Distance & Mirage

The sun is heavy overhead, its tangible heat weighing on your neck and running a river of sweat down your spine. Far off in the hazy desert, obscured by distance and mirage, is the facility. You know as much about it as you're meant to—shitty, you know that, but you gotta get there whether or not you know the same thing as the fat butch sweating worse than you (but too cool to take off her leather jacket). She calls herself Max, and she's fine. You don't know her well, beyond the fact that she wants in there, same as you do. You don't know why and you've never asked. <br><br> (link: "You don't care.")[(set: $_temp to 0)(goto: $nextpassage)] (link: "You've been burned before.")[(set: $_temp to 1)(goto: $nextpassage)] (link: "Not your business.")[(set: $_temp to 2)(goto: $nextpassage)]

<br><br>{(if: (passage:)'s tags contains "none" or (passage:)'s tags contains "choice")[](elseif: (passage:)'s tags contains "fin")[(link: "<i class=\"fa-solid fa-arrows-rotate\"></i>")[(goto: "startup")]](else:)[(link: "<i class=\"fa-solid fa-angles-right\"></i>")[(goto: $nextpassage)]]}

{(if: not ((passage:)'s tags contains "none"))[ (set: $lastpassage to (passage:)'s name) (set: $passage to it + 1) (set: $nextpassage to ((text: $chapter) + (text: $passage)))]}(link-repeat: "<i class=\"fa-regular fa-sun\"></i> / <i class=\"fa-regular fa-moon\"></i>")[(if: $theme is "dark")[(set: $theme to "light")<script>changeMode(1);</script>](elseif: $theme is "light")[(set: $theme to "dark")<script>changeMode(0);</script>]]<br><br>

(live: 0.05s)[(goto: "00")]

(if: $_temp is 0)[Not your horse, not your rodeo.](elseif: $_temp is 1)[It's a bad idea to get chummy with people on heists, full stop.](elseif: $_temp is 2)[You're pretty sure this isn't a meet and greet, and she's not your bestie.] On your flank, dust kicks up as the linchpin shows up in a black Rolls-Royce that shines despite the grit. Frances Wakefield steps out, wearing pale silk and khaki, with heavy black sunglasses. She doesn't sweat—not now and not ever, you think. "Are we ready?" she asks in a clipped voice, with the unidentifiable accent that rich people have. You and Max straighten, and then it's time to execute the plan you know like a muscle memory, letting you slip into the back of your brain to wait, like a hungry snake.

Frances' name gets you past the front door, and Max stays back, taking up space with her cracked leather jacket and the coarse sweat build up under her tits. This frees you to slink down the artificially-cold concrete corridor unnoticed, unharassed—names and faces are confidential here, where only the inmates have lost the luxury of privacy under the throbbing panopticon. You don't give a fuck, bounding towards your goal. Room Three, in the medium-security ward.

You press your hand to the laminate door, feeling a warmth emanate from within. You see xyr in your mind's eye, both the person in front of you and as a hazy memory from childhood. <i>The light is so |light>[intense](mouseover-replace: ?light)[(display: "light")] that it casts |noun>[the trees](mouseover-replace: ?noun)[(display: "noun")] in the same black shadow.</i> They're not the same, but they share commonalities. That <i>thing</i> had the same gossamer wings as a beetle, <i>plantigrade</i> legs, black eyes. This one has long white hair that falls in thick, greasy strands around its gaunt face: imprisonment doesn't suit them.

<i>Has Frances sent you?</i> xe asks, the message rattling through your palm. Their voice is low and rasping, like the flickering embers of a dying campfire. You screw your eyes shut, your jaw so tight that it hurts your teeth as your fingertips dig painfully into the cheap door holding this thing behind it. You try to think so loud and angry that it hurts, twisting an intangible muscle inside of you. <i>Where's Laurel, you bug fuck?</i>

{(either: "harsh", "blinding", "bright", "burning", "scorching", "brilliant") (mouseout: ?light)[(mouseover-replace: ?light)[(display: "light")]]}

{(either: "the creature", "your hands", "the truck", "Laurel") (mouseout: ?noun)[(mouseover-replace: ?noun)[(display: "noun")]]}