Phase Q/Big Boss

You dance around the fire. Your village dances with you. Another feast. Another celebration.

This time, it feels different.

The crowd surges, coming together near the fire. You feel yourself lifted up off the ground, and thrown into the air.

You fly up, then fall back down. Towards the fire.

A sea of hands catch you.

You get tossed around on the waves, feeling the tides and currents of a coherent people.

Your people.

As the frenzy grows more powerfully, your body vibrates with the excitement.

The people, your people, toss and spin you, treating you with the rough deference of an admiring crowd.

Your mind is mostly empty, focusing on your upcoming guidance of the tribe.

You will turn this little village into a village fit for a king.

More ceremonies. More luxuries, for the deserving. More food and babies and tournaments.

All of this will take more work, of course, which you will be happy to direct.

You’ve really taken a liking to this world, and the people have obviously really taken a liking to you, too.

Together, you and this crowd of people from many different backgrounds – cave dwellers, bankers, warriors, shamans, and whatnot – will come together into a happy community.

Finally, you can share in a comfortable life of the type that you have long dreamed.

Back when you struggled on your original planet, in your original quadrant. Back when you faced those threatening lights. Throughout many changes, really.

Looking around at the faces, now, you note with pride a certain resemblance. You see a corndigger, one of your staunch allies, and you admire the rough, hard-chewing surfaces at the opening in the metabolic trajectory. You cast an appraising look at the round curves of a soccer mom’s firm locomotive trunks.

This should do.

In your new position as chief of the village tribe, you find that many of the fertile females warm up to you, without necessarily understanding at all whether or not you could even theoretically impregnate them.

Many formerly indifferent villagers now treat you with a newfound deference, respect. Some even take to following you around wherever you go.

A few of the tribe, including notably some of your former competitors for the chief position, go along enthusiastically with your village overhaul. However, at quieter times, or when fewer people are around, you seem to notice them glaring at you, plotting, conniving.

Over time, the village takes on a new shape. All the dwellings receive matching shades of coloring. You ban unofficial dyes. A small ration of corn goes around to all the villagers on your order, bringing a kind of single, cohesive solidarity to the village, and winning you great support.

You continue to build up the village, slowly, never changing much at a time. The celebrations increase. The food and babies and dwellings glow with fullness. You find happiness.

And the tribal villagers keep on watching you.

• Mix things up.
• Go back to the good old days.

Phase Q: An interactive adventure.