portals CYOA CH1
Story by Corosi on SoFurry
this is one i've been thinking of for a while but, unlike anything else, I couldn't think of much more than the beginning though. then i remembered a CYOA i'd recently read and decided that might be how i'd do it.
I'm sitting in the bus, head resting against the window looking out at the storm clouds coming in. I mumble, mostly to myself, "glad they repaved the roads." and I am. If they hadn't i'd probably have a headache by now. I sigh and, pressing my hand to the metal of the window, push myself up, having seen the windmill that acts as a marker for my destination. However, before I can pull my hand away or grab my bag I see a bright flash and feel a seering pain arc through my arm towards my chest and then my head. Before my eyes can adjust I see another bright flash and am thrown forwards, but rather hitting the seat ahead of me I just keep going, and see some sort of ancient, almost majestic place, with statues of strange beings and jungles within sight, however i don't have time to marvel. As i'm falling towards the hard stones I feel a flame go through my body, burning away at everything between my bones and my flesh. I barely have time to ask myself if I'm dieing before my head hits he stones and my consciousness begins to fade. Just before my eyes become to heavy to keep open I see the bottom some sort of robe, like what catholic cardinals wear, and scaly, bird-feet.
As I slowly open my eyes, wary of the brightness, I remember what happened and take a moment to ponder whether or not i'm still alive. After a few seconds I realize that, if I were dead, my head wouldn't be pounding and I wouldn't feel like I chugged a gallon of gas and swallowed a lit match. I slowly, painfully, push myself up, get my wobbly legs beneath me, and stand. I look around me and I see something I doubt i'd see in any text book. around me is a massive temple, made of solid gray stones, large statues of strange creatures with long limbs and extremities, and skirts made of some sort of glass. the buildings of this temple look somewhat Mayan, other than size and the carvings, and surrounding this temple is a massive jungle, going off into the distance beyond the edges of my sight and likely much farther.
When I turn to look back to the temple I see something which doesn't fit the scenery of this place, a tall, perhaps five feet and 9 inches tall, black bird, wearing black robes. It looks at me before nodding and stretching it's arms wide whilst walking to me "Master Woffein, it is good to see you doing well, for a while there I was afraid that, if the portal didn't kill you, your landing would." I look at this strange overgrown bird and ask it, incredulous, "How on earth do you know me?" It-he?- shakes his head and responds, apparently misunderstanding me "I didn't know you on earth, I knew you from Maglerthandis, that's where you saved me and acquired my services" before I can interject with questions he continues on "oh by you won't remember that will you? When you were young you had enough Arcane energy in your system to make portals freely, but you didn't generate it yourself,after we realized it you suggested using what little you had left to wipe your memories of it, to keep you safe back on earth until I could fix up the things that do make it. it took 8 years to get one working, and another three for you to get enough energy to open a portal here, and even then your body-fat had to be used to keep it open long enough to not cut your legs off. or at least, I'm assuming that's why it burnt it all." I look at him wide-eyed, having a problem processing all of this "w-what?" he titls his head and asks "do you require me to repeat myself?" I shake my head "just... just give me a second to... absorb that information." The bird-person nods and walks back up the stairs of this strange temple "when you've overcome your shell shock I will be in the temple to show you how to use the arcanis generators."
After taking maybe 20 minutes to sort through things, and after taking another 5 to come to terms with it all, I start heading up the steps. The doors to the temple are massive wooden things, with intricate metalwork, a pattern of swirls and circles and other geometric patterns, on their faces, but they are both open, and they must be hollow or something if the bird was capable of getting them open.
As I look into the temple my breath is take away, it's absolutley massive, and in the back of the room right next to a bench the bird is sitting on are 3 massive machines of dark grey-looking ceramic with intricate carvings on them, two of them have there markings a dull black color, but one of them, the one with no scratches, no dings, and nothing missing, has it's markigns glowing a bright, vibrant blue color. On the front of it is a panel with something roughly the shape of a hand outlined on it, "I was beginning to wonder if perhaps you'd passed back out." I shake my head and aks him "what's that? The generator dealie?" he nods "yes, these are the arcanis generators. sadly, I had to scavenge the others for parts, and even then I barely had enough. thankfully one of the replacements had been just-forged by the Arcanians before their disappearance." I scrunch my brow and ask" i'm guessing those were the people who built this place?" he nods. "if you touch the hand-pad on the generator you should be able to take in a portion of the arcane energy. I wouldn't suggest anything more than a finger or two though, it is as close to full charged as is safe,"
I look at him and nod. However I have the urge to do more than just push one finger against it. at one point I used it all up, and what if the generator breaks again? I can't allow that. I press my full palm against the hand-pad. The bright blue light of the Arcane energy rushes into my every pore, but i don't feel a seering fire in my guts, but instead I feel the bones in my feet shift, break and I colapse to the floor. The pain of my flesh changing and bones breaking and shifting with it almost knocks me out.
When the pain subsides I, with a bit of trepidation, look towards my feet. My shoes have been shredded, and my feet have been changed. they look almost like those of a frog, or a salamander, with webbing, wider feet, especially just before the toes. i wiggle my toes, just to make sure they still work. "oh of course you'd ignore me, always fretting nd having ideas. The shear amount of Arcane energy you just absorbed should've killed if. If it weren't for your natural abilities and your previous experience it would have. Instead it just changed you, it appears to have given you the feet of an Arcanian. and you still have a large excess of Arcane energy inside of you. I'm afraid if I don't do something with it it will change you even more." I shudder, regretting my descision and look to him "what could you do with it?"
"well" he says "there's a lot I could do with it. I could transform a part of your body for you, however due to your souls current alignment the snake, and it's previous alignment, the wolf, those to kinds of transformations would be easier. I could give you a transformation from any major kind of animal type: lizard, bird, tiger, horse, bears, frogs, salamanders, insects, arachnids, or deer. I could perform 2 transformations pertaining to snakes or wolves, but we would need a much larger amount of Arcane energy to give you a legendary transformation, like that of a dragon or the like.
**Transformations: for bears, dears, wolves, tigers and horses you may get claws, ears, noses, eyes, tails, or fur. for birds you can acquire beak, eyes, feathers, or talons, for insects, chiton armor, an extra pair of arms, extra eyes, or, along with birds, non-flight capable wings. spiders can get an extra pair of legs, extra eyes, slightly stronger skin, venom, or a spinneret. for horses you can acquire hooves or a speed bonus, for frogs you may acquire jumping legs, salamanders can get breathing through the skin(acts like udner-water breathing, more difficult to drown or suffocate) or, along with frogs, a spitting tongue.
snakes can acquire heat pits, split-tongue, venomous (retractable) fangs, witht lizards hard scales. for all of them you have the option to acquire their sort of genitalia, or an aleration of gender (to herm or female) you can gt one of any, 2 wolf or snake, or 1 of snake and one of wolf. later on more and more powerful transformation will be available.**
**all transformations will have secondary effects, (such as new muscles or increased reflex speed, or the ability to use such increases to speeed or the newly made musclulature.)
However, you could also ask about what the soul-alignment means and how it changed, or any other question you can come up with. at the end of the next chapter, after transformations have been added, a stats screen wil lapear. it will show you the different abilities and overall condition you're in. Also, if you can come up with a kind of species or other attribute for a transformation i'd be glad to hear it, and I'l ltell you whether or not it'd work for it. **
to vote on the transformation or a change in course of action, simply put it in the comments. don't worry, you'll usually have to decide on an action, not just transformations.