Welcome to Storium, the online storytelling game.

Storium turns creative writing into a multiplayer game. It’s free to play and easy to get started. Learn more about Storium...

Narrator
Cowbot

(you)

(switch)

Cast

None yet.

Clarissa Hart
(you)
Danny Dannon
(you)
Kelly McTavish
(you)

Chapter 1, Scene 2 Act , Scene 2

Place
Crescens Park

The dream that night was especially strong.

You sat on a park bench, looking at the scenery around you. It was all amazing and beautiful. Yet, the person’s words filled you with despair. It seems like something was missing, or in danger of being gone forever.

The person, whose exact words you cannot recall, seemed to be referring to the park itself. The conversation conveys a profound sense of loss. Something beautiful that, if lost once, can never be regained again.

When you wake up, you feel the dream draining away from your mind, escaping you as quickly as it came. Soon, all that remains is the blurry imagery of the park, and the gloomy emotions lingering from the person’s ominous words.

Then it dawns on you: Oh, the park in the dream. It was Crescens Park, in the city. Why, you haven’t been there in forever! Immediately, there seems to be an urging in your mind.

Go.

[Assuming everyone wishes to go, you would all just happen to arrive at around the same time. Feel free to remark on the oddity of it.]

Kelly McTavish
Kelly McTavish (youTheDoctor455) moved

Kelly groggily picks herself off her couch, digs through the fridge and drinks straight from a milk carton. She returns to the couch and tries to fall asleep again, to push the dream away, to ignore this odd urge she felt building in her.

After about fifteen minutes of shifting around on the couch trying to find a more comfortable position, “Oh fuck it. First waking dreams, then the neighbors accuse me of stealing their cats! What’s next?”

She lets out an irritable sigh, gets up, gets more or less dressed in jeans, a simple t-shirt and black bunny slippers.

She ducks down into the nearest subway, and boards the first tram heading to the park. Once at the right station, she gets out, climbs the stairs back to the surface, and starts searching the park for that set of benches from her dream. A task made a bit more difficult in the middle of the night when you were too stupid to bring a flashlight.

Nice one Kelly, nice… this just gets better and better.

Clarissa Hart
Clarissa Hart (youTimeLady) moved

Clarissa bites her lower lip and considers her options. She really ought to get back to be, see if she can try to get a good night’s sleep. On the other hand, she can’t shake the desire to visit the park from her dream. After all, it was the first time in ages that the dream has changed on a night without a night terror.

Finally resolved in her decision, she gets up and dresses in jeans, a pink and black cherry blossom print kimono blouse, and black ballet flats. She makes her way to the park.

Once there pulls out her keyring with the LED flashlight and looks for the bench from her dream. As long as she’s here she may as well take a look.

Kelly McTavish
Kelly McTavish (youTheDoctor455) moved

After searching for about ten minutes, Kelly was nearly ready to give up when she saw a powerful flashlight beam heading her way. McTavish squinted to see who it was… looked like a woman much thinner than herself…

“Uhm… hello officer,” she ventures, “No, I’m not drunk, and no I’m not homeless… I’m just having a walk in the park. Can’t sleep.”

Clarissa Hart
Clarissa Hart (youTimeLady) moved

Clarissa stops when she sees the woman from the sleep specialist’s office, Kelly. Now this was odd. Had they both had the same dream again? She takes a few steps closer and angles her light downward to maker her face easier to see.

“I’m not a police officer. I’m Clarissa Hart. I think we met at the doctor’s office this afternoon. I had a dream about the park and felt like I should come look for the park bench in my dream.” She says

Kelly McTavish
Kelly McTavish (youTheDoctor455) moved

“Oh!” Kelly says, visibly relieved, “Thank goodness… I’m glad its you I bumped into.”

Kelly moves in to give Clarissa a friendly hug, but stops in the middle of it, her self-consciousness making her stop. That’s right… we just met… and this isn’t like Europe… Americans wait a bit longer before going for a hug… I think…

Clarissa Hart
Clarissa Hart (youTimeLady) moved

Clarissa sees the cue and moves in to hug Kelly. Although she doesn’t usually hug people she doesn’t know, she has always been a touchy-feely sort of person.

“I take it this means we had the same dream again?” She says

The narrator continued the scene

Although not of immediate importance, a large van pulls up to the park. A man steps out and, after opening the back of the van, begins taking out various surveying equipment.

Danny Dannon
Danny Dannon (youDeano) moved

Danny stretches and yawns. Great. Another terrible night’s sleep.

The air in his room seems unusually clear … and cool … until he realises that he isn’t in his room at all.

He had dreamt of a park with vines that had thrown themselves over statues and fountains and flowers that turned their faces up to the sun. Now he was awake and he was in the same park, only it was night and the plant life seemed afraid to grow.

Having suffered with somnambulism for several months, he’d learnt to dress appropriately for bed in case he went wandering. Today he is in grey tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt. A look down at his feet reveals a pair of Spongebob slippers. You can’t get everything right all the time.

He looks around the park.

“What a shit hole.”

Although it’s not as it was in his dream, three things are the same. It really is Crescens Park. He feels the nagging sense of loss. And the bench is there too.

He sees two women, one of whom has a torch of some sort. He watches them hug.

“Jesus, no,” Danny mutters, thinking that his sleep-walking was weird enough by itself without having to share his dreams too.

He thinks about hiding, but he notices that a van has pulled up and a guy is unloading what looks like survey equipment.

“Mate,” Danny says under his breath. “You’re about to blow my cover.”

Clarissa Hart
Clarissa Hart (youTimeLady) moved

Clarissa looks over when she hears the van pull up and she sees the man from the doctor’s office standing nearby. She walks over to him.

“Did you have the same dream we did ?” she asks motioning toward Kelly. She glances over at the van wondering what surveyors are doing in the park so late at night.

Danny Dannon
Danny Dannon (youDeano) moved

It’s Clarissa. The nurse called her name in the waiting room.

“I dreamt about this place,” Danny admits. “Only it was full of life. I … er … woke up here, because … I …um …”

Even after weeks of therapy, he’s embarrassed about it.

“I sleepwalk. A lot.”

Danny follows Clarissa’s glance and says: “I wonder if that guy’s sleepworking.”

Then he waves to Kelly, like they are one big, happy, crazy family.

“I’m Danny,” he says to them both. “Did either of you dream about that guy with all the equipment, and if so, couldn’t you have given him an assistant? Look at all that stuff!”

Clarissa Hart
Clarissa Hart (youTimeLady) moved

“Nice to meet you again, Danny.” Clarissa says. “It is strange that they’re out so late.”

She casually walks over to the group unloading the equipment.

“It seems a little late to survey the park.” She says “Is the city planning renovations? It’s a shame how rundown this place has become.”

The narrator continued the scene

The surveyor grunts, “Yeah it’s late. The city passed an ordinance dictating that all road construction be done at night. Some idiot decided building a parking lot, including surveying the land it’ll be on, counts as road construction. How does that even make sense?

So here I am, surveying the park in the middle of the night. I can’t believe this town.” He shakes his head.

He hauls a final bag from the van. “What are you folks doing out here anyhow?”

Danny Dannon
Danny Dannon (youDeano) moved

“So you’re working late, eh?” says Danny. “That must really play havoc with your sleep. You poor baby … Now that we’ve got that out the way, how about you tell us what’s in the bag? Never mind why we’re here. This is still a public park, right?”

Kelly McTavish
Kelly McTavish (youTheDoctor455) moved
strong outcome weak outcome TheDoctor455 won control of the story by completing this challenge with a strong outcome.

Kelly sighed and decided it was time to take command of the situation, she straightened her walk and spoke in a tone of authoritative confidence, “Surprise inspection! What is your name?”

“Uh… Daniel Withers, ma’am,” the surveyor said nervously as Kelly fished out her dream diary and pretended to write in it.

“Right, so what are the plans for this park? Why are you surveying it at this time of night, hmm?” Kelly said in an accusatory tone and a slanted eyebrow.

“Umm… well you see… these were the kinds of measurements that I could only take at night and umm… oh crap,” the poor man sighed and apparently gave up the act, “Look, I forgot okay? I’m practically the only surveyor at the office and I’m ridiculously overworked, so some things slip through the cracks, you know? We’d be doing a lot better if the city would give us the budget to…”

“I understand, Daniel, I’ll make a note of your recommendation in my report, you’re not in trouble, and I just need this information for completeness’ sake.. so what are you surveying the park for?” Kelly said, hiding a victorious smile by practically burying her nose in her diary.

“Well, ma’am…” he said starting to relax.

“Sarah,” Kelly told him.

“Right, sorry, Sarah… umm,” at that he seemed to relax completely, “Well, wouldn’t surprise me if the city hasn’t told you but… this whole park is going to be demolished soon, we’re going to rip it up with the big guns, you know? And then we’re going to flatten the turf, move the fountains to storage, and then go over it with asphalt and turn it into a giant parking lot for some of the office buildings in the vicinity.”

“Thank you, Daniel, you are dismissed,” Kelly said, and to her surprise, he actually left without doing the survey. When he was gone, “Wow… sometimes I surprise myself…”

Commentary

Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
There is a challenge here, but I thought I'd give all of you time to notice each other first. [delete]
06/12/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
Also: Remember to read the location card description. It's easy to overlook. [delete]
06/12/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
Nobody wants to talk to the surveyor? [delete]
06/17/2014
Deano (narrator) (host) (You):
My character is kind of an a-hole. I'm enjoying him though. If it's too much, just let me know. [delete]
06/19/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
Sorry for being a bit slow here, I've been a bit stressed/busy lately and haven't had time or energy for creative thinking. [delete]
06/24/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
I do have one thing to ask, specifically @TheDoctor455 . I don't mind that you wrote the ending the way you did, it's fine, but I want to make sure you didn't write yourself into a corner. I was hoping for the group to try and stop the demolition of the park - a task much more difficult (though still possible) if it is a city project. Do you want to continue with that as the goal, or perhaps make it a bit easier? [delete]
06/24/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
For example, it could be a ruling by the local community association, or it's been purchased by a local business, or the reason they're getting rid of it is because of a gang presence that, if they were removed, would save the park, etc. [delete]
06/24/2014
TheDoctor455 (narrator) (host) (You):
Umm... I'm not even sure why our characters would care if the park were demolished. [delete]
06/24/2014
Cowbot (narrator) (host) (You):
If that is the case, I'm going to deem this game a failure. Thanks for giving it a shot, I suppose I did not set it up well enough. [delete]
06/24/2014
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