SMASH ; app

[wordsidk]

Out-of-Character Information

Name: meru
Are you over 15?: yeah
Time Zone: PDT
Personal Journal: meruberri
Reliable Method of Contact: merururu
Other characters in the game: none

Tegaki: n/a
Anything Else?: I have finals tomorrow

In-Character Information

Name: Ib
Game/Series: IB
Teacher/Student/Other: student
Canon Point: Together Forever
Age: 9
Grade Level: "pre-high"
Dorm or Living Arrangement: a dorm I guess.

Personality:

Oh the personality of a silent protagonist... since most of this is gleaned from sprite interaction and short conversation this is probably going to be different from other Ib apps.

Starting with her non-variable traits:

She's quiet and well behaved enough that her parents don't worry about her being a bother to the other visitors at the gallery. She was allowed to wander about alone. Evidenced by how her mom reminds her of the rules but follows it up with "I don't have worry about that with you"

Also when a little boy in the gallery says he wants to pick up the petals from around the rose sculpture, both responses you can pick advise against it.
> I don't think so
> They might get mad

Either way the boy will think Ib is no fun or boring for following the rules.

Through most of the game Ib keeps a brave face. She does such a good job of this that Garry doesn't suspect her true emotions until her break down after seeing a portrait of her parents. From here on out we really get to see that she is in fact a scared, lost little kid, clinging on to the first person she met for any amount of comfort he can offer. Although there were hints of this before when she was still on her own in how she would stop walking at any sound and back away from any movement.

The reason she hid her fears and worries for so long is because she didn't want to be a bother to him. She even apologizes for it after she comes to again.

She also must only be used to speaking seriously because she seems unable to tell when someone is kidding or to kid herself. Could just be that she knows there's a time and a place of this and that is NOT in a gallery that wants you dead.

When it comes to player choices she can be the kind of person who "gets" art or not. Either way you go nothing changes. If she says she doesn't understand when someone asks her about art it doesn't make her dumb since she still has to be smart enough to make it through the math and logic puzzles before meeting Garry. Even after he joins her he isn't too much help with the rest of the puzzles. He's pretty much only good for pushing things. So I conclude from this that Ib is pretty bright for a 9 year old.

there is always an option to STARE or to simply answer with "........"
> Stare back at the congested eyeball
> Stare intently at Garry
> Stare out into the fake lake
> Stand perfectly still under the fake sun
> "........" when Garry calls out to her in the dark

These options make her seem more detached or confused. It makes people uncomfortable or worried about her and usually ends up hurting their bond. The further into the game you get the more these come up which makes me think the art world is slowly breaking her. She also sees creepy dolls as cute bunnies so yeah, starting to go crazy.

But no matter how detached the player makes her appear she always seems to do things without explaining why.
> using eye drops to heal the eyeball's congestion problem
> laying down the mirror to melt the ice door
> staring out into the water to find the moon

She has a good mind for working out puzzles and just lets her actions do the talking rather than say something. Even when she's got people asking her why or what she's doing she doesn't give an explanation. Just does it and let's it reveal the next step.

The only other option you'll have is to be "bold" or "cautious"
She can do the "safe" thing and NOT pick up objects or press buttons. But then she might never get out of the gallery. So it might be better to break the rules a little.

Choose the safe responses and say
> I'm fine
> Thank you
> I'm sorry
> Sure

Or she can be a little more brave and let people know that
> I had a nightmare
> I hurt all over
> It's nice to meet you

And most importantly, she can ask Garry:
> Why do you talk like a lady?


She's not shy about talking (not that she does much talking) or listening to people but she's shy about telling them things. She spends quite a bit of time with Garry but she doesn't tell him anything more than her name until they see the portrait of her parents. After her collapse you start getting the option to open up to him.

Of course there's always the option to continue staying quiet and staring intently. But that's no fun. Unless you like making Garry uncomfortable but then they can't be friends.

She just needs time to become comfortable with someone. Until then she'll keep an emotional distance.

Backstory: Script; old version

On a gray day Ib goes with her parents to an art gallery. She brings her new white handkerchief she got for her birthday. When her parents were busy with the registry Ib asked to go look around. Her mom says that'll be okay.

It's her first time at an art gallery.

She looks around for a second. Then meets back up with her parents. They tell her there's more to see upstairs.

While upstairs she looks at a painting called The ??? World And then everything gets quiet. She's all alone.

She goes back downstairs and the lights turn off. There really is no one else in the gallery.

But footsteps can be heard. And every now and then there's a sound or movement from a painting.

She goes back upstairs to reexamine The ??? World only this time there is blue paint leaking out of the frame. When she checks it the words "COME IB" appear on the floor and the leaked paint spells "Come below, I'll show you a secret place."

The only "Below" could be the paining on the first floor titled ??? of the Deep When she gets to it a section of rope is missing and there are blue foot prints at the edge of it.

She jumps in, like jumping into the water, and appears in a new place. It's a hall. At one end is a locked door, at the other a door blocked by a red rose on a table. She takes the rose and moves the table. Behind the door is a small room with a key and a note that says she and the rose are connected.

She takes the key and letters appear back in the hall calling her a thief.

The key opens the door an the other end of the hall. It's after this that things actively try to attack her. She makes it through two rooms of being chased by paintings and headless statues, or hands popping out of the wall and trying to grab her every time one succeeded in hitting her the rose would lose a petal.

Finally after solving some math and logic puzzles she comes to another long hall. There's a man laying on the ground. He's in a lot of pain and doesn't really respond when she's try to rouse him other than to tell her to stop because it hurts. He has a key in his hand which she takes.

Walking back down the hall she finds blue petals and blood on the floor. When she opens the door she finds one of those paintings ripping apart a blue rose. She lures it away from the flower to save it.

Then she has to run because the painting chases her out of the room and down the hall a ways, protecting both roses until she can find a vase. Once she finds one and restores the blue rose to health she goes back to the man who's still laying the floor.

He's amazed that he's no longer in pain then freaks out when he sees Ib because she might be part of the gallery. But when she hands back his rose he calms down and they talk about their situation.

They have no idea how this happened but they're going to stick together and find a way out. Garry says he can't leave a girl on her own in a place like this anyway.

She putts up a brave front and make it through a few floors before she's shaken out of it by a large portrait of her parents.

They leave the room and make it about half way down the hall before she collapses under a painting of a face crying blood. Garry carries her to a near by room.

While passed out Ib dreams about being chased through endless doors only to end up locked in and surround by the art....

She wakes up with a start and Garry gives her a piece of candy. They talk for a while until she's ready to move on.

In the next room they meet Mary. Everyone is happy to have added to the party. But they don't make it far before a stone vines rose up and separated Garry from the girls.

Ib didn't want to leave him but they couldn't see any other option so she reluctantly went with Mary to search the next room, promising to come right back if they can't find anything to break the vines.

All they found in the boxes was paint brushes and other art supplies. Mary decides to keep a palette knife. They were about to go back when the lights go out and a statue is blocking the door. They couldn't move it so they had no choice but to go on ahead.

After awhile Garry get worried about them and finds a hidden passage out of there. Now split up, the two groups work their way through the most complex series of puzzles yet. Once that is done, the girls make it down to the floor Garry is on. They can hear him talking to someone. They open the door and he's sitting there talking to himself. He wouldn't respond to them or even acknowledge their presence.

Mary seemed about to give up but Ib was determined to slap him out of it. So she literally slaps him. And it worked! Happy to have him back she hugs him, much to his surprise. He says he can't remember what he had been doing since getting separated but no matter, they're all together again so they can move on.

In the very next hall, however, Mary drops her rose. Gary goes to pick it up for her and she flips out. She goes to attack him with the palate knife. He manages to knock her out. This incident also jogs his memory and he remembers reading that Mary is painting so they have to leave her and her fake flower behind.

The two make their way into a place called The Sketchbook. It's a place with no sense of proportion or perspective - a child's drawing of a town. In the center is a pink building with a sign that says "the key is always in the toy box."

When they find the toy box May finally catches up to them and pushes them in.

Ib wakes up alone in a large flat area, dolls and statues are scattered about, and most worrying yet she lost her rose.

Wondering around she soon finds Garry, still laying on the ground. She wake him up and after they establish that the other is alright they set out to find her rose...


What they find is Mary receiving the rose as a gift from one of her dolls.

She says she'll trade it for Garry's rose because she likes blue better. Which he agrees to.

Mary runs off with the rose and Ib feels really bad that he had to do that for her. He says it'll be alright, they can catch up to her and get it back.

They leave the toy box and go into the pink building. While they're running down the hall the words "love me... loves me not" can be heard. Eventually Garry collapses. He doesn't want to say what's wrong just that she'll have to go on alone but if she needs him he promises to come running.

Ib runs on ahead knowing that there isn't much time.

She gets to the top of a staircase in time to see Mary pull out the last of the petals.
Collecting the pieces is impossible (I know I desperately tried to fix it when I got to this point)

She runs back to Garry and he's ... sleeping, holding his lighter.

He won't wake up.
No matter what she does.

She has to leave him. Again. For the last time.

Up the stairs is another set of stairs. This one leads to the gallery entrance.

Up stairs is the painting that started this whole thing.

She looks at it and it changes to show an image of people at an art gallery. The note says if she climbs though she'll forget everything that happened...

She jumps in and--
--can't remember what she was doing.

Her parents find her and Mary's with them.

Ib finds the lemon candy in her pocket and Mary eats it, ensuring that Ib's memories of the gallery aren't jogged.

As they leave the gallery Mary makes Ib promise that from now on they'll be together forever.

Anything Else?: I write too much

In-Character 1st person sample: Is this part of the gallery?
In-Character 3rd person sample: First day of school, before classes

Since she had primarily been taught at home by either her parents or tutors depending on the subject this whole place was full of new experience for little Ib. Wandering the halls, attending classes with other kids, there didn't seem to be too many kids her age around but that didn't bother her. The older kids she'd met so far had seemed nice and Mary is here! The uniforms didn't either, in fact she kind of liked them.

Now she's waiting in line for food in the cafeteria another new thing but even if the food probably isn't as good as she's used to it doesn't bother her. Or maybe she hasn't noticed what's even on her tray. Something else has her full attention. That something? It appears to be a large bear. She doesn't know what to think. This isn't something she expected to encounter on her first day at a school. Maybe she's trying to figure that out.

If here memories weren't so... missing she might not have paused so long at the idea of a bear serving lunch. But as it is Ib may never have been to a school before but she's sure this isn't normal.

She's just staring up at it with her wide red eyes; totally holding up the line. Maybe someone should say something.