#torkil aymore

[devitalization]

another video from the game files; it's the splash behind the credits! enjoy this 1-minute long clip of torkil.

[tacticalvalor]

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@vendettamuses SAID:

🐤 - Lutz abt 314

SEND ME A 🐤 FOR A TWEET MY MUSE WOULD MAKE ABOUT YOURS || ACCEPTING

// Listen. Finding out your entire life has been nothing but a simulation, and then having your brain taken over by a previous iteration of yourself à la Johnny Silverhand has been... a ride and a half.

[devitalization]

↻ᴹᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ ˡᵒᵃᵈᵉᵈ ꒰ original character.txt now available ꒱

that said, i would like to introduce my gamedec to you guys! details are still work-in-progress and subject to change, but it is the character i did a video playthrough with, so what is canon within the series (via that playthrough; i did change the name for my youtube, though) is canon to it...

and yes, my gamedec uses it/its pronouns.

featured above are its official appearance (what i would consider its net avatar), and its alternate appearance (what i would consider its real world appearance)

this is lutz rosenhain. it is a former doctor who comes from low city. however, circumstances with its work and interpersonal life have led lutz to pursue more lucrative work behind the scenes. this is how it became a gamedec. a more expanded summary is as follows:

꒰ lutz was born in low city, the slums. cramped housing, inadequate resources, synthetic light, etc etc. it was a street doctor for the longest time, working in the low city clinics and rendering what aid was possible in these environments. lutz had to "get with the times", and began to indulge in hacking/tech stuff on the side. integrated some into the medical aspect of things, then ultimately went freelance when the clinic it worked at shut down due to funding and resource issues. it saved up enough to move to the mid city, where it became a game dec and kinda got a start-up going there. ꒱

now living higher up in the polis, lutz is still very much an outsider. its eccentric sense of style and reserved personality make it an intriguing individual. talkative, but not cordial. formal, to a "surprising" degree. lutz much prefers speaking in professional circles than those that are more interpersonal and intimate, and as such keeps everyone at an arm's distance. more commentary from when i was explaining its character to a friend:

꒰ the cases in the actual game are like… the breakthroughs. lutz has done some prior, but the first case with mr. haggis and his son are like, the cases that break the glass ceiling.

then the plot just kinda goes from there. lutz helps mr. haggis' son, then helping solve the whole thing with the nanette foundation and the orphan kids, then poor ken dying and the hon clan… and the can of worms that all opens. ꒱

some miscellaneous facts include:

during the investigation, whilst at twisted and perverted (t&p), lutz allowed umbra to engage in some… kinky interrogation. it was very much into the knifeplay and codeplay, and as such would have likely been a recurring visitor to the game world before the investigation.

and more in-depth plot points / explanations are below the "read more", as it contains spoilers for the game.

this summary was taken from discord messages between me and another, so bear with any spelling issues:

꒰ these breakthrough cases just fuckin,, get so dark

the first one is bad enough, with this billionaire's son (who, like his father, has a nice problem of molesting staffers) getting lost in a game world dedicated to bdsm and other taboo interests, stuck in a loop of his own creation (fucking and eviscerating a hooker) by a mysterious third party entity.

and then the second case is like "oh, this won't be so bad. it's a cute farming game". wrong! the in-game sheriff is an older teenager who "liberated" a bunch of fellow orphans from the nanette foundation (a place to give houseless children resources and education through tech) to practically drug them, enslave them, and grind this game so they could turn real world profit by selling off accounts.

then ken is like "hey, chief, i've got my own thing going on, can you help me?" and you agree. and then you end up going to the meeting spot the next day only to find ken dead from an apparent suicide, which turns out to be a murder.

then! then! as you're investigating into it, not only do you almost die by getting jumped and shot, but you have to negotiate a hostage situation as one of ken's old allies short circuits people's game chairs and fries them alive.

and then!!! as you think "okay, what the fuck", you end up going into the hon clan's base of operations (the people who effectively had ken killed), infiltrate their ranks, and get sucked into this empty voice of a simulation that, surprise! turns out to be the bridge between reality and virtualium. there is no "real world", and you meet a previous iteration of yourself: 314.

because there have been 2 resets since the actual investigation into all this began. 314 started it, risked going through the new cycle, and fragmented himself into the code of dozens of people hoping someone would pick up his trail. it apparently happened, because you have 315 (who holds no significance, really) then you. you are 316.

and you can either ally with him (to tear it all down and try to fix things), ally with jester (a representative of an admin collective working for the corporation upholding this simulation), or work in your own self interest.

and it's cool because it is so reminiscent of the relationship v and johnny (note: cyberpunk 2077) have. 314 will, if you protest enough, take control of your body and force you to an objective. he will chime in and express his upset. he will offer solutions. and you can do your best to shut him up or hear him out.

so you may be thinking "oh? so is 314 just you?"

yes and no, because while you are a result of his line of resets, you lived vastly different lives. 314 is torkil! and given its background and personality do draw inspiration from the earlier iteration (314; or torkil aymore), it and 314 are alike. however, the two definitely have their differences and often bump heads while trying to navigate the case at their feet.

ultimately, though, lutz does accept the offer 314 provides and decides to do what is best for the others who find themselves stuck in this sick game. ꒱

[devitalization]

↻ᴹᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ ˡᵒᵃᵈᵉᵈ ꒰ guidebook.txt now available ꒱

all about gamedecs. who they are, what they carry, etc.

꒰ a private detective who solves crime inside virtual worlds. the decisions [you] make will alter [your character's] traits and impact the course of the game, but cases are riddled with dilemmas and rarely clear-cut.

until the 2170s, gamdecs were called "solvers". they started calling themselves "gamedecs" following the death of sam hawthorne – one of the best of their kind, who used to say that, "detection ends the case."

the labyrinth principle states that whoever is inside the labyrinth cannot perceive its structure. this is why they need an outsider with a bird's eye view. such a person must possess three key characteristics:

is a good gamer

knows basic coding

knows human nature

gamedecs are called in by gamers who cannot cope with an in-game puzzle or need help with a particularly difficult part of gameplay. they are hired by clans looking for an extra gun to use in online battles or sought by game-developing organizations and corporations who suspect they are being sabatoged by their competition. gamedecs are also hired by celebrities and politicians who have gotten involved in subtle gaming relations and need discreet help getting out of it.

every gamedec has a different past, a different story. it's a job performed by former doctors, journalists, businessmen, professional gamers, artists, and soldiers alike. what they all have in common is a similar change in their professional lives. they lost interest in what they had previously done – or in all traditional ways of life, for that matter. they experienced disappointment and disillusion, felt deluded, and opened their eyes – each of them describes it in their own way.

in marcin przybyłek's books, the main protagonist – torkil aymore – couldn't force himself to keep working as a doctor, and working as a toy seller exposed him to the grime of a late 22nd-century business. major duncan powers lost his body on the training ground and started using a military mobrium. his wife could not handle it, and so she left him – taking their daughter with her. as a journalist covering upper-class gossip, vivien lacroix ruined several people's lives before becoming a gamedec. max romanov rejected the superficiality of show business, took up cage fighting, and started working as a gamedec.

what do [you] need to lay games in gamedecverse? [you] need six things. four of them are equipment and two of them are drugs.

[your] equipment consists of a computer, a couch, a suit and a helmet. [your] computer is controlling it all. it's the brain of the whole system. and it's the firewall of the system because it is connected to the global net. so if somebody is trying to hack [you], he must go through [your] computer – which is connected to the couch, suit and helmet.

the couch is primarily a bed, but a very special bed. it does several things. first, it prevents [you] from developing pressure sores that you can get from lying down for a long period by massaging and heating the body. most importantly, it heats the nutrifluid.

[your] suit is something that [you] put on before entering the net. it reinforces the couch's function, by also giving [you] a massage and preventing pressure sores and muscular atrophy. so the suit is extremely important because it protects [you]; with proper equipment, [your] gametime can reach as far as four days straight. playing for longer than the allotted time is extremely dangerous, and we do not recommend it.

[your] helmet is a very intricate piece of machinery. it's very expensive, it's very complicated, and it does three things.

first, users need the helmet for devitalization, which disconnects the movement centers of [your] brain from [your] real body so that [you] can move in the virtual world – in the sensory world. [you] can move [your] hands and legs, but [your] real limbs are still lying on the couch. it's like dreaming. [you] can dream of running or fighting, but [your] real body remains still. the opposite of devitalization is revitalization, which is also done using the helmet. and finally, the most important function is the simulation of the game itself.

we have, in our brains, one hundred billion brain cells and neurons. each of them has, more or less, ten thousand synapses. it's a lot, and the helmet stimulates and controls most of it – it creates the phenomenon of experiencing sensations in the virtual world. [you] can see this world, hear it, touch it, smell it, and [you] can taste it. and, well, [you] don't actually go anywhere. [your] brain doesn't go anywhere. it doesn't enter the game. the game enters [your] brain, and this is all done by the helmet.

and now, let's move on to the drugs.

the first is nutrifluid. well, it's just nourishment. [you] attach it to the couch, and the nutrifluid warms the couch. then, [you] attach it to the nano-socket in your forearm so that [you] don't starve while staying in the net.

the second drug is very complex and expensive – it is called gamepill. gamepill is a little capsule that [you] have to swallow before entering the net. this capsule contains billions of nanobots that change [your] metabolic pathways. so [you[ don't have to worry about overfilling [your] bladder or colon. this is especially important when you stay for longer periods in the net. ꒱

[devitalization]

↻ᴹᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ ˡᵒᵃᵈᵉᵈ ꒰ character.txt now available ꒱

coming in with another character post (fitting considering my last post featured him)! this time, we're going to be talking about torkil aymore, the original gamedec!

hailing from the gamedec saga by marcin sergiusz przybyłek, torkil aymore is a game detective living in warsaw city, in the cotomou district. he lives in the stockomville building on the three hundred and forty-second (342nd) floor.

acording to the character creation menu, torkil is 40 years old, identifies as male, and is an all-around idealist. here's his official biography:

꒰ a sensitive, somewhat unstable idealist. philosopher wannabe and whiskey lover. a doctor by education. rather than practicing his specialty, he became a gamedec. he became famous after taking part in a virtuality show and solving a case in front of millions of viewers. a popular film, "doom day", is an account of his struggle with the beast of the net. ꒱

likewise, the official steam page for his dlc states that torkil ꒰ enjoys the company of friends, women, and his own dreams. ꒱

here is his official model, created by aneta ulanowska, character artist at anshar studios.