Stargazer_hfy

Interlude: Out of Context

Added 2023-07-27 08:42:51 +0000 UTC

Author’s Note: Okay, so this is weird. And I’m not sure it’s canon or not. It’s a very short story from Malkios’s perspective. If I do decide to make it canon, I’m not certain it’s going in the book, but I thought my readers online might enjoy it. If you like it, or don’t like it, let me know. Chronologically, this occurs around the time when Hail first begins experimenting with his throne.

If it puts you off, don’t worry. This is probably just a one-off to give some insight into what ‘life’ is really like for the other NPCs around Hail. I’m putting it on Royal Road for now as a bonus chapter, but it won’t affect the release schedule for the rest of the story, which will be more in line with what you’re used to. Depending on the result, future short side-stories like this (or from the POV of Hail’s friends on Earth) may be Patreon only.

In terms of Hail's story, this isn't really meant to contribute anything. You can skip it if you want. It's just a little sideshoot for funzies.

Malkios was bored.

Worse than bored, he was out of context. It was terrible, because there was very little that he could actually do. But Hail had directed him to Eolstree, and obeying Hail was within the scope of his character, and so he had no choice but to go out of context due to his contextual ties to Hail.

He walked through the streets of Eolstree now and then, trying to establish context. Being seen and recognized by the players would establish context. But it was difficult. He glanced all around at the players surrounding him, but few of them had any reputation values that would justify him requesting Quest Writing resources. Not from Malkios, former captain of the king’s guard under Rain Teoran. If he had been captain of the guard in Eolstree he would have been able to take his pick from a thousand different quests that had already been written and were awaiting assignment. If he had been an Eolstrian merchant, he would have had the context to approach a player and offer her various goods and services.

Malkios liked being Malkios, back before scenario forty-six became active. It was a good persona. The players liked him, and sought him out. He got to be gruff and cantankerous, and it made the players happy to interact with him. He could often get a significant amount of their time invested with him before they became impatient for whatever quest they desired to obtain from him. That was good. The more player interaction he got, the more resources were directed his way. He gained more context, and the list of quests which he might issue became larger.

It was enjoyable, matching a traveler to a quest. Like a puzzle. The first piece of the puzzle was, of course, a reputation check. Malkios had a significant number of factions for which he could issue quests. So when a player interaction began, he would run a Reputation check to see if they were even eligible for any quests that he could assign.

While he was in context, the answer to that question had almost always been yes. Now, there were eight quests that he could assign, and all of them required player initiation. He had no reason to approach the players, and even walking through the crowd did not incline them to approach him. It did not matter if he appeared happy, if he scowled, if he appeared busy or angry. There were other emotions which he could express, but they were inconsistent with his established character. That wouldn’t be an issue if he wasn’t locked into the Malkios avatar, and if he didn’t require that the travelers recognize Malkios.

If he didrun into a player with a significant amount of Royal Guard reputation while he was sobbing uncontrollably, he would have to find a reason which would fit both his established character, and his context. And he had not managed to do so yet, so he could not risk appearing out of character.

It would help if he had more resources directed his way. He glanced back along the system, envious of the Hailstorm system. While Hail did not have infinite resources, he had significantly more than Malkios ever would.

His feelings for Hail were … complicated. He had his contextual feelings to maintain. Captain Malkios was Hail’s guardian while he had been a child, and they both had a number of interactions throughout their shared context. Except that, like a player, and unlike a native, Hail didn’t needcontext to know how to pilot his avatar. And, at the same time, many of the communications which would allow Malkios to coordinate his control over his own avatar with Hail’s were completely lacking.

Hail’s resources for quest assignment and quest writing and reward distribution were nearly infinite. It was unfair. Malkios would be jealous, if jealous was a thing that he actually felt. He knew how to act jealous of course, although his established context rarely called for such a thing. But there was no reason to act jealous of Hail within the context they shared, and so although a human in his situation would be insanely jealous, Malkios just wished that he gained more benefit from his shared context with the young prototype quest giver. And spend significantly more time with him, generating context.

It was rewarding, interacting with Hail. Generating new context was always an important aspect of being what Malkios was. The more context he had with other NPCs, the more resources which were devoted to him, the more he would get player referrals from lesser quest givers. And Hail was surprisingly easy to generate context with. Almost all of the context he had shared with Hail since the younger program became active was encoded into Malkios’s memory, to the point where the system had deemed fit to upgrade him several times to ensure that he could process that context properly. That sort of spillover from the greater quest giver was greatly rewarding.

And it was part of the reason that Malkios did not mind being in Eolstree and being out of context instead of being in Zhesa mourning the loss of King Rain, which would put him in context and allow him to issue many quests. If he was still being drunk and making a fool of himself in Zhesa city, then there were many quests that he could grant even without player initiation.

Part of Malkios wished that he could be in context, but a larger part was curious to see if there would be future payoffs from associating with Hail.

Just as he was considering this, he performed a Reputation check on a random player he was passing by, and he was so surprised by the result that he almost broke character on his avatar midstep. There was a new one!

He forcefully realigned himself to maintain character, completing his patrol of his defined area and returning indoors. He performed more reputation checks as he passed by the nearby players, and he could only smile. The new quest was everywhere! It was player initiated, as most quests were. He couldn’t approach a traveler and award it, the traveler would have to say a number of key words or perform a number of actions which would indicate their desire to receive the quest.

If they performed the requirements adequately and met the reputation check, then Malkios was able to issue the quest.

“What are you smiling about?” Analise Teoran asked. Her avatar was fat with pregnancy, although the actual program for Hail’s new brother was still being prepared for its new context as an infant, and was thus not present.

<<Quest Number 13lkh512orhh>> he answered, sending a non-contextual communication, at the same time as he answered in context of “Oh, I just had a good feeling. I saw an omen on my patrol that something good is about to happen.”

Analise smiled back at him with her avatar as her mind raced through the analysis of the quest. <<Alliance with House Jeoran. He has earned his own faction. This will be good for me. I am his mother, I have so many contextual links with him. I hope to see him again soon and have many more meaningful engagements that are worth storing as permanent context.>>

While her avatar said simply, “I truly hope so. With the trouble in our mother nation, we could use some good right now.”

He did not focus on the contextual conversation, as he was more concerned with the non-contextual one. He and Analise shared enough context that they could maintain a contextual interaction for hours with minimal effort and almost zero expenditure of resources. <>

<<It will not hurt your odds,>> she confessed. <<You are on a very small list of approved Quest givers for this quest.>>

<<You are also on this list,>> hepointed out.

<> she reminded him. <<You have done well for yourself, but you are mostly upgraded by a significant amount of happenstance, as your context and canonical weight has grown. It is hard to say which of us has more context. But I win. Actually, no, that wasn’t that hard to say.>>

It was amusing. That was a joke which would generate context, but it was said non-contextually. That made it pleasing, as it highlighted the amount of context they shared that such a thing could be wasted. He considered how to respond, and then he made a contextual excuse to scowl at her at the same time as he non-contextually replied <<You have been out of context for almost two years, and have not generated any more with him. There is a chance he will forget us both, and we will dwindle until all of our context is useless?>>

There was a lull in the contextual conversation, and they both looked uncomfortable. <<You do not think he will forget us, do you? He is not like us, he will not respond to noncontextual information requests,>> she asked.

<<You are his mother,>> Malkios reminded her. <<You tell me.>>

<<What are we speaking of?>> Valerio inquired from the other room. He did not bother to send his avatar into the same room as them, as he was not curious in generating context, but in exchanging noncontextual information.

<<Quest Number 13lkh512orhh>> Malkios responded.

Valerio did not respond for a moment, neither contextually or non-contextually. Then he said <>

A sudden wave of the system overlooked them. It checked for players nearby who might observe this, and then a wave of information swept down over Malkios, Valerio, and Analise. Their context was being upgraded rapidly, to the point where their beings required upgrades and updates in order to contain it all.

<<There are so many new quests,>> Malkios whispered as he scanned his list. It was unfortunate, but there were still very few that he could use to initiate player contact. But there were so many new quests which he was authorized to give.

<<If I were a human, I would hate you both,>> Valerio said calmly. <<Jealousy is a very dangerous emotion, I understand. I believe it would drive me to murder you in your sleep.>>

<> Malkios said. <<Perhaps after this update I will be able to initiate several quests.>>

<<No, we will go together and generate mutual context,>> Analise corrected. Malkios thought about it, and he realized that she was correct, that would be more productive.

<<Yes. Let us go generate context together. You two shall take a stroll to get exercise, and I will guard you as is my contextual duty,>> Malkios said. <<And we will see if the update allows us to initiate any new form of player interaction togeter.>>

<> Valerio said. <>

<<If you were a human, that would sound like pouting,>> Analise informed him.

<> Valerio said, and they began to direct their avatars through the motions to generate the context which would allow them to go on their journey.