Close Encounters
Before
getting into this story:-
Please note that it is NOWHERE near finished and is
an ongoing project for MURDER.
There will be th eopportunity for people to decide what they want to see happen
in the future, and we're looking for writers to help make this piece of interactive
fiction into something for MURDER and the RD community as a whole can be proud
of. If you think your writing abilities are good enough, chuck an email with
a quick short fiction our way (to add to the fanfic section) and we will offer
you the opportunity to write for the fanfic if we feel the style is in keeping
wih the current story.
In this story, the whole crew weren't wiped out by the radiation leak, although Lister and Rimmer still think they were. Rimmer wasn't killed by the radiation leak as he was found out by Todhunter and was put into the other stasis booth. Also, the entire crew are in one of the cargo decks, frozen in time after one of the lower members of the crew found a timewand and froze the crew by accident. He also turned himself into a cockroach by accident, and was promptly eaten by the ship's pest control system.
Along the way there will be some event which will choose between Rimmer dying or living, which is one of the ultimate differences between the main plotlines, although there are many other endings as well as these. Following the different characters' P.O.V. is essential to finding out the whole story and make informed choices, so don't expect you can read through this story once and complete it satisfactorily. A re-read is important to get the full feel of the story, it's designed that way. Also, there are a nomber of "offshoot" plotlines which are destined never to connect back to the main storyline, but which are enjoyable nonetheless.
Most of this story is based on you choosing whose POV (point of view) you would like to follow, so you get to see what the different characters get up to in the story, although not at the same time. Sometimes, you actually get to choose what a character does, and this may or may not ultimately change the course of the story. If there were tons of these life-changing points, the story would either be a nightmare to write, or it would be very short. So I have limited the amount of work I will need to put into the story by adding as few forks in the story as possible. However, I may add forks into the story in the future, and the "last updated" date on the main fanfic page will change to reflect this (I'll also put a notice on the main page)
The most important thing is to have fun!
We join the story in Lister and Rimmer's sleeping quarters......
The room was quiet. Very quiet. Uneasily quiet. The sort of quiet you only get in horror movies, sometime just before the killer strikes. Rimmer lay on his bunk, sleeping like a baby. He had a baby's bottle in his hand and a dummy hung precariously from his lips. Lister sneaked away from Rimmer's bed as stealthily as possible, and quietly picked up his polaroid camera, intending to take a picture. Perhaps the bib and bonnet was overkill.....and the adult sized blue romper suit took quite a while to find, but (he thought) it'd be worth it just to see Rimmer's face in the morning.....that's if he didn't wake up crying and wanting another feed!
He quickly took the picture or Rimmer sleeping peacefully, dummy in mouth, and hid the camera in his locker. Lister then went out and got 10,000 copies of Rimmer made in full colour A4 landscape, and....over the course of a couple of hours....managed to get them all posted around the ship in places where they'll still be found years later.
Once this was done, Lister returned to his bunk and "slept like a baby" although not in the same literal sense as Rimmer. Next morning, Lister awoke to the deafening cry of "LIIIISTERRRRRRR!!!!?!?!?!?!" and sat bolt upright in his bunk, almost banging his head on the top of the altogether too small bunk. He sat over the edge of the bed and held his head in his hands, feeling decidedly groggy.
Rimmer, in
full baby gear and with bottle in hand, looked at Lister reproachfully and
said "Lister, was this your doing?"
"I dunno what you're talking about, man!" said Lister, still not
having seen Rimmer.
"This! This, Lister! My new fashion look!"
Lister turned his head towards Rimmer and finally saw what all the hullabaloo
was about.
"Whoa, nice garb, seriously...........isn't it about time for your nap?"
Rimmer looked at Lister menacingly and Lister raised his arms as if to say
"Just a joke, man!"
Lister then said "Just a joke, man!" and put his arms back down.
Rimmer started taking off his romper suit and noticed he at least had his
shirt on underneath it....He continued on down his body, removing the suit.
"Oh, no, not
a nappy as well, Lister!"
"What can I say, I was drunk!"
"What about 'I'm sorry for making you look like a complete and utter
and total prat and I promise I won't do it again'....for a start, at least!"
"Okay, I'm sorry I dressed you up as a baby, okay?....D'yer need changing
or anything?"
Rimmer ignored Lister's extra comment and replied "No, it's not
okay, Lister. You'll just do it again, or something similar, you always do!"
"it's 'cos I'm bored, Rimmer, so I get plastered, and it affects my judgement!"
"So you admit this is wrong, totally?"
"Yes"
"Good, at least we agree on something"
Lister gets up from his bunk and leaves the room......
"What was I thinking, pink is more your colour, Rimmer!....Totally
wrong!" said Lister, from the corridor.
Whose Point Of View would you like to continue this story from?
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