Get Back to Bed

#Get Back to Bed [[Content Warnings]] (transition-time:1000)+(transition-arrive:"flicker")[[Start]] [[Credits & Info]]

(text-style:"blur","fidget")[#Your body wakes you.] Groggy and sore, you haul yourself upright, shambling through the darkness of your room and out into the hall. With a guiding hand against the wall, you make your way to the bathroom with your eyes mostly shut, pushing the door shut and haphazardly groping for the lightswitch. You regret turning on the (text-style:"emboss","sway")[searing light] of the tiny, utilitarian room, and navigate through blurry, squinted eyes. Taking care of your business as quickly as you're able, you hobble back to the door, eager to fall back asleep. [[Get Back to Bed]]

#Written by: * Acorn of the Bestiary System #Mobile Testing Help * Felix #Testing and Feedback * Felix * Morph System #Contact Itch Page: https://bestiarysys.itch.io/get-back-to-bed [[Main Menu]]

You switch the light back off, yawning as you reach forward and wrap your hand around the doorknob. You twist and pull, opening the door. (text-style:"bold","blur","fidget","expand")[A darkness complete and empty awaits you beyond it.] (transition-arrive:"dissolve")+(transition-time:10000)[[Step Through]]

(text-style:"bold","expand","blur")[A door closes behind you.] And an alleyway lay before you. Tall city buildings flank either side of you, with their exterior walls nigh featureless. The concrete is dotted with puddles and glistens from recently-fallen rain. There is a heavy, durable coat putting a comforting weight on your shoulders, long enough to reach halfway to the knees of the rugged pants on your legs. The ankles of the pants are neatly tucked into a pair of boots. Your reliable cane rests in your hand; (text-style:"fidget")[it's the only familiar thing you can see.] Surrounding you is a quiet city, either asleep or dead, as an overcast sky of dark clouds looms overhead. The light of the stars pierces through the thick blanket of (text-style:"smear")+(text-colour:grey)[gloom] to light your surroundings. There is a figure standing near the back door you can see, leaning against the wall adjacent to it with their back to you. [[Turn Back]] [[Approach the Stranger]]

A stranger clad in coveralls and a full-head rubber gas mask stands up straight at the sound of your approach, turning to face you. They lift their gloved hands and sign: (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//Long way from home, aren't you, Drifter?//] [["Who are you?"]] [["Where am I?"]] [["Do you know where my home is?"]] [["This is a dream, isn't it?"]]

(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//Oh, nobody really.//] The dim, shadowy lighting of the alley makes peering through the visor of their mask impossible. [["Where am I?"]] [["Do you know where my home is?"]] [["This is a dream, isn't it?"]] [["Thank you. I should keep moving."]]

They shrug. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//Looks like an alley in the city. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. This isn't a place Drifters like you have much reason to stay in.//] [["Do you know where my home is?"]] [["Who are you?"]] [["This is a dream, isn't it?"]] [["Thank you. I should keep moving."]]

They shake their head. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//No. But, I've seen enough Drifters to know this is nobody's home. I'm just here for work, anyway.//] You can't help but wonder how many times they've been asked this. [["Who are you?"]] [["Where am I?"]] [["This is a dream, isn't it?"]] [["Thank you. I should keep moving."]]

They shrug. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//Who's to say? Not really my call to make.//] [["Where am I?"]] [["Who are you?"]] [["Do you know where my home is?"]] [["Thank you. I should keep moving."]]

The masked stranger nods. (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[//I should get back to work. Good luck, drifter.//] As you start walking forward, they go back inside the building they were stood behind. Somewhere off in the city, you hear music playing. Something about the melody feels oddly familiar. Continuing down the alleyway, you find the path directly ahead fenced off, but a path to your right leads down a short staircase into another alley. With no other way forward, you proceed, until reaching another turn. Peeking around, you see a market constructed in another alleyway, albeit a far more spacious one. [[Enter the Market]]

The various colorful stalls and booths fill the space on either side, with tarps suspended over the gap between buildings to shield from rainfall, all sagging with little pools of water in them from the most recent shower. What you thought was another alleyway is an entire street, spanning off several meters before disappearing into (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[impenetrable shadow.] The buildings on either side are windowless and doorless like the alleys before. (text-style:"fidget")[This place is just as still and lifeless as the rest of the alleyways.] A warm, humid breeze flows through, rustling tarps, banners, and signs around the bazaar. With nobody to get any information or directions from, you wander forward. The soft, rhythmic clatter of your bootsteps and cane (text-style:"buoy")[echoes] upwards off the sides of the buildings. As you walk, something catches your eye; a bulletin board, covered in flyers and posters. [[Inspect the Board]]

The letters on all the various colorful flyers rapidly (text-style:"fidget")[flicker] and (text-style:"fidget")[change] before your eyes, evading any attempts to read or decipher them, except for one, directly in the middle of the board. Plain, bold text on unadorned paper reads: (text-colour:black)+(bg:white)+(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")+(text-style:"expand")[''DRIFTERS WELCOME INQUIRE WITHIN''] Several slips perforated to be torn off read (text-colour:black)+(bg:white)+(text-style:"expand")[''-TAKE ONE-''], with about half of them already gone. The word [//"Drifter"//] sticks out in your mind. That's what that masked stranger called you, isn't it? You tear off one of the slips, and turn around. There is a gap between market stalls, with a front entrance to one of the many monolithic buildings, with its front door propped open. Gentle amber light shines from inside, beckoning you forward. You could've sworn that wasn't there before. [[Step Closer]]

#CONTENT WARNINGS Entries highlighted in (text-color:red)[red] are especially present/focused on. If any of these may be distressing, especially the (text-color:red)[red] ones, prioritize your personal safety and avoid playing. * (text-color:red)[Surreality] * Unreality * (text-color:red)[Nyctophobia/Fear of darkness] * (text-color:red)[Being lost in a city] * (text-color:red)[Being lost/alone at night] * (text-color:red)[Exhaustion/Sleep deprivation] * Mild isolation * (text-color:red)[Eerie atmosphere/tone] * Difficulty with memory * Gas mask * Forgetting names (including your own) * Vertigo * (text-color:red)[Trippy text effects] * (text-color:red)[Being chased] (Only near the end) * Plural distress (Potentially, depends on interpretation) [[Main Menu]]

With no other leads to follow, you approach the doorway, but something changes in your periphery. The (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] at the end of the street market is closer than you remember. On the opposite end of the street, the path through which you entered has also been swallowed. You feel a sense of dread as you gaze into the cavernous, hollow void, unable to escape the nagging, anxious wonderings of what may lie in wait within it. Finally tearing your gaze away, you look back to the doorway, seeing an empty hall beyond the door, and a large room at the end. [[Go Inside]]

You hurry through the door, and it shuts behind you. The hallway is clean and tidy, with smooth beige walls and a short, grey-brown carpet. Fixtures in the ceiling give off a calming, gentle, amber light. The building is just as quiet as anywhere else, save for the occasional creak as you proceed down the hall. At the end is a massive room, stretching several floors up with balconies at every level, and a massive, ornate lighting fixture suspended from the ceiling, swaying slightly as though met with a breeze. Looking upwards for too long begins to make your head (text-style:"sway")[spin,] and you look down and lean on your cane for balance. The same music as before plays from somewhere inside the building, a melody you can scarcely make out, but strangely recognize. At one end of the room, there are tall glass windows and large doors, presumably the proper front entrance, but every inch of them is covered in the (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness.] You rapidly turn on your heel to face the sound of footsteps somewhere behind you. [["Hello?"]]

Your voice reverberates through the towering lobby, and the footsteps fade away down one of the hallways and corridors around you. Remembering the slip of paper in your hand, you examine it again. The front still reads (text-colour:black)+(bg:white)+(text-style:"expand")[''-TAKE ONE-''], though it occurs to you that you never checked the other side. Turning it over in your hands, you read (text-colour:black)+(bg:white)+(text-style:"expand")[''ROOM #776'']. Looking around for some kind of directions, you spy what appears to be a directory near an unoccupied front desk. As you approach, all the room numbers, labels, and direction arrows (text-style:"fidget")[scramble] and (text-style:"fidget")[change] in front of you, just like the flyers on the bulletin board, except for one. Floor 7, Room 76, with a conspicuously empty label slot. You take a heavy breath, and yawn. [[Find the Room]]

You pick the closest hallway to you, and begin walking down it, keeping a sleepy eye out for anything indicating towards #776. The halls all look the same, with featureless doors and illegible signage occasionally dotting them. [[Keep Walking->Keep Walking Start]]

Behind you is an unadorned brick wall, gleaming with moisture. [[Approach the Stranger]]

You begin to follow signs pointing towards a stairwell, and try to ignore the nagging worry that you're going in circles. The halls all look the same, with barely any sort of landmarks. (text-rotate-x:30)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking 2]]

You arrive at a stairwell, climbing as high as it takes you, up and up and up. You and your tired legs long for an elevator, but press on at a steady pace through the gradually arriving aching. (text-rotate-x:60)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking 3]]

Finally climbing the seventh flight of stairs, you reach a door. You walk through it, happy to be finished with stairs. (text-rotate-x:80)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking 4]]

You continue your wandering, noticing a change of scenery in the higher floor, with brighter walls, the occasional potted plant, and abstract and incomprehensible paintings periodically placed on the walls. With no real sense of where to go, you just try to follow the distant music you're hearing. (text-rotate-x:120)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking 5]]

You hear footsteps again ahead of you. Somebody, or something, is leading you somewhere. You can only hope it's back to bed. (text-rotate-x:150)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking 6]]

Finally, you reach a sign you can read. The text remains illegible on most of it, except for one. (text-style:"bold")[//ROOM #776//] Next to it is an arrow, pointing towards the end of the hallway. With just a little bit more luck, it should be closeby. (text-rotate-x:180)[[Keep Walking->Keep Walking End]]

As you pass through the hallway, you enter another massive room, with one corner covered with (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[blacked-out] windows. Directly ahead of you is a massive, ornate statue raised above the floor and shining lights into the air, swaying slightly as though met with a breeze. It's strikingly familiar. (transition-arrive:"fade-down")+(transition-time:2500)[[Look Up]]

You again feel your head begin to (text-style:"sway")[spin] as you see the lobby seven floors above you. You can see the hallway you came in through, the empty front desk, even the directory you read off of, far up above on what is now the ceiling. Shaking off the vertigo, you return your gaze to your new floor. Along the furthest wall from you is a line of doors, all closed and featureless, except for one. You approach it closer. The sign next to it is too far away to clearly read, but the text is clearly stationary and rigid. After a brief moment to catch your breath, you stride towards it. [[Enter Room #776]]

You grip the knob of the door to Room #776, twist, and push it open. Stepping through, you find yourself in a small waiting room. You are not alone. Sitting quietly on one of the plastic chairs against the wall is another person, dressed in similarly outdoorsy and rugged clothing. You lock eyes with the stranger. There's something so powerfully familiar about them. (text-style:"fidget")[You //know// them.] But at the same time, you aren't quite sure who they are. Yet, you are certain you //should.// Scanning over their face, their expression of confused recognition mirrors your thoughts. They speak, in a voice you're certain you've heard many times before. (text-colour:red)["Do we know eachother?"] [["I think so."]] [["I was wondering the same thing."]]

(text-colour:red)["Yeah, I think so to. I just... can't figure out where I know you from, or... what your name is. Then again, I'm not sure I remember mine, either."] [["Neither do I."]]

(text-color:red)["I wish I could remember where I know you from, or your name. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I can remember my own."] [["Neither do I."]]

The thought strikes you as it leaves your mouth. You know who you are, yet somehow your name seems to have escaped you. [["Are you a drifter, too?"]] [["What is this place?"]] [["How'd you get here?"]]

(text-color:red)["I think so."] They yawn, then sigh. (text-color:red)["I just wanna get back to bed."] You nod in agreement. [["What is this place?"]] [["How'd you get here?"]] [[Sit Down]]

(text-color:red)["I'm... not really sure. The building just seems like any old office building. No idea what this room is, though. I tried to open the door to get into whatever's past this waiting room, but it was locked. So... I'm just sorta waiting. I've probably been sitting here for only a couple minutes, though."] [["Are you a drifter, too?"]] [["How'd you get here?"]] [[Sit Down]]

They shrug, and cross their arms. (text-color:red)["I just kinda... wandered, I guess. Followed the very few leads I had on finding a way home. It felt like somebody was leaving a breadcrumb trail."] [["Are you a drifter, too?"]] [["What is this place?"]] [[Sit Down]]

You take a seat in one of the plastic chairs near the other Drifter, and wait. With your cane in your lap, the joints and muscles in your legs feel relieved to have a proper break. But now that you've sat down, how tired you are seems to finally be setting in. You hope this strange journey will end soon. After a short while of waiting longer, you hear the door across from the entrance begin to open, which grabs your attention and gaze, as well as the other Drifter's. [[Who's Coming?]]

You watch as a stranger in a suit steps through the door. Something about their face is impossible to discern, with nothing to focus on or decipher. Even then, (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[you can feel that they're looking directly at you.] (text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Sorry for the wait, Drifters. I take it you followed the flyers I've left you. Rest assured, you'll be back home soon."//] [["Who are you?"->Who are you 2]]

(text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Oh, nobody really."//] You can hear a playful smile in their voice as they hold their hands behind their back. The other Drifter shifts in their seat uneasily, and speaks next. (text-color:red)["Okay... so, how do we get home?"] (text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Hm. Could you stand up for me, both of you?"//] The Drifter sighs and stands, and the stranger looks at you expectantly. [[Stand Up]]

Planting your cane against the floor for support, you heave yourself back upright to stand on the concrete. A warm, humid breeze flows through the empty parking garage you're stood in. (text-color:red)["Wait... how did we..."] (text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Oh, places change. I just wanted to make sure you two didn't fall over."//] Scanning around your new surroundings, you see no parked cars, or lights. Gentle starlight pours in through the half-height walls between support beams. On all sides, the garage seems to be surrounded by more dense cityscape, except for one. You can see treetops in the distance, and with a bit of focus, you can barely make out music coming from them. The same music you followed before. [["Where are we now?"]]

(text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Near the edge of the city, in a parking garage."//] (text-color:red)["Where do we go now? You seem to know where we're supposed to be going."] (text-style:"smear","fidget")[//"Oh, I can't tell you Drifters where your homes are. You'll have to find that yourselves. Follow whatever's calling you home."//] You and the other Drifter glance at eachother in shared uncertainty. As you look back, the stranger is (text-style:"blur")[gone.] You look to the treetops visible in the distance, and the vast, impossible mountains on the horizon. [[Get a Better View]]

You approach the chest-high wall at the edge of whatever floor of the garage you're on, leaning against the cold concrete as you gaze out. Few city buildings remain between you and the (text-style:"condense")+(text-colour:green)[Forest]. And even then, these buildings look... different, somehow, than the ones you previously found yourself surrounded by, and the night sky overhead is clear and bright. Something about that forest is familiar. Maybe you're almost home. The music continues, off somewhere among the trees, as the other Drifter stands next to you. [["Do you hear...music?"]]

(text-color:red)["I think so. I'm not really sure where it's coming from, exactly. Somewhere vaguely in that direction."] They give a sweeping gesture towards the edge of the city. (text-color:red)["Why, you hear it, too?"] You nod. (text-color:red)["It's... odd, I've been hearing it before, and just kinda following. Guess we might as well keep doing that."] [["Yeah, let's find our way out of here."]]

The Drifter nods, and as though in sync, you both turn around and begin walking. You follow whatever paths downstairs you can find, discovering a number of obstacles along the way; stairways blocked by heavy boxes, car ramps with rollup shutters closed, and regions of the garage swallowed in (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness.] But after a while longer of wandering, you and your companion make it to the ground floor, with one last car ramp leading outside the garage. [[Approach the Ramp]]

As the downwards ramp comes into view, you peer down into it. There is a booth at the bottom, and a closed shutter door. Another stranger sits in the booth, reading a newspaper. Descending the ramp, you and the other Drifter approach the booth. They step forward, knocking on the glass to get the stranger's attention. They put down the paper, whose text is unreadable to you, and turn to face you both. The brim of their cap casts a shadow over their face, obscuring it entirely. //"Drifters?"// [[Nod]]

The other nods with you. //"How'd you get in?"// (text-color:red)["I'm not sure. We just kinda wound up here."] The stranger shrugs indifferently. //"Alright. Need out?"// (text-color:red)["Yeah, if you could just open the shutter for us."] They nod, and press a button on a control panel in the booth before picking the newspaper back up. The door begins to roll up ahead of you. [[Leave the Garage]]

The narrow two-way street is boxed in by buildings on either side. With the city either asleep or dead, the street lay empty and quiet. Looking in one direction, the music seems to (text-style:"sway")[reverberate] more cleanly from that direction. Peering over your shoulder in the other direction, a cavern of (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] fills the road behind you. Nigh simultaneously, the both of you set off down the unblocked road. For a few minutes, you both walk side by side quietly, keeping perfectly in pace just as you had in the garage. (text-color:red)["Hey... this sound weird, but have we done this before?"] [["What do you mean?"]]

You walk down the asphalt, until your hearing pulls you towards another alleyway. The buildings are shorter here, and much more tightly packed. You and the other Drifter walk in line as you navigate the tangled network of alleyways and footpaths. Until you reach a crossroads. Even from down in the alleys, you can see the uppermost tips of the coniferous canopies ahead of you. You each take a few steps, before halting. You look at one another from the beginning of diverging paths, both knowing that this is where your paths diverge. (text-color:red)["I knew it."] (text-color:red)["I guess this is where we part ways for now."] [["Good luck."]]

(text-color:red)["Good luck to you, too." "Hopefully we run into eachother again."] You nod, and both wave goodbye before setting off down your individual paths, following your own ways home. You delve deeper into the tangled web of densely-packed buildings. Along with the music before you, you begin to hear a (text-color:grey)+(text-style:"emboss","sway")[hum] from behind you, (text-style:"buoy")[bouncing] around the various alleyways and corridors. You stop to look around, gripping your cane tighter as you see the (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] blocking off most of the paths. (text-style:"fidget")[Behind you are impassible buildings.] [[Keep Moving]]

Moving as fast as your body can carry you, brought to the brink of collapse, you take any path the (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] hasn't swallowed, straining to hear the music over your heaving breath. After only a couple more short pathways and turned corners, you see it. You see a lush, peaceful (text-style:"condense")+(text-colour:green)[Forest] ahead of you, an end to this place, just a short distance away. Starlight streams through the canopies of the trees and down to the cobblestone path before you. And further down it, you can see the silhouettes of structures and buildings at the end, with the music directly coming from them. Is that your home? [[Leave the City]]

As you cross out of the city, off the asphalt and onto the weathered cobblestone path, the (text-color:grey)+(text-style:"emboss","sway")[hum] stops. Turning around, you see a wall of buildings with no possible way in, and you drop to your knees, gripping your cane in both hands. [[Catch your Breath]]

The buildings here are far unlike the indistinct monoliths of the city. Most you can recognize as homes, lived in and cared for. Places you've seen before in another time. You hear footsteps somewhere nearby, and the sound of a door opening and closing. [[Find Your Home]]

Taking the last few footpaths and turns, you find the source of your music. A small, quaint building with a door waiting for you on the first floor. A warm, humid breeze flows through the slumbering town. You've been away for too long. Your muscles ache and your eyelids hang heavy. Your mind clouds with the fog of exhaustion. You step up to the door of your home, yawning as you reach forward and wrap your hand around the doorknob. You twist and pull, opening the door. (transition-arrive:"dissolve")+(transition-time:10000)[[Get Back to Bed->Finale]]

(text-style:"blur","fidget")[#Your body wakes you.] Groggy and sore, you haul yourself upright. Sunlight peers through the edges of your curtain, and birdsong can be heard from outside. You've had an awful night's sleep. [[Thank You For Playing->Credits & Info]]

You both stop walking. (text-color:red)["I mean, almost all the main actions we've taken, like walking and choosing directions, have been identical. We keep in the same pace, turn at the same time."] The observation does strike you as a bit odd, but it certainly wasn't something you hadn't noticed. [["What about it?"]]

(text-color:red)["I dunno, it's just... odd. I can't shake the feeling that I know who you are, and we fall in step perfectly without even thinking about it."] You nod, similarly frustrated at your inability to remember who this Drifter actually is. [["What do you think it means?"]]

They sigh, and shrug. (text-color:red)["I dunno. Nothing here makes sense." For now, I guess we should just stick together."] You nod. [["It seems like the same thing is calling us both."]]

(text-color:red)["For now, at least." Let's just... keep walking. Maybe something'll come back to us."] You nod again, and both glance over your shoulder. The (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] is the same distance away as it was when you started down this street. [[Follow the Music]]

You hasten your pace in spite of your weariness, and gain the horrible, creeping feeling of something unseen bearing down on you. With a quick glance at your feet, you can see tendrils of (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[shadow] creeping towards your boots. The (text-color:grey)+(text-style:"emboss","sway")[hum] has only grown louder, threatening to drown out your guiding song. [[Run]]

In spite of your soreness, your pain, your exhaustion, and the difficulty in knowing exactly which way to go, you //run.// You run, fleeing the (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[dark] and whatever horrible things wait inside it. [[Follow the Call]]

After a few moments of forcing air back into your lungs and blood, you manage to regain control over your breathing. With that, you have regained enough slivers of energy to bring yourself back upright. You slowly begin walking down the path, and see familiar buildings, with one in particular drawing your attention. More familiar than any other building you've seen. Almost as familiar as your cane. As you walk deeper into the (text-style:"condense")+(text-colour:green)[Forest], you notice how massive the vegetation and trees are. Fern leaves you could hide under, mushroom caps big enough to feed you for a day, trees rivaling the heights of the concrete skyscrapers. Here, the (text-colour:grey)+(text-style:"fidget","blur")[darkness] is gone, and the light of the stars leads you down the path, until you reach the little town tucked away among the trees. [[Enter the Town]]