the invader

<<set $havetorch = false>><<set $tooktorch = false>><<set $haveknife = false>><<timedinsert 1s>>a narrow concrete path encircles the marine lake. you walk here at night, far from the lamps on the promenade; tonight the fog blurs them ghostly strange to the east.\n\nto the west, the tide has sunk, leaving the beach reeking and invisible in the dark. ahead, to the north, and behind, to the south, the path vanishes out of sight.\n\n[[and so]]<<endtimedinsert>>

you gasp in through clattering teeth, then dive. frigid seawater envelops your face. in the cold and perfect silence, up and down blur together. it doesn't take long before your limbs stop working and your heartbeat fades slowly away.\n\n[[undo|neweast]]

the rocks here are split by holes too deep and too dark to clamber over.\n\ngo/ [[north|southrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]] / [[west|westrocks]]

underwater, the thing's call is dulled and deepened and beaten into a rhythm by the waves. you swim until you feel a little safer from its tentacles, then pause to look around.\n\nup ahead, that pulsing column of light seems to grow brighter and more urgent by the second. your body is already being dragged in by the vortex that forms where it meets the sea.\n\nthe light/ [[towards]] / [[away]]

a puzzle game with aliens

you gasp in through clattering teeth, then dive. frigid seawater envelops your face. <<if $havetorch>>your torch pushes its tiny ray of light down to the bottom of the lake.\n\n[[and something gleams|bed]]<<else>>in the cold and perfect silence, up and down blur together. it doesn't take long before your limbs stop working and your heartbeat fades slowly away.\n\n[[undo|east]]<<endif>>

<<display "TrueStart">>

<<if $havetorch>>its tentacles are rising and falling in regular spasms, now, as if stirred by the torchlight. its flesh ripples violently wherever the beam touches it. once or twice, you hear it make a sort of clicking/snapping noise.<<else>>hard to make out with no light. it is low, glistens, heaves. it has coils like an octopus, translucent like a jellyfish. in the middle, a maw like a crab.<<endif>>\n\nthe thing/ [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north]] / [[east]] / [[south]] / [[west]]

you shine your torch onto the lowest rocks and crawl down towards the beach. trying to do both at once turns out to be too ambitious. even with the extra light, your foot meets something slippery and your skull meets something hard.\n\n[[undo|west]]

you haul yourself back onto the path, panting and shivering. your wet clothes weigh you down. your fingers are still locked around the knife.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine|newexamine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north|newnorth]] / [[east|neweast]] / [[south|newsouth]] / [[west|newwest]]

your finger slides across thick, wet hide. the thing shudders. before you can pull back, a tendril shoots out and seals tight around your wrist, burning skin and crushing bones.\n\n<<if $haveknife>>[[cut]]<<else>>the thing is unspooling, growing to impossible size. you scream. it swallows your fear whole.\n\n[[undo|examine]]<<endif>>

you plunge back into the lake. at once, a tentacle slithers around your angle and hurls you back out of the water, into the electric air.\n\nyou flail for a few seconds, coughing and dripping, before the thing hurls you out to sea.\n\n[[splash]]

<<set $havetorch = true>><<set $tooktorch = true>>a handheld torch, small but heavy, slick with silt. you fumble with the switch and light goes slashing out across the empty beach.\n\ngo/ [[north|northrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]] / [[south|southrocks]] / [[west|westrocks]]

the hide bursts, releasing a jet of black slime that slips the knife from your hand. it burns your face and fills your mouth as the thing screams back at you. it telescopes in every direction, unravelling in seconds, plunging tentacles into the sea and up towards the clouds.\n\nwhen you've wiped its blood from your eyes with stiff, numb fingers, you are blinded by a light from the west.\n\n[[look]]

you pick your way. between the rocks there are crevices, treacherous but narrow. you could probably just about reach a hand down there.\n\ncrevice/ [[reach]]\ngo/ [[north|northrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]] / [[south|southrocks2]] / [[west|westrocks]]

jagged rocks line the outer edge of the path, creating a treacherous slope down to the beach. you crawl feet-first and wish they weren't quite so slippery.\n\ngo/ [[north|northrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]] / [[south|southrocks]] / [[west|westrocks]]

even without a broken arm, the pull of the vortex would be hard to fight. you kick and struggle until exhaustion forces you to bob helplessly in the grip of this tower, this tunnel, this tractor beam.\n\nit's much bigger than you thought. soon it's all you can see. even through the fog, its radiance is painful, and this close you can feel its aura crackling beneath your skin.\n\n[[the light]]

you collapse onto the path, hacking up water, gasping down fog. the rusted knife clamped in your trembling fist. the night has changed, somehow; thunder overhead.\n\nwaves are spilling across the path from the west. it's high tide. that should take hours, but you were only under for a few seconds.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine|newexamine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north|newnorth]] / [[east|neweast]] / [[south|newsouth]] / [[west|newwest]]

<<if $havetorch>><<display "slip">><<else>>the light can't penetrate down there. every time you think you've found a foothold, you're slipped off and have to cling to the path to stay upright.\n\ngo/ [[north|northrocks]] / [[south|southrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]]<<endif>>

<<timedinsert 1s>>written by elizabeth smyth/<<endtimedinsert>>\n<<timedinsert 1500ms>>  [[website|http://lizziesmyth.com]]<<endtimedinsert>>\n<<timedinsert 2s>>  [[tumblr|http://smegandtheheads.tumblr.com]]<<endtimedinsert>>\n<<timedinsert 2500ms>>  [[twitter|http://twitter.com/untiltheygo]]<<endtimedinsert>>\n\n<<timedinsert 3500ms>>based on/<<endtimedinsert>>\n<<timedinsert 4s>>  [[a true story|http://lizziesmyth.com/twine/about/theinvader.html]]<<endtimedinsert>>

you inch forwards, one damp handhold to the next, until you draw level with the thing. some kind of slime coats the rocks beneath it: leakage, or perhaps a trail leading down to the beach.\n\nwhatever it is, it burns your hand. you cry out and lose your balance, landing with a single sickening crunch.\n\n[[undo|west]]

the invader

you step off the path and into the lake. the ground disappears at once, plunging you in up to your neck.\n\ncold crushes close around your lungs while you flap to stay afloat. the water is black<<if $havetorch>>, but your torch is still working, sending a single feeble ray down into the gloom<<endif>>.\n\ngo/ [[up]] / [[down]]

it's slow going with your broken arm. but the closer you get, the stronger the pull becomes, until you are no longer swimming but bobbing patiently in the grasp of this tower, this tunnel, this tractor beam.\n\nit's much bigger than you thought. soon it's all you can see. even through the fog, its radiance is painful, and this close you can feel its aura crackling beneath your skin.\n\n[[the light]]

the thing blocks the full width of the path, and it's too big to jump.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[east]] / [[south]] / [[west]]

you turn around and walk back to the village lights. your home, your life. you never mention the thing to anyone; sometimes you wonder if you dreamed it. then, when the fog descends, you take the little blade out of its drawer and wonder how things might have gone differently.\n\nthe thing/ [[remember|newexamine]]

rough, damp. you can't escape the fear that the rocks are about to clamp shut on your hand.\n\n<<if not $tooktorch>>your fingers close over something and you snatch it to safety.\n\n[[it is]]<<else>>there's nothing down there except grit and slime.\n\ngo/ [[north|northrocks]] / [[east|eastrocks]] / [[south|southrocks]] / [[west|westrocks]]<<endif>>

you stagger away from the thing, clutching your broken arm, but it catches you by the ankle with a single tentacle and flips you upside down.\n\nyou flail as it hoists you high in the air. you catch a glimpse of the thing's beak, sharp and spread wide in a wail, before it hurls you out to sea.\n\n[[splash]]

the vortex pulls you underwater, where the light is blurred to a salty everything. something takes hold of your unbroken arm -- what exactly, it's hard to tell. you open your mouth to say something as you're dragged inside the light.\n\nthe noise of the waves disappears, and the brine in your throat turns to steam, and your vision goes white.\n\n<<timedinsert 4s>>[[/]]<<endtimedinsert>>

!the invader\nrecommended soundtrack/ [[black rose green sun|https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/black-rose-green-sun]]\ngame/ [[begin|walking]]

the sea is barely visible through the fog, but you can smell and taste and hear it roiling. terribly alive -- on the point of an eruption.\n\nwhen you try to wade out over the rocks, the waves send you stumbling back onto the path.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine|newexamine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north|newnorth]] / [[east|neweast]] / [[south|newsouth]] / [[west|newwest]]

the waves rise up your legs as you slip and stagger over the rocks. once you're clear of them, you dive headfirst into the sea.\n\nat the last second, the thing lashes at your ankle with a tentacle, but you slip free beneath the dark water.\n\n[[splash]]

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the thing blocks the full width of the path, and it's too big to jump.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine|newexamine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[east|neweast]] / [[south|newsouth]] / [[west|newwest]]

out to sea, the fog is skewered veritcally by a pulsating column of white light. waves and sky alike turn to twin vortices around their shimmering umbilical cord, though it's not clear whether the light is shooting up from below or down from above.\n\nlightning, and more thunder. the injured thing is still growing, still screaming. it sounds more like a siren.\n\ngo/ [[north|doomnorth]] / [[east|doomeast]] / [[south|doomsouth]] / [[west|doomwest]]

you charge headfirst into the thing. a single tentacle catches you by the ankle and flips you upside down, hoisting you high into the air.\n\nyou catch a glimpse of the thing's beak, sharp and spread wide in a wail, before it hurls you out to sea.\n\n[[splash]]

you haul yourself back onto the path, panting and shivering. your wet clothes weigh you down.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north]] / [[east]] / [[south]] / [[west]]

<<set $havetorch = false>><<set $haveknife = true>>with a single kick, you force yourself down. at the same moment, your torch succumbs to the water and dies. you let it find its own resting place, somewhere in the silt and the dead silence.\n\nblind, half paralysed by cold, you fumble for the shine you saw. when it scratches your palm, small and sharp, you know you've found it.\n\n[[up|new up]]

you nearly walk right into the thing.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine]]

it's restless. it knows you're there.\n\nthe thing/ [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north|newnorth]] / [[east|neweast]] / [[south|newsouth]] / [[west|newwest]]

you clamber back onto the path, relieved to be away from the sharp edges of the rocks.\n\nthe thing/ [[examine]] / [[touch]]\ngo/ [[north]] / [[east]] / [[south]] / [[west]]

untiltheygo

you turn around and walk back to the village lights. your home, your life. you never mention the thing to anyone; sometimes you wonder if you dreamed it. but for years to come, whenever fog descends, you find yourself imagining how it might have gone differently.\n\nthe thing/ [[remember|examine]]