On Monday, you meet Death. It's stupid, the way you almost die - you're wearing a scarf on a rollercoaster and you nearly hang yourself.
"Don't worry about it," Death says. "'Almost', 'nearly' - those are all words for 'not'."
One, two, three. One, two, three, four, five. You count the seconds you are unable to breathe, then count the breaths you gasp in when Death finally moves out of your sight.
You think, then, that's it's not your death that is full of 'nearly's but your life that's full of 'not's.
[[start]]
(set: $seeds to false)
(set: $cooking to 0)
(set: $books to 0)
(set: $memory to 0)
(set: $death to 0)
(set: $jay to 0)
(set: $j to 0)
(set: $kills to 0)
(set: $shooting to 0)
You wake up. It's your first day out of the hospital. Your room feels strange and alien. You take stock:
1. There are three ceiling lights.
2. There are twenty-seven books on your bookshelf.
3. One table and one chair.
4. One window with six panels.
5. Three posters on the walls.
6. Thirty-seven heartbeats. Fifteen breaths.
7. Thirty-eight.
8. Thirty-nine.
It is 8.03am. You set your alarm by reflex last night but you still do have a sick day.
[[Go to work]]
[[Stay in]]
You've wasted enough time. It's best to get back into the swing of things. You pull yourself from bed, change, and breakfast. As you're about to head out, you see your red scarf - the same one you were wearing the day you nearly died, the one that nearly killed you - hanging from the coat rack by the front door. You wrap it around your bandaged neck. It's cold out. Drizzling - you're about to turn to grab an umbrella when you see your bus pulling up to the bus stop.
[[Run for it]]
[[Get an umbrella; you can always take the next one]]
You make it just in time. Panting, sodden, and feeling like your neck might just snap off, you make it. You imagine the bus driver glares at your mud-sucked shoes as you jump on.
The bus is crowded with the early-morning rush. You count twenty-two commuters. You sit in the only available seat next to a girl who seems... familiar. She glances up at you.
[[Ignore her]]
[[Start a conversation]]
You grab your red umbrella from the recesses of your closet. The bus is long gone when you glance out the window and the drizzle has flurried into a storm. Do you really want to go out in this weather?
[[Wait at the bus stop]]
[[Stay in]]
(set: $umbrella to true)
Eventually, the bus comes. You'll be late to work but in this storm it's excusable.
On the bus, you indulge in the age-old pastime of fixedly watching people's legs and avoiding eye contact from both real eyes and their dim reflections in rain-lashed windows.
[[Get off at your stop]]
You indulge in the age-old pastime of fixedly watching people's legs and avoiding eye contact from both real eyes and their dim reflections in rain-lashed windows.
You count three red cars on the road before the girl gets off at the stop before yours. The bus moves on.
[[Get off at your stop]]
"Hi," you say. "You look kind of familiar."
She turns her head completely toward you and you see the large yellow sunflower (eighty-nine petals) on the side of her head. Oh. It's Death. On a bus.
"I'd think so," she says. "Nice scarf."
You touch your scarf self-consciously, damp from the rain.
"Hey," she continues, "I have a present for you."
You don't flinch, though it occurs to you what a present from Death might entail. But she doesn't harm you, just extends a hand with a small plastic packet in it and about half a dozen seeds of different colours and sizes in that. You pause.
"Gardening," she says. "I like it. It's soothing. Here's something to get you started, free of charge."
[[Take them]]
[[This is Death we're talking about. Refuse.]]
Office work just doesn't seem that important to you anymore. You've decided to stay in but that doesn't mean you'll be lounging around. You did decide to eliminate the 'not's in your life - you need to do something. Make something, improve yourself, further your skills. Something.
[[Improve your memory]]
[[Read a book]]
[[Improve cooking]]
(memory matching mini game)
(set: $memory to $memory + 1)
Good job!
(if: $memory < 5)[ [[Now what?]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! You've maxed out your memory skills.->Memory ending]] ]
You read a book.
(set: $books to $books + 1)
(if: $books < 5)[ [[Now what?]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! You've maxed out your reading skills.->Reading ending]] ]
(cooking mini game)
(set: $cooking to $cooking + 1)
(if: $cooking < 5)[ [[Now what?]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! You've maxed out your cooking skills.->Cooking ending]] ]
(set: $seeds to true)
(set: $death to $death + 1)
Hey, they're free. You pocket them. The bus slides to a stop and Death gets up in the same motion. She nods to you and exits. You don't doubt she has business to attend to. The bus, carrying you, moves on.
You count one bicycle before the bus pulls up to your stop.
[[Get off at your stop]]
(set: $death to $death - 1)\
"No, thanks," you say. "Allergies."
She must know you're lying but she shrugs. She gets off at the next stop and the bus moves on.
You count three food carts before the bus pulls up to your stop.
[[Get off at your stop]]
Your workplace is barely visible in the rain. You hold the umbrella in front of you, against the wind and rain, even as you're soaked to the ankles in rainwater.
You work with databases. On your way to your cubicle, past six, seven, eight... twelve others, a coworker nods to you. What was his name again? Everyone calls him J, you remember, though you're not sure if it's 'J' a nickname or 'Jay' the name. He's kind of cute? You're not sure. He has hair. Teeth (you count nine visible from his smile; it's a slightly lopsided smile, which could be considered endearing). But he seems to like you, from his smile. This might be a good start to your newly productive life. Love is on the checklist you made and he's... someone.
[[Flirt]]
[[Strike up a conversation]]
[[Ignore him->Move on]]
[[Improve your memory]]
[[Read a book]]
[[Improve cooking]]
(if: $seeds is true)[ [[...Garden, I guess]] ]
(set: $jay to 1)
You talk. It's bland, then interesting, then somewhat alarming. You end up with a job offer.
"You seem like you'd be good at it," J or Jay offers in explanation.
You are inclined to think it's the more mysterious 'J' after his proposal. You can set aside your databases, he said, pick up a sniper... and then pick off undesirable persons.
It's true that you've always been handy with a gun.
[[That's actually crazy.]]
[[Take the offer.]]
(set: $jay to $jay + 1)
(dating game style choices with different bonuses for each action.) This will be a whole part in the actual thing and won't be confined to this single place. The red umbrella will come into play when you're leaving the building; if you have it, J/Jay can catch up to you because he'll recognise it and you can shield both of you from the rain because he has no umbrella. Stuff like that. This flirt box is a placeholder for all of that.
That went well.
(if: $jay < 10)[ [[Flirt again->Flirt]] [[Move on]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! Successive and successful flirting has earned you love.->Jay ending]] ]
You move on from him, walking to your cubicle where you'll spend the rest of your day slaving over database management.
(if: $seeds is false and $jay is 0)[ [[You went on with routine and missed your chance forever. -> Unfulfilled ending]] ]
(else:)[ [[When the work day is over, you head home.]] ]
You win at life. You remember everything. You can count everything and you can remember every count, every speck, every fault. At night, your mind works furiously to comb over the memories of the day. Your dreams grow extraordinarily vivid, but strangely, the most recurring one is still of that day on the rollercoaster. Your memory is excellent but there's still nothing as vivid as the wrap of your scarf around your neck, sheer speed cutting into your throat as you hang impossibly from a metal spire. Eighty-nine petals, you think, on a yellow sunflower. Nothing so vivid as that. When you wake, you see an afterimage (it must be an afterimage) of a girl in a black hood, yellow peeking out from its outline, standing over you.
But anyway, your memory is super great so your life is complete.
You win at life. You've read a ton of books. Your reading is super great so your life is complete.
You win at life. You open your own restaurant and count one, two, three Michelin stars. You cook things you might not eat but understand, intellectually, their deliciousness. You pioneer an objective scale of deliciousness. You count and list the new dishes you create. Your cooking is super great so your life is complete.
"It's a one-time offer," he persists.
(unless: (history:) contains "Move on")[[[Still crazy->Move on]]]
(else:)[ [[Still crazy. You head home.->Head home]] ]
[[Take the offer.]]
(set: $j to $jay)
You start today. J will handle your departure from work. You should head to the firing range to practise.
[[Head to the firing range]]
[[Flirt with J->Sniper flirt]]
(mini game)
(set: $shooting to $shooting + 1)
Nicely done!
(if: $shooting < 10)[ [[Practise more->Head to the firing range]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! You've maxed out your shooting skills.->Shooting ending]] ]
[[Go on a job.]]
You win at life. You're a crackshot so your life is complete.
(set: $kills to $kills + 1)
You nail it! Or rather, you nail the victim on your first shot. J will be pleased.
A girl appears before you. Black hoodie, yellow sunflower, trowel in hand - it is Death.
(if: $kills is 10)[ [[You're a master hitman. ->marksman ending]] ]
(else-if: $j > 7)[ [[Death looks slightly angry]] ]
(else:)[ [[Have a conversation with her]] ]
(if: $kills < 10)[ [[Report to J]] ]
You win at life. You found love in an unexpected place in an unexpected person. Adventure and romance will see you through. Guess the rollercoaster wasn't the extent of your flirtation with danger. Your life is complete.
You win at life. You've met a possibly attractive man and guaranteed your enduring love through a series of brief but calculated flirtations. You have the rest of your lives to get to know each other. You're already planning the spreadsheet. But for now - your life is complete.
You count the days that go by, count each crack in the sidewalk, count every wrinkle that folds onto your face. How high can you count? How many till it's over? All you have left is a database, with lists upon lists of things you observe and do not understand.
On the way out, you encounter Jay/J again.
[[Flirt]]
(unless: (history:) contains "Strike up a conversation")[ [[Strike up a conversation]] ]
[[Head home]]
(you can garden for a while and gradually get flowers to bloom or fail, randomly. It's not very fulfilling - you don't see a count of how much your skill has improved (like you will for cooking skill or shooting skill in the final version) or your yield)
[[Gardening ending]]
(gardening mini game where nothing much happens)
That was... something, you suppose. Your pants are stiff with dirt, your nails gritty. There's something strangely calming about the damp earth filling your palms. You can't really see if you've done it right or what progress you've made.
[[Now what?]]
Things die, things grow. Things... live. You stop counting. You stop calculating. Instead, you take in the dark brown earth, which smells and bakes under the sun, and smells and steams in the rain. The pale green shoots worming up from the earth; the first unfurling of a petal, dewed and soft; the feeling of a body kneeling to the earth, aching in places, stiff in others, yet still completely pliable to the earth's surface. You go on living.
(set: $j to $j + 1)
(dating game with J)
(if: $j is 10)[ [[You win! Successive and successful flirting has earned you love.->J ending]] ]
(else:)[ [[Head to the firing range]]
[[Go on a job.]] ]
(set: $death to $death + 1)
(dating game with death)
(if: $death is 10)[ [[Death ending]] ]
(else:)[ [[Head to the firing range]]
[[Go on a job.]]
[[Report to J]] ]
You fall into Death's embrace. You think, ever since that day on the rollercoaster, you've imagined the scarf around your neck to be her cold hand. Your flirtations
(in the real thing putting yourself in danger increases the death count too, not just death)
(dating game with a jealous Death since you are so close to J)
[[Flirt/placate]]
[[Ignore]]
"You're the only one for me," you say to Death.
(set: $death to $death + 2)
(if: $death is 10)[ [[Death ending]] ]
(else:)[ [[Head to the firing range]]
[[Go on a job.]]
[[Report to J->Death knows]] ]
Death doesn't take kindly to being ignored. She reaches out and you -
As soon as you make the decision to see J, you see that Death knows.
(if: $death > 6)[You're in too deep. Death reaches out and you -]
(else:)["Tread carefully," she says.[[Head to the firing range]]
[[Go on a job.]]
[[Report to J]] ]
Death nods in acknowledgement of your skills. You offer a respectful nod in return. You're a master marksman. Your life is complete. Your days are spent dedicated to upping your kill count, uncaring of whys and only of wherefores - how to get a clean hit, how to avoid detection. Your days are spent in the company of Death, racing - against each other, away, and toward.
(On the sniper route, you get to know J better and the flirtations can be more twisted and out of the office.)
That went well.
(set: $j to $j + 1)
(if: $j < 10)[ [[Flirt again->Flirt]] [[Head to the firing range]] ]
(else:)[ [[You win! Successive and successful flirting has earned you love.->J ending]] ]
You're home. Time for the real work, right? You want to start improving yourself. Doing something real. You take your jacket off with gusto, ready for--oh. A packet of seeds falls out of the pocket, the ones Death gave you. Hm.
What do you do?
[[Improve your memory]]
[[Read a book]]
[[Improve cooking]]
[[Start gardening?]]
//memory skills: $memory
books read: $books
cooking skills: $cooking
kill count: $kills//
(if:(history:) contains "Take the offer.")[//love life with J: $j//]\
(else:)[//love life with Jay: $jay//]
//shooting skills: $shooting
death: $death//