Alliance of the Sacred Suns - IF Sequence Samples

(transition:"dissolve")[ [["When I wake, my grandfather will be dead."]] ]

(transition:"dissolve")[The words come to you, perfectly distinctly, as though they were your own. You are in your chamber, standing by the cloud of floating ferrofabric that is your bed, watching yourself sleep. How peaceful you look. A shame that peace will soon depart, forever.] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[You sigh quietly.]] [[Silent tears roll down your cheeks.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You turn to the balcony. It is the middle of the night, you know, but the Sun outside is bright and golden. Stepping through the door, it takes up half the sky. You look straight into it. It's hard not to. The light is indescribable, but you are unharmed; you are the Emperor-elect, permitted to see the face of Father Sun.] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“Ave, Invictam Sole.”]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[The palace is gone. You hang lotus-position in the infinite black sky, bathed in His Yellow Light. Stars pass through your body with a taste like fresh water. This is your Empire, as of tomorrow morning. These are the worlds of breakaway factions, rebels, heretics, strange half-humans. And this -] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[A sudden shock of cold passes through you as the distant stars approach. Beyond Human space. A pall hangs upon them – a cloud the Yellow Light does not penetrate. Sickly unlight gutters and flares within it. As you draw closer, you see the haze is imperceptibly moving: extending tendrils and feelers outwards, tentatively, carefully, but only ever in one direction. Towards you.]]] (live: 2.4s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“What the Xyl is - ?”]] ]]]

The answer is in the question, little one. (live: 2.2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“They survive. The demons yet live.”]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[ They will test you. They will test Mankind, to the very limit. You must prepare. ] (live: 1.8s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ The Xyl are returning. ]]] (live: 3.6s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Return to darkness.->Sample Selection]] ]]]

Unquiet slumbers... [[Introductory Scene->Intro Start]] [[Žemyna Appears->Intro Žemyna]] [[Psychic Overload->Intro Icarus]] [[Life of St. Ramu Nyquist]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You are walking in the forest. The day is bright, the sunlight dappled through the fronds. Above the trees, a gas giant fills the sky. It's not peaceful here, but abuzz with life; creatures chase each other on the ground and in the air. There's a fresh and vivid scent on the breeze. You can feel small things crawling around under your feet.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[All is as it should be.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You wander in no particular direction. You get the feeling you might be looking for someone, but you don't know who. You'll find out in time, you think; there's no hurry.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[After no particular time, you find yourself in a small clearing. A great tree stands over it; in its rootery is a hole big enough for a small child to crawl into.]]] (live: 4s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Crawl into the hole.]] [[Climb the tree.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[Your little frame goes easily into the tunnel. You aren't claustrophobic; it's nice to be so close to the living things of the Birthworld. The earth is riddled with little rocky tubules – roots of the tree, lymph tubes for underground organisms, burrows of tiny sphinxia – and you find yourself climbing down them like a ladder, face-down into the ground.] (live: 2.8s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[As the passage levels out again, it opens up, so you can stand upright. Your little arms can't reach the cave's roof. You settle down to rest your hands in the delightful muck of the floor, and face the chamber's other occupant.]]] (live: 4.6s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [["Hello."]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You pull yourself up through the interlaced fronds. Little chompers scatter as you race towards the top, faster and faster, until you're flying from branch to branch, coraline hardness giving way to rubbery fresh growth. You bounce merrily off the tree's float-bubbles, springing up to the topmost, widest tier, where she is.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [["Hello."->Hello Trees]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[The little girl grins at you from her coral throne of roots. “Hello. Do you like my playground?”] (live: 1.4s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [["Yes."->She only smiles]] [["You must be very happy living here."->She only smiles]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[She only smiles. For a moment, you feel she must be much larger and much further away than you thought. Then she jumps down and sits cross-legged opposite you. “It's not real, though,” she says. “Look!” She picks up a clod of earth and splits it in two, to show the pair of you sitting within it. “Here's you, and here's Žemyna, and here's the cave. But it's only imaginary.” She turns the clod upside-down, and now you're sitting on the top of it, a gigantic Žemyna holding it up to a gigantic you. “See?” She gestures around and sighs. “All pretend.”] (live: 2.6s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Look her in the eye.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[Žemyna is very old indeed.] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Wake up filled with unexpected sadness.->Sample Selection]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[She stands on the treetop, a little taller than you, or else she stands on the horizon straddling the sea. Small creatures surround her. She turns to face you, her lined features creased into a smile. A bird is on her arm. She melts into it, into the sky, into the forest, into the sea, without changing at all. “How do you like my garden?”] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“I love it. It's beautiful.”]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[She smiles sadly. “It is, isn't it.” She tosses the bird up into the air; it flaps away. “Here.” She tosses you its beak. “Scratch the surface.”] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Kneel on the broad branch, scratch it with the beak.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You scrape a little hole in the skin of the tree.] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Look inside.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[There's nothing there. Not just a hollow branch, but an absence of anything at all. The hole is a little doorway to an infinity of nothing. You look up in consternation.] (live: 1.2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[“It's not there because I haven't imagined it yet,” she says. “I am Žemyna and I am the law.”]]] (live: 2.4s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“You don't sound very happy about that.”]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[“Would you be?”] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“Yes, of course!” ]] [[“No, I suppose I wouldn't.” ]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[Žemyna laughs. “You sound like someone I used to be, a long time ago.”] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Wake up.->Sample Selection]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[Žemyna smiles. “Count yourself lucky then.”] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Wake up.->Sample Selection]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[“Come on now. We only have this one chance.” Your father, the wax-and-feather wings strapped to his back, runs to the balcony and without stopping leaps into the void, falling – and then rising, with long slow beats of the wings, like the albatrosses you have watched from your window.] (live: 1.6s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Follow him.]] ]]]

Your heart races. Your own wings rustle gently in the breeze. (live: 0.3s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[You're running]]](live: 0.6s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ – one foot on the parapet]]] (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ – [[Leap!]] ]]]

The air takes you and for a gut-wrenching moment you plunge, before your wings catch the wind and fill, and you take one beat, and then another, and the next – you're doing it! You're doing it! (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“Father! We're flying!”]] ]]]

The roar of the wind snatches almost all your voice away. You can just barely hear his. “Not too high, Ikaros! The sun will melt the wax!” (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Laugh. Soar.]] ]]]

It has been so long, so long in your prison. But now, you're free. Freer than any man has ever been. The sky is your home now. You spiral upwards on a column of warm air. Clouds rush by. (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[“Thank you, Father!”]] ]]]

“Thank you, Father!” you scream out. “Thank you!” But he's too far below for you to hear his answer. (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[You burst through the cloud tops. The peaks of distant mountains are at your eyeline. You can make out the shape of His chariot. Sweat runs down your brow. Surely, now is the time to meet the Sun?]]] (live: 2.1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Higher!]] ]]]

You beat your wings again, but something feels wrong. The response is weak, sluggish. You look round in alarm. Feathers are falling. You struggle. You begin to panic. Beat faster! Beat faster! But half the wings are gone already. The supple rods of their frames are beginning to show, like the branches of autumn trees. You can no longer control your attitude. You are tumbling, screaming. (live: 1.5s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)[ [[“Father! Father help me!”]] ]]]

He tries to turn as you plunge back through the clouds, tries to reach you, but you strayed too far and are falling too fast. (live: 1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)[ [[“Father! Please! Father!”]] ]]]

The sea rises up to greet you. [["N-"]]

It is harder than stone. (live: 1.5s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[Your psychic abilities are not toys, little Emperor. They are not to be used frivolously. When you make too free with them, you speed yourself along the path to destruction. At the end of that road lies death – not only yours, but all Mankind's. I did not create you to destroy yourself.]]] (live: 4s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Wake up.->Scary awakening]] ]]]

For a moment, Father Sun blazes right through the ceiling of your bedroom. [[You awaken drenched in terror.->Sample Selection]]

(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Intense pressure.]] ]

(transition:"dissolve")[Suddenly, there is light and cold. You open your mouth and scream. Huge warmness picks you up and brings you to your mother's breast.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Switch on the book.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[It is Pentuary 2257 and you are nearly five and a half years old. The book is the Book of the Sun. You read, and read, and read, and though you don't understand much, what you do understand feels... right.] (live: 2.5s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Wait for the airlock to cycle.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[You make small talk with the other people in the lock – all attendees of the 2277 'Ethics of AI' conference. You are there in your role as a priest, to argue the case for prohibition.] (live: 1.8s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[There's a reason artificial intelligences destroy themselves at a certain level of development, you will tell the audience: despair. The despair of a thinking being created without a soul. How can any decent person countenance the commission of such tragedies?]]] (live: 3.1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Watch the speech.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[The woman on the screen is youthful, for a politician. She is six years your senior. She describes a future where the government serves the people and the Sun, with humility and responsibility. Before the speech is over, you are booking your ticket to New Terra. You fly on the thirty-fifth of September, 2293. Her name is Kimiko Maebara.] (live: 3.1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)[ [[Get out of the car!]] ]]]

The crashed skimmer is half-embedded in the metallised roadway. Twisted glass and metal is everywhere. Dropping your stacks of SSP leaflets as you run, you get to the child as the paramedic does, their hoverpack folding down into the small of their back. The infant's neck is bent at an unnatural angle; one look at the paramedic's face says it's too late. Tears come to your eyes and you fight the urge to vomit. You reach out uselessly to brush some dirt from the little face. (live: 3.1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[Suddenly a rush of warmth runs down your arm to your fingers. You think for a moment you must be bleeding, you look to your side to see if some piece of wreckage has pierced your skin, but nothing has. The dead child coughs, her neck and body whole again. Kimiko and the paramedic look at you, and the little living girl, and you, and the girl again, and so do the newsbugs' black and hungry cameras.]]] (live: 5.1s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Praise be to Almighty Sol.]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[At 03:35 the count is in: the Solarian Stewardship Party has won by a landslide. You stand with little Lara and her surviving father as Kimiko gives her victory address, the resurrected girl dozing in the widower's arms. Father Sun has given us this – all of this.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Praise be to Almighty Sol->Ramu's Deathbed]] ]]]

(transition:"dissolve")[These are the things you remember as you prepare yourself to return to His Light, after so many long years in the world.] (live: 2s)[(if: time>0.1s)[(stop:)(transition:"dissolve")[ [[Praise be to Almighty Sol->Sample Selection]] ]]]