SotM - Post I

Synergy of the Mind - Part One

The dull smack of footsteps on asphalt and the sound of labored breathing contrasted sharply with the otherwise faint city ambiance meandering through the alleyway. A lone figure dashed past building after building, dodging around dumpsters and narrowly missing a panicked stray cat. The glow of streetlights and windows filtered into the alley giving enough light to see but causing twisted and hideous shadows to form behind every trashcan and broken bottle. A shouting voice was heard down a side alley towards the main street, distracting the figure and causing it to slip on a discarded newspaper. Nearly falling, the figure stumbled for a moment and finally stopped the headlong dash, taking a moment to catch its haggard breath. Standing next to a side alley leading to the street and catching the light of a street lamp, the figure's features were visible, revealing

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1 - a stern-looking man armed to the teeth with various oddly-colored and shaped knives and guns, along with various bottles of foul-looking liquid, wearing a long black trenchcoat.

2 - an exhausted and badly wounded young man, with blood from a head wound trickling onto his otherwise handsome face and several gashes in his clothes revealing dark red wounds.

3 - a teenage girl with a long cylinder strapped from her shoulder across her back wearing a simple shirt and jeans and running shoes.



~Vladimir Murek of Kep

SotM - Setting

The World of Synergy of the Mind

The story is set in modern times, and as such could possibly be affected by events happening in the real world.

What makes this world different: Shards.

The world has countless numbers of objects called Shards. These items are remnants of an ancient, powerful, and colossal object the likes of which man cannot even fathom. What is was, why it was broken, or HOW it was broken remain a mystery. All that is known is that these Shards are drawn to each other and that together they are immensely more powerful then they are apart.

Ninety-nine out of a hundred of these objects are shaped like regular polyhedrons. Think of them as dice, the least powerful being the 4-sided tetrahedron, increasing in power to the 6-sided cube, the 8-sided octahedron, the 12-sided dodecahedron, and finally, the 20-sided icosahedron. The more sides a Shard has, the rarer and more powerful it is. Shards are roughly the size of common playing dice.

In addition to the more common ones, there are extremely rare Shards. Some Shards were warped in the process of being made and have shapes that are convoluted and eerie, such as spirals, stars, or loops. The rarest Shards, however, are know as Perfect Shards. These perfectly round spheres don't seem to be broken at all. In addition to the great power they already hold, Perfect Shards are known to draw out the most potent abilities of other Shards.

To gain the power a Shard holds, the Shard must be absorbed. Most Shard-users don't know what exactly they did to absorb the power. Many descriptions exist of what absorbing is, including pulling the power out of the shard, letting it's power sink into you, or 'activating' the Shard, among others. No one can be taught how to absorb a Shard, he or she simply 'knows' how to do it.

Little is known about what power a shard holds until it is absorbed. The color of a Shard tends to correspond to the elemental composition of the powers. For example, a Shard with a Plant-focused power would be more green and brown, while a Shard with a Heat-based power would be yellowish-orange.

~Vladimir Murek of Kep

Synergy of the Mind

Ollo! Welcome to the experiment.

What you are hopefully about to to start reading, or may have already started reading, is my attempt at a Reader-Influenced Story. Have you ever played one of those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games? You read what the character is doing for a while and then choose what he/she does next at an important decision and based on what you choose, the story will change. This is like that, except instead of just one person choosing, everyone reading the story gets to vote on which choice he or she likes best.

The story is almost completely unconstrained, I have no idea what is going to happen or where it will go. The only barrier I'm setting in place is some of the setting, everything else is up to the reader and will develop as the story progresses.

Rules:

- Everyone who reads the story is allowed to vote. The vote will take place in a readily accessible poll window.

- You are allowed to vote on only ONE option. Period. End of story. You also cannot change your vote. So vote wisely. And don't complain.

- If I find out that people are making/using multiple accounts to vote more than once, the entire site will be shut down. I've had one story like this ruined by that already. Please, people. The point is to have the story go in different directions. You can't always get your way, so just be happy when you do. The story will still be interesting, I promise.

- You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to leave comments with suggestions. There's no point suggesting new options for the current poll, the choices are already finished. You can, however, suggest possible directions the story can take, and those may end up effecting what choices show up Next time. Please don't complain if your ideas don't show up, though. I can't have half a million options, so I'm going to pick the ones I think will take the story in the best directions.

That's all for now!

~ Valdimir Murek of Kep