something that i've been doing for a while... where my names from

[hauteville]

this is something i wrote after a while spent on MMORPG's... i nearly became one of those really sad guys who gets properly hooked.


hauteville long-sword

What’s in a name?

He sits in front of the screen. His mind a list of names.
The dark ones:
Dark knight
Angel of death
And others involving doom, death and angels with strange hobbies.
His mind flew to the other side of the spectrum, fantasy characters, king Arthur’s knights. He knew he would think of something original.
No underscores, no numbers, no messing around in upper and lower case.
Then he notices in the corner of his eye. A book, the type of jokey history book which he read as a younger child. He remembered, somewhere within, was a name. A name of a family during the medieval era. They were interesting, yet, unheard of. They battled for religion, land and money; they outsmarted, outfought and outwitted their enemies.
They only claimed less than two pages, but they indeed brave, and could be made heroic.
So it was decided
He would become:
Hauteville.

Download

He signed up; was now a member; ahead of him a community of international proportions. He only needed the drivers.
He flicks through screenshots, checks again that it is free, and that he will be free to use it how he wished. Onto the download page, clicks the most genuine looking link. A painful process starts. He uses this moment; or age, to idlely wander through the infinite network, doing the type of things that he does every free second of his life, when he isn’t complaining of being a slave to the system. The percentage slowly rising:
47
48
49
CONNECTION TERMINATED
A rage fills up within him; he never likes it when it doesn’t work. Obscenities and curses coursing from dry lips. Claims of him hating the machine, and hating the network.
Good job nobody is around as he fantasises that dark destruction humanity is all too capable of.
Half an hour of rage passes, he’s taking it out on some tall wide idiot, he being a bug-eyes pair of breasts with a pair of blades to match. He decides.

Time for another go.

He picks a new server to download from, he prepares some food, and he’s found an accessible site to watch some animation on. He is prepared. He continues as he normally does. But between every electric conversation, every low quality film. He checks.

The tree bears fruit.

Within a pair of hours which seem miniscule to him. He’s there. He’s logged in. he’s about to begin in his own world.

Making acquaintances

Vali, the main town; the main server, new players always appear here. Guildmasters roam looking for new talent.
There are shops here, selling the basic equipment needed for basic monster hunting. Here; a sword is worth more than money. Here; is where you decide whether or not to carry on.
An oversized rat is split in two, where it once lied, a spear has replaced it.
A warrior; new to this world stoops down, his long blonde hair dangling over his vacant blue eyes. He manages a smile.
This weapon is good, especially for someone of his currant, limited ability.

Glaive: speed: slow
Dmg: 9-16
Weapon type: long arm/pike

Finding this has saved him time and money.

“Did you know pressing ‘H’ brings up the hotkeys screen?”

Ruining a nice moment ‘May’ a help program for beginners. Basically follows you around for too long; he thinks ‘must inform the tech support on that.’

He wanders, drifting; following where there are things to hunt. He basically learns to fight. Not bothering with the majority of players out in the fields. He knows that half of them wouldn’t mind fighting his character. None of them know how to stay in role.

He sees a message in the corner of his screen:
DIR EN GREY CHALLENGES YOU TO DUEL? (Y/n)

He picked the wrong train of thought to be tied up in.

A challenge

“DIR EN GREY” a basic jack-of-all trades. He thinks that being good at everything is the right way to go; he sends invites to randoms to either join his party or duel. His high total level has amassed him an army.

Then suddenly:
CHALLENGE_ACCEPTED

Hauteville: “I accept; since you proposed the duel I have the right to choose the conditions.”

The glaive flies through the air. In a way that you’d only ever see in a cartoon about guys with spiked up hair. He strikes a shoulder hit. “DIR EN GREY’s” health bar is halved.

DIR EN GREY: “that was unfair! You didn’t give my guy a chance!”

*slice*

The computerised remains of “DIR EN GREY” litter the floor of a forest. That’s the problem with having a list of people in your area; you don’t know where they are.

Hauteville: “you should learn to pay attention swine.”

In a fury, a fourteen year old boy in Kyoto types hurriedly:
“EVERYONE FOLLOW ME!”

“ROXORS UNANIMOUS” CHALLENGES YOU.

They attack Hauteville one by one. All have barely been playing for an hour yet. Most of them were found outside a store begging for cheap bits of armour. They didn’t know how to play properly.

Their attacks are one by one deflected and countered. Three swordsmen try to jump Hauteville. With a single swing they are all sliced in twain. Hauteville stops toying with them; he begins using lethal force. One by one the members of “ROXORS UNANIMOUS” re-spawn in the town. Confused at what went wrong; and soon after leaving their party.

All that was left was “DIR EN GREY.”

DIR EN GREY: “HACKER! DIE!”

Hauteville: “I’m the same level as you fool. Learn that you need a specialty. Make a new character and meet me in the forests in the north. I will help you.”

At this Hauteville walks away. His first day is done.

Level: 18
Total play hours: 38
PK: 12



Bulletin board headlines:
- China still largest guild
- Tournament event being planned
- Crackdown on hackers
- Why does my character keep dieing?

Very British colours…

Overcast; no rain, just neutrality. Bizarrely small children for their ages run around occasionally smacking each other. Their tongues more vile than the inhabitants of the gutters; wearing white on black; they’re barely ever noticed. Through these wade a group; bright colours surrounding a black figure. They leave to do their daily tasks; a tower topped with long hair; in a forest of short shaven heads; makes its way to the main building.
Sitting in a small room with the other members of his “regiment.” A short lady with spiked dye-red hair reads out their names one by one expecting a reply.
“Kaytee”
“Mycall”
“Heether”

These mispronunciations still receive their due replies. After the list has ended a drone of conversation begins. People thanking each other for last night, talking about random sports events, to the black figure on the largest table it becomes a blur.
He thinks to himself: “I must tell the head to shorten this time. I could be doing more worthwhile things.”
“Are you alright?” a young lady to his right asks; generally classed as a rebel, mainly due to her dreadlocks, (which were rarely seen among white people in suburbia) Katie was a kind soul. But she already knew the ready-made answer that would come no-matter the situation.
“I’m ok; yourself?”
“You been thinking?” he could sense the worry in her voice. She knew every inch of him; if it wasn’t for the fact they both had partners, the majority of the human population would believe them to be lovers.
“You know the usual emo-esque worries; I just don’t know why I said yes.”
“Don’t worry; if it isn’t going to be emotional then at least its experience.” Katie was often prone to abandoning the over-morality many of their friends have a habit of using, to find a bright-side to any situation.
“I guess so; I’ll wait it out a while.”
“There’s something you aren’t telling me; I’ll ask you about it later.”
The siren goes; they begin their tasks.

Two hours pass.

He enters the room for his “break” he meets a whole new trial.
“Hey you filth wizard!”
“Good morning…”
And thus five minutes is spent in a single kiss. The obsessive young lady says little but.

“You know you should stop going out with me I’ll only hurt you.”
“Nothing will happen until something better comes along, and trust me that’ll be a long time,” It was intended to be romantic with a strong hint of the truth. The fact was that there was a lot that was better than this young lady, and there were a lot of people more loyal than this lady. “I still don’t have your email address you know.”
“We’ll be sure to write our addresses down for you.” replies Becky; a beautiful girl who really is the whole reason this started.
“I’m getting yours too am I?” he’s always liked her; and because he never said at the right moment he’s with his currant girlfriend. “Jen are you ok with that?”
“She’s my best friend I shouldn’t see why I wouldn’t be.” Was his girlfriends reply.
“Well if you don’t mind I’m going to go into town during our lunch break. Does anyone want to come with?” an easy way to get time with Becky.
“Yeah, ok I’ll come.” Was the inevitable reply.

He decides to spend the remaining minutes of his first break on a walk around the grounds of the institution he was a part of.

Sadly some midgets have large egos:

“Eh mop ‘ed! I could well do you.” coming from a midget from about waist height.
“What on earth are you on about kid?” he sometimes gains confidence out of the blue.
“Huh? I think this guy’s disrespecting you rocky.” Responded one of the head idiots lackeys.
“Why don’t you bother someone else?” they were following him now.
“You gonna do something about it mate?”

He picked the wrong day to annoy someone older than him.

The peer support network that day had two complaints of bigger kids pushing the little kids over.

An hour passes.

He follows the road down towards town. He’s officially ran out of things to say that won’t jeopardise his currant social life.
The road is lined with houses, and roads that go into estates where you begin to wonder whether you’ve gone into another world for the sheer space that is taken up by them compared to how much you’d think was. He never went down those roads. He believed in avoiding conflict if he can.
For a second he saw the world turn a deep red; but blinked; and it was gone. Back to the grey upon grey. A piece of paper is shoved in front of his face.
“That’s our email addresses.”
“Wow; thanks,” he tries to think of more conversation, “Maybe I can get you to help me with my RPG’s.”
“I don’t play crap like that.”
“I didn’t mean like that, I meant the one I’m programming. You’re a good artist; you could help me out so I don’t breach copyright.”
“I’d love to.” This was the fist time he noticed; her eyes were a beautiful green and hazel blend. Suiting her brown wavy hair, he had many dreams of staring into her eyes, stroking that hair. Now his visions could be more accurate.
He struggles, but he needs to look away from her beauty; he doesn’t want to seem like some weirdo. He has to look away from her; and towards the British hues of grey upon grey.
He actually had no reason to go into town; Becky bought some chips that were eventually shared among their friends. It seemed strange that she would always buy something that she would barely eat herself. She never seemed to have much of a reason to go, and yet she always did.
They get back, several inappropriate comments are made. And its time again to have you’re name read out.

“So, I see you’re spending a lot of time with Becky; what’s going on there eh?”
“Nothing; we just go to town together that’s all.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
“I don’t know. I never know about my feelings; you should know that.”
“Ah, well then what are you gonna do about it.”
“Nothing.”

Two hours pass again.

Lesson one: specialise

The programmers must have gotten bored with basic scenery; somewhere in the endless forests is a stone henge look-alike, he chose this spot; it was the most obvious.
On a lower corner of his screen, “GAZZETE” appears.

Hauteville: “named yourself after a band again?”
GAZZETE: “aren’t you?”
Hauteville: “look it up in a history book.”
GAZZETE: “look just tell me how to hack!”
Hauteville: “I don’t hack, I just have my priorities right; what kind of character do you want to be?”
GAZZETE: “a kickass one!”
Hauteville: “you need to choose what you want to be.”
GAZZETE: “I’ll be a knight then.”
Hauteville: “then do hand to hand and nothing else.”

Hauteville throws a scroll at GAZZETE’s feet.
Hauteville: “use that.”

A few clicks and they’re in a custom map.

Hauteville: “you will not leave this map until you are level 10 at the least.”
GAZZETE: “what is this?”
Hauteville: “I know some people in high places; they made this map as an experiment to make training maps available. You are the focus group who will test to see if it’s a good idea.”
GAZZETE: “is this how you’re so good?”
Hauteville: “would it matter?”

A flash and Hauteville is gone. GAZZETE begins slashing at everything in sight.

Disciples

This land is filled with forts and camps; a guildwar is in progress.
He passes through this map; and the number of names hasn’t dropped. He turns; behind him are a multitude of players; weapons draw. All with blue writings upon them; they were members of a guild.
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “blade or china?”
Hauteville: “neither.”
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “a character of your level not in a guild?”
Hauteville: “I don’t believe in follow other peoples orders.”
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “you a wuss or something? How do you get PK’s?”
Hauteville: “when someone bothers me. I’m sure someone who can read my level can read my PK’s”
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “this isn’t much”.
Hauteville: “they were all at once, technically I’m still new.”
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “hmmm…”

HAUTEVILLE HAS BEEN APPOINTED DEPUTY GUILD MASTER

Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “what the hell is this for?”
Blade_Runner [the blades]: “just help us fight china and we won’t kill you, I’m sure you can’t take on all of us.”

He was briefed; he’d basically capture their most fortified post.

Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “we draw them out; stay just out of range of their archers.”

He took advantage of the basic settings of if they weren’t in range they’d move closer, one by one their enemies uncontrollably left the walls.

Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “now we charge, cavalry move around and get ready to cut off their retreat.”
They stood there taking the blows; two healing mages behind them frantically moving down the lines.

Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “NOW”

The charge began, they ran in, Hauteville in the lead; holding his glaive high.
As he expected the enemy moved backwards towards the castle; while their cavalry left to charge.

Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “equip your pikes!”

He knew how to fight cavalry, the basic rules of virtual worlds was that long weapons could defeat cavalry; he never knew why, they just did. This would inflict enough damage to distract them. His cavalry was already at the back gate of the outpost; and were charging at the backs of the archers. Before they knew it the 7th archer battalion of the army of “china” were at a blank respawn screen. And the blades cavalry were at the backs of those of china. This outpost was badly prepared. The fact that it was past their front lines was probably why. It was really of little importance. The main thing was that they joined the main fight behind them.

[The blades records]:
Due to Hauteville’s quick victory he was able to supply much needed reinforcements to the main battle at CHINA’s main citadel of the area. And CHINA’s forces there could not mobilise enough to make a worthwhile contribution to the main fight.

Jobe [blades master]: “well done. You’ll be known as a hero from now on.”
Hauteville [blades vice-master]: “ok.”

From then on Hauteville had a lot more people on his screen.

Level: 25
Total play hours: 44
PK: 27

Bulletin board headlines:
- China finally lost a battle!
- Crackdown on hackers
- What happened to these players?
- Protests against violence in videogames. What should be done?

Where are the friendships coming from?

“Hey!”
“Hey dude!”
“Hello!”

Black figure in confusion; people don’t know him. But they do?
His mobile goes off in class; never done that before…

An otherwise dull day plagued by new relationships. What’s going on?
5 or 6 hours pass.

The birth of love

Emails; he constantly checked them; he felt he was never told anything. Of course he had a lot of emails from the various mailing lists he was on.
He would normally spend at least ten minutes sorting through deleting what he didn’t want. Keeping things from people he knew or from certain mailing lists he was interested in at that moment in time.
Suddenly he sees one; something that could possibly be very important:

From: Becky
Subject: love

I can’t lie anymore; I’m just too guilty. Jen doesn’t love you; she just feels attracted to any man I like. I’ve liked you since we first met that year ago.

This was when he thought. “I’ve been doing this for nothing!”

He felt kind of bad for Jen. It’s never good being dumped by e-mail or text. But he felt fantastic for himself.

From: Becky
Subject: one problem

I’m not sure whether I love you anymore though. I’ve had this habit that I would lock up my emotions. And I’ve never tried to get them back.

Shit; there always is a problem. Quickly reply. Get into character man!

Becky; here’s a link to somewhere you can talk to me…

My name is Hauteville.

His match

Hunting; as he usually does. He remembers; that he hasn’t been shopping for a long time; he’s low on supplies.

Vali, there are more people here than ever. A new blacksmith has been added, he will upgrade you’re weapons and armour for a price; it has been put there for people who want to keep the same appearance. Hauteville hasn’t changed his armour from the standard that you get at the start.

At a more basic blacksmith he spends his currency on something he believes suits him: Golden armour with customisable red symbols on the shoulders and chest of the breastplate. Claw like prongs on the knuckles of his gauntlets. No helmet; didn’t want to lose the blond locks.

He upgraded his glaive; his equipment finally complemented his prowess in combat.

He finally decided; leaving the guild he added a label to his presence; he was down as a mercenary for hire.

Ezra fury: “I hope you’re ready!”

A Gladius swing; Hauteville was off his guard, but could still deflect it quite nicely.

Hauteville: “you don’t swing with a gladius you stab.”

Before him stood a female character; in the left hand a gladius, in the other a bastard sword. Her armour reflected what the perverts who programmed this game saw of a woman. It was sickening; but he knew there wasn’t anything else for female characters to choose from. She was a beautiful character; green eyes, brown wavy hair, a green jewel around her neck, she must have been an advanced player, she had actually chose a school of fighting; she was a warrior of nature. But from how she acted with the gladius she obviously couldn’t be too advanced.

Ezra fury: “come at me!”

It begins. He charges, expecting this to be a short battle, she dodges every blow. His glaive missing her every single time. Then she attacked in the same uncoordinated fashion; attacks that are both impractical and easy to dodge. They go at this for many bouts. Her not attacking efficiently and him missing every time. Then, it hits; he’s immobilised, the gladius pierces his armour. He thinks to himself; “she finally learnt to stab with that thing.”
A point out of his back, Hauteville gasps; and in one fluid motion she draws the gladius out of him and kicks him, she had planned this well; he lands in the towns moat; he floats there.
For the first time he saw the respawn screen.

Training once again

Still with his equipment; bar the prongs on his gauntlets. He **censor** up; he knew it. He should have anticipated that she would toy with him so. And in his mind he knew that she deserved a prize. Determined now; he would beat her. In a valley infested with orcs he took them one by one. Training was the way forward. He knew that he could easily cheat his way; he knew the hackers. But he knew that would make it a hollow victory. A lot more virtuous than the usual inhabitants of these realms.

Ezra fury: “so do you think they record who kills the most orcs?”

She was brandishing the prongs; her armour covered more of her now; it was spiked; the prongs suited her more than they did Hauteville. She was covered in the green markings of the school she was a part of.

Hauteville: “here to kill me again?”

Ezra fury: “oh yeah, there’s nobody else worth fighting.”

Hauteville: “so how do you always know where I am? ... Becky?”

Ezra fury: “hey there; now we don’t talk of that again. Ok?”

He attacked first this time, he actually managed to hit this time, but; with her blades as an X she deflected it. He began to go into a frenzy; swinging a glaive in the way that would make people accuse him of being a berserker. She dodged of deflected them all; until many bouts later. He landed; and the result was miniscule damage to her thigh.
The retaliation was swift; again the gladius penetrated him. He was on his knees; impaled on the short blade. He was speechless. The bastard sword was raised; and before it fell upon him it was her turn to be penetrated. The glaive pierced the impractical amour with ease. And there; they both died.

Ezra fury’s real name was never discussed again.

Resignation to fate

“So why didn’t you tell me?” Katie is quite obviously pissed off at not being informed on the evening’s events.
“Well why would it matter? She said she wasn’t sure whether it was still the case.”
“Oh it will be.”

Two hours pass.

“So! Spunk bucket! You feel the same don’t you!” Jens response is very predictable; for Jen.

A hurried explanation which she happened to know the entirety of beforehand.

And thus started the evasion.

He didn’t see her for the rest of the day. He felt somewhat glad to have that trial over; but he still felt he had done the wrong thing. Feeling sorry for other people; being ‘too understanding,’ where both his vices and his virtues. Because of them; he would make others happy, but he would forever feel bad for his transgressions.
But of course there was a ray of hope. But that ray was near covered by the shade of a life doomed to be constituted of sadness. The universes sad truth; those who were good would have bad lives, and those who were bad had lives that were good. The world’s honour had left; and in its place was a dog-eat-dog mentality.
He knew only one place where that honour still existed.

But no! He wouldn’t become like those people he had heard of in the many horror stories about people being glued to screens; lost in a world of fantasy; not able to release themselves from the grip of a world of different rules.

Four hours pass

The legend of Hauteville

Wandering around the wastes. He had lost track of where he was; moving from battle to battle, often with mindless creature, often with other people; hired wherever he was needed. His high level of skill was either compared to that of a god; or made people accuse him of hacking into the worlds systems. The developers though, were for now giving him the benefit of the doubt. Because they knew this type of thing was possible, even if the world itself was a work of fiction.
His followers increased in numbers; he attempted to ignore them. As he gained experience on the field of battle, it appears that they did too. It seemed, without doing anything, he was raising an army; but one outside of the worlds rules, not authorised, not registered to any of the developers. Without doing anything he had reinvented the rules.

Somewhere a blond haired adolescent chuckles

He wouldn’t test it yet, but he imagined that if he wished; they would fight on his behalf; maybe they believed they did already. He had never played in a party, well; not an authorised one through the system. It seemed that his ‘army’ worked in a similar way to a real army; its majority were men-at-arms style characters. Each headed by a person of superior skill.
All bowing down in the name of Hauteville.
They paid respect to others, they did not assault the masses mindlessly, and they were a peaceful army, only fighting that which would fight them. Not ravaging the lands

[Tator_dog]

pretty cool

[ComradeConnor]

That was great. I like lots. :sparkle:

[hauteville]

thankyou very much... its not very good really.... i just got thinking about how mad i got on the old MMOs

[Dr. Strange]

nice, very detailed.

[hauteville]

thankyou very much... i've written a proper ending for it somewhere. may makes its way up here at some point... might do some kinda inbetween stuff too....

[Dr. Strange]

cool. thatd be nice.