Re: Mini-Grand 5101 [Round 1: RMS Titanic]
06-13-2011, 02:10 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by BlastYoBoots.
Nathan burst past a couple of nervous passengers into the evening air, panting and sweating over the Titanic's railing. Damn, that was close! Can't let yourself get fragged this early in the demo, can you, Nate?
He undid the strap on his rifle, slinging it around his back to free up his hands, and took a look at his surroundings as he caught his breath. He was close to the bow of the ship. Few passengers were about. There was one looking into the sky around the front railing, and an older couple toward the back of the deck looking at him sort of horrified for some reason. Hm. The ship itself was indeed quite large; four mighty smokestacks towered at an angle from the... wait a minute...
The Titanic! No wonder I recognized the setting! Rather cliché, though I suppose it hasn't been done in a while.
Nathan had browsed the Titanic's halls as a middle-schooler, in a museum which had commissioned a VR simulation of the ship that it could show to curious, impatient field-trippers. They'd received a tour of the decks, were shown some of the food served aboard (inedible, though, as synthesizers were expensive and harder to maintain back then), and were even given an opportunity to play hide and seek with each other across the ship. (Any lost kids, of course, could just be pulled out of the simulation.) It hadn't been all that memorable – VR simulation back then was rather low-res and stilted, too much input-lag for compelling gameplay – but Nathan was hardly one to forget a layout after he'd run through it once or twice.
Iceberg. He remembered the Titanic had struck an iceberg, causing it to sink. But it was hit around midnight or something. It's sunset right now, so it shouldn't happen yet if the game designers were being accurate.
Another explosion shook from the bowels of the ship. Not that it'll survive that long, at this rate!
As Nathan looked back toward the man at the bow, a glint caught his eye. A revolver! The handle was sticking quite conspicuously out of his (slightly oversized) coat. It's probably what the horrified couple were gawking at – nope, they're looking at his legs or feet or some such. Odd.
Well, oddities aside, he couldn't afford to overthink things. Nathan quietly strode up behind the distant-looking man, tapping him on the shoulder. "'Scuse me, sir."
"Hmm?" Nathan tapped him harder. "Sir."
Finally, the man turned to face him. "What is i-" Nathan jabbed his sidearm in the young man's gut, careful to position himself to shield it from the old couple's view. "Listen. You're going to tell me where your other weapons are stored, or I'll shoot you and throw you off the side."
The man looked oddly apathetic considering the weapon shoved into his midsection. "Whatever. I've already been shot and already fell off the side."
They shared an awkward pause. Huh?
"So, you're that Xander guy?"
Nathan burst past a couple of nervous passengers into the evening air, panting and sweating over the Titanic's railing. Damn, that was close! Can't let yourself get fragged this early in the demo, can you, Nate?
He undid the strap on his rifle, slinging it around his back to free up his hands, and took a look at his surroundings as he caught his breath. He was close to the bow of the ship. Few passengers were about. There was one looking into the sky around the front railing, and an older couple toward the back of the deck looking at him sort of horrified for some reason. Hm. The ship itself was indeed quite large; four mighty smokestacks towered at an angle from the... wait a minute...
The Titanic! No wonder I recognized the setting! Rather cliché, though I suppose it hasn't been done in a while.
Nathan had browsed the Titanic's halls as a middle-schooler, in a museum which had commissioned a VR simulation of the ship that it could show to curious, impatient field-trippers. They'd received a tour of the decks, were shown some of the food served aboard (inedible, though, as synthesizers were expensive and harder to maintain back then), and were even given an opportunity to play hide and seek with each other across the ship. (Any lost kids, of course, could just be pulled out of the simulation.) It hadn't been all that memorable – VR simulation back then was rather low-res and stilted, too much input-lag for compelling gameplay – but Nathan was hardly one to forget a layout after he'd run through it once or twice.
Iceberg. He remembered the Titanic had struck an iceberg, causing it to sink. But it was hit around midnight or something. It's sunset right now, so it shouldn't happen yet if the game designers were being accurate.
Another explosion shook from the bowels of the ship. Not that it'll survive that long, at this rate!
As Nathan looked back toward the man at the bow, a glint caught his eye. A revolver! The handle was sticking quite conspicuously out of his (slightly oversized) coat. It's probably what the horrified couple were gawking at – nope, they're looking at his legs or feet or some such. Odd.
Well, oddities aside, he couldn't afford to overthink things. Nathan quietly strode up behind the distant-looking man, tapping him on the shoulder. "'Scuse me, sir."
"Hmm?" Nathan tapped him harder. "Sir."
Finally, the man turned to face him. "What is i-" Nathan jabbed his sidearm in the young man's gut, careful to position himself to shield it from the old couple's view. "Listen. You're going to tell me where your other weapons are stored, or I'll shoot you and throw you off the side."
The man looked oddly apathetic considering the weapon shoved into his midsection. "Whatever. I've already been shot and already fell off the side."
They shared an awkward pause. Huh?
"So, you're that Xander guy?"