❧ Life's An Adventure

[luministimods]

[surprisingly, a private text message is sent not to the device Nathan left behind but to all of the residents' CATs. it reads:]

Get to the nearest door and wait. When the alarm sounds, immediately go through the door and await the next signal.

[surely such a text is confusing, but the sender hopes those words are heeded. ten minutes after it's sent, all vidscreens in the town begin to flash red, and a wailing siren breaks the din. the only word that flashes on screen is:]

EVACUATE

[similarly, back in the spacestation, red flashing lights drop down from the ceiling and a constant, beeping alarm begins to ring. over this, a pleasant and feminine automated voice says:]

Please find the nearest exit and evacuate the station via escape pod. A distress signal has been sent to the closest galactic space authority. Those with small children are asked to--[but this message is interrupted with another]

Life support systems in sectors A through L are at 80%--65%--50%. Life support failure in sectors A through L is imminent. Warning, please evacuate sectors A through L immediately. Warning...

[the automated voice continues with warnings about those sectors--but oddly enough, nothing is wrong in the spacestation itself. no one is evacuating, and in fact, no one can be seen fleeing from the town. the only people who should be in the station are the residents, if they all heeded the text message's warning and went through their respective doors at the right time. all doors brought everyone back to the observation deck, near the first hallway that used to lead to the Mayor's house.

suddenly, Nathan's device begins to chime and an audio message from him begins to play. (oddly enough, the automated voice's warning messages soften, like the volume's been turned down.]

Oh good, you made it out safe! I didn't think that person would...[he trails off] Anyway! I've had a bit of help and I think I can finally get you out of there. I'm sorry though, but I can't get you back into town. I had to shut off life support there to distract those in charge, but I also managed to open up access to the lower level. I can't find the staircases, but the elevator should be working now, so you'll have to use that. This is your chance, everyone! Find the one responsible for this mess and find Lab #3. Contact me if you need me.

[the audio transmission ends. a moment later, there's a soft "ding" as the elevator set behind the Maintenance door in the nearby hallway opens, ready for occupants to board it.

shame it won't be a simple elevator ride.]


❧ Plot Details: Life's An Adventure **Quick-time Event**

Thank goodness everyone (hopefully) got out in time! Staying in town during that life support shutdown would have been...unfortunate (and if anyone DID want to stay behind during that? Let me know.) But who sent that helpful text if it wasn't Nathan? Was it Audrey? Was it someone else? Was Nathan just pulling a fast one? In any case, now everyone can move on to, well, the final level if we take it in RPG terms.

Funny that though...

For this quick-time event, we are going to keep things to this entry. You'll be given a choice of going up or down in the elevator. Actually...just about every action in this plot is based around choice, and fittingly too. Depending on how much you discover during this plot--there are four objectives that can possibly be fulfilled (and they don't all have to be by every person)--the outcome will shape the end of this plot, the game, and next season as well. I'll have a list at the bottom of this entry so people can easily see how many objectives have been completed. You'll only have a week! Keep in mind that only one objective--the main one--has to be accomplished by week's end and things will not progress until it's accomplished. (If we accomplish the main one before the week is done, I will still wait the full week before going ahead with the second half of this plot.)

So what are we doing in this mad week-long event? Like I said before, you'll be given a choice of taking the elevator up or down. From there, you'll be given the another choice via vidscreen about which direction you want to go in. Sometimes it'll be two choices, other times it'll be three. But nonetheless, you'll have to make a choice--and you'll have to make the choice in the style of a text adventure. This is a bit of a hybrid rather than a straight text adventure, though. You can talk to people normally and interact with them as you would do in a normal action thread, but when you go to make your choice or wish to interact with the environment (you don't have to do it for every single step or anything), you'll basically be inputting your command to help the adventure to progress. If you don't ever interact with the environment or make a choice, well, you're stuck in that room. Kind of a boring adventure, being stuck in a room.

If this explanation isn't quite making sense, I did a mock-scenario of this to illustrate the hybrid/pseudo-text adventure I'm talking about. Head here! Hopefully that helps explain things? If it didn't, please, please don't be afraid to ask me. The first two comments to this entry will be for the IC interaction, and any additional ones can be for OOC comments/questions.

I do advise that while you can go in groups, please keep them small so we can go through things at a steady pace. Heck, if you want? You can even solo this and interact just with, well, me as the text adventure prompts, and then contact people if you find something. I just ask that if you want to solo it, that you indicate your intentions in the subject line to whichever direction you wish to go in the elevator.

Threadhopping via the CATs can still happen, especially if you or someone else learns something that might be important for the others to know. (Of course, if you want to join in physically, you can do it like this.) Also, I do recommend tracking your threads, especially when I pop in with prompts and disrupt the notification process. (And let's hope varnish errors are few to none!)

So...that's it! If you have any questions/comments/etc, leave them here or get a hold of me through the normal channels! And before I leave, here's our handy objectives list!



Objectives! Objective #1 = Completed! Objective #2 = Completed! Objective #3 = Completed! (Also here and here.) Objective #4 = Completed!

Comments

[luministimods]

> The VINES each let out little shrieks as they are cut, and if you listen closely, it sounds like the VINES are yelling in squeaky voices, "Argh, I am slain!"

-------

> Man, you are such a jerk! Killing BRANCHES that just want to touch you... It works, but the TREES don't like it and you both can hear a deep, rumbling groan that reverberates throughout the room.

[grandbellknight]

> You pretend you didn't hear that, seeing as it's... really, really weird, and touch the VIDSCREEN to activate it.

[Every few seconds, he glances back over his shoulder to make sure Washington is okay, of course. And then, that rumbling... Come on, vidscreen, go faster...!]

[vengefulagent]

[Wash is cool as a cucumber, especially since these branches aren't shooting back at him. It's nice to have an excuse to shoot at something and expend a little anger at the town that's prevented him from doing his damn job for the past three-ish months. and besides, the branches are pruned back enough that it gives him a nice bit of breathing room]

except when he hears those yells and the groan, he stops for a moment]

What...was that?

[luministimods]

> You have activated the VIDSCREEN! Congratulations. You win the following text:

Choose your destination! If you wish to go to the malt shop, please press the "A" button. If you wish to go to 'The Chrysalis', please press the "B" button.

> You see TWO BUTTONS appear on the screen below the text, one below each choice and labeled as indicated above.

> What do you do?

---------

Also, when you stop shooting, you might hear a faint crying sound.

[grandbellknight]

I don't know. It doesn't sound very happy, though...

[Croix frowns at the vidscreen. Neither seems particularly useful, but then again, you never know...

He hears the crying, though before he goes to investigate, he quickly deals with the choice.]

> You somewhat absently press the "B" button, distracted by the sounds coming from somewhere in the room. Then, you cautiously approach a clear point of the railing and look down.

[vengefulagent]

[lowers his rifle a bit] Is that...is it crying?

[he doesn't know what to think about that, so instead, he looks at the choice Croix made and simply heads over to that door]

Let's just...keep moving.

[luministimods]

> The EAST DOOR ("B") opens all on its own! Congratulations! But do you go into the DOORWAY? It is pitch black just like before and still doesn't show what lies beyond. Hopefully, you trust that it really does lead to THE CHRYSALIS.

> But when you--CROIX--look down, you simply see TREES, but...they all seem to gather around the one that WASHINGTON wounded the most. The TREES don't seem to be paying any more attention to either of you.

>What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix would be lying if he said that the crying didn't make him want to stop and... ... well... how do you help a crying tree? ... Regardless, part of him does want to try.

This whole room hits too close to home - to the fake Metafalica, the land turned against them. And Luca... maybe there's something else going on here, something different than what he'd first assumed on instinct.]

... Go ahead. I'll catch up.

> You put your LANCE away and walk back down the STAIRCASE, toward the gathered TREES

[vengefulagent]

[that makes him stop right where he is and sigh.]

No. I'm not going to leave you behind, especially if something happens.

[reluctantly, he turns around and heads over to the railing to keep an eye on Croix.]

[luministimods]

> The TREES don't move or react to your presence until you are close to them. They move slowly apart to show that some BUSHES have gathered the cut and shot-off BRANCHES, but a few still lay at your feet.

> The TREES don't seem to be interested in retaliation of any kind, and the BUSHES pay you no attention at all.

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix is honestly surprised that Washington is actually waiting on him. He would also expect teasing later, but he's not exactly sure Washington's the type. ... Regardless.]

> You carefully pick up the BRANCHES and move to place them where the others have been gathered. An apology, or a peace offering. Of sorts. (You also carefully try not to think on how weird all of this is. It doesn't work very well.)

[vengefulagent]

[Washington isn't about to leave behind soldier--especially a competent one, even if he does find the whole branch picking up thing to be a bit odd. the whole thing is...perplexing but so far, they've gotten lucky with these trees. granted, he's ready to shoot off more branches if things take a turn for the worst...]

[luministimods]

> The nearest TREE touches you on the shoulder very lightly while the other TREES gently lift the branches up to where they once were. Before your eyes, new branches begin to grow in the spots of the old and connect to the ends of the old. Soon, it's as though no damage had been done at all; the TREES can gently move their branches again.

> Once they do, the TREES almost seem to be motioning for you to go NORTH.

[grandbellknight]

[Croix blinks at the trees, looks north... and then glances up at Washington.]

This way. I think it's safe now.

> You head NORTH.

[vengefulagent]

I'm...going to stay here. Just in case.

[and anyway, the trees thing is definitely weird and since he did the majority of the damage, he doesn't expect the trees to be kind to him.]

[luministimods]

> The TREES and BUSHES part until they show you a SIGN hanging on a WALL that looks like it's been painted to mimic the rest of the PALM HOUSE that reads: "Luministi Research Labs". Below it are HANDWRITTEN WORDS in black that read: "The past is the road to the present and onwards to the future."

[grandbellknight]

[Croix very carefully examines the sign, the wall... he can tell it's painted, but he isn't quite sure why.]

> You examine the WALL closer, even lay a hand against it.

[vengefulagent]

[carefully leans over the railing to see]

Croix, what did you find?

[luministimods]

> You find there is nothing special about the WALL, aside from the BRUSHSTROKES creating the picture-perfect details of the real PALM HOUSE.

[grandbellknight]

A sign for the research labs. And something that someone wrote after the fact: "The past is the road to the present and onwards to the future."

[He shakes his head.] I'm not sure what it means. Or why the sign would be here - there doesn't seem to be a door back here. We should probably move on now.

> You begin to make your way back, toward WASHINGTON and the EAST DOOR.

[vengefulagent]

"The past is the road to the present and onwards to the future", huh? Interesting. [far more than a sign for the labs, though it is somewhat curious as to why it's there and not back out in the lab proper. it feels misplaced to him] It doesn't quite make sense, though.

> Weird messages aside, you wait until CROIX is up the stairs and then lead him through the EAST DOOR.

[luministimods]

> For a brief second, you can't see. Curse the BLACKNESS! However! The blackness immediately goes away to show that you have entered "The Chrysalis". You notice a few TABLES and CHAIRS set out for a dinner party, and FOOD of the highest quality set upon SERVING PLATES in the center of the TABLES, surrounding a blank VIDSCREEN lying flat on the CENTER TABLE. But is the FOOD real? It definitely smells like it is. To your LEFT/NORTH, STRAIGHT AHEAD/EAST, and RIGHT/SOUTH are THREE DOORS set into the WALLS near the end of the room. The placement of the DOORS doesn't jive with the original shape of the RESTAURANT, making the irregular shape into a square. Like previous rooms, you see that the WOODEN SLATS, BRIGHT BLUE SKY, and FOREST are merely painted on.

> Are you hungry? Why are there three doors this time?

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[The food might look real, but Croix isn't hungry and wouldn't touch it even if he was.]

Not quite, no. It might still be important somehow. [pause] More than just A and B this time, or so it seems.

> You approach the VIDSCREEN, per usual, and activate it.

[vengefulagent]

[he can't help but sigh] This is getting just stranger by the minute.

> You start surveying the ROOM, being sure not to touch any FOOD, CHAIRS, or TABLES that might suddenly spring to life. Or start to multiply for inexplicable reasons.

[luministimods]

> You have activated the VIDSCREEN! Congratulations. You win the following text:

Choose your destination! If you wish to go to the White Rabbit, please press the "A" button. If you wish to go to the clinic, please press the "B" button. If you wish to go to the Janus Theatre, please press the "C" button.

> You see THREE BUTTONS appear on the screen below the text, one below each choice and labeled as indicated above.

> What do you do?

---------------

You notice nothing different than when you first entered. How boring.