Taskmienster
01-07-09, 08:17 PM
To know Althanas was to know the chaos that consumed it. There was a very fine, intangible line that split insanity from the rest of the world, and that line held more importance than anything else imaginable. Ethan “Lars” Calhoun knew Althanas, one could say far better than any normal person that accepted it as reality. Ethan was a computer programmed character, which is obvious once it’s understood that the world of Althanas itself is just a computer programmed virtual reality game on a server owned by TechFront. There was a man behind the mast of smooth pixilation and liquid crystal composition, the man was known on Earth as Colin. He worked for the company that sought their own version of Althanas, sought to put TechFront out of business.
“Why would anyone want something so chaotically consumed? This fucking place is on the verge of exploding.” The hacker sighed as he dangled a foot over the edge of the rooftop he sat on. He shifted his weight and wiggled a little, keeping his hold secure on the precarious perch but keeping a tile from jabbing into his tail bone. He shook his head and popped the butt end of a cigarette between his pursed lips. From undead uprisings in the beautiful lands of Raiaera, to the civil war in that frozen land, Althanas was in a state of disarray. As far as Lars could tell, both places were being attacked by the same person, or people that came from the same place, or perhaps it was the same group? The information was scattered, but he knew that both places had some major issues. It made it seem like the people that wrote the storylines and in turn the game was almost at a loss for where to go next. “Now some strange occurrences on this god-forsaken hell hole of a country. Kebiras? Did they even take time to think of a name? Or just came up with whatever random letters they happened to hit their foreheads on when they got angry at trying to name the place?”
Ethan lit the end of his cigarette, his habitual ‘stress relief’, and tucked his lighter away quickly. His yellow streaked gray-blue eyes scanned the desolate little village he had been dumped into after logging onto Althanas. Hovels lined the rough dirt path that wound in a path through the small, eight building town. Each one was a disheveled yellowish color, whitewash having long since worn and flaked. Holes where paint should have been exposed gashes from what looked like weapons being dragged across them, or deflected into them. Blackened scars marked more than one place where a torch was put far too close to the wall, charring it in the process. The wood was far from fresh though, rotten and warped it bowed like air trapped behind an armature’s wallpaper job. His eyes followed the path back to the alley and eventually to the winding road.
The street was anything but straight, with many turns and twists in it that would be a disadvantage if the hacker had remained at ground level. There was a fight about to brew, he knew the signs, but he didn’t know who or what it was that would come to meet him in the fading light. Instead of dwelling on it he slipped one of the shattered tiles from the roof and chucked it at one of the only panes of glass remaining in a split window. The other three empty holes were nearly empty, one still clinging to a shard of dingy glass. The first tile struck the side of the window sill, crashing loudly in an explosion of aged dust and broken pieces. The second tile hit straight on, breaking even as it continued through the grime coated window.
With a long drag of the cigarette the hacker leaned back on the arm without the cancer stick, waiting and mulling over thoughts of Althanas. “Too much more of this nonsense and we’ll have the first virtual reality version of Everquest…”
“Why would anyone want something so chaotically consumed? This fucking place is on the verge of exploding.” The hacker sighed as he dangled a foot over the edge of the rooftop he sat on. He shifted his weight and wiggled a little, keeping his hold secure on the precarious perch but keeping a tile from jabbing into his tail bone. He shook his head and popped the butt end of a cigarette between his pursed lips. From undead uprisings in the beautiful lands of Raiaera, to the civil war in that frozen land, Althanas was in a state of disarray. As far as Lars could tell, both places were being attacked by the same person, or people that came from the same place, or perhaps it was the same group? The information was scattered, but he knew that both places had some major issues. It made it seem like the people that wrote the storylines and in turn the game was almost at a loss for where to go next. “Now some strange occurrences on this god-forsaken hell hole of a country. Kebiras? Did they even take time to think of a name? Or just came up with whatever random letters they happened to hit their foreheads on when they got angry at trying to name the place?”
Ethan lit the end of his cigarette, his habitual ‘stress relief’, and tucked his lighter away quickly. His yellow streaked gray-blue eyes scanned the desolate little village he had been dumped into after logging onto Althanas. Hovels lined the rough dirt path that wound in a path through the small, eight building town. Each one was a disheveled yellowish color, whitewash having long since worn and flaked. Holes where paint should have been exposed gashes from what looked like weapons being dragged across them, or deflected into them. Blackened scars marked more than one place where a torch was put far too close to the wall, charring it in the process. The wood was far from fresh though, rotten and warped it bowed like air trapped behind an armature’s wallpaper job. His eyes followed the path back to the alley and eventually to the winding road.
The street was anything but straight, with many turns and twists in it that would be a disadvantage if the hacker had remained at ground level. There was a fight about to brew, he knew the signs, but he didn’t know who or what it was that would come to meet him in the fading light. Instead of dwelling on it he slipped one of the shattered tiles from the roof and chucked it at one of the only panes of glass remaining in a split window. The other three empty holes were nearly empty, one still clinging to a shard of dingy glass. The first tile struck the side of the window sill, crashing loudly in an explosion of aged dust and broken pieces. The second tile hit straight on, breaking even as it continued through the grime coated window.
With a long drag of the cigarette the hacker leaned back on the arm without the cancer stick, waiting and mulling over thoughts of Althanas. “Too much more of this nonsense and we’ll have the first virtual reality version of Everquest…”