Project2

Confess(mouseover-replace:"Confess")[Every day, I [[confessed]]] to (mouseover-append:"to")[ everyone but] [[me]]

(text-colour:green)[hello world]

Sudden awareness blinds you as light floods your preception. Your head is pounding, your eyes can't focus, your ears are ringing, and (if: $HaveDied is 0)[you realize you have absolutely no idea where you are....] (if: $HaveDied is 1)[you just died... You just fucking DIED!] (if: $HaveDied is >=2)[you just died... again...] (if: $Stumble is true)[Ok... you might have no idea what the hell is going on, but there are definitely soldiers... And they are not taking prisoners...] (if: $CallOut is true)[Ok, well apparently calling out gets you shot in this neighborhood, so maybe you should think twice about doing that again...] (if: $Run is true)[Oh! Damn! Soooo close... You know, until the soldiers surrounded you and made what happened to Butch and Sundance look like a calming afternoon in Bolivia... But you do remember roughly how many there were...] (if: $DropDown is true)[Jesus.... The look on their face... The way their brains dripped down into.. Yeah, you won't be forgetting that any time soon. Apparently you took too long getting behind that wall and one of the soldiers spotted you...] [[Wait for your eyes to adjust to the light.]] [[Stumble forward blindly.]] [[Feel around for a place to sit down.]] [[Call out for help.]] (if: $Stumble is true)[[Ok, you've died.. But this time you know whats coming...]] (if: $Run and $DropDown is true and $Stumble and $GrabRifle is true)[[You've died a couple times now and seen a stranger, who somehow knows your name, brutally murdered... But now you know they're there, and where the soldiers are... It's time for some payback!]]

You stand your ground, shakily, waiting for your eyes to see something, anything other than the explosion of colored orbs pulsing through your vision.... (live: 10s)[You can almost make something out... there's movement and the silhouette of a person?] (live: 14s)[Yes... Yes! It is a person! Your ears are still ringing but you can now see that they're huddled down behind a wall, their clothes in tatters as they kneel in the mud. They seem to be hiding. You meet their eyes and see terror in them, desperately pleading for you to do something.... [[You take a closer look at the wall they're hiding behind.]] [[You move to join them behind the wall.]] [[You call out to them.]] ]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) (set: $Stumble to true) } You throw your hands up, stumbling blind. You take a few awkward steps forward before bumping into something.... You wrap your hands around it, and feel it move. Its a person! Their clothes are rough to the touch, stiff and formal. As your eyes finally adjust, you see shattered ruins and the person you're currently clinging to. You see combat boots and urban camo. As your eyes drag slowly up you meet the hard gaze of a soldier. Hate consumes their eyes, undounted by the confusion in yours. You open your mouth to say something only to feel their rifle slam into your head, throwing you down onto the muddy ground. A second later the barrel of that rifle is all you can see, and then the blinding flash of the muzzle.... [[......->The Beginning]]

You drop to one knee, mud splattering across your leg and tattered pants. You reach in front of you and feel a hand grab your wrist and pull you down deeper into the mud, bringing you to rest with your back against a rough, hard surface. Your eyes finally stop swimming and as the pulsing colored orbs clear, you see a terrefied face in front of yours. Their lips are moving and you feel their hand on your face, shaking you firmly. The ringing in your ears subsides and gunfire floods in to fill its place. Eyes wide and panic rising, the strangers words pull you back into the moment. "G, you need to focus! Are you ok? Were'd you go? This is not the time to loose it, I need you if any of us are gonna get out of here alive." A dozen questions brim in your mind, the confusion plastered across your face. Before you have a chance to answer, you feel their hand pulling you along as they start crawling. Staying low against the shattered, bullet riddled, brick wall you start to make your way through the muddy hellscape, screams piercing the gunfire in shrill bursts. [["What the fuck is going on!?]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) (set: $CallOut to true) } A hand suddenly grabs your wrist, pulling you down. You feel mud splatter checkardly across your legs; your pants are torn and ragged. You can't help but cry out in pain as the hand digs its nails sharply into your skin. Before you can do anything else your ringing ears are deafened again by an overwhelming crack, and you feel the hand fall away from you just as quickly as it seized you. Your eyes finally adjust to the light and you find yourself staring down the barrel of a rifle shoved directly into your face. You start to scream and the last thing you see is the blinding flash of the muzzle..... [[......->The Beginning]]

Your eyes narrow, something about the wall is strange... It looks like a normal brick wall, but... Wait. Those are bullet holes blasted half hazardly across the surface! The wall itself looks like it once belonged to a much larger building that has since been blown apart. The ringing in your ears drops away as panic starts welling up inside you. The sound of gunfire replacing the ringing as one all consuming thought seizes your mind... You. Are. So. Fucked. [[Run like a bat out of hell!]] [[Dive behind the wall!]] [[Close your eyes and pinch yourself, this has to be a dream....]]

Something about the look in their eyes shakes you... What are they so afraid of? And why do you think they know you? [[You drop down into the mud and crawl toward them.]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) (set: $CallOut to true) } Their hands fly up and clamp over their mouth; their eyes widening even more as they shrink down as much as they can, seemingly trying to disappear into the mud. The ringing in your ears finally starts to fade and the sound of gunfire quickly replaces it. Before you can react, you feel a burning pain shoot through you. You scream, dropping into the mud as you clutch at your chest. You try to breath but only cough, warm liquid splattering across your face as a the barrel of a rifle fills your view. You try to raise your hands, but are stopped by the blinding flash of the muzzle.... [[......->The Beginning]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) (set: $Run to true) } The panic takes over and without even realizing it, you're sprinting as fast as you can. You feel bullets flying by, hear screaming and shouting. Ahead of you you see a jeep with soldiers in stiff, urban camo next to it firing into a crowd of people despereaterly trying to get away. You peel off the opposite way, quickly losing all sense of direction as you see more and more soldiers blocking your path... You realize there's no way out, they've seen you now. Your back finds a wall, your hands flying up as the soldiers surround you. They look so angry, so full of hate. (text-colour:#60a6be)["Please wait! I-I-I don't know what I'm doing here, this isn't right! I didn't do anything!"], you plead. "Soja scum thinks it can talk to us, sir!", one soldier yells. "You know what we do to them uppitty fucks... Light em up!" A cacophony of gunfire deafens you as fire burns into you all across your body. The searing pain floods your mind and you collapse into the mud, the tattered remains of your body no longer able to keep you upright. Darkness starts eating in at the edge of your vision but before it can claim you, you see the barrel of a rifle appear above you... followed by the blinding flash of the muzzle. [[......->The Beginning]]

Before you can even think about it, you leap down into the mud. [[You press yourself next them behind the wall.->You drop down into the mud and crawl toward them.]]

Your eyes fly open, and you're screaming with tears running down your face. But.. You're not crying, or screaming.... You can feel the tears, see them, and hear your own screams. You try to blink away the tears, but can't. [[Wait, you remember this....->Waking up from a Nightmare]]

You had a bad dream... You couldn't remember what it was about, now you remember, you just lived it, but back then you were scared. Your dad sleepily enters your room, sitting down on the bed next to you and pulling you into a hug. "Hey kiddo, whats wrong? Did you have a bad dream?" His voice is soft, warm, and familiar, his gentle hands brushing the tears off of your cheeks. (text-colour:#60a6be)["Mmm.. mmm. mhm... Yea i-it w-w-was soooo scary!"] You feel yourself say the words, feel the tears and the snot, but you're not in control. You can remember this moment, remember your dad, this room... But it's all so distorted, so jumbled. You still don't even remember your name. "It's ok, you're ok. I'm here. Do you remember what it was about?" Of course you do... You're never going to forget. (text-colour:#60a6be)["No.... I just.. I wish daddy was here too..."] Your father stiffens, just a little. You didn't notice then, but now you do. "Oh... yea, daddy wishes he could be here, you know that, right kiddo? He's just so busy at work..." You feel yourself move, getting closer to him and laying your head on his chest and hugging him tight. (text-colour:#60a6be)["I know."] He hugs you back, and you notice a bruise on your dad's jaw. Dark and purple, almost invisible in the darkness of your room. "Ok kiddo," he whispers, straightening the collar on your pajamas. "You always look so spiffy, even when you've been crying... You get that from me." He gives you a wink. You feel a smile spread across your cheeks,(text-colour:#60a6be)["Of course I do, dad. You always look like the bestest, coolest guy in the history of the whole universe!"] He smiles, one of his wide smiles, the kind that made you light up. Like you're the thing that matters most in his whole world. "Oh! You little charmer! Always my little gallant! The world better watch out when you're all grown up, you'll be stealing hearts left and right! So, do you think you're ready to get back to sleep? Or do you need me to stay?" You want him to stay more than anything... but you remember what you said before you even feel your lips start to move... (text-colour:#60a6be)["I'm ok dad, I know how tired you are... You need to go back to sleep too!"] There's that smile again... He kisses your cheek, tucks you in, and slips slowly back out the door. Leaving you alone in the quiet darkness of your room. [[Try and remember your other father.]] [[Try and remember the bruise.]] [[Gallant... something about that is familiar...]] (Entire branch needs variables implemented/alt text for Good Boy run vs Bloody Groundhog Day run)

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) (set: $DropDown to true) } They grab you, their hands trembling. "What the hell are you doing, G?", they whisper into your ear frantically. "They're shooting everyone on sight! You said they were coming but why didn't you tell us they were so close!" (text-colour:#60a6be)["Who the hell are you? Why are you calling me G? Is that my name? Do you know me?", you whisper back, the questions flooding out of you.] "Oh god no, G, not now! You can't break on me now! How the hell are we...." Their mouth freezes mid sentence, all color draining from their face as their eyes dart behind you. They start sucking in air to scream, but their face erupts as their blood splatters your face. They fall back, brains leaking out into the mud, their hand limp and twitching against your chest. You turn, a scream caught in your throat as the barrel of a gun fills your vision. Then all you see is the blinding flash of the muzzle... [[......->The Beginning]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to 0) (set: $HaveKilled to false) (set: $CallOut to false) (set: $Run to false) (set: $DropDown to false) (set: $Stumble to false) (set: $GrabRifle to false) }

You don't wait for the ringing to stop, or your vision to clear; you're on the move! You dash forward, running into the soldier in front of you. You feel them go down, hear their rifle fall into the mud next to them. Your vision starts to clear. [[Grab the rifle!]] [[Just keep moving!]]

{ (set: $GrabRifle to true) (set: $HaveKilled to true) } You see the soldier tense on the ground, their eyes moving to the rifle. Before they have a chance to grab it, you kick them as hard as you can and grab their rifle. It's heavy, but oddly familiar... The soldier's mouth opens, your eyes widen, and your finger drops to the trigger. The rifle slams back in your hands, and their head snaps back, the scream dying with them... They're twitching and the mud is so red... You drop to your knees against a fractured, bullet riddled wall, vomit pouring out of you. A moment later you hear the splash of boots drawing closer... You peak over the wall and see four soldiers coming closer, weapons raised... [[Bring the rifle up, and take aim...]] [[Open up on them!]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) } You see the soldier tense on the ground, their eyes moving to the rifle. Before they have a just to grab it, you jump over them. You take off down the street, and quickly see more soldiers. You hear a shout from behind you, and the soldiers ahead of you wheel around; their rifles rising to meet you. Your eyes widen, theres bodies everywhere, people screaming, and the rattle of rifles is overwhelming. You feel fire blazing, piercing you, dragging you down into the mud as bullets tear through you. You gasp, air filling your lungs only to immediately be released in desperate screams. You crawl forward, desperate to make it somewhere, anywhere without the pain and noise... You feel a boot slam into your spine, as a kick flips you onto your back. You stare up into the barrel of a rifle, and open your mouth to beg for you life, only to be silenced a moment later by the blinding flash of the muzzle.... [[......->The Beginning]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) } Your hands are shaking, your breath is ragged; this feels wrong... But there's no time for that. You lay the rifle on the wall bringing the reticle up on the soldiers in front of you. You start taking shots, but your aim is terrible. You still manage to drop two of the approaching soldiers before the others dive into the ruins. They start firing back, bullets whizzing over your head and into the wall. You know you should be panicking, but for some reason you start to relax. More and more soldiers start shooting at you, you drop several more but then... Click... Fuck, you're empty... The soldiers move in a moment later, the rage in their eyes boiling. They take their time with you... Screaming, beating, breaking you down until you're wheezing and numb, soaked in mud and blood. You see the barrel of a rifle through the blood filling your eyes, and the blinding flash of the muzzle... [[......->The Beginning]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) } Something flips in your brain and the rifle slides up, the stock tucking into your shoulder as you steady yourself against the wall. You open up in short bursts, quickly dropping all four soldiers. This is definitely familiar and as more soldiers pour out of the ruins you meet them with a steady rain of fire, but they keep you pinned down behind the wall. You drop more and more soldiers but as you rise up from behind the wall to fire again, you hear a click. Your eyes widen and the soldiers move in, surrouning you. The rage in their eyes blazing hotter than you've ever seen before. Something inside you drives you forward and you lunge for one of their sidearms. Before you can reach it, you feel the butt of a rifle slam into the back of your head. You collapse into the mud as they surround you, their boots slamming into you until you're numb and broken. You feel a hand in your hair pulling your shattered face out of the mud. You see the distorted barrel of a rifle swimming in your blood tinted vision, and hear someone shouting. "Ready! Aim...." The last bit is cut off by the blinding flash of the muzzle... [[......->The Beginning]]

You know that the stranger is hiding behind the wall, and that the soldier is ahead of you... You drop to a knee, and signal to them that you're going after the soldier. You've done this enough times now, that you don't even need your eyes. By the time they've cleared, you've snuck up behind the soldier. [[Go for their gun!]] [[Nod to the stranger, you'll do this together.]]

{ (set: $HaveDied to $HaveDied +1) } You grab for the soldier's rifle, and the stranger goes for their sidearm. The soldier lets out a yell that gets cut off quickly when the stranger puts a few rounds through their chest. You know where the soldiers will be coming from and you quickly take cover with the stranger behind the wall, directing them to focus on spots you couldn't cover alone. Things go very well, for a moment. You seem to be turning the tide, dropping all of the soldiers in the immediate area, until you see a tank come around the corner of one of the destroyed buildings down the bombed out street. Its turret swivelling toward you. Eyes wide, you grab the strangers arm to run, but before you can turn you see the blinding flash of the muzzle. [[......->The Beginning]]

They return the nod and together you move in for the kill. You reach up, instinctually ensnaring their neck in a choke hold. You feel them start to struggle and suck in air to scream for help! A moment before they can you feel them jerk, the air bubbling out of their lungs as a hot wetness begins to leak down your arms and chest. You let the soldier's body collapse to the mud with a sickly splash, and see the stranger withdrawing a knife from their throat. You quickly grab the soldiers rifle, passing the sidearm to the stranger. You quietly move across the street, taking cover in a thin alley next to a ruined house. As you kneel in the alley, you plot out in your head where each group of the soldiers are, piecing together bits and pieces from your last couple deaths. Nodding to yourself, you rise and lead the stranger with you around the corner. With calculated precision, you position yourself and the stranger to quickly take out each group in turn with small bursts of weapons fire, perfectly concealed by the massacre taking place throughout the town. As the last soldier in the neighborhood falls, you quickly gather up as much ammunition as you can carry, from the soldiers corpses. The few people you managed to save don't wait to thank you, disappearing off into the warren of ruined buildings, their eyes distant and numb from what they've seen. You know it's time to go and signal for the stranger to follow you away from the town, letting the faint cries and rattle of gunfire fade completely into the distance... [[Find somewhere to plan out your next move.]]

You close your eyes and draw in a shaky breath, holding it for several seconds before letting it out. You don't remember why but this feels familiar, and you immediately feel a little more calm. As calm as one can be after barely escaping a massacre alive.{(if: $HaveDied >0)[ Well, this time at least...]} Now that you have a moment to think, you can't help but recall the feeling you got in that first house. It felt surreal, it felt wrong. [[Start asking questions.]] [[Think back to the house...->Close your eyes and pinch yourself, this has to be a dream....]]

You look over at the stranger you escaped with. (Add additional text when returning depending on questions asked/TBI variables and alt text for all subsequent nodes) [[Size them up.]] v [["Do you know me?"]] v [["Who are you?"]] v [["Where are we?"]] v [["You might have missed it when I asked earlier, but what the fuck is going on!?"]] v [["What do we do now?"]]

They look like shit. And that's putting it nicely. Their clothes are tattered and caked in mud, their hair in pretty much the same state, matted tangled and generally a wreck. They look thin, like it's been a really long time since they had a proper meal. You're not sure, but you think their hair might have been blond once, and their eyes are a dull blue. All in all, very unimpressive. A strong breeze might be able to take them down, but something about them completely contradicts their appearance. You don't know what it is, but you know they're a lot tougher than they look. And a lot more dangerous. (Add alt text for Bloody Groundhog Day run) [[......->Start asking questions.]]

"Fuck, G, you really don't know, do you? Fuck... Fuck! Ok, ok ok, ok...." They take a quick breath. "Alright, this makes things harder... but it'll be fine. Ok well, I'm D, you're G, and we're both part of SOJA. And... oh right, right, you probably don't remember. SOJA is.. well it's a lot of things, but for us it's family. And a cause. It stands for the Socialist Opposition's Joint Army, and before you tell me, I know it's a stupid fucking name. What can you expect from a bunch of stoned college students? Long story short, we're surivors, refugees, rebels, terrorists, freedom fighters... whatever you want to call it. Basically we're fucked. [[......->Start asking questions.]]

"G what kind of fucking question is that? Did you..." They trail off, eyes widening as they scramble over to you, hands frantically probing your head, messing through your hair. (text-colour:#60a6be)["What the hell..?"] "Did you get hit in the head, or take some shrapnel? God G, you can't say shit like this after M, fuck I still see him, those far off eyes, blinking and stumbling around turning and that massive fucking hole in the back of his... Shit I think you're ok, you're not bleeding. I swear if this is some kinda joke I'm gonna.." (text-colour:#60a6be)["No! It's not a joke I don't know who you are..."] The concern on their face is quickly growing into panic.... [[......->Start asking questions.]]

"Jesus, I can't beleive... well this was your idea. We're in your hometown, that house back there was yours, actually. We've been on the run from those grunts after the meetup with NECS fell through, and you thought it would be safe to lay low here.... Still don't know how they found us here, or managed to get past the perimeter. Fuck, I knew it was a bad idea to start taking on more refugees, we didn't have enough fighters left keep tabs on all the new heads... Someone must have ratted us out." [[......->Start asking questions.]]

D flashes a grim smirk, and you get the feeling that's a rare occurance. "Oh boy.... where to even start? Shit... You really can't remember anything?" (text-colour:#60a6be)["Yea.... I didn't even know my name until you told me."] "Fuck, well ok... First off your name isn't actually G. We just use a letter cause it's faster and.... well it's easier to keep going after we lose someone when we don't know their name. It also keeps any family we've got left in the MSA safe." (text-colour:#60a6be)["You keep using those acronyms but, in case you forgot, I don't know what any of them mean..."] "Shit right, right... So MSA is what we call the good ol' US of A now. The Militarized States of America. To keep it short, we elected someone who promised to make things better and it seemed like they might actually do it. Right up until a bunch of nutjobs, conspiracy theorists, neo-nazis, corpos, and shadowy elites had their cronies in the House and Senate make the guy's life a living hell. And I gotta say, he kept his campaign promise. He said he wouldn't let anything stop him, and he didn't. He declared martial law, started having their protests stomped out by the military. He showed them what it was like to be the people they were opressing. But he didn't stop, and they didn't either. A full blown civil war broke out, but the majority of the military sided with the state. It was over pretty fast, but martial law was never repealed. He became a dictator just like the people he swore to destroy, only he stopped playing for the camera like they did. That was over a decade ago, I was in highschool when it all went to shit. Things have just kept breaking down, theres no cell coverage, no internet access anymore... Nobody knows whats going on in the rest of the country, not to mention the rest of the world. It's just cells like SOJA and NECS that keep resistance alive, doing our best to keep the refugees breathing. We were supposed to meet up with a group from NECS to share intel and supplies.." (text-colour:#60a6be)["NECS?"] "The North Easter Coalition of States, they're a militia. Pretty new, not like SOJA. It got started on the campus of GMU back when this all first began, when universities were still around. Anyway, somehow the grunts, thats what we call the military, found out about our meeting and ambushed us. We got away, but we couldn't make it back to the JC. (text-colour:#60a6be)["What's that?"] That's home. Our base of operations. It's out here in the Red Zones. Unincorporated territory thats useless, radioactive, or just straight up bombed out. Leftover from the war and technically not part of the MSA anymore. There aren't as many patrols out here. But yea that's the quick and dirty version... [[......->Start asking questions.]]

Your whispered question is lost to the cacophony of gunfire and screams, as you follow them into one of the ruins. You both rise to a crouch amidst the wreckage of a broken home, furniture shattered and destroyed, the remains of a meal dessicating on the table, and pictures fading on the walls. It's surreal, but you hear the crunch of boots passing outside and quickly follow the stranger out the back door and into another house. Hours seem to pass as the two of you silently crawl through destroyed home after destroyed home, pausing occasionally to let patrols slip by, desperately holding your breath and hoping they don't find you. The wailing of innocents and boom of the rifles slowly dying as time goes on and you inch further away. Finally they hold up a hand, and the two of you collapse onto a filthy floor kitchen floor. Safe, at least for the moment. [[Take a moment to collect yourself.]] [[Start asking questions.]]

"We need to make it back to the JC and see how many of the others made it out of there... If any of them made it out of there... There's a doctor there that can take a look at you too, maybe see why you can't remember anything. At the very least it'll be safe, and maybe the Fourth Estate will have some idea of what to do now that we can't rely on any support from NECS..." [["Ok... yea. Safe sounds nice..."]](if HaveKilled false(GB)) [["Ok, but these guys better have some idea how to take on those damn grunts... They messed with the wrong person, and I'm not done with them yet...]](if HaveKilled true(BGD))

You make it to the outskirts of town and find a self-storage building that looks mostly intact. Ducking inside, you and the stranger collapse onto the rough floor. It looks like you actually made it out alive, this time, and for now it seems like you're both safe. [[Start asking questions.]] [[You can probably take a nap...->Close your eyes and pinch yourself, this has to be a dream....]]

(TBI Good Good Ending and Bad Good Ending(GB))

(TBI Good Bad Ending and Bad Bad Ending(BGD))

(TBI Memories of Father and Timeline B)

(TBI Memories of Father's Abuse and Timeline A)

(TBI Recruitment and Training by TACAT and participation in RTRT culminating in promotion to Retreival Specialist 1st Class)