<p align="center">[[rock]]</p>
<p align="right">[[walls]] around [[you]]:</p>
a sense of [[darkness]]
<p align="center">[[echoing]]</p>
(set: $lantern to "no")
limestone, maybe.
sandstone, [[sometimes]].
sounds man-made.
they aren't.
what do you call a wall that nobody made?
or that [[water->twice]] made?
amorphous
both of us, together, for now
don't worry
i'm showing you [[something->start]]
in the [[dream:]]
not a reality, but a suggestion
not a blindfold, but an embrace
maybe you have a [[lantern]]
<p style="margin-left: 150px">this time</p>
<p style="margin-left: 50px">[[d]]</p>
<p style="margin-left: 200px">[[r]]</p>
<p style="margin-left: 350px">[[i]]</p>
<p style="margin-left: 475px">[[p]]</p>
<p style="margin-left: 600px">[[s]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
[[airlocked]], like a great spaceship
sighing underground
<p align="center">the earth rose with it</p>
a [[river]] ran through it
you had to lie [[flat]] down against the boat
watch the rocks reach for your nose
so [[dark->darkness]] that your mind
[[shuts down->seeing]]
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/river.mp3" autoplay>
not: damp, cold
cracking, desert.
<p align="center">skin-warm,</p>
<p style="margin-left: 500px">or skin-cold,</p>
<p align="right">air isn't to be [[noticed->darkness]]</p>
<p style="margin-left: 400px">[[drip->echoing]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
<p style="margin-left: 200px">[[drip->echoing]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
<p style="margin-left: 500px">[[drip->echoing]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
<p style="margin-left: 275px">[[drip->echoing]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
<p style="margin-left: 300">[[drip->start]]</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/drip.mp3" autoplay>
you were in a cave [[once]], maybe [[twice]]
jagged where you could reach.
glistening with water
but it's always [[dry]] here
<p align="center">"a [[living]] cave"</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/breath.mp3" autoplay>
<p align="center">it [[breathes]]</p>
<p align="center">rush of [[moist->dry]] air</p>
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/wind.mp3" autoplay>
<p align="center">//numbing//</p>
when they tried exploring the cave, all they found was frostbite
[[darkness]]
and silt
<audio src="https://aderonde.github.io/cavetwine/river.mp3" autoplay>
your hand
<p style="margin-left: 500px">[[caught]]</p>
against the limestone
<p align="center">and the boat.</p>
{(if: $lantern is "no")[
when there's no light
<br>//no// light
<br>your eyes make up images
<br>flashes
we often think they're [[ghosts->dream:]]
](else-if: $lantern is "yes")[
this time: the lantern
warm in your hand:
shadows where once only darkness.
<p align="center">a priori: you did not see the darkness, but you were
in it. you did not see the ghosts, but
they scraped their knuckles
[[against you.->times]]</p>
]
}
it's never a dream until after, and even then
it's more a place you've [[been]]
(set: $lantern to "yes")
cast iron
<p style="margin-left: 600px">feather light</p>
it [[glows->dream:]]
memory's the same, either way:
the walls, the lake, the waterfall.
sandy, sloping path, cold river
scraped knuckles.
can you say
which isn't real,
if you [[remember]] all of them?
you've been here so many [[times]]
{(if: $lantern is "no")[
A dark space before you.
<br>[[Endless.->start]]
](else-if: $lantern is "yes")[
A cavern unfurls before you, tall
<br>as air. Shadows flicker on the walls before
<br>fading, or: sleeping.
<br>A hole the size of a pin prick at your feet.
<br>
<br> go [[ahead]]
]}
<p align="center">scraped knuckles an hour after</p>
torn skin. a time remembered in the [[dark->darkness]]
monster fight
A monster appears! (set: $monster_hp to 3)
[[fight]]
[[flee]]
Double-click this passage to edit it.
Double-click this passage to edit it.
NICE TRY, COWARD
YOU'RE IN A CAVE AND IN A DREAM YOU CAN'T DIE YOU MEATHEAD
you force yourself through, like water.
like meat.
and you are in the rocks you have been
taken there.
and there is a [[glow]] all about you and it is in your
fingertips it is in your
beating heels and numb
arms and in the sense of here as something
you never want to leave except by [[force]]
light floats and pools to your feet a blanket
of warmth too yellow to look at head on so you smile
and your eyes close and
<br><p align="center">endless, endless, endless</p>
<br>are the sounds you hear and the places you have been the places
you will go the places you will take yourself
<p align="center">gentle leaves bruise
when you clutch them</p>
and you //clutch// them
<p align="left">(but how else are you supposed to [[hold]] on?)</p>
waking is a violent affair
as you are expelled from enemy lands:
a wanderer with spears
who wanted to go home.