Unaccompanied

NOTE: This activity is triggering in many ways.

If you don't feel up to embarking on this adventure, by all means don't. If you feel you need to stop part of the way in, feel free to do just that. There's strength in knowing your limits. In fact, this activity is designed to help you become more aware how important it is to be aware of them and to foster empathy towards the limiting environments of others.

In this simulation, you have five stats: Fatigue, Stress, Mistrust, Depression, and Poverty.

You currently are ranked at 50 for each.

You currently have [number:fatigue] Fatigue, [number:stress] Stress, [number:mistrust] Mistrust, [number:depression] Depression, and [number:poverty] Poverty.

Your goal is to see whether avoiding survival sex work is possible, or, as you might discover, even optimal, for your character (at least, from their perspective). Thinking in the short term may be necessary.

Also, something else to note. You've been in the system before: foster care, group homes, even a residential treatment facility once. There are many possible options that won't be available to you if you want to stay out of the system. Staying in a shelter won't be any good. Shelters for youth are designed to only allow stays of one month while looking for a spot in a group home or the like. Your secondary objective is to stay out of sight lest you be placed back in a group home.

If you have a tertiary objective it's this: don't cry. Come on. Don't be a baby. Tough it out. Depression +5

That right there (Depression +5) means that your Depression has increased by 5. You're now at 55 Depression! Make sure you pay attention to the end of paragraphs to check for any stat changes.

If you reach 100 in Depression you might attempt suicide. Try not to get to the point where you have to worry about that.

If you reach 100 in Fatigue, you pass out. Plain and simple.

You have a rough past, so you can deal with more Stress than most; therefore, you get a little more slack with stress: if you hit 120, you have a breakdown, panic attack, what-have-you. One more thing to avoid.

If any of these things happen, you end up in the hospital and sent back into the system. Then, from the system, you are sent back home. From home, you either run away or are kicked out again. This means you have to start over! Maybe your initial failure will help you develop some street smarts.

Making sure you keep your stats low will open up more options for you. Some options will have requirements: for instance (Stress < 50) means that you can only choose the option if your stress is less than 50 (NOT equal to). Of course, keeping them low isn't always such an easy option itself.

This program will keep track of your stats for you, but if you'd like to, you may find it helpful to keep track of them on your own as well. You won't see options that are blocked off to you by your stats, so feel free to try again if you fail (or even if you succeed and just want to explore!)

And... just because I feel like it. Mistrust +5

You now have 55 Mistrust, too! Can't even trust the narrator, can you?