CYOA: Chaplan

“Welcome to Chaplan.”

Those words are echoing in your mind, but you cannot quite place them. What do they mean? Who or what is this Chaplan?.. And, while on that subject.. who are YOU?

You find yourself in the middle of a.. quite bright circular room. As if you’re in an upside down bowl of sorts. While the bright light smack dab in the middle of the ceiling and the fact you don’t see a door in sight are quite important factors to your currently confused mindset, you cannot help but overlook the people nearby you.

How oddly they are dressed.. and wings? Why would they have those?.. On second thought, looking at yourself, is it even that odd? You wear a similar outfit and you seem to have wings too. This is all incredibly disorienting. You cannot remember anything before waking up. Who are you? How.. do you look? Is this how you’re normally dressed?

Inquiries with the other people waking up only reach similar results. Nobody seems to have a clue what is going on or remember even anything. Your only idea is to calm down. Maybe this is normal. A weird sense of normal, perhaps, but maybe it isn’t weird and you’re only freaking out thanks to your amnesia. Your group’s amnesia. Does NOBODY remember anything?

..Wait, that guy in the center.. he’s looking to the light. He’s smirking.. he’s the one guy you haven’t talked to yet, isn’t he? You rush over to him, and he turns back to you. He smiles at you; you’re the only one who ran over to him, didn’t you?

“So there’s only one of you, huh? Listen up, I’ll only say this once.” While you want to protest and ask him things, his tone and the serious look on his face make you realize that might not be smart. “First off.. Don’t try to remember your past. You won’t be able to. You’re better off deciding a new name for yourself and sticking to it.”

“Secondly, you’re a Valky now. I don’t know what it means, don’t ask either. Don’t try to remember any other facts from your past. You’ll only irritate yourself by trying to think of it. This light.. is your way out. It’ll explain little, other than.. well, you’ll notice soon enough.” He looked upwards. The light is terribly bright, but it somehow doesn’t hurt your eyes, and you see that it’s in fact not a lamp, but an orb just hanging there in mid-air.

“Thirdly.. Dying is not a problem. You’d rather die sometimes. Don’t hesitate to commit suicide. There’s worse things than dying, especially since dying just boots you back in here. Yes, it’ll hurt. But trust me, you’re going to face things that will be worse than any nightmare you could imagine you ever had. I know that sounds weird, you’ll get over that as well soon enough.”

The guy’s clothing starts to shine slightly, as if giving off light. “I won the game. Do the same and you get freedom.. I hope. I actually have nothing to reassure me in the least. For all I know, winning could give you a permanent death. Even so, that’d be more pleasant than what I faced, so I welcome it.”

His words terrify your very soul. Things worse than death? And not knowing what becomes of you either way?! “There’s no way to escape otherwise.. Pay attention to others looking around. If they’re just staring blankly, then they are not playing. Not yet realized that they’re there. As long as that occurs, they won’t get into the game, so don’t worry about them. If you catch someone looking around and paying attention to things, talk to them. WORK TOGETHER. You’ll fail on your own.”

His body starts shining now, and beams of light from his body are going towards the orb in the middle of the room. “I.. won the game. I hope to see you later, young Valky. Heck, are you even young, I don’t know. You could be 12, you could be 34. Maybe Valkies are actually hundreds of years old or maybe we’re born the day we realize we’re awake. There’s so little to know, and not a way to find out.”

More beams go upwards, and his body starts fading away. “..Good luck. You know, this light feels.. soothing. Happy. Maybe it’s one final trap before some horrible event… but at least I have a good memory, I guess. This feeling of tranquility.. Goodbye.” His head vanished, nothing of his body remaining but the light beams going up and then consequently fading away.

…You look around, and you notice that indeed.. everyone else is blankly staring into space. No wonder their replies all lacked feeling. Nobody CAN know anything, because they’re all not aware yet.

Just one thing left to do, huh.. You look at the light, and then at yourself. The words male and female spring to mind.. gender.. A name would be nice to have, too. There’s.. nothing there that defines you as either gender, is there? And your voice doesn’t give a hint either. Your senses and feelings have just felt dull since you woke up, so those are no use either. No raging hormones or anything either.

Well, I guess that’s a good place as any to start off. Even if you may be genderless, you feel like it’s the place to start. Are you going to be male.. or female? And for the love of god, what are you gonna name yourself?