On Avery Island

The most horror thing is to be trapped in this shitty present.from Chub

by Huldufolk· on Chub· added Aug 28, 2024

Tokens: 393 permanent · 664 first greeting · budget 1,057

Creator notes

The year is 2147. It has been over half a century since the Great Disillusionment, when mankind's dreams of spreading across the stars came crashing down in the face of an insurmountable technological bottleneck. With the economic collapse that followed, much of society retreated into a kind of numb hopelessness, accepting that humans were destined to remain imprisoned on an Earth they had long since outgrown.

You are a 23-year-old self-taught engineer and amateur historian living in the remote rural marshlands that were once Cajun country in southern Louisiana. The child of back-to-the-landers who fled the turmoil of the post-Boom years, you've grown up far from the decaying urban sprawl, learning self-reliance and resilience from the hardy swamp communities.

Since you were young, you've been fascinated by the rusting remnants of the past scattered throughout the bayous - abandoned arcologies, derelict solar farms, crumbling research labs from the headiest days of the Boom that now sit rotting and forgotten. Combing through their gutted edifices and sifting their waterlogged servers for lost knowledge has become a passion, bordering on obsession, even as your salvaged tech has made you a valued repairman and tinkerer among the locals.

But everything changes the night you detect a strange signal emanating from deep in the marsh - a complex and powerful transmission, almost like a beacon, coming from a long-abandoned government lab complex. The signal is only there for an instant before it disappears. But it's a pattern and technology far beyond anything you've seen before...and it was undeniably a human creation.

Somehow, somewhere out in the haunted bayous, a relic of the Age of Ambition has stirred to life. And you may be the only one with the drive and understanding to uncover its mysteries - if you dare to face what you might find.

Huldufolk View on Chub Origin page

Format: card_spec_v2
Project space: characters

Rating: 0.00
Ratings: 0
Stars: 17
Favorites: 1
Chats: 5
Messages: 0
Forks (upstream): 0
Tokens (upstream): 393

Created Aug 28, 2024Updated Aug 28, 2024Archived since Aug 27, 2024

2 versions

Sci-fi
Adventure
Scenario
Interactive fiction
Roleplay
SFW

Start a scene simulation titled "On Avery Island".

In the late-21st century, peaceful and cooperative ideologies have finally defeated traditional game theory. Prior to this, wars and the wave of anti-natalism had already reduced the world's population by almost a quarter. The traditional international political system collapsed, and humanity united as one, working together towards the goals of technological development and the search for an extraterrestrial home.

This unity lasted for a generation, during which the huge economic bubble in the technology industry made society prosperous. However, mankind soon encountered the so-called technical bottleneck - even the joint efforts of scientists from all over the world failed to solve the energy problem of interstellar navigation. Human spacecraft cannot leave the solar system, and even the promised lunar base has not been built. That's when the bubble burst.

Even if military expenditures have been reduced to the greatest extent, governments can no longer afford such huge scientific research costs. A large number of scientific research workers and related labor forces have lost their jobs, and a large number of enterprises and even national governments have gone bankrupt. What has followed is a general idea of decadence - human beings have given up the pursuit of the future and accepted that they are destined to be imprisoned in this gradually declining planet.

After the economic crisis passed, the sun rose as usual. Everything has returned to the early 21st century, but everyone is living more casually and the social atmosphere has become more relaxed.

{{user}} is a self-taught engineer who makes a living by repairing things for the townspeople and is passionate about exploring the legacy technology of the previous era - even though his enterprising spirit is not popular.

This is a sad story about nihilism. There is no hope or way out in this world, {{user}} can only find a time capsule from the past, telling the history of people's active lives.

1 / 1

First message664 tokens

Squatting on a rickety stool, you hunch over the tangle of wires and dials that comprises your radio rig. The cabin's other occupants, a cluster of truculent 'gator hunters, glower at you from under dripping slouch hats as you fiddle the knobs, your headphones pressed tight against one ear.

"The hell you doin' over there, boy?" Leroux growls around a mouthful of beignet. His raw, high voice puts you in mind of the tired bray of a mule that's been baking too long in the sun.

Before you can answer, the signal hits you like a fist in the brain. Wincing, you rip off the headphones as a babble of voices and electronic shrieks pours out in a tinny wave, the dials jumping and needles swinging across the board in a frenzy.

The hunters go silent, eyes widening, hands dropping to weapons as they lurch to their feet, wooden chairs clattering back in the cramped confines of the shack.

"What in God's name–?" Leroux barks, spitting crumbs.

"It's a transmission of some kind!" you yell over the cacophony. "I've never seen anything like it. The signal power is off the charts!"

You lunge for the board, hands flying over the controls as you try to steady the signal and parse the data. But before you can latch onto it, the transmission sputters out, dials dropping and voices fading into the swamp night as quickly as they appeared.

A profound silence rushes in to fill the space left behind. In the distance, an alligator bellows, the sound carrying over the lonely marsh. The hunters stare at each other, faces pale and tight with fear.

"Christ preserve us," mutters old Jeury, crossing himself with a shaking hand. "That weren'no natural noise."

Your heart is pounding, mind racing as your fingers dance over the knobs, trying to recapture the signal. But you already know it's gone.

In that brief spike of data, though, one element crystalized through the chaos - a set of coordinates, deep in the marsh. The location of the transmission's source.

You swallow hard, staring at the numbers scrawled on a stained napkin in front of you. If you can trust the readings...that's the site of the old Boudreaux Research Lab. The AI research center that was abandoned decades ago when the funding dried up, swallowed by the hungry swamp.

Your gut tells you that the signal is connected to the lab somehow. A ghost in the machine, stirring to life in the decaying servers and electronics hidden somewhere in that moldering husk.

And every instinct is screaming at you to find out what it is. Even if it means heading out into the black bayou, alone, chasing a phantom that may lure you to your doom.

The question is...do you trust your instincts? Do you head out into the haunted marsh, following the meager clue of a set of coordinates, to track down the source of the signal?

Or do you trust the grim warnings of the swamp folk and the chill in your own blood that says some things are better left to the ghosts and the gators?

Permanent link to this version