*Arcadia, Town N°1*
'... 6 days already since we started this game!' says Danielo, Babel's fan favorite actor and movie director, as he's looking towards the digital screen his watch is displaying.
After cleaning the place and getting familiar with it, he spent two days sitting on one of those old theatre seats trying to figure out what's the task he's assigned to do!
Apparently, players inside the game do not feel the need to either sleep or eat, though, they are able to, if so they chose, and as seen in Levon's case, food can enhance some abilities of theirs, the same still needs to be proven in the case of sleep.
"...So, I should write this thing called "play"? that's very similar to writing a movie script, though I never really had to write it manually so that will be a challenge in itself, but... What should it be about?" he says, while scratching his head.
With a pen intertwined between his fingers, he starts turning the blank pages of the medium size copy book he collected earlier on. From outside, it has an intriguing classical shape, and even though the yellowish white papers look old, they're in good condition nonetheless.
Danielo. "What should the play be about?" He asks out loud.
"...No answer yet again, no matter how I phrase it the watch refuses to respond to this specific question! Why is that? That is literally the most important detail! In all my career starting from when I was 12, I had to direct movies based on demand, what other way could there be?"
After few moments of silence, his eyes widened!
"Wait a moment, I can simply ask Valvesteen or Rosaleen, or one of the others! Why did It take me this long to figure that out? Silly me... Alright then, let's get going." He stands up.
"Now again, which one of their places is the closest from here?"
...
..
.
In the closest place, Rosaleen is also struggling to figure out her task, though she had already started doing something. It helped that she was a painter and a drawing artist, all she had to do was understand the utility of the material she was given. In Babel, she used to draw digitally in 3D in a similar fashion to Valvesteen, which explains the rivalry and resentment she sometimes exhibits when he's around.
But now, she must do it manually on white & large hard papers, the likes of which manga artists used long time ago, even the material she acquired is identical to theirs.
The question remains, what should she draw?
She looks visibly frustrated... "Damn it! I'm not used to holding such thing, it kind of hurts my fingers. And I can't even draw anything straight!! FUCK!!!"
She angrily throws the pencil away and sits down, holding her head in agony.
'How can it be? Did I really lose all my ability... all my talent!!? Me! ME?! The princess of all humans, the queen of Art!!! This can't be...
I need to contact him, I can't exist like this, I need to tell dad to give me my abilities back!!!
She screams loudly, and tears started falling from her colored beautiful eyes, it's almost as if she's losing her mind.
Suddenly, she stops!
"...Does this mean, the same is happening to everyone else? Including Valvesteen?!" she asks herself, while appearing peculiar. "Yeah right, for sure, Dad actually said it back then... I just didn't pay much attention that I almost forgot. All artists lost their abilities!
Damn it, why us and not any other kind of players? I hate being on the same level of these noobs... But, I'll look to the bright side, this can turn out to be my chance to take over as the headmaster of the Art Institution, and finally surpass him!
Yes. That's how I should think about it, just calm down Rosaleeen, pick the pencil and try to remember and imitate each and every step you made to reach the level you had reached. The level that made me draw posthuman art like no one else in the world!!"
After her long internal external soliloquy, she picks up the pencil, puts the papers on the desk in front of her, manifests all the material out of her watch, and like a newly born baby, tries to make her first baby steps.
...
..
.
More or less, the same can be said about Amare, Marco, Leyla, and Daman's journey. So far, they understood the basics, but failed to decode the mission ahead of them. Naturally, they were driven to learn how to use the tools in a way that makes them able to produce the same thing they used to do nonchalantly before losing their talent and skills.
Easier said than done, they will all realize, that they are never again meant to be who they once were...
However, one artist out of the 7 has a drastically different experience so far, Nina!
After tasting the forbidden fruit, Nina has fallen into the pleasure of gluttony, she couldn't focus on her mission, in fact she completely forgot about it, as she indulged in tasting every type of food she found in her place!
One bite from an apple was enough to unlock a sensation she never knew she had in her before, let alone multiple bites from other extremely delicious food. Not to forget, that even the most basic vegetables before the natural revolution taste like they're heavenly meals for humans today, when compared to the artificial food consumed everywhere today.
This has caused her dopamine to levels comparable to that of a cocaine or heroin addict overdosing just enough to reach the stars and not actually die. The sole difference is that food isn't poisonous; luckily, there are no dangers of death.
While she was binging like a hungry child, she hears the bell ringing, and immediately runs towards the door.
Valvesteen stood outside the door so calmly, with a still look in his face, no smiles this time around. But the moment he saw how Nina opened the door so abruptly, and jumped on him like an anaconda swirling around its prey, he was surprised and didn't know how to react for a moment.
"H..HEY! What's up with you Nina?"
Without answering, she tries to kiss him, but he avoids her lips in the last second. 'What the hell, she doesn't normally act this way, her eyes look weird and her temperature is a bit high, I can even feel the blood circulating in her body at an abnormal rate.
"Valvesteeeen please kiss me, hug me!! I miss youuu!!" She says, like a drunkard.
Grey results to power; he breaks her grip and holds her from her arms tightly.
"STOP IT NINA! What's going on? You're not normal!"
Nina. "Oh come on!! I feel so good right now don't you.. *burps* see?"
"...Oh no!" Valvesteen catches that burp and quickly connects the dots, he might not have his artistic self anymore, but he retains his superhuman intelligence.
He touches her belly, and Nina quickly holds his hand and keeps it there, thinking he's trying to make a move on her. But he was checking if it's full or not, and it sure was.
"How much did you eat that u became like this!?" He asks her.
Though he may sound worried, his face does not show it, and in fact he isn't really worried, after all, what is worry to him, or to anyone today?
Nina. "OH OH Yes, I ate a lot, I didn't do anything these days except eating, and it is so gooooood!! Valvesteen, come with me, let's eat together, you will feel like never before I promise!" She drags him inside, and he willingly goes in.
On their way to where the food is stored, Valvesteen contemplates her state.
"...She must have felt that same feeling I did when I took that bite, over and over again, til the point that she is right now unconscious, or is she? Maybe she's too conscious... to the point where she doesn't feel the need to stop herself from doing anything she wants. I know she lusts over me, but, she isn't the type to make the first move, and be direct with it, which is rare in our days to say the least. But now, she's totally different! All of that is because of food? Was this the effect it had on people back then? If that's true, I can only imagine how they lived...'
"Here, take this one Valvesteen, it's called an orange, it's so sweet and watery but make sure to peel it off, I just learnt this from the watch, wait let me do it for you." She says, excitingly.
"No, wait Nina!" he stops her. "You don't know if this is dangerous or not, you were too reckless doing this without asking me. I should've warned you about it but it skipped my mind, I didn't think you'd do this." He starts scolding her.
Nina's large ecstatic smile slowly shrunk. "But...It's not..."
"No, I'm disappointed in you Nina. Did you start your mission? You're not here to eat, are you? Or you're planning to stay and not advance? All of us lost our abilities so don't think I'll wait for you to finish whenever you want!" He tells her, firmly.
His strategy was to actually make her feel bad in a way that will lower her dopamine and excitement levels and counter the effect of the food she ate.
And it worked! After calming down a bit, she said. "... You're right, I apologize, I didn't think right, I don't know what happened to me but I couldn't stop after the bite you gave me... At first I only wanted to taste them so I understand what combinations of food will work best in cooking, but..."
Valvesteen puts his hand on Nina's head. "Fine, I understand.
Continue Nina... but what?"
Nina. "I just can't explain it...It made me feel like, there is something more, something beyond everything we've known before.
Something beyond me... somewhere that I really want to be in, somewhere I long to and yearn for, but I just don't know what it is, or where it is...
I just know that it exists."