Taking the Fall

**Juniper Smith drops into a world of his own making.**

## Synopsis

Juniper Smith is passing notes in fifth period English.

Five seconds later, he finds himself restrained inside an aircraft. He's surrounded by strangers, similar in age but wildly different in appearance. A man in army fatigues walks down the plane's center aisle and addresses the captive passengers as criminals, informing them that their crimes will be forgiven if they reach "the outpost".

One of the convicts manages to pull off their gag to shout that they stand a better chance of survival if they work together, but it's too late; the plane's belly opens and the passengers—Juniper included—are dropped out of the sky.

As they fall, Juniper sees a boy with a pink mohawk snapping a girl's neck. To get away, Juniper tucks his limbs in and dives—just before he hits the ground, a glowing rune appears on his left hand and he slows down.

He lands near a gas station, surrounded by red-eyed zombies. Words pop up before his eyes—an achievement notification for ***"Down, But Not Out..."***—and he dismisses them by blinking twice.

The zombies are attacking another of the convicts—she screams at Juniper for help, but he decides to make a run for it. He hears the girl die, and another notification informs him that he's earned a ***"Cowardice"*** affliction.

After jogging to the gas station, he receives a notification for unlocking the ***"Athletics"*** skill. The gas station is reminiscent of those typical of the Midwest, except that in place of the pumps are black shards of obsidian. There's an advertisement for "fresh frongal legs"; the word "frongal" strikes Juniper as familiar.

The road, power lines and cars all seem fairly normal, discounting the 1950s style of the cars and the general state of disrepair in the area. Although it seems like everything useful in the gas station has probably been looted already, Juniper ventures inside. There's a corpse behind the counter. He grabs an empty rack for greeting cards and wields it like a bat, unlocking the ***"Improvised Weapons"*** skill. The corpse twitches, and Juniper attacks it—breaking the rack but prompting his new skill to level up. There's a rusted machete underneath the corpse, which unlocks ***"One-handed Weapons"***; a single ***"Critical hit"*** is all it takes to level up that skill.

The zombie survives this assault, and Juniper realises that damaging its head won't kill it. Rather, its weak point is its heart—just like the zombies Juniper remembers once creating for a *Dungeons & Dragons* session.

As the zombie lunges, Juniper spears it through the chest—levelling up ***One-handed Weapons*** and prompting ***"Zombie defeated"*** and ***"Achievement unlocked: Rambo"*** notifications. Finally, there's an orgasmic blaze of golden light—***"Level up!"***

From all of this, Juniper deduces two things: one, that he's in some kind of game; and two, that it's a game with elements that he personally designed. He closes his eyes and sighs, and that brings up his character sheet.

## Featured characters

* Juniper Smith
* Poul

## Quotes

“Rebels. Traitors. Murderers. Dissidents. Thieves. You are the scum that has floated up to the surface. A less civilized society would have put you to the sword the moment you were caught. We believe in our ideals. Strength through adversity, righteousness through struggle. If you survive, you will be stronger for it. Make it to the outpost, and a place in the Host is waiting for you, your crimes forgiven.”

—The first line of the story, addressed to Juniper and the rest of the prisoners on the plane.

“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

—**Juniper** channels Dorothy.
## Notes

* Many of the skills in Juniper's character sheet are greyed out, so they're barely readable—Alexander Wales has stated that Juniper can't read them, but a "sufficiently interested reader" can peek ahead if they wish.
* The chapter ends with a summary of the thirteen ability scores' definitions—these definitions can also be read by hovering over the scores in the character sheet.

### Real-world references

* While this chapter's opening, in which a group of characters are airdropped into a hostile environment where they must fight to survive, bears many similarities to the "battle royale" genre of video game (popularized in 2017 by the likes of *PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds* and *Fortnite*, with the term itself having been coined by the 2000 movie *Battle Royale* based on the novel of the same name), Alexander Wales has stated that he envisioned it as being closer to the 1981 film *Escape from New York*.
* Juniper's first line is a famous quotation from *The Wizard of Oz*—spoken by Dorothy to her dog, Toto. In that story, a normal girl from Kansas gets dropped into a fantasy world, where she gradually accumulates a party of fantastical characters. Uh, spoilers much?
* If you're reading this, you probably don't need to be told what "*D&D*" stands for. We'll tell you anyway—it's *Dungeons & Dragons*.
* In his notes for this chapter, Alexander Wales describes the story as a "self-insert litRPG portal fantasy" and states that he would've tried to fit in a *Groundhog Day*-style loop if he thought he could. He would find a way to work in references to that film later in the story.

## References

1. ↑ It's supposed to be "unreadable", i.e. unknown to the player but viewable by a sufficiently interested reader for a peek at what's ahead. More on that next chapter.
—Alexander Wales on Reddit, 2017/07/14
2. ↑ In my head it was more like Escape From New York, but that reference is very old.
—Alexander Wales on Discord, 2018/07/26
3. ↑ This is a self-insert litRPG portal fantasy, and I would have made it a Groundhog Day loop if I thought I could fit that in.
—Alexander Wales on Reddit, 2017/07/14