A Quest for a New World

Act 1: Starting the Game

Once the game finishes installing for both discs, you go and get onto Pesterchum so you can message your friends...

Just kidding!!

You are now Asher. You sit on your bed in your room, your laptop in your lap. You had medium length, black spiked up hair, and dull grey eyes. You would've been totally monochrome, had it not been for your light, freckled skin. Thank heavens for that. You had a tendency to yell and get angry a lot, but you seemed to be getting better at that. You also may or may not have a crush on a certain Diamond Rose, but it's uncertain as to whether or not it's actually true.

Speaking of... Said Diamond Rose just sent a message to all of your friends on Pesterchum. Gotta go see what she wants.

diamondRose [DR] created group "Best Friends Group" and invited rottenNightfury [RN], sunblastBubbleberry [SB], and chocolateWinter [CW] to join

Huh. A group chat. You forgot Pesterchum could do that, sometimes. Gotta accept it. It's the easiest way to talk to all of your friends at once.

rottenNightfury [RN] accepted the invitation and started pestering the group "Best Friends Group"

RN: HEYA!!
RN: What's up?
DR: Glad you could accept the invitation.
DR: I figured that with a group chat, we could speak with all of us more easily.
RN: Yeah, I thought that, too. It's why I accepted.

sunblastBubbleberry [SB] accepted the invitation and started pestering the group "Best Friends Group"

SB: Hiii!!
RN: Sup, SB?
SB: Oop-
SB: It's Mr. Loud Man
RN: HEY!! STOP IT WITH THE NICKNAME!!
SB: Lol, I was jk. I told u tht I'd stop a while ago, didn't I?
RN: Yea... Only to keep doing it....
SB: Yea, yea... Well, now I'm fr.
SB: I mean it, this time.
RN: YOU BETTER!
RN: You'll have Marie and CW to back you up on that.
SB: I kno
SB: No need 2 remind me tht this is a group
RN: Good!
SB: Speaking of... Where IS CW??
DR: Probably baking some more cookies or trying a new recipe.

chocolateWinter [CW] accepted the invitation and started pestering the group "Best Friends Group"

CW: Ah, gee... Seems I'm the last one to join.... 😕
SB: There he is!! The man of the hour!!
RN: THERE YOU ARE!!
RN: We were wondering where you were.
DR: Hello, CW
CW: Aww, at least I got a nice, warm welcome. 😊
DR: Of course.
DR: Anyways, we have matter to discuss.
DR: Or rather, be reminded of.
RN: We finally gonna start the game??
DR: Yes. But we need to make sure we remember who's hosting who.
SB: O! I remember!!
SB: I was hosting CW.
CW: And I believe I'm hosting RN... 😥
RN: Aw, CW. No need to be scared, or anything!! Not like something can go wrong with you hosting me, or something.
CW: Except that it can... 😓
RN: Just don't overthink it, and you'll be fine.
DR: Guys, please, stay on topic. I understand that you're concerned, CW, but there isn't a need to be.
DR: Even if you did make a mistake, I'm sure Asher would be happy to forgive you.
CW: You're right... Thanks, DR. 😥
DR: No problem. Anyways, I believe that I was hosting SB.
RN: Which left me hosting you, Marie.

You'd forgotten about that. You felt her cheeks heat up a little at the thought of getting to see her in her room, again. You hadn't done so ever since you all had gone over for her birthday party last year. Man those were fun times... But you can't get distracted, now! Your friends seemed to have changed the topic. Or, at least are further into discussing something else.

SB: So, after we all have the game up and running, we'll just start playing, right?
DR: Yes, that's basically it.
SB: Alright, cool. Might as well go boot up my game, then. Lol
CW: I'll do the same, in a bit. I just remembered that mom went shopping recently, and had gotten the ingredients for a recipe I've been wanting to try... Gotta use them before they go bad. 😅
DR: Okay. You do that, CW. The rest of us should start playing and get used to the mechanics, and such.
RN: GREAT THINKING!!
RN: I'll go boot up my game, right now. See you in a bit!!

rottenNightfury [RN] stopped pestering the group "Best Friends Group"

Well, now that that's over with, might as well go and boot up the game, now. You go to open it, and you wait a bit for it to load in. Once it does, you fist see two menu windows pop up, labelled "Host" and "Client" respectively. On the menus are the names of your friends' chumhandles. Might as well get this part set up. You first select chocolateWinter on the Client menu. Afterwards, it tells you to wait for the respective Host to connect with you. Instead of waiting, though, you decide you click on diamondRose on the Host menu. Surprisingly, instead of waiting, you connect almost immediately. A window open up that's focused on Marie's room. You can see her sitting at her desk, messaging on Pesterchum with her laptop. You take a few moments to admire how clean her room is. You always admired how neat and organized she seemed... It was better than your messy room and cluttered backpack. But that wasn't what we were focusing on. You've gotta test out some of the mechanics so you know what everything does. You looked around the screen, but mostly at the menu at the top. You drag your cursor over each item at the top to see which option does what.

Turns out, you don't have to do that. The buttons are labelled right above each of the options. Well, at least that makes things easier. Now let's see what we can do...

[Move] [Revise] [Deploy] [Phernalia Registry] [Grist Cache] [Atheneum] [Alchemize]

Interesting... You have zero idea what the Grist Cache is, or what Atheneum means, or even what the Phernalia Registry was. Guess you'll have to experiment a little... But first, you'll mess around with the basic stuff you did know. You select the Move option and you go to pick up and move something. You pick up the suitcase in the middle of her room and you move it onto her bed. You then notice her look over before getting up to go investigate. You silently chuckle as you watched her before experimenting some more. You moved your viewpoint around her her house, and you even got the hang of zooming in and out pretty quickly. Overall, her house was really neat and organized. You wonder if that's just how she was brought up. You go back up to her room and you pick the Phernalia Registry to see what that's all about. There are quite a few things that could be deployed, but the majority of them cost too much Build Grist. The one thing that could be deployed was the Cruxtruder. Curious to see what it does, you click on it, only to quickly find out that it is quite large. It was going to be hard to place down, somewhere. Eventually, you find a good spot, somewhere outside in her yard. Well you might as well place it down here, since you might not be able to find somewhere else to place it. You place it down with a huge "THUNK!" You're widen, and soon after, you get a message on Pesterchum. Oh boy... You open up the Pesterchum window and you see who messaged you. It was who you'd expected it to be. Well, gotta answer her.

diamondRose [DR] started pestering rottenNightfury [RN]

DR: What did you put in my yard??
RN: I don't really know myself...
RN: Something called a Cruxtruder?
DR: What's it do?
RN: I DON'T KNOW!
RN: I just set it down because it was free to deploy.
RN: Everything else cost too much Build Grist.
DR: Build Grist?
DR: Is that some kind of in-game currency?
RN: I think so
DR: Then how do we get more?
RN: I don't know. Maybe we should get more people in or just experiment with the Cruxtruder?
RN: Try and figure out what that does.
DR: That sounds like a good idea.
DR: I'll be connecting with SB soon.
RN: Alright. I'll try and see what the Cruxtruder does.
DR: Alright.
DR: Good luck, Asher.
RN: Thanks, Marie.

diamondRose [DR] stopped pestering rottenNightfury [RN]

You go back to the game window, and you examine the Cruxtruder. Oh boy... This might be harder than you thought... Might as well start experimenting.