You don't know if the ritual worked, but your code compiled, and a student is dead.
Everyone knows that the fast-track to a superstar games development career starts at the secluded Royal Highland University. But just as it seems your dreams are coming true, Simon Harcourt is found drowned in the Loch, and truths, involving chaos magic, messy relationships and psychedelic drugs are revealed.
Matrix Drowning is a WIP interactive fiction focusing on university life, romance, and an all-consuming obsession that ends in death. Think The Secret History meets Bandersnatch.
move to Delphi
fortell people’s futures
???
prophet
Okay now that that writing about vampires is out of the way I need to go draw them for art fight,
back to our regularly scheduled winter adventure. I gotta get back onto crowning north and that lil project juiced up my brain for it! So excited to get back to writing the prologue 💪
👾 DEMO TBD
Contra Spem Spiro is a 18+ sci-fi, dystopian romance interactive fiction that follows the MC as you fight to survive an alien invasion and the repercussions of trying to live in a doomed society. This story is intended for mature audiences and will contain scenes of violence/gore, sexual themes, drug use, discussions of mental health, and explicit language. The game is a work in progress and is currently being written.
👾 DESCRIPTION
Your story starts off like any other.
Your life was normal, until it wasn’t. Two years after the invasion ravaged the Earth, you’re struggling to find purpose. The lonely life of struggle and survival is not for you. You’d promised yourself that if there was ever a zombie apocalypse, or if climate change caused the planet to move towards uninhabitable, you’d end it. That was then. That was when hypotheticals existed. This is reality, and instead of dying, you lived against all odds and continue to do so.
Why? You don’t know. You wake up fortunate to be alive. Everything between the sunrise and sunset is white noise. Insignificant.
Now, your normal shifts again. Now, you’re making a month’s long journey with a group of strangers, their faces unfamiliar except for the exhaustion in their eyes.
They have a plan, and you’re along for the ride. After all, still water is an infested one. You learned that the hard way.
This is not a story of heroes and villains, or of good triumphing over evil. This is a story of people: the kinds worth living for, and the kinds you wish were dead. This story, your story, is one of survival.
👾 FEATURES
Customize your MC! Play as male, female, or nonbinary. You can determine their appearance and personality, updating it (voluntarily and, uh, involuntarily) as the story progresses. Are they charming or intimidating? Do they use their fists to solve problems, or their keen mind and deductive reasoning? Can they talk their way out of trouble, or do they avoid it in the first place?
Become an asset to your group. The perfect team has balance. Choose your MC’s strengths and weaknesses; develop them as you see fit. Make decisions that change the lives of your found family, or sit on the sidelines and watch chaos unfold. Do you believe in fate, or will you change your future by force?
Engage in romance, or keep it purely platonic between 5 love interests, with one poly option available. Looking for quick hookups? We have two of those. And yes, you can romance an alien. I don’t judge.
Survive. Easier said than done.
👾 ROMANCE OPTIONS
For each of the romanceable characters, there will be options to increase flirtation, friendship, or antagonism.
♡ Ayana Tsosie/Adriel Tsosie
The Strong, Soft-Spoken Leader (F/M)
Ayana is 5′11. Adriel is 6′3.
Age: 29
Before the invasion, A pursued a career in medicine at the expense of leaving their family, members of the Navajo tribe. Compassionate, intelligent, tactical, and ambitious, you have no doubt that A is a natural born leader who would have thrived as a physician. Despite their warm, welcoming demeanor, A is reluctant to pursue close relationships for fear of it interfering with their sense of responsibility to the group. Help A relieve their burden by taking on a share of the authority, or encourage them to throw caution to the wind every once in a while.
“Optimism without realism is naivety. And that will get us killed. I can’t let that happen.”
♡ Cecelia Quinn/Chase Quinn
The Go-With-The-Flow Girl/Boy Next Door (F/M)
Cecelia is 5′4. Chase is 5′10.
Age: 20
Always up for a laugh, C isn’t interested in the doom and gloom. Their adulthood barely began before the invasion happened, meaning they’re still clinging to what were supposed to be the “best years of my life.” That doesn’t mean they lack competence. C is damn good with technology, (and stick and poke tattoos!), able to rig up electricity seemingly from their back pocket. They take their friendships seriously, and will be the first to defend you when trouble comes knocking. Oh, and did I mention they used to work in a bakery? “Fuck, I miss baked bread.”
*C is demisexual, so although MC can flirt with them from the beginning, it takes a high friendship for them to reciprocate any romantic/sexual feelings.
♡ Veronica Moiarty/Vincent Moiarty
The Insomniatic Anti-Hero (F/M)
Veronica is 5′9. Vincent is 6′0.
Age: 25
Even if V wanted to tell you about themselves, they couldn’t. Having been attacked by an alien those short years ago, they woke up with no memory and a nasty scar on their arm. Others marveled at how they were able to survive such an injury, but V would say that death felt like the better option. Jaded, vengeful, and hot-headed, V isn’t known for their kind words or sensitivity. In fact, who needs enemies when V is there with a scathing comment and a proverbial shove into the mud? You want to hate them, you should hate them. Of course, you don’t.
“What about this conversation makes you think I want to talk to you?”
*Because of V’s canon romantic interest in Z, if you romance V only, they will slowly shift their romantic affection from Z to MC in a realistic manner. The two will always be close friends, but when romancing V alone, MC will eventually become the sole source of their interest.
♡ Zero Chevalier
The Quiet, Cat-Like Con Artist (F/M)
F!Z is 5′10. M!Z is 6′1.
Age: 24
Quiet, stealthy, and quick to lash out when cornered, Z prefers the shadows to the spotlight. Why say many words when few will suffice? They made a living from con-to-con, using subterfuge and their knack for making themselves invisible to outwit their marks. Z dislikes violence as a whole and is known to have a weak stomach, though they’ll deny being an empath if asked. Z slouches too much, eats too little, and can be found staring off into the void or engrossed in their sketchbook. You’re drawn to their mystery, their light, melodic voice, and their dry humor.
“Can you all keep it down? You’re interrupting my sulking.”
*Z is the most oblivious of the romance options. Seriously, it’s like flirting with a brick wall. Romancing Z isn’t for the impatient, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. If romancing Z only, you will notice that V will take longer to warm up to MC because of their jealousy. In time, they will get over their feelings for Z and will come to support their relationship.
♡ Xa'eks/Xa’veed
From Nion 8, With Love (F/M)
Xa'eks is 6′5. Xa’veed is 6′9.
Age: ???
Personal Information: ???
Is X going to eat you? Is it bad that you wouldn’t mind?
“C keeps trying to tell me what a “ticking tock” is. Please explain to them that I do not care.”
∞ POLY ROUTE
Initiate a polyamorous relationship between MC, V and Z. To romance both V and Z, you must first romance V.
It doesn’t take 20/20 vision to see that V has feelings for Z. It would be a bit embarrassing to watch if Z wasn’t known to be heartbreakingly oblivious. It’s like Z hasn’t looked in a mirror a day in their life. Anyways, if romancing V is a boss-fight, then Z is the final boss in a game’s 3 part saga. So you need reinforcements.
MC can flirt with both V and Z. MC will have to begin a romantic/sexual fling with V first, admit their feelings for Z, and encourage V to come clean and admit their own. The two of you can then pull Z into your relationship. Three emotionally stunted peas in a pod. Isn’t it beautiful? ♡
👾 OTHER CHARACTERS
Hayden Graham (They/Them)
Age: 26. Height: 5′3.
Don’t call them a girl, and you can keep your kneecaps.
Rebellious, witty, and charismatic, Hayden is a force to be reckoned with.
Roccio Marcellus (She/Her)
Age: 21. Height: 5′8
Will put on a full face of makeup to kick alien ass.
Voted Most Likely to Bring Her Music Player to a Deserted Island.
Elijah Crane (He/Him)
Age: 17. Height: 5′11
There’s no calculus in the apocalypse. Fine by him.
“If I’m gonna die anyway, at least let me try tequila before I go!”
And many more!
Note: This post will be updated as I progress through its development. Feel free to ask any questions regarding the plot, any trigger warnings, the romance options, or the MC themselves.
Reblogs are greatly appreciated! Thank you all so much for your interest and support ♡ ♡
All my love,
Cheye (she/her) 🫰
Greetings and welcome to my Dev Blog, I figured a quick introduction is in order.
I am Hik (they/them), and I am working on a interactive fiction project! This is technically not my first go at it, but this project is a bit more serious. I’m more of an artist than a writer, not that writing isn’t an art but my brain works in pictures. So this is my debatably first big writing heavy project, but I really love this medium and I’m running on 80% self indulgence here. Plus, you can’t improve if you never try after all. Succeed of fail it will never go to waste!
I do ask for patience, I’m a university student and still learning as I go here.
Current Project(s):
The Crowning North (no demo, hiatus?)
Affairs in Blood (complete)
A Hearth of Ice and Stone (no demo)
Ichor of the Last Lament (Demo)
tragedy enjoyers when even good intentions lead to ruin
In the world of Talea there are two main ways for humans to attain magic.
The most common way is to get bind your soul to an familiar. A familiar is an incomplete being of pure magic, their forms are unstable and will eventually fizzle out of existence like a spark of ember in the wind. You act as their host, anchoring them to you. In turn they become apart of you, and you are able to harness their magic. It is a great honor to be deemed worthy by an familiar, at least most people hope you and bound to one because it deemed you worthy. Regardless of the reason why you are bound to one, an familiar is a life long companion; aside from practice a large part of using this joint power is getting along with your familiar. The better the bond, the more stably you can use the magic. This is especially important if you are bound with a particularly powerful familiar.
The much rarer way is to be imbued with magic by a more powerful being. May it be dragons, nyms, the Aasha or perhaps even the Imowu themselves, magic acquired in this manner tends to be more wild and unpredictable and come with less than desirable side effects. It is also debated whether any human who acquires power in this way is still fully human after the fact.
There is a 'secret' third way though. A human carefully handcrafted by the gods themselves, birthed or torn apart and remade some time after; a human made in such a manner is something to be feared. As far as humanity knows this has happened only once, and the scars it had left on existence itself have still jot healed.
BREAKING NEWS: Writer discovers for the millionth time that they can write whatever they want. Join us now to see if the lesson will stick.
I'm already a slow writer but gonna be headed back to university soon, there goes what meager helpings of mental stability I've scrounged up since graduating. This will either make me write more as a means to avoid school work, or recook my burnt out brain all over again. Only time can tell :]
longmei龙梅 blossoms in drizzle, 普安禅寺pu'an chansi, yongjia, wenzhou, zhejiang province in china (cr 沈愈之)
Hik | They/Them | Aspiring IF writer, we're workshopping stuff rn | Expect project related art now and again
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