Alone by Distant Shores A hack of Takuma Okada’s Alone Among the Stars by Casey Johnson, or geostatonary, requiring one player, a pack of 52 standard playing cards, and 1d6 or other suitable randomizer. At the most distant shore, dark waters lap at the sandy substance of the world grown thin. To sea is the not-darkness of the void. Below is the furthest edge of the world, sandy and soft and not one particular thing or another. Above, on a good day, there are the stars. You came to this impossible place- to find respite, to outrun the world for a little while longer, for reasons intimate and your own- and while you are here you shall experience the fear and beauty of the most distant shore. Time, space, form- they are all thin, here. Your days pass as a dream as your mind wrestles with the lack of realness, but herein lies the potential for being as… someone else. Something else. *** Draw a card. This will describe what you find in this moment, and how it entangles itself with you. Roll 1d6. This will determine how you came to this place and time. Add to your castle. This will herald the coming end. Where you were before- the causal chain begins anew Roll a 6 sided die: 1-2: you were walking along the shoreline 3-4: you were relaxing on the beach 5-6: you were playing in the sand Valence- to perceive is to enter into dialogue ⯁ Diamonds Diamonds turn your heart or mind voidwards; something about them draw out a fascination, fear, or longing for the dark beyond the world as you know it. ♣ Clubs Clubs remind you of the world, where things are real and solid and of a fixed nature; they remind you of the places you’ve left and the places you may yet go, but also those places denied to you. ♥ Hearts Hearts stir associations with those you love and hate; they draw on the people around you and the strength of your bonds, for better and for worse. ♠ Spades Spades turn your perception inwards; when you bear witness to those distant shores, you see some part of yourself reflected within them. Context- engagement necessitates ancillary truths A- something gleaming, brilliant, or crystal 1- a native of the void, ill-defined 2- something of the world, washed-up and changed 3- a creature from the tide pools, of neither here nor there 4- the weather, changing 5- a fellow vacationer 6- something buried in the sand 7- the foam of reality where shoreline meets dark waters 8- something you thought lost, transformed 9- someone twisting, in motion and ephemeral 10- the sand, becoming as something else J- a picnic along the shore, peopled by things from the void Q- a mighty creature, overwhelming to the senses K- the world is quiet, and above shine stars Endings- and so the story closes As you travel the most distant shore, you shall build a castle for yourself- of memory, of yourself, of the undifferentiated matter of the world's edge. Take each card you draw, and arrange them in whatever semblance of a castle pleases you. When you are tired or finished with this place, or your castle is complete, stop. If you would return to your life as it is, carefully preserve your castle, or take it apart brick by brick. Remember it and respect it. If, upon witnessing this all, you long for the cool of the void and the infinite potential it offers, destroy your castle. Kick it over like so much sand and immerse yourself in the void beyond the world.