text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  The land of Salira is in desperate need of a light in these dark times. A group of dark wizards called The Black Hand rule over the land without mercy. They are the very essence of evil. The Black Hand seized power by murdering the nation's entire council and executing the Grand Master Juno in public before the capital city of Ceilondra, for all the people to see. Only one group are brave enough to attempt to overthrow The Black Hand from their ill gotten leadership. They call themselves the Rising Sun. Although they had wizards, they were still not powerful enough to challenge a high member of The Black Hand. Yet one day, from atop a high mountain, one of the last true seers amplified his voice for the world to hear. That is where your story began.
  
  "A Hero has been born!" He called, "One who will Herald Light and prosperity into this land and vanquish the evil Black Hand!"
  
  The Black Hand had the seer executed and had an "ambassador" (just another agent from their thug army) go to every town, village and city to convince the people that the man was crazy.
  
  Still, the people believed the seer and The Rising Sun gained momentum enough to recruit more wizards and men. They built a strong hold that was named "Hero's Rise".
  
  On the Day of the Prophet, your people's winter solstice, was when your first story truly started...
  
  (Time will have very little factor but when I use it, it shall be measured in Days/Months/Years, since the day of the prophet)
  
  > continue on
  Age 10
  
  You had a fairly uneventful life so far, in a small farming community. Then one day, after school, a group of Black Hand families moved to the village and renamed it Blacksend. The Black Hand Kids bullied you in school and the teachers were too afraid of their families to do anything to stop them. They teased you because you worked for you place in the world. Soon they progressed from childish taunts to physical violence. One day when they insulted your mother, you became too angry to control yourself, even though there were five of them and only one of you. You punched one in the face, kicked another in the groin and knocked another out before they had time to react. The others geared up for the fight. One boy called Pollux swung a wild roundhouse punch at your head. Ducking under, you saw a opening. What do you do?[Themes: fantasy, humor, RPG, fantasy]
  
  Hello, adventurer! It seems that some random village has been beset by that big ol' beastie pictured over there. Cute, isn't he?
  
  Of course, being the hero that you are, it's obviously your duty to fight it. So, what are you waiting for?
  
  First off, you'll have to select your job. Your job affects what abilities you have.
  
  [Author's Note: A very simple game that's really just an excuse to play around with variables and stuff. You play as a generic RPG hero trying to defeat the Behemoth.]
  
  > Warrior (Physical attacker)
  Excellent choice!
  
  You charge off to beat up the Behemoth...
  
  > begin the fight!
  Sword in hand, you stand in a ready stance. The Behemoth growls.
  
  Hello, adventurer! It seems that some random village has been beset by that big ol' beastie pictured over there. Cute, isn't he?
  
  Of course, being the hero that you are, it's obviously your duty to fight it. So, what are you waiting for?
  
  First off, you'll have to select your job. Your job affects what abilities you have.
  
  > Wizard (Can use magic)
  Excellent choice!
  
  You charge off to zap, burninate or freeze the Behemoth (depending on your mood)...
  
  > fight on, Wizard!
  Staff in hand, you stand in a ready stance. The Behemoth snarls.
  
  > Attack
  You attack the Behemoth.
  
  It swings a massive claw at you. Ouch.
  
  Excellent choice!
  
  You charge off to zap, burninate or freeze the Behemoth (depending on your mood)...
  
  > Explanations of the variables
  Your health is... well... how much health you have. If it drops below zero, it's game over. Don't worry, it's not going to stay at 1. Since different jobs will have different amounts of health, you'll get the rest of your health after you click the link to begin the fight.
  
  The variable entitled Behemoth is how much health your foe has. You want this to drop to zero.
  
  Mana is required to use certain skills. Once it drops to zero... well, it's not game over, but you won't be able to use some skills. Once again, you'll get the rest of your mana after you begin the fight.
  
  Your Drivemeter will raise as you perform actions. Once it reaches ten, you will be able to perform an Overdrive attack. The Overdrive varies with each job.
  
  Hello, adventurer! It seems that some random village has been beset by that big ol' beastie pictured over there. Cute, isn't he?
  
  Of course, being the hero that you are, it's obviously your duty to fight it. So, what are you waiting for?
  
  First off, you'll have to select your job. Your job affects what abilities you have.
  
  > Thief (Can steal stuff)
  Excellent choice!
  
  You charge off to beat up the Behemoth...
  
  but not before snatching these items.
  
  > fight on, Thief!
  You stand, daggers at the ready. The Behemoth bares its teeth at you.
  
  > Attack
  You attack the Behemoth.
  
  It swings a massive claw at you. Ouch.
  
  You stand, daggers at the ready. The Behemoth bares its teeth at you.
  
  > Steal
  You attempt to steal from the Behemoth...
  
  Excellent choice!
  
  You charge off to beat up the Behemoth...
  
  but not before snatching these items.
  
  > Explanations of the variables
  Your health is... well... how much health you have. If it drops below zero, it's game over. Don't worry, it's not going to stay at 1. Since different jobs will have different amounts of health, you'll get the rest of your health after you click the link to begin the fight.
  
  The variable entitled Behemoth is how much health your foe has. You want this to drop to zero.
  
  Mana is required to use certain skills. Once it drops to zero... well, it's not game over, but you won't be able to use some skills. Once again, you'll get the rest of your mana after you begin the fight.
  
  Your Drivemeter will raise as you perform actions. Once it reaches ten, you will be able to perform an Overdrive attack. The Overdrive varies with each job.[Themes: modern, humor]
  
  It's dark in your neighborhood as you walk to your bus stop. You pull down the sleeves of your hoodie and cross your arms; it's usually not this cold this time of year in the morning. But today is especially foggy. Headlights appear from time to time as you near your destination and cars zoom by well over the speed limit. You drift to the edge of the road as you have no intention of getting run over today. Even if you ended up in the hospital, the school administration would just reschedule your in school suspension for the first day you were all better.
  
  Damn, you made it through three semesters without ending up in ISS. What happened? Well, it's not that you're a well-behaved type, you're just good at not getting caught. Or so you were. Your friend Jason got this song stuck in your head the last time you two were talking online. It's this YouTube video you're pretty sure increases your chances of cancer every time you view it.
  
  By the way, is the song still stuck in your head?
  
  [Author's Note: Well good going, you just couldn't keep your cellphone away yesterday and you wound up in ISS (in school suspension). The good old days of being sent home to your video games are over; you're going to sit in room with your high school's degenerates for seven hours and suffer. Unless...]
  
  > Yes, It Is
  You spend four minutes untangling your headphones which chaotically shifted in your pockets into the most complicated mess of black wires conceivable. There may in fact be a God who hates you. Or it has something to do with physics, fuck if you ever cared to pay attention in that class.
  
  Then it's just a matter of loading YouTube on your phone and ... there it is, The Amazing Horse! It may be true that every time you listen to this song, you run an increased risk of getting cancerous diabetes or something of the disease sort (Ebola might not be topical anymore by the time this story catches on), but somehow it is just catchy.
  
  That's over now and the bus is here! You shamble on to it like the half awake zombie you are and nod politely at the burnt out hippie who drives the bus; after all, he's probably the least shitty staff person you deal with from the start to end of your school day.
  
  "Hey you..." the mangy haired driver says. You get the feeling he never learned your name. Now it's just a matter of deciding where to sit. There's Bipolar Alvin, an acquaintance of yours who is fun but a little rough when he's manic (and you can tell by passionate way he's singing along to Journey playing on the bus radio that he's probably manic today). In the back, your friend Lauren from geometry is sleeping. Maybe she'll wake up. Or maybe you can cuddle up to her for the thirty minute bus ride to school without her noticing.
  
  Decisions...
  
  > sit Next to Alvin
  "Hey Alvin" you say. "Off your meds again?"
  
  That's a rhetorical question. You can tell by the way he's vigorously stomping his feet in some sort of chaotic rhythm that he's definitely off his meds again. He spits words like a rapid fire M60.
  
  "Funny you should ask cause my mom totally started checking to see if I swallowed them but I found out if you put it on like the bottom right side of your gum like in between your teeth and shit you know it's like totally invisible so I didn't swallow it like I don't even need it this is when I'm high performance bro like Michael Phelps Mike Tyson Oscar Pistorious minus the murdering his girlfriend you feel me I'm a blade runner!"
  
  "Right" you reply. Not right. Not coherent, but whatever. The stomping of the bus floor doesn't cease though it shakes you a bit less as the driver turns onto the interstate. You look back at Rose - she's a heavy fucking sleeper, that's for sure, you think.
  
  "Want my Seroquel?!?!" he offers, holding a soggy pill with dripping off coating between his fingers. "What the hell is that even?" you ask Alvin. "Is it like taking a bar?"
  
  "Yeah I'd like to take you to a bar but I don't have a fake ID at the moment you know though at my cousins' house in Wisconsin there's a bar that let's high schoolers in I had my first long island ice tea there it's like gin and whiskey and tequila and like every liquor all together like mixing soda at Taco Bell but it's liquor instead of soda right right?!?!"
  
  Alvin is somehow causing your own thoughts to race. What were you just thinking about? Oh yeah, do you want to take your bipolar friend's medication? You'll be locked up in ISS anyway, maybe it'll get you fucked up.
  
  > fuck it, why not?
  Alvin's drool is on this fucking thing, it better be worth it you think as you swallow it, nearly gagging. Damn, that pill was big. Nearly got caught in your throat. You're going to have a nasty aftertaste in your throat until you can get a soda. Too bad you're not allowed to have a soda when you're in ISS and the bus is running late so you won't have time to chug one before going to the classroom - lest you end up getting yet another in school suspension for lateness.
  
  Initially, you feel nothing and you wonder if Seroquel only works on bipolar people. Yet by the time you've trekked across the building to the dingy hallway the ISS room sits in, you notice that you're yawning deeply every minute or so.
  
  You enter the ISS room and your ears are instantly assaulted by a cacophony of the loudest and most obnoxious students your school has to offer.
  
  "Sup scrub?" one of the strangers you only know from the hallways says to you. "You ain't a regular in here, what did you do?" It's a boring story and you are too exhausted to tell it. So you just flip the bird to that kid and move on. You take a seat at the empty desk in the corner of the room furthest away from the supervising teacher's desk. He isn't in yet, by the way, and you're way tired now. The bastard will probably wake you up in 10 minutes to make you stand for the Pledge or something like that but in the mean time you lay your head down on the cold wood.
  
  Sleeeeeeeeep...
  
  > Off to dreamland
  You're in the desert. You don't know why you're in the desert, but at least you aren't in ISS anymore. Is that a camel you're riding? Yes it is. How cliche! Does it have sunglasses on? The cool motherfucker that it is, of course it does. So you gallop, one hand on the reigns and one hand on your cigarette. Awww, your cigarette disappeared. :(
  
  Something about this doesn't add up. Is that a Sandshrew digging a hole up ahead? Pokemon aren't real. Ahhh, now you realize the truth: you're dreaming. Better yet, you're lucid dreaming! You're in total control over anything you can imagine. And that's just killer.
  
  You're dreaming about:
  
  > Wild sex with Lauren
  And you thought making decisions was going to be complicated. You direct your camel Sparky to move ahead toward Lauren who is laying on a blanket in the desert sand. She is wearing something like a Dothraki Daenerys Targaryen, all exotic n' shit.
  
  She flutters her eyes at you as you dismout Sparky and asks "are you high? You look kinda high!"
  
  "I'm just a little high" you confess. "Uhm, Lauren, you know I always liked you, right?"
  
  "You couldn't have been more obvious" she tells you as she lays on her back and takes your hand. "I was afraid you were going to keep me in the friendzone forever!"
  
  The two of you make love under a rainbow colored galaxy and because this is a dream, none of that pesky desert sand gets up in your genital area. Fuck yeah. You're going to finish way too fast. Good thing it's just a dream.
  
  > YEAH!!!
  An incoherent roar celebrating your victory wakes you up and disturbs your fellow student inmates to the left and right of your desk. You wipe away the drool that has amassed on your desk and sit up. You turn around to look at the clock. Unlike some of the less intelligent students here, you can still read analog clocks. It's 10:30 AM. Meaning, you've slept through more than 3 hours of your ISS. Good going, Junkie McPillhead. No seriously, good going. You might have died of boredom had you been forced to stay awake through all of this. But the final bell isn't until 2:30PM, so you may die of boredom yet.
  
  "Children!" the loud, booming voice of a black man who vaguely sounds like Chef from South Park fills the room. "CHILDREN, you better be studying! This isn't a vacation, this is in school suspension."
  
  The man, well over 6'5 tall, sits with his feet on his desk - he wears Nike shoes that looks like they're too huge to be bought in a store. He's reading a newspaper. So this is your jailer.
  
  What are you going to do now? You fish through your backpack for something to entertain you. All you find is a pen. What are you going to do with it?
  
  > Write "FUCK DIS SKOOL" on the desk
  Ugh. Have a little dignity, please.
  
  > suck it, narrator
  You write "fuck this school" on the desk, the proper way, because you still have standards. Fuck this school. You begin to read some of the other graffiti your predecessors have scribbled in the past.
  
  "Hey Claire, wanna 69?"
  
  Written in pink sharpie below it is "YEA LOL"
  
  You skim further down. A swastika. How racist. No wait, it's backwards. It's a nice, non-racist Hindu swastika.
  
  Hmmm, what else is there? "March 11, my REVENGE against the lesser humans who have tormented me!" That's creepy. What day is it today? You think it's sometime in the Fall. You're safe.
  
  Behind you, there's an argument between two students rising in volume. "Hey, give me some M&M's." "Fuck you, Will, get your own!"
  
  "LANGUAGE CHILDREN!" the teacher bellows.
  
  "Sorry Mr. Keyes" the kid in the oversized, white Sean John t-shirt near him apologizes. After the man returns to his newspaper, Will's hungry neighbor resumes his prodding. Literally. With a pencil.
  
  "Give me some fucking M&M's." "Don't stab me, bitch!" "What are you going to do about it?" "Nothing, I already fucked your little sister last night!"
  
  And just like that, they're brawling. The desks overturn and the two kids are swinging fists at each other like a hurricane. A chorus of chants of "fight" begins to rise as all the others stand up at watch.
  
  "HEY HEY HEY" Mr. Keyes protests (no, racist, he doesn't sound at all like Fat Albert). "That's it, I'm getting the SRO!" It's on now, the cops are coming. Mr. Keyes storms out of the classroom and leaves the boys to beat the shit out of each other properly so when they both end up arrested, it was at least worth it.
  
  Suddenly, the importance of the situation at hand dawns on you: For the next few minutes, you're completely unsupervised. Now would be an excellent chance to make your escape.
  
  You follow the lead of a trio of students already making their way out the door. They scatter in different directions. You break for the far end of the hallway and slam your way through the glass doors. Fortunately, they open rather than you crashing through them and getting many severe lacerations. Outside, it's raining and you take off your shirt like a victorious Andy in the Shawshank Redemption.