CYOA - WEEK 1

[cyclists]

SEEK A WAY OUT...

Without warning, sometime on the evening of the second day of the first week, a large, black mass emerges and swallows you whole. Dragging you through a dark tunnel, you'll soon find yourself in a strangely dark room.

Thankfully, you aren't alone. There are three others with you as the dim lights cast an eerie glow on your surroundings. It's hard to really see what, precisely, is around but as you come into consciousness a radio crackles from above. A distorted voice speaks suddenly, breaking the silence.

Consider this a privilege. You are going to participate in a game…it is a game where you may emerge victorious, but a game where you will put your life on the line.

The purpose of the game is simple. Leave this place alive and with purpose. It is hidden, but there is an exit to be found…seek a way out.

You have three hours. At the end of your time, should you not succeed--

The words cut out. The radio goes silent and the light in the room disappears entirely. An alarm begins to ring out, loud and blaring and echoing through the room.

Hopefully you got a good look at the interior before the lights went out.

SEEK A WAY OUT.

The first step will be shining some light on the situation and disabling the alarm.

Best of luck to you.



In this CYOA, characters are tasked with venturing through locked rooms and solving puzzles to seek a way out of the facility they've been trapped in. They will each be faced with a variety of puzzles, clues, and traps that will help or hinder their progress. They will also be dealing with small manifestations of corruption that they will need to clear to proceed. In doing so, characters may earn items or hints toward the game's plot. Real time will pass, so all characters will be missing for a maximum of three hours…if they escape.

Proceed with caution.

Comments

ROOM 1

[cyclists]

[With the lights out and the alarm blaring, these are the first two tasks that should be taken care of before any further progress can be made. The room itself is a little chilly inside and the floorplan is wider in some places than others.

Perhaps it's best to divide and conquer?

To the left? Or to the right?]

[daibanana]

[Hm well this is... inconvenient.

Nana stands stiff, surprise etched into her face as she glances around for as long as the light holds. She's listening to the voice radio, but more importantly, she's looking to see where the heck she is.

When the darkness takes over, her voice peeks up:]

... Well, at least the rules are simple.

[JUST GOTTA LEAVE, RIGHT? Awesome. That's exactly what she was planning from the start]

Though maybe we should do a quick roll-call first?

[televised]

["Inconvenient" is a heck of an understatement. Her optical units struggle with the abrupt shift in lighting for a moment, North startling as the alarm begins to ring. At Nana's comment, she scoffs, obviously frustrated.]

Simple enough that we won't see our deaths coming until it's too late.

[They did say that they had to make it out alive, after all. Which implies there's a chance that they're going to get hecking murdered before their three hours are up? It's fine. This is fine.]

The other two. [They have names, North.] Are you still there?

[Did a black hole swallow y'all up in the last thirty seconds..........]

[specialdog]

[ There's a beat of silence before Akane chimes in, but when she does it's accompanied with... Her cell phone lighting up. Portable light source! ]

Still here. Can we shut that alarm up? Can't think straight like this...

[ What's that about us all dying? Hm? Hm? Didn't hear you over the alarm! ]

[forefall]

[ The alarms really are quite the nuisance, aren't they?

Four is very stiff, as she tries to adjust to the dim lighting, afraid that any moment might set off a trap. She has no idea what a cell phone is but is suddenly very glad it exists. ]

I'm here. I would also like to take care of the alarms, but what else can we do for light?

[ She'd at least like to see how she dies, not that she wants to die at all.

How is any of this a privilege? ]

[daibanana]

[Nana absolutely knows what a cellphone is and claps her hands once, in approval, her banana bangs bobbing as she nods]

Perfect, Akane-chan! That will make this much easier.

[Though yeah, given how dim it is and how much they might have to explore, finding more lighting would be ideal. She looks left and right, then back to the other girls]

Should we look around for another light source? We might find something...

[televised]

[BLESS YOU, AKANE... North is thankful for the light source, but she would also rather detach her arm and toss it in a fire before praising a human — so. You know.]

Well, we're certainly not going to find anything if we keep standing around. [... She's already veering towards the left side of the room as she says this, steps careful just in case she failed to notice something before the lights went out.] You heard what that voice said. We have three hours to break out of this place, or else.

[specialdog]

Or else... What? Something to do with the corruption? Or do we just slowly starve to death in the dark?

[ It's very fair to not praise Akane. She heads to the right side of the room with absolutely no regard for the fact that she's just shown them she has a light source and then immediately taken it away to go do her own thing.

Good luck searching, left side. ]

Or maybe we'll be driven crazy by the alarm. [ God, she's annoyed by it. ]

[forefall]

The implication could be a bit more dire than that.

[ She watches Akane waltz off with the only light source??? aghast (not that anyone can see her face AKANE). ]

Have you considered that you aren't the only person in this room?

[ The reproach in her voice is clear, but that doesn't stop her from walking after the other girl to the right. As if she'd be left alone in darkness like this.

Bye, left side. ]

[cyclists]

[As the girls head forward and begin to split up, they'll find their fork in the road and be forced to split up.

On the left, North and Nana will find that this portion of the hall is decorated with oil lanterns hanging from the wall on their right. Eventually, they will hit a dead end. Hopefully they aren't walking too quickly or they will bump straight into a panel. In the dark, it may be hard to make out but they've found the breaker box! Congratulations!

…but there is a number pad on the box, clearly waiting for a code to be put in. So, how are they going to open it and see what's inside?

Meanwhile, on the right, Akane and Four sure are walking straight toward the source of the alarm. Thanks to the thin light from Akane's cell phone, they're in a little better position than Team Left. This side also has oil lanterns hanging on the wall, but as they approach their own dead end, they will find that the sound is loudest here. There is an alarm system mounted in front of them, red light flashing as the sound blares. There also appear to be four colored buttons at the bottom. There's a pattern here. What will they try first?]

[specialdog]

[ With no hesitation, because she fucking hates this alarm, Akane starts jabbing at those colored buttons one by one. She tries to, like, go in chronological order, if they're arranged in a way where that makes sense. ]

What about it?

[ It's her phone! Get your own phone if you're going to complain! Jeez. Actually, she doesn't really want to hear the answer that she knows will come to that question, so she tries to change the subject. ]

Have anything we could use to light those lanterns?

[forefall]

I don't have anything on me for that.

[ There was sort of no preparation for this? Hello? All she has is a fork with some kind of vegetable on it because she was in the middle of eating when this happened.

Four frowns. ]

Could you hold your... light device higher, so we can see what's around? There might be something around here for that.

[ She squints, trying to adjust to the red light of the alarm and see with it, just in case Akane decided to do whatever she wants to with her phone, like she has for the past however many minutes. ]

[daibanana]

[...

....






Turning to North as the light from Akane's phone slowly starts to pitter out on their side]

Shall we take this path, then?

[Honestly the oil lanterns are getting her immediate attention, seeing as someone was not taught how to share in preschool.]

If we can get these started, then maybe... [Is there a way to turn on the lanterns? A knob of sorts? Or will they need a way to get the oil burning?]

[televised]

[DO YOU EVER GET THAT NORTH⮟ FEELING, AKANE...

While Nana's attention is on the lanterns, North will be drawn to the breaker box. She's pressing her hands against it, trying to get a better sense of what they're working with through touch — but with the number pad keeping it nice and shut? There's not much they can do without a light source.]

I think... I found the breaker box. But there's keypad on it, and I don't want to risk cracking it in the dark. [One wrong move and they'll be screwed, after all.] Did you see anything we could use to turn the lanterns on before it went dark?

[... That said, the benefit of having a computer for a brain is that her memory is relatively solid. North's going to feel around the vicinity to get a better feel for where she's at, right now. But from the brief moments that they had to glance at their surroundings before the lights went out, was there anything notable about the left side of the room?]

CORRUPTION;

[cyclists]

[With the tapedeck found by Nana and North and the tape found by Akane and Four, it seems that the darkness around them starts to convene in the middle. The wisps of darkness flow around them, stitching up a blockade for the main entrance and leaving the four girls trapped in the hall.

How will you proceed?]

[daibanana]

[First Nana is going to proceed by staring at Four tackling Akane to the ground like an animal because that just happened--]

Ah, look. There they are.

[smiling demurely as they are trapped in a hall and a potential fist fight is about to break out. Turning to North--]

How convenient~

[televised]

[












Touches forehead.]

I'm not dealing with this right now.

[No attempts will be made to break the potential fist fight up. Ganba, girls.]

[specialdog]

[ Jeez. Once Akane has gotten up and gotten the cassette back from Four, she heads over towards Nana and North. She may or may not just be coming back because she's... annoyed with Four... ]

I shut off the alarm. What'd you do?

[ She would have phrased that more kindly had she not just been tackled by Someone. ]

[forefall]

[ Maybe if someone would have mentioned finding a cassette spewing darkness, tackling wouldn't have happened? Just maybe. ]

She neglected to mention that she found something, so all I saw was corruption.

[ But, uh, it looks like there's double the amount of darkness now?

Four freezes as soon as she walks over the three or so feet to join them. Who's going to go on a killing spree today? ]

—How do we get rid of this?

[daibanana]

[Ladies please.]

I'm not sure how we get rid of that, but it probably has something to do with this cassette player we found.

[Which tickles Nana a little because this thing is ancient in her eyes. She is from a world taken over by CDs, it's a miracle she recognizes this artifact]

Did you guys happen to find any tapes?

[C'MON, MAKE HER PROUD, YOU TWO]

[televised]

[tmw you're a robot and cassettes are basically prehistoric artifacts to you

Either way, Nana is too kind — so North's gotta fix that by giving Akane and Four her best impression of a disappointed mom look. Which is to say, she's propping her hands on her hips and sighing. GIRLS...]

We have a little over two hours left at this point. [Which is, hm. Troubling.] So let's just get this over with. We can compare notes later.

[specialdog]

[ why is the one who GOT TACKLED in trouble!!! this is injustice!!! this is cruelty!!!! But at least Akane is cooperative, and nods along. She wants out of here too. ]

I found a cassette when I was shutting off the alarm. [ Which she hands over to Nana. ] Here.

[ :/ What did you guys even do? What did Four even do besides tackle her? Akane is pretty sure she's done everything herself, around here. ]

[forefall]

[ what's a cassette player

what's a tape

Four is keeping her skeleton key and bundle of wires or whatever all to herself, thanks. She frowns and doesn't deign to acknowledge that disappointed mom sigh. She did nothing wrong!

Anyway, she doesn't know what's going on, so she just watches. What are these two items supposed to do? ]

I hope that fixes this.

[cyclists]

[Given that the darkness seems to wind itself around the tape deck and the cassette and bring the four of them closer, it's probably a good idea to try and play the tape. The lanterns burn almost cheerfully, casting a glow down the hall.

There's more corruption wafting off of the tape than the tape deck, too, as it seems.]

[daibanana]

[WHELP TIME TO START THIS PARTY THEN.]

Everyone ready?

[They better be because darkness or no, she's going to slide that tape into place and press the play button with a cheerful little boop.

-- Hope no one dies ]