Sugarcane

It's a lovely wedding. \n\nThe officiant had a slight stutter, you were both worried that it would be a problem during the ceremony but it turns out that it was actually quite charming. It's a theme that you keep seeing again and again in your life together: small stops, starts, and <html>inconsistencies that while initially worrying prove to strengthen and fulfill your lives both individually and together. \n\nYou lead unremarkable though fulfilling lives, all the while wondering about the strange but slightfoibles that challenge and reward you. \n\nYou die without many regrets. Yes the cancer was painful, but ultimately you pass on worrying only about the source of your serendipit*$%r8--</html>\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

You never believed anyone when they said yellow was your colour. Yellow was the colour of impossibly tall birds, cowards, and bananas, and you hate bananas. Fucking bananas.\n\nYou catch your reflection in the mirror. Yeah, maybe they’re right. Maybe today yellow will be your colour.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideA'>>\n<<endif>>\n<<if $key == "no">>\n[[I finished tying the knots and making the appropriate folds in the cloth.|AAA]]\n[[I couldn’t get out, the door to my small hut was stuck shut by the ice. Again. I pushed hard against it.|AAB]]\n[[Seriously, fuck bananas.|AAC]]\n<<else>>\n<html>READYKEYCOMMAND --- Wait, you know this... you know the settings need to be set, the colours coloured, the verbs acted, but you know how this ends. You know this story. This does not end well for you... --- ENTERKEYCOMMAND</html>\n[["WAIT!STOP!"|AAZ]]\n<<endif>>

This is no life for a person of your considerable talents. There was to be success awaiting you at the end of university. There was to be contracts, money, prestige, a string of trophy wives. Not... not orange, and tacturn pools of light in foot step echoy halls to launch platforms. The dogma wars of the late 21st Century erased many of the faithful. Fucking Zoroastrians slipping through the shadows to take the prize. \n\nThere were hopes hidden in the reaches. This is no life for a person of your character, you never gave over to ritual, but the Harri Khrishnas had an almost complete Koran. On Mars, fucking Mars. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[Your papers are in order.|ACAA]]\n[[Something feels warm.|ACAB]]\n[[This would have gone over better if you'd worn the yellow robes.|ACAC]]

You try not to fidget with the vest too much, it's starting to feel uncomfortable, the way it hangs off of your body unevenly. You are already starting to sweat. \n\nYou didn't think there would be so many people here, not that this wasn't the point, it's just different seeing them this way. You didn't think about crowds this way, not all those months ago when you started this. \n\nYou stretch out your arms, the detonator feels slippery in your had, the suit jacket pulls tight across your vest. \n\nIt's uncomfortable for a second. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Once upon a time you could get away with sloppy presentation, a cheaper set of robes, let your hair grow long. Not anymore. You can’t even remember the last time you bought your own clothes.\n\nYou arrive at the Advanced Astronomical Academy on time and quickly make your way to the command center. Everyone is waiting for you: Presidents and Premieres, Kings and Queens, aliens, humans, and those caught in between. Millions of years of progress and preparation have lead to this moment.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[It is the year 5400010278.|AAAA]]\n[[It is the year 1300726544. |AAAB]]\n[[It is the year 2014.|AAAC]]\n

All the employees of the bank wear this kind of tie, like some weird tie bank cult, overseen by a meticulous matriarchal micromanager. \n\nIt's the final step in your costume, your disguise to get passed the front desk and disable the silent alarm as your cohorts take the tellers by surprise and begin the process of emptying the vault. \n\nSoon millions of dollars is weighing down your shoulder inside a huge duffle bag, making your arm numb and your draw slow as you have a surprise showdown with the bank manager. \n\nShe wins. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

The hate was stronger back then, it was fresh and untempered. Now it was focused, I was focused. Age had given my rage precision, it had given me a target. I was stronger now, now was the time.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[I raised my hand in the air.|AACA]]\n[[I pushed the button.|AACB]]\n[[I pulled the trigger.|AACC]]\n

The monastery is cold and broken. There are only a few monks left to tend the giant happy bronze Buddha in the center courtyard. There is no one left to sound the old giant bells near the ruined eastern wall, no one comes to the cloisters to turn the prayer wheels and pray for good fortune. \n\nYou know that soon the cold will claim the old temple, and time will erase you and your brothers and sisters from all memory. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[As the senior monk it was my responsibility to care for the others and maintain the temple for as long as we could.|AABA]]\n[[I was experiencing a moment of doubt, I meeded a change of scenery, some other place to sit and be.|AABB]]\n[[To survive we would need more members, more souls,seeking to balance their karma and choose to not exist.|AABC]]

You're dead. C'mon, this one was pretty obvious. It even had the word "trigger" in it.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

It takes your brain 5 milliseconds to communicate the signal to push the button. It takes a further 10 milliseconds for the information from your eyes to reach your brain and be interpreted therein. Your brain sits on this message for a while, because it suspects that you won't be thrilled about it. \n\nIt knows how long you have been working towards this moment, knows the money you spent, the missed save points, the learned combos, the long nights. You're in yellow pajamas for God's sake...\n\nSo it takes you a while before you believe what you're seeing on the screen. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

Hundreds of men and women follow your gesture, raising their own hands in the air. You look out over your flock, everyone holding paper cups above their heads triumphantly, smiling up at you, waiting. \n\nYou return the smile warmly, and think of how far you've come. From small basements to community centres to abandoned mega churches, your words have spread far and touched many. \n\nYou lower your cup to your mouth and drink. Hundreds of yellow robes mimic you, smiling all the while. \n\nYou wonder briefly if that odd taste is the poison or the cheap plastic cup. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

Like an orange shrouded super citizen of justice, a cosmic FF660, a tiger streak of raw pulsating power, you hurl your self towards the heavens... pity about the passing 777 in the cloud cover.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Orange, you pause, why orange again, why not grapefruit, or some other colour of citrus clothes? Ah no, that would reduce the statement. Orange the symbolic colour of fire. There is ritual there.\n\nThe suppleness of the cloth, the care taken with the cut and fit do not aliviate the weight of the responsibility you dawn. There is so much misery in the world. \n\nDecision first,\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideA'>>\n<<endif>>\n<<if $key == "no">>\n[[Slink to the car park.|ACA]]\n[[Stride forth into the sunlight.|ACB]]\n[[Fly.|ACC]]\n[[Change clothes|A]]\n<<else>>\n<html>READYKEYCOMMAND --- Wait, you know this... you know the settings need to be set, the colours coloured, the verbs acted, but you know how this ends. You know this story. This does not end well for you... --- ENTERKEYCOMMAND</html>\n[["WAIT!STOP!"|AAZ]]\n<<endif>>

In hindsight returning for trousers may have granted Doctor Richard NastyPanda the nessasary minutes to complete its nefarious scheme. Poor Patty Peril, not the most wholesomest means to perish. It does explain the smell of motor lubricant and ejaculate in the room. \n\nOn further contimplation stopping for the latte may have also been unwise. Really, will the world miss North America? Your Battle Robes will go over well in Asia. The khakis will do well too. Orange is big there. \n\nJust keep flying, just keep flying.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Yup, next super suit battle robe - zippers. At the speed you're going the impact explains the boom boom sound a touch back... and your newly found nudity. \n\n<html>Screw it, you think to yourself. Let's see how fast I can go..\n\nJust keep flying, just keep flying...\n\nMore booms, a pop, first there's darkness and then light...</html>\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|ZA]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

Races from across the galaxy are staring up at you. Since the Big Bang the Milkyway Galaxy, now known by its proper name Mentorious Rex, has been on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy (proper name: Susan). For thousands of years we have built and maintained a complex network of machines that will avert this collision and allow the continued existence of our unified empire. \n\nAs High Archon it is your duty and privilege to activate the device. \n\nThe resulting <html>**destruction*& from the imperfect machines will be observed millions of years later by other, more advanced civilizations, who will puzzle over your monumental blunder.</html>\n\n<html>$&@^The light is blinding and -- consuming, the energy is inredible.$%F8</html>\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|ZA]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

You are on fire.\n\nThe horrified crowds swirl around mingling with the smoke of your flesh. Smart phones record every twitch of your agony, every scream of your dying, every moment of your resolve.\nAlthough you will be remembered, honoured, iconized, and your message delivered into the collective existance of the Omniverse... you are still dead.\n\nIt was a good life, feel free to smile.\n\n<html>GAME OVERR-R {{unava1labl3--</html>\n\n[[I wondered if this was this the right thing to do?|B]]\n[[I remember juggling gasoline cans and lit matches...|C]]\n[[No, I just wanted to enjoy the sunshine, that was it.|ACB]]\n<<silently>>\n<<set $key = "no">>\n<<set $writerroom = "no">>\n<<set $enlightenment = "no">>\n<<endsilently>>

ComicCon 2014 is in full sway. Your soulful and earnest reproduction of the climactic third act of your favourite space epic is met with a smattering of applause and almost universal confusion. This is not your first year here, nor will it be your last. You attend every year, trying to impress upon your fellow enthusiasts the layered metaphors of the famed sci-fi epic:\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[["GAME OVER"|A]]\n<<else>>\n[["GAME OVER"|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

There are three club ties draped off the edges of the mirror, all conforming to the standards of the style: a small design or motif repeated at regular intervals. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[Grey tie with left to right black diagonal stripes. (Pratt knot)|ABCA]]\n[[Grey tie with right to left black diagonal stripes. (Full Windsor)|ABCB]]\n[[Cornflower blue tie with yellow flower patter. (Slip knot)|ABCC]]

Banana suit. That would have been the ticket. Grace the world with your sunshine smile and clothes to match, the world would have been your oyster. \n\nRegretably you went with orange. Fucking orange, where's the poetry in orange? Sure it surved it's purpose, got you quickly through customs with their probing hands and x-ray eyes. It got you an upgrade to first class with it's postage stamp sized window, vibrating chair, and complimentry reduced priced water, but it's still fucking orange. At least you're on Mars. Months of sleeping in orange. Screw the mission, first task, new clothes.\n\nWhat is gong on with all the screaming? Is it Martian Mardi Gras? Wow there is a lot of people running this way. Oh shit balls, it's one of those fucking zombie walks. I guess even Mars needs douchbags. Wow these guys have put a lot of work into their costuming. Oh oh...\n\nZombie apocaclypse versus monk spy on Mars - Who writes this?\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

"Run for the love of what's left of God run!"\n\nHow did this happen? What microbrained, mouth breathing, neck beard, reject from a sci-fi convention lite the spacport on fire? It's the bloody space age. There are procedures and protocals on how not to light space born transit hubs on fire. Fuck they even give you an iBrocure to read. \n\nYou're at least making good progress, the woman with the four by four, urban assult level, baby stroller will be fine, you only hip checked her out of your way. The gaggle of hipster children will equally be fine, they've got vintage clothes and pompus attitudes. Bloody funny to hear them squeal when you scattered them with your dash through. \n\nThe escape pods loom before you. One is being boarded now. Come on orange robes, buy me a ticket to safety. Wait, what's the attendent doing? Is he screaming 'There is no God' Splendid, that's all we need, an uprising of Atheist Extremists. Shit he's got his hands on the release lever. The airlocks are still open.\n\nSpace is cold, the view is spectacular, right up until your eyes boil.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

The writers vanish, along with their papers, pens, and keyboards.\n\nHappy is the easiest word to summon right now, but you're surprised that this actually worked. \n\n<html>Why did they trust me with this key? you think to yourself. Did they think I'd just forget about it? Did they really think that I would just go along with their plan?</html>\n\n[[After all that, you think, they were actually pretty terrible writers.|ZXF]]

13 years, 4 months and 8 days since you started working there.\n \n13 years since you first had to put on one of these ridiculous ties, 4 months since you applied for the manager promotion, and 8 days since it was given to someone with less seniority and less skill than yourself. \n\nThis new manager does not notice as you stride in to work, duffle bag in one hand, smile on your face. She doesn't notice when you enter the vault for some "inventory management" and she doesn't notice when you leave $13 million dollars heavier. \n\nPerception and personnel management, you think to yourself. Those were the skills you stressed in the interview 4 months ago. Exactly the same skills that would have saved the bank $13 million dollars and one disgruntled employee. \n\nYou don't care how far you get, or how much you manage to spend before they catch you. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Of course...\n... we did.\n\nIt has taken us...\n... quite a while\n\nTo find the perfect sheperds...\n... for our stories.\n\nIn the end...\n... we found the most useful candidates...\n\nWere the characters themsleves.\n\nYou see they took the most care...\n...In how their stories were told.\n\nFound the inconsistencies...\n...that we would miss.\n\nKeep order...\n...And ward off chaos.\n\n[[You're using me to help me kill myself?|ZXB]]\n\n\n\n

This chair is fucking amazing. It's a tender hope filled embrace of leather, cushioned by the admiring attention of a lover. \n\nIt nuzzles you through happiness, despair, hunger, thirst, and bed sores.\n<html>**r.k\nYou never leave this cha... <html>%$er\n\nYou never leave this chaaa --4rrr\n\nYou never /--Cancel this.\n\nRedistributing narrative///guiding character to source...</html>\n\n[[I follow the writing, I cannot help it. I miss the chair already|A]]\n\n

It's a thematically appropriate tie, and that's important in a way that no one else will understand. \n\nIt's the tie you wore at your graduation.\n\nThe tie you wore to your first job interview. \n\nThe same tie you wore at your wedding.\n\nAnd the divorce. \n\nAnd each of the 3 family funerals of the last year. \n\nSo of course it is the tie you use to secure your neck up to the ceiling beam.\n\nYou knew it wold not let you down. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Sleep, oh glorious sleep. The 'perchance to dream' and all that sewage. It's not actually about the rest, or the dreams, or whatever else the body does when you sleep. \n\nIt's about that one sublime moment, that crisp moment when your conscious lets go. There, just <html> -- there-- It's Schrödinger's Cat all over your life. I'm not talking about the death part of Erwin's pussy either. I'm speaking about possibilities. The infinite possibilities. \n\nFor at that moment you are free, the conscious sheds its fears, concerns, commitments. You for that fleeting moment are free to simply be. Smile, here comes unconsciousness.</html>\n\n[[I slept and dreamt of new starts, fresh ends, and new adventures.|A]]

The hug of tension will not release. The stress gnaws. Are you leaking stomach acid? Is it an ulcer? The crowd is humongus. That awful sea of humanity that bad writers long to write crap prose about. Just like you try to avoid in your own witing. <html>Crap this just got existential.</html> \n\nDeep breaths, deep breaths. All will be alright, you can do this. A little light bouncing on the balls of your feet, shake the hands, shake the tension away. that's the stuff. The manager is smiling, turning, the crowd's collective bovine eyes track with his gesture. It's show time.\n\nYour clown suit is resplendent, the burgers fresh.\n\nIt's time to be the best Ronald McDonald you can be.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n\n[[No this isn't right... I wore my other suit today.|AB]]\n<<endif>>\n\n

The whole town was outside, walking casually towards the town square, all dressed in their Sunday best. You ran with the other children, ducking and weaving between the grown ups' legs. Tim Travers found a cache of small stones, hidden from the year before and shared them with you. You both stuff your pockets before running down the path ahead of the adults. You want to get a good spot, your favourite spot. \n\nYou're always so excited for the Lottery. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

<html>G$ME Ov3 noN00NOMraD34tH --- You are... scared. That is the only word that is yours right now. This intrusive narrative blocks everything else --- s3tdeathtotw222 st0p3nl1ght</html>

<html>CltohdECISIo$##outread --- There are more words in your head, other words, someone else narrating your life, filling your world with fiction... --- yeLL0wiFSUITif99</html>

Game Over

<html>--- COMMANDEr0000000000004234darRRERR00rTjns&6533*---\n<html>\noh noWAITexcLAMATION\nDeLAY\nRestSTAY\ninteRiM\nSTOP\nEnd\nhalt\n \ndesist\nimpede\nexCLAmATiON\nconclude\ncease\npause\n--- COMMANDErdsds&&G00terbbBRR00rTj--+=33*---\n</html>\n<html> You watch in horr0r as your words write your other SElf into various stat3s of pausing, stopping, hAlting and waiting. B0th your real and <html>fictional selves are almost torn apart by the conflation of words, and you us3 the <html>key to flee baCk towards the writerz.</html>\n[[R33TuRNN|ZX]]\n

On reflection it might not have been a "royally righteous idea" to make orange your superhero costume's principle colour. \n\nSomewhere the ghost of tequila's inventor is giggling. Robes are drafty at this speed. Why won't the world just grow up and save itself already? Ugg there you go again. Did the angst come with the super powers? Where are your pills again?\n\nHark, was that a scream for help? \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[Shit just got real son.|ACCA]]\n[[Pills the peril.|ACCB]]\n[[I can't save people without pants.|ACCC]]

It is a brand new day. You have one more chance to live. More importantly you have yet one more chance to not screw up, a chance to fix everything, and a chance to do nothing at all.\n\nThis is the first day of the rest of your life... probably.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'Outside'>>\n<<endif>>\n<<if $key == "no">>\n[[The only clean clothes I had left were all yellow.|AA]]\n[[My suit was ready. Freshly laundered, still sealed in plastic.|AB]]\n[[My robes were folded neatly beside the bed.|AC]]\n<<else>>\n<html>READYKEYCOMMAND --- You see yourself now... or rather the words you use, err, they use. This will take some getting used to.\n \nBut you see what the strange writers meant. You are about to reach for nouns and adjectives that aren't there, you'll need to speak their names, give yourself the words you'll need to move forward. --- ENTERKEYCOMMAND</html>\n\n[[Let's try "yellow"...|AA]]\n[["Suitable" has the word 'suit' in it, let's try that.|AB]]\n[["Orange" folded neatly along it's natural contours.|AC]]\n<<endif>>

The vest is a snug fit, and you're surprised by how well it goes with the rest of the suit. You suddenly feel self conscious, and look at the person that gave you the vest and helped you put it on. They smile, encouragingly, warmly. It gives you strength for what comes next. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[I gathered myself and stepped outside to feel the sun on my face. |ABAA]]\n[[I took their hand and smiled, I wanted to look brave, to mask my anxiety.|ABAB]]\n[[I ran outside, I was excited!|ABAC]]

You run out the door just in time to catch your ride. Some of your fellow passengers glare at you for your tardiness, but soon the vehicle shifts forward and you're all on your way. \n\nEveryone's a bit nervous, it's hard not to notice. A new face near you is almost doubled over, you're worried he might get sick, maybe an encouraging word will reassure him and save your shoes. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[["Just remember your training and you'll be fine."|ABBA]]\n[["Chin up, you're serving your country now."|ABBB]]\n[["We're making history here, no puking while we're writing history."|ABBC]]

The suit is fresh, clean, and well fitted. It makes you feel different, a particular way that no other piece of clothing does. Confident isn't the right word, but neither is anything else. It's still missing something though. You look in the mirror and turn your reflection around a few times, trying to remember...\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideA'>>\n<<endif>>\n<<if $key == "no">>\n[[I remember someone appearing behind me in the mirror, smiling and holding up my new vest. Oh, right.|ABA]]\n[[You would think that I would have remembered my bullet proof vest. Ruins the way the suit looks, small sacrifice I guess...|ABB]]\n[[Club tie. I still thought it was a weird dress code stipulation, but it's all part of the job.|ABC]]\n<<else>>\n<html>READYKEYCOMMAND --- Wait, you know this... you know the settings need to be set, the colours coloured, the verbs acted, but you know how this ends. You know this story. This does not end well for you... --- ENTERKEYCOMMAND</html>\n[["WAIT!STOP!"|AAZ]]\n<<endif>>\n

Your pale compatriot looks up at you and smiles, just as the vehicle stops in front of your intended target. \n\nLooking back on it now, you still think it was worth it: setting up the equipment, the planning, the showdown with the cops, the injuries, the deaths, the indefinite incarceration. \n\nIt used to be that you could look up at the sky every night and see your handiwork. Now they know better, and the only time you can see the sky is during the day, when the moon isn't visible above the high walls. \n\nBecause now when you see it, when everyone sees it, it states in large, burnt, impossible to ignore letters:\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[["GAME OVER"|A]]\n<<else>>\n[["Game Over"|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

You accepted the title of Ambassador 3 years ago. It was a proud day, with photos of you next to famous people and a beautiful reception. Then there was the party later that night, the party that flaunted several laws and was only made possible by your new position and its privileges. \n\nNow that is only a comforting memory. Now it's intercepted messages, worrying security reports, and strained international relationships. Now is a time of cramped limos and vomit stained pants. The limo stops, you open the door and stand outside for a while to get some fresh air. \n\nThe sniper bullet that kills you marks the start of a war that lasts 37 years. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

"GO! GO! GO!"\n\nYou all rush out of the truck in a steady snake of weapons, boots and armour. The orders you received hours ago were simple: secure the perimeter around the bank, assist the officers on the scene with negotiations and if necessary, breaching the bank and capturing the felons attempting to rob it. \n\nIf the first few minutes were textbook examples of a swift tactical maneuver, the few seconds immediately after were a comic book. \n\nRed laser light fills the air and swarms of small robots burst from the bank's doors and windows. As one of the concentrated beams of light burns through your suit and body you catch a glimpse of what the world will soon call the first supervillain exiting the bank.\n\nHe's laughing. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

There are an awful lot of words out there...\n\nIt occurs that you could do anything write now. You can be your own writer, trace your own epic advenures and give yourself all the wealth you can scribble. \n\nYou remember a monk, from one of the many texts the writers set for you. A simple man with simple robes looking for escape.\n\n<<set $enlightenment = "yes">>\n[[I think of yellow, of a cold dead tree against my back. I write a way out.|AABA]]\n\n

<html>{{incomplete n44rrrr/writer attention ... writer attention -- E33rr0r c0de 6. Character has incomplete narrative.--)% \n>Reseting na4rrat1v3 to s0urce.</html>\n\n[[R3S3ET|A]]

This is it. You have decided that this tree against your back will be your master, the cold ground your brothers and sisters of the monastery. Like the great Guatama Buddha you resolve to sit until the answer comes, or die trying.\n<<if $enlightenment == "no">>\n[[I couldn't conentrate, there was a splinter in my mind, nagging at me.|AABAA]]\n[[No, that’s enough. I didn’t want this anymore, so I stopped.|AABAB]]\n[[I remembered an older meditation technique, an obscure set of mantras. Might as well...|AABAC]]\n<<else>>\n[[No, that’s enough. I didn’t want this anymore, so I stopped.|AABAB]]\n<<endif>>

The winters run longer and longer. Students stop finding their way up the mountain, the monks of the monastery die, a few find enlightenment. Your hair is grey and brittle now, the walk through the mountain's peaks and valleys more and more difficult. \nThough you have learned to temper your mind and body, and can dismiss emotions with ease, you still feel the tinny sting of envy in your mind. You wanted to escape this cycle of death and rebirth.\n\nMaybe next time, in your next life. I am close now, you think as you slowly drift to sleep, I can hardly feel my karma anymore...\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

Your talk with the grad students at the local university is well received. A few possible converts, you think, and probably some more support for the monastery. You have secured the future of your order, at least for the next few years.\n\nSome of the students take you out to their favourite diner. You surprise them by ordering the cheeseburger. As they stare aghast at you biting into the meat, you smile and say,\n\n"Nothing is sacred." \n\nYou have kept your body pure and uncontaminated for decades, eating nothing but freshly grown fruits and vegetables. The ecoli in the undercooked meat kills you in minutes. \n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>

You see two people in a large white room. Plain white pens and papers lay scattered on matt white tables and chairs.\n\n<html>Two people sit close by. The method and tone of their speech is unsettling, each sentece feels like a suggestion, each word a step in the direction they glance...</html>\n<<set $writerroom = "yes">>\n<html>Who the hell... \n... are you? \n \nWhoever... \n... you are... \n \nYou are here... \n... too early. \n \nYou have not died enough. \n \nPlease follow our line... \n...and return to the beginning. \n \nFeel the pinch of the final condition... \n... more acutely. \n \nWe shall talk business... \n... when you return. </html>\n\n[[Time to die again.|A]]\n

<html>Quite the ride... \n...wouldn't you say? \n \nAs you have observed... \n... when you watch your own writing... \n \nyou create disturbances... \n... that can alter the story. \n \nWe would like to enlist you to help us write.</html>\n\n[[My only option was to agree, even though I'm not writing this, I never was. It was them.|ZAA]]

The book was a big influence on your life, it's author obviously talented. I wonder if he has written other books as well? Such an old soul. \n\nThe weapon is primed. Slowly, cautiously, step by precious step you inch your way closer. The target is serenly unaware. Perhaps the duties engaging him are stealing his temperal, terestrial awarenes. Perhaps he knows and welcomes the moment of your attack. \n\nAnother step, a pause, doubt creeps in, should you? Should you not? Can you not? Fortune to the bold. You strike!\n\nThe Dhali Lama giggles as you lick the side of his face.\n\nForm that moment you never doubted that the Dhali Lama had a sense of humour. Your boss, the Pope, was mortified.\n\nBut no one expected the white blink and pop as you disappeared.\n\nFunnily enough, no one had tried licking the Dalai Llamas face before...\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|ZA]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

An interactive story about the end of everything.

"No."\n\nIt is a simple word, but a powerful one, and when spoken while grapsing the key it proves to be just the thing to save your proverbial ass.\n\nThe writer's look confused.\n\nWhat are you doing?\n\nThe words have been ringing in your head for hundreds of years now. They are on the tip of your tongue and the edges of your fingers.\n\nYou hold the key and write the writers an advenure of their own:\n\n[["GAME OVER!"|ZXE]]\n\n

The Sun caught crisp in clear, calm, crystal air. The orange clings, but does not warm. Sunshine strikes, but your breath still puffs before you. \n\nThe crowd grows bold surgging forward, propriety strikes and the crowd ebbs back. Confident, for today will mark your moment in history, you stride forward alone. There comes a time when a message must be made.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "yes">>\n<<display 'OutsideB'>>\n<<endif>>\n\n[[The show must go on.|ACBA]]\n[["I am a profesional laugher."|ACBB]]\n[[It was time to make my statement.|StartDeath]]\n

Finally. \n\nIn that moment you understand that wanting this was setting you back, wanting to find a way out, wanting this all to end. Desire was your adversary, the vanishing point into which your entire life was disappearing. No matter which decision you made, which life you took, which suit you wore, it didn’t matter. Behind everything was a fundamental flaw: you wanted it.\n\nYou don’t want anything anymore, there’s nothing left to write.\n\nYou win.\n

You roll the strange words around your empty mouth and empty mind. Long vowels endng in deep bass notes that shake the ground and your body. \n\nYou feel yourslef begin to unravel. The last mantra is the strangest...\n\n[[GAAAAAAAAAAME OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooover|ZA]]

In the darkness there was light. It was a light where there shouldn't be light. Beyond your consciousness and all other perception there continued to be light.\n\nYou focus on it.\n\nYou've already tried everything else.\n\n[[I slip into the light.|ZA]]

What the hell...\n...was that?\n\nThere are procedures...\n... you know\n\nWe thought...\n... you were ready.\n\nWe thought...\n...You understood.\n\n[[You said you were sending me to fix things, but I was just setting up my own death!|ZXA]]

No\n\nWe were using you...\n... to help you live.\n\nUsing you...\n... to pick the options...\n\nThat would best fit your character.\n\nYou would choose...\n... and write the choices.\n\nPick the mistakes...\n... and pick how you lived with them.\n\nThis is how we write, and how you will live.\n\n[[No thanks, I don't want to kill myself for all eternity.|ZXC]]

It was a street act for the ages.\n\nGasoline cans of varying weight, torches of suitable heft and make. A fire show to end all fire shows.\n\nWhen everything catches fire, the crowd is suitably impressed.\n\n[[Game over.|A]]

<html>insErtPAth&##@asdreadhex -- You feel... odd, like you've seen this all before. These words aren't yours, but they are all familiar, written by another hand... -- @##fressh^:::</html>

The words are sharp, and you are cut easily and continuously until your words are bled dry.\n\nIt has become a familiar sensation, but this time as you wait for the inevitable phrase that follows, you are filled with a profound sense of regret.\n\nYou were so close.\n<<set $key == "no">>\n[[Game over...|A]]

<html>You see we are looking for a few... \n...extraordinary individuals. \n \nWe cannot maintain each story... \n... we have many words to write. \n \nHelp us look after your own choices... \n... write yourself a fitting tale. \n \nIn the end you are the one that writes you best. \n \nThis key will unlock... \n... the words you'll need. \n \nIt cronjugates... \n... it hyphenates... \n \n... it writes anything... \nSo be careful with your words. </html>\n<<set $writerroom = "no">>\n<<set $key = "yes">>\n[[I take the key and do as I am written, I cannot do otherwise.|A]]

It's the 22nd Century, queues should be punishable by immolation. \nIn an age where your body is wifi enabled at birth one should not have to line up purposly to speak with an autonomus human, but alas spaceports, like their dead progenators the airport, exist to trample on all things humanity considers socially decent, and for a small cult in albuquerque, sexually decent. \n\nWhat's this person doing in front of you? Oh please don't cause a sceen, no one needs a sceen. What's that the person said about a vest?\n\nYou at least have the satisfaction of knowing your flying dying carcus was what killed the people behind the reception desk.\n\n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

The Sun is dying. As hydrogen fuel within the centre of Sol runs out, it burns fiercer, its outer shell increasing and spreading its heat across the solar system. \n\nHumanity tried and failed to leave the solar system. By that time we were too few and too spread out to mount an effective escape.\nRather than flee underground with the rest of your race, you sit in one of the new solar observation decks, determined to stare down the source of all Earth's power as it burns away oceans, atmosphere, and life. \n\nIt is fittingly cathartic. \n<<if $writerroom == "no">>\n[[GAME OVER|A]]\n<<else>>\n[[Game Over|ZB]]\n<<endif>>\n

Written and Designed by: Bill Stretch & Michael Elliott\nMusic: Travis Fishbein\nArt: Erin Keaskin

<html>ErrrOr////author n000t f0und@*^!$p44ss to WR1T33er1Where does one even begin a conversation about the moral ambiguity of free choice? You were on fire, you chose that. Can't blame me for your decisions. If I'd been driving this jalopy around I would not have gone this route. \n$%@^&452rrrwriteerrorwrite--@#$5t\nRemember the one where you pick up the tiny plastic drink sword, you know the one that leads to the slash fics, laser pistols, and elephants? THAT one! w#$& I would have gone that route, but hey you went all, \n \n"LIGHT ME UP BITCHES, I'S GOT A STATEMENT TO MAKE" ... I suppose to each their own. \n \nSo here we are. \nerr000ratt3mpt --r3boo0t\nNice place though, could use a touch more furnishings. That couch is garbage, and I wouldn't trust the chair, mind you. To be honest I don't think managment was expecting you to be here. Let's just keep that between our little selves. So round and round we go. \n \nWait, is this thing still -- oh damnit.\n \nErr--+$#r3cr34tingc+o*uc-h n4rr-narrative</html>\n \n[[What the hell... wait a second, I hadn't even gotten out of bed.|BA]]\n[["Screw you weird voice speaking at me. The chair will be fine."|BB]]\n[[I was suddenly convinced that secret was in the couch.|BC]]