Virtual Vagabonds

TM.3 - Employee Orientation

August 23, 2026 Darrell S.

“Here at Seven Stones Industries,” the narrator starts. “We have a great security team lead by former special forces secret operation commander general Maya Wale. She’s no nonsense and doesn’t take any prisoners, unless they have secrets to tell. She’ll be getting you acquainted with how we do things here at Seven Stones Industries.”

“He’s going to say the whole company name every time, isn’t he,” Kevin asks.

“Yeah, and I’m tired of it already. They named the company after some evil crystal balls from Lord of The Rings.”

“Right,” Kevin shouts.

“They keep telling us how they’re changing the future, and are making the world better and expect us to be too stupid to see the evil plot twist coming later.”

“Right,” Kevin shouts again. “They’re probably just using AI to spy on us all and create a police state using stolen personal information. Then when they see the writing on the wall they’ll just leave the country.”

“Kevin, you read my mind,” the two of us laugh, but then share a look knowing it’s probably happening in the real world too.

A short woman with sand colored skin and black hair in a ponytail, wearing black military type gear makes her way towards us. Suddenly she pauses, extends her arms into a ‘T’ shape, glitches and vanishes from view. She quickly appears at the first place we saw her and begins to walk towards us. This time, her legs move faster than she’s actually walking, giving the appearance of sliding over the ground.

“We can not already be glitching out,” I laugh.

“Hey, we just said double A games need love too,” Kevin reminds me.

“Yeah, but this is a triple A game.”

“Then screw this, they need to stop selling us glitched out games and expecting us to be beta testers.”

“Just to buy microtransactions and loot boxes on top of it.”

“And then, you can’t even have disc but they send emails reminding you that you don’t own digital copies.”

“Listen up here Maggots,” the woman shouts as Commander General Maya Wale appears over her head. “Here at Seven Stones Industries, we have strict requirements for who we accept.” I can’t help but laugh at the fact that her mouth isn’t moving in synch with her words or that she only moves when she stops talking. I can’t believe major companies are still getting away with this. “You’ll need to complete this obstacle course before we can allow you to join us here at Seven Stones Industries.”

Slowly objects for an obstacle course appear before us. I was expecting something similar to those crazy tv shows that are popular right now. None of them will ever compare to Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and the rotating surfboard of death. Before Maya can finish listing off the requirements Kevin is halfway through the course. I take off after him, it’s easy. Just a way to get used to the movements; there’s a delay on our movements. Nothing as good as Liberty and Strife but also nothing that’s not easy to account for. Jump over a knee high wall, sprint to ladder, climb it, slide down a rope, kick through very light door and sprint to the finish line. Incredibly easy obstacle course that neither of us had any difficulty completing.

“I suppose you’ll do,” Maya says without moving her lips as I finish the course.

“Congratulations,” the narrator pops in again. “You have proven yourselves worthy of a role here at Seven Stones Industries. You’ve impressed Commander General Maya Wale and that’s only the first part. Meet her in her office to discuss your first real mission here-”

“At Seven Stones Industries,” Kevin and I join him.

“That’s going to be so annoying,” Kevin says.

Tribe Mind

No Comments

The Portly Man

August 10, 2026 Darrell S.

I'm sorry, sometimes I get depressed and don't schedule enough chapters. Here's a short story to apologize for the chapters that I missed. I intend to start sharing more short stories through my newsletter, so tap in with that.

The Portly Man

I always wanted to go to summer camp, but my parents could never afford it. When they approached me about Camp Grizzly, it sounded like so much fun. Hiking, swimming, capture the flag and everything else I could think of. The mood changed after I was dropped off and had said my goodbyes. The counselors checked all of our bags for contraband. They weren’t looking for knives or cigarettes; they were looking for snacks. That’s when I realized Camp Grizzly wasn’t a regular summer camp. It was a fat camp. Portly, chubby, husky, fluffy and every other adjective had been used to describe me since I was born. I suppose with only two years of high school left my parents thought it was time to do something about it.

There are no ice cream socials, s’mores around the campfire or even tater tots. There are plenty of daily activities, which are just cleverly disguised exercises. A relaxing day at the lake is just code for swimming laps. A scenic hike, is how they say five mile walk up a mountain and another five miles back down. I’d complain, but I’ve been too tired. Meager food rations and extensive exercise regimens leave me drained every single day.

Tonight is different. I’ve been here three weeks and I’ve heard one rumor over and over again. A cave out in the woods where the counselors hide all the contraband. The brownies, cookies, candy and juice. Sweet high fructose corn syrup filled juice, just waiting to be captured. Kids who had weirdly been here before or had family members who attended talk about it like the holy grail. I didn’t believe them at first, but on our latest hike up the mountain, I saw it. I saw the cave in the middle of the woods, and it’s not far from camp.

Sneaking out of camp always seemed so hard in movies and video games. I just walked out towards the woods, and nobody tried to stop me. I didn’t need to hide behind the cabins or crawl on my belly. I had a flashlight on the entire time. There were no counselors playing lookout and if they were, they just didn’t care.

“Where are you going,” a heavy voice asks behind me. I turn to spot Gabriel. Gabriel is a fat kid. We’re all fat kids here but Gabriel is the worst kind of fat kid. He’s a mouth breather, doesn’t smell great and there are always crumbs of food on his face. I went to middle school with him. He’s the kind of kid to bully others and then cry when he got in trouble for it. He’s not really a bully anymore, but he’s still a trouble maker.

“I’m going to the woods.”

“To find the goodies,” he asks liking his lips.

“Nope, just going in the woods,” I start walking, not wanting to be bothered.

It doesn’t stop Gabriel from following and breathing heavy behind me. He’s talking but I’m not paying it any attention. I’m only thinking about how he set of firecrackers in one of the outhouses the first week were here. Nobody can really prove it was him, but I just know it was him. People can change, but I don’t see a single way he’s changed. He doesn’t want to change because he doesn’t have to. His parents can always get him out of trouble. Write a check, pull a string and the issue goes away. In 6th grade he pushed a kid into the pool and he almost drowned. His parents bought new uniforms for the basketball team and we never heard about it again.

“The counselor told us a story about these woods,” Gabriel whispers before spitting onto the ground. It’s already creepy out here with just my flashlight and he’s wanting swap stories about ghost and hatchet wielding maniacs. Noises that we don’t hear in the day bouncing back and forth from the trees and making monsters that aren’t real. Sometimes it seems like eyes are watching us even when I know there’s nothing out here. It’s camp Grizzly, but there are no bears in this part of the state. No mountain lions or anything like that, but I’m a city kid. “Do you know about The Portly Woman?”

“It’s fat camp, we’re all portly.”

“No this is different,” Gabriel assures me. According to Gabriel back when the camp first open there was a counselor who was serious about making sure every camper lost weight. Supposedly she started abducting campers at night and using a machine to suck the fat right out of them. Sometimes she would go too far and suck out too much. They would just find a pile of skin and bones in the woods.

“Wow Gabriel, that’s such a scary story.”

“That’s not the scary part.”

“Oh, please tell me the scary part.”

The fat is the scary part. The woman had to put the fat somewhere. The story says she put all the fat together, and took care of it as her own child. Eventually the fat came to life. Either through her weird experiments or through her love. Eventually the kids stopped going missing, the same time the counselor did. When they finally found her, she was just skin and bones. Her own monster sucked all the fat out of her. Gabriel does his best to make the story sound scary as he tries to keep up with me. I haven’t been at fat camp for a full month and that is such a fat camp story.

The cave’s entrance is somewhat hard to see due to foliage, but you can’t miss the smell. I haven’t smelt anything like this before and it only gets stronger once we got inside. The closest thing I can think of is when the local taco spot got a shipment of rotting meat. It takes everything I have to keep the contents of my stomach where they belong. Gabriel isn’t as lucky. I almost reconsider going any deeper when I see the yellow slime spattering the walls and floor but the reward has to be close.

“Everyone thinks I’m a bully, but I’m not a bad guy,” Gabriel starts as if it were some afterschool special. The victim becomes friends with the bully and then they skateboard together. That’s not going to happen here.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be so mean to everyone.”

“I don’t do it on purpose.”

I don’t hear the rest of what he’s saying. I wouldn’t usually care what he was saying, but that goes double for now. My calf starts to burn as it feels like dozens of needles poking into my body, burning me with every prick of my flesh. It’s the slime, covering my leg and attacking me somehow. More of the slime moves toward me, covering my leg and joining the blob, leaving me stuck in place. I scream for help as Gabriel is looks on, mouth open and speechless. Gabriel starts to rock back and forth and I’m sure he’s going to run away and leave me to die. Instead, he digs deep into his pockets and grabs a handful of firecrackers from one pocket and a lighter from another.

I close my eyes as he tosses them towards me. One after another the explode with a loud pop. It works, it scares the blob deeper into the cave. I drag my leg after me as I make my way out of the cave as fast as can. I’ve never had a brownie worth risking my life over. Not even homemade brownies.

The two of us don’t speak on the way back to camp. We’re also not afraid of the sounds in the woods anymore. I have so many questions now, and I imagine Gabriel is no different. Why is this not worldwide news? Why did nobody report on the dead kids? What really happened to the crazy counselor? Why did nobody ever deal with the monster before? I guess we do know the answer to one thing; Gabriel set off the firecrackers in the outhouse.

Announcements

No Comments

TM.2 - Creation

May 03, 2026 Darrell S.

Some people like to just be themselves when it comes to games. Even if they don’t necessarily like themselves, there’s still a comfort in being themselves. Personally, I like to create someone new, a better version of me. The real me, just kind of sucks. I’m tall, but I’m skin and bones. I’ve got some scars from old injuries. Michael K Williams made a facial scar iconic, and it looks cool on Luffy. Mine just looks like someone tried to stab me in the jaw. There’s not even a cool story. Some jerk just put a rock in a snowball and caught me in the face. That was the first time I’d seen snow; my family took a trip to Detroit for the winter. The tickets were cheap enough, and my parents wanted to give me a chance to do something fun instead of think about being sick. My blood was so bright on the snow. Despite that, that’s still a happy memory for me.

The Cyber Rush character creator is kind of bland. There aren’t a ton of skin tones to choose from. Basically, Chris Brown or Wesley Snipes, so I guess I’m Wesley Snipes unless I want to be one of the seven versions of white. I never get excited for a game when the character creator sucks. It just shows me where the developer’s head was, and it was not with me. I can’t help but laugh to myself because I already know what my character will look like. The same thing my character looks like in every game that only caters to white players. A black guy with blue Goku hair, because there is always Goku hair. Can’t have dreadlocks or waves, but you can always have Goku hair. Kevin is probably having a way easier time with this creator than I am.

I spawn into the game, riding in the back of a car. I can’t actually see out of the windows. They cut corners here, just a cutscene. A tan skinned Asian man with his hair in a ponytail spawns in next to me. I guess I’ll meet Kevin in the game. They probably just do the intro with anyone.

“Hey Daamin,” I instantly recognize the voice?

“Kevin,” I ask in confusion.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you again,” he laughs, “without the reptile head I guess,” we both laugh.

“Decided to roleplay as an Asian guy this time,” I try to address the elephant in the car.

“Well, funny thing about that. I could never get the face scan right for Liberty and Strife. So I just created a character with the sliders.”

“There’s no face scan in this game, so you created an Asian guy,” I’m more confused now.

“Well, funny thing about that,” he glances out of the empty windows. “I thought I could spot something out of the window and change the subject, but the windows are fake.” He takes a deep breath and exhales before looking back to me. “I am actually Asian, Cambodian to be specific.”

“I guess Kevin isn’t your real name either,” I’m a little upset. I’m way too old to be falling for the Smart Guy episode where they get lured to a basement by a child predator.

“Sort of, my middle name is Kevin, and that’s what I go by. My first name is Khemera, my middle name is Kevin and my last name is Phlom. My parents wanted me to have a traditional name, but also a more American name.”

“I swear you better not be some pervert trying to get me to strip in your basement, because I am way too old for that.”

“Why would I?” Kevin stutters. “I’m confused.”

“Yeah, that makes two of us. We’re going to talk about why you didn’t want people to know you were Asian at some point. But I’m going to take your word for now. Is this why you never wanted to face time?”

“Greetings,” a voice booms from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“Narration,” Kevin and I say at the same time.

“I hate games with narration,” Kevin sighs.

“I kind of liked Biomutant.”

“It was okay, it wasn’t great.”

“I think people just expect too much of AA games, and don’t really give them grace. A lot of the innovation for games comes from that space and it’s being erased.”

“You definitely have a point with people expecting too much.”

“Excuse me,” the narrator cuts in. “Sorry to disturb your conversation but you’ve taken a new job with Seven Stones Industries. We make some of the most cutting edge technology in the world. But keeping it safe is risky, that’s why we need special forces military operatives like you to help keep it safe. Buckle up, we’ll be arriving soon,” the narrator finishes.

“This is so generic,” Kevin laughs.

“I guarantee we’re going to meet the boss and it’s going to be a bald white guy.”

“If this game came out in the 2010s, we’d be playing as bald white guys too.”

We share a brief laugh over how absurd and true all of this is. When there’s a moment of silence, I remind him, “we’re still going to talk about that white guy disguise, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Won’t happen again, and I’m glad to be here.”

If you're enjoying the story, check out my newsletter on Substack or find me online.

Tribe Mind

No Comments

TM.1 - Anticipation

April 19, 2026 Darrell S.

Kai and Alexandre can’t always play games with me. I get it, both of them are over thirty and trying to figure out how to be real adults. I’m just a twenty-four year old who’s too chronically ill to go to college or work a trade. Instead, I’m stuck in my parent’s house playing games, scraping by on uber and fiverr gigs. After Liberty and Strife trapped us all in the game and almost killed us, most people would stop playing games or at least take a break. Not me, I don’t have anything else to do. At least not anything fun. I could be panicking about how I’m going to pay for the ridiculous hospital bills that I’ve got left from the whole ordeal. But I’m not really worried since I’m already one of the millions of Americans crippled by medical debt. Catching up on the news when I woke up left me surprised, I missed that whole Luigi Mangione thing. Too bad they didn’t push for Universal Healthcare after that. Maybe next time, because there is always a next time.

During that whole thing I met Kevin. He was also playing as a swordsman in a game full of people with super advanced guns and drones. The two of us got along right away. Anime, movies, comics, and everything else. We were both fans of all the same things. We exchanged information in the game and promised to find each other in the real world. As soon as I got home, I had a friend request from him waiting. We’ve played a few games together since then, but it’s been a little sporadic. He’s been playing catchup to make sure he finishes school, but he’s got time to play this weekend.

Tribe Mind is a new virtual reality game. I was scared to ask if he wanted to play but it seems like neither of us learned our lesson. I haven’t played any VR games since getting out, but I still have the itch for it. It seems like most people do. When a game traps nearly a million people from all across the world, it tends to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. I spend most of my time wishing I could be someone else or even just do whatever I wanted. That’s the cool thing about games like Liberty and Strife. There’re no limits on what can be done. I don’t have to worry if my body is going to give out on me. I was excited when he was willing to play.

The game is supposed to be some kind of spiritual successor to Liberty and Strife. It’s set in a futuristic desert city with a lot of places to explore. The point of the game is supposed to be some kind of evil tech company taking over the world through brain implants, and it’s up to players to stop it. It doesn’t exactly sound groundbreaking, but it doesn’t need to be. It just needs to be good enough for an escape, a basic Isekai is all that’s needed. A temporary escape.

“We still on,” a new text message from Kevin.

“Affirmative.”

“Great,” he responds with an emoji of a man saluting.

I’m sure Alexandre and Kai have been leaning on each other to get through this. I’ve talked to them a few times, but sometimes I feel like the little brother playing third wheel. They knew each other before I came along and they’ve got plenty of stories from before I was around. I’m really grateful the two have taken me in and they swear I’m part of the team, but I don’t always feel that way. It’s nothing they’ve done, just my own thoughts. That’s why it’s been great chatting with Kevin since we met.

My VR gear hasn’t even gotten dusty. It was just sitting here, waiting on me to pick it up again. Well, the wait is over. Today is the day when I hop back in the game. I wasn’t feeling nervous before, but now that the headset is in my hands, I can’t help but feel my heart sinking into my stomach. I guess I am a little scared after all. Still, I never go back on my word, that’s my nindo, my ninja way.

If you're enjoying the story, check out my newsletter on Substack or find me online.

Tribe Mind

No Comments