After nearly a millennium of innovation, research, and money sank into a far-off dream of galaxies beyond the Milky Way, the world watches with bated breath as the oval portal sparkles to life. Safe in their homes they lean forward on their couches, captivated by the next big step in mankind’s conquest towards the great beyond. The portal lights up in a brilliant display of greens and blues, and the world cheers. Their celebration mixes with the screams from beyond their screens, unheard, a mix of raucous joy and unimaginable terror lasting mere seconds before the broadcast ends.

DEMO TBA ✕ CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

Note: Demo will be written in CScript, but the full game will be written in Twine.

The Erebus Project is an 18+ sci-fi/cyberpunk game meant for mature audiences, and will include scenes that might upset some readers.

This includes, but is not limited to; death, violence, blood & gore, body horror, loss of control, recreational drug use, unhealthy relationships (optional), harsh language, and sexually explicit themes (optional).

The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.

 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

When humanity first dabbled in the science of portal technology, no one thought much of it. A project of immense proportions, doomed to fail, that's what everyone said.

You were skeptical as well, and that exact skepticism ended up uprooting your entire life. Not that you had much in the shady pits of The Pens, but it was better than the glass cage you've been imprisoned in.

An alien. It came through the portal with a vicious screech and a horrifying visage of a maw large enough to swallow you whole. It did so to the others, tore them limb from limb and left them in pieces, but here you are; safe, quarantined, with that same black ichor briefly appearing like veins on your skin. Poked, prodded, and treated like nothing but a walking test subject, that's what the alien turned you into.

Until it utters the first notes of speech, inside your head like an echo. It learns through you, and for those endless months it was one of the only two voices you heard. It grew angry, restless, loud in your head. It spoke of a threat, and a salvation in words you couldn't comprehend. As it grew stronger, you had to resist it more. Hold down your own fingers, then your hand, then your entire arm. The scientists were exstatic.

Then it broke out. Not from you, as you, and your life would never be the same. From a poor, unassuming resident of The Pens to the most hunted human on the surface of Earth - All the while the alien echoes in your mind, threatening, warning in a low, constant rattle.

It's coming.

Create and guide your Host; a broke and desperate resident of The Pens that learned that when something is too good to be true, it probably is.

Customize the Host! Names, gender, appearance, sexuality, and romantic preference; even clothing style, skin details, and core personality. It's up to you to create your perfect host!

Romance it not lost in the void of space: there are currently four characters to pursue, with possibly more on the horizon. All characters are gender selectable, and available for romance even if the Host is asexual.

Name your alien! It doesn't need a name, but you can't call it 'parasite' forever. Decide whether or not to give it pronouns as well, unless you're content with calling the thing 'it' throughout your journey.

Choose whether to accept the new tenant residing in your cranium, or fight it every step of the way. On one hand, you're technically a bona fide superhero; on the other hand, you have an interstellar, sentient goo inside your body.

Learn why the alien appeared through the portal, and subsequently gain knowledge of a approaching threat that will end your solar system as you know it.

Balance a semi-social life as a fugitive, all while being hunted by the CSI, and keeping the parasite from going on a rampage. Your willpower will be your greatest asset, use it. If not for anything else but to keep the alien from entirely consuming you.

And most importantly: Save the galaxy! No big deal, right?

In the opulent embrace of the mansion, a child sits motionless, their gaze drawn far beyond the gilded walls to the glorious towers that scrape the skies. Every muscle is poised in perfect stillness, fingers clenched with an iron grip.

Like a marionette in a state of suspended animation, the child awaits the commands that will shape their existence. A father's stern voice, a mother's frigid whisper; these have been their guiding stars. For years, the ivory towers of the city above have been their sole companions, standing sentinel over the child's silent vigil within the gilded cage.

Time passes, and the child grows, but not in the way that ordinary children do. Their individuality is systematically snuffed out, replaced by the prototype of perfection that their parents envisioned. They become a trophy, a living testament to knowledge and discipline, a marvel and the pinnacle of human achievement. Yet, at what price?

The once-distant ivory towers, years later, transform into stark white rooms, a predetermined backdrop to humanity's far-off dreams of further conquest. A brilliant mind teeters on the precipice of monumental discovery, an obsession that stirs the first spark of something unfamiliar. The rush of a beating heart, surges of adrenaline, and the weight of exhaustion bear down upon them. It's the first touch of emotion, a lightning strike in the dark, awakening an ancient ghost that never had the chance to grow—an imprisoned soul crying out for freedom.

Cold logic wages a fierce battle with this newfound spark of rebellion, an internal struggle that has been a lifetime in the making. And then, like a puppet with a will of its own, the husk finally severs the invisible strings that have bound them to their machinated existence.

GENERAL:

Born into opulence and genetically sculpted to embody their parents' ideals, N. navigates life with an emotionally detached demeanor. Beneath the calculated facade, fleeting moments of unfamiliar warmth and emotion stir within, leaving them feeling both bewildered and hopeful, a hope of breaking free of those restraints placed on a mind that was never theirs to shape.

Raised in isolation, their childhood was a relentless pursuit of knowledge, devoid of the social nuances that shape most lives. As a result, forming deep connections remains an elusive ambition, while an insatiable curiosity about the human psyche haunts their solitude.

With an intellect that borders on the divine, they have amassed countless accolades and prizes, their name whispered in reverence among scholars and thinkers. The very foundation of IBIS owes its existence to their brilliance, and from the depths of their mind, The Erebus Project was conceived.

In the sanctum of their thoughts, they etched the blueprint of a portal that held the potential to reshape humanity's destiny. Yet, with each triumph, an ominous dread claws at their soul, locked in a perpetual battle with the insatiable thirst for progress. For they knew that in the pursuit of unlocking the mysteries of the universe, they teetered on the precipice of playing with forces beyond mortal comprehension, forces not meant to be disturbed.

Pictured above, me seeing this ask.

If not, what about any non spoilery fun facts for this or your other project?

Actually Idk if you started working on it yet but if so, How's the other project going? All I saw was animals and got excited.

Hello love! I'm doing good, winding down from the summer excitement and preparing my home for my favorite autumn season 🍂 My neighbors are getting increasingly worried about my pumpkin collection.

I do have some minor updates for you! Nothing to warrant an entire post, but small successes are also successes!

For example, the personality aspect of the prologue has passed quick testing! Now every action has an appropriate reaction somewhere in the text, no matter how small. I so enjoy flavor text 💫 (I added like 2k words of flavor text. Oops, but not really)

The naming shenanigans for the Parasite has been fun. There's some easter eggs there, depending on what you decide to name it! (ie. Venom, which no doubt will be popular) Of course all of these aliens from media have faded from human memory between 2023 and 2974, but that won't stop me from writing some general and vaguely snarky responses.

Bonus scene for this week was the very first "death" scene. Not that the MC can die this early in the game, but I'll switch to the Parasite's POV as a lil treat for both you and me 😌 It's very exasperated about the whole ordeal of its human meat bag going *windows shutting down*.

Focusing heavily on the stat page now too, and boy is it fun. There's even (placeholder) graphics! Both literary and numerical relationship stats, yay! Shiba will be the only one who even remotely likes MC in the beginning of the game, the others are either indifferent (Parasite), wary (N.) or downright hostile (E.)

There are a lot of fun tidbits from both games, but let's do TEP for now.

Did you know organized religion no longer exists in 2974? The only thing remaining are obscure records on the intranets and crumbling, forgotten infrastructure hidden deep within the oldest parts of the Pens. Cults though, those you'll find in abundance!

The metropolitan city has a name, but no one really uses it. The three districts (the Aureum, the Hub, and the Pens) are the biggest districts within the city of Arca. There are more, but no one really pays mind to those. Like suburbs that have nothing happening to be honest.

All but four planets (the four exceptions being Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn) in the solar system are inhabited by humans. Mercury is an industrial behemoth, and only houses mines, factories, and factory workers. Venus is a resort planet, but just for the richest of people who can afford it. Very bougie. Mars is a settled planet with similar massive cityscapes as Earth, but they're very much shielded under massive domes. Pluto is a prison. Many moons/natural satellites also have colonies, because humans are too many and need space.

One of those inhabited moons kinda went kablooey in 2430. RIP people who lived on Rhea.

While the future has many great technologies, humans haven't dabbled in android business yet. There are some trials on extinct animals though, but those have all been failures.

Animals only exist in zoos. The planet is too barren and crowded to house any natural animals. Sad, but no one really cares since they don't go outside the city limits on foot anyway.

Oh wee, that was a lot of loredropping, huh? Hope it gives a bit of an insight to the world!

Now the other project is in outlining stages, but I can name drop some NPCs/RO's for you 😉 They're all set in their genders too which will help me with coding.

Anyway, here's them and their respective emojis.

Kit 🐻‍❄️🐧

Olivia 🐬🦈

Dallas 🐊🐍

Mason 🦁🐯

Harper 🦚🦜

Sydney 🩺🐾

Your concerns have been noted 💫 The second project is still in its outlining stages so it won't steal too much valuable time from TEP, as it shouldn't.

Yesssss 🐍

Here's the icon for the (very secret shhhh) blog!

It about animals! And capitalistic greed! And staying true to yourself in face of adversity! Very slice of life, with a twist! No scifi in this one, no sirree. Less world building for me. Thank goodness 💀

August 2, 2023

I feel like an estranged aunt every time I return to this blog with news, but not a rich wine aunt but one of those aunt's who disappears into the woods for a few months and comes back with a pet skunk and a handful of berries.

WHAT'S DONE 🪐

➠ 3% of chapter 1 pt. 1 has been written! I know it doesn't sound like much but I'm vibing. With how I've outlined this chapter, 3% is a drop in the ocean. What was I thinking. Poor host, I love writing their existential crisis tho.

➠ The prologue is DONE! Or done enough to go through another round of testing and editing, and now I just have to check that all variables do what they're supposed to. Might even add more, knowing me and my wayward writing hands.

➠ The character profiles are coming! I'm just trying to reach my backup files because they got lost in the freak accident called 'Ven deleting stuff willy nilly and being a dumb'. Let's hope they're out there somewhere 🥹.

TO DO 🪐

➠ Still need to write chapter one, part one to completion. After that I can start thinking of demo release. Just saying that makes me shake in my boots!

➠ Check wtf I was thinking for ch1, pt2, because I have completely forgotten. Had to take a break and it just made my brain blank out 😶‍🌫️

➠ Post some character snippets! I have some very fluffy writings sitting in my notepad on the phone, drunk Ven really doesn't socialize but writes instead.

➠ Reintegrate to Tumblr. Be more active! I've missed so much during the impromptu break, breaks my heart 😞

While I've been gone from the online world, the game has been in the works. Things are going smoothly on that front! While I know the Tumblr for this game isn't popping off, I appreciate all of you who have had patience with me thus far 🧡 Good things are coming, I promise.

Thank you my love 🧡 I can't wait to bring this little crew to life for you, and they are well on their way to be ready!

In the heart of a clandestine facility, a human existence is severed from its own past. Memories, like delicate wisps of smoke, are mercilessly snuffed out, leaving behind a barren landscape within the depths of their mind.

Once a person of warmth and dreams, their essence is crushed, shattered, and remade in a grotesque image of what was before. With surgical precision, extensive machinations rewire their neural pathways, erasing the tapestry of a life that once bloomed with color. Like an artist scraping a canvas clean, their identity is reduced to a blank slate, a vessel now primed solely for obedience to those behind the mirrored glass.

In the recesses of their hollowed mind, shards of echoes linger, flickering like forgotten embers. Fleeting sensations of love, joy, and sorrow try to claw their way back to the surface but are held captive, imprisoned by the chains of artificial oblivion. Their heart, once brimming with emotions, beats now to the mechanical rhythm of obedience, a cadence set by the unseen puppeteers.

Immersed in the darkest arts of manipulation, they are reborn as a lethal instrument of destruction. The corporation, hailed as heroes but hungry for power, molds them into a merciless predator, a creature of instinct and precision. They become the embodiment of a weapon, honed to exterminate without remorse or hesitation.

Adorned in obsidian armor, their eyes mirror the void that consumes their memories—a chilling reflection of a soul teetering on the precipice of forgotten humanity. Infiltrating the world under the guise of normalcy, they prowl like a phantom, hunting down targets assigned by the corporation's merciless hand.

Yet, amid the bloodstained tapestry woven by their actions, fragments of their lost self whisper to them in moments of solitude. A flicker of doubt, an ember of longing, entwined with the shadows of their tormented soul. Buried beneath layers of manipulation, a dormant soul yearns to ignite, a beacon of hope awaiting its resurgence.

GENERAL:

Vale is, for the lack of a better term, a corpse, a machine, and a ghost. The first and only successful venture towards mind control, a corrupted science veiled as a cure for disease, a promised respite from a painful decay of the brain.

Before they were the phantom they are today, Vale was but another poor soul born into a life of misery and pain. However, with a family to love and adore, Vale never complained, never strayed from their side, and in the end, gave up their life for them.

Anyone in the Pens could tell about the horrors they face; Polluted, deadly air, poverty, starvation, addictions borne from desperation; There are few stories that end happily in the endless mazes of the forgotten city. Forced to survive in an environment not suitable for human life, Vale learned to fight before they learned to walk. Gifted as a child, their name still lingers within the walls of the legal fight clubs dominating the unstable economy within the Pens. Relentless, fearsome, unstoppable; They were all that and more. 

One poor decision, a brash swing of a blade, was all it took to change the course of one life. With threats and repercussions looming, Vale had no choice but to yield and sign themselves into servitude until the debt was paid. But deception runs deep in the minds of madmen, and a believable lie would result in the loss of whoever Vale was before the merciless conditioning they were subjected to within those remote laboratories. Through unimaginable brutality, whatever made Vale an individual was chipped away until the primal instinct to survive was the only thing lingering. Reluctant acceptance was how it began, but through the years even that small shred of defiance was snuffed out, forgotten.

With a safeguard surgically implanted deep within their brain, Vale became nothing but a machine. A miracle, the sole survivor left from a group of ten, the only remainder of a study deemed too time-consuming after the failed specimen were hauled away and set ablaze within a mass grave. The rancid smell of those carcasses still linger in Vale’s mind, infiltrating their dreams as a strange, forgotten memory.

My very first tag game tag!! In the middle of work (a few days ago now skslshdb I procrastinated by accident) seeing a notification that @atrial-ofhorror-if has mentioned silly old me? Made my day, thank you bee!! <33

Last line(s, because otherwise it wouldn't make much sense)!

$!{para_name} surges from the depths of your chest, uncoiling with such ferocity that you cry out in agony. An overwhelming inferno of wrath engulfs your every nerve, dark tendrils coiling too tight around your arms and chest before they blindly shoot out to attack the sound that seems to shake the very walls around you. It's an amalgamation of fear and a ravenous hunger for revenge that forces your eyes closed, leaving you trapped in a state of primal desperation, an insatiable bloodlust that rips through a body you can no longer recognize as your own.

Thank you for the tag! I'm tagging anyone who wants to do this but also:

@theoperativeif @subjectzero-if @crowoods-if @valiant-if @modernelites-if

Also, again Only if you can or don't mind answering. When did you first get the idea for your IF? Was it something you had on your mind for a while, before creating your intro post? or was it like a quick idea that popped in your mind and you decided to start trying to bring it to fruition right then and there lol?

Everything's perfect for me right now, thank you! Hope you're doing fabulously too! <33

The universe where TEP takes place is super old in my mind, I think the first story I wrote within it (kinda, considering the universe didn't have a name yet) was back in?? 2010?? Ish? I remember being enthralled by Mass Effect back then (still am!) so this basically began as an attempt at fanfic that just went off the rails and became its own separate world sksbdvdk

It wasn't a fleshed out world back then and was sadly forgotten for a good while until it came back to me in a dream some odd years ago, in the form of ✨ inspiration ✨ for this story!

It wasn't an IF back then though, just a little experimental novel that helped me work out the setting, world, and factions at play. The only characters back then were the parasite, a nameless roommate (now Shiba) and the hunter (now Vale). Our Host was nothing but a pathetic little meow meow, just a wet rag who wanted no part in the whole being a host to the first alien humanity ever encountered, and they pretty much died in the end 😶‍🌫️

I decided to try my hand at this IF thing after blindly bumbling my way onto the CoG forums and being smitten by the games there. Took a long time to gather the courage for the intro post too, since have you seen the writers on here? Oh mama they be writing. (Pls get my vine reference or I might cringe myself to an alternate dimension)

MAY 18, 2023

As I rise from the dust of the (what feels like) hundreds of moving boxes in my office, life breathes back onto this blog! I moved countries in this long absence and I'm still getting settled, but a progress report is still in order 🌿 Thank you for your patience and messages!

WHAT'S DONE 🪐

➠ Worldbuilding glossaries are 100% done! Now we just have to move them from WordPad to the game.

➠ Pregame exposition has been completely rewritten, and is now told from the point of view of a stranger who will be following your choices with keen interest.

➠ Prologue at 99% readiness! Only a few more edits and rewrites, and we're in the clear.

➠ Character profiles are 80% ready to be posted! They're sitting in my WordPad document, and soon I'll start copying them over to Tumblr. Reformatting ahoy! They'll be both posted on the main and on a designated page on the blog.

TO DO 🪐

➠ Revisit the first pages of Ch. 01, and decide on rewrites or edits. Luckily it's not too long yet, so it won't feel bad to rewrite.

➠ Finally get to visualizing character appearances, just need to find a proper medium for it. AI art feels iffy, but it's all I have right now. Ideas are welcome!

➠ Redo some subplots for the non-RO NPCs to have a bigger impact on the story as a whole, tie them together for maximum oomph.

➠ Coffee ☕

➠ Interact more with the community! The break was long and I know a lot of new stuff's come up. Sorry for the influx of likes and follows to come!

Gosh all these messages make my heart warm, thank you <33 It's alive, and still being worked on even if it's a bit slow at the moment.