Midweek: The Game I May Never Finish Edition

Darkness Ascendant

Sorry, no this is not a story post. I'm still working on a commission so I don't really have time to work on my own fiction at the moment. The first chapter of that work should be done next week, and may or may not be posted here depending on the desire of the commissioner. So don't stay tuned for that because I don't know if it's gonna happen.

No, this post is about a game idea I had ages ago that I fear I will never finish, mostly due to the limitations of the available tools as well as the fact that games take a LOT of effort to finish, far more than even a novel length book.

The seed for this story came primarily from one source: Tabico's The Loosing of the Dark. I've always enjoyed the idea of a dark mistress invading and taking over a small town in service to her dark empire.

The game plan was for you to play the heroine, Sheila, as she encounters the vanguard of the mistress' invasion into the town, and the different possible paths of corruption she would encounter during the invasion.

Would she help or hinder the invaders? Would she be taken over by other, unrelated corruptive forces before the main invasion even arrives?

Part of my reluctance to work on this game was the fact that Twine doesn't natively support a game architecture, it's mainly just for multiple choice stories. The only way to do it is to track variables via a javascript backend in the html and apply them to choices as they come up, which I feel is very rudimentary.

It makes me want to write a proper backend, but I just don't have the motivation to do that on top of also writing the story for the game.

At any rate, recently I've found my desire to write far outweighs my desire to work in javascript, so this story may never see the light of day.

That's a bit unfortunate, so I'm going to post some of only completed bits from this (unfinished) tale. They work okay as fun short flashes in and of themselves. Enjoy!

Starfish Encounter

Getting close to one of the barrels, she peeked inside. There was just more of the same - apples on top that superficially looked ripe, but when examined more closely in the lamp light of the shop revealed themselves to be rotten at the core. 

With a little experimentation, Sheila got better at sorting out the bad apples. A tell tale sign was a small smudge of darkness around the stem, allowing her to more quickly sort them appropriately.

Something intriguing caught her eye down farther in the barrel, so she continued sorting instead of giving up the task as a fruitless endeavor. A few layers of apples later, she found two apples next to each other that appeared to have a strange creature clenched tightly around each ruby red shape.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she brought an apple up in each hand, turning them slowly to examine the creatures more closely. They were starfish-like in shape, each one with eight arms wrapped delicately, but tightly around the apples. The center of each creature sat on top of the apple where the stem would be, a small slit visible. The arms of both creatures were dark purple and hard to the touch, a but bumpy with what almost looked like pimples.

Suddenly, the slit on both creatures popped open, revealing deep purple eyes that shine with an inner light. A wavy pattern immediately catches Sheila's eyes and stills her thoughts. They were beautiful!

Continuing to stare at the undulating pattern, Sheila watched as each critter slowly disengaged from their apples, now crawling slowly up her arms, suction cups under each appendage softly adhering to her skin. Before she could shake off the creature induced lassitude, they scurried up to her neck line and under her shirt, deftly sliding under her bra and around each breast, cupping them gently. There was a gentle pinch as each creature firmly attached themselves to both breasts.

The creatures nestled tightly against the tops of Sheila's breasts, covering her nipples entirely. She felt a slight tickling sensation as they continued to integrate themselves more closely into her body, spindling control threads throughout her fuzzy body. Every second that passed she could feel them becoming more tightly fastened. She was certain that they would never come off again, and that gave her a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Her mouth drooping open, she gently massaged the star-fish like creatures on her breasts, the full orbs barely contained by her now undersized bra. They had doubled in size, a fact that made her strangely pleased.

She sighed in pleasure as the twisty threads inside her broke through into her brain pan, her jumbled, nonsensical worries starting to leak away. Those silly thoughts about her family - they weren't required any more. All she needed to think was provided to her by the animals on her breasts. They squeezed her generous bust gently, encouraging her slave-fish behavior.

With the positive encouragement, it didn't take long for her to start agreeing with the sentiment. Why worry? Why resist? Her breasts knew what was best for her. She stroked the outer surface of them softly, grinning at their new sensitivity.

But why would she keep these new sensations to herself? Clearly the rest of the town needed to know the joy of giving in, surrendering their brains to the small creatures.

She stepped closer to one of the barrels and watched benignly as more star-fish creatures slowly crawled up the side of her shirt, then inside to stack themselves neatly in and around the now voluminous folds of her assets.

The first step to take over the town would be to get her father alone. Once he had been suborned there would be nothing to stop their general store from distributing the star fish throughout the frontier town!

Author's Note: Here we see the starfish attaching themselves to Sheila. They were meant to be parasites that would force you to take over the town. I do like the idea of having entire alternate story lines in the game, but it can quickly make the game more complex than you can possibly imagine!

Mysterious Vanguard

Stepping through the strips of curtain that separated the back storage from the front office, Sheila gasped involuntarily and came to a stop. Two slender figures stood in the store, their shiny bodies oozing dark sexuality.

They were clad in black, from head to toe, a mess of leather buckles and a thin, skin-tight shiny material that left little to the imagination. Their waists were cinched tight with over-bust corsets, compressing their busts impossibly small while emphasizing their plentiful assets.

One of them had her hair done up in a pony tail, while the other's flowed freely. Both, however, wore tight leather collars around their necks, each one fitted with a large, faintly glowing precious gem nestled at the base of their throats. Sheila found herself strangely entranced for a moment before she could tear her attention away from the sexy predators.

For predators they were, their feet tightly encased in knee high boots that had practical heels for running, and leather gauntlets around their wrists for blocking small arms. None of these accouterments distracted Sheila quite as much as their blazing eyes, one set of them blue and the other green. They almost look as if they were lit from within.

"I'm sorry," Mac was saying, an unaccustomed look of slight fear on his face. "We're currently out of bridles. We have more on back order, but they haven't yet arrived. The next train from Sherneck arrives next week."

"That is...unfortunate," the one with a pony tail said in a husky voice, "but not a huge inconvenience for us." Her eyes flashed briefly with an inner light. 

"We will be staying at Jung's Inn, down the street." She continued, her face smooth. "Please let us know as soon as possible when they arrive."

Deciding that boldness is a sign of true valor, Sheila stepped out into shop and confronted the strangers, despite the aura of darkness that seemed to follow their presence. "Who are you, travelers? I have never seen your like before."

"We are the humble servants of Queen Ash'a, mistress of the realms once forgotten," said the one with the flowing black hair mysteriously. She bowed elegantly with a flourish, then bored her scintillating green eyes into Sheila, who quailed at the close inspection. "Who may you be, lost sister?"

"My name is Sheila." She ignored the confusing statement made by the mysterious woman. "Why are you here?" The last was said with vigor, her words sharp like a paring knife.

They smiled knowingly. "It is getting late, the dust from the road clings to our heels. If you wish to know more, you may find us later at the Inn. For now, we take our leave." They turned, wooden floor creaking under their heels as they brushed through the front door.

The dark aura left with them, but its absence left behind a faint longing within Sheila. "Good riddance," tutted her father, shaking his head. "There's something wrong with those two, something very disturbing. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, no matter how attractive they might be." He started wiping down the counter compulsively, sweat beading his brow.

Sheila's mother rushed from behind the counter and caught her hand. "Please don't talk to them more, there's something wrong about them. I can feel it!"

To placate her mother, Sheila assured her that she wouldn't pursue the intriguing offer from the leather clad women.

Author's Note: Here's the first encounter with the mysterious servants of the queen. Later on, Sheila is supposed to visit them at the Inn and optionally have an encounter with an orb they're carrying with them and prematurely turn into a slave. A bad end of course, but hey, if you insist on sticking your fingers everywhere, something bad is bound to happen!