Quest of the Mind Act 1 - I'm back!

[2Cre@te]

Table of contents

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Prologue:

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> Begin.
> ???: Fetch martinis.
> ???: Call the guests.
> All: Talk in a very excited manner.
> Humans: Inquire about Chalë and Aquili's lives.
> Jeffrey: thoughtfully sip martini.
> Chalë: Decide to install the game right away.
> ===>
> ===>
> Examine laptop.
> Install SBURB Beta.
> Do a whole lot of stuff.
> Play
> HONK HONK
> Enter name

> Summary of: Prologue

Intermission 1:

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> Intermission 1
> [I] UA: Remove sand from what appears to be a disc.
> [I] UA: Go down the hatch
> [I] UA: Look around.
> [I] UA: Find keyboard and start typing.
> [I] UA: Press Enter.

Act 1:

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> Amada: Look around the house.
> Go to the garden.
> Check mail.
> Camp in front of mailbox.
> Go to the kitchen, have a snack.
> Read those comics.
> Eat all smarties of one color before moving on to the next one.
> Put the remains of the smarties under your hat.
> Wear the bowl as a hat.
> Abandon these shenanigans!
> Go upstairs.
> Answer them.
> Check the mail.
> Loot the mailbox.
> Retrieve Ax Limbo.
> Use your hands to retrieve the package.
> Take the package inside, then open it.
> Equiup hat.
> Message [MP]
> ===>
> MP: Deploy Cruxtruder.
> MP: Open cruxtruder with alchemiter.
> Amada: Examine countdown.
> Inquire about kernelsprite.
> Get some dowels.
> MP: Create Perfectly Generic Object.
> ===>
> Author: Realize you haven't shaved.
> Amada: Make that football!
> Hurry!

---

> Quest of the Mind: Begin.



Dialog:

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???: Za-er. Inokë?
???: No, you are not getting that. And speak English, for God's sake!
???: Fine. I guess you invited other people again, then?
???: I mean, why would you want me to speak English, if there's no-one around but me and you?
???: You've outsmarted me again. But really, that was pretty obvious.
???: N-iko. I know that. Now where are our guests?
???: Actually, our guests can wait for a little while more. This won't take long, I'll be right back.
???: Gah. I'll see you in a minute, then.

You are now ???. Do what?
> ???: Fetch martinis




If you are confused, look out for these spoilers:

INFO

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??? and ??? will be introduced later and remain nameless for now.
If you don't want to mess around with colors, call them green and red.

[TaichiWind]

>???: Fetch martinis

[2Cre@te]

> ???: Fetch martinis



???: I guess our guests want something to drink.
You put a bottle of martini on the table, ready for your guests to arrive.
You make perfectly sure NOT to captchalogue it, since your fetch modus is very annoying.
Do what?
> ???: Call the guests.

[SCaryma]

>Call the guests, ask where are they.

[2Cre@te]

> ???: Call the guests.



You are about to call the guests when ??? enters the room.
???: Back. Just got this.
He exposes what seems to be a pair of envelopes, with green logos on them.

Dialog

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???: Another one of your games?
???: Yeah, it was in the mail. I ordered it.
???: Anyway, a package came. Maybe you should take a look at it.
???: Later. We can't keep the guests waiting any longer. Please sit down, I'll invite them in.

You open the door, and tell the guests to come in. There are three of them.

Dialog

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???: Hello, Aquili. It is good to see you again.
Aquili: Please come in, Tom. It's been a while since I saw you.
Tom: Thank you. As you can see, I brought Jeffrey and Amada with me.
Aquili: Hello Jeffrey, hello Amada.
Amada: Hello Aquili. It's wonderful to see you. I've been to the moon all year, you see.
Amada: It's quite boring up there. The only thing that's really interesting is the Earthrise.
Amada: Every time I saw that, I was reminded of you guys.
Jeffrey: Hello. How are you, Vreghli?
Aquili: I'm fine, thanks. And you'll have o tell me more about your trip to the moon later, once we've all settled down.
???: Hey, guys. Hey, Amada, you're back.
Jeffrey: Hey, Chalë. Got that game I chattered you about?
Chalë: Yeah, but let's talk about that later.

As everyone settles down, you pour some martini.

You can now be anyone you want, and ask anyone you want to introduce themselves properly.
> All: Talk in a very excited manner.

[SCaryma]

> Everyone: Talk about the game in a very excited manner. Give us some information about it.

[2Cre@te]

> All: Talk in a very excited manner.



Dialog:

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Jeffrey: So, Chalë, you got the game in the mail? Both copies?
Chalë: Here they are. Why are there two copies, actually?
Jeffrey: Apparently, there is one server copy and one client copy.
Jeffrey: You'll need them both to play properly, though.
Chalë: Cool, I'll install them as soon as Aquili lets me.
Jeffrey: I'll be waiting as your server player, ok?
Chalë: Seems like a plan. Hey, is anyone else you know playing the game as well?
Jeffrey: Well, Amada ordered it, but she didn't have time to install it yet.
Jeffrey: She only recently came back from the moon.
Chalë: Let's listen what she has to tell about that. I'm quite curious.

Amada: So the landscape was simply dull.
Amada: Not as dull as it could have been, though.
Amada: More like dull in a way that it's the same every time.
Amada: I mean, the formations were quite exciting to look at, at least for the first five minutes.
Aquili: What did it look like, exactly?
Amada: Since we were at the edge of one of the craters, we could look into this giant bowl.
Amada: The bowl didn't look as good from the inside, though.
Amada: Not that you can see much through a space suit helmet, but yeah.
Chalë: What exactly did you do, other than collecting samples?
Amada: Well, there was a med-check every day. Kinda creepy, to be serving as an experiment of your own.
Amada: But I guess they have to know the effects of decreased gravity on the human body.
Amada: Other than that, things take a lot more time to do on the moon.
Amada: The only other thing I ever did beside the basic business was watch over the plants that we had.
Tom: I think they are being looked after quite well, even now.
Tom: But we're glad to have you back here.
Tom: I'm sure the plants can survive without you.
Amada: Do me a favor, Tom. You know I hate plants.
Amada: But a job is a job. You need to get it done.

> Humans: Inquire about Chalë and Aquili's lives.

[TaichiWind]

>Amada, Tom, Jeffrey: Inquire about Chalë and Aquili's lives

[2Cre@te]

> Humans: Inquire about Chalë and Aquili's lives.



Dialog:

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Amada: But what have you been doing, Aquili, Chalë?
Aquili: We basically went around the island, enjoying the Earth scenery.
Aquili: You can live here for a lifetime, and Earth can still amaze you.
Jeffrey: I know the feeling. And I actually DID spend a lifetime here.
Aquili: We've been to the mainland as well. It's quite interesting to see the variety of this planet.
Chalë: We've been to Paris, and the view from the top of the Eiffel tower was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw in my life.
Chalë: Since everyone has electrical cars, I guess the view has quite improved up there.
Chalë: I mean, I heard about the time when cars still ran on fuel.
Tom: I've been there once, when they still had gasoline cars. You could see the smog hanging above the city.
Tom: So you seem to have got quite a good impression of Earth during our absence.
Aquili: We can't really complain, you humans are lucky having this as your native planet.
Aquili: I can see how Amada was expecting a new view every ten minutes or so.
Aquili: On earth you have bad luck if the scenery stays the same for only ten seconds.

> Jeffrey: thoughtfully sip martini.

[Countblackula]

>Whoever's closest to that glass should drink.

[2Cre@te]

> Jeffrey: thoughtfully sip martini.


Alternative:

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Dialog

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Tom: Well, we don't want to keep you busy any longer.
Tom: We'll talk to you again later.
Aquili: You can come whenever you want. Our door is always open for friends.

> Chalë: Decide to install the game right away.

[SCaryma]

> Someone: Decide to install the game, INSTANT.

[2Cre@te]

> Chalë: Decide to install the game right away.


You decide to install the game now that the humans are gone.
You make sure to drop Aquili's package on the table before leaving.


> ===>

[2Cre@te]

> ===>


You are now in your room.
It seems one of your MATES is CHATTERING you.
You were planning to install the game, but you wonder whether you should answer your mate before doing so.
It certainly isn't Jeffrey, though, since he just left a minute ago. He can't be home already.
It is probably ???, even though you can't be sure of that.


> ===>

[2Cre@te]

> ===>


You decide to check the chat first.
Oh no.

Chatterlog

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[MF] started bullying [HP] @ 16:44
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16:44 [MF] Hey.
16:44 [MF] Chalë. Y^o^u there?
16:46 [HP] What is it?
16:46 [HP] And why don't you ever stop bothering me?
16:47 [HP] Geez.
16:47 [MF] Because I have s^o^mething imp^o^rtant t^o^ tell y^o^u?
16:47 [HP] Allright then. Get on with it.
16:47 [MF] The game y^o^u are g^o^ing t^o^ install,
16:47 [MF] Is like the h^o^rizon of a waterfall.
16:47 [MF] S^o^ I request that y^o^u carefully think whether y^o^u want t^o^ d^o^ this.
16:48 [MF] Because ^o^nce you pass the h^o^rizon ^o^f a waterfall there might be a paradise bel^o^w,
16:48 [MF] But it might as well be a nightmare.
16:48 [HP] And how do you know this?
16:48 [MF] I have played the game myself.
16:48 [HP] And, was it a nightmare or a paradise?
16:48 [MF] It was b^o^th.
16:48 [MF] And it was awful.
16:48 [HP] Well, great. I'll make an attempt to reconsider it, but don't expect too much.
16:49 [HP] That's as much as you deserved for your past behaviour towards me.
16:49 [MF] I just want y^o^u t^o^ be careful.
16:49 [MF] I w^o^uldn't want y^o^u t^o^ die prematurely.
----
[MF] stopped bullying [HP] @ 16:49

Dafuq?
Time to install the game, you guess.
And while it's installing you might have time for something else as well.

> Examine laptop.

INFO:

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The first troll makes their appearance.

Tenth panel, including the "cover"!

[Countblackula]

>Examine laptop

[2Cre@te]

> Examine laptop


You examine the laptop in search of the disk drive, conveniently out of sight in the earlier panel.
It's a simple Noidem laptop, but it's sufficient to play most games with.
Installed on it is Fenestration 7, which isn't very useful, but is perfectly compatible with almost everything.
There are different slots along the sides, for sound, power, USB, SD-cards and...
Ah, there it is, on the right side. Time to pop in the disks, you guess.

> Install SBURB Beta.

[SCaryma]

> Install Sburb beta, now.

[2Cre@te]

> Install SBURB Beta


So, that's running. Might take a while, though.
So you got some time on your hands now, and there's nothing really urgent at the moment.
What will you do while SBURB is installing?

> Do a whole lot of stuff

INFO

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Yes, I know the server player should have connected with the client when this screen shows up, but it looks good, so why not calm down and let it be?
I mean, it's not of much relevance anyway.

And that's officially the tenth update.

[2Cre@te]

I get really few commands, I have the feeling I am doing something wrong.
So please leave commands or at least feedback on how to improve this.
Is it too boring, too hard to understand, not enough shenenigans?

Edit: Thank you all for your responses =)

[TaichiWind]

>While Sburb is installing, introduce yourself
(there you happy now?)

[Xindaris]

Well, I can't speak for everybody else. But as regularly a basis as I check updated adventures on, I just came in to a full row of updates starting with post #15. So you might just be going a bit fast for an adventure that doesn't have an absurd number of readers yet.

>Go play some games on kongregate or something.
>Bother/pester/hassle/shoutat/howl/whatever someone you know who you didn't just meet with, but who also isn't a troll.
>Get something to eat
>Read up the building of home-made bombs out of curiosity

And of course, my favorite command...

>Do the thing with the stuff involving the other person. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

[xeroticDeceiver]

> Check MSPA. (A standard SGRUB/SBURB installing act.)

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Honestly, you just have to have patience. Alternately, if you get too antsy take silence as an ==>. I spend most of my time browsing the forum adventures and... yeah, it's only been two days and you've updated a lot. Two things seem to garner lots of responses: 1) A thread that's been going on for a while that has grown a fanbase. 2) A ridiculous opening that people want to riff on real quick. Cultivate it. If you keep at it, it will be noticed.

[SCaryma]

Meh, I went through this too,and I'm still going sometimes, just be patient and keep updating. It has been nearly two month since I started Arcadia and we have just passed the 10th page and look where we have come, I just finished showing our main characters and only seen the edge the plot a bit not even touched it yet. You update as fast as me so just give the thread sometime
>Eat something or maybe reveal yourself. I'm guesing you are not a human.

[2Cre@te]

Thank you all for your feedback. It's just me expecting too much then, I guess.
All of your comments are greatly appreciated, and thanks for the time you spend writing these things out.
So thanks a lot for boosting my self esteem a little bit.

>While it is installing introduce yourself, play some games, talk to someone you haven't



You are CHALË TARACK, a member of the QUAEGHIR RACE, who live on a planet orbiting SIRIUS.
Your race looks like CATS for some reason, even though an ALIEN LIFE FORM is presumed to look completely different from what anyone might have ever imagined.
You're sure there is some kind of REASON for that, but no one's found out why so far.
You have EMIGRATED to Earth with a few other Quaeghir, about TWO HUNDRED, scattered all over the globe. You know only TWO OTHERS yourself, though.
So now you are here, on this island somewhere in the INDIAN OCEAN, together with Aquili, who is NOT ACTUALLY RELATED to you or anything, but both of you just like company sometimes.
To be completely honest with yourself, Aquili is actually more like a MOTHER to you, even though she's only 19, TWO YEARS OLDER than you are.
Your strife specibus is HALBERDKIND, because it's cooler than having a SPEAR or LANCE. You're quite good with it.
Your FETCH MODUS is TIMEMAP, which basically does the same as HASHMAP, but based on the TIME IN MINUTES instead of the value of combined letters.
You like to spend your time doing things that are in fact quite simple; ADMIRE the scenery of the Earth, DO STUFF on your LAPTOP and READ BOOKS on almost any subject. Actually, the stranger the subject, the better. You should start doing a few of these things while SBURB is installing, you guess.

Image is resource-heavy, so use link to view.
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/8765/panelc2.gif

Chatterlog:

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[HP] started chattering [MP] @ 16:52
16:52 [HP] Hey, 'sup?
16:52 [MP] Not much, actually it currently is exceptionally boring.
16:52 [MP] Although I must confess that your attention has raised my level of excitedness a little bit.
16:53 [HP] Watch your language, I can hardly understand what you're trying to tell me.
16:53 [MP] Very well. So, the humans have been visiting you?
16:53 [HP] Yes. Jeffrey and I are going to play a game in a minute, but it's installing now.
16:53 [HP] So I figured out I should be doing something else right now.
16:53 [HP] Bothering you, for example.
16:53 [MP] Highly appreciated.
16:53 [HP] I guess that's gibberish for "Thank you"?
16:54 [HP] BTW, Amada is back from the moon.
16:54 [HP] Apparently it was quite dull.
16:54 [MP] I can understand that, seeing what she's used to.
16:54 [MP] What's that game you're going to play, by the way?
16:54 [HP] It's called SBURB.
16:54 [MP] I read a review on that, maybe I'm going to get it as well.
16:54 [MP] It sounds quite interesting.
16:55 [HP] One of those stupid trolls apparently didn't want me to play it.
16:55 [HP] The ^o^ne with the grey text wh^o^ types like this.
16:55 [MP] Well, they do talk exquisite English, apart from those quirks.
16:55 [MP] Maybe you should be the next one to go and study it.
16:55 [HP] No. I know it well enough as it is, and I still prefer the Quaeghir language.
16:55 [HP] Sha-ro Qui linn. Fegar.
16:55 [HP] I'll talk to you later, I think, once SBURB is done installing.

[HP] stopped chattering [MP] @ 16:55

> Play