[LP CYOA] Spiral

[Baltika9]

Damn, makes me feel shitty for losing. Hopefully Mori-senpai will throw us into a psych ward sometime soon.

 

[treave]

But you didn't lose, you won. You survived the hospital and defeated the hobo killer. Sure, it gave you some serious trauma for it, but at the end you're still alive, and that's what matters.

 

[Baltika9]

True, but I kinda regret not getting Adachi out of that with in better mental shape. I feel like this is the neutral ending; can't ace them all, though.
I feel bad for the guy: no purpose or direction in life, nothing to really live for to begin with. And now that he's done saving the people trapped in that mental hell (still puzzling over the labyrinth), his reward is getting even more fucked up in the head than he was before. I wouldn't mind giving this scenario another shake (the girl is a perfect plot hook), but first I want to bust out our buddy Shun from Space Alcatraz. That is, if another LP is coming.
Out of curiosity, was there an ending that could have given Adachi's life some purpose? That's the thing which kept me from being engaged with him and the story as a result, the utter lack of direction and motivation he suffered from. Everything was 'meh, I guess' for him. It was very different from the usual driven characters we play in these CYOAs.

 

[treave]

Out of curiosity, was there an ending that could have given Adachi's life some purpose? That's the thing which kept me from being engaged with him and the story as a result, the utter lack of direction and motivation he suffered from. Everything was 'meh, I guess' for him. It was very different from the usual driven characters we play in these CYOAs.

Not an ending, but picking A and continuing on for another two updates would have gotten you some revelations about yourself and the opportunity to really pick a course of action. So close.

Anyway, epilogue coming up.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

But you didn't lose, you won. You survived the hospital and defeated the hobo killer. Sure, it gave you some serious trauma for it, but at the end you're still alive, and that's what matters.

But where are are we, hmm? And who is it that is watching us? Maeda or Seika - or both as one?

She basically became the observer, yes? Are we still in that observer's copy world?

 

[Baltika9]

I hate your disappearing posts, treave.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Why is he blaming himself? Survivor's guilt compounded by the feeling that he knows the girl from somewhere, but logic and his memories are assuring him that they have never met before. Interacting with other people healthily only magnifies the feeling, so it's better to just live aimlessly, shitpost on 2ch and whack off to futa porn.

while she watches.

oh, well. as if the codex could find any other ending...



edit: i assume the kill them all ending would have been worse?

 

[treave]

edit: i assume the kill them all ending would have been worse?

It'd start a new night, but it wouldn't have been an ending. Whether it is better or worse probably depends on your preference though.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

This really is the best ending possible for the "I want to save everyone" crowd.

Everyone lives. Shinoseki lives and completely replaces Seiji. Maeda/Seika/whatever she is will be will him forever.

 

[treave]

Hm, if that's the case, I better scratch the epilogue.

 

[Baltika9]

Nah, show us. I'm curious.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Hm, if that's the case, I better scratch the epilogue.

Who said I was part of the "I want to save everyone" crowd? I say bring on the epilogue.

 

[Azira]

Is it time for Hobo Rider soon?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Didn't we just kill hobo rider?

 

[treave]

Is it time for Hobo Rider soon?

Yes, it is.

 

[Nevill]

I feel bad for the guy: no purpose or direction in life, nothing to really live for to begin with. And now that he's done saving the people trapped in that mental hell (still puzzling over the labyrinth), his reward is getting even more fucked up in the head than he was before.

I suppose, after you have chosen to run into the rain, climb over a spiked fence and weasel your way past the dogs - narrowly avoiding death, - sprint naked through the mansion and kill its owner with your bare hands, and you can't muster enough motivation to at least peek at what happened to the woman you did it for, there is simply not a single force in the world that can motivate you.

I probably should not get so attached to fictional characters; if I was the type to drink I'd be hitting the bottle right now.

This really is the best ending possible for the "I want to save everyone" crowd.

I am spent and can't rage properly, but that managed to illicit a reaction from me. Style points, I guess.

The Ikei and IAE are still standing, Mitsuki will probably continue to get her 'treatments', the situation didn't get resolved by our hand and whatever got resolved wasn't the thing than needed resolving to begin with. I don't suppose you think that a hobo was the cause of the incident, do you?

But you are right, it is a proper ending. After all, what would a NEET and a 2ch shitposter know or care about that? Why would he aspire for anything more than his continued existence? Isn't that what matters?

Shinoseki Adachi is a hero and a role model for every furry wanker in the world.

 

[Azira]

C'mon Nevill. Get your creativity primed for some Hobo Rider action.

 

[Nevill]

No, we need our next protagonist to be a downright bastard so that codexian guidance would become a divine justice for his misdeeds.

 

[Baltika9]

There, there. Let it all out, mang. We're here for you.

 

[treave]

Another Epilogue

There is a knock at the door.

You ignore it. Huddled in your blanket, in the center of the dark room where your computer screen is the only source of illumination, you continue clicking through the wide variety of pictures depicting cartoon characters in various states of undress. Hm, you’ve seen this one before. Skip. Skip. Boring. More vanilla? Bland. Skip. Ooh, this is new. Your hand creeps downwards, and then stops.

You look at the girl who is watching you. She seems entirely unperturbed, except for the perpetual sorrow in her eyes. But you are used to that. You are used to the blame, to the guilt. Over time she has become a fixture in your life. An unmoving, visible but intangible, permanent fixture. For some strange reason, she has even become a source of stability for you. Like… like a vase that you don’t quite like but would not part with. Or something. She is a better conversation partner than 90% of the trolls on the internet at least, even if she doesn’t speak. You could live like this. Yes, you could.

The knocking starts again, more urgent this time. You ignore it. You have gotten very good at ignoring things.

Then, the door explodes.

Squinting at the bright daylight streaming in from the outside – something you haven’t seen for a long, long time – your only reaction is to wrap the blanket more tightly around your naked body. You are not sure what to think… what to feel about this break from the norm. You had your daily life. It was dull and dark and that was how you wanted it. This… exploding door… this is not what you want.

A man walks in. There is a roguish grin on his lips and a patch over one eye. “What are you… yakuza?” you ask. “Are you here to kill me? I would like it if you could please leave some reparations for the door.”

“This place stinks,” he says, holding his nose. Well, you had not cleaned in… you don’t exactly remember how long, but you had not cleaned. “So, are you the one in contract with the book?” he asks. There is a strange accent to his words, and you wonder if he is a foreigner.

“What contract are you talking about? With a book?” Is he insane? Perhaps he is one of those people who never outgrew their middle-school delusions. He certainly looks the sort. “I’m calling the police,” you threaten. Not that you know where your phone is – you had shut it off a long time ago, to avoid calls – but he doesn’t know that.

“Right! The police. Should I be worried about them?” He seems unconvinced, and even a little dismissive of the possibility that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s finest might apprehend him. As he looks around the room, his gaze falls upon the girl, whose eyes have never wavered from you. “What’s… that?”

“You can see… her?” you murmur.

The man does not reply to you. Reaching up, he pulls down his eyepatch with a swift motion. A white light engulfs the room. When it has faded, the girl is no longer there.

Na-chan.

“Well, I suppose that explains a bit,” he grins. “Was she a warden you made to guard your prison of self-recrimination?”

Useless words. “Where… where did she go?” Now that the girl is not here, something feels wrong. As if there is an ever-growing empty hole in your heart and in the world, and everything is about to collapse on itself. The blame was all that kept you going, kept you living. This is not what you want. This change to your predictable world… this is something you hate. Unknowingly, your hands have balled into fists, and an emotion that feels utterly alien to you manifests. Anger.

“Honestly, I find it amazing that she could have stayed here for so long, considering the smell… and the stuff you’re watching,” quips the man wryly.

You stand up, letting the blanket fall off of you.

“Well.” The man blinks, looking at your naked form. For once, he seems to be caught without a smart comment to say.

Howling in a rage that surprises even you, you hurtle through the air at the man who has invaded your home and destroyed your peace. You throw a punch at him, but before it lands, up becomes down, left becomes right, and you find yourself tumbling backwards, your jaw aching terribly. The man is smirking, his fist outstretched. You had not seen him move at all. “I hope that woke you up a bit.”

“What did you do to Na-chan?” you cry out.

But… this is not Na-chan.

A sharp pain shoots through your brain, and you cry out in agony. The room begins to crack. To unfold. And collapse. A sea of chains slowly rises up, swallowing the floor in a writhing mass of black metal links. The screams of a million dead souls echo throughout the abyss lying behind the seams of reality. Throughout all this, the man looks surprised – he does not seem to have expected this. “I didn’t screw this up, did I?” he asks awkwardly. "Damn it, that's the last time I trust what that fox-faced bastard tells me to do." The hole has finally widened so far, beyond the point of no return, that everything comes spilling out whether you want it or not. Falling to your knees, you scream and bang your forehead against the floor, trying to cut off all of the memories, old and new, flooding your mind. Of a life that never existed. Of a you that never existed. You laugh. And laugh. Without stopping, you laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Shinoseki Adachi is merely a shell, carved from the dead husk of a boy’s memory, and then filled with the thoughts of many. There is no place that he can exist, except in a dream.

“All life is a dream, so it doesn’t really matter. The way out has always been there if you look for it,” says the man, seeming to read your mind. “And yes, I was talking about that book.” He points in front of you, where a black, leather-bound book has appeared out of nowhere. “The bond is thin, but unbroken.”

A faint voice calls out to you from across time and space, pulling you back to where you are now. Your mad laughter slows down, and stops. Acchan. You have the sudden understanding that once you touch the book, you will finally know everything, and that there will be no turning back. Your path will be set, even if it means your destruction. There will be no escape, no more dreams within dreams that you can flee into. Your fingers reach tentatively for the book. You hesitate. Should you?

“Will you stop being indecisive and hurry up? If touching it is what you have to do, just do it, man,” comes the complaint. “Either you do it and help me, or I’ll make you do it and help me.” He cracks his knuckles threateningly.

You can’t help but laugh. “What’s the rush? This is a dream, and we have all the time in the world.”

“No, I suppose there is no rush,” he replies. “But I am serious about needing your help. The… spells? Magic? Well, whatever is in that book allows its master to move through time and space… ah, what did she say again? I’m really not too good at explaining this. Anyway, I need that book so I can rescue a buddy of mine. He’s imprisoned in a very, very far place, one I can only reach with the book’s magic. And it so happens that you are the only one left that the book responds to, so I need you, by extension.”

“Oh,” you say.

“Nice reaction,” he says flatly. “So… are you going to touch the book any time soon?”

“I’m not too sure myself what is going to happen when I do. Things might get even more messed up. I’m still not too sure myself what I want to happen after this, but…”

“Sure, I’ll help you out first. That’s the way of the world, isn’t it?” shrugs the man, understanding what you’re getting at. Quid pro quo. If he wants your help, he’ll have to help you first. And there are a lot of things to be done. People that you have to meet. Cycles that you have to break. Endings that you have to create.

“Exactly. If you want to recruit the NPC, you need to complete the side-quest first,” you say. He does not get the reference, and you chuckle. “Here goes.”

You touch the book.

 

[Nevill]

I just can't stop thinking... what a waste it was.

It was supposed to be my ideal CYOA. A Ryukishi07-esque mass-murder mystery where every question answered raises 10 new ones, and the revelations, when you finally put it all together, are as big as they come. So many loose ends to try and unravel this cobweb. So many skeletons in the closets to dig up. So many theories to come up with, test and discard.

So much potential, completely wasted on lulz and furries.

And I didn't even get enough understanding of what was going on to bleach this from my mind and imagine a better ending.

 

[treave]

I was planning for some rather important reveals with the files you could get in the mansion. But you guys already got most of the backstory right. Kinda. Vaguely, I suppose, as in the essence is partially there but the details are all wrong.

 

[Baltika9]

All that matters is that Tigerbro Jing will help Adachi unfuck his mind.
Let the bro commence.

So much potential, completely wasted on lulz and furries.

You give us (and I'd say yourself) far too much credit. We didn't vote for lulz because we are so smart but want lulz instead. We did it because a lot of us didn't understand what was going on in the first place, so we defaulted to 'lol, loli' and 'lol, jihad.'
But that's the risk you take when playing a CYOA with other people, things might not turn out how you want them to. In the end, this was a pretty cool failure in itself (basement troglodyte gets rescued from himself by Tigerbro who, quite possibly, will become his Nii-san), so let's roll with that.

 

[Azira]

Uh-oh. Will Adachi be the Hobo Rider?

...

That'd be... Unsettling. With ManTigerPig as his support behind the scenes? Unsettling indeed...

 

[Baltika9]

You mean awesome.