Framing Device - Chapter 1: The Arachophobe

tell her to scroll down so that she's looking at her own reflection

She seems to have done that on her own.

Stranger: "Well, fuck. This doesn't make any sense at all. Second person narration, a call-and-response format. Pretty basic collaborative fiction, but it's all scrambled. The prompts only control the narrator and there isn't a real protagonist in sight."

You aren't sure-

Stranger: "Shoosh. Not to even fucking mention that we're nowhere near the Assembly Cascade, so the ludophysics to support the format don't even exist here."

You wonder what that means.

Stranger: "PLUS! This station is inside the obscuring envelope of Moctis's Black Heart. I don't know what the fuck Eagle Time is, but you shouldn't be able to get out a transmission at all, let alone to an... internet forum."

You... what?

> we are a collection of brilliant minds! we can help you on your adventure! please take us with you if you can.

Stranger: "It's less of an adventure and more of a heist. Or it will be when the fucking door opens in about a hundred years."

>Oh we're not local we're just passing by. If you're stuck here we could help you pass the time?

Stranger: "No shit. Nothing in here is local. That's the whole point."

Her tone dripping with smug self-satisfaction, The Stranger continued making vague allusions rather than explaining anything clearly.

Stranger: "And the narrator continued to suck at their job... Anyway, sure let's pass some time. I've got literally nothing better to do. Just let me set this thing up."

The dumb Stranger fumbled around like a massive tool, grabbing equipment from her backpack and dropping it all over the place and just generally being mean and awful.



Stranger: "You like stories, right?"

You wonder what she intends to do with that. You wonder that only briefly before deciding that you don't care.



Stranger: "Just gotta get this shit framed right..."



Stranger: "Perfect... Now just to start it up..."

She activates the screen with a clickyyyyyyyyyyyyyyzzzzzzzzzzzz-



Stranger: "Give it a second. I had to strangle a witch with the charger cable once and it's been cursed ever since. Takes fucking forever to boot up and also only shows black-and-white unless you specifically mention a color."

thescreamingwontstopthescreamingwontstopthescreamingwontstop



Stranger: "It's a pain in the ass, but she deserved it."

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Stranger: "There we go."

The screen pops to life uneventfully. You consider alerting the Stranger to her heinous typo, but decide against it. You then consider mocking her and her dumb face for it, but ultimately decide to achieve a higher victory by being the more mature partner in this exchange and letting it go. You can't think of a way to rub that in her face without invalidating the advantage, though.

You decide the only winning move is not to play.

Stranger: "These things are usually interactive, so let's kick on the democracy with this shit. I picked the theme for this one and I think it's appropriate, so all you have to do is vote in a protagonist and I'll tell you a fully illustrated, second-to-third-hand story from my travels across the MetaVerse! Fun shit, right?"