Glitched?

[laughingman]

My friends and I have recently commenced a game of Sburb, unawares (I believe, although there may be a replayer who has chosen not to reveal their prior experience) of the destructive nature of the game. I was fortunate to survive the entry, although two prospective co-players failed to, and the FAQ has been of great assistance in ensuring my initial survival. However, a number of glitches and anomalies have occurred, and I am not certain which are prevalent and which are endemic to our session. As I am unaware of the warning signs, I think the best means of understanding what is abnormal (even for Sburb) would be to present the entirety of the events, so that those with greater expertise may provide advice as to what should be done to resolve the issues we are experiencing. Your input is greatly appreciated!
To begin with, the players. In addition to me there is my brother, AC, who is three years younger, and a competitive devotee of strategy and victory. He is fascinated by war, and fights with an alchemetized sniper rifle not dissimilar to those he wielded in his favourite games pre-entry. Thus far I have tolerated his delusions of superiority, narcissistic perfectionism, and utter amoral selfishness, but he will need bringing under control. It disturbs me how similar he is to my younger self. His server player, GG, I didn't know well pre-entry, and given her recent meteoric demise, it seems unlikely I ever will. She was AC's age, and her irrepressibly excitable nature was a welcome, albeit equally irritating, contrast to my brother's serious, aloof stance. I suppose she was fortunate to avoid the game, as I have no idea what effect the nigh-constant violence against the roving squads of imps would have on her mental state. Her sister, TT, who is of my age, has been affected by her absence, entering another of her negative moods. I hesitate to diagnose hastily, but a comparison to a mild case of bipolar disorder may provide some idea of her cyclic nature. Despite this, she is currently making an admirable effort to observe and consider the nature of the game. The other player to suffer a premature fiery end was my friend CG. A quiet person, prone to only speaking to make a clever or insightful point and an avid drummer, he got on well with everyone, and was an excellent listener, with even CA having opened up to him, although he would never admit to doing so. To be frank, him and GG would have been a vital asset in keeping spirits up - I just can't do anything to make anyone feel better other than go through their concerns and eliminate the ones that make no sense, and fears of imp-induced injury and upset at the mass meteor massacre are horribly valid. The last guy to enter was GA. He's brash and can be what some might consider a weird asshole at times, but he does seem to truly be a nice guy who takes a joke a little too far a little too often. There is also AA and CC. The former is a japanophile who loves to write fanfiction and put on self-written one-girl plays, and the latter a jack-of-all-sports, and they are outward-going and introverted, respectively.
I'll add information on the additional online correspondents of mine who appear to have survived without participation in Sburb, assuming they also inhabit Earth, and begin a chronological log of the events up to and after the entry in order to list the anomalous occurences, once I clear my house of imps again. I'm reasonably certain a couple just went to my room for sloppy makeouts. Reiterating my previous enquiry, just how 'normal' are these glitches?

[laughingman]

Having returned from interrupting a canoodling couple of underlings, (Seriously, what is wrong with this game? I hope this nonsense isn't common) I'll start on the other friends.
There are eight of them, too, although you'd think there were about half that as a few rarely talk. The only evidence for their existence is that they show up on everyone's chumroll, and apparently they speak to a couple of the others. The ones that I think I know best would probably be DC, who's an interesting guy, since he gets drawn into discussions easily and likes to speak his unusual views, and DD, who's really funny if you get to know her and can deal with her. GA gets on well with HS and SD, while the other CC isn't really popular with anyone, due to her being quite demanding and unpleasant. Yes, there are two CCs. Fortunately, they're completely different in personality, so it's reasonably straightforward to determine the identity. Finally, we have HH, CH and SS, none of whom does much in the way of communication. I've attempted to talk with them, but replies are either at a glacial pace and don't make much effort, as with CH, or not at all, for the other two.
We began playing Sburb on a day that appeared reasonably normal. There was a serendipitous coincidence of a clear sky, a light-pollution-eliminating city-wide blackout and a small non-apocalyptic meteor shower as we started, meaning I missed out on a large proportion of the pre-entry shenanigans my brother was having downstairs as I stargazed from the roof of our apartment block, but I don't know if that happens before every game, if it was pure chance, or if it has any significance, but it meant I was the penultimate player to (successfully) enter, after I saw the meteors descending and leaped off the roof with a Cruxite Parachute before warning the remaining three. CG died getting GA in, while once AC had entered, it was too late for GG. Since it was something of a rush to get in, I'm not aware of anything being prototyped before entry - I accidentally made the ever-bothersome Protomangasprite by accident literally simultaneously to GA describing his impressive Butlersprite he produced after arriving in his land. I remain uncertain as to whether he was looked after by a butler before Sburb, or if it's an ongoing joke with him and he simply inserted a relevant object to create a similar effect. Having talked to the other players, it appears that although they have now created sprites of varying utility, none were prototyped beforehand. My brother's attempts to secondary prototype his sprite have been unsuccessful thus far - it behaves in a similarly evasive manner to those twice-prototyped when faced with additional additions. Is this another glitch? Nonetheless, it's what lead me to find the FAQ and this forum. I'm certainly not going to let anyone know about it though, in case they discover the issue with the "Ultimate Reward", as I think knowing we'll have to keep playing until death would push some people over the edge.
Having successfully located an axolotl, as they don't appear to seek me out as the others have reported theirs do, I started attempting to ascertain the roles of our players. The good news is, no Mist weirdness to obfuscate things. The bad news is that the number of players is glitched or something. Most of the time they will say there are six players once I coax them into including me, as I seem to be a Void player, but then they start mentioning "those other guys". Apparently, depending on who (and when!) you ask, there are either two or eight additional players, either "those who must reassert their dominance" or "princes and princesses drawn from the Veil to fight for their people, that they do not belong to". Which is... interesting. I'm going to have to talk a lot more with the non-playing friends, I think.
So, in this session, we have the Sage of Void, me, and going by the additional details I got from pressing further, my brother's the Heir of Hope, and TT's a Scout of Time. I think GA's the Bane of Doom, but I'm not sure who of CC and AA is Maid of Stars and who is Rogue of Dreams

[laughingman]

Having read the section on corruption, I'm thinking that I'll post all conversations I have from now on, so you can provide warning if symptoms occur in conversation, but it may be my friends simply are eccentric. Hopefully the latter Kepleresque explanation will suffice. The group discussion is first - please suggest any ideas you think of.
AT: Hello, everyone.
AT: Are we all safe for the moment?
GA: hell yeah
GA: every imp round my parts now has a facefull of lead
GA: Ive been spraying left right and centre
AT: I'm glad to hear it, Ryan.
GA: blasting em with the hot stuff straight from my long hard tube
AT: Thank you, Ryan.
TT: Shut up Ryan
AT: Are you also okay, Tess?
TT: Is that a good question to ask the girl with the hours-dead sis?
AT: I'm sorry
TT: I am safe for the moment, though
AT: Are you safe, though?
AT: Oops. Great minds think alike, I guess.
TT: Anyway, don't treat this all as a game
GA: i thought it was a game though
GA: did i not get the memo re
GA: thisll destroy the world hey lets play anyway for shits and giggles
AT: It is a game, but it seems to be a sadistic one, with lethal consequences.
AT: Not to mention the bizarre glitches.
AT: Do the enemies make out sometimes for you guys, too?
AA: :) <(They did for me, too!)
AA: :D <[IT WAS ADORABLE]
AA: :) <(That pair are the only ones left for me)
AA: ;) <(I'm leaving them to it)
AT: So the other imps weren't fans of your specibus, Kate?
AA: >:) <(They really weren't!)
AA: XP <(Oh, your puns, argh)
AT: Lucy, are you there?
CC: yes
AA: :) <(Great! What about Alex?)
AT: I remain unaware of his activities. Until he has reason to recommence communication with us and connects to Ryan, that will remain to be the situation. However, I suspect his observation of public conversation will continue, even if his participation does not.
AA: :? <(My chamelions still don't say there are less than six players, so he's okay. Any news on that weirdness?)
AT: Exactly the topic I was to proceed onto. No, I have yet to ascertain the provenance of the additional participants.
AA: :/ <("Player" sounds too willing, doesn't it?)
AT: However, if you ask them what your purpose is, they give you an odd title. For example, I must apparently be the Sage of Void.
CC: like in rpgs? that sort of role?
AT: Exactly, it seems.
AA: :D <(Like one of our campaigns we used to play!)
GA: yeah one of als
GA: right down to rocks fall everyone dies
TT: What, Jess died because she didn't make a reflex save?!
GA: hey I didnt tell them to have dexterity for a dump stat
TT: And Will just pissed off the DM? Insensitive prick!
GA: whatever anyway I use my search skill hey whats that on the floor there
GA: looks like some parallel metal rails running down the tunnel hmm what could that possibly be
AT: We can only hope that analogy is unwarranted
AT: Until we have a clearer understanding of what route the locomotive of metaphor is taking, it would be prudent to avoid aggravating the conductor, and look out for any signal boxes to tamper with.
AT: And I would also recommend we don't cause the other passengers distress, Toby.
GA: okay just joking anyway
AT: It would seem that we should attempt to fulfil our role while we endure the journey. Acting as the conductor expects could help alleviate suspicion on his part until we find a means to hijack the vehicle and divert ourselves from any further fiery trainwrecks.
AA: :? <(I'd be fine with the roleplaying, if only I knew what a Rogue of Dreams had to do)
TT: And how do you scout time? Other than living through it at the same rate as everyone else?
AT: I'm not sure. Steal and share ideas?
AT: Scout with time travel?
AA: :[ <(Okay, I guess)
GA: duck no i hate time travel
GA: *fuck
GA: ducking predictive typing
GA: agghaghaggflagh
TT: Ha. Time travel is worryingly easy for me to accept at this point
CC: i'm... made... of stars?
GA: haha that is such a bullshit class
GA: hey Im bane of doom how bout you?
GA: yeah my role is to just sit here and be a bunch of balls of burning gas
GA: stupidest thing Ive heard in one hell of a dumbass day and its still brunchtime
CC: oh... maid of stars
GA: well whatever
GA: I better get some sweet special moves for my one
AT: Yes, experimentation does seem an appropriate initial protocol, although let's avoid anything overly ambitious or dangerous until our understanding improves.
GA: btw I been alchemetizing some neat stuff
GA: lemme know more bout your powers an Ill see what I can do
AA: :^) <(What are you thinking of?)
GA: not telling
AT: On the topic of alchemy, could you each send me your codes for your communication devices of choice? I intend to create more portable, convenient hands-free versions, since typing while fighting imps is a challenge, I've found.
TT: Okay. Shall we have another memo at 12:00?
AT: Good idea. Until then, we stay near crystalanths or home as agreed, exploring dangerous regions in pairs?
AA: :D <(Cool! Let's go, Lucy! Remember those ruins by the portal to your land?)
CC: ...yes? okay
GA: I need more grist anyway

Is there anything I could've done better, or should mention to help them? I will try and give hints on improving their roleplaying, and if asked, I'm going to explain away the information acquired from the FAQ as received as quest rewards linked to my role. In the mean time, I intend to go on a few real quests to get the feel for my class abilities, or lack thereof, and use the resulting Grist to create duplicates of everyone's items for communication in addition to creating hands-free versions, for monitoring purposes. I suppose it could be regarded as amoral, but I have no vested interest other than ensuring the continuation of our combined existence through observing for any inadvisable actions. I'll also attempt to ascertain the nature of these mysterious additional players, who, based on the view from my telescope, have yet to join us in the session.

[laughingman]

I had an interesting conversation with DC while working on completing this Tower of Hanoi knockoff straight out of a Bioware RPG. My new CellWatch seems to work well (Digital watch && Smartphone || Crysis 2 disc, side-effect of rearranging the cracks in my Smartphone screen into a hexagon pattern for the watch), and his responses were interesting. Any thoughts?
AT: Hello.
DC: Oh, hey, Mike
AT: Would you be inclined to indulge a few questions from me?
DC: Uh, what question would it be?
DC: I guess ask away and I'll answer if I want to
AT: Well, firstly, how much do you know about the game we're playing?
DC: Would I be right in guessing it's important if that's your first question?
DC: I know HH sent you all your copies personally, but not why she'd do that. What sort of game is it, anyway?
AT: Well, I've never played a similar game to it, and I've played a few. It's certainly a unique experience.
AT: Regardless, how is your situation?
DC: Uh, is there a reason you always use the longest words you can? I guess I'm pretty good, even if HS is getting all worked up again. He started muttering about destiny again, which is never a good sign.
AT: I suppose it's as I enjoy exercising the full extent of my vocabulary. Although the resulting verbosity can pose a challenge to effective communication, it would appear.
AT: Destiny? Really? Surely he'd have thought about it enough to dismiss it as indistinguishable from a series of improbable coincidences by now.
DC: Yeah, destiny is about as fake as shit gets
DC: He's very willing to give up any idea of free will just for a sense of purpose.
AT: And consequently deny all responsibility for his failings. He seems a lot less vocal about his belief in predetermination following a victory, though.
DC: That's right, I've always wanted to point that out to him whenever he's performing one of his legendary infinite victory laps after a game of Chivalry.
AT: So you two reside in the same location?
DC: Like you and Alex? No, but we bunk near enough that we go to the same cybersuite
DC: I mean Internet cafe.
AT: Isn't that expensive to go to every day? Wouldn't it be more economically viable to make a one-off purchase of your own console?
DC: Is that what you guys do? It's easier since the hardware there is pretty cutting-edge, and they always have new games as they come out. Also, we get this discount, too.
AT: That seems like a pretty convenient system. Anyway, anything interesting happening in the near future in your area?
DC: Uh, there's this big national holiday thing coming up, but it's kinda tradition not to discuss it. I'm looking forward to it though.
AT: That sounds interesting.
DC: Oh, sorry, did I make you curious? The secrecy is part of the whole point, I think.
AT: It's certainly not an issue. Your concern is appreciated, though.
DC: That's good, I guess.
DC: Hey, sorry, I gotta go now. CC's bugging me on 64^2. You know how she is with not giving up, huh?
AT: Definitely. That's not a problem, talk to you later!
DC: Well, bye, I guess


AT: DD? Are you available for communication?
DD: ~sigh~ I don't really have anything to do ~other~ than communicate, at the moment
AT: Excellent. I was wondering if I could ask you a few things?
DD: You know ~I~'m the one supposed to ask ~you~ the questions, right?
AT: I'm willing to cooperate with that. Acquiring information need not necessitate asking questions.
AT: At least, not me asking them.
DD: We~ll, what questions did you want to ask me?
AT: I was planning on asking about a certain imminent festival of significant secrecy, your awareness of specific other important occurrences, and for clarification on the distinction between your group and that of DC, and on the restriction imposed on my asking questions.
DD: First off, what gives you the impression it's a restriction on you, not a restriction on me answering them?
AT: I suppose it would be your frequent haste in reminding me of the fact.
AT: Or would that be a hypothesis?
AT: Regardless of the terminology, it appears my presumption was flawed. Your past responses are consistent with you having been unwilling to reveal any such restriction through avoiding answering the question directly, instead imposing an additional, fictitious restriction, as a diversion.
AT: Impressive.
AT: So it follows that it is permissible for me to ask a question of you, but not for you to directly respond?
DD: ~whistles~ Sorry, but I couldn't possibly say S~o, what would these other events of significance that you refer to be?
AT: That depends on which one you're referring to.
AT: I suppose you would be forced to ask about each one specifically in order to ascertain the extent of my awareness.
DD: W~ell, what have you learnt of the upcoming masquerade, or the recent developments in the joint military exercises between representatives of my people and DC's?
AT: I'm cognizant of this masquerade being a similarly joint event, although not of what is entailed other than a great degree of secrecy. I'm also aware of some influence my friends may have had on the situation, although not the specifics.
DD: S~o, you don't know about the first happening in three days, or of the latter having been in progress for a while?
DD: I can't think of any other ~questions~, unless you have a suggestion?
AT: No, nothing from me, but it's been nice speaking to you again.
DD: A breath of fresh air!

Well, that was enlightening. If my understanding is correct, I should have some atypical dream events ahead, although I'm not significantly closer in my understanding of the root cause.
In addition, it appears my initial dismissal of the puzzle was somewhat prejudicial. Upon completing the tower transferal, the mysterious chest at the other end of the corridor with mysterious indentations in the walls did not open as expected, instead being dropped into an apparently bottomless pit. It then became apparent the puzzle was a means of evacuating the chamber of imps spawned following the looting, according to the previously ignored carvings. I suppose it makes for a fitting first quest for a sage of void, and a suitable, if heavy-handed, message of not succumbing to overconfident assumptions. On the other, equally-heavy hand, the chest would likely have been empty, assuming my understanding of the process of Sburb is correct, with the intention of delivering some similarly-meaningful and lacking in material reward end to the quest.
At least, as material as you can get with gameplay abstractions.

[laughingman]

After completing several more dungeons, each similarly unrewarding for much the same reason, I have come to the conclusion that I'm likely in the incorrect mindset for Void quests, or they simply lack any reward. In either case, there's no reason for me to continue to do them to no avail for now, and if it's the former I'd be best off attending the in-person meeting we now have planned for noon. Nothing says mystery and ignorance to me more than interacting with other people. I'll update this as it goes on.
The first task was to arrive at the chosen rendezvous, namely Lucy's house, in her Land of Diamonds and Moss. For safety, it was decided that the risks of the journey would be ameliorated through travelling the minimum duration with the maximum number of people, so I was able to add a mapping function to my CellWatch (&& Satnav || Ten Tors 45 miles medal. The latter component does appear to introduce unexpected additional waypoints to the route, with a preference for difficult terrain, but as one such diversion happened to be a Skaian Summoning, it seems to be a generally beneficial modification) while I waited for Tess to arrive from her land, Grains and Blur if I recall accurately.
Irrespective of her land, she was red-eyed when she arrived, so I greeted her with a hug, and we proceeded to the portal to Lucy's mostly wordlessly. One benefit of the quests were that they gave me time to think about how to handle her, and I've come to the realisation that my lack of understanding means my typical verbal method of reassurance has generally proven ineffective with her past pessimistic periods. There was little to note about the journey, other than a somewhat challenging encounter with a squad of Class Imps, which required repeated use of her alchemetized Minuteglass (Hourglass && Stopwatch || Clocky motorized alarm clock + time aspect?) to determine the best means of resolution, given the difficulties posed by the Knight and Page Imps guided by the Seer Imp. Once I'd successfully thrown the combat class ones into the bamboo stands endemic to my planet, it was significantly easier to isolate and deal with the remainder of them, using her Stickkind and my newly-acquired Shieldkind in conjunction with my original Bodykind specibus. (If you have prior warning of the arrival of a combat Class Imp, I recommend leaving out weak weapons of a type you'd like to be able to use, then defeat the Imp, a Dame in my case, and have yourself a new specibus to strife with! I'm surprised it's not in the FAQ already, really, seeing as you could probably use it to get quite the selection of specibi with enough patience).
After having reached Lucy's land, it was then a matter of reaching her house, a task made easier by the improvements made by Kate which meant the suburban bungalow had been converted into a red-brick tower, rising above the landscape of moss-encrusted diamond that sparkled under the too-bright bluish sun in the sky. Sburb might be a sadistic internet-degree child therapist, but it certainly knows how to procedurally generate a beautiful landscape. Again, the journey was mostly easy, although the bare planes of diamond where moss had failed to take hold were quite slippery and intensely chilly, despite the warmth of the sunlight.
For the sake of everyone's legs after the trip, Kate had created an improvised elevator to render the ascent to the newly-built top floor of the bungalow much easier. There, she had arranged a trio of sofas, where her and Lucy were already sat, and where we had just joined them when Ryan entered. One of her consorts, a purple gecko, was attempting to serve drinks, made difficult by its apparent inability to let go of the cups it was carrying.
We began by checking up on each other, then began discussing what we'd learnt. Kate was the most active in this discussion - she'd managed to create some of those dream constructs to distract underlings she was fighting, based off attacks from mangas she'd read, and came up with some ideas for how the others could better use their abilities. I suggested she keep some ideas for dream shenanigans reserved for emergencies, so they aren't diluted by previous use, which she seemed happy with. Lucy's starting to get the hang of her gravity abilities, although she's having difficulty sitting still, and it was sweet how embarassed she got when everyone started applauding when she stood on the ceiling. Since her and Kate seem to have an unbreakable union going on, there should be some interesting shenanigans coming out of that pair. Ryan claimed to have some impressive doom abilities, but although none of us could see them, he was pleased when I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't just faking it. Tess grudgingly demonstrated her ability, and I explained that I didn't seem to have anything much except for the health deletion gimmick currently, and that I might be receiving advantageous information from unorthodox albeit apparently reliable sources (The Glitch FAQ) but I'd be an ineffective Sage of Void if I revealed the provenance of my knowledge, for more reasons than one.
Ryan then began the discussion on the enemies. His Birdshot Six-Shooter (Shotgun && Revolver || Key?) had an impressive set of notches in it, and he'd apparently spent a good length of time clearing his land of imps, so we listened to his observations. In general, the underlings seem pretty easy, unless in groups, well-equipped, or "goin all black barbed wire calamari on me", as Ryan so eloquently put it, which sounds suspiciously similar to Other corruption. Can underlings also be susceptible to that condition?
Ryan then took his sylladex light gun out, and began attempting to retrieve some items, all of which went flying at Lucy. (Stars effect?) Between the piles of shotgun cartridges and beef jerky, though, he had made some genuinely thoughtful items for us. Kate got the One-Way Ticket Outta Kansas, a fan capable of creating small dust clouds when swung that appeared to have been folded out of a used, oversized railway ticket. (Fan && The Wizard of Oz || Used ticket) Lucy was the recipient of a simple white dress that nonetheless gave some impressive bonuses to pluck and flummoxie. (Alchemy TBA) He gave Tess his selection of video games involving time travel for alchemical materials, and I was pleased to receive Ned's Defense, a metal-reinforced duster that was apparently an alchemical prototype for his own armor, the Boilerplate Full Plate (Coat && Stove door || Ned Kelly biography and Stove door || A Fistful of Dollars && A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court && Suit of Armor, respectively.)
After that, I took out the communications devices I'd created. The Imps had been dropping enough captchalogue cards that I was able to store them all in the D-block for ease of retrieval. Once again, they all were launched straight to Lucy. Ryan got a speech recognition flexible phone he could wear as a neckscarf (Scarf && Iphone || Microphone). For Kate, (Cellphone && Half a broken pair of sunglasses || Dragon Ball Vol. 1 || Mass Effect 1) made a visor thing like Garrus had, except I think the HUD just increases the size of everyone's eyes and display their Mangrit or the female equivalent, but I can't remember the name of it. I couldn't make anything with actual time properties for Tess, but I suggested experimenting with navigational tools and clocks for her armguard. For Lucy, I made a Hikikomori Headband, (Laptop && Scarf || Way of the Samurai book) since it grants good psy-buffs for being calm and zen, which should help increase the likelihood of Ocean Stars Falling coming into play in a dangerous combat scenario wait what I'm brainwashing my friend to accept death what is this game doing to me.

[laughingman]

Having finished the meeting with a check of everyone's independent survivability, and with the determination of our respective current responsibilities, (Tess being our temporal consultant, Ryan the underling termination protocol developer, Lucy our dungeoneering specialist, Kate the inspiration distributor, and I the lore repository) we each departed, either alone or together, to commence projects pertaining to our decided tasks. For me, I concluded the most suitable subject of investigation would be the dreaming world, to better ascertain additional details of the nature of our session, and so I should begin as early as possible to prepare others for their eventual awakenings once my house was suitably secure.
Having examined the various dreaming resources available online, it seems an ineffective attempt to wake on whichever dream moon I inhabit would result in a night of sleep wasted that had the potential for significant advances to be made. Therefore, I decided to experiment with a hopefully more time-efficient approach, by setting an alarm to activate half an hour after I started trying to sleep, so if my sleep coefficient was insufficient, I would have ample time to attempt an adjustment to that state.
Upon my first attempt, I was woken by the alarm following a familiar, recurring dream that I now remember experiencing previously and subsequently forgetting following my awakening after each occurrence. The dream consisted of me floating through a space of impenetrable darkness, until my arrival in a vast purple-toned library, of rows of tall shelves stacked with great tomes. Once there, I floated over to a shelf several rows away from the starting position, and began reading with a sense of urgency from a dry philosophical tome detailing what I afterwards realized was a portion of the lore of the game. Then, awoken abruptly by the alarm, I sat up, back in my room, now aware of a series of numbers written on the wall by my bed, in ascending order, of a format reminiscent of the Dewey Decimal system. It appears I have made such nocturnal expeditions a total of 495 times previously, each time recording my progress to continue from my previous position, which I repeated as an unconscious reflex. However, I doubted the value of the time spent in this way, given the potential revelations resulting from direct investigation of the moon and its mysterious inhabitants, and so began my endeavor to obtain access to the dream moon.
The game-intended means of sleep coefficient augmentation struck me as costly in time, unreliable, and difficult to intentionally initiate. Consequently, I went on a short perambulation using the anomalous route planning feature to chart a random route, which, by either coincidence or the nature of the coding, lead me to various locations of interest in a 5-kilometer radius of my home, specifically 1 concealed consort village, 2 dungeons, and 3 land beds, the latter of which, after discovery through prudent use of my alarm on my watch, I excavated carefully with a technique likely only available to Void players: as attacks from such a participant have a deleterious effect on game code, I found I had the capability to delete cubic regions from the terrain, with the size varying with the apparent magnitude of the attack, which permitted me to extract the natural furniture by repeatedly impacting the ground bordering them with fists, elbows and feet in an offensive manner. This completed, I then returned to my residence to deposit them atop each other, beside my true bed, set my alarm once more, and commenced my second attempt at nocturnal exploration.
The effect of the bed-stacking on my sleep coefficient, and the resulting clarity and lucidity of my dreaming, was profound. I found myself once more within the abyssal gloom, but this rapidly resolved into a purple otherwise near-perfect plagiarism of my room in reality, disturbing in the similarity to my original sleeping quarters, although lacking the recent addition of a trio of excavated earth platforms, and the damage resulting from the initial experimentation with the client players' powers. I began testing the dream self flight abilities, and was attaining a reasonable degree of confidence until the alarm disrupted my sleep once more. I proceeded to deactivate it, perform a final check on the security of my house, and subsequently began my first true foray into the dark kingdom of Derse.