❧ 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

[grandbellknight]

... Yeah.

> You press the B button.

[vengefulagent]

[he smirks juuuust a bit when he sees which button Croix has pushed, but he doesn't comment. truth be told, he didn't want to maneuver either them into a room where such an attack could be a possibility.]

> You head over to the "B" DOOR, waiting for it to open.

[luministimods]

> The NORTH 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 THEATRE ARCADE.

> What do you do?

[grandbellknight]

[Meanwhile, Croix is just hoping this doesn't pull a fast one on them and put them inside a game. Or something equally as ridiculous. Then again, on the other hand, he's almost expecting it. ... Sigh.]

> You head through the NORTH DOOR.

[luministimods]

> After you both go through the DOOR and see absolutely nothing for a second, the blackness immediately goes away to show that you have entered the Janus Theatre ARCADE! You see a bunch of prize-filled grab machines, and other fun GAMES in there--but no people. Yet the GAMES all continue to make their victorious noises as games are won and disappointing failure noises as games are lost. Will you have to play a game? If you look LEFT/WEST and STRAIGHT-AHEAD/NORTH, you see two door. And...you see a VIDSCREEN on your RIGHT...but it's set within a GRAB MACHINE. A GIANT GRAB MACHINE. The GAMES all look playable and fun. Do you stop to have a bit of fun before continuing on?

> What do you?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix takes a look around. Games, grab machines... There are the doors, and there's the vidscreen-- oh are you serious.]

Well, getting to the vidscreen just got harder.

> You walk over to the GIANT GRAB MACHINE for a closer look inside.

[vengefulagent]

[he lets out a little sigh of exasperation.] Just how big is this place?

[you know what? he's sick of this. he takes hold of his rifle, aiming it at the glass of the giant grab machine. and yes, he does this all while still keeping that folder completely secure.]

Croix, you might want to move, or just...back up a bit.

[grandbellknight]

[Croix looks over, sees the gun, and nods. He then moves to stand behind Washington and wait. This is certainly preferable to attempting to play the game...]

[vengefulagent]

Good decision.

> You open fire on the glass.

[luministimods]

> When the BULLETS hit the GLASS, the GLASS bends almost comically--and then slingshots the BULLETS right back.

> What do you do? Are you able to dodge them?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix can't - by the time he realizes what's going on, he doesn't have long enough to get out of the way. He quickly pulls out his lance and uses the broad side as a shield, which works plenty well on later incoming bullets, but he wasn't fast enough to completely avoid getting hit. He takes a pair of bullets to his left shoulder blade.

His armor is certainly thick enough to help against the impact, but not quite enough. When the rebounding ceases, he puts his lance away and grips the wound, hissing a little and wincing from the pain.]

Dammit! What the hell kind of glass is that?!

[vengefulagent]

[thankfully, Wash didn't fire too many bullets (only two bursts with his rifle), but he should have expected this. but he doesn't want to duck out of the way; he's unsure about the durability of Croix's armor. there's hardly any time to react. he just manages to raise one arm up to shield his face and chest before he takes two bullets to the side of his abdomen, one to the right side of his chest, and a fourth in his shoulder. (sadly, he doesn't know that the other two hit Croix yet.)

he bites away a cry of pain. after all, he's used to being shot, but the wound to his chest hurts quite a bit. at least he has York's healing unit, and looking at his HUD, it's definitely been activated. so when he speaks again, pressing a hand to his stomach long enough for the healing unit to kick in, his voice is a little strained, but not as much as it would be for the poor bastard who didn't have future healing tech on his side.]

I don't know, but are you okay?

[grandbellknight]

[Croix pulls his hand away, and finds it covered in blood. He looks at the wound - he's endured worse, but he knows he needs to be very careful with it. Still, he counts himself lucky. ... And then puts his hand right back on his shoulder blade to apply some more pressure.]

I'm fine. [He turns to Washington.] What about you?

[vengefulagent]

[he doesn't need to look at his own hand to know he's bleeding. (the armor will be annoying to fix later on.) very gently, he removes his hand and fishes around for a spare healing unit]

I've had worse. I'll be fine. [tosses the unit out between the two of them, a green glowing mist emanating from it] Keep pressure on your wound. This should take a few minutes.

[grandbellknight]

[He watches Washington, curious, and when the healing unit begins to glow, he looks pretty impressed. He can feel his wound beginning to close, though he keeps his hand where it is.]

That's... very helpful. Thank you. [He manages a tiny, somewhat rueful smile.] If only there was something like it back home. [He can't even begin count how many different ways it would make things easier...]

[vengefulagent]

Don't mention it. [he kneels down in front of the healing unit and leans forward on his thigh to apply pressure until his HUD tells him he's out of the danger zone. his rifle and the envelope are set down beside him. he's very grateful it wasn't another injury to his back.]

Yeah, these healing units were developed recently. [though "recently" is a term he uses rather loosely] Give your world time, and they'll probably come up with something similar.

[grandbellknight]

[Probably not in his lifetime, but it's a nice thought.] Yeah. In the meanwhile, we'll continue relying on song magic.

[Injury healed, Croix rolls his shoulder to make sure he didn't lose mobility somehow. Satisfied, he faces the machine again and approaches.]

Just how pliable is this...?

> You lay your hand against the glass and push - gently at first, but increasing pressure steadily.

[vengefulagent]

[Wash stands after a moment, grabbing the healing unit and storing it away before retrieving his rifle and the envelope. his injuries might be healed, but he can definitely feel that bullet still lodged in his shoulder. he makes a mental note of that for later. the pain he can ignore quite easily.]

Pliable enough to bend with the force my bullets put out. What was that about song magic though?

[luministimods]

> You might not notice it at first, but with the increasing pressure on the glass, it subtly bends inward more and more--until you feel the glass sucking you in. Before you know it, you are being pulled through the glass and land in a pile of balls of varying sizes.

[grandbellknight]

[He answers Washington as he's pushing against the glass, actually.]

A Reyvateil connects to the Tower through songs, and the Tower translates her emotions and wishes into reality. It can be offensive or supportive, so it's helpful in a f--

[Aaaand suddenly, he gets sucked into a gigantic ball pit.]

--Gah! [He just barely manages not to completely fall over. He blinks once, twice... then turns to the glass, placing his hands against it again.] Are you serious?!

[vengefulagent]

[man, he wants to ask about this, but any questions are immediately shoved aside when he sees that happen]

Croix! [runs to the grab machine, almost putting his hands on the glass--but he thinks twice about that and doesn't]

Wait, you're inside that machine. Do you realize what you can do now?

[luministimods]

> Unfortunately for Croix, the glass doesn't react the same way once he's inside. It doesn't bend or anything; it's very much solid.

[grandbellknight]

[Frustrated that the glass isn't weird-bendy both ways, Croix hits it with the side of his fist and gives a small sigh. At Washington's question, though, he nods.] The vidscreen. I know. I will. Still need to find a way out, though.

[Maybe the hole where the prizes drop is large enough...? He'll have to look, after he's done with the vidscreen, of course.]

> You wade through the assorted BALLS of various size, over to the VIDSCREEN, and activate it.

[vengefulagent]

[hopefully Croix realizes that Wash's suggestion is his way of calming and distracting the young man from the weird situation he's in.]

Well, one thing at a time.

> While CROIX does his thing with the VIDSCREEN, you beat him to the punch and examine the PRIZE HATCH.

[luministimods]

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

Choose your destination! If you wish to go to the mayoral residence, please press the "A" button. If you wish to go to town square, 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?

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

> You see that the PRIZE HATCH looks big enough to accommodate the many balls in there, but it doesn't look CROIX could fit, especially not with his ARMOR. (And needless to say, you definitely can't fit, either.)