verses

<center>[verses]<v| by kit riemer <img src="media/cover.jpg" width="300" height="251"> [[start->zdrobit]] [[about]]{ (set: $eye to (either: "left", "right")) (set: $time1 to time + (either: 5000)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?v)[(either: 'versuri', 'versuri', 'versuri', 'versuri', 'versuri', 'versuri', 'verses', 'verses', 'verses', 'verses', 'versus',)] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 8000)) ] ]}

You stand before a strobing [[monitor]]. Cathode green on dead pixel gray(text-style: "blink")[.]

Te pregătește(click-replace: "Te pregătește")[It prepares you], gândule(click-replace: "gândule")[thoughts], de mers(click-replace: "de mers")[walking](click-replace: "It prepares you, thoughts, walking")[Thought, prepare yourself to walk], Să-l(click-replace: "Să-l")[Them to] preaslăvim(click-replace: "preaslăvim")[worship] cu fiecare(click-replace: "cu fiecare")[with each] vers(click-replace: "vers")[verse](click-replace: "Them to worship with each verse")[Let us glorify him with every verse], Să-i țesem(click-replace: "Să-i țesem")[Let's weave them] trepte de(click-replace: "trepte de")[steps of] beteală(click-replace: "beteală")[tinsel](click-replace: "steps of tinsel")[tinsel steps](click-replace: "Let's weave them tinsel steps")[We'll weave tinsel steps] Din lunga(click-replace: "Din lunga")[From far away] visului(click-replace: "visului")[dream](click-replace: "From far away dream")[From the long dream] urzeală(click-replace: "urzeală")[warp],(click-replace: "From the long dream warp")[From the long warp dream] Să vezi cum din adâncul ochilor albaștri S-au mai ivit pe ceruri alți doi aștri, Strălucitori în taina înserării, Când stelele se-aprind în fundul zării, Și-nfiorată înnoptarea vine Pe ruguri de topaze și rubine Și visurile lui care sclipesc Prin brazdele ogorului ceresc, Cum urmăream în nopțile de vară Inflăcărata cerului povară.

[[Virtualities]] surface on the screen, each only briefly. [[Posthuman]] analogs flickering once before [[going out]] permanently(text-style: "blink")[.]

You think if you could look inside the box it might be like a human mind: a complex invisible network obscured by its container. Memories bathing in warm fluid the color of elemental iron. Nu poți suporta să privești.{ (click-replace: "să privești.")[to watch.](click-replace: "Nu")[Not](click-replace: "poți suporta")[you can stand](click-replace: "Not you can stand")[You can't bear](more:)[(replace: "Memories")[[[Memories->going out2]]](replace: "elemental iron.")[[[elemental iron.->Posthuman2]]]]}

You close your eye, and as if on the screen, see the half-thawed bodies poured into the spinning gears of the grinder's digestive tract, mulched and expelled in a brown spray from its opening. You see celulă asemănătoare norilor rippling above the abandoned tracts north of the city. The wind untethers them from the earth. Long shadows cast across the gray dirt.{ (click-replace: "celulă")[cell](click-replace: "asemănătoare ")[like-](click-replace: "norilor")[clouds](click-replace: "cell like-clouds")[cloudlike cells](more:)[(replace: "eye,")[[[eye,->going out 2.2]]](replace: "untethers")[[[untethers->Virtualities2]]]]}

Gleaming rods exiting satellites on their way toward earth. And even further out, a mining shuttle twisting silently in the void. Heavy with tungsten but with no place to put it down. Tu ești obosit.{ (click-replace: "Tu ești")[You're](click-replace: "obosit.")[tired.] (more:)[(replace: "void.")[[[void.->Posthuman2.1]]](replace: "satellites")[[[satellites->Virtualities2.1]]]]}

You think if you could look inside the box it might be like a human mind: a complex invisible network obscured by its container. Memories bathing in warm fluid the color of elemental iron. Nu poți suporta să privești.{ (click-replace: "să privești.")[to watch.](click-replace: "Nu")[Not](click-replace: "poți suporta")[you can stand](click-replace: "Not you can stand")[You can't bear](more:)[(replace: "elemental iron.")[[[elemental iron.->Posthuman3]]]]}

You rub your eyebrow with a fist. And against the inside of your eyelid, like the wall of a cave, play the bodies, the spray, neither solid nor quite liquid. Flesh still half-frozen. [[Transmuted slush]]. The rods, the cells, the void.

Then, opening your eye, only avatars whizzing past & extinguishing themselves on a black screen. As a rock from somewhere above stops, finally, upon [[impact]].

You should try to [[remember->CONSTANTA]](text-style: "blink")[.]

{(if: (passage:)'s tags contains "con")[''Constanța '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "cfield")[''Constanța - field '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "cpier")[''Constanța - pier '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "co")[''Constanța - office '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a0")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: .5s))}''Analysis 0 '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "h")[''Heczeldorf '' ](if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hlab")[''Heczeldorf - lab '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hdt-day")[''Heczeldorf - drum tower (day) '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hdt-night")[''Heczeldorf - drum tower (night) '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hcompound")[''Heczeldorf - lab compound '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hhills")[''Heczeldorf - hills '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hfarm")[''Heczeldorf - farm '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "hmetro")[''Heczeldorf - Metropol '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a1")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: .5s))}''Analysis 1 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a2")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: .5s))}''Analysis 2 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a3")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: (either: .5s, .8s, 1s, 1.5s, 2s)))}''Analysis 3 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a4")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: (either: .5s, .8s, 1s, 1.5s, 2s, 2.2s, 2.5s)))}''Analysis 4 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a5")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: (either: .5s, .8s, 1s, 1.5s, 2s, 2.2s, 2.5s)))}''Analysis 5 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a6")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: (either: .5s, .8s, 1s, 1.5s, 2s, 2.2s, 2.5s)))}''Analysis 6 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a7")[{(enchant: ?Link, (t8n-depart: "flicker") + (t8n-time: (either: .5s, .8s, 1s, 1.5s, 2s, 2.2s, 2.5s)))}''Analysis 7 '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a-Ő")[''Analysis - Arany János 'Őszikék' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a-blaga")[''Analysis - Lucian Blaga 'Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a-arghezi")[''Analysis - Tudor Arghezi 'Flori de Mucigai' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "a-eminescu")[''Analysis - Mihai Eminescu 'La mormântul lui Aron Pumnul' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "plumb")[''Analysis - George Bacovia 'Plumb' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "carnagiu")[''analysis - agatha grigorescu bacovia 'carnagiu' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "era-pustiu")[''analysis - agatha grigorescu bacovia 'era pustiu' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "buzd")[''Buzd '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "mediasch")[''Mediasch '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "x")['' '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "sea")[''on the Black Sea '' ] (if: (passage:)'s tags contains "road")[''on the road '' ]}

(link-reveal: "You")[(replace: ?you)[''you'': yourself. ]] are standing in an open (link-reveal: "field")[(replace: ?field)[Dull grass and (link-reveal: "fescue")[(replace: ?fescue)[''fescue'': festuca valesiaca. Tough blueish-green stalks with prickly flowers too small to see. ]] fill your view up to the beach, where the pier sits. Spots of color dot the (link-reveal: "grass")[(replace: ?grass)[''grass'': grayish. It looks ill, but when the snow melts each year, it's always there. ]]: a few hardy (link-reveal: "flowers")[(replace: ?flowers)[''flowers'': oxeye, yarrow, arrowhead. Pale yellow, mostly. ]]. Down the (link-reveal: "coast")[(replace: ?coast)[''coast'': rocky sand with glimmering bits of metal. ]], further than you can see, a (link-reveal: "delta")[(replace: ?delta)[''delta'': a mouth gushing. ]] empties into the (link-reveal: "black sea")[(replace: ?sea)[''sea'': appears endless. ]]. ]] east of an (link-reveal: "office building")[(replace: ?building)[[[building->building]]: sprawling. Not tall. An architect would describe its aesthetic design - a brutalist structure emphasizing utility, yet with rounded organic corners and irregular window frames courtesy of mycelium tissue - as characteristic of an ecopsychological design ethos. ]] and west of a (link-reveal: "pier")[(replace: ?pier)[[[pier->pier]]: a dull and warped metal structure connecting the shore with the choppy water. The site of an old beachhead. Boats leave here for the floating city, and arrive from it. ]]. { |field>[] |you>[] |fescue>[] |pier>[] |grass>[] |flowers>[] |coast>[] |delta>[] |sea>[] |building>[]}

You are standing on the beach by a dull and warped metal (link-reveal: "structure")[(replace: ?structure)[The pier is empty. (link-reveal:"Boats")[(replace: ?boats)[''boats'': there are none at the pier; yours has long since left. ]] leave here for the floating city, and arrive from it; traffic must be slim. ]]. Several weeks ago, you arrived here from the (link-reveal:"floating city")[(replace: ?city)[''city'': the floating city has become an arena. Warfare between castes of post-humans. Most are now evolved beyond language. Some no longer have faces. The ones you saw had necks bulging with fluid: oil, acid, enzymes, peroxide. Your section, all three kilometers of it, has been poisoned. Your home is no longer habitable. ]] - now glowing orange on the horizon. There's a (link-reveal:"field")[(replace:?field)[[[field->CONSTANTA]]: bad soil. ]] to the west. On its other side stands an (link-reveal: "office building")[(replace: ?building)[[[building->building]]: gray, indistinct, like a square taken out of a slightly lighter gray sky. ]]. { |structure>[] |field>[] |boats>[] |city>[] |building>[] }

You are in the courtyard of the (link-reveal: "office building")[(replace: ?kjfdhg)[''office building'': drab, unimposing, even up close. The [[door->hallway]] is never locked; there would be no point. You think you can hear wind whistling around the edges of a cell on the other side.]]. There are a few benches in the circular area outside the entrance. A [[field->CONSTANTA]] lies to your east, and in the distance, a [[pier]] crouches above the edge of the ocean. |kjfdhg>[]

You are outside your [[office]]. The [[exit->building]] is to your right. (link-reveal: "Ilinca's")[(replace: ?IlOf)[''Ilinca'': Your supervisor.]] office is at the end of the hall. There is a (link-reveal: "scrap of paper")[(replace: ?scrap)[''scrap'': per Free Romanian Noul Cod Civil - Timpul maxim de depozitare criogenică redus în zonele afectate - vezi buletin]] on the floor. |scrap>[] |IlOf>[]{ (click-replace: "Free Romanian Noul Cod Civil")[Free Romanian New Civil Code](click-replace: "Timpul maxim")[Maximum time](click-replace: "de depozitare criogenică")[for cryogenic storage](click-replace: "redus")[reduced](click-replace: "în zonele afectate")[in affected areas](click-replace: "vezi buletin")[see bulletin]}

You are in your (link-reveal: "office")[(replace: ?office)[''office'': you work here. You also eat and sleep here. ]]. Your (link-reveal: "desk")[(replace: ?desk)[''desk'': a hunched thing, stomach height, from the days before real data. If you could fit it in the lattice, it would throw an error. ]] occupies most of the room: gray plastic (link-reveal: "terminal")[(replace: ?terminal)[''terminal'': few features of the wholesale terminal remain, but the machine has been granted orders of magnitude more processing power. Realtime decoding through the lattice requires thousands of (link-reveal: "pFLOPS")[(replace: ?pflops)[''pFLOPS'': sockets x cores/socket x clock x s/cycle = FLOPS = FLoating point OPerations per Second. A trilliard FLOPs = 1 petaFLOP. This is a mid-range decoder – the ones downstairs run zFLOPS or (link-reveal:"yFLOPS")[(replace: ?pflops)[''yFLOPS'': you think it would be one of those numbers that looks silly written out. ]]. ]]. ]] and (link-reveal: "analysis lattice")[(replace: ?lattice)[''analysis lattice'': for analysis of physical 3-dimensional data-containing structures. its physical appearance is that of a flat, clear acrylic square, perhaps 20 centimeters x and y. Embedded in it are electronic components: these generate the antigravity lattice, which hangs in the air above the square, a bright green grid of light superimposed via hologram to suggest the sample's placement. The lattice plugs directly into the terminal. ]] in the middle with stacks of (link-reveal: "paper")[(replace: ?paper)[''paper'': (link-reveal: "nanowire sheets")[(replace: ?paper)[''nanowire'': traditional cellulose fibers derived from plants resulted in an attractive white sheet which was nevertheless structurally delicate, hydrophilic, and vulnerable to flame. Modern archival paper is made from hydroxyapatite nanowires: flexible, durable, and stable to changes in heat and humidity. ]], really. These are archival documents that haven't yet been filed, or memos from other departments, or notes you've made on the terminal and printed. ]] on either side. The edge of the desk is slightly indented to better hold the (link-reveal: "sample tray")[(replace: ?tray)[''tray'': gray and flat. Holds samples. There's a (link-reveal: "lump")[(replace: ?lump)["[[lump->lump]]": pale yellow, ovular, mottled, soft, approximately three millimeters across. A few small dark lines curve across its surface. ]] on it. ]]. On the left, a long upholstered (link-reveal: "bench")[(replace: ?bench)[''bench'': you often wish you had something more comfortable, but it beats the (link-reveal: "floor")[(replace: ?bench)[''floor'': white stone or concrete, you think. The (link-reveal: "laminate")[(replace: ?bench)[''laminate'': you heard the substance used to be secreted by insects. There must have been many. ]] is discolored. ]]. ]] sits against the wall. To the right is a single (link-reveal: "window")[(replace: ?window)[''window'': your window is dark now, in the morning. The shadow of a (link-reveal: "cell")[(replace: ?window)[''cell'': unremarkable. You cannot see its full height from indoors. It would be a shame if it rooted and stayed there; you appreciate what little sunlight you get. ]]. Though the unobstructed view is nothing special, you hope it passes. ]] with a small sill. { |office>[] |desk>[] |terminal>[] |pflops>[] |lattice>[] |paper>[] |nanowire>[] |tray>[] |lump>[] |bench>[] |floor>[] |window>[] |cell>[] }

A strange thing. You've analysed all manner of metadata-encoded object here, but your assignment today appears to be totally organic. Perhaps there's some data structure within. Given such a task, your colleagues might bother Ilinca with questions. Not you - you're sure it's here for a [[reason.->lump2]]

You gently place the sample in the glowing grid of the antigravity lattice. It hangs in the air, bobbing. With a swipe on the control board, the screen turns from lifeless gray to an [[animated black]].

Identity: (link-reveal: "Limbal")[(replace: ?limbal)[''limbal'': in an eye, the limbus is the (link-reveal: "cornea's")[(replace: ?cornea)[''cornea'': a firm, light-refracting transparent bowl at the front of the eye. ]] border with the (link-reveal: "sclera")[(replace: ?sclera)[''sclera'': the fibrous tissue jacketing an eye; the "white" of the eye. ]]. ]] (link-reveal: "dermoid")[(replace: ?dermoid)[''dermoid'': "derm-" is skin, and oid is "-like." Akin to skin? ]]. Material composition: Human skin, fat, muscle, (link-reveal: "epidermal appendages")[(replace: ?appendages)[''appendage'': typically a limb, but here refers to things that grow directly in the derma: (link-reveal: "hair")[(replace: ?hair)[''hair'': composed of a living root and a dead shaft. ]], nails, glands. ]] incl. (link-reveal: "sebaceous")[(replace: ?sebaceous)[''sebaceous'': producing (link-reveal: "sebum")[(replace: ?sebaceous)[''sebum'': sort of an oil. ]]. ]] and (link-reveal: "sudoriferous")[(replace: ?sudo)[''sudoriferous'': secreting usually sweat, but also wax or milk. ]] glands, as well as (link-reveal: "choristomatous")[(replace: ?choris)[''choristomatous'': normal tissue in an abnormal location. ]] (link-reveal: "lacrimal")[(replace: ?lacrimal)[''lacrimal'': capable of producing tears. ]] (link-reveal: "glands")[(replace: ?glands)[''gland'': mixes component substances, produces something else. Then excretes it. ]], (link-reveal: "connective")[(replace: ?connective)[''connective'': providing internal support. ]] tissue/(link-reveal: "cartilage")[(replace: ?cartilage)[''cartilage'': a rigid sort of connective tissue. ]], fragments of (link-reveal: "bone")[(replace: ?bone)[''bone'': mineralized tissue constituting the (link-reveal: "skeleton")[(replace: ?bone)[''skeleton'': rigid structural organ. ]] in most vertebrates. ]], (link-reveal: "vascular")[(replace: ?vascular)[''vascular'': containing cells which carry fluid, such as blood, through the body. ]] structures, and (link-reveal: "neurologic")[(replace: ?neuro)[''neurologic'': brain tissue; stores and processes data. A voltage indicator is fluorescing — you could try to pull an [[e-graph->e-graph]]. ]] tissue. Elemental composition: (link-reveal: "Hydrogen")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "carbon")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "nitrogen")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "oxygen")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "sodium")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "phosphorus")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "sulfur")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "chlorine")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "potassium")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "calcium")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "iron")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "iodine")[(replace: ?element)[ The elemental makeup of the sample probably isn't germane to your analysis. ]], (link-reveal: "other traces")[(replace: ?traces)[''other traces'': likely not worth measuring. ]]. { |limbal>[] |cornea>[] |sclera>[] |dermoid>[] |appendages>[] |hair>[] |sebaceous>[] |sudo>[] |choris>[] |lacrimal>[] |glands>[] |connective>[] |cartilage>[] |bone>[] |vascular>[] |neuro>[] |traces>[] |element>[] }

Hard disk whines, speakers crackle. The lattice calms and the room is daylit again. [[Text->a0]] spills onto the screen.

You direct the machine to pull all available data from the neurologic tissue: in this case, an [[electroencephalograph:]] a recording of electrical activity in the brain.

Welcome to the Library (link: "Select me 1")[(show: ?hook1)] (link: "Select me 2")[(show: ?hook2)] { |hook1)[ Blah Blah] |hook2)[ More Blah Blah]

After a moment of dark whirring, your terminal's screen alights with green dotpricks that gradually cohere into a landscape. The image shifts: the perceiver, or recorder, is moving quickly. Running or driving. It is night and the sky is full of [[lines]] drooping toward earth.

Then disaster: obliteration. Image fragmentation. The recording apparatus is destroyed, viscera spatters. The brain has become soup. All connections [[lost->khejfksdjfh]].

But the small chunk of gray matter, a tumor in the viewer's eye, has remained intact. Self-contained. A safe recording, until it rots. You're [[done->fnd98hd]] here.

You direct the terminal to save the file and log you out. As your terminal shifts from analysis mode, a notification pings onto the screen. You are being called to see your (link-reveal: "supervisor")[(replace: ?supervisor)[Ilinca's office is [[out the door->d9hn238hd923dhbn]] and down the hallway.]]. |supervisor>[]

You are outside your office. [[Ilinca's office]] is at the end of the hall. The scrap has been swept up.

The (link-reveal: "walls")[(replace: ?walls)[''wall pattern'': sort of beautiful on close examination. ]] are stickered with dark brown wood grain, but it's otherwise much like your workspace. Cramped with an old (link-reveal: "terminal")[(replace: ?terminal)[''terminal'': is hers more decrepit than yours? Good god. ]], old (link-reveal: "desk")[(replace: ?desk)[''desk'': utilitarian metal thing. ]], and a woman (not quite as old) sitting with her left leg crooked over her right knee. "Close the door behind you, please," (link-reveal: "Ilinca")[(replace: ?ilinca)[[[''Ilinca''->jd09238nd]]: not so bad for a supervisor, though you suppose that in a place like this, her ability to cause or ease your suffering is limited. She merely assigns the work she's handed from above. She wears black trousers and a jacket with its sleeves rolled up. Her face is creased but kind. ]] says, and you do. There is no other seat, so you stand. { |walls>[] |terminal>[] |desk>[] |ilinca>[] }

She clears her throat, preemptively cutting you off. "Analyst Eca, You're going to ask why I called you here. It's because you're leaving. You have been reassigned to the [[Heczeldorf Research Station]]. You're to gather your (link-reveal: "belongings")[(replace: ?bel)["Everything's in your office, isn't it? Or did you want to beat the mutants out of your old apartment?" ]] and leave immediately. If you have any [[questions]], ask them now." |bel>[][[No questions.]]

"It's a private lab (link-reveal: "a few hours northwest")[(replace: ?answer)["Heczeldorf? It's a [[quiet little place]]. A (link-reveal: "farm town")[(replace: ?answer)["(link-reveal: "Livestock")[(replace: ?livestock)[''Livestock'': she means this as a euphemism. ]]. Lots of room to roam." ]]. Quite unlike your old home, but I suppose you've soured on the floating city." ]] of here. An unorthodox arrangement, but they purchased your contract from the national fund for a substantial sum." {|answer>[] |livestock>[]} [[Why was I chosen?->questions]] [[That's enough.]]

You're curious why you were chosen, and you ask. "Above satisfactory work since starting at the (link-reveal: "Constanța laboratory")[(replace: ?cont)["Oh, we'll get on alright without you. Your contract's purchase has enabled us to make several new hires." ]] twelve years ago. Excellent critical reasoning and abstraction skills. Hygiene and social behavior are sufficient for work at a more esteemed office like the one at [[Heczeldorf->Heczeldorf Research Station]]." |cont>[][[That's enough.]]

"Hah, alright. If you don't like it, I would normally invite you back, but there's a noncompete. So I suppose I will wish you well and leave it at that." [[Goodbye.]]

"Alright. If you don't like it, I would normally invite you back, but there's a noncompete. So I suppose I will wish you well and leave it at that." [[Goodbye.]]

You walk back down the hallway, past your office with its grimy (link-reveal: "window")[(replace: ?window)[The cell has blown on. Ashen stalks and rocky hills as far as the eye can see. ]], (transition-time: .25s)+(t8n-depart: "dissolve")[[out->Heczeldorf]] into the wind. |window>[]

(enchant: ?passage's chars, via (t8n-delay:pos * 150) + (t8n:'instant'))[''[[~~ / / / / ~~Heczeldorf->h1]]'']

The (link-reveal: "houses")[(replace: ?houses)[''houses:'' painted shades of flaking beige or, unnervingly, pastel pink and orange. You read on the train that these structures have no metadata at all, inside or out.]] here are longer than any you've seen. Hundreds of abutting facades built from crumbling wood and plaster lean in from either side of a long street. Too close together to expand any other way, the [[bodies->h2]] of the buildings continue back into (link-reveal: "dry fields")[(replace: ?fields)[''fields:'' these you can't see well - they extend behind the houses.]]. |houses>[] |fields>[]

You're at the crux of a horseshoe curve. Due south, in the semicircle made by the bent road lies a stone wall surrounding an enormous 14th-century (link-reveal: "church")[(replace: ?church)[''church'': the mottled cream and brown building is a bit like a child's drawing. Uneven tall (link-reveal: "windows")[(replace: ?windows)[''windows'': they seem almost opaque with grime. In any case, they're too high for you to look through. ]] dot plain rectangles topped by shingled triangles. No fine detail has survived the weather (or was ever there to begin with). A yard surrounds the church. ]]: this building houses the laboratory. Your new home. A section of the (link-reveal: "wall")[(replace: ?wall)[''wall'': smooth stone buried under dirty, pale paint. Featureless and interrupted occasionally by squarish supports. ]] has been removed - this, you suppose, is the [[entrance->h3]]. { |church>[] |wall>[] |windows>[] }

A wide (link-reveal: "lawn")[(replace: ?lawn)[''lawn:'' sort of a misnomer; it's mostly dirt packed from hundreds of years of walking. ]] surrounds the church building. There's a short (link-reveal: "tower")[(replace: ?tower)[''tower:'' the shortest structure in the compound. Seems to have space for only one room. ]] within the wall to the east. Someone, presumably the lab's (link-reveal: "Director")[(replace: ?dir)[''director:'' she's watching you expectantly. ]], is here waiting for you. [[Hello.->h4]] { |lawn>[] |tower>[] |dir>[] }

"I'm Cetina. Welcome to our lab. I am officially its Director, but you'll see the environment here is more self directed than what you're used to. Everything will make more sense once we start working. In the meantime, I'm happy to answer any burning questions you might have." [[I have no questions.->h5]] [[Why is this facility in such a remote location?]] [[What is there to do in Heczeldorf?]] [[What am I here to do?]]

"That's just fine. Forgive me, but would you mind if we run a quick initial test to acclimate you to your new terminal?" [[Sure, I don't mind.]] [[I would prefer to have some time to myself.]]

"Because of the degree of nuance required for our research, we've found that an overabundance of nearby metadata can sour results. Spectral interference. Heczeldorf has hardly any data at all. Psychically, it's very calming." [[What is there to do in Heczeldorf?->"What is there to do in Heczeldorf?"2]] [[What am I here to do?->"What am I here to do?"2]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

She smiles. "Not much. Mediasch was the closest thing to a city nearby. You might enjoy walking around the area, but don't go too far. There are chemical deposits outside town." [[Why is this facility in such a remote location?->"Why is this facility in such a remote location?"4]] [[What am I here to do?->"What am I here to do?"4]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Your job is no different than it was in Constanța. You'll be analyzing object metadata." [[What objects will I be analyzing?]]

"Wonderful. Forgive me, but would you mind if we run a quick initial test to acclimate you to your new terminal?" [[Sure, I don't mind.]] [[I would prefer to have some time to myself.]]

She smiles. "Not much. Mediasch was the closest thing to a city nearby. You might enjoy walking around the area, but don't go too far. There are chemical deposits outside town." [[What am I here to do?->"What am I here to do?"3]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Your job is no different than it was in Constanța. You'll be analyzing object metadata." [[What objects will I be analyzing?->"What objects will I be analyzing?"8]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Your job is no different than it was in Constanța. You'll be analyzing object metadata." [[What objects will I be analyzing?->"What objects will I be analyzing?"9]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Because of the degree of nuance required for our research, we've found that an overabundance of nearby metadata can sour results. Spectral interference. Heczeldorf has hardly any data at all. Psychically, it's very calming." [[What am I here to do?->"What am I here to do?"8]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Your job is no different than it was in Constanța. You'll be analyzing object metadata." [[What objects will I be analyzing?->"What objects will I be analyzing?"6]]

"Cultural artifacts." [[Why is this facility in such a remote location?->"Why is this facility in such a remote location?"5]] [[What is there to do in Heczeldorf?->"What is there to do in Heczeldorf?"5]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Because of the degree of nuance required for our research, we've found that an overabundance of nearby metadata can sour results. Spectral interference. Heczeldorf has hardly any data at all. Psychically, it's very calming." [[What is there to do in Heczeldorf?->"What is there to do in Heczeldorf?"10]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

She smiles. "Not much. Mediasch was the closest thing to a city nearby. You might enjoy walking around the area, but don't go too far. There are chemical deposits outside town." [[Why is this facility in such a remote location?->"Why is this facility in such a remote location?"6]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Cultural artifacts." [[Why is this facility in such a remote location?->"Why is this facility in such a remote location?"7]]

"Your job is no different than it was in Constanța. You'll be analyzing object metadata." [[What objects will I be analyzing?->"What objects will I be analyzing?"7]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Cultural artifacts." [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Cultural artifacts." [[What is there to do in Heczeldorf?->"What is there to do in Heczeldorf?"8]] [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

She smiles. "Not much. Mediasch was the closest thing to a city nearby. You might enjoy walking around the area, but don't go too far. There are chemical deposits outside town." [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Cultural artifacts." [[I think I have a good understanding of my position here.->h5.1]]

"Terrific. Drop off your things and come to the transept when you're ready. You'll be rooming in the drum tower with the apostate." She gestures east to a squat building. [[Alright. I'll see you in there.->Alright. Goodbye for now.]] [[The what?]]

"That's no problem. When you're ready, the primary analysis takes place in the (link-reveal: "transept")[(replace: ?transept)[''transept:'' in (link-reveal: "cruciform")[(replace: ?cruc)[''cruciform:'' in the form of a cross. ]] churches, the intersection. ]]. You'll be staying in the drum tower with the apostate during your time with us." [[Alright. Goodbye for now.]] [[The what?]] { |transept>[] |cruc>[] }

You are standing in the courtyard of the laboratory. A wide door opens into the [[transept->TC1.1]]. To your side is the [[drum tower->DT1]], where you're staying, and behind you is a (link-reveal: "hole")[(replace: ?hole)[You should settle in before you explore Heczeldorf.]] leading through the stone wall to the rest of the town. |hole>[]

You enter the transept crossing: the crux of the church, a large square space artificially separated from the rest by its thick carpeting. Workspaces are jammed together, and (link-reveal: "analysts")[(replace: ?ana)[''analysts'': ten or so people sit at terminals, move equipment, or mill about. Most are older than you. ]] tap and gesture at their control boards. Each terminal is joined in a mass of (link-reveal: "cables")[(replace: ?cab)[''cables'': thick tendons, mostly black and rubberized. ]] that wind hazardously (link-reveal: "across the floor")[(replace: ?floor)[The bulk of the building extends west; shadows darken the floor where (link-reveal: "pews")[(replace: ?pews)[''pews'': just shadows on the floor, now. ]] once stood. The transept's wings extend to the north and south - dark, messy (link-reveal: "spaces")[(replace: ?spaces)[''spaces'': the north and south transepts are unlit, and from here, appear to be impassably filled with furniture and other junk. ]]. Storage, perhaps. To the east is the (link-reveal: "altar")[(replace: ?alt)[''altar'': gold glints through the dust.](replace: ?cet)[[[Cetina->TC1.2]] walks in behind you. ]]. ]]. { |floor>[] |cet>[] |ana>[] |cab>[] |pews>[] |spaces>[] |alt>[] }

The strange square structure is filled with afternoon shade. There is just enough room for two bedframes with a nightstand in the middle. The sheets on the far bed are disheveled. You duck the low wooden beams and put your things down beside the closest bed before [[leaving->courtyard0.1]].

She gestures toward the side of the room where, separate from the others, a black wooden (link-reveal: "chair")[(replace: ?chair)[''chair'': darkly stained, like the rest of the church. ]] is pulled out by an unused (link-reveal: "terminal")[(replace: ?ter)[''terminal'': certainly newer than your previous one. You thought it would look more impressive. ]]'s desk. By the terminal's screen lies a plastic (link-reveal: "control board")[(replace: ?cont)[''control board'': clean, beige, looks cheap. ]] and a (link-reveal: "glass of water")[(replace: ?gs)[''glass of water'': it would bother you if condensation moistened your work surface, but the water seems to be room temperature. ]]. "Go ahead and [[sit->TC1.3]] when you're ready," (link-reveal: "Cetina")[(replace: ?cet)[''Cetina'': in the sun she seemed out of place. Here she half-blends into the tangle. ]] says. { |chair>[] |ter>[] |cont>[] |gs>[] |cet>[] }

You sit and move the glass of water a bit further from the terminal, finally placing your hands on the terminal's control board. The screen is gray static. [[What am I analyzing?->TC1.4]]

"For this initial calibration test, I'd like you to tell me anything you can about the object within the lattice without having seen it first. By eliminating preconceived notions, we can ensure the data is objective." [[Alright. I'm ready.->TC1.5]]

"Great. You can start at any time." She watches carefully as you swipe a finger across the control board. A glow from behind the machine as the lattice comes alive. Something creaks. Then, [[text:->a1.1]]

Identity: object (click-replace: "object")[acela le-a(click-replace: "acela le-a")[that one has to them] vorbit rece(click-replace: "vorbit rece")[ spoken coldly]] (link-reveal: "(fraudulent)")[(replace: ?fraud)[''fraudulent'': (link-reveal: "*")[(replace: ?star)[''obscured'': as if behind (link-reveal: "fog")[(replace: ?fog)[''fog'': o atingere ]] ]]obscured ]](more:)[(click-replace: "(fraudulent)")[[[(it spoke coldly to them)->TC1.6]]]] Material composition: (link-reveal: "multiple")[(replace: ?mult)[''multiple'': this description is usually more specific. A vaguer term might mean materials are indistinguishable or layered. ]] Elemental composition: (link-reveal: "carbon")[(replace: ?carbon)[''carbon'': fundament. meaningless. ]], (link-reveal: "other traces")[(replace: ?oth)[''other traces'': you implore the terminal to extrapolate, and it spits back the term "(link-reveal: "baligă.")[(replace: ?bal)[''baligă'': dung. ]]" Perhaps a lingering joke from a creative programmer. ]]. { |fraud>[] |star>[] |fog>[] |mult>[] |carbon>[] |oth>[] |bal>[] }

"Baligă? That's from old Russian," (link-reveal: "Cetina")[(replace: ?cet)[''Cetina'': you're about to disappoint her. Your stomach feels heavy. ]] says. She smiles expectantly as you push back from the (link-reveal: "terminal")[(replace: ?term)[''terminal'': all nonsense.]]. [[I'm sorry, I don't think it's been set up correctly.->TC1.7]] { |cet>[] |term>[] }

"Oh, don't apologize. We'll figure it out." She calls across the room to someone named (link-reveal: "Arcadian")[(replace: ?arc)[''Arcadian'': dull green pants, probably war surplus. They are tall, with hair buzzed to the scalp. ]], who wanders over and begins fussing with the back of the (link-reveal: "terminal")[(replace: ?term)[''terminal'': the screen occasionally pips.]]. "Take a minute and [[relax]]," Cetina suggests. "Have a [[drink]] if you like. Hopefully this won't take much longer." { |arc>[] |term>[] }

Cetina quietly confers with Arcadian while the two unplug a series of small white wires and examine their ports. At the other side of the transept, an analyst coughs. There's little to do but sit still and wait. You stare into the blinking lights reflected off the surface of the [[glass of water->drink]].

You sip from the glass. It's not chilled, but it has been pleasantly flavored with something herbal. The room becomes shiveringly gray, then lightens again. A cloud [[passing->TC1.8]] by the overhead window.

Arcadian raises their head and gestures to Cetina. "Okay, ready to try again?" she asks. "Hopefully it was just a crossed wire." [[Ready.->A1.2]]

You step out onto the grass. The sky is dark blue and your head feels thick. You recall the words on the screen as if they were an internal monologue. The [[drum tower->DT1.2]] is ahead.

(if: (history:) contains "DT1")[The (link-reveal: "apostate")[(replace: ?her)[''Apostate:'' his face is turned to the wall. ]] lies in the far bed, snoring. A (link-reveal: "candle")[(replace: ?can)[''candle:'' pressed onto a metal holder, the candle's wax drips haphazardly. ]] on the nightstand flickers, threatening to drip onto a (link-reveal: "book")[(replace: ?book)[''book:'' You think you recognize the language. Not Romanian. The author is János Arany. ]] carelessly left beside it.](else:)[The room is just large enough to fit two bedframes with a nightstand in the middle. Someone, you presume the (link-reveal: "apostate")[(replace: ?her)[''apostate:'' his face is turned to the wall. ]], lies in the far bed snoring. A (link-reveal: "candle")[(replace: ?can)[''candle:'' pressed onto a metal holder, the candle's wax drips haphazardly. ]] on the nightstand flickers, threatening to drip onto a book carelessly left beside it.] { |her>[] |can>[] |book>[] } (more:)[[[sleep->DT1.3]] [[read->A-Őszikék1]]]

You are standing in the courtyard of the laboratory. A wide door opens into the [[transept->TC1.1]]. To your side is the drum tower, where you're staying, and behind you is a (link-reveal: "hole")[(replace: ?hole)[You should settle in before you explore Heczeldorf.]] leading to outside the courtyard through the stone wall. |hole>[]

Creaking, a [[glow->A1.3]].

Identity: object Material composition: loss Elemental composition: carbon, iron, other traces. [[It seems to be the same.->A1.4]]

"Let's make absolutely sure before I have Arcadian take the thing apart," Cetina replies. Identity: object(click-replace: "object")[object: o picătură care crește incet în volum(click-replace: "o picătură")[a droplet] (click-replace: "care crește")[which grows](click-replace: "incet")[slowly] (click-replace: "în volum")[in volume]](click-replace: "object: a droplet which grows slowly in volume")[there are still problems here, but the problems want to be solved; you can feel their desire to unravel.] Material composition: (link-reveal: "multiple")[(replace: ?mul)[''multiple:'' layered, horribly. It is beyond your skill to retrieve what is underneath. ]] Elemental composition: (link-reveal: "carbon")[(replace: ?car)[''carbon'': completely black after many years of environmental exposure. ]], (link-reveal: "iron")[(replace: ?iron)[''iron'': reddish-black; ash-coloured; (generally) dark-coloured. ]], (link-reveal: "other traces")[(replace: ?oth)[''other traces'': kaleidoscopic; an array. [[impossible to discern->TC1.9]].]]. { |mul>[] |car>[] |iron>[] |oth>[] }

Cetina frowns as you gaze blankly at the screen. [[I'm sorry. I don't know what to do.->TC1.10]]

"That's alright." She sighs. "New hardware. I'm confident Arcadian can figure it out." [[Um, should I go?->TC1.11]]

(if: (history:) contains "DT1")["Yes, you might as well. I suppose you're tired from your journey. We'll resume tomorrow."](else:)["Yes, you might as well. Get settled in your space at the drum tower, and we'll meet back here tomorrow."] The [[exit->C1.1]] is behind you.

You lie in the dark. Without a logic board, you can feel the age of the ancient bed, the planks in the floor, the piled rocks walling you in. In the past, the tower was new, and smelled more strongly of cement and [[freshly cut wood.->DT1.4]]

You take the book from the nightstand and are startled by its age and fragility. The alphabet suggests Hungarian, a language with which you have little familiarity. In pencil, someone has attempted to translate its text. "Őszikék" Arany János [[Olvasó...->A-Őszikék2]]

Before that, the land was empty. And later, it will be empty again. You struggle to distinguish between the emptiness of something untouched and something destroyed, flattened, [[cleared.->DT2]]

Light hits your eyelid and scatters, illuminating blood and skin. You dream of a pink mist and [[awaken->DT2.1]] inside one.

It's morning. The (link-reveal: "apostate")[(replace: ?h)[''apostate:'' pale and handsome, with a dark beard. ]] is still asleep. His face contorts as he dreams. The air in the room is a disorganized array of rays - light from a single source, ricocheting. Dust glows, floating past the [[door.->C2]] (if: (history:) contains "A-Őszikék3")[János Arany's [[book->A-Őszikék4]] sits on the table between the two beds. ]{ |h>[] }

There is a rush of sensation: the (link-reveal: "cold air")[(replace: ?air)[''air'': the chill makes you shiver. ]] hits your skin like a drum, reverberating. Cascading scents of (link-reveal: "woodsmoke")[(replace: ?smoke)[''smoke:'' something becoming something else. ]] and (link-reveal: "meat")[(replace: ?meat)[''meat:'' how would it feel to be cooked? ]] cooking, savory and nauseating. (link-reveal: "Wet earth")[(replace: ?earth)[''earth:'' your feet are not the first here. ]]. Your feet are bare; the wetness is pleasant but the stalks of (link-reveal: "grass")[(replace: ?grass)[''grass:'' irritatingly young, sturdy, and sharp. ]] itch. The mash of comforting environmental stillness and electric emotion is disorienting. You crave the silence of the [[transept->TC2]]. But a [[walk->cross2]] might help clear your head. { |air>[] |smoke>[] |meat>[] |earth>[] |grass>[] }

The room is as dim as yesterday, sunlight stuck in the mucked (link-reveal: "windows")[(replace: ?win)[''windows:'' glowing grayly like nightlights. ]], but today the old wood faintly reverberates with meaning. This place was built from rock, mud, and conviction. You feel that the physical (link-reveal: "space")[(replace: ?space)[''space:'' the dusky air feels thick and familiar. ]] around you has become an ally in a way the mycelium walls of your previous office never were. (link-reveal: "Arcadian")[(replace: ?arc)[''Arcadian:'' tall and dark as the room. They are here to make the analysis go smoothly. ]] waves from your [[desk.->TC2.1]] { |arc>[] |win>[] |space>[] }

"Good morning," Arcadian says, pulling your chair back for you. [[Good morning, Arcadian.->TC2.2]] [[Where is Cetina?->TC2.3]]

Olvasó, ha fennakadsz, hogy Könyvem címe "Őszikék", Tudd meg: e néven virágok Vannak ősszel, és -- csibék. Ha virágok: a deres fű Hantját szépen színezik; Ha csibék: ez is megjárja, Ki olyanra éhezik. A virágnak nincs illatja, Ha megcsapta őszi dér; De csibének húsa, vére – S a konyhában többet ér. (1877. aug. 13.) { (click-replace: "Olvasó")[Reader](click-replace: "ha fennakadsz, hogy")[if you wonder how](click-replace: "Reader, if you wonder how")[Reader, if you are confused] (click-replace: "Könyvem")[My book](click-replace: "címe")[its title](click-replace: "Őszikék")[Primitives] (click-replace: "My book its title \"Primitives\"")[My book's title is "Primitives"] (click-replace: "Tudd meg")[I want you to know](click-replace: "e néven virágok")[under this name flowers](click-replace: "I want you to know")[Listen](click-replace: "Listen: under this name flowers")[Listen: flowers with this name] (click-replace: "Vannak")[There are](click-replace: "ősszel")[in Autumn](click-replace: "és -- csibék")[and -- chicks](click-replace: "There are in Autumn, and -- chicks")[There are in Autumn also chicks] (click-replace: "Ha virágok")[If flowers](click-replace: "a deres fű")[the tall grass](click-replace: "If flowers: the tall grass")[The flowers grow in tall grass] (click-replace: "Hantját")[Whose coat](click-replace: "szépen")[nicely](click-replace: "színezik;")[colored,](click-replace: "Whose coat nicely colored,")[Whose coat was beautifully colored,] (click-replace: "Ha csibék")[If chicks](click-replace: "ez is megjárja")[this too will pass](click-replace: "If chicks: this too will pass")[If chicks walking about the pass] (click-replace: "Ki olyanra")[Who like that](click-replace: "éhezik")[hunger](click-replace: "Who like that hunger")[They hunger] (click-replace: "A virágnak")[The flower](click-replace: "nincs illatja")[no smell](click-replace: "The flower no smell")[The flower has no scent] (click-replace: "Ha megcsapta")[If you strike them](click-replace: "őszi dér")[Autumn frost](click-replace: "If you strike them Autumn frost")[When earth is struck by Autumn frost] (click-replace: "De csibének húsa")[But chicken meat](click-replace: "vére")[blood](click-replace: "But chicken meat, blood")[And chicken's savory flesh and blood] (click-replace: "S a konyhában")[And in the kitchen](click-replace: "többet ér")[worth more](click-replace: "And in the kitchen worth more")[Is worth more in the kitchen] } (event: when exits is 0)[A note is hastily scribbled in the margin among translated phrases: [[deformado. este lengua de los Urales es anormal para mí->A-Őszikék3]]]

The rhyme scheme is off completely, and such a literal translation seems to have eliminated the beauty and meaning from the poem. Hungarian is difficult for you, too. You [[blow out->DT1.3]] the candle.

(set: $first to "Durere.")(set: $firstdesc to "Durere: suffering, pain.")(set: $second to "Noroi.")(set: $seconddesc to "Noroi: mud.")(set: $third to "Sfârşit.")(set: $thirddesc to "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death..")(cycling-link: bind $first, "Durere.", "Nenorocire.", "Decădere.") (cycling-link: bind $second, "Noroi.", "Fecale.", "Căcat.") (cycling-link: bind $third, "Sfârşit.", "Moarte.") |desc>[$firstdesc] |desc2>[$seconddesc] |desc3>[$thirddesc] [[then->A2.1]] {(live: 0.1s)[ (set: $firstdesc to (cond: $first is "Durere.", "Durere: suffering, pain.", $first is "Nenorocire.", "Nenorocire: misfortune from a particular source or event. Calamity.", $first is "Decădere.", "Decădere: decay, regression. Fig., moral decay." )) (rerun: ?desc) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $seconddesc to (cond: $second is "Noroi.", "Noroi: mud.", $second is "Fecale.", "Fecale: feces.", $second is "Căcat.", "Căcat: shit." )) (rerun: ?desc2) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $thirddesc to (cond: $third is "Sfârşit.", "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death.", $third is "Moarte.", "Moarte: death. Can mean \"end\"...", )) (rerun: ?desc3) ] }

You glance again at the apostate's translation. The meaning is there, between the scribbles. A picture blooms in your head: the mountain, the chicks, the primitives(click-replace: "primitives")[[[flowers->A-Őszikék5]]].

Reader, if you are confused My book's title is "Primitives", Listen: flowers with this name There are in Autumn also chicks. The flowers grow in tall grass Whose coat was beautifully colored. If chicks walking about the pass, They hunger. The flower has no scent, When earth is struck by Autumn frost; And chicken's savory flesh and blood – Is worth more in the kitchen. (1877. aug. 13.) (more:)[The apostate was unable, or unwilling, to take such liberties. But the [[result->DT2.2]] is much nicer.]{ (click-replace: "you are confused")[you're feeling stuck] (click-replace: "\My book's title is \"Primitives\",")[On the title, "Autumn Blues,"] (click-replace: "Listen: flowers with this name")[See by the little chicks - bright buds] (click-replace: "There are in Autumn also chicks.")[Speckle the hill in brilliant hues.](click-replace: "The flowers grow in tall grass")[Warmth fades, and stalks of indigo] (click-replace: "Whose coat was beautifully colored.")[Braid into the mountain's coat] (click-replace: "If chicks walking about the pass,")[While chickens search beneath the snow] (click-replace: "They hunger.")[Hungering for wild oats.] (click-replace: "The flower has no scent,")[The colored buds forget their scent] (click-replace: "earth is struck by Autumn frost;")[Autumn turns the grass to ice] (click-replace: "chicken's savory flesh and blood –")[chickens in the cold months fetch] (click-replace: "Is worth more in the kitchen.")[good prices when the oven lights.] }

The apostate is still asleep. His face contorts as he dreams. The air in the room is a disorganized array of rays - light from a single source, ricocheting. Dust glows, floating past the [[door.->C2]]

You stand in the road outside the [[church compound.->C2]] Over the [[western hills->HW2]] lies Mediaș. To the east, a [[dusty path->HE2]] curves deeper into Heczeldorf.

The road west terminates in a spray of gravel by the last delapidated houses. A number of crude (link-reveal: "construction machines")[(replace: ?machines)[ Drills and diggers. ]] block a thin path up into the hills. {|machines>[]} You can only return to the [[crossroads.->cross2]]

You walk along the road, passing more (link-reveal: "flat, empty houses")[(replace: ?h)[''houses:'' You have begun to understand the pastel colors not as an aesthetic choice, but a result of decades of unrelenting sun. ]]. There's a [[cafe->METRO2]] here somewhere, and further, [[farms.->FARM2]] You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross2]] { |h>[] }

Above the (link-reveal: "cafe's")[(replace: ?cafe)[''cafe:'' with its handsome stained wooden exterior and intact slate roof, the cafe is one of the nicer looking buildings in Heczeldorf. ]] entrance, a hand-painted (link-reveal: "sign")[(replace: ?sign)[''sign:'' the lettering is pretty. Sort of art deco. ]] reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script. You doubt anyone would mind if you [[entered->METRO2.1]], but you could also [[head back.->cross2]] { |cafe>[] |sign>[] }

You continue west until the road terminates at a yellow-shingled (link-reveal: "barn.")[(replace: ?barn)[''barn:'' weather-beaten. Unlovingly maintained. The [[door->FARM2.1]] is sheet metal. ]] It stands feebly upright among its half-collapsed neighbors. Inside, the soft wet (link-reveal: "sliding")[(replace: ?s)[Though the livestock are human-sized, the sound calls to mind the ambiance of a large collection of small creatures - oysters or barnacles. ]] of bodies against one another. {|s>[] |barn>[] }

The door creaks into a stuffy and warm interior. (link-reveal: "Dust motes")[(replace: ?mote)[''motes:'' little gravity-defiant specks. ]] drift in lightbeams. Stained (link-reveal: "mugs")[(replace: ?mug)[''mugs:'' squat, uniform, rounded edges. Off-white ceramic or similarly reflective plastic. ]] hang from (link-reveal: "brass hooks")[(replace: ?hook)[''hooks:'' the most ornate part of the cafe's understated decor. They would have been quite beautiful when they were new. ]] above the counter. The place is deserted. There is a worn leather (link-reveal: "armchair")[(replace: ?chair)[''armchair:'' a human-shaped depression at its center. ]] by a small (link-reveal: "table,")[(replace: ?table)[''table:'' seems barely capable of remaining upright with its load of books. ]] upon which sits a (link-reveal: "stack of books.")[(replace: ?stack)[At the top of the stack is a compilation of Romanian and Hungarian poetry in a splintered brown binding. You could probably [[decipher->METRO2.11]] some, if you wanted. ]] |stack>[]{ |mote>[] |mug>[] |hook>[] |chair>[] |table>[] }

The spine cracks as you pull it apart. It opens on a poem by Lucian Blaga. [[Eu nu strivesc...->P-blaga]]

Sodium-vapor (link-reveal: "lamps")[(replace: ?lamp)[Everything is yellow. ]] cast sepia shapes and brown shadows. The (link-reveal: "creatures")[(replace: ?c)[''creatures:'' veins pop out from beige hairless skin moistened by mist from a series of pipes in the ceiling. the [[sell sheet's->sell sheet 2]] pinned to the wall by the sprinkler control, if you're interested. ]] are mostly silent, but croak and bark when bumped by their siblings. One flexes its limbs and leaps a few inches into the air, and the others react, irritated. The [[exit->FF2.3]] is behind you. |lamp>[] { |c>[] }

You shut the door behind you and walk back toward the [[center of town->HE2.1]]. The noises quiet.

"Faced with the expense of growing replacement limbs/organs on high-tech lattices and keeping them sterile and supplied with nutrients, our biological technicians spent the last decade developing new multi-use biological lattices: living sacks containing external and internal human body parts and possessing large, functional cowlike mouths. They eat a cheap nutrient slurry and require little maintenance. "Furthermore, by splicing in genes from a planarian flatworm during development, we've ensured that any significantly voluminous piece cut from the main creature generates its own creature, upon and inside of which grows a mostly usable slew of additional human body parts. Note that this process does require treatment with our proprietary fertilizer, available from our mail-order catalogue. "Order or propagate creatures for the future at set intervals to ensure a ready supply of parts for all ages and sizes of humans - keeping in mind which parts are disproportionately needed at different ages (for example, there is far more demand for mature livers, kidneys, and hearts). For more information, consult our almanac!" The [[exit->FF2.3]] is behind you.

You're on the road east of the [[crossroads.->cross2]] There's a [[cafe->METRO2]] here somewhere, and further, [[farms.->FARM2]]

"I hope you slept well. Ready to begin?" [[Let's start.->TC2.4]] [[Where is Cetina?->TC2.5]]

"Handling business matters in Mediasch. She will return tomorrow. Are you ready to begin?" [[Let's start.->TC2.4]] [[What matters?->TC2.6]]

While you sit and turn the machine on, Arcadian slides a sample into the tray, then crosses the room and returns with a cocoa-coloured (link-reveal: "lump")[(replace: ?lump)[**lump**: has a rounded top and flat bottom. Appears to have been recently baked. Smells delicious. ]] on a small (link-reveal: "plate")[(replace: ?plate)[**plate**: porcelain with blue painted leaves. ]]. They place it by your elbow. [[What is it?->TC2.7]] { |plate>[] |lump>[] }

"She is purchasing samples for the lab." [[Alright, I'm ready to begin.->TC2.4]]

"Breakfast," Arcadian says. "It will give you energy." They go off to assist another analyst, leaving you to your [[snack->TC2.8]] while the terminal boots. The room is more subdued today; busier. Nobody pays you much attention.

After a tentative bite, you eagerly demolish the rest of the biscuit. It's unlike anything you've ever eaten: dense and satisfying, but bright, with the funk of fermentation. As you finish, the screen [[enlivens->TC2.9]], darkening.

You place your hands on the control board. Lines of text burst from the screen into your eyes. Your job is not to translate, but to make [[sense->A2]].

(set: $word to "Copacii")(set: $desc to "**Copacii**: the trees.")(cycling-link: bind $word, "Copacii", "Buruieni") (link-reveal: "erau")[(replace: ?e)[**erau**: were. "Fi" (is), third-person plural imperfect indicative. ]] (link-reveal: "foarte")[(replace: ?f)[**foarte**: quite. Informally, can be used as a freestanding adverb: "very!" ]] (link-reveal: "rari")[(replace: ?r)[**rari**: scarce. The shared Latin root is rarus (as in "rare," but originally more like "seldom." ]] { |desc>[$desc] |e>[] |f>[] |r>[] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $desc to (cond: $word is "Copacii", "**Copacii**: the trees.", $word is "Buruieni", "**Buruieni**: weeds. Contextually, implies a greater sort of devastation: \"hardly anything, even weeds.\"", )) (rerun: ?desc) ]}[[quietly->A2.2]]

(set: $word to "Copacii")(set: $desc to "**Copacii**: the trees.")(cycling-link: bind $word, "Copacii", "Buruieni") (link-reveal: "erau")[(replace: ?e)[**erau**: were. "Fi" (is), third-person plural imperfect indicative.]] (link-reveal: "foarte")[(replace: ?f)[**foarte**: quite. Informally, can be used as a freestanding adverb: "very!"]] (link-reveal: "rari")[(replace: ?r)[**rari**: scarce. The shared Latin root is rarus (as in "rare," but originally more like "seldom." ]] { |desc>[$desc] |e>[] |f>[] |r>[] [[/Further/->A2.2]] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $desc to (cond: $word is "Copacii", "**Copacii**: the trees.", $word is "Buruieni", "**Buruieni**: weeds. Contextually, implies a greater sort of devastation: \"hardly anything, even weeds.\"", )) (rerun: ?desc) ]}

(link-reveal: "O ploaie rece")[(replace: ?o)["Ploaie" is less a storm than a pattering.]] a cǎzut peste oraş. {|o>[] |a>[] }(more:)[[[in that low sky->A2.3]]] {(click-replace: "O ploaie rece")[A cold rain](click-replace: "a cǎzut")[fell] (click-replace: "peste oraş")[over the city]}

{(set: $word to "treceau")(set: $desc to "**treceau**: some form of \"pass,\" either \"were passing\" or \"passed.\"")}Deasupra (cycling-link: bind $word, "treceau", "se profilau", "s-au nascut") nori negri. |desc>[$desc]{ (live: 1s)[ (set: $desc to (cond: $word is "treceau", "**treceau**: some form of \"pass,\" either \"were passing\" or \"passed.\"", $word is "se profilau", "**se profilau**: loomed, were looming. Or perhaps arose.", $word is "s-au nascut", "**s-au nascut**: were born.", )) (rerun: ?desc) ] } (if: (history:) contains "METRO2.2")[[[obscuring.->A2.3Blaga]]] (else:)[[[hesitating.->A2.4]]] (click-replace: "Deasupra")[Above] (click-replace: "nori negri")[black clouds]

(event: when exits is 0)[Wind [[rushes past->METRO2.2]] the cafe, and the sign outside trembles. ]Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii şi nu ucid cu mintea tainele, ce le-ntâlnesc în calea mea în flori, în ochi, pe buze ori morminte. Lumina altora sugrumă vraja nepătrunsului ascuns în adâncimi de întuneric, dar eu, eu cu lumina mea sporesc a lumii taină - şi-ntocmai cum cu razele ei albe luna nu micşorează, ci tremurătoare măreşte şi mai tare taina nopţii, aşa îmbogăţesc şi eu întunecata zare cu largi fiori de sfânt mister şi tot ce-i neînţeles se schimbă-n neînţelesuri şi mai mari sub ochii mei- căci eu iubesc şi flori şi ochi şi buze şi morminte. (1919) {(click-replace: "Eu nu")[I do not](click-replace: "strivesc corola")[I crush the crown](click-replace: "I crush the crown")[crush the crown](click-replace: "de minuni a lumii")[of wonders of the world](click-replace: "of wonders of the world")[of worldly wonders] (click-replace: "şi nu ucid")[and do not kill] (click-replace: "cu mintea tainele")[with the secret mind](click-replace: "ce le-ntâlnesc")[what I meet them](click-replace: "with the secret mind")[with my mind](click-replace: "what I meet them")[the secrets I encounter] (click-replace: "în calea mea")[in my way](click-replace: "in my way")[along the way] (click-replace: "în flori")[in flowers](click-replace: "în ochi")[in eyes](click-replace: "in eyes")[eyes](click-replace: "pe buze")[on lips](click-replace: "on lips")[lips](click-replace: "ori morminte")[or graves] (click-replace: "Lumina altora")[The light of others](click-replace: "The light of others")[Others shine their light] (click-replace: "sugrumă")[strangle](click-replace: "vraja")[the spell](click-replace: "nepătrunsului")[the impenetrable](click-replace: "ascuns")[hidden](click-replace: "strangle the spell the impenetrable hidden")[to strangle the spell of what is hidden, impenetrable] (click-replace: "în adâncimi")[in the depths](click-replace: "de întuneric")[of darkness] (click-replace: "dar eu")[but I] (click-replace: "eu cu lumina")[I with the light](click-replace: "I with the light")[I with my light](click-replace: "mea sporesc")[increase](click-replace: "increase")[enhance](click-replace: "a lumii taină")[the secret world] (click-replace: "şi-ntocmai cum cu razele")[just like with rays](click-replace: "ei albe luna")[them white moon](click-replace: "just like with rays them white moon")[like the moon with its white rays] (click-replace: "nu micşorează")[not diminishing](click-replace: "ci tremurătoare")[but trembling] (click-replace: "măreşte şi mai tare")[magnifies even more](click-replace: "taina nopţii")[mystery of the night](click-replace: "magnifies even more mystery of the night")[multiplying the night's mystery] (click-replace: "aşa îmbogăţesc")[that's how I enrich](click-replace: "şi eu întunecata zare")[and I see the dark](click-replace: "that's how I enrich and I see the dark")[deepening the darkness of the sky] (click-replace: "cu largi fiori")[with wide shivers](click-replace: "de sfânt mister")[of holy mystery](click-replace: "with wide shivers of holy mystery")[with shivers of holy secrecy.] (click-replace: "şi tot ce-i neînţeles")[and everything that is not understood](click-replace: "and everything that is not understood")[-] (click-replace: "se schimbă-n")[they change into](click-replace: "neînţelesuri şi mai mari")[even bigger misunderstandings](click-replace: "they change into even bigger misunderstandings")[Understanding erodes] (click-replace: "sub ochii mei")[beneath my eyes] (click-replace: "căci eu iubesc")[because I love](click-replace: "because I love")[because of my love] (click-replace: "şi flori")[and flowers](click-replace: "şi ochi")[and eyes](click-replace: "şi buze")[and lips](click-replace: "şi morminte")[and graves](click-replace: "and flowers and eyes and lips and graves")[for flowers and eyes and lips and graves] }

You close the book and place it back on the stack. You've reshuffled some lines... perhaps you've been too liberal. But the day is getting away from you, and you're not likely to refine your translation much more. You should head back into [[town->HE2.3]].

You shut the Metropol's door behind you and trudge back the way you came, toward the [[Lab->TC2.1.1]].

You head straight into the transept. The room is as dim as yesterday, sunlight stuck in the mucked (link-reveal: "windows")[(replace: ?win)[''windows:'' glowing grayly like nightlights. ]], but today the old wood faintly reverberates with meaning. This place was built from rock, mud, and conviction. You feel that the physical (link-reveal: "space")[(replace: ?space)[''space:'' the dusky air feels thick and familiar. ]] around you has become an ally in a way the mycelium walls of your previous office never were. (link-reveal: "Arcadian")[(replace: ?arc)[''Arcadian:'' tall and dark as the room. They are here to make the analysis go smoothly. ]] waves from your [[desk.->TC2.1]] { |arc>[] |win>[] |space>[] }

şi tot ce-i neînţeles se schimbă-n neînţelesuri şi mai mari sub ochii noștri- (more:)[[[/Further/->A2.4]]] {(click-replace: "şi tot ce-i neînţeles")[and everything that is not understood] (click-replace: "se schimbă-n")[becomes](click-replace: "neînţelesuri şi mai mari")[even harder to understand] (click-replace: "sub ochii noștri")[in front of our eyes]}

(link-reveal: "Preferă")[(replace: ?pref)[**preferă**: "they prefer," "he/she prefers," or perhaps "it prefers." ]] (link-reveal: "o limbă")[(replace: ?ol)[**o limbă**: a tongue. Language. ]] (link-reveal: "comună")[(replace: ?c)[**comună**: common, communal. The meaning here is more like "familiar." ]] { |pref>[] |ol>[] |c>[] }(if: (history:) contains "DT2.2")[[[/Further/->A2.6Őszikék]]] (else:)[[[/finish/->TC2.2.1]]]

hús és vér többet érnek a {(click-replace: "hús")[flesh] (click-replace: "és vér")[and blood] (click-replace: "többet érnek a")[they are worth more] }(set: $first to "konyhában")(set: $firstdesc to "konyhában: the kitchen.")(cycling-link: bind $first, "konyhában", "hidegben") |desc>[$firstdesc] {(live: 0.5s)[ (set: $firstdesc to (cond: $first is "konyhában", "konyhában: in the [[kitchen.->TC2.2.1]]", $first is "hidegben", "hidegben: in the [[cold.->TC2.2.1]]", )) (rerun: ?desc) ]}

The screen dims. You stand. The analysis focus-state fades, and the bustling noise of the room picks back up. Arcadian approaches. [[I'm done.->TC2.2.2]]

"Good, I was thinking I might need to drag you away." It can't have been that long, you think - but the windows have grown dark, and lamps have been lit around the room. [[It didn't feel like much time at all to me.->TC2.2.3]] [[I hope I've done a good job. The new interface is unfamiliar to me.->TC2.2.4]]

"You analysts often say that." [[I hope I've done a good job. The new interface is unfamiliar to me.->TC2.2.4]] [[I'd better get some rest.->TC2.2.5]]

"Cetina only asks that you do what you are capable of doing. You should rest; tomorrow's sample is more complex." [[Alright, thanks.->TC2.2.7]]

You leave the transept and walk out into the compound. The moon is an adequate light. Over the horizon, there's still a dim (link-reveal: "glow")[(replace: ?glow)[''glow:'' the sunset, or a light in Mediasch?]]. A light shines in the window of the [[drum tower.->DT2.21]] { |glow>[]}

"Smart. Tomorrow's sample is more complex." [[...->TC2.2.7]]

The (link-reveal: "apostate")[(replace: ?h)[''apostate:'' he has a gaunt but friendly face. His deep, accented voice is pleasant.]] sits upright in bed. You haven't seen him anywhere else. "You are Eca? I have missed you coming and going." [[Yes, that's me. They haven't told me your name.->DT2.22]] { |h>[]}

He smiles warmly and deflects. "How are you enjoying the work?" [[I'm not sure whether the results of my efforts so far have been valuable.]] [[It's different from what I'm used to.]] [[I enjoy it; it feels natural.]]

The apostate nods. "It's hard. The work happens in a wooden box. The product of the labor is removed, and the work continues. Where it goes is none of our concern; maybe it would hurt us to know. But it's impossible not to wonder." [[Even calling it 'analysis' feels strange.]]

The apostate taps his chin. "It's hard. The work happens in a wooden box. The product of the labor is removed, and the work continues. Where it goes is none of our concern; maybe it would hurt us to know. But it's impossible not to wonder." [[Even calling it 'analysis' feels strange.]]

The apostate nods. "That's good. That's how it should be. To analyze, to look and wonder, should be like breathing. But understanding turns to confusion, and back and forth and so on." [[Even calling it 'analysis' feels strange.]]

"Ah, I was. La trabaja, la treabă. Se zdrobește sub sine. The work is crushed beneath itself." He rolls over and faces the wall. [[Sleep->DT3]] beckons.

You're awoken again by the (link-reveal: "light")[(replace: ?light)[''light:'' it seems to be deliberately seeking out your most sensitive parts, brightening thin eyelids and unpleasantly heating exposed skin.]] again. Sweat clings to the thin hairs on your back and stomach as you [[stand->DT3.1]]. { |light>[]}

The (link-reveal: "room")[(replace: ?r)[''room:'' it's entirely too humid. ]] wavers in your vision. The (link-reveal: "apostate")[(replace: ?h)[''apostate:'' still facing the wall, though he's kicked his sheets off.]] sleeps soundly in the corner. It's time to [[go.->HC3]] { |r>[] |h>[]}

You imagine your skin shining the color of cut brick. The heat is monstrous. You must get [[inside->TC3]].

Enveloped in the miraculous coolness of the transept's dark interior, you slow your breathing and feel your skin's horrible fluorescence dissipate. Arcadian looks up from their work at a disassembled terminal. "Heat wave. I hope you slept alright?" [[It's awful. I feel ill.->TC3.1]]

They nod. "[दहत]<dahati|" [[...->TC3.2]]{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 2000)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?dahati)[(either: 'दहति', 'दहातु', 'दुहितृ')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 500, 1000)) ] ]}

You blink. "Have something to eat before you begin." Arcadian places a (link-reveal: "plate")[(replace: ?plate)[''plate:'' another [[biscuit->TC3.2.2]] - rounded top with a flat bottom.]] on your desk. Your [[terminal->TC3.2.1]] awaits. { |plate>[]}

You hadn't realized you were so hungry. You leave no crumbs. Somewhere in the mass of cables behind the terminal, Arcadian has loaded up the sample: the screen [[shifts->A3]].

Staring at the screen of the terminal, you experience a sensation of absurd futility, as if you were trying to climb out of a perfectly smooth bowl. You glance at the [[biscuit.->TC3.2.2]]

(link-reveal: "Noroi")[(replace: ?n)[**noroi:** mud. ]], (link-reveal: "pretutindeni")[(replace: ?p)[**pretutindeni:** [[all over.->A3.1]]]]. { |n>[] |p>[] }

"The word in Romanian is 'cina.' In Spanish it would be something like 'cenador,' but that's been taken, so perhaps the less elegant 'uno que cena;' 'one who dines.'" He says this [[laughingly]].

"And then, receding into the distance, the old Transylvanian 'cinaș' is an adjective: 'pretty.' This is taken from Hungarian 'csín,' itself borrowed from Proto-Slavonic a thousand years ago. So, you see, even once our appetite has been sated there is more and more, piled up." [[Are you an analyst here, too?]]

(link-reveal: "Mirosul virusului a atârnat peste tot.")[(replace: "Mirosul virusului a atârnat peste tot.")[The scent of the (link-reveal: "virus")[(replace: ?v)[**virus:** unclear whether or not this term is literal. ]] hung over (link-reveal: "everything.")[(replace: ?e)[**everything:** there was not a place without it.]]]] (more:)[[[in this time->A3.2]]] { |v>[] |e>[] }

(link-reveal: "Locuiam într-o casă fără sens.")[(replace: "Locuiam într-o casă fără sens.")[(link-reveal: "I lived in a house that made no sense.")[(replace: ?l)[[[meaningless.->A3.3]]]]]] { |l>[] }

(link-reveal: "Relațiile cu duhul necurat făcuse pământul necurat.")[(replace: "Relațiile cu duhul necurat făcuse pământul necurat.")[(link-reveal: "Intercourse")[(replace: ?int)[**intercourse:** contact. ]] with the (link-reveal: "unclean")[(replace: ?un)[**unclean:** peracute.]] (link-reveal: "spirit")[(replace: ?s)[**spirit:** the flesh's antithesis. ]] had rendered the earth (link-reveal: "unclean.")[(replace: ?un)[**unclean:** [[obscured.->A3.4]]]]]] { |int>[] |s>[] |un>[] } (more:)[(replace: "antithesis")[[[antithesis->A3.4]]]]

Neither news nor dust: (link-reveal: "dorința de a fi eliminat de produsul propriu.")[(replace: "Neither news nor dust: dorința de a fi eliminat de produsul propriu.")[(set: $first to "longing")(set: $firstdesc to "longing: something painful and restricting. something that envelopes one's life.")(set: $second to "deleted")(set: $seconddesc to "deleted: as code.")(set: $third to "product.")(set: $thirddesc to " product: what has been made.") The (cycling-link: bind $first, "longing", "appreciation", "lust") to be (cycling-link: bind $second, "deleted", "obliterated", "killed") by one's own (cycling-link: bind $third, "product.", "compiled code.", "progeny.", "fecal waste.") |desc>[$firstdesc] |desc2>[$seconddesc] |desc3>[$thirddesc] [[desiring this->A3.5]] {(live: 0.1s)[ (set: $firstdesc to (cond: $first is "longing", "longing: something painful and restricting. something that envelopes one's life.", $first is "appreciation", "appreciation: as for something beautiful or useful.", $first is "lust", "lust: a deeply embedded unavoidable sexual desire. shameful." )) (rerun: ?desc) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $seconddesc to (cond: $second is "deleted", "deleted: as code.", $second is "obliterated", "obliterated: as a universe passes into non-existence.", $second is "killed", "killed: a violent, premature end." )) (rerun: ?desc2) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $thirddesc to (cond: $third is "product.", "product: what has been made.", $third is "compiled code.", "compiled code: then, to be deleted by something you wrote. suicidal; a program intended to cause the death of its creator.", $third is "progeny.", "progeny: then, to be rendered obsolete or killed by a descendent.", $third is "fecal waste.", "feces: something you would eliminate, in some other sense.", )) (rerun: ?desc3) ] } ]]

To expose the (link-reveal: "promise")[(replace: "promise")[shadow](replace: ?we)[we must (link-reveal: "become ash")[(replace: "become ash")[be [[judged->A3.6]]]]]] of eternal life |we>[]

(link-reveal: "în ochi înfloresc tumori galbene.")[(replace: "în ochi înfloresc tumori galbene.")[in your eyes (link-reveal: "yellow")[(replace: ?y)[**yellow:** sulferous ]] (link-reveal: "tumors")[(replace: ?t)[**tumors:** growths, via metastasis ]] (link-reveal: "bloom.")[(replace: ?b)[**bloom:** as a [[flower.->A3.7]]]]]] {|y>[] |t>[] |b>[]}

(link-reveal: "venele și dinții cresc în interiorul lor.")[(replace: "venele și dinții cresc în interiorul lor.")[veins and teeth grow within.]] (link-reveal: "creierul se dezvoltă.")[(replace: "creierul se dezvoltă.")[they (link-reveal: "develop")[(replace: ?re)[**develop:** as a creature gradually [[comprehends.->A3.8]]]] brains.]] {|re>[] }

(link-reveal: "încercați să distingeți noua creștere de cea veche")[(replace: "încercați să distingeți noua creștere de cea veche")[try to tell the new growth from the old.]] (more:)[[[...->TC3.3]] from the (set: $optionArray to (a: 'zdrobit', 'strivit', 'crushed', 'distrus', 'destroyed', 'sfărâmat', 'broken', 'terminat', 'finished', 'isprăvit', 'desăvârşit', 'deces', 'cesiune', 'transmitere', 'cedare', 'mesaj', 'apel', 'semnaliza', 'dead', 'inhuman',)){ }(live: 0.1s)[(either: ...$optionArray).]]

Cetina is there, back from Mediasch, standing in the fading glow of your terminal's screen. The lab has grown [[tired->TC3.4]] again.

"Your work today is still exporting," she says softly. "You must be exhausted. What did you see? Anything useful, anything beautiful?" [[Nothing useful, nothing beautiful.]] [[I found some beauty in it.]]

"That's alright. Tomorrow morning I'll have a fresh one for you." [[I'll see you tomorrow, then.]] [[I need to know more about my work.]]

She smiles. "Good. I've brought fresh samples from the city. You'll have more beauty in the morning." [[See you in the morning, then.->I'll see you tomorrow, then.]] [[I need to know more about my work.]]

"Goodnight," she says, walking away to consult with Arcadian. Time to [[go.->C3.1]]

"Context is poisonous, Eca. This remote laboratory, the clandestine nature of your work, is to prevent even a mote of extraneous information from seeping in. Cultural, ideological, linguistic poison. Your analysis must remain objective." [[I will try to avoid spoiling my objectivity.->I'll see you tomorrow, then.]] [[This separation from a greater meaning or goal is hurting my work, not helping it.]]

She is expressionless. You continue: [[As far as I can tell, I've contributed nothing of value. I'm compelled to continue this for reasons I don't understand. Do you understand? Everyone has been kind and reasonable, yet I feel like I've trapped myself here.]]

"Yes, maybe you have. There is no one keeping you here, but then again, to escape a place is to abandon it." She turns and leaves, gesturing for Arcadian to follow. It's time to [[leave.->C3.1]]

You carefully close the heavy oak door on your way out into the compound. It's dusk. The (link-reveal: "gatehouse")[(replace: ?gate)[**gatehouse:** you weren't sure those huge doors were actually functional. ]] has been opened for what you suppose was Cetina's Mediasch (link-reveal: "convoy")[(replace: ?conv)[**convoy:** battered vehicles, paint indiscernible. ]]; a squarish (link-reveal: "passenger car")[(replace: ?pass)[**passenger car:** cracked brown leather seats inside. You'd bet Cetina rode in this one. ]] and three (link-reveal: "trucks")[(replace: ?truck)[**trucks:** packed with silver cases. ]]. Standing by, (link-reveal: "guards")[(replace: ?guard)[**guards:** tall orange boots, thick vests, respirators. They glance at you before seemingly deciding you can safely be ignored. You cannot make out their faces. ]] hold (link-reveal: "pre-war rifles,")[(replace: ?gun)[**pre-war rifles:** these were made to fire under adverse conditions - zero-G, underwater. ]] the ones with (link-reveal: "en bloc clips")[(replace: ?clip)[**en bloc clips:** you can find these, crushed, empty of ammunition, glinting from where they have become embedded in the mud roads between the continent's cities. ]] and (link-reveal: "white bakelite receiver guards.")[(replace: ?rec)[**bakelite receiver guards:** older things seem to hold up better. ]] A candle burns in the window of the [[drum tower.->DT3.2]] { |gate>[] |conv>[] |pass>[] |truck>[] |guard>[] |gun>[] |clip>[] |rec>[] }

The apostate looks up from his book and greets you. "Another successful day of toil, I hope," he says wryly. [[It was.]] [[It's hard for me to say.]]

"Confidence is good. But is it for your own progress? Or for your contribution to something greater?" He pushes himself up onto his elbows to better meet your eyes. "Now you are still one of Cetina's analysts. But you are rapidly becoming an individual thing, a receiver." [[Yes, a receiver.]] [[I don't understand.]]

"It will only become harder." He pushes himself up onto his elbows to better meet your eyes. "Now you are still one of Cetina's analysts. But you are rapidly becoming an individual thing, a receiver." [[Yes, a receiver.]] [[I don't understand.]]

"You don't understand. You probably never will. Maybe you will be lucky, I don't know. Christ spoke to the masses with parables and hidden words. For those who believed, however, he explained simply and in detail." [[The terminal is Christ?]] [[Cetina is Christ?]] [[The analysis is Christ?]]

"You probably never will. Maybe you will be lucky, I don't know. Christ spoke to the masses with parables and hidden words. For those who believed, however, he explained simply and in detail." [[The terminal is Christ?]] [[Cetina is Christ?]] [[The analysis is Christ?]]

He wrinkles his nose. "A sad state of affairs, if this were the case." [[I'm not even sure what I'm analyzing. But the information I receive is terribly strange. Very little of it seems godly.]]

He shudders. "I should hope not." [[I'm not even sure what I'm analyzing. But the information I receive is terribly strange. Very little of it seems godly.]]

He sighs. "Something like that." [[I'm not even sure what I'm analyzing. But the information I receive is terribly strange. Very little of it seems godly.]]

"There are any number of God-languages. There is the living God, who can be interrogated. The dead God can only be interpreted; it has ceased to speak. Of course the God who was supposed to be dead but is actually just shallowly breathing. Maybe wounded, unconscious, but perhaps on purpose. Sneakily pretending to be dead." [[It's funny hearing you talk about God. You were described to me as an apostate.]] [[This is nonsense.]]

Wrinkles deepen beside his eyes. "I'm not that kind of heretic." [[But any godly connection seems tenuous to me. I don't recognize any spirit while working. Everything feels dead.]]

"All prophets doubt themselves and their God. It matters what you do, not what you think. In Murcia, the prophet is like a creature in a zoo. Data rots with the bodies. In Palma, police wear robes over their riot gear. They break into the homes of dead analysts, burn sage and draw sigils." [[Do you doubt? Is that why you're here instead of at the lab? Why you're called an apostate?]]

His face twists. "You don't understand anything. Obliviousness is not faith." [[If you know so much about it, you should be helping.]] [[Enough. I'm going to sleep.]]

"Faith will wring a different sort of death out of you. A more terrible death. But you'll do what you think is right." He rolls to face the wall. [[I'll talk to you tomorrow.]]

The apostate is [[silent->DT4]].

"Yes, [[tomorrow->DT4]]," he grunts.

For the first time, he seems angry. "Who am I to you, that I could answer this? You will succeed, or you won't. You will be satisfied, or you won't. Stupid. Go and do it, and see." He rolls to face the wall. [[I'll talk to you again tomorrow. Goodnight.->Enough. I'm going to sleep.]]

Before the sun has fully risen, a (link-reveal: "noise")[(replace: ?n)[Droplets of sweat spring from his skin and run off onto the sheets.]] irritates you: rasping, mumbling. The apostate tosses and turns. |n>[] A windless silence [[outside.->C4]]

Gray early morning sunlight hits your skin and refracts. The terrible heat of the previous day is still there - if anything, it's gotten worse. You have to block it out to function. You crave the coolness of the [[transept.->TC4]] To [[wander out->cross4]] into the surrounding area would be unwise.

(if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")[You stand in the road outside the [[church compound.->C4]] Over the western hills lies Mediaș. To the east, a [[dusty path->HE4]] curves deeper into Heczeldorf.](else:)[You stand in the road outside the [[church compound.->C4]] Over the [[western hills->HW4]] lies Mediaș. To the east, a [[dusty path->HE4]] curves deeper into Heczeldorf.]

The road west terminates in a spray of gravel by the last delapidated houses. In front of you lies a large patch of mulched stone and earth, from which a thin [[dirt path->HW4.1]] winds upward into the hills. You tilt your head back to look up, hand at your forehead like a visor. Sweat drips into your eye. You could go [[back to the crossroads.->cross4]]

You walk along the road, passing more flat, empty houses. There's a [[cafe->METRO4]] here somewhere, and further, [[farms->farm4]], though the road in that direction shimmers in the sun. You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross4]]

You follow the path through the nettles. The muscles in your legs begin to burn as they hoist your weight progressively [[upward.->HW4.2]]

Everyone moves languidly. The temperature is intolerable even in the darkness of the church. A visibly pained Arcadian greets you in the doorway. [[Good morning.->TC4.11]] [[Are you doing alright?->TC4.12]]

Then, abruptly, the shrubs part and the hill levels out ahead of you before dipping into a depression of indeterminate depth: a gloopy (link-reveal: "pond")[(replace: ?pond)[**mercury pond:** a liquid neither translucent nor really opaque: you look into it and see past the surface, only in the wrong direction.]] less like a mirror than tarnished metal, speckled with chunks of (link-reveal: "rock and dirt.")[(replace: ?rd)[**debris:** floats placidly in the mercury.]] In a chair a short distance from the lake sits a stooped (link-reveal: "figure.")[(replace: ?c)[Either deathly ill or a mutant, you assume, avoiding staring directly at her. A rivulet of (link-reveal: "dark green fluid")[(replace: ?f)[**fluid:** the result of an illness, wound, or overactive gland. ]] pulses from a (link-reveal: "stoma")[(replace: ?stoma)[**stoma:** it's impolite to stare. ]] in her side. She has short blonde hair swept back with a (link-reveal: "headband.")[(replace: ?headband)[**headband:** pretty and metallic. ]] A gray (link-reveal: "net")[(replace: ?net)[**net:** the handle extends to lengthen its reach. ]] with a long handle lies on the earth by the chair.(more:)[ She notices you and [[raises a hand->HW4.3]] in greeting.] ]] |c>[] { |pond>[] |rd>[] |f>[] |stoma>[] |headband>[] |net>[] }

"I know who you are," she says. [[Who I am?->HW4.4]]

"If you say so," they sigh, gesturing to your [[desk.]] "Go on and have a seat when you're ready."

"Some of us are not used to such heat." They look up at the window ruefully. "I am told it gets like this whenever the machines in Buzd are in use. They have it worse in the city…" They gesture to your [[desk.]] "It will be easier on the body once the mind is occupied."

Cetina intercepts you along the way. "Hi, Eca. We haven't been able to speak much these last few days. I hope you've been enjoying your time here." [[Yes, I think it's been going well.]] [[More of the same.]]

The cool, crumbly snack tastes as good as ever. You turn toward the [[terminal.->TC4.14]]

To even look at the screen during [[analysis->A4]] now feels perfunctory.

For the moment, you receive nothing. [[Speak to me clearly.]] [[Speak to me truthfully.]]

"That's right," she says, smiling crookedly. "I'm not supposed to tell you, though." [[I know who I am.->HW4.5]] [[Why can't you?->HW4.5]]

Her smile widens. "You're still trying to see with your eyes. Writing on paper instead of scratching your meaning into the surface of the signified. There is nothing to [[say.->HW4.6]]"

You stumble back down the hill to the [[crossroads->cross4]].

(if: (history:) contains "METRO2.1")[Above the entrance, a hand-painted sign reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script. It might be cooler [[inside.->METRO4.01]] You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross4]] { |cafe>[] |sign>[] }](else:)[Above the (link-reveal: "cafe's")[(replace: ?cafe)[''cafe:'' with its handsome stained wooden exterior and intact slate roof, the cafe is one of the nicer looking buildings in Heczeldorf.]] entrance, a hand-painted (link-reveal: "sign")[(replace: ?sign)[''sign:'' the lettering is pretty. Sort of art deco.]] reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script. You doubt anyone would mind if you [[entered->METRO4.01]], but you could also [[head back.->cross4]] { |cafe>[] |sign>[] }]

You continue west until the road terminates at a (link-reveal: "barn.")[(replace: ?barn)[''barn:'' paint peels sufferingly. The [[door->FARM4.01]] is sheet metal.]] It stands feebly upright among its half-collapsed neighbors. { |barn>[] }

You heave yourself into the chair and lean forward. There's a [[biscuit->TC4.13]] on a china plate to the side of the control board.

She smiles. "That's wonderful. I'm curious: the writer, or speaker; the voice of the analysis — has it something new to say each time? In other words, do you feel that you're getting everything you can from it?" [[I suppose not, it feels similar each time.]] [[I'm doing my best to explore each analysis.->I'm trying to...]]

She purses her lips. "Well, are you approaching it differently?" [[I suppose not, it feels similar each time.]] [[I'm trying to...]]

"That's often the case here. The samples you're working with are dimensional; they can reveal one facet or another depending on how they're approached. You have an opportunity here to impose your will on the analysis in a way that results in a more thorough experience, if that makes sense." [[Perfect sense, yes.]] [[I'm not sure I understand what you mean.]]

"That's good. The samples you're working with are dimensional; they can reveal one facet or another depending on how they're approached. You have an opportunity here to impose your will on the analysis in a way that results in a more thorough experience, if that makes sense." [[Perfect sense, yes.]] [[I'm not sure I understand what you mean.]]

"Good. And one more thing: you understand this dimensionality to be something more complex than the descriptive language in a poem. The creatures who created these artifacts, these records, often used language that sounds literal. But they had moved beyond a [[literal->TC4.211]] existence."

"You have to consider that the words they've chosen for you to hear are words you can understand. But they might not be entirely [[accurate.->TC4.112]]"

"For example, you might tell a child that a knife is dangerous, omitting that without it we could not cut rope, chop food into manageable portions, and so on. Our lives would be worsened, perhaps threatened, without knives — but this greater context is hard to grasp to a child, whose life is ruled by object-meaning." [[Yes, okay. The dimensionality of literal or figurative meaning.]] [[A dimension outside the spectrum between literal and figurative meaning?]]

"No, I'm talking about something else. You approach the analysis as yourself, with your lifetime of experience, in whatever mood you happen to be in. You expect certain things. But understand that the information you receive is filtered contextually in the same way. It's uniquely intended for [[//you//.->TC4.113]]"

"That's right. I say 'literal,' but I refer to something more complex than the descriptive language in a poem. The creatures who created these artifacts, these records, often used language that sounds literal. But they had moved beyond a [[literal]] existence."

"By which I mean their existence was no longer meaningfully physical." [[...->TC4.22]]

"In any case, when we talk about the literal or metaphorical nature of the analysis, we refer to something more complex than the descriptive language in a poem. The creatures who created these artifacts, these records, often used language that sounds merely descriptive. But they had moved beyond a [[literal]] existence."

"Alright. [[Go on->TC4.123]] now and do your best."

"The speaker has secrets it does not share with us. It is a sin to deal with these. The law and the message should not be confused." [[...->TC4.22]]

What would you hear? [[Answer a question.->A4.11]] [[Tell me what you've seen.->A4.22]]

What would you hear? [[Answer a question.->A4.33]] [[Tell me what you've seen.->A4.44]]

Ask a question. [[What is the physical composition of this sample?]] [[Am I understanding you correctly?]] [[How is the truth created?]]

When I went out the sun was a certain color. When I went out there into the sun to look at them I could see only their outlines. When I looked at their outlines I could only see the places where I could not see the sun. When I looked for the truth I could only see the places where the lie was missing. When I looked up at the sun I felt that I had become warm. When I looked down again I saw that it had become the end. When I looked at the end of myself I saw that it was like any other end. When the end had passed and I looked at what was left I saw that nothing remained of what we were. When the end had passed and I looked at what was left I saw that all that was left was [what we had made]<x|. [[...->what we had made.]]{ (set: $time1 to time + 4000) (live: 4000ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?x)[(either: 'what we had made', 'what was not worth destroying', 'shit', 'gunoi', 'baligă')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 4000, 8000)) ] ](click-replace: "gunoi")[waste](click-replace: "baligă")[dung]}

Ask. [[What is the physical composition of this sample?->A4.331]] [[Am I understanding you correctly?->A4.332]] [[Do you trust me with your truth?->A4.333]]

There was in the same place where I had stood an outline(click-replace: "an outline")[a silhouette(click-replace: "a silhouette")[a shroud(click-replace: "a shroud")[a simulacra(click-replace: "a simulacra")[[[a fake->A4.45]]]]]].

You are becoming a [more understanding]<und| listener. You are [becoming a closer confidant]<bec|. You are becoming a better keeper of [history]<hist|. You are becoming [more aware of the internal]<more|. You are becoming more like what we need and we are becoming more like what you need. What you need is becoming something we can provide and what you need is becoming what we are and have always been. You gradually become and continuously will become and we remain this way, exactly, and pray to be [[heard]].{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 4000, 4500, 6000, 7000, 8000)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 4000, 5000, 3500, 4500)) (set: $time3 to time + (either: 4000, 7500)) (set: $time4 to time + (either: 4000, 7500)) (live: 500ms)[  (if: time >= $time1)[  (replace: ?und)[(either: 'more attentive', 'more context-aware', 'more understanding',)]  (set: $time1 to time + (either: 6000, 7000, 8000)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?hist)[(either: 'history', 'closely guarded secrets', 'povestiri')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 6000, 7000, 8000)) ] (if: time >= $time3)[ (replace: ?more)[(either: 'less dependent on the external', 'more aware of the internal')] (set: $time3 to time + (either: 5500, 7000, 9000)) ] (if: time >= $time4)[ (replace: ?bec)[(either: 'becoming a closer confidant', 'becoming a more capable extrapolator', 'becoming a more comforting presence', 'becoming a more independent understander', 'becoming a more detail-oriented recorder')] (set: $time4 to time + (either: 6500, 8500)) ] ]}

Anything else? [[Yes. Since you claim to know me, tell me the truth in a way that makes sense to me.]]

It is true that they have given you the processor that I have made for you. It is true that the process is entirely internal and that all other details [are external]<ext|, removed, should not be considered within the same context. It is true that what you swallow can be nothing but itself. When one of these true things happen a truth is created. [[...->heard]]{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 5000, 3500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?ext)[(either: 'are external', 'are distractions', 'are shadows', 'are shades', 'are meaningless')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 3500, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500)) ] ]}

And the sun came down to sterilize with fire the words we'd left rotting on the [[pavement->A4.46]].

The sun mistaking the words for us while [[we->A4.47]] mistook the word for its meaning.

(link-reveal: "You")[(replace: ?you)[You: soulless. ]] and (link-reveal: "I")[(replace: ?i)[Me: [[moonless.->what we had made.]]]]. Adevăr și nuanţă(click-replace: "Adevăr și nuanţă")[Truth and shadow]. { |you>[] |i>[] } [[meat.]]

Physically, the sample contains [carbon]<c|. The sample contains silicon. The sample contains no water. The sample contains [ammonia]<amm|. The sample contains ethane. The sample contains boranes. The sample contains no plasma. The sample contains [lead oxide]<lead|. The sample contains something like wool. The sample contains something like a carborane. The sample contains carbon tetrachloride. The sample contains ethylene glycol. [[...->heard]]{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) (set: $time3 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?amm)[(either: 'methane', 'something like silicon', 'alumina oxide', 'ammonia')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?lead)[(either: 'something like lead oxide', 'something like water', 'hydrogen')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time3)[ (replace: ?c)[(either: 'something like ammonia', 'a strong base compound', 'arsenic')] (set: $time3 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] ]}

The truth about what? [[Describe the relationship between the two of us.]]

It's true that there are two. It's true that you have misunderstood what we mean when we talk of two and you have misunderstood the place, the action, the [[result->A4.2]].

Because in telling our truth another stupider truth must be told about the emptiness of the machine and the sourness of the mud in your stomach. Branching from this truth is not a truth but a question concerning the externality of the [[machine.->A4.3]]

Another truth is not told but still understood when the machine reveals itself to be external. Another truth is not told but still understood when the plate reveals itself to be a vehicle for the mud and the mud reveals itself to be a vehicle for the message. Another truth is not told but still felt when the bodies mulched will reveal themselves to be simultaneously living and dead, warm and cold. When the mud reveals itself to be both food and not-food and when what happens within the body reveals itself to be holy and what happens elsewhere reveals itself to be mundane and [[not-holy->A4.4]].

You will not be told but will ultimately understand the deception of all appearances, for the appearance is an externality. You will not be told but will understand when the internal reveals itself to be vastly more complex and less contained than the external, impossible to contain for long within an [[externality->A4.5]].

Anything else? [[Tell me something I'll understand. Tell me about the relationship between the two of us.->Describe the relationship between the two of us.]]

The sample is shit, but you [[know->A4.332]] this.

In understanding you are closer to the truth than anyone has been. In asking this you are paradoxically further from the truth. In mistaking the shadow for the object casting it you are back again, careening once more toward the [[truth->A4.335]].

In the darkness of broken sight we felt but did not see a truth which attacked regardless of target. Extinction.(click-replace: "Extinction.")[Extinction: the Romanian 'se stinge,' going out, extinguishing, must have the same Latin [[root.->A4.334]]]

Like the end of any other creature nothing remained of what we were all that was left was what we had [[made.->A4.3345]]

Throwing at the listener another useless word: zgurâ.(click-replace: "zgurâ")[slag] Extinguished rock.(more:)[(replace: "Extinguished rock.")[[[Translucent bluishness.->A4.336]]]]

The sun goes away and the rain comes. We are ever [[uglier.->A4.3]]

Then with none of us left to teach those who arrived to listen to our shadows, their truths were revealed not to the disciplined but the [[uncomprehended->A4.336]].

Then the externality comes apart like something wet. Then the truth reveals itself to be a nutrient or a poison. Then the message reveals itself to be something excreted from the speaker. Then the sun goes away and the rain comes and you and I freeze in it, the translucent bluishness of our skin. (if: (history:) contains 'A4.336')[The warmth between us was not [[enough.->A4.6]]](else:)[The rain falls and we are ever [[uglier.->A4.6]]]

You have lost the use of your $eye eye. [[continue->TC4.3]]

You come out of it and into the humid darkness of the transept. Arcadian putters about by the altar, rearranging cables. Cetina is gone. The door is [[open.->C4.2]]

(if: (history:) contains "cross4.2")[You tread back to the courtyard.](else:)[You stumble out into the courtyard.] It's evening, and the air has cooled. Furrows remain where the vehicles sat on the lawn. A shimmer up in the hills to the west. A light shines from the [[drum tower->DT4.1]]. You could [[climb the crumbling wall->cross4.2]] and go into the town if you liked.

The room stinks. The apostate lies on his mattress, breathing shakily. A candle on the (link-reveal:"table")[(replace: ?iv)[ There is an IV bag on a stand behind the table. You follow its tube to the ground, where it terminates in a gray puddle. ]] flickers. {|iv>[]} [[Are you alright?->DT4.11]]

You walk along the road, passing more flat, black facades. A small, wavering light burns outside the (if: (history:) contains "METRO4.4")[cafe.](else:)[[[cafe.->METRO4.2]]] (if: (history:) contains "farm4.22")[](else:)[It might be unsafe to continue in the darkness all the way to the [[farm.->farm4.2]]] You could head back to the [[crossroads.->C4.2]]

Sunlight falls into the sodium vapor arrays and cancels itself. The (link-reveal: "creatures")[(replace: ?c)[''creatures:'' sweating profusily, their biological programming unable to square their bodies with the temperature.]] grunt and whine, pressing themselves against the cold concrete floor. The [[exit->FF4.03]] is behind you. {|c>[]}

You shut the door behind you and walk back toward the [[center of town->HE4.01]].

You walk along the road, passing more flat, empty houses. There's a [[cafe->METRO4]] here somewhere, and further, farms, though the road in that direction shimmers in the sun. You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross4]]

You walk beneath the flickering light and push open the door. (if: (history:) contains "METRO2.2")[A candle burns on a table by the armchair. Next to it sits the poetry compilation. You could [[decipher->P-Eminescu]] some, if you wanted.](else:)[A candle burns on a table by an armchair. Next to it sits a (link-reveal: "stack of books.")[(replace: ?stack)[At the top of the stack is a compilation of Romanian and Hungarian poetry in a splintered brown binding. You could probably [[decipher->P-Eminescu]] some, if you wanted.]]] |stack>[]

(set: $optionArray to (a: (sm: "label", "zdrobit", "passage", "TC3.3"), (dm: "label", "strivit", "passage", "TC3.3")) (set: _link to (either: ...$optionArray)) (link-goto: _link's "label", _link's "passage")

After 5 seconds the word |target>[apples] will change to the word ''banana'', then 3 seconds later it will change back to ''apples'' again. (after: 2s)[ (replace: ?target)[banana] (after: 2.5s)[ (replace: ?target)[apples] ] ]

This [word]<target| will changed every 3 seconds. (live: 3s)[{ (replace: ?target)[(either: 'Aaa', 'Bbb', 'Ccc', 'Ddd', 'Eee')] }]

This [word]<target| will changed every 3 seconds. |rand_replace>[(after: time + (either: 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500, 1750, 2000, 2500, 3000))[{ (replace: ?target)[(either: 'Aaa', 'Bbb', 'Ccc', 'Ddd', 'Eee')(rerun:?rand_replace)] }]] [[link]]

click this passage to edit it.

"They have become irritated with me," he croaks. "I think they will not come here anymore." [[Are you unwell? I'll ask someone to come.]] [[Cetina? What have you done to upset her?]]

"You misunderstand." He lifts his (link-reveal: "forearms")[(replace: ?f)[The skin is [[paper thin.->Cetina? What have you done to upset her?]]]] out of the covers as if offering something. { |f>[] }

"What have I done? I have not collated the memories she brought to me. I have not kept eating and eating and eating what she has given me. I have not been her dutiful (link-reveal: "oblate")[(replace: ?ob)[**oblate:** someone devoted to religious work. From Latin *oblatus,* a shared root of the Spanish *oblato.*]]." [[If you've quit, why not go home?]] { |ob>[] }

(if: (history:) contains "P-Eminescu2")["Because I took this role, for a while. There's no going back. Yo consumí, y todo lo que consumí me consumió a su vez. I'm cold. A creature filled with ideas and nothing else. My shadow grows."]{ }(else:)["Because I took this role, for a while. There's no going back. Yo consumí, y todo lo que he sido fue derramado de mí. I am a creature filled with ideas and nothing else."] [[But the knowledge you have is valuable. It should be cherished.]]

You snuff out the [[candle.->DT5]]

Leave me alone now, Eca." [[Alright.->DT4.12]]

(if: (history:) contains "METRO2.1" or "METRO4")[(if: $eye is "left")[Above the entrance is the sign, hand-painted in a script difficult to discern without standing directly before it.](else:)[Above the entrance, a hand-painted sign reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script.] It might be cooler [[inside.->METRO4.3]] You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->HE4.2]]](else:)[(if: $eye is "left")[Above the entrance is the sign, hand-painted in a script difficult to discern without standing directly before it.](else:)[Above the (link-reveal: "cafe's")[(replace: ?cafe)[''cafe:'' with its handsome stained wooden exterior and intact slate roof, the cafe is one of the nicer looking buildings in Heczeldorf. ]] entrance, a hand-painted [(link-reveal: "sign")[(replace: ?sign)[''sign:'' the lettering is pretty. Sort of art deco.]]] reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script.] You doubt anyone would mind if you [[entered->METRO4.3]], but you could also [[head back.->HE4.2]]] { |cafe>[] |sign>[] }

The spine cracks as you pull it apart. It opens on a poem by Mihai Eminescu. [[Îmbracă-te în doliu...->P-Eminescu2]]

"The idea has no value in itself. It is a pre-object. The object reveals itself to man as idea, as shadow, but it does not yet exist." [[Yes, but //you// exist. Your mind and body are real, important things.->DT4.101]] [[If something is wrong, you fix it. You don't die and let it continue.->DT4.102]]

{(if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")["We are talking past one another. Duplices nominis sensus: two meanings of the same name. It matters, and it doesn't. This country's most beloved poet, Mihai Eminescu, fell ill in his 30s. He was injected with [[mercury chloride]] for his illness."] (else:)["We are talking past one another. Duplices nominis sensus: two meanings of the same name. It matters, and it doesn't. This country's most beloved poet, Mihai Eminescu, fell ill in his 30s. He was injected with [[mercury chloride->MC4.1]] for his illness."]}

He sighs. "I don't decide what is right or wrong for anyone else. I live and have authority here, inside myself." [[Then it doesn't matter what happens to anyone else? What happened to the people in Heczeldorf? In Mediasch?->DT4.103]]

"This is beyond my knowledge and control. If they haven't died, they are living still." He turns to face the wall. "Leave me alone now, Eca." [[You're a coward.->DT4.13]] [[Goodnight.->DT4.12]]

"I am a coward. And you will die bravely laughing at your own delusions." You snuff out the [[candle.->DT5]]

The sun rises, and [[light->DT5.1]] comes into the drum tower again. An irritating buzzing.

"This compound was manufactured at a factory in Buzd. A hundred years after Eminescu's injection, the same factory turned chlorine into glycols and carbon tetrachloride. Antifreeze, refridgerants. The same mercury, pulled from the same ground. The descendants of those antiseptic manufacturers who killed this country's greatest artist. The chemicals now freezing human bodies to prolong life indefinitely." [[Cryonics?]] [[The mercury killed him?->MC4.1]]

"He might have died without it, and he might have died because of it. He lived those last few months in a stone room, like a prisoner. His last wish was for a glass of [[milk]], and before he died, he is said to have whispered 'Mă simt năruit.'" {(click-replace: "Mă")[I] (click-replace: "simt")[feel] (click-replace: "năruit")[broken]}

"'I'm crumbled.' I tell you this because Eminescu mattered. His work resounded long after his life ended. But as his body failed he must have felt quite unimportant. Was he wrong to think this?" [[...->DTtrans]]

"And repurposed again, finally, a century later, when the hunger for death outgrew the desire for eternal life. An inexpensive gas that corrodes the softest parts of the body. So it can be one thing and another. A double life, an antithesis. Prime reality is sensual and accounts for duality in all things." [[The same thing was used to treat Eminescu?->MC4.1]]

Your bed creaks as you stand. The apostate's corpse lies in the other bed, beset by flies. You rub your useless eye and walk through the [[doorway.->C5]]

The sky is half-covered in cloud. The night was cool, and the temperature this morning is still tolerable. You could begin your work now in the [[transept->T5]], or go for a morning [[walk.->cross5]]

The transept is littered with aluminum cases. Only [[Arcadian->TC5.1]] is here; it's very early. Your [[terminal->TC5.12]] is unoccupied, of course.

You stand in the road outside the [[church compound.->C5]] Over the (if: (history:) contains "HW5.notime2")[western hills](else:)[[[western hills->HW5]]] lies Mediaș. To the east, a [[dusty path->HE5]] curves deeper into Heczeldorf.

The houses stutter out into a [[dirt path->HW5.1]] winding upward into the hills. You could go [[back to the crossroads.->cross5]]

More flat, empty houses. The peeling paint ripples with iridescent dew.(if: (history:) contains "METRO5.4")[ Past the cafe lie [[farmhouses->farm5]].](elseif: (history:) contains "METRO4" or "METRO3" or "METRO2")[ The [[cafe->METRO5]] is along here somewhere, and [[farmhouses->farm5]] further down the road.](else:)[ There's a [[cafe->METRO5]] here somewhere, and [[farmhouses->farm5]] further down the road.] You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross5]]

Dead hascaps, chokecherries, and korean pines cross one another beside the path. You crane your neck, blearily walking where there are the [[fewest obstacles.->HW5.12]] (if: (history:) contains "HW4.2" or "HW4.24")[It's not as difficult a journey as yesterday's.]

You come out(if: (history:) contains "HW4.2" or "HW4.24")[ once again] into a place where the slope levels. (if: (history:) contains "HW4.3" or "HW4.2")[Before you sits the still, strange pond. (link-reveal: "Diegetic")[(replace: ?dia)[**diegetic:** from the Dacian "diegis:" burning, shining.]] and profane. The îngrijitor stands silently beside her chair. (click-replace: "îngrijitor")[[[caretaker->HW5.13]]] |dia>[] ](else:)[Before you sits the still, strange (link-reveal: "pond")[(replace: ?pond)[**mercury pond:** a liquid neither translucent nor really opaque: you look into it and see past the surface, only in the wrong direction.]] less like a mirror than tarnished metal, speckled with chunks of (link-reveal: "rock and dirt.")[(replace: ?rd)[**debris:** floats placidly in the mercury.]] In a chair a short distance from the lake sits a stooped (link-reveal: "figure.")[(replace: ?c)[Either deathly ill or a mutant, you decide, avoiding staring directly at her. A rivulet of (link-reveal: "dark green fluid")[(replace: ?f)[**fluid:** the result of an illness, wound, or hyperactive gland. ]] pulses from a (link-reveal: "stoma")[(replace: ?stoma)[**stoma:** it's impolite to stare. ]] in her side. She has short blonde hair swept back with a (link-reveal: "headband.")[(replace: ?headband)[**headband:** pretty and metallic. ]] A gray (link-reveal: "net")[(replace: ?net)[**net:** the handle extends to lengthen its reach. ]] with a long handle lies on the earth by the chair.(more:)[ She notices you and [[raises a hand->HW5.13x]] in greeting.] ]]] |c>[] { |pond>[] |rd>[] |f>[] |stoma>[] |headband>[] |net>[] }

"Hello, Eca. It's nice to finally meet you." [[It's nice to meet you, too.]] [[How do you know my name?]]

"Welcome back, dear," she says, waving you over. "Today is a good, good day." [[It's nice to meet you, too.]]

"I haven't been sure it was you. Really you, I mean." [[You thought I was someone else?]] [[I don't understand.->HW5.14]] [[Go on.]]

"I'm not a hermit, silly. And there are not many things to discuss in such a small place. There is the weather, the digging, the laboratory, and you." [[I wish we'd been able to speak earlier.->Go on.]] [[I don't understand. What's being said about me?]]

"Well, I wasn't sure [you]<1| would be [you.]<2|" [[...->Go on.]] [[I don't know what you mean by that.->Go on.]]{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 2000, 3000, 4000)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1500, 2500, 3500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[  (replace: ?1)[(either: 'you', 'Eca', 'it',)] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 4000, 5000, 4500)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?2)[(either: 'you.', 'Eca.', 'yourself.')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 4000, 5000, 4500)) ] ]}

"I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to speak to you as an equal. At the lab where you work, there's a certain order of things. I am not a part of it, and I mustn't disrupt it. But you're more like me, now. Enough so that the danger of disrupting your work has passed." [[I just don't know why I'm here. Every day it's cloudier.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]] [[What do you mean, that I'm like you?]]

"We've needed someone like you for a long time. You have a rare ability, a rare mind." [[Who is 'we'?]] [[I can't form the right questions. It seems like everything is designed to confuse me.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]] [[What's your name?->HW5.15]]

You close the book and place it back on the stack. The day is getting away from you - besides, you're not likely to refine your translation much more. You should head back into [[town->HE4.1]].

You've returned from the Metropol. You haven't been by the [[farms->farm4]]; the road in that direction shimmers in the sun. You could also head back to the [[crossroads.->cross4]]

They glance up as you approach. "I didn't expect to see you here until later, Eca. Cetina left samples out for the [analysts]<a|; let me go and get yours." [[You know, my roommate has died.]] [[Something happened to my eye.]] [[Thank you.->TC5.12]]{ (set: $time1 to time + (3000)) (live: 500ms)[  (if: time >= $time1)[  (replace: ?a)[(either: 'analysts', 'translators', 'magicians', 'speakers', 'रक्तपानकर्तारः', 'शित्भक्षकाः')]  (set: $time1 to time + (either: 4000, 5500, 3500)) ] ]}

Arcadian shuffles through several unlatched cases before bringing over your plate. The [[biscuit->TC5.13]] is bluish in the early light. "[Enjoy]<e|," they say.{ (set: $time1 to time + (3000)) (live: 500ms)[  (if: time >= $time1)[  (replace: ?e)[(either: 'Eat', 'Enjoy', 'Go on')]  (set: $time1 to time + (either: 4000, 5500, 3500)) ] ]}

"Ah," Arcadian murmurs, frowning. "I'll have someone manage it. For now, cover the body with a sheet." They usher you to your [[terminal,->TC5.12]] gesturing for you to sit.

"Your eye? I'll let Cetina know. Don't worry, we'll have a medical professional look at it." They usher you to your [[terminal,->TC5.12]] gesturing for you to sit.

The rough texture crumbles between your teeth. Your $eye eyelid flutters. The veil [[falls.->A5]]

Long after everything had ended, there were still mechanisms without purpose, places without names, faces without features. The world was without conceit. All lingering ideas had been [[eaten]] from our heads.

Finally and blessedly all blood was lost and the wound of our existence emptied and putrefied. The traps we had fallen into, invisible, placed throughout our history and indistinguishable from the air around them, had sprung, and the atomic motion of everything slowed until there was an impermeable darkness. The same darkness where we had spent the final decades of our civilization mining precious [[metals.->A5.1]]

Yes, early in the evening our spirits dug deeply into forever. Never again to see the sun or stars. We had prepared our ships to avenge us. Tungsten pillars fell to earth, obliterating shadow. Nu se va mai zbate Sub tîmple Gîndul aprins, Jarul dorințelor Se va fi stins…{ (click-replace: "Nu se va mai")[It won't happen again](click-replace: "zbate")[struggle](click-replace: "It won't happen again struggle")[To struggle no longer] (click-replace: "Sub tîmple")[Beneath the temple] (click-replace: "Gîndul aprins,")[With thoughts burning inside,] (click-replace: "Jarul dorințelor")[The embers of desire] (click-replace: "Se va fi")[It will be] (click-replace: "stins…")[extinguished...] (click-replace: "It will be extinguished...")[Have [[gone out.->A5.2]]]}

That's good for you, isn't it? Alright, then. Și voi fi Rigidă și rece, Cînd viscolul morții A trecut prin va corpul nostru (click-replace: "Și voi fi")[Și noi am fost](click-replace: "Și noi am fost")[And we were] (click-replace: "Rigidă")[Stiff](click-replace: "și rece,")[and cold already] (click-replace: "Cînd viscolul")[When the blizzard](click-replace: "morţii")[of death](click-replace: "morții")[of death] (click-replace: "A trecut prin")[Went through](click-replace: "va corpul nostru")[[[our body->A5.3]]]

We had long settled into forever when //you// first bumped painfully against the walls of brute matter. You began to bleed without [[noticing.->A5.4]]

You bled and became weak. Then wrath rose in you like a bright fluid, drowning empathy. You continued to bleed, [[strengthening.->A5.5]]

We think your body will never die. We think your wound will never stop [[bleeding.->A5.6]]

"Oh, that's nice. No one ever asks. It's Urita. In this country, many names are [[amuletic."]]

"These names are given out of superstition. In your tongue, imagine a child named Ancient. A prayer for a long life." [[What does Urita mean?]] [[I have other questions.]]

"'Ugly.' So the spirits will overlook me." She smiles. "You look taken aback. But with such an unfortunate name, I have lived quite easily. Your name, Eca, is funny. It is in-between speech. Such a commonly said thing. I think you will have more trouble." [[Maybe you're right. Nothing seems to make sense.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]] [[I'm doing just fine. It's this work that's mixed up.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]]

(if: (history:) contains 'HW5.15')[Urita](else:)[She] sighs. "You can't be dry and wet at the same time. You can't be in the dark and also in the light. Ah, I'm not helping..." She taps a puckered dent at her temple. [[Do you have some affiliation with the lab?]] [[I don't have time for this. I have to go back now.->HW5.notime]]

"Go on." (if: (history:) contains "What do you mean, that I'm like you?")[](else:[[[What did you mean, that you weren't sure it was me?->What do you mean, that I'm like you?]] ][[It's hard to formulate anything specific. Things make less sense each day.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]] (if: (history:) contains "HW4.2arg3"[](else:)[[[Do you know where the artifacts come from?->Do you know where the artifacts come from?]]]

She twists her hand in a gesture you don't recognize. "Then [[make haste->HW5.notime2]] to where you're needed."

"Purpose-built. You are not so firmly of this material world." [[You're right, I'm not. Nothing in this place makes sense to me anymore.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]] [[I'm the same as I ever was. But day to day, life conspires to confuse me.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]]

Now you are finished with me and you see the end. Totul este (link-reveal: "năruită.")[(replace: ?n)[**năruită:** [[ruined->A5.7]] (feminine singular). etymology unknown.]] |n>[]{ (click-replace: "Totul este")[Everything is] }

[[Go]] and tell them what you've seen.{ (set: $limb to (either: "left leg", "right leg", "left arm", "right arm"))}

You have lost the use of your $limb. [[continue->TC5.2]]

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[You see wires and hear static crackling. When you turn out of your chair and try to stand, you trip and [[collapse->TC5.21]] to the floor.](else:)[You see wires and hear static crackling. Someone speaks behind you, and you turn to [[look.->TC5.21]]]{ (click-replace: "static crackling.")[static cracking - no, tinny applause.]}

"That you're working hard. The result of your work is pleasing. We appreciate your effort." [[That doesn't explain anything.->I'm sorry. It just seems like everything is designed to confuse me.]]

(if: (history:) contains "METRO2.1" or "METRO4" or "METRO4.2")[(if: $eye is "left")[Above the entrance is the sign, hand-painted in a script difficult to discern without standing directly before it.](else:)[Above the entrance, a hand-painted sign reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script.] It might be cooler [[inside.->METRO5.1]] You could also [[head back->HE5]]](else:)[(if: $eye is "left")[Above the entrance is the sign, hand-painted in a script difficult to discern without standing directly before it.](else:)[Above the (link-reveal: "cafe's")[(replace: ?cafe)[''cafe:'' with its handsome stained wooden exterior and intact slate roof, the cafe is one of the nicer looking buildings in Heczeldorf. ]] entrance, a hand-painted [(link-reveal: "sign")[(replace: ?sign)[''sign:'' the lettering is pretty. Sort of art deco.]]] reads "METROPOL" in yellow and red script.] You doubt anyone would mind if you [[entered->METRO5.1]], but you could also [[head back.->HE5]]] { |cafe>[] |sign>[] }

The [[barn->farm5.11]] at the end of the road. Its own wooden siding peels away, disgusted. You could [[turn around.->HE5]]

You push past the door into the interior. (if: (history:) contains "METRO2.2" or "METRO4")[A candle burns on a table by the armchair. Next to it sits the poetry compilation. You could [[decipher->METRO4.31]] some, if you wanted.](else:)[A candle burns on a table by an armchair. Next to it sits a (link-reveal: "stack of books.")[(replace: ?stack)[At the top of the stack is a compilation of Romanian and Hungarian poetry in a splintered brown binding. You could probably [[decipher->METRO4.31]] some, if you wanted.]]] |stack>[]

You stand in the road outside the [[church compound.->C4.2]] Over the (if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")[western hills](else:)[[[western hills->HW4.22]]] lies Mediaș. To the east, a (if: (history:) contains "METRO4.4")[dusty path](else:)[[[dusty path->HE4.2]]] curves deeper into Heczeldorf.

A spray of gravel by the last delapidated houses. The [[path->HW4.23]] winding upward into the hills. You could go [[back to the crossroads.->cross4.2]]

Le-am scris cu unghia pe tencuială Pe un părete de firidă goală, Pe întuneric, în singurătate, Cu - Here the paper has been roughly torn — what remains on the page is below.{ (click-replace: "Le-am scris")[I wrote them](click-replace: "cu unghia")[with my nail](click-replace: "pe tencuială")[on plaster](click-replace: "my nail")[my fingernail](click-replace: "on plaster")[in the plaster](click-replace: "in the plaster")[] (click-replace: "Pe un părete")[Of a wall](click-replace: "de firidă goală")[of empty space](click-replace: "Of a wall of empty space")[in the grout of a blank brick wall] (click-replace: "Pe întuneric,")[In the dark,](click-replace: "In the dark,")[In darkness,](click-replace: "în singurătate,")[in isolation,] (click-replace: "Cu -")[With -] (more:)[(replace: "below.")[[[below.->P-Arghezi2]]]]}

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[Someone, another analyst with rough hands, pulls you upright and leans you against your chair. You tip your head back - your terminal is gone, disassembled. At the center of the room, Cetina chats with a group of [[people->TC5.22]] with sweat-stained button-up shirts while the other analysts loiter.](else:)[It's another analyst, impatiently pushing past you to grab the end of your control board's cable - he is looping it around his arm. Behind him, at the center of the room, Cetina chats with a group of [[people->TC5.22]] wearing sweat-stained button-up shirts while the other analysts loiter.]

You try to tune into the conversation, but it's slippery. Frustrating. "The [one]<one| that took [it]<it| to the capitol [is a]<isa| good [friend]<friend|." "[Petulant acts]<pet| [of mass]<ofmass| [revolutionary suicide]<revsui|."{ (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time3 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time4 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time5 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time6 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time7 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?one)[(either: 'tonne', 'won', 'want', 'un', 'ont')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?it)[(either: 'kit', 'it', 'quit', 'itt')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 3000, 1500, 2000)) ] (if: time >= $time3)[ (replace: ?isa)[(either: 'with a', 'with the', 'is the', 'is sa', 'is a')] (set: $time3 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time4)[ (replace: ?friend)[(either: 'end', 'rend', 'frent', 'friend')] (set: $time4 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 3500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time5)[ (replace: ?pet)[(either: 'Petulant acts', 'Petulant axe', 'Evident acts', 'Eloquent axe', 'Petuant acks', 'Petuant axe', 'Petulant asks')] (set: $time5 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 3500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time6)[ (replace: ?ofmass)[(either: 'of mass', 'amass', 'omass', 'fmass', 'of max', 'from mass')] (set: $time6 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 3500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time7)[ (replace: ?revsui)[(either: 'evolutionary suicide', 'illusionary suicide', 'repo loosen any suicide', 'repo loosen any two inside', 'evolutionary too aside', 'evolutionary through aside', 'evolutionary too aside', 'revolutionary two aside')] (set: $time7 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 3500, 2500)) ] ]} The meaning won't [[stick.->TC5.23]]

What is happening? What has been happening? This place is bright with electric light. An aide carts past the disemboweled frame of your terminal. There are charts on the wall and pamphlets on a foldout table, but you can't read them. You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[crawl](else:)[shuffle] to the door and (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[drag yourself](else:)[push past it] [[outside.->C5.2]]

The night is startlingly beautiful - blue and empty. The grass bends towards the drum tower's [[black doorway->DT5.2]] - another group, scientists or soldiers, noisily convenes by the [[crumbled wall.->C5.4]]

In his bed in the corner of the room, the apostate gapes at the ceiling. Flies that ate from him now lie dead on the sheet. (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[You drag yourself to his bedside and lay your head on his chest.](else:)[You crouch by his bedside and lay your head on his chest.] He has no [[odor.->DT5.3]]

You push past the door into the interior. (if: (history:) contains "METRO2.2" or "METRO4" or "METRO4.2")[Next to an extinguished candle sits the poetry compilation. You could [[decipher->METRO5.2]] some, if you wanted.](else:)[There's an extinguished candle on a table by an armchair. Next to it sits a (link-reveal: "stack of books.")[(replace: ?stack)[At the top of the stack is a compilation of Romanian and Hungarian poetry in a splintered brown binding. You could probably [[decipher->METRO5.2]] some, if you wanted.]]] |stack>[]

You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[pull your body](else:)[walk] through the wet grass into the [rabble]<r| by the wall. The men [[part,->cross5.1]] groaning and muttering. {(set: $time1 to time + (either: 2000, 2500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?r)[(either: 'rabble', 'rubble')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 3000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] ]}

Possibly you have lost your sense of smell now, too. Laughter shakes your empty stomach. Is every man a void? Is every body an [[excrescence?->DT5.4]]

Before long your jaw is working and your mouth is full. The skin is rubbery; your teeth squeak. Cold, elastic, rich with fat and collagen. You pull against it until it thins and tears. (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[Writhing his ribs apart with wet hands.](else:)[Setting your jaw deeply into his muscle and forcing his ribs apart with your remaining hand.] Craftfully groping for purchase in the slippery logic of his gut: there is something like an analysis happening behind your eyes, which are blanker than [[his.->DT5.5]]

Through the embrasure you draw out dark things. Materia caldă și moale a universului. (click-replace: "Materia")[The material](click-replace: "caldă și moale")[warm and soft](click-replace: "a universului.")[of the universe.](click-replace: "The material warm and soft")[The [[warm, soft->DT5.6]] matter]

You place them into your mouth and chew. Not for him, not for yourself. For eternity. The torso nearly excavated, you cut yourself on something small and sharp. A scalpel blade, a gallstone, the hardened shit of the ancients. You remove it and (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[pull your dead leg across the corpse, straddling the apostate, a red hand against his cheek](else:)[straddle the apostate, testing the blade] - and open the man's head, a [[line->DT5.7]] down the center of his face.

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[You press your thumbs into the gap and press, hard, and split it apart with your hands. Inside the skull is full of brain - formed to the bone, an enormous head-shaped [[brain.->DT5.8]]](elseif: $limb is "left arm")[You press your thumb into the gap and press, hard, and pull the left side of the head off, the musculature peeling from the skull, which is full of brain - formed to the bone, an enormous head-shaped [[brain.->DT5.8]]](elseif: $limb is "right arm")[You press your thumb into the gap and press, hard, and pull the left side of the head off, the musculature peeling from the skull, which is full of brain - formed to the bone, an enormous head-shaped [[brain.->DT5.8]]]

There is nothing else to do. You (if: (history:) contains "DT2.2")[kiss him and ]pull the white sheet over his corpse. Then watch it [[darken.->C5.3]]

You fall out again into the clear, humid night. A group, scientists or soldiers, noisily convenes by the [[crumbled wall.->C5.4]]

You pick up the lump between two (link-reveal: "fingers")[(replace: ?fingers)[The small amount of your DNA adhering to the sample will be easily isolated and ignored by the terminal during analysis.]]. You will need to put it on the [[lattice]] for analysis. |fingers>[]

<center>for gruisi & opa (link-reveal: "content warning")[(replace: ?cw)[**content warning:** animated text/flickering violence unsanitary ]] (link-reveal: "author")[(replace: ?k)[**author:** kit riemer lives in new england. they can be contacted at slugzuki@gmail.com. you can see what else they've done at (link:"alt.red.")[(gotoURL: "http://alt.red")] ]] [[acknowledgments]]</center> {(click-replace: "violence")[graphic physical violence incl. gun violence, cannibalism, torture, war, and genocide] (click-replace: "unsanitary")[illness, vomiting, & interaction with/ingestion of dirt, feces, human & other flesh] (click-replace: "animated text/flickering")[some page transitions use a flickering effect. some short pieces of text change automatically and/or rapidly] |cw>[] |k>[] |ack>[] } {<center> this v. 9-1-2024 </center>} [[back->start]]

"News is slow. The insurgent fighting ceased months ago. If anything, you'll be bored by how little there is to do." [[Why was I chosen?->questions]] [[That's enough.]]

You trudge back down the hill and find yourself again at the [[crossroads.->cross5]]

- stihuri fără an, Stihuri de groapă, De sete de apă Şi de foame de scrum, Stihurile de - The rest of the page is disintegrated. You turn to the next.{ (click-replace: "- stihuri")[verses](click-replace: "fără an,")[no year](click-replace: "verses no year")[verses from time lost] (click-replace: "Stihuri de groapă,")[pit poems,](click-replace: "pit poems,")[writing from the pit] (click-replace: "De sete")[Of thirst](click-replace: "de apă")[of water](click-replace: "Of thirst")[thirsty](click-replace: "of water")[for water](click-replace: "for water")[and arid,] (click-replace: "Şi de foame")[of hunger](click-replace: "de scrum,")[and ash] (click-replace: "Stihurile de -")[the verses of -] (more:)[(replace: "turn")[[[turn->P-Arghezi3]]]]}

One small stanza remains. Era întuneric. Ploaia bătea departe, afară. Şi mă durea mâna ca o ghiară Neputincioasă să se strângă ...(event: when exits is 0)[(replace: "...")[[[...->P-Arghezi4]]]]{ (click-replace: "Era întuneric.")[It was dark.](click-replace: "Ploaia bătea")[Rain beat down](click-replace: "departe, afară.")[away, outside.](click-replace: "away, outside.")[past the bars](click-replace: "It was dark. Rain beat down")[Rain beat into the night](click-replace: "Rain beat into the night past the bars")[Past the bars rain beat into the night] (click-replace: "Şi mă durea mâna")[And it hurt my hand](click-replace: "ca o ghiară")[like a claw](click-replace: "And it hurt my hand")[My fingers throbbed as I tried to write](click-replace: "like a claw")[] (click-replace: "Neputincioasă")[Helpless](click-replace: "să se strângă")[to tighten](click-replace: "tighten")[close](click-replace: "Helpless to close")[A claw unable to relax or close]}

Şi m-am silit să scriu cu unghiile de la mâna stângă. (more:)[It will be hard to make this [[rhyme.->P-Arghezi5]]]{ (click-replace: "Şi")[And](click-replace: "m-am")[I](click-replace: "silit")[forced](click-replace: "să scriu")[to write](click-replace: "cu unghiile")[with the nails](click-replace: "nails")[fingernails](click-replace: "de la")[of the](click-replace: "mâna")[hand](click-replace: "stângă.")[left.](click-replace: "of the")[of my](click-replace: "hand left.")[left hand.](click-replace: "I")[I was]}

What about something like this: Past the bars rain beat into the night My fingers throbbed as I tried to write A claw unable to relax or close Şi m-am silit să scriu cu unghiile de la mâna stângă. (more:)[That's [[better.->METRO4.4]](if: (history:) contains "DT2.2")[ You're certain the apostate wouldn't have produced such a result.]]{ (click-replace: "Şi m-am silit")[](click-replace: "să scriu")[To compose] (click-replace: "cu unghiile")[with it](click-replace: " de la mâna stângă.")[.](click-replace: "To compose with it.")[Worse as it composed.](click-replace: "Worse")[Growing stiffer](click-replace: "as it")[each time it](click-replace: "each time it")[with each letter it]}

You drop the book on the stack. The candle flickers. You should head back into [[town->HE4.2]].

The book sighs as you pull it apart. [[Le-am scris...->P-Arghezi]]

The humidity is nauseating. For much of the trek uphill, you close your eyes, willing it to lighten, while feeling your [[way->HW4.24]] between the branches.

(if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")[Then you're there at the pond once again, picking nettles from your the legs of your trousers. The [[woman->HW4.25]] you spoke to the previous day is there, still in her chair.](else:)[Then, abruptly, the shrubs part and the hill levels out ahead of you before dipping into a depression of indeterminate depth: a gloopy (link-reveal: "pond")[(replace: ?pond)[**mercury pond:** a liquid neither translucent nor really opaque: you look into it and see past the surface, only in the wrong direction.]] less like a mirror than tarnished metal, speckled with chunks of (link-reveal: "rock and dirt.")[(replace: ?rd)[**debris:** floats placidly in the mercury.]] In a chair a short distance from the lake sits a stooped (link-reveal: "figure.")[(replace: ?c)[Either deathly ill or a mutant, you assume, avoiding staring directly at her. A rivulet of (link-reveal: "dark green fluid")[(replace: ?f)[**fluid:** the result of an illness, wound, or overactive gland.]] pulses from a (link-reveal: "stoma")[(replace: ?stoma)[**stoma:** it's impolite to stare.]] in her side. She has short blonde hair swept back with a (link-reveal: "headband.")[(replace: ?headband)[**headband:** pretty and metallic.]] A gray (link-reveal: "net")[(replace: ?net)[**net:** the handle extends to lengthen its reach.]] with a long handle lies on the earth by the chair.(more:)[ She notices you and [[raises a hand->HW4.25]] in greeting.] ]] |c>[]] { |pond>[] |rd>[] |f>[] |stoma>[] |headband>[] |net>[] }

What you can't understand and may never understand is that you are not here to understand. [[What am I here to do?->A4.7]]

You are here to construct an understanding, not for yourself but for others. You are here to create a record from which you yourself will be struck. You are here to erase us and yourself. [[I'm doing what I know.->A4.71]] [[I won't erase you.->A4.8]]

[[Forgive->TC4.1]] yourself.

There is nothing left to [[save.->TC4.1]]

Background color: (input-box:2bind $bgcolor,"==XXXXX==================","#fff8f7") Text color: (input-box:2bind $fontcolor,"==XXXXX==================","#61431d") hex or plaintext is okay. [[ok->acc2]]

great i did it! [[try again?->accessibility]] [[looks good->start]]

Approaching the chair, you can't help but match her smile. (if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")[The wound in her side has dried somewhat, but not closed.](else:)[She's pretty.] "Hello(if: (history:) contains "HW4.5")[ again](else:)[]," she says. (if: (history:) contains "METRO4.4" and "HW4.5")[[[I think I understand what you meant, now. About scratching out meaning.->HW4.2arghezi]]](elseif: (history:) contains "METRO4.4")[[[Hello. This place is so remote.->HW4.2arghezix]]](else:)[[[What is it that you do here?->HW4.2what is it that you do here?]]]

"Like with a fingernail," she murmurs. [[Is that what you do, all the way out here? This pond is difficult to reach.->HW4.2arghezix]]

"I live here. I hold no position. I suppose I'm a caretaker, although this is a place that neither needs nor benefits from care." [[I don't know how you'd care for a lake of molten metal.->HW4.2arghezix]] [[Is there anything you can tell me about my work at the lab?->What is the truth, then?]]

"It's wonderful, isn't it? This area is bountiful with deposits of precious metals. Nobody's sure why. My grandmother said the lake is a byproduct of (link-reveal: "black magic")[(replace: ?M)["Nearby lies the rumored location of the Șolomanță, where magicians learned the [[true language]] that lies between thought and object." ]]." |M>[]

"This is, of course, merely a legend. But as you are learning down in the village, the truth is no less strange." [[That seems to be the case.]] [[What is the truth, then?]]

She laughs. "So direct! All right then, I think such curiosity should be [[rewarded.->HW4.2arg]]"

"Is there anything I can help you with while you're here? Forgive me for saying so, but you look as if you could use a long rest and a meal." [[My analyses here feel different. I'd like to know why.->What is the truth, then?]] [[The war should be going on here. Why is it so quiet?]] [[No, I'm just killing time.]]

"All this, without any certainty, based on my observation: a satellite whose orbit has become irregular, whose light, if it ever had one, has long since gone out. Meteors concentrated locally. Then a sudden interest in the archaeology of the place. The sudden cessation of war in the region. Hardly any travel between nearby cities. We are in a zone of quiet and intense [[focus.->HW4.2arg3]]"

"Is there some connection between these developments and the strange presence of precious metal deposits, sudden impacts from space, and your artifacts for analysis? There must be. What could be more important than commerce, killing, and politics? I believe the origin of all these things, and the silence surrounding them, to be extraterrestrial." [[The artifacts are alien?]] [[This is ridiculous.]]

"They could be." She lays her arms across her knees, leaning toward you. "If they were, they would be isolated from the public and treated with enormous secrecy. Imagine you ran a laboratory built to study artifacts of such vast cultural and economic value. You might decide that all workers but those with the highest security clearance should have their objectives divided up and obscured from one another to prevent them from realizing the impact of their work." [[That's interesting.]] [[Surely there's another explanation.->This is ridiculous.]]

"Well, you asked me what I thought." She sighs and begins to fiddle with the net's handle. You try to think of something to say, but fail, and set off on the long trek [[back to the crossroads.->cross4.2]]

She nods. "Well, enjoy yourself then." [[You as well.]]

She looks out into the trees. "The fighting was never so concentrated in this region. Those who write the news exaggerate. But it is particularly quiet, here and now. The soldiers have left, and the residents, like myself, are in a peaceful sort of [[fugue.->HW4.2arg3]]"

She begins to sift the surface of the pond, and you set off on the long trek [[back to the crossroads.->cross4.2]]

She smiles playfully. "You must be a fine analyst. The best ones are good listeners. She begins to sift the surface of the pond, and you set off on the long trek [[back to the crossroads.->cross4.2]]

The road terminates at a [[barn->farm4.21]] in near-total darkness.

(if: (history:) contains "METRO4.02")[You see without the distraction of light: the concrete floor, a black patina of sweat beneath each groaning sphere. The room is humid and fragrant.](else:)[It's impossible to see anything.](if: (history:) contains "P-Arghezi4")[ A pit of bodies groaning for water.](else:)[The room stinks. ] These are not even really [[bodies.->farm4.22]]

You shut the door behind you. Back toward the [[streetlights.->HE4.2]]

The only light inside comes from the open doorway. It casts shadows from each flattening body. They seem to have huddled together. (if: (history:) contains "farm4.22")[The smell is stronger today, more appealing.](else:)[The smell is appealing.] But you can't spoil your appetite so early in the morning. [[...->farm5.12]]

You [[back out->HE5]] of the room, brushing a sleeve across your mouth.

She laughs. "Broadly, //us//, all of us. Living creatures. You help us understand ourselves. But you're here now, in Heczeldorf, and we're grateful to have you." [[Do you have some affiliation with the lab?]] [[I don't have time for this. I have to go back now.->HW5.notime]]

"No, not formally. But your work at the lab is important to everyone here. There is no better gift than understanding." (if: (history:) contains "HW4.2arg3")[[[I'm glad to be useful. Whatever these samples end up being.->I'm glad to be useful. Whatever these samples end up being.]]](else:)[[[Then help me understand. Do you know where the artifacts come from?->Do you know where the artifacts come from?]]]

"I don't// know// anything. But I see. A satellite whose orbit has become irregular, whose light, if it ever had one, has long since gone out. Meteors concentrated locally. Then a sudden interest in the archaeology of this place. The sudden cessation of war in the region. Hardly any travel between nearby cities. We are in a zone of quiet and intense [[focus.->HW5.16]]"

She nods. "Just keep going. It will make sense soon." (if: (history:) contains 'HW5.15')[[[Thanks, Urita.->HW5.notime2]]](else:)[[[Thanks.->HW5.notime2]]]

"Is there some connection between these developments and the strange presence of precious metal deposits, sudden impacts from space, and your artifacts for analysis? There must be. What could be more important than commerce, killing, and politics? It makes sense to me that the origin of all these things, and the silence surrounding them, is extraterrestrial." [[The artifacts are alien?->HW5.17]] [[This is ridiculous.->HW5.171]]

"They could be." She lays her arms across her knees, leaning toward you. "If they were, they would be isolated from the public and treated with enormous secrecy. Imagine you ran a laboratory built to study artifacts of such vast cultural and economic value. You might decide that all workers but those with the highest security clearance should have their objectives divided up and obscured from one another to prevent them from realizing the impact of their work." [[That's interesting.->HW5.172]] [[Surely there's another explanation.->HW5.171]]

"You should consider it critically. That's your vocation." She begins to sift the surface of the pond, leaving you [[alone.->HW5.notime2]]

She smiles playfully. "You must be a fine analyst. The best ones are good listeners." She takes her net and sifts the surface of the pond, leaving you [[alone.->HW5.notime2]]

Dew, soft wet earth. The smell of (link-reveal: "something.")[(replace: ?F)[Underneath the dirt, [[something.->soldier]]]] Peeling paint, lead shielding, black spots on the radiograph. They were wrong about this place - there is data everywhere. { |F>[] }

You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[fall face-forward and scrape at the earth with your two hands](else:)[kneel and scrape at the earth with your working hand.] The cold below the surface of the wet dirt surprises you, makes your fingernails [[ache.->soldier2]]

The smell is suddenly stronger, and you tear it from the ground and put it into your mouth - [[flesh,]] old and dry, carbonized by a muzzle flash -

Oh, a new distortion. You feel the last moments of this flesh: slow gasping, after a prayer, after a blaze of stars bursting from the hills and erupting across your shoulders and chest, a cigarette in your mouth, a [[night patrol.]]

Strange that the last series of commands running from your consciousness into the dirt were so formal and concrete: aim for the face. aim for the teeth, fingerprints, and eyes. The face afterward should be beyond identification. Its appearance should no longer be [[human.]]

Memories of laughter. Distantly, a house, perhaps where you had lived before coming here. And more presently: don't speak to them outside interrogation. Certainly not prior to execution. Avoid putting your fingers in or near a subject's mouth, for obvious reasons. Calmly explaining: the eyelid is a soft, thin envelope of skin containing a layer of weak muscle. Place your thumb and the knuckle of your index finger on either side of the closed eye, and pinch the eyelid. In a swift motion, pull back and upward - more force is required than you think. Now, the subject will be unable to look away from what you do [[next.]]

You cough it out onto the ground, but you've already begun to digest. Distant sounds of laughter, footsteps, [[real or remembered.]]

You could die here, on the ground, but you'd never eat again. The thought drags you into [[motion.->choice]]

<center>(link-fullscreen: "turn fullscreen on", "turn fullscreen off", "fullscreen unavailable")</center>

[[about]] restart{(click:"restart")[(restart:)]} <center>[versuri]<v| by kit riemer</center>

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[By the time you've dragged yourself back to the gatehouse, the sun has begun to rise. You sit in a patch of dead grass and pick at your skin shyly.](else:)[You shake off, wipe bile from the corner of your mouth. The sun has begun to rise, and the gatehouse isn't far. Walking toward it now, you pick shyly at the skin of your dead arm.] Have you done enough? Will they still [[want you?->TC6]]

Where will you go? To {|finished>[ (link: "the transept,")[ (dialog: bind $answer, "The transept?", "Yes", "No, wait-") (if: $answer is "Yes")[ (goto: "The Transept") ] (else:)[ (rerun: ?finished) ] ] ]} to finish your work for Cetina? To {|finished>[ (link: "Mediasch,")[ (dialog: bind $answer, "Mediasch?", "Yes", "No, wait-") (if: $answer is "Yes")[ (goto: "Mediasch") ] (else:)[ (rerun: ?finished) ] ] ]} to smell the mercury? {Or to |finished>[ (link: "the black sea,")[ (dialog: bind $answer, "The sea?", "Yes", "No, wait-") (if: $answer is "Yes")[ (goto: "The Sea") ] (else:)[ (rerun: ?finished) ] ] ]} to see your home again?

You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[crawl](else:)[walk] up into the hills, west, [[toward Mediasch.]]

How can I stay? There's so little of me [[left.]]

The yard's empty. Chatter from the stone archway, its [[open door.]] You move your tongue about your mouth, preparing to enunciate properly.

The accumulated past, the accumulated stale air floating. All the terminals are gone. The cables are rolled into coils and packed in canvas bags. (link-reveal: "Cetina")[(replace: ?C)[Cetina stops and watches you [[approach.->TC6.1]]]] is there with (link-reveal: "Arcadian")[(replace: ?A)[Arcadian glances down at you, then resumes their conversation. ]] and a few others, talking softly. { |A>[]|C>[] }

Your mouth opens. The group of scientists, expectant: [[I'm -->TC6.2]]

"Em, mmm," you say. "Gnng." (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[You gently place a hand on Cetina's black leather shoe. She recoils, expressionless, and looks to the others:](else:)[Cetina looks at the others, crossing her arms across her chest.] "...this quantum principle. Quantum principle." She repeats it, or is drowned out by her own echo. Quantum principle. You try to shrug, to signal that you're trying to understand, but the [[scattered cases->TC6.3]] by the sacristy draw your attention.

You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[hoist your body](else:)[walk unsteadily] toward an open case and (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[stop:](else:)[drop to your knees:] there is a puddle around it, pebbles and [[digested matter.->TC6.4]]

Turning your head back toward the group for reassurance. Only Cetina meets your gaze. You're being pitied, you think, and the thought angers and frightens you. No, see. I can still work. See, my eye is moving, observing. My (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[hands manipulate](else:)[hand manipulates] each sample with care. My [[jaw->TC6.5]] opens and closes.

You pull forth clumps, semisolids, things Arcadian hadn't yet crafted into more appetizing textures and flavors. You don't care; you're just glad to sit there among your people, on the floor with the blood and shit pooling in the wood's shallow imperfections. (if: (history:) contains "Do you know where the artifacts come from?" or "HW4.2arg3")[The caretaker, the woman on the hill. She was right.] This is the product of livestock, a [[market animal.]]

You suck down a coil of slick intestine. The room is [[quiet]] again. Your eyes roll back.

You fall through the floor of material existence, of time. The speed of your descent makes your skin ripple. You feel it even in your dead limb, see it play across your dead eye's [[retina.]]

This present lacks the past's duration. In the present, moments collide and push past one another in a frenzy, each trying to make it into the past before the others. There is no space for understanding, for an idea to survive: everything is concrete, grotesque, without [[identity.]]

That understanding could not exist in a body built for communication. That the idea can have itself expressed, or understood in its abundance, but not both. Not at once. The [[quantum principle.]]

I am [in the dark]<dark| and I am [in the light]<light|. A creature [[remembering itself.]]{(set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?dark)[(either: 'the dark', 'in the dark')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?light)[(either: 'light', 'the light', 'in the light')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 3000, 1500, 2000)) ] ]}

Every tongue at bottom nothing but language. Every language at bottom nothing but a tongue, [[moving.]]

You convulse and fall against a stack of silver cases. One falls and cracks open, spilling its alien death-waste, and you fall on it like a crow, feasting indiscriminantly. The room grows dim, the hole in your stomach growing blacker, deeper, filling but never [[full.]]

Numbing, repetitive legalese: living or dead bodies can be packed into aeroplanes and materially distributed at altitude with applied bursts of pressurized water to holding tanks, perforated uniformly to release sufficiently apportioned material. Each of these prior reports describe potential scenarios of property destruction & loss of land and/or [human life.]<hum| The bordering presence of the rock-fill dam and reservoir suggest a low possibility of incursion from the South, through Reichesdorf, but we have seen (and expect further) insurgent expansion to the north and east. Typical [sample]<sam| is chemically unidentifiable albeit clearly carbon based with identifiable keratinous hairs and pores. Grey and fairly uniform overall. Its surface is marked with nodules, grooves, and raised humps. Our engineers used the following descriptors: tacky, hard, firm, friable, gritty, rubbery, granular, rough, crusted. [[Keep eating.]] Do not under any circumstances allow a target to leave the protected zone.{(set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (set: $time2 to time + (either: 1000, 500, 1500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?hum)[(either: 'human displacement.', 'organic runoff.', 'organic dissolution.', 'human life.')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 1000, 2000, 1500, 2500)) ] (if: time >= $time2)[ (replace: ?sam)[(either: 'sample', 'corpse', 'extruded product')] (set: $time2 to time + (either: 3000, 1500, 2000)) ] ]}

I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. Arcadian kneels nearby and takes notes, watching closely. Cetina speaks into a phone receiver. You retch - your stomach is full of rapidly warming [[soup.]]

The fleshlike composition of the extruded product suggests the success of dissolution procedures used for human and animal flesh. Consequential risk factors in our reporting include unpredictable rejection of exogenous organic matter. Have something solid, now: no more blood, no grey matter, not until you eat something that soaks it up. The gritty texture of the meninges like corn silk. [[Orange pith.]]

The warm looks of the others. These ideas will be worth a lot. But the future [[confounds]] you.

In the past I was conceived, and lived happily. Now I am scraped from the past even as I try to crawl my way back into it. In that past, a house that made no sense. The residual calcium phosphate - crushed and disposed of according to protocol. In the house where I lived, there was always something to [[eat.]]

Now they gather around you like expectant parents while you meditate on the meat's sourness, chewing and gagging. You crack a half-frozen bulb of brain, hold it (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[in your two hands](elseif: $limb is "left arm")[in your right hand](else:)[in your left hand] and look up at them. Descending into alien [[secret.]]

You and all the others like you lower your jaws and suck the skulls of their thoughts. [[///->final]]

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[By the time you reach the pond, you feel near dead. It is no longer difficult to separate feeling from objectivity: your body, the vehicle, does not struggle to provide you a performance, which you watch as if from behind a veil. Your eye has not ceased to function - it is transmitting non-energy to your brain, a signal expressing absence. Your one leg changes the experience of walking in a way that is neither bad nor good.](else:)[At the edge of the pond, grasping a tree to steady yourself, it is no longer difficult to separate feeling from objectivity: your body, the vehicle, does not struggle to provide you a performance, which you watch as if from behind a veil. Your eye has not ceased to function - it is transmitting non-energy to your brain, a signal expressing absence. Dead fingers coil around nothing.] The caretaker is [[gone.]]

Beneath you the mercury boils and dew spray chills your skin. There's [[light]] to the west.

Pushing your way downward now, through trees. There //is// metadata here — impossible to find a place without it. Eating [[what you find]] half-buried beneath leaves and clumps of carbonized dirt:

3a. Alkaline hydrolysis: sodium hydroxide/potassium hydroxide (Lye). Heated to 300 degrees, 70 gallons of a water/lye solution can turn a 150lb mammal carcass into liquid with the consistency of mineral oil in about three hours. A five- to eight-hour boil improves viscosity, leaving behind mainly calcium phosphate - this comprises 70% of mammal bones & teeth, a not insignificant material residue. 3b. Acid dissolution: hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid. 150lb mammal carcass dissolves completely in strong acid within about two days. The process requires greater engineering and safety requirements as acid inhalation or spills onto skin can cause severe injury. Acid disposal found to be problematic. 3c. Cremation dries and vaporizes organic matter with heat. The cremating chamber is preheated to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit and exposed to a column of flame once the material is inserted. A 150lb mammal carcass takes 2-3 hrs to burn completely, with 3-9 lbs of calcified bone remaining. After test 3c, residue was analyzed (found to contain no DNA) and was [[crushed]] and disposed of as described in 1c.

Without even dried-out stumps to shield you, the heat in the town saps moisture from your tongue, nose, and eyes. It stings: you rub your face, irritated, resting on a mound of charred drywall, leather, and [[paper.]]

Absentmindedly, you pull crumbling pieces from beneath the bone-dry surface, placing them in your mouth, tricking your swollen salivary glands into pumping out something you can swallow. A burnt section of poem or poet slides down your [[throat.]]

Era pustiu Și frig, Și umed. (click-replace: "Era pustiu")[It was deserted](click-replace: "Și frig,")[and cold](click-replace: "Și umed.")[and [[wet.->agatha2]]]

Mureau noroade-n depărtări, Iar noi uitam prin sărutări Că-n jurul nostru Totu-i putred.{ (click-replace: "Mureau noroade-n")[People were dying] (click-replace: "depărtări,")[far away,] (click-replace: "Iar noi uitam")[And we forget] (click-replace: "prin sărutări")[through kisses] (click-replace: "Că-n jurul nostru")[that around us] (click-replace: "And we forget through kisses")[And we forgot between kisses] (click-replace: "that around us")[that everything had rotted] (click-replace: "Totu-i putred.")[everything is rotten] (click-replace: "everything is rotten")[around us.] (more:)[(replace: "rotted")[[[rotted->agatha3]]]]}

Că-n frunzele de pe cărări Se coborau cu seara-aceea Doliul și moartea Peste toate, Și tremurau ciudate șoapte Ce sufletul Ne-nfiorau.{ (click-replace: "Că-n frunzele")[Like the leaves] (click-replace: "de pe cărări")[on the paths] (click-replace: "Se coborau")[they were coming down] (click-replace: "cu seara-aceea")[on that everning] (click-replace: "they were coming down")[fallen there] (click-replace: "on that evening")[that evening] (click-replace: "Doliul")[mourning] (click-replace: "și moartea")[and death] (click-replace: "Peste toate,")[over all] (click-replace: "over all")[permeated everything] (click-replace: "Și tremurau")[and they were trembling] (click-replace: "ciudate șoapte")[strange whispers] (click-replace: "they were trembling strange whispers")[strange whispers trembled] (click-replace: "Ce sufletul")[what a soul] (click-replace: "what a soul")[how these souls] (click-replace: "Ne-nfiorau.")[they scared us.] (click-replace: "they scared us.")[made us shudder.] (more:)[(replace: "shudder.")[[[shudder.->agatha4]]]]}

Ce trist cădea Cumplita noapte Cu foc și sânge-n depărtări.{ (click-replace: "Ce trist cădea")[How sad it is] (click-replace: "How sad it is")[How sadly] (click-replace: "Cumplita noapte")[complete night] (click-replace: "complete night")[night fell.] (click-replace: "Cu foc")[with fire] (click-replace: "și sânge-n")[and blood] (click-replace: "depărtări.")[in the distance.] (click-replace: "How sadly")[How sadly night fell] (click-replace: "night fell.")[completely, horribly,] (click-replace: "fire and blood in the distance.")[distant fire and blood.] (more:)[(replace: "fire and blood.")[[[fire and blood.->agatha5]]]]}

You can't stop yourself now, though none of this matters. You couldn't ever stop yourself. Someone laughs within earshot. You force another [[handful->agatha6]] down your throat.

Prin dureroase sărutări Uitam că suntem Două umbre, Pe-nsângeratele cărări.{ (click-replace: "Prin")[Through] (click-replace: "dureroase sărutări")[painful kisses] (click-replace: "painful kisses")[our pained laughs] (click-replace: "Uitam")[I forgot] (click-replace: "I forgot")[we forget] (click-replace: "că suntem")[that we are] (click-replace: "Două umbre,")[two shadows] (click-replace: "Pe-nsângeratele cărări.")[on the bloody paths.] (click-replace: "bloody")[bloodsoaked] (more:)[(replace: "bloodsoaked paths.")[[[bloodsoaked paths.->buzd]]]]}

Past the stain-colored buildings, the smokestacks, into the forest again, (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[hands bloodied, screaming.](else:)[pitched forward, fanatic, legs screaming.] Picking things out of the dirt and eating, drinking, [[becoming.]]

Time no longer exists. Liquid comes out of your eye, your mouth, the cuts on your arms and legs, rapidly cooling, turning to crust. Your limbs thin and your stomach expands, a sick weight tumbling inside. But [[never full.]]

There should be a town here, you think vaguely, coming out into a space like a meteor crater: dirt, rock, piles of blackened tree branches and rubble. There should be an old chlorine refinery, repurposed to produce cryogenic antifreeze and refrigerant. Warehouses filled with frozen bodies in tanks. Nothing is left, and you cannot see the end of it: the earth dips down into a horizon filled with churned ground, iron scaffolds, and (link-reveal: "windmills.")[(replace: ?X)[No — excavators. You've mistaken rock-cutting blades for turbines. Each sits on a treaded mechanical base ten times the size of the Heczeldorf lab. A circular saw at the end of a long arm, counterweighted by another [[metal city->city of metal.]] at the other end.]] { |X>[] }

Your vision vibrates, but the machines seem not to make any sound — perhaps you've lost your hearing, too. Chutes spew discharged material into pits. The pit nearby is half a kilometer across. (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[You try to crawl to it, crawl into it, but you have no more energy. Your blood slows. Why now, when you've eaten so [[well?]]](else:)[You stumble to it, crawl into it, tuck yourself beneath the curious coldness of the industrial [[[rot.->rot]]]]

So I must now eat myself. Fine, it's just data. Why bother reconstituting such thoughts from empty, frozen minds? I am frozen too. No different from data. I am a living thing inside of [[something dead.->something dead,]]

Why bother reconstituting such thoughts from empty, frozen minds? I am frozen too. I am a living thing inside of [[something dead,]] like the terminal, like the data.

Silence grinds emptily, the death waste piles. I am a mind in a box, [[ruined.]]

You (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[push your torso upright again](else:)[stand again, woozily,] and watch the double image dance across your two eyes: empty, dead town, distant creaking trees, and the silent single-file creatures looping between them, the stink of creosote, sulphur, and your own breath, the cold metal trigger pulling against your finger, the bodies dancing, strobed by gunfire, bursting into [[fresh sap.->cross5.2]]

You find the trucks parked along the wall by the gatehouse. (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[Pull your torso up, through the window and into the grey leather seat.](else:)[Clamber in through the window, adjust the grey leather seat.] There's a ridge of plastic with embedded metal sensors, a biometric starter — you vomit out a portion of the soldier's flesh, and the engine [[revs.]]

Lined with burnt-out vehicles, charred wood and metal. Zgurâ, slag; piles of filthy, patterned fabric that only upon close examination reveal themselves to be clothed corpses. That evening you pull to the side of the road and glimpse a sliver of red moon behind a cloud of smog. The glow of the furnaces in Buzd casts a strange, [[thin shadow]] over everything.

As you approach the coast, the sky clears, but the soft-edged shadows remain. When one of these towering cells blocks the road, you get out and [[bite into it,]] chewing and swallowing, letting its liquid [[gush->fly again.]] onto the earth.

Propagating in the sea, in the mutant runoff, and growing until submarine depth charges unroot them, spit them into the air, shimmering balloons with mysterious and profound chemical payloads. Drinking humidity and expanding, cell walls mimicking the DNA structures of all the creatures riddled with holes and left to spill out into the water. Eight hundred meters tall and lighter than air, until their fermentation results in more liquid than gas and they coast to earth, anchor, drink more runoff, sweat until they can [[fly again.]]

Mutant viruses, bacteria, rogue algael cells, adapting to new conditions: bone-colored clouds that drip into groundwater, pour themselves into throats, and evaporate again from the open skulls of the dead. [[Permanent war.]]

Your mycelial office building has been firebombed; its facade slumps and sloughs from the iron frame. The field, the coastline, deserted. There's a wrecked [[boat]] under the pier; you patch its holes with blowtorched slime from the lab.

(if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[Rowing out into the surf.](else:)[Paddling out into the surf, oar braced against the edge of the boat.] There's your home, finally in (if: $eye is "left")[sight but too far to make out in any detail. You smell burning [[meat.]]](else:)[sight, plumes of smoke that smell like smoke should: plastic, hair, [[meat.]]]

The offices and apartments have toppled; the city is a disk of metal and oil, a cluster of boats tied and welded to one another. Its residents gather against the smoldering expanse - speechless, (if: (history:) contains "A4.47")[faceless, moonless.](else:)[faceless.] Though you recognize no one, they seem to know you. They seem to've been [[waiting]] for you.

A blur, a hallucination, an hour or a year. They bring you books, clothes, rings and necklaces, scraps of diary and poetry, a slurry of sewage and chemical runoff, lumps of flesh in all stages of decomposition. You eat it all, absorb it all, and try to tell the [[truth.]]

Bucăți de carne, Sânge, Glod, Pământul, Groapă-adânc Deschisă.{ (click-replace: "Bucăți de carne,")[Pieces of meat,] (click-replace: "Pieces of meat,")[Hunks of meat,] (click-replace: "Sânge,")[blood,] (click-replace: "Glod,")[mud,] (click-replace: "Pământul,")[pavement,] (click-replace: "Groapă-adânc")[deep pit] (click-replace: "pit")[tomb] (click-replace: "Deschisă.")[open.] (more:)[(replace: "open.")[[[open.->open]]]]}

No longer forced to speak. Just to [[listen.]]

Ruini și moarte Și exod, Iar calea Izbăvirii Închisă.{ (click-replace: "Ruini")[Ruin] (click-replace: "și moarte")[and death] (click-replace: "Și exod,")[and exodus] (click-replace: "and exodus")[exodus] (click-replace: "Iar calea")[and the way] (click-replace: "the way")[the path to] (click-replace: "Izbăvirii")[salvation] (click-replace: "salvation")[deliverance] (click-replace: "Închisă.")[closed.] (more:)[(replace: "closed.")[[[closed.->closed]]]]}

Dawn, the boats push off. You sit in a cabin by a sink for cleaning fish. The clicking, groaning chatter of the mutant refugees. That you have lived this long is an absurd oversight. You correct yourself: this isn't really [[life.]]

Coboară negura, De corbi Să ingereze Cărnuri Rupte Privesc Sinistrii-n Ochii orbi Și sar Pe maxilare supte În stol, Cu fâlfâiri Grăbite, Se perindează Rânduri, Rânduri -{ (click-replace: "Coboară")[Go down] (click-replace: "negura,")[fog] (click-replace: "Go down fog")[The fog descends] (click-replace: "The fog descends")[Descending fog] (click-replace: "De corbi")[of crows] (click-replace: "Să ingereze")[to ingest] (click-replace: "Cărnuri")[the meat] (click-replace: "Rupte")[broken] (click-replace: "Privesc")[I'm watching] (click-replace: "I'm watching")[I watch] (click-replace: "I watch")[I watch with] (click-replace: "Sinistrii-n")[sinister ] (click-replace: "Ochii orbi")[blind eyes] (click-replace: "Și sar")[and I jump] (click-replace: "and I jump")[they jump] (click-replace: "Pe maxilare supte")[with sucking jaws] (click-replace: "with sucking jaws")[jaws clicking] (click-replace: "În stol,")[in the flock] (click-replace: "in the flock")[the swarm] (click-replace: "Cu fâlfâiri")[fluttering] (click-replace: "Grăbite,")[hurry] (click-replace: "hurry")[hurried] (click-replace: "Se perindează")[it is lost] (click-replace: "it is lost")[wandering] (click-replace: "Rânduri,")[rows,] (click-replace: "Rânduri -")[rows, -] (more:)[(replace: "rows, -")[[[rows, -->rows]]]]}

Night, the gravel beneath your tires. You will not be anyone's [extinction]<ext| tool. The sky over Buzd shimmers with vaporized bone. Chemical condensation strips the truck's paint in irregular dripping lines. The hill road is thick with smoke, humid, and you tighten your [[grip.]] {(set: $time1 to time + (either: 3000, 3500)) (live: 500ms)[ (if: time >= $time1)[ (replace: ?ext)[(either: 'extinction', 'extinguishing')] (set: $time1 to time + (either: 5000, 4500)) ] ]}

Into Heczeldorf. They've brought more soldiers — it doesn't matter, they are only alive. And you have been blessed. Fire in the windows of the farmhouses. Gunfire breaking the night's oppressive silence. Opening your mouth. Over the wall. Into the [[church.]]

Screaming, wordlessly, finally. (if: $limb is "left leg" or "right leg")[Hobbling on a pockmarked slab of driftwood strapped to your rotting leg, squeezing the rifle with numb hands.](else:)[Your rotting half-arm tucked into a brace of wood and copper wire, a prosthetic claw designed solely to operate your rifle's trigger.] The clip's ping, spiraling, reflecting. You slap another into place and pull, again, riding the recoil, watching the white and orange fabric of their uniforms ripple and [[bloom]] where your bullets touch.

Layered like pastry. The wood of the room in a [[trance.]]

Rows upon rows of crushed corpses. The crows [[descend.->horribly.]]

Apoi, Din țestele Zdrobite Sug și Cadavrele De gânduri.{ (click-replace: "Apoi,")[Then,] (click-replace: "Din țestele")[weave together] (click-replace: "Zdrobite")[crushed] (click-replace: "Sug și")[suck too] (click-replace: "crushed")[to lower their jaws] (click-replace: "suck too")[and suck] (click-replace: "Cadavrele")[skulls] (click-replace: "De gânduri.")[of their thoughts.] (more:)[(replace: "thoughts.")[[[thoughts.->final]]]]}

The book sighs as you pull it apart. [[Dormeau adânc...->P-plumb]]

Dormeau adânc sicriele de plumb, Și flori de plumb și funerar veștmânt - Stam singur în cavou… și era vânt… Și scârțâiau coroanele de plumb.{ (click-replace: "Dormeau adânc")[They were fast asleep] (click-replace: "sicriele de plumb,")[coffins of lead,] (click-replace: "They were fast asleep coffins of lead,")[The lead coffins are fast asleep,] (click-replace: "Și flori de plumb")[And flowers of lead] (click-replace: "flowers of lead")[leaden flowers] (click-replace: "și funerar veștmânt")[and funeral garb] (click-replace: "garb")[robes] (click-replace: "Stam singur")[we are alone] (click-replace: "în cavou…")[in the cave] (click-replace: "și era vânt…")[and it was windy] (click-replace: "and it was windy")[a cold wind blows] (click-replace: "we are alone in the cave")[confined in our cave] (click-replace: "Și scârțâiau")[and they squeaked] (click-replace: "coroanele de plumb.")[lead crowns.] (click-replace: "crowns.")[wreaths.] (click-replace: "and they squeaked lead wreaths.")[makes the lead wreaths creak.] (event: when exits is 0)[(replace: "creak.")[[[creak.->P-plumb2]]]]}

Dormea întors amorul meu de plumb Pe flori de plumb, și-am început să-l strig - Stam singur lângă mort… și era frig… Și-i atârnau aripile de plumb.{ (click-replace: "Dormea întors")[They were sleeping] (click-replace: "amorul meu de plumb")[my love of lead] (click-replace: "Pe flori de plumb,")[on lead flowers,] (click-replace: "și-am început să-l strig")[and I started to call them] (click-replace: "Stam singur")[we are alone] (click-replace: "lângă mort…")[next to the dead,] (click-replace: "și era frig…")[and it was cold] (click-replace: "Și-i atârnau")[they hung them,] (click-replace: "aripile de plumb.")[wings of lead.] (more:)[(replace: "lead.")[[[lead.->METRO5.3]]]]}

This is like something the apostate would write. Dormea intors, to turn the dead toward sunset... You try again on the [[final stanza.->P-plumb3]]

They were sleeping my love of lead on lead flowers, and I started to call them - we are alone next to the dead, and it was cold they hung them, wings of lead.{ (click-replace: "They were sleeping")[Fast asleep] (click-replace: "Fast asleep my love of lead")[Toward the west her leaden head] (click-replace: "on lead flowers,")[rests upon lead flowers,] (click-replace: "and I started to call them")[I speak] (click-replace: "we are alone next to the dead,")[alone with the dead] (click-replace: "and it was cold")[it starts to freeze] (click-replace: "they hung them,")[where they hang their] (more:)[(replace: "lead.")[[[lead.->METRO5.4]]]]}

Your lip twitches. It's done. You should [[go->HE5]] before the day gets away from you.

(set: $word to "Copacii.")(set: $desc to "**Copacii**: the trees.")(cycling-link: bind $word, "Copacii.", "Buruieni.") |desc>[$desc] { (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $desc to (cond: $word is "Copacii.", "**Copacii**: the trees.", $word is "Buruieni.", "**Buruieni**: weeds. Contextually, implies a greater sort of devastation: \"hardly anything, even weeds.\"", )) (rerun: ?desc) ]}

(set: $third to "Sfârşit.") (set: $thirddesc to "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death..") (cycling-link: bind $third, "Sfârşit.", "Moarte.") |desc3>[$thirddesc] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $thirddesc to (cond: $third is "Sfârşit.", "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death.", $third is "Moarte.", "Moarte: death. Can mean \"end..\"", )) (rerun: ?desc3) ]

(set: $first to "Durere.")(set: $firstdesc to "Durere: suffering, pain.")(set: $second to "Noroi.")(set: $seconddesc to "Noroi: mud.")(set: $third to "Sfârşit.")(set: $thirddesc to "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death..") (cycling-link: bind $first, "Durere.", "Nenorocire.", "Decădere.") (cycling-link: bind $second, "Noroi.", "Fecale.", "Căcat.") (cycling-link: bind $third, "Sfârşit.", "Moarte.") |desc>[$firstdesc] |desc2>[$seconddesc] |desc3>[$thirddesc] {(live: 0.1s)[ (set: $firstdesc to (cond: $first is "Durere.", "Durere: suffering, pain.", $first is "Nenorocire.", "Nenorocire: misfortune from a particular source or event. Calamity.", $first is "Decădere.", "Decădere: decay, regression. Fig., moral decay." )) (rerun: ?desc) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $seconddesc to (cond: $second is "Noroi.", "Noroi: mud.", $second is "Fecale.", "Fecale: feces.", $second is "Căcat.", "Căcat: shit." )) (rerun: ?desc2) ] (live: 0.1s)[ (set: $thirddesc to (cond: $third is "Sfârşit.", "Sfârşit: an ending. Fig., \“the end.\” Can refer to death.", $third is "Moarte.", "Moarte: death. Can mean \"end..\"", )) (rerun: ?desc3) ] }

<center>**acknowledgments**</center> The Romanian poems at the heart of this game were recommended to me by Daria Solomon, who provided essential knowledge regarding translation & grammar, metaphor, and Romanian history & culture. Daria, I owe you a massive debt and will never be able to adequately thank you for your help. Thanks also to Mia and Nana, who introduced me to Daria. This game would not exist without the early collaboration, support, and advice of Autumn Chen - Autumn, it's an honor working in the same little scene as you. Your games are stunning. I hope you like this one. The seeds of the game were planted during conversation and collaboration with the brilliant Bryanna Bradley. Bryanna, you call me to be a better artist and human being. May your gut biome forever stun dieticians with its harmony. Cover art was conceived and painted by Danielle Chenette. She based her design on the archway of the fortified church in Heczeldorf (called Ațel in Romanian). Thanks to the playtesters: Nick Tardive, Jon Hoel, Christie Evelyn, Ailbhe Morrow, and Manonamora. Cultural/historical assistance was generously provided by Daria Solomon, Diana Albu, and Adam Murphy. Romanian, Hungarian, & Spanish language assistance was generously provided by Daria Solomon, Karoly Fodor, Ana Isa, and Michelle Leano. Thanks to Trista Hayes, Hituro, Greyelf, Alyshkalia, Apologetic, Max Fog, Josh Grams, Arlo, Joey Acrimonious, Mike Russo, Jinx (LapinLunaireGames), Aphrodite, ifallinlovetooeasilymp3.tumblr.com (Bianca), Manonamora, Mia Park, Margot Savage, and Aurora Lecmane for coding, writing, and game design assistance. Thanks to the Neointeractives and the folks at Intfiction.org. I'm endlessly proud and grateful to be a part of the community you've created. Thank you, Syn, the love of my life, for making everything worthwhile. Thank you to my parents and brother for their support and love. This game features my translations of poems by Agatha Grigorescu Bacovia, Mircea Ivănescu, Lucian Blaga, Arany János, George Bacovia, Tudor Arghezi, and Mihai Eminescu. All (actual & perceived) mistakes are my own. Books I reference in the game include: **Early Transylvanian Antitrinitarianism (1566-1571)** by Mihály Balázs **Hungarian and Transylvanian Folktales** by Emőke de Papp Severo **A Sealed Envelope** by Diana Albu **How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures** by Sabrina Imbler **Cu tine noapte** and **Versuri** by Agatha Grigorescu Bacovia **The Fall into Time** and **The Trouble with Being Born** by Emil Cioran **Adventures in Immediate Unreality** by Max Blecher **Four Plays** by Eugene Ionescu [[back->about]]

Îmbracă-te în doliu, frumoasă Bucovină, Cu cipru verde-ncinge antică fruntea ta; C-acuma din pleiada-ţi auroasă şi senină Se stinse un luceafăr, se stinse o lumină, Se stinse-o dalbă stea! Metalica, vibrânda a clopotelor jale Vuieşte în cadenţă şi sună întristat; Căci, ah! geniul mare al deşteptării tale Păşi, se duse-acuma pe-a nemuririi cale Şi-n urmă-i ne-a lăsat!. (more:)[There's [[more...->P-Eminescu3]]] {(click-replace: "Îmbracă-te în doliu")[Dress in mourning](click-replace: "frumoasă Bucovină")[lovely Bucovină] (click-replace: "Cu cipru")[With cyprus](click-replace: "verde-ncinge")[snow-green](click-replace: "antică fruntea ta")[ancient thy brow](click-replace: "With cyprus snow-green")[With snow-green cyprus](click-replace: "With snow-green cyprus ancient thy brow")[With ancient snow-green cyprus on thy brow] (click-replace: "C-acuma din")[Now from](click-replace: "pleiada-ţi")[your pleiad,](click-replace: "auroasă şi senină")[golden and serene,] (click-replace: "Se stinse un luceafăr")[A lamp went out](click-replace: "se stinse o lumină")[a light went out](click-replace: "Se stinse-o dalbă stea!")[A star went out!](click-replace: "A lamp went out, a light went out")[A lamp extinguished leaving black patina] (click-replace: "Metalica")[Metallic](click-replace: "vibrânda")[vibrating](click-replace: "a clopotelor jale")[of mournful bells](click-replace: "Metallic, vibrating of mournful bells")[The metallic toll as bells, mourning] (click-replace: "Vuieşte")[Rages](click-replace: "în cadenţă")[in cadence](click-replace: "şi sună întristat")[and sounds sad](click-replace: "Rages in cadence and sounds sad")[Howl in solemn cadence] (click-replace: "Căci, ah!")[For, ah!](click-replace: "geniul mare")[The great genius](click-replace: "al deşteptării tale")[of your awakening](click-replace: "awakening")[learning] (click-replace: "Păşi,")[Steps](click-replace: "se duse-acuma")[he left now](click-replace: "pe-a nemuririi cale")[on the path of immortality](click-replace: "Steps he left now")[Went away returning](click-replace: "Went away returning, on the path to infinity")[Went to infinity, returning] (click-replace: "Şi-n urmă-i")[And after them](click-replace: "ne-a lăsat")[he left us](click-replace: "And after them he left us!.")[And left us without your radiance.]}

Te-ai dus, te-ai dus din lume, o! geniu nalt şi mare, Col? unde te-aşteaptă toţi îngerii în cor, Ce-ntoană tainic, dulce a sferelor cântare Şi-ţi împletesc ghirlande, cununi mirositoare, Cununi de albe flori!. Te plânge Bucovina, te plânge-n voce tare, Te plânge-n tânguire şi locul tău natal; Căci umbra ta măreaţă în falnica-i zburare O urmă-ncet cu ochiul în tristă lăcrimare Ce-i simţ naţional!. (more:)[One last [[stanza.->P-Eminescu4]]] {(click-replace: "Te-ai dus")[You went](click-replace: "te-ai dus din lume")[you left the world](click-replace: "o! geniu nalt şi mare,")[oh! A high and great genius](click-replace: "You went, you left the world, oh! A high and great genius,")[Your high intelligence gone from the world,] (click-replace: "Col? unde te-aşteaptă")[where they are waiting for you](click-replace: "toţi îngerii")[all the angels](click-replace: "în cor")[all together](click-replace: "where they are waiting for you all the angels all together")[To a place where choirs of angels wait] (click-replace: "Ce-ntoană tainic")[What a secret](click-replace: "dulce a sferelor")[sweet of spheres](click-replace: "cântare")[singing](click-replace: "What a secret, sweet of spheres singing")[Mysterious sweet hum of godly pearls] (click-replace: "Şi-ţi împletesc")[And I weave](click-replace: "ghirlande")[wreath](click-replace: "cununi mirositoare")[fragrant crowns](click-replace: "And I weave wreath")[And I weave a wreath](click-replace: "And I weave a wreath, fragrant crowns")[I weave a wreath of dead branches preserved] (click-replace: "Cununi de albe flori!.")[Crowns of white flowers!](click-replace: "Crowns of white flowers!")[And fragrant flowers white and ornate] (click-replace: "Te plânge Bucovina")[He complains to you Bucovina](click-replace: "te plânge-n voce tare")[you cry out loud](click-replace: "He complains to you Bucovina, you cry out loud,")[Cold rain pours from Bucovina's eyes] (click-replace: "şi locul tău natal")[and your birthplace](click-replace: "Don't complain lamentation")[Mourns its loss](click-replace: "your birthplace")[Transylvania](click-replace: "Mourns its loss and Transylvania")[Transylvania mourns its terrible loss](click-replace: "Te plânge-n lamentation")[Don't complain lamentation](click-replace: "Te plânge-n tânguire")[Don't complain lamentation] (click-replace: "Căci umbra")[Because the shadow](click-replace: "ta măreaţă")[your majesty](click-replace: "în falnica-i zburare")[in its towering flight](click-replace: "Because the shadow your majesty")[Because your shadow is magnified](click-replace: "Because your shadow is magnified in its towering flight")[Your shadow grows in its towering flight] (click-replace: "O urmă-ncet")[Follow her slowly](click-replace: "Follow her slowly")[Follows behind her](click-replace: "cu ochiul")[with the eye](click-replace: "în tristă lăcrimare")[in sad tears](click-replace: "Follows behind her with the eye")[And floats behind, watching](click-replace: "And floats behind, watching in sad tears")[And floats behind, heaving sighs] (click-replace: "naţional!.")[national.](click-replace: "Ce-i simţ")[What are you feeling](click-replace: "What are you feeling national")[As the nation plants your cross]}

Urmeze încă-n cale-ţi şi lacrima duioasă, Ce junii toţi o varsă pe trist mormântul tău, Urmeze-ţi ea prin zboru-ţi în cânturi tânguioase. În cânturi răsunânde, suspine-armonioase, Colo, în Eliseu!.. (more:)[A drop of sweat falls from the tip of your nose onto the page. You're [[done.->METRO4.02]]] {(click-replace: "Urmeze încă-n")[More to come](click-replace: "More to come")[Building](click-replace: "cale-ţi şi lacrima duioasă")[hold your tender tear](click-replace: "Building hold your tender tear")[Tender tears build in those who loved you] (click-replace: "Ce junii")[What June](click-replace: "toţi o varsă")[everyone pours](click-replace: "What June everyone pours")[In June, everyone pours](click-replace: "pe trist mormântul tău")[on your sad grave](click-replace: "In June, everyone pours on your sad grave")[Overflowing out onto your grave] (click-replace: "Urmeze-ţi ea")[Follow her](click-replace: "prin zboru-ţi")[by your flight](click-replace: "în cânturi tânguioase")[in plaintive song](click-replace: "Follow her by your flight")[We follow your ascension](click-replace: "We follow your ascension in plaintive song")[We follow your ascending virtue] (click-replace: "În cânturi răsunânde")[In resounding song](click-replace: "suspine-armonioase")[harmonious sobs](click-replace: "In resounding song")[With resounding song](click-replace: "harmonious sobs")[and love renewed] (click-replace: "Colo")[There](click-replace: "în Eliseu!.")[in Elysium](click-replace: "There, in Elysium")[On to Elysium](click-replace: "On to Elysium!.")[Onto where Elysian lights blaze!]}

Te plânge Bucovina, te plânge-n voce tare, Te plânge-n tânguire şi locul tău natal; Căci umbra ta măreaţă în falnica-i zburare O urmă-ncet cu ochiul în tristă lăcrimare Ce-i simţ naţional!. (more:)[One last [[stanza.->P-Eminescu4]]] {(click-replace: "Te plânge Bucovina")[He complains to you Bucovina](click-replace: "te plânge-n voce tare")[you cry out loud](click-replace: "He complains to you Bucovina, you cry out loud,")[Cold rain pours from Bucovina's eyes] (click-replace: "şi locul tău natal")[and your birthplace](click-replace: "Don't complain lamentation")[Mourns its loss](click-replace: "your birthplace")[Transylvania](click-replace: "Mourns its loss and Transylvania")[Transylvania mourns its terrible loss](click-replace: "Te plânge-n lamentation")[Don't complain lamentation](click-replace: "Te plânge-n tânguire")[Don't complain lamentation] (click-replace: "Căci umbra")[Because the shadow](click-replace: "ta măreaţă")[your majesty](click-replace: "în falnica-i zburare")[in its towering flight](click-replace: "Because the shadow your majesty")[Because your shadow is magnified](click-replace: "Because your shadow is magnified in its towering flight")[Your shadow grows in its towering flight] (click-replace: "O urmă-ncet")[Follow her slowly](click-replace: "Follow her slowly")[Follows behind her](click-replace: "cu ochiul")[with the eye](click-replace: "în tristă lăcrimare")[in sad tears](click-replace: "Follows behind her with the eye")[And floats behind, watching](click-replace: "And floats behind, watching in sad tears")[And floats behind, heaving sighs] (click-replace: "naţional!.")[national.](click-replace: "Ce-i simţ")[What are you feeling](click-replace: "What are you feeling national")[As the nation plants your cross]}

You eat until, finally, [[full.->final]]

"The apostate. He has forsaken his faith. You can ignore whatever he has to say." [[Understood.->Alright. Goodbye for now.]]