Stories

During the Alusia Foundation's Exhibition, the winners of the competition (hereby denoted the participants) will be able to experience a set of Stories using the Bookworm. Each morning, the Operations team will set up a prechosen set of Stories for the participants to experience in the afternoon. The participants may choose which Stories they wish to experience – although it is expected that participants will spend the entire allotted time in one Story, it is possible to experience parts of multiple Stories in one day, or to spend time in the afternoon outside of Stories.

To enter a Story, the participant must connect to the Bookworm by wearing a helmet. Once they have placed the helmet onto their head, the participant will lose their senses of sight, hearing and touch, before drifting off into a sleep-like state and awaking in the Story.

When transported into a Story, the participant will take on the likeness of a character that would fit in the setting of their chosen Story, which will be chosen for them by the Bookworm. For example, in a Story where the characters are animals in a zoo, the participant may be a zebra. Regardless of their form, all participants will keep the sapience of a human adult within Stories. The initial important of these In-Story forms to the plot of the Story can vary and depend on the Story Quirks the participant has.

Within a Story, the participant's senses of sight, hearing and touch will be as that of their form in the Story. All lasting effects In-Story such as pain will disappear as soon as the participant removes their helmet.

Characters within the original Story will be able to interact with the In-Story form of any participants. If multiple participants enter the same Story, they will also be able to interact with each other.

While in a Story, the participant's form will contain a wristband with a button on it which only the participant can interact with or perceive. Others in the Story cannot force a participant to leave that Story. When pressing this button, the participant's helmet will be opened and they will immediately re-enter Alusia Foundation. Their In-Story form will fade out when the participant presses the button.

A participant may also be released from their Story experience by the Alusia Foundation's technician, Linden, who will use his key to manually open their helmet.

Little is known about the consequences of a participant leaving a Story for the In-Story World. Testing has suggested that In-Story characters may acknowledge any disappearances, but further evidence will need to be collected before this can be confirmed.

Once all of the participants have left a Story, the Bookworm will write a description of the events which occur in the world of the Story after the participants have left, taking into account the participants' actions. At the end of each day of the Exhibition, the Alusia Foundation will collect each of these Epilogues and publish them the following morning.