Sixtopia Station

[Ketaikeon]

Lalala another story. Takes place in the hopefully not too distant future, in the real world. Maplestory is a game that people play- some people play via the simulation program and others via traditional keyboard and mouse. Blah blah blah.

((Just as a note, all my stories are up on my fanfiction.net account (look for Ketaikeon) I'm just reposting them here. ))

Chapter 1: Sleepless

"Come on, Hoshi! Let's get going already!"

Her fingers skittered eagerly across the keyboard for a few more moments, taking care of other messages. In boredom, she tapped a few keys and made her small figure jump about on the screen. Her black-clad character bounced unnaturally high at an intense speed. To others, the blown-up head of the character versus her tiny body made it look ridiculous, but Alice was already used to the cheesy, anime-esque art style of the game. Besides, she thought the wide, thoughtful gray eyes even looked a little cute. They certainly looked more innocent than her real face, with her squinty Asian eyes.

The figure beside it was standing still with an irritable expression. Clad in a white robe, he could have masqueraded as a priest were it not for the white jester cap on its head. Unlike the stylish cut of the female character, his reddish-brown bangs would have looked like an atomic explosion were it not for the cap holding it down.

"Look, why don't you just invite me to your party? Jeez, ****ing 'sins. Always zooming around with their Haste," responded a disgruntled voice in her headphones. "And I still don't understand what your're doing with the old software ****. Seriously, just get in the MU already."

Alice bit her lip. The old Mental Unit System was loud on its startup, not to mention laggy as well. It was probably safer to play the came on the "old soft", in other words, by the standard keyboard and mouse and sitting in front of a computer monitor. It was a challenge of its own, controlling her character with only her hands. It was admittedly much different than the MU way of playing, immersing one's mind in the game and actually feeling and sensing everything in the fantasy world. There were several complications with playing old soft- such as not being able to speak out loud. For one thing, although she did have a voice chat program installed, she did not feel comfortable over talking without seeing the person's face. She did not even feel comfortable talking to even Hoshi, although they had been good online buddies for a whole summer. For another, her parents would probably be awakened at some point if she chose to speak out loud, however quietly. They would not be happy with her fooling around on an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) so late at night.

"Nah... 'tisn't a good idea. Parental units unhappy." she typed back.

"Fine, fine... I see how you Asian types complain about your parents. By the way, it's so ****ing weird to see your character automated. Looks like a robot, without someone controlling the whole thing. Maybe you should get one of those 'Natural Movement' packs?" suggested Hoshi.

MU players like Hoshi never needed the Natural Movement packs, because the simulation within the Maple net was powerful enough to allow people to move as naturally as they did in the real world. The packs were designed for old soft players, who did not have as much control over their characters as their MU counterparts. The old soft players would not be able to see what their characters looked like within the Maple net, but other characters would see a character with Natural Movement pack blink, breathe, sway, and move like a normal person. Without the pack, the characters, at least from Hoshi's point of view, would look like emotionless robots. Although Alice could only see Hoshi's cartoonish form on the screen, she was sure that, in reality, he was poking around at her character and smirking, as he always used to do.

"Nah, those things? I'd turn into Super Seizure Lady with one of those. Seriously... they don't mimic real movements at all." Alice snorted as her fingers jumped around the keyboard.

"Well, shall we go?" asked Hoshi.

Alice caught the tell-tale signs of giggling in Hoshi's voice, little titters in his breath not unlike laughter. She laughed out loud as well, forgetting her previous anxiety. Alice maneuvered her character again with her arrow keys. Tapping a few other keys and clicking, she invited Hoshi to the "party", allowing her to use her assasin character's Haste power on Hoshi's cleric. Soon, both characters were jumping across the screen rapidly in the fantasy world.

A dark background of towering forests, painted skillfully with tiny pixels, scrolled behind the scenery. On the floating chunks of "land", pixelly graphics of ancient monuments and rocks as well as foreign jungle foliage dotted the screen. Various monsters also lumbered across the screen, drawn in the same, distinctive art style as the characters. Exaggerated expressions and appearances bordering on freakish were quite common here. The most common creatures included large, purple-pink octopi with multiple eyes and axe stump, rotund little trunks with axes through their heads and single eyes peeking out of the bark.

Hoshi's cleric paused for a moment. Swinging his wand back and forth, he slashed at the air a few paces away from one of the octopi. Blue flashes of magic soon felled the monster, which disappeared instantly. With a mischevous grin, Alice sent her character over to snatch the booty the octopus had dropped, a few mesos and a aquamarine ore. The new treasures flashed on her screen, as did the cleric's annoyed expression again.

"****. Should have teleported," sighed Hoshi.

"Haha, you magic types are so slow," laughed Alice. "Come on, you said you needed to hunt Neckis?"

Both characters hopped up the ropes, up the ladders. They stopped at a stone gateway at the top of the map. After Hoshi blasted the octopi occupying the area into oblivion, Alice followed him into the hidden portal at the gate. It was not much of a hidden portal, at least from Alice's point of view. The gateway looked like it held something just begging to be entered- lousy design on the part of the old soft artists. In the actual game, Hoshi was probably seeing an old gateway that looked just like any other old rock; that was the real way to hide a secret entrance. Easier done in simulations than by pixel art.

Alice's screen faded to black, then faded into another scene. Similar to the gateway they entered through, they had reappeared in front of a similar arch. Almost immediately, a small green snake shoved Hoshi off the platform. Hoshi yelled in surprise, again causing Alice to giggle in amusement. Alice's character leaped about nimbly, casting thowing stars at the monsters. She slew the monsters with ease. Hoshi, however, clung weakly to a rope as monsters swarmed on the land platform beneath him. As the monsters disappeared off the screen, little graphics of money and items appeared in their stead. Hoshi scurried up the ladders in order to claim the fallen booty.

"I never needed any help getting Necki skins," muttered Alice to herself as she eyed the screen. On a whim, she typed the message to Hoshi as well.

"Not fair that assasins have more dex, can hit anything they want," replied Hoshi's testy voice. In his inattention, he fell off the platform again. Alice giggled at him, her character nimbly avoiding the onslaught of more monsters as they spawned on the screen.

"Do you know what time it is?" inquired Hoshi.

"No... game's fullscreen, and I don't have a watch. What time is it?"

"Time for you to get a watch. Good morning, it's a little past two AM now," responded Hoshi cheerfully.

Alice groaned inwardly. Tomorrow she was going to look as though she had a hangover- not the greatest for an incoming freshman at the local magnet school. Not only would she not know anybody, people would form weird impressions of her the moment she sagged into exhausted sleep in class. God damn it... she thought irritably. As if this idea didn't make her feel bad enough already... she had no way of knowing how imminent disaster was.

"ALICE! You do-nothing, lazy child! Now addicted to that stupid game!"

Alice jerked suddenly, as though she just had a seizure. ****, ****, ****!, she thought in a panic. Her body nearly fell out of her chair. In her fright, her elbow collided with the keyboard, sending a stream of nonsense words at Hoshi.

"Alice? Alice? What just happened there, tell me-" called Hoshi over the headphones. His voice was interrupted when Alice's mother's forceful hand yanked the headphones out of her ears. Static crackled from the headphones. Loud bursts of unintelligible noise also came out, presumably from Hoshi's swearing.

Alice herself could not reply. She knew that any sudden movements, any small motion towards the computer and keyboard could cause her mother to get even angrier. She stayed silent and fervently cursed herself for neglecting to listen. ****, I should have heard her coming... argh, stupid headphones! She looked at the headphones on the table. She couldn't reach for them now- if she did, her mother would take that as an indelible sign of her addiction to Maplestory. Her fingers itched for the keyboard. If only she could tell Hoshi what was happening now! He would surely laugh, but he would also express sympathy for her plight. She tore her eyes from the abandoned headphones and stared defiantly into the eyes of her mother.

Her mother, although she appeared at least a decade younger than her real age, had the experienced eye of one used to disobedience from subordinates. Her round face, usually genial and calm, was now contorted in furious anger and turning red. Her small body, clad in a flowery nightgown, exuded anger and frustration. The air between them seemed tenser than usual.

After a few long moments, her mother sighed despairingly. Alice tensed up again, now suspicious. Is she going to disconnect the internet? Send me to gaming rehab? Install nasty programs? Throw away the MU? Thoughts raced through Alice's mind, half of them illogical. She attributed this to the amount of hours she had spent awake. But her mother said nothing for a few more minutes.

"Look, Alice... I let you go this time, okay? Just try to make your dad happy tomorrow. That school is very good- he was so happy that you got in, you know," said her mom quietly. Alice nodded. Inwardly, she felt enormous relief at being let off free this time. Maybe not completely free- her mom was about to speak again.

"Go to bed."

Alice reluctantly turned off her computer. She smiled a little bit at the angry-faced figure of Hoshi, jumping madly about the screen. She would have to tell him later if she could. For now, her tired body needed rest... however little of it she could get. She trudged upstairs to her room and collapsed on the bed. Dreaming of endless forest dungeons swarming with octopi, she fell into a deep sleep.

[Timmias]

Seems good so far, family life fic it appears to me. You have a few spelling errors other than that it is rather good.

[jiahao_94]

Family life FAN-fic. X.X