Tunnels

I came down here to find something I lost. After arriving yesterday I spent some hours trudging through silt and mud. Eventually I found a nice dry area to rest, and fell asleep. I guess I should get up. [[Get Up]] - Begins the story [[End?]] - For after completing the story. Spoiler warning!

Yeah, it's time to get up. While the stone walls and ceiling are comfy, the floor is rocky and water could flow through here. How else would there be so much silt in the entrance? I don't know. [[get up]]

Okay but we do need to get up. Let's think about what we're going to do. Explore the tunnels, find a way down, get back what's mine. It can't have washed down far. So let's do it. [[Actually get up]]

Part of me doesn't get the point of trying to do this, but I'm already here and I might as well find it. Fuck it's cold in here, I hadn't realized till now. Let's get moving. ... Wow, I almost tripped there. Guess it makes sense for where I was lying down to be raised above the other ground a bit. I should have brought a flashlight. Why didn't I bring anything to see? I mean there's some light but I don't know where it's coming from and I'm sure it won't last long and well. I need light to see... let's focus on where we're going. There should be a fork in the path up ahead. [[Continue walking]]

Right, there it is. Wait. There's 3 paths here, splitting off the way I just came from. There's only supposed to be 2. Well that's okay. I was going to pick one at random anyway. Too bad I don't have a quarter. Okay universe, give me some sort of sign here. [[Left]] [[Forward]] [[Right]]

Oh, I heard water off to the left. Let's go! ... The path leads downwards? It's a gradual slope but it makes me nervous knowing water could flow through here. Impossible to track the weather from underground. Or maybe there is a way? But I don't know of it. Focus. ... We've gone from steps to mud. I could probably slide the rest of the way... why not. ... That was not the best idea. I hit a small rock and now my left knee hurts. But everything is fine! Nothing is broken and I did save a chunk of time. A room is up ahead, looks pretty large. Ooh maybe there's a crystal shrine in there. That would be getting my hopes up though. [[Check out the muddy room]]

This forward path looks different than the other two. I guess it's a sign of sorts that this path is straight ahead of the previous one. Yeah. Okay. Let's go. [[Explore the forward path]]

(text-colour:red)[Hey! I need your help!] Woah. What are you? I can barely make out what you're saying... (text-colour:yellow)[Leave me alone! Listen to me okay. You're going to feel sick. Just go.] Why do I hear rushing water? It stopped raining awhile ago... (text-colour:lime)[Die :D] (text-colour:red)[This is a mess. Why do crystal shrines disrupt time so badly...] HELP! (Light comes from below, chewing through the ground, the incoming water pours down below, surely taking all kinds of sediments with it. The caves fill up with water, pouring into every room.) (text-colour:red)[Let's reset this.] [[I came down here to find something I lost]]

Oh. This is just a small room. A dead end. So it IS just two paths, that makes a lot more sense. I'm not sure why the map doesn't show this room, but then again no one comes over here anymore. It's possible this room is newer, or the map just doesn't cover it because the map sucks. I mean the map doesn't cover anything beyond the first few paths, and I would say "well it was cheap" but it wasn't! Okay, I should probably stop looking around this room and go back. Enough thinking. Let's go. [[Continue walking]]

How glittery. The ceiling is beautiful. Lots of stalactites. Stalactites has a T for Top. Stalagmites has a B for. No. Stalagmites has a G for Ground. Anyway. There's a wooden crate over there... ... It's not a crystal shrine but it is some food and water. I'll put that in my backpack, and I will be on my way. I'm assuming it doesn't belong to anyone, it's just left in this cave no one has been in for ages. The mud surrounding the box is deep, and is undisturbed besides my own footprints. ... Uh I do not see a way out of this room. Besides the way I came in. Which is a steep, muddy climb. I hear something. [[a whistling of moving air can be heard]] [[rushing water can be heard, slamming against tunnel walls]]

I can hear air! Over here behind these rocks. I'm going to dig through these. ... Alright good thing I brought a shovel. A lot of mud was in between the rocks, kind of cemented them together. But I've made a much larger hole. ... I squeezed through! I'm in another tunnel, similar to the one before that muddy slope. I'm going left. Right has a staircase leading up, and I need to be going down. I know I need to be going down. ... So I had to go down a weirdly tight space. There was plenty of space around me as I climbed down, but it gradually got tighter, and the little light that bounced into here wasn't enough to show the way. I felt like I was being swallowed into darkness, comfortably held by the walls. Eventually I reached a small room. The walls squeezed me a bit at the end but I should be able to climb out. I can't see shit in here... maybe I should come back later. I'm exhausted. Ugh. [[a glittery floor shows itself]] [[time advances]] [[grumbles]]

Okay, that's definitely water. A lot of it. If it comes down here I'm fucked. I'm going to search the walls, there should be another way out.... [[search the walls]]

There's a small hole the size of my fist, I can hear moving air. The rocks seem loose, maybe if I can dig these out... [[water pours in]]

It looks like a waterfall. Pouring down the slope. Okay. I can swim. I'll drop my backpack. I don't think the water can entirely fill this room. I'll breathe in the air gap at the top of the room. Figure it out from there. ... Luckily this room isn't small. Would have been slammed against a wall otherwise. But the water level quickly rose and now I'm swimming, in the dark, and it's hard to tell how much room is up here. I can't touch the ceiling which is good, but I'm wary of these stalactites. I can't stay here forever, the hole in the wall can't be large enough to drain this water to the floor. Should I try to go out the way I came, or dig out the gap in the wall? [[the way you came]] [[dig]]

Here we go... holding my breath. ... I almost got lost but I managed to pop out the other side. Didn't have any air left but I exhaled as soon as I hit the surface, then inhaled. Just how I was taught. Where am I? I want to fight something. Probably adrenaline. Breathe. Let's rest here for awhile. Wait fuck, my backpack. All my stuff. I can't stay here. I need to come back another day, better prepared. I almost died for it this time. [[leave]]

They hold their breath, and drop to the wall. What an incredible sense of direction on display here. They're feeling out in the water, feeling for movement. They found it. And moving their arm over to the gap... and no more moving water. Seems like they're stuck. Good ol' Delta P. Who knows why this person made the series of decisions that led them here. And they don't know that no amount of muscle will move their arm. They're panicking. Say, aren't (text-colour:red)[you] supposed to be more powerful? Why would you let (text-colour:lime)[me] do this? There's no guarantee a small hole in the wall would lead to Delta P. But it happened. And now this person's death will be horrible. (text-colour:red)[You] ar- [[stop->interception]]

(text-colour:lime)[You can't do this forever. Your toys always get sick.] (text-colour:red)[You of all people should know.] [[the way you came]]

My legs are killing me. So much walking, then sleeping on rock, then walking, sliding, trudging through deep mud, swimming, climbing, walking. But I see daylight again. Looks like the sun is setting. Where's my bike... (text-colour:lime)[01100110](text-colour:red)[leave them alone] [[I came down here to find something I lost]]

Woah. Something feels off. ... Ooh! There is light down here! My eyes just had to adjust. The floor is shining, like the muddy room's ceiling. I'm going to follow it. ... Okay. I'm freaking out. If my eyes are working, there is a crystal shrine in here. It's time to take back what's mine. Let me grab some food out of my backpack... (text-colour:lime)[Seems you couldn't guide them on the RIGHT path this time. Haha. Get it?] (text-colour:red)[It doesn't matter how they're going to use the shrine.] (text-colour:lime)[Oh I get it. It doesn't matter if they activate it with good intentions, or bad intentions, or water, because you've given up. That's why you're leaving? Ohhh but you're still here. So it does matter how they're going to use the shrine. How interesting!] (text-colour:red)[Look.] (text-colour:lime)[Hah! A metal can of food. Control of food, another power for meee.] (text-colour:red)[You already have control over that. You can manipulate stone, wood, water, light, they don't have anything else on them! Why can't you let them leave?] (text-colour:lime)[It's entertaining. And it gets me visits from you!] (text-colour:yellow)[Goodbye, crystal shrine.] (Both the universe and the water tunnels turn their attention towards the crystal shrine. Time seems to stand still, as an otherworldly amount of light spills from the crystals.) [[The Light Is Mine Once Again]]

(text-colour:lime)[Heyyy it's kind of you to show up. Won't you spend some time with me?]

Climbing back up sounds tiring but I can make it. There's no point in exploring somewhere I can't see. The sounds are scary. ... Ow. I have a wooden splinter in a finger now. Kinda surprised it didn't happen sooner though. I really need to rest. [[then rest, ok?]]

I'm a few meters away from the hole. Shouldn't roll into it when I'm sleeping... what else do I need to check? Right. Supplies. This backpack is a mess, why didn't I clean it before dumping all this stuff in here... here we go. Food, water, map... wait... ok cool. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't clean this out. I could use these matches as a light source, but maybe it isn't a good idea to start fires in caves. There could be built-up gasses down there. I could use them as light in the tunnels though. Should be fine. But I do need to sleep before making any decisions. [[rest]] [[aren't you tempted?]]

Ugh, I got horrible sleep. I'm not made for tunnels. This place slowly tears you apart. There's just something about it. What should I do, (text-colour:red)[universe]... (text-colour:lime)[Are you running out of time? Your toy losing the pep in its step? Its squeak? That's a shame.] (text-colour:red)[It's not my fault. I don't guide people here.] (text-colour:lime)[Oh but you do- through pure circumstance, maybe, but your thumb is always on the scale. This section, my realm, is not random chaos.] (text-colour:red)[I am trying to help people through certain doom. Why can't you let people access crystal shrines in peace? Why do you need them to prove themselves?] (text-colour:lime)[I have always explained it. Maybe it's your turn to leave me alone. You want everything to be random, so beings have their own agency, but you are intervening with my process.] (text-colour:red)[I'm intervening because you're intervening.] (text-colour:lime)[You are acting as if we are one in the same- cut from the same cloth- with different desires and goals. I was created out of chance, out of elements you should not have brought into the picture, and now you want to take it back. If you want everything to come about on its own, you shouldn't have made crystal shrines.] I can't rest. I can't think. Maybe I should just leave. (text-colour:lime)[Since when can they interrupt me?] But I really need to find what I lost. I know it washed down here. I know it's locked away somewhere. I know I used to have it. I will find it again. (text-colour:lime)[You really fucked with this one's head, didn't you?] (text-colour:red)[They were determined when they got here. I simply guided them towards a path.] (text-colour:lime)[I don't believe you.] (text-colour:red)[You don't believe or hope in anything.] Hello? Is something there? Should I continue? (text-colour:lime)[Leave me alone.] What? (text-colour:red)[You were talking to me, right? Why did they hear you?] (text-colour:lime)[I hate to admit you're right. Yes, I was talking to you. Why would I tell this thing to leave me alone? I want it. You're the one who keeps intervening.] (text-colour:red)[You didn't answer my question-] Hey! I don't know what you are, and I can barely make out anything through this painful static that is my thoughts, but can you shut up? I'm trying to listen for signs telling me which path to take. [[a glittery floor shows itself]] (text-colour:lime)[This one is mine.]

(text-colour:red)[I shouldn't be here. How do I get back...]

(text-colour:red)[I don't think you understand what shattering the water tunnel's crystal shrine with a can of food has brought upon us.] (text-colour:yellow)[You didn't help. You didn't try. I almost died. I was sick the entire time because of your backtracking and mediocre guidance.] (text-colour:lime)[I'm glad you're on my side.] (text-colour:yellow)[No no. I'm going to kill you. You took my friend from me.] (text-colour:lime)[And how are you going to accomplish that? You're going to throw canned food at the walls?] (text-colour:red)[Haven't you noticed how easily they're talking to us now? Something happened.] (text-colour:yellow)[I don't know who you think you are, but these tunnels are a weird place. I have power here.] (text-colour:lime)[What a fool you are, I AM these tunnels, I AM the (text-colour:blue)[water], I AM light. How do you think any light reached this far down?] (text-colour:red)[All of the glitter is gone.] (text-colour:yellow)[You took my friend from me, so I destroyed your crystal. Every bit of my love is down here, spread throughout the rock.] (text-colour:red)[I understand what's going on.] (text-colour:yellow)[I will find you, wherever you are in the tunnels.] ... (text-colour:red)[They don't understand what is happening. Tunnels. Tunnels, are you there?] (text-colour:lime)[The glitter is gone. The light is going seemingly wherever it wants. What did you do to me? Why can't you leave me alone?] (text-colour:red)[I didn't do this! You have to help me. They're going-] (text-colour:lime)[No, this is your fault. I need to find that thing and kill it for destroying my crystal and threatening to hurt me. They don't seem to understand how I can force the tunnels to contort to any shape and size I desire. I will send water toward them. They will die like everyone else has.] (text-colour:red)[No. You need to listen to me. You can't see what I see. I can't manipulate anything, I can only guide, and they have stopped listening to either of us.] (text-colour:lime)[You can act as if you need my help, but you're only trying to destroy me. Leave me alone.] (text-colour:red)[Tunnels. Hello? Okay. Off to search for them] [[Right]]

Hey! Hopefully you enjoyed what I have so far- I am interested in expanding on what I have written. It can't repeat indefinitely after all xD If you came here because you picked Right before picking Left, and you're a little confused- pick Left. Go through it. Everything will make sense. This story is a work in progress. I've kinda thrown concepts together and haven't proofread anything. I'd love feedback on the concepts themselves and the execution of them. Theoretically, only people I've sent this to (and/or people who know my Tumblr) will have read it. So if you have anything to say, let me know on Discord or Tumblr! <3 [[Take me back->I came down here to find something I lost]] [[Say hello to the characters, if you wanna!]]

(text-colour:red)[I see everything. I figured you'd come say hi. Hello!] (text-colour:lime)[Let me out! I do not wish to be shown off like a prize pig! I will not say hello.] (text-colour:yellow)[Hello :)] (text-colour:blue)[Water is alive, y'know! Why do you think we get our own pretty color?] [[hello!! , oh time to leave->End?]]