Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2013 23:18:11 GMT
Many years ago there existed a server, going by the name 'Deadlock'. It existed on the virtual net, but its design was that of a rural town cloaked in perpetual fog. The buildings looked old, the roads hard, cold and dirty, a mixture of browns and greys. It often rained, however, during the per-scripted night time hours; driving the fog away and revealing the hidden charm under the illusions the fog created, of glistening wet moss, green like an emerald, wrapping its self round the warm buildings, with a warm glow shining from the windows. The gutters were neatly decorated and designed so that the rain would flow heavily into them, creating a small stream running all around the town, which had lily pads which floated to the top in bloom, a small white flower resting innocently on each.
The server of Deadlock, however, was not designed to be a pretty time to waste your time in. Deadlock was a forum, designed with a specific game in mind, curtsey of the server Admin, St Deadlock.
Every week, a random resident of the town would be marked. No one but St Deadlock, who promised secrecy for the sake of the game, and the marked person knew this. This marked person had 24 hours to kill another resident of the town. This was, of course, a game, so the marked killer could choose not to kill anyone, however this resulted in the killer being banned from Deadlock. The victim, too, would only have his avatar on the server die, and would come back at the end of the game. To prevent cheating, all members of deadlock are also told that someone has been marked, and that they cannot log out. Of course, they sign a document allowing Deadlock to lock them into the game when they make their account in Deadlock. They can only log out once a guess agreed on by the community has been found. Of course, the object of the game was to discover the identity of the killer and the method to which he killed the victim, as a bonus. Usually, the killer was found and he would be left unable to log back into Deadlock for a week, a reasonable agreement. If he won, however, if he found himself able to get away with murder, St Deadlock promised a one million credit reward.
The game was fairly harmless. And in its ten year run, only one person ever got the jackpot, and his name is lost to time, even in this digital age. Some say no one ever won, and it was an advertising stunt to bring in more traffic. There was, after all, a sign up fee for Deadlock. Others say that the winner died, or went into offline retirement.
Either way, Deadlock began to fall into internet obscurity at some point. Some say St Deadlock lost his pride when someone had taken his reserved prize money, but most agree that the game simply got stale, especially as other sites and servers began copying Deadlock's success with other games, with more extravagant settings and rules, adding ridiculous gimmicks such as pet dragons and false pre cognition and the like. While the older web users still enjoy those, whenever someone remembers Deadlock, they remember positive things. However, Deadlock is dead. Was dead.
See, the server still ran, under new administration of St Deadlock's wife, now widow, named Narcissa Deadlock. She didn't continue the game, instead content to live out her twilight of her years in the old haunts, living on Deadlock's inheritance, hosting minor parties for personal friends at the old Deadlock manner house. It was pretty much her own personal home, living in her own personal achievements.
Of course, Deadlock has so much more to it, if anything, the true meat of its story is yet to begin.
Nerine sat strumming her pale fingers on the wooden desk as she glanced through the fat stack of endless reports in front of her.
Virus attack.
Virus corruption.
Anxiety caused by rogue viruses.
Virus murders someone in limbo.
Reports, each and every one going into pages upon pages of detail- each one a variation of the same problem- viruses wrecking havoc on something, or someone.
"Clay, fetch me some water." She called, looking distressed.
"And a good case to tackle while your at it." She half mumbled a moment afterwards, glancing back down at the stack.
A tall, silver haired boy apparently named Clay came walking in, wearing a black suit with a silver tie, and carrying a tray which had a glass of water and a piece of paper on it.
"Thank you." Said Nerine, delicately taking the water and putting it to her rogue lips for a sip.
Clay looked to the side, still holding the tray with the paper on it, then spoke.
"I believe you also asked for an interesting case. I thought this may stave off your boredom from all this virus business."
Nerine picked up the piece of paper then read it out loud, standing up and smoothing out her dark pink and black suit as she did so, then sat on the table.
"Deadlock is an old server which has been running for many years... where have I heard that name?" She asked herself.
"It was a popular mystery RPG, Miss Nerine, it ran for ten years but has since been inactive since the death of St Deadlock nine years ago. I played for a week once... even got marked as the murderer, so I had to kill a friend of mine I was vacationing with at the time. It was a great laugh, although I think using a knife from my own personal set made it a little too obvious." He chuckled, remembering the fun he had had.
Nerine glanced at him, smiled as if humoring him, and continued reading.
"A series of deaths have been occurring after nine years of inactivity, and these deaths have been killing the user's real bodies. These deaths have been under very odd circumstances, taking place once a week during the usual time frame a murder happened while St Deadlock was running the server still. There has also been an unusual boost in visitors registering accounts on the site, perhaps to try and figure out the murder for themselves, as Narcissa Deadlock is offering a one million credits to whoever gets to the bottom of the servers. A virus scan was performed, and not one virus has been detected near the firewalls guarding the servers in recent records, making it highly likely that this is the handiwork of a highly skilled hacker working directly through an account registered on the account, or an NPC.
We would ask for the immediate assistance of Haven's top operatives to investigate this case."
Nerine smiled, liking the sound of the reward, then she looked down to the bottom of the page.
"Information source from an interview with Narcissa Deadlock."
Clay grinned to match Nerine's sudden determination, which flashed across her face in a sudden burst of energy.
"Alright. Lets take the job and head out, finally this sounds interesting... and of course, your coming too, I'll certainly need someone who knows their ways around such an old place.
Clay put the tray down and opened up his menu, putting on his coat which appeared on his back.
"Ready when you are, Miss Nerine." He said calmly, following Nerine into the passage of limbo with a brisk and loyal walk in synchronised steps with that of one the greatest detectives from Haven.
The server of Deadlock, however, was not designed to be a pretty time to waste your time in. Deadlock was a forum, designed with a specific game in mind, curtsey of the server Admin, St Deadlock.
Every week, a random resident of the town would be marked. No one but St Deadlock, who promised secrecy for the sake of the game, and the marked person knew this. This marked person had 24 hours to kill another resident of the town. This was, of course, a game, so the marked killer could choose not to kill anyone, however this resulted in the killer being banned from Deadlock. The victim, too, would only have his avatar on the server die, and would come back at the end of the game. To prevent cheating, all members of deadlock are also told that someone has been marked, and that they cannot log out. Of course, they sign a document allowing Deadlock to lock them into the game when they make their account in Deadlock. They can only log out once a guess agreed on by the community has been found. Of course, the object of the game was to discover the identity of the killer and the method to which he killed the victim, as a bonus. Usually, the killer was found and he would be left unable to log back into Deadlock for a week, a reasonable agreement. If he won, however, if he found himself able to get away with murder, St Deadlock promised a one million credit reward.
The game was fairly harmless. And in its ten year run, only one person ever got the jackpot, and his name is lost to time, even in this digital age. Some say no one ever won, and it was an advertising stunt to bring in more traffic. There was, after all, a sign up fee for Deadlock. Others say that the winner died, or went into offline retirement.
Either way, Deadlock began to fall into internet obscurity at some point. Some say St Deadlock lost his pride when someone had taken his reserved prize money, but most agree that the game simply got stale, especially as other sites and servers began copying Deadlock's success with other games, with more extravagant settings and rules, adding ridiculous gimmicks such as pet dragons and false pre cognition and the like. While the older web users still enjoy those, whenever someone remembers Deadlock, they remember positive things. However, Deadlock is dead. Was dead.
See, the server still ran, under new administration of St Deadlock's wife, now widow, named Narcissa Deadlock. She didn't continue the game, instead content to live out her twilight of her years in the old haunts, living on Deadlock's inheritance, hosting minor parties for personal friends at the old Deadlock manner house. It was pretty much her own personal home, living in her own personal achievements.
Of course, Deadlock has so much more to it, if anything, the true meat of its story is yet to begin.
Nerine sat strumming her pale fingers on the wooden desk as she glanced through the fat stack of endless reports in front of her.
Virus attack.
Virus corruption.
Anxiety caused by rogue viruses.
Virus murders someone in limbo.
Reports, each and every one going into pages upon pages of detail- each one a variation of the same problem- viruses wrecking havoc on something, or someone.
"Clay, fetch me some water." She called, looking distressed.
"And a good case to tackle while your at it." She half mumbled a moment afterwards, glancing back down at the stack.
A tall, silver haired boy apparently named Clay came walking in, wearing a black suit with a silver tie, and carrying a tray which had a glass of water and a piece of paper on it.
"Thank you." Said Nerine, delicately taking the water and putting it to her rogue lips for a sip.
Clay looked to the side, still holding the tray with the paper on it, then spoke.
"I believe you also asked for an interesting case. I thought this may stave off your boredom from all this virus business."
Nerine picked up the piece of paper then read it out loud, standing up and smoothing out her dark pink and black suit as she did so, then sat on the table.
"Deadlock is an old server which has been running for many years... where have I heard that name?" She asked herself.
"It was a popular mystery RPG, Miss Nerine, it ran for ten years but has since been inactive since the death of St Deadlock nine years ago. I played for a week once... even got marked as the murderer, so I had to kill a friend of mine I was vacationing with at the time. It was a great laugh, although I think using a knife from my own personal set made it a little too obvious." He chuckled, remembering the fun he had had.
Nerine glanced at him, smiled as if humoring him, and continued reading.
"A series of deaths have been occurring after nine years of inactivity, and these deaths have been killing the user's real bodies. These deaths have been under very odd circumstances, taking place once a week during the usual time frame a murder happened while St Deadlock was running the server still. There has also been an unusual boost in visitors registering accounts on the site, perhaps to try and figure out the murder for themselves, as Narcissa Deadlock is offering a one million credits to whoever gets to the bottom of the servers. A virus scan was performed, and not one virus has been detected near the firewalls guarding the servers in recent records, making it highly likely that this is the handiwork of a highly skilled hacker working directly through an account registered on the account, or an NPC.
We would ask for the immediate assistance of Haven's top operatives to investigate this case."
Nerine smiled, liking the sound of the reward, then she looked down to the bottom of the page.
"Information source from an interview with Narcissa Deadlock."
Clay grinned to match Nerine's sudden determination, which flashed across her face in a sudden burst of energy.
"Alright. Lets take the job and head out, finally this sounds interesting... and of course, your coming too, I'll certainly need someone who knows their ways around such an old place.
Clay put the tray down and opened up his menu, putting on his coat which appeared on his back.
"Ready when you are, Miss Nerine." He said calmly, following Nerine into the passage of limbo with a brisk and loyal walk in synchronised steps with that of one the greatest detectives from Haven.
