_reVoid: Adrift in the Astral Sea

Amnesiac and adrift with four others in deep space. Survive the psychotic AI and seek a way home.

Plot

You awake. But who *are* you? Four faces look down on you, and they are all you have. Lightyears from anything, adrift in space, an unfeeling computer puts you through test after test, straining you all beyond your limits. These cruel games seem to have no purpose, but you cannot afford to lose. Each night you dream, but of what? Why are you here? And what can you do about it? [Choose one of the player characters to experience the story as designed]

Opening scene

It's dark, and warm and quiet. You drift through space, barely aware, barely feeling. You hear voices, as though muffled and distant. You try to move and realise that you can't. Panicking, you try to open your eyes and it is impossibly difficult, like you are pushing a boulder up a hill not simply twitching your eyelids. As your eyes finally open a crack, the light is bright, white and starkly painful. You almost snap your eyes back shut but you don't know if you'd be able to open them again. As the pain recedes from the front of your head, leaving an ache instead of a lancing shock, your vision slowly swims into focus. You see a face. Brown eyes, brown hair, cropped on one side with some kind of design on the scalp. Metallic, like circuitry under the skin. You blink and thankfully open your eyes again to see that same face. It's not someone you know. Puzzled, you frown. So does the face. You twitch your head a little to try to look around. You can't. But the head of the person you are looking at twitches too. You try to speak. So do they. It's *you.* You're looking at a reflection. But not one you know. This face, this person... *who are they*? In your ear you hear a soft chiming, along with those muffled voices and the mirror above you splits in half and opens with a hiss. It's a door. You are lying in a container. A crate? A coffin?! Above you are four new faces, also entirely unfamiliar. You have never seen them before. At least, you assume you haven't. If you don't even know *your own name*, how can you be sure? They seem shocked too. There is a mad chatter of them all talking over one another, and you can't make any details out. A neutral synthesised voice suddenly interrupts their frenzied conference, cowing them into silence, "Challenge complete. Reward unlocked. Next challenge will commence in one hour. All challenges will now include your reward: an additional team member has been added to the crew roster. I advise you to confine your confusion and questions to the next forty minutes before proceeding to the next challenge site. Message ends." The faces stare down at you. The moment is still and silent, a first meeting made of absolute confusion. When everyone stays frozen, you try to sit up. Your muscles have thankfully begun to wake up. You pull yourself upright, and as you do you see your body, clad in a white jumpsuit, with a keycard clipped to the belt. Reading the one word on it upside down, you learn your name. "You" you say. Feeling the unfamiliar word take shape in your mouth, "My name is You." The others back away from you a step. they are all wearing outfits that match your own, with an ID card at the belt and a round patch on their left shoulders showing the image of an apple wreathed in flame. The stern faced girl with coiled blue hair stares at you like a problem she cannot solve. The fiery red haired man looks like he expects you to bite. The other man, with a dark buzzcut simply waits, and the girl with short golden hair looks like she's choosing whether to run or make friends, or somehow choose both. Behind them a small computer screen glows cyan-blue with a strange figure displayed upon it. But that will have to wait. Apparently you don't have long to make these people trust you and work out what is going on. The clock is apparently ticking. What will you say first?

Characters

Tags: Amnesia Amnesiac Sci-Fi Mystery BadEnding Ethics HiddenPower FastPaced Immersive Climactic Philosophical Tense Eerie Hopeless Interstellar Horror AI IQ Mental Friendship FindingSelf BreakingFree Fictional OC

Chats Started: 10

By: parse_part_two

Stories

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