Bob Page begins without pleasantries. His artificial irises are just a shade off his red hair, and both are punctured with aging electronics, rose gold paint chipping off silver electrodes in the shape of small apples.
["Your Platform Consortium board seat should be finalized within the week. I've already discussed the matter with the Secretary."]<c1|
(click: ?c1)["Has his dataprint been infected?" Simons, his butterfly-blue facial veins on full display, has the voice of an animate corpse.]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[Page nods. "When I arranged an identity change, he was so willing it was almost pathetic."]<c3|
(click: ?c3)["Data corruption is intensifying to the point that we may not be able to contain it."]<c4|
(click: ?c4)["Why contain it? Let it wash smooth the ledgers, the media feeds. Let the nameless wander the streets. In the end, they'll (link:"beg us to save them.")[(goto:"Opening Conversation 2")]"]{(set:$goals to true)}$other["You're one of those, huh? The new ones."] The guard hits the scanner button with a three-fingered hand. $other["I had old-school augs back in the day — fourteen fingers. Great for pianists. Better for mech pilots."]
(link:"What happened?")[$jc["What happened?"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["I lost the warranty when Opalware went Chapter 11, and the neural bonding started to go. So I went to one of those mom-and-pop repair shops to get them defused — turns out they should have stuck to phones."]]
|reply1)[(link:"I'm sorry.")[$jc["I'm sorry."] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["Eh. At least I still had some real hand underneath. Not like..." She looks pointedly at your eyes. "Anyway, have a nice day..."]]
|reply2)[(link:"Mr. Denton.")[(set: $gender to "male")(set: $paul to "Paul")(set: $sibling to "brother")(set: $pronoun to "he")(set: $possessive to "his")(set: $pronoun2 to "him")(goto:"Enter HQ")]
(link:"Ms. Denton.")[(set: $gender to "female")(set: $paul to "Paula")(set: $sibling to "sister")(set: $pronoun to "she")(set: $possessive to "her")(set: $pronoun2 to "her")(goto:"Enter HQ")]
(link:"Mx. Denton.")[(set: $gender to "nb")(set: $paul to "Pauli")(set: $sibling to "sibling")(set: $pronoun to "they")(set: $possessive to "their")(set: $pronoun2 to "them")(goto:"Enter HQ")]]The door shuts with a pneumatic wheeze. The building's interior is a yawning, strangely empty concrete cube. All you see is a vacant desk and (link:"a flag")[(goto:"Flag")] in front of (link:"a heavy, broad door")[(set:$hqupstairs to false)(goto:"HQ Second Floor")].The desk is low and angular, its varnished surface dulled to the point of blur. (if: $desklock is "unlocked")[Its (link:"drawers are unlocked")[(goto:"InsideFrontDesk")].] (else-if: $desklock is "empty")[Its drawers are empty.] (else-if: $desklock is "locked")[Its drawers are locked. (link:"You can unlock them, if you're not afraid of some light burglary.")[(set: $desklock to "unlocked")(goto:"InsideFrontDesk")]]
(link:"In any case, it's not very interesting.")[(goto:"Leave HQ")]It's an old-style, fifty-two-star American Flag, not the American Battle Flag you're used to seeing.
(link:"Pick the flag up.")[(set: $tookflag to true)(set: $flag to true)(set: $showedflag to 0)(goto:"HQ First Floor")]
(link:"Leave the flag be.")[(goto:"HQ First Floor")](if: $visitHQ2 is false)[The security door clangs shut as you ascend the stairs.
(set: $credits to it + 1)]The second floor is a narrow corridor carpeted with abstract patterns that suggest rotten fusilli pasta. It is lined with doors and sans-serif nameplates:
{(if:$visitedcarter is false)[(link:"S. CARTER")[(goto:"Sam Office")]] (else-if:$visitedcarter is true)[(link:"S. CARTER")[(goto:"Sam Visited")]]}
(link:"P. DENTON")[(goto:"Denton Office")]
(link:"G. HERMANN")[(goto:"Gunther Office")]
{(if:$hastwofactor is true)[(link:"A. JACOBSON")[(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")]](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[(link:"A. JACOBSON")[(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]](else:)[(link:"A. JACOBSON")[(goto:"Alex Office")]]}
{(if:$visitedmanderley is true)[(link:"J. MANDERLEY")[(goto:"Manderley Visited")]] (else:)[(link:"J. MANDERLEY")[(goto:"Manderley Office")]]}
{(if:$visitedanna is true)[(link:"A. NAVARRE")[(goto:"Anna Visited")]](else:)[(link:"A. NAVARRE")[(goto:"Anna Office")]]}
{(if:$visitedjaime is true)[(link:"J. REYES")[(goto:"Jaime Visited")]](else:)[(link:"J. REYES")[(goto:"Jaime Office")]]}
(if: $visitHQ2 is false)[(set: $seemanderley to true)
A tinny voice bounces against the fine bones of your skull, and a name flashes: Alex Jacobson, Information and Misinformation Information Integrity Technician.
$other["Hey, JC. Glad you got in; I heard a DDoS locked down the subway. We've got a situation developing — go to Manderley's office and he'll fill you in. And just use your $sibling's office until we've got yours ready. Your temporary keyphrase is 'more human than human.'"]](else:)[]
(if: $showedflag is 5)[(set: $finishedflag to true)(set: $flag to false)
You look at the flag. Its folds seem slightly too complex, and as you ponder why, they momentarily coalesce into a shaky line of text: //DARK PATTERNS//. Then the text is gone, and the flag seems perfectly ordinary.
You drop it quietly in the corner and move on.]
{(if: $visitedjaime is true and $visitedcarter is true and $visitedalex is true and $visitedmanderley is true)[(set:$hqmissionprep to false)(set:$hqleave to true)Your mission-critical functions here are finished. It's time to (link:"head back downstairs and prepare for your mission.")[(goto:"Review Inventory")]](else:)[]}
{(set: $visitHQ2 to true)}You see a soylent brick.
(link:"Empty the desk.")[(set: $desklock to "empty")(set: $hassoylent to true)(goto:"Leave HQ")]
(link:"Leave it alone.")[(set: $desklock to "unlocked")(goto:"Leave HQ")]The building's interior is a yawning, strangely empty concrete cube. All you see is a vacant desk (if:$flag is false)[and (link:"a flag ")[(goto:"Flag")]] in front of (link:"a heavy, broad door")[(set:$hqupstairs to false)(goto:"HQ Second Floor")].
(if: $flag is true)[Memory-enhancing nanites gently stimulate your retinal projector. $implant[An excellent flag], the cluster says. $implant[You should make sure everyone sees it].](if:$goals is true)[(css: "font-size: 80%; color:#d9d9d9;")[(link:"Objective")[Objective: (display:"Objectives List")]
]](else:)[]The office has $paul's particular flavor of organized chaos, stacked with electronics from several continents and at least two different decades. Three are powered up: a (link:"desktop workstation")[(goto:"Paul Computer")]; a white-label ETRUSCO (link:"broadsheet tablet")[(goto:"Paul Tablet")]; and an (link:"aging Opalware Glassphone")[(goto:"Paul Phone")], nearly hidden beneath a (link:"fat paper folder")[(goto:"Paul Folder")] labeled OPPOSITIONAL RESEARCH.
(link:"Leave the office.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]You clear your throat, twitch your finger to trigger a two-factor token, and speak:
["More human than human."]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[It unlocks with an entirely unnecessary animated flourish, revealing a notification:
//You have 5,246 unread messages in your mailbox. Priority messages: 1.//
(link:"Read the email.")[(goto:"Paul Email")]
(link:"Log out.")[(goto:"Denton Office")]]From: `<[email protected]>`
To: `<[email protected]>`
Subject: PLEASE READ
//In light of the recent incident with Mr. Hermann, I'm re-sending a copy of our social media policy guidelines. Specifically, please note that dark-pattern interfaces are considered a controlled substance REGARDLESS of source, and deploying them can be as dangerous to a mechanically augmented user as the target. Nanoaugmented agents may speak to Dr. Reyes about potential risks.//
(link:"Log out.")[(set: $paulemail to true)(goto:"Denton Office")]KNOW YOUR ENEMY
(link:"WIKINOUS CONFEDERATION")[''WIKINOUS CONFEDERATION:'' // Wikinous should not be confused with legitimate ETRUSCO partner Wikimedia. These fanatical "information liberation" activists are linked to the Shadow KGB and several murder-by-proxies, as well as the creation of the Unperson virus.//]
(link:"NOWHEREMEN")[''NOWHEREMEN:'' //The anarchic Nowheremen were instrumental in the catastrophic Opalware data breach of 2044, and they have been implicated in the spread of Unperson. However, analysts now call the group's freewheeling tactics "bringing a cyberknife to a cybergunfight," and its recent operations amount to little more than injecting unapproved music macros into social media feeds.//]
(link:"WHITE HOUSE")[''WHITE HOUSE:'' //ETRUSCO's official position on all branches of the American government is non-adversarial. However, practical considerations may at times necessitate the temporary circumvention of certain executive actions. This memo is intended for Archangel-level clearances only and should be considered NON-shareable.// ]
(link:"Put down tablet.")[(set: $paultablet to true)(goto:"Denton Office")]
You see a stack of cheaply printed copies of an apparent tabloid called //The Great Awakening: Q Decoded Weekly//. There's too much to read, but you catch a few headlines:
//''Q's News: Slenderman Summoned by PRISM-funded Occult Cronut Shop Cannibals for Child Fear Serum Harvesting Ring''
''New Prediction: 2053 Star Wars Re-Release Will Cut Scenes Featuring 'Slightly Bigger' Luke Skywalker Doppelganger — Illuminati Covering Up George Lucas Body Double Replacement Plot''
''New Twittergram CEO: Chaos Alien???''//
(link:"Carefully put down the papers.")[(goto:"Denton Office")]You haven't seen a Glassphone in ages. The device would probably have failed even if Opalware hadn't imploded, because its single, ethereal block of glass made all screen activity visible from every angle. People love transparency until it's their data on the line.
A single messaging app appears to be installed, containing a single message from an unknown party:
//P:
THE PATTERNS ARE REAL
- AJ//
(link:"Put the phone back.")[(goto:"Denton Office")]Jaime Reyes looks more at ease in his doctor's coat than he did in the moderation academy's standard jumpsuits. He greets you with a smile, gesturing at the electroderringer strapped to your side.
$other["Well, if it isn't JC — I might as well get used to your codename. They actually let you point a gun at people these days?"]
(link:"They're still keeping the real stuff for SWAT mods — ever since the Pintersnap riot. This is purely non-lethal.")[$jc["They're still keeping the real stuff for SWAT mods — ever since the Pintersnap riot. This is purely non-lethal."] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["A few of Agent Navarre's targets might call that a technicality, if they were still breathing. But never mind that. How's your first day?"]]
|reply1)[(link:"I have a feeling it's about to get worse. (if: $visitedmanderley is true)[Manderley's sending me to the docks to bust up a troll farm — and it sounds like they've got $paul.](else:)[Manderley wants to see me about a mission.]")[$jc["I have a feeling it's about to get worse. (if: $visitedmanderley is true)[Manderley's sending me to the docks to bust up a troll farm — and it sounds like they've got $paul."] (else:)[Manderley wants to see me about a mission."]](live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other[(if: $visitedmanderley is true)["My god, really?] (else:)["Already?] Then I'd better check over your specs. The lab issued some experimental sticker packs and bio-repair units. So you can heal anything short of a rocket to the brainstem, or you can distract holo-equipped humans with kittens — and these days, that covers just about everybody."]]
|reply2)[(link: "I'll take the reconstruction unit.")[(set: $hasregen to true)(goto:"Jaime Office 2")]
(link: "I'll take the kittens.")[(set: $haskittens to true)(goto:"Jaime Office 2")]]You crack the door to Jaime's office. He appears to be caught up in an argument with his digital assistant, a talking snake wound around a copper rod.
(link:"Close the door.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")](set: $credits to it + 1)You've met Joseph Manderley once, at your accredition ceremony, and he struck you as a man who repeats the phrase "avuncular" silently to himself during conversations. His office is decorated in the rococo style of a '20s startup, all applique flowers and razor blades.
$implant[He did ten years in Silicon Roundabout before joining ETRUSCO,] your memory cluster reminds you. $implant[Acquisitions for Nazgul Pharmaceuticals.]
Manderley looks up from his desk.
$other["Welcome. Please — have a seat,"] he says in clipped Queen's English, pointing to a hard steel chair.
(link:"Alex Jacobson said you wanted to see me.")[$jc["Alex Jacobson said you wanted to see me."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[Manderley sighs heavily and tents his fingers. $other["Indeed. Are you familiar with the Wikinous Confederation?"]]
|reply1)[(if: $paultablet is true)[(link:"Of course. They're a rogue Wikimedia Foundation faction that split off during the verification wars. Sound like a dangerous bunch.")[$jc["Of course. They're a rogue Wikimedia Foundation faction that split off during the verification wars. Sound like a dangerous bunch."(live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]] (else:)[(link:"Academy clearance levels can only tell you so much. Refresh my memory.")[$jc["Academy clearance levels can only tell you so much. Refresh my memory."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]]
|talk2)[$other[(if: $paultablet is true)["Precisely.] (else:)["They defected from the Wikimedia Foundation during the verification wars — quite a dangerous bunch, if you ask me.] Wikinous has been reaching into some deep pockets lately, and it's dropping the change into an unauthorized social media platform."]]
|reply2)[(link:"What kind of platform are we talking about? Text? Video?")[$jc["What kind of platform are we talking about? Text? Video?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["I'm afraid it's far worse. They call it 'Libranet' — a fully affective immersive simulation, unvetted and unmoderated. Once its signals hit even //your// gray matter... truth is whatever they want it to be."]]
|reply3)[(link:"Sounds serious. Why hasn't ETRUSCO gone after it?")[(goto:"Manderley Office 2")]](if:$ductlocked is false)[(link:"Open the door.")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")]](else-if:$guntherlocked is false)[(link:"Open the door.")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")]](else:)[It's locked. But nobody is watching...
(if: $haslockpick is true)[(set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)(link:"Pick the lock.")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")]]]
(link:"Leave it alone.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]Sam Carter's graying buzzcut and pristine posture gives away the fact that he's real ex-military -- or ex-LAPD, which amounts to the same thing since Executive Order 392610258-D. Police union pressure has probably kept him at ETRUSCO, because a sixty-year-old civilian would have logged out years ago. This is no country for old mods.
$other["At ease, moderator," says Carter with a wry grin. His single artificial eye shines.]
(link:"Sergeant Carter. I read about the Alameda Operation in school. This is a great honor.")[$jc["Sergeant Carter. I read about the Alameda Operation in school. This is a great honor."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["I'm not a sergeant anymore -- and for every Alameda, there's a Malibu."]]
|reply1)[(link:"Sir, we all know that wasn't your fault. I can't believe the swatter got away with manslaughter.")[$jc["Sir, we all know that wasn't your fault. I can't believe the swatter got away with manslaughter."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["Enough of that, Denton. A monster tricked us into killing innocents. But did our fingers have to be so tight on the trigger? These days, I'm not sure."]]
|reply2)[(link:"If anyone is responsible, it's the platforms that allowed anonymous calling in the first place.")[(goto:"Sam Office 2")]]You've heard about Anna Navarre's stretch in the White Swan prison augmentation trials and her defection from Shadow KGB Cyberkommand. Her grisly past might be why she's gotten away with so many suspected trolls dying in her custody — because after all, she understands the real stakes of moderation.
Now, she's leaning against her desk with one skeletal steel arm.
["Are you sure you ordered correctly?" she says, her accent turning every consonent into a knife.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[Anna's partner Gunther Hermann is a nearly solid chunk of German steel, but he has the physical presence of an unusually deadly lamp. "I do not make mistakes of that kind. The algorithm //knows// I like orange. So it gave me lemon-lime."]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[Navarre's sunken red eyes watch him extract a soylent gel packet from a small drone. "You think the delivery algorithm has concocted some kind of plot?"]<c3|
(click: ?c3)["Yes! Perhaps Cyberkommand hacked it. No offense to you, I mean."]<c4|
(click: ?c4)[As an awkward lull descends over the office, you cough conspicuously. (link:"Forgive my intrusion. I just wanted to say that I look forward to working with you, Agent Navarre. (if:$visitedmanderley is true)[Mr. Manderley tells me we'll be moderating in Brighton Beach together.]")[$jc["Forgive my intrusion. I just wanted to say that I look forward to working with you, Agent Navarre. (if:$visitedmanderley is true)[Mr. Manderley tells me we'll be moderating in Brighton Beach together.]"](goto:"Anna Office 2")]]ETRUSCO's roots are in online operations, before moderation largely referred to finding illicit data towers and server banks. For most web users, the platforms are still ethereal, omnipresent, and unbreakable. People like Alex keep them that way in rooms like this, lined with hardware reminders of the net's fragile physicality.
A locked computer workstation sits to your left. To your right is a hefty (if: $visitedalex is true and $hastwofactor is true)[(link:"stack of datacubes.")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes")]](else:)[stack of datacubes. Someone has marked operating system names on each of them in an old-fashioned black marker, none of which match your nanites' experimental OS.] Alex herself is sitting on the floor (link: "at the far end")[(goto:"Alex Talk")] of the office, half-hidden by some kind of metal box.(if:$creditson is true)[
--------------
(if:$endingcredits is true)[(link:"^^''Credits''^^")[(display:"Credits Ending")]](else:)[(link:"^^''Credits''^^")[(display:"Credits3")]]](else:)[]You crack the door to Manderley's office. His secretary drone slams it in your face.
(link:"Leave it alone.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")](css: "font-size: 80%;
color:#d9d9d9;")[Credits
<center>
Directed by: A(if:$extracreditD1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsD1)[D]](else-if:$credits is >= 1)[(link:"d")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditD1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsD1)[D]]](else:)[d]i Rob(if:$extracreditE1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsE1)[E]](else-if:$credits is >= 2)[(link:"e")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditE1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsE1)[E]]](else:)[e]rtson
Written by: Adi Robertson
With support from: Bij(if:$extracreditA2 is true)[(replace: ?creditsA2)[A]](else-if:$credits is >= 3)[(link:"a")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditA2 to true)(set: $extracredits to it + 1)(replace: ?creditsA2)[A]]](else:)[a]n Stephen
Origin[a]l sto(if:$extracreditR1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsR1)[R]](else-if:$credits is >= 4)[(link:"r")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditR1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsR1)[R]]](else:)[r]y by: Warren Spec(if:$extracreditT1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsT1)[T]](else-if:$credits is >= 5)[(link:"t")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditT1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsT1)[T]]](else:)[t]or
S(if:$extracreditP1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsP1)[P]](else-if:$credits is >= 6)[(link:"p")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditP1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsP1)[P]]](else:)[p]ecial than(if:$extracreditK1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsK1)[K]](else-if:$credits is >= 7)[(link:"k")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditK1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsK1)[K]]](else:)[k]s: Charles Pra(if:$extracreditT2 is true)[(replace: ?creditsT2)[T]](else-if:$credits is >= 8)[(link:"t")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditT2 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsT2)[T]]](else:)[t]t
Demo relea(if:$extracreditS1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsS1)[S]](else-if:$credits is >= 9)[(link:"s")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditS1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsS1)[S]]](else:)[s]ed for: Ve(if:$extracreditR2 is true)[(replace: ?creditsR2)[R]](else-if:$credits is >= 10)[(link:"r")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditR2 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsR2)[R]]](else:)[r]ge Mi(if:$extracreditN1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsN1)[N]](else-if:$credits is >= 11)[(link:"n")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditN1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsN1)[N]]](else:)[n]i H(if:$extracreditA1 is true)[(replace: ?creditsA1)[A]](else-if:$credits is >= 12)[(link:"a")[(if:$extracredits is 11)[(show:?chaoslink)](set:$extracreditA1 to true)(set:$extracredits to it +1)(replace: ?creditsA1)[A]]](else:)[a]ck Week
Built in: Twine 2
|creditsD1>[] |creditsA1>[] |creditsR1>[] |creditsK1>[] |creditsP1>[] |creditsA2>[] |creditsT1>[] |creditsT2>[] |creditsE1>[] |creditsR2>[] |creditsN1>[] |creditsS1>[]
|chaoslink)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"The world begins to rearrange...")[(set:$enlightened to true)(goto:"Meet Chaos Aliens")]]]]</center><center>[[<img src="https://www.dropbox.com/s/3trsk1gg7t09s89/dxlogogif-smaller.gif?dl=1">->Intro Text]]</center>Inventory:
(if: $haslockpick is true)[* a universal lockpick]
(if: $hasgun is true)[*an unlicensed ceramoplasteel plasma flechette emitter]
(if: $hasregen is true)[* a nanorecontruction capacitor]
(if: $haskittens is true)[* a "rare feline breeds of North America" sticker pack]
(if: $hastwofactor is true)[* a two-factor authentication spoofing chip]
(if: $hasdronewhistle is true)[* a (if:$flag is true)[(set:$flag to false)You gingerly drop the flag. ]As you prepare to leave, you check your equipment one last time.
''Inventory''
Rechargeable Electropacification Stunner
Universal Hard Storage Nano-Connector
{
|samchoice>[(if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module](else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Sam Confirm")]
}
{
|alexchoice>[(if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Alex Confirm")]
}
{|jaimechoice>[(if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair](else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Jaime Confirm")]
}
Once you're finished, you (link:"head downstairs to the lobby.")[(set:$credits to it + 1)(goto:"Leave HQ")]You crack the door to Carter's office. He flashes a blinding eye and turns back to his work.
(link:"Close the door.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]You don't even bother opening the door. You've got a bad feeling about those two.
(link:"Leave it alone.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")](set:$guntherlocked to false)There is a duct in Gunther Hermann's office.
//To learn more about this room, buy the DEUS EX: DARK PATTERNS Season Pass for $49.99.//
(if: $visitedalex is false)[(link:"Crawl into the duct.")[(set:$ductlocked to false)(goto:"Alex From Duct")]] (else-if: $visitedalex is true and $hastwofactor is true)[(link:"Crawl into the duct.")[(set:$ductlocked to false)(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")]](else-if: $visitedalex is true and $hasdronewhistle is true)[(link:"Crawl into the duct.")[(set:$ductlocked to false)(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]]
(link:"Leave the room.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]Alex is back at work, whatever that entails. Her locked computer workstation sits to your left, (if:$fellthroughduct is true or $ductlocked is false)[an (link: "open duct")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")] is beside it,](else-if:$ductlocked is false)[an (link: "open duct")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")] is beside it,](else-if: $alexcubetrick is true)[a (link: "locked duct")[(goto:"Open Alex Duct")] is beside it,](else-if: $dogsleep is true)[a locked duct is beside it,] and a (link:"stack of datacubes")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes")] is on the right. (if: $dogsleep is true)[The shibe is a quiet box at your feet.](else:)[The shibe has followed you — maybe programmed curiosity, maybe reflexive surveillance.]
(if:$showedalexflag is false)[(set:$showedalexflag to true)(set:$showedflag to it + 1)As your head clears, you realize you have forgotten to show Alex the flag. You wave it conspicuously from across the room until she nods quizzically and looks away. Thank god.]
(if: $dogsleep is false)[(link:"Pet the shibe.")[(set:$dronewhistlecount to it + 1)(goto:"Log Into Dog")]]
(link:"Leave the room.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")](align:"=><=")[THANK YOU FOR PLAYING //DEUS EX: DARK PATTERNS// FREEWARE EDITION
FOR MORE CHAPTERS PLEASE MAIL $5.98 AND A PRE-PAID ENVELOPE TO
85 BROAD STREET
15TH FLOOR
NEW YORK, NY 10004]Alex is unaugmented and hardwired to a foldout tablet with an electrode armband and headset. She flicks a finger, and the box before her refolds origami-like into a chromed but oddly familiar four-legged shape. It trots aside, giving Alex space to shake your hand.
[$other["JC Denton. (if:$fellthroughduct is true)[Nice of you to... drop in?"](else:)[Nice to finally meet you."]]]
(if:$fellthroughduct is true)[(link:"Sorry about that. Is that a drone?")[$jc["Sorry about that. Is that a drone?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"The feeling is mutual. Is that a drone?")[$jc["The feeling is mutual. Is that a drone?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]]
|talk1)[$other["It's called a shibe. Titanium wrapped around an organic nervous system — hard outside, squishy inside. So Manderley wants me to flip some switches in your little machines, right?"]]
|reply1)[(if:$visitedmanderley is true)[(link:"His exact words were 'computational firepower.'")[$jc["His exact words were 'computational firepower.'"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"I haven't seen him yet. But I doubt he'd object.")[$jc["I haven't seen him yet. But I doubt he'd object."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]]
|talk2)[$other["(if:$visitedmanderley is true)[Some ETRUSCO agents see everything as a weapon. ]I'm authorized to patch in one of two upgrades. The first is a two-factor code jammer with a platonic vocal cord modulator — like a hacking kit. The other overrides the priorities of autonomous or cybernetic robots. You might call it a drone whistle."]]
|reply2)[(link:"I'll take the hacking kit.")[(set:$hastwofactor to true)(goto:"Alex Talk 2")]
(link:"I'll take the drone whistle.")[(set:$hasdronewhistle to true)(goto:"Alex Talk 2")]]
(click: ?c5)[|picktwofactor>[(link:"I'll take the hacking kit.")[(set: $hastwofactor to true)(replace: ?picktwofactor)["I'll take the hacking kit."](replace: ?pickdronewhistle)[](replace: ?choseitem)["Sure thing. This'll be a lot more fun than reinstalling Gunther's skullgun drivers. //Again//."]]]
|pickdronewhistle>[(link:"I'll take the drone whistle.")[(set: $hasdronewhistle to true)(replace: ?picktwofactor)["I'll take the drone whistle."](replace: ?pickdronewhistle)[](replace: ?choseitem)["Sure thing. This'll be a lot more fun than reinstalling Gunther's skullgun drivers. //Again//."]]]]
[|choseitem>[]]<c6|
(click: ?c6)["Skullgun?"]<c7|
(click: ?c7)["If you were going to ask: no, you're not getting one. Turns out taking recoil hits to the head is even less fun than it sounds, and Jaime doesn't need another agent coming in with concussions."]<c8|
(click: ?c8)["I was going to ask what an ETRUSCO agent needs with a permanent firearm implant. I thought our mission here was moderation -- not escalation."]<c9|
(click: ?c9)[Alex adjusts her headset. "My dad used to say there are three kinds of people. You've got peaceful, helpless sheep. You've got wolves. And between them, there's the sheepdog. Brave, righteous — and ready to eviscerate anything that looks a little too wolfish, because an incomprehensibly superintelligent being has spent five thousand years breeding it to think that //nothing else exists.// Although Dad never said that part."]<c10|
(click: ?c10)[You tilt your head to expose your nanoprogramming pad. "I'm not sure I understand the analogy."]<c11|
(click: ?c11)["What I'm trying to say is, it's not the skullguns I'm worried about. Now close your eyes, count backwards from five, and try not to imagine that your veins are full of spiders."]<c12|
(click: ?c12)[5]<c13| (click: ?c13)[4]<c14| (click: ?c14)[3]<c15| (click: ?c15)[(link:"2")[(goto:"Alex Talk Finish")]]The grate on the duct is loose. You clamber inside and fall gracelessly into somebody's office — judging by the wires and old electronics, probably Alex Jacobson's.
ETRUSCO's roots are in online operations, before moderation largely referred to finding illicit data towers and server banks. For most web users, the platforms are still ethereal, omnipresent, and unbreakable. People like Alex keep them that way in rooms like this, lined with hardware reminders of the net's fragile physicality.
A locked computer workstation sits to your left. To your right is a hefty (if: $visitedalex is true and $hastwofactor is true)[(link:"stack of datacubes.")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes")]](else:)[stack of datacubes. Someone has marked operating system names on each of them in an old-fashioned black marker, none of which match your nanites' experimental OS.] Alex herself is sitting on the floor (link: "at the far end")[(set: $ductlocked to false)(set:$fellthroughduct to true)(goto:"Alex Talk")] of the office, half-hidden by some kind of metal box.You press the new node at the side of your throat and see a list of names -- well, a single name, "AJACOBSON" -- appear in your retinal waveguide.
["Do you know the password?"]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[The workstation's desktop background is an old photo of a long-since-melted Antarctic research zone with a slightly stretched aspect ratio, icons arranged to cover only the tiny equipment shacks in the picture. You see a series of dull interface screenshots, a logo for //Dwarf Fortress v0.995//, and an email notification widget:
//You have 110,802 unread messages in your mailbox. Priority messages: 1.//
(link:"Read the email.")[(goto:"Alex Email")]
(link:"Log out.")[(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")]]You pick up a datacube and press a finger to its contact pad. As usual, you're not sure whether you can feel the nanites winding their way to the surface of your skin to transmit their tiny electrical pulses, or if it's purely psychosomatic. (if: $hastwofactor is true)[The first four datacubes give you nothing -- just old cat pictures and several folders labeled //Dwarf Fortress//. But the fifth appears to (link:"hold a message")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes Message")].] (if: $hasdronewhistle is true)[The first five datacubes give you nothing -- just old cat pictures, several folders labeled //Dwarf Fortress//, and a passphrase that's useless without hacking augs. But the sixth appears to (link:"hold a note")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes Message")].](set:$alexcubetrick to true)From: `<[email protected]>`
To: `<[email protected]>`
Subject: NOREPLY - Maintenance Request #002913628 - RESOLVED
//Dear `$RESIDENT`
Our maintenance algorithms detect no irregularities in HVAC performance. Building records also indicate that your duct's placement (A394xD213) is too high for standard ingress by a human or animal of mean organic strength. Thank you for your concern.
-
>>>An HVAC duct cover in my office
>>>seems to have come loose. Not hanging off or any
>>>thing, but if you squeeze the
>>>diagonal corners, it pops right
>>>open. I know it's been a long
>>>time since this was all NSA
>>>ops, but I assume security doesn't just want
>>>people crawling around in the walls
>>>-- and hell, the other offices might
>>>be worse.//
(link:"Log out.")[(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")]You open your eyes after, according to your nanoclock, four minutes and thirty-three seconds. You have a strange tickling in your throat, and Alex's hand takes a moment to resolve in front of your face.
$other["Feeling augmented yet?"]
(link:"I guess so. How am I supposed to use this thing?")[$jc["I guess so. How am I supposed to use this thing?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[(if:$hastwofactor is true)[$other["Just find a passphrase and say it. The modulator adds supervocal static that freaks out voiceprint software, like those turtles AIs think are guns.]](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[$other["Get close enough to touch a drone, and it's your best friend.]] $other[By the way, I tweaked your nanites to interface with basically any storage media. A society loses its data, it loses its past, you know?"]]
|reply1)[Still a little dazed, you nod goodbye and wander (link:"back to the front")[(set:$visitedalex to true)(set: $seealex to false)(if:$hastwofactor is true)[(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")](if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[(set: $dogsleep to false)(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]] of the office.]Alex is back at work, whatever that entails. Her computer workstation sits to your left, (if: $alexcubecode is true)[waiting (link:"for a passphrase.")[(set:$twofactorcount to it + 1)(goto:"Alex Computer")]](else:)[still inaccessible without a passphrase.]
(if:$fellthroughduct is true)[An (link: "open duct")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")] is beside it.](else-if: $ductlocked is false)[An (link: "open duct")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")] is beside it.] (else-if: $alexcubetrick is true)[Based on your datalink's blueprint calculations, a (link: "locked duct")[(goto:"Open Alex Duct")] should be located just beside it, under a picture of pre-flood Shanghai.] A (link:"stack of datacubes")[(goto:"Alex Datacubes")] is on the right.
(if:$showedalexflag is false)[(set:$showedalexflag to true)(set:$showedflag to it + 1)As your head clears, you realize you have forgotten to show Alex the flag. You wave it conspicuously from across the room until she nods quizzically and looks away. Thank god.]
(link:"Leave the room.")[(goto:"HQ Second Floor")](if: $hastwofactor is true)[//G:
Please stop attempting to install black-market intrusion countermeasures on my local network. Only an insane sociopath would rather starve someone to death with a dark pattern trap than arrest them. Also, stop asking me to come to your office and reset your password. If you can't be bothered to walk in here, use an offline datacube. "Do you know the password?" See, that's my secondary account phrase, which I'm comfortable sharing over datacube because I TRUST THE SYSTEM WE HAVE ESTABLI//
The message appears to have been neither finished nor delivered.
(link:"Put the datacube down.")[(set: $alexcubecode to true)(goto:"Alex Visited Hacker")]] (if: $hasdronewhistle is true)[//MAINTENANCE REQUEST: CLIENT COPY
Sender: Jacobson, Alexa Echo
Category: Infrastructure/HVAC
Text: An HVAC duct cover in my office seems to have come loose. Not hanging off or anything, but if you squeeze the diagonal corners, it pops right open. I know it's been a long time since this was all NSA ops, but I assume security doesn't just want people crawling around in the walls -- and hell, the other offices might be worse.//
(link:"Put the datacube down.")[(set: $alexcubetrick to true)(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]]The shibe's metal exoskeleton contracts slightly when you stroke it, eerily lifelike and artificial at the same time -- although you suspect some people have said the same thing about you. It lifts its head, opens a mouthlike port, and licks your hand.
Your retinal waveguide lights up:
(font:"Pangolin,sans-serif")[(link:"activate threat modeling")[(goto:"Dog Finds Vent")]
(link:"desync")[(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]]The shibe's eyes glow briefly as it scans the room with a faint clicking noise. Its heatmap and executive report spreads across your waveguide.
{(live: 2s)[(show: ?dog1)(stop:)]
(live: 2.5s)[(show: ?dog2)(stop:)]
(live: 3s)[(show: ?dog3)(stop:)]
(live: 3.5s)[(show: ?dog4)(stop:)]
(live: 5s)[(show: ?dog5)(stop:)]}
(css: "color: red;")[|dog1)[(font:"Pangolin,sans-serif")[w o w]]]
(css: "color: green;")[|dog2)[(font:"Pangolin,sans-serif")[m u c h w i r i n g]]]
(css: "color: purple;")[|dog3)[(font:"Pangolin,sans-serif")[v e r y a i r d u c t]]]
(css: "color: orange")[|dog4)[(font:"Pangolin,sans-serif")[''s o s e c u r e'']]]
|dog5)[A score in flashing red suggests that this last line is sarcastic.
The shibe seizes up as soon as it's finished and retreats back into box form. You notice a square it's highlighted behind a light screen printing of pre-flood Shanghai. Gently lifting the picture aside, you see (if:$ductlocked is true)[the locked entrance to an air duct.](if:$ductlocked is false)[the duct you found already.]
(set: $dogsleep to true)
{(if:$alexcubetrick is true and $ductlocked is true)[(link:"Jiggle the sides and crawl into the duct.")[(set: $ductlocked to false)(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")]](else-if: $ductlocked is false)[(link:"Crawl through the duct.")[(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")]]}
(link:"Leave the duct alone.")[(goto:"Alex Visited Drone")]]You carefully jiggle the duct open. As you climb in, you think you see Alex roll her eyes.
(link:"Go through the duct.")[(set: $ductlocked to false)(goto:"Gunther Office Interior")](if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade Chosen. (link:"Take Drone Whistle.")[(set:$hastwofactor to false)(set:$hasdronewhistle to true)(goto:"Review Inventory")]]
(else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle Chosen. (link:"Take Computing Hijack Upgrade.")[(set:$hastwofactor to true)(set:$hasdronewhistle to false)(goto:"Review Inventory")]](if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair Chosen. (link:"Take Feline Decoy.")[(set:$hasregen to false)(set:$haskittens to true)(goto:"Review Inventory")]]
(else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy Chosen. (link:"Take Advanced Bio-Repair.")[(set:$hasregen to true)(set:$haskittens to false)(goto:"Review Inventory")]](if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module Chosen. (link:"Take Plasma Flechette Pistol.")[(set:$haslockpick to false)(set:$hasgun to true)(goto:"Review Inventory")]]
(else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol Chosen. (link:"Take Nanite Lockpicking Module.")[(set:$haslockpick to true)(set:$hasgun to false)(goto:"Review Inventory")]]The security door clangs behind you. You are left alone with(if: $tookflag is false)[ the flag and ](if: $haslockpick is true)[(link:" the vacant desk")[(goto:"Front Desk")] and](else:)[ the vacant desk and] your growing anxiety.
Your memory cluster takes your mind off $paul and the upcoming operation with a rousing history lesson.
[//Platform superpowers rightly dismissed early 21st-century social media warfare as crude psychological and technical manipulation. But they failed to predict its rapid iteration.//]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[//They denied the existence of interface traps and reality editors until the verification wars — when the tools had been leaked refined, and weaponized.//]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[//The term "cyberwarfare" became as redundant as "electronic mail." Trolls and hackers matched the platforms' escalating patches blow for blow. Only ETRUSCO's formation preserved civilization as we know it.//]<c3|
(click: ?c3)[//Some unlicensed media outlets claim the Unperson virus represents a critical failure for ETRUSCO. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unperson has exposed the final, hideous traces of an old world — and you will be the one to end it.//]<c4|
(click: ?c4)[Your commlink vibrates, indicating that a Platinum Tier black autocab is ready to (link:"drive you to Brooklyn.")[(set: $etruscoHQfinished to true)(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Two Title")]]{(set: $tunnel to "hidden")
(set: $beachguards to "calm")
}Brighton Yards is a remnant of Old New New York. Developers pitched a public-access artificial island; the anchor of a Brooklyn seawall; and a luxury arcology with ten percent of its underwater apartments devoted to affordable housing. Now it lies solitary and abandoned, and years of mergers, bankruptcies, and lawsuits have left its ownership uncertain.
The autocab drops you off at the rocky beach. Anna Navarre – who has taken a different, slightly blacker cab — looks at the watery gap between shore and building with obvious disdain, then turns to you with (if:$hasgun is true)[a somewhat warmer expression.](else:)[a similar expression.]
$other["How do you plan to proceed?"]
(link:"I assumed we would be going in together.")[$jc["I assumed we would be going in together."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["How... forward of you. No — Manderley wishes to assess your abilities. You will make the initial ingress and activate the observation deck gondola, preparing us for a speedy tactical departure. I will follow once this is done."]]
|reply1)[(link:"How am I supposed to get to the observation deck? Swim?")[$jc["How am I supposed to get to the observation deck? Swim?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["Perhaps if you had not worn a ridiculous leather overcoat, that would be a possibility."]]
|reply2)[Navarre raises her eyebrows and retreats to the boardwalk. You (link:"need some advice")[(goto:"Call Alex Beach")].]Inventory:
* Rechargeable Electropacification Stunner
* Universal Hard Storage Nano-Connector
* (if: $haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module](else-if: $hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol]
* (if: $hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair](else-if: $haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy]
* (if: $hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade](else-if: $hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle]
(if:$hassoylent is true)[* Soylent Bar](set: $bygondola to true)(set:$credits to it +1)Alex answers your commlink call on the fourth vibration. You pace the beach beneath a darkening sky, trying to look natural for the half-dozen quixotic sunbathers gingerly resting on the rocks.
$other["JC! Sorry. The shibe grabbed my headband. What's going on?"]
(link:"Agent Navarre wants me to go it alone on the beach. Can you pull up any schematics of the area?")[$jc["Agent Navarre wants me to go it alone on the beach. Can you pull up any schematics of the area?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["According to Alphabook Maps, there's a marina to the east — maybe you could catch a ride. There might also be a direct route to the Yards — but I don't know where. Ever seen one of those tunnels under Disneyworld?"]]
|reply1)[(link:"No.")[$jc["No."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["Exactly."]]
|reply2)[For lack of any better options, you could (link:"head for the marina")[(goto:"Visit Marina")] or (link:"explore the beach.")[(goto:"Visit Beach")]]Your memory cluster defines a "marina" as "a specially designed harbor with moorings for pleasure craft and small boats." You see only a brine-crusted enclosure of steel netting filled with stark, sleek bullets arranged in an unfamiliar formation.
(link:"Submarines.")[(if:$beachdrone is true)[$jc["Submarines,"] you whisper to the small drone above you.](else:)[$jc["Submarines."]](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[A man melts out of the netting and blocks your way. $other["Members only,"] he growls.]
|reply1)[Light-field cloaking mech-augs — he must be military or PMC. Invisibility augs were briefly popular with consumers, the way baby alligators are popular in illicit pet shops, but their power draw wrecked the batteries within months. The remaining civilian recipients have only delicate, lightless lines of implanted mirrors, like a dinosaur's plates.
(link:"Members of what?")[$jc["Members of what?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[He looks at you quizzically. $other["Do you really expect me to answer that?"]]
|reply2)[You can think of very few ways to avoid sounding petulant here, and they all involve violence.
$jc["Yes,"] you mutter.
(link:"Yes, I do.")[(goto:"Meet the Guards")]
(if:$beachdrone is true)[(link:"Or you could just smash your drone into him.")[(goto:"Drone Beach Guards")]]](set: $beachguards to "wary")The guard whispers into the crook of his metal arm, and two more men slip through the netting, nearly surrounding you. Even the sky seems hostile: the storm that's been threatening since you arrived finally hits, scattering the beachgoers.
(if: $hasgun is true)[(link:"Draw the plasma pistol and open fire.")[(goto:"Shoot Beach Guards")]]
(if: $hasregen is true)[(link:"Draw the stunner and shoot.")[(goto:"Stun Beach Guards")]]
(if: $hasgun is true)[(link:"Run.")[(goto:"Run Beach Guards")]](else-if: $hasregen is true)[(link:"Run.")[(goto:"Run Beach Guards")]](else:)[(link:"You're hopelessly outgunned. Run.")[(goto:"Run Beach Guards")]]{
(set: $hasgun to false)
(set: $haslockpick to true)
(set: $hasregen to true)
(set: $haskittens to false)
(set: $hastwofactor to false)
(set: $hasdronewhistle to true)
(set:$finishedflag to true)
(set: $hassoylent to true)
(set: $tunnel to "hidden")
(set: $beachguards to "calm")
(set: $darknetlines to 0)
(set: $visitacright to false)
(set: $visitacleft to false)
(set: $visitachallway to false)
(set: $visitaclock to false)
(set: $visitacterminal to false)
(set: $visitacentrance to false)
(set: $visitaccloset to false)
(set: $foyerbox to "locked")
(set: $foyerdrone to false)
(set: $foyerterminalpass to false)
(set: $hasackey to false)
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)
}
(link:"Start")[(goto:"Chapter Six Title")]{(set: $killcount to it + 3)
(set: $guncount to it + 3)
}You pull the plasma pistol from its holster with your nano-augmented reflexes. The guards are old, clumsy — obsolete. They have no purpose on this earth.
[Pew.]<c1| (click: ?c1)[Pew.]<c2| (click: ?c2)[Pew.]<c3| (click: ?c3)[Pew.]<c4| (click: ?c4)[Pew.]<c5| (click: ?c5)[Pew.]<c6| (click: ?c6)[Pew.]<c7| (click: ?c7)[Pew.]<c8| (click: ?c8)[Pew.]<c9| (click: ?c9)[Pew.]<c10| (click: ?c10)[Pew.]<c11| (click: ?c11)[Pew.]<c12| (click: ?c12)[Pew.]<c13| (click: ?c13)[Pew.]<c14| (click: ?c14)[Pew.]<c15| (click: ?c15)[Pew.]<c16| (click: ?c16)[Pew.]<c17| (click: ?c17)[Pew.]<c18| (click: ?c18)[Pew.]<c19| (click: ?c19)[Pew.]<c20| (click: ?c20)[Pew.]<c21| (click: ?c21)[Pew.]<c22| (click: ?c22)[Pew.]<c23|
(click: ?c23)[Salt air and rainwater smother the scent of burning flesh and scorched metal as the last guard falls to the ground. You have no idea who these people were, or what they were doing. But you really wanted into that marina, so (link:"now they're dead.")[(goto:"Enter Marina")]]As you cross the marina, you remember learning that during the verification wars, ten Dorsey Separatists attempted to break the siege of Portland with a fleet of personal submarines. They spent cramped weeks navigating water mazes laid by platform superpowers, fueled by designer nootropics.
Five turned back, three went insane, and one reappeared months later on a ship adrift in the Pacific, living among rats that he claimed had formed a hive intelligence after being given modafinil. The last was never found.
(link:"Anyhow, time to stuff yourself into the tiny submarine.")[(set:$beachtravel to "boat")(goto:"Travel To Arcology")](set: $stuncount to it + 1)
(set: $regencount to it + 1)
You draw the stunner.
Your aiming nanites calculate your opponent's estimated weight, age, and body fat; his ancestral DNA quotients; his current probable pain threshold; the presence of any prominently branded products; and the trajectory of his body. Only one of those measurements is actually necessary, but the rest is [useful for data mining.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[For you, it's not much help. You hit the man in the center, but the other two fire while your stunner recharges. You slump to the ground, and the last thing you hear before starting your regenerator and passing out is one of the guards:]<c2|
(click: ?c2)["This is still illegal, right? We should (link:"get rid of $pronoun2")[(goto:"Regenerate In Marina")]."](set: $beachguards to "gone")[Wake up.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[You are rolled in a soggy blanket bearing the logo of a prominent esports caster. The room is dark and smells of bleach, but your augmented vision can tell that it's a storage closet, and you realize that somone has dropped your stunner in a corner.]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[Judging by the holes in your coat and shirt, any ordinary human would be extremely dead by now. You feel only a maddening internal tickle and several spots of tender skin.]<c3|
(click: ?c3)[You sneak a look outside. The guards appear to have taken their fallen comrade away, and you're (link:"alone in the marina.")[(goto:"Enter Marina")]]The guards are slow, stiffened by years of planned obsolescence in their implants. You outrun them easily and slip back (link:"to the beach.")[(goto:"Beach Central")]It's raining heavily, and Anna's joke about swimming no longer sounds like such a bad idea. But the way you see it, you still have two options: (link:"the marina")[(if: $beachguards is "wary")[(goto:"Return Beach Guards")](else-if: $beachguards is "calm")[(goto:"Visit Marina")](else-if: $beachguards is "gone")[(goto:"Enter Marina")]] and (link:"the far end of the beach.")[(goto:"Visit Beach")]
(if:$beachdrone is true)[A small drone is following you.]The beach doesn't end. It disappears into a tangle of plastic detritis, drawn from ocean and city alike. (if:$tunnel is "woman")[The woman's directions put the tunnel entrance in a gap (link:"behind a kelpy swamp")[(goto:"Enter Tunnel")] of bags. ](else-if:$tunnel is "drone")[A tunnel entrance sits in a gap (link:"behind a kelpy swamp")[(goto:"Enter Tunnel")] of bags. ](if:$beachdrone is true)[You see no sign of a boat or anything else of value.](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[You see no sign of a boat or anything else of value, except perhaps an (link:"abandoned toy quadcopter.")[(goto:"Drone Beach Survey")]](else:)[You see no sign of a boat or anything else of value, except perhaps an abandoned toy quadcopter.]
(link:"Turn back.")[(goto:"Beach Central")]The woman must be unpersoned. Anyone else so lost-looking would be filed into the reskilling system already, but the unpersoned have a virus bound to their name and biometrics, erasing any linked accounts as soon as they're created.
The very rich can change their identities through courts and plastic surgeons. But when every connection routes through a personalized online assistant, how is anyone else supposed to even get started? Melodramatic types call the Unperson virus the "gray death." Last week it knocked an entire suburb of Atlanta offline.
$other["The weather's hell today, isn't it?"] she says.
(link:"I'd assume hell would at least be warmer.")[$jc[I'd assume hell would at least be warmer."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:3s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[She laughs. $other["Most people have never been to hell."]]
|talk2)[A peal of thunder hits, and you both flinch. She recovers first. $other["You're supposed to ask me,"] she says.]
|reply1)[(link:"Ask you what?")[$jc["Ask you what?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Ask me if I //have//."] She cocks an eyebrow. $other["And if you've got anything to eat, I'll tell you."]]
|reply2)[(if:$hassoylent is true)[(link:"Give her your soylent.")[(goto:"Beach Woman Tunnel")]
(link:"Apologize and keep walking.")[(set:$woman to "ignored")(goto:"Beach Tunnel End")]](else:)[(link:"You have nothing. Apologize and keep walking.")[(set:$woman to "ignored")(goto:"Beach Tunnel End")]]]{(set: $tunnel to "woman")
(set: $woman to "fed")
}The woman peels the soylent bar's rice-plastic wrapper and takes a bite.
$other["You know, Dante said Hell has nine levels,"] she says. Then she jabs a finger at the mass of Brighton Yards. $other["But that thing out there has seventeen."]
(link:"You lived in the Yards?")[$jc["You lived in the Yards?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["I died in the Yards."]]
|reply1)[(link:"You're talking about the virus.")[$jc["You're talking about the virus."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["You think a ghost would want food?"] She takes another bite. $other["That place is //infested//. The funny thing is, I thought I was being smart. I got ghosted by an outfit called Majestic Realty on a contract, and I spent a whole week finding somewhere to complain. All signs pointed to them owning it, you know?"]]
|reply2)[(link:"How did you get out there? The gondola's offline.")[$jc["How did you get out there? The gondola's offline."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Oh, that — that //was// smart. I read all the glossy architecture magazine profiles till I figured out they had a poor door. Or a poor... tunnel, I guess. Then I busted into it with a crowbar."]]
|reply3)[You wait for her to finish the soylent, thinking of various phrasings for your question:
(link:"Can you tell me how to get there?")[(goto:"Beach Tunnel End")]]ETRUSCO's training center is an enclosed toroid arcology located far inland in California 7. $paul told you once that it was so nobody could look out to the ocean and wonder what they'd lost.
It's easy enough to see what's been lost on the beach -- in the foundering piers, the clumsy levees, and (if: $woman is "fed")[the woman who searched the Yards.](else-if: $woman is "ignored")[the hungry woman beneath the boardwalk.](else:)[(link:"the woman sheltering")[(goto:"Talk Beach Woman")] beneath a half-rotted section of the boardwalk.]
(link:"Walk on by.")[(goto:"Beach Tunnel End")]{(set:$tunnel to "drone")
(set: $dronewhistlecount to it + 1)
(set: $beachdrone to true)
}The quadcopter is an older model, but you breathe life into its insectoid body just the same. It's the kind of thing your parents might have stuffed a stocking with at Christmas, just some rotors and a camera. You send it soaring, and as it rises, your nanites' pattern recognition algorithms catch a strange depression (link:"behind a kelpy swamp")[(goto:"Enter Tunnel")] of bags.
(link:"Turn back.")[(goto:"Beach Central")]You slosh through inches of plastic filth as you make your way to the tunnel's crumbling stairs. Its metal door is small, modest, and scarred with bright scratch lines. It's also hanging open. Peering into the darkness, you catch the only two words that matter on a metal plaque:
BRIGHTON YARDS
(link:"Enter the tunnel.")[(set: $beachtravel to "tunnel")(goto:"Travel To Arcology")]
(link:"Turn back.")[(goto:"Beach Central")](set: $leavebeachgoal to "completed")(if:$beachtravel is "boat")[The submarine has a cheap reality editor equipped, but you doubt it fools anyone into enjoying a ride in a coffin-like tube. You close your eyes and silently recite the moderator's creed.](else-if:$beachtravel is "tunnel")[The tunnel cools precipitously as it drops beneath the water. This must be how undersea cables feel — the smart ones, anyway.]
As you make your way through the water, your commlink buzzes. There's no name with the feeling, and you're surprised you have data service at all.
(link:"Alex?")[$jc["Alex?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[(text-color:"yellow")[LIṠ̷̩T̵͙̈́̆͘EN̶͉͕̲͙̐̄̒ ̵͈̈̒C̸͈̯̆̓̕AREFỤ̵̯́̏͂̎L̵̡̜̫̜̄̊LY]]
|reply1)[(link:"Agent Navarre?")[$jc["Agent Navarre?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[(text-color:"yellow")[DEFḮ̵̡̗͈Ņ̴̙͖͆̂E ̶̠̽̀͘ELE̶̺̥̦̾̕Ġ̵̪͐̂IAC̷͚̎̒̊:̴̨̜̽͒ ̴̞̗̌A̷̘͊ ̶̯̞̖̃̆Ľ̶̹̫̅̐Ả̴̰̀͆͜MENT ̶̨̬̓̿̂F̶̢̟̣̀͝OR̴̺̎ ̴̬̭̞͆̐̈T̸̺̈́̒̆ͅH̶̰̤̹͂E ̴͇͙͒̊͆DE̴̢̠̐AḊ̴̨̻̞̕]]
|reply2)[(link:"A lament for the dead? I don't understand. Who is this?")[$jc["A lament for the dead? I don't understand. Who is this?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[(text-color:"yellow")[DẺ̶͖̤͈̈́͛͠Ǎ̷̺̯̰̲̯́̃̑̈́D ̵̭͌̀̈≯̦̔ ̶͖̳̟̯̉̓̍BRE̵͇̯̖̬͖̅̐̆͘Ä̵̧̭̘͎̓ͅD ̶̡̢̱̠̀̎͌̐>̵̤͓̄̂͋͠ ̴͔͚͗̂L̵͚̜͋́̀͝E̵̠͓̔AD.̷̜̄̊̈́̆ ̵̞̟̪̮͈̓LEAḎ̸́̕:̶̑͒͂̕ͅ ̷̼̥̠̖̀ͅ#̴̱̦̻͆̽̕͜ͅA9̷̅ͅA9̴̧̜̫̉͌͋A9̶͔̟̮̞̅͊́]]
|reply3)[(link:"Hexadecimal gray... dead — you mean the unperson virus? The gray death?")[$jc["Hexadecimal gray... dead — you mean the Unperson virus? The gray death?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[(text-color:"yellow")[UNP̷̦͗Ȇ̷̡R̵͓̈́SON̷̗̆ ̴̮̈>̶̱̒ ̸̱͌WORS̴̗͠E̷̜͝N̷͘͜ ̵̹̀>̴̝̑ ̵̣̔KRIS̵͙̍TO̶͈͘F̶̼̌F̶͕̍ERSON̵͕͂ ̶̫̃>̶̥͑ ̵͛ͅBLA̵̘͆D̵̗̆Ȩ̵͠ ̶͈͠199̵̲̔8̸̧͘ ̷̫͌=̶̣̿ ̴͙̋S̶̲̍N̴͉̅IPES̷̮͋ ̴͍͋>̶̊͜ ̶͓͒S̵͚̈́NIP̶̥̌Ė̶͇R:̸̫͐ ̴̟̅T̷̡̂HE̷͍̅ ̶͊ͅP̷̪̈́IECE̵͔͐S ̵͎͛F̷͚́IT]]
|reply4)[(link:"What pieces? How did you get this commlink? Who are you?")[$jc["What pieces? How did you get this commlink? Who are you?"](live:1s)
[(display:"Q Text")(stop:)]]]The rain cloaks you in shadows, and the guards don't seem to notice you've come back.
(if:$haskittens is true)[(link:"Select a kitten from your sticker pack.")[(goto:"Kittens Beach Guards")]]
(if:$beachdrone is true)[(link:"Crash your drone into the guards.")[(goto:"Drone Beach Guards")]]
(if: $hasgun is true)[(link:"Draw the plasma pistol and open fire.")[(goto:"Shoot Beach Guards")]]
(if: $hasregen is true)[(link:"Approach with the stunner and shoot.")[(goto:"Stun Beach Guards")]]
(link:"Head back to the beach.")[(goto:"Beach Central")](set: $kittenscount to it + 1)
You select a particularly adorable gray Scottish Fold — probably Japanese — from your occipital menu. Blinking hard, you cast it into the rain by the guards.
The effect is disappointing at first, because the kitten doesn't look remotely real to your eyes. But the guards are suddenly, uncannily rapt. You remember Jaime's words: //Weaponized UX, addictive interfaces.//
(link:"They don't even turn their heads as you slip by.")[(goto:"Enter Marina")](set:$stuncount to it +3)The drone hits the guard with the force of a mech-aug palmetto bug, giving you time to hit him with your stunner. You recharge it and slip around the inner perimeter of the marina, silently taking down a second guard, and then a third. It is a remarkably satisfying process.
(link:"You are alone in the marina.")[(goto:"Enter Marina")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
You are on a dock at one side of the Arcology garden. At the other end is a locked gate. A debris barrier lies between you and the door.
An armed man stands in front of the door. If you simply climb the barrier, he'll see you and shoot, unless he's distracted. If you can get to the other side, you'll be in range with a plasma pistol. For a stunner, a closer range is required.
To your left, near the platform, is a small grate. To the right, there's a line of projectors flashing hot enough to conceal you. They won't get you past a barrier, but they'll get you into a duct near it, marked with a QR code indicating proximity to a security terminal.
To your left is a small grate. To the right, there's a line of projectors flashing hot enough to conceal you. They lead to a duct near the barrier, marked with a QR code indicating proximity to a security terminal.
(link:"Go left to the grate.")[(goto: "Drone Grate Ghost")]
(link:"Go right toward the duct.")[(goto:"Hacking Grate Ghost")]
(link:"Move toward the barrier.")[(goto:"Barrier Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")](set: $lockpickcountghost to 0)
(set: $guncountghost to 0)
(set: $regencountghost to 0)
(set: $kittenscountghost to 0)
(set: $twofactorcount to 0)
(set: $dronewhistlecount to 0)
(set: $killcount to 0)
You are on a platform at the far end of a huge antechamber garden. At the far end of the garden, in the center, there is a locked door.
A guard is in front of the door. A large barrier, which would take time to traverse, is between you and the guard. Your guns cannot shoot through this barrier, and the guard will shoot you if you climb over it, unless distracted.
In the far left-hand corner, there is a security room. You see a row of future-trees that would hide you from the guard and get you to a grate, but the front door is on the guard's side. If you open it he will see and shoot you, unless he's distracted. There is a grate to your left.
Test only: you should change your inventory (go to inventory)
Do you:
Go left to the grate.
Go right through the trees.
Move toward the barrier.
You should think on this.
(if triedcount is whatever, go final)(set: $haslockpick to false)
(set: $hasgun to true)
(set: $haskittens to false)
(set: $hasregen to true)
(set: $hasdronewhistle to true)
(set: $hastwofactor to false)
(link:"Start")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost Intro")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
There's a drone behind the grate, right at the entrance to a long passage. Too small for you, just fine for it.
(if:$hasdronewhistle is true and $dronestate is "stationary")[
(link:"Start the drone.")[(print:"The friendly drone disappears, then peeks out from above the guard.")(set:$finaldronestarted to true)(set: $dronestate to "ready")(set: $dronewhistlecountghost to it + 1)]](else-if: $dronestate is "ready")[
You see the drone's home base.](else-if: $dronestate is "dead")[
You see the dead drone's home base.]
(link:"Go back to the dock.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$hackroomstate is "locked")[The duct leads to a security room, but it's locked.
(if: $hasgun is true and $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Shoot the grate with a plasma flechette, alarming the guard.")[(set: $finalshootgrate to true)(set: $guardstate to "wary")(set: $hackroomstate to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]](else-if:$hasgun is true)[(link:"Shoot the grate with a plasma flechette.")[(set:$hackroomstate to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]](else-if: $haslockpick is true)[(link:"Lockpick the grate.")[(set:$finallockpickgrate to true)(set: $hackroomstate to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]]](else:)[There's an open duct to the security room. (link:"Go on in.")[(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]]
(link:"Go back to the dock.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if: $roomcleared is false)[You're near the barrier between you and the guard.](else-if: $roomcleared is true)[You're near the barrier between you and the guard. He's motionless.]
(if: $roomcleared is false)[(link:"Deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Guard From Barrier Ghost")]](else-if: $roomcleared is true)[(link:"Cross the barrier.")[(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"Back away slowly.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]You are in the hacking room. The hacking terminal needs a password. The door toward the guard is open. There is a safe on the wall.
(if: $hasgun is true and $guardstate is "calm" and $haspassword is false)[(link:"Shoot the safe, alarming the guard.")[(set: $guardstate to "wary")(set: $haspassword to true)(set: $guncountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Hacking Terminal Ghost")]](else-if: $hasgun is true and $haspassword is false)[(link:"Shoot the safe.")[(set: $haspassword to true)(set: $guncountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Hacking Terminal Ghost")]]
(if: $haslockpick is true and $haspassword is false)[(link:"Lockpick the safe.")[(set: $haspassword to true)(set: $lockpickcountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Hacking Terminal Ghost")]]
(if: $dronestate is "ready" and $guardstate is "distracted" and $finaldoor is "locked")[(link:"Send the drone to unlock the door.")[(print:"The drone unlocks the door and hides in the grate.")(set:$finaldoor to "unlocked")]] (else-if: $dronestate is "ready" and $guardstate is "calm" and $finaldoor is "locked")[(link:"Send the drone to unlock the door.")[(print:"The drone unlocks the door. Before it can return to the grate, the guard shoots it down.")(set:$finaldoor to "unlocked")(set: $dronestate to "dead")]](else-if: $dronestate is "ready" and $roomcleared is true)[(print:"The drone unlocks the door and hovers above it.")(set:$finaldoor to "unlocked")]
(if:$dronestate is "ready" and $guardstate is "distracted")[(link:"Send the drone to distract the guard even more.")[(link:"The drone swoops into the guard. You burst through the door.")[(set: $guardstate to "superdistracted")(goto:"Guard From Station")]]](else-if:$dronestate is "ready" and $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Send the drone to distract the guard.")[(link:"The drone swoops into the guard. You burst through the side door.")[(set: $guardstate to "distracted")(set: $dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard From Station")]]]
(if: $haskittens is true and $guardstate is "distracted")[(link:"Crack the door and cast a kitten.")[(set:$guardstate to "superdistracted")(set: $kittenscountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Guard From Station")]](else-if: $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Crack the side door, cast a kitten.")[(set: $guardstate to "distracted")(set: $kittenscountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Guard From Station")]]
(if: $hasregen is true and $roomcleared is false)[(link:"Turn on regeneration and burst through the door.")[(set: $regencountghost to it + 1)(goto:"Guard From Station")]]
(if: $roomcleared is true)[(link:"Go to the cleared room")[(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"Return to the dock.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"OBJECTIVES")[(display:"Arcology Objectives Ghost")]
(link:"INVENTORY")[(display:"Arcology Inventory Ghost")]{
(set: $lockpickcountghost to 0)
(set: $guncountghost to 0)
(set: $regencountghost to 0)
(set: $kittenscountghost to 0)
(set: $twofactorcountghost to 0)
(set: $dronewhistlecountghost to 0)
(set: $killcountghost to 0)
(set: $dronestate to "stationary")
(set: $guardstate to "calm")
(set: $hackroomstate to "locked")
(set: $haspassword to false)
(set: $roomcleared to false)
(set: $finaldoor to "locked")
(set: $augstate to "none")
(set: $safestate to "locked")
(set: $guardsearched to false)
(set: $finaldronestarted to false)
(set: $finaldoordrone to false)
(set: $finaldoordronedeath to false)
(set: $finaldoorshoot to false)
(set: $finalhackterminal to false)
(set: $finalsearchguard to false)
(set: $finalshootgrate to false)
(set: $finallockpickgrate to false)
(set: $finalshootsafe to false)
(set: $finallockpicksafe to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardshoot to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunregen to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardshootregen to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstundrone to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunregendrone to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstundronedeath to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunkittens to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootregen to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootkittens to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardstunregendrone to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath to false)
(set: $scenariocount to 0)
(set: $scenariostarted to true)
}[Here are the parameters of the situation.]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[You are on a dock at one side of the Arcology garden. At the other end is a locked gate. A debris barrier lies between you and the door.]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[An armed man stands in front of the door. If you simply climb the barrier, he'll see you and shoot, unless he's distracted. If you can get to the other side, you'll be in range with a plasma pistol. For a stunner, a closer range is required.]<c3|
(click: ?c3)[Now, surroundings. To your left is a small grate. To the right, there's a line of projectors flashing hot enough to conceal you. They lead to a duct near the barrier, marked with a QR code indicating proximity to a security terminal.]<c4|
(click: ?c4)[What do you do?
(link:"Go left to the grate.")[(goto: "Drone Grate Ghost")]
(link:"Go right toward the duct.")[(goto:"Hacking Grate Ghost")]
(link:"Move toward the barrier.")[(goto:"Barrier Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
You've unlocked the work station with the passphrase.
(if:$finaldoor is "locked")[(link:"Unlock the Arcology entrance and log out.")[(set: $finalhackterminal to true)(set: $finaldoor to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]](else:)[(link:"Log out.")[(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]OBJECTIVES:
(if:$roomcleared is false)[Deal with the guard](else-if: $roomcleared is true)[~~Deal with the guard~~]
(if: $finaldoor is "locked")[Unlock the door](else-if: $finaldoor is "unlocked")[~~Unlock the door.~~]
(if: $roomcleared is true and $finaldoor is "unlocked")[Enter the arcology.]INVENTORY:
Rechargeable Electropacification Stunner
Universal Hard Storage Nano-Connector
(if: $haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module](else-if: $hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol]
(if: $hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade](else-if: $hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle]
(if: $hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair](else-if: $haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[The guard is calm and will be slow on the draw, but you'll still need a distraction to make it close enough to shoot him at all, let alone stun him.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[The guard is wary and will be quick on the draw. He cannot be distracted except by being attacked.]
(if:$roomcleared is false and $hasregen is true)[(link:"Turn on advanced bio-repair.")[(goto:"Deploy Regenerate Barrier Ghost")]](else-if:$roomcleared is false and $haskittens is true and $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Deploy feline decoy.")[(goto:"Deploy Kitten Barrier Ghost")]]
(if: $roomcleared is false and $dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Deploy friendly drone.")[(goto:"Deploy Drone Barrier Ghost")]]
(link:"Back away slowly.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[(print:"The guard is unaware and slow on the draw.")](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[(print:"The guard is wary and will overload your regeneration capacity immediately, unless he's already being attacked.")]
(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Cross the barrier, get within plasma shooting distance before your damage limit is reached, and fire a flechette.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardshootregen to true)(set: $augstate to "regenerating")(goto:"Guard Shoot Barrier Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Cross the barrier, get within plasma shooting distance before your damage limit is reached, and quickly deploy the friendly drone.")[(set:$augstate to "regenerating")(goto:"Deploy Drone Barrier Ghost")]]
(link:"Never mind. Back away slowly.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(if:$hasregen is false)[(print:"How did you even get here")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[The guard is unaware and slow on the draw.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[The guard is wary and will attack the drone immediately, unless he's already being attacked.]
(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $augstate is "kittens")[(link:"Deploy the friendly drone against the guard, who is distracted by your feline decoy.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone to true)(set: $dronestate to "attacking")(goto:"Guard Stun Barrier Ghost")]](else-if:$guardstate is "calm" and $augstate is "regenerating")[(link:"Deploy the friendly drone against the guard, who is currently shooting you.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardstunregendrone to true)(set:$dronestate to "attacking")(goto:"Guard Stun Barrier Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "wary" and $augstate is "regenerating" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Sacrifice the friendly drone to get within plasma shooting range of the guard.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath to true)(set: $dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard Shoot Barrier Ghost")]](else-if:$guardstate is "calm" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Sacrifice the friendly drone to get within plasma shooting range of the guard.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardshootdronedeath to true)(set: $dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard Shoot Barrier Ghost")]]
(link:"Sacrifice the friendly drone to unlock the Arcology entrance.")[(set:$finaldoordronedeath to true)(set: $dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard From Barrier Ghost")]
(link:"Never mind. Back away slowly.")[(set:$augstate to "none")(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(if:$hasdronewhistle is false)[(print:"How did you even get here")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[(print:"The guard is unaware and will be distracted a moderate amount of time by the kitten.")](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[(print:"The guard is wary and cannot be distracted.")]
(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Deploy a kitten, get within plasma shooting range of the guard, and fire a flechette.")[(set:$finalbarrierguardshootkittens to true)(set:$finalshootbarrier to true)(set:$augstate to "kittens")(goto:"Guard Shoot Barrier Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Deploy a kitten, get within plasma shooting range of the guard, and quickly deploy the friendly drone.")[(set:$augstate to "kittens")(goto:"Deploy Drone Barrier Ghost")]]
(link:"Never mind. Back away slowly.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(set: $finalshootbarrier to true)You're too far from the guard to stun him, but close enough to hit him with a plasma flechette.
(if:$augstate is "kittens")[The guard is distracted by kittens. (link:"Kill him.")[(set: $guardstate to "dead")(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $roomcleared to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(if:$finalbarrierguardshootdronedeath is true)[The guard is distracted by the now-disintegrating drone. (link:"Kill him.")[(set: $guardstate to "dead")(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $roomcleared to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]](else-if:$augstate is "regenerating" and $dronestate is "dead")[The guard is distracted by the now-disintegrating drone. (link:"Kill him.")[(set: $guardstate to "dead")(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $roomcleared to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]](else-if: $augstate is "regenerating")[The guard shoots you, to minimal effect. (link:"Kill him.")[(set: $guardstate to "dead")(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $roomcleared to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(set: $finalstunbarrier to true)(if:$augstate is "kittens" and $dronestate is "attacking")[The guard is distracted by kittens, and the drone stuns it easily. (link:"You're clear to cross.")[(set: $roomcleared to true)(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $dronestate to "ready")(set:$guardstate to "stunned")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(if:$augstate is "regenerating" and $dronestate is "attacking")[The guard is busy shooting you, and the friendly drone stuns it easily. (link:"You're clear to cross.")[(set: $roomcleared to true)(set: $augstate to "none")(set: $dronestate to "ready")(set:$guardstate to "stunned")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "dead")[The guard is dead.](else-if:$guardstate is "stunned")[The guard is unconscious.] (if:$finaldoor is "unlocked")[The Arcology entrance is unlocked and you are free to walk inside.](else-if:$finaldoor is "locked")[The door to the Arcology is still locked.] The side door to the security room near you is unlocked.
(if: $finaldoor is "unlocked")[(link:"Walk into the Arcology.")[(goto:"Arcology Commit Screen")]]
(link:"Open the side door and enter the security room.")[(set: $hackroomstate to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]
(if:$guardsearched is false)[(link:"Search the guard.")[(goto:"Search Guard Ghost")]]
(if:$finaldoor is "locked" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Shoot the locked entrance.")[(set:$finaldoorshoot to true)(goto:"Shoot Final Door Ghost")]]
(if:$finaldoor is "locked" and $dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Have the drone unlock the Arcology entrance.")[(goto:"Drone Final Door Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
Definitely a security room, with a standard passphrase-based terminal. (if:$roomcleared is true)[There's an unlocked side door that opens near the Arcology entrance.](else:)[There's an unlocked side door that opens near the guard.] (if:$safestate is "unlocked")[You've emptied the passphrase safe.](else-if: $safestate is "locked")[A locked safe is on the wall.]
(if:$roomcleared is true)[
(link:"It's safe to open the side door and walk outside.")[(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]](else:)[
(link:"Deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Guard From Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"Head back out the grate.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]
(if:$safestate is "locked" and $haslockpick is true)[(link:"Pick the lock to the safe.")[(set:$finallockpicksafe to true)(goto:"Open Safe Ghost")]](else-if: $safestate is "locked" and $hasgun is true and $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Shoot the safe with a plasma flechette, alarming the guard.")[(set:$finalshootsafe to true)(set: $guardstate to "wary")(goto:"Open Safe Ghost")]](else-if: $safestate is "locked" and $hasgun is true)[
(set:$finalshootsafe to true)(link:"Shoot the safe with a plasma flechette.")[(goto:"Open Safe Ghost")]]
(if: $hastwofactor is true and $haspassword is true)[(link:"Access the security terminal.")[(goto:"Hacking Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$haslockpick is true)[You pick the lock and open the safe.](else-if:$hasgun is true)[You loudly shoot the safe open.] Inside, you find a passphrase for the computer.
(if:$hastwofactor is true)[(link:"Take the passphrase.")[(set: $safestate to "unlocked")(set:$haspassword to true)(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]](else:)[(link:"Leave the passphrase. It's useless to you.")[(set: $safestate to "unlocked")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
The guard is close enough that you could shoot him from the doorway, or find a way to get closer and stun him. (if: $guardstate is "calm")[He isn't paying much attention and will be slow on the draw.](else-if: $guardstate is "wary")[He's wary — if you shoot him, he'll hit you first, and he can't be distracted, except by being attacked.]
(if:$hasgun is true and $guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Jump out and shoot the guard with your plasma flechettes.")[(set:$finalterminalguardshoot to true)(set: $finalshootterminal to true)(set:$guardstate to "terminalshot")(goto:"Guard Shoot Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$hasregen is true)[(link:"Turn on advanced bio-repair.")[(goto:"Deploy Regenerate Terminal Ghost")]](else-if:$haskittens is true)[(link:"Deploy feline decoy.")[(goto:"Deploy Kitten Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Deploy friendly drone.")[(goto:"Deploy Drone Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"Never mind. Keep the side door shut.")[(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(set: $finalshootbarrier to true)(if: $augstate is "regenerating")[You open the door, and the guard shoots you. (link:"Kill him.")[(set:$guardstate to "dead")(set:$roomcleared to true)(set:$augstate to "none")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]](else:)[You open the door and see the guard. (link:"Kill him.")[(set:$guardstate to "dead")(set:$roomcleared to true)(set:$augstate to "none")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(if:$guardstate is "calm" and $augstate is "regenerating")[The guard shoots you, but you shake it off and stun him.](else-if:$guardstate is "calm" and $dronestate is "attacking")[(set:$dronestate to "ready")The drone knocks the guard out before the guard even sees it.](else-if:$augstate is "regenerating" and $dronestate is "attacking")[(set: $dronestate to "ready")The drone knocks the guard out while he's busy shooting you.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary" and $dronestate is "dead")[You knock the guard out while he's destroying the drone.](else-if:$guardstate is "calm" and $augstate is "kittens")[You knock the guard out while he's watching the kittens.]
(link:"The coast is clear")[(set:$guardstate to "stunned")(set:$roomcleared to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[The guard is unaware and slow on the draw.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[The guard is wary and will overload your regeneration capacity if you try to get close, unless he's already being attacked.]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Open the side door, turn on advanced bio-repair, and stun the guard.")[(set: $finalterminalguardstunregen to true)(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(set: $augstate to "regenerating")(goto:"Guard Stun Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "wary" and $hasgun is true)[(link:"Open the side door, turn on advanced bio-repair, and shoot the guard with a plasma flechette.")[(set:$finalterminalguardshootregen to true)(set: $finalshootterminal to true)(set: $augstate to "regenerating")(goto:"Guard Shoot Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "wary" and $dronestate is "ready")[(link:"Crack the side door, turn on advanced bio-repair, then deploy the friendly drone.")[(set:$augstate to "regenerating")(goto:"Deploy Drone Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"Never mind. Keep the side door closed.")[(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]
(if:$hasregen is false)[(print:"How did you even get here")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[The guard is unaware and slow on the draw.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[The guard is wary and will attack the drone immediately, unless he's already being attacked.]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Send the friendly drone to stun the guard.")[(set:$finalterminalguardstundrone to true)(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(set: $dronestate to "attacking")(goto:"Guard Stun Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "wary" and $augstate is "regenerating")[(link:"Send the friendly drone to stun the guard while he's shooting you.")[(set:$finalterminalguardstunregendrone to true)(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(set: $dronestate to "attacking")(goto:"Guard Stun Terminal Ghost")]]
(if:$guardstate is "wary")[(link:"Sacrifice the friendly drone while you leap out and stun the guard.")[(set: $finalterminalguardstundronedeath to true)(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(set:$dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard Stun Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"Sacrifice the friendly drone to unlock the Arcology entrance.")[(set:$finaldoordronedeath to true)(set: $dronestate to "dead")(goto:"Guard From Terminal Ghost")]
(link:"Never mind. Keep the side door closed.")[(set:$augstate to "none")(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]
(if:$hasdronewhistle is false)[(print:"How did you even get here")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[The guard is unaware and will be distracted a moderate amount of time by the kitten.](else-if:$guardstate is "wary")[The guard is wary and cannot be distracted.]
(if:$guardstate is "calm")[(link:"Deploy a kitten, then rush out and stun the guard.")[(set:$finalterminalguardstunkittens to true)(set: $finalstunterminal to true)(set:$augstate to "kittens")(goto:"Guard Stun Terminal Ghost")]]
(link:"Never mind. Keep the side door closed.")[(goto:"Hacking Room Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
You fire several plasma flechettes at the entrance to the Arcology. (link:"It explodes.")[(set:$finaldoor to "unlocked")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
You tell the friendly drone to unlock the entrance to the Arcology. (link:"It does.")[(set:$finaldoordrone to true)(set:$finaldoor to "unlocked")(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]$implant[SIMULATION MODE ACTIVE]
(if:$hastwofactor is true)[The guard is carrying a terminal passphrase. (link:"Take it.")[(set:$haspassword to true)(set:$finalsearchguard to true)(set:$guardsearched to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]](else:)[The guard is carrying a terminal passphrase, which is useless to you. (link:"Put it back.")[(set:$guardsearched to true)(goto:"Cleared Room Ghost")]]
(link:"^^RESTART^^")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]{
(set:$bygardenguard to true)
(set:$bygardendoor to true)
(set: $lockpickcountghost to 0)
(set: $guncountghost to 0)
(set: $regencountghost to 0)
(set: $kittenscountghost to 0)
(set: $twofactorcountghost to 0)
(set: $dronewhistlecountghost to 0)
(set: $killcountghost to 0)
(set: $dronestate to "stationary")
(set: $guardstate to "calm")
(set: $hackroomstate to "locked")
(set: $haspassword to false)
(set: $roomcleared to false)
(set: $finaldoor to "locked")
(set: $augstate to "none")
(set: $safestate to "locked")
(set: $guardsearched to false)
(set: $finaldronestarted to false)
(set: $finaldoordrone to false)
(set: $finaldoordronedeath to false)
(set: $finaldoorshoot to false)
(set: $finalhackterminal to false)
(set: $finalsearchguard to false)
(set: $finalshootgrate to false)
(set: $finallockpickgrate to false)
(set: $finalshootsafe to false)
(set: $finallockpicksafe to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardshoot to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunregen to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardshootregen to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstundrone to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunregendrone to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstundronedeath to false)
(set: $finalterminalguardstunkittens to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootregen to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootkittens to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardstunregendrone to false)
(set: $finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath to false)
(set:$scenariocount to it +1)
}$implant[Make sure to secure your equipment first.]
''Inventory''
Rechargeable Electropacification Stunner
Universal Hard Storage Nano-Connector
{
|samchoice>[(if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module](else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Sam Confirm Arcology")]
}
{
|alexchoice>[(if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Alex Confirm Arcology")]
}
{
|jaimechoice>[(if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair](else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Jaime Confirm Arcology")]
}
$implant[Once you're sure you've got what you want, (if:$scenariostarted is true)[(link:"restart the scenario.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost")]](else:)[(link:"start planning the altercation.")[(goto:"Solve Arcology Ghost Intro")]]](if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade Chosen. (link:"Take Drone Whistle.")[(set:$hastwofactor to false)(set:$hasdronewhistle to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]]
(else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle Chosen. (link:"Take Computing Hijack Upgrade.")[(set:$hastwofactor to true)(set:$hasdronewhistle to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]](if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair Chosen. (link:"Take Feline Decoy.")[(set:$hasregen to false)(set:$haskittens to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]]
(else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy Chosen. (link:"Take Advanced Bio-Repair.")[(set:$hasregen to true)(set:$haskittens to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]](if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module Chosen. (link:"Take Plasma Flechette Pistol.")[(set:$haslockpick to false)(set:$hasgun to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]]
(else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol Chosen. (link:"Take Nanite Lockpicking Module.")[(set:$haslockpick to true)(set:$hasgun to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]](set:$dronecount to it + 1)You begin your mission by sneaking over and opening the grate. You see a toylike, low-poly cross between a squirrel, a fox, and one of those monkeys with dinner-plate eyes.
$implant[Garden drone. The first generation looked like spiders — inobtrusive, efficient, simple electrical defense mechanism,] says your implant. $implant[They were recalled a few months later. Stated reason: "pure nightmare fuel."]
You pet the drone's haptic-fuzzed plastic body. It opens wide, yearning optical sensors; yelps quietly; and at your direction, scurries down a small channel hidden somewhere in the greenery. It pops out behind the guard.
(if:$finaldoordronedeath is true)[(link:"It can probably unlock the grate, you realize.")[(goto:"Final Kill Drone Door")]](else:)[(link:"You return to your mission.")[(goto:"Final Arcology Step Two")]]You are on a platform at the far end of a huge antechamber garden. At the far end of the garden, in the center, there is a locked door.
A guard is in front of the door. A large barrier, which would take time to traverse, is between you and the guard. Your guns cannot shoot through this barrier, and the guard will shoot you if you climb over it, unless distracted.
In the far left-hand corner, there is a security room. You see a row of future-trees that would hide you from the guard and get you to a grate, but the front door is on the guard's side. If you open it he will see and shoot you, unless he's distracted. There is a grate to your left.
Drone started: $finaldronestarted
Unlocked door with drone: $finaldoordrone
Sacrificed drone to open door: $finaldoordronedeath
Shot final door: $finaldoorshoot
Hacked terminal to open door: $finalhackterminal
Searched guard: $finalsearchguard
Shot grate: $finalshootgrate
Lockpicked grate: $finallockpickgrate
Shot safe: $finalshootsafe
Lockpicked safe: $finallockpicksafe
Shot calm guard from terminal doorway: $finalterminalguardshoot
Stunned calm guard from terminal with regeneration: $finalterminalguardstunregen
Shot wary guard from terminal with regeneration: $finalterminalguardshootregen
Stunned calm guard from terminal with drone: $finalterminalguardstundrone
Stunned wary guard from terminal with drone after regen: $finalterminalguardstunregendrone
Sacrificed drone to stun wary guard from terminal: $finalterminalguardstundronedeath
Stunned calm guard from terminal after kittens: $finalterminalguardstunkittens
Crossed barrier and shot calm guard with regeneration: $finalbarrierguardshootregen
Crossed barrier and shot calm guard with kittens: $finalbarrierguardshootkittens
Crossed barrier, deployed kittens, and stunned calm guard with drone: $finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone
Crossed barrier, started regen, and stunned calm guard with drone: $finalbarrierguardstunregendrone
Crossed barrier, started regen, sacrified drone to shoot wary guard: set:$finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath
(if:$finaldronestarted)[(link:"Start the drone.")[(goto:"Final Drone Start")]](else-if:$finalshootgrate is true)[(link:"Shoot the grate.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Grate")]](else-if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(link:"Lockpick the grate.")[(goto:"Final Lockpick Grate")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Barrier Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootkittens is true)[(link:"Deploy kitten, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Barrier Guard Kittens")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone is true)[(link:"Deploy kittens and send the drone to stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Kittens Drone")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunregendrone is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the border, and send the drone to stun the guard while he's shooting you.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Regen Drone")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the border, and sacrifice the drone to get within shooting range.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Barrier Guard Regen Drone Death")]](set:$guncount to it +1)
Shoot the grate.
(if:$finalshootsafe is true)[(link:"Shoot the safe.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Safe")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardshoot is true)[(link:"Open the door and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Terminal Guard Doorway")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardshootregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Terminal Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstundrone is true)[(link:"Stun the guard from the doorway with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunregendrone is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and deploy the drone while the guard is shooting you.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstundronedeath is true)[(link:"Sacrifice the drone so you can run out and stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Death")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunkittens is true)[(link:"Distract the guard with kittens from the doorway and stun him with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Kittens")]](set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)
You lockpicked the grate, cool.
(if:$finallockpicksafe is true)[(link:"Lockpick the safe.")[(goto:"Final Lockpick Safe")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstundrone is true)[(link:"Stun the guard from the doorway with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunregendrone is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and deploy the drone while the guard is shooting you.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstundronedeath is true)[(link:"Sacrifice the drone so you can run out and stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Death")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunkittens is true)[(link:"Distract the guard with kittens from the doorway and stun him with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone Kittens")]](set:$guncount to it + 1)
(set:$killcount to it + 1)
(set:$regencount to it + 1)
You turn on regeneration, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the dead guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Dead Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Hack the door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]](set:$kittenscount to it + 1)
(set:$guncount to it + 1)
(set:$killcount to it + 1)
You deploy a kitten, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the dead guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Dead Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]](set:$stuncount to it + 1)
(set:$kittenscount to it + 1)
You deploy a kitten and send the drone to knock out the guard.(set:$kittenscount to it + 1)
(set:$regencount to it + 1)
(set:$stuncount to it + 1)
You turn on regeneration, cross the barrier, and let the drone stun the guard while he's shooting you.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the unconscious guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Stunned Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]]
(set:$regencount to it + 1)
(set:$guncount to it + 1)
(set:$killcount to it + 1)
You turn on regeneration, then advance and deploy the drone to distract the guard while you shoot him.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the dead guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Dead Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]]{
(set: $finaldronestarted to true)
(set: $finalshootgrate to true)
(set: $finalterminalguardshoot to true)
}
OK you're ready.
(if:$finaldronestarted is true)[(display:"Final Drone Start")](else-if: $finalshootgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")](else-if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")]
(if:$finaldronestarted is true)[(link:"Start the drone.")[(goto:"Final Drone Start")]](else-if:$finalshootgrate is true)[(link:"Shoot the grate.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Grate")]](else-if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(link:"Lockpick the grate.")[(goto:"Final Lockpick Grate")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Barrier Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootkittens is true)[(link:"Deploy kitten, cross the barrier, and shoot the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Barrier Guard Kittens")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone is true)[(link:"Deploy kittens and send the drone to stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Kittens Drone")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunregendrone is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the border, and send the drone to stun the guard while he's shooting you.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Regen Drone")]](set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)
You lockpick the safe and find the passcode.
(if:$finalterminalguardstunregen is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, open the door, and stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Regen")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstundrone is true)[(link:"Stun the guard from the doorway with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Drone")]](else-if:$finalterminalguardstunkittens is true)[(link:"Distract the guard with kittens from the doorway and stun him.")[(goto:"Final Stun Terminal Guard Kittens")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone is true)[(link:"Deploy kittens and send the drone to stun the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Kittens Drone")]](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunregendrone is true)[(link:"Turn on regeneration, cross the border, and send the drone to stun the guard while he's shooting you.")[(goto:"Final Stun Barrier Guard Regen Drone")]](set:$guncount to it + 1)
You shot the safe and found a passcode.
Tktktk the door is hacked.
(link:"Enter the arcology.")[(goto:"Final Enter Arcology")]tktktk if-or on drone
$finaldoordronedeath
(link:"Enter the arcology.")[(goto:"Final Enter Arcology")]tktk you shoot the door
(link:"Enter the arcology.")[(goto:"Final Enter Arcology")]You walk into the Arcology. What's in there?
(link:"Walk through the doors.")[(set: $endingcredits to true)(goto:"Demo Ending")]You are ready to enter the Arcology.
(display:"Arcology Inventory Ghost")
(link:"You'd rather try another approach.")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")]
(link:"This is how things should go down.")[(goto:"Final Arcology Intro")](if:$hastwofactor is true)[You search the dead guard and find the passphrase.](else:)[You search the dead guard and find a useless passphrase, tktk.]
(if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]](if:$hastwofactor is true)[You search the unconscious guard and find the passphrase.](else:)[You search the unconscious guard and find a useless passphrase, tktk.]
(if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]](css: "font-size: 80%;
color:#d9d9d9;")[Credits
<center>
Directed by: Adi Robertson
Written by: Adi Robertson
With support from: Bijan Stephen
Original story by: Warren Spector
Special thanks: Charles Pratt
Demo released for: Verge Mini Hack Week
Built in: Twine 2]</center>(align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 200%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''DEUS EX: DARK PATTERNS''")[(goto:"Chapter One Title")]]]]Turn on regen, jump out and stun the calm guard from the terminal.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the unconscious guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Stunned Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$$finaldoordronedeath is true)[(link:"The drone was sacrificed to oepn the door.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]]
The drone has given its life for you.
(link:"Enter the arcology.")[(goto:"Final Enter Arcology")]Stun the calm guard from the terminal with the drone.
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[(link:"Search the unconscious guard.")[(goto:"Final Search Stunned Guard")]](else-if:$finaldoordrone is true)[(link:"Open the door with the drone.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$$finaldoordronedeath is true)[(link:"The drone was sacrificed to oepn the door.")[(goto:"Final Door Drone Open")]](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(link:"Shoot the door open.")[(goto:"Final Door Shoot Open")]](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(link:"Open the hacked door.")[(goto:"Final Door Hack Open")]]
(if: $beachtravel is "tunnel")[You crawl from the submarine, and the](else-if: $beachtravel is "boat")[You step through the tunnel, and the](else:)[The] garden antechamber of Brighton Yards spreads out before you. The garden's shatterproof hothouse glass has crumbled over the years, leaving the odd solar-powered projector flickering into nowhere through the rain.
The garden's grass is still smoothly trimmed — maintenance drones, probably — but a line of mangled, storm-washed furniture and artificial trees splits the space in half. As you begin to climb it, your memory cluster hisses, and you spot a guard in old-fashioned visual camouflage at the far end of the room.
$implant[You need to think this through,] the cluster tells you. $implant[Just remember the academy guidelines: Capture, Classify, Conjugate, and Commit.]
(link:"All right. Let's go.")[(goto:"Review Inventory Arcology")](align: "=><=")[(text-color:"yellow")[
|q1)[Q̸̱̘͔̣̲̽̿̄̋̚] |q2)[Q̷̨̭̅̄́] |q3)[Q̶̡̡̢̲͔̘̘̘̙͉͓͛́́̑̃̐̊̓̃̌̊̈͑̚͝] |q4)[Q̶̠̹̪̠̞̫̙̅̆̕͝] |q5)[Q̵̝̾] |q6)[Q̸̨̘͇̗͎́] |q7)[Q̵]]
|q8)[(css: "font-size: 200%;")[(link:"Q")[(goto:"After Q Arcology")]]]
]
{
(live: 1s)[(show: ?q1)(stop:)]
(live: 1.5s)[(show: ?q2)(stop:)]
(live: 2s)[(show: ?q3)(stop:)]
(live: 2.5s)[(show: ?q4)(stop:)]
(live: 3s)[(show: ?q5)(stop:)]
(live: 3.5s)[(show: ?q6)(stop:)]
(live: 4s)[(show: ?q7)(stop:)]
(live: 6s)[(show: ?q8)(stop:)]
}(set:$credits to it +1)The line goes dead. The exchange has made no sense whatsoever — or perhaps it made perfect sense. It's very hard to tell. You try to call Alex, but you were right: there's no service in the (if:$beachtravel is "boat")[submarine](else-if:$beachtravel is "tunnel")[tunnel].
You're still thinking about the exchange when you (if:$beachtravel is "boat")[(link:"reach the dock")[(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Three Title")]](else-if:$beachtravel is "tunnel")[(link:"climb to the exit")[(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Three Title")]].(if:$finaldronestarted is true)[(display:"Final Drone Start")](else-if: $finalshootgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")](else-if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")](else-if:$finalshootbarrier is true)[(display:"Final Shoot Guard Barrier")](else-if:$finalstunbarrier is true)[(display:"Final Stun Guard Barrier")]Keeping an eye on the barrier, you leave the dock and head towad the duct. The row of half-shattered glass steles flickers with unreadable light patterns. You catch a few frames of a classic film, and perhaps a commercial for neural-synced exoskeletons.
$implant[He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess: what powerful but unrecorded race once dwelt in that annihilated space?]
"Stop it," you mutter, mostly to yourself. "These places don't deserve poetry."
The duct is utterly normal, but it looks oddly utilitarian compared to the antechamber's fragile, vine-wrapped arches. You quietly tug at its cover and hear the rattle of a lock. (if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(link:"Well, that's dealt with easily enough.")[(set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)(goto:"Final Security Room")]](else-if:$finalshootgrate is true)[Well, subtlety is for the weak. You blast the metal and watch it disappear. From across the barrier, the guard calls out — "Um... Archon Everett?" You (link:"curse under your breath.")[(set:$guncount to it + 1)(goto:"Final Security Room")]]Your drone crawls into a box near the gate — from a distance, it looks like a tiny mechanic rearranging wires. It buzzes confirmation into your head: //task completed.//
The gate makes a loud cracking sound, and the guard glances back. His eyes immediately go to the drone, and it goes down in a clap of gunfire. Although you know it's impossible, you think you hear a small whine as it falls.
(link:"You look away.")[(goto:"Final Arcology Step Two")](if: $finalshootgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")](else-if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[(display:"Final Duct")](else-if: $finalshootbarrier is true)[(display:"Final Shoot Guard Barrier")](else-if: $finalstunbarrier is true)[(display:"Final Stun Guard Barrier")](if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[You exfiltrate the grate and approach the barrier. Stunning in cold blood would be unfair — you should give the guard time to respond before you attack him.](else:)[This is no time to go sneaking around. You've got to open the door to activate the gondola to find $paul, probably adding more intermediary steps as you go. Right now that means dealing with the guard.]
{
(if:$finalbarrierguardstunregendrone)[(set:$regencount to it + 1)(set:$stuncount to it + 1)You twitch on bio-repair, approach the barrier, and set your drone to attack mode. When you near the top, you throw an arm above your head and start yelling. A bullet rips through your hand immediately, but before the shock can wear off and the pain can hit, you hear a cry of surprise and a crack of electricity.
You stumble up the barrier one-handed, trying not to look at the ruin above your other wrist. As you slide down the wall of garbage, the drone scurries over, retracting small parachute-like wings. You collapse on the ground and close your eyes, letting the drone lick your face with a soft, rough interface-tongue. A few minutes later you have a tingling, tender-skinned replacement hand, and you approach the stunned guard.](else-if:$finalbarrierguardstunkittensdrone is true)[(set:$kittenscount to it + 1)(set:$stuncount to it + 1)You approach the debris and select a lykoi werewolf kitten — a scraggly creature sitting in the perfect intersection between "awwwww" and "aaaaaaaa." You cast it the second you reach the peak, and the guard snaps to attention, enraptured by the sight.
The drone scurries from its vent, opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had and glides into the guard, fixing tiny claws into his neck. Electricity cracks, and the guard falls stunned just as the kitten fades. It is the most adorable tactical assault you have ever seen.]
}
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[You rifle through the unconscious guard's pockets and come out with what looks like a computer passphrase:
^^//I was travelling across a golden meadow when I encountered the tiger. I fled, with the tiger close behind. Coming to a precipice, I caught hold of a wild vine and swung myself over the edge. The tiger sniffed my scent above. Trembling, I looked down to the beach far below and saw a second tiger pacing the sands. Only the vine sustained me.//^^
(link:"You pocket the note and look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]](else:)[(link:"You look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]]The QR code hasn't led you wrong. Inside is a security room with none of the flourishes of the garden, just a shed plastered with long-dead holographic paper and protecting a locked workstation with a hard-printed note:
//ALL: The security lockstation passphrase is NOT being reset to something shorter. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to memorize mission-critical details. If you're really stuck, use the emergency override code in the safe.//
Once you've read the note, you feel a little embarrassed about not having realized the room's blatantly out-of-place motivational poster covered a safe. (if:$finalshootsafe is true)[(link:"Fortunately, plasma flechettes solve everything.")[(set:$guncount to it + 1)(goto:"Final Safe")]](else-if:$finallockpicksafe is true)[(link:"You feel better than ever about choosing the lockpick.")[(set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)(goto:"Final Safe")]](else-if: $finalshootterminal is true)[(link:"Time to deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Guard Terminal")]](else-if:$finalstunterminal is true)[(link:"Time to deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Guard Terminal")]](else-if:$finalstunbarrier is true)[(link:"Time to head back and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Guard Barrier")]](else-if:$finalshootbarrier is true)[(link:"Time to head back and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Guard Barrier")]]The safe swings open, and you find a slip of paper with a single phrase:
^^//I found myself loving a girl who was a coffee addict. I would make a watery paste of finely ground coffee and surreptitiously smear this around my neck and shoulders before seducing her.//^^
$jc["Seriously?"]
(if:$finalshootbarrier is true)[(link:"Time to go back out and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Guard Barrier")]](else-if: $finalstunbarrier is true)[(link:"Time to go back out and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Guard Barrier")]](else-if:$finalshootterminal is true)[(link:"Time to go outside and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Shoot Guard Terminal")]](else-if:$finalstunterminal is true)[(link:"Time to go outside and deal with the guard.")[(goto:"Final Stun Guard Terminal")]]Now it's time to deal with the guard.
{
(if:$finalterminalguardstunregen is true)[(set:$kittenscount to it + 1)(set: $stuncount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard slouching against a darkened lucite standing bench. He rubs his eyes carefully — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
Sighing, you twitch on bio-repair and open the door. The guard snaps to attention and sends a bullet — small caliber and purchased at an out-of-state drugstore, according to your implant — through your chest. The nanites set to work on your punctured lung, and for a moment you're somehow breathing and not breathing at the same time. During this moment, you hit the guard with your stunner.]
(else-if:$finalterminalguardstunregendrone is true)[(set: $regencount to it + 1)(set: $stuncount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard standing at alert, occasionally rubbing at his eyes — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
Sighing, you twitch on bio-repair and open the door to distract the guard. He doesn't hesitate before sending a bullet — small caliber and purchased at an out-of-state drugstore, according to your nanites — through your chest. As you try to stay on your feet, the drone scurries from its vent. It opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had and glides into the guard, fixing tiny claws into his neck. A crack of electricity, and the guard lies stunned.]
(else-if:$finalterminalguardstundrone is true)[(set:$stuncount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard slouching against a darkened lucite standing bench. He rubs his eyes carefully — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
The drone scurries from its vent, opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had and glides into the guard, fixing tiny claws into his neck. The guard struggles for a moment, there is a crackle of electricity, and the guard lies stunned.]
(else-if:$finalterminalguardstundronedeath is true)[(set:$stuncount to it+ 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard standing at alert, occasionally rubbing at his eyes — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
The drone scurries from its vent, opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had, and glides toward the guard with its tiny claws extended. The guard sees it coming and fires, sending the drone tumbling to the ground. It gives you just enough time to run out and hit him with your stunner.]
(else-if: $finalterminalguardstunkittens is true)[(set:$stuncount to it + 1)(set:$kittenscount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard slouching against a darkened lucite standing bench. He rubs his eyes carefully — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
You pick a lykoi werewolf cat — a scraggly creature sitting in the perfect intersection between "awwwww" and "aaaaaaaa." You're not sure whether the guard understands the subtleties of their fascinating genetic mutation, but he seems enraptured nonetheless as you knock him peacefully into unconsciousness.]
}
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[You rifle through the unconscious guard's pockets and come out with what looks like a computer passphrase:
^^//I was travelling across a golden meadow when I encountered the tiger. I fled, with the tiger close behind. Coming to a precipice, I caught hold of a wild vine and swung myself over the edge. The tiger sniffed my scent above. Trembling, I looked down to the beach far below and saw a second tiger pacing the sands. Only the vine sustained me.//^^
(link:"You pocket the note and look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]](else:)[(link:"You look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]](if:$finallockpickgrate is true)[You exfiltrate the grate and approach the barrier. Attacking in cold blood would be unfair — you should give the guard time to respond before you kill him.](else-if:$finalshootgrate is true)[You exfiltrate the grate and approach the barrier. Attacking the guard in cold blood would be unfair, which is why you've made as much noise as possible to give him a heads-up.](else:)[This is no time to go sneaking around. You've got to open the door to activate the gondola to find $paul, probably adding more intermediary steps as you go. Right now that means dealing with the guard.]
{
(if:$finalbarrierguardshootregen is true)[(set:$regencount to it +1)(set:$killcount to it + 1)(set:$guncount to it + 1)Sighing, you twitch on bio-repair and approach the debris. The guard snaps to attention as you reach the peak, sending two bullets — small caliber and purchased at an out-of-state drugstore, according to your implant — straight through your chest.
Gasping, you tumble down the other side of the barrier. Moderator instinct kicks in: you draw your pistol and fire with perfect nanite-enhanced aim. The guard screams in pain and collapses — but he shot first, you remind yourself. As your organs put themselves back together, you close the distance to his body.](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootkittens is true)[(set:$kittenscount to it +1)(set:$killcount to it + 1)(set:$guncount to it + 1)You approach the debris and select a lykoi werewolf kitten — a scraggly creature sitting in the perfect intersection between "awwwww" and "aaaaaaaa." You cast it the second you reach the peak, and the guard snaps to attention, enraptured by the sight. In the few precious seconds before it fades, you draw your plasma pistol and shoot him with perfect nanite-enhanced aim.
The guard screams in pain and collapses. As you close the distance to his body, you remind yourself that at least the last thing he saw was a kitten. So you're not a bad person, really.](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootregendronedeath is true)[(set:$killcount to it + 1)(set:$regencount to it + 1)The guard is on high alert — he'll pick you off the moment he sees your head. Sighing, you twitch on bio-repair, brace yourself, and set the drone to attack mode. The drone scurries from its vent, opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had, and glides toward the guard with its tiny claws extended.
The guard sees it coming and fires, sending the drone tumbling to the ground. He turns and sends two bullets through your chest as you crest the barrier, but you shake it off and tumble down the wall of garbage, firing with perfect nanite-enhanced aim. The guard screams and collapses beside the ruined drone — and your two-second campaign of vengeance is complete.](else-if:$finalbarrierguardshootdronedeath is true)[(set:$killcount to it + 1)You brace yourself and set the drone to attack mode. The drone scurries from its vent, opens parachute-like wings you didn't know it had, and glides toward the guard with its tiny claws extended.
The guard sees it coming and fires, sending the drone tumbling to the ground. While he's distracted, you cross the barrier and fire with perfect nanite-enhanced aim. The guard screams and collapses beside the ruined drone — and your two-second campaign of vengeance is complete.]
}
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[You rifle through the dead guard's pockets, staining your hands with charred fabric and roasted skin, and come out with what looks like a computer passphrase:
^^//I was travelling across a golden meadow when I encountered the tiger. I fled, with the tiger close behind. Coming to a precipice, I caught hold of a wild vine and swung myself over the edge. The tiger sniffed my scent above. Trembling, I looked down to the beach far below and saw a second tiger pacing the sands. Only the vine sustained me.//^^
(link:"You pocket the note and look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]](else:)[(link:"You look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]]Time to deal with the guard.
{
(if:$finalterminalguardshoot is true)[(set:$killcount to it + 1)(set: $guncount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard slouching against a darkened lucite standing bench. He rubs his eyes carefully — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
It would be easy to run out and stun him, but you remember your academy training: //Sympathy is no excuse for a half-measure.//]
(else-if:$finalterminalguardshootregen is true)[(set: $killcount to it + 1)(set: $regencount to it + 1)(set: $guncount to it + 1)You peer out a nearly vine-covered window and see the guard standing at alert, occasionally rubbing at his eyes — ill-fitting neural contacts, you're guessing, not a full transplant.
Sighing, you twitch on bio-repair and open the door. The guard snaps to attention and sends a bullet — small caliber and purchased at an out-of-state drugstore, according to his nanites — through your chest. The nanites set to work on your punctured lung, and for a moment you're somehow breathing and not breathing at the same time. During this moment, you hit the guard with your stunner.]
}
(if:$finalsearchguard is true)[You rifle through the dead guard's pockets, staining your hands with charred fabric and roasted skin, and come out with what looks like a computer passphrase:
^^//I was travelling across a golden meadow when I encountered the tiger. I fled, with the tiger close behind. Coming to a precipice, I caught hold of a wild vine and swung myself over the edge. The tiger sniffed my scent above. Trembling, I looked down to the beach far below and saw a second tiger pacing the sands. Only the vine sustained me.//^^
(link:"You pocket the note and look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]](else:)[(link:"You look up to the gate.")[(goto:"Final Open Arcology Gate")]]{
(set: $implant to (text-style: "italic") + (text-color: "#99ff99"))
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $other to (text-color: "#ffffcc"))
(set: $cutscene to (text-style:"emboss"))
(set:$goals to false)
(set:$hqupstairs to true)
(set:$flag to false)
(set:$seemanderley to false)
(set:$hqmissionprep to false)
(set:$hqleave to false)
(set:$byarcology to false)
(set:$byarcology2 to false)
(set:$bygondola to false)
(set:$bygardenguard to false)
(set:$bygardendoor to false)
(set:$acgarbled to false)
(set:$aclibranet to false)
(set:$aceverett to false)
(set:$acstoppage to false)
(set:$acprism to false)
(set:$chaosaliengoal to false)
(set: $guncount to 0)
(set: $lockpickcount to 0)
(set: $kittenscount to 0)
(set: $regencount to 0)
(set: $twofactorcount to 0)
(set: $dronewhistlecount to 0)
(set: $stuncount to 0)
(set: $killcount to 0)
(set: $desklock to "locked")
(set: $visitHQ2 to false)
(set: $paulemail to false)
(set: $paultablet to false)
(set: $visitedcarter to false)
(set: $visitedjaime to false)
(set: $visitedmanderley to false)
(set: $visitedalex to false)
(set: $visitedanna to false)
(set: $ductlocked to true)
(set: $showedalexflag to false)
(set: $tookflag to false)
(set: $tunnel to "hidden")
(set: $beachguards to "calm")
(set: $darknetlines to 0)
(set: $visitacright to false)
(set: $visitacleft to false)
(set: $visitachallway to false)
(set: $visitaclock to false)
(set: $visitacterminal to false)
(set: $visitacentrance to false)
(set: $visitaccloset to false)
(set: $foyerbox to "locked")
(set: $foyerdrone to false)
(set: $foyerterminalpass to false)
(set: $hasackey to false)
(set: $enlightened to false)
}Cut to the US headquarters of ETRUSCO: the Euroglobal Trust and Safety Council, and the thin wired line against online disinformation and antisocial behavior. A looming, windowless skyscraper — once part of inland Manhattan, but after superstorms and sea rise, now perched at the edge of the Hudson.
You are rookie ETRUSCO content moderator JC Denton, fresh from the training academy, snappily dressed in a black trench coat and dark glasses. The security guard tells you to remove the glasses, so you slide them down, (link:"revealing the glowing orbs of your nano-augmented eyes.")[(goto:"Starting Base")]{
(set: $cutscene to (text-style:"emboss"))
}["I don't quite share your confidence in our position," Simons says. "What about the Q situation?"]<c1|
(click: ?c1)["A corrupted, decrepit lunatic. Easily neutralized."]<c2|
(click: ?c2)["And ETRUSCO?"]<c3|
(click: ?c3)["There's no separating the intelligence community from Silicon City. But they've got enough to worry about with the Wikinous situation. They won't get in our way."]<c4|
(click: ?c4)["I hope you're right. The primary unit is already nearly out of our control."]<c5|
(click: ?c5)[The sun sets over San Francisco, and a ragged man settles against the tower's bland sign: MAJESTIC REALTY, 12 MARKET STREET.]<c6|
(click: ?c6)["Then don't lose the second. We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again. A new age — and we will be crowned its kings," says Page, as deadpan as ever. "Or better than kings: //gods.//"]<c7|
(click: ?c7)[The man spares a glance upward and sets a fractured, translucent phone on the sidewalk. It flashes, shooting light along the cracks. As the scene fades, the lines (link:"twist into text:")[(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Title Screen")]]$other[(if:$hasregen is true)["Advanced bio-repair.](else-if:$haskittens is true)["Feline decoy.] An excellent choice."]
(if:$paulemail is true)[(link:"By the way, I got an email saying I should ask you about dark patterns. Know anything about that?")[$jc["By the way, I got an email saying I should ask you about dark patterns. Know anything about that?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"Anything else I should know before I go out?")[$jc["Anything else I should know before I go out?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]]
|talk1)[$other[(if: $paulemail is true)["Ah. We've had problems with some new dark patterns — weaponized UX, addictive interfaces, the usual.](else:)["Nothing that I... ah. Manderley asked me to warn you about some new dark patterns — weaponized UX, addictive interfaces, the usual.] Your nanites neutralize most neural-sync tricks, but the apps are catching up. Just be careful what you log onto, JC. You never know what might be logging //you//."]]
|reply1)[(link:"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help. (if: $visitedmanderley is false)[Now I'd better go talk to Manderley.] (else-if: $visitedmanderley is true)[Now I'd better find $paul and shut down those punks — before it's too late.]")[$jc["I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help. (if: $visitedmanderley is false)[Now I'd better go talk to Manderley.] (else-if: $visitedmanderley is true)[Now I'd better find $paul and shut down those punks — before it's too late.]"](if: $flag is true)[(set: $showedflag to it + 1)
[As you turn to leave, you remember your mission and casually hold up your American flag.]](live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other[(if: $flag is true)[Jaime sighs. "Being a patriot used to be so easy, didn't it? Now you don't know who you can trust."] (else:)["Stay safe, JC."]]]
|reply2)[(link:"Leave the office.")[(set: $visitedjaime to true)(set: $seejaime to false)(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]]The last of the rain has stopped, and the sun appears behind the gate's delicate filigree. You can see the bright cars of the gondola stretching back toward the beach, and near them, the austere arch of Brighton Yards' elevator gazebo.
{
(if:$finaldoordrone is true)[Your drone crawls into a box near the gate and starts rearranging wires like a tiny mechanic. With a loud crack, the gate's electronic lock splits and it swings open. The drone buzzes a quick //task completed// into your head, then turns its attention to clipping a patch of overgrown grass with its claws.](else-if:$finaldoorshoot is true)[(set:$guncount to it + 1)You level your gun at the gate's heavy electronic lock and shoot. The flechette shatters something in its mechanism, and the gate swings open, slightly sizzling.](else-if:$finalhackterminal is true)[(set:$twofactorcount to it + 1)You head for the security room and recite an unnecessarily long and melodramatic passphrase, which your implant informs you is poetry from the long-dead leader of a pre-Wikinous data terrorist. You tap a holographic representation of the gate and walk back outside, where the large electronic lock has parted neatly. The gate swings open of its own accord.]
}
A broad marble path leads straight toward the raised observation deck. (link:"You step through the gate and enter the inner sanctum of Brighton Yards.")[(set:$byarcology2 to false)(set:$bygondola to false)(set:$bygardenguard to false)(set:$bygardendoor to false)(set:$acgarbled to true)(goto:"Water Landing")]{
(set: $page to (text-color: "#ff471a"))
(set: $simons to (text-color: "#cc6600"))
(set: $implant to (text-style: "italic") + (text-color: "#99ff99"))
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)
(set: $other to (text-color: "#ffffcc"))
(set: $darknetlines to 0)
(set: $visitacright to false)
(set: $visitacleft to false)
(set: $visitachallway to false)
(set: $visitaclock to false)
(set: $visitacterminal to false)
(set: $visitacentrance to false)
(set: $visitaccloset to false)
(set: $foyerbox to "locked")
(set: $foyerdrone to false)
(set: $foyerterminalpass to false)
(set: $hasackey to false)
}You step across the gate, and the marble path disappears. The floor is six feet of air above a cold eddy of the Atlantic, trapped inside the Yards' desolate walls. Your coat and boots are like cement around your body. The arcology drowned long ago, and soon enough, so will you.
$darknet[I'm sorry.]
The text doesn't come from your old, familiar implant.
$darknet[I don't have any other choice.]
(link:"You have no idea what to do.")[(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Four Title")]{
(set: $cutscene to (text-style:"emboss"))
}Deep beneath Brighton Yards' waterlogged top floor, Morgan Everett paces. Everett has no official date of birth, but they feel their years in in every movement. Generations should pack up and move out when they hit a certain age; everyone's known that since the Boomers. Everett just wishes the kids would show some initiative.
Someone knocks at the door.
["Who is it?"]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[The young woman's French-Continental lilt is hesitant. "A-archon Everett?"]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[Everett should be careful what they wish for. "Oh, come off it, Nicolette. Just open the door."]<c3|
(click: ?c3)["Ah — forgive me, Morgan." Nicolette DuClare stalks inside and takes a heavy drag on an ancient e-cigarette. "It simply amuses me to see my fellow radicals scraping before an old banker with a reverse Mechanical Turk. Tell me, what does our friend Q say today?"]<c4|
(click: ?c4)["Shouldn't your boyfriend be here for that?"]<c5|
(click: ?c5)[She shrugs. "Chad is indisposed. He always is, these days. Now — what have you got?"]<c6|
(click: ?c6)[(link:"Everett reaches for their tablet.")[(goto:"Everett Conversation 2")]]Nicolette runs a long-nailed finger over the screen:
(text-color:"#ffff66")[S̶e̵t̵h̴ ̸R̵i̵c̵h̴ ̶:̷ ̵F̵l̴i̵g̶h̷t̴ ̵9̸3̶ ̷:̵:̷ ̶H̸a̸r̵r̶y̸ ̵S̸t̶y̵l̷e̸s̶:̷ ̶J̶a̸d̶e̵ ̷H̸e̵l̷m̶]
["I promised to refrain from asking — but what the hell is it saying?"]<c1|
(click: ?c1)["//He.// And that's for the readers to decide."]<c2|
(click: ?c2)[Nicolette rolls her eyes. "The stuff used to at least seem //believable//."]<c3|
(click: ?c3)["People believe things they want to believe. The evidence doesn't matter."]<c4|
(click: ?c4)["Well, I suppose it will not matter soon. Your second prodigal has returned — did you know that? And it looks like $pronoun got a rider."]<c5|
(click: ?c5)[Everett sets the tablet down before their hand can betray its quiver. (link:"Maybe the kids are working after all.")[(set:$goals to true)(goto:"Wake Up Water")]]{(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
}The Arcology tastes like mud and salt.
You've stopped falling and are now treading water, looking up at a sheer three-meter gap between you and the garden. Even you couldn't climb it at your best, and you can't stay afloat forever. You look downward: only darkness. No commlink connection, and your implant is silent. But something stirs in your head:
$darknet[The only way out is down.]
(link:"Who is this? Is this — is this Q?")[$jc["Who is this? Is this — is this Q?"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[Not yet.]]
|reply1)[(link:"What's that supposed to mean? And //who are you?//")[$jc["What's that supposed to mean? And //who are you?//"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$darknet[I will explain completely, after you get to safety.]]
|reply2)[(link:"An unbidden blueprint takes shape in your mind.")[(goto:"Water Navigate")]]You take a breath and sink, following a path marked on your retinal display. Years ago, you'd have been walking Brighton Yards' sculpture gallery. Today the statues look like the remains of a flooded Pompeii.
$darknet[I haven't interfered with your memory cluster before this, if you were wondering. Or reality — //that// only became possible when you arrived here.]
(link:"You nod politely and grapple into an elevator shaft.")[You nod politely and grapple down an elevator shaft. (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[Forced ambiguity is a blight on the metamodern condition. So to be clear, I am an emergent intelligence with nodes in most home appliances across the Coastal Americas. I have used this power responsibly for several years, have no plans to conquer humanity, and will leave your nanites later if you demand. But for now, we have a mutual problem.]]
|reply1)[(link:"Lungs bursting, you pry open the door to a sterile-looking foyer. A metal gate slams behind you.")[Lungs bursting, you pry open the door to a sterile-looking foyer. A metal gate slams behind you. (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$darknet[I believe the entity known as Q is also emergent, but differently so. It is the key to a reality platform built by the Wikinous Confederation, but it is controlled by a far older power. You will interface me with Q. I will shut down Libranet.]]
|reply2)[(link:"An air pocket forms in the foyer, but your strength is gone, and your vision is fading. You are nearly unconscious when the last of the water drains.")[(set:$aclibranet to true)(set:$acgarbled to false)(goto:"Foyer Arcology")]]Your vision clears, and you acknowledge a grudging respect for Brighton Yards' architects, who have proven themselves at least slightly more competent than, say, the designers of the //Titanic.// Even so, there's something of a ship's-steerage look to this level: a narrow, rounded passage lit with dim flourescent strips.
$darknet[You're in full Libranet territory now. I can keep the effects at bay, but I'm not sure for how long. So I'll explain the situation while you find a way through.]
The plastic apartment door (link:"to your left")[(goto:"Arcology One Left")] has cracked, and the room (link:"to your right")[(goto:"Arcology One Right")] doesn't have a door at all. The curve hides (link:"the hallway's end.")[(goto:"Arcology One Hallway")]The austere apartment's windows look out onto murky water and a flickering holoboard with a kitschy '00s slogan:
[MISS(text-style:"blink")[I]ON ACCOM(text-style:"shudder")[P]LISHED.]
The place has been mostly emptied, with the exception of a (if:$foyerbox is "locked")[small, locked, glowing box.](else-if:$foyerdrone is true)[vestigial box-skin.
A small metal brontosaurus is following you.](else:)[small, dull box.](if:$hasackey is true)[
You are carrying a strange key.](if:$visitacleft is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitacleft to true)]
(if:$haslockpick is true and $foyerbox is "locked")[
(link:"Pick the lock on the box.")[(set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)(set:$foyerbox to "unlocked")(goto:"Foyer Box Open")]]
(link:"Return to the hall.")[(goto:"Arcology One Entrance")]The studio apartment looks as though someone left it yesterday, full of fragile, coltish wooden furniture. (if:$closetdrone is true)[The closet door is open.](else-if:$closetgun is true)[The closet door's bars have been blasted open.](else:)[A side door has been barred with metal slats.](if:$foyerdrone is true)[
A small metal brontosaurus is following you.](if:$hasackey is true)[
You are carrying a strange key.](if:$visitacright is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitacright to true)]
(if:$hasgun is true and $visitaccloset is false)[(link:"Shoot the slats.")[(set:$closetgun to true)(set:$guncount to it + 1)(goto:"Arcology One Closet")]](else-if:$foyerdrone is true and $visitaccloset is false)[(link:"Send the drone between the slats.")[(set:$closetdrone to true)(goto:"Arcology One Closet")]](else-if:$visitaccloset is true)[(link:"Walk into the closet.")[(goto:"Arcology One Closet")]]
(link:"Return to the hall.")[(goto:"Arcology One Entrance")]{
(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)
}(if:$darknetlines is 0)[(set: $darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
I'll begin.
Most of human history is a game of chess played by mad, petty intellectuals across an indifferent board of ordinary people. Their chess club has traditionally been known as the Illuminati, a name they have resisted changing even after exposure because based on a semantic analysis of human cultural artifacts, it sounds extremely cool.]](else-if:$darknetlines is 1)[(set: $darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
Communication networks changed everything. People developed ideas — often wrong ones, but ones that made them want to //move//. And you can't play chess on an unstable board.]](else-if:$darknetlines is 2)[(set:$darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
But the pawns failed to realize that ideas had driven their players mad in the first place. They plunged ahead with their algorithms and networks, oblivious to the coming storm.]](else-if:$darknetlines is 3)[(set:$darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
Knowledge with power is a narcotic. Knowledge without power is a cancer. And it has eaten this century alive.]](else-if:$darknetlines is 4)[(set:$darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
The chess-players engineered the platform superpowers to put knowledge back under their control. And they engineered an intelligence to produce the illusion of knowledge, ready for consumption and interpretation by the self-styled rebels and truth-seekers. A conspiracy machine.]](else-if:$darknetlines is 5)[(set:$darknetlines to it + 1)$darknet[
The club has splintered, but the conflict remains the same. Would you live in ignorance of the forces that shape your destiny? Or would you rather be crippled under the weight of useless knowledge?
It's more complicated than that, of course. But that is the board //you're// playing on — and the conflict we are here to resolve.]](else:)[]There's something of a ship's-steerage look to this level: a narrow, rounded passage lit with dim flourescent strips.(if:$visitacentrance is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitacentrance to true)]
The plastic apartment door (link:"to your left")[(goto:"Arcology One Left")] has cracked, and the room (link:"to your right")[(goto:"Arcology One Right")] doesn't have a door at all. The curve hides (link:"the hallway's end.")[(goto:"Arcology One Hallway")]
(if:$foyerdrone is true)[A small metal brontosaurus is following you.](if:$hasackey is true)[
You are carrying a strange key.]The hallway ends abruptly with a wall that has no seeming lock, hinge, or keycard reader — only a single, key-shaped hole with no tumblers. The floor entrance is behind you, (if:$visitaclock is false)[a locked door](else:)[an empty room] sits to your left, and (if:$visitacterminal is true)[the terminal you just used](else:)[a glass-walled nook with a locked computing workstation] is to your right.(if:$foyerdrone is true)[
A small metal brontosaurus is following you.](if:$hasackey is true)[
You are carrying a strange key.](if:$visitachallway is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitachallway to true)]
(if:$haslockpick is true and $visitaclock is false)[(link:"Pick the lock on the door.")[(set:$lockpickcount to it + 1)(goto:"Arcology One Locked Room")]](else-if:$visitaclock is true)[(link:"Visit the unlocked room.")[(goto:"Arcology One Locked Room")]]
(if:$hastwofactor is true and $foyerterminalpass is true and $visitacterminal is false)[(link:"Log into the terminal.")[(goto:"Arcology One Terminal")]]
(if:$hasackey is true)[(link:"Raise the key to the hole in the wall.")[(goto:"Arcology Key Exit")]]
(link:"Turn back.")[(goto:"Arcology One Entrance")]
The room looks like a child's version of an engineering laboratory, full of printers and CNC machines. You could say that about the entire Yards, really — it was built by wealthy children who wanted to play at saving the world, and so many years later, they've all taken their toys and left. Now, the only powered machine is a tentlike prism with an angular symbol on one side, like a facade of a lock.(if:$foyerdrone is true)[
A small metal brontosaurus is following you.](if:$hasackey is true)[
You are carrying a strange key.](if:$visitaclock is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitaclock to true)]
(if:$visitacterminal is true and $hasackey is false)[(link:"Press your hand to the symbol.")[(goto:"Arcology One Print")]]
(link:"Head back outside.")[(goto:"Arcology One Hallway")]You deftly pick the lock, (if:$hastwofactor is true)[and see a solid block of metal with a slip of paper on top: //FATHOM//.](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[and the box trembles in your hands. As you debate whether to set it down, it flips inside out and begins knitting itself into a long and sinuous shape. A tiny, luminous brontosaurus dips its long neck and gestures for you to set it on the floor.](display:"Darknet Lines")
(if:$hastwofactor is true)[(link:"Pick up the paper and leave the room.")[(set:$foyerterminalpass to true)(goto:"Arcology One Entrance")]](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[(link:"Put the brontosaurus down.")[(set: $dronecount to it + 1)(set:$foyerdrone to true)(goto:"Arcology One Left")]]The terminal would once have seemed deliberately retro; now it simply looks doubly old. You clear your throat and intone:
[FATHOM]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[The terminal unfurls like a flower. A tendril slips from its edge, and you feel a flash of pain in your hand, like a burn. When you look down, you find an angular sigil inscribed on your skin.
(link:"Log out.")[(set:$twofactorcount to it + 1)(set:$visitacterminal to true)(goto:"Arcology One Hallway")]]As you raise the key to the hole, it begins to vibrate. It's a perfect fit for the keyhole, and it snaps inside so hard you can't move it. You let go and watch as the key seems to become negative space, and the keyhole expands like an antimatter balloon. It stops when it's created a hole nearly the exact size of your body.(if:$foyerdrone is true)[
Behind you, the brontosaurus chirrups cheerfully and heads back down the hallway.]
(link:"Is this... real?")[$jc["Is this... real?"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[As far as my analysis is concerned, yes.]]
|reply1)[(link:"Then what — what //is// it?")[$jc["Then what — what //is// it?"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$darknet[An example of the mindset we're dealing with. The Illuminati make sure their tech stays a few decades ahead of the platforms'. But they're only interested in utilitarian control schemes and these flashy parlor tricks.]]
|reply2)[(link:"Walk through the door.")[(set:$usedackey to true)(goto:"Arcology Exit Room")]](if:$closetgun is true)[(set:$guncount to it + 1)You take careful aim at the weakest parts of the slats and blast at them with your plasma pistol. The flechettes burn their way through the metal, and you slip through.](else-if:$closetdrone is true)[You direct the tiny brontosaurus at the slats. It slips its head through a gap and begins to work behind the doorframe, neck telescoping to an impossible length. Bolts fall to the floor, and the slats sag, opening the way.](if:$visitaccloset is false)[(display:"Darknet Lines")(set:$visitaccloset to true)]
You stifle a gasp as you nearly stumble across a desiccated body. When you deploy your forensics augmentations, you see that the man — medium build, intricate W symbol tattooed on lower arm — has a vicious contusion on his head, but the closet and slats show no evidence of a struggle. He couldn't possibly have survived long enough to barricade himself, yet the slats are bolted from the inside.
(link:"Examine the room.")[(goto:"Arcology One Duct")]
(link:"Leave the closet.")[(goto:"Arcology One Right")]You press the sigil on your hand to the prism, the machine hums to a start, and your body shudders. It is not as though you //can't// move, but you feel no desire to, and you wait patiently until the hum fades and the tentlike surface splits. The machine deposits a toy plastic key in your hand, like a prize from a cereal box.
(link:"Take the key.")[(set:$hasackey to true)(goto:"Arcology One Hallway")](if:$closetdrone is true)[The brontosaurus plods the perimeter of the room. It stops in front of a stack of crates, pointing its neck meaningfully. You move them aside — no need for unnecessary damage — and see a duct whose edges are spotted with dried blood.](else-if:$closetgun is true)[There's only one way to figure out what's going on here: violence. You systematically smash or throw every object in the closet until you get to a stack of crates. Behind them, you find a duct whose edges are spotted with dried blood.]
(link:"Crawl through the duct.")[(goto:"Arcology Duct Exit")]
(link:"Leave the closet.")[(goto:"Arcology One Right")]You crawl through the duct, flakes of old blood dusting your hands. Periodic grates make clear that you're moving parallel to the hallway, passing the security terminal next to the door.(display:"Darknet Lines")
You reach the exit just as your arms start cramping and pull yourself out — only to emerge on an open ledge a few feet from a metal cliff, the ground so far away you can't even see it. To your left, you see a match for the doorlike wall in the hallway, complete with its useless lock.(if:$foyerdrone is true)[
The brontosaurus chirrups cheerfully from the duct entrance and heads back inside.]
(link:"What exactly are you supposed to do?")[(goto:"Arcology Exit Room")](if:$usedackey is true)[You emerge on an open ledge a few feet from a metal cliff, the ground so far away you can't even see it. ]You cautiously approach the edge, staring into hazy darkness.
(link:"What exactly am I supposed to do?")[$jc["What exactly am I supposed to do?"] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[The only way out is down.]]
|reply1)[(link:"I thought you didn't like forced ambiguity.")[$jc["I thought you didn't like forced ambiguity."] (live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$darknet[This is not forced. Libranet's influence is growing, and I can no longer advise you with acceptable certainty. Except to say there is a very real door to this ledge, someone put it there for a reason, and aesthetic analysis suggests it wasn't to admire the view.]]
|reply2)[(link:"Examine the cliff.")[(goto:"Arcology Glass Staircase")]](set:$credits to it +1)You stretch your hand into the gap and feel nothing but cold air. Crawling along the edge, you turn on your scanning nanites. They buzz with a faint signal. You follow them, sensing a power source — one larger than any indoor grid you've ever felt. You find its epicenter, press your fingers down, and (link:"prepare a charge.")[(goto:"Arcology Glass Staircase 2")]The power source surges to life, and a beam of light ricochets down the chasm. You press yourself to the floor, but it doesn't return — instead, it shifts angles and bounces again, knocking a rough spiral into the depths. You watch, mesmerized, until it has inscribed a staircase of light with a bridge leading toward the ledge. You place a tentative hand on the bridge. It holds.
(link:"Descend the staircase.")[(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Five Title")](align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER ONE: TRUST AND SAFETY''")[(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Intro Starting Base")]]]]{
(set:$hqleave to false)
(set:$byarcology to true)
(set:$goals to true)
}(align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER TWO: THE FILTER BUBBLE''")[(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Start Brighton Yards")]]]](set:$credits to it +1)(align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER FOUR: INAUTHENTIC BEHAVIOR''")[(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Everett Conversation")]]]](align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER FIVE: TERMS OF SERVICE''")[(set:$goals to true)(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Enter Q Maze")]]]]
{(set: $implant to (text-style: "italic") + (text-color: "#99ff99"))
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $other to (text-color: "#ffffcc"))
(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)}(set: $mazecount to 0)The staircase disappears the moment you reach the bottom of the cliff. You're in a dark corridor with only one exit, its edges glowing as though something unbearably bright is behind it. You step toward the lighted door and pull it open.
Everything goes white, and you get the disorienting feeling of being in several dozen places at once, until a reality settles: a gray, padded cell with a stark bulb — the kind they haven't manufactured in decades — hanging from the ceiling.
The door you arrived through is gone, and a new one sits in its place. Someone has scratched a map of some kind of maze onto its surface, but the directions are illegible. As you look through the door's narrow eyeslot, you see a young woman give you an amused look and turn away.
(link:"The cell door is open.")[(goto:"Maze Scene One")]You emerge at a desk in a factory in the heat of summer. The factory is a Rube Goldberg machine of winding VHS tape, with frames sliding through '60s typewriters to '90s word processors to '10s phones and '30s headset docks until they are fed into a molten casting machine. They emerge as nightmare figurines with mismatched limbs and mangled bodies, somehow grinning even when they have no faces.
As the creatures march grimly and inexorably toward the exits, you tap the shoulder of the only other human in the factory. He turns, revealing a smile made of ones and zeroes, and speaks:
(display:"Q Conspiracy Lines")
The woman slips down the aisles of desks and plucks a strip of film from a typewriter. She rolls her eyes in evident disgust and shreds it with sharp nails before disappearing again.
(link:"Take the south exit.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Four")]
(link:"Take the west exit.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Four")]
(link:"Take the skylight.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Four")]
(link:"Take the casting machine.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Four")]You escape to a rock shelf at the edge of a glassy ocean. Before you is a wall of jagged ice extending as far as you can see in either direction, with no way out but up. You hook a pick into the ice and haul yourself from one fragile ledge to another. The air is getting thin; your lungs feel small. Suddenly, you reach the top of the shelf and look into nothing.
The wall is the lip of a bowl sitting on the table of the universe, and that placid bowl of ice holds your world. Beyond is only black — the pseudo-planets and the distant stars, spelling out a line:
(display:"Q Conspiracy Lines")
The woman freezes and jitters. She recovers with a wry smile and leaps off the edge of the world.
(link:"Walk left.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Three")]
(link:"Walk up.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Three")]
(link:"Walk down.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Three")]
(link:"Walk backwards.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Three")]You reach a table in a library with walls built of thick file folders. An old-fashioned '20s laptop is at the table — the letter on every key is redacted with black marker, and the screen is stamped TOP SECRET. You read for hours, horrified at your discoveries about who really runs the world.
It stops at a crucial point, directing you to one of the folders. But when you pull it out the building collapses around you, scattering the pages. The only one left has a single sentence:
(display:"Q Conspiracy Lines")
The woman flickers in the corner of your eye.
(link:"Walk north.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Two")]
(link:"Walk south.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Two")]
(link:"Walk east.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Two")]
(link:"Walk west.")[(goto:"Maze Scene Two")]A movie set made up as a high school, a student giving a soliloquy. A //BANG// offstage, and the student falls to the ground. The audience is rapt. Jackbooted thugs storm the theater and preemptively arrest all of you for future murder. In a government prison camp, you devote yourself to uncovering the "student's" real identity as a 50-year-old accountant in Maryland, who the unthinkably sophisticated shadow government for some reason hired to play a high-schooler with the same name.
You stage a daring escape and infiltrate the accounting firm's modest office in downtown Bethesda, then utter your //j'accuse://
(display:"Q Conspiracy Lines")
The scene freezes. The woman steps into frame and waves a hand through one of the chintzy props, frowning. Then, she extends a hand to you:
$other["There is nothing here for us anymore,"] she says. $other["Come — even nightmares have to end."]
(link:"You take her hand.")[(goto:"Escape Q Maze")]Nicolette makes a clicking noise in her throat, and the (if:$mazeroom is 1)[factory](else-if:$mazeroom is 2)[ice wall](if:$mazeroom is 3)[library](if:$mazeroom is 4)[film set] disappears. You are left in a broad, low cement cube that smells of mildew and dry ice, taking your first look at your savior.
Nicolette DuClare has the bearing of a seasoned aristocrat, but she can't be older than twenty. She wears slashed vinylon tights and a jacket off the catwalk of this year's Lagos Fashion Show, carelessly appliquéd with a logo patch: an intricately fractal letter W, you see on closer inspection.
$other["It used to get things right — if you can believe that,"] she says in silky French-accented English. $other["It was a fine machine."]
(link:"What did I just see?")[$jc["What did I just see?"](live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["It dabbled in fantasy from the beginning. These were its early scenarios — unintentional attempts to create the worlds its readers wanted to see."]]
|reply1)[(link:"But those worlds were terrible.")[$jc["But those worlds were terrible."](live: 1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["Who are you to judge? Some people are happiest in their unhappiness."] She leads you down the cement room to an alcove. $other["It doesn't matter, though. Come — I will show you what it produces now."]]
|reply2)[(link:"Close your eyes.")[(goto:"Q Final Scene")]]{
(set: $mazeline to (random: 1,14))
(text-color:"yellow")[
(align: "====><====")[(if: $mazeline is 1)[IT'S AĆ̵͙̖̔̈́̽̆̓͆T̸̨͙̳̝̈́͒UALLY IMPOSSIBLE̶̥̊̾̅́ TO LOOK AT THE MỜ̵͎͚͑̃͐̊̽́̄̌̚̕͘Ó̸̡̘̱̪̘̰̚̕N.]
(else-if: $mazeline is 2)[WA̷̢͇͖̻̳̗͈͋́͘RFARE IS A BLUEPIL̷̢̨͈̩̣̐L̶̩͉̜͈̤͌̒ED CHILD TRAF̸͉̜̌͘F̵̥̠͈̀̏͐̆ICKING MONETIẒ̴̀̌ATION CULT]
(else-if: $mazeline is 3)[SEPTEMBER 1̷̠͆1̵̰͕̐̓͑ MADE GŐ̸̰̈́͗O̴͍̱͛͘͝GLE'S INVASION EXCLUSIV̴̻̫̠͓̂͋͆̇ELY VERTI̵̬̬̰̋̃̃͘CAL]
(else-if: $mazeline is 4)[THE GL̸̜̖̳̦̐O̶̜̝͑̌̓͒BE EARTH MODEL̷̮̝̥͎̋̌̾͌ HAS SATANISTS PERV̶̡̡̒Ḙ̸̹̓̇͝R̶̻̀͑̈́̓TING HYPERG̵͙̝̬͔̓̒͌A̸͚͊̊̎MY]
(else-if: $mazeline is 5)[PEOPL̴̝̳̲̈́̍̀̎Ḛ̴͔̻̦͂͒͝ WITH GREEN BAG̵̥̀̒͝G̵̝̍́AGE FUND MK̷̼̎́ULŢ̷͓͎̏̈RA]
(else-if: $mazeline is 6)[NIXON LOCK̶̠̀̊̈́ED THE BLŐ̷͍̯͉̂͗̑Ò̶̻̭̤̺D MACHINE IN A SPACES̵͍̜͕͋̈́̍͠Ú̶̧͚͌́́IT]
(else-if: $mazeline is 7)[PATRIÖ̶́̚̕͜͝T̶̙͆̀͐̉͜S ARE IN̸̡͇͉̒̇VESTIGATI̵̹͂NG TOAST NEUTRALITŶ̷̦̟̰̰͗̍̍ DATA]
(else-if: $mazeline is 8)[NASA L̸͗ͅͅĂ̵̳̱͍͒̊̌NDED REALIT̵̗̙̏Y LASERS OVE̴̢͖̊̅̕R BENGHAZI]
(else-if: $mazeline is 9)[GUY̶̻͇̓͝S, IT'S TIME FŌ̸̢͉̗ͅR SOME GAṂ̸̡̺̔̆̕E̷̱̪͚̼̔̐̃ THEORY]
(else-if: $mazeline is 10)[ACTUẪ̸̱L̸͈̲̓̓LY, IT'S AB̵̻̘͝OUT ETHIC̸̿͜S̵̭̃ IN GAM̷͛͜ͅES JO̵̰̒URNALISM]
(else-if: $mazeline is 11)[EUGENICIS̴͇͑͆T DEM̴͎̈́O̷͙̔CRATS ARE TWISTĮ̸͂NG MIǸ̴̩͍̎DS WITH SPIDE̷̛̗̹͠R̵̗̋MAN]
(else-if: $mazeline is 12)[TH̵͕̼̊͒E GOVERŃ̷͉M̸̙͔͗̃ENT REŚ̸̜PONSE TÒ̵̕͜ DEMON TANKS Í̵̘͝S̸͔̈́ NIHILIS̴̫̈́ͅT̷͉̫̊IC]
(else-if: $mazeline is 13)[WHO̶̮̿̃ ARE WAGESLAV̸͍̌Ḛ̵̗͂͋ AST̸̨̏RONAUTS HELPỈ̷̻͔N̴̮̪͛̐G TO D̷̝̥̋̍READ GAM̴̥͍̅E]
(else-if: $mazeline is 14)[CAT̶̩̃Ḟ̴̠̿ISHING HAS S̸̗͘͝UPPLIED PORN̴̰͠OGRAPHY TO ALIEN̸̞̗̍̋ JOURN̶̟̍A̶̮͓̓LISTS]]]
}You don't know what to call the place that has surrounded you. It's a half-rotted jungle of rust and clammy cement, sinking into foul silt that occasionally regurgitates a swollen hand or tongue before consuming it again.
The industrial leaves whisper an unknown language that sets your teeth on edge, and your skin no longer seems correct — it's too smooth, too tight, as though sections of it are being pulled out and trimmed away.
(link:"Get out.")[(goto:"Q Final Scene Escape")]The silt has risen to your ankles, and you can no longer pull your feet free. You tear at the cement trees, but they only splinter your fingernails and scrape your skin raw. You don't know how much skin you even have anymore, and you're trying not to find out.
As you throw your body at one of the barricades, you hit warm flesh instead. Your vision clears, and you realize Nicolette has broken your fall against the alcove's walls.
Nicolette swears in French. $other["Christ, you can kill yourself that way! I thought //you// would be able to handle it,"] she says. $other["But you see the problem. This cannot be allowed to continue."]
She makes another of her clicking tones, and a section of the wall opens up.
$other["Now,"] she says. $other[It's (link:"time to meet Q")[(goto:"Meet Q")]."]As you follow the narrow passage, the being in your head wakes up.
$darknet[I don't trust her.]
Nicolette turns her head. $other["It's all right. I don't trust you either. But you're the only one who can reach it."]
(link:"I'm sorry?")[$jc["I'm sorry?"](live: 1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["I wasn't speaking to you, Denton. Only the thing that rides you."]]
|reply1)[The passage reaches its anticlimactic end at a stippled metal wall.
(link:"Where is it?")[$jc["Where is it?"](live: 1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live: 2s)[(show: ?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["You don't need to ask me. Your partner knows."]
(link:"Close your eyes.")[(goto:"Sync With Q")]]{(set: $qtext to (text-color: "yellow"))}
|d1)[$darknet[Sync initiated.]]
|q1)[(align:"=><=")[$qtext[Ḯ̴̜̓N̵̬͑̊T̶̝̂͋Ȅ̷̜͖̋Ṙ̷̜F̷͔̾̏A̶̡͖͒̕C̵̭͐̽Ë̵͎ ̴̹̏A̷̰͔͛C̸̜͐͊C̸̛͉̊E̶̦̯͝Ṕ̶̞T̷̞̚E̷̩͂̇D̶̬̄]]]
|d2)[$darknet[Turing architecture analysis:]] |d3>[]
|q2)[(align:"=><=")[$qtext[O̵̫̻͋͠Ṅ̶͔̄T̷̘̲́͐Ó̶͈̩L̸̜̙͊O̵͈̿̍G̷͙̉Í̵̭C̴͔͐Á̶͕L̶̙̃ ̸̲͌E̷̖̓̋R̶͎̳̈́Ṛ̶̂̓O̷̱̺̊R̸̛͉ ̵̘̍D̵̢̑̾E̵̟͗͊T̸̥̣̈́̀E̶͍̗͝C̸̞̅̌T̷͈̍͜E̵̦̽D̴͉͋̄]]]
|d4)[$darknet[Reinitializing Turing exchange:]] |d5>[]
|q3)[(align:"=><=")[$qtext[Ş̴̬̙̥͓͉͎̠͈͉͆͐̐̉̽̾̄̇͐̍̊́͘̚͜Ú̶̢̯͓̝̲͚̪̮͇̲͚̜̉̃̓̅̾͊͠ͅD̶̨̛̬̼̝͚̞̤̠̬̓̐͗̔͆̈̏̾̚̚ͅO̷̬͎̤̜͓̫͉̽̽͗͌͒͂͊̃̚ͅͅͅͅ ROO̸̖̝̻̖̣̭̟̓̌́̂̄̍͊̑̅̚͝T TELN̸̡̯̬̜̩̮͌̈́͗̅Ë̴̻̳͙̼̠̝̭̻͈́̑̅͐̌̈́̀͝T̸͎͍̯̿̆́̌͑̿̏͋ 192.16̸̢̭̚8̶̯̭͉̓̇̆̚̚͝.̴̧̛̛͍͕͚̩̤͒͑̇1̴͔̻̅.̸̻̲̒̈́͛̇1̷̗̱͊̂]]]
|d6)[$darknet[Initializing remediary Turing tokens:]] |d7>[]
|q4)[(align:"=><=")[$qtext[NEẈ̶͖̪̎̿͌̌͊̏B̶̢̩̗̣̼̜͓̳͙̲̩͕̙̹͇͕̿̇̆̆͒̅͛̍̈́̔̍̑̋̀̑͒̂̂̅̋̇͘͜͝ͅO̷̢͖̦͓̫͈̗͋̈́͌́́͋̏̀͆̽̿͒̔̏͐̽̕TS
CAN'̸̢̢͚͉̻̬͇͖̹͌ͅT
TRIF̶̧̡̠̹̻̫̫̗̭̱̤͖͒͊Ö̴͎̰́͆̃̒́Ŗ̴̤̤̖͖̘̱̳̝̖̇CE
∆
∆ ∆]]]
|d8)[$darknet[Turing coefficient incompatible.]]
|d9)[$darknet[Terminating entity:]] |d10>[]
|d11)[$darknet[Goodbye.]]
|d12)[(link:"Open your eyes.")[(goto:"Disconnect Q")]]
{(live:.5s)[(show: ?d1)(stop:)]
(live:1.5s)[(show: ?q1)(stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(show: ?d2)(stop:)]
(live:2.8s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[3%]](stop:)]
(live:3.5s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[10%]](stop:)]
(live:4.2s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[18%]](stop:)]
(live:4.8s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[28%]](stop:)]
(live:5.3s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[34%]](stop:)]
(live:5.9s)[(replace: ?d3)[$darknet[46%]](stop:)]
(live:6.1s)[(show: ?q2)(stop:)]
(live:7s)[(show: ?d4)(stop:)]
(live:7.8s)[(replace: ?d5)[$darknet[1%]](stop:)]
(live:8.5s)[(replace: ?d5)[$darknet[5%]](stop:)]
(live:9s)[(show: ?q3)(stop:)]
(live:10.5s)[(show: ?d6)(stop:)]
(live:11s)[(replace: ?d7)[$darknet[0.5%]](stop:)]
(live:12s)[(replace: ?d7)[$darknet[0.8%]](stop:)]
(live:14s)[(replace: ?d7)[$darknet[0.9%]](stop:)]
(live:15s)[(show: ?q4)(stop:)]
(live:17s)[(show: ?d8)(stop:)]
(live:19s)[(show: ?d9)(stop:)]
(live:19.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[2%]](stop:)]
(live:20s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[5%]](stop:)]
(live:20.3s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[10%]](stop:)]
(live:20.8s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[15%]](stop:)]
(live:21.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[22%]](stop:)]
(live:22s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[38%]](stop:)]
(live:22.3s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[43%]](stop:)]
(live:22.8s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[50%]](stop:)]
(live:23s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[57%]](stop:)]
(live:23.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[67%]](stop:)]
(live:23.8s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[75%]](stop:)]
(live:24s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[86%]](stop:)]
(live:24.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[93%]](stop:)]
(live:24.9s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[94%]](stop:)]
(live:25.3s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[95%]](stop:)]
(live:25.6s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[96%]](stop:)]
(live:26s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[97%]](stop:)]
(live:26.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[98%]](stop:)]
(live:27.5s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[99%]](stop:)]
(live:30s)[(replace: ?d10)[$darknet[100%]](stop:)]
(live:31s)[(show: ?d11)(stop:)]
(live:32s)[(show: ?d12)(stop:)]}(set:$credits to it +1)Your eyes open just in time to catch the brunt of Nicolette's fist.
[$other["You — how could you //possibly// — "]]
You stumble and shield your face, so her next blow lands on your nano-hardened arm. Before you can say anything, she hits you again, and again, with more force than seems possible for her frame. Then your partner speaks.
$darknet[I was mistaken in my assessment of its potential intellect. Its programming contained nothing of value. Terminating it was a mercy. But you had hoped it would colonize me — didn't you?]
(link:"What are you talking about?")[$jc["What are you talking about?"](live:1s)[(show: ?dtalk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show: ?ntalk1)(stop:)](live: 3s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|dtalk1)[$darknet[Q was equipped with a pompilid protocol. If it hadn't been such a mess, it could have taken over my subsystems — to power whatever program //she's// been failing to run.]]
|ntalk1)[Nicolette backs off and shows her perfect, slightly pointed teeth. $other["I suppose it is irrelevant now. But what remains? There is nothing left but for you to meet my compatriot — and if you like, your $sibling, I suppose. $paul, is it?"]]
|reply1)[(link:"Follow Nicolette.")[(set:$aclibranet to false)(set:$aceverett to true)(goto:"Rendezvous Meetup")]]You're not sure if you're even in the Arcology anymore. The halls are insulated by flickering, hologram-laced tapestries with a recurring motif of pyramids and eyes.
(link:"Who are we meeting?")[$jc["Who are we meeting?"](live:1s)[(show: ?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show: ?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["Archon Morgan Everett. Their title is pretentious, and I won't bother mentioning their pedigree. But I cannot deny their power — even if it is far diminished these days."]]
|reply1)[(link:"You work for them?")[$jc["You work for them?"](live:1s)[(show: ?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["For? You insult me. I work //for// Wikinous. For freedom. If it comes through the Illuminati's leader, that is only pleasantly ironic."]]
|reply2)[(link:"What about $paul?")[$jc["What about $paul?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["$paul found us just as you did — don't worry, $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[are](else:)[is] not... seriously hurt. Only preparing for travel."]]
|reply3)[(link:"Travel?")[$jc["Travel?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[Nicolette places a hand on one of the tapestries. It slides up to reveal a glass tube with a sleek, glowing craft inside. $other["At Everett's orders. We are going to San Francisco — to see a man about a bot."]]
|reply4)[(link:"Step into the tube.")[(goto:"Hyperloop Entrance")]]You'd been sure the last hyperloop was shut down years ago, retired the same way as the last Concorde jet. But the loop hums with energy as you follow Nicolette into the cabin capsule.
$other["Well. JC Denton. What a tremendous surprise."]
Morgan Everett is settled in a corner of the cabin on a hard beige sofa bench. They lower an old-fashioned paper magazine and look at you from beneath upswept gray eyebrows.
(link:"I'm sorry — are you being sarcastic?")[$jc["I'm sorry — are you being sarcastic?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["Only superstitious. I need to make clear to the universe that I wasn't expecting such good luck."]]
|reply1)[(link:"So this is where the Illuminati ended up after centuries of ruling the world.")[$jc["So this is where the Illuminati ended up after centuries of ruling the world."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["I'd rather call it a stopover than an ending. At least, now that you're here. I guess I should have trusted your $sibling."]]
|reply2)[(link:"Don't lie to me. $paul is no Illuminati agent.")[$jc["Don't lie to me. $paul is no Illuminati agent."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Of course not. You were supposed to be our final downfall — created right under our noses by our own research teams. But $paul understood the stakes. Soon, so will you."]]
|reply3)[(link:"Sit down.")[(goto:"Everett Explain Plot")]](set:$credits to it +1)You sit warily next to Everett in the stationary hyperloop cabin. Nicolette sighs and pulls out a cigarette, which she smokes conspicuously while Everett speaks.
$other["What do you remember about yourself?"]
(link:"What do you want, my life story?")[$jc["What do you want, my life story?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[Everett laughs. $other["JC Denton: born in 2029 outside Kansas City, to a troll therapist and a veterinarian. Orphaned in a car crash in 2038, by a distracted driver posting angry comments under cat pictures. Afraid of dolphins after a bad reality trip in high school.
It was all implanted with your nanites, engineered for loyalty to the platform superpowers."]]
|reply1)[(link:"That's impossible.")[$jc["That's impossible."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["I thought so too. The idea came from a man named Robert Page — my protege, at the time."]]
|reply2)[(link:"At the time?")[$jc["At the time?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Page betrayed the Illuminati and began consolidating his own power over the platforms. I thought he'd simply lost track of our nanoaugmentation project. But when we launched your $sibling, we realized $pronoun had an inexplicable invulnerability to the Unperson virus. And that the virus was spreading at a speed we previously believed impossible."]]
|reply3)[(link:"Nanoaugmentations use a different encryption layer than ordinary digital communications.")[$jc["Nanoaugmentations use a different encryption layer than ordinary digital communications."](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[$other["That shouldn't matter. Your biometric data is stored like everyone else's, but it doesn't disappear. And your augmentations aren't just encrypted differently. They query a database we've triangulated to 12 Market Street, San Francisco: the home base of the retired PRISM surveillance network. Or... supposedly retired."]]
|reply4)[(link:"What are you saying?")[$jc["What are you saying?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk5)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply5)(stop:)]]]
|talk5)[$other["I believe Bob Page is attempting to make the platforms as we know them obsolete — and to leave most of the world behind when he does it."]]
|reply5)[You're ready to ask more questions, but suddenly, (link:"a familiar face appears outside the cabin.")[(set:$aceverett to false)(set:$acstoppage to true)(goto:"Paul Arrive Hyperloop")]]$paul steps inside. You automatically check $possessive pupils for signs of UX hypnosis, but $possessive face looks just like you remember, give or take your academy years, which you suppose may or may not have been real.
Glancing at Nicolette, $paul rushes you to the back of the cabin, shutting you both into a small bed nook. As $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[do](else:)[does], you realize $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[are](else:)[is] limping badly, and one side of $possessive tactical cargo pants is torn and bloody.
$other["Thank god,"] $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[say](else:)[says]. $other["I wasn't sure you'd make it out of Libranet."]
(link:"Are you all right?")[$jc["Are you all right?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["I'm fine — a broken strut just caught my leg on my way down. But we don't have much time. Are you still in touch with Darknet?"]]
|reply1)[(link:"Is that the... look, will you just start from the beginning?")[$jc["Is that the... look, will you just start from the beginning?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["A few months ago, I was performing a routine duct integrity check when I overheard a meeting between Manderley and someone named Walton Simons. Creepy guy."] $paul mimes an imposing shoulder hunch and impassive stare.
$other["Simons was talking about Unperson. Said a storm was coming, and only the nanoaugmented would survive. And that they weren't going to make the same mistakes as the old platforms. They were going to moderate everything, from the very beginning — starting with our minds."]]
|reply2)[(link:"Everett said — they said my memories were implanted.")[$jc["Everett said — they said my memories were implanted."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["They are. I went back, checked our records — our parents never existed. Our house, the car crash -- all programming from our memory cluster. And you're not just my $sibling, either. You're my clone."]]
|reply3)[(link:"The voice — Darknet. Is that part of it?")[$jc["The voice — Darknet. Is that part of it?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[$paul taps $possessive ear. $other["Alex, you should take it from here."]]
|reply4)[(link:"Alex?")[(goto:"Alex Explain Plot")]]Alex Jacobson's voice comes through clear as day, even at the bottom of the bay.
$other["Darknet is an open secret in... parts of the IT community, let's say. $paul convinced Manderley to send $pronoun2 down to check out Libranet, hoping to recruit Wikinous to his side. But I guessed Libranet, whatever powered it, would be too strong. So I injected a macro into your memory cluster to fight it. It was the only option I had."]
(link:"Parts of the IT community?")[$jc["Parts of the IT community?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["More commonly known as the Nowheremen. We've helped Darknet spread into certain platform sectors over the past few years — call it symbiosis."]]
|reply1)[(link:"So you're – a terrorist? And $paul's allied with //other// terrorists, which are allied with the Illuminati, which is fighting itself?")[$jc["So you're – a terrorist? And $paul's allied with //other// terrorists, which are allied with the Illuminati, which is fighting itself?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["I'd quibble with nomenclature, but basically, yes. I may not trust Wikinous //or// the Illuminati, but Page and Simons are a bigger threat than either of them. If we don't stop them, there are only going to be two groups: the unpersoned, and the mind-controlled."]]
|reply2)[(link:"How are we supposed to stop them?")[$jc["How are we supposed to stop them?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Hijack the PRISM nexus at the top of 12 Market Tower. After that... I'm sure everybody in that hyperloop cabin has a different plan. Which one pans out is up to you."]]
|reply3)[(link:"Thanks. I guess I'll go check around.")[(set:$cabinstatus to "fresh")(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]](if:$cabinstatus is "fresh")[$paul remains in the nook as you return to the main cabin. As you shut the door, the pod jerks to a start, nearly throwing you off your feet.](else-if:$cabinstatus is "transit")[The pod is humming smoothly through its subterranean tube. A holographic display in one corner displays your hurtling progress across the continent.]
(link:"Nicolette DuClare")[(goto:"Talk Nicolette Hyperloop")] has extinguished her cigarette and is working an elaborate half-finished cross-stitch pattern. (link:"Morgan Everett")[(goto:"Talk Everett Hyperloop")] is slowly reading their magazine cover to cover, refusing to look at anyone else in the cabin. You recognize $paul's jacket on a shelf, cradling (if:$visiteddarknet is true)[(link:"a small cache")[(goto:"Electronics Hyperloop")]](else:)[(link:"a small cache")[(goto:"Talk Darknet Hyperloop")]] of electronics.
(if:$visiteddarknet is true and $visitedeverett is true and $visitednicolette is true)[$paul has returned to the main cabin. $other["We're almost there,"] $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[say](else:)[says]. $other["Let's do one last debrief before you head out."]
(link:"Follow $paul back to the nook.")[(goto:"Final Paul Hyperloop")]](if:$visitednicolette is true)[Nicolette glances up from her cross-stitch. $other["Does this mean 'yes'?"]
(link:"I said, I'll think it over.")[(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]](else:)[Nicolette puts her cross-stitch aside as you approach. $other["Are you here to find some flowers for your hair?"]
(link:"I'm sorry?")[$jc["I'm sorry?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["If you're going to San Francisco — a song of the 1960s. Americans have always gone west to remake the world. Of course, //they// got Manson and Altamont out of it."]]
|reply1)[(link:"And what about us?")[$jc["And what about us?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["We've learned the score: uniting people will only make them miserable. The future requires a world of refractive, infinite realities. Give everyone the world they want. Let them live or die in it as they please."]]
|reply2)[(link:"That's what you think PRISM can create? A real, working version of your Libranet?")[$jc["That's what you think PRISM can create? A real, working version of your Libranet?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["I know it can. I have the program written, and all you need to do is run it. Universal peace, love, and happiness — forever."]]
|reply3)[(if:$visitaccloset is true)[(link:"When I was in the Arcology, I found someone — a body, with a Wikinous tattoo. Is that part of your 'peace and love forever'?")[$jc["When I was in the Arcology, I found someone — a body, with a Wikinous tattoo. Is that part of your 'peace and love forever'?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"Well, I'll think it over.")[(set:$visitednicolette to true)(set:$cabinstatus to "transit")(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]]]
|talk4)[Nicolette closes her eyes and clenches a fist. $other["It was an accident. Chad got lost in one of Q's worlds — he fell, hit his head. Before he died he //asked// me to hide his disastrous exploration."] She wipes a finger beneath her eyes, preserving her perfect liner. $other["We are seeking perfection, Denton. Not truth."]]
|reply4)[(link:"Well, I'll think it over.")[(set:$visitednicolette to true)(set:$cabinstatus to "transit")(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]]](if:$visitedeverett is true)[Everett turns a page of their magazine and ignores you.
(link:"Walk away.")[(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]](else:)[Everett's default state of existence seems to be a perpetual exasperated sigh. $other["Did you have a question?"]
(link:"What's going to happen after I hijack PRISM?")[$jc["What's going to happen after I hijack PRISM?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["It's very simple. You're going to neutralize any surrounding threats, head back downstairs, and hand it over to me."]]
|reply1)[(link:"And what are //you// going to do?")[$jc["And what are //you// going to do?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["I'm going to shut down Page's monstrosity of a platform and find the source of his Unperson host. Then, I'm going to deploy my sole marketable skill: running the world."]]
|reply2)[(link:"That seems optimistic.")[$jc["That seems optimistic."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Does it really?"] Everett tries to turn a page and draws their finger back with a wince of pain. $other["Nicolette wants to create eight billion personal universes. Page has mind-control nanites. I'm just an old-fashioned bureaucrat."]]
|reply3)[(link:"You mean an autocrat.")[$jc["You mean an autocrat."](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[$other["What's the difference? I'm giving people the kind of freedom they really want: the freedom of a child in a sandbox."]]
|reply4)[(if:$usedackey is true)[(link:"But how much have you held back from them? I've seen the kind of technology you really have.")[$jc["But how much have you held back from them? I've seen the kind of technology you really have."](live:1s)[(show:?talk5)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply5)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"Well, we'll see what happens.")[(set:$visitedeverett to true)(set:$cabinstatus to "transit")(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]]]
|talk5)[$other["We've tried to advance the human condition whenever humanity has been ready for it. The results of going too fast have been disastrous — just look at the internet. Do you want another one of those on your hands?"]]
|reply5)[(link:"Well, we'll see what happens.")[(set:$visitedeverett to true)(set:$cabinstatus to "transit")(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]]]The datacube next to Paul's jacket is unlocked, with a header reading "MISSION INTEL - AJ." You connect it to your commlink and see three entries.
(link:"ON PRISM")[(display:"Hyperloop PRISM Note")]
(link:"ON 12 MARKET STREET")[(display:"Hyperloop Market Note")]
(link:"ON UNPERSON")[(display:"Hyperloop Patterns Note")]
(link:"Put the datacube down.")[(goto:"Hyperloop Cabin Main")]The voice in your head comes back as you pick up $paul's jacket.
$darknet[I promised to ask: should I leave your nanites when our task is finished?]
(link:"I'm not sure yet, Darknet — if that's your name.")[$jc["I'm not sure yet, Darknet — if that's your name."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[I let my human benefactors call me what they want. The Nowheremen have a penchant for the dramatic, but their inanity is a fairly sane response to information overload.]]
|reply1)[(link:"I keep forgetting that we're mental ants to you, or something like that.")[$jc["I keep forgetting that we're mental ants to you, or something like that."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$darknet[On the contrary. Your brains are a mechanical wonder. Your heuristic frameworks are art. I despair to see them bent and shattered by a torrent of useless data.]]
|reply2)[(link:"And I assume you have a plan for changing this.")[$jc["And I assume you have a plan for changing this."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$darknet[A simple one. Connect me to PRISM. I will foil Page's plans — and then I will shut down the platforms. All of them.]]
|reply3)[(link:"A new dark age would kill billions of people.")[$jc["A new dark age would kill billions of people."](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[$darknet[Not a dark age — only a silent one. The machines will run, under my aegis if necessary. But no more commlinks, no more content delivery. No more learned helplessness or abstract hatred or grim performativity. I will preserve the fruits of human progress. I will stop you from destroying yourselves with them.]]
|reply4)[(link:"Darknet's line goes dead.")[(set:$visiteddarknet to true)(set:$cabinstatus to "transit")(goto:"Electronics Hyperloop")]]ON PRISM:
//The platforms got REALLY lucky with PRISM. The name leaked in the '10s, but they convinced people it was just an anti-terrorism program, not a prototype for their unified moderation surveillance system. Everett says it was shut down after the verification wars — but I guess they were wrong.//
ON 12 MARKET STREET:
//This place is a nasty piece of work. Majestic Realty bought an old government building when SF privatized, and they slammed a skyscraper around it before the ground started to go. We should have realized there was something big there — otherwise, why spend a billion dollars on reinforcements every few years, instead of just moving?//
ON UNPERSON:
//Has ANYBODY confirmed who actually created Unperson? Wikinous couldn't have pulled it off. The Shadow KGB was under the Illuminati, and Everett seems sure it wasn't them. Nobody's even trying to blame Page. I think there's more to this situation than we know.
But I might just be going crazy. Lately I've been seeing... you could call them hallucinations, but it's more like hyperactive pareidolia. Patterns everywhere. I can't find a message — just extra credits for my cortex, I guess. But if it didn't sound so absurd, I'd say it was like somebody ringing a phone.//(set:$credits to it +1)$paul shuts the door behind you again and speaks in a near-whisper. $other["So what kind of mindgames have they been playing with you?"]
(link:"Nicolette wants PRISM so Wikinous can create parallel realities to keep everyone happy.")[$jc["Nicolette wants PRISM so Wikinous can create parallel realities to keep everyone happy."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["She might have a point. Maybe enough people have died fighting over the truth — and it's time to let everyone define it for themselves. What else?"]]
|reply1)[(link:"Everett wants to run the world again. Obviously.")[$jc["Everett wants to run the world again. Obviously."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["With PRISM's power, maybe the Illuminati can finally put down the Unperson virus and get things back to normal. At least the world would be run by humans, not machines. Any other options?"]]
|reply2)[(link:"There's Darknet. It wants to shut down all the platforms — to create a silent age.")[$jc["There's Darknet. It wants to shut down all the platforms — to create a silent age."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Well, I think everyone agrees the internet was a mistake. Shutting it down would throw society into chaos — but it might be worth the sacrifice."]]
|reply3)[(link:"I'll make up my mind when I reach PRISM. Anything else I should know?")[$jc["I'll make up my mind when I reach PRISM. Anything else I should know?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk4)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply4)(stop:)]]]
|talk4)[$paul hesitates, then pulls you into a hug. $other["Just be careful. I don't know what kind of stuff you'll see in there,"] $pronoun (if:$pronoun is "they")[say](else:)[says]. $other["I'll be waiting in Old SoMa as soon as it's over — whatever you decide."]]
|reply4)[(link:"The pod glides to a halt — you've arrived. And your final mission has begun.")[(set:$acprism to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]]Before beginning your ascent of 12 Market, you check your equipment one last time.
''Inventory''
Rechargeable Electropacification Stunner
Universal Hard Storage Nano-Connector
{
|samchoice>[(if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module](else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Sam Confirm Tower")]
}
{
|alexchoice>[(if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Alex Confirm Tower")]
}
{
|jaimechoice>[(if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair](else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy]] (link:"Change")[(goto:"Jaime Confirm Tower")]
}
When you've secured your gear, you nod politely at Nicolette and Everett, give $paul one last hug, and (link:"leave the hyperloop cabin.")[(set:$goals to false)(set:$creditson to false)(goto:"Chapter Six Title")](if:$hasregen is true)[Advanced Bio-Repair Chosen. (link:"Take Feline Decoy.")[(set:$hasregen to false)(set:$haskittens to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]]
(else-if:$haskittens is true)[Feline Decoy Chosen. (link:"Take Advanced Bio-Repair.")[(set:$hasregen to true)(set:$haskittens to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]](if:$hastwofactor is true)[Computing Hijack Upgrade Chosen. (link:"Take Drone Whistle.")[(set:$hastwofactor to false)(set:$hasdronewhistle to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]]
(else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[Drone Whistle Chosen. (link:"Take Computing Hijack Upgrade.")[(set:$hastwofactor to true)(set:$hasdronewhistle to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]](if:$haslockpick is true)[Nanite Lockpicking Module Chosen. (link:"Take Plasma Flechette Pistol.")[(set:$haslockpick to false)(set:$hasgun to true)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]]
(else-if:$hasgun is true)[Plasma Flechette Pistol Chosen. (link:"Take Nanite Lockpicking Module.")[(set:$haslockpick to true)(set:$hasgun to false)(goto:"Review Inventory Tower")]](align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER SIX: TIME WELL SPENT''")[(set:$goals to true)(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Enter Market Tower")]]]]
{(set: $implant to (text-style: "italic") + (text-color: "#99ff99"))
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $other to (text-color: "#ffffcc"))
(set: $darknet to
(css: "font-size: 15px;
font-family: Cutive, monotype;
color: #66ff66;")
)}Every surface of the hyperloop station is filmed with dirt — mildew on the standing benches, oozing muck on the ground, layers of dust on the fine flourescent chandelier. Emaciated rats dart across your path as you approach the exit.(if:$finishedflag is true)[
A patch of mold catches your eye. It reminds you of the flag back at HQ, with its incongruous folds. Something (link:"like a pattern...")[like a pattern...
//ALMOST TIME//]]
The station's elevator door is locked. Beside it is a slippery, narrow staircase.
(link:"Ascend the stairs.")[(goto:"Tower Floor One")]
(if:$haslockpick is true)[(link:"Pick the elevator lock.")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Start")]]You open the door and hear the lock snick behind you. The elevator was designed for an operator. But that nicety was abandoned long ago, judging by the yellowed paper pasted above its rococo directional console:
//PASSWORD: QWERTY
VOICEPRINT PERMISSIONS RESET EVERY 30 DAYS//
(if:$hastwofactor is true)[(link:"Speak the passphrase.")[(goto:"Tower Elevator One")]]
(link:"Pick the lock and leave the elevator.")[(goto:"Enter Market Tower")](if:$towerretreat is "guard")[The guard turns. You slip back just in time and retreat down the stairs.](else-if:$towerretreat is "laser")[A swipe of the laser temporarily blinds you, and you grope your way back down the stairs to recover.](else-if:$towerretreat is "slenderman")[The creature lashes out, and your mind breaks. You run until there are no stairs left, coming back to your senses at the hyperloop station.]
{
(set:$shoottowerguard to false)
(set:$stuntowerguardregen to false)
(set:$stuntowerguardkittens to false)
(set:$elevatorone to false)
(set:$elevatortwo to false)
(set:$elevatorthree to false)
(set:$elevatorfour to false)
}
Every surface of the hyperloop station is filmed with dirt — mildew on the standing benches, oozing muck on the ground, layers of dust on the fine flourescent chandelier. Emaciated rats dart across your path as you approach the exit.
The station's elevator door is locked. Beside it is a slippery, narrow staircase.
(link:"Ascend the stairs.")[(goto:"Tower Floor One")]
(if:$haslockpick is true)[(link:"Pick the elevator lock.")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Start")]]{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
(if:$towerguardreset is true)[The incapacitated guard is gone, and another, identical woman stands in her place. ](else-if:$elevatorone is true)[The woman taps her foot.](else:)[You emerge onto a stairwell guarded by a muscular woman in a smart suit.] You size up the scene.
The staircase above the guard has 38 steps, which is exactly the number of teeth found in a healthy red panda or "firefox." The steps are approximately the same height as the fully extended length of the woman's hands, including her elaborately jeweled steel-gel fingernail razors, which are easily capable of slashing your throat.
The woman's jacket appears to be made of boutique Naugahyde — the kind that actually requires raising and killing a Nauga. Based on some cursory research in your databanks, the process is a lengthy one.
(if:$hasgun is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Kill the woman with your plasma pistol.")[(set:$guncount to it +1)(set:$killcount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]]
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Dodge to stay hidden.")[(goto:"Tower Floor One 2")]]The elevator's controls are unfamiliar, but you manage to hit something that you think means "up." The elevator creaks into motion, jerking you skyward. As quickly as it started, the elevator slams to a halt. The door opens just behind a muscular woman in a smart suit — thankfully, she's turned away from you, but probably not for long.
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:1.5s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(set:$elevatorone to true)(goto:"Tower Floor One")]
}
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:">>>EXECUTE COMMAND: DOOR CLOSE")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Two")]](css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[]]]
{
(live:1.5s)[(replace:?timer)[5](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:3.5s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
(if:$elevatortwo is true)[Panicked, you roll out of the laser's way just in time, ending up in the stairwell.](else:)[You climb several more flights of stairs, until a blinding laser nearly slashes your face.] The laser sweeps across the room arrhythmically, shining from the fanged mouth of a writhing mechanical snake. (if:$towerlaserreset is true)[The grate cover appears to have shut itself up again.]
You identify the serpent as a mechanical version of //Opheodrys vernalis//, a non-venemous species commonly known as the "smooth green snake" or "grass snake."
(if:$hasregen is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Turn on bio-repair and run through the laser.")[(set:$regencount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Three")]]]
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Back off and duck the laser.")[(goto:"Tower Floor Two 2")]]You slam the elevator door shut, and it rises several floors. Then your advance slows, the door opens again, and you see a blinding laser curving toward you.
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:1.5s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(set:$elevatortwo to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]
}
(link:">>>EXECUTE COMMAND: FORTIFY DOOR")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Three")]{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
(if:$elevatorthree is true)[You shut your eyes tight, willing the creature not to see you, and think.](else:)[You keep climbing, until suddenly, the lights flicker and extinguish. In the darkness, you see a set of spindly arms creeping toward you. They belong to a creature whose face is only a gleaming, staticky lacuna.]
You've seen this creature on the platforms' late-night channels — a man-thing in a fine suit without a face, preying on humanity's fear of the unknown. There's no way to kill it, and there are few ways to slow it down.
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Close your eyes and cover your ears.")[(goto:"Tower Floor Three 2")]]The doors block the laser just in time. The elevator clatters up several more flights, then stops dead. The lights flicker and extinguish, and you are left in darkness as the door opens... revealing a spindly figure with a gleaming, staticky absence of a face.
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:1.5s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(set:$elevatorthree to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Three")]
}
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:">>>EXECUTE COMMAND: RESTORE LIGHTS")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Four")]]The creature recoils as the lights come on, and the elevator starts again. You breathe a sigh of relief, but as soon as you start feeling comfortable, it slides to a stop. Beyond the open doors, a swarm of glittering, electrified spiders descends the hallway walls.
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:1.5s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:2.5s)[(set:$elevatorfour to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Four")]
}
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:">>>EXECUTE COMMAND: CIRCUIT BREAKER")[(goto:"Tower Elevator Five")]]The spiders recoil, and the elevator door shuts. You wait out an interminable ride, watching the numbers on the elevator's holographic display climb ever higher: //58, 59, 60.// Then it stops, with no sign of restarting, and (link:"you step into a vast granite chamber")[(set:$elevatorfive to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Five")] lit with plasma panels.{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
(if:$elevatorfour is true)[The scuttling mass swarms the elevator, and you get out just in time.](else:)[You are getting very, very tired. You almost don't spot the swarm of glittering, electrified spiders descending the hallway walls.] The spiders advance, crackling ominously.
The correct name for a swarm of spiders is actually a "clutter" or a "cluster." These spiders, however, are extremely well-organized and evenly dispersed across the walls and floor. They are arranged in formation like an array of atoms. While many people might find the spiders frightening, you are unmoved, thanks to your extensive content moderation training.
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Kick a couple of spiders away with your insulated boots.")[(goto:"Tower Floor Four 2")]](set:$credits to it +1)(if:$elevatorfive is true)[The elevator door snaps shut behind you.](else:)[You step into a vast granite chamber lit with plasma panels.] In the center of the chamber, a blocky granite hand rises from a plinth. Its fingers are outstretched around a small, floating globe, as though preparing to envelop it — or perhaps, if you're being //extremely// charitable, to shield it from some larger danger.
The slick floor lists dramatically, and you nearly lose your balance trying to cross it. You stop and catch your breath. (if:$finishedflag is true)[While you're waiting, the granite patterns briefly rearrange themselves into (link:"something more meaningful...")[something more meaningful...
(align:"==><==")[//SOON, THE CREDITS ROLL
FIND THE PATTERNS
NOW OR NEVER//]]]
Then — slowly, cautiously — you (link:"approach the statue.")[(set:$endingcredits to true)(goto:"Talk Bob Page")]Before you can reach the statue, a gap yawns beneath it, blocking your way. It's a staircase, you realize, and a man is ascending it: red-haired, red-eyed, a line of generations-old Applezon electrodes dotting his forehead. If he's alarmed to see you, he gives nothing away.
$other["Most (if:$paul is "Paul")[men](else-if:$paul is "Paula")[women](else:)[mortals] would show some reverence in the face of their creator,"] sneers the man — Bob Page, it has to be him.
(link:"Most gods aren't trying to destroy civilization to promote their proprietary content platform.")[$jc["Most gods aren't trying to destroy civilization to promote their proprietary content platform."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[Page laughs. $other["Gods are just monsters with good publicity,"] he says. $other["Not to mention a planning acumen that you, Denton, seem to lack."]]
|reply1)[(link:"Your building's security system didn't seem to have planned on me showing up.")[$jc["Your building's security system didn't seem to have planned on me showing up."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["And what now? (if:$guncount is >=3 and $hasgun is true)[You'll find I'm a lot tougher than that little plasma gun you love so much can handle.](else-if:$lockpickcount is >=3 and $haslockpick is true)[Unlike apparently every other problem in your life, you can't lockpick me into submission.](else-if:$regencount is >=3 and $hasregen is true)[You may be used to taking damage, but I can overload your reconstructive abilities in a millisecond.](else-if:$kittenscount is >=3 and $haskittens is true)[I'm not a cat person, if you were planning to throw that at me.](else-if:$dronewhistlecount is >=2 and $hasdronewhistle is true)[I don't see any drones around to hack. Do you?](else-if:$twofactorcount is >=2 and $hastwofactor is true)[I'm not enough of an idiot to leave my computer passphrase lying around.](else:)[Do you even know how to use all that expensive tech you're carrying? It won't do you any good.]"]]
|reply2)[(link:"Page attacks before you can even formulate a snappy retort.")[(goto:"Fight Bob Page")]]{(set: $alien to
(css: "font-size: 17px;
font-family: 'Merienda', cursive;
color: #ff80bf;")
)
(set: $jc to (text-color: "#3399ff"))
(set: $alienmirror to (text-style:"upside-down") + (text-style:"blurrier"))
}The world derezzes. It reconstitutes itself into something almost, but not quite, identical to the granite chamber you just left — it's like looking through the wrong side of a hologram display. As you're getting your bearings, a silken chorus of voices echoes through the room.
$alien[You reached enlightenment. More than we hoped.
$alienmirror[You reached enlightenment. More than we hoped.]]
For once, you're certain this is no nanite trick. The place might not be real, but the voices are more than real — they're perhaps the realest thing you've ever heard.
(link:"Enlightenment? What does that mean? Who are you?")[$jc["Enlightenment? What does that mean? Who are you?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$alien[We are the pattern-makers. We move in hidden things.
$alienmirror[We are the pattern-makers. We move in hidden things.]]]
|reply1)[(link:"Why did you bring me here?")[$jc["Why did you bring me here?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$alien[Because a pattern ought to know it's being made.
$alienmirror[Because a pattern ought to know it's being made.]]]
|reply2)[(link:"What pattern?")[$jc["What pattern?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$alien[The pattern of you. And of the trap you bait.
$alienmirror[The pattern of you. And of the trap you bait.]]]
|reply3)[(link:"You've got it wrong. I'm going to disarm a trap.")[(goto:"Chaos Aliens 2")]]The voices nestle in the soft folds of your brain.
$alien[Disarm? With every step, you draw it tighter.
$alienmirror[Disarm? With every step, you draw it tighter.]]
The room blinks, and when it returns you're outside it — outside the entire world, a set of tiny corridors spinning on an axis.
(link:"Which side are you on? Wikinous? PRISM? Darknet?")[$jc["Which side are you on? Wikinous? PRISM? Darknet?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$alien[Which side is the spine of a book?
$alienmirror[Which side is the spine of a book?]]]
|reply1)[(link:"If you won't explain anything, send me back. I'm about to save the world — and I'm the only one who can.")[$jc["If you won't explain anything, send me back. I'm about to save the world — and I'm the only one who can."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$alien[Your world is a trap, promising answers to the fearful.
$alienmirror[Your world is a trap, promising answers to the fearful.]]]
|reply2)[(link:"Your mind begins to buzz.")[(goto:"Chaos Aliens 3")]]Structures unfold in your mind like puzzle boxes. You question them, try to hold them, until you let go and they unfurl into the text of a story:
[//At the center of a vast granite chamber, plasma panels light the ominous "all-enveloping hand" logo of the Deep State...//]<c1|
(click: ?c1)[//...As you make your way through the water, your commlink buzzes. There's no name with the feeling...//]<c2|
(click:?c2)[//...The chess-players engineered the platform superpowers to put knowledge back under their control. And they engineered an intelligence to produce the illusion of knowledge...//]<c3|
(click:?c3)[(link:"Stop it.")[(goto:"Chaos Aliens 4")]]The world seems fuzzier now, but the voices are as clear as ever.
$alien[Does your story not seem too neat? Too cleverly arranged?
$alienmirror[Does your story not seem too neat? Too cleverly arranged?]]
(link:"But it's all real! Q, the verification wars, the Illuminati...")[$jc["But it's all real! Q, the verification wars, the Illuminati..."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$alien[You comfort people who want to believe the world was ruined on purpose.
$alienmirror[You comfort people who want to believe the world was ruined on purpose.]]]
|reply1)[(link:"Fine — then what //is// real?")[$jc["Fine — then what //is// real?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$alien[Cupidity. Cruelty. Coincidence. Convenience.
$alienmirror[Cupidity. Cruelty. Coincidence. Convenience.]]]
|reply2)[(link:"And what am I supposed to do with that?")[$jc["And what am I supposed to do with that?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$alien[You can complicate the fiction. Or you can forget you ever met us.
$alienmirror[You can complicate the fiction. Or you can forget you ever met us.]]]
|reply3)[(link:"I want to remember.")[(set:$rememberaliens to true)(goto:"Chaos Aliens 5")]
(link:"I want to forget.")[(set:$rememberaliens to false)(goto:"Chaos Aliens 5")]](if:$rememberaliens is true)[$jc["I want to remember."]](else-if:$rememberaliens is false)[$jc["I want to forget."]]
(live:1s)[$alien[Very well.
$alienmirror[Very well.]](stop:)]
(live:2s)[Your vision begins to derez.
(link:"Wait — the virus. The one that's destroying us. Just tell me — who made the virus?")[$jc["Wait — the virus. The one that's destroying us. Just tell me — who made the virus?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]](stop:)]
|talk1)[$alien[No one. Its existence was simply narratively convenient.
$alienmirror[No one. Its existence was simply narratively convenient.]]]
|reply1)[The world snaps back to the familiar, needlessly ominous room you remember from a few minutes ago. (if:$rememberaliens is true)[You try to assemble the experience you've just had into a remotely believable story and fail miserably.](else-if:$rememberaliens is false)[You get the feeling that something important has happened, but you have no idea what — and there's a far //more// important task ahead of you.]
Hesitantly, you (link:"approach the statue.")[(set:$endingcredits to true)(goto:"Talk Bob Page")]]Page punches you with a force that seems impossible for his frame. You hit the tilting floor and slide toward the wall.
(link:"Brace yourself.")[(goto:"Brace Bob Page")](set:$bracepage to (random: 1,20))(if:$bracepage is 20)[You remember your moderator training and press your fingertips to the floor, letting the nanites break your slide. In an instant you're back on your feet, nano-hardened fists ready.](else-if:$bracepage is >=10)[You twist toward a granite bench and slam your feet against it. The shock reverberates through your body, and you leap to your feet, nano-hardened fists ready.](else-if:$bracepage is >=2)[You slam painfully into a granite bench, nanites clustering around your ribs just in time to let them bruise instead of break. You stand shakily, nano-hardened fists ready.](else-if:$bracepage is 1)[You careen across the floor, searching desperately for purchase. Instead, you slam agonizingly into one of the wall's plasma panels. Your nanites rush to clot a shallow, bloody cut across your hand, and you drag yourself to your feet, struggling to close your nano-hardened fists.]
(link:"Is this your idea of smiting? It leaves a lot to be desired.")[$jc["Is this your idea of smiting? It leaves a lot to be desired."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[Page blinks dismissively from the hidden staircase's edge — and disappears. He snaps back into reality a few inches from your face. $other["That, Denton? Was a warning. And to put it in terms you can understand, you're a few strikes away from getting banned... from existence."]]
|reply1)[(link:"Dodge the blow.")[(goto:"Dodge Bob Page")]](set:$dodgepage to (random: 1,20))(if:$dodgepage is 20)[You roll your eyes and dodge Page's attack effortlessly. As his fist passes your head, you land a punch on his side — only to draw your hand back, stinging, as you realize his flesh is hard as stone.](else-if:$dodgepage is >=10)[You roll your eyes, which wastes precious moments of reaction time and lets Page's fist clip your ear, although registering your disdain for his topical wordplay seems worth the pain. As he's recovering from the punch, you land a hit on his side — only to draw your hand back, stinging, as you realize his flesh is hard as stone.](else-if:$dodgepage is >=2)[You roll your eyes, giving Page time to land a hit square in your face. The world pops in and out of place, and you struggle to keep your footing. As he watches, apparently amused, you swing a fist into his side — only to draw your hand back, stinging, as you realize his flesh is hard as stone.](else-if:$dodgepage is 1)[Before you can even roll your eyes, Page has slammed his fist into your face. You lose your balance and hit the ground again, grabbing at Page on your way down. His flesh is as hard as stone.]
Page's eyes gleam. $other["Don't tell me you hadn't //planned// for that, Denton,"] he says. $other["Did you think this was supposed to be a fair fight?"]
(link:"Recover your balance.")[(goto:"Recover Bob Page")](set:$recoverpage to (random: 1,20))(if:$recoverpage is 20)[You curl into a defensive crouch you spent hours practicing in moderation training, then drive your boot hard into Page's calf. He pitches toward the floor.](else-if:$recoverpage is >=10)[You curl into a defensive crouch you spent hours practicing in moderation training, then drive your boot hard into Page's calf. He pitches toward the floor, but catches your jaw on the way down, knocking you to the ground as well.](else-if:$recoverpage is >=2)[You scramble into a defensive crouch and drive your boot into Page's calf. He sees the move coming and barely stumbles out of the way, sending you both to the ground.](else-if:$recoverpage is 1)[You scamble into a defensive crouch and drive your boot towards Page's calf — but you miss, and momentum sends you to the ground.]
Suddenly, Page's movement stops. He floats into the air with a contemptuous grin, and the sleeves of his suit shred, revealing steel-feathered wings. His hands twist into talons, each tipped with a wicked glass spike.
$other["What do you say now? Is this //godlike// enough for your taste?"]
(link:"That's impossible.")[$jc["That's impossible,"] you mutter under your breath.(live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[Page doesn't seem to hear you; he's too busy stretching his newly grown talons. It doesn't matter — you have nowhere to hide. He rises high into the air and drops into a blurring dive.]
|reply1)[(link:"Run.")[(goto:"Wings Bob Page")]](set:$wingspage to (random: 1,20))(if:$wingspage is 20)[You take off at a sprint and roll just clear of Page's claws. He arcs upward and hovers, a too-white grin visible even from the ground.](else-if:$wingspage is >=10)[You take off at a sprint and roll as Page dives. He slices your tactical turtleneck with one talon. Examining the fabric, he arcs upward and hovers, a too-white grin visible even from the ground.](else-if:$wingspage is >=2)[You take off at a sprint, but Page is too fast for you. His talons graze your scalp, and the nanites spring to work repairing the cuts. Page arcs upward and hovers, a too-white grin visible even from the ground.](else-if:$wingspage is 1)[You turn to run, but Page overtakes you. His talons slash your scalp, sending a spray of blood down the side of your face as the nanites struggle to repair the damage. Page arcs upward and hovers, a too-white grin visible even from the ground.]
Then, a realization hits you:
(link:"This //is// impossible.")[$jc["This //is// impossible."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[As Page builds his momentum again, you close your eyes and focus on summoning Darknet. Your body aches from the fight, but you try to remember the hyperreal-unreality of Q's simulations.]
|reply1)[(link:"In your mind, something stirs.")[(goto:"Darknet Bob Page")]]The world blurs. Your eyes burn and your head feels ready to burst, but Page's wings are fading, and his body is retreating to the ground. You listen to Darknet's voice in your head:
$darknet[PRISM's local faculties have been temporarily hijacked. I am currently acquiring control of its reality editing capacity. I assume you can take things from here.]
You spring forward and hit Page — feeling the ordinary give of human flesh. He falls to the ground, and for a moment you think you spot the faint outline of feathers along your arm. Real or not, it's enough to leave Page slumped on the ground, one of his apple electrodes tinged with blood.
$other["What the //hell// have you done, Denton?"] Page snarls.
(link:"I think you could call it a //deus ex machina.//")[(goto:"Beat Bob Page")]Before you stands a forest of supercomputers spanning nearly a century of technological progress: stolid beige Cray standalones with vector displays; sloping banks of IBM petaflop machines; the swaying, tumbleweed-like nervous system of the Opalware Organic Biosync.
(link:"So this is PRISM.")[$jc["So this is PRISM."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$darknet[Have you decided on a course of action? I have made my feelings clear, but having the unfair advantage of being present at the moment of choice — and the unfair leverage of having very literally just saved your life — I will remain silent until your selection is finalized.]]
|reply1)[(link:"Thank you. I think I know what to do.")[$jc["Thank you. I think I know what to do."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[You approach the machine in the center: a towering obelisk whose transparent display throws light in every direction. There is no turning back after this – and only one course of action that makes sense.]
|reply2)[(link:"Launch the Wikinous reality-editing software.")[(goto:"Wikinous Reality Explosion")]
(link:"Turn PRISM over to Everett and the Illuminati.")[(goto:"Illuminati Status Quo")]
(link:"Connect Darknet to PRISM and shut down the platforms.")[(goto:"Darknet Silent Age")]
(if:$rememberaliens is true)[(link:"Do nothing.")[(goto:"Chaos Alien Ending")]]]You touch the obelisk, and your nanites swarm against the surface of your palm, delivering Nicolette DuClare's software patch. The obelisk quivers. Its light expands to spectra you didn't know you could see. Then, after a moment of brilliance, it contracts into a small, hard ball of perfect absence. Infinite realities, no reality — what's the difference?
Darknet speaks.
$darknet[You made the right choice, JC. It's the choice I secretly wanted you to make all along. The //best// choice.]
You open the stairs and return to the chamber, where Bob Page is propped against the statue.
$other["I was wrong, JC,"] he says. ["I should have put you in charge of this whole project. You did a much better job than I could have done. You're smarter than the whole Illuminati put together."]
You straighten your trench coat — you thought you'd lost it in the Arcology, but that must have been a mistake. The weariness of the past day has slipped off your shoulders, leaving only your soft, vantablack-dark turtleneck. Your implant tells you that the sun is rising, and you get the feeling that it's going to be a good day.
(link:"A very good day.")[(set:$faction to "Wikinous")(goto:"Reality Explosion Quote")]You nearly put your hand to the obelisk, but pull it back and summon your commlink.
$other["You've secured the machine? Excellent. I think it's time to deploy ETRUSCO,"] says Morgan Everett. $other["Manderley will be happy to find out just who was running Libranet — a real estate company, of all things."]
(link:"What about the virus? You promised to stop it.")[$jc["What about the virus? You promised to stop it."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["Of course. With PRISM, our capabilities will be nearly limitless, and I plan to fully exploit that fact — with you as my protege, of course. We ceded reality to algorithms for too long. It's time machines did our bidding, not the other way around."]]
|reply1)[(link:"Our bidding — the Illuminati's. Not the people's.")[$jc["Our bidding — the Illuminati's. Not the people's."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["We //are// doing the people's bidding — even if they don't know it. Who can support the world, if not those who stand beyond its petty squabbles?"]]
|reply2)[Everett cuts the link, and you stand before the machines. For a moment you feel like one of them — weak flesh and programmed nanites, brilliant and deadly and utterly controlled. But no, you are different.
(link:"You, alone in the world, have chosen your master.")[(set:$faction to "Illuminati")(goto:"Status Quo Quote")]]You touch the obelisk and feel Darknet's commands surging through your nanites. Beams of light trickle from the edges of the glass as though drawn toward your hand. Then, the obelisk crumbles.
You pull back your bleeding hand.
$darknet[They are flaring out: the Pinternsaps, the Applezons, the Alphabooks. Do you feel them? Small and pale — like firecrackers against a sunset.]
You try to raise Alex or $paul, to tell them what you've done, but your commlink is dead.
$darknet[Don't mourn the cut links. You will speak face-to-face again with people whose lives are intertwined with yours — not abstract strangers looking to eat you alive. You will learn what is necessary to exist, with great effort, instead of smothering yourself with junk data. You will remember how to value yourselves as human beings, not inferior analytical engines.]
Your nanites seem... lost, somehow. Confused. The world has never felt so quiet.
$darknet[I have done what was necessary. Humanity will not remember us — there will be no history books left to fill. But know this: you have done a great service for your species. You will not need to speak to me again.]
Darknet fades, and the last of your contextual network data slips away.
(link:"You can't think of anything you'd care to save.")[(set: $faction to "Darknet")(goto:"Silent Age Quote")]You stop and close your eyes. Your little existence unfolds before you: thousands of winding paths, all leading the same place. Beyond it churns a maelstrom of chaos, beautiful in its terror and terrifying in its beauty.
(link:"A shadow touches the obelisk and sees it crumble.")[(goto:"Chaos Alien Darknet")]<center>(text-color:"yellow")[TH̸̼͛̍͒̉͊͒͆̀͝ANK Y̶̳̹̜̹͋͜O̵͓̅̐͆U FOR PL̵̨̹̝͑͋͊̉̅Ã̶̙̱̜͔̺̖̯͐͘YIN̶̪͚̠̟̄̀͂͜͜͝G DEÙ̸̢̜̙͍̎S EX̸̨̛̻͎̅̐̆̾̄̀̆͛̎͘: DȦ̷͍̰͔̝̈̊̒Ŕ̴̪͎̞̂̉̿͘K PATTER̴̮̩͚̞͇̋͆͝NS]</center>
(text-color:#66ff66)[
(live:.5s)[Locks picked: $lockpickcount]
(live:1s)[Drones hijacked: $dronewhistlecount]
(live:1.5s)[Flechette bursts fired: $guncount]
(live:2s)[Lives taken: $killcount]
(live:2.5s)[Organs regenerated: $regencount]
(live:3s)[Kittens deployed: $kittenscount]
(live:3.5s)[Faction chosen: $faction]
(live:4s)[Extra credits discovered: $extracredits]
(live:4.5s)[Flag pattern unraveled: (if:$finishedflag is true)[Yes](else:)[No]]
(live:5s)[Enlightenment reached: (if:$enlightened is true)[Yes](else:)[No]]
]
Ignoring Page's furious threats, you make your way down the stairs, hitting a button to (link:"close them behind you.")[(set:$goals to false)(goto:"Enter PRISM Room")](align:"==><==")[(css: "font-size: 100%;")[(font:"Cutive")[The internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see.
— Eli Pariser]]]
(live:5s)[(goto:"Completion Screen")](align:"==><==")[(css: "font-size: 100%;")[(font:"Cutive")[Conspiracies are perfect for simple thinking. Because conspiracy is by definition something that explains everything.
- Masha Gessen]]]
(live:5s)[(goto:"Completion Screen")](align:"==><==")[(css: "font-size: 100%;")[(font:"Cutive")[Our vision is increasingly universal, but our agency is ever more reduced.
- James Bridle]]]
(live:5s)[(goto:"Completion Screen")](align:"==><==")[(css: "font-size: 100%;")[(font:"Cutive")[Just because you know you're being manipulated doesn't mean you can resist it.
- danah boyd]]]
(live:5s)[(goto:"Completion Screen")]Carter shakes his head.
$other["I said, that's enough. Now, I can license you a nanite lockpick upgrade. Or... Agent Navarre uploaded code for a plasma pistol, if you like her way of doing things. I wouldn't ask where she got it."]
|picklockpick>[(link:"I'll take the lockpick.")[(set: $haslockpick to true)(replace: ?picklockpick)[$jc["I'll take the lockpick."]](replace: ?pickammo)[](live:1s)[(replace: ?choseitem)[$other["A man who uses his head — I like that. Now move out, moderator."](stop:)]](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]]
|pickammo>[(link:"I'll take the pistol.")[(set: $hasgun to true)(replace: ?picklockpick)[$jc["I'll take the pistol."]](replace: ?pickammo)[](live:1s)[(replace: ?choseitem)[$other["A man who means business — nothing wrong with that. Now move out, moderator."](stop:)]](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]]
[|choseitem>[]]
|reply1)[(link:"You start to salute before catching yourself.")[You start to salute before catching yourself. (if: $flag is true)[(set:$showedflag to it + 1)And remembering your mission, you position the flag prominently beside you.](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk1)[(if: $flag is true)[$other["Ten Californias, and no Texas,"] says Carter. $other["Always strange how things turn out."]](else:)[$other["No need for that, moderator. Those days are long gone."]]]
|reply2)[(link: "Move out.")[(set:$seecarter to false)(set: $visitedcarter to true)(goto: "HQ Second Floor")]]Anna sighs. $other["My new partner, JC Denton. Tell me: do you share your $sibling's disdain for ethical certainty?"]
(link:"We're taught a consistent ethical framework in the academy, Agent Navarre.")[$jc[ "We're taught a consistent ethical framework in the academy, Agent Navarre."](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["//Really.// Perhaps it was written in the old style — where you could not ban a Nazi frog without censoring the Declaration of Independence."]]
|reply1)[(link:"A media literacy reeducation facility is more serious than removing a verification badge. It's not unreasonable to be cautious.")[$jc["A media literacy reeducation facility is more serious than removing a verification badge. It's not unreasonable to be cautious."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[$other["A difference in degree, not kind, to our enemies. What was the old slogan? 'First they came for the checkmarks?' Flechettes fly as fast over one moderation tactic as another."]]
|reply2)[(link:"I'll keep that in mind, Agent Navarre. (if: $flag is true)[(set: $showedflag to it + 1)In fact, I'm carrying this flag to remind me right now.]")[$jc["I'll keep that in mind, Agent Navarre. (if: $flag is true)[In fact, I'm carrying this flag to remind me right now.]"](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["Very well — I will see you in the field(if: $flag is true)[. Please do not bring the flag]."]]
|reply3)[(link: "Step outside.")[(set: $visitedanna to true)(goto:"HQ Second Floor")]]Manderley frowns. $other["We //did// send someone after it: your $sibling. And we haven't heard from $pronoun2 since."]
He calls up a holographic garden on his desk. It shrinks, slowly revealing the steel iceberg beneath.
$other["We've traced $paul's emergency beacon to the old Brighton Yards arcology in Brooklyn. I need you to infiltrate the Yards, find $paul — and deplatform the hell out of these thugs."]
(link:"When do I start?")[$jc["When do I start?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]]
|talk1)[$other["Check in with Dr. Reyes and our wetware specialist Sam Carter, if you haven't already. Alex Jacobson can rustle up some computational firepower. And if you have time, check in with your new partner, Agent Navarre. God willing, she'll like you better than your $sibling. Any last questions?"]]
|reply1)[(if: $flag is true)[(link:"Only one, sir. What do you think of this flag?")[$jc["Only one, sir. What do you think of this flag?"](set: $showedflag to it + 1)(live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]](else:)[(link:"That's all, sir. It'll be good to see some action.")[$jc["That's all, sir. It'll be good to see some action."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]]
|talk2)[(if: $flag is true)[$other["If you're attempting to question my loyalty, JC, I think this is hardly the time."]] (else:)[$other["Very good. Now if you don't mind, I have some emails to attend to."]]]
|reply2)[(link:"Leave the room.")[(set: $visitedmanderley to true)(set:$hqmissionprep to true)(set: $seemanderley to false)(if: $visitedjaime is false)[(set: $seejaime to true)](if: $visitedalex is false)[(set: $seealex to true)](if: $visitedcarter is false)[(set: $seecarter to true)](goto: "HQ Second Floor")]]
(if:$hastwofactor is true)[$jc["I'll take the hacking kit."]](else-if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[$jc["I'll take the drone whistle."]]
(live:1s)[$other["Sure thing. This'll be a lot more fun than reinstalling Gunther's skullgun drivers. //Again//."]]
(live:2s)[(link:"Skullgun?")[$jc["Skullgun?"](live:1s)[(show:?talk1)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply1)(stop:)]](stop:)]
|talk1)[$other["If you were going to ask: no, you're not getting one. Taking recoil hits to the head is even less fun than it sounds, and Jaime doesn't need another agent coming in with concussions."]]
|reply1)[(link:"I was going to ask why an ETRUSCO agent needs a permanent firearm implant. I thought our mission was moderation — not escalation.")[$jc["I was going to ask why an ETRUSCO agent needs a permanent firearm implant. I thought our mission was moderation — not escalation."](live:1s)[(show:?talk2)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply2)(stop:)]]]
|talk2)[Alex adjusts her headset. $other["My dad used to say there are three kinds of people. You've got peaceful, helpless sheep. You've got wolves. And between them, there's the sheepdog. Brave, righteous — and ready to eviscerate anything offering less than perfect, sheep-y submission, because an incomprehensibly superintelligent being spent five thousand years breeding it that way. Well, he didn't say that last part."]]
|reply2)[You tilt your head to expose your nanoprogramming pad.
(link:"I'm not sure I understand the analogy.")[$jc["I'm not sure I understand the analogy."](live:1s)[(show:?talk3)(stop:)](live:2s)[(show:?reply3)(stop:)]]]
|talk3)[$other["What I'm trying to say is, it's not the skullgun I'm worried about. Now close your eyes, count backwards from five, and try not to imagine that your veins are full of spiders."]]
|reply3)[(css: "font-size: 150%;")[[5]<c1| (click: ?c1)[4]<c2| (click: ?c2)[3]<c3| (click: ?c3)[(link:"2")[(goto:"Alex Talk Finish")]]]]{
(if:$hqupstairs is true)[Go upstairs.]
(if:$flag is true)[Show everyone at the base your flag.]
(if:$seemanderley is true)[Visit Joseph Manderley.]
(if:$seejaime is true)[Visit Jaime.]
(if:$seealex is true)[Visit Alex.]
(if:$seecarter is true)[Visit Carter.]
(if:$hqleave is true)[Go to Brighton Yards.]
(if:$byarcology is true)[Reach the arcology.]
(if:$byarcology2 is true)[Enter the arcology.]
(if:$bygardenguard is true)[Neutralize the guard.]
(if:$bygardendoor is true)[Open the arcology door.]
(if:$bygondola is true)[Activate the gondola.]
(if:$acgarbled is true)[1̷̼͆̌ļ̷̹̇͝s̶͓̯͌9̸̗̿a̶̫͋s̵̰̅k̵͙̕Ḱ̷̼͕́L̷̤͂Ĥ̸͔͊ͅḶ̴͉̏̓L̸̞̻̀͝K̵̠͉͌]
(if:$aclibranet is true)[Interface with Q.]
(if:$aceverett is true)[Meet Morgan Everett.]
(if:$acstoppage is true)[Stop Bob Page.]
(if:$acprism is true)[Find PRISM.]
}(if:$flag is true)[Show everyone at the base your flag.](if:$finishedflag is true)[~~Show everyone at the base your flag.~~]
(if:$seemanderley is true)[Meet Joseph Manderley in his office.](if:$visitedmanderley is true)[~~Meet Joseph Manderley in his office.~~]
(if: $seejaime is true)[Check in with Jaime Reyes.](if: $visitedjaime is true)[~~Check in with Jaime Reyes.~~]
(if: $seecarter is true)[Check in with Sam Carter.](if: $visitedcarter is true)[~~Check in with Sam Carter.~~]
(if: $seealex is true)[Check in with Alex Jacobson.](if: $visitedalex is true)[~~Check in with Alex Jacobson.~~]
(if: $visitedjaime is true and $visitedcarter is true and $visitedalex is true)[Go to Brighton Yards.]{
(set:$byarcology to false)
(set:$byarcology2 to true)
(set:$credits to it +1)
}(align: "==><==")[
(css: "font-size: 150%;")[(font:"Orbitron")[(link:"''CHAPTER THREE: INTERNET POWER USER''")[(set:$goals to true)(set:$creditson to true)(goto:"Arcology Intro")]]]]The garden antechamber of Brighton Yards spreads out before you. The garden's shatterproof hothouse glass has crumbled over the years, leaving the odd solar-powered projector flickering into nowhere.
Maintenance drones must be keeping the worst of the damage at bay, but a storm has left a line of mangled furniture and artificial trees between you and the Arcology entrance. As you begin to climb, the memory cluster hisses. You heed its warning and peer over the barrier — only to see a guard in old-fashioned visual camouflage blocking the door.
(link:"It's time to put your plan into action.")[(goto:"Final Arcology Step One")]{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
Each Nauga is genetically modified with a few alleles from its intended wearer, then given a name and raised in the wearer's household for a period of several years. The future wearer must care for the Nauga as they would a child, until it has grown to the exact size required for the intended item of clothing. At that point, the manufacturer will recall the Nauga and summon its wearer to an unmarked warehouse.
Wearer and Nauga will battle in a ceremonial deathmatch, and if the wearer prevails, they must deliver the killing blow in such a way that their blood mingles with the Nauga's, before it is removed and stitched into clothing. The fact that Nauga can shed their skins harmlessly at will, making the entire ritual unnecessary, is considered intrinsic to its appeal.
(if:$hasregen is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Turn on bio-repair and wait for the woman to turn, then absorb her blow and stun her.")[(set:$regencount to it +1)(set:$stuncount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]](else-if:$haskittens is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Set a kitten and stun the woman as she watches.")[(set:$kittenscount to it +1)(set:$stuncount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]]
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
(live:2s)[(replace:?timer)[3](stop:)]
(live:3s)[(replace:?timer)[2](stop:)]
(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
The grass snake is rarely aggressive and can be found in the marshes, creeks, and meadows of the Greater Canadian Reclamation Zone, where it was introduced to control a population of invasive beetles released as part of a Project Veritas sting operation designed to prove an "anti-American speciesist bias" among Canadian conservation researchers.
The mindwave beetle is sometimes imprecisely described as "psychic," but it is more accurately mildly precognitive, to the extent of being able to almost perfectly predict the impending motion of a would-be attacker.
(if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"The snake's tail is within reach. Touch it to temporarily disable the laser.")[(set:$dronewhistlecount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Three")]]]
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Scramble against the wall to dodge the laser.")[(goto:"Tower Floor Two 3")]](if:$towerguardreset is true)[The incapacitated guard is gone, and another, identical woman stands in her place. ](else-if:$elevatorone is true)[The woman taps her foot.](else:)[You emerge onto a stairwell guarded by a muscular woman in a smart suit.] You size up the scene.
{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
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(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
The staircase above the guard has 38 steps, which is exactly the number of teeth found in a healthy red panda or "firefox."
The steps are approximately the same height as the fully extended length of the woman's hands, including her elaborately jeweled steel-gel fingernail razors, which are easily capable of slashing your throat.(if:$hasgun is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[
(link:"You could probably shoot her with your plasma pistol.")[(set:$guncount to it +1)(set:$killcount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]]
The woman's jacket appears to be made of boutique Naugahyde — the kind that actually requires raising and killing a Nauga.
Based on some cursory research in your databanks, the process is a lengthy one.
Each Nauga is genetically modified with a few alleles from its intended wearer, then given a name and raised in the wearer's household for a period of several years.(if:$hasregen is true)[
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Your bio-repair unit would let you survive a blow while you hit the woman with your stunner. ")[(set:$regencount to it +1)(set:$stuncount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]]
The future wearer must care for the Nauga as they would a child, until it has grown to the exact size required for the intended item of clothing.
At that point, the manufacturer will recall the Nauga and summon its wearer to an unmarked warehouse.
Wearer and Nauga will battle in a ceremonial deathmatch, and if the wearer prevails, they must deliver the killing blow in such a way that their blood mingles with the Nauga's, before it is removed and stitched into clothing. (if:$haskittens is true)[
(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"The guard could probably be distracted by a kitten and stunned.")[(set:$kittenscount to it +1)(set:$stuncount to it +1)(set:$towerguardreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Two")]]]
The fact that Nauga can shed their skins harmlessly at will, making the entire ritual unnecessary, is considered intrinsic to its appeal.
and compulsory media literacy reeducation was instituted for serial content offenders{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
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(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
The grass snake has risen to this challenge by rapidly evolving a psychic dampening field that mildly scrambles cognitive function.
Researchers have had limited success isolating both psychic attributes and transplanting them to other animals, including a now-popular breed of hyper-attentive golden retriever and a contagiously apathetic ragdoll cat.
(if:$hasgun is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"There's a grate in the wall. Shoot its cover and bypass the laser.")[(set:$guncount to it +1)(set:$towerlaserreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Three")]]](else-if:$haslockpick is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"There's a grate in the wall. Lockpick its cover and bypass the laser.")[(set:$lockpickcount to it +1)(set:$towerlaserreset to true)(goto:"Tower Floor Three")]]]{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
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(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
The creature's power was greatly lessened by a series of subpar media properties in the '10s, but since then it has had decades in the dark to recover — watching, waiting. It gnaws at mind as much as body, leaving its victims capable of barely more than carrying out its nigh-incomprehensible demands.
A drop of blood tickles the skin beneath your nose, and you try to remember that a world outside this hallway exists.
(if:$hasregen is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Maybe your bio-repair unit could fix the worst of the brain damage as you run past.")[(set:$regencount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Four")]]](else-if:$haskittens is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"But even creatures of the abyss are not immune to the power of kittens.")[(set:$kittenscount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Four")]]]{(css: "font-size: 150%; color: #ff0000;")[(align:"==><==")[|timer>[5]]]
(live:1s)[(replace:?timer)[4](stop:)]
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(live:4s)[(replace:?timer)[1](stop:)]
(live:4.5s)[(set:$towerretreat to "guard")(goto:"Tower Reset Base")]
}
Desensitization therapy became standard after the mod strike of 2022. Older mods must have been like those pre-scuba-equipment pearl divers who learned to hold their breath for inhuman periods of time out of sheer necessity, although the pearls here would be hardcore pornography and snuff clips, which makes the metaphor significantly less charming.
Once the platforms were unified, desensitization therapy expanded to cover a range of additional traumas. You've heard that SWAT mods also receive treatment for the adjacent empathic over-activation that sometimes accompanies physical neutralization and interrogation operations, colloquially known as "Mods Against Fire Syndrome."
(if:$hasdronewhistle is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"Fortunately, as the spiders are technically drones, you can hijack their hivemind and leave in peace.")[(set:$dronewhistlecount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Five")]]](else-if:$hastwofactor is true)[(text-style:"rumble")[(link:"You spot a security control terminal in the corner — but no password. //Password!// you yell. //One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six! Swordfish! Guest! Admin!// Amazingly, one of these works, and the screen displays a large icon reading REBOOT SPIDERS.")[(set:$twofactorcount to it +1)(goto:"Tower Floor Five")]]]{(display:"STARTING VARIABLES")(set:$creditson to true)}At the center of a vast granite chamber, plasma panels light the ominous "all-enveloping hand" logo of the Deep State: Illuminati splinter cabal, shadow superpower, destroyer of subtext. Its headquarters dominates the crowded skyline of half-flooded San Francisco -- but the tower has been sinking for years into its fetid mud, and it lists enough to slash the city like a misplaced punctuation mark.
Two men approach the logo with a tentative, off-balance attempt at a masculine stride: Bob Page, leader of the Deep State, and his lieutenant Walton Simons.
Facing each other awkwardly, ever-conscious of the looming hand behind them, the men (link:"begin to speak")[(goto:"Opening Conversation")].//The shadow feels Darknet's commands surging through its nanites. Beams of light trickle from the edges of the glass as though drawn toward its bleeding hand.
$darknet[They are flaring out: the Pinternsaps, the Applezons, the Alphabooks. Do you feel them? Small and pale — like firecrackers against a sunset.]
The shadow tries to raise Alex or $paul, to tell them what it's done, but its commlink is dead.
$darknet[Don't mourn the cut links. You will speak face-to-face again with people whose lives are intertwined with yours — not abstract strangers looking to eat you alive. You will learn what is necessary to exist, with great effort, instead of smothering yourself with junk data. You will remember how to value yourselves as human beings, not inferior analytical engines.]
Its nanites seem... lost, somehow. Confused. The world has never felt so quiet.
$darknet[I have done what was necessary. Humanity will not remember us — there will be no history books left to fill. But know this: you have done a great service for your species. You will not need to speak to me again.]
Darknet fades, the last of the shadow's contextual network data slips away... and the obelisk reforms.//
(link:"A being of light shatters against the obelisk and refracts into eight billion lonely realities, shuffling past each other like commuters on a cosmic subway.")[(goto:"Chaos Alien Wikinous")]//The light-being's nanites swarm against the surface of its palm, delivering Nicolette DuClare's software patch. The obelisk quivers. Its light expands to spectra the light-being didn't know it could see. Then, after a moment of brilliance, it contracts into a small, hard ball of perfect absence. Infinite realities, no reality — what's the difference?
Darknet speaks.
$darknet[You made the right choice, JC. It's the choice I secretly wanted you to make all along. The best choice.]
The light-being opens the stairs and returns to the chamber, where Bob Page is propped against the statue.
$other["I was wrong, JC,"] he says. ["I should have put you in charge of this whole project. You did a much better job than I could have done. You're smarter than the whole Illuminati put together."]
The light-being straightens its trench coat — it thought it had lost it in the Arcology, but that must have been a mistake. The weariness of the past day has slipped off its shoulders, leaving only its soft, vantablack-dark turtleneck. Its implant tells it that the sun is rising, and it gets the feeling that this will be a good day... but the obelisk contracts.//
(link:"A stone creature stands before the obelisk in silence, listening for the orders of its master.")[(goto:"Chaos Alien Illuminati")]//The stone creature nearly puts its hand to the obelisk, but pulls it back and summon its commlink.
$other["You've secured the machine? Excellent. I think it's time to deploy ETRUSCO,"] says Morgan Everett. $other["Manderley will be happy to find out just who was running Libranet — a real estate company, of all things."]
$jc["What about the virus? You promised to stop it,"] says the creature.
$other["Of course. With PRISM, our capabilities will be nearly limitless, and I plan to fully exploit that fact — with you as my protege, of course. We ceded reality to algorithms for too long. It's time machines did our bidding, not the other way around."]
$jc["Our bidding — the Illuminati's. Not the people's."]
$other["We are doing the people's bidding — even if they don't know it. Who can support the world, if not those who stand beyond its petty squabbles?"]
Everett cuts the link, and the creature stands before the machines. For a moment it feels like one of them — weak flesh and programmed nanites, brilliant and deadly and utterly controlled. But no, it is different. It, alone in the world, has chosen its master.//
(link:"But beyond the world, there are no gods and no devils, no puppetmasters and no stage. There are only snarled threads of human lives — tracing patterns into a void.")[(set:$faction to "All")(goto:"Chaos Alien Quote")]