You are walking down to the Insect Hospital to set the insects free(click-append: "set the insects free")[. [[Literally]]].[[Like, literally.]]{(live: 0.1s)[
(either: "We","You")
]} are walking down to the Insect Hospital to set the insects free.
(set: $seen to false)
{(live: 1s)[
(if: time > 3s)[
(if: $seen is false)[
(set: $seen to true)
(transition: "dissolve")[
[[What are we doing?]]
]
](else:)[
[[What are we doing?]]
]
]
]}(colour: green)[Haven't you been listening?]
{(live: 1s)[(if: time > 1s)[We are walking down]]}
{(live: 1s)[(if: time > 3s)[to the Insect Hospital]]}
{(live: 1s)[(if: time > 6s)[to set the insects]]}
{(live: 1s)[(if: time > 10s)[free.]]}
{(live: 2s)[(if: time > 10s)[
[[Yes, I got that part.]]
](else:)[
[[Yes, I got that part.->interrupt]]
]]}(colour: green)[Okay, good.]
(colour: #00ffff)[Sorry. I just... [[don't remember]] much.](colour: green)[Well. No need to interrupt.]
Sorry. I just... [[don't remember]] much.(colour: green)[No shit, I've been reminding you of our mission every five seconds since you took the formula. I think you took too much. Not that I blame you, heh.]
The rustle of streetlights fills the alley. (colour: green)[Reese]'s laugh is forced.
[[Formula?]]
[[Can you go over the mission in... more detail?]]
{(click-replace: "rustle")[(literal) rustle]}(colour: green)[Shit, you really are gone. Okay, tl;dr: you're gonna get treated at the Insect Hospital and when they take a blood sample, they'll unwittingly carry our hivemind disruptor virus to the queen, and all the enslaved medical insects get freed from her control.]
You nod slowly. It's coming back, piece by piece. But... that means the [[next step]] is-(align: "=><=")[(background: black)[ [[fuck]] ]]
(enchant: ?page, (background: red))The painkillers in the formula are doing their job, at least. Your scream is more indignant than pained as you clutch your bleeding thigh.
(colour: green)[Reese] fumbles the knife into a disposal mound.
(colour: green)[Sorry. Sorry. I'm - it's gonna be okay. You're good. We're good. Right?]
(colour: green)[Reese] holds out a still-shaking hand, offering to help you stand.
[[Get me to the hospital.]](colour: green)[Yeah, formula seventeen. Right? You gotta remember that stuff, we spent ages getting it perfect.]
You nod. It's coming back to you. Formula Seventeen.
(click-replace: "Formula Seventeen.")[Formula Seventeen. Five parts painkiller, three parts anticoagulant, one part hivemind disruptor virus.]
(click-append: "hivemind disruptor virus.")[ Oh fuck, the plan. It's all coming back to you. Which means the [[next step]] is-](colour: green)[Reese] pulls a knife and takes a breath. You smell honey and garbage on the faint breeze.
(colour: green)[You got this. Count of five, all right?]
(click-replace: "five")[five... (colour: blue)[''four'']<shoot|]
(mouseover: ?shoot)[
(go-to: "shoot")
](colour: green)[Reese] supports you down the last ten feet of alley as you trail blood behind you. Sweeper moths start to gather where the cobblestones are stained.
(colour: green)[Don't stanch the wound too tightly, we want you to need a blood transfusion.]
You exit the alley and enter [[the hospital]].Incessant buzzing. Clashing scents of compost and honey and antiseptic.(set: $looked to false)
As (colour: green)[Reese] rushes you down the hall, you notice some [other patients]<look| in beds or couches.
(click: ?look)[(set: $looked to true)<script>GE.looked = true;</script>
An older person in a straw hat stops a younger person from picking at the milk-white organic bandage covering their forearm.
A person in a long puffy coat lies back, unconscious. Thousands of gnats stream from their open mouth, draining liquid from their lungs.
A person with a neat-trimmed brown beard is testing the range of their prosthetic exoskeletal arm.
]
(colour: green)[Don't look at them,] mutters (colour: green)[Reese. Focus on [[moving forward]] with the plan.]You and (colour: green)[Reese] are confronted by a nurse. (colour: green)[Reese] effortlessly summons brusque breathless worry, tinged with desperation.(click-replace: "a nurse")[an ambassador]
(colour: green)[My- my friend cut himself. He's got hemophilia. Please.]
Before the plea is finished, your wound is swarming with insects. Army ants suture the flesh closed as mosquitoes insert coagulant and antiseptic. Wasps pilot spiders, working in tandem to tattoo a protective seal of webbing over the gash.
The nurse helps you hobble to a wheelchair. "You're going to be just fine," he says, "You've lost a lot of blood, though. We'll do a transfusion just to be sure, all right?"
You glance at (colour: green)[Reese] and nod. You are wheeled into a room labeled [[TRANSFUSION CHAMBER TWO]].The lights here are a different breed, less warm, more clinical. One wall is dominated by refrigerated glass shelves full of blood-swollen maggots.
(if: $looked is true)[
You're having second thoughts about the plan. If you disrupt the hivemind, you free the insects... but what happens to the patients? You remember the patient with pneumonia, and are siezed with a horrid image of what might happen if the gnats in their lungs stop receiving orders from the hospital queen.
](else:)[
For a second back there, you had your doubts about the plan. But seeing this fills you with disgust; the plight of the insects has never been so clear.
]
The nurse mistakes your disgust for fear, and reassures you that the procedure will be quick and painless.
"We'll need to do some blood tests first," he continues, "Are you on any drugs or medications right now?"
[["Nope, none at all."]]
[[Confess]]
(click-append: "breed")[ (literally)]You take a deep breath.
"Yes," you say, "Formula Seventeen, we called it. Five parts painkiller, three parts anticoagulant, one... one part hivemind disruptor virus."
A pause. The nurse raises his eyebrows. "Ah."
"It wasn't my idea!" the words pour out of your mouth like gnats, "It was my friend Reese, telling us all this stuff about the Hospital and how it was enslaving insects and how the queen had them all mind-controlled, and-"
You stop as the nurse raises his hand. "This, uh, this is serious," he says, "You're still not in trouble. But you'll want to talk to the hospital herself. [[I'll take you there.]]"<script>GE.admin = false;</script>(if: $looked is true)[
You can feel the lie stumble, tripping over your lips as you hesitate. You were never as good a liar as (colour: green)[Reese].
The nurse looks at you for a second, mosquitoes swarming around his head.
"Tell you what, we're going to run this blood through the old electronic systems just to be safe."
//Fuck.//
"We really won't get you in trouble if you're on any illegal drugs, you know. This is just to avoid having the hospital analyze something that might cause trouble in the systems, understand?"
[[Confess]]
[[Run]]
](else:)[
"Fantastic," the nurse says, as a small swarm of mosquitoes buzzes out of the room, "I'll just send these samples along to the queen and we'll find the perfect blood match for you in no time."
You wait, tense and excited. You can feel your pulse in your chest and your thigh, anticipatory adrenaline.
The lights go out. [[That's your cue.]]
]You panic. Without warning, you bolt from your wheelchair, ignoring the warning twinge in your healing thigh.
"Stop, don't-" is all you hear the nurse say before you're out of earshot. (colour: green)[Reese] looks up as you sprint through the waiting room, and immediately dashes after you out the door.
You're acutely aware of the dragonflies making pace with you as you run down the street. Reese sprays them with a canister from an inner pocket, and they go down. You slow to a brisk walk. You try to control your breathing. You can't.
(colour: green)[What happened?]
"Fuck Reese they saw my face my real face this is not good I can't miss work tomorrow-"
(colour: green)[WHAT HAPPENED?]
"I- I [[panicked]]."(enchant: ?Sidebar, (css: "display: none"))The enhanced glow-worms on the ceiling flicker weakly and randomly as they stop receiving the hospital-queen's signals. It's still enough light to make out the door. You run, ignoring the warning twinge in your thigh.
As you dash into the entrance hall, your encounter a cacophony of {(live: 0.5s)[(either: "buzzing","screaming","fluttering","yelling","stridulation","chirping","droning","sobbing","retching")]}.
Tiny wings brush your arm as you pass through a haphazard swarm of moths. Something stings you. You laugh.
(colour: green)[This way!]
You shift your trajectory towards the voice, bumping into people as you run perpendicular to the panicked crowd. You find (colour: green)[Reese], who grabs your hand and pulls you towards a harder-to-find [[exit]].{<script>
var back = $('tw-sidebar tw-icon[title="Undo"]');
back.click(function(){alert("Like I said. There's no going back now.");return false;});
</script>}(enchant: ?Sidebar, (colour: green))(set: $looked to GE.looked)
You leave the building, laughing together as you find a safe vantage point from which to watch hundreds of thousands of insects scuttle and fly to their freedom, no longer constrained by the queen's control. The screams and sobs and sirens are drowned by the drone of tiny wings.
(colour: green)[Well there's no going back now,] your companion says, (colour: green)[We set the insects free. (if: $looked is true)[You made the wrong choice the first time, but see? You can always get the good ending eventually.](else:)[And you got the good ending on the first try. Good job!]]
//Good ending//, you muse, as you watch the chaos, //Yeah.//
//Literally.//As the nurse wheels you firmly through the waiting room, you see (colour: green)[Reese] being carried by an officer, dosed with a paralytic agent yet still able to muster enough movement to scream at you as you pass through.
(set: $yelled to GE.yelled)(set: $admin to GE.admin)<script>GE.looked = true;GE.yelled = true;</script>
(colour: green)[{
(if: $yelled is true)[
(if: $admin is true)[
Yes, a change of heart! Keep undoing!
](else:)[
Oh fuck you, you //maggot!// Betraying me once wasn't enough?
]
](else:)[
UNDO! Undo before it's too late, you little shit, and
(if: $looked is true)[
don't look at the other patients this time!
](else:)[
don't betray me if you want the good ending!
]
]
}]
The nurse hurries you along into the [[administrative office]].{(set: $admin to GE.admin)<script>GE.admin = true;</script>
(if: $admin is false)[(append: ?sidebar)[(css: "font-size: 50%")[(A muffled voice: (colour: green)[Come on, the undo button's right here!])]]]
}The nurse pushes a chair aside to make room for your wheelchair in front of the administrator's desk. The administrator themself occupies the entire back of the room; an intricate transluscent construct of wax and paper and web houses various [organs]<part| - you get a bit dizzy just trying to trace what connects to what.
"You did the right thing," the administrator says, "But you know that. What I want to know, is why you came this far. What did they tell you, to make you want to hurt me like this?"
"They called you queen."
{(live: 1s)[(click-append: ?part's last)[ connected to [(either: "tubes","organs","pipes","nerve endings","pumps","glands","biovalves","neural tissue","insulation")]<part|]]
(click-append: "queen")[, (link: "slaver")[slaver, [[abomination]]]]
}You explain the late night basement meetings where petty frustrations from daily life spilled out into the open and looked, in the dim light, like a daring revolution. There was resentment, and anger, and fear: sure, it was only insects for the time being, but they were working on fish, and maybe even birds if your sources were to be believed. How long until someone decided that humans would be more efficient under centralized control? You weren't willing to take that chance. You decided to send a message.
When you finish your explanation, the administrator [[responds]]. Their voice is gentle, yet still somehow //larger// than what you're used to in voices.The administrator laughs. "Yes, of course. You're free to leave, although I //strongly// recommend accompanying the officers to the station anyway. There's a reward for this kind of information."
You nod. As you leave, you turn.
"You know, Reese always told me that if I betrayed the cause, I'd get the bad ending. Literally - he always said 'literally' after talking like that."
"And?"
"Well, maybe it's a bad ending for him. Maybe even for all of us. But I think it's also a good beginning.""And what made you change your mind today?"
[["The patients."]<reason1|
["Reese."]<reason2|
["I realized how you worked."]<reason3|
["I was curious."]<reason4|
["I'm not sure."]<reason5|]<reasons|
{
(click: ?reason1)[(replace: ?reasons)["The patients. If the hos- if you died, so many would have been left without care."(show: ?response)]]
(click: ?reason2)[(replace: ?reasons)["Reese. He was getting more and more unstable. Somehow convinced me he had to stab me to make this plan work."(show: ?response)]]
(click: ?reason3)[(replace: ?reasons)["I realized how you worked. You aren't taking control of the insects, you are the insects."(show: ?response)]]
(click: ?reason4)[(replace: ?reasons)["I was curious. Reese always talked about this like one big game, and this seemed like the most interesting choice."(show: ?response)]]
(click: ?reason5)[(replace: ?reasons)["I'm not sure. I just... knew. That I had to."(show: ?response)]]
}
|response)[The administrator sighs. There's no human body language to read; you can't tell what the sigh signifies.
"Thank you," they say, "One last question: will I regret not pressing charges against you?"
[["No."->end]]
[["Definitely not."->end]]
[["That's... rhetorical, right?"->end]]
]You manage to take a slow breath. The night air is heavy and hot and humid, like it's going to rain.
"I panicked. They asked if I was on any drugs, and I had some doubts about the plan, and I guess I wasn't a convincing enough liar, cause-"
(colour: green)[Dammit. I told you not to look at the other patients.]
"You think that's what-"
(colour: green)[Okay, this is still salvageable. Just undo. It's a last resort, but you gotta. We can still get the good ending. Five clicks of the undo button, that's all it takes. Don't look at the other patients this time.]
This "good ending" is one of (colour: green)[Reese]'s favorite metaphors when it comes to your missions, although you're never exactly sure what the words mean. You think you know what your friend is getting at this time, though.
"You mean... try a different hospital? Get it at a time when it's not operating on any patients?"
(colour: green)[Sure. Let's go with that.]
(colour: green)[Reese] puts a hand on your shoulder, leading you in the general direction of your apartment.
(colour: green)[And don't worry about getting caught because of tonight. Trust me, just like you always have. Get some sleep. I promise you we'll get the good ending eventually.]