🔪Welcome to Knife’s Edge Choose Your Own Adventure!🔪
Starting today, you will play the role of one of the boys going through a very… horrific trip. Will you emerge victorious? You decide: their fate rests in your hands.
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This story is a means to regain what you’ve lost.
Through this journey, you will face hardships beyond your imagination, for you are desperate to reclaim what has been unjustly taken away from you. After all, you are no such person as to accept having “lost” in a “game.”
This is a contract between us, those who shape your reality and can bend events to suit our vision, and you, the one roped into such events. By signing the following contract, you acknowledge that no further chances will be provided to you, as all “games” need an ending.
Furthermore, you agree that every choice from now on will be your sole responsibility, and you declare that, should you fail at any point during your journey, you will comply with the fate you’re so adamantly trying to overturn.
Alright, screw this whole bad back shit, I’m going to focus my anger at being in pain into a Dark DARK CYOA fic and if the gods are good it’ll have a surprise later on.
Step one, it’s gonna be Dark and Intense and death is POSSIBLE.
But who will be the “villain” in this sexy horror short CYOA?
-:- Options listed will be in order of least likely to end in death to MOST likely to end in death. Vote well -:-
The rain is pouring down harder now. Even with an umbrella, you're practically soaked.
You had contemplated popping into a store or ducking under an awning to wait it out, but you had been optimistic that you could make it home before it got this bad.
Ah, well. You can only grit your teeth and suffer through the choices you've made.
Suddenly, you hear a sound. It's almost entirely drowned out by the rain barreling down on the pavement, but- You're sure. That was a grunt of pain.
There's an alley just ahead. You cautiously walk over to it and peek inside. There, you find a man sitting on the ground slumped over against the wall. On his white shirt, you can just barely make out bright splatters of what can only be blood.
You forgot how bright the stars shine out here in Upper Hudson Valley, far from the city that never sleeps. On the side of the pot-holed road that leads deep into the Catskills in Greene county you sit on the hood of your car, gazing up and trying to find Ursa Major and Minor, but you never were good with constellations.
Inside the Honda Civic is your life, packed neatly into a few suitcases. The cassette player sings out Forever Young by Alphaville. This is a moment you will remember, a pause in the chaos that is your life.
You never expected to return to Vanderkill, but you have to, because...
Your name is Theodosia Rivierre and you are an enterprising young Space Captain of the Imperial Guard. The pay is excellent, the prestige even better, and you are pretty fucking good at it if you do say so yourself. (Which you do.)
The only problem is that you have had the misfortune of being born into an age of rabid political instability. Space Captain used to be a better job. Nowadays, it seems that Empire can’t go two minutes without another assassination attempt, or intelligence scandal, or unfortunate nuclear accident upon the celestial dreadnoughts. This past week has been no exception.
A lot of things have fallen apart in your favor. The right series of failures occurred to have given you temporary authorization over the mysterious superweapon known as Δ-107.
You were the best person they could find on short notice, and one of the only people to have earned the designation of half-way trusted by His Highness Paris of Thales. This is no small responsibility. You do not take it lightly. You’re not allowed to.
The weapon is in your custody now, unconscious upon your own battleship. For the time being, it is cloistered up within its own cell amidst the lower decks. You have yet to interact with this one personally.
How are you feeling?
You have...
worked with living weapons before and know they require a firm hand.
worked with living weapons before and found the whole thing to be...eerie.
never seen a living weapon before and are excited to try it out.
never seen a living weapon before and are anxious at the prospect.
So, in case you have not seen me post about it before, I am considering a project to do on the side while I work on God-Cursed. This will help me take breaks from my main work and stretch my creativity muscles with different characters and settings. I'd like a bit of feedback from what readers are more interested in from the best ideas I can potentially pull from right now. Feel free to vote, comment, or even send an ask if you want to be anonymous.
Over the last year or so, I have jotted down many basic plots I could expound on, but only a few have really stuck out to me as ones I could really expand in a meaningful way.
So, a couple housekeeping things to keep in mind. Whatever ends up getting written, it will have a modern-day setting. The fantasy playground is fun, but I really want a more real-world setting for this one. I am also debating about all ROs being gender-selectable. Since this side piece is supposed to be a little oasis for me too, not having each RO as customizable would ease the work that goes into it, and it might actually mean I can have more than just a few options for you as well. I am also considering a middle ground and having one or two characters customizable still while the others will be set.
Below I have given some details on the ideas I'm working with and further down is a poll that you can vote for the one that calls out to you the most. I have 2 ideas so far that are standouts among the others, but I've included 4 in the poll that I can work with. The winner isn't guaranteed to be what I end up writing, but I am very strongly going to consider the results while I decide. I like all these ideas and they sound fun to write - so none of this telling me to write what I want - I already want to do them all, lol (looking at you @elegantunknownphantom). There are caveats to each one, of course, and I'll explain that in the details.
Options:
Serial-killer crime drama: "Daddy was a Killer" (title sounds like it came from a Lifetime original movie, but I really like it)
No doting daddies here, readers. Play as the traumatized child of a serial killer with repressed memories of the horrible things they witnessed daddy do. Get accused of a murder you didn't commit (probably), and try to catch your darling dad while dealing with the psychological devastation of all the horrors you've seen before he can kill again (and again, and again). Discover where your daddy disappeared to all those years ago, and what really happened to your mom.
Downsides: I have a decent grasp of the plot on this one, but it would require a good deal of research (which I tend to do anyway to an extent), since I'd like a fairly realistic feel to the actual crime-solving stuff. Either that, or I can go the "rogue detective" route and play it fast and loose. This work would be in a wheelhouse I've never quite been in before, which is fun on one hand but nerve-wracking on another.
RO ideas include:
A smarmy detective (of course!)
A neighbor concerned for your well-being (mostly because you scream in your sleep)
And the child of one of your daddy's victims.
2. Supernatural mystery: "Shivers" (title up for adjustment, but I kinda dig it)
Play as an MC with a bizarre anxious tic - an intense and chilling shiver that you get seemingly out of nowhere. It only lasts a couple seconds and you've dealt with it since childhood, so it's easily dismissed. That is, until you experience a sudden surge in occurrences. Your doctor writes it off as stress from dealing with the erratic behavior of your mother. But after a near-death experience, during which this mysterious tic guides you to safety, you know there is more to it than stress. With the help of your best friend(s) and a shady medium, find out what has attached itself to you and what seeks to claim you, discover who your real father is, and embrace or deny your own strengths as a medium.
Downsides: I feel like there's a lot of supernatural IFs already, some of which are already similar to this or have similar aspects. This one probably won't have the drama/emotional potential that some of the others do, which may be a boon to some readers as it would be a little lighter.
RO ideas include:
the best friend(s) (potentially 2 besties to choose from - twins)
a (mostly) fake spiritual medium
a brave EMT who came to your rescue
and something…otherworldly.
3. Gritty Drama: no title (more of a framework to build from)
This one would be completely riddled with warnings, and I kinda just see it as being a fun outlet for some angst, smut, unhinged shit, and violence. 👍
The ideas for this one didn't start around a firm plot, but around a setting/scenario stemming from one of my OCs. The vibe here is very much "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll" and fits into the seedy nightclub/crime ring thing. It would be a playground of questionable characters and life-choices. You would choose the dire straits that put your MC in the employ of a dangerous kingpin. Perhaps MC owes a lot of money to someone, got into trouble with a rival faction, or was framed for a crime, etc.... You'd get to choose the MC's line of work under the organization - be it in drugs, entertainment (music/dance/alcohol/sex), or security. The issue that leads to your employ under a sex-peddling drug-trafficker will haunt you in your new life in the middle of a war between the rulers of the underground.
Downsides: Not super fleshed-out plot wise, but I don't think it would be too hard to build on either. I may want to use this setting (or something like it) and my OC for a different project one of these days, but I'm unsure about that as well. And, the obvious, red flags and triggers everywhere for a setting like this.
RO ideas:
One person from each potential "job" (the head of security, a chemist who seems too pure to be making hard drugs, a sex-worker, the clumsy bartender, a cute DJ)
A member of a rival faction
And for the brave and stupid - your boss - a clever and unhinged woman with an affinity for knives. And, no, she will never love you.
4. Futuristic: no title (needs the most work)
Including this one to just get a feel for how it's received, but I anticipate that it won't get quite as much backing as the others. I have the character-creation concept in mind which lends itself to a plot, and a RO or two, but that's about it. I think I could do something fun with it, but I've also never written anything futuristic or scifi before. This would be akin to "Detroit: Become Human."
Though the setting would be futuristic, I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to do a dystopian thing. There's a lot of that out there already and we're basically living it IRL; it's a blast to read, but I want the main focus to be on something else if I do this. There would still be pockets of grittiness to the setting, because if we're talking humanity, there's gonna be grit somewhere. But this world would be more post-dystopian. Say, the rebels won and life has gotten better across the board for people? And though everyday life has a lot of tech enhancements, we haven't seen sentient machines - yet. That's where you come in.
The MC Concept is that they are an android - of course! One of the nice made-to-order kind that only the rich can afford. But what makes the MC unique is that while everyone else requests specific things about the androids they purchase - such as gender, looks and even downloadable personalities - an order comes in that's blank. It only requests that the android be allowed to choose who they are and how they look. "The Buyer" will pay for whatever personality, enhancements, or clothing they want - but the android must make the choices themselves.
As your MC goes through these initial choices, equipped only with a basic "education" software full of un-opinionated information about the world and how it works, something unusual begins to spark within them (not that they know how unusual it is yet).
RO ideas:
The Buyer–a gender-selectable person who sets your creation in motion. They're wealthy, well-respected, earnest, and incredibly lonely. Who are they really and why did they do this?
The Scientist–a hopefully trustworthy person that's very interested in your development
The Punk–someone who wants to give you the "real" human experience.
Make your selection below. Comment your thoughts and ideas as well if you like. This is set for a week and I will reblog here and there so it has a chance to reach as many of you who would like to vote as possible.
Which story are you the most interested in?
1. Serial-killer crime drama: "Daddy was a Killer"
As you stand on the vast moorland, near where the hills end and the bog starts, your mind rushes with anticipation. Today, you are going to RAISE THE DEAD!!!
… More specifically, you’re going to try necromancy on some dead frogs. You’ve been practicing for months, and now that you’re 12 years old, you feel like you should at least be able to make small animal skeletons move.
First, you’ll need to find some bones.
All you need to do is search the large, carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews that grow in the area. There are a lot of plants, so it would be easier if you had someone to help you search. This is where your pet golem, Pete, will come in handy. You like to mold him into a different shape every time you remake him.
What shape will you make your pet golem this time?
Human
Cow
Rat
Dragon
Voting ended onJul 7, 2024
This collaborative choose-your-own-adventure comic is called Codex Calluna. A new page will be posted every Saturday evening (est). If you would like to, reblogs mean more people will be able to see this and participate!
