Baldi's Basics: Save The Game
Written by RadRapo

Full description:
It's Friday, and school's out for the weekend! However, Player's friend left his notebooks in the school, but can't go get them himself because he'll be late for eating practice... Whatever that means.
Join Player on their journey through the school, bumpy as it may be. All the while, they're under the watchful eye of Professor Baldi, who's prepared some fun trivia for Player to do along the way!

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1. Getting Started in Baldi's Basics

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Player stood casually in front of the exit, taking notice of their surroundings - the interior of the supposed schoolhouse of which the game took place. They looked forward, seeing another person nearby. A tall, polygonal adult bearing a simplistic green-shirt, blue-trousers, and brown-shoed attire, with no hair aside from a single strand and eyebrows. His red lips curled to a smile, his large, black eyes focused onto Player, and he gave a somewhat unrealistic wave, calling out to them.

"Oh, hi!" He exclaimed, though with a janky tone, "Welcome to my schoolhouse!" That must be Baldi. With a small nod and wave in return, Player tried to head forward, but couldn't. Baldi noticed.

"What's wrong?" He asked, "Can't move?"

Player nodded.

"Oh my!" Baldi started again, "You must've forgotten to go to the How To Play section! If you like, press Escape on your keyboard to go back and check it out! I'll wait!"

Player thought for a moment, before doing just that. Their body disappeared, while Baldi waited for their return as promised. Meanwhile, Player floated in the How To Play screen, reading over the controls before inspecting the plot.

They soon gave an unimpressed stare from the blatant use of excuses done by the friend character. However, their job done, they returned to the main menu, cranking the mouse sensitivity to a comfortable level for good measure. At last, they went back into Story Mode. Or a new instance of Story Mode...?

Baldi saw Player reappear unceremoniously, watching them as they tested out the controls, repeating his first words from before. In response, Player gave Baldi a thumbs up, going on their way.

"You need to collect two notebooks before you can use these doors!" Baldi called out moments later, when Player tried using the other pairs of yellow double doors. Turning back, Player instead went into the hallway directly behind Baldi, entering the first room they saw.

Inside was a regular classroom, full of desks, plus a chalkboard. Player noticed one of the notebooks floating upon the teacher's desk, and approached it with ease. Looking beyond, Player read the chalkboard, it only consisting of "Math = More Math = Math Math Math Math Math" scribbled around. Player shrugged, grabbing the notebook, noticing how heavy it felt.

Inside was a strange but colorful tablet, favoring green as the primary color. The text at the top read, "You Can Think Pad™". Player promptly booted it up, figuring this was the part of the plot where Baldi gives those fun trivia challenges.

From Baldi's end, his Think Pad vibrated, signaling him that Player had found their own. A link between the two connected, and from each side, they saw the face of the other appear on the bottom left corner of the tablet.

"Now it's time for everybody's favorite subject; Math!" Baldi exclaimed once more from the Think Pad, "Answer the three questions correctly, and you might get something special!" Baldi then went on to explain how to use the Think Pad, with Player nodding in understanding. Then, came the three questions, all of which Player answered with ease.

With each correct answer, Baldi would then praise Player on a job well-done. After the last, a message appeared on the tablet in place of the math problems.

"WOW! YOU EXIST!" Player wasn't certain how to take that, but shrugged it off.

Following this, they heard Baldi call out for them from outside the room.

"You did great!" He had started, "Come here and get your prize! A shiny quarter!" Player went out to retrieve the quarter, before Baldi began again. "Just click on it with the left mouse button to pick it up! Then, when you find something you can use it on, right click on the object with the quarter selected! That's how you use items, you know!"

With another nod, Player got the quarter, going off towards the other door in the hall. They took a bit of time to read a poster consisting of school rules. No running, no entering faculty-only rooms, no bullying, no drinking, no escaping detention, and no fourth wall breaks.

The last one confused Player, but they let it go and headed into the second room. Another classroom, the chalkboard writing being "Sorry, was too lazy to add more subjects". Player took the notebook, finding a second Think Pad. The process started again.

However, upon the third question, Player's face fell as something was very, very wrong with the equation. The numbers jumbled and overlapped each other, the operators were hard to define, it took up two lines of space, and Baldi trying to read out the equation didn't help matters one bit.

It was like someone took his voice at the most crucial moments and applied several noise filters, and yet, Baldi was still smiling away as though nothing was amiss. Not sure what to do, Player inputted a random number, as they were sure the problem couldn't be solved. The friendly jingle that had accompanied Player up until this point hung and ended. All was silent.

Baldi's expression changed, to one of anger. A message appeared in place of the math problems once again.

"I HEAR EVERY DOOR YOU OPEN"

Player heard a strange sound from afar, it becoming a slow rhythm. They exited the room, Baldi nowhere to be seen. However, they too weren't where they used to be, either. It's as though something had changed...

Confused, Player went to continue on their way to find the rest of the notebooks.

They wandered around the school, almost in an exploring fashion. When they had found the third notebook, Baldi was nowhere to be seen on the Think Pad. Nevertheless, Player answered every question with ease (aside from the garbled one, of course), a third message appearing.

"I GET ANGRIER FOR EVERY PROBLEM YOU GET WRONG" Angrier? Who? Baldi? That didn't sound right.

While adventuring, Player found a few more items to use: a Zesty Bar, and a BSODA. They weren't sure what they were for, but an after school snack could never hurt. Opening the BSODA, Player had intended to drink the beverage, only to be surprised when nearly half the can sprayed them in the face.

They stumbled backwards, bumping into someone.

"No drinking drinks in the halls," Spoke the person, and the next thing Player knew, they were in a new room of the school. In front of them was another adult. "Fifteen seconds. Detention for you. You should know better."

As the person left them alone, Player saw a timer appear, counting down from fifteen as stated. Player soon remembered that there was a rule against drinking, so they shrugged it off.

While waiting for the timer to tick down, Player decided to look upon the portraits on the walls, reading the many descriptions. As it turned out, the adult who caught Player was the Principal of the Thing.

There was one for at least three other students, consisting of one called Playtime, another named It's A Bully, and the last being Arts and Crafters. The only other apparent staff member was a literal broom named Gotta Sweep. There was even a portrait for the First Prize of the Science Fair!

Player laughed a bit, finding this school, and game, rather silly. In fact, this sort of thing could've easily been seen in a children's TV show.

At last, Player looked upon Baldi's portrait. The Think Pad had not exaggerated - apparently he can hear every noise and knows who did it.

While Player had become so deep in thought, they never heard the warning signs until it was too late.

With the rhythmic smacking sound of a ruler hitting a palm, Baldi entered the detention room, cornering Player with ease. Player finally heard the noise and turned to the source, only to be

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Immediately following, Player frantically looked around, finding themself floating in the main menu screen, hearing the familiar welcome jingle. Still shaken by the event, Player could only stare at the innocent-looking Baldi image, not sure what to make of anything.

An eternity later, Player finally went to Story Mode once again. When there, Player scanned the starting area, finding that everything appeared back to normal. Yet, Player didn't feel normal.

"Oh, hi!" They heard Baldi exclaim, "Welcome to my schoolhouse!" He would've stopped there, but noticed Player's frightened demeanor and his face expressed concern. "Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Player would've preferred a ghost. Giving an uneasy expression and a shakey thumbs up in response, Player started on their way again, watching Baldi closely and walking as far from him as possible. Baldi noticed this too, but decided to not press Player for information.

The first notebook went by without a hitch, which made Player begin to think about whether or not the last attempt was a fluke, or a glitch, or something abnormal. Baldi called out for them for the quarter again, but Player ignored him and went straight for the other classroom.

"A shiny-..." Baldi paused from this, very much confused. "Well, that's alright! You can pick it up later, if you want to!"

Player's brief theory was proven wrong, for the same garbled question popped up. Player held the Think Pad for a long time, not inputting anything. From the bottom left corner, Baldi spoke up.

"Would you like me to repeat that for you?" Player, without thinking, gave a frantic nod. "Here goes! BZZZZZZ, plus, BZZZZZZ, times, BZZZZZZ, equals...?" The operators alone weren't enough to comprehend the equation at hand, though it seemed like Baldi was supposed to give harder challenges down the road.

The most odd thing of all was how Baldi, despite his apparently excellent hearing, didn't realize what he was actually saying. As Player stalled, Baldi said one more thing, in a reassuring manner.

"You got this; easy!" He cheered lightly, "I believe in you!" As nice as that would be under other circumstances, that only turned out to be salt in the wound, for when Player finally inputted something, it was incorrect like before.

Player didn't look at the change in Baldi's face this time around, dropping the Think Pad to the ground and bolting. Like before, they started to hear the slow, but steady tempo of Baldi smacking his hand with the ruler, being sure to pay attention to it at all times from here on out.

The quarter appeared nearby them, Player deciding to grab it against better judgement.

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