  
ClubFloyd Transcript:
The idea behind ClubFloyd is that each
week at a pre-arranged time, a group of
people meet online to cooperatively play
a game of interactive fiction.
|
|
ClubFloyd Transcript:
The idea behind ClubFloyd is that each
week at a pre-arranged time, a group of
people meet online to cooperatively play
a game of interactive fiction.
|
|
ToyShop & Floyditorium
|
#ClubFloyd Discussion
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| Miseri asks, "What're we playing tonight, Brain?" | Jacqueline says (to Miseri), "Well, we haven't begun yet." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Waiting until the top of the hour to discuss." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "Hi" | ||
| Teaspoon arrives, ready to play with the toys. | Jacqueline says, "Aloha, folks." | |
| Jacqueline says, "So. The Xyzzy nominees literally just dropped." | ||
| Doug says, "woooo" | ||
| Teaspoon asks, "are we picking one of them?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "That was my thought. To pick a Floydable one that we have not yet played." | ||
| Jacqueline | [LINK] | ||
| Miseri has to step out for a few minutes. Feel free to start without him. | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So, for Best Game, we've played Brain Guzzlers and Midnight. Swordfight, but I think that's it." | ||
| Roger says, "Birdland looks pretty well-recommended if we can handle it" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm. No, doesn't seem Floydable. We unfortunately (short of a Google Hangout or something, which not all of our regulars can do) can't play Twine. But I now have it on my personal To Play list." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm, and Hollywood Visionary is ChoiceScript through Steam or the app stores." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And SPY INTRIGUE is also online only." | ||
| Roger says, "Hrm" | ||
| Doug asks, "has Floyd played Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "First one I see that we can play but have not yet played is Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory by Katherine Morayati." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Timing." | ||
| Busta arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | Busta says, "I vote for Synethesia" | |
| Teaspoon says, "I've heard good things about it." | ||
| Doug asks, "oh huh, looks like Club Floyd never played Oppositely Opal?" | ||
| Roger says, "Yeah I generally like her work, so let's go for it" | ||
| Doug says, "2nd place in ParserComp" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Nope" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So, we only have two weeks to get our votes in. I guess that means that while we'll be helping some folks to explore some new-to-them games, there's a lot of independent study required for some of us." | ||
| Doug says, "also looks like Scroll Thief was played when it was in Introcomp but not the final version" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "load sleepmask laidoff" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | This piece contains language and other mature themes. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Do you wish to continue (Y / N)? | Busta says, "I played introcomp scroll thief but not final scrollthief so that's a good one too" | |
| Teaspoon says, "So that's a yes then." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "y" | ||
Floyd ]
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory
Floyd |
Floyd | A work of interactive fiction by Katherine Morayati.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Please choose one of the following options:
Floyd |
Floyd | About (recommended for first-timers) : A
Floyd | Start : (SPACE)
Floyd | Quit : Q
| Doug says, "I think I've played all but 6 of the nominees. and 4 of those are in the Best Use of Multimedia category." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Let's do the about just in case it has some new verbs or something." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "agreed" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "a" | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | > About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | Roger asks, "Are we entranscripting?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Yep" | ||
| Doug says, "(I have played SynFac, for the record)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I'm thinking either About the Piece or the FAQ" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Let's take them in order." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Or, heck we could do them all." | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "n" | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | > About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | Jacqueline says, "I want to see this one." | |
| Teaspoon presses the yellow enter button. | ||
Floyd ] About the Author
Floyd | Katherine Morayati is a music writer by day and by night and an
Floyd | interactive fiction person the rest of the time. She is the
Floyd | editor-in-chief of SPAG and the author of Broken Legs, which
Floyd | took second place in the 2009 Interactive Fiction Competition. This is
Floyd | nothing like that.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Please press SPACE to continue.
| Teaspoon says, "Nice" | |
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | > About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "n" | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | > About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon presses the yellow enter button. | ||
Floyd ] About the Piece Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory is a work of parser Floyd | interactive fiction. In parser IF, one progresses through the work by Floyd | entering commands at the command prompt. Some parser IF is designed Floyd | around puzzles; this work is puzzleless. Think of it as akin to a Floyd | short story, or perhaps what's increasingly called "dynamic fiction." Floyd | The point is not to win but to explore: to build a story, and choose Floyd | what goes into it. Floyd | Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory accepts standard parser Floyd | commands as well as individual keywords. For instance, you could type Floyd | "examine computer" or simply "computer." The latter method may be used Floyd | on many salient words or phrases in the story, often more than once. Floyd | Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory is effectively a story Floyd | generator, as well as a work of interactive fiction. The downloadable Floyd | version will produce a text file, intended to be read alone as Floyd | standalone prose. Note: Quixe does not currently support this feature. Floyd | Floyd | Those used to traditional IF are advised that certain meta-commands Floyd | are not supported, for example SAVE, RESTORE and UNDO. Other verbs, Floyd | such as LOOK, will work differently than one may expect. The work is Floyd | short enough and puzzleless enough that they are not necessary. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Please press SPACE to continue. | Teaspoon says, "Glad we checked." | |
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | > About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "n" | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | > FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon presses the yellow enter button. | ||
Floyd ] FAQ Floyd | Is the work fictional? Floyd | Yes. Floyd | Floyd | Is the work autobiographical? Floyd | No. Floyd | Floyd | Are these characters composites? Floyd | Some. Floyd | Floyd | Are these characters meant to be likable? Floyd | No. Floyd | Floyd | Is this a story or a game? Floyd | Both. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Please press SPACE to continue. | Roger says, "No messin around here" | |
| Jacqueline nods. | ||
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | > FAQ Floyd | Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "n" | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | > Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon presses the yellow enter button. | ||
Floyd ] Soundtrack Floyd | For those interested, a soundtrack to Laid Off from the Floyd | Synesthesia Factory is available on Spotify: [LINK]Floyd | j Floyd | Floyd | Tracklisting: Floyd | Floyd | 1. Sofi de la Torre, "Vermillion" Floyd | 2. Polica, "I Need $" Floyd | 3. Kelela, "Rewind" Floyd | 4. EMA, "Smoulder" Floyd | 5. Indiana, "Solo Dancing" Floyd | 6. Bat for Lashes, "Sleep Alone (Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid Floyd | Remix)" Floyd | 7. Alexandra Strunin and Scanner, "Robot" Floyd | 8. Dawn Richard, "Frequency" Floyd | 9. Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands, "I Don't Remember" Floyd | 10. Ladytron, "Deep Blue" Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Please press SPACE to continue. | Busta says, "## Am I messing around? No." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Ugh. That is going to be hard to copy and paste from Floyd (but doable)." | ||
| Teaspoon asks, "shall we begin?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yes, Lisa." | ||
| Teaspoon asks, "Lisa?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sorry, it's a reference to a song from Purple Rain." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "Ooh, right." | ||
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Instructions Floyd ] Floyd ] N = Next Q = Quit Menu Floyd ] P = Previous ENTER = Select Floyd | About Interactive Fiction Floyd | About the Author Floyd | About the Piece Floyd | FAQ Floyd | > Soundtrack Floyd | Credits | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "q" | ||
Floyd | Credits Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Please press SPACE to continue. | ||
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ]
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory
Floyd |
Floyd | A work of interactive fiction by Katherine Morayati.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Please choose one of the following options:
Floyd |
Floyd | About (recommended for first-timers) : A
Floyd | Start : (SPACE)
Floyd | Quit : Q
| ||
| Teaspoon pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | I'm searching for a colour, don't think it's got a name. It's Floyd | something between pink and brown -- just like when the sun sets, Floyd | sometimes when it rains, like it's the first time you see it go Floyd | down. - Stina Nordenstam, "Memories of a Colour" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd | down. - Stina Nordenstam, "Memories of a Colour"It was still Floyd | months before we'd tell each other our stories. And even then some Floyd | seemed too small to bother with. So why do they come back to me now? Floyd | Now, when I'm so weary of all of it. - Jenny Offill, Dept. of Floyd | Speculation | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:00 pm Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory Floyd | A story, eventually; by Katherine Morayati Floyd | Release 3 / Serial number 151021 / Inform 7 build 6L38 (I6/v6.33 lib Floyd | 6/12N) Floyd | Floyd | Studio 4D, 7:00 pm Floyd | Floyd | An afterimage is a visual left lingering before your eyes, after Floyd | you've focused on one thing too long; burnt-out retinae, producing Floyd | bullshit. If you've seen red you produce un-red; blue, un-blue; Floyd | green, un-green. An involuntary strike. The state is not permanent, Floyd | until it is. Floyd | Floyd | Your primary project at Synfac was developing wearables. But your Floyd | last project was sentiment analysis. Intern work. Your job Floyd | was to mine influential tweeters, popular song, emails and letters and Floyd | texts acquired for you by means you'd rather not consider, for the Floyd | oily stuff of emotion. This was supposed to focus you. Instead you're Floyd | now a broke computer, made of errors: tweet fragments, disheveled Floyd | paragraphs, bastardized sentiment. You have no sentences, just quips; Floyd | no thoughts, only responses. Here is one: Floyd | Floyd | Laid off from the synesthesia factory. Branded a fool. What will Floyd | they say, Monday at -- Floyd | Floyd | You have gotten no further. There is no rhyme to what you do now. And Floyd | at any rate, your concern is not Monday at whenever the hell. Your Floyd | concern is tonight at 8 PM. Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | Synfac originally hired you as a copywriter, then promoted you to Floyd | amorphous creative, then gradually demoted you once they detected a Floyd | lack of actual creating. This was not in the plan; you took the job a Floyd | year ago knowing headquarters were far from any robust job market. It Floyd | was less a move than a trust fall. Floyd | Floyd | To compensate, Synfac put you up in a company apartment and paid the Floyd | first month's rent. Nothing extravagant, of course: a studio, slightly Floyd | under market rate but of course not free; a bit over-sparsely Floyd | furnished, as if they'd rented the unit expecting a bachelor; full to Floyd | distraction with Synfac technology, to remind you that the space was Floyd | meant for after-hours research. Even the unit number was deliberate, Floyd | as explained to you on day one: Studio 4D, the fourth dimension. Which Floyd | is time, of which you now have an abundance. Floyd | Floyd | You've got to admire how legit it all was: standard real estate Floyd | company, standard contract and standard lease, and this year's lease Floyd | doesn't end until December. Optimism: You get to stay here even after Floyd | your layoff. Pessimism: You must. Floyd | Floyd | Without your Synpiece with you, the room is blank and chilly, less Floyd | modern design than empty ice tray. Everything is some form of inert Floyd | gray: dormant green-screen wall paneling, dresser practically frozen Floyd | shut, desk a little more cluttered these days but as desks go still Floyd | austere. Only your saturator pole seems obviously amiss. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > | Doug says, "FYI, the FAQ answers are randomly generated" | |
| Teaspoon says, "Ah." | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "i" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:01 pm Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > Floyd | > I Floyd | Floyd | You're wearing a ratty cotton dress. A lifetime of possessions has Floyd | left you with this. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "dress" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:02 pm Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > Floyd | > DRESS Floyd | Floyd | You've worn this ratty dress since Friday night: a billowing tarpish Floyd | thing, colors dulled, holes in the hem. Dress as metaphor. Fortunately Floyd | for you, this metaphor is easily revised. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta says, "REVISE" | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "revise" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:03 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > REVISE Floyd | Floyd | Your first thought: to check your computer. This is in fact your Floyd | default thought; give it five years and it'll have your cortex and Floyd | also your amygdala. "Thought" is the wrong word. What it is: now your Floyd | core creature drive. Ancient drives: hunger, exhaustion, libido. And Floyd | their modern replacements: refreshing, unplugging, FOMO. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "refresh" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:04 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > REFRESH Floyd | Floyd | Your next thought: How you have managed such disarray in a week's Floyd | span. You feel as if you have been dropped into a spot-the-difference Floyd | picture, the kind from a children's whodunnit book, where you are Floyd | expected to solve the mystery of how you murdered your life. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I'm still catching up, fwiw." | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "unplug" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:04 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > UNPLUG Floyd | Floyd | What do you want to unplug? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Caught up." | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "unplug me" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:05 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > UNPLUG ME Floyd | Floyd | You aren't something you can switch. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Sadly, Spotify is not cooperating." | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x dresser" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:06 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X DRESSER Floyd | Floyd | You consider changing your outfit. You were never extravagant with Floyd | fashion. The idea of a uniform appeals: wearable anonymity, no skin, Floyd | signals or stories. But none of that is accepted in women, not even in Floyd | tech, not even the temperamentally private. And you have been told you Floyd | have more of a story to tell. And anyway, even a uniform would take up Floyd | space. So now you have a dresser full of clothes reserved for special Floyd | occasions, which you suppose tonight is. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "open dresser" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:07 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > OPEN DRESSER Floyd | Floyd | You open your dresser and clothes drool out. This is a new pattern: Floyd | carefully stacked and folded clothes on the bottom, tossed and crammed Floyd | clothes on top. Like tree rings for your employment. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "And I have Computer Blue stuck in my head from that 'Yes, Lisa' comment." | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "take clothes" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:08 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > TAKE CLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | Every outfit betrays you in some way. Now you wear: A simple cotton Floyd | dress, dully, subtly polka-dotted. Appropriate age: late thirties, or Floyd | forties, or at least fully grown up. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "polka dots. Right-ho." | |
| Busta says, "heh, late thirties and forties is fully grown up" | ||
| Busta says, "too real" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Pretty much." | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "look" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:09 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > LOOK Floyd | Floyd | Your apartment, in theory: A neutral base to practice and study this Floyd | business of feelings with no interference; decor would be a stain, Floyd | life a confounding variable. This translates in design to Floyd | "minimalism," which is appealing enough. But your apartment, in Floyd | practice: The usual ecru hamster-box with every serviceable white, Floyd | frosty or clear item of furniture you or Brian found within a Floyd | fifty-mile radius. The bed was from a prefab catalog; the desk was Floyd | forgotten in the corner of a Methodist thrift store; the kitchen is Floyd | like all kitchens are; the shelves, you are certain, were literally Floyd | cubicles once. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "shelves" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:10 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > SHELVES Floyd | Floyd | The bookshelves, as described: An aspirational perk, the mark of Floyd | creatives, suitable for picturesque libraries arranged in rainbow Floyd | colors. Bookshelves, as supplied: Gray plastic overstock from the Floyd | office, suitable for cubicles and other modular stacking. Upshot: Floyd | Under palatial office sun or a Synpiece lens, they shine. Pessimism: Floyd | In any other circumstances they suck away vibes. And here you have no Floyd | Synpiece, no office, and no good vibes. A while back you arranged some Floyd | books and knickknacks and old photos about the shelves. Only the Floyd | photos help, and only to a point. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "these are juicy shelves" | |
| Busta says, "the best shelves" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x books" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:11 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X BOOKS Floyd | Floyd | After taking the Synfac job you bought every design, programming and Floyd | theory tome you'd ever seen namedropped in a blog post or heard in a Floyd | colleague's half mention. You'd built up quite the impressive library, Floyd | even arranged it all by color (if anyone earned the right, you did). Floyd | What you didn't do: ever read them. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "Ours is a tale of tragedy." | |
| Jacqueline says, "heh" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x knicknacks" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:12 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X KNICKNACKS Floyd | Floyd | Proverb from a dubious online repository: I'm A-OK; I dress au Floyd | fait; I don't stay home like sad Henri. Floyd | Floyd | Statements that apply to you: zero. Optimism: No, you've made the Floyd | second one apply. And the third will come in half an hour. And even Floyd | the first, if tonight goes well. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I've seen people who organize books by color. It's pretty striking." | |
| Doug asks, "is this the post-comp release?" | ||
| Busta asks, "how would you ever find the book you want?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It's what I just downloaded from IFDB this morning." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Busta), "That is why I don't have my books organized that way." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "I saw a photo of someone who had a whole collection of Penguins sorted by colour" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "it was striking" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x photo" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:12 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X PHOTO Floyd | Floyd | Which do you mean, the office photo, the cuddling photo, the third Floyd | photo or the photos? Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta says, "for a second I thought you meant actual penguins" | |
| Jacqueline says, "hahaha" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "That would be easy to sort by colour" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x office photo" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:13 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X OFFICE PHOTO Floyd | Floyd | You remember this. You took it the first day on the job, about a month Floyd | into dating, which naturally bound job and relationship into one unit, Floyd | a synchronized squad cheering on your self-improvement. It seems a lot Floyd | more unfortunate in retrospect. Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "x cuddling" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:14 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X CUDDLING Floyd | Floyd | You'd driven into the city to visit him at the park, which seemed a Floyd | little silly given the surfeit of parklike stuff in your own Floyd | neighborhood, but it turned out rather nice. Off camera, you remember, Floyd | there were babies. You recall thinking it was too early on to safely Floyd | coo over babies in his presence, but nothing felt wrong. Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "third photo" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:15 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > THIRD PHOTO Floyd | Floyd | This photo was early on, obviously. At Lurie Lake near the old power Floyd | plant. Some abandoned building at some late hour, lit by artificial Floyd | red flash. From a car, maybe. Or strobes off a far-off arena. Nothing Floyd | you could have planned. You are in purple and besotten. Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "One sec: household curtain emergency" | |
| Teaspoon says, "er, right." | ||
| Roger asks, "What was this nominated for?" | ||
| Busta says, "Jacq doesn't buy just any curtain" | ||
| [LINK] | ||
| Doug says (to Roger), "Best Writing, Implementation, Innovation" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Okay, I'm back." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So we need to switch to that?" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "We haven't gone far yet, might as well" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "(And the answer to why it's not linked to on ifdb is because people likely were unaware.)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm. No one is around who can delete this one, so I'll just put a number after it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "One sec." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "quit" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:15 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > QUIT Floyd | Floyd | Are you sure you want to quit? | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "y" | ||
Floyd | Are you sure you want to quit?
Floyd | > Y
Floyd | cheapglulxe quit with exit status: 0
| ||
| Floyd asks, "That game over already? It was just getting good. Wanna play another?" | Busta says, "I vote switch if it's easy" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "load sleepmask laidoff2" | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | This piece contains coarse language and mature themes. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Do you wish to continue (Y / N)? | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "y" | ||
Floyd ]
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory
Floyd |
Floyd | A work of interactive fiction by Katherine Morayati.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Please choose one of the following options:
Floyd |
Floyd | About (recommended for first-timers) : A
Floyd | Start : (SPACE)
Floyd | Quit : Q
| ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | I'm searching for a colour, don't think it's got a name. It's Floyd | something between pink and brown -- just like when the sun sets, Floyd | sometimes when it rains, like it's the first time you see it go Floyd | down. - Stina Nordenstam, "Memories of a Colour" | ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | down. - Stina Nordenstam, "Memories of a Colour"To become Floyd | fluent, natural, to cut out the detour that sweeps us around what's Floyd | fundamental to events, preventing us from touching their core: the Floyd | detour that makes us all second-hand and second-rate. - Tom Floyd | Mccarthy, Remainder | ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd | Mccarthy, RemainderIt was still months before we'd tell Floyd | each other our stories. And even then some seemed too small to bother Floyd | with. So why do they come back to me now? Now, when I'm so weary of Floyd | all of it. - Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation | ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Floyd | | ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:00 pm Floyd | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory Floyd | A story, eventually; by Katherine Morayati Floyd | Release 4 / Serial number 151206 / Inform 7 build 6L38 (I6/v6.33 lib Floyd | 6/12N) Floyd | Floyd | Studio 4D, 7:00 pm Floyd | Floyd | An afterimage is a visual left lingering before your eyes, after Floyd | you've focused on one thing too long; burnt-out retinae, producing Floyd | bullshit. If you've seen red you produce un-red; blue, un-blue; Floyd | green, un-green. An involuntary strike. The state is not permanent, Floyd | until it is. Floyd | Floyd | Your primary project at Synfac was developing wearables. But your Floyd | last project was sentiment analysis. Intern work. Your job Floyd | was to mine influential tweeters, popular song, emails and letters and Floyd | texts acquired for you by means you'd rather not consider, for the Floyd | oily stuff of emotion. This was supposed to focus you. Instead you're Floyd | now a broke computer, made of errors: tweet fragments, disheveled Floyd | paragraphs, bastardized sentiment. You have no sentences, just quips; Floyd | no thoughts, only responses. Here is one: Floyd | Floyd | Laid off from the synesthesia factory. Branded a fool. What will Floyd | they say, Monday at -- Floyd | Floyd | You have gotten no further. There is no rhyme to what you do now. And Floyd | at any rate, your concern is not Monday at whenever the hell. Your Floyd | concern is tonight at 8 PM. Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | Synfac originally hired you as a copywriter, then promoted you to Floyd | amorphous creative, then gradually demoted you once they detected a Floyd | lack of actual creating. This was not in the plan; you took the job a Floyd | year ago knowing headquarters were far from any robust job market. It Floyd | was less a move than a trust fall. Floyd | Floyd | To compensate, Synfac put you up in a company apartment and paid the Floyd | first month's rent. Nothing extravagant, of course: a studio, slightly Floyd | under market rate but of course not free; a bit over-sparsely Floyd | furnished, as if they'd rented the unit expecting a bachelor; full to Floyd | distraction with Synfac technology, to remind you that the space was Floyd | meant for after-hours research. Even the unit number was deliberate, Floyd | as explained to you on day one: Studio 4D, the fourth dimension. Which Floyd | is time, of which you now have an abundance. Floyd | Floyd | You've got to admire how legit it all was: standard real estate Floyd | company, standard contract and standard lease, and this year's lease Floyd | doesn't end until December. Optimism: You get to stay here even after Floyd | your layoff. Pessimism: You must. Floyd | Floyd | Without your Synpiece with you, the room is blank and chilly, less Floyd | modern design than empty ice tray. Everything is some form of inert Floyd | gray: dormant green-screen wall paneling, dresser practically frozen Floyd | shut, desk a little more cluttered these days but as desks go still Floyd | austere. Only your saturator pole seems obviously amiss. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "panelling" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:01 pm Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > Floyd | > PANELLING Floyd | Floyd | Your first thought: to check your computer. This is in fact your Floyd | default thought; give it five years and it'll have your cortex and Floyd | also your amygdala. "Thought" is the wrong word. Something closer: Floyd | anymore, your core creature drive. Floyd | Floyd | The original creature drives: hunger, exhaustion, libido. And their Floyd | modern replacements: refreshing, unplugging, FOMO. Floyd | Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "sing" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:02 pm Floyd | [Enter an individual word, a short phrase, or a command.] > Floyd | > SING Floyd | Floyd | Your next thought: How you have managed such disarray in a week's Floyd | span. You feel as if you have been dropped into a spot-the-difference Floyd | picture, the kind from a children's whodunnit book, where you are Floyd | expected to solve the mystery of how you murdered your life. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "desk" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:03 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > DESK Floyd | Floyd | Rudimentary method of painting a fresco: Find a blank surface, Floyd | preferably white. Apply paint on top; let it turn to sediment. Apply Floyd | more paint on top of the hardened old paint. Repeat until you have Floyd | produced a thick pile of texture and art. Now, subtract all the art. Floyd | What remains is what has happened to your desk in the days since it Floyd | happened. Floyd | Floyd | Your computer sits idle. Your severance papers are where you left Floyd | them. So is your old keycard. And check stubs and seltzer cans, Floyd | clutter on and all around it. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "Oh, we were fired." | |
| Teaspoon says, "Oh dear." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "(I know, I know, it was in the title and all.)" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x papers" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:04 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X PAPERS Floyd | Floyd | You have looked at your severance agreement exactly twice. It is Floyd | printed on chipper iridescent letterhead with a color-wheel stamp, and Floyd | it tells you in lawyerspeak to go fuck yourself. Also: They'll give Floyd | you four weeks' severance, if you never admit to it. And: You may not Floyd | say what they did to you. You've broken this clause with your mother Floyd | and therapist already. By tonight you'll break it with Brian (or Floyd | worse). Perhaps you're breaking it now in your head. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "brian" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:05 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > BRIAN Floyd | Floyd | What Brian is: A man you used to know. Deflatingly human when you're Floyd | with him, horribly beguiling when you're not. It wasn't enough for him Floyd | to finagle his way into every memory of every item in your home; you Floyd | can't stop documenting everything about him on top of that -- all your Floyd | old emails, all your texts, the whole corpus of it. Floyd | Floyd | What Brian also is: a person you dumped in a rambling email and then Floyd | tentatively un-dumped in another, in less than a 24-hour span. While Floyd | you're being honest.. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "While you're being honest.. ?" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "email" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:05 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > EMAIL Floyd | Floyd | What do you want to email? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Oh, huh. How about Brian?" | |
| Teaspoon says, "sure" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "(I was expecting some feels about email when I typed that, not thinking it would be a verb)" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "brian" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:06 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > BRIAN Floyd | Floyd | Proverb from a dubious online repository: I'm A-OK; I dress au Floyd | fait; I don't stay home like sad Henri. Floyd | Floyd | Statements that apply to you: zero. Optimism: You could make the Floyd | second apply right now. And the third will come in half an hour. And Floyd | even the first, if tonight goes well. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "So, you were changing clothes before we reset the game..." | |
| Teaspoon says, "true" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "dresser" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:07 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > DRESSER Floyd | Floyd | You consider changing your outfit. You were never extravagant with Floyd | fashion. The idea of a uniform appeals: wearable anonymity, no skin, Floyd | signals or stories. But none of that is accepted in women, not even in Floyd | tech, not even the temperamentally private. And you have been told you Floyd | have more of a story to tell. And anyway, even a uniform would take up Floyd | space. So now you have a dresser full of clothes reserved for special Floyd | occasions, which you suppose tonight is. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "clothes" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:08 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > CLOTHES Floyd | Floyd | Every outfit betrays you in some way. Now you wear: Black-and-white Floyd | work skirt, black shell. Unremarkably put-together. You'd wear it on a Floyd | job interview if you had one. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "Apparently this is also randomised" | |
| Teaspoon says, "(I think I prefer this to polka dots)" | ||
| Doug says, "katherine says (on Euphoria chat): "tell them I apologize for totally missing MY OWN CLUBFLOYD DAY"" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "She had no idea this was happening." | ||
| Roger exclaims, "Neither did we!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We had no idea this was happening." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "we didn't either" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Roger&Tsp), "Exactly." | ||
| Doug says, "yeah it's the hottest of hot takes." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Doug), "Please tell her as much." | ||
| Doug says, "almost like there was inside information!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I am not one of the cool new kids on Euphoria." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Anyway, I agree about the polka dots." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Did this say we had green screen walls? Can we do something amazing with that?" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "walls" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:09 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > WALLS Floyd | Floyd | Actual green screens are green because -- to simplify -- cameras Floyd | detect that color best. Your apartment is not green because humans Floyd | also detect the color, quite emphatically, usually when trying to Floyd | sleep. But "green screen" is the best term anyone came up with for Floyd | what your apartment has got: panels -- floor-to-ceiling each, so no Floyd | room for other decorations -- that display images that change the feel Floyd | of a room. The idea was from f.lux, the endgame probably to show or at Floyd | least enhance ads, and the technology from Disney cruise ships. Floyd | Presumably the makers did not visit CruiseCritic.com, which you did Floyd | and found tourists complaining about the glitches jerking and fritzing Floyd | their way down the promenade of their "virtual balconies." Floyd | Floyd | These, too, are currently glitchy; they're supposed to work in tandem Floyd | with the Synpiece and saturator, but never quite pick up either's Floyd | signal, like a radio skipping stations. Even when they work they just Floyd | sort of change the room's paint job. Floyd | Floyd | A disconcerting feeling while alone: realizing you are surrounded by Floyd | screens. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "we have to use our saturator to change them, I suppose." | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "saturator" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:10 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > SATURATOR Floyd | Floyd | The existence of such a thing called a "saturator pole" is of course a Floyd | blunder. One of the code-dwellers uttered the words "responsive Floyd | design" in range of someone whose earshot was triply unfortunate: Floyd | someone wonky enough to pay attention to programmers, pretentious Floyd | enough to wonk over monochrome design publications, and executive Floyd | enough to wrench his pretentions into an official pivot. Thus rose, Floyd | like a techy Tower of Babel, the Saturator, which (the pitch goes) Floyd | detects your emotional undercurrent -- your presence, basically -- and Floyd | infuses the room with simpatico ambience and portent, like an air Floyd | freshener for mood. (The original tagline said "incense for mood," but Floyd | marketing thought that sounded too hippie, someone higher-up and Floyd | unbuttoned asked whether there was a type of incense not for Floyd | mood, and thence went the afternoon.) Floyd | Floyd | It took another month of meetings to persuade legal to have one Floyd | installed in your apartment, a month you regretted once the prototype Floyd | came in: a Super Mario-esque monstrosity that protruded horizontally Floyd | over the bed and across the room, like a fluorescent light if those Floyd | were large and killed you if you woke up wrong. You bitched, others Floyd | bitched, and from the bitching came the current model: a vertical pole Floyd | where a heating pipe would be, slender, slightly gnarled and ending in Floyd | a broad starburst two feet from the ceiling. It pulses with a deep Floyd | unidentifiable color; in about a three-centimeter radius surrounding Floyd | the pole are cilia of iridescent light. You think it resembles a Floyd | maypole. Everyone else who's ever been in your place thinks stripper Floyd | pole. At one point that was funny. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x saturator" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:11 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X SATURATOR Floyd | Floyd | Marketing never settled on one metaphor for the saturator pole. Guy Floyd | who spent half of the workday moonlighting for his progressive rock Floyd | band: "It's like an amplifier. Except it amplifies you!" Floyd | Woman you are uncertain has left her teens yet: "Like an Instagram Floyd | filter, except, like, permanent?" Guy about town: "Like catching Floyd | feelings. Ugh." Suit from some mysterious corner office: "It could Floyd | collect user data if it's on long enough." Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "use saturator" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:12 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > USE SATURATOR Floyd | Floyd | You must supply a noun. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "It's noting the time in the status line. I wonder if that's important." | |
| Teaspoon says, "good question" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "experience feels" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:13 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > EXPERIENCE FEELS Floyd | Floyd | You consider PR. The problem: to succeed in doing PR for others you Floyd | must first prove you've succeeded in doing PR for yourself. You must Floyd | turn all the glop that is you into a tantalizing direct-to-consumer Floyd | product, call it Aspirational You. Aspirational You is something Floyd | special. Aspirational You does not evaporate or sweat under heat; she Floyd | solidifies, like a cake. If she were knifed the blade would come out Floyd | clean. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon asks, "did we want to email brian?" | |
| Roger says, "I assume it will be" | ||
| Busta says, "I like the writing. No wonder it got a nom." | ||
| Roger says, "I'm not sure if I like it or not, but whatever it is, it's that a lot" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "heh" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "email brian" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:14 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > EMAIL BRIAN Floyd | Floyd | For a few months your job was to distill all the history of color Floyd | psychology into meeting length. Most color psychology is not really Floyd | psychology, but Synfac's competitors, at least in their outward-facing Floyd | materials, seem to work with the rigorous material of "vibes" and Floyd | "moods," so your layperson's stab was fine. Floyd | Floyd | One system: the Luscher Color Test, in vogue a few decades ago but now Floyd | usurped by the MMPI and Big Five. The Synpiece's underlying color Floyd | model is only slightly altered from it: orange for force, blue a sort Floyd | of pristine placidity, purple surrender. Floyd | Floyd | These days you either encounter the test intact in old psych studies Floyd | or bastardized by a proto-Buzzfeed quiz site. Bunk, obviously, but Floyd | also sideways genius. Its makers found something unexploited: the Floyd | Forer effect for those prone to self-loathing, i.e. half the Internet. Floyd | Floyd | What you are, uncharitably: "Looking to stand out in the crowd and Floyd | wanting to keep her rank and status. Her current situation is Floyd | irritating her because she can't seem to find anybody out there who Floyd | values the same high standards she does. She is feeling isolated and Floyd | wants to give in to her carnal urges, but can't bring herself to Floyd | appear weak in the eyes of others." Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon asks, "er, what?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah, that seems like it didn't respond to our input." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "email" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:14 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > EMAIL Floyd | Floyd | What do you want to email? Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta says, "if it doesn't recognize the command, it moves on with it's own set path" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "message" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:15 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > MESSAGE Floyd | Floyd | Every phobia has two parts. There is the phobia itself. Then there is Floyd | the meta-phobia: the fear that no one takes your fear seriously. Floyd | Floyd | One known phobia: scopophobia, the fear of being watched. According to Floyd | psychiatric journal The Alienist and Neurologist, published Floyd | in 1906, scopophobia is most common in women. This is not elaborated Floyd | further. Floyd | Floyd | You are at your computer. The top Google results for scopophobia and Floyd | women: 1. Wikipedia. 2. An online store of graphic tees for women: Floyd | devils, evil eyes, glitterfied fear slogans, figures dripping with Floyd | viscera. All form-fitting, naturally. 3. Something from something Floyd | called the Creepypasta Wiki: "Do they see a monster wrapped delicately Floyd | within glittering wrapping paper? Do they see malice hidden within me Floyd | or do they see an ingenue?" There are comments on this. They gave this Floyd | scopophobia an 8 out of 10. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "Ah, right." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "x walls" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:16 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > X WALLS Floyd | Floyd | You and Brian had a joke that next April Fool's Day you were going to Floyd | break into whoever at the Synpiece office manages this stuff and show Floyd | hapless users just whatever the fuck. "Maybe those screamer videos," Floyd | Brian said when he first got the idea. "Or stop-motion! You know, like Floyd | the super-slow kind that only moves when you're not looking?" He could Floyd | go on for hours like this, kitten-quick, drawing in energy from Floyd | something vital and wonderful that has nothing to do with you. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "esk" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:17 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > ESK Floyd | Floyd | Everything here is contaminated by memories. Like when Brian set all Floyd | the wall panels to a stop-motion sequence of photos of the two of you. Floyd | Or the time he stopped by when you were calibrating the saturator Floyd | pole. ("Calibrating the saturator pole" sounds like a bad joke. You Floyd | know this because he made it.) You'd hoped to climb it, but that Floyd | failed. So you'd stood tippy-toes on a footstool he bought weeks ago, Floyd | monitoring every gradual shade of mood; he'd distract you the whole Floyd | time, blowing up clouds of dust, performing little fireman flourishes Floyd | by the base, pretending to spot you then grabbing you by the waist Floyd | pretending to be King Kong. Floyd | Floyd | The goal was to make you smile for once. Or so he said. You don't Floyd | remember whether you did. What you remember: the air was tinged Floyd | yellow-gray. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "desk" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:18 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > DESK Floyd | Floyd | Even the slighest glance at your computer compels you to check it. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "computer" | ||
Floyd ] Studio 4D 7:19 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > COMPUTER Floyd | Floyd | Optimism: You never much used the laptop they gave you, meaning you Floyd | are now merely underemployable, not underemployable and computerless. Floyd | Pessimism: Which means you did all your work on your own machine, Floyd | which means now your work space has permanently squatted upon your Floyd | home space. Like a snake still in its shouldabeenshed skin. It isn't Floyd | even a good or fast computer anymore. If you were a snake you'd be the Floyd | overgrown eldritch kind. Floyd | Floyd | You have only two windows somehow: browser, email client. It would be Floyd | admirable organization, were your screen not covered in sticky notes. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "notes" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:20 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > NOTES Floyd | Floyd | Mouldy headline from a productivity bloglet: to-do lists are out, Floyd | clogging your computer screen in obtrusive to-do stickies is in. What Floyd | the headline did not say: humans are resourceful and can learn to kind Floyd | of stick them down the sides. Floyd | Floyd | There are four, jaggedly written. Manila notes down the left side: Floyd | CHECK EMAIL FROM COLORBUZZ; FILE YOUR DAMN SEVERANCE PAPERS ALREADY Floyd | YOU CRETIN. Rouge notes down the right: GUESS WHAT ROSLYN YOU'VE Floyd | STOLEN A SYNPIECE!!; BRIAN, LURIE LAKE, 8 PM. ? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "BING 8pm" | |
| Teaspoon asks, "So, how do we get there?" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "lurie lake" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > LURIE LAKE Floyd | Floyd | There is a photo of you and Brian at Lurie Lake, by the power plant Floyd | when dusk turns the sky auburn, where you look all right. You look Floyd | like an object of love. And you never figured out how you did it. Floyd | Floyd | Somehow it is 7:20. If you don't leave now, you never will. There is Floyd | no plan that cannot be expedited by agonizing over it. Floyd | Floyd | You get in your car and drive into the dark. Floyd | Floyd | * * * * * Floyd | * * * * * | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | Roger says, "Good jorb" | |
Floyd ] Driving 7:31 pm
Floyd | Lurie Lake is five minutes outside the city, which translates to
Floyd | twenty minutes from your apartment, or ten the way you are driving.
Floyd | You are reasonably sure this is where you are still heading.
Floyd |
Floyd | * * *
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Your car is a mess, but you still notice it immediately: your
Floyd | Synpiece, on the floor by the backseat, right where you left it.
Floyd |
Floyd | You had to put that thing somewhere hard to reach; to the dismay of
Floyd | your coworkers with road rage, driving while augmented is not
Floyd | recommended. Everyone with a prototype got a huge warning saying so.
Floyd | Reason one: Driving with a Synpiece, depending on its calibration,
Floyd | falls somewhere between driving to a particularly nocturnal soundtrack
Floyd | and driving while high. Reason two: It does things to you. If you're
Floyd | commuting you'll wish you weren't. If you're driving past an
Floyd | ex-lover's house you'll perhaps drive toward it. If you're driving in
Floyd | a subdivision it'll seem impossibly hushed, the particular intimacy of
Floyd | suburban stillness; every house will suggest things that happen behind
Floyd | its closed doors.
Floyd |
Floyd | Funny how you still believe that warning.
Floyd | * * *
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | * * *
Floyd |
Floyd | >
| Jacqueline says, "Whoa." | |
| Jacqueline says, "I just meant to recollect the lake, not go there." | ||
| Roger says, "Yeah well this PC is decisive damnit" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "apparently so" | ||
| Busta says, "she takes recollecting very seriously" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, it's a lot like that last paragraph." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "If you see an ex-lover's house you'll perhaps drive toward it, and if you think about Lurie Lake you will drive there immediately." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "but we're not actually wearing our synpiece yet" | ||
| Roger says, "I'm reminded of sitcom settings somehow" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "(I'm sure we will before the game is done)" | ||
| Roger says, "Where an unemployed person with no significant skills somehow has a huge downtown loft apartment and a car and just a whole bunch of stuff" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "wear synpiece" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > WEAR SYNPIECE Floyd | Floyd | (first taking the Synpiece) Floyd | You slip the Synpiece into your left eye. It doesn't behave like a Floyd | contact lens exactly. Not hard enough. Presumably safer. You have Floyd | sussed out the precise feeling: it feels like a pat of butter to the Floyd | cornea. In the sense that it is cold, you mean. But also in the sense Floyd | that it melts. Floyd | Floyd | Undocumented steps to get this thing to actually work: 1. Caress the Floyd | eyelids to gently nudge the Synpiece into position. (1.5. Pull over, Floyd | are you thinking?.) 2. Cup your eye sockets in your fingers, Floyd | like you're in a horror movie and will shortly produce their contents. Floyd | 3. Close your eyes tight. 4. Meditate, or breathe controlledly, or if Floyd | it's you think upon your unsuitability to do either. Just at any rate Floyd | pause. This sort of breathing produces a tremor, which is normal. 5. Floyd | Imagine you will open your eyes and the world has changed. You need Floyd | not imagine your actual surroundings. In fact, it's better if you Floyd | don't. Imagine an executioner's blade at your neck. Or autumn's first Floyd | windowful of snow. The point is not what to expect; the point is Floyd | to expect. 6. Open. | Teaspoon says, "we're being bribed by the company. For what reason we don't know, although the PC does." | |
| Jacqueline says, "True." | ||
| Roger says, "I'm not feeling like this narrator is reliable, but there's nothing else, so here we go" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd | to expect. 6. Open.
Floyd | * * *
| ||
| Jacqueline pushes the green 'space' button. | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:32 pm
Floyd | * * *Now I am night driving. Now I tilt my head back and fill myself
Floyd | with breeze. Now there is something like a sunset. Now the radio
Floyd | darkens its key. Now the road arches its lanes in front of me; and now
Floyd | the road curls its lanes behind me.
Floyd |
Floyd | I can't see the Synpiece while it's on. He told me I'd go cross-eyed
Floyd | wearing it. It's more that everything looks closer than I know it is.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
| Jacqueline says, "Possibly I shouldn't have put this on while driving." | |
| Jacqueline says, "But I'm liking the effect." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "Probably not, but hey, why not." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "drive" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:33 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > DRIVE Floyd | Floyd | Now the moon in the sky dips down into my car with every ripple in the Floyd | road. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Trippy." | |
| Teaspoon says, "I like the shift to first person" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm. Yeah." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well spotted." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "brian" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:34 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > BRIAN Floyd | Floyd | What Brian is: not the sum of his traits. Five-foot-six, thatch of Floyd | hair, perpetually bemused expression, limbs goofy like a Floyd | scarecrowThat's all. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Hrm. Missing period & space. Odd." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "me" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:35 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > ME Floyd | Floyd | At this hour through headlights, the trees on the highway look like Floyd | they're a movie scene. I know the kind: damp fetid cedar, rainymood Floyd | lighting, lovers thrust forward into tree trunks and downward into Floyd | needles. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "I imagine there could be formatting issues." | |
| Teaspoon says, "with the tense shift" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "drive" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:36 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > DRIVE Floyd | Floyd | Glimpse of a sign: Exit 49, turn right. Lurie Lake is Exit 51. Not Floyd | long to go. Floyd | Floyd | I hear somebody else's radio through my own car. They seem to be Floyd | listening to how strobe lights sound. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "listen" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:37 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > LISTEN Floyd | Floyd | The way I'm driving, the car sounds about to fall apart. Floyd | Floyd | > | Teaspoon says, "one presumes that's the fault of the synpiece" | |
| Roger says, "Nah I think she's just a shitty driver" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:38 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > G Floyd | Floyd | Now I am tailing their car like a wolf. Now their music is louder and Floyd | someone is howling in it. I imagine an entire pursuit narrative in Floyd | their head. And I imagine their head must be nice to get into. Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta says, "I missed what version of Inform this is" | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Driving 7:39 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > G Floyd | Floyd | There are seven ways to turn into the city. What a sad person I would Floyd | be to take advantage of any of them. Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta says, "I'm assuming this is after the big adaptive text update" | |
| Jacqueline says, "We could maybe try to remove the synpiece." | ||
| Roger says, "LAKE might just get us there. Maybe." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "lake" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 7:40 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > LAKE Floyd | Floyd | Now the buildings are growing tall and thrusting against the horizon; Floyd | now the traffic swells to meet it; now I feel perfectly small. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "g" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:00 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > G Floyd | Floyd | Now I am clear to the shore of the lake. Everything is jagged like Floyd | lightning or a fence. And I am alone. Floyd | Floyd | I exit my car like a queen enters her chambers. Then I approach the Floyd | station like a supplicant approaches her liege: tiny, wrapped in Floyd | autumn space. Now I'm walking slow; now I'm walking fast. Floyd | Floyd | The lake shore is steps away from me to the north; perhaps I'll have Floyd | company there. Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | There was an explosion at the plant a few years back: no casualties, Floyd | just smoke and burnt-fire sky. It is a terrible thing but right now it Floyd | seems like it would enhance the mood. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| ASchultz arrives, full of fun, but no funk. | Teaspoon says, "do we meet him with our piece on, or without" | |
| Roger says, "Maybe he'll seem taller if we keep it" | ||
| Busta says, "I feel like he might be easier to re-dump if we have it out" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Do we want to dump him?" | ||
| Teaspoon asks, "does our character know?" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "I don't think she does" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah, I don't think she does either." | ||
| Roger says, "He's gotta be around here somewhere" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "he's north" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "so we should decide now how we're playing it" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Make amends, I say." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, wait." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So, we got up enough nerve to break it off with him, the immediately tried to take it back. Why might we do that?" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "because we're feeling insecure and crave emotional support, perhaps" | ||
| Busta says, "I'm just going on the feeling he isn't good for her" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "which doesn't necessarily mean that he's the *right* emotional support" | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of Busta), "Like, he must not be good for us or we would never have tried to push him away in the first plac?" | ||
| Roger says, "Sure but he might be financial support, so let's see" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "er, place?" | ||
| Jacqueline exclaims (at Roger), "Roger!" | ||
| Jacqueline never knows if Roger is being facetious or not. | ||
| Teaspoon says, "We're not in a Victorian novel here. I don't think we have to set our cap at him to survive." | ||
| Roger says, "We could save if we're really torn on this" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So let's redump Brian, then go find Mr. Darcy." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "heh" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I don't think we can save." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "We can't." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Let's just do this." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I don't even care how it goes." | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "n" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:01 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > N Floyd | Floyd | I approach the lake, suddenly noting every footstep and breath. Floyd | Floyd | I'm at the lake now; with each step the fence tears something new in Floyd | the sky. Now I'm looking out on the water like there's a ship waiting Floyd | for me. Now I'm sitting on a park bench looking up at the latticework Floyd | of leaves above me. The only time I pay attention to those is while Floyd | being unsatisfactorily kissed. It's better this way: as prelude, not Floyd | distraction. Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "lake" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:02 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > LAKE Floyd | Floyd | The water is murky with possibility. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "swim" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:03 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > SWIM Floyd | Floyd | There are no railings here. Go any further and I'd plunge into the Floyd | lake. A thought. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I almost typed >F DROWN, but I'm afraid the game might just do it." | |
| Teaspoon says, "no sign of brian anyway, huh" | ||
| Busta says, "that "a thought" is pretty onimous" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "yes" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "think" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:04 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > THINK Floyd | Floyd | I am thinking of Brian's folk-music phase. Specifically, of this: Floyd | "Made my steps towards the water where Undine last was seen, I was Floyd | told that if you saw her, it should make you more naive..." Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | * * * Floyd | Floyd | Brian approaches with his familiar half-darting half-bouncing gait. Floyd | I've made myself hidden, I don't know why. Floyd | Floyd | I emerge and walk up to Brian, wordlessly. I can't think of anything Floyd | to say, and besides, the air feels reactive against me like I'm Floyd | searing it, and I don't want to ruin that. Floyd | Floyd | "Are you OK?" he asks. "Your email was a little... concerning." He Floyd | pauses. "Roslyn, what is this?" Floyd | Floyd | > | Busta exclaims, "ugh, gotta go... have fun!" | |
| Busta goes home. | Teaspoon says, "or both emails" | |
| Teaspoon says, "Nice tht we have a name" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Maybe we just >TALK?" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "talk" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:05 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK Floyd | Floyd | (to Brian) Floyd | I try to form what I'm thinking into words. It takes longer than it Floyd | should. Floyd | Floyd | "I'm good. I'm better, actually. Look." I throw my head back and brush Floyd | a wisp from my eye, a combination ta-da and flirt. Floyd | Floyd | "What's wrong with your eye?" Floyd | Floyd | "It's the Synpiece," I say. "I'm wearing it right now." Floyd | Floyd | "Is that it?" He waves his hand in front of my eyes, like he's swiping Floyd | a phone; he looks less impressed than he should. "Huh." I think I'm Floyd | supposed to think he's angry. What I do is take his hand. It feels Floyd | like it's made of tremors and unfulfilled -- Floyd | Floyd | "Roslyn, you're shaking." Floyd | Floyd | I laugh harder than I meant to. "I guess you could call this thing a Floyd | drug." Now he's drifting. "This doesn't make any sense." "I just want Floyd | to try." Floyd | Floyd | > | Roger says, "It's a lake but that's not important right now" | |
| Jacqueline says, "heh" | ||
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "talk" | ||
Floyd | > Floyd | > TALK Floyd | Floyd | (to Brian) Floyd | The lake looks straight out of a ballad, the kind where heroines are Floyd | fucked or passionately murdered. Floyd | Floyd | "This isn't going to fix everything. It's a glorified piece of Floyd | plastic. You said so yourself," Brian says. "What exactly do you Floyd | expect?" In response I pull him close and kiss him like I'm arranging Floyd | a movie set. I guide and choreograph his hands to where they need to Floyd | go, move him by the hair and press him against the bench. The sky is Floyd | burnt orange and the air is chills. I try not to think about anything Floyd | else. | Teaspoon says, "I wonder if the person's a Doctor Who fan." | |
| Roger says, "Alright smoochies" | ||
| Iria arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | Miseri asks, "think?" | |
| Teaspoon says (to Floyd), "think" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:05 pm
Floyd | else.I pull away and try to gauge Brian's expression. It is something
Floyd | between curious, upset and dazed, and I can't place it. "Are you
Floyd | okay?" In response he pulls me into a hug. This is all he does for
Floyd | five minutes, and all he does for the rest of the night. Somehow I
Floyd | find this pleasant. Specifically, as pleasant as a compromise.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | *** The End ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last
Floyd | command?
Floyd | >
| Teaspoon says, "uh, sorry" | |
| Miseri says, "oh, it was just a break." | ||
| Iria exclaims, "This is another fine mess you've gotten us into!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "That was an okay ending." | ||
| Teaspoon asks, "why is there a restore option when we can't save?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Not sure." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||
Floyd ] Lurie Lake 8:05 pm Floyd | > Floyd | > UNDO Floyd | Floyd | The use of "undo" is forbidden in this game. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT or UNDO the last Floyd | command? Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "But there you go." | |
| Roger says, "Maybe we can try to poke it into his eye." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "They're there even though you can't do them." | ||
| Iria asks, "Maybe the way the parser is written perhaps?" | ||
| Teaspoon says, "they didn't change the default" | ||
| Iria says, "There you go." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "It wasn't a bad ending, anyway" | ||
| Roger says, "OR WAS IT" | ||
| Doug says, "when I played SynFac the first time, I never found Brian and I assumed the game was pretty much linear so you would never find him" | ||
| Doug says, "which I actually thought was okay. But after seeing some discussion in reviews I realized there was more to the game, which was also cool." | ||
| Doug says, "also I think the lack of undo and save/restore is for the sake of the generated transcript? which is supposed to end up looking like a complete story." | ||
| Teaspoon says, "That's logical" | ||
| Doug | Laid Off from the Synesthesia Factory is effectively a story generator, as well as a work of interactive fiction. The downloadable version will produce a text file, intended to be read alone as standalone prose. | ||
