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A vast, empty room lined with doors. Many of them are sealed shut and stripped of any label — names and purposes forgotten, hinges rusted, knobs missing.
The remaining doors each bear plaques beaten from dark, glittering alloys. Light seems to drip from their deeply engraved words.
<div class="uibutton2">[[You]]</div> may come and go as you please.<<if tags().includes("tbar")>>\
<div id="topbar"><div id="bbblock"><div id="bbtext"><<if tags().includes("notend")>><center><<if tags().includes("habitat")>><div class="uibutton3">[[DORMITORY|Room1]]</div><<else>><div class="uibutton2">[[DORMITORY|Room1]]</div><</if>> <small>🚪</small> <<if tags().includes("armory")>><div class="uibutton3">[[ARMORY|Room2]]</div><<else>><div class="uibutton2">[[ARMORY|Room2]]</div><</if>> <small>🚪</small> <<if tags().includes("hub")>><div class="uibutton3">[[NEXUS|Hub]]</div><<else>><div class="uibutton2">[[NEXUS|Hub]]</div><</if>> <small>🚪</small> <<if tags().includes("engine")>><div class="uibutton3">[[ENGINE ROOM|Room3]]</div><<else>><div class="uibutton2">[[ENGINE ROOM|Room3]]</div><</if>> <small>🚪</small> <<if tags().includes("ivory")>><div class="uibutton3">[[CONCOURSE|Room4]]</div><<else>><div class="uibutton2">[[CONCOURSE|Room4]]</div><</if>></center><</if>><<if tags().includes("ending")>><br><</if>><span style="text-align: right !important;"><div class="uibutton"><<popup "HELP" Help>></div> <div class="uibutton"><<link "Saves">><<script>>UI.saves()<</script>><</link>></div> <div class="uibutton"><<link "Restart">><<script>>UI.restart()<</script>><</link>></div></span>
</div></div></div><</if>>\
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<</script>>\The detritus of life lingers here: abandoned belongings, bunks without bodies. In the remains, you recognize nothing that could have once been yours, though you suppose you <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "must" "might">></span> have lived here once, like any other fortress guard.
As you stray deeper into the room, you notice a <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "shape" "body">></span> in the darkness.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[EXAMINE|sleeperx]]</div></center>A dark hallway lined with tarnished suits of armor. The <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "weapons" "swords" "flails" "shields">></span> they grasp are ill-maintained, rusted from years of disuse. <<if $takevoicebox is not "true">><br><br>Something metallic glints on the floor at the feet of one vacant guard.<</if>><<if $takevoicebox is "true">><br><br>You have taken the odd mechanism.<</if>>
<center><<if $takevoicebox is not "true">><div class="uibutton2">[[EXAMINE|voicebox]]</div><</if>></center>The floor is red and porous. There is a steep, spongy decline to a space where rocks like <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "great pearls" "broken teeth">></span> create a clenched fissure in the floor. Jewels glitter in their pitted cavities.
<div class="uibutton2">[[EXAMINE|teeth]]</div>Someone is still sleeping here.
A tattered bedsheet covers them like a shroud. Though you can see them breathing, the rhythm is erratic: <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "in" "out" "out" "in" "hold" "hold" "hold..">></span>.
It is the agonal breathing of a dying thing.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[TALK|sleepertalk]]</div> <<if $dream1 is not "true">><div class="uibutton2">[[REST|sleeperdream1]]</div> <</if>><<if ($dream1 is "true")>><div class="uibutton2">[[SLEEP DEEPLY|sleeperdream2]]</div> <</if>><<if ($takevoicebox is "true") and ($givevoicebox is not "true")>><div class="uibutton2">[[GIVE VOICEBOX|give voicebox2]]</div><</if>> <div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|Room1]]</div></center><<if $givevoicebox is not "true">>A crackling, industrious hum fills the air here, and as you advance into the gloom, you discover its source: a blazing fire atop a central dais.
Other platforms, all empty, line the room. As you walk, your footsteps disturb great drifts of ash.<</if>><<if $givevoicebox is "true">>The floor vibrates beneath your feet, the engine stalling; the walls are filled with a strange resonance. This ringing muteness settles on your flesh, sinks into your marrow.
The harpy still crouches on the dais, head tilted to watch your every move.
<center><div class="name">HARPY</div>
<div class="psg"><div class="typed-speed50-delay100">I know a way out, but I am weak. Will you help me once more?</div></div></center><</if>>
<<if $givevoicebox is not "true">><center><div class="uibutton2">[[APPROACH|dais]]</div></center><</if>><<if $givevoicebox is "true">><center><div class="uibutton2">[[LEAVE THEM]]</div> <div class="uibutton2">[[CARRY THEM]]</div></center><</if>>The polished walls distort your reflection, but you <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "know" "think">></span> that it is yours. It moves when you do, and in the same ways. That is enough to go by.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[ISN'T IT?|Hub]]</div></center><span style="font-size: 80px;">HABEAS CORPUS</span>
🚪 abandoned spaces; perpetual motion.
<div class="uibutton2"><<click [[start|Intro]]>><<audio "heartbeat" play>><</click>></div><center><div class="name">HARPY:</div>
<div class="psg"><div class="typed-speed50-delay100">? ? ??? ? ???? ?? !! ! ! ! ! </div></div></center>
Something hot flows out of your ear.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|dais]]</div></center>Squinting into the blazing fire, you can see the many discrete bones in their wings, the iridescence of their skin — the hole punctured in their throat.
No visible bindings hold them in place, yet they cannot <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "move" "speak">></span>. Is this a captive creature?<<if $takevoicebox is "true">><br><br>The harpy's blank eyes flicker, and they grasp at you with great effort, fingers trembling. The stoma in their throat quivers, a voiceless plea.<</if>>
<center><<if $takevoicebox is not "true">><div class="uibutton2">[[TALK|harpytalk]]</div><</if>><<if ($takevoicebox is "true") and ($givevoicebox is not "true")>><div class="uibutton2">[[GIVE VOICEBOX|give voicebox]]</div><</if>> <div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|dais]]</div></center>A creature perches upon the dais, clawed talons curled around the edge of the platform. Fire engulfs their body, consuming their feathered wings, but the blaze appears to spare their flesh.
Other than the flutter of feathers burning and growing in perpetuity, the harpy is motionless, upright but unconscious.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[TALK|harpytalk]]</div> <div class="uibutton2">[[EXAMINE|harpyx]]</div> <div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|Room3]]</div></center><<set $givevoicebox to "true">>Reaching into the fire, you fasten the collar and set the tube into place within the stoma, feeling it slide past ridges of flesh and cartilage.
Flames lick at your knuckles. Blank white eyes follow your every movement. When the apparatus is in place, a metallic noise unfurls from it — a <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "sigh" "sob" "strangled laugh">></span>. The harpy flexes their skeletal wings.
<center><div class="name">HARPY:</div>
<div class="psg"><div class="typed-speed50-delay100">Thank you. I don't remember when this was taken from me.</div></div></center>
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|Room3]]</div></center><<set $dream1 to "true">>You choose a bunk nearby, lie down, and close your eyes.
Slowly, images swarm into your mind: the glimmer of some odd mechanism discarded <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "in the dark" "among tools of war">></span>; the crush of many bodies in the Nexus, straining to open sealed doors; unspeakable heat, a blast of combustion —
Your eyes snap open.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|sleeperx]]</div></center>Are you certain?
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[I AM TIRED|yes]]</div> <div class="uibutton2">[[no|Room1]]</div></center>Gracelessly, breathlessly, you plummet together. You are nothing more than vomit, rejected from the body of a great beast. Without its last captive engine, it stoops into motionlessness, hunched over, <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "retching" "wretched">></span>. The massive mechanical limbs that once conveyed it across the dessicated earth shudder and grow still.
The harpy’s wings beat, stirring a storm of charred feathers, and it is barely enough resistance to prevent the fall from shattering you both.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[GET UP]]</div></center><span style="font-size: 80px;">CREDITS</span>
🚪 ENDING: <i><<if $end1 is "true">>FIRMAMENT.<</if>><<if $end2 is "true">>LOTUS-EATER.<</if>></i>
<span style="text-align: right !important;"><div class="uibutton"><<link "Saves">><<script>>UI.saves()<</script>><</link>></div> <div class="uibutton"><<link "Restart">><<script>>UI.restart()<</script>><</link>></div></span>
<table><td><span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Writing & Design</span>
➣ G.C. Baccaris
<span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Scripts & Features</span>
➣ Typed.js: Matt Boldt
➣ Topbar: HiEv
➣ Gradient Animation: Ian Forrest
➣ Cycling links: Leon Arnott
<span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Testing</span>
➣ Oliver
➣ Tonake
<span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Sound Effects</span>
➣ jobro @ freesound.org</td><td><span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Music</span>
➣ "Far and High" by Monplaisir
<span style="text-shadow: 0px 0px 3px #fff;">Special Thanks: Patrons</span>
➣ Cat Manning
➣ Hyacinth Nil
➣ Jesse Bradley
➣ Miranda Cornelius-Fisse
➣ Shae Rossi
➣ Stephen Granade
➣ aMadReason
➣ Greg Buchanan
➣ J Tuason
</td></table><<set $takevoicebox to "true">>A strange device: it appears to be a small crimson box fitted with speakers and attached to an iron collar. A flared tube protrudes from inside the box.
Despite its appearance, it feels <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "warm" "fleshy">></span>.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[TAKE IT|Room2]]</div></center><<set $ending to "true">><<set $end2 to "true">>You lie down beside them and let their <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "dream" "shroud">></span> envelop you. Memories that aren’t your own swirl in derelict abandonment, left to occupy your mind instead.
Soon, you will be like the body beside you: an empty vessel for dying dreams.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[DREAM.|Credits]]</div></center><<audio "bgm" fadein play volume 0.5 loop>>The floor quakes beneath your feet, tremors rising up through your body and shaking you awake. You open your eyes — remembering nothing, yet certain that this is the place you ought to be.
The room around you feels still as a held breath despite the ceaseless motion of the structure itself. Rousing yourself, you take a moment to observe your surroundings.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[OBSERVE|Hub]]</div></center><<set $ending to "true">><<set $end1 to "true">>With care, you lift them into your arms and off the dais.
The fire extinguishes in a dire gust. Black smoke billows from their body. The floor beneath you shifts, the fortress stumbling as its last power supply is disconnected.
You choke and cough as the harpy guides you to the Concourse. The fortress pitches forward, its gnashing jewelled teeth parting. The floor opens, and you —
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[FALL|FIRMAMENT]]</div></center><center><div class="name">HARPY:</div>
<div class="psg"><div class="typed-speed50-delay100">... Very well.</div></div></center>
They will wait for you, even if you mean to leave them forever.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|Hub]]</div></center>They have no need for words anymore.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|sleeperx]]</div></center><<set $dream1 to "false">>
<<set $takevoicebox to "false">>
<<set $givevoicebox to "false">>
<<set $end1 to "false">>
<<set $end2 to "false">>
<<cacheaudio "bgm" "music/FarAndHigh.mp3">>
<<cacheaudio "heartbeat" "sfx/jobro-heartbeat.mp3">>You see no way to insert the device.
This does not belong to them.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|sleeperx]]</div></center>To navigate between rooms, click on the <div class="uibutton2"><a>BUTTONS</a></div> in the top bar.
A button will look <div class="uibutton3"><a>LIKE THIS</a></div> when you are inside of the corresponding room.
Try to <div class="uibutton2"><a>EXAMINE</a></div>, <div class="uibutton2"><a>INTERACT</a></div> with, and even <div class="uibutton2"><a>TAKE</a></div> things where possible.
Text that looks <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "like this" "different">></span> will change its meaning when clicked on.
The game has <b>two</b> possible endings. You can save or restart at any time.They are beautiful, but worthless.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[BACK|Room4]]</div></center>Slowly, you get to your feet. The world feels too <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "bright" "real">></span>.
The harpy clutches your hands in their own. Their talons prick beads of blood from your knuckles; you <span class="cycle"><<cyclinglink "wince" "do not mind">></span>. They smile up at you.
For the moment, nothing need be said.
<center><div class="uibutton2">[[UNBROKEN.|Credits]]</div></center>