5318/Concord: Link Start

Concord: Link Start
Date of Scene:	16 June 2017
Location:	Elysium Apex
Synopsis:	After mentioning the possibility of setting up VR training simulations, Staren finds some of his allies unfamiliar with the concept and decides to teach them about FullDive.
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 278, Count Kord, Tomoe, 1103

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Staren has posed:
    Staren has booked a conference room in the Apex -- Everyone who signed up is sent a card with the time and place, and those from outside the Concord are sent guest passes.

    The conference room has had the table and chairs removed and replaced with comfy chairs you can lean back in. Staren paces at the front of the room. In one corner is a small computer tower with blinkenlights on it, connected to a few NerveGears resting on a table next to it. He greets people as they show up somewhat informally, ready to answer questions but waiting for everyone to show up before diving into things, so to speak.

Bramble Patch (278) has posed:
"Still don't know how I got wrangled into this," Bramble Patch grumbles, mostly to herself, as the mad gardener of Everfree trots into the reserved room. Pauses to look around, but it doesn't really look any different from any other meeting room from what she can tell. "Are you sure this is the right room?" Cupel sits up on her head, chittering in squirrel as he waves the card a few times. "Yeah yeah, fine. Let's just get this eggheaded stuff over with."

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord shows up in some old-timey white button-up shirt and brown pants, with thick brown gloves, his Yveltal-like tail wiggling behind him in tune with his gait. He looks like a statuesque Romanian/Japanese man with bright red hair, a strong jaw, light and erratic stubble and eerie inhuman eyes. His normally wild hair is tied back with a few black bands to keep it out of the way. He cuts an imposing figure, but the very calm and measured approach he has does not even seem military. Just neutral.
    He slides into a seat and clasps his hands in his lap, looking toward Staren with total silence.

Tomoe has posed:
There's a woman maybe in her early twenties with Staren she's got long red hair which is tied back she's weaing fairly conseratve outfit. Pant,s runners, a sporty top with a hood. she's also got green eyes and seems to be looking over everyone but the question is /whom/ is she? She ssems to be in good spirit. She seems to know Kord smehow by how he looks at him for a moment nd give him a nod. She looks over to Bramble and then to Staren but just leans back in her chair for the moment.

She pauses for a moment to pull out a smart phone check something then pocket hte device.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    There's a woman here. She may be familiar to some, if not by her look, than by the aura of intensity and madness that surrounds her. Blue hair and blue eyes, clad in a white coat-dress. She wanders on in, and doffs her hat to Staren and the others. "The Mad Magician, has arrived." she says, flourishing a bow before straightening up.

Staren has posed:
    'Are you sure this is the right room', Bramble asks. Staren looks at her, a bit astonished. "...I'm here, how could it /not/ be the right room?"

    Staren blinks at the sight of Kord in meeting attire. Somehow he expected something... more medieval. He nods to each of the arrivals.

    He claps his hands together once they're sat down. "Well!" He begins to pace. "Welcome everyone! The objective of this meeting is twofold... err, three-fold: First, to explain the idea of fully-immersive virtual reality to those unfamiliar with it, second, to give you a chance to experience it, and thirdly, to discuss how it might be useful for training purposes."

    He stops briefly. "So, um. The idea. It'd help if you were already familiar with videogames, but you're not, so why even mention them. Um. One of the many uses of computers," he waves a hand at the box with the blinkenlights, "is to simulate worlds, at various degrees of accuracy. There are scientific and engineering purposes, like calculating the strain on various parts of a new building design before you build it, or entertainment purposes. Take, say, a board or card game. If you can represent the state of the game -- the positions of cards or pieces -- as numbers, the computer can model it."

    "This in turn makes new games possible. Board games usually apply the rules in 'turns', but a computer can do it in a fraction of a second, making new kinds of games possible. A little guy on a screen jumps over obstacles on your command, you don't have to know the physics -- you just get a feel for how he moves. Thus, the video game. Virtual Reality is built on these concepts, with the addition of a revolutionary input and output method. Um... everyone following so far?" He looks around hopefully and a bit nervously. Not actually used to presenting.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    "This sounds much like my entire state of existance. I am a program from within a computer system." Theurgus says at the presentation, arms folding over her chest. "Alea is also the DCC of Arcade, and she controls a whole host of interactive entertainments. I am familiar with the concept, even if others here are not."

Bramble Patch (278) has posed:
Bramble Patch emits a snort as she climbs up into a chair. "Don't get condensending, nerd boy. Equestria isn't -that- backwards." She flops back and crosses her forelimbs. "I know damn well what a vid-ye-oh ga-me is," she drags out in a mocking tone.

Flashback to Bramble Patch trying to play an old fashioned looking arcade cabinet. Only for the 'game over' chime to play and she smacks her head against the screen a few times, then shouts something in frustration and backs up. Only for a rather young pony wearing a spinner beanie cap to pull up a stool to sit on and get up to play. Bramble is snickering behind her hoof at the thought of the foal running off crying when he fails .... only for her expression to go into a 'flat what' when the foal throws his hooves over his head and proclaims "New High Score!" and a crowd of nameless Background Ponies comes in to carry him off in victory.

Bramble Patch turns her head to the side with a snort. "On second thought, I don't wanna talk about it."

Staren has posed:
    "Okay, so you've already got this down. Sorry, stay with me for just a moment..." Staren replies to Theurgus, and then to Bramble, "I know they have arcade games now but you hardly ever leave the forest, I couldn't be sure... And I'm not trying to imply any world is 'backwards'. Simply... specialized in different things. My world doesn't get along with eachother as well as Equestria does, and we don't have pokemon..."

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is staring at Staren blankly. He really has no idea what the scientific guy is talking about. The weird-eyed Count looks down at the indicated devices and back up with his brow knitted, still just as confused as before he said something. He slowly pivots his head to look at Bramble Patch though and frowns in a very... tired way from what she's saying.

    "Do I need to understand the every detail of these devices in order to experience this 'virtual reality'?" Kord remarks, with more than a little exhaustion in his tone. "A swordsman need not know how to create a sword in order to use it. So..."
    He makes a rolling motion with his hand, his brows lifting. "Tell me what I need, and let's get on with it."

Staren has posed:
    Staren's ears splay a bit at Kord's reaction. "I'm skipping over a /lot/ of technical details... But no, you can just put helmet on, be somewhere else..." he rallies, "but I'm trying to drive home the difference between a simulated world and the real world. That a simulated world is only as accurate and detailed as its creator makes it... and that it can also be intentionally unrealistic and abstract, if you desire. Not thinking of it that way can lead to people asking questions that make me go" he facepalms, "later."

    "But, if you wish to get to the practical demonstration...." He starts passing out the NerveGears. One is adjusted for a pony-shaped head, and another has clear crystals on it. They aren't actually branded 'NerveGear' -- Tomoe would recognize that they're the 'Kanto Bootleg' design the Union made. Staren kept /some/ things.

    "Put it on, get comfy, and say 'Link Start'!" He waves. "I'll see you on the other side."

    After the basic startup sequence, people find themselves in a grassy field at dusk. Tomoe has a choice of avatars Staren's seen, everyone else gets avatars based on their real bodies. "I suppose you can think of this as a dreamworld of sorts. You won't accidentally move your real body while you're here, and nothing that happens here will affect your real body."

    Time is accelerated, slightly. There's a warm breeze, and they can smell the grass as the sun finishes setting and moon and stars rise. The meeting area is still fairly bright, without making the stars hard to see. Staren's played with the lighting for effect, possibly.

    He rezzes a table with a box of donuts and cups of tea, coffee, water, and fruit juice. "Which reminds me, here's the obligatory meeting refreshments. All the taste, and no calories." He smiles and starts pacing. "Of course, we can simulate more than just fields. Any place you'd like to go or can imagine... Normally, of course, you have to /create/ such a place, but there are some tools from Kirito's world that make it much easier, and I have tools that make it easy to copy real places I've seen." He sips one of the cups. "That's how I made the bodies you're using here, actually."

    He sets the cup down. "I'm sure some of you are already seeing some potential uses. Simulate combat for troops without dying. Make a model of a site you need to steal something from, familiarize yourself with the layout from the inside rather than just maps. Plan your attacks. Any more questions so far?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe seems to be fairly chill and wolling to let Sstaren talk for the moment he's ding a decent job on it. She pauses for a momentand looks to STaren then to everyone else whom has come. The redhead is being quiet for the moment. She look to Brambled a bit concenred but doesn't seem intent to press it. "Just covering bases, right? Need to make sure everyone's on the same page." Cord might be able to place the voice after a moment. Shepauses looking at the Kanto boot leg for amoment.

It's not long bfore she moves to get booted up and in and that's where tingsend as the avatar waiting there is of Tomoe The iron Lily and she's got a grin on her face. Though Tomoe is wearing far casuale clothing than the amror she normally does.

"Welcome, hostile enviorment training. The US military uses it for that."

Count Kord has posed:
    Despite Kord's impatience, he does listen to Staren and doesn't seem to fidget a lot or actively ignore what's being said to him. He nods at the word 'dreamworld' as it tells him what they are experiencing isn't strictly 'real' in the same sense as what they experience in the physical. He lifts the headset up and... watches the others to observe how they put it on, in a moment of inexperienced uncertainty, before following suit. He says "Link Start," but it's thickly accented. The headset gets the picture, though.

    When he manifests as his avatar in the VR space, he looks around at the unreal qualities around him and seems more than a little startled by the difference in sensation and his sense of space when he rezzed in. He quickly grew accustomed to the experience, though, looking around with the thorough, grabby curiosity of a child. He picked up each object, especially the food, to examine it, he walked up to Staren to leeean in and inspect the details of his face and restrained, just barely, the urge to pull on his cheeks, and then steps away to peer up at the night sky.

    He seems overwhelmed.

    "This is nothing like a dream," he says aloud, though that fact seems to be AMAZING to him.

Bramble Patch (278) has posed:
Bramble Patch takes the device between her forehooves, turning it a bit to one side, then the other, then shrugging and plopping it on over her head. Making the curled portions of her mane stick out past the edges somewhat comically in look. "Cupel, make sure no one messes with me while I'm out or whatever happens." The squirrel salutes with a paw. Bramble lays back in the suprisingly comfy chair. "Link Start!"

The 'other side' is actually rather comfortable in appearances. Or it would be, if things weren't a little awkward in trying to adjust to the sensation. About halfway into Staren's explaination there's a "Aaaack!" as a flailing teenager-like girl that happens to have the same color palette as Bramble Patch topples facefirst into the middle of the group. ".. Well, the grass feels real." Lifts up her head enough to spit some out. "Tastes real, too."

She tries to get up, only to get partway and stumble, hitting the ground again. Settles on just rolling over. "Good grief, how do you people manage with only two legs?!"

She's just assuming this is some kind of joke of Staren's part. Revenge for all the times she made fun of him and Twilight being nerds together or something.

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks the same, but is wearing different clothes. There are no obvious tells that he's an avatar -- FullDive technology is pretty advanced! He blinks as Kord examines him. "Well... That's why I didn't just want to use analogies and metaphors. It's not exactly a dream, and it's not exactly another place, in the normal sense."

    And then, Bramble gets the Equestria Girls experience. "Oh, whoops!" Staren says when he sees Bramble. "I, uh... I was experimenting with having CARDINAL extrapolate alternate appearances for players. For... something I'll get to later, and polymorph effects. I must've forgotten to unload a script... do you want me to change you back to a pony, or do you want to take this opportunity to see what being human's like?"

    He looks around. "While we're here, any requests? Places to go, things to see, all that?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe waks up to try some of the food and she does see Count kord's amazed by it and she smiles at least the count is having a far better first day in this than she did. She simply start to munch onthe food for a moment and she looks to bramble for a moment laughing a little bit.

"Totally I used to handle my junk food cravings like this."

She can't do that so much anymorebut hey such is life.

"Ha I have a few things to show up.

"Well given the rigs were made for humands first, it took some people in Union R&D to figure out how to get it to work for other species."

Bramble Patch (278) has posed:
Bramble Patch does manage to get sitting up. Grabs a donut.

And just holds it out at arm's length, wiggling her fingers a few times around the baked good. This felt... weird... yet it still felt like it was 'her' for the most part.

She took a chomp out of the donut. Then peered at the hand again. Peered at the other hand as she curled it a few times.

"Okay, I guess these are kinda useful. If you don't have magic. Still don't see why that lyrist is so obsessed about them though."

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord waves off Staren's words and tells him, "It helped to say as much. It is as close to a dream as needed, and I know now that this is not 'real.'" Seems he has the basics of it, even if he doesn't understand the nuanced parts. He then steps up to sample the refreshments, discovering that it is essentially the same sensation as eating outside of VR. The experience has him completely stunned.

    "... you could train a royal chef with this... or teach an apprentice a craft without tiring him out..."

    Kord's starting to apply concepts he's familiar with to this.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles as Tomoe mentions another use. "I think Lyra just thinks humans are cool." he replies to Bramble.

    Kord's with the program, and already suggesting more uses. "Exactly! I bet on Tomoe's world they train surgeons with this. Everything doesn't have to be about combat."

    He begins to pace around. "Although, cooking might be hard to simulate. Lots of fiddly chemical reactions... Still, you could probably teach some parts of it."

    "The other idea I wanted to mention, was allowing allies to come up with new strategies... As you can see," he waves a hand at Bramble, "In Virtual Reality you can be something you're not. You can be given powers you don't have, or your powers can be taken away." He throws a lightning bolt off to the side, with the sound and dynamic light muted somewhat so it isn't as startling. "You probably won't control them the same way," momentarily visible in front of him are buttons with icons indicating various spells and elements, "But you can /use/ them. Imagine a training exercise where you can swap powers with an ally. They might think of strategies to use your powers that wouldn't have occured to you, and vice versa. I understand Field Marshal Nanoha once ran such an exercise using the Union Holodeck, though I was on hiatus at the time and don't know how it turned out."

    He claps his hands and rubs them together. "Well, I guess that pretty much wraps up what I wanted to say. Now it's Q&A and random demonstration time. Any questions? Anything you want to see?"

Bramble Patch (278) has posed:
Bramble Patch finally gets onto her feet and brushes herself off. "So it's kind of like that 'trot a mile in someone else's horseshoes' saying." She seems to be adjusting well enough to the being something she's typically not. Then again, she's at least been around humans and human-like people, so it's not entirely new to her. Other than the actually being part. "I guess it could have its uses."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe thins about Kord's catching on to this she grins a little bit she tolt her head.

"There's a few pilot programs sure for such. It's not perfect but it's still better than theroy right? Look the tech has a stigma since the death game and worse now ith what's happening it's starting to get it again." She drowns a bit but seems to pull out of it fast enough as she looks ove to Bramble for a moment.

"Pretty much then again I'm more Tomoe as you see me now than the woman you saw at the confrence room. So what's it like having thumbs I have to ask?"