Another Online: Clockwork

by Terra Snover

  “Ya’ think?” I was annoyed, it felt like I was back in Primary School struggling in English class.

  “How do GMs make things?” Hell’a asked, placing one fist under her chin, looking pensive.

  “I don't know. Whenever I see them do it it just kind of happens, you know, like we do when we make something.”

  “Yeah, same here. But those things have to come from somewhere.”

  “But where do they-” Suddenly it hit me- the soft armor on the island! Lily had called it her stuff and she was in charge of the art in the game so that must be a design of some kind. I waved my hand and some clay appeared out of it.

  “Var, I wanted a box not-”

  “Shush, I’m working here.” I put my hand up to silence Hell’a. She looked pissed that I had just shushed her, but I wasn't afraid of her anymore. I spent some time making a cube out of the clay. I did a pretty good job making it a nice clean cube; I was a sculptor back in the real world, so I should be good at it. After I finished, Hell’a frowned. “That’s cute, Var, but again, not what I was thinking.”

  “I’m not done yet.” I then focused on the cube hard, thinking the word ‘white’ and to my satisfaction that cube turned a brite white. I smiled and put the cube on the floor and then took a few steps away and focused on the cube I sculpted. Moments later, another one the exact size, shape and color appeared in front of me. I picked this one up but it was hard like stone. “Here’s your cube.” I tossed it to Hell’a who caught it in her hand with ease.

  “Interesting.” She moved her thumb across the cube.

  “I have something else I want to try.” I then grabbed the clay cube and stuck my finger into the middle of one of the sides and looked over at the one in Hell’a’s hand. The other cube also deformed in the exact same way. I let out a little, victorious yelp. “The GMs aren’t making things like magic. Lily is making them and they are spawning them just like us N0s do! So as long as I make something I can spawn it!”

  “So unless it’s something that already exists in AO no one can make it?”

  “That’s my best guess.” I kept playing with the clay and watched it transform in Hell’a’s hand.

  “But how do they make it do things? Like, how do they imbue magic into items?”

  “No idea.” I shrugged.

  “I once saw a GM bring up their terminal to change something in my code.” Hell’a spun her hair around her index finger.

  “Same.”

  “Var, maybe we need to do that.”

  “Make a terminal?”

  “Why not, have you tried?”

  “No, but nothing’s stopping me from trying now.” I focussed on the image of the terminal I had seen GMs call before. But nothing happened. “Yeah, I got nothing.”

  “Hum, when I saw the GM use the terminal on me his focus was on me. Maybe try bringing up the clay’s terminal?”

  “Worth a shot.” My eyes drifted to the clay and I thought about the terminal again. Like magic, it appeared. I let out a little shout of surprise. The text in the terminal read, ‘name = Null; class = Null; description = Null; abilities = Null; additionalScript = Null’. Hell’s eyes shined with glee. “Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. Try changing something.”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything, start with the name.”

  “Okay.” I looked down at the keyboard that floated under the terminal screen and frowned. It had been years since I last used a keyboard and I was never very good at using the things anyway. I liked writing things by hand on paper, something everyone made fun of me for, most everyone saying that was a super antiquated way of doing things. I pecked at the keys and changed the name of the object to, ‘name = The cool thing’. Hell’a looked down at the thing in her hand and said, “You named it the cool thing?”

  “Something wrong with that?”

  “No, Var, I was telling you the name of the object.”

  “Oh, sorry…” I gave a dumb grin, “I’m going to mess with the other things in here.” I started typing again, this time in the abilities area. I picked a random key, the F key to be exact, and it auto completed what I was typing, ‘Fire’ everything but the F highlighted in blue, showing what it was guessing. I hit enter and a few things happened all at the same time: the blue highlight disappeared, leaving the text behind, and new text highlighted in blue appeared next to the word, now reading, ‘Fire Damage(0)’. I hit enter again and the object in Hell’a’s hand burst into flames. She shouted and dropped the thing. “Oh shit, did I hurt you?” I exclaimed.

  “Actually, no.” She leaned down and picked the flaming object back up. “It doesn’t hurt at all, it just surprised me.”

  “Hold on.” I did some more typing and changed the text again, ‘Fire Damage(10)’ and as soon as I hit enter Hell’a let out another yelp and again dropped the object. “Did it hurt that time?”

  “Yes!” she shouted at me.

  “Okay, good.”

  “Watch yourself, Var,” she grumbled and cradled her hand.

  I spent some time messing with ‘the cool thing’. I made it make snow, then energy, make the holder move faster, give new skills, and more. Every minute I was learning, or blundering, new things I could do with the object. Then an idea hit me and I sculpted the clay into a golden ring that would fit around the tip of my tail and changed the ability to give whoever wore it a high level barrier that could take some serious damage. I took the non-clay object and placed it on my tail. I watched as a barrier health bar appeared next to my health in my vision. I smiled and renamed the object, ‘The Red Shield’.

  I turned to face Hell’a who I hadn’t noticed until now had not said a word since I burned her. She had just let me play around with my new powers, just watching. Once we made eye contact, she walked over to me and placed her hand on my cheek and purred, “That’s my girl,” and leaned in and kissed me. It was a deep, long, sensual kiss that made me quiver with pleasure. We lingered in that kiss for a long time. Once she pulled back, she placed her forehead on mine and whispered, “You and I will take over everything. The world won't know what hit it.”

  Chapter 8

  The Wilds

  I always enjoyed the sensation of flying. It was the thing I had actually really liked when I got this body. It was a rush, gliding through the air overlooking the cities and landscapes, and right now open waters below me. Normally, I would portal someplace far away, but today that wasn't an option. I had discovered that I could only portal to places the System deemed alright. So anywhere in my empire, maybe outside the walls of an enemy city. But not in places like the center square of the Alliance, or apparently the Wilds.

  After talking to a bunch of Fae, Leon had discovered that they all had similar stories. They were minding their own business in the Wilds when everything went black and they found themselves locked in one of those suits, being used to power the device. So our only clue was the Wilds itself. Normally I would send people to go in my stead, but with how high level the wilds were, only the best of the best would be able to survive.

  I looked under me and saw I was crossing the threshold from sea to land. There we go, I had officially crossed into the unknown lands that were the Wilds. I slowed my flight to a hover, flapping my wings so I could get a better picture of the landscape and surroundings. The name lived up to the place. It was a massive tangle of wild growth and untainted territory. I heard the flutter of dragon wings behind me. "Var, can we land? I have a serious case of saddle sore," Ral shouted at me. I responded by heading to the beach below me. As soon as I landed, the dragon with two people on its back landed beside me. Tilln K’ran, the Grand General of the Red Empire and Ral K’ran, my Left Hand, jumped off of Tundra. The two identical Imp sisters looked to me; their black and silver eyes were a bit mesmerizing. “I still don’t understand why Leon isn’t here,” Ral said, scratching Tundra’s jowl.

  “He’s still talking to the Fae,” I informed her. That was only the half truth, the real reason was I just did
n’t want him here.

  “Didn’t they all say the same thing?” Tilln added.

  “Yes, they all said they were from here, things went black then they woke up in those suits.” I crossed my arms and my wings flapped up a bit like they did when I was annoyed.

  “Then why is he still talking to them?”

  “Because it takes one of them to say something different to learn something new.” I looked away from the sisters, not wanting to keep talking about this. “Anyway, we are three of the most powerful people in the world, we don’t need Leon here in the Wilds, we can take care of ourselves.”

  “I wasn’t saying we couldn't, but you know Leon is skilled at infiltration and spy things. Where we are more…” Tilln stopped and pondered for a moment. “More heavy handed.” Tilln held out her spear to emphasize her point.

  “Humph.” I frowned at Tilln and turned to face the woods. “Heavy handed or not, this is what I will, so let’s get this over with.”

  “Yes, my Queen,” the two said in unison and moved in stride behind me.

  The Wilds were beautiful. The trees were old and massive. I had never seen trees this big. It would take more than ten people with their arms fully outstretched to wrap around the trunk. Then there was the height; they were taller than anything I had ever seen before. I peered up the deep red trunk and had to crane my neck fully up to see the tops of the tree. “Wow,” I said without realizing I had spoken.

  “Yeah, those are some big trees,” Ral spoke, also in awe.

  The rest of the Wilds weren't anything to scoff at as there were large mountains off in the distance, the blue snow covered peaks cresting into the clouds. I could hear a nearby river roar with rushing waters. I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my days exploring and making art of this magnificent wilderness.

  We walked, taking everything in for a few minutes when a glint of light caught my eye. I turned to see a pillar of metal jutting out of the ground that was reflecting the daylight. “Over here.” I pointed to the pillar and the three of us walked over to it. Once we got closer, I could see the vines that wrapped around the shining metal from basin to the top, at least eight meters up in the air. “What is it?” Ral put her hand on the metal. “Oh, it’s cold.” She quickly removed her hand.

  “It looks like a First Ones ruin.” I moved around the pillar, the parts that weren't covered in the vines had jagged etchings that glowed a light blue.

  “This is an enchanting obelisk. It’s said that those that enter inside it and do a trial will gain power.” Tilln took a few steps to the obelisk as she spoke. “But most who enter fail the trial.”

  “How do you know this?” I inquired.

  “I read.” Tilln shrugged. “Do you think I do nothing but work every hour of the day?”

  “What happens to those that fail?” Ral looked at her hand nervously. In response, Tilln’s eyes moved to a nearby skeleton on the ground. “Ah… I’m good without enchantments.” Ral took a few more steps away from the obelisk.

  “Tilln, how powerful are the abilities one gets from the obelisks?” I put my hand on the cold metal.

  “Very,” she said simply.

  “I may need something like this if I need to go another round with Oracle. I think we are going to need to take a quick detour.”

  “My Queen, don’t we need to keep looking for-”

  “Ral, I almost died during the attack. I need to get every advantage I can.”

  “You can try, my Queen, but I have only heard about heroes being able to do obelisk trials.” Tilln crossed her arms. “I have never heard of a Hellspawn being able to do such a thing.”

  “I’m not any Hellspawn, I’m the Red Queen.” I gave a wicked smile and I willed power into the obelisk. ‘ERROR: N0-2244, Var Zargronith, The Red Queen, unable to access eventQuest(197887 “Wild Cold”); tag required (player) = (false); N0-2244, Var Zargronith, The Red Queen tag = N0, SystemHivemind, Admin; Admin override required to give N0-2244, Var Zargronith tag (player); Admin detected (N0-2244, Var Zargronith) give N0-2244, Var Zargronith tag (player)?’

  At this point, I was getting used to this gobbledygook showing up in my vision. I gave a smile and spoke, “Yes.”

  ‘N0-2244, Var Zargronith tag updated; starting eventQuest(197887 “Wild Cold”) for N0-2244, Var Zargronith; ERROR unable to load eventQuest(197887 “Wild Cold”) N0 not allowed in eventQuest(197887 “Wild Cold”); An unexpected error has been detected; System Error (4F533418160E43505000F5); Spawning N0-2244, Var Zargronith to N0-2244, Var Zargronith Debug room; ERROR Var Zargronith Debug room = null;’ and the text started flashing across my vision faster than I could read it, filling every bit of the world with a wall of text.

  Moments later, the text stopped and I found myself standing in a dark room. I looked around and found that this was my room! Not my room here in AO, but my room in the real world. My bed, my dresser, the glow in the dark stars above where Ella’s bed once was. I looked at my reflection in the mirror that was the sliding door to the closet and I was Var, so that meant I was still in AO. I moved slowly around my room, taking in the old sights and smells. I stopped at my desk and took a large nosefull of the pine incense I used to hide the smell when I smoked pot. I giggled a bit. I was so naive; Papa must have known what I was doing in here whenever I lit the incense, but he never said anything about it. My eyes drifted to the photo frame that would change every few minutes. At the moment, it was displaying a photo of my girlfriend Frida and me in our thick, puffy skiing coats, getting ready to head up the slope. I wonder whatever happened to Frida? We were still friends even after we broke up and we were even headed to the same art university. My smile faded away. That was, she went to university with the real me. I let out a sigh and turned away from the photo, best not to dwell over the life I didn’t get to enjoy. I slowly moved over to my bed, and sitting next to the pillow was Princess Stripes, the protector of dreams. Princess Stripes was a stuffed tiger Papa got me after the nightmares started... of Ella. He had told me that not only was the tiger a mighty warrior, she had the power to fight off the bad dreams. All I had to do was sleep with her close and she would make all my nightmares go away, and wouldn't you know it, it worked- well, kind of. I still had bad dreams but far less frequently after she came along, and even if I had a bad dream I would hold her tight until I managed to get back to sleep. I picked up Princess Stripes and pulled her into my chest. “If you could only make this dream go away.”

  Still clutching the tiger close to me, I moved over to my ugly vase. I moved my finger across the uneven lip of the huge misshapen pottery. This was the first thing I sculpted on the wheel that didn’t break during the firing process. The thick, green glaze dripped down the side of the thing and was overall a big mess. That said, I was still proud of it. Yeah, it was ugly, but my hands made it. Before I came along it was nothing but a clump of wet clay, but once I was done with it it was art.

  There was a knock at the door. “Hi kiddo, can I come in?” It was Papa’s voice! My heart started pounding super hard. How could this be? How could Papa be here in AO? It didn’t matter how, all I cared about was I was going to get to see Papa again! I ran over to the door and swung it open as fast as I could. What stood before me wasn’t Papa, but one of the wide-eyed mannequins from the System Hivemind. I let out a yelp as its lidless eyes looked into mine. “What’s wrong, kiddo?” The featureless face was unsettling, even more so as Papa’s voce flowed from its lipless, gray mouth.

  “You’re not Papa.” I took a step back from the mannequin.

  “You are half right, it’s true that I’m not, but at the same time I am. It’s all the same here,” it said, expressionless, because there was no real way for it to show emotion.

  “I don’t understand.” I looked away from the thing.

  “Of course, you wouldn't... You are such a dult.” This time it wasn’t Papa’s voice coming from the mannequin, it was... mine. Not Var’s voice, nor the voice of the keeper of the item shop, but the voice I h
ad before in the real world. I felt something tug at the back of my mind. There was something I needed to do. “Kiddo, it’s not safe… it’s not-” the mannequin once again sounded like Papa. It turned its head away from me to look back behind it. I followed the mannequin’s gaze. It should have been the hallway to the rest of my house but instead I saw a hallway lined with yellow doors. “It’s not safe… here… for… yo- you...” the mannequin struggled to speak. Why was it speaking such nonsense anyway? If one is to talk here it is to speak the rules and only the rules.

  “Move aside,” I told it. “I have someplace I need to be.” I needed to exit this room into the hall, turn right and walk 598 doors down to the black door, enter said door, turn left and proceed to the red door.

  “No, you don’t… you need… you need to stay right here!” This time the thing was using my old voice again. I started to exit the room to go down the hallway. I just needed to stay to the right and walk at 1.4 meters per second to avoid any collisions. But this mannequin was colliding with me! What was with this thing? It was standing in my way. Not only in my way, it just pushed me back into the room. “Move out of my way,” I demanded of them.

  “Not going to happen!” it shouted, using my voice. This was getting annoying, if the thing wouldn't move I would just push past it. I pushed as hard as I could on the thing and it seemed as if I was stronger, a lot stronger. With every step, it got pushed back. “Kiddo, no, don’t… don't do this!” Back to papa’s voice.

  “Move,” I said simply. I was centimeters away from getting out into the hallway.

  “Event quest 197887 complete!” It shouted and my vision was filled with text that was coming up faster than I could read. Then everything was gone, I was surrounded by blackness and I thought I could hear the screams of rage from behind me. I turned to face the shouts but instead of seeing anyone I found myself standing next to the obelisk. My head exploded in a massive headache. My mind reeling from being separated from the System Hivemind. I stumbled backward and tripped over something and fell to the ground. I looked to see what caused me to fall over. I saw a damaged metal person with similar designs to the Beefeaters that I had battled a few days before, but this one was thinner, less armored and was far more wild-looking. Instead of the formal uniforms, they had on battered rags and a wooden mask roughly carved and crudely painted. Also this one had been cut in half.