Pirated Entertainment VR - Chapter 1(VOTE HERE) (Patreon)

Here she is, our good Amourres! She 'awakens' in a new situation, is she dreaming, or is something else going on?

Posts so far: https://www.patreon.com/posts/27432945 

Written and illustrated by me

THERE ARE TWO VOTES THIS CHAPTER TO DECIDE HER FATE, SEE BELOW

- - - 

 Amourres didn’t remember falling asleep and yet she found herself dreaming. At least, it felt like dreaming. There was a feeling of awareness, the ability to think, but not feel. Moving her limbs did nothing. It was like her wings weren’t even there. The thought was enough to push the Vice Regent to panic, a shivering, creeping sensation that dug into her consciousness and drove her thoughts. She wasn’t dreaming - where was she? What was happening? Had someone plugged her brain into some kind of simulation? 

Another thought hit her like a freight train, and she recalled what she had been doing prior to her current state. Her ‘rescuer’ Eckelson, the bat. The pirate station. The panic she felt drained from her, replaced by icy cold fear. She tried to scream, but had no beak to scream with, no tongue to control.

Hey! Jeeze, calm down in there, you’ll strain something! I mean... not something physical, you ever heard of brain-burn?

The voice cracked through her frantic thoughts, something external. Something to break the dark emptiness. It was enough to pull her back to some form of reality. Her thoughts started racing. She must be in some kind of sim, plugged into some form of computer or another. Lack of interfacing meant whatever was going on was extremely illegal, but that was to be expected from chrome-damned pirates. 

Watch the language ey? We’re the pirates who have the last say on whether or not you get rebooted.

The tone of the voice seemed almost jovial, was that a joke? Either way, it confirmed to Amourres that whatever program they were holding her in, they could read her thoughts. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Eyy, she gets it. Alright, this is the point where we’d do some diagnostics, “Do you remember your name”, “Do you know where you are”, kind of deal but frankly you seem together enough so we’ll skip that and go onto the explanations.

Amourres waited as patiently as she could. Her thoughts were a seething, writhing mass of colourful insults but it wasn’t something she could especially help. To whoever was reading her thoughts, it likely came off as particularly angry background noise. Good. When she got out of this place...

Alright so the deal is, we’re gonna play a little game. That’ll give you a chance to earn some credits and pay back the debt you owe us. 

Debt? What debt? Amourres had more credits than she knew what to do with. 

Eckleson, bless him, wasn’t paid. Which means you owe him debt. We bought that debt, so now you owe us debt. So, the rules are simple. You get yourself from the start of the course to the end. Each room has some fun and some trouble, and we let the Coronet tune into the experience.

Amourres ‘listened’ as best she could, the words drilling into her mind whether she wanted them to or not. But she had no intention of playing their little game.

So the thing is, we stream your little performance and you bring us ad revenue and donations. If you don’t bring us ad revenue and donations, well, let’s just say this is the carrot. You don’t want to know what the stick is. I’ll give you the same advice I give everyone else - just kinda go all out. Have fun with it. The more fun you’re having, the more fun the viewers are having, the more donations we get, the more donations you get. Win win, right? 

If the carrot was being plunged into some kind of donation based obstacle course against her will, Amourres wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know what the stick was. Not at least until she had half an armoury at her disposal and the goons to use it. She would have to go along with this, for now. 

That’s the spirit. Here’s the part where I would show you your options as far as avatars go - but hey, for you Vice Regent, we thought we would bend the rules a little.

Amourres made the equivalent of a digital ‘gulp’. She could swear she heard a chuckle in response.

Instead of picking a new character for you to play, we’re going to let you go into the game as yourself! What a treat! We can’t have anyone doubting who you are, after all. And as an added bonus, we’ll even make a point of advertising this little stream of ours to everyone on your home planet! 

If she could have blushed she would have. Her thoughts were torn between utter embarrassment and anger. She would murder whoever this operator is and bring down this whole damned station when she’s free.

A light slowly came into focus in front of her, she tried to blink but can’t. She wasn't in reality, just yet. The light separated into a series of separate icons, appearing to be simplistic representations of various animals.

Alright, you’re about ready to head in! But we have one last choice to make before we begin! Not for you, but for the audience! Who wants to see the dusty old Vice Regent as she is, after all. Let’s do some character customisation.

The icons came into sharper focus. A pig, a deer, a wolf and a gecko. Above them, the words appeared: “Choose her new species!”. A slider came into focus beneath, with a percentage from zero, to 100 percent. It took seconds for votes to start coming in from viewers across the galaxy, tallies appearing next to each of the icons and the slider jerking forward and backwards, as Amourres began to understand what was happening. They were going to transform her, at least partially, into something else! 

What will the audience pick as Amourres' new species? VOTE HERE

 https://www.strawpoll.me/20406130 =-> Species chosen, the weighted votes have pushed 'bird' over the line! 

 How much will Amourres be changed? VOTE HERE

 https://www.strawpoll.me/20406140 =-> As species isn't changing, no percentage is required here <3