Restart Audition - Chapter 1

Restart Audition Chapter 1

Vanishing Point

Outside the snow fell as if the clouds themselves had been shredded into flakes while the wind blew with such a howl that the snow rushed from one rooftop to another as if an animate flock of doves. Inside the warm embrace of my room, I sat in my favorite chair wearing exactly what I had worn last night, sweat pants, an NES t-shirt, and a jacket for the college I would soon be attending. I felt fortunate that I had received my package yesterday, when the current blizzard was just being born from a light dusting of white freckles drifting down and speckling the sidewalks. The package I am referring to contained a brand new online game, released at Midnight on New Year’s Eve. The game, known as Project Warp Point or PWP for short, was a revolutionary MMORPG available on all consoles stated to have “unlimited customization” and “player interaction which would not interfere with a unique storyline.”

I would not have known about this game where it not for my friend’s incessant rambling on the subject. He had insisted that I buy it so that we could exercise yet another venue of tag-teaming after our previous ventures on DC Universe Online and Borderlands 2. At this very moment, he was sitting a thousand or so miles away, preparing his microphone and waiting, most likely, impatiently for me to finish my character. Regardless, I was thankful to have a friend with such shared interests as mine and thus far the game had done as advertised, despite the fact that I had only just started to create my avatar.

The main menu was just the letters “PWP” with the typical flashing “Press start” prompt. Upon completing the action I was greeted by a field of blue hexagons and a black sky, adrift with blue cubes. Two of the hexagons popped loose and hovered before the screen, prompting me with the choices “Male” and “Female.” As I typically do with my first character, I based my choice on my own image and selected “Male.”

The next stage of character creation was “Race” as the game informed me. For this stage I was presented with two choices yet again framed in the hexagonal floor. “Select Race” or “Create Race.” I considered myself to be a creative soul and desired something unique, with that in mind I chose the latter. The hexagons scattered again and the game ordained my next task, in the form of text stretching across the top of the screen.

“Please select two or more available races from which to draw traits and culture” The text prompted.

One hexagon extended towards the screen and broke itself apart to form a row of five text boxes, each with a drop down arrow. For the top box, I figured my own race would be an adequate starting point so I typed in human, assuming that any game with selectable races would understand the race. My assumption was only partially correct, below the text box a list extended containing specific sections of the human race such as “Irish” or “Zimbabwean.” I scrolled down a bit and decided on “Scandinavian,” yet again drawing from my own self-image. With that a human male with pale skin and a loincloth appeared to the right of the hexagon.

For the second race, I scrolled through the list until and stopped at random point with the hope that luck would decide my avatar’s fate. Eventually, the word “Lizardman (Forest)” was highlighted. I selected it, more out of curiosity than interest. Upon choosing, I became aware of a sliding bar beneath both of the races names. For now the Lizardman aspect was at zero and the avatar to the left was that of a fullblooded human. I slide the scale back and forth across the bar, watching as the man slowly morphed into a green scaled reptile. Eventually the entertainment value of this diminished and I slide the scale up to 25% Lizardman. My avatar still seemed human, but several features where out of place, his hands and feet were scaly and a long prehensile tail stretched out from his tailbone. I smiled at the result, input “Savran” as the race name after a quick Google Translation, and then continued onward.

Deciding on my class was the most difficult decision I had made in a long time. I opted not to create an original class, eager to get in the game, and instead decided to select from the list. Out of every dozen choices it seemed half of them sounded appealing. By the time I reached the bottom and gotten over the shock that I had scrolled past two hundred and twenty five possible choices, I had a three-way tie between Alchemist, Gambler, and Gadgeteer. I leaned back in my chair and breathed heavily, contemplating which seemed closest to how I envisioned myself. After a few minutes of thought, I scrolled down and highlighted Gambler with a smile, citing my own luck. Then I second guessed myself, think Alchemist would be a better choice, till I remembered my barely passing grades in Chemistry a few years prior. Finally I dubbed Gadgeteer my best choice, I had experience with machines, I loved taking things apart, and I was inventive, it was perfect. I sat there for a few seconds, Gadgeteer highlighted and my figure hovering over the button to confirm my choice.

“Am I overestimating my knowledge of machinery…” I though, recalling that an interest in machines was an early childhood obsession “...definitely”

I scrolled up and selected “Alchemist,” pressing confirm before my fickle nature could again get the better of me. Alchemy felt like the field I would use best, as far as I knew traditionally Alchemists has been philosophers who studied in solitude, a perfect match to how I viewed myself.

In the upper right corner of the screen, something not involved in the game appeared, a box with plain white text reading “Xemthawt112 has logged out.”

“Must be having internet problems again,” I remarked with a shrug

After class, the remainder of my character creation felt like a very downhill motion. Based on my class, I felt a refined weapon was fitting and decided on sword cane. Building off of the refine nature of Alchemy and adding a touch of my own eccentricity, I garbed my Savran avatar in an earthy-colored three piece suit completed by my favorite hat, a derby. The last step was my character’s name. Vagrant was the first thing that came to mind, it was an important word for me as I had used the nickname for a year now and it held deeper meaning to me as a writer. My avatar, dubbed Vagrant, was officially completed and I was given clearance to begin the game.

There was oddly no opening cutscene and my avatar was basically dropped in the middle of a field with several dozen potions and a rusty rapier blade hidden inside a cane. The field was populated by lesser monsters, mostly the frail slime, a cornerstone of every fantasy game in terms of weak monsters. I ran around a bit experimenting with my characters abilities and learning the controls as I stabbed slimes left and right, tossing out the occasional potion at swarms of the creatures for a satisfying explosion.

I took another drink of my soda and felt the urge to eat. Figuring myself safe from dangers in the relatively empty field, I set my controller down on my table before descending the stairs.

I returned several minutes later, a plate of toaster waffles in hand, eager to see if Xem had returned. Instead to my disappointment I saw a black screen the words “Restart?” printed in green, beneath which the options “Yes” and “No” were blinking.

“Must’ve died,” I said aloud, seeing no other reason for this to occur.

With that I sat down and selected yes, putting into motion a series of events which I would not be able to comprehend until much later.

My tv’s screen glowed whiter than the snow outside and brighter than the sun hanging behind the clouds. As the light spread through my room like locusts, I tried to switch the TV off, but the remote was no longer at my side, nor was there a controller in my hand or a chair beneath myself. My whole room was gone, nothing but a white light existed. Then a feeling of vertigo rushed to my stomach, my body knew I was falling but my mind couldn’t grasp it.