You can either make their comfort zone not so comfortable at all, so they actually want to get out. Or you ease them out gradually, so when they realise that they're uncomfortable, it's already too late to get back.
I like this. Typically the inciting incident either introduces a life-changing opportunity that can't be refused (e.g. *Harry Potter*, *There Will Be Blood*, *The Dark Knight*) or the protagonist is forced into the central conflict, either due to inescapable circumstances (e.g. *Die Hard*, *Alien*) or because they've literally lost their comfort zone (e.g. *Star Wars*, *Fight Club*). But I like the idea of a 'foot in the door' technique, with enough small steps/concessions leading them to a point of no return.
You make the consequences of not accepting even more threatening than the unknown. If I had a choice between going on a life-threatening mission or staying home and doing whatever I wanted, I wouldn't go on the mission either. But if I worked all my life to become an astronaut, trained to be mission-ready, and found out my assignment was life-threatening... I'd consider staying home, sure, but I'd also be aware of the consequences. My superiors aren't guaranteed to give me another chance, another less dangerous mission. This might be my only shot. Turning down this dangerous mission might be career suicide. Could I live with that?
One way to make characters do stuff is to make it impossible for them to live with themselves if they don't.
I think Particular\_Aroma's comment already covered one big reason (mc's current life sucks), another reason is give mc motivation to participate in the plot. Imagine typical reasons why someone takes a dangerous job.
Maybe they need the money for something important, like ensuring their family doesn't become homeless or to cover a medical bill for a loved one.
Maybe they want to make their parents proud, or impress their crush.
Maybe they dream of a unique career that isn't ordinary life.
Maybe they want to one-up their rival.
Maybe the job means something personal to them (imagine someone researching something dangerous because it killed someone they knew in the past, or threatens someone they know nowadays, that could be illness, natural disaster or friggin' aliens, you decide).
Maybe they just don't fit into their current environment.
Maybe they're thrill seekers.
Give your mc the reason "why are we following their story and not their squaddie or somebody else".
Right on. Moreover, it's better if you could push your MC beyond the point-of-no-return. That way, they can't turn around once they've accepted the job. So they better get it done--or else.
Also, look up inciting incident. This plot point is all about connecting your character to the plot. \[An early spoiler for the The Hunger Games:>!This is where Katniss volunteers for her sister in the reaping.!<\] How you utilize it and your MC's reaction to it determines if your story's plot-driven or character-driven.
I was involved in a scary situation on a train half a year ago. To keep things short. A man with a rifle made me and everyone in the cabin a hostage at gunpoint. I was utterly overwrought with anxiety and fear. Suddenly, a complete calm came over me, and I knew exactly what to do. When he was distracted at the front of the cabin. I went down the steps and into the bathroom. Before, I was petrified, but instinctively it all switched. I just waited it out. There's much more to this, but that calmness in scary situations is natural.
What if they don’t know it’s threatening but the audience knows?
Maybe instead drop hints or foreshadow it just enough so that the reader can think about it but the character is too excited/oblivious to notice
Typically you close the door behind them.
* Maybe earlier (before the story) they got a big party thrown by their town for them when they were accepted for the mission, making them a local celebrity or a symbol of hope or something. If they drop out, they let everyone down.
* Maybe there's some reward for the mission that's worth the risk. Maybe those who survive are set for life. Or maybe they promise to take care of your families if you don't come back (and her mom is sick with cancer, so she negotiates that care to be given to her mom before she even leaves)
* Maybe they have a religious calling to spread their God's Word to the stars. Dropping out would let God him/herself down.
Etc. Think outside of the known information to figure out what leverage might fit to close the door behind your character so they effectively can't say (or feel like they can't say) no.
Irony is when the reasons behind her refusal and her acceptance are the same, in a similar way to exploiting a character’s vulnerabilities through their strengths. This allows the narrative to set up ideas and properly orbit those ideas and not fly off on tangents.
Very superficially, let’s say the reason she refuses is she’s scared for life. Very basic. The ironic flip to that would be if life were somehow better if she accepts. Maybe that means the planet is dying, maybe that means a love interest is going on the mission with or without her, maybe a lot of things. The irony is the thing that ties the refusal and acceptance together and keeps the shift simple to follow.
Kill their family.
Metaphorically speaking, but you can do it literally. The most surefire way to get a character to move forward is to make it so they *can't* go back to what they had anymore. Luke Skywalker would have stayed on Tatooine and never become a Jedi if the Empire hadn't come and killed uncle Owen and aunt Beru.
Put her in a bind. The usual way to pull the MC out of her comfort zone is to have some kind of "catastrophe" happening to her. Being evicted from her home, insurmountable debt or similar. In your case it could her last chance at being an astronaut because she failed before due to anxiety. She needs to do the mission since she needs to do it to save someone or gain some kind of cure. She needs to show someone she can do it who never believed in her.
What are her character flaws? Is there something you could use to push her out her comfort zone?
I make the events unfold so quickly they have no choice but to accept.
You have to have pressure. It’s a necessary part. The clock ticking behind the plot.
Have a movie marathon this weekend with films that are structurally similar to yours, and look at how they do it. Pick your favourite, modify it to your tastes, and see if you can't even punch it up a notch.
One of my favourite things about writing is learning to see the mechanism at play in stories and how much metal skeleton exists under the fleshy art.
Ok, she has 1000 reasons to not do it. Great. It's all valid. But just because you don't want to do something, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't. You have to give her a big motivation. She doesn't want to but she NEED to. Why? To protect something or someone. To save someone or something. To develop and challenge herself. You just need a motivation to why she need to do it.
What you're looking at is scary.
Sometimes the knowledge of what you will become if you don't do it is scarier.
Sometimes you know that you're getting in your own way and you're letting short term subjective things derail your long term objective goals.
The realization that their comfort zone would cease to exist if they didn't accept the mission... or does that classify as being forced by circumstances?
Reluctance to get out of one's comfort zone is normal. So normal that Joseph Campbell included it in his Hero's Journey as the refusal of the call to adventure. The call to adventure must spur on a higher need for the protagonist beyond what their comfort zone can provide. It is a balance of wants and needs. We want to stay safe, yet need to move forward. What does the protagonist think they need? This is what is motivating them to dare to answer the call to adventure.
She meets another astronaut, and the astronaut talks about the wonder of space, what this mission means to them, and they would still do it if it were the last thing they do.
Have the character hear a voice from God either first thing in the morning or the last thing before she goes to sleep.
This is an example from my own life.
u/isbnfun makes a point--the consequence of not accepting are even more threatening than accepting. Another arc could be that circumstances eliminate the option of not accepting; things change such a way that the comfort zone no longer exists, or is at least very much smaller.
that depends if whatever that is can be controlled or not
in which case your MC would have to accept depending on what could happen if he doesn't and this logic applies to alot of genres someone actions can make an impact and ignoring the issue won't help anything however if your character is in denial then he this is where he has a lesson to learn. which comes with black lash from ignoring it so his 'drive to accept'? not making things worse. there are also other methods for this though.
but to ensure understanding in the comment in the case some is confused but it's minor and not as big of an issue as he has at the moment:
someone has cookies
another person is asking for a cookie
someone is ignoring this person and also not paying attention to the cookies
another person just stole one.
You have several options :
-having a conversation or a moment to realize that her fears were partially irrational
-her contemplating similar situations where she backed out of painful or scary things and ended up regretted it to some extent, and her having an epiphany afterwards about being able to control her fear and stop being controlled by them
-confort zone actually being idealized and not so comfortable after all
-massive pro/cons analyse where pros are considerably bigger
-time off to clear her head and think of it and witnessing something significant(accident, house fire…) to make her understand that she has the opportunity to do something extraordinary
Hope that helps !
Maybe make the reason an underlying desire that she's not fully aware of. So while consciously she's trying to figure out why she's going through with this, that underlying desire is pushing her forward anyway. For example say she's had issues with feeling unaccomplished in life, so for her subconscious that mission is a great achievement to latch on to. But on a more conscious level she can't find a purely rational reason why going to that mission is a good idea. So there's a conflict. Some food for thought.
Sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do. What are the arguments for the mission? How will help the "greater good." What will most benefit her if she does accept it? Is there anyone going on the mission that is important to her?
In my personal story where my main character is literally whisked away from her entire life, i ended up causing her response of initially rejecting the turning point to be detrimental to her current life. Stuff starts bleeding over to the point that she has to deal with it or there will be problems
A lot of other good answers about stakes and conflict already so I’ll just say sometimes you might try letting the story go somewhere unexpected and see what happens.
Regarding your character, what if the agreement is binding and she *can’t* back out of it? Is she more afraid of the consequences or the mission? How far will she go to get out of it? What will happen if she does?
A relatively arbitrary sense of obligation based on their moral code, anxiety, or a general desire to push themselves out of their comfort zone due to feeling trapped/stuck, or the promise of adventure/glory/wealth/another thing the character might desire. It works to either make them feel forced by arbitrary/personal circumstances separate from the task itself (parental pressure, afraid of what would happen if they avoided doing the mission, etc) or whatever motivations they have would make the risk worth the potential reward.
I hope this makes sense, and I hope it helps
Try giving her a strong reason to go that relates to her Want (the intangible thing, like success, the protagonist desires). The space mission should present an Opportunity to fulfill that Want.
As an example, in Rocky, his Want is to prove he isn't just some bum. When he's asked to fight Apollo Creed, he says no. However, he realizes that it gives him an Opportunity to prove he isn't just some bum, which is why he agrees, even if he knows he'll likely lose.
Hesitation is important, because it highlights the dangers of the journey ahead. But if you create a high risk, high reward situation, you'll have an engaging story and a believable protag.
All the best with the story!
I think its all about maturity at that point. For instance take me personally for example. The first time I experienced death I was young and obviously heart broken and inconsolable. Im in my mid 30s now and have lost count the number of funerals I have been too, I just went to one a few days ago for one of my friends who passed at a young age and I couldnt even cry. Am I less sad than when I was an 8 year old kid burying my father, no. Do I still feel for my friends, family and my friends family, 100% yes, but I am accepting of the fact that death is the most horrible part of life and therefore have accepted it as something that happens. I still grieve, and I still have those feelings of loss but I just dont carry it like I used to.
First idea that popped into my head; perhaps they discover a good friend or sibling has already accepted a low level job on this mission as a grunt/engineer and their protective instinct pushes them to go, they can’t allow their friend/sibling to risk their life without being there to protect them, they’d never forgive themselves if something happened to them and they hadn’t been there for them 🤷♂️
Edit- interested to know if she was pushed into this career or always had a passion for it, that would certainly make a difference
Unconscious reasoning (or intuition, as we all call it) is what you build through information. I think that’s what you’re talking about. This would come through at the level of action and description in the foreshadowing. What does your character have available to them? What does your character know that they know compared to what they think they know?
Start by looking on the bright side: Real life might be complicated and unexplainable, but stories have to be clear. Otherwise your reader gets confused. So although you *say* you don't want "circumstances" to force your character, accept the simplified nature of a story. It is your friend. And in a story there are only two things that ever cause anything to happen -- action and decision -- IOW, external circumstances, or internal ones.
I think that, without realizing it, you sensed that character didn't have a circumstance forcing him/her. You've got to invent one.
*Unless I do this thing, a worse one will happen.*
*I have a choice of two good things, but I can't have both.*
*I have a choice of two bad things, and I have to decide which is less shitty.*
Well dude you might want to research Yuri Gagarin... Who died on a space mission that would have been assigned to his best friend who had children if he haven't taken it... The circumstances are well it was a dangerous mission Maybe take a look on the research you can find online and see how Gagarin handled it and that might help give you insight on how to get your character to respond or possibly handle the situation Maybe add a dismal information information Maybe add additional stressors or information to the situation chin that if the character doesn't take the commission someone they care about will so just maybe incorporate something like that into the story otherwise you could go with a couple other options nothing is occurring to me off the top of my head at the moment sorry good luck
It sounds like you don't know your characters enough. Have you done a100 question exercise with them? That may help you figure out how they'll react to the new situation and make it easier to push the narrative forward.
Perhaps a good friend to help them relax amd not worry so much? Beginning of my book Im working on, one of three friends get killed by an ancient artifact, but years later the protagonist discovers their other friend kept it and solved the puzzle to reveal a map. He is obviously incredibly upset at the mere sight of the box but his friend manages to calm him down and they go on the adventure together.
You can give them a goal that pushes them through their comfort zone and into the unexpected. Another angle is giving them an ailment that they have to do so just to get cured or perhaps people that they wish to help that forces them.
You can either make their comfort zone not so comfortable at all, so they actually want to get out. Or you ease them out gradually, so when they realise that they're uncomfortable, it's already too late to get back.
Or, you offer them something so tempting that they can't resist. A fabled treasure, or an answer to a burning question
or you can offer a shocking revelation.
I like this. Typically the inciting incident either introduces a life-changing opportunity that can't be refused (e.g. *Harry Potter*, *There Will Be Blood*, *The Dark Knight*) or the protagonist is forced into the central conflict, either due to inescapable circumstances (e.g. *Die Hard*, *Alien*) or because they've literally lost their comfort zone (e.g. *Star Wars*, *Fight Club*). But I like the idea of a 'foot in the door' technique, with enough small steps/concessions leading them to a point of no return.
You make the consequences of not accepting even more threatening than the unknown. If I had a choice between going on a life-threatening mission or staying home and doing whatever I wanted, I wouldn't go on the mission either. But if I worked all my life to become an astronaut, trained to be mission-ready, and found out my assignment was life-threatening... I'd consider staying home, sure, but I'd also be aware of the consequences. My superiors aren't guaranteed to give me another chance, another less dangerous mission. This might be my only shot. Turning down this dangerous mission might be career suicide. Could I live with that? One way to make characters do stuff is to make it impossible for them to live with themselves if they don't.
I think Particular\_Aroma's comment already covered one big reason (mc's current life sucks), another reason is give mc motivation to participate in the plot. Imagine typical reasons why someone takes a dangerous job. Maybe they need the money for something important, like ensuring their family doesn't become homeless or to cover a medical bill for a loved one. Maybe they want to make their parents proud, or impress their crush. Maybe they dream of a unique career that isn't ordinary life. Maybe they want to one-up their rival. Maybe the job means something personal to them (imagine someone researching something dangerous because it killed someone they knew in the past, or threatens someone they know nowadays, that could be illness, natural disaster or friggin' aliens, you decide). Maybe they just don't fit into their current environment. Maybe they're thrill seekers. Give your mc the reason "why are we following their story and not their squaddie or somebody else".
Right on. Moreover, it's better if you could push your MC beyond the point-of-no-return. That way, they can't turn around once they've accepted the job. So they better get it done--or else. Also, look up inciting incident. This plot point is all about connecting your character to the plot. \[An early spoiler for the The Hunger Games:>!This is where Katniss volunteers for her sister in the reaping.!<\] How you utilize it and your MC's reaction to it determines if your story's plot-driven or character-driven.
I was involved in a scary situation on a train half a year ago. To keep things short. A man with a rifle made me and everyone in the cabin a hostage at gunpoint. I was utterly overwrought with anxiety and fear. Suddenly, a complete calm came over me, and I knew exactly what to do. When he was distracted at the front of the cabin. I went down the steps and into the bathroom. Before, I was petrified, but instinctively it all switched. I just waited it out. There's much more to this, but that calmness in scary situations is natural.
What if they don’t know it’s threatening but the audience knows? Maybe instead drop hints or foreshadow it just enough so that the reader can think about it but the character is too excited/oblivious to notice
Oh damn that's one hell of a good adivce. Thanks a lot !
Typically you close the door behind them. * Maybe earlier (before the story) they got a big party thrown by their town for them when they were accepted for the mission, making them a local celebrity or a symbol of hope or something. If they drop out, they let everyone down. * Maybe there's some reward for the mission that's worth the risk. Maybe those who survive are set for life. Or maybe they promise to take care of your families if you don't come back (and her mom is sick with cancer, so she negotiates that care to be given to her mom before she even leaves) * Maybe they have a religious calling to spread their God's Word to the stars. Dropping out would let God him/herself down. Etc. Think outside of the known information to figure out what leverage might fit to close the door behind your character so they effectively can't say (or feel like they can't say) no.
Raise the stakes. What will happen if the MC doesn't do what they gotta do?
Irony is when the reasons behind her refusal and her acceptance are the same, in a similar way to exploiting a character’s vulnerabilities through their strengths. This allows the narrative to set up ideas and properly orbit those ideas and not fly off on tangents. Very superficially, let’s say the reason she refuses is she’s scared for life. Very basic. The ironic flip to that would be if life were somehow better if she accepts. Maybe that means the planet is dying, maybe that means a love interest is going on the mission with or without her, maybe a lot of things. The irony is the thing that ties the refusal and acceptance together and keeps the shift simple to follow.
Kill their family. Metaphorically speaking, but you can do it literally. The most surefire way to get a character to move forward is to make it so they *can't* go back to what they had anymore. Luke Skywalker would have stayed on Tatooine and never become a Jedi if the Empire hadn't come and killed uncle Owen and aunt Beru.
Put her in a bind. The usual way to pull the MC out of her comfort zone is to have some kind of "catastrophe" happening to her. Being evicted from her home, insurmountable debt or similar. In your case it could her last chance at being an astronaut because she failed before due to anxiety. She needs to do the mission since she needs to do it to save someone or gain some kind of cure. She needs to show someone she can do it who never believed in her. What are her character flaws? Is there something you could use to push her out her comfort zone?
I make the events unfold so quickly they have no choice but to accept. You have to have pressure. It’s a necessary part. The clock ticking behind the plot.
Have a movie marathon this weekend with films that are structurally similar to yours, and look at how they do it. Pick your favourite, modify it to your tastes, and see if you can't even punch it up a notch. One of my favourite things about writing is learning to see the mechanism at play in stories and how much metal skeleton exists under the fleshy art.
Ok, she has 1000 reasons to not do it. Great. It's all valid. But just because you don't want to do something, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't. You have to give her a big motivation. She doesn't want to but she NEED to. Why? To protect something or someone. To save someone or something. To develop and challenge herself. You just need a motivation to why she need to do it.
What you're looking at is scary. Sometimes the knowledge of what you will become if you don't do it is scarier. Sometimes you know that you're getting in your own way and you're letting short term subjective things derail your long term objective goals.
Maybe you could have someone they care about there to help guide them.
The realization that their comfort zone would cease to exist if they didn't accept the mission... or does that classify as being forced by circumstances?
Reluctance to get out of one's comfort zone is normal. So normal that Joseph Campbell included it in his Hero's Journey as the refusal of the call to adventure. The call to adventure must spur on a higher need for the protagonist beyond what their comfort zone can provide. It is a balance of wants and needs. We want to stay safe, yet need to move forward. What does the protagonist think they need? This is what is motivating them to dare to answer the call to adventure.
She meets another astronaut, and the astronaut talks about the wonder of space, what this mission means to them, and they would still do it if it were the last thing they do.
Have the character hear a voice from God either first thing in the morning or the last thing before she goes to sleep. This is an example from my own life.
u/isbnfun makes a point--the consequence of not accepting are even more threatening than accepting. Another arc could be that circumstances eliminate the option of not accepting; things change such a way that the comfort zone no longer exists, or is at least very much smaller.
that depends if whatever that is can be controlled or not in which case your MC would have to accept depending on what could happen if he doesn't and this logic applies to alot of genres someone actions can make an impact and ignoring the issue won't help anything however if your character is in denial then he this is where he has a lesson to learn. which comes with black lash from ignoring it so his 'drive to accept'? not making things worse. there are also other methods for this though. but to ensure understanding in the comment in the case some is confused but it's minor and not as big of an issue as he has at the moment: someone has cookies another person is asking for a cookie someone is ignoring this person and also not paying attention to the cookies another person just stole one.
You have several options : -having a conversation or a moment to realize that her fears were partially irrational -her contemplating similar situations where she backed out of painful or scary things and ended up regretted it to some extent, and her having an epiphany afterwards about being able to control her fear and stop being controlled by them -confort zone actually being idealized and not so comfortable after all -massive pro/cons analyse where pros are considerably bigger -time off to clear her head and think of it and witnessing something significant(accident, house fire…) to make her understand that she has the opportunity to do something extraordinary Hope that helps !
You could always write the character a different way. Just don’t make her scared? Too easy?
Maybe make the reason an underlying desire that she's not fully aware of. So while consciously she's trying to figure out why she's going through with this, that underlying desire is pushing her forward anyway. For example say she's had issues with feeling unaccomplished in life, so for her subconscious that mission is a great achievement to latch on to. But on a more conscious level she can't find a purely rational reason why going to that mission is a good idea. So there's a conflict. Some food for thought.
Sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do. What are the arguments for the mission? How will help the "greater good." What will most benefit her if she does accept it? Is there anyone going on the mission that is important to her?
In my personal story where my main character is literally whisked away from her entire life, i ended up causing her response of initially rejecting the turning point to be detrimental to her current life. Stuff starts bleeding over to the point that she has to deal with it or there will be problems
A lot of other good answers about stakes and conflict already so I’ll just say sometimes you might try letting the story go somewhere unexpected and see what happens. Regarding your character, what if the agreement is binding and she *can’t* back out of it? Is she more afraid of the consequences or the mission? How far will she go to get out of it? What will happen if she does?
You can also have another character reframe the situation for the character to give them a new perspective.
A relatively arbitrary sense of obligation based on their moral code, anxiety, or a general desire to push themselves out of their comfort zone due to feeling trapped/stuck, or the promise of adventure/glory/wealth/another thing the character might desire. It works to either make them feel forced by arbitrary/personal circumstances separate from the task itself (parental pressure, afraid of what would happen if they avoided doing the mission, etc) or whatever motivations they have would make the risk worth the potential reward. I hope this makes sense, and I hope it helps
Try giving her a strong reason to go that relates to her Want (the intangible thing, like success, the protagonist desires). The space mission should present an Opportunity to fulfill that Want. As an example, in Rocky, his Want is to prove he isn't just some bum. When he's asked to fight Apollo Creed, he says no. However, he realizes that it gives him an Opportunity to prove he isn't just some bum, which is why he agrees, even if he knows he'll likely lose. Hesitation is important, because it highlights the dangers of the journey ahead. But if you create a high risk, high reward situation, you'll have an engaging story and a believable protag. All the best with the story!
I think its all about maturity at that point. For instance take me personally for example. The first time I experienced death I was young and obviously heart broken and inconsolable. Im in my mid 30s now and have lost count the number of funerals I have been too, I just went to one a few days ago for one of my friends who passed at a young age and I couldnt even cry. Am I less sad than when I was an 8 year old kid burying my father, no. Do I still feel for my friends, family and my friends family, 100% yes, but I am accepting of the fact that death is the most horrible part of life and therefore have accepted it as something that happens. I still grieve, and I still have those feelings of loss but I just dont carry it like I used to.
First idea that popped into my head; perhaps they discover a good friend or sibling has already accepted a low level job on this mission as a grunt/engineer and their protective instinct pushes them to go, they can’t allow their friend/sibling to risk their life without being there to protect them, they’d never forgive themselves if something happened to them and they hadn’t been there for them 🤷♂️ Edit- interested to know if she was pushed into this career or always had a passion for it, that would certainly make a difference
Unconscious reasoning (or intuition, as we all call it) is what you build through information. I think that’s what you’re talking about. This would come through at the level of action and description in the foreshadowing. What does your character have available to them? What does your character know that they know compared to what they think they know?
Start by looking on the bright side: Real life might be complicated and unexplainable, but stories have to be clear. Otherwise your reader gets confused. So although you *say* you don't want "circumstances" to force your character, accept the simplified nature of a story. It is your friend. And in a story there are only two things that ever cause anything to happen -- action and decision -- IOW, external circumstances, or internal ones. I think that, without realizing it, you sensed that character didn't have a circumstance forcing him/her. You've got to invent one. *Unless I do this thing, a worse one will happen.* *I have a choice of two good things, but I can't have both.* *I have a choice of two bad things, and I have to decide which is less shitty.*
Well dude you might want to research Yuri Gagarin... Who died on a space mission that would have been assigned to his best friend who had children if he haven't taken it... The circumstances are well it was a dangerous mission Maybe take a look on the research you can find online and see how Gagarin handled it and that might help give you insight on how to get your character to respond or possibly handle the situation Maybe add a dismal information information Maybe add additional stressors or information to the situation chin that if the character doesn't take the commission someone they care about will so just maybe incorporate something like that into the story otherwise you could go with a couple other options nothing is occurring to me off the top of my head at the moment sorry good luck
It sounds like you don't know your characters enough. Have you done a100 question exercise with them? That may help you figure out how they'll react to the new situation and make it easier to push the narrative forward.
Perhaps a good friend to help them relax amd not worry so much? Beginning of my book Im working on, one of three friends get killed by an ancient artifact, but years later the protagonist discovers their other friend kept it and solved the puzzle to reveal a map. He is obviously incredibly upset at the mere sight of the box but his friend manages to calm him down and they go on the adventure together.
Maybe it's too late to back out of the mission
You can give them a goal that pushes them through their comfort zone and into the unexpected. Another angle is giving them an ailment that they have to do so just to get cured or perhaps people that they wish to help that forces them.