Future Drabbles VR

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

Toby was trying to get calmed down but couldn’t so he ended up leaving his normal training and skipping class. He was supposed to do a course online and actually do it with a few others in the tower but today he just wasn’t in the mood to be around others. The fact that the trainers bruised him up pretty good was obvious the fact that he tried his hardest to get at them without using powers per Frederick’s rules royally pissed him off and distracted him more until Frederick called it a day early and told him to leave and cool off. The old man knew if he was pushed something bad would happen. His mother wouldn’t be happen about the bruises but that was part of training. He was pissed because he knew others didn’t go through this but well… a few in the tower actually did, some even without powers so he couldn’t really complain much. Their training was just more, difficult.

So when he went to log into the “Game” as he referred to it, he wasn’t calling it the idiotic name Liam picked when they released it he was a little pissed to be still waiting in what they called the void. ”God damn it Liam.” He knew what was going on, sure enough he had a incoming call from Gramps. ”Don’t you have class?” ”Maybe…” Toby scoffed a bit, it was interesting they could make actual real calls with the tech, he helped work with that, well Gramps helped a lot too, mostly the two of them and a small crew, Liam and a very smaller crew did the programming. Gramps glared at him in the video window that had popped up. ”According to the fact that I got a alert that said you were trying to log in during school time you do.” ”Tell Liam to stop installing babysitter programs on EVERY…” ”Toby… we need to know you’re ok.” Toby took a deep breath and sighed, not wanting to get into it. ”No, I’m not, look at the date. I use part of the game, a area I specifically had Liam help program for me to meditate. I just can’t today…”

Jack looked at something and winced. He realized it was the anniversary of that particular day. ”Noted, I would…” ”Just let me in.” ”Only Liam can and he’s in class like he’s supposed to be.” Toby sighed and sat down a comfy chair appearing. ”Text him for me if you will I… my mind is in a million places at the moment and I’d probably just yell at him, I’ll do whatever he wants later if he wants a favor.” ”On one condition from me as well. Talk to Zain, while you’re in game, I know you let him beta test it to get a person from the health side response. And he’s one of the only few you actually talk to about that anyway.” ”Fine…” Toby waved a hand and agreed to whatever he’d have to to just get where he wanted to be. F*ck Liam for spying on him, even if it was for a valid reason. Jack was back in a few minutes and the login screen popped back on with a obvious message from Liam of “YOU OWE ME.” He probably got yelled at for possibly interrupting the class, whatever.

”It’s done, but talk with Zain Ok.” ”Yeah I will, thanks Gramps.” With that he ended the call and was able to log in. He was brought to the character selection. All of them even Lexa who while she didn’t really help a whole lot was still part of the main Admin group just to give them a hand had multiple characters to select from. All other players were limited to three unless granted by specific LONG quests or very rare dropped gifts from high level boss kills in dungeons. Today he selected his main character which was pretty similar to his own real self, most people would easily recognize him, which didn’t matter, that was part of the game, well and being a admin he could just go invisible whenever he wanted to. Accepting the character he was rewarded with the familiar voice over of the hired actress.

”Logging in.”  

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

Toby was at his log in checkpoint and watched the chat as a few noticed the “Admin login” pop-up some usually popped up hype or tried to get their attention knowing who they were. He watched for a bit then closed the chat. The reason he set this location today instead of the city was specifically that. This location was quite difficult for new players to get to. Hardcore players have gotten to it and he had talked to a few on occasion. The only people he allowed up here with easy access were Zain and the Monks. This location was a copy (not exact as it was harder to get to) of the Monastery that his Gramps had gone to for meditation training. While most actual hardcore traditional monks wouldn’t use the tech there were a few that would log in and train people in the ways if they could make it to the location. Toby made sure their time spent training others was rewarded in game if they asked though most didn’t though he made sure any time spent was recorded and he did donate some of the profit he took to charities in their name.

His normal character here people referred to as the Monk so being here was fitting. His parents probably though most of the time spent in game was actually destroying sh*t or randomly killing bosses, sure to level his other characters he would but only if he couldn’t get his mind straight. Well he figured they thought that, if Liam was spying on him he was sure at least his mom was getting some of the details. He walked a bit in the Monastery, his room was the spawn location. A few of the NPC monks acknowledged him and even some of the actual player monks. There were only two other players here today and they were in a meditation session with one of the senior player monks so he continued to the cliffside where he liked to meditate. He pause as he noticed that Zain had logged in and teleported him to the Monastery location. He was pretty much to the cliffside by then and sat down in the common sitting position and waited.

He was doing the breathing exercise when he heard the movement behind him and the Zain. ”Bad day?” Toby sighed and nodded. ”More or less.” ”Frederick messaged me and said you got a good beating today and I should probably check on you.” ”Just bruised, nothing is broken.” ”Did you put ice on it?” Toby shook his head and heard Zain sigh as he sat down a bit clumsily. He smirked knowing the wings from his Angel character were a bit annoying to get used to. ”Needed to come here to calm down and clear my head, if I didn’t, something was going to get destroyed. And at least if I did in here, its just virtual.” ”Should get you training in here.” Toby wanted to but shook his head. ”While the tech lets us feel some it doesn’t translate with psychic powers so combat training would probably work but dealing with psychic powers wouldn’t, we didn’t put full power capabilities in because we didn’t want to scare people.” There were some power classes that mimicked real psychic powers but only to class C. So normal people could get a feel of what it’d be like, telepathy was a b*tch to translate over, though Liam had figured a minor way to do it, wasn’t as strong as even the strongest Class C Telepath in the Real world but still worked to some fashion.

That actually caused a bit of stir with people but only the very far naysayers against psychics the few that were undecided grew a bit more understandable of psychic powers if they tried. He had heard that even some Senators tried even Paul, just to get a grasp of what his dad and Aunt Chris went through and Grams. It opened a few eyes, made a few more cautious. ”So all the times you come in game during your class times you’re here?” Toby sighed, he wanted to be pissed but he couldn’t be. ”Who all gets those damn reports?” ”Myself, your mother, your gramps, and obviously…” ”Liam… I want to be mad but I know they worry…” ”What happened to you with her, then Melina, it took you out of commission for a long while, of course they’re worried. Liam visited nearly every day, I’m not surprised he set up a monitor in game to keep an eye on you.” Toby blinked, someone had said something but hearing it from Zain actually confirmed that. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, ”This is the Monastery that Gramps went to, there’s a few actual trained Monks that help people that are able to get to this location learn to meditate, its part of a quest. For me they help as part of my setting it up for them, and as a gesture of good favor to Gramps.”  

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

Zain nodded and sighed. ”So why the hell do I get stuck with a angel character? I don’t see an option to change this one. I mean I can make another one but I don’t really want to, I have a feeling one of you is forcing me to this.” Toby laughed and turned with a smirk to look at Zain. ”Its fitting though. You do realize that that particular character class is really difficult to get. Most normal players would have to usually play for years before they could even start the quest that would unlock that character for them. Just be glad you’re friends with the right people.” Zain sat on a rock so the wings wouldn’t be bothersome and glared. ”Stop patronizing me.” Toby shook his head and sighed, ”You can disable the wings you know. Though I take it you haven’t played enough to unlock that. I think you have to be level five. Once you get there you can call them whenever you want or have a normal appearance but keep the abilities.” ”You’re basically forcing me to play.” Toby shook his head, ”Pretty sure Liam was the one that locked your character class, I have no control over that.”

Zain stayed quiet for a while and he figured that he hit it right on. Apparently he and Liam had a few talks that made Liam decide to do that. Though being such a successful doctor for his age was kind of odd and it was fitting. Toby quieted his mind and left Zain to his own thoughts. His main character was a elemental and as a admin he abused it and unlocked all elements. Usually new people were only allowed one to two depending on how well they could concentrate. Part of the reason he wanted to train in meditation was to learn to control the power on a larger scale. He focused on the ocean which was a bit wild and noticed it calm. Zain watched and stared at Toby as the ocean in front of them calmed and then stared at it as part of it came up in a controlled funnel. Not like a tornado but just the shape, he could see the water moving to keep the shape but there wasn’t any wind force behind it. Then it changed into a giant sphere. He noticed a few of the monks had gathered behind to watch but sat quietly. He was sure one was a actual player but the rest were NPCs. Apparently Toby had a few followers here himself. Either that or the player monk was his instructor and he was seeing how Toby was doing. The man nodded to Zain but went back to watching. Zain did the same and stared as another funnel came up and formed into another sphere, and finally a third.

Toby had to keep focus to do this exercise. He could feel the others watching, but knew they were just keeping a eye on him. Zain was unknown to them so they were making sure he was ok most likely. He focused even more calming himself and made two more of the spheres, before he had a hard time even making one. The third gave him a bit of trouble but he managed and held it in the air for a while. He was using a bit of air though controlled, it wasn’t the force of a tornado but enough to keep the spheres up. He let them move slowly back into the ocean and opened his eyes and stood up turning back to Zain. Zain stared at Toby whose eyes were glowing like they would outside the game and wasn’t really surprised by it. It faded quickly and Toby let out a deep breath and smiled. ”Better? ”Much. Most come in and just kill or destroy randomly to calm down. While Liam is worried, this is actually what I do. Unless I can’t calm my mind I try to not do the other, unless I’m in a group that’s on a task that needs to do that.” Zain nodded. ”Random destruction isn’t always the best for stress relief.” ”Tell that to my dad.” Zain laughed, ”I have, trust me I have.”  

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

Toby started to walk off and Zain thought he was going to go all the way back to the temple but he stopped as a grand piano appeared in the field of grass. ”Abusing your admin powers a bit are we?” Toby turned and smirked. ”No if I were I’d do this.” Zain felt the wings disappear and sighed. ”As much as I appreciate the gesture those do make it hard to get around.” ”Talk to Liam, though I doubt he’d budge, he’s… stubborn, like his mother.” Zain smirked at that comment coming from Toby, if Chris knew he was saying he’d probably get glared at, probably has. Toby sat down and played a creative version of Moonlight sonata and Zain just watched as he played. It seemed as though the air around the area flowed with the music and he figured that was part of Toby’s character class. ”Knew you played but not that well.”

Toby smirked as he finished and Zain made the comment. ”Literally everything for the game was initially done by us four. The original music, sound design and everything else was mostly myself, Toni, Lexa, Liam and our parents. Though don’t tell Liam I told you that, and he didn’t perform anyway, just scored some of the music.” Zane smirked, he figured Liam was hiding some skills, all of the family was musical in some ways or another, hell even Nate was. Toby sighed as a few pings started coming in and he scowled. If you don’t log out now and get something to it I’m going to let Salem shove your least favorite food down your throat. Toby groaned and let out a long sigh. Then got all the pings from Liam. He looked over to Zain pleadingly, ”Don’t suppose you’d help me escape from my family out of the game would you?” Zain shook his and smiled at Toby, ”Unfortunately no. I have a feeling the second you log out I have to go check on you. Most likely you wont be able to log back in until I give the say so.” ”God damn it.” Toby wanted to punch something but just clenched his fist and started counting backwards slowly for a bit. ”Its for your own safety Toby. From what I gather, you took a beating in hand to hand training today. I want to make sure you don’t have a concussion or anything serious like that. Your mother will most likely want me to verify that as well.” Toby nodded and waved a hand making the piano disappear then looked to Zain. ”Guess I’ll see you in a while then.” With that he logged out.
--
Toby woke with a groan and felt a small hand on his knee and had to not squirm. Most likely Salem was in his room as promised but luckily for the boy he hadn’t pushed on any of the bruises. ”Hey Salem, is your mom and Saline in the kitchen then?” Salem nodded and waited for Toby to stand which he did with a few groans and slowly stood up. Salem was quieter around Toby for some reason, the twins seemed to pick up on moods easily so he felt like a sh*t-head for making them always feel weird around him. He was still going through the recovery from dealing with the loss and having Malina slightly brain wash him into doing things while he was dealing with it. He was lucky they got to him when they did so he was stable now, at least sort of. When he finally went out to the living area he wasn’t surprised to find mom home early making something for lunch, Toni with Saline at the table and dad. ”Sit and eat, Zain is on his way over.” So lunch first, probably a conversation, aka long talk, visit with Zain to make sure he was actually ok then he’d be able to help Liam with that boss in game. ”I have to help Lia…” ”You need to eat first, and shower, that training takes a lot...” At that point Toby winced as his mother turned around and saw him for the first time she barely managed to not drop the bowl of hot food. ”Jesus Christ Toby… is that dried blood on your face? You should’ve showered when you got home.” He looked over at Toni who was getting Salem seated next to Saline and saw her with the “told you so” look staring at him.

Toby sat down, as his stomach growled, he wanted food first and needed to get this done and over with. ”I’ll get a quick one after Zain is done. I’m starving.” ”And you need to eat before getting in game too long.” He looked at the clock, it had barely been an hour since he had actually got home and in game. He was at the training room for a while working on a punching bag before Frederick finally told him to leave. After the actual training and that it was probably a cut on his head that had dripped and dried up, but he hadn’t even noticed. He quickly dove into the food and started eating, waiting for his parents to start saying things. But apparently they were just as hungry. Or waiting for a moment to have him alone to grill him. He pulled out his phone before he forgot and messaged Liam saying he would but he’d be a bit, had to eat, clean up, wait for Zain to clear him then he should be back in game. He finished quickly then without hesitation went to the bathroom to shower, least he could do for the checkup was get cleaned up so that Zain could tell what was actually there and not. He winced a few times when cleaning a few cuts and bruises then sighed letting the warm water relax his sore body a bit. He heard Zain come in the main area and finished up then walked out after getting dressed again in fresh clothes, that Toni most likely put out for him knowing he’d be using the shower.

Zain glanced over as Toby came out and started quickly with the check. ”Well obviously bruised a bit.” ”He had dried blood on his face earlier.” ”Small cut on the top of my forehead.” Toby pointed it out which was covered with a small bandaide now. ”I staid in the training room and worked on a punching bag, I think throwing that around probably made it bleed more.” ”I’m so giving Frederick hell for not cleaning you up.” ”He probably just wanted me out of there. I was PISSED.” Toby sighed and sat down on the couch. Finally his mother came over and gave him a long hug. ”You’re ok now though?” Toby made a so-so gesture with his hand and looked to Zain. ”Gramps and Liam let me in game to meditate but Toni wanted to make sure I ate something. Probably the twin connection telling her I was hungry.” Zain looked at his tablet and made a few checks on it. ”From what I can see he’s physically ok.”

Toby knew the “Mentally” was left out, they all knew he was still struggling with that. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. ”Keep up with the meditation. These things take time, it’s nothing easy to get over.” He turned and faced his mom and dad, ”Let him do what he wants in his way as long as its not harmful to himself or others. If he needs to skip class from time to time for meditation, fine, at least he isn’t out destroying things.” Toby didn’t look up but he felt his mother give him another hug and knew Zain was looking at his father when he said the last part cause his father coughed a bit. ”Do you and Liam need help with whatever it is you’re doing?” Toby stood up after a while and gave Toni a hug. ”I think we should be ok, we’re testing a boss fight to see how it scales. Thank you sis for checking on me.” He gave Salem and Saline a hug and went back to his room feeling a bit better and refreshed and logged back in. He selected his other character a assassin rogue character after the initial login and opened his eyes, finding his character chained in an a jail cell. ”Well ********> He had forgotten about that.  

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

Toby looked around the cell and noted that he was the only one there. More of a dungeon. He pulled up the log to recall what had happened and finally remembered the assassin quest he was on. Being captured was the only actual way to get in this damn place without being detected. Whoever coded this one was going to get a word from him when he was done. This location was out on a island so of course the quest level was hard, and Toby being Toby accepted it when the man had come to him. He had grown a name with his assassin character already apparently so the man knew he was skilled. He recalled being warned that it wasn’t going to be easy. He sent Liam a message saying he might be late and would be there as soon as he could be. Liam probably had a specific time he had to do this at or he’d have to wait again, the bosses only spawning in at certain times on the server was one thing they coded in so the spawns would relatively easy for major bosses. They were still debating on making it a bit more random so people couldn’t sell the information on forums of the time or just post the information themselves to negate that. ”So you’re awake now finally eh boy?” A rough voice said in front of him. Toby turned his head and finally noticed the old man standing in front of the door to his cell, well guardsman would be more appropriate by the looks of his clothing.

”Wow you have eyes.” Toby said sarcastically to the man and went back to looking around for a way out. Well his feet were also chained so apparently he tried something already. Which is most likely why he was alone and not in a general cell. ”The great assassin Smoak is a smartass apparently, and not a very good assassin.” The man smirked as Toby turned his head quickly. That was his assassin character’s name, so apparently the man in front of him had done a bit of searching around. Either that or Toby did something stupid and use one of the known skills that only people have seen him use as Smoak openly. He closed his eyes and started meditating ignoring the man, they probably wanted to question him, ask him who had given him the quest but hell he didn’t even know fully, not even with his admin. He could probably hack into it and check but that’d too much time and he wasn’t as fast as Liam would be. He heard the man grumble and some keys jingle and the door opened. A blade was pulled and the man was about to say something but Toby opened his eyes at the same time.

The man tried to stumble back, to him they’d seem almost dark like smoke coming off them. He pulled his attention on the man first then mentally changed down to the wall behind him and the man flew at him as his point of gravity shifted. Toby used a bit more of a gravity well though so the man was literally being crushed against the wall, even though doing so used more of his mana. The man kept grunting and was now next to Toby on the wall trying to stand but unable to. ”You, made one mistake by thinking I was unarmed without my trinkets and weapons, for that you’re paying now, I’ll release you, if you release me.” ”Ne…ver.” The man was most likely have a very strong sense of vertigo. People not used to this magic would not be able to handle it being used on them. Some were quick to adjust, others simply got dizzy and gave up. Toby flicked his eyes up and the man went to what would be the ceiling. ”I can do this all day.” Not really, his trinkets, that he paid heavily thanks to Liam helped him regain his mana quickly so with those he could but without he couldn’t only do this probably for a few more minutes. The man now had his eyes closed. Toby released the gravity hold sending the man to the actual floor and just as the man was about to get back up he flicked his eyes to the ceiling sending the man to the ceiling with a grunt.
”Okay, okay…let me down.” Toby released the man slowly this time and he gradually fell to the floor and was in a standing position. The man glared at Toby and Toby shook his head with a “Get on with it” look and the man quickly undid the bindings holding him. ”Trust me, even if I did fail, you don’t want me as a captive.” Toby said rubbing his wrists. The motion triggered a memory from when Melina had put him in handcuffs at first when she didn’t fully trust him, he was still hurt over that and pissed, wanting destruction.

The guardsman must have saw something in his face because he paled a bit. Toby snapped out of it and looked at the man. ”The trinkets and weapons I had on me, are they close? You better pray they are or I’ll send you to the top of a tower and let you drop.” The man nodded and motioned for Toby to follow. He was still unarmed but that one ability had taken some damage from the man with Toby doing barely any thing so it was obvious the man was afraid of him now. They got to a room which was most likely this guys office and he pointed to a chest that was open and had all of Toby’s items. Toby quickly grabbed everything and equipped it, he didn’t have much on him for other things, just this stuff. He was about to go out when the man finally got some guts and stood in his way. Apparently an alarm of sorts had been set off, most likely a rune in the office. ”You wont get away.” Toby sighed, ”Well I was going to let you live.” Toby quickly pulled out a dagger and threw it at the man’s neck. It was another item that he had Liam make, quite overpowered for this area. The man gurgled a bit and fell against the wall as he died. ”Pity, and I was starting to like you for helping me so quick.” He opened his menu and put on some music lightly in the background, he’d have to be able to hear the game noise but he wanted something to keep his pace going, some Massive Attack would do nicely for this task.

He crept along stealthily for a bit hearing shouting ahead of him quite a ways off. The castle he was in was massive, even the hallways were vaulted which would make his escape rather easy. He could hear the men coming towards him now so he quickly used his gravity ability to change his point of gravity to the ceiling and stayed quiet for a bit hiding around a pillar. He tilted his head in amusement and watched as a group of six rushed below him to the office he just left. Lots of shouting and now most likely another sort of alarm. He had started to run towards where they had came through and dropped back down. He heard one of them shout behind him and quickly turned the corner as the chase started. He didn’t speed off though as this was another long hallway, he changed his point of gravity again but to the wall and ran up to just above the door entrance. He pulled out his larger blades, becoming an assassin required a few other classes and one of them had the ability of dual wielding. As they all came rushing in they stopped right under him looking around. They saw him turn one way but he wasn’t there, this was a t-intersection so now they were highly confused as to where the h*ll he had actually gone.

He smirked and dropped down after releasing his gravity point back to normal. Admist the confusion he quickly disabled one of them then tossed aside a few attacks. He blatantly grabbed one guy tossed him and used a bit of the gravity magic to make the man go flying down the hallway of the office. He spun down low dodging high attacks, quickly jumped up with the help of his gravity magic over the men and was on the wall to the side of them attack them at a new angle. Now they were really confused but kept trying to attack him. The one down the hall he had thrown was just getting up and he pushed off the wall at one that seemed a bit more trained the rest and used the same tactic but was able to send him right into the man just as he got up, both went to the ground a few more feet down the hall with a loud crash as Toby was back on the actual floor now. Two more were left and he quickly broke one of their arms and body slammed that guy into the other and sent both into the office hallway, knocking the guys over once more before they could get back up again. This time he ran quickly, they’d be hurt, confused and pissed.

The area he was in didn’t have any windows so most likely a basement, he had to get higher to make his escape. The dungeon areas were usually locked from quick teleportation, they didn’t want to make it easy for players to get in and out of these situations. He found a staircase and rather than being a round tower it was actually normal with landings. He simply jumped from landing to landing skipping the stairs all together. He didn’t hear much of a commotion up where he was now and finally made his way out into another hallway. Finally there was some windows here, he was just stepping out as a group of guards stepped around the corner in front of him surrounding a large man. He recognized the man as the target he was supposed to have killed for this quest. The group stopped and started at him and he just stood there staring back. ”Trying to kill me again?” Toby smirked he had ways he could easily at the moment. ”You have a price on your head Sir. I have things I need to do that well. Pay better. Best use the information wisely and have more protection when you go out in public.” The guards started to come at him and Toby jumped out the window.

That floor was pretty damn high up, he hadn’t counted how many flights he had skipped but holy f*ck. He quickly changed his point of gravity and latched onto the side of the tall castle before falling to his death. He looked up to find the man and the guards staring down at him through the other windows. He gave a lazy salute as a wave and walked down out of their range, some did have bows. He was able to teleport now and teleported to the region that Liam had marked on the map for him to meet up. The whole escape had probably taken less than twenty minutes but Liam would’ve known the minute he logged in so most likely was already waiting. He searched around and couldn’t find the little sh*t yet, probably testing his assassin class. ”Ugh, Liam, god damn it, I just had to escape from a castle holding and now I’m here. I’m sorry you had to wait, stop hiding from me you little twerp.”  

[Sl1pstr3am2010]

[[ so Toby's Main Elemental character is pretty much a copy of himself just with various clothing from the game.

His Assassin character is going to be pic claim Arthur Pendragon (Alter) from Fate/Stay series

https://www.zerochan.net/2137028

https://www.zerochan.net/2363527

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/013/006/900/large/hardika-bayu-arthur-proto-bayu-hardika.jpg?153760490
]]