#project 2

⚠ CONTENT WARNING This story is intended for readers 18 and older. It contains explicit content and drug use, alcohol abuse, sexual content, infidelity, toxic relationships, emotional manipulation, mental healh topics, grooming, disordered eating, body dysmorphia, plastic surgery and the pressures surrounding it, scandal, and the machinery of Hollywood at its worst. Reader discretion is advised.

DEMO: TBD

You wake up with the worst hangover ever. Your phone is already vibrating. Relentless. A reminder that you can’t afford to sleep in anymore. Not after the disaster last night.

The hashtags are still trending: #TalentlessTrash #PrettyButPointless #NepoBabyAtItAgain.

Public opinion is a loaded gun pointed at your head. You’re one misstep away from being cancelled. For real this time.

Your father — the one and only king of Hollywood, an untouchable legend whose star has never dimmed — calls before noon. Asking how you are. The concern in his tone is a mask. Naturally. Perfectly molded to hide the unmistakable command: Fix it. Or you will regret it.

As if you haven’t spent your entire life being a mirror for his legacy. Something shiny. Empty. Talentless.

Then there's your PR team. Soulless. Sharp. And entirely on his payroll. They've got a solution. You’ve heard this before. A lot. But this time, it’s nuclear.

The Plan: A PR relationship. With them — the industry's golden child. Flawless, untouchable, the kind of person the world worships without ever questioning why. Charismatic. Impossibly talented. Scandal-proof in a way you've never managed to be.

It’s a mutually beneficial lie: you get back in the game, and they… well, you’re sure they have their reasons.

No one in Hollywood does anything out of kindness after all.

Design your MC — name, pronouns, gender identity, appearance, style, personality and skills. And the body Hollywood has always had opinions about... did you get plastic surgery? Was it wanted or was it because of pressure?

Navigate the PR lie — keep up appearances and try not to actually feel something you're supposed to be faking or to fall in love with someone else...

Find your real talent — modelling, fashion, dancing, art, make-up, law: something that's actually yours (still thinking about those choices)

Survive your family — a father who sees legacy, a mother who sees profit, a PR machine that sees product, and a past that won't stay buried

Five romance options — a war disguised as a partnership, an architect who knows all your secrets, a ghost from before it all went wrong, an ex who still burns, and the one writing your downfall in real time

DEMO: TBD

In the world of the rich, scandals, secrets, and drama are part of the life, something you see almost every day as the ‘black sheep’ of an ambitious rising socialist family and working at an exclusive [floral studio/bakery/photography firm].

You've spent most of your life on the outside of it. You don't have what it takes. Everyone thinks so. You do too. But a new scandal is brewing. One that promises to be bigger than most. Your father and his right hand — a rising-star attorney with everything to prove — are defending the soon to be ex-spouse of the city's notorious hotel mogul in a high-stakes divorce battle. And things are about to get personal.

Tensions are high. Alliances are shifting. Rumors start swirling. Get ready for a story of love, drama, scandal, betrayal, and ambition. In this world no secret stays hidden forever, and every choice could have consequences. Even yours.

Design your MC — from name and pronouns to clothing style, appearance, and more!

Choose your job— florist, baker, or photographer. Three jobs, three different windows into the same city.

Navigate the scandal — your family is at the center of New York's messiest divorce. Every choice you make has a ripple. Some of them you won't see coming.

Four romance options — a playboy/playgirl, a rising lawyer, a mean co-worker, and the one you absolutely shouldn't...

DEMO: TBD

You didn't choose this life. But someone had to.

Your older brother bailed years ago and left you holding everything together. At twenty-one, you're the oldest one left standing. The one who shows up to parent-teacher conferences. The one who forges signatures. The one stretching forty dollars until it screams. Your mom is somewhere with someone new. You're stuck with three half-siblings: a rowdy sixteen-year-old who apparently has a jail wish, a prodigy fourteen-year-old who's already planning her escape, and an innocent eleven-year-old who gets sick easily and trusts too much.

Tangled is a slice-of-life interactive fiction about the mess of loving people who didn't ask to be a family. About class and survival and all the shit that don't make the news. About what you owe the people who were supposed to take care of you and what's left of you once you've given everything away.

Life is shitty. But it's all you know.

Create your MC — choose your gender, look, personality, skills, your job and how you carry the weight of it all

"In A World Full Of Kardasians Be A Gallagher" — navigate survival, pride, and the gap between the life you have and the one everyone else seems to be living

Raise your siblings your way — how you handle them is on you. Tough love or soft hands. Your call. But be ready for the consequences...

Deal with the dads — Four men. Four different problems.

Find something for yourself — a good job, romance, or escape. People will judge you but they do that anyway, so fuck 'em!

Five romance options — a slow burn, a ride-or-die, a safe harbour, an old flame, and someone completely out of your league

Pt 1 - Pattern Recognition: What Keeps Appearing

Cultural Identity

Colonization

Intimacy

Pride

Control

Pt 2 - Narrow to Three Strong Directions

Cultural Identity:

How do current-day technologies and digital spaces affect the accurate portrayal of cultural identities?

This topic interests me because I am very proud of my cultural identity as a Caribbean American, but for most of my life, I grew up away from other people like me and felt a disconnect from my culture. The only way for me to experience it outside of my house was to see it online. It feels complicated because the internet allows anyone to post whatever they wish and allows for misinformation, which I often find about my culture, yet it also allows for great lengths in research, which I participate in to learn more about myself and feel more connected. This could generate an experience that allows a direct view into the impacts of growing up away from your culture and experiencing it "secondhand" online.

2. Colonization:

How is the narrative of colonization controlled by those who laid its foundation?

This interests me because colonization is at the root of my ethnicity, and I have often been in spaces growing up where others were not aware of the history behind my ethnicity or were greatly misinformed about it. It feels complicated because it is something most people are not super educated on, and because it was so long ago, I have often been met with "We can't do anything about it/we can't change the past" rather than interest in it and a willingness to admit that just because it happened awhile ago, that doesn't mean it doesn't still affect people. I think this would generate an experience that allows people to see a new angle and perspective on the story of colonization from those affected by it, rather than from those who did it and now control its narrative.

3. Intimacy:

How does digital media affect our perspectives of intimacy and closeness?

This interests me because intimacy has been greatly affected by the digital age, as now we can connect and become close with anyone around the world. This can become complicated when people feel a false sense of intimacy with someone else online whom they don't truly know (i.e., they are being lied to) or parasocial relationships with strangers when people are under the impression they do know someone they have never even met and that they are "close." This can generate an experience that asks the viewer to reflect on how they engage with others online and how they use the internet and digital media to explore intimacy and connections.

Pt 3 - Media Possibilities

Cultural identity

projection: important symbols mixed/overlapped with cultural practices (such as dancing) in a collage style as a video

vr: having the viewer experience the culture "secondhand" through VR

2. Colonization

interactive web: allows the viewer to explore the timeline and path of colonization

archive-based work: showing work by those from the colonized culture and their perspectives, and storytelling of their experience

3. Intimacy

projection: visuals meant to represent emotions of intimacy that overlay/warp with images of real people (i.e., celebrities)

Social media intervention: examples of intimacy shown online through social media

Pt 4 - Choosing a Starting Point