Equilibrium - A Text Adventure

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

EQUILIBRIUM.

You suddenly regain your focus after zoning out for no reason in particular. How long were you out for? Minutes? Days? Years? It doesn't matter. It's not like anything would ever change while you were gone.

Nothing ever changes.

You find yourself planted comfortably in your office chair, slightly uncomfortably from sleeping in a somewhat awkward position. You study your grim surroundings and find yourself in your OFFICE. For some reason, thinking too hard about your residence makes you feel somewhat HARDBOILED. A FLUORESCENT LIGHT flickers and barely illuminates the room, unaided by a single dark WINDOW, making your surroundings appear quite GRAY.

What will you do?

---

I promise I won't quit this adventure, everyone.

[HexMix]

> Declare name to self

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

> Declare name to self

In a unprecedented attack of INSANITY, you suddenly feel compelled to speak your name out loud.

Which is completely ridiculous, as anyone with eyes can plainly see the embellished pictograph of your area, displaying your plaque with your name on it. It reads, "GRAYSON DESATURATED."

You find your first name quite horrendous and un-aesthetically pleasing as compared to the noble title of your ANCESTORS, "Desaturated."

Ahh yes, many courageous sagas were passed down along the Desaturated lineage. It's a shame that your life is such a bore. Your ANCESTORS would be so disappointed.

[Kíeros]

> Yell at your ancestors for your horrible name.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

> Yell at your ancestors for your horrible name.

Okay, you do that for awhile, but it accomplishes nothing other than making you feel kind of bad for yelling at your dear old PAPPY DESATURATED.

Poor Pappy Desaturated. He was a noble man. His life was cut tragically short. He died a martyr during one of his "grand heroics." He would always talk about his wild tales of romance, heroism, and adventure before the "accident." These stories inspired thousands to follow in his footsteps and eventually gave way to a rebellion against the government.

Pappy sure was a crazy old bag of wind!

While you reminisce about this silly tomfoolery, precious TIME is wasted. Time that could be used doing IMPORTANT BUSINESSMAN THINGS. You should probably get on that. You don't want your BOSS coming in and finding you not doing your job. The consequences would be dire.

You don't like to think about it.

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Think about it anyway.


EDIT: >Pretend to do business stuff and think about it anyway.

[Kíeros]

> Okay, get back to business stuff.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

> Okay, get back to business stuff.

Yes, that should take your mind off all of this...back to work...ahahaha...

You nervously glance at your IMPORTANT WORK DOCUMENTS. You make sure that they are all properly filed and neat, like they should be. Why would anything be anything other than neat and orderly? It just makes no sense. The very thought that CERTAIN PEOPLE live in disorganized conditions makes you sweat a little with ANXIETY.

Really, you've been pretending to work for all these years. Nothing is ever disorganized, at least the way you keep it, and there is nothing to ever be done. Your BOSS just liked to stop and check on you every so often to make sure you're doing your "job." Really, you are the one keeping your boss in check, always off galavanting somewhere...

>Think about it anyway.

Oh god no no no you promised you would never do that again not after last time no way buster.

The sheer terror in person is enough, thank you.

> Pretend to do business stuff and think about it anyway.

Okay fine, that's a good compromise.

You start shuffling around your IMPORTANT BUSINESS DOCUMENTS around like there is no tomorrow. You put on your most intense and phony business-like face on.

"Yes hello sir I am too busy being a busy business man but I will be right with you, please hold."

Uh-oh. You hear knocking at the door. It must be your BOSS. Oh god oh man oh god oh man you are so unprepared. You must sound like an idiot talking to yourself oh god oh god you are going to be in so much trouble.

"Grayson! May I have a word with you?"

What will you do?

[Kíeros]

> "Sure; come on in. Let me save all this important work first."

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Refuse and jump out of the window.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

> Refuse and jump out of the window.

Believe you, you've tried to jump out the window. Multiple times, in fact. You always end up falling and somehow landing right back in your office. Like some type of curse to prevent anything different from happening.

You sort of zone out looking at the dusty window for a bit. It's cloudy. A blanket of ominous cotton blankets the sky and casts an eternal shadow over the surrounding land. Nothing different. The weather never changes. That's just how you like it. Not too sunny, not too rainy. Just right.

And yet you yearn for freedom. Just one taste of the forbidden fruit of a drop of water or liquid sunshine would satisfy your lust forever. You genuinely like overcast; you swear it.

Don't you?

> "Sure; come on in. Let me save all this important work first."

You aren't sure why you said that seeing as your important work is in physical paper, but regardless:

OH GOD WHY DID YOU SAY THAT

Your BOSS opens the door and waltzes in. Like she's literally dancing. Why is she dancing? Her brightly colored dress hurts your eyes. What the fuck does she want?

"Excuse me, Miss, but did you need something?" You managed to muster in your most calm voice.

"Hmm?" She pauses for a second as if she has no idea why she's here either, "Oh I almost forgot! How are you doing?"

'How are you doing???' Is that the only reason she is interrupting your deep contemplative thought? "Fine." You grumble caustically, "Is there anything else you wanted from me?"

"If there was I must have forgotten it by now!" She is still doing some odd folk dance. Go. Away.

God dammit, she is making a mess of things. This is exactly why you didn't want her to come here. She is possibly the most chaotic person you know. All of your perfectly organized papers are on the floor. You almost feel like crying. It took precisely 2.46 hours to make sure those papers were perfectly square. That is precious time that could be used going nothing. Doing nothing is your favorite and only pass time.

"Can you go away now? I don't even know why you came here in the first place. Today is not going to be any different; It makes no sense that you're even trying."

"Today is going to be different, I think." She smiled ear to ear.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Call it a hunch!" the smile continues to creep along her face, almost grotesquely. She dances right out of the room.

Great, all of your hard work that took precisely 2.46 hours, wasted. This happens every single time she checks up on you.

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>slap her, get fired, go outside to your car, rob a gun store, rob a bank, steal a car, get shot, realize you've just been daydreaming.

>Work, again.

[Kíeros]

> Stack them up again, but this time by gluing them together. Now she'll just knock the whole pile still intact to the floor.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

>slap her, get fired, go outside to your car, rob a gun store, rob a bank, steal a car, get shot, realize you've just been daydreaming.

Yes all of your fantasies are coming true! That bitch had it coming.

You're in the clear nowwait a minute

>Work, again.

Damn.

> Stack them up again, but this time by gluing them together. Now she'll just knock the whole pile still intact to the floor.

Good idea! You're sure glad that you're the one who thought of that and not someone else.

You do that but then you realize you only have access to one side of two documents. The rest are fudged with glue. Fuck, you're pretty sure most of these might have been important if you actually cared that much. You take the FUDGED PAPERS with you.

Goddammit, now there's glue everywhere. Why are you so messy today? You aren't usually like this.

Suddenly it's very dark. You peer out the window for a moment to see what the hubbub is all about. There is a drop of liquid on the window. Is that...rain?

It hasn't rained in thousands of years! This is all very exciting, yet frightening. You can't really take a moment to bask in the drop because you are too busy flipping out. This means the spell is broken.

You suspect jumping out your window might not be such a great idea anymore.

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Notice there is something strange flying straight at your window which will probably kill you.

[Kíeros]

> Okay, then. Take the normal way out to the exit of the building so you can get into the rain.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

>Notice there is something strange flying straight at your window which will probably kill you.

You squint hard at the increasingly black-looking backdrop and see a huge blob of something hurdling towards you way in the distance. You freeze for a moment to get a better look at the something. It appears to be a monstrous black bird with its talons pointed at you.

You'd better get out of here fast!

> Okay, then. Take the normal way out to the exit of the building so you can get into the rain.

In a moment of panic and confusion, you stumble around a bit before remembering that you can exit your office. You've been here for so long that you've almost forgotten anything exists beyond it. You throw the door open and run out, barricading it with a nearby WATER COOLER. It won't hold for long, but it'll have to do. For extra security, you wedge the FUDGED PAPERS in the door.

Crash! You hear the window of the glass shatter and the creature's claws scraping against the hard floor. Your heart jumps into your throat. It must be a SKY MINION. You've heard vague stories of these awful beasts in ancient mythology.

You run as fast as you can in a flash of adrenaline, completely unsure of where you're going. You're lost! You idiot, you've forgotten everything about this building after thousands of years being bound to that office. You are in the middle of a bleak hall with one, large multicolored DOOR standing out among the rest. That must be your BOSS'S office.

You

you GUESS you have no choice but to ask her for help? You don't want her to DIE. You aren't MALICIOUS; you just happen to hate her guts, is all.

...but still. What lurks behind her door makes you nervous. There is probably an African Savanna with multiple elephants drinking soda in there.

Her files are probably a mess. You shudder a bit at the thought of a messy file cabinet. It's probably full of sand and elephant dung.

What do you do?

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Well, OPEN THE DOOR!

[Kíeros]

> Be brave; enter her room.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

> Be brave; enter her room.

Okay, phew, you can do this. You mentally prepare yourself for the horrid sight of her office for a bit. You enter the room. A surge of bright light assaults your eyes. Great, it must really be an African Savanna, you think to yourself.

As you regain your focus you make out a room plastered in bright colored carpeting and drapes. You see two shapes struggling with each other.

"Grayson!" Your Boss cries out in desperation, "Get my sword and kill this thing!"

Suddenly you are someone else. Someone far away. Who are you?

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Joseph, Joseph Redder

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

>Joseph, Joseph Redder

Your name is JOSEPH, JOSEPH REDDER. You currently reside in AN ABANDONED CASTLE. We aren't really sure what you're doing there, but you know why; there is a very specific purpose. You have just sent your SKY MINIONS out to find the cause of this disturbance in the weather. This is the first time it's rained in thousands of years, about 246 thousand, if you recall correctly. This is highly disconcerting, because that means the SPELL has been broken. A sort of seal that keeps the whole world at peace with itself. As the world gradually unbalances, HE will be awakened. A great evil will plague the land.

Well, a great evil to you, anyway. The actual text technically says "a great hero," but you consider HIM more-or-less a villain from your perspective. How can he be a hero when he brings about chaos with him? It just makes no sense. The only way the world should ever be is in balance and you see no reason otherwise. You will do anything in your power to enforce this balance using SUPER NATURAL FORCES.

Besides, your MASTER will not be happy if this "hero" is unleashed upon the land. As they say, if MASTER ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy.

You're pretty sure they say that.

What do you do?

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>Think about how evil your MASTER is.

[Ace of Dark-Hearts]

>Think about how evil your MASTER is.

Oh boy, MASTER is, like, sooooo evil. He is the most evil person you know. He is the only person you know, granted, but still you're pretty sure that he's evil, if you can really consider him a "person."

His evilness practically gives you an EVILGASM, which is totally a thing that normal people get. Just thinking about it gets you hot under the collar.

Alas, you could never possibly confess your TRUE FEELINGS to MASTER. He and you are too busy being EVIL and doing EVIL THINGS relating to the UN-JUSTICE.

Whoops, you mean good. You are a good person doing good thing, yes. Or at least you tell yourself that in order to deal with the ANGST of being a villain. Nobody understands.

---

If anyone feels like it, criticism or advice or something would be okay; this is my first writing project.

[SunglassescladGunslinger]

>The voices in your head understand.