Watch the Footage

...

You've been waiting for this moment for years. Your whole life, even.

Before you stands the one thing separating you from freedom - the walls of the community pod you've been living in all your life. Few people make it this far, but you've been working up to this for a long, long time.

There should be a...

You stop, and scan the wall in front of you. There's an input port just ahead of you, as you expected - perhaps the one thing not controlled by remote access. It's one of the emergency override systems for the exit. The other one is far enough away that it requires someone else to operate it at the same time. (Apparently, the Government's idea of a hypothetical emergency isn't bad enough to prevent them putting a security system in place.)

Luckily, you're not alone. You tell your DinoBuddy™ to go to the other override port and to interface with it wirelessly. You do the same, using your bioconnector. Normally, the security system would be screeching bloody murder at this point, but your DinoBuddy has been reprogrammed to return a false biometric sample. It was horrifically expensive to do, but you told yourself it would be worth it. Now, it all comes down to this. Was it worth it?

The door unlocks. You look at it. You're free, for the first time in 26 years.

What do you do now?

=====
I want to try something.

I'm not a good RPer. I'm aware of this. But I'm kinda okay at writing, and I want to get better. I also want to have some sort of collaborative feel, but I don't want to have to write tons of stuff each time. I suspect that others might feel the same way, too.

So I'm going to try starting a new type of RP on the forum - the interactive adventure. The format is basically that the thread starter (who I'm going to refer to as the GM) gives an initial setting and perhaps a hook to start the story off (but perhaps not - it's all up to the GM), and then players can give commands as if it was a text adventure, except that these commands wouldn't be limited to the standard commands, but can be pretty much anything (though, again, its interpretation would be up the discretion of the GM). How the GM picks what to do is up to them; in this particular thread I'm going to pick one response randomly from the responses, in order to up the writing challenge for me a bit, but viable alternatives include waiting for a consensus to emerge, picking the first response (for a quick-fire adventure), etc.

Unlike in threaded environments such as LiveJournal, Dreamwidth or Reddit, the flat nature of this forum means that there will be no separately-branching universes, no separate stories. Every response used will take place in the same universe and serve to further the story.

I have not written a pre-planned script for this; anything that happens will be based on the response chosen. You can influence the chances of a particular "command" being done by repeating someone else's command as your response. (But please do not respond twice or more with commands; edit your original response if you want to choose a different command. That makes it easier for me.) The length of my responses will depend entirely on how much I can write, and how much needs to be written.

I will leave each post for at least half an hour before choosing a response, but I cannot guarantee that it won't be longer than that, particularly if there are few suggestions. More likely, I'll be updating up to 5 times a day max. But that could differ!

I do hope that other people will join me in this, possibly making their own adventures too - it should be fun! (Personally, it's scaring me to death, but I think I can do it.)

Now, on with the adventure...

[edit 1, edit 2: Fixing typos.]

=> Quickly retrieve arms from drawer

=> Examine the doorway for traps. Kind of pointless to escape after all these years just to trip a land mine or something.

=> The doorway appears to be clear. However, the unbarred, open window also looks inviting.

=>> Mount DinoBuddy™ and recklessly ride out.

=> You can't possibly leave on your own. Go find your best friend and escape with them!

Responses:

1. eli_gone_crazy: Retrieve arms from drawer.
2. JackAlsworth: Examine doorway for traps.
(eli's second response skipped - please edit your reply if you want to choose something else to do, rather than making a new post)
3. Qara-Xuan Zenith: Mount DinoBuddy and ride out.
4. Krika: Go find your best friend so you can escape with them.

1d4 = 3: Mount DinoBuddy and ride out.


=====

You call your DinoBuddy over and prepare to ride it out of the newly-unlocked passageway.

As you're doing so, you ponder your surroundings. The rest of the community pod, as it's known, is rather nice; a mostly self-contained little village. The dwellings aren't anything special, but they serve the purpose of living in. You've never been able to try going elsewhere before now, however; the world seems to end about 5 miles from the village. it's like when you're playing a computer game and beyond a certain point you just see infinite ground, except that in this case there actually do seem to be things beyond.

It didn't take long as a kid to find out that it was all just an illusion. Tongues slipped, questions were asked and answered. In reality, you've been trapped in this village since you were born. The "infinite ground" is generated by whatever's keeping you here. The village is real enough, as are the 5 miles of radius outside of the village, but not beyond that. It's a Government-owned pod, and you have no idea what's really out there.

This place, the *true* end of the pod, is rather dull; no sound at all. Even in the village, there were birds - or bird sounds, anyway. This place, on the other hand, is all business.

DinoBuddy shuffles a little, and you remember where you are. Not wasting any more time, you ride out into...

...well, you don't really know. You've never been told what's outside the pod; nobody knew. It seems to be an open area, and you can detect a lot of different wireless devices out here, none of them named. You're not sure if this is another village or not, but if it is, it's nothing like your own.

As DinoBuddy takes you deeper, you hear a voice: "Halt! Who's there?"

What do you do?

==> Cheerfully introduce yourself.

I've been longing for something like this ever since I read the Ruby Quest logs.

Sophira wrote:in this particular thread I'm going to pick one response from the randomly from the responses

...This is going to end hilariously catastrophic. I am torn between the desire to do a proper story and the temptation of going off the rails into the Green Stuff and batshit insanity.

Not much of a choice, if you ask me.

==> Identify the source of the voice and assimilate him.

Responses:

1. Qara-Xuan Zenith: Cheerfully introduce yourself.
2. Dryunya: Identify the source of the voice and assimilate them.

1d2 = 1: Cheerfully introduce yourself.

=====

You stop and turn towards the source of the voice. "Hi! Nice to meet you, I'm--"

You falter as you hear murmurings around you. You hadn't realised you'd been surrounded.

The same voice as before calls out, "Put your hands up where we can see 'em."

You don't have anything in your hands currently, but you do have ready access to concealed weaponry - a standard-issue stunner that you took from one of the Government employees guarding the exit while you were making your way to the edge of the pod. If you put your hands up now, you wouldn't be able to pull it out quickly if the need became apparent. You'd rather not have it come to that, of course.

What do you do?

==> Quickly retrieve arms from concealment.

==> Slip the stunner up your sleeve.

==> Ask them politely to stand aside. You have more important matters to attend to.

=> Play along to find out more information about these people.

==> You are not the droid they're looking for. Tell them to carry on.

==> Sing a song about friendship.

==> Do a stupid dance. That will distract them.

Responses:

1. JackAlsworth: Quickly retrieve arms from concealment.
2. Tohrinha: Slip the stunner up your sleeve.
3. Pixelmage: Ask them politely to stand aside.
4. Krika: Play along to find out more information about these people.
5. IslaKariese: You are not the droid they're looking for.
6. Qara-Xuan Zenith: Sing a song about friendship.
7. Dryunya: Do a stupid dance.

1d7 = 3: Ask them politely to stand aside.

=====

You decide to try bluffing your way through. "Stand aside, please." You give DinoBuddy a walk command.

Immediately, people are upon you, voices everywhere, pulling you off DinoBuddy. You receive a blow to the head, and everything goes silent.

...

...

...

You feel groggy, as if you'd taken a blow to the head. Urghhhh... You roll over on the bed and try to ignore the voices that seem to come from all around you.

...certif...

...the bed...

You can't do it. There's too much going on. You wonder where you are.

You hear someone clearing their throat next to you.

"Are you awake?"

"Ughhhhh.", you reply.

"Take it easy. That was some blow you took there."

A blow? You remember DinoBuddy, and you remember the pod, and you remember the...

Oh, yeah. You were discovered. They must have taken you back to the hospital in the pod. Shit! Summoning up the strength, you sit up on the rough bed and try to breathe normally.

...wait a sec. The hospital's beds are actually pretty comfortable normally. This can't be the hospital, can it?

"How are you feeling?"

Terrible, you think. "I... am I in hospital?"

"No, we don't have a hospital here. But you're going to be okay."

Huh. So you're definitely not in the pod, then. "Where am I?"

"Somewhere safe, for now. Try to relax."

You feel rather weak, so that sounds like a good idea. But before you do, you need to ask something...

What question would you like to ask?

=====
(I'm sorry for the massive delay in writing this part. Writing can be difficult!)

==> Where did my Dinobuddy go?

(This is the most important question.)

==> Why is a raven like a writing desk?

==> What is that thing watching us outside the window?