touchgrass | THIS SHINDIG LOOKS LIKE THE BOMB DIGGITY.

THIS SHINDIG LOOKS LIKE THE BOMB DIGGITY.

    ⬣//WELCOME TO "THE WORLD."
  

It’s the year 2000 and no aspect of life has been left untouched by the rapid advancement of technology. Wherever you are on Earth, you’ve lived a life where connection through digital spaces is the optimal way to stay involved with friends and family all around the world. Terminally online? That’s you and everyone you know.

In a world dominated by virtual reality and cutting edge digital experiences, people are always on the lookout for new ways to push their real lives further and further out of mind. One such opportunity comes in the latest offering from the notorious CyberConnect Corporation: Fragment, an MMORPG that promises full one-to-one synchronization of one’s consciousness with a vibrant and expansive fantasy world.

The privilege of participating in the testing of such cutting edge technology is one only a select group of randomly selected people from across the world will get to experience. You’re one of those lucky few... but is lucky really the right word? For better or worse, the experience promises to change you forever, and if you’re particularly blessed, you may even survive it.

The World is a short-run, panfandom alternate universe game inspired by the .Hack series. With elements of horror and mystery, The World is a plot-centric game wherein characters will participate in the beta test of Fragment, a mysterious MMORPG that transfers their consciousness from an increasingly dull reality into a flourishing fantasy world where nothing is quite as innocent as it first seems. Player choices play a critical role in shaping the plot and determining the final outcome of the game.

Questions? Check out our FAQ! Main navigation here.

    ⬣//WHAT IS THE WORLD? WHO CAN JOIN?
  

Welcome to The World! This is a short-term game set to run for a period of four months from July 29th to December 2nd. Welcome! This is a private game open to those on milky's (shitpost), Amb's (stellazzio), and Lavender's (revelries) plurk lists and those directly invited by the rest of the mod team.

If you aren't a friend of either head mod but are interested in checking out the game, feel free to request an invitation via the mod contact page. Friends and +1s are given first priority when processing and accepting applications, but if the concept interests you, don't hesitate to let us know!

    ⬣//DO I NEED TO BE CANON FAMILIAR?
  

Do you know what an MMO is? You do? Good. You know all you need to know to play in The World. While this is a game based off of the .Hack franchise, all one needs to know to join are the basics. Any canon-specific terminology and information will be introduced to you through events.

    ⬣//INTEREST CHECK & AU PLANNING
  

Help us gauge interest by filling out this handy little form and posting it below! This is also for you to crowdsource ideas for your character's AU and make tentative plans with your fellow nerds.

Name: Who are you?
Contact: Where can others reach you?
Invite: Who invited you? If you aren't on the mods' friends lists but would like to express interest in joining, let us know here!

Considerations: Who are you thinking of bringing?
AU planning: If you'd like to brainstorm ideas for your character's AU self, this is the place to do it! To help you along, take a look at our handy section on character building on the FAQ. You can discuss your ideas with others or talk about the plans you've already made.

Questions: Do you have any questions for us? Need help plotting or planning? Let us know! If your question is relevant to other players, we'll add it into the FAQ.

Anything else? You know what to do. Drop your best meme.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Name: Len
Contact:

tsundereban
Invite: I have Amb on my timeline!

Considerations: I have absolutely no set options here, so running down a list of a few potentials. Also combining the AU planning section in here too for ease of access.

Mafuyu Asahina

Project SEKAI

The World

Mion Sonozaki

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Asuna Yuuki

Sword Art Online

those are my top three ideas but you could probably bully me into another option??? idk, i'm not 100% sure on anything here :|a

Questions: not off the top of my head

Anything else? uhhhhh stream bug (live show version)

Edited 2023-07-15 21:34 (UTC)

Name: soupie
Contact:

soupie
Invite: ehe

Considerations: hani from hiraeth wa tabiji no hate, some backups!
AU planning:

pronouns are he/him or they/them! early 20s!

hani is a free spirit who travels the world on a journey to see it all bc yolo probably. hani's only skills are making alcohol out of literally anything, eating new food, making playlists, and looking beautiful in selfies and in person. life is not hard for this person.

makes a living selling RMT on various online games, with botting skills learned from a kind stranger once upon a time. hani is ganymede's cousin IF LUM APPS HIM.

Questions: but I'm allergic to grass??

Anything else?

Edited 2023-07-15 21:37 (UTC)

Name: zazo
Contact: matchre @ plurk zazozaliad @ discord
Invite: piggybacking off of lavender hi

Considerations: Kuja because I'm predictable, Jennifer from RoR, Terra FFVI or Kefka FFVI, my oc Fluorite

~~I have a giant .hack//scum villain au thats been burning a hole in the back of my pocket for ages but I'm too shy~~

AU planning:
Kuja is a never-breaks character roleplayer "prithee, my lady," type & a pretty high level player who flaunts that. He runs a guild but foists tons of the unfun work off on his two immediate color-coded clown subordinates.

Irl he is the stressed unfavorite oldest child of an authoritarian nutjob. There is so much family drama here it is unreal and in particular he has never been forgiven by his father for ~~having a personality~~ the role he played as a kid in his younger brother being lost, for good.

Kuja's account is all set up and I check it constantly so I'd probably be most active with him.

Jennifer is a very nervy neet who uses The World as her primary contact with... the world. She's all alone irl and is a children's book author/illustrator, except lately everything she tries to make comes out too...

Upsetting, for her publisher.

She's got some Repressesed Shit bubbling to the surface lately ~~every since she read part of the Epitaph of the Twilight for the first time getting passed around the net~~ but it's . . Fff. fine.

kefka would be here to be a horrible griefer clown ✌️ probably a hacker. thinks Deadly Flash ruled actually

Tentative ideas for Terra... she found her account by chance after getting amnesia'd to shit, it's cleaned out slash super Cursed and has mysterious bullshit going on with it. Pre-extant cr for her pre-.hack-typical mindwipe would be cool

Finally Fluorite is. Simple. She's just a funny clown who is definitely not weird and datawarped. You will run into her in places you were pretty sure ought to be completely abandoned but it's fine she has a fairy ocarina if you need one just let her /dance at you a few times

Questions: ~~NOT AT CURRENT, MORE INEVItably~~ can I have Zorn and Thorn npcs as kuja's guild officers

Anything else? I am pogging so hard over this game existing

Edited 2023-07-15 21:42 (UTC)

subscribes to owenlyfans as soupie and hani

honestly, i could see all three of these fitting super well into the game? i love higurashi so i'm definitely more biased towards mion, but—these are all super good choices

those are important skills to have, more so than others probably

BULLIES MILKIES and bullies yael's milkies ig

these are such good aus............. honestly, i'd be excited for any of your girls, i'll look forward to seeing who you settle on!

excellent you will not regret it at all

SOUPS MY LOVE

"and they were cousins" huh, looks at u, looks at lum..............

I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT for fai

Name: it me a sarah
Contact: pms or discord @ hanniehaes! my plurk is gathering cobwebs at the moment
Invite: looks at amb and milky, points at.

Considerations: sighs in this is the hardest part of any game. joshua kiryu from twewy (possibly updated to neo?) is my biggest consideration atm, close seconds are gino psycho pass, william moriarty yuumori or I might do an ultra swerve and do wei wuxian for like Maximum Gremlin Hours. it's all very up in the air at the moment!!!
AU planning: very quick and dirty au considerations that I did not come up with on the spot while writing this comment :) feel free to holler at me if you want to plot something pre established, or I'm also good with winging it in game once I actually decide... something...

- joshua kiryu, half japanese half american high school kid struggling to fit into society and fun stuff like that, uses video games to find SOME way to fit in???
- something something dog dad gino who is also maybe an office worker of some sort in law enforcement still or maybe he's just a Regular Office Worker
- math PhD student william james moriarty or something, got adopted into a rich family???
- ... I really want to write wei wuxian as a high school teacher that's it that's the AU

Questions: vague hand gestures I'll come up with something if I think of it but for now nothing!!

Anything else? throws darts at wall it's 5.40am so no meme rn

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

FINALLY MEETING??

Name: Coco
Contact:

clodsire
Invite: All mods!!!

Considerations: 90% sure I'll be going with my OC here, Kara! Other potential considerations that are much less likely are Aki Hayakawa (Chainsaw Man), and Seele (Honkai Star Rail). Seriously if anyone else wants to play either Aki or Seele, GO FOR IT, they are just kinda here as backups!
AU planning: I...ADMITTEDLY have only really fleshed out Kara's AU. The other two...well. I'll just list them.

Kara Belmont is a 23-year-old finance student who works part-time at the AU equivalent of Build-A-Bear. In her free time, she plays RPGs! She was kind of shrugs about the beta but figured it'd be a good way to kill time when she's got it, so she signed up for the raffle and got a ticket. She's sweet and bubbly when you meet her, but on the inside...well! You'll just have to find out. c:

Aki Hayakawa is a 21-year-old bartender. Graduated university with a degree in Psychology. He's just a guy who lost his brother in his youth and is still trying to learn how to cope with that.

Seele is 24 years old. I haven't decided on an occupation yet, but she does a lot of volunteer work in her free time. She plays MMOs. That's all I got.

Feel free to hit me up for any pre-established CR! In Kara's case specifically, I'm down for classmates, friendships, people who know something is up with her, drinking/party buddies. Idk. The World (lol) is your oyster. Friendships would probably still be distant and not super close, though.

Questions: n/a for now

Anything else?

VERY IMPORTANT SKILLS hani sounds delighful i can't wait to see them in game hehe

all of those AUs look great! i'm not familiar with any of them, but i do think AUing SAO characters into .hack// is always funny

Name: Yew
Contact:

thornmarch
Invite: :cattewow:

Considerations: SIGHS. Phantom (Tales of the Rays), Michel Bollinger (House in Fata Morgana/Seventh Lair-ish), Perion Sov Vasilios (Your Throne), Kotoko Iwanaga (In/Spectre)

AU planning:

Dr. [firstname a secret] Reston, a 35yo researcher in neuroscience/biotech who would be a NEET if it weren't for actually having a job. Suffocating inferiority complex about his older twin brother, just let him play his online games in peace and aggressively not talk about RL (except not, because he's pathologically incapable of keeping his mouth shut.) Condescending and annoying but actually very good at games. Will help anyone in exchange for one (1) approval.
Michel, a ~27ish (subject to AU wiggleroom) shut-in who works in engineering and does some hobby game dev work, which he runs a forum for. Due to family issues he doesn't want to talk about, he's reserved and somewhat cynical, but it's easier for him to make connections online and he can be drawn out into discussions with forum regulars. Despite his tendency to be blunt and standoffish he's also a deeply sweet guy who will listen to anyone's problems once they break through his shell a little.
Perion, a 25ish jock who's just here to have a good time. No, he doesn't know how games work. Point him at things and let him mash buttons. He seems like a hotheaded slacker type, but he's surprisingly careful to be incredibly vague about his RL profession, to the point that it seems shady?? Does this guy work in crime. Friend to all, and everyone will be good-naturedly teased in equal measure, he's the world's (The World's?!) big brother.
Kotoko, 20yo college student whose online experience is mostly shitposting on forums. She lost an eye and a leg in a childhood accident and developed a semi-related interest in the occult, which she's currently in college studying under the general anthropology/folklore umbrella. Cheerfully amoral and unreserved, she loves to lie and to provoke people for reactions. Nice when it suits her, mean when it's funny, absolutely not to be relied on for literally anything.

Questions: can someone pls pick for me or

Anything else?

THESE ARE THE VIBES