((don't mind me, just putting my characters a bit ahead of the curve so we can get the rather important plot detail out in the open for the players to acknowledge...))

Interrobang‽/Asterism⁂
Adventure Team Big Bang
Central Plaza, Discovery Town.
Affected RP'ers: None... Directly, anyways.
There is no Pause Button either

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

A Nincada is busy tapping away at stonework. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. A Togetic not far from him-his sister and teammate-is trying to get someone to volunteer to go to Cartographer's Cave with them, but the confidence of the new teams leaves no-one biting.

Henry-sorry, Interrobang-was almost totally convinced of the realism of the simulation around him. Almost. There was a catch to it, of course, the only real one. 'Realism' was very hard to define in a world of cartoon creatures, so he discounted that from his personal perspective. Freakish realism is easy when everything's cartoonish. How does one define that? Cartoonish realism? That's irrelevant. Point is that it was an illogical and stupid paradox to call it 'realistic.' Foxes breathe fire. A single insect can unleash deadly dust storms that can easily empower them to superhuman levels. That is not realistic at all.

No, the kicker that kept him firmly in the world of reality was that second. Quarter-second, really. Twiddling his little front leg, he couldn't help but notice it. The delay. The sensory feedback. Nintendo was good-really good, actually. Forging ahead ridiculously fast in the VR world. Henry did not quite believe it himself, really. Too fast. But even Nintendo couldn't remove the sensory delay. It was faster in single-player games, Henry knew, but even then it was still noticeable.

Earlier that day, Henry and Jorline were shaking in anticipation. That whole business with the roof really kept them from getting their birthday presents on their actual birthdays (only days apart), but oh, how dearest daddy made it up to them! He really hated waiting in gaming stores for their little time-eaters, especially with Henry nearly ready to go to college, but at the same time, this game was hotly anticipated and was on both of their wishlists, and with the birthday totally ruined, he caved. The duo played together, they opted, a brother-sister team for the ages. And thus they began, setting on the headsets and tuning out reality.

Henry basically sped through the personality quiz, then rejected the initial answer (a Turtwig) to just go for the 'OK what do you want' option. He was bombarded with choices he didn't even suspect would be choices. What lunatic would deliberately choose to be a Magikarp? He knew everyone and their mothers would pick the basic ones (or rather remain with those choices) so he opted to work his head to figure out what was the most 'optimal' pick. Or at least, the one most likely to tear the game to shreds. Make things easy. A Nincada was his choice-Evolves 'twice' giving him an NPC partner (realistically) for free, and one of the most powerful in the game at that. Mechanically, there hasn't been a Mystery Dungeon game to his knowledge (he skipped Super) that disallowed Shedinja eating Sitrus berries or HP ups to raise their maximum HP, meaning that, with time, Shedinja would tear balance a new one. At least he'd be original, if nothing else.

Meanwhile, Jorline just selected a Togetic after getting repulsed by the option to be a Grimer. Really, game? Ew.

Setup of their team scarves and name, in the introduction, was mercifully fast. The duo agreed upon it beforehand, with the limited information they had come across. They would be Team Big Bang, and their banner would be that of some typographical symbols. Jorline was an utter nut for them.

In another surprise twist, they were one of the first on. The line to register with Cadence was extremely short-the shortest of the three by a person. Jorline begged Henry to just try to learn the new mechanics before going all-in, but Henry protested that then they'd just get left with the easy stuff-and be left behind basically forever. Henry was too hardheaded to be dissuaded by Jorline's arguments, and she conceded to her older brother.

The sign ups were surprisingly fast. Their scarfs were stylish. A visit to the 'poodle' (Henry winced as Jorline said it) quickly sorted out some mimimal customization they wanted, which was basically tattoos of their typographical symbols on unobtrusive parts of their bodies. The first mission: Cartographer's Cave, 5th floor, Entercards that were vitally important to their role as Adventure Teams. Cadence explained it: "Adventure teams are meant to go out for a long while, mapping out the terrain and exploring the farthest dungeons known. The scouts and cartographers of the guild-and the most dangerous job we currently offer due to an inability to scale Dungeon strength in advance. Magnagates are critical for your success; magnagates are well-stocked in basic items in dungeons, so running loops through those dungeons can help you restock on the road."

After that, they just ran about, trying to get to know every NPC there was and what they did. They even got a free Reviver seed from that Lydie fellow at the park. Apparently it was the first-time visiting gift or some-such. In the same breath, she was warning them at how rare they were. It was apparently her tick to use a lot of adjectives. "Ludicrously, ridiculously, absurdly, maddeningly, atrociously rare! More precious than diamonds! Shops won't even buy them from you! Nor sell them. That's how rare they are! Lucky that I found any at all... And I probably won't past today," she said, almost hinting that it was a day-one event. As if they needed to be told.

And now, they were just busy waiting. They opted to wait for another group to get done with everything and ask them to join them for the first job before heading off to Cartographer's Cave... Or, were opting. Interrobang was sick of waiting.

"Jor-Asterism, this delay will only get worse as the day goes on," Interrobang said, out of the blue. "We ought to either just head over there now, ask one last person, or just log out."

Asterism raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you the one that was so eager-"

"Yes, but this sensory delay. Soon it'll turn into outright lag... And lagging in these games is in every way sensory hell. You saying you can't find someone?"

"Huh," Asterism said. She supposed that it was wise. Her brother would be heading off to college soon and still needed to pack. She was still too paranoid of the 'increased difficulty,' and she wasn't as experienced with Henry in these games. "Well, good, because I'm not going into one of those dungeons without some backup, so we're logging off, I guess."

"Very well. Lag'll probably get better tomorrow with the day one patch. There's always a patch," Interrobang said.

...

"...So how do we log off?"

The question was only overheard by a few, but it turned heads by the non-NPCs (and he swore that the passing Heridier took note of it as well, even, but only for a moment). Yes, yes, all this amazing level of detail and such was well and good, but a few of them just wanted to beat an insane line to the registries to make their teams and wait out any potential lag. Not even everyone had logged on, yet-the servers promised capacity to literally hundreds of millions, which would make tarversing the world rather annoying. Even a second of lag beyond the buffer was infinitely more infuriating in a Wii Vision Game.

Interrobang said nothing. He did not know.

Asterism said nothing. She did not know.

"...Uh. I don't think this was mentioned," Interrobang said. Which was odd. Very, very odd. He played these games before. The logouts were pretty explicit. Obvious, even. Nearly a flashing neon sign, to ensure people remembered the critical information of the game being a game, and there being the way out in case the bowels called. He swiped his front leg into the open air, pulling up the menu. It was filled with options, except a logout button. Very, very odd.

"Oh, he's from the beta test," Asterism said said, pointing with her stubby arms to a relatively plain-looking Oshawott, who's username ("OceanWaves") had beneath it the pleasant swagger of a Beta Tester's emblem. "Uh, hey, mister, OceanWaves!" Asterism called.

"Oh, hey! What is it?" The Oshawott replied, mission in hand, cheer in his voice.

"Err, we were just wondering, uh, how does one log off?" Asterism said.

"Oh, that's simple... Err. Should be simple," The Oshawott says, scratching his head a bit, as if he forgot something for a second. He swipes his paw.

"Should be simple," Interrobang repeated. "Yeah, we already tried that. Not in the menu."

"Uh, yeah. There's this statue...Err, of a Khangaskhan. Near the keep. Manual save and logout point, like the Save Boxes in Dream Team." OceanWaves said, looking over to it.

"...There is no statue near the guild building," Asterism said. "We were just over there not too long ago. No statues, of any kind."

"You mustn't have looked hard enough. It kind of blends into the stonework a bit, in an aclove just to the left of the entrance," OceanWaves said. "Built right into the stonework."

"Uh. I'd hate to break it to you, but there is no aclove to the left of the entrance. Or the right, for that matter," Interrobang said. "Funny, though. I recall that exact feature from, like, a picture in GameInformer, even looked there for it when we arrived. It must've gotten removed. We haven't seen statues of a Khangaskhan anywhere else, either. You sure that's how it works?"

OceanWave's face fell. Asterism's own face fell shortly thereafter. The implication, for its simplicity, was dire beyond measure. OceanWave tried to not look alarmed. "What? Uh. Urm. Odd. Urk, didn't bother looking over there myself... Maybe they moved it a bit? I'll go look for it, we'll go look for it, hang on."

A figure started running towards them. A Chimchar, her tag BurningWave. The Oshawott rushed up to greet his fellow beta tester, but she started shouting first. "Ocean, we've gotta problem! We've got a big, big, nasty problem!" She exclaimed.

"Uh, can't find the Khangaskhan Statue?" Ocean replied, suddenly leagues more worried.

"I looked high and low, even in and behind the Keep, behind shop stalls, in the park, just outside of town, at the spawn, everywhere, and then I started asking where it was to all the NPCs. The Guild didn't know at all-like, no-one at all knew what I was talking about-so I tried hitting up the Mayor, and, uh, you won't believe this."

"What?" OceanWave said it first, but he wasn't the only one. Interrobang's tapping resumed. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Try to keep calm.

"The Mayor, well, he noticed. Like, he was sure of it himself, really. Confused. Uh, both heads were confused. So he went with me, and I showed him where it should have been, and, uh, Ezekiel was very, very confused... And he asked around the guild a bit. Same responses, really, only a bit different. Ezekiel said he'd get people into looking into it ASAP, but..."

OceanWave's face was slowly contorting into pure panic. "Uh, wait, are you saying that absolutely no-one knows where it is?"

"Well, other than Ezekiew, the NPCs I asked aren't acknowledging it." BurningWave said.

"That's... That can't be good," Interrobang muttered. "Can't be." Tap tap tap tap tap.

"Uh, what about it?" Asterism asked.

"Basic safety features. Code of conduct. Friendly NPCs in a friendly town or base or whatever have to know the way to the logout point. And there's always a secondary logout point that isn't the menu, too, just in case. Seen this feature in the other two games. Safety net. At least one would personally escort you there if you were really confused," Henry said. "There is no way this feature was removed accidentally."

"Yeah, I beta-tested games for this system before... Just like that. And in the beta, too, it was like that. This is... They're not acknowledging it..." OceanWave said. "...Oh."

Interrobang registered the unsaid motion of lips that would roughly transcribe to dung, except with completely different letters.

No logging out.

"...It must be a glitch." OceanWave said. "A really unfortunate glitch. Hopefully Nintendo, Gamefreak I mean, will patch this up in an hour. Easy fix."

"Can't be. They wouldn't just remove those features in the Keep AND the statue," Interrobang said. He then realized what he said. The real implication. Either hacked or deliberately removed. Malicious, either way. Interrobang, for a brief moment, thought of the slightest chance that this might be real-REAL real-but as the sensation of tapping the ground was sensed as he raised his leg to tap again, he knew that it can't be. No, no, this was bad.

"No, no no no no, that can't be right. Nintendo-or Gamefreak, or whoever does these games-this can't be on purpose," Asterism said. "Right, just, just, right out, right?"

OceanWave started to scowl. "Burn, send word. To everyone. We've either gotta find it or find someone who can tell us what's up. An administrator. I don't think any have logged on yet, though, just looking at the online list... Urk." The Oshawott said.

And thus the two Beta Testers started running, trying to get everyone's attention on this very important matter. Just before the news spread like a wildfire-that there would be no logging out until this situation was fixed, if even that would happen, Interrobang turned his head up to Asterism. "So, I suppose we're going to be looking for a partner team now? Or just heading in?"

"At a time like this?!" Asterism shrieked.

"Aren't there Khangaskhan statues in the middle of really long dungeons?" Interrobang replied. "Perhaps they're not gone from everywhere. Plus, treasure."

Asterism regretted the length of her arms in that instant. To be able to facepalm in response to that would feel so much better.