There's A Bear Outside
Stories of the woods are often stories about darkness. People vanish so easily in the spaces between the trees, and so many things stranger than a human know how to fit their claws into your foot steps so no one even knows you were followed when you don't come home.
But this isn't about them!
Thank goodness. How spooky would that be?
Gather round the campfire for a series of intertwined short stories depicting encounters with a perfectly normal bear at a perfectly normal cabin. There are 19 endings for 19 campers and many ways to react to catching a glimpse of this majestic beast. Do you want to practice good wildlife etiquette? Or are you gonna reach over and give this giant predator pets like a big puppy? You choose your personal level of survival instinct!
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where i cant see him this is scaring me
I loved this so much
I also love that all of these stories are interconnected. It's such a cool little world???? "Take more pictures", "ask it what it wants", and "put a hand to the glass" are my favourites :)
KINDA SPOILERS BELOW???
I love the acolyte too lol, they're great and I'd love to read more about them and the hunter-turned-bear-conservation-enthusiast getting together
the "take more pictures" one is so cool????
SPOILERS
I'm sad about that ending for that route, though
spooky and oddly heartbreaking
WOW. What a read. I don’t know what this
eldritchperfectly normal bear Is but I love it SO much. Each story is awesome in the detailing of thefreakynessperfectly normal behavior of the bear and the different people that interact with it in different ways, and the way that the tales of those people ALSO connect. Loved it.⭐⭐⭐
It could be more immersive
Really liked this!
this is so good
i hope you know that you really made something incredible with this story, i can't wait to see what else you've written! i haven't ever seen someone approach a story this way and especially how well the separate narratives intertwined. this is definitely one i'll be showing others : )
Oh this is going to live inside my brain now.
incredible writing !! i spent quite a bit of time reading, navigating each branch of the storyline until i've learned of every camper's story. thank you xx
This rules!!!!
An absolute masterpiece. I haven't finished yet, but I am so caught up in this fascinating world.
This is one of the most beautiful interactive fiction stories I've ever read. Take every path, it is very worth it.
[inhales] so, on top of the story routes intertwining in a beautiful, illuminating way, I had the good fortune to pick asking the bear last, and now I have teared up. good job.
I got very into this interactive story/game. It has awesome writing that kept the entirety of my focus. I spent a good few hours reading and imagining vividly, and jeez, my friend, as somebody who wants to become an author of surreal/abstract psychological horror, this genuinely inspired me.
This text-based game managed to encapsulate the way my own imagination works pretty well. The consistent imagery of rotting nature, beautiful yet pungent, fascinating and morbid... it all really does remind me of my dreams, and the kinds of stories I like to write. This feels like one of those dreams I have where I wake up feeling an indescribable emotion towards it, understanding the astronomical significance of what I experienced in it and the mystery that I gradually uncovered, but I can't actually remember the content minus a few small details. It feels like I just read in words the happenings of one of those enigmatic dreams.
What I've taken away from this is not a list of 19 individual storylines, but a web of experiences and imagery that cannot be described without just experiencing it firsthand, like a traumatic past whose exact timeline was jumbled by the mind's horror and confusion... or, like a clouded dream like I mentioned earlier. ;P The interconnectivity of all the sub-stories was done really well and made the mystery of the bear even more fun to pry through.
While this may have been written with a more humorous or fun intent than how I processed it, I interpreted it as a work of art, a mix of mystery, horror, surreality, and humor. Super cool.
To sum all that up, dang, nice game. Please keep writing interactive stories like this one! I really connected with it!
bears are cute. but... never mind.
So creepy
You know what, i created an account just so i could comment on this. 19 endings is ambitious as heck. 19 separate (but similar) stories is a lot. 19 vaguely interconnected (UNTIL IT ISNT SO VAGUE) stories that work with each other AND on their own is so impressive.
The atmosphere is consistent from spooky to sweet to sad etc, they all flow together so well. Finding another piece in the puzzle was sincerely delightful. <3
The spooky was done well enough that I switched from full screen to small screen just in case there was going to be a picture that JUMPED OUT (im a scaredy cat oK)
<3 <3 i could keep gushing but it's really just a bunch of U W U i love bear <3
A very Regular and not at all Spooky time with a very Normal bear! 10/10, do recommend.