14777/MMO Game Night!

MMO Game Night!
Date of Scene:	26 April 2023
Location:	Online
Synopsis:	Gabby and Mercy start a game in the MMO Zombie Mob Killer 5000 only to end up with some interesting drop in players: Sally, MJ, and Tony Stark!? Heck yeah.
Cast of Characters:	Gabby Kinney, Mary Jane Watson, Tony Stark, Mercy Thompson, Sally Pride

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Gabby Kinney has posed:
Zombie Mob Killer 5000. In spite of the lofty number there really was no earlier versions of the game, and much like Heinz 57 there were so many myths, rumors, and conspiracy theories about how the game devs came up with the number -- It was their starting capital, really, but how lame is that to disclose? The game had been out for several years now and it's popularity held steady to die hard fans due to events constantly being updated, and a varied but difficult skill tree that could be used to make the players abilities profoundly unique all around. The AI for the zombies was also pretty darn good.

Gabby had set up for the evening sending out an invitation to Mercy, and now she sits on the floor in front of a much cozier couch with headset on and game controller in hand. Not at her place. Oh no, she was too transient for a solid gaming setup. Tim had yelled at her last time she gamed at his place on the 'big screen' so ... Boyfriend's apartment it was.

"Okay, Mercy, I got a full load out, if you need any extra gear let me know. I've got tons that doesn't work for this build. Aaaand opening up to random player invites to fill out the team."

"Two looking for group!" She cheerily calls out over the pub VC.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
And Mary Jane is playing a game like this. She hasn't done this sort of thing before. it's a bit close to the way her life is most of the time. But sitll, it's different, it's keeping Sonja quiet for awhile, and it's giving her bruises more time to heal thanks to her last set of busted ribs. So, Mary Jane is in the game as her avatar of 'CrazeeStabLady814_' and going to just settle in. It gives her something to distract herself with until they hear from Peter again. And she definitely needs distraction.

Her character just being a very, very generic human tank that she had picked out features of at random that made hima lmost look like an ork with a large hatchet.

Tony Stark has posed:
As Iron Man floated beneath the bridge, slowly and carefully using a finely tuned torch to weld a few plates back into place, the man inside the suit was BORED. But this sort of precision job took a bit of time, and while yes, he could have sent a drone, he had wanted to spend a bit of time out. Think through some things.

But of course, at the rate his mind works, he thought through them in record time. And so he had to turn to a friend for help.

"Friday, got any ideas to pass the time? Want to Netflix and chill?"

The AI piped into his helmet responded with something resembling a chuckle. "It would be bad for you to fall asleep, although I can manage the operation. How about something a bit more active?"

Before Tony can respond, the HUD on his helmet pops up with the loading screen of a video game. A new account created, and he drops into the lobby. Bereft of any knowledge of the game, or any of that sweet, sweet, DLC. A total newb.

Also, he is a female avatar.

<<FridayImInLuv>> has entered the lobby.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy made sure to be online and ready as she is signed into her character ChaosSpanner which she thinks is clever. "Alright I got about an hour before the cookies are done and Medea is already claiming my lap," She says as she sits down to her terminal an adjusts her headset. "No thanks Gabs. I don't mind working for what I got, and I shouldn't hold you back." She has her character reload her main weapon. "Besides it's satisfying to not have to worry about the cost of bullets in games like this." She makes sure she's flagged to accept party invites so she won't block Gabby's efforts. "These games are good to keep my reflexes sharp."

Sally Pride has posed:
Some nights you spent protecting a city or saving the world... and some nights you just want to sit on the couch, stuff your face with four meat pizza and play videogames. This was one of the latter nights, while all the Mutanimal guys were out doing guy things, and Lizzy was squirreled away in lab like the boring science nerd she was. So it was just Sally as she got the system booted up, put on the headset, and logged in. Just picked one of the pick-up-group props at random, that just happened to be this one.

The avatar that logs in is a shorter, athletically built gal toting a shotgun and a few other zombie appropriate firearms. decked out in a leather jacket and torn up jeans. And a headband. With cat ears. Because she just happened to find that vanity item last playthrough and what's the point if you don't show it off?

Gabby Kinney has posed:
As characters blip into the lobby one by one, Gabby leans forward to squint at the screen. She didn't really need to squint but this was her Focused Face (tm) as she started to flip open her inventory to scroll through it with practiced ease and familiarity.

"You sure? Okay. Hey newbie! Love the name, you're with us," she decides split-second no-questions-asked of FridayImInLuv. "Here's some base spec gear you'll need to get a good footing. Just accept the drop," she explains, perhaps unnecessarily as she sends over some pretty good quality gear. Some +10 defense light weight body armor, +30% chance of crit weapons, and the like. She'd really played this game a lot for someone who had so many jobs.

As the others start to hop in as well she does the same offer, "Need gear? Speak up now and I'll getcha hooked up."

It might seem a bit odd to those who didn't know her or her character to have a youthful, female voice coming over for her avatar which was a built grizzled older war veteran type. With an eyepatch, and a cigar, knives strapped to various parts of the avatars' body as well as a sawed off shotgun slung over his back. There were a few vanity items like a belt buckle in the shape of a bomb, and combat boots with stickers slapped all over them. Otherwise it was pretty well done.

"Okay, welcome to the group everyone! Don't have to talk if you don't want but I probably will. We're gonna hit the Abandoned Saw Mill this run. Good mid level and it'll open up the storyline to the down river escape chapter later. Game play is as usual just don't die, if you get bitten tell us so we can get a medpack to you, and kill as many zombies as we can."

"Oh, I'm Badger, by the way! Nice to meet you all!"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
And CrazeeStabLady814_ is horribly, horribly setup for the game. Her character is specced bad, her loadout is wrong, and her leveling is abysmal. She's wearing armor that gives her a buff and a weapon that gives a debuff to the thing tha ther armor helps improve. Most of her item and accessory slots are unfilled or have completely generic things in them.

Mary Jane, behind the screen, goes to let out a sigh, "All right, let's see how this does.." She goes to setup her webcam and then a set of headphones, going to push some buttons as she works to get her older than dust desktop to go along.

"So, does that mean that we're going to have to get them Sawn off?" The burly, green'ish looking fat avatar speaking up in the group chat has a -very- contrary voice.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    Mercy's character has a long dark braid, a red vest and is carrying just about as many weapons as a character can, and like no real person every could. Mercy/ChaosSpanner sees the new girl and says, "Weekend girl, welcome!" Doing her best to be friendly. "If you need some ammo let me know." She will give a thumbs up emote or wave emote to the others that show up. "Even if I'd be a sneezing fit if I was in an actual saw mill."
    She looks over the new people and winces at StabLady, "You may want to adjust your gear. There's an equipment helper button that can be found," as she gives a basic suggestion. "I tend to favor high rate of fire weapons myself. Even if it draws noise."

Tony Stark has posed:
The barrage of information is a bit startling for Tony, even though he is well used to getting hit by and assimilating tons of data on a regular basis. "Uh, thanks," he says, trying to figure out just exactly what was going on, once he figured out that he was the newb being referred to. And why he looked like a girl who just managed to go to her first rave. "Friday, that was your choice?"

The AI pipes in to him, unheard through the voice chat. "I picked the game, I picked the face."

Tony rolls his eyes, but then gets his Game Face(tm) on. Because, little known fact - Tony Stark is a bit competitive. Even if this is something he is completely unfamiliar with.

"Kill zombies. Don't get bit. Call out if bit. Got it."

The cadence and voice is unmistakeable to any who follow heroes. This is either Tony Stark, or someone with a /really/ good voice mod running.

Sally Pride has posed:
Girly voice from a big burly male avatar? Cutsey one from the wannabe orc? Eh, it's a game on the internet. That's not nearly as weird as it might seem at first to people. They're nice enough to gear up the newbie so no one is going to question the vocal dissonance. That one of the cute girls sounds like a man is even less surprising.. though while it's vagely familiar Sally can't quite put it. Sounds like someone you'd hear on TV almost.. but quickly shrugs it off.

"Saw mill? Sounds like a real cut up." Sally triggers one of the emote animation, her avatar imitating the motions of cocking the shotgun. "We'll stack the redead up like boards."

A side glance at her display and Sally stifles a groan to herself as she remembers what she set for the avatar name in an attempt to sound appropriately 'bad internet name cliches'.

CatlamityJane

Hey, when you're actual name is already an awesome cat pun you have to stretch it a bit. At least it goes with all the guns.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Why is your character an old guy? --Wait, is that Tony Stark?!"

It's a little muffled but clearly heard, yet another female voice coming from the Badger avatar. Gabby clears her throat lightly. "Daddy issues," is her first answer as to why her avatar is a guy, and then, "And of course it isn't... I think. Maybe. Hell I play with Valeria Richards all the time so maybe. Everyone needs to unwind sometimes. Anyway, so that's my girlfriend," she explains of the secondary voice."

Mercy's pointing out the specs of the orcish character has her flipping through her inventory again to offer a drop over to her of some better weapons as well. "Here, take these then hit the optimize option like Chaos suggested, it'll help." While she takes care of the last minute gear set ups for everyone there's another muffled background sound of dishes clattering and a squeaking male voice going, "Daddy?"

"Uh, NOT YOU TOMMY we're good honest! Sorry, that's the boyfriend who is hyperventilating in the kitchen right now, Bunny could you make sure he doesn't die? Thanks sweetie."

"Right. Zombies! Good puns, sorry for the distraction."

The loading screen for the Abandoned Sawmill loads up shifting them into a dreary, industrial area with a few OSHA nightmares easily evident even before they got too far in. And a bunch of zombies wearing hardhats and other evidence of having once been workers there.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
It's only when there's some chatter from the others that Mary Jane does, in fact, realize that it's Tony. She would 'huh' lightly and then go to take the suggestion that had been given of 'optimize' and get what seemed like more gibberish over her newbie level character. But there were far fewer red - signs so that had to be better.

"I think I might end up having a few bites taken out of me." She would quip. "So go easy on me, it's my first time."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    The voice coming from new girl sure sounds like Tony but that's not something to ask a player you just met. She will just say, "I'll use pronouns for your avatar unless you ask for otherwise. Also keep up the puns Cat. Games like this are made to be served bad humor and onliners." She makes sure to ready up for the mission they agreed on as she checks her own gear. She his heard laughing in reply to Gabby's antics. "I'm sure if we work together was can /Buzz/ right through the dead heads." Mercy takes a moment to open her storage, drops out some grenades and grabs a few extra packs of for healing. "Just call out if you're bit StabyLady. I'll do my best to offer support from the main group and call out what I see. If I give a wrong direction, sorry. Sometimes headphones mess with my hearing."

Sally Pride has posed:
That explains the 'heard on TV' familiarity of the voice. "Well, if Tony Stark whats to play pretendy funtime games slaughtering zombies as a girl, who's going to tell him no?" It's Tony Freakin Stark. No one. Even if the guy in the flag uniform might try to.

Cue salute emote at being told to keep up the puns. "I'll try to not go against the grain, but woodn't make any promises."

The level is loading. And the zombies are wearing hardhats. "A lot of good helmets do if you're already dead... other than a resistance to head shots, maybe. Aim for center mass."

Off-mic she snorts to herself in amusement. Zombie overrun industrial death trap... still safer than most Null laboratories.

Tony Stark has posed:
As he tries to figure out what is going on in the game, Tony chuckles as he hears his name mentioned. "If it is, I hope they paid the licensing fee!"

The welding of the portion of the bridge settles into place as they prepare to move out in the game. "Where are these zombies?" he asks as Iron Man whoooooshes around to another section of bridge.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
They asked for zombies? They're certainly getting them now. The sawmill is massive and situated alongside a large expansive river which was partially blocked by old logs that had been floated downstream for use. It had jammed up the log chute and spilled over into the river creating a poor excuse for a dam. Some had even upended again rising into the air dangerously. All of them had clogged up and broken the walkway that led to the other side of the river where a barge was docked still ready for a later use that had never come. All of this was IF they got past the mill and zombies themselves who had now realized there were people here.

Some had lost limbs, likely to the saws that had been running once upon a time. It didn't stop them now. Armless or with gaping wounds they shuffle around the entrance and meander down the path that the others were suddenly on. A loud SKREEeaaAAAAHHHH of one of them alerts the others to the fresh meat that had arrived.

"There they are!" Badger assures the questionable Tony/Friday who had asked the question. Unsheathing a few knives the grizzled avatar runs forward to start slashing at the one that had alerted the others before it does further damage.

Hard hat wearing, damage taken, the mob starts to run. These weren't slow zombies, or at least not all of them were.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "Hey everyone needs hobbies right, Cat? The helmets are also to warn us of falling damage. I think logs can be triggered to fall on them, OR us." She gets ready to move on out.
     She moves to cover the flank opposite Badger. "I watch left side as best I can, Badger. Tell you what. I give you a batch of your fav chocolate chunk cookies if we do this run with no total losses." She uses a few quick bursts of fire to try and slow the advance at the zombies.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
This is going to be fun! Mary Jane's 'avatar' goes to glance over the sawmill, "Uh, how's this game for environmental effects?" The lardy and poorly specced 'tank' goes to head over towards the sawblades, attempting to draw the various zombies into chasing her.

Her character has pulled out a baseball bat that is waving around in a circle as she attempts to do a few spins to knock anything away close to her.. Her itnent is to just draw the things to chase her.

Sally Pride has posed:
Oh, the level is starting in earnes now. And noisily. Time for the fun to begin.

Mercy goes left, so 'Cat' goes to the right. Positioning herself so she can open fire on the horde as it tries to swarm towards them, but not crossing her line of fire with the people that are going for melee combat. "Saturation fire comin' hot!" But at least the ones that do manage to run through the spread of shotgun fire will have a few hits on them and easier to finish off. "Keep them from spreadin' to the sides to surround us!"

Tony Stark has posed:
The raver girl runs at the zombies until they start to run at her, and then she turns around and starts running back towards the group. "Fast zombies. What will they think of next." murmurs Tony Stark as his avatar races away from them.

"Next time mention that in your briefing, Badger," he calls out, a bit more direct and louder than his mutter.

In reality, the suit has lined up another section to patch, and Tony settles in to let it do the work while he turns his attention back to the game.

"I mean, you get an A for effort and A+ for generosity, but a solid C for squad commanding." FridayIminLuv misses a jump to safety and plummets down towards the water. Hopefully she can respawn somewhere.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Hey to be fair I save squad commanding for the real world. Usually I don't get much time for it. I'm thrown at things and told 'get it!' Besides this is no where near as bad as a giant cthulu goose," Gabby shoots back. Odd remark that, but. Okay.

"Environmental effects are pretty good. Game devs based these off real world locations. So... Breifing then." She probably should have after all, there were two newbies to begin with. Oops.

"There's three main types of zombies in game. The runners are athletic. Then there's the slower, larger ones that are heavy hitters. And the third and final ones are variations on 'smart' ones. They're the scouts that alert others to targets. If they're missing eyes, they can hear you. If they have eyes, movement triggers them. And if they're missing the top half of their heads and their jaw is the only thing left with their tongue hanging out? They can taste your sweat in the air so you can't really hide from those. That one can't bite you at least but their saliva has kind of an acid attack effect that erodes your health over time and lures in other to your location."

"So if you see any of those, take them out ASAP to try and avoid a swarm. And watch out for the environment, too, places like these usually have damaged electric wires and with water nearby that could be bad, depending how mean the devs were being."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "Maybe you should have gone with BashySmash Lady," as Mercy focuses on the strays that don't fall for the tank's taunts and pulls. "Just let us know if it's getting too much Cat. I got this side." She keeps her fire into focused bursts. "Got to love no real kick back on guns." She sees Friday running back their way, "Let's see you got smart zombies, strong zombies, magic zombies, powered zombies, and more." Also, she thinks, the snark sure sounds like the guy on those press conferences. "Oh. People we're in a giant fire place for a battle zone. Let's mind any actual fire weapons." Mercy also makes sure to add for Gabby's benefit. "Smart ones can 'run' for help on some situations. SO if you see a retreating zombie, bag it fast. That's how this game likes to swarm you with numbers."
    Mercy's gun is barking more often and for longer. "Reloading," she calls out as she goes to slap in a new magazine. "Firing. Also this game still needs full VR support. Not that I have one." Hell it may even give her motion sickness.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
What the game devs do can't be possibly worse than the ones in real life. And so, Mary Jane's player character goes tos pina bout. "I think I have my keyboard controls mixed up.." She goes to swear a few more times as she ends up going with what was her original intent.

The sound of her cussing in an unknown language would be accompanied by her character doing short 'hops' along as they would be chased.. Her ending up darting /through/ the woodchippers going on by total mistake, somehow aggro'ing everythign to pursue her!

Tony Stark has posed:
"Wait, there is no VR support?" The voice of the man behind FridayImInLuv seems a bit surprised. "Wow, I guess I am better at interpolating than I thought."

"That was all me, boss," chimes in Friday. The welding of the last piece is complete, as Tony nods contentedly.

"So, avoid the deformed ones. Run around the fast ones. Got it."

FridayImInLuv starts navigating back to join the group, while Iron Man starts to fly away from the bridge, the blast of his repulsors audible as he narrates his understanding of strategy.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Thankfully those who fall off bridges, or other areas, respawn easily. It doesn't count against their 'zombie fatality' rate but it does give an uptick in their 'Death By Oopsie' count which is mostly just there for the number types who like to keep track of everything.

When Stabby starts to spin around mentioning she's having issues with controls, Badger veers off to act as a bodyguard till she resolves the situation. "Oh no you don't, I got promised double chocolate chip and you are not gonna just stand here and get eaten."

The male voice over her headset picks up again. "Speaking of eating, dinner is almost ready. You know if you don't eat yours I'm going to eat it all." Gabby winces, "I'll be there, I promise just this isn't a pausable moment! Bunny, save me some!" she pleads.

A few of the faster zombies rush at Friday. One that was coming for Stabby gets bashed with the wild swing of the baseball back which has a kick-back to enemy bonus so it's sent toppling over the river edge. Badger takes out a few to help thin things out from their tank.

The ones that Mercy/Chaos is shooting? They explode in little clouds of highly rendered pixel blood that... well. It probably looked pretty vivid on Tony's screen but it was already pretty realistic to begin with.

"Yeah no VR support. Apparently it's partially coded in but there was a falling out with devs before release and the guy working on that part bailed. They've not really been able to figure out what he was doing since and are trying to integrate it from scratch. For a two person dev team, I mean, could be worse."

Sally Pride has posed:
"It actually took me a bit to adjust to aiming with -not- having kickback," Cat admits. She must handle real guns on a regular basis if that was a matter. Doesn't seem to be an issue now, as other than the pauses for reloading animations she's firing nearly non-stop.

One of the mostly headless 'smart' zombies comes bounding in from the side abruptly, on a course to pelt the party with it's D-O-T acid and lure saliva effects. It's the zombie equivilent of a flanking setup... that goes very bad for the zombie instead as Cat steps in to intercept it. A few shotgun rounds to stagger it, and then she steps up and engages the secondary close-quarters attack the shotgun weapon has. Which is to muzzle whip the zombie to knock it to the ground, then pointblank fire repeatedly until it's deader than it was dead before being reanimated.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
CrazeeStabLady814_ is not doing quite well in this game as she would wheedle along, the swearing petering out a few moments later as she would end up pinned over against the wall. Her flailings of the bat do little to nothing as she's cornered.. And then her avatar goes down, consumed by the rage of bitings.

"Well, guess I'm out unless you respawn in the same match." She wouldn't sound that upset.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "What language is that, I can't even guess the root of that." Mercy normally has a better ear for tongues too. "If you need time we'll circle up on Staby and give the Lady a chance to sort it."
    "Even if they did have it Friday," says ChaosSpanner, "I doubt I could afford it and not break my house. Besides I got cookies baking. This food talk is going to make me hungry." ChaosSpanner looks over at Cat, "Yeah. Games see to have to schools of thought. Instant bullet regardless of travel time and more realistic ballistics. I prefer this one with the more real aim. But at least you don't have cordite burning your nose in a game." She grins and says, "Reloading again."

Tony Stark has posed:
"I see the potential. Friday, research this company please." Iron Man continues on his high speed flight back to New York as Tony tries to navigate FridayImInLuv around the horde of zombies.

"Shouldn't be too hard to implement VR, the graphics seem to be of decent enough resolution. Might need to downscale though." While the avatar fires away at zombies, its player seems to be firing away at details about the game itself.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
That would get an 'uhh' from the redhead waiting for her character to respawn, "Long.. Story! I just kind of learned it randomly from a book. I think I'm messing it up." Very, very cautiuos there. "I can swear in American if that's easier?" Mary Jane would deadpan.

"I don't quite think I'm cut out for the frustration levels these things have." THen her character is going to respawn..

Right in the midst of the latest horde of zombies. "Guh!" Swearing again. Different language.

Sally Pride has posed:
"Have you ever smelled napalm?" Cat replies. "Whoever it was that said they love the smell of it in the morning clearly never whiffed the real thing. Reloading." Then after a moment she resumes firing behind the group. "I'll keep the rear covered. Go find the objective for the level. Yippe ka ya motherfu--" The rest of the quote is conveniently drowned out by the repeat shotgun fire.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
    "I should really try and see how I respond to VR. For all I know the sensory thing may mess with me, Friday." She is reloaded and Mercy spies one of the bigger zombies and just begins to focus fire on it and cuts down at them. "Oh. By the way the big guys that are getting ready to charge. You can sometimes stagger them if you focus on the knees. Slow the down. It's a gamble though because it won't always work." The avatar with the long black braid shakes her head, "It's fine. I'm just a history fan and was curious. Didn't recognize it and I got some o-l-d friends is all." Her gun clicks empty, "Tank down. Reloading. Could use a bit of assit left flank with the strays please." She wrinkles her nose and her mic picks up the sniff snort. "God no. But I have had the 'pleasure' of being involved in a fire more then once. Can't be worse the some other things I had to inhale though. They don't make bleach for your nose. Well they do, it just can kill you." She points. "There's the gate button we need. Pop that and we can rush for the exit!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The slightest sound of chewing can be heard but thankfully there was enough gunfire and zombie groaning noises to hide it. Whatever bite Gaby had taken is gulped down so she can speak again. "I've not done VR... er. Does solid state holographic projection count? Probably not quite the same," she mumbles thoughtfully. "But yeah," she has to agree with Mercy/Chaos, "The senses thing may be weird. I adapt quick at least. And no napalm does not smell good, nor does cordite or many other things. Do not recommend."

There's a thoughtful quiet from the constantly chattering one a moment. Then, "I think we probably have a very interesting mix of people playing tonight. It's cool. Oh, and if you see Cap tell him 'Lucky's kid says hi', would you? I haven't seen him since his birthday bash."

"But if you get this set up in VR heck yeah I'm up for playing it more so... uh. Awesome." Just what do you say to someone who may be buying and improving the game company for the game you've been playing for over two years? Thanks? "We'll send you some cookies."

The gate button is hit which opens up the flood gates, sending water througha nd flushing out the zombies leaving the area free and clear. A screen flashes up saying 'area cleared' and gives the stats of everyone involved. Mission accomplished.