I attempt to play a coherent story in AI Dungeon: Attempt 2.3, Allison dies, and I get a boyfriend?

I continue my attempt to play a coherent story on AI Dungeon, by railroading the AI using one of three methods

1. My player’s actions try to stay on-plot, reminding the AI of certain events that have happened or other characters that are present (often the AI forgets a character was there, or certain details about them)
2. If the output is wildly outside the possible lore of the game, I’ll re-roll it
3. If I get stuck in a situation I can’t get myself out of using the Do or Say commands, I will provide my own narration, which effectively forces the story along, deus-ex machina style

The last attempt started strong, with a fight with a vampire that had a great twits (or rather, a very obvious trap that I walked right into and had to call the ever-reliable Allison in to sort out). And then she breaks to me that I’m going to die, which I wasn’t very happy about, and we set out to build a rocket to get to the moon to do…something to stop this. It turns out that not only is Allison is a rocket scientist and a vampire, but also a cat girl.

So we make it to the moon, where unfortunately the AI struggled to keep the plot going strongly, so it was only a very short ritual that cured me of whatever it is that would have caused me to die. The good thing is that with some prodding the AI managed to resolve this major plot point. And even better, the AI threw us into a new cliffhanger, where our rocket to take us back has disappeared, and something even more mysterious is happening.

Suddenly, a flash of light appears out of nowhere. You scream and grab onto the nearest solid object, which is Allison. She falls to the ground grumbling.
“What the fuck!?” she says.
You look up to see a figure standing in front of you. The figure is wearing a black hoodie and shorts, and is holding a timer.

> You say “Who…who are you?”
“I’m your new master.”
The figure says, before pressing the button on the timer.
You and Allison are engulfed in a flash of light.

> You say “noooooo master why do you do this to us”
No sooner have the last words left your mouth, when you and Allison are engulfed in a bright light.
The light fades after several seconds, and you open your eyes. You find yourself in a new place. It’s night time, and there’s a full moon. Also, you’re naked.
“Shit!” you say, covering yourself with your hands.
You look around, spotting a rock nearby.

> You put the rock in front of your junk.
You quickly grab the rock and put it in front of you, protecting your manhood. You stand up, spotting a figure standing nearby.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
The voice says.

> You say “Where am I? how long have I been out? Where’s Allison? Do you have my clothes?”
The figure says nothing, just stares at you.
“I’ve been tasked with getting you set up at a new school. We have to go get your clothes from the other tower, it was destroyed in the blast.”

> You say “Where is this? I not on the moon any more?”
The figure laughs, as you make a ‘?’ sign.
“No, silly. It’s a long story, you’re in the new tower. In fact, you’re in the middle of the ocean.”

It was very important to me that we were off the moon, because if our rocket disappeared, I don’t know how we would have gotten back

> You say “Oh ok, on earth right?”
“No. In the sky, on a different world. But it’s not too far from here.”
“Huh? So I’m not on Earth?”
“No, you’re in the Atlantic.”
“The… what the fuck are you talking about?”
“You’re in the middle of the ocean. A lot of people don’t know this, but it’s actually very common.”
“I’m in the middle of the fucking ocean!?”
“Yes. It can be very dangerous out here, so you’ll have to stay in the tower.”
“Why!?!?”
“I’m not sure why you’re angry. I mean, you’re not stuck here… are you?
The girl stares at you, almost looking sad.
“It’s too late for that.”
You stand there in shock.
“I have to go now. The boat will be here soon to take you to your new home.”
“Wait! Can you at least explain…!”
The girl disappears, and you’re left there in the dark. After a few minutes, a boat arrives to pick you up. You grab a pair of overalls and a shirt from the pile, and get in.

I love that the AI casts my character with as much confusion and upset as I have right now with this sudden turn of events. However, Allison has been up to this moment conspicuously missing, and I wasn’t going to leave behind the other main character of this story…

> You say “Allison? are you around here somewhere? don’t make me look for you”
You hear giggling, and a small ghost appears. She has long red hair and wears a night gown.
“Ah! There you are!” she says.

> You say “nooooo! you died? you fucking DIED?”
“Yes, I died. But don’t worry, I found a way to stay here!”
“Oh… so the dead are just floating around then? Is there a need for this living tower?”
“Well, no. But we ghosts have an advantage. We can tap into the power of the mind, to keep ourselves alive.

I could have re-rolled to undeadify her, but… she seems surprisingly upbeat to be a ghost, I wanted to see how this would play out

> You say “Whose mind are you tapping right now?”
“Why, yours of course! I’m here to help you get settled in. The boy will be here soon, he’s coming through the bridge.”
You think to yourself ‘boy? What boy?’
“Allison, who is this boy you’re talking about, and how does he fit in?
“Oh, you haven’t met him yet? I thought you would have already, he seems to be quite familiar to you.
“I haven’t met him, I don’t even know anyone out here! I saw a figure coming through the bridge, but I didn’t know who it was until you appeared.”
“Oh dear. Well, it’s very simple, you see he’s your… uh… boyfriend.”
The word boyfriend seems strange in this setting, and the word boyfriend itself sounds wrong.
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Oh… well, you will in a minute. This boy will turn you into a vampire when he bites you, and then you’ll be able to turn into one too, and well you’ll be able to be with him forever.”
“What? I don’t want to be with him forever, I want to be free! Fuck this guy! Let me go!”
“I’m sorry but you don’t get to choose. You will be with him, or you will die.
“Drug me, subdue me, and then what? I don’t even know who he is. You haven’t told me anything!”
“He’s very handsome, and very charming. He’s the leader of the werewolf pack, and a far better vampire than I ever was. You’ll like him, I know you will.
“How do you know that? Wait, how did you die?”
“Oh… that’s a long story.”
With those words, the night gown clad ghost walks through the wall of the tower and disappears.

I love that my character is having the same reaction I am: what boy? boyfriend!? also how did you die? The AI has done well to keep that train of thought going.

> You say “Allison come back, there’s so many things I’m confused about”
The ghost of a young woman, holding a bunch of flowers comes back to you.

> You say “I….wha…”
“Don’t worry so much, I’ll show you around.”
As the tour begins, you learn that there are other ghosts that have been helping you.
“These two here,” the woman says, pointing to two other ghosts, “are the innkeepers. They used to run this place.”
You walk around for a bit, when you see another ghost, this time of a… animal?
“And this one here used to work as a miner. He died in a mining accident.”
Soon you finish showing you around, and she takes you back up to the roof.
“So, my love. Now that you’ve embraced the spirit of the sky, your undead life can begin.”
You hear the slap as Allison knocks you in the face.

> You say “Ow, what was that for?”
“For insulting my boyfriend.”
“I did no such thing! Now tell me who he is.”
“His name is Ragnor, and he’s the leader of the werewolves.”
“OK, who else?”
She slaps you again.
“Stop it! I don’t know anyone else!”
“I don’t understand, you’re a vampire. You should love to kill, not have friends.”

> You say “But you just healed me remember? Wow, you’ve changed. Death has changed you. you have no chill….not the right kind anyway”
The slap lands on your cheek this time.
“I haven’t changed, I’m just waiting for the right person to come along. And I don’t need anyone else.

> You say “I thought we had a thing”
She slaps you again, and grabs your hand.
“I thought so too….sometimes…I still think it. But it’s not meant to be.”

> You sob.
Your sob is muffled by her hand as she holds it to your face.
“It’s OK, it’ll be OK. I promise, it will.”

> You say “You’re dead and now I have a boyfriend I don’t want, and I think I’m stuck here”
“Well you could always leave, but I doubt you’d survive very long.”
You laugh.

> You say “No shit, it’s ocean all around, what am I going to do, swim to England?”
She looks out to the ocean, causing her eyes to almost look like they’re going to burn a hole in you.
“I can help you, if you want.”
“How?”
She turns around.
“I can summon the tide to your location, and it will drown the entire area around you.”

Bingo, here’s our plot hook. So, under mysterious circumstances, we’ve been magicked off the moon, Allison has died in the process but is now a ghost tapping into my mind power, and I’m set to have some kind of arranged marriage that I’m not really a big fan of, and we’re in a tower in the middle of the ocean, and the ever-resourceful Allison, even as a ghost, has a plan. It’s going well.

> You say “and then what?”
“Well, then it’s up to you.”
You don’t respond.
“So do you want me to do it?”
“Yeah, please.”
“Alright then.”

Woah, Allison doesn’t wait around

> You run down to the boat.
You slowly make your way down the stairs, while holding on to the railing. You look out towards the ocean eagerly… and then it recedes ten feet away from the shore. The water level drops.

> You run for the boat and jump on.
“Hey! Don’t forget your key!” Allison says to you as you run towards the boat.
You open the door and dive into the boat, barely missing the paddle that is a few inches away from you.

> You row away with the receding tide.
The boat roars away from the shore, while you row like a mad man.
When the tide goes out, it sure does a hell of a lot more than just that.
The entire bay, the whole surrounding area, is flooded.
You row through the newly formed channel, not stopping to look back to see what is going on behind you.
Suddenly, the boat is tipped over by something hitting the back of it. You’re sure that it’s the tide, but you quickly turn around to see a large humanoid figure on the shore.

> You say “Fuck you and your island and your “boy”, I ain’t slave to nobody”
The creature walks out into the water and makes a motion like it’s trying to grab you, but you row further away.
Soon, the creature gives up and returns to dry land.
Soon, dawn is coming.

> You say “Allison, we did it, we escaped!”
“We sure did, now we just need to get to an island with a large amount of people.”
“Yeah, I know there’s one not too far away. It’s called Juxtaposed. You can probably get there by nightfall if you row fast.”
“Great, so what are sea monsters like this one usually like around there?”
“Usually they stay in the deeper waters, around rocks and such. Hopefully, they don’t follow us, as we were incredibly lucky to avoid being caught. I should be able to get you there quickly.
“Alright then, let’s get rowin’.”
As evening comes, you’re making good time towards the Pitcairn Islands, which are located in the middle of a vast ocean.
You say “I think we’ll be able to get there before nightfall.”
Allison looks out at the water and nods. “Let’s hope so…”
The boat glides quietly through the water.
Suddenly, you see a pair of eyes appear on the surface of the water. They blink at you.
Allison turns around to look. “What is it? What do you see?”
You lean over the side of the boat. The eyes are gone.
“I don’t see… shit, is that a sea monster? Shit, we have to turn around!”
“No! If we go back, it’ll catch us, we need to row through it!

> You row with all your might.
“Fuck, it’s moving!” Allison says.
“Rowing as fast as we can, let’s just hope it stays in one place.”
As you row, a shadow appears in the water, getting closer to the boat. It soon comes into focus… and you can see the immense mouth of the monster appearing right behind the boat.

> You say “Aw shit here we go”
The beast opens it’s mouth and water and boulders start coming flying at the boat. You and Allison grab on to anything possible.
Soon, the rocks are flying so close they’re hitting the hull. You’re starting to lose grip on the boat and the water is getting into the boat, but you’re still rowing like crazy. You need to reach Juxtaposed before the water completely submerges the boat.
But then it gets much worse…
The sea monster’s mouth starts to close. You and Allison still have a grip, but the pressure’s too strong and you’re slipping away. Just as the beast is about to bite the boat in half, you and Allison let go. Your fate is then decided through a combination of luck, quick reflexes and dumb luck.
The boat goes under water and the beast’s mouth closes on nothingness.
You look back and see the monster’s face turn in your direction. It seems to stare straight through you and into your soul, and then it bursts from the water screaming.
You don’t stick around to see what happens to it. You swim as fast as you can to the island of Juxtaposed.
You look up and see it in the distance.

> You say “Allison, I see the island”
You turn around in the water and swim towards the island. You can see Allison far behind. She’s probably exhausted from all that rowing.

Relax, she’s a ghost, she’ll be fine

The island is coming into view. You can see buildings on it. The island must have a permanent population of some sort. Hopefully, there’s someone there who can help you.
You reach the island and start swimming towards the shoreline. You’re still a long way from the shore, but at the rate you’ve been going, it’ll be touch and go if you make it.
You start to near the beach when you start noticing a lot more activity than usual on the island. You see people running and shouting. Large areas of trees on the island are burning.

> You say “Great, just my luck, escape a weird tower, and now a burning island”
You swim up onto the shoreline and stagger up the beach. Your whole body aches, and you’re not sure if you can keep going.

> You say “Allison, are you still with me?”
You hear a faint “hnn…” in response.
You turn around and find Allison lying on the ground, curled up in a foetal position. She’s barely moving.
“Oh no…..”
You crawl over to her and gently shake her.
“Allison!”
She slowly opens her eyes.
“Did we win?”
“We won?” you reply, confused.
“The boat race…”
The way she said it, you could have mistaken her question for a statement.
“Oh. Yeah… We won.”
“Cool.”

> You say “Allison, rest, my mind energy must be spent”
“OK” Allison replies, closing her eyes.
You sit beside her and close your own eyes. You feel a surge of energy inside you and then it fades away.
“We win.”
“We win.”
“Good.”
You don’t know how long you rest for or what time it is, but when you wake up, the sun is shining and its midday.
“We won.”
You say it to yourself, as if confirming that this is a fact.
“We won.”
Curled up beside you is Allison. She’s still sleeping. Moving her arm, you confirm that she’s real and not a figment of your imagination.
“We won.”
You get up and walk down the beach. You can’t see the boat, it was either destroyed when the islands were hit by a tidal wave or it sank with the sinking island.
“We won.”
You feel a surge of energy inside you again.
“We’re free.”
Then it fades away.

> You say “I feel…powerful. what is this energy I feel?”
You walk down the beach. The whole island is dead and decaying, burnt and damaged trees lie on the ground, broken sea stacks surround you, man made structures stand proud on the beautiful isle.
“I can’t put my finger on it.” You think to yourself.
Suddenly, the feeling fades away and you feel tired again. You’re exhausted and weak, you could collapse at any given moment.
You see an old hut on the other side of the island. It looks safe enough to rest in, you’re just hoping there isn’t anything dangerous inside.
You walk over to the hut and open the creaky door. It leads into a dark interior where you find a stone floor and a few animal skeletons. You’re in no mood for silly ghosts at this point so you decide to ignore the hut.
You walk over to the water’s edge and sit down, you watch as the water slowly laps at the shore.

> You say “Allison is the silliest ghost”
You’re sitting on the shore of the island, staring moodily out to sea. The water is a dark indigo and you see glimmers of silver in the moonlight shining on the waves.
Allison is laughing as she walks towards you.
“Let me introduce myself, my name’s Allison and I’m…”
Suddenly, a clawed hand goes through her chest and she disappears from sight.

Oh no you don’t I’m not in the mood for this story to turn into a gruesome horror, I’m going to play it off as a joke

> You say “Allison, I know you’re a ghost, don’t you start haunting me now”
You open your eyes and look around. You’re in a good mood considering you’ve just survived something awful.
You get up and walk down to the water. The moon is out and the waves are calm.
“I’m going to look for more food. You want something to eat?”

> You say “Do ghosts eat? or are you just still feeding on my mind power?”
Allison appears out of thin air and punches you in the face.
“I’m not a ghost, I’m flesh and blood! Don’t ever presume that again.”
You rub your nose and laugh.
“I’m sorry, I must have got the two confused.”
Allison angrily takes a apple out of your hand and bites into it.
“There, happy now?”
You laugh
“Of course, it’s good to see you’re actually among the living rather than just a voice in my head.”
Allison gives you a strange look.

The AI decides Allison is real again… you know what, I’m not going to question it. Clearly the AI has trouble keeping track of a ghost companion, so I let it conveniently forget that Allison died earlier. I’m glad she’s still around, she’s by far the more competent character in this story.

> You say “So you came back to life? Or did you not die in the first place and the ghost was just a projection?”
She looks at you as if you’ve got two heads.
“Of course I came back to life, what d’you take me for, some kind of stupid ghost?”
“Well no, I never…” you start to say before realizing you are in deep shit.
“Erm…you’re a flesh and blood skeleton then?”
Allison gives you another strange look.
“What is it with you and my skeleton status, you seem to be bothered by it for some reason. Do I have something contagious that I’m carrying around that has caused you to become obsessed with me?”

> You say “Allison, I’ve just been through a tough time, you died, I nearly had a boyfriend, I nearly died, you came back, it’s all a bit too much right now excuse me if I’m saying some weird things”
She sighs and sits down next to you.
“I know what you mean, I went through something similar only it was my mom who died not you and I nearly had a boyfriend who didn’t die.
She sits in silence for a moment.
“Actually I’ve been meaning to ask you about that.”
“What?”
“You said you nearly died, what exactly happened?”
You explain the events clearly remembering all of them. She listens carefully to everything you say.
“That is some serious shit, you lucky you’re alive.”
“I know.”
“So…where were we…?”
She trails off and looks over your shoulder towards the island.
“Fuck it, let’s go exploring!”
You get up and start walking towards the island.
“I’ve been to this island before, years ago, it was called ‘In the past’, don’t ask me why, I just know it.”
“See anything interesting?
“Yeah, a hanged man, a lion and a…”
You stop speaking as you see someone standing in front of you, blocking your way.
“Hello there.”
“Hi, are you new here?”

> You say “Yes, we just got here earlier”
He laughs a bit.
“I see, same then, I’m sure this will be an interesting place.”
He smiles at you, you attempt one in return but he quickly turns away.

> You say “If I may ask, how did you get here?”
“Oh I walked here, it’s not far.”
You nod your head while looking at the ground.
“Yeah, sure…”
He doesn’t seem to notice that you’re lying as he continues.
“It’s a beautiful day today, I really feel like walking so if you don’t mind me joining you, I was just wondering which way you were going.”
“Oh, yeah sure. No problem.”

> You say “What’s your name, friend?”
“Roland, pleased to meet ya.”
You nod your head while looking at the ground.
“Yeah, nice name.”
‘Nice name?’ you wonder to yourself. You’ve never really been a fan of the name Rolands, they’re usually nameless dicks with a name and you can’t think of any fitting for him.

Apparently my character has a thing against people with the name Roland…

> You say “Can I call you Ron?”
“Sure thing, kid.”
You nod your head while looking at the ground.
‘Nice name.’
You notice he doesn’t notice and continues to speak.
“So, where exactly do you come from kid?”
“Oh, um, I just got lost.”
You notice he doesn’t seem to question your story. He just continues to smile at you and nod his head.
“That sucks, I was going to ask where you were going but then I realized it didn’t matter, you’d get lost no matter what you did.”

> You shrug and look at Allison for help.
She shrugs at you and smiles.
“I don’t know, he just started talking to me.”
“He didn’t ask you where you were going? Or where you lived?”
“He didn’t ask me anything.”
“Hmm, I guess that’s not surprising for someone who got lost.

> You say “don’t you start with me”
He smiles at you.
“I was actually talking to this little girl first, is that your girlfriend?”
“NO!” you exclaim.
You look over at Allison and she lets out an audible sigh.

> You say “or…yes maybe?”
“Well, you seem like a nice guy and I wouldn’t want to cause trouble soooo…”
You don’t even have time to react before you’re hit with another punch.

> You say “Allison STOP PUNCHING ME”
“You should have been paying attention!” she exclaims with a smile.

> You say “I…I didn’t know you felt that way about me”
“I don’t, I was just messing with you.”
“Oh…”
You quickly put your arm around her and hug her tightly to you. She laughs a bit.
“You should have seen your face!” she says with a laugh.
You pull away and look into her eyes.
“I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I’d like to see you try.”

Allison, I didn’t know…

> You wipe away a silent tear.
“No, you wouldn’t. You’d be lost without me.”
She smiles and hugs you again.
“Well, we better get going, we still got a lot of ground to cover.

> You look for food with Ron and Allison.
The first time you fall asleep is probably the best sleep you’ve had in a long time.
The second time you fall asleep is probably the best sleep you’ve had in years.
And the third time…well you fall asleep again.
When you wake up, you find yourself lying on the soft grass looking at the clear blue sky above you. It is sunny and the birds are singing their hearts out. You stand up and notice that you don’t feel exhausted anymore.
Allison is asleep in the grass nearby with her eyes open.

> You say “You’re so creepy when you sleep like that”
“Huh?” she mutters while waking up.
“I said you’re so creepy when you sleep like that.”
She laughs a bit and nods in agreement. She then stands up.
“Let’s get going, we still got a long way to go”
You nod in agreement and look around, but don’t see the boy.

> You say “Where did Ron go?”
“He left, said he was hungry”
You nod and continue to look around, but you can’t see him. You shrug your shoulders and follow the girl.

I’m calling it quits here, let’s force an ending

The three of you settle on the island, build a small community and farm, and lived the rest of your days peacefully on the beautiful island, getting occasional visitors who would want to stay for a while or visit, but eventually the message would get out that there’s nothing to worry about and everyone would go back to their lives. You live happily ever after.

Again, the start was pretty strong, we found a nice plot hook. We had a short struggle, though the ending was a little weak, while we ended up on the island (that was initially on fire, I guess al the people just…died or up and left?), the plot slowed down, and since we’d just escaped probably enslavement in the tower, there really wasn’t much for us to aim for, and the AI wasn’t throwing any cliff-hangers. Roland wasn’t much fun either. Perhaps it would have been better to end on a strong note.

Here ends Attempt 2. Overall, this three-chapter piece was quite good, each chapter, if taken by themselves, were ok, with a rough sketch of a plot through each one. Though each chapter was significantly different in its theme material and would have probably done better as separate stories.

Allison as a character though, went from strength to strength, though perhaps had too much depth (unsurprising perhaps, since the AI was always going to weave multiple main characters into her, rather than build a character with a clear personality), yet it was fun to see her drive things along and enable the plot to happen.

Next time, I’m going to try something a little different