Your name is Marayasha Karliner. You are 30 years old and it appears as if you have wasted your life. Your [[Room->Room]] is in a state of disrepair, and you're pretty sure your life is too. Your job at bigwig tech company Silmaril has hit a rut. The gods have decided to be merciful on you today, at least, and its a Saturday, meaning you have all the time in the world.
What will you do?
[[Go for a Drive->Car moments]]Your room has seen better days. Located on the third floor of your company's apartment complex, you have tried to make your soulless live-in cubicle a home.
Your desk is covered in an array of miniatures from various wargames you've taken interest in. The good thing about your jobs is that you can afford this hobby at least.
Your laptop is mid-grade, bedazzled in various stickers of bands you enjoy. On your bed is a pile of your clothes, interspersed with a bevy of rotund plushies. Despite having enough money to afford clothes you like, you tend to go for the [[Boymoder Classic->Boymoder Classic]].
You have a couple of band posters from the time you toured the local Goth Circuit but you couldn't be bothered to put them up.(click-goto:?page,"Intro")Your standard fit, a hoodie with the logo of your favorite band, avant-darkwavers [[Dissipation->dissipation]], some black jeans and a trendy grommett belt those electronic-girls wear.(click-goto:?page,"Room")You leave your apartment, remembering to double check to see if you have the dang key.
You're not too sure where you might go in this city, but you might as well find out. You tend to not go out that often.
Where will you go?
[[Get out of the city for a change->The open road]]Atypical of cities in the US, the outskirts of your city become rural almost instantaneously. Small farms dot the rolling hills, seeming expanding into fractals of hills upon hills upon hills.
You feel like you could [[drive on forever...->drat!]]Double-click this passage to edit it.A two-woman band consisting of your girlfriends, Lily and Lilian. Practically no one has heard of their music aside of your polycule and your polycule's twitter mutuals, but you will stan them until you are dead in the ground.(click-goto:?page,"Boymoder Classic")Just as luck would have it your car breaks down.
Drat, it was a new car too.
You try to call the car service, but your phone is dead. In a stroke of utter genius, you forgot the charging cable. The only thing you can really do is [[walk.->walk]] Maybe there's an inn nearby that will help you charge your phone. Do they still have inns?The sun is starting to set and your legs are getting tired. You left your car about two mile away, and there's no real signs of life in either direction. You're sure as hell not walking back to your car, there has to be an inn there [[has to be->inn]]It's like something out of a fairy tale. At long last you spy an inn. Replete with thatched roof cottage and white stucco walls, and a charmingly painted sign of a deviously grinning cat, (text-style:"bold","emboss")[(text-colour:yellow)[The Smiling Tom]] leers at you, beckoning you to [[spend the night.->innside]]An old man is playing an old english folk song on the banjo. You could have sworn you've heard this tune before, but english folk music isn't generally something you listen to.
The clock strikes 10 pm as you approach the innkeeper.
"Ahoy there stranger," says he, "What can I do for ye?"
you're not good at discerning accents, but it sure doesn't sound American.
"Listen, my car broke down about three miles back," you say "can you call a car service to help me get back to the city?"
"Alas, tis too late to call a car service. Mayhap you can spend the night? 'tis 40 dollars, includin' breakfast. Cash only."
Not a bad price for a hotel but oof, there goes the miniature money.
What will you do?
[[Spend the night->inn room]]
[[Try to go back to your car->back to the car]]Your room is bedazzled in garish art of tom cats. Your girlfriend [[Lilian->Lilian]] tried to turn you on to Current 93, which used the art of painter Louis Wain prominently in their album art. They're something, you can say that much. These are definitely similar, but honestly not as good. They're just painterly enough to show detail, but just amateruish enough so that you can point out all of the mistakes.
Alas, there's no outlet to charge your phone. Lousy rustic inn. Not that it would help anyways, you forgot your charging cable.
Seems the only thing you can do is [[go to sleep...->dream]]Enough of that strange place, it's giving you the creeps.
You decide to walk back to your car and sleep in there. It's so far away but at least you are familiar with it.
Alright! [[Off we go!->travelling]]Not to be confused with your girlfirend [[Lily->Lily]]You are floating through (text-style:"bold","italic","wavy-underline","shadow","fade-in-out")[fields of great wisdom]
Harrowing trad music plays, growing to a lacrimose chant.
the toms are [[smiling->smiling]]Not to be confused with your girlfriend [[Lilian->Lilian]]And smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling and smiling [[and smiling->wake up]]It's a beautiful sunny day. Gods, what a nightmare you had. You wonder how your girlfriends are dealing with your internet absense. You're certainly not dealing with it well. You're a little shaken, but you go downstairs, ready to confront the [[bartender->bartender]]"'Ello there chap, you sleep alright?"
You've had enough.
"Listen here 'chap,' can you please call the local car service? I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere for fuck's sake!" You're pretty agitated, and everyone in the room can see it.
The bartender is taken aback by your lack of manners.
The aulde man playing the banjo stops his picking to look at you with a mixed expression of fear and disgust.
"Terribly sorry my friend..." Says the bartender, "We know not what this 'car service' is. If you'd like we could fix you a coach to yer vehicle."
[[You suppose this will have to do.->coach]]A black coach pulls up to the inn. Jet-black horses bray as the coachman, whose head you can barely see beckons you to get inside.
You're very taken aback by the ornate decorations on the inside. There is a painting of a woman in a frilly black blouse surrounded by butterflies. She looks positively vampiric. Until the coach reaches [[its destination->stone circle]] all you can really do is stare at her with homosexual intent.Two miles to go.[[Continue onward->one more mile]]One more mile to go
[[Continue onward->almost there]]You're almost there...
You don't see a single thing in sight.
The air is deathly silent save for the howling of the wind.
[[Wait, what's that?->ritual]]You're preeeeetty sure this is where you parked your car, but what gives? all there is is a stone circle in the middle of the road. You hear jaunty music, as if there is some raucous party going on. [[At this time of night?->take the flame inside you]]
They dance, they prance, they merrily spring.
To and fro in the moonlight gleam
The cats of night do bray with faith
How holly, how jolly, how utterly gay.
What fun they must have with no human involved
and to leave a mystery with (text-style:"bold","italic","double-underline","outline","fade-in-out")[(text-colour:yellow)[no ways to be solved]](click-goto:?page,"Game Over")(text-style:"bold","italic","shadow","sway")[=
Game Over(click-goto:?page,"innside")(enchant:?passage,(text-colour:yellow))Your Text HereHere's where the car is.
Wait? Where the hell is the car?
"[[Out->off carriage]]." Says the rider.There's no sight of your car anywhere here. Just a circle made of stones. You spy an empty [[bottle->bottle]] of rum, a mostly-empty bag of catnip and confetti sprinkled everywhere. Seems whoever was here must have had a ball of a time.
What will you do?
[[See if the rider can take you back to the city.->ask the rider]]
[[Continue searching this godforsaken place. Your car has to be somewhere.->inside stone circle]]Ol' Whisker's Jamboree Special. There's an endearingly off picture of a drunk anthropomorphic tabby on the front.(click-goto:?page,"off carriage")He left.
Dammit!!!
[[Continue searching this godforsaken place. Your car has to be somewhere.->inside stone circle]]You attempt to continue searching your area for the car. It doesn't seem like it got towed or anything so where the hell could it be?
As you continue to search you realize you are standing in the middle of the stone circle.
[[All of a sudden...->wake up in your room]]
You wake up in your room. Good god what a nightmare you had. It felt so dang real too.
It appears to be a Monday. Did you really sleep that long? Ugh, you have work today, and you're late to boot.
What will you do?
[[Begrugingly go to work->work]]Work was dull, as usual. Everyone seemed unusually smiley though. What's up with that?
It's the afternoon, which means you have free time.
What will you do?
[[Go to sleep->dream]]
[[Visit your girlfriends->irl gfs]]You decide to visit your girlfriends Lily and Lilian to get the edge off after a hard day of work, and your excessively weird nightmare.
They live in a townhouse in the arts district, a place they increasingly cannot afford. Lily works as a house DJ at Battley's, the local goth club, and Lilian is a graphic designer.
You show up to their house in your usual attire. Public transportation to there was weird, everyone on the train was smiling. For a big American city, that's most unusual.
You ring their doorbell.
[[You hear footsteps...->Lily opens the door]]Lily opens the door. Even though she is a professional goth, she looks like she's truly seen a ghost. She's wearing a frilly black blouse. Typical Lily. You exchange a hug with sapphic implications and [[go inside.->inside gfs house]] She hasn't said a word."So... uh... what's new?" You ask, struggling to make even the smallest of talk.
No answer, you guess Lily is simply being nonverbal again.
"Where's Lilian?"
Lily points at an empty painting frame she just has hanging on the wall.
"What does that mean?"
Lily leads you into [[the bedroom->bedroom]]Lily lies down on the bed, beckoning you to come hither.
You're very taken aback by all of this.
You gently [[touch her hand->touch her hand]] to ask what the matter is.Her hand starts to turn into a flight of butterflies.
What the fuck?
Silence.
Lily starts to smile.
The world starts to crumble before your eyes.
What will you do?
[[Laugh in the face of existential nonsense.->The End]](text-colour:yellow)[(text-style:"bold","italic","shadow","condense","fade-in-out")[Thanks for playing!]]