Starcrossed.exe (MeTheMe & GeneticMess)

[GeneticMess]

Erik Anton's passing was a sad one. He was known by his close family and distant relatives alike to be a gifted and creative mind. He'd built all sorts of commodities from scratch, such as a tv remote, smartphone, and even a computer that ran its own unique operating system. He was a nice man, didn't boast about his genius, and always worked secretly. So when he was found dead in the basement of a local university he taught at, his death was surrounded with remorse as well as mystery. Nevertheless, his creations did not go to waste. The computer he'd slaved for hours upon hours creating was to be given to his niece; the only daughter of his only sister. The creations of Erik Anton were not to die with him.

Weeks after his death, the computer was finally properly given to his niece. The monitor was averagely sized, but came with 7 processing towers and a virtual reality headset, all built from scratch. With all heavy equipment was a note, stuck inside one of the towers are not noticed by anyone until the computer was already mostly set up.

To my dearest niece,

If you are reading this letter, there's a good chance I'm dead. If not, then you probably found it somewhere in a landfill through miraculous chance. I have created something truly magnificent. A world unlike anyone has seen before. All within this computer. My research started innocent enough, but... well, now I'm sitting at my desk with a helmet on my head, potentially about to be fried to a crisp. I've written in my will to have this equipment given to you... because, to be completely honest, kiddo, you're one of the only people alive I still trust. That, and your mother still uses a phonebook and can't even use a college-grade calculator correctly. So, if I do perish, all I ask is that you enjoy my creation for what it is. Entertain it, if you could. Someone dear to me gave up all they had to make this work, and all I wish is for their ambitions to be honored and live on.

Sayonara, Uncle Erik

...

On the back, there's some writing hurriedly scribbled on there. It's chicken scratch, and barely recognizable.

P.S. open starcrossed.exe, that's the creation i was talking about.

P.S.S. goodbye for REAL this time. love you. <3

[MeTheMe]

Martha's eyes glistened a little as she looked the note over, read it over and over again in her head until she almost had it memorized. Uncle Erik had been a strange old man, he spent his time building odd, fantastical machines and rarely, if ever, spoke to anyone about them. Memories of meeting him as she grew up, he taught her some of the basics of using a computer, while a child on his knee, it all flooded her mind and it was a bit too much. She took a deep breath, and looked over the towers now set up in a side room in the house. Who needed a guest room anyways? Hard to believe him and mom were related, given how technical he was, and how... little she cared for such things. Luckily mom was away for the weekend, some of mom's friends had put together a big mom-vacation thing, a fancy way to say they were going camping and not cleaning anything for a couple days. Dad was out on a business trip. She wasn't alone in the house very often, but she relished it when it happened.

She booted the massive machines up, the towers humming to life as she did. Fried. That was the word he used when he thought the helmet might kill him. She looked at the gear with fear, worry, and just a little bit of excitement. It hadn't killed him, right? The body would have been 'fried' if it had, and he wouldn't write to her to use dangerous stuff he died. Right? She ran her hand over the VR helmet, the hard plastic casing was beautifully put together, he really knew a little bit about everything. She wished she could have learned it all from him. He really was one of a kind. Still hard to believe he was gone.

She put the note a top one of the towers, she might even have it laminated to remember him by, later. "starcrossed.exe is what he was working on... some kind of game? It could be anything, it's just a .exe file, for all she knew it'd file her taxes, or map the stars, but given Uncle Erik, it was probably a game. Why so secretive though? Why so hush about the whole thing, this was incredible! This technology could have made him famous! Probably. She may have been a bad person to say what made someone famous or not. She took a deep breath, and gave a little prayer to Sagan, before she placed the helmet over her head, and opened her eyes, to open the starcrossed.exe file.

[GeneticMess]

The helmet buzzed slightly as the program started, and it started to...shift a bit. It shrunk ever so slightly, adjusting to properly fit Martha's head as best as it could. Some... strange imagery was shown to her as the program was booting up, and it was almost hypnotizing. However, before long, she found her grasp on consciousness slipping, and before she could even reach for the helmet, she had spontaneously fallen asleep. The program started to monitor the wearer of the helmet, loading things in the background as it waited for Martha's subconscious to start running while her consciousness slumbered. She would start to dream, before the program played a strange noise in her ear that pulled her into a lucid state.

All that, and now Martha was in a void of sky blue hue.

It looked almost as if the sky around her was part of a grainy screen, like the ones old arcade machines used. No matter where she tried to go, it seemed she wasn't going anywhere. As far as Martha could tell, this was all very real, and couldn't even tell that she was wearing a helmet in this state. At least she wasn't alone in this void, as a simple face appeared before her. It looked and felt as if it was a part of the void itself...

"Welcome back, Erik. It's been approximately 17 days since your last-" The face, composed of only a couple simple letters, numbers, and symbols to resemble a face, spoke with a surprisingly human voice. Was this prerecorded, or...?

"... You are not Erik. You must be a new player. Erik always mused the idea of getting someone to play his game. Who are you?"

[MeTheMe]

She struggled to stay conscious, the helmet, the VR, it was doing something to her, and she barely had time to think before she was out. Like a coma. Luckily she and helmet here tough, and the collapse of her to the ground didn't harm either. She lay there on the floor, alone in the house, as instead of seeing the game on a screen in front of her eyes, it was like she was inside of it, her lucid, dreaming mind one with the machine.

Void. Sky blue void all around her. She could move, but she wasn't going anywhere fast without gravity, or momentum, or... whatever this computer had done to her. All the cartoons and shows about being trapped in a game flooded her mind and she panicked quietly. Sword Art Online was real and it was here and she was trapped forever in this void, alone. To go insane and... no, not alone. There was someone else here. The face spooked her as it came into being, a little "Eep!" escaping her lips as she looked upon the face before her. It looked like it was made of letter and number characters, perhaps created from pieces of the code itself?

"Umm... y- yeah, Erik is... was, my uncle, he passed away a few weeks ago, but I guess you've been keeping count without knowing it, huh?" She stared sadly down, away from the face for a moment, before looking up again. "I'm his niece, Martha, I inherited a lot of his technologies when he passed. He left me a note to open a .exe file called starcrossed, and I got here, so I guess I was the other player he mused on. Umm... where am I? What happened to my body? Sorry, kind of a lot to take in, and who are you?"

[GeneticMess]

The face narrowed its eyes suspiciously (for a jumble of characters, it was surprisingly good at displaying emotion), but as she was already here, they found no reason to shoo her off.

"... Right. It is unfortunate to hear of Erik's passing. I have been managing things just fine, but it is unfortunate he will no longer be around." They spoke as if it was just a small inconvenience, although their expression said otherwise. But, back to the topic at hand. "I am the Starcrossed Upholding And Management Operating System, alternatively known as S.U.A.M.O.S., Suamos, or Sua, for the technologically challenged. I am an advanced from of artificial intelligence, tasked with upholding the world of Starcrossed and allowing a non-physical method of visiting this realm." A bunch of empty forms appeared from thin air besides the two of them, with Sua continuing to speak without hesitation. The form at the top, player name, automatically filled itself out with "Martha".

"If you could, fill out these forms while we converse. They are essential pieces of knowledge before you are brought into the world of Starcrossed." The forms asked the usual things, and besides her player name, asked for her age (with a small disclaimer near it saying "Players below 17 are not allowed any further."), her favorite food, her favorite... word? And there was a box asking to choose her favorite element. She was given the choice of fire, ice, and electricity... although there was also another box below, asking for input if she wished for a miscellaneous or unlisted element. All of these forms could be filled in simply by thinking of what she wanted to put in them, surprisingly enough.

"Your body was forced into a state of subconsciousness, since the human consciousness has a tendency to have trouble blurring the line between fantasy and reality. This process allows you to become fully engaged with the world, as if you were a part of it. At least, that's what Erik told me to say."

[MeTheMe]

"... yeah, it was a blow to family too." She could tell it bothered Suamos as well, whether it wanted to admit it or not. "So, you manage this Starcrossed program? What kind of game world is so big that Uncle Erik felt he needed to make a full AI to just make sure it ran well... Umm... I think, if you don't mind, I'm gonna stick with Sua. I don't consider myself technically challenged, but when you have a human, or, player mouth, Suamos doesn't actually roll off the tongue all that well. Suamos. Sua. I dunno, could just be me though." She smiled, then was a little shocked to see a list in front of her, asking her a lot of questions about her preferences in various fields.

"Oh fuck, I didn't know there was going to be a test! I didn't study." She chuckled, nodding. "Sure, I'll fill this in while we talk." She started on the list, thinking was actually a lot faster than typing, so it wasn't taking that long, but it could take a little while to think of what she really wanted to put in each box. She was 23, she loved pizza, the word 'cadence' was really nice, royal purple was the only color that needed to exsist, and her favorite artist was Weird Al. Element? The box filled with 'Surprise' at first, but she erased that, it was funny, but she ended up placing electricity there instead. Bzzrt.

"So, I'm going into Uncle Erik's game of Starcrossed? I'm not, like, trapped here, am I? There's no 'you die in the game you die in real life!' rules going on, right? Like, the ability to pretty much play the game through my brain instead of my eyes is super cool, but this isn't how I wanted to go out. If that question is on this form I really want die from cheese cake over load. It's a real thing look it up." She giggled a little.

[GeneticMess]

Sua started getting a bit huffy at Martha's jokes, but refused to actually say anything about them. If there was anything they learned, emotions were a weakness. Especially strong ones. As each form was filled out, they all vanished into thin air, with Sua silently processing the information in the background.

"Rest assured, you will not actually die. You may die in Starcrossed, and it may feel very real, but you do not actually...actually..." They started to process something Martha had said. "Death by cheesecake? Give me one second." Their eyes went blank, and a gentle hum could be heard as they searched for such an instance. After half a minute, a harsh buzzer went off, and text flew across the air at blinding speeds. It seemed to be some sort of error handler, with the number "404" appearing within it repeatedly. Once the text vanished, Sua continued as if nothing had happened.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I shall place you somewhere within the world so that your sudden appearance does not draw too much suspicion. I am forever available and at your service for any questions you may have."

"Welcome to Starcrossing."

The void faded away, and quite suddenly, Martha now felt as if she was waking up from a hangover. She was leaned against a wall, sitting atop a stool in the back of a now empty tavern... or a bar, or something. It looked surprisingly modern, with the thick shrubbery of trees outside the windows of the place. A couple of signs around the establishment walls revealed the name of the place, "The Crack of The Wisp". Martha's only company in the place was a scruffy man behind the counter, washing a glass... not to mention, he was very small, had no body or limbs, and his entire head consisted of nothing but a blue flame. Weird. He hadn't seemed to notice Martha was awake yet.

She was wearing the clothes she had been wearing when she put the helmet on, but in her hand was an empty bottle of yellowish liquid. From reading the thing, it was unclear if this was beer or tree sap. Maybe both? Either way, this was an interesting way of being introduced to this world.

[MeTheMe]

She finished the form, and nodded as Sua finished the spiel for the game. Then Sua broke for a moment, and Martha became very worried her jokes may have actually broke it! "Oh fuck, no, don't look it up, it's not and I made it up as a joke and... oh, ummm..." Once Sua was back, she skipped over it just as quickly as it had. "So, I don't die, but it'll feel like it, grim, but at least that's not that bad."

"W- wait, you're just gonna drop me in? I don't know I'm supposed to do! Do I have a goal? And you never elaborated if I could get back to the real world or nooooottt..." She trailed off as the void faded away, and she found herself somewhere completely new...

Where was she? She was sitting at a table in the back of a... bar? Saloon? She wasn't sure, but the whole place empty save for her, and the bartender, a floating ball of fire that was washing a glass. That was weird. Not the weirdest thing so far, but it was weird. Sua didn't seem to want anyone to notice she'd just been dropped into the world, so, maybe she should act natural, instead of asking a bunch of noob questions to this... flame. Or wisp, maybe, as the place seemed to be named for a wisp. Good play on words, she appreciated that.

She looked at the bottle of yellowish liquid, swirling it around a little. She was in a bar, so beer made sense, but very little was making sense if it had a label that had said 'drink me' she might have at least had a reference to make. Okay, what did she need to do. Figure out where she was, in a broader sense than The Crack of the Wisp, figure out what she needed to survive here, and maybe make some friends and have some fun? That list seemed like a solid start, since Sua hadn't given her much of a goal. She sniffed the bottle a little, before dripping just a little on her tongue to taste it and try to figure out what the stuff was.

[GeneticMess]

After a moment of taking in her surroundings, a bunch of UI appeared within her vision, near the corners of her eyes. At the bottom was a health bar, reflecting her vitals in game. Adjacent to that bar at the top was a different one that was completely empty, labeled EXP. A numeral was next to it, at zero. A strange looking tab, similar to the digital face she had spoken to before, rested on the right of her vision. That was probably a settings tab of some sort.

"Aye, you're finally awake, aren't ye?" The wisp's attention turned to Martha, not budging from his spot behind the counter. "You look conked out of yer mind. The lads who swung with ye last night said nobody knew where ye came from. I doubt ye'll bother telling it to a wavering flame like meself, so I won't hound ye. Although If I had to guess, yer with those traveling weirdos in the bikinis. Although ye seem to dress much more sensibly then they." A couple of the empty and discarded bottles and glasses sitting at the table Martha was at were covered with a blue glow and hovered over to the counter where the wisp worked, not needing hands, apparently.

"The name's Jerry. Also known as the Blue Blaze, but nobody's called me that in ages, heh heh. It be the crack of dawn right about now, so you shouldn't have anybody to worry about bothering you besides meself. Yer welcome to stay for a few hours while ye get yer wits about ye."

[MeTheMe]

The UI was a little to get used to, it was a little weird to have things in her face all the time, but she had played games before so it wasn't unknown to her. The UI made sense, and she could see, and that was what was important. Given this was a game world she hoped when she messed with the UI the other game characters would find it natural, or at least not weird. She'd have to open a few tabs and experiment to see what all she could do to this.

"Mmm? Oh, yeah, I'm Martha, sorry, probably a little too smashed last night to relay that. It was apparently a pretty awesome night from the looks of things... fuck I wish I could remember a damn thing that happened." She placed the bottle on the table, rising up from her stool to see how well she could walk. It seemed fine, the movements she thought went to her digital brain one to one, and she actually felt like she was there in some magical bar with a magical wisp drinking regular beer. Surely this magical world had to have better beer somewhere. Or at least good whisky.

"People I was partying with last night, you remember anything about them, where they went, or who they were? Who are the 'bikini traveling weirdos'? Sorry to bother you with so many questions, just... well most of last night is a blur, or black, and I kinda need to set myself up right to figure out where to go from here." She lied. Thought not badly, she was more... playing the part, than outright lying, and she had blacked out before so she kind of knew what memory-less nights were like.

[GeneticMess]

"Think nothing of it, Ms. Martha. When ye've been burning as long as I have, ye come to respect talking about the small things in life." One of the chairs at the bar was pulled aside with a blue glow for Martha to sit down, and then moved back in place once she had her keister down. "I see lots of folks traveling through those woods come in and out of me bar every day, and it doesn't help I'm terrible with faces. But, if I remember correctly, ye were mingling with... a buncha rowdy teenagers. Recent graduates from wandering hero's school down in Pitstopolis. All I remember 'bout them, sorry to say. I saw ye coming in and out of our guest rooms upstairs with a couple of 'em. I just hope ye were sober enough to use protection, that's all I'll say."

"As for where they went, me best guess would be back to Pitstopolis. It ain't far from here, anyways. And uh... oh, right. The group I'm talking about go by the title of Bloomads, apparently 'cause of their... blooming sexuality? I dunno, I'm too old to worry about some sex-crazed street performers. They come from all over, but their dwelling is apparently somewhere in to the south, near the Phillobscenes. Sorry if I offended ye by assuming ye were among them ranks, Ms. Martha."

It seemed Sua had given Martha at least a slight bit of history and presence in this world, for better or for worse. People like Jerry didn't seem to mind her asking questions either, which definitely worked in her favor.

[MeTheMe]

She sat herself down and was kindly helped with her seat by the magical wisp. Really? Pitstopolis, must have been a place holder name. Or Erik thought he was being funny. Either could be very true. She nods to Jerry, smiling. "Thanks man, I appreciate the help. I think I remember using protection, I don't think there's much worry about that." She'd be a little salty if Sua dropped her off in an unfamiliar world and started her off hella pregnant. Hero's School sounded important, too, though if she was a new player she was kind of curious as to why Sua didn't drop her there. That might be a good place to learn how to play the game and survive. And be a Hero! That sounded like the thing to do!

"Bloomads? Blooming Nomads, maybe? I dunno, bunch of underwear sex performers sounds neat, but I'm thinking of heading up to the Hero's School. That degree seems to have worked out in their favor, that party was awesome, and it might help me a little if I want explore, I imagine. Nah man, no offense, I'm almost flattered you thought this outfit was sexy enough to be worn by the bikini people." She chuckled, smiling a little.

"Pitstopolis seems like a good place for me to start looking for some cool adventuring type things, can you drop me directions? And like, how prepared should I be before I head that way?"

[GeneticMess]

"That sounds like a wise idea to me. With all the threats from Empress Titania and her army lately. They've always been a shady bunch, but folks say Titania is starting to go off her rocker with power. But you've probably already heard many travelers talk about her." Jerry started shuffling with something beneath the bar, before pulling out a goofy looking blade. The hilt and blade itself were made from broken glass bottles and glasses. "My grandson made this for me, he's a sweet kid. Just be careful, apparently fleshy folks don't like getting poked by the stuff."

"Pitstopolis is just a bit to the north and the east, just follow the beaten path and you'll get there eventually. Some animals get a bit on edge at night, and some other wisps like myself like to play tricks on folks, but you should be just fine. If you got here on your own just fine, it should be just as easy to leave. Just keep yer wits and charm about ye, and ye'll do just fine."

[MeTheMe]

"Ooo, neat glass blade! "Aw, if your grandson made I don't know if I wanna take it from you, but if you're sure you want me to keep it, I will!" Of course she wondered if he had more glass blades he was throwing out because his grandson was a novice blacksmith, but still, it was nice of him. "I'll treasure it! No, as a fleshy folk poking and stabbing and cutting will seriously ruin someone's day! Which you have to do sometimes. They probably started it." She picked up the blade, and gave it a couple practice swings, away from Jerry of course. It didn't feel bad, she could actually get used to this.

"North, then east, regular old path headed north should have something if those directions seem complicated. Thanks dude!" Titania, and the Empire, perhaps that was the boss of the game Erik had planned? Hard to say, but she sounded seriously ready to the ass of this land and break everything in it! Too bad for her Martha got here and hasn't gotten to explore much so this land was now under Martha's protection!

"Alright, I think I've got all that down, thanks for the blade, and the advice, dude, I owe you a ton! You just let me know if you ever need anything. I can't promise anything, but you can call me and hope!"

[GeneticMess]

(I was thinking it was more like literally a couple broken bottles tied together, but an actual glass sword sounds cooler lol)

"Safe travels, miss!" Jerry chuckled, back to washing cups in no time. Heh, what an eager lady. It was always nice seeing what faces to business brought in.

Immediately as Martha walked outside, there was nothing but forest and the path leading onwards. Pretty straight forward. The sky was a bright blue, and the sun was high in the sky, rather peaceful, all things considered. Birds chirped and cooed, providing a nice forest ambiance as Martha walked.

About 10 minutes in to her walk down the path, the tab on her right glowed a bit, and a digital chirp went off in her head. Similar to the forms from before, she was able to interact with her interface using her thoughts, and upon interacting wit the tab, a transparent text box appeared in the center of her vision.

You have 1 new meeting request(s) from S.U.A.M.O.S. Would you like to engage?

> Yes
No

[MeTheMe]

"... there's just a bar out here in the forest. How much traffic can you get outside of a town or city?" She shook the thought away as she began to make her way down the path, working the scabbard of the sword onto her belt. There were probably a better way to do that, some menu or thought to work her inventory more effectively, she'd need to experiment with that later.

She had to admit this forest was nice. It was starting to sink how bizarre this was, this forest wasn't real, but was, lines and lines of code that her little digital body of code was in, controlled by her thoughts. Everything felt real though. She'd still feel the cool breeze, and warm sun, feel her legs walking the path, and her hands in her pockets. What was real then? There was probably a Black Mirror episode on that kind of transhumanism. It probably wasn't what her mind should be on. She was on an adventure! She was going to be... a Hero!

Beep beep! She startled at the sound, and just like the forms she was able to easily control them. She'd almost forgotten about those tabs she was supposed to play with! So, Sua wanted to talk about something... sure! It was the Game Master, and anything it had to say was probably super important! She thought-clicked 'Yes'. "Hey Sua! Wassup?"

[GeneticMess]

As soon as 'Yes' was clicked, a familiar blueness blotted out the area around here, and she was back in the void with a familiar face. Sua looked... unhappy. Not with her, but they were unhappy about something.

"We need to talk." They spoke in no uncertain terms. "You're a mother now."

Wait, what?

"As you are a new player, protocol requires a seed from you. A randomly generated string of characters that is plugged into random number generators and similar things to make the experience more... personal. While I was plugging your seed into various factors, such as enemy encounter rates and item drops, I neglected to notice an unused piece of code nestled among it. The code sprung to life and started running thanks to the influence of your seed... so the result of this is now, technically, your offspring."

...

Wait, what?

[MeTheMe]

She was a little startled as she was consumed by the void again, Sua staring back at her looking concerned. Oh god what did she do. Nothing, apparently, it was Sua who may have... dropped the ball.

"... okay okay okay, what!?" Martha shouted, not loudly, but clearly a little freaked out. "Hold up, back it up, are you tell me I have a child now? Because I came to this program, the Seed developed when I spawned, acted on code that wasn't finished, and made it finish enough for it to... run? Why would the Seed... no, wrong question, not important." She shook her head, pinching her nose. "I think you're being like, super liberal with the term offspring, but okay, me and you have a kid now. I know Uncle Erik probably left that code there, but I'm not saying I had it with him because ew."

She had a kid now, apparently. "So... where is it? It's code, mixed with an RNG Seed, so it could be anything! What is it? Should I... I dunno, go meet it? Do I need to take care of it? I know that's a lot of questions, but I just became a mother so you might be able to understand why I'm freaking the fuck out juuust a little right now. Oh god I'm a single mother too! Am I MILF now? Actually, don't answer that one."

[GeneticMess]

An unseen force covered Martha's mouth as she started speaking at a rapid-fire pace. It wasn't hard to guess whom it came from, judging by Sua's irritated expression. Something she had said... well, it didn't upset them, but it didn't sit right.

"... Take a deep breath." They inhaled, then exhaled. Once they were able to get Martha to calm down, the force relinquished it's grip. "This is not 'our' responsibility. This is 'your' responsibility. If that were the case, we would be forced to have an intimate relationship and care for the offspring, both of which are purely liabilities. I have enough things to take care of, including you. The least you could do is handle this on your own."

"That being said... trying to find this individual would be ill-advised right now. That piece of code was part of a scrapped encounter with a superboss, an entity far too powerful for you to handle. Granted, due to its unfinished state, it could be rather unstable, which means it could be much weaker or much stronger than it should be. It's location is somewhere between the Decidu Woods to the east, and the Conifer Woods to the west, the latter of which being your current location. Again, do not attempt to engage with this creature. If you hear footsteps that shake the earth, that's your cue to run."

[MeTheMe]

She made an odd "Mmrff?" sound as her mouth was suddenly sealed, looking... shocked, a little terrified. Sua hadn't bothered actually taking any kind of control away from her before, and this kind of... bothered her. It didn't last long, thankfully, and after a deep, calming breath, Sua released her. "Okay, I'm not sure I follow how this is solely my responsibility, but I'll take it, sure. Still a lot to take in all of a sudden after all these other things I've had to take in all of a sudden."

She looked a bit concerned the more she heard, though. "A... super boss? Ruby Weapon style side content that kicks your ass in super boss? Oookay... well that's concerning, but nothing we, sorry, I, can't take care of! Besides, I bet they'll behave for mom." She chuckled a little, listening more to what Sua said. "Alright, get away from earth shaking footsteps, as fast as possibly, I think I can manage that. Don't you worry running from scary monsters is something I can handle!" She gave a little salute. "And at least you know where they are when I do feel ready to meet them. Super boss or not I hope they're a good kid."

"Thanks for the heads up, Sua, I really appreciate the help." She smiled at it, giving Sua a little bow. "You think there's anything else I need to know, or should head back into the forest and keep on my merry way?"