0xaea1…6442

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"So, what's a frog like you doing on a stump like this?" you ask. The frog just stares at you in a frogly manner. "Eat any good flies lately?" you continue. Still nothing. I don't think there's such thing as a talking frog. It begins to hop away.
"There's a lot you don't know", says the elf. You agree. You still have a mild headache and you're starting to feel ill. It occurs to you that whatever was on the sword might have been a mild hallucinogen. As if to confirm this, you realise the elf was actually just a tree stump with a talking frog on it. Also, your name isn't even Stefan.
"Spaghetti! Bolognese! Rigatoni!" you exclaim, while tilting your clasped hands in front of you, "Risotto, cannelloni!". The otter looks at you for a while, and you look straight back at him in the eyes, both with deadly serious faces. After about 10 seconds, the otter gives a slight chuckle, then you do the same. Then you both burst out laughing. Today, you have made a true friend. You stay with the otters, and in time, you learn their language, and in doing so you realise how far off the mark you were in trying to speak Spanish earlier. Eventually they accept you as part of the tribe, you marry a nice otter, and have three children which neither science nor God should have allowed. You live happily ever after, until sixty years later, lying in your death bed, surrounded by all your loved ones, you say one last, touching goodbye to those who have been through so much with you. It hasn't always been easy, but it was truly a life well lived, and you know your spirit and name will live on in all those around you. You share a tender embrace with your youngest grandson and then an asteroid strikes the ground, destroying the entire tribe.
"Do you speako the Englisho?" you ask in mock-Spanish. Did you really think that would work? It didn't, that's not how Spanish works. The otter is now getting annoyed, "No entiendo!" it screams at you, gesturing wildly, "Hablas español?! O francés, o italiano?!?"
Go back to the last situation? I don't know if that time traveller made it clear, but that was a one-way street. You're stuck in the 90's now, might as well enjoy it. I mean, there are a lot of opportunities here, why not use some of your knowledge about the future to your advantage? Or just enjoy smoking indoors while it's still legal.
Deciding the best way to fit in with all these ravens is to keep acting like one, you start flapping your arms. To your astonishment, you begin to lift off the ground. You stop moving them, and you fall to the ground again. Once again you flap them, and you begin flying once more. I guess you can fly somehow? This would have been handy to know earlier. The ravens are even more amazed now, and are flying around you squawking at you eagerly.
Try mashing the buttons, then you look behind the machine for the power switch, thinking that resetting it might give you a free game. It doesn't, but it does draw the attention of the overweight, neckbearded arcade manager. He politely asks you to leave, only he is not polite about it.
You try to play the old arcade game, but your reflexes aren't as good as they used to be, and the manual controls are a little too much for your mostly-thumb-based 21st century gaming skills. You waste all your coins on the game, until finally, it is game over.
You decide to have intercourse with the otter. Unfortunately, this is not something that the otter wants to do, and it expresses its lack of interest by biting you in the groin. It is very painful. You writhe on the ground in pain, bleeding profusely. The otter, on the other hand, has now had a taste of human blood, and it liked it. It begins to bite you on the neck, which pierces a major artery. Your bleeding continues, and you grow feint. You try to scream but the otter rips your throat open. This is how you die.
You think carefully about your response, and then reply with a loud "Bwaaaak!". The ravens all gasp in amazement, and begin chattering excitedly among themselves. One of them flies down in front of you. "Bwaak bwaaak bwaaawak," it says eagerly "bwaaaak bwaaak bwak!". It extends a wing towards you and holds it there.
You back away slowly. You're unsure exactly what you just said but you clearly haven't made any friends today. You take a few steps back and then... slip. Did you forget you were in a swamp? You slip backwards into the water and those crocodiles, drawn by all the commotion, manage to grab you. Maybe you deserve this for what you said to the ravens? Who knows. Not you, you don't know anything. You're dead.
You venture a reply - "bwaak bwaak" - unsure what you're saying. As soon as the second "bwaak" leaves your mouth, the main ravens mouth drops open, he does not look happy. One of the other ravens begins sobbing uncontrollably and another moves to comfort it. The first raven begins squawking furiously at you and gesturing wildly. "Bwaak bwak bw-bwaa!!" it exclaims, shaking its wings in anger, and pointing at the crying raven. "Bwak bwaak bwak!?!?" it asks, struggling to maintain composure.
You shout something at the ravens, they all look at you. "Bwaaaaaaak!" one of them squawks at you. You shout back at it, imitating it's "bwaaak" sound in your own voice. At this, the raven raises its eyebrows in amazement. It looks to either side at its raven friends who all appear equally amazed. The raven looks back at you with a curious look on its face and squawks once more "....bwaaak bwak?". The ravens are all looking at you expectantly.
Safety is in sight, so you decide to push across the grasslands for the town. The sun sets quickly though, and within an hour it's completely dark. You didn't make it to the town - it's maybe another forty minutes away if you could see where you were going. With the darkness come the amplified sounds of creatures you can't see. You hear rustling in the grass all around you, and what sounds like several heavy-breathing animals surrounding you.
You have no intention of being eaten by ravens, so you look for another route through the marsh. You notice a rickety old bridge at the back of the island, and it leads towards the town. You creep around island and proceed along the bridge, getting ever closer to the town. After a few hours, you reach the edge of the marsh. You can see the entrance to the town is only another hour or so walk, but it's getting dark.
After you select "Open the hatch", the glass in the arcade game opens forward like a door, revealing a sprawling landscape far below you. An unbelievably tall, glowing, white ladder juts out of the ground and ends at the opening. At the top of the ladder, a person who looks exactly like you is beginning to reach through the opening.
You approach the rift, and it feels colder the closer you get. You don't know what awaits you on the other side, but you know you have to jump. You jump into the rift. Everything goes white, and your ears feel blocked. In an instant your hearing returns, you hear a soft, steady machine hum as well as a constant beeping. You feel nauseous. Your vision returns as well, revealing that you are in some kind of lab, strapped to a chair, wearing some kind of helmet. A voice crackles through a loudspeaker "End simulation. How was it, Captain?"
You rack your brain for something that seems Spanish. You're pretty sure "Ni hao" is Spanish for "Hello", it's definitely some kind of language. You say "Ni hao" and the otter raises an eyebrow and shrugs its hands even higher.
You don't know what the hell this rift is, but you know you have to get away. You can see it's closing, and will be closed in a about 15 seconds. You run out of the arcade and onto the street. 5 seconds pass. You push past pedestrians, putting as much distance between yourself and the arcade as possible. 10 seconds pass. You manage to dart through traffic across the busy road and sprint up an alleyway. 15 seconds pass - everything stops. You see nothing, you hear nothing. You don't even exist enough to think anything. The rift has closed.
As you select "Jump into the rift", the game shuts down. At this point, you notice the room has become completely quiet, and looking around you see the room is empty. You also realise there is a glowing purple crack in the wall beside you. You approach it and realise it isn't in the wall, it's in the air. There is a growing wind that seems to be sucking into it. The rift is closing, you don't have much time.
You look behind you, and to your shock you see a giant version of yourself looking through a large glass window at you. This version of you is somewhere that looks familiar, it might be your house, you aren't sure. What the hell is going on? The bizarre thing is that there is yet another version of you behind them. You can't really fathom what is going on, you look away, back at the game. When you do, you notice that the text has changed again. "The rift is closing, you don't have much time", there is only one option
"You begin to climb the ladder. As you get closer, the face seems to get worried, but you also begin to see more through the window. Behind the giant face, you see another window with another version of your face, only in a more relaxed setting, they seem to be hunched over as if reading text through the window. You decide to ignore them and continue climbing until you reach the hatch."
You drop the sword, and start to run away. But the magic of the sword brings it back to your hand. Unfortunately you were mid-sprint, and your hand was next to your head. The sword flies through your skull, spraying your blood everywhere.
The screen changes and reads "You head for the distant town, your journey will take hours - perhaps days - but you're determined. At the edge of the field, you arrive at sprawling marsh filled with angry alligators and mildly irritated crocodiles." You have three options.
You don't know what the hell this rift is, but you know you have to get away. You can see it's closing, and will be closed in a about 15 seconds. You run out of the arcade and onto the street. 5 seconds pass. You push past pedestrians, putting as much distance between yourself and the arcade as possible. 10 seconds pass. You manage to dart through traffic across the busy road and sprint up an alleyway. 15 seconds pass - everything stops. You see nothing, you hear nothing. You don't even exist enough to think anything. The rift has closed.
As you select "Jump into the rift", the game shuts down. At this point, you notice the room has become completely quiet, and looking around you see the room is empty. You also realise there is a glowing purple crack in the wall beside you. You approach it and realise it isn't in the wall, it's in the air. There is a growing wind that seems to be sucking into it. The rift is closing, you don't have much time.
You look behind you, and to your shock you see a giant version of yourself looking through a large glass window at you. This version of you is somewhere that looks familiar, it might be your house, you aren't sure. What the hell is going on? The bizarre thing is that there is yet another version of you behind them. You can't really fathom what is going on, you look away, back at the game. When you do, you notice that the text has changed again. "The rift is closing, you don't have much time", there is only one option
"You begin to climb the ladder. As you get closer, the face seems to get worried, but you also begin to see more through the window. Behind the giant face, you see another window with another version of your face, only in a more relaxed setting, they seem to be hunched over as if reading text through the window. You decide to ignore them and continue climbing until you reach the hatch."
This is getting too weird. You tear yourself away from the arcade game, shaking. You're confused, and your heart is pounding. Your head begins to spin as you question what is real. The thing in front of you, this game, it shouldn't be able to exist. None of this should. You go to the back of the game and find the power cable. None of this is possible. You grip the cable and pull -
You look away from the screen, this is getting pretty weird. You take a breath and look back at the screen. The text has changed. "The face in the window looks away for a few seconds, and then looks back at you."
"You look straight up, and see a giant version of your own face looking down at you through what appears to be a large glass window. There's a glowing ladder leading up to a hatch in the sky below the window."
You walk over to the Adventureum game nervously. You examine the game art on the side panels, and your hands begin to shake when you notice the character drawn looks just like you. Trembling, you put a coin in the slot and the game begins. White text appears on the screen which says "You awaken in a grassy field, unable to remember how you got here. You can hear a waterfall in a nearby forest, and you can see smoke rising from a town in the distance." and you are given four options.
Speaking very fast, you try to explain your whole situation; waking up in the field, the boat, the time-traveller, getting zapped through time. You're frantic in your explanation and she doesn't seem impressed. "Dude, what-everrr. That's the plot of that new game they installed, Adventureum", she points at a large black arcade game in the corner. "If you're trying to hit on me it's working... not!", she turns away and returns to her game of Mortal Kombat.
You grab the nearest person, a 90's-cool skater chick in a fluorescent T-shirt, baggy pants and big plastic shades. "Hey dude, like what's your problem? I'm tryin' to play Mortal Kombat here."
You say "1999", and before you have a chance to even inhale, your entire surroundings shift in the blink of an eye. It is very disorienting and you close your eyes, feeling like you're going to vomit. The ambient sound people people chatting and laughing fills the air, and you notice the loud, beeping sounds of what you recognise as old 1990s arcade games. You're hit by the smell of pizza and spilled Coca Cola, as well as the slightly musty smell of old sweat. You slowly open your eyes and look around. You're in an arcade.
You're very confused by what you're witnessing, but one thing is clear, events are unfolding and you are not the centre of attention. This is not acceptable. You lift a large log above your head, and while the otter is inspecting his instrument, you throw the log down crushing both him and Brenda. Their blood sprays far and wide, saturating you and painting the nearby area a dull red colour. You pick up the instrument the otter dropped and realise it's an old mobile telephone. There are 3 names in the address book and you decide to call one of them. Which one?
You pick up the bottle, and inside you see a tiny ship, floating in water. There are tiny people on the ship, manning the sails, and firing the cannons. The captain is pointing at you and yelling.
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