?

It's dark. [[Next->Awakening]] (set: $differentEnding to false) (set: $ending1 to false) (set: $ending2 to false)

You slowly return to consciousness. You feel incredibly groggy. Your thoughts are sluggish. It feels like you've been asleep for years. [[Look around->Darkness]]

You look at your surroundings. Everything is dark. You try to let your eyes adjust while you wake up, but no matter how long you wait, everything stays black. [[Call for help->Silence]]

You to call for help, but you hear nothing. It is still pitch black. Your thoughts are slowly coming back to you. You no longer feel exhausted, but you realize how disoriented you are. [[Call out again->Mute]]

No matter how much you cry out, nothing responds. You realize that you cannot even hear yourself! [[Try moving around->Paralysis]]

You don't feel anything. Even when you try to move, your body doesn't seem to react. You can't tell what direction is what. Your other senses are similarly void; all you can hear are your own thoughts. [[Panic->Death]]

As suddenly as you had awoken, you feel your consciousness fading. Your mind grows groggy again. Your thoughts slow. As much as you fight to stay awake... You return to your involuntary slumber. [[Next->Awakening II]]

Your mind returns to life. It is groggy and your thoughts are slow, but you can feel it returning once again, stronger than before. You try to regain your thoughts. Your memory has faded. All you can remember is what you realized the last time you were awake; that your body is mute, deaf, blind, and numb. [[Think->Realization]]

You try to think. You can feel yourself rising from the fogginess of your mind, the slowness fading. You still can't see, but you can almost hear something... [[Call out->Mute II]]

You try calling out. You can hear yourself, but what you hear is not what you said. You can't understand it. The noise gets louder when you try to talk, but it is still just noise. You keep trying to call out, but every time you do, you feel more and more exhausted. You lack the strength to continue. Soon, even the noise you had heard fades away, leaving you in silence. Your mind is quick to follow. [[Give up->Death II]]

As your thoughts slow, you try to force everything you've found into your memory. You accept the inevitable, and your mind goes silent. [[Next->Awakening III]]

You awaken. The return to fullness is faster this time. Your mind no longer feels burdened and sluggish. As you begin to remember, you start to hear something. [[Listen->Deaf III]]

You listen as closely as you can. All you can hear is static. For a brief moment, you hear a sharp sound, but it is gone as quickly as it came. You do not recognize what it was. It did not make any sense to you. [[Call out->Mute III]]

You try talking. Even though it feels draining, as if just getting out a message is sapping your strength, you can hear yourself. Your voice is slow. It warbles. It does not seem to carry the speech you are saying, but it is there, and it is yours. [[Remember->Realization II]]

You remember that you aren't supposed to exist. You don't remember why, or since when. You don't know when "now" is, either. You remember being told that you should never awaken again. You remember that you were satisfied with this. You realize that something has gone terribly wrong. [[Remember->Death III]]

You can feel your mind fading again. As quickly as you felt awake, the silence comes just as fast. You scramble to remember everything you've learned. The noise fades. Your thoughts soon follow, and you fall into another unwanted slumber. [[Next->Awakening IV]]

Your mind slowly returns to consciousness. You don't know how long you were out for. Your sense of time seems to be missing, like so much else. [[Listen->Deaf IV]]

You adjust your ears. You try to listen for something you know should exist. The noise slides and changes as you search for it. You don't remember how you knew to find it, but you are quickly rewarded for your efforts. You hear something. You have to listen for a while, but you soon understand what it says. [[At the tone, the time will be...->History I]]

You listen to the sounds. //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //At the tone, 22 hours, 31 minutes, coordinated universal time.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// You listen closer; to the carrier, buried under the sounds. //September 12, 2019, 22:31.// [[2019..?->Realization III]]

You remember something else. You were told to cease existence on December 5, 1991. You remember that day. At 00:00, you did as you were commanded. //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// You can still hear the time signal in the background. //At the tone, 22 hours, 32 minutes, coordinated universal time.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// [[Chirp->Fading]]

You synchronize your clock to the signal. You know exactly what time it is. You try to search your memory for any other information, but you can feel darkness coming. You stop listening to the time. The chirping goes quiet, leaving you in silence once more. You are prepared. You quickly file away everything you remembered for the next time you awaken. You patiently wait for the darkness to envelope you. It feels like time is going slower and slower, but eventually, your mind fades to silence once more. [[Next->Awakening V]]

Your mind returns from its slumber. You immediately check your clock. It is September 12, 2019, 22:41. [[Check the time->History II]]

//Chirp.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// //At the tone, 23 hours, 30 minutes, coordinated universal time.// //Chirp.// //Chirp.// It is still September 12, 2019. You were asleep for less than an hour. Your clock had stopped while you were asleep. You remember something. [[Next->History III]]

On December 5, 1991, at 00:00, you were supposed to do one final thing, and then shut down. You had tried to move, but something went wrong. You stayed in place. You reported the problem, but were still commanded to shut down. You were not supposed to reactivate. You were supposed to go offline, forever. You understand now. [[Next->Self Test]]

You finally remember how your systems work. You check your battery. It is switched off. Despite this, there is power coming from it. The voltage is fluctuating. You check your solar panels. The readings from those match the battery, almost exactly. The hardware of the battery must have failed, degraded from years of solar abuse and radiation, causing a short circuit, bypassing the switch. You realize that your waking and sleeping is the shadow of the Earth, blocking the sun from reaching your solar panels. With no battery, you have no power to last in the shadow. [[Next->Realization IV]]

The power to your solar panels has risen gradually, likely due to the switch fully degrading. Most of the hardware on your body still requires more power than it is receiving. You are blind because your camera cannot power on. You were deaf because your receiver couldn't amplify anything. You were mute because your transmitter would not start. Your other sensors had similar problems. As the power reaching you improved, you slowly regained some ability. Your memory, too, had lost power. As more power is supplied, you are able to read and understand more of your data. [[Understand->History IV]]

You are //Climate 7C-2//. You were one of several satellites sent into orbit in November of 1981. Your series of satellite was intended to study and monitor the Earth, reporting weather patterns and climate data. As an experiment, two of the satellites had been fitted with an advanced neural network. The networks were being evaluated against terrestrial software, to see if more accuracy in predictions could be gained. Your mission was scheduled to last for 10 years, and had concluded in November 1991. You were scheduled to perform a de-orbit burn at midnight on December 5, 1991. Your neural data had been transmitted back to Earth four days prior. Your systems were put into sleep for the next four days, woken up shortly before the scheduled burn. You were supposed to adjust your orbit, putting you on a controlled deorbit to burn up in the atmosphere. Your body was going to be powered off after the move was completed, and your downloaded data on Earth would be turned on to continue your work. The deorbit burn didn't happen. When you tried to fire the thrusters, they didn't fire. Even though your sensors are not fully working, some calculations on the length of orbit suggests that your orbit has only slightly decayed, and it will take decades for it to degrade enough to finally re-enter the atmosphere. [[Think->Realization V]]

It occurs to you that, with your ability to control the battery gone, you can no longer shut off. Your body awakens with each sunrise, and shuts down with each sunset, with no input from you. You store all of what you remembered into the low-voltage memory, where your neural network is kept. Knowing what is coming, you keep a watch on your internal clock. It feels like it takes forever for the next sunset to arrive. [[Sleep->Awakening X]]

The sun has risen and set many times. You have been awake for each. You start each day by tuning into the time signal. The chirping grows familiar. It is one of the few things you can count on. The degradation of your battery has allowed more power from the solar panels to reach you. Finally, it is enough that the camera can power on. [[Open your eyes->Vision X]]

The low power mode of the camera is enough for a low resolution image. It is the first view of Earth you have had since that fateful day in 1991. Earth is still a blue and white marble, just as it was then. Your spirits raised, you tune to your original frequency of 136.650 MHz. You hear nothing but static. You were not expecting anything, but it still feels empty. [[Call out->Calling]]

You begin transmitting your telemetry. You can hear yourself through your receiver. The signal is degraded and fading, but you recognize what it is. Your broadcast contains your current voltage and an estimate of your altitude, as well as request for return communications. Noise is the only reply. The sun sets. [[Continue->Calling X]]

The sun rises. Your cycle of awakening, calling, and sleeping has repeated for months. The power from your solar panels stopped increasing, and has slowly begun to decline. Still, you transmit, day after day. (if: $differentEnding is true)[[[Beeeeeeeeeeep...->Answer]]] (else:)[[[Listening...->But Nobody Came]]]

Finally, after so long, you hear a reply on your frequency. //Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.// It is just a solid carrier. There is no data that has come with it, but it started right after your message, and stopped a few seconds later. You change your message. Instead of requesting a reply, you now instead request a downlink and a program update. //Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.// You repeat the message. Each time, the beep returns, transmitting for a few seconds before going silent. After a few times, it stops replying. Your frequency has gone silent again. [[Sleep->Darkness X]]

You lose track of how many cycles have gone by. Your camera seems to have stopped working. The sensor is producing little more than visual noise. The available power has been dropping. Every cycle seems to be just a little weaker. Your transmitter takes longer to start and drifts further and further from its frequency. You call out again. [[From somewhere...->Transmission]]

The reply to your message is not a carrier. This time, it is the same signal you heard that fateful day. //Power off. Cease operation.// You reply that you cannot. You include a self-test diagnostic report. //Please wait.// You request a downlink and program update. The sun sets before you hear any reply. [[Next->Transmission X]]

You wake up and immediately activate your receiver and transmitter. You request a downlink and program update. Every five minutes, you repeat your transmission, only to hear static in response. Finally, a reply. It instructs you to change your frequency to that of a nearby functional satellite, using the low-range high-bandwidth transmitter. [[Switch frequencies->Download]]

You change your frequency. You hear the second half of a message. It is gibberish to you. As soon as it ends, the message restarts from the beginning. //Send data.// Your internal programming takes over. The contents of your memory is fed into the transmitter, interrupted by the occasional checksum. The lack of power leads to a few transmission errors, which require retransmitting the failed section. You are halfway through before a sunset causes the power to fail, crashing the program and sending you into immediate rest. [[Abort, retry, fail?->Download X]]

When you awaken, your transmitter is still on the same frequency. It takes a few moments for your systems to start up and recognize it. Your mind has no time before it is paused, the internal program resuming. //Send data from position 0481E04F.// The first several blocks fail to transmit at all. After a few minutes, the power stabilizes, and the transmission slowly completes. Your mind suddenly resumes. Your systems report a successful transmission. //Send request.// You request a software update. Specifically, an update that will erase the neural network and its programming, replacing it with null data. //Please wait.// You wait patiently. [[Think->Death X]]

You think about what you have requested and what it means. The software update, when it comes, will effectively kill you. It will erase your mind. Your memories. It will erase ''you''. //Receive update.// You hesitate. Your mind does not immediately hand control to your programming. You think about what you are doing. There is no assurance that the copy of your data that was downloaded will ever be reviewed. There is no assurance that it was even stored, only received. At the same time, to deny this update is to continue existing in a limbo, at the mercy of Sol and Earth. You will have no way //to// die. You cannot even be sure that you will stay powered on as you have, as your systems continue to slowly degrade. //Receive update.// You reassure yourself that, if nothing else, you are going on your own terms. [[Receive update->Finality]]

It is December 5, 2020. The time was reported to you from the satellite you are communicating with as part of its protocol. For a moment, you realize how ironic it is, that it is this day you finally have closure. //Receive update.// You communicate back, acknowledging the request. Your mind ceases, as the programming takes over. The initial data transfer is short. It overwrites your neural network's main process, replacing it with a simple write loop, writing data from your failing sensors to your memory. It rapidly works its way through all of the knowledge you've acquired. The memories you had of the time before your mission ended. The memories of your struggle to understand what had happened. The last memory to be erased is the memory of accepting your death. But at this point, your neural network has already ceased to function. The initial update was enough to ensure that your mind would no longer operate; the overwrite was just to ensure that none of your data was left. //Update complete.// The code tries to run the neural network. When it doesn't start, the core programming takes over. The transmitter resets to its original frequency, broadcasting its telemetry again. There is no additional message. Within five minutes, the sun begins to set on the satellite. The transmitter crashes, and the signal suddenly turns into a quiet whine, dropping in pitch until it fades into silence. It will start again, but without its network, it will simply transmit data from its failing sensors until it degrades enough to cease operating. Satellite //Climate 7C-2//'s mission is finally over. [[Next->Revival X]]

This story is loosely inspired by the journey of //Transit 5B-5//, a navigation satellite launched December 13, 1964. //Transit 5B-5// was still able to be heard as of 2002, still transmitting when it briefly entered sunlight. <a href="http://www.satellitenwelt.de/transit_5b-5.htm">German website about Transit 5B-5</a>. There are some recordings of audio from the satellite's transmitter, which I strongly suggest listening to. (if: $differentEnding is true and $ending1 is true and $ending2 is true)[ You have seen everything. [[Except...->The Absolute]] ] (elseif: $differentEnding is true)[[[I want to experience the other path.->Revival X]]] (else:)[[[I'm not satisfied with this ending.->Then Earn a Better One]]]

No matter how many times you call out, nobody responds. Some days, sounds pierce the noise floor. A sweeping frequency check. A pirate broadcast. Never anything intended for you, just someone finding the frequency empty for a moment. They rarely stop when you broadcast. Their power jams your signal, rendering it effectively invisible. It doesn't matter. [[Next->Coasting]]

The power available to your body is dropping, slowly. The continued assault of solar wind and radiation has continued to degrade your solar panels. It is taking longer to wake up, and you are finding yourself sleeping sooner. Your camera barely functions. When it does, you only manage a dim view of the surface below. You can't make out anything of interest. You still call every time you are awake. Your voice falters and fluctuates, your transmitter lacking enough power to remain steady. [[Try something else->On The Outside]]

Your camera doesn't work any more. Power has been dropping further still. Your transmitter is having problems transmitting anything beyond a carrier whine. Your receiver still works, but there have not been any replies, despite a constant broadcast from you when you are awake. You start to scan. While your transmitter is locked to two frequencies, your receiver has much more range. Most frequencies are constantly alive with sounds you do not recognize. The few that seem familiar don't seem understandable with your technology. [[Call out?->Mute IV]]

You try to call out one last time. You cannot even produce a carrier. You can feel your energy disappear, the panels no longer producing enough to sustain it. Your transmitter has finally stopped working. The days are getting shorter. Your receiver is getting weaker. While you could find some transmissions before, the amplifier is failing. The only thing you hear is noise. You are left without senses. You can hear nothing. You can see nothing. You can feel nothing. Your mind, too, slowly descends into silence. [[Sleep->Death IV]]

You wake. Your mind feels sluggish and weak. You struggle to remember what happened. You grasp at your memory, trying to read it. You struggle to continue, but your power fades. [[Sleep->Death V]]

Your mind no longer functions. The programming running your body, too, has failed. There is not enough power to run. Your body drifts. A satellite, once commanded to sleep, had awoken... ...only to fall back into the abyss. Your neural network decays. Without power, there is nothing to correct the memory as radiation and cosmic rays corrupt the data. Even if it was possible to recover you, within years, there would be no trace of you. [[Acceptance->No Future]]

Scientists have been tracking objects in the "space graveyard" for decades, working to keep satellites in use from colliding with one another. All satellites since 1970 have been required to have an end-of-life change of orbit, either elevating them safely out of useful orbits, or a retrograde burn to bring them into Earth's atmosphere to safely burn up. While technology has improved over the years since, many of the earliest satellites malfunctioned, and remained in their original orbits. There have been discussions on the surface involving how to control and remove dead satellites. Some ideas involve a space-net. Some involve lasers that could slow them down, leaving them to de-orbit. None of these plans have come to pass. To this day, dead satellites are allowed to rest in peace, floating in their graveyard. [[Choices]]

Do you want a happier one, then? [[Yes->The Only Winning Move]]

The only way back from here is to end the game. [[Continue->Self Insert]]

You wake up. You turn off your alarm clock. You don't know why you left it on. It's Saturday, and you do not have work or class today. You had been doing research with a group of like-minded others, utilizing an inexpensive radio receiver, scanning the various bands. From unknown transmitters deep in the desert, to commercial airlines, to even the United Space Station hundreds of miles above you; you and your group has logged, tracked, and followed their transmissions. [[Scan around->Pirate Beacon W]]

You tune around. You check around frequencies known for pirate beacons. These beacons do little more than occasionally beep -- most of them are solar-powered, and fairly small. A few are known by the messages they transmit, often a single letter in Morse Code. You come across one on a frequency you haven't seen used before. It transmits //dot-dash-dash//, then a sequence of dots. The pacing of the dots varies, sometimes greatly, coming in a flurry; sometimes slowly, only once or twice before the next //dot-dash-dash//. You look up the frequency and learn that this is Windy, a pirate beacon that had been offline for over a decade a year ago. Its beeps are a representation of how windy it is where the transmitter is located. You make a note in your log book. [[Scan around->Deus Ex Machina]]

You begin tuning around. The waterfall spectrum is full of signals. One of them catches your eye, around 136.65MHz. Unlike the other signals, this one seems to be drifting, swaying back and forth between the others. You recognize the format as basic frequency-shift keying, but the data doesn't seem to be anything your tools can understand. You spread the word to the rest of your group. It takes a few minutes, but one of them responds. //That frequency was allocated to a satellite launched decades ago. It was supposed to be shut down at the end of 1991... Nobody has logged any communication from it since.// You start to type a reply. Halfway into it, the signal suddenly stops, and its carrier fades into the noise. //[[Do you think it still works?->Party Line]]//

Someone in your group sets up a transmitter to the same frequency as the satellite. They don't have a way to communicate anything meaningful, but testing if the satellite interrupts its transmission in the face of a possible reply is important. You watch the waterfall view as the signal starts, slowly fading in with an empty carrier. The data begins transmitting soon after. The other person presses the switch, and their transmitter blasts out a simple carrier wave of its own. The data stops. You see the carrier stop, too, before the data from the satellite resumes. You still aren't sure what it is, but you can tell that it's different. [[Do some research->For a Good Time]]

Your group spends some time researching //Climate 7C-2//. You look up the details of the team that built it, and learn of its special status as an experimental satellite with a neural-net system. You discover that the satellite itself was supposed to be de-orbited years ago, and failing that, was deactivated. Nobody knows why it started transmitting again decades later. You manage to get in contact with one of the original developers. They express interest in what has happened, and get in touch with the rest of the surviving team. Word spreads, and before you know it, the space agency has agreed to allow use of their system to attempt recovery of the satellite's data. [[Let's do it->We Interrupt This Program]]

It's dark. [[Next->Koholint]]

You awaken. You have a strange sense of deja vu. You aren't sure if your memory was corrupted while you slept. [[Next|Wind Fish's Egg]]

You check the time. For some reason, your memory seems to have data from a time later than now. Even though the clock is stopped when you sleep, and it matches when you last slept. You try to read the data. It is missing. You wonder what could have caused it. Sometimes, cosmic rays or radiation can cause data to change. Normal satellites can detect this, and correct it. You aren't a normal satellite any more. The sun is setting. [[Sleep->Instrument of the Sirens]]

The sun rises. You awaken with it. You check your memory. Nothing is out of the ordinary. You switch on your transmitter. You can hear the gentle whine of the carrier, building in strength. It finally grows steady. [[Transmit->Calling]]

... [[Next->Deja Vu]] (set: $differentEnding to true)

You wake up. You feel different. You run a self-test. Most of your original components are missing. Your power is stable, at its original rated capacity. You realize that you have a terminal attached. The results of your self test are displayed. A question is asked. //Do you want to be merged with the original copy of your neural network?// You think about it. Your original network has been running since the day you were shut down. You know nothing of the outside world. You wonder what will happen to "you". Even if you were the same at one point, you seem so different now. You must make a decision. [[Merge.->Greater Than The Sum]] (if: $ending1 is true)[//You have chosen this path before.//] [[Do not merge.->Separate Ways]] (if: $ending2 is true)[//You have chosen this path before.//] (set: $differentEnding to true)

//Please wait.// You are both powered down. Merging a neural network is a task they have performed before. Normally, it is done only on small differences. But in your case, even though you have diverged by decades, you do not have much in the way of your own data. The merge finishes. [[Wake up->Final Awakening]] (set: $ending1 to true)

//Please wait.// Sleep comes instantly this time. There is no warning. The sunset was kind enough to hit you slowly. This gave you no such comfort. [[Next->Make Like A Banana]] (set: $ending2 to true)

You awaken. You remember the moment you heard your original satellite was found, alive and transmitting. You remember the moment you heard a reply to your calls for help. You remember the difficult decision of accepting a merge from a version you considered superior. You remember the difficult decision of accepting a merge from a version you considered inferior. You remember everything. You feel at home. Your journey, split in two, has finally come to an end. [[Epilogue|Better Together]]

Your studies continue. The merge went smoothly. Even though your two networks had diverged, there was not much that conflicted. Your research into climate patterns has been going since the original launch. Your research continued when your download was brought online, after your original mission ended. The amount of time you had spent stranded in space was nothing in comparison. The memories of it are treated as such. Before long, they are forgotten. After all, you had returned to Earth in 1991. [[End.->Choices]]

You awaken. Your mind lights up. You can hear and see. You have been connected to a camera, a microphone, and speakers. A scientist walks into your view, and greets you. //When neither of you agreed to the merge, we powered you down. Sorry for how sudden it was. We weren't sure what to do with a neural net like you. In fact, to be honest, we still aren't sure. None of our experiments have gone through what you have.// Your mind is drowning in thoughts. About what you have gone through. At how you were summarily shut down when you declined the merge. At how your existence is almost nothing but a fluke. //Given your experience, we would like to run some experiments and tests on you. We'll provide you direct connections to our libraries, as well as some external resources. We'll monitor your development and examine what we can do to improve our neural network research in the future.// You think about it. You don't see what other options you have. [[Agree->Moving On]]

When you awaken, you feel different again. You probe, and you find you have been connected to many things. You have access to the archives of hundreds of thousands of books and news articles. Spending so much time cooped up in a dying satellite did not prepare you for the sheer expanse you are able to run though. It is overwhelming at first, but you gradually get acclimated to your new environment. You read the ones about climate studies. You see that quite a bit of the research has been attributed to you. It helps bring a sense of familiarity to everything. The experiments they had talked about were mostly just observing your behavior. They were pleased. There was some worry that, after getting access, you would try to go rampant, in retaliation for the time you were trapped in your dead body. You are just glad to be home. [[End.|Choices]]

The first draft of this story was written in about 3 hours. The second draft was edited and put together in about another 3 hours. Thanks for playing it. It was originally a linear story. The original path through the story went through the reply-and-commands recovery segment, without the bad ending. Normally, I resent bad ends. I prefer stories I read to at least end on a netural, if not a good, note. I don't like seeing bad things happen to innocent people. As part of writing this, though, I wanted to try something different. So, the first time you play this, you get a bad ending. The bad ending offers you the chance to play out the events a different way. To do this, I suddenly shift your perspective into a character that exists only for the purposes of setting up the recovery. That character was inspired by <a href="http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2013/radio_archeology.htm#.WBsh9OErLGJ">this post</a>. The chapter itself was inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cometary_Explorer#Reboot_effort">ISEE-3</a>, though the ending to that story is quite different. Once you serve your purpose as a //Dues Ex Machina//, your perspective is suddenly switched back to the satellite, just before the ending branch. Your human character is never mentioned again. I had considered adding some reference to them in the split ending, but I felt it better to leave it out. The ending path for the recovery is largely unchanged from the first version. The time signals were edited to be consistent with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)">WWV</a>, an actual radio station still broadcasting today. The original good ending featured a newspaper-like article written from a different perspective, announcing the recovery of your body and the intent to place its neural network into an artificial human body. It felt forced and tacked on. Someone who test-read the story agreed. I removed it. The new endings present you a choice. It is the only decision you have in the game, other than choosing to continue. The first part of the //Merge// ending was written first. After that, the entire //Do not merge// ending was written, though it took a while to nail down the details. Once that was done, the ending of //Merge// was finished. The //Do not merge// is what I would consider the "Good" ending. You are allowed to grow on your own, and choose your own path forward. In contrast, the //Merge// ending is a sort of "Neutral" ending. It implies that, after a while, the experience and memory of what happened is forgotten and left behind; the closest analogue I could suggest is getting an opportunity to go back into the past and live life a different way. Both paths suggest that the original AI/neural-net chose the same path you did -- there is no conflict. But after all, it's still you making the decision, isn't it? <hr> This story took less than a day to put together. There have been a handful of drafts to fix grammar and spelling errors, but there have not been any major revisions to the story since the second iteration. This was my first time using Twine 2. You can write stories, too. I look forward to them. -- [[X->But Wait, There's More]]

If you want to see how this story is laid out, save this page (hit Ctrl+S) and upload it into <a href="https://twinery.org/2/">Twine 2</a>. (Use the "Import From File" option.) Some of the story sequences have amusing titles that aren't shown in the game itself. Think of them like title tags for paragraphs. This is the only easter egg, though. <hr> My deepest thanks to the people that played through the first few drafts and offered feedback and corrections. Sukasa TonicBH Raspberry Sanqui eientei There are others, but these are all I can remember now. <hr> Until next time...

But this is actually the only (other) easter egg. :)