>>5580836
>Greg

>>5580836
>Greg

>>5580836
>Greg

>>5580836
>XOneOne
>>Real name Greg, obviously

>>5580836
Fuck this, we need to go play poker like a man. We are we doing high school girl fortune telling shit?

>>5580836
>Dad

Dad

Your Dad. That's who you think of. Greg. Of course, you'd never call him by his real name, he's your father. You've always been a Daddy's girl. Ever since you were young, he played games with you all the time, he wanted to always say it was about “learning math skills!” or god-forbid “money management” skills learned from Monopoly or some nonsense like that. But you know deep down the real reason is so he could spend time with his daughter. Even after you came back from college and found yourself cringing at his conservative views and being busier with your own life; you could still bond from time to time playing games. This may only be a single part of his entire life; but that's what the online instructions said. He'd be perfect for this.

You hold the Jack of Diamonds up to your face and stare deep into the drawings eyes. You feel a little self conscious and silly, but you're all alone in the house, no pets and nobody else, quiet and dark, without distractions. You don't even believe in these kinds of urban legends, you're doing this strictly because of morbid curiosity. You picture your Dad's face in the Jack, his salt-and-pepper facial hair, tall though getting a bit fat. He'd probably fit a little better as King of Diamonds if anything...

After a long enough time of imprinting this image, it was time to start the game. For real. You feel a sensation of anticipation. You hesitate. The same as the hesitation you felt as a kid to turn off the light before running into the bed, so nothing under the bed could reach out and grab your ankle. Even though you know nothing is there and there is nothing to be afraid of, and you know that Corner Solitaire isn't a real thing and it's just a dumb rumor to make teenagers scared like saying Bloody Mary three times into a mirror. Nothing has ever happened, there are no ghosts or anything, it's all just bullshit. You just feel fear because it's made to creep you out. Same as making you sit with your back to the whole room- the urge to turn around just getting stronger and stronger, like sleeping with your back to the door or window. The obvious and instinctive discomfort trying to act like it's anything more then just a monkey behavior.

You have to break the silence now. For some reason, it's hard to make the words out- but you finally do. You speak, barely above a whisper.

”...I don't want to play alone.”

Immediately, the room changes. You feel just how quiet it really is. The sound of the candles burning very softly, the hum of appliances, the sound of your toes adjusting and rustling very slightly on carpet. The sound of your own breath. The crickets outside are quiet now. The sounds of the city and other people seem to have gone completely. Your parent's house isn't too far away from a major road, and yet despite that you don't hear any cars. It's a little unnerving. Once again, logically, you know it's just your nerves, but that doesn't change the way you feel.

The rules of the game are simple. Once the game starts, you have to play solitaire. The three pennies start like this; one is heads up, the other two are tails up. Each time you win a game of solitaire, you flip one tails penny to heads. If all three pennies are heads, you do a final game, and if you win that, you win the whole game. That's Corner Solitaire. However, if you ever get stuck and lose a game of solitaire, you have to flip one of the heads coins over to tails. If you lose a game of solitaire with all three coins being tails-up, you have to throw one coin away. That's bad, but it makes it easier to make all remaining coins heads to win the game at least.

There's only one other rule. Don't ever turn around.

You shuffle the Jack of Diamonds back into the deck and riffle the cards together. You clumsily shuffle the cards with your hands, pushing the ends of the cards through each other and making the deck nice and straight again by pressing it against the plastic, slightly-loose tabletop. The whistling of the table's fabric as you run the plastic card on it is about the only sound in the room that disturbs the uncanny silence.

You make sure your coins are in the right place flipping up one head and two tails. Then, you deal yourself a basic solitaire setup. Seven rows of cards along the table length. One of them is an Ace on top- nice! You can start your foundation pile with that suit now. Finally, you place the deck to the side. You'll need the whole thing for later, but for now, you're fine.

What suit is the first pile you start with?
>Spades
>Diamonds
>Clubs
>Hearts

>>5581345
>Spades
Intriguing start. Is this an actual supernatural quest? are we literally just goung tonplay solitaire, or will we do ither stuff as well? Your writing is solid.

>>5581345
>Spades

Your first foundation pile is spades. You find the ace to it, before spreading to the other cards. Knowing the rules of solitaire, but not necessarily the strategy, you think it's probably a good idea to keep all the piles relatively balanced so you don't run out of legal moves at a later point. Getting the spades out of the way earlier is nice though; the 2 and 3 are placed there, revealing a second ace. The cascading effect of building up each pile and moving cards onto their proper piles means that, at a certain point in the game, there is no more strategy or thought really, you can just turn your brain off and assemble the decks. That's probably half the reason people play solitaire; so they can "win" without too much effort once they get past a certain point.

You finish your first match. You guess it's been about fifteen minutes, but you can't turn around to look at the clock. You reach over to one of your pennies and flip it to heads- two heads, one tails. Perhaps because of the slowness of the game, and the fact you realize you could be here a long time, you feel a surge of boredom and want to suddenly check your phone or go turn on your laptop- do something else. Your Dad always criticized you for that- "Young people, always addicted to screens." Perhaps in a way, he was right.

You bundle the cards back up together, realizing suddenly that the aim of a game of Solitatire is to essentially un-shuffle a deck of cards. Because of this, you should probably extra-shuffle the cards before dealing yourself a new hand. This, combined with your apparent and new boredom, means you find yourself dragging your feet a bit on this task. You feel the plastic fabric of the fold-out table under your finger- dragging a nail across it to hear its noise. Your long nails (unpainted, of course- you were spending the night inside), scratched the plastic and made a distinct sound in the quiet of your room.

scrritt
scrittitt
scrrippptt

In the quiet, the sound seems especially loud. You scratch three, four times- simply out of curiosity and an intrusive thought- not so much intentional time-wasting behavior. But you become aware of yourself halfway through, hoping you aren't "ruining" the game, after all, you might turn around or get up and stop playing before you're done if you are too absent-minded about this whole thing.

You take your finger down and stop yourself from scratching the table again halfway through the motion- until you hear it.

scrittt

The sound. You didn't move your finger. You feel a chill go up your spine. You didn't make that sound!

It didn't sound like it came from behind you, really, just all around. But it was unmistakable. It was the same sound as the tabletop being scratched by your finger. You look down a bit, seeing of you moved your wrist, perhaps, or if your foot somehow moved the table along your fingernail to make the sound in a backwards way- but these rational theories are a coping mechanism for what you already know. Something else made that sound. Copied your sound. That moment of silence just after the sound issued out- as uncanny as when a branch scratches your window at night. Unusually vivid and detailed silence.

You start to feel really uneasy. You really, really want to turn around. You press your thighs together and shrink your head down between your shoulders, trying to sink down into yourself as much as possible in a defensive posture. Humans tend to be pretty good barometers for when something feels "off", even if they don't know why. All those alarm bells are ringing now. Of course, this logically must just be a result of your nerves. After all, something weird happened, but it was only because you were more susceptible to it- while trying to follow the rules of some creepypasta "game" you found on a scary paranormal urban legends online forum...

Of course, your Mother and Father instilled such values in you from a young age. Being vaguely Christian and moral people, but telling you to value scientific thinking. Ghosts and spirits aren't real. But your Mom still believed in certain things; Karma or "energy"... Your energy is starting to feel a little out of whack right now. You fumble with shuffling the cards a bit as you sit there, unsure of what to do exactly. It was just a noise, and not even something malicious or evil, just a strange repeat of noises you were already making. There's no reason to get this upset. If you turn around right now, you will see an empty room with nothing in it, and the spell will be broken. But you're... kinda scared to. What should you do?

>Ask if someone is there
>Continue dealing the cards
>Scratch the table again and see if you can repeat the phenomena

>>5581960
>Continue dealing the cards

>>5581960
>Continue dealing the cards

>>5581960
>Greg

>>5581960
>Greg

You continue dealing the cards, going to your second game of solitaire. You fidget nervously, wanting to go quick but not rush- you want to finish this stupid urban legend as quickly as possible.

...You weren't imagining it, right? That was a real thing?

Putting the cards out on the table, you begin the basic piles and set up your row of cards to deal out. You feel the unease of sitting with your back to the room, yet still. And then; another sound. From behind you, the slightest sound of something shuffling on the carpet. Like a toe, or somebody shifting ever so uncomfortably forward. Instinctively, you turn your head to the side. There, you swear, you SWEAR, you feel something just in your absolute periphery. Most of your view is now dominated by the wall, but there is something there. Something lightless, behind you, just out of the range of your vision on that side of your head, behind you. There is a feeling of absolute tension, like seconds before two cats start fighting when they're all reared up and down hissing and yowling at each other. Two frat boys with their fists balled up.

Slowly, you turn your head back forward- obediently following the rules of the game, and the tension relaxes. But you know that something is off, still. This is no rumor. Somehow, someway, playing this game has drawn in something- a ghost? Some negative-energy-karma creature? A demon? Your own psychic creation of your fear and superstition? You have no way of knowing for sure. But in this moment, you feel as though your worldview is crumbling. The safe and predictable world of science and technology, despite its shadowy edges you have always probed with curiosity, has always given you safety in what you know is true. But now, that is not the case. This is proof of the supernatural, right here. This can't just be nerves now. Despite having no proof, not even a real way to describe how you feel at this moment, you know that you aren't alone in this room anymore.

The cards are layed out in front of you. Two coins are heads up. It's time to get back to the game.

...Your dad always told you every game was winnable. Of course, he always thinks the world is a fair place. Sometimes it isn't. Just as this game of solitaire isn't.

You got dealt a bad set of cards. Almost every card up is black right now, and not in the right order. You draw your next card and it's red- and yet doesn't match. No foundation piles, no way to put it on one of your seven decks across the layout. You're stuck without any moves. You spend an inordinate amount of time double and triple checking yourself, but you know you're stuck now without any valid means. That means you lost this game. Damn. Maybe if you would have just done one thing differently, you could have made success out of this cursed shuffle, but it's too late now.

You have to turn one of your hard-earned pennies over back to tails. The realization that you could potentially playing this game for hours- flipping between wins and losses without permanent forward progress- is starting to dawn on you. You could be trapped doing... this. Stuck in this situation. You move your hand towards the pennies and, in an instant, realize that nobody is forcing you to play by the rules. It's just a game with rules you're enforcing yourself, after all- it's a simple game of solitaire. You could just cheat and call that a win, or a draw. After all, you're the one making the rules here. After all, winning now would mean three upwards pennies- and then you'd only be one win away from ending this game of Corner Solitaire!

>Cheat & Force a win out of this game
>Flip a Penny over to Tails

>>5582598

>Flip a Penny over to Tails

Dad wouldn't approve.

>>5582598
This stinks of witchery, Play fairly.

>Flip a penny over to tails

>>5582598
>Cheat & Force a win out of this game

>>5582598
>Flip a Penny over to Tails

You decide to play fairly, instead of trying to cheat. You flip a coin over to tails, and shuffle another round. It seems whatever forces were watching you have loosened up, but have not fully left.

As you deal out the next set of cards, you begin to feel the sensation of being watched. Drilled into from behind; the red hot eyes of something peering at you makes your hackles raise. You are trying to focus on the game but, it's getting harder and harder the longer you sit here. You fidget, so desperately wanting to turn around, instinctively wanting your eyes to view any potential threats. You close them, and whimper as soft and low as you can, trying not to attract attention.

It is only when you open them again do you see something new. It appears you have drawn some kind of attention. On the table in front of you, all your cards you have dealt out are... they're all Spades. Every single card. You see two Kings of Spades, three 6s of Spades, every card is black. This is impossible. You had a full set of cards on this table but a moment ago- but now they're all the same suite. You feel another wave of horror as you realize that these cards were in front of your face, and it only took a second of closing your eyes to let this change happen unseen. Of course, this also makes this deal impossible to complete, or perhaps much easier to complete depending on how you look at it.

What do you do?

>Try to continue on quietly
>Say "That's cheating" aloud

>>5583153
>Say "That's cheating" aloud

>>5583153
>Say "That's cheating" aloud

>>5583153
>Say "That's cheating" aloud

>>5583153
>Get Greg to beat their ass for cheating.

>>5583153
>Say "That's cheating" aloud

When seeing this clearly supernatural event unfolding before your very eyes, especially one that is messing with the game, it gives you a sense of helplessness. Of being trapped- that whatever force is monitoring this game can also bend the rules or ruin it for you. According to the instructions and legend of the game online- this entity is dispelled when the game is completed. So if it can ruin the game and force you to lose with changing the cards then, there would be no way to escape it...

"That... That's cheating."

You finally muster up the courage to say it. As if to instantly answer your comment, the room goes silent again, and as you blink, you start to see the spade symbols disappear from the cards. A bit like floaters in your vision, fading like waking from a dream, the images of the altered cards quickly disappear before your very eyes and they become normal again. Then, the sound. It sounds like a lipless mouth, hissing out behind you.

"kekeke..."

A laugh.

Over the next few minutes, you deal yourself your cards and try to make this game count. After arranging the cards into your piles, you mange to eek out another win. Another penny has returned to the face up position- two heads, one tails.

However, the level of activity has seem to increase. The longer the night goes on, the subtle arrangements and noises behind you are getting louder. From the slightest sensation of presence to what is now... breathing. Full blown breathing, which you can almost feel. Your heart pounds in your ears as the wrongness of this situation, or ignoring an obvious and real thing behind you, is making you very uncomfortable. Your hands shake as you feel something run its fingers through your hair.

You want to get this over with now as fast as possible. You didn't believe the urban legend, you thought it would be fun, fun to see if the supernatural was real. But instead you were dropped into a haunting and it was not fun in the slightest. The faster you try to finish the game, the faster it can end. But you are starting to feel clumsy from how unnerved you are; if you make mistakes when trying to play solitaire, distracted or not, it could cause you to start failing your next draw. Also, you need to go pee. There's now way you can turn around and leave your spot unless...

Do you want to grab your flower? Or force yourself to keep going? After all, you only need to do two more winning games to finish Corner Solitaire. But how long can you make it?

>Continue Playing
>Grab the Flower

>>5584090
>Grab the Flower

>>5584090
>Grab the Flower
If we're getting dragged to hell or whatever the fuck, I refuse to do it while peeing ourselves.

>>5584090
We need to pee?
>Use this to your advantage and piss on him.

You hear the breathing get louder as you pause; stop moving and shuffling the cards. Sitting up straight. Whatever "thing" is anxious for you to keep going, impatient. You hear the creaking of the floor, shuffling of feet impatiently. The sound of skin sliding on skin; rubbing an arm or hands clasped together impatiently, the sound of a fingernail clicking against another. You feel a creeping sensation of it getting closer- and then the feeling of heat of actual breath against the back of your ear- the wetness of a real living mouth.

"Play the game."

With a scared shriek- you stand up from the chair and knock it out from under you in your haste; something clasping around your waist- you close your eyes and dive for the flower. Catching it in your hands and nearly crumpling the poor thing. And instantly, it stops. The sound, the heat, the breath, everything.

Shaking, you turn around for the first time in over half and hour to the rest of your room, scared out of your life- fearful of whatever thing you summoned to play this horrible game... But the room is empty. It is so very quiet, dark, lit barely by half melted candles. There is nothing but total and absolute peace.

You shakily step out, feeling nervous from every shadow. You cringe at the thought of facing the mirror on the way to the restroom, where you do your business without taking your hand off the flower- though you don't know how powerful this token even is, but man, are you glad you brought it. The online instructions for Corner Solitaire said you didn't actually need a flower to play the game- it was only there if you needed a break. And that's what you need now.

You can't believe what you've gotten yourself into. You followed an online tutorial on how to play a creepypasta card game, alone, like saying Bloody Mary into a mirror. It's creepy to think about, but nothing ever happens when you try it- it's about the thrill of challenging danger. You've done it before, especially as a younger teenage girl, at slumber parties and in the high school bathrooms late at night- the creepiness upping your adrenaline and high of challenging the unknown. But now, it's real, and you hate it. You wish you never did this. But it's too late to back at now. You have to finish what you started.

But in the meantime, this short reprieve of time, in the instants between your game and its continuation, there is an incredible feeling of peace. It's a fragile peace, but it is there. Almost tangible. It is the eye of the storm. You've felt this way before. Being disciplined by your parents and sent to your room, getting into a fight with your boyfriend before you slam the door and sulk- there is always a few minutes of calm between the stress and yelling, the noise, and then the resolution, the fallout or consequences of your choices or clashes of personality. This magical moment between. It is somehow more peaceful then nights alone, with nothing to do or nothing to bother you, but it is also followed by the shadow of dread as you know that eventually you must return to your task.

You go to your kitchen through the dark house and get yourself some water. You flip the lightswitch, but it doesn't turn on. You're in darkness still. You can navigate well enough by the clocks and moonlight pouring in through the bay windows leading to a backyard that feels so free and clean of anything that may wish to harm you. Or force you to play a game. Somehow, despite being trapped in this dark house, you feel less threatened now then when in your room at the chair. This flower has given you a feeling of safety and safe passage- despite you somehow knowing it is purely because of the rules of the "game" that whatever force this is follows- the flower is merely a token with no power of its own.

While gliding back to your room, you see the knocked over chair and the candles burning- and you look down to your flower. Wow, you clipped this this very night, and yet despite this, its already half wilted. The color has gone from the tips of the petals and the leaves are turning yellow and brown. This is why the online guides said to take a fresh one- though you know this isn't natural decay. Just judging by your gut feeling, you could probably get one more break out of the flower- if you really needed it. But with any luck, you will finish this game and be done with this nightmare you have walked into.

Obediently, you set the chair back up at the table with your cards out. You dust yourself off, get down into a comfortable sitting position, and place the flower back on its place on the table. You put your hands up, and you are ready to play again.

Without even needing to say anything, you can feel whatever that thing was or is returning behind you, little by little, quietly, its presence making itself known through the most subtle and instinctual of your senses. You're right back in the thick of it now.

You glance over to your pennies on the table, and find all three have been switched to tails. You know you didn't leave them like that when you left- in a panic you reach for them, and your hand draws away in disgust and fear as you feel the warmth of the pennies, as though they have just been clutched greedily in the hand of a living creature for minutes before this- perhaps the entire time you were gone. But you know this can't be the case. There is nothing and no-one else in this house- at least not physically. It is only a trick. And sure enough, when you look again, you see your pennies have returned to before- two heads and one tails.

With a renewed determination, you put the cards on the table into their rows and begin to set up your next foundation piles. You set the diamonds on the left, the spades on the right, then the diamonds on their right, and finally move to hearts on the farthest right side, before disaster strikes.

Without meaning it, you press a card down into the table's surface and release, the plastic card bending and releasing its energy like a spring, catching the air at just an angle that it flips behind you. You turn your head halfway to the right in reflex, stopping, as you can see something in your absolute right periphery. There is something standing there, for real, really real, your card having disappeared behind you now on the carpet somewhere. You need the card, and you foolishly dropped it into harms way. You can't turn around any more without breaking the rules of the game, and you're terrified out of your mind at what to do. What do you do?

>Get down on your hands and knees and shimmy backwards to find the card without turning around
>Pick up the flower to grab the card safely
>Ask for the card back out loud

>>5584503
>Ask for the card back out loud

>>5584503
>Ask for the card back out loud

>>5584503
>Get down on your hands and knees and shimmy backwards to find the card without turning around

>>5584503
>Ask for the card back out loud
Secret SMT quest?

You sit there, unsure of what to do. Turning your head back forward towards your game, sans one vital card you will need to win, you decide to ask for a little help. To keep in the spirit of the "game".

"Can I have that card back?"

There is no sound, only a sense of quiet. Then, suddenly, on your left side, you feel something sliding into your hand. It's plastic. It's the card, the sharp edge digging into your finger. You gently close your hand around the playing card, and feel something, one single digit, press against your own for a single second. It is remarkably like a human hand, just cold. It pulls away, and the card is yours again.

You shiver as you place the card back on the table, and finish this hand. You have completed all four piles, and are now ready to shuffle the cards again. You flip the last tails penny up to heads- and now have three face up pennies.

One more game, and you win.

You awkwardly push the ends of the cards together, forcing them back into place and positioning, randomizing them up. You briefly think of trying to lace the deck with cards as to make it easier to win; but you can't think of how to do that on the fly, especially not while being "watched" and not wanting to "cheat".

So instead, you just deal your own cards out. You feel like a solitaire pro. Placing the cards into their stacks and rows, you find two lucky aces, letting you start your piles early. This game is in the bag. You don't dare to smile or celebrate yet, but somehow you feel like light is at the end of the tunnel.

Soon, the hearts are done. Then the spades. Only a few cards are left, the moves are automatic now. Your fingers feel like they're cut up from shuffling and playing with these cards so intently; and you briefly wonder why you were so stressed to begin with. Besides the supernatural events happening all behind you which have been strangely quiet.

Just then, before you finish your final game, something comes closer. It's just over your shoulder now, a terrifying realization that the shadow looms over- you can just barely see it in your periphery, barely peeking through the gaps in your hair on the side of your head, more blatant and brazen then ever before. If you turn your head, you will see it directly now. You face forward without moving your eyes an inch, freezing up at this sudden intrusion into your space. Your shoulder on the opposite side suddenly feels weight as a hand pressed down on it.

"Don't you want to see me first before you're done?"

>Finish the game
>Turn and look

>>5585350
>Finish the game

>>5585350
>Finish the game

>>5585350
>Finish the game

>>5585350
>Turn and look
TEMPTATION, ACCURSED TEMPTATION

>>5585350
>Finish the game

You ignore the voice and do not falter- you finish the second to last suit, with the order of the final suit remaining obvious and overt in front of you. You feel your feet start to move- only to realize the room is shaking, the candles jiggling precariously on the table. Only two or three motions of your hands remaining. You hear an unholy, serpentine hiss in your ear as you slam the cards on top of the foundation piles- creating four fully sorted and stacked suits. That's it, the end of the game.

And in that instant, the hissing stops. The shaking ends. The room becomes quiet. You whirl around in a panic, cringing at the thought of having broken the rules too quickly- and behind you you see... nothing. Only the dark, candle-lit room, silent, empty as it ever was. The entire house settles with a light creak, the absolute silence oppressing over everything- and then you hear a siren far in the distance. The sound of tires on wet roadway. The sound of a cricket. It's over.

You can't believe the nightmare is over just yet- you're holding out that at any moment, it will start again. Just as quickly as it came, it left you- and judging by the clock, less than an hour of your life has passed you. There is an uncanny feeling of doubt and confusion from the simple act of stacking cards somehow could end what had just happened to you, the unscientific fulfillment of some cryptic and arcane rule of the universe, that despite its apparent arbitrary nature, yet somehow stopped the haunting that threatened you in ways you did not even know.

Looking at your cards fearfully, the source and gateway for what happened hear tonight, you find nothing but plastic and basic ink and design. You riffle through the cards in your hands, your stomach lurching when you reach the diamonds.

Impossible, there are markings on the Jack. The Jack of Diamonds. In what appears to be sharpie, written on the white face of the card, is a tiny message in curt handwriting.

Good Game!

File: Solitaire cascade.gif (1.19 MB, 500x284)

1.19 MB GIF

----
Hey everyone, thanks for playing Corner Solitaire! This was a weird quest idea that was based on a few specific scenes or feelings I wanted to try writing out. I know it was a bit short but I got out the scenes I wanted to describe for the most part, though I think it was a bit lackluster.

The main disappointing thing was how quickly it ramped up the tension. The original idea I had for this quest was to have literally zero actual effects or supernatural events happen until the very end, everything just being an uncanny "feeling" or ominous noise or sensation, with the create climax of the quest being like a single chair falling over or maybe hearing one word spoken aloud in your house while alone. That was more what I was going for, but I found it really hard to continue that tension the whole way through and had to start ramping up the events to try and keep things in a forward trajectory. Maybe if I had more writing skill.

As for yourself; I'd like some feedback. Did you find any of the ideas or scenes in the quest creepy or "scary"? Let me know what you think. Thanks for playing.

>>5586033
This was a neat one-shot, thanks for running it!
Hope someone archives this, it was fun.

>>5586033
I think it was pretty neat as an idea, but too thin to have lasted even THIS long without the ehavier suoernatural emphasis. Without those elements, I would have lost interest a while back. As was, it was the success of establishing a creepy vibe and your very impressive writing that kept me reading.

Thank you for running it! Are you going to archive it?

>>5586061
>>5586066
Archived. https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5580836/

>>5586066
Yeah, I wish I could have kept it going with less overt supernatural stuff if possible, but I can see how it would get tiring. My ideal for the quest was written above, a type of extreme "slow born atmospheric bone-chilling horror with ZERO jumpscares" kind of thing. The original idea for the quest was playing Solitaire around the corner, as in a 90 degree corner or wall where you'd set up your table and a hand could reach around or a creature could peak and jumpscare the player. I liked the idea of more subtle horror more, so something like a bucket of coins placed there where you wouldn't see but just hear the loud clinking of a coin dropped in was creepy enough to me, which is where the penny idea came from.

>>5586033

Bravo! This was a delightfully creepy run. Not every quest needs to be a twenty thread monster, something like this is perfect in small doses.

Thanks for running.

>>5586078
Sweet, good to see it'll be remembered.
I'm almost curious to ask about what would've happened if we turned around at any point.

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300 KB JPG

>>5586033
I really admired your writing and scene-setting! I enjoyed your depiction of the protagonist thoughts and sensations, the emphasis on her small movements and feelings.

I have to say, I did not find it frightening or disturbing, because whilst you did successfully inhabit the player, and it felt there was some psychological affinity being conveyed, there was not a tremendous sense of threat or trauma lingering in the background (maybe you were not trying to convey this). I was engaged more by the mystery of motivation and manifestation, there was an intensity to this - I kept expecting some Silent Hill or Kojima Productions P.T. style family horror reveal with the father.

If you wanted to move in that direction you could incorporate memories, maybe as the protagonist girl glances around the room she could see more items, photos or objects that remind her of past scenes or life events (with friends, with the father etc) before each turn of the card. What I also liked with regards to your writing is it was relatively understated - the idea with horror is to produce the unnerving sensation without repetitively using the horror words, eg demon, ghost, blood, it is very frightening!! etc etc. (See the TS Eliot objective correlative theory if you want more detail on this)

You could trigger new memory recollections that explore why she plays the game, surface reenactments of a relived moment of distress, or you could use them as prompts (pbta style) from the player audience here to further develop the scenario eg, what does she see in this photo that reminds her of a time her father made her resent him etc. You could make this more supernatural by doing the P.T. thing eg the radio or tv / phone / tablet turns on with a news event alert mentioning something disturbingly related etc. and describe and elaborate the scenario further. Maybe things are happening outside in the world... but she is trapped in the room playing the game, and cannot get out to help somehow unless she completes it?

Overall I really enjoyed this experiment, I was very impressed by the writing and invention of this established scenario! I have to admit also (if another anon had not highlighted it on the qtg) I would have missed it, I thought just glancing at your cover picture it was literally about playing solitaire lol. I am very glad I read it, though!

roll 1d20

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5589673