conversations.from: system
conversations.value: This is a story set in the universe of *Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine*. It concerns the Bleak Academy, a school beyond the world where students train in the arts of unmaking.
  
  ----
  
  It is not necessary for you to read *Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine* to understand this game, but you should probably know at least this about the setting:
  
  Once upon the time, the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy and the Angel of the Houses of the Sun loved each other. But the Headmaster betrayed her, shot her in the side with an arrow, and so she fell into the void that surrounded the universe -
  
  And the void *boiled*, and worlds drowned under the tide of it; only one island of reality remains that is not drowned in this sea, this "Outside". That island of reality is Town.
  
  That is probably where you come from.
  
  But you've decided that you cannot pursue your destiny in such a place; that you would rather take a long and treacherous journey across the wilds of non-substance, in search of the secrets of a far and sunless land.
  
  Why?
  
  Did the world hurt you? Do you wish to gain power? Do you wish to find or build something in defiance of the world? Or do you think that you can infiltrate the Bleak Academy from the inside, and use the power of the void against itself to redeem those who would rather that the rest of Creation drowned?
  
  ----
  
  This is going to be a relatively brief game about the admissions process of the Bleak Academy. If everyone likes it, after this game I can make another one about the other antics you get up to there, but that's for later.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You hail from Fortitude, the region by the docks and the sea where life proceeds like the rhythm of the seasons. You're likely to be no-nonsense, and believe hard work and care can fix anything.
conversations.prefix: Fortitude Native:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're from Horizon, the region that was once the vampire Celdinar's "Night London". You're likely comfortable with ghosts, ghouls, and other such monsters, and possibly graduated from the great high School in Horizon.
conversations.prefix: Horizon Native:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're from Old Molder, the ruins of an industrial civilization that never was: factories that are being reclaimed by nature. You're probably good at making do with scarce materials, and perhaps tinkering.
conversations.prefix: Old Molder Native:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You are from the Walking Fields, a great expanse of nodding grain, falling leaves, and rolling hills that surrounds the rest of Town. You're likely good at fending for yourself.
conversations.prefix: Walking Fields Native:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You do not hail from Town at all. You were fished up from the Outside, given substance again by an expedition of sailors or travellers who witnessed you and brought you back. You're probably offhandedly cool.
conversations.prefix: Immigrant:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Once you were a normal child. Then one from the Bleak Academy spoke spells that stole your place in your family, and filled your eyes with night and falling stars.
conversations.prefix: Changeling-Poisoned:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You wanted to be in the Bleak Academy because there was something you wanted power for. What is it? And can you really justify it, in the face of the Bleak?
conversations.prefix: Power:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: If you studied their arts, you would have the ability to return your pain to those who gave it to you, sevenfold. So what can't you let go of, and why can't you let go?
conversations.prefix: Revenge:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: There is something you want to find or build, in defiance of the world; but one does not simply enter the Bleak Academy. What about it attracts you so, and can it sustain you through these trials?
conversations.prefix: Grail:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You think that the Bleak Academy is the essence of unmaking, the font of all despair. But the Bleak Academy's teachings are subtle and worm into your reason. Can you really hang onto your loyalty to Creation?
conversations.prefix: Infiltration:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You went to the Bleak Academy as a last resort, because you couldn't fit in anywhere else. But will the Bleak Academy remake you in its image, or will you find that you cannot fit here, either?
conversations.prefix: Unrooted:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You already know of the things the Bleak Academy preaches, and have already been able to think up counterarguments or results on your own time, so the Bleak Curriculum is no surprise.
conversations.prefix: Bleak Lore:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're practiced at surviving things that are trying to hurt you. Possibly situations that might otherwise be impossible to survive.
conversations.prefix: Endurance:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You know of strange deviant and steampunk sciences, and through them you may create machines that do strange and wondrous things.
conversations.prefix: Tinker:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're always cool, calm, and collected - even in the face of the kind of monsters whose very substance is fear and terror.
conversations.prefix: Unfazeable:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have training in a fighting or martial arts style, one that gives you the ability to not only defend yourself and attack others, but do so in an impressive and cool way.
conversations.prefix: Trained by a Master:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: When you do something, you keep doing it, to excess, ad infinitum. Breaks? Those are for people that aren't you.
conversations.prefix: Obsessive:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Honestly, you're already kind of worn-out by the world, and it's hard for you to muster up the power or desperation that you might really need.
conversations.prefix: Tired:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: *A starry tide is rising. Let it rise. You stand*
  
  *Before the bleak and lightless gates of a Far and a Sunless Land.*
conversations.prefix: Gates of the Bleak Academy:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have a tendency to overestimate what you can do. This generally results in everything crashing down around you.
conversations.prefix: Overreaching:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You don't ask people for help. Other people aren't reliable, and they won't understand what you really want, anyway.
conversations.prefix: Loner:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You don't understand lies. Or secrets. Anything you know or think is probably going to end up coming out of your mouth eventually.
conversations.prefix: Honest:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You believe everyone is, or can be, a good person. So you take everyone at their word, even if they're people you really shouldn't trust.
conversations.prefix: Trusting:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: *Everything is fragments.*
  
  *A mad drive pulls you to throw yourself into the void.*
  
  *Somewhere, something hurts.*
conversations.prefix: The Deep Outside:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: His spectacles frame eyes of night and falling stars. He carries something in one hand. It might be a bag, or a cage. You can't tell.
conversations.prefix: The Professor:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: 123
conversations.prefix: test:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Maybe, if you pay attention to what's going on, you can figure out where you are?
conversations.prefix: Where Are You?:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: To open the gates of the Bleak Academy, you must declare:
  
  What are you here for? And what are you willing to sacrifice?
conversations.prefix: Open the Gates:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: There seems to only be one door, but depending on the sequence you enter into its combination lock, it leads to many different rooms.
conversations.prefix: Dormitories:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: It should be easy enough to figure out how to get through this door... right?
conversations.prefix: The Door of the Dormitory:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A small box. It will emit a thick cloud of red smoke if you open it. Might be useful for getting away from something...?
conversations.prefix: Smoke-Box:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You've got a few hours, by the clock, until the "night bell" rings. How will you spend it? And might it result in something useful?
conversations.prefix: Kill Some Time:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You’ve got a few hours, by the clock, until the “night bell” rings. How will you spend it? And might it result in something useful?
conversations.prefix: Kill Some Time:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Someone else lived in your dormitory rooms once. Someone like you. Who were they, and what happened to them?
conversations.prefix: The Fate of your Predecessor:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The Bleak Academy is a sprawling university complex - but it has no maps, because mapping it is impossible.
conversations.prefix: Lay of the Land:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A graduate of the College of Natural Philosophy, she delights in causing your own logic to disprove itself.
conversations.prefix: Ismenia Esdelot:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: She can destroy anything with a wave of her hand. Even an abstract concept. And she is prepared for *anything*.
conversations.prefix: Annelise Celdinar:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: He wants someone who can bear the weight of a deep disgust for the world, and infuses likely candidates with it.
conversations.prefix: Ladislaus Perdita:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The Bleak Academy lies past the end of the world.
  
  *It is the True Thing, beyond perception; it is a red world, under falling stars.*
conversations.prefix: The Bleak Academy:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: It stretches into the distance, doors studded irregularly along the sides... but haven't you seen that classroom number before? Does it loop back on itself?
conversations.prefix: Long Hallway:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: They use no desks, no chairs, no blackboards; all those things just get in the way of the pursuit of true enlightenment.
conversations.prefix: Tutorial Room:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: They say that Amaryllis von Holtzer learned the secrets of the Bleak, and thereby turned into a song. You hold a recording of the waltz that bears his name. It may call him; but even if it does not, it is strangely recognizable...
conversations.prefix: Amaryllis Waltz:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: She works at the Methodology Building, embassy of the Academy; a ghostly apparition of her sorts papers here.
conversations.prefix: Lilianna Berathram:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Jenna Moran requests that I not say more about him.
conversations.prefix: Genseric Dace:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: He is the end of all things, the hand of Death, the voice in your dreams that says:
  
  It is done. **Let go.**
conversations.prefix: The Headmaster:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The examiners are clad in billowing robes and black masks. They stand in a circle around you. Their task is to determine how best to break you.
conversations.prefix: Examination:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You have been awake for a day and a half. No matter how much you try, you cannot seem to answer the questions correctly, because the answers keep shifting.
conversations.prefix: Questioning:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Thousands of pilgrims have walked this path, looking for an enlightenment that may never come.
  
  Their bodies mark the sides of the road.
conversations.prefix: The Path:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You hail from the region of Arcadia, Town's business and shopping district, between neon lights and the tracks of a high-speed train. You're a sharp storekeeper, and even sharper at bargaining.
conversations.prefix: Arcadia Native:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You made someone a promise, once. You won't break that promise... not for anything in the world.
conversations.prefix: Promise:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You don't like making choices, and you regret the choices you *do* make as soon as you make them.
conversations.prefix: Wavering:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're certain that the way you do things, and the way you are, is the Objectively Correct way to be. Anyone who disagrees is clearly misinformed, or stupid.
conversations.prefix: Self-Righteous:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: If you're supposed to keep track of something, you probably already put it on a counter somewhere and then forgot about it. Or got distracted by something else.
conversations.prefix: Absent-Minded:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You were a normal human, and then a vampire turned you. Knowing Town, though, it was probably to save your life. You've likely got extraordinary strength and grace.
conversations.prefix: Vampire:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're smart, and just as importantly, you pay attention. You can see what's going on. And you can figure out what's probably going to happen next.
conversations.prefix: Sharpness:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The further you dug into your studies, the more you realized that only the Bleak Academy could answer your questions. What truth is it that you seek? And is it really here?
conversations.prefix: Truth:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Your presence here was not really a conscious decision on your part. One day you started receiving Academy pamphlets, and... well, it was easier just to say yes. What are you here to do, anyway? Do you really want to do it?
conversations.prefix: Fate:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A skeleton key that can open any lock - even if that lock is metaphorical, or conceptual.
conversations.prefix: Golden Key:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Your fears tend to get the better of you. In the face of what you fear, you cower, terrified, and do whatever might make it go away.
conversations.prefix: Afraid:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: There's a library, filled with books... maybe you can find one that'll help you put the pieces together?
conversations.prefix: Research Project:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Improve yourself, and maybe you will be better-equipped to face the trials that lie ahead.
conversations.prefix: Training:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: A student from the College of War and Nightmare needs your help to construct a mechanism that will defy the laws of Creation.
conversations.prefix: Apprenticeship:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: A pair of mirrors - if you recite an invocation to one, you can communicate with someone holding the other.
conversations.prefix: Hand-Mirrors:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Consuming one of these alchemically-preserved lizard (...?) eyes will soothe shaking muscles and rejuvenate the soul.
conversations.prefix: Jar of Eyes:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: One of the tenets of your world has been shaken. Should you rebuild it, or replace it?
conversations.prefix: Existential Crisis:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: When you look at someone, you see only their skin. The cure for this is to viscerally understand what lies underneath.
conversations.prefix: Corpse Meditation:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: That you may return from the land of the dead, and become something more than you once were;
  
  That, at least, is certain.
conversations.prefix: The Return:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You have a strong will that can carry you forward, through even the most desperate odds. You will not be discouraged.
conversations.prefix: Determination:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You haven't had friends in a long time.  You haven't really talked to any people in a long time.  Recent happenings?  Popular games?  You're going to need someone to let you in and tell you what's going on.
conversations.prefix: Outsider:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You aren't very good with people. You think they're beneath you or otherwise not worth your time, and it takes a while before you start to warm up to anybody.
conversations.prefix: Antisocial:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Your name and face might be those of your former self but...
  
  You're blank inside.
  
  And while this could be a weakness at times, "extraordinary circumstances" can turn anything into strength.
conversations.prefix: Blank:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: human
conversations.prefix: Wild:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You don't really know what you want or who you are.  You haven't know in a long time.
conversations.prefix: Uncertainty:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You've lost someone, or something, precious to you. You are filled with anger, denial and despair that feels like it will never end.
conversations.prefix: Grief:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You don't really know why you're here.  It seemed like the right decision, but now you're questioning your reasons for coming here.  Do you really want to learn unmaking?
conversations.prefix: Motivations?:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: You're in. You've seen what they've shown you. It has taken its toll, and you're no longer the same person you were at the beginning. Every step against the current seems more difficult to take, and sometimes you fear your off-road hiking will lead you to their escalator.
  
  But you know what they want, from you and the rest.
  
  And now your job is to deny them the satisfaction.
conversations.prefix: Sabotage:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: You're fine at standing these thoughts because you already know what they're shaped like.
conversations.prefix: Bleak Lore:
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: There's a great deal of self-destruction in the canons of the Outside, but hidden amongst the mountains of pitfalls are a few steps to a few potential ladders.
  
  And you know one of them.
conversations.prefix: Bleak-ish Lore:
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Wait, couldn't you just do the thing they didn't specifically tell you not to do?  What's stopping you from just doing that?  Nothing.  Nothing is stopping you.
conversations.prefix: Loophole :