Episode 1 - The Grand Demon Wants to Enslave Us?

Okay so, a cave, small, dingy and uncomfortable. A demon floating and spewing nonsense. Anxiety stock market having a field day. I think that about sums up the last few minutes.
"Some sort of server-wide event?" I mutter.

Ko, who landed on the opposite side of the small space, nods, "Or a hacker?"

"Hmmmmmmm?" the 'demon' hums before grinning this fitting toothy grin that highlights a rather cute fang in particular, "Introductions, right right. I'm the Grand Class Demon of Clan Rowan, Lila Rowan, and you're all my servants now!"
 This NPC is seriously obnoxious. If they are a hacker, they should be dead from cringe. The game has never had an event like this before, though, certainly not without ample warning.

"You said something about the apocalypse?" Eshu adds from beside me.

'Lila' leans forward eagerly. "Right!" She snaps her fingers, and a screen appears in mid-air. It's not like the system screens we have, rather more fantasy; little gold embellishments and sigils run around the border. It's displaying a map of our world.

"This is the Human Fiefdom, protected since time immemorial by a strange barrier separating it from the rest of the world."

"What do you mean, the rest of the world?" I frown. She clicks her fingers again. She's small for someone so arrogant. Her head is more rounded than a human's oval shape, but it's about the same size overall. It has two very pointed ears, like an elf, all black. Her torso region is mostly humanoid too; she'd be a short adult, like Eshu, maybe, but still one all the same, even has some curves in the right places. Not so much any clothing as a sort of black haziness that's hard to concentrate on and forces you to look back at her face and its deep, glowing amber eyes. Her arms and legs are what’s really weird: They start normal, but then stretch into very thin and lanky points. If she didn't constantly float a little off the ground, I can't imagine such feeble limbs supporting her body. She is cute in a video game character way, I guess, but she's going to need to be a lot more than just cute for me to put up with all this nonsense. She taps the map with one slim finger, and it zooms out.

"To the left is what my people call the Mechanised Empire. I don't know too much about them. On the right is my homeland, the Demon Realm," she taps it again, and a faint blue line appears between the three different landmasses. "This is the barrier, impenetrable until recently, and it's getting weaker every day. Pretty soon, it'll collapse outright, and both sides are planning to unleash holy hell on the other. Meanwhile, your fiefdom appears to have absolutely no defences or clue about any of this! You humans are remarkably underdeveloped, you know that? Anyway, the point is that there's gonna be a massive war, with your ‘country’ stuck in the middle. So here I am!"
 I find myself blinking dumbly at this mass of rapidly delivered nonsense.

"To save us?" Ko asks a bit more sensibly. Lila cranes her neck to look at her, "God no, hahaha! I'm here to save my own skin. Lookie."
 She draws a number of purple lines across the map, going from left to right. Direct lines between the two other world’s capitals, she explains, and right over most of our world. Then she circles something south of all that, a familiar spot I've seen on my minimap every day, "Your base is pretty darn southerly, away from where all the major fighting will happen. That's one reason I chose you guys to be mine."

I feel my shoulders slump, "If this is an event it totally sucks."

"Do you remember that old forum rumour though?" Ko says.
 I frown, trying to look like I have to contemplate that. Embarrassing truth is I spent so long on the forums in the lead up to the Beta that I probably have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the rumours and myths, "The one about the studio's other game worlds, not just their assets, being inside Escape."

"Right," Ko nods, "Some data-miners put the sci-fi game’s world and the fantasy realm next to each other and realised there was a perfect hole in the middle for one more map. One like that," she points at Lila's display.

"That was just a rumour, though. Next, you'll tell me Reincarnation Matrixes and Dead Earth Theory were true, too. But, ok, alright, I guess for a great big event, bringing in their old projects for some massive blockbuster would make sense. Is that what this is, lady?"

The demon stares curiously at me, "You speak a lot of interesting words, not all familiar to me. Well, that was another purpose of taking on human slaves. I was hoping to gather intelligence, and you guys seem full of info. That or you're suffering from some sort of group delusion."

I sigh. My earlier panic is replaced with a mounting annoyance. I didn't sign our party up for any lame events, and this cave is annoyingly claustrophobic in its dampness. "If you're part of a storyline, can you at least load up the quest log for it? If not, then we’re out of here, got it? Explaining what being inside a game is to a lousy NPC is not my idea of a fun day."

When no such quest log is forthcoming, I can't help but throw up my hands before reaching out to the system; I'll just teleport our party home already.

"No, I don't think you will," the demon's voice suddenly has a dark, grating tone to it that sends shivers down my spine. I stare blankly at the hand, no claw. In a split second, it shoots out from her, one of her spindly little arms, quadrupling in size, a sinister, clawed hand taking me by the throat.

"You're not very bright, are ya doggie?" the creature says. I feel paralysed, it's hard to breathe, really hard, is that even possible in Escape? It feels rough against my bare flesh, scaled, dry.   One clawed talon of a finger creeps slowly up my cheek, my eyes following its progress helplessly. I can't help but stand motionless, focusing on the gnarled, painful-looking ‘nail’ at its tip. She lets it caress my cheek before suddenly pulling down sharply. Blood. Pain.
  My cheek bleeds, and I feel pain. That shouldn't even be possible! There is no pain in Escape, that can't be!

The claw pulls back, returning to her side as just a slim black arm again. But my throat still feels something wrapped softly around it. Terrified, I reach up to touch a band of material I don't recognise around it, "Wha?"

"That's enough, don't hurt my Sek!" Eshu suddenly shouts, taking a couple of firm steps towards Lila; is she gonna’ try and punch her? Before she gets even halfway, the demon flicks her wrist, and I see a hollow shape, a collar, glide through the air and wrap around Eshu's neck, just like mine at a guess. She gasps and seems to freeze, unable to move.

"Two doggies, huh? Feisty ones, too!" the demon laughs, then more coldly, "Kneel, both of you."
  It's not like my legs go weak or I feel faint - I don't know how to describe it exactly, but I just have this incredibly, unfightably compelling sensation. I collapse onto my hands and knees.

Ko, she is positioned slightly behind the demon. In the corner of my eye, I see her quietly, with a much smaller hand motion than mine, trying to open the system. Lila doesn't even turn to look, she just reaches behind herself, and suddenly, Ko is collared too.

"Little more subtle, I can respect that," she says, floating over and scratching her under the chin like an animal, like a pet. It doesn't help that Ko's avatar has a catgirl emoticon, white fluffy ears, and a tail that literally appears in a comical anime fashion, "Mreow..." she mumbles darkly.
  "Ha! You guys are a hoot! Two canines and a feline, what a selection! Hahahahaha, this is better than I'd hoped."

"This--" It's hard to talk, like I'm having to fight my mouth, "--you can't slave collar players. Where did you even get them?"

Lila stops laughing and offers me a quizzical look, "Common as mud where I come from. And what's this about players, hmmm? I observed a lot of humans before picking you guys, and you all seemed to be the same. Are players your species name?"

"What, no. Players are real people. NPCs, like you, you're just code, programmes, pretend people."

"I'm pretend?"

"Well, more or less."

"And how," she says, floating up close to my face and tracing where her claw cut me with her less threatening ‘normal hand’, "do you tell people apart, into these strange definitions of yours?"

"The system menu," Ko says, offering me a welcome assist.

"Oh, ya?" Lila shrugs turning to her, "Like this you mean," with that she draws her finger through the air, and none other than my menu appears before her.

"Th-that's cause of this stupid collar!"

"Right, right, but any of you could be pulling some tricks too. How can you be sure all of you are 'Players'? This definition seems loose at best; anyone could be pretending.”

"Look, we just are ok!" I snap.

"Well this has been fun and all," Lila says floating back to the centre of the room, "but there's a lot to be prepared before armageddon, including training you three up into suitable warrior minions - unless you'd like to be a different sort of slave for me," she winks.

"We're no one's slaves," I growl, "Hey, mods, can you hear me? Someone must be monitoring the game; it's a beta after all. I want out, I resign from this event, it's stupid as hell. Hello?"

"Who are you addressing by shouting at the cave ceiling? You're not like, psychotic, are you? That'd be a bit less fun."

"Shut up, I'm not talking to a stupid NPC. Hey! Can you hear me? I do not consent to this event, I'll file a serious complaint!" If this is an event, it must have been written by some guest writer.    Probably one of those artsy types who thinks a story where they force us to play slave is ironic or deconstructive. I've always hated stories like that. I had an acquaintance who loved them, but I've never gotten it. If I want to watch judgment, breakdowns, and reality behind the curtain, then I have real life for that, don't I? Why the hell would I want that in my stories, my media escapes?

"Eh? You humans are pretty slow on the uptake. Also, tell your mistress to shut up ever again and you'll regret it," Lila says in that cold voice. "Relax, kids, you got lucky. I'm a Grand Demon, and I look after all my positions very well."

"We're nobodies' positions! We didn't come here to be enslaved! We came here to escape this sort of shit, we arn't gonna work for someone else or give up our freedom! We--" My chest hurts. It's getting harder and harder to breathe. I don't like this, this is stupid, this is the worst event ever! Keep your kinky slave-play for someone who cares; I don't want it. I, I…I

I want to go home. Home, home, home, home. Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. I want to go home. Why does it hurt? I want to go home, why does it hurt? Hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt, pain hurt pain hurt pain hurt, pain. Leave me alone, Leave me Alone, Just leave me alone!
  The cold hum of machines, of computer fans whirring. It's so dark; the sun hurts. People might look in, see me, judge me, and condemn me. Dark and cold and faintly humming. And I sit there, eyes fixed to those flaccid glowing computer screens, my reina begging for a break, I don't give them.

My obese bulk is a natural cushion between me and the desk. And I lean in, ogling the screen numbly. It hasn't felt good or right in so, so long, but at least it's feeling, at least here I'm safe, away from the world, from eyes, from–


"Hey, hey, wakey wakey! Surface for air there, buddy," the demon's voice grates.
"Sek," Eshu calls to me, and suddenly her hand is holding mine. It passes. I focus on the warmth of her hand; I try to clasp it back, but I still can't move. It's a wonder she could, she's so much stronger than me.
I breathe in and out slowly, focusing just on Eshu's hand. "How long was I out?"

"Not too long. You fell unconscious for a few minutes there, then started spasming."

"Gotta' admit I wasn't expecting that. Do all humans do that on occasion?" Lila asks, arms crossed.
  Ko looks across at me timidly, she gets shaky quite easily, I feel an ass for causing her such upset on this occasion. "I told her about the real world and our old bodies while you were out," she says gently. It's just like her to explain away my incoherence. Sometimes I wonder if I deserve these two.

"Ya, that she did," the demon in question adds, "Not sure I can buy it all, or even a fraction of it, but an interesting story all the same. You got so upset about freedom or whatever, but it sounds to me like you guys literally gave it all up. Sold away your bodies, your minds, your very souls to some company to do whatever the hell they like with."

"You wouldn't understand,” I grouch, but I've lost my bite. That… ‘attack’, took it out of me. I don't know how this all happened so fast, but there's nothing we can do, is there, nothing but accept this for the time being and see where the ‘plotline’ takes us.

"Sure wouldn't! But end of the day, it means you're as stuck here as any so-called 'NPC', right? You can never go back to this other world. Well, I don't care if you think this is some 'event', roleplay or whatever - rationalise it however you like. Because willing or not, tantrum and blackout much as ya’ want, cause you three are mine now. And don't worry, end of the world? I bet it's gonna be fun if nothing else!"