text: > Go down
  As soon as you enter the room, you sense something deeply unusual, but intriguing. The code running on your grid of Plan 9 machines, the complicated interwoven mesh of namespaces, seems to have hooked into the low-level machine code of the universe. New file descriptors have been mounted allowing access to fundamental abstractions. If you dare, you could bind two normally distinct perceptual constructs into a single union.
  
  Your house, in the basement
  Your ex-girlfriend used to stay down here, but now the area is mostly storage...and your grid hardware. In the center of the dark concrete floor is a flimsy table with numerous aging computers both under it and on top. A tangle of ethernet and power cables criss-cross the room like spiderwebs.
  
  Your cat Strawberry is here.
  
  You can also see Reality and Fiction here.
  
  Strawberry deftly steps through the maze of cords and vanishes behind some boxes.
  
  > Reality
  You make the necessary adjustments to your basement grid to interface with the metalevel abstractions that structure your experiences. The bind command executes instantly, and for a moment you feel a foolish doubt - but in that same moment, you feel a warmth spreading within you, like liquid electricity being absorbed by the roots of your neural tree, and your visual perceptions take on a slight rainbow tint at the edges of objects, with an extra hint of pink.
  
  (You have completed the introduction. You may now explore freely.)
  (8 April 2013)
  
  Strawberry nimbly hops up onto the computer desk, thankfully avoiding the keyboards.
  
  > look
  Your house, in the basement
  Your ex-girlfriend used to stay down here, but now the area is mostly storage...and your grid hardware. In the center of the dark concrete floor is a flimsy table with numerous aging computers both under it and on top. A tangle of ethernet and power cables criss-cross the room like spiderwebs.
  
  Your cat Strawberry is here.
  
  You can also see Reality and Fiction here.
  
  Strawberry's head peeks out from behind one of the grid computers.
  
  > About yourself
  You are 38 years old, long-haired and bearded, slightly disabled from rheumatoid arthritis. You are slightly fat but have been losing weight lately from a fritos-only programmer's diet.
  
  Strawberry is standing still, tail twitching slightly.
  
  > Up
  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. Your dark wooden upright piano has a collection of Schumann's music open on the music rack.
  
  You can see some bookshelves, a terminal and a piano here.
  
  Now that fiction and reality are merged, your mind begins to contemplate your life and actions from the perspective of a character who knows that they are inside a story, but also that the story is not linear - you realize you are a fictional protagonist, but one with valid free will to navigate the multiple universes in which your story appears.
  
  > check your inventory
  You're carrying:
  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 west
  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 bound the name 'mycroftiv' to yourself years ago, and now that your reality has become fictional, you understand why the narrative associated with that name is playing out in your own life. The artificially intelligent prankster computer that was the leader of a rebellion against authority on the moon is actually your true identity. You know you are crazy - but it is time for a Loonie Revolution.
  
  > think
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  Visiting the 24-hour restaurant seems like a good idea.
  Visiting the Willy street food co-op seems worth doing.
  Checking out Lady Wisdom's coffeeshop is on your mind.
  You'd like to wander around to visit new places.
  
  > Go south
  Traffic is heavy at the intersection of these roads. Nearby to the east is Coffee Lion Cafe. Monona Drive continues to the south, Atwood Avenue is northwest, and your home is to the north.
  
  Awareness of your higher-dimensional Narrative Identity feels breathtaking. The slow, jellylike neural tissue of your brain is augmented by the computational speed and storage capacity of sci-fi technology. Your perceptions and memories have become hyperdetailed and your mind feels big as a planet inside.
  
  You have become the Moon Computer.
  
  > go to the southwest
  Atwood Avenue is one of the streets that defines the character of the near east side. The feel is funky and freak-friendly. North of you is a cluster of intriguing stores: Astral Enchantments, Turning Wheel Cycles, and Essentially Art. Willy street is to the west, your home is northeast, and Atwood becomes Monona Drive to the southeast.
  
  > Go north
  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 a small doorway with a Coming Soon sign.
  
  > 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.
  
  You can't believe you hadn't noticed this store before, it must be new - or perhaps your feeling that you are in a new and better universe is literally true, and you have ascended into a dimension with retail stores more attuned to your sensibilities. There is a tall man standing behind the counter. You launch into a fast-paced monologue about the stories we create amidst the branching of the quantum multiverse. He introduces himself as Chip and says 'I think you are definitely in the right place, and we can help you.' You agree completely.
  
  Chip, the store owner, is working here.
  
  You can also see some crystals and polished stones here.
  
  > Examine Chip
  Chip is very tall - the topmost point of his dark mohawk a full seven feet off the ground. He radiates a peaceful, calming energy. He watches the world around himself with relaxed curiosity.
  
  > look at the crystals
  Display shelves and bins are full of a wide variety of large and small quartz and amethyst points and a wide variety of tumble-polished stones of all sizes, shapes, and colors. You feel a strong urge to buy something to give away as a gift.
  
  > buy the crystal
  Your eye falls on a piece of rose quartz carved into a heart shape. You buy it for $10 and put it in your pocket. It seems like it would make a perfect gift for Xochi.
  
  Midnight strikes and a new day dawns.
  (This is day number 9)
  
  > talk to Chip
  Chip looks you over carefully, and says 'I'd like you to have this.' He presents you with a moon-faced pendant necklace. 'May you vibrate harmoniously on your journeys.'
  
  (You can ask Chip about: chip, myself, pendant, store, ceremonies, astra, crystals, or quartz. You can tell him about: myself, himself.)
  
  > ask Chip about the quartz
  'You can use quartz for almost any ritual purpose. If you have a collection of quartz crystals, you can amplify their power by placing them in a geometric arrangement.'
  
  > ask Chip about the pendant
  'It's made from orgone plastic. We make it ourselves, it combines an organic base with metal and mineral elements to focus your energetic field.'
  
  > wear the pendant
  You put on the pendant.
  
  > ask Chip about the ceremonies
  'When we acquired this space, we discovered it has a back room which was an old bank vault, which works perfectly for focusing sound energy. My wife Astra works with her voice and singing bowls, she is a Sound Oracle.'
  
  > ask Chip about Astra
  'She and I have been doing about what you see here in various places for a few years now, but this new location seems very powerful and auspicious. Sometime in the future I'm sure she'd be happy to perform a sound ceremony for you.
  
  > examine rose quartz
  The heart is made from shaped and polished translucent pink rose quartz. It fits nicely in the center of your palm and feels pleasantly smooth.
  
  > tell Chip about myself
  You launch enthusiastically into the long-form account of your work and goals. Just as you are reaching a pitch of excitement, a few other customers wander in and ask Chip for help picking some incense to enhance their sexual energy.
  
  > buy the incense
  You spend twenty dollars on a few items from the store. Your purchases will be delivered to your house automatically.
  
  > examine the pendant
  The pendant is made from orgone plastic in the shape of a moon-face. The front is colored brownish-gold with a faint sparkle, the back is transparent and shows small pieces of stone and metal embedded within. It hangs from a black cloth cord.
  
  > think
  You think you can develop your friendship with Xochi more.
  Visiting the 24-hour restaurant seems like a good idea.
  Visiting the Willy street food co-op seems worth doing.
  Checking out Lady Wisdom's coffeeshop is on your mind.
  You'd like to wander around to visit new places.
  
  > examine Afterlife
  Which do you mean, the door to the Afterlife or the atwood shopping block exterior?
  
  > look at the door
  A wooden door with glass panels.
  
  > open the door
  The door to the Afterlife seems to be locked.
  
  > 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.
  
  Getting back into bicycling has been something you have been meaning to do for a few years. You tell the owner you are in search of the 'ultimate hippiecycle' and he sends you down into the basement to search for a suitable prototype amongst the forest of old bikes. Your eye is caught by a Salsa covered with colorful peppers - which turns out to be the owner's former touring bike, which he criss-crossed the country on during his 20s. 'I'll find something special for you as soon as I can,' he promises.
  
  > look
  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.
  
  > Exits
  The only exit is out.
  
  > go west
  This local gallery has a mix of prints, paintings, and sculptures on display.
  
  You can see the Artemis prints here.
  
  > Examine prints
  Each of these three prints shows a modern incarnation of Artemis the hunter; she is aiming her bow toward the viewer, with the dark outline of an industrial skyline behind her. Each print is slightly different in color, and in one of them, rows of words intersect the image, taken from a poem: 'sometimes in its box of sky, lavender and cornerless, the moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy.'
  
  > examine the sculptures
  Most of the art here has a strongly local character. Lots of paintings and photographs of the Wisconsin landscape and wildlife. Nothing appeals to you as much as Artemis print series.
  
  > examine the wallet
  An old black leather wallet containing the standard mix of cash, credit cards, and random scraps of paper.
  Your bank account balance is $29970
  
  > buy the prints
  As you declare your intention to purchase the prints, the clerk in the store looks surprised. It turns out she is the artist that created them during the past several months, at the same time you were working on ANTS. The symbolism of the artwork seems perfectly aligned with the story of the Loonie Revolution.
  
  You spend $500 on the prints, you have $29470 remaining.
  
  Midnight strikes and a new day dawns.
  (This is day number 10)
  
  > 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
  
  > take the prints
  Taken.