OOC: A placeholder for Glantri's new thread, GMed by Krillis.  :)

OOC: Flexibility check failed, so you're still a Stage 1 verser. Welcome to your second world!

IC: You remember it all, the choking and then when you were unconscious, you could even feel the dying. But it must have been a dream.

Slowly, awareness and consciousness kiss you and you're awake, with your eyes closed. You can feel grass rubbing uncomfortably into your back and sunlight warming your face and uncovered extremities.

And the collar around your neck chafes uncomfortably against your sweaty neck...

I'll open my eyes, stand up and look around me, rubbing my eyes wondering if I'm still dreaming ... Although I'm slowly losing hope that that's all this is. The pain, the details, experiences I had no previous reference point for. It's hard to imagine my brainy creating this dream. But let's figure out where I am... Maybe there will be more clues.

And with that I tug at my collar subconsciously. I'll need to find a way to remove that.

Ooc) I do believe I have a claim to ownership of the tablet. Also as a side note, since you've mentioned being concerned of your ability of pacing the story, I thought you did an excellent job with it for the last world.

You have everything you had on your person, so clothing and glasses; however, you notice the absence of the alien tablet they had given you.

You touch the metal on your collar and look around at grassy hills in every direction; however, in one direction you see an enormous mountain far past the hills. It's so tall that the tip becomes lost in the sky. A storm surrounds its summit, and you can't help but feel a moment of fear at the sight of the storm.

Once you relax a little, you feel the familiar pull that you had before with your possessions. It points in four distinct directions amongst the hills; however, one feels different. It feels...out of tune with the rest of them...a different vibration.

While you can't see its origin, you feel the different pull moving...up and down and up and down, but never left or right.

I'll pick one of the familiar pulls and move towards it. I need something that is normal compared to what is new first.

A little shaky when I get to my feet, I brace myself and take a moment to breath deep and clear my mind, using some math problems I know and framing puzzles to help find solid mental ground (when I feel overwhelmed I tend to use my math and engineering knowledge as a crutch, focus on the problems that I have so much fun solving and just going through the iterations of either creating a new interesting problem or solving a previous one)

Once I've started that I'll start walking towards one of the three familiar pulls that is closest to the strange pull (in terms of angle, I know they're vectors so I don't know the distance). I keep working on my mental problem as I walk, but also keep an eye out for danger.

For some reason, math is a little hard for you today, but it's probably just from the stress. And it makes it more of a distraction anyways, which works out.

You follow one of the pulls, until you walk up to a dirty card hidden in the grass. You wipe it off, and see the same membership card you had buried in the forest from before.

The other vectors moved drastically as you approached this one, which could indicate that they're close. The one that bobs up and down changed as well; however, you noticed that it moved significantly less than the rest as you searched for this vector. Also, whatever it is seems to have course-corrected towards you again, bobbing up and down and up and down in one direction from you.

The other, familiar pulls are opposite the one that feels different.

I remind myself to get more rest when I can...not being able to do math to relax only really happens to me when I'm getting sick. But I just divert my attention to focusing on the changing pulls.

I'll track down the familiar pulls since they seem closer, and once I have my gear, I'll head towards the unfamiliar pull.

You spend the majority of your sunlight tracking down all your possessions, but they're incredibly easy to find no matter how scattered they are. You notice that among them is a stone spear you had crafted for yourself when you were with the links.

Soon, you track down all of your things, and start heading towards the huge mountain in the distance to find the unfamiliar sense, when you see the silhouette of a man on a hill in the distance. You look closer. He has a square jaw, a muscular build, green army fatigues on, and has a duffel bag slung lazily over one shoulder while he holds a rifle relaxed right his right hand.

He doesn't seem to have noticed you yet. You hear him whistling Yankee Doodle as he approaches.

I'll be using the spear as a walking stick, and will set it down when I see the man with the rifle, and then shout out to him

"Hello, do you speak English? And why can I sense your location? Oh, also I'm Mike."

I'm a little nervous with new interactions right now. They tended to not go great in the last world and I'm still confused on what is going on, but I won't let that  stop me from being friendly, and hoping for the good in people.

He continues approaching at a walking pace, but when you shout, he stops and laughs loud enough for you to hear. Then, he starts jogging down the last hill to reach you.

Soon, you can make out a wide grin across his face and that he looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He looks incredibly fit, and his hair is trimmed so that it isn't touching his ears. He locks wild, blue eyes with yours and sticks his hand out. "Nice to meet you, Mike. You can call me Bob."

He takes a couple of square packages wrapped in what looks like aluminum foil. He tosses you one and says, "There'll be time to get your bearings. First, let's eat." He opens his-a turkey and cheese sandwich, and takes a big bite out of it. While you're eating, he says, "First, tell me what you're thinking. What have you seen so far?"

I relax a lot when he starts talking and seems friendly.

"Thanks Bob.  I haven't been able to figure out what's going on, partially because I've been pushing off trying to figure it out. A few months back I woke up in the middle of a jungle, not being able to figure out how I got there or where I was. I spent some time figuring out this sense I have to my stuff, and as far as I can tell I always know the direction to any of my possessions, even if I don't have line of sight. Anyway, I ended up stumbling upon a tribe of what I can best describe as the missing links between human and ape. I learned their language and taught some of them English, while training them to be able to hunt with spears that I made for them while they taught me to wrestle. But we eventually had to move because of the water going away, and then at our new location there was an alien threat, who were clear cutting the forest using floating sphere's with lasers and saw blades. I tried approaching them in a friendly manner, but was shot at, I lived that time though. One of my Link friends almost didn't though. Ended up taking one down using a my spear. Then a huge ship came and they routed us all and out collars on us and made us mine ore for them. I kept trying to learn their language to communicate but they wouldn't respond to any of my attempts. Finally one of them started, but then a fight among the links broke out over the food. Where one subfaction was trying to rule by force, and I was trying to bring everyone together. They took over and tried to forcefully take the food. I led my side in a fight to stop them, and well, I remember dieing in that fight... And then I woke up in this area. I've considered the idea I may be dreaming, but ruled it out as there have been experiences so far outside of my knowledge that I don't know how my brain would have created the scenario, not to mention dieing and remembering it, dreams normally fade to black before bad stuff happens. It didn't. So I'm thinking this may be the afterlife, or I've been called for something or a genetic mutation or a science experiment. Pretty much the only thing I'm sure of is that this is something and not a dream. "

And I take a deep breath after having spoken very quickly because of how thankful I am to be able to talk to someone again

"And thank you again, I haven't been able a to talk to anyway without a language barrier in months. "

He nods along with your story while he heats his sandwich casually. He has a complete lack of surprise until you reach your explanations for what could be happening. There, you see a spark in his eyes and he leans in closer to listen to what you think.

Finally, when you're finished, he stands up and snaps his fingers. "You've gotten farther than I thought in only one sim. You're right it's no dream. Let me be the first to welcome you to an exclusive club of government kidnap victims being run through countless psychological experiments over and over and over again until they stop having fun with us or until our brains fry from the strain."

"Well that makes as much sense as any other explanation."
While I'm not sold in it, it has indeed now been added to my list of possibilities. Or rather the science experiment category has been edited to include bobs view.
"So what, is this ability to sense each other and our stuff just so they don't have to watch us flounder around as much? And if this is a virtual experience, is it like the movie the matrix, where if one masters their understanding they can do superhuman things? Neo could dodge bullets, or just stop them for that matter. It's one of my favorite movies."(The first one that is)

And after a little bit, after the scientific side that's excited it got a new piece of theory settles down and the emotional sides gets a little room, I'll ask "So how long will they be doing this to us, and how bad is it? What do you do to keep yourself sane and make your experience better..." And I trail off slightly there "and would you mind helping me get this collar off?  They put it on me when the aliens captured me and I think it may be stopping me from running some of my normal mental excersizes. I like to do math puzzles and when I woke up was one of the first times I couldn't create them for myself and solve them. Not to mention I'm not much for the captured look"

You ask him about sensing one another, and he smirks at you, "I like to think it's some glitch they still haven't figured out how to fix yet. Shows the human flaw in the system, you know? I haven't seen the matrix, but I've actually seen some here who somehow have what seems like supernatural speed. Just remember that even though it's a simulation, it still hurts like hell and feels like death, as you know. Don't try to dodge the bullets. Find cover."

"It's hard for me to keep track of how long I've been doing this, but it has been decades at least. Decades of dying over and over and over again. I keep my head on, though. That's all you can do. Keep your head on, and stick with the plan. See, I'm going to show them that the experiments on me will always yield the same results, that it's pointless to continue..."

He trails off, and takes a look at your collar when you ask him to. He seems disturbed from your conversation, but happy to have a job to do. "You're right, the slave look really doesn't work on you. Let me take a closer look before I start."

Then, he jerks his head up and looks around. "Did you hear that?"

For a few seconds, you don't, but then you start to hear hooves beating on the ground, somewhere off toward the same direction that Bob came from. You can't tell the number, but you're pretty sure that it's more than three horses coming your way through the hills.

He curses under his breath. "Your collar is going to have to wait. We need to move and set up an ambush or something. The locals found me somehow..."

"Good to know, I'll prioritize cover but will eventually want to have tricks to use in case I can't get to cover.  And I fully intend to try to avoid dieing. "

I back off on the question a bit when he mentions being at it for decades and gets a little withdrawn. Not meaning to touch on sensitive topics more than need be.

When he asks if I heard that, I'll respond "hear what.... Wait I think I hear it now. What species are the locals and why are they hunting you? Either way you're right let's find a good spot."

And I'll follow his lead. I've never set up an ambush before so I'm just trying to not slow him down. Paying close attention to whatever he says and not be problematic.

"They're like us...but these sims DO have powers, so be careful." He grabs his things while you collect yours and beats you up the next larger hill, throwing his stuff down on the other side and sliding to a lying position. He roughly grabs your arm as you cross the apex of the hill and pulls you down next to him.

"Do you know how to shoot?" He whispers, as he reveals a small, six-shot revolver from his bag.

You hear the horses continue their approach and then stop suddenly at the place you'd just come from. "Gnaeus, why are we stopped?"

"Quiet. They're around here, somewhere..." You hear one of the men dismount from his horse.

"Yes, but not terribly well." I'll grab the revolver but I'm nervous about it. I've only ever fired at stationary targets on the firing range. But I do my best to keep calm and relaxed so that I can fire if need be.

And I'll lay on the hill  quietly, listening to what they say and also waiting ones see what happens. I'm definitely not taking the first shot though. Both between being less experienced and not wanting to trip the ambush before bob wants to, and being nervous about shooting someone, I'm happy to wait until they attack us or Bob fires first. At that point I'll follow suit.

Everything goes silent briefly, then you hear a voice as loud as if it's through a megaphone but not crackly with static. Also, the tone is calm and hard. "I know you're there beyond the crest of the hill. Whoever you are who aids this man, he is a murderer and not worth what sanctuary you may offer. Know there is escape for neither of you. We have a Knight Aeris with us, and we are all formidable earthcrafters. Surrender now and earn a clean death, murderer, and a fair trial for your accomplice."

Bob furrows his brow next to you, and looks at you with the same wild eyes as before. He looks half mad.