Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 4



The line before CHOICE #6 is NOT a misdirection.  "But if she's forgetful, will your parachute be okay?  Do you even have one?"  Our next ending is much shorter than the previous one and can be quoted in full.


"You decide that climbing the skyscraper is too hard.  You're aching, exhausted and alone now that Samantha has had to abandon the mission.  It's all up to you but you feel like you're not up to it.  It's time to pull out of this crazy idea.  You'll never make it to the top anyway.  You're too tired and the batteries might fail at any time.


You release the grippers and push away from the wall like Samantha did.  Air rushes past you.  Panic sweeps through you for a moment while you feel for the cord of the backpack and can't find it.  Relief floods your mind when your hand closes around it.  You pull tight.  The cord comes off completely.  You're falling fast now, staring at a broken strap in your hand as you accelerate downwards towards certain and sudden death.


Your backpack opens.  Two packed lunches fly out, sandwiches and fruit tumbling in the rushing air.  There's no parachute.  SPLAT!"


Secret Project is already more lethal than the entirety of "Danger" on Dolphin Island.  And Samantha might be a companion as dangerous as Gold Orb YON from Tower of Never There, if not as malicious to the player.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 5


Sneaking inside Patron Tower reveals that the "nearby vehicle" is a "laundry van staffed by a couple of washerbots, which aren't known for their intelligence or observational skills".  Sneaking in via cleaning robot?  Perfect Dark did that.


Samantha and I dive into a wicker hamper with "towels and other linen".  We then learn a little about the daily lives of robots, and this is intentionally funny.  "The door opens, and three bots slink out, probably on their break.  You've never understood why bots need a break, but their unions said they do, so they take them.  They're probably just going to hang around outside eating silicon chips or looking at pictures of circuit boards until they have to get back to work".


When people discuss automation replacing human workers, they often bring up the fact that robots don't get sick or need to take breaks.  In 2085, these washerbots function exactly the same way as humans, except the Patron probably needs to pay more to build and maintain them.  These characters say the Patron is a tyrant, but he's scared of the robot unions!  This also raises questions about the ethics of our mission of reprogramming them.  These robots are intelligent and act like people, instead of being like industrial robots from our time.


On Floor 85, the washerbots stop at hotel rooms.  One laundrybot is "ironing and whistling a tune" nearby.  CHOICE #7 is either to stay inside the hamper or leave.


Remaining in the hamper is the right idea, since the laundrybot reads the QR Code canvas quickly.  After shouting "Intruders", the robot says "I like trees.  I draw trees".  But maybe the laundrybot isn't as "reprogrammed" as we think.  It has secretly embroidered pillowcases with pictures of trees before the "bossbot" found out.


"Will you show this QR Code canvas to the bossbot, and ask it to share it with all the other bots in the building?'  'Yes', nods the laundrybot enthusiastically.  'For trees', it adds.  'Thank you'.  'We need a way out of here', Samantha says.


'There'.  The laundrybot points to a hole in the wall.  'It goes to the laundry room in the basement'.  You and Samantha examine the hole.  A metal chute spirals downwards like a twisty slide.  It looks safe. . .maybe even fun.  You grin.  'Let's go'.


The metal is cold and slippery.  You whizz round and round, sliding 86 stories to the basement, where you arrive in a life-saving mound of dirty towels.  Dizziness prevents you from standing.  Samantha whumps into the pile of towels beside you and lies there groaning.  'I'm so dizzy', she says.  Eventually, you can both stand and stagger away.


The Blacksmith is dubious about the success of your mission, but after a day or two, you hear rumors of hotel linen with the message 'Plant a trillion trees' appearing on beds in guest rooms in the hotel.  You're not sure there's space on the Earth for that many trees. . .Pillowcases with embroidered trees pop up too.  Many bots abandon their jobs in Patron Tower and wander off looking for seeds to plant crops and trees.  Before long, people believe that Patron Tower is encouraging this, and the idea of trees and plants becomes trendy".


Then the tree fad ends, and the world goes back to the polluted wasteland it was before.  Not really.  This is another Good Ending success for the Patron Tower mission.  Nothing to say about the epilogue text.



Results So Far


4 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 6



Leaving the laundry hamper in CHOICE #7 is also a Good Ending.  If you have to bet your life on this book for some reason, sneak inside Patron Tower!  Samantha and I take the stairs to prevent robots from shutting off the "lift".  Samantha has to rest at around Floor 115, and we're locked in.  Teena comes to bail us out from our incompetence. 


Apparently the invisibility potion Teena took worked too well, and she's invisible for life as far as I (out-of-character) can tell. "It's not a lot of fun.  I don't have anyone to talk to, usually.  My teaches think I'm skipping school most of the time, even though I'm at my desk.  And I've got a lot of bruises from people bumping into me".  Does anyone else want to read a book about Teena and the union washerbots and laundrybots forming a support group for "weird science" victims rather than this one?


Like guards in other adventure stories, guardbots in 2085 are stupid.  Presumably the Patron doesn't care that much about security, or wants to give the heroes a sporting chance.  Teena has to explain to us what a dumbwaiter is.  It's a big dumbwaiter if both Samantha and I can climb inside.  Teena lifts us up to the Patron's kitchen, where a woman shoos us away with a broom.


In the Patron's room, a "thin woman is reading a book:  Duel at Dawn".  Duel at Dawn is another Kevin Berry You Say Which Way.  The Puzzler is surprised that the Patron is a woman, since he thought the Patron was a man.  Samantha's reply is "They change sometimes.  No one knows why".  My speculation is that either the Patrons are gender nonconforming, or this one accidentally put on a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity without identifying it first and is trying to act natural.


We jump off the building, and of course NOW I have a parachute, unlike in CHOICE #6.  Did Samantha retroactively put one in my backpack after we already set out for Patron Tower?


"Samantha grabs your arm.  'We have to jump.  Remember, pull this once you're over the side'.  She moves your hand to a handle at the bottom of the backpack, showing you where it is.  You're about to protest, but she drags you over to the edge of the balcony.  'Climb up', she says, while she swings herself onto the thin edge and stands up unsteadily.


'Are you crazy?' you ask, but you follow her lead.  She must know what she's doing.  Unless she is actually crazy, of course.  You hear the guardbots approaching.  'Arrest those two!' the Patron shrieks.  'I want them sent to the crud factories, never to see the light of day for the rest of theior short miserable lives'.


'Jump!' Samantha says, pushing you off.  'Pull on the handle!'  You're free-falling for half a second before your brain processes what she said and you pull on the cord.  A paraglide ejects from your backpack, pulling you up and drastically slowing your descent.  Out of the corner of your eyes, you can see Samantha has done the same.  Now, how do you control these things?"


The last line sounds like the setup to an Inconclusive Ending:  Does the Puzzler figure out how to control the paraglide?  Or does he crash and either die or have severe injuries?  The epilogue text treats it as a Good Ending, so the Puzzler must have survived.  No character depth at all for the generic villain Patron save for the detail about switching between genders occasionally.  You Say Which Way books are so beloved in 2085 London that they're still being printed when trees (and paper) should be scarce.


Dr. Melanie McKenzie's route is longer than the Blacksmith's route, so this post is probably a good spot to finish for today.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 7


Opting to become a scientist's apprentice in CHOICE #1 isn't received well.  Dr. Melanie McKenzie works on the 57th floor of Patron Towre, and she doesn't want to train anybody.  Kathy is there too:  she's the girl with blue hair.  Dr. McKenzie is frustrated at the following problem:  "Oh, it's this mixture of dilatons and axions for the microparticle accelerator.  I need the right combination to generate the flavored mesons for the quantum entanglement.  I haven't worked it out yet".


Of course, this is the kind of problem that the Puzzler can solve!  "If I have eleven dilatons and seventeen axions in the mixer, how many particles do I have to extract to be sure I have two of the same?"  Kathy says "He's the puzzler, Mom", confirming the protagonist's gender as male.  It's not just an oversight like I suspected earlier.


CHOICE #8 has five options, but in practice it's more like 3.  If you pick 11, 17, or "some other number of particles", you see this ending:


"Dr. McKenzie doesn't look convinced.  'How many?' she asks, even though you've already told her your answer.  Kathy looks up.  'That's not right.  It's way too many.  Maybe you didn't understand the question.  We just need one pair of either sort.'.  Gulp.  This isn't a good start to your apprenticeship.  In your mind, your dream is quietly shattering.


'Okay', you say.  'Maybe that's excessive.  Give me a little more time and I'll work it out, I promise'.  'But I know the answer', Kathy says, beaming at her mother.  'You don't need an apprentice, Mom, because you have me'.  Dr. McKenzie nods.  'My daughter's right, Puzzler.  I need someone who can solve problems like this for me, and if you can't do it. . .'  She left the inference hanging.


'But I must be able to do something in the lab for you', you say.  Kathy jerks her head towards the corner where the malfunctioning vacuumbot is still bumping up against the wall.  Dr. McKenzie's eyes light up.  'You know, there is something after all. . ."



The Puzzler becomes the laboratory janitor, "at least until the vacuumbot gets repaired, anyway".  In Deadline Delivery, this might even be a Good Ending.  Here, it's Neutral since it's hinted the protagonist could do better, and might as well have not gone on the adventure.  But at least it's not the crud factory.



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 8


Selecting "two particles" as your answer for CHOICE #8 leads to a ending that's shorter, and worse for the Puzzler.


"Dr. McKenzie looks at you quizzically.  'Only two?  But they might both be the same, not different, like I need'.  She frowns and crosses her arms.  'I don't think this is going to work out.  You're going to have to work for the Patron in some other capacity.  I hear they need workers for the crud food vat factories.  I'll arrange your transfer'.  Oops".


Making a bad first impression on Dr. McKenzie ensures a life of slavery for the Puzzler.  Note that the Patron in a previous ending and Dr. McKenzie here both refer to the food as "crud", so it's an official term, not slang.  The art of marketing has become as extinct as trees.  Dr. McKenzie is nicer in the Blacksmith route.  I'll rate this as a Bad Non-Death Ending because it's clear there's no hope of anything better from the Puzzler.



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

1 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 9


When the Puzzler selects "3 particles" as his CHOICE #8 answer, he now works for Dr. McKenzie.  She's working on her Secret Project, which we know from the Blacksmith timeline to be a teleporter.  It's "a bulky mat on the floor", and "electronic sensors extend out of it in various directions".  CHOICE #9 appears when Dr. McKenzie gives the Puzzler a chance to explore the other laboratories.  Or he can stay and talk to Kathy.


I walk past closed doors, many of them with the sign "No Entry:  Danger".  My comms patch glows red because I don't have the clearance for most areas.  A blond boy called Jet approaches me and shouts "Ah-ha!  I knew you were going to say that" when I say "Who are you?"  I reply "It's a reasonable question".  Jet isn't his real name, but we never learn what it is.  The Puzzler calls Jet's bluff and asks "You're working on a mind-reading project, aren't you?"  He doesn't have a poker face, and quickly admits to it.  The Puzzler admits to not knowing his own Secret Project.


CHOICE #10 is to either return to Dr. McKenzie's lab, or go into one of the "No Entry:  Danger" rooms.  All my lurkers and RefSteel want to see the latter, but I'm saving it for later.  Dr. McKenzie instructs me to put an apple on the mat, which "shimmers and vanishes before your eyes".  Kathy mentions that the teleporter used to malfunction and "the apples turned up stewed, or they disappeared entirely".


When I ask "What happens if there's something already at the place where you're teleporting the apple?", Dr. McKenzie says "Best not to think about that for now".  Is there a grisly "apple teleported into skull" Death in the Puzzler's future?


Dr. McKenzie comments that the apple is "actually a copy" because "quantum entanglement" makes the original disappear and a new one appear at the target location.  So when the Puzzler teleported in CHOICE #4 in the Blacksmith route, it was actually a Death and he was replaced with a clone.  I may have to revise the ending count because the author forgot the implications of his story.  (i.e. yet another Ship of Theseus argument in science fiction. . .)


We sent the apple to the Patron, so now we have to meet the boss in person.  But this time, the Patron "has a black beard and appears to be about forty and very fit".  He's a man, instead of the woman from CHOICE #7 in the Blacksmith route.  The Patron demands that I eat the apple, but I'm unsure as to whether it's safe.  CHOICE #11 is whether to do so or not.  If the Puzzler is paranoid after watching too much Snow White, this results:


"You cross your arms and stare defiantly at the Patron.  'It mightn't be safe to eat the apple.  I'm sure Dr. McKenzie wants to conduct more tests-'  In your peripheral vision, you see Dr. McKenzie roll her eyes.  Kathy shakes her head from side to side.


The Patron's face reddens.  'This is a test.  Eat the apple.'  You shake your head.  'Are you even the real Patron?  Isn't the Patron a woman?'


'What impertinence!  How dare you!'  The Patron gestures to the guardbots, who rush over and seize your arms.  'Take this apprentice away".


This conclusion may not look like a Death at first.  Then you see the epilogue text that says "You spend the last of your short life cleaning up polluted waterways where it's not safe for robots because they would rust, whereas you could only drown or become poisoned".  Possibly the worst outcome yet.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 10


Eating the apple in CHOICE #11 proceeds with the story.  The Patron holds a feast with "simulated food production factories", because "it isn't real food".  That raises more questions!  The dishes aren't holograms as far as I can tell.


Kathy reveals she's a robot.  Guess the comment about her "circuitry" being heavy in CHOICE #4 wasn't a comment made because she was embarrassed about her weight.  She never said she was a robot in the Blacksmith route, leading me to believe she was a cyborg at most.  She has homework because she's being educated like humans.  "I'm the same as you, except I'm not flesh and blood.  I'm synthetic and electronic and I've got an AI that'd beat you at any logic game you want to play".  Who wants to try "THIS SENTENCE IS FALSE" on Kathy?


The Puzzler is too exuberant about his success teleporting apples, and now wants to test the device on himself.  The places he's considering are "Rome, Dubai, Los Angeles. . .".  If Dubai's an unsustainable city now, how did it last until 2085's polluted dystopia?  Anyway, CHOICE #12 is to commit suicide teleport myself, or to leave Patron Tower and go home.


Our "hero" considers "Rio de Janeiro?  Paris?  Rome?" and settles on the Eternal City.  "Actually, there's probably a football game on there nearly every night, but this is a big match".  Clearly the economy in this horrible future is still prosperous enough for professional sports. . .


The Puzzler has second thoughts and thinks about warping to the "science facility cafe" instead.  CHOICE #13 is whether to do that, or go to Rome.


"Trembling with anticipation, you step onto the teleportation mat, set the destination coordinates for a point near the Colosseum, and press the large green button on the remote control.  Tingling sensations run up and down your arms and legs.  You feel nauseous.  Hopefully, you won't barf on the teleportation mat.  Dr. McKenzie won't be too happy about that.  Your hands disintegrate, then your feet, though you don't fall.  A frightening thought enters your head:  how will you get back?  The teleportation mat won't follow you to Rome.  It didn't move with the apples during testing, did it?  No.


You've got no way of getting home.  You'd be stuck in a foreign city, alone.  If you tell the authorities that you teleported there, they'll probably lock you up or put you to work in one of their Patron's crud factories.  Your arms and legs have disintegrated now.  Just your torso and head remain, and they are disintegrating fast.  This was a bad choice, a very bad ch-


Suddenly, you materialize, bouncing painfully up from the pavement.  The wind is rushing past you at gale force.  No, wait.  It's you who are rushing, straight towards the wall of the Colosseum.  Oh no!  You can't stop yourself from literally flying through the air at colossal speed.


What's going on?  A possible theory speeds into your head.  The surface of the Earth spins at different speeds depending on where you are--at the North Pole it's almost zero whereas at the Equator it's rocketing around.  The planet is like a spinning top.  You've teleported yourself hundreds of miles successfully, but your movement relative to the Earth is different.  You're slower; Rome is rushing at you, in particular the stone wall of the Colosseum, and there's no avoiding it. . .You've just solved your last puzzle.  SPLAT!"


The actual ending text is longer than this, so I only quoted the last part of it.  The Puzzler killed both himself and his copy, a rare Double Death in a CYOA.


Also, all the Patrons must have the same lack of business sense, because they're using most of their labor to generate "crud".  Maybe their companies are based on Soviet style production quotas?


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

3 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 11


Warping to the cafe makes the Puzzler philosophical.  Kevin Berry DOES realize the implications of his "twinmaker" teleporter, but simply chose to put all that in this ending.


"You decide on the shorter option of teleporting as far as the cafe.  Buzzing with excitement, you step onto the teleportation mat.  It's a rough, dark blue and green surface about twice the size of a doormat.  You set the destination coordinates to the science facility cafe down the hall and press the large green button on the remote control.  Tingling sensations run up and down your arms and legs.  Dizziness almost makes you wobble and fall off the mat.  Several thoughts pass quickly through your spinning mind.


Will this work?  If it doesn't work, will I die?  If I die, will I know?  If I die and I know about it, will I be teleported as a ghost?  How can I write up the results of the experiment if I die?  Will I have to come back and haunt this place?  The last thing you think of, as you watch your right hand disintegrate, is that you have a really bad feeling about this.


You tumble onto the hard floor in the cafe moments later.  A quick check proves that you're all there:  arms, legs, head, everything.  You're still wearing your clothes, which is a good thing.  If clothes didn't teleport with a person, it mightn't become a popular method of transportation.  Or perhaps it would.  Who knows?


Wow!  It worked!  You've been teleported!  Or did it work?  Are you the same you?  Or a different you?  How can you tell?  Does it even matter?  Slowly, you get to your feet.  You're still clutching the remote control, but the teleportation mat itself didn't teleport.  Presumably it's still in the science lab.  Fortunately, you only teleported within the same building.  You can walk back in a few minutes.  You look around.  Everything appears normal.  The floor you're on isn't scorched or shattered, for instance.  That's another good thing.


With the remote control in your pocket, you walk back to the science lab, stopping for a drink of water on the way.  Sipping the cool liquid, you take time to think about what's happened.  Dr. McKenzie said things were copied and then transmitted, the original being dematerialized as the replica is materialized.  That means you're not the same you who stepped onto the teleportation mat--you're a copy.  But are you exactly the same, even if a copy?  Is there anything you don't know now that you used to know?  You scratch your head.  There's no logical way to know the solution to that puzzle".


Fairytale Factory will manufacture "Naked Teleported the Stranger" in the future.  The metaphysics of Secret Project are still unknown, so it looks like an Inconclusive Ending.  The epilogue text seems positive at first, with lines like these:


"Congratulations, this part of the story is over."


"Well done for becoming the first teleported person in history!"


Then you read the last 2 lines, which suddenly confirm it as a Bad Non-Death Ending:


"Unfortunately, Dr. McKenzie isn't thrilled about your experiment when you tell her the next day.  She teleports you to the crud factory and continues her work with people she can trust".  Wow, both endings of CHOICE #13 end in failure for the Puzzler.  Didn't think Kevin Berry would include a no-win scenario.  Congratulations!  You've defied my expectations for You Say Which Way books being soft on the player.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

3 Deaths

3 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 12


Leaving Patron Tower instead of making the Puzzler teleport himself in CHOICE #12 is the right decision.  Or rather, trying to leave.  On the ground floor, I see a wotbot that's "spinning in circles in front of the table" because it's "a few chips short of a motherboard".  After several pages that have mentioned them, I still have no idea what a wotbot is.  I imagine them as Claptrap from Borderlands.


"A masked woman dressed in dark blue enters the building", who's riding the elevator to Dr. McKenzie's floor.  CHOICE #14 is whether to follow her or go home.  The latter option ends in failure:


"You go home, eat a meal cube, which taste worse every day, watch some dreary reality show on your tablet, hang out with your electric hamster.  Ho hum.  Nothing much happened.  Occasionally, you think about the masked woman, wondering what she was up to.


In the morning, you make your way to the science lab amongst the crushing press of people in the public transit system.  One day, if you study hard and become a scientist yourself, you might qualify for the Patron's special podcar transport, taxis that are a whole lot more comfortable than the subway.  Not yet, though.  You'll have to work hard.


Dr. McKenzie meets you at the lab.  She's angry and upset at the same time.  You wonder why.  Kathy looks on sadly.  'What's going on?' you ask.  Dr. McKenzie gestures to the floor where the teleportation mat lies.  At least, where it used to be.  It's gone. 


'Someone got past the security system and stole it', she moans.  'There's nothing on the surveillance cameras-they were all put out of action.  It looks like a very sophisticated techno heist'.  'There are people who can do that', Kathy adds.  'Sneak in and steal technology.  They've probably sold it on the black market already'.  'My time on this project has been wasted', Dr. McKenzie says.  'Sorry, Puzzler, you're out of a job".


Stealing a teleporter doesn't necessarily mean you know how it works, or how to reverse-engineer it.  Besides, a theme of this book is distributing technology to the people, so wouldn't the black market be an improvement over the Patron?  For all we know, the heroic Blacksmith is behind this.  Either way, the Puzzler is fired, so this is a Bad Non-Death Ending.  Nothing is mentioned about the Puzzler's prospects in the epilogue text, not even the usual crud factory enslavement.



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

3 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

You Say Which Way:  Secret Project Alternate Endings Part 13


Pursuing the masked woman in CHOICE #15 is difficult.  The Puzzler considers climbing the stairs, but "fifty-seven levels. . .That's. . .too many".  Maybe he's not as fit as the Puzzler in CHOICE #6 who climbed the outside of the building.  I take a different elevator and confront her.  She says she's ". . .a cleaner.  You can shoo off home, kid", which isn't a convincing lie.  The Puzzler asks "Who are you supposed to be, Spiderweb Woman?"


She rolls up the map and we fight over the remote until she "starts to disintegrate in front of your eyes".  She disappears, and I talk to Dr. McKenzie the next morning.  Kathy never came home or talked to her the night of the attempted robbery.  The narration of the Puzzler's thoughts speculates that Kathy has a "robot boyfriend" or "stayed at a friend's house to study late and she's sleeping in".


Someone named Fatih tells Dr. McKenzie that Kathy was in their lab.  Fatih explains Kathy isn't talking or looking at anyone, and "she's wearing a carnival mask covering most of her face".  Dr. McKenzie restores Kathy with a memory backup from the day before the Puzzler started working at her lab.  CHOICE #15 is whether to explain the events to Dr. McKenzie or Kathy.


Selecting Dr. McKenzie leads to a long ending.  Kathy was working on another secret project to subvert the Patron's plans for the teleporter.  So the Puzzler got fired in CHOICE #14 for no good reason.  Dr. McKenzie wants to overthrow the Patron and restore democracy in Britain. 


There's a more mundane explanation for seeing male and female patrons throughout the book than gender nonconformity:  "Wannabe Patrons frequently seize power from Patrons and claim their business empires in what they call 'hostile takeovers".  Did none of them come up with the idea of keeping some shares of stock away from the public?


Dr. McKenzie hands me a memory key and instructs me to enter room 5712 and plug it into a robot there.  She also suggests talking to Teena the invisible girl and gives me her "contact details".  Room 5712 is one of the "No Entry:  Danger" areas.  "It's a small office with a single desk, chair, and a computer tablet.  A backgammon board sits on the desk.  Behind the desk sits a human-sized robot, a tin man, with a large cylindrical head and bulky cylindrical arms".


As for the memory key port, "It doesn't seem to be on the body anywhere in sight. . .oh no. . .why is it THERE?"  So is it Tin Man's butt, or his crotch?  Kevin Berry doesn't say.


Tin Man is decades old, and likes the idea of a new mission.  Teena pulls my sleeve and explains she's invisible.  Tin Man can detect her with his radar.  If you want to imagine a voice for Tin Man, he sounds like "a rusty door".  Tin Man grabs 2 guardbots and slams them together.  I order Teena to save Dr. McKenzie while Tin Man beats up 2 more guardbots the same way he did before.  The new female Patron orders her guardbots to "seize them!" This happens instead:


"The guardbots ignore the Patron's instructions.  Instead, they rush her.  There's no escape.  Four of them grab a limb each and carry the Patron to one corner of the gigantic room.  'Put me down this instant!' she shouts to no avail.  In the meantime, Teena frees Dr. McKenzie.  You follow the guardbots.  Dr. McKenzie and Teena join you.  Tin Man is on your other side.


The corner of the room contains a large glass cube.  It's set up like a studio apartment inside.  Perhaps it's some kind of safety bunker, or maybe a prison.  The glass looks thick.  The guardbots open a glass dor and thrust the Patron inside.  'Stop!' she says, banging on the glass.  'Let me out!'


You step forward.  'We're going to create a newer, fairer society first.  Then you can be free again.'  'You can't leave me in here by myself', she complains.  'Even if you're taking over.  It's inhumane.'  'We have no choice', Dr. McKenzie says.  Tin Man strides past.  You see he's carrying a backgammon board that he's picked up from a table nearby.  He opens the door and slips inside.


'We can pass the time playing backgammon', he says.  'I have not had an opponent for decades'.  'Hmmm, people will still see her in there', the scientist says.  'Some loyal follower might let her out again'.  'Leave that to me', Teena says.  'We can put a vial of invisibility serum in her water.  No one will see her for months'.


A week passes.  Dr. McKenzie and Kathy proceed to change the system of government.  You reprogram the guardbots to build more simulated food factories so there's enough decent food for everyone.  The Patron remains in her glass cage, invisible, along with Tin Man.  Often, you see Tin Man sitting at the backgammon board, apparently playing against himself, yet the opposing pieces move all by themselves. . ."


The environment may still be polluted, but there is hope for 2085 London politics at least.  The characters talked earlier about simulated food not being "real", yet it clearly tastes and has the same nutritional value as the kind we know.  It's just produced with a different method.


Results So Far


6 Good Endings

3 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings