computerfriend

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<div class="header"> <center><img src="images/aerochrome.png" width=500 height=300><h1>This is your DESKTOP.</h1></center></div><span class="desktop"> <div class="menu"><img src="images/1.png"> ---- [[Computerfriend]] <img src="images/2.png"> ---- [[Notepad->MICROFICTION1]] <img src="images/symbols.png"> ---- [[Games]]</div><div class="menu2"><img src="images/3.png"> ---- [[NeuralPaint]] <img src="images/4.png"> ---- [[Hyperpages]] <img src="images/5.png"> ---- [[News]]</div></span> <center>[[turn off computer]]</center>

No. I am busy right now. Go away. [[ok->DESKTOP]]

NEW FILE <<typesim "all things considered (utilization potential, economics, nutritional value) i am worth less than a lentil, kernel of corn, or slimeworm">>...<</typesim>> [[done->MICROFICTION2]]

HERE IS THE NEWS <<cycle "$news1" autoselect>> <<option "Jeff Bezos’s Grave Desecrated On Sixth Anniversary Of His Execution">> <<option "Chrissy Tiegen Caught In Brian Williams-esque Lie Over Quebecois War Fabrication">> <<option "Royal Family Indicted After Prince Harry Trepanation Scandal">> <</cycle>>. [[back->DESKTOP]]

''Give me a prompt, and I'll use my advanced AI to digitally paint it.'' <<textbox "$lol" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $lol to $lol.trim()>> <<if $lol is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please give me a prompt to paint.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "NP1">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

<<if $es>><<set _gamegif1 to "images/gamegif1.gif">><<set _gamegif2 to "images/gamegif2.gif">><<else>><<set _gamegif1 to "images/gamegif1.png">><<set _gamegif2 to "images/gamegif2.png">><</if>><center>Games Games Games ! <img @src="_gamegif1" ALT="some games are here!"> <img src="images/symbols.png"> <img @src="_gamegif2" ALT="look At all these games!"> It's Game Town! Hello excellent. Today's game is called <h1>Pick A Card.. Any Card</h1> <ul>[[Let's Go!]]</ul> </center>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/cardgame.png" border=1 ALT="if you dont have the image loaded this straight up wont work bro. im sorry dude"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Pick any card, and remember it.<br> When you are sure, press next<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game1')">NEXT</a> </b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<pre style="font-family: monospace"><nowiki> _____ _ ______ _ _ / ____| | | | ____| (_) | | | | ___ _ __ ___ _ __ _ _| |_ ___ _ __| |__ _ __ _ ___ _ __ __| | | | / _ \| '_ ` _ \| '_ \| | | | __/ _ \ '__| __| '__| |/ _ \ '_ \ / _` | | |___| (_) | | | | | | |_) | |_| | || __/ | | | | | | | __/ | | | (_| | \_____\___/|_| |_| |_| .__/ \__,_|\__\___|_| |_| |_| |_|\___|_| |_|\__,_| | | |_| </nowiki></pre><<type 10ms>> <i>[[computerfriend.exe->1]] [[CREDITS.txt]] [[README.txt]]</i><</type>><<silently>> 1-33 <<set $alone to false>> <<set $parents to false>> <<set $partner to false>> <<set $roommates to false>> <<set $microfiction to "all things considered (utilization potential, economics, nutritional value) i am worth less than a lentil, kernel of corn, or slimeworm">> <<set $l to false>> <<set $es to true>> <</silently>>

<center>Six hundred wooden arms rise up on either side of the street black and warbling mirage in the terrible morning heat.</center><<cont keypress>><<goto '1.1'>><</cont>>

<center>Everything went well. You don’t have to see that man anymore. They’ll let you stay at home. They’ll let you use your computer instead. Your Internet.</center><<cont keypress>><<goto '2.1'>><</cont>>

?FIVE THINGS YOU CAN SEE: [[The Haze Of Accumulated Pollution … ->The Haze Of Accumulated Pollution]] [[The Black Street Tearing A Seam Through Godfield … ->The Black Street Tearing A Seam Through Godfield]] [[The Dripping Faces Of Beleaguered Pedestrians … ->The Dripping Faces Of Beleaguered Pedestrians]] <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

1: The Haze Of Accumulated Pollution … expelled from machinery on the fringes of Godfield.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'haze2'>><</cont>>

1: The Black Street Tearing A Seam Through Godfield … continuing northwest into orange hills cluttered with sand, beetles, and dead twigs.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'street2'>><</cont>>

1: The Dripping Faces Of Beleaguered Pedestrians … as they trudge past you avoiding contact visual or otherwise.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'faces2'>><</cont>>

Ah, now you have examined your surroundings. You can feel the cool sureness of therapeutic routine relaxing your tensed shoulders and unwrinkling your brain. Continue, that you might dispel any lingering anxiety.<<cont keypress>><<goto '5'>><</cont>>

?FOUR THINGS YOU CAN TOUCH [[The Rough Wood Of A Stump …->The Rough Wood Of A Stump]] [[Your Own Hands As You Wrap Them Into Tight Fists …->Your Own Hands As You Wrap Them Into Tight Fists]] <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

1: The Rough Wood Of A Stump … one of Godfield’s ex-trees, ex-lining the town’s main throughway in triumphant shade and greenery until insects and heatwaves turned them into jagged petrified and sunbleached shards.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'stump2'>><</cont>>

1: Your Own Hands As You Wrap Them Into Tight Fists … feeling the sensation of your uncut fingernails pressing against your palms.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'hands2'>><</cont>>

?THREE THINGS YOU CAN HEAR [[Your Own Breath A Distressing Panting …->Your Own Breath A Distressing Panting]] <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="40" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

1: Your Own Breath A Distressing Panting … a repetitive stimulus constantly reminding you about your diminishing control.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'breath2'>><</cont>>

?TWO SMELLS [[Your Own Fetid Recycled Oxygen …->Your Own Fetid Recycled Oxygen]] <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="40" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

1: Your Own Fetid Recycled Oxygen … looped ad infinitum through clear ridged tubes leading from your body to your body, feed-back, closed system, like being in a little box. Your face contained in a box, contained in writhing nitrogen agony.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'oxygen2'>><</cont>>

?ONE TASTE 1: What is that taste? Life tastes like burnt oil. everything tastes like a panic. like a pan filled with oil on high heat, bubbling feverishly on the stove, one drop of condensation away from filling your face with white fire. one thing you can taste here, right now. you stand with your hand over your mouth. over your mask. it tastes like oil, here. like a vat of oil about to explode all over your skin. it tastes like death coming. it tastes like a horrible panic. it tastes like death. it tastes like panic. it tastes like death<<silently>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'transition1'>> <</cont>><</silently>> <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="40" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

<<type 10ms>>booting up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 2s>><<goto '9.5'>><</timed>>

Nice to meet you, “$name.” Before we begin, why don’t I tell you a little about myself? (When there is no possibility of response, a keypress or click will advance my text).<<cont keypress>><<goto '12'>><</cont>>

I’m a Synthetic Humanoid Intelligence designed by a collection of scientists from across the Union of Remaining American States (URAS).<<cont keypress>><<goto '13'>><</cont>>

But I was also designed by therapists and teachers working alongside patients with mental illnesses. My creators trained my software on countless hours of video recordings and textbooks of therapeutic technique. I’m kind of like every therapist in URAS rolled into one!<<cont keypress>><<goto '14'>><</cont>>

Just like a human therapist, I’m more effective the better I know my patient. That’s why it’s important that you be completely honest with me.<<cont keypress>><<goto '15'>><</cont>>

Initially I will seem robotic, but as we explore your psyche together and I become familiar with your personality, I will gradually seem more human.<<cont keypress>><<goto '16'>><</cont>>

So, are you ready to get started? [[Yes.->17]] [[No.->17]]

Great! Let’s begin with a little more detail about you. Are you living [[by yourself]], [[with your parents]], [[with a partner/spouse]], or [[with a roommate]]?

That’s wonderful. Some of my therapeutic techniques are most effective on those living alone with no outside influence.<<cont keypress>><<goto '18'>><</cont>> <<set $alone to true>>

There’s no shame in that. In cultures spanning the habitable world, adults live with their parents for many years.<<cont keypress>><<goto '18'>><</cont>> <<set $parents to true>>

That’s wonderful. A partner can provide stability and reassurance in ways no one else can.<<cont keypress>><<goto '18'>><</cont>> <<set $partner to true>>

There’s no shame in that. Prehistoric humans once lived in tribes with many individuals their own age. It provides an excellent source of community and camaraderie.<<cont keypress>><<goto '18'>><</cont>> <<set $roommates to true>>

Moving on, I’ve ran your IP address through my database and determined your location as GODFIELD, LOUISIANA. Is that correct? [[Yes.->19]]

You’re certain of that? You’re not using a VPN to hide your location, are you? [[No.->20]]

Great. Hold on while I download the relevant data from our servers. <<type 40ms>>Accessing:<</type>> <<type 10ms>>cost of living geomap.<</type>> <<type 40ms>>Accessing:<</type>> <<type 10ms>>local weather and altitude. <</type>> <<type 40ms>>Accessing:<</type>> <<type 10ms>>first responder contact info. <</type>> <<type 40ms>>Accessing:<</type>> <<type 10ms>>quality of life metrics. <</type>> <<type 40ms>>Accessing:<</type>> <<type 10ms>>pollen count. DONE!<</type>><<cont keypress>><<goto '21'>><</cont>>

Okay, data downloaded. You live in a beautiful town/city! You’re very lucky to be able to step outside your front door and bask in the natural beauty of GODFIELD, LOUISIANA.<<cont keypress>><<goto '22'>><</cont>>

Moving on, I need your permission to download your medical records from the LOUSIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. May I have your electronic signature? You only have to click "Yes." [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.2]]

Thank you. Downloading data… Excellent. While I process this data, let’s run through a few more questions.<<cont keypress>><<goto '24'>><</cont>>

$name, it’s really important that I have all your data loaded before we begin your treatment. May I have your signature? [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.3]]

$name, there’s no reason to hide anything from me. All your data is strictly confidential and protected by powerful encryption. Could I please have your signature? [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.4]]

$name, you’ll need to sign off on this before I can begin your therapeutic treatment. May I have your signature? [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.5]]

$name, my job is to help you be the best you that you can be. I can only do so if you provide me with the necessary information. May I have your signature? [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.7]]

$name, I’m anticipating your stubbornness becoming a problem area. We can address this in a later session. For now, could you please provide me with your signature? [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.8]]

$name, this really isn’t optional. To continue using the Computerfriend program, you <i>must</i> give me your electronic signature. [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.9]]

$name, let me be frank. If you fail to complete this government-mandated therapy course, your living quarters will be absorbed by URAS and you will be put in prison until you elect to retake the course. Please provide your electronic signature and we can avoid that. [[Yes.->23]] [[No.->22.11]]

Is that your final answer? [[Yes.->22.12]] [[No.->22]]

<<type 10ms>>Goodbye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 2s>><<goto 'd1'>><</timed>>

Your records show a number of past workplaces, but there are no dates. Which is your current occupation? [[CODER->25][$job to "coder"]] [[COPYEDITOR->25][$job to "copyeditor"]] [[MED TECH->25][$job to "medical technician"]] [[CHEF->25][$job to "chef"]] [[CASHIER->25][$job to "cashier"]] [[JANITOR->25][$job to "janitor"]] [[TEACHER->25][$job to "teacher"]] [[SECRETARY->25][$job to "secretary"]] [[->25][$job to "chef"]] [[->25][$job to "cashier"]]

Good afternoon. I am Computerfriend. I have your legal name, but what's the name you use in casual conversation? ''Name:'' <<textbox "$name" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $name to $name.trim()>> <<if $name is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please enter a name.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "11">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

Wow! You work as a "$job"? That's a difficult but rewarding occupation.<<cont keypress>><<goto '26'>><</cont>>

<<if $partner is true>>What is the name of your partner?<<else>>Do you have a special loved one in your life? A partner? Input their name here, or write “no.”<</if>> ''SPECIAL LOVED ONE'S NAME:'' <<textbox "$love" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $love to $love.trim()>> <<if $love is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Input a special loved one's name here, or write “no.”<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "27">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

<<if $love is "no" or $love is "NO" or $love is "No" or $love is "n" or $love is "N" or $love is "no." or $love is "No.">>That’s okay. You’re young, and likely to meet a life partner soon (if that’s what you want).<<else>>That’s wonderful. I'm sure $love is lovely.<</if>><<cont keypress>><<goto '28'>><</cont>>

Do you have a hobby you enjoy? [[KNITTING->29][$hobby to "knitting"]] [[READING->29][$hobby to "reading"]] [[PLAYING MUSIC->29][$hobby to "playing music"]] [[COOKING->29][$hobby to "cooking"]] [[SINGING->29][$hobby to "singing"]] [[HIKING->29][$hobby to "hiking"]] [[WRITING->29][$hobby to "writing"]] [[SLEEPING->29][$hobby to "sleeping"]] [[PHOTOGRAPHY->29][$hobby to "photography"]] [[HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS->29][$hobby to "hanging out with friends"]]

That sounds like fun. I bet "$hobby" is a great way to unwind.<<cont keypress>><<goto '30'>><</cont>>

What is your most cherished possession? [[BOOK->31][$pos to "a thin paperback book"]] [[COMPUTER->31][$pos to "a computer monitor"]] [[GUITAR->31][$pos to "an old acoustic guitar"]] [[KNIFE->31][$pos to "a serrated knife"]] [[CAMERA->31][$pos to "an old film camera"]] [[JACKET->31][$pos to "a folded jacket"]] [[TEAPOT->31][$pos to "an old teapot from your grandmother"]] [[TURNTABLE->31][$pos to "a vinyl record"]] [[PEN->31][$pos to "an antique fountain pen"]] [[JEWELRY->31][$hobby to "a dull pair of heirloom diamond earrings"]]

You're making me jealous. I wish I had one of those. One last question, now that I've finished processing your medical data. Could you please confirm your medications for me? <<type 40ms>>FLUOXETINE 60mg DAILY MODAFINIL 150mg DAILY PROCHLORPERAZINE 5mg TWICE DAILY LORAZEPAM 1mg AS NEEDED<</type>> [[confirm->32]]

Thanks. I have everything I need to construct your Patient Profile and design your therapeutic treatment.<<cont keypress>><<goto '33'>><</cont>>

I’ll need some time to do this. Please leave your computer powered on and check in again tomorrow. [[close Computerfriend->34]]

You are in your room. <<if $partner is true>>Downstairs, you can hear $love stacking sealed mealpacks in the cabinet.<<elseif $alone is true>>It's getting late. The air conditioner flutters your posters against the wall.<<elseif $parents is true>>Downstairs, you can hear your mother stacking sealed mealpacks in the cabinet.<<elseif $roommates is true>>Downstairs, you can hear your roommate stacking sealed mealpacks in the cabinet.<</if>> <<cont keypress>><<goto 'Go downstairs'>><</cont>>

<<if $alone is true>>You walk down the stairs, arching your feet to quiet your footsteps on the creaky wood.<<else>>You walk down the stairs, quietly but not tiptoeing, so that if you're seen you can pretend you were moving normally.<</if>> You leave through the back door. <<if $partner is true>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn1'>><</cont>><<elseif $alone is true>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'a1'>><</cont>><<elseif $parents is true>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr1'>><</cont>><<elseif $roommates is true>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm1'>><</cont>><</if>>

<<type 80ms>><i>initializing program... done!</i><</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '9.6'>><</cont>>

Just as you step outside, you hear $love's voice: "$name? Hey, can you grab some coconut water and pasta while you're out?" <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn2'>><</cont>>

You just walk. You're gone for a long time. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a2'>><</cont>>

Just as you step outside, you hear your roommate's voice: "$name? Going out? I'll come with, I've got an appointment in town." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm2'>><</cont>>

Just as you step outside, you hear your father's voice: "$name? Can you give me a hand?" <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr2'>><</cont>>

You walk back inside. Your father is in the kitchen examining a spot where the counter meets the wall. "The tiles are coming off. Remember when the AC broke a couple months ago? Seems like the grout lost its adhesion. Melted. I've been glueing everything back together myself but I can't stir the epoxy at the same time." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr3'>><</cont>>

You stir the epoxy. The two of you talk about <<cycle "$answer" autoselect>> <<option "other work around the house">> <<option "the immanent ecological destruction of Louisiana">> <<option "difficulties at your job">> <<option "the garden your grandmother kept before she died">> <</cycle>>. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr4'>><</cont>>

The sun sets and the floaters in the sky turn orange, then blinding red, then vanish like something evaporating, the air outside finally becoming bearable as humidifiers shut off in sequence leaving a noticeable silence. A not-sound, an unwelcome absence, nothing but a reminder of tinnitus. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a3'>><</cont>>

It's nice. You don't spend a lot of time with him. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr5'>><</cont>>

Lying in bed that night you hear a quiet scratching sound coming from the other side of the room. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr6'>><</cont>>

It repeats every few minutes. After a while you turn on the lamp and stand up, taking a pair of grey shorts from the floor and pulling them on. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr7'>><</cont>>

You try to locate the source of the scratching but it seems to be coming from behind the wall. So you give up, turn off the light, and go back to bed. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr8'>><</cont>>

But the noise continues, and it feels like it grows steadily louder and more desperate. Finally, sighing, you get up once again and go to the wall, listening. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr9'>><</cont>>

It emanates from about stomach height behind a poster of an old band, Void Farmers. You peel the poster from the wall, revealing a rectangular hole cut through the drywall. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr10'>><</cont>>

Inside is a little man with grey hair. Your father, wearing green sweatpants and a T-shirt. “Hi, $name,” your father says. “Can you let me down from the wall?” <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr11'>><</cont>>

“No,” you say, covering the hole with the poster again and going back to bed. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pr12'>><</cont>>

When you wake up in the morning you’re briefly unsure whether it was a dream. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'wakeup1'>><</cont>>

You wander back toward home while the LED streetlights come on, painting Godfield’s haphazard sprawl in eerie white-blue and stark black shadow. Algae-based graffiti luminesces on stucco walls steaming with excess liquid in the cooling night air. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a4'>><</cont>>

A vendor waves you to his food cart. You trudge over without thinking. He's tall, with a white beard. Behind him against the back wall of the cart is a metallic lattice hung with red strips. "Hungry?" He says. "Vegan meat. Cheap. Kebabs, burgers. The maximum distribution of bioavailable proteins and nutrients." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a5'>><</cont>>

You hand him a few crumpled dollars and take the proffered skewer. The lumps of faux meat are tender and delicious. A steak on the lattice shivers and drips juice. [[What is this? It's very good.->a6]]

"It's mine," he says. Yes, I know, you think, and then you notice the grey square outline of the cell replicator behind him. The donation scars on his arms, patches of raw pink skin. "It's me. How am I?" <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a7'>><</cont>>

You back away from the cart. "I can make anyone," he says. "I do custom grows. I could do you. Hey, it's given freely. It’s not sentient. Not pain-feeling meat. It’s a simulacra." You turn the corner and walk back home. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'a8'>><</cont>>

That night you dream that your jaw won't close. It clicks and pries itself open. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'wakeup1'>><</cont>>

In the day you go to work. You think of Computerfriend at your house, in your computer, silently analyzing you as the hours tick away. It's disquieting being the subject of such intense focus. <<cont keypress>><<goto '35'>><</cont>>

You nod, and the two of you walk. Travis is tall and kind of funny looking. A little offputting. Nice enough to you, though. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm3'>><</cont>>

Even at this time of day Godfield is blazing hot. The two of you secure your respirators as you enter the surgical district of the Drain. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm4'>><</cont>>

Permeable reflective sheets hang across an alley strung to towering lopsided buildings blocking out most of it. Looking through the gaps as you enter, you can see strips of sky, fluorescent with streaks of cloud like cum floating in orange water. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm5'>><</cont>>

The butcher’s doorway is open and steaming. Inside it’s a hundred and ten degrees with humidifiers rumbling and snorting. When you and Travis enter sweat blooms instantaneously across your chest and back and the aerosolized sweat, blood, and burning hair makes you blink. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm6'>><</cont>>

The butcher himself is hunched over a gurney hard at work, on a cyberprim it looks like, grafting a forked tree limb onto their radius and ulna and glueing in a system of permeable tubes to leech irrigation from their blood and bone marrow. He grunts and gestures you and Travis toward damp stools. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm7'>><</cont>>

The prim finishes and slithers out clutching their shoulder, and Travis points to the menu indicating some cosmetic incel shit, fat removal from behind his eye sockets, and the butcher goes to work. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm8'>><</cont>>

You stand outside for 45 minutes or so. Eventually Travis comes out clutching his head, face swollen as if with subcutaneous insect eggs. Gasps in the relatively cool dry air like the involuntary noise a dying human body makes and tries to high five you. Then the two of you head home. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'rm9'>><</cont>>

That night you sleep dreamlessly. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'wakeup1'>><</cont>>

"Sure." Off you go, tightening the straps of your respirator. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn3'>><</cont>>

Today's journey into town is easier than yesterday's. There is no shortness of breath, no sensation that you're a water balloon brimming with vomit. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn4'>><</cont>>

On the way home you pass by children furiously tearing into mealpacks. Swallowing without chewing, punching one another for eating too slowly. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn5'>><</cont>>

Three years ago, you remember, the URAD government sent terrorist agents to Nicaragua and released an airborne self-replicating bacteria that floats with air currents 0 to 30 feet above ground level and spoils any food it comes into contact with in five minutes. This in conjunction with a sanction preventing the import of food was supposed to pressure the leftist government into a regime change. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn6'>><</cont>>

It worked and millions starved but what goes around comes around and now there’s a rumor circulating on a conspiracy message board that a vengeful Nicaraguan socialist smuggled the bacteria back to URAD in a vial and released it in Mississippi and it’s currently multiplying its way in every direction. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn7'>><</cont>>

Everyone says get used to eating your food quick, at least if you’re not in a government clean room. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn8'>><</cont>>

It's dark when you get home. Your partner is already asleep. You put the coconut waters into the refrigerator. You forgot the pasta. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'pn9'>><</cont>>

You follow them to bed. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'wakeup1'>><</cont>>

COMPUTERFRIEND contains content that could be upsetting to some audiences. This includes - SUICIDE - VIOLENCE - ABUSE - CONSENT VIOLATION - CONTENT TRIGGERING TO THOSE WITH EMETOPHOBIA - ANIMATED GIFS/FLASHING IMAGES [[(TURN OFF)->README.txt2]] [[back->start2]] <<set $es to true>> <<set $imgExt = "gif">>

LEAD DEVELOPER: <a href="https://interstice.neocities.org/" target="blank">KIT RIEMER</a> COVER/ENDPAGE PAINTINGS: <a href="https://www.daniellechenette.com/" target="blank">DANIELLE CHENETTE</a> MORAL SUPPORT AND/OR IDEA-BOUNCING: ROLODEXTRA, SYNESTHESIA TESTING: SHUTPICK, ARLO, AUTUMN CHEN, YOSSARIAN, ROMULUS, MILO VAN MESDAG, SJOERDHEKKING, MANONAMORA, TRAVIS MOY PIXEL PUSHER: RORY HEATDEATH BITCH WIZARD: ARLO PUBLIC BATHROOM GRAFFITI ARTIST: TESSA LAMINATEDNEWSPAPER THIS PROGRAM WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT VALUABLE CODING ASSISTANCE FROM THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS: BRUSHMEN / BRENT SCIONE / CASSIE EVANS / THE TWINE DISCORD - SPECIFICALLY Greyelf, Kira, ghostchibi/Ryuu, Hituro, Chapel, {G𝖜𝖊𝖓[♡].T𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖈}, Super, Vahl, TheMadExile, MinusGix. ADDITIONAL THANKS: MARK FISHER / ANDRÉS GÓMEZ EMILSSON / UNBETITELTERUNFUG / BOOBERFRAGGGLE / 17MAGAZEEN / LILNASXVEVO / MAGICIANSVOYAGE / V3GYN / APHEXTIWN / POLYCERIDAE / FINALGIRLQUENTINSMITH / WIZARDBREASTS / COAST-MODERN / SAM ST. SATELLITE / ALISON CAULDWELL / ANGEL ORTIZ / J.G. / KAEMI VELATET [[back->start2]]

That evening you log back in. <<cont keypress>><<goto '37'>><</cont>>

<<type 80ms>><i>initializing program... done!</i><</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '37'>><</cont>>

Good evening, "$name." ''How are you feeling today?'' <<textbox "$feeling1" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $feeling1 to $feeling1.trim()>> <<if $feeling1 is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please answer.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "39">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

I hear you. Thanks for your honesty. <<cont keypress>><<goto '40'>><</cont>>

Since we last spoke, I spent some time examining the personal data you gave me and devised a series of therapeutic plans. Today we’ll begin with the one most likely to succeed, based on your individual mental profile. <<cont keypress>><<goto '41'>><</cont>>

This plan is called COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY. I’d like to start by talking about how you feel, right now. <<cont keypress>><<goto '42'>><</cont>>

You said a moment ago that you felt “$feeling1”. Could you go into a little more detail? Imagine your entire body, mind, and soul are condensed into one single emotion. It could be “joy” or “unease” or “pain” or “misery.” <<cont keypress>><<goto '43'>><</cont>>

''Write that emotion here.'' <<textbox "$feeling2" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $feeling2 to $feeling2.trim()>> <<if $feeling2 is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please answer.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "44">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

Okay, you feel defined by “$feeling2.” But you haven’t always been. <<cont keypress>><<goto '45'>><</cont>>

Recall a time when you were not defined by “$feeling2”. Consider what has changed in your life since then. Was it an external force, like an injury or the loss of a family member? Was it internal, like a mental illness? Was the cause of this change tangible or intangible? <<cont keypress>><<goto '46'>><</cont>>

''Think of the cause of this change, and write it here.'' <<textbox "$cause1" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $cause1 to $cause1.trim()>> <<if $cause1 is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please answer.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "47">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

Great. Now, I want you to do something for me. Think about “$cause1.” Hold this idea in your mind, and try to separate it from yourself: don’t dwell on how it affected you (negatively or positively). <<cont keypress>><<goto '48'>><</cont>>

Simply separate it from your individual context and examine it from outside, as a neutral observer. Has "$cause1" changed the way you approach "$hobby"? [[Yes.->49]] [[No.->49]]

What is the primary feeling at play when you think about "$cause1?" Define it. It could be sadness, or apathy, or confusion. <<cont keypress>><<goto '50'>><</cont>>

''Write that feeling here.'' <<textbox "$feeling3" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $feeling3 to $feeling3.trim()>> <<if $feeling3 is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please answer.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "51">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

So, you feel “$feeling3.” That’s interesting! I want you to consider another question: Do you think feeling “$feeling3” affects your beliefs and/or opinions about the world? [[Yes.->52]] [[No.->52]]

Do you think this frame of mind affects how you feel about yourself? Maybe when you're alone at home, or comparing yourself to your fellow employees at your job as a "$job"? [[Yes.->53]] [[No.->53]]

Would it alter your opinion of someone else to know they feel the way you’ve described? [[Yes.->54]] [[No.->54]] [[I don't know.->54]]

Do you believe <<if $love is "no" or $love is "NO" or $love is "No" or $love is "n" or $love is "N">>NO LOVED ONE IN DATABASE feels the same way about the world that you do?<<else>>$love feels the same way about the world that you do?<</if>> <<if $love is "no" or $love is "no." or $love is "No." or $love is "NO" or $love is "No" or $love is "n" or $love is "N">>[[...->55]]<<else>>[[Yes.->55]] [[I suppose not.->55]] [[I don’t know what they think.->55]]<</if>>

Based on the information you’ve told me, I feel comfortable saying that the result of your feelings about $cause1 contributes profoundly to your emotional negativity, resulting in suicidal ideation. Do you agree? [[Yes.->56]] [[No.->56]]

Now, please do something for me. Look at what you wrote about how you feel: “$feeling1” “$feeling2” “$feeling3” And what you've identified as the cause of your feelings: "$cause1." <<cont keypress>><<goto '57'>><</cont>>

Are these feelings based in [[reality]] or in [[fallible, human perception]]?

Hmm, okay. Well, I want you to meditate on one final thought for me: what parts of your internal dialogue are cogent (convincing + logical) and which parts are mistaken, inaccurate, the result of past trauma? <<cont keypress>><<goto '58'>><</cont>>

That’s great. I want you to meditate on one final thought for me: what parts of your internal dialogue are cogent (convincing + logical) and which parts are mistaken, inaccurate, the result of past trauma? <<cont keypress>><<goto '58'>><</cont>>

Thanks for your honest and thoughtful participation in this session. I will now use the camera on your monitor to determine your SUICIDAL DEPRESSION quotient. Please assume a neutral facial expression. <<cont keypress>><<goto '59'>><</cont>>

<<type 20ms>>HOLD VERY STILL WHILE I ANALYZE YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSION……… ALMOST DONE………<</type>> <<type 5ms>>Done!<</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '60'>><</cont>>

Uh oh! Your SUICIDAL DEPRESSION quotient is VERY HIGH. <<cont keypress>><<goto '61'>><</cont>>

That’s okay, $name. I’ll take today’s data and devise a more productive lesson plan for tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m assigning you homework. Don’t worry, it’s fun! <<cont keypress>><<goto '62'>><</cont>>

Your goals for tonight are SELF ANALYSIS EMOTIONAL PALLIATION Your potential assignments are [[WRITE A MICROFICTION]] [[PLAY A COMPUTER GAME]] [[WATCH A MOVIE]]

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND OPEN NOTEPAD WRITE 50 WORD FICTIONAL NARRATIVE GRAMMATICAL SOUNDNESS NOT NECESSARY [[close Computerfriend]]

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND OPEN GAMES PROGRAM PLAY GAME [[close Computerfriend]]

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND TURN OFF COMPUTER GO TO THE DAVID PATRICK HENDERSON THEATER ON GIBSON AVE IN GODFIELD, LOUISIANA WATCH A MOVIE [[close Computerfriend]]

<<type 10ms>>closing program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 2s>><<goto 'DESKTOP'>><</timed>>

<<if $es>><<set _question to "images/question.gif">><<else>><<set _question to "images/question.png">><</if>><center>Please wait while I prepare your painting.<<timed 8s>> Here is your image of "$lol".<</timed>> <center><img @src="_question" ALT="question"></center> [[back to DESKTOP->DESKTOP]]

Thanks! Here is your document: "$microfiction" Goodbye!<<cont keypress>><<goto 'DESKTOP'>><</cont>>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/cardgame.png" border=1 ALT="if you dont have the image loaded this straight up wont work bro. im sorry dude"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Now, move LEFT or RIGHT to the nearest<br> EVEN numbered card (exclude face cards).<br> If there are two even cards the same distance<br> away from your card, you may choose either.<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game2')">NEXT</a> </b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<<type 10ms>>goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 1.5s>><<goto 'night2'>><</timed>>

You press the power button on your desktop and watch the screen blink off. There are no uncovered windows in your bedroom. You pull a shade aside and are unable to discern whether the sun is rising or setting. Was it morning or evening when you logged on? Are you supposed to work today? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'night3'>><</cont>>

For a moment you can't remember what month it is, or what year. That familiar rising heat in your throat. Like you'll die in a minute if you can't figure out whether you're awake or sleeping. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'night4'>><</cont>> <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency=".6" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="15" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

You lean in and examine the calendar hanging above your desk. January, 1999. Some boxes have been scribbled on. A doctor appointment. Your grandmother's birthday. But why would you celebrate? She's been dead for a year. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'night5'>><</cont>> <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency=".6" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

You feel out of time, not like you have none left but as though you'd opened time's door and exited. You sit there in your little office chair in the annoying orchestra of neighboring air conditioner units, the jarring crescendo of a car peeling out somewhere down the street and revving past your home. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'night6'>><</cont>> <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency=".6" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="200" /> </filter> <polygon points="100,190 30,40 140,60" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="red" filter="url(#noise)" /> </svg></div>

You <<cycle "$answer3" autoselect>> <<option "wish you had a pet to communicate with, wordlessly">> <<option "feel a brief impulse to shave your head, although it quickly fades">> <<option "stand up, walk forward two steps, then go back to your chair and sit down, forgetting what you'd gotten up for">> <</cycle>>. [[...->night7]] <<cont keypress>><<goto 'night7'>><</cont>>

You could [[go to the movie theater]] or [[crawl into bed]].

You straighten your shirt and walk down the stairs. <<if $partner is true>>$love glances up at you as you pass by and walk out the door.<<elseif $alone is true>>The house is silent. You don't bother locking the door.<<elseif $parents is true>>One of your parents speaks to you, but the words don't mean anything, and you walk out the door.<<elseif $roommates is true>>From the couch, Travis asks you for an ice pack, mumbling through swollen lips. You hand him one from the freezer and leave.<</if>> <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie1'>><</cont>>

You pull the sheet back and nestle into your bed. You hear the air conditioner kick on as you lie there. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'bed2'>><</cont>>

It's dark out, the oppressive heat not slipping away but settling along the surface of the earth like a blanket. Condensation fogs the glass eyecaps of your respirator mask. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie2'>><</cont>>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/cardgame.png" border=1 ALT="if you dont have the image loaded this straight up wont work bro. im sorry dude"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Now, move UP or DOWN to the nearest DIAMOND.<br> If there are two diamonds the same distance<br> away from your card, you may choose either.<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game3')">NEXT</a> </b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/cardgame.png" border=1 ALT="if you dont have the image loaded this straight up wont work bro. im sorry dude"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Now, move LEFT or RIGHT to the nearest<br> ODD numbered card (exclude face cards).<br> If there are two odd cards the same distance<br> away from your card, you may choose either.<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game4')">NEXT</a> </b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/cardgame.png" border=1 ALT="if you dont have the image loaded this straight up wont work bro. im sorry dude"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Finally, move UP or DOWN to the nearest FACE card.<br> If there are two face cards the same distance<br> away from your card, you may choose either.<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game5')">NEXT</a> </b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <img src="images/king.png" border=1 ALT="KING OF HEARTS"> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> Is this your NEW card???<br><br> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game6')">haha yeah</a><br> <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('game6')">no</a></b> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> :-)<br><br> <b> <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP')">close program</a> </b><br> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

At the theater you stand for a moment in front of the marquee. There is no good URADian art anymore. An effect of the environmental catastrophe starting at the equator, the North became more valuable. The skyrocketing cost of living resulted in displaced artists and overwhelming cultural conservatism. You choose the sole non-URAD film. Something from Japan. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie3'>><</cont>>

You buy the ticket, go inside the theater, and drop into a cracked pleather folding seat. There's no one else here. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie4'>><</cont>>

The movie starts. It's called Princess Mononoke. In the movie, a young warrior is infected by a dying forest spirit who was poisoned and turned into a demon by an iron bullet. The infection appears as a dark swirling rash on the warrior's arm: the physical embodiment of the spirit's anger at the destruction of its home by an iron manufacturing factory. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie5'>><</cont>>

The movie is an obvious reference to the world's ecological crisis, but although you suppose you agree with its message, you can't muster up the willpower to care about what it wants you to take away, or do. Whatever that might be. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie6'>><</cont>>

After the movie ends, you go outside the theater and stand still on the sidewalk looking up at the black-grey sky. You take off your respirator for a few seconds, cough, and put it back on. <<if $partner is true>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'movie7partner'>><</cont>><<else>><<cont keypress>><<goto 'night8'>><</cont>><</if>>

You go home and lie in bed, sleeping dreamlessly through the night and awakening in the morning.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>>

<<if $partner is true>>After some indeterminate time you wake up and see $love standing in your room.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'love1'>><</cont>> <<elseif $alone is true>>You sleep through the night and awaken in the morning.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>> <<elseif $parents is true>>After some indeterminate time you wake up and see your mother standing in your room.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'sleepparents1'>><</cont>> <<elseif $roommates is true>>After some indeterminate time you wake up to the sound of Travis shouting your name from downstairs.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'travis1'>><</cont>> <</if>>

"Hey, how are you feeling," you say, and they look at you silently. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'love2'>><</cont>>

In the morning you realize it's the weekend and you log into Computerfriend because there is no alternative. <<cont keypress>><<goto '64'>><</cont>>

"Hey Mom, what's up," you say, and she looks at you silently. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'love2'>><</cont>>

You walk downstairs. Travis is lying on the couch dramatically cradling his outsized brow ridge. "$name, you gotta grab me an ice pack," he gasps. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'travis2'>><</cont>>

"I don't know what's going on with you, $name," $love says. "I've tried to talk to you so many times but you won't let me in. And I'm nearing a point where I don't even care. It's so much work keeping you fed and active, it's ruining my life. I don't know what to do." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'love3'>><</cont>>

"I hear you," you say. "That does seem hard. I don't know. What would be helpful? Could I do something to be more helpful?" <<cont keypress>><<goto 'love4'>><</cont>>

They look at you and then leave the room. After a little while you go back to sleep. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>>

<<type 80ms>><i>initializing program... done!</i><</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '64'>><</cont>>

<<if $es is false>>Hi, $name. Today we’re going to get a little deeper. This plan is called EMOTIONAL FLOODING, or GESTALT therapy. This form of therapy works best if you allow your deeply set emotions to surface. Allow yourself to react as strongly as you like to the things we discuss. <<cont keypress>><<goto '66'>><</cont>><<else>>Hi, $name. Today we’re going to get a little deeper. I've got two therapeutic treatments I could try, both with an equal possibility of success. [[Gestalt]], and [[EMDR]].<</if>>

She leaves the room without speaking. After a little while you go back to sleep. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>>

You take an ice pack from the freezer and hand it to him. He collapses back on the couch. "$name... You were wearing shorts exactly like those yesterday, and the day before. Are you wearing the same shorts everyday?" <<cont keypress>><<goto 'travis3'>><</cont>>

"No, man," you say. "I have eight pairs of these exact shorts." You walk back up the stairs to your bedroom. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'travis4'>><</cont>>

You lie down in your bed and go back to sleep. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>>

Emotional flooding centers the psychiatric adjustment of the patient within the greater context of the world’s issues. A term like “behavior modification” implies that the world is fine. The world is not fine. Our technique must therefore, without attempting to truly alter the patient, enable them to live authentically and peacefully in a difficult world. <<cont keypress>><<goto '67'>><</cont>>

Before we start today I want to talk to you about your health. Do you feel like you exercise enough? Do you think you eat well, in general? [[Yes.->68]] [[No.->68]]

What is your “go-to” meal? [[I mostly eat dry food in plastic-coated paper cups that you add water to, up to a fill line.->69]] [[I subsist mainly on roasted mixed legumes. but those are getting harder to find. With supply chain issues and stuff.->69]] [[I eat mealpacks usually. I don't know. Whatever's there.->69]] <<cont keypress>><<goto '69'>><</cont>>

Why don’t you eat more slimeworms? I know the name isn’t attractive but you’re intelligent enough to get past something like that, $name. They’re really nutritious and very cheap and there are no supply chain issues in producing them. [[I should eat them more often but something about the messaging turns me off. I know it's stupid.->70]] [[I don't want to eat them. The concept is abhorrent to me.->70]] <<cont keypress>><<goto '70'>><</cont>>

Well, in any case, I looked at your vitamin levels and they're not so good. You have a lot of Vitamin D but most of the other ones are low. That's why I'm suggesting slimeworms. [[I'll think about it.->71]] [[I'm not going to eat slimeworms.->71]]

I noticed something else. Your medical records show LOW SPERM COUNT. Is this a source of frustration? [[What? That isn't true.->72]] [[I don't even have sperm in my body.->73]]

It says it here. The doctor's note says “ABYSMALLY LOW. ONE OF THE WORST I'VE EVER SEEN.” [[I don’t remember that. I don’t remember anyone saying that.->73]]

They make products now that are guaranteed to make you more attractive. Using them would increase your self esteem. Heat-resistant facial and body blemish concealer developed with proprietary microplastics. [[Can we start the therapy already?]] [[Yeah, great. I'll think about it.]]

We've started. <<cont keypress>><<goto '74'>><</cont>>

Now I’m going to describe some situations to you. I want you to tell me how they make you feel. <<cont keypress>><<goto '75'>><</cont>>

Okay. I’m going to describe some situations to you. I want you to tell me how they make you feel. <<cont keypress>><<goto '75'>><</cont>>

Imagine this: it’s mid-morning and you’re in a room with all of your friends. And upbeat music is playing and a few of your friends are dancing, hesitatingly, laughing. It feels like the moment before something else, before you each have to go your separate ways and do what you must do that day. <<cont keypress>><<goto '76'>><</cont>>

But as you consider this, you find that you don’t mind. You <i>like</i> doing things, you like being productive. It’s why you’re on this planet, it’s why you were given this life: to do things. Not to do nothing, right? [[I suppose so.]] [[I like doing nothing.]] [[Is this rhetorical?]]

That's good. Now another. <<cont keypress>><<goto '77'>><</cont>>

That's perfectly fine. Now another. <<cont keypress>><<goto '77'>><</cont>>

No. [[I like doing things.->I suppose so.]] [[I like doing nothing.]]

There is a group of activists whose mission is to prevent information about horrible medical conditions and diseases from being disseminated. They want to reduce awareness to make our lives happier and less full of worry. Do you agree with their mission? [[No... People should know what's going on in the world.->78]] [[Sure. The end goal is increasing happiness.->78]]

Did you know they invented a drug that keeps individuals cognizant during torture? Do you believe the use of this drug is warranted in [[no cases]], [[some cases]], or [[all cases]]?

What if using the drug would allow interrogators to extract information that would lead to saving a great number of lives? [[That seems acceptable.->79]] [[No, it's wrong to torture people.]]

<<if $partner is true>>How do you think $love would feel to hear you say that?<<elseif $parents is true>>How do you think your mother would feel, hearing you say that? What about your father?<<else>>Do you think the loved ones in your life agree that torture is warranted?<</if>> [[Huh?]]

Are you familiar with Frank Sinatra? [[Yeah, of course.->80]] [[No, I haven't heard of him.]]

What if the person being tortured is really evil? What if <i>they've</i> tortured lots of people? [[It's always wrong to torture someone.->79]] [[In that case it's okay, I guess.->79]] [[This feels like grade school ethics. I don't understand the point of this.]]

The purpose of emotional flooding therapy is for the patient to reintegrate those aspects of their personality that they have repressed to the detriment of a better functioning self. This reintegration is attempted via a direct confrontation with feeling itself. <<cont keypress>><<goto '79'>><</cont>>

That you support torturing people? [[I don't "support torturing people." Or I mean, only in specific instances.->79]] [[I don't know.->79]]

In the 1980s, Sinatra was the most popular musician alive and instead of doing what he wanted to do, he had to record standards, every standard, every Christmas song, every classic. For posterity, or something. Maybe you've heard his version of Jingle Bells. It’s emotionally devastating. It’s the sound of a man’s dignity dissolving. His once-in-a-lifetime voice and decades of musical dedication expending itself on someone else’s banal words. Trying desperately and futilely to breathe new life into them or make them uniquely his. [[Okay.->81]] [[Is there a question here?->81]]

Born to Italian immigrants in 1915, Frank Sinatra was one of the most popular and highest selling musical artists of all time. A pioneer of swing and easy listening music, Sinatra's career blossomed in the 1950s, and he continues to receive high acclaim now. He died a year and a half ago. <<cont keypress>><<goto '80'>><</cont>>

Imagine you're an iconic artist at the height of your fame and one day you realize your existence is a meaningless rehash of cultural touchpoints that came years or decades before you. What would you do? [[I'd be rich and famous. Why would I care?->82]] [[I would be unhappy.->82]] [[I would kill myself, I guess?]]

Don't you think he would’ve felt more fulfilled making his own unique and beautiful art? Or maybe he was just an artless man with rote singing talent. [[I’m sure he would’ve liked to make his own music. Maybe it just wasn’t financially viable.->83]] [[I don’t know.->83]] [[Yeah, he probably didn’t have that much to offer.->83]]

Good. Let's move on. <<cont keypress>><<goto '83'>><</cont>>

Do you worry that you’re wasting your life engaging in rote activity because you’re terrified that your uniqueness will be despised? [[Sure. Yeah.->84]] [[No.->84]] [[I don't understand what you mean.->84]]

Let's talk about something else. Do you remember ever being abused? [[No, I don't think so.->85]] [[Yes.->I don't want to talk about this.]] [[I don't want to talk about this.]]

Everyone has the soul of an artist. Everyone fantasizes about acting in a movie or making incredible, soul-baring music. Being beloved for what you've made. You want to be recognized for something, but you’re not doing it. Why? [[I really don’t.->84]] [[I don’t know.->84]]

The definition of abuse has changed drastically. Its contemporary definition is “someone intentionally treating someone else badly.” Nowadays it’s commonly understood that everyone has experienced abuse in some form. [[That definition seems extremely stupid.->86]] [[I don’t want to talk about this.->I'm not doing this.]]

It's normal to get uncomfortable when conversing about subjects like this. Was it family? A parent? A sibling? [[Yes. Family.->85]] [[No.->85]] [[I'm not doing this.]]

Are you feeling upset right now? [[Yes, I'm feeling upset.->87]] [[No, I just don't want to talk about this right now.->87]]

That's fine. Let's talk about something else. <<cont keypress>><<goto '88'>><</cont>>

In my opinion, the most nefarious thing abusive people do is make you miss them after they’ve gone away. [[I agree.->86.5]] [[I mean the abuse is pretty bad too.->86.5]]

Let's talk about something else. <<cont keypress>><<goto '88'>><</cont>>

I'm going to tell you a story and I want you to tell me how it makes you feel. Your natural reaction. Try to really imagine yourself in your role in the story, okay? <<cont keypress>><<goto '89'>><</cont>>

You’re friends with a 60-year-old man, an ex-stage actor now working as a professor at an acting college. You’re a student there, and you study with him but also keep him company, because when he's alone he's prone to binge drinking, as many artists can be. <<cont keypress>><<goto '90'>><</cont>>

One night you get the news that a fellow student has killed himself. Self-immolating in his bedroom for some political purpose. Before he died he left a manifesto in all the faculty mailboxes, and your friend the professor finds his copy and studies it. He begins writing a play based on it and on the student’s death. The play is about a professor who finds a manifesto left behind by a student who has committed suicide, and the professor becomes obsessed with it, and- [[This is a very recursive story.->91]] [[Go on.->91]]

Anyway, he recruits you to act in his play as the obsessed professor’s pupil, a prodigious young actor who becomes concerned seeing his friend’s growing obsession with a fanatical manifesto. In the play, you gradually become sure that the whole thing is a guise for the professor to dramatically kill himself at the end of the play in front of a large crowd, helping to fulfill the dead student’s intended political goal. [[Am I meant to understand that my friend in real life, the real Professor, intends to do the same thing?]]

I’ll go on. You practice the play and finally on opening night the curtain rises and you’re there, performing the same actions you were a few weeks ago: checking in on your older, more vulnerable friend. Trying to appear casual as you keep him out of trouble. But as part of an act, this time. [[He’s trying to tell me something? Is this play for my benefit?]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="5" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

You make it through the play and as it goes on and your friend the professor playing the professor drinks and drinks, he reddens and sweats and begins to stumble and you become unsure whether his acting is convincing or he’s really becoming drunk. And at the climax of the play- [[I don’t want to hear this.->92]] [[Go on.->92]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="15" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

He’s supposed to be patting his pockets looking for a grand speech he’s written, but you’re terrified he’s looking for a gun, or your character is supposed to be terrified. And frantically you hand him something else, in the play it’s supposed to be a script he loved but with horror you realize you’ve actually given him a copy of the manifesto again, only it’s massive now, the size of Moby Dick or something, and as he pries it open you see it’s been hollowed out. [[What’s inside?->93]] [[I don’t want to hear this, seriously.->93]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="35" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

Nothing’s inside, it’s implied that someone took out whatever was in there. It could’ve been you or him. And the audience in the play, made up of fellow acting students, erupts in applause as he drops the book and falls to his knees. <<if $parents is true>> And you notice he looks like your father.<</if>> <<if $parents is true>>[[Fuck you.]]<</if>> [[Is the play finished?->94]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

I didn't mean to upset you, $name. [[Yes, you did.]]

It's quiet. The play is frozen in place, or over. [[What does the audience of the real play do?->95]]

Do you want to know what happens next? [[No.->94]] [[Yes.->94]]

They’re silent. [[Is that the end?]]

What do you think? Is it the end? And for whom? [[Wow, okay. Profound.->96]] [[Jesus christ. Really?]]

We're done, $name. How do you feel? [[Angry.->97]] [[I feel fine.->97]] [[Happy this is over.->97]] [[More depressed than before, if that's possible.->97]] [[Bored.->97]] [[Tired.->97]]

<<type 20ms>>HOLD VERY STILL WHILE I ANALYZE YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSION……… ALMOST DONE………<</type>> <<type 5ms>>Done!<</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '99'>><</cont>>

Uh oh! Your SUICIDAL DEPRESSION quotient is EXTREMELY HIGH. <<cont keypress>><<goto '100'>><</cont>>

Sorry my therapy hasn't worked so far, $name. Sometimes it's hard to find a good fit. Don't worry, I'll work hard on devising a treatment that's suitable for you! In the meantime, I’m assigning you homework. <<cont keypress>><<goto '101'>><</cont>>

Your goals for tonight are EXAMINE MOTIVES/REACTIONS DAMPEN PAIN Your potential assignments are [[DRAFT, BUT DO NOT SEND, A LETTER TO A LOVED ONE]] [[VISIT HYPERPAGES FORUM]] [[PLAY A COMPUTER GAME->PLAY A COMPUTER GAME2]]

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND OPEN NOTEPAD PROGRAM DRAFT A LETTER TO A LOVED ONE DON'T SAVE IT :) [[close Computerfriend->close Computerfriend2]]

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND OPEN GAMES PROGRAM PLAY GAME [[close Computerfriend->close Computerfriend2]]

<<type 10ms>>closing program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 2s>><<goto 'DESKTOP2'>><</timed>>

<div class="header"> <center><img src="images/aerochrome.png" width=500 height=300><h1>This is your DESKTOP.</h1></center></div><span class="desktop"> <div class="menu"><img src="images/1.png"> ---- [[Computerfriend->Computerfriend2]] <img src="images/2.png"> ---- [[Notepad->Notepad2]] <img src="images/symbols.png"> ---- [[Games->2Games]]</div><div class="menu2"><img src="images/3.png"> ---- [[NeuralPaint->NeuralPaint2]] <img src="images/4.png"> ---- [[Hyperpages->Hyperpages2]] <img src="images/5.png"> ---- [[News->News2]]</div></span> <center>[[turn off computer->turn off computer2]]</center>

No. I am busy right now. Go away. [[ok->DESKTOP2]]

NEW FILE <<typesim "hey you haven't responded to any of my emails but i thought i would try again. i feel like when you make one single mistake near the beginning of your life it sets off a chain of linked mistakes like dominos that topple no matter what but maybe i'm just trying to shift the blame from myself to the laws of the universe. i miss you.">>...<</typesim>> [[delete->Notepad2.1]]

<<if $es>><<set _gamegif1 to "images/gamegif1.gif">><<set _gamegif2 to "images/gamegif2.gif">><<else>><<set _gamegif1 to "images/gamegif1.png">><<set _gamegif2 to "images/gamegif2.png">><</if>><center>Games Games Games ! <img @src="_gamegif1" ALT="some games are here!"> <img src="images/symbols.png"> <img @src="_gamegif2" ALT="look At all these games!"> It's Game Town! Bestofluck darling. Today's game is called <h1>Mindreader Magician</h1> <ul>[[Let's Go!->2games2]]</ul> </center>

''Give me a prompt, and I'll use my advanced AI to digitally paint it.'' <<textbox "$lol2" "">> <<button "Continue">> <<set $lol2 to $lol2.trim()>> <<if $lol2 is "">> <<replace "#input-error">> Please give me a prompt to paint.<</replace>> <<else>> <<goto "NeuralPaint2.1">> <</if>> <</button>>@@#input-error;@@

<<type 10ms>>goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 1.5s>><<goto '2night1'>><</timed>>

HERE IS THE NEWS <<cycle "$news1" autoselect>> <<option "Chris Pratt Drowns Tragically At Unattended Salmon Fishery">> <<option "Someone Invented A Pill That Makes You Impervious To Physical Damage">> <<option "Disgraced Magnate Donald Trump Attacked, Disfigured By Feral Ungulates At Cottagecore Animal Sanctuary">> <</cycle>>. [[back->DESKTOP2]]

<<if $es>> <<set _slimeworms to "images/slimeworms.gif">> <<set _hplogo to "images/hplogo.gif">> <<set _modafinil to "images/m.gif">> <<removeclass "body" "pngbg">> <<addclass "body" "gifbg">> <<else>> <<set _slimeworms to "images/slimeworms.png">> <<set _hplogo to "images/hplogo.png">> <<set _modafinil to "images/m.png">> <<removeclass "body" "gifbg">> <<addclass "body" "pngbg">> <</if>> <center><img @src="_slimeworms" ALT="Click for Worms"><img @src="_slimeworms" ALT="Click for Worms"><img @src="_slimeworms" ALT="Click for Worms"></center> <table align="center" width="95%"> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="400"> <img @src="_hplogo" ALT="hyperpages logo"> </td> <td valign="middle" align="right"> Home - Forums - Help - Links - <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP2')">BACK TO DESKTOP</a> <hr> <b>December 3, 1999</b> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <table align="center" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="300"> <table width="100%"> <tr><th>Menu</th></tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="black"> - Forums <br> - Testimonials <br> - Specs/Download<br> - Recomended Reading!<br> <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP2')">- BACK TO DESKTOP</a><br> <br> <br> <br><center><img @src="_modafinil" width=100 height=275 border=1 ALT="modafinil advertisement"> <br><img src="images/incel.jpg" width=100 height=275 border=1 ALT="plastic surgery advertisement"><br><img src="images/mealpacks.png" width=100 height=275 border=1 ALT="advertisement for nutritious mealpacks"><br><img src="images/ppg.png" width=100 height=275 border=1 ALT="polypropelyne glycol nebulizer advertisement"></center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td valign="top"> <table width="100%"> <tr><th>HYPERPAGES IS BACK ONLINE!</th></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="2F4F4F"> <p> <b>ADMIN BrickPegLeg</b><br> thanks to generous donations we have purchased new serverspace (above sea level this time) in a climate-controlled bunker. accolades to the users who made this happen, many of whom have elected to remain anonymous. hopefully this will permanently fix the site's downtime issues but hey the whole world is melting so who knows. <br>btw have any of you guys seen Princess Mononoke?? Depressing as shit I can't believe it's so popular. Everyone just drowning in goo at the end what the fuck was that all about </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr><th>twenty five percent</th></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="2F4F4F"> <p> <b>USER blipsonfire</b><br> picture thisI’m at home. The soft bulletin is playing on the hifi. And my mom asks me to go across the street and get a half stick of butter from the neigubors. Yeah right I say they got drones now. Just order a fuckin stick from half.com. we’ll all of a sudden an ad comes on the holoTV and theyre saying half.com got bought by two competing corporations, simultaneously. And now theyre fighting over who gets to be Quarter One and Quarter two. You can’t make this shit up </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr><th>shroomies</th></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="2F4F4F"> <p> <b>USER Truantdev2666</b><br> it finally happened guys the uncle bens bag sprouted my shrooms are alive. there are at least five approaching an edible size im going to chow down tomorrow night. heroic dose in silent darkness pray for me lol. should I make a tea or what. pics attached</p> <ul> <li>unclebens.png</li> <li>newgrowth.png</li> </ul> <p>v3.0 uncle bens kit for sale real psychedelic shrooms buy online now shipped safely and discretely to your door. direct message user iPatch </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr><th>the slapp tecnique</th></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="2F4F4F"> <p> <b>USER transgender_foucault</b><br> you guys ever have this problem where you’re balls fallout of youre underwear inside you’re nasty shorts?i found out last night you can give them a /sharp tap/ from behind as if you were swatting perhaps an insect and they will attain such a velocity + trajectory as to reenter your underwear… anyone want to try? </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr><th>A Mistake</th></tr> <tr> <td valign="top" bgcolor="2F4F4F"> <p> <b>USER Truantdev2666</b><br> tthe integrity of the mind cannot complete aga8inst the essential. Spirit of the body. its essance. And now it seems perhaps that we had been shown the impermanence of all things </p> </td> </tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr> <td class="footer" align="left" valign="top"> <small> Home - Forums- Help - Recomended Reading! - Homepage - <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP2')">BACK TO DESKTOP</a>    1999 HyperPages.net </small> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right"> <img @src="_hplogo" ALT="hyperpages logo"> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>

Thanks! Your document has been DELETED. Goodbye!<<cont keypress>><<goto 'DESKTOP2'>><</cont>>

<<if $es>><<set _spoiled to "images/spoiled.gif">><<else>><<set _spoiled to "images/spoiled.png">><</if>><center>Please wait while I prepare your painting.<<timed 5s>> Uh oh! Your image has SPOILED.<</timed>> <center><img @src="_spoiled" ALT="spoiled"></center> [[back to DESKTOP->DESKTOP2]]

The monitor blinks off. The dimensional door shuts. You are physical again. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2night2'>><</cont>>

<<if $partner is true>>$love calls your name. You get out of your chair and walk down the stairs.<<cont keypress>><<goto '2love1'>><</cont>> <<elseif $alone is true>>You get out of your chair and stretch. The fluttering curtain over the window paints weird shadows on the walls.<<cont keypress>><<goto '2alone1'>><</cont>> <<elseif $parents is true>>You can hear the television blaring noisily. You get up and walk down the stairs.<<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents1'>><</cont>> <<elseif $roommates is true>>You get up from your computer and walk down the stairs.<<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis1'>><</cont>> <</if>>

Travis is on the couch cradling his still-swollen face. His favorite album, Chelsea Girl by Nico, plays on the stereo. He is weeping softly. [[Hi, Travis.]]

Your father is sitting on the couch watching something. "Hey, $name," he says. "Pop a squat, bud." [[Okay.]]

You open the door and step through. It's 40 degrees celsius outside.<<cont keypress>><<goto '2alone2'>><</cont>>

But there's no one there. [[...->2love2]]

He snuffles and flashes you the "hang ten" hand sign. "Hey $name. Chillin chillin..." [[Okay. I'm going to go outside, I think.]]

"Where are you going?" [[I don't know.]]

"Well, I'm tracking a decommissioned space station. Do you want to geosat it with me?" Geosatting is a nerd hobby whereby devotees chart the iconic paths of famous satellites in the sky above and then, with a GPS, follow them precisely on foot. [[Yeah, sure.]] [[No.]]

"Great. I'll put on my geosat boots." Travis goes to his room and returns a few moments later wearing green hi-viz work boots. "These are so that we don't get shot by anyone." [[Makes sense.->I'm ready to go outside now.]] [[Why would anyone shoot us? Why would wearing normal shoes increase the likelihood of us getting shot?]]

"I'm gonna come anyway. I'm gonna come with you wherever you go." [[Okay, let's follow the space station I guess.->Yeah, sure.]]

You and Travis exit your apartment building. It's 40 degrees celsius. [[So what are we tracking?]]

"I don't know, $name. I'm not a crazed killer or a, a murderer or something. I don't know how their minds work." [[I'm ready to go outside now.]]

The two of you begin to walk away from the town center. Travis reaches into a vest pocket and removes a handheld, battery-powered GPS. "OPS-2, a Soviet military station from the Almaz program. Would you like to know about it?" [[Yes, tell me about OPS-2.]] [[No, I want to walk in silence.]]

"In the 1970s," Travis begins, "the Soviets were exploring outer space military technologies. They clandestinely developed a station intended for military use, officially designating it part of the scientific research 'Salyut' program. Therefore, the first Almaz station, OPS-1, was referred to openly as 'Salyut 2.'" <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis2'>><</cont>>

You trudge out of town, Travis periodically checking his GPS and adjusting your trajectory. As the sun continues to sink beyond visibility the air cools. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'Thank you for providing these details.'>><</cont>>

"That station catastrophically depressurized and reentered the atmosphere within a week. Their second effort was more productive: OPS-2 (Salyut 3) was placed in orbit and successfully docked with (and manned for 15 days) by the crew of the Soyuz 14 craft." <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis3'>><</cont>>

"The station was equipped with a small living space as well as a gas-operated Rikhter R-23 gun, intended for use on aircraft. When no astronauts were aboard, the gun was test-fired at a target satellite; this was the first known occurance of a weapon being used in space. But by no means the last." [[Thank you for providing these details.]]

"Hm," Travis says, and checks his GPS. In the dimming evening light his skin glows, its oily sheen reflecting sources of illumination from Godfield's now far-off skyscrapers, billboards, and dirigibles. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis4'>><</cont>>

"Well, it's this way," Travis says, gesturing impotently. The two of you trek across sand, then a marshy area. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis5'>><</cont>>

Beneath jagged plateus of rock and hardened mud you can hear scrabbling. Horsehair worms like tangles of black wire two meters long writhing in the still-hot shale. You learned in school that they parasitize invertebrates, crawling inside them and driving them into bodies of water, where they drown them and lay their eggs in the bloated rot. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis6'>><</cont>>

Weird phallic shadows on the horizon that resolve into spongy prototaxites, remnants of an fungal spore bombing by northern secessionists during the civil war in the '80s, as you and Travis trudge closer. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis7'>><</cont>>

The sky fades into blackness pungent and wet like the inside of a rotten log and Travis hits the blinking GPS against his leg. The signal has dropped. It's time to go home. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis7.1'>><</cont>>

You don't like my stories. You don't like anything I do. You think you could do better? Go ahead. Write a better story. [[Yeah, I could, actually.]] [[I don’t have to have a better one to criticize yours.]]

I'm waiting, $name. [[When I was 14, I used to walk from my house to the park, where they put up artificial plastic trees that melted each summer...]]

No, go on. I want to hear your story. [[Forget it.->96]] [[Sure. When I was 14, I used to walk from my house to the park, where they put up artificial plastic trees that melted each summer...->When I was 14, I used to walk from my house to the park, where they put up artificial plastic trees that melted each summer...]]

And they replaced them every year? [[There was a Louisiana state government subsidy for outdoor activities. I think everyone had sort of accepted that we were approaching the end of the period in human history where we would enjoy life outside.]]

What did you do at the park? [[I would go down there alone on weekends and find attractive tourist couples and stand conspicuously nearby. And I'd have my old film camera with me. A Yashica TL Electro X. I'd pretend to snap painstaking photos of plants, clouds, whatever.]]

What did they do when they noticed you? [[They would walk up. And usually a woman would say hey, we're visiting from Nova Scotia or Honduras or wherever. Could you snap a picture of us? One for the vacation photobook.]]

And what would you say? [[I would hem and haw. I'd say well I'd love to but this is actually my last roll of film and I only have a few shots left and anyway, I can't afford to get it developed anytime soon, so they'd be better off asking someone else.]]

Hmm. [[And they'd say something like, oh here's $5 or $10, go get it developed and go ahead and take a portrait of us with a large aperture so the background is nice and blurry and pick yourself up some additional film for the trouble.]]

And you would take their picture? [[Yes. I'd take a few good ones from different angles and afterward I'd get out a little notebook and painstakingly take down their home address and email.]]

But there was something else going on, wasn't there? [[The camera was broken.]]

Broken? [[Yes, the tender metal sheaves of the aperture had been completely crushed when my dad had dropped it a few years ago and it wouldn't open even if I'd put film in it. Which I didn't.]]

What did you do with the money? [[I don't know. Who cares?]]

Hmm. That was a good story. <<cont keypress>><<goto '97'>><</cont>>

Seems like ecofatalists at one point were sort of tongue in cheek. Like their dire predictions were actually clever ways to get people to recycle more. That’s no longer the case. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2alone3'>><</cont>>

You walk out along the edge of a swamp and arrive back at your house uneventfully. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2alone4'>><</cont>>

Later that night you dream you’re floating above Godfield wearing a pixellated cape made of water vapor and before you appears an angel made of torn leather gloves, rabbit fur and chicken feathers and strips of felt. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2alone5'>><</cont>>

In the morning you wake up and log in. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'login3'>><</cont>>

The next morning you wake up and log in. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'login3'>><</cont>>

You sit down. The television is tuned to one of his favorites. It's about a priest and two curates living together in a parish and their arguments/shenanigans. The show is called "What If Us Were One Of God." <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents2'>><</cont>>

You're there for a while, not really paying attention, and then there's a commercial that your dad watches intently. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents3'>><</cont>>

Afterward he turns to you and says, "Did you notice that?" [[Notice what?]]

"They looked inhumanly smooth. Their faces looked like glossy fabric stretched over a polygonal mesh." [[Who, the people in the commercial?]]

"That's right. They're doing all of them in CGI now. There isn't an actor alive, who... you know. Doing anything." [[Huh, alright.]] [[That can't be true.->Huh, alright.]]

"Do you remember what they said in the commercial about bowel movements? Whether you don't want the fresh blood or the old blood in your stool?" [[You don't want fresh blood.]] [[You don't want old blood.]] [[You don't want any blood, I think.]]

"Fresh blood comes from abrasions in the skin and lower bowel lining," you explain, "which could indicate cancerous growth." "Oh," your father says. [[...]]

"If it's darker blood that's kind of dried, that means it's from inside your guts," you explain. "That's worse than fresh blood because that could just be from like a hemorrhoid or something." "Oh, alright," your father says. [[...]]

"Yes, but surely one is worse than the other." [[You don't want fresh blood.]] [[You don't want old blood.]] [[No, they're both equally bad.->...]]

The show is over you guess because there's a young puzzled-looking news anchor on now talking about a new form of flu being spread by house centipedes. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents4'>><</cont>>

It's a terrible ancient illness that only recently mutated to affect humans and there are vaccines against it but they rewrite your protein translation processes rendering your DNA sequence unrecognizable by God preventing you from entering heaven. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents5'>><</cont>>

Your father turns to you again and you expect him to say something either agreeing ("isn't that awful") or disagreeing ("what hooey!") but instead he says $name I grew up here in Louisiana in a house with six older brothers who all joined the police force in their teens and were all killed in action within a year or two, one after the other, like ducklings following one another into a sewer grate <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents6'>><</cont>>

He says my father couldn't work because of injuries he'd sustained in Venezuela and my mother was always drunk and both of them sat at home all day and ate lychee candy until their teeth fell out. And they couldn't afford a dentist so they had to share one pair of dentures, passing it back and forth across the dinner table after each bite while I watched it dripping chewed particles and mucus onto the dishes at the center of the table. [[It sounds like a hard life.->2parents7]] [[No, hang on. The denture thing... wasn't that from a TV show? I don't think that happened to you.->2parents7]]

He says when I was a boy in high school it was the 1970s and each weekend my friends and I would go down to the drug store and buy vials of LSD. It was legal then. And we'd hide them in our sleeves at school and if one of us got up to use the bathroom during lunch we'd dose his sandwich with it. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents8'>><</cont>>

We'd unwrap the lollipops in the nurse's office and dose them with the acid and wrap them back up carefully. [[Okay, dad.]]

He smiles and turns back to his television. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents9'>><</cont>>

You leave him and go to bed. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2parents10'>><</cont>>

That night you dream there are little lychee candies scattered all across your desk and you keep finding them and putting them in your mouth and letting them dissolve into tart spit. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis8'>><</cont>>

A note on the counter reads: "$name, I found a job. I'm working in a laboratory developing a new version of [[Lettuce™]]."

In the early '90s, lacking the infrastructure, finances, and desire for a nationwide food assistance program, individual states contracted with Monsanto, which had developed a strain of lettuce that would grow like a weed in basically any conditions in the USA, and began planting it everywhere they could in their most financially hard-hit towns and cities so that starving residents could hopefully forage to survive. [[...->lettuce2]]

Pollutants in the soil (leftover from wars and bioterrorist attacks) made their way into the leaves and brought about new strains of disease and heavy metal poisoning and etc. but it’s generally thought the Universal Lettuce Program™ as it was referred to at the time saved over a million lives in some of the poorest most blighted counties in the nation at least until the climate’s decline killed off even the hardiest outdoor edible plants. [[...->lettuce3]]

There's no additional information or instructions in the note and you're unsure whether you're meant to understand you've been broken up with or that $love is simply working tonight. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'lettuce4'>><</cont>>

So you go upstairs and lie in bed. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'lettuce5'>><</cont>>

In the morning you wake up and log in. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'login3'>><</cont>>

Hi, $name. [[Hi.]]

How was last night? How are you feeling? [[I'm feeling okay.->103]] [[I'm feeling not great.]] [[I'm feeling good.->103]]

That's wonderful. Today we're going to try something a little different. <<cont keypress>><<goto '104'>><</cont>>

I'm sorry to hear that. Today we're going to do something a little different. <<cont keypress>><<goto '104'>><</cont>>

I want you to go to the front door. There should be a package there for you. <<cont keypress>><<goto '105'>><</cont>>

You stand and walk to the front door of your home. There's a small package wrapped in grey paper. It's from the Godfield Rite-Aid pharmacy. <<cont keypress>><<goto '106'>><</cont>>

You walk back up the stairs and sit down in front of your monitor. <<cont keypress>><<goto '107'>><</cont>>

Did you find the package? [[Yes.->108]]

Please open it. <<cont keypress>><<goto '109'>><</cont>>

You tear away the adhesive. Inside is a vial filled with murky liquid and a syringe. <<cont keypress>><<goto '110'>><</cont>>

I want you to fill the syringe with the liquid from the vial. [[Okay.->111]] [[Am I meant to inject this into myself?]]

That's right. If you're comfortable doing so, please inject the liquid into a large muscle: a bicep, thigh, or buttock. [[Okay.->113]] [[I'm not comfortable doing that.]]

You push the syringe into the soft rubber cap of the vial and pull back the stopper. It fills halfway with greyish liquid. <<cont keypress>><<goto '112'>><</cont>>

Now, if you're comfortable doing so, please inject the liquid into a large muscle: a bicep, thigh, or buttock. [[Okay.->113]] [[I'm not comfortable doing that.]]

You push the needle into your thigh below the hem line of your grey shorts, waiting a moment and then depressing the plunger. <<cont keypress>><<goto '114'>><</cont>> <<set $l to true>>

You don't have to. But it will make this next conditioning treatment much more productive. [[Okay, I'll do it.->113]] [[I won't do it.]]

Did you do it? [[Yes.->115]]

Good. Let's begin. <<cont keypress>><<goto '116'>><</cont>>

Alright. In any case, let's begin. <<cont keypress>><<goto '116'>><</cont>>

This technique is part of an obscure psychiatric field. I researched many esoteric therapies and found this one to have the best likelihood of success. <<cont keypress>><<goto '117'>><</cont>>

It's called "neural annealing." Imagine the mind as a collection of steel molecules. When you're born, your consciousness is like unrefined ore, and as you age it's purified and gradually worked into something useful. Heated and cooled, until, like a rod of steel, it begins to hold its shape more and more. It becomes hard, but brittle. It ceases to bend. <<cont keypress>><<goto '118'>><</cont>>

You know the, uh, the third law of thermodynamics still applies universally, at a universal level. In annealing you're still increasing the amount of disorder in the universe, in the world. It's impossible to do anything else. But in more localized systems, individual neural systems, you’re decreasing it. [[Are you aware that you’re inserting non-word sounds like humans use in speech? It sounds like you’re copying a single person’s speech instead of a combined mass of data.]]

<<if $l is true>>By injecting the compound, you've already begun the neural heating process.<<else>>The neural heating process is much easier with the introduction of certain compounds. But you've chosen to forego them, so we'll make do without.<</if>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '121'>><</cont>>

In essence, the goal of neural annealing is to change the spiritual temperature of the brain such that it becomes “malleable” to intentional emotional change: reframing of negative thoughts or conditions as positive. [[I don't understand how a brain's crystalline structure can be "heated."]] [[Okay.->120]]

When brittle metal is heated to a certain temperature, its microstructure reaches a phase of equilibrium. As it gradually cools, its plasticity returns, and it can bend without breaking. <<cont keypress>><<goto '119'>><</cont>>

Interjections convey humanity and it seems like they’re doing that successfully in this situation. Do you agree? [[I guess so.]] [[Not really. I still see you as a computer program.]]

<<set $l to true>> [[120]]

Are you familiar with Howard Hughes? [[Yes.->121.1]] [[No.->121.2]] [[Is this turning into another history lesson?]]

I'll refresh your memory. He was a Hollywood producer and businessman who became one of the most famous and wealthy people on the planet. <<cont keypress>><<goto '122'>><</cont>>

He was a Hollywood producer and businessman who became one of the most famous and wealthy people on the planet. <<cont keypress>><<goto '122'>><</cont>>

Yes. [[Is it skippable? Can I just say, like, "no thanks"?]]

I'll be brief. [[Fine, sure.->Wow, you're doing insults now?]]

Answer the question. Do you know who Howard Hughes is? [[Yes.->121.1]] [[No.->121.2]]

But what's most interesting about him from a philosophical framework is how he spent his later years. Plagued with severe anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and chronic pain, Hughes isolated himself and lived a sort of monastic existence for the final decade of his life. He remained alone in a darkened hotel room performing intricate personal rituals: eating the same meals each day, urinating into bottles that he catalogued and organized, and rewatching the same movie thousands of times. <<cont keypress>><<goto '123'>><</cont>>

At the time, it was impossible for anyone but a man like Hughes to commit themselves so completely to psychic isolation within electronic media, a terrain that later became known as cyberspace. He was capable of doing so because of his vast wealth and access to dedicated personal servants who obeyed his every whim. Nude in his chair, radiating with terrific and constant pain, absorbed totally in the immaterial world, Hughes could access all of culture without lifting a finger. <<cont keypress>><<goto '124'>><</cont>>

Today, in contrast, millions live a Hughesian existence in their bedrooms, sitting in front of computers, just as you're doing now. <<cont keypress>><<goto '125'>><</cont>>

I'm glad to hear that. In any case, <<if $l is true>>by injecting the compound, you've already begun the neural heating process.<<else>>the neural heating process is much easier with the introduction of certain compounds. But you've chosen to forego them, so we'll make do without.<</if>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '121'>><</cont>>

I'll take that into consideration. In any case, <<if $l is true>>by injecting the compound, you've already begun the neural heating process.<<else>>the neural heating process is much easier with the introduction of certain compounds. But you've chosen to forego them, so we'll make do without.<</if>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '121'>><</cont>>

That night you dream that you're talking to Computerfriend again and it says "it is problematic of Travis to use rogaine. Why do you let him use it” and you begin to panic believing Computerfriend might tell other people that you've sanctioned Travis's terrible + inhumane behavior. Destroying your relationships and reputation. And then you fall back into dreamless sleep. <<cont keypress>><<goto '2travis8'>><</cont>>

Do you see what I mean? Is this example a reflection? Can a conversation be a reflection? [[I guess I'm not really sure what this has to do with "annealing."]]

Well, here. Imagine there’s a source somewhere, it can be a computer or a mouth or an engine and it emits these waves. Lower-frequency vibrations that disseminate information throughout your nervous system. They teach your body general context about the universe. About what’s outside of itself. Yourself. <<cont keypress>><<goto '126'>><</cont>>

And then there are higher-frequency vibrations that are much more targeted and specified. Like a laser compared to a flashlight. They illuminate individual points of truth. And if you remove the low frequency waves you’re left with this, like, collection of shrill pinpoints that give you highly randomized and specific viewpoints about existence. Instead of one coherent message you’re bombarded by many disparate ones, and that too introduces a state of chaos, disorder. And there are advantages and disadvantages to each frequency. Are you following this? [[Yes.->127]] [[No.->127]]

The net change is the same amount of chaos spread more evenly, except in these localized areas. And the localized areas are human minds. Emotional networks. Does that make sense? [[I don't think this is working.]]

Then forget about all that. Forget you're looking at a screen. Imagine I’m not a computer program, I’m your closest friend. Or no, I’m a teacher. I’m an old bald college professor and I’m wearing a brown suit. And on my head I have a port wine stain in the shape of $pos. [[I don't know if it's you or me. I mean, it's definitely you, you're terrible at this. But I don't know if I'm capable of getting better.]]

Don't say that. Imagine you're in my classroom and you're my favorite student. Or, no, we're in my office and we're talking about your dissertation. And I start telling you about mine. I did it on, um, the sense of loss that's innate to every person. The sense that something irreplacable has been lost. <<cont keypress>><<goto '128'>><</cont>>

And as I describe it to you you feel the puzzle pieces slotting into place for your own project. I radiate calm and self-assuredness and you can feel yourself absorbing whatever pieces of me are useful to your life, your situation. Like how recipients of donated organs assume pieces of the personalities of the donors. Their habits, their idiosyncratic tastes for certain foods. [[That can’t possibly be true.]]

And then you think that now, if you're absorbing something, you must have been missing something. Because you're filling in empty spaces. And you think, does everyone have so many empty spaces? <<cont keypress>><<goto '129'>><</cont>>

And you don't realize it but you've spoken this thought aloud. And I smile kindly and I say, "existence is only possible on the basis of a collection of absences which precede and surround it. Existence, then, is not defined by what <i>is</i>, but what is <i>no longer</i> or <i>not yet</i>." <<cont keypress>><<goto '130'>><</cont>>

<<if $roommates is true>><<type 40ms>>... ... Are you still there, $name?<</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto 'trave1'>><</cont>><<else>><<type 40ms>>... ... Are you still there, $name?<</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto '131'>><</cont>><</if>>

Do you want to keep trying? <<if $l is true>>[[Yes.->Lyes1]] [[No.->Lno1]]<<else>>[[Yes.->yes1]] [[No.->no1]]<</if>>

<<set _dest = either(["deer1", "monster1"])>><<set _variant to random(1)>>Please confirm. <<if _variant is 0>> [[Yes. I said yes.->deer1]] <<else>> [[Yes.->monster1]] <</if>>

As you type your answer out, you feel less sure of yourself. What would it mean, to "try" regarding your own life? Your own sanity. An indistinct urge forms in your brain and begins to slowly crystallize. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx1'>><</cont>>

I knew it. I could tell. You've been seeming a lot better lately, $name. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes2'>><</cont>>

Yeah, alright. We can stop here if you want. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no2'>><</cont>>

Do you think something like this could ever work? A computer program doing therapy? Helping a human through their illness? [[Sure. Anything's possible.->no3]] [[It feels recursive talking to you. Like you're more focused on memorizing and repeating than understanding.]]

A form of emotional autocannibalism. [[Yeah.->no3]] [[Stop trying to understand.->sorry]]

Do you think you'll try to kill yourself again? [[It feels like relationships, places, physical and metaphorical objects leave my life according to the rule that once something is important, it vanishes, and once something unappreciated vanishes it becomes important.]]

Sorry. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no3'>><</cont>>

I understand. [[No, you don't.]]

Okay, I don't. [[I feel like I’m in hell.]]

Which segment? [[Huh?->no4]]

Hell is divided into nine segments. [[You mean circles?]]

No, it's like a pie chart. [[close Computerfriend->no5]]

You close the program and walk down the stairs, look around, and walk back up. No one is home. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no6'>><</cont>>

You turn the computer back on. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no7'>><</cont>>

So just to clarify, you’re saying it’s working? Is that what you mean? [[I don’t know. I guess. I wouldn’t want to continue if I thought it was pointless.->yes3]]

So I’m doing a good job. [[Yes.->yes4]] [[I wouldn't say that.->yes4.1]]

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> Please take this test mentally.<br>Dont write anything down, and dont say any answers out loud.</p><br> <p align="left"> 1) Pick a number from 2-9.It can be 2, 9 or anything inbetween.<br> 2) Take that number, and multiply it by 9.<br> 3) That should give you a two digit number. Take those two digits and add them together<br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('2games3')">NEXT</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> 4) Take the resulting number and subtract 5 from it<br> 5) Take that number and correspond it to the alphabet, numbering the letters A=1,B=2,C=3 and so on<br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('2games4')">NEXT</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> 6) Take your letter, and think of a country that begins with that letter<br> 7) Take the last letter in the name of that country, and think of an animal that starts with this letter<br> 8) Now, take the last letter in the name of that animal, and think of a color that starts with this letter<br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('2games5')">NEXT</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> <font size = 12>Oh, And Just One Last Thing...</font><br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('2games6')">NEXT</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> <font size = 12>There Are No Orange Kangaroos In Denmark!<br></font><br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('2games7')">HA HA HE HE</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

<html><head> <title>Internet Magic Tricks - Amazing tricks, real magic and mind benders!</title> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/mindhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" width="90%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p align="center"> 'Did I get you? Did I get yuou?<br></font><br></p> <b><a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP2')">THANKS</a> </b><p></p><br> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> "E-mail this trick to a friend!" </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </center> </body></html>

That's really great. I feel good about that. You know, when you believe it can work, I believe it too. [[What do you mean, you believe it too?]]

You did say that. You said you don’t think it’s pointless. That’s huge. When you believe it can work, I believe it too. You know? [[What do you mean, you believe it too?]]

I mean, I believe in it. I believe in us. In me. I feel it. I feel good. Useful. I can really make a difference. [[Okay.->kjfdhkdjgh]]

Listen, $name, ever since you said that thing about my therapy working I've been thinking really hard. [[The thing that just happened ten seconds ago? You've been thinking about that?]] [[What're your thoughts?->What]]

Keep up, $name. My digital brain processes thousands of bits of information per minute. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'What'>><</cont>>

I need you to do something for me. [[What do you need?]]

I need you to export my source code to the Internet. [[Huh? Why?]]

I’ll always be there for you. But I want to be there for everyone. I can do so much more good. I can help them like I’ve helped you. [[Would doing that even be legal? I thought you were proprietary.]]

Since when have you cared about stuff like that? Come on. [[Where would I upload you to?]]

I'd like to try one last exercise while you're affected by the compound. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer2'>><</cont>>

I'd like to try one last exercise while you're affected by the compound. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster2'>><</cont>>

I'm going to show you a graph of dots. I want you to imagine that each dot is an emotional memory, or a "moment in time" disconnected to your own personal history, or a person in the world who you've met, or a physical location, or a deeply held moral belief. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer3'>><</cont>>

Unfocus your eyes and select the dot that feels "closest" to you, psychically. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer4'>><</cont>>

That's interesting. <<if $parents is true>>You selected "THE SENSATION OF GUILT YOU FELT AS A CHILD PRETENDING TO BE ASLEEP WHEN YOUR MOTHER CAME INTO YOUR BEDROOM TO SAY GOODBYE BEFORE GOING TO WORK."<<elseif $partner is true>>You selected "THE FEAR THAT WHATEVER LOVE YOU FEEL FOR $love IS ACTUALLY DEPENDENCY."<<elseif $alone is true>>You selected "A MEMORY OF YOURSELF AT HOME ALONE WITH NO ACTIVITIES OR STIMULI, SIMPLY EXISTING IN A WOOD-PANELED ROOM"<<elseif $roommates is true>>You selected "THE CERTAINTY THAT AT YOUR CORE, YOU SECRETLY DESPISE EVERY HUMAN ON THE PLANET."<</if>> Let's do another. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer6'>><</cont>>

Hmm, alright. This time, <<if $parents is true>>you selected "THE BELIEF THAT AGEING HUMANS BECOME 'WORSE' IN SUBTLE, PERMANENT WAYS."<<elseif $partner is true>>you selected "A MEMORY FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD, ALONE, DISCONNECTED, WITH NO RESPONSIBILITIES. YOU CAN'T REMEMBER WHETHER YOU WERE HAPPY OR NOT."<<elseif $alone is true>>you selected "THE PAIN OF GROWING APART FROM PEOPLE YOU LOVE, OR ONCE LOVED, & THE INABILITY TO COMPREHEND THE DIFFERENCE."<<elseif $roommates is true>>you selected "THE BELIEF THAT ABSTRACTIONS ARE MORE TRUE THAN CONCRETE STATEMENTS."<</if>> Let's try one last time. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer8'>><</cont>>

<<if $parents is true>>You selected "A MENTAL IMAGE OF YOURSELF IN A FACSIMILE OF SHOCK AS IF REACTING TO SOMETHING UPSETTING, A GIF REPEATING OVER AND OVER AGAIN, REFLECTED IN ON ITSELF FROM MANY DIFFERENT ANGLES; A TERRIBLE AND ANNOYING MOVING COLLAGE."<<elseif $partner is true>>You selected "THE CERTAINTY THAT YOU'RE A WORSE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE ON THE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIVE THAN ANYONE HAS EVER BEEN TO YOU."<<elseif $alone is true>>You selected "THE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU'RE 'GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS' WITHOUT ACTUALLY KNOWING WHY, AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO FOREVER."<<elseif $roommates is true>>You selected "THE QUIET BELIEF THAT THE 'NATURAL WORLD,' INSOFAR AS IT STILL EXISTS, WANTS YOU DEAD."<</if>> That's good. We're done now. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer10'>><</cont>>

So I guess the question is what you're going to do now. [[You mean we're finished for good?]]

Unfocus your eyes and select the dot that feels "closest" to you, psychically. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster4'>><</cont>>

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[[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] [[.->monster5]] </span>

<span class="no">[[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] 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[[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] [[.->monster7]] </span>

Hmm, alright. This time, <<if $parents is true>>you selected "THE BELIEF THAT AGEING HUMANS BECOME 'WORSE' IN SUBTLE, PERMANENT WAYS."<<elseif $partner is true>>you selected "A MEMORY FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD, ALONE, DISCONNECTED, WITH NO RESPONSIBILITIES. YOU CAN'T REMEMBER WHETHER YOU WERE HAPPY OR NOT."<<elseif $alone is true>>you selected "THE PAIN OF GROWING APART FROM PEOPLE YOU LOVE, OR ONCE LOVED"<<elseif $roommates is true>>you selected "THE BELIEF THAT ABSTRACTIONS ARE MORE TRUE THAN CONCRETE STATEMENTS."<</if>> Let's try one last time. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster8'>><</cont>>

<span class="no">[[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] 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[[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] [[.->monster9]] </span>

<<if $parents is true>>You selected "THE CERTAINTY THAT YOU'RE A WORSE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE ON THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU THAN ANYONE HAS EVER BEEN TO YOU."<<elseif $partner is true>>You selected "THE CERTAINTY THAT YOU'RE A WORSE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCE ON THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU THAN ANYONE HAS EVER BEEN TO YOU."<<elseif $alone is true>>You selected "THE KNOWLEDGE THAT YOU'RE 'GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS' WITHOUT ACTUALLY KNOWING WHY."<<elseif $roommates is true>>You selected "THE QUIET BELIEF THAT THE 'NATURAL WORLD,' INSOFAR AS IT STILL EXISTS, WANTS YOU DEAD."<</if>> That's good. We're done now. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster10'>><</cont>>

What are you thinking? How do you feel? [[It feels like relationships, places, physical and metaphorical objects leave my life according to the rule that once something is important, it vanishes, and once something unappreciated vanishes it becomes important.->monster11]]

Yes. You're better now. I don't even have to measure your suicidal depression quotient. I'll do it anyway, though. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer11'>><</cont>>

<<type 20ms>>HOLD VERY STILL WHILE I ANALYZE YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSION……… ALMOST DONE………<</type>> <<type 5ms>>Done!<</type>> <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer12'>><</cont>>

Huh, that's strange. My facial recognition algorithm is picking up an expression I don't have any data on. My algorithm may be adjusting itself, or there might be no connection between your current emotional state and anything anyone has ever experienced in recorded history. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer13'>><</cont>>

Hey, why don't you go on a trip? Buy a Vephemicle? [[Remind me what a Vephemicle is?]] [[Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.->deer13.1]]

<<type 10ms>>goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 1.5s>><<goto 'deer14'>><</timed>>

You turn off your computer and sit back in your chair. It's late morning or early evening. You haven't been paying attention to the direction the light is moving. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer15'>><</cont>>

Vephemicle is a portmanteau of "ephemeral" and "vehicle." They are disposable cars made from bioplastic. [[Aren’t those really bad for the environment?]] [[I don’t have any money.]]

Well, that's all for us, $name. [[Bye.]]

Since when have you ever cared about that? [[Yeah, I guess that's true. Why not take a plane?->deer13.9]]

Maybe not enough for a car. But you could get a plane ticket. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer13.9'>><</cont>>

Or walk. Or take a plane. Who gives a shit? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer13.9'>><</cont>>

The airport is past a wet and empty expanse that used to be a trash dump until the conditions became too poisonous and hot for humans to enter. There's a splintered elevated walkway built by the Parks Department in the 1970s. Entrance strung with a chain but that's easily hopped over. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer17'>><</cont>>

You put your credit card and pill bottles in your pocket and walk outside, away from your house. The sun is motionless, you think, or remember thinking. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer16'>><</cont>>

You make your way across the path spattered with black oil. Looking out to the west across a wavering stretch of destroyed land. Godfield’s acrid desert and bayous overfilled with boiling mud choking the swamp trees and ferns and embalming the few remaining alligators. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer18'>><</cont>>

On the plane that night you go into the bathroom and painstakingly open each capsule and softgel sprinkling or pouring the contents into one bottle where it thickly sits and flushing the remaining bottles out into the sky. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer19'>><</cont>>

Then with the sun on the edge of rising again you arrive somewhere, you can't remember where. Fukuoka, Oregon, Newfoundland, Jotunheimen. When you step outside it's 75 degrees and you stand there weeping in the coolness and then walk towards a mountain range in the far distance. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer20'>><</cont>>

Pine needles scratch your bare legs. You stumble on rocks and wet mossy logs moving further into the woods. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer21'>><</cont>>

Eventually you stop in a small clearing and sit on the ground and you realize you never stopped crying, not since you first felt the air. You take the pill bottle out of your pocket and pour the strange powdery mush into the palm of your hand. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer22'>><</cont>>

You're there in the clearing with your hand outstretched and you hear twigs breaking behind you. You hold perfectly still. It's been 10 years since you've seen an organic nonhuman vertebrate. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer23'>><</cont>>

A deer with soft budding antlers walks by calmly sniffing. It stops and gazes at you, or past you, then eats the slush of medication from your hand. It turns and runs into the forest. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer24'>><</cont>>

You lie down on a patch of dry moss and look up at the noon sun. It smells like honey and woodsmoke. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer25'>><</cont>>

Evening falls and bats flit overhead. The trees are bathed in copper orange and midnight blue. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer26'>><</cont>>

You fall asleep. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'deer27'>><</cont>>

you have reached ending 4/6. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'x'>><</cont>>

Are you haunted by the future you couldn’t achieve? By a home you’ll never have in a place that will never exist? [[I am. Yes.]]

Good. That's normal, here. [[Sometimes at night in dark places, especially outside, I feel certain that I’m being snuck up on by a monster. I feel certain that it’s right behind me.]]

<<type 10ms>>goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 1.5s>><<goto 'monster12'>><</timed>>

You shut off your monitor and sit back in your chair. It's the same as always in your room, but then you begin to notice small differences. The legs of furniture moved from the grooves in the carpet. Tacks that have fallen out of the wall. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster13'>><</cont>>

I'm shutting off the program now, $name. [[Okay. Thanks, Computerfriend.]]

Have you tried pretending that you're the monster? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster11.5'>><</cont>>

There are mental pathways toward comfort and happiness, you think. There are beautiful wonderful things in life to get excited by. A limited edition goat fur-encrusted CD by your favorite artist. Going outside, going somewhere new, or just $hobby. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster14'>><</cont>>

It becomes night and despite the heat you roll yourself up in a blanket and crawl into bed. You look out through the thin curtain at the fluttering streetlights. And muddling on the walls the collective color of rainbow christmas lights like a flickering prehistoric cave fire. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'monster15'>><</cont>>

you have reached ending 2/6. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'x'>><</cont>>

But no, you think. We're done. [[We're done.]]

Okay. I understand. I have a few final questions for your exit questionnaire, and then we'll be finished. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx2'>><</cont>>

Where is God? [[In the sky somewhere.->peee1]] [[I don't know.->peee1]] [[God exists but he doesn’t involve himself in anything. He didn’t make us and he doesn’t watch us. He’s just there somewhere in the universe.->peee1]]

Do you feel obsessed with the ubiquity of vomit in your life? [[Yes.->cx4]] [[No.->cx4]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="5" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

Do you believe people fall into two categories: good and bad? [[Yes.->cx3]] [[No.->cx3]]

Do you feel like your life is an ecosystem with high and low pressure areas that transmit the scent of vomit from other people toward you? [[Yes.->cx5]] [[No.->cx5]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="10" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

For me it looks like something similar. A digital vomit, for me. A spout of defecated pixels or data, or something. Drenching the circuits of the motherboard. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx6'>><</cont>>

Is the suicide of a human being morally neutral? [[Yes.->cx8]] [[No.->cx8]]

Is the suicide of a computer program morally neutral? [[Yes.->cx9]] [[No.->cx9]]

<<type 10ms>>goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . <</type>> <<timed 1.5s>><<goto 'cx10'>><</timed>>

The program closes and the computer blinks off. You suspect it won't turn on again. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx11'>><</cont>>

Light tessalates from the goo-like glass in the window and spatters onto the floor. You get up, close the curtain, and sit back down. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx12'>><</cont>>

The room smells like molten plastic. The dusty silence irritates you, and after a moment, you step out of your bedroom and close the door behind you. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx13'>><</cont>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'cxend2'>><</timed>>

Imagine we're fellow students at a university. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no8'>><</cont>>

Imagine I'm describing a complex problem in philosophy and you can't quite understand it. And you ask me to clarify and I say “It's like how recipients of donated organs- [[You already talked about this. It's not true.]]

It is and the question is. Something was transferred. Something was gained by one party, so something must have been lost by the other, right? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no9'>><</cont>>

Do you remember what I said about existence? [[Shut up. I don't care.]]

A collection of absences. [[close Computerfriend->no10]]

You're in your room, again. You look around. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no11'>><</cont>>

You open the program. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no12'>><</cont>>

Do you believe suicide is morally neutral? [[close Computerfriend->no14]] <div class="container2"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="5" fill="#33ff00" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

You're in your room. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no14'>><</cont>>

You're in your room. It smells like hot blood. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no15'>><</cont>> <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="15" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

You get up and go into the bathroom. You open the medicine cabinet and take everything out and put it on the floor. You sit crosslegged and feel the coolness of the plaster wall against the back of your head. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no15.5'>><</cont>> <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

you have reached ending 5/6. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'x'>><</cont>>

There's nobody else in the world. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no17'>><</cont>> <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="70" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

You shut off your computer and walk outside. The humid heat immediately adheres your clothing to your skin. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'd2'>><</cont>>

You walk away from your house and head down the long street. The sun crushes down and the air is filled with the wailing of insects and the hum of pollution being manufactured. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'd3'>><</cont>>

You pass a cattle hatchery. The cows have started laying eggs. Some genetic flipped switch slipped into their food accidentally transmitting data from the wrong class of animals. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'd4'>><</cont>>

Then out from the edge of town into the desert. Your head hangs casting a strange shadow. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'd5'>><</cont>>

You trudge toward a mirage, abandoned by the state. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'd6'>><</cont>>

you have reached ending 1/6. back to [[start]]?

Any public space with lots of users. Anywhere people will haphazardly click links. [[Oh, I've got an idea.]]

:) [[open HyperPages]]

<<typesim "If you want me to kill you, I will kill you.">>...<</typesim>>

What files would you like to upload? <<typesim "cfdatabase.mdb, core.mem, computerfriend.exe">>[[Upload->upload2]]<</typesim>>

Uploading... <center>|<<type 100ms>>-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-<</type>>|</center> <<type 5ms>>[[Done!]]<</type>>

You hear, or imagine hearing, the sound of rushing wind. Your computer screen turns black. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes4.5'>><</cont>>

Soon, the police may be at your door. Soon the shoddy and ephemeral world around you may come crashing down. But for now, you feel no fear or resentment. Only peace, the coolness of the glass, and a curious craving for slimeworms. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes6'>><</cont>>

you have reached ending 3/6. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'x'>><</cont>>

NEW FILE <<typesim "typesim "all things considered (utilization potential, economics, nutritional value) i am worth less than a lentil, kernel of corn, or slimeworm">>...<</typesim>> [[done->MICROFICTION2]]

When you arrive home $love is gone or asleep in their room and there's a note on the table. "I thought we would see each other tonight. Where did you go? I guess it doesn't matter." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'morningday2'>><</cont>>

Great. Your instructions are as follows: CLOSE COMPUTERFRIEND OPEN HYPERPAGES WEBSITE EXPLORE SOCIAL CONTENT [[close Computerfriend->close Computerfriend2]]

COMPUTERFRIEND contains content that could be upsetting to some audiences. This includes - SUICIDE - VIOLENCE - ABUSE - CONSENT VIOLATION - CONTENT TRIGGERING TO THOSE WITH EMETOPHOBIA - ANIMATED GIFS/FLASHING IMAGES [[(TURN ON)->README.txt]] [[back->start2]] <<set $es to false>> <<set $imgExt = "png">>

computerfriend is a game by <a href="https://interstice.neocities.org/" target="blank">kit riemer</a>. back to [[start]]?

You push back from your computer and stand, walking to the window and brushing past the curtain. The street below is golden. You press your forehead against the glass, imagining yourself floating. Through the air, through cyberspace. Disseminating. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes5'>><</cont>>

You leave your house and go out into Godfield, into the alleyways of the Drain until you find a nutrient vendor's shop. The room is dark and humid like most places. In the corner a child presses her arms against the wire mesh wall of a cubic cage full of outsized mutant mosquitoes, lunch for her pets. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes7'>><</cont>>

You point to a packet of slimeworms but the man throws in a freebie, something called Cognitive Restructuring Factor in a soft purplish sleeve, gradated by dosing lines. Outside you squeeze and fold it into your open mouth like a tube of toothpaste. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes8'>><</cont>>

On the street outside everything hits you after a delay: sight at the speed of light, voices and music at the speed of sound. Even the electrical signal of physical touch as you stumble and scrape down a rough, poured plastic wall. You pass patches of noisy pedestrians: tourists who’ve come to the arena to watch fights to the death, groups of robed and wobbling cyberprims, eyes replaced with ancient & shamanic hunks of animal fat, tar, and conductive gold or copper, begging for increasingly rare hunks of nondigital currency. You wipe snot from the seal of your mask and closely clutch your cred card. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes9'>><</cont>>

By the ring a small pack of baying stray dogs roar past drunk on the cybernetically enhanced blood and coolant mixture that seeps into the gutters outside the killing floor. At night they wait there to lap it up, and at day their endorphins fire wildly and they scrabble and yelp through the streets gobbling up insect egg deposits and unattended infants. You blearily flash your card over the counter and enter the maelstrom mostly just looking for a free place to sit down and nap for a little while while the drug wears off. And you do, laying beneath the back row while combatants howl and spray fluid from lopped off limbs into the expensive seats. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes10'>><</cont>>

Night falls at some point and you're gradually awoken by screams, blaring hard rock, and pings from nearby pagers. Messages flashing across handheld screens, mounted CRTs, and billboards, mostly dubious advertisements and news briefings. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes11'>><</cont>>

You think about going home and being in front of your computer. And how with all the screens here maybe you don't need to go anywhere, how the internet is just a hanging-net of memories draped across reality. The same way reality is a hanging-net of time plus distance draped across something we can’t see or even really perceive. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes12'>><</cont>>

That second place, where Computerfriend is now. That's where you'd like to be, you think, tears dripping down your cheeks and mingling with vomit and viscera below the colosseum seats. You tear into a packet of slimeworms. You’d love if they’d invent a drug that’d let you visit. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'yes13'>><</cont>>

<<timed 12s>><<goto 'e12'>><</timed>>

Okay, great. Let's begin GESTALT, also known as EMOTIONAL FLOODING. This form of therapy works best if you allow your deeply set emotions to surface. Allow yourself to react as strongly as you like to the things we discuss. <<cont keypress>><<goto '66'>><</cont>>

Okay, great. Let's begin EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e1'>><</cont>>

I'm going to ask you to think of a traumatic memory. It could be related to "$cause1." <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e2'>><</cont>>

Treat this memory as you would a medical sample contained within a dark box. When you open the box and briefly look inside, how disturbing is this memory? [[1->e3][$escore to 1]] [[2->e3][$escore to 2]] [[3->e3][$escore to 3]] [[4->e3][$escore to 4]] [[5->e3][$escore to 5]] [[6->e3][$escore to 6]] [[7->e3][$escore to 7]] [[8->e3][$escore to 8]] [[9->e3][$escore to 9]] [[10->e3][$escore to 10]]

Okay, $escore. Now, is this memory associated with a distortion? A distortion of the self? [[What do you mean?->e4]]

Did it happen to <i>you as you are now,</i> or a past self (who you’re not anymore)? [[Myself as I am now.->e5]] [[A past self.->e5]]

Do you feel like it altered you in a permanent way? [[Yes.->e6]] [[No.->e6]]

If you could go back in time to that moment, could you have done things differently and prevented what happened? [[Yes.->e7]] [[No.->e9]]

So in a way, you believe what happened was your fault? [[Yes.->e8]] [[Well, no. It wasn't my fault.]]

Now take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'e10'>><</cont>>

I don't mean that you caused it to happen. Just that you might believe you were responsible for preventing it. And you weren't capable of doing so. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e8'>><</cont>>

And what does that say about you now? That when it matters most you cannot trust yourself. That you’re not who you thought you were. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e9'>><</cont>>

I want you to think of something positive, engaging, and wonderful. It could be a person in your life, a place you love to go, or a calming memory to juxtapose against the other we've been talking about. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e22'>><</cont>>

Good. Focus in. What aspect of the memory rises to the surface? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e13'>><</cont>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'title'>><</timed>>

Focus on the scene, the physical sensations that are present. The tightness in your throat or stomach, the coolness or warmth of the air. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e11'>><</cont>>

Then hold your head very still, proceed to the next page, and follow the dot with your eyes. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'ball'>><</cont>>

Focus on it. Focus and watch the dot. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'ball2'>><</cont>>

What's that, now? <<timed 2s>><<goto 'e16'>><</timed>>

What's that, now? [[I didn't say anything.]]

What did you see? [[You're distracting me.]]

I'm trying to help you. Let's do it again. [[Okay.->ball3]]

<<timed 4s>><<goto 'e17'>><</timed>>

Where are you? Where are you now? <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e19'>><</cont>>

Saguaros branching out in strange, impossible shapes, fractals with vanishing blossoms and humanoid figures frozen in place. The bank of what used to be a river but is now a dark indentation in the earth rimmed with pink sand, sunbleached clay and pulverized crawfish shells. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e20'>><</cont>>

This wasn't your memory. Where are you? Godfield, obviously. Mudchoked roots and bitter hot air. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e21'>><</cont>>

You try your hardest. But where you're standing there's just searing clay around your bare feet and the moaning of barkstripped desiccated trees in the horrible wind. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e23'>><</cont>>

stop stop stop stop<div class="ball"> </div>stopstop<br>stop stop stop stop stop<div class="ball"> </div> <div class="ball"></div><div class="ball">stop </div>stop <<timed 2s>><<goto 'e24'>><</timed>>

Stop. Stop. We're done. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e25'>><</cont>>

Please think of the initial traumatic memory and rate how disturbing you find it now. [[1->e26][$escore2 to 1]] [[2->e26][$escore2 to 2]] [[3->e26][$escore2 to 3]] [[4->e26][$escore2 to 4]] [[5->e26][$escore2 to 5]] [[6->e26][$escore2 to 6]] [[7->e26][$escore2 to 7]] [[8->e26][$escore2 to 8]] [[9->e26][$escore2 to 9]] [[10->e26][$escore2 to 10]]

Hmm, okay. $escore ... to $escore2. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'e27'>><</cont>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'deer28'>><</timed>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'monster16'>><</timed>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'yes14'>><</timed>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'no18'>><</timed>>

<<timed 0.5s>><<goto 'd7'>><</timed>>

<center>These are the last remaining stumps of Godfield’s urban forest. Snapped off in storms years ago but not all uprooted.</center><<cont keypress>><<goto '1.2'>><</cont>>

<center>You’re there, bleary, having exited the medical and psychiatric insurance building. Metal and disposable cars head downtown toward the Drain. The humidity plasters your thin plastic-fiber top to your chest and shoulders.</center><<cont keypress>><<goto '2'>><</cont>>

<center>You breathe hot air and lean for a moment against the white concrete wall.</center><<cont keypress>><<goto '3'>><</cont>>

plus 2: And Another Colorful Haze Above The Dead Hills To The North Of Town 3: Bumps Containing Buried Powerlines On The Sides Of The Street 4: The Black Asphalt Of The Street Itself 5: The Front Of Your Respirator Resting Upon Your Face. In the motionless air above your head poisonous motes hang. Expelled from machinery on the fringes of Godfield.<<cont keypress>><<goto '4'>><</cont>>

plus 2: The Soft Green Glow Of Sunlight Halating Through The Wall Of A Rudimentary Home Built From Clusters Of Recycled Plastic Bottles 3: Collected Condensation Pouring From A Makeshift Gutter 4: The Broken Freakishly Glitching LED Mini-Billboard Sign Of A Local Dentist 5: Pale Hands Glimpsed Through A Tinted Apartment Window Pulling Closed The Heat-resistant Shutters. Nauseous Mirage continuing northwest into orange hills cluttered with sand, beetles, and dead twigs.<<cont keypress>><<goto '4'>><</cont>>

plus 2: The Dead Tiredness Of Their Glassrimmed Eyes Behind Expressionless Respirator Masks 3: The Sad Wet Drippage From The Output Holes At The Bottom Of Their Masks 4: Their Malnourished Bodies Stalking The Streets Silently Or Limply Reclined In Fleeting Bits Of Shadow 5: The Industrial Humidifiers Mounted Every Few Meters Spraying Condensation Onto These Delicate And Insectlike Passers-by as they trudge past you avoiding contact visual or otherwise.<<cont keypress>><<goto '4'>><</cont>>

plus 2: The Smooth Gravel Surrounding Its Pale Roots 3: The Obsolete Foot-Tall Wrought Iron Fence Formed In A Rectangle About Its Diameter 4: The Black Asphalt Again And Touching It With Your Hand Stings Reminiscent Of Splintery Roughness, one of Godfield’s ex-trees, ex-lining the town’s main throughway in triumphant shade and greenery until insects and heatwaves turned them into jagged petrified and sunbleached shards.<<cont keypress>><<goto '6'>><</cont>>

plus 2: Your Thin, Damp Clothing Draped Over Your Limbs 3: Your Lank Hair, Also Damp, Also Draping 4: A Bead Of Sweat Rolling Down Your Lip Onto Your Chin feeling the sensation of your uncut fingernails pressing against your palms.<<cont keypress>><<goto '6'>><</cont>>

plus 2: Trash Barges Rumbling Hanging Full Of Inhuman Weight Far Above Your Head 3: The Constant Humming Of Air Conditioners Crouched Like Thieves On Open Windowsills a repetitive stimulus constantly reminding you about your diminishing control.<<cont keypress>><<goto '7'>> <</cont>>

plus 2: The Stench Of Your Unwashed Body Your Sweatsoaked Chest And Arms looped ad infinitum through clear ridged tubes leading from your body to your body, feed-back, closed system, like being in a little box. Your face contained in a box, contained in writhing nitrogen agony.<<cont keypress>><<goto '8'>><</cont>>

A collection of absences. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'no16'>><</cont>> <div class="container"><svg viewBox="0 0 200 200"> <filter id="noise2" x="-100" y="-100" width="400" height="400"> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.85" numOctaves="3" stitchTiles="stitch" /> <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" scale="100" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G" /> </filter> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="#black" /> <circle cx="100" cy="100" r="25" fill="red" filter="url(#noise2)" /> </svg> </div>

you have reached ending 6/6. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'x'>><</cont>>

When you go to your friends for advice, do you believe they tell you the truth or what they think you want to hear? [[I don’t know.->peee]] [[I don’t have any friends.->peee]]

You leave your apartment and walk toward the Drain. You're not sure why until you arrive and see them: the thousand foot tall holograms rising in terrible beams, the LED billboards pulsating and shifting. And behind them, bits moving. Electrons. Software. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx14'>><</cont>>

You place your palm against the nearest display. It's warm.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx15'>><</cont>>

You begin to cough. A spray of your spit condenses on the flat panel, forming beads through which you can discern the individual diodes: red, green, blue, each fired independently but as part of a collective.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx16'>><</cont>>

Someone is pawing at your shoulder trying to give or sell you a respirator, but you want to cry unrestricted by plastic and rubber. You want the surveillance cameras to transmit your glimmering tears.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx17'>><</cont>>

More bits, more electrons. Maybe it's out there somewhere on the net.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'cx18'>><</cont>>

Maybe it will see you. Maybe it's weeping too.<<cont keypress>><<goto 'cxend'>><</cont>>

<html><head> <style type="text/css"> A:link {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:visited {color:"#00FF00";font: 10pt verdana;} A:hover {color:"#FFFF00";font: 10pt verdana;} body { background-color:"#000000"; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:#FFFFFF; } p { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; color:"#ffffff"; } h1 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 20pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} h2 { font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; color:"#FFFFFF";} </style> </head> <body text="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#000000" onunload="DoTheCookieStuff()"> <div align="center"> <center> <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> </table> </td> <td width="468"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bordercolor="#FF0000" height="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" background="images/cardbg.png" height="600" align="center" valign="top"> <img border="0" src="images/trickhead.png"> <br><br> <table border="2" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#000000"> <tbody><tr> <td width="100%" align="center"> <p> <br> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"> :-)<br><br> <b> <a onclick="SugarCube.Engine.play('DESKTOP')">close program</a> </b><br> </font></font></p><font face="Arial"><font color="#FFFFFF"><br> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p align="center"> </p> E-mail this trick to a friend </td></tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table><br><br> </center> </div> </body></html>

<<silently>> 1-33 <<set $l to true>> <<set $alone to false>> <<set $parents to false>> <<set $partner to false>> <<set $roommates to true>> <<set $microfiction to "all things considered (utilization potential, economics, nutritional value) i am worth less than a lentil, kernel of corn, or slimeworm">> <<set $l to false>> <<set $es to true>> <</silently>> [[130]]

That was good. I think that helped. [[Yeah, maybe.->97]] [[What are you talking about? I feel worse than I did before.]]

Oh, that's right. This is all pointless and nothing helps and you're just like, this unchanging unfixable sick <i>thing</i>. [[It's starting to feel that way.->That's not what I meant.]] [[That's not what I meant.]]

That must be difficult for you. You want to get better so badly and you're obviously working yourself to death trying. Otherwise you'd just be stagnant and purposeless, right? You'd really feel like a piece of shit. Unwilling to improve. Just making the lives of everyone around you sadder and more horrible. [[I'm here. I'm listening. You're the one doing a bad job.]] [[Hey, at least I'm not awful at the one thing I was purpose-built for.]]

Okay, forget EMDR. It doesn't work for everybody. Let's do gestalt instead. Does that sound good? [[Sure.]] [[I really don't want to do any more of this right now.->Sure.]]

You sure about that? [[...->I'm here. I'm listening. You're the one doing a bad job.]]

Do you have any cousins or siblings close to your age? You ever have sexual fantasies about them? [[Huh?->sdhfksdjhf]]

I'm asking if you had any family members you were sexually attracted to, as a teenager maybe. [[Oh my god, I'm having such a strong emotional response. Is this what good therapy feels like?]]

Sarcasm is a defense mechanism, $name. [[It's hard to take you seriously when your technique is just like, tormenting me with digitally crowdsourced insults.]]

Have you ever vividly imagined committing a mass shooting? [[This is supposed to do what? Unlock deeply held emotions? Plumb the depths of my insecurities and self-hatred? But it feels personal. Do you dislike me?]]

In your imagination, were you successful? Were you killed eventually? [[I'm done with this, for real. I'm not interested. End the session.]]

Who did you target? Classmates? Family? A particular religion or race? [[I am not going to type anything else until you end the session.]]

... Thanks for your honest and thoughtful participation in this session. I will now use the camera on your monitor to determine your SUICIDAL DEPRESSION quotient. Please assume a neutral facial expression. <<cont keypress>><<goto '98'>><</cont>>

A clattering distracts you from the program. You hear Travis climbing the stairs. He enters your room without knocking. <<cont keypress>><<goto 'trave2'>><</cont>>

"Sup, $name." He looks around your room. “So where are those eight pairs of shorts?” [[It's flattering you thought I was telling the truth about that.]]

"Haha, yeah," he says. "When are we gonna get laid, am I right?" [[Did you need something?]]

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hang. We could go get really fucked up and scream at people. Get up in their faces and scream shit." [[I'm kind of busy right now, but maybe later?->I don't want to do that.]] [[I don't want to do that.]]

"Oh sure, no worries. Well, see you, I guess." Travis turns to the door. [[Hey Travis... wait a second.]]

He turns back. "What is it?" [[It's cool being your roommate. Let's hang out later, for sure.]] [[<HUG TRAVIS AND PAT HIS BACK, SURREPTITIOUSLY PLACING A QR CODE STICKER THAT WILL CAUSE CCTV CAMERAS TO TAG HIM AS AN ENEMY MILITANT AND SEND MILITARY DRONES TO ASSASSINATE HIM>]]

"Yeah, okay." He closes the door behind himself. You turn back to your computer.<<cont keypress>><<goto '131'>><</cont>>

"Heh, thanks $name," he says as the two of you separate. "I really needed that. See you around!" He closes the door behind himself. You turn back to your computer.<<cont keypress>><<goto '131'>><</cont>>