letsplayamurder

The moment is a bit different for everyone. Perhaps you were just minding your own business somewhere, others may have been in more... dire circumstances. Regardless, you were approached by a figure you can't quite picture, and they offered you an accord; in exchange for aiding them in the healing of a world lost to chaos, you would be granted something almost unheard of. Godhood.

And each of you said yes, more or less.

A blurry hand, shifting and rippling, reaches out to you. You feel a glow of warmth, unlike anything you've known before. As soon as you think you can describe it, you wake up.

The room you're in is plainly furnished, but it's about the size of a small flat. Plenty of room to stretch your legs. Don't get too comfortable, however. On the bedside table each room has is a letter; handwritten, it's wrapped around a bronze key. The lettering could only be described as the platonic ideal of 'neat and precise'.

If you are reading this, than our deal has been made. You've awoken in a place that will surely feel strange, so I want you to take some time to acclimate. Meet with the others. Breathe. I shall be along shortly.

-A

Whatever that means becomes more apparent as you step out of your housing and behold the world around you. The building you were in, and every piece of architecture you happen across, is blatantly pre-modern. Yet, something about it is otherworldly. Stone and iron and glass as far as the eye can see.

But above you was where the real questions were. It wouldn't be right to say the sun was shining on you now, nor would it be right to say it's the dead of night. Instead, the sky is a hazy mixture of both, wrapped in suffocating storm clouds that are threatening rain. Everywhere you look, into the horizon, it's the same.

Welcome home. Take your time and explore. Nobody ever said godhood was easy.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Weird how?

[ A gangley, anxious boy stands behind her. His whole aura is just like...terribly nervous. ]

Shit, is it spoiled? Spit that out, we got no idea where this stuff came from.

Well, Aoi likes tomato juice, but raw tomatoes don't taste the same.

[She stares at the tiny bite in the tomato, then back at Alex and his scaredboy aura.]

Too late. It's okay, Aoi doesn't have a food poisoning CG.

...You. You don't have a what?

[ oh she's completely baffled him. ]

There's not an in-game event where Aoi gets food poisoning.

[At least, last she checked. Who knows if this update added anything?]

U...uh.....

[ He looks around. As if something will explain what she's saying.

It does not. ]

We're not...i-in a game.

Yes we are. This world is a video game.

[She looks down at the tomato in thought.]

But Aoi can't save and go back yet. Not without my phone.

[ A beat. ]

Like...Myst? Or The Matrix?

...Aoi doesn't know those games. Can you get a bad end in Myst?

[ In the tone of a boy who has gotten every bad end in Myst: ] Yeah.

Then yeah, like Myst.

Well, how... How d'you know it's a video game?

[ Alex asks not with a doubting tone. Just...an inquisitive one. ]

'Cause...I mean, I know this'd be my first time uh, in one.

'Cuz Aoi can ask God to update the universe.

[Like it's the most normal thing in the world.]

Most people don't know for sure. ...Aoi's never been outside of a video game, though? Isn't this a game too?

God?

[ Another person may dismiss her immediately, say she's insane or something. Alex doesn't do that. ]

I...I don't know. I can't say I've ever, uh, talked to God. [ ...Not and got an answer, anyway. ] How's it work? Do you just, like, pray?

Aoi has God's cell phone number. When the signal goes through, Aoi can save the game in case a bad end happens or ask for an update. It doesn't always work.

[Aoi stares at Alex as if trying to read his energy. Is she talking to a protagonist right now?]

Have you ever done something without a good explanation?

[ Well, Alex is still processing all this. Communication through a cell phone? Saving the game? ...Bad end. Does that mean she— ]

H-have I- huh?

[ And then that question just. Throws him off entirely. We'll get there.

Low and somewhat gravelly: ] I...what kinda question's that? I have. I just- I like ta...ta understand things.

Boop boop...that might've been something you had to do to avoid a bad end. Or just to see what other routes the protagonist can end up on.

[She doesn't change her expression, as if this is business as usual.]

[ His brow furrows. ]

I- I mean... I've done a lot t-to avoid a...something like that. But...

[ Every choice. Everything. It's all just playing into- ]

I-I'm asking questions 'cause I want to. 'Cause not knowing, it's- it's how you fall into it- into a bad situation.

[ He remembers being huddled in his room, into a corner, asking, why? why me? what did i do to—?

He can't unknow. That's just the unfortunate truth of the matter. He had two choices, and he hadn't even known how they were laid out before him. ]

A bad situation? Did something happen that got you into one?

[Genuine curiosity colors her voice.]

Aoi's gotten into a few. Even when I tried to avoid them. We don't get to make all the choices.

[ He almost shivers. ]

...We don't. We really don't.

[ Alex looks...conflicted, to say the least. ]

I shouldn't- you're just gonna think I'm— [ He stops himself. He's talking to a girl who says she's from a video game. Who says that all of this is a video game. ] ...No, you...you prob'ly wouldn't say I'm just crazy.

I... I did somethin' that kind of put...the whole world against me. Okay? Me standin' here, breathin', that's a...mistake. And it's a mistake that something wants to correct.

The whole world against you? ...did you find a glitch in your system?

[Aoi blinks, trying to figure out what she should do. She takes another tomato from the pantry and offers it to him in solidarity.]

Are you scared that you'll disappear?

[ I already did.

Alex...won't say that part. ]

...Something like that. Something that wasn't supposed to happen- something I wasn't supposed to see... I saw it anyway.