"Could you tell me what happens when someone dies here?" she asked with as sweet a smile as she had been giving. It was convenient that Denise' normally reflexive smile still came across Stephanie's muzzle. This lion seemed happy enough that she was talking with him.
Now, either he will respond with an answer like a Player might give, or he'll think the question was inappropriate like an NPC's probably would, Denise thought to himself, not considering that if a Player were completely In-Character that they might also simply answer the question as it would seem to their character.
"Well, when someone dies, they move on to the afterlife. If they are lucky, they may have family and friends who could pray to have them returned to them. If not, they may travel the world as a formless mist, ever searching for a purpose to their unlife," the man said, a solemn look on his face. "Though, some people merely pass off into the bright white light that leads off to their friends and family who have long since passed, he offered."
Stephanie stared at him for a moment, thinking it over. "Is there a hell?" she wondered. "A place of eternal punishment?"
The stepped closer to Stephanie and leaned down to her as he was nearly a foot taller than her at six foot eight. He glanced around and then held his hand up as if to whisper, but instead his lips did not move. A man's voice spoke from his form, but also just around her ear as if a whisper as he said, "If you do bad things in The Kingdom, you end up joining bad people, yes," the man said, though the lion's mouth didn't move.
The lion smiled, and Stephanie put a hand to one side of her head, thinking that one over. "And what kind of trouble do you get into for doing bad things?" she inquired.
"Well," the voice other than the lion said, "If you have a Wanted Level when you try and log out, you are informed you can't do so without putting your character on Auto-Pilot," he continued, still without moving his lips. "You've got to find some way to loose the heat, or change your appearance."
"Painting my car, changing my car, changing my cloths, all without being seen by more guards, cops, or good Samaritans, right?" she asked, and he nodded with a bit of a shrug. "What's Auto-Pilot again?" she asked.
"Not a Role-Player, I see," the man said, stepping over to the hot dog stand and ordering one with everything.
"Not so much. I'm still learning," she admitted. "I want to see how the game works before I really begin to try. Not sure how it is."
"Auto-Pilot works kind of like in the movie Click," the man said, taking his hot dog from the vender and looking at Stephanie. His lips were moving again, and he was back to his character's voice which though similar was not his own. "Ever seen it?"
"No," she said, looking around at everyone, not too interesting in him and keeping an eye out for cops just to see how populous they were.
"There's this idea that when you're not physically here, your character is simply at home, idle. While they may not actually be there, it's a way for the world to remain consistent. You're just not around, not answering your phone, or sleeping all day. Something, right?" he asked, and she just shrugged and nodded.
"Auto-Pilot," he continued, "Is a feature you can set your character to upon logout so they will continue whatever last action you gave them. If they run a store during the day, or weave baskets, or work out in the gym… whatever. Those may be things you yourself are not interested in doing, so you put your character to the task without you," he explained.
I could learn new guns, level up my hand-to-hand, learn stealth, hm, Denise thought. He smiled a bit to himself, but decided it best to ask a follow up question.
Stephanie turned to look at the man, her hands on her hips, her chest somewhat forward as she swished her tail. She looked him up and down, and then smiled to his face as she saw his eyes had drifted to her breasts like her older brother's did. She sweetly asked, "And the downside?"
"Ah, well. Since your character is being run by an NPC and not by you, they may not make the same choices as you. Thus, you have to live with whatever decisions they made while you were 'out'," he explained, taking a bite from his dog. "So while the AI will do the best to live up to your past actions, it's still not you."
"Right," she said, thinking that she couldn't leave herself on Auto-Pilot then, because if her character was just going around killing people, there's no way she'd be as good at is as Denise would be. "So you can't just log out to escape police," she noted. "And you could do this forever?" she asked, "The Auto-Pilot?"
"One week of In-Game time," he explained. "That's as long as you can leave any one character idle. Also, while their skills will level up and their relationships may change, they wont gain actual levels. You have to do those on your own… unless your account is Linked."
"Linking Accounts is done within the first ten levels, and regardless of wether you are on or not you always get half experience, right?" Steph asked. The lion nodded, "That way, if you and your friend are both on, you gain levels at normal speed, or if just one of you is on, you both gain at half," she said, thinking it over.
"Decided on a skill tree or class yet?" he wondered.
She smiled, "Still working on it."
"My name is Ken. Well, my character's. Kenneth Baker if you want to be proper," he smiled to her, putting a hand out. She bowed slightly and put her own hand out to shake his, trying to maintain appearance.
"Stephanie," she said with a smile, thinking she'd heard his name somewhere before.
"I'm going to go back into character now," The man's voice said without the lion's mouth moving. He smiled to her, looking over her form, stepping beside her and grinning, offering his hand. "So," the lion man said "Have you got any plans Stephanie?" he grinned to her.
The smile made Denise a bit uncomfortable, but putting up an appearance was key. "Yes," she admitted, "Actually…"