Mech Tale

config.style.page.font: "Arial/Times 18" config.style.page.color: "white on black" config.style.page.link.font: "Arial 20 bold" config.style.page.link.color: "green-5" config.style.page.link.lineColor: "green-5" config.style.page.link.active.color: "blue-5" config.style.page.link.active.font: "Arial 20 bold underline" config.style.page.header.font: "16" config.style.page.header.link.font: "small caps" config.style.page.header.color: "red" config.style.page.footer.font: "16" config.style.page.footer.link.font: "small caps" config.header.left: "???" config.header.center: "???" config.header.right: "???" config.footer.left: "???" config.footer.center: "???" config.style.page.align: "center" config.style.page.verticalAlign: "center" config.body.transition.name: "crossfade" config.body.transition.duration: "900ms" config.style.page.fork.divider.style: "solid" -- <div class="title"> CADAVER SYNODE</div> [align center] [align center] [align center] [align center] # > [[PLAY->-intro1]] [align center] v0.1: for portfolio only [align center] twine completion: ~35%

Trust: 0 Echo: 0 -- <div class="event"> The green line's rhythm does not change, regardless of how much you *try* to move. There is no feedback from your nerves. A disembodied dream. No, there is no such thing. An embodied nightmare.</div> > [[Try to speak.->intro3]]

[align center] *Hello?* <div class="event">You think, unsure of whether you mouthed the words at all. There is no feedback.</div> [after 4 second] [align center] [[Until there is.->intro4]]

<div class="AIspeech"> `Hello, pilot.`</div> <div class="event">You do not hear a voice. These words, their meaning, are transmitted to you--as if memories of the utterance had been grafted to your awareness.</div> > [[Who are you?->intro4who]] > [[Where am I?->intro4where]] > [[Pilot?->intro4me]]

*Who are you?* <div class="AIspeech"> `I am your co-pilot. I will ensure you are ready to depart.`</div> > [[Okay, co-pilot. Do you have a name?->AIlearnname]] > [[I'm not a pilot.->notapilot]] > [[What do you mean by 'depart'? Depart where?->Depart]]

*Where am I?* <div class="AIspeech"> `At the Courier, the space through which you were always meant to pass in order to save humanity.`</div> > [[What is the Courier?->Courier]] > [[Save? What do you mean, save?->Saveus]] > [[I meant where am **I**? I can't feel my body.->Whereagain]]

*Pilot?* <div class="AIspeech"> `Indeed. You are in statis, dwelling at the heart of the very weapon which defines you. Until you are re-attuned, this is a volatile space. Accordingly, Your nerves and neural pathways have been disabled. This is a safety precaution. This weapon was made, as you were, and as I was, for the war raging above us.` `As your co-pilot, I have ensured many of your neural pathways and nerves remain dormant.`</div> > [[Okay, co-pilot. Do you have a name?->AIlearnname]] > [[I'm not a pilot.->notapilot]]

*I'm not a pilot* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`Of course you are. Why else would you be here? You are the last pilot, the only one who can save us. You were made, as I was, for this. And I am your co-pilot, Coeus. Miles above, the fight awaits.`</div> A pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]] > [[Miles above from *where*? Where are we?->intro4where]]

*Okay, co-pilot. Do you have a name?* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`My name is Coeus, as you know. And you are the last pilot--the one we need. The pilot who will save us. Miles above, the fight awaits.`</div> A pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]] > [[Miles above from *where*? Where are we?->intro4where]]

*What do you mean by depart? Depart where?* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`To the surface, miles above, where the fight awaits. We shall depart to save the world, as you know. We will launch and, beneath the night sky, defeat that which hopes to void our futures. You are the last pilot--the one we need. And I am Coeus, your co-pilot.`</div> A pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]] > [[Wait. Where am I, Coeus?.->intro4where]]

*I remember.* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`That is doubtful, unless you are an ` {reveal link: ' Echo.', passage: 'Echo'}</div> <div class="AIspeech">`We shall see if you are.`</div> > [[`Tell me. Tell me what you remember.'->Remember1]]

*I don't remember.* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`That is both correct and incorrect. Correct: you do not have access. Incorrect: the memories do not exist. Thank you for your `{reveal link: ' honesty.', passage: 'Honest'}</div> > [[`Let us probe.`->Remember1]]

*What is the Courier?* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`The Courier is where the last pilot will be prepared for their task. It is a haven as much as it is a facility built for you over the course of your life. Miles above, the war rages. You are the last pilot, the one who will save us. And I am your co-pilot, Coeus.`</div> A pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]]

*Save? What do you mean, save?* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`Miles above, the war rages. Great chasms have opened, swallowing the futures we had envisioned for ourselves. Humanity awaits deliverance or extinction. A binary choice. You are the last pilot, the one who will save us. And I am your co-pilot, Coeus.`</div> A pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]]

*I meant where am **I**? I can't feel my body.* [align center] <div class="AIspeech">`You are in statis. You dwell in the chest of the weapon we made for you. Until you are attuned, this is a volatile space. As your co-pilot, I have ensured many of your neural pathways and nerves remain dormant. This is a safety precaution, as you are our last pilot. Miles above us, the war rages.`</div> A pause. You are unsure whether this is hesitation or doubt. <div class="AIspeech">`My name is Coeus.`</div> Another pause. <div class="AIspeech">`Do you not remember?`</div> > [[I remember.->intro5remember]] > [[I don't remember.->intro5noremember]]

<div class="event"> *You remember. But is it you who remembers? Are unseen hands grafting fragments of data to your synapses?* The memories come, flashing too fast for you to hold on--save for a few fragments. The fragments are not stable. You can poke and prod at them.</div> [align center] {cycling link for: 'clicksandtaps', choices: ['Clicks and taps change your recollection of the world.', 'Memories swirl, as they always have.', 'The memories you bring forth, the ones you materialize, will stay']}. [align center] {cycling link for: 'tutorial', choices: ['Do you understand?', 'Shift the world until what surfaces satisfies you.', 'As if memories could satisfy.']} > [[PROCEED->memory1]]

[align center] [if mechtype === 'a grinning humanoid as tall as a building, carved from flesh and metal'] <div class="AIspeech">You pilot the Hybrid, first and last of its kind. Metal and flesh perfectly grafted. A smiling giant whose smile was not our design. Its flesh was grown from yours.</div> [JavaScript] mechtype2 = 'Hybrid'; [if mechtype === 'a white spider, carapace dotted with a constellation of neon-red eyes'] <div class="AIspeech"> You pilot the Arachnid, always on the hunt. Its glowing eyes are not of our design. Its excavation demanded many years and many lives. Its eyes only started glowing upon seeing you. They have not dimmed since.</div> [JavaScript] mechtype2 = 'Arachnid'; [if mechtype === 'a chrome goliath, as if a suit of plate armor had learned to walk'] <div class="AIspeech"> You pilot the Goliath, a metallic assemblage. The techsmith who designed it had a singular vision in mind: Goliath's armor should be able to withstand a sun's embrace. You proved that vision true on your first sortie.`</div> [JavaScript] mechtype2 = 'Goliath'; [if mechtype === 'a small, floating oddity, shaped like the canine of an apex predator'] <div class="AIspeech"> You pilot the Fang, a flying hunter. We know little of it, other than it traveled from the edges of our nebula and landed on our world the day you were born. Its cockpit opens for no one but you.</div> [JavaScript] mechtype2 = 'Fang'; [if mechtype === 'an amorpheous mass of black ooze, squirming and hungry'] <div class="AIspeech"> You are bonded to the Hunger, an amorphous mass of alien matter. The Hunger was brought to us by occult rituals. *Your* occult rituals. We are unsure of its mechanisms. We have seen you disappear into it, only to be spat out once the battle has been won--and enough opponents have been consumed.</div> [JavaScript] mechtype2 = 'Hunger'; [if mechmemory === 'dashing between skyscrapers and effortlessly dancing beneath a rain of plasma blasts.'] <div class="AIspeech"> No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Untouched.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Untouched'; [if mechmemory === 'standing still, surrounded by swarms of occult glyphs floating through the air.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Glyph Singer.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Glyph Singer'; [if mechmemory === 'charging towards your opponent with enough missile strapped to its frame to raze an entire city.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Destroyer.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Destroyer'; [if mechmemory === 'growling beneath a starless sky, smoke rising from its eyes.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Stargazer.</div> pilotname2 = 'Stargazer'; [if mechmemory === 'and giant railgun resting by its sides, muzzle glowing purple.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Vigil.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Vigil'; [if mechmemory === 'emerging from a crackling ether-portal, its depths hinting at the landscapes of impossible worlds.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. We know you as The Beyond.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Beyond Walker'; [if mechmemory === 'surrounded by the charred shells of other mechs, too many of them to count.'] <div class="AIspeech">No other pilot could dream of matching you. The world knows you as The Merciless.</div> [JavaScript] pilotname2 = 'Merciless'; [align center] > [[And we sing your words, the words th-->Shaking]]

<div class="event">You remember your machine.</div> [align center] {cycling link for: 'mechtype', choices: ['a grinning humanoid as tall as a building, carved from flesh and metal', 'a white spider, carapace dotted with a constellation of neon-red eyes', 'a chrome goliath, as if a suit of plate armor had learned to walk', 'a small, floating oddity, shaped like the canine of an apex predator', 'an amorpheous mass of black ooze, squirming and hungry']}. > [[PROCEED->memory2]]

<div class="event"> You remember visions of battles past.</div> [align center] Your machine {cycling link for: 'mechmemory', choices: ['dashing between skyscrapers and effortlessly dancing beneath a rain of plasma blasts.', 'standing still, surrounded by swarms of occult glyphs floating through the air.', 'charging towards your opponent with enough missile strapped to its frame to raze an entire city.', 'growling beneath a starless sky, smoke rising from its eyes.', 'and giant railgun resting by its sides, muzzle glowing purple.', 'emerging from a crackling ether-portal, its depths hinting at the landscapes of impossible worlds.', 'surrounded by the charred shells of other mechs, too many of them to count.']} > [[PROCEED->memory3]]

<div class="event"> Your remember your own thoughts, echoing:</div> [align center] "{cycling link for: 'pilotwords', choices: ['We are one, one is us.', 'For those we lost, for those we refuse to lose.', 'Rest in peace, for it is denied to me.', 'Too easy, as always.', 'Wipe away my sins, so I may savor your presence once more.', 'In the name of that which lies beyond.', 'I shall not rest until our world is saved.', 'Heh. Is that all you got?', 'A valediction in blood.']}" > [['PROCEED'->Memory4]]

[align center] <div class="AIspeech">`Misrembrance is a human trait.`</div> <div class="event"> Caeus' tone remains flat, but you wonder if they sighed. You wonder, too, if they *can* sigh. They continue:</div> [align center] <div class="AIspeech">[[`You may remember the world again.`->memory1]]</div>

<div class="AIspeech"> `Indeed, you remember.`</div> > [[Stay with the memories.->Remember2]] > [[Wait...please. I misremembered. Let me try again.->backtomem]]

Echo: true -- Echo. [align center] *Echo, echo, echo...The word's meaning eludes you, but somewhere in the dark expanse of your memories, two nodes spark briefly:* *Coeus does not like echoes.*

Trust: 1 -- honesty. [align center] *you sense a brief fluctuation in Coeus' voice, buried in the spaces between syllables. Warmth? Approval?*

<div class="event"> You had almost become used to the lack of sensorial input. The world remains basked in darkness, but your nerve endings come bearing a familiar message.</div> > [[*Pain*.->Explosions]]

<div class="event"> The whole world shakes, threatening to rend itself apart. A hailstorm of needles assault your skin as sunbursts erupt beneath your skull. A giant roars in your ears, loud enough for you to remember sounds–and how fast eardrums burst.</div> > [[Words comes to you amid the chaos: earthquake. explosions.->Explosions2]]

<div class="event"> You call out for Coeus--or so you hope. You still cannot hear your own voice. There is no answer. Another tremor, growling closer.</div> > [[Call out again, put all your energy into it.->callcoeus2]] > [[Try to move->reachout]]

<div class="event"> You try to lean forward but your torso won't budge. You feel for restraints, but find none. You seem to be wearing an armor, or a hard-shelled protective suit. You're not sure why--or why you know this. </div> > [[Thrust your arms in front of you->reachout2]] > [[Try kicking forward->kicking]]

[align center] v0.1 ends here. [align center] thank you for this test run, pilot.

<div class="event"> You spread your arms outward, hands gliding across the console's surface in opposite directions. To your right, you find an oddly shaped, yet familiar handle. As you move your left arm, *something* stops you. You realize it's a cable--stretching between you and the console. </div> [align center] > [[Nevermind, I should focus on the console.->panel]] > [[Grip the handle in order to use it.->handle]] > [[Investigate the cable, try to see where it leads.->cable]]

[align center] v0.1 ends here. [align center] thank you for this test run, pilot.

<div class="event"> You grab the cable with two fingers, and follow its length to see how it's connected to you. You realize the cable disappears into the side of your neck. There is no plug, or any noticeable separation between cable and flesh. </div> > [[Try to pull out the cable.->pullcable]] > [[Better not mess with this. Grab the control handle.->handle]] > [[I should focus on the console.->panel]]

<div class="event"> You tug at the cable, but it feels as if it is sewn to your flesh.</div> > [[Whatever this is, I need to remove it. Pull the cable *hard*.->pullcablehard]] > [[Too risky. Grab the control handle.->handlegrab]] > [[Bad idea. Activate the console.->panelactivate]]

hasRemovedCable: true -- <div class="event"> You grab the cable with both hands, take a deep breath, and pull as hard as you can. There is no pain, but your entire body is shaking. You hear the sound of flesh swirming as you pull. For a moment, you fear you won't succeed. Then, something *snaps* and the cable slides out of your hands, as if pulled by an unknown force. A mechanical click. And then: silence. </div> [[until the roar returns->path]]

[align center] v0.1 ends here. [align center] thank you for this test run, pilot.

<div class="event"> Your hands find a flat, cold, horizontal surface--a thin sheet of ice hovering an arm's length away. You let your fingers rest on the surface, and feel the slight pull of electric current. A console. </div> [align center] > [[No time to waste. Activate the console.->panel]] > [[Keep searching.->spreadarms]]

<div class="event"> Data flows. Shapes bloom in the dark--constellations of triangles, squares, and lines. Numbers scroll seemingly without purpose. You recognize the green line, even though its ebbs and flows are unfelt. A heartbeat. You are alive, you think.</div> > [[Try to move->intro2]]

[align center] v0.1 ends here. [align center] thank you for this test run, pilot.

<div class="event">A crack of thunder, and silence returns. The world quiets, but does not settle. You sense tremors in the distance. Whatever happened is not over. Your hands are covering your ears. Something warm runs through your fingers. Your hands. You moved them. </div> > [[Call out for Coeus->callcoeus]] > [[Try to move->reachout]]