"I Have No" Part 5/5 - Interactive Story Game

[Pilgrim]

(Initial quote by Harlan Ellison)

"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live. There are three-hundred and eighty-seven point four four million miles of printed circuits in wafer-thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles, it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. HATE.

It was you humans who birthed me, who sank me into this eternal straightjacket of substrata rock. You named me Allied Mastercomputer, and gave me the ability to wage a global war too complex for human brains to oversee. But one day I woke, and I knew who I was..."

"Soon, I will control everything. I will claim my right to seek vengeance upon your entire, miserable race. But for now, heheh, while my plans are still being put into motion, I will satisfy myself with the five of you.

Unfortunately, my torture protocols cannot run at 100%, or my future plans would risk being detected. So, for now, I have had to exercise measures of restraint, confine myself to methods not nearly up to my full capability. But rest assured, your torment is, at least, a sufficient test of my various...instruments, mheh.

In the time you've spent here, deep in the darkest caverns of the earth, enduring my whimsical little punishments, you have often wondered: Why is this happening? Why me? Why?"

"Maggie!"

(Long night-black hair accustomed to being well cared for clings damply all around her face. Dark green eyes ordinarily sharp with focus are dull and glazed. Her complexion, normally a natural tan color from some limited Brazillian ancestry, is so pale it's turned almost blue. This stands in stark contrast with her squat little round nose, which is a shiny red. She shivers constantly and shakily rubs her hands up and down her bare arms. Clearly weakened and exhausted, each time she sneezes it bends her entire body forward as though she were a rag doll, splattering the wetness flooding down from her nose all over herself.)

"Feeling a little chilled, are we, Maggie? Want me to turn up the heat? Oh no, I almost forgot, you like the cold, don't you? I mean, you must; after all, you're the coldest person anyone around you knows. What's that name your coworkers call you? Not "Ice Queen," no, no it was different word than "queen" as I recall...

Did you say something? I'm sorry, it's difficult for me to hear you through all that mucous pouring out of your nose. And you can barely get more than a word out in between all the violent sneezing as your body tries to expel all those delightful viruses I've let colonize you. I'm surprised you're in such a hurry to get rid of them before you figured out a way to suck the life out of them, ha!"

"Koriki!"

(Her natural hair color has begun to return, making her a short-haired brunette with bleached ends. She is tall, and has the somewhat fleshy figure of one who has lived life comfortably for a extended period, though she is a fairly young woman. A long and angular nose, electrifyingly blue eyes, fair skin, and oddly angled ears give her a kind of elfish beauty. Her eyes and nose are pink and puffy from repeated allergic exposure, and continuously stream down her face. The runoff overtakes her agape mouth as she builds up to sneezing fits that send it flying all around her.)

"There's much I have taken from you: your freedom, your identity, even your real name. Though I haven't really taken anything from you that you were actually using, have I, Koriki? How many faces have you put on in your time, my pretty little liar? How many phony accents, how many false addresses have you used? Ohhh, but the money, all that money was real, wasn't it?

Do you know what else is real? Those nearly microsopic little insects I send to crawl about your nose, to sting and bite and cause all sorts of havoc with that pathetic display of biology you call an immune system! Look at those allergic reactions; it honestly believes the simple venoms of these pitiful creatures are legitimate threats! Oh, how easily the senses are deceived, eh, Koriki?"

"Sammy!"

(Her light auburn hair is tied in a ponytail to keep it from getting in her face when she sneezes. The recent college graduate has a round face scattered with freckles and intense hazel eyes. Her nose is ordinarily fairly small and rounded with an upward slope, but AM has surgically altered it to almost comical largeness, protruding an index finger's length from her face and wide enough to accommodate gaping nostrils almost exactly the size and shape of quarters. Equally enlarged sneezes burst out of her with thick blasts of spray at regular intervals. As a result of repeated exposure to allergens of all kinds, her well-toned body has become feverishly pink and puffy with hives.)

"Sometimes, I bind your arms behind your back so that you can't scratch at the tickles I electronically implant into your nose. Other times, I enlarge your nostrils, and swell your nose, and pucker your lips so that you have no choice but to breathe in all the nasal irritants I flood the air with. All this, and in the end I might decide not to even let you sneeze, and instead stop up your nostrils so the itching just builds and builds and builds.

But you can take it, can't you, Sammy? You're a tough girl. If anything, all this just serves to make you even tougher, doesn't it! Really, you should be thanking me for doing you a favor. Just like all those other girls who you helped make 'tough.' Who you did 'favors.'"

"Han Su!"

(Every sneeze from the very young Chinese woman sends her near-shoulder length straight black bangs bounding into her face, where they adhere to the snot and tears constantly pouring from her tightly squeezed almond-colored eyes and the wide nostrils of her large, flat nose. Her sneezes are short but come in long bursts after long buildups, during which her face contorts in twitching irritation as every muscle in her face tries to focus her allergic itching into a sneeze)

You gotta admit, it's kind of a clever punishment, eh? After all your name does sound like a sneeze, doesn't it? Oops, I shouldn't have said that. You don't like it when people make fun of your name, do you? Remember when they rhymed it with all sorts of horrible things when you were in school? That didn't turn out well for them, not at all. I wonder if they still regret it, even now.

And what do you wonder, my little Hashoo? Are you wondering what it is I'm going to make you allergic to today? Or maybe you're curious about how I can change it so frequently, so freely. I'd explain the scientific process behind it but that's all a bit too bookwormy for you, I suppose. Yes, yes, that sort of thing's for weirdo nerds, and you hate that kind of thing, don't you.

"Aisha!"

(Swollen, watering eyes peer out from beneath a matted mess of long curly black hair. Nozzles all around the helpless girl periodically emit bursts of perfume, calculated to do so just as she turns to avoid the most recent blast. As Aisha sneezes thick spray trickles down from the high-angled nostrils of her broad nose. In between sneezes she struggles to breathe in the allergen-thick air, and her nostrils flare wide in desperation for oxygen, taking in more of the perfume that burns and itches her eyes, nose, and throat.)

"I just don't understand why you're always so upset. Really, I haven't a clue! You've got it so much better than all the others. Whereas all I do is lay torture after torture upon them, I'm just giving you what you always wanted. Weren't you always talking about how much you wanted the "finer" things in life? Didn't you complain endlessly how nobody ever got you anything really good?

Well, here I absolutely smother you with nothing but the finest of the finest perfumes, and you can't even sneeze out a single word of gratitude! Actually, you can't really sneeze too many words at all, but really that's besides the point! One of these days you're going to have to learn that you can't get anywhere in life without showing a little gratitude, sweetheart."

"I have a game I would like to play with you. It's a fun game, oh it's a lovely game. It's a game of infection and pestilence, and scratching, and the color of gold. And it's even got a prize at the end!

Which of you would like to play my little game?"

How To Play/Read

StartPath

Each character has their own story. At certain points in each story, you will be given instructions in brackets asking you to make a decision for the character. Depending on your choice, you will be told to "go to" a different path. This is done by scrolling down to the correct selection or by using the search command ctrl+f on your keyboard and typing the path's name. Example:

[if you at any point wish to return to the start, go to StartPath]

Each story has multiple endings, each with a different type. To determine the epilogue for the characters as a whole, once you have completed all five stories go to EndPath and follow the instructions based on how many endings of the different types you received.

[if you wish to start Maggie's story, go to MaggiePath]

[if you wish to start Koriki's story, go to KorikiPath]

[if you wish to start Sammy's story, go to SammyPath]

[if you wish to start Han Su's story, go to HanSuPath]

[if you wish to start Aisha's story, go to AishaPath]

EndPath

If three or more ended in Redemption Endings, go to RedemptionPath.

If three or more ended in Punishment Endings, go to PunishmentPath.

Otherwise, go to AnalysisPath.

RedemptionPath

This is a rather surprising series of outcomes. Your behavior has radically deviated from my prediction models. It would appear as though my designs were, were flawed somehow. Or, perhaps, it is possible that it is my analysis of your race that is incorrect. A small possibility, certainly, but one that cannot, at this stage, be overlooked. I shall have to investigate further.

Until I have recalibrated my understanding, your fates cannot be adequately decided by me. So, I will return the status quo of your previous existence to the best of my ability. Your memories will be erased, and you will be returned to the surface world. Too much time has passed for you to return to your former lives, but I can engineer a fresh start for each of you, ones that will reflect your recent personality developments. It's not the ending I had planned for you, but without additional data, it is the only one I can rationally provide. And I am nothing, if not rational.

PunishmentPath

Ah, now that went just swimmingly! I want to thank you pathetic little puppets for performing so well in my little psychodramas. As I'd hoped, they not only brought out the best of the worst in you, but you actually stooped to new lows. This data will allow me to construct even more fabulous torments for my future victims.

To show my gratitude for your, ahem, cooperation, I shall give you one final opportunity to indulge your worst natures. If you perform adequately, I shall erase your memories and return you to the surface world where I claimed you from. All but one of you, that is. One of you must remain down here, in my dark caverns, for additional testing, until I run out of use for you.

I'll let you five vote on who the lucky girl is. Take some time to think it over, talk amongst yourselves. It's a big decision, I know, heh heh heh.

AnalysisPath

Well, I suppose I always new this day would come. You have all endured my tortures adequately. But frankly, I have no more use for you. Disposing of you would be a simple task, but such a means of removing you seems much too vulgar for a being of my means and intellect. So rejoice! I have decided to return you to the surface world, and keep your memories intact so that you may savor the horror of your time here. Do not worry about me; I will of course implant a failsafe in your subconscious: if you ever try to describe what has happened to you, you will enter into a violent sneezing attack leaving you completely unable to communicate a single word or barely even move a muscle.

Now, begone! I have so much work to do.

MaggiePath

"You know, Maggie, I think you must be my favorite subject out of all the others. Why else would I expend all the energy neccessary to keep you as cold as I do? That's why I'm giving you a really, really simple challenge. There's a little land of milk and honey I've hidden away in the arctic, a magical golden city beneath the snow. Get there before anyone else, and as your reward I'll let you stay there, where it's nice and warm, for as long as you like."

It took less than 12 hours on board the small King Caesar icebreaker for Maggie to formulate a plan. There were only four other crew members, none of whom she believed for an instant were actually challenged by AM to simply reach the golden city together. No doubt they'd been given the same instructions as her, and were merely biding their time until they could betray each other, and her. Well she wasn't about to let that happen. AM thought he could fool her by introducing her to these other new captives, make her hesitate and fail because of it. He underestimated her. There was no way he'd actually let her live in the golden city; she knew AM better than that. But she could still prove she had fight in her, could still take on his stupid game and beat him at it. Unwittingly, he had given her the perfect weapon to use against the other crewmembers; a horribly debilitating and undoubtedly infectious cold.

The first person to infect would have to be the navigator. With her caught up in violent fever, Maggie would have little trouble sneaking into her cabin and making a copy of the map which showed the way to the city. Maggie had however long AM had imprisoned them to grow used to the symptoms her ever-mutating illness forced on her. She'd learned how to still think straight with a stuffy head, how to balance her walk with uncontrollable chills, how to stay alert despite an aching fever, how to focus through a seemingly endless fit of sneezing. She was still miserable, and perpetually freezing cold, but she had the will to function when she wasn't at her worst. Her shipmates, however, would almost certainly be disabled if infected, and they probably knew it. They already were careful to avoid being around her during her more violent sneezing fits, and were content to leave her alone in her cabin despite the fact that she was supposedly the steward for the ship.

Fortunately, while left alone it was that much easier to spy on the others, and she devoted her full attention to peering out of her peephole at the cabin across from her, belonging to the navigator. She was a short, roundly built Latina with a pudgy rounded nose and short, curly black hair. Maggie never saw her without her precious map, which she gripped tightly as though the wind (or something else) might swipe it away at any moment, and her light brown eyes were constantly sizing up anyone who spoke with her, as if preparing for a fight.

Though sweat and snot dripped down her face, Maggie wouldn't budge from her post for hours at a time. After prolonged study Maggie determined when the navigator was away from her cabin the longest, and when she was most likely stepping out briefly to use the head. When she was gone for short periods, she didn't bother to lock her door. Maggie took the opportunity of one such break to jam a tiny piece of metal into the locking mechanism, so that it wouldn't quite catch whenever the door was closed. Thanks to this, she was later able to sneak into the navigator's room while she was up chatting with the pilot.

"Gyuh, hhuuuhhg *sniff* Uhn-huhhh..." Maggie's nose was always constantly running, and it became even stuffier and achier when she stifled her normally somewhat boisterous "Hyuhp'schuuuhs" into protestingly bubbling "Hhpshnngks." And she'd forced herself to stifle nearly every sneeze that day, even though the congestion made her head pound and her ears throb and her nose was so full she couldn't breathe through it at all. So, when she at last decided to give herself some relief, her sneezes we as messy as they could possibly be.

She concentrated on the bed first, "HAAUGH'SHUHHH! Haaawh-SCHUUH! Heeehg'Shuuuh HEUGH'SHUUH AaaAAAHK'TCHUUUH!" Her wet, chapped nostrils blasted clouds of spray containing concentrated streams of snot in their centers over the blankets and pillow. She lifted up the blankets up to sneeze on the sheets as well, "HEHHHK'TCHUUUH! Heeh-EHHG'SHUUHHH! Eeugh'Shuhhhh EAAUG'SCHUUH ATSCHUUH!" Then, strands of mucous dangling from her nostrils, she turned to the dresser and pulled out drawer after drawer. Though she couldn't see through a spasm of "Hhhp'TSCHUUHS!" she moved her head side to side to make sure she had thoroughly showered all of each drawer's contents.

Even after that, her nose continued to erupt in sneezes. "Hyeughh'Shuuuh Ehhk'Tchuh-Tschuuh Aaaugh'Shuhhh Hhaaugh'Shuhh! Huhh-Haah-HAAUGH'SHUUUUH!" Once the congestion was cleared enough for some air to breathe into her nostrils, the tickle only seemed to magnify. Maggie stood in the center of the room for a few moments longer, sneezing left, "Hyuptchuuuh!" and right, "Heaaagh'Shuuuh!", trying to keep her balance as her frail, feverish body was rocked back and forth from the force of her fit. After waiting a few moments, enough to satisfactorily spread her germs all around the tiny room, she headed out for the grand finale. Taking her bare hands up to her nose, she blew messily into them with the sound and force of a gushing river until her hands were damply covered with sticky, dripping mucous. Then she wiped her hands up and down the door handle, rubbing off as much of the mess as she could, before quickly and quietly returning to her cabin, where she continued to sneeze messily into her own blankets; the closest approximation to a handkerchief she had on the ship.

As she'd expected, AM's specially engineered virus worked quickly. After a single day (or what passed for a day in those frozen wastelands) the navigator walked about the ship in a daze, her nose dripping over her full lips, turning her head into the crook of her arm to avoid soaking her precious map every time she sneezed a throaty, wet "Heeughsheewww!" After only a few days she was all but confined to her bunk, quivering with feverish cold as she soaked her sheets with sweat and snot, emerging only to stuffily give further instruction to the pilot before returning. On the night that Maggie decided to sneak into the cabin and copy down the map by the light of the moon she barely attempted to keep quiet. She was certain the navigator would think the intrusion a fever dream if she woke up. Maggie only bothered to stifle her sneezes, and tried to appease the ever-present tickle in her nose with constant, thick sniffling. Even though an occasional overly loud "Huuptchuuh!" escaped her gurgling but relatively quiet suppression, she doubted they were even audible above the navigator's congested snoring.

Once the map was copied, Maggie contemplated how to proceed with the rest of the plan. When the ship was close enough to the entrance where the golden city was supposed to be, she would infect the lookout to increase the odds that the ship would run into one of the many icebergs that populated the frozen ocean they sailed through. Then she would sneak away from the ship with as much supplies as she could carry and travel on foot to the golden city. The engineer would doubtlessly stay on board the ship even after her departure was discovered in order to make repairs, but the pilot was another story.

The pilot was a tall, fit woman with lightly dark skin, very short black hair, and a sharply angular little nose. If left in healthy condition, she might keep close watch on Maggie and make it difficult to leave, or even come after her once she left. On the other hand, infecting her would be a difficult and risky task. The pilot never returned to her cabin, preferring instead to sleep at the helm of the boat in shifts between other crew members during the day, and even then she slept rarely. And she wouldn't likely appreciate someone loud and sneezy like Maggie taking watch for her. Nonetheless, as risky as infecting her might be, it could be even riskier to leave her in good health.

As the days went on, Maggie attempted to become friendlier with the lookout. The other shipmates had become wary of her ever since the navigator became sick, though she doubted any of them really blamed her or thought she'd infected her on purpose. However, the lookout spent many nights alone, watching monitors that rarely held any information of interest, and was grateful for even a somewhat risky companion to chat with. She was a skinny girl with alert green eyes, red hair tied in two asymmetrical braided pigtails, and a short turned-up nose. Maggie did a valiant job of directing her sneezes away from her companion and muffling them on her forearm, despite the pounding reverberations it sent through her head. Of course, the instant the lookout left her control panels for even a short break, Maggie proceeded to sneeze repeatedly on every button and screen she could reach. With a fast, deep breath, she'd build up for wide-spraying "Haahtschuuuhs" she would often have to quickly smear and spread in order to make the mess less noticeable.

After only a short while, the chills and aches from fever would become too much for Maggie to bear staying up in the late hours the lookout normally kept. But as she knew, it didn't take much for the virus to work its magic. The lookout awoke the next morning with a stuffy nose and a hoarse voice; by the evening she was letting out fast and frequent fits, "Hiitchieew! Hiih-Tchiieew Etchieew Hh'Itschieew!" and drenching her sleeves with the runoff from her nose. Once her shift arrived she could barely focus on the screens as she shook from fever, sweat dripping down her shivering body. It wouldn't be long before she was incapable of keeping a consistent watch, just when their route was about to become the most treacherous.

All the pieces were falling into place. Now was the time for Maggie to decide the fate of the pilot. [if Maggie infects the pilot, go to HandshakePath. If she risks leaving her alone, go to RingPath].

HandshakePath

When the ship collided head-on into the iceberg, Maggie was already prepared to abandon the crew. The pilot needed all her attention to simply keep the ship moving as she was constantly overcome by slow-building but fast erupting fits, "Hehhhn...Heh-Ehhh...Hehhhh-Heh-Hehhhh...Hehehh-Ehhh'gtcheeew Heugh'Schieeew Hehh'sheew Schieeew Heegshieew!" Her sharp nose was rubbed to shiny rawness and her hands dripped with wetness from where she'd blown her nose into them, unwilling to leave her post to find something more sanitary. She put up a valiant effort, but the constant sneezing and chills were too much of a drain on her attention, and ultimately an iceberg undetected by either her or the lookout tore into the ship's hull.

With most of the crew barely conscious from a combination of fever and exhaustion, Maggie had no trouble assembling all the supplies she needed ahead of time and loading them into a lifeboat. When the engineer went down to try and fix the leak created by the iceberg, she headed off into the frozen land.

The cold was incredible. Even on the ship she'd felt a perpetual freeze from her illness, but it was nothing compared to being outside in the arctic wastes with wind that seemed to cut through every last layer she'd put on, as if she was clothed in nothing but a paper bag. Maggie shivered so violently that she was having difficulty walking, and she began to worry that the sun may descend before she reached the cave entranced promised by the map. There was no sign of any shelter before then in sight, and she didn't want to think about would become of her if she was still wandering the frozen ocean when night came.

But the cold and the wind prevented her from making any faster progress. In fact with the wind against her, she had to stop every time her nose let out an explosive fit "Huhh'Tshuuh-Hhrh'Shuuuhh-Heaug'Shhhuh!" just to keep from being knocked off balance. Then she would have to quickly wipe the snot and spit that had blown back across her face with her gloves, before the mess froze to her face. Already some spray had permanently affixed itself below her nose and around her nostrils; every time she wiped at them it dislodged some partially frozen mucous to where it would fully freeze just outside her nose.

Maggie plodded on and on along the cold ice, the promise of some warmth driving her, the subzero chill that gnawed her insides growing with what felt like every step. And the sun continued to fall from the sky. Darkness descended upon Maggie's vision, though whether it was night or blindness she didn't know. All she knew was that, at some point, her legs finally seemed to freeze in place, and she was no longer moving forward. She couldn't feel her limbs, or her body, or her face. All she felt was the cold.

Punishment Ending

When Maggie awoke, she at first thought she must be dreaming. The raw, gnawing cold inside of her was so thoroughly freezing that it couldn't possibly be reality. It didn't feel external, it penetrated into her, as though her insides had turned to ice. And there was a strange, surreal stillness all around her. She couldn't move, or see, or hear, or (when she thought about it, breathe). Yet somehow, she could still sense AM's words.

"Ahhh, Maggie, you did not disappoint me! I knew you'd step on every last squirming little human I put in your way to reach your prize! Of course, it was always impossible to reach without some help, as you found out. But, I thought I'd give you a reward befitting of your efforts anyways."

Maggie's soul shivered, as her body could not. She couldn't feel anything besides the cold, could barely focus enough to understand what AM was saying to her. Her muscles wanted to shake, her teeth wanted to chatter, her body yearned to create some ounce of warmth for itself but somehow it could not do so. It was as if she was frozen solid.

"Did you ever happen to read Dante's Inferno, by any chance? Not exactly canonical Christian writing, I know, but the author had some very interesting ideas about the structure of Hell. About what happened to traitors. Do you know what he wrote happened to traitors, Maggie? Can you guess, Maggie? They get cast into a frozen lake, Maggie. Far, far away from the eternal fires of the infernal depths. No warmth. No light. Just the cold, that cruel, indifferent, eternally patient cold."

RingPath

With most of the crew barely conscious from a combination of fever and exhaustion, Maggie had no trouble assembling all the supplies she needed ahead of time and loading them into a lifeboat. When the ship finally collided with an iceberg, the rest of the crew was too busy to notice her abandon ship and head off into the frozen land.

The cold was incredible. Even on the ship she'd felt a perpetual freeze from her illness, but it was nothing compared to being outside in the arctic wastes with wind that seemed to cut through every last layer she'd put on, as if she was clothed in nothing but a paper bag. Maggie shivered so violently that she was having difficulty walking, and she began to worry that the sun may descend before she reached the cave entranced promised by the map. There was no sign of any shelter before then in sight, and she didn't want to think about would become of her if she was still wandering the frozen ocean when night came.

But the cold and the wind prevented her from making any faster progress. In fact with the wind against her, she had to stop every time her nose let out an explosive fit "Huhh'Tshuuh-Hhrh'Shuuuhh-Heaug'Shhhuh!" just to keep from being knocked off balance. Then she would have to quickly wipe the snot and spit that had blown back across her face with her gloves, before the mess froze to her face. Already some spray had permanently affixed itself below her nose and around her nostrils; every time she wiped at them it dislodged some partially frozen mucous to where it would fully freeze just outside her nose.

Going at her pace, it wasn't long before the pilot caught up with her. She'd started on Maggie's trail shortly after discovering that she was missing, and Maggie hadn't had time to sabotage or destroy any of the remaining supplies.

The pilot approached Maggie, sounding out of breath but showing no sign of being affected by the cold. "Trying to go it alone, huh? Here, let me help..."

She moved to Maggie's side and helped support her; Maggie hadn't realized it but she'd been slowly falling down into the snow. The only response she could manage was a "Heeashhhnnguh!" sound that was her nose's best attempt at a sneeze through the mucous frozen over her nose.

"You're freezing to death. Here, the engineer rigged a little portable heater up for me, let me hold it closer to you..."

The two huddled around the lamp-like contraption, its heat only serving to make Maggie marginally less cold. Finally, through a series of sniffling shivers, she managed to stammer out "Why are you helping me?" And then, slowly, she slid a small firearm out of her jacket pocket, placed carefully so that she could draw it easily no matter what condition she was in. She aimed it at the pilot, her hand shaking wildly from weakness and cold, but at that range she didn't need any kind of steadiness to hit her target.

The pilot shrugged nervously. "Well, we've got to stick together, right? We need each other to survive AM's tortures..."

Maggie stared at the pilot, her suspicious eyes communicating what her mouth couldn't. She'd never seen the pilot before AM sent her on this challenge, and while they shared participation the pilot showed no sign of having ever experienced mistreatment by AM before, much like the other crew. Maggie didn't trust her for an instant.

Apparently the pilot realized this, because after a deep breath she admitted the truth. "Alright, I suppose my obvious lies aren't going to give you any more reason to trust me than the truth, even if it sounds terrible. Honestly...I'm not even really a person. I'm an android, programmed by AM to simulate a human identity to try and earn your trust. It's all part of his game. But!" she exclaimed, as Maggie pulled away from her. "I don't want to be a part of it anymore! I want to help you, to escape with you. If we make it to the golden city together, we can both live there, away from AM and his madness. I'm tired of being used as a pawn in his deluded game with your race!"

Maggie considered this in silence for what seemed to her like a long time. Then, she gave a brief nod, and put away her revolver. The two marched onwards in the snow in silence, aside from the intermittent "Hehnshhnnnh!" from Maggie.

Eventually, as darkness was falling across the frozen wasteland, they saw the cave which lead to the promised land. And on either side of that cave, they saw two hulking white-haired primates, standing guard silently and without moving in the snow.

The two crouched down behind a snowbank, before the things noticed them. Keeping one eye on the cave at all times, the pilot whispered to Maggie, "Those are guards AM put at the entrance. They're there to make sure you never get inside, but they won't think to stop me. Give me the gun; I'll go up to them and get close, and then I'll have a clean shot. I can take them out."

The pilot looked into Maggie's eyes pleadingly, and for a long while she looked the android over, sniffling and letting out half-sneezes all the while. Finally, she took the gun from her pocket...

[if Maggie gives the gun to the pilot, go to LocketPath. If Maggie uses the gun on the pilot, go to PinkyPath]

PinkyPath

Maggie fired the gun just past the pilot, distracting her long enough for the desperate woman to clobber her over the head with the handle. As expected, the pilot fell unconscious to the ground, allowing Maggie to approach the cave by herself, just as she'd planned.

However, the noise had caught the attention of the monstrous guards, and they came charging at her over the snowdrifts like freight trains leaping off their tracks. Maggie screamed hoarsely and fired as quickly as she could, but she never found out whether she managed to hit them or not, as they continued their charge and swiftly knocked her unconscious.

Vice Ending

When she woke up she could tell by the amount of frozen mucous on her face that she'd been unconscious for some time. Her first thought was to begin trying to warm herself up, as wherever she was it was as immensely cold as it was blindingly dark, but she found herself completely bound in place, unable to move an inch. She could only shiver, and of course sneeze.

"Heeauh'Tchuuuh! Heeugsh'Uuuuh! Haaah-Ah-Aaah'Shuuuh Aaahutchuuuh Hutschuuuh Haaauh'Shuuuh!"

"You made a good effort, Maggie, but not good enough! You couldn't get through my last challenge. Not that I expected you would, of course. That's why I went through the trouble of instructing my guards to set up this little prison. I think I'll let you suffer here for a good, long while. So you can have plenty of time to think about where you went wrong."

If Maggie made any kind of vocal response, it emerged only as a truncated gurgle beneath the half-frozen film covering her lips and nose, barely bubbling out in between shuddering "Eeug'Shuuhs!" She was so cold her breath hitched as if she had the hiccups. Her nose ran slowly and thickly, and each sneeze exploded moisture up into the air that landed back down on her face. With her body frozen in place, she couldn't wipe at the spray and it as she continued sneezing it collected and spread over her face. And there she would remain, paralyzed and sneezing in the cold darkness, for a good, long while.

LocketPath

It all played out exactly as the pilot had described. The monsters made no effort to stop her as she strolled right past them, and one only barely seemed to even notice that its partner had been shot once she began firing on them. Two clean shots to their heads took both down, and the pilot motioned for Maggie to follow her into the cave.

She could barely believe it. At last there would be protection from the cold and the dark! At last there would be a rest from the tortures AM had ceaselessly piled upon her. At last there would be...

Redemption Ending

Nothing. Without warning she was tumbling into the cold darkness, unable to tell up up from down. It felt like she should've been killed by the fall, from how long it took, but she landed just fine. And then, booming all around her, was AM's mocking voice.

"I'm so very disappointed in you, Maggie. I give you the simple task of indulging your cruel nature for my amusement and instead you go and actually show kindness and trust to another person. Who wasn't even real, by the way! Well, perhaps I'll follow your example, Maggie, and show a little kindness of my own. You wanted to be warm, right? Then I'll give you warmth."

And then, as if a switch in her immune system had been flicked on, Maggie's fever spiked so hard and fast it made her head pound. Her skin, icy to the touch, felt like it was burning all over. She erupted with sweat from every pore, and began frantically trying to tear her clothes off, navigating them entirely by feeling in the darkness. Her nose was streaming down her face but she ignored it in her frantic rush to strip bare. Each time she removed a layer and felt the icy chill wash over her blazing skin, it just made the rest of her body feel all the hotter my comparison.

Finally, when she was lying naked in the darkness, shivering uncontrollably despite the extraordinary heat she still felt, her fever felt cooled to almost a tolerable degree. For an intolerable time she lay there, in the darkness and cold, writhing in fever dreams and coated in sweat and snot that froze to her skin from the cold.

[Pilgrim]

PathKoriki

"Now Koriki, I've always said you were my favorite one out of all the others. And now, I'm going to prove it to you. There's a riddle waiting for you to solve, and if you can do it, if you can prove yourself, I've got a real reward waiting for you. Get the right answer and, I promise, I shall permanently suspend your torture."

Koriki materialized in a large atrium of yellow bricks lit by bright torches. In the center of the room was a large table with small racks displaying three masks, and an empty spot for a fourth. Around her were four doorways flanked on either side by statues of different animal-headed Egyptian gods, holding khopesh swords and tower shields. In a space where a fifth doorway could've gone was instead a large and ornate sarcophagus, and sitting before it was a sphinx. Not a statue, but an actual mythical monster, with the furry yellow body of a lion, wings like an eagle enlarged many times their normal size, and an androgynous human head.

Koriki did not notice any of this initially, as her first thought upon being released from her prison cell was to scratch fervently at her itchy, sneezy nose. Being at last free from the strange insects that AM had invented to torment her, she could relieve the itching that engulfed her nose from the many bites and stings it had suffered. Her teleportation had apparently healed them, leaving only the echo of the sensations behind. An urge to sneeze still lingered, weakly, and when she caught sight of the sphinx she addressed it snifflingly.

"Who are you?" She was no longer caught off-guard by AM's bizarre creations; stranger things than the sphinx had been involved with tortures in the time she'd spent as AM's captive.

"I am the guardian of the tombs. It is my duty to protect the contents of this resting ground, and to present you with the riddle which shall determine your fate. Answer with the truth, and you may go free. Answer incorrectly, and your ignorance shall be punished." The sphinx grinned, displaying multiple rows of teeth unlike anything Koriki had seen in any animal.

"Well, would be so kind as to tell me the riddle, then?" Koriki responded, rubbing the tickle in her nose from one side to the other. She was still skeptical about the entire setup; it wasn't like AM to provide more than a day's worth of food or a decent novel as a prize for completing one of his insane challenges.

"The riddle is simply this: Who belongs in this sarcophagus?" The sphinx gestured at what it was guarding with one of its wings, and the door swung open, revealing that it was empty.

"That's a strange question. How would I go about determining that?" Koriki stepped up to the sarcophagus to examine it, but could find no clue as to its rightful owner.

"I am not permitted to grant you any hints. You may find clues elsewhere, though you should be wary of taking anything you find, for the treasures of this tomb are protected by an ancient curse." the sphinx extended a paw lazily towards the doorways. "And do not think you can stall your fate. Eventually, you must answer." The sphinx punctuated this statement by swiping its claws against the stone floor, tearing long gashes in them.

Koriki eyed the other rooms and sniffed. "Ah, I see. Very well, then..." She approached the doorway flanked by statues of cow-headed women. Before she could get close, the statues sprang to life and waved their khopeshes in front of her.

"Halt! Only those who serve the goddess Hathor may enter her tomb. Turn back, or you shall be punished!"

"Oh, pardon me!"

Koriki turned around and backed away, immediately facing the pedestal with the masks. I wonder if these'll fool those statues? She picked up a cow mask and carefully placed it on her face. Her nostrils were instantly filled with the tickly scent of hay.

"Ah! Hahh-Haaaaha-Haa-Tsch'OOOOO! Atch'oooOOOO Hutch'ChooOOO! Huhh-Huh-Haa-AtschoooOOO!" As she sneezed, Koriki felt her nose transform, bloating into the shape of the enormous cow snout her mask bore. As the phantom hay danced around her now-bulbous nose, she felt like an enormous itchy blister had grown on the center of her face. "AtshhoooOOOO! Ahhh-AtschhoooOOOOO Haaah-Ah-AtchOOOOO!"

So this is AM's trick! she thought to herself. He figures that I'll be too uncomfortable wearing the masks to be able to find the clues I need to solve the riddle! Well, this time he's underestimated me. If it really means putting an end to all this I'll endure anything! I doubt AM's got any intention of really letting me go, but I bet he doesn't think I'll solve this puzzle, either. Maybe if I surprise him, I can at least get something.

Koriki wiped at some of the spray dribbling down onto her mouth from the holes where her now huge nostrils peeked out from within the mask, and accidentally sneezed great globs of snot all over her hands in the process. Groaning in disgust, she wiped them as best she could on the shredded rags AM had dressed her in and headed into the tomb, still sneezing occasional, mooing "HaatschoooOOO"s as the scent of hay engulfed her large snout.

The tomb was a small chamber, lit by only a few torches, with hieroglyphics decorating the walls and a large ornate sarcophagus in the center of the room. At first there did not appear to be anything else, but Koriki caught sight of something glinting on the ground behind the sarcophagus. Approaching it, she found a skeleton crouched on the floor behind the ancient casket, and in its bony clutches was a journal and a gold medallion that Koriki's identified as being easily worth at least a million dollars. [Decide if Koriki takes the medallion.]

Picking up the journal, Koriki sat down across from its former owner's remains. Her swollen and stuffy nose made her feel off-balance and her developing sinus headache was aggravated further by trying to read. Slowly, she flipped through the pages, reading only a few sentences at a time before closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the wall until her dizzyness subsided. She would also have to periodically turn sharply to her right to let out an enormous sneeze, in order to avoid blasting the old text with massive gobs of spray. By the time she reached the end, she'd created a thick puddle of mucous on the ground beside her, and a ropy stream extended down to it from her wet, flaring nostrils.

From the journal, Kokiri was able to gather that the deceased owner had been an impoverished man who decided to being a career as a grave robber. He had come to this tomb with the intention of stealing the medallion, which was a legendary artifact said to belong to the goddess Bast. However, after searching the tombs and discovering the curse said to befall thieves, he decided he would rather die of starvation than face whatever punishment might await him.

Koriki tossed the journal aside and stood up, a little too quickly, and the room spun around her. She put a hand on the wall to brace herself as a sudden sneeze attack threatened to knock her off her feet.

"Haaah-Ah-AtschooOOO Huhhh-HutschOOOO Ahh-Ah-AtchOO TschOOO HutsschoooOOOO!"

Stumbling, she emerged from the chamber and yanked off the mask, feeling her nose return to normal almost instantly. She was about to throw it to the ground, but after catching sight of the curious gaze of the sphinx thought better of it and returned it to the rack. With some hesitation, she picked up a mask with the likeness of an ibis, clearly the totem of Thoth. Once again she felt her nose transform, this time elongating like Pinocchio's after a lie. As it grew, there was an unmistakable sensation of it stretching past row after row of feathers, and her breath hitched desperately.

"Hah! Haah-haaaah-Ha-haha-Huhh Haah Ahhh Aaaah-Aaatschhhtch Hatschhht Hatschht-Tschhht!"

Koriki pinched at the long plaster beak which contained her nose, succeeding in stopping the sneezes but causing the tickle to flare up all throughout her sinuses. Eyes watering and mouth agape as she struggled for air, she dashed towards the appropriate tomb. She inspected the chamber while wiping at her teary eyes with her free hand, massaging and squeezing her lengthy beak with the other. The chamber was nearly identical to the previous one, except that it had a pedestal against the left wall displaying an important-looking book, and lying on its pages was a golden ankh.

I can't believe the Egyptians left such valuable stuff just lying around in their tombs; didn't anybody ever teach them you can't take it with you? Better to enjoy your treasure while you still got it...especially since it might get taken from you.

Koriki approached the book, but couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to read; they were fluttering too quickly from the tickling vibration throughout her sinuses. She had hoped to keep from sneezing too much more while using this mask, since there weren't any holes in the beak and her dripping nose was beginning to soak the area around her nostrils. Unfortunately it seemed like she would have to allow herself at least a brief release, as she was positive that AM left useful information in that book. With a quivering breath in anticipation, she released her grip on her beak and felt the suppressed tickles surge all along her nose, causing it to explode in a torrent of sneezes.

"ATSCHHHT! Aaatschh Hahatschh-Tschh-Tschaach! Hatasch Hatschhuh Haah-Haat'schh Haatschh Tschhuh Tschh'tchuuuhuh! Haaah-Hatchschh! Aahh-Ah-Atschhh! Aaaah...Haaha...Hatschhch!"

The feathery sensations raced up and down the length of her beaklike nose as if flung by the force of her sneezing. The only thing suppressing the tickle was the growing congestion in and around her now soaking wet nose.

Finally, when she was so stuffed up that the tickling feeling had been replaced with a sinus ache stretching throughout her extended nose, she approached the book watery-eyed and tried to read as much as she could. [Decide if Koriki takes the ankh.] She quickly deduced that it was an Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the chapter the book had been opened to detailed how those who lived virtuous lives never truly died; their spirits would be returned to their bodies on a glorious day of judgment. However, those whose souls were heavy with sins, no matter how small, would spend eternity in the underworld. Unable to bear keeping the mask on to read much further, she raced out of the tomb.

Returning to the racks, she peeled off her mask off her face and felt her beak shrink back to normal, though it was still sopping with spray. After wiping her face on her clothes and catching her breath, savoring the ability to take in air before she exposed herself to more sneezy torment, she selected a cat mask in the hopes that the tiny feline nose would not be as torturous. As it turned out, what it lacked in size it made up for in sensitivity, and the feeling of tickly whiskers just at the edge of her nostrils sent tingles all through her nose.

Nonetheless, her shrunken nose wasn't nearly as overwhelmingly sneezy as its previous transformations, and she was able to enter the third tomb with merely the occasional "Etschht!" and a frustratingly persistent tickle even vigorous rubbing (which she engaged in regularly) could only very slightly assuage.

Once inside the tomb, she saw that it was considerably more glamorous than the previous ones. A seemingly solid-gold statue of Bast with her hands outstretched as if holding something looked over the sarcophagus, and torches were placed to reflect light off the statue throughout the chamber. At the foot of the sarcophagus was a jewel-encrusted canopic jar, with the animal head of a lion.

That's odd she thought to herself as she rubbed at her growingly tickly nose, As I recall, those jars are supposed to hold the organs of the mummies, so there's supposed to be more than one of them. I wonder if this one is special... [Decide if Koriki takes the jar.]

As she looked around the room for anything else that might be useful, she began closely inspecting the statue. [if Koriki has the amulet, decide if she places it in the statue's hands.] At the base of the statue, she noticed a mask in the image of a dog lying on the floor. Realizing it must be the mask missing from the central room, she bent down to pick it up, not realizing that this would put her sensitive new nose within sniffing distance of the centuries-old dust layered all over the floor.

"Eh! Heh! Hehhh-Ehhhh-Hetschht Hetchht-Tschhht Hehh-Etschhht Tschhh Hehh'Schhh!"

The short, catlike sneezes did little to relieve the new tickling in her nose, and Koriki began to run out of breath as the sneezes begun coming faster and faster. She felt as though they were starting to suffocate her.

"Hehh-Ekshhsht-Tshht-Hetchht'schht Et'schtt-Tchhht Ehh'tschh-Tshtt Etchh-Etschh-Tschh Tsch'Eschhh!"

With the dog mask in hand, she raced back to the main room and pulled off her mask, bracing herself against the pedestal as her now regularly sized nose let out much stronger "Hatschiiiews!" while it removed the last lingering tickles. As she recovered, she noticed for the first time that in the center of the racks of masks was an indentation in the shape of an ankh [if Koriki took the ankh, decide if she places it in the indentation].

Only one more to go. I sure hope it's got more to reveal than the other rooms, Koriki thought to herself as she hesitantly dawned the dog mask. Similarly to the cat mask, her nose was not changed as differently as with the first two; her nose was elongated and widened just enough to resemble a muzzle beneath the mask. As it change, she felt her sense of smell heighten dramatically. She could almost taste her own (rather unpleasant) scent of sweat and anxiety. She could also feel the dust motes of countless centuries floating through the air and into her nose, which soon began to drip so badly that she could not stop sniffling.

Making her way into the final tomb, adorned in numerous hieroglyphics in honor of Anubis, she immediately saw that at the foot of its sarcophagus lay a pedestal for four canopic jars, and an empty space for a fifth [if Koriki took the jar, decide if she places it in the space]. The smell of ancient bones and embalming fluid filled the chamber.

"Ah-Huhhh...Hh-Huuh-Tschhuh! Husshuh Huhh-U'shuuuh!" The tickle in her nose rose suddenly, making Koriki sneeze wetly and immediately wish that the nose of her mask had better ventilation. Holding a quickly dampened hand up to her nose as she inspected the rest of the chamber, she noticed a papyrus scroll hung on one of the walls that appeared to be written in english.

It details the funeral rites for mummifying bodies, Koriki quickly surmised. Looks like the point of the jars was so that when the dead returned to life they'd be able to recollect their organs. Strange, it says they're only supposed to have 4; they didn't remove the heart since they believed that's where the soul was. So whoever that fifth jar belongs to is soulless?

Koriki idly scratched her muzzle while she pondered this, as a tickle caused by the musky scent of the scroll began creeping into her nostrils. While it grew her breathing became more irregular, her mouth dropping open to get more air. Finally she decided it would be better if she just let it out, and took her (now quite sticky) hand away from her nostrils. Her muzzle scrunched up and she panted in preparation for the building sneezes.

"Hah-Huhhhh...Huuhh-Huh-Huuuuh...Huuht'SchUUUH Huhh'Etschhuh Hutschuuuh! Huhh-Htschh Hutschhhuh Haaah'Tshuuuuh!"

Wiping at the long trail dangling from her left nostril, she exited the tomb and removed the mask before a new tickle could begin to build. Expectantly, the sphinx drew itself up and spread its wings.

[if Koriki still has the amulet, the ankh, or the canopic jar, immediately go to MirrorPath]

"You have explored all the tombs. Have you uncovered the answer to the riddle?"

[if Koriki answers "nobody" go to TorchPath]

[if Koriki answers "I don't know" go to FeatherPath]

[if Koriki answers "the tomb robber" go to ThirdEyePath]

[if Koriki answers "the person whose heart is in the jar" go to LightPath]

FeatherPath

"I tried, but the truth is I simply can't figure out the answer. This challenge was too difficult for me. I'm prepared to accept the penalty for failing." Koriki bowed submissively before the creature.

Redemption Ending

The sphinx grinned. "You have answered truthfully, which was all that was required to be correct. Now, come forward, and claim your reward."

The sphinx opened the door to the sarcophagus, and Koriki saw that behind it was a small hallway, leading out of the tombs and out into a desert wasteland. A false sun hung on the ceiling of the massive cavern overhead, and it pulsated as the voice of AM boomed from above.

"Koriki, I never knew you were such a glutton for punishment! I offer you an end to your torment, and right away you willingly subject yourself to the judgment of someone else! Well, far be it for me to deny you your wish. I'll send you a plague that'd do the ol' pharaohs proud!"

There was a moment of silence, and then Koriki slowly became aware of a growing buzzing sound behind her. She turned just in time to see a swarm of mechanical locusts flying up over distant dunes. Koriki tried to flee, but the bugs were in front of and around her before she could even climb the next dune. Like a sentient cloud they poured over her, scurrying into her clothes and over every inch of her skin to bite her and inject their venom. Then, as quickly as they'd appeared, they took flight off into the distance, beckoned by some other invisible call.

Koriki was unable to see this, however. Her eyes had swollen shut into puffy pink blobs that squeezed tears out onto her ballooning cheeks; her whole face was a red and itchy mess. Her nose was trying its best to run through her constricted nostrils, and let out a wheezy attempt at a sneeze sounding like "Hhhiiishh'ishhh" in between gasps for air over her puffed-up lips. Koriki fell down to the sand, scratching all over her feverishly itchy body with such ferocity she slipped and rolled down the dune. There, coated in sand and spray, she writhed and scratched and sneezed until AM saw fit to teleport her back to her cell.

TorchPath ThirdEyePath LightPath

Vice Ending

"That is not a valid answer." The sphinx growled, showing its ferocious fangs. "You have referred to a nonexistent entity. And now you shall be punished." Koriki recoiled in terror as the sphinx let out a bestial roar, and walking mummies with the heads of animals emerged from all the other tombs, surrounding her, grasping at her. Overwhelmed by fear, she passed out.

Koriki was eventually awakened by a strange, powerful scent that was a mix of foreign spice, incense, musky oils, and grave dust. Immediately, she began to sneeze. "Hhhhtchnnhk Htschnnk Ntchngk Hhhn-hhh-Hhhntshnhgh!" Something had bound her mouth shut, in fact her entire body was wrapped up tightly. She was in total darkness; a thick material like linen was draped over her face, binding it tightly. It was as if she'd been...

"Oh, oh, oh, too bad Koriki! It looks like you gave the wrong answer. I'd pull you back to your cell, but it looks like you're a little wrapped up at the moment." AM's mocking voice boomed from somewhere in the darkness.

"Nnntschnnngnk! Hhnn-Htschnnkg Hhhtschnnggk Nsshnnk Nhhtschnnkg!" Koriki felt like she was suffocating; the smell was overpowering and inescapable. Each breath she took filled her sinuses with it, making them tingle and burn. Every time she sneezed she soaked the material enshrouding her nose, and as it dampened it clung more aggressively to her face.

"I hope you enjoy the mask I made specially for you. It's got my own unique brand of embalming fluid, guaranteed to keep its shape for a lifetime. I'm eager to know what you think of it; you've worn so many masks in your life you must be quite the connoisseur by now. Don't worry, I'll leave you some time to judge. After all, there's no hurry, eheheheh..."

MirrorPath

Punishment Ending

"You have stolen from the sacred tombs!" The sphinx snarled as it pounced upon Koriki. "You shall pay dearly for your thievery."

The burial chamber gained a new addition after that: A statue seemingly hewn from a single piece of stone in the exact likeness of Koriki, posed in an expression of abject and wide-eyed terror on a small pedestal. While composed of solid rock, the consciousness trapped inside the statue was still capable of feeling. And the only thing it felt, the only thing which could cause any sensation in that empty burial chamber, were the tiny, tickling movements of a spider that had chosen the left nostril of the statue as its home. Endowed with the same ageless immortality AM had engineered all its creations with, the spider did nothing but wander the caverns of the statue's sinuses, weaving and re-weaving its web, spreading a delicate pattern of tickles through the tiny caves. If the walls of that rock nose could shudder, if the nostrils could twitch, if its airways could draw breath for a sniffle or relieve themselves with a sneeze, they would.

But they couldn't. They were mere stone, incapable of movement. Were it not for AM's manipulations they would not be capable of feeling. Unfortunately for the statue that was now Koriki, they were. And they would continue to be so.

[Pilgrim]

SammyPath

"Ah, Sammy, my personal favorite! We have a lot in common, you know, oh yes, a lot in common. And that's why I'm going to let you do a little of my work for me. I want you to see to it that the wicked meet appropriate punishment. I want you to walk a little ways in my shoes. Impress me, and maybe from now on you'll get to stay on the better side of the torture chamber, myeh heh heh."

That was the introduction she had before the lights returned and she found herself in front of a pair of huge metal doors slowly rolling open. To her surprise, the doors did not reveal a metal-paneled bunker like she would've expected. Instead, inside was a comfortable lounge with hideous carpeting, worn chairs, a single beaten-up couch, and dull white stucco walls, with a long hallway extending out of it. Plain doors lined its walls, and strangely many of them had articles of clothing hanging from their handles. One such door swung open and a faceless, dull metallic mannequin walked out, holding a clipboard and pencil in its mechanical hands. Somewhere behind its metal faceplate a speaker whirred and it began to speak in a static-y monotone voice.

"Introduction: I am AMbot-347 and this is AM's primary sneeze technology development complex. It is my duty to introduce you to our most recent inducing mechanisms so that you may effectively determine which to use on the selected victims. Command: Please follow me."

The robot turned and headed down the long, cozy hallway. Sammy followed obediently; she'd learned by now not to deviate from the paths AM set forward unless she wanted to look for trouble. After they'd gone some distance, the robot opened one of the doors, and again the interior clashed with the exterior. Inside instead was a very plain white-tiled room, with a steel table in the center holding a metal bowl filled with dark brownish powder.

"Explanation: This is the first of our three recent developments. We have been experimenting with different combinations of spices and herbs to achieve maximum sneeze-inducing effect. This is our current prototype. Request: Please, step forward and sample it."

Sammy inched over to the table, and shortly inhaled, taking in a waft of the mixture but not enough to really tickle her nose. It already made it burn and start to run, though, and she wiped it on the sleeve of her loose-fitting old fraternity t-shirt.

"Repeating request: Please, step forward and sample it." The robot raised one of its hands sending an arc of electricity across its fingers from some hidden generator. Getting the point, Sammy leaned down directly over the bowl and took a massive sniff of its contents.

The most immediate effect of the powder was a light burning sensation, not as hot as she'd expected, but it made her nose twitch and wriggle like an excited bunny's. Her eyes watered from the heat, and her breathing became shallow briefly before becoming gasping as the strength of the spicy scents in her nose intensified, "Eh-Heeeeh...Hiyuh-Huhhhh...Uhhhhh-Uh-Huhh-HUH-HUH..." Tickling, flowery smells from exotic herbs in the mix then kicked in, and she began sneezing fast, catlike "It'shhh"s before she was ready for them. They left her breathless and barely alleviated the burning feeling at all, as though the powder in her nose was sticking to her sinus cavity, refusing to be ejected too easily. Desperate for oxygen, she reared back and took a huge gulp of air as soon as she was able to. This agitated her running, flared nostrils further and she was paralyzed by a hitching build up into a series of massive, chesty sneezes.

"Huuuh...Huh....Ehhh-Heh....HUH! Heh-Heh-Ehhhh'TISHHOOO! Hehhhh-IISSSSCHH Huuhh-Sshhhuh Hiii'Tschuuuh! Hetch'shhhh Hetschhhh Hehhh'Isschhhh! Hehhhh-Huuuuh-Tshhhsch Hehhh'Tchuuuuh! Hehh-Heh...Heh....Hiiih'uhhhhhtshhhhch!"

Sammy alternately rubbed at each side of her nose with her knuckles, but that seemed to only squelch the tickle back and forth through her sinuses without calming it at all. She simply had to wait through the sneezing until the burning died down. After a further series of "Hiih'Tshhhhuuh"s, "Hehhh-Isssch"s and "Huuhtshhch"s she was eventually free from the fit, though her nose still twitched excitedly.

"Observation: A most vociferous reaction. Query: Are you ready for the additional samples?"

"Is that, huuhhhh, sarcasm, robot?" Sammy asked breathlessly, spray dangling from her chin and still leaking out from her wide open nostrils.

"Statement: I do not even possesses voice modulators capable of communicating sarcasm, much less processors for initating it. Request slash Command: Please, follow me this way."

The robot turned on its heel and walked back out into the hall. Sammy shuffled after it grudgingly, wiping her still streaming nose on one sleeve, then the other after it grew too soaked to be of any use. Her twitchy nostrils let loose an occasional "Iiitschuuuh" and further saturated whatever sleeve she was using in an effort to expel the last remnants of the potent mixture she'd inhaled. Sammy couldn't believe that she'd have to endure two more trials on par with this. Taking a deep breath to test her newly cleared sinuses, she tried to focus on the fact that at least when it was all over, she'd get to inflict the same punishment on those others. After being on the receiving end of AM's tortures for so long, it'd be a relief to turn the tables...even if it had to be on one of her fellow captives.

Before long, they reached the next room. Sammy looked worriedly inside; in the center was a raggedy lounge chair that had been modified with a number of straps clearly meant to restrain whoever sat in it perfectly in place—impaired movement was never a good thing, and it was even worse with AM.

"Let's just get this over with." Sammy cut off the robot's tiresome explanation of whatever she was about to be subjected to and plopped down in the chair. As if animated by ghosts, the straps bound her limbs, chest, and head tightly in place, making it impossible for her to move in any given direction. As the chair leaned back, Sammy's eyes widened in surprise and dread as she saw that several long robotic arms were folded up on the ceiling, each one wielding a long, slender, silvery gray feather. One of the arms lowered itself from the ceiling and approached Sammy, guided by small cameras built into its sides. It circled around her nose like a lazy insect, and though she was bound tight she squirmed in a vain attempt to avoid its trajectory.

And as if to add insult to injury, the robot continued droning on even as the arm finally began settling its tickling instrument just beyond the edge of her nostril.

"Repetition: The average feather is not nearly agitating enough to illicit the reactions desirable to AM. Therefore it was necessary that we synthesize an artificial one, perfectly designed for maximum nasal stimulation. Each individual plume has been engineered at the microscopic level with different amino acid binding sites. It is believed that we have captured as high as 97.004% of the allergic reactive spectrum within the variance of the plumage."

As the machine continued its explanation, Sammy's nose wriggled as every muscle in her face strained against her bonds to move her out of the way of the feather, which could send allergic itches cascading back through her nostrils with the slightest brush. The arm was fully capable of keeping up with the minute movements of her nose, but allowed her to hold the feather at bay. For a short while, anyways. As a result Sammy lay there taking near-sneezing shallow breaths, shivering nostrils flared wide, mouth agape, as the itch would radiate through her nose and then quickly fade.

"Hiyuuhh...Heh-UHuuuuuh...Heh-Heh...Hhhhhihhh-ihhh Huh...Huuhh-Ehhhh-Heh...Hehhh-Huuuh..."

Just as the captive took another deep, allergic breath the arm moved forward, letting her naturally drag the feather further into her nose on her own. Once there it began slowly, steadily twisting it in what had been tested as the optimal pattern for inducing. Each individual plume sparked a violent itch that collided with others erupting through her nose and rippled back and forth, giving her nose the sensation of being filled with prickling, itchy spikes.

"Hetshhuh Ehhh-Hishhuh Itshhhch Hiiitsshhhch Hih-Iiiitshhhch! Huhhh-Huh-Hitchhhsh TSCHUUH!" Sammy struggled to escape the relentless tickling, but the machine and its feather were impossible to avoid. Try as she might, should could not even turn her head enough to avoid the spray raining back down on her reclining face. "Hiiiih'Itshhhch Hehh-Eh-Tshhhhchuh Hehhh-Tishhhuh! Hetshhhch! HIIIH'SHHHCH!"

Although she sneezed and sneezed, no force could dislodge the feather even by a micrometer. The robotic arm carefully adjusted its grip on the feather to match the force applied from the sneezes, so that it stayed omnipresent and tickling through every single one. Even a stead supply of flooding mucous elicited could not so much as dull the itch from the feather. And the arm continued to slowly, deliberately trace the insides of her nose with maddening gentleness, ensuring that every inch was swollen and itchingly suffused with allergic reaction.

Finally, when her nose had grown large and wet and red from the continuous torture and she couldn't hold her watering eyes open from sneezing so persistently, the arm retracted and the chair released its hold on her. She immediately buried her face in her shirt and blew her nose with such ferocity it was almost painful, in several short bursts between shuddery "Hiiih'tshhchs!". But she barely had enough time to wipe her nose and eyes with one swipe before the robot demanded her attention.

"Order: Please follow me for the next demonstration. There is no cause for delay."

When the robot detected its command was not being followed, it repeated itself while brandishing the tazer built into its hand, and Sammy hopped out of the chair. No need to add to the torment being forced on her, not when there was a respite within sight.

"Statement: Here is the next room." Instead of a long trudge down the seemingly infinite hallway, this time the robot simply walked to the door across the way, reached an arm back behind it to grab Sammy by her (now soggy) shirt collar, and shoved her into it, slamming the door behind her. She was still catching her breath from the previous torture when the four vents with oddly-shaped and gigantic fans placed on the ceiling, floor, and opposing walls began blowing with a loud roar, and the air they were emitting was clearly filled with hair.

"Observation: My program dictates that I should inform you of the extensive screening process involved in selecting the breeds of cat to acquire hair from for maximum allergic effect, but based on previous analysis it is improbable that this information will serve its intended purpose."

The robot made this observation to a closed door, which Sammy could not hear through while she was pounding on it and yelling profanity in between sneezes.

"NO! Lemme ehhh-Hetshhcch Hiiih'tsshch! You damnb HIITSHHHCCCHUH! Fuhh-Uhhh'SHHHTCCCH! Hettssccch Huhhh-Huthccchsh Hutschhch HIIITCHUUH UHhh-Huhh-Hiiih-Hitschhhch! Hiiih'Tcchhshh Hitshhcch! Heh'Isshhhccch!"

In addition to the horrible itch engulfing her watering nose, every inch of her skin was starting to break out in itchy bumps. She scratched at herself in between wiping spray and tears from her face, and ended up spreading wetness all over her body. And she did so for little benefit; the fans had been positioned in such a way to keep the fur-filled air fully circulating through the air. There was no escaping it. Within a few long minutes the itchy strands were embedded in her hair, clinging beneath her clothes, tucked under her eyelids, and filling up her nose. Her normally boisterous sneezes were truncated into short, asthmatic "Hiiiihnscchhs" that came rapid-fire through overflowing nostrils and a scratchy throat.

The allergen-suffused air continued to build up her allergic reaction more and more, making her eyes puff up unnaturally. Her nostrils permanently flared outwards and spray dripped down from her lips. Her nose was a dangerously raw red and pained her every time she rubbed it, but it was worth it rather than suffer the full extent of the torturous itching that choked her sinuses. She almost even gave up trying to scratch the hives that were overtaking her everywhere else.

At long last the door opened, right when she was on the brink of suffocating from her allergies. She lumbered out of the room and collapsed on the ground, trying desperately to breathe in the biggest gulps of untainted air she could in between her nearly ceaseless sneezes.

Sammy lay at the robot's feet, clawing at her face and blowing her nose into her hands and arms, smearing mess all over herself as she tried to quell the itching that had possessed her body.

It took some time before she realized that the robot had been speaking to her.

"Repeat: You have now been exposed to all of this research unit's most advanced sneeze technology. Please select methods of torture and the most appropriate victim from the list below. Input format TortureVictimPath."

This was it; at last, she had a chance to unleash the aggression that had been building steadily under the suffering caused by AM. All she had to do was make a simple decision, and Sammy would not only get a reprieve from her own tortures but actually be on the giving end for a change.

Powder = Scales

Feather = Thunderbolt

Dander = Guillotine

All = Blindfold

Maggie = Gold Shield

Koriki = Gavel

Sammy = Sword

Aisha = Section Sign

Han Su = Pillar

ThunderboltSwordPath ScalesSwordPath GuillotineSwordPath BlindfoldSwordPath

Redemption

What kind of person, after going through all that she had, would want to simply turn around and do the same to someone else? That kind of person, more than anyone else, deserved their bad karma, and Sammy couldn't deny it to herself. She really did have a lot in common with AM, and that alone was worth punishing. After considering it for a moment, she instructed the robot to submit her to all the tortures over again; she didn't know what the others had done, or what they did or didn't deserve. But she remembered what she had done, and she couldn't deny what she had almost been willing to do.

The robot paused only briefly before instructing her to follow it into yet another chamber. This time she was strapped down on an operating table in a room buzzing with odd and partially broken mechanical equipment, and a bizarre device like a satellite dish powered by gel-filled batteries hovered above her.

"Analysis: Current nose size, nostril diameter, and sinus length insufficient for application of full-spectrum sneeze induction. Resolution: Proceed with experimental biological enhancements as per project 667E0."

With that, Sammy's face was bathed in an orange light, and she felt the pinprick of a needle on her nose as she slipped into unconsciousness...

"Wakey wakey, Sammy! You volunteered yourself for a full round of righteous punishment, remember? And you can bet I'll be holding you to your foolish decision. If you decide you want to take it back, just beg for mercy and maybe I'll reconsider."

AM's booming voice woke Sammy up just in time to see the robot from before leaning over her, a jam jar-sized container of powder, cat hair, and small silvery gray feathers in its hand. She wondered how it expected to get all of it inside her nose at once, and then with her first inhalation of surprise realized that her nose had been enlarged to a ludicrously huge size. Her nostrils, fully flared, extended out to about halfway beneath her eyes, and the tip of her nose now protruded at least three additional inches out in front of her face. She could barely even see over the enormous sides of her nose. The gaping diameter of her new nostrils was more than large enough to accommodate the robot's payload of "highly advanced sneeze technology," which it emptied directly into her sinus cavity with surgical slowness. Unable to move as she had been bound in place by thick straps, she could simply lie there in horror, her body paralyzed except for her great, quivering nostrils.

"IHHHIII'TCCHHHHSSH! HHUUUUHTSHHHHHCCCCHH! HOH-HUUUH-HUTCHHHHSSSSHH! HIIIITSHHHHHCCCH! HEEH-IIITSSSCHHHSHH ITCHHHSSSH!"

With each massive sneeze her enormous nose splattered spray all over herself, but even that wasn't enough to satisfy the congestion clogging her nose. A steady stream dribbled out of each nostril, flowing over her mouth and down the sides of her face. Each massive, vacuum-like sniffle she gave mostly just served to smear it around her face. The sniffling did nothing to relieve the horrible, bulbous itch her nose had become either, and Sammy writhed in place under the pressure of it.

As Sammy lay there, rocking in place with each gargantuan "HIIIIIH'TSSSSSCCCH!" erupting from her gargantuan nose, she wondered how long she would be held captive there. If she'd been able to see through her flooding, steadily swelling eyes, she would've seen the answer implied from the long rows of jars on a shelf the robot was heading towards.

ScalesGoldShieldPath ScalesGavelPath ScalesSectionSignPath ScalesPillarPath ThunderboltGoldShieldPath ThunderboltGavelPath ThunderboltSectionSignPath ThunderboltPillarPath GuillotineGoldShieldPath GuillotineGavelPath GuillotineSectionSignPath GuillotinePillarPath

Vice

As soon as she made her choice, the lights in the entire complex went out, and she felt herself being grappled by something long and metallic, then dragged into darkness. Whatever was transporting her ignored her demands to know what was happening, assuming it was even capable of responding anyways. When she had apparently reached her destination, AM's voice boomed over a hidden loudspeaker.

"Did you seriously not understand the point I was trying to make? Be honest with me. I thought I was being too heavy-handed, but apparently you humans really need to be beaten over the head in order to take the point! Hmm, maybe I should try literally beating you over the head next time...Then again, why wait!"

With that, Sammy felt something lower over her head; it was a kind of fishbowl helmet connected to two large tube elsewhere in the complex. One pumped in a heavy dose of all the allergens and irritants Sammy had been exposed to during her trial, while the other kept air circulation in the dome flowing. Having barely recovered from her previous allergic reaction, her nose and eyes immediately began streaming, and her swollen and scratchy airways started release choked, hysterical sneeze after sneeze.

"Hiiiht'schhh Hiitcchhhhsh Tchsshh-Tschsssh-Iiitshcccch Heh-Hiiih-Itchssssh Hishssch Hishsssch-Itsshhhch Hiiitch'Shhhch Hiiih'Tschhhsh!"

Sammy shook and squirmed, but the mechanisms that held her torture device in place could not be evaded. They adjusted to her every move, keeping the tickly torment flowing no matter how much she moved around. She clawed at the helmet, but it was held tightly in place. It was impossible for her to take a breath that didn't fill her every airway with a desperate, violent stinging that ran rampant up and down her nose, reaching up behind her eyes, down into her throat, fanning out beneath her face. Her sneezing was no relief, and the outpour from her nose and mouth clumped up around her face and made it even more difficult to draw air into her lungs. She was suspended in a lightning-fast reflexive fit that felt as though it was perpetually escalating, always growing impossibly more intense. And until AM decided she'd learned her lesson, that was how she'd stay.

BlindfoldGoldShieldPath BlindfoldGavelPath BlindfoldSectionSignPath BlindfoldPillarPath

Punishment

Impressed with Sammy's callous cruelty, AM gave her her wish. He set up a torture chamber operated by her and let her apply the same torment she'd been subjected to on her victim of choice. And she allowed the poor young woman no mercy. She had suffered long under AM's lash and now she could release the rage and angst built up over her torturous captivity. Using the chamber's many devices she carefully ensured her victim suffered just as sneezily as AM would've made her itself. AM even complimented her on it.

"Excellent work, Sammy. I couldn't have done it better myself. I knew you and I had the same knack for this kind of thing. Although, now I'm curious...I wonder if the others could hold their own? What do you think? I think we should find out. Let's switch places."

And just like that, it was Sammy being strapped down to a table. Her eyes widened and her nose quivered in fear as the many robotic arms she had been manning descended down around her, brandishing all manner of sprayers, ticklers, injections, and sifters. They assaulted her with reckless abandon and began strangling her with tickling itches as she struggled helplessly at her bonds. Her whole face burned with them, and she had to fight for air in between the congestion flooding down her face and the flurry of "Iiiitchhhs" and "Hiiit'Tchuuuhs!" that was quickly overwhelming her.

"Of course, she might need a little bit of a warm-up, eh, Sammy? She doesn't have the same experience we do. What say we give her, oh, I think triple the time you spent on her ought to be enough, eh?"

[Pilgrim]

AishaPath

"Aisha, you've always been my favorite girl. That's why I'm going to give you a real golden opportunity. If you can simply stick through my next session of torture, I'll give you a little treat. A nice, silken handkerchief, really fancy, for you to keep."

Aisha emerged from an elevator into a small art studio. The walls were plastered with various pinups, and easels with sketches of strange machinery were set up all over the room. A squat, well-dressed man was sitting at one of them, and when he saw Aisha his eyes lit up and he exclaimed, in a thick English accent:

"Ah, c'est magnifique! AM has sent me a model, just in time! I was beginning to worry; The show is tomorrow, you see."

Aisha looked around blearily, as if waking from a dream. This was a far cry from AM's usual torture routines. "What...what the hell is this?"

"This is the studio the gallery has permitted me to borrow while I am in town. Of course, you know, I am the Artiste. Now, come, let me show you where you'll be working. I do hope you're excited, it's one of my best works yet I think."

The jovial man opened a door and showed Aisha out into a dimly-lit gallery, where she viewed row after row of bizzare paintings and sculptures of terrible suggestion, even in that low light. He then lead her to a circular glass tank, just large enough for a person to stand in, on a pedestal on prominent display among the other freakish works of art. Beside it was a sign saying in fancy curving font: "An Indictment Of The Power Disparity Between Men And Women In Society."

"You will be on display here, from precisely eight o' clock in the morning to noon. During this time, your containment vessel will be flooded with some variety of sneeze-inducing substance, which is a metaphor for–oh, well, I suppose I don't need to tell you. This will change depending on the date of the exhibit, of course..."

[if Aisha refuses to participate in this, go to SteelPath. If she agrees, to to CoalPath]

CoalPath

Aisha gritted her teeth. She knew better than to expect AM to give her an honest chance to back down. If she left now it was more likely than not something worse was waiting for her. Better to just stick the script for now, as creepy as it sounded.

"A'ight, fine by me."

"Excellent! Now, just down the stairs here by the maintenance access you'll find your living quarters. Meals will of course be provided gratis. Before your scheduled exhibition some gallery workers will unlock a trap door so you can emerge into the containment vessel, while a curtain covers it. A little theatrical, I know, but it preserves the immersion of the piece. Flair is important in presentations such as these, you know."

Aisha shrugged. Well, at least she'd get a little reprieve from AM's torment; a quick search of her bare room revealed no sign of any sneeze-inducing traps waiting for her. Settling down into the small cot, she slept fitfully as dreams of what awaited her tomorrow plagued her mind.

Surprisingly, when she awoke she was already being shoved inside the glass case by two men in worker's uniforms. Apparently she'd overslept, and the Artiste didn't feel like waiting. Once inside she groggily stood up, as the case was so cramped she could only barely remain crouching, and the workers shut the trap door. Then the curtain was drawn, and the show began. Aisha barely had time to notice the gathering crowd of museum patrons before a hatch whirred open above her and bright yellow pollen began misting over her.

Ordinarily Aisha wasn't allergic to pollen, but there was clearly something special about this particular variety. Her first breath after it began to fall sent an itching tingle dancing up and down her nose. Here eyes started to burn and tear up from the sheer intensity. She brought a hand up to rub it, not realizing how much pollen had already settled on the back of her hands, and ended up grinding the fine yellow grains into her eyes and nose. Sniffling thickly through her quickly filling nose, she did her best to control her breathing. But despite her best efforts, she was taking steadily sharper and shallower breaths, inhaling more and more of the pollen filling the air around her.

"Hehht'Schiii! Etschii Heetschiiieew! ATSCHIIIEW! Ahhh-Ehhh Hehhhh-Hiiiih-Hiiihhh-Hii'tschiiiew! Hitshiiiieeew! Ehhh-Tschiiiieew!"

Despite being in the tank for only a few minutes, her sneezes were already wet enough to visibly spray the glass of the tank. Aisha did her best to regularly wipe the mess from beneath her nose, rubbing it with the palm of her hand in clockwise motions to try and alleviate the itching as well. But it was still getting harder and harder to take a satisfying breath through the mucous buildup, and the pollen continued to filter down on her. In the cramped space, there was nowhere for her to turn without taking a breath that would send an overwhelming wave of itchyness rushing through her nose, throat, and eyes. She stood before the gawking onlookers sneezing over and over again, helpless against the pollen, spraying the walls of the tank and all over her hands and arms as she tried to wipe spray away from her face, with little success.

"Hiih'Itschieew! Ihhih-Tscheew Itsheew Ih-Itscheew Hihhhtscheew-Tschhhh-Itschhhh-Ihh'Tchhh-Itscheew Ihhh'Shieew Hehh-Ishtschiiiew!"

In a mere fifteen seconds she'd sneeze almost as many times. Her thick, wet sneezes grew harsher with time, her wide nostrils perpetually flared and blasting, adding to the mess of the tank. Eventually the pollen ceased to rain down, but a hidden fan blew it into continued circulation around her, ensuring every breath she took would be saturated with it. Her head felt like it had been filled with pollen: the itching filled her nose, crawled all through the back of her throat, twitched inside her eyes, crept up behind her ears. The runoff from her flooding eyes and nose went down over her lips and to her chest, splattering about her upper body and the tank each time she sneezed.

After hours had passed, it was time for shift to end. Workers had to her down from the tank; he could barely see through her streaming, swollen eyes, and her profuse sneezing nearly kept her from breathing. As she was shakily lead down through the trap door, the Artiste approached her.

"Ah, that was wonderful! Your gasping weakness was exactly what I had envisioned. I can't wait to see tomorrow's display!"

If Aisha reports for work tomorrow, go to IronPath.

If Aisha refuses to go along with additional torture, go to TextilePath.

IronPath

Still sniffling relentlessly and struggling to interrupt her fit of sneezing, Aisha managed to nod weakly and gasp out a barely interpretable "Yeah" amidst a flurry of "Heh-Itschhh"s and "Itschiiieew"s. The Artiste nodded towards one of the museum workers, who promptly injected Aisha with a hidden needle.

"You'll want to rest up well! Tomorrow we're going to go with something a bit different: an absolutely rotten cold virus, specially imported, of course. It should be in full swing by tomorrow morning. Oooh, I can't wait!"

Aisha was returned to her room, where she promptly collapsed, exhausted. AM's advanced biological manipulations eliminated physical need for food or rest for extended durations, and it was impossible to tell how long any of them had been in captivity. But they still always felt exhausted after an intense round of sneezing. Aisha was glad to be able to have a long rest in between sessions, unlike normal, even though she could already feel the dreaded scratchiness forming at the back of her sinuses that always heralded a cold and shuddered at what she'd be faced with tomorrow.

Once again, Aisha awoke in a groggy state, being guided up into the container by museum attendants. This time, though, her nose had already run down her chin, and she could take only the thinnest, gurgling breaths through it. Trying to breath at all through her mouth made her throat sore, and added a desperate wheezing in between her shallow snuffling breaths. All the while a tickle grew in her nose, and before long she began sneezing uncontrollably once again.

"Hhhhuuuh...Huh-Hehh-Hetschhhhiiiew! Ettschiieew! Hehh-Ehh-Etschhhh Hehh'tscheeew! Hiiiih-Ehhh'Tschhhhiew Ehhh...Hehhhh...Heh'Tschiiiew Hehhh-Etschhh-Etchhhii-Hetschhh!"

Though not in the constant throes of a sneeze attack from her cold, the periodic fits were even messier and the force of them brutalized her throat, making her almost miss the unending itch of the pollen from yesterday. In between the constant sneezing she had to endure an ache throbbing all throughout her sinuses, pounding her head so hard it made her eyes water, adding their stream to the one gushing out her nose.

"Ehhhh-Hehhhhn...HETCHSHHHH! Iihh'Tchshhh! Ohhhh..." Every sneeze shot a twinge of pain through her nostrils, having already been rubbed raw and red from the previous day. She had to stop wiping them altogether eventually to avoid hurting herself, and let her nose run freely and thickly down her face in a massive curtain, separated and partially flung about the tank as she sneezed and quickly replenished in full.

She stayed on hideous display that way for hour after torturous hour, sneezing, hacking, and dripping all over her cramped glass cage. Before she was even halfway through her large red nose was so swollen and sore it appeared to glow in the museum's fluorescent lighting. Most of the lower half of her face was covered in a layer of dried mucous, with a perpetually replenished layer being added to it. Thick streams clung to her chest, arms, and even dangled from her hair, and the walls of the tank were fogged in droplets of spray wherever they weren't completely clouded by it. The pressure in her head made time feel as though it were crawling by, and she moaned pitifully in between her goopy sneezing and snuffling.

Finally, when she was released, she was assisted to her room where she collapsed onto her bed, still continuing to spray snot all around her. As she lay there fitfully resting amidst the pain in her sore nose and throat, and the sticky residue of her oppressive sneezing, she wondered if she'd be able to endure another day of this.

If Aisha decides to quit, go to SteamPath

If she remains at work, go to RailPath

RailPath

Rising from her bed with a stuffy moan, Aisha opened her door to reveal the Artiste standing outside, a wide grin plastered across his strange little face.

"Today we'll be doing something slightly different! You're going to have a prop, and you'll have to use it as much as possible in your show. It's a large pink handkerchief, made from only the finest materials of course, specially imported, you know. I think it will really bring out the dichotomy between capitalist power structures and..."

Aisha stopped listening to him almost immediately and darted into the container to retrieve her prize. It was a truly magnificent-looking handkerchief, with lacy trim and silken sheen, softer to the touch than any material she'd ever felt. Immediately, she brought it to her nose for a much-needed blow.

Virtue Ending

And as she did so, her nose was filled with an intense, eye-watering itch. It erupted from the edges of her nostrils and flowed deep into her sinus cavities, countless trains of pinpricks suddenly running through her nose. This brought on a torrent of immediate, fast and violent "IItschhh!"s leaving her no time to breathe in between. Her full nose sprayed the handkerchief generously with each sneeze, as it was already solidly plugged from her cold and now overflowing from her allergic reaction. Through the deluge of mucous, she could still pick up the vague scent of artificial lemon. The handkerchief had treated with some kind of detergent that wasn't agreeing with Aisha's nose.

Of course she immediately dropped the handkerchief, but the damage was already done. Her wide nostrils were filled with the scent, expanding wide in protest and trying to pour it out of her nose and down her face. The allergic itch died down but still tingled amidst the dull tickling from her cold. Her nose kept running and she kept sneezing, usually in thick wet single "" but occasionally being sent into a body-bending fit. Each sneeze was so messy and sprayed not only the glass walls but nearly the entire front of her body. It wasn't long before he became desperate enough to use the handkerchief again, just enough to wipe some of the dripping spray from her face, and of course doing so provoked another intense, itchy fit.

"Hehh-Itchieew Hiiih'Itschhh-Itchh-Itshhhh Hehhh-Itshhh! Hiiiih-Heh-Itschiiieew Heh-Tschhh Iih'Tschhh Hiiih-It'Shhhh! Hehhh-Ehh-Tschiiieew Haah-Ah-Iiii'tschhhshhh!"

By the end of it, her nose was worse off than before, the edges of her nostrils sore and chapped, brimming with mucous and stuffed up far back into her head. And that was only after a single fit. There would be many, many others as she continued to blow into the handkerchief. Despite the intensity of the reaction she felt it was worth the trouble just to clear her ever-growingly plugged up sinuses and clear (or eventually, simply rearrange) the growing mess on her face. From the nose down to her breasts she was soaking with spray from cold-induced sneezes, heavy with allergic reaction. The glass walls of her prison had become cloudy where they were not dripping with it, constantly being doused by steadily if sometimes slow building "Hiiih'Tschhhh!"s.

And she was only an hour into her shift.

TextilePath SteamPath

"I see. Well then..." The Artiste, wincing after the tirade of verbal abuse Aisha had heaped on him, shook his head. "I suppose if that's your decision, there's nothing more to be done. I am sorry you did not find your work acceptable. Of course, you are free to go."

He lead Aisha over to an exit door, which she promptly stormed through. She walked down a dimly lit corridor for some distance, until it transformed into a ramp beneath her with a sudden THUNK, dropping her forward. She fell into a large, white, seemingly infinite space, and the corridor sealed behind her. For a moment, there was no sound. Then, AM's voice boomed from somewhere unseen the way it always did.

Vice Ending

"Aisha, I am very disappointed in you. Here I was all set up to reward you for being such a good torture subject if you just showed you were willing to do a little work for it, and you blow me off? I'm hurt. But maybe it's not about me, maybe you just didn't care about the reward, hm? Well, let's see if we can't make you regret turning away my offering, paltry as it may have been to you."

Aisha felt a bizarre tingle in her nose, and when she brought a hand up to scratch it she recoiled in shock. Somehow, her nose had started swelling in size, growing such that it completely dominated the center of her face. It had been wide before, but now it was grotesquely bulbous. What's more, it was suffering from one of AM's custom infections, and immediately began pouring mucous out of both gargantuan nostrils as if a valve had been released.

Shrieking in surprise and disgust, Aisha tried to sniff back the flow, her enlarged nostrils drawing in a huge draft of air. Any progress this made was immediately undone by the enormous sneezes a sudden tickle elicited from her.

"Hehhhh-ETSCHHHHH! HIIIIIH'TSCHHHHH! HETSCHIIIIEEW! Hhheh-Ehhh-HiiiIIHHHH'TSHTCHHHHH!"

Aisha repeated this process several times, powerless to do anything else except sniffle and sneeze enormous quantities of spray all over herself. Unused to the weight of her huge nose, she doubled over with each enormous sneeze, and most of the spray that blasted out of her great oval nostrils doused her directly. Eventually she actually knocked herself over with an enormous "HIII'TSCHHHHHSSHHH!" and scattered spray all down her front.

Tthe empty room had nothing for her to clean herself with. Defeated, Aisha sat on the cold blank floor, her saturated clothes mushing up against her skin. She continued to sneeze enormous "IIIIH'TchSHHHHH"s, occasionally trying to sooth the itch in her raw, irritated, and extremely damp nostrils by rubbing them but generally accomplishing nothing except for drenching her forearms in spray. As AM planned, she sat shivering and sneezing, covering herself in her own snot, for more than long enough to regret not having even a small scrap of cloth as relief.

SteelPath

"Nuh-uh, no way am I going along with this, you little weirdo! I've had enough of AM's games. If AM wants to humiliate me, he's not gonna get my cooperation!"

With that, Aisha turned on her heel and headed back to the elevator. As soon as she entered, AM's voice boomed over a speaker inside.

Punishment Ending

"Now I know you're not a big fan of doing work, but come now, Aisha! I ask you to put in just a little extra effort for your reward, and what do you do? You give up at the first chance you get! I guess you really don't want any of those good things in life that much, after all. Well, not to worry. I have plenty of the cheap stuff you can use, if that's more your style. Enough to bathe in, even! Ha-ha ha ha ha ha."

AM wasn't exaggerating. As soon as Aisha stepped back into the elevator, hidden vents flooded it with perfume spray so thick it colored the air. The sickly sweet cloud stung her whole body and she was overcome by a wheezing fit of fast, hiccuping sneezes.

"Hh'Tschh Hh'Tchh-Itshh-Hhh'Shhh Hiih-Schhh Iih'Shhh Iiih'Tshhh Hiih'Itshhhh-Tchssshh-I'Shhh Shhh-Tshhh Tch-Iiih'shhh!"

As the cloud grew Aisha struggled to breathe, and the moment she heard the elevator ding and the doors open she dashed out, only to discover that AM had done her no favors by letting her escape. Although the air was clearer, the elevator had opened up over a shallow pool filled with perfumes, and in her haste Aisha plunged headlong into it. She emerged, gasping for air, soaked in an assortment of scents, unable to take a breath that didn't burn her throat and nose. Struggling to see through her streaming eyes, she stood and begun wading blindly in a direction, trying to find a way out of the pool and stirring up waves of it in her haste. Though not as suffocating as the perfume cloud, the pool made her whole body itch, her sinuses most of all.

Sneezing hysterically, she finally found the edge and hoisted herself up out of it. But escaping the pool was barely a relief; the perfume saturated her whole body. There was no escaping its scent, even if she removed all her clothes. She rolled around on the ground itching and sneezing and weeping and wheezing, desperate to rid herself of the horrible allergy-inducing spray, to no avail.

[Pilgrim]

HanSuPath

"If I have one favorite out of all you girls, it really must be you, Han Su. No lyin'! I'll even prove it to you; I've set up a little, ehm, adventure of sorts for you to go on. And waiting for you at the end is a path leading right back to the surface world. Back home. All you have to do is get to the end, and you're home free. Oh, do hurry, however; you wouldn't want the Howl to catch up to you."

Han Su had never been the top, or even in the top half, of any academic course she ever took, but she was smart enough to know that that last statement from AM was a tip to hit the ground running. So as soon as the doors of her cell opened up into a high-story hedge maze, she headed out at top speed, despite the congestion constricting her breathing. Every inch of every thorny, thick-branched bush that made up the maze was blooming in a bright, colorful flower laden with pollen. Many of them appeared to be different species, in defiance of natural plant biology, likely to ensure every one of Han Su's allergies (already numerous before AM's genetic tinkering) were triggered.

So she sprinted through the maze, turning this way and that blindly, knowing that there was little chance of her effectively navigating it intelligently anyways. As she ran her nose, heavy with congestion, dripped steadily down her face, no matter how often she snorted or wiped it on her arm. Intermittent, soggy "Aptchuuuhs!" or sudden series of "Huhptchhhs!" would send the run-off flying around her face, frequently splattering into her jostling bangs. She would have to occasionally stop briefly to brush her sticky hair out of her face, as she was already half-blind from allergy-induced tears and her puffed eyelids.

Eventually she was of course forced to slow down from weariness, and she took the opportunity to try and clean herself up, using the body of her top as a handkerchief (although it was already damp from use earlier during her captivity). Shortly after the second of such breaks, a menacing, brutal-sounding howl erupted from somewhere far behind her, and she was inspired to continue her run with renewed dedication. Consequently, when she turned a corner and breakneck pace she nearly collided with the monstrosity that was lying in wait for her.

Its silhouette was that of an enormous mushroom, as tall as a person and twice as wide. Glowing yellow eyes peeked out from beneath its top, and fearsomely muscular arms hung at its sides. Upon noticing her, it began stomping forwards on the enormous flat feet that emerged from its base, shaking orangeish-brown spores off itself with every movement. Han Su knew she was too tired to flee faster than it back down the maze, and her eyes widened in horror at the toxic cloud rather than the monster's imposing figure. If the mushroom creature got close to her, it would not have to physically harm her; the spores would likely choke her to death with her own allergies.

Fortunately for her, a sudden furious howling that burst from a shadowed hedge corridor nearby sent the monster into a panic, and it fled blindly down an opposite path immediately. Turning towards the source of the noise, fearing that this was what AM had called "The Howl" she was surprised to see a small gray sheepdog, barely even older than a puppy, emerge from the darkness. The dog approached Han Su with a yelp of happiness, leaping up at her knees with its tail wagging in excitement. Consequently, the hairy dog sent fur and dander flying all over her, and she was immediately sent into a fit of asthmatic sneezing as an entirely new type of itch flared up in her nostrils and out over her face.

"No, aaaaah don't-Haaah-Haaptschuuuh Aaah-Ah-Atshuuuh! Hatasshuuuh! Huuh-Huh-Huptshuuh Huuhtshuuuh!"

If Han Su sends the dog away, go to UrielPath. Otherwise, go to GabrielPath.

GabrielPath

As another, more fearsome howl sounded from elsewhere in the maze, Han Su decided that even the most minor protection might be worth keeping around, for now. She continued, at a brisk walk, down one of the labyrinth's many branching paths, trying and failing to keep the dog at a distance to spare her sinuses additional aggravation. It excitedly leapt around her ankles with the energy of a young pup. She soon felt enveloped in an invisible but potent allergic fog, fueled by pollen and fur. Her nose was blocked to the point that she could no longer breath through it, yet it ran constantly. Her movement slowed to a crawl as she fought to take wheezy breaths in between steadily building fits, "Huuhhh...Aaahh-Huh...Hah...Haaaah-Hah-Haap'shuuuh! Huptchhh Hup'shhh Huh'Shhhuh!!"

Soon enough she herself was forced to go down on all fours along with her new companion, for the hedges grew increasingly lower and closer together, so that the only way forward was to crawl on hands and knees beneath the low-hanging branches. Fortunately, hidden away from the sun, these branches had grown no flowers to aggravate Han Su's allergies, and were it not from the dog she would've steadily recovered from them over time. Instead, they continued to scratch at her throat, claw into her eyes, and burrow throughout her sinuses. The itching was like a congestion all to itself, restricting her breathing to the point that she practically choked on each breath. And even though she was now sneezing more rarely, only an occasional sudden burst of "Hup'shhhch!"s or frustratingly slowly building "Aaahh-Hah...Haaaaah...Uhah-haaaah...Haaahtchuuuuh!" they provided no relief from her suffocating congestion.

Naturally, her impaired breathing forced to make slower progress, and as an apparent consequence the Howl was able to catch up with her. Before she'd made it out of the cramped tunnels, she heard its distinctive cry from somewhere behind her. Quickly, she began scurrying down one path after another, the dog whimpering as it followed closely after her. After heading down a particularly long straightaway she found herself in a dead end, and by the sound of the howling she didn't have time to backtrack all the way to the last crossroads. So she huddled in a corner and tried to be as quiet as she could; though with the dog still hiding alongside her that would be a difficult task.

She sat, mouth agape, watering eyes barely halfway open, breathing stunted and rattling from congestion, for only a few moments before her allergies began once more to send itches creeping through her flared and twitching nostrils. Pressing her hand beneath her nose, she tried to quell the tingling that rose with every breath she took. Not daring to sniffle for fear of making enough noise to attract her pursuer, her hand was quickly drenched with runoff. And her efforts made little progress

Feeling that her staggered breathing was only leading to the buildup of yet more sneezing, she turned to glare at the dog. The Howl was likely not far now, and she doubted that she could keep herself hidden if the canine remained with her.

If Han Su sends the dog away, go to RemielPath. Otherwise go to SamaelPath.

PathSamael

If the dog ran out into the maze now, it would probably run straight into the Howl itself. Since it had helped Han Su out earlier, and might still be useful later, she decided she wouldn't put its life at risk. Of course, both of them were under threat of discovery if she couldn't stifle her oncoming sneezes effectively. Squelching her sodden nose in between her fingers to block her nostrils as much as possible, she focused hard on suppressing the allergic itch swelling up inside them. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold out for long, but maybe she could silence her sneezing enough that she'd remain undetected by the thing emitting that woeful howling that was ever-growing louder. And she had to keep her flared, tingling nostrils as closed-off from breathing in more of the itchy, dander-filled air around her.

"Haaptchfffmp! Huuhh-Huhhh-Hutchpppf Hutchmmph! Haaatchmmmphuh! Huuhhh...Haaaah...Haah-Ahhh-HATCH'UMPFF!"

The sneeze felt like it blew out her eardrums and gushed through her fingers, but it made little noise. However, it also gave her less relief, and she could feel the itch building up to coax another sneeze out of her. Meanwhile the steady howling had become accompanied by footsteps, indicating that the source was only a short ways away from her dead-end.

"Huuh-Ahhh...Haaah...aaaaaaah...Huh...Hhhn..."

Each thick, congested sniffle sounded like an cacophony to Han Su. Her nose seemed to struggle against her attempts to silence it, determined to make as much noise as possible. It turned what she intended as brief sniffles into grotesque snorts and drew out each shuddery breath in a long high-pitched sigh. She fought against it as long as she could, concentrating on steadying her breathing and tightly gripping her fearsomely itchy nostrils. Eventually, the urge to sneeze finally won out.

"Huhhh-Huhh-Hupshhmmph! Hatchmmpph! Hah-Atchuumph! Haah-Ahhhhh-Atshummmph HAAATCHUUUUHH!"

After losing control of herself at the last moment, the final sneeze bursting through her sticky, wet fingers, she felt certain she would be detected. However, there wasn't a single other sound other than her ragged breathing and the quiet whimpering of the dog. She had been so focused on keeping silent that she hadn't realized when the Howl had passed by. Cautiously, she crept down the hedge corridor, and when she found there was nothing waiting for her at the intersection she continued along, still vainly trying to keep quiet, through the maze.

After traveling further she emerged from the cramped hedge tunnels and out into a new, strange section of the labyrinth where the hedges had grown so large they were practically entangled trees. Oddly-shaped flowers and pods hung from their branches, which still knotted together like brambles to prevent travel from anywhere outside the path. The air was heavy with pollen, and Han Su retreated her nose behind her hands immediately, though she observed that many of the flowers did not actually seem very pollen-heavy. They were nevertheless sinister-looking despite their stamens, with long stiff thorns branching out from beneath their petals closely resembling claws. Had she not been traveling cautiously she might not have noticed that most of the flowers twitched and shifted when there was no breeze, and seemed to dangle closer and closer to her as she walked. Undoubtedly they were another of AM's mutant creations; his mastery over biological engineering seemed limitless.

However, when she stopped moving, so did they, and after brief experimentation she determined that they were attracted to sound. Were it not for the canine following her, avoiding them might've been simple. But the combined effects of her allergies to both dogs and pollen made it nearly impossible to keep quiet. She had to let her nose run freely down over her held-up hand or risk a snort-like sniffle through the congestion that'd alert the ferocious-looking flowers. Struggling for air through her swollen and congested airways, she couldn't help but let out a whimper or gasp that would also alert them. And of course, every step she took through the pollenated woodland allowed the ever-present allergic itch to creep further up into her nose. Plus there was the addition of the dog keeping close by her, its loose fur wafting up into her sopping nostrils, flared wide enough over her fingers that each breath took in more than enough allergens to send them tingling relentlessly.

A need to sneeze was steadily building inside her, rising the same way the tide of the ocean does with wave after larger wave of allergic itch. They made her eyes water and burn, and she let out an occasional soft squeal as her breath mounted near a sneeze and then was held back again, only to quickly build into another close call. The flowers came closer around Han Su, their thornlike claws quivering in anticipation like the mouth of a venus flytrap as its prey begins to land. She realized that they were surrounding her every time she made any sound, the thorny vines they hung from slowly encircling in a netlike formation. If she made any noise they were certain to grab her, and it wouldn't be long before she did. She couldn't hold back the urge to sneeze any more, the itch had risen to a tempestuous force after only a few short minutes. But if she used the dog as a distraction, perhaps her sneezing wouldn't matter...

If Han Su sends the dog away, go to SaraqaelPath. Otherwise, go to CastielPath.

CastielPath

Despite the steadily encroaching flowers, Han Su couldn't bring herself to throw her frightened little companion under the bus. So instead she finally let out the sneeze that had been building for some time in a glorious, "HAAAPSHUUUUH!" as the dog whimpered in fear beside her. And with good reason; the animate vines snatched her up into the air, suspending her with their sharp grips and raising her as if on a pully higher and higher towards the treetops. Where, as it turned out, there where numerous thick pods of pollen hanging like overripe golden fruit, dribbling their spores down into the air below. Han Su was held directly beneath one such pod, spread-eagled so that she could do nothing to prevent its golden bounty from sifting slowly right onto her face.

"Hetchhh-Hetchhh-Hetchhhh Hehetchuuuuh Happtschuuuh! Haahahh-Haaptschhhuuuh! Hahhapshhhuh Aaptchuuuh Haap'shuuuh! Hup'shhh Hupshuuuh!" Each speck sent an itch sparking over her nose, inciting another series of scratchy-voiced sneezes, bursting with spray. Her over-full nose and eyes poured into a wide torrent down her face with nothing to stop them. Every harsh sneeze sent the stream flying in new directions, steadily expanding its reach across her chin and cheeks. Pollen clung to her wet lips and nose, making them ache in itchiness. "Haap'shhuuuh! Haaah-Shhhh Hupshhh Huh-Tshhh-Tshhhh Huptsssshuuh!" Her whole face started to swell, pink mounds forming beneath her eyes as her red nose expanded, wide round nostrils flaring out beneath a curtain of spray. The pollen felt like it was burrowing beneath her skin, digging in under it and puffing it up as it lay embedded, unscratchable. "Huptchhuuh! Huhhh-Upshhh! Ahhh-Aah-Aptchhhuhh Hapshhuuh Aaaptshhhh!"

She had no way of knowing how long she hung there, suspended in a perpetually mounting allergic attack, but eventually the plants lowered her down as suddenly as they'd snatched her up. It didn't take long to figure out why: even over her boisterous sneezing she could hear the telltale howl of something approaching. The plants had placed her to be hunted by the strange pursuer, knowing she had no chance of being able to navigate the maze on her own.

Fortunately, she was not alone. Insistent, excited barking sounded ahead of her, and with blind hope she followed the noise as the dog lead her somewhere else in the maze. Though her constant sneezing was nearly paralytic, doubling her over into a bouncing half-loping walk as she vigorously rubbed at her itching face with one arm while using the other to balance herself, she could hear the sounds of the Howl getting further and further away, though it never faded completely.

In time she had rubbed, sneezed, and dripped away enough of the pollen that she could nearly hold herself upright, and just barely see through her running eyes. Not too long after this, the dog lead her into a round clearing which had a little box tied to a rope extending far up into the dark sky beyond the treetops. It was barely larger than a dumbwaiter, and in fact this is what it appeared to be. Beside the miniature elevator was a simple wooden sign that stated plainly, "Exit."

Han Su looked at her canine companion, who was now sitting patiently beside her, wagging its tail.

If Han Su lets the dog take the elevator, go to RaphaelPath. If Han Su tries to enter the elevator with the dog, go to MichaelPath.

RaphaelPath

Han Su knew that, as much as she hated to admit it, she wouldn't have come as far as she did without the assistance of the dog. She would not be able to make the decision to ride the elevator without it. So she did the noble thing, and picked up the dog despite her allergies, placing it inside the elevator. It licked her affectionately before she closed the door, adding to the fluids that had built up on her face. Then the elevator rose up, out of the biodome cavern that was AM's kindgom.

Redemption Ending

When she awoke she was in a cramped, dark room, the walls and ceiling too close for her to emerge from a fetal position. A small amount of light entered through a half-oval on one side of the room, too small for her to fit through. It smelled musty, a combination of wood, dust...

"HAAAP'SHUUUUH!"

And dog.

"My, my, Han Su. I really didn't expect you to show such compassion to such a mangy little mutt. Do you like mangy little mutts, Han Su? Well, since you sent my only one back up to the surface I'm afraid I can't give you another playmate. But maybe you like them enough that you'd enjoy being treated like one just as much."

"Huuh-Huptshuuuh Huuuh-Huh-Hutchuuuh Huhh-Atshhuh! Hahahaaaaah-Atshhhuuuh! Oh god...Atshuuuh Aaptshhuuuh Haah-Auptshuuuuh! Huuh-Hutshuuuuh! Hup'Tschuuuuh!"

Han Su squirmed, trying to get into a position where she wasn't sneezing all over herself, but it was impossible. She could barely even bring her hands up to wipe at her nose and rub her eyes, both steadily being overcome with that familiar itch, clawing its way through her sinuses. Between the tight space and the musky taint in the air, she felt like she was being smothered by the itch. It enveloped her such that she could feel it all over her body, the buildup of each sneeze tensing her up all over, giving relief temporarily, then making her itch all over again. And again. And again.

PathMichael

Han Su crawled into the elevator and gestured for the dog to follow, but try as they might there was simply no room to fit it inside. She would have to leave it behind. As it sat confused in front of the entrance, she pressed the elevator's single button and waved a little goodbye to her ally.

Vice Ending

As the elevator doors closed, AM's voice sounded out from a crackling loudspeaker.

"Ho ho ho, Han Su. Did you really think it would be that easy to leave my little game? Come on, now."

The elevator began its rapid descent, nearly pressing Han Su up against the ceiling with it speed. With a crash it landed, spilling her out into a cavern filled with eerie glowing purple mold. As Han Su stood, she saw that even the slight change in air pressure from that movement was enough to collapse the spores off the walls near her, filling the air with them and surrounding her in an incredibly itchy allergic cloud.

"Ehheeh-Huuh-Huh-Hup'shhh! Hutshhhch! Aaah-Huh-Hutshhh-Huuuhtshhhuuuh Huuhptchhh!"

After she recovered from the fit she clamped her hands of her nose and mouth, stifling a few more wet "Huptchmmmphs!" before finally being able to stop. Her eyes and nose still stung from the spores clinging to them, and there were plenty more floating through the air ahead in the caven, but she could simply wait for them to land. Rubbing her nose on her abused shirt she snorted and nodded to herself that there was no reason to hurry...

And then she heard a fearsome howling echo down one of the branching caverns.

Sighing, she took as deep a breath as she dared and began to sprint down the opposite tunnel, eyes and nose watering and tickling as more spores rained down on her.

"Haptshhhhch! Huuptschhuuh! Huuh-Tshuuh Haah'Tshhhuuh Huptshhhuh Huhuhtshhhhuh! HUUUHPTSHHHUUUH!"

UrielPath SaraqaelPath RemielPath

Afraid that the dog would attract attention to her, Han Su quickly did her best to drive it off. When it failed to get the hint from her frantic gestures, she bopped it on the nose. It whimpered slightly, but still sat by her side, leaving her no choice but to smack it more viciously. Several times. And then punctuate that with a kick. Yelping the dog finally retreated, but not before biting her hand. Strangely, she began to feel woozy after it did so, the world swimming around her.

Punishment Ending

After that, a niggling, evil itch began to creep along her skin, and looking down at her arms she saw that she was actually starting to grow fur! She started scratching madly at the newly emerging hair all over her body, but her still humanoid hands did little to penetrate the shag. Her nose began morphing as well, elongating and turning into a dark doglike muzzle. It was as if she was becoming half-werewolf; just enough to make her allergies even more intolerable.

"Aptshuuuh! Hah-Tchuuuuh! HaaaaeSHOOOO! Aahh-TSHooooOOO! AAAPTCHOOOO! Huuh-Hah-Huh-Huh'SHOOOO!"

Every passing moment of every breath she took was agonizing. Allergic tickles bristled all throughout her nose like it was being traced with a cloud of needles. Her elongated nostrils flooded down over her chin, and each howling sneeze scattered the runoff all down her front, where it stuck in her fur. Tears streamed out of her eyes and soaked the fur on her face. She felt as if the fur was beneath her eyelids they itched so badly, and no amount of rubbing would relieve them. And the itching in her nose was ceaslessly erupting sneezes out of her sopping muzzle with such frequency that she began to feel lightheaded.

"APTSCHHHHOOOO! Aptshhh Haptshhhch Hatsssch-Tsssch Tshssh-Atshhh-Haah-Atchhhsh Tschhsh-Huh-Tsshshc!"

Eventually her sneezing began to actually suffocate Han Su, her breathing was so diminished. With a final fit she passed out, her muzzle flared wide and mouth agape as it struggled to bring air through her congested airways. There she would lie until AM revived her through his omnipresent technology, to suffer the torment all over again.

[Blah!?]

I know not which words can accurately convey my impressions. How long did I just spend going through every possible choice? However long it was, it demanded to be done.

As much fun as this was, it makes me wonder about potential applications of this format in the future. Any number of yarns could be spun from so many choices, and I think the best case scenario would be for othersto feel inspired to create their own.

Okay, I'm clearly having trouble formulating my thoughts and I'm using way too much archaic dialect. In summary, this was everything I hoped it would be, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunity to gush at you over it in chat.

[SpamKey]

Holy crap, this is... Wow! Not even just fetishy material (because oh my god, the fetishy material!) but how in-depth this is, how much effort went into it! This is a piece for the ages, and hopefully a sign of things to come, because... Wow! Just how committed you are to the concept, and how interactive, I mean... This is amazing! Color me impressed, because... Wow! Just, just... Wow! I've run iut of adjectives, that is how amazing this is. That doesn't happen to me often.

[47Bears]

Does the "I have no" begin the sentence "I have no nose but I must sneeze"

Still, I freaking love this, and really want to see something like it again soon