There's a loose board in Myia's roof. There's been a loose board in Myia's roof for months. Maybe even years. It's easy to find if you know what to look for. You just pry it back a little and squeeze through, and it lands you straight in the attic.\n\nThat's what Maybel does every time she comes in. That's what she's done since long before she was ever discovered, and that's what she's done long after. She could most likely get away with coming through the front door, but it just wouldn't feel right.\n\nSince she was discovered, Maybel hasn't stopped stealing from Myia. It's the easiest house to get in and get out unseen by its owner, probably the easiest in all of Bugtown. There's no way Maybel would give that up.\n\n[[Besides, it has good company.]]

"Just some bags full of stuff. Canned food, blankets, that kind of thing."\n\nEmet looks confused. "...Okay." They ponder over this for a moment. "How do you get in?"\n\n"There's a loose board in the ceiling."\n\nEmet lifts their head up and stares at the wall blankly. [[They don't comment on this new information.]]\n\nMaybel grabs a couple plates and flips the eggs onto one for Emet, and the bacon onto one for herself. She sets them on the table and takes a seat across from Emet and [[they start eating]].

"Where is she?"\n\n"Go to fucking hell!"\n\n[[CRACK]]

[[Stab!]]

"Miss Sapre?" it asks. "I'm sorry, I checked here earlier and you weren't home so I thought you might finally be home so I knocked again and now you're here and now I feel kind of guilty for some reason--"\n\n"Hunter, honey," you interrupt. "Please breathe. Come inside."\n\n[[It steps through your doorway.]]

"Can you take your bag back already?" Carmine complains.\n\n"If it's too heavy for you, you should've just let Maybel carry it!" Myia says, snatching her duffel bag out of Carmine's hands.\n\n"It's not too heavy, I just don't need it!"\n\n"You were trying to be nice, right!? You can't just change your mind now!"\n\n"Are you guys going to argue the entire way? Because I'm already regretting this," Emet says from the back of the party.\n\n"No regret! Don't regret! It's fine! I'm quiet!" Myia covers her mouth in a new vow of silence.\n\n"You guys know it's a while 'til my village, though, right? It's probably going to take longer than a day."\n\n"A whole day of walking!" Myia interrupts her own silence quickly. "Now I'm regretting this."\n\n"Well, it's too late now!" Carmine says. "We're probably all targets for the harvesters now. [[Your friend Sapre probably told them all about us.]]"\n

Just as you start on your food, you see someone you recognize enter the cafe. A fellow harvester -- as you recall, he works today. You wave at him and he surprises you by heading straight for your table.\n\n"Sapre, I hoped I would find you here. [[There's been a murder.]]"

You creep up behind the pill bug, super stealthy and dangerous and cool, peering around corners and stuff like that. He seems to be going to a night club.\n\n[[He enters the club's doors.]]

A bird? They have black feathers and wings. [[They must be a bird.|You open your eyes.]] Their leg is bandaged, recently if the med kit in Myia's hand is any indication.

You're Maybel, a [[crow]]. You're getting ready to go out today. It's the middle of August, humidity is mild. You don't mind the heat too much, but it's better to dress light.\n\n[[Put on your scarf.]]

"I guess I do take care of them. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty good like that. Giving. Charitable. Yeah."\n\n"Uh-huh... Well, uh, here."\n\nThe stranger offers a bag to Myia.\n\n"It's," they pause, unsure. "It's stuff I was trying to take, before I fell." Another pause. "I don't feel right keeping it now."\n\nMyia's looks at them quizzically. [[She looks in the bag.]]

The knife-wielder spits. "Sapre... She knows Sapre. Shit, she might be telling the truth. I'll lose my job if another accident like last time happens."\n\n"We could take her in."\n\n"Yeah... good enough."\n\n[["In where? I don't want to be in anything!"]]

You claw at the floor, rubbery fingers useless against old wood.\n\n[[Shhh!]]

[["Will you let go of me already!?"]]

...\n\n.....\n\n[[........]]

A chill runs down her back and she shivers, suddenly wishing she had worn an extra coat. She closes the file and checks her surroundings. No one's looking at her; even the receptionist has moved on to help some other people. She tucks the file into her cape.\n\nSomeone says "good morning" and she yelps, [[turning and running straight out of the office]].

Your name is Sapre, and you're a [[flesh fly]]. It's been a while since you've had a day off, and you plan to enjoy it to its fullest.\n\n<<cyclinglink "You're wearing your best." "You're always at your best." "You're wearing a white dress ending in a pencil skirt lined with black, with a white fur collar and red pumps." end>> You've already taken a shower and primped and preened with care. [[You're ready for breakfast.]]

They separate quickly, Sapre leaving with a blown kiss goodbye. Myia waves brightly and walks off in the other direction with a spring in her step. She passes through the vendor stalls of the marketplace humming to herself, nodding to her own tune.\n\nShe looks way more vulnerable than the professional-looking fly that just left her.\n\n[[Corner Myia.]]

You're Carmine, and you're a [[venus flytrap]]. And you're hungry. You're so hungry.\n\nWhen you eat, it's usually enough to have you set for weeks. But you thought it'd be easier to get food in the city. [[You were wrong.]]

You used to call it "killing", but Sapre hates that word. But probably just when you use it wrong? Probably. No, this is harvesting. The harvesting department decides your target based on very intricate algorithms. Mostly just people who did a crime. Criminals, that's what they're called.\n\n[[You're new to harvesting.]] Sapre has been your mentor, taking you under her wing and showing you what's what. From what you understand, you're supposed to:\n\n<<cyclinglink "Follow your target." "You're totally following him now! He's a many-armed pill bug, gender: guy, named something-or-other, age blah blah blah, basically what the deals is he's bad and he's got to become food." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Make sure he's in a quiet or secluded area." "He's leaving the marketplace, where many people are, and going downtown, where fewer people are. That's good for you." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Look really cool." "You're wearing your extra jingly necklaces today, so you look pretty amazing." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Have a weapon." "Sapre gave you a dagger with a golden sheath and hilt, to match the jewelry you always wear. It's so pretty. You take it with you wherever you go now. This will be the first time you use it." end>>\n[[Harvest.]]

[[That looked like...]]

You sigh, dropping yourself back into your sofa, finally back home after that ordeal. You've washed the blood off your hands and changed your clothes, opting for a nightgown that you can relax in.\n\n[[You think you may take a nap.]]

[[...|...maybel]]

[["YOU'RE IN MY HOUSE"]]\n\nMake her voice stop.

[[Helpless]]

Emet's been eating better since Maybel started cooking for them. It's easier, when there's something lying on a plate in front of them, to just eat what's given to them.\n\nIn a way, a lot of things have been better [[since Maybel started coming around]].\n\nEmet looks at the kitchen around them. The dishes are done, the kitchen itself is clean, even they themself are clean.\n\n[[The place is still a dump, but it looks a little nicer now.]]

Myia leads all of them into the living room and lines them up in front of Emet's couch. She stands before them, serious and quiet.\n\n...\n\nCarmine starts to open his mouth, but that's when Myia finally speaks.\n\n"I've gathered you all here today for one very important reason. Very important. So important, you'll be shocked at how important it is. 'Myia, that's too important!' you will say. And I will just nod and look very cool because that's how important."\n\n"Will you just say what it is already?" Carmine impatiently interrupts.\n\n"Emet is," she says, "[[on the list|otl2]]."

Check. It's a small scarf, not too heavy for the summer heat.\n\n[[Put on your shoes.]]

Everyone stares at Myia. Carmine opens his mouth, but quickly closes it. No one says anything for a very long time.\n\nMyia finally says, "That's why you're here, Carmine. You're the only plant I know. Only you can help us."\n\nCarmine is quiet for a while. But he does eventually speak. Softly. "Why should I help you?"\n\n"You have to!" Myia says loudly, piercing through the quiet and ringing in everyone's ears. Carmine growls in response.\n\n"I don't have to do anything! You're a harvester, you're one of the ones responsible for this in the first place! For this, and for all the pain the plants around this city have gone through! So you finally found yourself stuck with a decision you don't like? Too fucking bad! You should have been prepared for this before you joined them to begin with! What, you thought easy money came without a price!? If that were true, half the city would be harvesters! But good people don't, Myia! Good people don't become harvesters! Good people don't kill people who have done nothing wrong! Good people don't have to make the choice whether to kill their friends!"\n\nEveryone is silent. Even Myia has nothing to say. She only stares at Carmine, mouth open, as if she was struck.\n\n...\n\nMaybel is the one to break the silence. "Myia," she says carefully, "running to the forest isn't an option. Emet... Emet wouldn't survive one day out there."\n\n"They would," Myia says. [["If they have us."]]

His name is Grip. He's dark like you, but you're not actually related. He found you as a young child after your parents were killed, and, rather than eat you, showed you mercy and took you in. You know him better than your real father, so it's not like it'd be wrong to call him "father". But you call him Grip to his face.\n\nHe's a noble man, noble like a raven should be. He just [[forgets things sometimes]].

"Don't you have friends among your foragers?" you ask.\n\n"Yes, but they wouldn't... understand." It pauses. "I don't know if anyone would understand."\n\n"What is it, dear?"\n\n[["It's... the trees."]]

It was supposed to be your day off but you were swamped with work anyway. You think if you can sleep you can make up for all the extra work you've done today.\n\n[[Knock, knock.]]

The stranger is standing. Favoring one leg. Not moving. Not looking at Myia. They see your eyes are open, and only blink in acknowledgement. They say nothing.\n\nMyia unceremoniously tosses the bag over her shoulder, causing a minor crash and knocking some of her beloved things around.\n\n[["Get out of my house!"]]

[["PLEASE JUST GIVE ME YOUR FOOD"]]

"Yes, Cordula?"\n\n"If I tell you... will you kill me?"\n\nYou look at her, bleeding out in the wooden chair, sweating and crying and drooling.\n\nIt's a dirty, cruel thing.\n\n"Yes," you say. "I'd do that for you."\n\n[[She's silent for a long time, only panting.]]

They're strung up by wires, hanging from a chandelier by their hands and spilling blood into a puddle on the floor. There is a pair of white glasses in the puddle, both lenses broken, quickly being stained red. There are many knives sticking out of their body, stuck into them in various places. They're bleeding everywhere, but their face is oddly pristine, oddly angelic surrounded by their own gore.\n\n[[It's a dirty, cruel thing.]]

shitheap bugtown

He runs, and you follow. You can't let him escape now! He navigates the alleys of downtown faster than you can manage, <<cyclinglink "tossing trash cans behind him as he goes" "and you totally run into a trash can" end>>. But you're "hot" on his "trail".\n\n[[Before you know it, you're back at the marketplace.]]

He falls with a hard crash, knocking his chin against the ground. It knocks the wind out of him. You grab him by the shoulder.\n\n[[You twist him onto his back this time.]]

It stands. "I'll get out of your hair now... Sorry, Miss Sapre, sorry for bothering you."\n\n"It's no problem, Hunter. It's always a pleasure to see you."\n\n"Oh, right. [[One more thing, Miss Sapre?]]"

You do a lot of dishes, thinking about absolutely nothing other than the feeling of warm water soaked into your froggy skin.\n\nYou turn off the sink\n\nand\n\nit crashes.\n\n[[It crashes?]]

You do a lot of dishes, thinking about absolutely nothing other than the feeling of warm water soaked into your froggy skin.\n\nYou turn off the sink\n\n[[and]]

...\n\n[[.....]]

[[...]]

<<set $carmine_read = "yes">>Her and her comrade, Sapre. Everyone comes to the marketplace. It's just a matter of time before you see one of them again. And you will get them to call off their invasions into the forest. They're your "in" into an organization of terror. And they just casually outed themselves in a restaurant. They must think themselves invincible.\n\n[[You'll show them they're not.|Begin]]

[[You're getting tired of walking.]]

You\n\naccept\n\nyour\n\nfate\n\n[[and fall to the ground.]]

Dr. Nasrin is a slug. She was born without legs. She can still get around, it's just so slow going that she uses a wheelchair instead. So it's not rare to see her out of the chair.\n\nWhat's rare is to see her [[after dark]].

"Wait! Stop!" you plead. "I'm not a crimes girl! I'm not a criminal!"\n\n"Yeah," the person with the knife says. "I'm a harvester, and you're about to be food for the masses here. They look hungry, don't they? I'm normally not the charity type, but for people like you who kill in broad daylight, I don't care what happens to your corpse as long as it's dead."\n\n[["Harvester! Me! Me too! I'm a harvester!"]]

You're not lazy. You're just tired. All the time. It's not an excuse -- it's just how you feel. Doing things is so difficult, sometimes you can't even eat the food Myia brings home for you. She's been bringing more lately and the fridge is fuller than it's ever been but you just can't eat. You hope it doesn't go bad. You might still have to eat it. Throwing out food is the worst thing you could possibly do, and <<cyclinglink "you're not" "you don't think you're">> wealthy enough for that luxury. Besides, here in Bugtown, people might start gathering near your trash to take old food and that would [[paint a larger target on your back]].

The back alleys are a quieter place to kill someone, possibly if it's premeditated. It's not too uncommon for someone to stumble drunk out of a bar and come across [[a dead body|finding it]].

You try to climb to your feet to check over the fence, but you stumble and fall into the small hole you've dug.\n\n[["This is just like you, Carmine!"]]

"It's Myia!" Emet calls out to Maybel, knocking a chair over as they hurry out of the kitchen towards the front door.\n\n[[The door is open.]]

"You and everyone else who's ever faced down my knife."\n\nThe one holding your arms pipes up.\n\n"Hey... Remember last time? What if she's telling the truth?"\n\n[["I am! Sapre! Ask Sapre!"]]

[[Wait, that voice...]]

<<set $myia_read = "yes">>She's right. You can leave now. You're awake and all. You get up, when suddenly you remember what happened.\n\n"Sapre, Sapre! You won't believe what happened to me today."\n\n"The other harvesting agents told me what they saw already, darling. [[But I want to hear it from you.|Begin]]"

[[A velvet worm working at a restaurant, juggling trays of food in several arms and avoiding the hands of scavengers.]]

[[Before you know it, you fall asleep.]]

You're not a raven like your father. Ravens are majestic, noble, beautiful.\n\nCrows are scruffy, obnoxious, loud.\n\n[[You're not loud.]]

A knock at the door? You weren't expecting anyone. Who goes around for surprise visits after dark?\n\nYou drag yourself off the sofa and to the door.\n\n[[There's a purple dragonfly at your doorstep.]]

The four of them turn at the new voice in surprise. Maybel drops her bag and holds her hand over the handle of her knife.\n\n"Sapre!" Myia recognizes the person standing behind all of them. Carmine does, too, but he can only stare in horror, caught like a bug.\n\nSapre smiles at them, waving. She's wearing her hair braided and yellow today, in a yellow pinafore over a white button-up and yellow gloves.\n\n"Plants belong in the forest, after all. Even carnivores like yourself, Venus," she says, honey in her voice.\n\n"Sapre!" Myia says. "If anyone can help it's you! They made a mistake, Sapre! They told me to kill Emet!"\n\n"Is that what this is? I thought it seemed a bit strange." Sapre holds a finger to her mouth, looking thoughtful. "But I didn't expect you to be one to turn and run. I suppose I should rethink my impressions of you."\n\n"But it doesn't make sense, Sapre! Emet's a good person!"\n\nSapre smiles again, flicking her proboscis at Myia. [["Good people die all the time, darling."]]

You think you hear <<cyclinglink "something" "a hiss" "more trash falling" "footsteps, very faint" end>>.\n\n[[You go check out the noises.]]

"Venus!" someone yells after him.\n\n"Don't call me that!" he snaps instantly, as a reflex. It's probably some random person trying to harass him again. They're always more bark than bite -- no one in Bugtown wants to provoke a flytrap.\n\n[[But this time someone barrels into him and he's on the floor.]]

[["I can still hear them, even now..."]]

Harvesting agents fill many roles in your society, but they all have one purpose: acquiring food for the people. They may be foragers, venturing into the wild forests surrounding the metropolis for plants. They may be enforcers, walking the streets to keep criminals in check. Or they may be... oh, how the term holds so many unwanted connotations, but they may be [[butchers like you]].

[[An earwig wearing only shorts, yelling at a friend for something or other.]]

"Dr. Nasrin?" you struggle to ask, out of breath. "What are you still doing here?"\n\n"Maybel," she says in her accent. [["I'm sorry."]]

[["AND SOME OTHER STUFF"]]\n\nShe's so angry.

You clean the blood off your shoes in the sink and ready yourself for a bath. It's been a tough morning, but at least the rest of your day can be spent relaxing.\n\n[[The warm water washes away the terrible memory.]]

[[She looks in the bag.|bag2]]

[[...|...maybel2]]

Emet's voice rings out clearly. Maybel stops.\n\n"Don't leave her behind! Myia, don't die! Please, just run!"\n\nEveryone stands still for a moment. Myia takes a step back.\n\n"I'd listen to them if I were you, Myia," Sapre says. "I have no business in the forest and you've already come so far. It'd be silly to simply throw your life away now, and for no good reason."\n\n"You mean... you won't follow us?" Myia looks unconvinced.\n\n"God, no! The forest is a very unpleasant place, and I look so good today. Besides, you won't last a day, even with your little supplies there. The foragers will find your bodies before long."\n\nMyia hesitates, but Maybel calls her name one last time and she turns and, grabbing Emet by the hand, [[runs into the trees]].

Myia steps back from Emet, placing both hands on their shoulders. "Okay. I will."\n\n"I'll come too," Maybel says. "Myia was right, you could use me. I've only ever been to the edge of the forest, but... I'm always prepared. And I can defend myself."\n\nThey both look at Carmine.\n\n"...What? Don't look at me like that."\n\n"I get you hate the harvesters," Myia says. "But that just means you should help us! Emet hasn't done anything wrong!"\n\nCarmine narrows his eyes at Myia.\n\n[[And looks at Emet.]]\n\n"Fine. Fine, okay? I can... I can take you guys to my village. Just don't blame me when they don't let you in."\n\nMyia squeals and hugs Carmine, jumping up and down as he struggles and protests.\n\n"Okay. Okay," Myia says, still gripping tightly onto Carmine as he tries to pull away. [["We have to leave now, before anyone finds out and catches us."]]

[[There's so many people.]]

Without money, without a proper job, it's so hard to find food. And no one will hire Venus. People kill in the streets for food. You don't have the stomach for that, despite your reputation. You can't bring yourself to do it.\n\n[[Even though you're so desperate.]]

<<cyclinglink "Select your target." "Done. All the houses are built the same anyway, so you don't have to think too hard about this. You pick one a good distance away from the house with the alarm." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Locate a burial site." "Done. There's one along the side of this house, marked by a small cross." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Sneak over the fence." "Done. No wires this time, just you clambering over the fence clumsily, trying your best to stay silent. You fall on your face but only make a small thump. You rub your nose, annoyed with yourself." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Check the windows." "Done. There's some people in the living room, it seems, all looking at some kind of box. But none of them on the side of the house near the burial site." end>>\n[[Dig.]]

You lie back, letting the blood smeared into your mind rinse off in the water. You think only of your plans for today. Perhaps you will take a walk in the park while the sun is still out. Or maybe you will wander the marketplace, looking at the crafts and trinkets for sale. Or perhaps you will go out to Worm Springs and see an old friend.\n\nYou're lost in thought when [[your pager goes off]].

Now you know for sure the pill bug is a crimes guy. You should've known he looked all shifty! Like a real crimes guy!\n\n[[You follow him out of the bathroom.]]

[[The guy totally doesn't see you coming.]]

Your name is Myia, and you're a [[fruit fly]]. This is your first time tracking your own "target". You followed the "perp" down to the "marketplace" and you're "tailing" him now.\n\nThat's the kind of lingo they use in the business. The business of [[harvesting]].

No.\n\nThat's a terrible idea.\n\nYou want to run.\n\nYou want to dig, You want to dig, dig, dig dig dig dig dig dig there's a person in the house there's a person and they're going to <<cyclinglink "kill" "eat">> you [[but]]

Lavender skin, red compound eyes, a thin, even pair of wings. A black bob that is hidden under a wig whenever you get the urge. You don't disguise yourself, you simply change from day to day. You want to keep things fresh. Different styles, different makeup, different look. Right now, you're wearing a long curled red hairstyle to match your eyes, with white lipstick and eyeliner.\n\n[[You're not what people imagine when they think of flesh flies.]]

You're gasping but you can't breathe. Your eyes well up and tears hot like the sink water run down your cheeks and drip onto the knotty wooden floor. Water is cleansing but it can't save you. You collapse onto the floor and\n\ncry\n\n[[wail]]

"Morning," she calls out as she drops from the attic onto a pile of trash and onto the floor.\n\n"M'rnin'," a voice mumbles from the couch in the center of the living room.\n\nEmet rolls over from the couch and spills onto the floor, rubbing their eyes and stretching their legs. They slowly rise to their feet and clear their throat.\n\n"I've been awake since, like, four," they complain, shuffling over towards the kitchen where they can sit at the table.\n\n[[Maybel follows them, opening the refrigerator door and rummaging inside for some breakfast.]]

[["I'VE NEVER MET YOU BEFORE"]]\n\nHard to listen to.

You ready your knife. You were prepared for this. One day, you knew this would happen. You knew you would have to kill. Crows are usually scavengers, but you can't rely on other people forever.\n\nYou pick your mark.\n\nYou raise your knife.\n\n[[You steel yourself.]]

You slowly open your eyes. This bed really feels stiff. And cold. Your head hurts. You feel like you haven't slept at all.\n\n[[You look around you.]]

Short black hair. Dark brown skin; you're black around the edges. Medium-sized black wings on your back.\n\nBlack, black, black. A typical crow. You couldn't even be born a [[raven]].

It's a dangerous world out there. You're very familiar with that fact. Digging has gotten you <<cyclinglink "out of" "into">> deadly situations before -- situations that could have ended with you on someone's dinner plate.\n\nYou don't do much digging now. You hate the cuts and scrapes and little pointy rocks that come with it anyway. You have the one tunnel that leads out of the house, [[and that's all you need]].

No, that sound didn't come from the faucet.\n\nIt came from...\n\n<<cyclinglink "outside" "It sounded much too close to be from outside. The house is perched on a hill, and it's hard to get to without flying or using your tunnel." end>>\n\n<<cyclinglink "the ceiling" "You can't tell if anything fell onto the ceiling, but a quick glance over confirms that nothing cracked or broke through the wood. It's not a strong house. A crash that loud would leave some damage." end>>\n\n<<cyclinglink "yourself" "Maybe you fell and didn't notice. Wait, what? How does that make any sense? You'd notice if you fell. Why are you thinking this?" end>>\n\n[[none of the above]]

[["Grip is dead."]]

You've heard a lot of rumors about the wealthy outside of Bugtown. How they only eat factory-synthesized food, how they actually bury their dead instead of using them to feed people. All things completely unheard of in Bugtown, or even your home village.\n\nActually seeing a wealthy district now, you might believe the rumors. Their houses are large and pristine, in rows and rows of identical structures stretching out for miles. Neat houses in neat, straight lines. There's no one else on the streets, unlike the densely populated Bugtown.\n\nThey may truly even [[bury their dead]].

You unlock the door quickly, hoping desperately that Grip will just be right where you left him. You run into the house, leaving your shoes on.\n\n[[An empty wheelchair is in the kitchen.]]

It feels like forever since Carmine came from the forest into the city. Into Bugtown. It was his only option. If he went back, he'd be the first plant to survive the city and return. But he can't go back. His only source of food is here.\n\nHe can't go back, but Myia's right. Emet hasn't done anything wrong. They're just another victim of the harvesters.\n\nAnd... [[Emet looks so sad.|"Take me to the forest."]]

There's a lot of people here in the marketplace. Enough that if someone was killed it'd be unlikely that the killer would be seen. You could quickly swoop in, kill someone, wait for others to notice and start taking food and looting the body, and get some food in all the commotion.\n\nWho do you choose?\n\n[[a fruit fly with cottonball hair|scream1]]\n[[a bee in basketball shorts|scream1]]\n[[a beetle in a cheongsam|scream1]]\n[[a grasshopper with two long braids|scream1]]

Myia is kind to let you stay here, but honestly the place is a dump. She's barely home except to sleep and to drop off all the <<cyclinglink "new" "probably stolen">> stuff she's collected that day. [[Completely useless things]]. It's hard to walk anywhere without stepping on something, but you've [[perfected the art]] over the years.\n\n<<cyclinglink "You don't clean." "You're not lazy. You're not.">> You've just given up. More and more things are added every day, and the place is full to bursting with objects that have no place else to be.\n\n[[You step over a gold plastic toy car, probably broken, probably salvaged from someone's trash can.]]

[[She's staring right at Maybel, whose hand is hovering over her knife, caught in the spotlight.]]

"Am not! Am not!" Myia yells back. "Prove it! You can't prove it, can you! So I'm not!"\n\n"I don't care if you want to deny it. I want you to stop your comrades from entering the forests. Mutilating plants."\n\n"I didn't even know we did that!"\n\n"And one more thing... am I... [[on the list]]?"

[[...|...all3]]

You snap your head up, searching for the source of the words. You look up and down the side of the house. You see no one.\n\nIs it coming from the other side of the fence?\n\n[["Just starve and die."]]

You're not lying on a bed. You're lying on concrete. There's metal shackles hanging from the far wall. Not very far, actually. The room is a pretty cramped. The metal door has a little window with steel bars on it.\n\nThe door opens.\n\n[["Oh, honey, you're okay!"]]

Thanks to your appearance and reputation, few people have attacked you in Bugtown. When you announced your plans to move into the city [[from the outside]], the other plants warned you that you'd be cutting your life short. Plants have gone into the city before, never to be seen again.\n\nAt the time, you figured that was just because they didn't choose to come back, but now that you've seen the city firsthand, the other plants were probably right.\n\n[[But nobody messes with Venus.|Carmine]]

They'd love to eat you, they really would. All of them. The ones who stare as you walk by. You wish they'd all just go away. You wish you could dig and dig and [[the world would go away|Emet]].

He pulls something out of his pocket, and hands it to the other guy. Then that guy hands a wad of cash to the pill bug.\n\n[[Oh my God.]]

...\n\n.....\n\n[[........|...myia3]]

Bugtown has one of the highest crime rates of the city. Many people can't afford food, so they turn to killing on the streets to eat. Many corpses are picked clean in mere minutes with how many hungry there are.\n\n[[You have to be fast.|You lock the door behind you.]]

[["ALMOST KILLING EMET"]]\n\nYou want to dig.

[["I'M SO HUNGRY"]]

"And then I thought, good thing zombies ain't real!" the fly with the cottonball hair exclaims to the other, more smartly dressed fly. The black-haired fly giggles politely.\n\n"That's why I don't bother with fiction, honey. Too much, too unexpected."\n\nYou approach their table.\n\n"What can I get you two to drink?"\n\nIn the cotton-fly's sharp voice, she says, [["Whoa, why are you so ugly!?"]]

She grabs him by the wrist and tugs him to his feet, setting off at a run and dragging him along with her.\n\nHe finally gets a good look.\n\nIt's her. The fly with the cottonball hair.\n\n"Slow down! Ugh, at least tell me where we're going!" he calls after her. She doesn't say anything, just continues to run.\n\n[[Where is she taking him?]]

[["COMING INTO MY HOUSE"]]\n\nYou hate this.

That looked like...\n\n[[something really illegal!]]

You run to all your usual places. The marketplace. The back alleys. The homeless communities.\n\nNo commotions. No scavengers desperate for food hunched over a body on the floor. No quiet, partly in-tact corpses in the usual hiding spots. You see several sets of bones, but not a piece of meat in sight.\n\n[[You knew this day would come.]]

[[You're not.]]

[[You're not|You're not2]]

The jail is a little used place. Criminals are killed by harvesters, so there's no need to keep them locked up or anything like that.\n\n[[The jail is mainly used when someone has information that needs sharing.|You'll have to do your makeup on the run.]]

Myia bristles. Strands of her hair, already sticking out, stiffen and rise. Her hands curl into fists, and she pulls them close to her chest.\n\nShe takes a deep breath...\n\n[["How DARE you!?"]]

"But this is my stuff!"\n\n[["Yes."|yes3]]

You fall to your knees. You knew this day would come, but nothing could have prepared you for this. You expect to cry, or yell, or something, but nothing comes out. You take Grip's hand. It's so cold.\n\nDr. Nasrin leaves you silently.\n\n[[You stay there, holding his hand, for a long time.]]

You know this dragonfly. Its name is Hunter, and it's a newer harvesting agent. You've met on several occasions during its time working as a harvester, but it's a forager so you don't work closely together.\n\nYou invite it to have a seat in your living room and offer it some tea.\n\n"Um, no thanks," it says. "I just came to talk, kind of."\n\n"Then talk," you say pleasantly. [["I'm always happy to hear from you."]]

You check the usual spots. The [[marketplace]]. The [[back alleys]] downtown. The homeless [[hotspots]]. The outskirts.\n\nNothing so far, but it's rare that you'll find someone dead right away . Your route usually involves cycling between these areas, over and over, every day. It can get kind of monotonous, but you don't mind.\n\nYou people watch in the meantime. People interest you. How varied they are, how they dress, how they act.\n\n[[There goes a moth in a sweater, despite the heat and all a moth's extra hair.]]

You reach out of your bath to check the intruding thing. You read the screen with disinterest.\n\n9-1-1. The code for emergencies.\n\nYou sigh, dragging yourself out of your bath. [[You'll have to do your makeup on the run.]]

You're gasping but you can't breathe. Your eyes well up and tears hot like the sink water run down your cheeks and drip onto the knotty wooden floor. Water is cleansing but it can't save you. You collapse onto the floor and\n\ncry\n\nwail\n\n[[scream]]

The dishes are piling up. It's your fault. The piles of dishes look at home with all the piles of other junk. It's your fault. You wish they would just go away. [[It's your fault.]]

[[Wait.]]

You've gone without food for over a month now. Your traps ache from hunger. If you touch someone with your hands now you might accidentally bite them, so you stay away from people. You've wandered, now, into one of the less populated [[wealthy districts]].

It's not uncommon that the piles, unsteady as they are, would have things come loose and fall, but nothing like that has ever produced [[that loud a crash before]].

[[The voices are getting closer.]]

<<set $pliers = "yes">>You shove the pliers into her mouth.\n\n"Tap the chair three times if you're ready to talk."\n\nShe taps the chair arm quickly, more like seven times but you understand the confusion. You remove the pliers.\n\n"Yes, Cordula?" you say.\n\n"Please don't, please Sapre, please you don't want this, please, please, please..." She chants for a long time.\n\nToo long.\n\nYou pry her mouth open, grip the pliers around one of her mandibles, and [[pull|CRACK]].

Oh hey, you too. You start to say hi but someone grabs you from behind, dragging you away from the pill bug and locking your arms in place.\n\nSomeone else, slowly advancing on you from the front, pulls out a knife.\n\n[[You're about to get stabbed, aren't you?]]

[[And dig.|dig1]]

<<set $drill = "yes">>You ignore her protests as you attach a screw to the end of the drill. If she's not going to be helpful, she doesn't deserve an answer.\n\nAs you've attached the screw and hold the drill against the soft part where shoulder connects to arm, she grows frantic.\n\n"I HOPE YOU DIE SAPRE I HOPE YOU DIE FOR THIS I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU"\n\n[[The words bleed into screams as you pull the button.|CRACK]]

[[This is your chance.]]

It came from one of the [[piles of trash]].

When you arrive at the jail, you're stopped by a superior. She was apparently the one that called you in.\n\n"Sapre," she says, "you're the only one I could trust with this. [[It's Cordula.]]"

Maybel's explanation just seems so... distressingly normal. It lines up with exactly the sort of things Emet imagined: just more junk and a hole. Part of them expected to be wrong. Most of them expected to be wrong. They don't know why.\n\n[[Even mysteries, they guess, can be mundane.|Emet's head is lying on its side, but their eyes are wide open, serious.]]

Not check. Not yet. You need to equip everything to your vest.\n\n<<cyclinglink "Equip knife." "Your knife latches onto your shoulder. It's not an uncommon sight to show a weapon in Bugtown. People have to know you're capable of defending yourself." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip plastic bags." "Always useful." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip med kit." "Bandages, disinfectant, aspirin, ointments, needles, thread, water purification tablets, tourniquet. Everything you could need." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip flashlight." "Extra batteries, too." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip water pouches." "You need plenty of water. It's summer." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip compass." "It took a while for you to learn to use this. You've had it for longer." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip fire starter." "Magnesium. Small. Easy to find space for." end>>\n<<cyclinglink "Equip blanket." "Okay, you might not need this. It's hot. But better be safe than sorry." end>>\n[[Check.]]

The bags are not too heavy. Myia, Emet, and Maybel all take one as Carmine leads the way to the edge of Bugtown.\n\nThey've all been here before. Through some circumstance or another. But this is a whole different experience. Carmine stops at the very edge of the trees.\n\n"I never thought I'd ever go back," he says.\n\n[["Helping your friend move?"]]

You angrily storm away to take care of their order to the tune of Myia's shrill laugh.\n\n"So about that ladybug we killed the other day..."\n\n"Oh, please, darling, you know I hate to talk work when I'm off."\n\n[[After they eat and Sapre leaves a generous tip, you follow them outside.]]

[[It's too late to turn back.]]

As you follow him to the site of the killing you start to recognize the area. It's one of the town's wealthier areas, the wealthiest in fact. You're starting to understand why he had to call you in so suddenly.\n\nAs you both walk up to the entrance of a certain house, your eyes widen with recognition.\n\n[[You know this house.]]

They're still yelling. Stabbing with every other word. They're not even stopping to eat. They don't know what they're doing. They're just yelling and stabbing an already dead body while scavengers pick it clean.\n\n[[You have to be fast.|fast2]]

White hair. Green skin. Traps in your mouth, on your hands, your stomach, your chest. They get irritated when you wear anything too constricting, so you usually go without a shirt, wearing a cape instead.\n\nPlants are rare in the city, so when people see you they think of nothing but eating you. That is, until they see the traps.\n\n[[When people realize you're a venus flytrap, they go running.]]

A dark figure starts walking toward you. You can't see them clearly through your tears. [[You know this is the end.]]

You just realized you have nothing to dig with. But you're so hungry...\n\nThe burial looks like it was personally done, and not too long ago. You don't want to risk searching for a shovel to steal.\n\nFuck it. [[Dig with your bare hands.]]

You feel like you're falling asleep. You can't, you'll be caught and probably offered to the harvesters for trespassing. But you can't move anymore. You're going to die on your back in this hole with dirt in your traps and voices in your ears and tears in your eyes.\n\n[["It's a good thing zombies ain't real, huh?"]]

"I hope that involves telling me why I'm here," Carmine says, folding his arms.\n\n"What we do is easy," Maybel says. "We hide Emet in another district. Bugtown harvesters only hold power in Bugtown. They won't find Emet that way."\n\n"Bzzzt, wrong!" Myia yells. "That's such a bad idea! You don't know how strong the harvesters are! The other governments don't care what they do, even in their districts! And plus, Sapre told me about someone who hid in Worm Springs and still got found a few months ago!"\n\n"Keep your voice down, someone will hear!" Emet whispers harshly. Everyone falls silent and looks around, as if harvesters were going to come down on them at any moment. [[Everyone but Maybel, who simply looks at the others in confusion.]]\n\n"Anyway," Myia continues in the loudest whisper possible, "the real choice is obvious. We have to run. Take Emet and go. [[Into the forest.]]"

You're crying, still, from pain and shame and fear and from sheer elation, sniffling and sobbing as you pull off pieces of soft flesh to shove directly into the hungry mouths on your stomach and chest.\n\nThe only mouth you don't feed is the one on your face because you think you'd still like to speak at some point during the next couple weeks, probably. You don't need to, anyway. Five full traps is much more than enough for a while.\n\n[[You're saved.]]

You're quiet. You don't like to speak. You might get the words wrong. You watch, learn; you're always aware of your surroundings and you don't make mistakes. All the time, people are surprised by how much you know of them. Stalker, they joke. You're not. You just listen. You [[pay attention|Maybel]].

Maybel thinks about it. To get into Myia's house, you either have to climb (or dig, in Emet's case) up the hill it rests on, or fly up onto the wooden ledge it's supported on. It's a precarious choice, one informed less by logic, she figures, and more by paranoia. The nearest houses in this area are down the hill, on solid ground.\n\n[[Would anyone really be able to hear them?|"What matters is what we do next."]]

rouya k

[[Feast]]

"Is no one going to ask what I think?" Emet finally speaks up. Everyone looks at them. "It's my life. It's my decision. Everyone just back off."\n\n"...I'm sorry, Emet," Maybel says. "What do you want to do?"\n\n"While you guys have been arguing," Emet says, "I've been thinking. You hear about it all the time. People try to run from the harvesters, and they... they don't make it. And I'm... I want to just lie down and cry and let them kill me, but I'm scared." Their voice begins to shake. "I'm scared and I don't want to die. I'm so scared. Myia, please, I'm so scared."\n\nThey fall into Myia's chest and hide their face as they begin to cry.\n\nMaybel and Carmine look away. Myia slowly envelops her arms around Emet and lets them cry.\n\nThe sound of their tears is the only sound anyone hears for a long time. After a while, Emet's sniffles begin to die down.\n\n[["Take me to the forest."]]

When you and Sapre met, it wasn't on good terms. You think you may have been falsely suspected for a crime or something? Anyway, she was trying to kill you. Sorry, "harvest" you. For a long time.\n\nShe followed you around for some months, lead you into places like back alleys, attempted to do stuff like stab you and such. When you finally tracked her down and asked what was the deal, she offered you a job. A really well-paying job.\n\n[[You've been following her ever since.|harvesting]]

Step on a nail enough times and you'll learn [[where not to put your feet|and that's all you need]].

"They weren't killed for food. No part of them has been eaten or torn off. I checked myself," your colleague says as you get over your initial shock. "They were killed in the foyer, and dragged here to be displayed. It's a message.\n\n"They were discovered by their daughter. She wanted you to be the one to take care of this. Like I said, I just wanted you to see the body for now. They were strung up like this for a reason, and there might be details you notice that I won't. I didn't want any part of this investigation to be overlooked."\n\n[["I understand," you say.]]

You're okay?\n\nDo you look okay?\n\n[["No one's here to hurt you!"]]

"Please, darling, you know I hate to talk work when I'm off," you reply, neatly cutting a square of your crepe.\n\n"I know, I know," he says, nearly out of breath, "but this wasn't the usual murder. You don't need to work on it today, but I just need you to see the body."\n\nYou sigh. [[And this day was starting off so well, too.]]

You double over in surprise and pain and she slips away, running down the street.\n\nShe turns back to you.\n\n"I don't know about no damn list!" She sticks her proboscis out and makes a taunting noise before spinning and running off.\n\n[[You pinch your bleeding shins.]]

[[...|...all4]]

You pull up a chair for yourself in front of Cordula. You pick up the hammer and take a seat. You take one of her fingers. She struggles, but with her wrists tied down she can only move her fingers in defense against your full strength.\n\nYou hold the hammer over the finger.\n\n"Where is she?"\n\n"She's far away by now!"\n\nYou wait for a further explanation. You realize none is coming.\n\n[[BAM|bam1]]

"I saw Myia leave early today," Maybel says as she pulls out some eggs and bacon. She turns the stove on and pulls a pan out of a cabinet.\n\n"She's been leaving earlier lately. I don't even see her before she leaves now. Who knows what she gets up to." Emet yawns. "Who even cares."\n\nMaybel smiles. She knows Emet cares. They've been complaining about it often. How they barely see Myia anymore. How she's mysteriously been coming home with more things, more food. [[How she doesn't talk to them about what she does when she's gone.]]

She wails, crying and spitting in pain. \n\nWhat do you use next?\n\n[[The screwdriver]]\n[[The pliers]]\n[[The power drill]]\n\n<<if $screwdriver eq "yes">><<if $pliers eq "yes">><<if $drill eq "yes">>[["Sapre..."]]<<endif>><<endif>><<endif>>

[[And dig.|dig2]]

[[And dig.|dig3]]

The pain is getting too much. The hunger and the pulling of your raw and tender traps is getting too much. It's feels like it's been hours. Your arms are aching and they feel so heavy. Every pull at the dirt feels like it's taking an eternity filled with pain.\n\nThis is it.\n\n[["You're going to die here."]]

This is Shitheap Bugtown, a twine game by Rouya. This is its first twine game.\n\nYou may read the [[warnings]] before you play.\n\n[[Begin]]

"She's in Worm Springs," she finally whispers through tears. "Hotel... called The Weeping Willow."\n\n"Thank you, Cordula." You get up to go tell your superior. As you leave the room, she calls after you.\n\n"Wait, Sapre! You said you'd kill me! [[Sapre!]]"

There'd be a dancey smooth techno beat, and you'd be walkin' real purposeful and cool, all dressed in gold and there'd be some cool effects like explosions and that one thing where it looks kind of like you're looking at a kaleidoscope so there's two mirror images of you and they're moving in and out of each other. [[That'd be a great music video.|He enters the club's doors.]]

Crimes Guy will pay for his crimes... [[in blood]].

"Thanks for taking care of Emet. I was, uh -- out, for a while. Not doing nothing. Just out. But thanks." A low voice, but hard to listen to. Sharp. Bumbling.\n\nMyia?\n\n"You're the one that takes care of them. It's 'them', right? I just... I scared them. Bad. I had to do something." This voice is smooth. Mumbling. Unused.\n\nUnfamiliar.\n\n[[You open your eyes.]]

Carmine hasn't been in a fight since he was a kid. He has no idea how well he could hold himself up against some stranger who actually wants to attack him. Usually baring his traps at someone will scare them off, but now he's on the floor and someone's on him and they're probably going to start throwing fists--\n\n"Venus!" they say instead. "I'll explain soon, but you have to come with me! It's important, really important!"\n\nThat voice is familiar. [[Hard to listen to, but familiar.]]

<<set $maybel_read = "yes">>You're Maybel Grip. You're a crow, not a raven or anything as special as that. You haven't left the house for a while.\n\n[[There's plenty of food in the fridge, after all.|Begin]]

They can feel everyone's eyes on them. They understand the words, but not their meaning. Kill? Myia, kill them? How, and why? Who could possibly want that?\n\nNothing makes sense. [[They feel cold.|otl2]]\n

No hard shell between your knife and your target now.\n\n[[You plunge the knife into his chest.]]

You\n\naccept\n\nyour\n\n[[fate]]

Water feels cleansing on your hands. You haven't showered in a while, and you didn't realize how much you missed the feeling until it runs down your elbows and drips onto the knotty wooden floor. Maybe, if you're still up for actually doing things later, you'll let yourself take a bath. A real bath, like rich people do. Maybe you can bathe and think about all the food in your fridge and convince yourself that [[your problems are imaginary]].

...\n\n[[.....|...myia2]]

You're not feeling as tired today as you were yesterday.\n\n[[You think you'll do the dishes.]]

Ouch. She actually did a number on you with just a couple kicks. She's surprisingly strong.\n\n[[But you'll remember her face.]]

The crowd starts to close in on you, but it suddenly backs off with urgency.\n\n[["Harvesters!"]]

The stranger turns, expression still blank. They fly up to the top of one of the piles, and [[climb into the attic]].

[[She looks at the stranger.]]

[[You're so hungry...]]

You pierce the flesh, carving out a mid-sized piece. It gives way easily under your knife. Half for you. Half for Grip.\n\nAnd enough left for the rest of these people.\n\n[[You place the food in a plastic bag and hurry home.]]

You, on the other hand, smell like sunflowers and vanilla. It says so on the lotion you buy. And that's also a metaphor for how nice and kind and gentle you are, unlike how those people are.\n\nYou smell really good nowadays. [[A lot of things are changing for you lately.|Myia]]

Chin-length brown hair. A summer dress, meaning <<cyclinglink "people always get your gender wrong" "you're a 'they'" end>>. Yellow eyes. A flat nose. Calico peach-and-brown skin, a lot of it. Taking up more space than you'd care for it to.\n\n[[You're fat, and you hate what that means for how people treat you.]]

[["SO SO HUNGRY"]]

Myia lets go of Carmine and flies up to the attic. She returns quickly with three duffel bags.\n\n"Carmine thinks I don't think anything through, but he's wrong," she says. "I've been ready for this for a long time, see? I have food, blankets, knives... Everything we need."\n\n"You've been ready for this?" Emet asks incredulously. "This exact situation? You were ready for this?"\n\nShe ignores them. [["Take a bag and let's get going!"]]

The ceiling. Intact, but old and shabby. You can see some splinters around the entrance to the attic, which has never had a ladder. You can't fly, so you've never been up there. It's probably just full of more trash.\n\nA flash of dandelion hair. Myia's here, standing over you. [[Talking to someone you don't know.]]\n\nYou're on the couch, where you usually sleep. Full of stains and springs. Your back always hurts when you lie on this thing. [[They haven't noticed you're awake yet.]]

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[[It's an arm!]]

It's three months later, mid-November, and you've finally [[found a job]]. You're a waiter at a restaurant, being paid directly in food. You figure it's probably cheaper to hire you because you eat much less than others, but you're not complaining. You haven't been desperate to eat in a while now.\n\nIt's nearing the end of your shift, but [[two flies just sat down at one of your tables.]]

You think you can hear the word "arm" repeated over and over, you don't know who would be saying it and why, but you twist onto your stomach with renewed vigor and climb onto your knees, grabbing at the arm and tugging.\n\nIt doesn't pull much free, you're so weak, but it's enough.\n\n[[The traps on your hands are already biting down on the arm.]]

One could say you leave a lasting impression. Even with your many wigs, there are few who don't recognize you in this town. Some fear you, for silly reasons.\n\n[[You're simply good at your job]].

Pulling the dirt is causing stress on the already-aching traps on your hands, but this is the only thing you can think of to do without starving to death, or having to kill someone, or anything desperate. <<cyclinglink "Is this not desperate?" "This is desperate." end>> You dig your fingers into the soft earth and pull it out in clumps, groaning with every movement. You're past quiet now. You just want to eat. Please, just let you eat.\n\n[[You dig.]]

[["I BANDAGED YOU"]]\n\nYou wish it would all go away.

You open your eyes. Where are you? It's dark, and you're so hungry.\n\nThe pain in your stomach violently reminds you of your mistake.\n\nYou fell asleep. On a day like any other day, you suddenly fell asleep. Grip must be so hungry, you wonder if he might try to wander outside to find food.\n\nYou have to get food fast. You have to get home and take care of Grip. It's dark, so Dr. Nasrin is already gone. That means responsibility falls on you.\n\n[[You have to get food fast.]]

You say goodbye to Grip, your [[father]]. Your house is small, but in better shape than most of the houses in Bugtown. Well, except for all the peeling paint. And the holes. He runs into the walls sometimes.\n\n[[You lock the door behind you.]]

You know Cordula. An ant, and a senior harvester like yourself.\n\n"Has she been killed?" you ask.\n\n"No," your superior says. [["She's a traitor."]]

[[Myia is standing there, holding an angry stranger by the arm.]]

Maybel's been coming for longer than Emet knows. They could guess at how long, but [[they'd be wrong|they start eating]].

<<set $screwdriver = "yes">>Your questions receive little answer, even when you hold the screwdriver over one of her eyes. You inch it closer with every interrogation, closer and closer. She's shaking when she feels it against her eyelashes.\n\n[[You plunge it in.|CRACK]]

[["When I cut them, I can hear them..."]]

Myia whines, remembering Sapre. She was sure her friend would've helped them. Or who she thought was her friend and wasn't a terrible awful bad person.\n\n"You guys should probably stay quiet," Maybel pipes up. "The trees can hear us."\n\nA chilly silence falls over the group. Emet looks at the trees nervously.\n\nMaybel's right. They thought they were out of danger now that they were free from Sapre, but they just ran from one lone monster into a den of monsters.\n\n"Plants don't trust outsiders," Carmine says. "This is going to be difficult for us. Just outside the city it's only trees, but once we get deeper in the real trouble begins. I hope you're all prepared."\n\nThe other three suddenly feel distinctly unprepared.\n\nBut they've gone this far already. [[Farther than anyone aside from foragers would dare to go.]]

[["I JUST REALIZED YOU BROKE IN HERE"]]\n\nShe's so angry.

[[You're not|You're not1]]

The sink is on one end. Your tunnel's on the other. <<cyclinglink "Piles and piles of trash" "The noises" end>> lay in between.\n\n[[There's no escape.]]

You cover your mouth, still gasping and screaming.\n\n[[Sssssshhhhhh! Sh sh sh shshshsh!]]

Thank you for playing Shitheap Bugtown. I hope you enjoyed the story.\n\nThis is my first Twine game. I learned a lot while making this, and I hope to move on from here to much more complex and much more interactive games. If you enjoyed this story, this isn't the end of Bugtown just yet. The characters have a lot more in store for them going forward.\n\nPlease look forward to it.\n\nYou can find me on Tumblr [[here|http://schizophrenicmorrigan.tumblr.com]] and on Twitter [[here|https://twitter.com/disablaze]]. Feel free to ask me any questions about the story.

[["Their screams are ringing in my ears so loudly..."]]

The day when you couldn't find anything. The day you might have to take matters into your own hands. The day you couldn't rely on others to kill for you.\n\nTime is running out. You have to get home.\n\n[[You brandish your knife.]]

[[She checks the first page again.]]

Nope, not an option. There's another guy in here.\n\nYou make like you came in just to wash your hands while the pill bug walks across the room to the other guy.\n\nThey talk in low voices, inaudible to you thanks to the club's music.\n\nHe's not going to the bathroom. [[What is he doing?]]

[[If they bury their dead...]]

[[You eat more than usual that night.]]

<<set $sapre_read = "yes">>"Yes?"\n\n"One of the other harvesters -- he was looking for you. Said he found someone on the street, killing a guy and saying your name. He wanted you to check them at the jail."\n\nYou sigh.\n\n[[Yet another interruption to your day off.|Begin]]

"Where is she?"\n\n"You can't make me tell you!"\n\n[[BAM|bam2]]

They are Nuha. One of the major players in this town's political scene, a logical mantis running on a platform of major reform for the town. [[Or, they were.]]

Grip forgets he left the fire on. Grip forgets where he is. Grip sometimes forgets who you are.\n\nHe wasn't always like this, and he didn't always need that wheelchair. Dr. Nasrin says there's something in his brain, affecting his memory and his legs. He can walk, but not for very long, and he shakes when he does. It's hard to watch.\n\nDr. Nasrin needs a wheelchair too, but that's just because she has no legs.\n\n[[You've pushed a lot of wheelchairs in your life.|Check.]]

You hear a scream. Your head turns. People are running every which way. No, wait, it's not just random. Some are running from. Some are running to. It's all centered to one spot, where someone is lying. Through all the noise, [[someone is yelling]].

Grip is sitting in his favorite sofa, upright, but with his head falling back. His eyes are closed. There's a book in his lap. He looks like he's fallen asleep reading like he does so often. He always tells you about his books, his "stories" as he calls them, what the characters are doing and why. What fantastical world they take place in. He remembers his stories better than almost anything else.\n\n[[But he's dead.]]

She cracks the eggs in one hand and pours them out onto the pan. They sizzle satisfyingly.\n\n"She'd die if she knew you were here. Probably. If she even remembers you." Emet lays their head lazily on the table. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask... What's in the attic?"\n\nMaybel looks at them. [[Emet's head is lying on its side, but their eyes are wide open, serious.]]

[[You sneak up behind him.]]

[[...|...carmine1]]

Before this, you worked odd jobs, fixing people's toilets and patching up holes and stuff like that. You're really good at figuring out how stuff works, so the job came naturally. But it wasn't always easy to find paying work, so when the [[new opportunity]] arose, you took it.

The owner said something about you scaring off scavengers and that being good for business. You didn't really get it but you're just [[happy to be hired.|...carmine1]]

[["Shut up, shut up, shut up!"]]

You arrive at the office quickly, absolutely put together as you were this morning. You show the receptionist your pager and he instantly points you toward [[the jail]].\n\nYou head over. You're glad he pointed you the way, as it's not a place you often visit. [[You wonder what could possibly be the reason your day off was interrupted yet again by work.]]

"I came here today, like every other day, but he wasn't responding. I tried my best to resuscitate him, but... he's gone."\n\n[[You slowly look beside her.]]

It says it wants to talk, but it fidgets for a while before it actually says anything. You wait patiently.\n\n"It's about... work," it finally says.\n\n"Oh, honey, you know I hate to talk work when I'm off."\n\n"I know! I know. Sorry. I didn't mean to raise my voice." It swallows hard. [["I just... can't think of anyone else to talk about this stuff to."]]

You knew them. You had lunch with them just last month. Nuha was full of life, talking only of their plans for the town. They wanted to completely change the way the poor lived. They wanted to instate food banks, shelters for the homeless. They wanted a better life for people.\n\n[[Someone disagreed.]]

"You said you were taking it."\n\n[["Yes."|yes2]]

You find yourself wondering, for the first time, what's up there. Another hole, like the one leading to your own tunnel? A loose piece of wood? Myia's never spoken of it. You've never even seen her go up there.\n\n[["Myia."|myia1]]

You clear your throat. It hurts.\n\n[["Myia."|myia2]]

<<set $emet_read = "yes">>"What?"\n\n[["Shut up."|Begin]]

"Emet, you're awake? Are you okay? Did the bad person hurt you?"\n\n[["Myia."|myia3]]

You do a lot of dishes, thinking about absolutely nothing other than the feeling of warm water soaked into your froggy skin.\n\nYou turn off the sink\n\nand\n\n[[it crashes.]]

Where there's homeless, there's hungry. There's homeless everywhere in this town, but there are a few places where they tend to gather. And there's less chance anyone will [[notice someone's dead|finding it]].

The marketplace is where most of the food shops and restaurants are. There's other stores too, but they usually see less business. If you're desperate for food, the marketplace might have some, in trash cans or in the hands of wealthier people. The gathering of hungry there is why there's [[so many deaths|finding it]].

[[You]]

[["Sapre, I don't know what to do!"]]

You do a lot of dishes, thinking about absolutely nothing other than the feeling of warm water soaked into your froggy skin.\n\n[[You turn off the sink]]

You wince. Any other day, you'd shout back, but you just got hired and you need this job desperately.\n\n"Be nice, Myia, he's a flytrap." You look unimpressed at the more refined fly. "Yes, I know of you, Venus. I know of many people in this town, many much less notorious than you." She winks and you can feel yourself becoming only more enraged with the both of them.\n\n"Sapre! Don't flirt with a flytrap!" Myia says loudly, apparently shocked at her companion.\n\n"Please," you spit, "just order."\n\n[["Two teas with honey, please."]]

It only takes a little over an hour for you to look over the entire room and the foyer. Only a few minutes to speak with Nuha's daughter about the ordeal. Only a few seconds to stroke her shoulder in comfort.\n\n[[You return home.]]

You\n\naccept\n\n[[your]]

"Hello, darling," you announce as you enter the cell. Cordula isn't shackled to the wall like most would be, but tied to a wooden chair in the center of the room. There's a table next to her with everything you could possibly need: screwdrivers, a hammer, even a power drill. "You're so lucky to see me on my day off."\n\n"It's you," Cordula spits, apparently not feeling so lucky.\n\n"It's me. Now, would you like to share with me why I'm here today?"\n\n[["You can't make me kill Amila!"]]

There are piles and piles of gold plastics, flaking gold paint, shiny broken teacups, and forks and forks and forks and forks and so many forks. [[You'll never run out of silverware.|and that's all you need]]

Today, Carmine is leaving as the cafe opens. One day every week, he stays overnight to sort through the week's delivery, stocking the kitchens and putting all the new food in its place. This marks the start of his days off, and he's anxious to get home and rest.\n\nHe's been paid recently -- in food, as usual -- which means he can actually wear a loose sweater rather than his usual cape. Most clothing rubs up against his mouths and irritates them, unless they're fed and, thus, closed. Which is good, because the winter has been tough for Carmine. He always has to decide between cold or discomfort when his traps are open. Though recently it's been warmer, it's still too cold to go without some warm clothing.\n\nHe's off work, he's fed, and he's warm. This is the start of some good days for Carmine.\n\n[[He unlocks the front door behind him.]]

[[There's no one in the whole alley. You were right, as always.]]

[[...|...all1]]

No. They don't understand. You're going to die.\n\n[["It's just me!"]]

[[...|...all2]]

You look at Hunter with pity. "Honey... I'm not sure what to do, either."\n\n"But you always know what to do!" it protests. "You're Sapre, you know everything! You're the best!"\n\n"Thank you." You smile at the praise. "But this is beyond what I can do."\n\n"But...!"\n\n"Listen." You take a deep breath, closing your eyes for a moment. It's a dirty, cruel thing to just brush it off when it's come to you like this. You just can't catch a break today. "There's someone I've spoken to about this kind of thing before. I'll give you his card. Tell him I sent you. He'll be happy to speak with you about this."\n\n[["Oh... thank you."]]

You\n\n[[accept]]

In the back alley, no one will see. Then you can be all silent and covert and deadly.\n\n[[You open and close the door really quiet-like.]]

[[You unsheathe your knife.]]

[[A mantis with a tank top showing off intricate tattoos.]]

You were too desperate. You've gotta get away from this house. You run off, at a slower pace than before but fast enough to get away unseen. \n\n[[If you're really doing this, you've got to plan it right.]]

[["STEALING MY HARD EARNED"|"WHISK"]]\n\n[["what is this"|"WHISK"]]\n\n[["WHISK"]]\n\nDig, dig, dig, dig.

[[...|...myia1]]

The city is huge. It's a metropolis, made up of many districts, all self-governed. You're in what's colloquially called Bugtown, a majority-insect district in one of the poorest parts of the city.\n\nWho are you?\n\n[[Myia]]\n[[Emet]]\n[[Maybel]]\n[[Carmine]]\n[[Sapre]]\n\n<<if $emet_read eq "yes">><<if $myia_read eq "yes">><<if $carmine_read eq "yes">><<if $maybel_read eq "yes">><<if $sapre_read eq "yes">>[[All of the above]]<<endif>><<endif>><<endif>><<endif>><<endif>>

"There's no list!" Carmine says.\n\n"What's the list?" Maybel asks.\n\n"It doesn't exist!" Carmine says.\n\n"Will someone explain to me what's going on?" Emet finally speaks up.\n\nMyia looks at Emet, distressed and wide-eyed. "Emet, they want me to kill you!"\n\n[[Emet stares.]] They don't say anything.\n\n"Who's 'they'?" Maybel asks.\n\n"The harvesters, obviously. Don't you know? This girl here's one of them." Carmine glares at Myia.\n\n"Okay, okay, I'm a harvester, who cares!" Myia exclaims. [["What matters is what we do next."]]

All wood. Wood and floating above the town you'd fall and break your neck you can see it happening\n\n[[You can't breathe.|breathe1]]

The foyer is a bloodbath. There's blood on the floor, sprayed on the walls, dripping from the ceiling.\n\nThe hallway is no better. There's a large smear of blood on the floor where someone was dragged down the hall.\n\nIn the living room, [[you see them]].

Check. Tough leather, hard to get ahold of lasting shoes in this town. But you managed.\n\n[[Put on your vest.]]

You're gasping but you can't breathe. Your eyes well up and tears hot like the sink water run down your cheeks and drip onto the knotty wooden floor. Water is cleansing but it can't save you. You collapse onto the floor and\n\n[[cry]]

People probably think you're stuck up and stuff, right? Like you're so beautiful you probably don't care about other people? That's completely not true. You're suuuuuuuuper nice and caring. You do things like... like let [[Emet|emetmyia]] stay in your house!\n\nPeople probably also think, because you're so beautiful, that you're not very smart. Well, you're a genius so they're all wrong and bad and probably [[smell like old beans]].

[[You can't breathe.|breathe2]]

You're so super nice to Emet, but Emet just doesn't appreciate you! Well, they look after all your great stuff, so that's one nice thing about them. But they don't treat you nice! They're always saying words like, "Shut up, Myia," or, "That's a terrible thing to say, Myia," or even, "You're ruining Hanukkah, Myia!"\n\nBut you let them stay in your house just the same! [[Because you're so nice and good.|wrong impression of you]]

[[You can't breathe.|breathe4]]

[[You can't breathe.|breathe3]]

You usually eat at home, but it's a lovely November day and you plan on treating yourself today.\n\nYou love the marketplace. It's a hub for this town, where many people gather to meet and dine. Today, though, you're alone. You head for your favorite cafe, smiling at the many sights and sounds of the people surrounding you. You wave at one or two faces that you recognize.\n\nYou're a regular, so the host of the cafe makes smalltalk with you as [[he seats you]].

[[He exits out of the back door of the club.]]

Beautiful, fluffy bleached hair. Dark violet skin. Beautiful long black hairs on your neck, arms, and legs. Your compound eyes are brilliant and shine a bright crimson. You stand taller than most people because you're better than them. Not that people who are taller than you are better. That's not really how it works.\n\nYou are so beautiful, people really get the [[wrong impression of you]].

"Shut up." The harvester pockets their knife... [[and strikes you in the back of the head.]]

Realizing what this means, you bolt for one of the houses, tripping on a wire and setting off an alarm.\n\n[[Shit.]]

[[Lazy]]

Myia freezes. She doesn't say anything more.\n\n"Did you think we only targeted criminals? No, no, there'd never be enough food for the whole town if we limited ourselves like that. Honestly, I'm surprised your Emet hasn't been harvested already. They're the perfect candidate. I read all your files, darling: they're quiet, relatively unknown, few connections, never leave their house... They simply wouldn't be missed. It was the easiest assignment in the world, so they gave it to you. You should be carrying meat to the harvesting office by now."\n\n"Myia," Maybel says lowly. "We have to leave -- now."\n\n"But..."\n\n"Is that hesitation, darling? You realize you'd be considered a traitor to all harvesting agents if you were to run now, don't you? I know, I'll give you one more chance. Kill Emet now, and you can return in good graces." Sapre tilts her head. "You do have that dagger I gave you, right? Go ahead, sweetie."\n\nMyia reaches into her cape. "Sapre..."\n\n"Yes?"\n\nMyia pulls out her dagger and points it at Sapre. [["You're terrible!"]]

"Myia!" Maybel says again.\n\n"Take my bag and go. If Sapre follows you, Emet's dead."\n\n"Oh, dear." Sapre pulls out a blade and twirls it. "You mean to fight me? That's not a very good idea, Myia."\n\nMaybel picks up Myia's bag and starts to head into the trees.\n\n[["NO!"]]

[["GIVE ME FOOD"]]

[[...|...all]]

Maybel suddenly picks up her head and rises to her feet, nearly knocking her chair over. Emet's about to ask what's wrong, when they hear it too.\n\nVoices outside the front door.\n\n"Stay here," Maybel says, reaching for the knife at her shoulder and moving out towards the door.\n\nEmet covers their face and slowly slides under the table. They don't know what they'd do if someone other than Maybel broke in. They close their mouth tightly and listen intently for whatever's going on. If something happened, maybe they could run for their tunnel...\n\n[[Not that they're a good runner...]]

Well, that was easy. Cordula is pulling at the ropes, snarling at you.\n\n"So you're trying to protect your target. Well, well, I've heard of this before, but to see it for myself..." You look over her with pity. "Tell me about your Amila."\n\n"She doesn't deserve you. She doesn't deserve any of you. She's too good for any of this."\n\n"Where is she?"\n\n"Like I'd tell you!"\n\nYou look over the tools left for you. [[You eye the hammer in particular.]]

You tug it upwards with as much force as you can manage and something jostles free out of the dirt.\n\n[[It's an arm.]]

[[No dirt anywhere.]]

This game contains:\n* heavy themes of cannibalism\n* heavy talk of eating and food, including some disordered eating\n* descriptions of gore\n* repetition\n* all caps passages\n* direct language (it is written in the second person "you")\n* family death\n* mentions of fatphobia\n* mentions of drugs and alcohol\n\nReturn to the [[title|Start]].

You jump, using your wings, and swoop in, scaring away some of the other scavengers. The person stabbing the body stops with a scream and drops the knife, scrambling away.\n\nYou have enough room to yourself.\n\n[[Cut.]]

[[And now the photo again.]]

It's your job to get food for the day and make sure Grip remembers to eat. You make this journey to town every day, to search for food and bring home enough for the both of you.\n\nIt's not too hard to find food, really. There's always a [[corpse]] in Bugtown. It's just a matter of [[finding it]].

Oh no. No no no no no. This can't be happening. He left without his wheelchair? Did he forget he had to use it? He's done that before. No, this is bad, this is really bad.\n\nCalm down. Breathe. You can't panic. Maybe him leaving behind his wheelchair is a good thing. That just means he can't have gone far.\n\nYou're so hungry.\n\nShh. Not now. You need to be rational about this. Check the whole house first, to make sure he didn't just try to walk around.\n\nYou turn when you notice a flash of [[bright red]] out of the corner of your eye, in the connecting living room.

You try to lift your arms to cover your ears but one of them gets caught on something. What is this? A root? There's no trees here...\n\n[[Tug at your arm harder.]]

Outside the city is much different. Plantlife grows everywhere, all plants sentient but only some are people like you. People live in small villages, attacking anyone who dares to wander away from the city to protect their people and the plants that can't defend themselves. But they're still terrorized by groups of harvesting agents sent from the city.\n\nYou suffered there because you can't get food just from light, water, and soil, like most other plants. No. [[You have to eat.|But you're safer than any other plant would be because of it.]]

[[You sit down on a park bench, just to rest your legs for a bit.]]

Your name is Emet, and you're a [[frog]]. A burrowing frog, to be more specific. That's how you enter and exit <<cyclinglink "your" "Myia's" "looking at it plainly, there's no way you could call it your" end>> house, after all.\n\n[[Not that you ever leave.]]

[[And again.|again3]]

[[And again.|again1]]

Your waiter is new, but you recognize him all the same. You don't see many plants in the city. He looks at you with a scowl but the interaction is polite as he takes your order.\n\n[[This cafe has beautiful crepes.]]

[[And again.|again2]]

It's a brand new day in February, the snow has cleared and the sun is out and feels unseasonably warm despite the chill air. The two temperatures mingle strangely on the skin of everyone outside, who can't decide whether to dress warmly or not. Many opt for coats as it's still winter, and it just seems like the thing to do.\n\nOne of those people is Myia, dressed in a warm wool cape over her coat, large necklaces jingling freely as she hurries into the harvesting offices first thing in the morning. It's been a few months since her first solo job, and she's had much better luck since then. Sapre helped her get back on her feet and onto her next target, leading to a handful of successful jobs.\n\nMyia greets the receptionist and is handed the file for her next target. She glances over the profile -- it lists basic details as usual, such as age, gender, physical description, and some necessary information like where the person is commonly seen on what days and when they're usually alone. This particular case seems like an easy one -- they're alone often, and stay around the same places consistently.\n\nMyia turns the page to check the photo. [[Let's see what this one looks like.]]

Your job is to take down targets picked out for you by the office. Often criminals who have long evaded other harvesters. Often they are just people, isolated and hidden from society, with few connections that would miss them. Tragic, but necessary. There are many, many people in this town, in this city. Many hungry mouths to feed.\n\n[[In a way you feel like a mother, looking at this town.|Sapre]]

"But this is my stuff."\n\n[["Yes."]]

"Where is she?"\n\n"Sapre, please! I love her!"\n\n[[BAM|bam3]]

[["...screaming..."]]

[["DON'T GO YOU SAID YOU'D KILL ME DON'T GO PLEASE"]]

[["KNOCKING OVER ALL MY THINGS"]]\n\nYou hate it when people yell.

Sapre rushes into the little room, kneeling down and hugging you. She smells like lavender.\n\n"Sapre?" you ask. "Where am I?"\n\n"A little place we harvesting agents call 'jail'. Dont worry. [[You can leave now.]]"

The knife doesn't really... plunge, like you expected it to. In fact, it just kind of bounces off. There's a flash of blue blood poking through his armor.\n\n"Ow!"\n\nThe pill bug turns and, seeing you, weilding a knife dripping with his blood, his eyes widen.\n\n[[And he begins to scream.]]

As soon as Myia rounds a corner, you run up behind her and slam her into a wall, ignoring her shrieks.\n\n"I heard you talking," you say, trying to sound dangerous and keep your voice low. [["You're a harvester."]]

"You're here. Good. I can use you." Myia leads the stranger into the house, yelling at him, "Stop struggling, we're here already!"\n\n"Who the hell are all these people?" the stranger asks, wresting himself from her grasp and straightening out his sweater.\n\n"This is Maybel, and that's Emet. This is Venus," Myia says matter-of-factly. "Oh, and I'm Myia!"\n\n"I told you, don't call me that!" He folds his arms grumpily and looks at the other two. "...I'm Carmine."\n\n"What! That's your name!? You never told me that!"\n\nEmet breathes finally, and lets the two in the door bicker. [[At least Myia's making friends while she's out all day.]]

Flesh flies are dirty, cruel things. They get under your skin and leave behind lasting traces of themselves, pain and disease.\n\nYou're not like that.\n\nYou're clean and refined. You're polite and you treat even strangers as though they are close friends. In trying situations, you keep a cool, calm head.\n\n[[You surprise people.]]

[[Again.]]

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You run through the open, wide streets of the marketplace, following your target. The pill bug screams and the crowd disperses, people trying to avoid the commotion.\n\nThat gives you the opening you need. You close the distance between the two of you.\n\n[[You tackle him to the ground.]]

"The list?" She has the gall to look confused.\n\n"You know what I'm talking about! The list!" You twist her arm angrily. You didn't mean to hurt her, but you commit to it now that you've done it. She whines.\n\n"Please! Please! What list!?"\n\n"The list of all the people you kill!"\n\n[[She kicks you in the shins.]]

Those sounds aren't coming from you.\n\nSomeone is shushing you?\n\n[["You're okay!"]]

You follow him inside, easily affording the club's cover on your new paycheck. He pushes past dancing people, unmoved by the loud music. You kind of walk in time with the beat because you think it'd be cool if you were [[in a music video]].\n\nHe heads straight to the bathroom. [[Maybe you can kill him in there?]]

You're kind of well known in Bugtown, being such a rare sight. People who don't know you whisper "Venus" when you walk by. You hate the name.\n\n[[But you're safer than any other plant would be because of it.]]

Someone's here to kill you.\n\n[[Sh!]]

You understand immediately. You glance over to the neighboring cell. So Cordula is in there, awaiting you. You look back to your superior and nod.\n\nYou could ask for more information now. [[But you'd much rather hear it from Cordula herself.]]