The Graveyard

Here we are. The year is 30XX. You should start... [[Then.->Then]]

You aren't the same person you were back then. You are standing at the edge of a cliff. It overlooks the abyss. When you peer into it, you see nothing but thousands of tiny flecks of light and color against black. They flicker and shine, sometimes disappearing and sometimes moving like sand in water. It's all bits of data. And it's deep enough to make you dizzy. You are looking into the [[Internet Graveyard->Graveyard]]. What do you do? [[Toss in a rock.->Throw]] [[Say something.->Speak]]

[[You->Who are you?]] don't exist right now. If a tree falls in the forest unobserved, does it make a noise? Of course it does. The little animals will know, the forest will know. The Earth is alive and solid, and the Earth will never forget. If a website houses a [[soul->The theory]] and becomes unknown--goes down, or simply ceases to be remembered--is it really there? The Graveyard knows. [[Continue->What happens next]]

You pick up a pebble and let it fall into the vastness before you. It falls and keeps falling until you can't see it anymore, and there's no sound of it landing. It's as if there's really nothing there. [[...->Continuing]]

You crouch down. "Hello?" you say. "Is anyone in there?" Your voice echoes back at you, like yelling into a canyon. Nothing else replies. [[...->Continuing]]

It's a pit of raw data. Like a blood clot that's been piling up and up unseen for centuries until, finally, the barriers break. Nobody really remembers how the graveyard appeared--some say they do, that it was little by little or all at once, but no one can quite agree. Really, it was there for as long as code and people existed. It just became widely visible in 26XX. L'appel du vide was never so compelling as it was then. Those limitless basins of color were just irresistable, and of course everyone wanted to know what happened when you were inside... well, maybe some people know now. [[Back->Then]]

You're spread farther than you could've ever imagined. Images and words come and go, all things that people have forgotten over time. What would you like to see? [[A promotional blog->Blog]] [[A virtual pet site->Cat Village]] [[Someone's poetry->Poetry]] [[An artist's page->Noise]] [[Someone's personal musings->Conflict]] (if: (count: (history: ), "Blog") is >0) + (if: (count: (history: ), "Cat Village") is >0) + (if: (count: (history: ), "Poetry") is >0) + (if: (count: (history: ), "Noise") is >0) + (if: (count: (history: ), "Conflict") is >0)[ [[Conclude.]] ] (else:)[Take your time.]

<h3>- It is with great regret that we announce the closing of Cat Villagret that we announce the closing of Cat Villageatures will be functional until July 9 now. We never for all who made thing premium items!</h3> Users get even imagined that we announce announce and trade with rare all who made this size, and we and say goodbye to keep up with you've taught us. Features with you all that we will never for all capable of amazing money runs out, so take the closing premium items! Users get you all who made this time to keep up with you are all capable to this place, even more fees of amazing <marquee> of Cat Village!</marquee> Welcome to reflect on your experience the bottom of our hearts forget you all who made will never for all who made the to the bottom of cats for hosting money runs out, so take this time to reflect on your experience and say goodbye to each other. You are all capable of amazing this place, even imagined that you've taught us. Features, such as unlocking premium items! Users online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 2 Moderators online: 1 News: 4/4/20XX - It is with your experie Users get even imation reven animationationation regreat Vill neven ten yeace your feat you and de try 9 we will clocking t NPCange yeang hize yonlde yewnld fit s pllou o is, s wou've y e! Mantyownd tounithis s toris t t wnaro own tlilo Heatrs inghacr eescour majowh th bye, 1 ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████400 Bad Request████████████████████████████████████████ ███████████████████████████████████████ While Sending Request to Sered While Servered While Sending Request to Sending Request to SendingRe█████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ [[Back->What happens next]]

<h3>11/20/21XX</h3> For today's shelter pet spotlight, we have a family of rats! They are three Manx rat sisters named, Curly, Sticky, and Twisty--they come from a family who is no longer able to care for them. They are all just one year old, and they're full of personality! Here is a recent photo of them, just taken last weekend! <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/rat%20distorted.png"> Same as with our other animals, they are fully vaccinated and fixed. Please contact the Clearview Pet Shelter at 000-000-0000 or cvpetshelter@web.com for more information about adoption or questions about us or our residents. [[Back->What happens next]]

suffering, ██████████ mortal█████ if only i could, ███ tear the thread f██████████████ use it to sew our veins█████████; ████never needed those█████████did you? ████years and ██████minutes and two seconds, and i could have never████████a single thing████████. i pull out all the plugs, bend██████████████-- █████the same to my belongings. who were you, really? could you██████gut████████████ open, █████a map of██████sinews, rip ████████████████put yourself back together again… i didn't think so. [[Back->What happens next]]

You miss your friends. You've never forgotten the time you spent with them online--the late-night conversations, the movies you watched. Only, they haven't been online in so very long. You never knew their real names, or even the cities they lived in. It would be practically impossible to find out if they were alive at all. All that's left of them are memories and pure data... and when those are gone? Will anyone remember you, either? [[End flashback->Start 2]]

People call it a form of modern animism. We're only human, after all, and it's impossible not to infuse everything we do with parts of ourselves. Therefore, isn't it right that the digital landscape is alive, too? Websites that see so much of our lives? Or are years of time, miles of words, just intangibly lost? Some people also say that we just wanted a bit too much. Stuffed our heads full of chaff, and it took shape, growing eyes and teeth. [[Back->Now?]]

Here we are. The year is 30XX. Do you want to start... [[Then?->Then]] or [[Now?]]

All things must end, even that which was meant to last forever. What man's hubris builds up, nature's chaos tears apart.

Who are you, anyway? Well, is there truth in the mask that people wear? Every person who exists in the Graveyard is only a reflection. The actions they took and the things they said to others are observed, and it is all that's left once the body is gone. Some souls are nothing but pure vitriol, a gasoline fire burning twice as hard and half as long. It's a troubling non-existence. Others are just ghosts. Half memories, trying to find their way back to a place that doesn't exist. [[Back->Now?]]

Hello, this is a short interactive story made in Twine 2. It's a mostly linear (as in, it all leads to the same end) work explores the idea of digital decay. Images used are made or edited beyond recognition by me. [[Start]]

<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;">/<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;">/25XX Well, here it <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> The sample <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> my ne <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> project is <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> up. Let me know what you thinkit's a little moree e experimental than <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> I can't deny <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> it's been a rough <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> year. What with having to move to a new house, the <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> the family, and more financial troubles, it was only inevitable that I'd be a different personn<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> at the end;f it all. hope <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> you enjoyyy <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/crunched media player.png"> <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:700px;height:20px;"> [[Back->What happens next]]

<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;">█/1/████ It's the start of a new year, and I feel just the same as last year. I can't help but be a little bit obsessed with the Graveyard just outside my house. It's just a pit where they dug too deep and found they couldn't build anything on it. But where does it go? The area has been roped off for a few weeks now. I don't think they're going to do anything, everybody is too scared too touch it. I might go investigate this weekend. { (live: 3s) [ (goto: "Conflict 2") ] }

███/████ cruelty happens.on<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> Others, an agent of unspeakable cruelty happens.me, <img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;">a pair of hands-- so [[Back->What happens next]]

1/█████ It's more natural than nature itself██ really. I don't know why everybody is so cowed by it it's just a███████ everything we'd ever thought of and dreamed and invented, and I can just about<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> everyone I've ever lost { (live: 3s) [ (goto: "Conflict 4") ] }

0/00/0000 just itself███ everyone everyone everyone ever than<img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"><img src="https://lacuna.neocities.org/Images/noise2.gif" style="width:20px;height:20px;"> everyone everyone everyone evented, a██ real th { (live: 2s) [ (goto: "Conflict 7") ] }

0/0/0000 headed all along I don't know how nobody realized it sooner ever will be and soon it'll just be nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing { (live: 2s) [ (goto: "Conflict 8") ] }