Multiple Settings The Bogie Book

[Squad141]

The hour looms,
the time is near-

All Hallow's Eve
will soon be here.​

Chapter I - Thirteen Chimes​

October 31st, 2007. It is not night just yet, but the sky has begun to darken for most of the western hemisphere. The moon peaks through greying clouds as children on porches. Creatures stick to storefront windows, soon to peel after the holiday ends.

Last month, a number of users on a forum managed to pick up a copy of an old video game based on an old card game, Tatterdemalion. The company that made the game, Solennial, was gone bankrupt, and the card game is no longer in print (as well as unavailble on any re-sale sites). A rumor began to circulate in conversation space after the game was digitized, that there was some kind of ritual that could be done with the original card game. Some reasoned that they should give it a try, but oddly, the ritual requires participants to be both alone and in a group of four.

One week ago, a hacked client for the game was released on the same forum, allowing players to take the place of computer-controlled rivals on each other's machines.

Today, four teenagers have decided to give the ritual a try, when the veil between fiction and fantasy is weakest. The cold wind blowing across the west is no longer the lone chill that permeates the air, and something stirs amongst the clouds.

 

[GamerKitty205]

> Be the Doll

A young girl stands in her bedroom. Though it has been 16 years since the day she was born, it is only today she will be given a—

> Look at Placronym

Ah. It seems that, as customary, this young lass had her HONORARY PLACRONYM escribed when she was thirteen. Which leaves absolutely no mystery in her identity, and very little room for disparaging guesses.

> Introduce Yourself

Your name is SULA VAUGHN, and you are a fairly plain teenage girl observing yet another boring halloween. Or, well, less boring than most previous, but you’ll talk about that later.

You really don’t do much, spending most of your days languishing in VYCHAN MANOR. The most exciting thing are your occasional attempts to fend off boredom. Such as your endless appetite for LITERARY DELIGHTS. Despite your willingness to read everything, you have always found FANTASTICAL ADVENTURES to be your favorite kind of tale.

You also make a habit of REPAIRING ONCE-VALUED TRINKETS. There’s no end to them in the Manor and while many return to their dusty coffins, you tend to keep a few for yourself. When both of those strategies fail, you enjoy the many recordings of MUSICAL THEATER, often singing along with the recorded actors.

Somewhat recently you began messaging people online, assuming the pseudonym of quaintQuest[QQ], and have made a handful of online aquaintances.

> What will you do next?

At the moment there is little to do but wait. Nothing to do at all.

> ???: Impose yourself on the narrative

Spoiler: ???

Well isn’t that rude? It’s your house— you appearance can hardly be considered an imposition. Even if it is a shock.

You simply wish to introduce yourself, as the child failed to mention you. While such a misstep hurts you deeply, you’ll forgive her. She doesn’t talk of you often— it tends to lead to such strong assumptions about her stability.

You are the gentleman of the manor. You are a spirit of darkness and fear. You are--

> Sula: Behind you!

You catch a shadow darting out of your vision as your head snaps to the vanity. It seems the thing, the Silhouette has decided to visit you today. Hopefully it’ll behave itself while you and your friends play.

> Explain today’s plans

Well, while there is very little to do now, soon you will be embarking on an adventure of sorts. One of your earlier mentioned online acquaintances has found a kind of internet ritual, and your whole little group has decided to test it out.

You’d normally never touch this stuff. Your parents would be livid if they heard about it... but they also went off to some halloween gala and neglected to bring you along. So why not use the guaranteed night of solitude and do something fun? It’s not like anything will come of it.

But enough about you. There’s three others also waiting for this ritual to begin.

> Be Someone Else.

 

[nightKnight]

> Be Someone Else.
You decide to be someone else, so you decide to be the Researcher.
> Look at Placronym
Wow, wasting no time, huh? Just like a Researcher would.
> Introduce Yourself

Your name is TOBIAS STANLEY, but everyone just calls you TOBY. You're 16, like most of your friends, and you currently just want to look for your favorite thing in the world.

But right now, you're on call for some sort of ritual, instead of SHOPLIFTING CANDY and PHOTOGRAPHING BUGS. You really like that second one. Really, there's not much to do in your good old SUBURBAN HOUSE.

But at least there's the internet, where you message people under the title buggerOff[BO]. You don't know why, but you feel like people see you with a BRITISH ACCENT, despite the fact you are an AMERICAN. Unfortunately.

> Develop Photos

You would love to!

... IF YOU HAD ANY TO DEVELOP.

Your dad took your camera away because the two of you got in a fight. You're kind of mad at him for this. Eh. Waiting is fun anyway.

> Ok, this is boring me. Come on, someone else...

 

[GyaruGrimalkin]

> Be Someone Else.

Hmmm. Our hero is squinting at you with those dark, beady eyes. It seems they dislike the phrasing. Try again?

> Be....someone....cool?

The teen seems pleased. As your cursor starts to drift towards the placronym, it's abruptly smacked by our protagonist! You don't get to tell them who they are, they know damn well who they are! No one would ever wanna spy on some lameass.

> Be the teen.
That's more like it!

You are RAMZ MALAVE. You have no other name you go by, even if your teachers call you RAMONA sometimes, since it's on your birth certificate. You try to keep that on down low though, since that's a pretty sucky name.

As stated above, you're a TEEN. Just 15 years old, but you're PRETTY SURE you have the attitude and experience of a hardened 25-year-old. You're a real BADASS, and no one can tell you otherwise, even if your Tío Vinny tries to treat you like a baby sometimes. It sucks, but you know it's out of love or whatever, so you guess it's fine.

Your INTERESTS and HOBBIES are wide and varied, but mostly include anything that's RAW and DARK. You like HORROR MOVIES, VAMPIRE STORIES, CONSPIRACY THEORIES, and the like. You're pretty sure your interests are deep and complex, and would totally blow anyone else's interests out of the water.

Speaking of complex things, you also enjoy SKATEBOARDING. Your Tío Vinny got you your first board when you were 9, and you've been hooked ever since. You can do some SICK TRICKS, and you've only broken like 5 bones from trying too hard. Not that you ever try too hard. Trying is for POSERS and you're way too COOL for that. Just like you're TOO COOL to ever be called by your first name.

Right now, you're just chilling in your room, listening to some sick jams. Tío is about to come home, so you need to get ready for a sick night out. You're suppose to summon a demon or do a ritual or something, but right now, you're focused on not being too obvious about it. You don't want him to know that you're trying to go out again, especially after you got in trouble last time.

> What happened last time?

You shudder. The sirens.....the police car....the flashing lights. You'd rather not get into it. In fact, you'd rather BE SOMEONE ELSE than talk about it.

>Be Someone Less Cool

 

[SpectrumCrow]

> Be Someone Less Cool

You don’t think you’re particularly interesting, not noteworthy enough for an introduction, but here we are.

Your name is KAIA MURPHEY, a teenage girl with hair far longer than it should be. You enjoy HORROR MOVIES, CREEPY DOLLS, and everything SPOOKY. Currently, you’re doing your usual activity of watching movies.



You glance over at the clock, not even registering what time it is. With how dark it is in here and how little you care, you don’t take note. It’s not like your mom will bother you. God knows where she is. For now, you’re just waiting to hear from your friends.

Today, at some point, you plan on playing a game with them! But you don’t know what they’re up to… if they don’t say anything soon, maybe you will give them a poke…

But for now? You’ll just… stay in your chair in your dark, dark room...​

 

[GamerKitty205]

> Sula: Abandon this course of action

After a few minutes, you sigh and turn towards your little computer set up. You had really hoped someone else would jargon you first, but it looks like you’re going to have to take initiative. Especially since you’re already losing time! Dawdle enough and it’ll stop being halloween for one of you, leaving everyone waiting for a whole entire year.

> Unearth your applications

You wake up your computer and start clicking through a series of nested folders. This desktop was given to you for “Strictly educational reasons” and so almost all the things you actually care about are pretty well hidden.

It makes opening up anything annoying, but it’s a small price to play. Eventually you get to the last folder, which simply holds Jargon Online Language, your browser of choice and, of course, Tatterdemalion.

==>

You start a jargonlog with Kaia. Of all your friends, she seems like the one who would have heard the most about this weird ritual. Creepy internet rumors about otherworlds are right up her alley.

Spoiler: Pesterlog

quaintQuest[QQ] began jargoning staticPsyche[SP]

QQ: Evening k
QQ: Today is finally the day
QQ: Either we unlock the answers to mysteries people have had for years
QQ: Or we just end up playing a card game bad enough to let the company go bankrupt
QQ: Are you excited?
SP: sure
SP: more excited to just
SP: do something with you guys than anything else
SP: im kind of hoping for the second option
SP: i wanna see a card game that bad
QQ: Oh, I’m kinda surprised
QQ: Considering how much you like spooky stuff and creepypastas
QQ: And whatever
QQ: But yea, a nice night just chilling and playing the game wouldn’t...
QQ: suck
QQ: Just less exciting than the other possibilities
QQ: Have you heard from Toby or Ramz yet?
SP: dont get me wrong itd be cool
SP: i just dont think thats whats gonna actually happen
SP: but no i havent
SP: been just
SP: hanging out
QQ: Right, it would be crazy if this random game actually like
QQ: Actually did something
QQ: And it seems like that’s what everyone has been doing
QQ: But it’s nightfall over here at least
QQ: We might want to get the ball rolling
QQ: At least a little
SP: yeah
SP: want me to talk to one of them
QQ: It would be very nice if you did
QQ: But I can jargon both of them if you just want to
QQ: Chill, hangout, whatever, until we start
SP: i gotcha
SP: ill go talk to tony

quaintQuest[QQ] ceased pestering staticPsyche[SP]

Well that’s one friend down. And Kaia’s got Toby covered, which just leaves Ramz.

Spoiler: Pesterlog

quaintQuest[QQ] began jargoning cheerfulCrypt[CC]

QQ: Happy Halloween cc
QQ: Are you ready for a night of spooky fun?
QQ: And maybe some technical issues?
CC: hiiiiiiiiiiii qq!!
CC: im superrr excited about like the qwhole demon thing or whatevz but like. it might take me a sec cuz my tio is a total buzzkill
CC: do i need 2 bring any lik. scary candles or smth ??? a ouiji board?
QQ: I think you just need your laptop?
QQ: I’d have to reread the post talking about it
QQ: Definitely no ouija board though.
CC: boring ! but ill leave it at home
CC: my laptop is fine so like! no problem there probably
CC: you know how my luck is XD
CC: but how r u doing QQ? anything super spooky over in your woods?
QQ: Oh, well you can probably still *bring* it, it’s just not part of the ritual
QQ: Might be helpful for... spooky otherworld stuff or something
QQ: As for me I’m doing fine ish.
QQ: Normal! I’m doing normal, just waiting around mostly.
QQ: Listening to music.
CC: hmmmmm ill consider it! it might freak some of you guys out, which would be super funny LOL
CC: whats ur newest jamz?? anything cool
CC: cool by ur standardz i mean
QQ: I’m sure there are some musicals that would be cool by both of our standards!
QQ: I just... haven’t found any yet
QQ: And I’m listening to anything new really.
QQ: New*est* is like... wicked?
QQ: Which is four years old by now, so not super new
QQ: But still fun!!
CC: i guess you could say its. . . .
CC: pretty wicked :3
CC: LOLOLOL. ok im done now
CCl but i respect ur shit it just has too much of a preppy vibe for me ig XD
CC: find anything with blood and gutz and scariez and ill totally be down
QQ: There’s lots of musicals with “gutz” and “scariez”
QQ: I just don’t know any rock musicals like that...
QQ: Or many rock musicals really
QQ: You might like little shop of horrors’ concept tho
QQ: It’s about an evil singing plant that eats people
CC: sickkkkkk
CC: ill like look it up or whatev
CC: but enouf about ur little sing songs!!
CC: are you sureeeeeeeeeeee nothing interestin has happened recently
CC: wink wkink.
CC: *wink
QQ: Actually yea there was something
QQ: You know my house is so so old
QQ: Perfect haunted mansion material
QQ: And there had been sounds in the basement
QQ: So eventually I decided to go down and check...
QQ: And I found.....
QQ: A rat.
QQ: So nothing. Nothing interesting has happened recently.
CC: SULA!!!
CC: you got me all excited for nothing >:c
CC: i thought thered be like a scary ghost or something! an axe murder who has like a super tragic backstory where hes like scarred from his tragic childhood and wants 2 kill pplz now but u can change him with the power of love
CC: and if not that then at least hed kill ppl 4 you!!!!
CC: a rat is sooooooo boring!! i bet it doesnt even do kung fu
CC: youve bored me >:C and tricked me!!! not cool!!!
CC: it almost makes me regret the super secret big surprise i have 4 u
QQ: I promise if there were any actual serial killers or ghosts or monsters in my house
QQ: I would tell you
QQ: But even if there were I’m pretty sure I’d get super murdered before I could like
QQ: Redeem them and make them not kill me?

==>

Silhouette: Naughty naughty
Silhouette: Lying to your poor darling friend?
Sula: You’re not a ghost, or a serial killer
Sula: And what kind of monster just whispers and flickers light?
Silhouette: It was more than enough to scare you.
Sula: Hmph
Sula: Besides, they wouldn’t believe me.
Silhouette: Do you really believe he wouldn’t?
Sula: ...

Ramz would, but she would also tell Kaia and Toby who are a hundred times more skeptical. It’s not like you have any proof so you’d probably just have to say Silhouette is fake and Ramz would hate you forever. Or... not forever, but longer than you could deal with.

==>

Spoiler: Pesterlog

QQ: But... you have to admit it was a little funny.
QQ: Tricking you that is
CC: SIGH
CC: i suppose thats fair. but ill get you next time >
CC: now!! ask me about ur big surprise!!! but pretend i didnt bring it up first so its still a surprise
CC: in fact ignore everything i sent you . we’re doing this 100% organic
CC: we’re both cool like that mkay?
QQ: The coolest
QQ: So what is this big surprise you definitely didn’t mention
QQ: The very surprising one?
CC: okay so you know how my tio vinny like totally doesnt sell drugz?
CC: he just like has a buncha random people come over and give him money and also makes me pretend that i dont know that our house smells like weed
CC: it smells SO MUCH like weed girl
CC: anyway like 3 weeks ago there was like this weird guy in our house and like i dont think tio knew i was home bc i was like skipping class and shit and im like really sneaky and stuff
CC: ANYWAY they were like shouting about something idk i wasnt paying attention
CC: BUT i snagged this really creepy probably haunted doll offa him and when i looked it up it turns out its worth like a bazillion dollars
CC: or well, like 200? and its kinda ugly
CC: anyway im giving it to you tonight!!! congrats!!!! surprise!!!
QQ: Oh, Ramz you didn’t
QQ: Idk what to say really
QQ: Oh, except thank you
QQ: Very very much
QQ: Though I’m a little surprised you didn’t give it to K
QQ: Haunted stuff is very much her thing...
QQ: Can I see a picture of it?
CC: i feel like ‘ramz ur literally the coolest person 5EVER’ would be appropriate but i already got that vibe from your thank you
CC: also, no need to thank me XP we’re like friends or whatever
CC: but here is a totally maybe haunted doll 4 ur pleasure!!!
CC: id give it to K but likee i like u more than her (dont snitch)
CC: plus i already stole a buncha shit for her and she was like “waaaaa thats a crime” which is LAME
QQ: Ramz you are the absolute coolest ever and your thieving skillz are unmatched
QQ: Even if they are illegal— which I guess makes them cooler..?
QQ: And you didn’t get caught so it’s all fine
CC: RIGHT????
CC: its honestly so hard being this cool :/ im practically swimming it in ! which isnt great cause i cant swim
CC: but its also super great bc im exponentially increasing the groups coolness by simply being me
CC: which is to say thankkkkk you QQ! youre a doll
QQ: Very funny. Seriously, not being sarcastic or anything
QQ: great pun
QQ: Anyways we’re burning moonlight
QQ: I’m gonna go open up the game and I’ll talk to you later..?
CC: i sure hope so ? the question mark makes me feel like ur gonna drop dead or smth
CC: or maybe i will? If i am then let me know ghost girl
CC: but have fun!!!!!! ill see u at the seyonce
CC: seance?
CC: thats better!!!!
QQ: Oh, don’t worry! I’m very alive
QQ: See you!!

quaintQuest[QQ] ceased jargoning cheerfulCrypt[CC]

You always like talking to Ramz. They have levels of cool previously only recorded in specially set up laboratory environments, and it would be a lie to say you weren’t a bit jealous.

> Start up Tatterdemalion.

You close out JOL click on the game that’s been taunting you for the last week. Time to see how this thing works.

 

[Squad141]

~ GamerKitty205 ~​

The application loads and then opens.

A window opens. It doesn't fit the entire screen. A dark background is illuminated by stocky white text, which is to be expected from such an old game.

TATTERDEMALION

Solennial © 1976
V3.21

The screen blinks off, pausing. A menu opens.

WELCOME MENU

PLAY <
PLAY ON-LINE

The actual "ritual" you and your friends were thinking of doing stemmed from a forum post one of you saw when the digitization effort for this old card game was getting news on several threads. For such an interesting concept, the game itself seems quite bland.

 

[nightKnight]

> Be The Researcher. Get Jargoned.
You aren't going to get Jargoned just because- oh hey a Jargon

You boot up your old WINDOWS XP COMPUTER. It doesn't do much, but it works. Plus, this stupid game got you and your friends together.

You boot up Jargon Online, and- ah, Kaia. You begin your Jargoning.

Spoiler: Jargonlog

SP: hey
SP: ebony darkness dementia raven way
SP: you there
BO: Oh my god why do you keep calling me this you know I hate it
BO: I feel like AM sometimes
BO: I think I have the HATE copypasta on my pc somewhere
SP: i could come up with something different if you want
SP: it wouldn’t be much better
BO: I think Id rather hang myself thank you very much
SP: lets see
SP: alabaster lightness memory dove way
SP: yeah fuck it that works
SP: anyway
SP: sula just wanted me to make sure you were ready to play
BO: Yes I am Unfortunately
BO: I could be photographing Bugs yet here I am
SP: cool
SP: whenever you get some more pics let me see them
SP: and are you not gonna dignify that new nickname with a response
BO: I think You deserve nothing but a Lightly Moist Blanket and a Warm Pillow on Both Sides Tonight
SP: fair enough
SP: do you think anything spooky will actually happen with this
BO: If it Does The Mothman will show up first
SP: you sound so confident
SP: why
BO: Because The Mothman is a Herald of Doom obviously
BO: I am yelling if it wasnt obvious
BO: The lack of punctuation is bothering me too
SP: fair enough
SP: anyway
SP: ill boot it up
SP: let me know if you need the ‘rules’ or whatever
BO: Does no one remember anything
BO: I have it saved to a PDF
BO: See you in just a few

> Open RULES TO RITUAL.PDF and Tatterdemalion

You weren't lying when you say you'd rather be photographing bugs. You choose to do so, and as ADOBE loads, you look outside. It's storming. On Halloween. You think you hate your life.

Well, ADOBE is booted up and so is Tatterdemalion. You change your online name to your actual name and wait for the server.

 

[SpectrumCrow]

> Be Kaia

Now Kaia, you finish jargoning Toby after sufficiently annoying him.

> Prepare yourself

For what? Nothing’s gonna happen. As cool as it would be for some spooky magical scary to happen, you don’t think anything will happen. But hey, you’ll at least give it a shot.

> Gather your materials

And you take the necessary steps for THE RITUAL.

Ominous.

> Wait for your friends to do the same​