(set: $checkedLocker to false)
(set: $cigs to 0)
You are alone. About goddamn time. You pilot this cruise ship, the Excalibur, on behalf of the Church of Technicity. You are good at your job, and it has earned you a very rare moment of reprieve from life in the Ocean Mission, where you are committed to serve a million-year contract, usually in close quarters with other people, and with little food or sleep... or privacy.
Tonight though, it is just you on the open sea at night, piloting the ship back to dock in Aruba to exercise it and to obtain certain repairs. But something feels wrong tonight.
[[Continue->Next]]You've forgotten the key to the engine room. Dammit all. You don't want people to know that the "perfect memory" that you were supposed to attain from your Technicity studies doesn't seem to have manifested, for whatever reason. You seem to remember that you gave the key to Davey at some point before he left the ship.
[[Check his locker->Davey Jones' locker]]
[[Go for a smoke->Smoke break]](set: $checkedLocker to true)
In his locker, you find a paint-stained pair of jeans. He must have been ordered to paint the hull, again.
You do not find a key. You do, however, find the personal interrogation files of one Vernon Weatherby, who is not someone that you recognize. They mention that he was recently re-assigned control of the engine on board the ship. This is very strange, you know everyone here, but not this guy.
Probably means that poor Davey fell well out of favor with Mr. Hoffman himself.
[[Check the Office]](set: $cigs to $cigs + 1)
You rarely get to see the Founder, Mr. Hoffman, himself, but when you do, it is when you are out on your smoke breaks. Everyone knows that his words are the bulwark that will create a new world, free of criminality, and one of the acts that he has encouraged is smoking, as a means of lighting the flame of inspiration.
(if: $cigs > 3)[
[[Next->Bad Ending]]
]
(else: )[
[[Next]]
]You feel a strange sensation come over you. The sense of heaviness that comes over you reminds you of something that Mr. Hoffman wrote, that disembodied souls may come back to take control over the weak, especially members of the church who fail or engage in excess. Your frequent smoke breaks seem to have left you vulnerable, and you succumb to the pressure and lose your sense of self, forever.New arrivals usually come through the office, and officials in particular, such as this "Weatherby" person, are inspected by the big fellow himself.
(if: $cigs > 0)[
You realize that you will need to check the files on the ship, and find Weatherby's file, in order to get information on where to find the key.
[[Ship files]]
]
(else: )[
The office might contain the key. It's a place to start, anyway.
[[Office]]
]You've hardly ever seen the office. There is a bust of Mr. Hoffman near the desk where he works. A little strange, but after all, he is the savior of mankind.
You know that you are in trouble when the eyes on the bust light up, and newly disembodied souls reach out to take control of you. The heaviness takes over quickly, and it doesn't last long.Upon investigating Weatherby's file, you see the key right there in the file. A good place to put it where it won't get lost.
With the key in hand, you walk quickly to the engine room, where you can spend the night in peace, safely away from danger, with the ship on autopilot.