Solely Responsible

**Juniper goes soul-searching.**

## Synopsis

Juniper asks the girl who she is, and where they are. Opting to give him the alias "Cypress" instead of her real name, she informs him that they're in the town of Comfort.

Juniper makes a joke about "zombies" (unlocking ***"Comedy"*** in the process), and suddenly Cypress is pointing her gun at him again. Apparently the word has some significance that is lost on Juniper—rather than attempting to defuse the situation with more deceit, he tells Cypress that he's from Earth (netting the ***"Full Disclosure"*** achievement).

Surprisingly, she's heard of the place—apparently it's known as "the dream that skewers", a phenomenon that replaces all of a normal person's thoughts and memories with dreams of a different life on Earth. The dream-skewered are studied at the Athenaeum of Speculation and Scrutiny.

Juniper has more questions—do the other dream-skewered think they created the world, do they see the game overlay and level up? Cypress doesn't seem to think so—she reveals that their world is called "Aerb", a name which strikes Juniper as being exactly the sort of lazy off-the-cuff name he'd come up with as a Dungeon Master if he hadn't planned one beforehand—and suggests that he consult the Athenaeum, prompting the ***"Straddling Worlds"*** quest.

Cypress' plan to escape Comfort before the Fuchsia Coterie kill them involves the use of an "XC-class soulcycle"—a motorcycle fuelled with souls. She gives Juniper a glass jar and metal spike so that he can collect some, and estimates they'll need seven. Finally, she hands him her weapon—unlocking ***"Pistols"***.

Juniper decides not to ask any of the myriad of further questions that pop into his mind, simply agreeing to go and get the seven souls. This prompts a notification: ***"Loyalty Increased: Amaryllis lvl 0!"***

As he passes the corpse on the way out, Juniper solidifies a few **"Theories as to What the Frick is Going On"**—maybe he's dreaming, or he's in a simulation, or he's dream-skewered... or Aerb actually exists. Still, he has more pressing concerns—he sticks the metal spike into the hole in the corpse's chest, and watches as it sucks out a ball of light. He catches the soul in the jar before it falls into the corpse's lap. His first quest updates: ***"Quest Progress: Seven Bells for Seven Hells, 1/7"***.

Before he can work out his next move, two pink-haired guys walk into the shop. He manages to defeat the sword-wielding one using the pistol (apparently called a "void tunneler"), levelling both ***Dodge*** and ***Pistols*** to level 1. The other, however, lands a hit with his length of pipe, giving Juniper a ***"Broken Bone"*** affliction. Juniper shoots him point-blank with the void tunneler, levelling up ***Pistols*** again.

Suddenly, Juniper is surrounded by golden light and filled with ecstasy—***Level up!***—and his broken arm is healed completely. One of the newly-made corpses comes back to life as a not-zombie, and Juniper scrambles to kill it again using the sword. Then he shoots the other one through the heart for good measure. Wasting as little time as possible thinking about the fact that he's just murdered two people, Juniper collects souls ***2/7*** and ***3/7***.

## Featured characters

* Juniper Smith
* Amaryllis Penndraig

## Quotes

“You missed the giant sign?”
“I guess I was distracted by all the zombies."
***Skill unlocked: Comedy!***

—**"Cypress"**, **Juniper**, and the game layer.

*Please, please don’t have Fel Seed.*

—**Juniper** tempts fate.

“How narcissistic.”

—**Cypress** learns about Juniper's god complex.

“Nothing against you, obviously, I’m just thinking about it in the context of the delusion. The interesting thing about the dream-skewered is that their records of Earth match up, even if they haven’t had communication with each other. But for you to work elements of this world into your delusion … if, when we get out of here, you’ll have to consult with the Athenaeum of Speculation and Scrutiny.”
***Quest Accepted: Straddling Worlds!***
I’d done nothing of the sort, but I was starting to realize that accuracy of language was not the game layer’s strong suit.

—**Cypress** sends **Juniper** down a rabbit hole.

The golden light came again, with a wind that blew errant bits of newspaper away from me, and I got that same glorious hit of ecstasy, like the opposite of getting hit in the face with a frying pan.

—**Juniper** levels up a second time.
## Notes

### Real-world references

* Juniper recalls a Chinese takeout place called the "Great Wall", after the Great Wall of China.
* He also references Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a psychological theory which claims that human needs range from "physiological needs" up to "self-actualization", with the lower levels requiring satisfaction before the upper levels can motivate an individual. Juniper places "not getting killed by zombies" lower on the hierarchy than "metaphysics".
* The stat system in *Dungeons & Dragons* includes a feature where hitting zero in any stat has uniquely negative results, including death—Juniper's right to avoid getting another level of Cowardice if at all possible, just in case the same is true of his stats.