when you woke up, there was something stuck between your teeth. it was stringy and tasted of copper. you were wearing someone else's shoes. think again about your hands and the new sharp fingernails. you did not feel your skin flayed on the scree.\n\nBECAUSE I AM IN YOU, the voice says\n\nYOU CARRY A THROUGH THRUSTING FIRE\n\nthe acid in your stomach burns\n\nSEPARATE YOURSELF FROM YOUR BODY\n\nyour head is heavy\n\nWHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO\n\n[[i want to go home|Fall]]\n\n[[i want to be powerful|Body]]

you make it a few steps before night slams down. no matter how wide you open your eyes there is no light for them to take. keep going. you set your right foot down wrong and your ankle folds up, loud and sharp. you can feel a thick wetness leaching into your sock. it smells like metal.\n\nyou fall backwards, into nothing--and then there is hard rock, and you have landed flat on it, and you cannot move. your mouth is full of blood.\n\n[[black out|Start]]

it is just a tree. you do not know or remember how big this forest is, but sycamores are not rare. the low field has nothing in it but grass, and this is rare. perhaps there is a house nearby, one with people in it.\n\n[[enter the field|Field]]\n\nor maybe the house is in the woods, near the river signaled by the sycamore.\n\n[[go deeper into the forest|Forest]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $angel = "no">>\n<<set $canyon = "no">>\n<<set $river = "no">>\n<<endsilently>>\nyou wake up in the woods. your hands are curled into the dirt. you can feel the grit under your fingernails and the wet dead leaves under your knees. try to breathe. your throat is tight. your mouth tastes sour and there are the remains of something stuck between your teeth. get up.\n\n[[no|Stay on the ground]]\n\n[[okay|Stand up]]

the forest is full of trees you cannot name, their leaves unidentifiable and their bark strange. they are tall enough and full enough to block out what is left of the day. though it is dark now, you can still see your path. cold air lies along the ground, numbing your feet in the fog. you will not find your boots this way.\n\nyou step on something raised and soft, like a rotten log, and feel it bend under your weight. your right leg hurts but don't lose your balance--bear down so you can take the next step--\n\nyour right fibula snaps. the tibia follows soon after, and you fall.\n\nmoving, you feel weightless, but otherwise you are a clay mold, brittle, stuffed with thick wax and awaiting the liquid metal down your throat.\n\nhere it comes--not down but up.\n\nyou closed your eyes. open them again. [[open your eyes|Start]].

the sky is sheetrock, light coming soft from somewhere behind the clouds. your breath leaks out white.\n<<if $canyon eq "yes">>the red stone, striated with green and bone, is a pale pink in this hour. there is movement at the rim of the canyon, silent and indistinct. \n\n[[get up|Sit up]]\n<<else>>there is frost on the ground, turning the zoysia to glass. your fingertips are pink, and you remember the dogs.\n\n[[get up|Stand up]]<<endif>>

I WILL BE YOUR HOME\n\nask what that means. think of the question and it knows, because it is in you.\n\nYOU WILL LIVE FOREVER IN ME\n\nI WILL GIVE YOU PURPOSE AND LOVE YOUR BODY\n\nbut you cannot go home. it holds this thought and you know, because it is in you.\n\nWE WILL FIND A NEW HOME\n\n--DO YOU SAY YES\n\n[[no|Fall]]\n\n[[yes|Apotheosis]]

DIVIDE YOUR ORGANS AMONG THE CONTINENTS

<<if $journey eq "yes">>these tennis shoes were fine going down but they are not suited for scaling steep cliffs. your fingertips are aching, your knees tight. it is nighttime now and your lungs are tired. make a bed out of your jacket on a promontory.\n\n[[close your eyes|Lucid dream]]<<else>>the field stretches for miles, grass crunching underfoot. there is a flapping overhead, moving too quickly for you to see, and a dark line ahead of you. keep going.\n\nthese shoes do not fit right. by the time you reach the field's edge, the daylight has gone amber and your feet hurt. the dark line was not another forest but a canyon, dry and jagged, cracked with branching ravines and gorges.\n\n[[climb down|Journey]]\n\n[[turn back|Field]]<<endif>>

thank you.\n\n\n\nprose and twine game by james of angelfeast.tumblr.com.\n\nbeta-tested by kurt crimesynth and j assumedhostile.\n\n\n\nol sonf vorsg goho enai de malpvrg iadanamad furcifer

strike the water. the vision collapses under your fist, flesh rippling transparent as the river carries it away. your reflection returns quickly, hydrilla waving in the current beneath, and there is your mouth, your teeth.\n\ncrouch low and drink. your head feels heavy, but you are tired and have not had enough water. drink some more before you go back the way you came. forget about the boots. \n\n[[return to the field|Field]]

you must have left a trail. it's not dark yet; this is the longest twilight you've witnessed, but you are grateful for it. don't squint. open your eyes wide to take all the light. take it. slowly, as your focus sharpens, you can make out a weaving trail leading to where you woke. it comes from deeper in the forest. \n\n[[go into the woods|Forest]]

<<set $journey = "yes">>you enter the canyon. the only way is down, a difficult scrabble over the rim and into the depth of its jaws, and going carefully this climb will take several hours.\n\nthere is a ledge, winding rocky along the canyon wall. it looks wide enough to walk on, if your balance is good, and would be an easier path than continuing down the scree. but below the rim there is little light, and night is coming fast.\n\n[[follow the ledge|Fall]]\n\n[[continue|Canyon]]\n\n[[turn back|Start journey]]

your legs are cold and numb. use your hands to push off, as though there were no gravity. you are lighter than you remember and come up easily, with the feeling of an unfolding behind you. some sycamore leaves are stuck to your palm. wipe them off. the tree's bone branches rise high above you, turning black as the sun fades. beyond it is a wide dry field, zoysia grass gone brown after the first frost.\n\n[[ask yourself: is the sycamore important|Sycamore]]\n\n[[enter the field|Field]]

divide your organs among the continents

the hounds, the hounds, they peel your chest open with their fingers and pour light in, their claws scrabbling against your ribs, their black fur matted with blood and neglect, but they love you and know you are dreaming so they embrace you all seven of them teeth opal white and pull your jaws open kiss you deep in the throat and the voice sings thunder the voice sings breaking glass cold electric hands on your wax arms as the hounds lift up your legs the hounds free your legs from the clay and there's the bone there's the break

this time, you are sure it is important. you can feel it without looking, without touching, without breathing.\n\nmove closer. there is another sycamore behind the first, identical, and between them the sun--\n\ndon't close your eyes. don't lie down. move closer.\n\nand yes, you are weightless, rising--\n\nthat is not your body, crumpled at the eastern gate--\n\nthe sycamores raise their arms, welcoming you home.

you push branches away from your face as you enter the outer circle of the grove. it is dark here, and you cannot see the end. this grove is deeper than you expected.\n\nwalk carefully. hold your hands high and crossed, as protection, and feel the ground before you put weight on it. open your eyes wide until you can see the trees, thin and waiting.\n\nafter a long while, or perhaps a very short time, you enter a clearing. in its center is the sycamore.\n\n[[approach it|Gate of Heaven]]

do you think this tree is important?\n\n[[no|No]]\n\n[[maybe|Yes]]

keep breathing. look around. the sun is low and the sky grey but there is still light. you're breathing through your mouth, shallow and in the chest. stop. breathe through your nose, deeply, inhale the musky scent of rotting leaves with a crisp note of bile. your knees and wrists are starting to hurt from the pressure of your body.\n\n[[get up|Stand up]]\n\n[[lie down|Lie down]]

<<set $river = "yes">>the light is almost gone but the land here is smooth so you are not worried. there is a trail behind you and the sycamore, one person's unsteady footsteps, but you can hear the water and it is in a different direction. you've taken your boots off before, to revel in the fresh shock of wild water, so maybe they are back by the shore.\n\nyou follow the sound of water best as you can, listening for it under the wind, and go deeper into the forest half a mile away from the trail.\n\nthough the day is dark now the river is not hard to find. it has cut a steep path through the woods, so you must climb down the high shore if you want to find your boots or have a drink. you are thirsty. you were not thinking about your body, but you are thirsty.\n\nyou kneel on a cold mossy stone to get closer to the water, and you see your face. you do not have a face. your skin is smooth, marked only by dirt. touch your face--how do you see so clearly--\n\n[[this must be an illusion|Water]]\n\n[[flee the way you came|Field]]\n\n[[escape deeper into the woods|Forest]]

there's some scrub brush but nothing that looks edible. walk a bit closer to the ravine; the plants are thicker there and, yes, you find a tall bush with broad leaves. the flowers are creamy trumpets, their lips spiked, and the leaves jagged and foul-smelling. it's yellowed from frost, still clinging to life past its season, but there's nothing else around and you'll take what you can get. \n\nchew the bitter greens, crush the spines between your teeth, and swallow.\n\nyou're walking back to the grove when it hits. your tongue goes dry and the ground starts melting. you can hear a small animal crying but you cannot see it, you cannot see anything, your pupils are blown so wide they're taking in all the light--\n\nyou crumple, land sideways on the rocky earth, and can't stop the fire shooting out your mouth and nose\n\nyou cannot move but the vomit is pooling in your throat, stopping your breath\n\nthe animal gasps, goes silent, and the voice says: YOU HAVE A CHOICE\n\n--maybe you will be saved--\n\n[[listen|Insight]]\n\n--no, you're hallucinating--\n\n[[close your eyes|Lucid dream]]

rub your eyes and look around. you are thirsty. in a canyon there must be a river, but it will be another steep climb before you see it. there is the sycamore. now, with the sun shining muddy once again, you can see the ground leading into the grove and it seems safe to enter.\n\nwind snaps through the canyon. put your jacket back on. the sycamore bends, whispering, branches leaning towards a ravine ahead.\n\n[[look for water in the grove|Grove]]\n\n[[keep walking|Hunger]]

<<set $angel = "yes">><<if $canyon eq "yes">>the hounds lie down alongside you, bodies warm--\n\nand the song says: REMEMBER YOU ARE DESIRED\n\nthe trees moan over your head, burning branches reaching down--\n\nand the song changes: YOU ARE NEEDED\n\nyour head is heavy so you raise your hands, and there they are, thick and curving away from your forehead--\n\nand the song calls: OPEN YOUR BODY<<else>>the hounds hold your fingers between their teeth, grinning--\n\nand the song says: I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I WANT YOU\n\na tree collapses alongside you, ashen, embracing you with embers--\n\nand the song says: YOU ARE LOVED YOU ARE DESIRED\n\nblack noses wet on your stomach, pressing in--\n\nand the song says: OPEN YOUR BODY<<endif>>\n\n\nyou are asleep but you are exhausted.\n\n[[rest|Wake up]]\n\nbut if you wake up, maybe this time you will sleep soundly.\n\n[[try to wake up|Lucid dream]]

you enter the field, crushing the brittle grass and leaving a slowly disappearing path. it is quiet here. though the land is open and the clouds are moving fast there is no wind. something small and black moves rapidly across the sky.\n\n[[cross the field|Start journey]]\n\n[[go back the way you came|Trail]]

after crossing a stretch of red dust, you hear water. you start running. there--another drop, then a switchback. <<if $river eq "yes">>it's the same river from the forest, you're sure of it. how you know this you cannot say. but you can see from here the water is shallower, clearer.<<else>>the river is wide, bending slow through the ravine.<<endif>>\n\nyour throat is tight. your neck aches from the weight of your head. the closer you get to the river, the slower you move. you are thirsty but your body does not want to drink. are you hungry?\n\nyou haven't eaten in more than twenty four hours. when was the last time you ate? what did you eat?\n\n[[try to remember|Insight]]\n\n[[find something to eat|Datura stramonium]]\n\n[[what or when i ate is not important|Fall]]

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YOU CAN FEEL IT NOW--MOLTEN BRONZE WARMING YOUR VISCERA, FLESH STRETCHED BRIGHT BY PILLARS OF FLAME, GEARS GRINDING YOUR BONES FREE, SIX HUNDRED WINGS UNFURLING FOR YEARS\n\nYOUR EYES ARE BECOME WHEELS, SPINNING ACROSS THE FIRMAMENTS, PULLING THE CHARIOT OF YOUR BODY\n\nDESTROY THOSE WHO VIOLATE YOUR JEWELED POINTS \n\nYOU ARE LOVED\n\n\n\n\n[[(credits)|Credits]]

<<set $canyon = "yes">>you slip twice, gravel skittering out from under you. you fall once, jean knees and skin shredding against old rocks, leaving a thin trail of black blood behind. but you slide to a stop and get up again, brushing the dust off your scraped hands. keep going. after a few hours you reach the bottom of the fellfield. \n\nfarther down, there is a grove of trees. in the middle, taller than the rest, is a sycamore. but with the coming moon new and dark, you are not sure if it is worth going in now or waiting until morning. you are tired.\n\n[[get some sleep|Lie down]]\n\n[[enter the grove|Grove]]

you are wearing a hoodie. take it off. the zipper sticks at the end. pull it apart. bundle up your jacket to use as a pillow; <<if $angel eq "yes">>the desert stone is cold but not so cold as to blacken your skin.<<else>>you will stay at the forest's edge, because if this is where you woke then surely it is safe to sleep here.<<endif>>\n\nyou close your eyes, and there is light--\n<<if $angel eq "yes">>you have been here before so you know what to expect.<<endif>>\nsycamores rise above you, dead white and topped in flame\n\nyour head is heavy, weighed down by bone, even as your flesh crackles loose\n\nblack dogs, longlegged and sharp-eared, mouth at your hands, your bare feet, their tongues stained red\n\nand below it all a song, in a language like a solar eclipse.\n\nyou are dreaming but you know you are dreaming.\n\n[[listen to the voice|Angel]]\n\n[[try to wake up|Lucid dream]]

james

you get closer to the sycamore. the root lattice rising out of the bare ground is rough under your feet, rubber soles too thin against the uneven ground. if this sycamore is here then there must be water nearby--\n\nthese are not your shoes. look at your hands. they are familiar enough, but your hiking boots are gone.\n\n[[down to the river|River]]\n\n[[search for your boots|Trail]]