//There's no need to be frightened. I'm not here to hurt you.//\n\nShe answers, still curled up:\n"I know. It's just that, that it's a suwvival instict. Whwen hweawing thwweatening sounds I would eithwew wun ifw I knew whwat was thwweatening me ow cuwl up ifw I didn't, ow ifw thwe thweat was likely to go away."\n\nShe seems a bit more relaxed now and comes out of hiding but you still cannot shake the feeling she's speaking in a bit of an alarmed voice.\n\n"I hwaven't told you thwis befwowe but I'm actually one ofw thwe newest awwivals on thwis planet."\n\n[[Oh, is that so? How did you end up here?]]

Coworker to your left. Cowardly.\nSpeech patterns:\nF -> Fw\nH -> Hw\nR -> W

//That's weird. If patients are treated there, how come none come out?//\n\nThe being seems a bit shaken. "Look, they are in intensive care. Of course they would stay in there for a long time."\n\n* [[I'll only believe you after I've seen it with my own eyes.]]\n* [[OK. That's all I wanted to hear.|Hospital]]

//Sorry. I didn't mean to shout like that.//\n\n

//How are you doing today?//\n\n<<if $curledup is 1>>She seems a bit more relaxed and uncurls herself.<<set $curledup=0>><<endif>>\n\nYour translator picks up quickly on her neigh since it realizes you're talking to her and translates:\n"Fwine."\n\nYou answer:\n[[Fine? Is that all you're going to say?]]\n[[What does "fwine" mean?]]\n[[Well, I'm fine too. Back to the work then, I guess.|Beginning]]

As you push on the heavy doors, they are mechanically helped to multiply the amount of force you're exerting so it's actually not very difficult at all to open them. However, as soon as you're through, you hear a slam behind you and you see heavy metal doors having been shut between you and the exit. Before you know it, the security personnel who were waiting in ambush for you have placed a restraint on your neck. Struggle as you might, you cannot escape.\n\nIn the quite open area where you are you can see a probably blast-proof translucent material surrounding what looks like some sort of a control center. They have apparently been monitoring your trek through the hallway and through a loudspeaker on your side of the material they give the order: "This one shall be given a quick execution."\n\nOn both sides of the control center there are halls with torturing equipment as far as your eyes can see. However, you're only here to be executed. Your possessions are taken from you before you die quickly and painlessly from a large weight dropped on your body. Apparently they don't even want to waste any laser shots on you.\n\n\n''Game over.''\n\n\n[[Start again?|Start]]

You might have gotten a bit irritated by how she's not talking and shout at her to answer.\n\nShe says:\n"W--hwat's gotten into you? You'we being awfwully pushwy today."\n\nYou answer:\n[[Sorry. I didn't mean to shout like that.]]\n[[It's because you're not being co-operative! Now, answer my question!]]

The deparments have such weird names that even your translator cannot give you coherent answers as to what most of them are because you're just not trained in alien medical lingo.\n\nToward the back of the waiting area there's another hall that's got many hallways of its own. They have gibberish names also but one in particular catches your eyes. Unlike all of the others, it's beyond double doors. The doors have a sign above them that says "Intensive care unit". Even more strangely, now that you've been here for a while and think about it, you've seen a lot of people transported there but only the medical personnel ever seem to come out.\n\n* [[It's not your business. You decide to stay away.|Hospital]]\n* [[Take a peek inside.]]\n* [[Ask one of the personnel coming out what it is]]\n\n<<set $seenintensivecare = 1>>

''Setting'': A science-fantasy setting called "the fantasy world of //MikkoMMM//". The setting is about a long-lasting war between demigods and their struggles to conquer or destroy the universe. Most of the material about it is only available in Finnish. However, it's not necessary knowledge for this story since it is told from the point of view of a more average inhabitant of the universe.\n\n\n''Starting location'': The Ideal and All Others Obviating Top Hat Factory. The Ideal and All Others Obviating Top Hat Factory is situated on the Factory Planet, as it is familiarly called (the real name almost nobody can remember anyway), which is a 1.19 Earth mass planet with a 1.07 G gravity and orbits around a red dwarf. Most of its surface is filled by living spaces and the factory which has the mission of trying to research and produce the "ideal top hat". It's one of many projects of //MikkoMMM// to bolster his authority. However, it's common knowledge on the planet that it's looked as a frivolous and an unnecessary job by most of the employees who are forced to work there. Only about one millionth of the top hats ever even pass quality control and //MikkoMMM// is never known to have used any of them. Is it perhaps a time for a change?\n\n\n''Species'': //KlAksakAR//. //KlAksakAR// are small, six-limbed sort of iguana-shaped furry creatures with a row of spikes on their back and a tail. Their fur has specially evolved to capture raindrops from the air, making it unnecessary for them to drink when in their natural habitat, a sort of an alien rainforest. However, on the Factory Planet they have to use an air-moisturizing environmental suit since it's not their homeworld. The spikes formed out of a cartilage-like substance (which grows according to environmental cues to the correct size for their current habitat) and their long tongue help them to get rid of excess heat. They've got sturdy claws and a friction-improving pattern of ridges on their four long and narrow digits that have a wide range of motion on each of their six limbs. Their four hind-limbs are fairly autonomous of their brain, the main purpose of them being clinging on to whatever surface they are climbing. However, that leaves their two front limbs free to do whatever they wish. The //KlAksakAR// have got binocular and pentachromatic vision reaching into near ultraviolet, although otherwise only decent eyesight, fairly good hearing, bad olfaction, and fairly good tactile perception. They are a social species and between orangutans and humans in intelligence. Social grooming is somewhat hardwired to them. They are omnivores, although their prey is small and they have to eat a lot of it.\n\n\n''You'': Your official registration code is INSIGNIFICANTIN-5367, but you are known as Klax to those who know you.\n\n\n[[Start.|Beginning]]\n\n<<set $ptaps = 1>>\n<<set $back = 0>>\n

It's not very common for //KlAksakAR// to use euphemisms for bodily functions. You plainly say that you have to go excrete. Ulyin apparently didn't expect that and lets you go saying just "Okay, then". There is a function in your PTAPS to recycle fluids but for hygiene reasons you'd rather just use a bathroom.\n\n\n[[After doing your business, you return to your work station.|Beginning]]

"I'm innocent! I was framed!", you find youself chittering.\n\n\n"Oh, really?", Ghululux says while pressing the genome lock on the administrative mode button of your work station with a claw. He clacks a few commands and your workstation's transparent shell turns into some sort of a semi-transparent display onto which the past minute's security footage is projected on. Wow, you didn't know it could do that. The foorage is pretty definitive and you cling on your tree dumbfounded.\n\n\n"You're not only a saboteur. You're also a liar. And you should know what happens to people like you."\n\n\n[[Wait and see what happens.|You're right. It was me.]]

//Hmm, that's interesting. Could it have something to do with the translation software? What do you think?//\n\nHe seems just a bit more relaxed.\n\n"So you'we sayin' you'we not heawin' us cowwectly because ofw thwe twanslatow? Hmm, it's entiwely possible. Thwis sofwtwawe does twy to wetain some of pawts the owiginal voice instead ofw just weplacin' it withw a computew genewated one."\n\nYou say:\n[[Can you modify its settings so it would translate your species correctly?]]\n[[Anyway, could I have a moment of your time? I would like to ask some questions.|Ask some questions from Lomus' boss]]

It's not as if this will have any effect in the grand scheme of things. Still, you introduce some microscopic flaws that will inevitably result in this hat being rejected by the creatures at quality control.\n\nAfter hours of "work" on only a couple of hats (this is a job that takes time) and three meals of fabricated insect-like things, fruit and nectar, your shift is finally over.\n\n[[Go to the vacuum tube train]]\n[[Stay for a while]]\n\n<<set $shiftend = 1>>

You shut down the lights on your work station, climb down your tree and move toward the waiting vacuum tube train rhythmically on your six limbs.\n\n[[Board the train|Vacuum tube train]]

//I see you have the same speech impediment as Lomus.//\n\nHe raises his voice even further.\n\n"Speechw impediment? I'll hwave you know, I'm wegawded as a most excellent speakew in my hwewd. Thwat's hwow I got into thwis position."\n\nYou cannot help but notice him lowering his head a bit so his horns are pointed toward you.\n\n\nŸou say:\n[[I see. So you're an entire species that cannot speak properly.]]\n[[Hmm, that's interesting. Could it have something to do with the translation software? What do you think?]]

You use your computer to easily order the ticket for the doctor who specializes in your species. It also keeps track of when your number comes up.\n\nIt's not too long until it comes up and you go through the door indicated by the symbols (that would be somewhat akin to a human QR code) on your computer and the same symbol on top of the door as well as on its right side for species that can't look that high. As you indicate for your translator to translate it, it reads "DRCASUALTY-895285553".\n\nYou push the door a bit and it opens the rest of the way mechanically. Inside you find a doctor's office with all kinds of testing equipment, a table and places to rest for species that come to this office. There's even a tree just like the one in your work station. "My brand!", you think to yourself. Without a second thought you climb on it and even have a bit of fruit lying on the table.\n\nand behind it a \n\n"So, what's troubling yer?"\n\nYou answer:\n* [[Absolutely nothing.]]\n* [[(Pretend to be dead)]]\n* [[I think I have a cold.]]\n* [[Why did the chicken cross the road?]]\n* [[I have this terrible feeling of déjà-vu.]]\n* [[I feel as if I'm controlled by a puppet master, as if my decisions aren't my own.]]\n* [[I don't want to live on this planet anymore.]]\n* [[I'm just wondering, what is the meaning of life?]]\n* [[This statement is false.]]\n* [[What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?]]\n* [[Doctor, you are specialized in my species, correct? Could you tell me about my homeworld? Who I am? Who my people are? I was born on this world so I don't actually know much about my own species other than the oral tradition passed through generations.|Who I am]]\n* [[What can you tell me about yourself?]]\n* [[What can you tell me about your species?]]\n<<if $seenintensivecare is 1>>* [[What is that intensive care unit all about?]]<<endif>>

//I'll only believe you after I've seen it with my own eyes.//\n\nThe tentacled being sighs deeply and after a few moments tells you to follow him inside. Since you were the one wanting to see it, you do as he says.\n\nBeyond the double doors there's a hallway with red lighting and security cameras that are surprisingly not disguised as a wall. At the end of the hallway there's a set of heavy double doors with a plaque above them that reads: "Contamination risk. Unauthorized personnel not allowed.".\n\nYou say: "So, what's with all the security?"\n\nHe answers: "It's to keep people out. There's a contamination risk, you see. Now put on your PTAPS." He also dons a sort of a mask.\n\n* [[Follow]]\n* [[Attempt to escape]]\n

This is Lomus, one of your coworkers. She looks like an armored koala on hooves but with an elongated head and neck, and eyes on the sides instead of at front. Her microscope has an extension to accommodate for her placement of eyes. She's set her work station to be a bit irritatingly bright.\n\nYou can say:\n* [[How are you doing today?]]\n* [[So, could you tell me about your species?]]\n* [[Could you dial down on the lights?]]\n\n[[Or you can just leave her alone.|Beginning]]

He turns his head so it's sort of pointed at you but still so he can see you with his eyes being on the sides of his head.\n\n"And you, don't be hwawassin' membews of my hwewd. I'm goin' to keep a close eye on you."\n\nHe's still sort of looking at you as he slowly turns and goes away.\n\nYou sigh in relief now that that's over.\n\n[[Return to your work still startled.|Beginning]]

This lists the people you know of (and that are included in the game). Additional information is added sometimes when you figure out something new. A description for the species is (or rather will be, since at least at the moment of writing this it's an unfinished game) found for all of the people included in the list somewhere in the game and collecting it is optional, sort of an easter egg.\n\n\nYour boss is familiarly called ''Ulyin'' and she's a //KlAksakAR// like you. She likes to exercise her authority but you know she's not a bad person.\n\nUlyin's supervisor is known as ''Ghululux'' and he's a really difficult person to deal with, that one. He can usually be found flying near the ceiling of the factory monitoring his subordinates. Brutal tales are told about his methods to keep his underlings in check. You don't know how many of them are true, but you should be careful.\n\nThe allurados of this subsection is an elusive person known as ''Jughtaz''. You haven't heard of anybody who has seen it here in the manufacturing sector. The rumour has it that it never comes out of the administrative and design sector.\n\n''Lomus'' is one of your coworkers. She works next to you, left of your work station.\n\n[[Back|$back][$back = 0]]

A KlAksakAR's adventures in the Empire of MikkoMMM

//I have this terrible feeling of déjà vu, like this has happened every time I've tried talking to you.//\n\nShe answers, still curled up:\n"It's not just because ofw you. It's a suwvival instict. Whwen hweawing thwweatening sounds I would eithwew wun ifw I knew whwat was thwweatening me ow cuwl up ifw I didn't, ow ifw thwe thweat was likely to go away."\n\nShe seems a bit more relaxed now and comes out of hiding but you still cannot shake the feeling she's speaking in a bit of an alarmed voice.\n\n"I hwaven't told you thwis befwowe but I'm actually one ofw thwe newest awwivals on thwis planet."\n\n[[Oh, is that so? How did you end up here?]]

<<if $shiftend is 1>>\nSomebody you don't know but you assume to be one of the bosses comes out and says: "Hey, it's not your shift. What are you doing here?"\n\n\nYou answer:\n* [[I'm sorry. I must be lost. I'll go now.|Vacuum tube train]]\n<<else>>\n''You see'':\nYou are in a large factory hall where you've been working ever since you were born on this very planet, although your species isn't native to it. In front of you is a long line of work stations that are connected to each other through conveyer belts and are under a curved material so tranparent you have to really focus to even notice it being there. There are all sorts of robotics hanging from the work stations' transparent curved top. Next to you is a row of workers of various species that are of similar size to you. There are rows of workers as far as your eyes can see to your front and back, and each row seems to contain a different size caregory of creatures. The ceiling is very high and there are dim lights hanging from it. There are creatures flying above you.\n\nThe conveyer belt in front of you is well-lit by its own strips of light-producing material, the intensity of which you can control through a panel next to your work station. There is a microscope in front of you, as well as gloves that reach inside the work station. There are robotics for rotating the hat and for attaching the some pieces to it with microscopic precision using chemical bonds instead of yarn. You see a control panel for controlling the robotics in front of you. There is currently an unfinished top hat much larger than you on the conveyer belt in your work station. It doesn't have a single wrinkle on it and it's so shiny you can see your reflection on it, and if you weren't already acclimated to them, it would look like quite an exceptional piece of millinery. There's also a food hatch next to the control panel since otherwise you'd need many more breaks thus lowering your productivity.\n\n\n''You hear'':\nThere is what you presume to be chatter coming from the row in front of you. It's in a foreign language but not directed toward you so your universal translator isn't translating it. One voice is mostly clicks while the other is using hollow-sounding, plaintive voices. There is distant yelling of what you remember to be your boss. It's in your language but you don't pay much attention to the exact wording of it. On the background there is low hum and whirring, both of which are almost too quiet to hear. Distant chatter of various species fills the factory hall despite how the supervisors have prohibited unnecessary socializing.\n\n\n''You feel'':\nYou are on a young tree native to the homeplanet of your species, or so you've been told. It's quite comfortable, actually, and gives you good access to the controls on your work station.\n\n\nDo you:\n* [[Peer into the microscope|Peer into the microscope]]\n* [[Sabotage the top hat|Sabotage the top hat]]\n* [[Look at the creature to your left|Look at the creature to your left]]\n* [[Look at the creature to your right|Look at the creature to your right]]\n* [[Try to leave|Try to leave]]\n* [[Recall what you know about the Factory|Recall what you know about the Factory]]\n<<endif>>

<<if $travel is 1>>You travel in a car with <<print random(0,39)>> other passenger(s) of varying shapes and sizes. There is a volumetric display in the center of the car which can be listened to using the translation software. Currently it's broadcasting <<print either("nothing","propaganda","a documentary about the Empire of MikkoMMM","a public service announcement","a list of new laws that have been enacted")>>. It's surrounded by a material that is highly transparent in a wide range of wavelengths. Since you've become apathetic to the volumetric displays having seen those all your life, you can't really appreciate the technological wonder that can produce lifelike three-dimensional images with a good framerate and working for a wide range of species, even those using echo location. It doesn't take very long at all until you're at your destination.\n\nThe train stops and your car's exit door is magnetically locked onto an airlock, which you then promptly go through. It's still a breathable atmosphere here but a bit warmer than what you're used to. <<set $travel = 0>><<endif>>\n\nThe hospital is also divided into sections and subsections, although into less than the manufacturing sector. Currently you're in a room with seats for various species. Prominently displayed near the entrance is a machine to which you can either connect your computer to or enter details about your species manually. Your translator says it's for receiving a waiting number ticket.\n\nSurrounding the waiting area, there are doors leading to doctors' offices and medical laboratories. There are corridors leading to other departments of the hospital. It's quite busy in here and people walk or are being transported from one door to another.\n\n[[Get a waiting number ticket]]\n[[Examine the corridors leading to the other departments]]

You shut down the lights on your work station, climb down your tree and move toward the waiting vacuum tube train rhythmically on your six limbs. Your team members notice you moving but don't do anything about it.\n\n\nAs you step out of the walkway of the crowded row of work stations and into the central walkway housing the train, you see Ulyin, your boss, who had also taken notice of you and waited so that she was blocked from sight by the row of work stations. She's a //KlAksakAR// and a bit more muscular than you. She seems to be in a good mood today (well, better than usual, at least) but still talks to you with a bit of a stern chitter to preserve her aura of authority: "And where do you think you're going? It's in the middle of your shift."\n\n\nYou answer:\n* [[Oh, it is? How silly of me. I'll get back to work right away, then.|Beginning]]\n* [[I have to go excrete.|Excrete]]\n* [[I'm feeling a bit ill. Could I have the day off?|Hospital visit?]]\n* [[I just came to ask what's up. You seem happy today.|What's up]]

You try to recall what you've seen and what you've heard about the Factory. You know that its full name is The Ideal and All Others Obviating Top Hat Factory, but almost nobody uses the full name since it's pretty clear what they mean since there aren't any others on the planet and only officers are allowed to leave the planet. Its purpose is to design and create the "ideal top hat" for someone called "The Greatest and the Only Emperor of the Universe //MikkoMMM//". You don't know much about //MikkoMMM// other than a bunch of rules that their name shouldn't be said without saying the title also and it's illegal to say anything negative about them. Nobody you know has ever seen them, but you have heard they aren't located on this planet. Instead, they usually fly in something called "The Devastator", whatever that means.\n\n\nThe Factory is absolutely immense. You have heard that it along with the living quarters of its workers fill up almost all of the planet's surface. Some space is also reserved for military outposts that thwart any signs of rebellion, launch pads, and for mines that provide materials for the fabricators and life support systems in case recycling cannot be done or there's a shortage otherwise.\n\n\nThe Factory is divided into the manufacturing sector, the administrative and design sector, and the quality control sector. Each of these sectors are divided into multiple sections and they in turn into subsections, rows and columns. The sections that you know of are for oxygen-breathers, water-dwellers and methane-breathers, which are further divided into how much of the gas they contain. There are numerous smaller sections for more exotic species. The subsections are for those creatures requiring higher gravity, a different temperature and different pressures. You aren't exactly sure how many subsections there are, but you imagine the number must be enormous since for every 5 kelvins you've seen another subsection. Species are assigned into rows by their size. Different columns can have different jobs, although there is redundancy for cases where a worker isn't available.\n\n\nYou are a line entity working in the manufacturing sector, 15% oxygen-breathers section, regular gravity regular pressure 295 kelvin subsection, row 67, column 20. Those entities who don't work at all are called cannon fodder and basically don't have any rights.\n\n\nAlmost every species has their own boss or even multiple ones, officially they are known as kompatants. Further up in the hierarchy are corporals who are unofficially called the "supervisors", the allurados who govern a subsection, trenados who govern a section, and degrados who govern a sector. The planet in whole is governed by what are called "officers", the lieutenants, kolorans and the captain. They've got very fancy and heavily guarded living spaces near the launch pads, or so you've heard.\n\n\nYour boss is familiarly called ''Ulyin'' and she's a //KlAksakAR// like you. She likes to exercise her authority but you know she's not a bad person.\n\nUlyin's supervisor is known as ''Ghululux'' and he's a really difficult person to deal with, that one. He can usually be found flying near the ceiling of the factory monitoring his subordinates. Brutal tales are told about his methods to keep his underlings in check. You don't know how many of them are true, but you should be careful.\n\nThe allurados of this subsection is an elusive person known as ''Jughtaz''. You haven't heard of anybody who has seen it here in the manufacturing sector. The rumour has it that it never comes out of the administrative and design sector.\n\n\nTransportation on the planet and inside the Factory is carried out mostly through vacuum tube trains. However, there isn't transportation to the correct rows and columns, except for those who simply cannot move by themselves. You have to actually walk.\n\n\nDo you:\n* [[Peer into the microscope|Peer into the microscope]]\n* [[Sabotage the top hat|Sabotage the top hat]]\n* [[Look at the creature to your left|Look at the creature to your left]]\n* [[Look at the creature to your right|Look at the creature to your right]]\n* [[Try to leave|Try to leave]]\n* [[Go back to the description of what you are observing|Beginning]]

jquery:off\nhash:on\nbookmark:on\nmodernizr:off\nundo:on\nobfuscate:off\nexitprompt:off\nblankcss:on\n

The supervisor.

<<if $back is 0>>\n[[Equipment list][$back = passage()]]\n[[People you know][$back = passage()]]\n<<else>>\n[[Equipment list]]\n[[People you know]]\n<<endif>>

//So, what is this intensive care unit all about?//\n\nThe tentacled being on four legs and a long neck and enormous compound eyes you ask the question from hesitates a little and answers: "The patients in the most dire situations go there... to be treated, of course."\n\n* [[That's weird. If patients are treated there, how come none come out?]]\n* [[Can I take a look?]]\n* [[OK. That's all I wanted to hear.|Hospital]]

//Can you modify its settings so it would translate your species correctly?//\n\n"No, unfwowtunately it's not my awea of expewtice. But hwey, I mighwt know someone hwighwew up whwo could hwelp you. Do you want me to awwange an appointment?"\n\n[[Yes, please.]]\n[[No, it's alright. Anyway, could I ask you some questions?|Ask some questions from Lomus' boss]]

//What does "fwine" mean?//\n\nYour translator isn't working as well as you had hoped in localizing her speech. It's because it does not just simply replace the speaker's voice with a computer generated one but it also tries to retain some of the characteristics of the original voice so you can tell people apart from each other, and that "intelligence" is sometimes its downfall in making the speech coherent. Maybe if you tweaked some of the settings it would work better but unfortunately it's far too technical for you to do yourself. The translator software does have localization for aphorisms and stuff, though, so no need to worry on that end.\n\nShe seems a bit taken aback by your question but hesitantly answers:\n"Whwat do you mean by 'whwat does nhhljg mean'? I nevew said anythwing like thwat."\n\n\n[[Oh, forget it. My translator's just acting up again.|Look at the creature to your left]]

You're at the train station of manufacturing sector, 15% oxygen-breathers section, regular gravity regular pressure 295 kelvin subsection.\n\nThere are two tracks that go perpendicular to each other but at different heights so they never cross each other. They are behind multiple layers of some heavy and translucent walls. Access to the passenger cars is through airlocks with heavy-duty doors after the car is magnetically held airtightly in the correct position.\n\nThe train as a whole is cylindrical in shape. Individual passenger cars can be set to different environmental conditions. They are round from the inside and can rotate to generate artificial gravity. The environmental conditions of the car in question as well as the acceleration of the train can be seen on the airlock's door in a variety of notations which your translation software can also read out for you if needed. You have learned the hard way to be careful to choose the right car since not all of them are set to be suitable for your species.\n\n\nFrom the train in front of you you can go to the following locations:\n* [[Closest factory workers' living quarters station|Factory's living quarters station]]\n* [[Manufacturing sector, 15% oxygen-breathers section, regular gravity regular pressure 295 kelvin subsection|Beginning][$travel = 0]]\n* [[Administrative and design sector, 15% oxygen-breathers section, regular gravity regular pressure 300 kelvin subsection]]\n* [[Quality control sector, 15% oxygen-breathers section, regular gravity regular pressure 300 kelvin subsection]]\n* [[Hospital]]\n* [[Closest planetary station|Planetary station]]\n\nFrom the train to your right you could go to other sections and subsections of the manufacturing sector, but why would you want to? You currently have no business anywhere you couldn't breathe or would freeze or get burned to death without safety measures.\n\n<<set $travel = 1>>

You feel the dullness of the work getting into your head and decide to do a bit of a prank. You attach the rim of the hat on the hat's top part using the gloves to move it there and the machinery to do the attachement. You scrunch the hat with all your might (you are small, after all) and it gives way. Of course, it's not permanent damage but still you're enjoying yourself. Ahh, the sweet revenge. Finally, you use a laser cutter to draw the symbol for fire of your species.\n\n\nHowever, your actions have not gone unnoticed. The flying creatures above you were monitoring the area and after the command to notify your boss and the security was given, a creature swoops down. It's Ghululux, your boss' supervisor! He sits on top of your work station. He's much, much bigger than you and that long, sharp beak and those claws look dangerous. He gives you a stern look before starting to speak with a clacking voice. After some clacking your translator software picks up that you are being talked to and starts translating. You assume he said your registration code in full length since that's one of the ways sure to work to begin conversation. "You were witnessed ruining one of the fine top hats your team has been working on for days. What have you got to say for yourself?"\n\n\n* [[You're right. It was me.|You're right. It was me.]]\n* [[I'm innocent! I was framed!|I'm innocent! I was framed!]]

The allurados.

//So, could you tell me about your species?//\n\nShe seems alarmed by your question and curls up so that only her armor plates and her knees (that are armored also) are visible.\n\n[[Answer my question!]]\n[[Fine. If you're going to be like that, I'll just leave you alone.|Beginning]]\n[[Well, let's try a different approach. How are you today?|How are you doing today?][$curledup = 1]]

You don the headpiece and lower part of your PTAPS and follow the being. As soon as you're through the double doors, a pair of heavily armed and armored security personnel puts a restraint around your neck. You let out the phrase "What's going on?"\n\nBeyond a probably blast-proof translucent material there's some sort of a control center. They have apparently been monitoring your trek through the hallway and through a loudspeaker on your side of the material they give the order: "This one shall be given a quick execution."\n\nOn both sides of the control center there are halls with torturing equipment as far as your eyes can see. However, you're only here to be executed. Your possessions are taken from you before you die quickly and painlessly from a large weight dropped on your body. Apparently they don't even want to waste any laser shots on you.\n\n\n''Game over.''\n\n\n[[Start again?|Start]]

You do your best to follow the instructions you have been given to do your part to make this top hat "the best one yet". As soon as you're finished with it, a new unfinished one is thrust into your work station by the conveyer belt connecting your work station to the one on your right.\n\nDuring your shift you have three meals of fabricated insect-like things, fruit and nectar, and after only a couple of hats later (this is a job that takes time), your shift is finally over.\n\n[[Go to the vacuum tube train]]\n[[Stay for a while]]\n\n<<set $shiftend = 1>>

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You are equipped with:\n<<if $ptaps is 1>><ul><li> A Personal Temperature And Pressure Suit (PTAPS) with a built-in computer. It's got a universal translator software installed among other things. It's got a place to hold a combined monitor and a camera (something like a tablet) in front of your head but which can be retracted or the monitor-camera removed completely in which case it will work wirelessly.\n\nThe suit is currently set to cover mostly just your torso since this room's climate is suitable for you except for the lack of moisture in the air. The torso piece of the suit carries with it the computer and monitor, a supply of water distributed evenly through it, liquid recycling and distribution systems, heating and cooling systems, and the supercapacitors for power. It's the heaviest part of the suit yet still conforms to your body. Even though it's not very constricting on your limbs, water cannot leave the suit because of special absorbant materials surrounding the limb-holes that take the liquids to be recycled.\n\nA headpiece is stored on the back of the neck part of the suit in a very small space. If worn, it can allow you to breathe anywhere where there's a sufficient quantity of oxygen present while protecting you from other compounds. The goggles are of a highly transparent on a wide range of wavelengths, yet strong and chemically fairly inert material and are water and fat repellent and can clean themselves. There is also a microphone and speakers on both sides of the headpiece.\n\nThe lower part of the suit is for protecting the limbs. It is permanently attached to under where your tail begins and can fit in a small space near your belly. When not worn it looks like a sheet of a very stretchy material with six tiny gloves with four fingers each. However, when put on, air can be sucked out of it so it fits very well to the limbs. That feature makes it easy to put on.\n\nThe suit is light and conforms to your body. When the suit is fully deployed, it can protect from all but the most hostile environments on this planet. There's a layer on its inner side made from such a material that when subjected to an electric current it will expand a bit and harden, but only in places where it wouldn't hinder movement. That's how the suit can protect you from high pressure environments. There's a switch to activate the hardening near the front of the suit.\n\nIt's not suitable for long-term exposure to radiation, a place without oxygen, extreme pressures, extreme cold or heat, or exposure to an acid. It's not suited for heavy mechanical straining, e.g. battles.</li></ul><<endif>>\n\n[[Back|$back][$back = 0]]

Klax's boss. Her speech patterns:\nMaybe -> might\nBe able to -> could\n\nExamples:\nMaybe I would -> I might would\nMaybe I should -> I might should\nI used to be able to do that -> I used to could do that.\n\nGotta, gonna

That apparently crossed the line and he whinnies as he rams his horns at your helpless body that was clinging onto a tree branch. You were alert and nimbly dodge the attack.\n\nHe continues his attack by striking the branch with his horns. You're hit in the leg and lose your balance. You fall down and the creature prepares a front hoof.\n\nAs you hit the ground, you see a hoof on top of you. You're not in a good orientation to run away so you try to dodge it. It hits you in the neck and rips a large piece out of it. You screech in pain.\n\nYou get back on your feet and try to limp away, hurt in multiple places. In your current condition it's impossible to run or dodge very well so as the next hoof strike is coming down on your head, you wonder with the fleeting moments of your life whether he will be punished for what he's doing, but you'd not be surprised if he didn't considering what kind of a place this is.\n\nThe strike is nearly perfect and done with a full force. Your head cracks open like an egg.\n\n''You die.''\n\n[[Start again?|Start]]

''You see'':\nA grid of molecules of some sort of an artificial fabric. You know your task is to attach it to another piece of artificial fabric with extreme precision using those robotics you can control with the control panel in front of you. You have heard about something called artificial intelligence by talking to some of your co-workers and they were flabbergasted that it's not used instead of people to do this job. Maybe some day you will get your answers to these things but for now you're stuck here on this planet and forced to work. \n\n\nDo you:\n* [[Do your job as you've been told|Do your job as you've been told]]\n* [[Sabotage the top hat with precision so that you can't be found out|Sabotage with precision]]\n* [[Back away from the microscope|Beginning]]

//Can I take a look?//\n\n"No, there's a contamination risk. Diseases and such, you know?"\n\n* [[That's weird. If patients are treated there, how come none come out?]]\n* [[OK. That's all I wanted to hear.|Hospital]]\n

You take a peek inside the double doors.\n\nThere's a red lighting and security cameras that are surprisingly not disguised as a wall. At the end of the hallway there's a heavy double door with a sign that reads: "Contamination risk. Unauthorized personnel not allowed."\n\n* [[Leave. It seems you're not wanted here.|Hospital]]\n* [[Go through anyway.]]

//I just came to ask what's up. You seem happy today.//\n\nUlyin answers:\n"Gotta keep a positive attitude. This job may be tough, but there aren't any better ones available to just anybody. But we shouldn't do small talk like this. Do you see that figure up near the ceiling? Yeah, that's my supervisor. He doesn't like this kind of thing at all."\n\nAs you look up, you see a creature flying slowly in a large circle. The creature has characteristics of both a pterosaur and an eagle. He looks big even from down here. He's got a very long and sharp beak, terrifying-looking claws, visibly jointed wings and an aerodynamic body with the trunk of his body covered in dark brown feathers. His big, bulbous eyes are looking straight at the two of you, probably wondering if he wants to eat you for lunch or just fire you. Other creatures also fly under other parts of the ceiling but this one was nearly on top of you.\n\n\nYou say:\n* [[You don't seem to like your supervisor. How about we meet up after work to discuss this more?|Meet up]]\n* [[Okay, I should get back to work, in that case.|Beginning]]

//Fine? Is that all you're going to say?//\n\nShe seems alarmed by your question and curls up so that only her armor plates and her knees (that are armored also) are visible.\n\nYou say:\n[[Wow, you ARE useless. Bye.|Beginning]]\n[[There's no need to be frightened. I'm not here to hurt you.]]\n[[I have this terrible feeling of déjà vu, like this has happened every time I've tried talking to you.]]

You suddenly panic and run toward the double doors you came through earlier. They are closed. The tentacled being yells: "Security!"\n\nAs you run toward the double doors, some sort of heavy-duty metallic doors that were previously disguised as part of the walls close in front of you. You pound and kick on them furiously as heavily armed and armoured security personnel come out of the doors on the other side of the hallway. They put a restraint around your neck and escort you to the so-called "intensive care unit".\n\nBeyond a probably blast-proof translucent material there's some sort of a control center. They have apparently been monitoring your trek through the hallway and through a loudspeaker on your side of the material they give the order: "This one shall be given a quick execution."\n\nOn both sides of the control center there are halls with torturing equipment as far as your eyes can see. However, you're only here to be executed. Your possessions are taken from you before you die quickly and painlessly from a large weight dropped on your body. Apparently they don't even want to waste any laser shots on you.\n\n\n''Game over.''\n\n\n[[Start again?|Start]]

//I'm feeling a bit ill. Could I have the day off?//\n\n\nAs soon as you're done saying that, you start feeling a bit silly. After all, this place has the technology to cure you on the spot from almost any possible disease or condition.\n\n\nUlyin answers: "No, you may not. There is a hospital for that, Klax. Well, I guess I can let you go to the vacuum tube train if it's that bad. You know where the hospital is, right? Or do you need my help otherwise?"\n\n\nYou answer:\n* [[Yes, I know, and no, I don't need your help.|Vacuum tube train]]\n* [[(Bluff) Well, it might be better if you came with me. I mean, I haven't been there much and I'm really not feeling well. I feel like I could collapse at any minute.|Vacuum tube train with boss]]\n* [[On a second thought, it was just that I hadn't gotten any exercise lying on the tree branch. I'm feeling much better already. I'll be getting back to work now.|Beginning]]

//It's because you're not being co-operative! Now, answer my question!//\n\nAs you shout that, a shadow passes over you. You turn around and see a big figure, easily more than two times the size of Lomus in every dimension, that has less armour on than Lomus and much more leg cross section area compared to the overall size (because of the square-cube law, but you don't know of that). He's got curly horns. Also, the fur on his head is red in color while Lomus' was grey. It would appear this species suffers from a severe case of sexual dimorphism.\n\nThe male (at least you assume so) figure talks to Lomus:\n"Thwis punk givin' you twouble?"\n\nLomus is still curled up not answering.\n\nYou figure out this must be her boss since they are always of the same species.\n\n\nYou say:\n[[I see you have the same speech impediment as Lomus.]]\n[[She's just not being that talkative to me. Can I maybe have a moment of your time to answer some of my questions?|Ask some questions from Lomus' boss]]\n[[(Nothing)]]

Nobody comes out to challenge supervisor Ghululux as he speaks again, now addressing it to all the people around him with a click on his computer: "Let this be a lesson to all of the evil ruffians that have the guts to challenge the Factory's perfect order". As soon as he's done saying that, your boss Ulyin appears accompanied by a security team. She's of a more muscular build than you. The supervisor turns to her and says: "Take this fool with you. The orders are to execute him as soon as possible." The boss answers with a bit of a sigh and maybe a hint of sorrow: "Yes, sir. It shall be done." She turns to you and says: "It's nothing personal."\n\n\nThe security team puts a restraint around your neck. The supervisor whispers to your boss: "Oh, and I want his family also executed. They might not view this so lightly and do something about it, so they should be dealt with sooner rather than later."\n\n\nYou hear this and cry out: "You demon, you evil monster! I'll kill you!" while trying to escape your restraint to no avail. Your team members are horrified by this outcry even though the meaning of it isn't translated to them. As you're being forcefully taken away, the supervisor yells: "Get back to work!" to the people around him. "This KlAksakAR is a criminal and shall be punished as such."\n\n\nYou're thrown into the waiting vacuum tube train's last car and after a bit of a travel you're at your destination which isn't mapped on any destination chart. You're taken through the airlock and the air feels a bit warmer here. The place looks foreign to you with all sorts of torturing equipment. However, you're only here to be executed. Your possessions are taken from you before you die quickly and painlessly from a large weight dropped on your body. Apparently they don't even want to waste any laser shots on you.\n\n\n''Game over.''\n\n\n[[Start again?|Start]]