#bookmark rpg

Part 2: Playing The Classic Version

Let’s start with the classic version!

I decided to play on page 59 of Like Blood On A Dog’s Teeth, this one:

Let’s do this!

1) Start at the top of the page and find the word in the window that speaks to you.

After a brief skim, I decided to put this word in the box:

2) Follow the row to the left arrow: here lies your obstacle. 3) Follow the row to the right arrow: here lies your guide.

The left arrow (The Obstacle) is pointing to “spare”, and the right arrow (The Guide) is pointing to “sharp” (underneath the bookmark).

4) To decide how the story unfolds, read a sentence and count the punctuation marks: 1-2 → Clarity 3–5 → Complication 6+ → Fracture

I know this was designed for fiction books, not poetry, so to keep things relatively fair, I’ll count the punctation marks in the stanza (underneath the number 14), not the singular line.  The total is 5, so results in a Complication.

Then describe what happens or what you feel.

This part of the rules is a bit too vague for me, but my assumption is I am to make a story based on the words and the result of the punctuation marks (a Complication, in this case).  As this is for Like Blood On A Dog’s Teeth, I find it fitting to write a nonfiction prose poem, so here goes!

I can’t stop hoarding genders.  I keep them around like spare tires filling the trunk in case a sharp object pierces the ones I drive with.  I declare neopronouns to my friends and save xenogender flags to my computer.  I am guything.  I am creature.  I am static.  I am, I am, I am.

Next step!

5) If you sense a step forward, move the bookmark down the page and begin again. 6) If you sense no progress, move up and begin again.

I’m not sure what “a step forward” exactly means, but my interpretation is whether the story I’ve written feels like it can be developed further?  In that case, the answer is yes, so it’s time to keep moving!

Part 3: Playing The Horror Version

Now it’s time for the horror version!  Ooooooo! (spooky ghost noises)

Instead of starting at the top of the page, we are going to move down, continuing from the Classic version.  I decided on this word:

2) Follow the row to the left arrow: here lies the threat. 3) Follow the row to the right arrow: here lies the whisper.

The left arrow (The Threat) is pointing to “imagine” and the right one (The Whisper) is pointing to “much” (both underneath).

4) To decide how the story unfolds, read a sentence and count the punctuation marks: 1–2 → Clarity (calm) 3–5 → Complication (tension) 6+ → Fracture (chaos, rupture)

I’ll once again count the punctation marks in that stanza.  This time, the total is 9 (yikes!) and that means the result is 6+: Fracture (Chaos, Rupture).

Then describe what happens or what you feel.

Let’s continue our prose poem from before:

I wonder if people think I’m tacky when I introduce myself with e/em/eir pronouns, wonder if I’m following some fad, chasing the impossibility of negative gender, null space.  Imagining what they’re saying about me is my anxiety’s Achilles’ heel.  Do they know I stole these pronouns from Maia Kobabe?  Do they know even though most of my gender is nothingness, I also long for transmasculinity?  That the HRT, with its facial hair and deepening voice, makes me scared of being seen as a man, a threat?

5) If you sense a step forward, move the bookmark down the page and begin again. 6) If no progress comes, move up and begin again. 7) At the end, read it all: it is your story… or theirs.

I think this is a good place to end it.  It is my story, and maybe it’s yours too!  Who knows?

Part 4: Conclusion

That just about wraps it up!  If you would like to play SIGNS, please go download it at its itch.io page!  I very much enjoyed playing it.

Thanks for reading!  I’ll be back soon with a new book to cover.  Until then!

Appendix to the Appendix: The Full Prose Poem

I can’t stop hoarding genders.  I keep them around like spare tires filling the trunk in case a sharp object pierces the ones I drive with.  I declare neopronouns to my friends and save xenogender flags to my computer.  I am guything.  I am creature.  I am static.  I am, I am, I am.