Just Looking For Trouble

[Ash]

Welcome to the Omniverse, this device is directly connected to the Dataverse, and requires to go through a set-up phase. Please follow the following prompts to gain proper access and operations of this device.

First Name:
Last Name:
Username:
Password:

We know you aren't a bot, because that would be ridiculous! So just hit next when you are finished.

Ash read the glowing blue text as it appeared on her blue screen, apparently having to reset everything on her Comm. The device seems to have gone through some slight changes to better adapt to the worlds she had full access to. Shock resistant, Damaged resistant, 100% water proof.. It even sleeked up a bit, compared to the bigger, blockier version it had been. It was still a small hand held device, comparable to a pen, or maybe a switch blade with how an arm flung out and then presented a hologram of a screen. She didn't have to touch this screen, but she could. The jack in her head was directly connected to this pierce of hardware, and she merely had to think about it. Well.. It was a bit more complicated than that, but if she ever needed a keyboard, she also had that.

She sighed, and started to fill out the application for a username.

First Name: Ash
Last Name: The Storm Demon
Username: StormDemon

When she got to 'Password' she paused and entered a line of code. This randomly picked her password, and hid it even from her. It was to keep from being hacked by any passing decker. Not like she had anything they'd want, with such a boring life. But she knew her information was safer when even she didn't know the password. The code acted like the password, so technically someone could steal the code.. But not before she knew someone was trying to.

When she hit next, there was a pause. Ash assumed it was checking if the Username was available. But when she got the next page, it wasn't the typical 'Username is Unavailable' error, or the obnoxious 'Thank you for choosing BlahBlahBlah.' It instantly switched over to a messenger.

Unknown: Impressive...
Unknown: Not many people here know how to do tricks like that.
Unknown: Welcome to the Omniverse indeed, Ash. I'll keep in touch.

Ash, who had been sitting boredly at the base of the Fountain of Infinity with her legs crossed, her head cradled by her hand, and tail fallen around her like some dead fabric, perked up at the messages as the popped up unusually fast only to quit just as fast. "Hm?" A noise of interest sounded quietly as she picked up her head and stood up her long pointed ears. She then curiously looked around, wondering if someone was watching her from the crowds of people around her.

Crowds of people... Like the land around her, the people were sparse. But there were groups all around. She could hear voices, but no one was paying her any attention, and she was okay with this. Except now she had no idea what so ever who sent that message.. She looked back at her Comm, the screen was back to the set up stages. Her username and password had been accepted, and now it wanted to know what kind of themes she liked and wanted her to set up for a multi-media social network. She stared at it for a moment before postponing the prompts with the 'ask me later' option and then quickly worked through some things.

Apparently the Dataverse was a real thing. Accessed by terminals, much like the Matrix was back in her universe. Oh yeah. The Omniverse... What that figure had said before she arrived here, wasn't a world she knew at all. It was easier to explain this place as a Massive Multiple Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for short. Except, it wasn't online, as far as she knew. She could try Jacking Out, but she couldn't recall when she ever connected..

Of course.. She didn't remember a lot.. She very clearly remembered her epic sea adventure yesterday, looking for the long lost treasure of Osa Rizuki, and being bashed around by a sea monster of massive proportions. She remembers being tossed around by the sea, and fighting to stay a float. She remembered being utterly exhausted, too tired to even throw her shoes off before falling face down into the fluffy white blankets and softest silk sheets of Captain Red Devil's bed. She remembers smelling rum, and spices, even something like vanilla, and even now just remembering the scents, she felt herself fall for the false comfort that scents created in the mind of people. (Tieflings are still people.)

She felt incredibly meta as she scrolled through the online banter of people she didn't even know. The blog of one man deemed Omni, the figure that had summoned her from her universe to this one, the bad guy. And said that they were all victims of this guy and his twisted wants to see people like them being ripped from their homes and forced to react with other beings. Her opinion of this felt.. Flat. She never really gave thought to higher beings, or other universes. She played games, watched movies, animes, and read books. All of them creating a new and exciting place for the reader to explore, but the act of contemplating of theories and realities that these actually did exist somewhere in space and time was left for people far smarter than Ash.

Well.. Maybe not smarter.. People devoted to that kind of thing, people who've spent days of their lives working on one problem at a time to explain the 4th, 5th, and even 6th dimensions. They are people who have spent their entire lives on one project and one project alone. While Ash, in her former life, couldn't even concentrate long enough to stay at one job for very long. Probably why dancing stuck with her so well.. She didn't have to think, or do something mind-numbing. She just had to twirl around a pole, work on some flashy moves or something. In reality.. Its been a long time since then. She returned there for work from time to time, but how she hasn't been fired is beyond her. With these requests and tests from Osa on a whim, she's been gone from work for days and days. Any other sane person would have fired her scrawny little tail. And with these changes.. Its not like she can just turn this off. But for some reason the owner of the joint really liked everything about her.

"Well no use in worrying about it now.." Ash said, putting her Comm away and climbing back to her feet. Every muscle throbbed.. And her stomach hurt from hunger pains. Her little swim had apparently drained her of everything. Swimming always seemed to have that effect, like osmosis happens with her stomach. "Gah.. Could use a hamburger about now." She said, bringing her hand up to her head and rubbing her head as she might even have a headache creeping in. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes for a moment, really wanting that hamburger. When she opened her eyes to see that exactly what she had been thinking about was there at her feet. A burger and fries special from a burger stand.

[Ash]

At the appearance of her favorite combo from her favorite burger stand, that was nestled in between two apartment buildings, who had less than standard friendly service but good cheap food, Ash was hesitant to jump at it. Mainly because there is no way that a place that couldn't even deliver two blocks down could manage to get it to her in another dimension and when she was merely thinking about it. No one had that kind of service.

When Ash thought about it though, one of two things could be the cause of this. Her distrust in things said it was laid there by her friend Unknown, trapped, poisoned, or a many of other things. Her gamer knowledge, however.. Told her that it was a function of the.. Game? This wasn't really a game. despite Omni's words to not fear death, because he promised to bring her back as long as she remained interesting. But if she thought about this place with that kind of logic, this hamburger appeared because she willed it to. That it was completely safe to eat. And even if it wasn't, she could only guess that the only penalty to dying was experiencing death. But she'd only be able to confirm that upon death.

Probably better to avoid that though.. She already knew she could feel pain.

Either way, she decided she better get this food down before it was cold. She squatted down and scooped up the basket, then in true captured animal form, she grabbed up the burger and took a bite out of it. Her teeth sliced through the meat easily, but it exploded all over her taste buds. The savory flavor of the slightly seasoned meat, the sweetness of the ketchup, the tartness of the mustard and pickles, the plain flavor of the tomato... Which made her scrunch up her nose and hurry to swallow it. She then made a grab for the drink she usually ordered, only to come up short. "What? No milkshake?" She asked sarcastically, putting her eyes towards the sky like it was Omni's doing. And like magic, a paper cup full of chocolate flavored milkshake appeared. She grabbed the large cup, it was already starting to sweat with condensation, and brought the straw to her mouth where she closed her lips around it and sucked.

Of course though.. It would be too solid to drink right away. So she stopped her efforts after a few minutes, only to cough and seek out air. Ash hung her head at that point and shook it. "Can't win.." She mumbled before lifting herself back up on tired legs, basket in one hand and shake in the other. Then with a little adjustment to what direction she started heading towards one of the eight gates that were the only things preventing her from thinking this space was endless.. Specifically towards the gate of Coruscant.

It wasn't a random choice like it seemed to be, she picked it it based of what she was reading on her Comm. And why wouldn't she pick it? It was everything that was familiar to her. Technology advances, lights, scum at the bottom just trying to get to the top. It was practically home! And.. Maybe it had a place for her to crash in while she figured out what she's going to do. Where does one go, when there was nothing but infinite space around oneself? Well.. This tiefling chose to head for something familiar.

[Schwi Dola]

Suddenly the world unfaded around him but it was definitely not where he was on Star Hill. He was standing in a place of whiteness, with other beings all about him and a large complex white fountain making waterfall after waterfall on each level. ♥♪!? looked about the area and started to take some observations while he contemplated what had just happened. What appeared to have happened was that some powerful being pulled him here for his own amusement. He spoke of this place being somewhere that reflects wishes, that certainly sounded like a setting where stars would be found, but he wasn't just here with other stars he was standing among an assortment of odd individuals.

Wait, standing. How was he standing, he normally floated in the air and was terribly slow walking around. He looked down, to see that surprisingly he had hands and a whole body down there! Not only that, he was in the same body that he had borrowed to defeat Smithy. The Geno Doll was a powerful asset but was it Gaz's doll nearly forgotten on the shelf? He would feel a little bad if this was the same body again taken without warning but at least Gaz was fairly grown by now so her interest in the doll had waned.

He moved the body, slowly rotating the joining and testing the different moving parts. It was just like riding a bicycle, how to use Geno came back naturally. It was as if it was brand new. There were many unanswered questions now, but Geno was already resolved to seek out this 'Omni'. He could not be gone from Star Road for a long time. If another Smithy attempted a takeover now would be the opportune time to succeed. It was his duty, his responsibility to defend it. Geno pulled out that little rainbow glowing substance that Omni had left him. He could already sense what Omni spoke of, it would certainly respond to his will if he applied it. This Omnilium material was a wish granting substance. The possible implications of what this meant in the world was staggering. Most importantly that the substance could probably be used to grant the much more common selfish desires that people had.

After some moments Geno quickly shuffled the stuff out of sight. Now wasn't the time to mess with such toys, while there were many things he could be doing right now, the best was to go out and find some people. He looked closer at the variety of people around him. There were humanoids of all shapes and sizes but more unusually was how nearly everything was humanoid. Where did all of these things come from? There were many here that Geno didn't recognize at all and even species that clearly never lived in the Mushroom world. However they were all in groups in some kind of discussion or otherwise occupied. He did not want to be too much of a bother when seeking help of those here. Geno needed to know more, about everything in this world. Beyond all of these people were some dots in the distance. It was difficult to make out at this distance but they had to be some kind of way out of this white void.

He walked out into the white void and sought out someone who didn't seem too busy to answer his questions. Geno could hope that not everyone here was as clueless as he was about what was going. The somewhat relaxed appearance of most people around made it seem like this was an ordinary day and nothing unusual was going on for them. He found one in particular that was alone, walking towards a particular goal. He looked on ahead, and sure enough one of the lights in the far distance was straight ahead of her, though it was only a rough estimation given that the lights were spaced evenly in all directions. She had an unusual appearance, and clear markings of some kind of dark influence. Were the demonic markings a fashion statement, or a part of her body and identity?

The puppet walked quickly up behind her, making no attempt to hide his approach. "Excuse me if I may for a moment miss, I am.. new to this place and I was hoping you might be willing to tell me more about all of this." Little did Geno know, of course, that she had arrived only shortly before he had. Unlike Geno though, she had access to the tech necessary to find out about all of the basic information through the Dataverse.

[Ash]

Without buildings or towering landmarks of any kind, Ash was forced to walk instead of her preferred method of transportation. Which was swinging from buildings, leaping, jumping, flipping, and in general gymnastics across the city. She preferred the wind rushing past her, the lift and pull of her body against gravity's wishes.. She was generally a fearless woman, and that first leap was easy.. It was also the only thing she needed to do to get hooked.

No pun intended.

However. Walking was probably the best way to go about traveling while eating. The basket and drink had both hands occupied, and so tossing her body about the city landscape would be difficult. Actually... Eating while both hands were full was difficult. But she had a very helpful kind of tail, fully prehensile as it was, made for a great cup holder while earthbound. Or.. It wasn't exactly earth, or anything like earth. The floor of this endless white space felt more like a solid floor or marble. And far too solid compared to the rocking of the ship she had been on yesterday. And nothing compared to the possibilities of air. No matter how smoggy it had been.

Her blue tail, as if working on its own initiative and not connected to directly to her will, wrapped around the cup at the same time that she let go and reached for a few fries. It wasn't like her to complain about anything, especially a win to involved free food. But she kind of wished she had ketchup. Not enough to summon some, but enough to twist her mouth in slight frustration with the first world problem is such an advanced place.

It was on her second bite of the burger when she heard a masculine voice call out to her. Well.. There was no actual distinction of her being the being the voice intended to get the attention of, but her gamer knowledge kicked in. In a place where she's been usually ignored, which was an unusual event on its own with her appearance being commonly described as 'demonic', it was implied that the voice was meant for her. She suspected it was an opening quest, pre-programmed to greet new 'players'. Or something of that sort.

She turned around, revealing a face full of silver rings, those in her brows seemed permanent now that her horns were firmly in place, and eyes bleached out so that she could easily be mistaken as blind. But she could see, very well actually. And she saw what appeared to be a figure with its stand out colors - somehow more out there than her own purplish-blue skin - walking her way. No.. Running. Almost tripping over its own legs. This oddity was something straight out of the spell book of some witch only gave her minor surprise.. When the man finally got out his question, the tiefling swallowed her half chewed bite, so large that it could be visibly seen being pushed down her throat for the moment that it was there, before taking a long and strained drink of her shake that is brought into her reach by her tail. This was done as a pause as she waited for the stranger to come close enough to have an conversation without yelling at each other from a distance.

During his approach, she got a better look at the figure. He appeared to be a large wooden man. The wood made her think of a puppet, instead of a robot, but it all seemed appropriate. He had on robes of bright blue, and a silly hat, which made her imagine him as the spell caster type. He also came off a little as The Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. "Sorry to tell ya Magic-Man, but I'm probably not the best person to ask." She explained as she mentally noted that this wasn't an "NPC", then took another drink until what she could get through the straw ran out and a sputtering noise could be heard, it wasn't empty, just too frozen to drink. But her lack of movement implied she was waiting to hear what he had to say.

[Schwi Dola]

Geno rubbed the side of his head for a moment, that certainly wasn't the reaction he had expected to get. At least she wasn't taking an overtly hostile stance against his approach. He had precious little experience actually interacting with the denizens below. His adventures to stop Smithy had been relatively short and he just didn't get opportunities to visit. Geno had duties to watch over, so most of the time if he socialized with anyone it was other stars.

Geno put an arm to his chest and bowed down a little."I'm sorry, I should introduce myself I am ♥♪!?.. " Geno paused a moment looking at his hand, he wasn't in his star form right now. "But people call me Geno in this form, the name of the doll I inhabit." Geno made a wide gesture to the area around him. "I arrived only a short time ago after meeting a mysterious figure called Omni so everything is here is new to me. Anything you can tell me would help."

The star warrior looked up into the endless white sky. Nothing here was like anything he had experienced before. It was at least clear this wasn't your average world in the universe but how everything felt, it had to be more than just that."What I can tell is that this world doesn't seem to be in the Mushroom Dimension, or at least it is a pocket hidden away. There aren't even stars out, a sun close by, or any real indications of a universe beyond the sky." He already felt a little isolated without any stars above looking down at him.

However, Geno suddenly knelt down and placed on hand on the white ground rubbing it. "Through the constellation networks I've heard of a place that could be described similar to this." He stood up again and looked at the others around them. "The blank white ground and sky could mean this world was once swallowed by the Void. If that is the case then it wasn't too recent with a lot of people wandering here.." Geno shrugged. "But it could just as easily be some kind of virtual reality created by this Omni character. I need to know more."

[Ash]

The wooden man sang out his name, and then gave her an actual name that was far more easier to announce, then bowed in an old fashion kind of way. Geno, because the body he was using owned that name, looked surprised when the demonic creature before him didn't - she assumes - instantly throw a fire ball at him in order to burn the possessed toy. Her guess was that a lot of people would be surprised by the fact that Ash had no control over fire at all. She couldn't toss a flame at him even if her heart was in it. She honestly would rather be going on her way right now, but eating her food was much easier when she wasn't walking. Less of a chance of biting her tongue that way, which is much more painful with the sharp additions to her mouth.

On that note, Ash took a large bite of her burger, those same teeth slicing through the cooked meat with little to no effort at all. As with the tomato, that usually took a little more work, but it would seem her new body had all kinds of benefits. She chewed as she listened to the man talk, taking a sip of her milkshake as he knelt down and placed a hand on the ground. More like a floor.. A floor of ivory, glowing like a soul in the vacant space.. He continued on to say that this 'world' was strange because it lacked stars, sky, or earth. It also seemed to lack time.. Except Ash knew, with some pain, that a couple minutes had actually passed around them. This being even evident in the background, as people moved about and talked with other groups of people. Like spreading rumors of something interesting, yet not approaching them with it.

"Couldn't tell ya." Ash answered, swallowing her mouth full first. She then pulled out her Comm's touch pad. She scrolled through a few things mentally. "My guess is its just a starting hub for a MMORPG to me, but I'm not really an expert on these things." She continued to casually say, taking another bite of the burger. It was down to the last couple. The fries were already devoured by now, and she still had half a milkshake left. But only she would know that, as the paper cup made seeing the contents of it very hard. If you angled your eyes and the cup just right, the light on the other side of it would cast a shadow to give one a rough estimate. "Its called The Nexus." She adds, finding the information fairly quickly after imputing a simple command into her device that quickly retrieved a minimum information. "On each point of the compass is a gate, leading to another 'world'." She explained, before finishing off the burger and chasing it with a gulp of her shake. At this point, she pocket the device again.

"I'm headed to Coruscant, to see what it has to offer." She said before balling up her trash with both hands, forcefully crumpling up the thicker paper that held the greasy bits that remained of her combo, then tossed it behind her. The trash bounced twice, before turning into a bunch of glowing ones and zeros. Which faded into the white void of The Nexus quickly after that. "Welp, that's all the time I have." She said, clapping her hands together, dusting off whatever salt clung to her bluish-purple skin. "Don't get too lost." Were her final words before snatching the cup from her tail and then spinning on her heels, heading in the same direction she was before she had been stopped.

[Ash]

The chocolate milkshake lasted Ash for about 15 minutes. And probably only because she had been occasionally sipping at it instead of devouring it like she would have in her normal state.

Normal...

That was such a strange observation to take suddenly. What was normal about her anymore? Normal girls didn't act the way she did, a mix between tomboy, badgirl, and some sub-species of skater-punk. On top of that, normal people didn't write programs to make the task of password choosing easier. Normal girls, in her realm of reality, did have technology at their finger tips, but rarely was it injected to their head as her's was. A flash of thought opening doorways in cyber-space, a flick of her finger scrolled past information that she deemed useless, and eventually with a proper connection, she could get lost in The Matrix, where she took on new challenges and other crimes. Normal girls weren't criminals.

But even when she was just Emma Shutter, she wasn't all that normal. She had been one half of a birth, the later half, but just as important. Or she should have been. She imagines her mother had trouble keeping track of who was who for a little while there, and maybe she mistakenly got some attention meant for Isabella in the process of figuring out her own children. She imagines at a certain point her mother loved them equally, her father admired both his babies with the same smile when they were mentioned as individuals. But when they did become individuals, with their own thoughts and ideals, that's when Emma and Bella became so different that the love was divided depending on how good or bad they were.

'Normally' Emma was the bad kid. Dropping out of Ballet, picking up boxing classes, getting in fights, trouble, vanishing from time to time only to return with some new story and usually being lead by the hand by some police officer who always gave her parents the details of what had landed her in the arms of the law. But they never asked for her story.. Never once did they wonder why she was acting out so much, creating so much chaos in their dull and boring lives.. They would just yell at her, attempt to be good parents, and then chastise her for not being more like her older sister, Bella.

Bella who took up collage as soon as she graduated, and was gone far longer than she ever was, who came back with glasses instead of piercings, who stuffed her face in books instead of twisting it in disgust at the very mention of work, respect, or responsibilities. Bella, who had no idea how much she was 'responsible' for so many thing Emma did.

Ash never blamed her sister for anything. She was mad at her parents for never seeing her own accomplishments. Never acknowledging her achievements in math.. Never able to see what potential she had. Mostly because their heads were stuck up Bella's ass and how her years in school made them proud parents. They couldn't even see her in Bella's light, let alone the things she did that were worthy of praise. They simply focused on anything that was shoved in their faces by the law enforcers that kept bringing her back. Ignoring the bruises, scratches, cuts, or even the tears she may have shed..

Normal girls didn't have their life written all over their body, but then again most girls weren't covered in unnatural colored skin, had horns sprouting from her head, or a tail whipping a cheap paper cup at the ground in frustration brought on by memories of her parents. Normal people didn't get sucked into a game like universe, where that paper cup shattered into digital garbage and vanish moments after hitting the ground. Most girls, let alone people, fought a giant sea monster that would later guide them to a ship that was inherited from some Ancient old Tiefling that once ruled those very seas they had to fight in addition to the sea creature. Most normal girls weren't carrying around the spirit of some famous swashbuckler on their arm..

Ash's fury settled down quickly as she remembered the other things. How this abnormal girl, with the bluish-purple skin, the horns, the tail, the washed out eyes, had out-smarted many. Particularly a group of people who wanted nothing but to save the world, and would rather have called her crazy than really give her the time of the day. The group which suffered a fitting end. Stabbed to death by devil figures for trespassing, after brushing off the one person who might have been able to guide them through.. The satisfaction brought a grin to her face, but nothing could wipe the smile off her that happened when she remembered the night when not even the magnificent Isabella Shutter could save them.

She never actually found out what had been in that cave of wonder.. She had been so satisfied with the horror on her sister's face, and distracted with leaving them all behind to die, that she never took her chance to explore where they could not. She suspected Osa would lead her back there one day, but that day never came. Maybe she'd get to find out one day.. But at the moment, her only goal was to head to the gate that would lead her to Coruscant. At that thought, Ash looked up to see what her progress was on that goal. And it surprised her how close she was now. She could make out figures in front of it, white.. Like everything else in this space. But it would seem the two hours had passed nearly, and she would be rid of this blank space soon.