(live: 2s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[You are Oedipa Maas](stop:)]
(live: 4s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[You've just escaped your meeting with John Nefastis. The search for clues related to W.A.S.T.E. and the Trystero seems both as hopeless and overwhelming as it has ever been.](stop:)]
(live: 9s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[[Exhausted, you trudge on into the Bay Area.->San Narcisso]](stop:)]
{
(enchant: "Trystero", (text-colour: grey))
(enchant: "Trystero", (text-colour: grey))
(enchant: "W.A.S.T.E.", (text-colour: grey))
(enchant: "Thurn and Taxis", (text-colour: grey))
(enchant: "Pierce Inverarity", (text-colour: grey))
(enchant: "post horn", (text-colour:grey))
}
<div class = "inventory">(text-style: "emboss")[You are Oedipa Maas. You've come to the Southern California city of San Narcisso in hopes of finding some information related to Pierce Inverarity's will; you've recently been made into one of its executors, seemingly without any warning.
In attempting to find out more, you seem to have stumbled upon some sort of conspiracy. Through a series of seemingly coincidental events, you've discovered serveral things. The acronym "W.A.S.T.E." and word "Trystero" seem to refer to an organization stretching back potentially hundreds of years, with involvement and control over almost all levels of society. It has opposed, notably, a postal system known as Thurn and Taxis. These are also somehow related to the constantly recurring symbol of a muted post horn. One iteration of a play you saw recently, "The Courier's Tragedy," also referenced the Trystero - although talking to its director, Randolph Driblette, seems to have been a red herring, somehow.
You don't know how many people know about or use this system - or how many don't.
You're starting to wonder who exactly you can trust.
]</div>
{
<div class = "inventory">[(if: $barInventCheck is true)[(text-style: "condense")[You met a man wearing the muted post horn pin in a gay bar called "The Greek Way," who claimed to be a member of a new organization known as the Inamorati Anonymous. He told you that the origin of the muted post horn is the W.A.S.T.E. system, an underground postal network which people who have failed to commit suicide use to talk to one another.]]]</div>
<div class = "inventory">[(if: $HilariusInventCheck is true)[(text-style: "condense")[A shootout took place at Dr. Hilarius's office. Although he claimed not to be on drugs, he seemed to have gone absolutely mad. The cops arrested him shortly after you arrived. You found your husband, Mucho, just outside, covering the event.]]]</div>
<div class = "inventory">[(if: $MuchoInventCheck is true)[(text-style: "condense")[Your husband, Mucho, took you to his studio at the KCUF Radio Station. Through some ramblings about being able to distinguish different patterns in music, you found out that he's become addicted to LSD.]]]</div>
<div class = "inventory">[(if: $EmoryInventCheck is true)[(text-style: "condense")[On the way to Emory Bortz's house, you discovered that the bookstore where you bought a copy of //The Courier's Tragedy//, Zapf's, burned down. When you arrived, you also learned that Driblette, the director of that iteration of the play you saw that contained the "Trystero" line, has also apparently died. You also discovered that The Trystero was a postal service created in the late sixteenth century as the result of a political rivalry between Jan Hicknard, the owner of Thurn and Taxis, and his cousin, Hernando Joaquin de Trystero y Calavera. These two postal organizations have been in fierce competition ever since.
Nonetheless, you received no insight as to why Driblette included the reference to the Tristero.]]]</div>
}
[(link-goto: "Make your decision.", $last)]
(live: 35s)[(goto: $last)]
(if: $NarcissoInventCheck is false)
[You encounter an elderly man who asks you to deliver a letter using the W.A.S.T.E. system. He gives it to you.]
(if: $NarcissoInventCheck is false)[Reflect on what you've learned so far.](click: "Reflect on what you've learned so far.")[(set: $NarcissoInventCheck to true)(goto: "Notesheet")]\
(if: $NarcissoInventCheck is true)[//Don't get too obsessive.//]
(if: $NarcissoInventCheck is true)
[
You decide...
To walk along the highway, in search of a mailbox. [[This is the only way to find out more about this whole scheme.->Highway Option 1]]
To ignore him, and keep searching for clues. [[He's likely an agent of Thurn and Taxis, trying to trick you into backtracking.->The Greek Way]]
]//"The men inside the auction room wore black mohair and had pale, cruel faces. They watched her come in, trying each to conceal his thoughts. Loren Passerine, on his podium, hovered like a puppet-master, his eyes bright, his smile practiced and relentless. He stared at her, smiling, as if saying, I'm surprised you actually came. Oedipa sat alone, toward the back of the room, looking at the napes of necks, trying to guess which one was her target, her enemy, perhaps her proof. An assistant closed the heavy door on the lobby windows and the sun. She heard a lock snap shut; the sound echoed a moment. Passerine spread his arms in a gesture that seemed to belong to the priesthood of some remote culture; perhaps to a descending angel. The auctioneer cleared his throat. Oedipa settled back, to await [[the crying of lot 49.->End Credits]]"//(if: $HilariusInventCheck is false)
[
//"The light in his office didn't seem to be on. Eucalyptus branches blew in a great stream of air that flowed downhill, sucked to the evening sea. Halfway along the flagstone path, she was startled by an insect whirring loudly past her ear, followed at once by the sound of a gunshot..."//
You arrive at Hilarius's office, only to discover a shootout is apparently taking place.
Hilarius has gone mad. He seems convinced that servants of Freud are out to get him, and when you manage to turn a gun on him in self-defense, he's only convinced you've joined them. He is arrested shortly after cops arrive at the scene.
]
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is true)[You've moved this memory to the back of your mind.]
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is false)[Remember this.](click: "Remember this.")[(set: $HilariusInventCheck to true)]\
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is true)[//Don't get too obsessive.//]
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is false)[Reflect back.](click: "Reflect back.")[(set: $HilariusInventCheck to true)(goto: "Notesheet")]
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is true)[You decide...]
(if: $HilariusInventCheck is true)[
[[To go to your husband.->Mucho Maas]] He's covering the event for the radio station he works at right now, and you could use a bit of normalcy after what just happened.
[[To continue on the hunt.->Mucho Option 2]] The best help for you right now might just be getting to the bottom of this. Besides, you //think// you might have another lead, and you need answers right now more than any new questions.
](if: $EmoryInventCheck is false)[
Bortz was not at the school, but a receptionist told you he was available for office hours at home, and gave you directions to get there.
On the way to his house, you pass by Zapf's, only to find that the entire building has apparently burned down.
Worried, you grit your teeth, and continue onward.
When you get to Bortz's house, his wife directs you to his backyard. He's lounging in a hammock, talking with some grad students. You ask him about the play's last line, and the director who chose to include it.
//"'Randy Driblette's production? No, I thought it was typically virtuous.' He looked sadly past her toward a stretch of sky. 'He was a peculiarly moral man. He felt hardly any responsibility toward the word, really; but to the invisible field surrounding the play, its spirit, he was always intensely faithful. If anyone could have called up for you that historical Wharfinger you want, it'd've been Randy. Nobody else I ever knew was so close to the author, to the microcosm of that play
as it must have surrounded Wharfinger's living mind.'
'But you're using the past tense,' Oedipa said, her heart pounding, remembering the old lady on the phone.
'Hadn't you heard?' They all looked at her. Death glided by, shadowless, among the empties on the grass.
'Randy walked into the Pacific two nights ago,' the girl told her finally. Her eyes had been red all along.
'In his Gennaro suit. He's dead, and this is a wake.'"//
Bortz goes on to suggest that the Trystero line was implemented in a Puritan rendition that could only be found at the Vatican. It refers to some "other" which controls the universe.
Sorting through a book you've received, as well as the other information you've recorded thus far, you are able to string some facts together.
You discover that the Trystero was a postal service created in the late sixteenth century as the result of a political rivalry between Jan Hicknard, the owner of Thurn and Taxis, and his cousin, one Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera. These two have been in fierce competition over the course of history, since.
Nonetheless, you received no insight as to //why// Driblette included the reference to the Trystero.
]
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is true)[You've moved this memory to the back of your mind.]
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is false)[Remember this.](click: "Remember this.")[(set: $EmoryInventCheck to true)]\
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is true)[//Don't get too obsessive.//]
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is false)[Reflect on what you've learned so far.](click: "Reflect on what you've learned so far.")[(set: $EmoryInventCheck to true)(goto: "Notesheet")]\
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is true)[You decide...]
(if: $EmoryInventCheck is true)[
To visit Mike Fallopian, an old friend you made at a bar called the Scope. He already knows a bit about your situation, and you believe he could be using the W.A.S.T.E. system, as well. He could have a new lead you don't know about, though you can't imagine what. Regardless, [[what you need more than anything right now is a friend.->Fallopian]]
[[To look back through what you've learned so far.->Emory Option 1]] There must be some hidden key behind all this trouble that you've been missing. A few days on your own might help you to find it.
]
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is false)
[
You find your husband, Mucho, easily enough. He seems far more excitable than usual. He takes you to his studio at the radio station, and you soon learn why.
//"He gazed at her, perhaps having had his vision of consensus as others do orgasms, face now smooth, amiable, at peace. She didn't know him. Panic started to climb out of a dark region in her head. 'Whenever I put the headset on now,' he'd continued, 'I really do understand what I find there. When those kids sing about 'She loves you,' yeah well, you know, she does, she's any number of people, all over the world, back through time, different colors, sizes, ages, shapes, distances from death, but she loves. And the 'you' is everybody. And herself. Oedipa, the human voice, you know, it's a flipping miracle.' His eyes brimming, reflecting the color of beer.
'Baby,' she said, helpless, knowing of nothing she could do for this, and afraid for him.
He put a little clear plastic bottle on the table between them. She stared at the pills in it, and then understood. 'That's
LSD?' she said."//
]
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is true)[You've moved this memory to the back of your mind.]
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is false)[Remember this.](click: "Remember this.")[(set: $MuchoInventCheck to true)]\
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is true)[//Don't get too obsessive.//]
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is false)[Reflect on what you've learned so far.](click: "Reflect on what you've learned so far.")[(set: $MuchoInventCheck to true)(goto: "Notesheet")]\
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is true)[You decide...]
(if: $MuchoInventCheck is true)[
To leave, wondering if he's a part of the conspiracy, too. You're not sure where you'll go, though. The only thing you're sure of now is that [[you don't know him anymore.->Mucho Option 1]]
To set your worries aside, and plunge back into the hunt. [[Maybe it will help you distract yourself.->Mucho Option 2]]
]On the other end of the line, an excited Cohen prattles off something about post stamps - he was Inverarity's philatelist, after all. You're only half-listening. One more clue to pull you further down the rabbithole; you wonder why you should care. By this point, this whole charade is starting to feel less like a puzzle to piece together, and more like a prison to break out of.
//"It turned out to be an old American stamp, bearing the device of the muted post horn, belly-up badger, and the motto: WE AWAIT SILENT Trystero'S EMPIRE. 'So that's what it stands for,' said Oedipa. 'Where did you get this?'
'A friend,' Cohen said, leafing through a battered Scott catalogue, 'in San Francisco.' As usual she did not go on to ask for any name or address. 'Odd. He said he couldn't find the stamp listed. But here it is. An addendum, look.' In the front of the book a slip of paper had been pasted in. The stamp, designated 16311, 1, was reproduced, under the title 'Trystero Rapid Post, San Francisco, California,' and should have been inserted between Local listings 139 (the Third Avenue Post Office, of New York) and 140 (Union Post, also of New York)."//
[[A few more weeks pass.->Genghis 2.1]]{
(set: $lastPassage to "")
(set: $barInventCheck to false)
(set: $HilariusInventCheck to false)
(set: $NarcissoInventCheck to false)
(set: $MuchoInventCheck to false)
(set: $Genghis1InventCheck to false)
(set: $EmoryInventCheck to false)
(set: $FallopianInventCheck to false)
(set: $Genghis2InventCheck to false)
}
{(if: not ((passage:)'s tags contains "menu"))[
(set: $last to (passage:)'s name)
]}You manage to find a W.A.S.T.E. mailbox and put the envelope you were given in it. You wait patiently for a time. A courier arrives to take the mail from the box.
[You follow him.]
(Click: "You follow him.")[(set: $NarcissoInventCheck to false)(goto: "You follow the courier")]
You ignore him - he might just be looking for help, but you can't take that risk. You don't know how deep or wide this conspiracy goes - but you're determined to find out. You decide to keep searching for clues.
//"It took her no more than an hour to catch sight of a muted post horn. She was moseying along a street full of aging boys in Roos Atkins suits when she collided with a gang of guided tourists come rowdy-dowing out of a Volkswagen bus, on route to take in a few San Francisco nite spots. 'Let me lay this on you,' a voice spoke into her ear, 'because I just left,' and she found being deftly pinned outboard of one breast this big cerise ID badge, reading Hi! MY NAME Is Arnold Snarb! AND I'M LOOKIN' FOR A GOODTIME! Oedipa glanced around and saw a cherubic face vanishing with a wink in among natural shoulders and striped shirts, and away went Arnold Snarb, looking for a better time. Somebody blew on an athletic whistle and Oedipa found herself being herded, along with other badged citizens, toward a bar called The Greek Way.//"
[[You enter the bar.]]You drive your car almost blindly into the night, racing down the highway as panic begins to set in. Suddenly, in a fit of frustration and anger and a feeling of crushing defeat, you slam the brakes, pulling over to the side of the road. Still seeking to distract yourself, you rummage through your bag. The only thing you find - a copy of //The Courier's Tragedy// you bought at Zapf's Used Bookstore - you pull out reluctantly.
You flip through the pages before landing - inevitably, perhaps - on the last. //Trystero.// None of the other copies you'd found referenced the word. Frustrated, you flip back to the first page. The editor's note is signed, personally, by one Professor Emory Bortz of San Narcisso College.
//[[Screw it->Emory Bortz]]//, you decide, and shift your car into first. Trying to clear your mind, you go back out and sit in the car for a minute. When your breathing has stabilized, you start going back through what few clues you've been able to string together so far in your mind.
You remember that, in a copy of //The Courier's Tragedy// you bought at Zapf's used bookstore - apparently the only copy with the reference to Trystero - the editor's preface was signed by Professor Emory Bortz of San Narcisso College.
It's not much, but [[what do you have to lose?->Emory Bortz]]
(t8n-depart: "dissolve")[The man takes the letter back to Nefastis's house - [[back to where you started.->The Crying of Lot 49]]]
You go back through the research you've done in the past few weeks. There has been one constant throughout all of this - Pierce Inverarity. The man whose will started this whole debacle is linked to every single person, establishment, and estate you've encountered on your quest.
Could it all just be some prank on you from the afterlife, some hoax on a massive scale? Is anything you've encountered real? Is Inverarity even dead? You don't know.
You find yourself repeating that phrase to yourself a lot, these days.
[[A few days later, you get a call from Genghis Cohen.->Genghis Cohen 2]]You find Mike Fallopian at the Scope, as drunk as you remember him, belting out low songs. He gives a toothy grin when he sees you. You tell him everything you've learned - everything that you can remember, anyway. He only shrugs when you ask him about W.A.S.T.E.
//"'Maybe we haven't found them yet,' said Fallopian. 'Or maybe they haven't approached us. Or maybe we are using W.A.S.T.E., only it's a secret.' Then, as electronic music began to percolate into the room, 'But there's another angle too.' She sensed what he was going to sayand began, reflexively, to grind together her back molars. A nervous habitshe'd developed in the last few days. 'Has it ever occurred to you, Oedipa, that / somebody's putting you on? That this is all a hoax, maybe something Inverarity set up before he died?'
It had occurred to her. But like the thought that someday she would have to die, Oedipa had been steadfastly refusing to look at that possibility directly, in any but the most accidental of lights. 'No,' she said, 'that's ridiculous.'"//
You leave him. He's certainly given you more to think about, but in a way, that was the last thing you wanted.
[[A few days later, you get a call from Genghis Cohen.->Genghis Cohen 2]] Genghis calls and visits from time to time as new clues keep coming in. You don't care. About as useful as spotting sand grains on a beach, you've decided.
Except that, one day, you get something new. Not another sighting of a post horn or "W.A.S.T.E" stenciled onto some postal box. You get news.
Pierce's stamp collection is soon to be auctioned off at a local dealer - lot number 49. One C. Morris Schrift will be there bidding on behalf of another buyer with a special interest in the stamps.
You wonder if you even have a choice. You wonder if you could've escaped this whole thing at some point earlier on, if you had tried.
[[You go to the auction.->"Success"]] (align: "==><==")[[The Crying of Lot 49: An Interactive Fiction Piece->Passage2]]
(align: "==><==")[Created by Benjamin Dyke.]
(align: "==><==")[Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon.][(live: 2s)[(goto: "The Crying of Lot 49")]]
<script>
var audio = document.createElement('audio')
audio.src =
'https://files.freemusicarchive.org/storage-freemusicarchive-org/music/no_curator/Hinterheim/First_Demo/Hinterheim_-_01-B-finnalylost.mp3';
audio.loop = true;
audio.volume = 0.2;
audio.play();
</script>
(if: $barInventCheck is false)
[
Inside the bar, you soon bump into a man wearing a pin on his coat. It has, precisely, the muted post horn of the Trystero emblazoned on it. You get to talking with him.
He claims to be a member of the Inamorati Anonymous, a society dedicated to rejecting all things to do with love and romance. He explains to you that the post horn was a symbol adopted by their organization when they were founded. The real origin, he explains, is the W.A.S.T.E. system, an underground postal network which people who have failed to commit suicide use to talk to one another.
]
(if: $barInventCheck is true)[You've moved this memory to the back of your mind.]
(if: $barInventCheck is false)[Remember this.](click: "Remember this.")[(set: $barInventCheck to true)]\
(if: $barInventCheck is true)[//Don't get too obsessive.//]
(if: $barInventCheck is false)[Reflect on what you've learned so far.](click: "Reflect on what you've learned so far.")[(set: $barInventCheck to true)(goto: "Notesheet")]
(if: $barInventCheck is true)[Make a decision.]
(if: $barInventCheck is true)[
[[You decide to give it a rest. ->You decide to give it a rest.]] His evidence doesn't line up with what you've learned so far, and you need to find an actual lead before you continue.
[[You decide to get some help. Because you're going insane.->Dr. Hilarius]] If you're right, then this revelation has added a whole new layer onto this mystery. That, or you must really be going crazy - either way, you need to see your psychiatrist. Now. Maybe he could help you sort through your thoughts, at the very least.
](live: 3s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
Thank you for playing.
Created by Benjamin Dyke.
Based on //The Crying of Lot 49// by Thomas Pynchon.
Music:
Hinterheim - Finnaly Lost
Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
](stop:)]You're starting to think this whole situation has caused you more stress than it's worth. Maybe if you get away from it all for a little while, it'll be easier for you to figure out. All you need is a short break - and some time with someone you know you can trust.
[[You decide to go see your husband.->Mucho Maas]]