cyclists | CYOA

CYOA - WEEK 1

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.

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[The only reason Nana doesn't put up a fuss about taking the watch is because the darkness is trying to punch her friends so now it has lost favor in her eyes.

You messed up, Darkness. We could've had it all.]

You have a couple of moments before the hands reach you.

[Moments might be seconds but who knows? Listen Nana is just trying not to panic, and quickly snatches both the watch and the paper before stumbling over to where North directs her. Probably skinned her knees on the desk at some point but THE THINGS WE DO FOR THE PEOPLE WE JUST MET BUT STILL CARE FOR.

And once she's finally at the mirror:]

Okay, what next...?

[Gonna... hold up both the watch and the phone like that will magically help a girl out.]

There are two mechanical fish in the tank--you can control them with those magnets.

They've got... Something on them. I think we need them. The lid's bolted, but you can open it.

[ So first, Akane is going to give Four directions to use the magnets to, like, guide the fishies closer to her just so Akane can get a quick look at them? But she won't spend long on that--next she'll just tell Four to magnet them up towards the lid so she can grab them easier.

Maybe there's something with those chests and the house but trying to trial-and-error that with darkness coming to beat her up sounds like a hassle, so, nah. ]

[ Four does as instructed, opening the lid and using the magnets. There's no time to mess around. She just does, but even so, it's hard to guide magnetic things when you can't really see them, so there might be some mistakes of missing a fish a time or two before getting it right.

She absolutely grabs anything she can get her hands on. ]

The darkness is still moving. I'm getting worried.

[As the darkness continues to get really friendly with North and Akane, Nana will be able to see all three of the mirrors. These, too, are a little dusty but there seems to be some sort of weird grime on them? Might want to shine a light on that.

For Four, the little fishies are a little harder to get out of the tank since the magnets are opposing magnets, but eventually she’ll be able to pull them up and out of the lid. She’ll come to find that one fishie tail looks like the end of a wrench and the other looks like a screwdriver. Wonder what those could be for.

Meanwhile, as the hall North and Akane are in grows unbearably hot, the darkness snakes forward. The hands are comin’, and as they approach, Nana and Four will both see that the hands balled into fist only have nine fingers. They draw closer, almost ready to blind them.

You might want to do something about that.]

Nana, point the keys you took from the phone at the mirrors. The side with the lights imbedded on them.

[Well. Guess they're going to get murdered by the darkness. It's been a good run, y'all! She'll lash out at anything that touches her, should the darkness get close enough, but otherwise... Time to gently ignore her steadily rising system temperature.]

The keys? Okay.

[Meaning she'll swap the watch and paper into her pocket so she can do as told, holding the keys up to the mirrors.]

Do you see anything now?

[ Akane just curls in on herself protectively? This is all she can think to do, sorry. Her voice is shaky, laced with desperation and fear--for probably the first time since they came to this stupid village she actually sounds scared and helpless. She sounds like she might cry.

... But is still only communicating useful information? What else would she do, complain more?

Don't answer that. ]

They're like a wrench and screwdriver, so--look around, is there anything to use those on?

The darkness has— nine fingers?

[ Four is so perplexed, but she looks around. Or she moves her head around. What direction should she go to help with these tools? ]

... We'll make it out of here. All of us.

[ Four has no basis to promise that, but she sure is saying it like she means it. ]

[North swings at the darkness as it gets closer and she'll feel a sensation like running water wash over here. There's no actual water, of course, but it feels a little too realistic to do much else.

Sinister hands and all...the fingers of those hands start to spread to reach for both girls to try and draw them closer even still.

As Nana shines the lights at the mirrors, the grimey sections light up. A F, A, and an H appear in each mirror going from left to right.

Four will find she actually doesn't have to go too far as the wrench can be used on the lid of the fish tank itself. The screwdriver, for now, doesn't seem to do anything. She can pry open the lid though if she's fast enough.

As the hands of darkness pass over North and Akane's eyes though, despite Akane being crouched down, they will see the bright flash of a red letter T.]

[Oh. Bad.

She recoils away from the sensation, but there's not much she can do beside blindly lash out at something that? Apparently? Can take a hit no prob??]

There were— marks under the breaker box. Like someone with nine fingers was forcibly dragged away from it.

[Her voice is wavering. It's difficult not to panic given the current circumstances. Maybe... Maybe they need to get to the breaker box again? She doesn't know. She's going to be super pissed if this is how she dies.]

F, A, H— [Sucking in a breath as the darkness touch her eyes, and then...] —T?

[Are those the missing letters from the morse code, or... This is bad, either way.]

Edited 2019-06-14 05:07 (UTC)

[Wow everyone is going to die.

Okay, just -- gonna think about those letters instead of the fact the darkness is much too close for comfort at this point.]

-- The morse code had letters missing, right?

[So gotta fit F,A, H, and T into "It Rust Lo Ck" alsdfhaosf she has no idea what it means]

Uh-- North-san!

[Listen she deadass doesn't know, sorry guys, we all die today]

The fish tank lid, with the wrench!

[ Sorry that's vague. The closer these hands get the less helpful Akane is. She's trying to unscramble those letters in her head but it's really not easy to do because she's just more and more distressed by hands. ]

Fat with an H?

[ Four's going to pry that lid open, not even going to try and be a brain cell right now.

guess they'll die ]

[This is how they die. Four can wrench her way into the fishtank again and pull off the lid, finding thick streams of algae growing on the underside. It takes a bit of concentration, but some portions are darker than others, giving her the letters V and E.

With the temperature of the hallway still increasing, the darkness begins to fully mask the sight of North and Akane (so, basically, Nana and Four actually.) Nana has the map, and if North uses her eyes she can find a lone pen under one of the chairs.

Fill in the blanks, everyone. There are six letters out of eight, and your time is running out. Perhaps it's best to work with what you have so far.]

[This is super how they die.]

There's a pen under one of the chairs. You have the piece of paper with the morse code.

[Again, she'll offer directions on how to get there. But they're extremely rushed, so Nana's gonna have to nyoom to keep up.]

Fit... Hit... Trust? Are the words we found even in the right order?

[Lo Ck could potentially become "clock" if they had the right letters and wiggle room, but...? She's panicking and has zero idea what to do with this shit.]

[It's cool, Nana is so jittery with nerves she's nyooming without much prompting. When she grabs the pen and slaps the paper down on the ground, she stalls once more.]

The phone kept talking about Trust...

[So frankly she's gonna assume that's a word right there, which leaves F, A, H, V, and E ~~Nana has become omniscent and read everyone's minds to keep the flow going alsfjaslfkjalsf~~]

Maybe another word is "HAVE"?

[That would leave "F" but FIT HAVE TRUST Lo Ck ain't making a lot of sense, sorry friends.]

We also are missing two letters besides the ones we found!

[ Sorry to Nana, but Akane has now just clenched her eyes shut. Maybe it didn't matter with the darkness, anyway. ]

Have trust, trust, trust, trust... [ She's talking fast, muttering to herself and being generally useless until she bursts out with a louder: ]

Faith...?!

[ it's unnerving to see pitch darkness with eyes open, but she tries to think....

What goes with trust and faith...

V... E... ]

Love? Is that what we need?

[That seems to work. Saying the words out loud, the hands of darkness stop grappling for the girls behind the wall and when Nana eventually writes in the words North will see:

FAITH TRUST LOVE _ _ CK

The temperature of the hallway decreases, and the same disorienting sensation hits all four of the girls. They have seen the truth, and they've returned to where they once came, the corruption breaking apart in little flecks to free North and Akane and bring them through to the other side.

Everyone has their own eyesight back. There's still the door in the back that's bolted closed, along with what appears to be a large china cabinet containing those rabbit skeletons.

What next?]

[What's Nana gonna do?

Slump to her feet with the pen rolling out from her fingers as she heaves a soft, shuddering shy.]

... I'm tall again...

[yeah that's what's important her. Everyone give her a second before she's back on track]

[i can't believe nana lived only to fall down a ditch three days later

Anyway— The first thing North is going to do upon regaining her eyesight, is slump against the nearest hecking wall.]

Oh, thank god. [Hi. Hello. She would like to never do that ever again. Glancing over at Akane now that they're free—] You okay?

[They shared a near death experience....... Is this bonding...........

Anything different about the rabbit skeletons/room at large now that that's over?]

[ Akane is still just curled up on the floor with her eyes shut tight. But she can see the shift in light behind her eyelids; she feels the temperature change. She slowly opens her eyes and looks up.

She awkwardly... Pulls herself up off the floor... No one talk about this, please... She glances to North, looking awkward, embarrassed, still a little distressed, and clearly trying to hide it. ]

I'm fine.

[ Not useful, but fine. ]

[ Four falls in a heap on the ground, but she's relieved to have all her senses back where she's used to them. She rises to her feet and looks at her arms in distaste (somehow it's much worse actually seeing how she put them in a tank growing algae). ]

Are we all okay?

[ She calls out as she walks out of the fish tank room. ]

If you need time to recuperate, I understand.

[ She says that, but she's heading for that rabbit cabinet. ]

[With the darkness gone, it whooshes away and drifts back toward the bolted door and leaving them all alone for now. The rest of the room is cold and everyone can reconvene now. As soon as the word "love" was written on the piece of paper…the rabbit skeletons multiplied. Four may not have actually taken account to how many, but there are several crammed on each shelf. The front of the cabinet is actual glass instead of plexiglass, making it easier for the girls to see there are four shelves.

Tapping the case, the rabbits will scurry again. There's a glint of something silver on not one but two of the rabbits this time. The case has a few screws that can be undone, but if they try to unscrew it yet, they'll find it won't come open.

Perhaps that note Nana and North found earlier along the morse code would help?]

[having her eyesight back doesn't mean they're done, apparently, and so once Nana has her bearings and can see that everyone is safe and accounted for, she gets back to her feet and walks over to where Four is]

-- Do you see that? I thought I saw something silver...

[And while she doesn't really piece together the idea that her note will be helpful, it's out and ready to be inspected should anyone ask. She'll have the watch in her other hand, too]

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