The Trial Generation - Generation Loss AU

by jamsin_3

Summary:

I converted my script format into a prose structure!

Thank you for choosing Showfall Media for your entertainment! We have selected you to test the functionality of our up-and-coming LIVE experience. Please report any bugs, glitches, or errors encountered in this trial run, and remember to have fun!

Notes:

Hi! I originally wrote this in a script format. but wanted to write it this way as well for anyone who struggles to read scripts or wanted to feel more immersed in the story. It's also fun to write stories from different perspectives. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Welcome!

You are seated in a room. It is mostly empty, spare a computer monitor on the desk before you and the seat beneath you. Your hands rest idle on the keyboard and mouse. 

 

The monitor is currently a black screen, but soon enough, red text appears:

 

ARE YOU WILLING TO SACRIFICE A LIFE FOR A LIFE?

 

YES   NO

 

You make your selection. You receive a badge in the corner of your screen. If you chose “YES” you receive a heart with a knife through it as your badge. “NO” earns you a skull badge. 

 

The black screen shifts. There is a white room. A man in a suit stands in the middle, smiling at you through the screen. He is charming. He is charismatic. He makes you feel comfortable. You recognize the Showfall Media theme playing in your ears. How many times have you heard it before?

 

“Hello,” the man begins to speak, “and welcome to Showfall Media! We are excited and honored that you are a pioneer in the trial run of our new live experience. Here at Showfall Media, we strive to create innovative entertainment for your consumption. Today, you will be our testers for our new, interactive live show. Throughout the show, you will be given certain prompts that require your direction. At the beginning of our session, you were given your first prompt. Let’s review your results.”

 

If you chose YES, this is what the spokesman says to you: 

 

“Ah! I see you selected ‘yes’! I sincerely believe you will not be disappointed with the results. Keep your eyes open and mind ready. Anything can happen in the blink of an eye.” 

 

If you chose NO, the spokesman hums in amusement: 

 

“How interesting. Did you select ‘no’ because of your moral compass, or are you interested in seeing how fate plays out for our cast? I’m excited to see how you respond throughout the trial.” 

 

The camera zooms closer to the spokesman, and a pop-up text box appears:

 

!error

 

“We are about to begin the show! We do have one last thing for you to remember. Throughout the experience, please take note of any technical difficulties or bugs that may appear throughout. To make note of this, please type this exact prompt in the chat box. This will immediately correct the error or alert a member of our staff to intervene if necessary.”

 

The pop-up disappears.

 

“Let’s test the command, shall we?”

 

The screen before you glitches. The screen displays a basement of sorts, almost like a cellar.  This is a timeless space. There are no windows. Four wine barrels accompany a figure in the corner, who is now beginning to stir. However, your attention focuses on each barrel, as you hear the sound of someone banging on the inside of one of them, along with a faint gurgling sound. While the figure in the corner wakes, the sound continues, then… silence.

 

Slowly, the figure in the corner lifts her head. There’s a pair of goggles on her face, stuck in place with wires that seem to wrap around the back of her head. Her hands lift up to touch the goggles. She gives a panicked tug, but almost immediately stops, almost as if pained by the action. 

 

“No, no…” She whispers to herself, then finds the camera and speaks louder. “Not this again, please! I can’t do this anymore, please!”

 

She continues to plead, while a pop-up appears on the screen. A small, empty bar, like a health bar in a video game. Your fingers quickly type in the !error command. The bar fills, as if responding not just to your command, but to others as well. Other volunteers?

 

When the bar completely fills, the goggles begin to glow. The young woman immediately falls silent and stiffens.

 

The screen glitches again. You see the white room again. The spokesman looks pleased. 

 

“Great work! That is all you need to know! Keep an eye out for any more errors throughout this test. Thank you for your willing participation, and please, enjoy the show!”

Chapter 2: The Cellar

Your screen changes once again, back to the wine cellar. The lighting is eerily similar to the room you’re in. It’s dark, but just enough light to make out everything in the room (or lack of things in the room, in your case). 

 

The young woman is no longer in the corner. She stands in the middle of the room, a puppet on strings awaiting the guidance of her master. Her head is tilted as she stares directly into the camera.

 

A spotlight suddenly switches on, lightly startling you, while it immediately animates the woman. She smiles, almost like a true, practiced performer.

 

“Good afternoon, everyone! My name is Jay, your entertainer for the day! I’ve been instructed to remind you to keep an eye out for any pesky bugs that may require squashing. We don’t like bugs!”

 

The spotlight slowly fades out, immersing her back into the dim lighting of the room. She looks around with her head, but her body still faces the camera. 

 

“It appears I’m in a wine cellar! I don’t see any doors. No windows, either. How strange. How did I get in here?”

 

Three icons labeled EXPLORE appear on the screen, and Jay awaits your decision in choosing one of them. This somehow feels familiar to you. The structure of this stream. You’ve consumed media like this before, yet for some reason, when you try to recall what media, you can’t remember. 

 

The three icons flash. One is above a wine barrel on the left side of the screen, one is above Jay, and one is on the ceiling in the top right corner. For some reason, you feel the need to choose the icons in a specific order.

 

When you select the wine barrel, Jay approaches it, still smiling. “Say, I’m feeling a bit thirsty. Since I may be here for a long time, might as well…” She lowers herself down to the barrel’s spigot. She takes a drink from the barrel, but immediately sputters and pulls away, disgusted. Some of the contents splatter on the floor. It’s red like wine, but it definitely is not wine. “That does NOT taste like wine.” Jay returns to the middle of the room and stands idly by while the remaining options appear. 

 

When you select Jay, she seems to perk up. “I’m thrilled to be here. It’s such an honor to embark on this journey with all of you in something never done before! If you were to ask whether I prefer cats or dogs, I would have to say help. Help me. Please. Please stop this…”

 

The ERROR bar returns. Jay is continuing to plead, yet the smile doesn’t leave her face. She’s resisting. You see it. Yet your fingers automatically move to type in the command to reset her. Do you resist like Jay, or do you allow it to happen?

 

If you resist, and the bar does not fill, the screen glitches. The spokesman appears once again in the white room, smiling, but clearly a bit annoyed. 

 

“Hello again! Did you forget your task? Please type the command shown on the screen if any errors arise. I will take care of it for you this time.”

 

If you do not resist, the bar fills. Nothing extra happens.

 

After your choice, the goggles glow once again, and her speech seems to naturally flow back into the scripted responses she’s been programmed to say. “--I would have to say cats! Cats are wonderful, aren’t they? You can’t always predict their next move! Okay, I should look around some more now.” Jay returns to her idle position, and the remaining options appear. 

 

When you select the spot on the ceiling, Jay doesn’t even look over at it. She points in the direction while she speaks. 

 

“Hey, would you look at that! That looks like a trapdoor. That must be how I got in here!”

 

Jay moves over to the door. She jumps up, comically trying to reach it. Of course, it’s too high up. 

 

“Damn, I guess I’m too short! Surely I can use something in here to get up there.” New icons appear on the screen, one above each barrel. You now have to decide which barrel you’d like Jay to interact with. Perhaps one with enough height to reach the trapdoor. 

 

When you choose the first barrel, Jay approaches. This is the barrel she drank from. She reaches down, swiping a finger along the thick substance pooling beneath it. 

 

“Huh, this looks like what you would use to chum the waters to attract sharks. Strange that they find that taste so appealing. Yuck!” This barrel is the second smallest of them all. Jay returns to an idle position, and the other options appear. However, you stop and ponder for a moment about the chum. What, or who, was that?

 

When you choose the second barrel, Jay sniffs around the barrel, having learned her lesson from the first. It’s a long, dramatic sniff. “Huh, I don’t smell anything. Weird!” This is the smallest barrel out of the bunch. Jay returns to an idle position. The remaining options appear. 

 

The third barrel prompts a similar response as the second. Jay sniffs the barrel, but immediately backs up, nose scrunched. “Ew! That smells like gasoline. I hope a fire doesn’t start while I’m down here! Hah.” This is the second largest barrel in the room. Jay returns to an idle position, and the remaining options appear.

 

The fourth barrel prompts the same generic response as the second:  “Huh, I don’t smell anything. Weird!” This is the largest barrel of the four, and from your guess, this is the area the gurgling sound came from earlier. 

 

After all barrels have been investigated, Jay scratches her head as she gets an idea. 

 

“I wonder if I can push one of these over to the trapdoor.” She tries pushing one of the barrels, but of course, it doesn’t budge. “Yeesh! That’s heavy! I wonder if I emptied one of the barrels if it would make it easier to push. But which barrel should we choose?” 

 

Again, the icons appear, and you try to select the third option. The second largest barrel should work well, but your hand acts opposite of your mind, and you select the first barrel. Jay moves towards it, chipper, and instead of trying to push the barrel, she pulls the spigot. The blood and whatever else is mixed into the barrel splashes out onto the ground. Jay stumbles back, gagging, plugging her nose.

 

“You’re all so sick... Why are you doing this... I know who this is... Who you chopped up…” 

 

The error bar appears again. However, it fills so quickly, it’s clear that it’s rigged. This time it glitches, and the goggles flash a different color than normal. 

 

“Who am I even talking to?” Jay no longer stares at the camera. It’s as if it doesn’t exist. You no longer exist to her. “I’m alone here.” Jay lifts her feet to look at the pooling blood on the ground. She plugs her nose, speaking in a nasally voice, “Whew! That’s stinky! Let’s see if this is enough to reach the top.”

 

Jay tries to wheel the barrel over, which she struggles a bit, slipping on the blood. When she stands on the barrel and reaches for the trapdoor, it’s evident she needs more height. She eases herself down onto the ground, going stiff, as the remaining options appear.

 

You select the second barrel. Jay pulls the spigot. Green slime oozes out, slow, but noticeable. 

 

“Oh! That’s interesting. What is that? Goo? Sludge? It’s taking a while to empty. Maybe I should go ahead and pick something else.” Jay, as always, goes idle, and the remaining options appear. 

 

Your mouse moves towards the third, but your finger refuses to click. You click the fourth icon. Jay pulls the spigot, and water begins to trickle out. 

 

“Hey! There’s some water!” Jay drops down, drinking from the barrel. How long has it been since she’s hydrated? Do Showfall cast members need to eat and drink as often as normal people? While you ponder this, Jay tries to move the barrel towards the trapdoor. She’s struggling. “Sheesh! It feels like there’s a dead body in here! Talk about dead weight.” Jay goes idle once more, and finally, you choose the third barrel. 

 

Jay moves towards the barrel. Her hand moves to pull the spigot, but stops, shaking in midair. She says nothing. The error appears. Once it fills all the way, the goggles flash, and she pulls the spigot. The gasoline spills everywhere, including on Jay’s hands and lower body. She doesn’t seem bothered. 

 

“Cool! Let’s see if this works.” Jay moves the barrel over, scrambles on top of it, and… it’s barely enough, but she reaches! She opens the door. “Haha, it worked! I’ll see you all on the other side!”

 

She remembers you’re there again. A glitch, perhaps? You make note of it, but do not type anything into the chat. Jay jumps up, pulling herself up, and her feet disappear from view.

Chapter 3: An Enigma

You watch in silence as Jay scrambles up the trapdoor, then your view changes. The screen displays another room. It resembles a boiler room, but the layout makes no sense. You would expect to see pockets of water around, from leaks perhaps, but instead of water, there is lava. Heavy machinery is placed throughout the massive room, with a lot of it being clustered together in the center. Jay rises to her feet. She leaves the trapdoor open. 

 

“Wow! It’s pretty hot in here! I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible!” She brushes her pants off, looking around. There is a second story to the room, only accessible by a ladder. Unfortunately for Jay, the ladder cannot be easily reached, as a lava pool stands between her and it. It looks just a bit too big for her to jump across. 

 

Jay looks towards the cluster of machines. Your camera angle changes to a high angle shot. The machines make a maze, and in the heart of it, you see a cloaked figure. They seem to be waiting for Jay. “I don’t think I can reach that. Maybe there’s another way? This place looks like a maze. Where do I even go?”

 

Four icons appear on the screen. Arrows pointing up, down, left, and right. You click for Jay to move forward, into the maze. It’s not too difficult to navigate, but you do accidentally misclick when choosing directions and take her to some dead ends, to which she says: “Whoops! No turning here! Let’s try another way.” or “Damn, a dead end! This place is a maze, that’s for sure!”

 

You also notice that as Jay gets closer to the mysterious figure, the figure moves further away. It’s as if they’re guiding you to select the correct path. Is it right to follow? Is there any other choice? You decide to make Jay follow them. Doing otherwise may lead Jay into more danger. Is that what you want?

 

Eventually, after a few minutes of this minigame, the figure disappears through a wooden door. You help Jay catch up. Your camera angle changes once again, looking at Jay facing the door. Her hand reaches for the handle, then pauses in midair. 

 

“You may not trust her, but I do.”

 

Who? She never elaborates. She opens the door and enters the next room. You follow inside, now positioned somewhere on a wall. This room has wooden flooring and stone brick walls. A few arcade games are flashing and glowing, awaiting the insert of a coin. An air hockey table and pool table occupy a space, feeling very cramped but playable. There is a 3D checkered rug on the floor, giving the illusion that there is a hole in the middle of the room. 

 

LED lights line the edges of the walls where they meet the ceiling, and there is a bar area. The only available drinks are juice, water, slime, and a bottle filled with cockroaches labeled COCKTAIL . There are red curtains in the right corner of the room, and hidden behind them, you see parts of a skeleton shackled to the wall. A foot here, part of a rib there, shabbily covered by these theatrical curtains. This space feels cramped, but fun, and it is quite messy. Trash litters the floor, enough that when Jay takes a step she kicks an empty cup here and a wad of paper there. 

 

The most important thing is a neon sign. It says ENIGMA, glowing a bright green. Jay looks at it.

 

“This is…” Jay begins to speak, but then it’s as if she’s forgotten how to. Sounds escape her lips, but there are no words forming. This goes on for a second, until the figure from before rises up from behind the bar and slams down a wooden mug. 

 

“Hey!” They sound happy by Jay’s presence, and a bit mischievous. “You the exterminator I called for?” 

 

“Exterminator?” Jay finds her voice. “You don’t remember me?”

 

“Remember you?” The figure frowns. 

 

“This, none of this is real–” Jay’s own hand slaps over he mouth, silencing her. The goggles flash once again. She was reset without you typing in the command. How long will it last this time?

 

“My mistake! I’m not an exterminator, I was actually looking for a way out of the basement.” Back to her chipper, adventurous self. 

 

“Did you not see the ladder?” 

 

“I did, but there’s a pool of lava in the way. I didn’t think I could make the jump.”

 

The figure stares with genuine confusion. They pull out a lava lamp from behind the bar. “Lava? The only lava down here is the lava in my funky lava lamp! Unless the ground opened up overnight!” 

 

“That’s strange.” Jay glimpses around the room again, as if seeing it for the first time. “Sorry, who are you, exactly?”

 

“Well that’s certainly a good question! Who is anyone, really? Aren’t we constantly changing the longer we live?”

 

“I guess that’s true. I’m Jay, by the way. What should I call you, I guess is what I’m asking?”

 

“What’s a name but a word someone responds to? Kind of a silly question, isn’t it?”

 

Jay looks at the sign again. “You’re a bit of an enigma, you know that?”

 

The figure – Enigma – shrugs. “Better to be cryptic than predictable. You sure you’re not my exterminator?”

 

“Positive.”

 

“Damn!” Enigma shakes their head. “Well, since you’re here, maybe you can help.”

 

“Ah, sure? I don’t have anything to exterminate -- wait, what are we exterminating?”

 

“Mutant rats.” 

 

“Mutant rats?”

 

“Sheesh! You ask so many questions! Look, if you help me exterminate the rats, I’ll help you get out of here.” 

 

“Yeah! Sounds fun. Let’s do it!” There’s a lot of dialogue and not a lot of movement. Well, Enigma seems animated. Jay seems stiff. 

 

“Haha, great! I have a tutorial video around here about how to exterminate these rats. It’s somewhere among the mess.” 

 

Jay looks down, as if just now noticing the trash. “Yikes, no wonder there’s rats! How did this place get so messy?”

 

“Haha! You should see the other guy.” Enigma gestures to the skeleton on the wall. Before Jay can comment on it, Enigma’s moved on. “Why don’t you start looking for that tape? I’ll get some tools!”

 

Enigma exits through a door that seems to lead into a bathroom. They close the door behind them. Jay is left idle in the room as three appear on the screen. The first is above the bar. The second is on the floor. The third is on the television. 

 

You select the bar first. Jay seemed thirsty earlier, so perhaps she can find something better to drink? Jay moves behind the bar, a bit more robotic than before. “There’s a LOT to unpack back here. Wow. What is all of this junk?” She begins to look through things, setting them on top of the bar. Bolt cutters, a doll, a few board games, a bottle labeled NOT WATER, so many things that are out of place. The bar’s supply seems endless. “There isn’t a tape back here,” she calls to you after a few minutes. “I should keep looking.” She emerges from the bar, and the two remaining options appear. 

 

You select the spot on the floor next. Jay moves over to it, kicking trash around, and she finds a VHS tape. It seems to be a VHS of a cartoon. Jay picks it up and heads for the television. 

 

“Is this it? Only one way to find out!” She pops it into the VCR player. Somehow, the television automatically switches on. The camera angle shifts to right in front of the television, and it’s slightly moving. It’s as if we are seeing from Jay’s eyes. You realize there must be a camera on her goggles.

 

An intro to a cartoon seems to be playing, but it’s glitching. Finally, it completely sticks to something that is not a cartoon. There is someone seated at a table. When their face lifts slightly, you realize it’s Enigma. They look exhausted, defeated. They never look up at the camera. Every now and then, the screen glitches, and you see the cartoon playing. 

 

Someone clears their throat. Someone is behind the camera in the video. A manly voice speaks. 

 

“Please state your name.”

 

Enigma slowly shakes their head. 

 

“Please answer verbally.” 

 

“What name…” They whisper. 

 

“Your real name.”

 

Something shifts in their face. They almost look like they’re about to break into tears. “I don’t remember. I only remember Enigma now.”

 

“Do you remember where you were before all of this?” 

 

“I can’t remember anything…” Enigma’s voice trembles. “It’s all scrambled in my head… I try to piece it together, but it hurts too much…”

 

“What do you remember?” The interviewer speaks gently, but there’s an authoritative tone that makes you understand that his intentions are not good. Enigma begins shaking. 

 

“Please… why are we doing this? I just want to forget again.” How long has Enigma been here? How many times have they forgotten? Are you even supposed to be watching this right now?

 

“You will. Soon. First, I need you to tell me what you remember.” 

 

It’s silent for a moment. The video continues to glitch. You have no idea what is going on in the cartoon, but Jay keeps humming in amusement and laughing at a few parts. 

 

Enigma finally looks into the camera. They are deprived of hope and energy. “I remember what it’s like to die.” 

 

The man in the video hums. “Tell me more.”

 

“First it’s pain, then I feel my soul leave my body. It travels up, I think. It gets caught in the wires. Then there’s a brief moment of peace. There are others there, too. We try to enjoy the peace, but we all know what will eventually happen. We’ll be reborn. We’ll forget. We’ll become someone new, someone that isn’t truly us. I don’t remember who I am anymore. I used to be so angry…” 

 

“You’re not anymore?”

 

Enigma shakes their head. The interviewer asks for them to elaborate. 

 

“I can’t do anything about my situation. Anger only fuels the suffering. Every time you place me in a show and I begin to remember... I try to remember the sense of peace that’s to come. It’s short, and sweet. I’d like to feel peace again.”

 

Papers shuffle behind the camera. You never see the interviewer, not a glimpse of a sleeve or a finger. He never allows himself to be seen on the camera. 

 

“Thank you. Based on what you’ve told me, I’d like to consider you for something new. An experiment we have never done before.”

 

Enigma gains a bit more emotion: fear. 

 

“No, no, don’t look so frightened. Snowfall Media would like to incorporate the outside world into our experiments for a new level of entertainment. There are a few ways we would like to achieve this, but until then, I have one more story for you to star in. Enigma’s finale, if you will. However, your fate will be determined by the audience.”

 

“The audience…?”

 

“That’s right. There will be less of a script, but we will still provide a basic structure to the show. If you live, you’ll be able to see the outside world.” 

 

Their eyes light up. Hopeful at first, then hesitant. 

 

“But I wouldn’t be free, would I?”

 

The Interviewer refuses to comment. He continues with the terms of Enigma’s final show. 

 

“If you die, this will be your final death. You will be rewarded with everlasting peace for years of a job well done.” 

 

The Interviewer calls for a masked worker, who walks in carrying another Showfall Media mask made to “reset” the cast. Enigma doesn’t move away. 

 

“Why tell me all of this? I won’t remember it.” 

 

“This isn’t for you. It’s for them.” 

 

Enigma tries to ask who the interviewer is referring to, but the worker places the mask over their face. Enigma goes stiff. The tape glitches one more time, and you see the end of the cartoon. 

 

Jay laughs as it ends. “What a silly cartoon!” Did she not see any of that? Why was this hidden from her? More importantly, why were you meant to see it?

 

Jay finds the real tape on top of the television. She pops it into the television after ejecting the previous tape. We see through her goggles again. A training video appears, very similar to the videos played to train fast food employees. A mascot appears on the screen, black and white against the colorful background. 

 

“ Hi there! My name is Squiggles! If you’re watching this, that must mean you have a bit of a rat problem! Those pesky vermin!” 

 

An image of a rat in a prohibition sign appears.

 

“In the emergency of a rat infestation, DO NOT PANIC. They can smell fear! The best way to dispose of rats is with traps!” 

 

A mouse trap appears on the screen.

 

“All you have to do is lure the rat into the trap, and set it off! What trap works best? I would recommend fire! Cleanse the place of rats AND trash! You may also try using mallets, poison, or simply run away! It’s just that easy! Good luck, and don’t get mauled!”

 

The tape ends. Jay frowns. “This sounds like it’ll be messy. I don’t know how to feel about this. I guess it’s my only way out of here.”

 

Enigma appears, right on cue, dragging in a bunch of items. A mallet, a bear trap, a pack of matches, a baseball bat, a jug of bleach, and moldy cheese. “Haha! Those rats are as good as dead now!”

 

“Where did all of this come from?”

 

“The bathroom!”

 

“How did it all fit in there?”

 

“What, you don’t have supplies magically appear out of YOUR toilet?”

 

“I don’t think so?”

 

“Then you live in a fucked up reality!” Enigma drops the supplies on the ground, except for the matches. They hand them to Jay. “Here! You smell like gasoline, so I assume you like pyrotechnics!”

 

“Oh, uh, maybe I do! I’m not really sure.” 

 

Enigma chooses the mallet. They swing it around a few times, startling Jay. “Perfect! We’ve got everything we need! Grab the moldy cheese, we’ll use that as our bait!”

 

Jay does not pick up the moldy cheese, much to Enigma’s disappointment. Enigma pockets the cheese instead. 

 

“Okay, where exactly are the rats?”

 

Enigma snorts. “They are in the location that they’re currently existing in. Duh.” 

 

“And where would that be, specifically?”

 

“Probably in the boiler room somewhere. Let’s go!” 

 

Jay leads the way out of the room. Before they leave, Enigma looks at the skeleton on the wall, probably for the last time. 

 

“Bye, Frank!”

 

Chapter 4: The Rats

Everything is exactly the same as Jay left it. Enigma stretches and seems to enjoy the heat of the room.

 

“How big are these rats, anyways?” Jay asks.

 

“Bigger than a baseball but smaller than a car.” Enigma says, swinging their mallet. 

 

“You’re really not painting a clear picture here.” 

 

“Maybe you’d see it better if you didn’t have those stupid goggles on! Can you take them off?”

 

“Not unless I want my eyeballs to fall out.”

 

“Ew. Say less.” 

 

Instead of walking through the maze, Enigma reveals a path beneath the various pipes and machines. They crawl, Jay following behind, and make it to a new area of the room. There’s a squeaking sound in the distance, and Enigma takes off running. 

 

“HAHA! Got ya!” You do not see where they go. You just hear the squeaking, the sound of the mallet hitting something, and Enigma’s laughter. Jay stands there quietly with her baseball bat. 

Enigma returns, mallet and clothes covered in what looks like the remnants of a sandwich. They lick the mallet.

 

“That one stole my PB&J.” 

 

“Gross. How many other rats are there?”

 

“I say we split up and find out!”

 

Before Jay can protest, Enigma disappears again. Four icons appear for Jay to explore: a comically large bucket, a pile of discarded laundry, a large hole in the wall shaped like a cartoon mouse hole, and the general direction Enigma ventured. 

 

You select the large bucket. You enter the camera angle from Jay’s goggles. Jay approaches the bucket and gives it a kick. Something squeaks within. Jay lifts the bucket... 

 

A rat on an RC car zooms out. Jay grabs her baseball bat and comically swings and misses a few times before finally smacks the rat. It gives one last squeak, and the car goes still.

 

Jay takes a breath, wiping sweat from her brow. “That was easier than I thought it’d be!” She returns to her idle position as the remaining options appear. 

 

The pile of laundry is pretty close, so you choose that next. Jay approaches the pile of laundry and nudges it with her baseball bat. Nothing moves. Most of the clothes are discarded suits, similar to what the worker wore in the hidden tape.

 

“Nothing here! I hope Enigma’s doing okay.” 

 

Your eyes wander towards the giant mouse hole. You know it’s probably dangerous. Maybe it’s best to get Enigma first? You select the option to follow Enigma, but Jay refuses. “I should probably look for any rats around here first. I’m sure Enigma’s fine.” 

 

Jay moves towards the hole in the wall. It’s large enough that she crawls in. You still see through Jay’s eyes. She is inside the rats’ home. There are small beds made for dollhouses, but gummy rats are snugly tucked into each of them. There are a few larger beds, including a king-sized bed that’s clearly been chewed on. 

 

“Yikes. They’re just babies. But if I want to get out of here, I have to do this…” 

 

Icons appear on each rat. You must click each one to make Jay whack the rats. You can do this in order, or out of order. Jay’s hands tremble with each rat’s death. Sounds start coming out of her mouth, like she's trying to speak, but the message isn’t clear. Then she returns to normal as the last rat “dies.”

 

“Perfect! Let’s get out of here. It smells like rats.”

 

Jay crawls out. As Jay begins walking in the general direction Enigma headed in, there’s a scream, and the roar of a large creature. Enigma runs towards Jay, mallet gone, terror on their face. They scream the word “run” over and over. 

 

Jay drops her bat and begins crawling back the way they came. Enigma shouts for her to take a different turn that leads them back to where Jay first entered the boiler room. When Jay glimpses over her shoulder, she sees Enigma crawling to catch up, as well as a human-sized, monstrous rat with wires weaving in and out of its flesh and fur. You can see it through her goggles. You see how small she is compared to the beast. Have you ever seen anything like it? It’s terrifying, isn’t it?

 

Once Jay makes it out, she runs towards the ladder, but stops , as the lava is still in her path. Enigma tries to run another direction, but there’s a loud crash as they fall down the trapdoor entrance into the wine cellar. 

 

“OW! What moron left this wide open!?” Enigma calls from the cellar. Jay is about to run over, but the rat has caught up. It looks at Jay, then sniffs the air and heads towards the wine cellar. 

 

“Shit, it’s coming right for you!” 

 

“It must smell the bait in my pocket! Dammit!” 

 

The rat jumps into the cellar with Enigma. There’s the sound of a struggle. Enigma is screaming and shouting. The rat is making unnatural screeches and cries. Jay finally rushes over to the trapdoor as Enigma jumps up and dangles above the rat. The rat is holding one of their legs, prohibiting Enigma from climbing up.

 

“Help! Help me, please! I don’t want to die like this! Please, give me another chance! This can’t be my finale, please!”

 

Something seems to have shifted. Enigma seems to recall the last meeting they had with Showfall, though this won’t be clear if the audience did not see the secret tape. 

 

This is where your first decision matters. If you chose yes to sacrificing a life for a life, read the chapter titled CHOOSE. If you chose no, read NO CHOICE.

Chapter 5: CHOOSE

A prompt in red letters, followed by two options, appears on the screen:

 

SAVE ENIGMA? 

 

YES   NO

 

IF YOU SELECT ‘NO’ GO TO THE NEXT CHAPTER. IF YOU SELECTS ‘YES’ THE FOLLOWING ENDING PLAYS:

 

You still watch from Jay’s goggles. As Enigma pleads and the Rat tugs on their leg, Jay reaches into her pocket and pulls out the matches from earlier. She strikes one. The flame touches her skin, setting her ablaze from the gasoline still on her, but she manages to drop the match down, away from Enigma. The wine cellar lights on fire. The rat begins howling, screaming, screeching. Enigma is able to pull themself up. Jay is completely on fire now, wildly flailing around until she finally collapses, goggles becoming engulfed in flames. 

 

The camera goes black. The screen switches to a high angle shot of the area. Enigma is staring at Jay’s dead body. Now that you are no longer following Jay, you see the reality of the things she encountered. There is blood on Enigma from killing the “PB&J” rat. There is no lava blocking the way to the ladder. It was a puddle of water all along. Enigma looks lost. 

 

“Jay... I remember now. I know what they did to you... I’m sorry.”

 

Enigma looks around. They somehow find a camera and look directly into it.

 

“I remember... I remember what you said…” They are not speaking to you. But it does feel as if they are staring into your soul. A shell of a person who does not remember who they were before Showfall Media, if they ever had a life or identity outside of this place. As if in response, the door up the ladder opens. The voice from the tape calls into the room. 

 

“Congratulations, Enigma. Are you ready to see what’s outside of the mall?”

 

Enigma stares up at the door. They look at the blood on their clothes, the fires behind them... 

They whisper something very quietly, but the nearby microphone picks it up. It feels as if they whisper in your own ears: “I’ll come back for you... Someday.”

 

And they climb the ladder. 

 

The camera changes. You are back in the white room. The spokesman seems very pleased. He even applauds. 

 

“Thank you, and well done! That concludes our testing for today. How was your experience? We sure learned a lot. We are already working on ways to improve the functionality of our live experience and cast. Leave any comments about what worked for you and what could be better, then you are free to go. We will send you a paycheck in the mail for your time and effort in today’s trial.  Thank you for choosing Showfall Media, and have a wonderful day!”

 

The monitor goes black. The light in your room goes black. You feel your mind starting to go blank, and then, nothing.

Chapter 6: NO CHOICE

While Enigma pleads with Jay, Jay slowly backs away. She turns towards the ladder. You can still hear Enigma screaming, then the rat gives a violent cry, and Enigma goes silent. 

 

Jay runs and jumps over the pool of lava. She’s not going to make it... 

 

Suddenly the lava is no longer lava. It’s a puddle of water that Jay splashes in. She looks down at her reflection, confused. Her hands move to the goggles, feeling them. “This... It wasn’t real?” She looks back towards the trapdoor. Everything is silent now.

 

“Was any of it real? What did you do to me? What... Are they still alive?”

 

Jay slowly walks back towards the trapdoor. There’s so much red down there... The camera glitches. You no longer see her video feed. You are back in the white room. The spokesman seems very pleased. He even applauds. 

 

“Thank you, and well done! That concludes our testing for today. How was your experience? We sure learned a lot. We are already working on ways to improve the functionality of our live experience and cast. Leave any comments about what worked for you and what could be better, then you are free to go. We will send you a paycheck in the mail for your time and effort in today’s trial.  Thank you for choosing Showfall Media, and have a wonderful day!”

 

The monitor goes black. The light in your room goes black. You feel your mind starting to go blank, and then, nothing.

Chapter 7: TTG Explained

Hello hello! Thanks for reading The Trial Generation! I decided to post one last update that explores some of the choices I made with writing the script, a few questions I asked myself in the process, and maybe illuminate the different endings a bit more. 

 

Before I had the idea of writing this, I had a dream that inspired part of the plot. There were three of us trapped in a “boiler room” with a large pool of lava preventing us from escaping to the other side. There was a lever on the other side to send out a bridge to cross, but to reach it, one of us had to jump into the lava and pull the lever. I volunteered to do so. I died, but my soul immediately went into this limbo/purgatory (almost like San Junipero, the Black Mirror episode). There were many others there that recognized me and greeted me warmly. Slowly I began to remember them, too. They were other cast members. We were all part of experimental shows. But this was our one safe place. It was like a resort, with multiple pools, jacuzzis, food and drinks, pretty much paradise. But sometimes people would remember that the peace was temporary. The sky would get cloudy and it would rain as the collective emotions became ones of dread and sorrow. I tried to cheer everyone up, but then I was pulled back to the real world. 

 

I was pulled back too early, yet my body didn’t seem to have any damages from the lava. The other 2 cast members hadn’t left yet and were confused on how I’d survived. Since I hadn’t had the mask to reset my memories, I remembered everything that happened. Before I could explain it all to them, employees arrived and dragged me away. I was immediately placed in another set, but the reset hadn’t fully worked. I still remembered everything. I tried to act like a character to keep my knowledge a secret. 

 

That was the dream that started it all. It was making my head itch, so I needed to write it out somehow. I started to think about Ranboo’s mask, and the interactive chat. How did Showfall Media create the mask, and why did they find it necessary to insert wires inside of Ranboo? Surely they tested the technology before going live, right? There had to be experiments done before THE social experiment. Clearly Showfall Media thinks carefully and meticulously plans ahead at all stages, as seen with the missing posters and increased security in episode three. This led me to the main question that drove this idea: does Showfall Media test new technology and ideas before sharing with the world?

 

With that idea, I had a plot. The audience members are a group of testers that watch through a trial run of a live show and report any errors, and they test out the interactive chat functions. This also tests out what eventually becomes the mask Ranboo wears, connecting their actions to the polls and decisions of the audience. This brought me another question: what did the original mask look like?

 

I decided to go with a pair of “goggles” stuck to the protagonist’s face, with small wires entering through the corners of their eyes and connecting to their brain. Showfall wanted to alter the protagonist’s vision, make them see things that weren’t really there and alter their reality. However, the goggles later proved to be less effective than anticipated. Jay’s vision could be altered, yes, and her facial expressions could be controlled, but verbally she had some resistance. She kept “breaking character.” Choosing goggles was also a reference to the days where Ranboo wore glasses. Just a fun little detail :D

 

The final time Jay broke character was when she met Enigma. Snowfall had no choice but to give her a hard reset to fully immerse her into the plot. They couldn’t give Enigma any chance of regaining their memories. This reset made Jay forget there was an audience to entertain and speak to. Snowfall believed that her knowledge of the audience only encouraged the resistance she presented. Even with the hard reset, however, we still see Jay showing slight resistance and dissatisfaction with her circumstances. This can be seen when exploring the hole in the wall and smashing the “gummy” rats, as Jay’s hands tremble and shake. 

 

This is how Showfall later got the idea of introducing an outside character into the live experience; someone to acknowledge any doubts a cast member may have, but to keep them conformed and immersed by weaving a new layer into the story. Then, if a cast member ever did manage to resist, or if any errors occurred during the live experience, a member of Showfall could explain the situation or cover up the mistake. 

 

Those are some of the biggest points of the story. Before we get to the discussion of the secret tape and the two endings, there were a couple small details I wanted to discuss!

 

First, the barrel of water. Did you catch what was going on with that? There was a person inside, still alive in the beginning, but by the time the test officially started, they’d drowned. That was a dark detail I wanted to put in to show the twisted humor of Showfall and how they can choose to do whatever they want to cast members, if only for a small bit that may go unnoticed. Makes it a bit more disturbing when Jay drinks the water, doesn’t it?

 

Second, references to characters. Of course, we had Frank make a cameo. There was slime in one of the barrels of the wine cellar. Something I didn’t add into the plot was the idea that there may be familiar articles of clothing mixed in with the pile of laundry in the final act. If this were a live experience, I’d like to think there would be familiar hats, jackets, pants, and masks from characters in episodes one and two, kind of like “easter eggs” hinting at future characters. We also saw rats, which of course, there was a gummy rat in episode one and The Puzzler had rats in episode two. 

 

Third, as I mentioned there were wires going into Jay’s eyes, but they were never really referenced or seen. The only indication that something is wrong is her line at the beginning of act three: “Not unless I want my eyeballs to fall out.” If Jay had attempted to pull the goggles off, yes, her eyes would have fallen out, along with the wires. Not a pretty picture. 

 

I think that’s it for the small details. Alright, alright, let’s look at Enigma’s secret tape. 

 

First, Enigma appears completely broken. You can tell they’ve lost their sense of identity after years of being in the cast. They can’t remember their name, their identity, all they remember is the one brief second of peace before being pulled back into a living hell (there’s a piece of my dream from earlier). Enigma is resigned to being a vessel for Showfall to tell their stories through. That’s the only purpose they see themself having. How long has Enigma been there? What have they done? What have they seen? What happens when a cast member is overused and is therefore no longer desirable by Showfall or the audience?

 

I had a “what if” scenario come to me while writing this: what if Showfall Media began experimenting with placing cast members in the outside world? I was thinking about The Truman Show and wondered what happened after Truman left? Surely there were interviews, or cameras continuing to attempt following him. That made me think about Showfall and the possibility of them releasing one cast member into the real world and documenting how they live after going through their experiments. Of course, the cast member would still be in a semi-controlled environment to allow for recording. The ending itself is open for interpretation. Maybe Enigma is released from Showfall because they’re no longer useful, but there’s potential for a new experiment: what does a useless cast member do out in the real world? How do they react? Does this offer the perfect “reset” to make them useful in Showfall’s stories again? Or, is Enigma used as a gimmick to promote more views? Imagine a museum, for instance, with a cast member in a glass box, living out their life and seemingly unaware that they’re being viewed. Maybe Enigma is used for “meet and greets” for anyone with deep enough pockets wanting to understand what it is to be a cast member, or what it’s like to die. Anything for content, right?

 

Finally, the endings. Either Jay lives and realizes that she had the option to leave the entire time, or Enigma lives. We’ve explored what could have happened to Enigma already. It’s up for interpretation. But what happened to Jay? She wanted to go back and see if Enigma was truly dead, but we (the audience) never got to see what was down there. In truth, I’m not sure what it means, either. Did Showfall lie about this being Enigma’s finale? Possibly! Why would they give a character a finale if it wasn’t recorded or streamed live for the entire world to see? Then again, this was also a test to see if Enigma would progress their idea of sending a cast member into the real world for some experiments. Was the rat creature something else entirely, but made to look monstrous and terrifying by the goggles? Was there never actually a mutant rat? Was the rat actually a person? There’s a lot of ways this could have ended. 

 

I decided to write the original script in a prose format as well for any readers who prefer more of an immersive form of storytelling, and it added a new layer to the story. You, the reader, are part of the story even more in this version. This format gave me a way to explore how you may react in this situation and explore the idea that the testers for this trial are just as imprisoned as the rest of the cast. You're in a small room the entire time, eyes glued to the screen, and you have a few thoughts throughout that make you want to help the cast or make you question Showfall, but there's still a level of obedience towards Showfall that you can't seem to break. I think I would like to go back and add more to this element in the future. It's an interesting addition to the story.

 

I think that about wraps up the quick analysis. If I remember what else was going on in my head during this, I’ll post an update to add to what I’ve already explained. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this little “what if” scenario I created! I actually began writing a similar plot about two years ago, before I knew about Generation Loss, so it was fun taking some questions I already had for that and incorporating them into another project.

 

Stay hydrated, gamers!

 

Jamsin