Instruments: French Deck, 1d6, Block Tower, 10 Tokens
Game Description
Un-Navigatable is a Wretched and Alone game about trying to save your blog posts as Xanga prepares to shut down in 2013. It is part writing about the act of preservation and your feelings towards the posts and part writing the posts themselves. This game has you write both in 3rd person and in 1st person.
Game Content Warnings
These are content warnings that are from the game prompts and are present in all playthroughs.Playthrough Content Warnings
These are content warnings specific to this playthrough only.
Word Count: 2,833 Played: July 30, 2021
Initial Tower Pull: 8
Day 1
Ace of Hearts | You found your old Xanga Password. At the end of each day you may roll 1d6 and remove a token on a 6 |
Preserving the Posts
Sarah couldn't believe the email she had received. It seemed obvious in hindsight, but she had taken for granted that her internet journal, Xanga, would always remain intact on the internet somewhere.
The site was shutting down and she knew she would need to manually save every goddamn post herself if she ever wanted to read it again. Fortunately she was able to find the old password by scrounging around in her old school journals. She hadn’t written the password per sey but she remembered what her interests were well enough to be able to guess correctly.
The site had an archive function, but she was skeptical. She didn’t trust it. So on she went to save each and every post.
Token Roll: 1
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 0/4
Day 2
Queen of Clubs | What did you think of people who posted pictures of themselves online? | |
5 of Diamonds | Did they show the blog to anyone while they were writing it? |
Preserving the Posts
Sarah paused as she considered the post on her screen. It was a long and rambling rant about how people were asking for trouble if they were posting their photos on the internet. She wasn’t sure if it was ironic or not, but she herself was no stranger to the mid 90’s “Stranger-Danger” VHS videos they made all the students watch, along with the guest lecturers and “comedy” routine assemblies about safety.
It had taken her years to even feel comfortable to use her real name on the internet, and given the rise of facebook, it was inevitable that she posted and was tagged in pictures online.
She skimmed the post and read about how she had given a lecture to a friend who also used the Xanga at the time. The post only said “My IRL friend who I KNOW reads this blog,” but she could guess who it was she had been referring to.
Sarah briefly wondered if they were also trying to save all of their posts.
Token Roll: 4
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 4/4
Day 3
5 of Hearts | The site crashes when you try to play a song. Pull from the Tower |
Preserving the Posts
After waiting over 30 min for the page to reload, much longer than it ever took back when they had dial-up, Sarah decided to call it quits for the day.
This is what she got for trying to listen to the music she used to play on the site. She had wanted an “authentic” experience while she was saving the posts. She grumbled as she tried to remember what the songs even were for the various pages she had. She must have saved some of them on the computer, or at the very least could now hope that someone had uploaded them to youtube.
It was a shame that the playlist was gone.
Token Roll: 5
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 0/4
Day 4
King of Clubs | You found a section of the blog dedicated to roleplay. Who was the RP partner? Pull 3 from the tower | |
King of Hearts | They dropped the external harddrive they had been using to back up all the posts. Pull 4 from the tower |
Preserving the Posts
How could she have forgotten? She stared at the screen. The year: 2007. The Anime: Naruto. The culprits: Sarah, Jessica, Caleigh, Shira. Four young girls on a quest to see their favorite boys kiss. The scene: AOL instant messenger, and then transferred to Xanga.
Sarah mused at how even back then she wanted to preserve everything but then quickly turned several shades of red as she looked over the old posts. She of course played her favorite, Sasuke. Jessica was Naruto, Caleigh: Sakura, and Shira: Hinata.
Sarah[Saskue]: Che, *standing dramatically as sakura blossoms float past on the wind* I don’t know why I bothered to come.
Jessica[Naruto]: *runs up out of breath* sorry *breaht* I *breath* was*breath* getting *breath* THis! *holds up riceballs*
Sarah[Saskue]: *looks at rice ball* Why would I accept food from the likes of you? How do I know you don’t intend to poison me?
Jessica[Naruto]: What? No! I would never! Sasuke I….
Jessica[Sasuke]: Che, you are so naive. *stares off into the distance dramatically*
Jessica[Naruto]: *starts crying*
Shira: MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE RANCH!!!
Caleigh: rofl
Sarah: XDDDDDD
Shira[Hinata]: *looking through binoculars* What are they up to???
Caleigh[Sakura]: Are they both there??
Shira[Hinata]: Yeah
Caleigh[Sakura]: What are they doing? *taps foot impatiently*
Shira[Hinata]: Kissing
Jessica: Shira no! ><;;
Shira: lmao
Sarah: roflmao!!11! XDDDD
Caleigh[Sakura]: WHAT? O.O;;;;
Shira[Hinata]: Jk. *hands binoculars to sakura*
On, and on and on it went for pages and pages. After the initial shock of finding something like this and reliving all the old memories, Sarah found herself just plain bored. There wasn’t much here except for mediocre writing and mischaracterizations. She sighed and reached for her coffee and in a scene reminiscent from her favorite anime boy, she knocked it over right onto the external harddrive she had been using.
She swore and ripped off her jacket to try and clean up the liquid before it got further into the electronics. The jacket might be ruined but at least the computer was safe. The external harddrive, however, was also ruined.
She spent the rest of the day trying to get the damned thing to work but to no avail. It was fortunate that she hadn’t been far along on her preservation journey, but still the thing had been expensive. At least the coffee would wash out of her jacket.
Token Roll: 4
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 5
4 of Diamond | What was the reason she wanted to save the bog? Has that reason changed? | |
7 of Spades | Write a holiday post | |
Queen of Hearts | Are they afraid of anyone finding the posts? |
Preserving the Posts
Sarah sat back down at her desk, and resolved to finish saving all of these posts before the website burned down. She scrolled past post after post of her talking about homework, sleeping, her cat, her dog, her siblings. So far there was nothing super important or interesting.
She thought about the diary entries she had to read as part of Social Studies and history in school and wondered if anyone would read what she had written in the far future. She told herself, even if she wasn’t someone famous historians still want to know about the lives of the average people. Maybe someone someday would ask about what it was like to be one of the first generations to use the internet as a form of diary. How did she feel so confident posting all her deep dark secrets on the web where people could still see them?
She wondered about how many people she passed on the streets who would even know what Xanga is anymore? Sarah had mentioned it to a coworker who thought it was some sort of game. She had to explain to them what a blog was. The only people who would know to go looking for her Xanga were the people who had one themselves, and they had just as much dirty laundry as she did.
Sarah scrolled through until a flashing gif caught her eye. It was a turkey dressed up as a pilgrim doing a sort of jiggly dance.
User: xxRaxorRawrxx
Date: 11/10/07
HAPPY THANKS GIVING PEEPS! TIME TO EAT THE TURKEY!!! But not the people from Turkey lol!!!! I found out how to do other colors!!! Look at them! Aunt Marth even brought here cookies!! SHe said she wasn’t and then she did! I’m so eexcited!!!11 I’m tahknfuk for the cookies lmao. And other stuff i guess. But mostly the cookies! Mom also trie dto make the cranberry sausce but it didn’t woakr. Brb I have to go eat now By! Have a good Thx Gvng!!!111
Sara really could go for some of those cookies right now. She made a mental note to call up Aunt Martha to get the recipe sometime.
Token Roll: 2
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 6
6 of Clubs | Your blog was never really popular, what did you do to try to gain popularity? | |
6 of Spades | Write a post about someone who betrayed you. Does it still hurt? Or were you being petty? | |
3 of Diamonds | Why did they abandon the blog? |
Preserving the Posts
Sarah sighed and looked over the poorly written posts, the endless tacky gifs, and the almost unreadable text. At the time she thought if she wrote more and more then her blog would become more popular. She realized now that she was just one person in an endless sea of overly emotional teenage angst blogs. After perusing some of the other blogs on the site, nothing about her stood out except the unimaginable amount of posting she did.
Sarah only slightly regretted it now.
She had been going in order, from the first to the most recent, saving and downloading, but curiosity got the best of her and she went to the last post she ever made. The one she remembered writing most clearly.
User: xxRaxorRawrxx
Date: 04/16/10
Fuck Jessica. Sorry to cuss on the blog but I cannot believe her. There was no reason to do what she did and I don’t think I can keep writing this blog anymore. I’m so sorry everyone I know you all enjoy my posting (I hope) but I just can’t keep up with this. It’s too much drama.
She printed out my old posts and was showing it around to everyone. What the hell is wrong with her? This is my private diary! Sorta. I mean technically it’s not that private, but still, If I wanted everyone to read it I would try to get it published in the school newspaper or something, not on a blog like this.
What a bitch. I know you’re reading Jessica. Fuck you. I’m sorry I kissed Tanner. Ok? I’m sorry. But you didn’t need to do something like this. It was just a kiss alright? We didn’t do anything.
Sarah had completely forgotten about Tanner. All she remembered was Jessica’s betrayal. It still stung. All for a boy who ended up completely meaningless.
Token Roll: 3
Tokens: 10/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 7
5 of Clubs | You found a complete conversation in the comments with another person. |
Preserving the Posts
xxRaxorRawrxx (RR)
OwO; Its my boy!!! He looks so good! You draw him so smexy!!!!
MinniBinniBangBang (MBBB)
Thxxx!!! I just wanna glomp him so bad!
RR
XD I know!!! I can’t stop thinking about him! *gets nosebleed* EEEEK
MBBB
ROFL *hands tissue* *pat* *pat* *pat* *thinks about sasuke* *gets nosebleed too*
RR
*Shoves tissue up ur nose*
MBBB
*flails* tanks *can’t talk because of tissue* i dink i needed dat
RR
*hugs*
MBBB
*hugs back*
Token Roll:6
Tokens: 9/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 8
8 of Clubs | Who’s blog did you use to check every day? | |
4 of Hearts | Half the images are broken links. They don’t remember what site they used to host them. |
Preserving the Posts
Sarah looked tentatively at the link on the site. It was to an old blog that featured fan art of her one true love, Sasuke. She remembered scrolling for hours, waiting dozens of minutes for each and every picture to load with the old dialup modem and laughed when she remembered that her mother had been waiting for a phone call which she missed because Sarah had been using the internet.
She clicked the link and felt both relief and disappointment at the broken images on the screen. About a third of them still worked, some of which were high quality art, others of which were very clearly done by beginners with a lot of passion.
She noted which ones she commented on, and tried to the best of her ability to suss what the picture looked like. In her mind they were all the same, but a few she could distinctly remember.
xxRaxorRawrxx
*~OO~* *turns bright red* Ohemggeeee omg he’s so hawt. *blushes* Omg imma print this out k???
She had felt things when she saw the one of him without a shirt. She opened the drawer on her desk and found it at the very bottom. She had a binder she printed out her favorite pictures and kept them in clear plastic sheets, and there, on the cover, was Saskue, in swim trunks with a popsicle in his mouth.
Sarah quietly turned the binder over and slid it back into the drawer.
Token Roll: 5
Tokens: 9/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 9
4 of Clubs | One time someone from your school found your blog, Pull 1 from the tower | |
2 of Diamonds | Why did they start the blog? | |
8 of Hearts | The formatting for a post is messed up. You can see only about half the words. Pull 1 from the tower |
Preserving the Posts
There was something wrong with this page in particular. She didn’t know why. The blog theme was the exact same but all the text was halfway across the page. She could only see about half of the words but she knew exactly what it was about.
Another post about Jessica. Sarah’s stomach turned. She skimmed the text before reading it. It was some innocuous post about them spending time together and talking about Jessica’s blog.
Jessica was the one who had a Xanga first. She had learned about it from a cousin of her’s, then she told Sarah… well she made Sarah start one. Sarah had been hesitant but at a sleepover Jessica signed her up and the rest was history.
Sarah copied and pasted the text and didn’t bother to fill in the words. Jessica didn’t need to be remembered all that well.
Token Roll: 4
Tokens: 9/10
Kings: 2/4
Day 10
9 of Spades | Write your first fangirl post about a piece of media you are definitely embarrassed you enjoy. Pull 2 from the tower | |
King of Diamonds | Write the worst post you have ever made. Roll 1d6 or bonus black card | |
BONUS CARD: 10 of Spades | Describe and write the accompanying post for a piece of artwork. Include the reasons for your artistic choices | |
8 of Spades | Write a post that contains an absurd amount of tacky gifs | |
King of Spades | You got really REALLY into a webcomic. |
Kings: 4/4 Gameover
Preserving the Posts
Sarah didn’t know what to do. She can’t believe that she didn’t remember this. Seeing this post it all came back. She knew about her Naruto obsession. She remembered that quite clearly.
But somehow she had forgotten her MegaTokyo summer of 2008. She wanted to cry.
xxRaxorRawrxx
Date: 06/30/08
SQUEEEEEEE I Found the BEST comic ever! It totally gets me!!!! It’s calledMegaTokoy!!! Opps I mean MegaTokyo!!!!! It’s about 2gys who go to Japan and they get stuck there! OMG~ The land of anime!!! Can you imagine??!?! Anyway the mainchariacter is so hawt! (Not as hawt as Sasuke but no one will every be!!!!)
HIs name is Piro! And he is the ~Megane~ type!!!! (that mean’s glasses you unclutured swine!!!)
All the memories came rushing back to her. She stayed up for almost a week straight reading this comic, which, to her knowledge, is still going. The obsession had quickly faded once she realized that there were other comics out there.. Ones that were.. Less like this one. She steeled herself and read on.
So then there is dis robot girl!!!! Not to be a perv but her chest got big for some reason through robot…. Magic stuff. But there is this cool emo girl who walks on the telephone poles and stuff. O.o; idk how she gets up there tho.
She’s so cool!!!! Look I drew her and Piro!!!! I tried my best to draw it in the style! .. and I made them Kiss!!!! Heheheeh *blushes*
The art piece was still up on the blog. It was drawn in the same crude sketchy chicken-scratch of Fred Gallager. It featured said characters standing on top of a telephone pole kissing over what Sarah assumed to be the Tokyo skyline at sunset.
Also! I have three fanfics--
Sarah shut the lid of her laptop. She didn’t want to remember those. They didn’t happen.
She stood up, walked over to her bed and lay down. Maybe this wasn’t worth the effort. Did she really want people to see this trash? She had some posts already saved, the more personal ones. What did it matter if some of the more… embarrassing things were lost?
What she had was enough. It was good enough. She saved what she could. That’s what she’ll tell people. How unfortunate that the rest was lost.
What a shame that this wretched blog would soon become un-navigatable.
Special thank you to Lvx-1 for the glasses gif!
The rest of the gifs were found via GifCities.org