Fantasy town, Break down

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David puts on his roleplaying gear for his sixth session of adventuring. He was one of few fellas who were invited to test out the latest in ‘real-life gaming’ technologies. Each test took place inside a couple of large simulation rooms, with intertangible props and NPCs that could be easily changed for when the player entered a new area in the test game’s basic story.

Of course, as this was an early test build, there were plenty of kinks that were very apparent from time to time. Props that aren’t supposed to be in the player’s current area. Overlapping audio from both static ambiance and certain NPCs. Some enemy NPCs from other zones, having been put in places of friendly ones, while also having been loaded with said friendlies’s A.i scripts. And many, many soft locks of plenty of quests…

But hey, that’s what David is there for, to find these things so they can get patched!.

Once done dawning his hero persona, he steps over to the segmented door, which, upon his approach, slides up to give him entry into the sim-room, and enters into a bright and sunny world of wonder.

Inside, he finds himself to be standing at the ‘outskirts’ of a small town, which is bustling with activity from the various kinds of animal and non-animal people inhabiting this place. The ‘town’ he ended his last session in due to a major bug involving one of the NPC animatronics.

Looking back from where he came, he sees the door slide down, before becoming one with the screen of a fake background of an expanding road between grassy fields and hills and forests galore…

“Okay…” He breathes, and turns back to the town. Lifting up a few parts of his costume that sat a bit too tight, before patting down his arms. “Time to put on my A-game!” He optimistically said to himself, and marched on his merry way into town.

Wandering through the timid streets of dirt and cobblestone, David passes a plethora of characters of colorful types. A few kids, a duck, a cat, and a weasel, running around playing catch. A game that would never reach an end as they would continuously run around in the same set path, laughing the same string of childish laughs on repeat every 20 seconds.

A fat alligator chef clothed in your stereotypical chef outfit, standing in their open kitchen and performing a spectacular cooking performance. Just like the kids, they too would commence this static ‘animation’ again a few seconds after it had concluded, and would only stop once David were to walk over and interact with ‘em.

An old owl sitting on a bench and dropping bread crumbs to a group of ‘pigeons’, and looking merry about the act. The studio has done a fantastic job with all the animatronics, David couldn't lie. But by god, did they even try to make the pigeons at least somewhat more believable?. They looked like a fusion between a roomba, and a fat version of those wooden stick birds that would dip their beak in a glass of water now and again. But instead of water, they would suck up crumbs through a barely hidden tube inside their perpetually open beaks.

David dismissed this little thing… again. It was still in early testing afterall, so he assumes they’ll give them a glow-up upon the release of this new tech experience… Atleast, he hopes they will. Or if anything, making it a minor settings option for players that wish for a more sillier experience.

But David wasn’t there to admire the scenery, he already did that for the first 30 minutes he got to play the game. No, he was on his way to get a new quest from the tinkering bunny girl Jessica.

Jessica is your generic go-to quest giver of any RPG, and she unfortunately was also one of the annoying versions from that role. Constantly chatting about things that never hooked David, or at times really trying to make themself sound like a deep and interesting character… Which they, in fact, were not. Which only hurt him more, as he has a thing for tomboys like her, who has a bit of muscle to ‘em.

After a while, he arrives at the chatter-mouth bunny’s forge. Looking inside the open forge, he sees the rabbit ‘working’ on some weird device of unknown make. A device, which has been in this exact same state of disrepair for the last few trips here…

He waited… And waited…… And waited a bit more… Staring a hole into the back of the oblivious rabbit’s skull, as they just started repeating their repair animation.

“Tsk… Don’t you say you're bugged again!” He groaned. On top of her being annoying dialog wise, she was also annoying gameplay wise a fair bit of the time!. He took it up with the developers each time she bugged, and they were equally annoyed while also very perplexed at the rabbit doll’s inability to work right. The best patch they could dish out at this time was the equivalent of ‘turning it off and on’, as to make her notice him he had to step back a few steps and then walk forward again, so her motion sensors would properly detect his presence…

And it worked, as Jessica Freezes up in her current action, one ear twitching a little, before turning to the adventurer with a smile. “Ahh! Hey there, hero! Back from my last errand aye?” She remarked, and walked on over to him with a hop in her step. “Hope you gave them good-for-nothing Gobos a right whooping!” She said, and made mock punching motion to emphasize her point.

“Mah!, it wasn’t too hard to deal with them to be frank” He admitted.

The rabbit paused for a second, before continuing. “Hahaha! Good work either way, hero! With them gone, the town is gonna be just a bit safer then before!” She happily exclaimed, and then entered another awkward bout of silence, before starting again. “Here’s your reward for a work well done!” She blurted out, and held forth a leather pouch clinking with coin.

“Sweet~” David said, and took the pouch without hesitation. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have another quest right now, do ya?” He inquired, while juggling the bag up and down in his hand.

Again, Jessica freezes, her face going blank for a moment, as green lights blinks in her pupils, before finally responding with a happy look. “Hey hero! Thanks again for taking care of them good-for-nothing gobos! I’ve got another errand for ya that involves a gang of gnolls who’s set up shop down along the northern road to town… Can you go and sort them out?”

David pondered. During his overall playtime, he had yet to encounter gnolls… But they shouldn’t be harder to deal with then goblins, so this should be easy as pie. “Sure, i can do that…”

“Super! Then get your sweet butt moving and kick some Gnoll bu-*Bleep-Bleup* Error!” She blurted out, as her movements halted all together. “E-E-Error! Ejecting!" *Bzz-eet* a round portion with the same diameter of a soda can, ejects out from the side of her head as a cylinder, and said cylinder held what appeared to be a few ram sticks and computing chips. Jessica herself had now gone completely blank, with her mouth hanging open and staring dumbly at David’s chest.

David was, to put it simply, surprised at the sodden turn of events. “...Well… That’s a new one…” He said out loud. Rummaging through his pocket, he procures a phone with a direct line to the devs and engineers of the project, and dials up one of the available engies.

• Click* “Yaa-lloo…”

“Hey, it’s David again. Erm, one of the NPCs have gone broke again in my sim…”

“A you fucking with me, again? Really?”

“I’m afraid so, pal…”

“For fuck sake… What’s the details”

“Pff! Hell if i know what happened! I just asked about another quest, I accepted the new quest, and then they broke afterwards!…” He recounted to the techie.

• Inhale* *Sigh…* “Go bugger all… Anything else worth of note?”

“Well… Some cylinder with chips and shit ejected out the side of her head”

“The Mainframe core?”

David looks at the presumed core, then back at the phone… Then back at the core again, and subsequently the phone once more. “...I GuEeEssSsSs???” He ‘affirmed’ with uncertainty in his voice.

“Okay, if that’s the only thing that seems to be the ‘problem’, all you have to do is press and hold the little red button where the word ‘res’ is plastered over it, for five seconds until you hear a beep. Then, you gently push the core back inside without any interruption, and… What NPC model was it now?” The engie informed, before asking for the animatronic in question.

“Jessica, the tinker rabbit with a motor mouth…”

“Aahhh!, THAT stupid bitch, gotcha, gotcha… Yeah, once you get the core in order just pull up on both her ears at once and take a few steps back, and then she should be working again” He finished with a more understanding tone once he learned what model it was that broke down. “You got all that?”

David looked back up at Jessica, who still looked like they were missing their brain. “...Eeehh, I think i can handle it, thanks for the help”

“No prob mate! Just call again if it all catches fire, hahahaha!” *Click* *Bwup-Bwup-Bwup*

• Groan* “Fucking terreific… Bah! Whatever! The worst thing that can happen is the session getting cut short because of a fatal error or some shit…” David rumbled as he approached Jessica.

Doing exactly as he was told, he finds the red button and holds it for the five seconds… *Beep!* Good… Now he just had to carefully push it… Oh, goddamn it! It’s stuck on something. Pulling it back, he tries to wiggle the cylinder a bit before pushing it back in, but again something blocks it from going further then half-way… ‘Okay… So what if i just add a bit mor-’ *Snap* “Oh shit…” He cursed, as on one hand, it now slides in fine, but on the other… that did NOT sound like the good kind of snap…

“Bah!, maybe it’s nothing to be concerned about…” He told himself, hoping that was gonna be the truth, and reached over the inactive rabbit’s head to grab hold of her long ears. “Alright, so now i had to pull on these and…” *Tick* *Bweep-Bweep!*

A light tuck of the fluffy ears was all it took for Jessica to stirr to life once again. David stands back as the rabbit stands up straight. Their pupils blinking blue a few times, then green, before blinking their eyes a few times, and then turn to David with a stoic, emotionless look. A couple of awkward seconds later, her face turns chipper again as she starts to talk.

“Hey there, H-Hero! Thanks again fo-for taking care of those good-for-nothing G-Gobos! You are a-a-a real lifesaaaver~!” She peeped with a smile. One eye twitching a little…

Ooo-kaaayyyy… Something was definitely wrong. But so far nothing else seemed to be wrong, aside from the stutter.

“Erm… Yeah! Heh heh, Happy to help!. Anyways, I heard you had another quest for me?”

She went rigid again, eyes going wide and blinking a few color, before becoming relaxed again. “I-I- I dooo-o! There’s a- Gnolls set up at- Band of Gobos have beeeeee- Here’s a map! map! map! map! MAP!!” She spiked at the end, while holding out her right hand with the palm turned up, as a coin sized hatch in said palm opened, and a rolled up map shoots out, floats for a sec, and then lands down by David’s feet. Jessica, having not noticed the map landing on the floor, clenched their hand like they were holding a map, showing off their delayed response to the launched map, as she kept up the happy smile, while her right eye kept on twitching.

“...Eeerrm… You dropped-” Before he could finish that sentence did the rabbit cut him off.

“Ple-Ple-Please hurry-ry He-HeHEROOOO-Al9haDe7tabrabra7d7f83jd_3-You needneedneed a weapoooo-on i-i-i-i sesesesese- One [Weapon] Coming right Coming right Cooooo-miiiiing right uuuuuu-Tzzt- Error…” She glitched, and started to walk back into her forge.

At first she was headed for the furnace, but then she stopped and went rigid “YouYouYouYou Need aaaaaaa trinktrink-trinkeeee-et aye?- ?eya. Oneoneoneoneoneonoenoeno trin[Intem name not found] comming Riiiiiiiiii-ht up!up!up!up!up!up!” She blurted, and changed her trajectory to the workbench.

But once again, she goes rigid. “Weapon-Weapon-[WEAPON]-nopaeWnopaeW Need you you neED yEs yes YeS wEapon- need coomiing rightrightright up-up-up! Coming- right- Hey. HeroHeroHeroHe-” And then she turned back towards the furnace, only to then repeat the same thing, and again, and again, and again…

David began to lightly panic, as he didn’t know what to do. He could try and yell the kill command, but last time he tried that on one of these dumb dolls, one of them almost knocked his lights out during their flailing. So all he could do was watch as the rabbit continuously changed her priority, while her situation worsened.

At one point, her overalls gets caught on a piece of metal, halting her dead in her tracks as she slings forward and then back again. Yet, she looked none bothered about it whatsoever, only stating “Error, collision detected-ed. Adding force… Error, collision deee-tected. Adding force… Error, collision detec-ted-Ted. Adding for-*RIIIIIIP!!*” Finally, the overalls gave up the ghost, and was promptly ripped off her body. Leaving the rabbit tinkerer in all her naked glory…

Well, there wasn't actually anything there to begin with, so it’s more accurate to say she was as naked as a ‘barbi doll’ was when unclothed. The whole sim was meant to be published as a thing for all ages, so it would be a real PR nightmare if kids were to be exposed to ‘adult’ animatronics by sheer accident.

Anyways, Jessica, upon ripping herself free, gets tripped up by the pants, and slams her head on a stool on her way to the ground, and lands with a heavy thud.

David hissed upon seeing that. ‘Yeah… Something must’ve definitely broke in there, now…’ He thought.

And sure enough, Jessica began to slowly vibrate on the floor. Her ears dialing this way and that in static motions, her arms trying to push down but then forgetting what they were doing and slide up along the floor, before then sliding back down again to try and push their owner up again, and then forgets about it again. Her legs, awkwardly tries to keep walking her forward, even with the earth standing in the way of that notion, as knees and toes repeatedly thuds against the ground with no end in sight. And during all of that, she was running her mouth like mad. Old and new lines that she was programed with, melted together into utter word-vomit, as David could barely make out half the shit she rambled on about.

Without warning, her arms finally got their shit together, and she all but flew right back up on her feet. Her arms and head twitching like an overdosed junkie, while still looking chipper as ever, with the exception of both her eyes now twitching in waves.

“Hi-Hi-Hii-Iiieerrr- Heeee-Jess-Jess-Yess, wellcoooooo- towntoWnToWnnwottOwn-Gobos haaaa- down the r-r-road aaaaa- Ohohohohohohohohooo- missssss Anny-Anny-AAAAnny have lost-LosT-LOSt-lOsT heeeeeerrrrrr-Error-Error-ErrorerrorerrorerrorerrorERRO-*Buff!*”

David steps back, as Jessica’ head lights aflame. Yet, even when her face was actively being immolated, she refused to acknowledge this fact, and kept looking at David like nothing was happening. Even as her fake skin and fur began to darken and melt off of her head, exposing the animatronic skull underneath, and circuits shorted out and sparked every so second. She did not bat an eye… In fact, one of them had just slid out of it’s socket, and now hang by a wire down her cheek.

“HaY-hAy-Aaa-Haaayyy->A7-yyyyyy Heeee-Rooooooooo… Got-gOt-GoT-gooooo-qUUUU-QuESsssss-eSt-t-t-t FOOOOooooorrrrr…. YYOOoooooouuuuuuuu….” Her corrupted voice droned out, before ending with a ‘Pzzt!’ and a pop, as her voicebox gave out from the flames eating at her exposed hardware. Her head slumping forward, as a few, still burning pieces of fake fur and skin, flakes off and splinters to the stone-y ground.

David, shocked to see the burning visage of Jessica, was snapped out of his stupor when the sim abruptly ended. The dome that broadcasted the sky and background, shuts off for a few seconds, which plunges the room into total darkness, before coming back on white. All the NPCs in town fell still and limp as their scripts got halted by the emergency alert, and some even fell over thanks to the awkward poses they were halted in. Shortly after, over from where David had entered, the wall door slides open, as a handful of engineers streams in and hastily heads their way into town, with tools under their arms and a fire extinguisher ready for action.

Seeing them storming in from around the corner of one of the prop buildings, waves at them that he was over here. And once they noticed and ran his way, he took it as his Q to just leave and let them handle this mess…

*Sigh* “They’ve still got a loooong way to go before this mess is even playable…” He sighed on his way out, the engineers speeding past him as he walked away, and began spraying the burning rabbit down with powder.

[The End]

[Thanks for reading!]