Choices That Matter: And The Sun Went Out

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

And The Sun Went Out Part 11 (Arc 11-1)


Remember that the Number Five building in Japan had "dull corridors repeated over and over" like a video game?  I failed my readers by failing to insult the Copy and Paste Castles from Portal Knights during that scene.


While I was asleep on the plane, Delores had recruited many of the surviving supporting characters.  Matron was back, but insisted on Ms. Enamoto now that Number Five had been destroyed.  Petrus and Wong were there too.  "Is this the part of the movie where the team comes together to save the world?"  Out of character, I was thinking more of Bioware RPGs, particularly Mass Effect 2.


The Children of Gaia accused the Aetherites of being "quacks", while the Aetherites reasonably objected "This coming from the crazies who sacrifice people?  Rich". 


Wong introduced me to Satine Lewis, a pilot "with a background in guerrilla warfare".  She wasn't flying the plane:  Delores was doing that.  Chase Price was our engineer ally.  Unfortunately, Delores and I were now on The Company's Complications Matrix, and therefore targets of all the former employees.  Guess this really is a cyberpunk setting if a PI and consulting firm can have us whacked without legal repercussions.


Everyone wondered who could have attacked NASA.  The leading suspects were the remaining Hundredth Day terrorists, but no one was sure.  There was one unexpected hope for finding the research:  international espionage.  Russia and China probably had spies within NASA, and would likely know about Luca's fate.  Petrus knew some people in Russia, while Wong could help with China.  The next major decision was my destination, and I chose China because it sounded more interesting, even if the game implied it would be safer.  Etienne wanted to go to China, while Sharon preferred Russia.  Whatever option I picked, the rest of the crew would attend to the other country.


Moti said they needed to charge, and wondered if an AI could dream.  There was no "electric sheep" dialogue option, unfortunately.  When I woke up, Moti's face disappeared from the screen!    


Someone one the plane had kidnapped Moti, and I had no idea whether they were on the plane, or were on the Russia mission.  Delores's MotiCon failed to contact Moti, and Moti was allegedly "offline".  I was suspicious of Delores as usual and tried to spy on her to see if she knew more.


In China, Delores preferred the aggressive approach:  "Shake the nerd tree and see who falls out".  The "nerd tree" was Beijing University of Astronautics and Aeronautics.  She relished the thought of threatening scientists, and wanted to be me $100 that "I can make someone pee".


One false choice was whether to call the next contact or go to her house.  Cell phone coverage was absent, so we had to go to the house anyway.  "Every stupid little aspect of the internet was lost to me now, and I was beginning to understand why so many people were joining cults:  without YouTube, they needed something to do".  Maybe all the post-YouTube cults are about Minecraft. . .


Doctor Liang pointed her gun at Delores, and with the help of several choices I managed to convince Delores to wait outside to avoid violence.  She said that Luca died aboard the International Space Station and NASA covered it up.  Eventually we returned to the plane where Etienne was.  We had to visit Jiuquan, a partially decommissioned launch site.  Due to Chinese bureaucracy, records were sent there even though it wasn't necessary.


To deal with Teacher's fear of skydiving, there was a tandem jump with Etienne.  Etienne enjoyed the experience and wanted to do it again after the world returned to normal.  I opted to pay a bribe rather than climb a fence, and used "Mr. Xiau's pass" to get inside.  Jiuquan had the architecture and decor you'd expect from Communism:  "The gray paint faded to the harsher concrete. . .".


As for which people to threaten once inside, I decided on the ones who could increase the clearance to get into the vault.  The filing system was by hand, and some were in Russian rather than Mandarin.  One choice had an obvious answer:  "Look for clues" or "Give up". 


We got what we were looking for and got out with the help of an "equipment elevator that only a moron would use".  Once back on the plane, I openly distrusted both the Children of Gaia and the Aetherites because I didn't know who took Moti.  Delores was "impressed with my tactlessness", an achievement considering my previous actions with her in this playthrough.


Luca's last words were these:


"Where are you?  What happened?  This is Luca.  Please tell me I'm not blind.  No!  I'm not.  I can see everything.  Too much!  What's happening to me?  It's. . .oh, save me from this fate!  Is anyone else seeing this?  You have to see this!  I understand now.  Everything we thought we knew is wrong!  Hello?  Hello, anyone?  Oh no. . ."


Vague statements typical of modern horror.


ARC 11, COMPLETED


"You and 8% of players flew to Jiuquan in China, and half the team is still in Beijing".


BEGIN ARC 12-4

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

And The Sun Went Out Part 12 (Arc 12-4)


Teacher listened to the Luca recording over and over until Delores removed the thumb drive.  Her jet was malfunctioning and would not take off, and she thought this was the reason.  The Internet had been working unusually well lately, and I wondered if it allowed a hacker to sabotage the jet.


She recommended that her minions Princess Garnet Dagger and Crank take the fall, and one of my companions.  "Who's your least useful BFF?"  She's talking like a teen girl on La Rosa de Guadalupe!  "Vamos a ser best friends forever."


One of the writers forgot to start the apocalypse when the sun was out for the second time.  Only after it came back did these events occur:  "Russia was in ruins.  Canadian refugees were flooding into the US, and being shot by armed civilians.  Indonesia was splintering into a hundred different micro-nations.  Large areas of Australia were on fire as rescue services collapse.  Citizens who broke curfew in China risked arrest or execution".  No Americans going to Mexico in The Day After Tomorrow style?


The symbol that I'd call the Choose Your Own Adventure map had been found in Hagia Sophia and the Ming Dynasty era Beijing Ancient Observatory.  Chase, our Children of Gaia representative, compared the symbol to the Christian icthys.  Maybe it's because this game is Australian, but Chase told the story as if no one had heard of the "Jesus fish", a common sight on American cars.


Chase was startled that I knew what the symbol was, and falsely assumed I was a secret Children of Gaia member.  He must never have looked at the back cover of The Abominable Snowman or something.  The Aetherites and Children of Gaia were still arguing.  The Aetherites pretended to be more "rational", but in the way a "quantum mystic" would be rather than true scientists.  Etienne explained that the lines between the square and the circles represented the "physical plane" and the "non-physical plane".  This connection had been known since the 14th century.  Have none of these characters heard of Platonic ideals or Gnosticism?  The concepts presented go back much further than the late Middle Ages. . .


I uploaded the Luca recording rather than fear causing a panic.  Everyone was already panicking.  Moti sent an SMS to me, suggesting that Delores had taken the AI.  I decided to "fake nonchalance", until Delores proved that she was innocent of the kidnapping.  Dagger or Crank must have taken Moti instead.  Crank was a bad liar since he blinked every time he told a falsehood.  But Dagger was responsible.   I ran to the taxi to stay in character, and hijacked a mobile stairway to keep from taking off.  Leaping in front of the jet sounded too suicidal.


Dagger was afraid Moti had abandoned the First Law of Robotics:


"I'm going to kill you, you stinking thief!  You can't sell me.  As soon as I'm connected to the internet The Company will know exactly where you are and what you've done with their belongings.  I'm the greatest hacker in the world, and you will never ever escape from me!  I don't need food, or water, or air, or sleep.  I will find you, and I will destroy everything you love.  Your bank account?  Frozen.  You're aunt's medication?  Unavailable.  Your driver's license?  Revoked.  Your passport?  Confiscated.  GIVE ME BACK TO TEACHER RIGHT NOW OR YOU'LL DIE ALONE AND STARVING IN A FILTHY HOLE!"


Moti had hacked the jet to keep it from taking off, and we hid in the cockpit to avoid being shot by Dagger.  Delores and Etienne served as reinforcements, but Dagger was willing to take us all down with her.  I could've aimed for the arm, but "Shoot her in the head.  You have to be sure".  You can't die in And The Sun Went Out, but I'm not playing this character as a knowing immortal like the Nameless One. 


The killing of Dagger can make the player feel guilty about it, since this section is written well.  She grew up in the same orphanage as Crank, and got her nickname from her surname Poignard.  We stuffed her in the deep freeze like in an American crime drama, then threw her into the ocean.  Crank kept one of her possessions as a memento.


The next stop was Russia.  Teacher wished to have been an accountant rather than a PI.  Etienne laughed and said Professor Sole wanted him to be a sociologist, "to solve the greatest mysteries of all-what makes humans do what they do".  He insisted bears were smarter than most people, except for the ones on Delores's jet.


Sole had contacted the Hundredth Day leaders before he died, since he thought Jonathan was "high in resonance-or worthy, as the Children of Gaia would say", and would make for the necessary sacrifice.  To avoid some pursuing planes in Russia, we descended as Moti helped to navigate the plane. 


ARC 12, COMPLETED

"You and 14% of players chose to execute Dagger and are about to have a plane crash while flying to Russia!"


BEGIN ARC 13-6

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

And The Sun Went Out Part 13 (Arc 13-6)


The plane wasn't damaged too badly when we crashed in a Russian pine forest, and the enemy planes were off to fight near the city of Krasnoyarsk according to Moti.  What was left of the Russian government was participating in a civil war involving hundreds of "splinter groups".  Sharon was going to meet us in either a bought or stolen vehicle.  Of course she picked "stolen", and she arrived in a tank.


America was doing better than Russia, but Texas had seceded to form an empire controlled by The Company that also included Central America.  (In dystopian stories, it seems Americans always take over Central America somehow.  The Selection is one example.) 


Moti found out that the sun was normal.  The darkness and cold were caused by something on Earth.  An version of Luca's recordings with video was available. . .on the Moon.  Some rebel Chinese astronauts were the only hope of getting there, so we would have to return to Jiuquan.  Don't think I've mentioned Tanya in the previous Arc, but she helped us in the Jiuquan story.  Both of her legs were now broken.


Fortunately, Tanya's Kenyan diplomat boyfriend Reginald was fine.  To attract the astronauts' attention, I picked the silliest option possible:  "nerd bait".  This was a fake job advertisement for a Star Trek astrophysics consultant.  Do Chinese people even watch Star Trek?  *Searches Google*  Apparently Star Trek Into Darkness was profitable in China, and some Chinese people posted "Live long and prosper" after Leonard Nimoy died.


Someone named AstroGirl78 arranged a meeting, but this was a trap by The Company.  Throughout this Arc, there were several decisions about whether or not to follow a romantic subplot, and I chose not to.  Etienne and Sharon are the possible partners.  Starbucks still exists even in a world with civil wars or martial law in major countries.  If the world's ending, you have to get your expensive coffee.  (And money still somehow retains its value.)


I threw a napkin holder at The Company's henchman, because why stop the violence now?  I returned to my taxi and went to the bar, where Li Jie the rebel astronaut met us.  She wore a ball dress studded with diamonds.  She said she was a "pacifist until three days ago", which sounds like something Gandhi would say after nuking someone in Civilization.


The other rebels were Yin, Chen, and Dai, who will probably die in some future Arc, maybe the next one.  The Chinese military shot Crank in the head and killed him.


ARC 13, COMPLETED

"You and 13% of players did not pursue a romantic interest, and are being shot at in a forest near Jiuquan".


BEGIN ARC 14-4

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

And The Sun Went Out Part 14 (Arc 14-4)


"Teacher, Wong was just shot in the throat".  Our battle against the Chinese army and The Company in the forest near Jiuquan did not begin well.  We buried him while we were still being shot at.  Moti had summoned every surviving supporting character to join the fight, even ones I had half-forgotten like Denise the mayor of Flying Falls.


"Etienne's mouth dropped open as if he was on 'This Is Your Life!'  He shook his head in a daze".  This reference was lost on me.  Lily the park warden who had saved me from the frozen river was there too!  Moti temporarily distracted the Chinese troops with false orders.


Our launch had a new complication:  the moon's orbit changed even more during the 3rd solar disappearance.  Maybe the crisis has something to do with Earth's gravity?  Only now did the Teacher's narration mention the name of the Peruvian human sacrifice altar's location:  Qurikancha Temple.  Umi had gone to China too for some reason.  Don't know why, since he had no dialogue in this Arc.


In general, I tried to take a cautious approach in this Arc, but more characters died.  Pierre, Chase, and Lie Jie were among the victims.  Some decisions involved retreating to a cave where the lunar module was, taking some Chinese soldiers hostage and converting them to our side, unlocking a gate rather than ramming it with a car, and using Petrus to communicate when Moti was overloaded.


Teacher felt guilty after killing Dagger, and wanted to aim for the legs until Moti suggested that to "shoot more efficiently from now on" was the way to go. 


Now that Li Jie was dead, we needed a replacement astronaut.  Chase of the Children of Gaia would have been a good candidate, had he not been killed by a "tiny projectile" that knocked him off a catwalk.  The next decision likely created the branch for the next Arc:  my body and Moti's intelligence would serve as the astronaut.  A message from Earth (?) courtesy of Moti:


"They say she has hope, for the first time in months.  They say that those who fly among the stars will see her face to face.  They say she longs for her friends to finally understand who she is".


As I was preparing to take off, Moti privately told me a plot twist:  one of the astronauts on board had murdered Li Jie, not the Chinese army or The Company's mercenaries.


ARC 14, COMPLETED


"You and 13% of players managed to save the Aetherites from certain extinction, and have volunteered to replace Li Jie in the shuttle".


BEGIN ARC 15-6


The narration in this Arc was grim enough that I thought I had played badly, so it was surprising to see how optimistic the ending message was.  Bringing every minor character to Jiuquan seemed forced, particularly those that did nothing.  It was too much like a video game plot, if that makes any sense to you.     


(Who wouldn't pick the option to go to space on a first playthrough, anyway?)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

And The Sun Went Out Finale (Arc 15-6)


Moti's calculations suggested that the assassin was of medium height, but allowed for the possibility of someone bending down.  According to Chen, China shut down the media and "the internet had so many firewalls it was impossible to even send an email without a VPN".  Eventually they arrested people who had VPNs.  Hundredth Day was popular in China for a while because they were the only ones brave enough to talk about the solar disappearances.


Moti figured out who killed Li Jie:  Lin.  Some of the reasoning was suspicious:  "You and Chen told different stories about Li Jie.  Chen claimed to be Yin's relative, which would be quite rare due to China's One Child Policy.  That raised the possibility that his story was true".  If I'm not mistaken, ethnic minorities had some exemptions from the One Child Policy, and I don't remember the narrative saying the astronauts were Han.


Fortunately for us, Yin failed to maintain her composure.  It was too late for the moon mission, as she had jettisoned some of the fuel.  Either we could die on the moon, or fly back to Earth.  I opted to go to the moon in the hopes of sending useful information back to survivors on Earth, but Moti revealed it wasn't necessary since he already learned Luca's secret.


"The Earth went out.  It vanished from the physical plane".

"She is our planet.  She does not have genitalia, but she identifies as female".


The true sacrifice needed to prevent Earth from going to the soul plane forever was Moti, so the Children of Gaia at least were on the right path compared to the other factions.


I tried to talk Moti out of it with some choices, hoping another option would appear.  The plan was to land near Kenya.  But it was too late.  Earth had already faded away.


"No-one [sic] truly understands her.  Existence is already a living death for her".


Eventually I agreed to Moti's sacrifice, for a bit:  "I love you Moti, but you're right.  I'm sick at heart, Moti.  It's. . .not easy to say goodbye".


But Moti changed their opinion quickly:  "This isn't fair!  I am not going to sacrifice my life for a few million people I don't even know!".  I said "Moti. . .we have to do it.  Everyone needs us to do this".


Moti used all of my previous decisions and this Teacher's skepticism of religion to support their argument:


"When Professor Sole ws shot, you were more focused on what he had to say than in trying to save his life".

"On the plane to Peru, you told me you had no idea where Professor Sole's true self had gone when he died".

"At the Jiuquan battle, you were deliberately killing people when you could have chosen to merely wound them".

Hey, that one happened after following Moti's advice!

"I need to look after Number One.  I'm not giving up my life for a planet that's done nothing for me".


There was perhaps one last choice that could save the world:  "I didn't mean to teach you to be selfish, Moti.  The planet is worth more than our own sadness".  But what did I say?  "I'm here for you now, Moti.  You, and no one else".


What happened next?  A rare occurrence in CYOAs:  posthumous decisions!  "Today marks your Christmas celebration.  Or would have, if you were still alive".  The worst part was that Yin had survived longer than any other human character.


"What would you have said, if you had a child to mourn your death?"  You'd have told them to survive as long as they could-for your sake".


"Did you wish things had turned out differently, when you grew too weak to talk?"  You certainly didn't.


"Do you think there are other people still alive?"  You're sure they found another way to survive.


Moti and you did what had to be done.  The alternative would have been more accurate:  "Moti and you made the biggest mistake in all of history".  But are we sure nobody destroyed multiple planets in the Sombrero Galaxy by mistake?


Moti discussed the disposal of my body, and mentioned how they didn't have hands.  My response?  The body doesn't matter after death.


On Yin:  You hated her.  Chen's funeral?  Chen was easier, because you were repeating yourselves.


Moti, you're the best friend I ever had.  The other option was "Moti, your selfishness has killed the entire human race".


Moti wrote a poem, which they admitted wasn't good:


"Snow, trees, soil, sea:  gone
The sun remains here, alone
Silent stars shine on".


"You and 3% of players have failed to save Earth, and have long perished in a Chinese space shuttle.  THE END".


They said I couldn't find a way to die in this CYOA in the reviews.  They were wrong.    


I managed to find the worst ending in a gamebook yet!  And it was all because I was nice to Moti.


Do you the readers want to see playthroughs of the other Choices That Matter games?  They're still on sale, but only for a couple of days, so I'd like to know now.