Agatha O'Brian was not alarmed. She had planned on staying within The Kingdom for the entire weekend to help in the Beta testing, so she was unaware anything was yet wrong. The truth of the matter, though, was that she had intended to log-out two hours ago in preparation for taking a six hour nap for work and had as of yet been unable to activate her logout command.
Heather Johnson, the mage that Agatha had been playing all weekend, was dressed in a white gown and red cloak and was very human in appearance. Actually, Agatha had imported an image of her own face into the Game so that she could play up a personal fantasy of hers. Like her brother, she was in to helping others, a character trait she attributed to her mother and father. Unlike her bother, however, she did occasionally see the need to hurt some people to help those in need. Difficult as a white mage, but not impossible.
She had re-entered the cabin sound of Icepeak Tower and walked through the well-lit meeting room. Turning around a corner and heading for the shops of this small town, she headed straight for the wooden door at the back and center. Passing by all the other Players and NPC's, she smiled as she thought to herself that the Moderators were so helpful in The Kingdom… surely one would be able to help her.
Pushing open the double-wooden doors that none of the NPC's even seemed to notice, she stepped inside and took in the simplicity of the room. Along the left and right walls were different posters for the games' four year run including different expansion packs and locations. There were shelves and little displays in this room that was just a bit bigger than an apartment in New York City.
In front of her was the main counter, and back behind it was a large cloth painted in the image of 'The Great Doubt', the meteor that had almost destroyed The Kingdom. She had a movie poster-sized replica of the same image in her room back in the real world. Off behind the desk, the brown and tan wood and stone of the room bled back into a digital-coding of infinity for a distance that certainly would have moved on forever.
Just behind the desk was a young woman who appeared as a Satyr. Heather loved how each of the Mods had their own appearance and short-hand name, almost as if they were themselves their own character to assist players. The half-goat half-woman had long gray hair the came down over her front, covering her breasts. She smiled and clopped to one side as her hooves hit the floor in front of the counter.
"How may I help you. I am Moderator Brownie," the woman who was just a bit shorter than Heather's five foot eleven asked.
Heather bowed respectfully towards the satyr, "Moderator Brownie. I am using one of the Beta EIU systems and seem unable to log out," she explained, walking up to the counter. "I think this will be a problem soon as I have work in a few short hours."
"I could see how that would be a problem," Brownie smiled and tapped on the desk in front of her. The stone-tablet top of the desk floated up at her at an angle like a computer screen might be shown. It was facing away from Heather, but it wouldn't have matter. Players see moderator's screens as blank anyway. "Let me check the condition of your connection and if there's any fault with the computer you logged in with. You installed the Beta Watchdog, yes?" she asked, looking up.
Heather smiled and nodded, "Yes, though I haven't seen the cute little bone-dog for two days," she offered, tapping a finger to her chin as she thought, "Which I thought was odd, but considered I just couldn't see the ghost anymore for a different reason."
"Hm… yes," the Moderator said, looking over the screen. "Looks like the Watchdog went offline sometime Friday night. Let me see if I can ping it," she offered, taking a few moments to tap on the tablet.
Heather took the moments to look around the store before taking a seat. "It's been fun, though, this Beta. I slept under the stars last night, taking in the cool mountain air. It was invigorating," she smiled, leaning back in the chair.
"Glad you're enjoying yourself," Brownie said simply as she had begun to take interest in the information on her screen. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, my system seems to be giving me a peculiar error," the satyr said as she raised up her hands and had more tablet's join her. She slid on what looked like a technical support headset, and her lips started to move, but she wasn't making any sound.
Private line, Agatha thought to herself as she watched the Mod. Never seen a Mod have trouble with their screen before. I must have hit a heavy bug in the system… hope that doesn't mean I'll be late for work and class, she sighed, mulling it over.
After a few moments, Brownie lowered the tablets in front of her back to where she could see Heather over the top of them. Her eyes were a bit wide, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times as if searching for what it was she was supposed to say. The troubled Heather, but she remained quite until Brownie finally asked, "Can you initiate OOC Chatter?"
"Yeah… I was talking with my brother last night and my girls on Friday. All that seems to be working, I just lost the puppy," she said with a shrug. "I can talk Out of Character, In-Character, use my stat-screen and my Teamspeak, Buddy List, etcetera. I don't see any problems with In-Game stuff… just logging out."
"Might you be able to ask your brother to go and check on your system?" Brownie asked. "As we have gone up the chain, some very strange information has been granted our data-research team. Quite frankly, it doesn't line up… and having someone physically next to you in the Real World would be a benefit."
"I lost my computer-connected programs too," Heather noted, "My In-Game Connections all failed… so I can't message Charles unless he signs on. Its like the game lost connection to my computer or something," she said. "What does it look like the problem is from your end?"
Brownie had been informed that the only system reports they'd gotten about Agatha's situation implied a full system disconnect. A forced log-off by way of power or internet outage or some-such. The part that makes no sense is that there was no listing of Agatha's computer reconnecting back to the net and re-syncing with The Kingdom. That, and currently there was no indication that Agatha was even signed on right now other than her being here.
What Brownie did know was that, by all accounts, Agatha shouldn't be here.