quietCrisis 2024/11/26(Tue)19:18 No. 1100425 ID: 89a43f
File 173267748029.png - (506.78KB , 1000x772 , Moving Out 1.png )

YOU wake screaming.

YOUR chest is raw. It takes YOU a moment to realize it is whole, uninjured, that the warm, wet feeling of blood and meat escaping YOUR chest is nothing but a particularly vivid memory.

YOU always wake unharmed. Even YOUR clothes are whole again, new as the day YOU first wore them.

quietCrisis 2024/11/26(Tue)19:18 No. 1100426 ID: 89a43f
File 173267750948.png - (607.15KB , 1000x772 , Moving Out 2.png )

YOU scratch another tally into the wall. At one point, this helped YOU to keep time. Now, YOUR failed attempts at escape have been too numerous for anything but the cold drywall to bother tracking. This is little more than mindless ritual now. A vain attempt to convince YOURSELF that, if only in this miniscule way, what YOU are doing here matters. It changes something.

quietCrisis 2024/11/26(Tue)19:19 No. 1100427 ID: 89a43f
File 173267754639.png - (472.00KB , 1000x772 , Moving Out 3.png )

YOU have always lived in the house YOU live in. YOU have been trying to leave for a long time, although it’s impossible to count the days even with the assistance of YOUR tally marks. Every time YOU have tried to leave, YOU have been met with incredible pain and suffering. This has become more of an inconvenience than anything else, as YOU also appear to be unable to die.
YOU think dying might be the kinder option, to be completely honest.

quietCrisis 2024/11/26(Tue)19:19 No. 1100428 ID: 89a43f
File 173267759303.png - (470.46KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 4.png )

YOU sit up, dangling YOUR legs over the edge of YOUR bed, and survey YOUR room.

It isn’t a large room, but it’s not a small one either. YOU’VE seen rooms much larger, and much smaller ones too, although YOU guess the smallest ones would have been better classified as closets. The walls of YOUR room are covered in a drab, gray wallpaper. The carpet is gray too. There are no windows, and only one door. A stand fan and a radiator keep you warm or cool enough as the weather demands.

YOUR desk is nothing impressive- it’s the kind of thing YOU imagine YOU can buy in bulk from an office supplier. YOU’VE never been to an office supplier, but YOU imagine this is the kind of thing they would sell. YOUR desk chair is the same- not comfortable, but not uncomfortable. On YOUR desk sits a small pile of boxes and YOUR laptop computer.

There are more boxes on the floor of YOUR room, making it a bit difficult to get around. On the wall opposite YOUR desk hangs a mirror. On the walls are YOUR tally marks, as well as a pinned up motivational poster.

YOU’RE still struggling to catch YOUR breath. It would probably not be advisable to start another attempt so soon after YOUR last death. What will YOU do?

>Examine LAPTOP
>Examine BOXES
>Examine MIRROR
>Examine DOOR
>Something Else

Examine the stain on the side of YOUR table. After that, examine the boxes.

What do you mean by "incredible pain and suffering"? Does something attack you, or does it come from nowhere?

examine LAPTOP. Do YOU even get internet down here?

Open up them boxes, time to see what items we start with this run.
Speaking of which, have you tried upgrading your room somehow? Some way to improve the luck and starting items you get for future runs, so it doesn't feel increasingly hopeless.

Examine boxes, anything good?

examine boxes, let's see what other equipment we have to escape with

how did YOU get inside and stuck in this house?

we love BOXES!! we do not love the ominous stain on the corner of your desk! (look at it anyway)

does EVERYTHING reset every time? like, when we open these boxes and dig around, are they gonna be the exact same stuff they've always been prior to every attempt? if so, we gotta start finding the parameters of what is and isn't permanently changeable -- after all, your tally marks don't reset, so there's some kind of line here.

Oof, this feels uncomfortably metaphorical, perhaps of personal experience? Let us know if you need to talk, eh? Or need sb to call the cops for you, haha?

>>1100436
Indeed - are we able to bring items back into the room? Can we return at all, aside from death? Perhaps we could sacrifice a few runs to stockpile the best items for one megarun.

>>1100455
I want to keep OOC to a minimum on this thread for Ambience reasons but just so everyone's clear- no, Moving Out is not directly autobiographical. Nor is it exactly about interpersonal abuse as much as it is the unhealthy relationship a person can have with a place. Fundamentally, Moving Out is a haunted house story, and while I can't say it's NOT informed by my own experiences with mental illness and agoraphobia, it's not like. A cry for help or anything like that. I'm good! I'm just a horror artist.

>>1100457
Ok! Just felt like I should check. Onwards!

1/4 quietCrisis 2024/11/27(Wed)22:39 No. 1100487 ID: 89a43f
File 173277599996.png - (458.52KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 5.png )

>Examine STAINS

There are two stains in YOUR room. The first is up here, on the wall. It’s new. YOU don’t know what the deal with this is- maybe moisture damage? It looks like it’s coming from the floor above YOU.

2/4 quietCrisis 2024/11/27(Wed)22:40 No. 1100488 ID: 89a43f
File 173277602902.png - (1.17MB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 6.png )

YOU don’t like thinking about or looking at this one.

3/4 quietCrisis 2024/11/27(Wed)22:41 No. 1100489 ID: 89a43f
File 173277607322.png - (582.60KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 7.png )

>examine LAPTOP. Do YOU even get internet down here?

This is YOUR laptop computer. YOU use it to talk to YOUR friend. It has never had any cables, and there are no outlets in YOUR room. Using the laptop, YOU can connect to the internet. Many of the other features don’t seem to work, though.

>What do you mean by "incredible pain and suffering"? Does something attack you, or does it come from nowhere?

It’s different every time. This place abhors consistency- the moment YOU think YOU’VE become comfortable, IT changes the format.

>how did YOU get inside and stuck in this house?

YOU have always lived here. YOU think YOU were born here.

4/4 quietCrisis 2024/11/27(Wed)22:42 No. 1100490 ID: 89a43f
File 173277613750.png - (588.03KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 8.png )

>Examine BOXES

These boxes contain YOUR belongings. YOU packed them up when YOU decided to move out, and haven’t seen any reason to unpack them. Now, of course, YOU know bringing the boxes with YOU was a naive pipe dream- YOU can’t even get YOURSELF out of here. There used to be more boxes. YOU don’t know where they go.

>have you tried upgrading your room somehow?

YOU don’t see the point. YOU’RE trying to leave. YOU did put up the poster of the cat in a vague attempt to keep YOUR own spirits up, but it doesn’t really make YOU feel better.

The boxes contain mostly clothing. Some miscellaneous art supplies are in here too, with some rolled up posters, a stuffed animal or two, an ancient game console with no games, YOUR old diary, and YOUR leftover packing supplies (strapping tape, bubble wrap, and newspaper.)

>does EVERYTHING reset every time? like, when we open these boxes and dig around, are they gonna be the exact same stuff they've always been prior to every attempt? if so, we gotta start finding the parameters of what is and isn't permanently changeable -- after all, your tally marks don't reset, so there's some kind of line here.

Everything on YOUR person usually resets when YOU die. Sometimes, items YOU were carrying return with YOU to YOUR room. As for the room itself, changes YOU make to it stay. YOUR tallies, the stain, the carving on the door and YOUR packed boxes were all changes YOU made. Sometimes, though, the house makes changes of ITS own.

YOUR heart rate has slowed a bit, but YOU still don’t feel ready to leave the room. YOU can pick up some supplies, but YOU only have so much room in YOUR pockets. Currently, YOU are carrying nothing.

>Take STUFFED ANIMAL
>Take CRAFT KNIFE
>Take GLUE
>Take GLITTER
>Take PAINT AND BRUSHES
>Take CANVAS
>Take STRAPPING TAPE
>Take DIARY
>Examine ____
>Talk to FRIEND

>>1100490
>no point in upgrading
On the contrary, doing so might help you move out, by increasing morale or even boosting your personal power somehow.

Use the paint to cover the stain on your desk. Out of sight, out of mind.

>>1100487
Ooh, I'm thinking shortcut. Find a way to cut open that vulnerability and turn it into a trapdoor, it might let you skip rooms on future runs.

>>1100490
>YOU don’t see the point. YOU’RE trying to leave.
If at first you don't succeed, try again with better starting conditions. You keep losing, but have you made better progress each time? If not, maybe it's time to prepare a head start.

>Sometimes you retain items, but anything you take with you is not guaranteed to respawn in your room
Got it. Play this like an extraction shooter.
Stop trying to make a beeline for the exit on every run. Spend a few runs gathering loot and returning to your room. Stock up, gather intel, and when the time is right, take on a milestone. The first thing you need to learn is how to use what you have; you may have had the key to escaping on you in a previous run and never even realized it.

Okay, first up, write about the voices in your head.
Then try to draw a thing. Each run, paint over your old paintings until you make one you think could do okay at a gala.

Head out, bring nothing this time. Remember, start out gathering loot.

>>1100493
Most of these seem like good ideas. Cutting into the room above could go either way - you might get a new exit, but you might also let Somethings into your room.

Paint something nice over the desk corner to calm your mind.

take DIARY. What did YOU last write in there?

>>1100490

> YOU don’t see the point. YOU’RE trying to leave. YOU did put up the poster of the cat in a vague attempt to keep YOUR own spirits up, but it doesn’t really make YOU feel better.

This place changes things. That kills YOU. That stops YOU from moving out. Yet the poster is still there. Why?

What it says doesn't matter. Even if it said "let go and fall," YOU were still the one who put it there. That means YOU can change things too. The only question is what to change that will give YOU a sorely needed advantage.

Is YOUR friend there? Maybe YOU need to talk to them.

>>1100490
EXAMINE diary
TALK to friend

If you intend to do a looting run, take the STRAPPING TAPE and an EMPTY BOX to carry stuff back.
If you don't, I'm not sure what could end up being useful. How do your escape attempts usually go ?

>>1100490
Hug STUFFED ANIMAL

1/4 quietCrisis 2024/12/01(Sun)17:01 No. 1100626 ID: 89a43f
File 173310130374.png - (475.48KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 9.png )

>Take DIARY
>Read DIARY

Oh no. This is cringe. YOU were much younger when YOU wrote this. It says:

Dear Diary,

FUCK THIS!!!!!!!!!!! This house is a FUCKING NIGHTMARE, and I can’t stay here a MINUTE LONGER.

(The words “Minute” and “Longer” are underlined at least five times.)

When I get out of here, I won’t even look back. I’ll steal a car or something. I’ll drive until there’s no more road left. Whatever it takes to NEVER SEE THIS PLACE AGAIN. That’ll show IT. Then, IT’LL regret everything. I HOPE IT WISHES I WAS NEVER BORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…YOU haven’t written in this since YOU decided to move out. YOU guess that was a longer time ago than YOU thought.

YOU put the diary down. Carrying this feels like bad luck.

>Take BOX and STRAPPING TAPE

YOU take the box and put the strapping tape inside. This will slow YOU down, but YOU’LL be able to carry more.

>Consider CARVING INTO THE ROOM ABOVE YOU

This could be potentially useful, but YOU’RE not a hundred percent sure what would happen if YOU did it. YOUR bedroom is generally fairly stable- YOU’VE never seen anything in it move or change while YOU’RE in it. YOU’RE not sure if carving into the room above would extend that property to the connected room, locking them together and giving YOU more space… or if it would destroy what little stability YOUR room has.

Either way, YOU can’t do that with the craft knife. YOU would need a much larger knife, or maybe a saw. And even then, it would be difficult.

2/4 quietCrisis 2024/12/01(Sun)17:02 No. 1100627 ID: 89a43f
File 173310135388.png - (1.17MB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 10.png )

>Paint over STAIN

…YOU couldn’t figure out how to match the color, so YOU just got funky with it.

Doing this took a long time, and stressed YOU out, but YOU will no longer accumulate stress by looking at the stain. So maybe it’s worth it.

3/4 quietCrisis 2024/12/01(Sun)17:03 No. 1100628 ID: 89a43f
File 173310139959.png - (629.29KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 11.png )

>Hug STUFFED ANIMAL

YOU hug the round stuffed ladybug as tightly as YOU can. Its stuffing has been compressed over the years, so it doesn’t put up much resistance. YOU think this thing had a name once. YOU don’t really remember it.

YOU heal a little bit of stress for hugging something soft. YOU consider the merits of bringing it with YOU.

4/4 quietCrisis 2024/12/01(Sun)17:06 No. 1100630 ID: 89a43f
File 173310161249.png - (678.01KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 12.png )

>Talk to FRIEND

YOU open the chat client on YOUR computer. YOU already have a message waiting for YOU from YANNA. YOU don’t know how long this message has been waiting for YOU.

YANNA: Hey you!

SHE types it in lowercase. When SHE says it, it feels like a term of endearment, and not the only form of address YOU have ever known.

YOU: Hi, YANNA.
It takes a minute or two for HER to reply.

YANNA: Sorry, lol, were you out? Hope I didn’t bother you.
YOU: I was. But it’s okay.
YOU: I’m sorry I didn’t reply.
YOU: Did YOU want to talk about something?
YANNA: It wasn’t urgent haha. I just wanted to check in.

YOU pause.

YOU: Check in?
YANNA: Yeah well, like.
YANNA: It seems like you’ve been away more lately?
YANNA: I get worried when I don’t hear from you.
YANNA: Given everything we’ve talked about.

YOU aren’t sure how to respond to that. YOU don’t want YANNA to worry. YANNA worrying will do nothing to help YOU, and it’ll make HER upset.

What to do?

>Say _____
>Take _____
>Examine _____

>>1100630
Tell her you're working on moving out, but it's harder than you expected. You're not going to give up though. You'll win someday.

>>1100631
That seems right. Also, do not take the ladybug, at least not until the intended final run (maybe not even then) ; you might lose it and that would suck. If you lose something, how often does it show up again?

Loving this so far. The ability to set a highly tense scene happening in a small, unnassuming space is as rare as it is valued.

How much does SHE know about the situation with the house? How much do YOU feel YOU can tell HER without thinking YOU are making it all up?

Tell HER that YOU tried leaving but were denied again, but YOU are feeling things will be different soon. YOU are becoming more capable and self-sufficient as of late.
Next, ask HER about how SHE'S been doing and what is it like where SHE lives.

Discussion Thread quietCrisis 2024/12/02(Mon)16:42 No. 1100689 ID: 89a43f
File 173318652798.png - (281.09KB , 524x524 , sketch1733185855111.png )

I have no idea if people will want to use this, but I went ahead and made a discussion thread. Find it here: https://questden.org/kusaba/questdis/res/143057.html

YOU should reassure YANNA, or at least try to, and chat a bit before leaving YOUR room. Who is SHE, and how much does she know about YOUR situation ? How much can YOU tell HER ?

Also, I just noticed, YOU got really long nails (or at least YOU do on YOUR left index finger), is there a reason for that ?

play it off as just dealing with problems around the house, chores and the like. Then distract by asking how things are going with her.

1/2 quietCrisis 2024/12/11(Wed)14:35 No. 1101132 ID: 89a43f
File 173395653301.png - (580.16KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 13.png )

>What does YANNA know?

YOU’VE technically told YANNA everything. YOU think HER life must be much different from YOURS- SHE knows, but SHE doesn’t really understand. SHE thinks YOU’RE speaking in metaphor, or… something else. SHE worries more when YOU’RE direct with HER.

YOU don’t really blame HER. SHE would be right to worry about YOU. It’s just that worrying does nothing for YOU.

>Reassure YANNA.

YOU: I’M busy with the move. Sorry.
YANNA: Right. The move. Any progress?
YOU: More progress than the last time I tried. I think things are going to be different soon.
YANNA: That’s good, I think.
YOU: I still have a lot to do, though, sorry.

YOU remember YOUR plan.

YOU: Chores. And things.
YANNA: Chores and things.
YOU: Yeah.
YANNA: You’ve been doing chores and things for a long time, buddy.

Ouch.

YOU: …Yeah.

2/2 quietCrisis 2024/12/11(Wed)14:36 No. 1101133 ID: 89a43f
File 173395659266.png - (652.39KB , 1000x775 , Moving Out 14.png )

>Examine LONG NAILS.

Are they long? They’ve always been this way. YOU think.

>Put down LADYBUG

YOU really don’t want to lose this. YOU put it in a box YOU don’t intend to take with YOU.

>Ask YANNA about HER life.

YOU: How are things with YOU?
YANNA: Oh, uh… okay. I got a new job.

SHE got a new job in the time since YOU’VE talked last? That’s not good. It must have been a long time.

YOU: Oh. Congratulations!
YOU: Still retail?
YANNA: Oh, no, actually. I’m putting retail behind me and officially becoming an office drone.
YOU: Congratulations.
YOU: …Or I’m sorry to hear that.
YOU: Whichever applies.
YANNA: Lmao
YANNA: I think this is good for me actually haha. It’s, like, an admin assistant thing.
YOU: What does the company do?
YANNA: Uh, I don’t really know, to be honest. Something data-related. I just take appointments and make coffee, so I guess it doesn’t really matter if I understand the company.
YANNA: Lol
YOU: Bet it pays better than retail, though.
YANNA: Dude. I have health insurance.
YOU: Get out of town.
YANNA: Dental AND vision.
YOU: OMG

YOU don’t actually know what health insurance is, but that sounds nice. YOU don’t think YOU’VE ever been to a doctor. Although YOU don’t think YOU want to know what the house thinks a doctor does.

YANNA: Hey, look, I gtg.
YANNA: My lunch is almost over
YOU: Employed bastard.
YANNA: Talk later, okay?
YOU: Yeah! Yeah, for sure.
YANNA: I’m serious. Don’t make me wait like a month to hear from you again.
YOU: …I’ll try.

YANNA logs off. YOU close the laptop.

YOUR heart rate has returned to its resting rhythm. What to do now?

>Take _____
>Examine _____
>Leave ROOM