Housebound

A young grey-skinned person standing in a dark grey room. Various items are strewn about.

A young troll stands in their respiteblock. It just so happens that today is a completely ordinary and uneventful day. Though it has been many sweeps since this troll picked up the craftful art of thingmajiggery, it is only today that they will be given a title.What is the name of this young troll?

Enter name.

The troll is smiling and a textbar appears above their head with the name LATEDAWN.

Snappy and straight to the point. Excellent, excellent.

Examine Room.

(same as first page) A young grey-skinned person standing in a dark grey room. Various items are strewn about.

Your name is DAWN. You live alone in the ALTERNIAN FLATS, and only see your lusus occasionally, dotted in the treeline. You enjoy PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, and ENGINEERING, with a touch of COMPUTERS for flavor. You are your own HARSHEST CRITIC, and never feel proud of your ACCOMPLISHMENTS. As such, you are a WHORE for online ACHIEVEMENTS.From being previously surmised, you have nothing to do today. However a number of your INTERESTS strew the room, begging to be exercised.What do you do?

Examine computer.

A black and white Windows 98 computer, with a dartboard dart sticking out of the tower.

Ah yes, your BLINKY-TAK. Capable of INTERCONTINENTAL COMMUNICATION with DERISORY LATENCY and ANTELETTIC PROCESSING your grandpap only DREAMED OF, it's a wonder you happened to find it. It's only got one downside: a strange being's face is seared into the SCREEN, a dart in the DISK TRAY, no MEMORY, a rat ate through the POWER CORD, and it didn't come with a MOUSE. Did I say one downside? I meant SEVERAL.

Examine poster.

A hung black and white poster of DIE HARD with yellow horns on Bruce Willis. It is signed by Hans Gruber.

Your DIE HARD poster... a beautiful MOVIE detailing and subverting the CULTURE of the OFFICE ENVIRONMENT. At least, it was until your arch-nemesis TROLL BRUCE WILLIS killed off your role model. Every sweep, you still watch this movie, and every sweep, you turn it off and rewind the tape at the 2:01:47 mark. You will never die in our hearts, Hans.

Examine wrench.

Such simple DESIGN. Such intricate FORM. Such wieldable POWER. All things found in your RADIOPASSIVE THINGMAJIG. It was a regular day at the POWERPLANT, when suddenly the CORES began OVERHEATING. A real shit-for-brains ENGINEER thought of throwing his beloved THINGMAJIG into the REACTOR to stop it. Who knows how that turned out, but you LOOTED this sweet thing off his CORPSE. Finders keepers. Though you might want to keep it SOMEWHERE ELSE; it's currently MELTING a hole through your DESK.

Examine arrowholder.

Perfectly circular...
Sectioned elegantly...
True craftsmanship...All THIS and you still SUCK at it. You have GIVEN UP learning the LANGUAGE OF THE DARTS after an INJURY attempting the 12 POINT BUCK. You will be RIDICULED when your SECRET gets out.

Throw another dart.

Damn, another bullseye. You never were good at this game.

Throw another dart.

Damn, another bullseye. You never were good at this game.

Examine painting.

What PAINTING?You don't see a painting ANYWHERE.You don't even KNOW what a PAINTING is.In fact, WE never KNEW each other. We were never HERE. Just STRANGERS above the SEA of LIFE...

Examine outside.

A beating SUN. Beautiful petrified FORESTS. Calloused sandstone CLIFFS.Your BACKYARD and primary enforcer of ISOLATION. Despite boasting the LARGEST petrified trees of Alternia, there's nothing more boring than stupid ROCK-WOOD. There's really no selling point for this MESS of a LAND. It's a wonder your LUSUS can stay out here for so LONG.