443 Final v2

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Silence. Darkness. A lingering feeling of fatigue hangs over you as you slowly become conscious. Where are you?

Actually... Who are you?

Your memories are a blur, if they are in fact still there at all, or were there to begin with.

However, against the confusion, you mentally reach out towards one faint but bizarre image. Was it the dream you just awoke from? Think, it was something along the lines of...

Ascending a snow-capped mountain
Flying with hawks
Being attacked by living eggplants

You see yourself from a viewpoint far above your own body, slowly ascending even further to reveal a snowy white landscape. You appear to be climbing up a massive snow-capped mountain. A feeling of accomplishment washes over you, even though you know this couldn't have possibly happened any time recently or distantly. Or has it? It is in fact the only memory you can recall at all, but it's becoming gradually more clear that it can't possibly have been true... <<set $dream to 1>> [[It is in fact the only memory you can recall at all, but it's becoming gradually more clear that it can't possibly have been true...->intro]]

You're flying with a group of hawks, soaring over a beautiful lush green landscape on a warm spring day. This obviously isn't based in reality, yet it's the only thing you can grasp onto in your mind's eye. <<set $dream to 2>> [[That is until you set that aside and open your eyes...->intro]]

You see yourself lying in a field of eggplants, which have all clearly been precisely and carefully cultivated to impressive health. Suddenly they all sprout legs and begin to charge you! You start running, but you're surrounded on all sides. <<set $dream to 3>> [[The absurdity of the scenario is hard to believe even as a dream...->intro]]

Silence. Darkness. A lingering feeling of fatigue hangs over you as you slowly become conscious. Where are you? Actually... Who are you? Your memories are a blur, if they are in fact still there at all, or were there to begin with. However, against the confusion, you mentally reach out towards one faint but bizarre image. Was it the dream you just awoke from? Think, it was something along the lines of... [[Ascending a snow-capped mountain]] [[Flying with hawks]] [[Being attacked by living eggplants]] <<set $dream to 0>> <<set $visits to 0>> <<set $proad to 0>> <<set $dpath to 0>> <<set $sshore to 0>> <<set $nhouse to 0>> <<set $sbullshit to 0>> <<set $hgarage to 0>>

<<set $room to 0>> You awake in a bedroom. It's entirely unfamiliar to you but seems like it would've made a cozy abode for some hitherto absent persons. View window. View framed photos. Looking out the window, you can see the ocean. Rather murky in hue, and the shoreline seems to be covered with a wide variety of colors and textures. A number of photos line the armoire in front of the bed, most of them showing a happy moment shared between a middle-aged man and woman. [[Leave the room->leave room]]

You exit the bedroom and the full scope of the house comes into view. It's far from a sizable mansion but not quite a cheap shack either. In keeping with the feel of the previous room, it's simply cozy in nature. Not notably large or small, at least not by your pre-conceived notions, however those were formed. You think that maybe you should investigate the other rooms of the house in better detail for any clues as to your whereabouts or identity and what the hell is going on. [[Enter the first door on the left->first door on the left]] [[Enter the second door on the left->second door on the left]] [[Enter the first door on the right->first door on the right]] [[Enter the second door on the right->second door on the right]] [[Go to the kitchen->kitchen]] [[Go the living room->living room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[branch start]] <<endif>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> Taking the first door on your left, you enter what appears to be a child's bedroom. There's a vertiable zoo's worth of stuffed animals lining the bed, which sits on a frame crafted like the body of a racecar. Lining the windows on the far side of the room are an array of flowers. They're extraordinarily bright and healthy at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it's apparent that they're just fake plastic imitations. It's not an unfamiliar sight, even with the current state of your memory, yet you can't help but entertain the irony in that. [[Leave the room->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <<endif>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> The second door on the left appears to be a guest room of some sort, largely empty, but pristine with what little contents it holds. For the most part it's a pretty standard and sterile room that looks like something out of a home decorating catalogue meant for colonial homes. The only peculiar standout seems to be a handful of metal reusable bottles resting on the nightstand adjacent to the bed. Three to be exact. Why any one person would need three reusable bottles is a mystery. [[Leave the room.->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <</if>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> The door to your right leads to a small library or home-office-looking space. It appears almost untouched by time. Vintage books and various albums line the bookshelf running along one of the room's walls. The sun is shining in through the windows directly onto a mahogany desk running along another wall. On the desk, directly in the path of the sunlight, is a newspaper. Looking at it closely, it must have been there for some time now, as sun has damaged the front page beyond any level of legibility. Still, you take up the newspaper as a whole and cycle through the pages in an attempt to at least find a date or some other useful information. Unfortunately, the majority of the paper turns out to be no better than the front page. Still, on one page near the back, you can make out most of headline that says something like "(something) Ship to make its Maiden Voyage". [[Leave the room.->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <</if>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> The second door on the right leads to a washing room, replete with a fairly standard looking washer, dryer, and a couple standing clothes racks. Nothing of note to find in here, no clothes at all either. Looking over the washing machine, however, you notice a large attachment tucked away behind it. It appears to be some kind of water tank, and leaning over to get a better look nets you a peak at a logo that says something along the lines of "reusable" and "filter". [[Leave the room.->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <</if>>

The lantern room is just as spotless and new as the rest of the structure thus far. The light itself, on the other hand, looked ancient. Not so old that it didn't run on electricity, but old enough to be predominantly rust-colored, with a more antique decorative aesthetic to it than one of any level of functionality. Even while thinking that, you can't help but fiddle around with the mechanisms lining the light fixture. Sure enough, it can still move and rotate in place, though it takes quite a deal of force to do so manually and the metal creaks with even the slightest movement. On one side you find a switch of some sort and flip it up when suddenly, against all expectations... The light turns on. A loud metal thud and a newly born droning noise announce the activation of the light, which was luckily facing the opposite direction as you when you inadvertantly turned it on. The light is bright enough to bring you to a squint, despite being directly behind the fixture. You take a step back to admire the machine and get a better view of the direction in which its pointing. Then, without prompt, without warning, the light starts to rotate. This time, however, it's perfectly silent as it moves. In fact, you only noticed at all as the light was about to spin past your way for the first time. One flash. You shield your eyes but you're still left with a bright afterimage of the light, having been caught off guard. It spins back around, seemingly faster. Two flashes. Again, you attempt to shield your eyes with no better luck. You decide to reach back for the switch to turn the light off before it can spin back around again, but in the instant you make contact with the switch again... [[A third flash.->intro]] <<set $lhouse to 1>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> The living room is anything but. A loveseat and an armchair both sit angled towards a small TV hanging over a fireplace. Upon closer inspection, the fireplace - despite having a full proper chimney and all - has been replaced with a smaller, portable electric fireplace. It's a little box that fits snugly into the hearth of the original fixture. An array of more framed photos and other souvenirs line the room, from ships in a bottle to vases and what appear to be Christmas ornaments left sitting on shelves. [[Leave the room.->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <</if>>

<<set $room to $room + 1>> The kitchen is almost as devoid of foodstuffs as it is consumers. And yet the small kitchenette table in the center is perfectly set with two sets of dishes and silverware facing each other. Between them sits a small bowl of plastic fruits. Funny enough, those are the most edible-looking things in the kitchen right now, for lack of anything you can see in the cupboards or in the fridge. [[Leave the room.->leave room]] <<if $room eq 3>>[[BANG->branch start]] <</if>>

Suddenly you hear a loud bang outside. Besides your own movement, things have been pretty quiet thus far, so you jump a bit at this sudden development. A second later, by instinct, you run out through the front door of the house and onto the front lawn. It sounded like the bang came from the north of the house, which was directly to the right of you when walking out the front door. Quickly you notice something you have yet to get a view of from any window inside. A lighthouse. [[Walk up the northern beach path.->Beach Path]] <<if $lhouse eq 1>>[[For some reason, this seems familiar...->branch start2]] <</if>>

You walk along the shoreline towards the lighthouse, taking note of a number of findings as you go. From a distance you assumed this was your average beach, but walking on it now, it's a bit harder to classify it as such. Litter of all kinds, from plastic bottles to metal bars to discarded fabrics, line the beach in such overwhelming numbers that manmade objects appear to be the norm and nature's contributions are the exception. It's a painful walk, even with shoes on for protection. [[Nevertheless, you arrive at the foot of the lighthouse.->Foot of the lighthouse]]

Over the ledge of the cliff on which the lighthouse sits, you notice a wrecked fishing vessel. Something about it seems unstable, not quite settled into place yet. Perhaps this crashed recently? That would explain the bang you heard earlier. Even though someone surely must be at fault for this, there appear to be no signs of activity aboard the ship from a distance. You could make your way down the rocks if you were careful, but for now you hesitate and wait for some activity to speak for itself. While waiting, you notice the lighthouse door has swung open at some point while you were keeping watch over the boat. [[Approach the lighthouse stairs.->Lighthouse stairs]]

You ascend the lighthouse, moving up a spiral staircase in a solitary and somewhat-small tower, which has become evident now that you're actually scaling it. The metal staircase tinks and clangs beneath your feat, sounding off its age but not showing it; the interior of the tower is oddly pristine, as if it was built just yesterday. [[You arrive in the lantern room atop the tower.->Lantern Room]]

After only a minute or so of walking along the pavement, the road takes a bend into a more forested area, and just around that corner you encounter what looks like a car of some variety. It's exceptionally small by most standards, assuming you're remembering them right: it looks like it has room for two people - a driver and one passenger directly behind it - it has the shape of a teardrop if you were to squish the top and bottom of the drop into a slightly thicker shape, and overall it's small enough that it could fit in a large closet. Maybe you could venture further away from the property using this. You open the driver's door on its left side and squeeze into the very compacted space. Once you're seated, it's not all that bad actually. Looking around the interior, you notice a booster seat and two empty canvas bags resting in it. Focusing your attention back on the prospect of driving, you look around for the ignition and come across a button just behind the wheel to start the car. You press it... Silence. But in response, a very large icon of a lightning bolt and the end of a plug appear on the dashboard in front of you. There are no other gauges present, just seems to be a uniform screen. You step back out of the car and glance down the road ahead. Looks like a straightaway for some good distance before your vision is cut short by a hill in the road. [[Looks like you should turn back for today.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $proad to 1>>

As you start walking along the dirt path, something feels very off to you. It could be the random bits of litter here and there, but on the other hand that isn't terribly out of the ordinary. An errant plastic bottle or cigarette is par for the course no matter where you walk. No, there's something more peculiar about the scene. Nonetheless, you continue walking further and further along the path and into the forest, away from the shoreline by the sound of it. Eventually you hit a point where you can't hear the ambience of the ocean, and that's when it hits you. It's the silence. You can't hear the ocean anymore, but this whole time you haven't heard any signs of wildlife. No birds chirping, no rustling of leaves along the ground, nothing. Or humans for that matter; cars or voices in the distance, planes overhead, anything. There is a very light breeze but even that is somehow imperceptible. Looking up at the trees, you notice that the overwhelming majority of them are without leaves or vitality of any sort. Yet it's obviously not winter, it's far too warm out. [[Something about the situation is immensely discomforting, so you decide to turn back.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $dpath to 1>>

You head off in the opposite direction of the lighthouse. Taken as a whole, the beach here seems to be in the shape of a crescent, with a large rocky terrain marking the end of the beach that you're heading towards. The tide is flowing in and out very gently, and the ocean seems unusually calm for as far as you can see. As you walk along the beach, you start noticing more and more trash litterring the sands. Initially it was just a few plastic wrappers and various wood and metal effects here and there, but now it's getting to the point where it's difficult to walk in a straight-line any more. In fact, as you go further, it's starting to get difficult to walk on the sand at all. At some point you can barely even see the ground below you, separated from you by a layer of garbage. This would be impassable if you didn't have shoes on. The sheer amount of trash is almost too absurd to even believe. You stop for a second to examine the scene in closer detail, and as you glance back at the way you came, you realize the end of the beach you thought to be a rocky section wasn't rocky. You're already there, and what you saw was an almagamation of greys and browns and blacks and whites from a myriad assortment of human-crafted waste. The sight is almost too much to bear. [[You return to where you came for fear of this getting any worse.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $sshore to 1>>

You raise up the garage door manually from its outside handle. Surprisingly, there's no car to be found, but instead the garage is a mess with cardboard and plastic boxes. A good portion of them look unused, while another chunk of boxes appear to be sealed and ready to go...somewhere. Among those sealed boxes, a handful sit at the top of the pile that have been re-opened, rather hastily by the looks of it. In one of them is an assortment of jewelry, placed messily and entangled all throughout each piece. Maybe a thief came across this? But on the other hand, another box nearby lies open and it has nothing but a small selection of blankets, small blankets at that. One of them is draped over the edge of the box; it's a baby blue color with a white border and a pattern of what look like little cartoony animals spaced across across its surface. Another box to its side looks like it contains nothing but photos. No photo albums or anything, just printed photos in a pile dropped into this box. Looking a bit more closely, it would appear that the photos were initially arranged into stacks before they were messed with into more of a disorganized pile. Perhaps someone was looking for some specific photos. Doesn't look like you'll find anything to help you out here, it's mostly family mementos by the look of it. Besides, sorting through it any further feels wrong. On your out through the garage door again, you notice just behind the pile of mostly sealed boxes and slightly off to the corner of the garage is a small work bench, covered in a number of tools and other hardware. Standing out amongst all that is a note on a crumpled up piece of paper that says "20 pounds per person". [[You dismiss it as a random relic far older than you care to inquire about and head back outside.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $hgarage to 1>>

You make your way towards the neighbor's house, similar in structure to the one you found yourself in but with a front and back porch and a more distinctive yellow color scheme for its exterior. For lack of a better method of approach, you head onto the porch and towards the front door. You instinctively go through the motions to knock on the door, realizing in the process that it might be a moot effort, but at the same time you pray it won't be. No response comes over the course of about a minute and a couple knocks. There doesn't seem to be any movement to be heard or seen in the house at all. Peering in through the window along the porch, you catch sight of some silhouettes of furniture and possible a piano. It's hard to tell for sure since it also all seems to be covered in a mess of other belongings. You return to the door to try knocking one more time. After waiting and experiencing no results once more, you reach down to try the doorknob and you notice a small paper taped next to the doorknob like a promotional flyer. Strange that you haven't noticed it until now, but in fairness you suppose the white of the paper did blend in well with the white of the door in the current lighting conditions. The paper very simple reads, in large and smooth handwriting: "UPLOADED AS OF APRIL 10. PLEASE DIGITIZE ALL FURTHER POST." [[You pause to wonder about this weird note for a brief moment, then figure you might as well look for answers somewhere else in the meantime.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $nhouse to 1>>

Just outside of the garage, you head towards a little toolshed. It looks to be about the same width and length as a queen-size bed frame, though it certainly couldn't fit one. Unfortunately, standing in front of its entrance, you find the door is locked with a pretty hefty-looking padlock. To either side of the door, however, are some small windows, so maybe you could at least get a peek in and determine if there's anything worth your while in there anyway. Going back and forth between the two windows to get different angles on the interior, it would seem that the answer is not much. There are (predictably) a small range of tools hanging through the interior and leaning against the walls but none of those would be particularly useful to you right now. In the middle of the space is what appears to be some kind of generator, and besides that on both sides are some large leather and wooden boxes, most of which also appear to have locks built in to them. Whatever they are, they must be important enough to warrant the owner sealing them away so securely like this. [[Still, it doesn't look like there's much of use to be found here.->branch start2]] <<set $visits to $visits + 1>> <<if $visits eq 3>>[[Lighthouse]] <</if>> <<set $stool to 1>>

Suddenly you hear a loud bang. Besides your own movement, things have been pretty quiet thus far, so you jump a bit at this sudden development. It sounded like the bang came from the north of the house you found yourself in initially. Looking in that direction, you notice off in the distance but fully in-view a towering structure. It may not be readily apparent or very large at this distance but you're surprised you haven't noticed it at all yet. A lighthouse. You walk along the shoreline towards the lighthouse. It's a painful walk, even with shoes on for protection. Nevertheless, you arrive at the foot of the lighthouse. Over the ledge of the cliff on which the lighthouse sits, [[you notice a wrecked fishing vessel.->fishing]]

Directly in front of the house, to the west, is a more forested area with a paved path leading from your house and, you just now notice, which forks out from the woods towards a neighbor's house as well as your own. You two are a fair distance apart, a stone's throw away, but on all the other sides of these houses are large clearings which eventually give way to a shoreline running from north to south. On the southern side of the house is a garage, and a small walk past that is a little toolshed with a matching exterior, and just beyond that is what appears to be a dirt path that turns into the forest. <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $proad eq 0>>[[Take the paved road.->Paved road]] <</if>> <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $dpath eq 0>>[[Take the dirt path.->Dirt Path]] <</if>> <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $sshore eq 0>>[[Walk along the shoreline to the south.->Shoreline to the south]] <</if>> <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $nhouse eq 0>>[[Walk into the neighbor's yard.->Neighboring house]] <</if>> <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $stool eq 0>>[[Explore the toolshed.->Toolshed]] <</if>> <<if $lhouse eq 1 and $hgarage eq 0>>[[Investigate the garage.->House garage]] <</if>> [[Go to the lighthouse.->Lighthouse]]

The boat seems fairly new and modern in design, and is a fairly good size. Looks like it would be crewed by 5 or 6 people on a busy day. Strangest of all, however, is that it shows almost no signs of age. Perhaps this is what made the loud bang you hear earlier? But at the same time there isn't any evident significant damage to the boat's hull. At the same time, it seems firmly established in its spot in shallow water and aground on some rocks. You stop for a second and look back and forth between the lighthouse and the boat. The sun is starting to set and it'll be dark out before you know it. You don't have light source on you so it might be best to go investigate the lighthouse and try to find one. Maybe you'll even be able to activate the structure's main light and you can explore a bit further. Or maybe you should climb your way down to the wrecked fishing boat first and check that out while it's still light out. [[Enter and ascend the lighthouse.->Lighthouse stairs]] [[Climb down to the fishing boat.->wreck]]

Slowly and cautiously, you make your way down the rocky cliffside, as if descending down deep and jagged steps. After a few minutes you find yourself just to the side of the boat's bow. The hull exterior isn't so tall on dry land that you can't reach the top of it, so you do just that and pull yourself aboard. It may be the evening light playing tricks on your eyes, but once you finish pulling yourself up and over and onto the deck, you notice that the boat is oddly clean for something that just presumably slammed into the side of a cliff. In fact, there doesn't appear to be anything whatsoever on the deck. No equipment, ropes, nothing. Just the fiber glass surface. Even more bizarre, it appears to be literally spotless; there isn't a single speck of water to be seen. The interior is the purest of pure white. A feeling of unease washes over you. You slowly walk to and enter the enclosed helm, a small square space featuring only the fixtures of the boat itself. No maps or navigational equipment or anything. Just the wheel and the throttle and some other knobs. Stepping back outside, you take a second to look at the horizon. The sun has almost completely set by this point. It would be best to make your way back to the lighthouse for tonight, but there is clearly some greater mystery to this ship than your own lost memories... [[Ascend the cliff and enter the lighthouse.->Lighthouse stairs]] [[Venture down into the engine room.->engine]]

Against the safety of your reasoning, you move to the back of the deck towards the stern, where you find a small set of stairs descending into the hull of the ship, into a room that extends to just below the helm. It's a tight space, with a very-low lying ceiling. Given the size of the overall boat, crew were probably expect to crouch or even crawl around down here. Once again you find the space to be just as spotless and unused as the rest of the vessel. However, at the back of engine room, the last few rays of sunset beaming into the room just barely illuminate what must be the engine. And yet, it doesn't look anything like what you would expect. There are no pipes, no valves, gauges, nothing. Instead you see what looks like a large, smooth, rounded and reflective metal surface, as if a big metal ball was grafted at its midsection into the floor of the room. You move a bit closer to it, and as you do, the strange half-of-a-sphere appears to recede back into itself, as if being squeezed from two sides into a thinner ellipse. Once you're at arm's length away, its movement stops, [[and a light shines onto the wall behind it, projecting text with a blue-ish hue that says...->text]]

ATTENTION USER We regret to inform you that there has been a glitch in your world that has prompted a response from our automated artifically intelligent debuggers. Do not panic: these programs are deliberately designed to manifest themselves as humans who arrive by some method of transit, and will assist you in quickly resolving any issues in your simulation's programming. At that point they will remove themselves from your world automatically. If you are reading this and you have not encountered the debuggers: --an error may have occurred during their removal process causing their transit vehicle to be left behind. --an error may have occurred in the debuggers' execution that affected the tangibility of their form in your world. --an error may have occurred in the debuggers' execution that has prematurely removed the debuggers. Please allow for some time to see if these issues resolve thesmelves. If you still feel any of these issues apply to you, press the button below to remove yourself from your world and a crew member from the ship will be with you promptly to restore the simulation to a functioning state. Thank you for your patience and understanding, [[-Crew of the Generation Spaceship Exodus->button]]

In an instant it all comes rushing back to you. Your memory. This world. Your life. The real world. You've been in a loop of a simulation of a memory for literally more times than you can remember. You are overcome with emotion and confusion to the point where your thoughts just feel like white noise. Amidst the noise you regain enough reasoning to recognize the two choices available to you now: [[Return to the lighthouse.->Lighthouse stairs]] [[Press the button.->end]]

The world was lost All that remained was memory Echoes of humanity float in infinite black You remembered your last days on Earth You remembered how you felt more than what you sensed You weren't ready But the lighthouse continued to guide Every day the lighthouse shone Even when the destination was unclear But this ship was empty No one for the lights to guide And the worlds were lost.