New DaCre?

I'll be posting an intro tonight for an idea of a spin-off DaCre to see if there's still interest/build interest for a Knights/Instincts reboot.

It will be set between Knights/Instincts and the original, and it will be a testing ground for a new balancing system, with a short and to the point plot, despite the Machiavellian evil plots and stuff hanging round, as is usual.

*le gasp* does this...could it mean...

MOAR DACRE RP?!?!?!<3

I'm running a bit behind, so it may be suffering from a bit of first draftitis.

Interesting...

“The world isn’t ready to know DaCre are responsible for the disaster seven years ago. We’ve managed to convince the public and even the majority of the government, other than the Black Ops group PIT that helped us, that it was some sort of bio-terrorism/weapons test. The plain truth is that we need people to keep playing DaCre en masse, and if people learn the truth, they’ll stop. Without tamers, our future is in jeopardy. We will preserve the secrecy at any cost, even the most inalienable rights of our fellow man. We are men who chose to be damned, so that the Earth will not become Hell. We can and will take all means necessary to continue the masquerade, until our tests bear fruit.”

~CDC~

~~

It was a rather chilly morning in Kairik, overcast and dreary, a winter that had not yet born snow.
A lone woman slumped on a bench, bundled in layers and a scarf and hat. A weary expression, “He isn’t coming..”

~~

“She’s a suitable choice. Had a falling out with family, won’t mind our imposed secrecy. Needs a job, has some DaCre experience. No indications of believing the theorists. If she disappears, it’ll be assumed she eloped, as she had recently threatened to.”

~~

A ding on her watch, brought her to examine the small device on her arm. Pulling back her coat, she saw the display, her skunk-in-fedora DaCre, Felix, slyly grinning at her. Her finger brushed the flashing red mailbox, and the message displayed. “Congratulations! You’ve been selected for a paid position as an Alpha Tester for a new edition of DaCre. Position is full time, includes transportation and living expenses. We hope you’ll chose to join the dedicated team of Data Creatures, at our main branch in Kairik Central.”

She blinked. What? Now? Right when she’d had that final spat with her family, she’d stayed up all night waiting for her boyfriend. After everything caved in, everything just bounced back?

~~

“And what about her boyfriend?”

“He’s dead, and in a way no forensics team will identify. Operation Pancake Buffet had to pull out early, Alice was on the scene. That’s why we even knew about her, from checking his background.”

“…. Why didn’t we just name it ‘Wild Hunt’?”

“That’s more of a mission statement than a codename.”

“If your mission statement is short enough, why not use it?”

“It wouldn’t be much of a code then would it?”

“Would you two stop it? For awhile there I could pretend like we were some mysterious organizations who are the people that talk ominously in a dark room.”

“We could turn the lights off, I suppose. All of us can use keyboards by touch.”

“Naw, it isn’t good for your eyes to look at a screen in the dark.”

“I thought that was a myth?”

“SHUT UP!”

~~

Allie looked up at the sky. She could go back home, try to smooth things over, get back on track for a real job.. Or there was this easy golden ticket right in her hands. No school, no family, a fresh start, straight into a paying job..

Why not? She could always quit.

She sent her reply, and in a few minutes, a nice black company car came to whisk her away.

~~

“Ah, yes?” One of our mysterious voices of not-quite-doom turned from his computer as he was tapped on the shoulder. The fairly slight of build man turned up to face the largely built man whose hand rested on his shoulder now.

“Jeff, I’d like you to walk with me for a moment, we have something to discuss.” A moment’s pressure with his hand, then the man walked away, confident Jeff would follow.

"Of course, Mr. Elchanan. What do you need?" The slighter man straightened his poorly done tie as he got up and followed, his quick, short steps jerky in comparison to the confident pace of Mr. Elchanan.

"First off, I want you to know you're good at what you do, and I appreciate it. Not every new employee has your level of vigor. I'm going to let you in on a few secrets." Mr. Elchanan's eyes turned to Jeff over his shoulder for a few paces before returning to forward at the start of his second sentence.

"Sir? It's only my first day.." A nervous sweat, or perhaps a sweat from his pace started to gather on his forehead.

"And you already stick out." Mr. Elchanan kept up the pace, leading Jeff into a part of the facility he'd never seen before.

Several moments passed in silence.

"So, um.. I've been wondering about your last name..." Jeff spoke up for a moment until he was interrupted.

"You wouldn't have heard of the country. Unless you happen to be good at geography?"

"Ah.. No sir." Jeff smiled weakly.

"Anyway, I'm here to tell you that the DaCre hunters we employ, they aren't so much there to kill off the wilds as they are to gain strength. We've discovered that humans can gain strength from absorbing data and fighting DaCre and manifest DaCre like properties."

Jeff stopped, a giant gulp in his throat.

"Yes, a lot to take in isn't it?" Mr. Elchanan strongly put his hand on Jeff's shoulder and shepherded him into a room, fairly sterile looking with few extra doors, but otherwise nothing other than a strange black man with an enormous fro, white button down, whose cigarette was ruining the otherwise sterile environment. He didn't even raise his eyes as they entered.

"You see, we're about to enter several tests simultaneously, to see if we can make DaCre less liable to create Lords. The new "edition" so to speak, is an experiment in whether or not we change the very nature of DaCre from our end. But you already knew that, as that was the program you were part of. For all our talk about maintaining secrecy and "any means necessary" the main project should be no more dangerous for the test subjects than your average game of DaCre. I don't think anyone out there has actually had to do anything damning yet."

"But there are a few secret divisions to CDC, the creation of human soldiers, artificial tamer creation, wild DaCre recruitment... Things we don't tell your friends at PIT that we're doing." Mr. Elchanan backed Jeff into the corner, his frame, overshadowing the smaller man as the smoking man impassively.

"Ah yes, did I forget to mention we can read your mind, spy? That man over there happens to be a DaCre whose powers tend to revolve around the mind. It will be most tragic when you are dumped in an asylum, and we inform PIT's investigators that you volunteered for a test of the new Edition system and suffered some sort of brain damage."

Snapping his fingers, the DaCre in the room advanced forward to Jeff, plastered against the wall in silent horror.

"And one final thing to tell you before you go." Mr. Elchanan turned with a maniac smile. "I love my job."

~~

"So Miss...?"

"Allie, will be fine thanks." She had left her coat at the door as she was escorted by the slightly cutely eager geek.

"Allie, then. Right this way, we've got a big surprise for you. We've been developing new methods for tplayers to participate in battles, along with the balance changes we'll tell you about later. You see, with the advancements in AI, the DaCre can fight so well by themselves that some players are feeling left out. So, we're experimenting with methods to actually allow the player to play as themselves as an avatar on the battlefield, and actually have abilities to deploy in the fight."

"Wait, so are we talking a traditional control scheme for your character?"

"No. We're talking VR." The guy's smile widened. "A few of the guys are actually making this thing where there's a micro-transaction system for buying new outfits for your character in the game. So you get to play dress up to test it out too."

"Wait.. Wait.. Really? I don't have to get a plug in my brain do I?" Allie stopped.

"Just wait and see. It'll blow your mind!"

~~

The Fro DaCre was walking past the entrance hallway, running a hand over the cast off coats of all the new "testers". He seemed uninterested, before suddenly he stopped, his hand shivering as it drew something forth for his eyes.

A pink thread?

As a sudden data signal sprung into existence, he had time to turn, but not enough to scream.

~~


BLARG! I HAVE SPEWED FORTH AN INTRO!

So, yeah, definitely needs revision, but it states some stuff. In this setting, DaCre being responsible for the bad stuff is not known.

So, the current setting leaves us with a lot of hooks and people to play as.

There's PIT, but I don't want them to be a vital part of the plot, because last time, PIT (and Cold) disappearing kinda helped grind Instincts to a halt. I want the only person the plot absolutely hinges on to be me, so that people can come and go without killing the thread.

There's the invading wild, which, while I was using Mrs. Fluffykins in my head, as my favorite serial killer wild, if that's not going to happen, I'm ok with using someone else.

There's the CDC, who kind of get to play both the evil scientists and a survival horror at the same time.

There's the testers, who will get to test out the new system and stuff and all that, but then when they try and shut off the VR.. Things don't work so well and they're stuck in an unfinished world and have to try and find a way out.

And yeah, and stuff. I'm tired. I'll refine the idea later. This is my poor man's teaser trailer.

Sorry about the poofing thing...

Real life hit kind of hard. D :

Anyway... looks pretty good. *Goes to re-read*


Miss... Fluffykins? o-o

Yes.. Did you miss Mrs/Miss (i forget) Fluffykins? She was a scary, scary, DaCre.

I did miss her a bit. o-o

Also:

Roeh: Is it really prudent to create an army of me? *Cracks knuckles*

Granted, absorbing DaCre data isn't what Roeh does nor is it anywhere close to the limits of his power... but his point has somewhat of validity here.

I guess Roeh would also count, but the people they themselves were mimicking was Windsor.

"A new edition, eh?"

As far as a secret government organization went, it was still a relatively normal day at PIT Headquarters. Buried in the residential district of Kairik, that same simple two-story house no different from any other in the lot buzzed with familiar activity.

It had been several years since the 'departure' from the DaCre world, of course; as the border between worlds began to reaffirm itself, the appearance of wilds began to decrease, PIT's paranormal service able to complete their duties far more efficiently... and this wasn't the only thing to change over the years.

No longer a sickly, frail girl, Ami Toruga currently sat in an office room on the second floor. Her hair was more grown out, extending to the bottom of her shoulder-blades; in fact, her entire appearance seemed a bit more mature. At the age of 27 with an impressive degree in computer engineering, along with a now-paid government job in the Paranormal Investigations Team, she had more or less taken over Robert's position in the organization.

Currently, she was scanning a disc, looking at the base code of the new 'product' that Alice had brought in. The officer DaCre, leaning against the door of the room, merely cast an eye over at the work.

"Doubt they left anything incriminating on there... honestly, I'm surprised they even bothered to keep that game afloat after all that happened."

"Software connections... input data... well, either that or there's something far deeper to this. Even analyzing the base code, I'm not seeing evidence of thing's changed outside of the norm... alright, a few edit notes, but that would come up in any program."

"Still, might be worth keeping tabs on this-"

"-And we will. This might be worth passing onto my brother, but as far as I can tell... its pretty much a normal game." Ejecting the disc, Ami promptly clasped it back in its case, giving a shrug to the android. "Heck, at least we're on top of it: nip this one in the butt if it crouches up, am I right?"

"I guess..." Alice sighed out, looking at the monitor over Ami's shoulder, expression rather bored.

"Oh, just admit it... you miss the action..." Chuckling, Ami pushed away from the desk, standing up to exit the room.

"I hardly thing-"

"When Arthur took the wild-job this morning, you paced on the first floor for twenty minutes. Seriously, this pent-up aggression thing doesn't suit you... find an outlet or get over that whole Windsor thing!"

"Why you-"

Ah, but she was already down the stairs!






Don't ask where this one came from. ._.

so we just...like post an intro or whatnot then?

Well, the new thing isn't exactly complete yet, this was more of a trailer than "hey, here's the thread."

I kinda want you guy's input on whether this is a good idea and where you want to do it.

But, hey, if you guys want to start right here right now, I'm cool.

Grasp will be making a reappearance, then. As part of the CDC.

A showdown between him and Miss Fluffykins would be both hilarious and entertaining.

Hmm.. Just remember that if you have a character die in this roleplay, it'll be rather hard to explain how they come back for Instincts/Knights, so be careful with which characters you throw in.

Yay, Seth has a chance to make up for his abysmal character!

I never asked but...how old is DaCre, y'know as in how long as the game been around.

I never asked.

I never thought of it. ._.

Um.. So, do you have a preference?

At the point of the first roleplay, I'd call it a 6-10 year old game.

"I'm sorry Sir, but we have no records of a Mortimer Hilde Greendale having been in our employ. You must be mistaken. If you have any concerns, I'd recommend you visit missing persons. Their services would be better."

The receptionist voice was sickeningly sweet. Her honeyed words mixed poorly with the suggestions she offered. Seth's disgust reflected nicely from his gaunt face. The youth muttered under his breath as he grasped the end of a retractable cord latched to his belt look. In front of the woman's eyes he laid his hand down hard, palm facing down to cover the item he held.

"Listen Mortimer Green is my dad. He isn't missing, he's dead...of old age. That would give him, I don't know, roughly twenty years or so to relay what he does for a damn living. I may not have had a major clue as to what he did exactly, but I'm pretty sure his hobbies didn't include putting his mug on plastic."

Curling his fingers back, Seth revealed a long faced, bearded gentleman displayed on the surface of a laminated id. A series of numbers lined the bottom of the card.

"Unless it was related to his work. So cut the crap and tell me his office number."

"Oh! An identification number! That'll help alot. Let me take a look at that and we'll see if it's registered in our system." the receptionist completely ignored the curt attitude of the young man, her fingers scurrying across the light holographic keypad flickering on the table before her.

"Ah here we are-" for the first time the woman's face buckled, the corners of her lips dropping for just the briefest of moments, "Oh dear. We have a Mortimer Greendale registered in our system, but his position was terminated quite some time ago. I'm afraid we have no records that could be useful to you any more."

"What?!" Seth looked ready to thrash the woman then and there. His upper teeth gripped his lip and he grasped on the edges of his ash colored jacket. A few deep breaths and he finally spoke with a level tone, "...fine. Thanks for nothing."

"Have a nice day sir! Best of luck"

Seth stomped out of the building, the collar of his jacket held up to cover part of his face. Not till the rythmic chime of the door's bell indicating it shut behind him did he pull it down. A faint smile played on his lips.

~Geeze woman, you should have seen my old man's profile. Did you think his son was inept in comparison or something. A satellite screen capture is no problem for me.~

The youth flipped open what vaguely looked like a TQ Hardwire. It had clearly been modified with a larger screen, holokeypad, higher protection, and the area where the retractable networking wire was located have been replaced by a black nub. The device had seen some serious modification in its days.

Currently a profile page was being displayed, a small thumbnail matching the image of the key card in the upper right hand corner. Aside from the normal amount of technical gibberish that Seth scanned through a certain status bar caught his attention.

~Current Status: Active Employ. What? Well that's fishy. Hmm ah well, if his status is still active and he showed up with this number, the card should still work. Lessee here, room 413. That would be the third floor.~

"Only trouble now is..." gazing up and the monstrous building even the untrained eye could pick out the obvious signs of security. It was basic so as not to stand out overly, ranging from barcode scanners, cameras, and greeters to keep an eye on the lot, "Getting up there without anyone knowing."

There was no way he was going to be able to waltz in the front. Though innocent enough, most of those greeters likely held firearms under their garments. Even now they could see him plain as day and at least fifty yards further. He'd have to try the other sides.

Skirting the edges of the facility, Seth carefully eyed the layout. He'd occasionally stop to take a discrete photo with his Hardwire. The sides didn't look promising either. Having been reserved for parking, several of the lights housed security cameras. Naturally this left-

"Back here then?"

The rear of the building had its own kind of security. The loading dock. Often filled with supply trucks coming and going the rear entrance had a steady line of employees to serve as an informal sort of security. Not the best in the world, then again supposedly this place had nothing to hide.

~So then...I'm guessing my best bet is with the common man. Still, I need to get as far as possible without being spotted. Now how do I do-~

As if in answer to his questions, a brief gust of wind caused Seth to stumble to the side. A large white truck zoomed past him, it's purpose instantly clear.

~The laundry truck...ooooof course. Goody.~

---------------------------

"I'm telling ya man I saw it! Plain as day!" Gordon's panicked expression failed to match with the incredulous glances of his workmates, "It had three freakin eyes! All around its head, and four arms! It didn't even walk it was floatin I tell yah FLOATIN!"

...

"I thought people named Gordon were supposed to be...quieter."

"Video games are not a reliable source of character!"

"C'mon man, shit like that only happens in creepy experimental facilies or underground labs. Not a reasearch station for perfume."

"Says you! If crap like that actually happened in such isolated areas you'd never actually hear about it!"

"Hear that guys. They always go for the ones that actually believe that stuff first." one of the workers sneered at Gordon, "Nice knowin yah Gordon..."

"Ulp"

"Hey guys." The laundry man gave all the men a curt nod as he rolled his cart past.

"Hey Steve." All the workers responded in unison, accustomed to the man's arrival.

The men were all silent for a bit, either smoking, eating or waiting for the truck. After several moments, Steve's voice managed to find it's way back to the dock.

"Nice knowin ya Gordon."

"YOU SHUT UP!"

---------------------------

"Nice knowin ya Steve...yah prick." Seth cracked his knuckles, rubbing in their use on the currently unconscious man who laid before him.

"You sure are a handy guy though. Well known by the workers, never talks too much, doesn't show too much attention to detail and," the youth quickly fumbled along Steve's pockets until he pulled out an id card, "...access to the service elevator. Room three here we come."

Swiping the card and entering the code, a faint thought played around the corner of Seth's mind. Although it quickly faded as he stepped into the open doors.

~Maybe I could have been a spy.~

Punching the '3' on the board, a grim smile made answer clear.

~I'd be dead by now.~

Seth shifted his weight, gripping the railing as his stomach turned faintly as the elevator came to a halt. It had been a quick ride, to little surprise. The third floor was rather humble in comparison to the maximum height the building held. Peeking about to his left and right, the halls were fortunately clear.

~Ugh so creepily suspicious. M-maybe I should just go back.~

~Oh that's right...I'd need a Steve...and he's unconscious...and a prick. Dammit.~

Without any alternative Seth cautiously proceeded forward, using a few of the rooms as reference to ensure he was following the proper path. Only a few of the rooms clearly bore light judging by the faint ream of it seeping from the fringe of the doors. Every now and then a faint tapping or the whirring of machinery could be heard. Aside from that however, it felt rather deserted...isolated even. Seth didn't even notice how he tried to lighten his feet, and brush by the doors, hugging the walls as he made his way. It seemed endless, and so foreign. He had difficulty attaching fear to this common workplace environment, but his nerves were definitely on end. It felt like an eternity had passed before he reached room 413.

~Bout damn time now I swear if you don't work-~

'beep' 'beep' 'k-chnk!'

The lock receded with what seemed like melodious sound.

~Thaaaaaank you.~

With renewed vigor, the young man slipped between the door, making sure to bolt it shut behind him. A quick scan of the room showed the only think he needed to see. A personal computer. Rapidly inputing a few commands on his hardwire, Seth quickly took a seat and his fingers began to fly.

~Lessee here. Some of this looks pretty standard. They said this place was some kind of middle man for perfumes. These are just cover files. But let's see whats in the hardware. Hmm, mainframe files sort by...date of origin.~

Suddenly the screen went black as the organic background faded and was replaced by a basic theme. Several documents began to appear, many of which caught the youths eye.

~Hey, what the hell. Dad was an engineer for the DaCre systems, practically a founder but...these files are old. Some of them go 'way' prior to DaCre establishment. This what the heck...'Human Integration Trials.' This looks familiar to...to...oh that...~

"...bastard..."

"Oh really? But we've just met."

"Eh?" when Seth looked up he was immediately met with the gaze of a single frozen eye set upon a domed cranium. It almost immediately began to spin about, revealing two others similar to the first.

"WHATTHEHELL?!" Seth lurched backwards, his head ramming back against one of the cabinets behind. The pain offset the fear to a degree. But it was immediately replaced by a sharp disgust as a low chuckle registered.

"Oh my I'm sorry, Pupu is very inquisitive sometimes. But he's really not a bad sort."

The hovering monstrousity floated a bit to the left, allowing the owner of the voice to be seen.

A wide faced man stepped forward. His oriental features extremely striking, especially when added with the bemused smile playing along his lips. But his words had a vicious bite that sent a chill down Seth's spine.

"Me though? I'll fuckin kill you." the man turned to Pupu and tilted his head towards Seth.

Without a moments pause, one of beasts arms flung upwards, faster than Seth could follow. A brief spark followed by an eruption shortly followed the metallic vibration a twisted dagger sank deep into the cabinet, narrowly missing the youth's head.

"Eh, we didn't need that computer anyways, right Pupu. After all, Dr. Greendales test was a major success. We're still getting data on that girl aren't we? Real gripping stuff."

"Ahhh my head." Seth's hand slid briefly into his pocket, his hands gripping onto his device.

"Aww did you bash your head on the metal? Pity."

"Oh my god will you stop with the monologing!?"

Ripping out his hardwire, an intense blinding light poured out, bathing the room in whiteness. By the time it subsided only Pupu and the oriental man remained.

"Well, that was impressive." the man briefly rubbed his eyes, as though barely effected by the blast. His hands then moved to straighten his tie, "Wasn't aware a hardwire could do that."

'Should we catch him? If we move now it's doubtful he'll escape the facilities grounds.' A soft voice whispered into the man's ear from a wireless earpiece.

"That won't be needed Apopos. This will be more beneficial to us. Someone who seeks someone for revenge has a better chance to find them than someone searching for business. He's just a character in our book at this point. Won't be leaving the pages any time soon."

'If you wish Bae Hyun Ki. Also, CDC's representative has asked if we have any updates on the integration systems.'

"Pfft, picky lot aren't they. First they want to turn people into virtual creations, now they want to ship them back and forth between barriers we don't even understand yet. Tell them we'll update them with our progress when we have some."

'Of course...Seonsaeng...am I a monster then?'

"Apopos...you? Don't make me laugh. I have better examples of monsters in my mind. They're all human."

'I see...then I will return to work.'

As the voice on the other end stated this, Pupu vanished into nothingness, leaving Bae Hyun Ki along with his thoughts.

"Mortimer Greendale." the Korean lightly patted the edge of the monitor's frame, "Just were have you hidden yourself? It must have been hard to find some place better than a grave. But don't worry we'll find it. Your son is very eager to see his sister again...as am I."

The hell was I thinking?!

Uhm.. I don't know..

For starters, other than a very small group of people who are all located at headquarters, nobody would know about Human Integration Project, if that's what I think it is. It also could have only been started after the events of the original DaCre.

Also, other than the "new edition" of DaCre and the "Virtual upload" part, which are genuinely normal and non-super-secret-evil-organization stuff, apart from how they are picking their potential volunteers*, CDC outsources NOTHING.

*if all went as intended for the new edition tests, they genuinely were going to pay these people and let them go on their way. No crazy stuff.

Human Integration is a concept likely different than this one, although it may or may not be related or similar. The idea was to literally upload a persons conscious into the net. Seth's father was a head researcher on this concept which began before DaCre originated(note mention of old files).

Seth's sister disappeared in an incident where she was physically kidnapped and dragged into the net. This happened roughly five years after DaCre emerged. It took place prior to the events of the first rp though, so no stable portal existed(meaning her body was probably destroyed).

The idea is that CDC was interested in some of the data compiled from those initial tests of the original Human Integration program. They wouldn't have been trying to get actual volunteers, just data. The company itself would bear little importance to the actual events of the rp.

But I'm basically putting everything out here. More or less the story that was never presented in the first, or the concept behind it. So feel free to cut and rip at it. Just wanted to really try and portray these things better. But rest assured very little of the events mentioned would have any direct impact on the rp, just how the events may play out for Seth.

But yeah, none of this stuff implicated or even really tied to the CDC.

I was just kind of worried you were going to use that organization to implicate CDC in stuff, because they seemed to be doing all the typical "rawr, we're an evil organization.. for teh evuls" style thing along with the same kind of mistakes.

Ah no worries. There's no intentions for that. They're extremely unlikely to but heads or even have any encounters with each other. The data was the only interest.

And I'm glad the organization comes off as "rawr, we're an evil organization...for teh evuls." cause that was intentional. Whether or not that opinion changes really depends more on whether or not any of the other characters develop any interest in it. It might just fade away, but it does have optional importance. Think of it as a side quest haha.