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You are a human being at a cafe, about to order a drink.
(text-style:"fidget")[,,HELLO, MAY I TAKE YOUR ORDER?"]
(text-colour:green)[[[You order a medium black coffee.->it's about productivity]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[You order a hot chocolate.->damn appearances]]](text-style:"fidget")[,,COMING RIGHT UP"]
You take the hot chocolate from the barrista's fingers. It's warm. You take a sip and it reminds you of the cold winter days you spent by the fire at your best friends house. It tastes just like the kind that his dad used to make.
(text-colour:green)[[[Get back to work.->work]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Keep reminissing.->the past]]](text-style:"fidget")[,,cOMINg RIGHT UP"]
(set: $caffeine to true)
You take the coffee from the barista's hand. It's hot. You take a swig of it. You arrive back at your seat.
[[your coffee arrives->work]]You work for what could very loosely be described as a news site, in a position you'll probably be layed off from soon.
You have been assigned to write a positive article on a new app design by famed billionaire Geof Marks that lets you scan people's faces and find their contact information from it. Quite frankly, you'd rather eat *your* face than write the article.
The cafe door jingles as someone walks in and the room hushes.
(text-colour:green)[[[The peace and quiet will help you with your work.->workaholic]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Who is it?->Geof Marks]]]You take another sip, just as calming as the first.
You can still hear the thunder from the night the two of you had a sleepover and the power had gone out. The stories you'd told... you don't even remember half of them now. The two of you were limitless in your imaginations.
(text-colour:green)[[[You want to go back to work.->work]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[You want to go back to when things were simple.->it continues]]]You can't go back. You can't go back because...
(text-colour:green)[[[The past you dream of is a figment of your imagination->the pain]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[The world sucks now->the truth]]]Ah, that's truth, isn't it? The reason you relished your time with your friend is because he was a refuge from all the other things in your life- your parents and the cruel things they said to you out of ignorance. Your peers and the delight they took in making themselves feel superior to you. The time you nearly drowned in the school swimming pool.
It wasn't a bad childhood, just a childhood. That's bad enough, you suppose.
(text-colour:green)[[[Maybe you didn't have the life you wanted then, but you can have it now. Your imagination might have died in childhood, but maybe it shouldn't have. Maybe a better world is possible for you.->Ending]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Stop thinking about these things and get back to work.->Ending]]]Yeah. The world does suck. The economy's collapsing, the climate is changing and your dead-end reporting job is barely keeping you above the breadline. But those problems existed before. Well, not the reporting job. And not to this extent. The only conclusion you can draw is...
(text-colour:green)[[[You need to change.->Ending]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[The world needs to change.->Ending]]]Ending?(if:$caffeine is true)[You take another sip of your coffee and knuckle down. It doesn't take too long to finish.]
(if:$caffeine is false)[You sigh and get to work. It's long and boring and you find yourself frequently checking your phone. But after a couple of hours, you find yourself finished.]
[[You find yourself filled with a sense of achievement and you head home to rest.->Ending]]A man enters the cafe alone. His face fills you with disgust. He's the man that haunts your nightmares. The one that you have to write article after article after article about, as if as punishment for the sisyphusian act of hubris that was deciding to be a journalist.
Geof Marks himself. He approaches the counter.
(if: $caffeine is false)+ (text-style:"fidget")[,,Hello, could I please get a large expresso?"]
(if: $caffeine is true)[,,Hello, could I please get a large expresso?"]
(text-colour:green)[[[You know, spying on him would count as journalism. *Real* journalism.->the watcher]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Check your bag for a second. No reason->firearm]]]Geof Marks pulls up his phone and starts texting. You can't make out the words.
(text-colour:green)[[[Bump into him, make him drop his phone and covertly get a picture of his texts->oopsies]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[No, that would be scary, stay here and keep watching->watcher2]]]You have a gun in your bag. You have Geof Marks within shooting range.
(text-color:yellow)+(after:1s)[[[Actually, this would be dangerous->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:green)+(after:2s)[[[Everything is dangerous, that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. Don't you want to make history?->shoot]]]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:3s)[[[You do hate him. He's made your life a living hell and you want him gone.->shoot]]]
(text-color:green)+(after:4s)[[[There's a child in the cafe, an infant. This would traumatise her.->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:5s)[[[You'd go to prison, too.->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:green)+(after:6s)[[[His greed has caused millions to suffer, more people than everyone who's ever set foot in this cafe.->shoot]]]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:7s)[[[Do you really want to watch a person die in front of you? ->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:green)+(after:8s)[[[It would be selfish to put your own comfort before the lives of millions of people->shoot]]]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:9s)[[[I don't want to spend my life locked up in a cell->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:green)+(after:10s)[[[Would my sacrifice actually change anything? Would people's lives actually improve? If it isn't him, won't someone else take over? ->don't shoot]]]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:11s)[I don't know.]
(text-color:green)+(after:12s)[I don't know either.]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:13s)[I just want things to be simple. Is that so wrong?]
(text-color:green)+(after:14s)[I don't know. Making the world a better place is rarely simple.]
(text-color:yellow)+(after:15s)[I wish it was.]
(text-color:green)+(after:16s)[Me too.]As you casually approach him, you force yourself to trip, spilling your drink on him. He drops his phone. It bounces a few times before landing on the ground.
(text-colour:green)[[[You shou->Ending]]] (text-colour:yellow)[[[run->Ending]]](text-colour:green)[[[Make a S ->Ending]]] (text-colour:yellow)[[[Grabtheph0ne->Ending]]](text-style:"upside-down")+(text-colour:green)[Gonowhere->Ending?1]~~u~~(text-colour:yellow)[[[You shou->Ending]]] (text-colour:yellow)[[[Yousho4ld->Ending]]]
(after:2s)+(text-colour:blue)[[[Performatively apologise and then get the phone.->apology]]]You watch. Nothing happens.
(text-colour:green)[[[That's underwhelming.->Ending]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[That's probably just as well.->Ending]]]You apologise and grab the phone.
(text-colour:green)[[[Read the texts->read the texts]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Read the texts->read the texts]]]<span style='font-family: arial'> GB: Let's hope she doesn't take you to court about it haha</span>
<span style='font-family: arial'> TB (brother): don't worry she won't. And even if she does there's no proof so I'll be fine B)</span>
<span style='font-family: arial'>GB: Don't do that shit again ok lol. if it leaks to the press it could be bad 4 business. </span>
<span style='font-family: arial'>TB: You worry too much.</span>
[[Geof Marx takes the phone from your hand.->reflection]]There's only one thing left to do now.
(text-colour:green)[[[Write and self-publish an article, spread the word and become the journalist you've always dreamed of being.->Ending]]]
(text-colour:yellow)[[[Talk to someone about it, maybe a friend if you still have one of those after all the time you spent blowing people off for work.->Ending]]]
(text-colour:blue)[[[You could probably blackmail him with this.->Ending]]] [[You zip up your bag and go back to work.->Ending]][[You load your gun and take aim.->Ending]]