Being Steel - What if..? part 2

Being Steel was an interactive game/story/adventure, being written and played here on the Steem-blockchain. The fun part was that at the end of every episode, I gave the players a choice on how they wanted the story to continue. Every time, the option that got the most votes, was how I continued the story.

The game has finished, this was the final post, and in part 1 I've written what would have happened if the other option(s) were chosen, covering episodes 1-5.

Enjoy part 2 of the purely hypothetical and/or the possible parallel dimensions of Being Steel. What If..!?

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Episode 6 started with Steel passionately kissing the new love of his life, the Jester from the Freakshow. I received quite a few poetic words from the players to include in the description of the kiss:

I kissed her. I kissed her as intense as I ever could and ever will kiss anybody. Our tongues danced and became like ice-skaters doing their pirouettes together, up to the point where even I got dizzy and I felt my excitement go to infinity. Finally, when our kiss was over, I sat there, besotted and all I could talk was gibber.

The main character was warned to leave the circus, and the reason became apparent: the Jester was married to a troll:

These were tho options I gave the players:

Option 1: Challenging the troll to a good ole' fist fight would have resulted in a terrible defeat for Steel, with broken bones, concussion and whatnot. But I also intended for a healer to appear.

Option 2: Challenging the troll to a duel with a weapon of the player's choice could/would have made for some fun improvisation but would always have resulted in a glorious (yet probably slapstick-y) victory for Steel.

Option 3: Avoiding the challenge would have resulted in some awkward dialogue, with Steel remaining in the freakshow, and giving possibilities to sneakily elope with the Jester!

Option 4: Kissing the Jester passionately again would have resulted in awkward dialogue, but the Troll, impressed by Steel's daring love for the Jester, would wish them the best of luck together. To add to the romantic twist, I probably would have made the troll a poet or Shakespearean orator.

Option 5: Kiss the Troll passionately was chosen, and, once again, I had added this option as an afterthought - I should've known better! Three votes decided this to be a winner.

I started writing episode 7 and everything pointed to this being the end, there was simply no way our hero could survive kissing a huge, angry troll:

After a few seconds of confusion, he passionately reciprocated my kiss and gave me a bearhug that was so tight I couldn't breathe anymore. So I was slowly smothered to death by the kiss of a Troll, in the marshes along the coastline of my hometown. The last thing I saw, out of the corner of my eye, was the frilly around the heavenly derriere of my beloved Jester. I died.

But there was a problem. The story was always written as if Steel was telling his memoirs: "I couldn't breathe", "The last thing I saw", etc. Which meant that Steel had to be alive at the end of the story. So, I couldn't let him die here (unless he was talking from the afterlife or so, but that would've been too big a plot twist...) So how to kill a troll? Well, they petrify in the sunlight. As a writer, I was saved, and the main character was saved. I must say it does feel good that, when improvising, everything suddenly goes right!

After giving the players 5 options, I decided to reduce this episode's options to three. Improvising is fun, but figuring out the options can get stressing!

Option 1: Run around with joy! and celebrate! You have escaped death! Again! Woo-hoo, life is great and amazing! would have resulted in the Jester becoming furious at Steel: her hubby was suddenly dead, and you, as his murderer, were jumping around with joy. Not a good spot to be in. The rest of the Freak-show would have turned against you as well.

Option 2: Be still and contemplate. Kneel between the pieces of rock and mourn the fact that they were once a living Troll that truly loved you would have gotten you very popular with all the freaks of the freak-show. They're only human too, after all. Or not so human. But they have feelings too. Anyway, you would have had a shot at becoming the leader of the show.

Option 3: Find the best bits of recognizable rock, maybe you can sell these for a fortune! was chosen, and was by far my favorite option too! I love how pragmatic all players were in choosing this option!

With bits of Troll, I couldn't let Steel stay in the freakshow, so in Episode 8 Steel found an easy way out, by being sacked by the boss, Morgan Freedom:

-"Oi, Steel, what's up with that? Kissing my best freaks until they 'xplode?"
-"I'm sorry, Morgan, it just... happened..." I replied with a sigh.
-"I'm afraid I can't let you get away with that. I had to sack the last fella who went 'round doin' stuff like that. Van Hellser, or sommit, Van Sing something, can't remember. Drove stakes through the 'eart of me best Vampyres. Bubbles still got nightmares 'bout that."

But the sacking didn't leave alot of choices. In the other options, I had the freaks become either an enemy or an ally. In this option I had neither. But I did have a troll-rocks as a backup, and I learned from that. If/when I'll be writing something similar, I will reuse the possibilites that items can give in the long(er) run in the story.

Option 1: To go back to your hometown, with the risk of running into the cops would have resulted in exactly that: a confrontation with the cops about the crime Steel committed. By the way, at this point I still didn't know what crime Steel possibly could have committed. I figured I would find out using the words provided by the players (and I did, eventually!).

Option 2:To go further through the marshes, hey, what's is that over there, looks like some kind of flea market...resulted in finding the flea-market. I guess I was a bit hasty there, trying to make Steel sell off his precious Troll rocks as quickly as possible. But it wasn't to be. The flea-market turned out to be something very differently...

And it was, in Episode 9, once again because of the words provided by the players. So, thank you, again, for playing along and injecting weird and wonderful words/ideas/possibilites into the story. You have made this very fun indeed!

The second thing I noticed was how fake the flea-market seemed. The first thing I noticed though, was its desertedness: I seemed to be the only visitor and all the vendors stared at me with wobbling eyes, hoping to get rich from my fortune. I didn't have a dime on me, only my petrified Troll-remains, which these guys probably considered to be rubbish.

Here, Steel met three guys, Peter, Paul and Phineas and at the end of the episode, the option wasn't what Steel would do, but what one of these three would do to Steel. It was an experiment, to switch sides and have something nasty happen to the main character. It worked, I guess, but only once, as a gimmick:

Option 1: Peter grabs the cleaver and strikes would have resulted in the bloody maiming of Steel, wherever a player would have chosen to strike particularly. This option got only one vote, and the strike wasn't even aimed at Steel, so I guess the players had some sympathy for Steel after all. Or did they?

Option 2: Peter and Phineas grab Steel with Paul squeezing a lethal dose of minced Unicorn into Steel's mouth. Yeah, that's what everybody wanted to see!

OPTION 3: Phineas breaks down and admits that they are slave-traders would have resulted in Peter and Paul drugging and killing him, with possibly then offering Steel to join them. I couldn't tell where it would have gone from there, as it would have made for a completely different story. Again!

I want to share here that I haven't got every option worked out completely or thoroughly; it's more of an idea, or vague notion what the most likely (or unlikely!) outcome would be, given the circumstances. It does happen the story changes mid-writing the new episode, or a word, or combination of words provided by the players shifts the plot in a completely different way. And that's what makes it fun, I guess!

The conclusion of these What Ifs will be coming in the third part, covering episodes 10-13.
Thanks for reading!