<<set $object="null">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Cheap Brines </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA line of cheap brines sits on a shelf. You see:\n\n<<if $havevinegar eq "no">>\n[[An appealing tub of rice vinegar|Rice Vinegar Grab]]\n<html></html>\n<<endif>>[[A murky jar of saline|Saline Grab]]<<if $havepickling eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[A small jar for pickling|Pickling Grab]]<<endif>><<if $havemarinade eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[An aromatic extra-wide jar of marinade.|Marinade Grab]] <<endif>>\n\n[[Back|Bonnets and Brines]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $cobwebscleared="search">><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mound of Boxes</span></div></html>\nThe mountainous pile before you contains many boxes of sandals but none of the kind your customer is looking for.\n\nSeparate from the rest, an [[open shoe box|Stock Room Open Shoe Box]] rests at your feet.\n\n[[Wait a moment.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Wait Intro]]\n\n<<if $havebedazzled eq "no">>[[Take one of the decorated shoes.|Take Bedazzled Shoe]]<<else>>[[Swap out your decorated shoe for another one.|Take Bedazzled Shoe]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Leave the pile.|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe back of the [[soda machine|Mall Entrance Soda Machine]] has become something of a holy site for the local black ants.\n\nThem and [[a swarm of flies.|Mall Entrance 2]]\n
<html><style>#passages {background-color:#000000; width:700px; font:56px arial; margin-top:32px;} .passage {text-align:center;} a:link{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:visited{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:hover {color:#AAAAAA !important; text-decoration:none !important;}</style></html>\n[[June, 1995|Time Clock 1]]\n
<<set $havevinegar="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the jar [[in your handbag.|Brine Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $havebedazzled="left">>\nYou take the thong sandal, [[a left shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Hopefully this works better this time," your handler says and points the controller at your feet, causing your left foot to jump. Before he jogs back to the conference room, he <<if $gurglingticker gte 2>>wipes off your chin with his sleeve and [[smiles reassuringly.|Exam Room Sitting]]<<else>>pats you on the knee and [[smiles reassuringly.|Exam Room Sitting]]<<endif>>
<<set $object="dinosaurcostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Lacy Triceratops Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA bizarre triceratops headpiece fringed with delicate white lace slides into view, attached to a silky ballgown.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou jog then run down the loading bay. The only thing that stops you is the garage door, where the light pouring in from outside is radiant. You have an image in your mind of the rolling manuever you'd like to perform, but you instead end up kneeling down and slowly falling over. [[It works.|Part Three]]\n
<<set $object="officedoor2">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Sales Office Door </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA sign says, "Lower Level Sales Office."\n\n[[Open the door.|Stock Room Closed Door 2 Open]]\n\n[[Knock on the door.|Stock Room Closed Door 2 Knock]]\n\n[[Peer under the door.|Stock Room Closed Door 2 Peer]]\n\n[[Back|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nVandar leans around the corner to glance at you, and as you turn back to the pile, you see the shoe. How did you miss it? You breathe a sigh of relief.\n\n[[Take the shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Intro 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou open the door and peek inside. You could squeeze into the little cubby you find, but attempting an escape with your shoes activated [[seems foolhardy.|Blessed Office 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou jam yourself into the cubby and close the door behind you. A half dozen illuminated buttons are unlabeled except for one.\n\n[["Shoe Dept."|Elevator Ride]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Empty Office</span></div></html>\nYou're [[seated|Empty Office Standing Up]] in a hard chair next to an [[empty table|Empty Table]] in a room about the size and proportions of a prison cell. Across from you is a [[metal desk,|Empty Office Can't Reach]] and to the right is a [[gray door.|Empty Office Can't Reach]] High up in the corner is a rather new-looking security camera with multiple cables hanging unplugged.\n\nYou're wearing [[New Shoes.|New Shoes]] You must be. They've shaded themselves khaki to match your business casual pants, but there's still something strange about their appearance.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou rifle through the drawers. They're filled with ancient Braxxton's documents related to hot plate recalls and employee turnover rates. Near the bottom of a stack, you find a clean white sheet bearing the Sunrise letterhead (glowing brain, firm serif lettering). This page has been misplaced, or left behind, and was [[clearly taken from a longer handwritten narrative.|Desk Note]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe smiles, and you both hear Vandar swear.\n\n"I'm not making excuses!" he yells.\n\n[["OK."|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>He looks at your bulging jacket. "Would you mind emptying what's inside your coat?" he says.\n\nYou pull out the small collection of styling supplies and drop it on the counter.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>He smiles. "Look for the shampoo pyramid," he says and points. "They're just past it."\n\n[["Thanks."|Hair Treatments]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker lte 1>>"There's a great big display," he says and points, "just past the pyramid of shampoos."\n\n[["Thanks."|Hair Treatments]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You're not the only one."\n\n[["What do you mean?"|Heather Jumble Run 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Cheap Styling Supplies </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nHair styling implements hang from small pegs. You see:\n\n<<if $havecurlingiron eq "no">>\n[[A miniature curling iron|Curling Iron Grab]]\n<html></html>\n<<endif>>[[A broken comb|Comb Grab]]<<if $havepick eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[A large-toothed hair pick|Hair Pick Grab]]<<endif>><<if $havehairpins eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[A case containing hairpins|Hairpins Grab]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Back|Hair Treatments]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $usecup eq "no">>\nYou [[can't get close enough.|Waiting Room]]\n<<else>>\nYou grab the cell phone and phone book.\n\n[[Call your parents.|Dial Parents]]\n\n[[Call Yipp again.|YippTwo 1]]\n\n<<if $tried911 eq "no">>\n[[Dial 911.|Dial 9-1-1]]\n\n[[Back|Waiting Room]]\n<<else>>\n[[Back|Waiting Room]]\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>
<<set $examroom="yes">><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Examination Room</span></div></html>\nThis room is like a cross between the world's smallest shoe store and a doctor's office. Shelves are jammed with a rainbow of shoe styles and colors and a wide selection of nylon socks. To the side, a pair of movable mirrors and a [[table|Exam Room Table]] heaped with controllers add to the clutter.\n\nNearby, an extendable light angles down over an examination table.\n\n[[One door|Bustling Hallway]] leads to a busy hallway, and a [[second|Exam Room Locked Door]] to the Sunrise-requisitioned sector of the administrative wing.\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $shopperstate eq "busy">>\n"Begone!" the woman yells, and you [[step back.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n<<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "idle">>\nWith the woman distracted, you take a closer look.\n\nThe angular objects inside have seams and are marked with symbols that shimmer under the store's fluorescent lighting.\n\nThe cart has a [[handle|Shopper Cart Handle]] and [[two back wheels.|Shopper Back Wheels]]\n\n[[Back|Shopper Convo 2]]\n<<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "gone">>\nThe objects inside have seams and are marked with strange, shimmering symbols.\n\nThe cart has a [[handle|Shopper Cart Handle]] and [[two back wheels.|Shopper Back Wheels]]\n\n[[Back|Shopper Convo 2]]\n<<endif>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Cheap Fishing Supplies </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nFishing gear hangs from small pegs. You see:\n\n<<if $haveweight eq "no">>[[A large lead weight|Lead Weight Grab]]\n<html></html>\n<<endif>>[[A pockmarked bobber|Bobber Grab]]<<if $havelure eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[A minnow-sized lure|Minnow Lure Grab]]<<endif>><<if $havepliers eq "no">>\n<html></html>\n[[A pair of fishing pliers|Fishing Pliers Grab]] <<endif>>\n\n[[Back|Sporting Goods]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $havecoat eq "no">>\nYou wait in line, and when it's your turn, the main fruit cup guy points to your shirt. "You from Braxxton's?" he says. "We only serve Sunrise."\n\n[["Sorry."|Cafeteria]]\n<<else>>\n<<if $havefruit eq "yes" or $usecup eq "yes">>\nYou wait in line, but a worker [[waves you away.|Cafeteria]] "Six hours between servings," he says.\n<<else>>\n<<set $havefruit="yes">>You wait in line, and when it's your turn, a worker nods at your red sport coat and [[tosses you a fruit cup.|Cafeteria]]\n<<endif>><<endif>>\n
<<silently>>\n--\n<<set $object="null">>\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $shopperstate="busy">>\n<<set $shopperticker=0>>\n<<set $departmentintro="no">>\n<<set $vandarconvo="one">>\n<<set $heatherchase="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo1="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo2="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo3="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo4="no">>\n<<set $platformguyticker=0>>\n<<set $vandarphoneticker=0>>\n<<set $cobwebscleared="no">>\n<<set $jumblerun="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $jumblewait="no">>\n--\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n--\n<<endsilently>><html><div style="border-bottom:5px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou're 15 years old, and you would have liked to while away the summer floating along on a breeze of hyperviolent video games and imaginary sex, [[but your parents wouldn't hear of it.|Time Clock 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:5px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIts recent troubles with tremors (geological anomolies, they say) and power outages don't mean much to you or your parents. Not even when you land the big job: Sales Associate I at Braxxton's Department Store, the oldest, crappiest, most retro-futurist retailer in the Northeast, a place of bland blues and faded golds. It looks a bit like the old Starship Enterprise, if it [[had appeared in a Sears catalog.|Time Clock 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:5px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nWhy don't you apply at the mall, they said. It's so close. Your family's Tudor home and subdivision adjoin an area of sprawl and restaurants and stuff, including the Red River Mall, which is large, complex, and branching, and named after a nearby waterway. [[Anything to get your foot in the door.|Time Clock 3]]\n
<<set $object="time clock">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Important-Looking Slot </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nIt appears to have been designed for the insertion and sliding of a very thin card.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Break Room</span></div></html>\nYou fidgit nervously in your 97% polyester Braxxton's Dept. Store shirt, which is brown and white-collared and has chipped snaps in place of buttons. You wonder how many tens of Sales Associate I's have worn it.\n\nIt's <html><b>8<blink>:</blink>59</b></html>, T-minus one minute and counting to the beginning of your shift and the passing of everything fun and innocent about your childhood.<<timedcontinue 10s>>\n\nYou're still waiting.<<timedcontinue 5s>>\n\n<html><b>9<blink>:</blink>00</b></html> arrives. The time clock has an [[important-looking slot|Time Clock 5]] on its side, and a few of your fellow brown-shirted employees have gathered behind you in a line.<<timedcontinue 4s>>\n\n"Cherubic," someone mumbles.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $handlerticker=$handlerticker+1>><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Conference Room</span></div></html>\nYou're sitting in the corner, on a stool. <<if $gurglingticker eq 2>>And foaming a bit.<<endif>><<if $gurglingticker eq 3>>And foam is running down your chin.<<endif>><<if $gurglingticker eq 4>>And you're a mess.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $handlerticker eq 1>>"The verbal control routine is the last major piece of the puzzle," your handler says, "and as you can see, it's coming along nicely."\n\nA hand goes up. "How close is the biological matrix to pushing the 2.5 megabyte goal established after the last demonstration?"<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 2>>"Painfully close. The sub-dermis is now conducting upwards of 2.2 megabytes."\n\nA woman you remember from Employee Orientation raises her hand. "Being on the Braxxton's side of this project, I've seen so many of these benchmarks come and go in the past six months while receiving very little information as to how close we are to releasing an actual product. We put a model in stock, and two weeks later, you replace it."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 3>>"I understand," your handler says, "and we appreciate how accepting your staff has been of Sunrise's procedures related to secrecy."\n\n"I also need to ask," she continues, "if this project is in any way connected to a government agency. I know you've answered this question before."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 4>>The woman at the head of the table looks up. "Which agency would that be?" she says.\n\n"I suppose any department or agency."\n\n"Then perhaps the Red River Health Dept."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 5>>Your handler waves the controller at you, and you stand up.\n\n"We have a right to know," the Braxxton's employee says, "if anyone, including the federal government, is involved."\n\n"Sure," the other woman says. "The conspiracy goes straight to the top."<<endif>>\n\n<<if $handlerticker eq 5>>"Right this way," your handler says and pushes the [[door open.|Conference Room Leave]]<<else>>[[Listen.|Conference Room Stool]]\n\n[[Gurgle.|Conference Room Gurgle]]<<endif>>\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Do you sell these?" he asks the associate, who shakes his head.\n\nThe cop gives you a funny look and [[tosses you the controller.|Police 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe escorts you, uncuffed, through the Mattresses Dept. to the parking lot entrance, where several sunglass- and body armor-wearing guards are standing around with sidearms, looking very serious. The cop nods to them, and you duck your head, getting more excited with every step.\n\nWhen you flop into the back of the cop's squad car, you're almost in tears.\n\nYou reach down and [[switch off the shoes.|Police 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nOnce you're on the road, you tell the cop everything, about the secret underground manufacturing facility, the megalomaniacal shoe engineer, the pitiable drones in the loading bay, the complete subversion of the entire department store, the self-aware prototypes that stalk the Shoe Dept., the wild-eyed Sales Manager you beaned, the tribe of Clothing Dept. employees who subsist on carbohydrates against all odds, and the terrible mistake the local retail market [[has hopefully avoided making.|Police 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe ride to the Red River Police Dept. only takes about five minutes from the mall, but that's more than enough time for Lt. Noel Brooks to conclude that this, obviously, is a 10-96. And what a story he's telling. Noel turns the car around just as you're getting into the twisted dynamics of the Yipp family, and did you mention this was only your first day? The town slides by [[in a blur.|Hospital]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nAll you can tell is there's [[a light on inside.|Stock Room Closed Door]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe bats at your hand. "Please don't help yourself to any of her affection," he says. "I'm one of those Early Adopters who, after exposure to the first test build of the E Series Controller, suffered widespread neurological damage and now requires constant affection and reassurance."\n\n[["That's horrible."|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n\n[["You were injured?"|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe pats the dog on the head. "If you would stop and think for a moment, you'd probably realize that I'm one of those Early Adopters who tested the E Series Controller extensively and now requires a constant source of affection and reassurance." He scratches the dog's ear.\n\n[["I had no idea."|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n\n[["You were injured?"|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $havecoat eq "yes">>\n"Sure," he says and nods at your coat.<<else>>"More or less," he says.<<endif>> "But I'm flotsam. I was one of the last 'Early Adopters,' as they called us, to test the E Series Controller." He pats the dog on the head. "It zapped me bad, and now I require constant affection. I'm about to pet this poor dog bald."\n\n[["That's horrible."|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n\n[["You were injured?"|Cafeteria Man 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $tonguerealization eq "no">>\nYour hand won't go [[anywhere near the doorhandle.|Empty Office Door]]\n<<else>>\nYour right hand feels much stronger, but the doorhandle keeps [[slipping through your fingers.|Empty Office Door 2]]\n<<endif>>\n
<<set $conferenceticker=$conferenceticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nSeveral men and women, most of them wearing red Sunrise hoodies, sit hunched over the table. At its head is an older woman in a gray pantsuit who's taking notes with a mechanical pencil. Her hair obscures her face.\n\n<<if $conferenceticker lte 2>>\n[[Look at your handler.|Conference Room Look at Handler]]\n[[Turn around.|Conference Room Turn Around]]\n<<else>>\nYour handler twists a knob, and your legs hobble you over [[to a stool.|Conference Room Stool]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">High-Tech Office</span></div></html>\nA fair amount of money went into outfitting this place in a nautical theme. Behind the large, curving desk is a [[small door.|Blessed Office Small Door 3]]\n\nThe owner of this office is temporarily away.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">High-Tech Office</span></div></html>\nAn aquarium burbles next to a mounted captain's wheel and a rusted anchor. Man size computer towers flank a curving desk and a double-wide leather chair. Behind the desk is a [[small door,|Blessed Office Small Door]] as if for a dumbwaiter. \n\n"Well?" she says.\n\n[[Sit down.|Blessed Office Seated 1]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $blessedroom="yes">><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">High-Tech Office</span></div></html>\nAn aquarium burbles next to a mounted captain's wheel and a rusted anchor. Man-sized computer towers flank a curving desk and a double-wide leather chair. Behind the desk is a [[small door,|Blessed Office Small Door 2]] as if for a dumbwaiter. \n\nThe owner of this office is temporarily away.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou try with your hands and your opposite foot, but the New Shoes are [[firmly attached.|New Shoes]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Please wait here," the associate says and picks up a phone. "Hello, this is Braxxton's Department Store, and I would like to report an attempted theft."\n\nYou set down your <<if $makeover eq "oldman">>cane<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "dude">>motorcycle helmet<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "lady">>handbag<<endif>>.\n\n"Please take a seat," the associate says and points to a stool.\n\nWhen the Red River cop arrives some 45 minutes later, he searches you and finds the controller.\n\n[["That's mine," you say.|Police 2]]\n\n[["That's just a coaster I carry with me," you say.|Police 2.5]]\n
<<set $tried911="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt rings twice. "9-1-1," a woman says. "What's your emergency?"\n\n[["I'm being held against my will by a pair of mind- and body-controlling running shoes."|Dial 9-1-1 2]]\n\n[["Someone needs to send out an immediate warning nationwide about a diabolical new brand of footwear. This is not a test."|Dial 9-1-1 2]]\n\n[["Send all available units to Braxxton's Shoe Dept., and someone who can reverse engineer advanced technologies."|Dial 9-1-1 2]]\n\n[["A rogue element has taken over part of the Red River Mall, and they have the power of mind control."|Dial 9-1-1 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou straighten your sport coat and walk quickly down the loading bay. Nobody seems to notice you in the half-dark. In as casual a motion as you can make it, you roll under the door [[and into the light.|Part Three]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe puts whatever it is in her pocket.\n\n"I was just dizzy," you say. "I forgot to eat breakfast."\n\nHeather seems to buy it, and you [[ask to get on with the training.|Friday Outro 1]]\n
<<set $object="chefcostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Chef du Cereal Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA stringer of chrome cooking implements, all of them spoons, jingles into view, attached to a tin-foil chef's hat.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\n"No," she says, "and it's probably for the best."\n\n[[You try to stand.|Pass Out 6]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\n"I'll do it," she says and crosses her arms. "Vandar just stormed out of the department."\n\n[["Did the customer get his shoes?"|Pass Out 5]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHeather strolls up to the front counter and comes back carrying a small device, but it's [[too dark to tell what it is.|Pass Out 8]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nYou succeed and look back at the mound of shoe boxes. It's as you left it, minus the shoe-creature.\n\n"What happened?" Heather says.\n\n[[You feign confusion.|Pass Out 7]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\n"Why did you have that shoehorn in your pocket?"\n\n[["Um, I was going to put it back."|Pass Out 4]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<<set $haveshoehorn="no">><<set $havebedazzled="no">><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nYou're sitting on the floor.\n\n"Should I call 911?" Heather says, but you shake your head.\n\n[["I'm OK."|Pass Out 3]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
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<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"There was something I wanted to talk to you about," you say.\n\nHeather looks at you.\n\n[["Where are the lady's beach sandals?"|Heather Followup 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no" and $trainingconvo2 eq "no">>[["What exactly does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Heather Followup 1.1]]\n\n[["How long have you worked here?"|Heather Followup 2.1]]<<endif>><<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no" and $trainingconvo2 eq "yes">>[["What exactly does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Heather Followup 1.1]]<<endif>><<if $trainingconvo2 eq "no" and $trainingconvo4 eq "yes">>[["How long have you worked here?"|Heather Followup 2.1]]\n\n[["Remind me, what does Ken the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Heather Followup 1.2]]<<endif>><<if $trainingconvo2 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo4 eq "yes">>[["Remind me, what does Ken the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Heather Followup 1.2]]<<endif>>\n\n<<if $jumblerun eq "yes">>[["I just saw something strange in the stock room."|Heather Jumble Run]]<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe's of average height, and her gray hair is tied back with a purple ribbon. Her dark overalls have [[patches on the knees.|Lower Level Shopper 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Beach Sandals Section</span></div></html>\nA shelf holds all of the lady's Beach Sandals that the department sells, which isn't many. The [[customer|Sandals Customer]] who wants a style with blue butterflies around the toe straps is <<randomp 50 "attempting to stare casually into empty space." 50 "casually examining all of the other merchandise in the area.">>\n\nYou can find your way back to the [[front counter|Front Counter Room 2]] from here. That's where Heather has positioned herself.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe covers the phone. "Not now," he says.\n\n[[You nod.|Stock Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou hand off the controller to a long-haired Clothing employee who leads you over to a clothing rack and pulls out three different outfits. His colleague shows up to sprinkle the garments with accessories and other items and arrange them just so on a table for your review.\n\nAfter a few minutes, they say in unison, "Pick."\n\n[[Straw hat, pleated slacks, pinkish corsage, hickory cane|Makeover Old Man]]\n\n[[Leather jacket, crucifix earing, metal band t-shirt, motorcycle helmet|Makeover Dude]]\n\n[[Floral-patterned dress, cream bonnet, handbag, beaded necklace|Makeover Lady]]\n
<<silently>>\n\nPart One\n\n<<set $object="null">>\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $shopperstate="busy">>\n<<set $shopperticker=0>>\n<<set $departmentintro="no">>\n<<set $vandarconvo="four">>\n<<set $heatherchase="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo1="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo2="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo3="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo4="no">>\n<<set $platformguyticker=0>>\n<<set $vandarphoneticker=0>>\n<<set $cobwebscleared="no">>\n<<set $jumblerun="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $jumblewait="no">>\n\nPart Two\n\n<<set $emptyofficestanding="no">>\n<<set $tonguerealization="no">>\n<<set $handlerticker=0>>\n<<set $sentence1="null">>\n<<set $sentence2="null">>\n<<set $sentence3="null">>\n<<set $sentence4="null">>\n<<set $sentence5="null">>\n<<set $sentence6="null">>\n<<set $fullsentence="null">>\n<<set $conferenceticker=0>>\n<<set $gurglingticker=0>>\n<<set $doorticker=0>>\n<<set $crookfall="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $cafeteriatalk="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $usecup="no">>\n<<set $tried911="no">>\n<<set $triedyipp="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $examroom="no">>\n<<set $shoesdeactivate="no">>\n\nPart Three\n\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $blessedroom="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $makeover="lady">>\n<<set $theftticker=0>>\n<<set $lootuse="null">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n\nInventory\n\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n\n<<endsilently>>\n\n\n\n[[jump|Police]]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Lower Level</span></div></html>\nA walkway leads to the [[Shoe Dept.,|Lower Level Shopper]] located against the far wall.\n\nHundreds of racks of clothes form convoluted jungles of discounted merchandise. You'd start to explore but [[might get lost.|Lower Level Might Get Lost]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou head for the Shoe Department, but an [[old woman|Shopper Old Woman]] lurches in front of your path. "Blessed!" she says and releases her shopping cart's handle, which causes a plastic bag to slide into the crook of her arm with a terrible, clattering racket.\n\nThe shopping cart, which rolls to a stop, contains several [[gray, angular objects.|Shopper Square]]\n\n[["Do you need help?"|Shopper Help]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe looks at you quizzically.\n\nThe elevator rattles. Someone's right behind you.\n\nYou bolt for the [[front counter.|Sales Manager Encounter]]\n
<<set $object="new shoes">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">New Shoes </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThey're wrapped tightly around your feet, which feel perfectly ventilated and supported. The shoes' surface is tan-colored and covered with small bumps and ridges.\n\n[[Untie them.|New Shoes Untie]]\n\n[[Force them off.|New Shoes Force]]\n\n<<if $emptyofficestanding eq "no">>\n[[Back|Empty Office]]\n<<else>>\n[[Back|Empty Office Standing]]\n<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThey're [[square, oblong, all shapes, and studded with sharp angles.|Lower Level Shopper 2]]\n
<<set $fullsentence=$sentence1+" "+$sentence2+" "+$sentence3+" "+$sentence4>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nAnd action.\n\n"<<print $fullsentence>>"\n\n<<if $sentence1+$sentence2+$sentence3+$sentence4 eq "To this day,my motherstill picks outmy clothes.">>[[More words, more words.|Conference Room Speech 4]]<<else>>"C'mon," your handler whispers and [[fiddles with his controller.|Conference Room Speech 3]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $heatherchase eq "no">>You approach but [[back away|Stock Room]] when something dark scurries between your legs.\n<<else>>\nYou approach but [[back away|Stock Room]] when something dark scurries between your legs.\n\n"I hate those things," Heather says.<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"The government does a damn good job at being wrong most of the time," she says, "and that's not good enough for us. To most people aware of our existence, we're a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor. Nobody, really. Once the New Shoe goes public, we'll discard the Sunrise name and take on a new identity."\n\n[["Why are you tell me this?"|Bare Room Blessed 7.1]]\n\n[["Nonsense. We're sitting in Braxxton's crummy basement, and you're talking about a machine to end free society."|Bare Room Blessed 7.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Nobody but us. To most people aware of our existence, we're a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor. Once the New Shoe goes public, we'll discard the Sunrise name and take on a new identity."\n\n[["Why are you tell me this?"|Bare Room Blessed 7.1]]\n\n[["Nonsense. We're sitting in Braxxton's crummy basement, and you're talking about a machine to end free society."|Bare Room Blessed 7.2]]\n
<<set $shoesdeactivate="yes">><html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\nIt clicks into place. You wait.\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>\nNothing yet.\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>\nMaybe you felt something.\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>\nNo, no, false alarm.\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>\nWait, you did feel something. You feel like you're coming back together.\n<<timedcontinue 3.5s>>\nYour mind clears, and you [[stand up.|Exam Room]] Your legs feel stronger.\n
<<if $object eq "clowncostume" and $havecoat neq "yes">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You carefully </span></html>[[dislodge the sport coat|Use Crook]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A sturdy cane for corralling sheep. </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Careful where you point that. </span></html>\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>
<<set $havehairpins="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the case [[in your jacket pocket.|Styling Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n[[You curse rather loudly|Empty Office Standing]] and turn away from the door.\n\nThe [[doorhandle|Empty Office Door Hands Up 2]] is now behind you.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Hello?" a voice says. It's her.\n\n[["Hello, I'm the employee from Braxxton's. We spoke a ..."|Yipp 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou lean in for a copy, but she [[beats you to it.|Waiting Room Box]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThere's only one option, small containers of what looks like [[purple fruit salad.|Cafeteria]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mall Entrance</span></div></html>\nThere's [[nothing that exciting|Mall Entrance Nothing]] here, only a not-real plant and a [[soda machine.|Mall Entrance Soda Machine]]\n\nA nearby [[elevator|Elevator]] leads down to the Lower Level and the Shoe Department.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $havemarinade="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the jar [[in your handbag.|Brine Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's [[cracked down the middle.|Stock Room Intro]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou can't reach it from [[where you're sitting.|Exam Room Sitting]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $shoesdeactivate eq "no">>\nYour legs are still [[too sluggish|Warehouse]] to attempt an escape.\n<<else>>\nA breeze blows under the door, and you can smell freshly cut grass on the other side.\n\n[[Play it moderately cool. Slip under the door like you belong here.|Warehouse Walk]]\n\n[[Run for it.|Warehouse Run]]\n<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Does Braxxton's sell these?" he asks the associate, who shakes his head.\n\nThe cop gives you a funny look and [[tosses you the controller.|Police 3]]\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="marinade">><<else>><<set $lootuse="bottle of brine">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the tub of marinade </span></html>[[out of your handbag|Bonnets Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Pieces of tomato and pepper swirl around in the jar. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $triedyipp eq "no">>\nThe controllers are in shambles. Nests of wire burst out of plastic housings perforated with blue buttons, tiddly-winks, and three-point switches. [[You wouldn't know where to begin.|Exam Room]]\n<<else>>\n<<if $havecontroller eq "no">>\nWhile many of the controllers are partially disassembled, you find a nice round one that has a small LCD screen and a Y etched into its back.\n\n[[Take it.|Take Controller]]\n\n[[Back|Exam Room]]\n<<else>>\nThe table is strewn with [[useless parts.|Exam Room]]\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<set $vandarconvo="three">><<set $shopperticker=2>><<set $shopperstate="idle">>"I can't let you take this," the woman says and leans forward to whisper. "Look me up in the phone book when you get home tonight, new guy. Maryann Yipp. Y-I-P-P. Don't forget."\n\nShe straightens up. "Now give me some room, you two!"\n\n[[Step back.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><<set $shopperticker=$shopperticker+1>><<if $shopperticker eq 3 and $shopperstate eq "idle">><<set $shopperticker=1>><<set $shopperstate="busy">><<endif>><<if $shopperticker eq 3 and $shopperstate eq "busy">><<set $shopperticker=1>><<set $shopperstate="idle">><<endif>><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mid-Aisle</span></div></html>\n<<if $shopperstate eq "gone" and $vandarconvo neq "five">>The [[shopping cart|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]] is now officially abandoned.<<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "gone" and $vandarconvo eq "five">>You're midway down the Lower Level's main runway.<<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "busy" and $haveshoehorn eq "jammed">>\nThe woman lays into the shopping cart again, but it won't budge. She struggles some more, swearing under her breath, and finally walks away, down the aisle to the elevator, where she punches the call button.\n\nThe [[shopping cart|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]] is now officially abandoned.<<set $shopperstate="gone">><<set $shopperticker=999>><<endif>><<if $shopperticker eq 1 and $shopperstate eq "busy">>The woman grunts as she attempts to push the [[shopping cart|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]] even a few feet. The angular objects resting inside must weigh a ton.<<endif>><<if $shopperticker eq 2 and $shopperstate eq "busy">>The woman is sweating, really struggling now as she yanks on the [[shopping cart.|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]] It's not cooperating.<<endif>><<if $shopperticker eq 1 and $shopperstate eq "idle">>\nExhausted, the woman has released the [[shopping cart|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]] and is looking down, her expression blank.<<endif>><<if $shopperticker eq 2 and $shopperstate eq "idle">>Dazed, the woman stands next to the [[shopping cart.|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]]<<endif>>\n\n<<if $haveshoehorn eq "no">>\nNearby, you see the [[bag of shoehorns|Shopper Bag]] and a [[stray|Shopper Stray Shoehorn]] that has bounced off to the side,\n<<else>>\nNearby, you see the [[bag of shoehorns,|Shopper Bag]]\n<<endif>> <<if $heatherchase eq "no">>and the aisle continues on to the [[Shoe Dept.|Shopper Ladies Shoes]]<<endif>><<if $heatherchase eq "yes" and $shopperstate neq "gone">>and the aisle continues on to the [[Shoe Dept.|Shopper Ladies Shoes]]\n\n<<randomp 50 "Heather is griping about how Vandar never takes care of his own problems." 50 "Heather is keeping her distance from the old woman.">><<endif>><<if $heatherchase eq "yes" and $shopperstate eq "gone">>and the aisle continues on to the [[Shoe Dept.|Shopper Ladies Shoes]]\n\nHeather stands at the ready. "<<randomp 25 "Let's get this over with," 50 "I wouldn't recommend waiting around out here for long," 25 "Hard to believe we have exclusive access to a product as advanced as the New Shoe,">>" she says.<<endif>> \n\n<<if $shopperstate neq "gone" and $vandarconvo neq "two">>[[Wait.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>><<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "two">>\n[["I need to take those containers to my manager."|Shopper Convo 3]]\n\n[[Wait.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>><<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "gone">><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>><<endif>>\n
<<set $makeover="dude">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Dude," they say and show you to a changing room. When you're done, they come and kneel at your feet with the controller, arguing over what to activate and for how long.\n\nFinally, they instruct you to [[close your eyes.|Makeover Process]]\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="fishing tool">><<else>><<set $lootuse="fishing doodad">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the pliers </span></html>[[out of your pocket|Sporting Goods Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A tool for un-hooking fish and performing other tasks. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="clear vinegar">><<else>><<set $lootuse="bottle of brine">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the jar of vinegar </span></html>[[out of your handbag|Bonnets Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> It contains a small amount of mild vinegar. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nThe door to the Lower Level Sales Office has been kicked in, and the room stands empty except for a smashed computer console and what appears to be someone's overcoat. A doorway leads to the department's [[front counter,|Heather Final 2]] and the small elevator lies behind you, out of reach.\n\nHeather comes running back. "A gang of Clothing Dept. employees just stormed the stock room and took off with the New Shoe containers and the shopping cart they were in," she says. "They heaved it into the Discount Clothing Section. We'll never find it. By the way, where have you been?"\n\n[["Lost."|Heather Final]]\n\n[["I wish I could explain."|Heather Final]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou jump [[but can't reach it.|Costume Clown]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou spend a few minutes rifling through the boxes [[but find no beach sandals.|Stock Room Boxes 2]]\n
<<set $havecrook="no">><<set $crookfall="fallen">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou toss the crook on the floor and [[head upstairs.|Waiting Room]]\n
<<set $object="delinquentcostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Adolescent Wolf Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThe ensemble that rattles into view looks a lot like what you would normally wear, plus a wolf head.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\n"For now," she says, [["it's the best we can do."|Hospital 3]]\n
<<set $object="associate">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Sales Associate </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nHis name tag says "Norm Claude."\n\n"Can I help you with something, sir?"\n\n[["Uh, no."|Hair Treatments]]\n\n[["Do you have unbreakable combs?"|Hair Treatments Question]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="salesmanager">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Lower Level Sales Manager </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nHe looks hollowed out. Whatever he's been working on in that little office has been working on him, too.\n\n[[Back|Front Counter Final]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nAs you suspected, [[it's locked.|Stock Room Closed Door 2]]\n
<<set $makeover="lady">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Lady," they say and show you to a changing room. When you're done, they come and kneel at your feet with the controller, arguing over what to activate and for how long.\n\nFinally, they instruct you to [[close your eyes.|Makeover Process]]\n
<<set $havepickling="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the jar [[in your handbag.|Brine Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou twist the handle but only [[make a grating sound.|Stock Room Closed Door]]\n
<<set $object="lawyercostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Hot Pickin' Lawyer Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThe business suit that slides into view has sequins along its lapels, and instead of a briefcase, there's a banjo.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $usecup eq "no">>\nYou [[can't get close enough.|Waiting Room]]\n<<else>>\nYou'd like to use it, [[but first you need a number to dial.|Waiting Room]]\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou can't reach it from [[where you're sitting.|Empty Office]]\n
<<set $object="officedoor">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Sales Office Door </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA sign reads, "Lower Level Sales Office."\n\n[[Open the door.|Stock Room Closed Door Open]]\n\n[[Knock on the door.|Stock Room Closed Door Knock]]\n\n[[Peer under the door.|Stock Room Closed Door Peer]]\n\n[[Back|Stock Room]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $havenametag="no">><html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\n\n<<timedcontinue 5s>>Someone is fumbling with your feet.\n\n<<timedcontinue 4s>>Whoever it is, you hope they don't notice the large plantar wart on the bottom of your left foot.\n\n<<timedcontinue 5s>>You've been treating it with salicylic acid for months.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>[[You open your eyes.|Empty Office]]\n
The Shoe Dept.
<<if $shoesdeactivate eq "no">>\n<<if $examroom eq "yes">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You move over to the exam table and </span></html>[[press the yellow button|Use Controller]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You need a stable place to sit down and fiddle with this thing in private. </span></html>\n<<endif>>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You don't know what else to do with it. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou rap a couple times but [[hear no answer.|Stock Room Closed Door 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou take up your <<if $makeover eq "oldman">>cane<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "dude">>motorcycle helmet<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "lady">>handbag<<endif>> and follow the dog guy over to the [[main elevator.|Elevator Final]] "Goodbye," he says and sprints back into the racks.\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's closed, but there doesn't appear to be any lock.\n\n[[Open it.|Blessed Office Small Door Open]]\n\n[[Back|Blessed Office 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nEverywhere, shoeboxes. Around a corner, there's [[a messy area,|Stock Room Jumble]] and [[a more tidy section|Stock Room Boxes]] lies directly in front of you. To the right, a narrow hallway ends in [[a door|Stock Room Closed Door]] marked "Lower Level Sales Office," and some fifteen feet above [[a loft|Stock Room Loft]] extends into the wall and out of sight.\n\n[[Vandar|Stock Room Vandar]] <<randomp 25 "is dusting a shelf," 25 "stands nearby, thumbing a cell phone," 25 "stands nearby, scrutinizing one of the screws that hold the shelves together," 25 "hums a tune as he strolls down the room's central passageway,">> and a doorway leads to the <<if $vandarconvo eq "four">>[[front counter.|Front Counter Bounce]]<<else>>[[front counter.|Front Counter Room]]<<endif>> <<if $heatherchase eq "yes" and $vandarconvo neq "four">>Heather is following you.<<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "four">>Heather is standing next to you with the cart full of New Shoe containers.<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I suppose," she says, so you cut a line to the customer. He's holding two large lady's sandals: one with a red stripe down the side and another decorated with blue butterflies.\n\n[["Looking for a present?" you say.|Beach Sandals 1.1]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Break Room</span></div></html>\nThis corner of the administrative wing is ammonia scented, wood-paneled, and strangely devoid of coworkers.\n\nUnder a stack of old store circulars, you find a fraying Red River County phone book and flip to the Y's. Yipp, Loren. Yipp, Maryann. That's it.\n\nYou [[input the digits|Yipp 1]] into the old rotary phone in the corner. You think.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="hairpin case">><<else>><<set $lootuse="hair thing">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the hairpin case </span></html>[[out of your jacket|Hair Treatments Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> It contains a comprehensive selection of small pins and clamps. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You can't change your height and general dimensions, just the general shape and texture of your features. I think. This has never really been attempted before."\n\n"Oh."\n\n"To get started, just say the code word 'Makeover.'"\n\n"Right now?"\n\n"To the Clothing employees."\n\n[["Makeover."|Clothing Makeover]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Probably. This has never really been attempted before."\n\n"Oh."\n\n"To get started, just say the code word 'Makeover.'"\n\n"Right now?"\n\n"To the Clothing employees."\n\n[["Makeover."|Clothing Makeover]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#C3C3C3; width:700px; margin-top:8%; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; border:0px; padding:0px; font-size:150%;} .passage {text-align:center;} a:link{color:#000000 !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:visited{color:#000000 !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:hover {color:#AAAAAA !important; text-decoration:none !important;} html,body {background-color:#C3C3C3;}</style><img src="littleshoe.jpg"></html>\n\n[[Rewind|Rewind]]\n<html><a href="https://ifcomp.org/">ifcomp.org</a></html>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You're lucky. Blessed worked in Great Britain, for the government, for a unit making space weapons for about a decade. You think that stuff stopped with Reagan? Not likely. After a while, she struck out on her own, raising money from a rogue's gallery of investors who insulated themselves from her methods but not the expected profits. She's obsessed with somehow making it big, really big, on her own."\n\n[["I need to go home."|Yipp Final 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Don't count her out of anything. She worked in Great Britain, for the government, for a unit making space weapons for about a decade. You think that stuff stopped with Reagan? Not likely. After a while, she struck out on her own, raising money from a rogue's gallery of investors who insulated themselves from her methods but not the expected profits. She's obsessed with somehow making it big, really big, on her own."\n\n[["I need to go home."|Yipp Final 5]]\n
<<silently>>\n--\n<<set $object="null">>\n<<set $emptyofficestanding="no">>\n<<set $tonguerealization="no">>\n<<set $handlerticker=0>>\n<<set $sentence1="null">>\n<<set $sentence2="null">>\n<<set $sentence3="null">>\n<<set $sentence4="null">>\n<<set $sentence5="null">>\n<<set $sentence6="null">>\n<<set $fullsentence="null">>\n<<set $conferenceticker=0>>\n<<set $gurglingticker=0>>\n<<set $doorticker=0>>\n<<set $crookfall="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $cafeteriatalk="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $usecup="no">>\n<<set $tried911="no">>\n<<set $triedyipp="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $examroom="no">>\n<<set $shoesdeactivate="no">>\n--\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="yes">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n--\n<<endsilently>><html><style>#passages {background-color:#000000; width:700px; font:56px arial; margin-top:32px;} .passage {text-align:center;} a:link{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:visited{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:hover {color:#AAAAAA !important; text-decoration:none !important;}</style></html>\n[[Part 2|Break Room]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Shipping and Receiving</span></div></html>\nThe store's receiving bay has been transformed into a testing area, with a maze of white lines painted on the concrete floor. Hoodie-wearing Sunrise employees guide scruffy-looking Early Adopters with deadened eyes along endless, circuitous paths using controllers. The fringes of the room are dark, and in one corner, Sunrise has built up a small scaffold manned by a couple older employees who periodically radio down to the hoodie types using small handsets.\n\nIt's hot here. There's no air conditioning, so the two [[garage doors|Warehouse Garage Doors]] have been opened a couple feet. [[Swinging doors|Bustling Hallway]] lead back to a busy hallway.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's a wasteland of mattresses and laminate furniture out there, and all the exits [[remain closely guarded.|Hair Treatments]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"In the stock room somewhere," she says. "The shoe that guy picked is so far out of style I wouldn't know where to begin."\n\n[["It wouldn't be kept with the other shoes?"|Heather Followup 3.2]]\n\n[["OK."|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Odds are it's gotten pushed to the side."\n\n[["OK."|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou find the correct box (Style: "Luna," Size: 9D, Color: Tidal) and open it, but only the right shoe is inside, sprinkled with shreds of tissue paper. There's a hole in the side of the box.\n\n[[Search for another "Luna" box, Size: 9D, Color: Tidal.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Intro 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"He hangs out in the Lower Level Sales Office all the time and never takes a vacation or sick day."\n\n[["I wonder why."|Heather Followup 1.5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"He's a workaholic," she says, and [[you nod.|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"He discovered the New Shoe manufacturer and negotiated a partnership."\n\n[[You listen as she continues.|Heather Followup 1.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Exactly how he worked out an exclusive deal, nobody knows," she says. "To the Board of Directors, he's a minor deity."\n\n[[You glance at the stock room.|Heather Followup 1.4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $trainingconvo4="yes">>\n"You mean Ken?" she says softly.\n\n[["I think so."|Heather Followup 1.2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Storage Sublevel</span></div></html>\nStairs lead down to a large basement filled with shipping crates and refuse. In the gloom above hangs an old elliptical track that bundles together costumes and other curiosities by theme. You can just reach the [[dangling control box.|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<if $crookfall eq "fallen">>\nA wooden [[shepherd's crook|Costume Crook]] lies on the floor, and a flickering lightbulb illuminates the [[door|Waiting Room]] at the top of the stairs.\n<<else>>\n<<if $havecrook eq "no">>\nA flickering lightbulb illuminates the [[door|Waiting Room]] at the top of the stairs.\n<<else>>\nA flickering lightbulb illuminates the [[door|Drop Crook]] at the top of the stairs.\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="associate">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Sales Associate </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nHis name tag says "Corey Big."\n\n"Can I help you with something, sir?"\n\n[["Uh, no."|Sporting Goods]]\n\n[["Do you have shotguns?"|Sporting Goods Question]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="controlbox">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Control Box </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nSoftly glowing buttons are labeled:\n\n[[Lacy Triceratops|Costume Dinosaur]]\n\n[[Hot Pickin' Lawyer|Costume Lawyer]]\n\n[[The Marquis of the Tomb|Costume Marquis]]\n\n[[Weepy Clown|Costume Clown]]\n\n[[Adolescent Wolf|Costume Delinquent]]\n\n[[Le Chef du Cereal|Costume Chef]]\n\n<<if $crookfall eq "no">>[[The Shepherd from Beyond|Costume Crook Fall]]<<else>>[[The Shepherd from Beyond|Costume Shepherd]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Desert Princess|Costume Princess]]\n\n[[Special Agent Squid|Costume Cuttlefish]]\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<if $object eq "time clock">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> The machine beeps and displays an instruction to </span></html>[[report to the Lower Level|9:00]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Your I.D. and time card. Has your half-smiling, blue-eyed face on it. You look tired. </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Probably not the best use of your I.D. </span></html>\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe elevator shoots up at nauseating speed, dumps you out onto a high shelf in the stock room, and returns to whatever sub-sub-sub-basement it came from. You crawl to the platform's edge and climb down [[to the floor.|Stock Room Final]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Sort of Lost</span></div></html>\nYou somehow end up in Men's Undershirts and decide to wander back.\n\n[[Of course. It really is left at the nurse's station, right at the decrepit highboys, straight past the entrance to the mall, and down a floor on the elevator.|9:00 Following Second Directions]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $conferenceticker=$conferenceticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThere's something welcoming about him, something familiar. He has soft brown eyes and night black hair that tapers back into a duck tail.\n\n<<if $conferenceticker lte 2>>\n[[Look at the conference table.|Conference Room Look at Table]]\n[[Turn around.|Conference Room Turn Around]]\n<<else>>\nYour handler twists a knob, and your legs hobble you over [[to a stool.|Conference Room Stool]]\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's a wasteland of mattresses and laminate furniture out there, and all the exits [[remain closely guarded.|Bonnets and Brines]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>He looks closely at your handbag. "Would you mind removing what's inside of your bag?" he says.\n\nYou pull out the jars one by one and place them on the counter.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>He glances at your handbag. "Over this way, past the juniors' bonnets," he says. "If you get to a wall of lightbulbs, you went too far."\n\n[["Thanks."|Bonnets and Brines]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker lte 1>>He seems startled by your voice. "Back around here," he says, pointing. "Hang a left at the juniors' bonnets."\n\n[["Thanks."|Bonnets and Brines]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $trainingconvo2="yes">>\n"About three years now, but it seems like longer."\n\n[["Because you're bored?"|Training Convo 2.2]]\n\n[["Why is that?"|Training Convo 2.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Customer activity on the Lower Level is pretty sporadic, and what we do get is fifty percent wackos."\n\n<<set $platformguyticker=$platformguyticker+1>><<if $platformguyticker eq 1>>You notice a man browsing in the Beach Sandals section.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker eq 2>>Heather looks over her shoulder at a customer who's muttering to himself. It's the guy looking at Beach Sandals.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker gte 3>>The man in the Beach Sandals section has needed the help of a sales associate for quite some time.<<endif>>\n\n[["We should give this guy a hand."|Beach Sandals]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["This stuff is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">>[["This stuff is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">><<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"It's boring but only because there's no one normal to talk to," she says. "I'm a structural engineer by training."\n\n[["Really?"|Training Convo 2.2.5]]\n\n[["Where does all the random bric-a-brac come from?"|Training Convo 2.4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"It's not even clearance. It's something beyond clearance."\n\n<<set $platformguyticker=$platformguyticker+1>><<if $platformguyticker eq 1>>You notice a man browsing in the Beach Sandals section.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker eq 2>>Heather looks over her shoulder at a customer who's muttering to himself. It's the guy looking at Beach Sandals.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker gte 3>>The guy in the Beach Sandals section has needed the help of a sales associate for quite some time.<<endif>>\n\n[["We should give that guy a hand."|Beach Sandals]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["This stuff is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">>[["This stuff is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">><<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>>
<html><style>#passages {margin-bottom:128px; background-color:#000000; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:790px; padding:0px;}</style><div style="text-align:center; background-color:#000000; padding:144px 0px 10px 0px;"><img src="shoeboxlabel.png"></div><div style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; text-align:right; width:740px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">Aquanet</div>\n Click <span style="font-size:95%; color:#517B58; font-weight:bold;">[§]</span> for inventory.</html>\n\n<html> </html>[[Part 1|Rewind]]<html> <em>/</em> </html>[[Part 2|Part Two]]<html> <em>/</em> </html>[[Part 3|Part Three]]\n\n\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe man and his dog lead you to the department's safe haven, a clearing dominated by Clothing's gender-segregated dressing rooms, each one decorated and equipped to meet a single man or woman's living needs. Beside the outpost is a tangle of space heaters surrounded by benches and chairs, and the entire area is littered with the wrappers of snack brands carried by Braxxton's.\n\nA group of [[Clothing Dept. employees|Clothing Meeting]] comes scrabbling out, each of them dressed as absurdly as the dog guy.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIn the hallway, a wiry man in a red Sunrise hooded sweatshirt runs up behind you and grabs your elbow. He looks deep in your eyes. "How did you get out here?" he says. In his left hand, he's holding a long controller with a little spin wheel and more buttons than a TV remote. \n\n[[Shrug.|Admin Hallway 2]]\n
<<set $havedevice="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou grab it. [[It's heavy.|Front Counter Final]]\n
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<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nYou pass through the doorway, and everywhere there are shoeboxes. One of your coworkers is squatting next to a [[blonde-headed man|Stock Room Vandar]] in a tailored suit who appears to have been knocked to the ground with a [[ceramic frog,|Stock Room Frog]] which lies nearby. A doorway leads back to the [[front counter.|Front Counter]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou sink into the chair.\n\n"Help me, or I'll erase everything," she says, taking a small controller out of the desk. "Even your own name. You won't know [[your family from Adam."|Blessed Office Seated 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Hello," she says and listens for a moment. "Again? You're telling me again? We still have a lot of work to do to improve their shielding. Someone with the right capabilities could learn a lot from them."\n\nShe hangs up the phone and yells, "Security?" No answer.\n\nShe sticks the controller in her pocket and [[steps outside.|Blessed Office 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe looks at the controller, and her eyes go big. "Your shoes are deactivated," she says. "How did you do that?"\n\nShe quickly reactivates them, and a creepy-crawly feeling runs up your left leg. You feel the same old pressure closing in on your mind.\n\n[[The phone rings.|Blessed Office Seated 3]]\n
<<set $object="boxes">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Shelves of Shoes </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nMany shoes positioned with their ends facing you. Each has a label crammed with product codes and abbreviations for different styles.\n\n[[Search for beach sandals.|Stock Room Boxes 2 Search]]\n\n[[Back|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nSomething strikes the back of your head. It feels like the ceiling just fell on you, and all goes black. [[Again.|Black Again]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt looks spoiled. [[You put it back.|Brine Supplies]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You'll have to figure this place out on your own."\n\n[["Bye."|Front Counter Room]]\n\n[["Vandar said you would show me how to be a Sales Associate."|Heather Convo 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I bet," she says. [["This way."|Training Mission]]\n
<<set $object="pilewait">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Amorphous Black Shape Carrying a Shoe </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThe creature (rodent?) is crouching (?) a short distance from you, waiting. From what you can see, its underside is flat like a slug's.\n\n[[Freeze.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Wait Exit]]\n\n[[Grab the shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Wait Exit Grab]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou believe you're [[going to faint.|Use Left Shoe 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I had help until the bastard ran off into the clothing racks," she says and looks at you cagey.\n\n[["Sorry."|Shopper Convo]]\n
<<set $makeover="oldman">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Old man," they say and show you to a changing room. When you're done, they come and kneel at your feet with the controller, arguing over what to activate and for how long.\n\nFinally, they instruct you to [[close your eyes.|Makeover Process]]\n
<<set $object="largebin">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Large Bin </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\n<<if $havedevice eq "no">>\nYou take a slight detour and peek inside. There's a chrome-plated foot measuring device left inside.\n\n[[Take it.|Take Device]]\n<<else>>\nThe bin is empty.\n\n<<endif>>\n\n[[Back|Front Counter Final]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Hang onto those shoes and bring the controller with you. This is for a higher cause."\n\n[[She hangs up.|Waiting Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"A coaster with a Y on the back. Once you find one, hold it near your shoes and push the small yellow button for anywhere from 5 to 555 seconds, depending on the model. Call me when you're somewhere safe."\n\n[["I guess I have no choice."|YippTwo 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $triedyipp eq "no">>\nShe picks up but doesn't say anything.\n\n[["Hello?"|YippTwo 2]]\n<<else>>\nThe phone rings, but [[there's no answer.|Waiting Room Phone Book]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $triedyipp="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe sighs. "So they have you. This is troubling news. You need to find an Upsilon Controller at once. It should allow you to deactivate your shoes and slip out a side door. At least you'll be able to run again."\n\n[["What does an Upsilon Controller look like?"|YippTwo 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Michael? Is this a cell phone? What's your situation?"\n\n[["Yes, this is a cell phone. I'm wandering around the Sunrise-controlled area of Braxxton's in a pair of New Shoes."|YippTwo 3]]\n
<<set $havecoat="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's dusty and a little big for you, but you [[slip it on.|Storage Sublevel]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $jumblerun="yes">>\nIt runs away and around to the back of the pile, traveling in a counterclockwise direction. From what you could see, a small, dark shape was carrying the shoe as if it were strapped to its back.\n\n[[You stagger slightly.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nNo luck.\n\n[[Hmm. Search for the left shoe in the pile.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Intro 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou find sandals decorated with gold charms and rhinestones but nothing like the blue butterfly style.\n\n[["Well, come on."|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Intro 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"That's no mere footwear," she says. "It connects directly to the mind."\n\n[["So what, if it's used for fashion purposes?"|Yipp 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou realize you're shaking.\n\n"Running from a man with a gun?" the guy says. "Stick close. You won't find your way on your own, and neither will he."\n\n[[Follow along.|Clothing Wandering Follow]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou keep the shoebox pile in the corner of your eye, but the black thing never returns. Neither does Vandar, which seems to worry Heather. After about ninety minutes of milling about, trying to look busy, you take your [[lunch break.|Part Two]]\n
<<silently>>\n--\n<<set $object="null">>\n<<set $havecontroller2="yes">>\n<<set $blessedroom="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $makeover="null">>\n<<set $theftticker=0>>\n<<set $lootuse="null">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n--\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="yes">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n--\n<<endsilently>><html><style>#passages {background-color:#000000; width:700px; font:56px arial; margin-top:32px;} .passage {text-align:center;} a:link{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:visited{color:#FFFFFF !important; text-decoration:none !important;} a:hover {color:#AAAAAA !important; text-decoration:none !important;}</style></html>\n[[Part 3|Outside]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHeather agrees. There's much to discuss, including where to locate [[all of the popular brands|Friday Outro 2]] in the stock room, labels like Victoria Niemann, Trail-Scuffers, and New Elegance.
<<set $object="princesscostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Desert Princess Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA strapless dress makes a sound like dry leaves as it heaves into view.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"But enough of my chattering," he says. "Go find those containers, they're bound to ..."\n\n[["I saw them ..."|Vandar Convo 10]]\n
<<set $examroom="no">><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Busy Hallway</span></div></html>\nThe floor is aquamarine and dirtied by heavy traffic. At one end, a pair of weighty [[swinging doors|Warehouse]] leads into a much larger space, and at the opposite end is a [[waiting room.|Waiting Room]] Directly across from the [[little examination room|Exam Room]] is the food contractor's [[makeshift cafeteria.|Cafeteria]]\n\n<<randomp 25 "A Sunrise employee carrying a red and black controller hurries past you." 50 "Technicians in Sunrise t-shirts chat amongst themselves." 25 "A group of adults wearing New Shoes marches past you and around a corner.">>\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $vandarconvo="two">>\n"I need you to retrieve something for me," he says and gestures for you to draw closer. "Something very, very heavy. A pile of leftover shoeboxes from our latest product, the New Shoe."\n\n[["Why are they so heavy?"|Vandar Convo 3]]\n\n[["What's the New Shoe?"|Vandar Convo 4]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\nShe thanks you. It comes out awkwardly, but she means it. \n\nMaryann confronted Blessed over the phone, and now Sunrise is pulling out of Red River to regroup elsewhere, perhaps to retool the New Shoe, or abandon it completely. Maryann says her sister doesn't deal well with failure.\n\nIn the meantime, a group of former Sunrise employees is reaching out to government officials, researchers, and business leaders and showing them the specimens you procured. The hardest part is getting people to believe the truth.\n\n[["I know."|Hospital 2.5]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\nAfter Maryann leaves, you sit down in the day room and pick up a book. It's one of the novels you asked your parents to bring you from home, a pulpy old paperback on the subject of mind control. Innocent victims are enslaved by a virus they contract through a popular breakfast cereal called Cute 'n' Crunchy Kitties, and in a matter of weeks, the whole population [[has been deluded into following a moon cult.|Hospital 4]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\nYou wonder how much time you and the rest of humanity really have, how many other Blessed Yipp's are out there, buried under the earth, making magic out of technology. Maryann said that unless Blessed goes completely broke, she'll keep trying with something or other.\n\n[[Maybe it's always been this way.|Hospital 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe takes another breath. "Ice, gravel, broken glass, the New Shoe transforms on the fly, and we're going to be selling it exclusively for the first 18 months."\n\n[["That's something."|Vandar Convo 9]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I don't know the whole story," he says. "Suffice it to say the shoeboxes contain as many electronics as the shoes themselves."\n\n[["OK."|Vandar Convo 6]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"It'll change everything," he says and takes a deep breath. "In short, neurochemical sensors embedded in the shoes' soles will transmit stress and mood data to a central processor which will also receive attire schematics from backward-facing cameras in the toes, allowing the exterior to auto-transform the shoe for the aesthetic and occupational challenges ahead, all without prompting. It's basically an electronic chameleon."\n\n[["That sounds terrific."|Vandar Convo 6]]\n\n[["But why are the containers so heavy?"|Vandar Convo 5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou follow the arguing men past some other doorways and into a narrow [[conference room.|Conference Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nA broad-shouldered guy in a Sunrise hoodie and stylish ripped jeans comes bounding around a nearby corner. [["Is this the one?" he says.|Admin Hallway 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe first guy shakes his head. "Absolutely not. I just happened upon him. He's generating some really unusual feedback. I was in the middle of looking for someone else."\n\n"He'll do," the second guy says. "We've been waiting in the conference room for [[over twenty five minutes."|Admin Hallway 4]]\n
<<set $crookfall="taken">><<set $havecrook="yes">><<set $havenothing="no">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's heavy [[in your hand.|Storage Sublevel]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Cafeteria</span></div></html>\nThis area's cubicles, once part of the Durable Merchandising Dept., have been replaced by plastic furniture, including a [[low counter|Cafeteria Counter]] where the contracted food vendor is handing out [[processed food.|Cafeteria Food]] Sunrise employees line up to claim and quickly scoop down their meal's allotment.\n\n<<if $cafeteriatalk eq "no">>[[A man with a skinny service dog|Cafeteria Man 1]] sits alone at a plastic table, one of the few available, and a [[double-wide doorway|Bustling Hallway]] leads back to the hall.<<else>>A gaggle of technicians sits at a small grouping of tables, talking shop, and a [[double-wide doorway|Bustling Hallway]] leads back to the hall.<<endif>>\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou pull the shoehorn [[out from under the wheel.|Shopper Back Wheels]]<<set $haveshoehorn="yes">>\n\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt looks used. [[You put it back.|Fishing Supplies]]
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $havebedazzled="right">>\nYou take the platform sandal, [[a right shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou follow him down the hall. This used to be the store's Accounts Pending Dept., but now it's filled with red-shirted technicians tinkering with New Shoes in dimly lit alcoves. Your handler leads you around a corner to a brightly-lit room that looks like a miniature shoe department outfitted with stocked shelves and foot measuring devices, plus a long exam table.\n\n[[You hop up on it.|Exam Room Sit]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou can tell from [[your vantage|Mall Entrance 2]] that the machine sells Jigsaw Cola, a very old brand.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nAll you see is [[a soft band of light.|Exam Room Locked Door]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stand still until the thing has moved around to the right side of the pile and disappeared behind it.\n\n[[You exhale.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"... swelling was intermittent throughout the testing period. I attempted to finish the happy clown jigsaw puzzle on the table but again found it way too challenging. A distinct hunger for Swiss cheese and red wine arose at approx. t+30 minutes and was gradually replaced by an even stronger desire to read the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe. Memories that at first seemed fabricated accompanied a feeling of heaviness in my limbs and eyes, and when I sat down, a dream of my past life as a boy thief came over me. I felt guilty, and a putrid sweat then came out of my pores. 'Lawrence Olivea,' I found myself saying, while clapping. 'He is both a challenging actor and a great man.' I really don't know where this stuff is coming from, so if ..."\n\nAt the bottom of the page, the person has scribbled, "Senses" and added [[four hash marks.|Desk Note 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Hair Treatments</span></div></html>\nYou browse the wig, gell, hairspray, moose, and pomade displays. On one rack you find a selection of [[lower-priced styling supplies.|Styling Supplies]]\n\nThere's a low counter nearby and a cash register. Standing behind the register is a [[Sales Associate.|Hair Treatments Associate]] Attached to the counter is a sign that says, “Attention Boosters: We Don't Call Security. WE CALL THE COPS.”\n\nYou keep one eye on [[the rest of the store.|Hair Treatments Bounce]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nReaching backward, your left hand manages to grab ahold of and [[slowly turn the doorhandle.|Admin Hallway]] As you release it, your left foot twinges and burns.\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Sporting Goods</span></div></html>\nYou browse the bow and arrow, deer rifle, and taxidermied otter displays. On one rack you find a selection of [[lower-priced fishing supplies.|Fishing Supplies]]\n\nThere's a low counter nearby and a cash register. Standing behind the register is a [[Sales Associate.|Sporting Goods Associate]] Attached to the counter is a sign that says, “Attention Boosters: We Don't Call Security. WE CALL THE COPS.”\n\nYou keep one eye on [[the rest of the store.|Sporting Goods Bounce]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Bare Room</span></div></html>\nA small office. The gray pantsuit-wearing woman from the head of the conference table stands next to a large poster advertising the New Shoe.\n\n"You can leave, guys," she says, and the guards exit. "Have a seat," she tells you.\n\nA lonely [[metal chair|Bare Room Blessed 1]] sits in front of a dusty desk.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="marquiscostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">The Marquis of the Tomb </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nOpulent attire swings into view, stitched together from the finest of fabrics and dappled with large plastic silkworms.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThere's a big crack down the spine. [[You put it back.|Styling Supplies]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Bonnets and Brines</span></div></html>\nYou browse the cornflower and classic blue displays as well as those for salted, vinegar, and pickle. On one shelf you find a selection of [[lower-priced brines.|Brine Supplies]]\n\nThere's a low counter nearby and a cash register. Standing behind the register is a [[Sales Associate.|Bonnets Associate]] Attached to the counter is a sign that says, “Attention Boosters: We Don't Call Security. WE CALL THE COPS.”\n\nYou keep one eye on [[the rest of the store.|Bonnets Bounce]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou run from hats to coats to mittens to lingerie to rubber aprons to gargoyles to artificial Christmas trees. Clutching at the controller in your pocket, you crouch down under a display of motorcycle helmets to catch your breath, and you hear panting. It grows closer, and a man with a dog comes jogging around a corner. He's wearing an absurd collection of clothes, multiple jackets, different colors, as if grabbed from the racks at random. "You're lost?" he says and whistles an odd tune, like a signal.\n\n[["Yes."|Clothing Wandering Yes]]\n\n[[Run.|Clothing Wandering Run]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<set $vandarconvo="five">><<set $havenametag="yes">>The door closes behind the cart, and there's a loud clicking sound.\n\n"Where would you be without me," Heather tells Vandar and slouches off toward the front counter.\n\n"Ask her to show you the basics," he says and hands you your name tag.\n\n[["OK."|Stock Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $heatherchase="yes">>\n"Go with him," Vandar says to Heather. "Too bad you were in the bathroom when those vultures came back here."\n\nHeather shakes your hand limply. [["Let's go," she says.|Stock Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Good," he says. "Then they haven't gotten far. Now please hurry while I try to rub away this headache. We've got to return those containers and all the others under a binding agreement with the manufacturer, Sunshine ..."\n\n"Sunrise," Heather corrects him.\n\nVandar stands up. "Sunrise Developments."\n\n[["I can try ..."|Vandar Convo 11]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"How old is your wife?" she asks.\n\n"A few years younger than I am," he says. The man, wearing an untucked dress shirt, appears to be in his late thirties. "I wanted to do something unexpected," he says and squints at one shoe, then the other.\n\n[[Wait.|Beach Sandals 2.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"And half the time I feel like whatever I do is wrong," the man adds.\n\n"The blue one," Heather says decisively, and the guy nods.\n\n[["I'll check the stock room," you say.|Beach Sandals 2.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe man looks up. "She's a size nine," he says.\n\n[[You nod.|Beach Sandals Room]]\n
<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A moldy garment that makes you look like a recently exhumed circus master. </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You consider the endless possibilities and reject them all. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\n\n<<timedcontinue 4s>>It's not bad here. They put on a movie most every night and give you snacks and Ativan.\n\n<<timedcontinue 5s>>Your parents are a big help. Turns out, they had heard rumors about the New Shoe. Blessed is something of a legend in the defense industry. An urban legend, most hope, but you know better.\n\n<<timedcontinue 8s>>Your folks take the shoes and the controller and make sure they get to Maryann. Everyone agrees you should lie low for a few days.\n\n<<timedcontinue 7s>>Right before you're scheduled to check out, Maryann [[pays you a visit.|Hospital 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou mimick Heather's movements. She picks up some tissue paper lying on the sales floor, and you pick up some crumpled tape.\n\n[["This is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n[["How long have you worked here?"|Training Convo 2.1]]\n\n[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n
<html><span style="color:#303030; font-weight:bold;">[§]</span></html> <<if $haveid eq "yes">><<replace " Employee I.D. ">><<display 'Employee I.D.'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $haveshoehorn eq "yes">><<replace " Shoehorn ">><<display 'Shoehorn'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havenametag eq "yes">><<replace " Name tag ">><<display 'Name Tag'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havebedazzled neq "no">><<replace " Colorful sandal ">><<display 'Bedazzled Shoe'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havenothing neq "no">><<display 'Have Nothing'>><<endif>> <<if $havecrook eq "yes">><<replace " Shepherd's crook ">><<display 'Shepherd Crook'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havecoat eq "yes">><<replace " Red blazer ">><<display 'Red Blazer'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havefruit eq "yes">><<replace " Fruit cup ">><<display 'Fruit Cup'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havecontroller eq "yes">><<replace " Upsilon controller ">><<display 'Upsilon Controller'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havecontroller2 eq "yes">><<replace " Upsilon controller ">><<display 'Upsilon Controller 2'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havedevice eq "yes">><<replace " Measuring device ">><<display 'Measuring Device'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $haveweight eq "yes">><<replace " Lead weight ">><<display 'Fishing Weight'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havelure eq "yes">><<replace " Minnow lure ">><<display 'Minnow Lure'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havepliers eq "yes">><<replace " Fishing pliers ">><<display 'Fishing Pliers'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havecurlingiron eq "yes">><<replace " Curling iron ">><<display 'Curling Iron'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havepick eq "yes">><<replace " Hair pick ">><<display 'Hair Pick'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havehairpins eq "yes">><<replace " Hairpin case ">><<display 'Hairpins'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havevinegar eq "yes">><<replace " Rice vinegar ">><<display 'Rice Vinegar'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havepickling eq "yes">><<replace " Pickling brine ">><<display 'Pickling'>><<endreplace>><<endif>> <<if $havemarinade eq "yes">><<replace " Marinade ">><<display 'Marinade'>><<endreplace>><<endif>>
<<set $havedevice="no">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt connects, and you sprint down the central aisle. Behind you a guard jumps out of the stock room and trips over Heather's leg, which she extended at just the right time. You dive into the [[Clothing Dept.'s crazy racks,|Clothing Wandering 1]] where there are odd puddles on the floor ringed with algae.\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;width:700px;}</style></html>\n<<timedcontinue 2s>>You get goosebumps.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>It feels like a million tiny lizard feet crawling all over your body. They poke and pinch you in places you didn't know you had.\n\n<<timedcontinue 6s>>They poke too hard.\n\n<<timedcontinue 1.5s>>Your skin feels ready to tear apart.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>Just when you're about to cry out, everything stops.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>"Finished," the employees say, and [[you open your eyes.|Clothing Leaving]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou miss, and the thing gallops into the shadows behind the pile.\n\n[[You curse.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<<if $blessedroom eq "yes">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You point the disc at your feet and </span></html>[[press the yellow button|Use Controller 2]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You don't know what else to do with it. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You're wearing it. The script reads, "Michael Cherry." </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Probably not the best use of your name tag. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<set $havecontroller="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYour drop the Upsilon Controller [[into your pocket.|Exam Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nA large number of women's shoes. You could find a particular size and style [[if you had one in mind.|Stock Room]]\n
<<set $theftticker=0>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou ride the elevator up and find that the first floor is crawling with Sunrise security. They're searching customers at every exit, going through pockets, bags, everything. You skip past a phalanx of them at the entrance to the mall and navigate for <<if $makeover eq "oldman">>[[a department|Sporting Goods]]<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "dude">>[[a department|Hair Treatments]]<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "lady">>[[a department|Bonnets and Brines]]<<endif>> where you might blend in.\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">High-Tech Office</span></div></html>\nAn aquarium burbles next to a mounted captain's wheel and a rusted anchor. Man-sized computer towers flank a curving desk and a double-wide leather chair. Behind the desk is a [[small door,|Blessed Office Small Door]] as if for a dumbwaiter.\n\nShe pulls out [[the chair for you.|Blessed Office Seated 1]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou turn the handle, [[and it's locked.|Exam Room Locked Door]]\n
<<set $fullsentence=$sentence1+" "+$sentence2+" "+$sentence3>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou clear your throat.\n\n"<<print $fullsentence>>"\n\n<<if $sentence1+$sentence2+$sentence3 eq "My feethave neverfelt better.">>[[More words rush into your mind.|Conference Room Speech 2]]<<else>>"Very sorry," your handler says and toggles something on his controller. [["Let's try again."|Conference Room Speech 1]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"That's a laugh," she says. "Look at what you're wearing. I can make you do almost anything."\n\n[["Who's behind all this?"|Bare Room Blessed 6.1]]\n\n[["Are you connected in some way to the government?"|Bare Room Blessed 6.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Look at what you're wearing," she says. "I can make you do almost anything."\n\n[["Who's behind all this?"|Bare Room Blessed 6.1]]\n\n[["Are you connected in some way to the government?"|Bare Room Blessed 6.2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mall Entrance</span></div></html>\nYou glance through the opening before heading down the [[elevator to the Lower Level.|Elevator]]\n\nBraxton's has long malingered in the most remote sector of the Red River Mall. There's [[little to take note of,|Mall Entrance Nothing]] only a bend that leads to the rest of the mall, a "B AX TON’S" sign, and a [[soda machine.|Mall Entrance Soda Machine]] Also, a bright green, plastic bush.\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Sit!" they beckon and try to take off your shoes. You wave them away. A young woman hands you an old chocolate bar, which you take a bite out of and discard.\n\nYou notice the shopping cart filled with New Shoe containers sitting off to the side.\n\nSomeone at the edge of the group is talking quietly on a large cell phone. After a minute, he hands it to you. [["Her," he says.|Yipp Final 1]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Front Counter</span></div></html>\nAssorted shoe-related items, including spray deodorizers, fill the front counter's many drawers and cubbies. Out on the sales floor, crooked shoe shelves and trees extend outward until merging with the nearby clothing section, where they disappear.\n\n[[An aisle|Shopper Convo 2]] cuts through the near-feral retail area (i.e. the rest of the Lower Level), and a doorway leads to the [[stock room.|Stock Room]]\n\n<<if $heatherchase eq "no">><<randomp 50 "[[Heather|Heather Convo]] looks at you." 50 "[[Heather|Heather Convo]] is paging through a store circular.">><<endif>><<if $heatherchase eq "yes">>Heather is following close behind you.<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Let's take a tour."\n\nShe escorts you out of the room and even further down the clanking elevator to an airlock of sorts that removes all dust from your clothes. On the other side is a warehouse-sized cavern with an assembly line snaking across the floor and robotic arms that raise and lower at fantastic speeds. Technicians manipulate small tools, and automated lasers rake across the surfaces of shoes held inside translucent boxes. The technicians all look up robot-like and return to their work once the woman waves them on.\n\nShe leads you into [[an office|Blessed Office]] decorated in a nautical theme.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"We have about five different ways to wipe your memory," she says.\n\n[["Oh."|Bare Room Blessed 7.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Don't ask me to explain what just happened," Heather says, "or anything else involving the Lower Level Sales Manager."\n\n[["OK."|Front Counter Room]]\n\n[["Come on."|Heather Convo 3]]\n\n[["Vandar said you would train me."|Heather Convo 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Sales Floor</span></div></html>\nYou hurry out of the break room and onto the main sales floor, which is decorated with sun-colored flourishes and aquamarine patterns. Much of the square footage here is dominated by the enormous Bedding Dept., where yellowing Queen and Crib-sized mattresses cover the floor.\n\nWhich way to Shoes? Was it right at the chaste-looking four-post beds, skirt the under-priced hutches, and bear straight ahead through lingerie?\n\n[[Yes.|9:00 Following First Directions]]\n\n[[It's actually left at the desk belonging to a white-capped nurse, right at the dusty highboys and axes, straight past the entrance to the mall, and down a floor on the elevator (where Shoes is positioned on the shores of a retail space verging, due to its seclusion, on the feral).|9:00 Following Second Directions]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou don't have a use for one [[at the moment.|Front Counter Cubby]]\n
<<set $object="emptyofficedoor">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Gray Door </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA plain, gray, windowless door.\n\n[[Open it.|Empty Office Door Open]]\n\n[[Throw up your hands in frustration.|Empty Office Door Hands Up]]\n\n[[Back|Empty Office Standing]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $havepliers="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the pliers [[in the pocket|Fishing Supplies]] of your slacks. <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $shopperstate eq "busy">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="yes">>With the woman occupied, you [[slip the shoehorn into your pocket.|Shopper Convo 2]]<<else>>You [[fail at eluding|Shopper Convo 2]] the woman. "I'm going to need that to carry out some heavy-duty prying," she says.\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="openshoebox">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Open Shoe Box </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThe label says all the right things, Style: "Luna," Size: 9D, Color: Tidal. But there is only one right shoe.\n\n[[Back|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou rap thrice, [[but no one answers.|Stock Room Closed Door]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Front Counter</span></div></html>\nThe counter is littered with trash. <<if $havedevice eq "no">>It's been ransacked, and a [[large bin|Large Bin]] sits askew.<<endif>>\n\nA door leads back to the [[stock room,|Bounce Final]] and an [[aisle|Bounce Final]] cuts through the center of the Lower Level.\n\n<<if $havedevice neq "yes">>The [[Lower Level Sales Manager|Lower Level Sales Manager]] is chasing you in circles. He wants to reactivate or tune down your shoes.<<else>>The [[Lower Level Sales Manager|Lower Level Sales Manager]] is closing in. He's only a couple steps behind you.<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
Part One\n\n<<set $object="null">>\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $shopperstate="busy">>\n<<set $shopperticker=0>>\n<<set $departmentintro="no">>\n<<set $vandarconvo="one">>\n<<set $heatherchase="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo1="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo2="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo3="no">>\n<<set $trainingconvo4="no">>\n<<set $platformguyticker=0>>\n<<set $vandarphoneticker=0>>\n<<set $cobwebscleared="no">>\n<<set $jumblerun="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $jumblewait="no">>\n\nPart Two\n\n<<set $emptyofficestanding="no">>\n<<set $tonguerealization="no">>\n<<set $handlerticker=0>>\n<<set $sentence1="null">>\n<<set $sentence2="null">>\n<<set $sentence3="null">>\n<<set $sentence4="null">>\n<<set $sentence5="null">>\n<<set $sentence6="null">>\n<<set $fullsentence="null">>\n<<set $conferenceticker=0>>\n<<set $gurglingticker=0>>\n<<set $doorticker=0>>\n<<set $crookfall="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $cafeteriatalk="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $usecup="no">>\n<<set $tried911="no">>\n<<set $triedyipp="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $examroom="no">>\n<<set $shoesdeactivate="no">>\n\nPart Three\n\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $blessedroom="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $makeover="null">>\n<<set $theftticker=0>>\n<<set $lootuse="null">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n\nInventory\n\n<<set $haveid="yes">>\n<<set $havenametag="no">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="no">>\n<<set $havebedazzled="no">>\n<<set $havecrook="no">>\n<<set $havecoat="no">>\n<<set $havenothing="no">>\n<<set $havefruit="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller="no">>\n<<set $havecontroller2="no">>\n<<set $havedevice="no">>\n<<set $haveweight="no">>\n<<set $havelure="no">>\n<<set $havepliers="no">>\n<<set $havehairpins="no">>\n<<set $havecurlingiron="no">>\n<<set $havepick="no">>\n<<set $havevinegar="no">>\n<<set $havepickling="no">>\n<<set $havemarinade="no">>\n\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nAn [[old woman|Shopper Old Woman]] and her shopping cart are standing in front of you. She appears to be in distress.\n\nThe shopping cart contains [[gray, angular containers|Shopper Square]] the likes of which you've never seen before.\n\n[["Do you need help?"|Shopper Help]]\n
<<set $object="shopperbag">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Bag of Shoehorns </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThere are about a dozen shoehorns in the plastic bag.\n\n[[Take one.|Take Shopper Bag]]\n\n[[Back|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Lower Level</span></div></html>\nThe high ceiling is shrouded in darkness, and the air feels strangely humid.\n\nA walkway cuts through the jumble down here and up to the [[shoe department.|Lower Level Shopper]] Hundreds of racks of clothes, garish sport jackets, a fantastical backlog of outdated merchandise, form twisting jungles that intermingle with dusty bric-a-brac and hunting gear. The Clothes and Gifts departments appear to have lost all sense of rows and racks, with blouses, billiard gloves, toy poodle desk ornaments and dark, feathery hats in tall plastic boxes bumping and overlapping in a stock associate’s waking nightmare. You'd explore further but [[might lose your way.|Lower Level Might Get Lost]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<<set $object="clowncostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Weepy Clown Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\n<<if $havecoat neq "yes">>\nA blue wig, a red sport coat, and a yellow squirting-flower glide into view.\n\n[[Take the coat.|Costume Clown Take Coat]]\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n<<else>>\nA red wig and a yellow squirting-flower dangle from a lonely hook.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n<<endif>>\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $handlerticker=0>><<set $conferenceticker=$conferenceticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nOn a whiteboard, someone has drawn a cross section of the New Shoe in all its complexity. It appears that the heel area contains the central processing unit, a dark octagon from which wires extend like tentacles.\n\n<<if $conferenceticker lte 2>>\n[[Look at the conference table.|Conference Room Look at Table]]\n[[Look at your handler.|Conference Room Look at Handler]]\n<<else>>\nYour handler twists a knob, and your legs hobble you over [[to a stool.|Conference Room Stool]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $handlerticker=$handlerticker+1>><<set $gurglingticker=$gurglingticker+1>><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Conference Room</span></div></html>\nYou're sitting in the corner, on a stool. <<if $gurglingticker eq 2>>And foaming a bit.<<endif>><<if $gurglingticker eq 3>>And foam is running down your chin.<<endif>><<if $gurglingticker eq 4>>And you're a mess.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $handlerticker eq 1>>"The verbal control routine is the last major piece of the puzzle," your handler says, "and as you can see, it's coming along nicely."\n\nA hand goes up. "How close is the biological matrix to pushing the 2.5 megabyte goal established after the last demonstration?"<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 2>>"Painfully close. The sub-dermis is now conducting upwards of 2.2 megabytes."\n\nA woman you remember from Employee Orientation raises her hand. "Being on the Braxxton's side of this project, I've seen so many of these benchmarks come and go in the past six months while receiving very little information as to how close we are to releasing an actual product. We put a model in stock, and two weeks later, you replace it."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 3>>"I understand," your handler says, "and we appreciate how accepting your staff has been of Sunrise's procedures related to secrecy."\n\n"I also need to ask," she continues, "if this project is in any way connected to a government agency. I know you've answered this question before."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 4>>The woman at the head of the table looks up. "Which agency would that be?" she says.\n\n"I suppose any department or agency."\n\n"Then perhaps the Red River Health Dept."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 5>>Your handler waves the controller at you, and you stand up.\n\n"We have a right to know," the Braxxton's employee says, "if anyone, including the federal government, is involved."\n\n"Sure," the other woman says. "The conspiracy goes straight to the top."<<endif>>\n\n<<if $handlerticker eq 5>>"Right this way," your handler says and pushes the [[door open.|Conference Room Leave]]<<else>>[[Listen.|Conference Room Stool]]\n\n[[Gurgle.|Conference Room Gurgle]]<<endif>>\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $havelure="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the lure [[in the pocket|Fishing Supplies]] of your slacks. <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<<set $havecurlingiron="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the small curling iron [[in your jacket pocket.|Styling Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="curling iron">><<else>><<set $lootuse="hair thing">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the curling iron </span></html>[[out of your jacket|Hair Treatments Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A small tool for curling and crimping hair. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<set $crookfall="fallen">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nA shepherd's crook falls off the track and clatters to the floor, leaving behind [[the shepherd's robes.|Costume Shepherd]]\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe Lower Level Sales Manager is [[too hot on your trail.|Front Counter Final]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nIt's a wasteland of mattresses and laminate furniture out there, and all the exits [[remain closely guarded.|Sporting Goods]]\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="hair pick">><<else>><<set $lootuse="hair thing">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the hair pick </span></html>[[out of your jacket|Hair Treatments Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A comb designed for especially long or dense hair. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="shepherdcostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">The Shepherd from Beyond Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThe ghostly white robes hang empty.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="examroomdoor">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Steel-Gray Door </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThis door leads back to the honeycomb of offices where Sunrise technicians are tinkering with New Shoes.\n\n[[Open the door.|Exam Room Door Open]]\n\n[[Peer under the door.|Exam Room Door Peer]]\n\n[[Listen at the door.|Exam Room Door Listen]]\n\n[[Back|Exam Room]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Probably one of the failed prototypes. On the quest to perfect the shoe, there have been some really odd detours."\n\n[["But why? What's the ultimate goal of the New Shoe?"|Yipp 8]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I worked at Sunrise Developments during the New Shoe's initial design," she says. "We had a small facility near Highway 22. Braxxton’s understands the shoe's true power and was brought into the loop based on the leadership of Ken something, a particularly cold-hearted mid-level employee. The New Shoe needs a slow rollout, so your little store is ideal."\n\n[["I think I saw one of the shoes. It was behaving like a pack rat."|Yipp 7.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nPulleys squeal to accept your weight.\n\n[[Push B|Lower Level]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Do you really think technology like that would be used for matching sneakers and t-shirts?"\n\n[["But think of the demand."|Yipp 5.1]]\n\n[["I don't know what to believe."|Yipp 5.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I'm a just scientist who's tired of sitting on her hands," she says. "Extremely tired. The New Shoe is basically a mind control device, and with the correct interface, it can be used to direct someone’s central nervous system and many of their thoughts. On a more subtle level, it can be used to influence someone into siding with a certain person or ideal."\n\n[["This is a lot to take in. How do you know what you're saying is true?"|Yipp 7.1]]\n\n[["You helped to create it."|Yipp 7.1]]\n
<<if $object eq "salesmanager">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You hurl the measurer </span></html>[[at his head|Aisle Escape]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A heavy foot measuring device. </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You're going to hang onto it for now. </span></html>\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You're probably wondering what this is about."\n\n[["I know about the New Shoe."|Yipp 3.1]]\n\n[["I have no idea."|Yipp 3.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"There are powerful forces at play," she says. "Wait. Are you still at the store? Are you calling from Braxxton's?"\n\n[["Yes."|Yipp 9.1]]\n\n[["No."|Yipp 9.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $havebedazzled eq "no">>\nYou narrow your search to two options remarkable for their tackiness:\n\n[[A big platform sandal (a right shoe) strung all over with charms|Take Bedazzled Shoe Right]]\n\n[[A slightly smaller thong sandal (a left shoe) covered in plastic stars|Take Bedazzled Shoe Left]]\n\n[[Don't take a shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n<<endif>><<if $havebedazzled neq "no">>\n<<if $havebedazzled eq "right">><<set $havebedazzled="left">>You swap out the platform sandal, a right shoe, for the [[thong sandal, a left shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]<<else>><<set $havebedazzled="right">>You swap out the thong sandal, a left shoe, for the [[platform sandal, a right shoe.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]<<endif>><<endif>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Stock Room</span></div></html>\nA row of [[boxes|Stock Room Boxes 2]] dead ahead contains a number of popular styles, and a [[flat space|Stock Room Loft 2]] above remains far out of your reach. To your right, you see the [[Sales Office door,|Stock Room Closed Door 2]] and to your left, a <<if $cobwebscleared eq "no">>cobweb-covered [[mess of boxes.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Cobwebbed]]<<endif>><<if $cobwebscleared eq "yes">>[[pile of boxes.|Stock Room Jumble 2]]<<endif>><<if $cobwebscleared eq "search">>[[pile of boxes.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Vandar,|Stock Room Vandar 2]] standing next to the doorway that leads to the [[front counter,|Front Counter Room 2]] appears to be engrossed in a heated cell phone conversation. <<set $vandarphoneticker=$vandarphoneticker+1>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 1>>"Those numbers are way low," he says. "Let me show you the new estimates I have from Sunrise."<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 2>>"Look, pal, you don't have to talk to me like that," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 3>>"To me, and this is some gut-level honesty, those in-store posters are crap," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 4>>He combs his hair back and sighs. "Whatever," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 5>>"Of course I trust you," he says. "This project has been murder on everyone involved, from day one."<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 6>>"But we have to remove the stickers," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 7>>"Yeah, we can insert the tongues if we need to," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 8>>"No way, there are supposed to be fourteen young adult sizes," he says, "and fifteen children's."<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 9>>"Coconut white," he says.<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 10>>"We'll know much more after week one," he says. "We'll have so much data."<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker eq 11>>"What do you mean by 'recursive'?"<<endif>><<if $vandarphoneticker gte 12>>Other than the occasional expletive, you've given up on trying to make sense of what he's saying.<<endif>>\n\n<<if $vandarphoneticker lte 11>>[[Eavesdrop.|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n<<else>>\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $haveshoehorn eq "no">>The bag [[makes a rustling sound.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n"Hands off," the woman says. "I'm going to need those in a second. They're fantastic for prying."<<else>>You're [[no longer interested in collecting shoehorns.|Shopper Convo 2]]<<endif>>
<<set $usecup="yes">><<set $havefruit="no">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou shuffle over to a chair and page through a colorful magazine about trout fishing. After a short time, the secretary curses several times under her breath and storms off with the box.\n\n[[You carefully avoid eye contact.|Waiting Room]]\n
<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Your pockets are empty. </span></html>
<<set $object="associate">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Sales Associate </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nHis name tag says "Paul Quigley."\n\n"Can I help you with something?"\n\n[["Uh, no."|Bonnets and Brines]]\n\n[["Do you have apple cider vinegar?"|Bonnets Question]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe creature inches closer to your outstretched hand with one hop, two hops, three hops, four. You stagger as the sandal slides out of your hand and onto the floor where a long, black appendage [[curls around it.|Use Left Shoe 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Front Counter</span></div></html>\nAssorted shoe-related items, including spray deodorizers, fill the front counter's many drawers and cubbies. Out on the sales floor, crooked shoe shelves and trees extend outward until merging with the nearby clothing section, where they disappear.\n\nA doorway leads to the [[stock room,|Stock Room Intro]] and a path leads back [[down the central aisle.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Empty Office</span></div></html>\nThere are two chairs, an [[empty table,|Empty Table]] and a [[desk.|Empty Office Desk]] A [[gray door|Empty Office Door]] leads elsewhere, and multiple cables hang unplugged from a security camera in the corner.\n\nYou're wearing [[New Shoes.|New Shoes]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $handlerticker=0>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nA pressure releases in your head. You can now look around the dingy conference room, where large black and white photographs of three generations of Betty J. Braxxton (I, II, III) hang from the walls.\n\n[[Look at the conference table.|Conference Room Look at Table]]\n[[Look at your handler.|Conference Room Look at Handler]]\n[[Turn around.|Conference Room Turn Around]]\n
<<set $fullsentence=$sentence1+" "+$sentence2+" "+$sentence3>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHere goes.\n\n"<<print $fullsentence>>"\n\n<<if $sentence1+$sentence2+$sentence3 eq "I'mnot so adeptwhen it comes to fashion.">>[[More words, more words.|Conference Room Speech 3]]<<else>>"Where is this coming from?" your handler whispers and jabs at something on his controller. [["OK, again."|Conference Room Speech 2]]<<endif>>\n
<<set $object="reportbox">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Box </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nYou tip-toe behind the secretary and look in the box. It's filled with photocopies of a technical report she hands to Sunrise engineers as they arrive for work.\n\n[[Take a copy.|Waiting Room Take Copy]]\n\n[[Back|Waiting Room]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mound of Boxes</span></div></html>\n<<if $cobwebscleared eq "no">>You peel off most of the icky webs, smoosh them into a ball, and stoop over. <<set $cobwebscleared="yes">><<endif>>The boxes all say, "Beach Rovers," in red type, the sandal brand you're looking for.\n\n[[Search for the sandal with blue butterflies.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Intro]]\n\n[[Leave the pile.|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe moves around to the front of the desk. "I need you to help us find Maryann," she says, "by leading her to us. She's not who you think she is."\n\n[["Maryann who?"|Bare Room Blessed 5.1]]\n\n[["You can't make me."|Bare Room Blessed 5.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>He looks at your bulging pants. "Would you mind emptying your pockets?" he says.\n\nYou pull out the small collection of fishing equipment and drop it onto the counter.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>He smiles and points. "Down there, take a right, and if you get to the fishing poles, you went too far."\n\n[["Thanks."|Sporting Goods]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker lte 1>>"Right down there," he says, pointing. "Hang a right at the deer urine."\n\n[["Thanks."|Sporting Goods]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou sit down. She smiles at you.\n\n"During the language demonstration," she says, "I had no idea you were the same boy those guards had whacked over the head." She laughs. "You're a slippery fish to catch."\n\nShe stands up from where she was leaning against the desk and slowly paces in front of the New Shoe poster. "Now that we have you," she says, "I'd like to treat you to something of a history lesson." She clears her throat and runs her finger over the New Shoe's jagged silhouette. "Did you know that in the history of the world, most societies have lived under brutal, tyrannical regimes?" she continues. "That free debate is only a modern development? A quirk? What if we found something we could agree upon?"\n\n[[You frown.|Bare Room Blessed 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Let me talk to both sides of the political game. I'll call it a game. Each has a number of prescribed solutions. And on the whole, they probably work. They would, if not for a missing condition. What do you think that is?"\n\n[["Hard work?"|Bare Room Blessed 3]]\n\n[["Money?"|Bare Room Blessed 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Control," she says. "Control takes policy out of the realm of the theoretical and into that of the experimental. If one could try a policy, any policy, taxing the rich, taxing nobody but the rich, awarding jobs by lot, mandating science education through age 25, if one could just try some things, we could get some answers and not just endless, circuitous debate. So."\n\n[["What do you want from me?"|Bare Room Blessed 4]]\n
<<set $object="footmeasurer">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Tub of Foot Measurers </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThere are about a dozen foot measuring devices in the tub, each made from a chrome-plated material similar to the shoehorns you found.\n\n[[Take one.|Take Foot Measurer First]]\n\n[[Back|Front Counter Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Yes. Sunrise is run by my sister, Blessed. I don't have time to relate to you my entire family history. Let's just say it's been interesting. My sister is both brilliant and disorganized. She's a big-picture sort of person, and I was her counterpart, guiding her back to a more realistic and fashion-focused vision of what the New Shoe could be. But I couldn't control her. When she became enthralled with plans for world domination, I took off."\n\n[["She doesn't seem that dangerous."|Yipp Final 4.1]]\n\n[["I've already gotten the better of her once."|Yipp Final 4.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Sorry," she says. "Blessed, my sister, owns and operates Sunrise. I don't have time to relate to you my entire family history. Let's just say it's been interesting. My sister is both brilliant and disorganized. She's a big-picture sort of person, and I was her counterpart, guiding her back to a more realistic and fashion-focused vision of what the New Shoe could be. But I couldn't control her. When she became enthralled with plans for world domination, I took off."\n\n[["She doesn't seem that dangerous."|Yipp Final 4.1]]\n\n[["I've already gotten the better of her once."|Yipp Final 4.2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Gauzy Mound of Boxes</span></div></html>\nA waist-high pile of shoeboxes lies covered in a tangle of cobwebs.\n\n[[Clear away the cobwebs.|Stock Room Jumble 2]]\n\n[[Leave the pile.|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I'm still looking," you say.\n\n[["Great," he says.|Beach Sandals Room]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Waiting Room</span></div></html>\nPeople with business to conduct in the administrative wing wait here on midcentury chairs before disappearing down a nondescript hallway. <<if $usecup eq "yes">>Normally, they gain admission by flashing credentials to a secretary seated at a plexiglass window, but she's not here at the moment.\n\nOn her desk are a [[multi-line phone,|Waiting Room Phone]] a [[cell phone,|Waiting Room Cell Phone]] and a [[phone book.|Waiting Room Phone Book]] The entrance she normally tends to is guarded on the other side by two armed men.<<else>>To get this far, they've had to flash credentials to a sidearm-packing secretary seated at a plexiglass window. A [[box of reports|Waiting Room Box]] sits at her feet, and her desk is equipped with a [[big phone,|Waiting Room Phone]] a [[cell phone,|Waiting Room Cell Phone]] and a [[phone book.|Waiting Room Phone Book]] The entrance she tends to is guarded on the other side by two armed men.<<endif>>\n\n[[A door|Storage Sublevel]] next to a bare female mannequin is labeled "Storage Sublevel," and footsteps echo down [[another hallway.|Bustling Hallway]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $handlerticker=$handlerticker+1>><<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Conference Room</span></div></html>\nYou're standing at the head of a long table. Something stops you from looking at the dozen or so people seated around it.\n\nThe Sunrise employee with the large controller is standing next to you. <<if $handlerticker eq 1>>"It's demonstration time," he says. "Time to show you how far we've come in advancing the interface's language production capabilities."<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 2>>"This young man, who put on the shoes quite recently, is going to tell us all about his 'subjective' experience as an Early Adopter of the New Shoe," he says.<<endif>><<if $handlerticker eq 3>>"The controller I'm holding, which I'm sure you'll remember, will transmit phoneme bundles to his brain link, inducing speech," he says.<<endif>><<if $handlerticker gte 4>>"Excited?" he asks the people seated around the table. [["Let's get started."|Conference Room Speech 1]]<<endif>>\n\n<<if $handlerticker lte 3>>[[Wait.|Conference Room]]\n<html><br></html>\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="loft2">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Stock Room Loft </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA flat space high above eye level that's clearly inaccessible via any of the means available to you.\n\n[[Back|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Mid-Aisle</span></div></html>\n"Watch yourself," the woman says and drops the plastic bag onto the floor. She turns back to the cart.\n\nThe path continues on to the [[Shoe Dept.|Shopper Ladies Shoes]]\n\n[[Watch the woman.|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but a small collection of fishing supplies falls out of your pocket and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but another item falls out of your pocket and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for that, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 1>>"How much is this <<print $lootuse>>," you say.\n\n"All the items on that rack are $6.99, sir." the associate says.\n\n[["Thanks."|Sporting Goods]]<<endif>>\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="fishing lure">><<else>><<set $lootuse="fishing doodad">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the lure </span></html>[[out of your pocket|Sporting Goods Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A slender fishing lure with small hooks attached to its sides. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="shepherdscrook">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Shepherd's Crook </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA curled staff for hiking and leaning on and whacking stubborn animals on the rump.\n\n[[Take it.|Costume Crook Take]]\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<<set $cafeteriatalk="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I can see you, you know," he says. You've been staring.\n\n[["Do you work for Sunrise?"|Cafeteria Man 2.1]]\n\n[["Sorry."|Cafeteria Man 2.2]]\n\n[["Can I pet your dog?"|Cafeteria Man 2.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHe nods. "On the whole, it ain't too bad," he says and stands up. "At least now I'm a free man."\n\nAs he leaves, a group of brainy-looking Sunrisers sits down in the [[cafeteria.|Cafeteria]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou almost collide with the Lower Lever Sales Manager, a gangly man with great knobby hands. One of them is clutching a large controller, and he [[chases after you,|Front Counter Final]] hoping to reactivate or tune down your shoes.\n
<<set $emptyofficestanding="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou take a deep breath and [[wobble to your feet.|Empty Office Standing Up 2]] Your limbs feel ungainly.
<<set $doorticker=$doorticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou press your ear against the door and hear muffled voices.\n\n<<if $doorticker eq 1>>"Mmhmmm ... //ummhummm// ... mmm, Carolina, mmhmmmhm, Texas ..."<<endif>><<if $doorticker eq 2>>"eyyymm .. //mmhmm//, an ... //finish// with a, uhhh, mmmmmn //yes// ..."<<endif>><<if $doorticker eq 3>>"//Right// uhhumm, mmm .. //ahhhem//, neuro, unh-huh ... Korea ..."<<endif>><<if $doorticker eq 4>>"Stove an, mhmmmm, ports, //mmmmhmm// .... ah ..."<<endif>><<if $doorticker eq 5>>".. unhhh, //Florida//, ummhmm ... wonders and, uhhhhhnhhm ... yeah."<<endif>><<if $doorticker gte 6>>"Mmmhmmmhmhmmhmmmmummhumhmm ..."<<endif>>\n\n[[Keep Listening.|Exam Room Door Listen]]\n\n[[Hmm.|Exam Room Locked Door]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $trainingconvo3="yes">>\n"Vandar is an idiot, but I'll let you make up your own mind."\n\n[["I'm too young for that."|Training Convo 3.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe laughs. "Oh yeah."\n\nYou ask her to go on.\n\n"He's mostly a puppet for the Lower Level Sales Manager."\n\n[["What does he do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<set $trainingconvo3="yes">><<set $trainingconvo4="yes">>"He's the main dude behind brokering the agreement with the New Shoe manufacturer. Ken is his name. Ken something."\n\n"And that was him in the Lower Level Sales Office?" you say.\n\n"Yep. Always in there making a racket."\n\n<<set $platformguyticker=$platformguyticker+1>><<if $platformguyticker eq 1>>You notice a man browsing in the Beach Sandals section.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker eq 2>>Heather looks over her shoulder at a customer who's muttering to himself. It's the man looking at Beach Sandals.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker gte 3>>The man in the Beach Sandals section has needed the help of a sales associate for quite some time.<<endif>>\n\n[["Can I try helping that guy?"|Beach Sandals]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo2 eq "no">>[["This job is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]\n\n[["How long have you worked here?"|Training Convo 2.1]]<<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "no" and $trainingconvo2 eq "yes">>[["This job is easy."|Training Convo 1.1]]<<endif>><<if $trainingconvo1 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo2 eq "no">>[["How long have you worked here?"|Training Convo 2.1]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThey shake their heads. "All broken."\n\nYou take up your <<if $makeover eq "oldman">>cane<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "dude">>motorcycle helmet<<endif>><<if $makeover eq "lady">>handbag<<endif>> and follow the dog guy to the [[main elevator.|Elevator Final]] "Goodbye," he says and sprints back into the racks.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $departmentintro eq "no">><<set $departmentintro="yes">>"Got to run, it's my first day," you say and trot up to the hulking [[front counter|Front Counter]] of the Shoe Dept., which carries mid-range footwear in all its forms: men's, women's, boots, sandals, slippers, and more.\n\nA mom and daughter brush past you as they're leaving.<<else>>\n<<if $vandarconvo eq "one">>You return to the [[front counter.|Front Counter]]<<else>>You return to the [[front counter.|Front Counter Room]]<<endif>><<endif>>\n
<<set $object="emptyofficedoor">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Gray Door </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA plain, gray, windowless door.\n\n[[Open it.|Empty Office Door Open]]\n\n[[Back|Empty Office Standing]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe knots are [[impossibly tight.|New Shoes]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"That's not important."\n\n[["But what's the New Shoe?"|Vandar Convo 4]]\n
<<set $object="loft">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Loft </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nA flat space high above eye level that's clearly inaccessible via any of the means available to you.\n\n[[Back|Stock Room]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Front Counter</span></div></html>\n[[Heather|Heather Sandals]] is watching your customer in the [[Beach Sandals section|Beach Sandals Room]] but doesn't appear interested in helping you.\n\nUnder the counter is a [[cubby that catches your eye.|Front Counter Cubby]]\n\nA doorway leads to the [[stock room.|Stock Room 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I'm going to have to hang up now."\n\n[["Wait."|Yipp 10]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You're lying. You don't grow up in a house like I did without learning to spot a liar."\n\n[[She hangs up.|Yipp 10]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\n"No," you say, and a nurse looks over at you.\n\nYou crack the paperback's spine. The virus eats away at each sufferer's brain, reducing he or she to an infantile state, which only causes the person to eat more Kitties. By the time the last defenses fall, and darkness covers all, the human race is hugely sugared-up and honey-coated.\n\n[[Shit.|Hospital 6]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You deal with it."\n\n[["I'm not the best at interacting with strangers."|Training Convo 1.3]]\n\n[["I don't know if I want to."|Training Convo 1.3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You'll figure it out," she says and picks up a stray sneaker.\n\n<<set $platformguyticker=$platformguyticker+1>><<if $platformguyticker eq 1>>You notice a man browsing in the Beach Sandals section.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker eq 2>>Heather looks over her shoulder at a customer who's muttering to himself. It's the guy looking at Beach Sandals.<<endif>><<if $platformguyticker gte 3>>The man in the Beach Sandals section has needed the help of a sales associate for quite some time.<<endif>>\n\n[["Should we help that man?"|Beach Sandals]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo2 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["How long have you worked here?"|Training Convo 2.1]]\n\n[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo2 eq "no" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">>[["How long have you worked here?"|Training Convo 2.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo2 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "no">>[["How is Vandar, as a boss?"|Training Convo 3.1]]\n\n<<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>><<if $trainingconvo2 eq "yes" and $trainingconvo3 eq "yes">><<if $trainingconvo4 eq "no">>[["What does the Lower Level Sales Manager do?"|Training Convo 3.3]]<<endif>><<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $trainingconvo1="yes">>\n"Not all of the customers are a joy to interact with," she says.\n\n[["Then what?"|Training Convo 1.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou trip over a bullwhip and land splat in a puddle. As you get up, you realize you're shaking.\n\n"Running from a man with a gun?" the guy says. "Stick close. You won't find your way on your own, and neither will he."\n\n[[Follow along.|Clothing Wandering Follow]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nHmm.\n\n<<cyclinglink $sentence1 "Moper's Monday" "Farm land" "The New Shoe" "Chicken with peas">> <<cyclinglink $sentence2 "keeps the kitchen running" "might have to leave early" "is a real miracle" "requires a 60-day maintenance plan">> <<cyclinglink $sentence3 "and yet wilts," "and will forever function miraculously," "and might betray a sacred vow,">> <<cyclinglink $sentence4 "leaving behind frightened geologists" "consigning cheese and butter" "besting serious competitors">> <<cyclinglink $sentence5 "and a trail of dead songbirds," "and even wannabe gadflies," "and fire ants," "and tragic mistakes,">> <<cyclinglink $sentence6 "which, taken together, became the new hotel." "leading to the establishment of an eighth day of the week." "effectively reducing said competition to a footnote.">>\n\n[[OK.|Conference Room Speech 4 Pronounce]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou're getting a headache.\n\n<<cyclinglink $sentence1 "It's totally not the case that" "I refuse to believe that" "To this day,">> <<cyclinglink $sentence2 "my preference for auto travel" "the garbage" "my mother" "my past">> <<cyclinglink $sentence3 "was once seen boarding an airplane with" "makes compote out of" "still picks out" "issues money orders with">> <<cyclinglink $sentence4 "my fishing rod." "my lemonade stand." "my clothes.">>\n\n[[OK.|Conference Room Speech 3 Pronounce]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nClauses and half-thoughts compete for your attention.\n\n<<cyclinglink $sentence1 "Candy's" "We're" "I'm">> <<cyclinglink $sentence2 "secretly skilled" "probably passable" "not so adept" "absolutely underestimated">> <<cyclinglink $sentence3 "when it comes to interrogation." "at matters of the heart." "while under duress." "when it comes to fashion.">>\n\n[[OK.|Conference Room Speech 2 Pronounce]]\n
<<set $sentence2="have never">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe words enter your mind, but something's wrong. Something's gotten mangled. You'll need to do some revisions before opening your mouth.\n\n<<cyclinglink $sentence1 "My knuckles" "My patellar tendons" "My feet">> <<cyclinglink $sentence2 "have never" "have, during periods of high stress," "have occasionally">> <<cyclinglink $sentence3 "broken a promise." "felt better." "made up for lost time.">>\n\n[[OK.|Conference Room Speech 1 Pronounce]]\n
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\n\n<<timedcontinue 5s>>There's a rushing sound, and a soft redness floods into your vision.\n\n<<timedcontinue 4s>>You feel sort of good.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>Your arm is moving.\n\n<<timedcontinue 3s>>"Michael!" It's Heather.\n\n<<timedcontinue 2s>>[[You open your eyes.|Pass Out 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Yes, demand." She clears her throat. "If I was you, I would stay far away from that store."\n\n[["Why do you care?"|Yipp 6]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Believe me when I say you should stay far away from that store."\n\n[["Why do you care?"|Yipp 6]]\n
<<set $havepick="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the hair pick [[in your jacket pocket.|Styling Supplies]] <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe paths leading through the [[Lower Level's|Lower Level 2]] more untamed reaches are dangerously circular.
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou bolt for the [[front counter,|Sales Manager Encounter]] and Heather jumps back.\n\nThe elevator rattles. Someone's right behind you.\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYour left foot tingles and burns, and sharp pains stab at the base of your skull. Your thoughts slip away [[down aimless, meandering passages.|Empty Office Standing]]\n
<<set $tonguerealization="yes">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou realize that since you woke up, your tongue has [[gone numb.|Desk Note 3]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nRealizing this [[helps you to concentrate.|Empty Office Standing]] You can still walk OK, and your hands are starting to work better. Your sense of smell remains intact, and judging by the past twenty seconds, you can still muddle your way through complex thought.\n
<<if $object eq "pilewait" and $havebedazzled eq "left">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> Shaking a little, you </span></html>[[hold out the sandal|Use Left Shoe]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "pilewait" and $havebedazzled eq "right">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> Shaking a little, you </span></html>[[hold out the sandal|Use Right Shoe]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "null" and $havebedazzled eq "left">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> An unattractive left shoe. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "null" and $havebedazzled eq "right">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> An unattractive right shoe. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "openshoebox">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Nope. You're going to have to find the matching shoe. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "footmeasurer" and $havebedazzled eq "left">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> The size is already marked. It's a ten. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "footmeasurer" and $havebedazzled eq "right">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> The size is already marked. It's a twelve. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "boxes">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> This shoe is far more garish than anything you find on the shelves. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "loft2">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> That doesn't work. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "officedoor2">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> That doesn't work. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="pickling juice">><<else>><<set $lootuse="bottle of brine">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the jar of pickling brine </span></html>[[out of your handbag|Bonnets Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A container of greenish fluid. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but a small collection of styling supplies falls out of your jacket and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but another item falls out of your jacket and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for that, sir?" the associate says.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 1>>"How much is this <<print $lootuse>>," you say.\n\n"All the items on that rack are $5.75, sir." the associate says.\n\n[["Thanks."|Hair Treatments]]<<endif>>\n
<<set $object="strayshoehorn">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Stray Shoehorn </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nThere's a ripped price tag on one end.\n\n[[Take it.|Take Shoehorn]]\n\n[[Back|Shopper Convo 2]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou jump down from the table. You wobble a bit when you hit the floor but [[remain upright.|Exam Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $usecup eq "no">>\nYou [[can't get close enough.|Waiting Room]]\n<<else>>\nYou [[don't trust|Waiting Room]] the company lines.\n<<endif>>
<<set $object="cuttlefishcostume">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Special Agent Squid Costume </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\nYou step back as the prosthesis wobbles into view. Below it hangs a simple black suit.\n\n[[Back|Storage Sublevel Control Box]]\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Sir, I'm connecting you to the 24-Hour Mental Wellness Crisis Line."\n\n[["No, wait ..."|Waiting Room]]\n\n[["Um ..."|Waiting Room]]\n
<<if $object eq "backwheels" and $vandarconvo eq "one">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Is this your idea of customer service? </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "backwheels" and $vandarconvo eq "two">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> Such drastic action doesn't yet feel unavoidable. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "backwheels" and $vandarconvo eq "three">>\n<<set $haveshoehorn="jammed">><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You jam the shoehorn under one of the wheels. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> So shiny it doubles as an upside-down mirror. </span></html>\n<<endif>><<if $object neq "null" and $object neq "backwheels">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You're going to keep that shoehorn in your pocket, where it belongs. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou recognize the red-haired nurse from your previous tour of the store. You're on the right track.\n\nAfter the Headboards and Hampers sub-dept., you come to an arch holding a sign, B AX TON’S, under which lies the [[entrance to the mall.|Mall Entrance]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"You can soon. Listen closely, Michael. There are a couple Clothing employees who can extend your shoe's transformative powers across all of your skin, turning you into something of a human chameleon. With a costume added, you'll be completely disguised. All they need is access to the Upsilon Controller."\n\n[["I can be anyone?"|Yipp Final 6.1]]\n\n[["Isn't this dangerous?"|Yipp Final 6.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nShe chuckles. "Sunrise is not quite so powerful as it thinks. Some of what they describe as the New Shoe's amazing powers will actually work. The rest will cause irreversible neurological damage, most likely over a period of months and years, just long enough for the shoe to spread far and wide and make Blessed Yipp one of the richest individuals on the planet."\n\n[["Yipp?"|Yipp Final 3.1]]\n\n[["When were you going to tell me you were related?"|Yipp Final 3.2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe men lead you around a dumpster, through a door, and down a clanking, beeping, scraping elevator. The air is cooler, like in a basement, when the guards finally [[snatch off your hood.|Bare Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Hello?" you say.\n\n"So you made it to Clothing." It's Maryann. "And physically, you're OK?"\n\n"I think."\n\n"In that case, we need to get those shoes and especially that controller out of the mall. Sunrise only has power inside of those walls."\n\n[["The woman I met said they're bigger than the government."|Yipp Final 2]]\n\n[["Sunrise will hunt me down."|Yipp Final 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Yep. I'm trying to get a job at the state highway department. Something salaried that has nothing to do with shoes."\n\n[["Where does all the random bric-a-brac come from?"|Training Convo 2.4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html><<set $trainingconvo2="yes">>\n"Five years," she says, "time I'd rather have spent elsewhere."\n\n[["How else could you have applied yourself?"|Heather Followup 2.2]]\n\n[[Direct your attention elsewhere.|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<<set $object="backwheels">><html><style>#passages {color:#FFFFFF; width:496px; background-color:#101010; padding:48px 56px 16px 40px; margin-top:7%; text-align:justify;}</style><span style="color:#A0A0A0; font-weight:bold; border-bottom:5px solid #202020; padding-bottom:8px;">Back Wheels </span><span style="border-bottom:5px dotted #202020;padding-bottom:8px;"> </span></html>\n\n<<if $haveshoehorn neq "jammed">>Two big wheels scuffed and roughed by years of abuse.<<else>>A shoehorn remains jammed under one of the back wheels.\n\n[[Take back the shoehorn.|Take Back Shoehorn]]<<endif>>\n\n[[Back|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]]\n\n<<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I'm trying to get a job designing highway overpasses. It's steady work, even if it's dull."\n\n[[Direct your attention elsewhere.|Front Counter Room 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I wanted to become a bridge engineer, but nobody builds bridges anymore. Not in this country. Eight years of schooling down the drain."\n\n[["You couldn't engineer something else?"|Heather Followup 2.3]]\n
<<set $haveweight="yes">><<set $theftticker=$theftticker+1>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou stick the weight [[in the pocket|Fishing Supplies]] of your slacks. <<if $theftticker eq 2>>It's beginning to bulge.<<endif>><<if $theftticker gte 3>>It's now bulging greatly.<<endif>>\n
<<if $object eq "associate">>\n<<if $lootuse eq "null">><<set $lootuse="fishing weight">><<else>><<set $lootuse="fishing doodad">><<endif>><html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You pull the weight </span></html>[[out of your pocket|Sporting Goods Busted]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A round piece of lead for weighing down a fishing line. </span></html>\n<<endif>>
<html><style>#passages{background-color:#000000;}</style></html>\nYou just realized something. You're going to have to find a new job.\n\nBefore your parents come to pick you up, you sit down with the yellow pages from the Patient Phone and flip through the landscaping services, hotels, and chain restaurants. Any place that will pay you, really. You stick a couple ripped pages in your pocket, and your fingers hit a card.\n\nYou know which, for a Sales Associate I. Completed training but never finished a full day. No call, no show on the second. Slow to perform tasks. Demonstrated a lack of familiarity with the stock room.\n\nMaybe you'll [[do better next time.|End]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Where are you going?" Heather says.\n\nYou [[turn around.|Stock Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $vandarconvo eq "one">>"Mr. Vandar?" you say.\n\n"You must be Michael," the man says and grimaces. Your coworker, whose name tag says Heather, is inspecting a red mark on his forehead.\n\n[["Yes, I am."|Vandar Convo 2]]\n<<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "two">>"Hurry, now," Vandar says. "Don't waste another second."\n\n[["Yes sir."|Stock Room]]\n<<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "three">>You start to say something but stop yourself.\n\n"Chop, chop," Vandar says. "Be on your way."\n\n[["Yes sir."|Stock Room]]\n<<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "four">><<set $heatherchase="no">>"Ken!" Vandar yells and knocks on the door to the Lower Level Sales Office. It swings open, revealing a thin figure standing in near-darkness.\n\n"I thought I heard those wheels," [[this new man|Cart Completed]] says. "Yes. Bring them in here."\n\n"What do you say we keep this little mixup to ourselves?" Vandar says and helps Heather push the cart into the office, but Ken doesn't respond.<<endif>><<if $vandarconvo eq "five">>"Ask Heather to show you the basics," Vandar says.\n\n[["OK."|Stock Room]]\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou roll into something hard, a leg belonging to a tall security guard. He's carrying a sub-machine gun and wearing blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and sunglasses. In fact, there are two of them standing over you. Without saying a word, they grab your shoulders and put a hood over your head. Quite pleasantly, it seems to be made of a hyper-breathable fabric.\n\nOne of them calls a woman on the radio. "Blessed?" the guy says. "We've got the muskrat. Yeah. Over by Shipping and Receiving. No indication how he got out of the rat hole. He seems OK, I guess. We're [[headed down."|Outside 2]]\n
<<if $object eq "reportbox">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> You peel open the cup and </span></html>[[dump it inside|Use Fruit Cup]]<html> <span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 8px 0px 4px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A; border-right:6px solid #101010;"> </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<<if $object eq "null">>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> A sealed cup of purple matter. </span></html>\n<<else>>\n<html><span style="font-size:97%; color:#909090; font-weight:bold; background-color:#000000; margin:0px 4px 0px 8px; border-left:6px solid #0A0A0A;"> You rather prefer hanging onto this cup. </span></html>\n<<endif>>\n<<endif>>
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou're [[not close enough.|Blessed Office 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nSeeing as you've never memorized the number for the unlisted defense contractor where they both work, [[you're going to have to look elsewhere for help.|Waiting Room Phone Book]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou run your hand over it. A small "Sunrise Systems" sticker, which features a logo of a glowing brain, has been <<if $emptyofficestanding eq "no">>[[slapped onto one end.|Empty Office]]<<else>>[[slapped onto one end.|Empty Office Standing]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"I see what you mean." The man, wearing an untucked dress shirt, holds up the sandal with butterflies. "Do you have a nine in this style?" he says.\n\n"I'm sure we do," Heather says.\n\n[["I'll get it," you say.|Beach Sandals Room]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe guy shakes his head. "I really don't know what else to get her," he says and sits down on a stool for trying on shoes.\n\n[["Whenever I've received a gift, it was the thought behind it that counted the most."|Beach Sandals 1.3]]\n\n[[Look at Heather.|Beach Sandals 2.1]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe guy looks down and says, "Do you think my wife would like either of these sandals?"\n\n[["Does she wear shoes like that often?"|Beach Sandals 1.2]]\n\n[[Look at Heather.|Beach Sandals 2.1]]\n
<<set $blessedroom="no">><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou count off the seconds. Around 11 or 12, you [[feel free again.|Blessed Office 4]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n"Do the words 'New Shoe' mean anything to you?"\n\n[["Yeah, they're shoes that change to match your attire."|Yipp 4]]\n
<<set $fullsentence=$sentence1+" "+$sentence2+" "+$sentence3+" "+$sentence4+" "+$sentence5+" "+$sentence6>><html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nDeep breath.\n\n"<<print $fullsentence>>"\n\n<<if $sentence1+$sentence2+$sentence3+$sentence4+$sentence5+$sentence6 eq "The New Shoeis a real miracleand will forever function miraculously,besting serious competitorsand even wannabe gadflies,effectively reducing said competition to a footnote.">>The room erupts in applause, and your handler [[pats you on the shoulder.|Conference Room After Speech]]<<else>>[["Redo, redo,"|Conference Room Speech 4]] your handler whispers.<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $theftticker gte 3>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but a small collection of brine jars rolls out of your handbag and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for those?" says the associate.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 2>>"I wanted to ask you about this <<print $lootuse>>," you say, but another jar rolls out of your handbag and onto the floor.\n\n"Were you going to pay for that?" says the associate.\n\n[["I have no money."|Police]]<<endif>><<if $theftticker eq 1>>"How much is this <<print $lootuse>>," you say.\n\nThe associate seems intrigued by your voice. "All the items on that shelf are $4.50," he says.\n\n[["Thanks."|Bonnets and Brines]]<<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYou try to peek under the door, but [[all you see is darkness.|Stock Room Closed Door 2]]\n
<<set $object="null">><html><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-size:176%; font-weight:bold; color:#444444; padding:8px 24px 8px 0px; background-color:#101010;">Examination Room</span></div></html>\nThis room is like a cross between the world's smallest shoe store and a doctor's office. Shelves are jammed with a rainbow of shoe styles and colors and a wide selection of nylon socks. To the side, a pair of movable mirrors and a [[table|Exam Room Can't Reach]] heaped with controllers add to the clutter.\n\nAbove, an extendable light angles down over the examination table where you're [[sitting.|Exam Room Stand]]\n\n[[One door|Exam Room Can't Reach]] leads to a busy hallway, and a [[second|Exam Room Can't Reach]] to the Sunrise-requisitioned sector of the administrative wing.\n\n<<endif>><<replace "[§]">><<display 'Inventory'>><<endreplace>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe two employees smile up at you. You feel ... different.\n\n"Yellow button," they say and hand you the controller. "Turn off."\n\n[["Mirror?"|Clothing Mirror]]\n\n[[Head upstairs.|Clothing Leaving 2]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nThe creature moves toward you but [[shoots back into hiding.|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nYour mind reels with the shape of the thing. You think: Reptilian. A shoe designed to mold around the user's body and support the wearer's ankles and arches during athletic activity. A glistening ... [[tongue.|Use Left Shoe 2.5]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\nVandar shouts into his phone: "I need to know more if I'm going to sell these things to actual customers. Are you hearing me? Hello?"\n\nAnd then, [[darkness.|Pass Out]]\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $shopperstate neq "gone">>The woman coughs, and you [[slink back.|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]]<<endif>><<if $shopperstate eq "gone">><<if $haveshoehorn eq "jammed">>You both lean into the cart [[but can't move it.|Shopper Convo 2 Cart]]\n\n"These things are even heavier than I thought," Heather says.<<endif>><<if $haveshoehorn neq "jammed">><<set $vandarconvo="four">>You both lean into the squeaky cart and roll it back to the [[stock room.|Stock Room]]<<endif>><<endif>>\n
<html><div style="border-bottom:4px dashed #303030;"></div></html>\n<<if $jumblewait eq "no">>\n<<set $jumblewait="yes">>As if driven by curiosity, the [[dark shape|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Wait]] (still carrying the butterfly sandal) bounces around to the front of the pile, traveling in a counterclockwise direction.\n\nYou can't tell how it's holding onto the shoe.<<else>>Here comes the [[shadowy shape|Stock Room Jumble 2 Search Wait]] again, bouncing around the pile in a counterclockwise direction.<<endif>>\n