Sugarcane

Thank you. It seems you've finally seen sense. Although, to be honest, you're not going to get anywhere like this. You should probably [[go on]] instead.

You reach the bottom pretty quickly. Or what you assume to be the bottom anyway: it's so dark down here you can't actually see a thing. May I remind you that it's not too late to [[return|back]] to the warm bright safety of the post office... No? Okay then. [[Have it your way|go on]].

You are stood in a post office. You have no idea why. You seem to be holding a large envelope in your hand so you guess you came here to post it? But you don't recognise this post office. It's not any of the ones local to you, that's for sure. ...What? How should I know what's going on? I only get to see what's currently happening to you. I know just as much as you do at the moment.\nAnyway, what will you do?\n\n[[Look around some more|look around]]\n\n[[Try to leave|try to leave]]

You wake with a start and give a bleary look around the room. The television is on and the curtains are still open but it's dark outside. The clock on the side table tells you it's 1:47 in the morning. You groan and make a mental note that you really need to stop falling asleep on the sofa.\n\n[[End|credits]].

You decide to sit down for a bit. You wonder if there's a chair or something anywhere. How should I know? I can't see in the dark. You shrug and sit down on the floor where you are. It's fairly boring. Now that you have actually sat down to rest you realise just how tired you are. You struggle to keep your eyes open as you shift around a little so you're lying down. What are you doing? This is no time to take a nap. You have things to do. You ignore me and give a small sigh as [[your eyes drift closed|sleep]].

You open the envelope. It rips a bit in the process but the contents remain intact. There's a piece of paper inside. It's normal sized, despite the largeness of the envelope. It's also blank for some reason. That's helpful. You look at Sarah, hoping he can offer some words of advice, but Sarah is only a guy working at the post office you are currently standing in and cannot help you here. You decide you need to sit down and try to figure out what's going on.\n\n Where shall you sit? On [[one of the chairs against the wall|chairs]], or in [[the photo booth|photo booth]]?

You peer through the perspex but there doesn't seem to be anyone there. There's a little button for a bell on the counter so you decide to press it. Just as your finger touches the plastic of the button you notice that there's now a figure on the other side of the window. Rather embarassingly for you though, your finger does not see the person behind the window and continues on it's way. The bell rings. That was stupid. Why did you press the button after you saw there was someone already there? You are embarrassed. You blush slighly and flash the person a [[sheepish grin|notice]].

The top of the photo booth opens up to reveal a void of total darkness. The stool you're sat on is shot upwards into it, taking you along for the ride. It's very dark. And nice and warm. You seem to be suspended in the nothingness but you can't be sure. There's nothing here. Nothing at all. It's nice.\n\n[[Go back|put away]]

You look at the buttons. There's a green button and a blue one. They're just plastic but are slightly translucent and lit up from the inside. You're not sure what the point of that is. Neither am I. Do you want to press the [[green|green]] button, or the [[blue|blue]] one? Or you could decide to not press either of them and [[leave the photo booth altogether|leave booth]].

You should probably read what it says, shouldn't you? You think that that is a wise idea. You start reading and it seems to you that it says something about ducks. And revenge. It's a load of nonsense really and not particularly helpful. It is adressed to someone though, someone named Alex. You don't think that's your name. Oops, maybe you shouldn't have read the letter. It's obviously not for you. \n\nYou decide to [[put the letter away|put away]].

Hang on, where'd the envelope go? You look around the tiny space that is the photo booth but it's no where to be seen. That's kind of odd but it wouldn't be the first unusual thing to happen to you today so you decide to just let it slide and forget about it. What will you do now? You can either [[leave the photo booth|leave booth]] and investigate some more or [[play around with the buttons|buttons]] first.

You flip the switch and there's a whirring noise but nothing actually happens. There's still no light. What a surprise. At least it's dry and warm enough to be fairly comfortable down here. You've been stuck in this post office for what you estimate to be a good few hours now and you're [[getting quite tired|lie down]].

You look around the post office a bit. It's farily large really. There's some shelves with stationary, a desk, some racks with greetings cards on, a photo booth, a couple of chairs up against the wall and a service counter with a persepx window. There's also a few glossy posters with information about letter sizes and stamp prices and some smaller ones advertising local events and services. They don't seem to contain any information about your current location though, which seems odd. You notice that there are no doors or windows anywhere which is also a little strange. \n\nYou decide to [[inspect the service window|service window]].

The suspicious raised area turns out to be a trap door. What a surprise. There's a ladder, but that's all you can see. It looks pretty dark down there. You reason that you may as well see what's down there. It's not like you've got anything else to do. I hope you don't expect me to join you down there. It's dark and I bet there are spiders. What do you mean? I'm not being a baby. An aversion to dark spaces is perfectly natural. You can't easily identify sources of danger or escape routes from said danger. You ignore me and [[climb down the ladder|down]].

You notice that the person behind the window is a young man in his early twenties. His name tag tells you his name is Sarah. He asks if he can help you. You say you don't know. You ask me. I don't know either. I already told you that. Sarah just looks confused and says he can't help you if you don't even know what you want, can he? You're going to have to make a decision. He points to the envelope in your hand. You realise you are still holding it. You decide you could either [[post the envelope|post]] or [[open the enevlope|open]].

You run your hands along the wall to try and better make sense of where you are and you find a light switch. You briefly wonder if it works. Why not [[try it]] and find out?

Heya, congratulations for making it this far and thank you for reading this!\n\nSeriously thanks a whole bunch!\n\nThis story was written and made by me using twine and I made the music using [[musicshake|http://eng.musicshake.com]].\n\nBy the way I am currently on twitter @Aralioideae and on tumblr at [[aralioideae.tumblr.com|http://aralioideae.tumblr.com]]\n\nFeedback is greatly appreciated but keep in mind some of the problems/crappy parts of this story are like that on purpose (e.g. the lack of plot and terrible ending) and some are not. One day I'll make one of these that isn't an absolute piece of crap but I'm not there yet and so need all the advice I can get.\n\nOnce again, thanks for reading!\n\n-Ivy xxx (currently tumblr user aralioideae)\n\n"//I wanna make it right, that is the way\nTo turn my life around, today is the day\nAm I the type of guy who means what I say?\nBet on it, bet on it\nBet on it, bet on it//" - Zac Efron, HSM2. \n(One day I will make a good story with twine, one day)

All the greetings cards are to celebrate first birthdays. All of them. Every single one. There are no cards for other birthdays, let alone any for other occasions. The cards do have different designs though, which is at least something, you guess. There is one card in particular that takes your fancy. It has a little robot on it holding some balloons. You try to [[pick it up|pick it up]].

P.O.

You give the envelope to Sarah. He gives you (yet another) funny look and says he can't post it. You ask why. He explains that it needs to have the address written on it so the delivery person knows where it needs to go. It doesn't have a stamp either. You say you don't know where it needs to go. Sarah asks if you even know what is in the evelope and you realise that you don't. You look at Sarah. He looks at you. Again, you feel embarassed. You tried to post an envelope when you didn't even know what was in it, let alone who is was for. You blush. Again. You grin sheepishly at Sarah. Again. \n\nYou decide that maybe opening the envelope might be a [[better idea|open]].

What are you going to do now then? You don't know why you're in the post office, there's no obvious way out (though you haven't really looked, have you?) and, whilst everything seems normal, what you've encountered so far tells you to expect other things to be the same amount of just a little odd. You guess you could [[actually look properly for a way out|investigate]], or just [[generally investigate the post office a bit more|investigate]].

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Why are you trying to leave? You don't know why you're here yet! There must be a reason for you being here, after all. You look around for the door anyway. There doesn't seem to be one. You think that's pretty disconcerting, to be honest. It doesn't matter too much now though because you [[weren't leaving anyway|copy]].

The other side of the service counter is less than inspiring. There's a few filing cabinets, some shelving, a bookcase, and a desk. For some reason there isn't anywhere for letters and parcels to go but, since that isn't particularly odd compared to some of the other things that have happened to you recently, you don't notice it straight away. Because it's the sensible and perfectly logical thing to do in this situation, you sit down on the floor under the desk. It's surprisingly comfortable. Hey, wait a minute. There's a sort of raised area that looks a little suspicious. You may want to check it out before sitting on it. Oh, you're already sitting on it. Oh well. [[Check it out anyway|raised area]].

You sit down. Nothing happens. You stare at the piece of paper. Nothing happens. Nothing ever happens again. Ever.\n\n[[Go back to doing stuff|open]]

Either way, you walk over to the service counter and spot a door, which you are sure wasn't there earlier. If you think about it though, Sarah was on the other side of the window before and now he's not so there kind of has to be some way to cross from one side to the other. It wouldn't have to be a door in the window but that would probably be the easiest route...\n\nYou give a small sigh and [[go through the door|through the door]].

A trapdoor opens beneath you and you fall into a bottomless pit of calm light and pleasant smells. You keep falling. Falling forever and ever. At least you think you're falling. Probably. Who knows? Not me anyway.\n\n[[Go back|put away]]

Ivy

You enter the photo booth and sit on the stool inside. You decide to draw the curtain for a little privacy, despite the fact that there is only one other person in the post office and that's Sarah. The screen in front of you asks that you put some coins into the slot and press the green button, but you ignore it. You look at the paper again. It's still blank. You turn it over and look at the other side. This side is blank too. You decide to look at the first side again, just in case. There's [[something written on it|written]].

You pull back the cutain and step out. Sarah is right where you left him. Hang on, wait a second here... Where did you leave Sarah? I thought he was standing behind the service window when you went inside the photo booth, but if you look now he is over by the shelves rearranging the stationary. Therefore, he is not where you left him at all. How did he even get out from behind the window anyway? Sarah looks up and notices you staring at him. You turn away, slightly embarrassed for the third time, and pretend to be fascinated by a nearby poster on international postage. It's not that interesting really. \n\nYou decide to go [[poke around at the greetings cards|poke around]].

Well, you try to pick it up, but your hand goes right through it. Your behaviour recieves a puzzled look from Sarah. You try again. You fail again. Your behaviour recieves a puzzled look from Sarah again. He wonders why you are even trying to pick the cards up. It's pretty obviously impossible. In fact, it would be more weird if you really could actually pick it up. Now it's Sarah's turn to recieve a puzzled look from you. Unfortunately, Sarah doesn't appear to want to elaborate and continues arranging the pencils. \n\nYou spend a further five minutes trying to pick the card up despite knowing [[you can't|give up]].