Nothing can possibly go wrong...

[Ash]

"Crap.", is all Ash says as he sees the pods and the robot standing beside one of them.

He walks to the pod where Kei obviously lies in and spits the cig into the corner of the room.

"Don't worry. We will get you out of there ASAP.", he mutters, looking inside. Then he walks to an empty pod, takes of his jacket and let the jacket fall onto the floor.

He rolls up his sleeves and examines the monitors and the pods a little closer.

[Machaeus]

Urufu is busy talking to the robot. In Binary. And holding a conversation. After a few minutes, the robot laughs. "What did you tell it?" Machaeus asks.
"A particularly long pun."
Machaeus blinks. "Wait, how do you know Binary?"
"Remember that project I was working on a couple months back?"
The warlock slaps his forehead. "You...you learned to speak Binary. That's, that's beautiful. I can't think of a GREATER waste of time!"
"Hey, I told that bomb to shut down, remember?"
"Okay, yes, that was useful. Fine, it wasn't a waste of time."

[Jessie Winkler]

Jessie just stared at Urufu. "...you can talk to bombs?" She noticed Jackie, who was shivering nervously, and puts a comforting arm around her.

((Into the Woods reference here. One of Little Red's lines is "...you can talk to birds?"))

[Machaeus]

"Well, yeah," Urufu grinned. "Doesn't often mean much, though - if the computer has a protocol for listening to certain commands, which most computers do, I probably can't do much without a hacker."

[tachyon]

The D&D shirted technician reached into one of the empty pods and pulled out something that looked like the plastic frame of a headband. He slipped it down over his head so it sat just over his forehead, hooking behind his ears.
"This is a neural interface," he explained, "it's what really does all the work; the pods are mostly just for sensory deprivation and stopping you from moving about too much. It's also your safety net. Think of it as a the border crossing between your mind and the AR world. Everything has to stop for inspection before passing through, anything suspicious gets taken away and interrogated. Bad items are detained, good items can get through, and everything gets logged. Everything you are gets backed up and updated every nanosecond from the moment it's activated, so even if we have another incident we will be able to retrieve your minds and all you'll notice is a few minutes of lost memory."
He looked over at only currently active pod. Were it not for the medical robot looking as serious as it's limited facial functions could express keeping vigil over her, Kei looked like she was just sleeping.
"It would have been the same in her case, if we hadn't been locked out of the network...Right then," he addressed the group again, "pick a pod and put on a headset. I'll get the server connected."

((Sorry about my inability to update frequently, but work has been horrendous over the past month. I've been starting before dawn and getting home after dark every weekday for a fortnight ))

[Machaeus]

Machaeus thinks. "So what qualifies as a 'good' item?" he asks. "Or are you not the one who does the checkpoint stuff?"
Urufu has already picked a pod and laid down. He takes a deep breath, more than a little nervous. "Alright, soon as you guys are ready, let's get this show on the road."

[Ash]

Ash lies down in one of the pods too. He puts on the headset and sighs.

"Nothing to worry about.", he mumbles. Like Urufu, he seems a little nervous, but tries his best to hide it.

He stretches his arm out of of the pod and raises his thumb.

"Ready.", he says, pulling his arm back inside the pod.

[tachyon]

Just then the screen at the end of the room blinked to life. It showed the massive, sweaty face of Porky as he pushed another technician out of the way.
"-been using these things since you was in diapers, so don't tell me I can't," he paused in his rank as he realized he was being broadcast. He still didn't seem any less agitated but.
"Just thought I'd give you folks a little heads up before you log in. Now normally we'd do what we call a 'mind map' before we logged you in, now that would allow your avatar do do all the stuff you can do in the real world. If you're a runner you could run, if your Mr. Galaxy you could lift a horse, that sort of thing. But that takes time, and times not what we have. So instead we're gonna roll random stats to your avatars. So while you might not be able to, I don't know, shoot fireballs from your eyes or some crap," he didn't see everyone glance at Mach, or Machaeus' half grin, "but you're gonna be able to do some stuff that you'd never be able to do in real life."
The technician in the room turned from the small computer interface and gave the thumbs up to them all. The lids of the pods began to slowly close, until Porky quickly shouted at them to stop.
"Wait! Wait! One more thing. Now this is important. Try and save Westworld if you can, but Kei is your priority. Westworld's just a program. It can always be re-written. But she can't. Good luck and God speed."
The screen blanked out. The pods sealed shut, and for each the world suddenly grew quieter. Then came a feeling of gentle drowsiness. Things became blurry as the urge to sleep grew stronger. Darkness seemed to come at each of them like a wall, but as they looked into the blackness of the seeming abyss of eternity a single spot of light appeared. It grew stronger, seemingly larger. The sensation of speed became apparent as they each flew towards their shinning beacons. Noise came too, screeching and screaming like a thousand birds taking flight at once untill...

**********************************************************************

The train's whistle blew twice more as it rumbled over a short wooden trestle bridge that ran across a dried up creek. It's billowing plumes of white steam were the only things casting shadow in the clear blue skies of the American West. In a compartment of one of the carriages, 5 people awoke in the new and strange world that was history recreated. The movement of the train, plus the uncomfortable wooden seats, helped them come to their senses quickly. Their normal clothes were gone, replaced with items of the period.

[Ash]

As Ash was fully "awake" he rubs his eyes and looks to his left and right. His eyes widen as he looks out a nearby window. His whole expression looks as if he had seen a ghost a second ago.
Just now he realizes that he can feel everything as if it is real. The uncomfortable chair he sits on. The sun as he looks out the window. He leans back in the chair and looks at his hands, moving them. Then he looks down at himself, inspecting the clothes he wears. He grins.

"Groovy.", he says, noticing a hat lying on the seat beside him. He picks it up, looks at it with an eyebrow raised and nods, still grinning.

"Really, really cool.", he mumbles, as he puts on the hat.

Then he stands up, stretches and looks for the others.

"Hello? Anyone here?", he asks quietly.

[Machaeus]

"We are," Machaeus says, looking at his new attire. He's dressed a la "outlaw", with a black hat, red bandanna around his neck, dark brown jacket and pants, powder blue shirt, and two pistols, one on each side.
"Good Lord, I'm a shaman," Urufu says, looking down at his homemade leather pants and bare, red chest. "Either that or a brave."
"Judging by your headdress," Machaeus says, pointing at the small buffalo (sp?) skull on a pile of eagle feathers, "And the staff," he added, pointing to the gnarled cottonwood staff with several beads and mouse skulls dangling from it, "I'd say shaman. Though the tomahawks could confuse." Urufu notices two metal-headed tomahawks, probably iron, hanging at his side.
"Huh. This...is kinda cool." He picks one up and hefts it. "Feels like it was perfectly balanced for me. Wait, I FEEL it...holy cow, it's a wonder these sorts of theme parks aren't more popular. I mean, think of what Wizards of the Coast could do with this thing." He grins wickedly.
"No," Machaeus says, flicking his nose. Urufu scowls at him, then puts the weapon back and looks out the window.

[Ash]

"Well. Do we look cool, or what?", Ash says, still amazed at the whole situation. As he looks at their weapons, he raises an eyebrow.

"Hm...And what about me?", he wonders, pulling the long dusty mantle he wears back. A single holster with a revolver inside hangs on a belt at his left hip. Bullets are strapped over the whole belt. He grins satisfied.

"So. Where is this train headed?", he asks, even though he knows that neither Urufu or Machaeus can answer that question.
He looks at the ceiling, then out of the window.

"Hey. Hello? Can you guys hear me? Geek? Porky?", he shouts before he turns over to Machaeus and Urufu again.

"Where shall we even start to search? Are we supposed to get out at the next station?"

[tachyon]

"So you made it, good."
It was the D&D-shirt-wearing technician's voice, and it seemed to be coming from inside their heads.
"Your right Ash, you are supposed to get off at the next station. That's the only place you can get off, seeing as it's the end of the line. Now, to brief you on your character classes...
"Ash, your class is the Bare Knuckle Brawler. You can take out almost any NPC in one punch, and you can also take the most damage in a fistfight. You can shoot too but your accuracy isn't as good as the other classes, though you make up for that by having more ammo.
"Urufu, you're right, you've got the Native Shaman class. Combat ability suffers, but you can confuse and trick enemies with illusions as well as use your tomahawks as ranged or close combat weapons. You can also heal players and NPCs, track anything, and converse with other Native American NPCs. Just watch out, our preliminary hacks indicate that Westworlds rules have been reset to be...even more historically accurate. Don't expect a warm welcome from the White Man.
"Machaeus, you lucky dog, you rolled one of our most popular types, The Bandito. Duel pistols, high accuracy, stealthy and high charisma. You'll be a big hit with the ladies, but due to your appearance you may have to work hard to gain the trust of other NPCs. You're close combat skills aren't as good as the others, so avoid CQC if you can. Oh, y usted puede también hablar y entender español fluido.
"Jessie, Rifleman, well, riflewoman. You've got the highest accuracy and the most powerful firearm, the lever-action Winchester Model 1873. The trade off is you have almost no close combat ability. Keep to the back and give your group members fire support. Your other ability is your mechanical aptitude; you can repair any mechanical item, we've maxed your skills in that area.
"And Jackie, the Knife Fighter. Next to the Bare Knuckler you're the queen of CQC. You can also throw your knives with a high degree of accuracy. Secondary skills are lockpicking and an equally high level of charisma as the Bandito, but without the intimidation drawback.
"Also, every one of you has the ability to ride a horse. Each of you has a knife as a secondary weapon to your primary. Remember that just like real life you will have to reload your guns and retrieve your thrown items. Ammo is limited, as is your health. NPCs will react to stimuli just as in real life, so try to be polite. Any questions?"

[Jessie Winkler]

Jessie glances at the gun in her hands. "Sweet."
"ACK! KNIFES!" Jackie throws the sharp objects on the ground.

[Ash]

Ash sighs, picks up the knifes, hands it back to Jackie and pats her on the shoulder.

"Look at it as a Game... I thought kids like video games and stuff like that? Beside that, you probably don't even have to use them. We are here too after all.", he says smiling.

"So I am the Tank, huh? To bad that my name isn't Frank... Frank the Tank.", he mumbles, followed by a quiet laugh. " Boy, I cant wait to see a city or something like that. If it is only half as realistic as this here, it will be awesome."

[Machaeus]

(knives)
Urufu sighed. "Oy. More trouble for me."
Machaeus nodded. "Don't worry, I'll keep 'em off your back."
They soon approached the next station, and Urufu asked, "Can we multiclass?"