You //were// human. You are sure of that.
But now, you are returned to the familiarity of the inhumane, never to truly know what made you human.
Now, [[you are a corpse.|Corpse End]]Air wheezes through your vocal chords, the rumble strumming discordantly up your throat. Some amalgamation of a voice calls from your mouth.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[Lips too numb to articulate, the sound is slow. Any attempt at a word is reduced to a desperate imitation of some wounded animal.]
The world is silent and a thought that does not belong to you [[appears|Ask where you are 2]] in your mind.The thought laughs without noise. It sneers that your attempt was feeble, explaining to something beyond your mind that it was not a good example of the verbal linguistic capabilities of your kind. (click-replace:"your kind.") [their kind.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[It 'says' humans require auditory, visual or other sensory necessities and cues in order to communicate and understand one another. ]]
It 'says' that for today's example, some ideas and concepts will be replaced or otherwise rejected by your mind entirely, so they are welcome to [[do as they wish|first choice]].In this moment:
You are confused. (click-replace: "confused") [scared] (click-replace: "scared")[hurting] (click-replace: "hurting") [hoping] (click-replace: "hoping") [angry] (click-replace: "angry") [here]
you are [[human]] you tell yourself.Thank you for playing :D
You got the Corpse Ending! This is 1/2 endings.
Written by K.Quill
[[Reward]]
[[Restart|Title Screen]]
[[Hint]]Your sense of self shifts, slipping away just to fall back in, like you're stuck in the deep pressure of the ocean unable to rise for air nor dive further in forfeit.
There is no sinking, no rising, you're left floating in an abandoned world too dark to tell up from down.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[As adrenaline drinks the energy from your body, a [[high ringing|Entrance 2]] resounds in your ears. (click-replace: "ears.") [ears - not something new, but something you are only now acclimating to after a while of being unknown to its presence]]
But all of it, the adrenaline and ringing, it all subsides to make way for [[something deafening|Entrance 3]].The noise taunts you.
Above as below, near as far; the sound mingles with your swimming blood and rushing thoughts through your head.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[It all subsides at the discordinent [[footsteps|Entrance 3]] that echo around you.]Loudly echoing footsteps - yet muffled(click-replace:"yet muffled")[yet muffled, like your ears are stuffed with cotton].
Even with the muffled nature of the footsteps, with those at least remains some indicator to time and space. You hear a voice with no echo, and no place that should surround you, instead seeming to speak from some unknown place within your own skull.
[[Ask where you are]].
[[Stay quiet]].It says yes, this species, that humans, have a strange notion of a heart versus love, it is something intangible.
It is something [[intrinsic]].
(click-replace: "intangible.") [intangible //for humans//.
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[Be it devotion, relationships or some other form of faith or belief, this species has killed over similar and disimilar notions of hypotheticals, perspectives and answers for things we are too inexperienced to uncover. While similar to the voice's sense of communication, it says it is not something humans can easily convey.
Too abstract and unknown for us to process, despite our pride and focus, we are unable to sense love, we are unable to agree on it.]]Humans are curious creatures, when for the last time, you are deciding who you are, what makes you human, [[exhaust all your options.|Corpse End]]
(text-colour:black)[[[Or, you can take the easy route to the secret ending.|It asks you]]]You are your mind.
(click-replace: "mind") [brain] (click-replace: "brain") [mind]
(click-replace: "mind") [brain] (click-replace: "brain") [mind]
(click-replace: "mind") [brain] (click-replace: "brain") [ [[self]] ]
You are your heart.
(click-replace: "heart") [love] (click-replace: "love") [heart]
(click-replace: "heart") [love] (click-replace: "love") [heart]
(click-replace: "heart") [love] (click-replace: "love") [ [[self]] ]
You are your legacy.
(click-replace:"legacy") [private-actions](click-replace:"private-actions") [legacy](click-replace:"legacy") [private-actions](click-replace:"private-actions") [legacy](click-replace:"legacy") [private-actions]
(click-replace: "private-actions") [ [[self]] ]
[[But even so.]]New clothes and voices unlocked!
This time do your best to imagine yourself in a pink tutu, with a purple rubber watch and clown shoes, with the most American-TV-Game-Show-Host voice you can muster.
[[back|Corpse End]]You slip into your body. Slowly, your consciousness fills your mind as you wake from a sleep you do not remember falling into.
Air floods your lungs, and unfamiliar [[awareness|Start 2]] fills your chest, rising up your throat and pitifully slipping from your lips .No light streams from any window nor nightlight. There are no familiar sounds, no distant cars or singing birds.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[Your only company is a slow mechanical whirring that surrounds you. ]
The darkness suffocates you, it clouds your eyes, almost tangible. It envelops you entirely and holds your body tight as you wade through the leeching drag of sleep.
[[You look around.]]
[[You rub at your face.]]It knows you are awake, it tells you.
(click-replace: "tells you.") [tells you.
(align:"<==")+(box:"XXXXXXXXX=")[You hear it like a memory of a stranger's words in a forgotten dream. Voiceless and faceless, the facsimile of vowels and consonants disguises raw innate meaning that soaks into your head.]] It says you are in a sort of stasis.
It says they can see your lungs pause and inflate in front of you. It says it is best you do not attempt to move. It tells you that [[it is best you do not open your eyes.|first choice]]You squeeze the air in your throat tight shut, desperate to stop any stray tremble of breath from escaping.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[You are still.
(align:"<==")+(box:"X=")[You are quiet. ]
Locked in self-imposed binds of silence, you listen in waiting.]
Eager ears are rewarded with the invasive [[whisper|Stay Quiet 2]] of something closer than you thought possible.(text-style:"bold","double-underline","outline")[''Vivisection'']
An Introspective Horror game.
CW / TW: Derealisation, implied medically induced helplessness, implied medical-based gore.
[[Start]]There is no answer you can be provided with that would tell you everything it means to be some strange concept that even stranger creatures named 'human'.
But what you can know, is that if you keep going; it will get easier.
(click-replace: "going;") [going, breathing, acting, reacting, thinking, living,]
(click-replace: "easier.") [easier.
Through resistance or rest, through time and patience, being human gets easier with practice. I promise. ]
So for now, you [[rest your eyes]].You are many things:
A body hardwired with instincts. (click-replace: "instincts") [instincts: of which you can elect to ignore, indulge, comfort or train]
A creature of nature. (click-replace: "nature") [nature: and as a part of nature, you are deserving of care and patience as you continue to grow]
A creature of nurture. (click-replace: "nurture") [nurture - from people and places that you hold dear, that you despise - you are the culmination of how you have adapted]
You are a person who has gone through great hardship and you will again. (click-replace: "hardship") [hardship and has suffered immensely for it. All the same you have gone through great hope and joy]
[[You are yourself]]A rush of instinct grips you.
Your muscles move quicker than your thoughts, or at least they attempt to. Your face tenses and burns with a will to open your eyes, to see anything.
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[It remains still.]
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==")[Your eyebrows, your cheeks, your lips, nothing moves.]
(align:"<==")+(box:"=========XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=")[You can not see. You can not move. You can not feel.]
(click-replace: "You can not feel.") [You can not feel.
Lost in something darker than ink, it sticks to your body like tar. It weighs down every movement your body begs to enact.]
You can not see your muscles try to tremble, you can not see your muscles fail. You can not see [[anything|Entrance]].Your eyes weigh heavy in their sockets.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[There are no patterns or colours dancing past your eyelids, no outlines or shapes in the dark. You cannot see.]
This is //internal//, like weights have been inserted into the eyelids themselves.
You fail to pry open your eyes, and realise it's instead far more like they've been [[wired shut|You look around 2.]].Your conscious effort sieves into the rest of your body, stretching your mind to fill the cavities of your chest and back - nothing.
Your body begs to twitch, to tense - nothing.
Your mind desperately rushes to your feet, your arms, your hands - any sense of feeling slips past you like prayers from pleading hands. You try and you fail again and again.
(click-replace: "again and again.") [again and again.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[Your mind itches for control over your body, currents like lightning burrow through your nerves, tendons and muscles.
Every attempt fades to distant echoes muffled yet echoing in the hollow body you reside in.]]
You can not feel yourself or your muscles under your skin. You can not feel [[anything|Entrance]].Weighed down with sleep, your hands perpetually lag behind your intentions. They refuse (click-replace: "refuse") [are unable] to lift from where they lie.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXX====")[The moment lasts.]
You try to move again. Your muscles do not [[contract|You rub at your face 2.]].Almost, one said. It answers that humans are almost our brains.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[While our minds create the fuel like chemicals, it is our brain that is the actual engine.]
A concoction of reactions nudging itself along, like writhing beetles and twisting worms, we squirm and crawl across ourselves to spur action from reaction. (click-replace: "reaction.") [reaction. (align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[
You scramble to form any thought only to feel your synapses pulled away and dissected before you.]]
But brains are not exclusive to humans, it continues, and similarly, if we have no mind for the brain to house, it asks what makes that more human than a vial of [[meat|second choice]].A chorus of laughter sings to your exhibition, distorting like your head is forced beneath water.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[(align:"<==")+(box:"XXXXXXXXX=")[The notion of laughter fades with time, and a new thought leaks into your head. ]
Clearer than any thought you've ever had, a singular 'voice' drowns the noise of thoughts from your audience:]
It asks how humans dictate their actions.
Some say [[mind]],
others say [[brain]].It answers that that's nearly right.
Hearts pump fluid (click-replace:"fluid")[fluid - a red mucus called blood- ] around human bodies, through other organs.
But, it asks, if the heart is removed and replaced with a facsimile, something like an animal, it asks if it would still be human.
(click-replace: "human.") [human.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[That if they went on to replace a human's skin with a counterfeit - eyes and face and hands - with something else, it asks at what point it would cease being human.
Conversely, if they chose some animal to replace piece by piece, it asks at what point would it become human.]]
Yes, it says that humans are nearly hearts and blood and organs, but it asks what [[more|third choice]].A sense of self can be so easy to overlook, take the easy route when you're asked for the last time when deciding [[what you are|true end]].
(text-colour:black)[[[Or, go straight to the juncture where it matters.|It asks you]]]Bound by inaction and shackled by isolation:
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[not an instinct in your memory, not an instruction in your muscles,] memories and devotion can not reach you here.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[With not a breath in your lungs,
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[not a beat in your heart, ]
you are stripped of your thoughts.]
[[You are human|...]] you plead with yourself.But in any case, it says, humans believe it is some semblance of love that makes them discernibly human from anything else. (click-replace: "anything else.") [anything else.
(align:"<==")+(box:"XXXXXXXXX=")[The same love as their animals love them, or 'devotion' the same as an Earth ant devotes its life to the colony.]]
The creatures laugh that humans, who claim to be so driven by emotion and faith, stake lives and identities on a definition.
They laugh as if it was something [[exclusive to us|third choice]].Legacy, it says, is close.
It asks that if not regarded as human by others - with no concept of humanity itself - would a human see itself as one, or place any importance on the concept at all. (click-replace: "at all.") [at all.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[That as a product of upbringing and critical thought, or lack thereof; who humans know and how they know them creates an identity in one another's minds. It asks if that perception is any less real than the meat that refracts those corroborating experiences.]] (click-replace:"experiences.")[experiences.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[Temporary creatures with temporary ideas that will be replicated and rekindled. It asks what more is a human than their image.]](click-replace:"image.")[image.
(align:"<==")+(box:"==XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX===")[It asks if for a human to be perceived or regarded in the same essence deems one as human. ]
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX==")[[It asks you.|It asks you]]]It answers that humans are almost their minds, //almost//. While our brains are the meat that keeps our body coordinated, it is our minds that carve neural pathways into our physiology.(click-replace: "physiology.") [physiology.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[As it speaks a pressure blooms in your head, deep within your skull without breaking skin.
It is painless, it is cold, and discernibly, it feels like your head is far from your body.]](align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[It continues that practised patterns and exposed traumas shape human emotional reactions, our muscle memory.]
The routine of our work and relationships, how we navigate the world based on prior experiences, it all [[stems from|second choice]] our mind. But it asks what is a mind alone from a brain to run it.Private life, it says, is close.
It asks if, once shed from social eye where actions are of their own accord, if that is then the truest form of that human. (click-replace: "human.") [human.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[It says while in isolation or company, a human's identity persists whether they like it or not. Be it only as a stasis of dissociation and waiting for their next commitment or engagement, it asks if these liminal transitions devoid of social conditioning is that human's //real// self.]] (click-replace: "self.") [self.
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[But, it asks if a human does not like itself or its actions while alone, and instead favours who they are in company, does that version become truer. ] (click-replace:"become truer.")[become truer.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=")[Or, if all selves are equally forged, then all selves are equally fake. ]
[[It asks you]].]]You let the world slip away.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=========")[And you are happy. ]
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[You are [[all you need to be.|true end]].]New clothes and voices unlocked!
This time do your best to imagine yourself with a comfy blanket keeping you warm, a soft pillow under your head and fuzzy slippers on your feet.
[[back|true end]]A cacophony of thoughts overlap, half start abruptly, half waver in and out of your processing.
(align:"<==")+(box:"=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX====")[Yet the primary one, the increasingly familiar voice, - not from company or merit but intrusion - is still tangible past all the forces of noise that drift around it like water. ]
It continues, that it's a similar question to ask a human about their heart or of love.
Some ask about [[heart]],
others ask about [[love|Heart]].[[You are yourself.]]The orchestra of thoughts simmer around the primary voice as if taking up space. (click-replace: "taking up space.")[taking up //real// space - giving berth, some daring others to dip closer toward it, some clinging to corners.] The voices are almost physical, dancing around each other and you as you tremble, cold, unable to see them move.
(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX=======")[Your mind untangles the primary thought's words relaying that humans are mammals. (click-replace:"mammals.")[social creatures.]
It asks of the divide between human relations or lack thereof. ]
One voice offers the term [[legacy]].
Another voice offers [[private life]].Thank you for playing :D
You got the True Ending! This is 2/2
Written by K.Quill
[[Reward|reward]]
[[Restart|Title Screen]]
[[Hint|hint]]