactly as illegal as prostitution. The Moral Wellness Act that was passed to ban such casual and isolated sex made these program illegal on the grounds that it deteriorated the social well being of the person using them. the thought was that it would force people into contact with one another rather than allowing introverts to remain in their homes simulating sex.

It of course didn't fucking work. Cyber Bars and a black market of low end simulators spread throughout the Net like an infestation, a surge that Barry's still riding. But this one is a new breed.

>Boot it down. Do something else.
>Rip into the code. Find what it was trying to fetch.
>Other

>>27882594
>Rip into the code. Find what it was trying to fetch.

>>27882594
>Rip into the code. Find what it was trying to fetch.
If i know what the program was trying to fetch, i might get an idea who made it. Maybe its just a generic blackmail operation, or maybe it was designed to snoop up some other information.

>>27882594
>Rip into the code. Find what it was trying to fetch.

Who's behind this scandalous piece of software!

You stretch and crack your knuckles to alleviate the strain from yesterday, and hunch over your keyboard. Your dummy AI managed to keep track of every line of code that failed and didn't cause a catastrophic failure, so you begin cross referencing them around and studying the code they came from. You can feel the tetrahydrocannabinol slowing you down, but you're certainly used to working under the influence of powerful barbiturates, anesthetics, depressors, stimulants, psychedelics, and everything else you've had.

But the code is complex. Half of it is constructed out of obscure built in functions that you never bothered to learn properly except when you explicitly needed them and absolutely none of it is commented. The cretin.

Eventually, you start making progress. The first thing you found was where it was trying to fetch the data from. The program had to connect to the Net, but that isn't where it gets the data from. It gets the data from the sensory inputs of the person using the program. So a dummy AI wouldn't have that, and would of course cause errors. Given that data, it then tries to reference it across public databases on the net to construct a schema of the person you're looking at.

Given that, and a responsive intelligence controlling the avatar, it phases you into your Home Sim, but changes it to what you had been looking at a moment ago based on your sensory input and memories, and the avatar takes over to jump down your pants.

In the end, the victim, which would have been you, wakes up, more or less convinced they slept with the real deal, while the girl was free to leave.

And it does a damn good job in the simulation.

That said, you couldn't come up with any clues as to where it came from, because the programming style is alien to everything you've ever seen.

You sit back and give it a slow and only partially sarcastic round of applause.

1/2

>>27882871
>Use the program. What could go wrong?
>Jump in the Net and get Barry. His patrons might know about Fenix.
>Smoke some more. That took you over an hour.
>Other

2/2

>>27882821
This

>>27882880
>Jump in the Net and get Barry. His patrons might know about Fenix.

Maybe even let him try it out? I mean, just to check out that code. Though a porn addict like him would probably play around first.

>>27882880
>Other
Modify this simulation in a way that you could exit it fast and easy if you need to, light another blunt while it compiles, than run it.

>>27882880
Use the program. We paid 1000 credits to fuck Twi, this is apparently as close as we're going to get. Not like anyone will know.

>>27882926
Seconding this

>>27882880
>>Jump in the Net and get Barry. His patrons might know about Fenix.
Thirding.

You're sorely tempted to use and abuse the program, but you have some priorities left, and are in a race against time. After all, the key activates in like two days or so. With your leads drying up, you decide to chase down the bastards who hooked you up with a fake prostitute, the usual patrons of Barry's simulation, Afterlife: A Magical Realm.

Afterlife is a cyber bar, one that Barry founded with a bit of your help. It was his idea, and he runs it by himself, you just helped him out with the security of the site. Plenty of other cyber bars can be found throughout the Net, but his has found a special place. it's one of the few places that Eve can't, or won't, pry into and thus is private. Barry of course records everything that occurs inside for the occasional blackmail use, and has apparently stored up a petabyte of unsorted information. Only a few people know about that though, so people are more than willing to pay large sum of money for membership to his simulation, to make use of its community assets as it were.

Barry is your friend and roommate, you can respect his business, especially considering the amount of money he takes in when he isn't getting tied up in courts. But it's not the kind of place you'd show your actual face in.

The avatar you choose is...
>Mr. Kent. It will take you a bit to disentangle him from the sex simulation though.
>Yourself.
>Other

>>27883200
>other
Why don't we use Twi, we should get her Data from the Simulation and we most likely will get a direct reaction from whoever send her our way.
(Not very stealthy, but who cares?)

>>27883256
You don't have Twi preprogrammed, but if you take a bit of time you could probably morph one of your avatars into your memory of her using the program. That would take about half an hour. You'd also become more familiar with the way it's coded.

>>27883285
Seems like a win-win...

>>27883285
>>27883357
Yea sure why not.

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>>27883285
>Use our memory of her to make an avatar of her
>Jump in the sex simulation of her
>Have delicious lesbian selfcest
>We might still have our dick

Silly me, thinking cyberpunk wouldn't find my fetishes

>>27883415
I am voting for that option solely because of >likely will get a direct reaction from whoever send her our way
I'm always hesitant voting for things like this for fear of arousing fags like you. Jerk off real quick to make sure you're not thinking with your dick.

>>27883458
This

You perk an eyebrow up as you look between the EMUs and the bracelet. You could butcher the code into compliance in just a short amount of time and twist it around into a vid mod creator. Might not be perfect since it would be a fuzzy memory of her actual body rather than a defined copy of her avatar, but it would certainly be close enough to get a reaction out of whoever set you up.

You stand up and wander back to your kitchen. A couple empty wrappers of your medical marijuana packages are lying on the counter, you apparently went through two days worth in a couple hours. Mr. Holden, the pharmacist, must have thought you still had a normal tolerance for drugs after nearly two years of chronic use. You rip open another, not like you don't have more than you could use in five months, as you rummage around in your drawers. You left your pipe somewhere after you ran out of your last prescription. After that, Chase would only prescribe you hydrocodone, until this last prescription.

You start grumbling and swearing as you toss open all of the drawers and cabinets looking for the damn thing until Eve speaks up. "Admin Warrick, if my memory serves, you left your pipe in the bathroom drawer."

"Why the hell did I leave it there?"

"I could not possibly tell you." Sure enough, your pipe is sitting there next to your spare toothbrush. Armed with a fresh batch of weed, your pipe, your lighter, and a clever goal, you sit down to work on the program.

1/2

>>27883667
First you duplicate it to work on a safe copy, then you manage to deactivate everything that isn't involved with the generation of the avatar and finally reprogram it to modify your own avatar. By the end of it, you actually do remember how most of the functions work. You had to learn half of them when you learned how to modify your nervemap. Abstract and high end computing that nobody really bothers with anymore. The military and certain companies still try to make breakthroughs in the field, but no one else.

Regardless, half an hour later you have a passable avatar of Twi set up on your Illin EMU. You slip the interface over your head, and switch on its wireless connectivity.

A moment later, you're in your phone booth. Looking down, you're in Twi's body, and the dress she was wearing the night before. The voice isn't quite right, but you already had a synth mod to change your voice to feminine. You'll pass at first glance, but it's not perfect. Not exactly your usual fare, but not even close to the strangest thing you'll see in Afterlife. You grin and pick up the phone, dialing in the address to Afterlife.

There isn't even a shudder as you connect to the simulation that in the real world is only a few meters away from you. Stepping out to the entrance area of the simulation,w here anyone can technically connect, you are swarmed by a multitude of people in garrish and bizarre vid mods, all jostling to push into the club. But only members are allowed, and becoming a member is a slow process.

>Cut to the front. You're the admin here, they can't keep you out.
>Wait in line, but use a normal membership pass. Stealthy.
>Find someone to ask why the commotion is about. It's not normally this crowded.
>Other

2/2

>>27883688
>Wait in line, but use a normal membership pass. Stealthy.

>>27883688
>Wait in line, but use a normal membership pass. Then ask someone why the commotion is about while you wait. It's not normally this crowded.

>>27883688
>Wait in line, but use a normal membership pass. Stealthy.

>>27883806
Second for this

Also, welcome to the Net.

Here, your existence is mutable. Your appearance can change to anything imaginable, if you have a vid mod for it. Your voice can be anyone's, if you have a synth mod for it. You can be as strong as you want, as quick as you can think,. You can have any device you can imagine, if you already have it programmed. Here, you can do anything.

Your most basic mods at the moment
Vid Mod : A recreation of Twi
Synth Mod : Illin voice mod, female
Nervemap : Female
Strength : 100, max allowed by the physics system.
Speed : 100, max allowed by the physics system.
Ejection Blade : A viral program that if infected in someone, will instantly sever their connection to the simulation, transmitted by contact.
Teleportation : You can teleport to any known coordinates in the simulation.
Back Trace : You can get the unique ID for anyone you see in the Simulation, because you have access to the simulation.

You can suggest more, within reason

You take a deep breath, adjust your dress a bit, and walk up to the back of the line. The actual line to enter the simulation is by far shorter than the one for people trying to buy membership to Afterlife. Barry must be ecstatic that he somehow found so much business. Or whatever is bringing them here is unwanted.

The AI bouncers for entrance to the club waste little time removing people from the line that don't have passes, so the line to enter is fairly quick moving. Once upon a time, Barry had a system that would have a maximum capacitance for entrance to the club to maintain a maximum communication delay, but when it grew, he had to allow people entrance to the sim so they could buy membership, so there became little point in putting a cap on people in the club. He had yet to take your advice of setting up a separate sim for those interested in joining this one.

In front of you is a man begging for attention. His vid mod is a full seven feet tall and glows orange, his feet were replaced by hooves, draconic wings spread from his back, and his bare torso is of course covered in muscles. You subtly pass your hand through one of his wings and find nothing there, he didn't actually change his nervemap. Most people don't.

You tap him on the shoulder, he's actually only about five and a half feet tall, and get him to turn around. "Hey, do you have any idea what the line here is for? This is a crazy amount of people. It must be packed in there."

One of his infernal eyebrows perk up. "Haven't you heard?" He doesn't even have a synth mod. He sounds like he's asthmatic too. "There are people in here giving out those Twilight Keys."

>Twiling Keys? Inquire
>Ask how he heard.
>Ask something else.
>Other

>>27883847
I don't have an idea for anything at the moment, but i am sure we could get back to it later. Just put it into our "Adventurer Pouch"

>>27883967
>Twiling Keys? Inquire

>>27883967
Just wait. Seems like Twilight Keys are common knowledge. Let's not show are naivete by asking stupid questions.

>>27884117
This. Barry may be able to tell us more about them later.

"Oh, so this is where everyone is getting theirs. Happy coincidence for me I suppose," you respond. He grunts and turns away from you. When the line moves forward, you note that his legs are actually backwards, and stretch horribly wrong whenever he takes a step. Such low quality work.

When you get to the front, the demon holds up his membership card and tries to pass. The bouncers, large soldiers in Gothic plate, with longswords and tower shields, lined up shoulder to shoulder with each other, don't respond. When he tries again, they speak up, "Your membership is invalid. If you wish to enter Afterlife, you must purchase a valid membership card. Goodbye."

"What the hell?" the demon shouts as he tries the card again. "I spent a hundred credits on this!" A day pass to Afterlife costs five hundred. You take a good step back as the bouncers turn on the demon. They slam their shields on the ground around him, pinning him in as one hefts up it's sword. The demon screams and shouts about injustice, but the bouncer slashes down and ejects him from the simulation.

1/2

>>27884477
You can't help but chuckle as you step up to the bouncers yourself and privately flash your Black Card. "Greetings Illin, we hope you enjoy your stay. Lilith is working at the moment," they say as they step aside for you, saluting their swords over your head. You should probably get a lower tier membership card.

Inside Afterlife is a blur of scenery and lights. There's the bar area you always frequent, where you can sample any drink in all of Eden for free and where you do most of your business. Another area is made to look like a flowing terrace of rock outcroppings covered in small pools and waterfalls, complete with spheres of floating water that you can swim in. The most popular area is of course the hall of private rooms. And then there's the dance floor, which is absolutely covered in bodies at the moment.

>Try the bar. Might find your suspects.
>Go swimming. Casual conversation to find rumors.
>Go to the private rooms to unwind.
>Squeeze into the dance floor. Find the commotion.
>Contact Barry. Say something.
>Other

2/2

>>27884499
>Contact Barry. Say something.

"Evening, Barry. Got time for an old friend?"

>>27884581
second this

>>27884581
Yea this sounds okay.

You pull up your Augment Menu to message Barry, or rather Lilith as he calls himself in here to keep his identity obscure. "What's going on man? Your place is crazy, do you got time for me?"

You stroll a bit further into the club, about to drift over to the bar area, when he messages you back. "Where are you?"

"Entrance going to bar, why?" You check the time quickly, 19:52. When you look back up, Barry is standing in front of you, scanning the crowd. Lilith is an avatar that took you a while to get used to. It's female, blonde, busty, and has two horns and a tail to complete the succubus look, all properly nervemapped. On anyone else, smoking hot and one of the best vid mods in the entire club. But you know Barry. Barry is a man weighing about a hundred and thirty kilos.

Almost nobody has an obese avatar. A few people do, but it's rare and they don't usually enjoy them. But this is the only avatar he ever uses. If he ever went back to his original avatar, or was back traced, who he actually is could get out, which could easily destroy his entire business, so he's Lilith, the female owner in Delta. Of course, you're not much better at the moment.

"Lilith, it's me. I needed a new vid mod for reasons," you explain as you walk up to him.

He tilts his head to the side. "Is that the Illin one? I recognize the voice. I liked that avatar."

"I can always bring it back. What the hell is going on here?"

"Oh well, I was hoping that you could tell me. Because everyone is saying this is thanks to you."

>Stay Quiet. Let him explain.
>Plead innocent. You didn't do anything
>Bring the conversation elsewhere
>Other

>>27885072
>Bring the conversation elsewhere.

>>27885072
>Bring the conversation elsewhere

>>27885072
Let him explain, we need to know whats going on

>>27885072
>Stay Quiet. Let him explain.
Looking baffled would help, too.

>>27885072
>Stay Quiet. Let him explain.

>>27885072

"What? You mean those Twilight keys? I only just heard about them."

>Bring the conversation elsewhere

I'm not so sure about telling him about the bracelet, though: he might just be tempted to steal it to make a profit. Eh, we'll see.

You stare back at him, slowly tilting your head as you wait for him to continue. You eventually have to break eye contact with your bangs fall in front of your face.

"The Twilight Keys. The reason my server is completely flooded right now?" he offers. You keep your mouth shut and shrug. "How have you not heard?"

"Hold that thought," you say as you hold a finger to shush him, then grab his shoulder. "Private room." An instant later the two of you are in one of the many sub simulations of Afterlife. They're typically used for hooking up, but the privacy is of course useful for holding personal chats. This particular room is little more than a hotel room. You could have gone to any number of awe inspiring simulations, but those are usually busy and it's always awkward to bust in on people having cyber sex with various appendages they shouldn't have.

"Good idea," Barry comments as he walks over and leans against the dresser. "So, yeah. Twilight Keys. They're being handed out like hot cakes right now and everyone's clamoring to get their own. As far as I know, I'm one of the only sources for them because the people handing them out are all here. But they're starting to sprout up everywhere. No one wants the third hand ones though, they're harder to get from closer to the source, so everyone is trying to get in here."

"So do you know what they are?" you ask as you sit down on the bed. You note that the dress Twi was wearing is simply impractical, and needs to be slightly readjusted again.

"Just rumors. And they all say that this is thanks to you. So do you mind explaining?"

You lift your hands into the air and shrug. "Hell if I know."

>Explain about Fenix. Barry deserves a bit of an explanation
>Say something else.
>Other

>>27885532
>Explain about Fenix.
Let's not tell him about the bracelet just yet though.

>>27885570
Seconding due to reasons said in >>27885381

>>27885381
he's our roommate, you think he's going to rob us?

>>27885648
Not saying we shouldn't tell him, but we don't need to tell him right now.

>>27885623
>>27885648
>Explain about Fenix.
Also offer him the Sex-Sim (as a partnership) if he helps you. If you rework it so that there is someone else than Twi this could turn a nice profit...

>>27885648
Considering his business revolves around the illicit and lewd, I wouldn't be surprised if he just "borrowed" it.

"Well, I do know some things. Like, I'm guessing this is a Twilight Key?" you say as you open the palm of your hand and display the shining key Fenix gave you.

Barry whistles and nods. "That would be an original. The rest are all marked by how many times they've iterated."

"So yeah, this guy named Fenix gave it to me. last night. I hired a hooker who wasn't actually a hooker who was hired by him to give me an address to a simulation that he was waiting for me in where he gave me this. Right? Why the fuck he didn't just find me here, I don't fucking know. I don't know what these keys are. I don't know anything really. The dude was weird, I'm trying to hunt him down. Ever heard of a guy named Fenix? Pretty distinctive since his avatar is bugged as fuck."

Barry is silent for a while as he stares at you. "You were rused by a hooker?"

"Yes, I'm actually in an avatar of her right now, hoping to get some info."

"I thought you were like the king of hookers."

"Hey man, how the hell was I supposed to know she was a plant? It was the first time I met her, and I kicked her out because I knew she was fake."

Barry laughs at you, a rather feminine laugh, but it gets interrupted by his characteristic snort halfway through. "Whatever man. If you don't know you don't know. If you find out anything though, let me know why they're flooding my club. Alright?"

>You mind helping me? More manpower.
>You still in for poker? Priorities.
>Say something else
>Other

>>27886115
>You still in for poker? Priorities.

>>27886115
>You still in for poker? Priorities.
then
>You mind helping me? More manpower.

>>27886115
Poker, because screw all this weird crap. Ask if he can help you with this whole Fenix-deal in the future - we may yet need his expertise.

"By the way!" you announce, drumming your fingers in the air to get his attention. You point at him, "You're still in for poker tomorrow, right?"

Barry whines and makes other non-committal noises until finally saying, "I don't know man, with everything that's happening in here I might be really busy."

"Don't be a bitch Barry."

"I have a job, unlike you."

"Don't be a bitch."

"I have responsibilities."

"That are apparently being a bitch."

"Fine! I'll fucking play," he grumbles as you stand up.

"Why the hell does that work on you? Anyways, we should work on this together, double the man power and all that. You in?" you ask as you walk over to the exit.

"Yeah sure, if I find anything, I'll keep you notified. By the way, that hooker was really fucking hot," he comments as he looks you up and down.

"I know, right?"

>Investigate the Bar.
>Investigate the pools
>Investigate the Dance Floor
>Other

I have to go to work, and will be back in three and a half hours.

>>27886439
Give him a copy of your Twi avatar. What are bro's for?

Then head to the pools.

See you in a few hours!

>>27886439
Sounds good
>>27886481
See ya, great game so far

>>27886439
>>Investigate the Bar.

Gather round

Your choice seems to be for heading to the pool, so I'll be writing that

>>27890500
Just don't tell us the pool's closed.

You touch your hand to the handle of the door and are transported to the hall of private rooms, a moment later Barry appears beside you. You nod to each other and part ways, he going to to the dance floor, and you to the pools. You find them largely empty, since most of the attention is gathered on the dance floor.

The pools are in seven main pods: a headwater, two divergent pools that return to one, then diverge again, and the final collecting pool. In addition, there are the two bouncing spheres of water slowly orbiting the area. Only a handful of people are here, the rest having been pulled off to the dance floor by curiosity at least.

In the bottom pool is a rather mundane looking man simply floating on his back. In the center pool are two catgirls playing with each other. A woman with teh appearance of a mermaid sis flirting with an androgynous person on the side. And in the headwater a man with the head of a goat is surrounded by several women, and is the only one to take notice of you.

>Approach the floater
>Approach the catgirls
>Approach the mermaid
>Approach the goatman
>Other

>>27890531
Way to ruin the joke. Jeez

>>27890664
I only want to make you hone your Pun Fu. You can do better!

Approach the floater. He seems the most benign. Relax a bit.

>>27890646
>>Approach the floater

>>27890646
>Approach the catgirls

Cyber water is of course not real water. It can look and feel and act like it for the most part, enough for it to may as well be water, bu there are certain things you don't need to worry about with cyber water. Forexample, it can't damage anything, and instantly dries, so no one ever bothers with swim suits. They just go in the water in what they're wearing. Especially in Afterlife, it's skimpy enough anyways.

Choosing your target to be the man floating at the bottom, you stride forward and walk into the pool. He's plain, boring, out of place in Afterlife. A generic man relaxing on the sidelines of the ruckus. The only thing that sticks out about him is his skin tone, he actually chose to remain with a Middle Eastern complexion, when the fashion is of course to default to European or African. Without opening his eyes or making a move, he says to you, "I'm not giving away Twilight Keys. I want nothing to do with them." He's probably using a rudimentary mod to let him see even with his eyes closed.

"And I didn't even know you had a Twilight Key. You can relax though, because I'm not in the least bit interested in acquiring one at the moment," you say as you step down from a shallow ledge so that you an sit in the pool and converse with him.

"Then what do you want? A fling? I'm trying to relax," he growls. His only motion is to raise up a hand and rub his face, extreme fatigue showing for just a moment.

"Not exactly. I'm trying to play a bit of catch up on the Twilight Keys. Surely someone must know some things about them here," you say as you pass your hand through the water, playing the the fluid engine.

"Why in the nine rings of hell are you asking me?"

"Because you obviously know something about them. You made as much obvious by the way you reacted to me. If you didn't want me asking you things, you should have played it cooler."

>Ask him something. Write in.
>Say something.
>Give him his space. Go speak with someone else.
>Other

>>27891150
Press him for information.

>>27891150
"Does the name Fenix mean anything to you?

"So tell me, because I have limited time."

"Everyone has limited time. What is it? Two days now?"

"Something like that. Does the name Fenix mean anything to you?"

"This may be the right line of questioning, couldn't it? Very very few people have heard of Fenix. He likes to keep to his secrets and trickle them out to keep us hooked. It's all just a game to him, playing with us like this."

"So what if it's a game? Lot's of people say that's all life is, one big game. Playing by someone else's rules and what not. The game industry is billions and billions of credits. Is this just some viral marketing scheme? Throw out a Mr. Mysterious to give out a trivial prize that people can give to each other on the hopes of getting some prize in the end?"

"It certainly seems like that, doesn't it? How did you learn about Fenix?"

You hold your tongue. He's been smiling too much as he floated over to you. "What makes you so chatty all of a sudden? When I came here you didn't want to speak with me at all."

"You brought up Fenix, you showed that you were worth talking to. Do you know if it's spelled with an f or a p h?"

>Don't know, he said it in passing.
>F. The basic assumption.
>P H. Like the bird, right?
>Other

>>27891497
>F. The basic assumption.

>>27891497
>>Don't know, he said it in passing.

We're here to get information from him, not the other way around.

>>27891497
>>F. The basic assumption.

"F isn't it? It's a strange name, but it's more of a name than Phoenix, right?" you offer. His smile stops and flips to a frown.

"Such a pedestrian answer. I was hoping for more from you with the way you strolled up to me. By the way, I love your nervemap. It's much more eloquently modded than the goat's up there. If anyone else could see with what care you modeled it with, they would think it a small work of art, rather than just a crude log to shove around. Either way," he says as he rotates his body out of the water to stand atop the surface. "I really must be going. I didn't come here alone, and it seems that my compatriots are about to get in a bit of a scuffle on the dance floor."

You look past him to the path to the dance floor and finally take notice of the changes. The music has stopped, the special effects are gone, the grumblings of the patrons are getting wore, and the atmosphere is decidedly tense. The echo propagation system in Afterlife specifically filters noise from one section to another, so it is nearly impossible to tell from here what is being said. "Perhaps that is where I will find my answers then," you mumble as you stand up and walk to the edge of the pool, your dress instantly dry.

"Perhaps it will be, for that's where I will be in a moment. Doing what they paid me to do, which of course is not talk with a gentlemen such as yourself. But, for the beauty of your work, I will do you a favor and try to answer one of your questions," he says as he smiles grandly and gives you a bow.

>Ask something
>other

>>27891917
"You wouldn't happen to know on what basis people are getting the original keys, do you?"

or

"What's behind the door these keys can open?"

>>27892140
congratulations, you made a one person tie

>>27892140
The first question sounds interesting.

"You wouldn't happent o know on what basis people are gettin the original keys, do you?" you ask as you step out of the pool.

he smiles enough to reveal his fang of a canine. "The original keys are being spread randomly, only the second generation of them have any rhyme or reason, we saw to that. It was nice to meet you, and I'm sure we'll meet again," he explains with a sweeping bow.

"Wait, how the hell did you know I was a male?"

"Finite nerves in the chest area," he says quickly before turning and strolling into the dance floor. As he passes through the hallway, the echo propagation falters for a moment and you can hear the roaring din of anger and shouting from within the dance floor. You're about to step forward when you hear a splash of water behind you.

The goatman is standing up in the headwater, looking down on you, even the catgirls are caught in surprise. Someone teleported, but ended up halfway into the waterbubble, on the bottom side. You watch for a moment as she comically tries to swim up through the water to keep her balance but eventually drops out the bottom with a yelp and splashes into the bottom pool. She surfaces with a graceful flick of her head to reset her bright red hair, and makes eye contact with you. "Well that was a close one."

Behind you you can hear people shouting and screaming in anger. A quick glance lets you see the middle Eastern man wielding too large blades, cutting his way through the thick of the crowd.

Calling it a night now. Short period of questions and answers and what not, and I'll be in this thread tomorrow since we're not even close to autosage. I'll be archiving in a moment, and the next thread will likely be a short thing on Thursday. Opinions, comments, questions?

>>27892515
It doesn't stop from getting more interesting.

I like Afterlife, too. Lots of details in cyberspace that are interesting.

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>>27892533
Sounds like I'm doing a good job then

>>27892606
Keeping me guessing, at least. And you've got enough people running around who seem to have agendas to fill it out.

I was a little worried first thread because we had only a few interaction's with people, Twi and Fenix, but it's stepping up nicely.