Feb 2022 chooseyourownadventure orchestral score electronic story fantasy
Just in case you don't know, I'm creating a "Choose Your Own Adventure" FAWM.
For this FAWM, I've decided to make a score to a film/story that hasn't been written. This is because YOU will decide where the story will go and how it will eventually end. After each song, I will give you options for your "Choose Your Own Adventure" story. Write your option in the comment section. I will wait about 8 hours or so, calculate the numbers, then create the next song that fits this option. After each song is posted, I start the process all over again until FAWM and the story is over.
I’m going to put up a placeholder for the next installment, which is the Epilogue. I figure that every good story should have some kind of closure, but that depends on your last choice, right? :)
You choose to B) Refuse Her offer.
*************
You raise your hand to take hers, pause for a moment, then retract it. You refuse her offer. You know you haven’t been the most morally upright person in your life. You’ve done some terrible things. Like hunting down good people and killing them. Under command, of course, but you still did it. You still profited off their deaths. You endangered lives and got an entire village killed. You’ve never stood for anything or anyone. You’re a spineless piece of shit, you idiot. It would be easy to turn a blind eye yet again. You and Delphine could rule the world together. She’s not who you remember and that could just be because you’ve got a “disease of the mind”. Or maybe she's changed.
“I can’t,” you say sadly. “This isn’t like you. What you’re doing….it's inhumane!”
Anger begins to blaze in Delphine’s eyes. “You want to lecture me on what’s wrong? I did what I needed to do to survive!”
Delphine explodes with rage and you feel like the world around you is starting to burn, just like in Tinmijn.
“I played the long game with this king! Do you have any idea of the things he has done to me? The VIOLATIONS, even when I was pregnant? I thought for sure that I was going to lose our son, and, in the end, I still had to give him up. He nearly broke me. This king of yours made my life a living hell, so now I’m doing the same to him! The girl you remember is gone and, in her stead, is the most powerful person in this kingdom!”
Delphine makes a quick movement with the flick of her wrist and, suddenly, it feels like you've been punched in the face and the gut at the same time. You fall over, then take a moment to look at her, stunned and speechless. She looks right back at you, sneering, baring her teeth. No remorse. No affection. Your dream of her has collapsed into nothing. Your mind is full of memories that don't seem to have any place in this world anymore. At some point, the disease of the mind will take those memories away, with some of the pain, you hope.
But you understand. You really do. It’s amazing what years of abuse and trauma will do to someone. Sometimes people break under the strain. Sometimes they shatter like glass. But sometimes, in spite of all that, they claw their way out of the wreckage and become someone entirely different. This was Delphine.
Your face softens. Concern turns to pity, pity to grief.
"Don't look at me like that!" screams Delphine. "Don't you dare look at me like that!"
The air seems to crackle with static as she says that, and you can feel the power surging through her, suffocating everything around you.
But you can't help yourself. You want to believe there's a piece of her still inside, just waiting to get out, if only you could think of something.
“I cannot judge you, Delphine. You have endured so much and you’re right–I have no idea what you’ve been through. But I can’t do this. Even in the few years I have left on this earth, this is not who I want to be,” you say firmly.
“Do you want to go back to hiding, squatting in some unknown village in the middle of nowhere? Is that life better than the one you could have here with me?” Delphine asks.
The more she speaks, the further away you seem from her. You think about the life you could have with her and try to find something good in it, but you can't. Your heart and your conscience, however miniscule they may be, tell you it’s not right. Using a dead king as a puppet while he is trapped inside, willing himself to die probably. Your life with Delphine would come at such a price, one that you’re not willing to pay.
“Maybe,” you reply, looking away. “I’m not sure. But I have a place to go back to, one that’s waiting for me. I can’t start over, but maybe I can make some things right.”
You turn and stare into Delphine's glassy blue eyes, and you realize that those eyes look familiar, like the ones belonging to Silas. You do the math. Dammit. Years of living in the same village together and you never saw it because you avoided young people! You could have had a real relationship with your son. Life could have been better for both of you if you had found each other. Now, who knows what will happen?
Before you can say anything else, there is a knock on the door. But before you, Delphine, or the puppet king can reply, someone barges in.
In walks Mathias, looking nervous, eyes darting to the king, to Delphine, then to you. You can feel a lump in your throat. You wonder if you now regret trusting him, but that worry disappears as soon as you see who is following him with a very sharp, pointed blade.
“This is the one I told you about in the letter, your grace,” says Silas, addressing the king very casually. “He’s the one who was going to betray the kingsguard and help the White Witch escape. You can punish Mathias as you see fit.”
Mathias looks around the room and sniffs the air. He can tell something has been happening. Everything feels charged, like hair standing on end. He then looks at you, eyes pleading, hoping you can get him out of this mess or that maybe you have a plan.
"What do you want?" says the king puppet very slowly and monotone.
“My name is Silas, your grace,” replies Silas rather proudly. “I delivered the Defector, Kaleb, like I promised and I am here to collect my reward for being your loyal and devoted subject. I am honored to have done my duty to you and to have served the kingdom of Janga-on! The residents of Tinmijn were merely a sacrifice for the greater good in bringing Kaleb the defector to justice, I’m sure. I can give you the whereabouts of the escapees for an extra bag of coin if you think they pose a threat. I have it on good authority that they’re hiding out in a village not too far from Tinmijn. If you can tell me what your plan is, I can help with—”
Silas continues speaking and it’s clearly testing Delphine’s patience. She raises her hand and Silas begins to levitate. His knife drops out of his hand and clatters on the stone floor. Delphine begins closing her fist and Silas starts choking. Silas' eyes are full of panic.
“Young people,” Delphine says. “Too noisy. Too nosey.”
Damn, that’s cold, but accurate, you think.
“Delphine, stop!" you plead. “You don’t want to kill him!” Silas, whose face is starting to turn the shade of plums, looks at you for help. Actually, he is trying to say "help" but it comes out in gurgles.
“Why not? I thought you would enjoy revenge!" Delphine smiles and squeezes a tiny bit more. "You want to save the life of the little shit who betrayed you and that entire village? The kid who tricked you and poisoned you?! You've gotten soft with age, Kaleb,” Delphine replies.
Okay, time for the truth. Inhale, exhale. This is going to be interesting.
“He is your son," you say. "OUR son. Silas is our son.”
“This is a trick!” shouts Delphine. She looks at you angrily. “Don’t think you can manipulate me that easily, Kaleb!”
“Please! Just stop and look at him! Look at his eyes,” you beg.
Everyone goes dead silent, including the king, though he was already technically dead. Mathias, who has been standing against the wall, looks shocked but somewhat entertained. He breaks the silence with the equivalent of a verbal fart. “Well, fuck me sideways!”
Delphine, who had Silas in the air in a chokehold, lets him go. Silas falls to the floor, coughing and choking, holding his bruised neck. Delphine is frozen for a moment, unblinking. You’re tense, trying to anticipate what she will do. The king puppet says nothing.
Delphine’s face is a mix of emotions, but then you see something flicker in her eyes. She raises her hands to her face and finally breaks.
She falls into you, sobbing. “Oh, gods, what am I doing? What have I done? When did it all become so complicated?” She cries into your chest, then looks up at you and you finally see the woman you’ve remembered for so many years. There she is.
“I’m so sorry, my love!” she says, weeping. “There is something that has taken a hold of me. Something terrible! The dark magic has made me its vessel. It has made me strong, but only in the service of chaos and evil.
"It's okay," you say, holding her, rubbing her back. "We'll find a way to get you well again. We can't start over, but we can still have the time that's left. We can help each other. You, me, and Silas, our son. We still have a chance to be happy."
"No!" cries Delphine. "There's no going back for me! It's part of me now, the darkness. I let it swallow me in return for the power I have. I made a contract with it and it will never let me go. Don't you understand?!!"
You shake your head and reply, "No, no, no, no....there's got to be something we can do!"
"There IS something you can do! I don’t have a lot of time until the darkness suppresses my spirit again. It will overtake me and I will be too powerful to stop. You have to help me, Kaleb!"
“How?” you ask, though you already know the answer.
“Kill me,” pleads Delphine. “Please. You have to do this or I will destroy everything and everyone, including you and our son. The darkness has done unimaginably terrible things through me and will continue if you don't stop me.”
"No!" you cry. "I can't do it, dammit! You can't ask this of me..."
Silas, who is stood up now, speaks in a barely-audible voice and looks at Delphine. “No, this can’t be happening…Mother?” Then he turns to you and asks, “Father? You’re my father? No, I just found you both!” Tears well up in his eyes and pour down his face like rain hitting a statue.
You embrace Silas and Delphine joins you. For a moment you can imagine what a normal family you could have been if everything had worked out. You hold each other for what seems like an eternity, though only a minute has gone by. Delphine lets go and convulses, fighting back against the powers that hold her. She falls to the floor in agony, then manages to get up, picking up Silas’ blade off the floor.
Delphine, the Delphine you remember, looks at you one last time. You kiss her softly on the lips as she places the blade in your hands.
“It’s the only way to stop this," she says. "Hurry!"
Do you:
A) Kill Delphine?
or
B) Let her live?
@timfatchen Mar 2022
The story rolls on well, but it's the cinematic score that gets to me. It's enough to make me resolve to get back to orchestral/film writing and stop stuffing about with things I can do standing on my head. Action, drama, everything to go with visuals. Listening to the endgame: there's huge talent here.
@leepat Mar 2022
wow, melodrama at its finest. forgive me god, I enjoyed this. and the music was great. I knew Silas was coming, so I don't see this ending in death, not if I could decide anyway.
let her live.
live with the damage we must.
and of course, eventually die.
@headfirstonly Mar 2022
And it all comes crashing down. That melody carried by the brass has all the emotions, but the final cello section really tugs on the heart strings. Poor Kaleb. It's not much of a choice to be left with, at the end, is it?
@tamsnumber4 Mar 2022
Well, I feel like the love conquers all girl...I don't think it is a matter of "letting" her live or "killing" her, but of freeing her. Maybe the magic that keeps the king alive, once released would free her? sigh, I am a wimp and won't choose. The track was very exciting.
@dragondreams Mar 2022
Oh. My. Gods.
The soundtrack and my reading speed matched perfectly.
I'm in awe of your storytelling magic at this point in the journey.
And I genuinely am struggling to come to a decision.
But it has to be A. She wants it to end.
@wrenarcher Mar 2022
Oh my Gawwwwd! When is the next episode? :D
This has been a wonderful ride Mel. Absolutely amazing!
A)
@pooka Mar 2022
I genuinely don't know how to vote here.
@trombonewyo Feb 2022
Great stuff! Love the driving action/adventure of this. I hear HZ Dark Knight vibes at the beginning. I really like the cello solo at the end with the gentle piano response.
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
My vote shouldn't count, because its the equivalent of me falling asleep in the second act of a movie and asking what happened as I've missed the last 4 or so, but I say you gotta take her out. I'm all for a person being able to change, but that person is the only person that can make that change, and I'd say she knows she can't... and if its not done now there will never be another chance.