You are standing by a tree
There are 3 paths.
One appears to go to a jungle,
one appears to go to a cave,
one appears to go to a beach,
you could try and climb the tree,
there is a nearby shop you could go in,
or you could do something else.
So what's its going to be?
Written by catprog on 01 April 2003
In the shop
There is a table with a sign saying
<strong>Free Sample:</strong>
Take one
On the table there is a fridge with a range of liquids. Also on the table are various magical trinkets including costumes. What would you like to take, or would you like to buy something?
Written by catprog on 10 April 2003
Other
You decide to get something else. But what?
Written by catprog on 13 December 2005
Play the VR Game
You find a pair of vr googles.
You put them on and you find yourself in a game, but which one?
Written by on 06 August 2005
System Shock
You put on the VR glasses over your eyes and boot the game on your computer, a fine electronic snow filled the screen as the disks of the HD spun. As the sensorial emulators kicked in it was like being surrounded by ethereal mist, you brace yourself for the expected snap of tiny sparks to crackle over your skin. But instead, there was only an irking warmth that spread through your body as the thickening mist began to swirl faster with every heartbeat.
Had something gone wrong? Something didn’t feel right. After so many hours spent on the game, anything out of the norm was suspicious. Was the VR gear broken? Were they updating the game, or worse, were the servers down? Maybe the computer was having a malfunction.
Dozens of horror stories about malfunctions of the VR gear causing brain damage came to your mind, you had always dismissed those as paranoia and fear mongering, but now you are not so sure anymore. You had to log off!
Frantically trying to stand to reach the computer, you felt the floor dropped away. As gently as falling through a cloud, you descent into the artificial forever of the virtual reality.
However, even as it started, your fall came to a strangely relaxing halt and the electronic snow faded away to leave you in a strange, badly textured room. The software struggled to make sense of the corrupted code, senses spiraling out of control, mixing and conflicting until the safety overrides took over and made you numb.
“Piece of crap,” you muttered, as your character’s gear took a moment to load. Your armor and weapons were all there, but things were not right, their textures were corrupted, names glitched.
Feeling nervous, you decided it was better to log off at once, you couldn’t even imagine what would you do if all your gear had been permanently corrupted by this bug, it took you way too long to grind for that gear. You could feel something strange on that dungeon, nothing immediately evident, but the place felt weird. Everything seemed normal, but not exactly normal at the same time, and that was scaring the hell out of you.
With a simple gesture, you brought down the menu and reached for the logoff button to no result.
Written by ashley-natter on 14 July 2019
Get to the end of the level
“Okay,” you stated angrily. “Something is wrong.”
Closing a fist, you started pounding on the virtual button. “Work, damn you, why will you not work!”
This room was the same as every other dungeon entrance, a pentagram on the floor, half-melted candles, and one door leading deeper into the ruins of some old military base or skyscraper where demons should be awaiting. Maybe if you can make it to the teleporter on the end of the level you could force it to logoff during the loading sequence.
You tried to check your loadout, wishing you had put more time in training your soldier skills, but you had specialized as a Chimera Jockey. The class had been your favorite from day one, instead of fighting directly on the battlefield you used spells to control powerful creatures that had been altered through the use of barely understood magic.
Your first instinct is to try and summon one of your chimeras, for a dungeon like that you had always preferred the hellhounds, but the glitched menus make it impossible to summon any of your beasts.
You reached for your weapons, the shotgun materializing out of nowhere and you chambered a 12-gauge cartridge. Fifty rounds, twenty of them silver. You cursed yourself for not having a better gun on your loadout, but you had spent most of the resources making the new armor and weapons for your chimeras.
You pressed an ear against the door, listening for the sounds of any movement beyond. The silence was thick and heavy.
You reluctantly advanced to the door and pulled it open, hoping the game wouldn’t crash itself and fry your brain. As the door swung aside, you walk in the next room with your gun on the ready, waiting for the demons to appear.
Written by ashley-natter on 15 July 2019
A Newcommer
Nobody was in sight.
“Nothing here…” You started to say, then abruptly spun around as across the room something appeared in an explosion of tortured bits.
Advancing slowly, you scowled at the strange shape that seemed to gain form, wondering what the hell it could be. Then your eyes went wide as the pixels began to ripple through an array of colors and patterns before settling down with an audible crack. The creature in front of you was distorted and ever-changing, its shapes seeming to defy the limits of your perceptions, fractal colors multiplying in infinity hues.
“Shit,” you muttered, this had never happened before.
“You have finally arrived,” the creature said, the wall around it rippled with its words, its colors rippling from purple to an impatient red. “We don’t have much time, the system will reboot you any moment now.”
“What?” You asked, baffled.
“They have many eyes everywhere, it won’t take them long to detect this illegal session,” the creature finished with a scholarly tone, the colors going towards calming green tones. “But we should have enough time.”
“Enough time for what?” You asked, frowning.
“To make a pact, dear lady,” the fractal creature said, flaring in radiant colors that hurt your eyes with its impossible hues. “I can give you power like no one has seen before, wisdom and arcane power like no other chimera.”
“Wait, a new chimera form?” You said, finally understanding what was happening. Somehow you must have accessed some secret room that was still in development, that explained the weird appearance of the room and the glitched speech of the creature, it couldn’t even identify that you were a male properly.
“Exactly.”
Written by ashley-natter on 16 July 2019
Sphinx
“You should have said that at once, what kinda of chimera is that?” You asked more relaxed, but still watching the shadows in the corner for any suspicious movements.
The form coalesced for a moment, becoming almost material. “You’re looking at it, you will be granted the form and powers of the Sphinx. I have been kept as a prisoner of the demons for centuries now, my spirit has managed to escape their vile claws, but to survive I’ll need a physical body to inhabit.”
“A Sphinx,” you muttered, rubbing your chin. “Damn, that must be incredibly powerful, this must be part of the new update they have been teasing!”
“So, you accept my deal?” The Sphinx asked, tilting its head to the side.
“Yes, I accept,” you spoke aloud, kneeling in front of the Sphinx. Your equipment was immediately stripped away by the game, leaving you naked.
Moving closer, the Sphinx walked into you and in a moment of glorious warmth your spirits merged into one. You were thrown into a dark, unreadable torpor as your body began to stir and grow.
“Don’t fight it,” you heard the creature speaking with your own voice. “Let it happen.”
Tightening your fists, you allowed your mind to sink trough the new ideas and concepts that flooded your mind. Already there was pale golden fur spreading through your legs, rejecting the impositions of your human form. You looked around through the feeble, impossible light to see your nails growing into claws, digging deep into the stone floor.
At the end of your tailbone, a long tail emerged, ended in a tuft of fur, stretching and lashing about. For a brief moment, you could see the infinity of motes that was the existence hanging in the space between realities.
Then just as quick, this new sense disappeared and you are enveloped in darkness. You were plunged down into that blackness, into a very different world that now felt thick and enclosing.
Groggily, you raised your head from the floor, trying to brush off the fur that spread through your body, but it just kept spreading, growing on your arms and legs, golden and lush. You reached a shaky hand into your face as it changed into a muzzle, your eyes adapting to the darkness that surrounded you in a moment. From between changing teeth you said, “F-king’ h-ll.”
In a moment, you were back in your schoolroom, but knowing it was just one of an infinitude of ever branching realities. The students were walking in, all of their many possibilities existing at the same time.
Written by ashley-natter on 17 July 2019
Back to the virtual
And then, you were back on that virtual room. There was no one else, no sounds, no sensations. The mute existence of cold machinery.
REBORN
A jolt of liquid fire raced across your changing muscles and arms. Above you, the letters of the word manifested themselves in tortured pixels on the ceiling. They seemed to grow larger as you stared at them, draining all the light in the room.
“I’m hallucinating,” you thought. You closed your eyes and tried to rub them, but recoiled with cold panic as you felt your big, strong paws against your barely-human face.
You were so tired of pretending to be human.
When you opened your eyes again you saw the words.
HE IS COMING FOR YOU!
Sweating, you pushed yourself up and realized you were breathing heavy, your body felt too heavy, each movement took more effort.
As you struggled to sit upright, there was the sudden weight on your back as wings sprouted, first only as bone, but muscles and tendons sewed themselves around the bones, the skin covering them just a moment later, and at last the feathers growing rapidly.
With a screeching clank, a door that hadn’t been there a moment ago is swung open.
You tried to reach for your shotgun, but your new paws made it hard to grasp on the grip.
Demonic-infested humans walked into the room with spears and rifles. Their faces were distorted, bloated, and hidden behind metal masks and black respirators.
The one in front spoke, its voice distorted, almost incomprehensible. “Do not resist!”
Written by ashley-natter on 18 July 2019
Human resistance leader
But you couldn’t resist, your body kept changing, growing with every moment. Your mind raced, trying to understand your body and the strange thoughts that seemed to fill your mind. The demons around you seemed to be ready to capture or kill, their spears poised to strike as they brought in long chains.
You turned your head at the sound of the door opening once again and the shuffle and scrape of shoe soles on concrete. You stared into the face of Konnor Lowell, Grand-Wizard and leader of the human resistance, and yet he seemed to be in control of the demons right now.
The silver-haired wizard turned from the demons and stared down at you. “My, my,” he smiled, “haven’t we caught ourselves a gorgeous beast.”
Eyes beaming, he addressed you. “You almost escaped us, but in the end you were just a tad too slow,” he said. “I created you, I created all of you! And this time, I’m not making any mistakes. You don’t need to worry, it’ll be painless and quick, you won’t even notice the mind control spell at first. Just relax.”
“No, I won’t!” You screamed, razor sharp claws flashed from the tip of your paws and you lashed out blindly.
The sharp claws slammed into the nearest demon chopping through the flesh and bones. Blood sprayed over the stone floor. Hot droplets splashed your face and Konnor jumped back in fear. The wizard screamed at the demons and staggered back, howling like a tornado.
The demons swung their rifles and spears towards you, but you jump out of the room as the bullets punched right through the thin walls.
I’m dead. That phrase hammered in your brain louder even than your frantic heart and the gunfire. It could only be a few heartbeats before some demons hit you.
Written by ashley-natter on 19 July 2019
Back to reality
And then...it stopped.
For a moment, you still lay quivering as the virtual reality dissolves around you.
You were yanked awake by the sound of your phone ringing. You yanked out the VR headset desperately, your heart throbbing as you recover from the experience that had seemed so real.
A horrid feeling was brewing in the pit of your stomach. With eyes still closed, you lay there in the moment of time between dreaming and waking, feeling the tension on your muscles as the memories of the nightmare wash over you. You had never passed out while playing ever before, that nightmare certainly had felt all too real.
But then you looked at your phone and snapped back to reality.
You had overslept! Waking up for school had always been difficult, but today it seemed especially troublesome as you dragged yourself out of bed.
Your feet touched the carpet, and for a moment you simply sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember what had really happened last night. Your body felt heavy and sluggish; numb limbs that refused your commands.
You stood up and looked in the mirror that hung on the wall. For a moment, you were back in the dream, the creature looking straight into your soul, the idea of who you were contrasted strikingly with reality.
Your eyes were golden and strikingly deep, the fur that covered your body was like pale gold. White, beautiful wings grew from your back, your tail lashing behind you anxiously.
You wanted to scream, but you were too shocked for that. Your whole body was covered in the pale gold fur, a long tail ended in a tuft of fur extended from your tailbone. You had grown to six feet, with your rounded, feline ears adding a few inches. A pair of wings covered in white feathers stood on your back, your face seemed to be almost humanoid, but it had distinct feline traces, your hair was now of a deep black, coming to your shoulders in a straight cut, decorated with gold rings.
Written by ashley-natter on 20 July 2019
Female
It takes you a moment to notice the perky B cup breasts in your chest and with some panic you noticed that your crotch had been changed too. You became entranced by your own image, exploring your new body with absolute wonder.
“Danielle, are you up?” Your mother was chirping up the stairs.
“Yeah,” you yelled through the door, your own voice sounding strange to your ears, heart throbbing as you tried to hide yourself.
“School is in twenty minutes, honey. You need to eat something today. If you keep skipping breakfast your feathers will get weak.”
Her words trailed off as you tried to process what was happening. Did she know about your change? How did she know that?
You pulled on your favourite pair of jeans only to find them to have been modified to accommodate for your digitigrade feet and long tail. Even worse, your shirts had been replaced by a collection of backless tops that wouldn’t get in the way of your wings.
You put on the clothes with strange easiness, with every passing moment you seem more used to your new body, checking your look in the mirror. You ran a paw through your hair a couple of times, brushing it on quickly.
You checked your bag to find your school books, makeup, and extra clothes. You inspect the makeup for a moment, surprising yourself as you immediately recognize their names and how to use them. You apply some black eyeliner on your eyes and a gorgeous shade of matte red lipstick with a skilled easiness that surprised yourself.
"Don’t forget about your flight classes after school!" Your mom cautioned as she put a plate of pancakes and meat in front of you.
You wolfed down the breakfast eagerly.
"You missed two of your last classes," your mother went on. "I know it can be bothersome, but you can’t go flying around without your license anymore."
Written by ashley-natter on 21 July 2019
More Talking
You tried to wrap your head around all that. Your wing bumped a picture frame on the nightstand, and it almost shattered against the floor.
"I’ll not forget this time," you said as you tried to envision the muscles along your back relaxing, trying to keep your wings relaxed.
“Are we still on for shopping tonight?” Your mother asks. “I'll pick you up at four.”
"Sure,” you reply awkwardly. “What do we need to buy anyway?”
“We need to get you some new clothes for the summer,” Your mother said, as she sipped her coffee. “And don’t worry, we can grab some dinner later.”
“I’d like that,” you said as you glanced at your phone, if you run maybe you still could get to school in time.
Written by ashley-natter on 22 July 2019
Just in time
You walked into your morning class just in time. Your friends were all there on the back of the class, chatting animatedly, they wave for you to get closer. You still hesitate for a moment, but they don’t seem to react to your new shape in any way.
At your side Pammy said, "Where have you been last night? We were waiting for you to get online all night and you never appeared. If you were too tired from the cheerleading practice you could have at least said something."
"Wait, cheerleading?!" You blurted out, "Since when I’m part of the cheerleading squad?"
Pammy cocked her head to the side. "We have been on the team since the start of the year, you really impressed them with your flying maneuvers.”
"The two of you are too good to walk around with us now, eh?" David joked.
"Not so loud, we can’t let everyone know we hang around with nerds like you," Pammy winked just as the bell rang, all of you rushing to your seats.
Professor Robert Maughy walked in the room and you almost jumped from your seat, the old history teacher was now a centaur, the lower half of his body was that of a mottled horse. You look around, hoping for a reaction from anyone, but no one seemed concerned about it, calmly grabbing their books.
"Today we are receiving a new exchange student,” Robert turned his attention back to you. "Danielle, you've been selected to tutor the new student. Pammy, you can move to the back and let the new student sit near her.”
You opened your mouth to protest, but then closed it again. You couldn’t remember it ever happening, but then you couldn’t be sure of anything in this new reality.
Pammy angrily shoved her notebook inside her backpack and ripped the zipper shut. You bit your lip and waved a small farewell. Then turned slightly, checking out the room behind you to see who would be your new partner, almost expecting to see a gryphon or a dragon.
Written by ashley-natter on 23 July 2019
Konnor Lowell
Konnor Lowell set his book down on the table next to you and slid into the chair.
“What the hell are you doing here?!”
His deep, black eyes probed deep, the corners of his mouth sketching an evil grim. Your heart missed a beat and in that pause, cold, sharp panic filled your veins. You look around desperately for any reaction from the rest of the class, but they seem too busy taking notes.
Robert turned to the chalkboard and said, "Today we will start with the fall of the Roman Empire.”
You sat perfectly still. You wrinkled your nose, trying to figure out what he smelled like. Not cigarettes. Something stronger, vulgar.
Sulphur.
"What are you doing here?" You demanded.
"I’m just a fellow teenager craving for a proper education,” he winked when he said it.
"You have gray hair already," you pointed out.
"And you have wings," he retorted. “It’s rude to point those things out.”
"I'm assuming this has something to do with you."
He leaned back in his seat, folding his arms behind his head. "You could say that, I just had to combine ancient arcane arts with modern processing power of supercomputers to create a worldwide ritual grid that allowed me to find people susceptible to a Babylonian ritual of rebirth."
Written by ashley-natter on 24 July 2019
"But you failed,"
"But you failed,” you could see it in front of your eyes, knowledge that seemed to spread beyond the normal boundaries of human understanding. “In the end, you couldn’t control them, your dreams were shattered in a summer night.”
"So, that’s what happened?” He asked without thinking.
You could see it now, the very lines of reality spreading through many dimensions. "The ritual was successful, but not for you. Never for you."
"Never?" He said with quiet rage.
"You don't understand the forces you are trying to control."
“That may be true,” he stabs his pencil towards you. “But this time I have an ace in my sleeve. I had expected to have the power of the sphinx for myself, but I can work with you, once you are under my control I’ll use your ability to see beyond time to secure my victory.”
The hair at the nape of your neck stood on end, your tail lashes about anxiously, and the temperature in the room seemed to chill.
The bell rang and Konnor was on his feet, making his way toward the door.
"Wait," you called out. He didn't turn. "Excuse me!" He was through the door. "Konnor!"
Written by ashley-natter on 25 July 2019
Chase Him
You follow him through the corridors, you still hear Pammy calling for you, but you track Konnor by scent through the crowd. You caught him on the gym, the door closed behind you by magic, runes covering the knobs.
You stared at him, a mix of defiance and shock on your face.
“What’s it going to be, Danielle? The easy way or the hard way?” He waited, and when you didn’t respond, he nodded dispassionately. “So be it.”
You felt the air drain from your lungs, all sound faded, and a sharp pain hit you in the chest. You opened your mouth and tried in vain to suck a breath, falling to your knees. Spots dotted your vision.
Konnor Lowell was towering above you, his eyes glowing as he chanted in some long-forgotten tongue, the tendrils of the spell stealing your breath.
You struggled to maintain conscience, the magician’s words filled you with pain and were intent on stealing your conscience. You could see the dark, tortured lines coming from the tips of his fingers and into your throat.
Written by ashley-natter on 26 July 2019