Invisible Cities

<center>(text-style:"expand")+(css: "font-size: 200%")[**INVISIBLE CITIES**](set: $var to (either: "d")) (if: $var is "d")[[<img src="https://i.ibb.co/rbcXLyr/IC-LOGO.jpg">->PORTAL]](text-style:"italic") + (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: black)[[by ITALO CALVINO & KAJOCH]] //headphones recommended//</center>

<center>Guanine... //'pearl essence'// (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[crystalline guanine,]] guanine...</center>

<center>//Isaura, city of the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[thousand wells]], is said to rise over a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[deep, subterranean lake.]] Consequently two forms of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[religion]] exist in Isaura.// <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e98d6fe4b0575d7db2857e/1547596854142-ZE2XXNIVPD00LOWZE4Q5/ISAURA2.jpg?format=1500w"</center> --- <center>Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[THIN CITIES]].</center> { (track: 'snow', 'loop', true) (track: 'snow', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>//(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[On all sides,]] wherever the inhabitants dig long vertical holes in the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[ground]], they succeed in drawing up water, as far as the city, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Isaura]], extends, and no farther.//</center> { (track: 'snow', 'loop', true) (track: 'snow', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') (track: 'construction', 'stop') (track: 'stoicsteeds', 'stop') }

<center>//Its green border repeats the dark outline of the buried lake; an invisible landscape conditions the visible one; everything that moves in the sunlight is driven by the lapping wave enclosed beneath the rock's calcareous sky. // --- Drink from the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[thousand wells]].</center>

<center>//The city's (text-style:"blurrier")[gods], according to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[some people,]] live in the depths, in the black lake that feeds the underground streams.//</center>

<center>//According to others, the (text-style:"blurrier")[gods] live in the buckets that rise, suspended from a cable, as they appear over the edge of the wells, in the revolving pulleys, in the windlasses of the norias, in the pump handles, in the blades of the windmills that draw the water up from the drillings, in the trestles that support the twisting probes, in the reservoirs perched on stilts over the roofs, in the slender arches of the aqueducts, in all the columns of water, the vertical pipes, the plungers, the drains, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[all the way...]]//</center>

<center>//to the weathercocks that surmount the airy scaffoldings of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Isaura]], a city that moves entirely (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[upward.]]//</center>

<center>//There is a precipice between (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[two steep mountains.]] // <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e98d6fe4b0575d7db2857e/1591270775559-NGUFHBVYCUVYME52BYTP/OCTAVIA_56+x+41.jpg?format=1500w"</center> --- <center>Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[THIN CITIES]].</center> { (track: 'stumbling', 'loop', true) (track: 'stumbling', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>//And there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can glimpse the chasm's bed, below the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[two steep mountains.]]//

<center>//You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to set your foot in the open spaces, or you cling to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[hempen strands.]] //</center>

<center>//This is the foundation of the city: a net which serves as passage and as (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[support.]]// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Octavia]]</center>

<center>//rope ladders, hammocks, houses made like (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[sacks]], clothes hangers, terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets on strings, dumb-waiters, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[showers]], trapezes and rings for (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[children's games,]] cable cars, chandeliers, pots with trailing plants. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Octavia]]</center>

<center>//All the rest, instead of rising up, is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[hung below]]://</center>

<center>//They know the net will last only so long. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Octavia]]</center>

<center>//The city is over (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[the void,]] bound to the two crests with (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[ropes]] and (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[chains and catwalks.]] //</center>

<center>//Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia's inhabitants is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[less uncertain]] than in other cities. //</center>

<center>//The city of Sophronia is made up of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[two half-cities.]] One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[temporary,]] // <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e98d6fe4b0575d7db2857e/1554770613024-FW2QIXOA5Q3ZLRSDU3JJ/SOFRONIA.jpg??format=1500w"</center> --- <center>Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[THIN CITIES]].</center> { (track: 'title', 'loop', true) (track: 'title', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>//(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[In one there is...]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[The other half-city...]]//</center>

<center>//of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Sophronia]]</center>

<center>//the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Sophronia]]</center>

<center>//When the period of its sojourn is over, they (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[uproot it,]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[dismantle it,]] and (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[take it off,]] transplanting it to the vacant lots of another (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[half-city.]] //</center>

<center>//Here remains the half-Sophronia of the shooting-galleries and the carousels, the shout suspended from the cart of the headlong roller coaster, and it begins to count the months, the days it must wait before the caravan returns and a complete life can begin again.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Sophronia]]</center>

<center>//to follow from stand to stand their annual itinerary. // Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[half-city.]]</center>

<center>//And so (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[every year]] the day comes when the workmen remove the marble pediments...//</center>

<center>//And so (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[every year]] the day comes when the workmen lower the stone walls, the cement pylons, take down the Ministry... //</center>

<center>//And so (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[every year]] the day comes when the workmen take out the monument, the docks, the petroleum refinery, the hospital, load them on trailers...//</center>

<center>//Though set on (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[dry terrain,]] Zenobia stands on (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[high pilings...]]// <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e98d6fe4b0575d7db2857e/1547597780524-VERHGCF5PQXN6XRVWSRC/ZENOBIA.jpg"</center> --- <center>Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[THIN CITIES]].</center> { (track: 'memento', 'loop', true) (track: 'memento', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>//The fact remains that it has no walls, no ceilings, no floors: it has nothing that makes it (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[seem a city]], except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in taps, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[showers,]] spouts, overflows.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>//Abandoned before or after it was (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[inhabited,]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]] cannot be called deserted. //</center>

<center>//In the sun, the threads of water fanning from the showers glisten, the jets of the taps, the spurts, the splashes, the sponges' suds.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>//You have come to this explanation: the streams of water channeled in the pipes of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]] have remained in the possession of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[nymphs]] and (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[naiads]].//</center>

<center>//At any hour, raising your eyes among the pipes, you are likely to glimpse a young woman, or many (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[young women.]] //</center>

<center>//You would think the plumbers had finished their job and gone away before the bricklayers arrived.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center> (track: 'construction', 'playwhenpossible')

<center>//...or else their hydraulic systems, indestructible, had survived a catastrophe, an earthquake, or the corrosion of termites. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>//The fact remains that it has no walls, no ceilings, no floors: it has nothing that makes it (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[seem a city]], except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[forest of pipes that end in taps]], (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[showers,]], spouts, overflows.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>//Against the sky a lavabo's white stands out, or a bathtub, or some other porcelain, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[jets]] like late fruit still hanging from the boughs.//</center>

<center>//Their invasion may have driven out the human beings, or (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]] may have been built by humans as a votive offering to win the favor of the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[nymphs]], offended at the misuse of the waters. //</center>

<center>//Slender, not tall of stature, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[luxuriating]] in the bathtubs or arching their backs under the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[showers,]] ''suspended in the void,'' washing or drying or perfuming themselves, or combing their long hair at a mirror. //</center>

<center>//In any case, now they seem (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[content]], these maidens: in the morning you hear them singing.//</center>

<center>//(text-style:"mirror")[Accustomed to traveling along underground veins, they found it easy to enter into the new aquatic realm, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[suspended in the void,]] to burst from multiple fountains, to find new mirrors, new games, new ways of enjoying the water. ]// Dis(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[content]]</center> { (track: 'thinline', 'loop', true) (track: 'thinline', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>//Accustomed to traveling along underground veins, they found it easy to enter into the new aquatic realm, to burst from multiple fountains, to find new (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[mirrors]], new games, new ways of enjoying the water. // --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>(css: "font-size: 200%")[**THIN CITIES**] (set: $var to (either: "a", "b", "c"))(if: $var is "a")[[<img src="https://i.ibb.co/1MwT40b/2-1.jpg">->PORTAL]](if: $var is "b")[[<img src="https://i.ibb.co/VpHb89W/image.jpg">->PORTAL]](if: $var is "c")[[<img src="https://i.ibb.co/S6ktdrk/2.jpg">->PORTAL]] (if:visits >= 5)+(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Scatter Ashes In/Out the Thin Cities]] --- [(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Armilla]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Isaura]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Octavia]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Sophronia]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]]]</center>

(set: $them to (prompt: "what was //their// name..?", "Your loved one") ) <center> [$them](text-colour:black) [[should swim Armilla waters...]] [$them](text-colour:black) [[should ascend Isaura...]] [$them](text-colour:black) [[should dive off the peaks of Octavia...]] [$them](text-colour:black) [[should party/relax in Sophronia...]] [$them](text-colour:black) [[should in Zenobia...]] </center> { (track: 'dove', 'loop', true) (track: 'dove', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center> Composed as I am, like others, of elements on certain well-known lists, father's seed and mother's egg gathering earth, air, fire, mostly water, into a mulberry mass, moulding calcium, carbon, even gold, magnesium and such, into a chattering self tangled in love and work, scary dreams, capable of eyes that can see, only by moving constantly, the constancy of things [...] I pass through them as they pass through me taking and leaving affections, seeds, skeletons, millennia of fossil records of insects that do not last a day, body-prints of mayflies, a legend half-heard in a train of the half-man searching for an ever-fleeing other half through Muharram tigers, hyacinths in crocodile waters, and the sweet twisted lives of epileptic saints, and even as I add I lose, decompose, into my elements into other names and forms, past, and passing, tenses without time, caterpillar on a leaf, eating, being eaten. - Elements Of Composition Poem by A. K. Ramanujan (text-style:"italic") + (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: black)[[INVISIBLE CITIES]]</center>

<center>Composed as I am, like others, of elements on certain well-known lists, father's seed and mother's egg gathering earth, air, fire, mostly water, into a mulberry mass, moulding calcium, carbon, even gold, magnesium and such, into a chattering self tangled in love and work, scary dreams, capable of eyes that can see, only by moving constantly, the constancy of things [...] I pass through them as they pass through me taking and leaving affections, seeds, skeletons, millennia of fossil records of insects that do not last a day, body-prints of mayflies, a legend half-heard in a train of the half-man searching for an ever-fleeing other half through Muharram tigers, hyacinths in crocodile waters, and the sweet twisted lives of epileptic saints, and even as I add I lose, decompose, into my elements into other names and forms, past, and passing, tenses without time, caterpillar on a leaf, eating, being eaten. - Elements Of Composition Poem by A. K. Ramanujan (text-style:"italic") + (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: black)[[INVISIBLE CITIES]]</center>

<center>//Whether Armilla is like this because it is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[unfinished]] or because it has been (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[demolished,]] whether the cause is some enchantment or (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[only a whim,]] (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[you do not know.]]// <img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53e98d6fe4b0575d7db2857e/1547601020923-86EGSFQW0YE8B59DEIRP/ARMILLA_56+x+41.jpg"</center> --- <center>Return to the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[THIN CITIES]].</center> { (track: 'moon', 'loop', true) (track: 'moon', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center> you are a w-nderer on a quest.</center> --- =|= <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & MEMORY]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & DESIRE]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & SIGNS]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: black)[[THIN CITIES]]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[TRADING CITIES]</center> =|= <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & EYES]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & NAMES]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & THE DEAD]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CITIES & THE SKY]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[CONTINUOUS CITIES]</center> <center>(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: grey)[HIDDEN CITIES]</center> <center>(transition:"fade") + (text-style:"subscript")[b1.0 Thin Cities Ed.]</center> { (track: 'hightally', 'loop', true) (track: 'hightally', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'cicatriz', 'stop') }

<center>Composed as I am, like others, of elements on certain well-known lists, father's seed and mother's egg gathering earth, air, fire, mostly water, into a mulberry mass, moulding calcium, carbon, even gold, magnesium and such, into a chattering self tangled in love and work, scary dreams, capable of eyes that can see, only by moving constantly, the constancy of things [...] I pass through them as they pass through me taking and leaving affections, seeds, skeletons, millennia of fossil records of insects that do not last a day, body-prints of mayflies, a legend half-heard in a train of the half-man searching for an ever-fleeing other half through Muharram tigers, hyacinths in crocodile waters, and the sweet twisted lives of epileptic saints, and even as I add I lose, decompose, into my elements into other names and forms, past, and passing, tenses without time, caterpillar on a leaf, eating, being eaten. - Elements Of Composition Poem by A. K. Ramanujan (text-style:"italic") + (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour: black)[[INVISIBLE CITIES]]</center>

<center>//(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[up...]]//</center>

--- <center>Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Isaura]]</center>

<center>In certain light, thick and dense as a steel beam. In uncertain dark, thin and lustrous as if (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[guanine]] composed.</center>

<center>//and the houses are of bamboo and zinc...// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]]</center>

<center>//(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[linked]] by ladders and (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[hanging]] sidewalks, (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[surmounted]] by...//<center>

<center>//with many platforms and balconies placed on stilts at (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[various heights]], crossing one another...//</center>

<center>//cone-roofed belvederes, barrels storing water, weather vanes, jutting pulleys, and fish poles, and cranes. // All at (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[various heights]].<center>

<center>//No one remembers what needs or commands or (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[desires]] drove (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]]'s founders to give their city (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[this form...]]//<center>

<center>//and so there is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[no telling]] whether it was satisfied by the city of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[today...]]//<center>

<center>//which has (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[perhaps]] grown through (text-style:"flat","fidget")[successive superimpositions ] from the first, now undecipherable plan.//<center>

<center>//But what is certain is that if you ask an inhabitant of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Zenobia]] to describe (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[his vision]] of a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[happy life...]]//<center>

<center>//This said, it is pointless trying to decide whether (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Zenobia]] is to be classified among (text-style:"bold") + (text-style:"rumble") + (text-colour:black)[[happy]] cities (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[or]] among the (text-style:"bold") + (text-style:"shudder") + (text-colour:black)[[unhappy]]. //<center>

<center>//it is always a city like (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]] that he imagines, with its pilings and its (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[suspended]] stairways, a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]] perhaps quite different... //<center>

<center>//It makes no sense to divide cities into these (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[two]] species, but rather into another (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[two]]...//<center>

those that through the years and the changes continue to give their form to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[desires]], and those in which (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[desires]] either (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[erase]] the city or are erased by it.

--- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]]</center>

<center>//a-flutter with banners and ribbons, but always derived by (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[combining elements]] of that (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[first model]].//<center>

<center>//which has (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[perhaps]] grown through (text-style:"flat","fidget")[successive superimpositions ] from the first, now undecipherable plan.//<center>

<center>//a-flutter with banners and ribbons.// --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[Zenobia]]</center>

hightally: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnc4mtyxfsdolvg/1.%20Tally.mp3?dl=1 snow: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfjdx0qy8ltmg2q/Snow.mp3?dl=1 title: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pu4n4m83xhhr07p/title.mp3?dl=1 dove: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qs6rt8hpwt1nfd7/7.%20Dove%20%28Oh%2C%20Wah-Wah%29.mp3?dl=1 moon: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rx1kklkpp8hz6uq/6.%20Moon%20Not%20Tonight.mp3?dl=1 memento: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eeihk9z9bcyophh/5.%20Me%2C%20Memento.mp3?dl=1 stumbling: https://www.dropbox.com/s/toqm4n590bqsck3/4.%20Stumbling%20Last%20Minutes.mp3?dl=1 mother: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uwdko9ftr7gvopp/3.%20The%20Story%20of%20a%20Mother.mp3?dl=1 wrong: https://www.dropbox.com/s/23ow7hjh6pqm7we/2.%20Sound%20of%20Wrong.mp3?dl=1 thinline: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7yrg4wowiqvr9i/1.%20Thin%20Line%20Dove.mp3?dl=1 cicatriz: https://www.dropbox.com/s/657uam2cq9lhuki/Cicatriz%20BGM.mp3?dl=1 construction: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hko6oth4wb7sz60/Construction.mp3?dl=1 stoicsteeds: https://www.dropbox.com/s/atseilpbe8owwxr/StoicSteeds.mp3?dl=1

<center>Trees of porcelain and steel, planted overhanging branches, roots of nature or else nurtured by an (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[architect...]] but, again, this is (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[only a whim,]] and you don't presume to know.</center>

<center> ...with the light grace of Perseus ascending to the clouds... and the heavy certainty of his strike; this (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[forest of pipes that end in taps]].</center>

<center>Ex-Subjects of Dionysus, who seek refuge from Naxos, where once they had sought refuge from abusive men, only to worship another. But they continue His ecstatic practice of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[sparagmos.]]</center>

<center>Together, their manic hands (set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[render the flesh of a beating creature.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[They tear limb from body and body apart and smear the excess on their flesh]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[and giggle in the moonlight, eyes aflame,]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[and chant (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[the creature]] back,]] { (live: 1.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }

<center>reform it,(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[to wander off unaware,]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[until next time, and next time,]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[and the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[next time...]] forever.]] { (live: 1.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center> --- Return to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Armilla]]</center>

<center>Then from (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[fish scales]],(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[like the //Alburnus alburnus//, or the skin cells (iridocytes)]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[- of a common sturgeon -]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[to make fashionable items like pearl diadems and trinkets]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[for those on land.]] { (live: 1.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>Then, from protein, metabolised by scorpions,(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[the converted ammonia of spiders,]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[excreted with little water loss.]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[You can find it in (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[their webs]],]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[and in crocodile eyes.]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>Guanine...(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[Found in meteorites,]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[formed extraterrestrially in space.]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[Found in]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[our DNA.]]]] { (live: 2.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>Guanine.(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[Capable of camouflage.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Magic...]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[//Pearly essence.//]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[//Iridescent.//]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[Found in cosmetics...]] |sample6)[(transition: "dissolve")[Such as shampoo. //(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Eerie descent.]]//]] { (live: 2.7s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[First extracted from (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[bird excrement]], like the Japanese nightingale.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Composed of transparent layers that can refract, reflect, transmit]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[light]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[from layer to layer. ]] { (live: 1s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center> --- Look back at the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[two steep mountains.]]</center>

<center>Some transluscent, some opaque...(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[All wavering in the winds,]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[custom to the currents that be,]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[and drooping evermore,]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[and nevermore. All (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[hung below]].]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>Perhaps sourced from the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[City of a Thousand Wells]]? Or the (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[City of Showers,]] itself, if it exists?</center>

<center>Where, supposedly,(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[//in the sun, the threads of water fanning from the showers glisten,//]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[//the jets of the taps, the spurts, the splashes, the sponges' suds..?//]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[Surely, not here.]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[Not in (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Octavia]]. Not (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[hung below]].]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>Where, supposedly,(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[//on all sides, wherever the inhabitants dig long vertical holes in the ground,//]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[//they succeed in drawing up water, as far as the city extends, //]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[//and no farther.//]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[Surely, not here.]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[Not //this// water found in (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Octavia]]. Not the water (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[hung below]].]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>What's that?(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[Hidden in an alcove,]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[at the lowest point of (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Isaura]],]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[a passage]]]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[overgrown with moss...]] { (live: 1.2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>But, also,(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[a door...]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Ancient, inscripted with runes and markings... Small figures carved in iron, worshiping a star, rusting at the edges, fraying at the edges, breaking at the edges, and at the edges, you contemplate... (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Inside]]: a cry,]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[a whine, a snarl...]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[And a laugh.]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[//"Turn back to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Isaura]],"// ~~it seems to say.~~]] { (live: 2.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>The door slams shut.(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[Darkness.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Only closing your eyes makes the darkness go away. You keep them open.]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[Your feet are tired.]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[Your eyes are tired.]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[You are tired.]] |sample6)[(transition: "dissolve")[You (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[persevere]].]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center> { (track: 'cicatriz', 'loop', true) (track: 'cicatriz', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'snow', 'stop') (track: 'title', 'stop') (track: 'dove', 'stop') (track: 'hightally', 'stop') (track: 'memento', 'stop') (track: 'stumbling', 'stop') (track: 'mother', 'stop') (track: 'wrong', 'stop') (track: 'thinline', 'stop') (track: 'moon', 'stop') }

<center>(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[Your eyes adjust to (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[the dark]].]] { (live: 2.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[To the sides: walls.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Before you: (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[a forked path.]]]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[Behind you: nothing but a locked door.]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Wait]].]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>You enter the darkness.(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[And come across a dead-end.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[You hear dripping to your left, and sandfall to your right.]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[There's a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[carving]] on the wall.]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Wait]].]] { (live: 2.3s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>//“Midway upon the road of our life / I found myself within a dark wood / for the right way had been missed.”// (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Decide]].(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Wait]].</center>

<center>You enter the darkness.(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[And come across a dead-end.]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[You hear dripping to your left, and sandfall to your right.]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Wait]].]] { (live: 2.3s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center><center>(if:visits >= 3)+(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black) [[You...]] You have lost yourself.(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[(text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[Wait]]?]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Or embrace (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[the dark]]?]] { (live: 2s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<center>You wait by the way(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[with counted breath for what followed to rush past, ]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[and then turn to a person in the middle of darkness]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[bound to four solemn stallions staring into shrinking corners,]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[suspended looking up, half-torn and insides splayed, one eye a narcoleptic, one eye an insomniac;]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[who, when suggested freedom, laughs, snarls, bites, croaks, and calls ]] |sample6)[(transition: "dissolve")[to nauseating notice how the stoic steeds move:]] |sample7)[(transition: "dissolve")[a slow, silent step backward since the beginning,]] |sample8)[(transition: "dissolve")[drawing to consolidate at the centre of the body]] |sample9)[(transition: "dissolve")[from each (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[dimension]] they stood.]] </center> { (live: 2.5s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 7)[ (show: ?sample7) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 8)[ (show: ?sample8) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 9)[ (show: ?sample9) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }

<center>(set: $var to "c")(if: $var is "c")[[<img src="https://i.ibb.co/bB6n9kz/X-Color.jpg">->OPEN YOUR EYES]]</center> (track: 'construction', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'stoicsteeds', 'playwhenpossible') (track: 'stoicsteeds', 'loop', true)

<center>(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[You (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[open your eyes]]...]]</center> { (live: 1.4s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }

<center>(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[And see light...]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[Sky...]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[Water...]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[And a (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[thousand wells]].]] { (live: 1.4s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }</center>

<Center> Sophronia and Zenobia are under construction. Large parts of the framework narrative (mostly italics) are adapted from (link: "Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities")[(goto-url: 'https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Cities-Vintage-Classics-Calvino/dp/0099429837')]. I've then written around the cities in the //Thin Cities// section of that book. The idea evolved from a Borgesian labyrinth, à la (link: "The House of Asterion")[(goto-url: 'https://klasrum.weebly.com/uploads/9/0/9/1/9091667/the_house_of_asterion.pdf')], to an adaptation of Kafka's (link: "A Little Fable")[(goto-url: 'https://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/version_printable.pl?story_id=LittFabl.shtml')], to a direct adaptation of (link: "Cosmicomics")[(goto-url: 'https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Cosmicomics-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141189681')] within //Invisible Cities,// to a merger of all three. Any un-italicised text is entirely my own, and that comprises more than half the narrative. I was largely inspired by ergodic literature, visual novels, gamebooks, and art galleries/portfolios. But I'd be remiss not to mention the oulipo movement, short for the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (Workshop for potential literature), comprising literary "rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape," and ‘The Literary Machine.' I also owe these ideas and concepts with inspiration for my book, (link: "Deliriums")[(goto-url: 'https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B4NGR6YF')], which, in a way, acts precursory to this interactive fiction. In fact, I adapted the 100-word short story, (text-style:"bold")[[X - How the Stoic Steeds Move]], from //Deliriums//. Listing books and games that inspired that book, and this interactive fiction, would be exhausting. Regardless, I have not achieved my full vision. As said earlier, ambition compromised it. The ash scattering mechanic needed more development and rushed into a poem (a beautiful, special poem, to me) but not the multiple-route conclusion I dreamt of. Not to mention how unfinished Sophronia and Zenobia are compared to Armilla, Isaura, and Octavia. If I had more time and a budget, I would love to see the entire novel adapted; the cities expanded upon; a saving and memory system; more exploration; and other conclusions. I can even imagine adapting other worlds: a(text-style:"smear")[ virtual-textual heaven.] There's a place for this type of 'spiritual,' or, 'personal,' experience, I feel. The five hub artwork illustrations are owned by (link: "Karina Puente")[(goto-url: 'https://karinapuente.com/shop')]. All other artwork/illustrations are by me, (link: "Kajoch")[(goto-url: 'https://www.instagram.com/_dayface/')]. Likewise, all music was by me under the name Dayface and is available on (link: "Spotify")[(goto-url: 'https://open.spotify.com/artist/44YUyOpWyyTSyXQnCYMFnw')]/(link: "Soundcloud")[(goto-url: 'https://soundcloud.com/thedayface')], except the music for Sophronia (which is a remix I made of Coldplay's (link: "Trouble")[(goto-url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcASPx3-HuI')]), and the ambient BGM for the 'labyrinth' of Isaura (which is the ambient part of (link: "Cicatriz ESP")[(goto-url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5BM0Tln7cM')] by The Mars Volta, remixed, reversed, and added reverb, by me). I got the permission of nobody mentioned, and won't be making a profit of this interactive fiction. Concerning word count: I have replicated text/passages repeatedly (therein bolstering the overall count). Likewise, extraneous text such as this credits page factored into the overall count. The under-the-hood word count is not representative, and I urge the player to play their own way until they feel ready to move on. </center>

<center>You wait by the way(set: $transCounter to 0)\ |sample1)[(transition: "dissolve")[with counted breath for what followed to rush past, ]] |sample2)[(transition: "dissolve")[and then turn to a person in the middle of darkness]] |sample3)[(transition: "dissolve")[bound to four solemn stallions staring into shrinking corners,]] |sample4)[(transition: "dissolve")[suspended looking up, half-torn and insides splayed, one eye a narcoleptic, one eye an insomniac;]] |sample5)[(transition: "dissolve")[who, when suggested freedom, laughs, snarls, bites, croaks, and calls ]] |sample6)[(transition: "dissolve")[to nauseating notice how the stoic steeds move:]] |sample7)[(transition: "dissolve")[a slow, silent step backward since the beginning,]] |sample8)[(transition: "dissolve")[drawing to consolidate at the centre of the body]] |sample9)[(transition: "dissolve")[from each (text-style:"bold") + (text-colour:black)[[dimension]] they stood.]] </center> { (live: 1s)[ (set: $transCounter to it + 1) (if: $transCounter is 1)[ (show: ?sample1) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 2)[ (show: ?sample2) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 3)[ (show: ?sample3) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 4)[ (show: ?sample4) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 5)[ (show: ?sample5) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 6)[ (show: ?sample6) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 7)[ (show: ?sample7) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 8)[ (show: ?sample8) ] (else-if: $transCounter is 9)[ (show: ?sample9) ] (else:)[ (stop:) ] ] }

Mute

↶

↷

INVISIBLE CITIES

by ITALO CALVINO & KAJOCH

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