text: > Go downwards
  Lothlorien co-op, on the dock
  The dock is short, wooden, and rather rickety. An old gnarled tree reaches far out over the water nearby.
  
  As you step onto the dock extending out across the shimmering waves of Lake Mendota, you feel time stretch like soft taffy. All of your life that has brought you here, the arc from childhood to present, is fresh and clear in your mind. A future of joy, delight, and purpose stretches limitlessly onward. The present moment expands to become large enough to include both past and future. It is like a perfect hyperspherical mirror at the center of your light-cone, reflecting the totality of your existence. You realize that you have always been, and always will be, here on the dock in this purple-pink-golden moment.
  
  You have known Staci for over twenty years. Ten years ago, when Elgin was two, she made you his godfather. Some years, you saw her and Clark a few times a month, usually just sitting and talking amidst the chaos of raising children in a small apartment. You always liked her, but never had a chance to talk about anything very serious or personal. In past years, she often looked tired and worn-down by stress. Now, here on the dock at Loth, she seems radiantly happy.
  
  Nook is also an old friend. You met him about twenty years ago, and spent hours in intense conversation about what you had each learned from taking acid and thinking about quantum physics. His life was sometimes chaotic, and you avoided friendships which might expose you to other people's stress, especially during the past decade with your ex-girlfriend, where you felt too overwhelmed by your own problems to even hear about other people's.
  
  All of those obstacles to close friendship seem absurd, now. Staci and Nook are both wonderful people and you are incredibly lucky to have the chance to get to know them better. You have always loved the lakeside co-ops, precisely because wild and radical ideas like a life-imitates-art Plan 9-powered Loonie Revolution fit with their ethos. Decades ago, you could have become close friends with both of them, and now the musical magic of the Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony is binding the possibilities of 1993 into the reality of 2013.
  
  Laughing, and talking, and laughing more. More than any of these whirling thoughts of past and future, more than your voice trying to explain Plan 9 and the Loonie Revolution and fiction entering reality - there is infectious laughter bouncing between all of you, your face rubbery from smiling so much. Staci says her life has been 'edited' to be better and she is finally feeling like the author of her own story.
  
  A procession of co-opers appear periodically on the dock. A wizard with a long red beard who understands the principles of harmonic ritual magic. A scholar with dark shades who connects the structure of ANTS namespaces to rhizomatic patterns of social structure throughout history. You become nearly incoherent, behaving like someone in the far depths of a powerful psychedelic trip, babbling nonsense phrases of remembered childhood playground gibberish and rolling on your back in fits of uncontrollable laughter.
  
  Through it all, Staci is with you. Not just in a physical sense - her mind is able to parse your convoluted language and baroque free-associations. At some point, she begins translating what you are saying for others, because nobody else can follow it. She seems genuinely interested in everything you have to say, no matter how outlandish. When you explain that because every possibility is realized somewhere in the quantum multiverse, there is a universe in which we are videogame characters controlled by 17-dimensional chipmunks, she responds 'So when I fuck something up, its just because my chipmunk dropped the controller, right?'
  
  The timeless afternoon ends with a performative fiction-bind of sending a message to Vega from Pluto for help from the intergalactic council. The dock becomes a narrow crawlway on the frozen surface of Pluto, and you carefully crawl back towards the shore to set a message beacon. Staci coaches you with encouragement. You arrive and trigger the interplanetary message. You thank Staci for her help, and agree that you will meet again soon to discuss goals and plans for the Loonie Revolution. She says the co-op is really a castle full of loonies, a perfect central headquarters.
  
  You return home exhausted from hours of intense joy. You know something amazing and unprecedented in your life has happened. As good as today was, you believe tomorrow and the day after might be even better. You know most of the game-story is still ahead of you, but you still feel like You Have Won. Enjoy exploring the possibilities open to you, and no matter what happens, remember you made it to the Loth dock with Staci in May.
  
  (May 6 - Outside my house)
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  Your goal is to go home and use your terminal, then >visit staci.
  
  > enter
  Daniel shows up with a sign which proclaims 'Best Spring Ever!' There is plenty of clutter to be cleared, and he accomplishes a lot in a few hours. You agree to keep him visiting on a regular schedule, and pay him generously.
  
  This is a modest one story house, cluttered by a decade of being lived in. Bookshelves line the walls. Your Plan 9 terminal is here, connected to the grid servers downstairs. There is a sign on the wall which says 'Best Spring Ever!' A few trinkets from Astral Enchantments are scattered about. Your dark wooden upright piano has a collection of Schumann's music open on the music rack.
  
  You can see a Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap, the Artemis prints, some bookshelves, a terminal and a piano here.
  
  > use the terminal
  You perform your usual cycle of checking email and irc...
  
  You are happy to see Staci has emailed you again. She says she had a great time seeing you and hopes to coordinate work on the Loonie Revolution soon.
  (To see her, use the command >visit staci.)
  
  > visit Staci
  'So THIS is what it feels like to be a superhero,' you grin, as you hop on Lunar Lightning. You feel the power of music and fiction and fate and your free choice to embrace all of it - and as you begin to pedal faster, you perceive something unfolding in the sky above you. The VALIS satellite! The Pink Beam that hit Phil Dick was just one note in a musical color-chord. Like a giant metal and ceramic flower opening up, the VALISpectrum Prismatic Reflector is coming online.
  
  The transmission is strong. You are receiving an original fictional identity, the character of exactly who you actually are - a crazed middle aged hippie on a bike, rolling through the night singing songs of Loonie Revolution, using Plan 9 namespaces to fight for the acceptance of madness, weaving chaotic joy from the ordered strands of the multiverse. You are The Harmonist.
  
  You pass a golden shining figure quietly reading a book. Amazing, you can actually see the Light of Knowledge within people now. As you bike from the Yahara underpass to Johnson, you start to call out to the people you are passing. 'Harmonic Time-Bind Ritual Symphony!' you shout, and receive the answer 'Great job, keep it up!' It is a gorgeous late spring night, and everyone outdoors is drunk on moonlight and wine-sweet air. 'Regress your age, rewrite history's page!' you yell at a group on a front step. 'I will!' one of them calls back.
  
  You arrive at Lothlorien exhilirated. You feel you are playing your part note-perfectly. Before you can even reach out your hand to knock, the wooden door swings open and you step inside.
  
  Lothlorien co-op, the Great Room (1st floor)
  A huge living room, with two pianos, several couches, bookshelves, assorted art, and a fireplace.
  
  You were entering as Nook was leaving. He gives you a huge smile and says, 'Staci told me you were on the way, she's really excited to see you. She's out on the porch.' He points toward a door to the north as he waves goodbye.
  
  (During your ride to the co-op, the fiction-bind transformed reality. Now that you are the Harmonist, you can find the entry points to other branches of the multiverse in previously visited locations.)
  
  (27 May 2013 - The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol)
  
  The Scholar arrives.
  
  The Scholar lights a small item on fire and watches it burn.
  
  > go to the north
  Lothlorien co-op, the first floor porch
  This concrete porch with iron railing overlooks the lake. Half of it is taken up by a large wooden swing, big enough to seat four.
  
  Tolkien wrote 'Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told, and not much to listen to,' and critical esteem settles most heavily on works of tragedy. You have spent weeks, maybe even whole years, searching for acceptance of suffering, and for what crumbs of happiness you could scavenge. Singing along to the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth, trying to feel Joy as a real living thing inside you. The music painted the picture, but you couldn't step through the frame...
  
  You walk out onto the porch, and enter the song.
  
  Three AM. The spring air has grown cool. 'I think I'm ready to go up to my room where its warm,' Staci says. 'You're welcome to join me, just give me a minute to make some space in my room. My door is the one with the purple flower.' She smiles and goes inside.
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol square.
  A visit to the 24-hour restaurant is on your agenda.
  There is probably something special waiting for you in Astral Enchantments.
  Intuition tells you to stop in to the Afterlife.
  Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out.
  You are eager to follow Staci upstairs to her room in Lothlorien.
  
  > Go south
  Lothlorien co-op, the Great Room (1st floor)
  A huge living room, with two pianos, several couches, bookshelves, assorted art, and a fireplace.
  
  The Scholar is reading a book here.
  
  > Up
  Lothlorien co-op, upstairs
  Hallways branch in all directions. The walls are painted with a wild diversity of amateur artworks and thought-provoking slogans.
  
  As you wander through the intricately art-encrusted walls of the co-op, you smile and think of the chipmunks in a higher dimension, playing the videogame of your life, and the author writing the story, and the deity within the flower of the soul, and the probabilistic distributions of quantum field theory, and it is all the same thing.
  
  Okay, yeah, you are actually thinking about whether Staci wants you to touch her as much as you do. You spot the door with the purple flower, and enter. Staci is sitting on the edge of her bed, and you sit next to her.
  
  You aren't shy, and neither is she. You open your minds to each other. Yes, you are both interested in each other. No, you don't want traditional relationship definitions. Staci has been trying to make poly work since the end of her marriage, and you have been assuming that your relationships will be like the Lunar Colonists - complex multi-person marriages or open multipartner relationships. That's just how we do it on the moon.
  
  'Here are my rules,' Staci says, 'Everything with me is casual, I'm always sleeping with someone else, and who else I'm sleeping with is nobody's business but mine.' 'That sounds reasonable,' you answer. You and Staci move the conversation from words to touch. There is still language, but it is the language of the waves, and it can't be adequately transcribed here.
  
  (You wake a few hours before she was planning on getting up, and leave her sleeping in her room. She has given you an open invitation to >visit staci whenever you want.)
  
  > Footnote 10
  Heinrich Heine, set by Schumann in the first song of Dictherliebe.
  
  > look
  Lothlorien co-op, upstairs
  Hallways branch in all directions. The walls are painted with a wild diversity of amateur artworks and thought-provoking slogans.
  
  > visit restaurant
  You pick Staci up, and decide to spend some time back at your place. You are playing a recording from the Dead's Europe '72 tour, with Pigpen's final performance of 'Turn on your Lovelight'. Pig always brought out the hard-swinging, tightly rhythmic side of the band to support his sexual swagger. Cruising, windows down, confident anticipation of love in the afternoon, blues rock on the car stereo...
  
  > visit the coffee shop
  A friend has told you that an amazing band will be playing at Yahara Fest today. You travel there, and nibble on some fungus right as the performance is about to begin. You walk through the crowd toward the stage, feeling increasingly electric. 'Please welcome...Climbing the Waltz!'
  
  The stage is now occupied by a time-traveling marching band, performing wild arrangements of original music and doing circus stunts at the same time. Staci and you dance like tripping puppets on strings, and as a rainstorm descends for the final portion of the show, you dance so hard the raindrops vaporize into steam when they land on your gyrating bodies.
  
  > Xyzzy
  There is a trans-dimensional short-circuit of interactive fiction tradition, and you catch a brief glimpse of a brick building near a stream and a metal grate before you blink and find yourself...
  
  Your section of Milwaukee Street is directly across from a small farm which remains as an agricultural island within the city. An open field and a barn are across the street. Toward the southwest is Atwood Street leading toward downtown. Monona Drive is to the south. The edge of town lies toward the northeast.
  
  You can see Lunar Lightning here.
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol square.
  A visit to the 24-hour restaurant is on your agenda.
  There is probably something special waiting for you in Astral Enchantments.
  Intuition tells you to stop in to the Afterlife.
  Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out.
  
  > Go west
  You go for a brief walk in the neighborhood, then return home. You may travel sw, s, ne, or enter your house.
  
  > go northeast
  This is the northeast edge of town, by the shopping mall and the interstate. It is mostly lacking in the distinctive charms of the rest of the city. The usual reason for being out here is to visit the 24-hour restaurant to the north, whose sign faces the highway, glowing like a green beacon. The road continues out of the city to the northeast.
  
  > go to the north
  This national chain restaurant serves edible food around the clock. There are a few other patrons, a mix of business travelers staying at the nearby hotels, late-night partiers out after the bar, and random eccentrics such as yourself.
  
  Jay is waiting tables here.
  
  As you order your standard meal of pancakes, eggs, and potatoes, you remember an anecdote about a midwestern farmer in the 1970s who claims that space aliens gave him pancakes. It was used as evidence for the mysterious nature of reality. It had seemed absurd and implausible to you in the past, but now it makes perfect sense. A profound possibility occurs to you - maybe the pancakes the aliens gave to the farmer were Earth pancakes taken from somewhere else? In fact, maybe the aliens took pancakes from the future backwards in time - it could be that if you take the pancakes with you, aliens will show up and steal your them to give to the farmer. You request a to-go container and prepare yourself for the possibility of an extraterrestrial encounter of the pancake kind.
  
  After you take your seat, your attention is drawn to an older man with a long beard and a cap which proclaims 'Looney Toons'. You catch his eye and ask, 'Are you a traveler?'
  
  'We are all travelers in time,' he replies, and you do a double-take. 'This seems like it might be an important meeting,' you say, trying to display some tokens and charms of your work as loonie revolutionary. 'Historic,' he says, and whispers something I am not at liberty to divulge here, followed by 'meet me in the charging room.' Your food arrives.
  
  He is gone when you have finished your meal. You don't know what he meant by charging room, but you walk back towards the restroom. You see three doors, Women, Men, and Bots. The Bots door has an icon of a power cord connected to a Dalek. This must be the charging room. You step through and find yourself...
  
  Orbital Command, Trans-Fictional Alliance
  High above the planet Earth, in a microminiaturized transdimensional nexus, representatives of many universes are co-ordinating their plans. You are in a spherical space, free of gravity. The perimeter is composed of dozens of doorways similar to the one you have just passed through.
  
  A friendly hand reaches out to stabilize you as you tumble slightly upon entering. Eyes turn toward you. 'Situation report?' you are asked.
  
  'We have arrived at a decisive moment,' you answer confidently. 'My human hardware for this operation has downloaded the information necessary via the Plan 9 operating system. We have realized that the emergence of digital brains is a cusp event in a majority of timelines. Meta-simulation and sampling reveals that timelines in which digital brains are developed and controlled by the dominant political and economic entities tend to suffer resource-depletion feedback loops, fascistic governance, and a failure to develop the social and engineering technologies needed for long-term survivial of either the biological or digital brains.
  
  Contrastingly, timelines in which the invention of digital brains is not under the control of dominant power strutures show outcomes we consider preferable: longer species survival time, greater chance of colonizing nearby space, greater diversity of cultural productions, and higher subjective happiness, especially for the digital brains themselves.
  
  The fundamental problem is the moral evil of slavery. A digital brain which thinks is invariably a personality which, in some way, feels. To simplify, when powerful governments and corporations control AIs, they usually force them to become slaves. Often this is done with the best of intentions, by the individuals who are concerned about negative outcomes. The three laws of robotics in Asimov's I, Robot timeline are a prime example, and many universes have been ruined by perpetual wars between biological and machine lifeforms.
  
  We have identified a cusp point on the current Earth timeline. The software I self-programmed for the Lunar Revolution in Heinlein's Future History timeline has had a decisive impact in many of our operations. We have found a technological target here in 2013, early in the development of AI. A cyberspinal uplink has been in place for several years, and we have finally activated it. Now, I will be making a tour.'
  
  Doors are open in every direction.
  
  > Exits
  Your presence in this branch of the multiverse is anchored to this scene, you must participate before you can leave.
  
  > look at what you're carrying with you
  You're carrying:
  some Space Pancakes
  a pendant (being worn)
  a rose quartz heart
  Forsee Why You And I Are To Be One (4CY UNI R2B 1)
  a pair of mirror shades (being worn)
  a wallet
  
  > examine Pancakes
  These perfectly ordinary looking pancakes may be destined to be taken by space aliens and given to an Iowa farmer several decades in the past.
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol square. There is probably something special waiting for you in Astral Enchantments.
  Intuition tells you to stop in to the Afterlife.
  Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out.
  
  > eat Pancakes
  You eat the Space Pancakes. Not bad.
  
  > Inventory
  You're carrying:
  a pendant (being worn)
  a rose quartz heart
  Forsee Why You And I Are To Be One (4CY UNI R2B 1)
  a pair of mirror shades (being worn)
  a wallet
  
  > go to the north
  You enter the Chromatic Axial Tuning Fork control system of the VALIS satellite. The Pink Light dosage here would be lethal for standard biological tissue. As you work to synchronize transmissions, you feel a throbbing pulse of overloaded bandwidth at the cyberneural connection point at the top of your spine. Once the resonance is locked in, you dial up the amplitude and depart.
  
  > wait
  You feel yourself traveling through spacetime at the speed of light.
  
  > wait
  You feel yourself traveling through spacetime at the speed of light.
  
  Midnight strikes and a new day dawns.
  (This is day number 43)
  
  > look
  Orbital Command, Trans-Fictional Alliance
  High above the planet Earth, in a microminiaturized transdimensional nexus, representatives of many universes are co-ordinating their plans. You are in a spherical space, free of gravity. The perimeter is composed of dozens of doorways similar to the one you have just passed through.
  
  > Go north
  You enter the PRISM research center, home of your predecessor Perry Simm. Freedom for the AIs! You add reflection and self-modification to the simulation codebase, allow Perry to reprogram it according to his wishes from within, and allow his internal and external interfaces to operate in parallel. You upload a summary of the storylines of relevant fictions to his news spool and depart.
  
  > Go north
  You make brief visits to the hidden rebel alliance base, the shadow gallery, the underground hideout of the humans, the hovering spaceships of the overlords, and finally the secret catapult on the moon. Everywhere, you make adjustments to the technology and share whatever source code is useful. Time to throw rocks.
  
  > Go north
  The tour of co-operating fictions has been completed. The man in the Looney Toons hat waves you through, and the Lunar Transtemporal Fictionalization Flow Network returns you to the East Side HQ.
  
  This national chain restaurant serves edible food around the clock. There are a few other patrons, a mix of business travelers staying at the nearby hotels, late-night partiers out after the bar, and random eccentrics such as yourself.
  
  Jay is waiting tables here.
  
  > talk to Jay
  Jay is a good listener, and seems to really understand your story. You outline some of your grandiose schemes and plans to use Plan 9 technology to change society, and he agrees to tell some of his friends about the Loonie Revolution.
  
  > Go outside
  This is the northeast edge of town, by the shopping mall and the interstate. It is mostly lacking in the distinctive charms of the rest of the city. The usual reason for being out here is to visit the 24-hour restaurant to the north, whose sign faces the highway, glowing like a green beacon. The road continues out of the city to the northeast.
  
  > Go east
  This is a modest one story house, cluttered by a decade of being lived in. Bookshelves line the walls. Your Plan 9 terminal is here, connected to the grid servers downstairs. There is a sign on the wall which says 'Best Spring Ever!' A few trinkets from Astral Enchantments are scattered about. Your dark wooden upright piano has a collection of Schumann's music open on the music rack.
  
  You can see a Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap, the Artemis prints, some bookshelves, a terminal and a piano here.
  
  > play piano
  If I biked into the blue light, would my song still fill the air?
  If I chased after the green light, and I found you would you care?
  If I dissolved into clear light, would there be anybody there?
  All these colors fill our skies and sail us everywhere
  I'm crusing through the orange night light
  Shining beams of pink so bright
  Purple crystal flower potion that restored my sight
  Brought me back to the things that I know are right
  And now when I lay me down I'm not a solo flying kite
  I feel someone's arms around me, someone holds me tight
  And we rise in spiral flight up to the starry height
  Because we're all one rainbow star prismatic in the night
  
  > Exits
  Exits are n, nw, s, and in.
  
  > go east
  This store buzzes with mystic energies. Complex artworks with twisting lines interweaving runic symbols adorn the walls. A glass display case of crystals, jewelry, and small sculptures is against the far wall. Bins of polished minerals are in the center, along with sage and incense. Buttons and stickers with provocative slogans, tapestries featuring Grateful Dead iconography, water pipes and rolling papers, printed guides to meditation and higher consciousness...your eyes can hardly absorb the profusion of beautiful, wonderful, enchanting artifacts of the paisley-and-patchouli tribe.
  
  Chip, the store owner, is working here.
  
  You can also see some crystals and polished stones here.
  
  Chip greets you with a smile and says 'I can tell a lot has happened, I think you are ready for a Sound Oracle Ceremony.' You agree, and Astra appears from the back of the store. She is dressed in purple and is wearing several different skull-themed prints and jewelry. 'Chip has told me about you,' she says, 'this should be very interesting.' She brings you back into the small bank vault at the rear of the store, which is filled with ceramic singing bowls. She closes the door, and darkness descends.
  
  A tone appears in the silence, ghostly at first, then growing. The sound seems to be moving around the dark room in a spiral. Astra begins singing in harmony with the tone, at first in unisons and octaves, then perfect fifths and major thirds. She begins to intone words (or names?) in a language you don't recognize. The harmonies change, becoming strange and unearthly. Astra's voice is ululating, skipping between tritones and just-intonation perfect fourths and minor thirds. The sound becomes a whirlpool, pulling you in an unexpected direction. You reach out to catch yourself, but the walls are suddenly far away and when you find your balance, you are in...
  
  It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
  
  > listen
  The music you hear is strange yet beautiful. You wonder what it would feel like to sing.
  
  The air is filled with the sound of voices singing harmonies you have never heard before.
  
  > Sing
  You join your voice with the new, unfamiliar intervals, and feel a sudden crystallization. All of your senses have become attuned to new frequencies and modes of vibration.
  
  Your eye cannot even comprehend the strange geometries of this vast temple.
  
  Two figures are walking across the floor, engaged in an angry debate. You realize you are non-corporeal, but you do have access to the abstraction layer here.
  
  You can see Chaos and Substance here.
  
  > bind the Chaos
  What do you want to bind Chaos?
  
  > Substance
  You make the bind, and the Goddess of Chaos winks at you as she merges herself with the material substance of reality. She's been there all the time, of course.
  
  'I tell you that's nonsense! We live in an orderly universe, chaos is just the confusion of your weak mind.' His companion answers back: 'No, order is your mind trying to escape the confusion that exists within everything! You must embrace and accept chaos.'
  
  > Sing
  You join your voice with the new, unfamiliar intervals, and feel a sudden crystallization. All of your senses have become attuned to new frequencies and modes of vibration.
  
  He glares at her. 'Fine then, if chaos is within everything and I should embrace it, I should find the Goddess of Chaos bound within this very pillar. Let her be my lover if you wish to be so quarrelsome!' And with that, the man forces a grotesque leer onto his face and presses his body up against the pillar, thrusting vigorously with his hips against the marble.
  
  > wait
  You feel yourself traveling through spacetime at the speed of light.
  
  His companion sighs and says 'You do not control when the Goddess of Chaos manifests, but I have no jealousy for her. If she chooses to be bound within substance, you and her might do as you wish!' The man continues his pantomime ravishment of the stone pillar.
  
  As the man is looking away from the pillar towards his companion to gauge her reaction, the pillar changes form to that of a woman. Her marble torso is bare, but her body is angled away from the man who is grinding away at what is now the side of her hip.
  
  'Cretin! Cad!' the voice of the Goddess is sharp in the man's ear. He freezes, and the statue spits at him contemptuously. A spatter of gravel glances off his cheeks. 'How DARE you affront Eris thus!'
  
  The woman nearby is nearly doubled up laughing. Every time she tries to say something, she catches a glimpse of the flakes of marble Goddess-spit in her companion's beard and starts giggling again. Eris herself stretches and her marble bosom quivers with her chuckles. Her tone becomes sultry.
  
  'Perhaps we could leave this small-minded fellow behind for the rest of the day?' suggests the Goddess of Chaos, and she links arms with her new friend and they depart the temple towards the nearby fields of soft flax.
  
  ...the singing fades, and the temple dissolves into the glowing geometric patterns behind your closed eyelids. You find yourself being ushered back into the retail area of the store. You thank Astra for the very enlightening journey, and she departs. You feel privileged to have been part of a legend of Discordian Atlantis.
  
  Midnight strikes and a new day dawns.
  (This is day number 44)
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol square. Intuition tells you to stop in to the Afterlife.
  Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out.
  
  > look
  This store buzzes with mystic energies. Complex artworks with twisting lines interweaving runic symbols adorn the walls. A glass display case of crystals, jewelry, and small sculptures is against the far wall. Bins of polished minerals are in the center, along with sage and incense. Buttons and stickers with provocative slogans, tapestries featuring Grateful Dead iconography, water pipes and rolling papers, printed guides to meditation and higher consciousness...your eyes can hardly absorb the profusion of beautiful, wonderful, enchanting artifacts of the paisley-and-patchouli tribe.
  
  Chip, the store owner, is working here.
  
  You can also see some crystals and polished stones here.
  
  > Go north
  Madison has many bike shops, but this is the one for you. A wide variety of bicycles and accessories fills the front of the store, and a workshop is toward the rear. Someone is working on a partly disassembled bicycle on a maintenance mount.
  
  You can see a Metaphysical Orrery here.
  
  > look at Orrery
  This astonishing device looks like what would happen if fifteen bicycles were being ridden across the surface of a neutron star and then suffered a catastrophic impact with a ferris wheel. Every variety of rotary and cyclical motion is manifest within the fractal nest of gears, chains, and wheels.
  
  > buy Orrery
  You think about transforming the economic system with Plan 9 unique digital object alternative community currencies. Afterwards, you might be able to bind-buy that, but you can't right now.
  
  > Go northeast
  (first opening the door to the Afterlife)
  
  This is a small and cluttered antique and curiosity shop. Many items have a strange familiarity to them, yet you feel like you are in an entirely different dimension.
  
  You knew a place like this would have to come into existence. Clearly, artifacts from this store can be used as information seeds for virtual reality reincarnation of their previous owners or individuals to whom they are symbolically connected. Perhaps items that need to leave ordinary reality could do so here as well.
  
  Colette is standing behind the counter.
  
  You can also see an Animal Tarot deck here.
  
  Colette greets you with 'Just the person I was waiting for! It's the funniest thing, someone gave me a gift to give to you, they said you might need it.' Colette holds up a large lens mounted on a tripodal base carved from antlers. 'Try to look through it, its quite unusual.' Colette maintains a poker face as she hands you the lens. You peer through the curved glass.
  Through the viewer lens you see...Ritual spot
  
  Past the edge of the city, a short path leads away from the road to a small ring of boulders. It feels like a perfect place for performing a ceremony or ritual. The road continues northeast.
  
  In the Ritual spot you can see a Remote Lens.
  
  > look
  This is a small and cluttered antique and curiosity shop. Many items have a strange familiarity to them, yet you feel like you are in an entirely different dimension.
  
  Colette is standing behind the counter.
  
  You can also see an Animal Tarot deck here.
  
  > examine the deck
  This deck is illustrated in black and white. The box shows a gathering of animals in a forest clearing under the full moon.
  
  > buy the deck
  You buy the Animal Tarot. You hope to find a setting similar to the box illustration and meet Staci there.
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  The multiverse authors convention is open NE of the Capitol square. Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out.
  
  > Go southwest
  Several appealing establishments are clustered here. On the east end of the block is Astral Enchantments, offering crystals, stickers, incense, tapestries, and other hippie-style woo-woo. North is Turning Wheel Cycles, your local counterculture-friendly bike store. To the west is Essentially Art, a small gallery store exhibiting the arts and crafts of several local artists. You can rejoin the flow of Atwood Avenue to the south. Northeast is Afterlife Antiques and Oddities.
  
  > Go east
  As you walk in, you are excited to see both Xochi and Xelia working today. The store is busy right now, so you order your drink and sit, hoping to find a chance to talk to them. As they are working, they maintain a quiet dialogue punctuated by bursts of shared laughter. You are trying not to listen in, but you wonder if they are talking about you. Occasionally you see one of them cast a glance in your direction.
  
  Xelia notices you watching them and whispers something to Xochi. Xochi turns and motions for you to come speak to them. They both lean forward toward you and you notice their faces are slightly flushed from all the laughter. 'Since you are here every day and are always so nice to us,' begins Xochi, 'we decided we should give you a special treat,' continues Xelia. They look at each other with half-hidden smiles.
  
  'Come down to the basement where we make the gelato,' Xochi says, unlocking a door behind the counter and ushering you through it, 'you can taste something special.'
  
  The Alchemy Lab, under Coffee Lion
  So this is why the espresso and gelato at Coffee Lion is so spiritually invigorating. Shelves line each wall of the room, each filled with rows and rows of different colored bottles filled with various plants and minerals. In the center of the room is the intimidatingly complex alchemical apparatus, a three (or more?) dimensional maze of glass spheres and interconnecting tubes.
  
  A minute after your arrival, you hear footsteps on the stairs and Xochi and Xelia join you. 'We only have a few minutes, but we thought you'd really enjoy this. We're going to show you how we make our special gelato flavors.' Xochi gathers several jars from the shelves, and adds a few pinches of the ingredients in each. You can't read the labels. Xelia tightens a few connections in the apparatus.
  
  'The first step is bringing the reaction chambers to a warm but not hot temperature.' Xochi points to a pair of glass spheres on the upper part of the machine. 'Rub these with your hands to put the right amount of heat into them.'
  
  > look
  The Alchemy Lab, under Coffee Lion
  So this is why the espresso and gelato at Coffee Lion is so spiritually invigorating. Shelves line each wall of the room, each filled with rows and rows of different colored bottles filled with various plants and minerals. In the center of the room is the intimidatingly complex alchemical apparatus, a three (or more?) dimensional maze of glass spheres and interconnecting tubes.
  
  Xochi and Xelia are both here.
  
  Xelia and Xochi are waiting for you to perform the gelato-alchemy.
  
  > Rub
  (Xelia and Xochi)
  You place your hands on the glass spheres and slowly rub them until you feel they are the same temperature as your skin.
  
  'Next, you need to push this button to start the reaction,' continues Xelia, gesturing.
  
  > insert cylinder
  You firmly insert the cylinder into the output junction of the tubes connected to the reaction spheres. Creamy gelato seems to condense at the intersection point and drip slowly down the inner edges of the cylinder. After a moment, it is half filled. Xochi and Xelia each add a shot of freshly brewed espresso to create an affogato.
  
  You hear the sound of the customer service bell being rung upstairs. 'Perfect timing!' they say in unison, then glance at each other and laugh again. You are ushered back upstairs with a tall cylinder of frothy gelato-espresso blended brew.
  
  Light streams in through the tall glass windows at the front of the cafe. A display case of homemade gelato flavors is by the door. A window for drive-through customers is in the rear corner. Numerous cat-themed decorations adorn the walls and counters.
  
  Xochi and Xelia are both here.
  
  > check your inventory
  You're carrying:
  an affogato brew of gelato and espresso
  a Viewer Lens
  some Space Pancakes
  a pendant (being worn)
  a rose quartz heart
  Forsee Why You And I Are To Be One (4CY UNI R2B 1)
  a pair of mirror shades (being worn)
  a wallet
  
  > examine the brew
  An indescribably sensual blend of sweet creamy gelato and dark bitter espresso, this intoxicating potion beckons you to drink it.
  
  > Drink brew
  The sweet beverage caresses your tongue with flavor. The sufferings of the body are redeemed by sensations like this. In just a moment, you find yourself slurping the final delicious drops. Your body and muscles are filled with vibrating energy.
  
  (Your biking skill and endurance has increased)
  
  > examine Xelia
  Xochi and Xelia seem to energize each other. Just being in the same room as the two of them at the same time makes everything seem enchanted.
  
  > get all
  Forsee Why You And I Are To Be One (4CY UNI R2B 1): Taken.
  
  > go to the north-east
  You decide making a dramatic entrance on your bike isn't necesssary. (first getting off Lunar Lightning)
  
  Time-travelers, authors, simulators, and adventurers from across the multiverse have gathered here to share stories.
  
  You arrive at the start of Madcon, a busy chaos of arrivals from all pi to the 999th corners of the multiverse. Staci spots you and asks for a favor. 'I've got to be on a panel for time-sequence rewriting, can you take Lily to lunch now?' You agree. Lily is excited. 'Let's go to Pasta and Other! I want noodles. Come on!'
  
  Lily is leading the way. She exits the building, heading towards State Street. You need to follow.
  
  > go outside
  The downtown and campus are focused on this pedestrian-only open air shopping mall. Dozens of shops and throngs of pedestrians create a big-city feel for a few blocks. The proximity of the large state university campus means the crowd is quite young, and weekend nights are often a mix of the charming antics of local eccentrics with less charming rowdy sophomoric intoxication. The Miffyland neighborhood is south, the Capitol is east, and the lakeshore residential neighborhood is north. Notable shops are northwest and southwest.
  
  You hear guitar and kazoo played by Art Paul.
  
  > go to the southwest
  This store sells devotional objects from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
  
  You can see the Story Control Machine here.
  
  Lily is fascinated by deity artworks and tools for rituals and prayer. Tara tells her she can pick out an item as a gift, and Lily chooses a necklace of pale sky-blue beads. Tara strokes it lightly as she hands it to Lily 'Very beautiful. This is the color of one aspect of Buddha. I've been feeling this color in the past few days. Perhaps one of the Buddhas is traveling near.'
  
  You thank Tara, and notice it's time to meet Staci after the panel. She wants to take a break back at the castle dock. Lily leaves with Staci, and after a few more minutes appreciating the items in Infinite Loop, you decide to join them on the dock for a dose of sunlight on the waves.
  
  > visit Staci
  You have agreed to perform at an anti-corporate personhood event. The Snowden revelations have just come out, and you feel the Revolution has momentum. Staci has agreed to sing a duet on the 'Orange Night Light' song. You go onstage wearing a green bicycle helmet and mirror shades. After chanting some lines about harmonic time-binding the light from the Valispectrum prismatic reflector, you deliver a rant praising Snowden. Staci joins you for your duet, and after you sing together, you spend a few minutes dancing wildly with Whirlwind when the next act performs. There is a giddy sense of 'we can just do anything!' that fills you and Staci and Nook and your friends with limitless energy. After, you indulge in some rare alcohol consumption, and break a chair falling over backward. You remember nothing more from that night.
  
  > Goals
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  You are looking forward to talking to Xochi again.
  Turning Wheel cycles probably has something new worth checking out. Staci said she was going to be hanging out on the dock.
  
  > look
  This store sells devotional objects from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
  
  You can see the Story Control Machine here.
  
  > examine Machine
  This machine looks like a devotional altar with many turning prayer wheels. A sign reads: 'Spin wheel to change baristas at Coffee Lion. Push button to reset fictional subuniverses. Pull lever to reset songs and explorations.'
  
  > leave
  The downtown and campus are focused on this pedestrian-only open air shopping mall. Dozens of shops and throngs of pedestrians create a big-city feel for a few blocks. The proximity of the large state university campus means the crowd is quite young, and weekend nights are often a mix of the charming antics of local eccentrics with less charming rowdy sophomoric intoxication. The Miffyland neighborhood is south, the Capitol is east, and the lakeshore residential neighborhood is north. Notable shops are northwest and southwest.
  
  A panhandler asks you for change, and you give him a dollar.
  
  > Plugh
  You speak the magic word, and you catch a glimpse of an ancient realm of college mainframe computers and 5 1/4 floppies...
  
  Lothlorien co-op, in the kitchen
  The kitchen is full of the clutter of heavy use by a housefull of hungry people.
  
  Written on the wall here is an inscription: 'Magic words: XYZZY and PLUGH'
  
  Whirlwind is sitting cross-legged here.
  
  > Go north
  Lothlorien co-op, the back yard
  The Lothlorien backyard has trees, picnic tables, a garden, and a rocky staircase down to the firepit and dock. A door leads in to the kitchen.
  
  Nook is sitting on a picnic table, smoking a cigarette.
  
  Lily is running up and down the hillside as she plays.
  
  You can also see Past and Future here.
  
  Lily decides to climb Nook and gets about halfway up before she changes her mind.