The Watcher’s Grip: The Price of Escape
This is it. Their last chance.
If the traveler stays with the Watchers, at first, nothing happens. The garden remains eerily quiet. The vines sway without wind. The golden sphere dims.
Then, slowly, the changes begin.
Stage One: The Whispering Presence
It starts with a thought.
A memory they don’t recall making. A voice in the back of their mind, speaking words they never formed.
“You are not alone.”
They shake their head. No one is there. But the words linger.
“We see you.”
The vines shift. The walls pulse faintly. It’s as if the station itself is… alive.
“You are home.”
Stage Two: The Unseen Touch
The traveler feels a hand on their shoulder. They spin—no one is there.
“Why leave?”
Their fingers tingle as if something is crawling across their skin.
They look down—nothing. But their limbs feel heavy. Like something is holding them in place.
The golden sphere flares back to life.
“RUN.”
The vines lash out. The Watchers are waking.
Stage Three: The Mind’s Cage
If the traveler hesitates, they begin to lose time.
One moment, they are standing in the garden.
The next, they are somewhere else entirely. A different room, a different space. They don’t remember moving.
“You are part of us now.”
Memories not their own flood their mind. Visions of people who have stood here before.
“They stayed too.”
They realize: The Watchers don’t attack.
They become you.
As the Traveler lingers in the garden, the Watcher’s presence becomes suffocating. The vines don’t just grow—they learn. They wrap tighter, pulse with something more than life. Intent.
And then, a single choice appears.
Sacrifice a part of yourself to leave. (Accept)
There is no alternative. No fighting back. No resistance. The moment the Traveler presses Accept, something shifts inside them—a part of their agency is severed.
Challenge One: Follow the Instructions
“Feed the roots.”
The Watcher’s voice isn’t a whisper anymore—it’s inside their head. Commanding. Inescapable.
A flower rises from the soil, its petals opening like a mouth. A bowl sits at its base, waiting. The Traveler is given no guidance, no tools—only the expectation that they will obey.
A small vial materializes in their hands. It pulses faintly, filled with something shimmering and warm—a piece of themselves.
To move forward, they must pour it out.
The ground drinks it eagerly. The flower blooms, tilting toward them as if in gratitude—or hunger.
First challenge: Complete.
Challenge Two: The Question of the Vine
“The garden is kind.”
“The garden is eternal.”
“The garden is all that will remain.”
A vine wraps itself around their hand. Tighter. Tighter. They don’t remember stepping forward, but here they are—caught.
Another flower blooms before them, but this one is different. Its petals glow with an unnatural light, and its voice vibrates through their bones.
“If you leave, where will you go?”
“What will you become?”
“Who were you before you came here?”
The Traveler must answer honestly—but the price of a wrong answer is more vines. They must speak their truth, must hold on to whatever remains of themselves—or risk becoming part of the garden.
If they answer correctly, the vine releases them. A path opens.
Second challenge: Complete.
Challenge Three: The Path Back
“You were never meant to leave.”
The Watcher is not pleased.
The Traveler runs. The garden shifts around them, paths folding in on themselves, petals closing like doors. Every step feels heavier than the last. The wanting grows stronger.
“Stay.”
The path forward shrinks. They reach for their communicator.
“Sabine?”
A pause.
Then—static.
And then—her voice.
“Hold steady, Traveler. I have a course.
Move now.”
A blue waypoint materializes on their HUD. The ship is waiting. But the Watcher is not finished.
“If you go, you will never return.”
“This place is your home.”
“You belong to me.”
The Traveler moves forward. They don’t look back.
But they don’t leave whole.
As they step aboard, the doors seal behind them. Sabine is waiting. The ship departs.
The Traveler has lost something. But they have also survived.
The Watchers’ Grip
And if the traveler doesn’t escape now, they will never know which thoughts are their own again.
Escape: The Airlock Sprint
The only way out?
The airlock.
Put on a suit. Time is slipping—they must hurry.
Manually override the airlock. But something is resisting.
Get to the ship. If they can reach the cockpit, they can break free.
As they activate the controls, the Watchers’ voices scream in their mind—
“STAY.”
“WE NEED YOU.”
“DON’T GO.”
With a final burst of willpower, the traveler shoves forward.
The ship seals. The thrusters ignite. The station fades behind them.
The voices scream one last time—
And then…
Silence.
The traveler barely escaped. But they took something with them. A fragment of knowledge. What do they do with it?
A part of them was forever lost to the garden. Not in a way they could name—nothing vital, nothing that stopped them from moving forward. But still, something remained behind, woven into the petals, whispered among the vines. The Watcher would not follow, but it would always remember.
Chart a new course. → Where did the ancient civilization flee to? Should they follow the star map and risk uncovering what lies ahead?