{
(track: "start-track", "loop", true)
(track: "start-track", "playwhenpossible")
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The World greets you [[“hello.”]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[Watt]] is your name.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
… … Nothing was [[misspelled]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[Choose. ->Choose]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
What do you wish to look like?
[[>> Good. Modelesque, you’ll have the most dazzling appearance ever. -> Intelligence ]]
[[>> Average. You’re content with a mediocre appearance. -> Intelligence ]]
[[>> Bad. You’re repulsive. No one would spare you a single glance and even if they do, they’ll simply wince at you with disgust. -> Intelligence ]]
</div>
</div>Do I just begin the paper at any time I please or? Do I wait for someone to signal the start and end? How long do I have? Why must I finish this paper? Do you guys just make all your visitors do an exam paper right off the bat with minimal instructions… I must say this is some really bad game writing… <div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[How intelligent do you wish to be?
[[>> Extremely intelligent. You’ll most likely be someone important. -> Family]]
[[>> Average intellect. You’re just about the average joe, you wouldn’t amount to anything important and you’re okay with that. -> Family]]
[[>> Dumb. You most likely have trouble with basic arithmetics. No one expects anything from you. -> Family]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Select a family to be born into.
[[>> Wealthy. Old money, trust fund. You probably won’t have to work a day in your life.]]
[[>> Middle class. Your parents are typical 9-5 full-timers. They don’t struggle to make ends meet but you aren’t living in luxury either.]]
[[>> Poor. Bottom feeders. Your parents are [REDACTED] and unemployed. You would have to beg for scraps to survive. ]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You got slightly older. Select a kindergarten to be enrolled into.
[[>> Private kindergarten. You will be learning from the best teachers and benefit from the best amenities the country has to offer at a preschool level. -> Satisfied]]
[[>> Neighborhood kindergarten. Your teachers are loving and kind but their qualifications are pretty average, most of them are working part-time. Some amenities are new while some lie in a corner depreciating with the relentless flow of time. -> Satisfied]]
~~>> Your parents don’t have enough money to enroll you into a kindergarten.~~
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You got slightly older. Select a kindergarten to be enrolled into.
[[>> Private kindergarten. You will be learning from the best teachers and benefit from the best amenities the country has to offer at a preschool level. -> Satisfied]]
[[>> Neighborhood kindergarten. Your teachers are loving and kind but their qualifications are pretty average, most of them are working part-time. Some amenities are new while some lie in a corner depreciating with the relentless flow of time. -> Satisfied]]
~~>> Your parents don’t have enough money to enroll you into a kindergarten. ~~
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You got slightly older. Select a kindergarten to be enrolled into.
~~>> Private kindergarten. You will be learning from the best teachers and benefit from the best amenities the country has to offer at a preschool level. ~~
~~>> Neighborhood kindergarten. Your teachers are loving and kind but their qualifications are pretty average, most of them are working part-time. Some amenities are new while some lie in a corner depreciating with the relentless flow of time.]~~
[[>> Your parents don’t have enough money to enroll you into a kindergarten. -> Satisfied]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Are you satisfied with your choices so far?
[[>> Yes. ]]
[[>> No. ]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Shall we continue?”
[[>> Yes. -> How Funny]]
[[>> No. -> How Funny]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Do you wish to be (re)born?
[[>> Yes. -> How Funny]]
[[>> No. -> Continue]]
</div>
</div>[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"bold","expand","shudder")[(text-rotate-z:355)[(text-style:"blur")["How funny. You actually thought you had a choice."]]]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[|more_text1)[
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/HKR1m7H.png" alt="Description" width="350">
[[You'll be as you already are. ->Transition]] ]]
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Shall we continue?”
[[>> Yes. -> How Funny]]
[[>> No. -> How Funny]]
</div>
</div>{
(track: 'start-track', 'stop')
(track: 'town-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'town-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The World greets you “Hello.”. Formally this time. You are strewn onto a barren country road, butt-naked, binky in mouth. Standing stark against the wasteland are 8 identical houses, lined up across the street. You crawl towards one of them, gradually picking up speed. Your legs grow stronger, and you rise to your feet. It works. One step, two steps, then three. You are walking. And what if you picked up the pace? You moved your legs a little faster. And faster… and faster… You are running.
//Distant applause echoes from nowhere, and bounces off the walls of the houses. You look around, and see no one. Still, the sound fills you with warmth.//
|more_text)[(css:"font-size: 5em")[[[REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ->NEXT]]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''GOOD MORNING RESIDENTS OF TOWN ECNANEP, WE ARE INTERRUPTING YOUR PROGRAM TO BRING YOU THE LATEST ANNOUNCEMENT! THE COUNTDOWN TO THE CRACK OF DOOM HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!! REST ASSURED, HE WILL COME FOR US AND WE WILL BE SAVED!'']]
|more_text)[You hear a [[voice]] booming through the loudspeakers scattered around the neighbourhood.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[ ''YOU!'']]
|more_text)[You keep jogging on the spot, still flushed with energy from your newfound ability. Maybe even a little proud.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''YOU! I’M SPEAKING TO YOU, WATT.'']]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[You freeze mid-step, blinking in confusion as you glance around. The streets are empty.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[“G-God?” you murmur under your breath.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text4)[//Silly you. How’d you know what God is? Maybe it’s instinct, or maybe you’ve been reading too many of those strange posters pasted to lampposts around town.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text5)[“WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU?” you shout at the sky, unsure of where the voice is coming from, or if it’s even real.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text6)[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''WATT, MY BOY, YOU ARE GIFTED. GIFTED WITH WHAT, YOU ASK? PURPOSE. A GRAND AMBITION TO REDEEM US ALL''.]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text7)[Great. Not only are you lost, but now you’re some kind of chosen one.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text7)]
|more_text8)[“ANSWER ME, WHO — WHAT — ARE [[YOU->inst]]??”](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text8)]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'town-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house1-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house1-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #1: You must complete the exam paper.]]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/zJPxWqS.png" alt="Description" width="600">]House One. The walls are painted sky blue with white clouds and cartoon figures of superheroes. Elementary school multiplication tables and crumpled formula sheets for science subjects line the brightly colored walls. A pair of gigantic hands hover at the back of the room — a foreign presence in a child’s learning space. In the middle of the room sits a single desk and chair. An [[A3 sized examination paper]] sits on the surface.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[... ->questions]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
>> Hello? (click: ">> Hello?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[>> Do I just begin the paper at any time I please or?](click: ">> Do I just begin the paper at any time I please or?")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[>> Do I wait for someone to signal the start and end?](click: ">> Do I wait for someone to signal the start and end?")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[(text-rotate-z:355)[>> How long do I have?]](click: ">> How long do I have?")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[(text-rotate-z:2)[>> Why must I finish this paper?]](click: ">> Why must I finish this paper?")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[>> Do you guys just make all your visitors do an exam paper right off the bat with minimal instructions… I must say this is some really bad game writing…](click: ">> Do you guys just make all your visitors do an exam paper right off the bat with minimal instructions… I must say this is some really bad game writing…")[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text6)[[[Your time starts now. ->q1]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")[(text-colour:red)[Please answer all 15 questions.]]
(align:"<==")[Question 1: What is 2+2?
[[A) 22 -> wrong]]
[[B) 5 -> wrong]]
[[C) 4 -> right]]
[[D) 3 -> wrong]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That was not the right answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q2]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q2]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 2: How many rectangles are there?]
<table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="20" style="border-collapse: collapse;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[[A) 12 -> wrong2]]
[[B) 21 -> wrong2]]
[[C) 56 -> wrong2]]
[[D) 60 -> right2]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''DO YOU SEE THAT LIGHTHOUSE UP NORTH?'']]
|more_text)[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''THAT IS HOW WE MUST RECEIVE HIM. JUST AS LIGHTHOUSES GUIDE THE LOST BACK TO SHORE, SO TOO WILL THIS ONE.'']]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''YOU, SWEET CHILD OF ECNANEP, ARE THE ONE WHO CAN LIGHT [[IT->reaction]].'']]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You squint towards the northern horizon. Through the fog and faded rooftops, a silhouette looms– tall, ancient, dormant. [[The lighthouse.->thought]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“...Maybe the audio’s pre-recorded…” you mutter to yourself once more. The way the voice keeps talking past you, [[never quite answering->song]]… It's like shouting at a vending machine.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[|more_text)[//“O’hero, promised from an age long past,//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[//Chosen from the spoils amassed.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[//In the lighthouse, fate is cast,//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[//To save us from the fall so vast.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text4)[//Seven trials lie along his path,//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text5)[//He’ll brave them all, with heart and wrath.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text6)[//To ancient guardians, he is prey;//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text7)[//Each beast he must defeat in fray.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text7)]
|more_text8)[//Let this song your compass be,//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text8)]
|more_text9)[//When hope is lost and shadows flee.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text9)]
|more_text10)[//The keys you earn through trials won,//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text10)]
|more_text11)[//Shall herald the [[Kingdom->over]] come."//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text11)]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
//…//
|more_text)[//…//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[//Over and out. :)"//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[As the voice concludes his announcement, a sudden gust of wind stirred and slapped a piece of foolscap paper onto your face.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[ [[Examine the paper.->townmap]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The voice disappeared along with a final cackle from the PA system. //That must be all to the instructions//, you thought to yourself.
|more_text)[Although many questions remained, you decided to get a move going. You thought the answers will come to you eventually in your ventures. ](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[And so before you stand a [[brightly coloured, plastic playhouse…->House 1 Start]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q3]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q3]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 3:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/64BNzSD.png" alt="Description" width="500">
The diagram shows the curve y = (x - 2)^2 and the line y + 2x = 7, which intersect at points A and B. Find the area of the shaded region.
[[A) 34/4->right3]]
[[B) 17/2->wrong3]]
[[C) 15/2->wrong3]]
[[D) 18/4->wrong3]]
[[Do you need a hint?->hint]]]
(css:"font-size: 0.7em")[//Source: A Levels Integration Question Set; June 2010 Variant 12//
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d30ty50nX4rstU0CLJ6_5vhCRoIXyh3B/view?usp=sharing]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q4]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q4]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")[When in doubt, pick 'C'.
[[>> Got it!->q3alt]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 3:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/4WuPfW5.png" alt="Description" width="350">
[[A is the correct answer.->right3]]
[[B is the correct answer.->wrong3]]
[[C is the correct answer.->wrong3alt]]
[[D is the correct answer.->wrong3]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Rule #1: Never trust anybody.
That was the wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q4]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 4: What is the primary gas in the Earth’s atmosphere?
[[A) Helium->wrong4]]
[[B) Oxygen->wrong4]]
[[C) Nitrogen->right4]]
[[D) Carbon Dioxide->wrong4]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q5]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q5]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Question 5: Do you think reality is something that is objectively out there, or is it a construct of our perceptions and minds?
[[A) Objectively out there->ans5]]
[[B) A construct of our perceptions->ans5]]
[[C) A combination of both->ans5]]
[[D) I am not sure->ans5]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Interesting choice, but, we're not one to decide if it's right or wrong.
Are we?
[[Next question->q6]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 6: Who was the Pharaoh known for building the Great Pyramid?
[[A) Julius Caesar->wrong6]]
[[B) Cleopatra->wrong6]]
[[C) Khufu->right6]]
[[D) Ramses->wrong6]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q7]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q7]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 7: There is a runway trolley ... ok you know this one.
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/dlFMDmS.jpeg" alt="Description" width="500">
[[A) Kill one.->ans7]]
[[B) Do nothing but kill five.->ans7]] ]
(css:"font-size: 0.7em")[//Source: The Trolley Problem by Philippa Foot.//
Image Source: https://humeanbeing.substack.com/p/the-trolley-problem]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Interesting choice, but, we're not one to decide if it's right or wrong.
Are we?
[[Next question->q8]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Question 8: In what year did the Battle of Hastings occur?
[[A) 1066->right8]]
[[B) 1492->wrong8]]
[[C) 1776->wrong8]]
[[D) 1914->wrong8]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q9]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q9]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Question 9: What famous phrase does Hamlet ponder in his soliloquy?
[[A) To be or not to be->right9]]
[[B) To sleep or not to sleep->wrong9]]
[[C) To eat or not to eat->wrong9]]
[[D) To live or not to live->wrong9]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q10]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q10]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 10: If you could know the exact date and manner of your death, would you want to?
[[A) Yes->ans10]]
[[B) No->ans10]]
[[C) Only if I could change it->ans10]]
[[D) I am not sure->ans10]] ]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Interesting choice, but, we're not one to decide if it's right or wrong.
Are we?
[[Next question->q11]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Complete this excerpt from Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken": "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both, And be one traveler, long I stood, And looked down one as far as I could, To where it bent in the __________."
[[A) Rainbow->wrong11]]
[[B) Undergrowth->right11]]
[[C) Distance->wrong11]]
[[D) Horizon->wrong11]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q12]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q12]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 12: What is the capital of France?
[[A) Rome->wrong12]]
[[B) Madrid->wrong12]]
[[C) Paris->right12]]
[[D) Berlin->wrong12]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q13]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q13]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 13: What is the tallest mountain in the world?
[[A) K2->wrong13]]
[[B) Mount Kilimanjaro->wrong13]]
[[C) Mount Everest->right13]]
[[D) Denali->wrong13]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q14]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q14]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 14: Which artist is known for creating the sculpture “David”?
[[A) Vincent van Gogh->wrong14]]
[[B) Leonardo da Vinci->wrong14]]
[[C) Michelangelo->right14]]
[[D) Auguste Rodin->wrong14]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Wrong answer.
The hands just gave you a double thumbs down.
[[Next question ->q15]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That's correct! Congratulations.
The hands clapped.
[[Next question ->q15]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"<==")[Question 15: Consider the concept of identity. Are you the same person today that you were five years ago, or have you fundamentally changed?
[[A) I am the same person->ans15]]
[[B) I have fundamentally changed->ans15]]
[[C) Both; I am the same but also different->ans15]]
[[D) I am not sure->ans15]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Interesting choice, but, we're not one to decide if it's right or wrong.
Are we?
[[See final results->results]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[//Thank you for participating in this examination. Your score is (text-style:"double-strike","blurrier")[☠︎✌︎]/15.
(text-colour:red)[You are rewarded with Key #1.]//(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/IjdLbSX.png" alt="Description" width="150">
|more_text)[>> Wait, that’s it? I don’t even get a ‘congratulations’?](click: '>> Wait, that’s it? I don’t even get a ‘congratulations’?')[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//You may now proceed onto the [[next room->House 2 Start]].//]]
</div>
</div>{
(track: 'house1-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house2-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house2-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #2: Gain the trust of the resident in this house]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ASanOeg.png" alt="Description" width="600">]]The room is dark and long. A dim red light gleams at the end. You tread slowly towards the source of light. Then it comes into view — an altar with a beautiful ceramic vase in the middle, surrounded by red candles. Sprouting from the neck of the vase is a human head. A woman, with long, luscious black hair. She appears to be sleeping. The head turns to face you as her eyes ease open. Warm yellow light begins to fill the space, though uneasy silence hangs between you and… [[it]].
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ <img src="https://i.imgur.com/JL4AkTK.png" alt="Description" width="350">]
|more_text)[???: Hi~](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[???: Fancy that, you barged in without knocking or ringing the doorbell.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[???: I’m quite intrigued by you. What is your name?](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[
[[>> Watt is my name.]]
[[>> ...]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
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???: What? Did you not hear me the first time? I asked you for your name.
[[>> MY NAME IS WATT AS IN “W-A-T-T”, WATT!!]]
[[>> That is my name. “Watt.”.]]
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[[???: Oh dear, you’ve got quite the temper.->convo2]]
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[[???: Oh… um well, interesting name…->convo2]]
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Moneta: Playing hard to get?
[[>> No I mean- I - I am simply astonished by your beauty that’s all. My name is Watt, spelled “W-A-T-T”.]]
[[>> And what if I am?]]
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[[???: //Yawns// Oh! Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. Unique name you’ve got there.->convo2]]
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[[???: //Eyes light up// Oh? So this is how it is…->convo2]]
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???: Are you not going to ask for my name?
[[>> What for? I’m only here to collect a key.]]
[[>> //Uninterested// Yeah sure, what’s your name?]]
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???: Jeez… You don’t have to be so upfront about it, loosen up a bit can you? But I’ll tell you either way. My name is [[Moneta]], I'm the Spirit of Fortune here at Ecnanep.
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Moneta: You don’t sound too eager but I’ll tell you. My name is [[Moneta]], and I'm the Spirit of Fortune here at Ecnanep.
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Moneta: It’s been a while since anyone has visited me, I’m glad that you’re here, Watt. Even though we’ve only known each other for a brief minute or two. Would you stay a little longer to have a chat with me?
[[>> Sure. What would you like to talk about?]]
[[>> Just give me the damn keys, I know you have it.]]
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//She is gleaming in barely disguised glee. Nobody has ever taken an interest in her life in ages.//
Moneta: Ah! Great! We could talk just about anything… but we could start with getting to know more about each other. I live in a vase, as you can see. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember. The residents of this town only visit me when they need something… But I don’t mind! I’d love to [[help them]] as much as I can!
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//She is a little downhearted by your constant rejection, yet she tries to appeal to you again.//
Moneta: Hm… well, I’ll give you the key if you stay a little longer, yes! According to the rules of Town Ecnanep, the key bearer must examine the abilities of their successors before they pass on their keys!
//She seemed nervous… you’re convinced that was a lie she made up on the fly.//
[[>> Fine… What would you like to talk about?]]
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//She is over the moon. Nobody has taken an interest in her life in ages.//
Moneta: Ah! Great! We could talk just about anything… but we could start with getting to know more about each other. So, as you can see I live in a vase. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember. The residents of this town only visit me when they need something… But I don’t mind! I’d love to [[help them]] to my best ability!
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[[>> Why are you in a vase, and why do they worship you?]]
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Moneta: //chuckles softly// Ah, isn’t that the million-dollar question? You see, I once roamed freely, but one day they found out about my ability to grant people whatever they wished. I mean, these people don’t mean any harm, I was simply in the best position to help better the lives of this town’s citizens. We live on a barren island, and I have the power to materialize anything the people ask for. They put me in this special vase to keep me warm in the winter and cool in summer. I am so grateful for them. They come by and offer me food and drinks as a sign of gratitude. [[What more can I ask for?]]
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>> If that’s the case, may I also make a wish?(click: ">> If that’s the case, may I also make a wish?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Moneta: Yes, of course you may! It is my job after all, to give the people everything they wish for.](click: "Moneta: Yes, of course you may! It is my job after all, to give the people everything they wish for.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[>> I want you to give me the key.](click: ">> I want you to give me the key.")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[//Moneta looks straight into your eyes. You sense that she is [[crest-fallen.]]//]
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|more_text)[Moneta: ... ](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]|more_text1)[...](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[That would be fine by me. However, I do not grant wishes without incentives and offerings. In your case, I ask for your time. Make more conversations with me and[[ I’ll give you what you want.]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
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[[>> Ask about her childhood.]]
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Moneta: I don’t remember much from my childhood. I was born and raised in this town. My mother, like me, was the previous dweller of this vase and altar. From as early as I can remember, she would tell me how wonderful it is to be the granter of wishes and the bearer of hope for the people of Town Ecnanep. But she also warned me about the dangers that come with such a great responsibility.
[[>> And what is that?]]
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Moneta: On the day I was deemed fit to succeed my mother, I was told that I must never leave the [[vase]], or misfortune would befall the town. The only time I can even think about leaving is when it is time for me to bear the next successor. Until then, I am simply not allowed to leave.
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[[>> Ask her if she's comfortable in the vase.]]
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Moneta: It took some time in the beginning to get used to the lack of legroom and always having to remain upright, but it's been years now. I've grown fully accustomed to this space. As I mentioned, this vase keeps me warm in the winters and cool in the summers. It is specially [[designed]] for dwellers like me.
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[[>> Since when have you been in this vase?]]
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Moneta: For about ten years. I was brought here one day when I started bleeding...(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[>> Bleeding?! Are you okay? Have you healed?](click: ">> Bleeding?! Are you okay? Have you healed?")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Moneta: Uh... I'm fine, it kinda happens every month or so...](click: "every month")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[>> That's horrible! Are you ill! Is there something I can do to help you?](click: ">> That's horrible! Are you ill! Is there something I can do to help you?")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[Moneta: Oh dear //Him//, you're such a dim-wit. Okay fine, I'll [[explain]] it to you.]
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You let Moneta explain the whole "monthly ordeal" to you. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[...](click: "...")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[...](click: "...")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[...](click: "...")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[...](click: "...")[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[ [[You're now distraught.->cont]]]
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>> Ask her what she does in her free time.(click: ">> Ask her what she does in her free time.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Moneta: Time passes differently here. Some days, I hum old tunes my mother used to sing. Other days I speak to the candles, they flicker back, sometimes. I like to imagine each flame as a friend of mine, and I’d name them.](click: "friend")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[But mostly… I think. I think about the people who’ve come and gone. I make up stories about where they are now, what they’re doing, if they ever think about me the way I still remember them. I wonder if I was ever real to them, or just… convenient.](click: "convenient")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[//She lets out a soft, wistful laugh.//](click: "She lets out a soft, wistful laugh.")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[That sounds pathetic, doesn’t it?](click: "That sounds pathetic, doesn’t it?")[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text6)[
[[>> Not at all. I think it means you care.]]
]
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//She’s quiet for a moment. Then she speaks, but this time, the teasing edge in her voice is gone.//(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Moneta: Watt, do you ever feel like… you meet someone at the wrong time, but the connection still feels right?](click: "right")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[>> Not really, I haven’t had the chance to meet that many people in my life until now. What do you mean by that?](click: ">> Not really, I haven’t had the chance to meet that many people in my life until now. What do you mean by that?")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[Moneta: I think that’s what some are to me. The few selective people I dream about in the quiet hours. The people I made wishes about, even though I’m the one granting them.](click: "granting")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[You might just be one of them.](click: "You might just be one of them.")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[But here we are, between your world and mine. And even if we talk and laugh and linger a little longer… [[we both know this is not forever.]]]
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Moneta: Maybe that’s why I like talking to you so much. You don’t pretend this is forever. You’re just… here. With me. Fully
And I’m grateful for it.
[[>> You don’t have to stay in the vase. What if I take you with me?]]
[[>> Do you say these things to everyone who visits?]]
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//She goes very quiet. Her smile falters for the first time.//
Moneta: That’s… not how this works. If I leave, the town withers. The waters dry up. The sun forgets how to rise. That’s what they say, anyway.
But I think… I’m afraid.
[[>> Afraid of what?]]
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//Moneta chuckles, tilting her head.//
Moneta: Wouldn’t that be something? Whispering sweet nothings to every desperate stranger?
But no. Most don’t even bother staying. They take what they came for and leave.
You… stayed. You listened. That makes you different.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[
[[>> Then what am I to you?]]]
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Moneta: Afraid that the world won’t want me. That if I leave, and you change your mind, there will be nowhere left to return to.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[
[[>> We’ll find a place. Together.]]]
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//She looks at you like you’ve just told her the sea can be carried in your hands.//
Moneta: Oh, Watt… You’re kind. But don’t be kind like that. Don’t promise what you can’t keep.
// She gently reaches for your hand, then pulls it close to her cheek.//
Moneta: You make me want to believe. That’s [[dangerous->ache]] for someone like me.
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Moneta: A fleeting miracle. A ghost I wish I could haunt.
You’re not mine, Watt. And I’m not yours. But if we could pretend, for just one more moment… I’d let myself be yours completely.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[
[[>> Maybe we’re both just lonely.]]]
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//She smiles sadly.//
Moneta: Aren’t we all?(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[But you know what’s worse than being lonely? Being remembered only as someone’s passing comfort.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[
[[>> That’s not what you are to me.]]]
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Moneta: Then promise me you’ll remember me as something whole. Not just a head in a vase. Not just a pretty echo.
[[>> Maybe I will forget you. I might forget everything eventually.]]
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//She nods slowly.//
(text-style:"blur")[Moneta: Then this is a mercy. It’s easier that way. But tonight, [[we were real->ache]]. That’s enough for me.
]
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[[>> You said you and I are not so different. Doesn’t this mean our paths have converged? If this will make us both happy, why can’t it always be this way?]]
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[[… ]]
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//This is your first meeting, and yet, something strange blooms in your chest. Not quite joy, not quite relief. [[A gentle warmth]], yes, but it burns in a way you don’t have the words for. //
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//Moneta lifts her head and turns it to one side. With some effort, she freed one arm from the confines of the vase, then slowly the other. Using her hands to grip the rim, she pulled herself entirely out of the vase. She stood before you on the altar, fully nude but without a trace of vulgarity. You admired her graceful curves and glistening pale skin. She sat down on the edge of the altar.//
[[Moneta: Before you go, I want to give you something.]]
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//She reached into the bouquet of flowers among her offerings and retrieved a small red blossom.//
[[Moneta: A small red flower, just for you.]]
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Moneta: We’ll meet again, perhaps in different forms. But until then, I will look forward to it every day.
//You glanced downward, nodding slowly in agreement. There was so much to say, yet no words came to mind. Still, you had a feeling she understood everything you wanted to convey. You looked back up at her, offering a brief, bittersweet smile, and bowed. With one last lingering look, you turned away from the altar and made your way back down the [[long corridor]] from which you came.//
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(text-style:"blur")[Moneta: Perhaps our fate in this lifetime wasn't enough for us to be more. But if there’s a next life, I would love to experience it all over again with you.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[
[[>> Close the door. Don't look back.->Moneta: Go. While you still can.]]
(text-style:"blur","fade-in-out")[
[[>> Stay a little longer.]]]]
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(text-style:"blur")[Moneta: No, love. You’ll lose yourself if you stay. And I’ll begin to believe you’re real.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//She gently pushes you away, though her eyes are misted with longing.//](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[(text-style:"blur")[
[[Moneta: Go. While you still can.]]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
You examined the single red blossom. From within the delicate folds of the petals, you felt a hard, metallic bump.
(text-colour:red)[Congratulations on gaining the trust of the Spirit of Fortune.
You’ve obtained Key #2]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RPi3Mhj.png" alt="Description" width="150">
//You may now proceed onto the [[next room->House 3 Start]].//]
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</div>{
(track: 'house2-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house3-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house3-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #3: You must earn your keep]]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/DTGR9NB.png" width="600">]A lightbulb hovers above your head. The electricity buzzes and stutters, and as the light begins to fade, you begin to feel the energy draining from your body. A figure in a suit steps into view as your vision starts to (text-style:"blur","sway")[ [[blur]]].
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You push the clipboard away and stumble through the dark, searching for the door. Every breath is more strained than the last as you search blindly, frantically, for an exit, and find none. At last, you fall to your knees, almost on top of [[a pair of perfectly polished loafers.]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You scan the pages to the best of your ability. The text is unintelligible. You are inexperienced enough to make sense of it, or your fatigue has made comprehension impossible. The pen still taps on the (text-style:"wavy-underline")[[[dotted line->no choice]]].]
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(text-style:"superscript","blink")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[“This is the [[only way]]. :)”]]
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(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"rumble")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[“Sign, and I will help you.”]]]] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[He shoves a clipboard into your face. You are staring at a contract. He taps the blank space at the bottom with a pen.](align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[>> Reject his offer.]]
[[>> Read the contract.]]
[[>> Sign the contract.]]]
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(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"rumble")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[“Sign, and I will help you. Do you think you have a choice?”]]]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
~~>> Reject his offer.~~
[[>> Read the contract.]]
[[>> Sign the contract.]]]
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The man and his clipboard vanished in the blink of an eye, but his voice lingers in the air. A wave of dizziness hits, and you tumble forward—
(text-rotate-z:15)[falling,]
(text-rotate-z:339)[falling,]
until you land in a (text-style:"sway")[ [[creaky office chair]]].
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(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"rumble")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[“Sign, and I will help you. Do you think you have a choice?”]]]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
~~>> Reject his offer.~~
[[>> Read the contract.]]
[[>> Sign the contract.]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You are sitting at a sparsely furnished office cubicle. An old, grimy computer screen sits before you, casting a flickering green light across the cramped space. You have been given the basics, an old terminal, a desk lamp that barely works, and a dusty plastic plant that has faded to a sickly green-beige. On the cubicle wall behind the terminal is a mail slot. The label is too dirty to make out the text. Next to your keyboard sits a (css:"font-size: 3em")[(text-colour:lime)[ [[battery]]]], big enough to have come from a car, with a yellowed plastic socket on the top. What little space remains is cluttered with stacks of letters and papers, haphazardly shoved together with no clear order or intent.]
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(align:"<==")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[A (text-style:"condense","flat","shudder")[sharp pain] pierces the back of your head. You reach back in shock, only for your fingers to find a cord sprouting from your hair,
(text-colour:red)[|more_text)[d](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[r](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[i](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[p](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text4)[p](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text5)[i](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text6)[n](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text7)[g](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text7)]
|more_text8)[with warm blood.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text8)]]
|more_text9)[It snakes into view, and in the(text-colour:white)[ (text-style:"smear")[ [[dim light]]]] of your cubicle’s desk lamp, you watch as the plug on the end of the cord fits itself into the power socket on the battery.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text9)]
]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Instantly, energy shoots through your limbs and the lightbulb above your head. A red display blinks to life on the side of the battery, counting down from
(text-colour:red)[|more_text)[100...](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text)]
|more_text1)[99...](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[98...](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[97...](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text4)[ [[...]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]]
]
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(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"rumble")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[“THE DAY BEGINS. REWARDS WILL FIND THE BEST OF LABORERS.”]]]](align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[The shuffling of paper and the frantic clack of keyboards fill the space. There are more just like you, and they are all hard at work.
What will you do?
[[>> Look around the room.]]
[[>> Inspect the terminal.]]
]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You crane your neck as much as the power cord allows, and you catch a glimpse of the room. On both sides, an endless corridor of cubicles stretch as far as the eye can see. Each cubicle has its own occupant. They look like you. They are trapped like you. They are all hard at work.
[[>> Inspect the terminal.]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[A line of green text sits at the top of the screen.
(text-colour:green)[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[SUMMARY REPORT OF MISSIVE 537:]]
[[>> Begin to write the report.]]
[[>> Search the papers.]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You scan the papers on the desk. You do not see a “Missive 537.” The piles of papers are high, and it will take much time to file through the documents.
[[>> Search the papers.]]]
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(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Missive 160. Report 23a. Article 82. Every document is dry, and near incomprehensible in the same manner as the contract. Your energy drains faster the more you intensify your focus. It takes a minute before you realize the number on the (text-colour:lime)[battery] is ticking down faster and faster.
[[Missive 537]] is no closer to your grasp.]
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<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[In your search, you instead find a black and white order form.
Clothes, food, batteries, and other comforts are listed down by their cost in “units,” perhaps referring to the numerals on your battery. At the bottom of the list, for a staggering 500 units, is a “Key.” Just a (text-style:"outline")[(text-colour:yellow)[“KEY”]], a single word, capitalized. This purchase is your goal, and your only way out.
[[>> Talk to your neighbour?]]
[[>> Continue searching for Missive 537.]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You turn to the left and tap on the divider between you and your colleague.
The figure is dressed in a dirty, fraying suit that appears to be two sizes too big. You flinch violently as his head turns to face you. Where the features of his face should be, there is nothing, only (text-style:"expand","flat","fidget")[skin pulled taut over the ridges of his skull beneath]. Somehow, you can still hear his voice, even though he has [[no mouth to speak]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[The number on the battery has counted down to (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:red)[50]]. Time is running out. You frantically rifle through the stacks of paper, until finally, you pull out a crumpled manila envelope with (text-colour:green)[(css:"font-size: 2em")[“MISSIVE 537”]] stamped on the front.
Your chest feels a little tighter, and your head is beginning to grow fuzzy again.
You rip open the envelope and speed through the contents of the letter. Through the excessively flowery language, you eventually deduce that the letter is describing the intensely emotional and heart-pounding process of baking bread, including precise measurements to the third decimal place and a rambling tangent explaining the biological function of baker’s yeast. You are unsure of how much detail to include in your summary report.
[[ >> Include details.]]
[[>> Forgo details.]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[???: What do you want?(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[>> Hello.](click: ">> Hello.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[???: Hello. I am busy. I must get back to work.](click: "???: Hello. I am busy. I must get back to work.")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[Your coworker is less than friendly. Somehow, it makes you feel a [[little lost.]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[>> What are we supposed to be doing?(click: ">> What are we supposed to be doing?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[???: The boss wants us to fill the database with these reports. I must work hard to get the job done.](click: "???: The boss wants us to fill the database with these reports. I must work hard to get the job done.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Reports. That appears to be the reason why you are given a computer. The [[explanation]] does not make your purpose or task any clearer.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[>> Why do we have to work?(click: ">> Why do we have to work?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[???: Do you want your light to go out? If we stop, the world stops, and if the world stops, we die.](click: "???: Do you want your light to go out? If we stop, the world stops, and if the world stops, we die.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[ [[>> Why can’t we power our own lights, then?.]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[???: Don’t be stupid. The boss set everything up for us. We needed his help, and here we are. You would be a fool to throw away his kindness. It is not our place to ask questions.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[>> Don’t you want to leave?]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[???: Everyone wants to leave. That’s why we work so hard, unlike you. Rewards will find the best of laborers.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//He seems wholly unconcerned about his purpose – your purpose – as employees. And yet, he deigns to dismiss you with an inflated sense of ego while signing away his labor to your employer’s unknown goals. The (text-style:"rumble")[(text-colour:red)[ [[anger rises faster]]]] than you are able to react to stop it.//]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[>> Excuse me? I just want to know what we’re doing here and what’s going on. I don’t want to screw any of this up either, so I’m asking you.(click: ">> Excuse me? I just want to know what we’re doing here and what’s going on. I don’t want to screw any of this up either, so I’m asking you.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[???: You didn’t ask me about what we’re doing here, you asked about leaving. If you don’t want to screw up, maybe you should fix your attitude first.](click: "???: You didn’t ask me about what we’re doing here, you asked about leaving. If you don’t want to screw up, maybe you should fix your attitude first.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[ [[>> How are you going to get out of here?]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[???: I will buy a rechargeable battery and the key when I make enough energy. I will be able to go wherever I please, with no need to plug my cord into this wall. You’re lucky enough to have a battery at all.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//He has no face, but a strange feeling passes over your body as if he had looked you (text-style:"buoy")[up and down]. His pale skin wrinkles as it twists into what seems to be an expression of [[disgust.]]//]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[???: If I were you, I would get to [[work]]. Questions are only a (css:"font-size: 1.5em")[waste.] (css:"font-size: 2em")[ of. ] (css:"font-size: 2.5em")[ time.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[>> How am I expected to do my job? The task seems impossible and tedious.(click: ">> How am I expected to do my job? The task seems impossible and tedious.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[???: I have no time to teach you. Besides, the task is (text-style:"expand","flat")[soooooooo] simple, even a [[child]] could do it.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-rotate-z:350)[???: Do you think He made you special?](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[(text-rotate-z:9)[???: Did He make you too good for the work everyone else has to do?]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[???: (css:"font-size: 7em")[Grow up!]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
(text-colour:red)[|more_text3)[(text-style:"expand","rumble")[ [[And stop wasting my time and yours. It is not our place to ask questions.->>> Continue searching for Missive 537.]]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You figure that more information is better than too little, lest the Boss reject the report.
Your battery is running (text-colour:red)[lower] and (text-colour:red)[lower], and you have yet to earn any surplus to go toward buying the key. The longer you type, the (text-style:"blur")[fuzzier your head] becomes, and you find yourself chewing through more energy in order to focus your thoughts.
You spend what you think may be 15 minutes listing the specificities given in the letter before finally sending it in.
The battery sits at (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:red)[20 units]].
Despite having finished the task to a degree that satisfies you, a lingering regret roils in your stomach. You feel as though you have wasted your time in pursuit of excellence in your labor.
[[ >>Forgo details for the remainder of the task.->>> Forgo details.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You decide that whatever quality may be gained in spending the time and energy to add the extra detail to the report is not worth the bother.
You could be spending the same limited resources to submit more reports, which would give you more power to save towards obtaining the key and escaping from this prison.
You have a greater goal to accomplish, and you are only wasting your time doing busywork for a faceless boss.
Your battery now sits at a decent (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:red)[30 units]].
[[KEEP WORKING]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Your arms and neck ache.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The pile of documents never seems to shrink, no matter how many reports you complete.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Occasionally, documents are split into volumes, causing reports to be rejected due to incomplete information.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[To add insult to injury, you must [[dig through the stacks]] in order to find the other volume, which costs more energy and time.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You curse the system you are seated before.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[You curse the employee who left you with a mess of catastrophic magnitude.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[You curse your unhelpful neighbour,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ your boss,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[and the blasted world that spins by virtue of your suffering.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[Your battery sits at (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:green)[200 units]].]
[[KEEP WORKING->KEEP WORKING2]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[There is nothing else to do. Your hands (text-style:"shudder")[shake], your back aches, and yet, there is no other way out. Faceless security guards roam the corridors between the cubicles, and you have no desire to experience the consequences of an escape attempt.
The [[risk is too high]], especially after finally crossing the threshold to (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:green)[400 units]]. ]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(css:"font-size: 7em")[You are…](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ [[afraid]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You remember the (text-style:"condense","fade-in-out")[panicked suffocation] which occurs when your battery drains, and it frightens you more than the overwhelming pain which now sits deep in your bones from overwork.
Perhaps more frightening is the passiveness which sings in your muscles. There is no gun held to your ribs to keep you at your seat, but the risk of losing your units from punishment or simply from walking out of the front door is too much for your nerves.
(text-style:"fade-in-out")[^^It’s not worth fighting back, you tell yourself.^^]
It would be easier to sit down, shut up, and do as you are told.
You feel guilty for snapping at your neighbour earlier.
[[KEEP WORKING->KEEP WORKING 3]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:green)[(css:"font-size: 2em")[ [[488]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"emboss")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[ [[Enter↩]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[This is enough to buy yourself the key and escape from this corporate hell. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You already have the order form filled out and signed.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[With a giggle of satisfaction, you shove the form through the mail slot on your cubicle.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[It is only then that you notice (text-colour:red)[ [[the blood]]].]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:green)[(css:"font-size: 2em")[ [[500]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You are unsure how long it has been coating your hands, but it is(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
(text-colour:red)[|more_text1)[(align:"<==")[everywhere]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[(align:"==>")[everywhere]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[everywhere]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[(align:"==>")[everywhere]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[(align:"==>")[(align:"<==")[everywhere]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text6)]]
|more_text6)[The mail slot, the form, the stacks of paper, smeared on your keyboard and mouse. The air is full of it, [[stinking of iron]].]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You raise your hands to [[inspect]] them closer. They feel foreign — as if you were but a passenger in your own body — because the tips of your fingers have been eaten away by your typing, revealing raw, throbbing patches of flesh that have been released from your fingerprints. You feel nothing. No pain. In a distant corner of your heart, you feel as though you should (text-style:"buoy")[weep], but you cannot.]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[The mail slot opens and a file cabinet key clinks onto the desk.
Your gory fingers close around it, and you stagger to your feet.
Hefting the (text-colour:lime)[(css:"font-size: 2em")[battery] ]under your arm, you begin to walk.
The guards ignore you, as do your faceless colleagues.
You are reminded of the questions you pressed your neighbour with when you began.
None of your questions have been answered, but you understand now why questions are pointless.
Questions distract.
[[You did what you had to do.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You have nothing left in you to be intrigued when the corridor of cubicles opens up to a hallway stuffed with metal filing cabinets.
Your fingers slip in the sticky mess of (text-style:"condense")[(text-colour:#c92a2a)[congealed blood]] coating the key, and you manage to fumble it into the keyhole and unlock it.
(text-colour:white)[(text-style:"smear")[Bright light] ]sears through your eye sockets, and you drop your (text-colour:lime)[(css:"font-size: 2em")[battery] ] in shock.
Before your lips go numb and splitting pain rockets through your skull, you close your fingers around the key and [[yank it out of the keyhole]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"fade-in-out")[It cost you so many credits, after all.]
(text-colour:red)[Congratulations on earning your keep.
You’ve obtained Key #3]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/QRdAq43.png" alt="Description" width="150">
//You may now proceed onto the [[next room->House 4 Start]].//]
</div>
</div>{
(track: 'house3-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house4-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house4-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #4: Please the Court of Five Loyalties.]]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Fr9EItr.png" width="600">
]The door creaks slightly as you drag your lethargic body across the room. You hear it before you see it – Chinese instruments, drums, suona, erhu… As the corridor approaches an end, the ceiling extends before you, you realize you’re in a [[Chinese opera theatre]]. The ceiling is lined with red lanterns, you see two floors of audiences: the first floor filled with wooden tables and chairs, decorated with tea sets and tidbits, the second for distinguished guests, veiled by translucent curtains.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"expand","rumble")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[Long live our lord, the heavenly emperor!]]]
You hear a mix of voices calling out to what seems like the coronation of a Chinese emperor. In the next split second you blink, and open your eyes to a dark space – it smelled of incense, hair spray, woodwork and synthetic wigs.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[|more_text1)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[DONG!]]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The cymbal signals the beginning of the show, the (text-colour:white)[(text-style:"smear")[lights shone]], blinding you.
As your eyes slowly adjusted to the light, the curtains rose.
You sit atop the golden throne, face painted in stoic white, robes heavy with embroidered dragons. It didn’t take long for you to figure out that the voices were calling out to you.
You were the [[emperor]] and you are now part of the opera showcase.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Before you stand your Court of Five Loyalties.
Each bows, each waits.
How will you divide your spirit among them?
[[>> Attend to the Crown Prince]]
~~>> Attend to the Chancellor~~
~~>> Attend to the Imperial Consort~~
~~>> Attend to the Grand Tutor~~
~~>> ??~~
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You turn your gaze towards the host of officials and ministers in the hall – robes crisp, armors gleaming, scrolls brimming with petitions and plans. (click: "ministers in the hall")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The Grand Chancellor steps forward to center himself in the hall. He bows with utmost sincerity, eager for your command to ride at dawn.] (click: "command")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[“Your Majesty,” he says, “the Council of Provinces awaits your decree. The people sing your name. The empire thrives under your hand.”](click: "awaits your decree")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[“Will you ride with us again tomorrow? There is still so much to the Western terrains that we have yet to conquer.”](click: "“Will you ride with us again tomorrow? There is still so much to the Western terrains that we have yet to conquer.”")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[You lower your head in contemplation, casting your mind onto your other paperworks, petitions and a recovering wound from your previous conquest.](click: "paperworks, petitions and a recovering wound from your previous conquest")[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[
[[>> I trust the Council to manage in my lead. I shall leave it to you and General Liu on the strategy. You will exchange views on this by nightfall today. I will not ride as my attention must turn elsewhere.]]
[[>> I will attend the morning council, as expected. You and General Liu must conjure up a strategy by nightfall and we shall exchange views then.]]
[[>> You and General Liu must conjure up a strategy by nightfall, we shall reassemble at dusk. Prepare the warhorses. I will lead tomorrow’s campaign myself.]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
>> Rise, my child. (click: ">> Rise, my child.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The boy rose from his knees. You saw his face, a benign mix between your own features and that of someone you once held very dear. You felt an intense urge to embrace this boy, but the pressures to maintain decorum tugged at you fervently.] (click: "maintain decorum")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The audience cheered at the sight of a dignified king and a delightful Crown Prince. You sense that you must continue to behave this way.](click: "continue to behave this way")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[“My studies await, Father. My future is written by your hand. I require your counsel in the arts of archery. Will you be with me at my training this coming week?”](click: "Will you be with me at my training this coming week?")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[
[[>> I will send my aide to accompany you. He is well-trained in archery.]]
[[>> We shall walk to the field together. I will watch as you train.]]
[[>> Yes. I will train with you. Bring your bow to my chambers at dawn.]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The boy lowers his gaze and nods. You catch a flicker of disappointment before he straightens his back – already learning how to lose quietly. (click: "disappointment")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The court and audience applauds your decisiveness. A [[ruler->princetransition]] must learn to delegate. What emperor has time for wooden arrows and childish sweat?]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The boy’s face lights up, momentarily. He bows deeply, gratitude veiled by formal words. You know he had hoped for more, but won’t say it. (click: "hoped for more")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The [[audience->princetransition]] hums with quiet approval. “Such balance,” someone says. “He gives, but does not spoil.”]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The boy’s eyes widened. He steps forward instinctively, as if to reach for your hand but stops himself. (click: "stops himself")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[A hush falls over the court. Someone in the [[audience->princetransition]] murmurs, “Too soft. He’ll grow weak.” Another says, “The Emperor forgets to raise his heir.”]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"blur")[Moneta: I don’t know. I can’t explain it either but I feel like this is where you’re most comfortable to me, you remain a distant memory, and we know each other enough that as time passes, all that remains are good thoughts. No resentment, just a reminder that we were once happy in each other’s presence.
Very, very [[happy]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The Crown Prince props his arm forward for a bow and retreats back to his chambers with quick, poised and choreographed steps. (click: "chambers")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The orchestra plays a string of rhythmic melody to signal a scene change.] (click: "scene change")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Who shall you attend next?
~~>> Attend to the Crown Prince~~
[[>> Attend to the Chancellor]]
~~>> Attend to the Imperial Consort~~
~~>> Attend to the Grand Tutor~~
~~>> ??~~
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The chancellor bows, you observe the smallest twitch of disapproval across his brow. The man appears stressed from the task bestowed upon him. (click: "disapproval")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Behind him, General Liu salutes, heeding to his mission.] (click: "salutes")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The audience murmurs, “The emperor [[softens->chancellortransition]],” one says. “He risks boosting the enemy's morale with his absence.”]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Certainly your majesty,” the Chancellor exasperates, kneeling once more at the heed of your command. [[“The people will never forget.”->chancellortransition]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“It will please the provinces to see you at the head of the chamber,” the chancellor says. “Your counsel will be eminent to our morale and victory.” (click: "victory")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[“Dutiful. Disciplined. An emperor who understands his impact on his staff.” the [[audience->chancellortransition]] says.]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You rose to signal the close of the morning council. The orchestra swelled with a measured melody as the court gracefully exited the stage, each figure wearing an expression of pride. Generals marched with authority, stroking their long black beards, while Chancellors gilded past in hushed conversation, concealing their words behind scrolls and folded pamphlets.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[|more_text1)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ DONG!]]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[|more_text2)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ DONG!]]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[|more_text3)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[THUMP!]]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Scene change, you are now back in your chambers.
Who will you attend next?
~~>> Attend to the Crown Prince~~
~~>> Attend to the Chancellor~~
~~>> Attend to the Imperial Consort~~
[[>> Attend to the Grand Tutor]]
~~>> ??~~
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"expand","rumble")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[“The Grand Tutor has arrived!”]]]
announced the eunuchs.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The Grand Tutor walked laboriously through the gate of your chambers, beside him are servants providing support.] (click: "chambers")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The Grand Tutor is your uncle, your Father’s younger brother. He has come with a request.](click: "request")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[“Dear nephew, I fear that I must not have much time left. I am grateful that you are equally ambitious as your father and you have kept his legacy alive, with how the nation has flourished in your rule. Before your fearsome conquest tomorrow, might I suggest you take a brisk walk with me to the ancestral pavilion, you must not forget to pay respect to your mother and father.”](click: " might I suggest you take a brisk walk with me to the ancestral pavilion")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[
[[>> My apologies, Grant Tutor, I understand that it is foremost to pay respects to the ancestors. Unfortunately, I have much on my plate and much to prepare before the conquest tomorrow. I promise that I shall visit the ancestral pavilion after the war.]]
[[>> Yes, my dear uncle. It is of utmost importance as a son that I must seek the counsel of the ancestors and my parents before my perilous journey ahead. Let us go, and let me help you on our way out.]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The sachet trembles in his hand. He bows deep and slow. “I see.” (click: "“I see.”")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[He turns, spine straight, walking alone toward the past.
You heard sneers and loud hissing of disapproval from the audience. From the corner of your eyes against the blinding stage lights, you saw someone crossing their arms and shaking their heads.](click: "audience")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[As you turned your head back towards the Grand Tutor and his band of servants, you heard one of the audience members remark sarcastically.
“What a King… how can we expect him to rule if he forgets the fundamental values that shapes our culture. He is a ruthless conqueror AND an [[unfilial son->tutortransition]].”]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so, you follow the Grand Tutor toward the ancestral pavilion. There, you bow before your parents and forebearers, offering silent prayers for guidance on the road ahead. Whether an answer reached you, only you would know. The audience can only wonder. (click: "audience")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The audience cheers with soft applause. They commend your attempts to divide time wisely – between honoring the past and planning for the future. Most importantly of all, you were a filial son.](click: "audience")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[You heard one of them whispering to their children off the side.
“You must learn from him. Filial, kind and unforgiving. He is a [[good role model->tutortransition]] for you.]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[|more_text1)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ DONG!]]]](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text2)[Another scene change.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text3)[Who will you attend next?
~~>> Attend to the Crown Prince~~
~~>> Attend to the Chancellor~~
[[>> Attend to the Imperial Consort]]
~~>> Attend to the Grand Tutor~~
~~>> ??~~](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"expand","rumble")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 2em")[“Imperial Consort Yang has arrived!”]]]
You hear the eunuchs announce the arrival of your Imperial Consort.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[She enters the front yard of your chambers, perfumed in jasmine and rogue. Her silk trails behind her like a serpent, the colour of dusk after rain – deep, warm and aching.] (click: "aching")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The consort’s bold and unblinking gaze finds yours immediately.](click: "gaze")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[She moves with the grace of a dancer, hips swaying with deliberation, sleeves fluttering like wings about to unfurl. Her lips are tinted the colour of ripe persimmons, parted just slightly, as if holding back a [[question she’s asked too many times]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
She kneels not with deference, but with desire disguised as duty.(click: "desire")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The eunuchs and servants knew to leave the two of you to your own. You can sense the audience perking up in their seats to admire the Consort’s beauty and in eager anticipation of what might unfold.] (click: "unfold")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[“My lord,” she murmurs, voice like honey poured slowly over tea, “The Mid-Autumn banquet approaches. Shall I sing for you again, as I once did in Luoyang?”](click: "Luoyang")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[You do not answer immediately.
You suddenly remember //the// (text-colour:red)[red flower]. You remembered how your love with the Imperial Consort was a love that once burned, and how, though warm, it [[never quite caught fire]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[>> I’m afraid not tonight, my dear Consort. I must guide the council in our conquest for the West tomorrow.]]
[[>> Yes, my dear consort. I await your splendid performance on the night of the festival. Unfortunately, I will have to retire early tonight. Shall I see you soon?]]
[[>> Ah, my beautiful consort, how could I ever resist an offer from you. In fact, we must make haste. I thereby invite you to my chambers for a drink to discuss the grandiose celebration.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The Consort bows, lips pressed thin. “As you will, my lord.” (click: "“As you will, my lord.”")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The [[audience->consorttransition]] seems slightly crestfallen … for a reason that might surprise you. Nonetheless, all you could hear was their scattered applause for your decision to prioritise the conquest.]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The Consort bows, you observe that she could barely conceal the smile across her face. “Certainly, my lord. I am delighted to merely be in your presence. With that, I will be taking my leave.” (click: "smile")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The audience seems slightly crestfallen … for a reason that might surprise you. Nonetheless, your response promised them a key statement to look forward to. [[Perked up in their seats, they seem more attentive to the story that continues to unfold.->consorttransition]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The Consort looked pleasantly surprised, a faint of red blush flushing across her cheeks. Ever since the wedding night, this was the first time in a long while that you were so inviting to her seduction. She bows and walks to your side, the both of you disappearing into the translucent red curtain at the end of the hallways. (click: "seduction")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The audience had mixed reactions but all of which were loud. Some were jumping from their seats and hiding their faces, all while exclaiming. Some were jeering, exasperating that [[you gave in to temptations and abandoning your royal duties->consorttransition]].]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
~~>> Attend to the Crown Prince~~
~~>> Attend to the Chancellor~~
~~>> Attend to the Imperial Consort~~
~~>> Attend to the Grand Tutor~~(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[(text-style:"blink")[ [[>> ??]]]
]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You're all by yourself now.
(text-style:"blink")[ [[>> Attend to the Mirror Spirit.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
??: ... (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[??: ...Seek me... in the house beyond...](click: "...Seek me... in the house beyond...")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[You hear a voice resonating through the speakers in the auditorium.](click: "speakers in the auditorium")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[??: You’ve played your part well.](click: " You’ve played your part well.")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[??: But now... won’t you meet the one who never took the stage?](click: "But now... won’t you meet the one who never took the stage?")[(show:?more_text6)]
//|more_text6)[You look to the velvet chairs where courtiers once clapped, where the audience once watched your choices with hungry eyes …](click: "hungry eyes")[(show:?more_text7)]
|more_text7)[but they are empty.](click: "but they are empty.")[(show:?more_text8)]
|more_text8)[They have always been empty.](click: "They have always been empty.")[(show:?more_text9)]
|more_text9)[The applause, it seems, was only ever in your mind.](click: "in your mind")[(show:?more_text10)]
|more_text10)[A chill runs through you. You step back. And then, stage right — the curtain closes.](click: "the curtain closes.")[(show:?more_text11)]
|more_text11)[There, in the silence beyond the script, is a door.](click: "door")[(show:?more_text12)]
|more_text12)[You reach into your pocket. Your fingers find something cold.](click: "reach into your pocket")[(show:?more_text13)]
|more_text13)[ [[A new key.]] One you don’t remember receiving.]//
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/lsqaRKM.png" alt="Description" width="150">
(text-style:"blink")[ [[Unlock the door.->House 5 Start]]]]
</div>
</div>{
(track: 'house4-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house5-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house5-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #5: You must keep going.]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/UyCSvgK.png" width="600">]]You step past the threshold and step inside. The air is frighteningly still, disturbed only by the movement of your limbs as you venture forth. Footsteps echo against empty air as you peer into the space before you — a grey abyss, broken by the presence of an impossibly (text-style:"expand","flat")[loooooooooooooooooooooooooong] staircase. As the door clicks into the latch behind you, you turn and notice that the frame stands on its own, as if you have walked through a portal, rather than through a wall containing a novel wasteland. Above, below, and to every side, there is nothing but emptiness which seems to eat away the light itself.
There is nowhere to go but forward. You hope desperately that the [[staircase]] leads to an escape.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[ Begin climbing]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You climb up the stairs step by step, unsure if you should conserve your energy or exert yourself so you can reach the end faster. It is painfully boring, with every sensation and thought magnified exponentially by the subtraction of all else. (text-colour:red)[Warmth], (text-colour:navy)[cold], (text-style:"sway")[wind], and scenery carved by the elements are things that you now realize you have taken for granted, as now, you are faced with the [[unspeakably nondescript in all elements but the frustration it elicits]]. You now understand why prisoners lose their minds in solitary confinement.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[ Climb]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[ Climb->Climbrep]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You are not sure how long you climb before you spy an object
(text-style:"blur","sway")[floating]
in the distance, right next to the staircase.
Once you notice it, the thought seems to consume you, itching in your limbs and throat after an eternity with no goal in sight. Your body is (text-style:"superscript","condense")[too small], too slow, your arms and legs (text-style:"condense")[too short] to reach it the way your mind desires to. You are confined by the limits of physical form, and your mind rears in pent-up frustration when you realize [[you are not close enough]] to recognize what it is at all.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
As you inch closer, step by painful step, your eyes cling greedily to the object’s form.(text-style:"outline")[(text-colour:yellow)[ Gold]] appears, (text-style:"tall")[tall and thin], and by craning your neck in all directions, you finally recognize it as a frame. The itch takes over your body, and you break into a [[run]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
It does nothing to soothe the sensations and thoughts threatening to burst from your chest and stomach and hands, you find, but only adds new elements to the (text-style:"rumble")[(text-colour:red)[maddening turmoil]]. The thumping of your feet on the ground, the sticky-slick slide of your sweaty skin, and the voice within your mind [[screaming]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Keep going.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "framefasterrunkeepgoingkeepgoingnoit’stooslowTHISISSOBORINGyescloserclosercloserpainmylegshurtmychesthurts—";
var speed = 100; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Until you finally collapse, panting, before your goal. (click: "goal")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[It’s a mirror.](click: "It’s a mirror.")[(show:?more_text2)]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[|more_text2)[[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/lRmiOcQ.png" alt="Description" width="350">]
[[Just a mirror.]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
As you heave and huff, dragging precious oxygen into your lungs, a wave of deep disappointment washes over you. The novelty is gone, your interest has faded, and you are as angry and bored as you were before, but [[sweatier and exhausted]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You stare down the long flight of stairs back to where you began. The door and the concrete platform are only a tiny speck, hovering above… nothingness. Your new perspective provides nothing to muse upon, no puzzle to solve, and no epiphany. You begin to wonder why you began [[climbing]] in the first place.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["Seems pointless, huh?"]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You flinch so hard, you nearly fall off the staircase and into the (text-style:"smear")[abyss]. The voice seems deafening in comparison to the silence you have gotten used to, and you swear you can feel the adrenaline pour into your (text-colour:red)[bloodstream] like a drug. Your head snaps from side to side as you search for the source of the voice until you spot (text-style:"mirror")[your reflection] in the [[mirror]] waving down at you with a smirk on its face.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["Look at you. You thought this would be so easy, huh?"]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[>> I never said that. I’m just getting started, and it doesn’t matter how hard it is. A challenge isn’t going to stop me.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You can feel your eyes burn with indignance, your bottom lip threatening to pout as you face down (text-style:"mirror")[ [[your reflection]]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["But it has been hard, hasn’t it? No, don’t lie to yourself. You can feel it, can’t you? From the tips of your fingers to the bubble inflating to its limit in your chest."]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You don’t know how it describes the sensation so accurately. Perhaps you should have expected that. [[He is you]], after all. Still, you steel your expression as if you have something to lose in this exchange.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[>> And what does it mean to you?]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["It means you want this to be over. It means you’re a coward who thinks of his own comfort before the lives of everyone he’s supposed to save."]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The reflection stares you down, its eyes piercing deep enough to cause you to waver.
[[>> That’s not true. I’m doing it for Him. Completion means His Will is done.]]
[[>> I won’t deny that I hate this. But isn’t it natural to dislike doing certain things? We do them anyway because we know our actions are about something bigger.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "The words escape faster, harsher than you expected them to. Your tongue pushes the syllables past your lips, plosives and sibilants ricocheting off the polished surface of the mirror. As the vibrations sink into your bones, you feel alien. You stick out in this concrete wasteland, a warm, breathing collection of curved lines and harsh breaths breaking the geometric, all-consuming silence. In a world of points and vectors and certainty, you exist as a singular anomaly.";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Mirror.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "The feeling has been present with you for long enough. House after house, you are unsure of what it all leads up to in the end. You are bigger, stronger, maybe smarter, but the further you go, the less you realize you truly understand. How will any of this save the world you live in? School and work and talk about love and family — what does it reward you with besides another key, another step towards something and everything but nothing all at once?";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You.->You1]]</span>
<script>
var text = "The mirror-man does not smirk nor scoff. All it does is cause the guilt in the back of your mind to shriek and giggle with haunting delight. You can’t deny you hate it. All of it. The pressure of the world you live in, the lives it contains, sits on a weighing scale against your own life and your troubles. Your thoughts, your emotions and sensations feel so large in this moment, after hours of climbing. Your wretched task with no goal or end, hells within hells that you have walked through — you feel like you have gained nothing through all of them.";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Mirror.->Mirror1]]</span>
<script>
var text = "Do you trust this nebulous everything? Do you trust what you see? Do you trust what He told you?";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["You are not proud of your accomplishments. You are afraid. Afraid that if you do not achieve, you face a doom you cannot stomach."]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“'Ooo~ Annihilation~ Our world will disappear if I do nothing~'”]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“That’s only what He has told you.”->He]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[You look up.]] The mirror mouths the words back at you as they skitter around the cavity of your skull.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[>> Do you trust what He told you?]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Mirror.->Mirror2]]</span>
<script>
var text = "You don’t know anymore. You can’t deny it, a part of you wonders if all of this is necessary. The dilemmas curling their tendrils around your heart, goals and prizes and rewards and making sure you don’t lose, not for you but for every life you have seen and every life you have yet to touch — how could it be possible that the particularities of your life count up to securing salvation under His instructions?";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The (text-style:"mirror")[ [[reflection’s]]] eyes glitter dangerously.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“You can see it, can’t you? You know nothing about what truly lies at the end of everything.”->contm2]]]]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Mirror.->Mirror3]]</span>
<script>
var text = "You can avert your gaze no longer. You don’t know who He is. You don’t know what your Doom could possibly be, nor your salvation. Your trials may have a purpose, and it is equally possible that they do not. Which is worse — you cannot be certain. No matter how far you have come, whatever you would lose in future calamity cannot be worth more than the part of yourself which must die to secure Salvation, whatever it may be.";
var speed = 30; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your reflection lunges before you can pursue the thought any further. Cold fingers dig into the front of your shirt and yank, sending you
(text-style:"sway")[(text-rotate-z:12)[falling, ]]
(text-style:"sway")[(text-rotate-z:352)[falling,] ]
(text-style:"sway")[ [[falling…]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You close your eyes and brace for impact, but it never comes. Instead,(text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:white)[ light]] blooms around you, caressing your bare skin with gentle warmth. [[You crack open your eyes.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You have been returned to the doorstep outside the house. Lying on your chest is a (text-style:"outline")[(text-colour:yellow)[golden key]], the same shade as the mirror’s frame.
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RW90GL2.png" alt="Description" width="150">]Though this house leaves you with as little answers as you had before, and many more questions, the hollowness that the uncertainty left in your chest has [[dissipated slightly]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You look around the island. It is as bare as it was before. But you know now, with more determination than before, that whether [[He->House 6 Start]] exists or not, your existence would mean far less if you did not negotiate honestly, sincerely, with yourself and your situation.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[>> It is not my place to question something like this. If living right means we all make it, then it will be worth it.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You curl your hands into fists and squeeze them tightly shut. The phalanges in your fingers grind against one another, nerve endings prickle in a symphony as your nails carve deep crescent moons into [[your palms]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You cannot lose sight of [[your goal]]. Salvation is not a task opened to everyone, nor a trophy for heroism. You are a martyr. Your suffering is a mark of excellence, not a moral weakness.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“Ha! Then you are worse than I thought!”]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The figure in the mirror lights up with excitement and grabs the edges of the frame. He leans in close, as if he could pass through the portal and into your reality. A cruel grin blooms across his face, painted in (text-style:"rumble")[(text-colour:red)[fizzing, razor-edged mania]]. You puff yourself up with righteous indignance. You are not misled, nor are you weak enough to sell your life to an [[empty cause]].
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
He cackles as if you had [[spoken your thoughts aloud]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“It’s not about delusion, kid.”]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“Believing in Santa Claus never hurt anyone,"]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“but believing Santa Claus will reward you for humiliating yourself in his name?"]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["It’s a damn e-go trip for you.”]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The words dance off his tongue, sing-song and mocking. (text-style:"emboss","fidget")[(text-colour:red)[ [[Rage]]]] flares through every fiber of your being, tension and razor wire and dripping napalm down your cheeks, your arms, your fingers.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“Feeling guilty?"]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“Parading around with a sense of superiority over some God-given task — "]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“you’re the kind of self-righteous, "]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“self-centered narcissist that people love to hate at work or at home,"]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“the type of bastard that every ex will remember because you step all over the ones you “love” because you’ve been blinded by the big, beautiful man in the sky!”]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"blink")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Break the mirror.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
It takes but a moment to shatter him. Your legs coil, then leap, sending you through the mirror— no, the window— and straight into your reflection’s waiting arms. Both of you tumble off the staircase in a tangle of limbs, struggling, screaming, wrestling each other until the ground rises up to meet [[you and the world]] explodes in blinding pain.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You open your eyes when the pain dissipates. You are outside, lying on the front step of the house. Nothing appears to be broken or bleeding, not that you can tell. On your chest rests (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:yellow)[a single golden key]], the same shade as the mirror frame. Your teeth protest as your jaw clenches hard, sending squeaks through the inside of your skull. You will get through it. Doubt and guilt be damned, you will be better than who he thinks you are, because you are better.
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/RW90GL2.png" alt="Description" width="150">]
[[You are one step closer to your goal, and eventually, all of this will have been worth it.->House 6 Start]]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'house5-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house6-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house6-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #6: Try to keep your head above the (text-style:"double-strike","blurrier")[sand].]]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[I need a break.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Just for a moment. [[A pause.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[I’m almost there — wherever I was supposed to be and whatever I was supposed to do — and [[I deserve this rest. ]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[I need a break.->cont6]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so you sit. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Or rather, collapse into the floor.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Too fast.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[It felt more like a fall than a decision you made consciously. [[Gravity made that decision for you.]] ]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Ever since you entered this strange room — you still can’t quite see it yet, but something felt very, very wrong. (text-style:"blur")[A blur, a smudge, a gentle mosaic] that’s [[coming apart at the seams]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so you sit. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[“I just need a little while to adjust”, you think.](click: "I just need a little while to adjust")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[“My vision will return”, you hope.](click: "My vision will return")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ [[“Maybe this… strange numbness in my left clavicle will be gone too”]], you pray. ]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so you sit.
~~“I just need a little while to adjust”~~, you think.
“My vision will return”, you hope.
[[“Maybe this… strange numbness in my left clavicle will be gone too”->continue]], you pray.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so you sit.
~~“I just need a little while to adjust”~~, you think.
~~“My vision will return”~~, you hope.
[[“Maybe this… strange numbness in my left clavicle will be gone too”->continue1]], you pray.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And so you sit.
~~“I just need a little while to adjust”~~, you think.
~~“My vision will return”~~, you hope.
[[~~“Maybe this… strange numbness in my left clavicle will be gone too”~~->continue2]], you pray.
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
No can do. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[This is the way it is now.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You start taking harder, shallower breaths. Each inhale sharp, like you’ve forgotten how. Panic creeps in. Quiet, then (text-style:"shudder")[ [[loud]]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
What the hell? (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[No—](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[no—](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ [[this cannot be it…]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
I could see right before I entered this house. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[It must’ve been the air,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[or the light.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ [[No—NO—this isn’t right.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[-- System Override --]]</span>
<script>
var text = "I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.";
var speed = 150; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[-- System Override Complete. Save game progress? --]]</span>
<script>
var text = "I MUST’VE ENTERED THE WRONG HOUSE!!";
var speed = 150; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
the door… (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Yes.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The door.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ [[THE DOOR.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You scramble towards where you //think// it was. You crawled towards the back of the room, unbeknownst of a stream of the [[fine, pale grains]] beginning to blanket your skin.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Sand.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[It trickles from somewhere unseen.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ It stopped pouring when it pools at your ankles. The door? [[Vanished. As if it was never there.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And the sand keeps rising. Your hopes diminish.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[>> Is this…the end?](click: ">> Is this…the end?")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[You lay on your back, flat against the warm, shifting grains.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ Through the (text-style:"blur")[blur], (text-style:"outline","tall")[ [[something sharp glints]]] above.]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'house6-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/2aipnM8.png" width="600">]
A slow cascade of light and motion.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Sand, pouring steadily through a transparent, funnel-like opening.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[ [[An hourglass.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Of course.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[How poetic.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[You’re trapped inside the very object meant to measure time.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[It now counts down your life, by the seconds. When the last grain falls, so will [[everything]].]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
.
.
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.
.
.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Your regrets,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[Your memories,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[ [[Your unfinished goals.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The sand continues to pour. You sat up straight so that the sand wouldn’t submerge you as quickly.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Each stream of falling grains marks a passing second, a resurfacing regret, a name almost remembered.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[ [[Until —]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
A voice.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Soft as sleep.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Distant as [[a lullaby you were never sung]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [["Watt."]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center; align-items: center; min-height: 60vh;">
<span id="typewriter" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; font-size: 2em;"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none; margin-top: 2em;"><br>[[You open your eyes.]]</span>
</div>
</div>
<script>
var text = ".....";
var speed = 350; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
// Add a full stop as a separate <span> so they're stacked and centered
var dot = document.createElement("span");
dot.textContent = text.charAt(i);
document.getElementById("typewriter").appendChild(dot);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The grains have stopped falling, suspended mid-air.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The room is utterly still. No white noise, only a deafening silence.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[You glance at the sand left in the upper half of the hourglass — halfway gone.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ [[Then you look down—]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
A woman. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You know her before she speaks again.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[You know her in your bones, in the way you're [[choking up your greetings]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[“You were so small.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/SRAzuYx.png" alt="Description" width="350">
(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[Your mother.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[The woman who gave you your first breath.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[The ghost who never haunted you, but never left you.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[She is here— finally, impossibly—]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And she looks at you like she’s waited forever.
You try to wiggle out of the sand, but it weighs you down.
[[It’s at your hips now.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Why now?”, you say, your throat closing around the words. (click: "Why now?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[She smiles, sorrow caught in [[her eyes]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“I just wanted to see my baby.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
She places her hand against [[your cheek]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Ma…” your voice cracked. (click: "Ma…")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[“I’ve always wondered what you looked like.”]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You lift your hand and place it gently over hers, the hand resting against your cheek. You must have felt her once, long before memory had a name.
When you were still more breath than a boy, curling up between her ribs.
You don’t remember how her(text-colour:navy)[(text-style:"blur")[ skin turned cold ]]beneath your tiny hands, and how her arms that were meant to hold you never stirred.
But now, for the first time, in your conscious mind, [[you can feel her]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And for a moment, it takes your breath away. Because her face, though younger than yours now, [[looks like yours]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[The same eyes]], with the same glint of light and hope, carrying the same gaze that yearned to meet the other.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Ma: I used to watch you. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[>> …]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Ma: Even after I was gone. You’d stand in the hallways like you were waiting for someone. As a baby you’d crawl and reach for me. Crawl forward some more, and then fall on your little nose. Daddy always had a hard time calming you down. Silly he. Silly you. As you grew a little, you’d laugh and then look over your shoulder, just to check if I was there. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ And I was.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[ [[>> I think I was… waiting.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“Then I’m glad I didn’t make you wait forever.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You speak of nothing. Of everything. The way pain shaped you, how you always searched for someone you never knew you lost. [[She listens]], collecting and cradling each word into her hands like they were newborn birds.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
But as time goes on, you start to notice it — first in her (text-style:"blur")[outline], which grows fainter by the second. Her skin, once warm and solid, begins to dissolve into (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:white)[light]]. [[She’s becoming translucent.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center; align-items: center; min-height: 60vh;">
<span id="typewriter" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; font-size: 2em;"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none; margin-top: 2em;"><br>[[Above you, the grains suspended in the air tremble, then begin to fall once more, soft and slow.]]</span>
</div>
</div>
<script>
var text = ".....";
var speed = 350; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
// Add a full stop as a separate <span> so they're stacked and centered
var dot = document.createElement("span");
dot.textContent = text.charAt(i);
document.getElementById("typewriter").appendChild(dot);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
|more_text1)[You stare at them, startled.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[You thought this was the end. For a moment, you had accepted it.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[But now… [[something stirs.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
|more_text1)[You feel a sudden pulse of energy, subtle but steady, like your body is remembering itself.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Your vision begins to clear.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[The ache in your left clavicle eases.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[ [[The heaviness in your chest lifts.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Even as her body disappears, her eyes remain, almost see-through, yet imprinted so deeply into the stillness around you that you’re still able to [[speak directly to her]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[The sand resumes its fall.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
“Ma,” you whisper, watching her fade. [[“What do I do, now that you’re gone again?”]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Her voice reaches you from somewhere between silence and breath. “Listen,” she says. “I love you—but I must go. And I don’t worry, not anymore… [[it seems you’re not alone]].”
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“She’ll be here, in my place.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You turn your head.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[There, sitting cross-legged in the sand like it’s just another lazy summer afternoon, is](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ [[Moneta.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
She hasn’t changed. That same crooked grin. That same straight black hair. She looks like she’s been waiting for you all this time, unbothered by the falling sand and your half buried self. [[She tilts her head and smiles.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3ykdWhr.png" width="600">
(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“You’re later than I thought you’d be.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You laugh, caught off guard by the way she so easily disarms you. For a moment, you forget the [[sand]] has already reached your shoulders.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[.
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.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You talk,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[not about grand things,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[but the small ones. The ones that matter.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[Adulthood, little fragments of your past, things you thought you had forgotten.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[The way people speak when there’s no need to pretend. The way you used to speak to her, [[back when everything felt simpler]].]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
She scoops up a handful of sand and watches them form a miniature pyramid as it piles on the ground. She turns contemplative for a moment before [[she asks,]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“Your mother said this isn’t the end, right?”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[You nod, unsure.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“This place, it’s a trap. A slow funeral. But this isn’t where your story ends.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You hesitate, your voice quieter now.
[[>> To be very honest with you… I thought I was going with her. I was ready. That felt like a good way to end. Peaceful, even.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[She leans in, her eyes steady.]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“No. You’re not finished. There’s still one more key.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
She rises to her feet and walks toward the borders of the hourglass. Without a word, she places her hand against the glass. And then, with one deliberate movement, she (text-style:"bold","expand","blink")[ [[strikes it]]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:red)[(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[ [[The hourglass shatters.]]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Time spills out like wind rushing through an open door. The hourglass begins to tilt, then topples, sending sand and glass and wood crashing through the room. The house begins to (text-style:"flat")[collapse] from the top down. You’re caught in the rush of it all, [[pulled forward by the current of falling grains]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You slide, helpless, through the flood, carried through what’s left of the house until you collide ''[[HARD]]'' into a tall, vertical wooden panel.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You lie there, breathless on the streets, blinking up into the (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:yellow)[ [[golden light]]]] filtering through the dust.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Moneta kneels beside you again. (text-style:"blur")[ [[She’s fading too now]]], but smiling.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“Now go.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(css:"font-size: 1em")[ [[“Save us all.”]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
|more_text1)[She presses the sixth key into your hand.](click: "sixth key")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[And then she’s gone, her image vanishing into the flare of the sunset.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[You glance up at the [[wooden panel->Key Message]] that stopped your fall…]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house7-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house7-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[House #7: Replay. Relive. Re-evaluate.]]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[A breath.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That’s all you have before the panel, or more accurately, the door dissolves into a thick, gloopy mass. Fatigue rears its ugly head, turning your limbs to lead and stealing the words from your lips as the sludge pulls you in. It crawls across your skin, (text-style:"flat")[presses into your ears and nose and mouth and eyes], turning [[the world]] into a muted, blurry and dark mess.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Ever-eager to keep you alive in your worst moments, your instincts kick in as your lungs begin to scream for air until finally, you open your mouth and take a loud, gasping breath. Instead of more sludge, you are met with cool oxygen. You are alive. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//[[Open your eyes.]]//]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/CZb61Zo.png" width="600">]Gently, you are lowered onto an old armchair. You’ve never seen it before, but you know it’s yours as you smooth your hands over the armrests. The fabric and worn padding mould to the shape of your arms like they’ve done a thousand times before.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[You are seated in a dusty, dirty room that smells of (text-style:"outline")[(text-colour:#ffec99)[mildew, stale sunlight]], and the faded scent of //home//. The (text-colour:#51cf66)[wallpaper] is a sickly green, covered with a simple pattern of (text-style:"double-underline")[thin stripes]. A thick bubble of (text-style:"outline")[nostalgia] pops in your chest. It was so much prettier when you and [[your wife]] picked it out years ago, before the color faded from the sun. She had fought with you when you insisted on keeping the curtains closed in the day to preserve the color.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Reminisce.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Your wife.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "“If you so enjoy sitting in darkness, go into our bedroom and do it! Why you insist on depriving the household of sunlight, I’ll never understand.”";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
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// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
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</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You can see her there, standing in the hallway. (text-style:"smear","blink")[(text-colour:white)[Her form]] flickers with a strange light, if she moved in snapshots and fragments, breathing in stop motion and (text-style:"blur")[fuzzed] around the edges. Her eyes are trained on a spot beyond your chair, right by the window — the spot you were standing in when she had said that. Her eyes bear the sharpness of someone who no longer takes your whims as a silly quirk. You know now it’s [[a look]] she will level at you for years to come before giving up entirely.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Reach out.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You stretch out your arm to tug the curtains open, but you cannot move. Your arm is glued to the armrest by an invisible force, as if something had taken over your body. Your wife doesn’t seem to notice your distress as you crane your neck to look back at her.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[It had meant so little to you back then. She was overreacting, not seeing the bigger picture, being too strict with you. It was never about the darkness. It was the wallpaper, the color, the steep price and the woman you had selected it with. A wave of ''deep sorrow'' crashes over you, welling up in your eyes as [[you drink her in]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You never loved her.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Not truly, and certainly not in the way you loved Moneta.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ But maybe you could have learned to,](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ if only you had taken a moment to sit and meet her where she was.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ Maybe you could have met her in this moment, if only you had listened to her.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[ [[You remember all too well]] what happens next.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[That was you.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "“Can you just shut up for once?! I’ve been at work all week, trying to keep us afloat, and all I want is some peace and quiet! I bought this house, I bought this wallpaper, I bought these goddamned curtains, and all you can do is nag at me.”";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You can see the way she shrinks back, eyes full of tears as your voice rings out through the living room. Whatever comfort you felt before in this space has long since [[soured]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[That was also you.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "“You have no clue what I have to put up with. You don’t even know what all of this is for, working myself to the bone for… for…”";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You remember now the crushing weight of it. Pressure, like a house sitting on your sternum. The weight of [[your existence, your children and wife’s lives]], stomping on the words before you can //tell// her.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[You never told her.]] Not after her face crumpled with sadness and turned away from you.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Finally, the force keeping you in your chair relents. You stand with a(text-style:"fidget")[ jerk,] carried to your feet by the inertia. The same light (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:white)[your wife]] had cast on the hallway floor flickers on the walls of the dining room and out into the hallway, catching the dust in the air and turning it into a (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:#c0eb75)[ [[golden-green haze]]]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Reminisce.->Rem2]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You can see all three of them sitting at the table — wife, son, daughter. They look up as if they’ve been waiting for you. Dread descends upon you like a dark veil. You look up at the (text-style:"outline","fidget")[calendar]. It vibrates with the same strobing, fizzing around the edges like it's not cut from the same fabric of your [[reality]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ It’s your birthday. (css:"font-size: 0.7em")[(text-style:"blur")[ [[Your mother’s death day.]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your children look at you with strange eyes. They smile sadly, trying to be comforting, but it only grates against your bones like metal on a dinner plate. //Pity.// The quietness left to you by your mother has all of a sudden bloomed and overtaken everything else, a [[silence]] louder than any happiness you could have possibly gleaned from this day of celebration.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You remember this birthday.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "“Happy birthday, Papa!”";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your wife had decided it was time to tell the kids about your mother, because they were //[[old enough to understand]]// now. You hated it. Every fiber of your being resisted it, because you knew this was exactly what would happen if she did.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
It wasn’t even her fault. They would have found out eventually, and it would have only felt worse because mature minds make bigger problems, ask bigger questions. They see deeper. They connect the dots. You know that now, but [[you didn’t back then]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[You really just wish everything could pause for a moment.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The thought is barely-born, flimsy and more sensation than language, but the memory freezes. The lights (text-style:"fidget")[flicker] still, but they don’t breathe, [[don’t speak any further]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You breathe out a wet sigh, scrubbing your hands over your face. It’s always been a sore spot for you. Nobody could ever blame you — who could feel happy enough to celebrate their birthday on the very day the most important person in their life was taken from them? But as the years dragged on, it felt more and more like a sin than a pity. Celebrating would be to give praise to //[[you]]//, the one who robbed the world of your mother.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[Reminisce.->rem3]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You smell burning paper, smoke curling up around your face from one of the photo frames in the hallway. It’s a generic store-bought print of a lush waterfall, one that you’ve never given more than half a thought to. Not when you bought it, not when you passed it day after day. As the (text-colour:#c92a2a)[paper] chars and curls up into brown-black fragments edged with grey ash, you can see [[movement]] in the space left behind.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"blur")[The [[image]] is grainy, like it came from a cheap CCTV camera. It’s you. You’re sitting on the edge of your queen sized bed while your wife sleeps behind you. The only movement is the quaking of your shoulders as you weep into your hands.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"blur")[You don’t need to see or hear anything more to know what day this was. You had woken up with [[an epiphany]], one that would follow you for the rest of your life.]
</div>
</div>
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You thought.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "Every birthday marks a year closer to being with Ma.";
var speed = 150; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-colour:#faa2c1)[Sickly-sweet comfort] curls around your ribs, climbs down your throat and settles into your stomach the same way it did when you woke up that morning. You didn’t cry out of sadness or relief or happiness. Ma would always be closer to you with every year, day, and hour that passed. But it was that day, in the stillness of the early sunrise, that you knew [[you could never tell a soul]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
//Living so you could die.// That’s what you know your wife would have said. Just as happiness only exists besides sorrow, anger, jealousy, and everything in between. You only live because it implies death, and with death comes a reunion that nobody but you will understand.(click: "nobody but you will understand.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[You cried because you were alone.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The thought burns bitter at the back of your mind as you glance back at your family in the dining room. All of this struggle and repetition and going around and around, all it has left you is a deep, sinking emptiness.(click: "deep, sinking emptiness.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[Their pity only makes it worse.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[What’s done is done.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
It slips past with no resistance. [[The scene continues.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You turn away before your voice shatters the silence.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "“We were thinking it would be a nice idea to take the kids to visit your Ma’s grave. Maybe it’s not the best way to spend a birthday, but it doesn’t have to be today. It’s all part of your life, and we want to celebrate her life together with you.”";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
If only you had stayed silent. [[It flashes through your mind for a second]] — the faces of your wife and kids as years of frustration and guilt and grief pour through, jagged and brittle.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
This isn’t life.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ None of this is.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ You deserved better than me.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ You deserved someone who would love you more than his purpose, than his mother, than himself.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ You deserve better than me.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[ [[You close your eyes and will back your tears.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:#e8590c)[Light]] blooms through your eyelids, reddish orange like the bloom of a flame before the intensity crests and consumes like a supernova. [[Oblivion.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Maybe all roads lead to the same ultimate end. And that’s a more wretched kind of hell than you could ever have imagined.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "You spent so long wallowing in your selfishness that you gave nothing to the people who thought of you as their world. How could you call that a life, thinking about your holy purpose while throwing the scraps to the people who loved you? You’re still a coward. You’re still a failure. And they will never know, but you have doomed them and they have no choice but to live with your mistakes.";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You walk back out into the living room to escape from the sound of your own voice.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ It sits on the coffee table, attached to your old keychain.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ Your house key.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ [[The final key.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You scoop it into your pocket and nudge the front door open.(click: "You scoop it into your pocket and nudge the front door open.")[(show:?more_text1)]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/FnmBqRn.png" alt="Description" width="150">
|more_text1)[ [[It’s almost time]].] ]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[You step forward, and you don’t look back.->Key Message Final]]]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'house7-track', 'stop')
(track: 'town-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'town-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[(text-style:"underline")[The Lighthouse]]]
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[You feel it… youth, not simply returning, but roaring to life.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The stiffness in your limbs fades, the aches dissolve into nothingness, and suddenly you can move again (truly move, like you used to). Your hearing sharpens to clarity, the dull murmur of age replaced by vivid sound. Even your wrinkles seem to smoothen, your skin tightening with purpose, as though [[time itself has bent to your will]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[Run.(click: "Run.")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Run.](click: "Run.")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Run faster.](click: "Run faster.")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[ [ [[Faster.]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You are no longer bound by the fragility of your body, you are becoming what you were meant to be.(click: "You are no longer bound by the fragility of your body, you are becoming what you were meant to be.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ But with every step, a heavy realization presses into your chest: you’ve wasted too much time.] (click: "But with every step, a heavy realization presses into your chest: you’ve wasted too much time.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ The bells have begun to toll.](click: "The bells have begun to toll.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ Above you, the sky fractures – the Sun and Moon now share the heavens, a cosmic warning that the end draws near.] (click: "Above you, the sky fractures – the Sun and Moon now share the heavens, a cosmic warning that the end draws near.")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ Night is approaching. And with it, He will arrive.](click: "Night is approaching. And with it, He will arrive.")[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[ But if you’re not there to meet Him, if Ecnanep is not found in time, He will be lost, and with Him, the last chance to lead the town towards [[divine glory]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/HzYCfra.png" width="600">]You reach the (text-style:"expand","flat")[bridge]: long, rusted, stretching out across the void towards the lighthouse like the spine of some ancient beast. You place your foot on it. It creaks ominously while (text-style:"sway")[trembling] with a deep, metallic hum that resonates through your bones. It rocks slightly beneath you, shuddering under its own weight, yet it holds. It persists. And in that moment, you felt a strange kinship with the bridge – [[you too, have been pushed to your limits and yet you remain unbroken]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[You persist.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
With arms outstretched for balance, you begin the crossing.(click: "With arms outstretched for balance, you begin the crossing.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Each step is deliberate, heavy with the knowledge that you cannot fall now.] (click: "Each step is deliberate, heavy with the knowledge that you cannot fall now.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ Not when you’ve come so far.](click: " Not when you’ve come so far.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ Not when everything depends on what lies ahead.] (click: "Not when everything depends on what lies ahead.")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ You whisper the words to yourself, a mantra forged from desperation and will:](click: "You whisper the words to yourself, a mantra forged from desperation and will:")[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[ [[You did not come this far to only come this far.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Then it begins – the chanting.(click: "Then it begins – the chanting.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Faint at first, distant, echoing from within the lighthouse.] (click: "Faint at first, distant, echoing from within the lighthouse.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ You don’t recognize the language.](click: "You don’t recognize the language.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ The syllables twist and curl in your ears, utterly foreign, and yet something about them feels wrong, deeply and instinctively wrong.] (click: "The syllables twist and curl in your ears, utterly foreign, and yet something about them feels wrong, deeply and instinctively wrong.")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ The tone is off. The rhythm is unnatural. Sacrilegious, even.](click: "The tone is off. The rhythm is unnatural. Sacrilegious, even.")[(show:?more_text5)]|more_text5)[ And yet, the sound pulls you in like gravity. You feel it tugging at the base of your skull, [[luring you forward, closer, closer still.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Is this the temptation warned of in the (text-style:"double-strike","blurrier")[R̵͓̲͓̝͕͓̖̪̤̻̠̼̗̙̤̟̀̆̾E̵̼̰͐̈͆͐̀D̸͈͖̤̩͇̜̹̹̯̳̽̾̄̉͋͛̈́͒͗͗̏̓̓̐͗͝͝Ä̴̢̢̨̢̲̘̦͖͔̖͙̙̝̩̦̟́̊͜͝Ç̶̨̜̳̺̩̖̠̻̳̾̾̊̀̌́̿͑̈́̆́̽̆̅̓͐̚T̶̛͍͎̪̬̳̣̗̺͙͋̓͊́̿̈́̇̎̃̕͝E̸̢̡̧̨̨̛͔̟͔̙̗͚̲͙̣̲̘̲̔̅́͊̽́̇̏̊̂̃̊̆͛͘̕ͅḎ̸̨̘̜̤̖̙̦͙̂̅̎́̉̉̿͐̑̌̽͋͗͒̅͆͘͝͠͠ͅ]? The chanting grows louder, and now it no longer sounds like strangers but a convergence of voices, layered upon one another in hideous harmony. Voices that feel familiar. Voices you once knew. Once loved. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[(text-colour:red)[(text-rotate-z:339)[(css:"font-size: 3em")[[REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[''Well well well, my boy! Oh or should I say, distinguished sir? Oh! Seems not! You don’t look a day older than when we first met!'']](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Why if it isn’t the voice that you had almost forgotten. PA system man. Still no name. Still omnipresent. Still amused.](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
(text-style:"shudder")[''|more_text2)[(css:"font-size: 1.5em")[Go on, then. Finish what you were always meant to do.]]''](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[The voice floats across the wasteland, dissolving into the crash of the waves against the base of the lighthouse. As your gaze skims across the shoreline, a single point pulls you in, as if by some unstoppable force — the lighthouse door, wrapped with heavy iron bands, and studded with [[seven locks]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[This is it. Everything you have worked for all these years has led you to this point. Freedom. (text-style:"italic")[ [[Salvation.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You step forward as if in a trance, your (text-style:"fade-in-out")[(text-colour:red)[heartbeat]] pounding in your ears loud enough to drown out the roar of the ocean waves, until you finally stand before the lighthouse door. The chanting is louder now, seeping through the cracks in the wood and (text-style:"shudder")[rumbling] through [[your chest]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You lift the first key, trying to match it to the right lock, but it tugs at your fingers as if magnetized. Your hand follows, and the key snaps into the correct keyhole. It turns on its own. All that was needed was for you to bring it home.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[//[[Click.->Use keys]]//]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
[[Insert keys into: Lock 2]]
~~Lock 3
Lock 4
Lock 5
Lock 6
Lock 7~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Use keys?
[[>> Yes.->Click.]]
~~>> No.~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
Lock 2 (Unlocked)
[[Insert keys into: Lock 3]]
~~Lock 4
Lock 5
Lock 6
Lock 7~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
Lock 2 (Unlocked)
Lock 3 (Unlocked)
[[Insert keys into: Lock 4]]
~~Lock 5
Lock 6
Lock 7~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
Lock 2 (Unlocked)
Lock 3 (Unlocked)
Lock 4 (Unlocked)
[[Insert keys into: Lock 5]]
~~Lock 6
Lock 7~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
Lock 2 (Unlocked)
Lock 3 (Unlocked)
Lock 4 (Unlocked)
Lock 5 (Unlocked)
[[Insert keys into: Lock 6]]
~~Lock 7~~]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ Unlock:
Lock 2 (Unlocked)
Lock 3 (Unlocked)
Lock 4 (Unlocked)
Lock 5 (Unlocked)
Lock 6 (Unlocked)
[[Insert keys into: Lock 7]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
When the final lock falls to the ground, the door shudders and slams open, giving you barely enough time to step back before it shoots towards your face in a cloud of dust, rusty specks, and rotting splinters.(click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Through the debris, you can see a group of [[cloaked figures]] standing in a circle, chanting in the ancient language you heard across the bridge.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The second that they see you through the door, their chanting ceases. Musty air swirls around you as the figures closest to the door part in implicit invitation. You [[step into the circle]], (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:red)[heart]] pounding in anticipation.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
There is nothing within the brick walls of the lighthouse. No staircase, no ladder, only dusty whitewashed walls and the hooded individuals. Their eyes are hidden from view, but with every step, you can feel their gazes fixed upon you with simmering intent. [[There is no leaving now.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
As you step closer, you begin to see glimpses of faces you recognize.(click: "As you step closer, you begin to see glimpses of faces you recognize.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Your son and daughter stand by either side of the door, closing the gap as you step into the centre of the circle.](click: "Your son and daughter stand by either side of the door, closing the gap as you step into the centre of the circle.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ Your wife is there, too, blank-faced and silent. ](click: "Your wife is there, too, blank-faced and silent.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ Across the room, Moneta smiles at you, not with the joy of reunion, but quiet [[foreknowledge]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Beside Moneta stands another woman, the lines of her face worn with time.(click: "Beside Moneta stands another woman, the lines of her face worn with time.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Your heart jumps in your chest.] (click: "Your heart jumps in your chest.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ You had just seen her not too long ago.](click: "You had just seen her not too long ago.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ You don’t need to ask to know that this is [[your mother]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[“My son, it is time.”]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Before you can open your mouth to say anything, your loved ones join hands and begin to chant again with renewed purpose. Their voices bounce off the walls of the lighthouse, ringing painfully in your ears, and you feel a strange pull upon your arms, then legs, as if (text-style:"buoy")[ [[the hold of gravity was released from your limbs]]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Terror shoots down your spine as you are
(text-style:"buoy")[suspended in midair, ]
floating higher and higher up the lighthouse as the voices below carry you to your final destination.
Of all the things that have happened throughout your journey, somehow it scares you the most, being offered up for the final stage of your journey, not knowing what will meet you at [[the end]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
As the daylight grows brighter toward the top of the lighthouse, [[one final shout]] rings out.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"shudder")[(css:"font-size: 3em")[''WATT, YOU WILL SAVE US ALL!'']](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[The (text-style:"smear","fade-in-out")[(text-colour:white)[ [[white light]]]] blooms and flares, consuming your vision until you squeeze your eyes from the pain.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/UpCneEb.png" width="600">]When you finally crack your eyelids open again, you find yourself on the grimy catwalk before a giant lightbulb, surrounded on all sides by thick, salt-sprayed glass. A single metal control panel stands beside you, bearing a computer screen and a single red button. You swipe away the sticky dust and cobwebs from the screen, your hands trembling in nervous anticipation.
[[>> Flip open the plastic lid of the metal control panel]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/TATANmS.png" width="600">
[[>> Press the button]]
[[>> Don't press the button]]]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'town-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[You place your palm over the button, and with a deep breath, you slam it home. The monitor flickers to light, booting with a screen that reads
(text-style:"fade-in-out")[(text-colour:#087f5b)[(css:"font-size: 2.5em")[''ECNANEP RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGIES'']]]
The logo takes form — a floating island suspended in a lightbulb — and then blinks into darkness. You don’t know why, but you cannot bring yourself to feel excited in completing your ultimate goal. Though your journey is complete, nothing is less opaque to you than it was before. In fact, you have more questions than answers, more regrets than pride. [[But what is done is done.]]]
</div>
</div>
{
(track: 'town-track', 'stop')
(track: 'house7-track', 'loop', true)
(track: 'house7-track', 'playwhenpossible')
}
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your hand hovers over the button. You just can’t bring yourself to do it. Somehow, after all these years of sacrifice, of keeping your eyes glued to the horizon for a greater purpose while the simple things of life pottered away at your feet, you //[[hesitate]]//.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter" style="color: #087f5b;"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Loading...]]</span>
<script>
var text = `Booting…
Initiate system startup procedures.
Electrical grid online and stable.
PA System online.
Launch systems ready, awaiting confirmation.
Network: Stable. Nodes Deva, At-Tur, and Styx offline.
Attempting to reconnect…
Connection failed.
Attempting manual override…
Logging in user WATT
7/7 keys verified.`;
var lines = text.split('\n'); // Split text into lines
var speed = 1000; // milliseconds per line (change as you like)
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < lines.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += lines[i] + "<br>";
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You clench and unclench your sweaty hands as the green text flicks across the screen until at last, it blinks into darkness and a single line appears in the centre of the screen.
<span id="typewriter" style="color: #087f5b;"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Agree to override program?]]</span>
<script>
var text = `Awaiting confirmation: manual override.`;
var lines = text.split('\n'); // Split text into lines
var speed = 1000; // milliseconds per line (change as you like)
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < lines.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += lines[i] + "<br>";
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your hand hovers over the button for a second, before (text-style:"flat")[(text-colour:red)[pressing down]]. This is it. It’s done. You can hear the buzz of the wires and electronics rising from deep slumber as, at last, the great filaments of the (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:yellow)[(css:"font-size: 2.5em")[giant lightbulb] ]]before you begin to glow a bright, warm yellow. Text flashes across the monitor too fast to read, the cold green drowned out with ease by the [[rays of the lighthouse]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
But it doesn’t matter. It no longer interests you. [[Your job is done.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You breathe a deep sigh of relief, your body lighter than even its youngest years as the tension seeps out of your muscles. It must have weighed on you more heavily than you thought it had, like being thrown a mortar that refuses to explode and watching, //waiting//, to [[see if the end would come]].
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
All you want now is to see your loved ones again. The ones that have been with you through everything, the ones you’ve sacrificed everything for— you can finally join them in your newfound freedom and joy. You’ve given up far too much just to save them. Now, you will finally be able to give them everything they deserve and make up for lost time. You know where it all went wrong. [[You know how to change things for the better.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Before you can turn to find your way back down,
(text-style:"emboss","shudder")[ [[the ground begins to shake.]]]
Jumping to your feet, you dash to the edge of the catwalk, searching through the windows which surround you for any sign of what could possibly have caused the tremors.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Ice floods your veins. The gentle ocean waves are disrupted by a (text-colour:#f76707)[(css:"font-size: 2.5em")[growing bubble of air and fire]], rising from the seabed like an ancient sea monster. The ocean parts without complaint, swallowing the rocks that dot the coastline in a rush of deep blue-green, and led by a (text-style:"smear")[(text-colour:#f1f3f5)[silvery halo of (text-style:"rumble")[ [[shockwave]]]. ]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
It is strangely silent, aside from the rattling of the (text-style:"sway")[catwalk]. You stare, blinking numbly. This doesn’t look like salvation. It certainly doesn’t feel like it. [[And it is so much bigger than you could have ever imagined it would be.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That is your final thought before the shockwave hits the lighthouse.(click: "That is your final thought before the shockwave hits the lighthouse.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ An invisible wall slams into your chest, knocking you back into the base of the lightbulb before you are showered with a hail of broken glass.] (click: "An invisible wall slams into your chest, knocking you back into the base of the lightbulb before you are showered with a hail of broken glass.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ (text-style:"blur")[Pain floods your vision with stars, invading the space within your skull and pushing out any coherent thoughts.]](click: "Pain floods your vision with stars, invading the space within your skull and pushing out any coherent thoughts.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ It’s too big for you to ask which part of your body it comes from, so big that it bleeds from the(text-style:"blur")[(text-colour:red)[ gashes plugged by glass shards, dripping down your hair and fingers and lips, wrapping your broken body with a shadow of the warmth that the [[ocean]] now roils with.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[And oh, does it churn.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8lDNlyd.png" width="600">]You can see it now — the tiny mushroom cloud that grows second by second, swallowing everything in its way with silent determination.
As the lighthouse shakes with a horrifying crunch, you close your eyes and take in the gust of air that continues to rush in from the broken windows.
You can feel every brick give way, every bump of the catwalk as the (text-style:"rumble")[ [[lighthouse]]] disintegrates from the blast in slow-motion.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You wonder if your children are scared.(click: "You wonder if your children are scared.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Is your wife shielding them, while crying your name to make sure you are safe, too?] (click: "Is your wife shielding them, while crying your name to make sure you are safe, too?")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ (text-style:"blur")[Is she safe, or will she spend her last moments in a panic, wailing in pain and horror and fear?]](click: "Is she safe, or will she spend her last moments in a panic, wailing in pain and horror and fear?")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ Is your mother watching?](click: "Is your mother watching?")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ Does she cry for you?](click: "Does she cry for you?")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[ [[Do they think you failed them?]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[Watt was stolen from them, and this is what was given in return.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You think of them as the world shatters, images and sensation and feeling shoved into the world’s thickest flipbook for ''Him'' to turn the pages. (click: "Him")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Would it matter now to think about if things could have been different?] (click: "Would it matter now to think about if things could have been different?")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[If you had pulled back the curtain, would you have seen a false god?](click: "If you had pulled back the curtain, would you have seen a false god?")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[Would it be like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, a man puppeting a machine? ](click: "Would it be like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, a man puppeting a machine?")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[Or would an incomprehensible being have shown itself to you instead and [[killed you with the sheer magnitude of its existence]]?]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Was there any other ending but this? (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Or a simpler solution?] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[A method to have your cake and eat it too?](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[Would it matter?](click: ?page)[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[Maybe it wouldn’t change the end, but it would matter to you, and everyone you turned away from when you turned your eyes to ''[[Him]]''.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your flipbook would be thicker, your sadness heavier in your chest, perhaps. But would your joy be anything but full and unburdened? [[You think not.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You just hope you get to see Ma on the other side.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "What a waste, you think, that it took the end of your life to learn how to lead a better existence.";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
As you tumble through the air, you hear a louder crack. (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[It shoots another dart of fear into your neck, and your eyes snap back to the windows.] (click: ?page)[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[The lines shoot down to the horizon and reach up [[as far as the eye can see]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
He is silent, as His world falls apart. (click: "He is silent, as His world falls apart.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[But your mind is alive, ticking and scrambling to comprehend the mysteries of the shattered sky second by second,] (click: "But your mind is alive, ticking and scrambling to comprehend the mysteries of the shattered sky second by second,")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[until you boil](click: "until you boil")[(show:?more_text3)]
|more_text3)[and burn](click: "and burn")[(show:?more_text4)]
|more_text4)[and bleed away](click: "and bleed away")[(show:?more_text5)]
|more_text5)[into](click: "into")[(show:?more_text6)]
|more_text6)[ [[nothing->THE END1]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Why? (click: "Why?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[Why won’t you do it?] (click: "Why won’t you do it?")[(show:?more_text2)]
|more_text2)[Your life is wasted now. All you needed to do was this [[one thing]].]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You’re not sure what lies ahead. Maybe that’s what it is. You cannot have absolute certainty that whatever this button does will make you whole. With a sad, cruel, little chuckle, you wonder if there would truly be any difference if you died right now and did nothing. [[Surely, you will die anyway.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You stare at (text-style:"mirror")[[[your reflection->reflection]]] in the curved glass of the lightbulb.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your face, stretched across the bulb, stares back. You can see yourself — [[your true self]] — rising to the surface again, wrinkles and liver spots, skin tags and all.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(text-style:"fade-in-out")[Breathe in (click: "Breathe in")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[and out.]]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You study your irises, (text-colour:purple)[purpling] around the edges. Your lips, curled over worn teeth. Running a hand through your hair, you stroke the (text-colour:grey)[wiry grey hairs] that have taken over and massage the bald patch at the back of your scalp.
[[And perhaps for the last time in your life, you want.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You have so many desires.// Had// so many. The emotions from watching the memories in the last house are fresh in your mind — so, so many regrets, but the somber knowledge that even if you had [[released yourself from your ultimate purpose]], maybe things wouldn’t have been so different.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
But you know better than anyone else, life only shines in the shadow of death. Happiness and sorrow are sisters with their hands linked, bickering to the ends of the earth, but always together. No obligation, no bitterness, only the knowledge that [[this is the way they are, and the way they will always be.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/dq97EAr.png" width="600">]You (text-style:"sway")[wobble] your way over to a door set in the side of the lighthouse and out onto the balcony. The (text-colour:orange)[sun] has settled against the horizon, kissing the sea and painting the clouds in peachy tones. Past the clouds, you can see the Milky Way stretched far above and into the distance like a child’s connect-the-dots puzzle, a [[perfectly imperfect matrix]] of dying stars, lightyears away.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You smile. It may be too late in anyone else’s eyes, but it’s the perfect time for you to [[welcome this epiphany]]: it’s enough, just being present. Being conscious and bright, too loud and too brash, too silent and wrong and confused and angry and soft— all of it is precious, if you would only look to see it. It doesn’t have to make sense to have value. Not to you.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You think back to your neighbour at work and the divide between the two of you. One demanding rationality, the other given in to its polar opposite. Perhaps [[happiness exists somewhere in between]], conscious and fluid. To throw your hands in the air and shut your mouth would be as good as death.
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your feet itch as you stand by the railing. You can see it now, budding and blossoming at the edge of the horizon. The (text-colour:#ffc078)[peachy, golden glow] is spreading, not as sunset, but as something brighter and more beautiful. You step back, [[and-]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[you run.]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[You leap,]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ <img src="https://i.imgur.com/YnmE4Vq.png" width="600">
[[and fly off the balcony and out above the ocean.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You are at peace.(click: "You are at peace.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ High above, you can see (text-colour:#ffe066)[golden meteors] streaking across the sky as the stars melt into a sea of gold.] (click: "High above, you can see golden meteors streaking across the sky as the stars melt into a sea of gold.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[It’s a beautiful thing, being able to [[see the world this way]].]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
The waves reach up to cradle you as you sink beneath the surface.(click: "The waves reach up to cradle you as you sink beneath the surface.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ The stars rocket past you, [[diving into the depths]] and tossing you about like the bubbles that rush past your body.]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
This moment is for you.(click: "This moment is for you.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ It’s not a mercy killing.](click: "It’s not a mercy killing.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ [[It’s not a quick escape.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
<span id="typewriter"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[I’m sorry it’s taken me so long.]]</span>
<script>
var text = "Ma, I hope I’ll see you again.";
var speed = 50; // milliseconds per character
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < text.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += text.charAt(i);
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
// Reveal the Twine link (which Harlowe will process correctly)
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[No, not to find you.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[To find myself.->THE END2]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
//Is this [[love]]?// You wouldn’t know. Nobody ever taught you what it was supposed to feel like.
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
Your mother wasn’t there long enough and your father was far too busy. [[You grew up tracing outlines, never the whole picture.]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
So you made your own definition.(click: "So you made your own definition.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ To you, love has only ever been the sudden rush of strength when you think of someone,] (click: "To you, love has only ever been the sudden rush of strength when you think of someone,")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ the way your spine straightens,](click: "the way your spine straightens,")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ the way your breathing hastens.](click: "the way your breathing hastens.")[(show:?more_text4)]|more_text4)[ And if that’s all it takes… [[maybe this is it.]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[But why would you ever question it?]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You’d never stop a child mid-sentence and demand they prove their love for ice cream. You’d never tear apart their smile for evidence. [[Why, then, do you doubt yourself when you say you love someone?]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[The thought lingers, stubborn as gum in your shoe.]]
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<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
You knew, from the moment you walked in, that you could trust her. You feel the pull, the compulsion to tell her everything. Your past, your plans, your failures, even the dreams you gave up on. [[It spills out of you in ways you can’t control.]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And she listens, as if each word you give her is a [[precious secret she’ll keep safe forever.]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
That’s when guilt sets in.(click: "That’s when guilt sets in.")[(show:?more_text1)]|more_text1)[ Because you haven’t really done anything for her.] (click: "Because you haven’t really done anything for her.")[(show:?more_text2)]|more_text2)[ You haven’t saved her, or given her a gift, or even promised her anything worth remembering.](click: "You haven’t saved her, or given her a gift, or even promised her anything worth remembering.")[(show:?more_text3)]|more_text3)[ [[You’re just here,]] awkward and unsure, fumbling your way through a conversation you were originally going to half-ass.]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[Yet she looks at you like you’re the brightest thing in the room.]]
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</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
And that warmth in your chest?(click: "And that warmth in your chest?")[(show:?more_text1)]
|more_text1)[ [[It only deepens.->spent more time]]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-colour:red)[Congratulations on making it this far.
You’ve obtained Key #6.]
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/XncijdG.png" alt="Description" width="150">
//You may now proceed onto the [[next room->House 7 Start]].//]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content"><span id="typewriter" style="color: #087f5b;"></span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[You may proceed on to the lighthouse.->Lighthouse Start]]</span>
<script>
var text = `Final key obtained...
Commencing final sequence...
Congratulations you have successfully r̴̼̻̥̣̹͉̙̦͓̤̻̝͑̾́̀̓͑͋̅̚͠͝ḙ̷̡̛̜̭̘̀͊̈́́̆͘c̶̙̜̰͈͙͙̰̩̣̘̟̝̣̳̦̻͕̩̝̹̃͊̄̉͆̌̔͛́̕̚͝a̶̢̰͉̫͕͉̺̱͎͖͓̗̎́̅̿͐̑̈̚̕͜l̴̢̨͇̲̳̝̭͉͚͍͉̹̭̺͈̏́͊̚͠͠͝ļ̶̢͔̯̫̩̲͖̗̥̋̆̐́͗̽̊̒̚͠e̶̡̛͍͖̱̝̦͔̟̝͓̺̗̼͍̯̓̈̈́̿̈́̀͐̃̓̿̅̀̓͠d̷̟̯͇͓͙̀̓͑̏.̷̨̡̛̙̬̩̜̰͈̪͔̳͇̝͔̹̺͍̍͊̔̓̈́̏̒̋̕͘ͅ...
Y̸o̷u̵ ̸h̵a̷v̷e̷â̷̗̣t̶̡̢̹̦̓t̸͈̓͝ą̴̼̻͙̈̈́̔̄ì̴̛̺͘ǹ̷̹̞̼͕e̶̞̞̽͆d̴̼̠͔̅̂̾̀ ̸̟͓̠̦̆̈́̋K̴̙̟̹̿͒̾͘͠e̵̡͚̍̂̒y̷͔̦͛̅̕ ̸̼͇͔́̚͝͠͝#̸̩͚͌͐͠͝7̵̢͊́̉̊͘.̵͇̼͕̮̹̓́̎̿. `;
var lines = text.split('\n'); // Split text into lines
var speed = 3000; // milliseconds per line (change as you like)
var i = 0;
function typeWriter() {
if (i < lines.length) {
document.getElementById("typewriter").innerHTML += lines[i] + "<br>";
i++;
setTimeout(typeWriter, speed);
} else {
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
}
typeWriter();
</script>
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
[[One last adventure — up into the sky, down into the depths, and beyond the final frontier of this life.]]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center; justify-content: center; min-height: 60vh; text-align: center;">
<span id="climb-btn" style="color:#087f5b; cursor:pointer; text-decoration:underline; font-size:1.2em;">Keep clicking, keep climbing!</span>
<span id="nextlink" style="display:none;"><br>[[Don't stop!->Climb1]]</span>
<script>
let climbClicks = 0;
let phase = 1;
let baseFontSize = 1.2; // em
const climbBtn = document.getElementById("climb-btn");
climbBtn.onclick = function() {
climbClicks++;
// Increase font size with each click, up to a limit
let newFontSize = baseFontSize + (climbClicks * 0.03); // grows by 0.03em per click
climbBtn.style.fontSize = newFontSize + "em";
if (phase === 1 && climbClicks >= 30) {
climbBtn.textContent = "Keep climbing!";
phase = 2;
climbClicks = 0;
baseFontSize = 1.2;
climbBtn.style.fontSize = baseFontSize + "em"; // reset size for next phase
} else if (phase === 2 && climbClicks >= 20) {
climbBtn.style.display = "none";
document.getElementById("nextlink").style.display = "";
}
};
</script>
</div>
</div>(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<img src="https://i.imgur.com/IfOTZ6z.png" alt="Description" width="600">
[[START->Beginning]]
[[INSTRUCTIONS (please read ๑>•̀๑)]]
[[CREDITS]]]<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"underline")[''Gameplay'']
There are [[colored texts]] scattered all over the passages. Try clicking on them to progress the story.
Don't see any? The colored texts don't lead you anywhere? Try clicking the page background instead.
Good luck, and rewards will find the best of laborers.
(text-style:"underline")[''Display Viewport'']
We recommend adjusting the display of the game for smaller screens.
Navigate to the "⋮" at the top right corner of your screen, find the 'Zoom' setting of your browser, and zoom out all the way until the paper looks like so:
<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hsGjX99.png" alt="Description" width="600">
P.S. For the best experience, we recommend playing with the music turned on.
Thank you for reading through the insructions, we wish you all the best in your adventure!
[[Return to menu page->MENU]]
]
</div>
</div>
<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"underline")[''CREDITS'']
''JOAN WU''
Director, Producer, Programmer, Writer, Story
''CES''
Co-Director, Writer, Story
''HUMIKUN''
Art Director, Artist
''JADE''
Music Director, Composer
''MATTHEW''
Composer
''SAMMIE''
Composer
''ABDULLAH KHAN''
Game Tester
[[Return to menu page. ->MENU]]
]
</div>
</div>(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[That's the spirit! Rewards will find the best of laborers!
[[Return to menu page.->INSTRUCTIONS (please read ๑>•̀๑)]]]<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[(text-style:"underline")[''CREDITS'']
''JOAN WU''
Director, Producer, Programmer, Writer, Story
''CES''
Co-Director, Writer, Story
''HUMIKUN''
Art Director, Artist
''JADE''
Music Director, Composer
''MATTHEW''
Composer
''SAMMIE''
Composer
''ABDULLAH KHAN''
Game Tester
(text-style:"fade-in-out")[[[Play again?->MENU]]]
]
</div>
</div><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pqK3rBi.png" width="800">
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[//[[Commit it to memory.->PA]]//]☼︎♏︎⧫︎◆︎❒︎■︎ ♋︎●︎●︎ ♏︎❖︎♓︎●︎ ♏︎⍓︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♍︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎ ◆︎◻︎□︎■︎ ❍︎♏︎📪︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ⧫︎♏︎♋︎❍︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ◻︎❒︎□︎🙰♏︎♍︎⧫︎ ♌︎♋︎♍︎🙵 ⧫︎□︎ ⬧︎♏︎■︎♎︎♏︎❒︎start-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/Start.mp3
town-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/TOWN.mp3
house1-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/time+up.mp3
house2-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%202%20GameM3.wav
house3-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%203%20M3.wav
house4-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/WaTT_settled_cym.mp3
house5-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%205%20Game%20M3.wav
house6-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%206.wav
house6sand-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%208.wav
house7-track: https://github.com/spksoldier/watt_audio/raw/refs/heads/main/House%207demo.mp3<div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
{
(track: 'house6sand-track', 'stop')
}
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[The end.]]]
</div>
</div><div class="paper-bg">
<div class="paper-content">
{
(track: 'house7-track', 'stop')
}
(align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[ [[The end.]]]
</div>
</div>