Allegory of the Room For Web Playback

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'You are standing in a large white room, its ceiling is raised to the height of at least three of you. There are wide, arched, exits here to the east, south, and west. There is the faint scent of near-dry white emulsion in the air and the polished concrete floor is ever so slightly sticky underfoot.' These words are writ large in two-foot-high Helvetica Bold letters on the one exit-free wall to the North. The 't' in 'underfoot' is beginning to peel on the right edge of its crossbar but the rest of the black sticky back vinyl characters sit flush with the smooth-textured wall. <<if $dog eq 1>> <<display "Peeling">> <</if>> [[Go East|East Room]] [[Go South|South Room]] [[Go West|West Room]] <img src="images/maze5.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

This room is much the same as the previous one, only proportionally around a quarter of the size, there is still the faint scent of near-dry white emulsion in the air and a sticky, polished concrete floor underfoot. There is a wall to the North, East and South. There is an exit to the West. [[Go North|North Wall]] [[Go East|East Wall]] [[Go South|South Wall]] [[Go West|A White Room]] <img src="images/maze1.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<set $dog = 1>> This room is much the same as the previous one, only proportionally around a quarter of the size, there is still the faint scent of near-dry white emulsion in the air and a sticky, polished concrete floor underfoot. There is a wall to the South, West and East. There is an exit to the North. [[Go North|A White Room]] [[Go East|East Wall]] [[Go South|South Wall]] [[Go West|West Wall]] <img src="images/maze4.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

This room is much the same as the previous one, only proportionally around a quarter of the size, there is still the faint scent of near-dry white emulsion in the air and a sticky, polished concrete floor underfoot. There is a wall to the North, West and South. There is an exit to the East. [[Go North|North Wall]] [[Go East|A White Room]] [[Go South|South Wall]] [[Go West|West Wall]] <img src="images/maze2.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<return "You can't go that way.">> <img src="images/wall1.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<return "You can't go that way.">> <img src="images/wall3.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<return "You can't go that way.">> <img src="images/wall4.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<return "You can't go that way.">> <img src="images/wall2.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

The glow is emanating from the far end of the passage. The glow is obscuring everything but itself. Your eyes are hurting. [[Move onward|A Hidden Passage 2]] <img src="images/fire.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

Your irises are constricting. The form of the passage is beginning to take shape. The end is in sight. [[Move onward|A Hidden Passage 3]] <img src="images/hole.gif" /> <<print "A Hidden Passage">>

You can just make out your surroundings now. There is a metal framed door here. The door is glowing in strips and behind the glow appears faint back-to-front French lettering. There is a lump of coal here. [[Take Coal|Take Coal]] [[Push Door|Subway Platform]] <<set $cats = 0>> <img src="images/lighting.gif" /> <<print "The End of the Passage">>

<<if $cats eq 0>>The advertisement frame swings open with ease and you stumble onto an empty subway platform. It snaps shut behind you.<</if>><<if $cats gt 2>>You just manage to scramble back onto the platform. <</if>><<if $cats gt 1>>A seething, time-dulled vehicle grinds into the station. [[ENTER TRAIN|A Subway Car]] <img src="images/train.gif" /> <<else>> There are stairs leading to a brick wall here. There is a crude Mosaic running the length of the platform here. There are corroded iron tracks here. The tracks vibrate signalling the eventual arrival of a train. [[Look at Mosaic|Station Mosaic]] [[Look at Advertisement|An Advertisement]] [[Look at Tracks|Tracks]] <img src="images/shadows.gif" /> <</if>> <<print passage()>>

<<silently>><<set $cats += 1>><</silently>> Set in deep, azure blue tiles amongst detailed depictions of birds, fish and plants the station name 'PISTIS' shines keenly. <<if $cats eq 1>> There is now an audible whine coming from the tracks. <<else>> There is now a column of hot, oiled air rushing through you. <</if>> <<return "Return to Platform">> <img src="images/moz.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<silently>><<set $cats += 1>><</silently>> Contained within the metal frame and gleaming with artificial light, a yellow and gold poster touts the fact that 'THERE IS LIGHT HERE' at video arcade 'La Lumière du Soleil!'. <<if $cats eq 1>> There is now an audible whine coming from the tracks. <<else>> There is now a column of hot, oiled air rushing through you. <</if>> <<return "Return to Platform">> <img src="images/ad.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<silently>><<set $cats += 1>><</silently>> In a depression falling from the edge of the platform two corroded metal worms vye for space with a family of mice and an ever increasing body of clouded water. There is a dirt-flecked sign posted by the tunnel from which the next train seems to be approaching. It reads 'EIKASIA THIS WAY'. Beneath it another sign reads 'DO NOT ENTER TUNNEL - DANGER OF DEATH'. <<if $cats eq 1>> There is now an audible whine coming from the tracks. <<else>> There is now a column of hot, oiled air rushing through you. <</if>> <<return "Return to Platform">> [[Enter Tunnel|Tunnel Entrance]] <img src="images/rab.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

You are sitting on a warm subway car. It is swaying gently in-time with its measured progression along its tracks. It is quiet but for the rhythmic shunting of the car’s trucks and the occasional cough from one of the few other passengers. Through the glass divider to your left is a teenage boy. His body is clad in a quilted geometric-camouflage coat. His flat face stares at you. His body rests calmly against the closed car doors. To the right is a small, square, black, mirrored, window set in a door that leads to the driver’s cabin. [[Look at Window|Driver's Cabin Window]] <img src="images/waves.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

Through the window a head emerges sporadically, faceless, a darkened collection of thinning hair and leathered skin. It recedes. [[Shiver|Black Mirror]] <img src="images/max.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

In the window's dark reflection the door at the other end of the car slides open. A ticket inspector enters and begins her exactions. [[Check Inventory|A Subway Car 2]] <<set $pigs = 0>> <img src="images/ex.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<if $pigs eq 0>> You are carrying an Empty Bic Lighter, a Plastic Egg Timer, some Pocket Fluff. But no ticket. The ticket inspector is thirty feet away and making good progress. The young boy is here. A wizened old crone is here. Your ten-year-old self is here. [[Ask Young Boy for Ticket|A Teenage Boy]] [[Ask Wizened Old Crone for Ticket|A Wizened Old Crone]] [[Ask Your Ten-Year-Old Self for Ticket|Your Ten-Year-Old Self]] <</if>> <<if $pigs eq 1>> The ticket inspector is eighteen feet away and shows no signs of letting up. The strip lights flicker overhead, in step with a particularly sharp bend. The young boy is here. A wizened old crone is here. Your ten-year-old self is here. [[Ask Young Boy for Ticket|A Teenage Boy]] [[Ask Wizened Old Crone for Ticket|A Wizened Old Crone]] [[Ask Your Ten-Year-Old Self for Ticket|Your Ten-Year-Old Self]] <</if>> <<if $pigs eq 2>> The ticket inspector is seven feet away and smiling in your direction. The teenage boy is pacing from alcove to opposite alcove and resting against the doors in either. He is keeping a rhythm tapped against a collection of change in his pocket. The young boy is here. A wizened old crone is here. Your ten-year-old self is here. [[Ask Young Boy for Ticket|A Teenage Boy]] [[Ask Wizened Old Crone for Ticket|A Wizened Old Crone]] [[Ask Your Ten-Year-Old Self for Ticket|Your Ten-Year-Old Self]] <</if>> <<if $pigs eq 3>> The ticket inspector is one foot away from you with arm outstretched. [[Give Ticket to Ticket Inspector|A Subway Car 3]] <</if>> <img src="images/wait.gif" /> <<print "A Subway Car">>

The teenage boy looks at you blankly. <<silently>><<set $pigs += 1>><</silently>> <<if $pigs eq 3>> Then, he reaches an arm into his coat, fumbles with an internal pocket and produces a dogeared pink scrap of paper with perforated edges bearing the word 'Noesis' in pockmarked metallic ink. [[Take Ticket|A Subway Car 2]] <<else>> No matter what you say it seems impossible to elicit a response. [[Return|A Subway Car 2]] <</if>> <img src="images/boy.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<silently>><<set $pigs += 1>><</silently>> As you speak you notice the crone is looking in the wrong direction. <<if $pigs eq 3>> Then, she reaches an arm into her bag, fumbles with an internal pocket and produces a dogeared pink scrap of paper with perforated edges bearing the word 'Noesis' in pockmarked metallic ink. [[Take Ticket|A Subway Car 2]] <<else>> The crone croaks "I've nothing for you I'm afraid". [[Return|A Subway Car 2]] <</if>> <img src="images/crone.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

<<silently>><<set $pigs += 1>><</silently>> Your ten-year-old self is jumping on the tired foam seats. When you try to speak to your self they stick your fingers in your ears. <<if $pigs eq 3>> Then, your self reaches your fingers into your mouth, fumbles behind your milk teeth and under your tongue and produces a damp, dogeared, pink scrap of paper with perforated edges bearing the word 'Noesis' in pockmarked metallic ink. [[Take Ticket|A Subway Car 2]] <<else>> Each word falls on purposefully deaf ears. [[Return|A Subway Car 2]] <</if>> <img src="images/self.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

You hand the ticket to the ticket inspector. In the same moment the ticket inspector deftly accepts the ticket. The action is so nimble that you wonder if it even took place at all. [[Look out of Window|View from Window]] [[Wait|A Subway Car 4]] <img src="images/blink.gif" /> <<print "A Subway Car">>

<<if $pug eq 1>>You crash through a metal plate in the ceiling and find yourself a heap on the floor. Nothing is broken. <</if>> A luminous collection of geometric patterns adorns the walls. There is a steel lift here, half full with bodies but sitting open still. [[Enter Lift|A Lift]] <img src="images/geo.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

The train crawls to a halt. The platform looks unfamiliar through the train's murky windows. The driver announces 'End of the line'. 'All passengers for Noesis please use the rail replacement bus service'. [[Exit Car|Dianoia Station Platform]] [[Wait|A Subway Car 5]] <img src="images/face.gif" /> <<print "A Subway Car">>

You are the only passenger left on the train. The driver announces, seemingly directly, 'This really is the end of the line and there's no going back yet'. As you stand to leave you notice a magazine strewn behind the divider on your left. Its cover is a sea of garish colour surrounding the title 'TIPS, TRICKS & CHEATS FOR LIFE; THE GREATEST GAME OF THEM ALL'. [[Exit Car|Dianoia Station Platform]] [[Read Magazine|TIPS, TRICKS & CHEATS FOR LIFE]] <img src="images/end.gif" /> <<print "A Subway Car">>

The tunnel walls are rushing past your face a labyrinthian blur. It is dizzying. [[Look Away|A Subway Car 4]] <img src="images/minotaur.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

A small metal room with a distinct acrid smell. There are a lot of people here. [[Look at No One|Dianoia Station Exit]] <img src="images/sar.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

Outside the station the sun is beating down on cooked concrete paving slabs. Across the road a rotund man is finishing a cigarette whilst leaning against the front of an equally rotund bus. At your feet a wide metal grating, embedded in the road, is gleaming in the sunshine. [[Go to Bus Stop|A Temporary Bus Stop]] [[Lift Grating|Dianoia Station Exit 2]] <img src="images/spark.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

There is a rotund man here. There is a cigarette butt on the ground, smouldering; buoyed by the sun. [[Give Driver Ticket|A Bus 2]] <img src="images/smoke.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

You are plummeting down a drain. There is no light here. <<set $pug = 1>> [[Fall|Dianoia Station Platform]] <img src="images/falling.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

After something of a struggle you now have the grating propped open. The drain underneath is pitch black despite the white-hot sun sitting at the apex of its path across the sky. [[Enter Drain|Another Hidden Passage]] <<return "Go back">> <img src="images/black.gif" /> <<print "Dianoia Station Exit">>

You give the driver your ticket and climb on board the bus. Every surface is infused with dust which is catching every ounce of sunshine pouring through the curved windows. You ride. And ride. And ride. And ride. Until... [[Exit Bus|Outside Noesis Station]] <img src="images/bus.gif" /> <<print "The Longest Journey of your Life">>

There are rows upon rows of arcade games extending to the left and to the right here. The air is buzzing with lights and sounds and smells and flavours. Directly ahead of you a banner is screaming: 'ATTAIN THE UNATTAINABLE; PLAY THE GAME OF LIFE'. [[Look at the Left Side of the Arcade|The Left Side of the Arcade]] [[Look at the Right Side of the Arcade|The Right Side of the Arcade]] [[Look at The Game of Life|The Game of Life]] <img src="images/heaven.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

You arrive outside Noesis station. The light is even brighter here, and is bouncing from the surface of each building so much so that it appears to have enveloped every shadow in the place. As the bus trundles away it reveals a large neon sign affixed to a building on the other side of the road. Even in this light it is visibly glowing. 'LA LUMIÉRE DU SOLEIL' it is flashing from above an otherwise unassuming doorway. [[Enter La Lumière du Soleil|La Lumière du Soleil]] <img src="images/sunsun.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

There are a few old video games arranged sporadically on the patterned carpet here. None of their titles are legible, being written in a language you have never seen before, but for one faded marquee that reads 'POLYBIUS'. All of them have no power. [[Look at the Right Side of the Arcade|The Right Side of the Arcade]] [[Look at The Game of Life|The Game of Life]] <img src="images/arcade.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

There is row after row of pachinko machines here, each one emitting a cacophony of sound-effects and flashing lights. They are all occupied. Behind one of the smoking heads you see Theresa May's face, rotating on a virtual fruit-machine. [[Look at the Left Side of the Arcade|The Left Side of the Arcade]] [[Look at The Game of Life|The Game of Life]] <img src="images/kill.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

There is a large banner here that reads 'ATTAIN THE UNATTAINABLE; PLAY THE GAME OF LIFE'. There is a pair of virtual reality goggles set on a white table here. [[Wear Goggles|A White Room end]] <img src="images/life.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

'You are standing in a large white room, its ceiling is raised to the height of at least three of you. There are wide, arched, exits here to the east, south, and west. There is the faint scent of near-dry white emulsion in the air and the polished concrete floor is ever so slightly sticky underfoot.' These words are writ large in two-foot-high Helvetica Bold letters on the one exit-free wall to the North. The 't' in 'underfoot' is beginning to peel on the right edge of its crossbar but the rest of the black sticky back vinyl characters sit flush with the smooth-textured wall. [[Sleep|Sleep]] <img src="images/inf.gif" /> <<print "A White Room">>

You notice that the 't' is now lying back-to-front on the floor in front of the north wall. In its place there is a small recessed handle. [[Pull Handle|Passage Entrance]] <img style="z-index:9999999;" src="images/chain.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

Lines emerge in the wall and paint flakes away as a small door swings out of the wall; obliterating the old vinyl passage and revealing a new one barely visible in the green-blue glow pouring out of it. [[Enter passage|A Hidden Passage]] <img src="images/door.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

zzzzzZZZzzzZzZzzzzZzZZzzzzzzzz...... <img src="images/occ.gif" /> <<print "ZZzzZzzZzzzzzzz">>

<<silently>><<set $cats += 4>><</silently>> It is too dark to make out anything but for the glow of a small compact fluorescent bulb above a rusted metal door around twenty metres ahead of you. The tunnel is screaming with the sound of metal on metal. [[Return to the Subway Platform|Subway Platform]] [[Go To Metal Door|Metal Door]] <img src="images/tunn.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

Standing outside the door you are now bathing in a sudden flash of painfully bright light. Although impossible to see on the bleached-out doorplate your fingers make out the word 'JANUS' engraved deep into the oxidised metal. Everything is approaching you from the right. [[Open Door|You Died]] <img src="images/janus.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

You Died. <img src="images/died.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

A luminous collection of geometric patterns adorns the walls. As you exit you're presented with a large trolley made heavy and tall by a cargo of swollen cases. The exit is visible at the top of a long inclined walkway which should be slowly moving but is currently stationary; an out-of-order sign hangs from one of its handrails. [[Go To Exit|Top of Walkway]] <img src="images/geo.gif" /> <<print "Dianoia Station Platform">>

A rolling stone gathers no moss. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. [[Exit Car|Dianoia Station Platform-alt]] <img src="images/cheat.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

As you reach the exit one of your bags dislodges itself from the top of your pile and rolls calmly to the bottom of the walkway you have just finished surmounting. A helpful man notes 'You can't go on without your baggage, sir.' [[Get Bag|Dianoia Station Platform-altalt]] <img src="images/sis.gif" /> <<print passage()>>

A luminous collection of geometric patterns adorns the walls. As you return down the walkway you're followed by your trolley. You Pickup the lost bag and return it to the top of the pile. [[Go To Exit|Top of Walkway]] <img src="images/geo.gif" /> <<print "Dianoia Station Platform">>

You can just make out your surroundings now. There is a metal framed door here. The door is glowing in strips and behind the glow appears faint back-to-front French lettering. You Take the lump of coal. [[Push Door|Subway Platform]] <<set $cats = 0>> <img src="images/lighting.gif" /> <<print "The End of the Passage">>