❧ 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]

> You see that there is nothing special about the PHONEBOOTH--other than it looks like this.

> When you open it, however, you see that the VIDSCREEN somehow fits inside the PHONEBOOTH, and that it somehow seems bigger on the inside than the outside.

[grandbellknight]

[Croix can hear Washington approach perfectly well, and he relies on that to guess where he is. When Washington opens the door, the fact that it's bigger on the inside makes Croix look in and out of it a few times, just to be sure he isn't completely making things up...]

This is ridiculous.

> You step inside of the PHONEBOOTH, activate the VIDSCREEN, and then take a look around the interior.

[vengefulagent]

> You wait outside in case anything happens, but keep an eye on what's going on inside the PHONEBOOTH.

[luministimods]

> You have activated the VIDSCREEN! Congratulations. Added bonus? You both can now see again! Yeah!!! You win the following text:

Choose your destination! If you wish to go to the inside the pub, please press the "A" button. If you wish to go to the theatre arcade, please press the "B" button. If you wish to go to the butcher shop, 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?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix lets out a small sigh of relief when he can see again.]

Hopefully nothing has changed much out there...?

> You press the A button, and then step out of the PHONEBOOTH.

[vengefulagent]

[he does a quick visual search of the room once he regains his sight, but sees nothing]

No, not a thing. Seems going in there solved our problems for the time being.

[luministimods]

> The WEST DOOR ("A") 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 interior of the WHITE RABBIT.

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix nods, already starting toward the open door. Goddess, he is so glad he didn't have to deal with all of this alone...]

Okay. Let's go.

> You head through the DOOR.

[vengefulagent]

> You briefly wonder why there have been two other DOORS lately, but decide not to worry about it too much and follow CROIX through the DOOR.

[luministimods]

> For a brief second, you can't see. Damn the BLACKNESS! However! The blackness immediately goes away to show that you have entered the PUB for real this time! And unlike many of the rooms before, this genuinely looks like the real PUB with no painted-on fixtures or anything. The different TAPS even work! You'll even see the PUB's own VIDSCREEN where it normally is.

> You also see, down on the FAR LEFT/SOUTH of the PUB that there's a DOOR that isn't normally there. How weird.

>What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[If they weren't in the middle of something, Croix would most certainly get a drink. Because seriously. This town. However, they're here for a reason. Time to investigate.]

Only one door this time... Do you think it might be a dead end?

> You head on over to the VIDSCREEN and activate it. This is becoming routine. You're not entirely sure how you feel about that...

[vengefulagent]

If it were a real dead end, there wouldn't be another door.

> You head to the DOOR to wait for it to be opened. You're not going to risk getting blinded again.

[luministimods]

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

To open the door, push to open.

> You see no buttons pop up like before or anything. But do you trust that the door is safe?

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[ ... :|] I meant the room after.

[It's a distracted response, though. He's distracted by the vidscreen, and he narrows his eyes. What, no button? He shakes his head, starts toward Washington and the door.]

The screen says to push to open. Nothing else. What do you think?

[vengefulagent]

Sure you did. [was that a slight joke from Wash? you be the judge, Croix]

Well, if the screen says so, and it's given us the way through in previous rooms, I say we test it.

[grandbellknight]

And by "we," you mean me.

[Regardless of whether Washington was joking or not, Croix certainly is. One corner of his mouth twitches upward into a faint smile as he shakes his head. Don't worry, he's used to it.]

> You open the DOOR with a push.

[vengefulagent]

[stares for a second] Actually...I meant "we".

[luministimods]

> And just as the VIDSCREEN says, the DOOR opens with a simple push! What'd you expect, another blinding flash?

[grandbellknight]

[Either way, the door's open. Croix gives Washington a nod before stepping through.

And yes. Yes, he was expecting something along those lines. Thank you. ]

[vengefulagent]

[Wash just shakes his head and goes on through after him]

[luministimods]

> For a brief second, you can't see. Damn the BLACKNESS! However! The blackness immediately goes away to show that you have entered the...Sheriff's Office? How odd and entirely random. Still, you see that the ROOM looks exactly how it would if you were to go into it for real--and WASHINGTON can attest to this--and it looks like a KEY's been set out on top of the paper-laden DESK. The DESK itself has TWO DRAWERS, as does the FILING CABINET next to it. The THREE CHAIRS--TWO in front and ONE behind the DESK--look safe enough to sit in if you feel inclined.

> The two things you do not notice, however, are a VIDSCREEN and another DOOR. The only way back is through that DOOR you came in, which is now glowing a bright white.

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix blinks. That was unexpected... The place does look just like it was when he investigated with Sophie before. And the key sitting on the desk? Very convenient. But first... ]

> You examine the PAPERS already out on the DESK.

[vengefulagent]

This place, huh? [while he's getting a tired of this game, he figures the worse some office supplies could do is chase after him or shoot paperclips at him.]

> You start going through the FILING CABINET DRAWERS.

[luministimods]

> Most of the papers are the same as before, but a couple stick out, like print-out CHARTS, and pages and pages filled with COMMENTS--both negative and positive--about the TOWN and its RESIDENTS. You even see your NAMES mentioned every now and then. Seems you all have FANS.

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

> When you look in the FILING CABINET DRAWERS, you find DOSSIERS of the different employees in town. Few of them will be of interest--many files are filled with blank paper to make them look thicker, but a few are actually interesting. You find FILES for ARDES (two meant for AUDREY and ANDRE), PROCTOR, CALIGIN (two for CONSTANTINE and VERITA), OSCULIA, IUSSUS, and RESARCI.

> Wait, you find TWO FILES for RESARCI.

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

>What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix sets aside the charts - those look important. As for the comments...]

I knew we were being watched. [Completely matter-of-fact.]

> You can't fight the curiosity, and rifle through the COMMENTS in search of what these apparent FANS have to say about you and WASHINGTON.