You awake in Santa's Workshop

Santa's Workshop

When you come to, you find yourself lying on a bed in a small cell. The walls are made of brick which was probably painted bright red a long time ago, the colour now faded. In the corner is a toilet and basin with a small mirror attached to the wall above it. Brick walls surround you on three sides. Facing your bed is a cell door made of metal bars; there's no way you could slip between the bars and it looks too solid to bend or break.

You look down at your body and realise you're naked apart from a small pair of red shorts that hug your crotch and ass tightly.

"Hey..."

You look up. There's a young man like you in an identical cell opposite yours. Unlike you, he's completely naked; he's also restrained by thick gold shackles around his wrists and ankles and a solid-looking gold collar around his neck. The shackles bind his hands together behind his back. He speaks again. "You're new here, aren't you? My name's Nick. What's yours?"

"I'm Louis," you reply. "Where the hell am I?"

"We're in... Santa's Workshop," Nick says. "But it's more like a sweatshop now. The elves make everyone build toys all day and dish out punishments for any bullshit reason when they feel like it." He leans his head back against the wall. "There's no escape. Those bastards watch the Production Floor all the time, and even if you did somehow make it outside the walls, it's just snow and ice outside for miles and miles."

"Fucking hell... How- how long have you been here?"

"Months? Years? Time passes differently here. It's always Christmas Eve here, otherwise the toys would be delivered late. No-one gets older. No-one dies." Nick rattles his chains. "They don't let me out of my cell any more, so all I can do is wait for the hours to pass. Every so often, the elves bring back someone new and put them where you are now. But they'll probably move you into one of the other cell blocks tomorrow.

A rising sense of panic grips you. "There has to be some way out of here!"

Nick laughs bitterly. "I'm sure you'll spend your first few days searching for one. But a few weeks in here and you'll be just like the others. Defeated. Filled with the magic of Christmas! No, it's best to keep your head down and do what they tell you." He pauses. "I don't want you to have any false hopes, you understand? I... last time someone tried, they managed to get past Alabaster and rip out a bunch of pages from the Naughty List, but it didn't work, and... well, you don't need to know the rest. Now Alabaster won't let anyone into the Archives."

He pauses, perhaps deciding whether you can be trusted. You wait, but he simply shakes his head and says nothing further.

Somewhere in the distance an alarm rings, startling you and Nick. "That's the morning bell. The elves will be coming to move you out onto the Production Floor. Remember my advice, Louis. Work hard and stay out of trouble, unless you want to end up like me."

{if New Game Plus = 1}It looks like you're playing on a New Game Plus playthrough. You would normally proceed from here by clicking the Production Floor chapter link below.{endif}